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I used to be a male massage therapist or masseur if you prefer. I was licensed in Washington state and worked there for a number of years, in mostly upscale areas like Bellevue and Redmond. I've worked in spas where I was trained in rubbing all manner of weird stuff on people who have too much money. I've helped rehabilitate injured people at chiropractic offices, although I'm pretty skeptical on chiropractic medicine myself. I've done out calls to mansions and have rubbed the butts of paupers, rich people, semi-famous people. Feel free to ask me about any aspect of the job including training, clientele stories( you can specify weird, gross, or even job type, odds are good I've worked on someone similar), working with people whom you think are frauds (alternative medicine) or even why it's important to have a sweaty fat hairy man elbowing your rear end! Other massage therapists are more than welcome to weigh in.
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Oct 10, 2015 05:42
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How much extra was a rub and tug? Did any of your clients ask for "Extra"? (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Oct 10, 2015 08:12
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What is the nicest butt you have touched professionally?
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Oct 10, 2015 09:07
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Gom Jabbar posted:How much extra was a rub and tug? I never worked as a prostitute, although I did do a phone interview with a recruiter who didn't specify which business it was and it wasn't until the live interview was set up that they told me. One google search later and I cancelled the interview since they had been raided for prostitution multiple times. It also popped up on "rate my brothel" or something like that, complaining it had gone legit but I didn't want to be associated at all, you know? I did have multiple women ask for extra, never any men though. Mr.Pibbleton fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Oct 10, 2015 |
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Oct 10, 2015 17:34
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rock rock posted:What is the nicest butt you have touched professionally? It had the perfect balance of muscle, padding, skin quality and I still think of it fondly to this day. The model it was attached to was really beautiful too which helps I think. Conversely the coldest butt I worked on belonged to a heiress who played a lot of tennis, her butt had circulation issues so I had to spend most of the massage just kinda pumping it to get some blood flow. Incidentally the nastiest feet I worked on belonged to a model, he had some kind of stress issue where he'd pluck at the skin on his feet so it was all scabby and torn.
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Oct 10, 2015 17:38
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How hard is it to get a job as a massage therapist? What sucks about the job? I've always wondered since it seems like it would be hella easy work.
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Oct 11, 2015 02:25
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WarEternal posted:How hard is it to get a job as a massage therapist? What sucks about the job? I've always wondered since it seems like it would be hella easy work. Getting work as a massage therapist depends on the area, best jobs are going to be in high population expensive areas, I got one in Bellevue Washington after a couple of weeks of applying around, yes my resume was padded and I had friends down as references, but all that junk is just to get you to the two interviews you have to do. The first one is to see if you've got good people skills and are actually licensed to work in that state, the second one is to see how good you are at actual massage. Every place I've applied has had this, if you're good you'll get an offer. Problem is you can really only work about 20-25 hours a week doing intense massages, which is why people learn a lot of light low impact styles so they don't wear out their bodies as fast. I's easy to get a job as massage therapist due to the constant turnover due from injury, you really have to watch yourself and take care of your body. That's one of the reason why I did lomi-lomi, a hawaiin style of massage, it focuses on using your elbows and body weight, cutting down on my odds of getting hurt on the job from repetitive stress. Plus being overweight was actually beneficial to the style. I also would soak my arms in alternating hot and cold water, if i worked six hours, I could easily be doing an hour of maintenance on my body afterwards. If you want to legitimately get experience you work at a massage mill like massage envy, the pay is crap and you're mostly living off the tips but you get "experience." You don't need experience you need skill to get a job, work on that, then go apply around, aim high and take your time to get a good job, I was making 35 dollars an hour on average at my first job. I'm not saying that's common, but if you develop good technique and practice, not grind yourself down in corporate chain, you'll get some serious cash. Another thing that sucks about the job is you may have some moral issues with selling some of the alternative medicine hookum and having to talk about "toxins.' It made me feel like a snake oil salesman. 
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Oct 11, 2015 02:47
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Massage therapy question....there's no one nearby where I can get help on this because I'm in a very remote area. A few years ago I messed up my back and between that and stress, it usually manifests as horribly painful knots on either side of my spine between my shoulder blades. Now I can reach them to feel the knots there, but it's nearly impossible to work them out myself. Hot showers, tiger balm, and advil help keep it manageable, but I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do myself? A few years ago I was lucky enough to be somewhere where a therapist gave me a few sessions and it helped immensely...sadly, that's not an option where I'm at currently.
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Oct 11, 2015 17:47
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Any of these?
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Oct 12, 2015 01:21
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Oxphocker posted:Massage therapy question....there's no one nearby where I can get help on this because I'm in a very remote area. I actually developed a specialized technique for dealing with that, but there are some options other than having someone work on you. 1. Basic rhomboid stretches https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iId5avXLGhA I like a wider stance than indicated in the video, but it gets the basic idea across. 2. You can take a ball, maybe a tennis ball, maybe harder and lay on it getting it to press into the knot. Now this is hard to do by yourself, but you relax the arm that's connected to the knot you're working on, then use your other arm to move it around and it'll help work out the knot, you can also get someone else to help you with this. 3. Another option is a back hook or back cane, they usually look something like this.  I got one of these for a buck fifty once, single ended, with a little spike on the ball for digging in, the plastic needs to be sturdy and sometimes when ordering these online you get soft knock offs that are worthless. 4. Back massager I've got one of these and they're awesome. Great if you drive a lot, I don't bother with the strap and just use my body weight to keep it in place, on massager I recommend ones that do a rubbing motion, not an up and down motion. http://www.amazon.com/Zyllion-ZMA-1...s=back+massager I must warn you that doing any of these excessively the first few days will cause your back to feel sore.
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Oct 12, 2015 16:55
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RazNation posted:Any of these? I did have some people with pelts that needed a lot of cream before I could work on them without pulling their hair. Reminds me of this time I was at a spa and it was just absolutely packed, it was a Microsoft manager conference or something at the hotel the spa was in. I was in the waiting room, massaging people who were waiting for their elaborate massages, just guarding the buffet with the other fat massage therapist, even though later on it was the tiny Filipino pedicurists who did the most damage to it. It's so full that when we got a surplus client as a last second addition I wind up being crammed in this tiny beautician are and there are no massage supplies in there. I go to our closet and we're out of everything because everyone is hoarding their stuff, fighting over those tips. Except one small bottle labeled "jasmine" I open it up, smells ok, it's all I've got so I take it in. A little bit after I apply the stuff it begins to foam. Fortunately no skin damage and I just wipe it off and the guy understands it's going to have to be a dry massage, turns out that was some really old shampoo. He tipped pretty well, but the real prize was getting paid 300 bucks for doing only an hour and a half of work that day.
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Oct 12, 2015 17:07
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Ever had a client so gross that you just said 'nope, I'm not touching that'?
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Oct 12, 2015 17:22
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Zsa Zsa Gabor posted:Ever had a client so gross that you just said 'nope, I'm not touching that'? Not initially, but I did have to avoid some areas that were crazy nasty, like this one old guy who started bleeding through his skin. Turns out blood thinners let his fluids just kinda ooze out on his arms, I had to wear latex gloves for that. I think the nastiest person was this overweight elderly lady in depends who rolled in a rascal. When I was massaging her I was airing out some of her skin folds and a grey wad of old tissue fell out, the odor was the worst part really.
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Oct 12, 2015 18:06
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What are your opinions on those self electro-therapy contraptions everywhere is selling nowdays? My girlfriend has been having back pains similar to Oxphocker (will check out that S shaped thing) and she's always bothering me to get some $70 thing that as far as I can tell just runs some light AC through you. Who is the most famous person you rubbed? E: Also, hello fellow Washingtonian! Sum Mors fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Oct 13, 2015 |
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Oct 13, 2015 14:28
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Sum Mors posted:What are your opinions on those self electro-therapy contraptions everywhere is selling nowdays? My girlfriend has been having back pains similar to Oxphocker (will check out that S shaped thing) and she's always bothering me to get some $70 thing that as far as I can tell just runs some light AC through you. Stuff like that has been around for decades, briefly being popular then fading into obscurity, I figure if it was genuinely effective it'd stick around more, it's probably a pretty decent placebo though. I can't reveal the identities of my clients, I did do a couples massage with another therapist on a Seahawk and his girlfriend. Seahawks would occasionally come to the spa, we'd also get support staff from famous people, like Miley Cyrus's manager. To the best of my knowledge the most famous person who came to the spa was Sir Mixalot, he'd show up every couple of months during the day, sadly I worked at night there. I'm in eastern Washington now, going to college to get some pre-reqs for physical therapy school, the summers are terrible because everything is on fire constantly.
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Oct 13, 2015 15:48
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I did have a weird experience after I quit being a massage therapist and was doing a college class, essentially someone mentioned a problem with their shoulder and I showed them a couple of stretches and exercises for it. Then other people were asking questions and bringing up their problems and after thirty minutes of rubbing coeds someone asked me, "Wow, were you trained in this stuff or something?" Seems I never mentioned my previous vocation and that if you speak with confidence people will let you do a lot of stuff to them that'd normally be considered quite weird.
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Oct 19, 2015 21:41
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What is the most important thing a boyfriend/husband should know in order to give great massages? Mine doesn't mind helping me work knots out of my shoulders but his technique is a little lacking and sometimes I don't quite know how to direct him.
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Oct 20, 2015 20:06
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Faerunner posted:What is the most important thing a boyfriend/husband should know in order to give great massages? Mine doesn't mind helping me work knots out of my shoulders but his technique is a little lacking and sometimes I don't quite know how to direct him. What each person defines as a great massage depends on that individual, however a very solid approach is to do some light work to get the person to start to relax, then go deeper, work up to the heavier stuff, then finish lighten up again. If you've got specific areas you want them to work on you can incorporate stretches, then have him slowly go down the length of muscle that he's stretching. For getting between the shoulder blades, one thing you can try is laying on your side with your arm down across your chest, this will leave your shoulder up and he can move it around to gain better access to under your scapula and move it back to stretch and work on your pectoral muscles. A really good technique for low back pain is to have someone lie face down, you grab their ankle and keeping the knee in contact with the surface move the foot back and forth in the air. If your hips are flexing up in down this indicates a tight piriformis muscle, he can press down on it from this position and move your leg around to look at it, it connects your femur to your sacrum and is one of the most common sources of low back pain. If that's too specific, generally finding the whole length of the muscle and gently working down it as you stretch it out a little is a good technique. You can also open palm press down and move that limb, giving a nice stretch and that'll help warm up the muscle before working on it. You might want to try having him do a scalp massage on you, doing not just your temples but the whole scalp, then moving to the back of your head, if you're lying down he can press fingers up into the little nook at the base of your skull and move your head around using his fingers as pivot, slowly moving his fingers down the length of your neck. Stretching the neck from side to side and stroking down the length of the muscles (do not linger near the jugular) when combined with the other head and neck techniques will increase blood flow to the brain and reduce headaches and migraines. Got a little too specific there, but to summarize: Relax the muscles before going deep, stretch out the muscles, hold and stretch the muscles, stretch and stroke the muscles and feel free to knead them like a loaf of bread(some spas literally use rollers). All those are generally well received.
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Oct 21, 2015 02:24
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Awesome, thank you. I'll try that side position next time I have a knot!
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Oct 21, 2015 06:15
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Did you learn about anatomy of muscles? Like learn about attachments and such. I have always wondered how in depth massage therapists learn about anatomy.
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Oct 22, 2015 00:47
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swickles posted:Did you learn about anatomy of muscles? Like learn about attachments and such. I have always wondered how in depth massage therapists learn about anatomy. Each state has there own required amount of school hours and courses. Alaska and California merely required business licenses at the time, but I took a thousand hour training course where I did cover anatomy, going into greater detail on muscles than my college anatomy series that I'm took to qualify for a physical therapy doctorate program. We even went into cellular biology so I was pretty familiar with the electrical gradients across cell walls and proton pumps, basic chemistry, that sort of thing. Most states like Washington require only 500 hours, some a thousand, some areas of Canada require over 3000 hours of study with 500 hours of massage before you can practice there. There's no official government national massage board, but there are a couple of corporate ones out there that are pretty terrible about mailing out your certificates and can delay you getting certified in a state that requires a national exam for a few months. Side note: in virtually every state all that's required to practice reiki is a minister's license that you can get online for free. I 4.0'd my anatomy classes, not because I studied particularly hard, but because I had spent six months in massage school. Anatomical knowledge varies pretty widely from massage therapist to massage therapist. Faerunner posted:Awesome, thank you. I'll try that side position next time I have a knot! Addendum to that side position: consider using one pillow under your head, one pillow between your knees and you may want one more to hug as you lay on your side, some people like foam rollers or other padded blocks for that.
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Oct 22, 2015 06:16
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You mentioned Massage Envy/corporate chains. Do you recommend avoiding those as a client? How would you describe the differences between the various types of spas (corporate/private/etc.)? What are some of the myths associated with massage therapy? Vorenus fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Oct 23, 2015 |
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Oct 23, 2015 04:23
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Advice was good; he got in there and loosened up a knot that had been bothering me for days. Awww, yeah. What would you say is the hardest part about being a massage therapist? You mentioned how rough it can be on your body. What's worse, the wear and tear or the customers?
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Oct 23, 2015 05:37
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Vorenus posted:You mentioned Massage Envy/corporate chains. Do you recommend avoiding those as a client? How would you describe the differences between the various types of spas (corporate/private/etc.)? If you go to a chain, go early when the therapists are still fresh, you have better odds of getting a decent massage, but they're cheap for a reason. Corporate spas and chains usually have lower morale, more injury and lower quality massages, however when it comes to price more money doesn't mean a better massage a lot of times you're just paying for atmosphere. Fun fact: the energy cleansing herbal tea we served at my first spa was made from stuff we got at Safeway and it wasn't exactly Safeway's top tier inventory either. There's more than a bit of smoke and mirrors to make you think you're getting nicer stuff than you are. A few myths: There's a pressure point on a pregnant woman's foot that induces labor, so don't massage their feet. Deeper is better, not always true, sometimes a nice slow controlled stretch is what you usually need, or maybe a brisk circulatory massage (lots of fast shaking/shimmying of limbs to get the blood flow going.) Crystals do things. Stroke down the blanket at the end of the massage to release excess chi from your client(I think it just feels nice). You have to use your thumbs to give a good massage(I use my elbow way more). I'm allowed or even capable of diagnosing if you have cancer (I did find a lump once that three different doctors missed though, guy had crazy good insurance too!). A few real things: You can cook with a surprising amount of massage oils. There are "rules" to aromatherapy, I can't tell the difference myself but people swore up and down I had the best scents when I followed those rules. 95+% of the massage therapists I've met have been bad at math. There are people who specialize in horse massage. One of the best ways to prevent wear and tear on your thumb involves making a gesture that's rude in Russia. I've had a chiropractor run up to me with an x-ray of someone's neck because it was perfectly normal, absolutely no problems, when I massaged their neck they had no knots in it and had the highest range of motion I'd ever seen. I had a client ask me about chakras and pressure point and I was able to bluff them with knowledge I had from playing the Age of Wushu MMO due to my familiarity with the meridians associated with being a beggar.
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Oct 23, 2015 05:49
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Faerunner posted:Advice was good; he got in there and loosened up a knot that had been bothering me for days. Awww, yeah. Wear and tear, customers just want to relax and are usually really grateful. Worst client ever was another massage therapist, they micromanaged their massage and dictated what techniques I should use. "Insert your fists between my neck and shoulders, then just twist back and forth." "I don't think that's-" "JUST DO IT!" *Inserts massive fists in desired locations, TWISTS. "AAAAAH!" "My hands are bigger than yours." Basically that for an hour, her friends actually apologized for her and tipped on her behalf because they were embarrassed about how she behaves at spas.
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Oct 23, 2015 05:52
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How massage therapists train from scratch? On other training therapists, or a mannaquin or does a friend/partner have to play victim until you get good? Also can you (and do you) massage yourself? Do you get massages yourself from other massage therapists (and steal their technique)?
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Oct 24, 2015 08:15
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Crack posted:How massage therapists train from scratch? On other training therapists, or a mannaquin or does a friend/partner have to play victim until you get good? My school had us practicing basic techniques on each other, starting with the arms, legs, head adn neck, then back and stomach. We were also advised to work out our forearms with this stiff putty stuff and those grip machines, eventually we move on to full body massages on each other and start doing a people we know. A couple of months of five massages a week makes you want to skip a few to be honest. Most schools have a clinical period at the end where you do about 30 massages on people who come in (ask local massage schools, you can get an hour long massage for really cheap, quality varies WIDELY, my clinical period was 80 massages. I also practiced on my roommate's pets and they loved me for it. Massage therapists often trade massages with each other and we do steal techniques, I had someone ask me about my techniques and I taught them, then she refused to teach me what she was doing on the quadratus lumborum and that put an end to that.  There was a pretty esoteric sensitivity training exercise, one instructor gave us piles of phone book paper and we'd put a hair between the pages and try to find it by moving our fingers over the top, near the end I could find an eyelash under 25 pages with my fingers, 16 with my elbow.
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Oct 24, 2015 18:45
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Mr.Pibbleton posted:A few myths: There's a pressure point on a pregnant woman's foot that induces labor, so don't massage their feet. Deeper is better, not always true, sometimes a nice slow controlled stretch is what you usually need, or maybe a brisk circulatory massage (lots of fast shaking/shimmying of limbs to get the blood flow going.) Crystals do things. Stroke down the blanket at the end of the massage to release excess chi from your client(I think it just feels nice). You have to use your thumbs to give a good massage(I use my elbow way more). I'm allowed or even capable of diagnosing if you have cancer (I did find a lump once that three different doctors missed though, guy had crazy good insurance too!). The myth about pregnant women's feet needs to die because there are few things that will make a pregnant women happier than a foot massage. Also thanks for explaining why my massage therapist is always shaking my arms and strokes down the blanket. She's never said anything about my qi or toxins, so I assume she does it out of habit. What percentage of your clients believed in the woo and what percentage were like, whatever, it feels good. Also, I am always happy whenever someone references "the fig."
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Oct 25, 2015 02:05
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Brennanite posted:The myth about pregnant women's feet needs to die because there are few things that will make a pregnant women happier than a foot massage. Also thanks for explaining why my massage therapist is always shaking my arms and strokes down the blanket. She's never said anything about my qi or toxins, so I assume she does it out of habit. What percentage of your clients believed in the woo and what percentage were like, whatever, it feels good. I think you'll find a lot more people who believe in qi and toxins going to chiropractors, spa work the vast majority of people just wanted to relax. I liked working at chiropractors more because often times I was treating injured people and helping them recover, spa was easier, better money, but I decided to leave after one spa client came back the next day and said, "For five years it has hurt every time I reached back to get my seatbelt, last night after your massage, IT DIDN'T!" It felt good to be helping people, but there's all this hookum I just don't believe in associated with it and pressure to sell it. I gave acupuncture a try, chiropractic treatments a try and... well I couldn't bring myself to take homeopathy seriously, because I researched what exactly it was. I left massage because I couldn't stand contributing to what I believe to be fraud. A lot of these people involved are really nice and they honestly believe that what they're doing is helping people, but I don't believe and it was eating me up inside.
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Oct 25, 2015 17:06
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I have pretty bad sciatica in my left leg. I got a referral for massage but I don't really want a stranger rubbing my butt. Do you know any suggestions for stretches or self-massage that might offer me some relief? I wake up in the night from the pain, mornings and evenings I can't breathe deep without feeling it the whole way down my leg. Thanks!
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Oct 26, 2015 04:16
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Can you talk some more about knots? What exactly are they and where do they come from? What exactly do you do to make them go away? A massage therapist told me I had a bunch of knots on my shoulder. He then proceeded to dig his elbow into the sore spot and the entire process was excruciatingly painful. Is that normal? I left with a sore shoulder and didn't really feel much better. Haven't got another massage since then.
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Oct 26, 2015 04:24
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DavidAlltheTime posted:I have pretty bad sciatica in my left leg. I got a referral for massage but I don't really want a stranger rubbing my butt. Do you know any suggestions for stretches or self-massage that might offer me some relief? I wake up in the night from the pain, mornings and evenings I can't breathe deep without feeling it the whole way down my leg. Thanks! One thing you can try to get more sleep (which will help A LOT) is to lay down on your stomach and put a pillow under your hips, this should raise them up and relieve pressure on the nerve. Massaging your own butt can be done, you kinda get a hard rubber ball, put it under your cheek and basically shift your weight down on it, moving around, but odds are good it's too sensitive for that right now. So you can do hip stretches, you lay down on your back, put your feet flat on the ground so your knees are up, you then put your left ankle behind your right knee, try to get the tibia (that's the main bone of your leg below the knee) on to the other knee, you can adjust this stretch by moving your left leg up and down on your right leg and moving the right leg back and forth. You can also do this upright in a yoga pose called pigeon, but that's a little harder to control than the supine version, but goes deeper. Easier with better control since you can adjust your left leg.  Harder, less fine control but you can use your body weight to really pull on that muscle (might be a bit much)  There is another stretch I like for the glutes and low back, you can lay down on your back, put your knees up and feet flat, then have them flop over to one side, to get a deeper stretch, put the lower foot on the upper knee and turn your neck to look in the opposite direction, the variant is you keep both legs flat, raise one leg vertical, then flop it over so it's crossing the other leg and you turn your head to look in the opposite direction.  Kinda like this, but I have the stretching leg straight for more leverage.
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Oct 26, 2015 04:50
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Muttonchips posted:Can you talk some more about knots? What exactly are they and where do they come from? What exactly do you do to make them go away? Knots occur when a section of muscle fails to relax, it's stuck in place, repeated trauma and strain on the muscles can cause a proliferation of knots. Some people attribute them to a buildup of "toxins" which is bullshit because nobody ever defines what toxins specifically are, it's most likely a circulatory issue when the proteins aren't getting the chemical signal to relax or the needed vitamins to do so or it could be a response to elevated levels of uric acid from sustained contraction or micro tears that receive a chemical alteration. It's never been proven what exactly causes them, however muscles do have a contraction/relaxation response when pulled or stretch over a period of time. You can use massage to specifically pull at and stretch the specific points of muscle that are knotted up or to improve the circulation. Your massage therapist would've probably gotten better results if he'd warmed up the muscle with some circulatory massage, did some stretching then dug in, often times people get stuck in the mindset that high pressure is the best solution and it is a useful technique, but it's best when combined with complimentary techniques. When it comes to knots, I have never found them on an animal that was healthy and active. The first thing a dog or a cat does when it wakes up is stretch, animals stretch frequently, sleep often and rarely endure constant stress. People on the other hand, not so much. I'm pretty sure that horse masseuse was only working on show horses, but maybe she was focused on equines that lead stressful lives? 
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Oct 26, 2015 05:03
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What's the difference between massage therapists and chiropractors?
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Oct 26, 2015 05:46
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AGirlWonder posted:What's the difference between massage therapists and chiropractors? Massage therapists go to school in the states for 2 to six months, (a few years in Canada) and are licensed health care providers that focus on muscle care and therapy. Different school curriculums can vary widely, but generally speaking basic anatomy, technique of some style(most likely swedish) and some more esoteric theories like chi energy and traditional chinese medicine may be taught as well. Massage therapists require the same licensing to work in a medical or non-medical setting, you don't have to work with a doctor to provide medical care, but you're limited to just massage and treating muscles, legally you can't diagnose or give any kind of professional opinion on any other conditions or treatments someone might be dealing with. However if you came in complaining of migraines and headache pains, they could suggest a neck and scalp massage which would improve the blood flow to your brain and release endorphins to lessen the effects and any crystals they waved around before, during or after might have a placebo effect. They can't write a prescription for massage, it needs to come from a medical doctor or a chiropractor in order to use insurance. Massage therapists have clientele, not patients. Attitude wise most massage therapists try to come off as mellow, humble spiritual types generally speaking we're here to help but we're very conscious that we're not doctors and have severe limits on what we can do. Far more likely to wrap you in mud and rub weird stuff into your skin, like dead sea mud or a rice powder and tumeric mix followed with warm yogurt (I worked at a place that charged 180 dollars for that). Chiropractors go to school for about six years total and their focus is on the spine, the idea being that most ailments come from spinal misalignments, or subluxations which are usually virtually unnoticeable but causing all of your problems. Often they combine their services with selling various alternative medicine products, every one I've met has mentioned toxins and thought there was something to holistic medicine. They're doctors, who are health care providers, but their training is no where near as extensive as a medical doctor's, they can and do write prescriptions for their own treatment then charge insurance companies for it. In terms of demeanor chiropractors do their best to put up a professional medical appearance since it lends them an air of legitimacy to their practice. I know some goons really believe in chiropractic medicine but after working with them for years I'm incredibly skeptical about it. They have x-ray training and know how to interpret them, that being said there was a goon chiropractor who wasn't able to differentiate between a dog and human spine which is pretty drat bad, because look at the comparison, especially how long the spinous processes are in the thoracic region. Canine spinal cord.  Human spinal cord(s).  Similarities: Licensed medical providers (I'd check their credentials), alternative medicine, anatomy and physiology training (more emphasis on the anatomy). Both licensing systems vary from state to state so in order to practice their trades they must fulfill that state's requirements. Heavily associated with alternative medicine and both fields attract more than their fair share of nuts. If you have insurance you want to use, make sure they're credentialed with your provider first and if you have a copay sometimes it's cheaper to pay out of pocket. I worked with a doctor who did 80 dollar adjustments, this one patient had insurance with a 50 dollar copay that'd cover half the treatment, insisted on using insurance instead and paid 90 dollars instead of 80.
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Oct 26, 2015 07:46
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DavidAlltheTime posted:I have pretty bad sciatica in my left leg. I got a referral for massage but I don't really want a stranger rubbing my butt. Do you know any suggestions for stretches or self-massage that might offer me some relief? I wake up in the night from the pain, mornings and evenings I can't breathe deep without feeling it the whole way down my leg. Thanks! Have you had imagery taken? If it's really bad and related to a crushed or herniated disk, you could even be a candidate for surgery. I had bad sciatica that went misdiagnosed and poorly treated for years, and now that it's been treated properly, the pain is almost entirely gone, I can actually run again, albeit far slower than pre-injury , and doing fancy things like bending to drink from a water fountain no longer require some weird curtsy maneuver.
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Oct 26, 2015 10:11
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How effective do you think foam rolling is? I know a lot of runners who swear by it, especially for stuff like IT band problems.
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Oct 26, 2015 18:27
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mister posted:How effective do you think foam rolling is? I know a lot of runners who swear by it, especially for stuff like IT band problems. Pretty effective, it's a nice broad pressure you can use down the length of a muscle, a ball may be better for working on specific knots or in hard to reach places, but foam rollers still work well. IT bands are usually really sensitive and they're hard to work on effectively without hurting the client and causing them to tense up, with foam rolling you can control the pressure. I'd advise loosening up your IT bands with some gentle hand massage before and after doing foam rolling though. No need to buy a fancy expensive foam roller, because... they're made out of foam, some people DIY or just get off brand ones for five bucks vs those 200 dollar ones they're fleecing people with.
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Oct 26, 2015 18:44
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Oh neat a double post!
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Oct 26, 2015 18:44
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Mr.Pibbleton posted:One thing you can try to get more sleep (which will help A LOT) is to lay down on your stomach and put a pillow under your hips, this should raise them up and relieve pressure on the nerve. Massaging your own butt can be done, you kinda get a hard rubber ball, put it under your cheek and basically shift your weight down on it, moving around, but odds are good it's too sensitive for that right now. So you can do hip stretches, you lay down on your back, put your feet flat on the ground so your knees are up, you then put your left ankle behind your right knee, try to get the tibia (that's the main bone of your leg below the knee) on to the other knee, you can adjust this stretch by moving your left leg up and down on your right leg and moving the right leg back and forth. You can also do this upright in a yoga pose called pigeon, but that's a little harder to control than the supine version, but goes deeper. Thank you so much for this. The stretches are great! I couldn't get a pillow under my hips to sleep though, the pressure was too much. Last night was the worst, I was actually 'stuck' in bed. Gonna stretch as much as I can today, and maybe suck it up and get someone to rub my butt. Yech. mlmp08 posted:Have you had imagery taken? If it's really bad and related to a crushed or herniated disk, you could even be a candidate for surgery. I had bad sciatica that went misdiagnosed and poorly treated for years, and now that it's been treated properly, the pain is almost entirely gone, I can actually run again, albeit far slower than pre-injury , and doing fancy things like bending to drink from a water fountain no longer require some weird curtsy maneuver. No imagery, and I'm really curious about what's happening in there. It's been almost four weeks of curtsies, weekness and awkwardness. I drive a car with a manual transmission and it kills me to drive in the city with all the clutch work that's required of me. It has to get better soon. DavidAlltheTime fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Oct 27, 2015 |
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Oct 27, 2015 21:30
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