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Posts Tagged ‘therapy’

I went to my massage therapist last Friday.  She told me that I should really think about taking an Epsom Salt bath.  I said “What?”  “What is that?”  She said it was to help relieve my aches and pains (or really my knots in my muscles) after a hard workout. 

I teach class sometimes 4 times a day.  Now, I have been lifting off and on since the 80’s.  I know when I should layout.  I don’t go extreme everything I teach a class.  But, I do know that my body is craving for some relief.  This is why I go to a massage therapist who can really get down and dirty and make me jump off the table when she hits the spot and diggs in.  She says she is not doing anything hard.  Right!

So, I go shopping for this Epsom salt stuff.  I thought Bath and Body would have it, uh NO.  But I did pick up some bath salts.  The stress relief one with a nice spearmint spell.  Very soothing.

Okay, so I told my hubby that he really needed to take a bath with this stuff.  Last night, he decided to give it a shot.  I was really shock, because the bathroom I think is the only place in the house beside the front living area that does not have a freakin TV.  The man is obsessed with electronics.  Always has been.  Please everyroom.  So much noise in the house sometimes I can even think. 

He asked me if I wanted to get in after he got out.  No, the whirlpool tub in not big enough for the both of us.  I know what you were thinking.  Would have been nice.  Okay, back to my original thoughts.

So, you are asking what the heck can Epsom Salts do for me.  OMG!  This stuff is like duck tape.  You can use it for anything.

Here is what I got off the Wikipedia.   Epsom is Magnesium sulfate is a chemical compound containing magnesium and sulfate.   Anhydrous magnesium sulfate is used as a drying agent. Since the anhydrous form is hygroscopic (readily absorbs water from the air) and therefore harder to weigh accurately, the hydrate is often preferred when preparing solutions, for example in medical preparations.

Magnesium sulfate is used as in bath salts, particularly in flotation therapy where high concentrations raise the bath water’s specific gravity, effectively making the body more buoyant.

Oral magnesium sulfate, or magnesium hydroxide, is commonly used as a saline laxative. Epsom salts are also available in a gel form for topical application in treating aches and pains.

 In agriculture and gardening, magnesium sulfate is used to correct magnesium deficiency in soil (magnesium is an essential element in the chlorophyll molecule). It is most commonly applied to potted plants, or to magnesium-hungry crops, such as potatoes, roses, tomatoes, and peppers. The advantage of magnesium sulfate over other magnesium soil amendments (such as dolomitic lime) is its high solubility.

If you really want to read more about this you can go http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsom_salts.

I truly did love it.  I mixed the bath salts with the Epsom Salts to really get that spa feeling and get my muscles just to relax.  I slept really good too.

Why not try it.  You need to treat your body well as well as working it out hard.

The more I see students come through my classes I am just amazed at how many of them have bad rotator cuffs.  This can really hender certain exercises.  This really disables them to do yoga, push-ups, plank positions, simple shoulder exercises.  Therefore, causes the students not want to exercise at all.  There are plenty of others things to do to stay fit. But here is a great exercise to help in the rotator cuff area.

Here is a great exercise that will strengthen your rotator cuffs.  I picked up this exercise from a fellow strength coach for baseball players.  You don’t have to play baseball in order to do this exercise.  Everyone uses their rotator cuff almost everyday for daily life activities. Okay, so maybe you don’t fish.  But, you get the point.  It’s not baseball.

So, here is goes.  Take a small dumbbell or say a can good out of the cupboard, only doing one arm at a time.  Stand feet shoulder width apart, hold the dumbbell with the right hand, now lift the right arm straight out in front of you( like you were going to do a front dumbbell raise), now hold it there parallel to the floor, your palm of your hand should be facing the floor, now make sure that your shoulder stays in socket, don’t let it protrude forward, retract it back and down, good, now draw small circles in one direction, I usually have my class do ten circles one way and then reverse.  Make sure that you breathe and two make sure the circles are not big ones.  Stay within straight out in front not to dip too low or too wide. Focus only the shoulder work.  Keep it close and tight. You should feel these pretty quick.  Now switch and do the other arm.  Depending on where you are, you can squeeze out a couple of sets. 

If you have injured your shoulder and only after you have been through therapy, this is a great exercise to keep the maintenance until you feel stronger to increase the weight, never, never go over say 10 lbs, due to the leverage on the weight that is place on the arm.  

If you have never had an injury this is a great preventive exercise.  Got to keep all the stabilizers strong.

Hope you try it.  Come back for the next shoulder exercise soon.

Remember “A year from now you’ll wish you had started today.”  No Excuses!

Have a great Sunday.

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