Stepping Up to a New Level of Body Therapy

Professionals in Body Therapies focus on stimulating more points in your body. They diversify and cross-pollinate the different techniques to root out your internal blockages. Your evolution in body therapies sees you acquiring greater knowledge about your pain and trigger points, and the possible solutions. Additionally you vastly improve the mind’s connection with bodily functions, thus enhancing your overall health.

By now you have discovered the human body’s marvellous potential to heal itself. When given a guiding hand through holistic remedies like body therapies it immediately responds to it. By stepping up our engagement with body therapies we can become so well tuned to our bodies that we are able to locate the sites of blockages or anxiety trigger points in our body to reestablish the free-flow movements of inner bodily fluids, blood supply and energies to help us relax and relieve pain and tension. The Body Therapists simply steps in to deepen this mind-body association and heighten our emotional and spiritual connections. The therapies themselves provide the right support to accelerate our body’s inherent ability to self-regulate and correct itself.

Differing Pathways

The best part of most body therapies is that apart from being appropriate for most age groups and physical conditions, unless counselled against by qualified surgeons and physicians, you can go back to it at any time. You are not time bound. If the first-time experience or early sessions was beneficial, but the pain in your back has reduced but not completely disappeared, or your knees are stronger but they still wobble, you can always choose to come back for more. And just as a doctor would prescribe stronger medication to address your problem, your body therapists would attempt to deepen the work being carried out on your muscles, ligaments, neuro-musculoskeletal structure etc.

This developmental stage comes with the added advantage of the evolution working both ways for the practitioner and you. If you choose to go back to the same person (provided they have the training for it), the expert having prior knowing of your body’s strengths and weaknesses shall take their techniques a notch up, while you shall reap the benefits of their efforts and discover the new frontiers of your bodies limits. And don’t worry…even if you opt for a new therapist, they’ll gladly look after you.

Massages: The intensity of the pressure applied on you will increase from light to medium to a level your body can tolerate. Don’t worry the idea is for you to enjoy the experience so the ‘maximum’ pressure applied will never last for more than 2 to 5 seconds. You’ll be asked to communicate your comfort levels so that the therapist can accordingly ascertain the acceptable intensity of your medium pressure and the maximum you can handle at this point in time. The expert will then proceed to do the massage by maintaining a medium level of pressure with occasional depths to enhance the sensation of rejuvenation of your tired muscles and unlocking of your tension hot spots. Since you recognise your trigger points, you will lead them to it. And yes, they will concentrate on your trigger points so that they can stop being your trigger points.

Acupuncture: Before the acupuncturist even considers doing anything, they would like you to describe the progress you have made so far, show them which parts of your body were targeted during the previous sittings. They will examine your tongue and the pulse on your wrist. They might study your face and other health stats too to decide on the slant of the next treatment. This step is important for you and the acupuncturists so that the correct acupuncture points and their corresponding complementary course are mapped out. Depending on your tolerance threshold, the acupuncturist will attempt to stimulate all the 12 primary acupuncture channels, crucial for ensuring the best optimum functioning of your vital internal organs. Of the 56 complementary channels that act like body guards of the internal organs by diverting disease away from the organs, the acupuncturist might seek some of these additional channels. Now don’t imagine yourself pricked all over the place, on the contrary, the acupuncturist will go from one body zone to another, so that the whole you is energised.

If acupressure is the technique used on you, then the sitting will proceed quite similar to a massage, where the degree of the pressure will be raised to deepen the work being done on your soft tissues. As these will not be your first sittings, your treatment sessions will be shorter, typically half an hour. The frequency of the therapy will still remain once a week. However you might be advised to go in more often should you face a chronic condition like multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, cancer etc.

Osteopathy, Chiropractics, Craniosacral therapy, and Physical therapy: At the first go itself, you would have to bring your practitioner up-to-date with your medical history, reasons for seeking the appointment and talk them through the movements, exercises and tension points previously focused upon. This briefing is necessary in order to avoid inadvertent harm. Say you forget to tell your therapist about a lower back pain, they could do some thrusts which might not work to your benefit. Like the other two therapies before the intensity of the pressure applied and thrusts used will rise. In the case of osteopathy the body area covered might be larger.

Exercises and movements would also have to be adjusted in a way that you don’t do something still out of your league but rather something which is a build up of your previous therapy sessions. Meaning if you did squats, and held your bent knees position for 3 seconds, you might be encouraged to bend your knees further and hold your new position for a little longer – say 5 seconds. The normal range of rotation of your hips and joints will be tested so as to increase your flexibility and address your body stiffness. Multiple angles of stretches could be tested, and the stretch duration could be more drawn out.

Conclusion

Body therapies are inclusive enough to cater to not only those will treatable complaints but also those of us unfortunately saddled with chronic maladies or degenerative conditions. Even in this scenario, you will be often left happier, leaving you physically more responsive, and emotionally lighter. It makes the task of handling the actual problem – the disease – more easier.

You will evolve from simply knowing your weak and strong spots to understanding how you can address those spots. This translates into you confidently guiding your therapist using manual medicine to focus on problem areas. Or show the stretches that relieve pain and even request your trainer to do exercise which concentrate on a particular body part. From a passive beginning, you evolve into a proactive participant of body therapies.

The evolutionary phase of this mind-body connect assists in clearing out the fog about your knowledge of your body’s scope, where you are at, and where you would like to be physically and emotionally. The therapists on the other hand tries to see how best they can fit in, in order to support you in realising your goals. Therefore most body therapists approach your condition with the question, “Will this particular body therapy help this person with their X,Y & Z problem?” not if they can solve your condition. In other words, they try to treat the person and not the disease. Yes, YOU in capital letters are their main focus.