Posts Tagged ‘alignment’

July Tip of the Month: Self Care for the Neck

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

I’ve been noticing a lot of neck tension lately, both on myself and my clients – someone recently described it as a feeling of being hung on a hook from the nape. So I thought it might be a good time to offer a few techniques for unhooking ourselves. If we think about it metaphorically for a moment, we can see the neck as the bridge between the mind and the body. If there is any conflict between them it will be the first to register. Maybe conflict is a big word, so we can think of it as an energy imbalance – our mind is full of things we need and want to do, but our body and/or our emotions are needing some quiet time or attention. Here are some ways to give the body attention:

SLEEP & REST MORE

1. OK, maybe this seems obvious but it’s the advice I personally could use most and the part of self-care that gets least attention in our hectic city lives. It’s also the one thing I am sure will work for everyone! Your head weighs about ten to fifteen pounds, so if your body is tired, you can imagine it’s going to want to take a break from carrying that load, especially if beyond the physiological weight you’re also carrying emotional baggage in there. As my Thai Massage master used to say to almost every westerner that walked into his studio: take off your backpack, at least for an extra hour or two.

USING YOUR FINGERS

2. On the Shoulders: sitting or standing, curve your fingers and place them on the back of the shoulders (trapezius muscles), close to the base of the neck. Keep the fingers hooked and simply pull the elbows closer in to your body to increase the pressure of the fingers without having to press harder. Let the muscles soften, breath deeply and relax your eyes and forehead.

3. On the Neck: sitting or standing, curve your fingers and place them on the back of the neck, right along but not directly on the spine. Apply pressure but not so much that you strain the fingers. Keeping the head straight, chin slightly down, gently press the back of the neck into the fingers on an exhale in order to increase the pressure. Then, keeping the pressure of the fingers into the neck, tilt your head back on an inhale and forward on an inhale. Play with moving the fingers up and down a little – getting the middle finger right into the base of the skull and tiltling back can feel very nice.

4. On the Head: sitting or standing, curve your fingers and place them thumb side down on the back of your head, right along the centeral line of the skull. Move along this center line, from the base of the skull up and over to your third eye, the point just above your eyebrows, applying pressure into the skull. Repeat from the base of the skull to forehead rather than reverse. Then, shampoo your entire head, especially around the temples and don’t forget your jaw.

5. Nutcracker: interlace the fingers behind the neck and pull your elbows in towards each other (below the chin) to create gentle pressure. For deep pressure, release your thumbs from the interlace and place the thumbs along the neck and then pull the elbows in.

USING THE FLOOR

6. Head Rolls: Lie on your back with your knees up, feet flat on the floor and gently pull your chin down towards your sternum, without creating tension in the front of the neck. You should feel the back of the neck lengthening and the back of the head widening into the floor. In this position, press the back of the head into the floor and maintain the pressure as you roll your head from side to side. Exhale as you roll the head to one side, inhale to center, and exhale to the other side. Stop anywhere along the way where the pressure feels good. Move on the exhale to the end of your range, but without straining.

7. Nose Circles: Keep the jaw, eyes and forehead relaxed and draw small circles clockwise with the tip of your nose. Feel the head moving fluidly through the circles – if there are any criks or snaps make the circles smaller. Reverse direction.

USING YOUR HANDS

8. Hanging over: Either standing up or sitting in a chair, let the weight of the upper body and especially your head hang down. To make sure the weight of the head is fully released, do little nods yes and no and check that the head can move freely, as if it were dangling off the spine. Now use your hands to pet the back of your neck, from the base of the shoulder down along the skull, as if you were wiping water off of yourself. You can use a lot or very little pressure – even touching very lightly with the fingertips as if you were tickling yourself can be effective, depending on what you need and like. Otherwise known as “nice nice” in Thai speak.



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Tip of the Month: Techniques for Self Massage Part 1 – In a Chair

Friday, May 28th, 2010

The warm weather often brings with it more energy and desire to be more active: we spend more time outdoors, stay up later, hike in nature or around the city, dance more, bike more, etc. So it’s not unusual for our muscles to get fatigued and for our joints to cry out for attention, especially in these months when we are still transitioning into our full summer swing. There is nothing like a professional bodywork session for helping your body relax and rebalance, especially when dealing with injury or chronic pain, but there is a lot you can do for yourself to encourage release and relief at any given moment of the day.

More often than not it is when we finally get a moment to sit that we feel the strain, and many of us find ourselves at a desk for hours at a time, so here are some ideas for self-massage that you can do seated in a chair.

SELF MASSAGE, SEATED IN A CHAIR:

1.    For shoulders, neck and back: keep your feet flat on the floor and open your legs so there is a foot or more between your knees. Now let your upper body hang over your legs, with your head completely released to the floor. Breath deeply into your back. Then interlace your fingers and bring the hands to the back of your neck. Use the heels of the palms to gently squeeze up and down the neck, in a nutcracker fashion, then release the fingers and use the palms to slide down the neck, as if you were wiping water or lotion off your neck and down along the back of your skull towards the floor.

2.    For sore hips, thighs and feet: sit up and cross your right heel over your left thigh, just above the knee. Let your back relax back down for a moment and breath into the hip stretch. As much as possible, aim to keep both sitz bones even on the chair. Now sit up again and place the outer edge of your right forearm on your right thigh (your thumb should point up). Lean into the thigh and as you do so roll the forearm so that the palm comes to face up. Continue rolling up and down the thigh with the forearm, using your weight to create the pressure and thinking of moving the flesh away from the crease of the hip. You can also use your elbow to get deeper pressure: place the forearm on the thigh and as you drop your weight bend the arm so that the elbow drops into the thigh. Finally, use both hands to massage the feet – try using the knuckles or tapping with a fist so that you don’t fatigue your fingers. Use the hands to pull the toes in, push them away, spread them apart. Now release the right leg, shake it out, and repeat with the left leg folder over the right.

3.    For shins, ankles and feet: sitting up straight with your shoes off, use the heel of your right foot to rub the point at the top of your inner left shin, just below the knee. Rub this point for a few moments, then continue down along the inner shin, making sure the heel is between the bone and the muscle and not on the bone. Spend a few more moments and the point between the inner ankle and heel. Now cross the heel over and use it to rub up and down the out shin a few time. From here, continue down the top of the foot and spend a few moments at the point between the big toe and the second toe. Repeat on the other side.

4.    For fatigue, headaches and stress: sitting up, use the fingers of both hands (except the thumbs) to tap along the breastbone, up and down a few times. The taps are quick and light. Then allow the hands to split and travel along their respective clavicle, tapping just below the bone. Continue around to the back of the shoulders, up the neck, up the back of the head, spending as much time as you like on the head and covering the entire scalp. Continue to the forehead, tapping more gently now that you are on the sensitive face. Tap the temples, the jaw, the cheeks, the chin. When you finish, relax the arms, close your eyes and breath deeply for at least three breaths.

5.    For aching shoulders: Make a light fist with both hands, keeping the thumb free. Throw the right fist over the left shoulder to create a light pounding sensation along the back of the shoulder, then throw the left fist over the right shoulder. Use the momentum of the throw rather than any muscular effort to pound on your shoulders. Alternate sides and continue for as long as you like.

6.    For a sore low back: use the same light fists from the above exercise to rub your low back in a circular motion. Then play with different placements of the fist and different strokes – try using the knuckles to rub up and down, for example. Rub briskly to create heat, and make sure you breath as you do this. Stop well before you fatigue your arms.

Did you enjoy this tip? Did all this talk of massage make you realize that you’re due for a more serious tune up? Mention this tip and get 20% off a bodywork session through the end of June. As always, feel free to email me with any questions or comments, and if you’d like to work on creating a repertoire of stretches and exercises that are specific to your needs I am available for private sessions at super reasonable prices.  XO Ophra

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Tip of the Month: Morning Stretches

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

(Originally included in the Force and Flow newsletter, 2/5/10)

GETTING UP IN THE MORNING CAN BE HARD, I know : ) Especially when your body is still exhausted from the previous day and is about to get thrown out into the cold for another day of running around. Once we get going, it’s hard to stop, and without a chance to shake off the previous day’s tensions, we often end up carrying them with us into the next. No wonder we get increasingly tired and achy! There’s nothing like sleep for resetting the body and mind, but usually our NYC lives don’t allow us extra hours of sleep to account for the season (never mind the emotional weather patterns moving through us!) Taking a moment before the rush to gently stretch is another way of resetting, a chance to tune in with the body and help ease it into the day ahead.

A WORD ABOUT STRETCHING: There are many ways to stretch. But first thing in the morning, I tend to avoid deep, long static stretches, which are best saved for when the body is warm and energized. My morning stretches focus on loosening the joints, making space between the bones, waking up the breath and getting the circulation going. They are a way of gently tuning in with the body and asking it “what’s going on today? what needs a little attention and TLC?” The stretches below are simply suggestions – there are as many possibilities as there are people out there, so find what works best for you. As long as you are aware of breathing and keeping the joints soft, you will only be doing yourself a service.

A WORD ABOUT ROUTINE: I know, just the thought of having one more thing to do every day can be hard to bear. Sometimes even the thought of how great you will feel after isn’t enough to motivate you to do it. So here are two suggestions for fitting a little bit of stretching in every day.
1. Only commit to as much stretching as is feasible for you. You probably wouldn’t leave the house without brushing your teeth, and you probably take at least 60 seconds to do that, so another 60 seconds to stretch is not unreasonable. If you can spare three minutes, then take three minutes, and if it’s a morning where you have a lot of time and the stretching is feeling good, just keep going until you have to stop.
2. Brushing your teeth is probably automatic at this point, and ideally a few moments of stretching will soon be too. Work those sixty seconds of stretch in to your morning routine by repeating them at the same point every day: i.e. right after brushing your teeth, or right before, maybe first thing when you roll out of bed. Do this every day for five days in a row and likely on the sixth it will happen on it’s own.

MORNING STRETCHES:

1. Rolling the joints: standing up, roll through all the joints of the body gently, almost with the quality of still being asleep. Work in the range in which the movement is smooth and lubricated and avoid big snaps and cracks. Start with the head: three (or more) rolls to one direction, then three to the other. Repeat this with the shoulders, elbows, wrists, ribs, hips, knees and ankles. Stretch your arms above your head, yawn, shake the whole body out and repeat if you so please.

2.Child’s pose/kneeling: sit back on your heels and relax the upper body forward over the knees, reaching the arms ahead or allowing them to rest to the side of the body. Keep the toes together but spread the knees apart so that the belly can relax down easily. Breath deeply, using your breath to open up the back of the body – with every inhale, expand into the spaces between the ribs, the shoulders, the neck, the low back. After a few breaths, come up on all fours on an inhale, bringing the wrists right below the shoulders, and circle around the wrists, a few times to either direction. Push back to child’s pose on an exhale, and now repeat the movement from child’s pose to all fours, inhaling to come up and exhaling to push back. Repeat the wrists circles, if you like, take an extra moment to breath in child’s pose if that feels good, for those who know it, you can throw in a gentle cat cow on all fours.

3. Lay on your back and pull the knees in to your belly, placing your hands on your knees. Pull the knees in and out gently a few times, making sure to keep the breath moving, then begin to circling the knees- both knees circle out (away from center and one another) on an inhale, and back in on an exhale. Reverse.

4. Lay on your back with the knees bent and feet on the floor. Rock the knees gently from side to side, allowing gravity to do the work of dropping the knees down. You can try exhaling to drop the knees to one side and inhaling as they return to center – this is just a suggestion, as long as you’re conscious of breathing, do what feels best. If you feel comfortable, allow the head to join in and roll from side to side – play with rolling the head to the same direction as the knees, and opposite them. And for extra credit, roll the arms in and out simultaneously.

MORE STRETCHES IN THE NEXT NEWSLETTER… Meanwhile, feel free to email me with any questions or comments. And if you’d like to work on creating a repertoire of stretches that are specific to your needs, mention this tip to receive $10 off a private session.
XO Ophra

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Tip of the Month: Self-Care in the New Year, From the Ground Up

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

(Originally included in the Force and Flow newsletter, 1/4/10)

If one of your resolutions for the New Year is to take better care of yourself, may I suggest that you start with your feet? Your feet are the key to balance and alignment, to feeling grounded and to leaping to great heights. Since we know that body and mind are one, I’ll let you play with the metaphor. Meanwhile, here are a few excellent ways to attend to your feet – on the go, at rest, and as focused exercises.

Stretch: sit on your heals, with the toes tucked under and the weight on the balls of the feet. The more you allow the weight to fall towards the big toe and the torso to sit upright atop the heals, the greater the stretch. Be prepared for intense sensations if you haven’t done anything of the sort recently! Stay as long as you can bear it, breathing deeply and keeping your focus parallel to the floor and your peripheral vision wide. When you need to rest, un-tuck your toes and sit back on the heals again, stretching out the front of the foot. Alternate like this for 2-5 minutes (or more if you so desire : ), keeping the focus and the relaxed breath as you change from the one position to the other. You can do this as part of a stretching routine (recommended), but you can also do it while watching TV or a DVD.

Massage: You’ve probably all rubbed your feet with your hands at least once: do it often! Use your elbows, too – if you sit cross-legged on the floor, or in a chair with one leg crossed over the other, the elbows can be used to drop a lot more weight than the hands, and they can give your hard-working hands a break. The key to releasing tension in the feet is not so much kneeding as it is focused pressure and traction. Think of stretching the bones of the feet and toes apart, and circle the joints of the ankles and the toes to lubricate their movement. If you have bunions, do extra some extra stretching for the big toe. And tennis balls and foot rollers are always good props. Keep one under your desk or kitchen table and roll the foot out while sitting.

Walking Meditation: Since us New Yorkers have the priviledge of walking so much, and since we love to multi-task, here is something to do while transporting yourself from place to place. First of all, keep your focus parallel to the ground (vs. dropped) and your peripheral vision wide. Move your head around every once in a while to make sure it’s not stuck in any one place. Allow your internal focus to drop down to your feet and notice the texture of the ground – how hard or soft is it? How bouncy? Then choose a texture and imagine you are walking on it: i.e. dry sand (I’m headed to the beach right after this!), wet grass, melting snow (unless you’re by the beach like me, perhaps this one doesn’t require as much imagination these days : ), etc. Notice how your feet respond to the suggestion! Switch it up, don’t get stuck on any one texture too long, and then come back to trying to feel what the ground you are walking on “really” feels like.

Love,
Ophra

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Tip of the Month: Getting More Out of Your Stretching (10/09)

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

(Originally included in the Force and Flow newsletter, 10/25/09)

This month’s tip is a quick and easy way to focus your intention while stretching in order to gain more length, alignment and strength. The “secret”, so to speak, is to visualize how you are stretching your bones as opposed to thinking about stretching the muscles.

For example, an excellent way to stretch your hamstrings and lower back (your entire spine, in fact) is to sit with your feet flat against a wall, legs extended, and relax your head and torso towards the legs. Breath deeply and as you exhale, think of stretching your heels towards the wall while extending your sits bones down into the floor and away from the heels. Visualize the length of the shin bone from ankle to knee and the length of the femur from knee to hip socket; feel how the femur can traction away from the hip socket as the heel stretches into the wall. This is a good stretch to hang out in for anywhere from 2-5 minutes, and you can flip this same position into a different plane of movement by coming on to your feet and allowing gravity to assist in stretching the spine, skull, and ribs towards the floor, even as the heels continue to lengthen down and the sit bones to reach up and away from the heels.

Consider that the function of the bones is to bear weight, whereas the function of the muscles is to move and support the bones. So if you focus on stretching your bones, the correlating muscles will necessarily respond, and your ability to carry your own weight in an elongated position will increase. If you stretch your muscles without any consideration of how the elongation is affecting your bones you may find some temporary relief from tension, but you’re likely to be missing out on the greater benefit of the stretch.

Feel free to email me with any questions you might have, or come by to the Open House this Wedensday eve and have your questions answered in person. If you enjoyed this tip and would like more stretches and hints on how to make them work better for you, I am available for private sessions at super affordable rates. You might also consider experiencing having your bones, muscles and joints opened and elongated while you rest on your back in a Thai Bodywork session : )

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Tip of the Month: The Good & The Bad (8/09)

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

(Originally included in the Force and Flow newsletter, 8/10/09)

People often ask me what activities they should and shouldn’t do when dealing with an injury or chronic pain. There are of course specific exercises that can be helpful in strengthening or alleviating pain in certain parts of the body, but the real answer is, any activity you do consciously is good, and any activity you do unconsciously is bad.

To do an activity consciously requires both your mind and your body to be aware of what’s happening from moment to moment – a seemingly daunting task, but one that we can easily break down into a number of smaller, more manageable ones. Here are four things you can attend to that will keep you very safe and help you heal through any activity that you do.

The first two tasks are for the brain. It’s important to remember that your brain and your body think very differently, and your brain is NOT the expert on what’s good for your body. In fact, the brain is pretty much useless for making qualitative judgements about your body, but it is extremely useful for quantitative observation! We keep the brain busy by having it attend to alignment and engagement. Alignment refers to the placement of the bones, and engagement refers to the muscles that are supporting and mobilizing the bones. For example, if you are suffering from knee pain, then you should pay attention to the angle of the knee in relation to the ankle and to the engagement of the quads and calves.

Once your bones are aligned and your muscles are engaged in such a way as to support them, you can access the body’s innate intelligence by becoming aware of the dynamic of the movement, that is, the force and direction of the energy moving through your body. A good question to ask of your body is, does the movement feel elastic, i.e. stretchy? Your brain can look for an equal and opposite pull through the bones and muscles, your imagination can visualize it, and most importantly your body will feel the stretch and space that is created.

Even when you’re not sure what the best alignment, engagement, and dynamics are, you can still know if the activity is good or bad, you just have to ignore your brain for a moment and listen only to the body. The body, unlike the brain, is a great judge of what is and isn’t good for it and if you listen to it, it will be happy to tell you when things feel good and when they don’t (this goes for food and sex as much as for exercise!). The most important exercise you can do is to listen to your sensations from moment to moment: what are you feeling? How much weight do you feel and where is it falling? What is the sense of internal space in the injured area? DOES THE ACTIVITY FEEL GOOD? If the answer is no, then stop.

If you have specific questions about what alignment, engagement, and movement dynamics would best serve you in dealing with your specific injury or chronic pain, then I am happy to set up a private session. Once you have the tools to work with your injury consciously, your body can heal doing the very thing that may have injured it in the first place! I am available for private sessions at super reasonable rates: $80 for an initial meeting, and $50 for the next four sessions. I do sliding scale and am always open to barters. As always, you can email or call me at 646-644-9743.

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