Benefits of Arm and Foot Reflexology

I was just reviewing the tutorial I had this week with a student in my current Professional Reflexology Training Program. I love the laser focus that working one-on-one can give and, as always, huge improvements were achieved.

Because this particular student is also a massage therapist, the conversation included not just the specifics of thumb walking and reflex point locations but also ergonomics -meaning the best posture and angle to sit and work to minimize stress on the body.

Yes, massage therapists and reflexologists alike will have aches and pains from our work (and so will chiropractors and acupuncturists, etc.). Just because we have the knowledge and the power to effect positive change in the body doesn’t mean that we ourselves don’t suffer from the pain of overworked muscles or awkward body mechanics.

It is because we have the knowledge that we can deal with pain in our own body more efficiently and more and more effectively.

For example I have reflex points for most parts of the skeletal and muscular systems, so I can easily work on my own feet or hands (something that’s a little harder to do in massage, polarity, acupressure, etc.).

If it’s a pain that one of my reflexology clients has, I will address it via the feet or hands (face and ears are options too) and I can feel confident that the ensuing relaxation will offer great support.

But what’s the best way to stay in shape and reduce our discomfort when we’re not working on ourselves or having someone work on us?

You guessed it… exercise.

Now there’s a whole sub-culture based on exercise and the one thing that they all have in common is the range of motion action provided for the joints of the body.

In today’s article, I’m going to talk about the most basic and the simplest exercise that can be done by young and old alike. Don’t be fooled by its simplicity – it could be an Olympic event.

The Benefits of Walking as an Exercise

Walking is an exercise that isn’t too glamorous and you don’t need to join a gym because it can be done almost anywhere. In fact, they say that walking for just 30 to 60 minutes every day is practically the best thing you can do for your body, mind and spirit (and it’s also good for the sole).

It seems to get more and more difficult for people today to lead a healthy lifestyle. For example, there are new and more interesting snack and junk foods to distract us from the simple nutrients in simple food. In addition, eating disorders – too much or too little, the lack of proper regular exercise, and a myriad of other health diseases, increase our stress levels and almost seem to contribute to the decline in our contemporary world’s lifestyle.

What to do? Well there are many different approaches and just from the perspective of exercise there are hundreds of popular styles of training and gyrating to keep us fit, but the one exercise that is suitable for people of all ages is a good, brisk walk.

So what are the advantages of walking over say kick boxing? Well the obvious one is that you don’t have to kick anything. Both offer joint mobilization and movement throughout the body but walking is the kinder gentler of the two. You don’t need an equipment or a partner or team and it’s absolutely free! (No two year membership with penalty of leaving early costing hundreds if not thousand in equipment, training and fees.)

Benefits of walking are:

1) Did you know that people who walk tend to live longer and healthier lives? Yes, it’s been studied and found that walking just two miles a day can cut the risk of death (a serious consequence) by almost half (including a lower risk of dying of cancer).

2) Is it true that you can walk off weight by… walking? You bet. Walking is, or should be an important part of any weight loss program.

Of course, you’ve got to watch how much you eat but some weight-loss and conditioning studies have proven that walking is actually more effective than running and other more exotic activities.

Why? Because it’s virtually injury-free, and in addition to that it also has the lowest dropout rate of any form of exercise. Good points.

3) Walking also can have a positive effect on your personal habits. It makes sense that if you commit to this, or any form of exercise, you’ll be taking your health maintenance more seriously and will likely develop the pattern for follow-through in other aspects of your life. It’s been noted that smokers who begin walking will more often cut down or quit the habit.

4) Did you even realize that walking helps to reduce depression? It makes sense that a walk in the park or even an unhurried stroll down the street can help reduce the symptoms of depression. The results can be peace of mind AND body. Now that’s what I call a win-win… winner.

5) Its good for the joints and that includes arthritis: Walking can actually relieve your aches and pains by keeping the joints in movement which in turn helps activate the body’s natural fluid tides. Never underestimate the value of this simple form for support to helping anything from backache to digestion.

6) And last but not least, walking can help to boost your brain power: One study showed that walking 45 minutes a day at good pace (16-minute mile pace) can increase your thinking ability. I’ll never forget that when my Mom was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, I found a book written by an MD that claimed he reduced his own symptoms of Alzheimer’s by walking daily.

Today, massage chairs are so advanced to the point where they can give you a massage almost as good as professional massage therapists. It’s something that really gives you lots of pleasure, and maintains your health up at the same time. It has lots of different techniques to massage all parts of your body. And there are also many other features that can help with stress relief and relaxation.

If you’re a great fan of massage and relaxation, you might have been looking around for one of these products which are getting increasingly popular lately. Well, this special furniture really does work wonderfully. Here are some good reasons for you to get one.

With a massage chair, you can have a massage therapy anytime you want. It’s very convenient, and it will never get tired trying to relieve your everyday stress and make you feel better. You can simply do it at home whenever you want a massage. Just simply grab a seat and take a quick 15 minute massage. Or if you have more time, go for a full body massage with longer duration. By having a massage chair, you’re provided with unprecedented access to get frequent massage treatment whenever you want it.

Massage therapy can help you relieve pain, aches and discomfort in your body. It has been practiced for many centuries! Mentally, it helps you to relax and can increase awareness. Today, the challenges of our new economic times are causing us to be stressed more than ever before. It is very important to reduce the negative effects of stress on the body. This is one of the best ways to relieve stress while still enjoying ourselves.

Other benefit is you don’t even need the human interaction. To train your massage therapist to give you the massage you want. How much pressure you would like or exactly where you want the massage. Most modern chairs contains a computer which can memorize the setting you enjoy the most. Simply pick the one you like and let the chair do the rest. Some good massage chairs also have many sensors that can make sure that the massage is custom fitted just for your body.

The other reason of having one is because it’s actually a lot cheaper! Think about it. Three thousand hours of massage therapy the chair can give you in just one purchase. Compare it to a massage that runs $65 per hour plus tip from a therapist.

Without a doubt you are aware of the importance of reviews. When you go over to Amazon to look for a book, as an example, what is the first thing you do? You take a look at the book reviews.

It’s human nature to turn to other consumers for assistance in making decisions to purchase things. In the case of Amazon.com, that group of people is various book enthusiasts. With massage and bodywork services, that community of people is other massage therapy consumers.

Web visitors don’t believe a business will deliver objective guidance on their website. They are skeptical and rightly so. So they seek feedback from customers for the truth. They recognize that individuals who have used the business services before will happily share their frank feelings about a business they’ve used and will truly give them the good, bad and ugly.

There are a ton of review sites. And a ton is a lot.

Right now I want to focus your attention on a specific sort of review website: The ‘map site’. The ones that we look at this week are the three big ones and the ones that we should pay attention to. StatsCan, the government branch responsible for census data in Canada, recently reported (2009) that 52% of Canadians engage in online window shopping. I’m sure that consumers in other places in the world act in a similar way.

It’s the job of search engines to deliver relevant results to searchers. So they put a large emphasis on local businesses because that’s what people most often search for. Google a local service right now. You’ll notice that the local business listings are an integrated part of their mapping systems. Yahoo and Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) do exactly the same kind of thing.

You can plainly see that these listings are given special prominence on the search results page. This is big! Getting listed in Google’s local results is surprisingly easy. For the most part it’s a matter of filling out your listing fully and soliciting a few reviews.

You might be surprised to find out that you may be showing up at the top now without realizing it.

Your company name appears and is hyperlinked to your website. You can see that the phone number is likely displayed beside your website URL. And what’s really important is the links to reviews for that business. Before even looking at your site, people want to know what others have to say about your business, so they click to read reviews.

Check it out in Google. Type ‘massage [your city]‘ or ‘[any type of service] [your city]‘ and take a look at the results. When you click a review link you will see a Google Places listing. This listing contains information that Google has found on that business from phone directories and other sites like review sites. If you look through the Google Places listing a little you’ll see customer reviews.

If you claim the listing as belonging to you, you can edit it, correct any mistakes and beef up the information to get prospective patients to make the decision to book an appointment.

Your feet are in charge of taking you into different places, anywhere you want to. This is why your feet are among the parts of your body that need to be taken care of properly and should be treated with utmost importance. Remember that your feet are among the most essential parts of your body that should never be taken for granted. This is considering the fact that you will be able to accomplish most of your daily tasks without using them. Thus, you must consider the things that you should and should not do to your feet.

As mentioned above, it is just right that you take care of your feet properly and here are some foot care tips that you just might want to take into consideration. Even for just once a year, you can have your feet checked by a professional. This is to make sure that there are no problems with your feet.

Every once in a while, you also need to check if your feet have cracks and sores. If there are, you have to do something to treat them. Trimming your toenails is another part of properly taking care of your feet which can make you look tidier. Instead of washing your feet with hot water, you should use warm water and then dry them well.

You should pay more attention to the areas between the toes because these are known to be the sensitive areas and are prone to infections. Then, always use comfortable footwear and never walk without wearing anything because you may hurt yourself. And of course, you should regularly exercise your feet to maintain proper blood circulation.

Aside from these foot care tips, another idea that you can consider when it comes to taking care of your feet properly is getting a foot massage. Foot massage, like any other types of massage, has several benefits to offer.

Reflexology is one of the most popular massage techniques that are really intended for the feet. In this particular technique, different points of your feet will be applied a certain amount of pressure that corresponds to a certain point of your entire body. But of course, there are some things that you have to take note of before getting a foot massage. For instance, if you are pregnant, you must not get a foot massage because it can be bad for your child.

The same idea applies when you are suffering from a heart disease or hypertension. And lastly, after drinking any alcohol drink, right after eating and bathing, you should not get a foot massage. It is best if your wait for about a couple of hours before getting a massage to avoid any problems.