this week in massage school we practiced the head/neck/shoulders massage we learned last week, and we were introduced to the hand and arm techniques.

elyse, the instructor, also showed up how to employ proper body mechanics in our work. mostly, she taught us the correct positions of standing/kneeling, using the force of the entire body to conserve hand strength, how to hold our heads.

the steps in the hand/arm massage:

• have client lie supine. center and ground.
• grab hand and pull arm inferiorly, gently rotating arm in glenohumero joint.
• corkscrew each finger, pulling gently.
• cat’s-paw top of hand, massaging metacarpals and between metacarpals.
• interlace fingers, stretching palm, using thumbs to massage palm and carpals.
• sandwich halfway up the forearm, petrissage back down to wrist.
• bracelet from elbow to wrist.
• arm role, gently stretching shoulder, bringing arm up and around. while holding arm up, effleurage elbow.
• petrissage deltoid, bicep, tricep, flexors and extensors.
• effleurage from wrist to shoulder.
• rake trapezius.
• move breast tissue, massage pectoralis.
• push down on shoulder, stretching pectoralis.
• friction circles deltoid, tricep, bicep.
• ground out.

i need to practice this for at least two hours from today until monday. massage is a dance, and last night elyse told me that i was born to do it. she’s a very skilled practioner who has been a bodyworker for seven years, which is a long time in this profession, and her compliments made me feel really good.

i have a couple of volunteers lined up, but i need to find more.

January 31st, 2003 | Uncategorized | No comments

When Rick and I got together, I had been a pescatarian, meaning a vegetarian who was still eating sea creatures, but had recently started to eat land creatures again. my reasons for taking up eating meat again were largely social, but when Rick and I moved in together, since I worked and he did not, we agreed that he would do the majority of the meal preparation and domestic duties. In return, I promised him that I would eat whatever he prepared. Well, Rick’s idea of dinner is a solidly midwestern one, a largish meat dish, with some form of potato, and boiled vegetables. And dessert every night.

So, three years later, and I easily gained forty pounds. Now, I don’t blame him for this, after all, I’m the one who ate these large meals and portions, and did little or nothing to exercise the pounds away. Back in 1996, I weighed 260 svelte pounds, and now I’m up to an (in my mind) ungainly 380ish. My knees and ankles (my poor ankles) are truly uncomfortable, sometimes pained, and I don’t like the way I look. I don’t feel guilty about it, or ashamed, but I am doing something about it.

As of January 1, 2003, I went back to being a pescatarian. My bicycle is repaired and being ridden. I can already notice a loosening of my clothing. I’m going to update this journal and my personal website with the details of my journey. http://www.paulbrown.net/weightloss/ is the URL. I’ll post an update link here periodically.

January 30th, 2003 | Uncategorized | No comments