Jim Keplinger

The Rub Blog Cometh!

Jul 24, 2018 | The Rub Blog

After years of requests, and no small amount of bribery, Lisa has finally decided to “start writing it all down.”

The Rub Blog with Lisa is where Lisa Keplinger, LMT, Hospitality Consultant, Spa Developer, Massage Therapy Instructor, and President of That’s the Rub, LLC shares her decades of experience, wit, and wisdom, as well as her personal insight on new products and services at The Rub.

Occasionally, there may even be a guest writer or two (Jim’s been known to wax poetic a bit, after all). Come back regularly for new insights on massage therapy, facials, waxing, acupuncture, and other wellness modalities either offered at That’s the Rub locations or that are currently getting our attention. Heck’s the occasional book recommendation or podcast tip alone will make this one of your favorite spots online for finding out more about how to take care of the most important person in your life: YOU!

LISA SPEAKS! Happy 2018!

Jan 3, 2018 | Uncategorized

Happy New Year!!!

Last year was a good year for That’s the Rub and we’re so happy YOU were a part of it. So many things happened that it’s hard to keep track, so I won’t be like that aunt that recounts all her blessings in one end of the year letter to all (though that is something to aspire to, I suppose). Just know that we at That’s the Rub appreciate all of our patrons and we want to help you with your goals for 2018 and beyond. Being a major goal setter myself, I understand how daunting it can be to just get started and that it takes support, patience, love and a kick in the pants sometimes to ensure that we reach our goals. Sometimes that type of support needs to come from outside sources, not just within ourselves in order to achieve our goals. We at That’s the Rub want to be there for you.
Setting challenging goals is hard, but it’s made more challenging than it needs to be when we’re stressed, overwhelmed, or feeling distracted because of our skin, our largest, most protective organ, is so chapped and dry from the cold and wind (both of which we have plenty of this year). Don’t let your skin slow you down on your way to reaching your goals. Take care of your skin, so your skin can take care of you.
I know, you’re thinking “I don’t even know where to begin.” All of the marketing is so overwhelming it can be hard to know where to start. Make a plan to take better care of your skin. Start by contacting a local company specializing in skin care (That’s the Rub recently launched it’s own brand THAT: for example…pick me! pick me!) and ask them about their skin care options and how taking better of your skin will help you in more ways than just your skin. You should be prepared for the responses though, we’re very passionate about our skin care and in our enthusiasm to share we may get carried away.
That’s the Rub launched THAT:face our own Age Defy Facial and skin care line November 2017. We did it for several reasons:

We’ve been talking about developing our own line for years, but we couldn’t find the right herbalist to help us do that. We’re very picky (Jim says “snobby”), they had to be local, amazingly knowledgeable, enthusiastic about our vision of what we wanted and needed in a skin care, and able to source the highest possible therapeutic grade herbs and essential oils that we could get our hands on — I admit, this is mainly because I don’t want to put crap and chemicals in or on my body, and I can tell when it’s there because my skin immediately reacts to things that have it.
I wanted the Age Defy skincare for me. I’m going on 47 years this month, last summer I noticed that my forehead (my poor frontalis) was getting a very prominent wrinkle in it and my neck too (from weight gains throughout the years most likely), but just because I know why they are there, doesn’t mean I have to stand by and let them remain! I decided I needed to do something about it. So we found a phenomenal local herbalist and started making our own products. I’ve been using them exclusively since October and my skin has never felt or looked better. My pores have been minimized and so have my breakouts around highly hormonal times, my wrinkles have been diminished, and I feel hydrated (NOT an easy accomplishment with the weather being up and down as much as it has been lately).

I love our THAT:face line so much, we’re developing it for the body as well, because really, we have skin everywhere NOT just on our face (really, it’s true!). Therefore, we have also launched THAT:body massage oils: herbal infused, with therapeutic grade essential oils, small-batch, and hand-crafted — they feel and smell amazing. And there is MORE TO COME! So if you’re looking for taking better care of you in 2018, let us help you with skin care and body care (of course we still have our amazing massages!) and awareness of all that your body can feel and do for you, when it gets a little extra love and attention.
We look forward to assisting you in 2018 in reaching your goals, whether it’s at That’s the Rub Downtown or at Iron Pit Gym (limited service menu) in our brand new Sports Massage Clinic (see below for more info on that!), That’s the Rub is here for you.

Happy New Year!

Yours in Health,
Lisa

Massage Cupping Now Available at That’s the Rub!

Jul 24, 2017 | Uncategorized

Massage Cupping

That’s the Rub is thrilled to offer our clients, athletes and non-athletes alike, Massage Cupping as both a stand alone therapy and an add-on to our other services. When combined with therapeutic massage, deep tissue, or sports massage, massage cupping exponentially increases the efficacy of your therapist to get deeper into the muscle, faster, easier, and less invasively. Book online or ask our receptionist to add it to your service!

Massage cupping is essentially the inverse of the typical massage therapy. Instead of exerting pressure on the different points of the body for healing, massage cupping uses suction to tug the skin, tissues, and muscles upwards. Massage cupping has been known to be used over the centuries by all cultures and the oldest records of traditional Chinese medicine talk about using the therapy to cure a range of ailments. In contemporary times, massage cupping is seen as an effective, non-invasive, inexpensive, and safe form of treatment that can be used by itself or in combination with other forms of therapeutic approaches. Because of its versatility, it is being used in physical therapy, chiropractics, and in spa treatments.

How it Works

When the therapist exerts suction on the different points on the body by way of massage suction, certain changes are brought about up to four inches inside the body. These changes stimulate the body to heal itself. Massage cupping results in:

Promoting the flow of blood to the muscles and tissues, and removing stagnation
Supplying oxygen and nutrients to the cells
Softening the tightened muscles
Loosening of adhesions and knots
Lifting the connecting tissues
Opening the blockages of the lymphatic nodes and easing the flow of lymph
Releasing and draining of excess fluids and toxins like lactic acid from the tissues and cells
Drawing inflammation from the deeper tissues to the surface of the skin so they can heal
Stimulating and later, calming the peripheral nervous system
Eliminating chronic congestion

Massage cupping can be used to treat ailments like stiff muscles, stress, migraines, fatigue and exhaustion, and back and neck pain. It can also be used in rheumatism, weight loss and cellulite reduction treatments. Muscles that have been injured, undergone trauma or exertion, accumulate lactic acid and other toxins. Massage cupping can be used to drain these toxins so the muscles can heal.

How it is Done

This form of therapy must always be taken from a trained and certified therapist.

The first step is locating the points and sections of the body that need to be treated. Accordingly, the therapist uses the hands to palpate the muscles and joints, and thus, begins the relaxation process.
A light oil such as sunflower, safflower or any other herbal oil is applied on the area where suction is to be created.
The therapist uses medical grade silicone cups that are available in different sizes. The right-sized cup is selected depending on the area to be treated. Silicone cups are pliable so they are easy to move over the body and their transparency allows the therapist to monitor the condition of the skin. The skin color is a good indicator of the effectiveness of the treatment so the healer can make adjustments accordingly.
The therapist then creates suction in the cup. This can be done in many ways. A burning object such as a cotton ball soaked in alcohol or paper can be inserted into the cup to heat it. Then, the object is removed and the cup is immediately inserted on the skin. It must be remembered that the skin is never burnt and the burning object is never allowed to come in contact with the skin.
As the air inside the cup cools, a vacuum is created. Some therapists also choose to use cups on which a suction pump is attached. The pump creates the required vacuum in the cup and allows the therapist to create just the optimum amount of suction for the treatment to be effective.
The therapist allows the cup to stay in place for a few minutes so that the muscles are loosened and relaxed. Then, the cup is gently moved over the skin in smooth motions so that the vacuum raises the skin and tissues.
On certain sections where there is excessive stagnation or inflammation, the cups could drag a little or resist movement. This helps the therapist identify the areas that need special care.

Massage cupping can be used on upper arms and calves, thighs, abdomen, hips, sacral region, back, neck and shoulders. Areas such as the spine and scapula that are never treated in conventional massage therapy can be massaged using cupping, safely.

Schedule YOUR massage cupping appointment or add-on TODAY either online or ask our amazing front desk staff when you call 812-333-3393!

A New Years Letter from Lisa

Jan 18, 2017 | Articles, Interview, News

And Now, a Few Words from Lisa…

I want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts here at That’s the Rub Massage Therapy Center and Body Boutique. It’s been a wonderful year of growth and opportunity, for you the client, our staff, our community, and our business. Affectionately known as The Rub to all of us who work here, we do our best every day make you the client proud to say you go to The Rub to take care of your body, to give back to our community and to support our staff.We’re very proud to say that 2016 has been our best year ever and we’re so happy that we got to share it with each and every one of you. You, the client, entrust us at The Rub to teach you how to understand your body better, to help you unwind and destress, to trigger a healing response from within for old and new aches and pains. We take that job seriously, while providing a safe, relaxed and happy atmosphere that we at The Rub have come to cherish. We at The Rub enjoy being here because It’s a cozy place to work. While our jobs may be busy, we are encouraged by your support and your loyalty, that gives us a sense of fulfillment and joy that can only be met with much gratitude. We truly love what we do and it shows.

All of our staff have a voice in how The Rub operations needs are met and each member of our staff is supported and honored for the work that they accomplish with us. The Rub wouldn’t be what it is today without our team of the finest front desk staff and bodyworkers in town and I love them all.

Here at The Rub, we take our community to heart. As busy multi-business owners / operators, we don’t always have the time to spend at functions and parties that support our fellow entrepreneurs, but we always give back to the community at large because we understand that it’s our backbone. When our community thrives, The Rub thrives, and all of the individuals who belong to our elite staff thrive. We’ve done seated chair events, most recently at Lucky’s for their health and wellness day, all proceeds from the event were donated to Stepping Stones; a local nonprofit supporting our community children in safe housing, education, and lifestyle coaching. We’ve donated to WFIU to support public radio: the family and I enjoy all forms of public radio while we’re on much-anticipated road trips. We also donate to the Mauer Women’s Law Caucus events because it’s important to support women as they continue to learn, and for anyone that knows me, I’m all about girl power. The Rub also donated to many silent auctions around the community throughout the year of which I’m sure some of you benefited. This list is just a brief description of the many donations we’ve done in 2016, with your continued patronage these donations and more will continue to support our community because while we may not always be in attendance, we do care about giving our support.

The Rub’s business this year grew in all directions as we’ve added to our staff, and expanded our menu of services. Carla is our new esthetician who provides waxing services, amazing facials, and body treatments. While she’s only been with us a few months, she and her husband recently expanded their family with Ava joining the team, we’ve missed Carla while she spends time with the new baby, and we look forward to seeing her around again in February. Lynnsie, our oldest daughter, joined our team in January 2015 and in July gave us our first grandbaby, Oliver, who I’m sure many of you have met as Oliver comes to the office with Lynnsie when she works. The staff and clients alike enjoy having Oliver with us, and he certainly enjoys all of the attention. Elizabeth will also be giving birth to our 2017 edition of babies born into The Rub. Due in January, she will be missed while on maternity leave, but we look forward to welcoming daughter Lexi into the team.

But it hasn’t all been about babies. We also welcomed new massage therapist Chris, he does great hot stone massage and Reiki, massage therapist Bri who is awesome at Deep Tissue and Therapeutic massage but is sadly leaving us for Austin, Texas in a few short days, and Kara who is a real dynamo working at the front desk and later becoming a massage intern to earn her hours towards state certification which happening this month. We’re so excited for Kara as she begins her new career as a massage therapist! As anyone who’s been on her table can attest she is an awesome massage therapist and we look forward to working with her in treatment. Beth has expanded her offerings to include acupuncture, a clinic for acupuncture and a massage that also includes acupuncture. Theresa has expanded her offerings to include cupping. Tonya Faye continues her education with IU for occupational therapy, let’s celebrate her smartness. If I’ve missed out on anyone’s accomplishments this year, I apologize, there are just so many that it’s hard to keep up and that’s just the personal side of the business.

For me and Jim, it’s been a real whirlwind of opportunity. We’ve expanded the product lines of The Body Boutique, offering more options for all natural, organic skin care that feels good, smells good, and supports local as well as USA made products. In May we were faced with our own mortality in the business because we were running short on space to launder the sheets, no small task I assure you. We’d been putting it off for a few months, but the need became so great that we could no longer ignore it, when we fell into a wonderful opportunity to buy a laundromat and to have business partners (other than each other) Purchasing a laundromat would prove to be a handful of challenges that we didn’t see coming, giving the word perseverance a whole new meaning. To keep a long story short, we welcomed Flip Laundry into the fold (see what I did there?) opening in August of this year. Flip Laundry is a commercial and residential pick-up, drop off, and delivery service for all your laundry needs, in this case it helped us greatly in providing a safe, clean environment to keep The Rub’s sheets going strong, while you guessed it supporting the community with what it needed…an easier way to do laundry, drop off or delivery style. The Launderette is the coin-op do-it-yourself laundry and provides a bright, clean, safe space for everyone to get their laundry on.

We’ve partnered with Ivy Tech Bloomington to create a massage therapy school for the southern region of the state because we all agreed that driving to Indy was quite the haul for anyone in the Bloomington and south to travel. Classes start January 17^th (TODAY!). Please check the Ivy Tech website and register for class. If you’ve ever considered massage as a career for you, now is the time. We need more massage therapists in this town! We were already considering opening our own school (a dream of mine) when the opportunity presented itself to partner with Ivy Tech and we jumped at it. After all what better way to support our community than being part of community education for the profession that I love and have been a part of for 17 years….yikes!

Jim has graduated this fall with his Masters of Information Science, completing his third degree, the man is a real brainiac. We in the family joke that he is The Master, which you will only understand if you are a Whovian. If you have to ask what a Whovian is, you are not one of them.
Last but not least on the lines of the business, The Rub will be expanding and remodeling in 2017 to be all on the first floor (we had some upstairs rooms), this will give us handicap access (much needed) and more space. It will also allow our neighbors on the second floor to expand as well, bringing us full circle in our community support. I’m so proud to have created something that brings so much joy, wellness and opportunity to so many lives. Thank you so much for taking the time to be a part of The Rub and the lives of our team. Your loyalty really means a lot to me personally, but also Jim, our family, and all of Team Rub.

Cheers to you as we ring out 2016 and ring in 2017!

That’s the Rub,
Lisa

Home and Lifestyles Magazine Names That’s the Rub The BEST MASSAGE in South-Central Indiana!

Jun 2, 2015 | News

Only a few short weeks after receiving the title BEST DAY SPA in Bloomington from the Reader’s Choice Awards, YOU have chosen us again: In South-Central Indiana you have lots of choices where to get your massage and spa services, and Home & Lifestyles Magazine has agreed with you and named That’s the Rub THE BEST MASSAGE IN SOUTH-CENTRAL INDIANA — we are truly, deeply honored!

In October, 2009, That’s the Rub opened it’s doors with one massage therapist (Lisa), one room, and one computer geek (Jim). Just over five years later, Lisa and Jim are still around, but That’s the Rub has grown a bit: We’re proud to be home to the 10 (TEN!) best massage therapists ever assembled, a spectacular tarot reader, the finest front desk team you could ask for, six unique treatment rooms decked out with local art, a brand-new Body Boutique!

We’re only as good as our clients and customers, and YOU are the BEST in the World!

Thank you AGAIN!

That’s the Rub,
Lisa, Rachel, Theresa, Holly-Lynn, Gabrielle, Krystal, Elizabeth, Jess, Tonya Fay, Carol, Daun, Emily, Kaeli, Madinah, Hazel, Isis, and, of course, Jim!