The Pain that Wouldn’t Go Away Wasn’t What I Thought
I decided to share this experience in the event that anyone
else may be having these physical issues that seem “untraceable”, but happen to
coincide with something so basic that you might overlook it as an issue. Over
the ear headphones can be an issue for some people in regards to causing
physical pain, an in an overuse type injury. I found that the squeezing of them
on my Temporal muscles around my ears and the reverb of the music through my
head put too much stress on the Temporal muscle itself, causing jaw pain, neck
tension and no relief in sight.
As you may or may not know, I am an avid exerciser. I’ve
been in the gym going on 25 years now, consistently. I’ve used headphones for
my music long before blue tooth was a thing and I detested the earbuds because
I felt that they hurt the inside of my ear. However, after several pairs of
over the ear headphones trying to get something less “squeezy” on my head, I
found no matter how gentle they seemed it still caused Temporal tension, jaw
pain and neck tension. Stretching it out didn’t work, so I had to start looking
at the solution. When I realized that it kept coming back and stronger after a
workout than any other time of day, I went a day without music in my ears and
it felt a little better. I then used a pair of ear buds and noticed that the
tension wasn’t there. It’s been three weeks since I’ve used my over the head
earphones and this is what my conclusion is: They caused my Temporal muscles
severe trauma, which instigated my jaw pain and neck tension that I could never
seem to get rid of no matter how much I stretched. I struggled with this for
months until I figured it out and once I did, the tension was eased immediately
and after three weeks, in spite of a car accident , the tension, pain and
clicking (in my jaw) are gone. And I do mean gone.
So what does this mean for you? It means that if you are
having a tension, pain or issue that doesn’t seem to be changed no matter what
you do, dietary changes, stretching, strengthening, sleeping or massage, you
MUST look at what you’re doing in your every day life that could possibly be
contributing to it. It’s the only option and we owe it to our tissues to figure
it out. Once we give our tissues what they want, we get what we want, a once
again harmonious interaction with our body that brings about pain free and
ample movement.
I hope this helps you figure out your tension issues. Until
next time…
We used to start every day by hanging a new “Rub” on the door: a quote by a famous person to inspire thought, allow us to embrace gratitude, or to just have a good laugh on the way in and out our door. It was kind of our way at The Rub to send you on your way thinking, but also more relaxed and grounded with yourself, since you, of course, had also had a massage. Over time we’ve gotten away from this practice, either due to changing of front-desk management or perhaps as we got busier due to our wonderful clients sending out the good word that we exist. Either way, I feel that it’s necessary to get back to our Rub of the Day, but maybe to take the pressure off a little bit, to change it to the Rub of the Month, but be choosier and more thoughtful about what those rubs are and we as a team reflect on them as much as anyone else does when they come and go. You see, we at The Rub, have always tried to cultivate a relaxed atmosphere that was inclusive of everyone while maintaining professional relationships and cultivating education opportunities for knowing more about how our bodies work and how we can help ourselves and others through pain, dysfunction, and disease.
Recently, we expanded our space to include a classroom, we call it THAT:space (which is currently represented online at it’s Facebook page). We decided it was time to offer massage classes to anyone who would like to learn how to feel better in their own skin, take back control of their own body, help themselves and others ease pain and discomfort of friends and family, or maybe find a hobby or possibly a new profession (as you know, we also helped found the new Ivy Tech Bloomington massage program). THAT:space is a private classroom within That’s the Rub, dedicated to learning objectives of all kinds. Since opening our massage program at Ivy Tech, it’s become very clear to me that teaching is one of my fundamental joys in life and I wanted to expand my teaching range to anyone who wanted to learn massage, not just to those that wanted to be in the profession. Our goal at That’s the Rub is to open THAT:space to the public for massage classes within the next few months. We will also be offering classes to certified and licensed massage therapists to fulfill their CEU requirements, expand their professional skills, and help them in their businesses. THAT:space is also available to rent for private events, small plays (stay tuned for an announcement VERY soon about our first one!), and group meetings, etc., by the hour. Contact Kara THAT:space manager at Kara@ThatsTheRub.com for more information. In conclusion, I will leave you with one of my favorite rubs from “back in the day”:
“Do in your heart what you know to be right for you will be criticized anyway.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
May you always have the courage to do what your heart knows to be right. That’s the Rub, Lisa
So, what I mean by the title of this article is: there are no do-overs. When we’re young, we feel like we’re going to live forever. Our bodies feel spry, we can get hurt (or not) and recover quickly, we can eat anything (!!!) and it doesn’t seem to affect us. Then we turn 40, and our body starts to tell us the many ways in which we’ve abused it over the years and begins to take its revenge. We can no longer eat the way we once did without it biting back. We exercise, but it takes two days longer to recover. We’re forced to face all of the ways we’ve abused our bodies in the past and expected them to just keep going. Even when we’ve acknowledged all of the abuses we’ve put our bodies through, the misdeeds of poor nutrition, lack of recovery time between exercise bouts, injuries and the like, we just expect it to keep going — No maintenance required.
Why do we just expect our bodies to keep going? Our body needs to be cared for, nurtured, strengthened, stretched, and fed properly. We wouldn’t expect a car to just keep going with no gas, oil changes, or regular maintenance, eventually, the car says “I’m not going anywhere.” Therefore, you must take care of it or get another car. Meanwhile, we complain about what a piece of crap it is, not taking responsibility for the fact that if we’d been doing proper maintenance we wouldn’t be facing the issues with our car. Well, our bodies are the same, they need regular, consistent maintenance, but unlike a car, you can’t turn it in for a younger version. So, it’s better to take care of it, you’ve heard the saying, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It’s time to take responsibility for your body maintenance and give it the attention that it deserves.
Bodies behave best when properly taken care of: stretching daily to get all the stress out of the body and its tissues after using it in our activities of the day, strengthening it so that all levers and pullies are doing their jobs equally in respect to their size and their mechanics and using proper nutrition to fuel our activities and our bodies in a nurturing way so that it gets what it needs to continue functioning at the optimum levels. When we don’t do these things, the body breaks down. We call it getting old, but the fact is that’s the excuse we use when we don’t want to take responsibility that we’ve not treated our body all that well and it’s letting us know it. The good news is, it’s never too late to change old habits. As long as you’re breathing and your heart is still beating you can take steps to improve your body’s performance.
We tell ourselves that change is too hard, to give us an excuse not to change. We tell ourselves that we can’t change, which is untrue, but if you believe that you can’t you are correct because you have to want to change. Change isn’t that hard if you really want to do it. The catalyst shouldn’t have to be “if I don’t do this I will die.” How about change for the sake of knowing it’s better for you? Take your power back. Change because you know it will help your body feel better, you will feel stronger, happier, and you will feel healthier knowing that you empowered yourself with change. We tell ourselves it’s hard because it gives us an excuse when we fail. Oh, it was too hard so I gave up. What if we gave ourselves other words? For instance, this change is a small one, so it’s going to be easy. Implement the change, embrace it, and then move on to the next change and so on. Baby steps…but keep stepping! There is no limit to this way of thinking about change and it brings the change and the word into the positive realm, instead of placing it into the too hard to be accomplished.
The mind is a powerful tool. Use your mind to your advantage by living in the positive now and leaving the negative I can’t or its too hard behind. By living in the positive now, the changes you wish to bestow on the one thing there are no do-overs on, YOUR BODY, you will empower yourself to be your best advocate for any positive change you would like to make. Massage, facials, acupuncture, yoga, more natural body products, we carry all of those things and more at That’s the Rub. Be the change!
Each visit you make the therapist you prefer, the therapist may (and likely will) use different massage types and applied styles to change up the massage. However, after multiple treatments sometimes things stop working or you’re no longer getting the results you’re looking for or you’re just not sure you like this type or style of massage any longer. You can ask to go back to another massage style you know you liked or worked for you or you can ask to see another therapist. It’s nice to compare different styles after all they are just as different as the individuals themselves.
So why mighty you want to try another therapist you ask? Well, because sometimes when the personalities don’t fit between the therapist and the client, it might feel awkward to get a massage with this person no matter how skilled they are. You don’t know exactly what’s wrong; everything “feels” as it should, but it just feels off. That might be a sign to try another therapist. Another reason to see another therapist, if you’ve been working with the same LMT for years and now you’re in a maintenance phase, meaning you’re no longer working on those bigger goals that you originally started coming, it might be nice to try something new every once in a while because your body adapts. Additionally, a different therapist’s perspective on what’s going on with your body might bring fresh awareness and deeper growth for your goals. Lastly, another reason to try another therapist is you aren’t getting the results that you once were from the therapist you’ve seen for a long time. That’s okay; it doesn’t mean that they are no longer doing their job, rather it just means that your body has adapted, which it is designed to do, and a fresh take on massage applications just might be what it needs to let go on a deeper level.
Here at The Rub we customize all treatments based on several criteria: your goals – both short and long term what you want to get from your massage, the type of treatment your scheduling – this is discussed in deeper detail with your LMT during the intake process so that we know that the appointment you scheduled is the right one for your goals, and finally the therapist’s personality. If for any reason you are looking for a change, The Rub offers different massage therapists to fit those needs, and we all refer to each other when we feel that we’ve done all we can or believe another modality or therapist may be a good fit for you. Think of it as helping your regular therapist help you achieve your goals. After all that’s what we’re here for, and we feel good when our clients are happy with their results. Welcome to The Rub!
This might be a surprise to you or maybe not, but all massage therapists are not created equal, not all massages are the same, any more than all bodies are the same. I bring this up because it occurred to me that the major reason people may not like to try another therapist is loyalty to their therapist or fear of the unknown. After all we like the massage we’re getting, so why change therapists? Well, let me explain.
When you first schedule your appointment the front desk staff asks questions to not only get you the best time for your schedule, but also to try to match you to the best massage for your goals and the best personality fit between you and the therapist you will be working with. Usually our staff nails it, but, sometimes, this doesn’t work out so well which isn’t a surprise, we’re trying to make all these decisions within a five minute phone call.
Did you know if you don’t mesh with the massage type, the style of massage used by your therapist you can (and should) ask for different things for your next massage? Or if you and your therapist don’t jibe personally (hey, it happens, no harm, no foul) that we don’t think twice about scheduling anyone with another therapist who may suit you better, we’re cool like that. We know that everyone isn’t meant to get along and so we have other therapists for you to try, until you find the right fit for you.
Massage Type: There’s a vast pool of massage types that we in the business call “modalities”. In the bodywork world we know that there are different massages that work best on different pathologies (issues) in the body, based on your needs and your goals, we book a massage based on what you say you’re looking for. On the day of your appointment we do further intake to ensure that we’re doing the best massage for what you’re looking for by discussing what your goals are and come up with a plan together.
Massage Style: Massage style refers to the way the massage therapist applies their massage techniques. Each therapist does more than one massage modality, but their massage style is what brings it all together in a treatment that is customized for you each time you visit. You may have a deep tissue massage from one therapist and a deep tissue massage from another therapist and they are completely different. It’s like Frank Sinatra and Sid Vicious both recorded “My Way” but they are vastly different (and you’re bound to prefer one to the other)!
Choosing your massage based on type, style, and personality fit may take a few times, but when you get that right combination, you will know it and it’s worth the pursuit. We look forward to helping you find your right fit for the results you’re looking to achieve.
