• headaches, backaches, eyestrain, neck pain
• listlessness, poor concentration, anxiety, depression, irritability, and anger
• tendonitis or carpal tunnel syndrome
• lowered resistance to colds and infections, high blood pressure, ulcers, and heart disease
• Physical and emotional exhaustion i.e. burnout.

Will employees be too relaxed to work after a massage?

Workers who receive short chair massages have demonstrated increased accuracy and speed in math computations and decreased levels of anxiety while workers who have rested for the same periods did not. Short massages lasting 15 minutes or less recharges and refreshes while longer massages crosses the threshold that causes the body to go into a different state of relaxation.

Massage Benefits for Company

• Improves productivity
• Increases employee retention
• Reduces environmental stress
• Decreases stress induced absenteeism
• Aids in recruiting
• Improves job satisfaction
• Boosts morale and enhances performance
• Celebrate promotions and anniversaries
• Improves overall company health
• Enriches corporate culture
• Helps staff during stressful projects
• Refreshes convention and seminar attendees
• Attracts attention to trade-show booths
• Shows appreciation to current customers

Massage Benefits for Employee

• Reduces stress
• Relieves fatigue
• Helps prevent repetitive use injuries
• Decreases muscle tension and pain
• Lowers anxiety and hostility
• Enhances creative thinking
• Improves problem solving abilities
• Increases immunity to colds and flu
• Decreases blood pressure

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What Stress Really Is

Let’s quickly understand what stress really is because most people do not realise what it really is. Stress is a physical (and sometimes mental) response. Though you feel stress and the pain of it is enough to make most people try to avoid it, it is often the case that people will put up with mental stress or find a way of coping with it. Physical stress is when your body is out of balance. It may contain a high number of circulating stress hormones such as cortisol, for example, that are just not supposed to be there. Over time, this leads to poor health.

An event that causes stress is not necessarily stressful. Some say that specific jobs are stressful but this is simply not true. Some may be more likely to cause stress but I would argue that most people in those jobs did not learn how to cope with stress or are working in what are completely the wrong jobs for them. Here’s why.

Same Environment, Different Response – Why?

If you take two people and put them in the same environment (e.g. the same office) and observe them then one person may rarely get stressed while another may be regularly having outbursts and anxious moments. One is not stressed but the other regularly is. Why is this?

Though there are some major events which are universally stressful (e.g. death in the family), most of the time it is the person and not the event that is relevant to stress. Some people let events provoke the response in them when this need not be the case. A person can learn how to prevent their stress response.

Living in the Present

The key is to live in the present. All stress (and stress is inextricably linked to anxiety and depression – to some extent they are one and the same thing) occurs due to not living in the present but instead living in the past or the future.

If your mind is dominated by thoughts of the past or the future, what might have been, what could have been, what might happen and more – and often being preoccupied negatively – then this causes stress. It is only when you live purely in the moment, in the present, that stress cannot exist.

For example, you might be stressed about a future job interview. This is because you are focusing on the future and what might happen. You may also be dwelling on the past and missed opportunities. The answer is to deal with the future by preparing for it but then ignoring it and concentrating on living in the present.

Eckhart Tolle

One of the most widely respected people in the world on this very subject of stress and living in the present is Eckhart Tolle, a man who was once suicidal. He nearly succeeded in taking his own life before suddenly having a moment of revelation and understanding that living out of the present was the origin of much human misery, especially in the modern, western world.

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Secondly there is the myth that female therapists are not as strong as male therapists. Physically there is a noticeable difference and in some instances female therapists do not apply as much pressure as their male counter parts. The main reason for this is not that they do not have the ability it is more that they prefer not to.

Either way you do not need to have extreme deep pressure too effectively work tight muscles. In the end the choice is yours and the following information is intended to help you with that choice.

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High Blood Pressure Defined

High blood pressure is anything over 120/80. The first figure is systolic blood pressure and the second is diastolic blood pressure. These measurements refer to the maximum and minimum pressure levels in the arteries.

While it is possible to have low blood pressure, high blood pressure is both more common and also much more damaging. Even a moderately high blood pressure can lead to a doubling or tripling of your likelihood of heart attack or stroke.

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Ligaments are the fibrous, slightly stretchy connective tissues that hold one bone to another in the body, forming a joint. Ligaments control the range of motion of a joint, preventing your elbow from bending backwards, for example, and stabilizing the joint so that the bones move in the proper alignment.

Ligaments are composed of strands of collagen fibers. While ligaments are slightly stretchy, that they are arranged in crossing patterns prevents the joint itself to become loose.

Stretching exercises increase the length and flexibility of the muscles, allowing the joint to move farther than before. The ligaments themselves are not stretched, as they provide the support for the joint. This stretching of the muscles is what allows martial artists to perform seemingly impossible kicks and contortionists to stretch their bodies into fantastic positions.

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Muscle has memory and it has the ability to adapt to physical stress placed upon it at a much faster rate when compared to the ligaments and tendons.

In other words; muscle gains strength and becomes stronger more quickly. On the other hand ligaments and tendons take a much longer time to catch up with the muscles.

This is important to remember while working out because as muscles adapt over the first few weeks, you will begin to feel stronger and that you can now do more.

The problem though; is that while your muscles can handle the increased work load, you’re tendons and ligaments can’t. So what typically happens is that 2 to 3 months into an exercise program injuries start to occur.

It might begin with aching joints or twinges in the muscles, but if you don’t back off and give your tendons and ligaments time to adapt, you’re headed for a full-blown sports injury.

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Why HIIT Works

The “interval” aspect of HIIT refers to the fact that your intensity levels change. We will get to the specifics later but the important concept to highlight is the change in intensity during the workout.

Your body is a bit like a car. When you drive at a constant speed in your car, especially if you can do so at low revs, then your fuel will be economized and you can get good mileage. When you are driving through a jammed city centre, often stopping and starting, then you will burn up fuel like there is no tomorrow.

Read more

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Read More

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Some level of activity is necessary for a healthy and long life. You don’t need to become like Arnie [Palmer] or Lance [Armstrong] but you do need to get some activity and, preferably, reduce your time sitting down at a desk. One of the biggest problems with modern day exercise is that many find it to be boring and they lack the motivation to get started. This is before you even consider how many people drop out quickly after starting an exercise program. So, what are some ways to make exercise more fun?

The Best Exercise Is When You Don’t Think About It

The modern gym can be one of the worst places to exercise. You are static on a machine while your body is in motion (treadmills and exercise bicycles). Your body does not expect this and would prefer to at least have some eye-candy to keep your motivation up. Maybe this is why so many gyms now put TV screens in front of those doing workouts. Even so, this is still quite boring for many.

The best exercise is when you don’t even realize that you are working out. There is so much going on around you that you are fixated on your surroundings rather than being allowed to internalize your thoughts. Though some prefer this aspect of exercise, working out is not really a time for reflecting. You do not want to be consumed by your current thoughts – you want to be distracted by your environment. Here are a few great examples.

City Cycling

When you forget about the car, the bus or the subway and decide to get from A to B using a bicycle then you can obtain some really good workouts.

On a bicycle, it is safest to travel at considerable speed, rather than dawdling near the gutter. When the lights go green, you should accelerate fast and get up to speed quickly. Always look around and observe where traffic and pedestrians are. Be assertive, use hand signals and take ownership of your part of the road, as you are entitled to do.

When you ride like this, you’ll find yourself constantly changing the situation your body is in. One moment you may be accelerating anaerobically, another you may be traveling at a constant speed aerobically, another you may be twisting and turning and giving your back some great relief by stretching out your spine slightly.

This type of cycling burns a lot of calories because your body cannot predict what rate it will be working at and thus will keep burning its fuel (your fat) inefficiently. Also, because your eyes are on the road and everything around you, you barely even realise how hard you are pushing yourself at times until later you may find yourself catching your breath. Without the situation of your bike in its environment, you may never have otherwise have pushed yourself so hard.

Team Sports

Team sports are one of the most fun types of exercises. The first thing to say is that they are incredibly social and add a dimension to exercise that solo sports do not have.

When playing on a team, you are constantly reacting to the game situation. Your mind is on the game and you are unpredictably called into action. No two halves or quarters are ever the same. Just like with cycling, your mind is occupied on your situation and your body cannot predict what you are going to do. Hence, you burn your fuel inefficiently and, again, these sports become a great way to lose weight (if that is one of your goals).