Sep
5
2023
Soft Tissue Release by Jane Johnson
Soft Tissue Release is a clear, concise, and practical book that guides you in understanding and applying the three types of soft tissue release (STR): passive (clients do not help), active assisted (clients and therapists work together), and active (clients do it on their own). Rather than focus on the specific purposes of soft tissue release, this text provides basic information about the therapy and prepares readers to perform the techniques. The result is a text that professionals and students in massage therapy, physiotherapy, and osteopathy will find invaluable.
Soft Tissue Release thoroughly explains the differences between the three types of STR by providing step-by-step descriptions on performing each type along with the key holds, moves, and stances for various muscles. The descriptions are accompanied by handy reference charts indicating the types of clients and situations in which each technique is particularly useful. Complete instructions explain how to apply STR to various parts of the body—the trunk, the lower limbs, and the upper limbs—and detail the advantages and disadvantages of each technique. Numerous full-color photos depict the locks and stretches.
This book is available from: http://www.terrarosa.com.au/book/soft_tissue_release.htm
Sep
5
2023
Women undertaking a ten week program of 75 minute Restorative Yoga (RY) classes gained positive differences in aspects of mental health such as depression, positive emotions, and spirituality (feeling calm/peaceful) compared to the control group. The study, published February 28 in a special issue of Psycho-Oncology focusing on physical activity, shows the women had a 50% reduction in depression and a 12% increase in feelings of peace and meaning after the yoga sessions.
RY is a gentle type of yoga which is similar to other types of yoga classes, moving the spine in all directions but in a more passive and gentle way. Props such as cushions, bolsters, and blankets provide complete physical support for total relaxation with minimal physical effort, and so people in differing levels of health can practice yoga more easily.
44 women took part in the study, with 22 undertaking the yoga classes and 22 in the waitlist control group. All of the women had breast cancer; 34% were actively undergoing cancer treatment while the majority had already completed treatment. All participants completed a questionnaire at the beginning and end of the ten week program, asking them to evaluate their quality of life through various measures. The results clearly showed that the women who had been given the RY classes experienced a wide range of benefits compared to the control group (who were later all invited to attend identical RY classes).
“Evidence from systematic reviews of randomized trials is quite strong that mind-body therapies improve mood, quality of life, and treatment-related symptoms in people with cancer. Yoga is one mind-body therapy that is widely available and involves relatively reasonable costs,” said lead researcher Suzanne Danhauer, Ph.D., based at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. “Given the high levels of stress and distress that many women with breast cancer experience, the opportunity to experience feeling more peaceful and calm in the midst of breast cancer is a significant benefit.”
The study found that women who started with higher negative emotions and lower emotional well-being derived greater benefit from the gentle yoga intervention compared to the control group. Women in the gentle yoga group also demonstrated a significant within-group improvement in fatigue, while no such change was noted for the control group.
“This was a pilot study to identify the worthiness and feasibility of conducting a larger randomized control trial on restorative yoga and women with breast cancer,” added Danhauer. “Our results are very promising and will allow us to embark on a much larger scale study.”
Wiley-Blackwell (2009, March 2). Yoga Provides Emotional Benefits To Women With Breast Cancer. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 3, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/02/090224230707.htm
Sep
5
2023
Research on massage therapy for maternal pain and anxiety in labour is currently limited to four small trials. Each used different massage techniques, at different frequencies and durations, and relaxation techniques were included in three trials. Given the need to investigate massage interventions that complement maternal neurophysiological adaptations to labour and birth pain(s), we designed a pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) to test the effects of a massage programme practised during physiological changes in pain threshold, from late pregnancy to birth, on women’s reported pain, measured by a visual analogue scale (VAS) at 90 min following birth. To control for the potential bias of the possible effects of support offered within preparation for the intervention group, the study included 3 arms – intervention (massage programme with relaxation techniques), placebo (music with relaxation techniques) and control (usual care). The placebo offered a non-pharmacological coping strategy, to ensure that use of massage was the only difference between intervention and placebo groups. There was a trend towards slightly lower mean pain scores in the intervention group but these differences were not statistically significant. No differences were found in use of pharmacological analgesia, need for augmentation or mode of delivery. There was a trend towards more positive views of labour preparedness and sense of control in the intervention and placebo groups, compared with the control group.
These findings suggest that regular massage with relaxation techniques from late pregnancy to birth is an acceptable coping strategy that merits a large trial with sufficient power to detect differences in reported pain as a primary outcome measure.
Sep
5
2023
Attention office workers, couch potatoes, and other sedentary people: reduce your time spent sitting by getting up and using your muscles more regularly throughout the day, says Dr. Genevieve N. Healy.
Breaks from sedentary activity appear to complement the health benefits gleaned from other types of physical activity. Moreover, Healy told Reuters Health, “a break could be as simple and light in intensity as standing and stretching.”
Healy, from the University of Queensland, in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues measured the non-sleeping sedentary and active time of 168 Australian adults to determine whether taking breaks might impact their weight and metabolism. The subjects were participants in the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle study, but did not have diabetes.
This healthy group, who ranged in age from 30 to 87 years, kept an activity diary and wore an accelerometer during all waking hours for 7 days, the researchers report in Diabetes Care. The accelerometer, worn firmly around the trunk, measured the duration, type, and intensity of physical activity in counts per minute.
The researchers considered accelerometer counts of less than 100 per minute as sedentary periods, and counts of 100 or greater as active time. Light-intensity activity was from 100 to 1951 per minute and counts more than 1951 were periods of moderate-to-vigorous activity.
Overall, participants spent 57, 39, and 4 percent of their waking hours in sedentary, light-intensity, and moderate-to-vigorous intensity activity, respectively. On average, their breaks lasted less than 5 minutes, with accelerometer counts of 514 per minute.
They found that the number of breaks from sedentary activity positively correlated with lower waist circumference, lower triglycerides, and lower 2-plasma glucose scores.
Further studies should examine the physiological and metabolic responses in larger groups of people during prolonged periods of sitting and regular interruptions with short bouts of activity, Healy added.
http://prelive.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23516594-36398,00.html
