Me-Care Wednesday: Hot/Cold Therapies

Aches, pains, and inflammation can often be helped by alternating hot and cold therapies.  A few are fairly easy to do at home.  Remember to alternate at 20-minute intervals...beyond that the body starts trying to self-regulate and you essentially negate your efforts.

The Rice Sock
A rice sock is easy to make--simply fill a sock or stocking with rice and tie a knot in the end.  Make two and you can keep one in the freezer and use the other in the microwave (1-2min depending on your microwave).  Nuked rice socks provide a moist heat and drape nicely around the neck and shoulders.

River Rocks
Most hot stone massages utilize smooth basalt rocks.  Personally, I find they are too hot on the surface initially, and then they cool of quicker than anticipated.  I like using river rocks because they seem to disperse their cold/heat evenly and consistently.

So what do you do after you locate some river rocks to use for hot and cold therapies?  First, give them a good scrubbing with soap, water, and a scrub brush and then allow them to dry thoroughly.  You can keep a couple of clean stones in the freezer to use for cryotherapy, and you can warm up a couple of clean stones in a crockpot of water or on the stovetop.  Always wrap your stone in a thin towel before applying to your skin, just like you would for an ice pack or a heating pad.  Place on the desired area, or lay on top of it so your body can relax over it.

Places I like to place hot or cold stones?  For a full-body treatment I like to have stones at the neck (especially the scalenes), shoulders, pecs, hands, (sometimes elbows depending on client), sacrum, lumbar region, rhomboids, (sometimes teres), inguinals, greater trochanter, both sides of the knees, foot arches, and slim pebbles between each toe.  ...Now I'm tempted to load up my crockpot with stones!

When you're done with your stones, be sure to give them another good scrubbing to keep them clean.


What are your favorite ways to apply heat or cold to your aches and pains?

-JS

Me-Care Wednesday: Tennis Ball Self-Care

A little spot of self-care you can do for yourself between massages is to utilize a tennis ball.  Simply place the ball between the wall and yourself and roll along it.  This method works great for shoulder tension (trapezius, rhomboids, etc)!  Raquetballs and others don't work as well, the tennis ball has just the right blend of strength and give to be effective.

You can moderate the pressure you utilize with the tennis ball so it works best for you.  Remember on a pain scale of 1-10 (7 being that involuntary gasp of "OH!") you want to be around a 5 or 6 for trigger points, where it's a "good hurt."  You can hold that spot until it releases, which sometimes takes quite a bit of time, or just give it a spot of affection and move on.

Tennis balls can also be helpful by laying on them on a bed or couch so your muscles can relax over the ball.  The mattress or couch cushion generally give enough that the ball isn't jabbing into you.

For feet, simply roll the tennis ball between your foot and the floor.  Easy-peasy to do while watching your favorite tv show or movie!

-JS

Epsom Baths

This past weekend we finished our chicken coop.  While the tale of that adventure belongs on our homeschooling blog, or the microfarm blog we have yet to start, the self-care I need to do because of it belongs here.

So, what do you do when you've installed nearly 1,000 staples with a $10 staple gun, contorted your torso in positions only seen in Cirque du Soleil, knelt too long, and used a circular saw with improper body mechanics one too many times?  You soak.

Preferably in a deep tub with some epsom salts.  However, if you're like me and feel that it is too much effort to clear off the garden tub, clean it from lack of use, and wait forever for it to fill decently since its design is poorly executed, you can opt for a regular tub with epsoms.  Now, if the regular tub requires too much effort to scour because you haven't been keeping on your children about their non-daily chores, you can opt for the glorious footbath.  A little wash tub (or dish pan), a little water, a little epsom salts--you can be doing your body some good while reading, paying bills, feeding the baby, watching tv, facebooking, playing sudoku, instructing your children, or blogging.  Less effort, less water, less clean-up, less hassle.

And if you're willing to put forth the effort to carry it out there, you could even water part of your garden with it once you're done!

I discuss footbaths further in my Basic Self-Care workshops.

-JS