Day 192 - Mechanical (8 Days Left)

A couple weekends ago, it was time to change the toilet seat. Exciting, right?
Upon attempting to remove the nut from the bottom of the seat, I found it was extremely tight - I couldn't even budge it with just my fingers. I had to go to my handy-dandy tool box and get my pliers, which ended up working just fine.
In tonight's anatomy class, we studied the reason why the pliers worked when just my fingers didn't: it all had to do with the lever system. We studied the differences between the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class levers and how they relate to every day life and also to the body, specifically muscles and bones. We even did a little math, learning the formula for figuring out force needed to be effective in each lever class.
I actually enjoyed it, once I started understanding what we were talking about. I sometimes wonder if I'm mechanically inclined. But then I think about all the grease on the car and how dirty I would get and decide that, no, I'm not mechanically inclined.

Day 14 - Let Your Fingers Do the Walking

When I signed up for the classes, I had been told that two nights were lecture and two nights were bodywork. During this section, however, we have been doing a little lecture each night and bodywork three nights, maybe even four. Trust me, I am not complaining. Not at all. One night a week, we've been learning about First Aid and the other nights are lecture/bodywork.
In last night's lecture, we learned about "fleshing" - which is when bodyworkers work toward putting muscles in the place where they are supposed to be.
For the bodywork session, we learned how to use a new tool: fingers. This tool can get into specific areas where forearms, fists, and knuckles may not be able to get to. It's also the tool that will tire out the most easily, as I found out. Also for this tool, fingernails are a bad thing. For this type of work, I have too much fingernail. I never thought I would hear myself say that. My piano teacher had to always remind the other girls in my class to cut their nails...never me. I usually chewed on mine. And they never really grew anyway.
Oh, sorry. Sidebar.
I went first on the table and my partner practiced using his fingers on my neck, back, arms, and legs the way Molly had demonstrated on one of the TA's, Jenna. I nearly fell asleep in the prone position - on my stomach. Before I knew it, it was time to switch up and I began working on my partner. With him in the supine (on his back) position, I worked on his neck muscles, a little neck massage, arms, legs, and then had him turn over. While I was working on his legs, he seemed very comfortable and as I continued, I checked in with him, and realized that I had to wake him up. I think the drool gave it away. I guess I was doing a pretty good job.
Before I knew it, it was time to clean up the room and go home. Because the class is so awesome, I don't always realize how late we are there, until I get home and have to go to bed because I need to be up in six hours for work the next day. It doesn't seem to matter because I know that I'm learning bunches and having fun while doing it!
Another benefit to having a nice little (ok - long) drive to get there is that I can put on my hands-free headset for my phone and chat away with my husband, mom, sister, and friends. I spend probably about half the time on the phone and then try to enjoy some music. Nice bit of "me" time.

Day 13 - No More Tears

Chopping onions is no fun. There are tears. It can ruin make-up for the rest of the day. On more than one occasion, I've had to walk away from the kitchen to get my eyes to dry.
In this session, we learned about "Peeling the onion," a process by working on the top layers of muscle to loosen them allows the bodyworker to get to deeper layers.
I believe I found out about this last Friday night, as I worked on my nephew's back. Since he's a bodybuilder, he's got all sorts of muscle and he's a tough guy, so I knew that I could really put my weight into his muscles. He had several knots between his shoulder blades that I was enjoying digging into with my elbow. He even seemed to enjoy it. I worked on him for at least an hour and he was pretty much jelly when I was done.
In class, we also learned a little bit about SOAP notes - a method of keeping notes about each client we work on so that we know where we've been and where we're going with the work we do on them. It has nothing to do with hygeine, but rather an acronym for the words "Subjective, Objective, Action, and Plan." We'll learn more about that later.
For the bodywork portion of the evening, we learned how to use the knuckles as a more specific tool to get down into muscules and then we got to work on a partner. My partner got to work on me, and focus on my quads, where I seem to be holding a lot of tightness. I reciprocated and worked on him, focusing on his hamstrings and back. Man, I love this stuff!
Outside of class, last week, I found out that a position was open in the Frederick office at the company where I work, and I had applied for it. I got the great news yesterday that I got it and will be starting to work in Frederick beginning next Monday! I'll be much closer to my home and won't have to deal with the awful commuter traffic going to Montgomery County. What a blessing!

Day 12 - Meet You in the Quad

I think every college has one - a Quad. A central place on campus where students meet, hang out, play football, frisbee, or whatever else. I seem to remember at least walking through the quad to get to class or the dining hall on the beautiful Salisbury State University campus - which is now known as Salisbury University. On occasion, I met up with friends there, but I'm pretty sure I never played frisbee or football.
I'm also pretty sure that there were meetings going on in my quads before last night. Quadriceps, that is. Without knowing it, my muscles that run from the knees to the hips must have formed a HUGE knot. I had felt something like lumpiness above my knee, but didn't think all that much about it.
For the lecture, we went over some concepts about working on muscles on both sides of a joint to get optimal benefit from the massage. For the bodywork section, we learned how to use the forearm and elbow as the "tool" to work the muscles. Using these "tools," no matter the size of the massage therapist, he/she can get into some deep tissue by using body weight. Molly demonstrated on one of the Teacher's Assistants (TA's) and then we changed clothes and got to work on our partner for the evening.
As I worked on my partner, Jenna, she had a Somatic Emotional Release! She started laughing and giggling and she couldn't figure out why. We got to see our first release. I even raised my arms in the "triumph" celebratory move that I was the bodyworker who did it! I continued with the deep tissue structural work with my forearms, elbows, and fists, working on moving muscle and breaking up knots that I found in her back.
Then - it was my turn. She began the work with me in the supine position - which is on my back - and dug her forearm into my quad, working down from the hip to the knee. I thought I was going to jump up from the table! On the pain scale of one to ten, I was definitely at a seven. She could feel the muscle moving underneath her forearm and I felt like my skin was folding over, and in reality, it was the muscle. That was the first leg. Then, she moved to my other leg. I was definitely coming off the table then with the pain shooting up to an eight and a nine. Knowing that it's good for me, I stayed on the table.
She worked on the rest of what we were assigned - back of the legs and the back. By the time I got off the table, my legs were seriously loosened up and I didn't feel as much tightness or lumpiness above my knees anymore. Wow!
Now I would like to really get these quads worked out, I know there's more in there.
When I got home, my husband was actually awake, and I got to show him a little of what we've been learning in class...the deep tissue structural work. He wasn't expecting that - he was thinking more of the fluffy stuff. He yelped a little bit and told me his pain level was at about a five. So I put more weight into it, being the good wife I am. Does he really know what he's in for as my guinea pig?

Day 10 - Sweet Emotion

Any Arrowsmith fans out there? I'd say that I know their more popular stuff, like the song "Angel" or "Sweet Emotion." I think of the song "Sweet Emotion" when I think about the lecture time of class from last night, as we learned about "Somatic Emotional Release" or SER. The body stores emotional memories and sometimes during a massage therapy session, the body releases those memories and may cause a reaction, such as crying, laughing, sadness, and whatever else.
During the class, I understood why I felt the way I did during a Swedish massage I received while on vacation in Florida this past March. The past year, well, even couple years, have been a draining emotional roller coaster, dealing with illness and deaths in the family, loss of a job, and all the stress that comes along with those life events. While receiving the massage, I didn't start crying, but came very close to it because of all that bottled up emotional energy and baggage I'd been carrying around. It was also after that massage that I became fascinated with the healing and feel-good benefits of massage and what ultimately led me to pursue this mid-life career change and education needed for it.
So, if you're on the table, receiving an awesome massage and all of the sudden you start crying, it's ok. You're not crazy. You're not an emotional mess. You're human.
After the lecture, we learned some more deep-tissue structural techniques, using the fist as our tool of choice. And more practice. :-)
During the practice session, Molly, the instructor, expressed some concern about my body mechanics - the way I hold my body while performing the massage. I will need to concentrate more on making sure to take care of myself while taking care of the person on whom I'm working.
Have I mentioned that I love this class?