roystonfrederick@gmail.com

12 Jul

How massage helped me

At 34, I was a passenger in a new car that was side-swiped by a vehicle in the neighbouring lane, damaging the driver’s side door. The impact took us by surprise, but it wasn’t a significant impact — or so I thought. All I remember is my right elbow hitting the passenger door.

An hour later I was in the police station, giving a statement, when suddenly I started feeling severe shooting pain from the right side of my neck down into my hand. The doctor diagnosed me with whiplash and soft tissue damage throughout my back. I lived the next nine years in and out of pain. The pain was aggravated by poor posture, as I had a desk job and did little to no exercise. What I remember during the first two years after the accident, was that I would choose health over money any day. Read More →

08 Jul

The power of the breath

Sometime in your life you may have heard of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. To keep it simple and non-scientific the sympathetic nervous system is our fight or flight response. This part of the nervous system can induces stress, anxiety or states of depression. I think of it as never turning off the lights, electronics, and anything with power in the house. The parasympathetic nervous system on the other hand is our rest or digest system. When you meditate you are basically telling your body to relax or shift down to a lower gear like in a car or when you fall to sleep.

The objective of this post, is to show you as the reader how to do a quick meditation in order to relax your parasympathetic nervous system. Your focus is on your breath not any external influences. This easy meditation will teach you how to relieve stress in your body by consciously listening to yourself breath in and out. Most people I’ve encountered tell me that they can’t meditate because they can’t quiet their mind, or they don’t have enough time to commit to it, or they need to be more active and meditation is too slow for them. The purpose of meditation is to connect with your mind, body and spirit and by doing this you have to tune everything else out. Meditation slows your mind down relieving stress a major cause of anxiety and depression, which can lead to other forms of disease within the body. Meditation teaches you to listen to what your body needs amounts other things.

How to treat upper back pain

Do you suffer from constant neck and upper back pain at work or in the comfort of your home? This blog targets people who do office work, but is beneficial for anyone who may have muscular issues in the areas as depicted in the pictures provided to the right. I have suffered with these symptoms, both after a car accident and when I had a sedentary job in an office. As a massage therapist, I see many clients with upper back pain ranging from, thoracic outlet and carpal tunnel syndrome, shooting pains, numbness and tingling in the arm, as well as pain in the upper chest. These symptoms may be caused by anything from tense shortened muscles, subtle changes in the joints, to impinged nerves. Read More →

22 Jun

How to create a pain-free office setup

Some of us spend our days doing a lot of sitting, rather than engaging in the well-rounded physical activities our bodies were intended for. If you work in an office or at home, the videos below describe how to setup your office chair and workstation so they are ergonomic, which means they are both comfortable and prevent injury. The information will provide you with the basics on how to limit structural and mobility injuries that can affect your neck, back, chest, hips and legs.

In addition I advise my clients to do the following:

Stretch daily. This which will further limit structural and mobility issues. Simple stretching techniques can be incorporated into their daily routines.

Take breaks every 15 minutes. Anyone working on a computer should also take breaks every 15 minutes to re-adjust their eyes. Our eyes are made to continuously move, which naturally strengthens them. Such movement reduces your chances of getting headaches, migraines, and vision issues.

Benefits of Meditation

Meditation is a spiritual art that has been practiced for several millennia throughout every continent of the world. This practice is inching it’s way back from obscurity embedding it`s self into the Western culture now promoting meditation through science and medicine. This phenomenon has also presented it`s self in new age trends such as Yoga, meditation groups, spiritual retreats and the list goes on. I myself have been practicing various forms of meditation for 5 years now and it never ceases to amaze me of the power of the the breath. I have had several clients whom I’ve suggested meditation for stress, anxiety and lowering their blood pressure. I have a client in particular who came for a massage and had an elevated blood pressure. After the massage I spent 2 minutes walking her through a guided meditation and to her surprise her pressure was not only 12 points lower than it was before I started the session, but according to her the lowest it’s been in over 5 years of living with this aliment. Read More →