Health Hints

In between your massage sessions, you may find the following tips helpful:

Preparation
• Loosen your collar.
• If possible, remove confining or thick garments such as jackets & sweaters.
• Center your attention before beginning.

Shrugging the Shoulders

When you shrug your shoulders, you are exercising muscles that tend to get pulled forward and hardened by tension. This tension buildup commonly occurs when you sit with your weight resting on your tailbone instead of forward over your hips. Shrugging breaks up the tension and provides a mild form of exercise that increases blood flow and restores mobility. The more you support the mobility of your shoulders, the less likely you’ll be to harbor tension there.

• Slowly lift your right shoulder straight up to your ear.     
• Slowly return your right shoulder to a neutral position.
• Repeat the lift/release movement with the left shoulder.
• Repeat the lift/release movement with both shoulders together.

Hints:

• Keep your shoulder muscles soft as you do this. Don’t force the movement.
• Don’t tilt your head toward your shoulder. Bring your shoulder up to your ear.
• Keep the opposite shoulder in a neutral or slightly dropped position and avoid hunching it as     you lift the shrugging shoulder.

Excerpted from Massage for Busy People, by Dawn Groves © 1999. Reprinted with permission of New World Library, Novato, Calif.; www.nwlib.com; toll-free ordering at 800/972-6657, ext. 52.

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Did you know . . .  the word strain comes from the Latin word meaning “to draw tight”

“Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.”    —Chinese proverb

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