The message of the massage

Rubbing and drubbing

For years, I have endured and suffered a niggling pain in my right shoulder blade, it has not been too uncomfortable, but I only had to swing my arm in a certain way to feel that sudden stab of pain that made you either gasp or groan.

However, recently, my waking moments have had that pain arrest my attention that no amount of posturing and stretching alleviated, I was beginning to accept it as a norm.

Last night, I decided to do something about it and I went online searching for locations offering deep tissue massages, but after reading up a bit about it and conjuring in my mind the idea that a 'no-hands massage' meant I could be both be elbowed and kneed in certain delicate places, I decided on the more common Swedish massage.

That muscle from another

I have had massages before, but I was more interested in the professional angle of things rather than those that purported to offer a happy ending. I settled on one that offered sports massages called My Sports Injury with the view they’ll probably know more about muscles and what to do.

Making an early appointment for 8:30 AM and paying through PayPal, I made for the clinic and met up with Ray, the therapist who was outside and probably waiting for me. Friendly and nice, he introduced himself and took me into the basement gym that had the therapy rooms.

I filled in a few forms about my health and regions where I was having muscular pain, the particular muscle I was told was the rhomboid muscles that connect up to the upper end of the vertebral column.

Stripping down to my underwear with my socks kept on, I lay face down on the massage table and as he moved my arms, I felt that stab of pain again, he provided some additional support for my arms and began to rub and knead my muscles.

Pins and needles

In our earlier consultation, he talked about acupuncture and I related an experience when I accompanied a friend to see his acupuncturist. Each needle being tapped into his back was exaggerated in my mind as a re-enactment of the crucifixion, big crooked nails being hammered into flesh with humongous mallets. That impression kept me off accessing this ancient Chinese therapy for my muscle pains.

He worked my shoulders down to my lower back before he suggested acupuncture to ease the tension in my upper back, he assured me it would not be painful. Meanwhile, he had also done some deep tissue massage that did not involve being kneed or elbowed, I was beginning to trust him.

So, I let him put in the first needle, a bit of a tinge, but no pain, and before I knew it there were 6 needles in my upper back. Then working on my lower back, he tapped in another few needles into my back and at final count, there were 16 needles in my body. All the while, we were talking about life experiences and how to approach issues, he was a listening and interested therapist.

Cups and mats

I had pictures taken of the needles because being subjected to the acupuncture therapy has never been something I would have considered ever, and here I was the literal semblance of a voodoo doll, only that I was both the doll and the target. Working down to my legs, he introduced suction cups to my calves before removing the needles, offering a final rubdown and then a few exercises on a floor mat.

One must always be open to new experiences and this was both relaxing and rejuvenating, Ray was a consummate professional with an easy and persuasively encouraging bedside manner that eased me into situations I would never have countenanced. I’ll be back for another session, a massage done by those who know what they are doing, is good. The message in the massage is, muscle, shape up.

I would never have thought I would allow this to happen to me, acupuncture, that is a story for a blog to be written later. I feel amazingly good after it. Ray was exceptional, professional and just the best.

A post shared by Akin Akintayo (@instaforakin) on May 27, 2017 at 2:15am PDT

 

Holiday Snaps: A Turkish Scrub

Try Turkey

Turkey is a country of many things and for any visit to Turkey you are expected to try a number of things like authentic Turkish delight, baklava; an overly sweet dessert, Turkish coffee, a Turkish bath, raki; an alcoholic beverage amongst many things, this list not being exhaustive by any chance.

Today, it was the Turkish bath though I was not sure of the kind of massage I would receive from the benign oil massage to the muscular type that had a naval officer of seriously manly bulk off HMS Illustrious think he had been mugged.

So, on getting to the Turkish bath, I was advised to put all my things in a locker and putting on a geometrical print towel I first made for the sauna.

Prankish silliness

After 15 minutes by the hour-glass I moved to the bath house where a number of patrons were in prankish abandon having been covered in foam and wearing silly hats has pictures taken in the silliest of poses – I could find no mirth or humour in that apart from the public setting of the place.

I was asked to lie down on a marble slap and I got scrubbed down with a sponge that exposed the fact that the medicinal qualities of a mud bath did not include any cleansing ability.

I was amazed at the kind of oily grime mixed with exfoliated dead skin that came off every part of my scrubbed being, I could barely look at the stuff but it was a relief to see that there was some benefit to the scrub.

After a wash-down, foam was applied through the technique of soaking a pillow case in soapy water, this was then aerated with a billowing shake through the air and with the open end closed the inflated pillowcase was rubbed along the body with the expelled air coming out of the body of the pillow case creating lots of foam. I refused the pleasure of being photographed in a less than decent pose.

Tools to the pedicure

My Turkish bath deal included an oil massage with optional extras, I decided on the pedicure, it was the first time my feet had received any non-medical treatment after I had cancer. I did inform the man in charge that my feet were the state they were because of cancer and he did not think that was a problem.

At first the dry skin was filed, scraped, cut, shaved and picked off, he has a filer, pliers, scissors, special shaving stick and sandpaper; my soles are full of the colour of medical condition, but the pedicurist was not fazed by any of that as he worked on both feet. My left foot was somewhat tender after he started working on it.

Garra rufa fish

Then, reclining in a deck chair a mud screen was applied to the feet and left to dry after which they were washed and then I put my feet in an aquarium of Garra rufa fish [1] (Cyprinion macrostomus) which are supposed to feed off dead skin just as bed bugs do their thing, though they were quite ticklish at first, the effect was soothing.

It appears to be a sort of health craze and now I read that there might be some health consequences for such treatment though some anecdotal evidence points to its therapeutic effects for those suffering from psoriasis.

The 20-minute nibbling lead to a foot massage and then an oil massage, it was all refreshing though not as dramatic as I expected it to be, but I can say I have been to a Turkish bath too and feel the better for it.

Sources

[1] Doctor fish - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia