massage

[gusl]

Today, kartiksg gave me a very painful, hopefully very therapeutic back rub. He told me that muscles "clicking" are a sign of knots.

So I have multiple knots in my back (though not as many as before Kartik started), which is apparently a common symptom in the cluster, especially among people taking "OS" (stress + sitting for a long time). I wonder if they are knots in the literal sense. Doing some Googling, I found pages on "muscle knots" / "myofascial trigger points" (1, 2), which seem to be fat, painful bits in stringy muscles. Does that picture correspond to that funny round lump next to my shoulderblade? The multimedia isn't good enough yet.

A collaborative massage group at CMU sounds like an excellent idea. Students can't afford to pay for professionals, but they can trade with other students, for significant health benefit. I'd like someone to start this club. They should make sure, when advertising, that nobody gets the wrong idea. Maybe the right way to start it would be in the context of a class: people will need each other to practice on. From there, we just have to make sure they won't go away when they graduate.

Comments

[altamira16.livejournal.com]

In Colorado, within the student health center, there was a group known as "sports medicine." I believe that they gave massages that were not very expensive with the student insurance plan.

[gwillen.livejournal.com]

significant health benefit.

I am skeptical of claimed health benefits. I think that if a group of students really does decide to claim that they know how to perform theraputic massage, the ultimate result is likely to be injury to someone.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Well, obviously masseurs should go through *some* training... and they should be clearly instructed to only try things that are safe for their skill level (i.e. an experienced masseur can do more things safely).

Another thing to consider is: how potentially serious are massage-caused injuries? (I don't know the precise answer, but it would seem to be lower than say, injuries caused by playing soccer)

[frauhedgehog.livejournal.com]

imo, if it's very painful, it's not helping you to relax the muscle.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I think you're right. The next day (yesterday), I still felt the pain of the massage. Today it's not hurting noticeably.