Shiatsu blog

Things to know about Exercise

30 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment

by Shiatsu Pete in Shiatsu

Hello Folks, I sincerely hope you are having a good festive season, with plenty of smiles and joy.

What with New Year around the corner, I thought it would be the perfect time to offer you my long promised Health & Wellbeing tip, looking at the 2nd of the Chinese Free Therapies – exercise.

The first of these therapies we looked at was Diet, which could also be very apt for this time of year. If you are planning on making changes to your diet as part of your New Year’s resolution, whether for reasons of weight loss or general health, then please read this first, as it could help you to avoid the misery of a diet, and increase the chances of you keeping up your good habits, and reduce the chances of you putting it all back on as soon as your diet ends! Just by following the simple tips I offer here, one of my clients lost 2 stone – effortlessly and painlessly.

If your resolution is anything to do with being less angry, afraid, stressed, or to be more positive, then check out the mindfulness course I am offering in January. We finished one before Christmas and one participant said “Thank you for making me a better and happier person”. Seriously, they should be teaching this in schools, and we’d all be a much happier and more productive race.

If you are looking to address other areas of your health, then perhaps you should consider booking in for a health and wellbeing session – In these hour-long sessions, we can look at physical issues either with shiatsu, a hands-on physical and energy based treatment, or through personal yoga instruction. We can also look at emotional/mental or lifestyle issues.

Or if you want a group yoga class, I start back on January 3rd, Tuesday & Thursday evenings and Saturday Mornings.
Whatever, I hope you find the following on exercise useful.

Happy New Year.

Exercise

The human body loves to move! It was designed to move, and for thousands of years that is just what it did, hunting, gathering, farming, getting water from the water hole, all very physical activities that were a necessary part of daily life. Now through technological advances, cars, machines, taps, and the comfy chair our daily lives – for the majority of us – have become much more sedentary, and this leads to a whole set of problems, obviously physical, but also impacting on our emotional and mental health.

Obviously Exercise gets our heart pumping, improving our circulation, and improves our lung capacity. It also benefits our waste disposal system – the lymphatic system. The Lymphatic system is organised very much like the circulation, but whereas our blood is pumped around the body, the lymph relies on the body movement to pump it around the body, so any toxins – from food, or drink for example – need that bodily movement to get them out.

It also very much helps to relieve stress, and should be done for this reason alone. If you ever watch ducks fight, you will see that after the fight, they flap their wings a few times, and then the go back to floating peacefully around. Contrast that to humans, say for example someone insults you: The common thing to do then is to spend the next few days telling everyone about it, quite simply we don’t let go of it. Byron Katie asks at this point, they said what they said once. You run the events through your head 20 times and each time it hurt. Who has hurt you more, you or the person who insulted you?!

One of the reason we struggle to let go so much, is that our modern lives are so stressful, in fact most people spend the majority of their lives in a state of stress. Our bodies are designed for short periods of stress, to deal with immediate dangers – our fight or flight response, and to then return to a relaxed state – much like the ducks. We spend our lives in this fight or flight state, but it is very rare that we either fight or flee – meaning the body never receives the signals to stand down, to reduce the levels of adrenaline and other stress hormones in the body, the body needs that physicality in order to let go of the stress.

In Chinese medicine, anger, frustration and repressed emotions all block the flow of the energy of our liver, and what does the liver love most – you got it exercise, either a good stretch or getting sweaty!

Ideally we would do at least 20 minutes of exercise a day, which may not be realistic in everyone’s life, but here are always opportunities if you look for them, take the stairs not the lift, walk to the shop rather than go by car – you never know what you might see or experience on the way.

So what is the best form of exercise? Very simply one you enjoy. Not only will you be more likely to carry on with it, and be more motivated to give it your all, but you actually get more benefit from it. Firstly the body releases happy-making endorphins, which are pleasurable and reinforce your desire to continue doing exercise. And secondly you are not getting frustrated and stressed. It is for this reason that I don’t recommend gyms for example. The pleasure that you get from these is all about the adrenaline rush, the actual act of being in the gym is not in itself enjoyable.

I would always recommend that people try Yoga or Tai Chi, which are very nourishing for the body, work the whole body, and are also very meditative, and the more aware you are of your body during exercise the more benefit you get, as the nervous system gets better feedback about what is going on. If these aren’t to your taste, or maybe you just want something more physical, then I would suggest swimming, dancing, sex (lots of pleasurable endorphins here!), or martial arts – again as these all work the whole body. Personally, on top of the yoga, I play football once a week, just to really get that heart pumping.

The real rule of thumb here though is, are you looking forward to the exercise itself, or just how you feel after? Really try to find something you actually enjoy!

So Remember, Enjoy!

I always welcome the feedback or questions I get from these tips, so please keep them coming. If you know someone who would be interested in receiving them, ask them to send an email to pete@authentichealth.co.uk, or sign-up to my facebook page. Pete Anderson – Health and Wellbeing

For more info on me, please visit my website www.authentichealth.co.uk

Simple Diet Tips to improve your health

13 Mar 2011 4 Comments

by Shiatsu Pete in Shiatsu

Hello, and welcome to the long awaited next health and wellbeing tip! The first in a series exploring what the Chinese refer to as the three free therapies – Diet, Exercise and Relaxation. This one looks at Diet and some simple ideas we can all use to improve our wellbeing.

Before I start though, I’d like to advertise the Yoga and Holistic show that is happening in Beeston on Saturday 26th March 2011, featuring over 15 yoga workshops, and holistic therapies and stalls. I will be there running a workshop, and also offering Shiatsu taster sessions, and I am very much looking forward to what promises to be a great day, and an exciting new venture for Nottingham.

Just to tease you I will have even more exciting news coming out in the next couple of weeks…

Diet and Health

It seems to me as though Western dietary advice tries to find a one-size-fits-all diet. But the simple fact is that we are all very different, we are born with different shape bodies, different constitutions, and we use our body in very different ways, so it makes sense that we each have unique dietary requirements. The Chinese recognised this and explored the effect of different tastes and foodstuffs, and how different foods could affect different health conditions.

To understand the foods that it would benefit you to eat more or less of, it is obviously necessary to have a full understanding of your health, which would mean a session with a knowledgeable Chinese health practitioner.

What follows however are a few general tips that can help most people to improve their eating habits and health. The focus of these tips is on helping the body to digest more efficiently, which means that we can get more nutritional value from our food, reduce any discomfort we may get from eating (eg bloating, indigestion) and reduce the amount of food that the body feels it needs to store in terms of fat. These are not weight-reducing tips, but help the body to find its natural healthy balance. By co-incidence I bumped into one of my previous clients the other day, who reported that she had lost 2 and a half stone by following these tips – no “dieting” necessary!

1. A diet you don’t enjoy is a bad diet

Eating healthily means enjoying your food. Digestion begins in the mouth and it is important to get the saliva going to begin the process of breaking down the food. If you aren’t enjoying your food, your mouth won’t be watering, so the food becomes harder for the body to process. Unfortunately this doesn’t mean eat nothing but cream cakes! Rather don’t eat bland tasteless food because it’s supposedly healthier.

2. Eating begins with the eyes

In Chinese medicine, the energy meridian relating to the stomach begins just underneath the eyes, which reflects the first stage of eating – seeing the food. This sense is part of getting the saliva flowing, so the appetizing the food looks and often the more colourful, the better the quality of the digestion.

3. Don’t work while eating

As well as distracting you from everything mentioned in points 1 & 2, it takes effort to digest food, so if you are working then you are directing your body’s energies elsewhere. Even watching TV takes your attention away from the look and taste of your food. If you can’t eat without something to distract you then some calming music is ideal.

4. The body likes routine

What the digestion really likes is to know when it will be getting food, so that it can get ready, rather than surprise attacks at a random time! As much as possible eat at the same time every day. Just this alone can make a surprising difference in terms of indigestion and weight loss. Skipping meals is especially bad, and can conversely contribute to weight-gain, as the body adopts a strategy to cope with a food shortage.

5. Eat warm foods

Our bodies need to heat up food before they can break it down, so we can make this process easier by eating warm foods. There is a lot of talk nowadays about raw food diets, and while this can be healthy in warm places such as California, we have a cold damp climate, so it is important that we eat plenty of warm food. The benefits of a raw food diet come predominately from not over-cooking, so keeping the nutrients intact. A good way to do this is to steam your vegetables. This is not to say don’t eat salads, for example, but it is better to eat salads alongside something warm. Try to avoid eating sandwiches everyday at lunchtime – many workplaces now have a microwave, so perhaps take some soup to warm up. Likewise foods like ice-cream, while it’s yummy-licious, can be very hard work for the digestion. I’m certainly not saying never eat it, but it’s better not to eat more than once (maybe twice) a week, and perhaps not the whole pot of Haagen Dazs in one sitting!

6. The importance of Breakfast

Everyone has heard the saying “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day” and yet I a large proportion of my clients regularly skip breakfast, or eat a non-nutritional breakfast.

Between your evening meal and breakfast is the longest you go without taking any food in. Between lunch and tea (or dinner to some!) is only a few hours, and many of us are very hungry by the evening. So by the time it comes to breakfast, we are “running on empty”, and draining our bodies energy stores.

Often people say that if they eat breakfast, then they are “starving” by mid-morning – this is for two reasons – firstly that the digestion is actually awake, and doing what it should. If your body is telling you it’s hungry having eaten breakfast, think how hungry it really is if you haven’t. The second is that perhaps your choice of breakfast foods is not providing you with enough nutrition.

This is the most important time to refuel, to set us up for the day, and we really want to be taking on good quality, warm food by which I mean something with protein, such as eggs or perhaps salmon for those that enjoy their luxuries! There is nothing wrong with a fry up once or twice a week. Porridge is also a good choice as oats release energy throughout the morning. Likewise Muesli is not a bad choice although something warm is preferable.

If you are someone who doesn’t feel like eating in the morning, then I suggest you slowly build up. Begin by eating something light such as yoghurt, which is easy on the stomach, but will get your body used to receiving food. And then build up to something more substantial.

So there we have it, a whistle stop tour of quick tips to help bring your body back to balance. There is an awful lot more depth to Chinese Medicine’s understanding of diet, and how it relates to an individual’s health, but I hope you try out these simples tips, and get value from them.

I always welcome the feedback or questions I get from these tips, so please keep them coming. If you know someone who would be interested in receiving them, ask them to send an email to pete@authentichealth.co.uk, or sign-up to my facebook page. Pete Anderson – Health and Wellbeing

For more info on me, please visit my website www.authentichealth.co.uk

I’ll be back soon, with an overview of exercise, so until then happy eating

Pete

A Rally call to CAM practitioners

30 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment

by tfootitt in Shiatsu

Richard Eaton encourages practitioners to make a case for Complementary & Alternative therapies http://lnkd.in/4sG9JB

How to increase your flexibility in minutes

25 Nov 2010 4 Comments

by Shiatsu Pete in Shiatsu

Welcome to another top-tastic health and wellbeing tip.

Thanks for all the feedback on the last one, great to hear about people trying it out, and that those who already knew about it enjoyed gaining an understanding of the science behind it.

Before I plough on, I’ve got a fantastic competition open to everyone on facebook. I’ve just set up a page promoting my work, and I’d appreciate your help in getting it up and running, so much so that I’m running a prize draw, in which you can win your choice of a FREE shiatsu treatment, or 4 free yoga classes, and if that prize hasn’t got you excited enough, there’s also the absolutely priceless gift of my gratitude, and the warm fuzzy feeling you’ll get from knowing you’ve helped me out! To enter the draw all you have to do is go to the page in the next week, and click on the Like button. Easy huh? Even better than that, you get a second entry into the draw if you write a short testimonial for me on the discussion page, either for my yoga classes, or for a Health and Wellbeing (Shiatsu) session.

The page is Pete Anderson – Health and Wellbeing

And remember the cut-off date is Sunday 5 December for the draw, although the offer of gratitude and fuzziness is open ended.

I’ve also had quite a few people ask me how to get involved in the basket brigade. Well the answer is simple, go to http://www.indigobrave.com/basket, and everything you need to know is there – please do get involved, it’s an amazing thing. The fundraiser on Saturday was great success – standing room only, and some great music.

So now onto the main event:

How to increase your flexibility in minutes!

This is really simple to do, but it does involve some high-tech equipment… a tennis ball! I’ll explain the science behind the magic in a moment, but first how to do it.

You need to be in either bare or stockinged feet, and you need a tennis ball.

1. Bend forward, and make a note of how far forward you’ve got, so that you can remember in a couple of minutes time.
2. Put one foot on said tennis ball, push down and then release.
3. If it hurts, good! Haha!
4. Keep doing this with the same foot, moving the ball under the foot, so you push down with all the different parts of your foot. Keep going for 1-2 minutes
5. Repeat steps 2 – 4 with the other foot.
6. Bend forward again, and compare to where you started
7. Marvel at how much further you’ve gone!

And now the science.

Throughout our bodies, we have a 3-d network of connective tissue called the fascia, that wraps around every muscle in the body. This tissue can get become stress and can hold a similar tension to a piano or guitar string. Because it’s a 3-d network, this means that a stress in the hip can have the result of pulling your shoulder down, so a tension in one place can affect all the other parts of your body.

You may have come across plantar-fascial-itis, which translates to an inflammation (-itis) of the fascia on the sole (plantar) of the foot. What we are doing is massaging the sole of the foot with the tennis ball, which is then releasing tension in the fascia, which due to it being a 3d network throughout the body, is causing us greater relaxation in the whole of our body, and therefore improved flexibility.

The more it hurts, the more you will benefit from doing this. it does stop if you keep doing it every day.

Science is only really just starting to understand the purpose of this tissue, but it is now thought to act as a communication network throughout the body, so in effect every cell of the body can communicate with every other cell, through this fascial tissue, and further speculation is that it is through this that the meridians of chi flow. So you can see, it is a really important tissue, and looking after it with this simple technique will help your health in a multitude of ways.

So give it a go!

Remember to like my facebook page and leave a testimonial for your chance to win a FREE shiatsu treatment, or 4 free yoga classes before the end of Sunday 5 December.

Enjoy getting bendy,

Pete

I always welcome the feedback or questions I get from these tips, so please keep them coming. If you know someone who would be interested in receiving them, ask them to send an email to pete@authentichealth.co.uk, or sign-up to my facebook page. Pete Anderson – Health and Wellbeing

For more info on me, please visit my website www.authentichealth.co.uk