Sierra Body Contouring Blog

I have been a massage therapist for 11 years now. I think the most rewarding gift I can give, is a massage for someone who is in need of palliative care. The ability to give someone loving touch through massage when they are in pain, are dying or are wheelchair bound is truly priceless. Throughout my massage career, I have worked with clients with terminal cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Spina Bifida, and more. I may not be able to cure them or eliminate their problems, but I can give them touch through massage. I only hope that everyone who has a need for palliative care, will have massage therapy incorporated into their care regime.

Stand up straight, don’t slouch, sit upright… sound familiar? For as long as I can remember, my parents, teachers, and other grown-ups saying this to me on a regular basis. As a massage therapist, I now understand why these comments are so important. In my massage practice, I often see people who have sore backs and necks. IN many cases, the cause of this pain and discomfort is from people not sitting straight, slouching, or not standing evenly on both feet.

Children carry backpacks loaded down with books,but they carry the backpack on one shoulder, because it is not ‘cool’ to carry the backpack properly. Women carry purses loaded down with a variety of belongings, but always carry their purse on the same shoulder. Men put their wallets in the back pocket of their jeans/pants, and always out the wallet in the same pocket. Backpacks and purses on one shoulder, and wallets in one pocket~ all of these can lead to postural imbalances, and lead to back pain. Over a period of time, the discomfort in the back, leads to discomfort in the hips and/or neck. To prevent this discomfort, encourage children to carry their backpack on both shoulders, vary the shoulder your purse is carried in, and when sitting remove the wallet from your back pocket.

Did you know that 80% of women believe that they have cellulite? Cellulite is mainly an issue for women, men don’t have cellulite because their connective tissue is different from women.

What is cellulite anyway? Cellulite is the dimpled appearance on the hips, thighs, buttocks, armpits, back of the arms and the knees.

How do you get cellulite? There are a number of causes. Poor circulation, lack of exercise, genetics (another thing to blame mom for!), lack of water, and the list goes on.

At SBC, we are always striving to find effective, non-invasive services to help people look and feel their best. Our newest service is Cellulite Reduction Therapy. Using our G5 Massage Machine, we can help reduce the appearance of cellulite! We are so excited to unveil this new service!!

Throughout my more than 11 years as a massage therapist, I have had the privilege of working with people of all ages with my youngest paying client being 5 years old, and my oldest paying client being 97 years old. Massage has benefits for every age, even premature infants! Evidence has shown that massage therapy given to premature babies facilitates weight gain, lower levels of stress hormones, increases muscle tone, shortens hospitals stays, and can improve cognitive and motor development. (Allen, 2012 Massage Today magazine). There are many massage therapists who are trained in infant massage, it is important to find a therapist that is trained and experienced with infants and premature babies.

Massage therapy has numerous benefits, from stress reduction to pain relief. But did you know that massage is beneficial to your overall health as well? Regular therapeutic massage can help strengthen your immune system, improve the overall health of your skin, help speed up the healing process if you are ill or injured, and improve homeostasis (overall well-being).

Regular massage does not mean you have to get a massage every week or every other week. A monthly or bimonthly massage will help your overall health and well-being. I have a 58 year old client who has been coming to see me on a monthly basis for 10 years. In that 10 years, he has not been sick, and he has been able to heal from injuries he has had very rapidly.

Massage is not a luxury- it is “Health for Life!”

Swedish massage is the most commonly known massage modality.  Swedish massage uses a variety of techniques to work the soft tissues of the body. Swedish massage generally uses light to medium pressure over the whole body.

Deep tissue massage focuses on the deeper muscles of the body. The techniques used for deep tissue massage are often as the massage techniques used for Swedish massage- just using more pressure.

While Swedish massage is generally a whole body treatment, deep tissue massage can often be area specific. This is especially helpful for someone who is suffering from chronic pain or has an injury.

At ‘SBC’, our clients generally prefer medium to deep pressure. So Swedish and deep tissue techniques are incorporated into every massage. As the customer, it is up to you to determine how much pressure you would like during your massage. Don’t be afraid to request more or less pressure if necessary.

Did you know that the head and face contain over 30 pairs of muscles? The muscles in our face are in almost constant motion. Smiling, frowning, squinting, swallowing, even breathing are all actions that require the muscles in our face to be active. Massage therapy is often thought to be an effective treatment for aches and pains of the body, but what about the face? Massage therapy is beneficial for the face as well.  Massage for the face can help improve muscle tone, diminishing bags under the eyes,  and help the skin develop a more youthful glow. Here at ‘SBC’ in Reno, Nevada, we have the wonderfully relaxing Bellanina Facelift Massage. It is an amazing massage treatment for the face. This massage treatment can be done on its own, or combine it with a body massage as well.

Are you looking for a way to detoxify and lose inches? A body wrap may be an effective way to do so!! At ‘SBC’, we have the Infinity wrap which is an alkaline based detoxifying wrap that helps clients detoxify, and lose inches at the same time. We had a client who has done a series of 3 wraps over the past 20 days, along with Lypossage (another of our services) and working out & eating right- she lost a total of 7 pounds and 19 inches cumulative over the whole body!!! Last week, a gentleman came in, who was having measurement tests done for the military reserve. He had to be less than 39 inches at the waist to pass his test. On Thursday before the wrap, he measured 38.25 inches, we did a wrap Thursday afternoon, and Friday morning he measured 36.5 inches!!!

As a society, we do not stretch as much as we need to, and when we do stretch we may not be getting an effective stretch. Oftentimes, this is as a result of not knowing where muscles attach. For example, in the ‘calf’ muscle, there are three muscles-gastrocnemius, soleus and plantaris. The gastrocs muscle is the closest to the surface, followed by the soleus, and then the plantaris is closest to the bone. The soleus and plantaris muscles attach below the knee, however, the gastrocs muscle attaches above the knee. If the soleus is the muscle you want to stretch then keep the knee bent, however if you want to stretch the gastrocs muscle, then the knee must be straight in order to get a full stretch.