The lymphatic system is a network of tissues and organs that help rid the body of toxins, waste and other unwanted materials. A major part of the body's immune system, the primary function of the lymphatic system is to transport lymph, a fluid containing infection-fighting white blood cells, throughout the body.   Lymph itself is a clear-to-white fluid made up of white blood cells, especially lymphocytes, the cells that attack bacteria in the blood and a fluid from the intestines called chyle, which contains proteins and fats   Lymphatic massage encourages healthy lymph flow and has a number of benefits..

For gyms, January and February are some of the busiest weeks of the year. 12% of new gym memberships come in January come by percentage, but it actually represents about a 33-50% increase in volume. The second week of January is almost always the busiest of the year. 80% of the New Year's Resolutions crowd drops off by the second week of February.   One of the main reasons, other than scheduling, that people stop going to the gym is the stiffness and pain that your body feels when first experiencing a novel exercise.    Delayed onset muscle soreness, or..

Tui na massage is a form of massage used in traditional Chinese medicine and is regularly used alongside modern medical techniques to treat a range of conditions, from diarrhea to short-sightedness.   The term tui na, which is pronounced "twee naw" translates literally to  "pinch and pull." Unlike other forms of massage, tui na is not used to for relaxation, but rather to redirect disharmonious patterns of qi, or “chi”, in the body, as defined by traditional Chinese medicine.   In a manner similar to acupuncture,  tui na is used to harmonize yin and yang in the body by manipulating..

One-half of all working Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year. Back pain accounts for more than 264 million lost workdays in one year, that's two work days for every full-time worker in the country. Experts estimate that up to 80% of the population will experience back pain at some time in their lives.   Do more than a cursory Google search into this common issue and you will quickly be bombarded with three widely held truths, back pain is due to poor posture, poor core strength, or structural abnormalities, such as bulging discs.   Unfortunately, as with..

Approximately,85 percent of all American adults will experience some form of back pain during their lifetime and lower back pain remains one of the leading causes of job disability in the world. The most common form of prescribed relief from lower back pain is opioid pain relievers. In the United States, opioid prescription for low back pain has increased, and opioids are now the most commonly prescribed drug class and rates of opioid prescribing in the US and Canada are two to three times higher than in most European countries. However, in the face of rising concerns about the use..

We all know that sitting slouched over at our desks is bad for our bodies, but, at the end of the day, your desk is where you work and most of us don’t have the option of leaving that behind. To help you keep supple and avoid some of the common back and neck complaints suffered by office workers, here are four simple and easy to do yoga poses you can do at your work desk. Seated Crescent Moon Pose One of the most common issues with spending hours sat at a desk is that your side body tends to..

Hitting the gym is an excellent way to improve your health, with plenty of benefits to both your physical and mental wellness. However, with the rise in popularity of workout activities such as powerlifting and CrossFit training, people are putting more stress on their body than ever before.    Protein, stretching and hydration are all recognized parts of an effective warm-down after strenuous exercise, but there is one thing that people often miss that can have a significant impact on your muscles ability to heal and repair, deep tissue massage.   In this article, we will be looking at the..

If you say you feel “tight” in a particular area, that might mean several different things. You might have a poor range of motion or maybe your range of motion is fine, but the movement to the end range feels uncomfortable or takes excess effort.   Or maybe the problem isn’t really with movement, but just that the area never reels feels relaxed. Or maybe the area feels basically relaxed but has some vague sense of discomfort, a feeling that is unpleasant but too mild to be called pain.   This ambiguity means that the feeling of tightness is just..

Massage therapy has, rightly, gained traction in the medical community recently as research show sit can have a beneficial effect on patients suffering from a range of maladies, from cancer to depression.   However, as a species, we have been employing massage therapy for over 400 thousand years, with our ancestors using it to treat many of the same things we treat today. The first written records of massage being used for medical and treatment purposes were written by some of the world’s oldest civilizations, the Egyptians and the Chinese. So, to get a better idea of how our ancestors..

Tennis elbow is a condition that is not usually anything to do with tennis, most sufferers of tennis elbow have probably not been near a tennis racket since school! Tennis elbow is, in fact, the term for a condition known clinically as lateral epicondylitis.   Pain is felt around the outside of the elbow, around the outside of the upper forearm and is most keenly felt when lifting or bending the arm. People with tennis elbow may also have difficulty in gripping and twisting the forearm - such as holding pens or opening a jar or turning handles, they may..