Massage Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Renu Massage, Energy & Bodywork in Madison

How Massage Relieves Chronic Pain

manual medical massage - releasing the fascia

Chronic pain seems to be so prevalent these days. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, about 80 percent of adults experience low back pain at some point in their lives. Sometimes the pain goes away on its own, other times it lingers and becomes a chronic condition (defined as persisting for 12 weeks or longer), and many people have to deal with chronic pain for years (myself included!).

While there are many potential causes of the initial pain, it often can become a chronic condition because of the fascial restrictions that result from an injury. What is fascia? Fascia is the connective tissue in your body beneath the skin that attaches and stabilizes muscles and internal organs. There are several layers of fascia, which include your muscular and visceral tissues. It looks like a spider’s web or a sweater, and it is a continuous structure throughout your body, so everything is connected!

Restrictions can occur in fascia from every day activities and the regular stressors we all experience, which usually are easily worked out with exercise, stretching, yoga and regular bodywork. All of these provide a very healthy maintenance system for your musculoskeletal system, and we all probably need to take better care of our bodies.

Restrictions will absolutely occur after any kind of trauma or injury, and these are the kinds of protections that your fascial system tends to hold on to in an effort to guard against repeated injury. This is especially common with low back pain — there could be nothing structurally wrong in a low back, but tightness in the surrounding muscles or fascia will result in chronic pain anyway. Massage is a great way to alleviate that pain. How?

It takes time to retrain the fascial system to not behave defensively and let the body return to its normal activities; it’s as if your fascia has a memory of the injuring trauma and goes into protective mode. Then it likes to stay in that mode. Protective mode tends to mean tightness and being “on guard,” which then promotes more adhesions or other restrictions in the tissue, which limits blood flow and oxygen, which results in pain. Massage retrains that system over time, because our muscles and most of our fascia are retrainable, which is great news!

For chronic pain, it is important to work through the muscles and other fascia to release the adhesions and retrain those tissues. Exercises and stretching can be very helpful too, if you consult with a physical therapist or a personal trainer with experience in the issues you are experiencing. And of course if anything structural is a problem, then a chiropractor visit would be in order.

But before seeing all kinds of specialists, often it’s enough to just get some regular massage and bodywork from a licensed massage or bodyworker therapist. This can be enough to alleviate the restrictions and let the muscles both get to know and also embrace a new normal. Sometimes the fascial restrictions can also contribute to a structural misalignment because the muscles are so used to being in an incorrect position, and they prefer to stay how they are.

Your massage therapist is also able to detect when massage alone isn’t doing the job and will recommend other avenues to explore. So before you see that chiropractor, do your body a favor and get a massage first!

September 3, 2024/by Heidi

Body Treatments, Cupping Therapy, Healthy Living, Massage, Natural Remedies, Pain Relief

Back Pain from Gardening? Cupping Can Help!

Tis the season to be out in the yard. And it is oh so hard on our backs. For those of us with chronic joint issues like EDS, it can also destabilize the pelvis which then results in all kinds of other pain from hip to knee to feet.

If you experience chronic pain, you probably have an assortment of caregivers who help manage it all, from chiropractors to acupuncturists and/or physical therapists. Massage and cupping therapy should definitely be part of that mix if it’s not already. You’re missing the opportunity to nip a pattern in the bud before it sets in, between your other care visits.

Massage will definitely help, but cupping therapy will provide the most relief the fastest, and is more effective at preventing those patterns from setting in and requiring more effort (and visits) to correct.

I speak from experience, and cupping therapy has been a game changer yet again for me while I wait for my PT appointment later this month.

Haven’t tried it yet? Now is the perfect time and season to give it a go! All our therapists are trained in it.

June 3, 2024/by Heidi

Healthy Living, Massage, Natural Remedies

Invigorate Yourself This Spring

Massage therapy is relaxing, but a lot of bodywork can also be invigorating. Even if you prefer the most relaxing session you can possibly achieve, you’ll be investing that restorative time into your wellbeing which will serve you at a later time. Let yourself enjoy those quiet moments so we can fully engage as things gear up with Spring and Summer weather.

How do you best de-stress?

Introverts need quiet time. Extroverts need time with others. What fuels you beyond those basics? Music? Watching the birds, bunnies, and other animals doing their thing in nature? Staring out at the lake? Playing with your own companion animlas? Be sure to take time for what fuels you. Regularly.

Massage is an integral part of caring for your body, mind, and spirit. Many of us with chronic pain need it for regular maintenance to be able to do the things we want to do, and many more people would benefit from regular massage than usually realize it.

If you only get a massage a couple times per year, you would definitely improve your overall health with monthly sessions. We’ve got wellness programs designed to incentivize your commitment to your own health and well-being. Whether Reiki, massage, cupping, or a combination of the three, you will be glad you made the effort to take care of yourself first so you can better care for others.

April 22, 2024/by Heidi

Body Treatments, Craniosacral Therapy, Healthy Living, Massage, Natural Remedies, Renu's History

Welcome Zhanna!

Announcing our newest team member - Zhanna! We’re so thrilled to welcome her, and we think you will all love her work. Zhanna was trained in massage therapy at East-West Healing Arts (as were the rest of us), so eastern therapeutic techniques are incorporated into Zhanna’s massage sessions, using meridians and acupressure.

Zhanna is also trained in Craniosacral Therapy (CST) from the Upledger Institute, and she really has a passion for this work. This is hands on, unlike reiki, but it is also unlike a massage. CST incorporates gentle pressure, focusing on the Craniosacral system and fascial system of the body. Clients stay clothed for CST work.

In addition, Zhanna is a licensed esthetician, and we may add those services in the near future. Zhanna has limited availability this summer, and we plan to add more days and hours starting in the Fall.

We hope you’ll book a session with Zhanna and see why we’re so excited to have her on the team!

June 29, 2022/by Heidi

Healthy Living, Massage, Renu's History

Announcing Renu’s 10th Anniversary

Just over 10 years ago, Heidi graduated from East-West Healing Arts Institute and completed the purchase of what is now Renu Massage, Energy & Bodywork. Such a transformation has taken place! Here’s a walk down memory lane for Heidi, and a brief history of Renu for everyone else.

Couples Massage Room at Renu’s First Location

In December 2011, Heidi graduated from a local massage school and also learned Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupressure, and cupping therapy. The purchase of a 3-year old massage business was also completed that month - it was a crazy time! The business had the former owner’s name in it, so in 2012 when we rebranded and changed the domain name, business just… tanked. Heidi thought there would be enough regular clients to make it through that transition, but sadly that didn’t happen. Renu was in the basement of an office building on Odana, and it had a much different feel than it would once we left that space. Within 9 months of ownership, all the therapists either quit or were let go - both because of the decrease in business and also due to some resistance to the changes Heidi wanted to implement. It had originally had lots of spa-type services, drawing lots of one-time clients, and Heidi wanted a more therapeutic-based business that had a lot of loyal regulars.

Nature's Pathways Cover July 2013 - Heidi and cupping therapy

Heidi was featured in Nature’s Pathways

So we really did begin anew in mid-2012. Heidi learned the hard way to be picky in hiring - after taking the first available applicants too quickly! And that obviously didn’t work out. It took some time to build a team that would be a good fit - most of those therapists have been grads of East-West as well. Since building the team after rebranding, Renu has had a very low turnover in therapists. We find those who are a good fit, and they stick around.

It was at our first location that we were featured on the cover of Nature’s Pathways - what an exciting time that was! Heidi was still working as a massage and cupping therapist, and the magazine did a great job of showcasing the uniqueness of cupping therapy. (And I still love how my shirt matches the font color!) That was 2013, and we stayed in that first space for another year.

Olga joined us in November 2013 - and is still with us! Olga keeps expanding her skills and is excellent at all of her endeavors; we are very lucky to have her on our team.

Amanda joins our team at the Normandy location

Renu’s front door in the office building on Normandy Ln

The team-building continued as we moved into an above-ground office space on Normandy - right next door to East-West! Renu was there from 2014 through 2020. It was a much brighter space that felt more like the energy of our team, and it really worked well for us, except for a few recurring issues. But it was a bit hard for some people to find us there. Heidi would dream of one day having an actual store front with all the visibility that entails, but she also really liked that it was a small business with a great team and great clients, and was content to keep it that way.

Amanda joined Renu in September 2016, and has worked closely with Heidi in shaping the direction Renu has taken over the years since then. Amanda is invaluable in so many ways, and clients love their work as well.

Couples massage room at the Normandy location

The five and a half year lease went by so quickly at the Normandy location! Heidi thought about perhaps looking around about a year before renewal was due - there were a few issues at Normandy that were less than ideal, but it was otherwise a really good space for us.

Then someone from Greenway Station reached out to Heidi in late 2019 - thinking Renu would be a great fit for an available space. Serendipitous? The square footage and layout did seem just right. Heidi doubted Renu was in a position to pay the requested rent, and sure enough… there was no way. But Greenway Station was willing to negotiate, and very eager to have us there. It was the most perfect rent negotiation because the whole time, Heidi didn’t expect it to go through and was very transparent; not at all embarrassed by Renu’s small business stature. And that resulted in a deal that worked for both parties. Voila - excitement ensues!

Then… pandemic. We shut down for three and a half months in 2020. We had barely any clients when we reopened in the Normandy space.

So now what? After a few months of being in a circular and anxiety-producing decision-making process, Heidi and the Greenway Station rep talked again, and the rep once again had good ideas to resolve the things that were causing the most anxiety about moving during a pandemic.

Our first store front space!

So we went ahead and moved at the end of August 2020. We repainted, repaired, and made the space our own. Business was still pretty minimal until May 2021, when vaccines were more prevalent, and we are once again making ends meet on a monthly basis. We needed lots of grants, loans, and other sources of funding to get us through 15 months of minimal revenues, but we are making it! And the visibility of the new space has already made such a difference and is helping us recover. It will take a long while to rebuild after all those losses, but the path looks good to do just that.

So great to have our own signage!

Being in Middleton has led to joining the Middleton Chamber of Commerce, which is a very active and fun group! This has been such a great move for Renu, and we’re all excited to see where things progress once things become more normal again. Heidi hopes and plans to grow Renu - with the right team members of course - to have more support staff onsite now that we’re in a storefront. As of now, we’re still operating under the model that Renu has had from the beginning - the therapists do the check in’s, check out’s, and the bodywork, and we don’t accept walk-in’s.

Heidi hopes that will change sooner than later once we get past Omicron and hopefully get to a point where Covid-19 is endemic and much less dangerous. We’ve kept and will continue to keep all the safety protocols we put in place in 2020.

Rosalinda at the front desk with cups

Brian in one of our treatment rooms at the new space

What a journey it has been! Heidi is so thankful for Olga, Amanda, Brian & Rosalinda - such a wonderful team of therapists. Brian joined us in February 2019, and Rosalinda in January 2020. Both of them started here as a very part-time side gig, and they’ve each developed their own loyal following.

We will be looking to expand our team, perhaps as soon as this Spring or Summer. We’re not in a rush, but we lost a few people during the pandemic that we don’t expect will return.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a fan of someone at Renu. If you know of any other licensed massage and/or cupping therapists that would fit well with us, please let us know! We’re always looking for like-minded people to join our wonderful team.

Olga outside the new space - with sun in her eyes!

Here’s hoping 2022 is a better year for everyone! We look forward to another amazing 10 years of wellness and growth, and we hope you’ll join us on our journey.

January 24, 2022/by Heidi

Healthy Living, Massage, Natural Remedies, Veterans

Massage Therapy for Military Veterans

Massage can make a difference for veterans coping with PTSD, chronic pain, and more.

PTSD

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops in some people who have seen or lived through an event that is shocking, scary or dangerous. These events might be combat related, for example, or involve violence, abuse or trauma.

“People experience PTSD when their choices over what happens to their bodies are taken from them,” says Pamela Fitch, the author of Talking Body, Listening Hands: A Guide to Professionalism, Communication and the Therapeutic Relationship, and a massage therapist with extensive experience working with clients with PTSD.¹

This condition comes with both physical and psychological symptoms, and can include the following:

Higher rates of musculoskeletal or cardiovascular issues
Flashbacks and nightmares
Increased feelings of detachment and isolation
Irritability and difficulty falling asleep
Hyperarousal
Hypervigilance
Guilt and shame
Intrusive thoughts

There is research that suggests massage therapy can help veterans with PTSD. One small pilot study found massage significantly reduced headache, anxiety and pain interference. Massage was also found to be a positive addition to veteran health care in a June 2017 study.

Similar to other mental health diagnoses, like depression or anxiety, PTSD is commonly treated with an integrative approach that may include both medication and some form of psychotherapy, with the goal being to help the person effectively work through the trauma.

For clients with PTSD seeking massage therapy, Fitch believes working through their trauma history with an experienced psychologist or psychotherapist is a must. “If clients with PTSD seek massage therapy before they have done some reflection with a psychotherapist, they could be at risk of worsening their symptoms, becoming triggered by the touch, or feeling depressed or angry,” she explains.

How Can Massage Therapy Help Clients with PTSD?

Stess relief, decreasing anxiety, reducing depression¹ and improving personal mood are all positive outcomes massage may provide clients. Additionally, a 2012 study focusing on how integrative therapies can help promote reintegration among veterans found that those participants who received massage therapy reported significant reductions in physical pain, tension, irritability, anxiety/worry and depression.²

Research also indicates massage therapy may be effective for those clients who experience dissociation as a symptom of PTSD,^3.4 allowing these clients to experience a more coherent sense of self, which for some is a primary reason they initially seek out massage therapy.^5,6

It is important to find a therapist you can trust and go slow with massage therapy if you have PTSD.

Chronic Pain

Studies have long supported the benefits of massage therapy for people in chronic pain, including back pain, neck and shoulder pain, and osteoarthritis. Research continues to support the health benefits of massage therapy for pain relief, and massage therapy can be a viable non-opioid solution for pain relief that works.⁷

Anxiety

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is described as persistent and uncontrollable anxiety and worry. A 2016 study of the effect of Swedish massage therapy on symptoms of GAD found that participants’ anxiety was significantly reduced at the start of week three, suggesting massage may be an effective acute treatment for GAD.⁸

Insomnia

While insomnia is a common issue among the general U.S. population, this condition presents an even greater problem to veterans. A study conducted in 2017 involving primary care providers’ perspectives on veterans showed that more than half of the veterans already enrolled in VA health care centers in the Midwest demonstrated having significantly higher levels of insomnia.⁸

Research indicates that massage therapy can improve sleep in those with lower back pain, fibromyalgia, insomnia, pain and other health conditions.

Before You Book

If you are a veteran with any of the above conditions, please reach out to us before your appointment to let us know how we can best address your unique needs. We will want to avoid anything that will make you nervous about your session, and we’re happy to discuss your specific case both before and during your session. It’s important that we know what to be aware of to avoid any potential triggers for you.

Be thorough in completing your intake form, and don’t be afraid to talk to us during your session if anything is uncomfortable, unsettling, or just not to your liking; we want your feedback.

References:

1. https://www.amtamassage.org/publications/massage-therapy-journal/massage-and-ptsd/

2. William Collinge, MPH, PhD, Janet Kahn, PhD, LMT, and Robert Soltysik, MS. Promoting reintegration of National Guard veterans and their partners using a self-directed program of integrative therapies: a pilot study, Mil Med. 2012 Dec; 177(12): 1477–1485.

3. Price CJ, Donovan D, Wells E, Rue T. Mindful awareness in body-oriented therapy as an adjunct to women’s substance use disorder treatment: A pilot feasibility study. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. 2012; 94–107.

4. Price CJ. Dissociation reduction in body therapy during sexual abuse recovery. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2007;13(2): 116–28.

5. Price, C. (2012). Massage for adults with a history of sexual trauma. Chapter In: Dryden, D. & Moyer, C. (Eds.) Massage Therapy: Integrating Research and Practice. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL., pp. 165-170.

6. Price, C. (2004). Characteristics of women seeking bodywork as an adjunct to psychotherapy during recovery from childhood sexual abuse. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, 8(1): 35-42.

7. https://www.amtamassage.org/resources/massage-and-health/alternative-to-opioids/

8. https://www.amtamassage.org/resources/massage-and-health/veterans/

November 17, 2021/by Heidi

Healthy Living, LGBTQIA+, Massage

Love Is Love

Celebrate love all month long! 💞 💘 💝

You can spoil your loved one with a much-needed massage… Has anyone been feeling stressed this past year?!? 🙋🏻 Massage is the perfect gift!

You can add hot stones, aromatherapy, or both - for an amazing experience. They will love it.

We offer online gift certificates as well as the more traditional, hand-written kind.
Prefer the latter? Contact us and we’ll make arrangements for you!

Let’s focus on all that’s good right now - and also spoil each other!

February 1, 2021/by Heidi

Healthy Living, Massage

How’s That Resolution Coming?

As a new year dawns, we want to encourage you not to get down on yourself if you’re not making progress on your resolutions. Or even if you skipped resolutions altogether this year! That’s a valid choice.

2020 was rough. A lot of that carried into 2021. So don’t go crazy with resolutions.

One easy thing you can do for yourself is to incorporate massage as part of your regular self-care. It’s so important, and many have been going without during the pandemic.

We know everyone is feeling more stress right now, and we’re here to help! Check out our Covid-19 safety protocols, and feel free to insert a hepa filter into your mask for extra protection.

January 29, 2021/by Heidi

Healthy Living, Massage

Have You Thanked Your Kid’s Teacher Yet?

2020. It’s been hard on all of us.

Imagine how much tougher your job was this year, and then consider those who really got dumped on: teachers, health care workers, delivery workers, parents with kids in school.

Know anyone who needs some stress release? Massage can help!

If you’ve got cash to spend on gifts, this is the perfect opportunity to thank those who have served you and are likely exhausted by now.

And even if they aren’t ready to get a massage yet, they’ll still be able to use their certificate post-pandemic. Renu will absolutely honor it.

So say thanks to someone who went above and beyond this year, and help a small business while you’re at it! It’s a win-win.

Because who doesn’t want to feel like this right now?

December 16, 2020/by Heidi

Healthy Living, LGBTQIA+, Massage

Are you tired of checking boxes that don’t fit? We got you.

At Renu, we want to know your pronouns and your preferred name. We want you to feel nurtured and respected while we help you feel better physically.

Life is a beautiful spectrum, and we are a safe space for everyone, regardless of where they may be on any given spectrum.

We may not have our couples room available during the pandemic, but we can still be a place to celebrate any occasion, or even just the end of 2020!

Say “buh-bye” to 2020 by caring for yourself - get a massage today!

December 4, 2020/by Heidi