Besides doing the hip exercises for my torn hip labrum, I also regularly do foam roller exercises at home.  As you can clearly see, my foam roller has seen better days.  If you have an injury you definitely want to learn some basic foam rolling exercises.  In this post I will discussion why deep tissue massage is a must for anyone with tight muscles or an injury, in particular for someone with a torn hip labrum like me, and how you can do deep tissue massage therapy at home using form roller exercises.

Foam rolling:  What is it and why you need it

My first chiropractor recommended that I get a deep tissue massage for the tight muscles along my back and hip several years ago.  After the first session, I was sold.  But I cannot afford the $120 price tag on a regularly basis.  I rather pay the co-pay for my current chiropractor who does tissue work on my neck from the whiplash damage and fumble around on my own with a foam roller to get rid of the scar tissue and tight spots on the rest of my body.

Even though I do my hip exercises faithfully, there are days when stretching and stretching are just not enough.  On those days, I rather spend time wiggling on the floor with my foam roller than spend time with my husband.

A foam roller is basically a high density foam roll.  You can find them in most physical therapy offices and even at the gym.  They are inexpensive and anyone can do the foam roller exercises at home to get rid of scar tissue or tight muscles.

Deep tissue massage therapy to get rid of scar tissue

When you cut yourself, the first thing your body does to start the healing process is put a scab over it.  The scab is formed by collagen and acts as a barrier to protect the body while it continues the healing process underneath.  Your body react exactly the same every time you are injured — whether from a cut, a broken bone, or from soft tissue damage.  Your body always throws collagen to the wound to start the repair process.

So what happens to the scab when your cut healed?  The scab falls off and you go about your merry way.  However, sometimes your body overreacts and throws too much collagen to the wounded area, particularly if it is a large area, and you end up with scar tissue.  Scar tissue might not be a problem in some areas of your body, but scar tissue on your muscles is a problem.

Unlike other injured areas, your muscles flex and contract all the time.  The collagen on your scar tissue does not.  So when you move your previously injured muscle, either you:

Re-injure the area again (hence you see some people always complaining about the same bum knee or back).  You can think of the injured muscle as the weakest chain in the link; it is the first spot to feel any stress.

or

You feel pain from the surrounding smooth muscles rubbing against the ridges of scar tissue.

This scar tissue article can explain better than I can about how scar tissue could cause you pain even after your body consider the injury healed.  The pain you feel when you do rehabilitation exercises are sometimes from scar tissues at the injured area.

Boatloads of scar tissue

During my car accident, I knew the precise moment when I tore my hip labrum.  When the other car hit us on the freeway and we went through the oleander bushes in the median to the south bound lanes, we were airborne for a few seconds.  My leg foot jerked forward, I felt one sharp jab on my hip, and then I did not think even notice it until days later because I was dealing with my other injuries.  Days later I notice the pain was not concentrated inside my hip joint, but in the surrounding muscles in the hip area and even on the back of my butt.

So even though I usually mention my torn hip labrum, I actually have a lot of scar tissues in the rounding hip area and the back of my butt.  This is why sometimes I feel no pain from my torn hip labrum until I start moving (it’s the scar tissues rubbing against the smooth muscles).  Remember how I mentioned that sometimes it is painful to do rehabilitation exercises?  If there is nothing else wrong with the injury it is usually the scar tissue that is causing the residual pain.

I wished I have iced my hip immediately after the accident.  If I have nipped the inflammation at the bud, I probably would not have as many problems with my hip injury now.  At the time I was more concern about my back and I neglected my hip.  The couple of times I brought it up with the doctor and physical therapist they kept dismissing the pain which made me put it in the backburner because I figured they know what they were talking about.  Prior to my car accident, my only interactions with the medical community were my annual exam and a visit to the nurse practitioner to renew my allergy medication.  I put too much faith on strangers because they were part of the medical community.

The only way to get rid of scar tissue is from deep tissue massage therapy.  I like to think of the deep tissue massage process like using fine sandpaper to hand rubbing the rough spots on a plank of wood before you stain it.  And if you ever done any woodworking, you know that hand rubbing takes a long time on a big project.  If you do not have the big bucks to pay for regular deep tissue massage, you can purchase a $30 foam roller and get some of the same benefits at home with foam roller exercises.

I am going to end Part 1 of this foam roller exercises post here.  Over a 1000 words is a lot of reading for one day.  Come back next time for Part 2 of this series.

Until next time and thanks for reading Small Steps to Health.

During our annual camping trip with a group of friends, one family brought a projector, projector screen, and laptop.  So every night while making smores, we watched a movie under the sky.  One night we watched Kung Fu Panda.  I don’t like Jack Black too much so I never felt the desire to watch Kung Fu Panda.

One of the themes of the movie is about the secret ingredient in the noodle soup that Po’s dad sells at the family restaurant.  Throughout the beginning of Kung Fu Panda, his father, Mr. Ping, keeps hinting that Po’s is “almost ready to be entrusted with the secret ingredient of my secret ingredient soup.”

Finally during the scene when the villagers started evacuating the valley, Mr. Ping revealed the secret to Po:

Mr. Ping:  The secret ingredient is… nothing!
Po:  Huh?
Mr. Ping:  You heard me. Nothing! There is no secret ingredient.
Po:  Wait, wait… it’s just plain old noodle soup? You don’t add some kind of special sauce or something?
Mr. Ping:  Don’t have to. To make something special you just have to believe it’s special.
Po:  There is no secret ingredient…

If you followed my rambling so far, you must be wondering what does Kung Fu Panda has to do with the motivation to exercise.  My grasshoppers, the secret to finding motivation to exercise is all within you.  There is no secret.  If you truly believe in the benefits of exercise, you will find all the motivation you need to exercise within you.  There is no mystical secret ingredient.

My motivation to exercise

I have to admit that in my 20s, my motivation to exercise is for weight loss.  Let me tell you, I probably would have lost weight faster from cutting out my junk food than from just exercising alone.  If you want to lose weight quickly, then fix your diet first.

My motivation to exercise now has more to do with my quality of life than being able to wear a certain size pants.  I truly believe that regular exercise conditions my body to handle stress symptoms better, manage residual pain from my car accident, and improve my mood.  As I get older, these exercise benefits become more important to me than fitting into the pants I wore in college.  Besides, those college pants are probably out of style by now. 

Whatever motivation you need to start exercising regularly is within you.  There is no secret ingredient.  No one can tell you how to continue to exercise.  You just need to listen to your body.  And I can guarantee that if you exercise regularly for a while and then stop, your body will notice the different.

As for Kung Fu Panda, it is pretty entertaining.  Actually I was entertaining to the other adults.  Apparently I still laugh a little too loudly in a crowd.  I seriously thought I’ve outgrown that.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health.

In a previous post about adult eczema treatment, I talked about changing some of our household products to help prevent my husband’s adult eczema.  I am please to tell my readers that his eczema is finally gone! Yea! <doing virtual victory dance>

However, our household expenses have also gone up because my husband needs to continue using these pricier household products to prevent his eczema from coming back.  This post is a discussion of the changes we made in our household that got his adult eczema into remission over this last year.

Using a mild or soap or non soap cleanser

I banned my husband from using my girly soap from Bath & Bodyworks.  He tried using Dove and Olay of Oil for his adult eczema.  But what works best is Name Your LinkName Your LinkJohnson & Johnson Head to Toe Baby Wash.  I guess what is mild enough for a newborn is good enough for the adult suffering from eczema.

Am I a bad wife for being secretly pleased that my husband stopped using my nice body wash?  A new bottle of Bath & Bodyworks body wash actually last more than a month now.  And with couponing and sales, I can usually get the baby wash for $2 a bottle.  So this household product switch actually saves us money.

Using an eczema scalp treatment shampoo

My husband switched to a scalp treatment designed to control itching and other scalp conditions called Neutrogena T-Gel Therapeutic Shampoo.  Though the switch to baby wash has me jumping for joy, the T-Gel actually ends up tripling the cost of my bottle of Pantene.  I guess you can’t put a price on love (or wait, you can.  It an additional $7!).  The T-Gel works much better than the Head & Shoulders and Selsun Blue in controlling the itching on his scalp.

Using a fragrance free and neutral pH laundry detergent

If you visit any forums discussing eczema, laundry detergent seems to be the biggest culprit for flare-ups.  Normal laundry detergent leaves behind chemical residues that makes the clothing stiff (hence you need to add fabric softener) and these chemical residues is irritating for people with adult eczema.

We started using Sun & Earth laundry detergent instead of Tide or Gain.  There are only 50 ounces in each bottle and cost a little over $10 (when you factor in shipping and tax).  I buy the Sun & Earth online since I haven’t been able to find it at my local Target.

But guess what?  I stopped using fabric softener since switching to Sun & Earth.  Our clothes come out clean and soft straight from the washer.  Though Sun & Earth is slightly more expensive than Tide or Gain, it costs about the same when you factor in the savings from fabric softener.  And when you factor in how wonderful my husband’s skin is reacting to this new laundry detergent, I guess it’s priceless. 

Using a topical corticosteroids cream to control adult eczema

Initially my husband used a topical corticosteroid cream prescribed by his doctor.  But over time, as the switch from these household products works its magic, he stopped using the cream for his adult eczema.  As long as my husband stays away from hot humid conditions, his adult eczema stays in remission.  But as soon as he encounters humidity (which is rare in California), his skins starts developing a rash and his adult eczema acts up.  At times like that, he slathers on the topical corticosteroid cream and hightail away from the humidity.

Ok so I exaggerated.  It maybe cost us an additional $20 a month to make these household product switch to control my husband’s adult eczema.  The results are definitely worth it.  I had my doubts at first, but as the patches of rashes disappeared from his body, I make sure our house is well stocked of all these household products that helps control his eczema.

Until next time and thanks for reading Small Steps to Health.

I am a total dunce when it comes to pop culture.  I rarely contribute to any discussion about the latest episode of America Got Talent or American Idol.  Sometimes my friends wonder out loud whether I live in a cave.  To some extent, I do. 

I try to insulate myself from activities that do not improve my life on some level.  That is not to say that I do not have down time like other people, but I just channel it to something slightly more productive like exercising or talking to my husband in the evening.  I make it my motto to never be too busy for health.

Every one of us leads a fairly busy life.  The biggest excuse I seen from friends who resist making a change in their lifestyle is the lack of time.  I have no children yet, so I have no idea how they can monopolize an entire evening.  Yet the same friends with children that are too busy for health often have enough time to spend every evening on Facebook (catching up) and watching the latest episode of whatever show they are following. 

One of the pillars of a healthy lifestyle that I believe in is maintaining the relationships in your life.  On some level, Facebook makes it really easy to keep tabs on friends and family.  But do you know that most people spend 40% of their Facebook time playing games?  So if you are like most people, then you spend 24 minutes of each hour on Facebook playing games.

In 24 minutes you can get a really good workout using circuit training if you plan your exercise routine correctly.  In 24 minutes you can learn some tricks to prepare a healthy meal quickly so you do not have to rely on take-out or a microwave dinner for your next family meal.  In 24 minutes you can have a conversation with your spouse to re-connect and make sure that your lives are heading down a path that makes both of you happy. 

I am not picking on Facebook users.  Just that if you can harness some of the time you spent idling away the evening, you will find that you have plenty of time for making a lifestyle change.  All you need is one evening a week to make an impact on your own health and the health of your family.  If you are unwilling to do it for yourself, think about the people you love.  Do it for them.  Something as simple as getting an extra 24 minutes of sleep goes a long way to making you a healthier person than playing that Facebook game.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health.

An article caught my eye as I flipped through the August issue of Money magazine entitled the “High Price of Healthy Living.”  It is an article with a few graphed statistics. I guess the headline worked because it slowed my flipping down to see exactly how having healthy eating habits and exercise can cost me more money over my lifetime.

The article shows that:

The average lifetime health care cost of healthy retirees is $260k.

The average lifetime health care cost of unhealthy retirees is $220k.

As a relatively healthy individual, I only visit my doctor a handful of times a year (and that is on a bad year too) for routine stuff like allergies or a sore throat. So maybe after a lifetime of healthy eating habits and exercising, I end up with a bum hip and back (don’t I have that already?) that needs constant attention from my doctor when I retire?

Then the article shows a graph that healthy retirees pay more out of pocket than unhealthy retirees. Is this one of those duh moments?

Finally, it shows a graph that healthy retirees is more likely to face more medical bills, use long term care, and end up in a nursing home… for MORE YEARS. Of course a lifetime of health eating habits and exercise is going to cost you more money for health care — you are living longer! Geez, what a waste of a page on the magazine.

You spend more money in general when you live longer, whether it is for health care or just the cable bill. I sure would not be complaining at 80 of facing another 10 years in health care cost if it means I can live longer and see my grandchildren grow up.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by Small Steps to Health.