Floating on Air

Hours in uncomfortable plane seats. Driving unfamiliar cars. Sleeping in hotel beds. That’s the life of Jillian Vail of Ocoee, Fla. Yes, she enjoys selling all-natural French pastries, but covering 30 states and being on the road for 45 to 48 weeks a year took their toll on her shoulders and back.

She tried different medications—painkillers, anti-inflammatories, even medications for arthritis—plus heat and ice at home and chiropractic care, too.

“It ran the gamut,” the 44-year-old says. “ The only thing that really helped was taking it easy, but in today’s world, that’s just not possible anymore.”

That’s when she discovered there was another option: deep-tissue massage.

“I was in Texas, and my back was killing me. I just wanted to get a massage,” she says. “It was about 6 p.m., and I called a bunch of spas, but they were all closed.”

When she went to the local grocery store to pick up dinner, she saw a Massage Envy in the same shopping center. Jillian walked in and discovered how much better massage made her feel, and when she learned that Massage Envy had locations throughout the country—in many of the areas she travels to for work—she and her husband signed up.

With regular deep-tissue and trigger-point massages, Jillian has seen the tension and pain in her shoulders and back dissipate.

“I’m not on painkillers or anti-inflammatories anymore,” she says. And even though her life is hard to schedule, she remains committed to regular massages.

“Massage relaxes me mentally and physically,” Jillian says. “It’s something I couldn’t live without. We’ve cut back in various ways, but this is one thing we won’t cut back on.”

Stand Tall

A few tweaks to your posture can help you straighten up your act  “Feet apart, stomach in, shoulders back, chin up.” This is your inner drill sergeant talking. And many of us have gone AWOL.

The good news is, it’s never too late to improve your posture. Here’s why you should learn to stand straight and how you can make it happen.

Consequences of Bad Posture
From board meetings to bunko groups, there’s a lot of tension these days—as in neck tension. “Our necks and backs hurt, and poor posture is the No. 1 culprit,” says Janice Novak, M.S., author of the book, Posture, Get it Straight! (Perigee Trade, 1999).

When you hunch forward, your body isn’t properly aligned. “Not only does poor posture look bad, but it forces some muscles to work incredibly hard all day long while others get weaker,” Novak says. Poor posture can put you in other slumps, too. “When you slouch, you’re pressing down on your internal organs, which affects digestion,” Novak says, adding that circulation and breathing capacity can take a hit too.

The Massage Melting Pot

Throughout history, people have used massage to relieve the aches, pains and stresses of daily life.  Massage therapy techniques have migrated to the United States from every part of the globe. And in typical American fashion, massage therapists have put these techniques into a melting pot, combining them to create modalities that can be tailored to each client.

“It’s really an evolution of what people all over the world have been doing for hundreds and thousands of years,” says C.G. Funk, a licensed massage therapist and vice president of Industry Relations and Product Development for Massage Envy. “Today’s massage therapists use different modalities in combination— taking a little bit of this and a little bit of that to create an art form.”