Hanging to Straighten and De-compress the Spine

Hanging from a bar with your hands is a wonderful way to ease pressure and open up the spine. Many of my clients find instant relief with this simple, easy to do, method. It can be done on bars found in most playgrounds as shown above. You can also build a hanging bar in your home.  The hardware for building the bar is shown here.

Also available is the "Iron Gym," a bar that can be hung on any door that has a frame.  This bar must be removed if you want to shut the door so it is not a permeant fixture.  It can be used to straighten and decompress the spine as well as a chin-up bar.

Below Gale Gaines is demonstrating hanging to decompress the spine on a bar installed in my house.  She is a Nail Therapist and Reflexologist at the Ma'at Holistic Wellness Center in Laurel, Maryland where she offers spa manicures, pedicures and foot reflexology.  These practices promote the release of stress, blood circulation and feeling thus enabling a person to be more energetic and sleep better.  For more information Gail can be contacted at 301-317-8898.

Maggie

Massage ball workshop with Mike Choi and Jim Bathurst

My workshop with Mike Choi and his athletes.  Jim is in upper left corner and Mike is below.

One of the people who attended my massage ball work shop last September was a personal trainer, Mike Choi. He is well built, muscle-bound and very strong. But he suffered from pain, which in my opinion was largely because he was so tight. He liked what he learned about self-massage and stretching, and subsequently came to two more of my workshops. At the latest one he convinced five of his gym companions to come and see first-hand what I had to offer. I believe that they were impressed and accepted what I told them about deep massage and maintaining flexibility when training as intensively as they were doing.

Subsequently I was surprised and pleased to be steered to the Blog of one of the people who attended the workshop, Jim Bathurst. Here is what Jim had to say in his blog.

“TRY SOMETHING NEW

I always make it a habit of heading to various seminars and reading various books throughout the year. But I fall into the trap that many fall into whereas I only read books that I agree with, and go to seminars of strength experts whose material I already know.
Well, I went to a seminar this year on yoga and recovery techniques. Specifically it centered around using this ball.

Now, a good friend of mine, Mike Choi, had been carrying this ball around the gym with him for months. I hadn't had a chance to really use it, but I figured how effective could this thing be? I mean, it looks like a kid's playtoy, surely it's not going to be helpful to me?


At the seminar I dug around my sides and armpits. I found some very, very tender spots that I definitely couldn't hit with a foam roller.  A test of my overhead range of motion before and after this rolling was jaw-dropping. My shoulders opened up unbelievably well. I haven't had that reaction since I got ART massage a couple years ago. It was that good.


I used the massage ball on a couple clients with similarly spectacular results. And what does increased overhead range of motion mean, besides injury prevention? How about a better handstand! One of my clients improved so much after 5 minutes of rolling that the improvement on his one arm handstand was miraculous.


Then, someone who read the Beastskills Blog posted the following on the Beastskills site:


“Jim, the same day I read your review I went to the gym and gave one of the medium sized yoga balls a shot on my traps and delts. The improvements that were made on my handstands were incredible. Within a few minutes I was walking around on my hands much smoother than I had ever before. I also managed to PR on my behind the back barbell shrug. I was sold! I used the website that you posted (yogaplus.com) and I bought a couple of their massage balls, and the spiky balls. The woman that runs the site was so nice and helpful (sending me so any stretches and therapy techniques) that I couldn't help but be excited about it all weekend. It's nice to see someone so passionate about her work! The tutorials and advice in your website has really helped me make some positive improvements in my life (not to mention keeping me safe from injury!) and I would really like to thank you! I hope that you have more to offer this year and I am certainly looking forward to a great year of improvements for myself. Thanks again!”


Now, believe me, we do not do one arm, or even two arm handstands at my workshops!! 
We keep it simple and practical!!


Come and experience it yourself at one of my workshops.


Maggie