Massage Tips: How To Make a Hot Towel

As mentioned in the above video, a hot towel is a fast and easy way to get some moist heat relief for pain.

The article that was mentioned in the video was this one: Should I Use Heat or Ice On My Injury?

Here are the steps and details of the video:

What you need:
2 hand towels
Water
A microwave

Steps to make a hot towel:
1. Soak one hand towel in water and wrap it into a tight ball
2. Put the wet towel in a microwave for 60 seconds (1 minute)
3. Take your dry towel and lay it flat over your sore area
4. Take your hot towel and fold it into a manageable shape such as a rectangle
5. Lay the hot towel over the dry towel and wrap the edges of the dry towel around the wet one.
6. Let it sit until it loses it's heat, or you start to feel better. Usually around 20 minutes is the longest it retains it's heat.

So what is the dry towel for?
The dry towel is simply there to keep the hot towel from burning or causing any irritation on the skin. If you are putting the hot towel over a piece of clothing, you might be able to get away without the dry towel, however I'd personally still advise you to use the dry towel just to keep an extra layer of protection and not get your clothing wet.

Why is moist heat important?
Moist heat is recommended for heat healing because since our skin and muscles are porous, a water based heat is more readily absorbed so rather than simply heating up the surface of the skin, the heat gets deeper into the area and therefore is more effective with the heat doing it's job.

I hope this hot towel tutorial helps you out with your fast moist heat needs!

Massage For a Sinus Headache

One day last year I woke up with a nasty sinus headache. Before reaching for my bottle of decongestants, I decided to try and massage out the pressure first. Then I flipped on the tv and saw a news report about the opioid crisis and a theory about one reason it is so bad is because people get over-prescribed medications. So I sat down and while I was massaging out my sinuses, I recorded a video about how I was doing it, so that perhaps I could help someone else stay away from their bottle of decongestants. I know that massaging away one sinus headache isn't going to make that much of a difference in the grand scale of things, but personally, any time I can fix my pain without something I have to swallow is preferable for me!

P.S. I hate how I look and sound in video and this was a BIG leap out of my comfort zone, so if you watch it, enjoy and please be nice!