Drew Hume, Author at NAVINA

Massage Deals On Groupon – Please Don’t Do It!

March 26, 2015 By: Drew Hume1 Comment

It’s not just Groupon, it’s any large-scale deal websites.

The reason I’m asking you all to avoid these kinds of deals is because as a profession, the long-term use of such deals devalues the entire field of massage and bodywork. Why would anyone pay full price for a treatment when you could follow the deal sites around continuously for crazy savings like 80% off?! The more we use them, the more they’ll pop up everywhere. Considering more than our wallets, we take into account the value we’re placing on our therapists/practitioners as well as our own health. Do you think the therapists get paid from a deal like that? Likely it makes them just enough money to pay the rent for their massage space – maybe not even that. [Read more…]

Commuting To Work? These Tips Will Freshen Up Your Daily Trip.

March 19, 2015 By: Drew Humecomment

Rarely do I actually drive anywhere – living in the city has its perks and when someone else is willing to do the driving I’m all for that. On the occasions that I do drive, I become hyper-aware of certain tension-causing activities that must be quite pervasive amongst commuters. Because my body isn’t used to doing these functions I notice the extra work and tension that builds after sitting in traffic for even short periods of time. This presents alarm-bells for me as a practitioner of massage, as movement patterns like this tend to become heavily ingrained in our physiology. [Read more…]

Breathing & Moving Poorly Could Be Causing Your Neck Tension

March 19, 2015 By: Drew Hume4 Comments

Image Source: grandefit.com.

Breathing habits play a significant role in a number of aspects of our health, including (but certainly not limited to) the development of tension in our neck. [Read more…]

Thai Massage vs. Swedish Massage

March 17, 2015 By: Drew Hume3 Comments

Is Thai Massage better than Swedish Massage?

Now that’s a pretty controversial question, and I hope it’s not taken the wrong way. I have many Registered Massage Therapist friends and colleagues and I believe their work to be wonderful and effective and get many treatments of my own. But one major difference between these two modalities is that one is covered by health insurance and the other isn’t [very often]. [Read more…]

A Dedicated Self Practice

March 12, 2015 By: Drew Hume1 Comment

I’ve been reading a lot lately on what some term a “traditional” approach to practicing Thai massage. There are many interesting thoughts and opinions on this topic and I think they’re all valuable when formulating your own opinion on such things. Amongst these readings, there is the mention of “Ruesri Dat Ton” and “Wai khru.” [Read more…]

Therapeutic Thai Massage

March 9, 2015 By: Drew Humecomment

At the present time Thai massage is considered a “recreational” practice. As a practitioner and teacher of this incredible form of bodywork, this saddens me. As a profession, we are rarely taken seriously as a method of therapy (except by those of us who have experienced it first hand). As a wider demonstration of this, the majority of insurance companies do not provide coverage for Thai massage. In fact, we’re not even allowed to use the terms “massage” and “therapy” together after the “Thai”. [Read more…]

What is Thai Massage?

March 7, 2015 By: Drew Hume7 Comments

Image Source: wikipedia.org.

If you’ve ever received, practiced or taught Thai massage this might be an oddly complicated question. It might sound like a simple one but there is often much more involved in how we define this practice. There are so many definitions of Thai massage out there, and it largely depends on who you’re talking to! As an interesting project we’ve had people from all over the globe contribute to this discussion by commenting their thoughts below. If you’d like to contribute your own definition, please do! This way you get a really broad picture of what Thai massage is. [Read more…]

Compensation vs. Overcompensation in Movement

March 6, 2015 By: Drew Hume2 Comments

Image Source: anthonymychal.com.

There’s a growing conversation in yoga circles about the idea of compensation and how it relates to efficient and safe biomechanics in movement. Conversation is a great thing, but it can also lead to perspectives that may not include the full picture. So far, I’ve only heard one side of a much bigger story – that compensation is bad. I’d like to break that image down, and create a more complete picture of what compensation is. And I’d also like to create a distinction between some terms [Read more…]

Cobra Pose: Possibly the Worst Thai Massage Technique

March 5, 2015 By: Drew Hume1 Comment

Google “Thai Massage” and some of the top images you see are of Cobra Pose. Why is that? Is it because it’s such an amazing posture that everyone should know about and receive? No, I don’t think so. I think it’s because it looks flashy and special. [Read more…]

Parkinsons Disease and Thai Massage

March 5, 2015 By: Drew Hume2 Comments

For almost 3 years now I’ve been working with a someone who has Parkinson’s Disease. He’s had the condition for at least 19 years and is now wheelchair bound after some accidents a few years ago. He comes for a massage every week and it’s been incredible to have the opportunity to work with him and to see how Parkinsons Disease and massage interact. [Read more…]