Moving Meditations

Grateful for ’s artistic eye, ’s patience/poise/beauty, and ’s talent and amazing attention to detail! 🥰 Behind every “small business” - in my case, just me and my private practice - is a team/family/community of supporters without whom I wouldn’t be able to do what I do 🙏 Stay tuned for Shawn’s final shots! 📸 I’m already blown away by her work 👏

Special shout out to the man behind the “behind the scenes” shots too - the stealthy 💞

Join Mondays and Wednesdays at 6pm at for a workout that is anything but boring!

Cardio Hip Hip features a thorough warmup, bodyweight exercises and stretches, and unique choreography that you get to practice and refine over the course of a few weeks. 💃🏼

Reach out to Leaux or to LAC today for membership options that fit your needs!

Treat mom to a relaxing Thai Massage for Mother’s Day! Take $35 off her 1hr Thai massage 💆‍♀️ Now through May 10th only!

in my headphones 🎧 trying to practice what I preach!

Unlearning technique-focused coaching is hard! I think it’s tempting to want to justify your certification/expertise, but as Dr. Ben Geierman and Dr. Josh Davis point out in this podcast episode, it’s even more challenging to focus on the “simple” principles of progressive overload, flexible consistency, modifying for pain, working on healthy diet, sleep, supportive relationships, etc.

Modern life in the States makes it hard, and it’s all too tempting to focus on minutia instead of taking care of the basics… But too many of us simply aren’t moving enough!

Consistency comes first. Easy to understand, hard to execute 💪

Thai Massage, also called Thai Yoga Massage, is the folk bodywork of Thailand. It features assisted range of motion and compression along sen (energy pathways of the body) in order to balance the flow of lom (“winds,” or animating movement).

The therapist uses their hands, thumbs, elbows, knees and feet to apply pressure to your muscles and leverage range of motion in various positions. This type of massage can be both relaxing and energizing as it helps to reduce stress while restoring ease.

Each session is catered to the individual needs of each client - whether athletes, working people, retirees, yogis, or people with special conditions. For these sessions - which take place on a futon-like mat on the ground - clients should wear comfortable clothing in which they can stretch and move around easily.

If you need movement, relaxation, and tension relief, come see Rissa in SE PDX for Thai massage!

29057/MA67263

Working with a client in the middle of a pain flareup can be challenging. Sometimes massage can help greatly - and both you and the client feel like your massage is the thing that fixed them! The problem is this is more uncommon than it is common, and it can leave you wondering why you’re not able to achieve the same results consistently. This is because pain is complex! Especially for clients who have a lot going on.

More likely than not massage can help, but it is when we can take a step back and look at the bigger picture that we can assess the factors most likely making the biggest contribution to the pain. Remember we are complex biological organisms, not just influenced by biomechanical forces. If you get poor sleep, have a poor diet, experience structural oppression, are going through PTSD, and have an autoimmune disorder, it is unlikely that a massage is going to fix your pain for good! Grief is another life experience that can heighten our sensation of physical pain. I say all this to illuminate that if you are the one going through a pain flareup right now, there are many things you can do to try to help reduce it. And, there are many factors outside your control! And, if you are a massage therapist trying to help people get out of pain, it is also important for you to know that there are many factors outside your control too.

More than anything, try to stay patient and stay curious and open minded as you explore pain and symptom management such as massage while in the middle of a flareup. Please know that you are not alone and that while your pain may recur, it does not mean that you are broken ❤️‍🩹 Do your best to keep moving and reach out for help and support when you can!

New class alert! 🚨
Lift Strong begins Mondays at 5pm starting April 20th with Coach Rissa at ! 💪
Join us upstairs in the group fitness room with equipment provided to help you build strength and confidence in a group setting. We will go over foundational lifts and other exercises with plenty of time to make them your own.
Class is free with your membership and no sign up is required!

Here are a few exercises that help me squat when my low back is feeling cranky!

It’s not about a warmup - I was warming up my squats with a light load at the same time. It’s about feeling strong in all the places where I need it most. My low back felt like it was stuck in extension, and controlled flexion felt good!

I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just my back muscles dominating tonight’s sets of high bar back squats, and these additional exercises (and dance breaks!) definitely helped!