Hair-pulling beats stress

Looking for a way to ace your finals next week? According to licensed massage therapist Jack Gann, pulling your hair may be the answer. In an hour-long massage workshop yesterday in Bodine Lounge, Gann demonstrated several techniques to combat stress and help students study more effectively. "[Hair pulling] stimulates the nerves and sharpens the brain," he said. Gann began the workshop, entitled "Stressbusters," with loosening excercises to "balance the body." He told the over 25 student-participants to rub their legs to release negative energy. Gann said massage improves circulation and stimulates nerves which alleviates stress. "We carry stress throughout the body," Gann said. "Negative energy [has] mass." After the students were balanced, they broke off into small groups and took turns massaging each other from head to toe, implementing the techniques Gann demonstrated. "The glute muscles store a lot of stress," he said while telling the amatuer masseurs to concentrate on the buttocks. "A lot of scientific knowledge backs this up." Gann said he runs the massage workshops to "educate the young." "[Massage] is so simple and so helpful everyone should learn it," he said. Gann then offered tips to fight other muscle aches not always associated with stress, such as headaches, cramps and shin splints. Gann said mild pressure to the bridge of the nose relieves stress headaches and that the best cure for shin splints is "rest." Student Health Education Director Susan Villari said that Student Health Services sponsors these "Stressbusters" workshops about four times per semester, and "particularly around high stress times." "The primary goal is to have fun for an hour and relieve stress," she said. Student Health held another seminar in the High Rise South Rooftop Lounge. Students said they found the workshop useful, and most were laughing throughout the entire session. College junior Russell King said he thought the workshop was very timely. "It's great to have this around finals week," he said. And College sophomore Susan Feigenbaum said that the massage helped her headache.

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