Megan Harvey
Direct Ph: 562-733-7317
Direct Fax: 562-424-7846
Corp. Ph: 562-426-8700
mharvey@humantouch.com
www.humantouch.com

Human Touch recently welcomed two-time U.S. Open Champion, Retief Goosen, to our Wellness Council. Mr. Goosen’s long list of professional accomplishments include being in the top ten of the Official World Golf Ranking for over 250 weeks, titles of 2001 and 2004 US Open Champion, and 34 professional wins. In 2019, Mr. Reteif Goosen was also elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Known to his fans as "The Goose," Retief is married and has 2 children. Off the course Retief is passionate about his award-winning Goose Wine collection and also his passion for golf course design.

A long-time advocate of Human Touch massage chairs, Retief Goosen was a natural fit for the Human Touch Wellness Council. We spoke to him briefly about his experience with his new Novo XT Massage Chair so far, and he was excited to share this feedback:

“I have been using massage chairs from Human Touch for a number of years, and just recently upgraded to the Novo XT which offers a higher performance of massage and stretching than any other massage chair out there. 

I feel that use of the Novo XT helps me with flexibility and relaxation; not only after a week of playing professional golf, but also with the general stresses and strains that day to day life often brings. The therapeutic massage can also fit with any requirements as it can be customized to exactly where and what pressure suit your current lifestyle. 

When I am at home, I use my Novo XT every day. It helps to recharge my body and fits in perfectly with daily life. With being a professional golfer, I feel that one of the most important parts of my training is stretching, and the Novo XT is able to help with keeping me supple.  It definitely helps me recover when I come back from a week of traveling and playing golf.

Thank You Human Touch,

-Retief”

Written by: Dr. Hoon C Kim, Acupuncturist and Human Touch Wellness Council Member
Image by: Henri Pham
 

No matter how much I emphasize the importance of breathing, it won’t be enough. Breathing is the base of our bodily engine system and enables us to live. Therefore, most people think they know how to breathe and it is then easily neglected, but here I want you to know of the right way of breathing, and the benefit of it.

In Chinese, the air is called kong qi – which is a spatial energy or energy from the space. Ancient Chinese must have known the importance of breathing; breathing is absorbing the vital energy from the universe.

There are plenty of books and articles of lower chakra, or Dan Tian breathing in Indian yogic practice and qigong; both put an enormous emphasis on abdominal breathing, or deep breathing.

Look at a baby or your dogs. How do they breathe? They breathe deep and comfortable with stomach region, and it seems so natural and easy.

Then why do most people forget this breathing, which we once all did?

As we grow old with stresses - anger, frustration, fear or anxiety- we became a shallow chest breather because of fight-or-flight response, which depends on chest breathing for quick, short bursts of oxygen. Eventually the body gets used to this shallow breathing.

What is this stress?

This type of stress is an animal instinct of fight or flight response, and acts as a self-defense system.

Under this type of stress, your body will need more energy so that heart beats will become faster and your breathing also will become faster and shorter to supply more blood to the muscles of limbs, and not the brain and digestive system. Therefore this stress can cause you to have headaches, stomachaches, muscle pain, sleep disorders, fatigue and so on.

So now imagine you have a body that perceives itself to be in stress all the time… your body will need that short breathing and sometime later your body will keep that breathing pattern, and this activates the body’s stress response system unnecessarily, emitting stress-related hormones.

How to evaluate your stress level:

1. Your head feels heavy and cloudy, and you get tired frequently
2. You get dizzy frequently
3. You have stiffness and pain in the neck
4. Your tongue has more white coating on it than usual
5. You have indigestion such as bloating, gas, belching and so on
6. Shoulders feel heavy, and you have tension with upper back and knee pain
7. When you get up in the morning, you still feel tired and heavy so your day starts sluggish
8. It is hard to focus on the work
9. It is hard to fall asleep
10. You have heart palpitations and cold extremities
11. You tend to avoid social meetings and a crowd of people

Normal: 0-3;
Moderate: 4-6;
Serious: 7+ (Necessitates a change in your lifestyle)

How to remove stress by changing your breathing pattern:

1. First take two-three deep breaths, exhaling fully through the mouth. Then slowly breathe in while expanding your lower abdomen to the count of 4. Then slowly breathe out while contracting your lower abdomen to the count of 4. Focus on breathing rhythmically and try not to move your chest.

2. Inhale through your nose to a count of 4 and exhale either through your mouth or the nose to a count of 4 and then pause for a count of 2.

As you become more comfortable with this breathing, you can increase the length of time of inhalation, exhalation and the pauses between them.

Practice this breathing for 10-15 minutes twice a day in the morning after you wake up, and in the evening before you go to bed and also at any time during the day (except immediately after meals). Though simple, if practiced regularly, this exercise can greatly benefit the health of your mind and body.

Bernadette Johnson, Director of the Integrative Medicine Program at Greenwich hospital, also offers these four easy steps to break the stress cycle:

1. Stop what you’re doing.

2. Breathe using your stomach (abdominal breathing) for a few deep breaths, allowing your gut to expand with air. Do not breathe using the chest, which most of us do normally. Count 1 to 4 while inhaling, then count down from 4 to 1. You should inhale through the nose and exhale from the mouth, but you can do whatever is comfortable.

3. Think about the cause of your stress, deliberating its importance in the scheme of things. For example, a computer crashes and you get angry. Clearly, seething won’t change or resolve the situation.

4. Rectify the problem with a viable solution.

Learn how 3-time Olympic Gold Medalist, Misty May-Treanor, uses her Novo XT massage chair to relax.

By: Dr. James Rouse, Naturopathic Physician and Human Touch Wellness Council Member

Just about this time of the year there is an ever increasing number of people who are falling into the support group called “not quite there” when it comes to feeling good about their New Year’s intentions. Research shows that most of our goals and resolutions tend to be fading fast by the end of January,as well as our confidence in ourselves to raise our quality of lifeto a level that reflects our true potential.

Is that you too?

Please do not despair, or think about ways you should be better by being harder on yourself…there is a possibly a better and more grace-filled path to success for you.

Massage.

Yup, I bet you didn’tsee that coming. As a clinician and a researcher, the science is clear and inspiring that giving yourself the gift of massage may be one of the most powerful paths to resurrecting your confidence that you do have what it takes to realize your mission for 2018 and beyond. Here’s how:

Massage rocks our resolutions by supporting the levels of powerful chemicals associated with success, happiness and health. First off, massage helps to keep the stress hormone cortisol in check-which in turn helps to serve our overall peace and balance. I believe we all achieve more under the influence of greater ease and grace - moving from stressed to blessed.

I have a wonderful knowing in my heart that “we” are also much better equipped to reach our peak when we are maintaining optimum levels of serotonin, the chemical associated with greater happiness, calm and centeredness, and massage may help to support this “check up from the neck up” too.

And lastly, we all tend to do better and realize more of our potential when we are feeling more motivated, confident and focused-this is the job description of dopamine, another chemical that is supported with massage.

You are here to create a life you love. If you are ready to allow the gift of massage to serve and support the highest expression of you…choose to allow massage to touch your mission and lift your vision to make 2018 the best year of your life yet!

Check out this helpful video from Dr. James Rouse on how to use massage to keep your New Years Intentions.

By: Wellness Council Member, David Marcarian, MA

There is nothing like a great massage from the hands of a great massage therapist. A few years ago, my New Year’s Resolution was to get hands-on massage on a regular basis. To ensure the success of my resolution required a commitment much like joining a gym. I immediately found a massage clinic with locations throughout the U.S. and signed up! The experience was actually quite nice. The offices are quite esthetically pleasing, and the massage therapists were very skilled. I liked that I could schedule online, as I am so busy and it would be so difficult to call ahead to schedule my massage.

There was only one problem. Human Nature. Just as with a gym membership, if there is difficulty getting to the gym, difficulty parking, difficulty finding time – well like electricity, humans find the quickest path to ground. When it comes to the gym membership, that means not leaving the ground my feet were on in front of the couch. The problem? Even with online scheduling, if I did not schedule my massage at least a few days in advance, I would never get in, or get the therapist I wanted.

So here we are three years later, with monthly fees for several years and only three real massages! It’s not their fault. They have a fantastic service and system. Convenience is the key: If the service is not directly in front of you, or requires that you drive and park at times which are difficult, we simply won’t follow through. Just like with the gym membership, I purchased an elliptical instead. I wake up in the morning and with it sitting right there in front of me, I have no excuses at all. For 8 years now I’ve used it, and my blood pressure has dropped to 123 / 73 and has stayed the same due to the convenience of the elliptical.

How many massages have I had with my Human Touch^® Zero Gravity Massage Chair? I cannot even count. Sometimes it has been twice a day. I’ve woken up at 2:00 AM not able to sleep. I schedule my massage by sitting down and pressing the button: The only scheduling issue is if there is anyone else in the house. And one shift in Human Touch Engineering which has had quite an influence on access to the chair? Unfortunately for me, Human Touch engineers have finely tuned their latest massage chairs to magically adjust to the user. The newer designs are much gentler than the old “rough” rollers, meaning women now love the Human Touch approach to massage technology as much as men.

The other real advantage of having the Human Touch chair at home is that you have no way of knowing what random stressors in life, both physical and emotional, will hit at any given moment. It is really nice to know that you have a massage chair at home you can rely upon at 3:00 AM when you wake up with an aching back: A role very few legitimate massage therapists are able to fill.

For the right person who is organized enough to plan ahead, the massage franchises offer a wonderful service. For the rest of us? It may actually be less expensive when you take into considering parking, gas, work time lost etc. to own the most expensive Human Touch massage chair made! Another really good point is that massage is supposed to reduce stress, not increase it. If it takes too much effort to schedule a massage, the massage is a bit ruined for me. In addition, I really don’t like getting massage oil all over my new car’s seats!

If you have time to schedule a real-life massage, more power to you. For the rest of us insanely busy people in a world filled with traffic, stress and beeping reminders always going off, I will just stay home, curl up with a book, Netflix, and my Human Touch Massage chair whenever I choose: Just one less thing in life requiring a schedule.

Human Touch Proudly Supports the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual and the College Football Playoff National Championship for the Third Consecutive Year

LONG BEACH, CA, December 31, 2019 -- Human Touch, the US market leader in high-performance massage chairs, announced they will be offering their therapeutic Novo XT2 massage chairs for the use of players, coaches, and media the week leading up to the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual (January 1, 2020) and the College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship (January 13, 2020). This marks the third year Human Touch has been a supporter of the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual and the second year for the national championship game.

“Moving into our 41^st year, Human Touch has had a long history of developing innovative and intuitive products for individuals with chronic pain, including athletes, health professionals, and consumers alike,” said Michelle Guerin, Vice President of Human Touch’s Commercial Division. “We’re proud to continue our legacy by helping athletes and coaching staff with their recovery and regeneration at the national championship game and Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual.”

Delivering three-dimensional therapeutic massage capabilities that extend along the entire length of the spine and down to the thighs, the Novo XT2 is one of the most advanced and customizable massage solutions to come from Human Touch. In addition to its premium Flex 3D massage capabilities, the Novo XT2 features an Altec Lansing Premium Sound System that allows users to enjoy their favorite music, audio books, and/or built-in Sound Soothe nature tracks while enjoying one of the 35 auto-wellness programs designed to promote greater relaxation, recovery, and relief.  

During the 2020 Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual, Human Touch will be providing eight Novo XT2s in the players’ and coaches’ lounges at the Oregon Ducks’ hotel and the Wisconsin Badgers’ hotel, as well as the media hotel. For the College Football Playoff National Championship, Human Touch will be providing 14 Novo XT2s in the players’ and coaches’ lounges at the two teams’ hotels, as well as the media and guests hospitality rooms.

For more information and to browse the complete line of Human Touch massage and wellness solutions, please visit https://www.humantouch.com.

About Human Touch
For more than 40 years, Human Touch has proudly served as the country’s leading provider and innovator of high-performance massage chairs, zero gravity recliners and other wellness solutions. Committed to creating the most immersive and personalized independent wellness experiences, Human Touch introduces patented massage systems that replicate the touch and techniques used by leading massage professionals. Each product is strategically engineered and designed to address the pains and stresses caused by today's hectic lifestyle using the latest technologies and intelligent ergonomics. Products are available at fine furniture stores, back care specialty stores, and mass-market retailers across the U.S., through international retailers and distributors in more than 40 countries. 

Media Contact:
Emily Wong
Direct Ph: 562-733-7358
ewong@humantouch.com
www.humantouch.com
Media Kit

The current nature of Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) doesn’t give way to much familiarity. Most try to liken it to cryotherapy or sensory deprivation float tanks. Though they bare similarities, HBOT is completely different. HBOT is a non-invasive medical treatment of delivering a large amount of oxygen under pressure. That influx of oxygen supports rapid healing in the body during the session and in days after. But it’s not common place and our treatment chambers can look a bit intimidating, so we have made every effort to practice HBOT in an environment that is peaceful and relaxing. Our Human Touch® Perfect Chairs® really make the experience.  Immediately, our patients are transported out of the grind of their lives and on a mini va-ca, into a spa where every need was thought of and met before the patient had to ask. The Perfect Chair is their first introduction to our place. We recline them, take vital signs, and walk them through the treatment. Our regulars stake claim to their favorite chair, colonizing them with their personal items, customizing the settings and regaling the newbies about their first time. This chatter helps; new patients tend to sink into their chair more at ease and all you see after a while are two pairs of feet in the air from a deep recline, like two white flags surrendering to the process, ready for treatment.

Once settled inside, the pure oxygen lulls most everyone to sleep. For good reason, your body wants to utilize the surge of oxygen. When the body is put under pressure, oxygen is able to be dissolved in to your blood at a much higher rate (Henry's Law). Oxygen is needed to make ATP which is cellular energy or cellular cash and just like every good capitalist society, cash is king, and your body goes right to work spending it. While the patient sleeps, cellular contractors are putting in bids and molecular architects are submitting plans. Every project is approved in this oxygen rich environment and the work begins without delay! Teams begin repairing soft tissue, building new blood vessels, stimulating the growth of stem cells, reducing inflammation/swelling, enhancing immune functioning, improving neurocognitive functions, fortifying bone tissue and more. All the patient has to do is breathe.

After 90 minutes, the patient is brought out of the chamber and welcomed back into our tranquil place. With all the changes their body undergoes, they experience disorientation and the feeling of being high. We guide them to take refuge back in a Perfect Chair. There is no better way to transition them back to real life. We preheat the chair with the jade infrared heat and have a tray with warm moist towels ready for them. The infrared heat improves lymphatic flow and increases circulation of blood deep in the tissues, helping to clear out any leftover waste from all the projects. Once they are nestled in, we recline them and let them re-acclimate slowly. This pause is paramount. The body needs to rest and readjust back to the oxygen poor environment. Once the patient feels like they are back down to earth, they are given vitamins and sent on their way. Routinely, patients will call us just to tell us about how great they feel even days later.

Our goal is to transport people away from the hustle of real life to a tranquil escape. We are reintroducing what healthcare is supposed to look like. It is our belief when people are placed in an environment rooted in patient first care, they actually heal. And that reintroduction starts and ends with the Perfect Chair. From the moment they sit down, they know we have invested in their comfort. The Perfect chair is not just a design choice, it is the treatment. The perfect bookends to a restorative hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment.

© Craig Berry/flickr.com

PonyApp Pro-Tips brought to you by Human Touch^® Super Novo.

We’ve come a long way from the days when riding was considered an exclusive, country pursuit, usually accompanied by corseted ladies in sidesaddle, plenty of tweed, and a healthy dose of sherry and whiskey. More and more today, equestrian competition is being recognized as the sport that it is by the general public, but we, as riders, often fail to recognize the other half of that equation. Riders are athletes, and we need to think about our sport, and how we train for it, like any other athlete would.

“Riders are athletes, and we need to think about our sport, and how we train for it, like any other athlete would.”

At the top of that list: taking a more holistic approach to the way we care for ourselves in and out of the ring, from our diet and exercise program, to the way we incorporate wellness techniques for the mind and body—be that through mediation and yoga, acupuncture and massage, or something else entirely.

So just why is thinking big-picture about health and wellness critical to a rider’s overall performance? For that, we caught up with Dr. Drew DeMann, a Doctor of Chiropractic specializing in Primary Care Sports Medicine at Manhattan Medicine in New York. Here, Dr. DeMann shares four reasons why taking a holistic approach to your training can help you hack your health, in and out of the saddle.

1. It can help you prevent injuries.
“If you don’t look at things holistically, and you just look at [pain] like ‘it’s a knee’, or ‘it’s a shoulder’, or ‘it’s a back’, often you miss the big-picture on how people get hurt,” explains Dr. DeMann. “You could be presenting [in my office] with knee pain because your hips are too tight, or because your back is too tight.” The goal: treating these associated areas with something like massage or physical therapy before there’s a sports performance issue.   

2. It can help you eat the absolute right way.
You know what they say: you are what you eat. Ask any top rider and they’re likely to tell you that looking at your diet holistically, as an extension of your training program, can have a positive impact on your performance. From Dr. DeMann’s perspective, it’s just good common sense. “From a nutrition standpoint, it’s super important, because if you don’t [eat in a healthy way], you’re going to wind up with nutritional deficiencies over time.”

3. It can help you get your head right.
“Sports doctors can tell, when patients come in the office, who’s more likely to get better and who’s not, almost [based entirely] on their attitude,” says Dr. DeMann, who notes that taking steps to ensure your mental wellness is as fine-tuned as your physical health is essential. “If you tell your brain that you’re healthy, your brain will produce chemicals that will make you healthy. If you tell your brain that you’re sick, or that you’re not functioning properly, your brain will fulfill that outcome.”

4. It can help you train better.
Let’s face it, it’s a lot harder to maximize that hour in the gym or be the best you can be for the horse you’re riding in the moment when you wake up every day feeling stiff and uncomfortable from the training you’ve done the day before. For that, Dr. DeMann says, incorporating a massage program can be especially beneficial. “When you exercise anaerobically—as in, you’re training—you produce something called lactic acid. Lactic acid can get cleared out of the muscles, and [that’s when] you get post-exercise soreness,” he explains. “Massage increases blood flow to the muscle, and releases a lot of that lactic acid back into your lymphatic system, and that helps you to function a little more normally.”

Function more normally and ride a whole lot better. Who can argue with that?

The new Human Touch^® Super Novo is a specially designed chair that delivers three dimensional massage along the entire length of your spine and all the way down to the thighs. What’s more, the Super Novo offers Mediation and Yoga Studio programs to help you achieve a relaxed state of being pre- or post-ride— it’s even (Amazon) Alexa compatible! For more information, visit: humantouch.com/supernovo.

  WRITTEN BY
 The PonyApp
  The fastest-growing horse network, PonyApp is a platform built to better
  connect the global equestrian community to horses and to each other!
  Download PonyApp or visit theponyapp.com.

Human Touch to Showcase its Latest Massage Chair Innovations at The Hampton Classic 

LONG BEACH, CA August 25, 2019 – Human Touch, the U.S. market leader in high performance massage chairs, Perfect Chair® recliners, and other wellness solutions, proudly announces its affiliation and sponsorship of the 44^th Annual Hampton Classic in Bridgehampton, New York, August 25 through September 1, 2019. Honored for the opportunity to introduce their wellness solutions into the equestrian lifestyle, Human Touch will be showcasing its new Super Novo massage chair, as well as its Novo XT2, which provide advanced recovery, relaxation, and relief to equestrians, other athletes, and individuals desiring superior pain relief and stress management.

“We are honored to have the opportunity to support such a long-standing tradition,” says David Wood, CEO of Human Touch. “Our massage chair innovations and wellness solutions were specifically designed with the needs and desires of athletes, including equestrians, in mind. We hope attendees will take the time to visit our booth in the Boutique Garden and website to learn more about our exciting massage and wellness innovations.”

Newly added to the Human Touch Wellness Council this year is Elisa Wallace, an award-winning equestrian representing the U.S.A. in international competition. She is a 5-star three-day event rider and popular YouTuber. Elisa is also a well-known advocate for American Mustang adoption, off the track thoroughbreds, rider safety, and women in sports. Human Touch formed the Wellness Council with the intention of sourcing valuable insights from leading doctors, professional athletes, wellness practitioners, and natural healers to further advance the design, function, and needs of the Human Touch product line. With the addition of Elisa to the council, her remarkable expertise and athletic diversity complements the development and scope of treatment Human Touch wellness solutions offer.

This year, Human Touch unveiled its most advanced massage chair yet: the Super Novo. Providing real therapeutic relief and recovery, the Super Novo introduces the world’s first massage chair to implement user-customized Virtual Therapist™ through Amazon Alexa’s voice recognition and Human Touch’s multidimensional massage technology into one fully immersive, zero gravity massage experience. The chair features full body stretch capabilities, Cloud Touch Acupressure, and 38 Auto-Wellness programs, such as full body immersion, deep tissue, and a diverse collection of therapeutic relaxation, meditation, and recovery programs, in addition to three 4D massage programs that soothe, stretch, and rejuvenate the entire body.   

For more information, please visit www.humantouch.com. 

About Human Touch®

Entering its 40^th year, Human Touch® proudly serves as the country’s leading provider and innovator of high-performance massage chairs, zero gravity recliners and other wellness solutions. Committed to creating the most immersive and personalized independent wellness experiences, Human Touch introduces patented massage systems that replicate the touch and techniques used by leading massage professionals. Each product is strategically engineered and designed to address the pains and stresses caused by today's hectic lifestyle using the latest technologies and intelligent ergonomics. Products are available at fine furniture stores, back care specialty stores, and mass-market retailers across the U.S., through international retailers and distributors in more than 40 countries.

Media Contact:

Emily Wong

Direct Ph: 562-733-7358

ewong@humantouch.com

www.humantouch.com

Human Touch Media Kit