ADVICE, TIPS, NEWS & IDEAS

Toxins and Massage

2011-12-07T23:31:00.001Z

Have you ever been told by your massage therapist that massage helps remove toxins for your body? Or that after a massage you should drink lots of water to flush out toxins that the massage has squeezed or otherwise removed from your muscles?

If you have then you need to watch this amusing but informative video clip by USA Massage Therapist Laura Allen on "Toxins and Massage".

Piriformis Syndrome: How To Quickly Stop Sciatica and Low Back Pain

2011-09-11T20:12:00.001+01:00

This is a really great video on Sciatic pain and Piriformis syndrome. Interesting for anyone who experiences lower back pain especially when in conjunction with leg or buttock pain and discomfort.

Usain Bolt: Case Study In Science Of Sprinting

2011-07-26T22:41:00.000+01:00

Republished from: ThePostGame
Written By: Jay Hart

One year from now, the 2012 Olympic Games will begin in London, where all eyes will be on the incomparable Usain Bolt -- the Jamaican sprinter who is more than living up to his name.

Since 2008, Bolt has taken a jackhammer to the 100-meter world record, lopping off a whopping .14 seconds. That might not sound like a huge chunk of time until you consider it's twice as much as any other sprinter has shaved off the world record since the advent of electronic scoring.

Logically, one would think that Bolt did so by moving his legs faster than anyone else. Only he didn't.

Speed, as it turns out, may be completely misunderstood.

When Bolt established the current 100-meter world record in the 2009 world championships, running it in 9.58 seconds, he did so by moving his legs at virtually the same pace as his competitors. In fact, if you or I were to compete against Bolt, our legs would turn over at essentially the same rate as his.

This is a theory put forth by academics and track coaches alike who contend that running fast has more to do with the force one applies to the ground than how quickly one can move one's legs.

More than a decade ago, Peter Weyand, a science professor at Southern Methodist University, conducted a study on speed. Comparing athletes to non-athletes, Weyand clocked both test groups as they ran at their top speed. What he found shocked him.

"The amount of time to pick up a leg and put it down is very similar," he says. "It surprised us when we first figured it out."

So if leg turnover is the same, how does one person run faster than another?

Weyand discovered that speed is dependent upon two variables: The force with which one presses against the ground and how long one applies that force.

Think of the legs as springs. The more force they can push against the ground, the further they can propel the body forward, thus maximizing the output of each individual step. In a full sprint, the average person applies about 500 to 600 pounds of force. An Olympic sprinter can apply more than 1,000 pounds.

But force isn't the only factor. How quickly that force is applied factors in as well.

For this, think of bouncing a beach ball versus a super ball. The beach ball is soft and mushy and when bounced on the ground sits for a while before slowly rebounding back into the air. Conversely, a super ball is hard and stiff and when bounced rebounds almost instantaneously -- and at a much faster speed than the beach ball.

The average person's foot is on the ground for about .12 seconds, while an Olympic sprinter's foot is on the ground for just .08 seconds -- a 60-percent difference.

"The amount of time [one's legs are] in the air is .12, regardless if you're fast or slow," Weyand explains. "An elite sprinter gets the aerial time they need with less time on the ground to generate that lift -- or to get back up in the air -- because they can hit harder."

So what makes Bolt faster than even the elite sprinters? And can he run the 100 meters even faster than 9.58 seconds?

Bolt's superiority is often explained by his unique combination of height, strength and acceleration.

At 6-foot-5, Bolt is two inches taller than fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell (pictured together below) and has six inches on American Tyson Gay -- two of his closest challengers. While it takes most elite sprinters 44 strides to complete 100 meters, Bolt does it in 41.

"Would you rather take 44 steps to your car or 41?" asks Dan Pfaff, who coached Canada's Donovan Bailey to the 100-meter gold during the Atlanta Games in 1996.

Pfaff, now working in London to help boost Great Britain's track-and-field hopes for 2012, says Bolt's height gives him a distinct leverage advantage.

"If you're digging a hole in the ground, you have to get a longer lever to pry [out a rock]," he explains. "If you can control those levers and make them work efficiently, it's a huge advantage."

It's Bolt's ability to control the levers that is so unusual for a sprinter his height.

While taller sprinters may be able to reach a higher top-end speed, getting up to that speed isn't as easy. This can be explained physiologically -- smaller people can exert more force in relation to how much they weigh -- but Weyand prefers a more simple visual to show this to be true.

"You can easily imagine a 4-foot-10 gymnast doing a triple back flip, but imagine Shaquille O'Neal or Yao Ming doing it," he says. "You know they can't do it."

Bolt, it seems, is the exception to this rule. Though he's not doing triple back flips, he does get up to speed nearly as quickly as his more diminutive competitors.

"He has a very unusual combination of being extremely tall and relatively massive and being able to accelerate well. Those things are at odds with each other," explains Mike Young, a strength and speed coach who's tutored several collegiate national champions. "He accelerates better than all but one guy in the world -- behind Asafa Powell -- but because he's so massive, he takes fewer strides. If you're that large, once you're moving, you stay moving."

This would help explain why Bolt still managed to break the world record during the Beijing Games in 2008 despite throwing up his arms in celebration some 20 meters before the finish. As Young explains, if the "average athlete is a motorcycle, Usain Bolt is a dump truck," and it takes a lot more resistance to slow down a dump truck than a motorcycle. Thus, when he fatigues, he slows down more slowly.

"He has the holy triumvirate," Young contends. "He's one of the top accelerators, has the highest top-end speed and the highest endurance. It's something that's never been seen before. Carl Lewis had the highest top speed, the highest endurance, but he was not the best accelerator."

Bolt, just 24, has set his goal of running the 100 meters in the 9.4 range, explaining to Britain's BBC Radio: "Because that's where I think the record will probably never be beaten."

While Young doesn't think Bolt will break 9.5 in London, Weyand, through his research, says it's possible. Though if Bolt pulls it off, it won't be because he moves his legs any faster.

Republished from: ThePostGame
Written By: Jay Hart

Somatic Emotional Therapy - The Work of Stanley Keleman

2011-06-19T22:13:00.001+01:00

By Anthony Kingsley BSc MA MSTAT - Alexander Technique Teacher
Reposted from www.alexander-technique-london.co.uk/alexander_technique_articles.php?article=16

Introduction

Stanley Keleman has developed and is still developing his approach to somatic therapy. He has been expounding his ideas since the early 70's and has written numerous books. It is noteworthy that references are almost totally absent from his writings. However, it would be a mistake to conclude that Keleman has developed his approach in a vacuum. His influences are in fact wide-ranging, and he does admit to being inspired by Freud Adler and Jung, Graf Durckheim, Heideger's philosophy, and Nina Bull who wrote on attitude theory. Keleman's somatic therapy rests on a firm Western tradition.

Although Keleman trained with Alexander Lowen, the founder of Bioenergetics, his approach to bodywork offers a unique vision, and parts company from both Reich and Lowen. Reich proposed an absolute transformation of society that would accept the full animal passions of man and woman. The goal was total orgastic potency and sexual liberation. Lowen reintroduced Freud's reality principle into the picture. In contrast to Reich's excess, Lowen recognised the social limits to total gratification. His exercises are designed to enliven the body in order to experience pleasure and joy. But Lowen understood that a creative approach to life demands a conscious acceptance of the truth that conflict is inherent to our being, that total release of tension is not possible. (See Lowen, 1994, p. 231-251). In Keleman's vision, the reality principle is not simply the cause of an 'emotional plague' as with Reich, nor a given that must be accepted as with Lowen, but instead a tool for emotional growth. He offers an educational perspective on the human condition that is both original and inspiring.

Life as an Organising and Formative Process

"Each of us has a choice, to continue to identify with old patterns or to reorganise. We can live intensely and grow emotionally or to reorganise." (Keleman, 1987, p.1)

Keleman's approach to somatic therapy follows on naturally from the identity of attitude and form. Accordingly, our emotions and thoughts are intimately connected to our muscular gestures. Our postures and form, our mobility and motility recount our emotional and cognitive history. We therefore organise our own emotional and mental realities. And here is the nub of it; if we organise our realities, we can disorganise and reorganise our muscular emotional pattern. This then is the central feature of Keleman's work today.

In Wilde's 'Dorian Gray', we are told how by the age of forty, we get the face we deserve. And as I say to my Alexander pupils, by the age of forty we get the body we deserve! But Keleman shows us that we can participate in our own reforming.

'The basic adventure of life is how a person organises the form of his own existence, disorganises what is no longer relevant, and generates new experiences to become the person that he lives and not the person that he imagines he has to be.' (Keleman, 1989, p. i)

Emotional Anatomy

"We generally think of an attitude as a mental set. An attitude is a bodily set. Our attitudes are the framework of our form" (Keleman, 1975, (2), p. 54)

"It is important to appreciate the fact that mental attitudes and body attitudes are identical." (Keleman, 1975 (2) , p. 62)

"My particular bodily form, my particular body feeling, is testimony to my particular character, my particular way of behaving, both psychologically and physically." (Keleman, 1975 (2), p. 66)

"During the last thirty years, in exploring emotions and the soma, I have understood what Freud stated so eloquently - anatomy is destiny. Anatomical process is a deep and powerful wisdom giving rise to internal feeling images." (Keleman, 1985, p. xii)

Fundamental to Keleman's thinking is the reality of psycho-somatic unity. Form is character and character is form. He argues against the old concepts of mind and body dualism. But even the newer ideas of energy and body were tainted by the same polarised inadequacy. Keleman came to a realisation of wholeness that accepts no compromise.

"I felt that I did not inhabit my body, I was my body, that I was not a polar opposite to what was material." (Keleman, 1979, p. 11)

When I first came across Keleman's books, in 1986, I had just qualified as an Alexander teacher. I was electrified to discover how a psychotherapist was echoing the basic tenets of F. M. Alexander. In "The Use of the Self", written in 1932, Alexander was at pains to emphasise "the indivisible unity of the human organism." He repeatedly argued "that the so-called "mental" and "physical" are not separate entities." (Alexander, 1984, p. 5)

Many years later, I participated in one of Keleman's workshops, and I then realised how how much his work shared the principles of the Alexander Technique.

Challenges and Insults to Form

During the process of self-formation, a person meets challenges. The challenge can come from either one's internal or external environment. When the challenge exceeds the capacity of the person to tolerate the distress, a distortion of shape takes place as a coping strategy. Through repetition and over time, this pattern can solidify and become a person's shape. From this shape, both inner and outer, a person tends to respond to the world in a stereotypical and predictable manner. There is no such thing as the right shape. Our individual shapes represent our varied attempts to love and be loved. However, a person's shape is always a combination of inherited givens and the type of obstacle that he is struggling with.

Keleman's approach to form is no simple body language or posture. It includes our visceral system, our deep muscles, our series of tubes and pouches, our liquids and gases, our chemical and hormonal system and our metabolism. From this complex of layers, our consciousness arises and our thoughts, feelings and sensations emerge. Through assaults on our form, the natural vibrations, pulsations and streamings of the body are restricted and our aliveness is diminished. We lose our natural grace and vitality.

Pulsation is basic to human aliveness. The heart muscle expands and contracts, breathing is a rhythm of in and out. Digestion is based on peristaltic motion like an accordion. We also experience pulsation in the sexual organs. When there is an interference to our pulsating patterns, we can experience feeling ungrounded, unconnected and alienated. Keleman views our present culture as an imbalance of pulsation.

"We are caught up in a localised, specialised pulsation in our heads, temporarily moving it to our genitals yet totally unconnected to its overt feeling and its history of development as well as our relation to others." (ibid. p. 29)

The Startle Pattern

Keleman sees our reaction to shock as a continuum. This continuum reflects the way that we embody the stress experience. A state of shock goes through six stages: attention, fear/attack, turning away, helplessness/submission, hopelessness/apathy, and collapse. The first three stages show a progressive increase in form, organisation and activity. These are examples of the overbound structure, and the increase in activity is felt as excitation or anxiety. However, at the third stage there is a shift from the increase of form to a decrease of form, from overbound to underbound. (See Appendix 1 & 2)

"As the increase in structure becomes oppressive, the organism responds with inhibition and depression. If the insult continues, helplessness, submission, hopelessness, and apathy arise. Finally, a person retreats into collapse. (ibid. p. 30)

The overbound and underbound structures reflect our resistance or our submission to insults. Keleman identifies four basic structures or character types that lie along the stress continuum: the rigid, dense, swollen, and collapsed structures. They form a progressive continuum that...

"goes from stiffening (fixated muscular expansion) to compacting (fixated muscular contraction) to swelling (fixated pouch expansion) to finally, collapse (fixated pouch contraction). At one extreme the person gets bigger - rigid and swollen structures - while at the other end he gets smaller - the dense and collapsed types." (Keleman, 1985, p. 104)

Inhibition and Self-Management

Central to the practice of Somatic therapy are the concepts of inhibition and self-management. The goal of somatic therapy is not simply to create charge and provoke discharge. Keleman has developed beyond the confines of Bioenergetics. And, although his earlier work experimented with the activation of excitation and discharge, his recent work in somatic process distrusts catharsis.

"My therapeutic goal is to teach self-management, not catharsis...Many people who are cathartic lack thought; they have a high degree of responsiveness and excitability and are capable of throwing themselves into an activity. At the same time, they are not able to use their cathartic experience to form a more satisfying life or human relationships." (ibid, p. 63)

Powerful emotions and intense excitement by themselves are not the heart of the healing endeavour. The danger of cathartic techniques is that they may overwhelm the organism and lead to disorganisation and disintegration. Keleman refers to this mindless explosiveness as "decorticalisation", by which he means that our brains have been decommissioned and we have lost a relationship to our cortex. This activity is a kind of madness and is antithetical to self-management.

Furthermore, Keleman considers catharsis as potentially injurious to the cortex. He sees evidence for this in the traumatic emotional event which generates Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. (Personal communication from S. Keleman)

The key to self-management is inhibition. It is not acknowledged in his books, but I understand from personal conversations with Keleman, that his use of the term inhibition relates to the Alexandrian concept of neural inhibition. This refers to the mental capacity not to react, a kind of muscular emotional breaking. By enhancing our ability not to react to life's stimuli, we begin to free ourselves from patterns of behaviour. A space is then created in which a new organisation can form from which a new identity, new feelings and new behaviours can emerge. New somatic shapes are created.

The Management of Depression and Panic

Keleman understands depression and panic as polar extremes on a continuum. At one extreme there is underwhelming depression and at the other extreme is overwhelming panic. In the face of too much excitation, we begin to compact and contract ourselves. We stiffen ourselves as a protection from experiencing too much panic. This freezing sets the stage for the experience of depression. So when we fear that we are unable to contain our arousal, we initiate a pattern of compression and contraction. Depression is therefore a strategy to deaden and manage our unformed panic. We then give ourselves more form and solidity.

The danger in disorganising depression is that we will be overwhelmed and overaroused. We may fear our inability to contain our panic, we fear leaking out. This then is the dilemma of the depressive. The fear of unbounded overarousal or to remain in a deadened state, unresponsive and helpless.

The goal of somatic therapy is not simply to reexperience a particular emotion, or to temporarily lift the veil of depression. Keleman argues that a momentary shift in our emotional reality does not in itself lead to self management.

"This is an illusion to say the least. Compression, compaction or depression in inhibiting bodying, inhibits the way we use ourselves in social and personal situations. This means there is kind of a disused atrophy or unused atrophy underneath. Something is not being exercised." (Keleman in MacClure Interview, 1997)

What is needed is not some short-term solution but rather a strategy for practising a new embodying. We need to exercise a new forming so that a new reality can emerge,ripen and mature. It is like the atrophy of unused muscles. Lifting heavy weights for one session does not retrain our muscles, nor create a new body. Similarly, somatic emotional exercises must be practised in order to influence the brain. This is the purpose of the "How" exercise.

The "How" Excercise

Keleman originated the "How" exercise as a methodology for emotional reeducation. It is based on the volitional ability of the brain, our ability to modify our muscle tension and our emotional gestures. The "How" exercise is a process of self-exploration and self-knowing. We learn how we use, or organise ourselves in any given situation. In the "How" exercise we learn to manage ourselves through the dialogue between brain and muscle. It is based on five steps. We can apply this procedure to any response in daily life. But for the purpose of this essay, we will explore the management of depression and panic.

The first step is to identify our somatic attitude, our body/emotional stance. In the case of the depressive, the person asks himself how he is organising his depression. In this case he is compacting and compressing himself. In step two we choose to intensify the pattern. We compress ourselves a little more. In step three we disorganise what we just did. We compress a little less, and a little less. We can go back and forth from step two and three as we experiment with doing it a little more and a little less, like an accordion. In step four we simply wait and allow feelings and associations to arise. Keleman refers to this as a stage of emotional incubation. This is the creative space of the middle ground.

"It is a pause in which you feel elements of something about to happen. The attitude of openness is one of containment...You are between what has ended and what has not yet arrived, in a pregnant place." (Keleman, 1987, p. 15)

In step five we reflect on what we have experienced, and how we can practice new ways of using ourselves.

The Somatic Vision

Through practising the five steps, a person's unformed part develops shape. From this emerging form, one acquires new behaviours and new ways of relating. There is a move from helplessness to hope.

"The goal of therapy thus becomes how we form ourselves, how we organise and disorganise experience. This is different than insight, individuation, increased excitation, or the integration of dissociated experiences. Therapy reinstitutes the formative process as the baseline of experience by which we form ourselves and a life" (Keleman, 1987, p. 83)

All this of course demands discipline. There are no quick fixes. My work as an Alexander Teacher has been transformed by my dialogue with Keleman, as I believe that Keleman's work has perhaps been enriched by Alexander. But that of course is another topic!

© Anthony Kingsley 1998
www.alexander-technique-london.co.uk

Three-minute fix . . . Tennis ball massage

2011-06-19T20:46:00.001+01:00

Massage therapist Trevor Chisman explains an easy way to ease tension in the back

Laura Barnett
The Guardian, Tuesday 15 February 2011

According to Glasgow-based massage therapist Trevor Chisman, one of the easiest ways to ease tension in the back is to spend a few minutes each day massaging the affected area with a tennis ball. "People who sit at a desk every day, hunched over a keyboard, tend to get a lot of knotting in their back," he says. "A tennis ball can make a huge difference."

"Stand against a wall, with the ball placed between your spine and your shoulderblade; move up and down for a minute or two; then repeat on the other shoulderblade. Alternatively, lie on the floor, with the ball in the same place, and roll back and forth."

The technique can also be used on the thighs or buttocks. For the thighs, Chisman advises sitting on a table with your thighs on the surface, and the rest of your leg hanging over the edge. Place the ball under your thigh, then straighten your leg so that the ball moves up and down the muscle. "It's great for the glutes, too," he adds. "Lie on the floor or lean against the wall, with the ball against your buttock muscles, and move so the ball moves with you. A lot of sportspeople do this as a simple form of physio."

"I have people," says Chisman, "who never go anywhere without a tennis ball in their suitcase."

Laura Barnett
The Guardian, Tuesday 15 February 2011

The Core Stability Myth

2011-06-19T20:39:00.001+01:00

By Peta Bee, The Times – Body and Soul
August 10 2010

It’s taken ten years to discover that the founding principles of Pilates are flawed. If there is a Holy Grail of fitness to have emerged over the past decade, then it has to be the pursuit of core stability, the strengthening, toning and honing of the muscles that wrap around our midriffs like a corset. Celebrities including Kate Winslet, Sharon Stone, Gwyneth Paltrow and Beyoncé have swarmed to classes such as Pilates, in which the central message is that the deeply embedded muscles in our trunk must be strong if we are to look good, stand up straight and have bodies that move freely and without pain. They hold the spine in place, we are told, and prevent back pain by allowing us to move as nature intended. Few gym workouts are conducted without the instruction to “engage” the core by pulling in the belly button and sucking in the stomach; we ignore the core at our peril.

But among exercise scientists there is growing dissent about whether the pursuit of a strong core is worthwhile or even safe. Pilates and other classes that concentrate on core strength had been favourites of dancers and gymnasts for years. But they were not to become a fitness phenomenon until the mid-1990s, when a study by Australian scientists researching the causes of back pain produced a groundbreaking discovery.

Professor Paul Hodges, head of human neurosciences at Queensland University, attached electrodes to two groups of subjects — one with healthy backs and another with persistent back pain — and got them to do a series of rapid arm raises. His results showed that the brains of the healthy subjects appeared to send signals to a deeply embedded muscle called the transversus abdominis, triggering it to contract and support the spine just before the arms moved. In those with back pain, no such reaction took place, leaving the spine unsupported and vulnerable. Hodges then showed that the same muscle could be strengthened by “sucking in” or “hollowing out” (pulling navel to spine) the stomach during exercises and that the effects seemed to provide some protection against sore backs.

It was neither a clear link, nor was the evidence conclusive, but the concept quickly spread beyond physiology laboratories into the gym world, spawning a rapid rise in classes based entirely on this principle. Before long a stable core was lauded as a prerequisite in the fight against back pain and postural problems, as well as a washboard stomach. Without a strong foundation, proponents of core strength argued, our limbs cannot move freely and efficiently, our breathing is hampered and, what’s more, we look awful. But experts now claim that personal trainers and gym instructors have based an entire industry of exercise classes on evidence that has been grossly misconstrued. “The fitness industry took a piece of information and ran with it,” says Thomas Nesser, assistant professor of physical education at Indiana State University who has been researching the effect of the boom in Pilates-style activities. “The assumption of ‘if a little is good, then more must be better’ was applied to core training and it was completely blown out of proportion.”

What is overwhelmingly accepted among critics is that too many workouts are entirely dedicated to strengthening the deeply embedded muscles of the core, an approach that can prove futile, particularly when it comes to preventing back pain. Two years ago, a controversial paper in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggested that the importance of core strength has been overplayed and that, even if there were some truth in the notion put forward by Hodges and his team that a strong transversus abdominis muscle eased a sore back, the likelihood is that attempts to strengthen trunk muscles in the otherwise fit and healthy would probably have little benefit and may even backfire with disastrous consequences.

Stuart McGill, professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo in Canada, says: “Too much emphasis is placed on working the transversus abdominis and if people follow that advice they are misguided and will not achieve better movement or less pain.” McGill’s particular concern is the widespread instruction in Pilates, some types of yoga and other classes to “draw in” or “hollow out” the stomach during moves, something he has shown can destabilise the spine by upsetting its alignment. “In studies we have done, the amount of load the spine could bear was greatly reduced when subjects sucked in their belly buttons,” he says. “What happens is that the muscles are brought closer to the spine, which reduces the stability in the back. It becomes weak and wobbly as you try to move.”

Physiotherapists have reported seeing a growing number of people who have suffered back problems as a result of poor Pilates technique. They tighten their lower backs, stop breathing or drop the pelvic muscles when attempting to “engage the core”, all of which can potentially make back pain worse. Pete Gladwell, a specialist physiotherapist with the Bristol NHS pain management service, says many physiotherapists as well as personal trainers embraced the “core stability” theory and the concept of Pilates helping back pain, without considering it might be flawed. “The early research compared core stability intervention with GP-led care rather than assessing the best available approaches,” Gladwell says. “Almost any type of movement will compare well in that scenario.”

There is doubt, too, that Pilates leads to a more efficient body that moves freely and is less prone to the mechanical ravages of ageing. Professor Nesser recently tried to establish a positive link between good core stability and functional movement — the ability to perform ordinary daily tasks — but failed. He says that “despite the emphasis fitness professionals have placed on functional movement and core training for increased performance, our results suggest otherwise — they should not be the primary emphasis of an exercise programme.” Even in sport, the tide is turning against the view that core strength is essential for improvement. For several years, elite athletes — including David Beckham and Zara Phillips — have devoted huge chunks of their training to developing core stability. But some researchers investigating the benefits of a strong midsection to sports performance have drawn a blank. When Professor Nesser looked at the top footballers, he found that those with a strong core played no better than those without. “It appears there is no performance benefit in sport from having a stronger core,” he says.

What about those who devote hours to Pilates and improving core strength not to ease their backs or to correct postural imbalance, but to get the lean, toned limbs and torso of the A-listers? Will hours on the Reformer equipment or in mat-based classes provide the body they hanker after? Not unless you do it in addition to the fitness basics of resistance training and endurance activities such as running, cycling and swimming.

According to the American Council on Exercise, a consumer watchdog that commissioned research on the fitness effects of Pilates, a beginner’s class did not meet the recommended levels of exertion for improving even basic cardio- respiratory fitness, burning only 174 calories. Even advanced Pilates only entailed the same amount of effort required for a steady walk and used up fewer calories (254) than most aerobic activities of the same duration. “Do not give in to the temptation to dedicate entire workouts to the core,” urges Professor Nesser. If you enjoy doing core stability exercise, keep it up. “But don’t expect to become immune to injury and don’t expect to improve your fitness if that’s all you do,” says Professor Eyal Lederman, an osteopath and director of the Centre for Professional Development in Osteopathy and Manual Therapy in London and the author of a paper entitled The Myth of Core Stability.

Where does that leave a generation devoted to honing their midsections? Experts say we have spent too long focusing on a few select muscles. Core strength is important, but only if the rest of your body is in good shape, and it’s time for trainers to stand back and view the body as a whole. Professor Lederman says the fitness industry seized on the idea of core stability as a simple solution, a silver bullet to improved function and fitness. The past ten years, he says, have been “a lost decade” in that we have wasted time and effort on workouts that needlessly concentrate on the area surrounding our navels. “Someone once told me that it takes 75 years for a medical myth to be erased from public thinking,” he says. “We’ve had the core stability myth for ten years. There’s a long way to go.”

By Peta Bee, The Times – Body and Soul
August 10 2010

Posture Ball

2011-06-17T23:51:00.001+01:00

For all those clients I have recommended use posture sitting ball, below are a few links to purchase them.

http://www.pilates-mad.com/product/7-exer-soft-ball-blue

http://www.physiosupplies.com/acatalog/Exersoft_Balls.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gymnic-Soft-Gym-Exercise-Ball/dp/B0043H2YWI/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1308350699&sr=8-7

Essentially you are looking for soft pilates type exercise ball of around 7inches. Please let me know if you find them for an amazing price somewhere so I can share it with other clients.

TED Talk - The Mystery of Chronic Pain

2011-05-31T08:01:00.000+01:00

This brilliant talk discusses how your body can distort pain messages in your body.

The Bowen Asthma Release Move

2011-03-16T00:27:00.000Z

Many years ago when my daughter was only 2 years old she was treated by a Bowen therapist for Asthma, the treatment was so successful he has gone on to research and specialise in treating children and adults who suffer with asthma using the Bowen Technique.

Thank you Alastair for allowing me to repost the following information on my website.

Alastair Rattrays original asthma case study using the Bowen Technique with my daughter.

Following article originally posted on http://www.bowen-for-asthma.com

The Bowen Release Move

The Bowen Asthma Emergency Procedure is taught on the Bowen Technique courses as part of the Respiratory Procedure. It is quick to administer. In a full attack, the stomach and chest appear to collapse inwards because of the Diaphragm going into full spasm.Most, if not all, of my asthma cases also use this move instead of Ventolin. If it does not work, it is perfectly alright to use the reliever spray.

1.In a major asthma attack

Call the Emergency Services immediately.

While waiting for help to arrive, the following procedure often produces immediate relief. Remain calm as the victim will be very anxious.

In a full attack, the person may not be able to breath out at all.

2. To release the full spasm of the diaphragm, find the bottom of the Breast Bone (fig 1). Just below it is the very sensitive Xiphoid Process just under the skin (small children may not yet have a fully developed Xiphoid Process).

3. Place a thumb about one inch below the Xiphoid Process in the soft "stomach" area (fig 2).

4. Gently push the skin up about 1-inch (fig 3).

5. Apply a small amount of pressure inwards, and

6. Pull the thumb down moderately quickly and firmly to release the spasm (fig 4).
This should release the spasm immediately and the air is then released from the lungs.

If not, try again..

Note: You can use this procedure gently to release light spasms of the Diaphragm when the child or adult is just a bit wheezy or coughing. This often helps and can be done several times. It is important to only use a small amount of pressure when it is not a full attack and the Diaphragm is only slightly in spasm.

A mother recently commented "I thought I had not really done anything". This was the right way to do it.

This also works with other similar conditions, such as with Panic Attacks and may also help release chest tension in a case of "Anaphylactic Shock".

Thank you again to Alastair Rattray for allowing me to reprint this article here.

http://www.relieve-childhood-asthma.com

http://www.bowen-for-asthma.com

Deep Tissue Massage Lowers Blood Pressure and Heart Rate

2010-12-14T18:42:00.005Z

A study - The Effects of Deep-Tissue Massage Therapy on Blood Pressure and Heart Rate - published in The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine (Volume 14, Number 2, 2008, pp 125-128) found that Deep Tissue Massage lowered blood pressure and heart rate.

The study involved 263 volunteers (12% Male and 88% Female) with an average age of 48.5. Massages were between 45 and 60 minutes long and over the course of the study 21 different soothing CD's played in the background. The deep tissue therapist involved in the study had 22 years experience working with clients.

2 volunteers were not included in the results as they had never received massage before. Although all volunteers had reports significant pain or discomfort prior to the deep tissue massage this was not measure pre and post treatment as it was not part of the study in addition no correlation was done between the CD's being played and blood pressure drop, however as the CD's were hardly audible it is unlikely they altered hemodynamics. It is worth noting the experience level of the therapist who had 22 years experience working with clients.

The results of the study demonstrated an average systolic pressure reduction of 10.4 mm Hg (p<0.06), a diastolic pressure reduction of 5.3 mm Hg (p<0.04), a mean arterial pressure reduction of 7.0 mm Hg (p<0.47) and an average heart rate reduction of 10.8 beats per minute (p<0.003).

Several studies have been published prior to this that investigated the relationship between massage and blood pressure, the most recent included 150 volunteers receiving varied massage therapies and the findings showed minimal changes to blood pressure. This study builds on those previous studies and is far more focused as it includes a larger sample size and concentrates on one style of massage therapy - Deep Tissue Massage.

So what can we draw from this study and findings - basically there seems to be a correlation between deep tissue massage and a reduction in blood pressure and heart rate and hopefully more studies will be done in the future that replicate these finding and can give more conclusive evidence.

Full Text - The Effects of Deep-Tissue Massage Therapy on Blood Pressure and Heart Rate

The New Rules of Posture

2010-10-29T11:41:00.000+01:00

The New Rules of Posture
How to Sit, Stand and Move in the Modern World
Mary Bond

The new rules of posture is an essential book for anyone looking to improve their posture and feel more at ease in their body it will teach you in simple and easy to follow steps how to reconnect with your body and learn how to use it more efficiently.

"Many people cause their own back and body pain through their everyday bad postural and movement habits, Many sense that their poor posture is probably the root of the problem, but they are unable to change long-standing habits.
In The New Rules of Posture, Mary Bond approaches postural changes from the inside out. She explains that healthy posture comes from a new sense we can learn to feel, not by training our muscles into an ideal shape. She identifies the key anatomical features that impact alignment, particularly in light of our modern sedentary lives, and proposes six zones that help create postural changes: the pelvic floor, the breathing muscles, the abdomen, the hands, the feet and the head. She offers self-help exercises that enable healthy function in each zone as well as information on basic ergonomics and case histories to inspire us to think about our own habitual movements."

This is one of the best books I have read on the subject of posture and would recommend it to everyone interested in health, the human body, movement and body therapies.

Mary Bond has a Master's degree in dance from UCLA and trained with Dr. Ida P. Rolf as a structural Integration practitioner. She is a movement instructor at the Rolf Institute and teaches movement workshops in the USA.

The New Rules of Posture
How to Sit, Stand and Move in the Modern World
Mary Bond

GPs asked to recommend CHNC registered massage therapists

2010-10-29T11:14:00.001+01:00

The Department of Health this week asked GPs and Chief Nursing Officers to recommend patients who are seeking massage therapy and other complementary therapies to consult with practitioners who are registered with the Complementary & Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC).

The request was issued by the Department of Health in the October GP and Chief Nursing Officer Bulletins.
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Bulletins/GPbulletin/DH_120728#_11

I have been registered with CHNC as a massage therapist since 26th Feb 2010 and was the first massage therapist in Glasgow who was registered.

You can find me in the register here > TREVOR CHISMAN 000238-B10.

Here is a link to all CHNC Registered Massage Therapists in Glasgow.

Exercise Your Multifidi

2010-07-25T20:20:00.005+01:00

This is one of the easiest and actually one of the best exercises you can possibly do for your back. It specifically targets the Multifidi muscle group which provide stability to the vertebrae.

The Multifidi muscles are important not only as stabilisers of the spine but also because they are inside the joint capsule and as such when they fire they actually hold the joint capsule away from the vertebrae so it doesn't get pinched or at least that is what they should be doing.

Have you ever had a unexpected and sudden twinge in your back when, for example, you get out of the car? It is likely that the twinge is the joint capsule getting pinched because one small branch of the multifidi hasn't fired when required, this often leads to nothing more than being a little guarded about your back for a few minutes but can sometimes lead to muscle spasm and acute back pain that may last for hours, days or even weeks.

The exercises in the video below are specifically used to target the Multifidi muscles and make sure that when required to act they do so every time without fail.

Be aware it is a core stability exercise and as such it isn't going to make you break a sweat but instead you should be focusing on making sure you engage your core.

It is possible to advance the exercise once it becomes very easy by also raising the opposite arm and hand at the same time and when this becomes very easy you can if you wish add wrist and ankle weights.

As with all exercises if it doesn't feel right or if you experience any pain stop and consult a trained exercise professional, physiotherapist or your Doctor.

Video courtesy of www.feelfit.com.

Massage Removes Lactic Acid - No It Doesn't

2010-07-07T23:10:00.006+01:00

There is so much information passed on by massage therapists to clients that doesn't have any basis in fact and this is one about massage removing lactic acid is one of my personal favorites.

Have you ever been told by your massage therapist to "drink plenty of water to help flush out the toxins that massage has just removed from your muscles"? If you've ever questioned your therapist about what exactly these toxins are you will undoubtably have been told "Lactic Acid".

Now let me get things straight, I'm not having a go at massage therapists, the problem is, most will just dutifully repeat what they have been taught in massage school without question. Fortunately a Queen's University research team has blown open the myth that massage after exercise improves circulation to the muscle and assists in the removal of lactic acid and other waste products.

"This dispels a common belief in the general public about the way in which massage is beneficial," says Kinesiology and Health Studies professor Michael Tschakovsky. "It also dispels that belief among people in the physical therapy profession. All the physical therapy professionals that I have talked to, when asked what massage does, answer that it improves muscle blood flow and helps get rid of lactic acid. Ours is the first study to challenge this and rigorously test its validity."

The belief that massage aids in the removal of lactic acid from muscle tissue is so pervasive it is even listed on the Canadian Sports Massage Therapists website as one of the benefits of massage, despite there being absolutely no scientific research to back this up.

Kinesiology MSc candidate Vicky Wiltshire and Dr. Tschakovsky set out to discover if this untested hypothesis was true, and their results show that massage actually impairs blood flow to the muscle after exercise, and that it therefore also impairs the removal of lactic acid from muscle after exercise.

This isn't to say that massage isn't beneficial, it plainly is, but as massage therapists we need to be providing our clients with information that is based on fact and not just repeating like parrots myths and misinformation.

And yes, in case you're wondering, it is a good idea to drink water after a massage, it helps to hydrate your soft tissues which have been manipulated during the massage.

This study was presented at the annual American College of Sports Medicine conference in Seattle, Washington May 27-30, 2009

Unique Muscle Design Stabilises Spine

2010-07-07T23:02:00.002+01:00

The novel design of a deep muscle along the spinal column called the multifidus muscle may in fact be key to spinal support and a healthy back, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Their findings about the potentially important "scaffolding" role of this poorly understood muscle has been published on line in advance of the January issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

"The multifidus muscle was formerly thought to be relatively unimportant based on its fairly small size," said Richard L. Lieber, Ph.D., Professor and Vice Chair of UC San Diego's Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Director of the National Center for Skeletal Muscle Rehabilitation Research, based at UC San Diego. Lieber is also Senior Research Career Scientist at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Health System. "Our research shows that it's actually the strongest muscle in the back because of its unique design. It's like a long, skinny pencil packed with millions of tiny fibers."

The researchers discovered that the multifidus has a unique packing design consisting of short fibers arranged within rods, and that these fibers are stiffer than any other in the body. Using laser diffraction methods that they developed to measure muscle internal properties during back surgery, they demonstrated that the multifidus' unique design serves a critical function as a stabilizer of the lumbar spine. These findings could have implications for surgery, according to Steven R. Garfin, M.D., Professor and Chair of UCSD's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

"It is important to identify what each individual muscle does, and this is just a start, showing that the multifidus contributes significantly to spinal stabilization," said Garfin. "The more we know about what muscles do, the better we can devise therapeutic interventions such as physical therapy to target specific muscles."

Garfin explained that currently surgery to treat spinal disorders could actually disrupt the multifidus muscle, which could lead to decreased stabilization and lower back pain. Minimally invasive spine surgery techniques strive to minimize surgical trauma to these muscles in order to best preserve their function.

The lower back, or lumbar spine, can be vulnerable to many pain-causing injuries or disorders because the lumbar vertebrae carry the most body weight and are subject to the most force and stress along the spine. Muscular instability is a risk factor in many injuries and consequent chronic lower back pain, according to Lieber.

"The multifidus back muscle keeps us vertical and takes pressure off the discs," said Lieber. "When muscle function is poor due to back problems, support is lost."

He explained that many muscles get weaker as they are extended. But the researchers discovered that, unlike all other muscles, the multifidus actually becomes stronger as it lengthens, when the spine flexes.

"The length of the sarcomere the structure within the muscle cell where filaments overlap to produce the movements required for muscle contraction is shorter in the multifidus than in any other muscle cell," explained study's first author Samuel R. Ward, P.T., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Radiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine. "But as it gets longer, for instance as a person leans forward, the multifidus actually strengthens."

Contributing authors to the study include UCSD researchers Choll W. Kim, M.D., Ph.D., Carolyn M. Eng, B.S., Lionel J. Gottschalk, B.S.; and Akhito Tomiya, M.D., Ph.D. Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan. Research was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation, Research and Development; the National Institutes of Health and DePuy Spine of Raynham, MA.

University of California San Diego
LaJolla
CA 92093
United States
http://www.ucsd.edu

Improve Your Running Style

2010-06-29T10:17:00.002+01:00

To discover your best running form all you need to do is run barefoot. You'll immediately discover that when barefoot you're not landing on your heels, you're striking on your forefoot.

Striking on your forefoot is the most natural way to run, it is also the fastest and most efficient way to run. Newton Running shoes were developed to make your feet think they're barefoot and increase your performance.

Your Running Sweet Spot

When you walk, you land on your heels. When you sprint, you land on your toes. Running is in between. Efficient distance running is about landing on your sweet spot. Not your heel, not your toes. Newton Running encourages running on your midfoot/forefoot, a technique and position that helps keep you running more efficiently, injury-free and faster, no matter the distance.

Newton Running Shoes - The Worlds Best Running Shoes!

Should I Undress For Massage?

2010-06-18T14:34:00.002+01:00

If you've never been for a massage before or if it's your first visit to a new clinic it can often be a little nerve racking wondering what it will be like.

How should you undress?
How much will you be asked to take off?
Will the therapist stay in the room?
Should you keep your bra on or not?
Should you bring shorts?
If you're having a back massage should you take your trousers off?
Do you keep my socks on?

So many questions all of which you want answered, preferably, before you're about to get undressed so you can arrive at your appointment confident of what is expected and going to happen.

Firstly I'd like to say that this is how it is in my clinic, it might be (and probably is) slightly different in other clinics, but it shouldn't be too far off.

The most important thing for me is that you feel completely comfortable and relaxed. If you feel self-conscious or nervous because you've been asked to take your bra off when you didn't want to then the massage will not be as enjoyable or effective as it possibly could be. So, only undress to a level you are comfortable with, there is no pressure to undress any further than that.

The majority of the massage techniques I use are performed directly on the skin, this means I will ask you to remove those items of clothing that cover the area to be massaged. So for legs I would ask you to remove your trousers, dress or skirt. For back, neck and shoulders I would ask you to remove the upper part of your clothing.

I will always give you time on your own in the room to undress and also to get dressed again at the end of the treatment. I will always knock before entering the room and if you need more time you can just ask me to wait.

For women the question of whether to remove their bra is totally individual, I have many clients who do remove it and many who keep it on. It is often helpful to be able to unclasp it when working through the shoulder balde area but I will always ask you if this is ok.

Should you bring shorts? Many clients who are sporty will bring shorts to wear during the treatment, this is fine if it is how you are most comfortable but it isn't actually the best for massage as shorts tend to be difficult to move out of the way when needing to reach some of the upper leg muscle attachements.

To get the best out of your massage I recommend you to wear as little as you are comfortable wearing. Small stretchy underwear is the best as it can be easily moved to reach muscle attachments but still protects your modesty, keeping your bra on is helpful if we are going to be working with you in a side lying position.

You are given a large sheet to cover yourself when first getting on the table and this sheet is used to cover you for the whole treatment and only the body part being worked on is uncovered at any one time.

You are encouraged to tell me if you are uncomfortable at any point, if you require additional covers, pillows or supports.

I hope this information helps to answer some of your questions before you come in for a treatment if you do have any more questions you can't find the answers to on my website then please do contact me.

Find Trigger Points

2010-05-14T22:38:00.006+01:00

Just quickly I'd like to provide a link to an excellent tool to help you locate trigger points that could be causing you pain and discomfort. Sometimes it can be difficult to locate the trigger point causing the pain as it is often distal to where you feel discomfort.

Click here to see the Trigger Point Finder

I have to give credit to Dr Johnathan Kuttner for this excellent tool, visit his website at http://www.lifeafterpain.com

Use A Foam Roller To Stretch Your ITB

2010-03-21T00:25:00.004Z

A great video demonstrating how to use a foam roller to stretch out your ITB (IllioTibial Band) and some helpful stretches for the Glutes and Piriformis muscles.

Want to get yourself a Foam Roller? They're available in lots of sports shops and physio suppliers. I get mine here - www.physiosupplies.com (Don't get the inflatable rollers, they aren't as effective.)

As with any stretching and exercise, be careful and sensible, if you are at all unsure about how to do the exercises or if they are suitable for you, please check with a qualified fitness instructor or physiotherapist.

Trigger Points Of The Head & Neck

2010-03-07T15:53:00.007Z

Below are some Trigger Point charts for the Head and Neck. These are really helpful if you are experiencing pain and discomfort in the head and neck region and are interested in being able to trace where you are feeling pain or discomfort to a particular Trigger Point so you can treat it.
Worth remembering that the referral area isn't always painful sometimes it can be tingling, numbness, a dead or heavy feeling, or numerous other sensations.

Trigger Points are represented by coloured dots with numbers to identify their names.
Each point is colour coded to match the referral area it is associated with.
The referral areas may have both light and dark areas of the Trigger Point colour.
The dark area is the primary symptom referral area and the light area is the secondary referral area.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

2010-02-02T00:35:00.003Z

One of the most effective and simplest ways to improve your health is to practice breathing exercises. They are easy to do, don't take up much time, need no equipment and can be done pretty much anywhere.

The easiest breathing exercise to start with is Diaphragmatic Breathing, this is actually the way you should be breathing all day every day. Your diaphragm is a muscle that attaches to the inside of your lower ribs and creates a separation between your chest and belly, it is slightly concave so when it contracts it actually flattens out. This flattening of the muscle as it contracts sucks air in to the lungs and pushes down against the organs in the belly, pushing the belly out.

Diaphragmatic breathing gives the organs of the belly a gentle massage every time you take a breath, you utilise greater lung capacity requiring you to take less breaths each day and making each breath more efficient, oxygen intake is increased and the central nervous system is calmed. All good stuff!

Follow the simple steps below to get started with diaphragmatic breathing and then make it part of your everyday living.

1. Find a comfortable space to lie on the floor, if you have a yoga mat this is a great time to get it out, place your feet on the floor so your knees are in a relaxed bent position pointing towards the ceiling, if necessary place a small pillow or book under your head for support. Lastly rest a book on top of your belly button.

2. Inhale slowly through your nose, making sure your chest and shoulders stay as still as possible but that the book on your belly slowly rises as your abdomen expands. Don't force your belly out just let it expand naturally as you breath in.

3. Purse your lips as is preparing to blow out a candle and then slowly exhale whilst counting to 5 or 6. Again this should be relaxed, you are not forcing the air out of your lungs just allowing it to escape. You should be able to see the book on your belly slowly lower as your belly shrinks back, again the shoulders and chest should remain still.

4. Repeat the above steps 2 and 3 about 10 or 12 times, each time making sure the book rises as you inhale and falls as you exhale.

5. Take a break.

Once you are comfortable with your diaphragmatic breathing you can start to do it whilst sitting, standing or even exercising. Obviously its great to do whilst practising Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi or Chi Gung style exercises.

Practice at least once a day but its great if you can do it several times, before you know it you'll be doing it whilst sat on the bus or train or whilst walking down the street.

Note: If you have had difficulties with your breathing in the past it is advised that you consult with your Doctor before performing these exercises.

Muscle Anatomy Charts (anterior and posterior)

2010-01-29T13:31:00.007Z

Ever wanted to know what muscle is hurting or aching?

Well here's two pretty comprehensive muscle anatomy charts one for the anterior view (front) of the body and one for the posterior view (back), these are the type of chart you see on almost every massage therapists or bodyworkers wall.
(click images to view in original large size)

Enjoying Your Massage

2010-01-19T14:32:00.004Z

1. Don't eat right before your massage treatment.

2. Do drink some water to hydrate your muscles and soft tissues.

3. Arrive in plenty of time so you're not rushed and can relax.

4. Tell your therapist if you haven't had massage or this type of massage before.

5. Ask any questions you have about the massage treatment and what will happen.

6. If something doesn't feel right during the treatment, it probably isn't, so tell your therapist what you are feeling.

7. Also tell your therapist if:

the pressure is too deep
you are too hot or cold
you don't like the music
you are uncomfortable in any way
you are not happy with what they are doing
you want the session to end

Remember this is your time and you are paying the therapist.

8. If you want to talk during your treatment, talk, if not don't. The choice is yours.

9. Try to remain relaxed during the session, concentrating on your breathing will help.

10. Gather your thoughts before getting up from the table, you might feel lightheaded for a moment or two.

11. Drink sufficient water after to rehydrate your muscles and soft tissues.

12. Schedule time in after the massage treatment to relax and absorb the effects, at least 15-30 minutes.

More About Trigger Points

2010-01-19T12:45:00.002Z

Today I want to talk about trigger points and chronic muscle pain in a little more depth.

Trigger points are an extremely common cause of pain, so common in fact most people will experience trigger point pain at some point in there life. Many people will suffer long term pain and discomfort from trigger points causing what we call chronic muscle pain. It can be very severe and in some cases incapacitating, but it can be treated once you are aware it is trigger points causing the pain.

Firstly, we'll discuss how a muscle works and specifically the relationship between your muscles and nerves. A muscle is made up of muscle cells which work in connection with muscle spindles. The muscle cell is the part of the muscle that contracts and enables movement, the muscle spindle is a spiralling nerve that sends information to the spinal cord about the muscle. The muscle spindle sends a message to the spinal cord along a sensory nerve and really quickly a corresponding reflex message is sent back to the muscle from the spinal cord along a motor nerve, this is what we refer to as a "Reflex Arc" it is an extremely quick process as you can see yourself when you touch something too hot.

There are millions of these spindles and cells throughout your body and they are required for all the simple things we do without thinking (unconscious actions) such as walking and standing, but they are also very important for our reflex actions, for example when we touch something very hot. In such an instance we don't actually think about moving our hand away from the hot object our muscle just contracts and does it for us, this is the reflex arc in action.

When this reflex arc process goes wrong and misfires it creates the conditions for a trigger point to be created. What happens is the spindle starts firing unnecessarily and the muscle then goes in to spasm, not a full muscle wide spasm but just several muscle cells. When a trigger point has been created within the muscle it creates a trigger point complex with a trigger point nodule and often a taut band of fibres that are being pulled by the trigger point nodule. You will be able to feel this taut band within your muscles, it often feels like a wire or guitar string travelling along the length of the muscle. Along the length of this taut band you will be able to feel a nodule, often far more painful than the rest of the muscle or taut band and slightly smoother than the surrounding muscle tissue.

Trigger points have got there name because they trigger off specific pain patterns within the body. It is possible to map out where trigger points occur within each muscle as they are most often created at the neuromuscular junction or simple put where the nerve joins the muscle. Each trigger point has very specific areas to which it refers sensations, these areas are usually called pain referral areas but often it can be one of many sensations and isn't always pain. It can be a dull or heavy sensation, pins and needles, tingling, a dead sensation, numbness and of course pain.

These referral areas can often be far from the actual trigger point also, such as the trigger points of Gluteus Minimus which is a muscle in the pelvic region and which has a referral area similar to Sciatica and reaching in some cases all the way down to the calf and ankle.

As you can see it is possible for trigger points in the neck to be the cause of headaches, trigger points in the shoulder region to cause arm pain, trigger points in the lower back to cause abdomen pain. Often the area where we feel pain is not the area that is causing the pain and to effectively treat the pain and discomfort you are experiencing it is necessary to look at areas that may feel fine and are distal from the actual problem.

More to come on trigger points and how to locate and treat them in future articles.

Treating Your Trigger Points

2010-01-17T20:59:00.005Z

Another very interesting video from Dr. Jonathan Kuttner from Life After Pain, this time on the self treatment of myofascial trigger points (TrP).

This is a very effective technique and worth giving a try if you are experiencing pain and discomfort caused by trigger points. This technique can also be used in conjunction with the tennis ball to work on hard to reach areas of the body.

Stretching Your Neck Muscles

2010-01-17T20:50:00.004Z

Below is an interesting video by Dr. Jonathan Kuttner from Life After Pain who explains and demonstrates a unique neuromuscular technique for stretching the neck muscles.

This technique can be applied throughout the body to help create increased flexibility and reduce muscle tension.

Dr. Jonathan Kuttner's website is an excellent resource for information and self-help techniques for working with trigger points and reducing muscular pain. Worth checking out!

Why Stretching Is So Important

2010-01-08T16:46:00.009Z

Many of my regular clients will have had to listen to me talking about their Candy Floss or as Gil Hedley calls it in this amazing video The Fuzz.

Whether you refer to it as candy floss or fuzz, this stuff is really important. The connective tissue or fascia of the body is what keeps our bones and muscles moving smoothly around each other.

Anyway, I'm going to hand you over now to Gil Hedley who does are far better job than I could of explaining (and showing) what that candy floss or fuzz is and why it is so important to keep it fluffy.

WARNING: This video contains footage of fresh human cadavers (corpses) so if you are at all squeamish I advise you not to watch it.

Deep Pressure or Deep Tissue Massage

2009-12-11T23:49:00.008Z

I recently saw an advert in an online directory for "Excellent Firm Pressure Massage" and it got me to thinking about the differences between a professional deep tissue massage and a Swedish or therapeutic style massage performed with additional pressure. Many people like to get a deep and also invigorating massage as opposed to a gentle relaxing massage and will ask their therapist to apply more pressure or go deeper, this can be difficult for a lot of therapists as they haven't been properly trained in the techniques and methods of proper deep tissue massage and will just use the same strokes they have been taught for applying Swedish massage but with greater force.

First, it has to be said that any therapist who is using the techniques learned from Swedish and therapeutic massage to apply greater force is risking injury and is also likely to substantially shorten their career. When applying increased pressure during a massage it is important that you do so in a safe and effective way, the most vulnerable areas when apply pressure are the thumbs and wrists both of which are not actually that strong and can easily become inflamed and injured with excessive use.

So how is a professional deep tissue massage different?

A professionally trained deep tissue massage therapist should have a greater understanding of how the human body works, especially the muscles, ligaments, fascia, other soft tissues, bones and joints.

They should be able to palpate for each individual muscle and identify any tight and tense areas, taut bands, trigger points, scar tissue or tears within that muscle.

They will work at a much slower pace when working deep in the muscles. This is for several reasons, to allow the body to become accustomed to the deeper work, to enable the tissues to release at their own rate and to reduce any unnecessary damage to the muscle and therefore soreness the following day. You may find that sometimes your therapist may come to a complete stop to wait for the release of fascia or muscle tissue before continuing with a stroke.

The therapist will usually work with a couch that seems lower than that used by other therapist, this allows the therapist to better use their body weight to apply pressure. A deep tissue therapist will use there own body weight and body mechanics to effortlessly apply pressure and also support the clients body whilst they are working. They may at points during the treatment sit on the couch, crouch on there knees, sit on a stool or place there knee or foot on the couch.

Deep tissue therapists use a wide range of massage strokes with a treatment, this is what they call their toolbox. It will include strokes taken from Swedish massage such as long flowing effluarage to help warm the muscles and to calm the central nervous system before and after more pointed work.

The main techniques used during a treatment for deeper work will include knuckles, fists, the ulna border of the forearm and the more pointed elbow, although this is just a very short list of possibilities and each therapist will develop there own favorite techniques over time.

Your therapist might request you to actively move limbs whilst they are working to aid the techniques they are applying or they may just passively move your limbs through range of motion whilst they perform certain strokes.

There is no real set sequence to a deep tissue massage, your therapist may work the front and then the back of the body as in a traditional Swedish massage, or they may move you around the table far more so they can hang limbs over the side of the couch. They might want you in a side lying position to enable them to more easily access specific muscles or areas.

One of the main differences you will notice is that deep tissue therapist use very little oil if any at all. Depending on the therapist and the work they are doing at that moment they may use no oil at all, a small amount of lotion or as myself a wax product. This is to enable them to have grip and not be sliding around on top of the skin as soon as they want to go in deeper.

They may apply more oil as they are coming toward the end of the treatment to enable the Swedish style strokes that help calm the central nervous system after the deep work at the end of the treatment.

A professional deep tissue massage is totally different from a deep pressure massage.

If you are one of those people who prefers a deep massage, seek out a professionally trained deep tissue massage therapist, you can be sure the treatment will be more effective and less sore the following day!

Semi-Supine Position - The Alexander Technique

2009-11-26T10:53:00.008Z

In a previous post I wrote about the Egoscue Method and an exercise know as Static Back. Today I'd like to take you through a similar exercise called the Semi-Supine Position taken from The Alexander Technique.

It is a extremely simple exercise, so simple in fact that many people wonder how it could possibly help. It doesn't require much space, time or even effort but can be very beneficial to most people suffering from back pain or discomfort.

With the Semi-Supine position you lie on your back on a firm flat surface, with your feet flat on the floor and your knees pointing up towards the ceiling, the knees and feet should be just over hip width apart. Initially I would recommend experimenting with how far apart you have your knees and feet and find out what feels most comfortable to you. Ideally you would place a book under your head, this book would initially be about as thick as your little finger is long. The book is there to help align the cervical (neck) vertebrae, so that the neck lies flatter against the floor. Allow your arms to drop and your hands to automatically find a resting position on your body, with your elbows on the floor.

It is important to note, that although the aim is to relax during semi-supine, you need to maintain an awareness throughout the exercise, rather than drifting off into sleep or daydreaming. Become aware of how your body feels lying against the floor; Noticing which parts are in contact with the floor, and allowing your body to be supported at these places, letting your body sink and melt into the floor. Scan through your body from your feet to head whilst doing the exercise, place your awareness in your feet and ask yourself how do my feet feel? Describing to yourself how they are feeling. Slowly move on up your body placing your awareness in to different areas and body parts and noticing how they are feeling and describing that feeling to yourself. Pay special attention to any areas that have been giving you particular discomfort or pain.

Remember breathe and relax but don’t go to sleep or drift off!

It is best to remain in this position for around 20 minutes a day to get the full benefits, however 5 or 10 minutes a day will still be beneficial. I personally recommend staying in the position for as long as it takes for you to stop thinking about the time and how long you have been lying there. Clock watching isn't helpful whilst doing the semi-supine as it draws your awareness away from what you are actually doing.

When coming out of semi-supine, do so slowly. Roll to one side and rest for a moment on your side before using your hand and arm to help raise your body to a sitting position and again sit for a moment before standing up.

The main benefits of doing the semi-supine position is to realign and lengthen the spine and so reduce unnecessary tension in the supporting muscles, tendons and ligaments. By releasing and freeing up the neck your head can move forward and upward, relative to the neck, and the spine can lengthen and the back widen. This position encourages your body to move out of any habitual postural patterns of rigidity and undue tension, so that your musculature can work appropriately. You might experience increased energy levels due to a decrease in muscular effort and excess tension.

If you would like to learn more about the Semi-Supine position or how The Alexander Technique could help you please contact a qualified teacher within your area.

If you are in Glasgow Scotland, I would highly recommend Barbara Harrington.

Running Tips

2009-11-26T10:29:00.001Z

Everyone these days who decides they need to get fit seems to decide to start running. So many people are training for their first 5k or 10k run. This is great, everyone should invest a little in their health and fitness and running is an excellent exercise for the cardiovascular system and also a great calorie burner for those of us that are trying to shed a few pounds.

However I see a huge amount of people out running who have extremely poor running technique, many people aren't actually running at all but are shuffling very fast! Poor running technique means you are using your body inefficiently. Bio-mechanical inefficiencies lead to repetitive motions that can put extra strains and stresses on bones, joints, ligaments and muscles, increasing the likelihood of pain and discomfort and ultimately injury that could stop you running.

Below are just a few tips and ideas to have in your mind when running, things that might help you improve your technique and avoid injury.

Above all, run tall and keep your body relaxed. And stay alert and aware of your surroundings.
Hold your head erect and don’t stick your chin out – this will create tension in your shoulders. Look ahead, scanning the horizon, not at your feet. Keep the back of your neck and spine in a straight line, perpendicular to the ground. Leaning forward may lead to lower back strain. Leaning back will cause pronounced heal strike (see below), which can put your joints at risk.
Watch out for rounded or hunched shoulders and for ‘shrugging’ when you run. Keep them relaxed. Tense, raised shoulders will slow you down, waste energy and prevent your lungs from expanding to their fullest range, thereby depriving your muscles of oxygen.
Keep your arms relaxed at your sides with elbows flexed at 90º. Let your arms swing freely in a forwards/backwards motion ie. in the direction you are running and not laterally across your body. Don’t exaggerate the arm swing - as you bring one foot forward, swing the opposite hand forward and up just below sternum (mid-chest) level.
Try to keep your hands in a relaxed fist, letting the thumbs rest on your index fingers and your finger tips gently connecting with your palms – clenched fists will create unnecessary tension throughout your whole body.
Don’t twist in your midriff from side-to-side – this causes imbalances in your body, which place stress on all the major joint areas. This is also extremely inefficient as it displaces your forward momentum sideways. The same goes for a bouncing gait – it displaces your momentum upwards.
The knees and feet should be aligned generally in a straight-ahead direction.
Take short steps and land your feet approximately under your body/hips with each stride. If your lower leg lands ahead of the knee, you are over striding and increasing your risk of injuries. Keep your knees slightly bent at all times and do not lift them too high.
Don’t strike the ground with your toes. Instead, strike softly with your midfoot and roll through to your forefoot smoothly. A heel to toe foot strike means that the leg is straight when the heel makes contact with the floor sending the shock directly into your back and causing you to lose speed as you literally brake each time your foot lands. This is bad for your joints and affects your speed.
Reduce your times by increasing pace/cadence (number of steps per minute) rather than stride length. As mentioned above overstriding increases the likelihood of injury.

These are just some general guidelines and ideas to experiment with.
For individual training programmes and recommendations, consult a personal trainer who specialises in running, join a running club or take running lessons, it will be well worth it in the long run!

Why Full Body Massage

2009-11-12T23:16:00.005Z

The reason many people come in for their first massage treatment is because they're experiencing some form of pain, stiffness or discomfort. Whether it be shoulder or neck pain, lower back problems, constant headaches, sports injuries or perhaps Sciatica or some other painful condition.

It is common for most people to only expect the area that is painful to be treated. So if experiencing shoulder and neck pain, most would expect to only receive a back, shoulders and neck massage.

Although this kind of treatment often referred to as "spot work" can be effective at relieving some of the symptoms you are experiencing it is unlikely to create lasting change or address the root causes of your problem. It is extremely common to find that in cases of pain and discomfort there are many postural issues and muscle imbalances that also need addressing and are often a major causal factor.

When viewing the diagrams to the right you are able to see how muscle imbalances can be at the root of many painful postural conditions. It doesn't take much for a sprained ankle to shorten the muscles on the inside of the ankle and lower leg which can over time create stress patterns and muscle imbalances all the way up the body through the knee joint and pelvis to start effecting the lower back and even shoulders and neck. In such a case if we only treated the site of the pain, say the lower back, we would never get round to treating the main causal factor, in this case, the muscles, tendons and ligaments of the lower leg.

Another consideration when we are experiencing pain and discomfort is how we change our body mechanics to avoid intensifying the pain, we will often try to avoid certain movements or positions that aggravate the condition. The body also has a protective mechanism which will often naturally tighten muscles in the region of an injury to reduce movement and the possibility of further injury, this is a process generally referred to as "natural splinting". With the example of the sprained ankle, these could both lead to us adopting a limp in the way we walk, placing more weight on the "good" foot and leg. This in turn will put additional stresses on the muscles and joints of the opposite leg which can often result in that area exhibiting aches and pains of its own.

This is where the importance of full body massage comes in. Although it is important to treat the site of the pain and release tension in the muscles of that region it is equally important to release tensions in any compensatory muscle groups and discover the root cause of the problem, in this way we are treating the whole body as the integrated mechanism that it is. This involves working through the body loosening off tension and restriction wherever we find it from the base of the foot right up to the top of the head.

During a full body massage we are able to easily identify areas of tension, tightness and restriction within the body. An in-depth full body treatment will often incorporate facilitated stretches such as Active Isolated Stretching, MET and PNF stretches to free joint restrictions and lengthen short, tight muscles.

The added benefits of a full body massage is the sense of rejuvenation and restoration felt after the treatment. The body will often feel freer and more open, with range of motion vastly improved and muscle tensions eased. Many people also experience the additional benefit of a long and restorative sleep the night after a treatment, due to the release of deep seated tensions.

It is recommended when booking in for an in-depth full body massage that you request a 2 hour appointment, it is often the case when trying to fit a full body treatment in to a 1 hour session that it is impossible to give each area of the body the attention it requires. However it is always my aim to make each and every treatment, whether it be a 2 hour in-depth full body massage or some "spot work" as effective as possible in relieving any discomfort you are experiencing.

What is Myofascial Release

2009-09-22T11:34:00.006+01:00

Myofascial release or connective tissue massage as it is know by some is a technique for working with the connective tissue of the body. It is highly effective at increasing range of motion, improving posture and re-aligning the body. One of the great by-products of these effects is a reduction in chronic pain and discomfort.

Myofascial release is therefore often used in cases of chronic pain and discomfort. It is different in many respects to what we consider as normal massage, firstly the intention is different, Myofascial release focuses on effecting a release in the connective tissue of the body, this is usually done with what feels like a combination of a massage stroke with stretching of the skin, it is however working on a layer deeper that the skin that surrounds the muscles. Usually no oil or lubricant will be used, but some therapist will use a very small amount of lotion which actually helps with gripping the skin.

Depending on the therapist and type of Myofascial release being performed it can give a slight warming feeling with a slight drag to the skin right up to a burning sensation that can sometimes be quite intense with intense stretching feeling.

So what is connective tissue I hear you ask. When we are taught about anatomy at school we are taught about the bones and muscles that attach to the bones to hold them in place and move them, but this misses the vital all important soft tissue of the body the connective tissue. Connective tissue surrounds every muscle in the body like a skin to the muscle, when it reaches the end of the muscle it will thicken and become tendons which attach the muscle to the bone. It divides areas of the body up, covers our bones and joints. Without it we wouldn't be able to function, muscles create motion, bones create structure but connective tissue brings it all together, enables it to work smoothly and gives us true function. It should be a fluid, moist and flexible substance, fluffy even, a bit like candy floss, but just like candy floss it can become just a sticky, gooey mess that rather than facilitating function starts to restrict it. With Myofascial release we are trying to return it to its fluffy state.
In the image to the right the white layers surrounding the red muscles is connective tissue, as you can see it encompasses everything.

I incorporate Myofascial Release into my treatments as I believe it is extremely effective. The type I practice comes from the background of Rolfing and Structural Integrity although in a slightly gentler form. There are numerous different Myofascial Release styles, some of which are more effective that others and some more intense. On its own I believe Myofascial Release doesn't cover everything required in a treatment in cases of chronic pain as Trigger Points are more often than not also a major issue.

My Type of Massage

2009-09-20T21:00:00.006+01:00

Many clients ask me what the difference is between different types of massage such as deep tissue massage, sports massage, remedial massage or therapeutic massage to name a few and which type of massage do I do?

Well there are differences between all those types of massage treatment and styles but the differences between the massage types are minimal when compared to the differences between massage therapists.

A therapeutic massage from one therapist might be more like a Swedish massage from another therapist. A remedial massage could be the same as a sports massage if injuries are being addresses rather than pre or post event work. Deep tissue massage can be performed during any type of massage treatment but what one therapist describes as deep will be completely different to another therapist.

What is more important when choosing a treatment is the therapist. You will find some therapists who have excellent palpation skills and are able to find all your tender spots easily and quickly and treat them effectively without causing you too much discomfort and some therapists will make you feel more comfortable and relaxed than others.

You need to try different therapies and different therapists to find someone who does what you like but is also effective in treating your problems. Don't just settle for the first therapist you try and don't be put off from a particular therapy or treatment name because one therapist you had a treatment with didn't do what you expected.

So the question is what type of massage treatment do I offer? My website states I do Integrated Deep Tissue, Sports and Therapeutic Massage. This is because these treatments form the base of what I do.

I work to relieve deep seated tensions and problems within the muscles and other soft tissues of the body, this means I also work with ligaments, tendons and crucially connective tissue or fascia. I often focus attention on trigger points (TrP) within my treatments as I believe they are always present when dealing with chronic pain patterns and are often the cause of the pain. I don't however just do Myofascial Release (connective tissue massage) and Trigger Point therapy, I incorporate Swedish massage techniques, deep tissue massage techniques and often passive stretching, Range of Motion, Muscle Energy Techniques and some Soft Tissue Release amongst others.

Integrated massage incorporates all these elements as and when required during a treatment to give the most effective results that are possibly. I am always looking out for new, effective techniques to learn and add to my repertoire, enabling me to make your massage even more effective and enjoyable.

If you are interested in experiencing an integrated massage treatment to see how effective it can be at relieve your aches, restoring your vitality and increasing your flexibility, you can now book your appointment online.

Microbreaking

2009-09-15T21:21:00.005+01:00

If you're one of my regular clients and you work in an office then you will no doubt have already heard me mention microbreaking. It's one of those subjects I'm always talking about with clients as it's so important and when utilised can make such a difference.

So what is microbreaking? It is simply having frequent breaks from your computer. What's new about that I hear you say, I already have lots of breaks and I even stretch when I take those breaks.

Well microbreaking is slightly different. It is the practice of taking a mini break at least once every 20 minutes, every 20 minutes I hear you scream! That's impossible, I can get up and have a break every 20 minutes. Also time flies so fast when you're sat at your desk 20 minutes can vanish so quickly and before you know it a whole hour or four has past.

So how do you actually do microbreaking? Well it involves taking your hands away from your keyboard and mouse, doing some really simple dynamic stretches or mobilisations to you shoulders, arms, neck and back and then settling back to work again. The whole microbreak probably takes up less than a minute of your time, but will enable your muscles to have the ability to last another 20 minutes till the next break.

What is the reasoning behind microbreaking? Well, when you're sat at your desk working away for hours on end, you are actually holding some of your muscles in a slight contraction. This enables you to hold your arms up to work the keyboard and mouse, your head pointing towards the screen and your back in the "good posture" you've been told to adopt.

This constant slight contraction in the muscles actually restricts the blood flow slightly into and out of these muscles, this is normal but when we hold the same position and contracted muscles for extended periods of time, specifically 20 minutes or longer, we are restricting the blood flow so much that the nutrients and chemicals required by the muscle fibres to actually work are depleted and reach a critically low level within the muscle. This places the muscles at risk of developing Myofascial Trigger Points (TrP) or what we commonly refer to as muscle knots.

So to ensure your muscles are getting a constant fresh supply of blood and nutrients that enable them to work effectively you need to make sure you keep moving! If you do have a desk bound job or for that matter any job which restricts your mobility and forces you to adopt an unnatural position for any prolonged length of time then it is so important that you introduce microbreaking in to your day.

The next important point about microbreaking or for that matter any break you take away from your desk is keep moving, if you just get up from your desk to do a static stretch you're not helping yourself at all, you need to be doing dynamic movements and stretches. Dynamic stretches or mobilisations are very fluid stretches that take the muscles and joints through full range of motion without holding at any point for any length of time. You will not be able to counteract a sedentary job with static stretches!

KEEP MOVING or at the least MOVE EVERY 20 MINUTES.

Receiving A Massage

2009-08-16T11:16:00.006+01:00

Many people think that receiving a massage is a passive activity, you turn up and the therapist does all the work, relaxing, re-aligning and restoring your body and tissues.

But what if there was another way? What if you, the client, could enhance and improve the experience and the results by what you bring to the table.

Your therapist, whether you are attending for a relaxing Swedish or Aromatherapy massage or a Deep Tissue or Sports style massage, will bring many skills and techniques to the massage table.

Your therapist should have a good knowledge of anatomy and physiology of the body, specifically muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia, bones and joints. They should have a range of techniques and hands on skills in applying the correct pressure and stroke that a particular body part or muscle requires. They should have developed great palpation skills and have the ability to listen to what your body is telling them through there hands, arms, eyes and ears. These skills enable your therapist to be able to read the body and help to balance and restore the tissues to an optimum state.

But what can you do to help this process and improve the end results of your massage?
It is important to be in the moment when you are receiving a massage, lying on the table thinking about what happened yesterday at work or what to buy for Dinner that evening or other such thoughts take you away from what is happening in your body.
Whilst your therapist is working it is helpful to focus your mind on the body part being worked, feeling the tissues being softened and relaxed.

Throughout the massage your therapist should be checking in with you on a regular basis about how the treatment is feeling for you, if the pressure is too much or too little, how different areas or spots are feeling. The more feedback and information you can give your therapist will be really helpful in enabling them to build an accurate picture of what is happening within your body. If they run over a spot that is more tender or sore than the surrounding tissue let them know. If a body part is feeling different on one side than it did on the other this is also helpful information and if you feel that a specific area is feeling really tight let your therapist know.

I personally, often ask clients to actively move body parts whilst I am working such as to slowly dorsal-flex and plantar-flex the foot whilst I work on the lower leg. This helps the client focus on the specific area being worked and also enables a further release of the tissues as the muscle fibres and fascia are being actively engaged during the treatment.

It is surprising how different the results can be when you are an active participant in the massage feeling and visualising your muscles releasing, helping your therapist work through areas of tension and tenderness and providing additional information about what different techniques are feeling like to you.

The next time you are receiving a massage try and focus on what is happening inside your body whilst your therapist is working and see how this enhances your treatment and the results.

Focus On - Walking

2009-07-06T12:05:00.006+01:00

Earlier on I talked about taking the time out to focus your attention on your breathing. I hope you took the time to do the exercise and felt the benefits.

Now I want to move on and get you to focus on something else you do everyday without thinking about how you do it. Walking.

Walking is a simple act that we all do to some degree or other every single day, but most of us actually only manage to shuffle ourselves from one location to another, from the living room to the kitchen, from the train to our desk, rather than moving with the lightness and grace that our bodies are capable of. When was the last time you took any notice of how you walk? Or is your mind only focused on where your going, what is around you, who you are with, etc?

On your walk home from work today or if it's the weekend take a stroll in the park and whilst you are walking let your mind focus on how you are walking, how high are your feet coming of the ground? Do you plant your heel on the ground first? Are your hips moving? Is your back straight? Have you got tension in your shoulders?

Slowly concentrate on what you are doing and try and visualise the muscles working, your thigh muscles contracting and lifting your leg of the ground, your calf muscles stretching and contracting as you plant your foot on the ground and follow through the step and your stride.

Remember when you walk it isn't just your legs that are doing something, you whole torso should be twisting with your shoulders and arms being an integral part of the walking process. When you move your left leg forward, your body should be twisting at the waist and your right arm and shoulder should be coming forward, your hips should be moving. Walking is an active experience for your whole body even if we try most of the time to reduce it to a shuffle from A to B.

Don't forget walking is a great exercise and can give you huge benefits but only if you are walking properly and using your body to its full potential.

Many people these days are taking up jogging or running to get fit, but be warned. I see so many people who just transfer the bad walking patterns they have over to jogging and running and it actually looks painful to watch and you can be sure they are doing more harm to the joints and muscles than good. So if you are going to be taking up running or jogging in the near future, take some time to focus on how you walk first.

As they say "Don't run before you can walk" and so many of us can't walk properly.

Focus On - Breathing

2009-07-06T11:47:00.009+01:00

Well it has been a little time since I lasted posted anything and recently I have been thinking about how we go about our everyday chores and tasks as if on auto pilot, so today I want you to stop what you are doing and start to experience some of the things you take for granted.

For example, you are breathing right now, but when was the last time you actually stopped and gave some thought to your breathing or actually took a break in your day to take some deep breaths?

Do it now, stop whatever you are doing for a couple of minutes. Bring your mind to focus on your breathing.

Breath in through your nose, slowly and purposefully, breath down deep in to your belly focusing on pulling the breath down to just below your belly button. Your belly should expand as you breath in followed by an expansion of your chest and ribs.

Immediately breath out through your mouth once your lungs are full, don't force the air out, just let everything return to it's natural position and the air will be slowly be pushed out of the lungs as that process happens.

When you feel the need to breath in again start the process again, breathing in to the belly through the nose slowly and purposefully and then letting the diaphragm relax and the air to be pushed out of the lungs through the mouth.

Do this 10 times and then go back to whatever it was you where doing before but with a little more oxygen in your system and hopefully feeling a little less stressed too.

Some More Egoscue Exercises

2009-06-22T11:02:00.011+01:00

It has been a little while since my last post on the Egoscue Static Back exercise. Today I am going to quickly run through several other great Egoscue exercises, they are all appropriate and totally safe for everyone to do and, I think, they can really help the body to relax and return to a more natural state. Try them for a month and see if you notice any benefit from them.

I will start with an exercise called the Static Wall.

The Static Wall engages the anterior (or front) muscles of the upper and lower legs.

To perform the Static Wall, lie on your back, place your legs straight up against the wall keeping your ankles hip width apart. Tighten your thighs and flex your toes towards your knees and the floor. Get your buttocks and hamstrings as close to the wall as you possibly can, the smaller the gap the better the results. Concentrate on relaxing your upper body and hold this position for 3 to 5 minutes.

Supine Groin Stretch.
The supine groin stretch help re-align the powerful adductor muscles on the inside of the thighs.

To perform, lie on your back with one leg resting on a chair or block (as in the static back exercise) with the knee bent at a 90 degree angle, while the other leg is extended straight out and resting on the flood. Make sure both of your legs are aligned with your hips and shoulders. The foot of the extended leg should be propped upright to prevent the foot from rolling out to the side. Relax in this position for 10 minutes and then swap sides.

Sitting Knee Pillow Squeeze.
This exercise is great for getting the adductor and abductor muscles to return to performing there designated tasks.

Sit on the edge of a chair or bench, and arch your back by rolling your hips forward. Pull your shoulders back and make sure your knees and feet are in alignment with your hips and lastly relax your stomach muscles. Place a pillow or cushion between your knees, and using your inner thighs, squeeze the pillow and release it gently. You might need to fold the pillow or cushion to get the correct thickness required. Your feet should stay parallel with each other and make sure your stomach or upper back stay relaxed through out the whole exercise. Do 4 sets of 10 repetitions.

Try these exercise for a month and see if you experience any benefit from them, you will need to find time to do them daily and for maximum benefit try and do them in the morning.

Static Back an Egoscue Exercise

2009-06-05T12:27:00.005+01:00

Today I'm going to take you through the Static Back exercise, this is the first of the Egoscue exercises I am going to talk about this week. It is designed to help re-align and balance the hips and pelvis, helpful in cases of lower back pain, neck and shoulder pain, knee and ankle pain. Actually it is really beneficial whenever you are experiencing pain on what I call the back line or any place from the top of your head to the heals of your feet.

This exercise is best done for around 20 minutes a day, preferably in the morning so that you get to experience the benefits during the day. Don't forget you need to do this exercise daily.

Lie on your back, with both legs bent at right angles on either a chair or similar block. Rest your hands on your stomach or lay them palms up on the floor beside you making sure they are below shoulder height. Let your back settle on the floor. Breathe from your diaphragm, that means to breath down in to your stomach or belly. The abdominal muscles should rise as you inhale and fall as you exhale. Stay in this position for at least 5 to 10 minutes but if you can manage 20 minutes that is great. Relax as much as you can whilst performing this exercise.

Tomorrow we will be back with another gentle Egoscue exercise for the lower back and hips.

The Egoscue Method

2009-06-03T13:02:00.007+01:00

Recently one of my clients gave me a book he has been reading whilst searching for some pain relief from lower back and hip pain, the book was "Pain Free - A Revolutionary Method For Stopping Chronic Pain" by Pete Egoscue.

If you don't already know the Egoscue Method it is a series of stretches and exercises (or E-cises) aimed at returning balance and to the body or what Pete Egoscue terms "design motion". The main focus is to get all the muscles firing properly, this means they are doing the relevant jobs and tasks nature intended them to do.

When we injure ourselves or through habit and lifestyle, muscles often stop working correctly and this can lead to atrophy or wasting of those muscles and a conscious or unconscious avoidance of certain actions. The body will recruit other muscles in the vicinity to perform tasks they were never intended to perform in an attempt to enable us to perform actions which would normally have been performed by the wasted muscles. This ultimately results in the body being pulled and twisted in ways never intended, restricted motion, lack of mobility and usually chronic discomfort followed by pain.

The exercises prescribed by the Egoscue Method are very gentle and often just involve placing the body in a neutral position for as long as possible so that balance can return.

During this coming week I am going to go through a series of these exercises that are totally safe for everyone to do and that will help you to return or maintain balance within your body.

Be warned some of these exercise involve lying in a specific position for up to 30 minutes a day, this is usually enough to put most people off as we all seem to lead such hectic lives that finding 30 minutes to an hour spare in the morning is nigh on impossible, but do give it a try, even if only for a month, because the rewards are definitely worth the investment.

If you want to find out more about the Egoscue Method visit www.egoscue.com.

The First Post

2009-06-02T22:41:00.004+01:00

Welcome to the new Massage Glasgow Blog. I'm completely new to this whole blogging phenomena, so please bear with me while I get the hang of things.

The intention is to use this blog to bring you information on self-massage techniques, pain management ideas, different therapies, stretching, getting fit, staying healthy and generally answering many of the questions I am consistently asked during my treatments.

I hope you find it informative and useful, and please keep checking back to see what is happening. If you have any suggestions, comments or ideas please email them to me at trevor@massage-glasgow.co.uk