Classic description of muscles, tendons, and ligaments is something to enable us to move from point A to Point B. In my experience of working with Soft tissue I have found it to be so very much more. It has seemed to characterize most of the reflexes of the body; they hold everything together and apart as well as their function as a fluid pump.

Most basic motion of a pump is to contract and relax and thus move fluids. We are made of some 60% plus fluid. While the fluid is important for lubrication it is also a carrier for nutrients, vitamins, hormones waste material and much, much more. Every injury and illness is made worse by dehydration and lack of circulation. The heart and lungs do a great job, but it takes the soft tissue to move it and us.

The Soft tissue of the body is much like a pup tent. It takes all the parts to hold each other in place. Each one holds the others in their place. The ropes, Tent, spikes, and poles each have an optimum length, height and “give” which I call Dynamic tension. To short and something else has to tighten up to keep that tension. That tension holds the body in the shape we have it and allows us fluid movement. Without it,.. well first rain and the tent collapses on top of us in the night.

That dynamic tension also has another characteristic that few Massage Therapists and fewer Physicians understand, Reflexes’. You are probably aware of the more obvious reflex of your knee which the Dr. checks during your physical. There are many other reflexes located around the body that produce other effects that you are not. They can refer pain to other locations, limit lymphatic flow (immune function, waste removal, etc) and stop or start blood flow in a given area or organ. They are in the soft tissue of the body.

The soft tissue do far more than just move bones in the body. So, stand up straight, take a deep breath, another glass of water and get a massage so those muscles can keep you healthy!

Anybody that works with machinery of any kind will tell you any tool is only as good as its maintenance. Those that do physical Labor need massage therapy as much as the white collar professional. So it is with our creations as it is with us. These are two different reasons for the same maintenance.

Craftsmen are the epitome of the body in motion. They take from the learned activities and establish patterns of use and expertise in the creation of a product. Whether they are rounding up steer, creating a piece of furniture or even a stylish haircut they establish working patterns of muscular development. The body remembers these patterns and they become practice and effortless. Enter Stress! Stress in the craftsman can be burnt as energy, but can constrict and injure musculature like an irritating toxin. This is where repetitive injuries can establish. Massage therapy can flush and relax developed patterns of musculature so like oiling a car they run smooth and fluid.

Professionals do not necessarily always enjoy the benefit of the motion the human body demands. Yet they are no less in need of the flushing effects of massage therapy. High stress positions that are the norm in today’s society. Easily 80% of us spend too much time in the classic “desk posture.” This static posture does not allow the musculature to move thus flushing or burning off the stress of deadlines and workload. This build up of stress in the human body slows mental function like sludgy oil does to a car. Studies show that mental effort improves 30% even after a short 15 minute chair massage. Those under regular deadlines are wise and healthier when they get regular massage work. It reduces stress held in the body and improves attitude.

So, stand up straight, take a deep breath, another glass of water and get a massage. Your equipment demands it

Pain is part of the experience of life. It must be felt and let go or it will linger forever. Easy statement to make when you’re not in pain right?! But easy or not its on the mark. Pain is not some esoteric concept for anatomical discussion. It can be crippling at a number of levels. WE do our best at blocking pain but holding it in only delays its release. Above all the worst thing is the fear of the pain itself. But what is “real pain?”

Real pain, is defined as: “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage. But not all pain is associated with “actual” tissue damage. Pain can linger long after (and often does) the actual tissue damage. Current scientific research says that there are no “specific” pain receptors as has been accepted in the scientific community. It is more a matter of intensity than type. Which may explain why gentle stroking of skin can block pain temporarily?

It is a handy skill that the human mind can block pain when necessary. It helps us get a job done when our muscles are sore. But it still has to be “felt” to be released and unreleased pain can and does alter body posture, habits and health.  In my experience the best pain relief comes from a strong mind, will and exercise. Drugs often take away our minds ability to focus and leave us adrift in a sea of pain after they wear off.

“At times the fear of a thing is worse than the thing itself.” In my practice I have often relieved painful adaptations for my clients. Only to have them get off the table and reestablish the old pattern before the new pattern can take old. They did this out of a very real fear of the crippling, mind numbing pain they came to see me to get rid of. When you are scared of pain, you hold your breath and tense up. Often times the old pain patterns are held in place or reestablished by holding the breath ie holding the pain. The best technique with pain is to breathe deep and relax. Relaxing opens the gates for a whole new set of stimulations to overpopulate the nerve signals with good stimuli rather than painful stimuli.

A great way to relax and break the pain cycle is massage therapy, specifically Body Balancing. Releasing the tissue is not enough. The body should be retrained with the natural breath cycle. Inflicting friction or muscle techniques on a body is really no different of a mentality than that of Rx. The breath is part of a cycle of measuring recovery and adjustment inherent in the body. Balancing the body with the breath makes all the difference physically, mentally and emotionally in the world.

So, stand up straight, take a deep breath, an extra glass of water, and get a massage. Specifically one that reintegrates the body and allows it to relax the pain away.

Your Body heals from a point of relaxation. And that’s a fact jack! There any number of ways to relax and heal. Massage being a personal favorite. But there comes a point where you must take control of your health yourself. You simply cannot run on adrenaline day in and day out without burning out. Meditation is not a religious or airy fairy mystical thing belonging to the New Age Fruitcakes. Meditation has very real benefits that can not only improve the quantity of your life but the quality of it as well. The most beneficial things for your health are cheap and easy to do and this qualifies under both. Lets take a look at meditation mistaken association with the mystical.
First of all Meditation is not just a mystical or religious thing. Meditation can be as simple and short as closing your eyes for a second, or as complicated as you want to make it. Yes, much of the history of meditation has been through yogi’s (not bear), mystics and priests. But the reality of it is that we all do it more often than we realize. Doing conscious meditation has some very real health benefits that can help you, me all of us.
The long and short of it is that meditation can calm your mind, lower your stress, slow your heart rate, levels, and improve circulation. With regular meditation your reactions to stress are more measured and less flying off the handle. Running your heart under constant burden will injure it. Heart attack any one? Our bodies are about 65% water/fluids. Restrict those fluids and the body soon gets sick or breaks. Relax and it heals and strengthens.
How to start? As I said Meditating is as easy as taking a second to sit back in your chair and close your eyes for a second. I have found that sitting back for 10 seconds at a time is an easy way to begin to meditate. Try it. (“After” you finished the article, hard to read with your eyes closed) Sit back in your chair, close your eyes and count 10 full (inhale AND exhale) breaths. Then, just go back to what you were doing. If you do this once an hour by the end of the day you will feel stronger than you usually do. If all you can do are a couple times a day, that’s fine too. Just start somewhere and make it a easy, healthy habit. Incidently, since you do this almost automatically on a massage table you have just discovered one of the reasons people like massage so much.

So, stand up straight, take a deep breath another glass of water and get a massage. The life you save may be your own!

Ewwwwwwww, yuck! Pflat! Ptooey! Would be your remarks if you actually knew about the processing of your food from seed to table. I am no expert on food and nutrition but my clients often show signs of toxicity and consider it normal. The lymphatic system is a major source of our body’s ability to detoxify

Detoxification is quite simply getting the yuck out. But what is the yuck really, and how does it get into our bodies? Well after a little research on our food production I gained a fearful understanding. Just covering the basics was enough to make me not eat for a week. Between genetic engineering, pesticides, fecal run off in the water supply, and hormones pumped into animals it was a fight to figure which was worse. Then you add in additives, preservatives and flavor enhancers and the food looks less like sustenance and more like a hardware store shelf. There my friends is your yuck! We are eating it, voluntarily!

But I thought to myself we have lived for thousands of years consuming our food and still survived. In all actuality we have only been consuming much of these poisons since the discovery of oil. (I am not blaming oil just giving a relative time index). All the changes we have made in the last 140 years were in the name of making things better. But what we have really done is increase our intake of poisons. Thank-god  the human body has the incredible ability to detoxify itself, and does so continually. But that is at optimum health. In most of us this ability is seriously compromised. With all the stress, and poor living habits most of us subscribe to, we are none of us in optimum health. So we store up the yuck in fat, spaces in the tissue and in our organs.

We truly survive our food more out of dumb luck and magnificent engineering than conscious effort. In the next article I will tell you about the miracle of lymphatics and how they keep us going, despite us working against them!

Lymphatics: toilet to the body

In the last article I told you about the poisons we are taking in our body in the name of food and that the lymphatic system protects us from ourselves. But quite honestly if you even knew we had a lymphatic system you really don’t know what it does or how it helps us survive imbibing these poisons.

First of all the lymph system in the body is pervasive (present everywhere: spreading widely or present throughout something). It operates like water going down a mountain. Starts with small rivulets and eventually feeds into the ocean. Like that moving water it picks up yuck on its path and carries it along and away. It has fish and animals that eat the yuck floating along (humoral immune system). But it only carries so much of its volume in yuck, and the animals can only eat so much. If it gets blocked by beavers (muscle tension) then the draining slows. Not only at the dam but all the way up to the rivulet (tiny stream) and the yuck settles.

When toxins settle in an area like this the animals get sick. When it happens in your body, yep you guessed it, YOU get sick! Unfortunately it is not always enough for you to get real sick and purge. Sometimes it is just an insidious build up of toxins that sicken you so slowly you don’t notice until it is bad! Hence the rise in autoimmune disorders and cancers.

So it is obviously important to keep this fluid moving and as clear as possible and keep the beavers out of the flow. Next article I will explain how massage therapy but specifically Lymphatic drainage helps to keep the flow moving.

So until then, stand up straight, take a deep breath, another glass of water and get a massage. Your water will stay cleaner!

The room spins off its axis, only nothing is moving. Your stomach lurches and the world feels like it’s upside down! No this is not the latest video game or an assessment of politics, its vertigo (although,…the politics thing…)! It happens without warning and there seems to be no protection from its world spinning effects. It hits you when you least expect it, and it’s all you can do to hold on till it passes. (more…)

“In all animals great and small there is a point of ease, of minimal energy expenditure where everything just works right. That point is not at work in bad posture!” Locking your knees, rolling your shoulders forward, head sticking forward like a chicken are all examples of bad posture. They are also some of the worst harbingers of injury and bad health. (more…)