Body Balancing of Central Florida

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This month I am presenting some pictures from a local event at the Rosen Hotel for American
Woodmark Corporation. In an effort to treat their clients and help them recover from hours of walking through the Orange County Convention Center at the Home Builders Convention they hired our massage therapists. The lines started slow, but as the word spread the therapists filled their chairs as quick as they became empty. Many took advantage and came again and again for the 10 minutes of relief and relaxation

    Studies have shown that people who get even 5 minutes of massage therapy were able to complete a math quiz much quicker. If your people have to sit through long winded detail oriented seminars then this is the way to keep their attention up. If you want long lines at your booth, and for your clients to remember you this is the way to do it.

Soft tissue is exactly that. Soft tissue is malleable, anything that is malleable can be changed. If a thing can be changed then there is hope.

     Every muscle in the body has a muscle of opposition. It counter balances, and helps to "station keep" bones and other soft tissue. Like guy wires that hold a radio tower in place soft tissue helps to maintain placement of bones in the body. Not only holds placement, but produces movement. The bones do not move by themselves. When muscle contract, bones and soft tissue move in response to it. So when something is "out of whack" not only was it acted on by the soft tissue, but if it stayed "out of whack" then the station keeping job of the soft tissue has come into play. Those muscles that station keep adapt to the new placement of things. Since they are soft tissue even chronically locked tissue can be changed because Soft tissue is malleable.

    Sometimes that station keeping job is a protection response of the body known as splinting. The splinting response is an effort on the behalf of the body to protect weakened or injured tissue. It is important when "disassembling " a splinting response not only to go slowly but to balance the tissue as you go. Without a plan and understanding of what is going on with balanced tissue, bodywork can lead to worsening of the injury, and more widespread splinting. In some case's I have seen of widespread splinting, it is hard to determine what the original injury was. In these instances it is even more important to allow the body to rebalance after each session and work slowly. going to fast and inflicting treatment upon a body instead of letting it heal can worsen the problem

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Clients come from a variety of sources sometimes you can track them, other times you can't. This particular client contacted me for a massage, she said she was looking for an alternative treatment for her shoulder problem.

   On the initial consult/massage it was evident her range of motion was severely limited in her Right shoulder. It initially presented itself when she reached back to undo her bra and with a flash of pain realized that it had been becoming more and more difficult to do this simple task. She had seen her physician and he had diagnosed her with "frozen shoulder." Her physician continued on to tell her that her options were surgery, which she didn't like the sound of, or physical therapy. After she spoke with the PT she wasn't happy with that treatment possibility either. So she decided to check into other possibilities.

First things first; as usual the first session I do with a new or old client when assessing is to do a verbal intake, a full body massage, and asking questions of history and what I find. This is to get an idea of compensations, adhesions, trigger points (TrP), Old injuries, current stress levels and workplace dynamics that contribute to the body's dynamic balance. she said he felt better after the session and wanted to continue, So we set up a regular sessions.

Frozen shoulder diagnosis can be problematic at best. The initial injury often goes unnoticed, or ignored as a minor irritation that "will heal itself." The client then protects the shoulder more and more which in turn restricts the Range of Motion (ROM) of the shoulder. Until at some point either the limited ROM is impossible to get around or the unbalanced nature of the shoulder now responds with pain.

The obvious was not the only contributing factor. Extreme stress on the job, and recent deaths in the family contributed to the problem.

Relieving the initial spasms were the first step. Until they eased it would do no good to relieve unbalanced tissue since it would recreate at the first onset of spasm. Easing of the spasms meant increasing circulation and softening tissue. As the tissue softens the circulation increases and visa versa. In my experience I have found the subscapularis muscle to be a major player in this pathology. Not only from the trigger points manifesting, but in the imbalance of the scapula which exacerbates the balance of the muscle. Taking the strain off the musculature and restoring some of the balance of the shoulder girdle was the next step. Realigning soft tissue to restore a dynamic balance that promotes ease instead of

Case studies are anecdotal evidence and personal observations on the course of treatment

The Subscapularis muscle has a station keeping responsibility on the scapula and humeral head, it also with the aid of the teres major moves the arm from outside to inside (medial rotation). The subscapularis is one of the first muscles to be offended under excessive mouse use without bracing of the elbow.