Body Balancing Massage Therapy - April 09 Issue

CAN you imagine anything sillier than constantly inhaling and "retaining air" I'll bet your wondering if it is even possible. Not completely no. But without a full exhale that is what many of us do.

What's really funny is that I doubt the artist knew how close he was to what we look like when we "hold" air.  But in this high tension time we are in right now I'll bet most of you qualify.

It is a simple thing to help your own health. Start by exhaling fully! High stress environs at work or home along with a societal addiction to speed (in many forms) keep us hyper stimulated and on fire!

Fire is good! Fire is our friend. But wildfire can burn us out and down. Like any rampant element or animal, it works best for humans when we harness or control it.

This is part of an unhealthy pattern of life. It is part of the pattern I see in almost ALL of my clients.

As a first step with all my clients I recommend a "Water breath" which is more abdominal and focused on the restoration of a normal inhale/exhale by restoring the exhale quality!

the 2nd step is to increase daily intake of water. these are easy, inexpensive steps. It puts my clients totally in control of their treatment.

I firmly believe in the work I do and its ability to help my clients recover their health.

The business of the healing pattern.

Recovering your health is a long road. It is a hard road for both the client and the therapist.

IT is difficult for the client because of doubt and the normal fluctuations of life. Making changes to your health and getting healthier is wracked with doubt and fear. Especially if it has been a long road to get here. It starts with awareness. That awareness comes in a variety of ways and at a variety of different times in the course of treatment. There are a million encouragements of health, a million and one plateaus, and even more setbacks.

One of the most amazing things about the path of recovery is the reconnection with your body. Problems start with distance. Distancing yourself from the tension, restriction and pain sets the patterns of compensation in motion. With each aspect of your body that you reconnect with, is another part of your body that you can feel, and feeling is good!

For the therapist, the healing pattern is a long pattern of starting over. With every muscle, tendon and ligament that you release, you start over. With every fascial line that you open fully or partially, you start over. Every lymphatic vessel, every arterial flow, every visceral connection, every breath they take, you start over.

The learning about some ones body, compensations, adjustments changes every time i work on them and i start over. Nothing is ever by the book, and intuition plays a large part of my practice. Where something so ephemeral plays a part so does doubt.

deep breathing but more specifically fully exhaling can help with abdominal trigger points both in resolving them but more importantly stretching the tissue so they never develop!

BREATHE!!!

Case Study -

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. " John Muir

This case study will be different from "normal". I won't be taking a specific case but describing a general pattern, .

Lets take Sue (just a name, for lack of a better one) Sue got into her 40's in relatively good shape. Nothing too serious in the way of injuries or stress, but a life well lived. She started worrying about how long she would live which is normal for the age. She gets a "pain" and goes to the doctor. Her physician runs a battery of tests and immediately puts her on 2 or 3 medications. She suffers through the side effects of the prescriptions. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to resolve the problem.

What usually happens now is that she goes from specialist to specialist, physician to physician, and test to test only to hear "there is nothing wrong" or "they don't know what is wrong". This is usually where she gets referred to me.

It usually takes a couple of months more of suffering before she actually makes an appointment. citing this excuse or that. finally she makes and keeps an appointment. The intake is short, the treatment is different than what she thought it would be. She feels better after the first massage. Partially cause she got an opportunity to relax, partially because of the endorphin release involved in massage therapy and partially because of an actual relief of pain. I recommend she start working on her breathing and increase her water intake.

She goes on a regular regimen of weekly massage therapy sessions. She loves the massages each week but wonders if this decadent pleasure is really doing anything. She conveys this to me. I ask about this pain and that, and Sue realizes that she forgot about them. I asks about the colds that everyone seems to be getting, and she replies that she either doesn't get them or only for a day and not 6 months like most people. I asks about her energy. Is she still tiring out by 5pm everyday. No,.. not really...I seem to sleep better, but shorter.

Slowly over the course of time I go through the musculature and different layers of her body. Her circulation improves and her over all health improves.

I decided to put off doing the final in the Lymphedema certification series. Going to San
Francisco was going to end up being $800 dollars more (really good reason in this economy) Than waiting till November and doing it in Miami.

The lower abdomen is RIPE with all manner of lymphatics. They will undoubtedly seem involved in this months focus and some not so much.

The mid range of the "Six Pack" is home to 3 areas in the Chapman Reflexes arena. Chapman's reflexes are reflex zones that when stimulated increase lymphatic function. In this case the increased function is in reference to Adrenal exhaustion, Allergies, cystitis (inflammation of the bladder), and kidney function.

A critical junction in the small intestine is deep to this muscle. TrP's in this muscle can "clog" this and lead to constipation. Superficial lymphatic drainage from this muscle all goes away from the belly button. Lower heading to the "hip bone" area and upper going to the "arm pit.

The rectus abdominis muscle (commonly known as "abs") is a paired muscle running vertically on each side of the anterior wall of the human abdomen (and in some other animals). It is two parallel muscles, separated by a midline band of connective tissue called the linea alba (white line). It extends from the xiphoid process (apex between the ribs) and lower costal cartilages (5-7) down to the pubic symphysis/pubic crest inferiorly (bone you can feel before you get to the "privates". It is contained in the Rectus sheath.

The rectus is usually crossed by three fibrous bands called the tendinous inscriptions. A well-defined RA include a "six pack" and "washboard abs", and often carry cultural connotations of superior physical fitness. While the "six pack" is by far the most common configuration of the RA, there exist rare anatomic variations which result in the appearance of eight (four per side) muscle segments ("eight pack"), ten, or (even rarer) asymmetrically arranged segments. All these variations are functionally equivalent.

This muscle serves as the prime mover for spinal flexion (bending over), especially of the lumbar spine, and it tenses the anterior abdominal wall to increase intraabdominal pressure. Electromyographically, (Electromyograph measures when a muscle is active) the RA is active when a weight is carried on the back, but not when the weight is carried in front of the thighs. This muscle responds to the gait cycle during walking. This muscle is consistently active as the feet leave the ground when jumping, and not so active during landing from the jump. Sit-ups generate much more electrical activity in the RA than did let backs. The muscular activity was greatest during the initial phase of the sit-up between scapular lift and hip lift from the floor. Little difference is seen regardless of whether the knees were bent to 65°, or were straight. Flexing the knees and holding the feet down during a sit up increased the activity of the abdominal muscles . The abdominal muscles are more active when walking uphill than on level ground.

The TrP's in the uppermost  (and lower) quadrant of the Rectus Abdominis (RA for this article) have a upper level problem referral front and back. They often are responsible for pain between the bottom of the shoulder blade and the bottom of the ribs. This is manufactured in the body with one habit with two separate problems.

The classic computer slouch posture (rolling the chest over on to abdomen) the RA becomes involved with breathing in short breaths. It restricts breathing and fluidic flow through the area and sets the process for a shortened musculature to develop trigger points and gastrointestinal distress.

The trigger point development displays specific symptomology including abdominal fullness, heartburn, indigestion and sometimes nausea and vomiting. In my experience, nausea and epigastric distress occur more often when these upper­most RA TrP's are on the left, rather than on the right side. RA TrP can also refer pain that can mimic chest pain. In all actuality it will contribute more to an anxiety attack format that actual "chest pain"

While lower quadrant TrPs refer pain to the low back in a band across the top of the hips, it viscerosomatic (organ/muscle connection) symptomology mimics dysmenorrhea (PMS cramps/pain), and colic  like symptoms. An active TrP in the right lower RA also may cause diarrhea, and symptoms mimicking diverticulosis and gynecological disease. A TrP just above the pubis may cause spasm of the  urinary sphincter muscles.

One the slump posture starts it contributes to it from the neck, and sternalis (the muscle in the center of the chest) pulling the head forward which contribute to the rounded shoulder and therein starts a whole new set of problems.