A friend shared an experience with me. His stiff back had become worse recently. After sitting for a while at his desk, if he turned the wrong way when getting up or reached too far, ZAP! A pain would shoot down his leg from the low back to the knee. “It just takes my … Continue reading What Good Would Massage Do?
At the risk of hearing some strong opinions, or not, I would like to ask the question: is it proper to massage up or down? I have had many massages, and I am always baffled by the selection. I have had massage up the back, down the back, diagonally and sideways. Does it matter? … Continue reading Massage Up or Down?
A full-body massage is the best in my book. You get your aches and pains rubbed away, your brain has the opportunity to tune into every part in the massage sequence, and the relaxation response is brought from background to foreground. This massage therapist has always been a fan of the full massage, … Continue reading Pick Your Part
Sometimes I visit people at home for massages instead of at my therapy office, usually for convenience but sometimes because they are not able to travel. Folks who cannot travel to the office tend to be in recovery from injuries or in a fragile state. Usually they are getting plenty of homecare from their relatives, … Continue reading New Tricks
As an “old hand” at massage, I am not too impressed with tools sometimes used in massage therapy. I have stayed away from knobbles and thumb covers and even hot stones in my practice, largely because they tend to create elbow and shoulder problems for therapists who are tempted to use too tight a grip. … Continue reading Tools for Massage
The tough part of massage therapy long-term back pain is chasing trigger points in the quadratus lumborem. This is one of those muscles that not only keep clients awake at night; it keeps the therapist up, too. I have done prone QL massage, prone with approximation, prone with stretch. I have … Continue reading Steamrolling the QL
I’m making it official: It is possible for massage therapists to map a stress pattern of trigger points related to home loan modifications. Folks going through that process have had months of fruitless phone calls, waiting on holds, sleepless nights. When they come in for massages, I have found they have the runaway stress trigger … Continue reading Loan Mod Trigger Points
That’s a lot of old-fashioned chronic inflammation with the posterior scalene stretched far from its anatomical role. Those poor guys are stretched over the precipice and desperately pulling back. Adhesed, unloved, overworked and so far under the trapezius that even a deep tissue massage barely touches it, the posterior scalenes are crying for help. Massaging … Continue reading Chopsticks: Catching the Posterior Scalene in Action
Nothing makes fear quake in many massage therapists than the entrance of the super, hyper-mobile client. I too, have experienced the fear, the trepidation and the surprise. For the record, in Gumby folk symptoms of troubles are completely different than my true forte, people as stuck as me. What I would normally assess test … Continue reading Adventures in Super-Mobile Massage
Mesothelioma patients experience a number of symptoms throughout the progression of their disease. Chest pain, difficulty breathing and anxiety are common, and coughing or reduced chest expansion may also occur. While a number of different treatmentscan help relieve these symptoms, massage therapy is one of the gentlest ways to keep them under control. Massage therapy … Continue reading How Massage Therapy can Benefit a Mesothelioma Patient