Read Institute for Integrative Health Care’s latest newsletter and Leslie DeMatteo, LMT, MS’s article in it. She delved a little into the difference between Swedish massage and deep tissue massage. Swedish uses long, gliding strokes, and deep tissue uses specific techniques (like: cross fiber friction, slow, deep strokes, and pin-n-stretch techniques) that lengthen and stretch muscle fibers. Deep tissue also uses ischemic compression on trigger points, which releases them! Naturally, most therapists combine these. BROAD ischemic compression aids in workout recovery and in reducing delayed onset muscle soreness (and, in athletes, it can still help in keeping the circulatory system working at its prime. Two of the most profound ways that massage can increase energy is its naturally pain relieving results AND its equally natural improving HEALING sleep results; pain is certainly draining to the human body!
Monthly Archives: April 2016
Rethinking the Iliotibial Band
Finished reading ABMP’s Massage and Bodywork latest issue by reading Til Luchau’s Rethinking the Iliotibial Band. I am so glad I did! Reminded us massage therapists that the IT band is connective tissue (which, ultimately, means it, at the very least, will have a lot of fascia associated with it!) that connects the gluteus muscles to the femur. Just like we shouldn’t treat nerves like muscles, we should also not treat connective tissue like muscle!
Craniosacral therapy and neck pain
Read yet another article (Jerrilyn Cambron’s Craniosacral Therapy Benefits People with Chronic Neck Pain in latest edition of ABMP’s Massage and Bodywork) that delved into neck pain and craniosacral therapy as one possible treatment. The statistics were, as usual, staggering, but the study found that patients with nonspecific neck pain noted their pain was significantly reduced at the halfway and ending points of the study!
Precision Neuromuscular Therapy for the Upper Extremity
Just finished Douglas Nelson’s Neuromuscular Therapy for the Upper Extremity through Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals. I learned, or at least was reminded of, a lot about shoulder impingement (A LOT of painful manifestations and trigger points happen because of the medial nerve and infraspinatus and supraspinatus muscles)!
shoulder/neck (and all muscles) differentiation
Loved Til Luchau’s brilliant article, Shoulder/Neck differentiation. I’ve felt for a while like he does, which is that VERY often, the human body needs reminders on how to work, hereby generally relaxing the opposing muscle, one muscle or muscle group without using one so closely connected to another. His example of almost all the shoulder muscles, especially levator scapulae, and the neck muscles (and fascia) hits close to home to me and a lot of people!
sandraswansonlmt 