Category Archives: Back & Spine
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Floating Pain
Posted on April 26, 2019 by Dawn in Anatomy, Articles, Back & Spine, Hips & Sacrum, Human Body, Lower Back, Lower Extremities, Lower Leg, massage therapy, Massage Therapy Continuing Education, SMRT, Spontaneous Muscle Release TechniqueFloating Pain I want to describe a session I recently had with you. Client’s complaint was hip and pelvic pain that “floated” into the lower back once in awhile. I started at the feet. I checked the plantar flexion and dorsiflexion in each ankle. The right ankle moved easier into plantar flexion with limited dorsiflexion. […]
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Shoulder Pain & Limited ROM
Posted on March 28, 2019 by Dawn in Anatomy, Back & Spine, bodywork, Human Body, massage therapy, Ribs, Shoulders, SMRT, Spontaneous Muscle Release TechniqueReferral Last week I saw a new client sent to me by a doctor I know. She has shoulder pain and limited ROM. The doctor had sent her to physical therapy because her insurance would pay for physical therapy. The physical therapist could do nothing to her shoulder without her feeling intense pain and making […]
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Severe Lower Back Pain
Posted on October 26, 2018 by Dawn in Anatomy, Back & Spine, Lower Back, massage therapy, SMRT, Spontaneous Muscle Release TechniqueCRPS One of my new clients (there are many, I get consistent referrals due to SMRT) complains of severe lower back. She was diagnosed several years ago with CRPS in her feet. I believed from the first time I saw her that her feet were a large part of her lower back pain. She did […]
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Back Pain
Posted on October 19, 2018 by Dawn in Anatomy, Back & Spine, bodywork, massage therapy, Ribs, SMRT, Spontaneous Muscle Release TechniqueWeird Feeling Tuesday, one of our clients came in for a yoga class. As I walked into our classroom she was telling the yoga teacher about her back. She mentioned how she often had pain and “a weird feeling” in the middle of her back. Without thinking I reached out and touched her back. I […]
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Thyroidectomy & Vertigo
Posted on August 31, 2018 by Dawn in Anatomy, Articles, Back & Spine, bodywork, Head & Neck, Hips & Sacrum, massage therapy, Massage Therapy Continuing Education, Ribs, SMRT, Spontaneous Muscle Release TechniqueThyroidectomy What happened in SMRT class in Pittsburgh? So much!! First, we had a therapist in class who had a thyroidectomy. The scar tissue in the front of her neck was pulling her chin and trachea inferior and posterior. On Saturday, we did SMRT for the anterior neck and I did some extra work on […]
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SMRT Headache Relief
Posted on June 15, 2018 by Dawn in Anatomy, Back & Spine, Head & Neck, massage therapy, Shoulders, SMRT, Spontaneous Muscle Release TechniqueSMRT Headache Relief One of my clients this week was suffering with an intense headache that had begun almost 10 days before she came to see me. She had tried numerous things for relief, but did not get any relief. In the assessment I felt decreased mobility throughout her c-spine, tension in the suboccipital muscles, […]
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Working SMRT on the Axillary
Posted on January 5, 2018 by Dawn in Anatomy, Back & Spine, bodywork, Head & Neck, massage therapy, Questions and Answers, Ribs, Sinus Trouble, SMRT, Spontaneous Muscle Release TechniqueRelieving Chest Pressure the SMRT Way I had some SMRT work done yesterday. I got sick on December 3rd. It was a strong virus that attacked my sinuses first, quickly traveled into my throat, and eventually landed in my lungs. By the fourth day, the cough began and I coughed until my entire body hurt. […]
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Using SMRT on the Ribcage
Posted on November 3, 2017 by Dawn in Back & Spine, bodywork, massage therapy, Ribs, SMRTI recently worked with a prenatal client who is 38 weeks along. She asked for work on her lower back and neck, but when I began palpating her back I found the most tension in her mid-back from about T6-T9. After checking movement in her thoracic ribs, I found that on the L. side there […]
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Forward Head Posture Creating Back “Hump”
Posted on December 1, 2016 by Dawn in Back & Spine, Head & Neck, Massage Therapy Continuing Education, Ribs, SMRT, Spontaneous Muscle Release TechniqueAbout 10 days ago, I had a 2-hour session booked with a regular client. She told me I should focus on her back and her neck, that her “hump was killing” her. I spent almost an hour and a half unlocking her back, sacrum, and posterior rib cage. The focus of this time was in […]
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Scar tissue, Fascia & SMRT
Posted on March 17, 2016 by Dawn in Back & Spine, Hips & Sacrum, NCBTMB approved continuing education, Spontaneous Muscle Release Technique, Testimonials and ReviewsI want to tell you about a massage therapist I met while in Austin, TX last week. He was in the SMRT: Shoulder, Axilla, Ribcage, & Upper Back class there. He is an older gentleman who came to massage later in life, about 3 years ago when he was in his late 50’s. About 4 […]
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Alleviating Rib Pain
Posted on October 7, 2015 by Dawn in Back & Spine, Massage Therapy Continuing Education, NCBTMB approved continuing education, Ribs, Shoulders, SMRT, Spontaneous Muscle Release TechniqueYesterday a client that I have been seeing for several years came for her appointment in severe pain. She said that she had reached down to pick up a dart and felt something pull in her right lower anterior and lateral ribcage. She had gone to the doctor and nothing was broken. The medication they […]
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Could the ribcage be the root of the problem?
Posted on June 5, 2015 by Dawn in Back & Spine, Head & Neck, NCBTMB approved continuing education, Ribs, Shoulders, SMRT, Spontaneous Muscle Release TechniqueIn the next couple of months I will teach our SMRT: Shoulder, Axilla, Ribcage, & Upper Back class twice. I want to explore why working on the ribs is critically important to pain relief in this region of the body. Specifically this short post will be looking at the muscles that attach to the upper […]
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The Posterior Sling
Posted on May 4, 2015 by Dawn in Anatomy, Articles, Back & Spine, Elbow, Feet, Knees, Legs, Lower Back, Lower Leg, NCBTMB approved continuing education, Physiology, SMRT, Spontaneous Muscle Release TechniqueBy Dawn Lewis The posterior sling is comprised of the latissimus dorsi muscle on one side of the body, the ipsilateral or same side thoracolumbar fascia and then transferring to the opposite side or contralateral thoracolumbar fascia and the opposite side gluteus maximus. We will explore the implications of this in 3 ways: 1) Latissimus […]
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SMRT Massage-a-thon
Posted on March 14, 2015 by Dawn in Abdomen, Anatomy, Back & Spine, bodywork, Head & Neck, Hips & Sacrum, Human Body, SMRTPatti, Rhonda, and I just got back from our yearly SMRT massage-a-thon, which is a once a year trip for only the 3 of us to work on each other. We do hour and a half tandems on each other each day for 4 days straight. It was fabulous!! Here are some of the wonderful […]
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Muscle Attachments and Lower Back Pain
Posted on January 6, 2015 by Dawn in Anatomy, Back & Spine, Hips & Sacrum, Massage Therapy Continuing Education, Muscle Pain, NCBTMB approved continuing education, Spontaneous Muscle Release TechniqueLast week I had a new client come in for low back pain. During the intake she told me that she had been having chiropractic adjustments and ultrasound on her lower back for several weeks and it did not seem to be helping at all. I was watching her as I was listening to […]
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