Recently I spent an entire day working on arms. The first woman I worked on was a client I have seen for about the past 6 months for an ankle break that required 3 metal plates. She had a second accident and broke her proximal radius about a year ago. That required an L shaped […]
While at the AMTA convention, we did free 15 minute SMRT sessions at our booth to promote the technique, videos, and classes. I spent quite a bit of time working on lower extremities while there. One of the therapists I worked on (who also happened to be a CE instructor) had a chronic hip problem. […]
One of the student therapists in my last class asked me to look at her left shoulder. She had limited flexion and abduction. With palpation and assessment, I believed that she had a facilitated latissimus dorsi on her left side. Assessing the Shoulder As I began to work on her, most of the class gathered […]
I recently was teaching a class on the lower extremities, and many of the therapists were focused on the hip. We were changing the hip balance by working on the lower extremities. One therapist came in with TFL pain that he had been foam rolling constantly for months without lasting pain relief. He was working […]
Before we get into the ligaments and muscles of the elbow, I want to relate an experience I had yesterday. Recently I began to work with a fellow massage therapist. She has been booking 2-hour sessions, which is fabulous for me. The index finger on her right hand has developed some arthritis. It is swollen, stiff, and the range of motion is fairly limited. She has had these symptoms for two years! I said something to her about how she should have had it worked on before now (because massage therapists chronically do not get enough bodywork!), and she responded that she had tried a few times, but she couldn’t find a therapist that knew what to do with her arm and hand.
Continue Reading...This week a client who moved to Oregon a few months ago to live with her boyfriend came back, I’ll call her Beth. Beth is a chiropractor who I have been seeing for about a year. She takes care of her mother who has had dementia for 7 or so years, and came back to […]
Continue Reading...While I was on vacation in Seattle, WA recently, I taught a four hour class at Northwest Academy, the school we hope to hold a class in at the end of October. I wanted to give the students a protocol they could incorporate into their regular massage and use, but not too much because we […]
Continue Reading...The first involves a man we will call Matthew. Matthew is a man in his seventies who recently had surgery and was unable to urinate. Of course, Matthew had been on a catheter since being released from the hospital several months before. They had tried everything, and finally his doctors were talking about doing another […]
Continue Reading...Deep-Tissue Work with Less Pain and Effort Deep-tissue massage could be defined as a set of moves designed to guide the therapist into deeper tissues, or as a variety of strokes meant to treat a specific area of pain. Then again, deep-tissue massage could be defined as any technique that allows the therapist to contact […]
Continue Reading...On April 4, 2012 Idaho Governor C. L. “Butch” Otter signed Senate Bill 1295 to make his state the 44th (plus Washington, D.C.) to regulate the massage therapy profession. The new law creates a five member State Board of Massage Therapy, consisting of a majority of massage therapists, which will oversee the practice of massage […]
Continue Reading...The first video we are doing is about the shoulders. The advantage, I think, about having all of this information on video is that you will pick up what you are ready for each time you watch the video. Unlike watching one demonstration in a class while taking written notes, the video allows you to […]
Continue Reading...Why? Because they didn’t know to do that. Or maybe because insurance doesn’t pay for those types of treatments and doctors are lodged in our insurance system, unable to send patients to anyone outside of said system. I had broken my right wrist at the tender age of two. It makes complete sense that those […]
Continue Reading...Stylohyoid O: Styloid process of the Temporal bone I: Hyoid bone A: Draws the hyoid bone posterior Omohyoideus O: Superior Border of the Scapula I: Hyoid Bone A: Depresses the hyoid bone Longus Colli O: Anterior Aspects of C3 through T3 I: Anterior Aspect of C1 through C7 A: Flexion of […]
Continue Reading...Longissimus Capitis O: transverse processes of about T2 thru about C5 I: Mastoid process of the temporal bone A: rotates, extends, and laterally flexes the head Spinalis Cervicis O: spinous process of C7 and ligamentum nuchae I: spinous processes of C2 – C4 A: extends the vertebrae and laterally flexes the head Spinalis […]
Continue Reading...