The scapula is a large triangular-shaped bone that lies in the upper back. It is also known as the shoulder blade. How the scapula is connected to the rest of the skeleton? The scapula, compared to other body bonds, is connected to the main skeleton, a series of ligaments that sit only on one side and extremity of it. The ligaments are: transverse scapular ligament; coracoacromial ligament; coracoclavicular ligament; coracohumeral ligament; glenohumeral ligaments; acromioclavicular ligament. That’s for is also called a “floating” bond. So to be more specific, as any ligaments do not connect the medial or inferior/lateral borders to any other bond structure, the scapula is subjective to the muscle’s force. Indeed, the shoulder blades of an individual often don’t look the same. What do I mean by that? Well, starting from the fact that one body side is more dominant than the other. Take, for example, an office worker. Despite being seated or at a standing desk, most of the time, the dominant hand will be the one using the mouse, right? Where the non-dominant hand will be the one mainly sitting on the keyboard. Now, the hand that moves the mouse is less lucky to leave its position and do other tasks. As the mouse is in constant action, that hand is in continuous movement, yes, but it doesn’t go that far. Indeed, the non-dominant hand would move more freely as it is not always typing. Said so, the arm controls that hand per consequence, moving less. Due to the poor ergonomics of many desks, that arm is seated on a narrow-angle, so the elbow is constantly flexed. All this micro action, multiplied for days, weeks, months and years, brings the scapula to the mercy of the muscle force. As per this example, the bicep force. We did mention just now that the elbow is constantly flexed, right? So the Bicep, the primary elbow flexor, will be constantly under tension. Now, looking at the bicep origin, we find that: The short head originates in the Apex of the Coracoid process of the scapula The long head originates in the Supraglenoid tubercle of the scapula This is then how the scapula gets constantly pulled from this muscle. Then obviously, there are other muscles to play a contro-part. In this case, we can think of the lower trap and the lat dorsi, which inserts at the inferior angle of the shoulder blade, so on the opposite side of where the bicep pulls from. But if those muscles are not trained to compensate for the constant pulling force of the flexed arm, then the scapula will be tipped out. What is a tipped Scapula? For “tipped scapula, ” we refer to a scapula with a prominent inferior corner. On the other hand, especially for the coracoid process, there is more muscle originating from that area, such as the Pectoralis Minor and the Coracoid Muscle. Now, after analysing how muscle tension can move the scapula around, we can talk about other scapula facts. So a Scapula should sit with the inferior angle at the high of T7 (vertebrae). But that’s not always the case. So we can have a “depressed” scapula that can sit lower than T7 or an “elevated” scapula that can sit above T7. Lev scapulae and lower trap are the muscles responsible for a depressed or elevated scapula. It all depends on the tightness or laxity of the muscles. Furthermore, we can have a “winged” scapula. Therefore, the medial border is visibly protracted. For this case, is Serratus Anterior responsible for the winged shoulder blade. As this muscle gets loose, the shoulder blade escapes the rib cage. On the other hand, when we look at a scapula, we also see if it is “downwardly rotated” or “upwardly rotated”. Preferably we would like to see the shoulder blade being upwardly rotated. That means having the superior angle closer to the spine and the inferior angle further away. Why so is because when we elevate the arm, either in flexion or in adduction (flexion on sidewise), the scapula is ready to follow the humerus. In this post, I already talked about the muscles involved in the scapula rotation. How can massage help with shoulder pain? We always have to look at the presentation regarding massage and treatment from which a shoulder can benefit. A Myotherapy, Remedial Massage or a Thai Massage is good to: improve mobility; reduce tensions; alleviate trigger points; rehabilitating the shoulder. MLD, on the other hand, is more recommended for fracture; inflammation of the muscle surrounding the shoulder; pre-post operation; swelling; skin rash on the shoulder area. In conclusion, if your shoulder needs some work done, your next massage is a click away.
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May
Often when I introduce myself to people, as a massage therapist, and I mention that I work with Thai Massage, they look at me and say things like: “Oh I love Thai Massage, I love that knee in my back” or “Thai Massage? Not for me, it is too painful” Both those ways of talking are often a sign of a poor understanding of the importance of Thai Massage and are based on the commercial knowledge of this ancient technique. Unfortunately, Thai Massage has the reputation of the massage “go hard or go home”. But is that a real thing? I mean, is this what Thai Massage should be? Massage and pain are 2 things that are strictly correlated. Most of us go for a massage when we are in pain, isn’t it? During the massage, even during a Remedial or Myotherapy treatment, we are going to experience pain. And you know what? That’s normal. Actually, that’s what those techniques are based on too. That pain sensation that you experience during the Remedial or Myotherapy session as per the Thai session, is what makes the massage work. What is the purpose of pain during treatment then? Well, that pain is a response of your body to trigger point stimulation. What happens next is that, by stimulating a trigger point, the body will release an immune response that would facilitate the trigger point to dissipate. That’s why during a session as massage therapists we ask: “How does it feel?” “0 to 10? what’s the sensation feel like?” Book now your next Massage. So is pain normal during a massage? Yes, it is normal. But back to the start, in Thai Massage often the therapist due to their poor training are told to “go hard or go home”. It is a tourist thing. It is the westernization of an ancient healing technique. And unfortunately, it will now take years to change the mindset of people about it. Again, a knee on the back is a real thing, but it doesn’t have to hurt more than what a hand can do. So why use the knee on the back? Well, it is just more ergonomic for the therapist. It prevents the hand of the massage therapist to be worn out. But again, in order to use a knee on the back, leg, or shoulder, there is a need for some training, things that at the Thai Massage front shop, often, the person working there, doesn’t have.
May
When experiencing pain around the head, we talk about Headaches. Headache is a common condition, and for most cases, is not considered a serious illness. Migraine and headache. 4.9 million Australians experience migraine. Migraine is a specific type of headache, so consider that the number stated above is still a small figure. Headache and muscle. If you ever experience a headache, you may notice that the pain sensation does start from your cervical area. Or, by confronting yourself with who is around you, your headache pain pattern, is consistent, but it is different from the one of someone else. On the other hand, you may associate headaches to the result of a heavy drinking night, or of lack of water (which is why you get headaches after a heavy drinking night, by the way), but often headaches are there because of cervical muscle tightness. Wait, what? Yes, you did read right. How can we define then if the headaches come from muscle tension? So in order for this to happen, the muscle responsible for referring its pain up to the head must be tight or stretched out, and loaded with trigger points. As massage therapists, especially in the first consultation session, we would ask about headaches and if there are any, “where about do you feel the headache”? Indeed, the answer to this question is most luckily the giveaway to know which muscle is may responsible for your headaches. To confirm the suspicions, we would then assess your posture, looking for any muscular-skeletal unbalance, and then we would assess the Range of Motion (ROM). If the ROM show up to be limited on the muscle that we believe is responsible for the pain in the head, then most luckily we are halfway through the solution. I do say halfway through, a single massage session either Myotherapy, Remedial Massage, Thai Massage, or MLD is maybe not enough to release all the tension that is in needs to be alleviated to eradicate the headache. Said so, no journey starts, without doing the first step, isn’t it? When a headache is a Red Flag? For red flags, we refer to symptoms that may be present due to serious illness or condition. Some example includes clients who had a clinical history of stroke and or brain cancer, a recent car accident or recent head trauma, or blurred vision. If that’s the case, the next step is referring the client to a GP immediately for further investigation. What about the cervical muscle tension headaches type of presentation? As already mentioned in another blog post, the Occipital muscle can have headache type of pain in the lower section of the posterior side of the skull. If we then look into the area of the skull that seat above the ear, could be more tension from the Upper trap or Levator Scapulae. By keep moving more medially and above the head, Splenius cervis can refer to the medial superior side of the head and Splenius capitis to the middle top side of the head. Sternocleidomastoid, indeed, can refer to the frontal lobe of the skull. Now, all these muscles are sitting on the neck and throat and from above the shoulder. So, ensuring that those areas are free or not overloaded with tension can help in staying headache-free. Now, in this blog post, we are keeping the headache presentation type of pain to its simple aspects. On the other hand, the topic can be further discussed in person with Giovanni during your next massage appointment. Book now your next massage session, if you are trying to get to sort out your headache presentation. Other approaches to a headache-free life, out of massage therapy. There is a series of things that complimentary massage can help with to relieve headache pain. Exercises Keep yourself hydrated Good posture when seating and standing Good variety of food as diet intake Wearing glasses if needed. Meditation for stress management In conclusion, headache is a really common problem for all Australians, for both women and men. Don’t wait for your symptoms to get worse; you may not need to take medicine all the time if you have a headache, as the medicine will just numb the symptom but will not sort out the problem. If you are keen to learn more about where your headache may be coming from, book your next Massage Session today.
In the previous post, we did look into plantar fasciitis and we only mention the Corrective Exercises for Plantar Fasciitis. Indeed, we did get to the conclusion that Myotherapy, Remedial Massage and Thai massage can help in reducing muscle tensions, for those muscles which take part in the foot’s unbalance, and that MLD can help in reducing the pain and reducing the inflammation within the plantar itself. What’s the role of the Corrective Exercises for Plantar Fasciitis? Exercises are a crucial step to take for a successful healing process. Corrective exercises for plantar fasciitis can be simply practised at home, without the aid of a personal trainer to follow you. In fact, corrective exercises are often simple movements, that require precision more than strength. Furthermore, is better to start slowly and gradually implement more difficult exercises and extra load. Indeed, the corrective exercises world is a step-by-step journey. If this post is talking to you, book your next massage session by clicking here. Corrective Exercises for Plantar Fasciitis: Foam rolling below the foot. Take a seat on a chair and start gently rolling the affected feet along on the foam roller. The bigger the foam roller, the gentler the exercises, due to lower pressure. If you have no foam roller, you can use a tennis ball too. The aim of these exercises is to gently self-massage the plantar of the feet and stimulates blood circulation within it. Plantar pressure with a towel. Always in a seated position, roll a towel on itself, and by holding it with both hands, put the towel under the foot. Start pulling the towel against the plantar of the feet Pull and hold for 15 to 30 secs about Drag the towel with the toes. Place a towel on the floor. The backside of the towel will be right below your toes Now gently, start grabbing the towel with your toes These exercises will reinforce the flexors muscles of the toes, in specific Flexor hallucis longus and Flexor digitorum longus, with the aim to improve the arch below the foot Single Calf Raise For this exercise, you will need a small stool or an Aerobic Step Kit Step with the front of the feet on the Areboic Step and start pushing up through the foot. For safety, you may wanna hold yourself to a wall with your hands You can start doing 1 foot at a time to increase the load. These exercises would create strength in the plantar flexor muscle of your foot. Along with the same muscles that do plantarflexion, there are the ones that do eversion and toes flexion too. In specific Perenous Longus, Perenous Brevis (eversion) and Flexor hallucis longus and Flexor digitorum longus (Toes flexion) If you suffer from plantar fasciitis because of an excess load of the body weight on the external side of the foot, these exercises would help you in recreating balance in the body load on the foot. Said so, those are some of the exercises that can be done. Few more are out there. If specific to your condition, you may want to do some exercises more than others. Most important is to have someone diagnose you with the specification of the condition and then suggest to you what exercises are the best. Plantar Fasciitis is a chronic condition, that with the right exercise and determination can be fixed. If you need help with it, don’t hesitate to book now your next session with Melbourne Massage and Treatment. And what about Orthotic Insole? The orthotic insole can be a quick-release type of approach for foot pain. On the other hand, orthotic insoles are most luckily the more common and misunderstood tool for foot pain. Yes, good to quickly reduce severe symptoms, but by itself is not going to fix the problem. Indeed, before spending hundreds of dollars on Orthodics, give a fair trial to exercises.
Apr
Plantar Fasciitis is a foot condition that can cause severe pain when walking or standing. Pain may be more intense in the morning when you step out of bed. If you ever had plantar fasciitis you will well know, that is not a fun thing to deal with. How to fix plantar fasciitis? In most cases, corrective exercises are the best way to retrain the foot and heal it once and for all from this condition. In this blog post, I talk more in detail about exercises for plantar fasciitis. How does Plantar Fasciitis manifest itself? Plantar Fasciitis manifest itself when the load of the foot is predominately put on the outside of the foot or on the back of the foot. It is the case we talk about an over-inverted foot, indeed a foot that is overloaded on its lateral portion. By doing so, the big toes flexor, the muscles that connect the big toes to the heel, get inflamed. As per consequence, pain does manifest below the heel. “It feels like if I got glass under my feet” someone that offers this condition would say. Plantar fasciitis demographic. People who spend a long time standing up/walking (waiters) Runners (who run with a heel strike) Pregnant women (due to the abundance of weight) The foot is a complex body part. Indeed, the foot contains 29 muscles, 26 bones and 30 joints. Therefore if not loaded correctly, the consequence can lead to major body musculoskeletal dysfunctions and unbalance. As already mentioned during the blog about the Fascia line, unbalanced feet can reproduce tension up to the back and shoulders. Plantar fasciitis functional test. A simple test that we do as massage therapists is to passively extend the big toes. (Windlass Test) If pain is reproduced on the heel, the test is positive. Therefore, this test tells us that the big toes, which most luckily would not even extend to their full range (65°), are not used when standing and or walking. That’s why is weak and tight. How can massage help reduce plantar fasciitis pain? At Melbourne Massage and Treatment, Myotherapy, Remedial Massage or Thai Massage can help reduce the tension along with the foot’s supinator muscles, which are responsible for over-invert the foot. That’s one of the reasons why the body weight gets overloaded on the lateral side of the foot. Regarding MLD, it can be most beneficial to reduce the inflammation within the plantar of the foot and help manage the pain. But as previously mentioned, massage can help in reducing the symptoms, and improve mobility. Where for full recovery, corrective exercises are essential. Was this post helpful? If you are suffering from Plantar Fascitis and would like to find a way out of the pain, book now your next appointment with Melbourne Thai Treatment. Here on the right side, is an example of a pair of shoes, for someone who suffers from plantar fasciitis. As you may notice, the lateral portion of the show is completely worn out, where the medial portion, is nearly touched, especially at the big toes area. So back to the fact, that the big toes are what should drive the foot along the strike motion if that shoe area is untouched, it means that person is not loading any weight on there. Footwear examination can be also used to identify weight balance in the foot area.
Apr
Knee pain is a common presentation for clients of any range of age and gender. Knee pain indeed is a vast topic. So in this post, we are going to go through how to identify the reason why we can experience knee pain. For doing so we are going to look at some special testing, that we use for the knee joints. Next, in a further post, we may analyse individual conditions. What about the Knee Joint? The knee is the strongest joint in the body. It takes a lot of pressure from the upper body and still has to handle the shock coming from the lower leg session, shock as walking, running and jumping. Indeed, whenever we do one of these actions, the knee plays a big role. Knee Anatomy Bond: Above: Femur Below: Medially the Tibia, laterally the Fibula. Patellar is the front “floating bond” Ligaments: Anterior Crucial Ligament Posterior Crucial Ligament Posterior Menisco-Femoral Ligament Fibular Collateral Ligament Tibial Collateral Ligament Transverse Ligament (this one is visible only from the front side of the knee, below the patella). In between the bonds we have: Medial Meniscus Lateral Meniscus If this post is talking to you, book your next massage session by clicking here. So, the knee joint can be divided into two parts: Tibiofemoral joint Connects through the collateral ligaments, cruciate ligaments and menisci; Patellofemoral joint Gives stability to the medial and lateral retinaculum and allows the extension mechanism through the tendons of the quadriceps f.. Now that we have a better idea of what the knee anatomy is, we can look into his functionality. Knee ROM are: Extension: 0° Flexion: 140° Internal Rotation: 30° External Rotation: 40° Abduction/Adduction: 15° Said so, we can see that the major movement that the knee can accomplish is, flexion. Even if the Internal and External rotation since to be a big move for the knee, in the reality, that’s not always the case. The older we get, easily this motion actively gets tighter. Indeed, one of the main reason for meniscus injury is the twisting of the knee, when the feet is holding the ground and the body rotates. But as previously mentioned in this post we would look into the knee special test. What knee functional test have to tell us? As we already mentioned in another post, a generic active, passive or resisted ROM tell us about muscle functionality. On the other hand, a special test for the knee can show us if a ligament or a meniscus is loose, in the case of ligament or injured. Furthermore, special tests, on the knee are essential to prevent further injury and reduce joint degeneration. To start with we have the drawer test: Anterior Draw test and Posterior Draw test. The Anterior one is to test the anterior crucial ligament, and the posterior, obviously, is for the crucial posterior ligament. Both these tests are done with the client lying supine on the table, with a hip and knee flexed, and foot on the table. The therapist will ensure that the foot doesn’t move and will place its hands around the knee, with the fingers (except the thumb) seating at the top of the calf and the thumbs seating on the patella. For the A.D. test, the therapist will lightly pull the knee joint away from the patient body. On the other hand, for the P.D. test, the therapist will push the knee towards the patient’s body. These tests are positive if there is a loose movement within the knee, in the direction of pull or push. If the client has a history of injuries, to the ACL or PCL the therapist wants to make sure not to push or pull with great effort, or injury could occur. Vagus and varus test. Those tests analyse the status of the medial and lateral ligaments. For the valgus test, the therapist places one hand above the knee laterally, and the other hand above the ankle on the medial side. By applying opposite pressure in the 2 directions we put the medial ligament under stress. If pain is reproduced, or there is a loose movement the test is positive. The same action is for the Varus test. In this case, the hands are placed still above the knee and ankle, but the bottom hand is placed laterally and the top one, is placed medially. Apleys Test This test is used to evaluate the state of the meniscus. The client, in this case, would be lying in a prone position, with the knee flexed. The therapist will be standing next to the client, on the side of the knee flexed and will apply pressure to the knee. If no pain is reproduced with pressure only, the therapist can gently apply a rotation movement to the flexed knee. The test is positive if the pain is reproduced. McMurray test. This is luckily the most efficient and most used knee test used by therapists in case of meniscus injury Here is how it works: The patient lies in the supine position with the knee completely flexed (heel to glute). Lateral Meniscus: the examiner then medially rotates the tibia and extends the knee. Medial Meniscus: the examiner then laterally rotates the tibia and extends the knee. McMurray is a positive test if the pain is reproduced. There are still a couple of tests that can be done for the knee, but so far we did cover the most important. About the therapy that I can offer for releasing knee pain, MLD is what I would suggest the most. Especially for acute pain and swelling or oedema reduction. Whereas, Myotherapy or Remedial Massage and Thai Massage can be used too but more to facilitate and or strengthen the muscle surrounding the area.
Apr
A Scap-Off Load is a special test or functional test that we use to evaluate the implication of Lev Scapular and Up. Trap in Cercival Rotation. As previously mentioned, in cervical rotation, we got a fair bit of muscle working towards this action. As many clients come in with cervical pain, it’s time to explain in more detail what’s going on there. Cervical Rotation. How does it happen? So, when we rotate our head, either right or left, the muscle on the same side of the rotation movement is contracting. If a muscle along those is weak, we may reproduce pain in rotation along the same side. To thin down which muscle is responsible for the limited ROM, we have to safely deactivate some of them to see if the left behind one can deliver the expected movement. Here is an example of how scap offload works. If a client comes in with 30° Cervical rotation on the R and pain on top of the scapula, that could be an indication that its levator scapulae is the muscle to target. To confirm this hypothesis, I would ask the client to shrug their shoulders and flex their elbow (the client is sitting on a stool). After that, I will make my way behind the client, and I will support their shoulder weight with my forearm and hands. As the client relieves the shoulder tension, that lev scapulae and up. Traps. are now deactivated. The next thing would be to ask the client to perform the cervical rotation. Ideally, I would like to see the client have a full range of motion (80° to 90°). If this post talks to you, book your next massage session by clicking here. That would tell me that the only muscles that are limiting the cervical rotation are the lev scap. and up trap. On the other hand, what could happen, is that the cervical rotation is, yes improved, but still limited, compared to the ROM expected. In this case, the muscles involved in the stiff range of motions are not only lev scap. and or upper trap. In fact, what is causing the limitation is the cervical occipital muscles. And yes, spending long hours at the computer or looking at the phone doesn’t help. After this test, to narrow down even more which other muscles are involved in the stiffness of the cervical area, I do run another series of tests. Those tests would look into joint areas like C0-C1, which would refer to Obliquus Capitis Superior muscle, and the C1-C2 test, which would look at tension for Obliquus Capitis Inferior. Furthermore, for the other facet joints that make up the lower cervical region (C3 to C8), I would analyze each facet joint individually. These series of tests are indeed part of my Myotherapy training. Last would be then the usage of the joint mobilisation technique. In this case, we would look into what joint has lost mobility or which one has an excess of it. Strengthening the cervical. In order to improve the presentation, massage on its own is not enough. As per any condition so far, the strengthening of the muscle, in this case, the cervical and upper thoracic one, would allow to prevent further pain and discomfort. The work that the cervical muscle has to do daily is considerably high, giving the natural weight of the skull. So exercising a chin tag in a supine position can help. Ideally, we would do these exercises in the supine position (lying down face up) so that we have gravity to fight back as we train our deep flexors. To further improve the strengthening, once the chin tag is not enough, we can start using a soft rubber band to create resistance. Said so, be mindful that the cervical area is a delicate area to work on too, and those exercises are best practice under the supervision of an expert trainer or massage therapist.
Apr
First Massage Appointment. At Melbourne Thai Treatment, a first massage appointment session does last a bit longer than a regular appointment. Indeed, if you go on the booking page, you may notice that the first appointment lasted 75mins. Why so?! Well, within the first appointment, as a therapist my aim is to track down your Clinical History. For doing so there is initially a form to fill in and in a second stage few subjective questions that I am going to ask. Questions are like: “What do you do for work?” “What sports activity do you do or did?” “On what side do you sleep?” “Are you Right or Left Handed?” Ext… These and other questions, relevant always to the presentation that you come in with, are for me therapist essential to understand how you end up having the pain or discomfort that I have to remove or reduce. Obviously, those questions asked during the first massage appointment can take a bit of time to be answered Occasionally an answer gives space to a new question. Said so, the more specific are the answer more I can narrow down the clinical situation. If this post is talking to you, book your next massage session by clicking here. As per result, will be easier to find a path to alleviate pain and discomfort. On the other hand, as the session last longer than a regular visit, as a therapist I charge a bit more. For a Remedial Massage and a Thai Massage a first appointment session would last 75mins. About MLD a first Massage session would last 60 minutes. Indeed, with this post, I would like to share and explain to any clients that the first appointment is not more expensive because I am greedy. Is through, the time we spend doing the massage itself is per usual the same time that we would spend during a general consultation. But, that initial time that we spend working out your Clinical History, will save time after actually treating the condition. In conclusion, I would not see the first appointment as an extra expense, but as an investment in your health. Before we find out what’s the cause of your pain, and discomfort before I can create a proper treatment for it.
Mar
As already mentioned earlier MLD is a fantastic manual technique that can be used to improve the healing of many conditions. Along with the conditions that MLD is useful for there is bone fracture. Said so, in order to understand how MLD can help to speed up the recovery from a bone fracture we have to analyse what’s happening within the body when such trauma happens. A bone fracture is an injury that can happen at any age, due to an accident or trauma. The main type of bone fractures are: Displaced Angulated Shortened Rotate Symptoms of bone fracture Pain Swelling Bruising Deformity Inability to use the limb. The fracture so can be a crack side to side or in the middle of the bone. Eventually, the bone can crumble too, or break in multiple areas. At the worst, the bone can also cut the skin, and come out of the body. If this post is talking to you, book your next massage session by clicking here. Depending on where the fracture is, and what type of fracture it is, surgery could be required. Independently if surgery is required or not, still MLD can help to boost the recovery. Indeed, when a fracture happens the body recognises a trauma to its system. As long as the body won’t know exactly what the trauma is, and if the trauma does involve a skin crack or not, to prevent infections and external bacteria or pathogens to enter the body, the vein, capillaries and the lymphatic system around the trauma area get restricted. As per result, the body does swell. In fact, this explains why, when oedema happens the body does swell. It is an automatic body response to prevent further damage to happen. As the body then, realise what the issue is, slowly does reactivate the lymphatic system, and does fully reopen veins and capillaries, so that the blood can start circulating again freely. But the time that the body can reduce the swelling by itself, with a lymphatic system that works at regular speed (about 7 to 8 bits per minute) it would take a while to reduce the swelling. Furthermore, when I bone is broken that body part would have to stay still for a while, weeks or months. As per result, the blood and lymph flow would be slower than usual. And here is where MLD comes to be useful. If by reading this post, you feel like MLD is what you need now to recover from your injuries, click here to book now your next session. As MLD therapists indeed, we would check that there is no acute infection in the area where we want to apply MLD. If that’s the case, then, we can start our work. By boosting the lymphatic system, up to 3 to 4 times its normal ratio, we can quickly reduce the swelling. And what about if the area affected is covered with a plaster cast? Well, let’s not forget that the lymphatic system works as a vacuum and the area of loads is below the clavicle. So, stimulating the Lymphatic system at the top can actually already improve its suction ability till down the feet. For example, if the fracture is at the foot, initially MLD can be applied at the neck, to open the Lymphatic System duct that reverses in the veins, and secondly can be applied to the abdominal level and down the legs, just before the foot. Now, that swelling reduction, come’s with many benefits. For example, in the area treated, there is a transaction of extra oxygen, protein, vitamins, blood and other essential elements useful for the bone to heal. And occasionally, depending on the type of fracture is not only the bone the one that has to heal. In fact, along with a bone fracture, the body part fractured stays steel for weeks and months. That would create a weakness in the muscle that would then require rehabilitation. As a Remedial Massage therapist, I would have to refer the client to a Physiotherapist for rehabilitation. Even so, as a Remedial Massage therapist, I can still deliver massage services that can help in restoring muscle functionality. In conclusion, MLD can help with: reducing the swelling along a bone fracture; help in speeding up the recovery of the skin damaged by the fracture and or by the operation; Speeding up the healing of muscles and soft tissue around the fracture; Ultimately, by increasing relaxation, MLD is also useful to keep the humour of the person at ease, as often happens that after a trauma such as a bone fracture, the person can feel anxious and demoralised due to poor mobility and difficulties in moving.
Mar
TMJ or Temporomandibular joint is bilaterally located on the side of the human head. TMJ and Movement Upper Compartment Protrusion Retrusion Lower Compartment Lower the Jaw Raise the Jaw Lateral Deviation Said so: the opening is the combination of Protrusion plus Lowering the Jaw closing the mouth is Retrusion plus Raising the Jaw. TMJ and Pain When TMJ is in pain, we can find it hard to talk, eat and sometimes even rest, as the pain can be pretty strong. Moving forward, not everyone knows that deep under TMJ we have what we call Parotid Gland. The Parotid Gland is a salivary gland, and if gets infected, it can swallow up and be quite painful. What can happen at the Parotid Gland is an accumulation of calcium in its duct, and saliva can’t be expelled. Even though viruses or bacteria can also be responsible for TMJ infection. What also most people are not aware of is that in the Parotid Gland, there are lymph nodes. TMJ and MLD. The fact that the gland can be swollen is an indication that fluid is stuck in it. MLD, thanks to the boosting of the lymphatic system, which is responsible for reducing swelling in the body, can be the perfect technique to reduce the swelling and so restore the functionality of TMJ. If this post talks to you, book your next massage session by clicking here. The Parotid Gland lymph nodes unload their Lymph Obligatory Load into the cervical nodes. So as per usual, at the start of the MLD treatment, we will work along the upper neck, medial neck and then the terminal (just between the clavicle and the upper trap). In addition, what makes a difference with MLD is that is a pain-free technique. That would allow the client suffering from TMJ pain to receive a treatment that would not aggravate the pain feeling and would end up giving a deep relaxation too. Other work techniques can be used, such as Myotherapy and Remedial Massage trigger point, or dry needling for Myotherapy treatment. The Remedial Massage TMJ treatment is a valuable technique but would not resolve the problem at the root cause. In conclusion, MLD is probably the best manual, not invasive treatment that can be done for TMJ. Talk to your dentist about this option, and if they are not aware of what MLD is, don’t be surprised, it is, yes an excellent technique, but it is still not well known by many practitioners, dentist included.