As previously spoken in another blog post, sitting on the floor and working at the pc would be a better anatomical position than sitting on a chair. Why does sitting on the floor work better than sitting on a chair? Sitting on a chair is uncomfortable, especially in the long term. As a massage therapist, most of my clients are people who have cervical pain or suffer from headaches. Sitting at a desk for hours does more damage than you may realise. So, let’s start with the lower body portion. Staying seated on a chair does direct pressure on the thigh, and by doing so, muscles like the hamstring and gluteus muscles get compressed. By compressing this group of muscles, they get weak and stop functioning as they should. In addition, direct pressure is also applied to the sciatica nerve, the main nerve of the lower body portion. The piriformis often compresses the Sciatica nerve. This muscle runs beneath the Gluteus Max and connects the medial portion of the sacrum to the greater trochanter of the femur. So, the deactivation of those muscles would then manifest itself when we try to walk or, in any case, extend the leg. As the “firing pattern” blog post shows, the hamstring and gluteus max muscles are crucial in leg extension and help prevent lower back pain. This is what happens to the muscle part of the lower body portion. But this is not the only issue the body faces with so many hours sitting on a chair. There is more. So sitting on a chair does limit the body’s movement. The decline of the body’s movement creates a cascade of side effects, including mobility reduction in joints like the Hip, Ankle, Feet, and Thoracic. As all those joints don’t move, there is also a diminish in the proprioception body/brain. Another issue is the compensation of the stability joint over the mobility joint. Indeed, when a mobility joint gets stiff, the stability joint above and below would try to compensate. What’s a common finding pain-wise with sitting on a chair for long hours? The prevalent finding is a sore neck. The sore neck happens as the thoracic stuff up. Indeed the lower cervical portion of the vertebrae, which are stability joints, try to compensate for the thoracic stiffness and, in the long term, would cause neck pain, shoulder pain and headaches. Sitting on the floor can improve mobility. Sitting on the floor can help improve your mobility by allowing you to move your body in many different ways without the need to stand up. That movements are what your body needs as mobility exercises. That movement is your body’s way of improving its posture. Indeed, movement is a crucial component in pain prevention. And this doesn’t happen on a chair. How to switch habits? As for all the habit changes, this has to be gradual and not radical. So, start sitting on the floor for 1 hour a day. Give yourself the time to adapt to the change. Slowly you can incorporate more hours, but not in a row. Maybe one hour in the morning and one in the afternoon. Also, incorporate some standing time to sitting on the chair and floor. Implement change, too, within your training. You are doing something new, and your body needs to adapt. As shown in this clip, start, start implementing a habit of sitting on the floor by doing step-by-step movements: Step 1: Move one leg forward, and bend down the other knee. Step 2: Bring both knees down Step 3: Swing the lower leg to the side (either Lx or Rx) Step 4: Let your body weight go, and sit down Step 5: Now let your lower leg come forward and sit cross-leg. Step 6: Do from step 5 to step 1 in reverse By clicking here, and here you will find the links to a Thai Yoga exercise that can help a lot with improving hip mobility.
Tag Archives: neck
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Jun
Lymph nodes (or lymph glands) are small lumps of tissue containing white blood cells that fight infection. They are part of the body’s immune system and filter lymph fluid, composed of water and waste products from body tissues. Introduction to Lymph Nodes Lymph nodes are located in different body areas. On average, we have approx 600 LN. In the neck area only, we find 160 LN itself. LN can vary in size and go from 2 to 30 mm. Lymph Nodes are connected by vessels, better known as afferent and efferent vessels. The afferent vessels carry the lymph to the lymph node, and the efferent vessels take the lymph away from the lymph nodes. So, the lymph nodes are also connected directly to the blood system, veins, and arteria. What is a lymph node made of? Despite the structures that enter and leave the lymph node, these cleaning stations are made of: Connective tissue capsule Supporting strands of connective tissue inside Below the marginal sinus, there are clusters of lymphocytes lymphoid follicles Artery, vein and nerve As for the filtering station, the lymph node is essential to ensure that no bacteria, viruses or dirt can access the blood system. Where we find no lymph nodes in the brain. Indeed, the lymph fluid around this area gets drained by the Optic and Olfactory nerve. Following then the position of the lymph nodes, we can define the watershed. MLD and Lymph Nodes. Lymph Nodes can occasionally be swollen, which happens when the body fights an infection. In my practitioner experience, I often have to refer to the lymph node concept to introduce the client to MLD treatment. Not many clients know about this technique; they are more familiar with Myotherapy or Thai Massage and Remedial Massage. Said so, the client who tried MLD are all well impressed with its benefit. During an MLD session, what happens is that with a gentle stretch and recoil of the skin, I help your lymphatic system to work faster. Consequently, that’s how swollen area gets reduced. In pushing your lymphatic system to work harder, the lymph node would receive more liquid to process. On the other hand, knowing where the lymph nodes are, is essential to ensure we push the lymph liquid in the right direction. If you haven’t booked your appointment yet and wish to set a goal for MLD, please follow this link.
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.
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.
Mar
Range of Motion is the movement of a joint within a 3-dimensional space. For each joint, we expect a minimum and a maximum degree of movement. When to use a range of motion evaluation. Before performing a Myotherapy, Remedial Massage, or a Thai massage session, we check for a Range of Motion, also know as ROM. Checking for ROM is to establish the functionality of the joint and the muscles that surround it. For example, when a client walks in complaining of cervical pain, the first thing we look in too after the postural assessment is the ROM. A postural assessment is an evaluation of the skeletal structure. After that, we ask the client to do specific movements with their head. Like, Rotation side to side, flexion, extension, and lateral flexion. Indeed, these are the basic range of motion for the cervical area. What this range of motion can tell us? Well, depending on the essential mobility of the person, we expect a minimum and maximum range. Let’s say that the client has average mobility; we expect the range of motion of their cervical to be: Flexion (able to flex the head forward and leave a gap of 3cm between the chin and the sternum) Extension, we look in too 70° of movement Lateral Rotation we look in too 80° of rotation (the chin is nearly in line with the shoulder) Lateral Flexion we look in too 45°. If this post talks to you, book your next massage session by clicking here. Are the range of motion movements the same for everyone? A person with a hypermobile joint range may have a 10° about less ROM than this. Indeed, a person that has a hypermobile joint range can reach 10° furthermore. That’s why every person needs his evaluation. Moving forward, if the range of motion is limited, it could be a muscle tightness or a joint mobilization issue. The best approach for improving joint mobilisation is the Myotherapy treatment or Thai Massage. Both techniques relieve muscle tension and improve muscle tone and joint mobility. The release of tension from the muscle would improve the ROM. On the other hand, when we ask a client to do a ROM, we don’t look only for the length of movement. Quality of movement. For the quality of movement, we refer to how smooth the movement is. Is the client trying to compensate for the cervical rotation by flexing the head? Is the client compensating for the flexion by shrugging the shoulder? Indeed, the movement of a joint is the key to understanding what muscle is responsible for the pain, discomfort or limited ROM. Once we individualise the key muscle/s, we can address the issue. Different types of ROM. In conclusion, the ROM can be active, passive and resisted. The client itself does active ROM. Passive are ROM done by the therapist with no assistance in controlling the movement by the client. Reisted is ROM active done by the client, with a resistance force applied by the therapist again the client’s movement. Each of this ROM can tell us something different about the joint. Active is about muscle lengthening. Passive is about joint mobility (ligament and tendon) Resisted is about the strength of the muscle. We can’t use the Resisted if Active or Passive reproduces pain. That would not be safe. Regarding the Resisted ROM, the resistance is applied in 3 different levels. When the pain gets reproduced, we stop the test. Occasionally, an orthopaedic test can be performed too. Orthopaedic tests are specific tests to evaluate in specific the muscle involved in the limited ROM.
Jan
Massage History. Massage history dates back many centuries ago. The association between touch and healing is longer than what you may expect. In fact, the history of massage goes back to 5000 years ago. As per the result of the first finding, the first appearance of massage as a healing technique is founded in India. Is the Ayurveda history then that can be pushed so far. Along the millennia and centuries, this healing technique gets spread all around. Firstly the massage approach spreads to China ( 2700BCE ) and is here that the technique starts to be mixed with martial arts and spiritual yoga. Indeed, this will create the base for Chinese Medicine. From China then, the massage techniques and knowledge moved to Japan, and that’s when Shiatsu was born. Shiatsu is a technique that regulates and strengthens organs by moving energy levels through the stimulation of pressure points aiming to bring natural resistance to illness. If this post is talking to you, book your next massage session by clicking here. Along with the eastern culture, let’s not forget the Thai Massage. About this specific technique, I did dedicate a full blog post. In regards to the western culture were Egyptians the first who start practising massage then influence the Greeks and the Romans (800BCE). As per result, the Greeks put the base for western medicine. Thanks to the passion and devotion to sports (Olympics game) figures like Hippocrates start to associate facts with time in nature, music, rest, good food, and massage as a good practice for the body and essential for healing. Hippocrates can be considered the father of modern medicine. In regards to the Romans, made massage was a popular practice. The reach people could get a massage as a private service, whereas, everybody else would have a massage at the public bath. The Roman public bath is the precursor of the modern SPA. Timepass by and massage lose its popularity, especially in the western world. We have to wait till the 19th century. Is then when a Swedish doctor Per Henrik Ling, developed the base for the Sweedish massage or better known as relaxation massage. From this time onward than all the modern medicine techniques start developing. Remedial Massage (19th century) Myotherapy (1970) Osteopathy (1874) MLD (1930) In conclusion, several are the technique of massage available today. There is a massage that works better than others? Possibly yes, like some massage techniques can work more deeply than others. Said so, depending on the need of the person and the body conditions that may a specific technique is recommended more than others.
Oct
Firstly the Cervical Occipital muscles are a group of muscles, that seat inferior to the skull and are bilateral to the first and second cervical vertebrae. Cervical Occipital muscles are responsible for 45° of rotation out of 90°. Along with these muscles we find: – Obliquus Capitis Inferior; Origin: Spinous process of Axis (C2) Insertion: Transverse process of Atlas (C1) Innervation: Suboccipital nerve – Obliquus Capitis Superior Origin: Transverse process of Atlas (C1) Insertion: Superior line of Occipital bone Innervation: Suboccipital nerve – Rectus Capitis Posterior Major Origin: Spinous process of Axis (C2) Insertion: Inferior line of Occipital bone Innervation: Suboccipital nerve (posterior ramus of spinal nerve C1) – Rectus Capitis Posterior Minor Origin: Spinous process of Atlas Insertion: Inferior Line of Occipital bone Innervation: Suboccipital nerve The actions supported by Occipital Muscles are to extend and rotate the head. How tight Occipital Muscle affect ROM. When rotating the head, so looking at your right or left, you may notice that you don’t have a full range of 80° to 90°, and you start rotating with the thoracic too. One possible reason for this is tension at the occipital area, due to muscle tension and or facet joint irritation. Moreover, to the rotation and extension actions the Cervical Occipital Muscles, are responsible for holding the head up straight. This characteristic is to be taken into consideration with the anti-gravity functionality. In addition to the Cervical Occipital Muscles, other anti-gravitational muscles are the Soleus, Quadriceps Femoris Group, Gluteus Max, and Erectors Spines group. The anti-gravity functionality is essential for the body to fight back gravity (9.81 m/sec2) and allows the body to stand straight up. This group of muscles received information in regard to the gravity pressure from the feet. This information travels along the nervous system starting from the Center of Gravity (COG) of the feet. If the COG is not balanced all body gets affected with a loss of balance as per result. Furthermore, in modern days, the Cervical Occipital Muscles are under constant stress as per all the other anti-gravitas muscles. This is due to spending long hours standing or seating. For example, standing for long hours would overload the feet, leg and back muscles, whereas seating would inhibit the leg muscle but overload the back and cervical muscles. On top of that, spending long hours looking at the phone and or PC would additionally put stress the Cervical Occipital Muscles muscles, as they get over-stretched. How massage can help? As per massaging this area, as therapists, we look into avoiding the Suboccipital triangle, which is defined by the border of the OCI, OCS, and the RCMaj. The Suboccipital triangle is an endangerment site. This means contains superficial, delicate structures that are relatively unprotected and therefore prone to injuries, such as the Vertebral artery, Suboccipital nerve (C1) and Suboccipital venous plexus. If this post is talking to you, and you are in need of a massage, book your next session by clicking here. And what about exercises? As per all the muscles of the body, there are exercises that can be done for the Cervical Occipital Muscles. Along with Thai Yoga, I teach a really simple exercise that recalls the Scap Off Load Test ( a Functional test used to determine what muscle of the cervical region may affect the head rotation). Firstly, in this exercise, available in the Melbourne Massage and Treatment YouTube playlist, you are seating on the floor with a cross leg (a yoga block or pillow can be used as per support), hands projected backwards, with wrists seated below shoulders on a straight line. As per result, the neck would seat in between the shoulders. Secondly, by flexing the head forward, reach the manubrium (the bond that connects the clavicles) with the chin, and with a gentle rotation movement, start rotating the head in a circular movement. Indeed per many Thai Yoga exercises, it is important to be aware of the movement, the body sensation and the speed of movement, which is to be slow and weighted out.
Aug
Exercises for Upper Cross Syndrome As previously mentioned, the UCS is caused by a constant habit of poor posture, to achieve a correct posture on top of massage therapy, we would need to do exercises for Upper cross syndrome. So, there are 2 main groups of muscle that we want to target. 1st group, the tense muscles: Levator Scapulae Upper Trapezius Pectoralis Major Second group, weak muscle Deeper Neck Flexors Rhomboids Middle Trapezius. Now, let’s go through some exercises for Upper cross syndrome. Brugger exercises for Neck deep flexors. This exercise is going to focus on improving the strength of the deep flexors. Stand straight with feet apart ; Place 2 fingers, one on each sternocleidomastoid and start gently and slowly flexing the head forward. The fingers seating on the Sternocleidomastoid (SCM) would allow you to keep those muscles deactivate and so would place all the strength of flexion on the deeper muscle that we are trying to train in gaining strength. If you are not sure where the SCM is, place a hand horizontally between the neck and the upper chest, along the Clavicle line. Rotate your head gently right and left and those 2 muscles that pop up below your hand when you rotate the head are the SCM. Just be aware that the L SCM will activate when you rotate right and vice versa; 3 repetitions for 10 head flexion. Do you feel like you need help with your neck pain? Book now your next appointment at Fitzroy North Clinic. Strengthening the Rhomboids and Middle Trapezius. For this exercise, we would need an elastic rubber band for exercises. · Stand straight, feet apart, and wrap the elastic band on your fist, thumb facing out. · As you breathe in flex the elbow at 90, breathe in and bring the rubber band in tension. As you breathe out extend the elbow out. · Release and start again. 3 repetitions of 10. All those exercises have to be done daily for 6 weeks in order to be effective to change the UCS. Self Massage for Pectoralis/Upper Trap/Levator Scapulae. Pectoralis Self Massage exercises: Lie down in a prone position with the arms along the body; Place a tennis or a spiky ball right between the Pectoralis and the floor; Keep the foot’s toes anchored on the floor; Gently push yourself forward and back by breathing in (from the nose) and out (from the mouth). If you would like more pressure, is enough to open the arm at 90 and lightly extend the arm, by lifting the hand from the floor. Upper Trap and Levator Scapulae Thai Yoga exercises: Start by lying in a supine position and the ball will be seated between the shoulder and the floor. Place the ball right next to the upper angle of the scapula. This time keep your shoulder flexed at 90 degrees, so with the hand facing the ceiling. Start gently a slow rotation movement at the shoulder, by drawing a circle with the hand. 3 series of 6 repetitions for each rotation movement. With Thai Yoga, you wanna make sure that each exercise is done slowly and gently. Those exercises often work on the delicate area of the body and can reproduce massage pain. Moving the body slowly and gently and having constant breathing in and out would allow you to live Thai Yoga at its full potential.