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.
Tag Archives: remedial massage
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.
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.
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 can this range of motion 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. Is the range of motion 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.
Neck pain is something that we all experience at some point in life, and it is not fun. Neck pain can manifest for very different reasons; it can be chronic, it can come and go, and it can debilitate our day. In this blog, we are going to look at the different aspects of neck pain. Cervical Anatomy – What’s In Your Neck? Firstly, we should understand neck anatomy. The neck is formed by the cervical vertebrae, which run from C0 to C7. Upper Cervical The first 3, so C0, C1, and C2, are a bit unique, given their position and to the muscle that they connect, they can be considered the upper portion of the cervical. Along those 3 vertebrae, we find the Occipital Muscle Group, which we discussed in this blog post. Lower Cervical From C3 to C7, indeed, we have the lower portion of the neck. Along those vertebrae, we find different muscle groups. Some of those connect cervical vertebrae to the thoracic ones, like Splenius Cervicis. Others connect the vertebrae to the scapula or to the skull, like Levator Scapulae and Splenius Capitis. Lastly, we have the upper portion of the Erector Spinae group, which connects the rib cage to the Cervical and Skull area. Like, Longissimus Capitis, Longissimus Cervis, Illiocostalis Cervis and Semispinalis Capitis. Not only muscles On top of all the muscles we mentioned above, the neck is also a busy junction of veins, arteries, nerves and ligaments. So now you may start to understand that neck pain is not only an issue that is muscle-related, but it could be from a combination of reasons. What Can You Do About It? Being in pain is not a fun thing. I can be debilitating and change your mood for the day. If you are experiencing neck pain or any type of pain, always consider this: Pain can be a result of inflammation. An inflammation that lasts 24 to 72 hours is just a body response that is under control. If pain lasts more than 72 hours, it is time to seek help. How Can I Help With Neck Pain? If your neck pain is not settling and you need help, choosing the right type of therapist can really change how your neck feels. At Melbourne Massage and Treatment, in Coburg, when I get someone who presents with neck pain, the first thing I will do is go through their medical history, and I will look at a possible mechanism of action that leads to the neck pain being there in the first place. Once we have an idea, or more awareness of why neck pain manifests, we can consider what the best treatment plan is to go for. Is Massage Enough to Fix Your Neck Pain? Massage, or any form of hands-on treatment, including cupping, dry-needling, and even MLD, is a wonderful technique that can help in settling your symptoms and relieve the initial discomfort. But to really change the presentation and ensure that the neck pain is not a recurring presentation, we need to look into it a bit further, and most luckily, intervene with some form of mobility and strength exercises. Below is a brief breakdown of things that we may want to investigate and how we will address them. Mobility-Stability Joint Chain As mentioned above, the cervical area is composed of two groups of cervical C0-C2 and C3-C7, which are correspondingly mobile and stable joints Below your cervical, we then have the Thoracic portion of your spine, which is a mobile joint (T1-T12). Lack of mobility in this section would then put a lot of stress on your cervical stable portion (C3-C7), which would try to act as mobile, leading to facet joint irritation. History of Whiplash Whiplash is a form of trauma that can affect your cervical joint for years, unless proper rehabilitation is done. To restore your neck pain from a whiplash presentation, we will have to assess the chronicity of the presentation, which may start with some hands-on treatment, like mobilisation and deep tissue massage, and move on to strengthening exercises for the neck and mobility for the thoracic. Neck Pain And Headache Muscular tension headaches are a real thing, and they can affect your daily life, impairing your functionality and ability to deliver a task. Muscular tension headaches are not migraine, and hands-on treatment and exercises have the potential to get you out of pain and restore your well-being. Muscular tension headaches are a result of tension accumulating in your cervical and upper shoulder muscles, which refer pain to a specific spot on your head. FAQs
Altar within a Massage Clinic. As you may already know, part of my training was done in Thailand at Pichest Boonthumme Thai Massage School. That’s where I learn about Altar within a Massage Clinic Pichest, as already mentioned in a previous blog post, is a unique way of teaching. In fact, he doesn’t only share the massage knowledge. He included in his teaching a methodology of life. Included in this methodology there is the dedication to prayer and meditation. Even though I haven’t included the prayer yet in my experience, I did include the meditation. In order to do so, in order to build a stronger attitude toward those practices, at Melbourne massage and Treatment clinic there is a little altar the clinic. On the altar, based on the teaching of Pichest, I do expose my offer and memory to the Buddha, to Mamma and Papa’, and to the Teacher. In addition, I did decide to place objects or pictures that recall for me a special time, a memory o a person that someone, shared with me some teaching. Furthermore, just below the altar, there are the products that I sell as the Incenses. But you know what’s the funny thing about the altar present at the Home Clinic here in Blair St? Well, it was already there. I didn’t have to install it. If this post is talking to you, book your next massage session by clicking here. True fact is that, when we came for the house inspection, we right away address that room as the clinic, due to the presence of the wooden altar. A few days after we did move in, I did find out the truth about our neighbour that someone else, before us, already was running a massage studio in the same room. What a coincidence, right?! In conclusion, I am working on my way to improving my practice, and not as a massage therapist only, by taking the Myotherapy course, but also by improving my meditation practice and my prayer practice. I can’t define myself as a religious person, but even though I believe in trust and faith. Thanks again for reading my blog, Giovanni
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.
MLD and Pain. As previously mentioned, MLD is a massage technique pain-free. This is one of the reasons that makes it so special. It doesn’t matter where the technique is applied, the touch has to be so light, that the patient doesn’t have to feel any pain. And believe it or not, MLD can be applied right after surgery, when you get sunburn or right after physical trauma. Indeed, what MLD does is prevent the body to feel the pain. So, in order to explain this, I may use the mosquito bite example. When a mosquito bites us, after several minutes we start to feel itchy. In fact, the first auto-reaction is to start stretching the body. What does the scratching do? Firstly, by scratching, we stimulate the mechanoreceptors of the skin. The mechanoreceptors, send a signal to the spine (to CNS) that inhibit the pain receptors, which are constantly stimulated from the mosquito bite. Indeed, the pain receptor can be stimulated once and keep reacting, whereas the touch receptors, in order to be activated need constant stimulation. Now, in MLD that’s what we do, we constantly and gently stimulate the mechanoreceptors. If this post is talking to you, and you are in need of a massage, book your next session by clicking here. In fact, we keep inhibiting the pain receptors, reducing the pain signal frequency. Secondly, and no less important, by stimulating the lymphatic system activity, we reduce the amount of nociceptors. Per nociceptor, we refer to the actual sensory neuron that transports the pain signal to the spine and brain. Furthermore, by reducing the pain, the client can start experiencing a high state of relaxation. Indeed a high state of relaxation is another efficient way to deal with pain and eventually pour mobility, due to the injury the client is dealing with. In conclusion, this is how MLD can reduce the pain in an injured area.
Different ways of using a Cup. The cup usage is a gentle way to dissolve body tensions, and as already mentioned in the previous post cupping is a fabulous way of working on the body. Indeed, let’s not forget, that when I talk about cupping on this blog, I don’t refer to any practice that involves blood extraction or skin cuts. The usage of cupping for me, starts and stop to do work on the skin and fascia. Cups can be made of plastic, glass or bamboo. Depending on the type of cup in use differents are the methodology used to create the suctions. When glass cups are in use, in order to create a vacuum, heat is applied to the cup. In fact, the heat will burn out the oxygen in the cup, creating the vacuum effect. On the other hand, when the cup is made of plastic, fire is not in use. To create the vacuum with the plastic one is used a pump. So, when plastic ones are in use, the cup gets placed on the body of the receiver and with the pump, the air is pulled out. As per result, the therapist is to be aware of the type of skin she/he is dealing with. Paler skin is keener to bruise. Furthermore, the skin of an older client may be keener to break. So again, when a manual massage is given, not all the clients can receive the same type of treatment. If this post is talking to you, and you are in need of a massage, book your next session by clicking here. Moving forward, once the cup is applied to the skin, and the vacuum is created, the cup can be moved. This type of cupping is called dynamic cupping. Moving the cups around allows the skin to be pulled, and can create a change in a full fascia area. Furthermore, is by observing the client’s skin elasticity that the therapist can decide in which direction to apply the cupping. In fact, the aim would be to drug the cup in a direction in which the skin doesn’t move so easily. Said so, not let’s forget that, before applying the cup, on the client’s body will be applied cream or oil. This will allow reducing the frictions between the cups and the skin. In conclusion, to make the cupping even more effective, when the cup gets drugged around, the client can also move the joints which are in control of that skin section. For example, if we are doing cupping on the quods, we can ask the client to flex the knee. That would create extra skin pulling.
Quietly often I still get asked what is cupping and how does cupping work? Firstly, Cupping is a type of alternative therapy based on placing cups on the skin to create suction. Indeed, the suction would pull the skin up from the muscle layer, drugging back the fascia layer seating below it. Cupping is gentle work on the body, not invasive and at the same time is an amazing technique to stimulate and facilitate the fascia. We did look into the fascia in a previous blog post. If you have missed it, you may wanna click here. On the other hand, there are different types of beliefs and methodologies about cupping’s functionality. Some of those can be a bit more invasive, and dangerous too. Said so, I guarantee my clients that these are not practices that are available at Melbourne Massage and Treatment. For how I got trained in giving cupping, my aiming as giving cupping is: – Leave no marks – No cutting the skin – Painfree – No blood stagnation Now, by following the order of the action listed here above: Marks are a sign of blood stagnation. Accidentally can happen to leave a mark on someone’s skin, and many are factors involved in it: Skin type is one and another one is if the area that received cup was already massaged or not. As Remedial Massage therapists or Thai Massage Therapists, we are NOT trained to cut anyone’s skin. Furthermore, you have to think that when this practice is involved there is a great risk of skin infection. Why do some practitioners do so?! None of my business. I just don’t believe it is necessary, and I don’t believe it has any benefit. As per many detox diets and detox programs, the body is your best allay and best detoxer of itself. If this post is talking to you, and you are in need of a massage, book your next session by clicking here. In regards to pain, Cupping must be pain-free. Along a cupping session, you may feel a strong pull along the skin, but no sharp, ache or pinch sensation should be present at any moment. Indeed, to help the cup slide easily oil or cream oil-based get used. When happens that a mark gets left behind, doesn’t necessarily create pain or discomfort. Another cupping precaution is to avoid over-pass a cup on joints and or tendons. The cupping force could rip or damage those areas, resulting in permanent damage and pain. Lastly, no blood stagnation. Cupping’s desired result as per many massage modalities is to generate a physiological response that would reduce tissue stress. Through the gentle tissue stress, muscles relaxed and the chain of manual therapy benefits starts.







