Working with the Sacro-Iliac Joint.

What a fascinating world that of the sacro-iliac is! The ligaments that run from the sacrum to the ilium – like the guywires of a suspension bridge – need appropriate span and tautness to be healthy. Sitting down all day compresses the SI joint and results in overly lax ligaments. Then any stray force –…

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National Massage Therapy Awareness Week Oct 25-31

We are next week celebrating the 19th annual National Massage Therapy Awareness Week – October 25-31, 2015. Massage Therapy Awareness means so much more than just the awareness that massages are good for you. It brings to mind the role that touch plays in our lives. Touch is the first sense to develop in the…

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Deep Massage and “Low Back Pain”

by Keith Vencill Many of the people I see for the first time complain of “low back pain”. Massage is rarely the first thing that they try. Over-the-counter pain relievers are cheap, easy to come by, and may be effective. However, clients become frustrated as symptoms return when the drugs wear off. They think there must…

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Shouldn’t All Ribs Float?

Each rib has toward its “head”” a triangle of synovial joints – with attachments to the bodies of the vertebrae above, below and to the transverse process of the one below. The triangle is one of the most stable as well as most flexible structures in nature. It is no accident that nature chose the…

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Homage to the Feet!

It has always been incredible to me how much massage clients enjoy foot massage. Yet most therapists know very little about the detailed anatomy of the foot! And mostly they use general massage techniques! It brings a whole new level of pleasure, service, and benefit to your work as a therapist to really understand and…

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A Brief History of Anatomy Trains

Tom Myers, the founder of Anatomy Trains, says: “I developed the Anatomy Trains during the 1990’s as a game for students to play when I was teaching Fascial Anatomy at the Rolf Institute . All the books you can find put forward the ‘single-muscle’ theory, but Ida Rolf kept saying, “It’s all connected through the…

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What are the 13 Rules of Massage Therapy?

1. Slow down when you need to. Speed up when you don’t need to slow down. Massage that’s always slow is ultimately boring massage.   2. Palpate – how can you love if you don’t know what’s there?   3. Know anatomy – not just in general.  Have memorized the origins, insertions and actions for…

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SENSORI-MOTOR AMNESIA!

Working on clients, we sometimes encounter “sensori-motor amnesia”, a lack of body awareness that is sometimes funny, sometimes sad. I was once massaging a man’s back and he asked me what I was working on. At the time I was trying to mobilize the soft tissues that had become chronically tense and were restricting the…

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Anatomy Trains Comes to Austin!

Anatomy Trains is a unique map of the ‘anatomy of connection’ – whole-body fascial and myofascial linkages. The Anatomy Trains concept joins individual muscles into functional complexes within fascial planes – each with a defined anatomy and ‘meaning’ in human movement. Anatomy Trains leads to practical new holistic strategies to improve stability, coordination, and resolve…

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How can you do Massage if you don’t know what’s inside?

by David Lauterstein I say to so many of our students, especially when they start the internship, that each person is a gift. It is such a gift, for both for therapist and client, to explore the layers of fascia, muscle, and bone and to see how you can make a positive difference in their…

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