The Enlightened Body Blog

Massage and the Nervous System: Part Three

Part three of Massage and the Nervous System. (See parts two and one.)

As massage therapists we know how to get our hands on muscles and connective tissues. But now we see somehow we have to get our hands on the nervous system because otherwise it’s a bit like flipping light switches with no electricity – some action but no deeper change.

So how do we get our hands on the nervous system?

Autonomic Nervous System

The diencephalon houses among other amazing objects, the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is the primary orienter in our lives toward pleasure and away from pain. A pea-sized structure, it nonetheless is in charge of the endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is a full spectrum system which goes to glands, smooth and cardiac muscles, and other organs. It is largely responsible for our most profound reactions to the world. Its experiential spectrum inclines us to the deepest relaxations, to everyday balance, and at its most extreme, to emergency reactions.

A high level of massage therapy can affect the autonomic system in dramatic ways: 

•  Change the set point – most people are too highly strung and under stress. Massage, especially repeated applications, will change the “set point” of the autonomic nervous system. We slowly begin to feel that more relaxed is more our normal and preferred state rather than being more tense.
• Inhabit the full spectrum – some people have difficulty relaxing; others fully experiencing their excitement. By relieving tension from the muscles and the nervous system, massage facilitates the autonomic “range of motion” so that the person can more fluidly move from one energy state to another.
• Cultivate the fertile mid-ground – “Between living and dreaming there is a third thing.” the poet Machado wrote. Edison used to go to sleep with a rock in his hand. When he fell asleep it would drop and wake him up. He persisted until he could be almost asleep and yet not drop the rock. Why? That was the state, he found, out of which all his inventions flowed. When our unconscious and conscious minds are in communication with each other in this fertile midground of awareness, we are at our most creative.

Massage, inducing more balanced states of mind, emotion and body, allows for the creative utilization of the fertile mid-ground in problem-solving and growth.

Some Controversy

Lately, there has been some controversy over whether the energy-based approach has the same legitimacy as the orthopedic approach to massage.

“Energy” is a commonsense word we all use to describe, among other things, the nervous system and the role of emotion, mind, and electrical intelligence in our lives. We could reduce our understanding of energy to chemistry, but who would rather for example want to give up the term “love”, preferring to tell those you care about that you have a predominance of phenylethylamines in their presence? The language of energy comes closer to capturing and understanding experience, than does that of chemistry.

When we consider the critical role of energy and the nervous system, we see that the myofascial system constitutes just one part of what we need to affect as therapists. To fully support health we need to address both energy and structure.

Let us honor both of these wondrous human worlds. Let us see their unity; affirm that good science takes the whole into account, not just the part; and that good art - and massage is undoubtedly an art as well as a science – empowers peace and promotes harmony in our whole being. That touch which knows how to contact our deepest energy and structure bears the promise of a better life for one and all.

In Memoriam

One of our most wonderful graduates, Rasa Sittler, passed away on December 28, 2009.

Rasa Sittler was born in Germany and emigrated with her family to the U.S. as a young girl. She studied theater in Germany and later in New York. She performed internationally with the Munich Bach Choir and with the Players Workshop in New York City. In 1973 she shifted her focus from her acting career and became a devotee of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. She also continued to act in sacred contexts and deepened her studies in the healing arts.

She graduated from Lauterstein-Conway Massage School in 1995 and has been a wonderful, heartfelt therapist ever since. She also trained at the Ayurvedic Institute in Vrindavana, India, the Mind-Body Institute in San Antonio, and the Noetic Sciences Research Institute in Lima, Peru. She became a superb colon hydrotherapist as well as a highly skillful and spiritual-awakened massage therapist.

David said, "Rasa defined beauty and kindness inside and out. It was an honor and privilege to be her teacher and her friend." Four years ago Rasa and another esteemed TLC graduate, Greg Schroen, were married. Our hearts go out to Greg as well as to Rasa's friends and family. We all were certainly blessed to have known her.

We also want to extend heartfelt condolences to our dear friend, Bob King, who lost his wife, Kathie, this past week. Kathie was a native Texas who braved the Chicago cold for many years as Bob's devoted other half.

Kathie was a very giving, kind, funny and warm person who will be missed by all that she touched.

Our human life is revealed as all the more precious as we experience the passage of time, the passing of old friends, and the births of new ones.

Namaste.

---

In her honor John and David will be awarding a $500 scholarship to one new student each new class.

For new enrollees who wish to apply for the Rasa Sittler Memorial Scholarship, or for graduates who wish to contribute in her name, contact Admissions and we will happy to be of service.

Anatomy Review: Basics of the Back

This article was originally published as Back to the Basics: Basics of the Back in Heartland Journal in the summer of 1984.

Our culture over-emphasizes image, appearances, "fronts." The cosmetics and the clothes we wear, even some of the psycho-spiritual trainings around are oriented especially toward the fronts we present. However, the more we focus on the front, the more we neglect backs. The more we ignore our backs, the more  thoughtlessness may translate into back pain and/or cowardice, i.e. spinelessness.

Tipping the Scales Backward

The back is a little like chickens crossing roads. It's not that the chicken needs to get to the other side - it is the other side. The chicken is Side B to the front's Side A. Or is it?

Usually, we identify the back with the "backbone," the vertebral column. I once watched a dissection of a man's abdomen and was amazed - slit open the skin of the gut, remove a bit of intestine and what you see there, not deep at all below the surface of the abdomen - the front of the lumbar vertebrae! The spine runs up through the middle of the body. This is an incredibly important corrective to the usual misconception - we ordinarily then the backbone is located at the surface of the back. The reason for this is that the rational mind, naive for all its hight-powered reason, sing those little protrusions running down the middle of the back, concludes those must be the backbone. Actually, they are just the tips of bony tails extending back a considerable distance from the cylindrical bodies of the vertebrae. If the main weight-bearing parts of the spine were all the way in the back, we would be imbalanced, under constant strain not to fall over backward. Now, if you think about it, it's obvious - the backbone's gotta be running up through the center of the body just as the centrality of the main pole in circus tent assures the symmetry, grace and lift of the whole structure. 

Leonardo's famous sketch underscores this point. For me it is fascination lies in his depiction of the human as a five-limbed creature, each limb radiating out from the center ("hara" or "tan tein" in the East). Each limb, in it turn, is a long series of bones ending with a structure used at varying stages of evolution for grasping and/or expression. The leg bones end with feet, the arm bones with hands, and the back bones with the head. With this in mind, begin to feel the evolved gesture of the spine - it's really our fifth limb thrusting up through the center of our being, elevating the head so that we may survey the distance from the highest possible vantage point.

The skeletal structure of the back consists of the spinal column and the ribcage. The rear of the ribcage obviously underlies most of the back's surface, but that too seldom is recognized as people identify ribs and notice their movement in the front of the body, but rarely think about or feel the back of the ribcage and its graceful response to breathing. 

Five Divisions of the Spine

1. The coccyx or tailbone.
   
2. The sacrum, five fused vertebrae lying between the rear wings or ilia of the pelvis.
   
3. The five lumbar vertebrae, running through the center of the waist.
   
4. The 12 thorasic vertebrae, each of which has joints with a rib to either side.
   
5. The seven cervical vertebrae or neck ones. 

Although our cervical as well as lumbar vertebrae have no ribs attaching to them now they did at the fishy point of evolution. Therefore these areas are the most free, but by the same token, the most open to distortion. Through injury, postural ignorance or chronic muscle tension, the cervical and/or lumbar vertebrae will often become compressed excessively curved or twisted. 

Owning Your Back

To re-own the freedom of your back, remember to appreciate with your self-image and in your movement:

1. Your rear ribcage rising and falling, expanding and contracting with each inhale and exhale:
2. The beautiful open span of the waist between the ribcage and the pelvis:
3. Your neck as a continuation of the back bone gently rising up through he body and up through the middle of your head.

Truly, nature displays her genius in the way our backs work if we will move from malignant neglect to benign appreciation, the back will become a source of beauty, pleasure and strength in our lives.

---

Get back to your back: Randy Cummins will be teaching a massage continuing education class Thai-Shiatsu Techniques for the Low Back and Hip in February 2010.

Massage and The Nervous System: Part Two

Part two of Massage and the Nervous System. (See part one.)

As massage therapists we know how to get our hands on muscles and connective tissues. But now we see somehow we have to get our hands on the nervous system because otherwise it’s a bit like flipping light switches with no electricity – some action but no deeper change.

So how do we get our hands on the nervous system?

Diencephalon

This area in the center of the brain is the seat of emotion, memory, and our “drives”. It is, in spite of the vanity of the cerebral cortex’s verbal narrations, largely what moves us in our lives. The diencephalon lives deeper than words - housing hunger, thirst, anger, sexual desire, sleep-wake cycle, anxiety, all our memories, our deepest convictions, desires, our pleasure, our pain, and our dreams.

The diencephalon is the residence of the “unconscious” of which the great psychotherapist Milton Erickson provocatively said, “The conscious mind is brilliant but the unconscious mind is a hell of a lot smarter.”

The first sense to develop in the embryo is the sense of touch. Touch forms our earliest sensory experiences of the world - these in turn shape the unconscious world of the diencephalon. So, the art and science of touch therapy, at its best, is an ideal medium for communicating with the diencephalon.

Moishe Feldenkrais said a person can’t change without new experience. Expert massage and bodywork is new experience. Our world, initially formed by the ways we are touched, undergoes new, awakening experiences through bodywork which go immediately deeper than the conscious mind and influence our deepest beliefs, motivations, and dreams.

Cerebrum

The cerebrum gives rise to language, self-reflection, conscious thoughts, plans, decisions, and the synthesizing of imagination and logic. With the cerebrum we find the words for what we are feeling. We find support for bringing the tool of language to bear in our problem-solving. Often changes initiated by bodywork at the level of the diencephalon bubble up into cerebral, conscious rememberings, re-examined beliefs, changes of plans, and new insights about one’s body, emotion, mind and spirit.

Subscribe to the Enlightened Body for the next installments of this article by submitting your email address on the form on this page. (We promise never to share your email.) To receive monthly Anatomy Reviews for LMTs, we encourage you subscribe to the TLC Times, our school newsletter newsletter.

Massage and the Nervous System: Part One

This is the first part of a three-part series on Massage and the Nervous System.

When we first learn massage therapy, we naturally visualize that we are working on muscles. Memorizing muscles and seeing their kinesiological relations to each other is a task!

Then we can add to that the wonderful insights drawn from Rolfing and other structurally-oriented manual therapies. Muscles and fascia, when chronically shortened, misalign or compromise the body’s posture and balanced movement. The “tensegrity” model of human structure observes that in natural structural systems, the “hard members,” namely the bones in the body, are aligned and moved by the “soft members”, the muscles and fascia.

I have taught this for years. Yet, some years ago, another light bulb lit up for me. What “tells” the soft tissues to relax or to contract? The nervous system - the body is not only aligned by muscles, but also by the nervous system.

As massage therapists we know how to get our hands on muscles and connective tissues.  But now we see somehow we have to get our hands on the nervous system because otherwise it’s a bit like flipping light switches with no electricity – some action but no deeper change.

So how do we get our hands on the nervous system?

Muscles are Sense Organs

Interwoven in our muscles and tendons are nerves called proprioceptors (golgi tendon organs, muscle spindles, etc.). Proprioceptors tell our brain how tense or stretched each muscle is. Through that information the brain constructs the image of our whole body. Then, with a clear picture of the body, we can initiate coherent, coordinated movements. Without proprioception the body “goes to sleep”. Most people - through lack of varied activity, sedentary work, and lack of somatic education - suffer from what Thomas Hanna called “sensori-motor amnesia”. Massage brings enhanced circulation and awareness to our bodies and literally wakes us up.

Subscribe to the Enlightened Body for the next installments of this article by submitting your email address on the form on this page. (We promise never to share your email.) To receive monthly Anatomy Reviews for LMTs, we encourage you subscribe to the TLC Times, our school newsletter newsletter.

Massage for the Sinuses

I live in Austin, one of the allergy capitals of the world.

And every few years, particularly when our cedar trees bloom, I bloom too - into sinus infflammation.

What is sinusitis? Sinusitis is usually a response to allergens or viruses. Our sinuses are hollow spaces in the bones of the head - the maxillae, ethmoid, sphenoid, and frontal bones.

When you have a sinus issue, first the nasal passages swell, then become somewhat blocked. When the mucus can't flow, it becomes more susceptible to infection.

For these problems, sinus rinses can be helpful both as a preventative and as part of your self-care during a flare-up. I enjoy the plastic bottle and salt packages available from NeilMed Pharmaceuticals.

Here are some key pressure points for sinus pain - although they will not necessarily cure the underlying condition, they offer tremendous relief from the associated pain.

• Place your fingers to either side of the nostrils - "smelling perfume"
• to the middle of forehead, just above and between your eyebrows
• the undersides of each brow near the nose "drilling bamboo"
• to either side just inside of the bones alongside your eyes
• to the place where your index finger and your thumb come together, usually in the "V" part of your palm.

Slide your finger into the depressions you find at these places and apply pressure.

With pain, the tissues surrounding the pain tense up. Therefore, massage may be very helpful applied to the neck, face and cranium. Use light to medium pressure to relieve tensions in the neck, face, jaw and scalp. Self-massage can be very effective if you create a relaxed atmosphere. And, of course, if you can visit a massage therapist who is acquainted with sinus treatment, you will receive even more expert care.

Although many sinus problems will resolve themselves naturally within a week, for any pain that is severe or persists for more than a week, consider seeing a health professional.

Zero Balancing with David Lauterstein

An interview of David Lauterstein by Karen Barth, therapist and certified Zero Balancer from Kentucky.

KB: What is Zero Balancing and what are its strongest applications?

DL: Zero Balancing is the art and skill of balancing body energy and body structure. It could be called structural and energetic integration. As such it has a fascinating variety of effects. Zero Balancing dramatically enhances one’s posture because it focuses on balancing the skeletal armature deep within us. It is also spiritually profound because it consciously contacts the deepest energy flowing through us - what we call the “universal life flow”, which flows through the bones. It is also deeply calming because underneath the turbulence of our lives, as under the sometimes-turbulent surface of the ocean, there is actually a calm and uncomplicated experience of oneself which we can access. Zero Balancing is deeply relieving of chronic pain because oftentimes-chronic pain is related to energy issues, as well as structural ones. Because Zero Balancing creates balance in the very foundations of our being-- the bones, joints, and deep soft tissues associated with them -- it is an ideal health amplification modality.

KB: One of the unique things about your work is your focus on its artistic aspect. Please talk about Zero Balancing as an art.

DL: The human body is a masterpiece - greater in its evolved wisdom of body, mind and spirit than the Taj Mahal, the Beethoven 9th, or a Leonardo painting. We forget this - we think the miracles, the masterpieces of our world are “out there”, not “in here”. Actually, there are miracles equally “in here” - in the miracle of human biology, psyche and spirit.

A therapist who really knows this will awaken the client’s awareness of their own miraculous nature. This is the task of great art -- to evoke in us experiences of such wonder that we transform as a result. Great art puts us in touch with the miracle that each one of us is. Bodywork, because it is performed not via the “distal” senses of hearing or sight but through the very sinews of our bodies, is a far more direct and viscerally experienced art form. And Zero Balancing is an embodied art form and health modality which enlightens our innermost nature by working with the innermost core of our bodies’ structure and energy - the bones and deepest layer of our connective tissues.

KB: Is ZERO BALANCING energy work? How does it differ from other forms of energy work?

DL: Zero Balancing is not primarily energy work. It is primarily work which focuses simultaneously and consciously on both the physical structure and on one’s energy. This is an enormously important point. As most of us in alternative health know, a merely structural approach to problems is too one-sided. People are more than just their physical bodies, they have minds, feelings, sensations, and spirit. Any healthcare modality that ignores that is simply unscientific. However, exclusively energy work, on the other hand, often doesn’t address the very real and complex challenges which arise within our anatomy.

Zero Balancing, by having a theory and practice which emphasizes the simultaneous and conscious contact of both energy and structure, has an incredible therapeutic leverage.

KB: What is your approach to teaching in general, and more specifically to teaching Zero Balancing?

DL: The philosopher Martin Buber said, “It is not the educational intention, but it is the meeting which is educationally fruitful.” I believe the most important things as a teacher are not what I know; they are what you know already in your body, as well as in your mind and spirit. And it’s my job to evoke your highest knowing and being through fully meeting. This is basically identical to my work as a therapist and Zero Balancer. My hope in teaching and in practicing Zero Balancing is to help you wake up to your highest dreams and to facilitate as much as possible those dreams coming true.

And isn’t this coming together one of the greatest dreams for us as individuals and a society -- can we get to the place where we all meet in harmony? To the place where we can accept and meet all that is within us and all that is around us? This is true “kind-ness” -- to meet and know that, however different any thing may be, there is a kinship to all life.

It reminds me of words from a poem, “Love after Love,” by Derek Walcott

The Time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Now that, beautifully put, is very much what Zero Balancing is -- with elation greeting yourself at your own door.

The only basic Zero Balancing class to be taught in Texas in 2010 will be in Austin January 28-31.

7 Deep Marketing Tips for Massage Therapists

The more you learn about massage and bodywork, the more you learn about life as a whole. I have been a therapist now for 32 years and a teacher for 27. I’ve learned that the same principles that apply in every bodywork session apply equally to every aspect of our lives. As a matter of fact, it seems we can only have both success and satisfaction when we attend to these things. Some of these principles are: to be centered: to meet people openly; to really get to know our clients through their tissues, nervous system, history; to take actions that will profoundly help them; to monitor and make sure we are helping; and to periodically disengage, re-examine how things are going and celebrate our successes.

Principles of Deep Marketing

The beginning, middle and end of Deep Marketing is centering yourself. Without being centered you can’t do anything well! It is the precondition for all success in the practice and in the business of bodywork. For instance, we all know if your heart is not in what you are doing, there is little satisfaction. The same holds true for the rest of the body!

Marketing with your body means attending to the following with respect to being centered. Often when I sit down at work, I will center myself before I initiate any other work. And I connect with these seven levels of body/mind.

1. Are you grounded? Do you feel literally and figuratively supported by the earth underneath you? Realize that however high your aspirations, you are each just another animal inhabiting the earth. Feel supported by your legs and feet. What do you really stand for? Who and what principles do you stand by?
   
2. Are you excited? If you can’t contact your excitement for growing your business, you will not mobilize the energy required. This is associated with so-called second chakra. Awkward to say but the successful therapist cultivates an irresistible attraction to his or her massage practice. Get excited!
   
3. Do you use your gut in helping you make decisions? Freud said all important decisions are based on insufficient information – the mind alone is an insufficient tool. It is your gut, the feeling in the pit of your stomach, that you also must listen to. And we have to have “guts.” To be successful and to maintain it over time, takes courage, takes guts, inner resolve. Do you support yourself through your lumbar vertebrae and through sufficient breath to give you the energy and determination you need to succeed?
   
4. Is your heart into what you are doing? Is your heart passionately connected to where you are working? to the clients that you have? Let your heart do the talking and listen to what you truly love and want to do. There is nothing more lovely than seeing someone and being someone whose heart is totally into their work and business. The person who loves their work is an irresistible force.
   
5. Do you feel confident in what you say about your work? When people ask you what you do, do you have words that you feel great and honest about? Word-of-mouth is most important in business-building and most importantly, your mouth, your words! I like to think that the best marketing is like a song sung because you really mean it. Take the time to let your mind and your heart participate in the co-creation of statements you make about your work that optimize people becoming and staying your clients.
6. For all the time we spending thinking, the mind is often underappreciated. Use your incredible mind, both its logical and imaginative sides, to slow down and make well-considered decisions about how you want to grow your business. And, as the previous five points have indicated, don’t let your mind try to run the show in isolation. Make all decisions asking yourself – is this grounded, am I excited about it, does my gut tell me it’s right, does my heart say yes, do the words ring true? 7) Be open to inspirations from beyond your usual self. The best ideas seem to come out of nowhere or from “on high”. Cultivate your openness to your “higher self”. Sometimes, facing a difficult decision, I will just sit with the problem, until by just being receptive, a solution just appears in my mind that is perfect. Some of the greatest successes and satisfactions arise from an amazing place of inspiration. Many great art and science discoveries tell us this.

Massage and bodywork have their power by never forgetting to honor the role the body plays in lives well lived. So your success as a massage professional must arise from this same grounded place. Take refuge in the wisdom in your body and watch your great work grow and grow!

Dear NCBTMB: 8 Reasons Why NOT to Proceed with Advanced Certification Exam

On 10/22/09 I wrote the following letter to school owners massage and organizations.  It concerns the possibility (announced as a done deal) that the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork  may develop and administer an Advanced Certification exam. 

Dear Fellow Bodyworkers, Massage Educators and Affiliated Industry Members,

After reading this email, if you are in agreement, please email this letter to everyone you know who cares about the massage field, the NCBTMB and other key people, organizations and massage magazines.

The more I think about the NCBTMB’s proposed Advanced Certification Exam, the more I believe it is very much ill-conceived. With the MBLEx (Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards’ exam) now having cut into NCBTMB's market, the proposed advanced certification exam seems to be more necessitated as an income stream for NCBTMB, than as a mandated credential.  One organization's bottom line should not rule the decisions made affecting our whole field – especially if those decisions will have a negative effect on the field as a whole.

1. From the response I’ve gotten from everyone except NCBTMB, I believe I’m in the majority in believing that the proposed Advanced Certification exam and credential proposed by NCBTMB is not a good idea at this time. The majority of therapists are not nationally certified and the majority of advanced therapists certainly are not nationally certified.  And I believe the NCBTMB surveys in 1997 and onward did not include the majority of practitioners. Many teachers and school owners have serious reservations about the flawed psychometrics on which NCBTMB is claiming to base their decisions.

2.  I never received the initial survey in 1997 or any others  - was it completed only by Nationally Certified therapists? If the primary school owners in the U.S. were not consulted, who else was left out of the surveying process?

3.  NCBTMB should not be the arbiter of who is advanced and who is not.  Their track record of problematic service and self-interest is a source of discredit and suspicion with most of the therapists I talk with.  That they should be trusted to handle this well is presumptuous.

4.  Requiring to be certified as advanced that one be already Nationally Certified, arbitrarily, dramatically and unnaturally limits who can qualify for advanced certification to people who are currently Nationally Certified.

5.  If we end up with a group of advanced practitioners who are not eligible - due to the arbitrary requirement of National Certification - vs. a group who are eligible - NCB would be putting a dysfunctional division in our field.  A split between advanced practitioners not recognized by NCB and those who are will be divisive and deleterious to our field.>

6. NCBTMB has not demonstrated thorough research nor industry backing for how to define the advanced knowledge an advanced practitioner should have. The emphasis of the proposed exam apparently would be orthopedic massage. While I appreciate orthopedic massage specialists, the majority of advanced practitioners practice holistically, that is they have excellent skills to resolve physical problems, while also utilizing advanced skills to prevent disease and to augment the health of their clients. Advanced Massage therapists largely are complementary health-care practitioners, not just allopathic disease-treatment specialists.  Any advanced exam should reflect that fact.

7. There is basically no way in such exams to demonstrate practical skills.  Qualifying someone as advanced without any way to demonstrate advanced skill level is problematic to say the least.

8. Who is considered advanced may be more appropriately decided by the individual organizations that oversee and/or train the specialties in our field - such as the Rolf Institute, AOBTA, Feldenkrais Guild, and other education institutions or organizations that can responsibly verify advanced skill levels.  Only they can look closely enough at the individual practitioners to genuinely assess whether their knowledge and skills are advanced.

In sum, NCBTMB is proposing to make a bad decision which would affect the whole field, apparently on the basis of their own needs as an organization and the opinions of a minority whom they have preferred to survey.  Additionally, to do this at the expense of the field which supports them is extremely unfortunate. We must all do what we can to prevent this.

I again encourage you to respond by emailing everyone you know who practices or is involved in the massage field, the NCBTMB and other key people, organizations and massage magazines.

I love our field, as I know you all do. And I am protective of its highest aspirations which I do believe we all want to see respected in the decisions made affecting our field.

Co-Director
Lauterstein-Conway Massage School
4701-B Burnet Road
Austin, TX 78756

Anatomy Review: The Erector Spinae System

Origin: Sacrum and iliac crest of pelvis, Insertion: All ribs, transverse and spinous processes of all vertebrae up to C2; mastoid process of the temporal bone, Action: Bilateral: extension of the spine, (Excessive – lumbar and cervical lordosis; thoracic kyphosis), Unilateral: lateral flexion (Excessive – scoliosis), Antagonist: Rectus abdominis (or gravity)

The erector spinae is more a whole muscle system than a single muscle. This system arises from the sacrum and pelvis and creeps up attaching like so many vines to the spine, ribs and back of the skull. There are three tracts. The iliocostalis is the lateral tract, the awareness of which can help the client sense how broad the back actually is. Often the sense of broadness will be lost with the preoccupation born of pain toward the center of the back. The longissimus (the “longest”), the intermediate tract, attaches to the ribs and transverse processes of the vertebrae. In its uppermost portion it actually attaches to the mastoid process under the sternocliedomastoid. Awareness of the tract can therefore help on sense how very long the back is, in truth extending there are the way from the tailbone to the back of the head! The medial tract, the spinalis, attaches to the spinous processes up to the axis.

Because, in our work and postural habits, most of us lean forward with our trunks, the erector spinae are often kept in a state of chronic eccentric contraction. That is, while being lengthened as we hunch over, they must yet contract so we don’t fall forward altogether. As mentioned earlier, chronic eccentric contraction is often a source of musculo-skeletal pain as the muscle is being given a double message – let go/hold on.

Imagine the strain involved in forever trying to reel in a fish that will never give up. This is too often the predicament of the erector spinae and the other muscles of the back. Imagine a yet more unfortunate fisherman, who, after years of holding this tireless fish at bay, is finally yanked off the boat, uprooted by superior force. This is often what is occurring in lower back pain. After years of holding us up, the muscles of the back, overwhelmed finally by gravity’s tireless force, start literally to uproot via tiny tears in the muscles and connective tissues attaching to the sacrum and pelvis. At this point, if this is what is happening, toe touches, the yoga posture “the plough and such stretches will only aggravate the problem, further tearing the fibers of the lower back.

The task of the massage therapist here would be to “re-root” the spine, stroking “in” toward the spine and down toward the sacrum. This is only one possible cause of lower back pain, however. Techniques of massage, anatomical analyses and exercises must be carefully tailored for each individual problem.

Review anatomy or learn a new modality.