The advent of the computer age has revolutionised the world and especially the office environment. It is a marvelous thing now all the information available to mankind, all the knowledge can be  accessed in an instant by pretty much everyone. However this has come at a price. The position we sit in at a computer is one of the most unhealthy and unnatural poses for our posture. This creates tensions and strains to our musculoskeletal system that we have never had deal with before. It is a positioned that we hold for prolonged periods throughout each working day and this exacerbates the problems even further.

This position of sitting in front of the PC, and especially using the mouse causes:

• the head to protrude forward for prolonged periods eliciting severe strain on the cervical vertebrae. Especially at C6 and C7.
• Forward protrusion of the head  also causes prolonged and unnatural strain on the cervical erector spinae muscles and the other major muscle groups in the neck region. Muscles such as Scalenes, Sternocliedomastoid, Levator Scapula and Splenius Capitus just to name a few.
• This position also causes the major muscles of the chest, especially Pectoralis Major, to shorten. Along with Serratus Anterior.
• As a result the muscle underneath the shoulder blade (Scapula), Sub Scapularis, usually spasms and locks limiting the range of motion (ROM) of the shoulder complex.
• The combined affect of the above is to cause the Scapula on both sides to be pulled forward and away from the midline of the spine. A condition known commonly as ‘Rounded Shoulders’.
• This in turn causes the muscles between the shoulder blades to be constantly stretched all day long on a tensile load. These muscles include Mid Trapezius and Rhomboids. As well running from the shoulder blades to the neck are Splenius Capitus and Levator Scapula. These are also on tensile load and it is mainly Levator Scapula that then triggers nasty headaches.

To remedy this most therapist will opt for a head neck and shoulders massage only. This will not fix the problem.

The muscles on the chest need to be massaged first and foremost. So too does Serratus Anterior and Sub Scapularis muscles. Trigger points will need to be addressed as well.

The muscles on the back need to be massaged in such a way as to coax them to shorten. Not your standard massage technique. This will need to be accompanied by the appropriate stretching and exercise regime to restore balance to the opposing muscle groups. Massage works.

Yours in health

Victor Solomon

When to ice an injury and when to apply heat

This is a debate that rages on over the years but with ongoing research many factors are now becoming clear. Injury to amateur and professional athletes alike can be costly as well as painful. The ever expanding interest and commercialisation of sport has led to an expansion in medical research into soft tissue and other injury recover protocols. Organisations like the Australian Institute of Sport are at the cutting edge of some of this research.

To hasten an athletes recovery time is not only beneficial to the athlete but to the team and the sport as well. Much of this research is still inconclusive but it has been suggested that both icing or applying a heat pack can be appropriate at different times of the healing process.

# NOT AN INJURY  -  Apply heat and do  not apply ice

For example when a muscle is in spasm or has trigger point pain, especially if the pain is in the lower back.

Muscle spasm or trigger point trauma is not an injury to a muscle but a tensioning or cramping of the muscle tissue. In this situation many clients report that applying heat is far more beneficial.

In such cases icing is not appropriate or desirable. In fact icing can cause the muscles to spasm with even greater intensity and pain, and heighten pain levels in the trigger points.

#  IS AN INJURY -  Apply ice and do not apply heat

However if the muscle, ligament, tendon or fascia is torn to any degree then this is an injury.  If there is any sign of:

• swelling
• heat
• redness
• and pain, it is indicative of an inflammatory process taking place.

It is vital to control the inflammation during the early stages of the healing process.  Especially immediately after the occurrence of the injury and even for some days after.

Inflammation is a natural part of the healing process. This rush of blood and white blood cells to the site of an injury means that many biological systems of the body are reacting to bring about a healing response. These include:

• The cardio vascular system (the carrier)
• The endocrine system (hormones)
• The immune system (white blood cells)
• The lymphatic system.

All these biological systems, and many others, have their role to play in the healing response. However the body is super efficient and habitually sends too much (repair material) to the injury. This can lead to increased pain levels and also to a build up of excess collagen fibres in the soft tissue at the injury site. This excess build up leads to other problems and issues for the client and the massage therapist when it comes time for treatment. So icing is imperative at this early stage of the process to control this response. Icing also helps numb the pain receptors in the vicinity of the injury and thus makes the recovery process more bearable for the client.

Yours in health

Victor Solomon

Many people suffer from a painful condition commonly called Sciatica. This pain comes and goes and can cause a cramping pain in the buttocks as well as pain running down the back of the legs. At times, if left untreated, this pain can radiate a burning sensation around to the thighs. It manifests in various ways with different people but in every case the pain is debilitating.

Now to the big question. Is the painful condition Sciatica or Piriformis Syndrome.

Most call is Sciatica which is the pinching of the ‘nerve root’ of the Sciatic Nerve between the vertebrae of lumbar spine.

In fact in most cases the cause is a condition called Piriformis Syndrome.

This is the compression of the Sciatic Nerve between the Piriformis Muscle and the hip bone at the Sciatic Notch. The nerve travels from the lumbar spine down the front of the hip and then passes through the Sciatic Notch to the rear. It is here that the nerve then passes under the Piriformis Muscle before traveling down the back of the legs to the toes. When this muscle and your gluteal muscles are tight they can compress the Sciatic Nerve causing pain.

If you have sciatic pain but no lower back pain then it is a fair chance that you have Piriformis Syndrome not Sciatica. Further clues will be pain and discomfort in the gluteal muscles.

Piriformis is often the easier of the two to treat but the massage can at times be painful as the Piriformis Muscle lies deep under the 3 layers of gluteal muscles in your buttocks. To affect this muscle and release the tension there a therapist has to work with much firmness to get through the muscles layered above. Fortunately this does not take long to achieve in the hands of a skilled therapist.

If you have this condition or similar pain or discomfort issues in the buttock region you can help yourself by getting a tennis ball and placing it on the floor. Then sit on it and roll over the sore spots on your buttocks. This will be painful at first but will help release first the gluteal muscles and then the piriformis muscle and thus take the pressure off the sciatic nerve. Symptoms and pain will then ease over time. This way you can take control and actually treat yourself at home. For further assistance book in to see your massage therapist.

Massage works.

Yours in health,

Vic Solomon

Most of us do not pay enough attention to our feet. They carry our weight and propel us through life. Our feet get cramped into foot wear, (often bad, damaging footwear).  We stub our toes, walk on surfaces that may be uneven and/ or abrasive. Let’s face it, in our  lifetime our feet cope a pounding.

This wear and tear affects:

• the bio-mechanics of the feet.
• causes serious ankle problems.
• this then transfers to knee and hip issues.
• and finally imbalance and deviations to the curvature of the spine.
• This imbalance to the spine will, in time, produce major back pain
• and restrictions in mobility if not addressed.

Understanding the bio-mechanics of the feet allows a therapist to look from your back pain (for example) to the cause, and investigate if some issue in your feet maybe the trigger. Often this is the case. If so, then the issues in the feet need to be addressed before the back pain can be dealt with. This may well mean a visit to a foot specialist such as a Podiatrist who will assess your foot bio-mechanics, posture while standing at rest, and gait.  The solution maybe orthotics, or the identification of muscle imbalances around the ankle, knee or hip joint. It may mean a combination of all of the above to affect a lasting result.

If the issue is one of muscle imbalances then the therapist will need to be able to identify which muscles are short and tight and need relaxing. Now this is the trick… The therapist will also need to be able to identify the opposing muscles which will be long and weak and on tensile load. This will  then need a special approach to massaging that will help encourage these over stretched muscles to shorten. A strengthening programme to target these specific muscles or muscle groups will then need to be compliment the therapists good work. This is truly a ‘whole-listic’ approach.

When you find yourself a remedial massage therapist who can comprehend these principles and work within such a frame work, hang on to him/her.

Their skills will help you reclaim your quality of life.  Massage works.

Yours in health

Victor Solomon

An effective Sports Massage Therapist not only requires an in depth understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the human body but must also have developed an acute understanding of the psyche of sports people and elite athletes. In many cases this understanding must expand beyond the individual athlete and will relate to a team environment.

Too often Sports Massage is ‘dumbed down’ and some therapist may not receive the depth of training that is necessary to safely operate in this field. In many cases the athletes, who present for treatment or ongoing management of their soft tissue and joint injuries, will be professional or semi professional. Their sport often is not only their livelihood but their passion. They come for recovery, treatment or injury management trusting that the therapist knows what they are doing.

It should be understood that Sports Massage involves much more the ‘pre event and post event massage’. As important as fully appreciating these phases is, there is much more that needs to be considered.

A good Sports Massage Therapist will need to be totally familiar with the:

• Phases of Injury Recovery and Management
• Phases of Training
• Massage techniques that will be appropriate during a sporting event
• Contra indications to massage.
(eg. never massage a corked thigh immediately after the occurrence of the injury)
• Sports Psychology
• Working effectively not only with the individual athlete, but also with a larger medical support team in the team enviroment.
• Current sports medicine research and the new improved best practice recovery and injury management protocols that arise from this research.

This is but some of the major key points of knowledge, skills and understanding that an effective Sports Massage Therapist needs to demonstrate.

In the hands of a skilled, knowledgeable and experienced therapist, athletes will recover more quickly from strong, sustained physical exertion and they will also respond and recover more quickly and thoroughly from injury.

There are many circumstances where team managers, coaches and athletes report wonderful results after treatment from experienced Sports Massage Therapist. Such is their value.
Many major sporting teams and elite athletes (including Olympic Athletes), incorporate talented Sports Massage Therapists in their support staff. Massage Works.

Sadly, in inexperienced hands not only would the athlete be ’short changed’, their whole sporting career could be placed in serious jeopardy. Question and seek out experienced Therapists.

Yours in health
Victor Solomon

As stated in ‘Muscle Testing and Function- Provance, Kendall and McCreary’…“Evaluating and treating postural problems requires an understanding of basic principles relating to alignment, joint, and muscles………..Faulty alignment results in undue stress and strain on bones, joints, ligaments, and muscles….”

This one factor is where many of my clients’ aches and pains come from. It is the very first thing I check when a new client comes to me in pain. And sadly it is often overlooked by therapists and GP’s alike.

Muscles are designed to contract. They have no other function.  When a muscle (Bi-ceps Brachii) causes a motion, like bending the arm at the elbow, there is a muscle on the back of the upper arm (Tri-ceps Brachii) that opposes that motion. When these two muscles are in balance then the movement is smooth and the elbow joint is pain free. When they are not in balance the movement is not efficient and often pain will be present.

This basic principle applies to every joint and every muscle in the body. T study posture fully requires time and effort but here are some basic things to look for with a client.

• Is one hip higher than the other?
• Is the hip tilted anteriorly?
• Is the hip tilted posteriorly?
• Is one foot positioned more forward than the other when the client is standing at rest?
• Is one shoulder higher than the other?
• Is the Scapular ‘tipping, winging or protracted?
• Is the Scapular rhythm ‘early, regular or late’?

All these visual guides and many many more will give the therapist clues as to which muscles are short and tight and which muscles are weak and being over stretched.

Short and tight muscles and weak and over stretched muscles all need attention but in different ways. One lot need massaging while the other needs to be strengthened through specific exercise regimes. It is important for the therapist to get it right,. Strengthening the wrong muscle or muscle group will add the client’s problems and pain. Getting it right will bring welcome pain relief and great Range of Motion to the client’s joints. This will ease muscle tension and restore balance and wellbing to their musculo-skeletal system.

Understanding the principles of posture and how to identify the key indicators will be a valuable tool for any therapist and will bring pain relief and a better quality of life for the suffering client. Massage Works.

Yours in health

Victor Solomon

Protocols and techniques will mostly remain the same but the therapist needs to be able to adapt to any situation. With infants and children it needs to be remembered that these young people will be in various stages of often rapid physical growth. With most people this growth ceases around 24 to 25 years of age.

Particularly with infants and children many of their ailments will be generally classified by their GP as ‘growing pains’.

In many, but not all cases, this may well be the situation.  Quite often these growing pains can be alleviated through massage and gentle Proprioceptive Nueromuscular Facilitated Stretching. PNF Stretching as it is otherwise known.

This may follow either a Relaxation Massage or a remedial treatment.  When working with young people it is important for the therapist to understand that their bones are often not yet fully formed and that less pressure should be applied compared to when working on an adult. Similar consideration needs to be applied to an elderly client.

Not only should you consider applying less pressure during the massage but a good massage therapist will try and make the session interesting for the young person as well. Such a therapist will find out what interests their client. How they got the injury or complaint and how is it effecting their lives. Often this will be their first ever experience of a massage. In most cases such a client will come to you with a problem requiring a remedy. They will not be wanting to just drape on your table an go to sleep. To bliss out. It should be an interesting and informative experience resulting in the client or guardian also acquiring helpful hints on how to alleviate the problem.

If they are under 17 yrs of age they should be accompanied  by a parent or guardian in the treatment room .

In these circumstances the therapist should be engaging both the young person and the parent/guardian in the conversation.

Building such a rapport with the clients will help gain an understanding of the physical cause of their aches and pains and also better ensure compliance with stretching or exercise programmes that a therapist may deem necessary to offer to help compliment the massage treatment and maximise  recovery.

Yours in health,

Victor Solomon

Technorati Tags: Children's Massage

Used with compassion and sensitivity to the client’s pain thresholds Deep Tissue Massage can be very beneficial in treating pain and in injury rehabilitation.  However it must be backed up by a sound knowledge of anatomy and physiology of the human body.

This method of massage is often abused and misunderstood causing unnecessary pain and discomfort to the client.

Too many therapists, most of them lacking this training and knowledge, inflict stressful and extremely painful massage treatments on clients while ignoring their pain. Such therapists generally rely on the clients having been raised on an edict of ‘..NO PAIN NO GAIN..’ .

In such cases the client leaves feeling that  ’.. it hurt real bad so it must have done me good..’

This is not necessarily true. Our muscles have special mechanisms built in that cause them to go into spasm or shut down when they are abused by too much pain. This is a natural protective response. When a client is taken  over 8 out of 10 on their pain scale these mechanisms kick into overdrive. It is automatic. The client cannot control it neither can the therapist.

Modern medical research has shown that although some remedial or deep tissue procedures may be painful, the client’s interests are best served if the therapist works within the client’s pain threshold. This requires constant communication between the client and the therapist during the treatment.

The therapist needs to verbally monitor the clients pain levels and ensure that the procedure at no stage goes over 8 out of 10 on the client’s pain scale.

‘0′ being no pain and ‘10′ being excruciating pain’.

Only the client can determine this .  Not the therapist..

Deep tissue work to be conducted safely requires the therapist to also have a sound knowledge of the vascular and nueral pathways in the body and how they relate to the musculo-skeletal system. For all of these structures can be profoundly effected by this form of massage.

Such knowledge prevents the risk of damage to these structures and facilitates recovery to the trauma that maybe deep in the muscle tissue.

Working within those pain thresholds and undertsanding the make up of the body, a good therapist using deep tissue techniques and a sound knowledge of functional anatomy can produce wonderful results for their client. Often bringing instant relief to their clients ailements.

Yours in health,

Victor Solomon

PAIN.  We all experience it.

Is pain a good thing or a bad thing?

Do we really understand pain and its purpose?

Throughout our bodies the  nervous system has located many tiny structures called Nociceptors. These nociceptors are essentially nerve endings. The sole responsibility of these nociceptors is to register pain, heat cold or excessive presssure. Pain initially is not a bad thing. Its purpose is to alert us to the fact that SOMETHING IS WRONG. Pain prompts us to action. Action to either remove ourselves from physical danger or seek help to identify the cause of the pain so further steps may taken to remove the cause.

Pain comes in many forms. The two most common being:

• Acute pain: Pain that is from an immediate or recent injury and you can pinpoint it acurately. It is always a sharp pain.
• Cronic pain: Pain from an injury that has existed for some time. The pain is often difficult to pinpoint and covers a gerenal area. It is often refered to as a dull ache.

The other forms of pain are:

• Radiating pain. Pain in a shoulder for example that then radiates down the arm.
• Refered pain. Pain that is caused by an injury or faulty bio mechanics in one part of the body but the pain is registered in a different location on the body

There are many examples of this phenomena of the source of pain actually not being where the pain is registering. A classical example is

• the faulty bio mechanics in someones feet causing severe lower back pain.

Or

• headaches being caused by tight Pectoralis Major and Serratus Anterior Muscles pulling the shoulders forward and stretching the Levator Scapular Muscles on the back and neck. These then trigger the headaches.

Where a client is experiencing pain is not necessarily where the cause of the pain is located.  Skillful massage therapists are trained in the anatomy and physiology of the human body and know how to quickly and accurately determine the source fo your pain. Other less qualified therapists will just continue to rub the sore spot and not investigate and treat the cause.

When seeking a Remedial Treatment for injury rehabilitation, pain management or pain relief, always seek out a qualified therapist who undertsands the anatomy and physiology of the human body and who takes the time to carry out assessments to trace the cause of your pain before treating.  You deserve nothing less.