Posts Tagged ‘muscles’
I COME OUT OF THE ILIOPSOAS CLOSET!
By David Lauterstein I’ve just taught a one-day class on the iliopsoas. It was wonderful and we explored not only the anatomy and techniques for that fascinating muscle, but equally its important neighbors. The “psoas,” because hidden and elevated to pedestal status by Rolfers and others, has enjoyed a somewhat inflated reputation. On the other…
Read MoreThe Iliopsoas: The Irresistible Center of Existence!
by David Lauterstein There are structural theories and therapies relating to our anatomy. And there are energy theories and therapies. So far the two have been evolving in parallel, without much conscious interconnection. Yet since people are both structure and energy, it is common sense to say you are addressing health incompletely if you only…
Read MoreMeet Serratus Anterior Again
Last weekend I was teaching a Deep Massage Teacher training and we traded each day. On the second day, after receiving, I stood up, walked around, and was amazed at how free my shoulder girdle felt – primarily because my partner hadn’t worked on my shoulders! Neither of us could figure it out. Then the…
Read MoreNeuromuscular Therapy: The Nemerov Method
by Howard Nemerov “Jane” reported pain in her left shoulder area. Initial assessment revealed tension along the superior medial border of her left scapula, as well as a zone of spinalis tension along her left lower thoracic spine. The Nemerov Method explains the “why” that correlates with the “what”. Persistent tension usually is a sign…
Read MoreAccuracy – The Art of Massage #4
Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars — William Blake One of the legs we stand on is the knowledge the biological sciences give us. If we can’t find a love and fascination for anatomy, we probably have no business being massage therapists. All the modalities bandied about to great…
Read MoreWHAT THE HANDS TELL ME – The Art of Massage #1
“A Symphony must be like the world – it must contain everything”. – Gustav Mahler Mahler, the great composer, in his Symphony #3 gave titles to the various movements: · “What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me” · “What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me” · “What Man Tells Me” · “What the…
Read MoreMINDWORK MORE THAN BODYWORK?
Much research is disproving or not yet supporting our assumptions about how we affect the body through massage. Circulation – we may not affect venous return much, even though it’s been a hallmark assumption of Swedish massage Fascia – it’s been shown that fascia doesn’t change nearly as much or as lastingly as we’ve thought Muscles…
Read MoreWhere are You Going? – Massage and the Nervous System, Part 3
by David Lauterstein I once got a greeting card, “On the Family Trip to Nirvana,” with parents sitting in the car’s front seat and two kids in the back, asking their parents, “Are we there yet?” With this next deeper level of the nervous system, we are not at Nirvana but, in a way, we…
Read MoreMassaging the Windows of Life: Where Your Muscles Meet Your Bones
When we do our strokes in Deep Massage, when we pause, particularly at the beginning or the end of a stroke, it creates a kind of “window”. These pauses naturally occur at the beginning and near the end of the muscle – at the origin and the insertion. As in most stories, beginnings and endings…
Read MoreAnatomy Review: Massage for the Scalenes
The scalenes are actually the uppermost of the intercostals muscles, those muscles lying between your ribs that assist inhalation and exhalation. However, big surprise, there are no ribs in the neck! Actually a number of books say the scalenes attach to the vestigial ribs of the cervical vertebrae. That is, little buds appear on the…
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