…True freedom from pain and discomfort can be achieved using movement therapies incorporated with consistent massage sessions.

When movement patterns “turn off” certain muscles and “turn on” others to keep you out of pain, the design of the joint and surrounding supportive tissues is compromised. Eventually, if not addressed, a whole new challenge has replaced the original one.

MASSAGE CAN WORK WONDERS,

BUT YOU CAN WORK MIRACLES

Every time I get a massage, I ask for additional specific work to my ankle and lower leg, which feels nothing short of scrumptious. There are many benefits to getting massage on my ankle and lower leg, including increased blood flow, softening of hard tissues, awakening of nerve sensation, and releasing of trigger points. For about two days after, the pain in my ankle is greatly reduced. But what hasn’t changed is the pattern of how I walk, which I created during the last eight years.

Here’s the truth. Unless you are actively involved in unwinding the pattern and returning to the way the body was designed to move in space, you will only heal so much. You will eventually go back to your compensation pattern, unless you are taught how to move differently. You must be involved in retraining your body back to its optimum function utilizing muscles and surrounding tissues as they are designed to work.

A SAMPLING OF THERAPIES

So what are movement therapies? Of the many modalities available to choose from, here is a sampling and explanation of a few of the most commonly known. (The following descriptions are taken from the bodywork glossary at www.massagetherapy.com/glossary.)

• Aston-Patterning (neurokinetics)—Aston-Patterning is an educational process developed by Judith Aston in 1977 that combines movement coaching, bodywork, ergonomics, and fitness training. The movement work (neurokinetics) has two divisions. The first part involves instruction in the most efficient way to perform the simple activities of daily living and then progresses to complex activities. The second part teaches the client how to use movement to decrease accumulated tension in the body. The practitioner uses specific assessment methods to create sequences of movement and fitness depending on the movement pattern of the client. The client’s current, observable, and palpable condition, as well as history of injury, trauma, scar tissue, and habits are taken into consideration when designing the approach to repatterning. How you do what you do in every movement you create is the baseline of this work.