Articles tagged with 'anatomy'

While the neck is a bridge, a pathway, the position of the neck and head can also indicate a multitude of other things happening beneath the surface.

Deep gluteal syndrome can be triggered by multiple causes. Sorting through those causes can be tricky, but doing so will also help your clients.

Considering the situation that led to your client’s pain can prove as valuable as understanding where the pain exists.

Understanding fibroblasts and the extracellular matrix changes how we think about the tissue we touch.

Don't stop at the neck when your client has a headache. Keep working your way down. You (and your client) might be surprised at what you find.

When one muscle or tissue area is tight, a direct approach may only aggravate it more. Consider employing an alternative option.

Studies reveal that 37 percent of the force generated by muscle contraction is transmitted to adjacent connective tissue structures instead of the bones.

Ongoing research suggests the sciatic nerve's healthy functioning depends on its fascial connections.

Loose connective tissue, rich in water-loving hyaluronan, might play a key role in low-back pain.

Learning the specifics of the intrinsic muscles of the hand is knowledge that may not be used often, but for those clients who present with issues in their hands, it can prove invaluable.

Massaging the masseter—the main player in biting, chewing, and teeth grinding—can contribute to alleviating headaches.

Recognizing different tissue textures and densities upgrades your palpation skills.

Though bodyworkers can't prevent or eliminate scar tissue, our skillful touch can aim to influence its development, remodeling process, and long-term integration into the surrounding tissue.

Whether it's pressure-filled moments during our first years as practicing bodyworkers or the question of how much pressure a client wants during a session, gaining perspective is a handy tool.

Massage therapy is a core component for treating ankle sprains and is used with other treatments used by other providers, such as laser therapy, ultrasound, microcurrent, and electrical stimulation.

While our work often revolves around deeper tissues, special attention should be paid to the skin, the first responder to our touch.

No matter how many textbooks and photos massage therapists sift through, no experience can equate to seeing bodies and tissues in the dissection lab.

Our bodies comprise four tissue types: epithelial, muscle, nervous, and connective. Your massage strokes touch all of these.

Understanding the anatomy of facial muscles can help you begin successful sessions with a grounding facial massage.

Recent research indicates that massage therapists can help with ankle and wrist injuries by focusing on retinacula.

Describing a trigger point is impossible without attempting to interpret what it feels like. It's a bit like trying to explain laughter.

Gliding relationships between muscles exist all over the body. Knowing where they are can help massage therapists explore their clients' tissue mobility for healthy function.

Many references (including those online) are updating their facts to correctly identify retinacula as a thickening of the fascia of the leg.

The rectus sheath is a multilayered fascial hub that allows force transmission, motor coordination, and stability in the trunk.

Fibroblasts remodel fascia, creating or removing collagen based on physical supply and demand.

Massage therapy alone can't fix bony misalignments, but it can help manage soft-tissue disorders and symptoms associated with valgus and varus alignments.

Learning about the core beyond the muscles can promote new ways of thinking about your hands-on work.

Long ignored or thought of as packing material filling the space between skin and muscles, fat is finally getting its recognition as essential to human health and a part of the fascial system massage therapists tend to every day.

By analyzing movement, you can determine where to focus your myofascial release on the held areas or your proprioceptive awareness work on the "forgotten" areas.

Learning how to find and work with the serratus anterior will help your clients understand the muscle's unique capabilities.

Weakness, poor mobility, or lack of control of the fibularis longus and other ankle muscles may contribute to injuries such as lateral ankle sprains or chronic conditions such as tendinitis, shin splints, or plantar fasciitis.

The adductors take the cake for being simultaneously easy and hard to stretch. In their secret efforts to master the art of puppeteering, the adductors fall victim to the inability to let go.

The IT band functions as part of a 3D system with connections above to the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and tensor fascia lata; below to the lateral knee; and deep to the femur via the lateral intermuscular septum.

What would you think if I told you the potential effects from bodywork can impact each individual cell in your body?

Because you manipulate skin ligaments with every massage stroke, understanding them better can help you be more specific with your touch.

The application of opposing techniques within a short time frame brings the recipient into a deeper awareness of self and a greater perception of balance.

Origin/insertion terminology creates a rigidity in thinking that can obscure the simplicity of muscle function.

Every step, hop, and jump puts immense strain on our plantar foot. Fortunately, a whole team of tough, resilient, and surprisingly sensitive tissues steps in to manage these mechanical loads.

The estimated number of nerve endings in the body-wide fascial system is 250 million. Compared with the estimated 200 million nerve endings in the skin, this suggests the human fascial network constitutes, in fact, our richest sensory organ.

FR:EIA is changing how we look at fascia. Studying FR:EIA's dynamic fascial system helps us better understand its organization, fluidity, and strength, and offers clinical insights into how we treat clients.

Individual muscles should be explored for what makes them distinct and extraordinary, in addition to their relationship to the kinematic function of the body.

Functionally, the spinalis and other erector spinae muscles provide broader stabilization and movement than the deeper transversospinalis group. Together, the erector spinae and transversospinalis groups maintain upright posture of the spine against gravity.

The hip joint, and more specifically the coxal joint, is formed by the articulation of the head of the femur and the acetabulum of the pelvis. This joint serves as a bridge—let's learn its mechanics and movements.

Balance isn't easy. Whether in our life or in our body, finding the sweet spot between life's extremes can be complicated. The lower in the body we look, the greater the forces of standing and balancing become.

The thoracic outlet generally describes the pathway of the brachial plexus and subclavian artery and vein through the lateral neck, anterior shoulder girdle, and into the upper extremity.

The popliteal fossa generally describes the diamond-shaped depression on the posterior knee where the distal thigh joins the proximal leg. Let's look at this muscle's relationship with others.

Trigger points, hypertonicity, strains, sprains, and a host of other complaints are all common causes of low-back pain. In this column, we'll look at cluneal nerve entrapment.

The infraspinatus is one of four muscles that make up the rotator cuff and is an essential component for shoulder movements such as pitching and hitting overhead. Imbalances often develop between the powerful internal rotators of the shoulder.

Horses and other animals possess anatomical trains, or pathways, of fascia that closely resemble the anatomy trains in humans.

The brachialis works primarily with the biceps brachii and the brachioradialis to flex the elbow; it is unique in that it is a pure elbow flexor and maintains its leverage regardless of forearm position.

The tensor fasciae latae (TFL) is a relatively small muscle on the lateral edge of the anterior hip. Learn about this muscle and its placement in the hip, and its interconnectedness with the fascia lata of the thigh.

The tarsal tunnel is an anatomical structure located on the medial side of the ankle where the foot joins the lower leg. Unlike the carpal tunnel of the wrist, the tarsal tunnel is oriented vertically.

Myofascial layers can be manipulated through prolonged application of tension techniques like myofascial release and passive range of motion.