Inflammation: The Significance of Energy Depletion By Amy Bradley Radford This will link you to the article written for Massage Magazine
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Chronic Inflammation and OTC Anti-Inflammatory Medication
I recently finished treating a 17-year-old gymnast for chronic to acute pain in her mid-back, hips, pelvis, knees, ankles, neck, shoulders and other areas too numerous to mention. To make this simple, she was a wreck of chronic injury and pain. For this young athlete, it seemed we were constantly battling with a lack of healing in the body. No matter what approach I took, we could not progress in helping her body heal. She decided she was tired of being exhausted and hurting all the time and took a break from her training. We were both surprised when she started hurting more – a lot more. After sending her…
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Pain Levels
Pain Levels, Let Them Guide You! Use the 4-Point Pain-Change as a Guide On a pain scale of 1 to 10, the most realistic decrease you should strive for is a 4 point change in one massage session. Now, I know what you are thinking, “But I want to help my client MORE! I want them to go from an 8 to a zero!” We would all love to be able to do that for the people we serve. However, what you need to realize is that in a well-meaning way, by trying harder to get rid of someone’s pain, many times you can actually create more pain for your clients by…
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What I learned about Tendons from having a NEUROMA
I had a New Friend. His Name was “Neuroma”. When it comes to learning something new about the body, I swear I always get to learn it on myself. I have told the powers that be, “No really, I’m good! I don’t need to learn more!”. However, that doesn’t seem to work and the most powerful lessons are usually something I have to feel inside my own body to understand. That is where most of the Pain Patterns & Solutions (PPS) concepts have come from that many of you enjoy using with your clients. Me, hurting myself in some way or another, and then figuring out how to “fix” it. I know, I…
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Inflammation and Distribution of Energy
Inflammation and Distribution of Energy So many of us have no idea of what inflammation is really about. As massage therapists, we understand what it is, how it feels, and what it does. But what do you do to help GET RID of it? I have spent over 20 years watching inflammation and the effects of what inflammation can do with my clients. In those 2 decades, I have observed some interesting facts about inflammation and how we are continually working with it – or more often than not -against it. I found that the human machine has its own predetermined codes for distribution of energy and system fails or fail-safes.…
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Reverse Triggerpointing
What is Reverse Triggerpointing? It is exactly what it says. It is the opposite of Triggerpointing. “Triggerpointing” is when you apply pressure directly to the center of a Triggerpoint, trying to “deactivate” the pain signal and inflammation. Reverse Triggerpointing is a technique that allows you to “deactivate” a Triggerpoint through other tissues related to that Triggerpoint. You never actually touch the triggered area but affect it greatly. How is that possible? It is simple. All the body is doing is following a common law of physics that states: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. (Newton’s third law of Physics) Triggerpoints are the “reaction” to some other kind…