Injuries – The Fascial Effect

Get things moving again

We all damage our bodies from time to time. Whether you’ve tripped while walking from the kitchen to the lounge and twisted something or overdone the jogging and developed a painful part, it’s easy to over-stretch, strain or tear your soft tissue.

The problem is that life goes on and, unless the injury is bad enough to require a visit to the doctor, we just tend to get on with it. Not only does it take time for soft tissues to heal, but the damage is compounded as your body tries to reduce the pain – usually by reducing the movement in the damaged part.

Your body is a highly sophisticated ‘machine’, all the parts are designed to move smoothly together, so when one part is damaged, everything around it is affected. That’s why we limp when we’ve strained an ankle or avoid gripping when there’s a wrist, arm or shoulder strain. Although I do know of a little girl who would limp even with a cut on her finger – but she was only four!

Instead of your soft tissues moving freely, the fascia – the membrane that wraps around all your organs, muscles and ligaments – gets stuck. This prevents movement and results in more pain.

Random aches and pains

Sometimes you end up with a pain that you can’t attribute to an injury or particular event. You’ve probably woken up occasionally with a stiff neck from sleeping in a position that’s caused soft tissues to get stuck. If you sit with your smartphone in one hand for an extended period you can find the muscles in your upper arm and shoulder ‘complain’ and, these days, we all know about the fallout from sitting hunched over a keyboard for hours.

Effectively this is the same as favouring an injured area – but without the injury! You’re in one position, perhaps with tensed muscles, and the result is pain.

If any of this sounds familiar, then you’ll know that these aches and pains sometimes go away on their own, but unless you change your habits, more often they’ll just get worse.

Release, relieve and restore

Typically people resort to heat creams, anti-inflammatory tablets and massage to relieve aches and pains, but all these are doing is dealing with the symptoms.

A more effective way to treat these kinds of injury is myo-fascial release (MFR), which works on releasing the soft tissues which have got stuck and restores a wider range of movement. It’s fine to use the anti-inflammatory treatments to help the tissues heal, but they won’t heal as quickly if everything is stuck.

If you are prone to aches and pains in particular areas then learning a series of moving stretches can also help to keep things moving.

Find out more about MFR for injuries, aches and pains.

Body

When waving ‘goodbye’ is painful …

If you get pain in your shoulder area when you raise your arm to wave goodbye to your friends and family, you may have a problem with your rotator cuff!

It may sound like some kind of garden machine, but it’s actually four muscles that work around your shoulder to allow you to move your arm up, down and forwards and backwards.

Many shoulder pain conditions are caused by injury to one or more of the rotator cuff muscles, or to the soft tissues around the shoulder joint.

So if you get pain in the neck and shoulder or find it difficult to complete movements such as:

Reaching up to get something off the top shelf
Reaching behind to hook up your bra or get your arms into a fitted coat or shirt
Pulling a cord starter on your motor boat or lawnmower
Reaching to pull your seatbelt into place
Installing ceiling tiles
Pulling a suitcase along

Or any similar movements; even sitting over a computer keyboard or driving for extended periods can cause problems. It can get particularly bad when there have been tears in the muscles fibres and the resulting scar tissue restricts movement in the shoulder further.

The solution is a course of Myofascial release (MFR) which works on the soft tissues, easing restrictions in the muscles and their encasing fascia around the shoulder joint, neck and upper chest. Trigger point therapy reduces pain and frees up the muscles range of movement. Some muscle stretching and contracting is included for improving flexibility and an increased range of motion in the shoulder.

For more information or to book an appointment call Jas on 07775633798

Body

Heavy handbag? It can weigh you down

As life gets busier we start carrying more and more around in our handbags – actually some of the bags that you see couldn’t be described as ‘handbags’ – they’re almost suitcases!

So if you’re carrying your life around with you be aware that you could develop all kinds of physical reactions. If you feel:

Pain around your neck or shoulder area
Numbness or pins and needles in your arm or hand
Persistent headaches
Tightness on one side of your neck

You need to take action.

Rest won’t necessarily fix the problem, if your soft tissues are strained or stuck, you’re going to need some expert help to release the tension and get things moving again. This might include:

Myofascial release to loosen your connective tissue
Hot stones to warm and hydrate muscles
Cupping to increase blood supply and release toxins
Trigger point therapy to release pain
Stretching to restore flexibility

Your pain may not be caused by lugging a handbag, it could be carrying a baby or toddler or lugging any heavy items around on a regular basis. Don’t compound the damage by doing nothing, get treatment to relieve the pain and restore normal movement again.

Call Jas on 07775 633798 to find out more

Body

Scarred!

Scars have the potential to create both a physiological and psychological impact. Scars are associated not only with cuts, surgery and wounds, but also by tears from injury or trauma. Pain-related conditions such as lower back pain, plantar fasciitis, shoulder pain and headaches can quite often be traced back to a scar.

Effectively a scar is an injury to the fascia, or soft tissue that wraps around all your organs, muscles, ligaments, etc. Scar tissue impedes the free gliding action of fascia inhibiting normal healing and movement processes.

Imagine a busy motorway; while traffic is free flowing there are no problems. When there is a blockage across the carriageways the flow of traffic will slow down or stop. There may be diversions to enable people to get from A to B, but it will take longer and cause disruption, stress and anxiety for the occupants of all the vehicles until the roadblock is cleared.

Now imagine a deep cut that penetrates the surface of the skin through to the deeper layers of the body. The body will immediately respond with an inflammatory response, which includes laying down collagen to reconstruct the injured fascia and close the wound.

The scar is visible on the surface, but the underlying repair job can act as a roadblock to the free flow of the essential body processes. This creates deficiencies in one area and excess in another area. For some it can mean long term pain and restricted movement.

Fortunately, there is treatment that can relieve the pain and help to remove the roadblock.

For more information or to book an appointment with Jas call 07775633798

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What to do about whiplash

Whiplash is a neck injury which most people associate with road traffic accidents. It can, however, happen in any situation where the body accelerates forward and then quickly decelerates throwing the head forwards, backwards and sideways, for example:

During sporting activities such as rugby and boxing
A slip or a fall where the head is jolted forwards and backwards
While on a rollercoaster ride, especially if it stops suddenly!

The vigorous movements of the head put enormous strain on the neck, shoulder and upper back and injury occurs. After the initial shock, neck pain and stiffness can be followed with related symptoms such as headaches, jaw pain, dizziness, nausea and tinnitus.

Depending on the severity of the injury, the pain and stiffness will restrict movement for 2-3 days, but after this period, if it’s not treated:

Tight, inactive and injured muscles will shorten and weaken.
Muscles surrounding the injury will overcompensate and become strained.
Too much scar tissue will form in any torn muscle and reduce its ability to do what it normally does.
Fascia (connective tissue) surrounding everything including the vertebrae, thinks the new way of moving is normal and adapts to hold everything within their new positions, restricting movement even further.
Long term this leads to postural problems and recurring symptoms of whiplash.

This means that movement is more likely to aid recovery than prolonged immobilisation. Myofascial stretch and trigger point release will help in this process, softening the taut tissue and allowing muscles to move naturally as they are meant to do. Assisting the head and neck to “Unwind” is another advanced fascial release technique which allows the head and neck to move through a range of motions without force.

For more information call 07775633798

Body

When your shoulder is frozen…

Frozen shoulder is really painful and can restrict your whole lifestyle.

It happens when the capsule within the shoulder joint becomes tight and inflexible. This can happen for all kinds of reasons from:

jarring your shoulder, perhaps from a fall where you’ve put your hand out to take the impact
after having the arm in a sling following a fracture or surgery for too long
from the strain caused by forward head/neck posture
or just simply overuse and repetitive strain

The cure is simply to wait for the motion to return which can take up to 2 years!! The problem is that the longer you have reduced mobility, the weaker the surrounding soft tissues supporting the joint will become. Treatment by a clinical massage therapist keeps the soft tissues healthy, aids recovery and makes movement possible as the frozen shoulder “thaws”.

One of my clients had fallen in her workplace and severely jarred her shoulder causing this condition. She couldn’t raise her arm, reach behind to fasten her bra or back to pull her seatbelt into place without pain and discomfort.

This is typical of frozen shoulder; the movements that involve rolling the joint forwards or backwards or lifting the arm upwards are stiff and painful because there is less room for movement within the inflamed capsule.

My client needed help and, because it was a severe problem, this meant a treatment every couple of weeks to start with, reducing to a monthly session as gradually movement became comfortable.

This particular client also had a spinal problem as a result of a childhood injury and her spine curved slightly (scoliosis) towards the side she had the frozen shoulder. She was aware of the scoliosis and the effect it had on her posture, but was delighted that the gentle myofascial techniques also had the beneficial effect of starting to realign her spine.

Of course, this isn’t a quick fix and further realignment will take time, but it does demonstrate the power of clinical massage therapy when used properly.

For more information call 07775633798