Resources from The Haven

When clients come in complaining of low back pain, my thoughts automatically turn to the psoas muscle. Here's an informative video from two physical therapists on how to discern if your psoas might be the cause of your low back issues and what to do about it.

Want that amazing post-massage feeling to last longer? I have a one-word solution. Stretch! This book by Bob Anderson is the go to source for stretching to maintain health. Check it out!

Thanks to our technology-driven society, nearly every client has rounded shoulders and a forward head position which leads to back, neck, and shoulder pain. From Licensed Massage Therapist Morgan Sutherland, "When you neglect your posture, you invite chronic back pain. Rounding your low back while sitting for extended periods of time in front of a computer, standing for hours stooped over, sleeping improperly and lifting poorly can all lead to debilitating aches." Read more from Morgan Sutherland, LMT, about how to correct postural issues that plague our gadget-driven society.

Here's a video with more information about "knots" by massage therapist and teacher, Ian Harvey. 

"Can you feel that knot?"

Actually, no. Muscles don't "knot;" they are either tense or relaxed. Knots are often normal structures beneath the skin such as tendons, bones, or deeper muscles which are tense.

An interesting quote from the article: "Before the brain decides how much pain to create in response to some perceived danger in the tissues, it will try to answer the question 'how dangerous is this really?' To do that, it will consider all the information relating to the condition of the tissue, including nociception, proprioception, and cognitive information such as memories, emotions, diagnoses, and mental images of the tissue. If you are constantly telling yourself that your muscles are tied into knots, this is one of the inputs into the system, and it doesn’t sound like good news."