SIMON JAMES – Registered Massage Therapist

Apologies to those that were trying to reach me. I was offline for a short period and when going back up online, my old old number was put in so now I have my correct number at the top of my page. Hope to hear from those that were trying to reach me.

I have been using Fascial Release (connective tissue release) for quite a while to help with releasing tissue that may be pulling the body out of position. I have come to realize that there are many people out there that are encountering adhesions in the Fascia as a direct or indirect result of having had an operation either recently or in the past.
I had heart surgery 3 years ago and for 3-4 weeks I was unable to bring my arms back and open up my chest as my sternum was healing. As a result of the surgery, there was a lot of scar tissue in the chest and upper abdomen area that was adhering structures in that area to each other. A close comparison would be if you were leaning forward with a shirt on. Then you poured glue on the front of your shirt and stayed there until the glue dried. When you tried to stand up, the glue would make it difficult for you to stand up straight. This is almost what the body does during the healing process post surgery. As the Fascia (connective tissue) travels continuously throughout the body in a continuous web, these adhesions around the chest and abdomen area can affect the body’s ability to be upright and flexible and can produce symptoms elsewhere in the body quite often.
Besides the direct effects of surgery, adhesions can also occur when tissues are shortened for an extended period of time. As I wasn’t able to open up my chest or abdomen area for that 3-4 weeks post heart surgery, the tissues remained shortened. There is a law with the tissues of the body called Adaptive Shortening. This law dictates that if a tissue is in a shortened position for long enough, then it will remain in that shortened position.
When I do fascial release treatments, I can look at the body for imbalances that tell me where there are tissues that are pulling the body out of balance and do some range of motion movements of the limbs and body to help determine how the body is being affected by these adhesions. When the body is pulled out of position, it affects joint mobility, affects stability and will strain and weakens muscles causing low grade chronic pain.
When you release fascia, it must be treated almost like stretching leather. It is not so much about the intensity of the stretch but the time that you hold it. The longer the better. Often the adhesions won’t begin to release for 1 to 2 minutes and the longer they are held in the stretched position, the most likely they will remain. The time spent holding the stretch, the Ground Substance or basic part that makes up Fascia will reorganize itself to that stretched position which is why the fascia will not return to it’s shortened position.

I’ve always been a big fan of the benefits of Epsom Salts (Magnesium Sulphate) and the importance of Magnesium for our cells.

Wikipedia does a good job at summarizing the importance of Magnesium at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_in_biology

As a Physical Therapist, I was interested in it from the stand point of it’s effect on the muscles. The way that muscles contract is that they bring calcium into the cell allowing the muscle to contract. The job of Magnesium is to pull the calcium out of the cell, allowing the muscle to relax and recover. Without sufficient Magnesium in the area, the muscles will remain in a contracted state. The irony with tight muscles is that they tend to not receive much oxygenated blood (with dietary Magnesium) very well and Magnesium travelling transdermally may be a kind of back door way to get to muscle tissue.  People ask me if dietary Magnesium is sufficient. I believe that good food is helpful but supplements may not absorb so well.

The additional benefits of Magnesium can also serve Nervous System cells, cardiac and smooth muscle cells like of the Digestive system and of the arteries. There is strong proof of the benefits of Magnesium for Arrhythmia, lowering blood pressure by reducing contraction of blood vessels and improvement of contraction of the large and small intestines as it moves food through our system. The digestive system works best with enzyme release and food movement when the body is in relaxation state as well.

It may also be beneficial for the effects of the Nervous System over-firing and things like panic attacks, chronic stress, insomnia and even Fibromyalgia.

I’m always a believer though that it is never just one thing ie: Have an epsom salt bath and everything’s ok. Lifestyle change, habit changes and other things also need to be present for a healthy body to operate. I also believe that if it doesn’t hurt to try, then it’s worth doing.

Check with your doctor if you have concerns. They may not back it up, but it it’s okay to try, then give it a shot for sure. I generally have 1 or 2 Epsom Salt baths per week with 2 cups of salts per bath for 15 minutes with the water at comfortable temperature.

Another form of treatment that I provide is Trigger Point Therapy. Again, rarely is this treatment provided by itself but as part of a number of modalities provided depending on how the patient is presenting. Trigger Points are interesting as no one can really explain how they present the way they do.

Trigger Points are described as focused hyper-irritable points that can exists in muscle tissue. It is my belief that this section of muscle tissue is in a state of hyper contraction with a heavy CO2 (metabolic waste) presence. The Trigger Point will feel like a nodule. The issue with Trigger points is that it can affect the ability for the whole muscle to relax so it can cause the whole muscle to tighten. The most interesting part of trigger points is how they refer a vague dull ache away from the actual site of the trigger point. Often trigger points can mimic other conditions like a joint conditions, migraines, carpal tunnel and nerve entrapment conditions like Sciatica. For instance, the side of the neck has a set of muscles called the Scalenes, which help stabilize the neck and raise the top two ribs during inhalation. They have a dramatic  referral pattern as you can see.

The lateral low back muscles and Hip Stabilizer muscles have the ability to refer down the leg similar to pain encountered in Sciatica (compression of Sciatic Nerve) except that the pain is duller and more vague more like a dull toothache.

There are many muscles in the body that have these referral patterns so postural, muscle weakness and description of pain helps to identify if it is a Trigger Point and where it might be. The biggest presenters tend to be the muscles around the neck causing headaches. Each muscle will cause pain at different parts of the head whether it be the temple, top of the head, base of the skull. To simply release the trigger point would only be helpful for a short time as the cause is probably still present whether it be poor posture, stretched muscles, joint immobility or irritation ect. It all comes down to putting the body back in a position of good balance, joint mobility, strength and stability so no muscles are put under the constant strain that can cause the Trigger Points. Here are some Headache Trigger Points: The X is where the Trigger Point is and the red area is where the pain is referred to:

Occasionally I may treat a cyclist and generally, if the training is heavy, the complaint will be the quadriceps muscle or the calves being sore and overworked. Naturally, the quads are very active during the whole upstroke and downstroke of cycling and most of the power comes from there but there are things you can do to reduce the amount of stress on the calves. One big one is to move your cleats back and make sure that they aren’t too far forward. When they are too forward, the calves may be working too hard. Bring the cleats back a little and there will be a better balance between the quads and calves contraction during the downstroke in cycling. You can give it a try by placing the cleats back, go for a ride and just feel how much the calves are working. Generally, they aren’t supposed to be dominant movers but just to stabilize during cycling and then to kick in a little more during climbs or sprints.

Move the cleats around and you can find a position that is best for you.

This is another song that I recorded with Kim Cousineau here in Victoria at the Music Conservatory.

The translation is: (this is heavy-duty mushy stuff with a PG13 Rating) Please be advised.

Yes, like a little flower,
You have got a sweet mouth
A little bit
withered.

Please give it to me
it's like a little rose
Give me a little kiss,
give, Cannetella!

Give one and take one,
a kiss as little
as your mouth

which looks like a little rose
a little bit
withered.

Click here and have a listen.

This is awesome green tea. The difference is the roasted rice that adds a great flavour to it.

I finally got a recording done of some music that I’ve been meaning to do. It’s a song that I loved when I first heard it. The version that I heard was by Frank Sinatra and when I heard it, I thought “man, I need to do this”. The piano accompaniment was exactly as I heard it so I was thrilled about that.

So here it is with Kim Cousineau, piano player extraordinaire. Enjoy.