What Hump?

Referencing this post, I'm Igor in the "What hump?" scene above. ;)

In Action

My right hand is saying, "Here's the medial border of the scapula," and my left hand is saying, "So this must be the infraspinatus." And then -- I remember this moment well -- drawing on my intuitive skills and my keen sense of focus, I thought, "Let's see, now I'll... OMG, is that Garry with his camera?!"

Garry posted photos from last weekend's Carpal Tunnel class on his website. You can view them here. Note the dates at the bottom of each photo; only 10 of the 50 photos are from my class (July 2007).

Tiger Swallowtail

Another visitor in the garden today! Isn't she beautiful? ::sigh::

Elective: Carpal Tunnel

Did you know that the carpal tunnel is actually a tunnel? Yep. The bones in your wrist form a "U" shape, and a band of tissue covers the "U" like a roof. Through the tunnel run a number of tendons as well as the median nerve.


Most sources will tell you that carpal tunnel syndrome is caused when the structures in the carpal tunnel become inflamed, thus compressing the median nerve. What they often (but not always) neglect to tell you is that compression anywhere along the median nerve can lead to symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Over the two-day period, we learned and practiced various techniques that relax the muscles in the neck, shoulders, arms, and hands, and we also worked to increase range of motion in the joints.

Our instructor, Garry Adkins, demonstrated each technique on student volunteers. When it came time to demonstrate our last technique, Garry didn't ask for a volunteer; he chose me. He walked right over to me, set up his video camera, and all I could think was, woo hoo! Massage from the teacher is a wonderful thing.

Clearly, Garry picked me because of my neck. Rather, my hump. Earlier, he told me I had the beginning of a Dowager's Hump, to which I immediately replied, "No I don't!"

Do you know what a Dowager's Hump is? It's that slumpy hunchback lump usually attributed to osteoporosis. Do you know what a dowager is? A dowager is an elderly woman of high social station.

Now. I am neither elderly nor of high social station, but I have the hump. I ask you, is that fair? If I'm going to have the hump, and if, as I expect, I am eventually going to be elderly, then I think I ought to have the high social station t' boot, don't you? And all the ladies said: Amen!

Seriously, I believe that my pre- (repeat, PRE-) dowager's hump is the result of poor posture over the past several years, no doubt due in part to the rounded shoulders and hanging head that accompanies depression.


No more! Depressed or no, I'll hold my head up, thank you very much. And my shoulders back. You may think this a digression, but it's not. Poor posture, rounded shoulders, a hanging head, all these can and likely will lead to a compressed median nerve, which causes symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.

So, in order to work my neck and relax my tight muscles, Garry lifted my head and turned it and pulled it this way and that way, all the while digging his fingers into and along the sides and back of my neck. Mercy! It hurt, but when he finished, I felt fantastic. Felt like I had a new head. (I checked. Nope. Same noggin.) And oh, did my neck feel wonderful. Lighter, longer.


Our esteemed teacher, Garry Adkins:



GarryAdkins.com

AdvancedMassageEducation.com

Hands-On: Muscle Mechanics

The technique learned in tonight's hands-on class is muscle mechanics. Muscle mechanics can quickly relax a muscle and is an effective technique to use on muscles that won't relax during traditional massage.

The massage therapist presses her fingertip or knuckle on one end or on the belly of a particular muscle and uses her other hand to give light resistance as the client contracts that muscle. By applying pressure to the ends or to the belly of the muscle, we stimulate muscle cells in such a way as to send a message to the central nervous system that the muscle is working too hard. The central nervous system then responds by sending impulses that cause the muscle to relax.

That's the short Chrys-just-learned-it-tonight version. The long version includes proprioceptors, annulo-spiral receptors, and afferent sensory neurons. Some of you may be interested in reading the long version (if you are, run don't walk to Irene's Myomassology Institute and sign up immediately), but my guess is that most of you want to know whether it works and how it feels.

Let's find out, shall we? Select one of the following:

1. Offer yourself upon my table.
2. Make an appointment at IMI's Student Clinic.
3. Ask your massage therapist to do muscle mechanics.
4. If your MT doesn't know muscle mechanics, then ask your MT to apply passive and active resistance, the next best thing to muscle mechanics, in my humble opinion.

Blessed by a Monarch

This lovely creature visited my garden this afternoon while I was on the phone with a friend. We hung up just so I could snap the photo. The butterfly circled around my head several times, fluttered toward the garage, the house, the neighbor's roof, then back around my head a few more times. Checking me out, I imagine.

Could I simply post the photo and leave you with the above description? Noooo, I had to 1) research to determine whether this is indeed a monarch (I think so), 2) read about monarchs, 3) decide which fascinating facts to share here with you, and 4) start planning where in my garden I'll create a Monarch Waystation.


Time well spent.

* * *

The monarch's scientific name, Danaus plexippus, in Greek means "sleepy transformation."

Milkweed is the only plant that monarch caterpillars eat. Milkweed is listed as a "noxious weed" in Michigan. 

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quotes: Water

"If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water."
Loren Eiseley
The Immense Journey, 1957

"Water is the one substance from which the earth can conceal nothing. It sucks out its innermost secrets and brings them to our very lips."
Jean Giraudoux

My Body: Forearm

In Physiology class last week, we traced one another on brown craft paper. Our homework was to draw the bones of our forearms and hands. Pictured here --click pic for a large view-- is the anterior view (palm side up) of my left arm. I asked my bones if they feel as awesome as my drawing looks. They said they do, even better.

I laid my real arm & hand upon the paper in order to check my proportions. My, but that was a trip. Let me check the accuracy of this image by measuring it against the real me. How surreal to look back and forth between my "real" hand and the image I had drawn: Here is a drawn image of my bones, which I can see, and here are my real bones, which I can't see; here is my drawing, which I created, and here is my hand, which I did not create. Or did I?

Next month, I'll draw my digestive system. Mercy!

* * *

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

Little Gidding V
Four Quartets
T.S. Eliot (1943)

Disapproving Rabbits

If you're as easily amused as am I, then check out Disapproving Rabbits. I used to have this set up so that you could get to the Disapproving Rabbits website by clicking on the above photo, but the bunny strongly disapproved of being clicked upon.

The test results are in

Guess who aced the skeletal test? One hundred percent, baby.
Happy dance!

It's Friday Night...

...do you know where your acromion is? I do.
Studying on a Friday night. ::sigh::
(When I ace the test next week, remember this.)

Expected Towels, Unexpected Oils

Thanks to our syllabus, I expected to learn and practice towel techniques in hands-on class tonight (towel techniques: working on top of the towel that's draped over the client). The herbal oils, however, came as a surprise. A delightful surprise, indeed.

We applied five drops of each oil (see below) directly on our partner's back, along the spine. After gently rubbing it in, we re-covered our partner with the towel and proceeded to practice towel techniques. If you'd like to know more about towel techniques such as the spinal torque and the elephant walk, you have but to offer yourself upon my table; I'll show you.

I'd love to share more about tonight's class with you. Instead, I think I'll take me straight to bed and, mmmm, savor the herbal oil that's still penetrating my spine and feel the echoes of my classmate's firm strokes along my back, shoulders, neck...

G' night, me lovelies!

* * *

Peppermint Oil & Herbal Adjustment
Herbal ADJ ingredients: Capsicum, Indian Tobacco, Siberian Ginseng, Blue Vervain, Black Cohosh
Peppermint oil has a cooling effect, herbal ADJ has a warming effect. Used together, the two oils produce a sort of herbal "icy-hot" sensation. "This is a quick-acting, dramatically effective procedure for relief of headaches, cramping, arthritic discomfort, sports injuries, back discomfort, neck and shoulder tension." [From Herbal Extracts: Build Better Health with Liquid Herbs by Dr. A.B. Howard]

Irene & Energy Work

Irene Gauthier visited our hands-on class on Thursday night to participate in our first lesson in energy work (see links below for info). While I practiced on my classmate, Irene stood beside me and placed her fingertips lightly at each end of my biceps. Her fingers began moving in tiny circles, which she said she was not doing herself. "That's the energy," she said, "you see? You feel it?"

I tried so hard to believe, or not to disbelieve. No, I thought, I'm sorry to say I don't feel it. What I do feel is you -- 87-year-old healer and founder of this school -- touching me. I don't feel anything unusual in my arm, but I know who you are, and I accept the honor of your touch as energy enough. Just then, Irene's fingers stopped their circling, and an undeniable jolt ran from the center of my biceps to each end of the muscle, down to my elbow and up to my shoulder. My neck and head shot upright, too, although that, I'm certain, was a physiological response to the surprise I felt.

So I felt a jolt, so what? I can hardly call it a healing, as I had no pain or known issues in my arm. I could call it a nifty example of what we can do when we simply close a circuit of energy around a single muscle. I could also call it a fluke. There are all sorts of possibilities, but I want to choose one. I want to select just the right spot in the soil to place this particular seed of experience. That spot looks something like this: A healer touched me and said silently, Go thou and do likewise. Whether that ground is fertile, time will tell.

Energy Medicine General info @ answers.com
Craniosacral Therapy General info @ answers.com
Reiki Therapy @ Beaumont Hospital

Body Awareness

Instead of lecture Tuesday night, we had a class called Body Awareness. Other than what the course title and the instructions to "wear loose-fitting clothing" might imply, I had no idea what to expect. I just knew it'd be good.

So it was, and so it is.

Our teacher, Michael Rice, spoke for nearly an hour on the importance of taking care of our bodies. (I can't do him justice here; suffice it to say that Michael is a live wire, and his energy is infectious.) While listening intently, sitting on the floor cross-legged and erect, I cheered inside as I thought about the me of one or two years ago who would have felt utterly discouraged for being fat and out of shape, all what was I thinking, trying to be a massage therapist?, the me who could not have sat cross-legged for that long without pain. No, I wasn't thinking of that me, exactly; I was noticing the difference. I noticed me, here and now, strength in my legs, endurance in my abdomen, and enthusiasm running the length of my spine like electricity, tiny charges jumping out my fingertips and toes. And it was good.

Then we moved. For two hours, we stretched, marched, bent this way and that, pushed up and pushed down, moved every joint in our bodies in every direction they're meant to move, and we stretched again. There I was, 44 years old and overweight, exercising among nearly 50 students, most of whom are in their 20s, and I kept up and I breathed deeply and I felt great. I felt great!

So I did, and so I do.