MORELIFE from the feet up!
I’m a licensed massage & bodywork therapist who has specialized in a form of orthopedic massage since 1994. This work, otherwise known as neuromuscular therapy, requires me to maintain a working knowledge of and experience with assessing gait, alignment, and posture.
There are as many techniques, modalities, and approaches for addressing the body as there are reasons and benefits to receiving massage as a part of your health regime.
Neuromuscular massage addresses the body as a “bilaterally functioning machine”. It’s all about restoring musculoskeletal balance and proper biomechanics.
Over the years I have developed an acute awareness for identifying imbalances in structure and how the resulting dysfunctional movement patterns are reflected throughout the entire organism, not limited to the musculoskeletal system.
For example, if the muscles attached to the rib cage become hyper-tonic, a restrictive impact on the ability to take a full breath can be observed.
The inability to breathe properly creates further imbalances in oxygen uptake. Decreased oxygen is followed by a cascade of effects which put an increased demand on stored energy and diverts the use of internal resources from completing a task to maintaining homeostasis.
Similarly, hypertonicity and weakness (hypotonicity)in the muscles that attach to the ankles and feet can restrict proper ambulation which results in a dysfunctional movement pattern, along with observable imbalances in skeletal muscle all the way up through the structure. The body will do what it must to maintain standing erect against the forces of gravity.
Rarely do people recognize the fact that their feet are directly related to their troubles. Feet do not have to hurt in order for a dysfunction to exist. I have dedicated many hours to focus on the feet throughout the course of my career; if I had to put a number on it, roughly, more than 28,000 hours. I would be exaggerating if I said everyone exhibits postural distortion originating from the feet, however, the number would definitely come close to more than half.
If you stop to think about that, it’s quite a big number. I imagine all the other therapists out there observing the same thing…now that’s a HUGE number!
Realizing this, I become overwhelmingly aware of how important it is to take care of my feet and how much I appreciate what they do for me every single day!
I have witnessed multitudes of clients improve their chronic neck and back issues by correcting their posture and alignment from the ground up. Once made aware of the importance of the alignment of feet, knees and hips, people begin to connect the dots for themselves. They take action, make the necessary adjustments, and bring attention to their entire body…
energy resources previously drained by inefficient movement (and maybe even the distraction of pain) are released to fuel performance, focus, and enjoyment of activities.
