James Boelter
08-08-2004, 02:31 AM
Most interesting experience of the week: I was giving a friend a long-promised shiatsu session (actually, there was also a lot of Canadian Deep Muscle Massage, shhh, don't tell :wink: ) yesterday afternoon. I was nearing the end of the routine and palming down the inside of the left thigh when she said in a strange voice - "...Oh...could you do that again? Up near the hip fold? That felt really good..."
Being an obliging and non-doctrinaire fellow, I went back to the requested area and applied some pressure and some cross fiber massage to some knots in the tissue . After a few moments I could sense a bit of a shift, but I couldn't put it in words.
Then she said, "You know, that part of the back of the leg, on the inside near the knee?" A little probing revealed that she meant where the semimembranous part of the hamstring muscle attaches to the back of the knee. "Could you like, press it or squeeze it, or something?" Of course I could. Acting on an obscure impulse, I 'picked up' the muscle between thumb and the first two fingers, as if I were rolling it between the digits and lifting it away from the bone ("as if", not actually!). It felt like there was a little crackly thing in there. So I grounded myself, applied the 'Zen shiatsu' approach of having a 'giving hand' and a 'receiving hand' further up the limb, put my 'intention' into the area, and squeezed/pinched the area in sync with my friend's breath - squeeze on the exhale, release on the inhale ( this is a basic shiatsu tactic, intended to help the client relax into the pressure and not interfere with their breathing cycle). After about 4 minutes, I decided she'd had enough and let go.
Now comes the cool part: my friend lay quietly on her back for several minutes, processing something, and again, I couldn't tell you exactly what was going on. Then she said in that strange voice: "Ummm...my hips just realigned themselves. My left leg has been hurting for weeks, and it's...better. And my hip and back don't hurt anymore!"
I have no idea how that worked. In my limited knowledge of trigger points and referred pain, I've never heard of that particular relationship, though I can guess at the linkages involved. I'd better go back and look at my myotherapy material again. Or it might have been something new and unique to my friend. Call it a classic case of 'The Dance of The Tissues". In any case, it made my day (and hers, of course).
Damn near a mystical experience, and another example of what the Body-Mind can do if it is 'allowed' to correct itself.
I love this stuff.
Being an obliging and non-doctrinaire fellow, I went back to the requested area and applied some pressure and some cross fiber massage to some knots in the tissue . After a few moments I could sense a bit of a shift, but I couldn't put it in words.
Then she said, "You know, that part of the back of the leg, on the inside near the knee?" A little probing revealed that she meant where the semimembranous part of the hamstring muscle attaches to the back of the knee. "Could you like, press it or squeeze it, or something?" Of course I could. Acting on an obscure impulse, I 'picked up' the muscle between thumb and the first two fingers, as if I were rolling it between the digits and lifting it away from the bone ("as if", not actually!). It felt like there was a little crackly thing in there. So I grounded myself, applied the 'Zen shiatsu' approach of having a 'giving hand' and a 'receiving hand' further up the limb, put my 'intention' into the area, and squeezed/pinched the area in sync with my friend's breath - squeeze on the exhale, release on the inhale ( this is a basic shiatsu tactic, intended to help the client relax into the pressure and not interfere with their breathing cycle). After about 4 minutes, I decided she'd had enough and let go.
Now comes the cool part: my friend lay quietly on her back for several minutes, processing something, and again, I couldn't tell you exactly what was going on. Then she said in that strange voice: "Ummm...my hips just realigned themselves. My left leg has been hurting for weeks, and it's...better. And my hip and back don't hurt anymore!"
I have no idea how that worked. In my limited knowledge of trigger points and referred pain, I've never heard of that particular relationship, though I can guess at the linkages involved. I'd better go back and look at my myotherapy material again. Or it might have been something new and unique to my friend. Call it a classic case of 'The Dance of The Tissues". In any case, it made my day (and hers, of course).
Damn near a mystical experience, and another example of what the Body-Mind can do if it is 'allowed' to correct itself.
I love this stuff.