Can Massage Help Heal Frozen Shoulder

Frozen Shoulder is also known as adhesive capsulitis. The capsule that holds the bones, ligaments and tendons of your shoulder thickens and tightens around the joint causing a restriction in movement.  The symptoms start gradually, get worse over time, and include stiffness and pain in your shoulder joint. Some people might notice their pain getting worse at night when they are sleeping.

There are typically three stages of Frozen Shoulder:

Painful stage. This is the stage where pain and limited range of motion start.

Frozen stage. In this stage the pain might decrease and, unfortunately, your limited range of motion and stiffness gets worse.

Thawing stage. During the thawing stage, the range of motion in your shoulder begins to improve.

Massage can break up the holding associated with Frozen Shoulder. Massage incorporated with exercises and stretches a therapist can give you, will help you to be well on your way to recovery.

Some others things that have been known to help heal Frozen Shoulder:

1. When lifting with just one arm, lift with your unaffected arm.
2. When lifting with both arms, do not lift over your head.
3. Ice your shoulder after heavy activity for up to but no longer than 15 minutes.
4. Heat your shoulder by taking a shower or using a heating pack in the morning.
5. Heat your shoulder, if you are not inflamed, before doing your exercises.
6. Ice your shoulder several times a day when you are inflamed or in a lot of pain.
7. Support your elbow with a pillow when you sitting and your arm with a pillow when you are sleeping so that gravity does not pull your shoulder down.
8. In the first painful stage, don’t do something that causes pain. Be very gentle.
9. Do the exercises you get from your treatment massage therapist every day. The improvement might seem slow but this is very important.
10. Acupuncture has been known to be helpful with decreasing the pain and symptoms that come with Frozen Shoulder.

Thanks for taking the time and reading this post. If you have Frozen Shoulder, I hope you recover quickly. PJ Harri, LMP http://www.pjharris.com/

6 Tips for Strong Ankles

The importance of strong ankles is far reaching. It greatly affects the fluidity in your walking stride. A disjointed stride can cause knee, hip, low back, mid back or even neck pain. Many of the people who come to me for knee pain can trace the cause to their ankles. In order to have strong ankles you must also have flexible ankles. Flexible and strong ankles are especially important if you run, play basketball, soccer, football, ride bicycles… or just want to stay active for many years to come.

 Here are a few exercises to retain or regain ankle strength and flexibility:

1. The first exercise is called calf raises. Here are a few examples on how you can do these at home:

2. This video includes the exercises of ankle circles and alphabet ankles:

 

 3. Another great ankle strengthening exercise is balancing on one foot:

 

 4. This exercise involves sitting in a chair with your feet flat on the floor in front of you. With you heels firmly planted on the floor, slowly raise your toes up and down.

 

 

 

5. Here is a great stretch for the front of the lower leg and ankle:

6. Keeping your calves flexible are also important to ankle health. You can do this stretch with the back leg straight and then do it again with the back leg bent.

 

 

 

 

 Always check with your doctor before you begin a new exercise routine. If you find your ankles or lower legs are pretty tight and stiff, call your injury treatment massage therapist to help you find relief. Thank you for reading, PJ Harris, LMP. http://www.pjharris.com/

What Can You Do for Whiplash?

If you are in a motor vehicle accident and feel any of the symptoms listed below, get to a doctor immediately. Do not attempt to treat yourself. You may have whiplash. Sometimes whiplash symptoms might not show themselves for over 24 hours or even for a few days. As I have stated before in previous posts, the sooner you get treatment, including massage, the greater your chance for recovery. Until you see a professional, make sure you ice several times a day to help keep the swelling down.

Whiplash isn’t only caused by motor vehicle accidents. It can be caused by anything that abruptly jerks the neck. I treated a client once who had whiplash due to falling down.

In most cases, cervical collars are a bad idea. They promote stiffness and do nothing more than remind you to not turn you neck. The sooner you can start turning your neck the better. Using slow movements and stopping when the pain gets too severe is better than full immobilization.

These are the most common symptoms of whiplash:
~Neck pain and stiffness
~Headaches
~Pain in the shoulder or between the shoulder blades
~Low back pain
~Pain or numbness in the arm and/or hand
~Dizziness
~Ringing in the ears or blurred vision
~Difficulty concentrating or remembering
~Irritability, sleep disturbances, fatigue

The treatment massage work I suggest to do on clients in the first stage of whiplash includes: 
*Gently massaging the neck
*Gentle passive neck stretches
*Work on the torso with massage and stretches to free up the rib, cage, shoulders and arms
*All followed by icing for 10-15 minutes in the acute stage.

If you have any questions about the post material, feel free to ask in the comment section below. Thanks for reading, PJ Harris, LMP. http://www.pjharris.com/

Common Culprit of Wrist Pain

Do you have frequent wrist pain? Do you spend a lot of time on the computer or playing video games? Do you do strength training but ignore your wrists?

You might be one of the many people who have wrist pain because they have tight wrist flexors. What are wrist flexors? They are the muscles on the inner side of your forearms and are responsible for bending your wrist inward. Most of the people who come to my Seattle Treatment Massage practice with wrist pain need work on their wrist flexors. Often the work I do in tight wrist flexors is Myofascial work. This will help stretch the wrist flexors and the connective tissue around them.

If you have tight flexors you could probably benefit from stretching them. Always check with your health practitioner before you try any new stretching exercise. Here are a few movements that can help you alleviate your pain:

 

AND

 

 Slowly move your hands and arms into this position breathe and hold for 20 seconds.

Many folks who do strength training have tight wrist flexors and weak wrist extensors. Make sure that you are strengthening the whole wrist in all four (up, down and both sides) linear wrist movements, especially if you work on a computer all day. Ask a personal trainer to help you with this.

There is a lot more we can say about the wrist, but that will have to wait for another post. Thanks for reading, PJ Harris LMP. http://www.pjharris.com/

How Soon After an Injury Should I Seek Treatment?

That is the million dollar question. So many people who come to see me at my Seattle Treatment Massage practice, show up after they have had an injury for a while because the injury is not healing. By then the body has developed holding patterns and scar tissue in reaction to the injury. These issues can create more work for your massage therapist who has to help you break up your scar tissue and relax your holding patterns. This can lead to a longer time for your injury to heal.

 Holding patterns and scar tissue are the bodies way of protecting itself from further injury. While this can be helpful during your accident to possibly protect you from more traumas, it is important to slowly encourage your body to relax and heal so that you won’t continue to develop additional scar tissue and tighter holding patterns. Massage is the best way I know to help with this process.

It is important when you sustain a serious muscle injury to see your doctor and find out if you are in need of a prescription for massage. This is especially important in cases of a motor vehicle accident or a serious fall. I believe you increase your chance for a more speedy recovery from an acute injury if you can get treatment within 24-72 hours.

I had someone on my table not to long ago that had a serious fall and came to me the very next day. Her lower back was quite sore and she rated the pain an 8 on a 1-10 scale. She received that massage and another one two days later. She was amazed how much better she felt after receiving the massages. I believe if she would have waited a few weeks for her pain to “go away” and then come to me for massage, I would be writing a much different story. Thanks for reading, PJ Harris LMP http://www.pjharris.com/

Can Massage Help Heal Tendinitis?

I am going to give you all a quick rundown of information regarding Tendinitis. This injury can be successfully treated with patience, diligence and even massage.

Tendinitis
Tendinitis is inflammation (swelling) of the tendon. A tendon is the type of tissue that connects muscle to bone.

Symptoms
* Heat and swelling
* Referred pain
* Burning and/or sharp pain

Cause
* Repetitive motion, overuse
* Tendon/muscle weakness
* Poor posture
* Sprains or strains are often accompanied by Tendinitis

Four Types of Tendinitis (symptoms)
1. Painful after activity
2. Painful at the beginning, goes away during and then returns after activity
3. Painful beginning, during and after activity and might inhibit said activity
4. Painful with all activity and is getting worse

Treatment Tips
1. Ask your doctor to give you an actual diagnosis
2. Ice after activity
3. Rest from causing activity
4. Massage
5. Painless stretches given to you from a Health Practitioner
6. Strengthening exercises given to you from a Health Practitioner

Some believe that deep friction massage helps stimulate collagen production in the damaged fibers. Others believe that using massage to break up the scar tissue is the key to healing Tendinitis. Either way, massage is most beneficial in the treatment of Tendinitis. Don’t wait, get relief. PJ Harris, LMP http://www.pjharris.com/

Beware of Treatment Overload

Have you had chronic pain for a while and are ready to do something about it? Are you fed up with ignoring your pain in hopes that it will go away? Are you fired up to take action and do what ever you can to heal your body? That is a great mindset to be in to make a change in your life. It often is what is required to help yourself light that fire and make a difference.

Often clients come to my Seattle Treatment Massage practice and they are motivated with a capital “M” to break their cycle of pain. Those clients are usually the ones who progress the fastest. They do their exercise homework. They focus on better posture. They make their health a top priority. All of this is inspiring and quite effective.

They also might start seeing many different practitioners to address all of the causes of their pain and nip this in the bud. The  outcome of that approach can create, if one is not careful, what I call Treatment Overload. This happens when the client is spending so much time going to tons of appointments that they get burned out. They feel overwhelmed and possibly frustrated when they are not healing as fast as they would like. They then might swing to the other end of the spectrum and quit all kinds of treatment entirely.

Be very careful and balanced in your health approach. When dealing with an issue of chronic (long term) or acute (recent) pain it is important that you make decisions coming from a grounded space. I often will suggest that a client , unless it will be a detriment to their health, limit the amount of practitioners they are seeing to 2-3 at a time. It is also important to question the validity of a course of treatment that seems to not be providing results. Do not be afraid to ask your practitioner questions regarding their intention with their choice of treatment for you. Remember you are the leader of your health team.

Thank you for reading. PJ Harris, LMP. http://www.pjharris.com/

Another Frequent Culprit of Shoulder and Neck Pain

Do you have pain on the tops of your shoulders? Do you find the more you feel stress the higher your shoulders climb or are you feeling like atlas with the weight of the world on them? This is a common occurrence in this high paced electronic age we are in. The more we invent gadgets to make our lives easier, the more complicated life seems to get. Today’s post is going to offer you a few simple ways to “shrug off” your stress.

When you feel tension and pain in the top of your shoulders that sometimes will run all the way up your neck, one of the main muscle reacting is your Trapezius.  I believe the whole body is involved when we exhibit poor posture, but in particular, the muscle we are addressing in this post is a part of the Trapezius called the UPPER Trapezius. One of the functions of the UPPER Trapezius is shrugging or raising your shoulders. When you keep your shoulders slightly raised or as I like to say “wear them as earrings,” this causes an amazing amount of stress on them.

So here are a stretching and breathing exercise you can do to provide upper shoulder relief:

* STRETCH – To help decrease stress in your shoulders and the sides of your neck, there is a very simple stretch you can do right there in your chair. Put your feet flat on the floor, grab the underside of your chair seat, and slowly tilt your head to the side. Breathe and hold stretch for at least 20 seconds. Remember to stretch both sides.

 

* BREATHE - Start to bring more awareness to your shoulder posture. Are you finding that they are raised up often? When you notice they are raised, do this simple breathing exercise:
 1. Take a deep breath in and raise your shoulders up as high as they can go.
 2. Move your shoulders as far back as they can go.
 3. Breathe out and drop your shoulders at the same time.
This should all flow in a semi-circular motion.

Both of these tips have helped many of my Seattle Treatment Massage clients decrease their shoulder and neck pain and tension. If they help you or if you have a question, leave a comment. Thanks for reading, PJ Harris, LMP. http://www.pjharris.com/

What is Trigger Point Therapy?

Trigger Point Therapy: I love it and use it often in my Seattle Treatment Massage practice. Why? Because it is quite effective in helping with immediate relief of pain in trigger points.

What is a Trigger Point?A Trigger Point is not the same as an acupuncture point. When you touch a trigger there is pain and you can feel the spot where it is with your fingers. These areas are often found in “muscle knots” or “taught muscles bands”. Trigger Points usually have blocked blood flow and often cause an entire muscle to be painful, tight, weak, and more easily fatigued. They can be caused by overworking or over stressing muscles or by a direct injury to the muscle.

There are two types of Trigger Points: active and latent. An active trigger point will send pain zinging down your body or pain in another spot on your body when you apply direct pressure. A latent trigger point will only have pain in the spot you are actually touching.

How does Trigger Point Therapy work? Trigger Point therapy works by applying direct pressure or deep strokes on the spot or stretches. During this, it is important for the client to breathe deeply and evenly. Slowly the pain and tension will melt. This creates a release in the muscle that can give you greater flexibility, a decrease in stiffness and increase in local blood flow. Massage practitioners find these points by using our skill of sensitivity in our hands or even our elbows. Trigger Point Therapy can be used in conjunction with many other types of massage including Swedish Massage, Myofascial Release, Sports Massage, Deep Tissue Massage, Lomi Lomi, and especially Treatment Massage.

Does Trigger Point Therapy hurt?It does not have to. When I apply Trigger Point Therapy on my clients we are in constant communication. I slowly increase the intensity of the work checking in with the clients comfort level. Some clients prefer that I go quite deep to that “hurts good” point. If at anytime you are not comfortable with the depth or intensity of your massage, it is important that you communicate that to your practitioner. Everyone has a different pain threshold and it is to be respected.

Trigger Point Therapy can be used to treat:

General muscle Pain

Jaw (TMJ) pain

Headaches and migraines

Whiplash/Neck pain

Tennis Elbow

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Frozen Shoulder

Foot pain or Plantar Fasciitis

So, if you are noticing you have spots in your muscle that are painful to the touch, I highly recommend you find a therapist that can asses if Trigger Point Therapy is going to help you find relief from that pain. Thank you, PJ Harris, LMP. http://www.pjharris.com/

7 Keys For Healthy Knees

I received a request from a follower on twitter to post about problems with knees. While I can’t give detailed advice on recovering from an injury without seeing someone in person, I can give some general suggestions on how to keep your knees injury free.

Like all parts of your body, your knees are not islands in your legs. Knee health is mostly depended on the health of other surrounding body structures. I have boiled down knee care to a few hints that will increase your chances to have strong and flexible knees for years to come.

1. Reduce Impact and Twisting- Are your favorite activities high impact or require lots of twisting? These activities put enormous strain on your knees. It’s hard for many who love these activities to stop doing them altogether. Maybe you could cut down. Cross training can be most beneficial. For instance instead of running 5X a week you could run 3X a week and swim or row 2X a week. Give those knees a break and still keep fit.

2. Leg Muscle Balance- Often people will develop pain on either side or the top of their knees. This can be caused by a muscle imbalance in the legs. A certain muscle or muscle group might be  too weak. Make sure when you are strengthening your legs you hit all muscle groups not just quads, hamstrings and calves. The most common leg weakness I find with my Seattle massage clients are the adductors (inner thighs).

3. Pelvis Alignment and Muscle Balance- When your pelvis is out of alignment or you have a weakness in the muscles that stabilize the pelvis there is a large chance that you will become a victim to “trickle down ergonomics.” Which is a silly way of saying, what is going on structurally above the body greatly effects the lower structures. This is extra critical when the structures are as close to the knees as the pelvis.

4. Feet and Ankle Alignment and Muscle Balance- Are you landing on your feet evenly? Do you have weak ankles? Are you using comfortable and supportive shoes? These are all important things to keep mindful of and address immediately. This could be based on the “trickle up ergonomics” theory.

5. Range of Motion- If you spend more than an hour a day with your knee in one position then it is important for you to move it. Are you sitting a lot? Get up, stretch your legs and walk around for a few minutes every hour. Don’t drag your feet or shuffle when you walk. This bad habit promotes poor range of motion in the knee, hip and ankle.

6. Flexibility- Do you stand a lot? Do some leg stretches, especially for the quads and calves, every two hours. It is important that you stretch ALL OF THE LEG daily. The most common tightness I find in folks are the quads and adductors. Many runners will sacrifice stretching for added running time. This is not a good idea if you want to keep running for many years.

7. Body Support Team- If you are an active person or are currently having knee pain, it is important that you have a health practitioner that you can go to that will help you keep everything strong, flexible and aligned. My favorite type of practitioners for this are massage practitioners, physical therapists, and personal trainers.

If you have a more specific persistent issue that you are dealing with in regards to your knees, please seek medical help immediately. The sooner you start care the greater your chance for a speedy recovery and don’t underestimate the power of ice for injury recovery.  PJ Harris, LMP http://www.pjharris.com/