BLOGS

By applying the concepts that I had developed for Coaching The Body®, working with functional pairs, movement and neurological distraction, I found that I could restore ankle mobility and have a huge impact on plantar fasciitis in a single session. Today's article and video show how you can get those kind of results with your own clients.

Explore how a myofascial release certification prepares you for a thriving career in massage therapy. Learn about career opportunities, advanced techniques, and flexible online courses from Coaching The Body® to future-proof your profession in the age of AI.

Explore how myotherapy and the Coaching The Body® method address the root causes of pain. By linking trauma to chronic pain and focusing on holistic techniques like trigger point therapy and trauma-informed care, this approach provides lasting relief without relying on medications. Perfect for practitioners and clients seeking sustainable pain solutions.

Discover effective lower back pain relief with our comprehensive guide. Learn about muscular anatomy, trigger point therapy, massage techniques, and long-term solutions for lasting pain relief.

As a practicing massage therapist, staying updated with the latest techniques and knowledge not only enhances your skills but also significantly boosts your professional credibility. This is where massage therapy continuing education comes into play, providing you with the tools to advance your practice, attract more clients, and build a sterling reputation.

This video demonstrates the “crossover stretch” in a real client treatment session with additional commentary. The crossover stretch is a quick and simple way of assessing and treating the glute minimus and medius, in supine position at the beginning of a bodywork session. In the CTB lower body pain protocol, this stretch is used as an assessment as well as a resolving stretch after work on the glutes.

This video details the common sources of shoulder and neck pain that can develop after doing yoga arm balance poses such as crow, side crow, handstand and how to remediate the pain immediately with three counter poses. These poses use contract/relax stretching to reduce trigger points in the low/mid trapezius and serratus anterior which are the sources of most shoulder and posterior neck pain.

Learn how to apply our unique CTB analysis to swelling and pain in the knee. We have identified a hidden satellite referral chain that sets up the functional failure of the vastus medialis, resulting in distorted patellar tracking.

Percussion tools are typically used in an uninformed way, but can be a powerful aid for trigger point therapy with the correct knowledge.

Learn how to treat the scalenes, which can be responsible for a diverse array of complaints including shoulder pain, mid-back pain, chest pain and seemingly nerve-related symptoms in the arm and hand.

A common mistake made by less experienced trigger point therapists is attempting to resolve pain by treating individual muscles whose referral matches the reported pain. Read about why this approach is too simplistic and how to get much better results by considering the functional and referral networks for common pain patterns.

Sciatica is one of the most common diagnoses that we see at our clinic. Diagnoses can superficially seem reassuring. It seems that having a latin term assigned to one's pain by an expert tends to make everyone feel better.

Dysfunctional breathing" is breathing in a way that is inefficient, or at its worst, makes it almost impossible for the diaphragm to work correctly. Most of us give little thought to breath unless our situation forces us to be more conscious of this semi-automatic activity. However, many people learn strategies for breathing that can have quite negative consequences for the body.

Dr. Gabe Mirkin coined the term RICE -- for rest, ice, compression and elevation -- in his best-selling book The Sportsmedicine Book ((Little Brown and Co., page 94)) in 1978. The practice of icing anything that hurts, feels tight, or seems "injured" has gained widespread acceptance among practitioners of all types - sports medicine, PTs, athletic trainers, coaches, personal trainers and more.

Amy Carr of TimeOut Chicago magazine came in a few years ago for a treatment. She's a tennis player, and wanted help with a persistent pain issue that had been bothering her for almost a year. Her pain was diagnosed as tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylitis, and she had seen several practitioners since the previous March without getting much relief.

Sciatica is the most common lower body pain complaint that we see in our clinic. It is a description of radiating leg pain, not a diagnosis.

Frozen shoulder is a stressful experience for anyone. The term itself is only descriptive, and not a reliable diagnosis. The “frozen” aspect refers to an extreme limitation of pain-free movement, but in my experience, this is in general not due to capsular adhesions, but splinting adaptation from trigger points in muscles. Mainstream medicine fails to provide any reasonable explanation of why this condition develops. The mainstream western worldview regarding the origins of pain completely fails frozen shoulder sufferers. In my experience, this is a very treatable condition if you discard conventional wisdom and are willing to take a fresh look at how situations like this develop in the body.

This week, I want to talk about neuroplasticity. This fascinating development in neuroscience has become a hot topic across the alternative health field—and we're just beginning to comprehend the incredible adaptive capacity of the human brain.

Most of us grow up believing that pain is a direct and determinate result of disease or injury. If you hit your thumb with a hammer, it hurts.

When pain becomes chronic, the central nervous system (CNS) has ratcheted up its sensitivity, to the point where even the most benign stimuli can create a pain response.

Many therapists and non-bodyworking-professionals know something about "trigger points." As in—a trigger point = a 'knot' in a muscle, that sends pain somewhere else.

Most people don't think of the feet and ankles as potent instigators of pain elsewhere in the body. I know I didn't when I started out. But 15 years of clinical observation have made it abundantly clear to me.

Welcome to the first issue of my CTB Newsletter! I plan to write an article each week or so on topics of interest to our community. Please let me know if there's a specific topic you would like to see covered.

Sometimes it takes a lot of patience when working with chronic pain clients. It is difficult to impossible to do CTB manual therapy when the client is so guarded that they cannot let you move their joints without engaging the muscles.

We see a lot of what is identified as "sciatica" in our clinic and school. The most common presentation of this so-called "diagnosis" is one-sided pain, consisting of elements in the low back, the glutes, the groin, and the lateral hip and leg. Occasionally knee pain may also be a component.