Are you interesting in targeting your fascial work to the level of the epymesium? Do you want to learn about myofascial sequences that improve your results?

The Fascia Research Congress is sponsoring a very special one day workshop. Luigi Stecco, the inventor of the Fascia Manipulation© technique and his son, Antonio Stecco MD, who spoke at the Fascia Research Congress in Amsterdam last year, will be presenting:

The Fascial Manipulation© Technique and its Biomechanical Model
A Guide to the Human Fascial System

Saturday July 3, 2010, New York City
The one day workshop will be at a location in the mid-town Manhattan area, registration $150.

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Anatomy Trains Dissection Journal, Day One

I knew it was going to be a good day the moment I keyed the ignition of my rental car.

I braced myself for the expected blast of hip hop from the always left-on rental car radio, but that’s not what I got. Instead it was classic rock. Specifically, it was Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper”.

I take things like this as signs. This was a very good one indeed. Read the rest of this entry »

Most anatomy resources focus on individual parts of the body, leading to the incorrect assumption that muscles and bones operate separately. Anatomy Trains by Tom Myers is helping to shift consciousness to the reality of interconnectedness by showing links throughout the body. His newest rendition, a 3-DVD set Anatomy Trains Revealed, is a visual odyssey through the body’s myofascia.

Structural integrators are already aware of these connections, but to see them in living color through fascial dissections deepens understanding. In addition to showing each of his anatomical meridians through the body, the menu allows you to choose between seeing the entire line or skipping ahead to a part of interest. Are you wondering about the twist in a client’s body? Reviewing the Spiral Line may help. Do you feel like you need some information about the relationship between the tibialis anterior and the peroneals? The menu also lists parts of the lines so you can review just what you need.
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Regular readers will remember a recent post talking about the October 2009 issue of Men’s Health. In it was a first – a serious, mainstream article about structural integration. I recommended that it become the main tool in your PR toolkit.

Would you believe that article helped get me on local television? Read the rest of this entry »

I recently attended the Arizona Physical Therapist Spring convention and had the pleasure of enjoying keynote speaker, Shirley Sahrmann, PT, PhD who presented “Movement System Syndromes of the Low Back and Hip: Their Relationship and Best Available Evidence”.

Ms. Sahrmann is an icon in the world of physical therapy, particularly in her specialty of accurately assessing and correcting movement imbalances or pathology. She has about 40 years of clinical and research experience in this field and apparently gets great clinical results.

One of the recurrent themes that I kept hearing her trying to drill in our heads was that much of low back pain (both specific and non-specific groups) patients that she saw that had been seen by a multitude of practitioners without success had undiagnosed hypermobility problems. She verified this by assessing and treating 2 members of the audience in attendance, who were of course, physical therapists.

The frustrating thing for me was that she “does not do manual therapy” Read the rest of this entry »

It’s hard to reduce Structural Integration into sound-bytes. So how do we succinctly explain what we do to potential clients? Scott Gauthier had the foresight to ask practitioners at the recent Symposium and created this video.

In a previous comment, Jennifer shared her “elevator speech:”   Structural Integration is the use of precise touch and education intended to balance muscle and soft tissue strain patterns, improve posture, and provide for easier, more efficient motion.  Structural Integration eases pain and improves performance using precise touch and movement education to balance tension patterns that inhibit easy, efficient posture and motion.

How do you describe Structural Integration?  Please share, and let’s all get the word out.

Most structural integrators who attended the IASI 2010 Symposium in Denver are on airplanes returning home after an uplifting educational conference and community gathering. We’re taking home ideas to apply in our practices and connection with fellow practitioners. For those of you who weren’t there, we missed you. Here’s a summary of the last two keynote presentations. Read the rest of this entry »

Pittsburgh hosted over two hundred people for this weekend’s myofascial pain conference at the University of Pittsburgh, which included PTs, chiropractors, MTs and a few MDs. Leon Chaitow kicked off the proceedings with a comprehensive overview on the role of soft tissue manipulation in treating joint and myofascial dysfunction. He proceeded to go through about 10 hours of information in one hour.

The one study that really caught my attention was published in 2009 Read the rest of this entry »

The IASI Symposium is well underway.  This action packed experience began last night with a welcome reception and keynote presentation by Michael Salveson.   Two more keynote speakers, one breakout and one plenary session  later and we’re at the midpoint.  Here’s a recap of the events so far.

Michael Salveson – Creating a Powerful Structural Integration Practice

You can always depend on an industry veteran for valuable nuggets to use in your practice. Read the rest of this entry »

Nothing can make you more grateful, respectful and dedicated to your own health than spending time among cadavers.

Sometimes hilarity ensues, like when FedEx arrived with a shipment for the lab. The picture of the label on the right is real, and is actually a pretty awesome website.

Today’s mission was to dissect and explore the pelvic floor, and it was profound in ways I didn’t expect. Read the rest of this entry »