Month: March 2020

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What is ‘Thixotropy’ and How Does Slow & Steady Win the Massage Race?

Ever wonder why I can’t dive right into those muscles fast and furiously?  No, not just because it’s not relaxing to be poked, pulled, and prodded repeatedly; it’s because the body’s physiology won’t respond to fast pressure, period.

Thanks to a property called ‘thixotropy’, relaxing those tense muscles requires slow, steady application of pressure.  Thixotropy is a way of describing a gel-like substance acting as a solid when a fast force is applied to it, while also acting as a liquid when a slow force is applied.  This means that if you hit the surface of a thixotropic substance with, say, a hammer; it will bounce off the surface.  But, if you lay that hammer down on the surface, it will slowly sink into the substance, instead.

The thixotropic nature of our muscles means that to sink into those deeper areas of tension or to get through one muscle and into another, a therapist must apply slow, steady pressure to truly access those layers of your body.  If we simply bat at the body, it will bounce us back.

Here’s a fun video thanks to the educators at Lamar University showing that visually demonstrates the property of thixotropy using a large vat of corn starch and water.  As you can see, students can literally run across this gel pool with quick feet, but once they slow down, they sink down into the mixture.

So the next time a therapist tries to quickly dig into a knotted muscle, especially if they don’t warm it up, don’t be surprised if unconsciously your body pushes back.  Just another one of the many interesting wonders our bodies hold in store to keep us going on a daily basis.

Need some slow, steady pressure applied to those problem areas?  Let’s get some deep tissue and myofascial release into your life.  Contact me to schedule your next massage and stay tuned for more interesting information next Massage Monday.  Have a great week!

Until next time,

Jason Brain

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How ‘Primal’ Are Your Movements: The Seven Primal Movement Patterns

Every time you move, in a flash, your body receives innumerable impulses from the sensory neurons, deciphered by the brain, and relayed out to the motor neurons creating movement.  And while your body is an incredible machine, coordinating multiple movement patterns in a matter of split-seconds, there are a seven specific movement patterns that the body relies on most often.
These seven primal movement patterns include:
Push  Upper body pushing away from the body
Pull  Upper body pulling towards the body
Lunge  Linear stride, lowering a knee, with an upright torso
Squat  Hips move downward underneath body with straight back
Rotate  Twisting of the core (pelvis to ribcage)
Hinge  Bending at hips forward, butt moves back with neutral spine
Gait  Walking, jogging, running, sprinting

These seven “Primal Movement Patterns” are the most commonly undertaken by the body.  To speed up the processing for each movement, our body creates neural-shortcuts for each movement.  Imagine, using computer coding as an example, instead of 100s of pages of biologic HTML to activate each motor neuron crossing each joint in the movement, our brain creates a shortcode like [shortcode=action-squat] for ease with repetition.  Inside that “shortcode” is the hyper-quick recipe for how you repeat that action over and over, day in and day out.
Problems arise, though, when these movement patterns become inundated with faulty coding, such as imbalances, compensations, injuries, improper muscle tone, emotional trauma, inactivity, and more.  As you can see in the overhead squat image above, there are many ways to compensate when performing the action.  Good news!  You can reprogram that code with mindful, dynamic movement patterns through exercise, massage,  yoga, postural adjustments, and more.  It takes hard work and time, but well worth the investment in your body.

Properly performing these seven primal movements on a daily basis can be the difference when it comes to aches and pains in your daily life.  No need to battle your own body with incorrect movement patterns; let’s schedule your 1st training/massage session in the near future.  Contact me for availability and let’s schedule your next massage!  Have a great week, look forward to talking to you soon.

Until next Monday,
Jason Brain
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