This week I decided to share a blog post from Sue Hitzman, creator of The MELT Method, on the real causes of pain. Just in the last few days I’ve had MANY conversations with people who are in pain. Whether they are opting for surgery, drugs, or simply limiting what they can do, they are frustrated.
As someone who has also suffered from chronic pain for decades, I understand! I’ve been there. I am LOVING learning more about pain and it’s cause, as well as our bodies and how they move. I especially LOVE that pain is not inevitable. Thank you to Sue and those who are opening our eyes and providing information and solutions to living a pain free life!
Read (and MELT) on!
Reposted from Sue Hitzman’s blog at The MELT Method on Sept 26, 2013
Repetition and habitual patterns of motion or postures can cause an array of symptoms from joint pain to muscle ache. If you go to a doctor complaining about your symptoms, that’s likely what the doctor will treat, yet treating a symptom is hardly a holistic approach.
I believe in whole-body integrated results. There are many closed-minded folks who are waiting for “evidence-based” studies to “prove” restoring this dynamic fluid system directly is a relevant – or even a possible way to help a human body reduce the negative effects of repetitive patterns from our daily life and actions.
Even those in the hands-on world of massage have been known for “fascia dissing.” This group still believes in the idea that movements are dictated by the angles of joints and how ligaments stabilize them, and that tendons cause leverage and muscles gain power. Ultimately they believe the primary source of problems is in our muscles.
That’s a very linear way of thinking and the body is far more complex than that.
Why wait for science to catch up to the obvious? We are water-based creatures. Certainly changing the fluid state of our body seems a simple enough proposal to explore. Right? So that’s what I have done for nearly two decades. If I had to depend on science to create the results I’d still be waiting…20 years later.
There’s enough visual evidence – from the beloved Visible Human Project to research studies to scientists like Jaap van der Wal, MD, Ph.D. – that the interface the fascial continuum creates, from our skin to our bones, is the most relevant fluid component of our human form when it comes to the sustainability of the spaces within us. Let’s face a fact here: No one ever complains about getting taller as they get older. We just lose space, which causes our posture and motion to decline from what we would consider ideal alignment and function. What causes us to lose space is primarily a connective tissue issue.
If you repeat a habit enough times, whether it’s a movement or a still posture, you ingrain it in the fascia. Fascia has memory and the memory becomes deeply engrained. So if you sit at a desk for five hours a day in a particular posture, your fascia allows you to do so…better.
That means if you sit with your head carriage forward, your shoulders slumped, rib cage side bent towards your mouse, guess what? Your fascia will help you to do that posture super efficiently. It’s one of its jobs – to store and reserve energy so as not to exhaust or overstress muscle fibers, organs, nerves, and basically all elements of functionality. Yet this stored energy could also be considered stored or stuck stress. It’s the blessing and curse.
So although you might be better at that posture, it becomes harder to get out of it over time. The more passionate someone is in what they do, the more invested they are in their movement, the more engrained it becomes in their body, ultimately hard wiring their fascial network.
So give up your hobbies, jobs, and things you love to do?
That sounds horrible. Let’s not do that. Instead, how about taking 10 minutes a day to keep your fascia juicy so our joints don’t lose space and our postures and habits don’t hurt us?
Sounds much better, right?
For all the time we spend trying to make our waist line smaller and our faces less wrinkled, we should spend some time restoring the system that keeps both muscles and skin more supportive and resilient. It’s why I created The MELT Method and am sharing its benefits to as many people as I can.