Myofascial Massage

Myofascial Release, Second Edition, provides comprehensive training for hands-on therapists of all disciplines and at all levels to expand their practices. This scientifically grounded whole-body approach presents an overview of the entire fascial matrix

This invaluable resource will help practitioners and students sort out differences and similarities between popular myofascial styles. Early chapters offer a solid review of anatomy and physiology as they relate to myofascial massage. Subsequent chapters focus on specific direct and indirect techniques and adjunctive self-care recommendations for clients, including the neuromuscular approach, hatha yoga and exercise to support myofascial massage, and the craniosacral approach. You'll learn the proper procedure for each myofascial technique and understand how to integrate myofascial massage into your bodywork practice. Whether you're looking to broaden your perspective of massage or find the myofascial approach and technique that best suits you and your client, Myofascial Massage is sure to help. Exquisite illustrations enhance learning and understanding by clarifying the techniques. Protocol boxes recommend sequences to follow during actual myofascial massage sessions. Guidelines provide useful strategies for implementing each myofascial approach and improving body mechanics and communication skills during your client sessions. First person experiences will add to your overall understanding of the techniques and their uses. Massage implications, included in each anatomy chapter (Chapters 2-4), help you to understand the influence of myofascial anatomy and physiology on practice. Questions for discussion and review at the end of each chapter encourage you test your comprehension of the materials and think critically.

Myofascial Release provides comprehensive training for hands-on therapists of all disciplines and at all levels to expand their practice. From technique descriptions and their applications to client interactions and the preservation of practitioner strength and functionality, this guide teaches therapists every crucial aspect of employing myofascial release to its fullest benefit. This scientifically grounded whole-body approach presents an overview of the entire fascial matrix, the three-dimensional web of tissue that supports, encompasses, and protects every other structure in the body. The explanation of the anatomy and function of the connective tissue system gives practitioners the solid background needed for working most effectively with soft tissue to treat muscle injury, immobility, and pain. The book also outlines how myofascial release relates to other massage modalities in the Hands on Guides for Therapists series, ensuring therapists incorporate all of their skills to the greatest effect for their clients. Descriptions of over 60 myofascial techniques contain details on the timing, direction, and hold of each stretch as well as numerous photographs that illustrate the body and hand positions of each technique. Nuanced explanations of the unique feel of soft tissue, including the component of position of ease felt in the fascial drag, enhance the therapist’s palpation skills. The therapist learns how to apply the best approach—cross-hand releases, longitudinal plane releases, compression releases, and transverse plane releases—on specific injuries or issues and how to combine techniques to maximize their effectiveness. The text also contains home programs that clients can use themselves between treatment sessions. Myofascial Release provides an entire therapeutic approach as opposed to just the hands-on application that most books offer. Special features make this resource more effective and efficient for readers: • Full-color photos present a strong visual guide to employing each technique safely. • The photo index reference tool quickly points readers to the desired technique. • Therapist tips provide practical comments on applying the techniques. • Client talk boxes share the author’s experiences and insights on common situations. • Quick Questions at the end of each chapter test readers’ knowledge of material. Finally, the text offers insight on interacting with clients and ensuring their entire therapeutic experience is fulfilling. It covers the client consultation process, checking for contraindications and performing the visual assessment, how the client may respond to the treatment, and what the practitioner and client might feel and see during the process. Readers will come away from Myofascial Release with a holistic understanding of the approach and how to apply the principles to their practice. Myofascial Release is part of the Hands-On Guides for Therapists series, which features specific tools for assessment and treatment that fall well within the realm of massage therapists but may be useful for other body workers, such as osteopaths and fitness instructors. The guides include full-color instructional photographs, Tips sections that aid in adjusting massage techniques, Client Talk boxes that present ideas for creatively applying techniques for various types of clients, and questions for testing knowledge and skill.

Written for bodywork and manual therapy practitioners from a wide variety of disciplines, as well as other healers who want to expand their skills, this generously illustrated book explains how and where emotions and static energy are held in the body, and how they can be released and rebalanced in therapies that challenge bodymindcore awareness

Michael Shea, one of the foremost experts on myofascial release, presents straightforward, practical instructions for dramatically releasing pain and restriction of motion in the body's fascia, muscles, and connective tissue. He introduces a soft tissue, hands-on approach for massage therapists, physical therapists, and other healthcare practitioners that reduces tension and stress in their clients' entire myofascial systems, as well as their musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems. Therapists with little or no background in myofascial release and deep tissue reorganization can follow this book's easy guidelines in order to facilitate substantial orthopedic changes and pain reduction in their clients. Illustrated with 70 black and white photos, Myofascial Release Therapy includes an at-a-glance section that provides a step-by-step procedure for quick reference. Each photo is supplemented with instructions, as well as with arrows for easy reference in the clinic. This book provides the first integration of the verbal, visceral, and palpation skills of the therapist. It also includes work on the viscera as a way of integrating soft tissue work through the abdomen and pelvis. While manuals on the bones, muscles, and viscera have previously been divided into separate volumes, this book combines them into one. The author offers specific tools and protocols for helping patients "destructure" past somatic experience and reform it into something healthier. He illuminates the interconnectedness between bodies and their relationships to the outside world, including how sensations, feelings, and emotions are organized in the body and how they are coupled to meaning and memory. The result of many years of experience and knowledge, this book provides compelling evidence that myofascial release therapy encourages more rapid healing response of injured tissue.

Equine Structural Integration: Myofascial Release Manual This book is a valuable guide to Equine Myofascial Release (MFR) for the horse owner or therapist as well as an essential reference for the professional practitioner. This book provides the essential overview and introduction to the techniqyes required to understand Equine Structural Integration. Equine Structural Integration: Myofascial Release Manual presents a logical series of techniques for bringing more structural order to the horses in your care. Equine Structural Integration: Myofascial Release Manual is rich in illustrations of Equine Myofascial Release Techniques for the: Head, Forelimb, Shoulders, Rear, working with scars, joints and myofascial stretching. The book is laid out in a very user friendly manner. The Equine Myofascial Release technique illustrations/photos and their description are kept together so you can easily follow the text while working with your horse. If you are working with a client's horse you can use the book as an added educational tool to help your clients better understand your work. This book is a needed educational tool for practitioners who provide Myofascial Therapy to horses. Equine Structural Integration: Myofascial Release Manual, takes you on a journey through the fascia from the cell to skin, from physiology to movement evaluation and Myofascial Release Techniques for the entire horse.

Sports Massage for Injury Care explains why manual therapy is so valuable in treating musculoskeletal injuries. It presents injury-specific protocols for treating and preventing recurrence of 20 of the most common neuromuscular injuries seen in athletes.

This significantly revised new edition features an easy-to-use format that provides basic theory and assessment of neuromuscular conditions followed by an extensive overview of techniques specific to deep tissue massage Ñ including trigger point therapy, friction techniques, myofascial techniques, and stretching. Step-by-step treatment routines for the 22 most commonly encountered neuromuscular conditions are clearly outlined using detailed descriptions and illustrations side-by-side. Downloadable assessment forms and 90-minutes of video on proper deep tissue massage techniques are included on the companion Evolve website. Excellent organization and standard layout for each condition makes information easy to find and follow. Step-by-step routines for treatment of conditions are outlined using clear descriptions and illustrations side-by-side. Coverage of the most common techniques includes trigger point therapy, friction techniques, myofascial techniques, and stretching to give you an excellent base from which to start incorporating deep tissue massage into massage practice. Full color art program features a visually striking design with vibrant photos and illustrations that appeal to visual learners. Pedagogical features include learning objectives, key terms, and an end-of-book glossary to help you focus on key content. Appendices provide key resources on trigger points and pain referral patterns, indications/contraindications for deep tissues massage, and blank assessment forms for use in practice. Student resources on Evolve companion website provide downloadable assessment forms and videos of deep tissue techniques. NEW! 4-color art program features all new photos of the best techniques, body mechanics, and draping to better illustrate content. NEW! 90 minutes of video on the Evolve companion website vividly demonstrate the proper techniques needed to master deep tissue massage. NEW! Expanded coverage of theory and assessment gives you the background you need on documentation, techniques, and assessments before you begin learning how to perform deep tissue massage. NEW! Anatomic illustrations provide a refresher on pertinent anatomy right before the book heads into treatment coverage to reinforce the essential relationship between anatomy and proper massage. NEW! Expert reviewers, including Joe Muscolino, Sandy Fritz, and more, ensure material is accurate and appropriate for courses on deep tissue. NEW! Author Jeffrey Simancek, former Curriculum Manager for Corinthian and current massage educator, brings extensive career school teaching and curriculum experience to the book.