My VOYAGE INTO THE REALM OF BODYWORK & THE MARVELS OF OUR CONNECTIVE TISSUES

The first thing I noticed when Adam (not real name) walked into my room was the distinct shuffling of his feet, almost like there is a tug of war between his thighs and the muscles at the back of his thighs i.e. the hamstrings of each of his leg causing the gait to be almost robotic-like.

Although his motion seem very normal to the untrained eyes; as he wasn’t even struggling with his walk and in fact, he walked at a normal pace. But, I kinda wonder if that is not caused by the tightening of the inner muscles that flex his hips or the locking of hip joints, so evidenced by the forward tilt of his pelvis and of his head.

I suspect he must have spent many hours in a day in a sitting position and have been doing so for an extended period of time. To be certain, I ask him.

“Yes, how do you know? I drive the coach to and fro Singapore everyday.” (from Kuala Lumpur)

“I suspect there are high possibilities tat you suffer from low back pain, shoulder and neck pain and tension headache. You also get tired easily, am I right?”

“Yes! Yes! Sometimes my back hurts real bad and it’s a pain to sit up straight. I’ve been on medical leave quite a lot lately and I’ve used up all my medical leave allowance. I tried putting heat pad on my back when I drive; it works for a while but doesn’t seem to work after the pad’s cooled down. My neck and shoulder have been hurting a lot lately too. What can I do?”

Whenever I meet clients, I look at their body synergy - head in relation to the body, trunk in relation to the pelvis, arms position in relation to the body and feet position in relation to the pelvis and upper torso. Well, this is just the gist of the body analysis that I do at the beginning and end of each session.

Each of these gives clues to what my client is having trouble with. The pelvis may be tilted forward, backward or twisted. The head may be forward of the body, thus, changing the shape of the spine resulting in compression and more often than not, the bulging of the intervertebral discs, thus causing the body pain.

When I meet a client for the first time, I explain to him or her that I will need to do a full body analysis to identify areas of concern, often showing up in postural misalignment, motion restriction and pain.

The true skill of this work lies in identifying the root cause of these problems and then skillfully work to nip these problems in the bud before they trigger off other symptoms or pain. Which explains why so many ‘treating-the-pain-where-it-hurts’ treatments only bring temporary relief.

Once the roots of the problems are alleviated, the pain is automatically eliminated, the motion restored and posture improved/realigned.

Now you may ask, what’s the big deal about having an improved realigned posture besides looking taller and aesthetically more pleasing?

Believe me, there is more than meets the eye. Personally, I think it is worthwhile knowledge; after all, we only have one body that will either be a good servant or a poor master to us for the rest of our lives.

More on that in my next write up. I’m proud to announce that this is my maiden blog. I hope to be able to share with you interesting facts, tips and case studies that come into my sphere of knowledge relating to bodywork and the likes.

As this is my maiden blog, I would appreciate any comments, thoughts or criticism, so as to deepen with my learning process.

“I feel a little different in my back,” said Adam as he sat up from the table.

“How different?”

“Well, the pain is a little gone and I can sit up straighter but I still feel the pain on the inside”

“That would sound about right. What I did was realign your pelvis and all the connective tissues* surrounding the pelvis. I need to do more work to realign the connective tissues throughout your body so a healthy channel of communication can be established throughout your body system to bring about lasting change. But it takes time, for we are affecting change at the deepest cellular level. You need to have patience and not rush the process.”

Happily Adam left and I scheduled in his next appointment for next week.

*connective tissues are a group of tissues in the body that maintains the form of the body and its organs and provides cohesion and internal support. The connective tissues include several types of fibrous tissue that vary only in their density and cellularity, as well as the more specialized and recognizable variants—bone, ligaments, tendons, cartilage, and adipose (fat) tissue. (excerpt from Encyclopaedia Britannica)