- Whiplash Follow UP

[Guest guest]

:

Oooo - that means I can name and trademark what I'm doing - cool.

Mike:

While you are at it, think of a good one for me as well, because I

haven't got a clue half the time anymore just what it is that I am

doing. I blend or integrate so many different things into any given

session that I don't know what to call what I do.

:

The PT tried to do the limb unwinding - but it was pretty pathetic.

Mike:

Yeah, you basically put the arm or leg in a " position " and apply a

slight pressure to get it started on its own. You then " support "

the limb against gravity but avoid any assistance in the unwind. My

attempts at it have been pretty pathetic also.

:

My chiro has done the whole body unwinding…She also has done another

type of unwinding – not sure what it is called and not sure if it is

somato-emotional release. She put her hands on top of my head and

then just let them go where they wanted to go…I remember her saying

that sometimes emotions get involved…If I remember correctly - the

principle is that our bodies are torqued in various areas and they

shouldn't be - this unwinding allows our bodies to untorque

themselves. This obviously would involve fascia.

Mike:

A general type of MFR unwinding as taught in level I by uses

the supported head technique. There are a lot of different

" principles " depending on who is doing the teaching (or marketing

the modality). I am not being cynical. I have just been exposed to

too many " techniques " that are identical but have completely

different names (and sometimes different purposes or intents as

well) depending on the modality. Emotional releases are not only

possible specifically with unwindings, they are possible with ANY

bodywork. And you are right that it involves fascia.

:

my chiro frequently says that 2 of my girls have the classic or

typical whiplash pattern

Mike:

What's a " classic pattern? " Most people think of car accidents when

they think of whiplash. Fine. Were you in the car at the stop sign

that got rear-ended or were you in the car doing the rear-ending? A

whiplash is caused by a sudden acceleration of the head and neck

relative to the body followed by an immediate deceleration. Think

about the stop sign example. If you are in the car " at rest " the

initial impact force will accelerate your head and neck rearward,

followed by a deceleration in the opposite direction. If you are in

the offending car, the force of impact from coming to an abrupt stop

will first accelerate your head and neck forward, relative to your

body. Same accident, but the injury patterns will be exactly

opposite for occupants of the two cars. Let's compound the

question. Instead of being at rest and getting rear-ended, assume

that you are half way through the intersection and some bozo runs

the red light and T-bones you. You now have a side-impact situation

and the injury patterns will be to the sides of the neck instead of

front or back of the neck. What if someone is sitting sideways in

the seat at time of impact for any of the examples? Again, what

constitutes a " classic pattern? "

:

But wouldn't lax ligaments - that are over stretchy - be part of the

cause of the tight and stressed muscles? Over stretchy ligaments

provide an enviroment for the muscles to overstretch and get

damaged - aquire trigger points.

Mike:

You have to remember that tendons/muscles have different physical

properties, characteristics, and purposes than ligaments. Tendons

are simply the muscle ends where they attach to bone. (The

difference between a tendon and a ligament is that a tendon attaches

muscle to bone and a ligament attaches bone to bone). Both are made

up of " connective tissue " but with different physical properties.

Tendons have a contractile and/or elastic property that ligaments

don't. If you damage a tendon in a " stretch " injury, it can recover

its elasticity. A stretched ligament can't. You can

also " strengthen " a muscle where you can't a ligament. To the

extent that everything in the body is interrelated, yes, excessively

stretched ligaments are a factor. The biggest factor that I would

see relative to EDS and dislocations is the loss of ability to help

hold joints together, such as the head of the humerus in the

shoulder socket. The other thing, depending on location, is that

muscles can be strengthened to compensate for lax ligaments. In your

specific whiplash case, you are still focusing on the tight muscles

as the cause of the problem. I don't think so – I think that the

tight, stressed muscles are a symptom. It isn't that they are in a

chronic, muscle firing contraction, it is that they are in a

chronically shortened position because their antagonist muscles (the

injured muscles) are overly stretched and weak. The extensors don't

have the strength to hold the head upright so the flexors are forced

into a shortened position as the head droops. You can work on the

flexors (tightness and trigger points) all you want but you won't

get a long-term fix until you address the extensors. You get

temporary symptomatic relief but no long-term fix.

:

I'll check to see if there are trigger points in any of the extention

muscles.

Mike:

You may or may not have trigger points in the extensors. You tend

to get trigger points more from a shortened position than a

lengthened position.

:

this is one area that my chiro and I disagree - she says the

tight/weak muscles are the symptome and the subluxation in the cause

Mike:

WARNING, WARNING, WARNING – BAD LANGUAGE AHEAD:

Horses***

:

I know my chiro can and will do muscle evaluation - she's done it for

me with my pelvic troubles. I don't remember her checking Rebekah

though. ...I have a book that goes through and checks many muscles

for strength and flexibility - it's a yoga book. The premise is that

strength and flexibility issues in muscles cause many postural

problems - i.e., that many postural problems are just a symptom of

muscle imbalance.

Mike:

Excellent idea. If you have the book and know how to do the tests,

I highly encourage you to do so. I agree with the premise.

:

Yeah, I know some of these people - I'm related to some of them...

Mike:

What's the expression? We can choose our friends but are stuck with

our families?

:

I have had the girls doing gentle stretches for several months now

and it hasn't done any good

Mike:

For what it's worth, I personally absolutely hate stretching. I

don't like using ice either, unless it's part of some type

of " internal " pain management treatment (usually involving a high

grade of Scotch whiskey).

:

I will happily take any exercise for stretching and strengthening you

have.

Mike:

I need to think about this one in terms of specific exercises for

specific muscles.

:

- oh where is the quiet uninterrupted time

Mike:

Where do you get off thinking you are entitled to something denied

the rest of us?

:

And I think more than ever that the problem with her forward tilt

head and her reverse curl neck is due to the muscles and not the

subluxation. I still think that the ligaments allow excess movement

which certainly contributes to the muscles 'damage'.

Mike:

Agreed.

One other thing – I was going to look up some polarity or

acupressure routines for you (or somebody) on something and haven't

gotten to it yet. Was it for you? For the Psoas? I am getting

behind on staying up with everything, especially with having the

four days in class.