Migraines and Chronic Headaches

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I’ve worked for 13 years and butted my head up against many an issue in an attempt to try to help people. One of the things I’ve seen over the years that I’ve had almost no success with have been migraines. Chronic headaches I’d get some improvement from neck muscle work but migraines are the oddest thing.

Running across an article in a magazine I found out that there were lawsuits related to doctors using botox to treat migraines. The FDA hadn’t given approval for that use specifically and a patient had a horrible adverse response. I nearly blew a fuse reading the article because I know enough to know that in most people all botox does is stop a muscle from contracting. I’ve Never heard a doctor say that muscle tension or spasm can cause or contribute to a migraine. I just let the information percolate.

Robert Gardner Wellness headaches

To make a long story short I’ve kept working, kept reading and studying and in the last 2 months I’ve seen around 5 clients and found muscle patterns that repeatedly reflect muscle tension patterns with chronic headaches. I’m getting ready to run a small migraine and chronic headache clinic so stay tuned. In one client her headaches went away almost completely and in the other 4 their frequency and intensity decreased. That’s not bad for a massage therapist who doesn’t diagnose or treat anything. See you in clinic soon.

Teaser Video

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Here’s a teaser video from the new Intro to Thai Massage Video- Coming Soon!

Lumbar Disc Bulge

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Someone wrote me asking about a lumbar herniation or bulge. I decided to answer that message in blog format so I can share this info with everyone.

Here’s a basic anatomy lesson on the spine.

Think of a disc like a chocolate candy. It’s got a chocolate coating then a gooey center. When the chocolate coating wears away, tears, ruptures or breaks it allows the gooey center to push backwards onto a nerve. Ow! Lumbar bulges are particularly frustrating because of the pressure of everything above the bulge pressing down due to gravity. What you’re dealing with is a tear, rupture or overly stretched annulus. The nucleus then pushes out, extrudes and generally causes mayhem and makes you wish you walked on all fours again and didn’t fight gravity.

So the annulus is the chocolatey shell, the nucleus is the gooey center. We can talk surgery, chiropractic, massage til we’re blue in the face but I’ll give you the brief run down of how you help a bulge. You decompress then you backbend.

Decompress means you’re taking the pressure off. Think about unloading a ton of bricks from your truck. Hey, the shocks stretch out. Long term that’s good for your shocks and good for your lumbar discs which perform some of the same function anatomically. After you’ve decompressed you backbend. When you backbend keep in mind that slouching forward then sitting up is a backbend. Slow, gentle, timed, breathing, maybe only for 5 minutes on a foam roll or ma roller is backbending.

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Why backbend? Well the disc causes problems when it bulges usually to the rear. This happens due to spine anatomy and the fact that most of our lives we spend our time leaning forward. If you put all the bricks in the back of the truck is it going to bother the front shocks? Bodies aren’t that different mechanically. You essentially spend your life stretching and pushing the gooey center back. When it finally tears or breaks you’re a in a world of pain.

So why backbend? Temporarily it’s uncomfortable. It actually can irritate in the short term because well, you’ve already got inflammation and irritation there and you’re pushing on it. Long term, over the course of a lifetime it takes the pressure off the back of the chocolate shell and opens up the front of the disc. Guess what happens when you backbend? You push the gooey center forward! You maintain spine balance and have good shocks for a lifetime.

So, the general answer to back pain is to backbend. Bad posture leads to problems muscularly and to deeper structures like discs. If you already have a bulge or herniation you push the disc forward and guess what happens? It reabsorbs, doesn’t put pressure on a nerve, lessens irritation and inflammation and then, what pain? I’m better.

Let me give you another example so you understand what we’re dealing with. Let’s say you backbend like crazy and rupture a disc to the front. Guess what happens? Usually nothing. Why? Because there’s no gooey center pressing on a nerve. The nerve is posterior and you pushed the bulge out into the front. Isn’t anatomy fun?

Always consult your doctor, surgeon, for medical advice. I’m just a massage therapist providing some information. My choice to decompress and backbend my spine is yoga. I’ve done Bikram yoga for 8 years. What does it do? It decompresses my spine, backbends me and in addition forces blood and circulation around those tough spots so they can heal.

Take your time, go slow, breathe, decompress and backbend. It’s a recipe for health.

Connecting with Clients

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As a massage therapist there’s a huge amount of public image that goes into our work. After all, when I sell bodywork I’m essentially selling myself. People come in and interact with me based on a huge number of factors. I strive to be professional and respectful to clients and I always tell them that I’ll give them 110%.

Over time my personal facebook is less personal and more business as people find me online. My business facebook is a constant ongoing ticker tape of news and updates about my business dealings and growth. I noticed on online facebook groups that massage therapists fancy themselves to always be publicly calm, serene and all their meals are healthy.

I can tell you that my business has grown through effort, hard work and that includes work on myself. I eat well, do yoga regularly and just like you, struggle to remain calm. I don’t teach yoga and practice bodywork because I’m the most calm, enlightened or smart person around. I do these things quite frankly because I have to. My body hurts but I work on it. To be brief I teach what I know. I don’t share what I learned in a book, I share what I’ve learned from life.

At the end of a week of dealing with clients, students, stress, strain, clients tales of broken relationships, job stress and back pain I sometimes sit down to a beer. You may find me in the line at Whataburger every once in awhile. Beyond that you might find me at the local comedy club saying things you’d never hear in session with me. When I’m done with clients for the day I may be playing ac/dc and eminem in my car on the way to the local bar. Doesn’t mean I’m not a good yoga teacher or massage therapist. It does mean that just like you, we’re all trying to deal with complex lives and our stress load.

You’re human, I don’t expect anything less than your foibles. Accept the same in me. I’ll see you soon for another Thai massage.

Complementary Medicine

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Complementary medicine is the term I would choose for what I do. There are many reasons for this but one major factor is that I don’t feel I’m in competition with the predominant western model of healthcare. Before we get too deeply into this discussion I have to set the record straight. Western medical doctors have done nothing to help me heal. I’m not saying they can’t help you I’m saying they haven’t helped me. All of the damage I sustained was made worse under their care and I had to drop out of school and go my own way to find people who could help me.

Most of those who did help me are quite frankly considered snake oil salesman. A cranialsacral therapist, a yogi named BKS Iyengar, a yoga teacher in the U.S. named Bikram Choudhury and a Thai massage teacher doing some odd stuff I now do for a living. I got more help from asian bodywork and care than I ever did from western doctors after a horrible whiplash. Drunk drivers aren’t on my love list.

Within this complementary medicine that I’ve tried over time there’s been a whole list of things that have not been studied my western science as it should. I’m not saying that it has Not been studied but the depth just isn’t there. There’s a reason I take antibiotics if I have a root canal needed, antibiotics work. I’m not interested in the slightest in inefficacious medical care. When I was 22 I had a choice, I could figure out how to get better on my own, or I could become a junkie. Think about that for a minute and how my life must have looked. Chronic pain, every day, intractable and the people who presume to know the human body look at me and say, “You look fine according to the x rays. We can’t give you pain medication because you will become addicted. You’re too young.”

All these years later I still ache. I work on it, I’m better, my health is better than most I know but it’s taken years of hard work and dedication, not to mention sampling what others consider snake oil. The only thing I did pick up as a philosophy student was looking at the big picture and asking questions. When it comes to our current medical model let me explain this so you understand. There are two major issues when it comes to what is considered science. The scientific method works, there’s a reason we hold it in such high regard. When we study something we can prove and show repeatedly that something works then delve more to find out why.

The gap is that on the one hand we only know so much so we need to look at specific things. What we Choose to study is just as important as the results. The other factor and hold onto your hats, medical research must be funded. Funding=$. Do you or I have money to dedicate to the study and research of complementary medicine? Homeopathy, acupuncture, Thai massage, massage, cranial osteopathy, yoga, tai chi? These things are difficult to study but not impossible. The catch is who will pay to have them studied? In the U.S. alone we spend more money dropping rockets and bombs on other countries than goes into research on these things. Maybe they don’t work and if they don’t, let’s find out and move on with life.

The fundamental issue is that insurance and pharmaceutical companies now own medical care in this country. They pay for research. Does anyone care to prove that I can within a single session help someone feel better for an entire week even if they suffer chronic low back pain? There’s no money in it for anyone but me. Pharamceutical companies have no interest in my helping people because they can’t profit. Please remember, I Love western medicine, our emergency care is superb and if I get hit by a bus please rush me to the ER. Afterwards, I’m seeing all of the complementary medical personnel who’ve kept me off of the needle.

The questions are: What do we study? Why do we choose to study it? That’s science and science is ruled by $. The $ is in the hands of insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies who have a vested interest in you taking more of their products and sealing the deal on their market.

If you see me and have back pain, try a few sessions. I’ve been conducting “research” for 11 years. 😛

Honoring the Cycle

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My wife Andrea and I often have conversations about biorhythms and in particular sleep patterns. She does much better when she can wake and sleep as needed and nap in addition. I’m pretty much the same and a bit of a night owl. Over time we’ve worked with each other to create as much space within our work lives and personal time to allow for that much needed rest.

I’ve had to learn to nap since I grew up with some odd protestant work ethic that meant naps were for lazy people. Once Andrea and I moved in I realized that when I did nap, I was more alert, calm, centered and did far better quality work post nap. The nap itself, improved work. The siesta exists for a reason.

I gain weight in winter, slim in summer due to dietary changes and exercise levels. My mental clarity is best in the evening when others are already in bed. Over time I’ve learned to just go with it. It’s why I can write a clear blog post at 1am.

Honor your body and your cycles. Don’t resist so much. Sleep when you’re tired, eat when you’re hungry and listen to your body.

What do you do?

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Narrowing down my chosen profession is the opposite of what appeals to me. By its very nature, the path I’ve taken is holistic. I may be grabbing onto your limbs and body but I’m trying to help you access your soul. Deep healing only comes from working through layers of being.

Is what I do yoga? Yes. Is what I do Thai massage? Yes. Is what I do yoga therapy? Yes. Wellness education? Yes. It’s a mix of all of these things. Any information I have, I just pass it along.

If you’re working with massage therapists who aren’t educating you I think that’s falling down on the job. If you want something completely different, something completely new to help you access deeper levels of your own healing, then you come to me.

If you say, $130.00 a session! Wow, that’s expensive. Then I may not be what you’re looking for. My busy practice and growing clientele seems happy to pay for a quality service they can’t get elsewhere. Does your massage therapist meditate? Do they do yoga to calm their own nervous system so they can listen to your body more? Those are the questions the public should be asking massage therapists.

If you’re not into those things, well, there’s a spa down the road where a therapist will be happy to slap some cream on your back.

You Can’t Shine Without Friction

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Years ago I’d been asked by my teacher to assist a Thai massage class at the Esalen Institute. It required my taking a month off of work and could be taxing time wise and energetically but it was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse. I arrived and found myself in the most pristinely beautiful place I’ve ever seen in the US. In addition, wealth seemed to be everywhere. A banker from Wall Street would fly in for a weekend just to get massages and relax.

I found myself in an odd place energetically and physically. I’d worked very hard to be able to assist and help students learn Thai massage and I was still in pain from my long term injuries sustained from a drunk driver. I felt surrounded by wealth that I felt I could never obtain, after all, I got to go because I was the teaching assistant, not because I had a successful career and could afford it.

The students were open hearted and one day while sitting in a circle we were asked during an exercise to make a physical expression of how we felt. The students took turns doing things like making hearts with their hands and opening them. There were smiles, dances, swirls and then it was my turn. I stood up and looking up, gave the finger.

My teacher asked me later if I was giving the finger to god. I nodded and nothing more was said. She of all people understood where I’d been, where I was trying to go and the struggle I’d be up against on many fronts. She knew I was happy to serve, happy to teach and assist but had issues with the wealth I was seeing around me.

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It’s taken years to develop my practice, to come to terms with feelings I’ve had for what seems like an eternity. My pain is less, my body continues to heal and align itself. The anger lessens and I share joy in new ways. Once while watching a video with BKS Iyengar he said, “I was gifted with ill health.” He had a gleam in his eye and I’d missed it the first time I’d seen it. I cried.

I knew that he’d taken up his own life, his own karma and worked with it. Instead of feeling downtrodden, he used his own body as the experiment. When he’d healed himself he continued to help others heal themselves. His path is very similar to mine except in my case, I’d been injured by someone else’s choice to drive drunk. Iyengar’s was more nature, mine was nurture.

Over the years I’ve continued to work and take up my own karma. I’m less angry, more calm, more optimistic and I feel better in my body and spirit than at any time since before the accident. I don’t feel anger to the man who hit me, I don’t feel anger towards god and look at the whole experience as one that’s necessary. Without that pain, without that experience I would never have become who I am today. Many would be in pain because I wouldn’t have been able to help them. My life has become one of service. May god use me as a willing tool.

The oyster is irritated by the sand that gets inside the shell. This irritation eventually forms a pearl.

You can’t shine without friction.

More pills?

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I’ve heard many people complain over the years that doctors tell them they have a condition then begin prescribing a long list of medications. They’ll tell me they’re tired of taking pills and when discussing their pain I’ve seen a full gamut in my 11 or so years. TMJ, thoracic outlet syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome and back pain are just the beginning.

I use to ask clients where they felt back pain but honestly, I don’t need to ask many anymore. I can look at you and tell you where you’re likely to feel pain. How? I look at your posture. One day I saw a woman and looked deeply at her posture then asked, “Do you feel tingling or numbness in the ring and pinkie finger of your right hand?” Having no idea who I was she looked at me puzzled and said, “Yes, how do you know that?” I wandered off as if busy to avoid answering the question. It was a guess but I’ve noticed my ability to help people with chronic pain issues has grown over the years.

Doctors and medication are great. I’m happy to live in the 21st century and to be in a country where if I get hit by a bus the doctors will do everything within their power to keep me going. After they’re done however, I’ll be heading right back into what I already do, yoga and bodywork.

I’ll never speak ill of those in the healing professions but doctors have done next to nothing for me. I’m really good at what I do because I had a choice, I could figure out and heal what a doctor could not or I could become a junkie and make sure opiates eased what I could not control. I think you can tell which path I chose.

Always consult your doctor but healing comes in many forms. My mantra to new clients is this, “Every time I work on you I’ll give you 110% but if you want to grow old gracefully, start practicing yoga.”

New years resolutions

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New years resolutions are a common end of year event. People typically desire to lose weight, feel better, spend more time with loved ones and eat more nutritionally dense food. In thinking about my own new years resolutions I always resort to the basics, to do better than I did the year before.

This TED talk spoke to me. I’d seen the video they use as a demonstration before but his breakdown of how a leader leads spoke to me. Tell you’re friends! We’re dancing to the beat of our own accordion at Robert Gardner Wellness.

My path has been a long winding 35 years and continues to bear ample fruit that’s pleasing. I’m on the right path, more steps are to be taken and at its core, what I want is to be more me and offer you a service you can’t get elsewhere. My work and my life are the same. I jokingly told another Thai massage teacher that if you cut off my arms I’d massage people with my feet. There’s something about bodywork that grounds me, heals me, helps me and makes me thrive.

Abundance and sharing is the name of the game. I want clients who grok what I do and don’t accept less than what we’re doing together. In my speech I talk about our studio, our work, our adventure. That’s because it’s not just me! I don’t need every yoga student or Thai massage client in town, I just need the .01% of the population of Austin and Round Rock, Tx that understand what we do and desire to be well. Let’s get to work! Warms up accordion.

14 years

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I began to consider how long I’ve been working on chronic pain issues recently. My journey began in 1999 after being hit by a drunk driver. Since then I’ve done everything within my power to help my body heal. It’s nearly impossible to explain what I’ve integrated, worked on and processed over the years.

My spine itself has gone through so many changes alone that it’s like tracking a history. The physical component is intriguing. I was told after my accident that I was fine only to discover that I was in fact, far from fine. My health deteriorated and my spine slowly closed down, becoming immobile and stiff. Years of yoga and bodywork have removed those barriers and I laugh when I tell others that the spine is a series of joints, meaning that it moves. When it stops moving, oh you’re in for lots of pain.

Maintaining range of motion, muscular strength and allowing blood flow and vascularity keep one young. Scar tissue that I’ve helped stretch and at times gently tear apart has been removed. Feeling a small area that’s immobile start to move again is a sensation that’s almost impossible to explain to someone who’s never felt it. I’ve felt a deadness turn into softening then the feeling of cold air blowing into areas of my upper back and spine for years. Life returns. Stagnant water has become a creek with ebb and flow.

Breathing into a restriction, stretching into a yoga pose and integrating my own self has been the most healing journey in my life. Losing your alignment will queue you into how your spiritual life can be rerouted through the movement of a single vertebrae.

May we all keep breathing and moving while meditating. Happy holidays.

Barefoot Running pt.2

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Barefoot running makes more use of your calves, lower leg musculature and requires greater muscular strength to stabilize the foot, dealing with nuance of movement through the tarsals. This amazing use of muscle tissue goes relatively unnoticed by most people. Running, I’m finding as I work on it slowly, is a totally different beast barefoot.

I started recently and have enjoyed what I’m learning as I go. Having only practiced yoga for exercise for years it’s novel to feel sore in new areas and wake up my body, particularly my legs and feet. My first real run was walk, run, walk run for about 30 minutes. I admit with chagrin that my legs gave out before my heart. My legs are very weak.

Soleus and gastrocnemius are two main culprits but my feet also hurt the next day. Walking was slightly painful and I gave myself a week to stretch, have the pain go away before I attempted another short run today. Stretching and mobilizing my ankles helps with any soreness I have and I admit finding downward facing dog pose more enjoyable than usual due to its stretch through both the calves and the plantar fascia.

The spring that comes from proper biomechanics is taking all of the joint jarring issues I’ve had with the idea of running away. Running barefoot, even this small amount I’m doing makes me feel I’m using my body as it’s designed to be used for running. I notice that I don’t feel a jarring shock from hitting my heel first. The balls of my feet hit then soften the impact when my heel does lightly strike.

Overall I’m sold. I look forward to learning more about my legs and feet. If you decide to try barefoot running, go slow. Slow and steady wins the race. This is definitely a marathon.