Paul Brown, CMT – You Don't Have to Hurt
Effective immediately, I have increased the price of my myofascial therapy massage sessions to $150 per hour.
The change reflects the specialized nature of the work, as well as additional techniques I have picked up at the physical therapy clinic I work on Tuesdays.
Jim J.’s review of Paul Brown Massage Therapy
Another ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review!
Here’s the link to my monthly membership he mentions in his review: https://www.paulbrown.net/monthly-membership
Make a commitment to yourself – bodywork helps the body work!
Monthly Membership | Paul Brown’s Sacramento Massage Therapy Pain Relief Center
Does the smoky air got you down? Here are some great self massage points to help reduce headache and possibly prevent migraine from developing.
“it feels like a deep ache in my shoulder joint.”
If you are an anatomy nerd like me, hearing a client say that is
both empathetic and exciting. Empathy, because I’ve had that
particular shoulder pain before, and exciting, because it’s very
often caused by easily accessible trigger points in the back of the
shoulder. Let’s begin:
The infraspinatus muscle (IS) is one of the four rotator cuff
muscles, along with the supraspinatis,
subscapularis, and
teres minor.
The IS is a thick short muscle that externally rotates the ball
and socket of the shoulder joint. It also helps to stabilize the
shoulder socket when our shoulder is flexed – that is, our arms are
extend out in front of our body – like when we are typing on a
keyboard or looking at our smartphones, or playing the piano, or any
other number of tasks we do in our daily activities.
It’s easy for this muscle to become overworked or overloaded,
which leads to myofascial trigger points, or just trigger
points for short. Trigger points are characterized by being
“exquisitely tender”
hard nodule in a muscle or tendon. When you touch it, it hurts, and
often you’ll feel pain in a distant area as well. In the case of the
IS muscle, referred pain can feel like a deep ache in
the shoulder joint,
front of the shoulder, sometimes all the way down to the pinky
fingers.
Massage is one of
the most effective methods of treating Infraspinatus Trigger Points.
A trained massage therapist can locate, treat, and eliminate them
quickly and easily, and the satellite trigger points that can
sometimes develop in the anterior deltoid and other places.
Get a tennis ball
and put it all the way deep in a sock. Tie a knot in the sock tight
up against the tennis ball. Now you have a self-massage tool you can
use to massage Infraspinatus Trigger Points. Find a tender point in
the lower part of the shoulder blade, use the ball to apply pressure
to it while leaning into the ball against a wall. Press and hold for
60-90 seconds, or until you feel the tender point diminish in
tenderness. You’ll feel relief in the deep shoulder pain almost
immediately.
So if you are experiencing the deep shoulder pain, give me a call at 916-534-8772 or book online.
Pitching a ball, writing your name, playing tennis, skiing, using a shovel, typing on the keyboard, anything that brings the arm in front of the body engages with the subscapularis. This deep rotator cuff muscle is often overlooked as a source of shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand pain. But getting to know this tricky muscle can be a great help dealing with and eliminating your pain!
You can see the subscapularis – it originates on the anterior surface of the scapula in the subscapular fossa, and inserts on the humerus bone. It’s action is to medially rotate, or internal rotation, of the shoulder joint. It also helps with adduction, or bringing the arm against the body. But as it is also a rotator cuff, it helps to stabilize the shoulder joint.
When the subscapularis is tight, reaching over your head can be difficult or impossible. Rotating the arm outward can also be reduced and affected. A person who spends much of their day typing into a computer, or other repetitive job where the arms are held in front of the body for long periods of time, are likely to have some dysfunction, like trigger points or scarring or tearing, of the subscapularis.
Pain can be sharp and felt in the shoulder, at the top of the shoulder, or deeper inside. There can also be numbness or tingling in the shoulder, down the arm, and into the hand and wrist, as the restrictions of the subscapularis can cause impingement of the brachial nerve.
Fortunately, massage therapy can make a great difference by eliminating tightness, and restoring greater range of motion and freedom from pain.
The subscapularis is best accessed with the client in sidelying position with the client’s arm in a relaxed posture. By placing one hand onto the ribs just inferior to the scapula, and then gently moving the shoulder and arm inferiorly over that hand, you can easily and comfortable access the subscapularis and effect muscle release. Results can be seen usually fairly quickly, with some improvement in shoulder function right away, usually between 1 and 5 treatments.
If you are experiencing restricted shoulder motion, or pain, massage can be a great way to help! Book a session and get the relief you need!
