Changing a part, changes the whole

So I wanted to start a blog, a health blog, selfishly really to help me learn more about the body. I'm a massage therapist first and I love it. Making people feel happy and healthy is something I get to feel every week and that makes me feel great. However massage is tough stuff, and I know I won't be able to do it forever, so i'm learning a new therapy - Amatsu (Physical therapy that treats muscles, ligaments, organs and structure). It's gentle yet massively effective!

I'm in my first year of study and there is just so much to learn, my brain doesn't seem as sponge-like as it was at 19 so I thought writing some interesting points down for myself would help me take it in. If by happy coincidence my friends, family, clients or colleagues find it interesting then awesome. So here we go, lets hope I learn this stuff......

The body is a self-supporting unit, you change one part and there will be ripples, adaptions and changes to the whole system, this is called Biotensegrity, and it's how the body copes with life! Even from the smallest structure within the body we are composed of icosahedrons - they have corners and hinges and they allow movement in all directions without shearing, yet they stay strong.

Ok lets say you fall down the stairs, you land on your hand, knee and elbow. The force of hitting the floor shoots through these contact points, its painful! your joints ache, your back might hurt and you get bruises. To cope with the impact everything displaces or shears or torques.... to compensate and absorb the compression EVERYTHING in your body adapts. Amatsu helps adjust all soft tissue back (or close enough) to it's original healthy structure, allowing the body's own healing to commence in a secure structure.

Maybe Amatsu can help prevent you from even falling.... well sort of. One of our key senses - proprioception ("ones own" perception) is the sense of the orientation of one's limbs in space. It is a combination of balance, joint position sense and body awareness. Vital to sports performance, rehabilitation and stopping you from falling down the stairs. Sensory neurons in the inner ear and stretch receptors in the muscles, tendons and ligaments send information about where everything is so you won't bang your shoulder on the door when you walk through. Amatsu helps to restore global proprioception whilst working on the muscles and tendons, improving co-ordination and preventing injury.

So some basic principles done today.... this is the basis for the body and helps to explain why massage, amatsu and other physcial therapies keep us all on the top of our game.

If you read to the end, I hope it wasn't too boring and maybe you learnt something too. Any feedback or questions would be awesome, let me know.

To great health and much love,

Hannah