Basic Kneads Newsletter Issue 3

Barrie-Leah Gordon M.T. and Julia Chotowetz M.T. have joined the Basic Kneads Massage Therapy team. You may have already met Barrie, as she recently took over Cindy Reynold's room. Cindy left Basic Kneads in very good favour in an effort to pursue a position closer to home.

With 5 Massage Therapists now available, you might ask yourself how do we squeeze them all in…Basic Kneads has sub-leased a room from Valentino Chiropractic located directly beneath us. Dr. Alana Valentino is a wonderful chiropractor, who enthusiastically acknowledges the synergistic benefit of complimentary alternative therapies.

Another major benefit to having a main floor massage room available is to both our senior clientelle and/or those in such pain that navigation of the stairs is simply not possible.

We hope that our newly expanded team of highly trained professionals can service you with more appointment availablility and access to our vast array of combined knowledge.

Julia Chotowetz and Barrie-Leah Gordon are available 6 days a week by appointment.

See: Universal Life Force Energy

WHAT IS REIKI?

Reiki refers to a universal life-force energy. As we humans are a part of this universe the Reiki energy can naturally flow through us. A practitioner is attuned to the energy so that they might heal themselves and others. Reiki is often performed with the hands of the practitioner in contact with the patient but it is just as effective when sent at a distance by using a particular method.

The Chakras are a part of our energetic anatomy. The word "chakra" means wheel. The Chakras are wheels or spiraling funnels of energy which are located in relation to the spinal cord and the glands of the endocrine system. These are the glands responsible for sending messenger hormones to regulate the body's growth and functions. The spine itself is a central channel of communication in our body.

There are seven major Chakras. The first, at the base of the spine, is the Root Chakra and at the top of the head the Crown Chakra. The Root Chakra is our body's foundation and connects to the physical energy of the world. The Crown Chakra is our consciousness' source and connects to the spiritual dimension and the universal life-force energy.

WHAT TO EXPECT DURING A REIKI SESSION:

The client will be lying comfortably on the treatment table, and the Reiki practitioner will place her hands in a series of specific treatment positions, and areas of pain or discomfort.The "Ki" energy does the rest, without any direction, flowing through the healer's hands. The practitioner may, or may not know what needs healing, but the energy's "intelligence" will go where its needed. The energy heals on all of the bodies levels - Physical, emotional and mental. Every person processes Reiki differently, and no two Reiki treatments are the same. This is because the Reiki "takes care" of what is specifically needed at that particular time. During the session, the client may feel heat or warmth from the healer's hands, they may feel "waves" of energy moving in and around the body, and they may also "see" a variety of colours in the mind, while the eyes are closed. Some clients may experience emotional processing, that may include laughter, talking, or tears, while others feel a deep relaxation and quiet stillness, like "getting their batteries re-charged". Whatever the processing that occurs, the client should allow themselves to go with the flow and allow the Reiki to release and process as needed. After a Reiki session the client will continue to have Reiki energy flowing, processing and detoxing over the next 3 days.

WILL REIKI BE COVERED BY MY WORK INSURANCE BENEFITS?

Yes. Reiki, when provided by a Massage Therapist, is covered by your personal work insurance benefits.

Barrie-Leah Gordon is a Reiki Master in Usui & Tibetan Energies. Reiki Treatments or Reiki/Massage combo treatments are available by appointment Monday through Saturday during regular clinic hours.

Why Muscles Heal Differently Than Bones, & Why Muscles Are More Prone To Healing Problems

Julia Chotowetz M.T.

If you fracture a bone, as long as it is set and held in place properly, it will generally heal with immobilization, in such a way that it ends up stronger where it broke than it was before the fracture. Bone tissue heals with calcium and other minerals, components of bone, in a process that creates a bond that is denser and harder than the original bone structure.

When it comes to your muscles, however, flexibility and mobility are necessary therefore anything that would make your muscles dense and inflexible would be a liability,and yet, that is essentially what happens in the initial phases of muscular repair.Your muscles do not actually heal with just muscle tissue, but with "denser" substances including collagen. The resulting scar tissue is initially much less elastic, and consequently weaker and prone to re-injury.

Imagine a broken rubber band that has been glued and taped back together: The rubber band is whole again, but now it has a small area that is much less flexible (the repair.) What if the rubber band broke repeatedly and was repaired in multiple places, How much of its original flexibility would remain?

This is one of the dilemmas of muscular healing.Your body needs to repair your muscles without compromising their flexibility. This is a more complicated and delicate process than bone repair, where flexibility is not really an issue. Your muscles, therefore, are more prone to having difficulties with healing: incomplete healing, loss of strength and/or recurring injury.

What Your Muscles Need In Order To Recover As Completely As Possible

In order for your muscles to function properly, all of their fibers need to be aligned in the same direction. In the same way that your car wouldn't be drivable if its tires if were all aligned in different directions. The fibers have to be parallel. When you have a muscle that has been injured however, the initial repair process creates a "patch" of random scar tissue fibers, and like a weak link in a chain, the random alignment and reduced flexibility of these new fibers becomes a "weak link" in your muscle.

If the healing process does not progress far enough beyond this point, the injury will leave your muscle in a perpetually under functioning, weaker, less-flexible state that is highly susceptible to re-injury. In order for your injured muscle to fully recover, the scar tissue needs to become aligned and integrated with the muscle fibers.This doesn't just happen by itself though,it requires movement and a certain amount of stretching (just the opposite of what bones need to heal.)

The right amount of movement, (which varies according to the injury) at the right time and intervals, repeatedly breaks up the scar tissue fibers in a beneficial way, and they gradually become realigned in the same direction as the rest of your muscle. Unfortunately, even with all the best rehab. exercises and stretches, it can be a slow and painful process that remains incomplete after weeks or months of hard work.

There are ways you can accelerate this process at a rate virtually unknown to traditional rehab, (which we'll get to later) but first.There is another issue that needs to be understood and addressed, if you want to be assured of the fullest possible recovery.The reality is that, even when the scar tissue, integration process, is complete, your problems can continue, because....

Your Muscle Isn't The Only Thing That Gets Damaged

Traditional forms of rehabilitation often fail to restore full function, because they tend to fixate on the individual muscles (and other tissues) that have been injured. (The "hardware", so to speak.)

It's not enough to focus solely on trying to stretch, strengthen or otherwise rehabilitate your injured muscles,because the "damage," or disruption, is also to your "software," or the movement programs in your brain's Motor Control Center. Your Motor Control Center, or "Movement Command Center/MCC" is simply the part of your brain that coordinates all your body's movements, as well as your alignment and balance.

When you injure a muscle, it gets reflexively "shut down" to protect it from further harm and your MCC begins to adapt your movements to avoid overusing that muscle. This is the beginning of a distorted movement program. Another word for this is compensation and it can be like a bad habits. Once you develop one, they can be very hard to break out of.

One consequence is that you lose full conscious control of your injured muscle,not totally, of course, you can still move it, but you don't have your full strength or flexibility. (This will probably sound very familiar.) Although movement is essential in realigning the scar tissue, (which we talked about earlier) trying to get your full power and mobility back by way of strength-building exercise can easily become an exercise in futility.

Fortunately, you don't have to go on struggling this way, once you understand that...unless the distorted movement programs in your brain (the "software glitches") are corrected, any progress gained by treating your muscles alone will often continue to be temporary or incomplete.

The Solution, Not Only To Your Injury Or Pain Pattern

By treating according to these newly-discovered principles, not only can stubborn, difficult-to-heal injuries and pain patterns finally be laid to rest, but the underlying "neuromuscular imbalances" that allow many of these problems to occur in the first place can be corrected as well.