A Stumptown massage day

“Consciousness is about three pounds and looks a little bit like a gray cauliflower.” -Andrew Newberg, MD

It’s not every day that a dame pulls up next to ya; tells you to get in the car, shoves a stack of cd’s in your lap and drives off. I readily complied, halting my eight block stroll. Situations such as this grace the beginnings of many an exciting tale. Might as well say “yes” to the events at hand, if only to see where they lead.

The grizzled fella, quite apart from a good portion of society, was yelling at me a half block down the street. Incongruent, indecipherable thoughts represented by growling barks. I had turned to look back and didn’t think much of the fellow. I’ve been on Hawthorne long enough to discern enthusiastic, yet harmless cognition.

Maybe Dr. Livingston knew something I didn’t. She has an uncommon intuition and sensitivity. So, I trust my chiropractor’s insight, in or out of the treatment room.

Steve Frost and Marcia Muench play Tibetan singing bowls at Taking Care: Community Support for Cancer Care at NCNM in Portland, Oregon. Photography by Ben Garvey

I wonder for a moment… Did we escape some danger? We motored off safely and she dropped me off at the corner of 38th and Belmont. Earth Body. One of the many centers of complimentary care practitioners that spice Stumptown. My hood.

My dear friend, Shannon Livingston, chiropractic physician, and I were chatting about collaboration and workshop ideas, over bacon and breakfast, at the Cup and Saucer. The vegetable medley quiche was satisfying; the bacon too. A cup of Picard’s Earl Gray with a spot of cream rounded out a fine Portland breakfast.

Kinesthetic awareness and client education was at the heart of our conversation, gearing our brainstorms towards both the chiropractic and massage communities.

Ashley Paquin of White Bird Wellness puts her masticating juicer to delicious use at June’s Taking Care. Photography by Ben Garvey

I’m safe and sound, sitting on the back porch of Earth Body. Chaya under my feet. Listening to the birds. And the traffic that crashes like waves on a lazy beach. It’s another hour before my first bodywork client arrives. Just a couple today. With so much room to breathe and move and watch and listen. Today, that’s enough. The rest of the week is filled… And the week after. The healing arts is a continuous flow.

I broke a D string on the guitar, playing in the Earth Body courtyard the other night after the end of a beautiful bodywork day. I knew she’d wait to bust after Taking Care. All the energy and intention thrown into the instrument on that single day. I bust a lot of strings when I let loose. Taking Care fired other neurons, swaying the nervous system towards the parasympathetic. Music can do that. Massage can too. Maybe, I’ll change the string after I explore an alternate tuning for a bit. Some of my favorite recordings have been played with five strings, after a snap.

Sandra Keeney, LMT (OBMT #17,489) at Taking Care offers massage therapy during live sound healing. Photography by Ben Garvey

Life should be like always sitting in front of Walden’s Pond, no matter the environment.

Yeah… I’m finding Thoreau’s pace, here in the city.

I’m wrapping up my day here at Earth Body. It was lovely watching the sky from the back porch. It’s shaping up to be an interesting summer, thus far.

Hamid : )
firstofnine.wordpress.com
transcendingtouch.com

Stream the sound healing soundtrack to Taking Care for free! Download the .mp3 and burn your own disc at home for $5!

Just finding First of Nine: Tensegrity Blog? Explore original articles, photography, video and music in Stumptown’s Massage and Bodywork Zine!

• Myofascial pregnancy massage
• Disrupting the positive feedback loop of chronic pain
• Tensegrity principle and gene expression

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The real Portlandia: Farmer Dave, episode 2

Welcome to episode 2 of First of Nine’s video series, The Real Portlandia!

This episode gets us thinking about our sources of nutrition. Back in 2009, the  Community Health Project visited Farmer Dave at Twelve Mile Market in the suburbs of Portland on historic Twelve Mile Corner. Farmer Dave also runs Bumblee Farms in Gresham, Oregon. I love walking into Twelve Mile Market and seeing the beautiful produce available. Often the vegetables will have been harvested the same day!

A return to real food… Local, organic honey. Photography by Hamid Shibata Bennett

Here in Portlandia, we’re thinking about local, organic, sustainable foods. It’s good to know your farmer!

Without further ado, here is episode 2 of First of Nine’s video series, The Real Portlandia… Farmer Dave…

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Twelve Mile Market
645 SE 223rd Ave
Gresham, Oregon 97030
503-489-1412

Hamid : )
firstofnine.wordpress.com
transcendingtouch.com

Welcome to First of Nine: Tensegrity Blog! Stumptown’s massage and bodywork zine! Deep dive with tons of content, plus more video and music!
• The Real Portlandia: Pioneer Square, episode 1
• Bodywork Naturalism
• Myofascial Pregnancy Massage

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The real Portlandia: Pioneer Square, episode 1

In 2009, Sarah Carl, LMT (OBMT #11624) and I created a series of videos documenting the healthcare experiences with the real folks of Portlandia. We brought the video camera to various areas of Portland, Oregon and talked to random people passing by, asking about their experience with the our healthcare system. Maybe a couple of well-intentioned massage therapists can make a difference…

An extreme case of eczema. Photography by Hamid Shibata Bennett

We called ourselves The Community Health Project. We even set up URL, but have since taken it down.

First of Nine: Tensegrity Blog is happy to present this weekly video series. I’ll post a new video from the archive every week or so.

The Real Portlandia: Pioneer Square (episode 1):

In this first installment, Sarah and I went to Pioneer Square on a typical rainy day in Portland, Oregon.

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It’s now 2012. Has healthcare changed since 2009? What would you like to see to see in this new era of community minded, collaborative healthcare? Leave a reply and let your voice be heard!

Hamid : )
firstofnine.wordpress.com
transcendingtouch.com

Just finding First of Nine? Dive on in to Stumptown’s massage and bodywork zine!

• Mentoring in the massage community
• iPad apps for massage therapists: Pocket Body
• Myofascial mechanoreceptors

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Mentoring in the massage community

A year or two back, I attended a lecture in Portland, Oregon with Jon Young, an animal tracker of the highest notoriety.

The lecture began with indigenous chant and drum. More lectures ought to begin with some kind of attunement. The vibration, the wavelength of sound reaches every cell in the human body. Bygones.

Jon Young talked about the mentoring relationships found within the Kalahari Bushman. When he asked other tracking tribes round the globe who the best trackers were, they all pointed to the Kalahari Bushman. Yeah, sounds like they are the folks to study.

He found a community where every young person is brought up in a world of mentoring. There are no classes, no schools, no experts.

“Every child has as many mentors as they have significant relationships in their life. And, that mentoring relationship lasts from birth until that elder passes on.” -Jon Young from his talk on mentoring and connection in indigenous cultures

Jon devised a test to gauge tracking skill and knowledge. The Ph.D’s in the western world, the learned experts, tested the equivalent to a 13 year old child in the Kalahari Bushman tribe. Mentoring and the multi-dimensional connection and understanding it brings is all but a lost art in the western world.

Deep tissue massage with Daniel Morrissey, LMT (OBMT #14749) Photography by Hamid Shibata Bennett

It’s an art that I’m beginning to see develop in our massage and bodywork community with some renewed interest. Developing our bodywork community in collaborative effort to serve the multi-faceted health care needs of the people.

When mentoring crosses disciplines, how will this that affect the communication in the community? When we get naturopaths talking with oncologists, making sure high anti-oxidant supplements don’t conflict with chemotherapy or radiation. Yup, that’s right. Some supplements, such as fish oil, protects our body so well, that it will nullify the cancer-fighting ability of chemotherapy and still give ya all the side effects, like nausea and hair loss. Let’s get this dialogue going folks!

My first mentor in the massage world of Portlandia was April Sykes-Trebelhorn, LMT (OBMT #11557). I was trying out all sorts of massage therapists… Always searching for the kinesthetically gifted folk. I answered her craigslist ad. This was back in the day when craigslist’s therapeutic section was free and monitored by the bodywork community for unlicensed massage. It was a fantastic resource that has totally lost it’s way after craigslist decided to charge for a listing. Bygones.

I made an appointment and we geeked out over life and bodywork during the whole session. Through her work, I became aware of connections within my soft-tissue that no one has ever shown me. Totally chakra opening, fascia melting bodywork.

I paid her for the session and she insisted she wasn’t taking any more money from me. Said that we should trade from that moment on and she could learn a lot from me.

:::blink blink:::

Hold the phone. Back then, I’m a brand new punk kid on the block, in practice for maybe a year. Still floundering my flippers and working part-time at the translation agency. What the heck do I know?!

April took me under her wing and we have traded off and on for years. The friendship of bodywork, the conversation of the kinesthetic language evolved and continued each time. And, I have grown and learned so much from that continuing conversation; lessons found in no classroom.

I wouldn’t be the massage therapist I am today, if not for that friendship. And, I have many other friendships and mentors in the community. Some, we do trades and others I’m more than happy to pay their going rate. The conversation of healing picks back up at any point, any time ya dip your hands in the sea.

“Compassion is comprised of that capacity to see clearly into the nature of suffering.” -Joan Halifax from her Ted Talk on Compassion and the True Meaning of Empathy.

It’s not something I expected when I got in the bodywork game… This community that forms around you. A community of compassion and caring. A different health care model from the old guard. Folks that give a damn.

Quite refreshing.

Hamid : )
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transcendingtouch.com

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Tensegrity principle and gene expression

I found an abstract on the tensegrity principle. They attached hybrid EMG and MMG probes to the tensor fasciae latae and middle deltoid. When they massaged the peroneals, tensor fasciae latae showed mechanical activity. When they massaged brachioradialis, middle deltoid showed mechanical and electrical activity.

“Based on a tensegrity principle, direct or indirect connections between fascia or muscles which stretch the aponeurosis or intermuscular septum may allow the transfer of tension over long distances, without loss of muscle force produced during rest and activity… It was concluded that there was an electrical as well as a mechanical response of muscle connected indirectly by structural elements with the muscle being massaged indicating an application for the tensegrity principle in massage therapy.”

From the paper, Tensegrity principle in massage demonstrated by electro- and mechanomyography.

Now is that compelling, or what? We can create mechanical response distant from where our hands touch. And, sometimes (in this limited study, 50% of the time), we create mechanical and electrical response in distant musculature.

Fascinating.

I wonder what would happen if we stuck hybrid EMG and MMG probes on all the major muscle groups and proximated a big toe. Wonder what would light up? Anyone know how to fund a study?

Engaging mindful proprioception with Alicia Crockett. Photography by Hamid Shibata Bennett

I’d like to put a call out to the massage therapy community. How can our bodywork be gentler, on both therapist and client, while engaging the body with rich sensory stimulation? We know the efficacy of massage. There’s so much documentation out there. This stuff works. Period. However, bodywork doesn’t have to be a painful experience. One can find levels of efficacy with grace and ease. And, without hurting our clients or ourselves in the quest for deeper tissue.

Awhile back, I saw this spiffy National Geographic special on the fight science behind mixed martial arts. They had Tito Ortiz, Bas Rutten and Randy Couture on the show! Legends!

The exercise physiologist on the program was saying, after about 10 seconds of exertion, the human being becomes tired and lactic acid levels raise. So, they get “The Natural” Randy Couture to grapple with this fella for a solid minute. After a full 60 second rear-naked choke hold, exerting maximum contractile effort, they checked his lactic acids levels and compared it to the pre-exertion sample.

Couture’s lactic acid levels lowered. The docs were bewildered.

Turns out, the MMA fighter used a combination of breathing, relaxation and choosing which muscle fibers fired and for how long through a continuous series of micro movements. He was able to keep applying the hold, becoming more relaxed through his moment to moment monitoring of his physiologic state. That’s some proprioceptive awareness!

By golly, I bet we could apply that same thought to our bodywork. Except, our intention is very different than the MMA fighter (please don’t put your clients in sleeper holds!). We work with the slowing of the autonomic nervous system with the use of therapeutic velocities.

Our understanding of the body is finding a newfound flourishing, a renascence of poetry, artistry and curiosity. It’s worth exploring the new science of fascial research. According to Donald Ingber, PhD and smart fella over at Harvard, through mechanotransduction, exercise and physical therapies can effect the biochemistry of cells, including changes to gene expression. Frack me! That bit of info changes the game of bodywork!

I found one study on massage affecting gene expression of the gluteofemoral adipose tissue. Butt fat? Really? All that funding and they choose to study genetic changes in butt fat? Bygones.

After 6 weeks of massage on the gluteofemoral adipose tissue, they saw changes in gene expression.

“Conclusion: The protocol of mechanical massage used in the study promoted noticeable changes in the expression of genes involved in metabolic pathways.”

From Impact of a Mechanical Massage on Gene Expression Profile and Lipid Mobilization in Female Gluteofemoral Adipose Tissue.

Curious.

I think we can do better. I think we can find more relevance for every day folk. How about we study peripheral neuropathy or birth weight or post-traumatic stress injuries or cancer survivorship? Let’s see solid research get us out of the pseudoscience of the past.

Bodyworlds was a kick. Have you checked it out at OMSI yet? If you work with the human being, the sensory experience will fire your axons, light up your dendrites and enliven your multi-dimensional understanding of the human experience. So, tune up your interoception and track the subtleties of the hepatic flexure! Feel the tug of sternohyioid catch your swallow! If you’re jazzed about the body, clap your hands!

So, medical community… The massage scene of Portlandia is just waiting for ya. Let’s see how far the healing goes.

C’mon… Put a bird on it!

Hamid
firstofnine.wordpress.com
transcendingtouch.com

Bonus video!

I debuted this short film at my first Myofascial Mechanoreceptors class in November of 2011. It features the exquisite violin of Marcia Muench. And, I plunk around on the guitar too.

Dr. Jean-Claude Guimberteau says we are an arachnid world inside. So, I spent all summer letting my yard go, finding illustrations of tensegrity in lovely morning light. Music was recorded on the iPad 2 and the video was shot with the trusty Panasonic GF1. It was cobbled together in iMovie on the 24” iMac.

This video is entitled Tensegrity! Dig it!

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