Blog article

I went to a massage workshop in the Blue Mountains a few weeks ago on what we call ‘myofascial release’. Fascia is a continuous sheath of tissue that moves, senses and connects every organ, blood vessel, lymph vessel, muscle and bone. It is the fine film of colourless material you may see on a piece of meat in the butcher.

It has been found fascia are involved in chronic disease, particularly of the blood vessels and lymph circulation. Pain patterns can be referred through fascia e.g working on the big toe can help to release a stiff neck! Also any work I do also affects your nervous system.

Most of the workshop related to the neck and jaw muscles. So, if medical tests do not come up with any answers, the following problems may be due to muscles in the jaw and neck being in spasm with tight fascia contributing too.

Problems such as:

• Jaw muscles and one sided tinnitus
• Jaw muscles and sinusitis
• Neck muscles and dizziness/balance issues
• Atypical trigeminal neuralgia and neck muscles
• Nausea and neck muscles
• Eyes going out of focus, eyelids keep drooping and the neck muscles
• Earache and neck muscles

Also contributing is the forward neck posture. I was really surprised that for every 1cm forward of your neck, your head weighs 1kg more!

So imagine what a strain is placed on the neck muscles to cause headaches, joint problems, shoulder problems, you name it.

Other causes can be:

• Misaligned hips
• Weak abdominal muscles
• Rounded shoulders
• Shoulders up to the ears
• Stress worsens the above symptoms too

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