Author: Admin

  • The Bodyworlds Plastination Process

    If you’ve ever wondered how in the world they make those incredible displays at Bodyworlds, have a look at this:

     

  • Happy Valentine’s Day

    If you’re looking for some tender nothings to whisper during dinner tonight, try one of these box office winners

     

  • February 2012 Newsletter

    In case you did not receive the latest newsletter, simply send me an email asking to be put on the list.  In the meantime, here is a copy:

    February Update

    Happy 2012 everyone!  I hope that you all have absolutely wonderful years ahead of you.

    I am back from vacation and newly refreshed.  I hope that my new hands can be of service to you in the near future.  Now that my annual vacation is out of the way, my clinic should have regular hours for the rest of the year, so feel free to call, email or text to book an appointment.

     

    Massage in Myanmar & Thailand

    You can have a look at an example of Burmese massage here.  Burmese massage is very similar to Thai massage using comparable energy lines and chiropractic style adjustments.

    In Thailand, I studied for one week with Ajarn Sinchai, a master of Thai massage with 40 years of experience and his own unique style of Thai massage.  You can see videos and read about him here. I first met him in 2010 when I sought him out after tearing my rotator cuff.  In just one treatment he had restored the shoulder to 90% range of motion.  When I saw him this year, he still had the old magic.  In the classes there was a student who was tired of the stress and physical pain he was enduring from work and had sold his company and decided to start a new life.  Every day in class as we all practised on each other, this man would see drastic immediate improvements in his health.  He would often remark “I haven’t been able to do that in years!”.  Sinchai’s approach looks incredibly simple at first glance but is very powerful.  I hope I can offer you a taste of his work.

     

    Myanmar Pictures

    Myanmar is a truly beautiful country:  A land that time forgot.  It has only recently begun to open its doors offering us a chance to see a different view of humanity.

    Here are some of my favourite photos from the trip.  I hope you will enjoy them too.

     

  • Burmese Massage

    Here is a video from Mandalay illustrating some Burmese massage techniques.

    You can see from the video that it is very similar to Thai massage.  In fact, the majority of the moves are identitical.  There seems to be attention to Thai Sen energy meridians, but unlike Thai massage which exerts a downward pressure on the lines, the Burmese often use a cross-fibre pressure on the lines which allow them to have a greater fascial release .  Like Thai massage, the treatment starts with the feet.  The majority of the work is on the feet and legs (In a typical two hour massage, the lower body would receive 80 minutes of treatment).  The feet are treated with the body in 5 or 6 different positions as if they are instinctively trying to access the body’s different fascial anatomy trains in each position.  The footwork is quite effective as it receives such a large focus.  Also effective are the work on the IT band and adductor muscles.  They use quite a bit of elbow, foot and knee pressure when working on the large muscle groups of the legs giving the therapists a wonderful amount of leverage to treat with good body mechanics.  You will also notice some chiropractic style adjustments.  These can be a bit dangerous as the typical masseuse has only a minimal amount of training, there is a total lack of a health history taken before the treatment, and the focus of the treatment is to give a FULL routine utilizing all the steps in the routine whether or not that step is unnecessary or even dangerous to that particular client.  Most masseuses were understanding, however, when I declined certain maneuvres.

    Normally a full routine takes 2 hours.  To condense the massage video into 7 minutes, the techniques are performed a bit abruptly, the treatment is not bilateral, and only the most common techniques are shown.