Has this ever happened to you? 

I "just" bent over and...

I "just" reached u​p and...

I "just" moved...

Do you "LIVE" with Daily Pain and Tension. 

Have you thought, "This pain is just my new "normal" and I need to "deal with it"? I am just getting old..."

STOP. BREATHE.

You're not broken, you're programmed.

Studies have shown that over 80% of pain complaints presented at clinics are likely to be caused by myofascial trigger points rather than actual tissue damage. Unfortunately, most practitioners tend to interpret pain as a symptom of an injury, leading to ineffective, side-effect-laden treatment approaches like drugs, steroid injections and surgery. 

RELAX, WE COME TO YOU.

YOU CAN HAVE RELIEF WHEREVER YOU ARE, FROM HOME, IN THE PARK, OFFICE EVENTS.

YOU CAN:

• Reduce and Resolve Pain
• Decrease muscle Tension
• Increase Range of Motion/Mobility
• Prevent Injury
• Optimize Athletic Performance
• Increase Recovery and Down Regulate

I help people who sit more than they realize and are trying to live an active life style but are finding their life and performance is affected by pain and stiffness and struggle to reach their goals. I help them rewire and reprogram those patterns that are the root of their issues, so it becomes easy to reduce pain and increase their life quality.

A flexible plan to fit YOUR active lifestyle - no more messing around with no results.

I use a unique approach to restoring pain-free function that incorporates Bodywork, movement, trigger point therapy, self-care and corrective exercises. Facilitating the body's emergence from a "state of confusion" as opposed to fixing something that is broken. 

This approach engages the client in their own healing so they can:

• overcome limiting beliefs, and cultivate powerful habits in their practice to build discipline and sustainability.
• achieve better work life balance, manage work stress, and have better focus.
• improve movement, recovery & performance
• cultivate energy, suppleness and gratitude and live up to their potential.

I am here to stretch them out of their comfort zone to where growth is happening, so that they can get back to enjoying a sustainable life.

Live Flexibly, Live Sustainably.

Enjoy Another Breath

Let's back up. You didn't "really" just wake up and... or bend over and...

Injury is not necessary for pain.

Pain does not equal injury. And injury does not always equal pain. Pain and injury are two wholly different definitions.

• Chronic and persistent pain does not always mean injury.
• Chronic pain can be a diagnosis in and of itself. There does not have to be an underlying injury or structural damage that is causing the pain.
• There is no definitive scan or x-ray or test that can identify the cause of most chronic pain, so pain patients are often made to feel that “since there is no injury, there should be no pain”.

That’s rubbish.

Pain equals pain.

So what is Pain?

Pain is an output of the brain: a warning system telling us to slow down and assess the situation and maybe change up our behaviors a bit to mitigate the pain. 

Your brain is a super computer that is constantly being bombarded with environmental feedback and raw data. This data can come from emotional and mental stress as well as from physical. Your brain decides how to respond and interpret that data, setting parameters for what it deems to be "safe". Your brain will always opt for the familiar "safe" path, like water carving its way through the earth these become learned responses. Now more than ever we are living in our concrete jungle and your brain is on the lookout for the next "lion" or text message. This response can be with a shortening of muscle fibers or feelings of pain and numbness.

Over time your body has made adjustments in an attempt to maintain balance, conserve energy and protect itself from the prospect of harm. From a physical standpoint adaptations to your muscles may not be the most functional, often resulting in a forced shortening or splinting of the overstretched weak muscles like the mid and upper back. Energy use, nutrient flow and waste removal is also reduced in these muscles from prolonged contraction leading to loss of muscle function, local toxicity, irritation and further pain.

Example: Upper-Crossed Syndrome (Hunchbackasana)

We have a client with upper-crossed syndrome, meaning they have a postural distortion pattern that involves rounding of the thoracic spine with protracted shoulder girdles and forward-head posture.

The massage therapist knows that a major focus of their session would be to massage and stretch the locked-short pectoral shoulder girdle protraction muscles. Loosening the pecs would allow the client to open their shoulder girdles back into retraction. But if this is all that is done, and if the retractor muscles of the shoulder girdles (rhomboids and trapezius, especially middle trapezius) are weak, the client would not be able to maintain this position of shoulder girdle retraction and would fall back into protraction. 

How many times have you told yourself to sit up straight only to find your self slumped back over once you took your mind off of it? Did you straighten up as you read this?

On the other hand, a major focus of a strength program would be to strengthen the retractor musculature to bring the shoulder girdles back into retraction. But if this is all that is done, their efforts will be thwarted by tight pectoral shoulder girdle protraction musculature that would not allow for the retractor muscles to bring the shoulder girdles back into retraction. These muscles are also usually in a state of forced protective contraction. Muscles in forced contraction often trigger pain outputs which may prevent you from performing the necessary movement to strengthen the muscles. 

The Chicken and the Egg

It is clear that a balanced approach to treating this client would be to massage and stretch the pec muscles to loosen them, release the trigger points and tight muscles in the retractor muscles and then strengthen the retractor muscles with resistance training to increase the strength of its baseline tone. We might call this a yin-and-yang approach or perhaps the chicken and the egg.

Is upper-crossed syndrome caused by tight protractors, or is it caused by weak retractors? The answer is, of course, both. And if one is present, the other will develop, which will then reinforce the first, and so on, causing a viscous cycle. For true healing, we need to address the chicken and the egg.

Blog: How poor posture is affecting your ability to fully express your Yoga.

We Spend the majority of our time sitting: Eating, Driving, Lounging, School and Office! Sitting.

Sitting:

• Encourages poor posture by tightening the front body and the over-stretching/weakening of muscles in the back body. (The one's we just talked about fixing.)
• Sitting at your desk shortens your hip flexors putting the pelvis off balance, leading to low back pain and compensation in the upper torso.
• Lower-leg musculature becomes inactive. This causes less-than-ideal circulation, which leads to congested tissues and reduced performance.
• Lack of elbow support leaves the elbows floating which cause your shoulder elevators to shorten and splint to conserver energy and reduce fatigue.
• Your spine is designed to balance and evenly distribute the weight of your skull. Every one degree your head leans forward adds 10 pounds that your back muscles have to try and counterbalance in their weakened state.

This adapted posture doesn't just go away when you stand up. When you go to do your other non-sitting activities with your misaligned programming, those activities will also be originating from a place of unconscious imbalance and misleading pain alarms. This is a big reason why you may have not had the success you were hoping to achieve in previous attempts to reduce pain and increase mobility or even saw the opposite.

So how are we different?

It is better to prevent than to cure.

- Peruvian proverb

You've already learned that to fix the pain and stiffness that came from too much sitting, you need to restore your tissues and joints. At The Root of Wellness, our focus is the restoration of normal, pain-free movement. With our adapted functional approach to Thai Bodywork and Yoga we achieve muscular effects, to provide a conscious experience of normal movement. Regular massage and yoga creates self-awareness that you can really feel; and this enables you to make better choices for your wellness.

But we don't stop there. 

Are you still sitting up straight? How is your breathing?

EACH INDIVIDUAL’S WILLINGNESS TO TAKE ACTION TO SUSTAIN AND IMPROVE HIS OR HER OWN ENERGY PRODUCES A POWERFUL INFLUENCE THAT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO AFFECT HEALING THROUGHOUT THE COMMUNITY AND EVEN THE WORLD.

- R. Jahnke

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