Movement

Movement, Movement, Movement

The body wants to move. Without movement, the body will die. The body's various systems depend on movement to function. Think about it. If blood stops flowing, you die, If your breath stops moving, you suffocate. And so it is with all of the systems of the body.

Muscle movement, or the lack of movement, effects virtually all the systems of the body. A body that is tight and stiff hampers effective breathing and blood flow. A ridged body causes pain with movement because the muscles are not working properly. Tight muscles cause a decreased blood flow. Massage is often the solution that is sought to remedy the lack of movement experienced by the body.

Pain is a strong factor that brings people to our massage office. Pain and tight muscles are not what the body wants. The body WANTS to be well, and will do all it can to heal itself if it is given the correct information and environment. Simply moving is often a solution. Formal exercise is ideal with regular visits to the gym or track which helps the body function as it wants to. But taking time to get up from your desk or TV set is also valuable. Even a short break from being sedentary will help your body function better.

At the March American Massage Therapy Association Convention, presenter Meir Schneider repeatedly pointed out the importance of movement. He offered that music conductors generally live longer than athletes do. Why? Because their work involves fluid, relaxed movement. Their muscles can not be tight to do their work. Look at Harry Ellis Dickson who recently passed away at the age of 89. He had only days before his death, conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a performance at Symphony Hall. How many athletes are still going strong, still doing a full performance at that age?

Cold feet, numbness or tingling in the lower legs can be the result of the lack of movement. Aaron Mattes’ seminar in October was all about movement, and returning flexibility to tight muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints. Aaron stated that poor leg circulation is often the result of tight soleus muscles, one of a pair of major calf muscles that lift you up onto your toes. He referred to the soleus muscles as the “heart muscles of the legs”, because they are the force that continues the flow of blood from the feet and legs back to the heart. They are responsible for return blood flow.

Most people don’t realize that the heart does not complete the flow of blood back to the heart with its pumping action. Muscles are the force that does the job. Therefore, frequent movement is essential for the complete cycle of blood flow. We hear for example about people dying from blood clots, the result of sitting for hours without moving during trans.-Atlantic flights. Blood pools in their feet and thickens into clots that are then dislodged when they get up and move at the end of their flight. Spending some time during the flight exercising your legs while seated can prevent this deadly consequence.

The body must move to stay healthy. Stretching is one way of fulfilling this bodily requirement. We encourage Active Isolated Stretching because it not only opens the fibers of muscles and creates a better blood flow, doing AIS actually strengthens muscles.

Movement, movement, movement. Move to be healthy. Your body loves it, and will thank you for it.

Yoga For Your Eyes

In March Barry took four workshops with Meir Schneider, creator of the system and video “Yoga For Your Eyes”. Born legally blind, Meir used the Bates Method as a foundation for a system he developed which improved what little sight he had, to allow him to pass his drivers test without wearing glasses.

At the American Massage Therapy Association Conference in Boxborough, Meir Schneider’s workshops all focused on movement and on strengthening muscles to release pain and improve overall body functioning.

In his workshops he taught exercises that use muscles in new or unusual patterns which forces the brain to approach movement in an unaccustomed way. By running backwards or sideways, for example, he believes the brain reprograms muscles that have been mis-programed by misuse or over-use.

Meir Schneider was an inspiration to the many students who took his workshops.

It has been a full year since the last issue of Therapy News reached your mailbox. The year has been an extremely busy and rewarding one for both Nancy and Barry.

This September, daughter Miranda returned for her third season as a member of the corps de ballet at Columbia City Ballet in South Carolina. While she was home this past summer, Miranda taught weekly ballet and jazz classes and privately coached a number of dance students. Nancy did all of Miranda’s moving arrangements from and then back to SC this summer and has traveled to SC to see performances of every one of Miranda’s productions.

Barry was busy taking and teaching workshops, and writing and illustrating his book.

We hope your year has been full of good things.

We wish you peace and prosperity in the New Year.

Nancy and Barry

Aaron Mattes and Active Isolated Stretching

When Barry discovered Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) he immediately knew that this technique was important and was something he wanted to learn and share with others. Barry stumbled upon AIS at a stretching workshop led by Jim and Phil Wharton at the Hynes Auditorium Boston Marathon Sports Expo in 1994.

Within seconds of Jim Wharton’s explanation of how and why AIS works, Barry was hooked. Finally, his own history of experiencing more pain from stretching before and after running, than when he did not stretch at all, made sense.

He started by telling his clients about this “new” approach to stretching, without knowing enough to actually teach AIS to them. The amount of information presented at that first workshop was over-whelming, and the concepts too different from what he had been taught in massage school.

The creator of this technique is Aaron Mattes, a Kinesiotherapist and Massage Therapist from Florida. Aaron started developing this technique in the 1970s, and is still in the active developing process at his clinic in Sarasota. Barry located him and purchased his self-published book which expanded his knowledge and under-standing of AIS.

The next year, 1995, the Whartons repeated the AIS workshop. Barry had been processing what he had learned the previous year, and this time he went away from the workshop feeling he could begin to share this knowledge of AIS with his massage clients.

He began by teaching AIS stretches that were appropriate to the soft tissue conditions he was releasing with massage. When this proved to be successful and his clients requested more information and instructions, he developed an AIS workshop for relieving pain from neck and shoulders and headaches.

By this time the Whartons had released their own book, a direct reworking of Aaron Mattes’ book, and quickly followed it with a stretch-along video which featured a lower body routine intended primarily for runners.

Aaron Mattes quickly released an updated version of his previous book and two videos of his own. One video was for self stretches, the other for instructing therapist and trainers how to do assisted stretches with clients or patients. The Whartons had pushed him to do what he should have done fifteen years earlier.

The Whartons returned several more times to the Boston Marathon Expo and offered additional AIS workshops. Barry attended every one, and was often accompanied by his friend and workshop co-teacher Jack Casey.

Barry’s goal was to study with the Master, Aaron Mattes. His dream became a reality when he learned of a seminar being offered on Cape Cod in October 2003.

Barry spent the first weekend in October in Eastham with 90 other students, learning directly from Aaron Mattes. Most of the group was made up of Massage Therapists, with several Physical Therapists and two Chiropractors completing the roster. The 24+ hour seminar covered stretches from the head to the toes

Barry has been offering his own workshops since 1998 that incorporate the principles of Active Isolated Stretching. His workshops now include ways of relieving general back pain, relieving low back and hip pain, and a workshop specifically for runners and other athletes focusing on the lower body. He also offers a workshop for helping a sports partner by using AIS, doing assisted stretching and incorporating some basis sports massage.

His workshop format has changed in the last two years to include STAR Tech® self-recovery work as well, the technique that he is writing into a handbook for the public.

. Barry returned from his AIS weekend with ideas for new workshops and new information for his book.

In September four Massage Therapists joined Barry to give massage to runners of the Monster.com Road Race that raises money for the Maynard Boys and Girls Club.

Deborah Hledik of Healing-Breath Bodywork Therapy and Jane Hardy, both of Maynard were joined by Steve Cannon of “Body Fit” and Senior Massage Therapist at Wayside Racquet and Swim Club in Marlborough along with Linda Rafferty a student at the Bancroft School of Massage in Worcester. Linda has since graduated and is practicing massage at Sereni Salon and Wellness Center in Hudson.

In March, Maynard High School Guidance Counselor Lisa McLean invited Barry to come in and talk to her class about careers in Massage Therapy, Body Work and Alternative Medicine.

Barry was invited back to the High School later in March to speak to the Boy's and Girl's Track Teams about the benefits of stretching, as a part of the school’s Personal Awareness Week. Barry talked about Active Isolated Stretching while his workshop teaching partner Jack Casey demonstrated stretches for the students.

Brenda Sullivan, the Girl's Track Coach was so excited about the Active Isolated Stretching (AIS) that Barry introduced to the students, she asked him and Jack to return and teach a formal class of AIS. Two weeks later, Barry and Jack led a two hour AIS Workshop for about forty runners, in the school gym.

That same week Barry did a radio show at the High School for the second year. Part of Community Radio Week on WAVM, Barry did an hour of music that he called "Love and War on Broadway"

Also in March, Barry taught his first STAR Tech® Workshops to Massage Therapists. The two days covered treatments for neck, shoulders, chest, arms, and hands, and included self-help work for the therapists. He repeated the work-shops again in September, expanding them with more material and giving more hands-on practice time.

In May and October Barry attended the three day Massachusetts Men’s Gathering weekends. He taught two workshops each time, one AIS and one STAR Tech®.

Barry celebrated his 60^th birthday in August by buying himself a laptop computer on which he is writing his book and newsletters.

In August Barry attended the Eastern Naturists Gathering for four days in Lenox, Massachusetts. He taught two AIS workshops and a STAR Tech® workshop. He took workshops in Shiatsu and Yoga.

In March and October Nancy traveled to South Carolina to see Miranda perform. While she was there, she offered her massage services to the dancers between shows on Matinee days again this season.

Eight Massage Therapists volunteered last holiday season at the 2002 WAVM Telethon. Deborah Hledik of Healing-Breath Bodywork Therapy, Valerie Cochrane of Massage Therapy Connection, Jane Hardy, Karen Lauchlan and Nancy Bailey represented Maynard. They were joined by Zan Redfern of Redfern Massage and Global Fitness in Stow, Matt Anzivino of Medway, Terri Eycleshymer of Eycleshymer Massage Therapy in Hudson, and Nancy Ames of Nancy Ames Massage Therapy of Acton.

Nancy Bailey & Barry Bailey
Bailey Therapeutic Massage
STAR Tech® Healing and Learning Center
14 Nason Street, Suites 201-2
Maynard, MA 01754
978 897-0110