Intercostal Muscles       Massage for the Intercostal Muscles - Maureen Abson     The intercostal muscles provide about 25% of the total force of breathing, and may help stabilize the chest wall The intercostals are three layers of muscles that pass between the ribs. Each external outer layer intercostal attaches to the lower border of one rib, and, on a diagonal line, to the upper border of the rib below. The lowest intercostals merge with the external oblique muscles. The internal intercostals connect each rib from the cartilage to the upper border of the rib below it. There is...

  Technique: Stand straight with your hand behind your hips with your fingers facing down Push your hands into your pelvis so that your lower back arches Don’t use your lower back muscles   How Often? This exercise can be done 6-8 times, 2-3 times per day           EDUCATION MEMBERSHIP PLANS UNLIMITED ACCESS FROM $19.95/monthly          

Lower Back Pain         Treating Trigger Points for Back Pain - Dr. Jonathan Kuttner   Lower Back Pain has reached epidemic proportions. Here we look at the part played by trigger points. It has been suggested that low back pain is an inevitable result of walking upright (Harari). As the force of gravity acts upon the skeleton and its muscular and ligamentous armature, it is distributed via the fascia into three dimensions. Myers (2013) talks of an internal cohesion-compression of the body where it is both collapsing in on itself and pushing out from itself in a constant state...

  Low Back Pain     Paul Townley, Physiotherapist, Shows Some Techniques for Treating Back Pain     There are a number of muscles that may be implicated in low back pain: Deep spinal muscles (small) - multifidus Lumbar erector spinae Gluteus medius Hamstrings Rectus abdominis Quadratus lumborum Iliopsoas  Added to this hardware is the software that the brain uses to coordinate and sequence movement. The above-mentioned structures feed information to the brain in a constant stream, providing orientation (proprioception) as well as force and direction (velocity).  The brain then responds by organizing movement sequences in functional units. These functional units...

Pain was once considered chronic if it lasted for more than three months and exceeded the body’s natural healing process.  There has recently been significant discussion about the histological time frame of chronicity, because cells that were thought to be involved in chronic inflammation have now been found much earlier (Watson, 2015).    Chronic pain in the low back may initially result from physical structures such as: Disc problems Joint problems Irritation of the nerve root But is then maintained (and on occasion made worse) by how the brain processes things.   This does not mean it is all in a...