Crazy Massage Words – Part 3 of 3

ETHNESITIS

Inflammation of tendon/ligament attachment points near a joint capsule due to reoccurring stress on the area. How do these areas incur stress? One way is by muscles being too short. (As I always say, “It’s about lengthening not strengthening.”) Shortness exerts continuous tension on the tendon which is attached to the muscle on one side and bone on the other. Stress causes the body to ‘beef up’ the area (i.e. building bone) Feel behind your ear. That bony protuberance, the mastoid process, develops over time because the sternocleidomastoid pulls on that area.

This short video shows points involved. It is targeted to children but points of interest would be the same in adults.

Our second word is THIXOTROPY. Above I mentioned the formation of your mastoid process over time. This is an example of Wolfe’s Law, calcium being laid down in response to stress. In the case of your mastoid process, this is good.

“Lack of movement causes pain.”

Calcification and fibrosis willy-nilly in the body reduces range of motion and leads to pain. By encouraging thixotropy (increased viscosity of ‘ground substance’) you literally become more mobile, more elastic, and more pain-free (i.e. jello in the sun vs. jello in the frig). Thixotropy increases with heat. Massage heats up tissue causing more thixotropy. A heating pad does too but results in stiffness when it is removed. This happens because tissue length was not addressed, cooling in tissue occurred, and vaso-dilation permitted an influx of fluid to the area.

This video is a great visual of non-mobility vs mobility. Notice the mobility of the substance with more thixotropy.

Well, how is that for massage words?
I hope you enjoyed.
Here’s to thixotropy!!
Monica