While different countries in Europe have different legalities and scope of practice in various manual therapies, many practitioners are bound by a common interest in science-based practice. Like in the U.S. and Canada, some manual therapy continuing education still leans heavily toward the biomechanical and biomedical models of pain, which
For the first time in its seven-year history, the San Diego Pain Summit will be hosting its 2021 event on Feb. 19-21 completely online because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike most virtual conferences where the presenters will speak live, attendees will get a recorded video of their 30-minute presentation before
The third annual Oregon Pain Summit will be held on Jan. 22-23, 2021, and like most conferences in 2020, this will be held virtually because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike the previous two summits that focused more on patients and public health, the upcoming event will focus more on clinicians
Finding reliable information relating to massage therapy is tough for both clinicians and the public, and finding continuing education courses (CECs) that are up-to-date on the latest understanding of pain, movement, and touch based on good science and humanities may be even tougher. This is a problem many massage and
Posterior pelvic tilt is one of the several types of postures that many manual therapists and personal trainers may have learned during their career—along with uneven hips, upper cross syndrome, forward head posture, rounded shoulders, etc. The idea behind learning about these types of posture is to identify potential causes
The energy crisis hypothesis is generally accepted as the underlying cause for the development of trigger points and myofascial pain syndrome, which led to the development of several treatments for these symptoms, including trigger point injections and trigger point therapy. However, there are some problems with the hypothesis that did
Back in the early 1990s, I first read about reflexology from one of my mom’s Hong Kong tabloid magazines. The cover photo depicted a “map” of the feet in Chinese, indicating that pressure upon a specific area on the foot or toes can ease pain or “promote healing” to certain
Back in 2016 when I watched “Rogue One” in the theater with my girlfriend at the time, it was so good that we didn’t want to leave our seats yet when the credits rolled. The trailers and teasers that dotted Facebook for weeks before the premiere didn’t spoil anything for
Sports massage is a mixed bag of different techniques, such as effleurage, petrissage, and trigger point therapy, that are very similar to the ones found in Swedish massage. Sports massage doesn’t necessarily involve the therapist applying bone-deep pressure to the muscles that make you hiss in pain. Currently, there’s no
Static stretching is a type of stretch where you hold the lengthening position of a joint and muscle for a period of time. Many of us were taught to stretch like this before we run, lift weights, or play a sport, probably since middle school. While we have followed the
Dynamic stretching definition Dynamic stretching is a type of stretching that involves moving your joints through your normal range of motion repeatedly. Do not confuse this with ballistic stretching because dynamic stretching is done in a controlled manner. The ballistic version is done in a fast and uncontrolled way, which includes
Our experience with chronic pain constantly changes throughout our life, even before birth. Oftentimes, it’s a gradual change that we don’t notice until one day, the pain disrupts our daily routine and we take action to alleviate it. While modern pain scientists recognizes that the nervous system plays an important