Moving Two Dimes (a.k.a. "Paradigm Shift")

After stretch class and breakfast Tammy and I attended a treatment with Rodney ('Rod') who's office and treatment room are in the same building as our room.  Rod is known by all staff as a man with very unique knowledge and skills when it comes to the muscles of the body.  Folks have told us that he "turns muscles on and off".  What's that supposed to mean?!

Today, I found out.  

It's a bit much to explain in a 'short' blog post, and after a single session, I'm not sure I'd do that great a job in passing along the details here.  In short, Rodney manipulates the muscles of the body using only his fingertips and what I'd describe as 'medium' pressure.  He first observes the body and it's mechanics and given his experience, he can almost immediately tell where any muscles may not be functioning.  These muscles may have been 'turned off' by the brain as self-protection against an injury and then simply never turned back on, or because we undertake repetitive activity where we don't use a particular muscle properly.   The body then compensates for the 'turned off' muscle by over-using other muscles.  

Rod doesn't try to reactivate such turned off muscles directly because the brain will usually not allow the muscle to start functioning again because of the 'known' history that caused it to turn off in the first place.  Instead, he works to stimulate such muscles by applying pressure to complementary muscles, usually in apparently unrelated and remote parts of the body.  This approach is more subtle in that it allows the turned off muscle to be stimulated without the brain overriding the request for its use.  After the muscle is 'turned on', Rod has the patient use it at least 3 times, which apparently then informs the brain to accept its use once again.  

Knowing that I'm a scientist, Rod decided to demonstrate the 'turning on and off' to me in a tangible way - perhaps to pre-empt any skepticism!  He had me lie down on his massage table on my back with my arms at my side.  He then had me bicep curl upwards against his grip using my right arm.  I could lift against the pressure he applied without a problem.

Right bicep before muscle turned off...

 Rod then 'turned off' my right bicep in about 15 or 20 seconds and then had me try to lift him again.  Though I had the full sensation of flexing the muscle and I 'felt' as strong as before, I couldn't even budge him a bit!!!  That was a strange experience!  He left my bicep like that for 10 or 15 minutes while he 'turned on' one of the muscles in my quads that he noticed I was compensating for!  He then had me try again to lift him up with the right bicep and - nothing.  Same as before.  Mercifully, he reactivated me in just a few seconds and I was again able to lift him off the ground!  

Right bicep after muscle turned off!  [didn't say whose bicep : )]

With Tammy, he was working to restore some range of muscle functioning to her legs and hips, in large part by stimulating muscles in her neck!  There was some improvement, though nothing overly dramatic.  He also spent some time trying to treat the muscles that control her jaw as her jaw does kind of veer off to her right as it's closing.  He showed me the points to apply pressure on Tammy's jaw and we're supposed to do this 3 times a day until we see him again on Friday.  Rod also pressed on those areas on my jaw (I have a bit of the same veer to the right) and does it ever hurt!  Not a lot of pressure, but loads of pain!

After lunch, I had my first experience with a colonic - a treatment we decided to add for the benefit of my health, and so Tammy could make fun of me!  Seems to have gone well and been quite 'productive'!  I have another one on Friday.  Oh, goody (not sure what emoticon to use to convey sarcasm...)

After supper, we stayed for Gary's lecture on foods and menu planning.  Once again, very interesting information!  LVS promotes a high fat, high protein, low carb diet.  While this is exactly the opposite of the diet we've followed and promoted for years, the science and experience behind the high fat/protein, low carb diet is surprisingly (for our long-time vegetarian minds) quite compelling!  It would take too long to outline all of the points in a blog post like this, but suffice it to say, we will be testing this dietary approach over the next several months to see for ourselves how it works!