Knee bone is connected to the........

You know that song, right?  The ankle bone's connected to the knee bone and so on... Since enrolling in school and diving in to anatomy and physiology, I've been desperately trying to memorize all the terms, muscle name, and the insertion, origin and action of each one.  For a hot second I was thinking geeze I just want to massage a few people's backs do I really need to know all this stuff???  Uh yes, I do need to know, and here's my personal story of the possible benefits of massage therapy.

I'm no spring chicken and have spent the last several years sitting at a desk without much physical activity in any area of my life.  So when I started giving 5-6 massages once a week for clinical, it took a toll on my out of shape body pretty quickly, and for a few weeks I felt a lot of soreness in my knee in the days following clinic.

This terrified me, I'm overweight and pretty much twice the age of most of the students in my class, I started thinking GREAT how am I going to start a career in this field that I love with this bum knee??

So, I started doing some research.  I won't bore you with all the details, but I learned all about the I T band which runs along the outside of your thigh & connects to your knee.  I have always had pain in my low back "sciatica" area, recently along with the knee pain, that area was hot to the touch and more tender than ever, even making it hard for me to sleep.  Hmmm maybe these things are related?  Sing it with me now, the knee bone's connected to the thigh bone......


This is getting long winded already, so let's just get to it, a couple weeks ago, I though I might need a knee replacement, that's how much I was hurting.  I started to  research, and took an online class on "massage cupping therapy" where you use little suction cups to pull and loosen soft tissues in areas where muscles are tight.  Did ya'll see those purple marks on Michael Phelps during the Olympics those were the result of cupping therapy.

Last week I used the cupping technique on my I T band, around my knee, and on my low back/glute area three times.  I am happy to report and frankly, I'm actually amazed that the pain is nearly gone in my knee.  My I T band area had gotten so tight along with tight glute muscles on that side of my body that the muscle was "pulling" at my knee causing pain with every step.

What a relief!

In the beginning I thought I'd be giving relaxation massages
as a Licensed Massage Therapist, but there is oh so much more that can be accomplished thru the therapies.  I hear my clients say they feel better, I've read about it, but experiencing it for myself has brought this new career to a whole new level for me.  Boom.