Read an informative article about fascia, KMI and other modalities by Andrew Heffernan, CSCS!

I’ve got introduced to Vibram FiveFingers shoes (Vibram is one of the minimalist footware manufacture) during the early stage of my professional KMI Structural Integration (SI) training in Mesa, AZ in early 2010.

First day I stepped in the classroom I saw several pair of VFF in our day opening circle and I remember wondering about its comfort, movement and snug fit. As the course went on different colors and designs popped up and at some point our group of 25 people wore more VFF than any other footwear combined. When I’ve got back to Minnesota during the 1st break of the course the first thing I did was trying to get a pair for myself. No luck. The readers of birthdayshoes.com probably all remember the shortage of those days. It took some time until I finally hunted down a pair of black Classic from a local retailer and by now I own 4 pairs (black classic, black orange KSO, brown Trek, Bikila LS) and my wife has 2(black classic, green Bikila) of them as well.

As an early adopter myself, I was all about the five fingers shoes, and as my SI course was proceeding I studied and started to have a better feel to understanding our feet. I assume most of VFF owners are familiar with the official Vibram website’s health reasons and benefits of why to wear VFFs and you all have your personal experience wearing them. My interest is to explain and extend on those from the perspective of an SI practitioner to educate the active and motivated minimalist fans and show how I use the minimalist shoes and VFFs in particularly in my practice;

The design of the 26 bones, 33 joints, 20 muscles and all the tendons, ligaments and layers that constitute our foot is an anatomical marvel of evolution.

To grasp the functions and real potential of the human foot let’s take a look at its architecture. An earlier stage of evolution the four-legged animals had the stable four single points of support, just like the four corners of a house. We have erected from this very stable structure to support and ground ourselves on two footprints, more like radio towers but with the supporting guy wires attaching to themselves. The points of contact are the ball of the big toe, the ball of the little toe and the heel. They shaped by a great deal of differentiation and separation of the bones and by the lowering of the heel during a long period of time.
Our triangle shaped foot is held together by four arches connecting those three points. We mostly pay attention to the medial longitudinal arch – the one that goes from the heel to the ball of the big toe – but the other three arches – the Lateral and the two Transverse arches – have similar importance in shock absorbing and propelling us forward. The balance between these arches and the myofascial links to the lower leg determine the pattern, the available functionality and the range of motion not only for the foot itself but for the rest of the body.

In my practice when a client stands front of me for the first time at the starting the 1st SI session for photo taking and for bodyreading, I always see imbalance in these arches and connected myofascial links that create the common features like high arch, fallen arch, pronation or supination, shortened heel, wide or narrow feet, hammer toes and differences between the two feet.

During the first 7 sessions of SI I address these conditions and my intent is to create a more stable and higher functional foundation through the feet, knees, hips and spine. After the 7th session is the time when their body is ready for something “out of the box” experience. I’m actively promoting the minimalis footware that isn’t totally new to them because they see it on my feet every time they are coming for their sessions. VFF is the only footwear I use for my work by the way. I show them the official Vibram booklet and our collection of VFFs. One client asked me if there is an arch support in the VFFs and I told him, it’s built-in INTO YOUR FEET. So this time after the 7th session, clients are already adapting to the significant changes in their body, down to its core, that SI provides, and their myofascial layers are freer and they are more capable to take on life’s tasks with more efficient movements, greater available energy to establish balanced fascial fitness. It takes about 12-18 months to solidify fascial fitness and strength, quite a bit longer than improving muscular strength.

Then the last 4 SI sessions are about to bring the clients and their renewed body integrated with their every day movements and directing them to a life style that supports their fascial fitness, regardless if they are high end athletes or office workers sitting front of their computer. Minimalist footware turns out to be one of those tools that perfectly fits the needs of my clients who are looking to improve themselves.
If you have confronted misfit or wearing issues with your shoes there is a good chance that you can benefit from SI. I sense the specific foot patterns of bloggers on site like birthdaysoes.com reporting in their posts about fit and comfort of their minimalist shoes. Moreover the wearing patterns on minimalist shoes are accurately show the greater connections the rest of the body. I remember reading a post from last year about fixing VFF’s sole due to uneven friction.

When you are ready to change the rest of your body to match your changing feet in your minimalist footware give a call to your local SI practitioner and enjoy your VFFs or other brands fully!

Resources:

Find local KMI Structural Integration practitioners here
Attila Pegan’s website

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Rubbing the community the right way

by Alex Hall

Find the article online here

Now, the business is one of five home massage studios in the city. Savage City Clerk Ellen Classen said applying for a home massage business license “is a pretty lengthy process.”
Businesses must obtain a therapeutic massage enterprise license, then each massage therapist working for the business must have a therapeutic massage individual license. Classen said Savage doesn’t limit the number of home massage businesses allowed to operate in city limits.

Hansen originally got into the massage business at the urging of several friends. “One friend in particular was like ‘You should make a career out of this,’” said Hansen, “and I said ‘You can make money giving back rubs?’”
In 2002, she met her partner Attila Pegan in Thailand while they attended massage therapy classes and workshops in the country. The pair has twin 6-year-old boys and an 8-year-old son.

WHAT THEY OFFER

Since joining forces, the two have combined their skills to offer two main services: therapeutic Thai massage and structural integration.
“There’s a very interesting connection between the Thai massage, which is Eastern, and structural integration, which is from the West,” Pegan said. Hansen is a Thai massage expert, and her work focuses on relaxing clients through stretching the body.
“I can rub the area (that hurts) and make it feel better, but by stretching it out I can get to the root of the problem and really loosen up the muscles,” Hansen said. Hansen, who has a background in sports therapy, described the process as “lazy man’s yoga.” The massage is done fully clothed on a yoga mat, and Hansen offers one-hour, 90-minute and two-hour sessions.
Pegan is also well-versed in the art of Thai massage and teaches a class at the CenterPoint massage therapy school in Minneapolis. Last year, Pegan published a textbook and two accompanying DVDs to go along with the class.

Structural integration is a relatively new technique that was introduced in the 1940s, and is something Pegan, who is originally from Hungary, has studied for years.
The therapy takes several sessions and addresses the balance and well-being of the body, and is said to be helpful in treating chronic pain and other conditions. Structural integration is also said to have very positive effects on posture.
“The main part of it is to align all the different parts of the body. The major joints, the ankles, the knees, the hips, the spine, the chest, the neck, the head,” said Pegan. “The point is to integrate the whole body, to make movements more fluid.”
Pegan said even if you have pain in a particular spot, like your shoulder, he still works on the whole body.
“Most of the time the problem is not actually the shoulder,” said Pegan. “It could be the lower back, or the knees,” he said. “So it’s a constant search for the root cause of whatever you have.”

COMFORTS OF HOME

Both Hansen and Pegan said running a massage studio out of their home has worked wonderfully for them. The setting is much more welcoming and natural feeling than visiting someone’s office, they said, and it allows them to have a more open, neighborly relationship with the clients.
“They know they can come to me with any question about anything health or wellness related,” Hansen said.
The regular perks of working from home apply as well. “You don’t have to pay rent, you don’t have to commute,” said Pegan. “It’s pretty nice.”
Are there any challenges to running a massage studio out of a residence? Pegan and Hansen struggled to think of one, until Hansen finally said with a laugh, “Managing family life.”
For all the perks they get to enjoy, the clients have their own perks as well. Hansen has a vegetable garden in the back of the house, and when the crops are abundant, clients reap the benefits of that neighborly relationship.
“You come here, get a massage, then here, why not take home some vegetables and salad?” said Hansen.