Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/149404
best practices Business side | Q & art | table lessons | savvy self-care Helping Clients Achieve Ease in Movement By Art Riggs Q A DEAR ART, I enjoyed your article about working at the end range of motion using examples from yoga. I work on a good number of Scottish golfers near Edinburgh. Do you have any suggestions to bring me up to par on using these principles? —SUBPAR DEAR SUBPAR, If you haven't read the article on working near the end range of motion, check out "It Hurts When I Do This," Massage & Bodywork, March/ April 2013, page 31. Actually, golf is one area where we want our clients to be subpar. Indeed, having done my share of hacking up the links, I quite enjoy helping golfers with their flexibility and performance. The principles that follow are perfectly applicable for any client wishing for more flexibility and ease in movement, not just golfers. Virtually everyone can benefit from work in the nonneutral position. Remember that you can then generalize these principles to any activity depending on its movement patterns. The key to a good golf swing is a smooth connection between the different body segments, but also differentiation between the segments so they can generate force independently from each other in different rotational patterns. One of the best strategies is to try and differentiate the shoulders from the hips, which will allow for greater rotation of the body in the backswing and followthrough, and open the chest and free the arms to swing freely. THE BACKSWING To prepare the hips for rotation, I always work bilaterally to free the trochanter area, iliotibial band, and adductors so the legs don't impede pelvic rotation. Progressing up from there, any work to free tight muscles and fascia around the sacrum and the habitually tight multifidus and rotatores muscles in the iliolumbar area will allow the lumbar vertebrae to rotate independently from the pelvis. The key to improving pelvic rotation and differentiation from the shoulder girdle is to rotate the pelvis in one direction while 32 massage & bodywork september/october 2013