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MYOFASCIAL TECHNIQUES stimulation, postural reflex shift, and increased proprioception. After assessing subtle mobility, you can begin to move a bit more vigorously, still within your client's level of comfort, of course. Use a fuller, firmer rocking motion on any areas where you found restrictions. Use caution if any of the usual contraindications to deep work apply— in particular, suspected osteoporosis (see "Working with Rib Restrictions," Massage & Bodywork, January/February 2012, page 112), recent injuries, or acute disc issues. But in most cases, the motion can be spirited, strong, and adventurous throughout the lumbar and thoracic spine. The vertebrae are firmly held by their ligamentous and articular connections, so you can use the body's momentum to assess and increase their side-to-side mobility. Feel both for grouped restrictions, and, by moving single vertebrae against each other, for pairs of vertebrae that are fixed together (Images 6 and 7). Go back and forth between these global and local levels, feeling also for whole-spine harmonics (waves that move all the way up and down), and for the small-scale jiggling of individually immobile vertebra. With care, you can also apply this technique to many of the cervical vertebrae, gently feeling for side- to-side mobility of each of the neck vertebrae that you can palpate. A face cradle or tabletop bolstering system is necessary, so that the neck is not rotated to one side. This technique assesses and increases the rotational freedom of the vertebrae. That doesn't imply that the other directions of movement aren't also important; in the Advanced Myofascial Techniques series, we use different techniques to assess and mobilize those motions as well. Especially with issues such as scoliosis or long-term fixations, you're likely to identify areas with this assessment that you'll want to address with other techniques and methods. But even by itself, this assessment and preparatory technique can be quite effective and satisfying. As a client, the experience of having each of your vertebrae mobilized in this way can be deeply relaxing, leaving you primed and ready for the rest of your session. Notes 1. Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, 3rd ed. (Princeton: Philip Lief Group, 2009). 2. Thomas W. Sadler, Langman's Medical Embryology, 12th ed. (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2012): 63. 3. J. W. Frymoyer, "Back Pain and Sciatica," New England Journal of Medicine 318, no. 5 (February 1988): 291–300. 4. Til Luchau, Advanced Myofascial Techniques, Vol. 1 (Handspring Publishing, 2015): 8. 5. C. Cook and B. Showalter, "A Survey on the Importance of Lumbar Coupling Biomechanics in Physiotherapy Practice," Manual Therapy 9, no. 3 (August 2004): 164. F r e e S O A P n o t e s w i t h M a s s a g e B o o k f o r A B M P m e m b e r s : a b m p . u s / M a s s a g e b o o k 109 6. Lisa A. DeStefano, Greenman's Principles of Manual Medicine, 4th ed. (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2010). 7. Cook and Showalter, "A Survey on the Importance of Lumbar Coupling Biomechanics in Physiotherapy Practice," 167. 8. Ibid., 165. 9. Ibid., 166. 10. M. Bozkurt et al., "Axial Rotation and Mediolateral Translation of the Fibula During Passive Plantarflexion," Foot & Ankle International 29, no. 5 (May 2008): 502–7. 11. Jon Parsons and Nicholas Marcer, Osteopathy: Models for Diagnosis, Treatment and Practice (Elsevier Health Sciences, 2006): 36. 12. Lisa A. DeStefano, Greenman's Principles of Manual Medicine. Til Luchau is a member of the Advanced-Trainings.com faculty, which offers distance learning and in-person seminars throughout North America and abroad. He is a Certified Advanced Rolfer and originator of the Advanced Myofascial Techniques approach. Contact him via info@advanced-trainings.com and Advanced- Trainings.com's Facebook page. An expanded version of this column will appear in Til Luchau's upcoming book, Advanced Myofascial Techniques, Vol. 2, to be published early 2016 and available at Advanced-Trainings.com. Assessing and mobilizing a pair of vertebrae in the Vertebral Mobility Technique. Images courtesy Advanced-Trainings.com, used by permission. 6 7