September is Self Care Awareness month and Back to Basics Massage wants to help you celebrate you! 

*Give yourself the gift of a Relaxation Massage that provides you with 60 to 90 minutes of relaxation and refreshing to your whole body. For extra care add the extra benefit of Hot Stones; they warm the muscle tissue, increase blood flow and soften the tissue. 

*Enjoy a 10, 20 or 30 minute session in our Recovery Mat. The benefits are endless AND your first one is Complimentary!

*Try ear candling

*Learn new ways to provide yourself self care on a daily basis by utilizing how to stretch your muscles with a stretch session.

*Attend a small group class or one on one session with our Trainers. 
Try out Strength and Burn with John on Tuesdays at 4pm & Saturdays at 10am or 12pm. To help you focus on your self care in September the cost is only $5 instead of $10 when you prepay for your classes!

*Join Kim on Wednesday mornings at 9:00am for a focus on your spiritual wellness as you go through the series by Andy Stanley "You're Not the Boss of Me".
Our emotions don’t have to be the boss. In fact, Christians already have a boss—a better boss than anger, envy, insecurity, guilt, fear, or greed. And here is his invitation:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. —Matthew 11:28–29

*Grab your significant and learn how to care for each other through massage with the At Home Massage Couples class with Leigh!

Lisa Morrisey completed her massage training at Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio in 2008. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology in 1994 from Ithaca College. Lisa Specializes in Myofascial Release JFB Approach and has completed MFR I & II and Fascial-Pelvis Myofascial Release. Lisa has been with Back to Basics Massage Therapy since 2010.

​You may have heard in passing about myofascial release and have wondered what it is and how releasing the fascia can benefit you. A couple of years ago I started a journey of learning about myofascial release and how it would benefit those whom I provide therapy through massage too. This journey led me to the John F. Barnes method of myofascial release also referred to as MFR JFB Method. To understand MFR and it's benefits you need to first understand what fascia is.  
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What is fascia? Any meat eater has seen it on their chicken or in steak, but it is more that just a tissue covering muscle.  Fascia is a three-dimensional web that covers and connects every system of our body. In effect it is the scaffolding of our body even down to the cellular level.  

When our body experiences a trauma, surgery, inflammatory response, etc, the fascial system produces restrictions in the area of injury as a protective mechanism. In a healthy body or situation the fascial will regain fluidity once the trauma has passed. However, in certain circumstances we get “stuck”; this is either due to the trauma being from a repetitive action, the injury was too great, or scaring was produced.  In these cases MFR and self care stretches can “unwind” the restrictions to allow for a fluid environment again.  ​

Fascia in its healthy form is quite fluid. It consists of fibers and ground substance within the spaces between the fibers. When fibers join together to protect from injury, the tissue becomes dehydrated and the environment becomes restricted.

“Fascial restrictions can exert crushing pressure of up to approximately 2,000 pounds of pressure per square inch on the various pain sensitive structures in the body” - JFB

Consider your muscle trying to work in that environment, the muscle would become tired and achey doing less work due to the compression of the  fibrous network of fascia crushing it. MFR focuses on holds that target compressed tissue for 3-5 minutes at a time to allow for the fibers of the fascial tissue to begin to stretch and eventually allow fluid to rush back into the ground ground substance and once again create a fluid environment for the muscle to be able to work in.   

​Why 3-5 minutes?  On average the elastic fiber begins to respond and move at around 3 minutes where the tougher collagen fibers respond around 5 minutes.  This is accomplished with a firm pressure over a restricted area while stretching it between both hands.  The pressure is meant to meet resistance and hold until the fibers begin to stretch and move at with time the therapist would move into the tissue further.  While this technique is not a deep pressure, discomfort or pain can be associated with the technique.  A favorite quote of JFB is “you need to feel to heal”.  Coming into your session after taking a pain relieving drug would not be beneficial to the process.  MFR is a slow technique that requires patience but is quite beneficial and healing; I highly recommend it!