As discussed in the first part, massage does have a lot of general and local benefits. I also took you through the process on how I generally massage my clients. This client came to me, for mainly a lower leg (calf massage). As she was complaining of tension, cramp, cold feet and weakness in this area.
After the first treatment session, I did “knockout” so-to-speak a lot of tension and trigger points (a.k.a knots) in her calves; this gave her a lot relief.
But, she did have a lot of tension mainly on the medial (inside) part of her calves. From looking at her posture it was apparent that due to how her knees rolled inwards, because of her flat feet, lack of strength in her glutes (the main, big butt muscles) and core.
In short, this is whats causing her knees to roll inwards, therefore, casing the problems in the lower leg.
She also had an overly rounded upper back, which resulted in a lot of tension mainly in the right upper back area. This was mainly due to using a computer a lot, and not being overly conscious of her sitting posture.
Here, in the second treatment session, you can see me working on one of her calves from the front this time (this helps to get deeper into the muscles) and on her right upper back. I also had to do some mobilization work on her knees and ankles, as they were both pretty stiff and tight. (Not in videos)
Deep front, calf massage on client to eliminate trigger points and tension
Right upper back, shoulder and neck massage on client
After working on these areas, I then gave here some basic postural awareness techniques and leg strengthen exercises to do every day. These included:
1- Setting her phone or watch to bleep every 15 minutes. So, every time it bleeps, she has to pull herself into better aliment, be it sitting or standing. This helps to re-programme her nervous system.
2- Walking around for a few minutes every day, with a book on her head (at home). This again, helps to re-programme her nervous system, to better posture.
3- Squatting into chair with belt around knees to strengthen her butt muscles.
4- A specific, isolation exercise to strengthen her right ankle, as there was a lot of weakness in that area.
5- I then used this exercise sheet from this very good book, to improve the overall alignment of the upper back and legs.
As she likes to use the rowing machine, as a form of exercise, I advised her to put a belt around her knees when doing that. This would also help her, to use her much needed butt muscles when exercising and would also stop her knees from wearing out.
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