Complementary Healthcare and Wellbeing

17/11/2025

Alright, folks... shoes off, kettle on.
Are we ready to take on Earls?

Settle yourself in, get comfortable (preferably in a way your physio wouldn’t cry about), and let’s begin.

Because if you thought you already knew how to walk, Earls is about to raise an eyebrow at you... politely, of course, this is Britain, and explain why your gait might be… well, slightly less “efficient human” and slightly more “tired pigeon”.

Let’s dive in.

CHAPTER 1. “We Were Made to Walk”

Walking... the Human Superpower We’ve Misplaced Somewhere Between the Sofa and the Office Chair

Erles opens the book with one beautifully simple idea:
We’re the only species that can walk long distances on two legs; smoothly, efficiently, and without falling over.
And yet, modern humans appear to have forgotten how to do it.

A quick note from me, not Earls:
Most people today walk in a way that makes their body work overtime, desperately trying to compensate for whatever they’re calling movement.
The foot does nothing useful.
The knees are holding on for dear life.
The pelvis creaks like an old garden gate no one’s oiled since 1993.
The ribcage is folded in on itself like a collapsed deckchair.
The arms no longer swing, they just… exist.
The head is permanently ahead of schedule.
In the end, walking becomes less a graceful human gait and more a sequence of tiny collapses that the body politely pretends are intentional.

Back to Earls, the main message of the chapter:
Humans don’t just walk.
We’re meant to walk elegantly.

Springy.
Spiralling.
Economically.
Like a well-engineered eco-friendly machine, not a collapsing wardrobe.

Walking, when done properly, is medicine for:
stiffness
poor posture
low activity
dodgy movement patterns

But modern life has made walking inefficient.
And now we have to re-learn it, like trying to teach a cat to Hoover: the enthusiasm is questionable, the technique worse.

Why walking is the ultimate health indicator

Erles makes a key point:
If you want to see how healthy someone is, don’t poke their muscles. Just watch them walk.
Walking tells you everything:
whether the foot actually springs or simply flops
whether the pelvis rotates or sulks
whether the fascia moves or files a complaint
how the weight is distributed
what the ribcage is up to
how the head is compensating
and how much energy is being wasted (usually: loads)

Walking is the number one human movement.
Everything else is an add-on.

Earls sets the tone early: the body is an energy-distribution system.
And here he lines up nicely with Myers:
Walking isn’t about muscle strength.
Walking is about elastic recoil.

Lose that elasticity and the body starts moving through brute force instead of springiness.
That’s when fatigue, aches, and awkward wobbles appear, not because you’re getting old, but because you’ve lost fascial bounce and adopted a questionable movement strategy.

A key point: walking is a wave, not “left foot, right foot”

Erles introduces one of the core principles:
Walking is a full-body wave travelling from the foot to the head.
If one link breaks, the whole wave goes sideways.
This idea forms the backbone of the book.

Chapter summary:
1. You’re not merely walking. You’re a two-legged spring system that’s forgotten how to spring.
2. Modern life ruins walking faster than a takeaway ruins your diet plan.
3. Your gait reveals more about you than an MRI, and far more than a chat with your mum.
4. Proper walking isn’t “left, right...” it’s a fascial wave rolling through the whole body.
5. Lose the wave, and you lose the quality of movement.

15/11/2025

You can keep saying you’re fine, just tired, a bit stiff lately… but your body doesn’t lie.
It screams through muscle tension, twists your joints, steals your breath, throws in sleepless nights and stress for good measure.
You call it fatigue. I call it a system jam.
My tool? Deep fascial and therapeutic massage.
It’s not candles and spa music, it’s about giving your nervous system a break, helping you recover after injuries, and working through chronic pain you’ve probably accepted as just life now.
It’s when you get off the table and, for the first time in ages, there’s silence inside.
That rare peace you try to find in holidays, meditation, or a glass of wine.
I don’t sell massage.
I bring you back into your body.
I help it breathe, move and feel again.
If you’re done living in a constant “keep it together” mode; welcome.
No battles here. Just release.

Look, fascia isn’t mysticism, it’s biomechanics.
Chronic tension, stress, pain; not karma, just a body that’s forgotten how to relax.
And me? I am reminds it. No crystals, no nonsense, just skilled hands, anatomy, and common sense.
And yes, it works. Tried and tested; on real people, not lab rats.

Book your session now

22/10/2025

Let's get back to Myers..

Chapter 9

The Body’s Orchestra: Who’s the Conductor, and Who’s Playing Out of Tune?
Or: Why Walking Is a Symphony, Not a Soldier’s March

Let’s Talk Fascial Music

After sketching out all his famous lines: back, front, spiral, lateral, deep front and functional; Thomas Myers finally drops the main truth bomb:
The body isn’t a pile of parts. It’s an orchestra.
Every muscle, tendon, and fascia fibre plays its note, and if one goes off-key, the whole piece sounds wrong.
And that, my friends, is why some people walk like a jazz solo, while others march like broken robots.

Integration: Where the Magic Happens

Each fascial line doesn’t do movement, it guides it.
Movement happens when all lines find harmony.
Here’s the line-up:
Superficial Back Line, pulls you backwards.
Superficial Front Line, pulls you forwards.
Spiral Lines, twist and rotate you.
Lateral Lines, keep you stable.
Deep Front Line, holds your body’s axis, like a string through a puppet.

But if one string overtightens and another goes slack, boom, you get postural chaos:
tilted pelvis,
slouched shoulders,
flat, clunky gait,
mystery pain that MRI can’t explain.

It’s not a muscle problem, it’s a teamwork problem.

Movement Model 1: Walking, The Great Exam of the Fascia

Walking is like a duet between the front and back lines, with the spiral lines as the backing vocals.
When you step forward, the front line leads.
When you push off, the back line answers.
And while this happens, the body twists in rhythm, that’s your spiral line doing its magic.
If one side shortens (say, the right posterior chain), your whole body spins to compensate.
That’s when you start waddling like a duck or listing like a pirate’s ship.

Myer's tip: Don’t just look at someone’s legs when they walk. Watch where the body “plays flat”, where tension collapses, and where it strains. That’s where the music is out of tune.

Movement Model 2: Flexion and Extension

Simple on paper:
Flexion → front line leads
Extension → back line answers

But in real life, it’s more like a seesaw.
Fascia redistribute the effort, one tightens, the other relaxes.
That’s why good flexibility isn’t about how far you can bend, but how smoothly your fascia glide past each other.
If it creaks, crackles, or pops, your orchestra needs tuning.

Movement Model 3: Rotation, The Spirals at Work

Rotation is where Myers’ genius really shines.
He shows that nothing in the body rotates alone.
Turn your right shoulder forward, your pelvis subtly rotates left.
That’s fascial counterpoint!
But if one spiral line is stuck, the other has to pick up the slack,
and you end up with chronic pain in your lower back, neck, or knees.
Classic case of one violinist trying to play for the whole section.

Movement Model 4: Lateral Lines, The Unsung Heroes of Balance

These are your body’s stabilisers, the ones keeping you upright when you stand on one leg or reach sideways.

Myers writes:
“If the lateral lines disappeared, we’d topple like dominoes after the first step.”

Weak lateral lines? Expect knee pain, tight IT bands, hip wobble, and runner’s woes.
They’re like the bass section, quiet, but remove them, and the whole rhythm collapses.

Fascial Crossroads, Where Lines Meet and Talk

This is where it gets fascinating.
The lines aren’t isolated, they cross, merge, and gossip.
Example 1: Pelvic crossover, where back, front, and spiral lines meet.
When that balance breaks → pelvic tilt → low back pain.
Example 2: Neck-thorax junction, where front meets back.
That’s your classic “office posture”: chin forward, shoulders back, pain everywhere.
Example 3: The foot, the grand fascial knot.
Mess up your arches, and you’ll feel it all the way up to your jaw.

The Clinical Gold

Myers repeats one mantra again and again:
“Don’t treat the pain, restore the context.”
Neck pain? Check the feet.
Back pain? Look at the hips and breathing.
Because the body is a tension web, and when one thread frays, the whole net shifts.

Massage therapists - we’re not just pressing muscles. We’re restoring balance in a living architectural structure.

Metaphor of the Day

The fascial lines are like guitar strings.
Tune one, and the melody sings.
Over-tighten or loosen it, and the whole performance goes flat.
Our job isn’t to knead, it’s to tune.

Practical Steps for the Therapist

Observe posture and gait, don’t rush in.
Spot which lines are overworked or lazy.
Work along the entire line, not just where it hurts.
Reintroduce movement after the session, let the nervous system “update the software.”

Final Thought

Chapter 9 is where Myers makes the fascia come alive.
He turns anatomy from a static map into a living choreography.
Once you see this, you’ll never look at a client as “a tight hamstring” again.
You’ll see a whole kinetic network, an orchestra waiting to be tuned.

29/08/2025

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Pain Management and Massage Therapist in Newark, Lincoln and Nottingham area's.

Therapist Who Believes in Movement, Not Miracles | Helping Bodies Stay Mobile, Strong & Pain-Free

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