- Welcome massageners.
Today we're gonna be working on Angel, our model.
And I'm gonna be talking about the forearm muscles,
flexors and extensors, give you a little bit of anatomy,
physiology, some pathologies, a couple of pathologies.
And also some techniques.
And also, for my Latin American countries.
(speaking foreign language)
So, here we are with, I'm gonna start actually
with a little bit of technique here
and show you some of the muscles that we've got,
that we drew for you.
This is the brachioradialis right here.
So this is a very tight muscle on most people
and here's the pronator teres.
The pronator teres actually presses
the median nerve sometimes.
So a lot a times when people have pain,
especially massage therapists
or people that are on the computers all the time,
it really does start to hurt.
Remember that the median nerve goes into the palmer side
of the hand and the radial nerve feeds the top of the hand.
And the ulnar nerve is these one and a half fingers,
right here, the pinkie and the one next to it.
Radial nerve, radial nerve, and then here it splits,
median and ulnar nerve.
And right here, this muscle right here,
would be the flexor carpi radialis,
the palmaris longus is the tall skinny one,
looks like a palm tree.
It's the only one out of the nine tendons
that does not go through the carpal tunnel.
If you fold your wrist,
you can really see that tendon pop up.
The one that pops up when you flex your wrist,
that's the one, that's the palmaris longus,
it does not go through the carpal tunnel.
Right here we have the flexor digitorum superficialis
and if there's a superficialis,
there's one that's deeper.
We didn't draw all of 'em because it would just
make it look real messy.
So we drew most of 'em.
And then right here on the ulnar side,
you've got the flexor carpi ulnaris.
So the ulnaris is on the ulnar side,
radialis is on the radial side.
And here, the tendons, go right through the carpal tunnel
except for the palmaris longus, okay?
So here you can make sure you massage
all the tendons that go through here.
If you can see, her hand even starts moving.
I like to do a little bit of warming up
of the muscles first.
And the way I start is I do some skin rolling.
Just doing some skin rolling over all the muscles
to warm 'em up.
And I'm really getting to the fascia.
Remember the fascia is that white, slimy looking film
over each and every muscle, it encases every muscle.
I can do some petrissage.
I can do some effleurage.
And I know all of us have seen that,
you know the effleurage and the petrissage.
And of course, when I'm working on a client,
I extend it all the way up to their shoulder.
I don't just focus on this area,
but for the sake of the video,
we're just gonna go ahead and show you some
of the techniques here.
So, when after I do some of the skin rolling
to warm up the fascia,
then I can go into a little bit more detail.
And one of the techniques that I really like to work on
for people with carpal tunnel syndrome
is when they flex and extend,
'cause you're engaging both,
the flexors and the extensors
and I'm gonna ask Angel to flex and extend slowly,
back and forth and I'm putting pressure
and I'm moving down really slowly,
about one inch at a time.
People that have carpal tunnel syndrome,
you wanna do this technique about two or three times
and this really helps them to engage the muscles
and go back a little bit further.
The more pressure you put,
the more that they engage those muscles
and it releases them.
Especially because the radial and median nerve
go through these muscles and you wanna go ahead
and start releasing them 'cause that what causes the pain
when they're being pinched too by the muscles,
if there's not enough blood flow.
If they have ischemia anywhere,
you wanna make sure and get to every muscle here.
So she extends all the way and then she flexes.
Flexing, remember is the closing of an angle.
Extension is the opening of an angle.
So you wanna do this two or three times
for someone that has carpal tunnel.
If you wanna go a little faster the second time,
but I really go very slowly and one inch strips.
Now another one that is part of this one
is I'm gonna have her do adduction and abduction.
And she's gonna tuck in her thumb,
she's gonna go back and forth.
This is also very good.
This is actually part of the test
for carpal tunnel syndrome.
'Cause if it hurts when she goes adduction,
that's really pulling on the tendons that go through there.
So this is very good to really get all the muscles engaged.
And if your thumbs get sore,
you know, you don't need to put that much pressure.
But you wanna do this like I said,
two or three times for each side.
Okay and then you can do one at a time.
You can get one muscle at a time.
Remember that you work 'em origin to insertion.
The origin's on the medial epicondyle of the humerus
and the lateral epicondyle of the humerus.
This is where they originate and then they go into
the ulnar side or the radial side
and you work the origin, belly, insertion.
Origin, belly, insertion.
Remember you also always wanna push towards the heart,
the blood towards the heart.
We have veins and they have little valves
that close after the blood passes,
so you don't wanna apply pressure towards the hand,
you always wanna apply away, towards the heart.
That way you don't damage the valves.
Right here, is the pronator teres
and right here at the pronator teres,
the median nerve goes through here.
A lot a times they have a big trigger point right here.
So you wanna release this muscle right here
so that it doesn't cause too much pain into the palm.
The palmaris longus,
it goes all the way into the aponeurosis
of the palm of the hand.
So this, we just drew it up to here,
but remember the tendons are long and thin
and they go through the carpal tunnel
and they extend into the palm.
And they're the ones that move the fingers,
all these muscles.
And you're like, I can move her fingers just by going down.
See how her hand is moving?
'Cause this is what controls your digits.
Your muscles here, flexors and extensors,
is what controls all your fingers.
So for people that are on the computer all the time,
you wanna make sure and work around the wrist
and each and every one of these muscles right here,
from origin, to insertion, the belly, one at a time.
(light music)
These are the extensors.
The extensors are on the hairy part side.
The flexors are on the side that have no hair.
So right here, the extensor carpi radialis longus.
And if you have a longus,
then you have a carpus radialis brevis.
Right next to that would be the extensor digitorum
and then the extensor carpi ulnaris.
Ulnaris go on the ulnar side.
Radialis go on the radial side.
And if they have trigger points like here's
a really good trigger point right there
and I just hold it from 10 to 15 seconds.
I can move up, like half inch at a time to the (laughs)
you feel that? - I feel that one (laughing).
- [Maria] Okay, on a scale from one to 10,
what pressure would you say that is?
- [Angel] It's not the pre, the pressure's good,
it's about a six. - A six, okay,
remember to, - but the feel is intense.
- yeah. - I can feel it
in my middle finger. - Oh yeah, there you go.
So this would be the radial nerve right there.
So you wanna make sure,
and you could even grasp it right here.
- [Angel] It feels so good.
- It's a good hurt, huh? - Yeah.
- [Maria] See and that's what I mean
about for a massage therapist
that this one's really something you wanna work out.
(skin rubbing)
This is actually from the Chinese massage.
- [Angel] I really like this.
- Yeah, and I can put more pressure.
You can go to the origins,
make sure you get all the origins.
So to work on somebody that has tennis elbow,
you wanna go here.
If they have golfer's elbow, it's on the inside
on the median side of the epicondyle.
And tennis elbow is on the lateral side.
You can do trigger points you know by holding
from eight to 15 seconds on each.
I have most of my clients have
trigger points in the pronator teres
and the brachial radialis.
So you wanna make sure and even target one muscle
at a time, or one trigger point at a time.
Especially people that are on the computers
or they play tennis or even baseball players.
These techniques that I just show you,
the stripping, you know down,
that's really, really good for people that are
on the computer all the time, that use their thumb.
And when you do this, when they tuck their thumb in,
tuck your thumb in,
and they flex it, like adduction and abduction,
if that hurts, more than likely they're already starting
to have carpal tunnel syndrome.
Another technique that you can ask them
is if they grasp and they drop things,
that already, you know, they're having problems
with their flexors and extensors.
And one of the things that I can tell you
that I've really been able to help a lot a people
that have even had surgery already
and then they come in and I work on 'em
and they find so much more relief
because the muscles are so tight,
they're so ischemic that they really cause so much pain
and people are just, they just wanna find relief
and the massage really helps them relieve
all that pressure.
And it starts letting up, letting the blood flow.
Remember, blood flow is what brings nutrients
to the muscles.
We're not miracle workers.
The body's the one that's the miracle worker
because it brings in the blood flow
and blood brings in oxygen, nutrients,
to the muscles and then they start healing themselves.
So this is the stripping.
This is the petrissage.
This is the skin rolling.
And then you can do some effleurage.
(skin rubbing)
You really wanna get to the pollicis muscle
which is right here.
Also in traditional Chinese medicine,
this is called the Hegu point.
You wanna get in between all the metacarpals.
(skin rubbing)
Okay massageners, don't forget that these techniques
are very good for carpal tunnel syndrome
and also for musicians, for gamers,
I've found one of my clients is a gamer
and she really hurt her thumb and couldn't work
and I really had to work the brachial radialis.
Also for people that are on the computer a lot
and massage therapists, let's don't forget our arms.
You know if you're a trading massagist,
make sure you trade massages and work all this area
for massage therapists too.
And I wanna say a special thank you to Angel, our model,
who is now moving to Fort Bragg
and you can follow her on Instagram @brbmassage
and she's been just so wonderful
and I want you to follow here, okay?
And we're gonna keep tabs on you.
Thank you Angel for being so beautiful and perfect
and being here. - I love you.
- I love you too (laughs).
We're gonna miss you, our whole crew's gonna miss you.
So, thank you Angel.
And so guys don't forget to follow me on Instagram.
Don't forget to subscribe, hit that notifications button
and all the links are below.
Till the next time, create a good day.
- Hey, as you guys know, I'm also a massage therapist.
I learned everything I know from Maria
and I'm starting my own business
in Fort Bragg, North Carolina called Battle Ready Bodywork.
This wonderful, talented artist, Michael,
he's the one that does the muscles.
He made this for me, so I wanted to give him a shout out.
Follow his work on Instagram @artofmichaelcarlosiii.