Kyphosis is a distortion of the neck and upper and middle back usually caused by poor posture known
as upper cross syndrome. Which is characterized by moderate to mild hump forming at the upper
back and lower neck region. Rounded shoulders, forward head posture, tight chest muscles,
and weak stretched middle back muscles. In this region we have the superficial fascia
that's been sectioned, actually. It's quite thick here. And this is the spot where we
have what is commonly known as the dowager's hump and there's a mild representation of the
dowager's hump in this cadaver's structure. And that tissue is a very dense fibrous tissue and
the fat that intervenes amongst the fibers is more of a dark brownish, redish color as opposed
to a light yellow. And that represents a stored packet of energy which has its own psychodynamic
qualities that can be discussed and explored. But this isn't complete then. This dissection.
There's still more to go to completely reveal deep fascia mass beneath superficial fascia
mass. But I thought it would be important to share this middling step between the layers.
Erik Dalton: What I'm going to do is put my left hand on his forehead and the index finger
and thumb of right hand so I can palpate the suboccipital muscles. And don't be real light, go
in and feel the tension. All we want to do - this is not a treatment technique, all we want to do is
feel. the tension in the suboccipital muscles. How tight are the suboccipital muscles, because then
we're going to get them seated and see if there's a difference. So try to get an idea if one side
is tighter than the other. Feel if it gets better when he sits down. Ok, so he's standing and I Feel
some tension in the right suboccipital muscles. Let's have you sit down. He's seated, it's better.
It's a little bit better on the right. It's a little bit looser in the tight right suboccipital
area. Not a lot but a little bit. Ok, what does that tell you? That tells you that when he's
standing, it's part of the neck problem is coming from the pelvis, it's coming from below. Because,
when he's standing position, if the suboccipitals get worse then the tonic neck reflexes might be
the problem. This is a very simple test and a very important test. All we're going to do is
ask him to raise their head off the table and the first motion that we want to watch is what is the
chin doing. If the chin is coming straight up in the air toward the ceiling in the first one inch,
we want to know that. Or does the chin tuck toward the chest in the first one
inch. Those are the two key things that we're looking for. So, Luke, raise your chin up. Ok,
what did you see there? Luke raised his chin, the first movement was more toward the ceiling then it
was toward his chest. This is the motion that the longus colli and longus capitis - which supposed
to be the neck flexors were hypotonic and tight and overpowering the extensors. This is the motion
it would be. THey would raise his head with that and there would be a ducking and then the head
would come up like that with the chin tucked. If they're in good shape. Ver rarely find people that
have those longus capitis colli that will do that. Now there is young people will usually have this
motion. Now this is what Luke was doing, came up like that and that's what most of your people will
do. They'll come up like that and then down. Ok, so notice that, because that tells you what? That
your anteriro scalene and your sternoclavomastoids still need some more work. These anterior muscles,
we don't like to work on them because they're very very tender but they need a lot of work. You lean
into it with both hands so that if you were to let go you'd fall forward. Get you back far enough and
get your weight back. keep your lumbar lordosis. And then you ask - I'm going to ask Luke to gently
lift his shoulder toward his ear to a count of three or four or five, gently gently. two. three.
four. five. and when he relaxes I sweep toward the spine. Lateral to medial. I'm going to come
over and try to pull some of this tissue back. The trapezius and everything is wanting to roll
forward. I'm going to want to pull some of that back. I'm not going to put a lot of pressure on
the first rib, but I am going to try to sweep all of the myofasical tissue layers back. So,
again, I'm going to ask Luke to gently lift his shoulder toward his ear and I am going to
resist with both hands. and when he relaxes, I'm going to sweep back toward the spine. But don't
jump up on the spinus processes. Ok, so you can just do general loosening techniques in there,
whatever you want to do, some filler techniques, but always come back lateral to medial. The reason
we're going lateral to medial is because in forward head posture the longisimus has
a tendency to go wide and when it does we need to move it back toward the midline in order to create
extension. To allow the spine to come back and help get rid of dowager's humps and things like
that. I'm going to ask Luke to gently lift his head up, and down. And up and down. While I go
into [..] Why am I doing that? Because I'm putting pressure on the transverse processes and if
there's a transverse process that is not closing, if there's a bump on this side, the joint is not
closing on the opposite side, because there's some restriction in the fourth layer muscles that are
preventing it from closing. If I go down and hook the fascia and he goes up and down and I'm on the
transverse processes, it'll help that joint slide back into place. If it doesn't, you refer him to
your chiropractic buddies, that's why you keep good referral basis because some of these joints
are fixated and they're not meant to be mobilized by using muscles only. they have fascet nipping,
cartilage degradation, and they're not going to close using this technique. And that's fine just
do what you can. It's nice to have a biomechanical language so that you can communicate with these
people or possibly work in the offices with chiropractors or physical therapists, PT physical
therapy assistants, or osteopathic manipulators. Now go on the other side, he's still raising his
head, lowering it and raising and lowering. I'm dragging the groove with my forearm all the way.
Also I like to use the flying V. This is the one that I use in the first set of videos. It's a
technique that I thought I invented, but somebody told me that they have a Chinese technique like
this. What I do is I come in groove and I have my strong hand down my dominant hand down, index
finger on one side of the groove middle finger on the other side of the groove then i cross over
and do the same thing with these fingers. And so now I got the flying V. Lowering the table
a little bit where i can get some pressure. And now he does the same thing, he raises and lowers
and if i find a spot that is hypotonic very very tight then i hold and i wait for a release. And
I go all the way down the thoracic and I come back up and start back up at the dowager's hump
area. And this thing you want to do with your thumbs. I like to get in there with my thumbs,
now raise and lower - this is excellent technique for helping with dowagers' hump.