SaveYourself.ca • Sensible advice for aches, pains & injuries
This page is a complete directory to all content. For some ideas about the best places to start, or for specific pain problems, try the Reading Guide for Patients. There's also a guide for pros.
Article categories…
Short updates, announcements, news items, and commentary.
Several SaveYourself.ca tutorials are by far the most detailed information available on the topic, and book-length. Remember, there is also a separate reading guide for patients that lists all pain problems covered on the website.
| size | updated | |
| pro Save Yourself from Low Back Pain! — Low back pain myths debunked and all your treatment options reviewed | 79,000 | 3/21/12 |
| pro Save Yourself from Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome! — Patellofemoral pain syndrome (aka runner’s knee) explained and discussed in great detail, including every imaginable self-treatment option and all the available scientific evidence | 48,000 | 12/30/11 |
| pro Save Yourself from Neck Pain! — All your treatment and self-help options for a crick in the neck explained and reviewed | 51,000 | 12/14/11 |
| pro Save Yourself from Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain Syndrome! — Trigger points (also known as muscle knots) & myofascial pain syndrome, explained and discussed in great detail, including every imaginable self-treatment and therapy option for difficult cases | 117,500 | 01/12/12 |
| pro Save Yourself from Plantar Fasciitis! — Plantar fasciitis explained and discussed in great detail, including every possible treatment option, and all supported by recent scientific research | 22,000 | 12/21/11 |
| pro Save Yourself from Shin Splints! — Causes and treatment options for shin splints explained and discussed in great detail, especially shin pain caused by myofascial trigger points, compartment syndrome, medial tibial stress syndrome, and stress fracture | 21,000 | 12/13/11 |
| pro Save Yourself from IT Band Syndrome! — All your treatment options for Iliotibial Band Syndrome reviewed in great detail, with clear explanations of recent scientific research supporting every key point | 47,000 | 2/27/12 |
| pro Save Yourself from Muscle Strain! — Muscle strain (pulled muscle) and muscle pain explained and discussed in great detail, plus every imaginable treatment option | 18,000 | 11/02/11 |
| Save Yourself from Tension Headaches! — Simple advice on healing from chronic tension headaches, also known as fibrositic headaches | 1,100 | 8/04/09 |
| Save Yourself from Tennis Elbow! — Straight-talking advice on healing from this common tendinitis (lateral epicondylitis) … which doesn't just affect tennis players | 1,600 | 3/22/10 |
| Save Yourself from Insomnia! — Serious tips from a veteran of the insomnia wars | 5,000 | 9/12/11 |
| pro Repetitive Strain Injuries Tutorial — Five surprising and important facts about repetitive strain injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, or iliotibial band syndrome | 11,000 | 1/12/12 |
| Save Yourself From Sciatica! — A basic tutorial about buttock and leg pain | 4,250 | 8/15/04 |
Many treatments for pain are unproved or disproved. I deflate dogma, hinder hype, and critique quackery.
| size | updated | |
| There Is Only One Health Care — Either health is cared for or it is not cared for, whether we call it “alternative” or “mainstream” | 700 | 6/27/09 |
| pro SSRI Antidepressants Are Not Medicine — Frightening side effects, cover-ups on the record, and no reason to believe they do what they are supposed to | 2,750 | 4/12/12 |
| pro Extraordinary Claims — A guide to critical thinking, skepticism and smart reading about health care on the web | 2,500 | 8/28/04 |
| pro Does Massage Therapy Work? — A review of the science of massage therapy … such as it is | 9,500 | 3/22/12 |
| pro (Almost) Never Use Ice on Low Back Pain! — An important exception to conventional wisdom about icing and heating | 3,500 | 7/12/10 |
| pro Quite a Stretch — Stretching research clearly shows that a stretching habit isn’t good for much of anything that people think it is | 9,000 | 11/02/18 |
| pro Stand Up Straight — A detailed exploration of concepts in posture and posture exercises | 5,000 | 6/26/08 |
| The Humble Therapist — Why you need to be skeptical when your massage therapist, physiotherapist or chiropractor tells you where the pain is really coming from | 2,500 | 6/12/11 |
| pro Water Fever and the Fear of Chronic Dehydration — Do we really need eight glasses of water per day? | 2,750 | 1/26/11 |
| pro You Can’t Beat Muscle Soreness — The myth of prevention or treatment for muscle fever, nature’s little tax on exercise | 3,750 | 2/03/12 |
| pro Does Chiropractic Work? — An introduction to chiropractic controversies | 3,750 | 7/25/11 |
| Do You Believe in Qi? — How to embrace a central concept of Eastern mysticism without being a flake | 700 | 5/31/11 |
| pro Do Epsom Salts Work? — There is (still) no good reason to believe that Epsom salt baths aid recovery from muscle pain, soreness or injury | 6,500 | 8/26/11 |
| pro Stretching for Trigger Points — Is muscle knot release a good reason to stretch? | 1,100 | 12/22/06 |
| pro Alternative to What? — “Alternative” health care professionals need to decide what they are really the alternative to | 3,500 | 1/14/11 |
| Be Careful What You Pay Attention To — A kinda spooky paradox in rehabilitation | 425 | 5/11/07 |
| Review of Inside Chiropractic: A Patient’s Guide, a book by Samuel Homola — An essential guide for anyone who likes a good spine crunch, but is concerned that the chiropractic profession might be imperfect | 1,500 | 1/02/10 |
| Does “Lose the Back Pain” Actually Help Low Back Pain? — A review of the popular low back pain treatment system | 1,600 | 3/21/12 |
| pro Your Back Is Not “Out” and Your Leg Length is Fine — The story of the obsession with crookedness in the physical therapies | 9,500 | 3/21/12 |
| Review of ART® Therapy — Concepts and controversies in the “Active Release Techniques®” (ART) method of massage therapy for chiropractors | 1,800 | 3/10/12 |
| Canadian Running Magazine Gets ITBS All Wrong — Another running magazine spreads myths about iliotibial band syndrome | 650 | 7/03/08 |
| Does Craniosacral Therapy Work? — Craniosacral therapists make big promises, but can’t agree on diagnoses and have failed to pass fair scientific tests of efficacy | 1,400 | 12/07/11 |
| pro The Unstretchables — Eleven major muscles you can’t stretch, no matter how hard you try | 1,400 | 11/16/11 |
| Review of Trigger Point Performance Therapy Website — Products like the “TP Massage Ball” and the “TP Hip Dysfunction Kit” are not as special as claimed, and are presented with poor quality information about trigger point therapy | 900 | 11/17/08 |
| pro Does Traumeel Work? — A detailed review of Traumeel® and other homeopathic/herbal arnica creams used for muscular pain, joint pain, sports injuries, bruising, and post-surgical inflammation | 6,500 | 6/24/11 |
| The Power of Avogadro Compels You! — James Randi and Alexa Ray Joel try to poison themselves — one of them deliberately and the other accidentally making homeopathy look 10X sillier than it already did | 1,800 | 8/17/11 |
| pro Does Acupuncture Work for Pain? — A review of modern acupuncture evidence and myths, particularly with regards to treating low back pain and other common pain problems | 6,000 | 5/09/12 |
| Healer Syndrome — Therapists who think they are God’s gift to therapy | 650 | 02/24/09 |
| Bogus Citations — References to “scientific evidence” are routinely misleading and scammy | 1,800 | 11/23/11 |
| pro Does Hip Strengthening Work for IT Band Syndrome? — Despite its popularity, “weak hips” is a weak theory, and there is no compelling evidence that hip strengthening can treat or prevent running overuse injuries of leg | 4,250 | 12/29/10 |
| pro Why “Science”-Based Instead of “Evidence”-Based? — The rationale for making medicine more science-based | 1,800 | 11/26/10 |
| pro The “Impress Me” Test — Most controversial therapies are fighting over scraps of scientific evidence | 375 | 1/14/11 |
| pro A Critical Review of Myofascial Release (MFR) Therapy — Concepts and controversies in one of the most popular of all styles of massage therapy | 5,500 | 9/05/11 |
| pro Modality Empires — A tradition of ego-driven treatment methods in manual therapy | 1,000 | 7/19/11 |
| Runner’s World magazine cites me as an expert on stretching in an article about challenging conventional wisdom — … but gives a boost to a new myth at the same time | 650 | 08/26/09 |
| The Graston Technique® — Magic steel massage tools that supposedly scrape the pain away, and “resonate” in the therapist’s hands | 2,300 | 1/29/10 |
| Thixotropy is nifty, but it’s not therapy — A curious property of connective tissue is often claimed as a therapy | 425 | 4/20/12 |
| Psoas, So What? — Massage therapy for the psoas major and iliacus (iliopsoas) muscles is not that big a deal | 550 | 3/23/10 |
| Should You Drink Water After Massage? — Only if you’re thirsty! Hydration and massage are not detoxification treatments | 2,500 | |
| pro Ioannidis: Making Medical Science Look Bad Since 2005 — A famous and excellent scientific paper … with a dangerously misleading title | 2,400 | 5/09/12 |
| pro Do “Nutraceuticals” Help Arthritis and other Aches and Pains? — Debunkery and analysis of supplements and food-like medicines (nutraceuticals), especially glucosamine, chondroitin, and creatine | 4,000 | 3/16/12 |
| Wow, You’re Really Tight — The three most common words in massage therapy are pointless | 1,500 | 3/27/12 |
| Spinal Nerve Roots Do Not Hook Up to Organs! — One of the key “selling points” for chiropractic care is the anatomically impossible premise that your spinal nerve roots are important to your general health | 2,000 | 3/21/12 |
| The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) — The popular screening system for athletes failed to detect recent injuries in a new study | 3,000 | 7/14/11 |
| A Stretching Experiment — What happens when you stretch your hamstrings intensely for several minutes a day in a steam room? | 3,750 | 11/30/11 |
Empower yourself with basics and principles of self-treatment — a “teach a man to fish” approach.
| size | updated | |
| Massage Therapy for Tension Headaches — Perfect Spot No. 1, in the suboccipital muscles of the neck | 1,700 | 6/03/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Low Back Pain — Perfect Spot No. 2, in the thoracolumbar corner | 800 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Shin Splints — Perfect Spot No. 3, in the tibialis anterior muscle of the shin | 1,400 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Neck Pain, Chest Pain, Arm Pain and Upper Back Pain — Perfect Spot No. 4, an area of common trigger points in the peculiar scalene muscle group of the throat | 1,900 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Tennis Elbow and Wrist Pain — Perfect Spot No. 5, in the common extensor tendon of the forearm | 1,200 | 11/18/11 |
| Massage Therapy for Back Pain, Hip Pain and Sciatica — Perfect Spot No. 6, an area of common trigger points in the gluteus medius and minimus muscles of the hip | 1,200 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Bruxism, Jaw Clenching, and TMJ Syndrome — Perfect Spot No. 7, the masseter muscle of the jaw | 1,100 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Your Quads — Perfect Spot No. 8, another one for runners, the distal vastus lateralis of the quadriceps group | 1,600 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Your Pectorals — Perfect Spot No. 9, in the pectoralis major muscle of the chest | 750 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Tired Feet (and Plantar Fasciitis!) — Perfect Spot No. 10, in the arch muscles of the foot | 900 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Upper Back Pain — Perfect Area No. 11, the erector spinae muscle group of the upper back | 1,000 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Low Back Pain (So Low That It’s Not In the Back) — Perfect Spot No. 12, a common (almost universal) trigger point in the superolateral origin of the gluteus maximus muscle | 2,200 | 11/23/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Low Back Pain (Again) — Perfect Spot No. 13, The Most Classic Low Back Pain Trigger Point | 700 | 10/07/07 |
| Pain & Injury Survival Tips — Dozens of ideas for evidence-based rehabilitation and self-treatment for common pain problems and injuries | 8,000 | 6/3/11 |
| A Better Hot Bath — Tips and tricks for getting the most out of the oldest form of therapy | 2,200 | 5/04/11 |
| Contrast Hydrotherapy — Exercising tissues with quick temperature changes for injury recovery, especially repetitive strain injuries | 2,300 | 2/17/12 |
| Five Ways To Prevent Sports Injuries — Get warm, co-ordinated, relaxed, smart and mobilized! | 475 | 10/04/10 |
| Friction Massage Therapy for Tendonitis — A guide to a simple self-massage technique often helpful in resolving tendonitis | 1,400 | 8/02/08 |
| Hydrotherapy — An introduction to healing with water | 800 | 3/18/10 |
| Icing for Injuries, Tendinitis and Inflammation — Become a cryotherapy master | 3,750 | 1/27/12 |
| pro Mobilize! — Dynamic joint mobility drills are an alternative to stretching that “massages you with movement” | 6,000 | 4/30/12 |
| pro (Almost) Never Use Ice on Low Back Pain! — An important exception to conventional wisdom about icing and heating | 3,500 | 7/12/10 |
| Posture Exercises for Posture Correction — Some techniques and strategies for correcting your posture … or should you even bother? | 2,750 | 9/15/10 |
| Tennis Ball Massage for Myofascial Pain Syndrome — Some creative tips on using an ordinary tennis ball and other massage tools to self-treat muscle knots and myofascial trigger points | 1,200 | 8/03/08 |
| Unconventional Ergonomics — Five creative ergonomics tips you don’t hear as much about as the usual stuff | 1,000 | 5/03/06 |
| Wobble Cushion Technique — Instructions for chair warriors on the best usage of Disc ‘O’ Sit, Balance Fit or Sissel wobble cushions | 1,100 | 5/17/10 |
| pro The ‘Use It Or Lose It’ Principle — The importance of stimulation and movement in healing | 1,000 | 2/23/12 |
| Basic Self-Massage Tips for Myofascial Trigger Points — Learn how to massage your own trigger points (muscle knots) | 1,400 | 8/03/08 |
| pro The Art of Rest — The finer points of resting for injury & pain rehabilitation (hint: it’s a bit trickier than you might think) | 4,000 | 2/18/12 |
| Endurance Training for Injury Rehabilitation — What to do when your usual strength training workout isn’t working … or isn’t an option | 1,200 | 11/30/06 |
| Collateral and Re-Injury Prevention — Don’t underestimate the importance of prevention … even after you’ve already been injured! | 850 | 11/27/06 |
| pro Stretching for Trigger Points — Is muscle knot release a good reason to stretch? | 1,100 | 12/22/06 |
| Strength Training Surprises — Why building muscle is easier, better, and more important than you thought, and its vital role in injury rehabilitation | 4,250 | 5/06/11 |
| pro Microbreaking — Prevent low back pain and neck cricks with lots of little breaks | 1,600 | 9/17/11 |
| pro Pain is an Opinion — What recent pain science can do for your chronic pain right now | 5,000 | 5/09/12 |
| pro Progressive Training — How to take “baby steps” to recovery from an injury or pain problem | 1,900 | 2/18/12 |
| Using Heat for Pain Problems — When and how to apply heat for therapy … and when not to! | 1,600 | 7/12/10 |
| The Tyranny of Yoga and Meditation! — Do you really need to try them? How much do they matter for recovery from conditions like low back pain? | 1,500 | 4/26/12 |
| The Great Ice vs. Heat Confusion Debacle — A quick guide that explains when to ice, when to heat, when not to, and why | 600 | 7/12/10 |
| The Bath Trick for Trigger Point Release — A clever way of combining self-treatment techniques to self-treat your trigger points (muscle knots) | 550 | 7/06/08 |
| Two Tricks for Learning to Relax Your Jaw — Helpful for temporomandibular joint syndrome, bruxism, clenching and grinding | 650 | 1/05/09 |
| Review of the ShiatsuBag and ShiatsuBalls — A “bag of balls” is an interesting and useful self-massage tool | 850 | 04/02/09 |
| Water Yoga — 6 unusual ways to use a swimming pool for therapeutic exercise | 1,300 | 5/07/12 |
| The Trigger Point Symptom Checker — An interview with creator Jeff Lutz about a unique online visual database of common muscular trigger points (muscle “knots”) | 1,700 | 5/26/10 |
| pro Less is Not Less — Go to the gym much less frequently and still gain strength just as fast (or so close it really doesn’t matter to anyone but bodybuilders) | 6,000 | 7/15/11 |
| Massage reduces inflammation and promotes mitochondria? — The making of a new massage myth from a high-tech study of muscle samples after intense exercise | 4,000 | 2/15/12 |
Critical analysis of popular therapies, and other options you may not have considered.
| size | updated | |
| Massage Therapy for Tension Headaches — Perfect Spot No. 1, in the suboccipital muscles of the neck | 1,700 | 6/03/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Low Back Pain — Perfect Spot No. 2, in the thoracolumbar corner | 800 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Shin Splints — Perfect Spot No. 3, in the tibialis anterior muscle of the shin | 1,400 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Neck Pain, Chest Pain, Arm Pain and Upper Back Pain — Perfect Spot No. 4, an area of common trigger points in the peculiar scalene muscle group of the throat | 1,900 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Tennis Elbow and Wrist Pain — Perfect Spot No. 5, in the common extensor tendon of the forearm | 1,200 | 11/18/11 |
| Massage Therapy for Back Pain, Hip Pain and Sciatica — Perfect Spot No. 6, an area of common trigger points in the gluteus medius and minimus muscles of the hip | 1,200 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Bruxism, Jaw Clenching, and TMJ Syndrome — Perfect Spot No. 7, the masseter muscle of the jaw | 1,100 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Your Quads — Perfect Spot No. 8, another one for runners, the distal vastus lateralis of the quadriceps group | 1,600 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Your Pectorals — Perfect Spot No. 9, in the pectoralis major muscle of the chest | 750 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Tired Feet (and Plantar Fasciitis!) — Perfect Spot No. 10, in the arch muscles of the foot | 900 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Upper Back Pain — Perfect Area No. 11, the erector spinae muscle group of the upper back | 1,000 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Low Back Pain (So Low That It’s Not In the Back) — Perfect Spot No. 12, a common (almost universal) trigger point in the superolateral origin of the gluteus maximus muscle | 2,200 | 11/23/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Low Back Pain (Again) — Perfect Spot No. 13, The Most Classic Low Back Pain Trigger Point | 700 | 10/07/07 |
| An Open and Closed Case — An explanation for a strange duality of muscle sensation observed in massage therapy | 1,800 | 7/20/05 |
| Friction Massage Therapy for Tendonitis — A guide to a simple self-massage technique often helpful in resolving tendonitis | 1,400 | 8/02/08 |
| How Many Muscles? — A (slightly tongue-in-cheek) tally of the body’s many muscles | 750 | 5/03/06 |
| I See Muscle — Shining light on the muscle tissue blind spot | 475 | 4/12/05 |
| pro Does Massage Therapy Work? — A review of the science of massage therapy … such as it is | 9,500 | 3/22/12 |
| Tennis Ball Massage for Myofascial Pain Syndrome — Some creative tips on using an ordinary tennis ball and other massage tools to self-treat muscle knots and myofascial trigger points | 1,200 | 8/03/08 |
| The Body Remembers — How your body can “store” emotional experience in your tissues, and experience them again during massage therapy | 550 | 10/29/05 |
| The Humble Therapist — Why you need to be skeptical when your massage therapist, physiotherapist or chiropractor tells you where the pain is really coming from | 2,500 | 6/12/11 |
| Why Massage Makes You Tingle — The physiology of sensation in muscle tissue | 900 | 6/26/04 |
| Why Massage Therapy? — An attempt to explain the magic of touch therapy, and why I decided to become an Registered Massage Therapist | 3,000 | 4/17/11 |
| pro You Can’t Beat Muscle Soreness — The myth of prevention or treatment for muscle fever, nature’s little tax on exercise | 3,750 | 2/03/12 |
| Basic Self-Massage Tips for Myofascial Trigger Points — Learn how to massage your own trigger points (muscle knots) | 1,400 | 8/03/08 |
| Measuring Progress in Massage Therapy — How do you know whether or not massage therapy is working for you? | 1,300 | 9/22/08 |
| Every little thing a nice therapist does is magic — Loyalty to a physical therapist is often misguided and has little or nothing to do with how well treatment is actually working | 650 | 11/16/10 |
| The Pressure Question in Massage Therapy — What’s the right amount of pressure to apply to your muscles in massage therapy and self-massage? | 3,000 | 8/26/11 |
| Do you know a good massage therapist in _______? — Three quick ways to find decent medical massage or trigger point therapy in your own area | 800 | 5/01/10 |
| Massage therapy is teamwork — There is only so much that massage therapy can do without your help | 275 | 5/27/07 |
| “But I’ve Already Tried Massage Therapy …” — The delicate issue of trying to find skilful treatment for myofascial trigger points (muscle knots) | 2,300 | 9/23/08 |
| Review of ART® Therapy — Concepts and controversies in the “Active Release Techniques®” (ART) method of massage therapy for chiropractors | 1,800 | 3/10/12 |
| Getting On Your Nerves — Can you damage your nerves when self-massaging? | 600 | 4/11/12 |
| Bad Therapy Journal — A diary of disappointing therapy experiences with massage therapists, physiotherapists and chiropractors | 1,800 | |
| The Trigger Point Symptom Checker — An interview with creator Jeff Lutz about a unique online visual database of common muscular trigger points (muscle “knots”) | 1,700 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage reduces inflammation and promotes mitochondria? — The making of a new massage myth from a high-tech study of muscle samples after intense exercise | 4,000 | 2/15/12 |
| The Humble Therapist — Why you need to be skeptical when your massage therapist, physiotherapist or chiropractor tells you where the pain is really coming from | 2,500 | 6/12/11 |
| pro Does Chiropractic Work? — An introduction to chiropractic controversies | 3,750 | 7/25/11 |
| Every little thing a nice therapist does is magic — Loyalty to a physical therapist is often misguided and has little or nothing to do with how well treatment is actually working | 650 | 11/16/10 |
| Review of Inside Chiropractic: A Patient’s Guide, a book by Samuel Homola — An essential guide for anyone who likes a good spine crunch, but is concerned that the chiropractic profession might be imperfect | 1,500 | 1/02/10 |
| pro Your Back Is Not “Out” and Your Leg Length is Fine — The story of the obsession with crookedness in the physical therapies | 9,500 | 3/21/12 |
| Review of ART® Therapy — Concepts and controversies in the “Active Release Techniques®” (ART) method of massage therapy for chiropractors | 1,800 | 3/10/12 |
| Spinal Nerve Roots Do Not Hook Up to Organs! — One of the key “selling points” for chiropractic care is the anatomically impossible premise that your spinal nerve roots are important to your general health | 2,000 | 3/21/12 |
| pro Does Acupuncture Work for Pain? — A review of modern acupuncture evidence and myths, particularly with regards to treating low back pain and other common pain problems | 6,000 | 5/09/12 |
The most satisfying and therapeutically significant places on the human body to massage. (Detailed spot index included in each article.)
| size | updated | |
| Massage Therapy for Tension Headaches — Perfect Spot No. 1, in the suboccipital muscles of the neck | 1,700 | 6/03/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Low Back Pain — Perfect Spot No. 2, in the thoracolumbar corner | 800 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Shin Splints — Perfect Spot No. 3, in the tibialis anterior muscle of the shin | 1,400 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Neck Pain, Chest Pain, Arm Pain and Upper Back Pain — Perfect Spot No. 4, an area of common trigger points in the peculiar scalene muscle group of the throat | 1,900 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Tennis Elbow and Wrist Pain — Perfect Spot No. 5, in the common extensor tendon of the forearm | 1,200 | 11/18/11 |
| Massage Therapy for Back Pain, Hip Pain and Sciatica — Perfect Spot No. 6, an area of common trigger points in the gluteus medius and minimus muscles of the hip | 1,200 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Bruxism, Jaw Clenching, and TMJ Syndrome — Perfect Spot No. 7, the masseter muscle of the jaw | 1,100 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Your Quads — Perfect Spot No. 8, another one for runners, the distal vastus lateralis of the quadriceps group | 1,600 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Your Pectorals — Perfect Spot No. 9, in the pectoralis major muscle of the chest | 750 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Tired Feet (and Plantar Fasciitis!) — Perfect Spot No. 10, in the arch muscles of the foot | 900 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Upper Back Pain — Perfect Area No. 11, the erector spinae muscle group of the upper back | 1,000 | 5/26/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Low Back Pain (So Low That It’s Not In the Back) — Perfect Spot No. 12, a common (almost universal) trigger point in the superolateral origin of the gluteus maximus muscle | 2,200 | 11/23/10 |
| Massage Therapy for Low Back Pain (Again) — Perfect Spot No. 13, The Most Classic Low Back Pain Trigger Point | 700 | 10/07/07 |
An unusual blend of ideas about therapeutic exercise and rehabilitation.
| size | updated | |
| Pain & Injury Survival Tips — Dozens of ideas for evidence-based rehabilitation and self-treatment for common pain problems and injuries | 8,000 | 6/3/11 |
| Always Running the Same Way — The trouble with running on concrete and asphalt | 1,800 | 3/08/12 |
| Another Kind of Exercise — Alternatives to jogging and pumping iron | 500 | 2/16/07 |
| Five Ways To Prevent Sports Injuries — Get warm, co-ordinated, relaxed, smart and mobilized! | 475 | 10/04/10 |
| Good Vibrations for Stress and Tension — How to shake your way to relief from stress, tension and more | 425 | 6/26/04 |
| pro Mobilize! — Dynamic joint mobility drills are an alternative to stretching that “massages you with movement” | 6,000 | 4/30/12 |
| Posture Exercises for Posture Correction — Some techniques and strategies for correcting your posture … or should you even bother? | 2,750 | 9/15/10 |
| pro Quite a Stretch — Stretching research clearly shows that a stretching habit isn’t good for much of anything that people think it is | 9,000 | 11/02/18 |
| pro Stand Up Straight — A detailed exploration of concepts in posture and posture exercises | 5,000 | 6/26/08 |
| pro The Art of Bioenergetic Breathing — A powerful tool for personal growth and transformation | 2,100 | 6/20/11 |
| The Still Life — The trouble with a lifestyle of inactivity | 650 | 6/26/04 |
| pro The ‘Use It Or Lose It’ Principle — The importance of stimulation and movement in healing | 1,000 | 2/23/12 |
| pro Dance of the Sarcomeres — A mental picture of muscle knot physiology explains four familiar features of muscle pain | 1,400 | 4/18/11 |
| pro The Art of Rest — The finer points of resting for injury & pain rehabilitation (hint: it’s a bit trickier than you might think) | 4,000 | 2/18/12 |
| Endurance Training for Injury Rehabilitation — What to do when your usual strength training workout isn’t working … or isn’t an option | 1,200 | 11/30/06 |
| PF-ROM Exercises — ‘Pain-free range of motion’ or early mobilization exercises can help you heal | 1,100 | 11/29/06 |
| pro Stretching for Trigger Points — Is muscle knot release a good reason to stretch? | 1,100 | 12/22/06 |
| Strength Training Surprises — Why building muscle is easier, better, and more important than you thought, and its vital role in injury rehabilitation | 4,250 | 5/06/11 |
| pro Microbreaking — Prevent low back pain and neck cricks with lots of little breaks | 1,600 | 9/17/11 |
| pro Progressive Training — How to take “baby steps” to recovery from an injury or pain problem | 1,900 | 2/18/12 |
| Eccentric Contraction — A peculiar phenomenon in muscle physiology | 700 | 10/22/09 |
| Consider endurance training for back pain instead of strengthening — New evidence that back muscle endurance matters more than strength | 325 | 8/24/07 |
| Stiffness, tightness and limited range of motion are not always the same thing — An interesting little thing to understand about your body | 500 | 10/07/07 |
| Review of Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the conventional wisdom on diet, weight control, and disease — Solid science journalism on a subject that desperately needs it | 2,100 | 7/16/08 |
| Canadian Running Magazine Gets ITBS All Wrong — Another running magazine spreads myths about iliotibial band syndrome | 650 | 7/03/08 |
| pro The Unstretchables — Eleven major muscles you can’t stretch, no matter how hard you try | 1,400 | 11/16/11 |
| 7 Reasons Older Adults Don’t Stay in Exercise Classes — And 7 Reasons Why they Should | 3,000 | 11/12/08 |
| Q: What Happens to Sprinting if You Stretch First? — A: All other things being equal, the athlete who didn’t stretch is going to leave you behind! | 400 | 1/19/09 |
| Water Yoga — 6 unusual ways to use a swimming pool for therapeutic exercise | 1,300 | 5/07/12 |
| pro Does Hip Strengthening Work for IT Band Syndrome? — Despite its popularity, “weak hips” is a weak theory, and there is no compelling evidence that hip strengthening can treat or prevent running overuse injuries of leg | 4,250 | 12/29/10 |
| Runner’s World magazine cites me as an expert on stretching in an article about challenging conventional wisdom — … but gives a boost to a new myth at the same time | 650 | 08/26/09 |
| Tai Chi Helps Fibromyalgia, but It’s Not “Alternative” Medicine — Despite a high profile boost from the New England Journal of Medicine, it’s still just gentle, elegant, and pleasant exercise | 700 | 10/08/10 |
| pro Less is Not Less — Go to the gym much less frequently and still gain strength just as fast (or so close it really doesn’t matter to anyone but bodybuilders) | 6,000 | 7/15/11 |
| The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) — The popular screening system for athletes failed to detect recent injuries in a new study | 3,000 | 7/14/11 |
| A Stretching Experiment — What happens when you stretch your hamstrings intensely for several minutes a day in a steam room? | 3,750 | 11/30/11 |
| Massage reduces inflammation and promotes mitochondria? — The making of a new massage myth from a high-tech study of muscle samples after intense exercise | 4,000 | 2/15/12 |
As educational as possible without losing a sense of humour.
| size | updated | |
| An Introduction to Biological Literacy — Why you need to know more about your body | 1,000 | 8/25/04 |
| From Atoms to Elvis — A wide-angle look at the foundations of biology | 500 | 8/26/04 |
| How Many Muscles? — A (slightly tongue-in-cheek) tally of the body’s many muscles | 750 | 5/03/06 |
| pro Natural Imperfection — Evolution doesn’t care if you have back pain … just as long as you can breed | 3,500 | 8/26/11 |
| Something in the Air — A fascinating relationship between biology and the Schumman resonance | 550 | 6/26/04 |
| Ten Trillion Cells Walked Into a Bar — A humourous and unusual perspective on how, exactly, a person is even able to stand up, let alone walk into a bar | 1,700 | 12/23/11 |
| The Sixth Sense — Proprioception, the vital but mysterious sensation of position and movement | 550 | 5/08/06 |
| Ugly Bags of Mostly Water — The chemical composition of human biology | 1,500 | 8/26/04 |
| We Are Full of Critters — The human body is a colony of ten trillion co-operating cells | 600 | 10/15/11 |
| What Hurts You — The strange science of pain perception | 700 | 6/26/04 |
| pro The ‘Use It Or Lose It’ Principle — The importance of stimulation and movement in healing | 1,000 | 2/23/12 |
| Eccentric Contraction — A peculiar phenomenon in muscle physiology | 700 | 10/22/09 |
| Oh, a flow-induced system of mechanotransduction! Of course! — A century-old mystery of bone biology was solved just a little while ago | 475 | 4/13/09 |
Everyone seems to agree nowadays that “you can’t separate the mind from the body” — but what does that mean, exactly?
| size | updated | |
| Pain & Injury Survival Tips — Dozens of ideas for evidence-based rehabilitation and self-treatment for common pain problems and injuries | 8,000 | 6/3/11 |
| A Better Hot Bath — Tips and tricks for getting the most out of the oldest form of therapy | 2,200 | 5/04/11 |
| An Open and Closed Case — An explanation for a strange duality of muscle sensation observed in massage therapy | 1,800 | 7/20/05 |
| Civilization Survival Tips — Coping with stress and anxiety in the modern world (without drugs) | 2,500 | 4/20/11 |
| Good Vibrations for Stress and Tension — How to shake your way to relief from stress, tension and more | 425 | 6/26/04 |
| Help for Anxiety — Anxiety doesn’t respond to logic and reason, so what does it respond to? | 1,500 | 5/31/11 |
| pro The Art of Healing by Growing Up — Pain relief through the pursuit of emotional intelligence, life balance, and peacefulness | 1,600 | 9/26/11 |
| Save Yourself from Insomnia! — Serious tips from a veteran of the insomnia wars | 5,000 | 9/12/11 |
| pro Singing, Breath and Scalenes — Connections between singing, breathing and a strange group of muscles | 1,800 | 6/26/04 |
| The Anatomy of Vitality — What makes life tick? A poetic romp through the substance of vitality | 2,500 | 6/27/09 |
| pro The Art of Bioenergetic Breathing — A powerful tool for personal growth and transformation | 2,100 | 6/20/11 |
| The Body Remembers — How your body can “store” emotional experience in your tissues, and experience them again during massage therapy | 550 | 10/29/05 |
| pro The Respiration Connection — How dysfunctional breathing might be a root cause of a variety of common upper body pain problems and injuries | 6,000 | 5/02/12 |
| Review of John Sarno’s Books about Low Back Pain — Essential reading for low back pain sufferers and most health care professionals | 1,500 | 4/21/11 |
| Review of Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine, a book by Candace B. Pert — An important book that helps to explain exactly what it means that the mind and body are connected | 600 | 10/14/06 |
| Do You Believe in Qi? — How to embrace a central concept of Eastern mysticism without being a flake | 700 | 5/31/11 |
| pro Pain is an Opinion — What recent pain science can do for your chronic pain right now | 5,000 | 5/09/12 |
| Not Much Of A Connection — Many alleged mind-body connections are oversimplified | 650 | 3/08/07 |
| “All in your head” is history — Disease always has physical and psychological dimensions | 475 | 3/14/07 |
| The Tyranny of Yoga and Meditation! — Do you really need to try them? How much do they matter for recovery from conditions like low back pain? | 1,500 | 4/26/12 |
| pro The Mind Game In Low Back Pain — How back pain is powered by fear and loathing, and greatly aided or cured by rational confidence | 1,000 | 11/25/11 |
| Be Careful What You Pay Attention To — A kinda spooky paradox in rehabilitation | 425 | 5/11/07 |
| pro 9 Surprising Ways to Hurt — Understanding pain when there is no obvious explanation | 1,500 | 3/22/08 |
| The Gentle Art of Pain Acceptance — An important concept in leveraging mind-body connections to deal with chronic pain | 750 | 11/16/07 |
| Insomnia Until it Hurts — The role of sleep deprivation in muscle pain and other kinds of chronic pain | 2,500 | 5/27/11 |
| pro Does Acupuncture Work for Pain? — A review of modern acupuncture evidence and myths, particularly with regards to treating low back pain and other common pain problems | 6,000 | 5/09/12 |
That’s all! If you want more, please send me a bag of money, and I will write more and dedicate it to you.