Amanda Relph LMT

🍑 Hips & glutes won the poll — so let’s talk about WHY they may be giving you trouble.

Your hips don’t work alone. 🚶 Every time you walk, climb stairs, or shift your weight, they’re responding to what’s happening above and below them.

👣 If your foot isn’t absorbing and transferring force well, your leg may move or rotate differently. That affects the knee 🦵, changes what happens at the hip, and can eventually influence the pelvis, SI joint, and low back.

🍑 Your glutes help stabilize your pelvis and control your leg. When that system isn’t working efficiently, other muscles may start doing more than their share.

So which area might be complaining? Try these simple checks at home. 👇

1️⃣ Gluteus medius — Single-leg stand
Stand near a counter and lift one foot. Hold for 20–30 seconds.

Does your pelvis drop on the lifted side? Do you have to lean your upper body over the standing leg? Does the outside of the standing hip quickly fatigue?

➡️ Your gluteus medius may not be controlling the pelvis efficiently.

2️⃣ TFL — Standing cross-over test
Stand next to a wall or counter for balance. To check your right side, cross your right leg behind your left. Keep both feet on the floor and gently shift your right hip outward while leaning your upper body slightly to the left.

You should feel a stretch along the front/outside of the right hip.

Compare sides. Does one side feel noticeably tighter or more restricted? Do you immediately recognize that familiar “tight hip” feeling?

➡️ Your TFL may be contributing to that tension.

3️⃣ Hip flexors — Bed test
Sit at the edge of your bed, hug one knee toward your chest, then carefully lie back while keeping it hugged in.

Does the opposite thigh lift away from the bed instead of relaxing down?

➡️ That can suggest hip-flexor tightness.

4️⃣ Deep glutes/piriformis — Figure-4 check
Lie on your back and place one ankle over the opposite knee.

Is one side dramatically tighter? Does it reproduce that familiar deep pull or ache in your buttock?

➡️ Your deep hip rotators, including the piriformis, may be involved.

⚠️ Here’s the important part: the muscle that hurts isn’t necessarily the muscle that started the problem.

And a tight muscle doesn’t automatically need more stretching. Sometimes it’s tight because it’s working overtime to stabilize or compensate for something happening somewhere else in the chain.

That’s why in massage, we don’t just chase the sore spot. 🔎 We look at the whole movement chain and ask:

Why is this muscle working so hard in the first place?

Which one got you — 1, 2, 3, or 4? 👇

🧠 When a headache isn’t just a headache.

If you deal with severe or recurring headaches, the source of the pain may not always be where you feel it.

Neuromuscular Therapy (NMT) is a focused form of massage therapy that looks for specific muscles and trigger points that may be contributing to pain. With severe headaches, that often means working beyond the obvious tight shoulders and assessing muscles such as the suboccipitals, SCM, upper trapezius, splenius capitis, splenius cervicis, temporalis, and muscles of the jaw.

🔎 Why so many muscles?

Because trigger points can cause referred pain — pain that shows up somewhere completely different from the muscle creating it. Trigger points in the neck and upper shoulder muscles can refer pain into the temples, forehead, behind or around the eye, across the top of the head, and into the base of the skull.

The splenius capitis and splenius cervicis, in particular, can be important pieces of the puzzle 🧩 when headaches seem to begin in the neck or base of the skull and travel upward.

NMT uses slow, specific pressure and targeted soft-tissue work to identify and treat these patterns rather than simply massaging where it hurts.

For someone with severe headaches, the headache may be the end of the pain pattern — not the beginning.

⚠️ Massage isn’t a replacement for medical evaluation, especially for a new, sudden, or unusually severe headache. But when muscular tension and trigger points are contributing, NMT can be a valuable part of headache management.

💪 MUSCLE OF THE WEEK: SERRATUS ANTERIOR 💪

…also known as the muscle that quietly does its job until your shoulder blade decides it would rather live somewhere else. 😂

The serratus anterior runs along the side of your rib cage and attaches to the underside of your shoulder blade. You can sometimes see its little finger-like edges along the ribs—which is where it gets the name serratus, meaning “saw-toothed.”

✨ What does it do?

👉 Holds your shoulder blade against your rib cage
👉 Pulls the shoulder blade forward around the ribs
👉 Helps rotate the shoulder blade when you lift your arm overhead
👉 Works with the trapezius to keep overhead movement smooth and controlled

Basically, every time you reach, push, punch, or lift your arm overhead, serratus anterior is back there trying to keep your scapula from doing anything ridiculous.

⚡ When serratus anterior isn’t doing its job well, you might notice:

🪽 A shoulder blade that “wings” away from the rib cage
😖 Aching around or underneath the shoulder blade
💥 Shoulder discomfort with reaching or pushing
🙆 Difficulty or discomfort lifting the arm overhead
🪫 A shoulder that fatigues surprisingly quickly
🔥 Tightness or tenderness along the side of the ribs

And because the discomfort may show up around the shoulder blade instead of directly over the muscle itself, serratus anterior can easily fly under the radar.

✨ Quick check:
Stand facing a wall and slowly perform a wall push-up. Watch what your shoulder blades do. They should stay relatively flush against your rib cage as you move. If one medial border noticeably pops away from the ribs, there may be some scapular control issues worth looking at.

💆 Massage therapy implications:

When someone comes in complaining about that stubborn “under my shoulder blade” ache, the painful spot isn’t always the whole story.

Working with the serratus anterior, pecs, traps, rhomboids, and surrounding shoulder structures while also looking at how the scapula actually moves can give us a much better picture of what’s happening.

And because serratus anterior lives along the ribs and underneath the scapula, this is definitely a work smarter, not harder muscle. Appropriate positioning and scapular movement can make accessing it much easier.

🧘 Stretch/mobility to try at home: Wall Reach

1️⃣ Place both hands or forearms against a wall.
2️⃣ Gently press into the wall and allow your shoulder blades to move forward around your rib cage.
3️⃣ Keep your shoulders relaxed instead of shrugging toward your ears.
4️⃣ Hold for about 20–30 seconds and repeat a few times.

💡 Final thought:
Your shoulder blades aren’t supposed to be permanently pinned together. They’re supposed to move around your rib cage as your arms move—and serratus anterior is one of the muscles making that happen.

So maybe give the little saw-toothed guy some credit. He’s been holding your shoulder blade onto your body all day. 😂

Over the past several months, many of you have probably noticed that I’ve been quieter than usual. It’s been a season filled with doctor’s appointments, testing, recovery, and trying to figure out why my body wasn’t cooperating.

After a long road, I recently received an official diagnosis of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS), a connective tissue disorder that explains so many of the health challenges I’ve been dealing with for years. While having a name for it doesn’t magically fix things, it does mean I finally have answers—and that’s a huge gift.

I’m sharing this not because I’m looking for sympathy, but because I believe in being honest with the people who have supported my business and cheered me on over the years. I’m learning what living with hEDS looks like, adjusting where I need to, and trusting that God isn’t finished writing this chapter.

I’d truly appreciate your prayers—for wisdom, healing, and the grace to keep moving forward one day at a time. I’m hopeful about what comes next, and I’m grateful to have such an amazing community walking alongside me.

Thank you for sticking with me. ❤️

🧠✨ Chronic Pain Reset: A 10-Minute Routine to Calm Your Nervous System

Living with chronic pain doesn't mean your body needs to be pushed harder.

More often than not... it needs to feel safer.

Here's a simple routine you can try on days when your pain is flaring. It won't "fix" chronic pain—but it may help your nervous system dial down the protective response that often keeps pain going.

🌿 Step 1: Breathe (2 minutes)

Slow your breathing to about 5–6 breaths per minute. Breathe in through your nose, breathe out slowly through your mouth, and let your exhale last a little longer than your inhale.

Your nervous system pays attention to your breathing. Give it a reason to settle down.

🚶 Step 2: Gentle Movement (3 minutes)

Take a slow walk around your house or do gentle neck, shoulder, and hip movements that feel comfortable.

The goal isn't to stretch harder or "work through the pain." It's simply to remind your brain that safe movement is still possible.

🤲 Step 3: Calm Sensory Input (3 minutes)

Use a massage ball, your hands, or a foam roller on an area that feels tense—but keep the pressure comfortable.

Think "comfortably therapeutic," not "grimace and survive."

Your nervous system learns more from feeling safe than from being bullied. 😏

☀️ Step 4: Change Your Environment (2 minutes)

Step outside. Feel the sun on your face. Listen to birds. Look at trees. Or simply sit somewhere quiet without scrolling your phone.

Changing your sensory environment gives your brain new, non-threatening information, and sometimes that's exactly what an overprotective nervous system needs.

Here's the important part...

None of these things are powerful because they magically heal damaged tissues.

They're powerful because they give your nervous system repeated evidence that you're safe.

And that's a conversation worth having every day. 🧠

💚 If you'd like more practical chronic pain routines like this, drop a green heart below. And if there's a symptom you'd like me to cover next, leave it in the comments!

🤯🧠 Chronic Pain Spotlight: The Tiny Muscles Causing Big Problems

If you deal with chronic headaches, neck pain, dizziness, or that constant feeling of tension at the base of your skull... meet the suboccipital muscles.

These four tiny muscles connect the top of your neck to the base of your skull. They're small, but they're absolutely loaded with sensory receptors that constantly tell your brain where your head is in space.

In fact, these muscles contain some of the highest concentrations of proprioceptors in the entire body. 🧠

Why does that matter?

When these muscles become overworked—whether from stress, chronic pain, hours at a computer, or looking down at your phone—they don't just get tight.

They can start sending your brain a lot of "something isn't quite right" signals.

That can contribute to:
🤕 Headaches
😵 Dizziness
😖 Neck stiffness
👀 Eye fatigue
📍 Pain that wraps around the back of the head

No, they're not trying to ruin your day...

They're just exceptionally good at reporting everything they feel. 😏

✨ Try this at home:

1. Lie on your back and place two tennis balls inside a sock. Position them gently at the base of your skull—not on your neck, but where your skull meets your neck.

2. Relax your head onto the balls and simply breathe for 1–2 minutes. Don't mash or roll aggressively. Let gravity do the work.

Sometimes less pressure gives your nervous system more opportunity to relax than trying to dig out the knot.

Remember, the goal isn't to bully the muscle into relaxing...

It's to give your nervous system a reason to stop guarding it. 🤲🧠

💚 If you'd like more posts that combine pain science with practical things you can do at home, drop a green heart below. And if there's a muscle you'd like me to cover next, let me know in the comments!

Chronic pain doesn't just affect your muscles and joints—it can literally change how your nervous system processes information. 🧠⚡

Over time, persistent pain can lead to central sensitization, increased dorsal horn excitability, neuroimmune activation, and reduced descending inhibition. Translation? The volume k**b on pain gets turned up, while the nervous system becomes increasingly efficient at detecting threats that may or may not actually be threats. 🔥

Unfortunately, your nervous system isn't great at distinguishing between a charging grizzly bear and Becky's passive-aggressive email. Stress is stress. Chronic physiologic stress, poor sleep, pain, inflammation, and emotional strain all feed into the same alarm system. 🚨

That's why nervous system regulation matters. Walking, resistance training, quality sleep, diaphragmatic breathing, social connection, time in nature, and yes—even massage—have all been shown to influence autonomic balance, improve vagal tone, reduce stress hormones, and enhance the brain's ability to dampen pain signals.

Massage is particularly effective because it provides safe, non-threatening sensory input to a system that's become a little too enthusiastic about protection. 🤲 It may reduce muscle guarding, decrease sympathetic activation, influence pain processing pathways, and provide evidence to the brain that not everything requires a five-alarm response.

The goal isn't to convince your body that pain isn't real.

The goal is to convince an overprotective nervous system that the smoke detector doesn't need to go off every time someone makes toast. 🍞🔥😏

🧠 Why Poor Sleep Makes Chronic Pain Worse 😴

Ever notice that after a bad night's sleep, everything hurts more?

That's not your imagination.

Researchers have found that poor sleep can actually increase pain sensitivity the next day. In some studies, sleep deprivation affected pain levels more than certain tissue injuries.

Think about that for a second.

Missing sleep doesn't just make you tired—it changes how your nervous system processes sensation, stress, and pain. ⚠️

When you're sleeping, your brain is busy regulating hormones, processing information, repairing tissues, and helping your nervous system reset.

When sleep quality drops, your nervous system doesn't get the same opportunity to "turn down the volume."

The result?

📈 More sensitivity

📈 More muscle tension

📈 More fatigue

📈 Lower pain tolerance

📈 More pain

This creates a frustrating cycle for many people living with chronic pain:

Pain disrupts sleep. 😩

Poor sleep increases pain. 😩

More pain disrupts sleep even further.

And around it goes.

This is one reason many pain specialists now view sleep as a treatment target—not just a symptom.

It's also one reason massage therapy can be helpful for some people with chronic pain. Beyond muscles and joints, massage may help calm the nervous system, reduce stress, and support the conditions needed for better sleep. 🤲

No, a massage isn't going to magically erase years of chronic pain.

But helping the nervous system feel safer and more relaxed may improve one of the most important factors in pain management: sleep.

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do for your pain isn't another stretch, exercise, or gadget.

Sometimes it's getting your nervous system to stop sending emails at 3 a.m. 😏

💚 If you'd like to see more chronic pain content, drop a green heart below. And if you have a question about chronic pain, ask it in the comments—we're always looking for topics to cover in future posts.

Ok, my chronic pain warriors, here we go!

Pain and damage are not always the same thing.

Read that again.

Most of us were taught that more pain means more damage and less pain means more healing. But when it comes to chronic pain, that relationship often falls apart.

Think about a paper cut. ✂️

It can hurt like crazy even though the tissue damage is tiny.

Now think about athletes who finish an entire game before realizing they broke a bone, tore a ligament, or suffered a serious injury. 🏃

The amount of pain someone feels isn't determined by tissue damage alone. Your brain is constantly evaluating information from your body and asking one question: "How much protection is needed right now?" 🚨

That decision is influenced by far more than tissues.

Sleep. 😴

Stress. 😬

Previous injuries. 🤕

Fear of movement. 😟

Past experiences. 🧠

Even your expectations can influence how much pain you feel.

That's why two people with nearly identical MRI findings can have completely different pain experiences.

One person may have severe pain. The other may have none at all.

This is also one reason massage and manual therapy can help some people with chronic pain.

A skilled therapist isn't just working with muscles. They're providing movement, touch, pressure, and sensory input that helps the nervous system gather more information about what's happening in the body.

Sometimes that information helps the brain realize, "Maybe this isn't as dangerous as I thought."

That doesn't mean pain is "all in your head." It means pain is produced by your nervous system—not just your tissues.

And that's an important distinction. 🤲🧠

The good news? If the nervous system can learn pain, it can also learn safety.

💚 If you'd like to see more chronic pain content, drop a green heart below. And if you have a question about chronic pain, ask it in the comments—we're always looking for topics to cover in future posts.

🧠🤲 Why Does Massage Help Chronic Pain If It Doesn't "Fix" The Injury?

This question has interested researchers for years.

If chronic pain were only about damaged tissues, massage shouldn't help very much. After all, many people living with chronic pain have tissues that healed months—or even years—ago. Yet they still experience pain, stiffness, muscle guarding, fatigue, and movement limitations.

So what's happening?

One theory is that manual therapy provides the nervous system with new, non-threatening sensory information.

Think about it: every second, your brain receives an enormous amount of input from your skin, muscles, fascia, joints, and nervous system. Its job is to sort through all that information and decide what is safe and what might be a threat.

When pain becomes chronic, the nervous system can become a little... overprotective. 🚨

A light touch feels uncomfortable. Movement feels risky. Muscles stay tense. The body begins acting as if danger is everywhere—even when no new injury is occurring.

This is where massage and manual therapy become interesting.

When a skilled therapist applies pressure, movement, stretching, or touch, thousands of sensory receptors start sending information back to the brain.

That information may help communicate:

📢 "This area can tolerate movement."
📢 "This area can tolerate pressure."
📢 "This area is stronger and more capable than you think."
📢 "Maybe we don't need a five-alarm response to putting on a sock."

Researchers now believe that one of the benefits of manual therapy may be its ability to influence how the nervous system interprets sensation, movement, and threat—not just what it does to muscles and connective tissue.

That doesn't mean massage "cures" chronic pain. But, it DOES mean that it may help create an environment where the nervous system can become less protective, less reactive, and more willing to allow normal movement. 🧩

In other words, massage may be doing more than working on muscles. Sometimes it's a conversation with the nervous system.
And if your nervous system has been convinced for years that your neck, back, hip, or shoulder is a full-scale emergency, that conversation can be incredibly important. 😏

💚 If you'd like to see more chronic pain content, drop a green heart below. And if you have a question about chronic pain, ask it in the comments—we're always looking for topics to cover in future posts.