Mirror, mirror on the wall…
STOP right there! Your brain does not see you the way you see yourself in the mirror! In reality the brain projects its own brainmaps and connections onto the body.
The homunculus in the picture above shows us how much information the individual body parts send to the brain and how much information the brain provides in return. Feed-back and feed-forward loops help the communication going.
As you can see, our backs have the same number of receptors/brain map area as our thumb or mouth! No wonder noone ever complained about a pulled muscle in the mouth!
The aftermath script of a hurting muscle is soothing, shilding and protecting. Soothing might be rubbing and oxygenating, shielding is when we not using the muscle or rest it, protecting is the time when we start building new movement patterns and pain pathways to avoid the use of the muscle. Yes! The funny walk stage! In the lack of other signals the brain will remember the pain pathways for ever. Even when the limb is cut off, the pain pathway exists. (Phantom limb syndrome)
In NeuroAbilitation we encourage the soothing and the oxygenation- in fact we keep this up for weeks. (It takes 3-6 weeks to ‘build a new back’ and 3-6 months to ‘build a new body’) Shielding and protecting is not allowed when we want to eliminate the pain pathways. We need to use the effected area to send signals to to brain to heal itself. And it will!!!
How to help the brain and body?
Rhythm is the language of the brain – move the area rhythmically!
Oxigenation and fascia stimulation!
Smooth, physiological movement (NeuroAbilitation torsion walk) helps to send the right messages!
Well, after all, ‘You are as young as your spine is’!