Penrose Bodywork

The next time you feel safe, calm, or at ease, ask yourself how you know you feel this way.

Get curious. Is it your belly that feels soft? Is your breathing slowed? Do your legs feel heavy? Check in and simply take a nice long scan of your body, and know that you are safe. Really take some moments to know how it feels to be at ease.

Penrose Bodywork has moved! I'm now located at 2811 College Avenue in Berkeley.

Now offering mindfulness coaching in my expanding practice and larger space! Contact me for details. :)

🔈 HEADACHES AND MYODURAL BRIDGES

• Recent anatomical studies have found that the deep suboccipital (top of the neck) muscles are connected to the dura matter (the covering of the spinal cord) by ligaments.
• Pulling on a suboccipital muscle moves the dura matter, in cadavers.
• The suboccipital muscles often atrophy (waste away) in headache sufferers.

Can headaches be affected by using Active Release Techniques (ART) on the the suboccipital muscles: superior oblique, inferior oblique, re**us capitis posterior major and minor? The suboccipital muscles are important little muscles which control fine neuromuscular control of the head.

Recent studies have added to our knowledge of the possible connections between headaches and the myodural bridges:

Enix et al did microscopic evaluations to confirm that ligaments called the myodural bridges emanate from the suboccipital muscle bellies, and attach to the dura mater in 75% of specimens. These myodural bridges have a hypothetical role in human homeostasis, and they may contribute to certain neuropathological conditions as well. The presence of a neural component within the myodural bridges suggests that they may serve another function aside from simply anchoring the muscles to the dura mater. Such a connection may be involved in monitoring dural tension and may also play a role in certain cervicogenic pathologies (neck pain and headaches).

They noted that manual traction of the re**us major in cadavers resulted in gross dural movement from the spinal root level of the axis (C2) to the spinal root level of the first thoracic vertebra.
Fernández-de-Las-Peñas found that the greater the headache intensity, duration or frequency, the smaller the cross sectional area of the re**us minor and re**us major muscles. He also foundthat there was a correlation between hyper-tenderness and atrophy of the re**us minor. In these cases pressing on the re**us minor reproduced the patient’s headaches.

The re**us minor was also found to have atrophied by Hallgren, in chronic head pain sufferers. He proposed a theory that whiplash could lead to nerve damage which causes the re**us minor to atrophy. His photo in the picture shows the myodural bridge.

ART is a hands-on soft tissue treatment of ligaments, muscles, tendons, and nerves. It provides a quick way to make a tight muscle loose, as well as treating conditions such as: tennis elbow, frozen shoulder, shoulder tendinitis, and plantar fasciitis. The technique involves the therapist putting pressure on a tissue, while the patient stretches to move the tissue slowly out from under the contact. The treatment hurts a bit, but only in a way that makes the patient know it is working. The technique works by increasing the nervous system’s tolerance to stretch.

Love this!

Happy Valentine’s Day! We hope this beautiful specimen of the fascial continuity of the pericardium and respiratory diaphragm will inspire you today. Imagine how the pericardium and heart are gently stretched and released with every inhalation and exhalation!



This plastinate beautifully reveals the intimate connection of the respiratory diaphragm and the heart through their fasciae. The fascial covering of the heart, the pericardium, seen at the top and center, is completely continuous with the fascia of the diaphragm below. This kind of fascial relationship is often omitted in illustrations which highlight the muscles and organs without their related connective tissue. In this specimen, instead of removing the pericardium to show the heart, we carefully pried away the heart from its protective sleeve, leaving behind an empty pericardial sack and attached diaphragm.

Focusing on the connections of things instead of only the separateness, adds a missing piece to our thinking and to how we conceptualize the human body. Demonstrating this remarkable fascial relationship through plastination is an excellent tool for fascial anatomy education of the deep structures of the torso.

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