(0:00 - 0:15) Welcome to another episode of the Informed Healing Series. Today, we're stepping into a part of the body that modern medicine often overlooks, yet it might be the very place your pain, and your healing has been waiting. I'm talking about the fascia. (0:16 - 0:32) Fascia isn't just connective tissue, it's a living, sensing, communicating matrix that wraps around every muscle, organ and nerve. It transmits tension, it holds trauma, and for many people it's where pain gets stuck. Long after the original injury or stressor is gone. (0:33 - 1:06) In this episode, I'll be sharing a presentation I previously recorded, called Rebooting the Body with Maya Activation. It's a deep dive into how the fascial system connects to the following, chronic pain and functional dysfunction, unresolved trauma stored in the body, and then electrical and energetic signalling in the nervous system, and also why traditional treatments so often fail to create lasting change. You'll learn about Maya Activation, a clinical method that helps identify and release fascial restrictions, using precise point stimulation. (1:07 - 1:36) So if you've ever felt like your pain is more than just muscular, or if you're looking for answers beyond stretches and scans, this episode will reframe how you see your body and your healing. So let's jump in. Hello everyone, it's truly a privilege to be here with you today. (1:36 - 2:03) Over the course of my medical career, spanning emergency rooms, sports clinics, functional medicine settings, and integrative wellness memberships, I've worked with countless patients facing persistent pain. And along the way, I began asking a deeper question. What if pain isn't the problem, but the significance of the pain? That question led me on a path of discovery, one that moved beyond the symptom-chasing model we often default to. (2:04 - 2:24) I immersed myself in studying functional anatomy, fascial dynamics, and neurophysiology, and I began to understand something profoundly simple. True healing begins with restoring fascial integrity. As I began integrating this insight into my practise, I explored a variety of modalities, each offering a piece of the puzzle. (2:25 - 2:41) But one stood out for its clinical precision, speed of results, and ability to reconnect structure and function. This was called myoactivation. What I'm sharing with you today isn't just another technique, it's a part of a broader shift in how we understand, assist, and restore the body. (2:42 - 3:05) You've likely been told that chronic pain is complex, and that is true. But complex doesn't have to mean complicated. Today I want to show you how we can intervene more intelligently, how we can help patients move, function, and heal by targeting the systems that matter most, and how rebooting the body through modalities like myoactivation can change the trajectory of both pain and performance. (3:05 - 3:17) So let's begin. Before we get into the how, let me ask you a few things. Who here loves anatomy? No, I'm not talking about the cadavers and the static diagrams. (3:17 - 3:54) I mean real anatomy, the kind that breathes, adapts, compensates. Then second question, do you know which kind of pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide? And what part of the body is most responsible? Before we talk about solutions, we need to confront the uncomfortable truth about how we're managing chronic pain, and why it's failing so many. Globally, chronic musculoskeletal pain is the leading cause of disability affecting more than 1.7 billion people, and low back pain alone is the top cause of disability in 160 countries. (3:54 - 4:18) Despite the scale of the problem, most treatment pathways still focus on suppressing symptoms rather than addressing the underlying dysfunction. The result? Patients become trapped in long-term care cycles, medications, imaging, referrals, procedures, with minimal functional improvement. Instead of empowering recovery, the system too often manages decline. (4:19 - 4:35) Pharmaceutical approaches, especially opioids, remain over-relied upon, even when the evidence shows limited long-term benefit and high risk. Many interventions are reactive, not proactive. We wait for degeneration to show up on scans before we act. (4:35 - 4:51) But by then, compensatory patterns are entrenched and so much harder to unwind. And speaking of imaging, this is another major issue. Patients are frequently sent for x-rays, MRIs, CTs, but the results are often inclusive or misleading. (4:52 - 5:07) The MRI says unremarkable, but the patient can barely walk. Or it shows mild degeneration that doesn't explain the intensity or the distribution of pain. Why? Because pain doesn't always come from visible damage. (5:08 - 5:32) It often stems from dysfunction, from the way the body is moving, compensating, protecting, and imaging cannot capture that. We're spending more, scanning more, and prescribing more, yet people are still in pain. And perhaps worst of all, the patient is often left disempowered, treated as a case file, a pain score, a prescription pad, not as an active participant in their healing. (5:33 - 5:50) The bottom line? We're doing more, but we're not doing better. If we want different outcomes, we need a different approach, one that's function-focused, nervous system-informed, and scalable for real-world application. So here's the tension we face. (5:50 - 6:14) We have a global pain crisis, and a system that keeps applying the same tools expecting a different result. But what if we stepped back and redefined what effective care actually looks like? So what would a such a solution look like? First, it must go beyond symptom suppression. No more masking discomfort, no more chasing pain around the body with temporary fixes. (6:15 - 6:29) Instead, we need to target root causes to listen to what pain is really telling us about dysfunction in the system. Second, it must lead to real, lasting change. Not just incremental relief, not a better than before. (6:30 - 6:47) Patients need to feel the shift immediately, and they need to keep that improvement over time. Third, it has to work in the real world. That means it needs to be efficient, low labour, reproducible, and scalable, especially in clinics and communities that are already stretched thin. (6:48 - 7:01) Fourth, it must be safe. No risky side effects, no invasive procedures with questionable return. We're talking about low-risk, high-trust interventions that support the body's own capacity to heal. (7:01 - 7:22) Fifth, it must minimise dependence on pharmaceuticals, especially now when we know the cost of opioid reliance, not just clinically, but on society. If modality can reduce medication load, especially opioids, it's not just good medicine, it's public health leadership. And finally, it must be cost-effective. (7:23 - 7:35) Affordable for patients, sustainable for the systems. Because high-cost interventions with low-yield outcomes, that's not innovation, that's just expensive disappointment. This is the standard we must begin to demand. (7:36 - 7:58) And the good news? There are approaches already in practise that check every one of these boxes. Before we dive into what my activation is, we need to take a step back and ask why it works. Because this isn't just about treating symptoms, it's about understanding the true mechanics of the human body, something that goes far beyond standard textbook anatomy. (7:58 - 8:23) To get there, we have to start with the myofascial system, a living intelligent web of muscle and fascia, constantly responding to stress load, trauma, posture, and even emotion. It's not separate parts, it's one continuous system. And when we understand myofascial chains, as described by Tom Myers in Anatomy Trains, we start to see how dysfunction travels along these lines. (8:24 - 8:45) Why a shoulder problem might start in the hip, why working on the calf can change how someone breathes. Next comes the concept of biotensegrity, which changed everything for me. Unlike the traditional view that bones bear weight like stacked blocks, biotensegrity tells us the body holds together through tension and balance, like a suspension bridge. (8:46 - 9:17) If one part gets stuck or collapses, that tension gets redistributed, and that's what creates these complex pain presentations we all see. And then there's the primovascular system, also known as bongandats, a hidden vascular and energetic communication network closely aligned with acupuncture meridians. It helps explain why light touch or fascial stimulation can have such profound systemic effects, yet it's rarely even mentioned in medical education. (9:18 - 9:40) Now I'll be honest, learning these things didn't just help me clinically, it changed me personally. As someone trained in emergency medicine and sports medicine, I've seen first-hand the frustration of chronic pain, recurrent injuries, and non-responders. And for years, I too felt that confusion, that feeling of I'm doing everything right, but it's not working. (9:41 - 10:01) But understanding these systems, the fascial whip, the tensegrity model, the body's innate communication pathways, these brought me back to life as a clinician. I fell in love with anatomy again, and more importantly, I found hope. Because now I had a way to see the pattern, treat the system, and get real results. (10:02 - 10:24) This is the why behind myoactivation and the importance of restoring fascial integrity. Now let me show you what it is. So what exactly is myoactivation? At its core, myoactivation is a structured clinical approach designed to identify and release dysfunctional muscle patterns that contribute to pain, restricted movement, and postural imbalance. (10:25 - 10:45) It's grounded in the understanding that chronic pain is often not due to local pathology, but rather to compensatory muscular dysfunction. Muscles that are persistently contracted, inhibited, or overburdened by faulty load distribution. That's why conventional approaches like local treatment or even targeted strengthening often fail. (10:46 - 11:03) Myoactivation uses cutting-tip hypodermic needles, not acupuncture needles. The rationale is mechanical. The technique aims to interact directly with the dense muscle and fascia, not for energetic modulation, but to produce a rapid reproducible release response in the tissue. (11:04 - 11:44) This technique was developed by Dr. Greg Siren, a Canadian emergency and chronic pain physician who recognised the need for reproducible, efficient method of resolving complex musculoskeletal presentations, especially when conventional approaches like imaging, medication, or surgery fail to restore function. What makes myoactivation especially compelling is that it often yields immediate changes in movement, balance, breath, and pain levels without the need for prolonged rehab protocols or pharmaceuticals. It's particularly well suited for addressing chronic, complex, or compensatory pain patterns, where traditional anatomical models don't fully explain the patient's presentation. (11:45 - 12:01) Now that we've defined what myoactivation is, let's look at how the process unfolds in a clinical setting. This isn't just a technique. It's a repeatable clinical process that helps us zero in on what's actually driving the pain, and unwind it, layer by layer. (12:02 - 12:11) We start with step one, mapping the pain. We always start with the story the patient brings in. Where does it hurt? But we don't stop there. (12:12 - 12:24) We go deeper because the body remembers. We ask about old injuries, surgeries, scars, accidents, sometimes going back decades. This is called the timeline of lifetime trauma, or TILT. (12:25 - 12:40) Because what looks like a new pain often has roots in an old, unresolved trauma, whether physical or emotional. This step helps us map not just the symptom, but the system. Then step two, observing posture and gait. (12:41 - 12:58) Here's where the body starts talking, if we know how to watch. We're looking at posture, balance, breath, and movement. We ask, how is this person carrying load? Because asymmetries, altered gait, or unguarded movement often points us to the hidden dysfunction that imaging might miss. (12:58 - 13:10) In this step, the body often reveals where it's protecting something, even if the patient hasn't noticed it yet. Then on to step three, palpation for tension. Next, we go hands-on. (13:11 - 13:31) We're not just checking for tenderness, we're scanning for reactive density, compensatory tightness, or flaccid zones that tell us a muscle has gone offline. This is where clinical intuition and pattern recognition come together, and often we'll find the real dysfunction nowhere near the pain. These are the tissues we target for release. (13:32 - 13:45) Step four, releasing target muscles. Once we've identified the key contributors, we apply the release. This is done with a cutting-tip hypodermic needle, not acupuncture, as mentioned, not dry needling. (13:45 - 14:05) The needle is used mechanically, not energetically, to release the locked down tissue, and often that release triggers immediate changes in range, breath, posture, even cognition. Because when the body stops compensating, it can start functioning again. And then lastly, step five, but definitely not the least. (14:06 - 14:12) This is reassessing function. This step is so critical. We don't wait for next week's follow-up. (14:12 - 14:28) We assess right there, on the table, using the same movement, posture, or balance test we started with. If we hit the right tissue, the change is obvious, and if not, we go back and look again. It's a cycle of discovery and correction, not guesswork. (14:29 - 14:48) Together, these five steps allow us to treat chronic pain in a way that's systematic, efficient, and patient-centred. It's fast, it's low-risk, and best of all, it works when other approaches haven't. And it gives both the patient and the clinician something we all need more of in pain care, clarity, agency, and hope. (14:49 - 15:03) Let me show you what this looks like in real practise. We'll start off with a 44-year-old male, a full-time farmer, with chronic low back pain for over five years. By the time he saw us, he was completely unable to work. (15:04 - 15:24) And as you can imagine, for someone whose livelihood depends on physical labour, this wasn't just a pain issue, it was a life-altering limitation. He'd tried everything, medications, stretching, physio, even imaging that showed mild to degenerative changes, but nothing had restored function. Now here's what we found. (15:24 - 15:36) He presented with significant postural asymmetry and a guarded gait. Using the myoactivation process, we mapped his pain, assessed movement and tension, and identified key contributors. The following. (15:37 - 15:50) Quadratus lumborum, gluteus medius, and iliopsoas. These muscles weren't just tight, they were dysfunctional. Locked in contraction, unable to fire properly, and offloading load into his spine and hips. (15:50 - 16:06) We treated those tissues across two sessions, using the structured myoactivation release. The result? He regained full function, pain-free, stable, and back to farming. Not after three months of rehab, after only two focused sessions. (16:07 - 16:27) This is the power of working with the system, not just the symptom. This next case highlights how myoactivation approaches regional pain from a system's perspective, not just a local biomechanical view. The case was a 53-year-old woman with a two-year history of adhesive capsulitis, what we commonly call frozen shoulder. (16:29 - 16:55) She had been through multiple rounds of physiotherapy, had received corticosteroid injections, and had been performing home mobility exercises religiously. But her range remained severely restricted, and her pain was constant, especially at night. Now, based on conventional understanding, the focus would typically stay on the glenohumeral joint, capsular stretches, scapular stabilisation, maybe even surgical release. (16:56 - 17:14) But through the myoactivation lens, we took a different path. After mapping her pain and observing postural distortion, specifically elevated scapula and forward head position, we palpated significant dysfunction in the subscapularis, pectoralis minor, and levator scapula muscles. These weren't just tight. (17:15 - 17:30) They were inhibiting natural scapulohumeral rhythm, locking the shoulder girdle in prediction. We treated these targets systematically over four sessions using myoactivation. After the first session, she noticed an improvement in reach and an external rotation. (17:31 - 17:50) By the fourth, she had full pain-free range of motion, something she hadn't experienced in over two years. No surgery, no months of stretching, just precise system-aware release of the muscles that were blocking movement. This case shows that frozen shoulder isn't always about the capsule. (17:51 - 18:13) It's often about the myofascial system guarding long after the original trigger is gone. The next case is a great example of how myoactivation applies to acute, non-traumatic pain, especially in athletic populations where time, performance, and clarity matter. A 19-year-old competitive soccer player came in with a sudden onset of right knee pain. (18:13 - 18:33) There was no specific injury, no pop, no twist, no tackle, just pain that started during training and gradually worsened. Pain was localised around the medial and anterior knee, aggravated by stairs, running, and flexion. He had already tried the usual waist-ice compression and even some patellar taping. (18:34 - 18:43) His fissure was unsure. It didn't present like a meniscal injury or ligament strain. Imaging wasn't indicated at that point, but the athlete was limping and clearly dysfunctional. (18:44 - 19:10) Now this is where myoactivation changes the game. We mapped the pain, observed postural asymmetry, particularly pelvic imbalance and reduced hip extension on the affected side, and found tension and reactivity in the adductor magnus, vastus lateralis, and the gluteus maximus muscles. These are all muscles involved in load transfer through the pelvis and knee, and when they're compensating or inhibited, the knee often becomes the fall guy. (19:11 - 19:20) We treated those three muscles in a single session. Immediately afterward, his pain was gone. He could squat, climb stairs, and jog pain-free. (19:20 - 19:37) Follow-up confirmed full return to sport within the same week with no recurrence. So what looked like a knee injury was actually a systemic dysfunction involving faulty hip stabilisation and load management. This is why we don't just treat where it hurts, we treat what's driving the compensation. (19:39 - 19:59) The last case highlights how treating function, not just pathology, can profoundly change someone's life. This was a 78-year-old woman referred to for gait instability and a history of frequent falls. She had no history of stroke, her neurological exam was normal, and imaging showed only age-related changes. (20:00 - 20:11) But she moved cautiously, lacked stability, and was clearly struggling. One moment in her story really stood out. She said she could no longer get off the toilet without help from her daughter. (20:12 - 20:25) That may seem like a small thing, but it's not. The inability to rise from a seated position is a critical threshold in geriatric care. It signals a loss of independence and with it, confidence and quality of life. (20:25 - 20:46) Using the Maya activation process, we assessed her posture and movement mechanics. We found significant dysfunction and guarding in the gluteus maximus, iliopsoas, quadriceps, and quadratus lumborum muscles. These are all central to core stability, hip extension, upright posture, and the power needed for sit-to-stand movement. (20:47 - 21:08) We treated her over three sessions, gradually restoring proper recruitment and releasing those ski stabilisers. By her second session, her daughter reported that she had stood up from the toilet independently for the first time in months. By the third, she was walking more confidently, rising from chairs without hesitation, and regaining a sense of control over her body. (21:09 - 21:20) This wasn't about a diagnosis. It was about functional disconnection and the ability to reset it with precision and care. And for this woman, that shift meant something more than pain relief. (21:21 - 21:47) It meant dignity, freedom, and a future she could walk into on her own. Now that we've seen real patient cases transformed by Maya activation, the next question is, how do we know where to begin? What tells us which muscle is the true contributor, especially when the pain doesn't match the scan? This is where the B.A.S.E. tests come in. B.A.S.E. stands for Biomechanical Assessment and Symmetry Evaluation. (21:48 - 22:04) These tests are simple, repeatable, and fast, but incredibly revealing. They guide us not by diagnosing disease, but by showing us how the body moves and where it doesn't. Each test targets a functional posture or movement, like squatting, bending, or balancing. (22:04 - 22:24) We're observing things like where the movement stops, where the pain begins, which side compensates, and what postural asymmetries emerge when the system is challenged. The most painful or restricted test usually tells us where to start treatment. This is called the primary B.A.S.E. lesion, and it's often not where the pain is reported. (22:25 - 22:50) Together with trauma history, visual observation, and palpation, the B.A.S.E. tests become the clinical compass that allows us to treat causes, not just symptoms. In fact, this structured movement screening is one of the most distinctive and reproducible features of myoactivation, and it's what allows us to get consistent results even with complex or vague pain presentations. So we've walked through a new way of looking at pain. (22:51 - 23:13) We've challenged some assumptions, explored real patient stories, and introduced a structured, functional model that gets to the root of dysfunction, not just the symptom. But I want to leave you with something broader. As clinicians, and maybe even students stepping into the profession, you'll be taught protocols, systems, and frameworks, and those are valuable. (23:13 - 23:29) But if there's one thing I've learned, it's this. We have to stay open. Open to ideas that weren't in our textbooks, open to the possibility that if something isn't working, it's not the patient who's failing the treatment, it's the model that needs to evolve. (23:29 - 23:38) And that takes humility. Humility to admit when the traditional approach doesn't deliver. Humility to listen to the patient's story, not just read their chart. (23:39 - 24:19) And courage to explore innovative approaches that may look unfamiliar, but offer real hope, better outcomes, and a more sustainable healthcare system. Because the truth is, approaches like myoactivation don't just benefit the patient, they reduce system burden, they shorten treatment timelines, and they bring purpose, clarity, and satisfaction back to the practitioner. So as you step forward into medicine, ask yourself, are we treating pain, or are we listening to what pain is telling us? And more importantly, can we be bold enough to learn again, even after we think we know? Let's close with a few final reflections. (24:20 - 24:35) So where does this leave us? You came into this session expecting to talk about pain. What I hope you leave is with a new lens, not just for understanding the body, but for practising medicine. Because pain isn't the enemy, it's a signal, it's a teacher. (24:35 - 24:58) And if we're willing to listen carefully, it will show us exactly where healing is needed. We've seen today that functional pain doesn't always show up on scans, and it doesn't always follow the textbook. But when we assess intelligently, treat systematically, and approach each patient as a whole, not apart, we can help restore not just movement, but dignity, independence, and joy. (24:59 - 25:22) I hope that I opened your eyes to the silent system beneath your skin. The fascia may not show up clearly on x-rays or blood tests, but it holds the tension, the trauma, and the patterns that shape how we move, feel, and heal. If you're interested in experiencing a MyActivation session, or a fascia-based release, you can book a consultation with the using the link provided with this episode. (25:22 - 25:31) Because healing isn't about managing symptoms, it's about restoring flow. And when fascia flows, life flows. This is the Informed Healing Series. (25:31 - 25:35) Stay rooted, stay curious, till we see each other in the next episode.