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For an appointment please phone (416) 766 - 9642 or (647) 895 - 8823, or email
jason @ mokshayogabloorwest.com.
Treatments available :
Tuesday through Friday 10am to 7pm
Saturday 10am to 6pm
You may tailor your massage treatments to your preference or alternatively, allow your therapist to create a fusion-treatment based on your requirements.
Swedish Massage
Deep Tissue
Sports Massage
Myofacial Release
Pre and Post Natal Massage
30 Minutes ~ $50.00
45 Minutes ~ $65.00
60 Minutes ~ $80.00
90 Minutes ~ $110.00
For information on the treatments available, please email the studio or call 416.766.9642
**Cancellation policy: 24 hours notice is required for a cancellation, otherwise the full fee for the appointment will be charged.
**Late policy: You will be given the full attention of your RMT for the remainder of your time slot.
Jason’s interest in massage therapy began after he was involved in a serious car accident in 1996. One of the bones in his knee had to be replaced. While he was recovering from surgery, he had his first experience with massage. Jason was struck by how much massage helped in regaining almost all the range of motion in his knee. He also found that massage greatly reduced the degree of pain he suffered as a result of the accident.
After this accident, Jason began to train seriously for competitive rowing. As a varsity athlete at the University of Toronto, he was given access to massage through the school’s athletic department. It proved to be a great complement to his training as it helped to prevent the repetitive stress injuries and kept his muscles in good condition.
These experiences inspired Jason to explore massage as a career. He completed the two-year program at Sutherland-Chan School and Teaching Clinic in 2004 and became a registered massage therapist. Jason’s experience at the school taught him to appreciate the value that massage can have for people in all walks and stages of life.
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Fascia:
Many things can affect the health of fascia. Dehydration is one of the most common presentations I see affecting fascial health. When the body is dehydrated it directs its limited water supply to the brain and internal organs. This can cause the fascia to “dry out”, leading the fascia to tighten and to lose some of its lubricating function between muscles and other structures of the body, as well as within the muscles themselves. In extreme cases, the fascia can become so dehydrated that friction can develop within the muscle leading to contractures (adhesions between different layers of fascia), which further limits the function of the fascia.
Other things that can affect the fascia are traumas to the body such as impacts to the tissue, cuts/bruises and breaks and sprains. When the body experiences such traumas, inflammation can arise and if not dealt with effectively can lead to contractures (resulting when two layers of fascia adhere to each other) developing in the fascia.
Tight, contracted fascia leads to less range of movement around the joints. This can cause joint pain to develop over time and if not dealt with effectively can lead to long term changes to the structure of joints. With tight fascia the muscles are also not able to eliminate wastes effectively from the tissue and this can lead to muscle pain. Tight fascia around the organs disrupts their function, which is believed to cause many problems to arise in our bodies (i.e. cancers etc).
Yoga can be very helpful in improving the health and function of the fascia. Yoga can act to lengthen the structures of the body, which helps to keep the fascia loose and properly aligned.
Yin Yoga with its long gentle, supported holds can be particularly helpful in the reduction of fascial adhesions within the body. As one slowly allows the body's tissues to open in these postures, fascial restrictions are allowed to loosen and the lengthening of the tissues realigns the fascia to a more optimal state.
Plantar Fasciitis:
As the weather starts to improve, many people pick up activities they left behind in the autumn as the snow started to fall. One of the most common activities is running.
A very common ailment for runners to experience is plantar fasciitis. Plantar fasciitis is a presentation which is characterized by severe pain on the front portion of the base of the heal when walking. Typically it is most painful with the first steps taken in the morning and lessens through the day.
Plantar Fasciitis is the inflammation of the attachment sites of the plantar fascia on the bottom of the foot, most commonly experienced at the heel but it may also present at the balls of the foot. It is caused by excessive stress being placed on the plantar fascia, most often do to repetitive stress to the arch of the foot.
The arch of the foot is supported in three ways:
structural which is provided by the shape of the bones in the foot which naturally form the arch
muscles in the foot as well as the calf.
the plantar fascia, a very thick ligament that attaches to the front part of the base of the heel to the base of the ball of the foot.
The plantar fascia is a very strong structure that can absorb a lot of stress. As long as there is appropriate structural and muscular support for the arch, there are rarely any issues involving the plantar fascia.
The muscular support for the arch comes from the intrinsic muscles of the foot (i.e. muscles located in the foot itself) and the extrinsic muscles of the foot (i.e. muscles that originate in the calf and attach to bones in the foot). The most important of the extrinsic muscles which support the arch are tibialis anterior and peronius longus The tibialis anterior originates at the front part of the tibia, traveling under a ligament at the front of the ankle and then wrapping around and inserts into the bottom of the first bone in the big toe joint. Peronius longus originates at the back of the fibula and wraps around the bottom of the outside of the ankle, attaching close the the tibialis anterior. The two muscles work together to from a sling around the first bone of your big toe which helps to support the arch of the foot.
If the calf muscles become too tight and short, tibialis anterior and peronius longus are prevented from functioning optimally. Thus the arch loses some of it's muscular support and this puts undue stress on the plantar fascia. This leads to eventual inflammation at the attachment sites of the plantar fascia (pain at the base of the heel when walking).
To treat this condition, first apply ice to the painful areas of the foot to reduce the inflammation. Second, allow for frequent and consistent gentle/progressive stretching of the calf muscles (both the gastroc and the soleus muscles). As the inflammation and pain starts to dissipate over time, begin strengthen the intrinsic muscles of the foot by scrunching and un-scrunching a tea towel underneath the foot as well as strenthening the tibialis anterio and peroneus longus muscles.
If you have any questions regarding plantar fasciitis or any other presentations you might have, please feel free to contact me, Jason Sills RMT jason @ mokshayogabloorwest.com
The Rotator Cuff and it’s Function:
The rotator cuff consists of the joint capsule of the shoulder and the muscles that attach the head of the humerus (arm bone) to the scapula (shoulder blade).
The rotator cuff plays and important roll in the function of the shoulder joint as it acts to hold or stabilize the head of the humerus in the very shallow glenohumeral fossa of the shoulder blade. If one were to imagine the head of the humerus as a golf ball and the glenohumeral fossa as a golf tee, it becomes clear just how unsteady this joint would be without a great deal of support to keep the services of the joint in contact.
There are six muscles that attach the head of the arm bone to the scapula. Two of the muscles (the deltoid-the muscle at the top of the should which allows you to raise your arm sideways and the teres major-the muscle attaching the lateral side of the scapula to the head of the arm bone and helps you to pull your arm back to a neutral position from an extended position) are not considered as part of the rotator cuff as they are responsible for gross (or large) movements of the shoulder.
The remaining four muscles are the supraspinatus (originates at the top outer surface of the scapula and helps to raise the arm sideways), the infraspinatus (originates on the lower outer surface of the scapula and helps externally rotate the arm), the teres minor (originates at the lateral edge of the scapula and also helps externally rotate the arm) and the subscapularis (originates from the underside of the scapula and helps to internally rotate the arm).
Notice that these muscles only help with the movement of arm in various directions, their major function is to hold the head of the humerus snugly in the glenohumeral fossa during movements of the arm in relation to the shoulder as the head of the humerus is quite large by comparison and would have a tendency to be pulled out of it’s socket without added support for the joint.
It is quite common to hear about injures to the rotator cuff today. Injuries are most commonly due to repetitive stress injures (such as pitching a base ball and other sports where throwing a ball is common, some swimming strokes etc).
In addition to repetitive stress injuries, ones posture can contribute to rotator cuff injuries. A common example of this would be if one were to carry their shoulders too far forward consistently, this postures changes the natural alignment of the shoulder joint and puts undue stress on the muscles of the rotator cuff. One of the easiest ways to protect your rotator cuff is to pay attention to your posture on a consistent basis.
If you have any questions about injuries to your rotator cuff or pain you may be feeling in your shoulder joint, please feel free to contact me, Jason Sills RMT
jason @ mokshayogabloorwest.com
Q: Why do I experience shoulder pain after some of the poses in the Moksha sequence.
A: The shoulder girdle, how it functions and how it can effect shoulder pain.
The shoulder girdle consists of the collar bone and the shoulder blade. They form a “u” shaped structure that has only one joint attaching it to the torso (the sternal clavicular joint) at either side of the top of the breast bone. It is this structure and it’s relative skeletal freedom from the torso which allows us to have so much freedom of movement in the shoulder joint.
The shoulder girdle is attached to the torso through various muscles. At the front of the body the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor. On the back it is attached to the torso by the upper/middle/lower trapezius, levator scapula and rhomboid major and minor and latissimus dorsi. The serratus anterior attaches to the bottom corner of the shoulder blade and wraps around the body to attach to the ribs at the front of the torso.
Ideally the muscles at the front of the torso are balanced out by the muscles at the back of the torso so the shoulder girdle is in a neutral position, with the shoulder joint being aligned at the sides of the torso, the shoulder blade laying flat on the back over the back of the rib cage. This positions allows for the greatest range of movement in the shoulder joint.
With the focus in today’s society requiring so much timing working at a desk/computer and with the trend leaning to a much more sedentary lifestyle, the balance between the muscles of the front of the shoulder girdle and the back of the shoulder girdle is often compromised. Generally the pectoralis major becomes short and tight as we hold our arms forward of our bodies to accommodate typing on a keyboard much of the day, add to this time spent driving to and from work.
This constant forward carriage is caused by the tightening of the pectoral muscles leading to the muscles of the back of the shoulder girdle becoming excessively long as they try to accommodate the forward carriage of the shoulders. The middle and lower trapezius muscles lengthen allowing the shoulder blade to be pulled from the middle of your torso to the sides while the upper trapezius shortens drawing the shoulder blade higher on the ribcage then is normal. This often leads to pain and tension in the rhomboids (between the shoulder blades) and in the levator scapula (up the back of the neck) as well into the upper shoulders.
In addition to the pain caused as a direct result of this forward carriage of the shoulder girdle, there can be secondary pain in the shoulder joint as the alignment of shoulder joint is compromised.
To correct the alignment of the shoulder girdle you must first find out what is causing it. In general, it is a short tight pectoralis major. If this is the case the first corse of action is to stretch out the pectoralis.
In addition to stretching you will also want to do focused strengthening of the middle and lower trapezius muscles.
If you would like to learn more about the shoulder girdles function and how to improve it, please feel free to send me an email at jason @ mokshayogabloorwest.com. or make an appointment to come in and see me. back to top | 
