Self-treatment method developed for those experiencing the massage paradox

My lower back pain was cured, but this time I got sciatica. I always work in a half-standing position, so I had pain from the back of my thighs to my buttocks.

When I palpated myself, I found that there was stiffness deep in the muscles that was difficult to reach.  So I put a small wooden peg in the wall and put my weight on it.

This method penetrates deeply and was very effective.

A few minutes of pressure relieved the pain and it felt good. But after a while it started hurting again, so I repeated the process. Finally, the pain became unbearable during a business trip so I pressed the hotel clothing brush against it. However, this was not ideal. No matter how hard I tried,  the pain soon returned.

"The Massage Paradox" The more you massage it, the harder it gets. 　

One day, I had my apprentice treat my back and he said, "The surface stiffness is soft but in deeper it's hard. " Pressing the stiffness with a wooden stick only made the nerves insensitive and the stiffness became more fibrous. Some of the patients repeatedly pressed themselves with a tennis ball and would come back to my clinic because their back pain did not go away. They also had a hard stiffness like myself.

This is known as "Anma-Tako (Anma means Japanese traditional massage, Tako means stiffnes." or "pressing or rubbing". The body becomes hard due to it's natural defensive reaction. In other words, if you "push or rub hard", the body's defenses will make it even harder.

 This is not a cure. It only destroys the tissue and fibers to make it less painful.  It can't be cured unless we do "Jiwa-pa" gently with the softness of our fingertips. So I devised a method where I could reach the deepest parts of the muscle. I realized that if I did it well, I could reach these areas with my fingers which doesn't hurt at all and there is no recurrence. After discovering this method to heal myself, I'm now teaching it to others.