Crystal-Bianca Cabanas loves to play sports.
Whether she is running track and field or in the pool swimming laps, this 15-year-old is going hard year round.
When she moved to the United States from the Philippines, her father encouraged her to be apart of many activities in the community, she said. This season, Cabanas is playing volleyball for the Pioneer Valley High School girls’ varsity team.
As with any sport, all of that movement can take its toll on a body.
“I use my arms a lot and put stress on my shoulders,” she said. “I have to be careful about how I approach things so I wont hurt myself.”
During last year’s volleyball season, her knee began to hurt. She started to limp and had to ice her knee between games. She got herself checked out because a serious injury could potentially dampen her dreams of becoming an Olympic athlete.
For two months, Cabanas saw a physical therapist. During those sessions her doctor had her stretch and exercise her knee, but she said she didn’t notice a difference.
“It was a waste of time,” she said. “It wasn’t hands on.”
Being the hard worker she is, Cabanas continued playing sports—even with the pain—and doing community service. She started volunteering as the junior veterinarian with the company DogE911, and learned that the company’s owner, Genete Bowen, is also a certified massage therapist.
Cabanas and Bowen became friends, and Bowen was invited to watch Cabanas play volleyball. Bowen saw her young student icing her knee between games, and she suggested to Cabanas’ dad that she do some massage therapy work with the athlete.
Cabanas immediately noticed improvement with the massage therapy as well as a difference in the treatment of the pain. Bowen uses a holistic approach to deal with her clients’ injuries, meaning she treats the entire body, rather than just the spot that hurts.
“When you can treat the body as a whole, you’re more likely to get results,” Bowen said. “That’s why when I worked with her, I wasn’t just working with her knee.”
Each injury is different, Bowen said, but for someone like Cabanas, she will start working on the spine and ribcage, and then move down the legs to the feet. She then flips the client onto their stomach, and works all the way back up to their neck.
In order to loosen the constricted muscles, Bowen starts with long, sweeping strokes before she moves into applying more pressure to specific points.
“Massage helps to three-dimensionally heal muscles,” said Dr. Jordan Larson, who owns Active Physical Therapy and works with many athletes himself. He compares muscle fibers to pasta.
“Instead of stretching the spaghetti noodles that are stuck together, when you massage it’s like putting olive oil on them and smoothing them out,” he said.
Bowen worked on Cabanas at her home in Santa Maria and figured out that Cabanas had an inflamed knee, which, if left untreated, could lead to scar tissue buildup, she said.
Bowen and Larson agree that it’s important for young athletes to have their injuries addressed early on, even if it’s a mild sprain, to prevent future injuries.
When a body part is injured, some of the surrounding muscles are deactivated, Larson said. The injured muscles don’t function properly when they’re put into another stressful situation, which can lead to a more serious injury, like tearing a muscle.
“It’s important to step back and address the injury fully, especially when you have your whole life and athletic career ahead of you,” he said.
For a year now, Cabanas has been receiving massage therapy from Bowen, and over time, the 15-year-old has learned how to better take care of herself.
“She’s taught me a lot,” she said about Bowen. “Every time I’m with her I learn something new.”
Along with knowing about her knee, Cabanas learned that she had low arches in her feet, which affected her posture. Bowen showed her how to roll her feet on a golf ball to reform and deepen her arch.
Cabanas is now sharing some of the things she’s learned with her volleyball teammates. For instance, she tells them to widen their stance when doing squats in order to work the outside muscles in their knees.
The massage therapy has benefited more than just Cabanas’ body: She recently became the youngest player on Pioneer’s varsity team. Head coach Nikki Doyle said she moved the 5-foot-1-inch sophomore up from junior varsity this season after being impressed by her potential and the spring of her hops.
“She can jump through the roof,” Doyle said.
Bowen has worked with many athletes in her 17 years as a massage therapist, and especially enjoys working with the student athletes she’s known.
“It makes me proud to watch them feel more confident in themselves,” she said. “I feel like I had a hand in that.”
Contact Staff Writer Aaron Salazar at asalazar@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 18-25, 2014.