The Massage Connection: Anatomy and Physiology (Lww Massage Therapy & Bodywork Series) [Hardcover]

Kalyani Premkumar (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0781734762 | ISBN-13: 978-0781734769 | Publication Date: August 20, 2003 | Edition: Second

This is the anatomy and physiology text written especially for students and practitioners of massage therapy. This edition integrates massage therapy concepts within the anatomy and physiology content, including sections that discuss how massage interacts with the body systems. The book covers all of the major body systems—integumentary, skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems—that are crucial to effective massage therapy, and provides an overview of other body systems to give students a well-rounded understanding of anatomy and physiology.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 704 pages
• Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Second edition (August 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781734762
• ISBN-13: 978-0781734769
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #485,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Desperately needs a medical editor, July 21, 2008

By 

trance3000 (Brighton, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Massage Connection: Anatomy and Physiology (Lww Massage Therapy & Bodywork Series) (Hardcover)

A previous reviewer stated that this textbook was clearly thrown together as the "the only A & P text written for massage therapists" and I couldn't agree more.

Not only is the text unclear, but it's often simply wrong regarding common aspects of anatomy and other terms. One entry lists medial epicondylitis as tennis elbow (the correct common name is golfer's elbow, as tennis elbow is lateral epicondylitis). Later in the text, it lists "lumbrosacral" as one nerve plexus...up until this book, I've never heard of these two separate nerve plexuses (the lumbar and the sacral) listed as one item. These are just two of the larger, more obvious errors I found during my time with this textbook.

I understand that as students, there isn't much choice as to what text you have to use. But for all the instructors out there, stay away from this text. There are literally hundreds of other A & P texts out there that may not be specifically targeted at MTs, but are simply far superior texts. I'm certain that students would get far more from those texts than they'd ever get from this hastily thrown together mess.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book for learning A and P, September 9, 2004

By 

Sam (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Massage Connection: Anatomy and Physiology (Lww Massage Therapy & Bodywork Series) (Hardcover)

I used this book as one of my references for learning anatomy and physiology in massage school. The book is pretty easy-to-understand and I think it definitely helped me through school. I also loved Anatomy and Physiology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers with Explanations Volume 1 and Volume 2 by Patrick Leonardi. These had great questions to review for my A and P tests. There were lots of pertinent questions that were needed for preparing for my exams. These three books made learning A and P much easier for me.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Typos and other problems, March 21, 2011

By 

L. M. Dunn (Yellow Springs, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anatomy & Physiology: The Massage Connection (LWW Massage Therapy and Bodywork Educational Series) (Hardcover)

I was attracted to this book because it seemed specific to massage therapy. But there are many, many typos and a few careless mistakes of the golfer/tennis elbow sort mentioned in an instructor's review elsewhere. There is also a more serious matter of what I can only describe as seeming intent to bias the student with regard to her or his understanding of HIV/AIDS . The copy I have is the 2004 Second Edition.

On Page 528 is a box with the title "Food For Thought..." The information in it details, among other things, the large cost of treating a person with AIDS, the secondary infections that persons with AIDS may transfer to others, and the suggestion that because persons with AIDS use multiple antibiotics over a long time, the risk of microorganisms developing that are resistant to antibiotics is increased.

What is the purpose of singling out AIDS in this way? The costs of organ transplants and cancer treatments, which also involve suppressed immune systems, secondary infections, and antibiotics - are not highlighted in this way or indeed at all. As infectious agents, Clostridium difficile, MRSA, and a host of others, leave HIV far behind. Nor is the reader encouraged to ponder these in like manner. I was shocked to think that the author, a physician and an educator, would be anything but neutral in the presentation of her material.

Gerald Tortora's texts are, I think, better in every way. For one thing, they are co-authored; he is not out there on his own with only graduate students helping him. Tortora's "Anatomy and Physiology for the Manual Therapies", for example, is written with anatomist and massage therapist Andrew Kuntzman. It too has typos and I believe at least two, although small, errors: the insertions for the tibialis anterior muscle are shown in a diagram on P 390 on the dorsum of the foot and in a diagram on P 399 decreased muscle tone is labelled "hypertonic". But many textbooks contain such errors; I think the reason is high production costs, the use of color for example. What I appreciate in Tortora is clear information presented without bias, as you have every right to expect.