For the past six years, Johnson has been developing and testing the results of CHAMPS Advantage treatments with Prior Lake athletes. He recently documented his findings in an easy-to-learn pattern-matrix system of flashcards published by Pearson Prentice Hall called “Anatomy Flashcards for Healing Massage Techniques.” The flashcards are designed after the pattern-matrix learning method, which has proven to be eight times faster to learn with more permanent retention, Johnson said.

What is the difference between Johnson’s flashcards and others on the market?

“Illustrations, labels and descriptions are displayed together on one side of the card, rather than having to flip the cards back and forth,” said Johnson. “With these cards you can learn a whole card of muscles at a time rather than one muscle on one card at a time. The flashcards allow a person to learn a whole pattern at once.”

“It’s like crawling vs. running a mile,” Johnson said. “An average person can crawl a mile in about an hour and 20 minutes - and would be completely exhausted. Running takes about 10 minutes with a lot less effort. I think the industry is in disbelief right now. I am on the front end of this, but I know from teaching my level II advanced anatomy seminar that the pattern-matrix learning system works for adults.”

Johnson worked with members of the Prior Lake High School and Stanford University wrestling teams over the past few years. He developed and tested the model and procedures with numerous wrestlers and other athletes at Prior Lake High School and Stanford University. “I worked with members of the Prior Lake wrestling team as their regular season record dramatically improved from winning six matches in three years (6-67), to 13-11 record three years ago, a 20-5 record last year and the team won the Missota Conference for the first time in 30 years and had two-individual state champions, ” Johnson said. These accomplishments represent one of the biggest wrestling-team turnarounds in the state’s history, he said. Over the past two years, Johnson has provided clinical bodywork to members of the Stanford University wrestling team, as well.

“Wrestling takes a toll on the body over the course of the season,” Prior Lake wrestling Coach Joe Block said. “There is a lot of stress on the soft tissue and a lot of soreness. Johnson has been able to save a lot of doctor visits with stretching, tissue work and loosening the wrestler’s muscles. The stretching and massage has been huge in injury prevention, as well.”

Stretching and massaging soft tissue increases the range-of-motion for athletes, which decreases pain and discomfort, Johnson said. There are a lot of shoulder and knee injuries in wrestling, Block said. A lot of the shoulder injuries are knots and general tightness, he said. Johnson is able to keep the wrestlers’ muscles loose and they’re able to compete at the highest level possible, Block said.

“The biggest benefit I have seen in his work was during the state tournament when you can’t put in a back-up wrestler,” Block said. “It allowed the wrestlers who were sore to stay on the mat and compete at a higher level than they could have without the work.” Johnson’s techniques aren’t new. The techniques are about 6,000 years old, Johnson said. It’s following a specific protocol for injury and pain that’s new.

Johnson works alongside doctors and trainers providing clinical bodywork. “It’s integrating eastern and western modalities for healing,” Johnson said. The clinical bodywork modality differs from a basic one-hour massage. Johnson uses area-specific treatments on muscles for an hour in the weeks leading up to and following wrestling matches. Johnson says he uses a Healing Arts Protocol that incorporates many different modalities such as warming, stretching, treatment of muscles, tendons and ligaments.

“The back of the neck alone has four levels of muscle,” Johnson said. “I focus on the muscles that the athlete says hurt to give them back a range-of-motion. That in turn increases their psychological edge.” The Prior Lake wrestlers who need work done all ask for him, Block said. “They are amazed at what he can do with the range of motion and flexibility,” Block said. “Flexibility and range-of-motion works on the mental game as well because the soreness and lack of motion gets in your head.”

Being an athlete himself, Johnson said he understands sport psychology. “If you have an injury in contact sports all you can think about is your injury and protecting yourself,” Johnson said. “The guy who is healthy is totally focused on the match and has the upper hand because they more psychological ready.”  Giving an athlete back his/her range of motion and posture [in turn] gives them that psychological and psychological edge.

Two preliminary research studies of upper- and lower-body treatments have indicated positive increases in range-of-motion and posture improvement, Johnson said. The treatments also show indications of reducing pain, expediting injury rehabilitation and prevention, increasing flexibility, improving balance and have positive influences on strength, endurance, conditioning and sports psychology, he said. Using a measurement of joint motion called goniometric measurements, preliminary upper-body treatment results shown that clinical bodywork increased the neck’s “chin tuck” motion from 11 percent to 43 percent. The left to right neck range-of-motion increased from 5 percent to 38 percent after clinical body work.

One of the best success stories Block has seen in regards to Johnson’s treatments, was the work Johnson performed on his own son, wrestler Jake Johnson. A couple years ago during the 2005 state tournament, Jake had a torn meniscus, a cartilage in the knee, Block said. The injury eventually required surgery. “Jake tore his meniscus leading up to the state tournament,” Johnson said. “It’s a debilitating injury. I worked on Jake twice a day loosening muscles in and around his knee. Doctors told Jake that he probably couldn’t make it through the tournament with that injury, but he couldn’t make it any worse.” After weeks of area-specific treatment, Jake wrestled through the sections tournament and placed second in state with the injury.

Over 90 percent of injuries are to soft tissue, other than broken bones and nerve injuries, Johnson said. “A lot of people don’t get care for soft-tissue injuries,” he said. “They just walk them off and live with them. Those injuries deviate posture, limit range-of-motion and cause general pain. The body is a remarkable system and can hide can hide 71 percent of injuries,” Johnson said.

Physical therapists teach weight lifting and fitness, not muscle work, he said. “What we do is fill the gap in treatment,” Johnson said. “Clinical bodywork is a strategic need that shows up a lot in sports.” The human body is fascinating, Johnson said. “To be able to make somebody with a soft-tissue injury feel great in five minutes is the silver bullet that coaches, trainers and orthopedics wanted to be able to produce, but weren’t able to, because they didn’t have the kinesiology and understanding of the body structure and Healing Arts Protocol. It gets down to quality of life. It allows people to do what they want to when they want to do it.”

U.S.A. Freestyle and Stanford University Wrestling Head Coach Kerry McCoy states, “In addition to volunteering for the Prior Lake and Stanford wrestling programs, Johnson will be part of the U.S.A. Olympic wrestling team medical staff.”

Johnson’s flashcards “Anatomy Flashcards for Healing Massage Techniques” are available through Pearson Prentice Hall publishing at www.prenhall.com. The flashcards can also be ordered by phone at (800) 922-0579. The suggested retail price of the flashcards is $24.99. Seminars for the CHAMPS Advantage / Healing Arts Protocol are available at www.healingartsmassage.com and www.champsadvantage.com. People may also contact the Healing Arts Center by phone at (952) 447-3636.  

 Shawn Hogendorf can be reached at (952) 345-6374 or shogendorf@swpub.com.