December, 2008

by Leota Janzen (age 82)

Videos located on my website at:

www.letyourbodybeyourguide.com

A New Way to Relieve Pain

This is a blog about how to relieve pain and body damage in human anatomy. Pain messages are used as a means of determining the cause of the problem. This is different than treating the symptom of pain by stifling it with medication. Rather, by discovering the geometric arrangement of body tissue, and how constrictions in one area will pull on and put stress on another area, the strain can be released and the damaged area can heal.

WE ARE AS FRAGILE AS FLOWERS

A child went forth

And everything that happened became a part of him -

The ease with which he climbed a tree in joy,

Directing arms and legs to wrap around its limbs

The times he stumbled, smashing flowers and knees

While looking at distracting things:

Birds swooping above the horizon,

or a toad hopping in the woods.

I write of how the missteps lingered

Recorded in his body even tho'

He brushed his tears and 

wiped their memory from his mind

He did not hurt for long

He found that healing happened quickly

When he went on to new discoveries, new dreams

So he slowed not his race for living

Til many year's accumulated pains

began to wear his system down

I write about another way for him to live

To be AWARE of flowers trampled in his own physique

To lift and straighten, 

rub and comfort things awry

So that his body, from which he can't escape

Will serve him better

Once he has learned the ways to listen to its needs

And teach it how to bring him greater joy

==========================================================


Do you realize that everything we do leaves an imprint on our body? That our creator has made our body the most marvelous computer we know of? That the feedback we get from it can tell us more than what we get from any book?

Our body has a limited vocabulary: "I hurt," or," I feel good". If one part is tight, and we give into it, another part of the body will be pulled on. The part winning the tug of war is content. The part losing is the one we will hear from, "Oww, you're hurting me." So, we have a villain and a victim.

For instance, if you have been struggling to write in school, and you feel stress over the top of your shoulders, it will make the victims feel better if you rub them. But to really solve the problem, you need to loosen the villain muscles that are holding your shoulders down tight while you write. You will find them in your armpit on the inside of your shoulder blade. Thumb pressure to them will make them say, "Oww" for a minute, but then they give up and release. The ache in your victim shoulders will go away. You can keep the villain muscles stretched out by hanging from a bar or, if you can reach it, the top of the door frame.

Perhaps you have been slouching in a chair. The muscles in the front of your body have gotten short. They do not want to stretch out, so when you stand they pull your head and shoulders forward. Guess who are the victims who complain? Your back and neck. You may get a little relief from stretching to touch your toes because it moves the circulation, but is like patting the losers on the head. It does not solve the problem. The villains are hiding in various places in the front of your trunk, for instance areas in your tummy that say ouch when you push them with pressure. Some will be in your chest.

Massage can loosen them. Then you can lean with your belly button on the side of the door frame, to position yourself in a more than erect posture, which releases the tension in your back, making your victim more comfortable. Keep this posture, to give your back a rest, and its cells will thank you, by not hurting. They will be grateful because you have taken the pressure off of their circulatory pathways so they can get their nutrients, and, you have protected their space so they don't have to swell (or as in some cases, turn into renegade bullies that take over other cells).

These are a couple of simple versions of geometric release, a concept with many exciting aspects, that has, so far, not been published anywhere, because they have not yet been analyzed. If you pay attention to your body's language, you could be one of the lucky pioneers to identify what, in general, bodies are saying. It is not as hard as you may think. The creator who made our body computer does not keep coming up with new models, because the one we have is perfect.

A body is happy when you let it be the boss, when you keep it comfortable and fed, so it can live a long and healthy life. A simple mantra introduces the elemental of timing for the efficient care of the body:

“Hear the cells when they complain.
Free the cells from crush, or strain.
Clear the cells of sludge condition.
Feed the cells with pure nutrition.”

The following are examples dealing with “hear”, "free" and “clear" the cells. Nutrition, as you know, is well covered these days.


THE MOST COMMON BACK PAIN

This particular pain is felt across the back, just below the level where the spine joins the sacrum. It is usually described as a dull ache, or sharp pain with movement, or touch tenderness at the sacroiliac dimples. It hurts because there is a twist in the joints, where the sacrum and the ileum (the wing shaped pelvic bones) join together.

What may be noticed visually is the lower part of the sacrum is protruding out, instead of being angled down, nearly straight, as it is supposed to be. If the tailbone is pulled away from the pubic bone too far, you may have an achy bottom, and have trouble controlling the actions of the pelvic floor. Or, if a person is compensating by trying to tuck his tail, or pulling the tummy in, the ileum on either side of the pelvis bulge backwards, you are creating a reason for fat deposit "love handles."

A closely related pain, on either side of the lumbar spine happens when the muscles have to go into spasm to hold the trunk of the body erect.  It is caused when the top of the sacrum, on which the spine rests, is tipped forward, as the lower, or tailbone part is tipped out, scissor-like.

Trauma causing damage:

1) A fall on rear end with trunk thrown forward. See pictures.

2) Sitting without proper back support. It is amazing how much furniture is designed for the femurs of eight foot tall people. To check your fit to a chair, back up to the chair and slide your bottom down the back of the chair so that you land square in the seat. This depth can be recreated in deeper seats by using pillows. Children in school often experience discomfort sitting slouched in misfitted seats that won’t let them sit square. And even sadder is the way baby car seats are designed. The baby’s low back is unsupported and diapers make it even more uncomfortable by pushing the bottom even farther forward.

3) Sit ups, done without stretching out, to counterbalance the shortening the abdominal muscles. This allows these muscles to remain clogged and contracted with lactic acid waste. Also, anything that pulls the abdomen in tight, adds internal pressure, and eventually insides protrude out through the pelvic floor. Lifting too much weight, without a protective weight belt, has the same effect.

4) Abdominal surgery scars (and this includes hysterectomy surgeries, even if the scars hardly show). Mucking around in the abdomen, even if it is done sneakily, causes disturbance to circulatory pathways, and inhibits normal circulation). Anything that pulls the pubic bone up, tips the ileum backwards, and creates SI (sacroiliac) strain.

5) Tight hamstrings. If your leg can only be lifted comfortably to 45 degrees, then you can only bend over 45 degrees before straining your sacroiliac. Toe touching exercises have brought chiropractors a lot of business.

6) Abdominal tightening to get stability when bending forward to do something effortful. If these muscles are not relaxed afterwards, they stay in contracture putting strain on the back.

How to loosen the villain:

First let me explain the use of the word villain. It stands for the tissue causing the current problem, but actually is tissue that was not treated at the time it was abused. For instance, you stub your toe, start limping, change your posture and gait, etc. What to do about original injuries will be addressed elsewhere, but the simple formula, is to do the opposite of what happened (a jammed toe would be pulled on).

The villain muscles are the muscles pulling on the strained, or victim area.

BODY VILLAINS

THE VILLAIN STORY

Damaged areas of the human body, become villains, if they are not treated by reversing whatever happened to make them hurt. The original discomfort sends messages to the brain, causing the brain boss, you, to adjust your position, to relax the hurt area, This lets circulation can get to the damaged cells and they can heal. This is good, as far as it goes. But, if left at this stage, and by continuing to let the hurt place keep you in misalignment, eventually there will be tissue pull on another part of the body. In a few weeks, this new strained area will register an unexplained complaint. At that point, the original mistreated area, which is being pampered, becomes a villain. You now have a tug of war. And the villain that's winning doesn't complain.

Patting the loser of the tug of war, or victim, on the head, may make it feel somewhat better. But it doesn't solve the problem. This is the usual way of treatment; to treat the symptom, not the cause. Now is when our God given brains need to come into play, to interpret what our non-vocal cells are trying to say, such as, "I'm being stretched", or," Squashed", or" buckled", etc.

The contented villain gives no hint that it is a bully. Until you ferret it out, that is. This tight or defensive area may, or may not, be visible. Anatomical knowledge comes into play (and it is fun to figure out). Then, pinpointed, moderate pressure will cause the villain to howl. In a l50 year old physical medicine book, this diagnostic method was called, "The Brutal Thumb Technique".

HOW TO DISCOVER THE VILLAIN

Start by checking history: Was there a remembered trauma, a repetitive action, or a genetic misalignment. Is there a positioning habit, gait abnormality, etc.? Quite often this information does not surface until later, but this is a good place to begin.

Next, the complaining tissue can tell in cell language: "Burning" is inflammation because circulation is blocked and cannot take the rubbish away, "Aching" is constant tension stress on the cells, "Tearing with movement" probably is ripping! The lexicon of cell language needs a lot more study.

A technique called Counter Strain, where you place the hurting area in its most relaxed position, to relieve it, will give you clues as to where the stress causing pull is coming from. If you can visualize the anatomical geometry of the body, it is easier to identify the original abused tissue turned 'Villain". Even if you do not know anatomy, if you understand the concept and have good body instincts (as many people do) and have been discouraged from using them, you may be able to use this information to restore balance.

By learning to decode the language of the victim, you will be able to disarm the villain, and truly resolve the issue of body imbalance.

The villains putting stress on the SI joint are most often, the abdominal muscles and the large hip flexors. The number one hip flexors, psoas major, comes from the transverse processes of the lumbar spine. They go down through the pelvis, and attach to the front of the femur. When they are staying in contracture, they are shortening the distance between the low back and the thigh, buckling out, and twisting, the SI joint. People have been known to gain an inch in height when this muscle is released, and the joint is properly aligned.

There are other villains that can also put torque on the SI joint. They are usually only secondary to the ones here described.

The techniques used to loosen tight areas of the body are more universally known so will only be stated as a reminder here; Massage, Counter-strain, Ultrasound, acupressure, electrical stimulation, acupuncture, stretching (to be used judiciously, so as to not over stretch non elastic tendons) and heat and cold, relaxing medications, whirlpool, and exercise,
etc.

These techniques are effective if they clear the villain tissue of waste products, or "cell poop", so muscles can relax to their normal length, taking strain off of the area complaining of pain. The villain, or tissue winning the tug of war, does not complain until it is discovered. Then you will be surprised at its reaction. The real trick will be, to get the professionals to treat the villain, rather than the victim, for you.


ALIGN THE JOINTS:

Sacral alignment can be done by prone lying, and having the lower half of the sacrum gently pushed in. An osteopath or chiropractor more typically does it, by having you side lying, holding your trunk in a stabilizing twist, and shoving your femur toward the back of you direction. Because, pushing the bottom of the pelvis, or ischium, posteriorly, tilts the ileum forward, it brings it into line with the sacrum, and is a much more dramatic way to accomplish the same thing.

The simplest way, and most valuable in the long run, because you can rest in bed unweighted after, giving it more of a chance to heal, is to align your SI joint yourself. Lie on your back with your knees bent, lift you pelvis, and slip a grapefruit sized semi-squishy ball under the lower half of the sacrum. This will tilt it in, so that its edges line up with the edges of the ileum. Let your legs down straight one at a time. When you feel a sense of relief, you have gotten the arrangement right. Slide the ball out, and rest. Do not curl to get up, or you will undo the good you have accomplished. Roll on your side and push up, to all fours, or sideways off of whatever you were lying on. If you have planned ahead, now is the time to stabilize.

There is a reason alignment is discussed after "Loosen". Alignment stays better if it is not being pulled out by tight villains. However, alignment itself, can give phenomenal relief of low back pain, temporarily, so try it as a test, of this new perspective of self-help.

STABILIZE THE JOINTS:

A regular buckled belt placed at the hips can hold the pelvis together.

Even more important way of keeping your pelvis properly aligned, is to use your head. That means you plan ahead to only sit in places that give you good back support; Secretary Chairs, or solid pillows behind. To be sure you land square on a solid chair, slide down the back of it with your rear (or visualize yourself doing so). Bring your pubic bone close to the seat, sitting directly on your crotch. Do not slouch over. The minute you do, the abdominal villains will happily return to their bad habits.

When you go to pick up anything, squat, don't lean. Keep your low back straight, as though waiting for glue to dry. Ligamentous tissue takes about a year to heal, even 90 percent, so get used to the idea of protecting it.

To get your alignment bearings while standing, find a door frame you can lean into. Put your tummy against it, with your toes a comfortable couple of inches away. Find the "sweet spot" position where you feel relaxed. (If you cannot get comfortable, you need to loosen the villains some more, most likely hip flexors). Stay in this posture, even if you feel like a pigeon as you walk away. It feels weird, but is necessary if you are going to compensate for not being "stacked" for so long.

TRANSFER THE WORK LOAD:

This sounds easy, but it is the part where you have to condition your mind. We have already talked about using your legs to lift. We also need to talk about not leaning over to work. This means to take the time to get close to whatever you are doing. There are all kinds of information about body mechanics, so the issue will not be belabored here. There are two bit of information, though, that seem to be neglected.

1) Protect, protect, protect.  Backs that have been strained, do not get stronger, (any more than bald tires get stronger by squealing them). What you should have done in the first place! The only way cells can protect themselves, is to fill up with gunk. A lot of what people think of as fat is just cells full of waste.

2) Learn to use your mouth. Ask for help. And be patient to wait for it. Think this is easy? This is probably the hardest part of this whole system. But think of how expensive it is to have back pain! This might be the time to remind you that pain is your best friend. It tells you when something is going wrong.

WATCH FOR SIGNALS:

This will be short, because it is all YOUR job.  Keep a log, if only in your head?

What happened yesterday? Last week? Six weeks ago? When you were a child? Do you hurt in the morning? Evening? After standing? Sitting? etc. Why? Go figure!!! Does it feel like it is tearing? Does it ache like it is clogged up? Is it hot and inflamed? Cool it off. Is it cold? Warm it up.

Learning to understand cell language is an uncharted skill, as yet. Your chances of interpreting yours is about as good as anybody's at this stage of the game.

Once constricted, contracted muscles have been cleared and relaxed (previously mentioned), you can keep them that way by regular stretching. Or, if you cannot get them cleared first, begin stretching activities gradually.

The hip flexors are best stretched in the beginning by lying in your back with knees bent, feet flat, in hook lying position. Clasp one knee to your chest. Breathing out, draw your nose and knee together. While still holding this position, stretch out the opposite leg, which then remains stretched out. Try to be coordinated enough to do this while still exhaling. Drop your head back down to inhale, keeping first knee still clasped tight. This action is allowing the psoas major muscle of the extended leg to get a good stretch while your back is protected. Repeat several times before switching to repeat with the other side.

To maintain stretch of loosened abdominal muscles, lie prone, and get up on your elbows. Both abdominals and hip flexors are best maintained by doing posterior leg lifts from this position. Lift the straight leg so that the knee is about three inches up, breathing out during the effort. Exhaling keeps you from going into unwanted spasm.

The normal length of hamstrings is 90 degrees. Bending over to touch your toes does not prove they are normal. Often backs are strained by stretching them to accomplish this maneuver. Hamstring stretches are most safely done by lying on your back, one leg up on the wall, the other through the doorway. Inch your body closer to the door frame, day by day. Picture

A Pilate's exercise that combines both sacral alignment and hamstring stretch is to put the ball under the tail bone and extend both legs into the air, crossing and separating them in time with your breathing. Once you understand what you want to protect, and what you want to stretch, you can choose or design your own exercises.

LET IT HEAL:

This should be self-explanatory, and it is, if you care enough, to let your body be the boss. Rule of thumb is that it takes six weeks of no pain for anything to heel, at least. This does not mean you have to be still. Just be careful. If you glued the handle back on a cup, you wouldn't come along and thump it. So test cautiously. With our 'watching cartoon up-bring', this may be the hardest part of the whole formula.

LOOSEN THE VICTIM:

The stress from the villian released, our original complaint area is now ready for attention.

Another "gradually" caution. Once you have tested, found out your range of motion is lacking, you know your goal. With low backs, the victim has usually collected waste products in its effort to not lose the tug of war. Massage and all the other techniques come in handy in bring back normal cell elasticity.



COMMON UPPER BACK PAIN

Midway in the upper back, between the shoulder blades, where the Rhomboid muscles are, is pain caused by tightness in the Pectoralis Majors. Healthy, bulgy muscles in front are nice, but if they are not elastic, and pull constantly, they create a bowed over back.

Pain a bit lower is caused by a contracted diaphragm. The trigger point for the diaphragm is below the sternum, very sensitive if tight. Put a tape measure around your chest just under the arms, and see how much you can compress and expand your rib cage. You should be able to get four to six inches difference. Measuring this way is important. If you only try to make your chest bigger, you are in danger of expanding up and down, the way asthmatics breath.

Try to get rid of environmental aggravations, such as having to lean hunched over to reach your work, or wearing tight bras. (This latter is damaging in other ways, too. Bras have been implicated in diminishing circulation and causing breast cancer).

Dowager's hump, or the bulge over the seventh cervical, is caused by tightness in the sternothyroid muscles. Head forward, with no definition to the front of the neck (loss of lovely sternal notch), happens when Sternoclydomastiods are short.

To see if you are letting gravity help you, in other words, to see if you are properly stacked, an imaginary plumb line should drop from your earlobe, midway through your neck, your shoulder, your waist, your hips, your knees, and toward the front of your ankles.


SCIATIC PAIN MYSTERY 

You may have guessed that sciatic pain comes from a pinched nerve. You are right. But it is not little gremlins pinching it. It is you, being out of kilter. Think of your spine as a balanced column. If you are pulled tighter in one area, you can imagine how other areas have to adjust to keep the body the body upright.

Say you have stubbed your right toe. If it is bad enough that you put more weight on your left leg, for any length of time, your left hip muscles will tighten up, because they are continually compacted. The right side hip muscles stretch out. The right hip becomes higher, and the waistline muscles above it tighten to keep you from tipping to the left.



So what happens if the Muscles at your waist stay tight for a long time? Their waste products don't clear out. They get locked up, and the nerves that come out of your spine on the right side of your low back, get pinched! These nerves go all the way down your leg, complaining. You, not being able to read body messages, put more and more weight on your left leg, only to make matters worse.

What to do: It does not help much to loosen the muscles that are causing the pinching, if you do not loosen the opposite side (in other word words, the shortened leg, in this case, the left) muscles. This is most easily done by lying on the right (yes, the hurting side), and getting a caring person to put pressure, with thumb, fingers or elbow, on the tight gluteus mediums hip muscle. Wow, are you surprised at how much it hurts. The villain that's winning never complains until you ferret it out. Keep pressure on it until it gives up.  This is my favorite fastest system for releasing clogged muscles, but other release methods are fine.  I leave the technique up to you.

Then you can go to the right, or originally hurting side. Put pressure on the waist toward the spine, on the quadratus lumborum muscle. You should find a trigger (a tender spot with a good ouch feeling) that lets you know it needs to be released.

Stand up, and see if you don't feel at least twenty percent better. If you do, then you know you are on the right track.

The exercise you use to balance you is to stick out your left (tight) hip as if you were carrying a baby straddling it. To strengthen and tighten the right hip, stand tall on it, with the left lifted. You will feel no pain if you keep your right side waistline relaxed so it does not compress nerves while you are doing this.

Body positioning habits are hard to break. If you get a 5/8 lift on the heel of your left shoe, your body weight will be shifted onto your right, and soon you will be trained into balance.

This, of course, is the simple version of releasing pressure that causes sciatica. The added details of misery in the high hip because of constant stretching, are not focused on, because, if you follow this formula of simply visualizing the cause, and line up correctly, the strain will be relieved and soon be gone.


MORE GEOMETRIC EXAMPLES:

"I think it's stress," is the common parroted comment of people suffering pain about the neck and shoulders. The overburdened posture associated with life's difficulties does give people a tendency to have a cowering posture, but it is the maintaining this position that causes the mechanical strain on the tissues that are complaining.

Below are some common areas of pain, which do increase when we are curled forward in a defensive posture. Each, however, has a specific villain, or combination of villains, that cause the strain.

First, pinpoint exactly where:



1. Upper trapezius, or midway on the top of the shoulder ache or pain. Usually accompanied by difficulty to lay arms flat, straight above head when lying on back on the floor. Often brought on by too much studying in a slouched position, locked down tight so hands can move faster, either writing or typing.

It can be relieved by release of the subscapularis muscle, shown in the picture below. Posture at desk needs to be close enough so arms hang down perpendicular to the floor, or it will tighten up again with a vengeance.



#2. Aching up the back of the neck, usually on one side. The head may be noticeably leaning forward and toward the opposite side. The pectoralis minor on this opposite side is pulling the head in its direction, keeping constant strain on the neck. Put some pressure in the center of the muscle pictured, and you will know immediately if you have found the trigger point. The reverse problem can occasionally be found, where a neck pulled back to one side causes pain in the front. Counterstrain, where you take pressure off of the muscle you are compressing, by bringing the attachments of that muscle closer together to release the tension, and thus let circulation help relax it, will ease it less painfully.





#3.Vague pain in the medial upper area of the scapula (levator scapula attachment). Release Serratus Anterior, opposite side. This is confirmed if being propped up side lying on painful side with arm dangling forward, gives relief to the victim. This is also the" counterstrain" position, the logical first step for releasing any of these villains.





#4. Shoulder looks and feels pulled down. Often there is numbness in thumb and forefinger. Release Latissimas Dorsi on the same side.




#5. Pain in upper medial back, off the edge of the scapula. Release Teres Minor, same side. As pictured above.


#6. Pain deep in shoulder after fall on back of shoulder blade, or after sudden resist locking of the arm from a jolt pushing back. Release Coracobrachialis.









MEDIAL KNEE PAIN, ETC.

Strain on the medial knee, surprisingly enough, comes, or is sustained by a muscle that is not anywhere near it. The posterior tibiales is a muscle arising from between the calf bones. It attaches by nine tendons to the inside of the arch of the foot, raising the arch, when it is tight. This causes a tendency to land with the foot out to the side, or laterally, so that the arch part of the foot connects with the ground, to take pressure off the outside edge. Tightness in this muscle can also come from wearing too small shoes causing a curl up effect.

Continuously landing in this manner, causes the knee to go into a knock knee, or valgus, position. In this position, the center of gravity of the body's weight goes down through the medial side of the knee, over empty space, with every step, straining the medial collateral ligament and, if continuous, squashing out the medial meniscus.

This medial knee strain becomes a sprain if a person got "clipped" from the lateral side in sports. If it is the right knee, it is exacerbated by driving, because gas pedals are notorious for not being angled to accommodate the normal angle of the foot.

The posterior tibialis can be released by doing acupressure deep in the middle of the back of the calf, between the two parts of the gastroc muscles. This, followed by ice, ultrasound, electrical stimulation, proper alignment, and stretching, can stack the leg so that strain is taken off of the medial knee.

To align a knock knee, while sitting with foot resting on the floor, hold one hand on the inside of the knee, slightly above, to stabilize it. With the outside hand, gently push below the knee, on the calf, to straighten the angle of the knee. If you get it right, it should feel good. Be careful, as you stand, to keep your foot on the midline under you, so that strain of weight bearing, goes down through the outside, or unstrained part of your leg. The line of gravity should go from the center of each hip, thigh area, down through the center of your kneecap, mid ankle and over the second toe. If you eyeball this imaginary line, and see it straight, your leg is properly stacked.

The stretch for posterior tibialis is the same as the well-known heel cord stretch. Lean against a wall with heel down. In order to stretch posterior tibialis, cross the damaged leg over behind the other leg, placing the heel flat so the inside of the calf is angled to give good pull to the muscle as you lean forward.

A good exercise to help realign knock knees is to stand with both feet centered directly midway under each hip joint. Now, without bending, but stacked loosely, push your knees apart, laterally, as if to put a ball between your knees. This helps to line up the hip, knee, and ankle joints, especially if there is a contributing problem of being knock-kneed.

To protect the medial knee, you can wear elastic tubing, or other bracing, to keep it in to alignment. Be sure to always land so the foot stays flat, perpendicular to the leg, making sure that any strain goes toward the outside of the leg. Keep in mind that post. tib. needs to remain stretched (this includes riding the inside edge of the gas pedal, if it is the right knee in trouble)

The knee that is consistently protected from strain can heal remarkably well. Even a palpable meniscus tag will disappear in time if knee alignment is maintained (if you don't poke it back into the joint, causing it to not be able to bend.) If that is done it takes a lot of distraction, and waggling to get it out again. This author knows from personal experience- at one time my right knee was 17 degrees out of alignment but with no surgery I was able to straighten it - check out my picture at age 82!)

What has been described above is the most common cause of medial knee pain. The second cause which may often happen along with the above is evident if the foot "toes out", like duck feet. The muscles involved in this situation are: the external hip rotators, (of which there are a number, mostly in the buttock), and, or, the lateral hamstring, which is the chief external tibia, or lower leg, rotator. When the foot is in this position, it has a tendency to catch on the ground when walking, snapping the knee into valgus. This necessitates an added component to the knee alignment. While stabilizing the inside of the knee with a flat hand, grasp the outside of the lower leg and twist it into internal rotation at the same time as you push it in to align straight.

The hamstrings are most safely stretched by lying on the floor with the tight leg straight up on the door frame, and the other stretched out through the doorway. External hip rotators are best stretched by sitting, legs dangling, belted together at the knees, and trying to separate the feet as far as possible (normal is to a 90 degree angle), Of course, both stretches work better if the mechanical releases of deep tissue massage, ultrasound, and electrical stimulation are done first.

Thinking of the knee mechanically, as an "only supposed to go one way" hinge joint, will make the greatest difference in healing. Having this kind of logic in your head will help you to protect your knee, by being careful in everyday activities; such as sitting down on the seat of a car sideways, before lifting your feet in.

Other knee hints: If pain is above the kneecap, look for triggers in the gastroc muscles of the calf. If the pain is below the knee in the patellar ligament, look for tightness in the hamstrings. If aching in back of knee, it is most likely tight quadriceps, perhaps because you lock your knees, both when moving and standing. This bad habit can also bring on heel pain, because it makes you land wrong.

Remember, pain is your best friend. But it may not give you the message until a few days later. Good luck with letting your body be the boss.


LATERAL ANKLE SPRAIN

This can happen if the ankle is not aligned as the knee valgus is straighted. This is related to the above problem of the knee, in that posterior tibialis tightness pulls the ankle into an inverted position, if that is the weaker part of your body. (Off the subject, but the weakest area is the first to complain, the explanation of why some women in labor hurt in the back rather than the front). I will mention here that medial ankle pain is less common, but can happen if the foot is twisted suddenly into pronation, perhaps by a bad landing, with ensuing fibularis spasm. Either one, if ignored, can lead to broken bones, by crushing or being pulled away, avulsion fracture.

The stretch for posterior tibilias is already described under medial knee pain.


BUNIONS

The common bunion on the inside of the foot just below the big toe, and the one on the little toe, are obviously caused by squeezing feet into pointy toed shoes. They are made worse, of course, by high heels causing the foot to be jammed forward. But, what to do, if it has already happened, and the muscles that have been trained into spasm hold the foot in the same ugly position even when not wearing cruel shoes?

There is a muscle just below and forward of the outside ankle bone called extensor digitorum brevis. It covers about a square inch of space. It fans out to all the toes, and the angle of pull to the big toe is the greatest. When those particular muscle fibers are tight, the big toe is pulled to a middle point, and the bones on the medial side of the foot are buckled out. The buckled out place builds up a callus. Rather than shaving off the callus, doing surgery, or whatever, it is much kinder to the foot, to loosen the tight digitorum brevis. This muscle may be so locked up that at first, putting pressure on it may not elicit pain. Keep trying to release it, and when it starts to give, you will get a nerve message of trigger point pain.

The curled in little toe callus will have its cruel shoe misalignment pull from the lateral part of the same muscle. But it has added curling problem, because the little muscles between its foot bone and the fourth toe bone, called interossei, are tight. You can find the trigger by pressing here with the edge of your finger (it may take your little finger to reach deep enough). Added to little toe callus cause, may be tension in fibularus tertius. This develops if the little toe was rubbing in the shoe, and this muscle splayed it out to hold it snug against the shoe. By now, I hope you are familiar with your anatomy book, so you can look at pictures. It is not the job of this blog, to try to describe what can be found elsewhere. And, by the way, if your book is old, it probably calls this same muscle peroneus tertius.

Be kind to your body, by giving your feet space to work properly. All of you who have worn Crocs know that comfortable shoes do exist.


ARM PUZZLES:

This is an illustration of interpretation of types of pain. The area complained of is on the back side of the shoulder arm at about the fingertip reach when you grab with your other hand. If it aches constantly, it is probably an elbow flexor muscle: brachoradialis, and/or biceps. If hurts more with certain movements, its origin is more likely a trigger point in the suboccipital area on the opposite side of the neck. If it is tender to the touch, look for triggers, or villains in latissimus dorsi , and/or teres major. The reason for touch point tenderness at the insertion of a tight muscle is that the fibers of attachment feed into the bone for up to a distance of an inch or two, and it is the most distant fibers that register ripping pain. If you have stuck with this blog thus far, you have undoubtedly obtained an anatomy book. Isn't this fun?

A more consistently simple problem is "tennis elbow". If it hurts on the inside bone of the elbow, check for a trigger in the forearm supinator. If the pain is on the outside, check pronator teres. Pronator quadratus can also be implicated. If these two are constantly keeping the hand pronated, so that when the arms are dangling, instead of the thumbs pointing forward as they should be, they are toward your sides. A good stretch to realign is an "Indian burn" twist done by a friend to open palms out.


ULNER DRIFT

Hands should hang evenly at the ends of arms, not drift off to the little finger side.
You can see how our computer use addiction deforms our wrist alignment. Rather than go for carpel tunnel surgery, check the muscle bellies just below the elbows and down, for villains. Loosen them and be surprised at the relaxation in your wrists and elbows. You wonder why I am skipping details? You should be discovering combinations for yourself, because you know the principle now.


HEADACHES

One more before I leave this blog. Say the headache is described as a band around the head. Tight pterigoid muscles give that feeling, because those muscles come from the middle floor of the skull. Teeth grinding and gum chewing are hints. The easiest way to get relief is to put a long wooden pencil across your mouth as far back as possible, and bite down. It works better than a dental mouth guard for TMJ. (This is a TMJ headache), because it can change as you loosen. You do not have to go to the dentist for a new fit.

If the headache is on one side, see if the head is pulled toward the other shoulder. Then acupressure and other releases to the tight opposite side is the remedy. If the headache is part of neck pain on one side in back, check the pectoralis minor on the opposite side of the body. I will not go into the counterstrain positions that help to release these villains, because you can find that information in a whole other course.

I've been thinking about this ever since my father, the surgeon, taught me the concept when I was only 5 years old. His comment when I showed him this article was "Watch out, you will do yourself out of a job"

Happy hunting for muscle combinations. You don't want to know everything I think I know at once, do you!


I have a question for you:
AJ, my boss for many years, is the designer of the "healing sequence acronym" - AT LAST WELL.  It includes, as one of the components, Geometric Release.

AJ has a Doctorate in Science as well as a Masters in Physical Therapy and a Degree in Nutrition. She won the California Physical Therapy Award in 2007 for a frozen shoulder study showing that the current accepted treatment was detrimental.

AJ has hundreds of documented body geometry combinations.

I am trying to convince her to make them available to the public.  So far, the medical profession has proven to be uninterested in this knowledge.  She has, in fact, lost big jobs - one as the head of a medical school pain clinic and one as head of a private medical practice conglomerate rehab center because her patients recovered too quickly.

If you think you would be willing to:

1. Take a picture of your hurting area
2. Fill out a questionnaire
3. Pay $50 for a print out of a common geometric solution to your problem in the AT LAST WELL form.

Please respond to this blog.


Good bye for now!