This is a series on low back pain. If you missed the summary of causes, go back to Part 1. For those of you who consider your low back the part below your waist across your sacrum and into the top of your buttocks and the back of your hips, the piriformis muscle could be […]
This is a series on low back pain. If you missed the summary of causes, go back to Part 1 When a patient comes into my Neuromuscular Therapy center near Boston with complaints of low back pain, they often mean the portion across the sacrum on either side of the back of the hips and […]
This is a series on low back pain. If you missed the summary of causes, go back to Part 1. In my Neuromuscular Therapy center near Boston I am finding more and more that the lumbar portion of little multifidi (and sometimes the rotatores) muscles is a big cause of low back pain. They form […]
This is a series on low back pain. If you missed the summary of causes, go back to Part 1. Of all the muscles that cause low back pain, the quadratus lumborum is probably chief among them. This little muscle is under all the other low back muscles attaching to the bottom rib, the top […]
For anyone with piriformis syndrome, restless leg syndrome, low back pain, hip pain, buttock pain, sciatica pain, thigh pain and back leg pain, these 5 specific stretches will help. If you feel discomfort or pain when you stretch, that’s the place that needs it. You won’t harm yourself even if it hurts if you stretch […]
According to Travell & Simons in their Trigger Point Manual, “In patients with chronic myofascial pain, attention to perpetuating factors often spells the difference between sucessful and failed therapy.” Perpetuating factors in the case of Krystal S. were an important consideration in reducing the need for continued treatment for restless leg syndrome at my Neuromuscular […]
When muscle tension and hyperactivity from Trigger Points are the cause of RLS, Neuromuscular Therapy is very successful in relieving symptoms and sometimes eliminating this disturbing condition. When an initial series of appointments works, but symptoms return, underlying or perpetuating factors need to be discovered. Treatment in the case of Krystal S. in my Neuromuscular […]
So how do I think about RLS? What jumps out at me is the “restless” part. The muscles are hyperactive. What can cause that? Well, I’m a Neuromuscular Therapist and when you’re a hammer everything looks like a nail, so I go right to Trigger Points! Trigger points are hyperactive. They are working 24/7. They […]
As a Neuromuscular Therapist, how do I think about these rotator cuff and shoulder pains? The shoulder has only one small joint holding it to the skeleton at the inside edge of the collar bone where it connects to the breastbone (sternoclavicular joint). The stability of the shoulder depends on strong ligaments and on balance […]
Structurally, the low back is the lumbar spine (five vertebrae) and the sacrum (the triangular bone at the base of your spine below the waist) with the coccyx (tail bone) at the tip. The lumbar spine is curved to make an arch in the small of your back. It is built to support weight. The […]