Muscle Therapy and Health Archives - Page 3 of 7 - Health Tips From The Professor

Treating A Calf Cramp

June 21, 2022 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Stretching Your Calf

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT – The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Do you ever jump up at night with your calf screaming in pain?

Do cramps curl your toes and send shock waves all the way up your leg?

Have you ever been exercising, running, or cycling, and suddenly your calf cramped and stopped you in your tracks?

What Causes Calf Cramps?

The National Institute of Health (NIH) states that “the cause of leg cramps is unclear.” Isn’t that encouraging! There are just so many potential causes of calf cramps that it’s impossible to narrow it down. Some common causes are pregnancy, exercise, dehydration, insufficient levels of certain key nutrients, and electrolyte imbalances.

Electrolytes are minerals that have an electric charge. You get them from the foods you eat and fluids you drink.

I’ve learned that the vitamins and minerals that impact cramps are: B¹, B¹², D, magnesium, potassium, and calcium.

I’m not a nutritionist so I’m not going to expound on nutritional causes, deficiencies, or solutions. For that advice I suggest you go to a highly trained nutritionist for advice. I’ve learned a lot by watching John McDougall, MD and T. Colin Campbell, PhD on YouTube.

However, my world is muscles, so that’s where I focus my attention in today’s article.

Muscle Contractions, Spasms, And Cramps

A little clarification of terms. A contraction is when the entire length of a muscle fiber shortens. A spasm is when a small section of the muscle fiber ties up into what is sometimes thought of as a knot. A spasm happens slowly, so you rarely realize that the spasm is occurring. However, a cramp is when 100% of the muscle suddenly contracts 100% of the way and becomes as hard as a rock and feels like it is all knotted up.

There is a very complicated set of actions that enable us to do something as simple as picking up our cell phone and calling a friend. You don’t need (or want) to know all the steps, so just suffice to say that each muscle fiber pulls with exactly the right power to make the movement we want to perform.

For example, let’s say you want to pick up a pen, maybe 10% of the fibers in your lower arm (that move your fingers) will contract. But if you want to pick up a bowling ball, maybe 25% of your muscle fibers will contract. If you then need to pick up your refrigerator, maybe 100% of your fibers will contract. (All numbers are guesses just to demonstrate a principle).

Regardless of whether you are contracting 10% or 90% of your muscle fibers, they will always contract 100% of the way. Muscles don’t start to contract and then make a U-turn and stretch – and that’s the problem. The muscle will always contract 100% of the way before it will allow you to stretch it.

If you try to stretch while the muscle is contracting, you are potentially tearing the fibers. So, the idea is to help the muscle fibers complete the contraction, and then stretch.

Treating A Calf Cramp

I suggest you try this now when nothing is happening. You sure don’t want to be trying to figure it out while your calf is cramping.

Cross your leg as shown in this picture

Grab both ends of the muscle and push them together as hard as you can.

Hold the squeeze until you are breathing normally.

Release, breathe normally for a minute, and repeat.

The second time isn’t going to hurt. You’re only doing the second squeeze in case there are some muscles that didn’t finish the contraction, so you’re helping them along.

After the cramp has stopped, then you can safely stretch your calf muscles.

This really hurts! But then, a cramp also really hurts!

Stretching Your Calf

There are two muscles of your calf that you will be stretching: the gastrocnemius and the soleus.

To stretch your gastrocnemius, as shown in the picture to the left, put one leg straight behind you, and bend your opposite knee.

Lean forward, bending the knee in the front while keeping your back foot planted on the floor.

You’ll feel a nice stretch in your calf as the gastrocnemius is being gently lengthened.

To stretch your soleus muscle, follow the picture on the right and bend your back leg, again keeping your foot planted on the floor, and straighten your forward leg.

Hold each stretch for about 15 seconds to allow the muscles to slowly lengthen.

Let Me Show You How You Can Treat Yourself

I’ve been teaching people how to self-treat since 1989. As you know, I’ve written several books to show you how to self-treat to release tight muscles from your head to your feet, and I also have an MP4 program called the Julstro System that shows you how to release every muscle that causes the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome and trigger finger.

Did you know that I also do Zoom Consultations? I work with people all over the world. Zoom allows me to demonstrate to them what needs to be done, and then watch them to see if they are doing it correctly.

If you would like to work with me on a one-on-one basis from the comfort of your own home, just go to https://julstromethod.com/product/private-consultation/. We’ll set up a date and you’ll be off to getting the relief you are seeking.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

www.FlexibleAthlete.com

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Preventing Knee Pain

May 17, 2022 by Dr. Steve Chaney

A Treatment To Relieve Strain On Your Knee

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT – The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

It is the Merry Month of May!

May was the start of the beautiful weather when I lived up in New York. April showers began to bring May flowers. Of course, here in Florida we have flowers all year, so it’s our friends to the north that are enjoying a glorious array of color during this month. For us May is the beginning of the hot weather.

The Snowbirds are leaving Florida and heading back up north. Safe journey. I’ll miss you! It’s funny having friends that are gone 6 months of the year.

But it also means that life is beginning to slow down for us. With most of the snowbirds gone, driving is easier, the stores are less crowded, and we can park at the beach. The weather is still beautiful so we can still go outside to ride a bike, jog, or play the sports we enjoy. This leads me to talk about preventing knee pain.

Preventing Knee Pain

The weather is beautiful all across the country, which brings more people out to enjoy the sports they love. Whether you like running or cycling, or any sport that puts a strain on your knee, you’re going to really appreciate this month’s newsletter. We’re going to be talking about one of the muscles that put a strain on your knee joint.

The muscle we’ll be discussing today is the Rectus Femoris, one of the four quadricep muscles. This is the only “quad” that originates on your pelvis, the other three all originate on your thigh bone. This is why this one muscle is what I call “the keystone of the body.”

As you notice in the graphic, as I said it originates on the tip of your pelvis, it then goes down the middle/outisde of your thigh and crosses over your kneecap. The muscle then inserts into the front of your shin bone. When you are sitting and you want to stand up, the rectus femoris, along with the other three quadriceps, shorten in order to straighten your leg.

The problem is, there is an entire pelvic situation that happens when you are sitting for an extended period of time, which makes your pelvis rotate down in the front. This causes the rectus femoris to be too long to do the job of straightening your leg. The body rectifies that problem by tying a “knot” (spasm) in the middle of the muscle, shortening it so it can straighten your leg.

Then another problem happens because you want to bend your knee to sit down or go up stairs. This causes a strain to be placed on your kneecap as you try to bend you knee. Your body then pulls down again on your pelvis so you can bend your knee, and you get into a negative cycle of bones being strained and the muscle knotting up.

The bottom line is your kneecap is pulled up, and you have pain whenever you try to bend your knee.

It’s more complicated than all of that, but too much for a newsletter. If you’re curious, you can get either Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living or The Pain-Free Athlete and read all about each of the muscles that are involved in this situation.

A Treatment To Relieve Strain On Your Knee

Using a dowel, or a 12”x1” length of PVC pipe, start at the top of your leg and slide, don’t roll, from the top of your leg to just above your kneecap.

After you go over your rectus femoris, and the other quadriceps, then go to the top of any one of the knots. Press down and stay still for 15 seconds.

You can also use the ulnar bone of your forearm, as shown in the picture to the right.

Just press and slide, and then do the same thing and press into each knot to help it release.

Releasing the tension in your quadricep muscles will take the strain off your knee joint. An added benefit of this treatment is it is one of the primary muscles I teach to release low back pain, groin pain, sciatica, and hip pain!

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

www.FlexibleAthlete.com

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Relief From Neck Pain

April 19, 2022 by Dr. Steve Chaney

What Causes Pain In Your Neck?

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT – The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Happy Spring! My friends and family up north told me that it was a looooog winter, so I’m sure all you “Snow Birds” are thrilled to have Spring here at last.

Here in Florida, the flowers are blooming, and we’re still enjoying beautiful weather in the 70’s and low 80’s. And, of course, we are ignoring the thought of the summer coming soon.

Please Help Me

I’ve learned that for TEDx to invite me to do another talk, I need to have my current talk, “The Pain Question No One Is Asking”, shared with many people, plus I need to have comments so I can respond. If you haven’t watched it yet, you will learn a lot about pain and how to treat it. Plus, you can help me by commenting on it and sharing it with your friends.

Maybe you have already watched it, if so, thank you. Would you mind watching it again and adding a comment?

In either case, you can either go to YouTube and put in “Julie Donnelly, pain” or if you’re reading this newsletter online, you can go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSrxURd8ZJk&t=133s.

Thanks a lot!

What Causes Neck Pain?

This month I’ve had so many people come in with neck pain and headaches, that I decided I need to share what causes neck pain and a treatment with you. There are a lot of different treatments for the neck, some you can do, and others that you need me to do for you.

Neck pain and headaches are widespread because there are so many things we do every day that cause these two kinds of pain. A big problem is our cell phones, and we can’t get rid of them, so we just need to know how to constantly be aware of it and treat ourselves frequently.

It’s amazing how fragile our necks are, and how vulnerable they are to injury, yet for most of us we go through life with nothing more than a headache every now and then.

If you have had a car accident you may have suffered from whiplash, which causes horrific headaches, because the bones of your neck have been forced out of alignment. In many cases neck pain is either caused, or complicated, by tension in a muscle called Levator Scapulae.

As you see on the graphic to your left, the muscle originates on the first four cervical vertebrae, and inserts into your shoulder blade (the scapula).

When it contracts you lift your shoulder, making the nickname for this muscle be “the shrug muscle.”

Your brain goes into your spinal cord, and then your spinal cord passes through the center of the vertebrae all the way to the bottom of your spine.

However, when the muscle is in spasm (tied in a knot) it is pulling down on the cervical vertebrae at the very base of your skull. This pulls the bones to the side and down and pushes the bone into your spinal cord on the opposite side.

Frequently a client will come in with neck pain, or headache pain on one side, but I find the muscle tension on the opposite side.

Spasms in the levator scapulae muscle will also tilt your head to the side, and it can cause pain to your shoulder and down the upper/center part of your back.

Relief From Neck Pain

There are several effective ways to treat your neck and shoulders, the following are just two of them. I have written books that teach many more self-treatments in case you want to learn more.

Put a ball, preferably the Perfect Ball, on the very top of your shoulder.

Bend at your hips and put the ball on the corner of a wall, pressing the top of your shoulder into the ball. Then move up and down so the ball is rolling across the top of your shoulder, from the front toward the back of your shoulder.

The goal is to lengthen the Levator Scapulae muscle, so it takes the strain off your cervical vertebrae. The Perfect Ball is ideal for this task because it is solid in the center and soft on the outside, preventing bruising to your bone.

A second way of treating your shoulder muscle is to press your thumb into the “well” at the front of your shoulder, just above your collar bone.

And press your fingertips into the back of your shoulder, as shown in the picture to the left.

Deeply press your thumb into your fingers, tightly squeezing the thick piece of muscle that is between your thumb and fingers.

Then slowly drop your head in the opposite direction so you can stretch the muscle fibers.

You Can Help Yourself Relieve Pain Quickly

I’ve been helping people release pain since 1989, and back in the beginning I realized that the only way people stay out of pain is to either come to see me almost every day (not a great option!) or learn how to continue their therapy at home. That’s why I wrote my books, to help you help yourself on a regular basis.

Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living has over 200 pictures, colorful charts to show you where you feel pain and where to treat to relieve it, and detailed explanations that explain how to treat painful muscles from your head to your feet.

Clear and easy to follow, people have told me they call it “their bible for finding solutions to pain.”

The 15 Minute Back Pain Solution has been written specifically to address the muscles that cause low back pain, sciatica, sacroiliac joint pain, and even knee pain.

Pictures and graphics, and detailed text will explain how to do each step.

If you have either carpal tunnel syndrome or trigger finger, you’ll want to get the Julstro System For Hand/Wrist Pain And Numbness.

A specialized tool was developed to enable you to get the proper strength and focus on the spasms that cause both these problems. The TotalTX tool also can be used for problems from your shoulders to your lower legs, and it’s all in the “how to” book included with the Julstro System.

Plus, with each one of these products you will receive a gift of a Julstro Perfect Ball (a $9.00 value) so you’ll have the tool to reach difficult spots, and to do all of the treatments taught in the books.

Wishing you well,

Julie

Treatment For A Painful Thumb

February 15, 2022 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Is It Arthritis Of The Thumb Joint?

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Is It Arthritis of the Thumb Joint?

I was pondering what to write about in this month’s newsletter and then I had three clients come in, all suffering from the same problem. That made up my mind. The topic this month is thumb pain.

Several years ago, when I was still in New York, I had a regular client come in and tell me she had just been told she had arthritis in her thumb joint. I asked how she knew that, and she showed me her hand. Her thumb was bent all the way in toward her palm and when she tried to bring her hand flat, the joint was painful, preventing her thumb from moving.

She had been given medications for the arthritis, but when she checked it out on the internet, the potential side-effects scared her so much she decided to just suffer with the arthritis.

But it wasn’t arthritis at all. The pain she was experiencing was caused by a tight muscle. I taught her the self-treatment I’m going to show you, and the results were fantastic!

Why a Tight Muscle Causes the Symptoms of Arthritis of the Thumb Joint

We use our thumbs uncountable times every day. It is impossible to even consider how many times we have used our thumb muscles over the course of our lives, but we never think about the muscles that enable us to do that movement. Yet, think of what life would be like if you lost your ability to use your thumb.

Your thumb muscle, called Opponens Pollicis, originates on the ligament that forms the bridge to your carpal tunnel. (More about carpal tunnel syndrome in a future newsletter) It inserts into the joint that is at the base of your thumb. It forms the bulge at the base of your thumb, right where the thumb of the right hand, shown on the graphic on the left, is pressing into the left hand.

For example, do the movement shown above, pressing your right thumb into the thick muscle at the base of your thumb. Then move your left thumb in toward the palm of your hand. You’ll feel the muscle contract.

As the muscle is repetitively strained it shortens. The problem is, as it’s shortening it is pulling on the bridge to the carpal tunnel and moving your thumb in toward your palm. When it gets tight, if you try to bring your thumb out it will pull at the joint. It’s like pulling your hair and then your scalp hurts.

The good news is it’s simple to release the tension in the muscle fibers, it just takes a long time to get it to fully release.

Treatment For A Painful Thumb

It’s simple to treat your Opponens Pollicis muscle.

Place your opposite elbow directly onto the muscle. Wrap your fingers around your elbow to stabilize it so it won’t slide off the muscle.

Press deeply into the muscle and either stay still or move very slightly back and forth to lengthen the muscle fibers.

Or you can…

Place your bent middle finger directly into the muscle and wrap your hand around your hand to stabilize so your knuckle won’t keep sliding off the muscle.

Hold the pressure for about 30 seconds and then move ¼” along them muscle to a new spot.

I developed this technique when I had carpal tunnel syndrome. It took me hours of self-treatment to get the muscle to final relax and not be painful. That’s when you know you have finally released the tension and the strain is removed from the bridge to your carpal tunnel (flexor retinaculum).

Even if you don’t have the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, doing this technique will make your hand feel so much better, more flexible, and light.

Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living!

It’s the name of my book, and it says exactly what you will experience when you discover how to release tight muscles that cause joint pain.

People have told me this book is their first “go to” when they have aches and pains, and it has saved them hundreds of dollars in doctor visits and pain medications.

For only $49.00 you can treat muscles that cause everything from headaches to foot pain…a bargain at twice the price!

Order Now and start to feel more flexible and pain-free quickly.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

www.FlexibleAthlete.com

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

How I Treated My Frozen Shoulder

January 18, 2022 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Why We Get Shoulder Pain

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Happy New Year

I love the holidays! It’s wonderful to see family and friends, and there’s always such good food and fun, but I’m also happy when the New Year begins. Of course, every day is a “new year”, but January 1st is like starting a whole new book of life, with unlimited possibilities.

This year, I’m not only writing goals, I am also doing something that was suggested by Pegine Echevarria. I’m looking back on this past year and writing down as many of my successes as I can remember. Goals are the roadmap for the future, but remembering past successes lifts our confidence that we’ll be able to achieve the goals we have set.

In fact, this year I’m going to look at each day and write down a success that I’ve had that day. How wonderful it will be on New Year’s Eve to look back and read 365 successes for 2020!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that you’re also eager about starting 2020. Here’s to a year of adventure, joy, health, prosperity, and fulfillment of all your dreams!

Why We Get Shoulder Pain

For some reason I’ve had a LOT of clients come in with shoulder issues this month, more than normal, so it made me decide that this month’s topic should be about the shoulder.

The shoulder has more muscle attachments than any other joint in the body, which Is the reason we have such a wide assortment of movements we can make with our shoulder and arm.

There are 16 different muscles that impact your shoulder and cause movement and stability to the joint. Each muscle is pulling in a different direction, and that’s a blessing, and a potential problem.

For example, when one muscle is trying to pull your arm forward, and the muscle that pulls your arm back is in spasm, you will have pain every time you try to move your arm to drive a car, type at your computer, or lift anything up. And the pain can get severe if it’s not treated properly and quickly.

How I Treated My Frozen Shoulder

In 1993 I had the worst case of frozen shoulder I’ve ever seen in anyone before or since.

Every one of the 16 muscles had gone into a sudden spasm, pulling in 16 different directions. It locked my elbow to my waistline and even the slightest movement in any direction caused excruciating shoulder joint pain. Nobody could figure out what to do and I ended up tying my arm to my body to stop the stabbing hot knife pains I felt with even the slightest movement. It was horrible! I knew what I would do to help you, but I couldn’t find anyone who could do those same treatments for me. What to do?!

You know that voice that’s forever running in your head? I was frantic and said out loud, ”What the heck am I going to do?” And a voice in my head said to me “treat yourself!” Really, now how was I going to self-treat all these muscles when I had absolutely no movement in my left arm? The voice said: “figure it out!” So, I did!

It wasn’t easy, and it was definitely painful, but step-by-step I worked out how to treat each muscle using a ball, and my fingertips. It took me five months to get back to 100% mobility, but I did it. Next thing I knew every client who came to my office was suffering from shoulder pain. Nobody was as severe as I had been, but their situation was still very painful and limiting them in many ways.

I realized that I wouldn’t have gotten full range-of-motion back if I hadn’t been self-treating several times a day, so I started to teach my clients how to help themselves. I didn’t have any pictures yet so I could only show them one or two techniques each time they came in, but it made a huge difference. People started getting better, and I moved on to a new aspect of my therapy practice -– teaching people how to self-treat for permanent pain relief.

Eventually I took pictures of each self-treatment, and I hand wrote a description of what the picture was demonstrating. I didn’t have a computer yet, but that’s another long story about how it all became my first book (the title was so long, even I don’t remember it!). I learned to have short titles for each book, and now every treatment I teach is in either Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living, The Pain-Free Athlete, or The 15 Minute Back Pain Solution.

If you have been to see me for therapy, you know that I teach you what to do at home. That’s definitely something most massage therapists don’t do, but my feeling is I’m only successful if you are out of pain and you stay that way.

One Important Shoulder Self-Treatment You Can Use First

We’ll demonstrate on the left arm:

Put a ball in your right hand and then bring your hand under your left armpit or you can place the ball as shown in the picture.

Lean onto a wall, moving until you find the “hot spot.”

Stay there for about a minute, either staying still or moving very slightly.

Take the pressure off the ball to let blood get into the area and repeat several times.

Move about, bringing the ball up further into your shoulder blade, and down toward your armpit (treating the latissimus dorsi muscle).

There Is So Much More

As I mentioned, there are 16 muscles involved in moving our shoulder and arm, and this is only one technique to ease pain and stiffness. In my opinion, this is the #1 treatment I always teach because it helps so much, but the others are important too.

You can get every self-treatment in Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living and The Pain-Free Athlete.

I’m also opening a weekly Zoom gathering that comes with 24/7/365 access to all the tools you need to find and release aches and pains from your head to your feet. You can get information about it by going to www.Pain-FreeAthlete.com.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Relief From Holiday Stress Headaches

November 16, 2021 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Treatment For Pain In Your Temples

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Happy Thanksgiving. A Time To Count Our Blessings

It’s hard to believe that the holidays are upon us, this year just flew by! I imagine we have all had ups and downs this year. COVID is still here, albeit changing form and intensity.

Fortunately, many of us are vaccinated and the stats are showing that these people are having a milder case of the new variant.

I like to keep my vision on the idea that ultimately this will end, and we’ll be back to a semblance of normality again. Let’s pray it’s happening sooner, rather than later!

2021 – A Year Of Vision And Determination For Me

For me, this time of COVID gave me the opportunity to focus more time on creating a course to teach my techniques to licensed massage therapists (LMTs). It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for many years, but I was so busy with therapy clients that I only dabbled in teaching. Now I’m moving full speed ahead, with a goal of teaching nationwide to as many LMT’s as are willing to learn.

I’m also working with a golfer-client to edit a book I wrote several years ago. If it wasn’t for his curiosity about the book, and his excellent suggestions, this book would have lived it life out in my computer. The title is “The Secret to Your Best Golf Game EVER!” If you aren’t flexible, your golf game will suffer. But, if you release the knots in your joints, you’ll enjoy the game more, and your score will improve. What a double-headed benefit!

There are other incredible projects that are in various stages of creation. I know they will all materialize eventually. While 2021 has been a very trying year, it is also looking like an extremely productive and creative year!

What Do You Have To Be Grateful For This Year?

November is a great time of year to start to recap what has happened and be grateful for all the good that has come your way. It’s the perfect opportunity before the real hectic season that December brings our way. I hope you will enjoy revisiting your year, even if the primary gratitude you have is that it’s almost over!

Relief From Holiday Stress Headaches

It’s wonderful to have the holiday season before us, so many fun events to attend, time with family and friends, and delicious foods that are special for this time of year.

On the other hand, the holidays can also bring stress … and headaches!

You can read what seems like hundreds of articles about handling holiday stress, so we won’t go into that here. What we will focus on is a quick treatment you can do for yourself when you are having a headache.

In my book, Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living I share several techniques to stop headache pain, and I’d like to share one with you right now. This is one of my favorite techniques because it brings relief quickly.

Treatment For Pain In Your Temples

If your headache pain is in your temples, it is likely that your temporalis muscles are the culprits. The temporalis muscle is the cause of the throbbing you get in your temples when you have a headache. Fortunately, it’s easy to find, and easy to self-treat.

Place your fingers as shown in this picture. If you clench your teeth, you will feel the muscle “pop out.” Then move your fingers up a little bit toward the top of your head and repeat the clenching movement.

To treat the muscle, just press your finger into a painful point and stay there without moving. After a minute or so, continue pressing on the spot but move your fingers up and down on the same point.

To find other points, simply move your fingers and clench your teeth. If you feel the muscle bulge, that’s a point to treat.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Relief From Groin Pain

October 19, 2021 by Dr. Steve Chaney

The Pectineus Muscle And Groin Pain

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Fall, Glorious Fall

Fall is glorious in my book. I was up in New York a few weeks ago, and the trees were just changing – I was about a week too early for the best colors, but it was still beautiful. The air was crisp and clean, and I loved all the fall decorations.

In Florida we are entering our most wonderful time of year. It’s starting to get cooler, the humidity is going down, and hurricane season is over. Hooray! It’s great to be outdoors again!

And now that the weather has turned cooler in all parts of the USA, more people are exercising outdoors. Are you? Be sure to warm up your muscles before you go running or cycling.

Treating the Muscles That Cause Groin Pain and Impact Walking.

I have a client who had a pain pattern I hadn’t seen before, so it was a challenge to figure out what needs to be treated to get success. We’ll call my client “Bob” although that’s not his real name.

Bob had a shooting pain just to the left of his pubic bone whenever he tried to take a wide step. As a runner it was definitely causing him issues whenever he tried to take a long step, like while running.

There are so many muscles that are involved in moving your legs so you can walk or run that I won’t be going into them all in this newsletter. If it’s something you want to explore, please get either of my books by going to https://julstromethod.com/shop/

The Pectineus Muscle And Groin Pain

The muscle we’re concerned with today is the Pectineus.

The Pectineus is a small muscle that runs from the front of your pubic bone to the top of the inside of your thigh bone (femur).

It’s one of the large group of muscles called Adductors. All the Adductors originate on your pubic bone and insert along the length of your femur, all the way to the inside of your knee. When they contract, they pull your leg in toward midline (like crossing your legs).

However, when they are tight you can’t bring your leg out to the side. And in the case of the Pectineus, you will have pain and limited range-of-motion moving your leg forward to take a big step.

If you look at the graphic above, consider what would happen if the muscle was so tight that it won’t stretch, and the bone was being pulled forward. You can see that it will pull on both the pubic bone and the top of the thigh bone. The Pectineus muscle is so small that the pain would be in a circle that encompasses both the origination and the insertion of the muscle.

Relief From Groin Pain

That’s what was happening to “Bob.” First you release the “knots” from the Pectineus muscle, so that it can be stretched. The treatment is easy to explain, but impossible to show in a picture because it just looks like someone lying face down on the floor. You couldn’t see the ball or where it’s located.

Take the Perfect Ball (or a tennis ball if you don’t have the Perfect Ball) and put it exactly where you see the muscle in the graphic.

Lie down on the floor, on top of the ball. It should be pressing into the Pectineus muscle and the top of your thigh. Ease into it because if the Pectineus muscle is tight, it will be really painful. Just start by pressing gently into the ball and then add more of your body weight as the tension lessens.

To stretch the muscle, you can do an adaptation of the picture to the left.

Stand up straight and put your leg behind you.

For example, if you are stretching your left Pectineus, you can have your left leg back so your right leg is straight and your toe is on the ground, or you can do a more advanced stretch by picking up your leg and putting your foot on a step or a chair.

Be sure to hold on to something secure so you won’t lose your balance and fall.

If you turn your body slightly toward the right, you’ll get an even better stretch.

This treatment and stretch helped “Bob” relieve the pressure and he was able to get back to running again!

Have a happy month, and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the instructional program for massage therapists.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Relief From Restless Leg Syndrome

September 21, 2021 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Muscles, Nerves, And Restless Leg Syndrome

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Never-ending Summer

It is starting to cool off in other parts of the country, but it’s still hot in Florida right now. Sometimes it feels like we have never-ending summer in Florida. Thank heaven for air conditioning!

For those of us who are old enough to remember the days before air conditioning, we are even more grateful for air conditioning. I remember being pregnant with my son in 1967, when we were living in San Antonio, Texas. Most people didn’t have air conditioning yet, and we certainly didn’t. I came to realize why Southerners talk so slow (remember, I’m a New Yorker). It was so hot we just didn’t talk at all. It took too much effort!

Fortunately, this time of year seems to pass quickly, and we’ll be getting back into cooler weather before we know it. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS)

A reader asked me to talk about RLS this month. Restless Leg Syndrome is a tricky topic, depending on which expert you read. The Mayo Clinic said there isn’t a known cause of RLS, but it may be caused by an imbalance of the brain chemical dopamine. The Mayo Clinic has also said RLS can be related to:

Peripheral neuropathy.
Iron deficiency.
Kidney failure.
Spinal cord conditions.

Yes, there isn’t a definitive cause for RLS.

A friend had RLS and told me that when she took iron supplements, and totally avoided flour and sugar that her symptoms disappeared. Then I read that iron is the worst thing to take for RLS. Go figure!

In any case, I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist, so I look at the possible muscular cause of RLS.

Muscles, Nerves, And RLS

The nerves that go to your leg are the sciatic and femoral nerves, which are the continuation of your spinal cord, separating at your lumbar vertebrae to go down both of your legs.

The femoral nerve goes underneath and through your psoas muscle and under your inguinal ligament. It innervates your anterior/medial thigh muscles. The importance in this pathway will be discussed, but please make note of how the nerve passes underneath the inguinal ligament.

Your sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the body. Its pathway is so big that we’ll just say it innervates your buttocks and the rest of your leg and foot that isn’t innervated by the femoral nerve.

After leaving your spine at your low back, these nerves pass under and through some powerful muscles, and this can be a problem when the muscles are tightened by a repetitive strain injury (RSI). When a muscle contracts it pulls on the insertion point and you move a joint.

As you do something over and over (something as simple as sitting down and staying still for a long period of time) a phenomenon called “muscle memory” causes the muscle to shorten to a contracted length, and you have a problem when you go to move in the opposite direction.

For Example…

Two muscles, the psoas and iliacus, connect your lumbar vertebrae and pelvis to your upper leg (femur). When they contract you bend forward (psoas), lift your leg (iliacus) or sit down (both muscles). When you sit for an extended period of time, muscle memory causes the muscles to change to the shorter length.

When you go to stand up these muscles are too short to easily lengthen enough for you to stand up, and you feel a strain at your low back. Both your lumbar vertebrae and your pelvis rotate forward and down as the muscles are being strained while they are lengthening.

As the pelvis is rotating forward and down, several things happen that impact the sciatic and femoral nerves.

First the muscles tighten and since the nerves are passing through the muscles, the nerves are “pinched” in the pelvic area. This can cause the nerves to send impulses to the lower leg and foot.

Next, as I mentioned above, the femoral nerve passes through the psoas muscle and is then directly underneath the inguinal ligament. As the muscle tightens it presses the nerve up into the inguinal ligament, causing potential damage to the nerve, and also sending impulses to the quadriceps muscles.

As these nerves are impinged and sending impulses to the muscles, the muscle fibers may respond with itching, burning, and twitching. You are experiencing the results in your thigh, but the cause of the problem is actually deep in your lower pelvic area.

[I realize this description is a bit confusing, and I’m not going into detail here. However if you are interested, or if you have low back pain, I suggest you consider getting my book The 15 Minute Back Pain Solution. This book will explain all of it in detail, and it will show you how to self-treat each muscle that impacts your low back, hips, sciatic nerve, groin, and knees.]

Relief From Restless Leg Syndrome

Most times the order of treatment isn’t important, but when it comes to the pelvic muscles, and all the related muscles, the order is vital as one muscle can stop the entire treatment protocol from working. This is why I wrote The 15 Minute Back Pain Solution. It gives you the exact order of treatment, and has photographs of doing each treatment, along with the explanation and a graphic of where that muscle refers pain/numbness. To try to explain it here would require my putting the book into a newsletter, so that isn’t doable.

Start by treating your anterior thigh muscles. I’m going to show you how to treat just the anterior thigh muscles that can be impacting the femoral nerve.

Use a piece of 1” x 12” PVC pipe to slide (not roll) down your thigh from the very top of your leg to your knee. Cover your entire anterior thigh and out toward the outside of your leg.

Press deeply, it should feel like “hurts so good,” not “I think I’m going to faint!” You are in control of the pressure so keep it at your tolerance level.

If you feel a bump, that’s a knot (spasm) that is pulling down on your pelvis. Just stop on it and roll back and forth, trying to break it up. Keep treating any knots you find in your thigh muscles.

A Good Stretch For Your Psoas Muscle

Next stretch your psoas muscle. There is a yoga stretch that will help to stretch your psoas muscle, rotate your pelvis back into alignment, and take the pressure off both the sciatic and femoral nerves. The stretch is called the Sphinx.

Lie down with your pelvis firmly resting on the floor.

Put your bent elbows directly under your shoulders as shown in this picture.

Lean back, keeping your pelvis and elbows on the floor.

You are stretching the psoas muscle that is rotating your pelvis.

When you are comfortable doing this stretch, then you can do it standing up:

Put your calves up against the cabinet under your kitchen sink, and your butt gently pressing on the front of the sink. These must stay still, don’t change the pressure at all or you have moved your pelvis.

Pivot at your lumbar vertebrae, leaning back with your upper back, while keeping your head as shown in the picture.

If you feel increased or decreased pressure on your butt, you have moved your pelvis. Keep trying until you can lean back without moving your pelvis at all.

This is a start to treating the muscles that may be causing RLS. Since muscles are the one thing the medical profession doesn’t look at, there’s a good chance this will help you!

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Relief From Jaw Pain

August 17, 2021 by Dr. Steve Chaney

A TMJ Story That Has A Happy Ending

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Summer And The Living Is Easy

As the song goes: ”…Summertime and the living is e-a-s-y….” Here in Florida, we know that the living is easy because it’s so hot who wants to be doing anything except either sitting in the shade, or inside in the air conditioning. Personally, I don’t think this summer was so bad, especially the evenings, but then, I really hate the cold so maybe my opinion is biased.

To stay in alignment with “living is easy,” I’m taking the advice of a few experts who teach easy ways to stay calm, motivated, and happy. I’m taking a 30-day break from the news. It’s so much in my face lately that it’s really affecting me in a very negative way. I am going on a “news fast” for 30 days. Absolutely no negative news of any kind for a full month. I’m surrounded by news all day so it’s a challenge, but I’ve found a great substitute: www.GoodNewsNetwork.org. Their mission is to be an antidote to the barrage of negativity experienced in the mainstream media.

This month I had several requests to explain how muscles can be a primary cause of TMJ. The initials “TMJ” stand for Temporal Mandibular Joint. Basically, it’s the hinge that enables you to open your mouth and chew. The problem is when it is pulled out of alignment you have jaw pain. You may also have some painful clicking in the area that is behind your last molars, the location of the joint.

A TMJ Story That Has A Happy Ending

About 15 years ago I was seeing clients in my office, which was located in Dr. Zev Cohen’s medical office. Frequently Dr. Cohen would ask me to look at one of his patients because he felt their problem was muscular, and each time it was being caused by tight muscles. He liked the results we were achieving, and I was happy to be a valuable part of his Internal Medicine team.

On day a young woman, around 32 YO, came in on a Sunday because she had forgotten to have her own doctor fill in a form she needed in order to have surgery performed the next day. Dr. Cohen was open on Sundays (closed on Saturday) so she came to get surgical clearance. I just happened to be there doing some work in my office, but not to see clients.

Dr. Cohen asked the woman why she needed surgery and she explained that her jaw was locked tight, and the Oral surgeon was going to sever the masseter muscle. That simple-sounding surgery has a serious side-effect….you can’t close your mouth! She would have walked around with her mouth hanging open for the rest of her life! Plus, when your mouth is open, you drool. That would have been her life if she hadn’t forgotten to get that form signed!

When Dr. Cohen looked at her masseter muscle, he found it felt like she had stuffed her cheeks with nuts. There were so many spasms that it was locking her back teeth together and she couldn’t open her mouth. She didn’t need surgery, she needed to untie the knots in her masseter muscle.

Since I was there, Dr. Cohen had me work on this muscle, and then as always, I showed her how to do it. It took only about 15 painful minutes to release all the spasms. When I was finished, I had her sit up and I showed her what to do. At the very end I had her pressing on both sides of her jaw, and slowly open her mouth. She was shocked to see that she could do it.

Then I had her take her hands away and just open her mouth. We both started to cry when she opened her mouth all the way without any pain. She was saved from a surgery that would have had a lifetime of drooling and dryness.

I don’t know why her doctor, or the oral surgeon didn’t know to tell her to do this, but it’s something I try to share with as many people as possible. I hope you will pass this newsletter along since you may save someone from the same potential surgery.

The Masseter Muscle

The masseter muscle (circled in red) connects your cheekbone to your jawbone. When it contracts you chew your food or clench your teeth.

If you put your flat fingers (fingerprints) on your cheeks and then clench, you will feel your masseter contract.

If you chew gum or clench your teeth frequently the muscle contracts and then shortens. The problem is, when it is shortened and you try to open your mouth to yawn or put food into your mouth, the muscle won’t lengthen to allow them movement.

If one side is tighter than the other side, your jaw will pull toward the tight side, “click” and hurt when you try to open your mouth. This is the common symptom of TMJ. If both sides are shortened, you won’t be able to open your mouth fully. This is what was happening to the woman I mentioned above.

Relief From Jaw Pain

Press your three fingers into the masseter muscle on both sides of your jaw, but only use pressure on one side.

Press as deeply as you can tolerate and hold the pressure for 5-10 seconds. Lighten up the pressure on that side and repeat on the opposite side.

Do this alternating press/release all over the muscle. Continue alternating, and eventually moving along the entire length of the muscle until you have covered it from your cheek bone to your jawbone.

Finally, press both sides at the same time and slowly open your mouth as wide as possible. Slowly close your mouth, and then repeat this stretch 3-4 times.

Do this as often as needed to get total relief. Since this problem happens because of a repetitive movement, it may return. Just do the treatment before it becomes a problem, and the situation will be eased.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Can Tight Muscles Make You Pigeon Toed?

July 20, 2021 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Treatment To Straighten Your Ankle

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT –The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Happy July

Things are hot here in Sarasota – today the temperature was 95 degrees in the sun. Fortunately, my office is in the shade. On the plus side it rained, and my garden was dancing with delight.

I’m happy to say I taught a live, in-person class last weekend. It came together quickly, so there were only a few massage therapists attending, each bringing their own model. I’m so happy to get back to teaching live classes again. Zoom gets really old (as I imagine a lot of you already agree). Later this month things ramp up and I’m heading to the Florida State Massage Therapy Association Convention in St. Augustine. I’ll be teaching there too, and happily communicating with a lot of massage therapists.

My therapy practice is back to normal again. Most people (including me) have had both shots. And if someone hasn’t, I just ask them to wear a mask. Not the worst thing in the world, and much better than being in pain. I’ve missed my clients and I look forward to seeing them again.

Meanwhile, I’ve been seeing many clients who are in pain, and I’m pleased to say, the results have been really excellent. There is one person who stands out because she had a condition I hadn’t seen before, or at least I don’t remember seeing before.

A Turned-In Ankle

My client was actually in to see me for a totally different condition, but while I was working on her I noticed that her left foot was turned in.

I thought it might be a bone/structural problem, but when I took my hand, I was able to make her ankle go almost straight. As a result, I knew it was muscular, and therefore there was a good chance treating the muscle could make a big difference.

It turns out her foot had been turned in for a very long time, not debilitating, but more annoying. She didn’t know what could have caused it, but my guess was she sprained her ankle at some time in the past. She said it had been sprained years earlier.

One of the interesting facts about a muscle that is sprain, or otherwise repetitively strained muscle, is it can shorten to that new length and stay that way for years and years. I had a client in New York who sprained his ankle in 1964, and I met him in 2005. The muscles were so tight that he walked as if his ankle was fused, there was absolutely no ankle movement at all. It turned out to just be severely tightened muscles holding his ankle firm, preventing the joint from moving in any direction. It took a lot of treatments, and him doing self-treatments, but we got his ankle back to normal even after all those years!

Back to my Sarasota client……

The muscles involved ended up being the Tibialis Anterior and Extensor Hallucis Longus. Both muscles originate on the front of your lower leg.

Both muscles invert your foot (turn it in toward midline) so, in this case, her left toes were pointing toward her right arch, as shown in the picture above.

Treatment To Straighten The Ankle

The self-treatment for these muscles is easy, but it can be painful at about the point where you see the ball in the picture to the left, and again closer to the bottom of your ankle.

Just put the ball to the outside of your shinbone and press down, moving your leg so the ball is rolling down toward your ankle. You are actually making the Tibialis Anterior muscle a little longer as you press out the knots in the muscle fibers.

Curl your toes as shown if you feel like your arch is going to cramp.

In the next photo I’m showing the right ankle in pain and working with my left hand.

Sit with your sore right leg crossed over your left leg. It helps if you have your right ankle on top of your left knee (I couldn’t do it because I’m taking my own picture and couldn’t get the right angle).

Press your left fingers as deeply into the Extensor Hallucis Longus muscle as you can. If your right ankle is on top of your left knee, you will be able to use two hands to do the treatment. Just put your fingers on top of each other to get more pressure.

The Results

I treated all the muscles of the lower leg, paying special attention to the two muscles mentioned. I’m happy to say that when I finished and she stood up, her feet were almost straight. With more self-treatment every day, her foot will straighten out.

My client was originally here on June 11th, and as an update, she came in today – July 1st – and her foot looked just fine. She continued to do the self-treatments I taught her, and we are happy to say, the problem is solved!

I love what I do for a living, it really makes a difference in people’s lives. Sometimes in small ways, and many times in really big ways.

Wishing you well,

Julie Donnelly

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.