Can You Touch Your Toes?

November 19, 2024 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Treating Hamstrings To Relax The Pelvis

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT – The Pain Relief Expert

Editor: Dr. Steve Chaney

Happy Thanksgiving!

November is the month that reminds us to be grateful for all the blessings we enjoy because we are Americans. Of course, we should be grateful every day for the freedoms we have in this beautiful country! Have you thought about the freedom you enjoy the most?

For me it’s the freedom to worship however I choose because we don’t have a particular religion forced on us. I also love the fact that I can own my business and move it anywhere I like in the entire country.

I hope you’ll give some thought to what you are grateful for as this happy holiday draws near.

With that said, I want to tell you about a man who drove 17 hours from southern Texas to work with me for a week. Let’s call him JT for privacy.

Can Touch Your Toes?

JT was stiffer than anyone I’d ever seen in the past, and after a 17-hour trip, we knew he needed to come in a LOT. He ended up coming in for 3 hours a day for the first 3 days, and 90 minutes on Thursday and Friday.

When JT arrived, it amazed me at how stiff his pelvis was, every muscle that moved his pelvis, legs and low back were tied up in multiple tight knots. He has given me permission to share his pictures with you so I can explain something interesting that I found, and how it can help you to release tension in your low back.

Day 1: JT’s hips were so locked that when he bent forward his fingertips only went to 7” above his knees. He couldn’t bend any further than this!

I’ve already shown you how to do the self-treatment for your quadriceps using a 12”x1” length of PVC pipe (https://chaneyhealth.com/healthtips/chronic-thigh-muscle-pain-relief/), and how to use the Perfect Ball on your low back muscle (https://chaneyhealth.com/healthtips/do-stretches-for-sciatica-nerve-pain-work/).

This is where we started so the muscles that rotate the pelvis down in the front can start to release.

Day 2: First I worked on all of the muscles that insert into his thigh bone where it inserts into his pelvis. Then JT used the Perfect Ball and working on the floor he went deeply into all of the muscles that connect his pelvis to his thigh bone.

At the end of the day his fingers were 5” below his knee joint.

That’s an area that shouldn’t be hurting when JT bent forward. I kept looking at my skeleton, Max, and my book of muscles/bones/joints, to try to figure it out, and looking at the muscles of the pelvis. Then suddenly it was so clear!

Your hamstrings originate at the base of your posterior pelvis, and they insert just below the back of your knee. Your thigh bone (femur) inserts into your hip at an area called the acetabulum, it looks like fitting a ball into a curved cup.

This is the part I want to share with you today.

How Your Hamstrings Impact Your Pelvis

On the afternoon of Day 3, I was frustrated at the set-back. After staring at Max and my book of muscles it finally dawned on me that it was JT’s hamstrings that were part of the problem, even though it was his rotating pelvis that was causing his hip joint to be out of alignment.

I had been working on all the pelvic muscles and they all felt pretty good, and I had done a pass down the back of his thighs, but I hadn’t focused on JT’s hamstrings. And that made all the difference!

An important point to mention when talking about a long-standing problem with tight muscles is to discuss “muscle memory.”

Muscle memory is when a muscle that has been held shortened for an extended time (which could be just a few hours) it will shorten to that new length. The problem is, you release the tension in the muscles and get relief, but the muscle shortens again, and the strain is again placed on your joints.

As JT’s hamstrings shortened, they pulled down of the back of his pelvis, and this twisted the alignment of his hip joint. Because of this misalignment, he was feeling pain in the front of his hip, and that was the piece I’d been missing.

After treating JT’s hamstrings (treatment shown below) he was able to bend almost all the way to his ankles! Only three days before JT could only bend to not even the middle of his thigh, yet here he was almost to his ankles!

Treating Hamstrings To Relax The Pelvis

If you have been to my therapy office, you know that I always teach how to do 1-2 self-treatments. The reason is you need to reverse muscle memory, and the only way to do that is to do the self-treatments frequently – every day is best.

A simple way of treating your hamstrings is to put a Perfect Ball on a wooden chair, or the corner of a desk, and put your hamstrings onto the ball.

Keep moving the ball until you find tender points as these are the knots (spasms) that are putting a strain on your pelvis. Treat each point and then stretch

Stretching Your Hamstrings

Lie on your back and put a rope under your arch. Start with your knee bent and lift your leg up as high as you can go without seriously straining your hamstrings.

Slowly straighten your leg, stretching your hamstrings.

Day 5 – JT is Ready to Go Back to Texas

JT is now only 3” above the top of his foot. He’s not touching his toes yet, but he feels so much better.

The best news is that JT is thoroughly familiar with every self-treatment to release all the muscles that have an impact on his pelvis. He’s not 100% better yet, but he’s well on his way.

How Does This Affect You?

The important part of this story for you is that you CAN learn how to self-treat, and the odds are excellent that you can get relief from even the most stubborn of chronic pains.

My goal is to help as many people as possible to eliminate chronic pain that is caused by tight muscles, and to show them how to self-treat!

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.

_____________________________________________________________________________

My posts and “Health Tips From the Professor” articles carefully avoid claims about any brand of supplement or manufacturer of supplements. However, I am often asked by representatives of supplement companies if they can share them with their customers.

My answer is, “Yes, as long as you share only the article without any additions or alterations. In particular, you should avoid adding any mention of your company or your company’s products. If you were to do that, you could be making what the FTC and FDA consider a “misleading health claim” that could result in legal action against you and the company you represent.

For more detail about FTC regulations for health claims, see this link.

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/health-products-compliance-guidance

______________________________________________________________________

About The Author

Julie Donnelly has been a licensed massage therapist since 1989, specializing in the treatment of chronic pain and sports injuries. The author of several books including Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living, The Pain-Free Athlete, and The 15 Minute Back Pain Solution.

Julie has also developed a proven self-treatment program for the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.

She has a therapy practice in Sarasota, Florida, and she travels around the USA to teach massage and physical therapists how to do the Julstro Method, and she also teaches self-treatment clinics to anyone interested in taking charge of their own health and flexibility.

She may be reached at her office: 919-886-1861, or through her website: www.FlexibleAthlete.com

About The Editor

Dr. Chaney has a BS in Chemistry from Duke University and a PhD in Biochemistry from UCLA. He is Professor Emeritus from the University of North Carolina where he taught biochemistry and nutrition to medical and dental students for 40 years.

Dr. Chaney won numerous teaching awards at UNC, including the Academy of Educators “Excellence in Teaching Lifetime Achievement Award”. Dr Chaney also ran an active cancer research program at UNC and published over 100 scientific articles and reviews in peer-reviewed scientific journals. In addition, he authored two chapters on nutrition in one of the leading biochemistry text books for medical students.

Since retiring from the University of North Carolina, he has been writing a weekly health blog called “Health Tips From the Professor”. He has also written two best-selling books, “Slaying the Food Myths” and “Slaying the Supplement Myths”. And most recently he has created an online lifestyle change course, “Create Your Personal Health Zone”. For more information visit https://chaneyhealth.com.

For the past 45 years Dr. Chaney and his wife Suzanne have been helping people improve their health holistically through a combination of good diet, exercise, weight control and appropriate supplementation.

You Can Touch Your Toes Again

September 15, 2020 by Dr. Steve Chaney

One more hot month to go! This has been an exceptionally hot summer in many places around the USA. In fact, many times Florida was cooler (mid 90’s) than some of the cities up north. Weird!

I hope you are doing well as this COVID19 problem keeps hanging around to make our lives a challenge. When the shutdown happened back in March, I didn’t know what I was going to do. As you are well-aware, I don’t do relaxing massage, I work with people who are in real pain. How do I tell people to just be in pain until this pandemic passes!

Fortunately for me, and for my clients, the first client I saw after the shutdown was a medical doctor. I asked her about people coming to me and she told me if everyone wears a mask, and I wash my hands before and after treating someone, that it would be fine. So that’s what’s been happening. Plus, I wash everything down with a strong disinfectant after each client, and all is well.

I’m seeing less people, but I’m seeing people who are in a lot of pain and are desperate for help. As my clients have told me, I am an essential worker, and I believe they are right.

With that said, I want to tell you about a man who drove 17 hours from southern Texas to work with me for a week. Let’s call him JT for privacy.

You Can Touch Your Toes Again

When JT arrived, it amazed me at how stiff his pelvis was, every muscle that moved his pelvis, legs and low back were tied up in multiple tight knots. He has given me permission to share his pictures with you so I can explain something really interesting that I found, and how it can help you to release tension in your low back.

Day 1: JT’s hips were so locked that when he bent forward his fingertips only went to 7” above his knees. He couldn’t bend any further than this!

I’ve already shown you how to do the self-treatment for your quadriceps using a 12”x1” length of PVC pipe, and how to use the Perfect Ball on your low back muscle. This is where we started so the muscles that rotate the pelvis down in the front can start to release.

At the end of the day his fingers were 5” below his knee joint.

On Day 3 there was a set-back, his fingers were still about 2” below his knee joint but we were questioning what we were missing. When JT bent forward, he had pain in the front of his pelvis, just below the point of his hip bone. That’s an area that definitely shouldn’t be hurting when JT bent forward. I kept looking at my skeleton, Max, and my book of muscles/bones/joints, to try to figure it out, and looking at the muscles of the pelvis. Then suddenly it was so clear!

This is the part I want to share with you today.

How Your Hamstrings Impact Your Pelvis

I had been working on all of the pelvic muscles and they all felt pretty good, and I had done a pass down the back of his thighs, but I hadn’t focused on JT’s hamstrings. And that made all the difference!

An important point to mention when talking about a long-standing problem with tight muscles is to discuss “muscle memory.”

Treating Hamstrings To Relax The Pelvis

A simple way of treating your hamstrings is to put a Perfect Ball on a wooden chair, or the corner of a desk, and put your hamstrings onto the ball.

Keep moving the ball until you find tender points as these are the knots (spasms) that are putting a strain on your pelvis. Treat each point and then stretch

Stretching Your Hamstrings

Lie on your back and put a rope under your arch. Start with your knee bent and lift your leg up as high as you can go without seriously straining your hamstrings.

Slowly straighten your leg, stretching your hamstrings.

Day 5 – JT is Ready to Go Back to Texas

JT is now only 3” above the top of his foot. He’s not touching his toes yet, but he feels so much better.

The best news is that JT is thoroughly familiar with every self-treatment to release all of the muscles that have an impact on his pelvis. He’s not 100% better yet, but he’s well on his way.

How Does This Affect You?

The important part of this story for you is that you CAN learn how to self-treat, and the odds are excellent that you can get relief from even the most stubborn of chronic pains.

My goal is to help as many people as possible to eliminate chronic pain that is caused by tight muscles, and to show they how to self-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.

How Muscles Cause Joint Pain

March 6, 2014 by Dr. Steve Chaney

Preventing & Healing Repetitive Strain Injuries – Part 1

Author: Julie Donnelly, LMT

Using the words “pain” and “free” in the same sentence causes people who love to exercise laugh since it seems to be a contradiction of terms, but it is not only possible, it’s easy to achieve. It is understood that exercising, or even just daily living, causes muscles to ache and will also put stress on joints.

When the pain begins you are told to use “RICE” (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) – but you don’t have the time, or you simply don’t want to rest! So, you keep going and just as you’ve been told, it gets worse, even to the point where you may need to stop your world!

You’ve also come to realize that resting (when you do decide to rest) only lasts for a short time, and then the pain returns. The good news is you can be a pain-free; you just need to know how to find the source of your pain and then how to effectively treat it.

How Muscles Cause Joint Pain

RICE certainly works immediately after having a traumatic injury, but repetitive stress on your muscles requires treatment of the knots that are putting tension onto the tendons and joints. Getting back to basic anatomy will help to unravel the misconceptions that plague both athletes and non-athletes alike. Once you understand the logic of why you are feeling pain, you will know exactly what needs to be done to immediately release a muscle-related pain anywhere in your body.

This is NOT going to be a complicated lesson in Anatomy & Physiology, but I’ve found that a little knowledge of the body goes a long way. I’m going to put the proper names for the muscles and tendons into a parenthesis so if you want to actually see the muscles that are causing you pain you’ll be able to look them up.

I always tell the clients I work with “the most challenging part is finding where the source of the pain is located, and then treating it is easy”. This article will help you to find the source of your problem. Let’s begin at the beginning…

The Basics – How a Joint Moves

Movement is a simple process:

1. A muscle originates on a bone.

2. It then merges into a tendon.

3. The tendon crosses over the joint to insert into a movable bone.

4. When the muscle contracts it pulls on the tendon. The tendon then pulls on the moveable bone and your joint moves.

Example: The Muscles of Your Upper Leg

All joints have two (or more) muscles that determine the degree and angle that the joint will move. While one muscle is contracting, the other muscle must relax and stretch. A good example of this principle are the muscles of your upper leg. (quadriceps and hamstrings).

The quadriceps originate on the front of your hip (pelvis), merge into a thick tendon (patella tendon) and cross over the knee cap to insert onto the front of your shinbone (tibia). When they contract normally you fully extend your leg so it becomes straight. Meanwhile, your hamstrings originate on the lower edge at the back of your pelvis; go down the back of your thigh, with the tendons crossing over the back of your knee and inserting onto the back side/top of the lower leg bone.

Consider this analogy, if you attached your pants to the front of your shinbone, and then pulled up at the waist, you would feel the pressure at your knee and you also wouldn’t be able to bend your knee. Likewise, since your quadriceps originate up at the front of your pelvis and insert into your shinbone, when your quadriceps are tight they can’t stretch and you can’t bend your knee.

For example, to demonstrate an analogy of what tight hamstrings would do, consider what would happen if you bent your leg and then attached your pants to the bottom of your posterior pelvis (the bone you sit on, at the top of your thigh) and the back of your knee, you wouldn’t be able to open your leg up straight. But, clearly, you don’t have a knee problem, you have tightness in the upper thigh (hamstring) preventing your knee from moving.

When this has happened you begin to feel stiffness and a lack of your full strength. Some therapists will tell you that you need to strengthen your thigh (quadriceps) muscles. You may also think you need to stretch your hamstrings, but stretching a spasm is counter-productive and can actually make the spasm become more complicated while over-stretching the rest of the muscle fiber.

In Part II we’ll look at the first misconception – strengthening the muscle will heal the pain.

Julie Donnelly is an internationally respected muscular therapist specializing in the treatment of chronic pain and sports injuries. She has co-authored several self-treatment books, including The 15 Minute Back Pain Solution, Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome-What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You. Julie is also the co-developer of TriggerPoint Yoga. She teaches Julstro self-treatment workshops nationwide and is a frequent presenter at Conventions and Seminars. Julie may be contacted through her websites: http://www.julstro.com and http://www.TriggerPointYoga.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.