Tag: pain relief coach

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You Went to a Massage Therapist for Your Back Pain–Why Didn’t It Help?

I recommend therapeutic massage for almost every type of physical pain.

Why?  Because it works!

Massage is old medicine.  It’s used all over the world for a wide variety of ailments.

Why?  Because it works!  (Oh, I already said that, didn’t I?) 🙂

But sometimes when you go to a massage therapist your pain doesn’t go away.  Maybe it feels better for a short time, or even just while the therapist is working on your painful area.  But, it comes right back.  Or, it is back within just a few hours.  Or, doesn’t feel better at all.

When that has happened to one of my clients, I told them what that means.

That means I was wrong about the cause of their symptom (their pain.)  It means I didn’t work on the muscles or soft tissue that was the true cause of their pain.  That means we have to try again.

The unfortunate thing is, many massage therapists only know how to do a relaxation-type massage.  Relaxation or stress-reduction massages can be really great, but…

When you have pain, a relaxation massage probably won’t give you much benefit.

If you have pain symptoms, and you want relief, you will have to find a massage professional who “knows his or her stuff.”  Someone who can assess WHY you are having pain.  Someone who can figure out a “treatment” plan to help you become pain-free.

If your massage therapist rubs and presses on the painful area (and some will do this for the whole hour) and your pain doesn’t go away, then that therapist doesn’t “know their stuff.”

And, if that therapist can’t figure out why your muscle won’t release (relax) then she doesn’t “know her stuff.”

And, if she says it’s the worst “knot” she has ever seen, she should not be in the massage field at all, in my opinion.  Her job is to help you feel better, not worse.

When your painful muscle spasm won’t release, it Continue reading “You Went to a Massage Therapist for Your Back Pain–Why Didn’t It Help?”

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Another Cause For That “Knot” Or Muscle Spasm In Your Back

Does your upper back pain feel like a “knot” or muscle spasm between your shoulder blade and spine?

Last time we talked about muscles in your torso that could cause this pain. Today we will talk about another cause, which is almost always overlooked.

The muscles that can cause that miserable “knot” in your back are on the side of your neck. There is a set of muscles on each side of your neck called the scalenes.

First, you’ll notice and feel a thick set of muscles on either side that run from the notch in your collar bone to behind your ear.  Those are the sternocleidomastoid muscles (SCM).  The scalenes are tucked behind the SCM’s.

When the scalene muscles get tight, or aggravated, they develop “trigger points.”

If you have a therapeutic massage to work out your knotty back problem, and it doesn’t help, then the problem isn’t in your back. (I am assuming here that your therapist worked ALL of your back and rib muscles, not just the knot.)

The problem is in your scalenes.

Trigger points in your scalene muscles are “firing” or causing pain in your upper back. If you get a well-trained massage therapist to work on your neck muscles and release the trigger points, your back pain will go away.

If you suspect this may be what is causing that knot in your upper back, you can try to release the scalenes yourself.

Press gently into the side of your neck. Using the pads of your fingertips, explore the muscles that run on the side of your spine, or neck bones.

If you feel hard, knobby things, those are probably the edges of your vertebrae, or neck bones. If you feel a pulse, move off it.

Thoughtfully and carefully explore the length of your neck from your jaw to your collarbone. If you run into a very tender area, gently hold pressure there for about 12 seconds. If it doesn’t “release” or become less painful, move on. You can come back to that tender area a few more times, after letting it rest for a few minutes, to see if it will release.

If an area refers pain into your “knot” on your back, you have found the trigger Continue reading “Another Cause For That “Knot” Or Muscle Spasm In Your Back”

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Work Place Stress? 7 Strategies To Reduce Work Stress

Do you have stress at work?

There are physical as well as emotional stresses. Some stressors make us feel powerful, in charge and are fun, and some make us feel anxious and cause pain.

If we run on stress-fuel most of the time, we need to give our bodies a break.

1. Watch your posture. When we slouch, we can’t breathe as deeply. We don’t get as much oxygen into our brains and bodies. Slouching makes us tired and stressed. Slouching makes our backs ache.

2. Feel your “sit bones” on the chair. Center yourself so your weight is equal on both sides. You want to feel your sit bones equally. Rock slowly and gently, rolling on your sit bones from front to back, front to back. This relaxes your back and neck. Let your head move slightly forward as your round your waist backward. When you round your tummy forward (closer to your knees)let your head move over your shoulders.

3. Get more sleep. If you are not sleeping as much as your body needs, your stress level will go up. You will be more easily irritated. Arrange your evening or morning schedules so you can get 30 or 60 more minutes of sleep.

4. Grab a funny story or joke to share or to laugh privately about. Laughter makes stress hormones go down. A good laugh is like a massage from the inside out. Sharing something funny makes us feel better.

5. Pretend you are chewing gum. Keep your lips together, teeth slightly apart. Open and close your jaw without opening your lips. Your teeth should stay apart. This relaxes tense muscles around your jaw and temples.

6. Sit up and close your eyes. Roll your eyes around. With your lids closed, look up and roll your eyes in a complete circle. Roll your eyes in the opposite direction, in a complete circle. Do this several times in each direction. Eyes have muscles, and they can get tired. This relaxes the muscles around your eyes.

7. Take a “re-focus break.” Stop what you are doing and look around. Look at something at a distance. Look at something very close, perhaps your hand. Look far away again. Re-focusing helps tired eye muscles and gives us a quick mini-break.

Lots of little breaks reduce stress and actually help us be more productive, because we have less discomfort. When we take a lot of mini-breaks, we feel better and we get more done, not less.

Now you have several strategies you can use to reduce your stress at work.

Which will you use first?

In my experience, the people who are more proactive get the most benefit from a stress reduction program. Get started now!

“Because You Deserve To Feel Better!”

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Work Stress–7 Steps To Get Rid Of Stress At Work

Work stress can cause pain, just like all stress can.

Since we don’t like having pain, we want to eliminate as much stress as possible.

Here are seven steps to start lowering your stress level now.

1. Start reducing your stress level outside of work. When you are calmer at home,that will carry over and you will feel more calm at work. The same tools that work at home will help you feel less stressed at your job.

2. Learn how to breathe for relaxation. Practice at home in bed. At work, sit up straight and do the same deep belly breaths you practiced in bed. Count to four on the inhale, slowly, hold for four, and exhale to the count of four. Let your neck relax. Let it rock gently front to back as you breathe. Repeat several times.

3. You are very good at what you do. Remember that. Keep reminding yourself. You are good! Negative self-talk causes stress.

4. Take frequent stretch breaks. Get your arms up and back. Open up the front of your body like a cat or dog does when they stretch. This will get the blood flowing again, you will feel more energized and less stressed.

5. Lift your shoulders up and roll them back, while your arms are hanging at your sides. You can do this often at your desk. It helps release muscle tension in your neck and shoulders. Less muscle discomfort equals less stress.

6. Learn to meditate, visualize or pray. Take a few minutes every hour to recharge your mind by going to your safe place, in your mind, for a mini-break or to bask in the warmth of God’s grace. Sit up straight, close your eyes, breathe. Relax.

7. Be grateful for the day, your job, your wonderful body, your life. Gratitude knocks out negative thoughts. Negative thinking causes stress. Think, “I am grateful for…” Say, “I am so fortunate that…”

Which of these tips will you incorporate into your life today?

Will you practice breathing tonight, so you can do it tomorrow? Will you practice rolling your shoulders to reduce your stress?

Choose any three of these tips and use this stuff.

“Because You Deserve To Feel Better!”

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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome – What Causes Carpal Tunnel Pain?

In my land of “the way things ought to be,” we would all be in perfect physical (and mental!) balance.

We wouldn’t have any pain, of course, because most pain–about 90% of all pain–is caused by out-of-balance muscles. That includes carpal tunnel pain.

You might have thought that you have pain or numbness in your hand, wrist, fingers or arm because you are doing a lot of repetitive movements.

The real reason is that you are doing a lot of repetitive movements incorrectly.  (Or maybe you have some inflammation, extra weight, diabetes or something else going on.)

Hmmm. If you were using all of the rest of your muscles, you would be pretty well balanced. If you were pretty well balanced, you would hurt less.

But you don’t.

We use only about the same 60 or so muscles over and over. Most of us haven’t used ALL of our muscles since we were young kids.

And we have a LOT of muscles.

So, there are two parts to relieving your carpal tunnel pain when it is caused by repetitive movement (also called repetitive stress or motion.)

1. Doing repetitive movements in an incorrect way, for example, over-stretching your muscles. The cure for this would be to explore and find the least damaging ways to do repetitive movements.

For example, holding your elbow close to our body instead of reaching out with your arm. Holding your arm close to your waist causes less muscle strain, and so less pain in your arm and hand.

2. Being physically out-of-balance in general. When some of our muscles are being over-stretched and some are allowed to shorten–due to poor posture or habits–we get symptoms of pain, discomfort or numbness.

When we strengthen our back and the back of our arms and neck, we take a lot of pressure off the structures that cause carpal tunnel pain.

You can find a lot of simple strengthening movements by clicking here.

“Because You Deserve To Feel Better!”

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Got Pain? Sick? Is What You Eat Causing Problems For You?

Ever wondered whether food could cause your headaches, diabetes, overweight, body pain or other problems?

Years ago, when I suffered seriously from migraines, I became aware of the cause and effect that food can have. After I eliminated trigger foods, my migraine headaches became much less severe and frequent.

My brother recently gave me some packets of honey from a well-known fast-chicken place. (That’s like fast food, but it’s chicken.)

I was going to put some honey in my tea, until…

I noticed that the label said “Honey” in large letters and “sauce” in little letters.

So I flipped it over to read the ingredients. Now, wouldn’t you think that something that says “honey” would actually be honey?

But, nooo…

Ingredients: high fructose corn syrup, sugar, corn syrup, honey, caramel color.  (Pssst–caramel color isn’t the caramel you make on your own stove with sugar and butter.  Nooo.)

Not just honey.

Honey in the ingredients list was #4, after 3 sweeteners.  🙁

Bad.

I don’t know whether anyone has told you yet, but high fructose corn syrup is a killer. A slow killer.

Honey is a natural product. Sugar is a natural product. Sure, too much can cause problems, but a bit is fine.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is made by splitting corn syrup into parts. It is the sweetest part. It is extremely sweet. It is no longer a natural food.

Many, many manufacturers of “food products” use HFCS instead of honey, sugar or even whole corn syrup because it is cheaper to use.

It’s one of the franken-foods.

Sounds scary, doesn’t it? It is.

Because it is not real, and because it’s so hyper-sweet, it messes with your pancreas and insulin level. HFCS is a primary cause of diabetes and obesity.

Don’t think so?

How come we Americans are the ones with the most sugar diabetes and the fattest kids?

You know it’s not “genetics” because we come from a huge gene pool from all over the world. Are the people where we came from fat and sick?

Only the ones who are starting to eat “Americanized” food are getting sick and fat.

Read the label on your bread, on your hotdogs, lunch meat, catsup…you’re gonna find it all over the place.

You’ll find it in places you’d never expect. Check out your ice cream, your kids’ lunch foods, puddings, fruit roll ups, cereals, chocolate milk and syrup…

Some companies have their own product lines and are putting good and real ingredients into many of their branded foods. Meijers has a Gold and an Organic line, both of which have pretty nice ingredients.

There are a few cereals with some real sugar in them, and a few with no sweeteners (hey, add your own if you need a little bit.)

Want to stop being a sucker for the food industry to make a profit from, at the expense of your health?

Read labels.

Buy food that is as close to real as you can. (Hint: Check out the fruit and vegetable aisles, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains.)

Eventually, the food industry (it is a huge industry) will get the message.

“Because You Deserve To Feel Better!”

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Pain In the Back of Your Arm? Here’s A Possible Cause…

Last week I worked on a police officer.

I hate to say “worked on” because my feeling is that I work “with” people rather than “on” them. But, if I tell you I worked with him, you’d think I work with him, which I do not…

Anyway, back to my story – the officer was complaining of pain in the back of his upper arms.

As many people in law enforcement are, he was very involved with working out with weights. It is important to be physically strong in his field. Sometimes it is necessary to control a person, and an officer needs every advantage.

I noticed his shoulders were rounded very far forward.

When you lie on your back, your shoulders should be on or pretty close to the floor or bed.

But, this policeman’s shoulders were not anywhere close to the treatment table he was on. I could slide practically my whole fist under his shoulders.

The gap behind his shoulders was huge!

I explained the necessity of getting his back stronger. I explained how his tight front muscles (pectoral muscles) were pulling his shoulders forward.

I explained how his forward shoulders were pulling on and overstretching the muscles in his back and the back of his arms.

His chest muscles were the cause of his pain!

And then I suggested that he lay off the pectoral muscle exercises while he gets back in balance.

He chuckled.

I knew what that meant.

Up to that point, he was with me – he heard what I was saying. But, when I said, “Lay off the pecs for a while,” I lost him.

I saw it in his eyes.

He had no intention of stopping his chest exercises, even though they were causing physical pain symptoms for him.

In his mind, working his pectorals was important to his well-being and safety.

My suggestion was outside of his comfort zone.

But, sometimes, there comes a point when someone is so tired of their pain, they will do anything necessary to feel better.

They will stop blaming aches and pains on “I’m getting old,” or “My aunt had the same pain.”

Sometimes people get to the point where they realize that no one can fix them except themselves. And so they find out what to do.

And they do it.

And they feel better.

Because we can.

You can, too.

Bounce on over to SimpleStrengthening for lots of info on strengthening your back and getting back in balance.

“Because You Deserve To Feel Better!”

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Do You Have Hip Pain?

Have you ever wondered why your hips hurt?

Do you think you need a hip replacement?

Have you paid attention to where the pain in your hip is located?

Is it in the meaty back part, at the outside, or on the bone/at the joint? Is it at the inside or outside of your thigh? Is is mid-thigh on the outside of your leg?

Are there times when your hip pain is worse or not noticeable?

Answering these questions will help you determine what’s going on – why you have hip pain or discomfort – and how to get rid of it.

Having the answers to these questions will also help you explain your pain to your doctor in case you decide to talk to him or her about it.

Lately, people have been complaining about pain at the hip joint.

The hip joint is the bone that you can feel on the outside of your very upper leg. If you drop your hand down at your side, you will feel the bone somewhere around your lower arm or wrist, depending how long your arm is. What you are actually feeling is the head of your thigh bone.

Muscles and tough tissues cross over this joint.

Sometimes the bursa – a little pocket of lubrication for the joint – gets irritated. Your doctor may say you have bursitis. That can go away on its own, especially if you stop doing whatever was irritating it.

Sometimes the muscles get aggravated. This can be from pressure, like laying on your favorite side in bed all the time. It can also be from an over-stretch, like crossing your leg.

The position that would most likely cause over-stretch or strain is when you move your knee closer or past your midline. The midline is the imaginary line is the line that goes from your nose to belly button, straight down your body.

Lots of times people think they need a hip replacement. Often all they need is…

> Some really good therapeutic massage to release the muscles and tissues which have become tight around the joint. This includes the powerful gluteal, or buttock, muscles. They attach to the hip joint and if they get tight, they will pull too much across the joint and cause discomfort.

> To stop aggravating the joint. This could mean learning to sleep on your back or other side. It might mean not letting your knee move toward or across your midline.  If you’re a side sleeper, it means to prop your upper leg.

> Finding a new seat or car seat. Sometimes the outer edge of a seat will press against our hip bone, especially if we have wide bones. That can aggravate the muscles and cause hip pain.

> Getting their legs measured by a doctor, physical therapist or neuromuscular massage therapist who understands how to measure for leg length difference. One out of ten of us has a leg length difference. If we do, and if we get a correct lift for our short leg – get this – it takes the pressure off the hip of the short leg.

Sometimes there has been so much wear on a hip joint – usually from having a short leg – that the joint must be replaced.

Other times, just taking the pressure off the joint and getting some deep muscle massage will take the pain away!

Here are a couple of beneficial things we can do at home, easily, in the comfort of our bed.

> The first is to make the muscles around your hip joint move in multiple directions.

Most of the time, we only move in one or two directions. Moving in various directions will warm your muscles and make them more flexible.

> The second is to strengthen the muscles on the outside of the joint.

To do this, lie on your side and lift your top leg. Do this in a way that you can feel your hip muscle – your gluteal (butt) muscles – contract. You want to know that you are using those muscles. Those muscles should be involved in this movement.

If the cause of your discomfort was over-stretched muscles, strengthening in this way will help correct the problem. It will help get you back in balance.

Why do I say “back in balance?”

Because you used to be in balance, when you were a child.  You didn’t have hip pain then.

And you can get there again.

“Because You Deserve to Feel Better!”

 

 

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Uncommon Migraine Pain Relief Tips

Your head may actually pound. Light hurts your eyes. Every sound is noise and the noise is all too loud. You might even throw up.

You feel bad, and you look bad, too.

I really can’t think of anything worse than a really bad migraine.

A broken leg may keep you from moving but a migraine headache keeps you from being!

Migraines come in variations. Some are worse than others and some are merely horrible. They affect every system in your body.

Some people believe that headaches and migraines are closely related.

I’m one of those people. For years and years, I never had “just a headache.” Each time I started with a headache, I ended up with a migraine.

The best way to avoid migraines is to have perfect posture.

For those of us who are prone to headaches and migraines, any little strain on the muscles around our neck or head can, and will, cause pain.

Keeping a strong back, including the muscles in the back of your neck, helps hugely.

Learning how to have perfect posture will make a big difference in the frequency and severity of your head pain. It’s really important that you have good posture when you sit, when you stand, and you even need your neck and head propped correctly when you sleep.

Avoiding the foods that cause migraine pain for you helps, too. I had a friend who would get instant migraine when she ate an orange. After a while, she started avoiding oranges. Other times, it is not an instant reaction but may take a couple of days.

A varied and healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables helps for many reasons.

One of the reasons is that constipation can create conditions for a migraine. It may be the pressure from the packed intestines on the blood vessels in the abdomen that causes a migraine, because migraines are vascular headaches. That means they are related to what is happening with blood vessels.

“Keeping things moving” through your intestines with a good diet helps prevent migraine. You might consider taking additional fiber from a bottle to avoid constipation.

Also, many headache and other medicines actually cause constipation.

Avoiding a migraine in the first place is a much better strategy than trying to get rid of it after you are already hurting.

But, when a migraine sneaks up, or flat out attacks, despite your best efforts, here are a few tips to help ward off or lessen your pain.

* Ice. Ice the base of your skull. Use a cold pack and put yourself in the most comfortable position you can. Use a thin towel between your skin and the cold pack. You can ice and use the next tip at the same time.

* Cold. Place a cold, almost dripping wet, cloth on your forehead and eyes. You can flip it over as it warms up from your heat. You can keep a pan of ice water next to the bed to re-wet and re-chill the cloth. You can use put a plastic bag under a towel behind your head. That will keep your bed dry.

* Compress. Wrap your head in a long towel so that it is like a turban. Cover your eyes and ears with the turban, too. The idea is to compress your head, to squeeze it. This is comforting, blocking out noise and light, and helps reduce the pain.

* Alka Seltzer. Aspirin does not touch a migraine, but…two tablets of Alka Seltzer, if taken at the beginning of a migraine attack, often knocks out the migraine. I suspect that this happens because it is a large dose of aspirin all at once, rather than gradually.

You can find more information and ways to get rid of head pain naturally in Head Pain Natural Relief, at Amazon or your local library.

Check out Simple Strengthening for help to fix your posture. Good posture will help reduce your headaches.

“Because you deserve to feel better!”

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What Creates Pain?

Did you ever think that there may be a simple, logical reason for most of your pain?

I’m going to share a secret with you. This is not something most doctors learned in school. That is why they cannot share it with you.

The most common reason for pain is, are you ready, muscle imbalance.

Let’s say that I sit for eight hours a day at a desk. Maybe I walk around for ten minutes during the whole day. My muscles get used to being in that seated position. Some muscles are shortened in that position. Some muscles are being unused, so they shut off.

Or maybe I drive around all day in my pickup. I like to stick my left elbow out the window and keep my right hand down low, on the gear shift. Of course, I have my right foot on the accelerator.

By and by, when I get out of my truck, those muscles will stay where they have become used to being. My muscles now think that this new position is comfortable. Now when I sit on the couch, I assume the same posture, because now it is “comfortable.”

We are always most comfortable in our dysfunction. Whatever we get used to is what feels comfortable to us.

Is it best for us? Will it help us grow older strong and straight?

The answers are no.

What muscle imbalance does do is cause us pain. Sometimes current pain, always future pain.

When we lose that nice balance we used to have, when we were toddlers, we are setting ourselves up for future pain and dysfunction.

Headaches, migraines, neck and shoulder pain are all caused by muscles complaining. Upper and lower back pain, carpal tunnel pain, almost any pain you experience is caused by muscles. When muscles are unhappy, they complain. When muscles complain, you experience pain.

It is never too late to get back into balance, and start getting out of pain. It takes some work and dedication, but is well worth the payoff: Having straight posture with a strong back will take us into old age in a healthy, happy body.

If you are already doing an exercise program of some sort, be sure to incorporate exercises to strengthen the backside of your body from neck to knees. Squeeze your shoulder blades toward your spine. Do exercises to strengthen your shin muscles.

Get more information on how to strengthen your whole backside at SimpleStrengthening.com.

Be strong and be happy.

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