Five clues that the cause of your weak thigh muscles is Femoral nerve compression:
you don’t have the strength to lift one knee easily;
despite exercise, muscles in one thigh are weaker and maybe appear smaller than in the other thigh;
occasionally your leg “gives out;”
your thigh feels numb;
you have back pain.
In this post you’ll learn how to fix it.
Read MoreWhen my clients with pelvis misalignment are not aligned and pain-free within four to eight sessions, I suspect they have been reinjuring themselves by going to other therapists, exercising, or returning too soon to their sports. Lack of a nutritious diet and rest are other culprits. Read on for typical cases illustrating these reasons.
Read MoreThere’s often a connection between jaw and pelvis misalignment. The treatment description in this post is primarily for the benefit of my students, as a case reference.
However, other readers may identify with the complex situation I describe. Reader, if you’re struggling to find help for jaw and/or back pain, suggest to your favourite manual therapist that s/he take my workshops!
Read MoreWhen muscle fibers tear, the result is stiffness, pain and inflammation. The body is excellent at “soldering together” the broken ends within a couple of weeks. The end result is a knot, often called a trigger point: a lump where torn ends of fibers have healed.
However, those knotted fibers no longer expand and contract. Muscle strength is proportionally reduced. Even after the torn fibers have healed, if a nerve is involved, there may be chronic pain. A trigger point is aptly named. Pressing on the knot triggers pain!
Read MoreA 40ish client with severe sciatic pain received an X-ray report that indicated she had osteoarthritis in her lumbar spine. She was devastated. She was terrified she’d end up in a wheelchair.
Several of my clients with severe back pain have been rocked by medical diagnoses of osteoarthritis, scoliosis, bulging discs, or ankylosing spondylitis (AS).
Read MoreBarring any muscle or ligament tears, my clients’ knee pain often has a simple cause: unbalanced muscle tension that pulls the bones out of alignment. With ongoing use, the cartilage thins and bones “rub,” causing osteoarthritis, aka bone inflammation.
In plain language, osteoarthritis in a knee is caused by one or more tight muscles pulling hard on that knee.
When the unbalanced tension is resolved, and the pressure squeezing the bones together is relieved, the bone inflammation can heal. The body is amazing that way.
Read MoreEveryone falls…eventually. A bad fall can knock the pelvis bones out of alignment, and the result can be sciatica and unrelenting back pain. To quickly assess whether the pelvis is aligned, therapists compare the tops of the left and right ilia (iliac crests) and the ASIS to see if they are level. Unfortunately, the higher of the left and right ilia is commonly referred to as an upslip.
In fact, rather than one ilium being high, the other may be low due to an ilium rotation. To complicate matters, the iliac crests may be level when standing, but not when seated. More investigation is required to determine the cause of the discrepancy. Scan reports are extremely useful, but not sufficient. If the therapist does not do any physical assessment, including palpation for muscle tension, then the treatment is going to be a shot in the dark.
Read MorePelvis rotation is a frequently overlooked cause of lower back pain and sciatica. Single or double-sided pelvis rotations in an anterior direction cause the iliac crest bone(s) to dig into the lower back. The iliac crest bones compress the sciatic nerve exiting the lumbar vertebrae. Lordosis (swayback) is a visual indicator of an anterior pelvis rotation.
If one iliac crest is elevated, the lumbar vertebrae transverse processes tilt like a see-saw and may exert pressure on the sciatic nerves exiting the spinal column above or below.
Either way, the result is sciatic pain that may radiate into the left and/or right buttock and refer down the leg.
Read MoreBecause Bowen Therapy treats the body’s musculoskeletal structure as a system, rather than simply addressing the painful area, many clients experience pain relief.
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