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A typical experience
I had a new client the other day for an 80 minute massage. I asked him if there is anything that he wanted me to know. He told me that he suffers from a herniated disc that he has had for a few years. He has constant low back and right hip pain that at times radiates down the back of his leg to his knee. He told me that he has had two injections in his low back and has to stay on anit- inflamtory medication. Anything to avoid surgery. The pain is always there. I asked him if he ever saw a chiropractor for his pain. He said yes. But the adjustments hurt his hip so bad that he could not continiue. So here is a guy that thinks he is on the verge of surgery. I knew that there was a very strong probubllity that was not the case. The vast majority of pain people experience is nocioceptive pain( soft tissue- muscle, tendon, ligament, facia). MDs and Chiropractors see pain as neuropathic pain( nerve pain). With that asumption they give the wrong treatments and therapies. Now there is no denying that at times injections and surgery is needed. Not denying that. But most of the time - NOT. 70% to 85% of all pain comes directly from trigger points. Anyway I showed my client a testimonial from a client that I was able to help out of a very painful condition that she had delt with for a couple of years. I showed him that testimonial because all pain has a psychological eliment too it. I wanted him to start thinking maybe he is not on the edge of surgery. I palpated his entire back upper torso, both hips, and right leg. I found a very painful spot on his right L5 erectors. Another very painful spot on his right greater trochantor. A painful spot in the middle part of his lower right hamstrings. And also a tender spot on the right spinous of L3. I knew that if Iwas able to eliminate all those painful palaptory spots that I would most likely eliminate his pain problem. Because a healthy body had no painful spots even with deep massage. Ive been hunting and eliminateing trigger points for thirty years now. He walked out of the massage room pain free. He was pain free for the first time in years. All those other professional people misdiagnosed him because they assume neuropathic pain over nocioceptive pain. I assume the other way around. I'm a Massage Therapist.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on
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Gosh another good day. When I say good day, that means that I was able to help someone out of pain that they have been dealing with for a long time. I had two clients like that today. I will tell about one of them. Its just a lot of typing and I'm feeling to lazy to talk about both. A young lady came in complaining of neck and between the shoulder pain. I asked her if this was a new problem or an old one. She said years. And that the medical doctors can't find it. When you hear that medical doctors cant find it. You know that they have ruled out all the mean nasty stuff. And sense they don't know anything about trigger points. Its a pretty safe bet that trigger points are the problem. I asked her specifically where does it hurt. She said the right side of her back up to her neck. I asked her if she gets headaches. She said yes. I said Where do you feel your headaches. She said the right side of my head. She had about eight or nine really bad trigger points up and down her errectors on the right side . Three bad ones on her neck. One was in her rhomboids on the right and one on her right SCM that was causing her right side headaches. Oh she did have one trigger point on her left hip ( gluteus maximus ),right on the edge of her sacrum. All of them deactivated quickly. I used hot stones over the right side of her body to draw blood to the effected areas in order to speed up the healing process. And because her pain was all one sided, I was able to help her ( while on the table ), isometrically contract the left side of her spine in order to bring further relaxation to her trigger pointed right side. She felt really good when she left the spa.
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This was interesting. Had a new client the other day. He likes massages and somebody bought him a gift certiridate for an 80 minute massage. He had no incoming complaints. He did mention that at times his low back bothers him. He can't sleep on his stomach because thats when it bothers him most. So I did my thing and checked out his low back. I palpated from his glutes up to T12 and found no TPs. Then continued on with the massage. Anyway, after about 50 minutes into the massage, he was still on his stomach, he said his low back was starting to ache. Again I palpated the areas and found no TPs. So it must be referred pain? When he turned over I checked his abbs. And sure enough I found two medium intensity trigger points in his lower abdominal area. I was able to deactivate them and finish up his massage. I thought that was cool.
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A suprisingly high percentage of clients that come into see me at the spa just to enjoy a relaxing massage( get some tensions out) are also seeing MDs, Chiropractors, Physical Therapists, Acupuncturists, or other Massage therapists for some sort of pain issue. And if they choose to tell me why they are hurting( what those other professionals have told them) , I shake my head. There is all these reasons for their pain except the real reason. 90% of those clients are shocked and amazed when they leave the spa pain free for the first time in days, weeks, months, or sometimes years. Thats why Im writing in here. The two attachments below are the truth.
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This site only lets me attach one thing at a time. So the other attachment is below.
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It was a good bad day or a bad good day.. Not sure? One young lady came in complaining of neck pain. I got some weird vibes from the begging of the session when she told me this was her first massage from a male. She sounded very unsure.. Anyway, she had a neck shoulder complaint. I did my thing and released several trigger points.. Then carried on with the massage. She had me working very deep on her upper back. Well long story short ,,after the massage she told me her neck still hurts and that she didnt think it was a very good massage at all.. That she expected some relief. I told her that I was sorry and that she would not have to pay for the massage. Hopefully she wont write a bad review. Ok that was that bad part.. The good part was this guy came in that I had seen three or four times in 2012( read it on client history). When he came in he told me how much I had helped him durring that time period. He was experiencing bad migrains several times a week but has only had one migrain in the last couple years after id worked on him three times. He came in today with some shoulder pain that I was able to completely eliminate.. It involved several trigger points in his upper back and shoulders. He gave me a firm handshake and thanked me again for always helping him.. He tipped me really well too( too much). So there is my good bad day or bad good day?
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Permalink Reply by Therese Schwartz on
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Hey Gordon - I'd call it an interesting day! ;-) I only had one client today; all my horses were cancelled for the 3rd Tuesday in a row because of the weather. Not good to work that closely with horses in all the mud and ice/snow we keep getting!
Anyway, my client today had a lot of trigger points in her right forearm; I worked on them as best I could and we talked a lot about how she has her desk and mouse set up at work. Her arm felt much looser and "thinner on the inside" to her at the end of the session.
I also worked on taxes today. So a bad good day or good bad day for me too! ;-)
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Yea the lower 48 has taken the Alaskan winter away, sort of. No snow for all the dog races and stuff. Well at least it was not a total bad day for us.. lol
Therese Schwartz said:Hey Gordon - I'd call it an interesting day! ;-) I only had one client today; all my horses were cancelled for the 3rd Tuesday in a row because of the weather. Not good to work that closely with horses in all the mud and ice/snow we keep getting!
Anyway, my client today had a lot of trigger points in her right forearm; I worked on them as best I could and we talked a lot about how she has her desk and mouse set up at work. Her arm felt much looser and "thinner on the inside" to her at the end of the session.
I also worked on taxes today. So a bad good day or good bad day for me too! ;-)
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Oh man! That's no good. You guys need snow!!
Definitely not a total bad day for us! We'll see what tomorrow brings...public schools and the local major university had already cancelled classes for tomorrow by much earlier today! Not sure I'll have any clients! Maybe I'll take a nap... ;-)
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Today was an interesting day. A very good one. A new client came in for an hour massage. The first thing she told me was that she did not like or want a deep tissue massage, even though she knows its good for her. I asked her why? She told me that other therapists tell her that she is very tense in the shoulders because of a lot of knots. And that its just too painful for her. All she wants is too relax. I then asured her that I would not hurt her, and that those other therapists, whoever they were, did not know what they were doing. I then let her read a testimonial and view a short clip of me working on a client that was in a lot of pain. Just to show her that I don't have to hurt her in order to remove any pain in her shoulders that she may have. Im good at getting rid of knots.. Thats my thing for 30 years. Then she told me that she has Sciatica that runs down the back of her right leg. Its so bad that she can't sit at her desk at work anymore. She has to stand. And that she has been doing all the stretching and exercises they told her to do. Its so painful it wakes her up at night. She has been dealing with it for almost three months now. I didn't ask her who she was seeing. I can only guess? Anyway, long story short. She had three very active trigger points in her right hamstrings. All deactivated quickly without her feeling any discomfort. She just texted me, she is very excited about being pain free. I told her to stop doing the stretching and all that stuff because that was only perpetuating her pain. Which is true. Its like if you have a crack in the corner of you mouth. The worst thing to do would be to open and stretch your mouth. The misdiagnosis of pain continues. Another new client that was in her twenties has been suffering from whiplash sense being in an accident at 16 years old. She requested deep tissue massage for her shoulders and neck. No one ever mentioned the word trigger points to her before. She had full range of motion but pain at the end range and felt stiff and tense. Well she had about 9 active trigger points in all the right places. Rhomboids, upper trap, levator. upper paraspinals, and some very active lateral neck TPs( three on each side ). She was freaked out happy to leave the spa pain free. Both those clients are coming back for follow up sessions. I'm pretty confident that they will be fine within four to six short sessions. When they leave pain free, that means they can be like that all the time. Otherwise they could not feel pain free. So anyway, that was cool. I will attach a picture of the so called Sciatica diagnosis. Oh PS - The sciatica client that was told she had a lot of knots in her shoulders. She had NO KNOTS IN HER SHOULDERS. I palpated those areas throroughly. She did in her hamstrings though.
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When I work on someone that has a pain problem, and trigger points are involved( 90% of the time its trigger points )). I always tell the client that they will need anywhere from four to seven short follow up sessions in order to make sure those trigger points are destroyed once and for all. And that it's best to follow up within two to four days in order to take advantage of each session. But sometimes a client won't reschedule because they go home and feel fine. But what's happened is that the trigger point has gone latent. It's no longer symptomatic. But on palpation it will still be there, just waiting for some stressor to make it symptomatic again. I've had clients come in on say their 4th session telling me that they feel fine, but came in because I told them too. But when I palpate. The trigger point is still their. The client can feel it. But in another session or two, the client is still non symtomatic ( no more pain down the leg and so on ), and there is no trigger point( pain ) on palpation. Then its over. They can go back to stretching , working out or whatever. But sometimes it only takes one session to eliminate a trigger point problem for ever. And I had a real good example of that today. I was walking up to the front desk ( I work in a spa ) to clarify my schedule when a client ( about 29 years old ) checking out of the spa after having a pedicure , looked at me and said. " Gordon, you probably don't remember me. But you massaged me a year ago. And in one massage session you competely eliminated my sciatica that I had been suffering from sense I was 14 years old. I had been seeing chiropractors all those years. My sciatica has not come back. And I want to thank you." Of course she really never had sciatica to start with. It was trigger points in the Glutes, with Minimus being the main culprit. It made me feel good to hear that. But at the same time it amazes me as to how someting so simple like that can be misdiagnosed for so long? What kind of exam did those people ( DOCTORS ? ) giver her? They were either incompetent or con artists? NO OTHER CHOICE.
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Had a new client come in, of course for a relaxation massage. She recently had a baby via C section. But she did mention that she has some extra tension on the right side of her neck thats more then normal. I let her read one of my testimonials and watch a short video clip of me working on a client. She then told me that she has chronic mild low back pain that sometimes is more then mild. She also gets headaches often. She wanted me to take her pain out instead of a good spa rub down. I found one TP on her right Gluteus Medius. A very sore L4,5 TP on the right.. several up the paraspinals mostly on the right. Rhomboids, and three very tender lateral neck TPs also on the right. and a very sore one about where the Occipitalis or SCM would attach, on the right. And she had very tender Lateral spinous spots on C6 and T1, both on the right. They all deactivated quickly. Now because she gets headaches a lot, and has low back pain, and neck pain, and had a baby, and a C section for the birth. I suspected to find some tender abdominal spots. All the vectors indicated that. Well I found two very tender points, one below her belly button about centerline. Probably from the C section, and another to the right of her belly button perhaps visceral stress from the illiocecal valve( involved with headaches). And those spots can reffer pain to the low back. Also low back pain is often related to neck pain and vice versa. They all deactivated easily. One other client had even more significant TP problems that had misdiagnosed for a very long time. Anyway. as usual, it was a TP day.
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People that suffer headaches especially migrains often have a tender spot ( trigger point )to the right of the belly button do to ileocecal valve stress. I dont diagnose or try to figure anything out on that level. But where ever I find a tender spot, I want to make it go away. And that spot is often tender with migrain people.
You can greatly reduce viceral stress by relieving TPs along the paraspinals and abdominal wall. Lots of Osteopathic information on that. So when you take a TP out, you are sometimes doing more then just relieving a tight sore muscle ( visceral somatic reflexes ). http://www.earthclinic.com/cures/ileocecal-valve.html here is a website that talks some about the ilicocecal valve. You can do your own research if you want. Also the attachment below shows the pain patterns for abdominal TPs.. - Attachments:
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