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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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Most of those clients have already gone through the chiropractic and/or physical therapy gauntlet. And insurance has run out or won't pay for more. Usually I see them years later when they have been given a gift certificate from a loved one or friend. Any referrals I get are from the clients themselves.
Gordon J. Wallis said:

I ask all my pain clients to tell their doctors. Never a response or referral though.
Gary W Addis, LMT said:

you should ask the lady to send her recommendation of you to those doctors

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantar_fasciitis
Please read the above link on Plantar Faciitis. There is not one mention of trigger points? Not one. In my entire 30 years of doing this kind of work I have only met two maybe three people with that diagnosis that was not totally caused by trigger points. They had more like a diabetic nerve pain.. But show me a hundred people with that diagnosis, and I will dramatically help if not out right cure 90 of em within a couple weeks. Its all most always trigger points. One of my clients that I helped out of a minor pain problem asked me if I could do anything for Plantar Faciitis? I said yea, I can probubly cure it. She said her husband has been suffering for over a year with Plantar Faciitis, and its getting debilitating dispite the care and therapy he is getting. Well he came in today with a very doomed attituded. His quality of life was being effected. He could no longer run or hike. Constant pain in his calves and feet. I asked him who told him that he has Plantar Faciitis. He said his medical doctors.. They have him taking 16 Advil a day. And he paid $500.00 for Orthotics. And the pain persists. Worse then ever. So I'm thinking..??? Maybe this is one of the few I can't help. It ended up way easier then I thought. He had maybe three or four trigger points in each calf, and maybe three trigger points on he bottom of each foot. I eliminated them all of them within 25 minutes. On repalpation, they were not there. He was pain free and quite shocked and amazed when we finished. I was not. Before I started working on him I asked him if anyone ever mentioned the word trigger points? He said no, what are they? I'm beginning to think I poses top secret information.. I turely believe i do. Now I will have to see him a few more times( follow up sessions ) in order to make sure they stay gone. But the fact he left the spa pain free, proves that its trigger points, and they won't be that hard to get rid of.. His worst case scenario is a twenty minute foot rub once a month. Sense he may be prone to trigger points. But probably not. I can only load one attachment at a time.. But i will put some of his trigger points on the attachments. "Truth is often hidden. Like a shadow in darkness." I wonder how much money is spent on this Plantar Faciitis diagnosis thats pretty much wrong?????? This is mind blowing to me?? One year of suffering? Totally needless. Totally the incorrect therapy. Read that wikipedia link again.. Maybe I misread? No mention of trigger points?
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Here is another one.
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Another.
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Yet another one..
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There is more. But.. enough said... Truth be known. This is very rare knowledge. It is indeed.
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True, unfortunately.  While I was halfway through school, a crew of students were assigned to a kids' soccer game, giving sports massage after/before/between games.  One 12 yr old was brought to the treatment area by his dad; he had been suffering from shin splint for two weeks...he had been to a PT, who "stretched and strengthened", to an MD who shot him with cortisone-- and he was still hurting. 

The instructor and I didn't get along (I had already learned a few things about trigger points with Gordon's considerable help, and she still hadn't learned a thing after practicing for ten years), so with a glare at me she assigned another student to the kid.  She and the student piddled around with the lower leg, then told the dad, "Shin splints are a serious tendon sprain, so it will take months to heal."

As the kid was about to leave the table, I stepped up, said I could most likely relieve his pain if not make it all go away.  Trigger points.  Two in tibialis anterior, one in peroneous brevis and a really nasty referring trigger point in the gastroc tendon. 

When he got up from my table he was smiling; the instructor was scowling at me, the other student begged me to teach him what I had done.  Though I advised the boy to sit out the games for the day, he went ahead and actually scored the winning goal in a play off game.  Next week, at the city's championship game, the kid was still pain free. 


lol Gary thats great. lol
Gary W Addis, LMT said:

True, unfortunately.  While I was halfway through school, a crew of students were assigned to a kids' soccer game, giving sports massage after/before/between games.  One 12 yr old was brought to the treatment area by his dad; he had been suffering from shin splint for two weeks...he had been to a PT, who "stretched and strengthened", to an MD who shot him with cortisone-- and he was still hurting. 

The instructor and I didn't get along (I had already learned a few things about trigger points with Gordon's considerable help, and she still hadn't learned a thing after practicing for ten years), so with a glare at me she assigned another student to the kid.  She and the student piddled around with the lower leg, then told the dad, "Shin splints are a serious tendon sprain, so it will take months to heal."

As the kid was about to leave the table, I stepped up, said I could most likely relieve his pain if not make it all go away.  Trigger points.  Two in tibialis anterior, one in peroneous brevis and a really nasty referring trigger point in the gastroc tendon. 

When he got up from my table he was smiling; the instructor was scowling at me, the other student begged me to teach him what I had done.  Though I advised the boy to sit out the games for the day, he went ahead and actually scored the winning goal in a play off game.  Next week, at the city's championship game, the kid was still pain free. 

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_splints

Again. No mention of trigger points. Yet, it almost always is. This information for all practical purposes, is virtually unknown.
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Another.
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There are more, but the point is made. Gary, I'm still laughing about your story. lol Even though its sad. Many many people suffer needlessly.
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Gary, I'm just thinking about what your teacher said to the father about his 12 year old sons shin splints. "Shin splints are a serious tendon sprain, so it will take months to heal." Unbelievable. She doesn't know what she is doing, yet teaching a sports massage clinic? And the school you went to is very expensive. Now I'm sure there are good teachers out there. But thats my point. All these national certification exams, are whats keeping our profession down. She was certified in all the required exams. Yet she knows nothing about the reality of what she is teaching. These schools just teach for the exams. So the students can pass the exams and carry on the useless information.. Now if I wrote an exam and the schools taught for the exam, she would have fixed that young mans shin splint problem in no time ( Like Gary did ). And we would no longer be last tier providers. That being said, this segways into what I'm going to talk about next. A client came in the other day. I recognized him and asked him if I massaged him before. He said yes, several months ago. He told me that I fixed his hip problem that he had been suffering with for six months. Prior to seeing me he had been seeing a chiropractor( 1st tier provider, Doctor title ) for almost as long. But even after five months of care his hip was hurting as ever. No clinical improvemtent at all.. Now remember that idiotic statement the massage teacher said about the shin splints? Well this chiropractor told my client the reason his hip hurts is because he has an extra bone in his Coccyx? They find something on an ex ray and just blame it on that. Never mind the therapy isn't working in the first place.. It was trigger points in the various glute muscles. My client told me that I siad he needed a few 25 minute follow up treatments in order to make sure those trigger points were gone for good. But he said he was pain free after the first session and didn't need to come back for any follow ups. ( Sometimes the clients don't come back. I figure, well it didnt work or whatever, and I just move on ) But he is here today for a good massage to help him unwind becasue he has been under a lot of mental stress lately. I asked him if he could put in writing what he told me. He said he would be glad too. I massaged him, and his hips were totally pain free. And I'm a last tier provider that would probubly flunk any massage certification exam. I'd need a month or two of serious study in order to memorize all the useless information in order to pass. You have seen the attachment below several times. It's unknown information that is obviously ignored by almost everybody. Oh, you mention the word trigger points, and everybody knows about em. But.................
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