AboutJulie Donnelly, LMT Expertise I can accept questions that relate to chronic or acute pain caused by muscle spasms and contractions. Repetitive Strain Injury is actually Cumulative Trauma to muscles. Releasing the spasm &/or contraction will relieve the strain that is felt at the insertion point on the bone.
Experience
Past/Present clients Privacy prevents me from filling in this section without prior consent from my clients.
Life Experience: I began to get interested in the treatment of muscle spasms and contractions while I lived in Honolulu, HI. A sailing friend had severe pain following raceing each week. He would lie on the grass, bearly able to breathe from the pain in his back. I would rub his back, feeling "bumps" that I would "smooth out", and his pain would completely go away. This intrigued me, until I eventually went to school to learn how to be a Massage Therapist. I went to work on a cruise ship and had the experience of working on approximately 3000 people in one year - a great opportunity to really feel muscle spasms and contractions! I concentrated on thoroughtly learning one muscle every day, locating it on each client, and feeling "what hurts & what doesn't hurt". A six month stay in St. Thomas, USVI, was beneficial because I worked with an Osteopath who taught me excellent release techniques that I still use. Next I moved to Hawaii and worked in a clinic that only treated chronic pain patients. It was in Hawaii that I wrote my first book "Massage Therapy Healing Techniques Workbook". It was written for massage therapists and was a compilation of treatments for very specific painful conditions. The book was revised in 1996 and a companion video was added at that time. In 1995 I suffered with Frozen Shoulder - an incredibly painful condition. I was told I'd never be able to regain full range-of-motion in my shoulder. I did deep muscle therapy on myself, while a friend work where I couldn't reach. The condition healed 100%. In 1997 I developed carpal tunnel syndrome that put me out of business. Surgery was recommended, I refused because of my awareness that scar tissue from the surgery could be more detrimental than carpal tunnel syndrome. Using the knowledge I had gained through the years, especially what I had learned through the Frozen Shoulder episode, enabled me to work out what was REALLY causing the carpal tunnel condition. I worked each affected muscle, and eventually regained 100% use of my hand, completely pain free. I quickly began to treat my clients using this new knowledge, and soon afterward began teaching them how to do the self-treatment techniques. It worked everytime, except a person had already had surgery! I began clinical trials at a medical facility, where I still teach the techniques with incredible success. In 1999 Zev Cohen, MD, who was working with me developing the carpal tunnel treatment, joined me in the business. We wanted to bring this effective technique to the world, not limited to only our town.
In 2000 I published my second book "How To Be Pain-less...A Beginner's Guide To The Self Treatment of Muscle Spasms". In this book, using 114 photographs, I show how to self-treat muscles throughout the body. In the summer of 2000, Dr. Cohen and I produced an instructional video teaching the carpal tunnel self treatment, and in March 2001 we opened a web site (www.aboutcts.com) to teach people about the muscular component of carpal tunnel syndrome, and to share the self-treatment system with the public.
Question Hello,
I'm a group exercise instructor; i believe I suffered some kind of strain or mild tear to my left gluteus about 3 months ago; as exercising is my job I kept teaching classes regularly and ignore the sensation of pulling and felt that I kept re-injuring the muscle several times. I did not have the chance to recover. I feel i made this injury chronic.
Now after more than 3 months, I'm always in pain; I had an 18 days holidays and was hoping that I would recover from it, I felt better, but when come back, almost immediately during the classes when stretching or doing a dead-lift or a front kick i felt the muscle pulling again as if I was tearing that scar again. My pain is present almost all the time, it worsen when the weather is wet. I addition to the that I have a pain and swelling and even strong pain to the touch in the front of the leg in the region of the ilio-psoas
What do you suggest?
Thanks very much
Christine
Answer Hi Christine,
As I read your message I kept thinking that the iliopsoas muscle is tight, causing your pelvis to rotate forward and down and therefore moving the pubic bone backward and the posterior pelvis moves upward. As the posterior pelvis is moving up, your glutes are being forced to contract, then you do a movement that suddenly stretches the glutes (such as a front kick) and they can tear or overstretch and then snap back into spasms.
You will get a lot of interesting information by going to http://www.julstro.com and reading about repetitive strain injuries. There are two sections that will give more information about the iliopsoas and why it causes pain. They are titled "Muscles and Pain" and "What's Happening Exactly."
The reason that resting helped for a short time is because the lactic acid started to be removed from your muscles during your rest. However, as soon as you began to do exercise again, the lactic acid built up again and that causes the muscles to contract again.
The good news is that you can learn how to self-treat all of the muscles that are being impacted by the pelvis rotation. The techniques aren't hard to do, but they are focused and specific. You will read about them when you go onto the website mentioned above.
One other thing, as a group exercise instructor you'll find that learning how to do self-treatments will help you with your clients because you'll be able to share them and help the people you instruct.
