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About Julie 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.

You are here: Experts > Health/Fitness > Medical & Health Issues > Repetitive Strain Injury > Pain in wrist from raking leaves.

Repetitive Strain Injury - Pain in wrist from raking leaves.

Expert: Julie Donnelly, LMT - 10/30/2009

Question
Hi Julie,

About 5 days ago, I was raking leaves fairly quickly and vigorously for about 45 minutes and probably had a fairly good grip on the rake. About an hour afterwards, I began feeling pain in the underside of my wrist (more toward the little finger) when moving it a certain way. It would hurt acutely when rotating my wrist either palm up or palm down. There was no swelling or bruising that I could see. I iced it the first day and have been wrapping it in an ace bandage when it begins to hurt, but it doesn't feel like it's getting better. Where do I go from here?

Answer
Hi Lynn,

I can really relate to that pain, I had it myself back in 1996-97 and it was so bad that I had to close down my massage therapy practice. Fortunately, after suffering for almost a year, I finally figured out how to self-treat and when I did it was gone immediately. I've been teaching people how to do the self-treatments every since.

You repetitively strained several muscles, primarily the flexors and extensors of your forearm, but also your biceps, triceps, pectoralis minor and infraspinatus. Since you aren't talking about tingling or burning pain, it sounds like your nerves weren't impinged, so we can temporarily ignore all but the flexors and extensors.

If you go to http://www.aboutCTS.com, and then go to the page that is titled "Anatomy Lessons" you can read about all of the muscles. The flexors cause your hand to curl into a grip, and the extensors open your hand up again. Even the muscle of your thumb, the opponens pollicis, is involved in this.

As the muscles were being strained they developed an excess of lactic acid, which then causes the muscles to tie up in spasms (knots) that make the fibers short and put a strain on the insertion points. In this case, the insertion points are your wrist and fingers. It's like pulling your hair really hard, you scalp hurts but there isn't anything really wrong with your scalp, just let go of your hair. It's the same thing here, your hand hurts but it's because the muscles of your forearm are pulling on the insertion points.

After you read the website, I suggest you also read http://www.julstro.com because it will explain repetitive strain injuries with more detail, and also look at the sections titled "Muscles and Pain" and "What's Happening Exactly." It will make this so much clearer. You may also like to take a look at the forum on the websites and look for threads that have related subject lines, there are many of them.

The bottom line is you can self-treat this situation and it's worthwhile to learn how to do the self-treatments so you don't have to worry about limiting your activities. If you strain a muscle, you'll just release it and continue on with your life. Or, if you prefer you can go to a good massage therapist who is familiar with doing trigger point therapy and ask him/her to do all of the muscles that are described on the "Anatomy Lessons" page. In either case, I believe you'll feel so much better after you have released them.

Wishing you well,
Julie Donnelly

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