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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.

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Repetitive Strain Injury - shoulder/arm pain

Expert: Julie Donnelly, LMT - 11/5/2009

Question
i have had issues w/my left arm for several years.(yet i am right side dominant) The first and worst time was 10+ years ago between my bicep & inside elbow when rolling up this window to my car. This went on for months and of course when I had a Dr. appointment to address it, it stopped. This happened with BOTH my arms. My left arm specifically between the bicep &tricep has been a constant irritation on & off for about a year. The pain was not acute &only occurred when lifting heavier things. That helped but it has not made it go away. I began bartending this year & soon after thought I had tennis elbow. I limited the use of my left arm & wore a band below the elbow while working & it seems to have subsided, only NOW the pain in my bicep/tricep area has returned with the added bonus of sharp pain in my shoulder when i move it shoulder height and higher. i experience pain in my shoulder from the scapula down over my shoulder. I have tried to stretch all the muscles which seems to help,shoulder shrugs have no impact. Arm raises to the side only as well as forward rotation makes the bones rub each other ( i do feel that but no pain involved)I am also experiencing sharp pains in forearm and numbness in my index and middle fingers. (pins & needles) & If I tilt my head ever so slightly to the right & a little fwd. I feel a lot of tension near the shoulder blade & a bit in my neck. I'm terrified that this may be a rotator cuff issue and I'm really hoping it's a simple case of muscle tension and a pinched nerve. In the meantime besides keeping weight off and limiting the use...what can I do to alleviate some of these symptoms w/out making it worse?

Answer
Hi Farrah,

The odds are really high that this is a repetitive strain injury of the muscles that cross over your median nerve that innervates all of the areas where you are feeling pain and tingling, from your neck to your fingers. It can also be a repetitive strain on the muscles of your shoulder (infraspinatus), upper chest (pectoralis minor), biceps, triceps, under your arm (serratus anterior), and all of the muscles of your lower arm.

This isn't as bad as it sounds, each of these muscles are easy to self-treat. The important thing is to avoid stretching until you have released the spasms (knots) in the muscles. As the spasms are forming they will shorten the muscle fibers, you feel like you need to stretch, but when you do you cause the spasms to become more complicated and you overstretch the fibers on either side of the spasm.

You can read about this and other interesting information by going to http://www.julstro.com and reading about repetitive strain injuries. I suggest you also read the sections titled "Muscles and Pain" and "What's Happening Exactly." Then you may like to read the forum on the website, looking for threads that relate to your areas of discomfort. Also, if you go to http://www.aboutCTS.com you'll see all of the muscles that cross over the median nerve. Take a look at the section titled "Anatomy Lessons" and you'll get a good overview of each of the muscles.

I suggest you either go to a good massage therapist who knows how to do trigger point therapy, or you learn how to do it yourself so you can do it on a regular (even daily) basis until the pain has disappeared.

Wishing you well,
Julie Donnelly

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