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 Hi, I've been having pain on my right side just above or around the dimples on my buttock. It's mostly aggrivated when I sit in the car or on a chair that is deep and then my psoas feels tight. I've done phys therapy, chiro and accupuncture with no real improvement. I think it's a spasm in my QL. When I press on it in the center point between my ribs and hip I feel a point of pain. Trigger point that might be shortening my muscle when sitting sand referring pain to my saco joint do you think? I've tried self therapy to no real avail. Do you think a trigger point injection might release the spasm? Thanks MUCH!!!
Answer Hi Rick,
Your assessment that it is the QL muscle is very possibly correct, but it can be caused by the iliopsoas and quadriceps contracting and rotating the pelvis forward and down. This would then cause the QL to have to contract and shorten in order for it to work.
Have you already gone to http://www.julstro.com to read about repetitive strain injuries and how they refer to areas throughout the body? Pay special attention to the sections titled "Muscles and Pain," and "What's Happening Exactly."
I've found that often people do self-treatments, but they either aren't going to the real source of the problem, or they aren't treating the muscle deeply enough or in the right order. For example, before you can treat the QL you need to first release the tension in the quadriceps, and then the tension in the iliopsoas. If you either skip these two steps, or do them in reverse order, it won't work. I've worked with many thousands of people who were able to release the trigger points. I believe you can do them too, especially since you seem to be so knowledgeable, it would likely only be a little shift in how you are doing the self-treatments and you'd also be successful.
