I’ve always known that a perfect marriage is chiropractic and the type of massage that I do, focused trigger point therapy. When you slide on muscles you can’t get as deep as you can when you stay still and just press into one specific spot. This type of treatment is called “trigger point therapy” and the techniques I use are called Julstro Muscular Therapy, which is a combination of trigger point therapy, myofascial release, and some of my own methods of treating muscles.
Julstro Muscular Therapy also looks at the body in a very different manner than is usually done by massage therapists. I don’t just look at where you are feeling the pain, or even where that specific pain may be originating. I look at the body as a whole and figure out which muscles need to interact with other muscles to cause the pain you are experiencing, and this makes all the difference in the world.
As I’ve mentioned while I’ve been going through this broken ankle situation, I’ve worked on my muscles every day, several times a day actually. This week I added in going to a chiropractor here in my neighborhood. Dr. Brian McLoughlin is brand new to chiropractic and to Chapel Hill. This was a blessing in disguise for me because it gave him lots and lots of time to work with me. One thing that’s a plus is that he told me the office policy is not to rush people through like a revolving door (something I’ve seen in too many chiropractic offices) and that scheduling gives a minimum of 20 minutes for each patient. That’s incredible when you consider that some offices schedule 10 patients for every half-hour!
Chiropractors move bones, everyone knows that. Most of the time the muscles are ignored, or are given a minor massage which can’t really release the tension in the fibers so they are holding the bones firm. While chiropractors can move the bones back where they belong, the muscles just pull them out again, and you are on a treadmill that goes nowhere.
However, I’ve been working on all of my muscles, from my hips to my feet. I get amazing relief each time I treat my muscles and I often think about people who aren’t doing anything to release the tight muscles, how they are suffering needlessly.
So, I went to see Dr. McLoughlin on Wednesday, and it was fantastic! He spent a great deal of time using muscle stimulation on my foot to help break up scar tissue, and then moving every bone to stretch the muscles and reset the tiny bones back where they belong. There was one bone in the top of my foot that when he moved it, it clicked, and immediately pain left the area. He also worked on my pelvis which has gone out of whack because my legs are different lengths when I’m wearing the walking cast. It was like heaven…I walked out of there almost completely out of pain!
Another thing I liked about Dr. McLoughlin is that he didn’t want to put me onto the “never ending chiropractic appointment.” I’ve been to places where you are made to come in ever few days, and get constant, annoying phone calls if you don’t make it one day. That’s such a turn-off for me that I never wanted to go in the first place. Dr. McLoughlin didn’t do that, in fact, he said that I’d know when I needed him again and to just call. What a relief!
It was a great week, first seeing Dr. McLoughlin on Wednesday, and then topping off the week with the most incredible physical therapist…but more of that in another post.
My suggestion…if you are in pain (not the life-threatening type of pain), first work on your own muscles or go to a really good trigger point massage therapist, and then see a chiropractor if the pain persists. If a muscle has pulled the bone out of alignment and twisted it during the pull, after you release the tight muscle only a chiropractor will be able to turn the bone and put it back where it belongs.
Have a great day,
Julie