Yesterday I was having dinner at a friends house and her aunt & cousin were also visiting for the day. Aunt Polly had knee replacement surgery 10 weeks ago and she was limping around and using a cane, but she said the only real pain she had was in the “middle of my butt.” Physical therapy hadn’t helped and she was heading for a shot of cortisone when she returned home because the pain was so debilitating. The pain she described was typical of sciatica and wrapped around her hip area; was severe in the “dimple” of her butt; and then went down her hamstrings (posterior thigh), her calf, and sometimes even into her foot. All this, and her knee was just fine (thank heaven) but she was still suffering and nobody was finding out why.
The muscle that runs from the tip of your pelvis, down your anterior thigh, and merges with the tendon that crosses over your knee (patella tendon) is called rectus femoris (in case you want to look it up). When your leg is bent and you want to straighten it, for example – when you are sitting and want to stand up – the rectus femoris has to contract (along with the other three quadriceps muscles). The other three quadriceps all originate along your long femur bone, but only the rectus femoris originates on your pelvis – and this is key to understanding why this muscle is the cause of a long list of problems, including back pain and sciatica. It will be easier if you go to the Julstro Protocol and read it slowly, visualizing each step as you go along.
It made sense that since Polly had just had the knee replacement surgery that her quadriceps would be in spasm, so I pressed on the trigger point that is common for the rectus femoris, and sure enough, it hurt. Polly said “that hurts, but my real pain is in my butt.” I told her I understand, but that this is the SOURCE of the pain, and it was being overlooked. I happened to have a piece of 1″x12″ PVC pipe in my car (tools of the trade) and I showed her how to work on her thigh muscles. She was shocked when she stood up and the butt pain was completely gone!
The day turned into a “fix-athon,” because she had pain in her thumb that she thought was arthritis, and it turned out it was only the thumb muscle in spasm, and then her son, Buddy, mentioned he was heading for surgery for his left shoulder – and that just ended up being three muscles of the shoulder (we’ll talk about that another time), AND Buddy had trigger finger in his right hand. He had been told he needed surgery to stop his finger from locking down into his palm. It turned out all he needed to do was to release one of his flexor muscles, the one that connects to that finger, and in less than 5 minutes his finger was fine. They decided they wanted to buy my book, Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living since they had other minor aches and pains and they never considered muscles as the cause of the problems.
So many people are suffering every day, some in a great deal of pain, and some even having surgery because they can’t find solutions….and it’s so often unnecessary! Before you start to take medications that can cause horrible side-effects (do you ever watch the ads on TV? That’s enough to scare you out of taking drugs), or go for surgery that isn’t really necessary (with scar tissue forming and potentially causing other problems), I hope you’ll take a look at the muscles that commonly cause pain. It’s worth the time, energy, and small amount of money (cost of a book) to learn how to stop pain FAST!
Wishing you well,
Julie