Hi,
Today I had a Skype consultation with a man who lives in England and is an avid golf player, playing every day for months at a time. It was no surprise to me that he was suffering from low back pain that he described as actually a pain that seems to pull his rib to his hip. In fact, he told me he is tilted to the left. That makes sense since a muscle called quadratus lumborum (QL for short) pulls your hip up toward your lowest rib, &/or pulls your trunk down toward your hip.
The QL originates on the top of your posterior pelvis, right along your low back, and then it inserts into your 12th rib. When it contracts you lean to the side; it also picks up your hip when you take a step, and it pulls down on your rib to assist you in exhaling your breath.
This man was in so much pain! It hurt to breath, it hurt to walk, it even hurt to sit down. When you have a telephone or email consultation with me, you receive the ebook version of Treat Yourself to Pain-Free Living. I had him read the description of each muscle that is in the Julstro Protocol for Low Back Pain and he could immediately see how it was all related.
It’s interesting doing a Skype consultation because I could watch to see how he was doing the self-treatments, and by talking him through it we found that his real source of pain was a bit further out toward his side than is normally the case. Most of the time the spasm is more at midline, only about 2-3″ out from your spine and about 3″ up from the top of your pelvis. However this time this area was tender, but he could feel it wasn’t the source of his pain. When I guided him, a bit at a time, and was able to show him on the computer (amazing thing to work with Skype) how to turn his hand over so his palm is facing the floor and his fingers are pressing in toward the inside of his pelvis, he was shocked when he hit the spasm. In fact, it hurt so bad for a few seconds that I was afraid he would faint – I had to tell him to press gently and then work up to deeper pressure.
He held that point for a long time, just moving over a tiny bit at a time, but it started to ease and eventually disappeared! If you find that you’re having pain in your low back it’s worthwhile to explore the area all around the muscle to see what you’ll find.
Next he knew that he needed to stretch regularly so he decided to learn how to do TriggerPoint Yoga. In that DVD program, Ana Johnson, and amazing yoga instructor who is really exact in teaching postures, will walk you through the self-treatments prior to stretching, and then move on to a 30 minute beginner yoga routine. I haven’t heard from him yet, but I’m looking forward to finding out how he did when he added yoga to his treatment for low back pain. I believe he’s going to be very pleased with is outcome.
Working with this man today showed me one thing that I’m going to learn to do asap – I’m going to start to not only write my blog, I’m going to do a Google+ Hang Out so people can see what I’m talking about, it’s going to be so much better. So, that is my “job” for tomorrow — learn how to put on a Google+ Hang Out meeting. I’ll let you know when I’ve learned to do it and I’ll look forward to actually meeting people “live.”
Wishing you well,
Julie