What the ANGLES indicate – an easy guide to your pain areas
22 November 2013
Your primary school geometry teacher gave you the reasons for many of your common muscle and joint aches and pains, but you and your teacher probably still don’t realise it!
Think about ANGLES.
Remember the basic horizontals and perpendiculars? Think of the horizontals as the level of your hips and shoulders and the perpendicular as how your spine should be at right angles to those.
If one shoulder and/or hip is higher than the other, it changes the angles and therefore the length of your muscles and other soft tissue like tendons, ligaments and fascia on opposite sides of the body.
Muscles down one side of the spine will be tighter/shorter but on the other side they will be stretched/longer. That can manifest itself as pain or weakness in some muscles.
The angles created between hips and legs also change. Outside leg muscles on the high hip side will be stretched, but on the inside they will be short and tight. The opposite applies to the other leg.
If the front of your hips tilt down (known as anterior tilt) – particularly due to tight hip flexor muscles, the back of the hips must come up. That shortens the muscles particularly in the lower back and right up to the neck, shoulder and head and is often a major contributor to lower back and sciatic pain as well as headaches and migraines.
Anterior tilt also results in an increase in the lumbar (lower back) curve, which in turn reduces the spaces between the intervertebral discs that can then trap nerves and with compensatory effects for the rest of the spine. This is a common cause of sciatic pain into the buttocks and down the legs to the feet but it can also affect ANY nerve which can affect ANY function of the body.
Changes in angles sets up a whole set of compensatory and compounding muscle imbalances throughout your body from the feet to the shoulders, neck and head.
Does your therapist /practitioner level your hips level first so your brain can automatically start making adjustments to muscles to help bring them back into balance even before the actual massage or other physical treatment has commenced? I do.
Muscles have elasticity – to be able to stretch and contract. If the hips are levelled, muscles will use that elasticity to start springing back to their natural correct length.
If the hips are not level, the Sacrum – at the base of the spine – also will be skewed, possibly blocking vital nerve pathways taking signals back to the brain via the spinal chord about all aspects of your muscles, bones, organs, systems, etc.
A number of my remedial massage clients have said their medical or allied health practitioner has told them they have one leg shorter/longer than the other – even saying this was measured on x-rays or other scans, and that is a possible reason for their common muscle pains. What was NOT mentioned was that the hips were out of alignment when the x-ray or scan was taken; where the head of the femur joins the hip socket was higher, lower or twisted on one side, providing an inaccurate two-dimensional measurement.
Unless you have had polio, bone cancer, pins in your legs through accidents or other ankle, leg or hip surgery, or a major genetic deformity, by realigning the hips I can usually prove within two minutes you DON’T have one leg shorter/longer than the other. I have proven this to many hundreds of clients over many years.
I have developed a totally painless technique – without any forced manipulation of bones – that can have your hips back level within two minutes before I start the actual massage.
But don’t just believe me. Come and have a remedial massage and prove it for yourself.
David Hall ©
MOUNT LOUISA REMEDIAL MASSAGE THERAPIST
Mount Louisa-based Townsville massage therapist specialising in Remedial Massage for all types of muscle and/or joint aches and pains, headaches and migraines and preparing for and recovering from exercise, sporting and other fitness activities including Defence fitness tests. I guarantee the best value for money Townsville remedial massage. CALL NOW on (07) 4774 6973 or 0438 774 819 to book an appointment.
Like us on facebook