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Self-Help

Chronic Muscle Tightness: How To Loosen Tight Muscles In Your Legs

By Osteopathy, Physical Health, Self-Help3 Comments
Chronic muscle tightness Do you struggle with stretching? Do you have chronic muscle tightness in your legs that will not loosen or become more flexible no matter how much you stretch? Do you find stretching abnormally painful and uncomfortable?  If you answered "yes" to any of the questions, then you may have a difficult to resolve form of chronic muscle tightness. Both from personal experience and as a hands-on osteopathic physician, I have observed that some muscles behave differently.  These muscles are stuck in a state of chronic muscle tightness and pain. They are reflexively unable to relax and behave...
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3 Things I Wish I Knew About When I Was A Competitive Athlete (Part II)

By Health, Physical Health, Self-HelpNo Comments

Introduction Flexibility gives an athlete power through a range of motion that they don’t have otherwise. Without flexibility not just range of motion is lost, but it also requires a lot of effort for muscles when they are at the edge of that range of motion.  I was not born with natural flexibility. For the longest time I was convinced that stretching didn’t work. When it comes to the traditional methods of stretching, I still feel that way, but I’m going to share with you something new I discovered recently.  In Part I of this series, we discussed airway and…

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3 Tips To Help After A Concussion

By Health, Osteopathy, Self-HelpNo Comments
Recently I read an article that former football star Neil Smith regretted having played football. He had an illustrious career that many football players would wish for. He played pivotal roles in two Super Bowl wins with the Denver Broncos in the late 90’s. Knowing what he knows now, if he could do it all over again he would pass this up for a career in the military. This should be eye opening to have someone with such an amazing career give it all up to go to the military. So what could make him wish he had never played...
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Self-Help Tips For Mild Carpal Tunnel Related Symptoms

By Osteopathic Techniques, Osteopathy, Self-HelpNo Comments

Introducing The Carpal Tunnel Release Series   Within about a couple months after the birth of my daughter, I noticed that I woke up one night with the first three fingers of both hands numb. I know this is from the median nerve being compressed, the nerve associated with carpal tunnel syndrome. After moving my hands for a bit the numbness would go away. My arms still felt sore and tight and bending my wrists forward would elicit the numbness. The next day I forgot about the numbness until I woke up the next night with the same numbness on…

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Trapezius Knot? Check The AC Joint For A Solution

By Health, Osteopathic Techniques, Osteopathy, Physical Health, Self-Help229 Comments

A “knotted” spasm in trapezius muscles is a common pain complaint. You can tell if you have one simply by squeezing the fleshy area between your neck and your shoulder. If this area is sensitive, tight, and painful, then you have “knots” in your trapezius. People often seek out massages, injections, medications, and more to get rid of these painful knots. We like to blame it on stress, backpacks, and all kinds of other reasons for this pain. Unfortunately, few people ever offer solutions that actually work because they do not understand why the knots develop in the first place….

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Tip To Help Relieve Jaw, Neck, And Head Pain

By Osteopathic Techniques, Osteopathy, Physical Health, Self-HelpNo Comments

This is a simple maneuver that I often give to my patients to help them with jaw, head, neck and even back pain. This should be done 1 to 2 times per day and no more until painful tender spots are gone. Each session should only last a few minutes. Once gone, then it can be done periodically if tender spots return. This does not replace a medical work-up and assumes that you have consulted with your general physician prior to trying this. This works best in conjunction with the Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) patients receive. Step 1: Use the index finger…

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Intermetatarsal Space Release Of The Foot

By Gait, Health, Osteopathy, Physical Health, Self-HelpNo Comments

The purpose of this article is to describe a simple exercise you can do to help maintain the health of your feet. Our shoes are narrower than our feet. (1) Shoes have an impact in the overall shape of our feet.(2) Because of this I have found that over time our feet are also narrower than they should be. Part of this is because some of the small muscles and the connective tissue in our feet become chronically contracted. As a result, this can cause muscles and joints in the legs, thighs, and low back to tighten. The narrowing of our…

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Osteopathic Considerations: The Knee Cap

By Osteopathic Techniques, Osteopathy, Self-HelpNo Comments

I went hiking about 5 months ago. Several days later, I started to have diffuse knee pain. I stopped being able to bend my knee completely. Shortly afterwards it became swollen and inflamed. I had joint line tenderness, which can indicate a meniscal tear. My knee felt very unstable and there was a lot of “popping” with moving it. It went through some periods of getting better and then I would make a wrong move and was back to pain and swelling. During all this time, kneeling was out of the question. I was convinced I was dealing with a…

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