

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…
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…
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….
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…
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…
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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