Question
i am now a 38 year old male of good health except i have all kinds of problems or possibly pain causing areas of the back. i have read the trigger point manual vol 2 (lower body) - travel and simmons. and am now half way thru one of the world leaders in back treatments (ultimate back fitness - stuart mcgill). i have read a lot on posture and anatomy and function and by doing stretches of the inhibted muscles and strengthening/activating the inhibited muscles i have reduced the pain somewhat. i have observed several muscles of my back and hip that are short and tight and other the antagonist that is long weak and inhibited.

anyways the more i look into all the things i have found wrong with my back and hip area and all the things a few doctors i did see found (but as i now live in thailand the doctors so far i have seen are almost useless basically telling me the reason i have pain is beauce i dont have enough anti-inflammorties in my body thus that is all they did was prescribe them. there is myriad of things that i have found wrong with my back and hip. but i wont mention all of them cause it would takes pages and pages and i am guessing that these are the secondary causes of pain and or symptoms.

the real cause of pain started when i had an ice hockey accident some 17 years ago having me fall on my side of the hip a few times in 1 day. the area was purple and the hip would slip if i put most of the pressure of standing to only one leg. i feel that i may have damaged the si joint on the right side. i did manage to get out of chiro that the right side of the si joint is locked. when i do excersizes such as the bird dog me standing on all 4's(i hope you know what it is) when i do the right leg coming off the ground combined with the left arm there is a serious stability problem. but the left leg and right arm combo is fine. know it should be said that i do have hip banding in the left side. the gluteus medius on that side is long and inhibited. i have tried to get this muscle activated daily with a few good excersizes that i have. so i am guessing that either this glutues medius or the locked si joint is causing this stability problem. there are also different movements that i can do with body that basically shows the same kind of dysfunction pattern as when i do the bird dog.

now anyways i was figuring i should be trying to get this right side of the si joint more mobile. i do do a stretch where i lie on my back and bring the right foot up to the knee and then slowly lower and raise the knee all the while keeping the foot attached to the knee. and i do the bird dog for strenghthening as well.

the questions that i have are could i be correct in thinking that if when i do the bird dog and simmilar movements that the dysfunction i see be caused by the right side si joint being locked? and do you have different stretches and strenghten excersizes that you could give me for increasing mobility in that right side si joint and area of the si joint?

also i do have another question but may not be related exactly. when i do a piriformis stretch the best one so far i have found i place the right knee on the ground roughly in line with your left shoulder. the right foot just in front of the left knee. i thne press the hips towards the ground so that your bodyweight is on the right leg. now when i do this i can really get into a tremendous stretch of the piriformis on that particular side. actually both sides afterwards for hours later i get a throbing pain (almost enough to start to drive you crazy) in the piriformis muscle that also radiates down the leg to areas of the hamstring. i am guessing psuedo sciata as the sciatic nevre does travel 4 different ways thru or around this muscle in individuals but perhaps it is just the hamstring also acting up. now do you think i should be continuing to do this stretch if i get these results afterwards? is this helping the muscle or hurting it?


thanking you in advance.  

Answer
Dear Jii,

Let's cut to the core of the issue:  stretching.

Stretching, despite the overwhelming popular and medical opinion on the matter, doesn't work.

The reason, with a moment's consideration, is obvious:  Muscles contract (shorten) as a result of stimulus from the nervous system.  Stretching is useless to a muscle held in contraction because the nervous system causes it to hold the contraction and to reassert it after stretching.

Please see the article, Beyond Stretching, at somatics.com/page4.htm.

All the complexity of your problem can be reduced to one thing:  you have impaired control of the muscles affecting the painful areas.  You need to retrain your control.

Which option to use is the question at hand.

Read the article and others that address your interest and then get back to me.

with regard,
Lawrence Gold