Diaphragmatic breathing coupled with pelvic or core breathing will help relax muscular tension throughout our body, decreasing pain and reducing stress. That’s a pretty big statement! How does diaphragmatic breathing and pelvic breathing accomplish that? Diaphragmatic breathing is also called belly breathing or abdominal breathing. The diaphragm is the primary muscle for respiration. Its [...]
Neutral pelvis is important to help protect our lower back, eliminate low back pain and have a healthier spine. I am a Physical Therapist and work with people who have chronic pain. My primary mode of treatment is manual therapy, especially myofascial release. Manual therapy addresses the muscular and structural imbalances in the body that [...]
The belt stretch is a great self help pain relief for neck and shoulder pain. A typical posture in our modern culture is a forward head, slumped posture. This means that the upper back is rounded and the head is forward with the shoulders rounded forward. Forward head posture [...]
This is a really important self care tip because of it’s widespread effects for eliminating myofascial pain almost anywhere in the body. It's especially effective for relieving low back pain when used in the abdominal region. We have two hip flexor muscles called the iliopsoas or psoas for short. They tend to get tight [...]
The topic is temporomandibular joint disorders. More commonly referred to as “tmj”, the disorder, with its variety of symptoms, received national attention in the 1980’s as the new “dumping” diagnosis. In some social circles it was even fashionable or trendy to have TMJ. Myofascial Release has been found to be an effective treatment for TMJ. Nevertheless, [...]
A recent case report in the Journal of Women’s Health Physical Therapy outlined the case of 47 year old male with chronic pelvic pain/epididmmitis. This man could not sit or stand more then 15 minutes without increased pain which limited all of his functional movement and activiites of daily living. His treatment focused on internal [...]
I have been successfully treating pelvic pain with Myofascial Release in men and women for over 20 years now. This technique is effective for the common issues that most men and women are walking around with and just dealing with now, such as urinary frequency and incontinence, pelvic pain and sexual dysfunction. It still surprises [...]
Assessment of the proper functioning of the pelvic floor muscles is often overlooked. Thank you to all the practitioners in the women’s health field for all you are doing to facilitate better health and quality of life for women of all ages. We now understand so much more about the challenges that are unique to [...]
The Journal of Women’s Health Physical Therapy, Jan/April 2013 published a research study which showed the importance of Physical Therapists evaluating the pelvic floor muscles (PFM) in women with low back pain (LBP), as well as asking questions regarding urinary incontinence. They cited the following statistics: Low Back Pain is the most common type of pain [...]
By now, most everyone has heard of, or has participated in ex programs specific to building the “core”. Although an important concept, we are now discovering that how we have been building and exercising our core may actually be causing more harm than good, especially if you have a back problem, pelvic floor dysfunction like [...]
