popcorn wrote:
Foomiler,
Your description fits me like a 'T'and notice some differences in all 5 things on your checklist. I'm in a ditch now and nothing seems to be working. My x-rays and MRI's have been negative.
As you stated, posture is a big issue and probably my problem. I do sit a lot in front of a computer to do most of my work (schooling and recreational internet browsing) there.
What did you end up doing? Are you healthy now? How long did it take you to be pain free?
I tried several things before realising that on the practical level, we need to work on obtaining and maintaining good posture. You can refer to Pilates and Alexander Technique for a more refined understanding.
Beginning from the head and neck, you need to lengthen the back of your neck such that your chin tips down toward your chest, or becomes level with the ground. This should not be forced and you should not feel tension. Make incremental adjustments over time.
With the shoulders, you need to keep them down toward your hips, thus creating a sort of bottleneck shape with your head-neck-shoulders. When this is achieved you have released a lot of tension in your body, freeing nerves to fire. You should also feel your waist shrinking.
Next you should focus on your transverse abdominus (TVA). This is a deeper abdominal muscle that runs round your mid-section like a corset. One of its key functions is to stabilse your spine. The way to train and activate it is to pull your navel toward your spine, after establishing and maintaining the above cues with the head and shoulders.
You don't need to be tensing your abs all day long to get the effect, but by lengthening your spine from your neck/head and lowering your shoulders, you will find that your navel is already moving very near your spine. From thereon its just a subtle pressure needed to engage the TVA.
The way you move comes next. Do not reach out with your legs when you walk or run. Let your trunk move first and follow this with your legs. Keep knees unlocked and slightly bent. If you do this with the TVA engaged, your glutes will activate normally, thus freeing up your hip flexors and low back to function without unhealthy loads.
What you have done with your neck and head is to unload the hips, making the spine responsible for holding up your entire frame rather than resting it entirely on your pelvis, which is what happens when we slouch. Together with an active TVA, you get stability at your core area. Add to that a proper movement system you get healthy gluteal activity which is the key to many back,knee, hamstring, achilles problems. But remember that it all begins with your upper body.
Strengthening your TVA will come as you practice the above postural cues. But if you wish to isolate and train it on its own, you can try pulling in your navel to your spine in various bodily positions, like supine, prone, side plank, standing on one or two legs, when you are doing bench presses or sit ups, etc. Google "transverse abdominus" or "low back injury treatment" and you should find exercises on TVA recommended by professionals.
For very detailed discussion on this, look for the thread "loss of coordination in leg", esp the posts by "Runner PT". (You can read some of my later posts there if you wish, but remember I'm just a layman sharing his personal experience and could fall short on certain issues.)
I've been plagued by this problem on and off for about 12 years, but it got really really bad about 3 years ago, when my right achilles, left knee and low back gave out. I frequently had numbness/pain down my left shoulder to my butt/hamstring/foot. Nothing worked; not stretching or strengthening or resting or massage, etc. Not till 2 years ago when I realised from reading up on Pilates, Egoscue Method, Alexander Technique and the Pose Method, that my posture was the root problem. But the journey to wellness didn't just end there.
It took may agonising months of trying and trying before I grasped what these experts were talking about. The phrase "pulling your navel toward your spine" isn't as transparent as it seems. You need to experiment and be patient because its a lifestyle change. Its also a lifelong discipline to commit to good posture.
Today I am way better and can run without pain, but I'm still prone to relapses from time to time esp when I feel tired and can't really concentrate. So one thing to note is part of this whole process is to cut back on unhealthily stressful activities and never over-extend yourself in any thing. Overly ambitious runners or trainers usually find it hard to get better.
This is basically a neuromuscular issue which requires one to be mentally fresh as far as our lifestyle permits. Trying to win the rat race of the corporate/academic world all the time is going to see you hanging your head too forward and rounding you shoulders and upper back in front of your PC/laptop far too frequently. All this is going to lessen your breathing capacity, leaving you tired all the time, and slowing down your normal recovery rate.
So part of this issue means for us to take more time off to chill.