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Alleviating back pain by working the thigh
Join Full Circle in Lake Elmo, MN and learn this incredible bodywork modality. We will be teaching Spontaneous Muscle Release Technique (SMRT): Thigh & Knee and Lower Leg & Foot from August 7-9, 2015. Each class is NCBTMB approved for 12 CE’s. Register now at https://efullcircle.com/workshop-schedule/
One of the ways to alleviate lower back pain is to work the anterior and medial compartments of the thigh. Binding in the adductors at the pubic bone can pull the hip bones into an unnatural position and create lower back pain. Yesterday I had a client with this particular issue. I have seen her twice before. We worked directly on her back in her first session and did abdomen and rib work during her second session. When I touched her proximal adductors during this third session, she remarked on how tender the area was. I immediately stopped touching the adductors and moved my hand to the superior pubic symphysis. Using the pubic symphysis, I passively contracted the adductor muscles in her right thigh. 30 seconds later I resumed my palpation and found that I was almost an inch deeper into her medial thigh. She then told me that she had been afraid when I first touched that area because about a year before she had a massage with a woman who worked that area and really hurt her. She went on to say that the pain had not only been present during the massage, but had lasted for almost a week after. I did 3 other SMRT releases and, in total, spent 5 minutes on her adductors. She experienced almost no pain throughout the time I worked on her adductors.
I then moved to the IT band. She told me that another therapist a few years back had told her that her IT bands were naturally “too tight” and she would never be able to bring them down to normal tone. I did 2 SMRT releases, which took about a minute, and both her IT band and vastus lateralis were happy. One more release for the upper fibers of rectus femoris and my fingers sunk into the muscle tissue with no pain or tenderness for my client.
