Did you know that there are some times where conventional stretching (stretching both sides equally) can cause pain?

Let me tell you the tale of “Psoas, the Hip Flexor, & Low Back pain”.

Once up a time… an ache lingered… a pain across your low back.  Stiffening up after any long time of sitting, especially driving.  You have to walk a few steps to be able to “straighten up”…

You feel so “old”!…

This is a tale of unequal muscle tensions that equal stretching cannot help.  Psoas, the hip flexor, causes this stiffening by creating a hollow in your low back. This tips your Pelvic bone forward on one side. Then the opposite side of your pelvic bone does a swivel around the spine.

There is a difference between a short tight muscle & a long tight muscle.

Your right short hip flexor (front of thigh) tightened up will create a left tightened up hip extensor (back of thigh).  This tight shortening creates a pulley effect around the spine… making a long tightness in the right hip extensors and left hip flexor muscles.

So…stretching the right hip flexor is correct… to take the pressure off the left side.  However, stretching the left hip flexor will allow the left hip extensors to take up more slack and “enable” the right pelvis to tilt forward. The result is a continued pelvic twist pain.  So… equal stretching does not help or even feels like it makes it worse.

Our amazing bodies have many patterns like this.

If you are struggling with one, where stretching seems to be causing pain, Osteopathy may be the solution for you.

Osteopathic palpation, a uniquely sensitive touch, can assess your body structures and rhythm to find the deeper root to your pain.

Myron then uses an array of advanced techniques to treat and bring relief:

• Osteoarticular
• Advanced Craniosacral
• Visceral Manipulation
• Viscerofascial release
• Neural Manipulation
• Kinetic chain balancing

Each session is different depending upon the intuitive intelligent goals of your body. Most often, you will notice a shift in your symptoms either in session or a day or two later. Many have found the changes to be profound.

I hope to meet you soon,

Myron