When my kids were younger, I recall many wonderful experiences of playing the game or song of “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. It’s a great way to get the wiggles out of your kids and teach them about body parts. The movements you make while singing out each body part you touch is also a good way to show kids how interconnected our body is to itself; the head to the shoulders, the knees to the toes – and I’ll stop there before you get it stuck in your head. It’s a shame we don’t say the muscles that connect our head to our shoulders, however the song probably wouldn’t be as catchy as it is.
As I have progressed in my practice over the last 14 years, I’ve noticed that as a culture we compartmentalize our problems and pain. Even as a society we look at things as individuals and not as a whole. When it comes to low back pain, neck pain or any other problems involving our muscle skeletal system, nothing could be further from the truth. There is something called the kinetic chain: it explains how our joints, muscles, ligaments and tendons affect one another and how the body functions. In all essence it is a more sophisticated way of looking at the childhood game of head shoulders knees and toes. In dealing with chronic low back pain, something that should always be evaluated is how the lower extremities are functioning.
There is a condition called lower extremity dysfunction that you should always be evaluated for when you have low back pain. It has to do with proper ankle flexion and tension throughout all of the muscles, especially the posterior muscles, including the calf, hamstrings, glutes, and tensor fasciae latae. It’s a lot of muscle! If you have a trigger point, which is an area within the muscle that is – for lack of a better way of explaining it – knotted up all the time, this can increase tension on both the origin and the insertion of the muscle. It’s like tying a rope between two trees and then twisting the rope in the middle; it creates tension along the whole entire rope and equally places pressure on both trees.
There’s a quick way to test for this problem on your own at home. Simply put your hands above your head with your feet pointing straight forward. Make sure your feet are shoulder width apart, and do a squat. If your knees bow out, or you have to lean far forward so that your backside sticks out, or your ankles are stiff and it’s hard to bend, then you certainly have lower extremity dysfunction, which can lead to low back pain.
Today I would like to explain how you treat this at home. The first step is to work on trigger points. All you will need is a softball.
Exercise 1: Take a softball and sit down on the floor. Put it underneath your calf muscle towards your Achilles tendon and roll it around until you find a sore spot. Let your leg rest on it without moving until the pain subsides. Then continue this process up through your calf till you get to your knee.
Exercise 2: To do your hamstring muscle, sit on a good kitchen chair and put the ball underneath the lateral or outside edge of your hamstring, just barely above your knee. Let the weight of your leg and your body press down until the pain subsides.
Exercise 3: In between your hipbone, your femur bone, and near the glute, you’ll feel a muscle that is called the greater trochanter. While lying on your side, place the softball between that muscle and the ground. Use your arm to hold most of your weight, so that there is gentle pressure on that muscle. Move the softball to the gluteus medias, maximus and tensor fasciae latae muscles. Leave the ball there until you don’t feel like crying anymore. I say that in jest, but it is going to be very tender.
If you can do all of these treatments about three times a week, you’ll notice that your flexibility will improve, tension in your muscles will decrease, and you’ll feel better overall. If you would like to see how all this is done, we will be posting a video in two weeks’ time. Trust me, these exercises are great to know.
Hopefully you have a greater understanding of how your body works and how to take care of yourself. Here’s to good health and freedom.
Sincerely Dr. Milton Carroll DC
(EDIT: 5-31-17) Here is a video to help you better understand the exercises: