[whalesalad]

Chiropractors frustrate me because they tend to treat symptoms - not root causes. You can get 'adjusted' a million times but if you have a muscle imbalance or perpetual tightness that is pulling something out alignment you will always fall back into that state.

For instance, if you sit for hours in the same funny position on your couch every night. Or if you tend to sit on one leg constantly. Or if you sleep in the same funny position all the time and create tightness in your neck.

I would love to have a practitioner look at my entire musculoskeletal system in order identify the specific areas that need work - the linchpin in the entire imbalance. There is a concept called referred pain - which means that sometimes pain in one part of your body is actually caused by an issue somewhere completely different.

[cj]

> For instance, if you sit for hours in the same funny position on your couch every night.

For what it’s worth, good chiropractors will dig in and give advice like “don’t drive with your wallet in your back pocket because you’ll sit crooked”

Chiropractors tend to be more holistic in their thinking in my experience compared to regular doctors who ignore lifestyle issues.

[Jeff_Brown]

My extreme prejudice against chiropractors notwithstanding, that wallet advice is good. And I believe there's lots of similarly low-lying fruit.

I told a nurse once about my grandmother's extreme spinal hunch. She responded that the tragedy of that particular illness is that usually it can be prevented by regularly exercising your back's range of motion in every direction, and not perpetually hunching over.

[webmobdev]

    I would love to have a practitioner look at my entire musculoskeletal system in order identify the specific areas that need work ...

What you are looking for is a Physiatrist ( https://www.spine-health.com/treatment/spine-specialists/wha... ). I learnt about them when I asked a doctor to refer me to a good neurosurgeon for my back pain (which I suspected was because of a nerve being pinched). He told me that if I went to a surgeon the treatment plan offered would be surgery and instead referred me to a Physiatrist who diagnosed my issues correctly and suggested Physiotherapy to treat it. That worked out great for me.

[grenoire]

Dealing with this shit right now with muscle imbalances in my back on one side, chiro obviously didn't help more than 30 minutes after a session so I dropped it. Physio is a little better but it still feels very symptomatic in approach. Gonna' see if I get get an MRI scan in a third world country because nobody will afford you one in the West if it's just a wee pain with 'no cause.'

[whalesalad]

This is a technique used by a lot of athletes but I personally believe it is one of the most helpful body maintenance tools for any human.

https://performanceforhealth.com/8-mobility-ball-exercises-t...

After spending 30 minutes with a lacrosse ball I can feel my entire body relax. Using it on your ass cheeks will do wonders especially if you sit constantly. Your muscles will bind up and kinda stick together - the ball helps loosen up knots and tightness.

It is not pleasant for the faint of heart ... but if you can push past it the first few times you will eventually learn to appreciate the relief more than the torture of doing it. A lot of times you will physically feel pain melt away.

I got nothin better to do on this Sat morning so I am gonna get mine out right now and do some mobilizing.

Psoas release is also very helpful for those of us who are sitting all the time: http://recoveryourstride.blogspot.com/2012/05/this-works-flo...

[knuthsat]

Pain is systemic. There are lot of studies collecting data and showing that people with the same physical abnormalities experience varying degrees of pain.

For example, my spine has lost its natural lordosis and is completely flattened yet I experience no pain. My mother has several disc hernias and disc protrusions along with degenerative changes due to age, no pain. She had shoulder pain and the physical issue was calcification of tendon. There are people with calcified tendons, no pain.

My father had massive back pain issues with degenerative changes of spine that don’t cause any pain to some. The moment he started fixing a systemic issue of the back being weak and sensitizing the tissue he started experiencing less pain.

[dec0dedab0de]

You may want to try the trigger point therapy workbook. It's basically a guide for massaging yourself effectively.

[raverbashing]

> look at my entire musculoskeletal system in order identify the specific areas that need work

a Physiotherapist does that. Ok, they won't look at the "entire muscle-skeletal system" but the low-hanging fruit is usually obvious to them.