Ever since the late seventies, when I foolishly tried to move a large rolled carpet on my own from one room in our small house to another, I've had lower back issues. I eventually decided, after dealing with it for several years, that the injury had damaged my back, made it weak and there was nothing to be done about it, except for numbing the pain.
About ten years into this denial of mine, I heard someone I volunteered with say that she had had back issues for years until her doctor sent her to a "back class" at the local hospital. My ears and brain decided to reject that idea -- nope, not for me, I apparently informed myself.
To add to the mix, once I reached the backside of fifty, my hips began to punish me for time spent walking on the treadmill. At least that's how it felt to me-- "why won't you let me stay fit?!". I sought and found relief with a local chiropractor and then a pain doctor who gave me hip injections. The injections were like a miracle.
Then the third time I visited the pain doctor, he looked at me and said that he too had been dealing with hip pain that was interfering with his jogging. He decided it was time to fix us both, but without the injections. Dr. Blake sent me to a physical therapist he'd heard good things about and planned to see himself. And that? That was the real miracle.
After four visits with Dr. Gough five years ago, I had three exercises to continue and a tennis ball that's been my buddy ever since. The thirty daily squats are the exercise I've kept doing regularly and that I believe strengthened my gluteus minimus. The Frankenstein walk I do irregularly and the other backwards dip thingie didn't last for more than a few months. I still use the tennis ball as needed and yes --- myofascial release can be quite painful .... but it DOES give excellent relief.
Sometimes it takes hard work, but it's worth it. Love, K
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