Walking Hard….

One of my favorite clients really hates massage. Doesn’t want it, doesn’t like it, would rather do his own taxes with a broken pencil or his own root canals with a rusty knife. Tough cookie, he never fails to tell me how much he dislikes massage when he comes in. This massage therapist is easily amused.

         

Trouble is, this guy had a car accident at age 19 and was in a body cast for a year. He came back, inch by inch, with one functional leg and one leg that had been so shattered and so stiffened it barely functions. He has one intact quadriceps, no sartorius and scar tissue for most of his adductors.

         

And heck, he restricts me to working on the “good leg” only.

         

That car accident was 42 years ago. He’s managed through strength and determination (that big muscle between the ears) to get this far. He stationary bikes, walks with a limp and has had a lot of acupuncture.

         

Lately, the “good leg” has not been behaving. The knee is getting tricky, he has lot of pain on the lateral side of the knee and femur, and is very stiff.

         

Stiff is not the word. I tried for some basic muscle softening, using Swedish and gentle spiral stretches to de-fuse the quads and ITB. Well, these guys are resistant. Every single action is automatically resistant to range of motion, a sign, I think, of too much control for way too long.

         

Repetitive Swedish strokes were helping little, and the normal PNF patterns were unable to break the chains. Time for some trigger point.

         

I am comfortable with perhaps a half-dozen TRP techniques, mostly time direct pressure or gradient pressure. TRP is not always my first choice, because these techniques sting. But the TRP giants, Rolf, Travell, et al, say treat trigger points to restore function. I agree.

         

Simply strengthening active trigger points will make them go latent, but once activated by stress later on, TRPs become stronger than ever.  Each active attack gets a bit worse until function is extremely restricted. Sort of like the “tin man.”

         

“Ëeeyoohhoootttuewsfffooosa!”

         

Yes, the secret samurai language of trigger points! Twenty minutes and a gazillon milligrams of endorphins later, the good leg started to soften. The magic of PNF returned, and the quads are beginning to act like muscles.

         

Not exactly my favorite either, I told him, but TRP certainly does the job.

         

Now for the hamstrings. He has the trademark short ham gait, heels in, duck feet almost crossing when he walks. Wobbly and increasingly prone to falls with age and weariness. I’m hoping to get the good hams to 45 degrees. Maybe even a back massage someday….