The Integra Blog

Finding the Cause of the Pain - Case Studies

“When will you get to my right hip, as that is what is hurting?”

Most of the time when we go to see someone for pain, the focus of treatment is on the area where you feel the pain. But what if the area where you feel pain is not the cause?

When muscles become weak, or inhibited, this creates a potential for instability around a joint. To prevent structural damage, the brain can compensate by increasing the tension from the remaining muscles. This shows up as muscle tightness.

As a manual therapy, Muscle Activation Techniques is unique in that the focus is not pain. MAT Specialists do not treat pain, they locate and treat muscle inhibition using a series of checks and balances. It is this muscle inhibition that may contribute to muscle tightness, dysfunction and/or pain.

Case Study One: When I had a motorbike accident several years ago, I was left with pain in my left knee. I couldn’t quite lock my knee out, walking was fine but I certainly couldn’t run. Luckily I was going through the MAT Specialist program in Denver at the time. Over the course of several treatments with Joel, it was apparent that my major limitations were actually in my right hip (not in my left knee).

Joel worked on the muscles around my right hip, based on the ranges he saw that were limited. Once we reached a stage of stability and balance between both my right and left hips, my knee pain disappeared, my knee extension was restored and I progressed rapidly back up to running again.

Case Study Two: Alex had lower back pain and had the pain for 6 years by the time she came to see me. During the MAT assessment, major limitations showed up in left hip internal rotation and left ankle dorsiflexion. Interestingly, she hadn’t mentioned that she sprained her ankle years ago “I didn’t think it was relevant!”

My objective with Alex was to improve her joint and muscle balance. We treated her hip and ankle several times over the course of a few sessions and sure enough Alex reported that her back pain had started to diminish after each session, until she was finally without pain.

What do this mean? Should we always work on the hips for knee pain and back pain?

Pain is a symptom of an underlying issue, which may be certain joint and muscle imbalances, but it is non-specific, subjective and therefore not really measurable. As a MAT Specialist, I have the benefit of of working with the muscular system, assessing for joint and muscle imbalances and muscle inhibition.

This allows me to determine if a person’s physical condition is improving by using objective benchmarks such as active and passive range of motion and muscle testing.

It allows me to look for root causes of issues; to test, treat and retest my theories, rather than chasing the symptoms. This approach combined with our emphasis on movement awareness shows up in client progressions as improved mobility, stability and movement, with less pain.

This post was written by Michael Goulden and posted on the Integra Facebook Fan Page, click LIKE below to subscribe to future content on our FB page.