Emergency treatment: As you go through the Tune Me System, you will have some bad days. Sometimes this means that your original pain is back, and you need to see your doctor. But sometimes it just means that your string and bracing muscles are out of balance. One of them has been fatigued by your activity, and the other is screaming at you. We must begin to realize that there is a chronically out-of-balance state (this entire book is about this chronic state) and an acutely out-of-balance state. In the chronically state, you have major work to do. In the acute state, you have to stop the string muscle spasm so that the balance returns. This acute state is sometimes found in the person who doesn’t have back pain and just over did it. But much more often it is found in the chronic back pain patient who is on the road to recovery, but just over did it. In these cases, I want to give you a plan to treat your acute pain so that you don’t think that this is a return to the pain you had.
Step 1: You have to assume that the psoas is in spasm. In this case, getting the psoas to stop spasming will help. In my book, we mentioned numerous treatments for the psoas, and I would recommend using any of them: Chiropractic care, John Sarno’s protocol, inversion table, etc. They are all listed, and perhaps more will come out. They are a great way to stop string muscle spasm. I also recommend that my patients learn how to release their own psoas. There are videos on YouTube, and I will put one on this website on how to effectively do this. Remember, your pushing on the psoas does not release it. But pushing on the psoas allows your brain to know that the psoas is tight so that you can consciously relax it. All of these psoas muscle treatments are acute-state muscle treatments. They are misused as chronic-state muscle treatments, so we must understand the difference.
Step 2: If this does not take care of the problem, then your gluteus muscles are fatigued and in spasm. Because they are not doing their job in stabilizing the hip, the string muscles are forced to take over. The spasm of the gluteus muscles is very common when someone with chronic back pain tries to get back to activity too early. I want my patients to increase activity, so developing gluteus muscle spasm and throwing the Body Guitar off balance is probably the sign of a good thing.
The way I ask my patients to treat this is with a lacrosse ball, but almost any ball will work. You roll the ball on the gluteal muscles until you find an area of pain. You increase the pressure, stay there until the muscle releases, and then move to find a new area. Again, I will put an explanation video on the website.
Step 3: We must work on decreasing sympathetic tone. Practice abdominal breathing. Go for a light, relaxing walk. Explore many other possible sympathetic tone remedies. Again, check the website, as we are building a back pain resource site.
If these don’t help, and a few days of treatment aren’t helping, contact your healthcare professional, as the chronic pain could be back. If the pain is severe, you may do that as the first step. I am trying to give you tools to manage your back pain on your own, but I am not asking you to use this book as a substitute for a health professional. Always use the advice given here as a supplement to advice from a qualified professional.
(videos coming)