Where to Start?

Most people want their neck rubbed if it hurts. Most people want their back rubbed if it hurts. The problem is that their neck or back is usually not the problem. As a matter of fact, if all you did was work on their neck or back the problem would actually get WORSE over time, not better! In every case where there is pain in the body there is an imbalance. The first thing you need to determine is where that imbalance is and what is causing it. I usually start my evaluation of the client when they walk into the office, sit down, fill out the paperwork and then when discussing what we’re going to do. I look at
their movement and posture while walking, writing, sitting and standing. I talk about when and how their pain started, what they do at work, what their desk/computer setup is, what type of chair they use at work, what position(s) they sleep in, how old is their mattress, how much water they drink in a day, what type and how much exercise they get, and so on. By the end of that conversation I usually have a pretty good idea what the problem is and where to start.

In most cases we start in areas away from the injury/pain and work towards the
injury/pain. What I have found is that by using this technique, by the time you get to the injured area it releases relatively quickly and with much less pain than would have been the case if we’d just jumped into that area initially. If the area is really tender or enflamed I will almost always start with icepack(s) and/or an ice cup. (An ice cup is just a paper or Styrofoam cup filled with water and frozen.) This is as good a place as any to explain why we use ice and almost never use heat.

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Series 1 Continued:
Ice or Heat

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