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Dear Jonathan and Cassidy,
I have been listening to the interview up until the diet question, about 16:00 minutes, and will finish this evening. I was compelled to write because I believe so deeply in the teaching of your work Jonathan and this interview with Cassidy has been extremely inspiring. As a yoga/trigger point teacher I am deeply rooted in developing a relationship with our communicative bodies!!!!!!!!. I teach with this as my foundation and this interview was saturated with quotes and inspiration I will bring into my class and keep in my heart….”Your body is a very sophisticated thing: a platform for greatness!!!!!!!”
THANK YOU once more Jonathan and THANK YOU Cassidy. The body tells us what it needs, yet is so intelligent that at times it is difficult to unravel the “mystery”. Both of you lay down simple foundations……then, with time, we can develop very wise understandings. As you say….” If you rely on other to fix you, you will set yourself up for failure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” A big YIPEE!!!!! Ana
dear Ana
I am delighted that you found so much information to inspire you from this interview. Cassidy is certainly inspiring and his use of language is empowering.
keep up the good work!
Kind regards
Jonathan
Hello Jonathon, Thank you for your wonderful site, I am needing some help. I have had a total right knee 3months ago. I am getting a good range with my new prothesis but I still have pain and swelling associated with the prothesis. I attend a physiotherapist at least twice maybe three times a week and she releases some triggers that I have behind the knee and I get some relief for the next half hour or so until I get moving and once again set the whole problem in motion again. I desperately need my qualtity of life back, I was wondering if I should shoot over to N.Z. to see you personally or what do you suggest. I value your opinion very highly and wish to do what I need to do. thank you again for your very helpful and friendly site.
Reply hello Anne
Where would you shoot over to New Zealand from?
in your letter you state that releasing the trigger points only give extremely short term relief. this may occur for a number of reasons — the first is that your therapist has not recognised the major underlying triggers. also the technique that your therapist uses may not be effective.
Trigger points can be primary or secondary. In your case it may well be that the TrPs are secondary or reacting to an ongoing problem in your prosthesis. if this is so, then being accurate and effective treatment of the triggers will only be temporary until the underlying joint problem is sorted. It may well be worth returning to your surgeon and discussing the fact that you have such significant pain. a good range of movement is only part of the outcome that you would expect from a total knee joint replacement.
Kind regards
Jonathan
PS As I am not able to take a full history, examine you or to view your investigations, my comments will be general suggestions which you may choose to pursue with your own medical practitioner.
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Wow! Cassidy Phillips, in describing himself, could so easilly be describing me.
Before my chronic pain problem I was a full time OT, I cared for both parents and did martial arts four times a week (co teaching self defense for women), rock climbing and horse riding. I went to the gym twice a week and ate well.
Although I suffered compression fractures of my cervical and thorcic spine aged 16 falling from a horse, I recovered completely by doing yoga and deep relaxation (thanks to my late mother’s guidance).
As an OT I lifted patients daily. Then two car crashes and a martial arts induced whiplash happened within a four year period. A few months later my body started to fall apart.
I recovered partially to the point where I resumed martial arts (without contact) but the heavy training started to take it’s toll. I lost proprioception and musclular control of most of the right side of my body. I now have nasty, burning, shooting pain in my tongue, face and arms if I sit/stand/lie too long and feel like my torso is stuck to my hips when I walk.
Cassidy’s description of the biomechanical pathway of tightness from the soleus to the shoulders and head is spot on. That’s me.
I have such a tight soleus on the left it looks like a dip in my leg. I also have adbominal adhesions due to salmonella poisoning when I was in my 20’s.
I’ve elimated gluten and dairy from my diet (as of this last week) and am working with a yoga therapist to get my body alignement back.
When your body is as tight as beef jerky and movement is painful and life seems to have ground to a halt…. the only way is up!
Wishing a healthy future to all
Helen
Hi Jonathan , i’v been suffaring from muscles and joint pain for 11 years and I did visit alot of doctors they don’t know what is wrong with me and I don’t have any answer for my case all ways in pain morning and nigt some of them they say I have IBS and some said I have fibromyalgia and I don’t know what to do with my pain it’s very painfull every Minuit so please if u have any answer for my case I will be more than thanks to u
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Life after pain videos are indeed inspiring,I feel a bit of a failure as trigger points are difficult /near impossible to achieve as the hyper mobility syndrome I have affects my fingers and most joints etc. and I haven’t been able to hold pressure points the required time.My situation -moved to property with flooring that causes pain in most joints as body does not absorb impact – has deteriorated in a matter of weeks and then months and pain is increasing because of this one change.it responds to nothing but moving on softer surfaces.It’s difficult to compute the idea that pain should not direct your life when there is a clear correlation between the environments the body comes into contact with.Should one take into consideration where one lives, despite it’s debilitating effects ? I am seriously considering returning to where I was managing my condition MUCH better, rather than not let pain control the perimeters of my life and live in a home that’s causing unnecessary joint pain.
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Dear Dr. Jonathan, thank you so much for sharing.
” You don’t go to the dentist to brush your teeth.”
May a rain of blessings awaken our hearts.
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Several of the comments caught my attention as I scanned the page. These words leap off the page every time I see them:
Fibromyalgia
IBS
and of course, Trigger Points.
Due to TPs, I had three cervical spine surgeries that I didn’t need! AAAGHHH!! You would think a doctor would check those before fusing a disk, which failed, and a secid surgeon had to repair the first one, and then I had a microlaminectomy b/c we THOUGHT I had foraminal stenosis. They gave me another level of fusion as the other option. IT WAS NEVER A SPINE PROBLEM!! It was TPs.
Now, on to the FMS and IBS and Insomina and ALL the things that go with FMS:
Hypothyroidism. Get the book ” Stop the Thyroid Madness: a Patient Revolution Against Decades of Inferior Treatment” by Janie A. Bowthorpe (Amazon.com).
Many patients label FMS have hypothyroidism of some variety and adrenal fatigue (they go hand-in-hand). And they can cause and exacerbate TPs.
Thanks, Dr K. I wish I had met you in before that first surgery.
John
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Interesting, but there is no known pathogen for Fibro, or structural cause. All pain starts in the mind, and is amplified by the nerve receptors. An unsettled, tension filled mind will create pain by distortion of the muscles, tendons and ligaments. Diet and exercise are important, but understanding the basis of the problem is the crux. His focusing on his postural problems are a symptom of avoidance (he is telling himself to not “think pink”), which is why Cassidy may still has pain. The plasticity of the human mind, even adult mind, is now well proven. He may want to look in ACT (Act Commitment Therapy) instead of ART to fully heal. Many have healed totally from the Fibro dx, and have laid the foundation for the cure with their minds and their bodies have followed the cure by not continuing the experiential avoidance. He is rounding and rounding his problem, but has not reached his correct dx, in my opinion.
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[…] on using foam rollers for trigger point treatment – content is geared towards athletes Interview with Cassidy Phillips – the Founder of […]
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Thank you, thank you. It is my hope that I will keep searching for ways of soothing all the pain that I have. Starting with TMJ right down to my feet. I have been using all kinds of modalities, i.e. trigger point, massage, yoga tune-up, melt method, I do get some relief but the answer is perseverance, doing something every day because all these specialists do cost and 1/2 of my life has been going out to pay, pay pay, so if I can find a way to do my own therapy with the help of others then I will see the light. God Bless you.
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