Back Pain Doctor Chapel Hill, NC
Hip and leg muscle tightness frequently accompanies back pain. Whether it is a cause or a result of an aching back, muscle hypertonicity causes postural imbalance, instability, and altered motion. Fixing short tight hip and legs muscles improves back pain considerably. At Acupractic, Dr. Oskardmay emphasizes rehabilitation of the whole body to reduce back pain and provides stretches and exercises to help. One effective way to stretch the hip and leg is through the use of a foam roller.
Using a 3’ high-density foam roller (available online here: https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-high-density-foam-roller or elsewhere) placed on the ground, side-sit with your top leg bent over the straight bottom leg.
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Tensor fascia lata muscle:
Using your arms, walk the roller down from hip to knee, massaging the fibrous tensor fascia lata muscle in the process. This stretch may be excruciating the first few times you do it, and you should do the procedure in our office before trying it at home. Do the roll-down two times and map-out where the muscle hurts, if at all. Spend 2″ more massaging this region where it hurts and repeat this activity every few days, but not every day. Once the pain is gone, come back to the stretch once a month or so because old habits and patterns of activity that created it in the first place can be hard to break.
Foam rolling in this manner is a bodyweight dependent exercise, meaning that the heavier the body, the more force is imposed on the muscle. Sometimes at the start of care, one finds that the high-density foam roller is too intense; in that case, you can start with a lower density foam roller because this creates less pressure on regions of tightness. As you notice less pain in an area, you can allow more pressure at those points and eventually move towards the use of a high-density foam roller. Discuss your pain level and other health concerns with Dr. Oskardmay. She recognizes that many people have this type of pain and aren’t used to thinking about working on their legs to fix their back pain; nonetheless, you will be surprised and happy with the results.
TFL muscle tightness is a common but unrecognized and untreated healthcare complaint. If you have persistent back pain, a big part of the problem might be leg hip muscle tightness. Be sure to ask about the use of high-density foam rollers at our office to help you get out of pain and back on track quickly and with lasting results.
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To learn more about how the benefits of using a foam roller for back pain management, contact a back pain doctor Chapel Hill, NC residents recommend.