As Trav mentioned acupuncture and dry needling are different, and work different.
I did everything mentioned in these comments, but acupuncture, still on my list. But my point is, not one of these things was the " magic bullet". Together and repeated often, they have helped me.
Muscles knot release need to be practiced daily for many people, or multiple times a day. This why I preach continuous learning here, on the various forms of muscle release. Its not easy. If the muscles are not releasing, you need to seek out other adjacent muscles for the cause. Its very tricky sometimes. As an example, my left Vastus Lateralus (outer, above knee) tightens, but I feel the worse from this in my left foot, not thigh. NOT one Dr or "body worker" figured this out, I did by accident. Now that I know the culpret, I work on this multiple times every day, with a small superball, because a LaCross ball was to big to go deep in that muscle.
My muscles were tight for 20 years. It was scary as health care had no answer's or cure. I learned as much about
how muscles work and recover as I could. All my research pointed to one thing, you need to keep circulation moving / knots at a minimal with muscle issues in order to heal. Releasing any one area contributes to lower overall facia tension on the whole body. So the more the better. I get really tired of doing this, but I am pretty good at it now. Life is improving from this.
I listened to physical therapy for 5 years before I determined they are mostly CLUELESS ON THEIR APPROACH to chronic muscle pain. You must lesson/release the muscle and fascia tension before its possible to rebuild muscle where tension exists in the fiber. Use as many methods needed to accomplish this. It will work in time. Muscle has memory, especially damaged muscle. This "memory" can be defeated through continuous daily "sessions".
Keep in mind I was in great pain, to eliminate all of it will be a miracle. My body has "grown" with this malfunction and it twisted my spine in adulthood like slight scoliosis. ABX did not fix this or make it heal, but the spread of it did come to a halt after ABX (so far). So I continue to "manually" heal it, now 16 months after one year ABX. I can now do some things I was unable to do.
Keep doing all of the above, treat the infection, and it will get better, for some people it just takes a lot longer. Dont stop working those muscles. The more you do it, the longer it lasts, but can take months before progress sometimes. My shoulder is 75% better, but after almost two years of me working on it. It has better days with the dryneedling. I extend the dry needing "benefits" by using a golf ball on the needled areas there after a couple of days go by - I think its healing more again.
Oh- and how this directly relates to you: My back pain is a lot less. I now somewhat understand the pattern and can cool the fire before it spreads. I will not travel with out a lacross ball and golf ball anymore. I used a nice round rock when camping once, learned my lesson and a Lacross ball is permanently in my travel bag from now on.
Post Edited (astroman) : 6/29/2016 11:47:26 PM (GMT-6)