When I see athletes and the general public some of the things I hear is “my back hurts” or “I have a headache I can’t seem to shake” and many times we focus on localized treatment (the spot that hurts) to help with the issue. I am writing this to bring awareness to the victim vs culprit meaning, which is where the pain lies (victim) is not always where the problem lies (culprit). For example if my lower back is hurting yes it could be a back issue but many times I find it’s from tight hip flexors, glutes, quads and or hamstrings. After some AIS (active isolated stretching) with some fascia release my clients feel a world of difference. I like to use the foam roller for my glutes and lower body but focus on using the Theragun which uses vibration for my upper body (traps, scaps, arms etc)
Be sure you look beyond where the scope of the pain lies and think what muscles are surrounding that area and gently stretch those specific muscles. The best treatment is preventative (1 ounce of prevention is worth more than one pound of a cure) so I highly suggest you begin to stretch daily to help these victim areas from showing up at the level they do when you don’t stretch daily. Remember we move by the quality of the contraction (shortening) of our muscles and if an area is tight that will play major havoc on our skeletal system and in turn create issues.
POST BY RICK SAGGESE, XFS, CSAC