The body is designed to compensate

The body is designed to compensate for injury, weakness and subluxation.

For example, if you suffer an ankle sprain, your body will naturally limp with the other side. You will get sore on the opposite hip stabilizers and the spinal muscles will contract to stabilize the opposite.

If your body has a chance to properly recover, you will heal optimally. If your body is consistently subjected to ongoing stresses, your body will not heal optimally and will suffer repetitive stress to an area.

An example I've been monitoring recently is lateral hamstring tenderness in repetitive postural spinal stress. Normally the hamstring is not a constant-contraction posture muscle, however when the body is under abnormal loads, we will see the lateral hamstring become tender under the abnormal loading pattern (whichever side is attempting to compensate, but failing). The lateral hamstring tenderness/trigger point is often mistaken for an IT-BAND SYNDROME and many of my gym patients spend countless hours rolling around on foam rollers, while not getting to the root of the problem (which may be the lateral hamstring shortness/TP's and the originating subluxation pattern that arose as a result of the acute or repetitive stress).

The lateral hamstring doesn't fully activate under that stressful state, and instead becomes tender typically only at the lower femoral attachment (called the short head of the biceps femoris). It is innervated by the L5, S1, S2 nerve roots so any subluxation pattern irritation to those roots can also make it dysfunctional.

Typically my treatment consists of specific adjustments to the spine, pelvis, hip, and lower extremity to correct the subluxation complex and neuromuscular dysfunction patterns. I also do nimmo to the lateral hamstring and recheck its strength and range of motion post-care.

Just a daily thought ;)

Jay Hafner, DC
www.hafnerchiropractic.com