Are You a Hippy or a Superhero?

By Ross Ashcraft

Are you a hippy?  You may be one and not know it!  Your hips may be the cause of your pain.  You don’t know it, because you think the problem is in your back.

Many people have back pain and seek relief for their discomfort by pursuing treatments that are not really addressing their problem.  They receive only temporary relief because their problems is not in their back.  In fact their pain is just showing up in their back because the bones and muscles in their hips are angry or possibly out of place.

The BEST solution to pains caused by the hips or glutes is to find a massage therapist.  They have the best access to tools and the leverage to provide the best attention to those muscles. 

First Step:  Assessment 

Let’s figure out if the hip or gluteal muscles are the problem.

1.  Find a small firm ball and sit on it. 

2.  Move it gently all around the area.  Move it up from your leg all the way to your tail bone; and from there to the top of the hip. 

3.  If this initiates “the” pain in your back, then you have found the problem area that is negatively affecting your back.  Even if this causes minimual pain, then you probably have a problem that is at least contributing to your back pain. 

4.  If your hip or Gluteal muscles are healthy then you should feel nothing beyond the normal discomfort of sitting on something awkward. 

Second Step:  Self-Massage

1.  You’ll need to acquire a couple of balls of various sizes and thicknesses:  tennis balls, rubber balls, baseballs, bowling balls…etc.

2.  Choose the softest and sit on it in a comfortable chair.  Shift it to any tender area you may find.  If you’re a He-Man or She-Ra then use your own judgment and put a harder ball in its place.

3.  Take a breath and let your body sink into it. 

4.  Once the muscle has relaxed, gently raise your whole leg and hold for 5 seconds—you may leave your knee bent

5.  Rest for 5 seconds

6.  Raise your whole leg again and then move it in clockwise circles for 5 seconds

7.  Reverse directions and move in counter-clockwise circles for 5 seconds

8.  Lower your leg and rest

9.  Shift the ball to a different spot or put on your superhero cloths and replace with a harder ball and repeat steps 3 through 8

Good work!  I know that was tough.  Try this technique over multiple days and let me know what you think.