The Acupuncture Outsider Podcast

I don't always trust muscle testing, especially if the symptoms don't match with a strong test where I think there's some over-use injury. I want to put my fingers or thumb on a muscle to feel for hypertonicity before I rule it out as a part of the problem. It's easy to miss a hypertonic muscle if the manual muscle tests seem normal and you don't palpate to confirm. https://richardhazel.podia.com

Reciprocal Inhibition is an interesting thing and I think I think a lot about treating antagonists muscles but maybe I don't always consider reciprocal inhibition for every case. I'm going to be thinking more about reciprocal inhibition for some cases in case it can help me improve my results for muscle activation once someone is pain-free. Here's the article I mentioned: https://journals.physiology.org/doi/epdf/10.1152/jn.00424.2017 My Podia Online Courses are here: https://richardhazel.podia.com

I was just thinking about how the infraspinatus can help shoulder flexion. The fiber orientation is a clue. It's an external rotator, so how does it get involved in shoulder flexion? How does the Pectoralis Major flex the shoulder? Look at the fiber orientation. How does Gluteus Minimus (abducts and internally rotates the hip) which doesn't flex the hip, cause an anterior pelvic tilt? Fiber orientation. https://richardhazel.podia.com

Sometimes patients have not done well even after trying Physical Therapy for their pain. Once we have gotten them out of pain and restored their mobility, do they really need Physical Therapy? Are we a replacement for Physical Therapy? Also, I mentioned in the podcast that I would be interested in doing some podcasts in German and/or French if there's an audience that you think doesn't listen in English. If you think it would help me reach more people, please let me know. [email protected] Thanks! https://richardhazel.podia.com

There's more to the SI Joint than just nutation and the pain some people get there. Many issues like back pain, hip pain, hamstring pain, even shoulder pain can be due to dysfunction at the SIJ. Movement, Stability & Lumbopelvic Pain: Integration of research and therapy https://a.co/d/cuyLspO https://richardhazel.podia.com

"The perfect is the enemy of the good." - Voltaire Here's an imperfect protocol that gets great results a high percentage of the time. If you're new to Contemporary Acupuncture or just feeling overwhelmed by all the possibilities, try this protocol. It covers a lot of the basics and I get great results with it most of the time. I know I'll get perfectionists complaining but the goal is to help more people help more people. Too many outliers to knee pain can make people doubt themselves. Try this protocol and when the patient feels better you have time to think about the underlying segmental, postural, ankle or hip or core issues that led to the pain. https://richardhazel.podia.com

Gracilis is the only hip adductor that can flex the knee. It often gets short after a knee replacement surgery. Quads glutes TFL and glute minimis are usually my go-to for knee pain but gracilis is usually part of the solution as well. https://richardhazel.podia.com

Skeletal Muscle is Elastic, Excitable and Contractile. Does Electric Stimulation Acupuncture at the Motor Points of the muscle restore those qualities after injury has made the muscle short, weak and inhibited? The German word for "numb" is "taub". I think muscle inhibition may be due to the muscle being deaf, not listening to the nerve signals. What if it's not the nerve, but the muscle that is causing muscle inhibition? https://richardhazel.podia.com

You and I have probably already seen it daily in the clinic. Gluteus medius and minimus get very tight and they restrict the hip and cause pain. We have always heard that the glutes get inhibited. But when it comes to the glute medius and minimus, while they might be inhibited they are also short and tight like other postural muscles. Research backs up that the glute med and minimus are primarily Type 1 slow twitch fibers like other postural muscles. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/anatomy/issue/68435/1152716 https://richardhazel.podia.com

These little muscles can cause a lot of big pain and dizziness (and other things that I talk about here). https://richardhazel.podia.com

This is a very effective technique I use for muscles that feel restricted and that don't release with just motor point acupuncture or IASTM. https://richardhazel.podia.com