Many of the new clients I see present with a variety of low back issues. Most with low back pain involved. Others with radiating pain down the leg or into the buttock or the groin. Most of these people have gotten chiropractic treatment. Usually just a quick 2 or 3 minute adjustment, which sadly seems to be the norm these days. Particularly when there is no improvement.
One Leg is Shorter Than the Other
The recurring theme I hear these clients discuss is that the other Chiropractor said their right or the left leg is short. My answer and question to that is, well great, why? To which I usually hear the response, “they didn’t say.” Or sometimes they will have been told the pelvis is rotating back or posterior. Again my question is, why? What’s causing that imbalance? Is the hip just simply rotating and needs a quick adjustment, or is there a muscular/structural imbalance that needs to be addressed? In my experience, it’s usually the latter. Very rarely is low back pain only caused low back issue alone.
To me it seems most chiropractors just need something to blame the symptoms on to indicate the need for a period of treatments (some even recommend up to 30!!??) to correct the low back issues. I always have a number of questions for these doctors. Number one, you haven’t treated them at all, how do you know how they will respond? How do you already know how many treatments they will need? The true answer is however many visits are recommended is actually just how many visits your insurance will allow. So they just use all of those up and hope that by the end you feel better. This is when you know for sure this particular practitioner is more concerned about dollar signs than giving you the treatment you truly need. And doing so as quickly and effectively as possible. So how do we figure out what you actually need?
Test, Don’t Guess
The problem with the whole “I have one leg shorter than the other,” is that it’s only a partial truth. That alone wouldn’t be the entire cause of any low back issues. The fact that the pelvis is rotating certainly is. But the true question is why is it rotating at all? Why is the pelvis unstable and compensating?
With muscle testing and applied kinesiology I’ve developed a testing protocol to nail down exactly what is causing the imbalance. Usually between one or two key issues driving the compensating muscle and bone structure imbalance.
When one, two, or three muscles groups attaching to the pelvis become weak, the low back and opposing muscles often compensate to create as much stability as possible to prevent an acute injury. Over time, as that compensation pattern becomes the new norm, people often develop low back pain, muscle spasms, nerve pain, etc., because of the tight and overactive compensating muscles. The video above shows some of the testing I do to find the weak pelvic muscle groups. The key to establishing a stabilized pelvis and addressing low back pain, sciatica, hip pain, etc, is to fully re-balance the pelvis. Sure we will treat the area of pain, the specific muscles that are in spasm, but we also want to address the overall imbalance. Otherwise the symptoms will often just come right back, because the imbalance still exists and the body reverts right back to what it knows.
Low back, Pelvis, Hip, Sciatica Treatment
Based off of the findings from the testing described above, we will develop a treatment to support the long term balance of your neuromusculoskeletal system. Each person responds a little bit differently to the treatment. Your care will be individualized towards what gets you results. Treatments such as chiropractic adjustments, trigger point/soft tissue therapy, cupping, and other modalities may be recommended.
Common Symptoms/Conditions
- Low back pain
- Recurring knee and foot injuries
- Numbness, tingling, or pain into the side of the hip, down the leg, into the groin, in the foot
- Muscle spasms in the low back, glut, and piriformis musculature
- Recurring hamstring injuries, weakness, or pain
- Difficulty bending forward, twisting, bending backwards, or to the side
- Sprains/strains
- Disc Injuries
- Lower cross syndrome
- Psoas tightness
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