I have a client in her late 20s/early 30s and she is an endurance athlete. She has pretty significant muscle atrophy on her entire left side, front and back. All of the muscle tissue is smaller and ropey or dense/lacking a supple feel when manipulated. I can’t for the life of me figure out how she has completed so many marathons, halfs, track sprint competitions and cyclocross events. Mind you she is an 8:15-8:20 pace at Boston. We joke that it must be by sheer will that she’s done so well.

We’ve been working together since August and I took new pics of her back and side profiles and noticed that she has subtle scoliosis beginning that wasn’t present when we started. While she has not been consistent about homework, she is pretty good with doing the myofascial release on her own. She has some hypermobility in her pelvis and of course asymmetries that we have been working on. This past Saturday I was doing some muscle release on her low back and she consistently complains about significant discomfort in her QL on the left. It literally is one giant bundle that I followed all the way up into the outside of edge of her low trap.

During her muscle testing the right side was doing pretty much all the work for both sides of her body. I’ve given her specific exercises to work on getting the left side to start firing and trying to teach it to work again. She saw a PT in 2012 who first told her about the muscle imbalances and atrophy.

We’re working on the pelvic asymmerties, strengthening the core, glute medius and minimus activation, hamstring activation, TVA activation and stretching and myofascial release. I haven’t experienced anyone with muscle atrophy before so I’m not sure what the results are going to be.

Anyone see something I’m missing?? Anyone have experience with muscle atrophy and/or significant imbalances? Thanks 🙂

Hi Guys,

I’m asking for help regarding a client of mine who is experiencing bad tendonitis in her right shoulder. She tested positive for pain in all of our assessment tests except flexion. She has been to physical therapy several times and has a hard time sleeping through the night due to the pain. She has never had an MRI done.

We have been working on her issue for a couple months and have tried several modalities to help with the pain including strengthening the serratus, cleaning up her chatturanga, restoratives and myofascial release and pranayama to soothe the pain at night. However, I’m at a point where I’m questioning what more I can offer her to relieve the pain. She has gotten stronger and her range of motion is significantly better but the pain has not subsided one bit.

Any further thoughts you might have on additional therapies would be great!

Hi Yogis!! The wonderful Cathy Gamba from New Zealand who attended the Bali Hip Module recently did an OPQRST that she is hoping we can all look over and give suggestions for. When you have a moment, please review and advise your thoughts in the reply section below. Make sure to click the “notify me of follow-up replies” to keep updated. 🙂

Jamie is in his mid fifties and is an avid tango dancer, he is a lawyer and his job can get quite stressful at times. He complains from pain in the SI joint on the left side and sometimes a mock sciatica in the left leg. He also complains that his neck is “crooked”. He doesn’t have a very athletic built but is flexible for his age. He practices yoga with me twice a week (group sessions), does Body Balance at LesMills (lesmills.co.nz) twice a week and dances tango twice a week.
Onset: 9 years ago in a pilates class. Also doing deadlifts and squats and he remembers an episode loading the boot. Also sometimes when the situation is stressful, his left inner adductor tenses right up to the groin – it feels like a cramp. It has happened a couple of times this year.
Palliation: Hard massages-trigger points. Pigeon is great, figure 4 feels great (left foot on Right knee)
Quality: Dull/stiff, it’s not sharp or nasty, it just feels tight most of the time
Region: around SI joint left
Strength: 4or5/10. Once or twice a year, he has sciatica
Timing: Sciatica in the mornings sometimes
He didn’t have surgeries and there was nothing worth mentioning re energy, sleep, family, emotions, diet etc.
When doing the evaluation, this is what I found:
-There was a lot more movement in the Right SI joint
-The left side is a bit weaker when pressing inwards and outwards (more torquing of the pelvis when pushing the L leg in, less stability)
-Abductor on Left side a bit weaker
-More internal rotation on the Left side
-Good range of internal and external rotation on both sides but slightly less external rotation on Left side
-when doing the test lying down on the side, there was not much range of motion taking the Left knee down
-When doing one legged squat, he is more stable on Right leg
-Warrior 3, stronger on Right leg
Based on these findings, I have found that Jamie’s superficial layer of his left abductors: left TFL is tight. It might be due to the weakness of his gluteus medius and minimus on the Left side (which was shown when doing one legged squat)
I’m thinking that maybe the glute max could also be weak and the vastus lateralis
I haven’t come up with a series of exercises yet as I’m not entirely sure that I’ve come up with the right diagnostic. But so far, I’m thinking about myofascial release with a tennis ball for TFL, but not too sure about what exercises to do to strengthen glut med and minimus (perhaps on all 4 lifting leg to the side?)
Thanks for taking the time to read my novel 🙂 I hope everyone is good. I can’t wait for the next training in Nicaragua. Hugs xxx Cathy