health care providers on the San Francisco peninsula while training for an NFL Combine. He was a Stanford University football star, 6 foot tall and 225 lbs of solid muscles, strong and tough with exceptional reflexes. However, after 2 ACL repair surgeries, he wasn’t absolutely sure he’d have a career in football. On top of everything, the rigors of hard training in preparation for Combine left him in a bit of pain. His left hip, lower and mid-back were in rough shape, overworked, sore, and aching all the time. His hopes for a professional career were melting slowly as his discomfort and pain level were rising week by week. As we were running a few simple tests it became rather obvious that the culprit was his twice-operated- on right knee. The range of motion on his left knee was excellent, but the right side was a completely different story. He told me that after his second surgery, one of the PTs at Stanford told him that he’d never have his full range of motion. Unfortunately, S believed the verdict and now his stiff, unbending knee was wreaking havoc on the rest of his body. One of my teachers, Greg Rose, the founding father of FMS Functional Movement Screen & SFMA Selective Functional Movement Assessment, has repeatedly told his students: The greatest predictors of injury are 1. previous injury and 2. discrepancies in strength or flexibility side to side. It appears he was right because S had both. After a series of treatments, we were able to even the balance of tissue extensibility between his knees while addressing parallel issues with the hip and spine. S went through the Combine and played professionally for five years, after which he retired. His bad knee wasn’t painful or symptomatic but it created serious compensation in the rest of his body and almost cost him a career in the sport he loved so much.
The human body is one of the most beautiful and sophisticated organic machines imaginable. The degree of precision, grace, and strength we are capable of is astounding—provided all parts connect and function well enough to allow the flow of movement and energy. Any breakages in the system create compensation patterns, and while those provide short-term help, they frequently cause long-term problems. Bodyworker books are full of anecdotal stories of rolled ankles which, after a while, cause issues with low back and neck, unstable shoulders, and weak rotator cuffs leading to forearm problems. Pain is a symptom of the problem, not necessarily a location of it. Ida Rolf, the founder of Rolfing, repeated regularly to her students “don’t chase pain, find the source of the issue.“ D is one of my regular clients who periodically goes on what I call health binges, starts stringent diets, trains four to six times per week with a personal trainer, goes on long walks and hikes, buys every vitamin and supplement under the moon, and... Well, he eventually gets injured, becomes discouraged, turns to binge eating, and 10 pounds later we are back to the beginning of the cycle. Unfortunately, this time wasn’t any different. D half limped and half waddled into my office. “What’s going on,” I asked. “I think it’s sciatica,” was the response. “That’s what the article on Google said.” “Personally, I wouldn’t trust a medical diagnosis that’s based on a questionable internet article but for argument’s sake let’s test what we can,” was my reply. Sciatica is a rather complex issue with multiple sources affecting the nerves, sometimes simultaneously. Generally, adequate imaging such as an MRI or X-ray is required to properly diagnose it. I proposed running a simple straight
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