Calf pain, life pain, knowing where to look, and "being caught" by what interests you

This week I had a few new patients who were killer examples of this principle I like to teach, and that I find so darn interesting: The pain is not where the problem is. It's so interesting for most people to experience this when they come into the clinic. So I thought, since you don't see what I see every day, maybe you'd like a little rummage around in my PT brain for a sec? (Don't worry, I'll try to make it brief and mostly un-clinical). It's just such a good example and interesting story. Gary, a very active guy who’s managed his calf and other limitations with massage and rolling and strengthening over the years, came in this week with recurring debilitating calf pain that’s been appearing every so many months (instead of years) now. Because of the calf pain, he’s been backing off of activities (which he hates), including running with his gal and playing tennis with his buds (which he loves). On evaluation, I checked his whole body, posture, movement patterns, etc like I always do. But specific to his symptoms, I could feel the tight rigidness in his outer calf muscle in a specific (and pretty common) way. And so could he- it hurt when I pressed there. I treated the nerves and the muscles in the area around the spine and pelvis, on the front. In other words, not the calf. And after this, he felt a lot better in his calf. Without my treating the calf. When I pushed into that tight and painful place in his calf again as a re-test, it wasn’t as tight (per my touch) or painful (per his feeling). It had more pliability. Where the pain was (the calf), was not where the problem was (the nerves that control the calf). It's just so cool (or yep maybe I'm just a big ol' physio nerd) to get to directly feel the evidence. I felt it in his calf. He felt it in his calf. The evidence of the change- the pliability- of the muscle after treating the root cause not the muscle itself. In other words, it's so interesting that the calf muscle got better, without treating the calf muscle. Why is this interesting? I think because we get used to thinking we need to treat (ie. massage, roll, heat, ice) the calf. We've been trained to think that way. What I now think is much more interesting, since I know to expect this result, is showing people how to connect the body and discover the root cause, that it's not the calf but what controls the calf. To show them where to focus. Perhaps different from what they expected. Don't you think it's true that we, as people, do this all the time. Get all caught up in the symptoms and miss the root cause. Not just with the body, but with other life things too? Like in frustrations with relationships, work, or personal patterns we have? It makes sense to focus on the pain and frustration, or to avoid it. It's what's getting our attention. And we want it to go away. No one likes pain or limitation. It's uncomfortable. Maybe if we zoom out and look more broadly, see the bigger picture, we can discover the root of the problem, and work on that. Maybe it will be less frustrating and more insightful? Maybe we can see more of the objective truth of it. Like a calf problem that just needs the right solution, not that anyone's done anything wrong or missed anything they shouldn't have. What do you think?

What have you been zeroing in on lately that may be in need of a broader perspective? Here's a quote I randomly pulled just now from my fuchsia box of note cards with quotes I wrote down from all the books I read last year (so delightfully weird when it connects with today's thoughts): “I don't believe in being interested in a subject just because it's said to be important. I believe in being caught by it somehow or other.” -Joseph Campbell, “The Power of Myth” Questions for you for today: Where in your life can you have a bigger perspective right now? What subject, no matter what's said about it, somehow or other catches you?

Let us know in the comments.