Question
About 12 years ago I used a roto tiller in my garden and injured my back to point I was unable to move without excruciating pain for several days.  Treated by my chiropractor and within a week was back to work  and seemingly ok.  About 10 years ago  I started to have trouble riding in a car and started to drive slower - not over 50 which helped.  Over the years since then I have continually had to decrease my speed and # of miles I could drive daily - I currently don't drive over 8-10 miles per day or over 15 miles per hour.  If I do my muscles tighten up - mostly on right side and become painful as a result of the  vibration in the car.  I am seeing a chiropractor and massage therapist which have helped me but it is getting worse and lately  nothing has any lasting help.  I massage my muscles with tennis ball etc which helps but with  no lasting value.  I have also had 5 car accidents - all whip lash. I have been hit in rear and on the back left side.  Numerous tests - MRI's diskogram, needle testing but nothing shows any problems except  some degeneration in neck and lower back but not real bad.  I am at the end of knowing what to do anymore.  Do you have any suggestion?   I know this is an unusual problem - I have never heard of anyone else that  has it. Repetitive motion (computer)has been recently causing a lot  of pain in right shoulder/neck/eye/right leg and  foot.  Thank you for any  help you can offer.

Answer
Hello, Ruth Ann,

You didn't "injure" your back; you went into muscle spasm, which accounts for the pain and loss of mobility.

Everything you've described corresponds to muscular contractions -- which wouldn't show up in the medical tests you named.

You're contracted.

You can retrain the muscular actions you're suffering and get relief that way, but you can't get lasting relief by massaging or by manipulation, as you've discovered, because they bring no improvement of muscular self-control.

May I direct you to my articles on back pain and on whiplash injuries for further understanding; these articles point to what you can do.

http://www.somatics.com/back_pain.htm
http://www.somatics.com/back_pain_Q&A.htm
http://www.somatics.com/backpainreliefsantafe.htm (comparison with chiropractic)
http://www.somatics.com/whiplash.htm

Self-help programs exist at

http://www.somatics.com/page7.htm

but sessions with a clinical somatic educator would bring relief much more quickly.  

See http://www.hannasomatics.com/practitioners

with regard,
Lawrence Gold