A Muscle in Your Chest That Causes Your Fingers to go Numb

The pectoralis minor muscle in your chest originates on your ribs, and inserts into a small bone at your shoulder. When the pectoralis minor contracts normally, you bring your arms forward, and also raise them up in front of you. If you sleep with your arm up you are contracting the muscle for hours, and it will shorten because of muscle memory.

The problem is, the median nerve to the thumb and first two fingers passes directly under the bone. As the muscle gets shortened by muscle memory, the bone presses into the nerve, and even into the artery to your hand, and your fingers go numb. If you wake up with numb hands, and then you put your arm down and shake it and it comes back, you are witnessing the result of pressure on the nerve that is caused by the pectoralis minor muscle.

This is often diagnosed as carpal tunnel syndrome, and all it really means is that the muscle needs to be treated to lengthen the fibers and take the pressure off the nerve. It is well worth the time and effort to learn how to self-treat this muscle. It's easy, and it works.

Wishing you well,
Julie

What is "Repetitive Strain Injury?"

I travel around the USA, teaching Julstro workshops to fitness trainers, athletes, and to anyone who is interested in learning how to stop pain from limiting their lives. One of the many questions I'm constantly asked is "What is the explanation of Repetitive Strain Injury?"

When a muscle is used over and over in the same manner, the fibers are being strained repetitively and they eventually will shorten, and may tear. Small micro-tears may happen to the fibers, or in a severe case of repetitive strain, the fibers may tear away from the tendon, or pull the tendon off the bone! When a muscle is severed from the tendon or the bone, it is extremely painful and will require surgery.

This is truly a situation where "prevention is worth a pound of cure."

As a muscle is shortening because of repetitive motion, it can easily be reversed by simply pressing deeply along the entire length of the muscle. This flushes out a toxin called "lactic acid," and draws blood into the muscle. The muscle fibers will begin to lengthen as the lactic acid is removed, and the longer fibers will take the strain off the insertion point at the bone. This eases, and quickly eliminates the strain at the joint, and prevent tears from happening to the muscle fibers.

Avoid Surgery - Look at Muscles!

It took a while to get this blog going...if only working on computers was as logical to me as finding the source of pain in the body! Thank heaven for Greg, my webmaster, he's the best!!!

Today I was wondering how many people have the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome: hand/wrist pain and numbness? Many people are afraid to tell their employers that they are suffering, and some of the stories I've heard are terrible. People getting moved to jobs that are way over their ability, and then being fired because they can't do the work (you can't fire people for getting carpal tunnel syndrome, but you can for inability to fulfill their position), and other people who are just working in constant pain for fear of losing their job. It's so unnecessary when just working on the muscles that either cross over the median nerve from your neck to your hand, and also working on the muscles of the forearm that control your hand, will eliminate the pain. More about that as we move along with this blog.

When I first developed CTS in my left hand I had to close down my massage therapy office. I couldn't even open a door, or pick up a pen! I was heading for Welfare while I tried to figure out how to support myself with just one hand (not much good as a massage therapist). That's when I discovered all the information I'm going to share on this blog. I've seen it already work for over 1000 people, and it's really time to get the word out to the public.

While I work on learning how to use this Blog software, you'll find a lot of great information at: www.carpaltunneltreatment.org and http://www.julstro.com

I want to make this a website where people can post questions, but I need to learn how to do that without allowing spammer's to fill up the space with junk. I know it will work, it's just a "learning curve" for me.

Have a great day,
Julie