I came across this joint mobility video by Pavel Tsatsouline. There's some good stuff on there. I'm always looking for new ideas to keep my progress moving forward. It's so nice to have all this information online these days.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ib2b...eature=related

I've been doing a little bit of trigger point work lately. In the past, I really wasn't a fan of it. It seemed like it just made me worse. It seems to be helping now, though. I think all the mobility exercises I've done has gotten my body to the point were I can tolerate it better.

I started doing this Pec Minor release with the Thera Cane. I've been doing it standing up and using very little pressure because my Pecs are super tender, especially on the surgical side, and my surgery was 21 years ago. I'm not sure if the surgical side is so tender because of trigger points, or the nerves are just more sensitive on that side. I'm curious to see if that will get better over time.

Here's the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPnf-74J5-g

A little while ago when I was in the grocery store, this lady asked me if I could reach the butter for her. It was on the top shelf, way in the back. In the past I would've had to tell her I couldn't reach it either, but I managed to do it without any pain after. It's been many years since I could reach like that. I know it's not much, but it's another milestone. Sometimes I get pretty discouraged but a little thing like that helps keep me motivated.

I noticed a similar character to the major transformations in my physical life: from obese to fit and from recovering a broken back and neck to a pain free life. Slow, steady, consistent persistence charts the course to success.

But it isn
't the path that is the problem. Is it? The solutions are usually simple, but because the path is so long, we get frustrated by the speed of change... And we quit. Or we try so hard to hasten the achievement that we over do it and worsen the situation.

Does the gem cutter get frustrating during the 1,000 visibly unproductive strikes against the gemstone, when the unknown 1,001 strike effects the perfect cut? Yet, we become frustrated by our lack of apparent progress, our setbacks and unknown finish line, so we set down our hammer and chisel too close to success.

It takes two years to make any substantial change permanent. You'll see results in two weeks, but get your mind ready for the long haul, so that you do not allow frustration to scuttle success before you navigate to your goal. Stay the course. It's working.

very respectfully,
Scott Sonnon

Scott Sonnon posted this on his facebook page yesterday. "Two years to make any substantial change permanent." It's been 32 months for me so far, but I had to undergo open heart surgery earlier this year, so that set me back some. Who knows, this could take me several more years. Like he says, there's an "unknown finish line". Everyone is different.

One thing I've noticed is the longer I do this, the softer my muscles are starting to get. When I first started, all of my muscles were hard, and tender to the touch. They kind of felt like jerky, hard and unpliable. In fact, I hated being touched because it hurt. I hated shaking hands, being hugged, and all that stuff.

Now, it's easy for me to tell what areas I need to work on just by touching the muscles. The areas that are getting healthy are soft and pliable, kind of like a nice steak before you cook it, and they don't hurt. The unhealthy muscles feel more like jerky, hard and unpliable, and painful to the touch. I've been doing a lot of self-massage, and trigger point work on these areas and it's helping soften those tissues up.

When I was young I did a lot of weight lifting, and I thought it was good when a muscle was hard, but now I realize you don't want that. A healthy, pain free, muscle should be soft and pliable. You want muscles that feel like steak, not jerky.

I've been using a Thera Cane for a couple weeks now and it's working great. It really gets in there and breaks up some of the stubborn, bound up tissues, that movement doesn't seem to get. I have bruises all over the place but I feel like some of those areas are moving better already. This, along with the joint mobility exercises, seems to be a pretty good combination. Some others have said that, "Hands on therapy" has been helpful. I consider this my, "Do it yourselfers hands on therapy." 40 bucks, and I can use it every day. http://www.theracane.com/

Coop: I got one of those canes with my first round of failed PT. Not much came out of those PT sessions except the TheraCane. I'm happy you're enjoying it. I wish they would make a model with a slightly softer end nubs or things you can pop on to slightly diffuse the pressure. There's an invention for us.

Yeah, I guess it's hard to make something that's perfect for everyone. I think it's pretty well designed myself. I really like it. My wife likes it too, but her complaint is, one of the little nubs on the handle always pokes her boob, so I guess that might be a problem for some of you ladies.

I have a backknobber and which is similar but hard to get the pec minor because of the way it is shaped and is also a little hard for me. I was thinking of cutting a pink bouncy ball (hollow kind)and sticking it on the end. I have pinky balls on a stick which is a dowel with a pinky ball on each end that I get from my pt. it works pretty well.