Went to see the McKenzie certified PT today. It’s a private cash only practice, but I paid less out of pocket then the out of network PT I was seeing. Funny how insurance works.

Anyways, no smoking gun. Through all the tests there wasn’t one thing that stuck out to her. No reg flags while she put pressure on my lumbar spine. We went through my history, what I’ve been dealing with. What flares up my condition, what helps, etc. She said she deals with mostly athletes and that with a lot of them it’s hard to flush out the issue right away since most of them are strong and can compensate a number of different ways for any dysfunction. She mentioned if my quads were affected it could be an issue higher in the lumbar region which are sometimes harder to illicit a response from during a short period of time. Every sport I’m interested in is an endurance sport so I tend to be in the same position doing the same movement for long periods of time. 

After talking with her about my lifestyle we did come to a conclusion, I appear to live in a way where I try to keep my back in extension as much as possible. I don’t sit unless I really have to, because I tend to slouch when I sit and this seems to tighten up my quads and IT Band. I have a standing desk at work and at home. When I watch tv or read I always try to lay on my stomach on my elbows, laying against a wall with a pillow behind me and my back in flexion seems to make my symptoms worse. I also sleep with a pillow under my pelvis/lumbar area which also seems to create less tension on the lateral side of my knee. 

As a follow up we decided to tape my back to limit and remind me not to go into flexion, along with only doing McKenzie exercises over the next couple days. Nothing else that makes me feel better, like one legged rdls, etc. Just to see what happens. Since we couldn’t illicit any change in symptoms during a one hour visit I’m hoping we can flesh out some of the things that contribute to my pain/tightness over a couple days. If it makes no difference we can go from there, but it’s one avenue I haven’t gone done before, so it’s worth a shot.