quad cramps/psoas/fem artery

[rukkit]

Hi!
As you can tell I have no idea how to title this. A friend and former professional ballet dancer has had intermittent cramping in her right quad for 20 years (since she was in her late 20s). She says she's tried lots of massage, adjusted her nutrition for calcium, magnesium, vitamin C (I may be missing some here, and nutrition may be the prob!), and finally recently arrived at some stretches that, if done daily, work about 70% of the time. I don't think she's exhausted MFR and other modalities, but I just googled "quad cramps" and found a site saying that the psoas pressing on the femoral artery can cause quad cramps. Anyone heard of this and, if so, what's the psolution? This friend has a flexible right psoas but, because of a 5yo inguinal hernia, does not like anyone going anywhere (at all!) near the inguinal ligament--to demonstrate where she would *not* like work, she made a gesture that covered the entire psoas except for the lower attachment!
Any other suggestions most welcome! Just know I haven't worked on her quads and don't at all know what's going on in there--was especially curious about the psoas/artery connection.

Thank you!

 

[Shaji K]

Do you know what stretches she is doing that work about 70% of the time? My first suggestion would be to do that, but hold the stretch for as long as she possibly can - 5 minutes would be a good start. It sounds like she is almost getting it, but not quite.

 

[Chief Boot Knocka]

Digging in with manual trigger point or other "deep tissue" methods sounds like a bad idea. I would refer her for an MRI and learn what she's actually dealing with, including the status of that hernia.

Until then, I would work with her on assisted active stretches (as opposed to long static stretches), fascial work for the anterior hip, and positional release techniques for psoas, iliacus, and probably pectineus too. There are some very interesting psoas releases involving a jet of cold compressed air sprayed (superficially) down the length of the psoas from proximal to distal attachments. It's a neurological technique that I saw demonstrated by Janet Travell in a Trigger Point Therapy video.

If her psoas is indeed compressing the femoral artery, or if that hernia is still present, she will probably need medical intervention to correct the source of the trouble.

 

[Awesome Uber]

if she is "that" flexibile, you may want to consider looking at the pelvis (pelvic obliquity) and the potential of a hypermobility.

patrick

 

[Evehr]

LOL I love your use of "psolution"

 

[ratul]

thank you for all these suggestions! i'm checking on what stretches she's doing, and on whether she has a pelvic obliquity. more soon...