By Rich on Friday, June 02, 2000 - 01:15 pm:

I have been a prolo patient for 10 months now. I am getting great results for ligament laxity in the neck, back and shoulders. I sustained repetative strain injuries
playing the piano, lifting weights, and playing sports. I stopped all of that since starting the prolo. I am healing quite well. In addition to my ligament laxity problem,
I have pretty weak muscles in my neck, back and shoulders. The problem is, I can't do weight-lifting until the joint is "stable". The cycle that goes with that is this.
By having weak muscles, I put futher strain on my newly formed ligament fibers. This inhibits my progress. So, I am trying to figure out a way to strengthen my
muscles without damaging the effects of the prolo. I came up with EMS. I can put EMS pads on any muscle group I want. It will then exercise my muscles
"passively" (without the use of joints or ligaments). This puts little or no strain at all on my joints. This sounds great but can anybody back me up on this? The last
thing is, I had bad posture in the past. This has led to rounded shoulders, a humped back, and an excessive curve in my lower back which makes me look like I am
leaning backwards when I am really standing as straight as I can. My impression is that general muscle weakness is defnitely a big part of that. I am already treating
the ligament problem but I really feel like I would be lessening the load on my ligaments and joints if my muscles were stronger. Can anyone attest to this? Or, have
any better ideas?

Rich

By Greg on Friday, June 02, 2000 - 01:16 pm:

Rich,

I hear your problem. I just started with my first prolo treatment on my neck two weeks ago. i think this tuesday I will start with my my whole neck, shoulders, and
back just like you. I am 19 years old. How far spread apart are your treatments?? I was miffed when my doctor told me I had to stop lifting weights in order to let
things heal. It is crucial not to put stress on these healing tissues. I asked himt o what I should do to keep strength, and he told me the best I could do was to just
keep a good diet, high in protein, and lots of vitamins and minerals and that I would just have to kind of live with it. He said once everything was all healed up, that
my muscles would naturally grow back and that I could be stronger than eevr since my muscles wouldn't be overworked to make up for my ligament laxity. I
understand a little fo how you feel, it's been tough for me not to lift and everything. But the diet so far has really helped me keep a lot of muscle, although i have
shrunk a little bit. I think patience will be thekey for guys like us, we just gotta stick it out until we are completely healed. I try to think of it like this: I may get
weaker now for the next six months,but after that, it wil be so much easier to get back into shape with strong joints. Good luck my friend,

Greg

By Rich on Friday, June 02, 2000 - 01:16 pm:

Wow. Your only 19. I thought I was young for this (24). Did your doctor o.k ANY physical activity? Ask him this. Tell him you heard that ligaments that get a little
exercise heal better with less scar tissue than ligaments that are 100% rested and see what he says. I heard that from a few prolo patients but I am waiting on more
responses. I guess you have repetitive strain injuries too? I can tell you this. Prolo will help. I have been having this done for the past 10 months now with great
success. Who is your doctor? I am seeing Dr. Edward Magaziner. Look in the back of the book "Prolo your pain away". He is mentioned there. Listen, if you have
any gneral questions that you would like a 2nd opinion on, let me know, I will run it by my doctor for you. If you don't mind, see what he says about the electrical
muscle stimulation also. It might be a good way to at least keep the muscles "passively" exercising. The high-protein diet is helping me maintain muscle too but
damm, I start getting weak
when I don't lift. Anyway, thanks for the response.

Rich