I felt it. I knew it would happen, and it did. I am now all about the workouts! I don’t know what it is about me, but I have a very difficult time doing something until I feel like it is right. Well, folks, the time is right.

I have been to the gym more times in December than October and November combined, and I hope to continue this trend through the whole of next year.

Once again, I am rehab-ing my knee – myself this time. It was not getting better with just the strengthening of the multifidi or hip muscles. So, I have brought out the tiger tail, specific area massage with my own hands, icing and the foam roller. It is responding well, but I have to stay on top of it.

Due to the relapse in the right knee as well as the right shoulder, my thoughts this week have been largely wondering around the question of “Am I treating symptoms or the problems?” The shoulder is less of an injury than the knee, but still, why do they keep walking the line of injury? Does this mean that there is another underlying problem that I really need to look into? Am I just treating symptoms?

I am also wondering about my TMJ. Is TMJ the actual problem to almost everything else?

I have been working on relaxing my jaw at all times in combination with making sure my shoulders are pulled down and back (which has gotten easier with the strength building!). The only time I cannot for sure control the jaw clenching is during my sleep. For sleep, I was wearing a night guard, but I lost it about two months ago. I decided to try it without the guard by relaxing before sleep and reminding myself not to clench or grind when I sleep. I think some of it has been getting through as I am feeling more relaxed in my neck and shoulders, but I have a LONG way to go as more relaxed is all relative. My neck and shoulder muscles still feel like rocks, just more like sandstone rather than granite.

Over the last month, I have also been incorporating a line from a short play I saw years ago, the name of which is lost in time. The line is, “Just stop it!” In the play a psychologist tells her patient to “Just stop it!” whenever the patient brings up the crazy actions in her life. I couldn’t help but think that was so brilliant at the time, and then just last week I was talking to my massage therapist who was telling me about a man who got a massage as a gift. When he showed up, he didn’t have any knots. How is this possible? No knots, not even in his shoulders? What’s his secret? Then, the line from the play popped in my head, “Just stop having knots!” Really brain? Wait. Is it possible to just stop having knots by sheer force of will?

As a side note, my husband also has zero knots. None. Zip. Nadda. No knots. Not ever. He also has a stressful job, and works out a lot. No knots. I’ve asked him about it. Of course he has no idea. I do know that he does not ever clench his jaw. Never. How is this possible? Why do I clench and he does not?

Then, I started thinking about my TMJ. I clench and grind, and I have tight shoulder and neck muscles with tons of knots. Could this be the problem that causes my symptoms?

According to emedicine health (http://www.emedicinehealth.com/temporomandibular_joint_tmj_syndrome/page2_em.htm), TMJ can be caused by clenching of the jaw and grinding of the teeth, or bruxism (check and check).  People who clench might also chew pencils, gum or other objects when not eating. The chewing reinforces the clenching at all times, and can cause TMJ because the jaw muscles are not getting a chance to relax between meals like they are supposed to. Bruxism on the other hand is grinding of teeth, which largely happens at night when someone’s bite is off; when he/she is missing a tooth; or if someone has a lot of stress or anxiety.

Now, I find this reinforcing to me as I used to be a chronic gum chewer. I would not be found dead without gum on my person and in my mouth, unless food was in my mouth. I quit chewing gum over a year ago because of the other effects chewing gum has on your esophagus and digestive tract in general (Chewing gum signals the start of the digestive process by causing the mouth to produce saliva. Then, the stomach responds by producing acid that would be necessary if food were to hit it. However, with gum, there is no food that ever hits the stomach, and then the extra acid is just sitting around causing trouble.). To find that not chewing gum also helps reduce the clenching is phenomenal! Two benefits in one!

Ok. The treatment for bruxism? Medicine Net (http://www.medicinenet.com/teeth_grinding_bruxism/article.htm) says that for teeth grinding do one or more of the following:

– Mouth guard

– Stress reduction (either by counseling or medication)

– Reduce or avoid caffeine and alcohol

– Train yourself to not clench or grind (“JUST STOP IT!”)

Well, there it is! Just stop grinding your teeth, silly. Why didn’t I think of this before?

What it turns out to be with feet (sans orthotics for nearly two whole years!) and jaws is that you have to do all the work. Sure a mouth guard will help, but what about when you lose it or forget it on a long trip? The real solution is to do the leg work yourself. Figure out how to train yourself to stop. Then, “JUST STOP IT!”

Now for my continuing experiment to meet my goal of not needing any external structures to live my life to its fullest, I will continue to work toward relaxing my jaw at all waking hours. During workouts, I press my tongue against the top of my mouth, which does two things: 1. stops me from clenching my jaws 2. activates the multifidous muscles next to the c1-4 vertebrae, which need to work some anyway. So far so good 🙂