Here's another possibility for Rock & others. I hope that this is useful information.
Muscle Activation Techniques is a therapy that can help with muscle pain and exhaustion,
http://www.muscleactivationtechniques.com that is worth looking into. I believe that it was designed and/or its focus is for use on athletes but it works on people with fibromyalgia. Their website has a listing of therapists and they are now expanding overseas. Please do your homework as not all therapists have accumulated enough knowledge and/or experience to do a good (i.e. long-lasting) treatment yet.
The purpose of MAT is to balance set groups of muscles that are involved in distinct ranges of motion. This ROM is used as an indicator that certain muscles may not be communicating fully with the Central Nervous System. When a ROM limitation is noted, the technique then involves a muscle test, palpation of the non-communicating muscle, then finally, another muscle test to reinforce the neural communication. This ROM --> Muscle Test --> Palpation --> Muscle Test is repeated until each ROM group of muscles is balanced. What is lovely about this treatment is that it reduces the nociceptor (pain/inflammation) response and relaxes the overcompensating muscles from pulling the bones out of position. If the therapist finds/treats the correct offending muscle(s) the treatment can hold for a lengthy period of time.
When I was in the states, I was able to get my insurance to cover it. I believe that the prescription was for soft tissue manipulation or something like that. There is a particular terminology required on the prescription & insurance submission to allow it to be covered. Knowledgeable practitioners, i.e. physical therapists that have MAT training, will be able to offer this to you.
I use this technique on myself when I am in a desperate state via suffering from physical pain, foggy brain or unrestful sleep. Just to add, the MAT is more thorough if you are treated by another person (friend or therapist) BUT you can treat yourself albeit not perfectly; I call it the $ saving survival technique. To treat oneself, you must learn the bones of the body, each muscles shortened position and what motions each muscle is involved in, and finally attachment points (where you'd palpate). I guess this seems like a lot; it takes determination, patience, a skeleton, a few thin deflated balloons to double as muscles (so you can learn ROM), and a TheraCane (or similar device) to palpate your back or other difficult to reach area.
This technique doesn’t ‘fix’ you long-term as there are underlying reasons that our muscles are cutting off CNS communication but this is one treatment that can help if you must keep a job so you don’t end up sleeping on the street. When I was living in the states, I could generally go one month between treatments. Now, the SHINE protocol and a little bit of yoga has helped so much that I haven’t needed to do MAT on myself for the past 4 months.
Here are some examples of my “survival” knowledge: To reduce my foggy brain and to give me energy for the day, I treat the muscles attached to my rib cage like the internal/external obliques, erector spinae muscles, etc. I treat the pain in the back of my upper neck by palpating the muscles in the front of my neck. To fix the pain in my lower neck/upper back, I treat the muscles attached to my clavical and scapula (rotator cuff)- the subscapularis is a major helper for this pain (for me). It goes on and on, and you’ll find correlations concerning your own body. I do this while lying in bed, takes about 10 minutes, since I have memorized what muscles are usually the culprits causing me the most issue. It used to take me 3 hours/day until I got the hang of things.
