Hi

I'm a 49 year old single male.  I have a 15 year old injury which has
got worse this year (I did some things that upset it a few months ago)
and has been giving me a lot of aching for the last 3 months.  I am
getting medical advice and massage etc. but I have questions about the
oblique muscles.  I have been struggling to make progress with the
aching so I am trying to figure out what is aching and what is
aggravating it.

The worst of the aching I am getting is around where the oblique
muscles attach to the ribs and crest of the hips but sometimes extends
to other muscle attachment places on my spine and pelvis (QL and Lat
Dorsai I think).  I am a computer programmer and find that 3 or 4
hours working at my desk can bring on the aching.  I also get aching
in bed - I suspect this happens only if I lie on my side.  Walking or
standing for a while can also bring on the aching - e.g. 2 hours of
housework is fairly disastrous for me right at the moment

Question
-------------
Are the oblique muscles working/loaded when working at a computer or
when lying on your side in bed?  I slouch when sitting at a desk
because my muscles are too sore to hold a position of good posture,
though I am hoping to work towards that.  Is it possible that doing
"side stretches" - bending sideways at the hips - can aggravate the
oblique muscles.

History (if you want more detail) :
-----------
The original injury was caused through half an hour to an hour of
playing soccer and doing a lot of sprinting and explosive type stuff
(as you do in soccer) but I hadn't played any soccer for 12 months and
did quite a bit of damage to some thigh muscles (adductors and quads)
which are still sore to this day and have prevented me from doing any
running ever since (even though I think I realised I was doing some
damage, I didn't have the balls or common sense to stop playing at the
time).  I ignored the problem for a few weeks but eventually went to a
doctor associated with a gym who gave me a gym program to do, hoping
to solve the problem with exercise, but it didn't.  I then spent 3 or
4 years trying to fix the problem with massage and
(less-than-proactive) physio and eventually gave up.  

Over time the problem spread to muscles in my upper body -  obliques,
QL, Lat Dorsai, psoas - I don't know what all.  About a year after
doing the soccer injury I managed to do something else equally silly -
I badly overdid a sort of bush-clearing type of activity and created a
problem in my arms and wrists which also persists to this day and
requires regular massage to allow me to keep working.  At some point
my neck also got sore  - probably from poor posture caused by the
problems around my hips.  I didn't realise my neck was sore until I
had some massage on it -  I was then in agony, but I think the problem
was there long before the massage and was giving me no pain because
the nerves had shut down (i.e. there's no chance the massage caused my
neck pain - it merely made me aware of the problem).

I sleep really badly, partly because of "personal issues" and partly
because of my sore neck and other sore muscles.  I can't keep my head
still for more than about a minute and I can't stay lying on my back
for very long, even though I feel this is the most passive position. I
suspect if I stayed on my back (or tummy) I wouldn't get aching in
bed.

I have been trying hard to figure out if anxiety and tension are a
factor in preventing my injury problems from healing and I'm still
inclined to think they're not a major factor but I'm undecided.  When
I'm working at my computer, I suspect I can delay or prevent the
aching if I focus on relaxing and sitting passively - however, I tend
to focus on my work.  I also suspect if I get up and walk around for 5
minutes every 20 minutes (or mix activities) rather than sitting
continuously for an hour or more, the aching is less likely to occur.

The aching I've been getting this year has actually given me a chance
of understanding this problem better, even though it's reasonably
unpleasant at times and sends me scrambling for painkillers and ice at
times (e.g. 3 am).  I'm getting massage and doing some exercises a
physio has given me but I would like to know why it is so hard to get
rid of this aching around the oblique muscles and hips.  Muscles I
have that are sore include adductor and quads still, iliacus and psoas
(a massage therapist told me these names) plus gluts (a little bit)
and quadratus lumborum, lat. dorsai, spinal muscles (paraspinals?),
most or all neck muscles and most or all arm muscles (yes - most or
all !).  This might sound like Fibromyalgia but I'm sure it isn't  - I
just did some silly things.

Thanks for any hints, especially about the oblique muscles (coz they
ache).

dk.