Techniques
Central to our approach to provide a broad service, especially when our clients are experiencing pain or an injury in order to get you fit and healthy as quickly as possible not just for today or tomorrow but for the future too.
Some services may not provide rehabilitation plans after treatment, or may not provide hands on techniques, but in our mind leaves some very powerful solutions on the table. The human body is very receptive to hands on treatment and this can vastly accelerate treatment at a number of levels such as increasing blood flow, working out areas of tension in the soft tissues (not just muscles, but also importantly the myofascia) and carrying out assisted stretching. Equally to expect the body to recover with only weekly or fortnightly treatment would be remiss. By healing the body and then leaving it to revert to it’s injured state will lead to a longer recovery time and more sessions before recovery. Adding in strength and/or flexibility work can maintain the benefits of treatment for longer and will accelerate recovery. Most importantly though it will teach you how to adapt your lifestyle to reduce the liklihood of a reccourance of the injury.
Assess
If you are experiencing pain or have suffered an injury then I may look to test mobility, strength or nerve functionality.
This testing may help to identify areas to work on, but as importantly can rule out certain issues. This can be very important as the body is so interconnected - pain can highlight an issue but in some cases teh reason that one area is in pain can be due to an issue elsewhere.
Rehabilitate
Rehabilitation work is a core part of our service
Rehabilitation work is prescribed where it is needed regardless of whether you are a sports person, someone recovering from injury or someone receivng a more general treatment. Rest assured though all rehabilitation work is tailored to you, your capabilities and the time you have available. Even where time is short, some simple daily exercises can be worked around waiting for the kettle to boil or brushing your teeth and these can make very positive differences to the speed of your recovery.
Treat
Treatment will be built around the techniques discussed below, utilising those which will provide the most benefit to you, your body and your symptoms.
Having access to a range of techniques will allow a treatment that can address a broad range of issues. importantly our goal is not to superficially treat pain but to seek out and understand the root causes of the pain. This will enable us to work with you towards a lasting solution.
Soft Tissue Release (STR)
STR is useful in variety of scenarios. At it’s core is the ability to work deep into the muscles in a very time efficient manner.
It is also very useful for working soft tissues that are hard to reach or which are awkward to massage efficiently via more convential amssage techniques.
STR can also prove invaluable when working through clothing, whether that is due to client preference or when in a public setting such as after a sports event.
General Massage
General massage can be used as a gental way to prepare muscles for further work, to warm up the muscles and to start to explore where tight areas may be present in the body.
It also allows your body to relax and get used to being worked upon, indeed it is important that you and your body are open to treatment for it to be most effective.
Muscle Energy Technique (MET)
Part of our core ethos is not just to provide immediate treatment, but also to bring about changes that will help you in the medium term.
Where areas of tightness are identified you will be prescribed streching work to help restore and improve certain movement patterns however stretching alone may take a long time to reach the end goal. MET uses the body to temporarily restore a range of motion that with stretching alone could take much longer to acheive which can make a difference in speeding up your recovery time.
In esscence there is a short period of time after a muscle has been contracting where it is more receptive to being stretched which will allow us to accelerate your recovery.
Mobilisation
Mobilisation is a useful technique in restoring mobility to your spine which can be the root cause of shoulder and neck pain.
Gentle work is carried out in mobilising the facets of your spine rather than working on the shoulder and neck muscles (which will usually be treated as well using other metods described here). Combining these techniques can have vastly superior results both in terms of speed of treatment and improvements to range of motion experienced by clients.
This is not to be confused with manipulation where much more speed and force is applied to the spine - manipulation is not a treatment we provide.
Fascia is an important connective tissue that helps to support the body and facilitate movement.
When tight or restricted (which is often the case post injury or after a long period of adopting a poor posture), fascia can hinder recovery as it effectively adapts over time to limit your movements to your more recent movement patterns.
As such, fascia work can be a key component to recovery and reducing pain levels.
As it is a very gentle process it can be especially useful for clients who are sensitive or may have underlying medical conditions which make deeper work less suitable.
Neuromuscular Technique (NMT)
NMT is a method that works on the body to bring about a rapid relaxation of muscles via increased blood flow and the release of endorphins moving the body towards a relaxed state, helping to release an area under tension due to postural issues or an injury.
It can be useful both in cases of excessive muscle tension or hard to reach areas such as the pectoralis minor and piriformus muscles.