Who can help me?
A lot of people when they get pain, restricted movement or something that impinges on life are not sure where to turn to. In this country it has been the way that people seek out Osteopaths and Chiropractors, these have been the only resource, until recently, that seemed to be able to help. The problem is, that way of thinking is now outdated and outmoded.
Let me give you an example of why:
Let’s say that you’re one of the millions that suffer with “miscellaneous low back pain”, let’s not go into the how’s and why’s but just accept that this is the scenario. So ninety five per cent of this issue will be due to tight muscles, muscle imbalance, muscle’s not firing and more then likely a whole bunch of lifestyle issues, posture, work position etc. etc.
Now let’s look at what happens why you seen an Osteo or Chiro. Usually the sessions are reasonably short and most of what happens is a re-alignment of the boney structures in the spine / lower back. And yes it does give some relief, albeit usually short term and temporary. How many times have we heard “my Chiropractor is fantastic, I go to him every week and I feel fantastic” Well I would like to suggest that if he was fantastic you wouldn’t need to go every week. Basically what most of these practitioners are doing is structural re-alignment and not getting to the root cause, the soft tissue disfunction.
Let me state here and now that if you do not release the soft tissue, muscles, tendons and ligaments, the boney structures will go back out of alignment. This is because that every muscle is connected to bones and if not released i.e. not tight, they will pull the structure out of alignment again.
Now if you go to a good Sports Therapist they will have a whole host of tools at their disposal, starting firstly with great assessment and root cause analysis tools. They will then discuss with you a treatment plan and give you an indication of the likely progress. Some techniques that they use may include, Soft Tissue Release, Trigger Point Therapy, Acupuncture, Massage, Stretches, MET Stretches, to name but a few, but basically a whole tool box to correct your issues, not just clicking bones. Further to this a good Sports Therapist will discuss lifestyle issues with you to determine how and why the issue developed and, more importantly, how to stop it happening again. A full rounded service with the patient at it’s heart.
So next time you need treatment just have a look at the detail above and make your practitioner choice based on some of the advice above. If your near the South Coast I’d love to help you and show you first hand how it all works.