Back Pain Relief, Sports Therapy and Remedial Massage.

Correct treatment can help long standing neck and shoulder pain…

February 23, 2012

My client brought his daughter to me because she had been complaining of pain under her right shoulder blade, mid back and pain down the right arm for quite some time. This is a stunningly beautiful 17yr old who dances regularly – ballet, tap and modern. Her fitness levels are high. She complained that it hurt her to extend her arms during ballet and to lift heavy objects and she had had this pain for a long time, maybe a few years. Parents bring their children to see me on a regular basis, something that concerns me greatly: youngsters should not be experiencing musculoskeletal pain unless there is an injury but far too often, their aches and pains are posture related….a sad indictment on our modern technologically mad society.

Anyway, upon examination I discovered that part of this young lady’s upper spine had ‘shunted’ to the right en bloc and the surrounding muscles were stretched/taut. Presentation like this is unusual unless caused by an injury or scoliosis but nothing in the rest of the spine indicated the latter so I was going with the former. But no falls or accident had been mentioned to me. When the day returned to colled her, I quizzed him again: yes, he said, she had taken quite a bad fall on a bouncy castle when she was 12 and had been complaining of these pains since that time. I will wager, there was the cause. Could I prove it? Of course not – I didn’t have anything other than circumstantial evidence.

After the first treatment the young lady reported she had felt this pain only twice and after the second treatment, she reported she neither experienced the pain during ballet nor remembered if she’d had it at all in the previous week. Her upper body felt and looked more balanced.

I recommended she do some specific stretches and suggested she buy a back pack to carry heavy books to keep the upper part of her body in balance.

Moral of the story is leaving injuries to fester, especially if the injured person is complaining of aches and pains is not advisable; get them checked out by a doctor or A&E and if there are no breaks or tears, get them to a good practitioner who can redress the balance in the body, thereby facilitating healing and ensuring the pain goes away….

Back Pain and SPD (Symphysis Pubic Disorder) during Pregnancy

February 13, 2012

Pregancy puts an enormous strain on a woman’s lower back and pelvic area. View this for an explanation of what happens: Back Pain during Pregnancy Explained

Some women also experience excruciating pain through their pregnancy due to SPD – pain ranges from an uncomfortable throb in the groin to severe pain which makes walking very difficult. It is often much worse at night and can stop women getting much sleep; symptoms can include

· lower back pain, especially in the sacro-iliac area
· difficulty/pain rolling over in bed
· Difficulty/pain with stairs, getting in and out of cars, sitting down or getting up, putting on clothes, bending, lifting, standing on one foot, lifting heavy objects, etc.
· sciatica type symptoms (pain in buttocks and down the leg)
· “clicking” in the pelvis when walking
· getting up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night can be especially painful
· feeling like hip is out of place or has to pop into place before walking

My client had had SPD all through her pregnancy and some of the pain and sharp twinges persisted even after the birth of her daughter (who was no nearly 2yrs old). She had got used to the pain so when she consulted me for her upper body problem, she mentioned the pain in the lower back and hips only in passing.

When she returned for her follow up session, the first thing she said was that she no longer had symptoms of her SPD and she got quite tearful. She told me she had resigned herself to never being without this pain and couldn’t believe that she no longer had it… – isn’t it awful how easily we get used to living with pain?

My motto is: something, no matter how small, can ALWAYS be done and as I treat the WHOLE person and not just the area the problem is being experienced, it is not unusual to get such results…

Computer generated arm pain…

February 6, 2012

My last client tonight complained that she couldn’t fully extend her left arm above her head. This was an unusual presentation for her in that she used the mouse with the right hand and had a head set for the telephone. With all my clients, I drill in the fact that seating correctly at the computer and stopping for stretches every 30mins is of utmost importance and as this was a long standing client, she had heard me say this time and again.

A bit surprised by my findings I continued to quiz her whilst carrying out the rest of the treatment and it was towards the end she found the answer to my question: what are you doing with the left hand that is different to the right?

“I know! It’s the way I am sitting!”

It transpires that she sits at a desk with a corner such as this:

..only the monitor is placed to her right, the keyboard is at an angle so she has to extend her left arm to reach the keys..and she is in this position for 7 hours per day with few breaks and even fewer stretches to undue the excessive strain being put on her left arm.

There it was – the reason her left arm was so tight was because she wasn’t sitting with the computer directly in front of her and to add insult to injury, even her keyboard was at an angle! Not good

She left the treatment room tonight, happy that we had worked out why her left arm was strained and with an earnest promise to me that she will correct the position of her computer and do the required stretches.

Let’s hope she does, for the sake of her left arm…