Muscle Management Clinic » Therapies

Trigger Point Therapy

admin — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 09:17:01 +0000

Deactivating trigger points is a means to reduce/eradicate pain and discomfort. These hyper irritable spots, in lay term are called knot, in clinical terms hypertonic muscle lesions. A taut band or a concentrated area/portion of a muscle belly becomes contracted and produces pain and restriction, it inherently can destabilise a joint, can cause aggravation/inflammation = Pain.

Deactivation of these points requires various techniques.

Ischaemic compression, when the trigger point is located (cornered) and compressed against underlying anatomical structures, it deactivates the point by cleaning it up from a toxicity point of view, ie the by products of cellular respiration are pushed out, reabsorbed into the blood stream and eliminated and when the trigger point is released it reabsorbs oxygen and nutrient rich blood from surrounding tissues. The pressure also deactivates the contractile part of the muscle cell(microscopic) and stuns the muscle into relaxing. This will enable us to elongate the entire muscle, thus unloading associated attachments and decompressing joint lines.

The post Trigger Point Therapy appeared first on Muscle Management Clinic.

Pregnancy Massage

admin — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 09:15:25 +0000

With the ever changing body through the natural cycle of pregnancy, the body sometimes murmurs aches and pains with the change. With all of the changes there is a shift in gravitational force running through your body and your residing posture is altered with the growth of your soon to be born.

Aches and pains, restriction, tightness and fatigue from sleeping uncomfortably with painful muscles and joints from additional load bearing all contribute to making it quite tiring. A range of therapies such as Deep tissue massage, trigger point therapy, passive muscle stretching can alleviate, soothe and rejuvenate. With an increase in circulation to area of concern and ensuring your postural stance is a good as can be in regard to your relationship with gravitational force you will be able to carry strongly and correctly throughout every term. Having posture corrected as best as possible will ensure certain groups will strengthen and also other muscle groups will not overload.

An experienced Myotherapist can assist in gentle massage to alleviate stress and increase circulation, a warm soothing session to relax the entire nervous system and gently nourish the body with correct pressure and glide to ensure complete relaxation and rejuvenation.

If there are some other anatomical issues that require correction, appropriate well thought out therapy can be applied with sound knowledge of just not what therapy to apply but most importantly how to apply it. Consideration of how pregnant the client is will determine what position is most appropriate and comfortable for Mother to be, baby to come and can the correct therapy be administered correctly and most of all safely. Appropriate draping of client goes without saying, abundance of warm towels and surroundings ensures complete ease to correct the body comfortably.

The body produces elastin during pregnancy so many joints can become quite lax, ensuring correct muscular balance throughout the joint(s) in concern and the entire body will ensure aggravation does not take place if there is a pr existing issue.

In early stages of pregnancy a biomechanical alignment anatomical check to forecast any postural issues is advised, it is possible to forecast how the body will cope with the additional load in the upcoming months and do something about it early so as to change the course if it is looking like it may be unnecessarily uncomfortable.

The post Pregnancy Massage appeared first on Muscle Management Clinic.

Temporal Mandibular Dysfunction

admin — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 09:14:25 +0000

A condition where the person clenches or grinds their teeth, usually while in deep sleep (REM sleep) and usually is unaware they are doing this. Grinding can wear the teeth so usually a dentist will pick up on this but if it is clenching that occurs there usually is no trace of evidence. An intuitive Myotherapist will be able to pick this up with a few simple tests and it can indicate many underlying musculo-skeletal issues.

The causes and symptoms of this problem are varied and numerous.

Stress is a huge cause of this condition. With the mandible being a very emotional part of the human body and Psyche we are very expressive and emotive to our psychological state and it is expressed through the mandible and when in REM sleep, stressed out mind takes over in the night and clenching and grinding can take place. Studies have shown that the force in which some clench or grind is up to 6 times harder than if conscious, that is teeth breaking facts.

Incorrect Occlusion can be a factor, occlusion is how teeth close or fit together, if a door is not fitted correctly into the door jam, the hinges will be under stress, the same applies anatomically.

Muscular imbalance, which is the most probable and prominent. The closing muscles of the jaw generally are stronger than the openers, when the closing musculature ,temporalis, masseter, and pterygoids become contracted and ‘overtight’ it will result in a jaw that is out of balance, this puts pressure on the temporal mandibular joint directly affecting the joint but it also has a dramatic effect on other structures of the body. The cervical (neck) vertebrae act as an anchor to support the pendulum which is the jaw, the neck can become subluxated or locked, tight and inflamed, upper back pain, headaches, facial pain, jaw pain, light headedness and generally hard to focus.

An experienced Myotherapist will be able to identify this condition immediately and implement a non invasive treatment plan. Muscular release techniques on all closing mechanisms and structures and active release exercises to stretch and build the opening structures to restore balance to the actual joints. After all the only two joints in your skull are the jaw joints.

Identifying the triggers for an overactive jaw ie stress, muscle imbalance or occlusal issues is paramount and needs to be discussed and if required be referred to the appropriate health care practitioners that we are aligned with, example an occlusal night splint may need to be, fitted by a dentist who has expertise in this particular area.

The post Temporal Mandibular Dysfunction appeared first on Muscle Management Clinic.

Cupping

admin — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 09:12:44 +0000

The use of drawing pressure from “Cupping” can be extremely useful for many of its traditional benefits, in regard to Musculo skeletal complaints, the cupping utilised is best to release myofacial adhesion which is where the connective tissue adheres to surrounding structures, stagnating it from a cellular level (toxicity) and restricting its dynamic movement from a range of movement perspective.

Dragging the cups longitudinally and also in a cross fibre direction draws on the underlying muscle inversely into the cup, stretching the underlying tissue under drawing pressure, creating sheering stress through the layers beneath which stretch and separate them, whilst also releasing toxins back into the blood stream for processing and elimination.

The post Cupping appeared first on Muscle Management Clinic.

Dry Needling

admin — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 09:11:26 +0000

Yes different to acupuncture! Acupuncture is Traditional Chinese Medicine which works off body meridians which are base off your systemic organs, hence, stomach meridian, gall bladder meridian, lung, kidney etc etc, on these meridians are a series of points, all numbered. By stimulating certain points in succession , along with others factors, conditions and treatment will help the body recover, heal, fight infection, relax, whatever outcome is desired by the practitioner by stimulating and working with the meridian with Acupuncture needles. Has been around for hundreds of years and is extremely effective. So how is dry needling different? Dry needling interphases with the nervous system, not traditional Chinese Meridians. Dry Needling uses acupuncture needles(same toolbox) but we use them in an entirely different way. We deactivate trigger points and muscular contraction, by stimulating the nervous system. In order to make a muscle contract it takes an impulse from the Central Nervous System(CNS). The CNS is an output centre, it sprays electrical messages down through the spinal cord out the nerve roots and branches and instructs the body to do amazing things. It autonomically sends messages to your heart to keep it beating and to your diaphragm to keep it flattening so your lungs draw air, your heart pumps oxygen rich blood around the body and the brain and you keep living. The CNS voluntarily sends messages to skeletal muscles, when you instruct movement and support, this is done by muscular contraction and elongation and relaxation, this creates movement. When the CNS sends an electrical message down through the spinal cord, through the nerve to the muscle(s) instructing it to contract, sometimes that message continues, and continues repeatedly, hence the muscle is contracted constantly or at least a portion of it is, these are called in lay terms ‘Knots’, or trigger points, hypertonic muscle lesions. They are hyper irritable contractions which lead to muscular pain, restriction, reduced range of movement, muscle tears, injury, all things not desirable and usually painful or uncomfortable. In order to release these muscular contractions, the central nervous system needs to reboot and cease sending the same message down constantly. No amount of massage, stretching, treatment will deactivate that trigger point like dry needling will. Once the trigger point, knot is located and surrounding anatomy noted and indicated, insertion of a very fine hair like needled at correct depth will intercept the constant electrical impulse from the CNS and conductively recircuit it in the direction of which it came from, basically return it to the source or part of the CNS where it originated and spike, reboot or reprogram it into reset. The CNS will recognise the muscle, the trigger point and the fine needle interrupting the constant neurological flow and return it to normal function. It’s like putting a mirror in front of a light beam and bouncing it back to the light source, but in the form of a tiny nerve impulse, being redirected back through the nervous system to the brain and alerting it that it has been repeating itself constantly. A Myotherapist with years of experience will be able to locate a muscle contraction precisely and ‘needle it’ correctly, generating what’s called a ‘Local twitch response’, “a twitch”, then you know straight away that the precise spot has been needled correctly, you can see and feel the muscle twitch, then the entire muscle switches off and melts into deep relaxation or ‘turns off’. Once the desired result has been attained from needling, deep tissue manipulation and some passive muscle stretching will elongate the muscle and restore correct muscular integrity. Dry needling doesn’t hurt, you can feel it but it shouldn’t actually hurt. It is a very powerful tool and if used correctly can really impact and make a huge difference where other treatment can’t, it reboots the CNS and corrects the sequential firing pattern for correct movement.

The post Dry Needling appeared first on Muscle Management Clinic.

Orthopaedic testing and treatment

admin — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 09:05:09 +0000

In order to assess a client correctly and solve a presenting issue, problem, pain, restriction or injury first and foremost a deep understanding of Anatomy and orthopaedic testing is a must. Subjective and objective analysis of certain movements performed by the client will lead the therapist to understanding which muscle, muscle groups are not performing or over-performing in a way to retard the natural symbiotic movement for a particular joint or joints. Knowing what available range should be had on multiple planes of human movement is key to compare what range the existing client in front of you has.

Is the joint being “guarded”, or assisted to fudge the movement or is the movement true? Is the movement being initiated correctly throughout the sequential firing pattern from the central Nervous system or are some muscle jumping the gun with their contribution or not working together as a group.

Re calibrating movement by addressing the length tension relationships of various groups or deactivation of trigger points which are overacting and over initialising movement is a good start to correcting movement. When the body is injured, the guarding of a joint means that other soft tissue will overwork to send the stress around the aggravated area to protect it, which is great in the short term but will lead to long term imbalance and incorrect movement. Absolute correct anatomy and perfect length tension relationship are achievable in identifying underlying issues with orthopaedic testing. Then appropriate therapy can be applied to correct the issue.

The post Orthopaedic testing and treatment appeared first on Muscle Management Clinic.

Myotherapy

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 09:49:00 +0000

Myotherapy – Adv Dip in App Sci (‘Myo’ Latin for Muscle) is a natural therapy that works in a pain free, non invasive manner to restore the integrity of the soft tissue component of the human body. Improved musculature, tendons and ligaments resting within their natural length and tension will correct range of movement throughout the bodies entirety creating postural benefits, unloading specific joints and areas of adhesion, contraction and fibrosis. This will all in turn improve general well being, correct injuries and help prevent them. With client understanding of utmost importance a highly skilled Myotherapist will assess and treat the client in a way where comfortability and results driven outcomes are paramount. Orthopaedic testing, range of movement measurement and postural analysis are the big factors in how an experienced Myotherapist will work. Subjective and objective measurement and analysis will guide attention to where the problem is originating from, creating a cause based remedy to rid the client of unwanted pain and restriction, physically rendering them able and active to re participate in life and activity at any level, be it general activity or high performance athletic ability. As an experienced Myotherapist, we work in conjunction with other health care professionals to ensure the clients gets exactly the correct care possible, from basic strengthening with exercise prescription to full post- operative rehab if someone has been involved in trauma or reconstructive surgery. Myotherapy is the best form of therapy for postural deviation especially in our modern world. As humans like no time ever before in history are residing in sedentary, static workstations or do tasks in a repetitive manner, we are becoming the posture in which we adopt. If you work an office job where the desk is the normality of your day, the muscle groups when put into the shortened position while seated at a computer will effectively “shorten” that’s what muscles do, they contract, so when seated our hip flexors are in the shortened position, while our chest shortens as do our biceps. When we type, the shoulders round as they are dragged forward by the chest and biceps creating a ‘forward head carriage’ which will activate the support muscles of the neck and upper back to constantly and statically support the weight of the head which is now hanging outside of its gravitational line, so instead of balancing our head evenly atop our neck, we are activating constantly to support the ongoing weight of the head which leads to muscles being overloaded, their response to this is to contract constantly, this causes pain, restriction, and joint compression in our neck, this can also refer pain to our head, shoulder, jaw and general make us feel wound up. After residing at the desk, when we stand up, the shortened hip flexors pull on the pelvis in a downward fashion, this accentuates the Lumbar (lower) curve which alters the thoracic curve and finally the cervical (neck) curve, again, overloading the neck muscles. Our erector (back) muscles overwork in this instance to try and make us stand correctly but with our foundation now incorrect it is a tug of war between the front and the back muscle with your skeletal attachments in between. This is a typical scenario of a postural imbalance. Hamstrings feel tight, as do calves, it may manifest in your lower back, between your shoulder blades, base of the skull, that headache you can’t budge. It is the body’s attempts to correct these length tension relationships from a now incorrect foundation which lead to overload, pain and discomfort. An experienced Myotherapist will assess such abnormalities and correct the imbalance of and from the pelvis up, as gravity pushes down, imbalances and corrective contractions push up creating subluxations of the vertebrae, irritation/inflammation which equals pain. By elongation of muscle groups which shorten in the everyday of the individual the balance is restored, by making the individual aware of how this is happening is highly important. The desk is here to stay, preparing briefly to use the desk and a couple of quick stretches to negate the negative impact of the desk will ensure the problem is eradicated completed and self management is built into the individuals active lifestyle. Cooperate with gravity and become strong and dense or have a bad relationship with it daily and be crushed slowly over time. Myotherapy – The physical treatment of musculoskeletal dysfunction affecting human movement and posture. It is corrective in instances of pain, aggravation, inflammation and restriction. Myotherapy is soft tissue manipulation targeting areas of abnormal muscle tension and deactivation of trigger points. It is a health care modality utilised for pain management in instance of acute and chronic pain from injury, postural overload, occupational stressors and occurrences, stresses and perils of life. How Do We Differ From Other Health Modalities? We treat in a drug free, non-invasive natural manner. We are effective in attaining treatment goals with minimal consultations required and emphasis on self help programs to ensure rapid recovery. The corrections we make are not symptomatically driven. We assess the symptom and (then) physically address the source. For example, an inflamed shoulder joint does not always require a prescription of anti inflammatories! An examination of the shoulder girdle may reveal an overworked muscle or muscle group causing (putting) constant strain on the attaching tendon, causing aggravation and inflammation. The overload can result from improper shoulder function due to instability from poor posture/overuse. Is one shoulder lower than the other? Is one hip higher? Do you straighten the shoulder to fix the symptom or address the pelvis to correct the shoulder? We correct postural alignment issues and rehabilitate injuries by using soft tissue manipulation, passive muscle stretching, dry needling and various myofacial release techniques. By correcting the length tension relationships, we realign the body or individual joint. This reduces / eradicates muscular overload, minimises impact, prevents tears / fibrosis and allows recovery from past / present injuries and postural deviations. We provide corrective exercises and stretches to promote self help in combating the negative effects (forces) of your daily life. This will allow you to reside in the natural state of ‘correct posture’. How a typical session works Patient history is taken, Postural Assessment and measurement of range of movement, treatment plan, treatment involving restoration, adjustment, realignment of correct human geometry. This is done by soft tissue release techniques, myofacial dry needling when required and passive muscle stretching. Restoration of correct length/ tension relationships of the musculature and corresponding tissue leave you able to reside properly within downforce either during dynamic movement of exercise and sport or static/sedentary postures at your desk.

The post Myotherapy appeared first on Muscle Management Clinic.

Deep Tissue / Remedial / Sports Massage

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 09:47:36 +0000

Techniques used by Experienced Myotherapists to release and relax muscle(s) groups in order to change, align and correct the force in which the muscle exudes on its attachments and dramatically impact the effect it has on its surrounding connective tissue.

Connective tissue is just that, it connects structure(s), it is living for the most part contractile, adhesive, strong tissue and it can be manipulated by temperature, friction and palpative force. Our hands are very special structures and can do amazing things, the functions are endless but I firmly believe that are hands primary function is a human palpation tool, ie they are the 2 instruments when used together are able to manipulate human beings. On pure design and function they are able to fit in every fossa, anomaly, crease and anatomical crevasse with amazing fit and precision when used by an expert. Throw in amazing touch, feel and sensitivity and there is no better way to palpate to assess the underlying superficial and deep musculature and other underlying tissue. Palpation and treatment of Muscle, facia, connective tissue, banes tendons, ligaments and scar tissue, no more sensitive is the human hands.

Deep tissue massage can be used for pure relaxation as the friction applied with oil generates heat. Heat is a natural analgesic, blood vessels dilate and with this increase in blood flow help to relax the muscle(s). When a muscle is in its relaxed state it is in its most elongated state. The elongation will take pressure off surrounding structures and the muscular attachment points, muscles converge into tendons, then the tendon attach to bone.

The anatomical geographical location of where tendons attach is called the origin and insertion, these point if under constant or aggravating pressure can and will result in tendonitis(aggravated /inflamed tendon).

Massage comes in all forms but from a muscular point of view, the net goal physically for all forms of massage is to release and relax muscle contraction, making them elongated and lax so as to take pressure of their attachments making the joints in which they cross less pressurized, at ease and aligned perfectly.

Other forms of massage are -Hawaaiin massage, Thai massage, Sports massage, Shiatsu, Remedial Massage.
Other benefits of massage includ:
-Mental awareness, decrease anxiety, decrease stress and help with depression.
-Toxicity, lymphatic drainage, cleans up from a cellular level
-Improves sleep.
-General wellbeing and boost immunity.
-Recovery for excessive exercise or repetitious movement.
-Headaches, all types, massage will help
-Digestion
-Pregnancy pain alleviation

The post Deep Tissue / Remedial / Sports Massage appeared first on Muscle Management Clinic.