Addressing the Problem
I have always enjoyed my work, helping people get out of pain and become more mobile. However it’s always been my view that whatever tool from my toolbox I use to achieve this – massage, NMT, dry needling, mobilisation, etc. – is a temporary fix, a band-aid on the problem. Injury prevention is the key. The problem is how we created this restriction or pain in the first place and that is invariably by something we’ve done, be it lifting and twisting with a load resulting in back pain, headaches from being hunched over as computer all day, sore knees after walking downhill while tramping or after a day’s skiing, recurring Achilles tightness from running…….the list goes on.
How you have moved has created your problem. So what if we change the way you move? I’m not talking about changing the way you sit in a chair or how you walk down hill, I’m talking about getting back to using those muscles you used naturally as a child – no matter how long ago it was – so that you move in a way that will allow you to do all those things you’d like without risk of injury. When everything is working as it’s intended to work you’ll move naturally, probably differently to how you do now.
“I’ve always been conscious of not asking a client to do something I wouldn’t do myself.”
Given the time I have available to me presently I thought I might take up running again seriously. Last year, after 15 years off due to an initial injury and many treatments that didn’t sort the problem, I decided to do a half marathon – just to see if I could do the distance still. I’d just finished the Central South Island Charity Bike Ride so I was feeling fit. I managed to fit in three training runs before the event and, yes, I completed it. Not in a time I’d like to lay claim to as a runner, but finished none-the-less. Just what I’d advise my clients not to do!! A half marathon on three training runs – call me anything, but not sensible. I think I ran once more after that then resumed walking as my fitness activity.
Why now?
Things have changed. A year on, I’ve decided to take up running. Something many people do. However I have a plan for my own injury prevention. This time I’ve listened to my professional self. I haven’t started running yet. Instead, I’ve done a thorough assessment on myself. I got one of my bubble mates to video me doing a series of movements I use as assessment in my practice and then scrutinised it objectively.
Guess what? I wasn’t moving how I thought I was; no way! I was all over the place – lots of little things that add up frankly, to dysfunctional movement patterns – a recipe for injury. Small things that, if I ignore them and carry on doing them, will become a pattern for my movement, and will eventually stop me running again. Who knows if it was these that caused my injury all those years ago? I won’t know. But if I stick to my training plan and get the correct muscles firing in the right sequence at the right time and have no injuries, I’m not going to be side-lined again.
Where to from here?
This is the direction I want to pursue in The Clinic. I can’t make you invincible but I can help you minimise your risk of injury. You don’t need to be a runner, although you may be. If you have recurring injury or pain, even if you’d just call it discomfort, maybe it’s the way you’re moving or not moving that’s the cause. Sure, treatment may ease it and you’ll feel better for a bit but if it returns on a regular basis it’s no coincidence. It’s highly likely you’re not moving efficiently in your work, your sport, or in everyday life’s activities.
