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We are all working to achieve the same thing – results. There is nothing more frustrating that watching one of your athletes go through a cycle of injury and recovery only to return to training or competition and either re-injure themselves or sustain another related. If its not happening and you could use some fresh ideas let us help.
Too much conventional treatment effort is spent stretching or foam rolling the painful structures, attempting to strengthen the painful structures, injecting the painful structures and blanket prescription of core stability and flexibility exercises. When these do not achieve a result many patients and practitioners alike do not know where to turn. At Integrated Physiotherapy we do.
The diagnosis your athlete receives from a physio or sports physician is only the name of the result of the problem. In order to not only fix the problem but allow the athlete to optimise their performance potential we need to understand the “why” of the diagnosis and the underlying movement dysfunction.
Musculoskeletal screening, in conjunction with video analysis allows us to to differentiate coachable technique issues from those due to limitations of the human machine. and gain valuable insights into the interaction between equipment, technique and the body . We can learn where range of motion and movement limitations are present , what has caused them and the best way to address them,whether by improving technique awareness and control or through specifically targeting tissue restrictions and irritation with manual therapy and dry needling.
Video Analysis
Video analysis is a common enough technique used by sports physiotherapists,coaches and participants in many sports every day. What video analysis provides is the ability to breakdown a particular activity and identify deviations from technique that may be affecting performance or leading to injury. When we observe inefficient movement in any activity it is only an observation until we have further information in order to know the reason the are occurring.
We have to specifically test whether there is a limitation in awareness, movement control or whether there is a cumulative tissue irritation or restriction involved.
Awareness
Issues caused by a lack of movement awareness are coachable and will respond well to coaching, prompts and drills. This is relatively simple to test for, the main challenge being to identify the inefficient component of the movement and to find the effective cue to allow the athlete the opportunity to correct the dysfunction. If the athlete is able to achieve the correction this can then be reinforced and challenged with drills and training. The athlete who is unable to correct the movement has either control or restriction issues or a combination of both.
Control
When control issues are present the person either :
- completely lacks movement/motor software
- lacks the level of software required by the level of the activity
- has specific or “apparent” weakness caused by tissue immobility or irritation resulting from movement dysfunction and overload. This apparent weakness or “inhibition” must be addressed or any attempts to retrain or strengthen movements will be slow or completely unsuccessful
Tissue Restriction
May be actual or apparent ie tissue behaving in a restricted way due to tissue irritation.
Overloaded tissues become irritated and may become inflamed or develop pathology such as tendinopathy or other degenerative processes.
They:-
- “Behave weak”
- “Behave tight”
- “Behave stiff”
Tissue that “feels” tight to the patient usually feels that way because it moves too much and is irritated. Actual tight or stiff tissue rarely has any sensation associated with it because it DOESNT MOVE
Example:
A shoulder restriction on the left may be what is causes the hip on the right side to exhibit excessive lateral movement or a lack of thoracic spine rotation left may be what is causing excessive and internal rotation of the right knee which in turn perhaps causes tissue sensitivity or pain in the knee or ankle.
An effective treatment process must identify where the movement is lacking and aim to restore and maintain it to unload the overloaded, painful structures. An integrated, head to toe screening process in conjunction with movement analysis allows accurate identification of this lacking movement.
With over 25 years clinical experience at the highest sports physiotherapy level using a multitude of manual therapy and manipulative treatment techniques , coaching and retraining, dry needling and traditional acupuncture we can often offer the breakthrough you are looking for. We share our assessments and observations with you and your athlete and only want to stay involved until your athlete is able to continue their progress with you.
At Integrated Physiotherapy we offer an approach to physiotherapy that has many points of difference and is, in some respects, unconventional. When added to more conventional approaches where progress may be slow or appear to have stalled, positive change is often seen. This may be for many reasons and some of them are as simple as our appointment time structure but includes:
- Hour long consultations at Integrated Physiotherapy allow techniques to be applied to multiple, anatomically and neurologically related regions within one treatment session which allows a different level of neuro-integration following the treatment to what might occur after treating separate regions on different days
- Every session we go through specific integrated neuro-myofascial screening process which allow us to determine the presence of an accumulation of tissue irritation or restriction-anywhere in the musculoskeletal system. This is rarely if even that actual site of pain and these sites may produce abnormal impulses which load the neurological system and may contribute to “brain” sensitivity. eg. a shoulder restriction on the left may be what is causing the hip on the right side to exhibit excessive lateral movement or a lack of thoracic spine rotation to the left may be what is causing excessive and perhaps painful internal rotation of the right knee.
- We are able to spend considerable time teaching and retraining exercise, postures and work and sporting techniques using video feedback. In many cases people respond well to the longer teaching and feedback process than when these important aspects of treatment are, by necessity, squeezed into shorter consultations.
- The use of Integrated Dry needling as part of the manual therapy used at our clinic provides another point of difference as there are many ways in which this style of needle stimulation affects the systems tissues and neurology when compared to the trigger point dry needling techniques other practitioners commonly use.
- Over 25 years assessing and coaching many sporting techniques in conjunction with manual therapy directed by a head to toe, neuro-myofascial screening process
- The use of traditional acupuncture alongside dry needling, manual therapy and exercise prescription may provide important , breakthrough systemic support , for a patient who has suboptimal inflammatory and healing responses due to:
- immune system compromise
- autonomic nervous system imbalance
- altered body chemistry or hormonal imbalance
We look forward to working with you.