Peta McSharry is our lead therapist with 15 years of experience and receives many referrals due to the work she does to find the underlying cause of pain or injury. Peta uses “Structural Integration” to resolve problems, as a structural engineer looks at a building, Peta identifies where the stresses and strains of an out of balance body can add load to the muscle and fascial structures resulting in pain, she will identify how to remove the affecting load and offer guidance for you to make the necessary changes to prevent the problem returning.
Tammy who is new to the clinic will complete her level 5 qualification (the highest in the industry) in July. She brings a good strong treatment to the clinic and is already helping clients reduce pain and get back to sports or just living without pain.
Sports Massage treatments
Here are some of the things we got to treat this month at our sports massage clinic in Moorgate:
Long distance swimmer: Peta’s been helping a swimmer move to endurance swims and last year our client completed a 10km swim at the age of 57. This year the client is off to do two 10km and one 14km. Last year we used myofascial release to get her shoulders moving through a great range of movement, there are parts of the shoulder structure that were unable to stretch into the positions she needed to. Freeing up these muscles and fascial structures help improve her swimming technique. This year we are keeping on top of muscle injury due to the increase in volume of training along with a weight training programme. Our client arrived for her pre-event treatment with a shoulder that had flared up and was taking painkillers. Peta was able to identify the problem and release the area to enable the client to do the swim – she thought the shoulder pain was structural a didn’t want to swim and damage it. In the end it was cause by the stress which comes with taking part in these types of events and the problem was an easy to resolve muscle tension release.
Dragon Ride: one of the UK’s best and longest standing Sportives takes place in Wales in June, we take in a regular batch of cyclists who complete the event each year and have moved from doing the shorter distances to completing the full 300km ride. This is a standard distance for Peta, so if you are coming into clinic for a massage as a cyclist be warned you may end up riding further that you thought your body possible. Treatments ranged from just helping to take the fatigue out of the legs to sort out some niggling knee pain and tight upper backs.
Full knee replacement: Peta is back on the case with helping rehab a full knee replacement, this time in a relatively young client who is keen to get back to cycling pain free. The new knee joint was very swollen and did not move much at all. He’d been offered a treatment under general anaesthetic to force the joint to move but opted for a more gentle hands-on approach. Using a combination of myofascial release, fascial fitness techniques and some guided self-treatment techniques the client could apply himself, Peta got the knee joint working again within about 6 weeks and the client is back cycling pain-free.
“Migraine headaches”: we get a handful of clients presenting with “migraine headaches”. I’ve put this in inverted comma’s because while they are severe enough to cause a lot of discomfort they are not the genuine migraine headaches for which we have no treatment. They are generally severe tension headaches caused by bad posture and overloaded muscle and fascial structures. Some myofascial release and postural correction are what’s needed to resolve these severe headaches.
Running injuries: this month saw us deal with a variety of running injuries, ITB pain, knee pain, calf strain and a pulled hamstring. Most of these injuries come from structural problems, such as posture and muscles that are not working. Peta spends time identifying the cause of the problem and offered clients remedial work to correct the underlying problem along with applying myofascial release for those areas that are overloaded and complaining.
Ironman: miles are ramping up for the Ironman triathletes, we have a handful we are keeping on their training schedules either giving them remedial work to help correct muscle imbalances or just simply treating tired muscles to help them stay on a rigid and unforgiving training plan.
Dowager’s hump pain: we are working with a client who is developing a dowager’s hump, caused by sitting with the head jutted forward (most of us sit like this at a desk or stand poorly). He has damaged the vertebra in the base of his neck, resulting in inflammation and severe pain. This type of injury requires a good deal of education about the problem and urgent postural correction, gentle muscle activation and correcting poor movement patterns. We recommended a standing desk and after an MRI showed disc degeneration their employee provided a standing desk. We are now working with the client to ensure they stand correctly and to free up any muscle tension that may overload the inflamed area.
As always, we do our part to help with those desk related ailments from sore necks and shoulders, lower back pain and tight hips and hamstrings.
