Sports Massage Bank - fixing injuries January 2019

 

Our Sports Massage clinic near Liverpool Street and Moorgate had a busy start to the year, helped by the mild weather and increasing numbers of clients going skiing over the festive season as well as increasing numbers if people running early season marathons and half marathons. We've been getting many requests for our Marathon MOT, to pre-empt any issues before the miles ramp up.

Marathon MOT

Our Marathon MOT is a precursor to any marathon training plan, when the miles ramp up it is often this part of the training plan where biomechanics issues rear their ugly head and it's either a case of resting, or adjusting your plan while you recover. With over 15 years treating running injuries, Peta will look at your individual issues, identify and then test where the problem may lie. A combination of muscle activation, stretching advice will be given as well as treating problem areas with myofascial release. Off the back of treating our marathon runners, we saw two improve their PBs by over 15 minutes and these are runners who are already running sub 3 marathon times. We think it may be the Kipchoge-effect, but also sound remedial work and accurate hands-on treatment by a therapist helps. 

 

Dentist’s forearm pain

I am fascinated with ergonomics, how we use our bodies - or misuse them as is more often than not the case - is where we suffer pain. RSI type injuries creep up on us, gradually getting tighter and tighter until suddenly there is pain Ir discomfort that won’t go away. When I think of how dentist’s work - bent over, clutching a heavy, thin, vibrating instrument - it’s no wonder forearm RSI can be a problem. It took a good few sessions of Myofascial Release before I could get any movement in the soft tissue on the forearm, lets just say if this was a piece of meal we’d be boiling it for days to make it edible. Thankfully it responded well to the Myofascial work and in the end the muscles were soft and pliable and able to do start doing the refined movements that were lost while bound up. I also took the opportunity to work further up the arm and shoulder to get the whole biomechanical structure working as it should. It’s hard to change how a dentist work so all we can do is maintain the Myofascial structures to keep them in prime condition. 

 

Hip pain

Hip pain seems to be like buses at the moment - they all come in at once. One of the challenges I love about hip pain is that 5 people pointing to the same area of pain can all have different causes. So when I started treating a few people with glut-medius pain, my testing and investigation revealed different underlying causes. As I started working on the soft tissues I could see how different the tension and binding in the fascia were for each one, however they all pointed to a similar area of pain. This has always been my way of looking at a treatment plan, one solution does not fit all. In some cases it required freeing up fascial binding in the area, in others it was treating tension coming from elsewhere - back, hamstrings, adductors - to free up poor glut-medius. When you learn about fascia and where load comes from, you start tracing tension to the root cause rather than just the local site of pain. Some left with flexibility exercises others left with muscle exercises or both in many cases. Without the exercises nothing changes and the problem comes back.

 

Neck pain

Always a strong feature in a City based clinic. Not just for clients, believe or not therapists suffer as much as our clients do. After a weekend bent over a laptop doing clinic admin and start of the year marketing I woke up in the Monday morning with a very painful and stiff neck, facing anither very busy Monday clinic my only options was to get through the day on pain relief. The only day I can get my own sports massage is a Thursday if my colleague isn’t booked up. Bad news for me thanks to a marketing campaign on the weekend we were fully booked. That meant I was in for some innovative, lateral thinking self treatment. I’d been recently looking at some if the new research into the fascial systems in the body, without going into the technical side of fascial structures something in the leg could be affecting the neck or anything along the lines that go into the neck. Very methodically I worked up these lines and found the cause of the problem. Normally when working with clients I can see where the problem lies when they walk into the clinic and how they stand. This I can’t see on myself, thus the methodical approach. Thankfully I was  able to get some relief with a stern talking to about sitting hunched over a laptop on the sofa all weekend. What this points to is a conversation I have with many of my clients who want me to just treat the site of pain - the neck is the victim of a problem elsewhere, find the cause will cure the pain. Rub the pain and it just comes back.

 

Post fracture mobility - ankle

If you’ve never broken or dislocated anything you can’t relate to the pain, inconvenience or the time it takes for the body to return to normal. I always thought a dislocation was worse than a fracture given the amount of damage to the fascial structures around a dislocation. Bones generally mend in 6 weeks, fascia can take 3 months or more. I’ve done both and definitely say the dislocation was way worse and even two and half years later my little finger (the dislocated one) still hurts, is slightly buckled despite 10 weeks of physio and ongoing treatment by me. Ankles fractures tend to be both a fracture with extensive fascial tearing equivalent to a dislocation.these joints bear all the bodies weight and have very strong fascial structures and there are a substantial number of them around the joint. Rehab time compared say to a fractured collarbone is much longer and returning good mobility to the joint takes a dedicated approach ensuring consideration for fascial rehab is included in the programme. If I look a the fascial research being undertaken and the changes we are making in how we rehab fascia, the results I see in clinic compared to 15 years ago, the time taken to make the same gains are substantially reduced. I’ve seen clients with very old injuries who I’ve treated with some fascial therapy and given them a fascial mobility programme, despite the age of the injury we see change in joint mobility. Giving clients the means to work their own fascia means they are not tied into a weekly therapy session as the only means of mobilising the joint.

 

In order of numbers over the year, here are our top area searches:

Sports Massage Moorgate

Within easy walking distance, We get many clients seeing us for sports massage at our Moorgate clinic. Closest tube stations are Moorgate and Liverpool Street.

 

Sports Massage Liverpool Street

Within 3 minutes, it’s very quick to get to us for a sports massage at Liverpool Street and we get many clients who come from behind Liverpool street.

Sports Massage Bank

To get to us for a sports massage from Bank, is an easy 5-8 minute walk depending on where you are in Bank. It’s quicker to walk from Bank to Sports Massage Zone than to jump on the tube.

 

Sports Massage near me

Many clients search for a sports massage near me, but we also get many travelling quiet far based on our reviews. We’re happy to accommodate clients near and far.

 

Sports Massage Old Street

Although getting to us from Old Street for a Sports massage can take 10minutes, you can jump on your bike to see us - there are rails outside our building where you can lock up your bike.

 

Sports Massage Spitalfelds

We’re a short walk to get a sports massage with us if you work in Soitalfields. Head past Liverpool street station and you’ll find us on London Wall.

 

Sports Massage St Pauls

We get many clients from St Paul’s and Cheapside, it’s an 8-10 walk to come in for myofascial therapy or sports massage near me.

 

And some of the more distant places people came from, we got our first client from Iceland. 

 

If you suffer acute pain or a long term injury we don’t mind where you come from, we’d be delighted to get you back on the road to recovery. 

Peta McSharry

Peta McSharry is an experienced Sports and Remedial Massage therapist living in London who has been treating clients since 2004 and teaching bodywork since 2006. Her therapy is based on a good grounding in sports along with a structural approach to resolving issues.

Sports Massage Zone

Sports Massage Zone - Moorgate, Liverpool Street, Bank EC2
3rd Floor (Bell Court Dental Practice)
1 Throgmorton Avenue
London EC2N 2JJ

07799037773

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