Chiropractic Archives | Coaching & Sports Massage

07 May 2020

The Perfect Match: Chiropractic and specialised massage therapy now available at Elite Performance Therapy!

We are delighted to announce the partnership of Elite Performance Therapy with The English Chiropractor: Sarah Monaghan.

Here at Elite Performance Therapy, our continuing aim is to understand the root cause of your pain and not just the symptom. As such we are very excited to be able to offer this unique treatment approach combining the benefits of both Chiropractic treatment and specialized massage therapy together in one appointment.

The value of chiropractic and specialised massage therapy

Sarah’s Chiropractic career has stemmed from over 15 years’ experience. She has treated not only professional athletes but also those with everyday back pain. Regardless of whom she treats the principles of her treatment remain the same and play a critical role in treating a variety of common injuries, such as sprains and low-back pain. (Please click here to read Sarah’s full bio.).

With over 15 years’ experience in the Health & Fitness industry, Isy has also worked as a sports massage therapist for a range of elite sports including England Paraplegic Badminton Team, Injured Soldiers, PGA Professionals, Rugby Sevens, European Ladies Tour, Superbikes and Ironman athletes. Her passion lies in helping people and guiding them through their recovery using her wide range of experience in treating various injuries and focuses on treating the cause of the injury rather than just the symptoms. (Please click here to read Isy’s full bio).

So, what happens when you put them both together?

We asked Sarah to explain a little about her previous experience of working alongside sports massage therapists, how they complement each other and the benefits to you – our clients – of being able to offer this specialist treatment approach all under one roof.

“The key to combining these treatments effectively is exemplary communication between the massage therapist and the Chiropractor. At Elite Performance Therapy a typical combined approach would involve:

1. Full medical history

2. A complete examination including joint, muscle and nerve assessment.

3. Diagnosis and full verbal report of findings.

4. Your case will be fully discussed between Sarah and Isy in order to develop a treatment plan based upon your individual condition / injury

This process ensures that we give the best tailored treatment plan combining the benefits of both massage and Chiropractic.

When the two health professionals and client work as a team only great results can be achieved”!

What is unique about your approach and how does it benefit me – the client?

As a Chiropractor, Sarah specialises in treating pain and discomfort. However, what distinguishes her from other chiropractors in her approach of identifying and addressing the underlying cause of an injury. Sarah’s approach in a raw sense (!) is not just to realign the joints of your spine (often identified as a cracking sound) but to use her skills to understand why the injury/condition occurred so long term relief can be achieved.

For example:

“A client struggling with hamstring injuries traditionally would be treated addressing the hamstring alone, however this is often does not provide the client with a long term solution. If we look into the spine we can often find the problem which is affecting the ability for the nerve messages to pass to the hamstring which in turn will give the power needed for the muscle to contract….

Restrictions in the spine can mean that these message aren’t as clear as they should be. – Imagine squeezing a hose pipe which in turn affects the flow of water. Now the power to the muscle is insufficient therefore when challenged the muscle fails. In this instance treating the spine is an imperative part of the treatment process. Merely treating the hamstring would not result in restoring the power required to the hamstring and relief would be short term”.

When the two health professionals and client work as a team only great results can be achieved”!

A combination approach addressing both the spinal issue as well as the muscle and then onto rehabilitation is one of the best approaches. Rehabilitation is also an imperative part of the recovery process and often overlooked.

“Often tight muscles are weak muscles, so instead of looking at stretching we really need to look at increasing power and strength to muscles via massage treatment and home specific rehabilitation exercise”.

Conclusion

Unfortunately treating injuries isn’t as straightforward as treating the area that hurts.

Our promise at Elite Performance Therapy is to fully assess and diagnose your injury and create a comprehensive treatment plan. We will understand the underlying cause, the symptoms and educate you -the client – on a bespoke strength and conditioning regime to put you back on the road to recovery.

If you wish to find out more please get in touch or give us a call here and we can book you in to put you on the first step to recovery.

BY: Isy Fergusson

Chiropractic / Conditions / Health / Message Therapy / Physical Therapy

COMMENTS: No Comments

28 Feb 2019

How Massage works: Top 3 Massage Myths

There are hundreds of myths circulating around massage therapy and its effectiveness. It is easy to understand why many people get confused as to what is a truth and what is a myth when there are so many therapists with different education or experience. Here are our key 3 myths that we believe need clarifying:

1. No pain, no gain = if it’s not painful, it’s not doing anything

Well, this is actually false.

Pain is resistance to change. Pain is what we are trying to get rid of and you can’t fight fire with fire. When under stress or in pain, the body switches to “fight or flight” mode and your adrenaline kicks in. Painful massage doesn’t relax or calm the nervous system and therefore it won’t create a positive change. Tensing up to tolerate a painful treatment causes more tension and defeats the purpose of actually having a massage.

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Receiving a deep, firm or even very firm pressured treatment is still possible so long as the therapist is skilled at applying it. It should be slow enough to allow your muscles and soft tissues to melt as they sink into deeper layers.

We want to reach a therapeutic edge – the place where change is created in a safe way. It involves a satisfying level of pleasant /good pain achieved when pressure is applied to a nagging area or a knot. A similar sense of relief i.e. when scratching an irritating itch!

2. Massage can fix it in one go = no, no

A single massage can relieve your symptoms in the short term, but unfortunately won’t fix it. Relief is great as it gives you a temporary break from the pain or discomfort that you are in, but may not last more than few days.

Months or years of tension can build-up from poor posture, siting at your desk and muscle imbalance from repetitive movements.

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When coming for a massage, it’s very important to discuss how far we want to go with our treatments. Remedial massage can open a can of worms – where you can feel worse before getting better. Take the analogy of clearing a messy garage – when you start taking things out, it becomes initially messy, before it’s organised in a better way. It is very important to finish what we started when we are releasing knots or creating new healthy muscle behaviour.

A course of treatments that is started but abandoned after one session, can cause more harm than good. It needs the full course of treatments to put things back in the right order – building each time on top of what is started in a first session. Based on scientific research, the most effective treatment plan to fix the problem is called “Fix in 6”:

1 massage treatment per week for 3 consecutive weeks (no more than 7-10 days apart).
It is then followed by 2-3 treatments when we can gradually start to reduce to fortnightly sessions or every 3 weeks until the results last for a month.

When this achieved the client can then simply maintain the results once a month which will also prevent the problem from coming back.

3. Massage is only a hocus pocus relaxation voodoo

Yes, you can simply go to a spa for someone to rub the oil on your back, but a real therapeutic massage has heaps of science behind it. Clinical massage treatment, like the one at Elite Performance Therapy is based on many scientifically proven theories.

One of the benefits of massage is that it facilitates healthy movement patterns in the body by establishing new muscle memories. There is also a lot of research on the physiological effects from massage on all body organs. More recent research in massage science involves the understanding of fascia. Performing massage myofascial release on the connective tissue that binds the whole body together can aid visceral wellbeing add enormously to it’s effectiveness.

At Elite Performance Therapy our qualifications are continually updated to current industry developments – adapting physical techniques to the most recent research. As professionals we are required to undergo continual professional training to keep up with latest research and developmental changes. We believe Elite Performance Therapy treatments can be effective and feel good – even when we apply our massage in a scientific way!

BY: Isy Fergusson

Chiropractic / Fitness / Health / Message Therapy / Physical Therapy

COMMENTS: No Comments

26 Oct 2018

Why our combined approach of Therapeutic Massage Therapy & Chiropractic Care has a 98% success rate

It is a proven fact that there are significant health improvements mentally and physically when utilising a combination of both therapeutic massage therapy and Chiropractic care.

The physical improvements from utilizing both therapies may include better flexibility, increased range of motion, decreased muscle tension, better stress management as well as improving high blood pressure. Mental health benefits of these therapies may also include creating a peace of mind, proprioception and inner balance and a connection to your mind and body.

THE DIFFERENCES

The differences between chiropractic and therapeutic massage therapy are distinct. Therapeutic massage therapy is usually done for 40-60 minutes (depending on the client and their requirements which is assessed following an initial consultation), therapists use a variety of techniques to address musculoskeletal conditions. Gentle kneading and stretching may be incorporated to help relieve tight and tender tissues and alleviate chronic or acute pain syndromes. Massage therapists do not manipulate joints in the same way chiropractors do, however they may also use manual therapy which consists of trigger point work or active release. In trigger point therapy we localize one portion of the dysfunctional muscle and use ischemic compression to restore function. In the active release, we shorten the muscle and make a contact then bring the muscle through its normal plane of motion which then strips the muscle from any muscle adhesions present that may be causing the tightness or restriction.

Chiropractic treatment is usually around 20 minutes. It is based heavily on the chiropractic adjustment which corrects a vertebral subluxation. A vertebral subluxation is a term used to describe a joint that has lost a degree of movement, has abnormal muscle pulling on either side and/or has altered neurological function coming from the nerve that exits the spine at that level. This involves a firm pressure being applied to the area of subluxation and the joint being corrected. This will help restore proper function to the nervous system.

PHYSICAL BENEFITS TO CHIROPRACTIC & THERAPEUTIC MASSAGE THERAPY

Fosters faster healing of strained muscles and sprained ligaments
Reduces pain & swelling
Reduces muscle spasms
Reduced formation of adhesions
Improves circulation of blood and lymph
Relieves tension and strain of whiplash related injuries
Helps reduce headaches
Promotes deeper and easier breathing
Strengthens immune function
Improves posture

THEY WORK TOGETHER

Chiropractic and massage therapy work in conjunction together to help correct the nervous system, joint mobility, muscle tension, ligaments, and fascia. Mechanically, the best way to incorporate the two is the massage therapy session should proceed with the chiropractic treatment. After this, your muscles are relaxed, and your joints will move more freely, and you will get the most out of the treatments.

It is important to note that bones do not move without muscle, so if a muscle is overly tight and a bone is pulled out of place, the muscle needs to be warmed and pliable, then stretched. If not, the chiropractor can ‘pop’ a bone into place, but the tight muscle can ‘pop’ the bone out of place unless it’s addressed first.

Both therapies also help manage your stress- physical, emotional and chemical stresses can be manifested as subluxation and muscle tension in your body.
Here at Elite Performance Therapy, our aim is to bring different types of service lines together to provide the most effective care to our patients.

Isy and Charlotte are here to help you feel better, move better and live pain-free!!

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY….

“As a keen golfer I’ve used many chiropractic and sports therapists around the world but they never seem to be working together?! The key to combining these treatments effectively is great communication between the massage therapist and the chiropractor which is exactly what elite Performance Therapy do!!! Isy and Charlotte both know the treatment program and desired outcome and so the massage therapy and sports chiropractic care complement each other brilliantly! Highly recommended.”