Sport Injuries – why Therapeutic Bodywork is effective

hamstrings2 Hamstring-Action

The Hamstring Group is prone to injuries in sports. That’s a fact.

If you imagine the load they have to carry when that foot hits the ground, shifts the weight and pushes off the ground… if you add the fact that the front line of the legs is naturally stronger than the back line, it means that at the full of their extension the hamstrings are the ones who snap!!  A tight cable breaks if pulled even more, right? It all goes back to the tensegrity concepts (check my blog 12/23/2014).

Common sense back up: how many quads tears have you heard of out there on the fields? If a thigh is injured, 95% of the time is the hamstrings!!! Ask any coach, they will tell you!

I had the pleasure to help a professional football player not long ago. He plays with the Denver Broncos, that’s all I can say.

Bad hamstrings tear, 3 weeks out and when they reached out to me, he still was not able to run without debilitating cramps – come back game scheduled that Sunday. The injury itself had been checked and cleared as healed so what was the deal then?

Post-traumatic defense mechanisms at a biological level (not psychological.. – no PTSD) in the way of natural elastic muscle contraction.  Beautiful and at the time of injury useful scar tissue formations along with super tight lower leg compartment, quadriceps and ileo-psoas bilaterally… that was the deal!!

Like I always tell my clients, when something is tight on one side, on the other side something else is paying for it!!

Remember the role of the cables… Tensegrity

Long story short,  I started my NFL player face up,  in order to access the deep myofascial frontline (adductors, quads, psoas). Bringing those guys back to their natural resting length  takes the pressure off the hamstrings.

At that point I worked the back lines of the body with the exception of the injury site, which needed to be treated at the end and with particular directions and techniques. It also needed a little bit of lymph drainage therapy to get rid of a residual swelling. I like to do it at first by approaching the injury site, so that I can feel more of what’s underneath!!

That player, after a session of 90 minutes, was able to practice twice without any cramps nor pain and was able to play a whole game that Sunday – they won by the way – Go Broncos!!!

Orthopedic Bodywork is effective because it allows the body to find its balance naturally.

What I do is like the initial push to a sledge on the ice… hard to start and than it flies on its own!!

– loosen up tight cables

– bring blood flow back in the overstretched, inhibited antagonists

– active and passive stretches on the table – always assisted – to allow the brain to register the changes and executed in a non-invasive manner (the body stretches itself, so to speak).

Getting a sledge to fly on the ice is a process, never easy but always possible to some degrees. At that point it’s only a matter to establish a good maintenance for that particular person.

A NFL athlete, or any athlete, needs me weekly to relieve swellings and bruises, maintain the myofascial lines nice and loose and to flush out toxins from the tissues.

A weekly maintenance is needed for certain conditions I had the privilege to help such as Cerebral Palsy, terminal cancer patients, clients suffering psychological break-downs, elderly ladies in resting homes… all very humbling opportunities I have been blessed with to be able to grow as a person first and as a therapist consequently.

Weekly sessions are also needed at the beginning, to be able to peel the layers, than the client and I can figure out an appropriate maintenance.

I can happily claim from years of practice and tons of testimonials that Orthopedic Bodywork (or Therapeutic Bodywork or my Therapeutic Massage – whatever you want to call it) works quick. If it is only a soft tissue pathology, an average of 3 sessions is all it takes to get out of debilitating crippling pain and a monthly session is all it takes to stay out of pain.

Come and feel the difference… and, brand new tagline, “It doesn’t matter how much it hurts, together we’ll make it work!!”

 

8 Comments
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