About Myotherapy

There are two critical steps to resolving chronic pain and injury ;

1 Rebalancing the body

Myotherapy restores muscular imbalances by releasing muscular restrictions that are contributing to structural imbalance ie rotated pelvis , short leg , functional scoliosis etc

Let's take a closer look at muscle imbalances. Our muscles hold our bones and joints in place. They provide stability and locomotion for us. Therefore, it is critical that the very delicate balance between all muscle groups be in balance and stay in balance in order for us to live pain-free, active lives. Even more so if you're an athlete - the more your muscles are in balance, the better the athlete you will be.

Our bodies adapt to the forces and stress we place on them. For example, a man who sits all day in front of a computer tends to have very tight hip flexor muscles (the muscle in the front of the upper leg) and weak glutes (that would be your butt muscles). His hip flexor muscles are tight because sitting puts them in a shortened position and keeps them there; the muscles on the back of his legs are weak because they are not being used.

Here's what can result from that single imbalance: Your hips can be pulled out of their proper position, and because our hips control our spine, the spine is going to go into abnormal curvature. That abnormal curvature can bring about the spinal misalignment, leading to postural dysfunction. In this example by releasing the muscles on the front of the thigh, the pressure on the back from the tilted pelvis will be significantly reduced and would improve the back pain .

It takes months, if not years, to develop muscle imbalances that can cause spinal misalignment. You must understand that your condition - whatever it may be - took time to develop. It probably was not due to a single event, even though you may have experienced pain after you think you "overdid it" - whatever the "it" might be.

I hope you are starting to see the big picture. Failure to address these imbalances as part of your recovery program will ensure continued suffering

2 Understanding what is causing the pain

Pain is just a symptom - a signal from your body that something has gone haywire and needs to be addressed. Frequently the reason pain lingers longer than it should is because treatment given has focused on addressing the specific painful area, which is just a symptom of a larger problem .

In regards to back pain I have seen estimates that approximately 80% of people experience back pain in the course of their lives and roughly 25% of people are in pain at any given time. Unfortunately the author of one study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that 85% of back pain had no definitive diagnosis. (Deyo, RA. Fads in the treatment of low back pain. N Engl J Med. 1991 Oct 3)

Furthermore in 1994, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study that showed when doctors looked at MRI's of 98 people with no back pain , researchers noted the following:

“52% of the subjects had a bulge at atleast one level, 27%had a protrusion, and 1 %had an extrusion” Thats 82% of the people scanned had a disc abnormality but no back pain. (Jensen MC , et al. Magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbar spine in people without back pain . N Engl J Med. 1994 Jul 14)

This is why if you have been diagnosed with a herniated or bulging disc, instead of treating the symptoms, the focus should be on what caused the disc to herniate to begin with. The cause is likely to be something which cannot be seen on an Xray, MRI or CAT Scan.

In almost every case musculoskeletal pain is the result of a body wide movement problem which is created by :

1 Muscular Imbalances ,

2.Muscular Compensations and

3.Fascial restrictions .

1 Muscular Imbalances

In simple terms, a muscle imbalance occurs when you have overdeveloped and tight muscles in one area of your body while the opposing muscles are weak and stretched out of their normal position. This concept has been explained above.

2 Muscular Compensations

As in the example given above above with prologed sitting the anti gravity muscles which support us when standing, such as the gluteals and spinal erectors can weaken through excessive tightness or simply switching off. Our bodies will get from point A to point B the best way it knows how. If for some reason that best way doesnt work because of a tight muscle, an injury, a bruise, inflammation, or a thousand other scenarios, the body will figure out another way to get there.

The compensation will however lead to changes in the way the joints line up and how and when our muscles pull, as well as which muscles pull. Each of these factors creates a potential barrier to proper healing .

3 Fascial Restrictions

The body is connnected by a specific type of connective tissue called fascia. Fascia surrounds muscles, bones and joints and provides support and protection giving the body structure. There is another firmer deeper layer of fascia - myofascia- that wraps itself in and around every muscle and continues to extend outward to attach to every tendon, ligament and bone. Picture this layer as a tight knit stocking that surrounds and links muscles.

Because myofascia connects muscle fiber to muscle fiber and larger muscle groups in distinct structural patterns and attachments, a person can never just stretch one isolated muscle or for that matter injure one muscle of the body and not impact another in that fascial line

The problem is that fascia will thicken and shorten when any of your tissues are under stress from poor posture, lack of exercise, injury, surgery, disease or overtraining.

Facts about Fascia

The health and function of all joints & muscles are a direct result of the condition of your fascia.
Healthy circulation in your muscles, joints, arteries, veins, brain & spinal cord is largely dependent on optimal flexibility of your fascia
There is NO medication that can improve your fascia.
There is NO supplement that can optimize your fascia.
Exercise alone does not optimally balance, align and improve your fascia.

Effects of untreated fascia

Decreased joint space can lead to degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis & more.
Increased muscle tone can lead to trigger points, strain, tendonitis, tears & more.
Increased nervous tissue tone can lead to headaches, trigger points, muscle tightness & more.
Increased scar tissue formation.
Decreased blood flow, decreased energy, increased fatigue & more

At Sydney Myotherapy we work on treating the cause of your pain by taking a whole body approach to identifying and fixing imbalances which create movement problems. This involves identifying where the muscular imbalances, muscular compensations and fascial restrictions are in the body and treating them with hands on techniques of myotherapy which include triggerpoint relaese and myofascial release.

By also incorporating stretch therapy and corrective exercise to treatment a long term solution to pain and injury is provided .