Tuesday 9 August 2011

Osteo treatment

Went to see an Osteopath today. Not that there is anything crazily wrong with me. I'm not in constant pain and I'm not a physical wreck. However, there are a couple of things that I wanted to sort out in my body, and I thought I should see someone about it sooner rather than later.

As a massage therapist I constantly see people after they have been battling against niggles for a long long time, compensations have crept in and I think... If only this person had come to see me 6 months ago...

I have noticed when foam rollering my ITBs that the right one is considerably tighter than the left, and that might be because of a slight torsion to the tibia on the right... Im not sure, but its worth checking out. Also, it would be interesting to see what he thinks of my shoulder.

So I decided to take my own advice and went to see someone who has been recommended to me.

After an hours consultation the upshot is this.
Yes, I had a slight Varus on the right tibia/fibula which was causing the ITB to be tight. The head of the fibula was bouncy on the left leg, but "dead" on the right. So that got sorted out. As I look in the mirror now, the leg looks physically straighter, and the knee is obviously pointing in the right direction now. Excellent. This wasnt stopping me from running, but I suspect that had I ignored it, about 8 months down the line I probably wouldn't be able to run because of pain in the right ITB/knee area.

He did also look at my shoulder, but the thing that was more interesting was the hip complex- I suspected something was going on there, but have never really got to the bottom of it. Bascially I had a slightly torsioned sacrum, heading off to the right- which was throwing the rest of the body out of whack. Hips slightly to the right, and shoulders slightly to the left. Paraspinals on the right were weak, and on the left, very well developed.

My sacrum was sorted out, which was excellent, and the back as well. I also had hyper extension in my neck from excessive tension in a couple of the muscles. (one muscle was too tight, the other too loose- or at least thats the very simplified explanation).

So after all that, I'm certainly not going out for a run this evening- that would just tighten up all the muscles around the structures that have been moved around into better places, and would jar things back to where they were- which would be a total waste of my and his time. Tonight is a stretching and rollering night. I have a load of exercises to do, and they will be done at least 3 times a day.
If someone tells you to do something and its given to you in order to make you better, do it.

As I say, there was no real pain for me, and if I went to a doctor to get referred, I certainly wouldn't have been. I live a functional life, I can run and jump and lift weights etc. However, it was a bit of maintenance on my part, and anything I can to to make this body work more efficiently and last me longer, then I'm going to do it.
First time at an Osteopath. It certainly won't be the last.

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