Thai Yoga Massage - sounds cool, but what is it?!

Some people describe Thai Yoga Massage as 'lazy person's Yoga', as you get all the benefits of Yoga, without doing the work yourself.

Thai Yoga Massage is a wonderfully relaxing yet incredibly therapeutic form of traditional massage. It is Stretchtastic!

Unlike most other forms of massage, you keep your clothes on! You lie down on a comfortable futon on the floor, where you will be taken through a series of positions and stretches, together with lots of soothing acupressure, to help loosen up tight muscles and joints, release fascial restrictions, and stimulate the circulation of blood and lymph to promote healing, energy flow and relaxation. 

Each treatment is tailor made to the needs of the individual, so you will get stretched where you need it, and 

Being a Sports Massage therapist and an advanced Myofascial Release practitioner, you may also get a few bonus techniques to enhance some of the stretches and positions.

Thai Yoga Massage is for you if you want relaxation but your body needs attention too - some common ailments that Thai Yoga Massage can help with include:

• Poor posture and associated issues
• Tight shoulders 
• Stiff neck
• Headaches/tension
• Sciatica
• Low energy/Fatigue
• Back pain
• Stress
• Hip/knee pain
• Digestion

Thai Yoga Massage full body treatments are available for for 90min and 2 hour sessions in London - City (Moorgate), Crystal Palace Streatham, and house visits in Streatham and surrounding areas. See my website www.myofascial-bodywork.com for more details.

What to expect in a session of Myofascial Bodywork

Consultation
A session of Myofascial Bodywork starts with discussion - I find out as much as I can about what has brought you to see me today, how it affects you, what else you have tried - the more information you can provide, the better. 

Assessment
After this we usually move on to assessment. This is where I get to look at your presenting complaint in a little more anatomical and bio-mechanical detail, but it is not just limited to your main issue or symptom - as we are looking for the underlying causes, we will need to look ideally at the whole of you. I'm trained to a high level in Sports Massage and have done a lot of postgraduate advanced workshops in posture and assessment, plus of course I am a student at the British School of Osteopathy, so hopefully you will see that my observations skills when it comes to postural assessment at a detailed level are pretty good. 

Treatment
Treatment can take many different forms, depending on what we have determined is causing your issue, and thus what we need to do to help remedy the problem(s). This can range from oil-based massage based treatment to non-oil based soft tissue mobilisation and myofascial release, plus joint articulations and mobilisations, therapeutic stretching, and even medical acupuncture (and kinesio taping coming soon!). 

Dress
Expect to be undressed during a session, down to your underwear. If you are not comfortable being observed or treated in your underwear, you can wear shorts instead, but preferably a normal bra (ladies) instead of a sports bra, which tends to be a bit limiting as the back can't be unclasped while you are on the table face down and we need access to your thoracics or get behind your scapulae. Also, the less you wear, the more I can see when assessing your posture, gait and range/quality of movement. 

Positions
I move my patients about a lot! This enables me to apply different techniques in different planes, which therefore have different effects. I can often start with some chair based techniques, or have you lying on the table facing up. Sometimes, I may need you to lie on your side, and sometimes lying face down. Whichever position(s) you need to be placed in, I make sure you are comfortable and secure with pillows for support. 

Techniques
The main techniques I use are Sports Massage techniques and Myofascial Release. 

Myofascial Release is always applied skin on skin, without oil. With this technique, we are looking to release restrictions in your fascial system, which may be a cause of pain or dysfunction systemically as well as locally. More details on Myofascial Release can be found on my website www.myofascial-bodywork.com. 

There are many Sports Massage techniques that are non-oil based, which complement sessions of Myofascial Release well - these include Soft Tissue Release, Muscle Energy Techniques, Position Release/Strain Counterstrain - plus some extra mobilisations and joint articulations from further postgraduate training I have done. 

I tend to combine all of my different techniques into my signature treatment approach, and this I call Myofascial Bodywork. It is very normal for many sessions of Myofascial Bodywork to be 100% non-oil based, so although I am a Sports Massage therapist and can Deep Tissue with the very best of them, I think you can see that I am also so much more - and I don't generally consider myself a Massage Therapist these days, not even a Clinical one, as that does not really portray the wide range of treatment and techniques that I provide, nor, in reality, the treatment that you are likely to get if you come to see me. 

Sports Massage is not just a therapy for people who play sports!

It's a common misconception, and the name doesn't help, but Sports Massage is not just a therapy for people who play sports.

Although I do treat a wide variety of sporting people, from amateur runners to semi-pro athletes, boxers, basketball players, dancers, gymnasts, cyclists, swimmers to name but a few, I also treat people with injuries and conditions that affect the way they move and function, who come from other walks of life, be they people who work in an office, in a shop, actors, musicians, artists, the list is endless - and I use the same techniques and approach!

It doesn't matter whether you injured your knee while playing football, or having slipped in the shower; whether your back hurts from over-extending in a basketball game or from sitting at a desk 12 hrs a day, 5 days a week; or whether you have Tennis Elbow from playing tennis (which is actually a bit of a myth), or from repetitive strain. 

My approach, no matter who you are and what you are suffering from, is to reduce the pain you are experiencing and look for what might be causing it; to relieve inflammation and tension in soft tissue (muscles and connective tissue aka fascia); and to improve the quality and range of mobility and flexibility in restricted joints. 

There are many different interpretations of Sports Massage around, depending on things such as the training school the practitioner went to, the techniques they are most comfortable performing, and client expectations - sometimes, it's just all about Deep Tissue, and the deeper, the better - so I can understand the confusion. Not all Sports Massage is equal. To make it even more confusing, many Sports Massage techniques don't even use oil, so they aren't really 'massage' techniques at all. It might be more applicable to call Sports Massage 'Remedial Bodywork', but then who knows what that means? 

Mobile phone deliberations!

So I need a new mobile phone!

Well, I don't need a new one. I have a perfectly acceptable, 2 years old Samsung Galaxy S3. This phone was top of the range when I bought it 2 years ago. There's nothing wrong with it, but it just feels... bulky, and slow. And I am so BORED of it. Bored of Android. I need a change. Not everyone will understand - I don't consider myself a phone or gadget geek, I don't have to have the latest of everything that comes out. I just hate 2 year mobile phone contracts. 

I've had an IPhone before, and those phones are just too small. I've considered the Note 3, but am worried that is just a bigger version of my current phone, which I am bored of. And I've been looking at the newer Windows Phones, but they don't have any that are larger than a 5 inch screen, which is really what I want - larger (current phone is 4.8 inches), slimmer, faster. 

I have 4 months to run until my existing contract runs out, so I figured I would buy a cheaper Windows Phone now (last year's model, essentially) which will give me a chance to explore whether I like Windows Phones - using my current sim, until my contract finishes. I've been playing with Windows Phones in phone shops recently, and been impressed with how fast they are. Then if I do like Windows 8, I can upgrade to one of the more premium handsets (being announced soon at the annual World Mobile Congress end of Feb, to be released in May this year) - rumour has it there will be a Nokia Lumia Windows Phone with a new 5.2 inch screen and specs to match. Sounds perfect. I can then sell the Nokia I have just bought, and together with the money that Envirofone has promised to give me for my Samsung Galaxy S3, I actually won't have spent any additional money. Bit of jiggling around, but no brainer! 

Only issues I have with Windows Phone is many of my work processes (Calendar, Records, Spreadsheets) are all heavily Google based, so I have to determine workarounds as Google doesn't like Microsoft, so Google apps as a rule won't be available, but I am relying on third-party apps to do the job. If not, back to Android in May! 

So hello to my new Nokia Lumia 925! Hurry up and arrive please!   

When I sprained my ankle - badly!

It happens to us all - the dread ankle sprain. Thankfully, this is not me now, but a couple of years ago when I sprained my ankle pretty badly while staying at a cottage in Snowdonia.

Never having had such a sprain before, I was pretty shocked at how much my ankle swelled up. I used a makeshift ice pack (bag of frozen peas wrapped over a towel), and spent the evening elevating my foot. The swelling was about half the size the following day, which was amazing. 

I spent a week on a crutch just to help ease the compressive load through the ankle, by which time the bruising came out -this is 2 weeks after the event - still resembling the Elephant Man slightly!

I went to A&E just to check I didnt have an avulsion fracture (type of fracture where soft tissue pulls away part of the bone it attaches to), but all clear there fortunately. All in all it took about 3 weeks for the swelling and bruising to die down, during which time I was sensible and rescheduled appointments. I went for Sports Massages to help minimise scar tissue. I spent a lot of time standing on one leg (the injured ankle) to re-gain proprioception. 

Looking at my ankle now, you would never know I injured it so badly - in fact, if anything, it is the other ankle, which I have never sprained or injured, that everts and could do with some attention.

Why did I choose to go to Osteopathy school?

A few people recently have wondered why I made the commitment (and not just talking time  - it costs just shy of £7k each year and I am self-funding!) to study for the next 5yrs for my Osteopathy qualification, when I am already pretty much fully booked for remedial bodywork in all of my locations (Streatham, Crystal Palace and Moorgate).

It was simple really – I want to be the best practitioner that I can. Whereas my current techniques revolve around a (massively!) wide variety of soft tissue (muscles and fascia) mobilisations and articulations (ensuring joints are free of restriction) and I often see people who have had no respite from symptoms from having seen a physio, chiropractor or osteopath, I want to be the person referred to, to help with spinal herniations, subluxations, acute nerve pain/impingement. I want to learn new manipulation techniques such as High Velocity Thrusts – these are techniques that are actually available to me now as a Level 5 Sports Massage therapist, but I think you have to be very careful about when to use them, so I want to learn them in the greatest context of the body that I can, and in order to gain that level of context, and professional confidence, in making such important clinical decisions, I decided it was worth it infinitely to sign up for Osteopathy training.

And it’s not just about the body either – this is a medical degree where we learn Physiology (the way the body works) and Pathologies (what happens where things go wrong) to the same level as your GP, except that we don’t do training in Pharmacology - one of the most basic principles of Osteopathy is that, given the chance, the body has the inherent ability to heal itself. Whereas traditional biomedical models treat disease with medication, Osteopathy looks at every aspect of the individual, from diet to posture to psychology and social interactions, to see what effect that can be having on health.

Already halfway through my first year at the British School of Osteopathy, I can hand on heart say that I have already learnt a lot more about things that I knew already, adding layers upon the layers - which can only enhance what I already do.

I look forward to 4.5yrs time when I graduate, as I will be an Osteopath specialised in the advanced Myofascial techniques that have been my signature over the last couple of years. And then I have lots of postgraduate training that I want to do, such as Visceral work and Cranial Osteopathy… the learning never ends! Well, maybe one day... ;)

Welcome to Myofascial Bodywork's new blog!

Welcome to Myofascial Bodywork's new blog! 

I have had such a busy and fascinating year, treating an incredibly wide range of people and conditions, that I feel like I am bursting at the seams and have to start sharing some of the experiences I've been so lucky to have along my amazing journey so far. 

I have a few blogs planned, in between work and Osteopathy school, which will be coming soon and along the lines of the following: 

• What is Thai Yoga Massage and how can it help?
• Common conditions to look out for in Post Pregnancy
• A different approach to Reflexology
• Working with others to keep you healthy
• How to stay on top of Desk Work #PostureControl

Plus lots of other little snippets of hopefully useful information in the meantime. Watch this space and I look forward to sharing with you!