Is Your Gym/Training Program Hurting You?

Have you experienced the feeling of being more beat up after your gym program, training or workout than you do feel good? Do you get to a certain level of skill or fitness and then something tears or strains? Most of us are exercising for self-improvement, but this does not always happen!  years in the Health and fitness industry I see a lot of active people doing themselves a lot of structural damage with knowing a little but not enough. A lot of clients who seek my expertise are people who love their gym, fitness, sport or just the ability to play, be strong and active. They regularly work out and a lot have been involved at varying levels of sport for many years. But they keep getting recurring injuries, be it their neck, knee, back – where ever the pain emanates from incorrect body position and poor movement patterns. It is quite often thought that fit athletic people do not have pain or need assistance with their training. Nothing could be further from the truth! The more athletic that someone is or wants to be the more immaculate their conditioning program must be. When posture or body position is incorrect and there are asymmetries within the system; poor patterns are continually repeated until something wears or breaks. This shows up as rotator cuff injuries, torn calves or hamstrings, disc injuries, back pain, Achilles tendon problems, knee pain and more. If untreated at the foundation level, these things can lead to continual trips to the chiropractor or other practitioners with very shot term relief, much frustration, right through to surgeries with lots time off training and still not dealing with the actual underlying problem. Our body always follows the position of strength and veers away from weakness. If your body is used to doing a pattern one way for many years this takes a lot of re-education, skill and knowledge to break or create new patterns that are more beneficial My clients vary widely from Golfers, Tennis players, Surfers, Martial arts, Horse riders, Body builders, Mountain bikers, Cyclists, Iron Men, Runners, divers, swimmers just to name a few. All are improved at their sport and suffer less or no pain and injury through correcting their muscle balance, movement and strength training patterns. Getting the fundamentals of a good solid balanced foundation is essential for anyone who wants longevity within their joints, but even more so when your athletic. Participating in sporting activities without perfect positions and movement is an accident waiting to happen. You can relate this to tires wearing on a car, a weak link in a chain, or a stitch in time that saves nine. Sporting activities without a solid foundation is like building a house on sand.

How do I fix this?

A Postural and Orthopedic assessment takes 90 mins and is a full measure up of the muscular or sling imbalance’s, fascial distortion’s, holding and moving patterns with-in the body. From the assessment a specific program is designed and taught – imbalanced exercise (to create balance). This program consists of Osteo-articular warm-ups, myofascial stretching, global postural stretching, ELDOA, spinal decompression, internal stability and strength of the postural system and skilled weight training to make a strong, stable and level body. This style of training is an intelligent  investment in having a body that lasts, makes you great at your sport, rids and prevents injury and makes you look 10 years younger. It is a big picture look for long-term success and it attracts smart intelligent pro-active big thinking individuals who want to get it right. Repeating the same thing that does not work and expecting a different result is madness.

TESTIMONIAL: I am a full time dressage rider and breeder. I spend several hours a day riding and I am a serious competitor. I need to be fit and strong to be competitive. I have had back pain for several years (very common for serious horse riders) and came to Michelle to get help with the pain. She was able to tell me why I was so sore. Her in depth analysis of my posture and strength showed some very weak areas that I was not aware of. We are addressing these areas and already I have much less pain. The really exciting thing is that I am riding so much better than before. I am stronger in my position on the horse. My riding trainer says she can see a big improvement. Best of all I can feel the improvement in my posture. I look forward to continuing working with Michelle and hope to ride competitively for many years to come! I highly recommend her and her methods. Sheena Ross