Sports Injury Therapy
It’s a fact that many people enjoy sports from golf to boxing, and from rugby to tennis. Unfortunately, it is also a fact that any or all of these sports can result in some form of sports injury to muscles and joints. Even a non-contact sport such as golf – which you would think is fairly pain-free – can result in strain to shoulder muscles, possible pains in hips and legs caused by a faulty swing, and perhaps damage caused by a fall in a bunker.
This is why we see a steady stream of patients at our London sports injury clinic here in Holborn, and in our Covent Garden clinic also. Very often, a pain may be caused by a trigger point which is basically an injury to a muscle which causes a pain somewhere else in the body. For example, you may have a headache which is actually caused by your sore shoulder as a result of playing golf all day. This type of pain is known as a referred pain.
Trigger point London therapy involves locating and working on the affected muscle. The muscle fibres that contain the trigger point are held in contraction or shortened – think of it as a tight knot – and the muscle cannot relax and stretch to its’ normal length. Various procedures can help to relax the muscle and help it stretch back to its normal position. One such procedure is positional release which involves moving the tissue around until a point is found at which the tissue is softest. This position is then held for up to 90 seconds which has the effect of letting the neuromuscular system reset and helps to release the spasm.
Myofascial release involves putting pressure slowly on the tissues up to the point where it resists. The pressure is then held and the tissue begins to relax, which has the effect of stretching the muscle. Certain movements also by improving blood circulation.
We also train and encourage patients to undertake alignment exercises with stretching and movement which helps the patient to prevent the return of the trigger points, which can happen if there is continuing postural strain caused by work, for instance. The manual release of the trigger points will reduce the pain symptoms, which allows the ongoing necessary movement and exercises to be carried out.
