Applied Musculoskeletal Therapy or Myotherapy, is a simple 3 pillar approach to understand and alleviate your pain.
Modalities used in our treatments
Trigger Point Dry Needling
- Reduces muscular pain
- Enhances injury recovery
- Restores range of motion and mobility
- Increases blood flow to stiff muscles
- Reduces length of recovery time
Similar to the idea of letting air out of a tyre, Dry needling uses acupuncture needles to stimulate blood flow to areas with poor circulation, tension, stiffness, pain and dysfunction, to help restore range of movement.
This modality is specifically used to release muscles without intrusive manipulation in areas of more chronic and acute levels of tenderness, pain and imbalance.
This is a great method of treating pain caused by injuries, musculoskeletal conditions and general muscle stiffness.
Myofascial Cupping
The 2016 Olympics brought Myofascial cupping, often simply referred to as “cupping”, to the world’s attention, with several athletes displaying big circular bruise-like marks on their backs and shoulders.
Myofascial cupping improves the blood flow to the cupped areas and this can speed up healing and ease muscle soreness. Used after strenuous physical exercise, cupping can help to reduce the severity of post-exercise and delayed onset muscle soreness, allowing athletes to train harder for longer.
Several studies into combining both acupuncture and cupping in a treatment sessionhave shown that a combination of the therapies yielded better outcomes than acupuncture alone. Some subjects reported better pain relief from cupping than from pain killers.
It can provide relief from chronic ailments
Cupping has also been shown to reduce the symptoms in conditions like chronic neck and shoulder pain, as well as reducing the severity of coughs and painful breathing.
There is also anecdotal evidence to suggest that cupping can help in cases of severe body acne, burns and scarring, probably due to the increased blood flow bringing nutrients and white blood cells to the affected areas.
Cupping can improve the immune system as it hasbeen found that the localised inflammation caused by the vacuum sucking at the skin causes cytokine production. Cytokines are important co-ordinating immune cells that ‘tell’ the immune system what to do.
Many clients comment on the face that they feel happy after a cupping session as it’s believed to release endorphins as well as to promote healing.
Applied Musculoskeletal Therapy
Applied Myoskeletal Therapy is a gentle and effective therapy suitable for all ages. It is said that with the right key the door will open easily, and this is the philosophy of Applied Myoskeletal Therapy, believing that the therapist should work with the body, promoting it to heal, instead of forcefully trying to make a change and risk putting the body into stress.
There are many bodily systems, all of which are capable of causing musculo-skeletal pain. These include the muscular, neural, skeletal, fascial, cranio-sacral, lymphatic, and visceral systems. While there are excellent therapies available that address several of these systems it is not uncommon to have, to some extent, many or all of the above systems involved to a greater or lesser degree when you are dealing with pain and injury.
Applied Myoskeletal Therapy, as named by soft tissue therapist John Garfield, was born out of necessity, as a way to address the complex nature of musculo-skeletal and neural pain in a more effective way than commonly available. It has strong foundations in many respected healing modalities, including the soft tissue therapies of Bowen Therapy and Osteopathy (Cranio-Sacral Therapy, Strain Counter strain, Visceral Manipulation and Muscle Energy Technique) along with effective methods that John has developed from over a decade of clinical practice and much research.
Applied Myoskeletal Therapy does not claim to “fix” everyone, although it has a very high success rate.
Myo Therapy
In common with other allied health practices, Myotherapists utilise a wide range of evidence-based treatment approaches and skills, which in addition to manual therapy, assists with muscular pain and dysfunction.
Myotherapy treatments can assist and aid in prevention, assessment, early intervention, and treatment of injuries and pain and the ongoing management of chronic musculoskeletal conditions. MA Myotherapist skill set and treatment options for you may include trigger point therapy, joint mobilisation, dry needling, cupping, stretching, exercise and rehabilitation programs, pain management.
Bowen Therapy
Bowen Therapy is a dynamic system of muscle and connective tissue therapy that was developed by the late Tom Bowen in Geelong, Australia. Sometimes called the homeopathy of bodywork, it utilizes subtle inputs to the body (known as moves), stimulating the body to heal itself, often profoundly.
The Bowen Technique offers tremendous benefit to clients with very little effort on the part of the practitioner. It can provide relief for many types of injuries and other health problems, both acute and chronic, and it does so holistically, via the body's innate healing mechanisms. The practitioner's moves deliver signals to the nervous system at specific locations (on muscles, tendons, ligaments, or nerves), and the body responds in its own time, within its vital capacity. While there are a few, very specific situations in which a particular 'procedure' is contraindicated, Bowen Technique is appropriate for people of all ages, in all degrees of health.
When faced with an acute injury, a Bowen Therapy practitioner may effectively apply the work to address only the traumatized areas, since the client has had little time to compensate for, and accommodate to, the injury. However, most practitioners find themselves working with clients whose conditions have developed gradually over many years, and patterns of dysfunctional muscle recruitment and posture have become entrenched over time. In these cases, Bowen Therapy practitioners often need to take a more 'whole-body' approach to facilitate optimal alignment and recovery.
Rather than focusing on a single complaint, Bowen Technique addresses the entire body, by restoring balance via the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS controls over 80% of bodily functions and is very susceptible to external stressors. Most people today live in a constant state of high stress and sympathetic ANS over-stimulation (fight, flight or freeze mode). Healing can occur only after the ANS shifts from sympathetic to parasympathetic dominance (rest, relax and repair mode). Bowen Technique enables that shift. During a session, the client often drops into deep relaxation or falls asleep, and loud peristalsis may be heard. Both of these changes are indications of a profound release from stress and a shift towards parasympathetic influence. This shift could explain, in part, the common observation that a Bowen Technique session seems to reactivate the recovery process in situations where healing from trauma, sickness or surgery has stalled or reached a plateau.
Lympathic Drainage
Manual Lymphatic drainage (MLD) is a type of gentle massage which in intended to enbourage the natural drainage of the lumpth from the tissues space body.
MLD stimulates the vital functions of the skin, tissues and internal organs but also serves to eliminate cellular waste and stimulate the parasympathetic relaxation response inhibiting muscle tonus and pain. Research has also shown that MLD stimulates the immune system to produce more immunity, a valuable contribution to health.
We Care
Our treatments are results-driven, science based techniques, delivered with the utmost care.
An alternative to traditional physical therapies, our treatments are tailored to each individual concern.
Our purpose at Musclefit is to help you live a pain free life style.We Educate
As leaders in these treatments, we are passionate educators.
We aim to give you the information and knowledge you need to practice a healthy and healing lifestyle.We Practice Holistic Health
We recognise the uniqueness in all of you and always aim to be caring and generous in our time spent with you.
We provide the highest quality of care and support during our treatments, leading you to live a life of optimal health.We welcome all patients through our doors and have tailored treatments to suit all concerns.
Why Us?
We like to think we’re a little different. We’re passionate about health and our modalities but know the same old treatments won’t get new results.
Our education, commitment and hands-on approach means that we treat your concern beyond your appointment.
We educate, treat and lead you to live a pain free life style.