There used to be a coffee advert, I think it was the one with the couple flirting, where they boasted that it is the right blend of roasts that create their unique flavour. Well for people suffering with long standing musculoskeletal pain it is the right blend of interventions that are going to have the best success.
When clients come to Core, they all too frequently say ‘I’ve been to them all, you name them I’ve seen them, some of them help for a bit but then it just comes back. I had all but given up and then I heard about Core from a friend, so I thought I’d give it a go’.
Now over the years, they have probably been told numerous reasons for their pain, a spine out of line, weak muscles, foot collapse, tight tissue, blocked energy, the wrong foods; it’s all in your head … and so on. And to be fair, many of them would have been right; however the problem has been that each therapist has tried to only treat it from their own individual professional perspective and skill set.
If you only straighten the spine then the foot collapse and tight tissue will likely throw it all out before the week is out; if you level the feet but the joints are super stiff and you’re limping with an out-turned foot you’ve still got problems; if you do a really thorough soft tissue release but the skeleton and gait are all out of sync then it’ll likely all tighten up again pretty soon. I could go on and on . . .
However what if your programme consisted of the most pertinent two or three interventions for you, as you are presenting at that time. So now within the same period of time your feet are better aligned, your spine is straighter, your soft tissue is more mobile and you are walking and moving better. Perhaps that is not the right blend for you, perhaps it’s Massage, Shockwave Therapy and mobility exercises.
Perhaps, it’s Podiatry and Movement Re-patterning or Chiropractic and IDD (Intervertebral Disc Decompression). But don’t decide on your own, let one of our clinicians plan it with you.
By having two or three clinicians working with you towards the same goal, using their own specialist skills, the piece of the jigsaw comes together and like many of our clients before you, you are suddenly enjoying a life free from pain.
Two or three clinicians wait a minute that sounds expensive; I’ve already spent a fortune trying to get this right. Well in the short-term there is an investment to be made to get on the right track, however before long as things ease the level of input required is reduced until you reach a stage when you just need to pop in once in a while to make sure things are still on track.
So going back to my point, for chronic pain, an isolated intervention may help but is unlikely to unravel all the problems you have been experiencing for all these years, however the right blend is the most likely to give life changing relief.
David Brown BSc (hons)
Movement Coach
