HERE IT COMES AGAIN!
IS IT A DISC IN THE NECK?
A MUSCLE TRIGGER POINT?
NOW YOU ARE REALLY STARTING TO WORRY …
Ouch! It grabs you with a vengeance and it won’t let up …
There it is again… that insane pain!
Nothing seems to help you get any relief!
Your lower neck stiffness… near your shoulder blade… YOU thought you’d taken care of already… but NOPE… its here to stay!
You feel it once again as you turn your head, simply shampooing your hair in the shower.
Ouch! Even the hot shower and icy hot gel is failing!
Now you feel it while you are driving…
Damn! You have to think twice before rotating your neck to park your car…
Now you are at work… it’s very difficult to focus on anything anymore.
All you are thinking about is this darn pain! You begin to fall behind in your daily activities and you barely fake it through your daily management meetings…
You’ve already been through this merry-go-round of doctors once before…
But this time its no joke!
You have been on the pain medications and now those medications are making you sleepy and drowsy and forgetful!
You have been to the Chiropractor 3 times a week for 4 weeks in the Brooklyn area where you live, without any relief. That adjustment, or whatever he called that, is scary! Feels like your neck is getting snapped off…
It made you feel worse and just thinking about it makes you scared!
You have had the trigger point cortisone injections…
One doctor insisted that surgery was your only hope… NO WAY!
He called it an “ACDF” Anterior Cervical Decompression Fusion.
The surgery is starting to give you nightmares because the doctor said he is going to slice your neck open to fuse the bones!
You actually took 2 days off last week to rest and …
The pain was nearly gone for a while but…
OUCH!!!
NOTHING SEEMS TO WORK!! YOU ARE OFFICIALLY SECRETLY FREAKING OUT!
Wait! The story gets better you’ll see keep reading the next few lines…
Is this you?
VISITING A PHYSICAL THERAPIST… a “Passive Approach”
A friend of yours suggest that you get some physical therapy done. They have terrific luck with professional sportsman right? This type of treatment has been around for a long time. Maybe some targeted deep tissue massages, hot and cold packs, or even hot laser treatment on the problem region will do the trick?
You go… you get treated…
They move you around on the table like humpty dumpty. They target solely the area that hurts… twisting and turning your neck. Massaging it… Kneading it with a roller…
AAAHHHHH… that kinda feels good! Temporarily you believe you found your cure!
“I think this may work…” You say to yourself with half a smile and you decide to reward yourself with Starbucks…
Then…
Less then after 5 visits later… you decide to quit these treatments, let me go back to my life because you got the pain tamed and under control
AND…
OUCH!!!
Perhaps you need another appointment??
You go back in and nothing happens this time, the neck pain monster begins haunting you with a vengeance!
Lost, afraid and scared is how you feel
Hopeless like this is never going away…
“HOW DO I RECOVER FROM THIS PAIN FOR GOOD???”, you say to your resentful self…
Then desperately exploring the web for a miracle cure at 2 am, you stumble upon a more modern type of treatment…
A EUREKA MOMENT HAS ARRIVED…
PHYSIOTHERAPY… an “Active Approach”
What is this? It sounds exactly the same as the place you just went to. The name is slightly different…
Yet you are soon to discover that there are vast differences in theory or strategy and execution.
YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE… RIGHT?
I’M DR. OFIR ISAAC, A LICENSED PHYSIOTHERAPIST… NOT PHYSICAL THERAPIST
Here is more about myself,,, I am also THE PAINFREE MAVERICK:
In Physiotherapy, we are experts in advanced functional neuro-anatomy, and precise movement assessments, helping us zoom in on the root source of your issue to come up with the real diagnosis of your exact chronic pain and injury.
A you continue to read this blog I’m going to be teaching you how a licensed Physiotherapist thinks… not a physical therapist.
Your problem needs the right solution right?
That means you need a strategy that can think through the underlying problem and solve it.
Physiotherapists are generally much more advanced than traditional Physical Therapists are because they look at the whole system from a neurological perspective.
Physiotherapy believes that over 92% of the pain you feel is not caused by bone or muscle. The muscles are slaves to the nerves that make them work and the bones are dumb. Your pain is caused by lack of neural drive. Neural drive is the “flow” of electrical signals from the brain to the muscles.
NEURAL DRIVE
Basically in Physiotherapy we find the exact nerve that is stuck and help direct the electrical signal to that area of the body for immediate pain relief and recovery.
Our goals are to help people like you avoid medications, injections, and even avoid surgeries that are not warranted. Our unique approach is applied neural anatomy for corrective exercise fitness or corrective exercise training or functional fitness.
NEURO-CORRECTIVE TRAINING
At Allcare our approach is called neuro-corrective training or NCT and it’s a hack to help you understand where pain is stemming from, identify it, attack it, and retrain that pain… so that you can reload those muscles properly and get back to your highest level of output during your fitness protocol.
I want to help people, help themselves and not rely on constant adjustments or massages.
Once you know how to FIX YOU… life changes and it gets better!
How you may ask?
Let me explain…
PHYSIOTHERAPY VS. PHYSICAL THERAPY… HOW ARE THEY THE SAME?
Perhaps the largest similarities between the two medical sciences is Pain relief itself.
Both are quick to make you feel much better and give you the pain relief you need to continue on with your regular daily activities.
Each sciences have vast knowledge of the human anatomy and use manipulative techniques to gain control of the patient’s body and symptoms.
These sciences are quite interested in keeping their patients away from harmful addictive medications, needle injections, and unwarranted surgeries which may cause more harm than good.
So… in essence… the philosophies are essentially the same when it comes to helping their patients.
But there is one huge separating differentiator between Physio and Physical…
PHYSIO-STRATEGY!
Physio uses ACTIVE NERVE STRETCHES to hyper target the exact location of the body where the NERVOUS SYSTEM IS TRAPPED waking up your lazy muscles and normalizing the joint motion instantly.
An Example of an Active Nerve Stretch might be this one I use on my patients who suspect they have carpal tunnel:
Though the techniques, methods and intervention look exactly the same and the eventual outcome is vastly different…
PHYSIOTHERAPY VS. PHYSICAL THERAPY… THE DIFFERENCES
The biggest difference is definitely an OLD SCHOOL vs. a NEW SCHOOL method of thought when it comes to treating the PAIN ORIGIN.
This is where Physiotherapy trumps out Physical therapy in many important ways.
Physical Therapy has been known to us for quite some time. Perhaps for decades now. It is a known treatment for especially rehabbing muscles back into shape that have been injured or strained, or bones that have been structurally damaged as seen on x-rays.
However, it’s a limited belief of where the actual origin of your pain stems from and it merely a topical solution to your problem.
Physical Therapists’ believe that either bones, muscles, or structure is the main cause of your pain and pay little attention to root causes like the NEUROLOGY which extend out of that particular zone.
For example, if you go in with shoulder pain… they treat JUST the shoulder. Even more so… they attack spot where the pain exists on that shoulder. They target your pain with massages, hot & cold packs, laser treatment, rollers, and do whatever it takes to relieve you of that soreness… even if it is only temporary.
Their intentions may be noble enough… but because of the lack of awareness and old school thinking… they seem to miss the boat when it comes to actual full recovery of your painful area.
Physiotherapy on the other hand is based on the single knowledge of much research that…
In 92% of cases, The Pain Origin is NOT due to structure… like the bones or muscles… but in NEUROLOGY.
That’s right… the brain gives electrical signals to the wires called peripheral nerves and those wires give the feelings of pain numbness tingling and even muscle spasms you may be feeling. Occasionally the locked tight feeling in the joint stems from the superhighways called nerve roots. These nerve roots are main pathways that connect the body map to the area of the brain where your pain is processed. Physiotherapy treats these precise body maps to properly dissect and treat your exact source of pain!
The main tools for the Physiotherapist are a series of unique exercises that are personalized for your issue.
NEURO-CORRECTIVE STRETCHES, as we call them…
These are contrary to the PASSIVE stretches you may do on your own because they provide essential symmetry and balance to the stuck NERVES- and when applied correctly they literally change the function of the muscles and bones despite what an MRI or XRAY which is a structure-based test.
It is in this methodology and right thinking that allows the PHYSIOTHERAPIST to get to the root cause of your pain… and find the absolute solution on how YOU… the patient… will ultimately RECOVER!
RECOVERY is the ultimate goal for the Physiotherapist.
PHYSIOTHERAPY IS NOT JUST FOR PAIN RELIEF, ITS ABOUT PAIN ELIMINATION!!
Physiotherapists have designed treatments that, you yourself, can do for yourself… to help you stay recovered as well as learn how to treat yourself if this pain ever does return in the future.
They are more like coaches… giving you what you need to make sure you can return to the things that you loved before your pain was an issue.
THE FOUR PILLARS OF PHYSIOTHERAPY
Let’s imagine again that you are in pain somewhere… or maybe you do actually have pain… and you decide to visit our Physiotherapy office at ALLCARE PT in Midwood Brooklyn…
I’m going to give you a quick glimpse of how myself and our trained Physiotherapists’ will completely handle your issue.
At Allcare Pain Elimination For Life, there are four pillars of PHYSIOTHERAPY we follow. These are ASSESS, RESET, RESTORE, and RELOAD…
ASSESS:
It is my job to assess people and help them figure out what goal they have for their fitness level. Assessing people also means assessing you for musculoskeletal health.
Are you moving well in the areas of the body that I’m loading you under?
Are you able to transfer load through those areas of the body that I’m going to be loading?
For I can’t just load people and get them stronger on a broken frame… right?
So there’s function and then there’s structure…
Which came first… the chicken or the egg… right?
Everybody knows function governs structure. It is important for me as a Physiotherapist to first make sure that my client is functioning well and moving well…
Mobility comes first… then I can create stability on top of good mobility.
I’m going to give you an example of an Assessment in this upcoming video. What is explained here … let’s say for examples sake… you come in with Shoulder pain…
My first question is… Is the pain actually coming from the neck… or the shoulder? With some of my Neuro-Corrective Stretches I will be able to find out exactly where the nerves are stuck that are causing the actual pain.
Listen Close…
Let’s Assess if your Neck Pain is Coming from your Shoulder or your Neck?
Shoulder Pain?
If you’re having shoulder pain, let’s say it’s in your right shoulder in this area…
And it may be traveling up to your elbow…
Sometimes up in the neck area…
How do you know if it’s your shoulder or your neck?
I’m going to show you a 30 seconds self-test…
That you can do right here right now that’s going to be life-changing…
And help you figure out if it’s your shoulder causing your pain.
Are you ready for this? It’s really easy to do. Let’s imagine Its your right shoulder and you feel achy, throbbing… your doctor told you maybe tendinitis… You’re not sure.
Here’s how you know if it’s really your shoulder.
What I want you to do is take your hand from the side that hurts you… I’m going to turn around and show you how to do this…
Put it behind your back like you’re scratching your middle back…
and try to use your other hand to force your hand up all the way…
The Result of this test…
Once you force your hand up to the opposite shoulder blade… if you can do that and it doesn’t hurt when you force it… it’s probably not your shoulder that’s causing your pain…
Then it’s probably your neck.
If it hurts… and you feel stiffness and you can’t force your arm all the way up…
Then it’s most likely coming from your shoulder.
Did this help you pinpoint where the pain is? GOOD!
I believe it did and now we can move on to the next pillar of Physiotherapy…
RESET:
Your brain is like a computer. It’s Neurology is key to what a Physiotherapist’ uses to relieve your pain. It is connected to many intertwining pathways or nerves which control the very muscles we use every day.
After I assess a patient in finding his or her pain origin… then many times I use a set of neuro-corrective stretches to basically reboot the brain… or computer.
Let’s continue with an example of a reset here… This time… HIP PAIN:
So What Is the Cause of Hip Pain?
The Neurology, or the nerves that come out from the lower back called the Lumbar Plexus…
And then they break off into what they call Peripheral Nerves…
You can see here in the anatomy of the Femoral Nerve.
So there’s the femoral nerve that comes out through the front and then there’s the inferior gluteal nerve that gives power to the gluteus Maximus, or your buttock muscles, and then you have the gluteus medius, which is the superior gluteal nerve…
And these are all the nerves at the hip.
Now all these nerves are peripheral nerves.
Nerves are like electrical wires.
It makes a lot of logical sense that they can get trapped in between the muscles and soft tissue called fascia. You could see it over here in the anatomy, or the side of the hip which is your gluteus medius, or your gluteus maximus…
Because you’re doing a lot of squats…
You’re doing a lot of running…
A lot of benching…
A lot of different types of activities that require you to squeeze those muscles… And they’re probably not flexible.
HERE IS THE NEURO-RESET FOR HIP PAIN
So let me show you how to create symmetry and balance.
Here’s an exercise that may help you… it’s called a Reset… and it resets your nervous system for symmetry and balance.
It’s a neural corrective exercise, and it mobilizes, or flosses, like when you floss your teeth, it flosses the nerve and unlocks it!
You will see in seconds, or even a few minutes, you’re restricted tight feeling… where you can’t cross your leg…
You’re going to see that automatically how it unlocks itself!
Now you see how we know that it’s not structure, like your Hip Joint…
Or your bursa that supports the muscles and tissues…
Or other structures like the bones.
The Hip pain was actually caused by the neurology, or the neurophysiology that gets trapped…
And that is what’s causing the pain that you feel!
So go ahead and try out those resets and hopefully it helps you out!
Pretty Cool? I bet if you actually have hip pain… these resets have helped you if you tried them. And if you haven’t tried them… try them!
There is no way of knowing unless you try what I am basically giving you for FREE!
I not only that I want to educate you on Neurology of pain.. I also just want to help you… HERE and NOW… if I can!
BONUS GEM: STRETCHING VS. COMPRESSING
Let’s talk about stretching guys.
Every personal trainer I have met is out there stretching their clients.
You’ve seen them haven’t you? Maybe you have gone to one and they stretch you before your workout…
And there’s nothing wrong with stretching…
Nobody’s proven that it works and no one’s proven that it doesn’t work.
Unfortunately, Over-stretching an area of the body that is in pain can create more pain!
Because Pain shuts off motor control.
Yes that means stretching can turn off your muscles ability to generate power… and that will create weakness in the area and more pain!
Here’s a good example for the shoulder again. Stretching to try to free things up… if you’re locked up in your shoulder, and you’re doing all these stretches against the bar and leaning in… and leaning out… and you’re trying to open up the area…
You’re stretching the pectoralis minor muscle because it’s tight… and you’re trying to open up the front… and you’re trying to reduce that impingement on the bicep and all that other good stuff…
That’s old-school thinking!
I haven’t stretched a client in probably 10 or 12 years now… that technology is old!
What I do instead of stretching is, I COMPRESS clients.
Why are we stretching?
We should be compressing!
Compressing neural fascial slings.
WAIT!
Let me explain. I made a sling for you to show you this is what the nervous system looks like…
It’s plastic, and its neural plastic.
What does that mean?
Neuro plastic means it can change, it can move, nerves can glide and slide…
You can see how it’s moving underneath my skin…
The tension in the rubber band is getting extended…
it’s getting compressed when I bring it close together…
Look at that compression…
When you can compress the nerve instead of stretching it… when I bring my head together… right… and I bring my hand together… look what happens to the wire…
It gets compressed.
It gets squished underneath the skin…
And skin is the largest organ in our body and pressure receptors for pain live under that skin.
When we squish that… we’re giving a signal to the brain… called the neural signature of the brain saying, “Hey… this is a safe pattern.”
Even if it may hurt us as we compress these areas… (we’re just talking about skin here… compression) We’re actually reducing the neural tension on those wires and changing the neurophysiology… and it lasts!
It’s not like stretching!
When you stretch… it feels really good for a little bit… right?
You feel awesome after you stretch your hamstrings out… you feel free… And then… boom! They get tight again!
Why is that?
Because they’re not really tight… it’s called pseudo tightness.
Pseudo tightness means it’s fake tightness.
They’re just on overdrive… they’re protecting you from moving because there’s some instability above that area.
But if you can go and reset the nervous system at the zone and the root cause where it’s coming from, at the joint level; where it’s being driven from… You can reduce that neural tension by using some compression, some rotation, and side flexing to the same side of the pain… And you’ll see that you will have amazing improvements in mobility and the old pattern you were limited will come back immediately.
You will now be able to turn on those lazy muscles and restore the mobility, and reload those muscles under excessive weight…
Which leads us to:
RESTORE:
Resetting gives you kind of a clean nerve slate… its like cleaning up a slow computer with ant-virus software… taking away most of the initial pain that you have been plagued with. But as you may continue in our program at AllCare PT in Brooklyn… The Restore pillar is where your Recovery truly begins.
This is main goal of Physiotherapy, to RESTORE MOBILITY to the area in question.
We do this by attacking what we may call those secondary… lazy muscles which you probably rarely workout.
When you regain your strength in these unfamiliar muscles…. You will find that you will regain your full range of movement here… and thus truly heal the area that was in pain.
An example of a restore might be this exercise here called a WALL PULL UP.
Check out the video below and try this exercise…
REMEMBER… only do this exercise if you are NOT in pain… or have done the resets above to satisfaction:
How about that exercise? Interesting results? This is but one exercise that we will coach you at our office program.
Now…
RELOAD:
After mobility has been restored it is ultra-important to strengthen the area with weight so that pain may never return again. This is a final step in your FULL RECOVERY process!
Remember… PHYSICAL THERAPY stops after pain goes away! Our method NEURO CORRECTIVE TRAINING is a Full recovery program that PHYSIOTHERAPY teaches you and can only get NEURO CORRECTIVE TRAINING here at ALLCARE PT in Brooklyn NY !
SO let’s continue…
In order to Reload the area, it is necessary to add weight and/or resistance.
Below is an example of two progressive kettlebell exercises which have amazing results in reloading the area of former pain.
Man… was that amazing?
I sincerely hope you are using this blog to test the difference!
TESTIMONIALS OF PHYSIOTHERAPY
Still not convinced?
The man in the testimonial below went through 30 sessions of traditional physical therapy with absolutely near zero results. He is an avid tennis player and lost his shoulder power after rotator cuff surgery.
A pure example of exactly WHY he should have tried Physiotherapy when he saw that the old school method had failed him but like most he just waited and waited and listened to his Orthopedist before he found us.
Check him out now!
TRY A FREE 15 MINUTE TELEHEALTH SESSION
Physiotherapy is a new strategic and bright new way of thinking and problem solving around chronic pain and injuries…
You see your body is like a machine…. And most machines CAN BE FIXED!
IF you have the RIGHT MECHANIC LOOKING AT IT and ASKING YOU THE RIGHT QUESTIONS!
Seriously… if you are in pain… and you want to heal without medications, injections, or surgeries… We invite you to a 15 minute FREE TELEHEALTH VISIT… where you can talk with a specialist about your pain and let a professional help you on your way to recovery. What can you loose?
Simply go to our website at www.painfreemaverick.com…
Click on BOOK MY FREE TELEHEALTH APPOINTMENT BUTTON…
And find an Availability!
Interested?
Check out this section of a Telehealth that helped a patient who wasn’t even able to get out of bed for nearly 6 weeks!
Now you see what Telehealth can do for you too…. Again… WITHOUT LEAVING YOUR HOME!
EMAIL ME:
Do you have any other questions or concerns, and want to ask me some of these before you dive into a FREE TeleHealth Consultation?
Then please feel free to email me at info@allcarept.com
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