Manual Therapy
Manual Therapy is strongly linked to our philosophy at Sheffield Sports Medicine. Manual therapy techniques are essential for us to make a positive change to you if you present with poor posture or poor movement mechanics. After years of study and experience, we know that manual therapy techniques work extremely well with rehabilitation to aid in correcting posture and maximising muscular function. By treating posture and muscular function with manual therapy, we are able to help your body become more robust and less likely to break down in the face of the physical and emotional stress.
Our experts at Sheffield Sports Medicine are highly qualified to deliver a number of manual therapy treatments.
These include:
Joint Mobilisation
Trigger Point Work
Massage Therapy
Myofascial Release
Active Release Technique, and more.
Manual physical therapy can involve mobilisation and manipulation of spinal and peripheral joints, myofascial release techniques and mobilisation of the nervous system. It can help a wide variety of problems you may be having with soft tissues and joints, connective tissues or muscle spasms including pain and flexibility.
Myofascial release
If you have had a trauma to an area, no matter how big or small, it can create a myofascial restriction which can produce extraordinarily large amounts of pressure on an area. Myofascial Release is a safe and very effective hands-on technique that involves applying gentle, sustained pressure into the myofascial connective tissue restrictions. The myofascial release technique is performed directly on the skin, without any oils or tools, so our therapists are able to find any fascial restrictions and apply the correct amount of pressure to enable the fascia to release. This gentle pressure slowly releases the whole myofasical complex, which helps to eliminate pain and restore normal motion over the long-term.
Joint Mobilisation
Do you ever find yourself complaining about joint pain and blaming it on your age? Joints can become stiff, restricted and painful, but this doesn't need to be normal, neither is it a guaranteed by-product of ageing. If your muscles are weak and short, gentle mobilisation of your joints are usually our first point of call. However, if it does not significantly reduce symptoms a manipulation maybe required. A high velocity, low amplitude thrust is applied to the joint and sometimes an audial ‘pop’ can be heard. This is a release of gas from the joint, namely nitrogen and carbon dioxide. A mobilisation and manipulation momentarily increases the range of movement in the joint, and provides a perfect opportunity for strength exercises and other treatments that can increase the activity of weak muscles that will stabilise the joint.
Trigger Point Therapy
If you overwork or injure a muscle, very small muscle spasms can develop in the muscle fibre resulting in chronic pain. These are called trigger points. Trigger point therapy is a type of manual physical therapy that increases blood circulation, oxygen and energy to the muscle tissue.
You may benefit from trigger point therapy if you suffer from:
Back, neck or shoulder pain
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Tennis elbow
Hand or arm pain
Repetitive Strain Injury
Pelvic or hip pain
Leg, knee or sciatic pain
Bursitis, arthritis or tendinitis
Fibromyalgia, or many other symptoms.
Massage therapy
Massage therapy offers a vast array of benefits including improved performance, enhanced recovery, better sleep and an improved immune system. Take a look at our massage therapy page here.
active release techinique
Active release technique is the gold standard in soft tissue repair treatments. Find out more here.
What makes us different
Here at Sheffield Sports Medicine, you are not just a number to us, you are an individual. We are here to help you be your best and we want to make your body as robust as possible. Our one-on-one manual therapy sessions are hands-on sessions where our physiotherapists work with you to make a positive change to the musculoskeletal system. We educate you in proper body mechanics and movement with self treatment instruction that results in enhancement of strength, improved flexibility, and postural and movement awareness.
