My encounter with Manual Therapist
I present them with two issues, first left shoulder imbalance and second left knee cap injury rendering quadriceps muscle atrophy (shrunk to like ice cream stick) having problems going deep squat, go up and down staircase and couldn't run at all.
With my shoulder/trap problem, they attribute it to tight chest muscle (major & minor), supraspinatus, protracted scapular. Since chest muscle is very dense until today after 8 session of treatment my chest is still tight (according to therapist) even though i had already felt it loosen alot. I also have my levator scapulae, sub scapulae, rhomboids, lats and tendons near the shoulder released. After each session usually my chest would be sore for at least 3-4 days. They do not use any instrument only hands and elbows. They will first palpitate and look for knots and scar tissues and start rubbing your muscle deeply. I find it so much better compare to massage in thai odyssey. Because they have anatomy and kinesiology knowledge, they are able to identify the root cause of the problem knowing which muscle to prioritize and focus on releasing it. Thai massage on the other hand provides a general feeling of wellness but is not effective at all in releasing my muscle tightness. I've done easily over 40+ thai massage (traditional + aromatherapy) session sometimes twice a week, there are some very good massage therapist but in the end the time required to focus on a specific muscle is just not enuff if your doing whole body massage under 1-1.5hr and they usually don't really have a go at causing you pain to release the area since its supposed to be relaxing session. With Bens manual therapist you will make all kind of face as its no where near relaxing since most of the time the massage is on tender points.
With my left knees i always thought they are somehow stronger but after they release my left quads, for the first time i feel my quads is smaller and weaker worst before treatment, this is because my left quad is tight and contracted for a very long time so i feel they are bigger, however once all the quad muscle is release, it became soft, i feel i have improve mobility but weaker in a sense. After a few session, i notice my right leg starts having problem, because i lean on my right leg much more as my left leg is very weak. They also focus on my popliteus muscle for about 4 session and tibialis muscle as they thought my problem was associated with tibiofemoral rotation which causes patellofemoral pain. My knee discomfort did improve to a certain extent, any small improvement in my knee is welcome as i know knee injury will take at least 1-2year to heal if its gonna otherwise stem cell surgery is the only option (will explain my knee cartilage problem next time).
Since they focus on releasing muscle as a result muscle strengthening wasn't part of their treatment. Each profession have their strength and weakness. Human anatomy is like a book, each profession focus on different pages and specialise in those pages. My goal is to study and understand the book first then only going into the pages not the opposite of what is currently being practice, go straight to the pages first then slowly or never cover the whole book.
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