Phone: 416.629.9891
Email: Michael@OptimalMovement.com

Client Cases

“I teach individuals integrated body movement patterns to improve their weight shift, enhance their locomotion, tune-up their nervous systems, and move their bodies in all three dimensions in space”, explains Michael.

• Arthritis
• Back Pain
• Lower Body Accident
• Repetitive Strain Injury
• Working with Runners
• Upper Body Injury

 

Arthritis

Living with constant pain is debilitating. However, a person living with an arthritic body has a choice: remain sedentary and take medication or combat and manage the pain by moving all muscles and joints.

Michael’s client Trudy, a 65-year old arthritic, played tennis weekly and walked regularly. However, to do so, she took pain medication daily. Now as a result of the customized-training program she routinely follows, Trudy only takes medication monthly and for the occasional flare-up. Her program includes full-range-of-motion movements as well as strengthening exercises with light dumbbells and an exercise ball. Trudy joyfully continues to play tennis.

Osteo-Arthritis

A person who suffers from Osteo-Arthritis in the upper back would work with Michael to improve joint mobility, functional movement patterns and correct poor posture.

At age 75, Michael’s client Julia suffered from severe pain due to Osteo-Arthritis. She was depressed and afraid to get out of bed for fear of falling. She was not only dependant on her pain medication but needed both a nurse and a physiotherapist. And she could only obtain their professional help a couple times a month.

To start, Michael custom-designed an exercise program for Julia to perform lying down. This helped build her balance and coordination and improve circulation and mobility in her muscles and joints. As she gained mobility, movements were added to her program that required her to stretch, sit and then to stand. There were exercises to strengthen her hip abductors and legs and gain mobility in her neck and shoulders. Whole-body integrated movements helped improve her breathing patterns and coordinate her body movements.

Julia steadily gained confidence standing on two feet and began to walk independently. She has carried on daily with her custom-designed program and continues to greatly benefit from it.

Back Pain

People experience back pain for multiple reasons: bulging and degenerating discs, spinal misalignment, restricted muscles and more. When new clients who have back pain meet Michael, they ask him to create a program to strengthen their abdominal muscles. When he asks them why, most reply, “Because I was told that weak abdominals cause back pain.”

Michael’s next question is: What type of assessment have you done that shows your abdominals are weak, and if they are weak, what is the cause?

Asking knowledgeable questions designed to uncover the root of the problem – not just deal with the symptom – is Michael’s job. And as he puts safety and function first, he performs a comprehensive assessment prior to designing all his fitness programs.

Michael has assessed many clients who thought they had weak abdominals. But what he has discovered is that most have tight and/or restricted back muscles as well as postural and muscular imbalances.

And it’s no wonder Michael’s back pain clients have weak abdominals. Even a basic abdominal strengthening exercise would put his clients at high risk of straining their necks or backs. The result of going directly to strengthening a client’s abdominals without first performing an assessment leads to one sure outcome – more pain.

Steve

At age 46, Michael’s client Steve had a bulging disc in his lumbar spine between L1 and L2. He had back pain and radiating nerve pain down his leg (irritated sciatica nerve). His other discs also showed signs of degeneration. Steve believed his injury stemmed from working around the house. Reluctant to taking daily pain medication or consulting a back surgeon, Steve decided to work with Michael.

The training began on the floor, performing body-integrated movements. Steve flared-up with pain at times during the session. Michael helped manage the pain by performing hands-on fascia work for the soft tissue combined with stretching and positioning.

After seven months, Steve’s constant back pain had diminished. They continue to train to prevent his back pain from occurring and to improve posture and movement by performing exercises that help mobilize the spinal discs as well as stretch and strengthen the muscles in the whole body – including the neck, back and hip areas. Michael is hoping that at some point, Steve will choose a stand-up desk for his office to place less stress on his discs.

Lower-Body Injury

A chiropractor was working with Patricia, an 18-year old who had been in a serious car accident. She broke both her hips in three separate places and had severe whiplash. Once the chiropractor helped his patient to the point where she could move her neck and legs in bed, he contacted Michael.

Michael accepted this challenging case, and he studied Patricia’s medical records including X-rays and MRI results. His mandate was to rehabilitate and restore her function so she could walk unassisted.

It was August of 2004 and a determined Patricia set a goal of walking without crutches by Christmas 2004.cBut she could not stand on two feet, and due to severe pain could only sit for a few seconds at a time. So after performing a comprehensive assessment, Michael created a rehabilitation movement program to aid her muscles and joints properly restore function.

The program started with movements to enhance circulation in the muscles and joints, and progressed to movements Patricia could perform both lying on her back and stomach. After a couple of weeks, she was able to sit, which allowed for more advanced exercises, and she moved to the next level in her program. Michael performed hands-on fascia work to her neck, back and hips. He also manually assisted in her strengthening exercises. In time, she was able to do whole-body movements on her own.

Once Patricia was strong enough to stand, she was joyful at the realization that she was indeed getting stronger and making measurable progress. The chiropractor confirmed that her hip bones had healed well; he was pleased with how well her recovery was going.

Patricia continued to progress and reached the goal she had set for herself. On December 23rd, she was able to walk without crutches. Patricia was extremely happy that she could celebrate Christmas and go to parties with her family and friends.

Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)

Sitting in front of a computer, typing on a keyboard and using a mouse for long periods, can over time create pain in the body. We are talking about repetitive strain injuries like Carpel Tunnel and Tennis Elbow and the latest RSI term “ The Blackberry Thumb”.

Michael’s RSI clients are surprised when they wake-up one morning and find themselves in pain. The question is, what can we do to prepare our body to perform these repetitive computer tasks? How can we best compensate when indeed the computer work must get done?

At age 41, Michael’s client Hilda was diagnosed with RSI. She had constant pain when she gripped things, including dumbbells. She also had pain when she moved the lower part of her arm in certain directions.

Hilda was confused because her doctor cited “typing on the computer” as the root cause of her pain. Her question to Michael was, “Why doesn’t everyone who works at computers have pain?” Hilda was also frustrated because she hadn’t fallen and injured herself yet it was taking a long time to heal.

While Michael worked on the lower parts of her arms, he explained that each individual RSI case has its own complexities. One day, however, Hilda wanted to show him something on the internet. Michael was shocked when he observed how she sat in her chair in front of the computer. She disconnected with her body and positioned it to slouch and lean forward. This was particularly confusing for him because in their training sessions, she paid attention to how she moved her body and held her posture.

And Hilda had no idea that “incorrect sitting” was one primary cause of her issues. Michael explained that where you feel pain is not necessarily the actual source of the pain. Her neck was tight and restricted along with her back and arms. Hilda first felt pain in her wrist, then it shot up toward her elbow. He deduced that two of her pain centres were neck and shoulders, so Michael placed his priorities there and on her overall posture.

Hilda began to feel better and progressed during the sessions. Michael also performed hands-on fascia work on the lower part of her arm. Further, he suggested she sleep with a special brace around her wrist to help the muscles and nerves from moving and getting irritated.

After two months, Hilda was pain free. Michael continues to train her to tone the muscles in her body and move well and simultaneously compensate for the damaging effects of sitting for long periods at the computer. A happy camper, Hilda regularly enjoys golf and other activities today.

Working with Runners

Runners work with Michael to ensure their centre-of-gravity is forward and that they have good postural alignment. Running and walking move the body in one plane of movement, so these athletes benefit by training to move well in all three-dimensional planes. Overall speed and efficiency increases while the risk of injury decreases.

Suzanne’s tale of caution

At age 34 with two children, Michael’s client Suzanne had full range-of-motion in her muscles and joints, was pain free and her weight was excellent. Despite having some postural issues, she was able to perform specific movements and tasks. However, when Michael asked Suzanne to run, so he could observe, he noticed that she would hold her centre-of-gravity behind her as she jogged.

What puzzled Michael was that she adjusted her posture immediately prior to going for a jog. So even though Suzanne had no issues with the range of motion in her muscles and joints, she did need to improve the way she moved her body when jogging. If she did not, she would be at high risk for injury. As well, she would be unable to climb to her next level of fitness conditioning.

Michael offered to teach Suzanne how to properly move her centre-of-gravity forward when jogging as well as improve how she holds her posture. He explained that it takes time but it is important to repattern how her nervous system is currently choosing to move her body to avoid pain and possible injury.

The first step was to stop running for a couple of weeks to improve movement patterns. Suzanne said, “I can’t stop running. I need to run because it helps to reduce my stress and I love the endorphin rush.” She then chose to hire a running coach. Two weeks later, Michael heard from Suzanne’s mother, also a client, that Suzanne had torn her hamstring and would be unable to run for several months.

Upper-Body Injury

A baseball or racquetball player with a shoulder injury would work with Michael to rehabilitate the over-worked or over-trained muscles around the shoulder. This would include an (a) assessment and correction of muscular imbalances in the rotator cuff muscles and surrounding area; and, (b) hands-on fascia work to help normalize the fascia/muscles at the shoulder joint and surrounding areas.

Michael worked with “Henry”, a 17-year old baseball player who wanted to increase strength and improve his throwing arm. He noticed that his client had difficulty bending into his hips, knees and ankles. He also noticed that his client could throw the baseball well and that he used much power to do so. Post each game, Henry complained of shoulder pain. On occasion, he complained, as well, of upper and lower back discomfort.

So Michael helped his client perform sport-specific type movements to improve his game, for example, making the lower body strong to easily perform explosive-type movements. He also trained Henry on body-integrated movements to better stabilize and mobilize side to side movements and to enhance upper and lower body coordination.

Since baseball was over training Henry’s shoulder, Michael performed hands-on fascia work around his client’s shoulder and scapula to help reduce muscle spasms. Once settled, he would stretch specific muscles that were tight and re-pattern them to improve the way Henry uses his throwing arm.

Overall, Henry’s shoulder is stronger than before. He can now squat and perform explosive exercises easily and with weights. Further, he has built-up a body that looks lean and muscular. Henry’s confidence has grown immensely as a result of all his hard work with Michael.

 

 

Phone: 416.629.9891
Email: Michael@OptimalMovement.com

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