This is a bit of a lengthy post, but please bear with it as I feel it has an important message!
Since setting up in 2017, one thing above all else has become abundantly obvious to me, and that is the extremely high percentage of people (even who participate in sport and exercise) who are yet to appreciate the importance of Biomechanics, or even what it is.
So, in the way of a simple definition, Biomechanics looks at the alignment of your body i.e. your skeleton, and this can obviously be influenced by many things including traumas and surgeries, but in my experience, more commonly it is influenced by chronic muscle imbalances. So for example, take the knee joint – if the quad muscles which are responsible for extending the knee are overworked and are much stronger than the hamstrings (the opposite, responsible for bending the knee), then this will create an imbalance, and put more pressure on the joint, likewise the knee can experience greater strain by being pulled inwards (a movement it isn’t designed to do), because the adductor (groin) muscles responsible for this are much stronger than the abductors (glutes).
"Biomechanics looks at the alignment of your body i.e. your skeleton, and this can obviously be influenced by many things including traumas and surgeries, but in my experience, more commonly it is influenced by chronic muscle imbalances."
Now imagine this happening all over the body due to our lifestyle habits, which can range from sitting at a desk all day, too much time spent looking down at your phone, participating in a sport which is renowned for continuously overworking the same muscles (e.g. running, cycling), while not taking the opportunity to resolve these imbalances by partaking in the appropriate strength and conditioning of other areas, and not taking the time to learn the basic skills required for participation in your chosen sport (again, I do tend to point the finger at runners!).
In the world of business, you have a target market to aim your product or service at, but I am lucky in the sense that everyone is my target market, because everyone can benefit from Biomechanics to correct these problems! After all, you don’t have to be an athlete to suffer from a bad back! The challenge for me however is to make people realise this, as the worrying thing is that Biomechanics isn’t very widely practiced. We’re always being told by news reporters on a regular basis the importance of exercising to improve our cardiovascular health which in turn will reduce the risk of illnesses such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes etc. One reason for this is because we sit too much, but what isn’t covered is the negative effect our lifestyles play on our postural health. For instance, in recent years there’s been an explosive uptake of couch to 5k running by people who want to get fitter and healthier, but the problem with the system is that these people (or indeed the vast majority of the run leaders who guide them) don’t know what Biomechanics is or the importance, and as such it is extremely rare for me to see a recreational runner with a good running technique, due to the profound misalignment of the body, and low fundamental skill ability. How many runners are actually taught how to run? And if we’re doing this much damage to our bodies, who knows what sort of catastrophic postural complaints these people will have in their old age due to the increased wear and tear on the joints – if you tear a muscle playing sport, this is usually completely reversible, but chronic damage to the joints has far greater long-term consequences.
"it is extremely rare for me to see a recreational runner with a good running technique, due to the profound misalignment of the body, and low fundamental skill ability."
Therefore, my mission is to make as many people as possible aware of the importance of Biomechanics to avoid these complications by working with individuals of all backgrounds whether you are an elite athlete, recreational exerciser, a manual labourer, or a non-athlete entirely. Don’t just put things down to getting old and make excuses for yourself, take the step to try something new. I don’t just do sports massage with a bit of Biomechanics on the side, in fact it’s quite the opposite, as I regard the Biomechanics far more important than the temporary short-term effects offered by just sports massage alone, as a much more thorough approach must be taken to trace the cause of a dysfunction and rectify it properly. I simply combine these treatments and use sports massage as one of my tools to apply the Biomechanics, much like an Osteopath or Chiropractor might use similar techniques during their treatments.
Let’s use the power of social media to get this about, please share this post with your friends or any sports clubs you may be a part of to get the message out!
