Client testimonials

MUSCLETALK FORUM

I've spoken to Rachfit a few times regarding the subject and having paid for a trainer who specialises in biomechanics to overcome injury, I can honestly say that the sceptic in me is now a believer.

I'd never heard of the Sagittal Plane, Frontal Plane and Transverse Planes before but with good teaching and understanding biomechanics theory and practice makes perfect sense. The improvements to my training are more that I could have imagined.

The one word that has been omitted in this thread is functional. As well as all the aforementioned benefits, functionality is also improved. Don’t be blinkered by the traditional ways of exercising, you can incorporate biomechanics into your routing and you will notice wonderful improvements.

I think people often ignore the stiffness they have, or a little niggle here and there and completely dismiss it as a part of life they'll have to live with. But I think most problems can often easily be remedied and one of the best ways to do this and one of the most important things you can do to aid your training, increase performance and reduce your chance of injury is have a look at your biomechanics.

I went and saw Rachfit (a biomechanics coach from this forum) a few months ago. She checked lots of things about me, like flexibility, range of movement, balance, proprioception etc, it turns out, like I thought, I was pretty crap at most of it.

She gave me 4 exercises, that were similar to stretching exercises, but much gentler. The idea for most of them (I think!) was to gently mobilise and free up tethered nerves. I'd tried stretching for months, but wasn't really getting anywhere with it, you'll have to ask someone who knows more, but basically because they were aggressive stretches, they we potentially damaging nerves, so muscles tightened and tethered to avoid injury, this made my flexibility worse. She also looks at kinetic chains and all sorts of things like that. Search the internet for what it all is, it'll probably explain it better than me!

Anyway I'm rambling, after a couple of weeks my flexibility was improving, tight muscles loosened a bit and little niggles in my lower back, shoulder and hips were disappearing and stretches are now starting to work like they should.

That's the biggest difference it made to me, but getting your biomechanics sorted can improve performance, reduce injury, increase flexibility and can basically be very beneficial in lots of ways.

So do some research and think about seeing Rachfit or a biomechanics coach, it could help you a lot.

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I'd had an injury from a sports class which left my lower back very sensitive, and the front area of my left foot had gone numb. My doctor told me I had damage to my sciatic nerve and that I should rest. I was doing imovefreely with Cat and mentioned the injury to her, she was incredibly helpful, showing me some exercises to do at home in the evenings, checking each week how it was going and that I was doing them correctly. Cat has excellent knowledge of lower back pain, I find her method of teaching so helpful because she explains the specific effects and benefits each imovefreely exercise has on the back. During our classes, she continually assesses that we are doing the exercises correctly through clear demonstrations and one to one support. After several months the numbness from my foot has pretty much all gone thanks to the exercises she had shown me. Cat's method of teaching imovefreely has made me much more mindful about everyday factors that can effect my back, such as posture and balance, using my core muscles and not compensating my back when exercising. I really love her classes and look forward to attending them each week. I would strongly recommend her to anyone who is suffering from back issues, or who is interested in Pilates- she is an excellent instructor and practitioner, extremely caring and approachable, and clearly has heaps of passion for helping others through her impressive knowledge and expertise.

Erica
(Cat King - Specialist Biomechanics Coach)

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I just wanted to thank you again for putting me in touch with Graham, really lovely fella and seems to really know his stuff, he also praised you and your company very highly. I had my first appointment with him yesterday, where he put me through various things to getting a better understanding of my issues, as well as filming me running and walking on a treadmill, afterwards he felt that he was already closer to understand exactly what the issues might be and it's not isolated to single root cause. He's going to take a couple more days to analyse the footage and notes from the initial consultation and then I'm back in on Tuesday to discuss further and agree a program to get me back to full fitness, so fingers cross.

Thanks again, and here's a fit Phil in the not too distant future and should MT ever organise a members meet, I'd love to meet and thank you in person.

Best, Phil

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Following a full disc prolapse caused by an impact injury suffered in a rugby match I have gone through a discectomy and spinal fusion procedure to relieve the pressure on my sciatic nerve. Up until around 12 months ago I suffered from occasional bouts of sciatic pain but recently the bouts have occurred with increasing regularity.

Upon attending an appointment with my doctor to discuss my options to control the sciatica she suggested I try Pilates to ease the compression on my spine and reduce inflammation around the fusion. Initially, being a six foot plus former rugby player, I was very sceptical about the suggestion as, like many before me, I incorrectly perceived Pilates as being a “women only” pursuit. But eager to attempt to find a long term solution to ease the pain I bit the bullet and gave the Pilates a try. It was without doubt one of the best decisions I have made. I began to take Pilates classes at my gym and was seeing real progress when my regular teacher suddenly left the gym.

I was left feeling somewhat discouraged as I wondered if my progress might fall away under a new teacher, how wrong I was. At my next class I was introduced to our new teacher, Catherine King. From that very first class she seemed to approach our classes from a different angle, imovefreely, with a focus on the body’s mechanics as well as conventional pilates exercises . The progress I now made was phenomenal.

With the supplement of additional exercises or “homework” that I was able to do at home or at my desk Catherine has helped me to be virtually pain free. As a result of her teaching my entire feeling of wellbeing has been raised immeasurably, quite simply I have seen the kind of advances I thought would only by possible with intense one on one attention from a physio or similar.
Catherine’s combination of Pilates and imovefreely have allowed me to function virtually pain free now for months, I had previously all but given up on the thought of getting back to my current state of wellbeing but thanks to Cat I’m feeling almost as good as new!

Mike McGrellis

Cat King’s Advanced Biomechanics Coach, Participants testimonial.

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I was roughly thirteen when I was first examined for a curvature of the spine: scoliosis. I can't remember whether it was through the high diving club I was a part of or at school? Maybe both. However, I was referred to a back specialist who promptly declared, taking him approximately all of 30 seconds, the severity of the cob angle (curvature) was low level and all I would need was regular check-ups as I grew to make sure it did not get any worse.

At seventeen I started to develop severe lower back pain and after consulting a specialist I was told the curvature was minimal and unchanged since first discovered but because of the length of my back I would always suffer. I was given a weights routine to follow and warned to reduce my water skiing and badminton and to also cut down on my triathlon work, especially the running. Not something as a seventeen year old I believed was the best advice; I was given pain killers, patted on the head and once again shown the door. If pain was something I was going to have to learn to live with, then I would. The pills were consequently binned.

Several years later, I visited my cousin in Canada during a particularly hectic period of work. I needed the break and headed over. We were sat in a coffee shop and I was meeting his partner for the first time. We were chatting when she interrupted the conversation by asking me where the pain or discomfort I was feeling emanated from? I obviously gave her a puzzled look to which she disclosed she was a Pain Therapist. She explained when pain persists after an injury or pathology has healed, and when medical science cannot identify the cause of pain, she was tasked with managing habitual sufferers. She informed me that she could see I was in pain from my posture, the way I was seated and constantly shifted. Plus from the pain etched on my face, my cousin casually joked I just always looked like that.

She believed my back pain was possibly just a psychosomatic response to situations in my life, such as the stress of my job at that present time. I was a little sceptical but the idea did have merit. As we discussed the discomfort, it became apparent the times in my life I had suffered most, was during extreme stressful periods. Such as exams, messy break-ups, film deadlines, funerals, etc. She concluded my pain was more psychosomatic and more than likely not linked to the scoliosis in my back.

This small chat changed my perspective on my pain and the slight curvature, in honesty it more or less ceased overnight. However, the continuing discussions we had about pain and where it stems from were very interesting. I cannot remember the exact words she used, so I will paraphrase somewhat, but the idea struck a chord with me from that very first discussion to this day: "the sufferer's area in which the pain is felt is very often not the area in which the problem lies. Finding the route cause, though, is the hard part; practitioners tend to treat the immediate pain and not the cause, such as chiropractors." Unsurprisingly, I have never been a fan of them.

Last year, 2010, having had a break from training with the vain idea of competing and also because of ongoing health issues, eviction, unemployment and generally making pitiful excuses for myself, I decided to enter MuscleTalk's Shape-Up Competition for motivation and to give myself the much needed kick up the arse. After twelve weeks hard slog, I was feeling pretty pleased and posted the comparison pictures. Only at that point did I realise how pronounced the dipped shoulder I have had become. I had always been acutely aware of it but until those comparison pictures on MT I had never truly worried about it. I then decided I needed help. If I was ever going to compete, I would either have to correct the problem or to learn to hide it.

MT's 2010 September Shape-Up Competition pictures before and after. All pics are taken relaxed and without being pumped after a training session

I decided to ask the knowledgeable people on MT for some advice and posted a thread about the problem, which not only spoke of my dipped shoulder but also worryingly, a cramping sensation that was frustratingly beginning to hinder every workout: see here.

Between the many excellent answers from the MT members, I was drawn to two in particular: one from member Rachfit and the other from member Logic Fitness. Particularly Logic Fitness, as he also picked up on the fact my right hand lat was also lower, which I had never noticed before. Damn it, something else to worry about! Both of their answers came from a biomechanics point of view and I had been interested in their particular methodology for a while after seeing one in action talk about the benefits of biomechanics at a seminar in Manchester.

I spoke to Logic Fitness, or specifically the man behind his online persona Michael Andreou, and realised he was based where I grew up. It was fate: I was driving home a few weeks after and decided to book in with him for an assessment. In truth I was more than a little sceptical having been told since my early teens there was absolutely nothing that could be done but I had finally made the decision, after several false starts and bumps along the way I felt I was ready (body willing) to try again and step on stage to compete. Therefore, I needed my body to look symmetrical, without having to seriously think about it or compensate. Secondly, with the aid of an expert, hopefully stop the pain I was getting throughout my workouts and continually.

I saw Michael in February 2011 for my first assessment, I'm sure he would be able to confirm how sceptical I truly was. However, I was instantly put at ease with his professionalism and friendliness: he really knew what he was talking about, which was just the kind of affirmation I needed. During the assessment, I began to realise exactly how much pain I was training around and lived with, day to day. So many niggles which I tended to ignore (living with the pain) were seemingly connected. Michael painstakingly took me through everything. He explained every little detail as to why he was manipulating me, ways in which I had not been pushed or pulled in years, in fact ever. I was in agony; the pain down my back was excruciating which registered in every grimace. My shoulder felt like it wanted to explode but Michael gradually tweaked, assessed and analysed every minute pain throughout my entire body which I casually mentioned; it was thorough to say the least and I was extremely impressed.

According to Michael my pelvis was frozen which also had the knock on effect that the lower portion of my back had no movement whatsoever. To start with we needed to get this loss of motion back and for everything to be working as it should. This meant instigating a number of exercises which would hopefully release the weak/frozen parts of my body and get the motion back to where it should be again.

Michael showed me his report after the first assessment: red is bad! Everything in red indicated a biomechanical issue – which means my whole body was not great. At the time it felt like the diagram; every joint was in pain. He emailed the details, plus the exercises for my continuing homework. I must admit I thought the exercises he demonstrated and recommended were rather strange and at the time I did not see their function. Plus I felt a bit of an idiot doing them, especially in the gym but I decided to put my trust in Michael and incorporate them day to day. I commenced the exercises first thing every day after cardio and in the afternoon before I started a weights session.

The first two or three weeks were very alarming as I was in a lot of pain, plus my lifting seemed to change dramatically. I was completely thrown by the difference. I was unable to lift anything heavy. My lifting dropped extensively which was incredibly off putting as my body started to adapt and change to the new routine and training symmetrically, as Michael insisted. I was a little disheartened by the whole experience but what I noticed over that first month was that the niggles and pains I had worked around for months, if not years, started to disappear.

My shoulder pain subsided and promptly ceased, which had caused discomfort for as long as I had lifted. For me this has been the biggest surprise and biggest benefit to my training in the last six months. The cramping sensation which continually interrupted my weight sessions along the left side of my back also decreased. Occasionally it still twinges but not every session like it used to, which would cause sets to be disrupted or abandoned completely, while I tried to compensate or readjust my body around the pain (or give up entirely on a gym session). All in all, I was very pleased with the progress I had made in a very short space of time.

Approximately six weeks after seeing Michael

I went back to see Michael in June for a second assessment. Obviously he would like to have seen me at shorter intervals but the distance for me, from Scotland to the south coast was a bit difficult; however things are much more positive. My body is moving, I'm able to move the lower part of my spine and my pelvis is moving again too. Yes, I still have issues but the pain I spoke of, that I have lived with day to day throughout my entire adult life, has all but ceased.

The biomechanics issues I originally went to Michael with have not been totally eradicated, as shown by the second diagram. They have highlighted other areas to work on but with the continual support and (groan) extra exercises he has provided me with, plus a considerable set of new ones to improve my posture and rounded shoulders because my traps seem to be in a permanent state of spasm. The whole process for me has been highly enlightening and worth every penny.

I went to Michael slightly cynical that biomechanics was all it was cracked up to be, but I have completely changed my mindset, along with it, implementing a few exercises into my routines have reduced the aches and pains that continually plagued and hindered my training. I am not completely ready mentally to step on stage yet (watch this space) but outwardly I'm getting there and the confidence, after so many setbacks, is once again gaining momentum. I hope to at least tread the boards before I become a senior.

"The pain is just something you'll have to learn to live with?" – I only hope the alleged specialists I have been prodded by over the years will read this and realise their own specialism is possibly their downfall. I know biomechanics is a relatively new field but in less than six months Michael has done more for the constant pain in my back and shoulders, the symmetry in my body and my day to day training, which was in truth becoming a chore, than anyone. Ultimately though, putting my trust in someone to help has really been beneficial to me on so many levels. I can truly recommend to anyone who has issues, shoulder, back or otherwise, to go for a biomechanics assessment: you won't regret it at all. I haven't.

Almost a year since I started MT's Shape Up Competition, after dieting and changed training habits, this is my back and body structure

Read more at: muscletalk.co.uk

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Testimonial for Biomechanics Coach Joe Sidey

I would like to put down my thoughts and convey my thanks for the time and expert treatment that Joe Sidey has given me.

I am 37 years of age and have always had from an early age a very active sporting life. I was a keen Boxer and played football for both my school village team and for my County. When I left school I carried on with the boxing and football and also became a professional Jockey. Needless to say, these three sports took their toll on my body. I gave up boxing at the age of 24 and gave up my career as a Jockey at the age of 26. I carried on actively playing football up until three years ago, when sadly I had to hang up my boots due to a recurring knee injury.

My knee was so painful that even a short drive in the car would cause me pain, which would continue for some time afterwards. I have seen other sports Physios and Doctors but all to no avail. I also want to add that these ineffective treatments were very heavy on my pocket.

I came across Joe Sidey through my place of work, where he mentioned to me his profession. I arranged an assessment with Joe and carried out the Biomechanics exercises that Joe prescribed for me. After a month of seeing Joe and being so impressed with the progress I was making, I invited Joe to meet the local football team that I manage. Joe has now seen three of my players and their physical performance has greatly improved as a result of his expertise.

Personally I have now found a new lease of life. I have rejoined the gym which I am now attending 5 nights a week and who knows I may even blow the dust off my football boots before the end of the season.

I must admit I was a little sceptical to start with regarding the treatment of Biomechanics but I would now highly recommend Joe to anyone who has any kind of physical injury. After the treatment that I received from Joe I can comfortably say it was money wisely spent.


Regards
Wayne Woods

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Hi Martin,

I recently had major back pain, which resulted in quite severely reduced mobility (for c. 18 months). I was eventually referred to Bedford Hospital and was diagnosed with one leg shorter than the other (for the third time - two other 'specialists had made the same diagnosis). However, I was eventually put through to the specialist who was to measure and build insteps for my shoes.

Luckily, the consultant was very aware of possible causes/solutions and taught me two of your exercises (Anti-Spasm - leg press & Cross legged).
Within three weeks my pelvis had come unstuck (that was the real problem!) and I am 100% cured of this problem (Surprisingly, my legs are no longer of different lengths!) - and, a few weeks after this I went hiking in the alps in Bavaria. Previously, this would not have been possible, as I was finding it difficult to walk more than 1/4 mile and could not stand for more than a few minutes.

I just wanted to say thanks for creating these exercises - I hope that you continue to help many more people to reduce/relieve their pain. It is wonderful to have my life back!

Many thanks
Leigh James

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Hi Jo,
Let me first apologize for not e-mailing you earlier! I should have been in touch ages ago. In this case, no news is good news, the exercises you gave me have been brilliant!!!!!!!!
When I came to you I was so uncomfortable, but within about two weeks I was actually able to stand and do the washing up, without having any discomfort.(no getting out of it now, Ha ha, my partner Alan is always singing your praises).

The next revelation came a couple of weeks later, when I was pushing a wheelbarrow I looked down at my feet and realized my feet were straight. I think I had always presumed I was pigeon toed (from riding a lot), but it was obviously my imbalance....amazing!!

You probably get many tales like this from people you help, but I wanted you to know what a difference it has made to my life, Thankyou.
One question I have is about the first exercise you gave me, the one when I'm on my back with my right foot on my bent left leg, pushing for x4 reps of 20secs. When I do this(although no probs with doing the other leg) I get pain right into the joint, which sometimes makes it too sore to continue. I wondered if I should continue, or have a different exercise or just do it less etc etc. I know I should have been for a follow-up appointment with you, and if you think this is necessary I will, of course, take your advise.

Many Thanks
Jackie Mudd

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“It’s no exaggeration to say that meeting Jo Rainsley and embarking on her biomechanics programme has changed my life!

When I first arrived at Jo’s house I had been suffering the pain and limited mobility that comes with SPD (Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction) for 3 long years. To be frank, my life had become a misery. I could barely walk more than a few feet; unable to drive my car I had lost all my independence and was in pain nearly every day. My partner had been forced to give up work to look after our baby and after 3 years we were beginning to think I was never going to make a full recovery.

Numerous visits to both Chiropractors and Osteopaths offered only limited solutions and each month I would end up back where I had started.
All the practitioners I saw said that Pilates was the solution...so I duly did regular Pilates sessions. Every few weeks I would, without fail, injure myself. My frustration was immense and I fought off feelings of despair and anxiety on a daily basis.
Now, barely two months after I first limped down to Jo’s studio for my initial appointment, I am no longer in pain! I have started driving again, can actively play with my young daughter in the garden, walk around the local park and go to the shops! Wow!
I can heartily recommend Biomechanics-it is in a totally different league to any of the other treatments I’ve tried for SPD and I’ve tried them all!
The other brilliant thing about Jo is that she is like a one- stop- shop of healing! Let me explain...instead of having to go and see lots of different practitioners Jo can also offer deep tissue massage (vital to get my muscles working properly again) and muscle release techniques (ditto) and explain how diet and subtle lifestyle changes can aid healing.

Using her profound, in-depth knowledge of the subtle interplay of muscle, bone and nerve tissue Jo can identify exactly how to fix your individual problems and at the same time explain it all in layman’s terms-so you can go away with a deeper understanding of your condition. This is very empowering, if like me you had begun to think that somehow it’s your fault that you are still poorly.

In addition to this...Jo is an all- round wonderful human being; kind, thoughtful and empathetic! You certainly need a good sense of humour when dealing with people with limited mobility-let’s face it being in pain is no fun...but I have found myself laughing merrily during my appointments-happy in the knowledge that each session took me closer to independence and pain free living. “

D.Spurdens – April 2010

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Dear Martin,
It was a pleasure to see you again at the Back Pain Show in London last Friday. I want to thank you again and tell you how much your techniques have done for me. I met you there three years ago and told you that I had been suffering from chronic back trouble for five years, which had developed in my mid-forties. I often had to roll out of bed in the morning because of the stiffness that I was experiencing. Even a simple action like putting on my socks was difficult and painful due to the extreme stiffness of my back which would remain like tht for several hours each day. You did some brief tests and told me that you thought that my back trouble could be due to a pelvis problem which a lot of people unknowingly have. You gave me two simple and gentle resistance exercises which could be done very easily whilst sitting in a chair. They quickly had a very positive effect on my condition. I combined them with making a positive effort to improve my posture and start walking more. I now find myself completely cured of the problem. I had despaired of ever getting better and felt that the condition could only worsen as I aged.
Thank you very much again and I hope that my comments can give hope to other sufferers. I can certainly recommend the exercises. 

Tim Willson, Kidderminster

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I have known Jo for a couple of years, since she has been working with my daughter Katie.
Katie had fallen off her bike a couple of years ago and had then been suffering with severe back pain.
So severe that during Katie’s last year at school she was only able to attend a total two months out of the usual ten.
Having been to a chiropractic, to have Katie’s bones pulled and pushed and muscles deeply massaged, that worked for all of five minutes and then Katie felt worse than before.
Painkillers had no effect, other than now she is intolerant to paracetemol.

I then tried Hypnotherapy, thinking that if Katie learnt to relax then maybe that would help. Unfortunately Katie was in so much pain that did not work.
The doctors decided that perhaps a blood test would show something. What I have no idea. So after 3 blood tests still nothing. The doctors then decided to have Katie do a body scan, giving me the fear of Cancer.

Nothing showed up thank God. So it was decided that Katie was either putting it all on, or it was something she would have to live with.
It was after all this I was introduced to Jo. There is a God in heaven.
Just with Katie walling towards Jo, there was a look on Jo’s face that had me know we had found the right person who could help Katie.
To start with Katie and Jo worked together once a week, there were no deep massages, no pulling and pushing of bones, the exercises were so slight you would not think they would work.
But after 3 months Katie was seeing Jo once a fortnight sometimes once every three weeks.
Katie, with over exuberance of a teenager had corrected her hip alignment within six weeks instead of the normal twelve weeks.
After six months of seeing Jo, and doing the exercises JO had given Katie, Jo was now teaching Katie the art of Kick boxing.
So all I can say is a big thank you to Jo, I would highly recommend Jo to anyone, and everyone (which I do all the time).
The time spent with Jo is more than money well spent, it is always fun, and made to your needs , and you come away with the feeling that you have achieved something great.
So for any pains niggles, or aches I would HIGHLY recommend you make time to go and see JO.

Annette & Katie Hawksworth – June 2010

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"So many potential Elite athletes are lost in the world of endurance running and never reach the top due to injuries, injuries and more injuries. Martin Haines and the theories used within the Intelligent training courses have quite simply been life changing to a very dedicated endurance runner i work with. From being yet another injury prone athlete who is unable to reach her potential to an athlete who is now able to train consistently and is well on her way to coping with the training loads and demands required to make it to the Elite level. This athlete is now very close to not only her goals, but her dreams beyond those goals to."

Paul Jones – Head Coach of RunEvolve
The Sports Therapy Club

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The Saga of Kat’s Back

2006 was a summer of playing lots of tennis tournaments, many matches back-to-back. Kat’s serve was poor as her tennis coach had radically changed it but left suddenly to work abroad leaving her without the finished product. He kept promising to return, but never did. So we kept waiting for the next instalment of her serve that never arrived. Consequently Kat’s back started aching.
It first started during a tournament in the September, so we rested it, but it kept recurring.
Eventually we heeded the advice of her new tennis coach and went to see a tennis-specialist physio.
She diagnosed it was Kat’s quadratus lumborum and Kat needed to do some stretching.
So Kat did her stretches and we went religiously to see (and pay) the physio – taking Kat out of school to accommodate the physio’s part-time work hours.
The back still kept playing up, sometimes worse than others. We never knew when it was going to go, but always during tennis. We would rest it until it felt better each time.
Kat’s school tennis team had made the national finals of a tennis competition and she was desperate to be fit to play, so we heeded the physio’s advice and turned down other important tennis commitments. We still kept up with the exercises and physio appointments.

The national finals were in December and Kat’s back went really badly during the warm-up of her second match. She had to retire from a match she could have easily won.
She was in so much pain I had to help her undress and shower that evening. The next day it had improved enough for her to play tentatively and serve underarm.

On our next pyhsio’s appointment, she said she couldn’t help and to see our GP for an x-ray referral.

So, Kat saw someone at the hospital who took some notes and told her to continue playing sports.
Which she did, but the pain kept coming and going. In February we gave up and stopped the tennis.

She eventually had an x-ray which was ‘inconclusive’. She was then referred for an MRI scan and had that, but we were desperate for an answer and made a private appointment to get the results before going on holiday. Just before this appointment, I received a phone call to say the MRI was also ‘inconclusive’ and Kat should have a CT scan. They squeezed her in before our holiday and the consultant telephoned me later (after my begging) to tell me Kat had a Pars Defect (stress fracture) on her spine. It was at L5 and the other side was showing signs of stress. If that went also she would be in big trouble. She must rest it completely and go for a follow-up appointment after our holiday.

I did some research and found that this Pars Defect was not uncommon in growing children doing certain sports – including tennis. I was very annoyed at the physio for not picking this up as tennis was her speciality and she had pictures of her at Grand Slams, treating the very top female players.
You would have expected her to have ‘a lightbulb moment’ at some point!
What a waste of time and money and we had been further endangering Kat’s back.

We were now six month’s down the line from the first occurrence of back pain.

So, at our follow-up appointment we saw a junior of some sort who didn’t have a clue!
‘Do nothing’, we were told. No sports, not even cycling. She couldn’t tell me how long it would take or advise on any rehabilitation. We would have to guess when it would be repaired enough to play sports again. I had to drag any answers out of her – and they were pretty useless. Absolutely no help at all! Also we were informed that we would not be having any more appointments as they wouldn’t do another scan on Kat because of the dangers. How did we stop this happening again?

For a while Kat had been seeing a Pilates teacher privately, but she refused to help any more as Kat had been advised to do nothing. She was more worried about being sued by us if anything went wrong than trying to help Kat.

We rested Kat’s back for about 3 months, but knew that at some point she would need professional help again, but we didn’t know what type of help or how to find it. We were certainly not going back to the same physio.

I already knew Jo Rainsley through exercise classes at the West Hants Club and was aware that she had a comprehensive knowledge of the human body and its workings, so I asked her for advice as to where I might find help. Jo offered to look at Kat and did a lot of her own investigations into Kat’s injury.
Jo sent us to another physio to get Kat checked over first. She liaised with Jo about the way forward with Kat and advised us to get Kat moving (especially cycling!)
Jo then took Kat on board and set her exercises on a weekly basis and we finally made progress.
We now realise that if she had just rested her back as advised by the hospital, it would have fractured again eventually, and possibly worse.

Then Jo went on a course about biomechanics and the world changed. She came back so eager to review Kat’s biomechanics, giving her a thorough examination, making lots of notes and filling in charts. It was definitely a ‘Eureka’ moment for Jo. She gave Kat a lot of exercises to do, some as often as three times a day. We would get up early (not easy for Kat) and she would do them before school, after school and before bedtime. I would supervise, making sure she was doing then correctly, count repetitions and time her. She also had to finish PE at school early each time to do her stretches. But it paid off. We never doubted Jo – she was so sure and confident in what she was doing.

Over the months Jo re-assessed Kat regularly, monitoring progress and tailoring the exercises accordingly. The improvements in Kat’s mobility were amazing.

Kat went back to tennis and still sees Jo. Kat is still growing and Jo keeps an eye on her, regularly checking that everything is working as it should be. Often there are things that need tweaking, sometimes more severe than others. Sometimes it is bad enough to warrant a ban on specific sports until it improves. Kat still has varying exercises to do.

Without Jo we would have been floundering in the dark, desperate for help.
Kat’s back could have ended up with a permanent injury or needing major surgery. What a legacy that would have been, all for the want of an accurate appraisal and correct advice and help.
I would urge everyone to have a biomechanical check-up.
It is frightening how much can go badly wrong without you knowing that you simply need to do a few uncomplicated exercises.

Penny and Kat Mason
June 2010

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I've not posted on this site in a while, but I wanted to share the positive experience that I have had with an ITS Biomechanics coach. Honestly, I thought that a fair amount of the idea of muscles in spasm, nerves getting
stuck was fantasy when I first came across ITS. I was married to the mobility/PNF route of achieving increased joint health. After a couple of consults with Alex Gold who I met at a meet, I haven't got enough positive things to say about ITS as a system. After recommending other practitioners to friends I have heard nothing but equally positive feedback. If anyone if experiencing any problems with their movement (and lets face it who isn't), I would advise you to seriously considering seeing an ITS accredited Biomechanics Coach trainer.

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