Some people have a greater need to be able to move well than others, and moving well depends on the right combination of strength, stability, balance, control and freedom of movement. The perfect combination for your chosen activity depends on lots of factors, not least what it is that you do. This means that everyone needs a unique approach to creating the ideal movement. Good technique in any activity is more than speed, strength or stamina, it is about getting the right body part to the right place at the right time in the most efficient way, and we can help you to do that. The potential benefits are more efficient movement and a reduced likelihood of acquiring an injury.
Our approach to creating good movement is to identify the barriers that are preventing it and then to improve your coordination or balance, create more stability and to help the moving parts to communicate well with each other. We do this by observing you move and testing certain movements and actions in order to identify the movement can be improved. We can then give you some movements to practice to improve your performance.
At Framework, we have two osteopaths and three physiotherapists who have been trained by Joanne Elphinston and are certified JEMS® practitioners. To find out more about this approach have a look at the JEMS® website here…
Our approach can potentially help you with any activity and here are some specific activities that we see regularly.
If you would like to make an appointment to see one of our JEMS® practitioners then please call us for an appointment, or if you would like to know if we can help you then please email us from our ‘contact us’ page.
Musicians
For the music to flow then the body needs to be as well-tuned as the instrument. Maintaining our bodies to be in perfect working order takes understanding and care, and we need to take a little time to look after ourselves.
Long hours of practicing and performing can lead to discomfort, pain and even injury; the causes of which may be postural or to do with technique. We understand movement and we can identify patterns and postural issues that can lead to tension in your playing. each instrument has its own issues to be addressed and certain players succumb to more problems than others. For example string players in particular are susceptible to muscular strain and tension across the shoulders, into the neck as well as the back. This is often simple to correct once the right areas have been identified.
Our process is to look at the way that you hold yourself and your instrument when you play, and to make sure that you have a good stable base of support, good balance, alignment and that you are not using muscles that you don’t need to. We can give you dynamic activities to help to keep the right amount of tone in the right places, as well as things to do to maintain your balance and stability. We can also treat the areas that are holding too much tension.
Whether you are a professional musician, studying hard for grade exams or you simply play for pleasure then let us have a look at how you move and help you to free your movement. Whatever your instrument, whether orchestral or not then we can help.
If you would like an assessment and advice from people who truly understand movement, and musicians, then please give us a call to make an appointment on: 01786 831100
Running
It is an astonishing fact that we are never taught how to run, it tends to be assumed that if we can walk then we can run. However, there is a technique to running and an art to running well.
A runner who is able to move efficiently can do so with less effort than someone who is not using their body at its best, and they are less likely to get an injury.
Our approach to tuning a runner’s movement performance is to look at your running style and how well that you move. We then look at how well you can maintain a good trunk length, keep your balance and propel youself forwards. We look at how well you use you arms and how they relate to being able to rotate the trunk on the pelvis. We look at which muscles that you use to run, and at areas that are too tight and areas that need to be strengthened.
Once we have a detailed overview of how you are moving we can give you some guidance on what to modify in your technique, stretches for tight muscles and exercises to strengthen any that are weak. We can also give you movements to practise to help you to integrate your movement for greater efficiency.
Many of us carry injuries from the past which, if they didn’t repair fully or well can reduce our efficiency. If the body cannot access movement from one area it will create it somewhere else, which in turn can create strain and potentially, further injury. Some of our advice may be to reduce the tension in your muscular system by switching off certain movement patterns to prevent the over-use of these muscles.
Running more efficiently may improve your performance – you may be able to run faster, or further, or with less fatigue, and most importantly it may help to prevent future injury. It may do none of those things but it should certainly feel nicer whilst you are running and in the recovery afterwards.
Whether you are a seasoned endurance runner, or working on couch to 5K then come and see if we can help you run more efficiently.
