I'm one of those people that has a niggle; a recurring knot in my right shoulder blade for four or five years. It's not constant, it's rarely debilitating, sometimes it gets worse than others - when hot showers and heat patches ease the discomfort - but most of the time it's either barely noticeable or manageable, the odd massage helping.
Never before had I thought that it might actually be worth looking into (a desk job spending all day with hunched shoulders = just one of those things) until I was approached by London Wellness Centre and invited for a visit with their resident chiropractor. More interested in the practice as a whole than thinking about a specific problem I obviously took them on their very kind offer, thinking at best it might be an interesting visit; definitely right in a way, but it ended up being so much more.
With two locations in Canary Wharf and London Bridge, London Wellness Centre is ideally located for busy and stressed Londoners. A one-stop shop for wellness lifestyle, it focuses heavily on prevention over cure - something I'd never really considered. A wide range of treatments from top clinicians includes chiropractic as well as podiatry, nutrition, sports rehabilitation, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, yoga and more. In most cases clients receive an initial personalised consultation followed by a detailed treatment and maintenance plan.
Run by London’s leading Chiropractor Joanna Lowry-Corry (BSc (Neuroscience), MChiro, CCEP, LC), the centre is dedicated to sharing knowledge on muscular-skeletal health so that more people can benefit from and understand the importance of functional movement in their day to day lives.
I popped in for an appointment post-work with Oliver Eccles, resident chiropractor, which began with an in depth questioning on my general health and fitness, history, habits, diet, nutrition, medical info, a full medical history and movement patterns. We spoke about stress and we examined how particular movements and positions are causing what pain, allowing him to build up a full picture of what is going on in my daily life and how I cope with it.
Ollie fascinatingly explained to me that though the odd tiny thing might seem irrelevant, it could all add up to create a problem over time; for example an operation on my two as a teen rendered it unbendable - something which could in turn be contributing to my slight flat-footedness, affect my walking and potentially explain part of the reason for tension in the back. Who knew?
All joints and muscles for restriction or over-tightness, as well as for strength, range of motion and speed of muscle engagement to give clues as to which areas of body are taking the brunt of all of my movement stress and which areas are not pulling their weight - I learnt that through being hunched at a desk all day I was using the wrong muscles in my arms and shoulder when it came to raising my arms and lifting, a result of bad habits building up and something I now know to train myself out of. All of that allows them to determine if actual damage is still going on or whether an old injury is still resulting in a poor motor pattern. Luckily I seem to have visited at the right time; Ollie told me it's much easier to treat something like my achy shoulder blade when it's just that, at the achy, slightly annoying, uncomfortable stage, rather than when it's a full-blown injury that could take a much more intensive course of treatment to fix.
So the treatment? I don't know how to describe it really other than what it was - a back cracking. Obviously it's slightly more sophisticated than that. Ollie had established exactly which of my vertebrae were under pressure, which parts (right hip included) needed relieving and realigning and subsequently those were the ones focused on. It was short and sharp, all over in ten minutes, with no pain or discomfort (a slight shock when he did my neck - purely because it's nearer the ears so you do actually hear the crack... don't be alarmed... it's totally normal...) but I literally felt instantly better and left walking taller.
Since my appointment two weeks ago I've certainly been making a more conscious effort on my posture; not slumping at work, sitting with a cushion to support my back, rolling my shoulders back and not winding my legs around each other and throwing myself off balance - they sound like no brainers, but it's amazing how quickly we can slip into bad habits. I've noticed the difference, and I'm sure you will too.
www.thisislondonwellness.com
Love Laurel x
