The topic for todays blog is a new ( to these shores) and unique treatment method for musculoskeletal disorders called Neurac (Neuromuscular Activation). The Neurac method consists of specially tailored tests, exercises and techniques in Redcord slings, and has proven to give immediate and long time results for a lot of musculoskeletal disorders. Research shows that physical inactivity or pain can deactivate one or more muscles, forcing other muscles to compensate and become stressed or over-worked. This often leads to movement dysfunction and pain. 
the Neurac method aims to activate these deactivated or partially deactivated muscles. The activation can cause immediate relief from acute and chronic muscle pain in just one treatment.

One patient who I was treating a couple of months ago was struggling to lift his arm above his head after he had had a fall and landed on his shoulder. He was due to go in for surgery for this but felt that he wanted a physiotherapy opinion before going ahead with the surgery After examining the problem and establishing the cause we performed a couple of muscle activation exercises in the Redcord slings and he was able to use his full range of motion, within three sessions this became a permanent change. Now this doesn’t happen every time we use the slings but most patients notice a marked improvement in symptoms after the first session.

So how does it work?Well the first stage is to identify the weak links in the system or if you like inactive muscles and weaknesses in the core muscles or the coordination between muscles. Even top trained athletes may have weak links, which can occur when stabilizer muscles switch off due to pain, strain, fatigue or inactivity. Individual treatment and/or training program are then developed based on the indentified weak links. The program consists of controlled, pain free exercises in slings. The goal is to improve the interaction between the brain, neural receptors and muscles. This treatment is called Neurac (Neuromuscular Activation), because that is what it does it activates these ‘sleeping’ muscles by stimulating the neural and muscular system. The tests and exercises have been specifically designed for this purpose. The reactivation of this system restores function, builds up strength and prevents relapses.

Our clinic is the only clinic in Great Britain with the Redcord sling system installed in the clinic and that has been trained in the treatment method although the method is very popular in Scandinavia, Central Europe, the USA and in several Asian countries. If you are interested in learning more about how this unique and new treatment method can help with your pain and dysfunction please contact us and we will be very happy to discuss it with you. You can also learn more from the Redcord Website (www.Redcord.com)

Are you ready to be activated?

A few years ago when we talked about the core we thought of our stomach muscles and everyone was doing lots and lots of abdominal work in isolation, working on their six pack to improve their core strength. Then in the early nineties a clever group of physiotherapists in Australia managed to isolate a dysfunctional muscle in the deep abdominal muscles in a population of low back pain sufferers, and this has subsequently become the basis for many postgraduate courses looking into low back stability and core stability, in the fitness world this has spilled into things like pilates. With this approach, muscles are taught how to activate in isolation to rehabilitate or activate them which make them work more normally and in theory this would give your core stability.

These ideas have now been developed further and new ideas have come out of this and we don’t focus necessarily on single small muscles but rather look into how the body is working in functional positions and identifying the weak links in the chain.

The core muscles does not only consist of the abdominal musculature, but also consists of the trunk muscles, pelvic muscles and quite importantly the muscles of the hips and shoulders. You see it is already getting quite complicated. These muscles have the specific role of providing stability for the limbs to be able to do highly specific and detailed tasks, and in sports this quite often means the ability to transfer forces from the centre out to the limbs as seen in activities such as running kicking and throwing. But also this transfer of power is also evident in things like pushing a door open, hoovering and ironing. If certain muscles or muscle groups become weak and inefficient there becomes a weak point in the chain which may cause either a poor alignment of the joints causing stress onto structures and muscles around those joints, this is often seen in runners who have ITB problems or shin splints, as well as not being able to support the spine in performing functional activites such as lifting.

To give you some numbers, the hip and abdominal musculature account for about 50% of the energy used during throwing, if the just one muscle involved in this energy transfer that occurs between the hips and the shoulder is not doing its job there will be a less efficient movement in the chain and there will have to be some compensation to achieve the same task. In a study by Kibler published in 1996 there was an analysis of a tennis serve and they reconed if there was a 20% deficit in the core muscles, then there would need to be 34% more arm speed or 80% more shoulder muscle mass to compensate for this. Interestingly in another study they found that 49% of athletes who had torn their roator cuff in their shoulder demonstrated poor flexibility around the hip and weakness in the hip abductors which they thought was linked to the poor power transfer causing the shoulder to over compensate.

If you are suffering from any upper and lower limb injury as well as pain in the spine, your functional core stability needs to be assessed and an appropriate rehabilitation program needs to be set. This should be very individual to you and work with your lifestyle whether your problem is doing the house work or if you are an elite athlete. The program needs to be progressive and as soon as you have mastered one activity it needs to be progressed to ensure a quick return to your sport or activities.

If you have any questions of how we can help you with the problems you are facing or you would like to improve your core stability for performance reasons we will be more than happy to help you reach your goals of a happy and health lifestyle.