 |
| Photo Credit: MMWAVE.RU |
I go to Letchworth Private Physiotherapy Sports Clinic rather than through the NHS...because well mainly due to the fact that they were useless in trying to help me. When I first became injured, I was put on a number of extremely strong painkillers - all of which were really too strong for me to deal with - and I was expected to just carry on as normal. No exercises. 6+ hours of karate a week and at the time 2+ hours of both ballet and swimming... Clearly this wasn't practical! I couldn't carry on forever like this right? Well in the end I decided to visit a physiotherapist. This one was recommended to me by a friend and since then? I've been able to walk!
Basically, this post is being written because people wanted to see what it's like when I went. Obviously I'm not a physiotherapist so I don't really understand what's going on inside my back once I received my treatment, but I can share the things I experience!
My Neck Treatment
I only just started with this one, I've been getting a pretty stiff neck recently. I could have just gone to the doctors and picked up some painkillers for it, but with karate I don't really like not being able to feel when something hurts - as if I'm on painkillers, I can't feel when my neck/back is telling me I should give up and sit out - so I went to my physio about it.
Basically we had the same treatment but on my neck. Then exercises to do around 4 times a day at home so it doesn't hurt again. I prefer these to the back ones because it's easier to just move my head around for a bit as opposed to sitting down and doing full-on yoga stretches ㅎ
I'm also going to share with you a photo now of what the neck looks like after. But first I'll explain why these are darker! It wasn't a stronger machine or anything, there's just less fat on your neck than on your back. So I suppose if I was thinner, the back ones would also be more obvious!
 |
| These ones are so much harder to cover up than the back ones as they're right on the back of my head! Look how far up the top one is! Also, can you spot the ones on my arms? |
My Back Treatment
So the most important part of my physio is my back treatment. Without this, I can't walk in a straight line, I can't do karate and I'm pretty much immobile. I go into the centre and then I basically just do exercises, electrotherapy and then am set exercises so it doesn't get worse or anything!
The electrotherapy is usually the part that people ask about so I'll focus on that!
I honestly didn't know much about it before this post, so I decided to do some proper researching into it for you all...I get IFT, this treatment is used to stimulate muscles, release endorphins and increase blood flow. It's really just like a massage chair feeling but attached to you. There's not actually much research to prove how well it works apparently, but it works for me and it's fine! ㅋㅋ
First question I always get: "Does it hurt?" Nope. None of the exercises in my treatment hurt me, sometimes the clicks and the sounds my body makes when I'm doing them freak me out a little...but it doesn't actually hurt.
I couldn't share with you a picture of the machine, but it's just a box with wires coming out of it! Nothing interesting really!
 |
| Here's an after picture! See the red circles? That's what freaks people out! They're just suction marks from where the machine has been attached. They last between 3-6 days on me. |
