Spinal & Sports Injury Therapy
SERVICES
Welcome to Spine Plus
About Us
Spine Plus is a trading name for Osteopathy Plus Ltd, a company founded by osteopaths with over 10 years experience of working in the NHS and private sectors. Our osteopaths work in conjunction with many leading medical consultants from various disciplines. We offer thorough clinical assessments for back pain, neck pain and other musculoskeletal disorders. The treatment and self help advice we provide is personalised to the individual and guided both by evidence based practice and the renowned innovation, intuition and expertise of our therapists.
At the spine plus clinic in the heart of central London (Waterloo) we offer a unique, multidisciplinary service to city based clients. As well as osteopathy, acupuncture and sports /remedial massage we also offer a fast affordable referral and follow up service for on site MRI scans from Vista diagnostics, from as little as £200. We always put the needs of our patients first and where necessary refer patients on to various medical specialists throughout the London area including on site at Capital Tower.Our other services include workplace ergonomic assessments, manual handling training and back care courses for companies in London and the South East wishing to reduce musculoskeletal disorders amongst their staff and improve sickness absence.
Spine Plus Osteopathy
Osteopathy originated in the late 1800’s as a form of treatment for many conditions using manipulation of the body. Several manual therapies, including chiropractic, have since evolved from the treatment techniques originally used by osteopaths. Today in the UK osteopathy is a fully regulated health care profession and all Osteopaths are required by law to have completed the necessary 4 to 5 years of full time training. In order to diagnose and assess musculoskeletal problems throughout the body osteopaths observe a client’s posture, use highly skilled palpation to feel for tight muscles and stiff joints and use detailed bed side orthopaedic and neurological tests. When it comes to treatment all Osteopaths receive extensive training in a wide range of “hands on” treatment techniques including joint manipulation, massage and many other soft tissue techniques. Due to this diversity in the range of osteopathic techniques there can be considerable variation in different peoples’ experiences of seeing an osteopath. At one end of the scale some osteopaths tend to exclusively use vigorous high velocity thrust manipulation involving “clicking” the joints without any or only very little treatment applied to the soft tissues; whilst at the other end of the scale some osteopaths will rely on extremely gentle “cranial” techniques and hardly ever perform the more vigorous techniques.
SPINE PLUS OSTEOPATHY =
Osteopathy + massage + medical acupuncture + exercise advice + more…
At Spine Plus our osteopaths take a thorough “no nonsense” approach. Where necessary this involves careful and precise osteopathic joint manipulation, such techniques are only performed with the patient’s full consent. Our Osteopaths also use plenty of soft tissue techniques, including massage, applied to sore tight muscles. One of our hallmarks is that our Osteopaths use medical acupuncture / acupressure (depending on the patient’s preference). This requires additional postgraduate training which they have all undertaken. We have found medical acupuncture to be particularly effective when combined with traditional osteopathic treatment. Also surplus to their standard osteopathic training is training in the use of electrotherapy such as ultrasound which can be very useful for certain ligament and tendon problems. In addition our osteopaths have considerable experience and special interest in sport which enables them to provide effective self help advice based on their training and personal experience.
Spine Plus Massage Therapy
At the Spine Plus clinic in central London we offer sports and remedial deep tissue massage that is suitable for everyone from the couch potato to the professional athlete ! Our highly trained and highly skilled massage therapists use advanced massage techniques that incorporate the latest scientific approaches for optimum long term relief of muscular tension. This involves lots of firm, slow, deep massage strokes that run at right angles to the muscle fibres (“cross fibre massage”) thereby releasing adhesions between fibres as well as tension within fibres. This style of massage is also known as “trigger point massage”, it requires a very precise knowledge of human muscular anatomy. Our therapists are also trained in other advanced techniques such as “muscle energy” and “lock and key” stretching.
Another distinguishing feature of our style of massage is that we use less oil / lotion than some other styles. This means we make better contact with the muscle tissue and allows our therapists to use their expert knowledge of human anatomy to work on individual muscle fibres. This is distinguishable from many other forms of massage, particularly in the beauty industry, that claim to offer deep tissue massage but use gliding strokes with lots of oil that superficially glance over more than one muscle group at a time, often missing certain key muscle fibres along the way. Whilst needing to be firm in order to break adhesions and stretch out tight muscle fibres our style of massage is also relaxing because the strokes are slow and sustained so giving the body time to relax into them. They are also short in amplitude so they do not create a Chinese burn effect.
We believe this enables us to offer the most effective massage therapy for long term relief of muscular tension.
Our massage routines can be used to help relieve every day stress and tension, prevent and recover from injury, optimise sporting performance, or, when used regularly, as a way of keeping muscles and joints supple and relaxed, thereby helping to maintain the health and vitality of the whole body.
As well as allowing clients to direct our therapists to areas that need particular tension (see Pic and Mix) we have devised a number of massage routines that are applicable to common scenarios, click on the links shown below for more information.
Computer Users Massage
Active Legs Massage
Full Spinal Massage
Golf Conditioning Massage
Pic and Mix Massage
Medical Acupuncture & Acupressure
When most people think of acupuncture they think of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture (TCA) as practised by Chinese acupuncturists and some physiotherapists. However Medical Acupuncture (MA) is different to TCA in several ways. MA is practised by medical doctors and allied health professionals who have taken the relevant extra training. MA fits into a western medical framework of diagnosis based on a modern understanding of human anatomy and physiology rather than the eastern based philosophy of TCA. With MA fewer needles tend to be used and the main targets are “trigger points” within tight muscles that cause localised and/or “referred” pain. Therefore needle penetration tends to be deeper with MA, the needles penetrate directly into the muscles rather then going just under the skin as is most often the case with TCA. This is usually not as painful as one might think since the needles used tend to be very thin, although a distinct and characteristic twitch is usually felt within the muscle which signifies the practitioner has hit the exact spot causing the problem. Due to this exact and direct approach MA usually provides significant relief in symptoms even after the first treatment. One of the ways in which MA is thought to work is by stimulating blood flow to areas within the muscles which have become starved of blood due being extremely knotted or tight, these are the “trigger points”. Stimulating blood flow to these trigger points brings with it oxygen and other nutrients which help the trigger point relax and recover, thus reducing pain
Service Categories
Acupuncture, Connective Tissue Massage, Deep Tissue Massage, Mens Health, Myofascial Release Therapy, Osteopathy, Personal Trainers, Physiotherapy, Pregnancy Massage, Remedial Massage, Sports Massage, Trigger Point Therapy, Womens Health
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