On my second appointment with John, he once again demonstrated to me the flaws in my posture. With me standing casually, a quick profile photo showed that my pelvis and nose stuck out in front of the rest of my body. I am curving my lower spine backwards and then my neck and head are pushing too far forwards from my shoulders (see photo 1); as John rightly pointed out, I am a two-pillow sleeper. These extra curves in my skeletal frame mean that the nerves strung over that frame have further to travel than they should, and therefore have less give in them. My first prescription was to sort out my posture during the many hours I use a computer (at the office and particularly when using my laptop at home, for which my posture is really pretty terrible).I have included a before (photo 2) and after (photo 3) shot of my laptop setup.
Following this, we tried some little hops as if skipping, first on both legs then switching to one leg, showing that this was much worse on my right side. Similarly, when balancing on one leg, I would lean my upper body much further to the side on the right leg than when balancing on the left. It seems I am literally a lazy arse, at least on the right side, where the upper glute muscles do not want to work to keep me balanced. Prescription two was the controlled sitting exercise from the physiotherapy.co.uk website to wake these muscles up. You or I may well ask what all this has to do with my calf injury? I believe John's answer might be that you treat the body and not the symptoms of injury, and the rest follows...there is a logic to this, and as a scientist I see that you can only test this theory by following the advice, so fingers crossed and here goes...
Photo 1 - my neck looking a bit forward from my back
Photo 2 - how I used a laptop before the physio session (borrowing my girlfriend's laptop here)
Photo 3 - my new laptop setup at the desk in the bedroom
Following this, we tried some little hops as if skipping, first on both legs then switching to one leg, showing that this was much worse on my right side. Similarly, when balancing on one leg, I would lean my upper body much further to the side on the right leg than when balancing on the left. It seems I am literally a lazy arse, at least on the right side, where the upper glute muscles do not want to work to keep me balanced. Prescription two was the controlled sitting exercise from the physiotherapy.co.uk website to wake these muscles up. You or I may well ask what all this has to do with my calf injury? I believe John's answer might be that you treat the body and not the symptoms of injury, and the rest follows...there is a logic to this, and as a scientist I see that you can only test this theory by following the advice, so fingers crossed and here goes...
Photo 1 - my neck looking a bit forward from my back
Photo 2 - how I used a laptop before the physio session (borrowing my girlfriend's laptop here)
Photo 3 - my new laptop setup at the desk in the bedroom
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