By Greg Lehman / Top Take Home Messages From Osteopath Jarrod Testa

Download 1 Reconciling Biomechanics With Pain Science Workshop

Over the weekend of the 16/17th of February; Jarrod, Heath and Shaun from Principle Four Osteopathy attended Greg Lehmans course “Reconciling biomechanics with pain science”. The course was held at the Southern School of Natural Therapies (Fitzroy) and was attended by a range of health professionals that include physiotherapists, osteopaths, exercise physiologists, chiropractors and occupational therapists.

For those who don’t know Greg;

 Greg is a Chiropractor, Physiotherapist and researcher, who also undertook his master’s degree under the supervision of Stuart McGill. Greg also holds running courses, and is the author of the book “Recovery Strategies”. Greg is a clinical educator/ clinician, who is a major asset to the community in being able to convey scientific messages in laymen’s (Lehmans) terms.

Read more about Greg by clicking the link below:

http://www.greglehman.ca/

Over the course of the weekend, here are our 5-key take home messages were:

  1. Nociception and pain ARENT the same thing

Nociception is the nervous systems response to actual or potential tissue damage. This can either lead to pain, or be ignored by the system depending on the context. An example of this is kickboxers’ shins improving tolerance to discomfort over time, to the point they don’t feel pain with kicking. This is as their bodies have built up a capacity to tolerate this, and the context appears safe.

2. Getting stronger doesn’t actually improve pain

Touching on the previous point of nociception, Greg pointed out that getting physically stronger doesn’t actually decrease nociception or pain. What it does do however is increase the tissues tolerance locally, build confidence, and allow us to get back to doing meaningful activities, which aids in a more resilient person.

3. Maybe specifics aren’t all that important

Greg pointed out that all the muscles were involved in loaded shoulder scaption. The scaption plane is 30-45 degrees anterior to the frontal plane, which is typically thought as being more deltoid / supraspinatus dominant. Truth is, it was an “everything” exercise. Meaning, there was a great amount of EMG activity in the entire shoulder musculature. This reinforces that we probably don’t work in isolation, and thinking movements rather than specific muscles is might be more accurate.

4. The only bad movements are the ones you aren’t prepared for

Contrary to popular belief, we don’t actually have any concrete evidence that there are bad movements. We are all going to have differing moving strategies, and if one of those strategies become painful, we can either avoid it, expose it, or develop another one that will allow us to reach the goal position. This will depend on the type of person we are dealing with, and how they typically cope with things.

5. Meaningful activities are more likely to get completed

An exercise that has more context and means something to an individual is more likely to get completed, compared to something that the person finds irrelevant. How can we make a rehabilitation exercise more meaningful? Can we alter the environment, make the exercise enjoyable, change the context of it or something similar? What does the person like doing and what type of person are they? There are just some of the variables that Greg mentioned, that we should thinking about before prescribing an exercise to a patient.

In conclusion, this course was great for any practitioner who is wanting to learn how to apply a biopsychosocial frame work to treating patients, and we would strongly recommend following Greg and keeping up to date with him on social media / attending his courses and reading his pain education book.

Download 1 1 Reconciling Biomechanics With Pain Science Workshop

This blog post was written by osteopath Jarrod Testa of Principle Four Osteopathy. Jarrod is available for appointments at our Collins St Osteopathy practice on Tuesday, Thursdays and Fridays. Read more about Jarrod by clicking on the link below.

Jarrod Testa Square E1542674375645 1 Reconciling Biomechanics With Pain Science Workshop

Read more about Jarrod by clicking the link below

Jarrod Testa Profile

Book an appointment with Jarrod Testa here.

About Principle Four Osteopathy

Principle Four Osteopathy is one of Melbourne City CBD leading osteopathy clinics. We have 5 osteopaths working across the clinic with the clinic open Monday – Friday. We are located within Pleasance House, Level 4, 178 Collins St, Melbourne CBD. Appointments can be booked online at www.principlefourosteopathy.com or by calling 0396709290.