Why osteopathy?

Why osteopathy? It is a question that I often follow with, if I had a pound every time somebody asked this question. At age 15 I started a love affair with wearing white pyjamas, kicking, punching, throwing and feeling very sore after training. In 1994 I took and passed my 1st degree in Tae Kwon Do. I could kick hard enough to break a house brick. In all honesty I cut my foot on the brick! My turning kick was fast and powerful, even above my own head height. We all stretched to increase our flexibility and avoid injuries. Aside from some occasional episodes of low back pain and stiffness I was free of pain until at age 31 I ceased martial arts training and gained about 15kilogrammes of body weight, mostly on my love handles. I ballooned up to 106 kilogrammes. To get back into shape I joined David Lloyd in Derby and took up heavy weight training, (well heavy for me!) Over three years I lost 6 kilogrammes and gained awful, lower back, shoulder and neck pain.


Osteopathy was kindly recommended to me after I attempted to front squat 80 kilogrammes, pressed the weight up, reached the point where the weight was to much for my strength, where I let my shoulders roll forward, (see the 3rd drawing above for how not to front squat.) pushed up once more, when pain hit me in my low back! On reflection the pain was a combination of bad diet, red wine, poor lifting technique, absent core stability and mild body dysmophic disorder BDD.

The osteopath helped me but I needed to know more about this science. What are these strange sounding muscles? Why do joints pop or crack, then feel much better? How are osteopaths different from Physiotherapists? Two years later and I was studying part-time with the College of Osteopaths. This lead me down a 5 and a half year life changing path of enlightenment and tiredness!