WHAT IS PHYSIOTHERAPY ?
Physiotherapy is an established, recognised system of diagnosis and treatment that lays its main emphasis on the structural integrity of the body. It is distinctive in that it recognises that much of the pain and disability we suffer stem from abnormalities in the function of the body structure as well as damage caused to it by disease. Physiotherapy uses many of the diagnostic procedures used in conventional medical assessment and diagnosis. Its main strength, however, lies in the unique way the patient is assessed from a mechanical, functional and postural standpoint and the manual methods of treatment applied to suit the needs of the individual patient.
CAN PHYSIOTHERAPY HELP ME ?
The skilled techniques of physiotherapy can allow you a speedy return to normal activity. Physiotherapy helps to reduce tissue inflammation by a number of methods ranging from massage of muscles and connective tissues to manipulation and stretching of joints. This helps to reduce muscle spasm and increase mobility, helping to create a healthier state in which damaged tissues can heal.

THE FIRST CONSULTATION:
During the first visit, Siamak takes a full case history of the patient including a static evaluation and simple mobility testing to assess how the whole body relates mechanically to the complaint. This will allow a suitable treatment plan to be developed for you. You will be given guidance on exercise and simple self help methods to use at home. Physiotherapy is patient centred, which means the treatment is geared to you as an individual.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

EMPOWERMENT COACHING
Using personal development techniques from NLP, hypnosis, Time Line Therapy and life coaching, Anthony's approach helps empower his clients to take charge of their lives and expand their emotional and spiritual intelligence. Empowerment coaching can be of massive help for a wide range of issues including career and finances, creativity, relationships, spirituality and overcoming stress.

There are two main options for empowerment coaching:

Breakthrough sessions offer intense coaching, usually in two three-hour sessions (which can be on the same day). This option is appropriate when there is a specific issue in your life which you would like to solve quickly.
Ongoing sessions offer a mixture of face-to-face and telephone coaching designed to make profound changes across your life.

AURA IMAGING

Aura Imaging is an advanced technique for measuring, picturing and interpreting the bio-electric field we all have around us. The different aura colours contain useful information about our personalities and emotional state.

Anthony's aura imaging sessions include a nine-page print-out explaining your aura in detail. You can enjoy aura imaging in a twenty minute consultation, or as part of an hour long sesion where Anthony will use his empowerment coaching skills to help you begin to improve a specific area of your life (the one-hour option also includes 30 minutes follow-up over the telephone).

In our work as physiotherapists to the Victorian and Australian Institutes of Sport, we have not only treated golfers but have assessed their musculo-skeletal system and assisted in coordinating fitness programs for them. These programs are not only designed to prevent injuries but also to assist in improving good golf biomechanics which will in turn enhance performance in the golfer.

Postural Re-education

Good posture is defined as maintaining the primary and secondary curves of your spine.
Benefits of the correct spinal curvature areas:

promotes good mobility
allows even pressure on the spine
allows golfers' body weight to be transferred over a greater surface area, therefore allowing less stress on the spine
promotes more efficient biomechanical movement and efficient backswing and follow-through.

Deviations and postural problems can occur, for example:

scoliosis
sway back
loss of lumbar lordosis and increased thoracic kyphosis.

Causes of postural deviations:

muscle group imbalance and/or weaknesses
congenital/heredity factors
occupational and domestic activities.

It is therefore important to do postural re-education exercises to maintain good posture in order to achieve correct address to the golf ball.

Poor Posture = Poor Address = Poor Swing Path. An example of this is an overweight golfer with a large stomach - they will use their arms to compensate for lack of spinal rotation in their back swing and follow-through.

How many times are you in a stressed position? For example,

prolonged sitting?
driving?
desk work?
gardening?
Flexibility

To obtain good back swing and follow-through, a good range of spinal rotation (especially through the thoracic spine) is essential. The spine is the main rotational component and pivotal in the golf swing itself. This is apparent when you have experienced having a stiff neck as you will tend to block, thus causing a sliced shot.

Good shoulder mobility in both the right and left shoulders are also important especially at the top of the backswing and in the follow-through.

This is reinforced by good bilateral hip rotation in association with free movement at the wrist and elbow joints. Reduction of this range can be highlighted by golfers who are restricted in range at these specific joints, for example:

Osteoarthritis
Osteoporosis
Total hip replacement
Tennis elbow.

Suppleness in the body soft tissue is essential for good flexibility. For example, muscles, tendons, ligaments etc.
Strong and flexible forearms, wrist and hands are essential for good golf.

Strength

Specific muscle groups need to be strengthened to prevent injury, improving stability at the joints and increasing clubhead speed thus promoting good correlated muscle group co-ordination, resulting in a smooth and efficient back swing and follow-through. Muscle groups involved in good golf biomechanics are the abdominals, paravertebral, glutei, quadriceps, peronei rotator cuff muscles, forearm flexor and extensor muscle groups and the intrinsic muscles of the hands.

Female golfers are more prone to upper limb injuries and generally require a full upper limb exercise program to prevent injuries and enhance power and stability in all stages of the golf swing, especially on the forward swing phase when the club makes contact with the ball.

Female golfers are, however, generally more mobile in their lumbar-pelvic region compared with men, who lack tone in their abdominals, glutei and paravertebrals, and as a result of poor posture, tend to be stiff and inflexible in the lumbar spine region.

Do Not Forget Good Technique

Whilst these physical factors will prevent injury and contribute to enhancing performance it is essential that a golf professional be consulted for correct technique and the practical application of the golf swing.

Co-ordination

A fine balance of strength and flexibility in all muscle groups of the body are required to produce a smooth and efficient golf swing. In the right- and left-handed golfers, the human musculo-skeletal system and certain muscle groups contract while others stretch and extend on the backswing and vice versa on the follow-through. For example, wrist extensors contract to achieve the "cocked" position on the backswing and then relax on the follow-through allowing the opposing muscle group, the wrist flexors, to come into action. To allow effective golf actions to take place, flexibility and strength in the muscle tissue is essential. Stretching programs are therefore compulsory to not only prevent injury but enhance performance in these muscle groups.

One of the more popular therapies for the treatment of a variety of conditions in human and veterinary medicine is the application of a magnetic field. The biological effects of low-level magnetic fields have been studied since the 1500s. The crucial question, however, is whether these effects have any physiological significance. Many claims have been made for the therapeutic effectiveness of magnetic fields, but are there any good reasons for believing them?

History

The idea that magnetic therapy could be used to treat disease began in the early 16th century with the Swiss physician, philosopher, and alchemist Paracelsus, who used magnets to treat epilepsy, diarrhea, and hemorrhage.1 Magnetic therapy became more popular in the mid-18th century when Franz Mesmer, an Austrian doctor who also helped begin the fields of hypnotism and psychoanalysis (and from whose name the word "mesmerize" was coined), opened a popular magnetic healing salon in Paris. The purpose of the salon was to treat the untoward effects of the body's innate "animal magnetism." In spite of continued condemnation by the scientific community, magnetic therapy became a popular form of treatment by the lay community.

Over the next few centuries, magnetic therapy developed into a form of quackery. In 1799, Elisha Perkins, a Connecticut physician and sometime mule trader, advocated the use of "metallic tractors" for the treatment of various diseases of humans and horses.2 The user of the tractors (small metal magnetic wedges) swept the tractors over the injured area for a few minutes to "draw off the noxious electrical fluid that lay at the foot of suffering." Subjects and observers perceived immediate benefits. They reported their testimonials and Perkins became very rich. Magnetic tractors failed to prevent Dr. Perkins' death due to yellow fever in 1799.

In the late 1800s, the Sears catalogue advertised magnetic boot inserts. Magnetic caps and clothing (with over 700 magnets) were available by mail order from Thatcher's Chicago Magnetic Company. 3 Dr. Thatcher asserted that "magnetism properly applied will cure every curable disease no matter what the cause."4 At the turn of the 20th century, Dr. Albert Abrams, named the "Dean of 20th Century charlatans" by the American Medical Association, postulated that each organ system and patient was "tuned" to a characteristic electromagnetic wavelength. By the time of World War II, physiologic effects of electromagnetic fields no longer received much attention in medical journals.

The history of quackery in the use of magnets has obscured scientific investigations performed on the medical effects of magnetic and electromagnetic fields. From a biophysics standpoint, a distinction is made between the two therapies; magnetic and electromagnetic are not the same.