Physio Magic

Ever since I broke my toe paddle-boarding last summer, I’ve been waiting for my foot to go back to normal. It’s not a massive issue – just enough of a niggling pain to keep me on my toes about it (or off them, as it were).

Anyway, I finally went and saw a physio about it this morning. Apparently, the main problem seems to be that I’ve been ‘bracing’ various muscles ever since the little ding took place, which is something that we do in an effort to protect an injured area from further damage. Given that my toe healed up quite a while ago, this bracing response is completely unnecessary, and is actually causing pain in my foot and ankle by affecting my gait.

I could be explaining this wrong, but that was my layman’s takeaway, together with a spikey ball for at-home myofascial release. Myo-what now? Well, it’s something to do with muscles… that’s about all I can tell you. What I can tell you is that my foot feels better already.

In my experience with this type of thing, it’s generally worth a trip to the physio clinic. Moorabbin based friends, who’s your preferred allied health professional for dealing with aches and pains? I know a few people who swear by remedial massage, and at least one who is religious about seeing her myotherapist for dry needling. Moorabbin has so many options, I often feel like I don’t know where to begin.

The cool thing about these services is that they often leave you feeling better than you did to begin with. Like, beyond treating a specific pain, they can sometimes free up random areas of tension that you had no idea you were carrying around.

It’s actually got me inspired to book in for some clinical Pilates sessions at the physio – I reckon it’s time to get in touch with my body. I mean, if I was walking around with all this tension in my foot without realising, what else is going on in my musculature that might want to know about?