Sometimes the best way to inform the public on the benefits of a therapy is to share a testimonial from a client …… so here goes. Take it away Lindsey!

Injury, for a Pilates teacher, can be debilitating. Not only is it frustrating and painful, but it means demonstrating moves, carrying bags about and having clients who want hands on adjustment can be difficult.

I’ve generally considered myself to have a strong set of shoulders and back. But a repeated move in climbing got the better of me. I’m not sure what I tore or damaged, but my shoulder was sore!

After about 6 weeks of assuming it was muscle soreness post exercise and saying ‘ouch’ I thought I’d better do something about it. I’d got a deep, dull ache around my shoulder and it was affecting my sleep and my ability to exercise.

I asked Mike if his new shock wave therapy was appropriate to use and see if I could get back to some sort of normal. I knew that the menopause can provoke shoulder issues for women. And I really didn’t need this to ‘set in’ and become my new ‘norm’.

To be frank, I couldn’t exercise my arm and was struggling in bed at night to get comfortable and sleep well. I could feel my arm getting weaker and I had to miss some of my own exercise sessions. I used our high quality omega / fish oils to reduce inflammation. I used our MSM aloe gel for pain relief (especially at night). Both helped. But there was no real improvement.

Back in my NHS days I worked with urologists. At the time there was a new pioneering ‘lithotripsy’ treatment for kidney stones. What I learned from Mike was that the new shock wave treatment is a less powerful version of this.

Mike explained that it delivers high energy sound waves that can break down scar tissue. It can reduce calcification in injury sites (where the tissue is laying down calcium deposits which cause it to get a bit ‘stuck’), that it can speed up the body’s healing of itself by helping circulation and collagen production.

I hadn’t got a diagnosis, but read that it could be helpful for chronic issues like rotator cuff tendinopathy, shoulder impingement (mine certainly was impinged) and restoring range of motion.

I lay on the comfy bed under a heated blanket (bliss) and Mike set the machine up. He first tested the shock wave pulse on a different part of my arm and the very loud clicking sound started! It felt fine; I couldn’t feel anything at all. Then he applied the shock wave to my sore shoulder. Ouch! now that was different. It felt like someone was repeatedly flicking my bone and it was a bit sore. I guess we’d found the right spot!

To help me tolerate it Mike reduced the intensity. It’s measured by its pressure and frequency. So this loud click delivered a certain level of Megapascals (MPa) and each one would promote healing. It took about 18 minutes in total. It was sore but bearable and after a few minutes we were able to increase the pressure slightly.

This first treatment seemed to stir my shoulder up. It ached after.  I wasn’t sure this was going to work. Once the ache settled down my arms didn’t feel much different. I had to trust that we’d got the right spot and wait to see how delivering this ‘energy’ in sound waves to my injury would help me heal myself.

We undertook a weekly treatment. And after 3 weeks I started to feel less sore and also have more movement. Mike was able to increase the intensity bit by bit.

It was such a relief! Progress!

It was interesting that the injury site moved a bit each week. We seemed to be chasing the tendon pain up my arm and closer to the joint, the insertion point right at the top. That felt good too. Mike directed the head of the shock wave machine and sometimes I would ask him to point it a tiny bit in a different direction to get the real root of the issue. Between us we were hitting the target.

6 treatments later (each time with greater intensity of shock wave and each time more tolerated) I’d say i’m 98% healed. It feels good in day to day movement. I can sleep without pain and I can do most things fully again. I’m left working on my shoulder alignment and strength a little. The loss of use for over 10 weeks has resulted in my arm feeling weak. But I know what needs to be done and I have the motivation to get back to my full range of movement, full strength and full comfort! I reckon one more shock wave and a couple of weeks of shoulder moves and I’ll be there. I’m so pleased.

If you want to ask Mike about how it might suit you (knees, shoulders , ankles, old injuries, stiff joints etc) then he will happily answer your questions.

What I like about the concept is that it promotes the body to heal itself. It’s less invasive than steroid injections that don’t last and you are fully included in the recovery.