Have you ever strained your lower back, suffered a knee or ankle injury in sport, or perhaps suffered a violent motor vehicle accident? These traumas will not only affect local muscles and ligaments but will also impact the nervous system. Scar tissue, weak muscles, poor ability to coordinate movements, and chronic inflammation are common results of trauma and all take a toll on vitality. We can even view a lifetime of inactivity as a form of trauma because of the negative adaptations that occur throughout the body due to not moving well, or not moving enough. Current global statistics show that most people fall into this category of inactivity, including children.

If you have a history of the following:

• recurrent muscle pain or stiffness
• a history of joint injury or surgery
• a lifestyle of prolonged inactivity or repetitive movement
• diagnosis of fibromyalgia or other connective tissue pathology
• generally poor posture

then it’s necessary to reduce the harmful effects that these situations can have on your myofascial system. A.I.S. is a system you can use either as an adjunct to other care, or as a starting point for structured movement and mindset to promote a positive shift in the body. It works well alongside other forms of therapy, such as physiotherapy or osteopathy, and complements yoga and Pilates. If you need a place to start your journey to a better functioning body, or just add another tool to continue functioning at an optimal level, then you will benefit greatly from learning the A.I.S. philosophy.

Adrian Yahvah has been applying A.I.S. to combat the effects of trauma and improving physical well being for over 13 years. His clients range from the very young to late stage adulthood, high level athletes as well as sedentary and inactive people. He has trained under the founder Aaron Mattes and has teaching experience of this effective technique. Please inquire at The Body Group to book your appointment.

Stretching targets many types of tissues aside from muscles and tendons. A focused and regimented program will benefit several key systems in the body, including the nervous system! Stretching itself is proven to promote feelings of relaxation that are attributed to an upregulation in parts of the nervous system responsible for rest and recovery. The effects are profound and include decreasing stress as well as enhanced circulation to digestive organs.

The two forms of stretching exercise are active and passive, and they each affect the body differently.

Passive stretches are often held for long periods of time and can place undue pressure on ligaments and joint capsules that may destabilize joints and may be overall counterproductive according to current research, especially if performed pre-activity.

Active stretching routines, on the other hand, require the participation of the subject, safely encouraging flexibility without overstressing important joints. This method will also enhance neuromuscular control that will aid in body awareness and enhance factors important for the development of a healthy musculoskeletal system. Care must always be taken to avoid overstretching areas that may already be hypermobile as this could lead to structural imbalances and strength deficits.

If you or your child are considering flexibility training, consider Mattes Method Active Isolated Stretching. This is a comprehensive system of mobility and strength movements that can be implemented safely and effectively. If your “youngster” (5 or older) suffers from poor posture, growing pains, sports tension, overuse syndromes, or is just “stressed out” then a personalized active stretching session will quickly add relief.

Please contact Adrian Yahvah at The Body Group to book a session. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Should we just accept the fact we will all succumb to bad posture and a lifetime of sore muscles and achy joints? It can be overwhelming all the advice we are given to address bad posture. Yoga? Massage? Physio? Chiropractors or stand up desks; what is the answer? There is no one form of exercise or treatment that will solve your problem. These modalities can give temporary relief but in order to solve the problem of bad posture it takes a re-education of your muscles in order to change your positional awareness from bad posture, to better posture and finally to a good posture.

Active isolated stretching and strengthening is a specific method of lengthening tight muscles and tissues while strengthening the ones not doing their job. This will enable you to sense your body better and allow you to self-correct as your muscles get used to their new and proper roles. Bad posture is truly a habit and once you understand your postural habit better, change can happen in a more dramatic way. Active isolated stretching and strengthening can be applied to a variety of conditions and people regardless of age. It fits in well with any physio, massage, or physician plan as a complement to these treatments.

Are you suffering due to bad posture and not enjoying life to it’s fullest? Contact Adrian at the Body Group for your postural assessment and care plan immediately!

Encouraging balance and flexibility in children will facilitate nervous system development and have a positive effect on coordination. Although it is thought that children are inherently flexible, it is possible that many children develop hypomobility in certain joints and this can be complicated by growth spurts around puberty that may coincide with increasing academic demands. During these years, many children engage in sport camps and frequent after school sport activities that can repetitively stress the body in certain movement patterns, creating weakness in other areas of the body. Tendon and muscle injuries can be common during this phase and extra attention should be paid to minimise both acute and chronic conditions. Even the inactive child can benefit greatly from the benefits of full body flexibility and training several times per week for both physical and mental gain. This can encourage self-esteem and promote relaxation with the added advantage of good posture.

At The Body Group, we regularly work with youth in both treating injuries and the maintenance of posture using full body flexibility and movement protocols. Research supports implementing regular flexibility and postural exercises for the overall development and well being of children and we are experienced in working with children of all ages. Book your appointment for your active youngster today, as an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

My talk at LinkedIn focused on health and wellness, and obviously this is quite a broad topic. Although my expertise more specifically lies in physical fitness and injury management & care, my experience in these areas has given me a solid grasp of nutrition and the importance of rest. I also have gained an awareness over the years that emotional distress, if not managed correctly, can soon manifest into a physical ailment. Working at The Body Group has allowed me to gain a more in-depth knowledge of how these factors interrelate, and I was able to include these concepts in my discussion.

Corporate awareness and implementation of preventative strategies for health in this setting are really beginning to gain traction. More recently, I facilitated a similar workshop at BASF and discussed workplace posture and strategies for injury prevention. Going on-site and meeting people in their work environment enables me to help them put basic principles into practice immediately. During these workshops at LinkedIn and BASF, I provided employees with a worksheet of easy-to-follow postural guidelines as well as simple exercises to target areas that often become painful or fatigued during the day.

One of the greatest benefits of this type of outreach is encouraging each company as a whole to adopt a culture of balance and awareness when it comes to mental and physical health. Empowering staff to make a positive change in their work environment allows corporations to maximize profits and minimize losses by preventing injury and illness in the workplace. It also boosts office morale when employees feel genuinely cared for by management that arranges to have health professionals come in and improve their work experience. This is truly a win-win situation.

Please contact us at info@thebodygroup.com if you are interested in organizing a similar workshop at your office.

The most important element in dealing with sports injuries is to make a speedy and accurate assessment of the injury sustained. Very often the client is in pain and the therapist may have only a limited time to help him or her get back on track. Successful treatment of a problem requires both a detailed knowledge of human anatomy and the ability to select the appropriate treatment method.

Rehab Essentials focuses on a Movement Deficiency Assessment that accurately and speedily gives information about specific joints in the body. Once the muscle imbalance has been identified, hands-on loosening techniques are used to quickly inhibit tight and overactive tissues. These are followed by Activation Drills to stimulate ‘dormant’ muscles. Many of the techniques involved in this modality involve active participation by the client and this is a way of helping the client to become mentally engaged in the healing process.

In certain instances, taping techniques are also employed, using kinesiology tape to support injuries and help facilitate movement.

One of the most common problems seen today is lower back pain, often caused by people persisting in doing crunches that do little more than add stress to an already stressed-out lower back. Rehab Essentials focuses on the role of respiration in stabilising the lumbar spine, thus getting the inner core muscles such as the transverse abdominis, pelvic floor muscles, and the multifidi to segmentally support the lower back, while larger and more superficial muscles such as the abdominal obliques and rectus abdominus form the outer core.

Whether you have an injury that needs assessment and care or whether you simply wish to train in a safer and more effective manner, a session with Adrian will allow you to take advantage of the latest techniques in sports medicine.

For the purpose of this article I want to focus on pain and rehabilitation. When we get injured, pain will force the body to move in ways that do not aggravate an injury. This is called compensation, and unfortunately can lead to other injuries that will slow down the body’s healing process. The application of Rock Tape can help reduce pain on an injury site by stimulating local receptors in the tissue to respond and also by assisting the lymphatic system to work. The lymphatic system is often overwhelmed initially after an injury. The pull of the tape over a joint is also thought to improve proprioception, or the body’s ability to sense where it is in space. This can improve the joint mechanics and hence function, allowing for better movement and perhaps a reduced risk of repeated injury.

Let’s be honest. A lot of the appeal of Rock Tape is the fashion component, and the idea of wearing it could lead to increased confidence during movement. But this should not be overlooked as a benefit! Any type of taping method is not a stand-alone method to treat or prevent injuries but used with other techniques such as deep tissue massage, active isolated stretching and strengthening, etc., Rock Tape can enhance the beneficial effects of those techniques.  Please contact Adrian Yahvah at The Body Group if you have questions about injury, rehabilitation or performance.

When clients don’t seem to be recovering well from injuries, and even those clients who come to me with chronic pain from excessive seated posture, the first questions I ask are about the quality and – more importantly – consistency of rest. We all know that the fitness industry is booming in Hong Kong with boutique gyms opening seemingly on every corner. These facilities offer cutting edge techniques and all the latest supplements. Sure it will cost you plenty, but you will be fast tracked to success, right? We all wish it worked this way. Working hard and being consistent, tracking results and paying a close eye to nutrition is paramount but when it comes to making gains and reaching ultimate potential the most important “vitamin” or “supplement” that’s lacking can’t be bought or sold. If you are not meeting your goals in the gym or field, or not recovering from injuries or hard training, it’s likely that your lack of zzzzzz’s is to blame.

This is not a lecture, it’s a reminder. Your body responds to strength training by repairing the damaged tissues and adapting the nervous system to respond to heavier loads or increased duration of exercise. It can’t do this during the day when you are being taxed in many different ways. The bridge between the nervous system and the endocrine system is the hypothalamus, a small almond-sized structure in the brain that links these two systems via the pituitary gland. This area is negatively impacted when sleep is disrupted, affecting hormones and important neurotransmitters alike. Growth hormone for example is essential to our health. It is the prime catalyst for tissue healing and growth and also helps to lower cortisol levels, a primary stress hormone that, when elevated, breaks down proteins and slows the overall immune response that is needed to rebuild tissue and support the health of the nervous system. Cortisol can also interfere with insulin sensitivity which, when lowered, causes the body to store fat – often in the areas where we don’t want it.

You can see from this how vital growth hormone is. You also need to be aware that the majority of it is released at night. So again, the possible benefit of all the best personal trainers, physios, and world class nutritional products will be minimised if you don’t take the time to get 8 to 9 hours of good, restful sleep per night on a consistent basis.

Given that good sleep is so vital to our health, let’s review some simple pointers:

• Establish a sleep-wake schedule and stick to it like glue, on weekends too if possible.
• Remember to get regular exposure to sunlight; this ensures better production of melatonin later in the day.
• Exercise early in the day if possible. Intensive exercise and exercising late in the day will stimulate the nervous system and be counterproductive to falling asleep.
• Avoid both inactivity and over sleeping if at all possible. Getting the body into a regular routine will train the body to rest when it needs to do so.
• Use supplements such as highly absorbable magnesium and tryptophan, or eat a small amount of gluten free, low glycemic carbohydrate to boost serotonin levels.
• Avoid excessive or even moderate alcohol consumption and be cautious with caffeine intake.
• And don’t forget to manage stress with techniques such as meditation, acupuncture, or my personal favorite: a session of Active Isolated Stretching. Stretching is shown to promote relaxation and reduce cortisol levels.

Anyone who is working to improve the function of the musculoskeletal system does this by positively affecting flexibility and strength. These are the cornerstones that allow a pain free range of motion that is adequately strong and sustainable for correct posture and awareness. Mobility should be established first, followed by a systematic progression of strengthening exercises. Many methods can be used to achieve this, including Pilates, yoga, or regimented physical therapy routines that may involve specific stretches and hands on techniques.

The advantage of the Mattes approach however is that it is very specific and methodical in nature. This allows for easier and more thorough application by the therapist and offers a complete educational experience for the client. The stretching protocols are designed so that the client can easily practice them and appropriate homework routines are assigned after each session. There is a sequential protocol for each joint that assesses and treats the tissues. Tight and unstable areas are identified and simultaneously addressed. For example there are 6 different stretches for the hamstring muscle group. It is usually found that certain aspects of the muscle group have become tighter than others and unless all these positions are manipulated, the client is sent away with imbalances in the tissues that could prove detrimental for activity or for the resolution of a chronic injury.

One of the major features of A.I.S is that the client must be totally engaged in the process. The specific positioning of the joint throughout the movement, proper cuing of client participation, the exact positioning of the therapist’s hands, timing of the stretch to less than 2.0 seconds to avoid the stretch reflex, and the constant monitoring of client breathing for maximum oxygen delivery to the tissues are variables that have to be constantly monitored. But at the same time these are the details that can make the technique fast acting with sustainable results. There are several different positions that can be used. Some minimise the effects of gravity for weaker subjects so as not to load an injured or weak joint, while others use gravity to allow the joint to work harder for maximum effect and performance.

Although the word “stretching” appears in the name of the technique, the more complete title is Mattes Method Active Isolated Stretching and Strengthening. This is because after mobility is achieved, functional strength has to follow for optimal results and for the resolution of injuries and conditions. Gaining this functional strength is one of the most appreciated benefits of the Mattes approach. Having an elderly person be able to get on and off the toilet without pain, and the business traveller be able to shoulder his or her luggage without worrying that their rotator cuff will fall apart are normal bi-products of Aaron’s systematic philosophy. While I was on the course I was gratified to receive some very encouraging compliments from Aaron. It never hurts to hear this from the best!