The Initial Assessment...

I met Matt Waters for my first Egoscue Assessment last night, I was slightly nervous for some reason, I'm not sure why, maybe because I feel this is my last chance saloon, as I have exhausted all other alternatives.

Before the assessment, last week Matt got me to fill out a form, with questions like "List all past injuries, no matter how little or insignificant they are? i.e - Twisted ankle as a kid", "Where is your pain currently?", "What aggravates your pain?", "What eases the pain?". We went over these answers last night and he wanted to find out more about the knee problem I used to have when I used to play Sunday League football between the ages of 11-15 (Soccer to you guys in the U.S :p )

He also asked me "What do I expect to get from doing the Egoscue Method?" Hmmmm good question I thought??? I felt like I was in a job interview....lol.....But I liked the question, I knew the answers, I want to be functional again, I want to be able to walk without pain, bend, squat, jump, run, move, I don't want to plan around things, "Am I able to do this?", "Will this cause me pain?"....I want to be spontanious again, I want to be a 23 year old, not an 80 year old, I'm sure my grandad moves more functional than me??....lol...

He has also suggested I check out a book called "The Miracle Man" by Morris Goodman, it's about a guy who nearly broke every bone in his body and could not speak, was paralyzed, doctors said he would never walk again, or live a normal life, and 8 months later he walked out of hospital!! He wants me to read this as it is a fantastic example of how you need to also get your mind in the right place, as well as concentrating on your body you need to ensure your mind wants to heal as well, a quote that I love is this:

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude"
- Thomas Jefferson

I am definately going to look into getting this book, apparently you can't get it on Amazon.co.uk but it is avaliable on Amazon.com.

Say cheese :)

After the questions he got me to stand up with just my shorts on, and face straight ahead, he took pictures of me from the front, back and both sides, and then checked my pelvis, ASIS on both sides, and then checked my PSIS, and then checked them against each other on both sides, to check for any excessive forward tipping of the pelvis. He noted that my left hip is very high (Which is strange because I lean to the right, and have a very tight right QL, and you would think it was my Right hip that was high!), he also checked my knees, and the direction in which they were pointing, and also my shoulders, he noted that I have upper body rotation (Left shoulder more forwards than the right).

He also got me to stand on one leg, on both sides, and also to try and bend over and touch my toes....I couldn't even move more than 6", without pain in my left leg :(

He then went off and printed the pictures......Massive side shift to the right, (I knew this anyway, but it does look impressive everytime I see it..lol), he said we can't address everything in one go, because it will be too much, we need to get me stacked up correctly, basically he means from a side point of view, you should be able to drop a plumb line from the head, shoulder, hip, knee and Ankle, in my case, it's like a zig zag (I will post up my pictures later on for you to take a look...They ain't pretty...lol)

This took about an hour altogether, and so we moved onto some e-cises (The term used in Egoscue for the exercises), the idea behind each exercise is to start to awaken muscles that have been switched off, and when performing each of the exercises he would ask me straight away what did I feel? Egoscue is very much about getting in touch with your body, listening to your body, leanring the difference between good pain and bad pain, and working out which muscles are doing the work, while also taking deep abdominal breathing, it's really hard work to remember to breath, count and work out which muscles are working and how I feel......Well it's hard work for me...lol

Some of the exercises he has had to modify them for me, because I have no lumbar curve, certain exercises force you to flatten your back into the floor and we do not want this, very bad for me, need to retrain my lumbar curve.

Certain exercises address the upper back, the legs, & of course the lower back, the reason for this is because the body is a unit, it works together, it does not work independantly of each other, and this is a key focus of the Egoscue Method.

Some of the exercises caused me discomfort, not pain but discomfort and he said this is a sign of those muscles that are just not being work properly, or even at all, and I may experience some soreness over the next few days as my muscles get used to the program.

At the end of the session I did have some discomfort, but It felt good, I was starting to use my body properly and I cannot wait to get stuck into the exercises, and start experiencing some relief and more mobility :) Matt is a great guy, very understanding and a great listener, I think were gonna get on great, and I look forward to working with him more, I have my next appointment booked in for 18th August, which is 2 weeks time, in the mean time, if I have any questions, or any problems, then to contact him by phone or email and he will address the issues or modify the exercises if needed.

The program he has set out for me is 45mins long and I have to complete this first thing in the morning, after waking up, so it sets me up for the day, and I have to ensure I take my time, no rushing the exercises, it's all about listening to my body and not over doing the exercises. I also have to perform the Progressive Supine Groin stretch (I'll talk about this, and explain this in a later post) in the evenings and hold each level for 5-10mins on each leg, so I'm looking at an hour in the evening as well, it's going to require alot of my time and effort, but I am 110% willing to put in the effort, Egoscue System is all responsibility and I believe in the system and I believe in myself, How can you expect relief and improvement without hard work??