Muscle People
Your Christchurch Physio: Muscle People Physiotherapy was formed in 1998 with a vision of providing professional and personal physiotherapy care.
Muscle People Physiotherapy clinics hold current accreditation status and are audited regularly by Health and Disability Auditing NZ to the Allied Health Services Sector Standards 8171:2005. We are also ACC approved treatment providers.
While certification is no longer mandatory for Physiotherapy practices, we have chosen to meet this high standard to show our clients they can have confidence that we have effective clinical and management systems in place. It also demonstrates our commitment to quality of care, and that we have structured our services to meet the needs of the people who use them.
We take pride in offering an excellent physiotherapy service, which includes:
- Spending time to get to know our clients (not production-line physio)
- Highly qualified staff – who undergo regular upskilling
- Working as part of a multidisciplinary team (Doctors, nurses, gym instructors, nutritionist, massage therapist, OT, SLT, Psychologists, coaches)
- Looking beyond your specific injury or disease process to offer guidance with injury prevention and goal setting
- Working with businesses to provide assessments and ongoing care for their staff
Our Philosophy
Our clinics boast biomechanical assessment programmes based on current, and well-researched evidence with regards to back pain and sports specific biomechanical rehabilitation. This is a first for NZ and an exciting part of the cutting edge services we offer as a business. Muscle People are aligned with several international organisations to ensure we keep up to date with what the best are doing around the world. This collaborative approach with our colleagues in other parts of the world is crucial to our success as a team. We also believe being part of the YMCA and Wigram Health further enhances our services to Canterbury.
Services
Physiotherapy
What we do
Your physio will take a full history and examine and assess your sprain or strain. They will explain your injury diagnosis in a user-friendly way and often use a model or an iPad to give you an in-depth view of your injury and answer any questions you may have.
Your physiotherapist will create a plan of treatment for you including:
- Soft tissue massage and mobilisation techniques
- Joint mobilisation and manipulation
- Electrotherapy (ultrasound, interferential and TENS),
- Taping and bracing to protect your injury (we have a wide range of braces available)
- Acupuncture, dry needling, cupping
- Biomechanical assessment of movement
- Education (helping you to prevent it happening again)
- Exercise prescription – from home-based to gym programmes. We have our own Functional Training Studio and access to full gym facilities.
What can we help with?
- Pain in tendons, joints, ligaments and muscles
- Sports injuries
- Work injuries
- Headaches and Migraines
- Back and neck pain including whiplash
- Postural problems
- Arthritis
- Pre and post-op physiotherapy including knee, hip, shoulder and spinal surgeries
- Dislocations
- Concussion
- Parkinson’s exercise programme
- Vestibular disorders
Sports Physio
Come and see us for early treatment for sports injuries so we can get you back to your training programme in a short time-frame, and help you learn how to prevent repeat or further injury. If you need further treatment, we can refer you for x-ray, ultrasound or anything else you may need as we know all the top specialists in Christchurch.
Many of our physios are sports people themselves and we understand how frustrating an injury can be, especially when you’re serious about your training.
Sports Teams
We cater for sports teams, high-performance athletes and those that take their training seriously.
From injuries to assessments, Muscle People Physiotherapy are your sports physiotherapy experts. We've got your sports teams physiotherapy needs covered on competition days, pre-game strapping, post-game massage and treatment, as well as appointments for follow-up treatment during the week.
Our physios can even travel with your team to away games. We are pitchside when it counts for your team.
Biomechanical Analysis
Take your performance to the next level by ensuring your body performs to its optimum ability.
The key to high performance is effective movement patterns. We use the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) to look for energy leakage in your movement patterns due to poor biomechanics and lack of stability.
Acupuncture & Massage
What is acupuncture?
Acupuncture involves stimulation of specific locations near the surface of the skin, called acupuncture points. These points have been found to influence the function of certain body organs and tissues.
The World Health Organisation supports the use of acupuncture in the treatment of:
- Musculoskeletal conditions
- Neurological Disorders
- Respiratory Conditions
- Digestive Disorders
- Emotional Conditions
- Immune Disorders
- Addiction Support
- Skin Conditions
- Women's Health and Pregnancy Related Conditions
Laurie and Jayde are our two physiotherapists who are also trained in acupuncture. Laurie is based in our Bishopdale clinic and Jayde works between our Bishopdale and Wigram clinics. They both hold post-graduate qualifications in acupuncture and uses acupuncture as part of their physiotherapy treatment for general and sports-specific patients.
Tracey Shewan, is an experienced traditional Chinese acupuncturist based in our Bishopdale clinic and is a member of the NZRA. She has extensive experience treating people with a broad range of health issues.
What is massage therapy?
Massage therapy uses a variety of techniques to manipulate your joints and soft tissue to improve your body’s overall health. Massage increases the body’s supply of oxygen and nutrients to your muscles, which help release waste from the muscle tissue.
All our therapists are trained in massage therapy as part of their physiotherapy training.
What is dry needling?
Dry needling involves the insertion of a thin needle to stimulate the healing process of soft tissues resulting in pain relief. The objectives and philosophy behind the use of dry needling are based on neuroanatomy and study of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems.
Sam, Sharon and Zoe, based in our Bishopdale clinic, and Grace and Naomi based in our City clinic are all trained in dry-needling.
Head & Migraine Clinic
What's your headache or migraine like?
If your headache or migraine is one-sided but can occur on the right side one time and then the next time it is on the left, or if your headache can be in different places, then your neck is likely the cause.
What we do:
Our approach does not involve manipulating or cracking of the neck but we gently stress the appropriate spinal segments in a smooth, sustained, persuasive manner. We are trained in the Watson Headache approach, a method of examining the small movements of the top three spinal segments. This is an internationally recognised approach for diagnostic accuracy and reducing pain for headache and migraine conditions.
You're in safe hands:
Laurie, Clare and Naomi are experts at treating migraines and headaches in Christchurch. With over thirty years experience between them, they are very experienced in assessing and managing the upper cervical (neck) spine for headache and migraine conditions.
Functional Training
What Is Functional Training?
Functional Training is a popular buzzword in the fitness industry thanks to programmes like CrossFit. In short, Functional Training is improving movements that directly translate into your everyday life or sport. It enhances the coordinated working relationship between the muscular and nervous systems. The brain thinks in terms of whole motions, not individual muscles. It’s exercise with a purpose.
What’s the Functional Training Studio?
We believe that Functional Training is vital in improving your recovery from an injury, even more so to prevent re-injury, and we also think it’s kind of fun! We’ve brought in some cool kit like the Pilates Reformer, an Incline Treadmill, Rip60s and the SurfSets.
We will often include some time in the Functional Training Studio as part of your treatment. Some clients want to continue working with their physio after they have recovered and we are very happy to work with them. Some people want to work on Functional Training who aren’t injured but just want to improve their performance. We are able to develop and work with you on a tailored programme for whatever your goal may be.
We also hold classes in our Functional Training Studio, like Dynamic Spines and SurfSet.
How can I get some Functional Training?
Just make an appointment with one of our physiotherapists and we can work together on a programme to achieve your goal, whatever that may be. Some people just like to have regular sessions using the Pilates Reformer, Rip60 and SurfSet, it can be as simple as that.
Corporate Health & Work Injuries
We work with large organisations and businesses throughout Christchurch partnering with them to provide our Early Intervention Programme to minimise the cost of workplace injuries to them. Employees with workplace injuries are seen by our physiotherapists as a priority, thoroughly assessed, then the treatment and recovery plan is communicated back to the employer. We pride ourselves on our communication.
- Worksite assessments
- Risk analysis, management and planning
- Injury prevention planning and education
- Improve productivity
- Minimise lost time injuries
- Reduce costs
- Enhance workplace relations
- A safer and more productive work environment
Our Early Intervention Programme works alongside the normal ACC/Workcover system, however, it allows some workplace injuries to be managed rapidly without lodging a full ACC/Workcover claim. This can significantly reduce the indirect costs associated with workplace injuries.
If you’re interested in finding out more about our Early Intervention Programme, get in contact with us.
