Looking for a Chiropractor in Grafton?

At Excel Musculoskeletal Therapy (EMT), we provide a comprehensive array of treatments to bring balance to the body and provide relief for both acute injuries as well as chronic issues.

While Grafton chiropractors and musculoskeletal therapists both work with the body to resolve similar injuries and issues, we bring quite different approaches. Generally speaking, chiropractic treatment focuses on treating specific areas of one or two joints. Chiropractors are experts at manipulating joints back into place, however the majority of chiropractors ignore the muscular component of your issue. This approach of addressing the pain site and not the cause has a limited success rate of fixing your problem long term. You become reliant on the therapist. At EMT, we approach your treatment with the attitude of getting you self sufficient, so you’re not reliant on therapists, including Jason.

By contrast, musculoskeletal therapists look at the whole body to identify the underlying causes of injury and achieve sustained recovery. At EMT, Jason specialises in realigning the body. By restoring muscular and structural balance. Below we outline some of the specific differences in treatment modalities between Grafton Chiropractors and musculoskeletal therapy.

Posture Analysis

At EMT, Jason does a thorough check of the entire body to see which joints are causing problems. He assesses things like hips, spine, sacrum, leg length to name a few.

As Chiropractors generally work in 15 minute time slots, they are extremely limited to how much assessing they can do. Therefore it is near impossible to find the root of your problem, let alone address it with such limited time allocated. To perform corrections on the body without a proper assessment can be painful. Ask yourself, how much can a therapist achieve in 15minutes?

Jason performs a full Posture Analysis prior to treatment. This allows us to correctly assess the overall condition of the body, as well as compare results from one treatment to the next. This allows us to track recovery and fine-tune your treatment over time.

Movement Analysis

At Excel Musculoskeletal Therapy, Jason will perform a complete Movement Analysis, including functional movement, active and passive, stress and balance tests. This allows us to assess how certain muscles are performing in comparison to the opposite side or its opposite muscle group.

In many cases, chiropractors will only address location-specific injuries, and will rarely perform a more comprehensive movement analysis. Unfortunately, this means the cause of your pain is not detected. Poor range of motion through tight muscles, weak muscles, muscles fatiguing after sustained use, are some of the issues that get overlooked.

The more thorough movement assessment, as performed by Jason, helps determine the true source of pain, and how best to address it (in fact, in many cases the area you're experiencing pain is not where the problem or imbalance actually stems from!).

Soft Tissue Massage

Where appropriate, Jason uses soft tissue massage to structures related to your injury. Soft tissue massage should always be used carefully, as releasing tight muscles which are actually trying to stabilise a compromised area, can do more harm than good. However no soft tissue work prior to having a manipulation ‘Cold Cracking’ can present other dangers.

Of course, chiropractors work almost exclusively to adjust the bony spinal structure. Unfortunately, the effects of spinal adjustment generally last for quite short periods of time. Tight muscles continually 'pull' on these adjustments, meaning ongoing, frequent adjustments are required just to keep everything 'in place' without achieving sustained relief. This keeps you on the 'treatment treadmill'.

As a musculoskeletal therapist, Jason uses postural and movement analysis to identify the underlying cause of injury and provides careful, appropriate soft tissue massage as part of a comprehensive treatment plan.

Kinesio Taping

At Excel Musculoskeletal Therapy, Jason employs Kinesio taping in the way it was designed by the technique's founder, Dr Kenzo. This technique increases lymphatic blood flow and stimuli and allows the body's natural healing process to take place, along with providing some stability when required for those weak muscles.

Chiropractors normally focus specifically on spinal adjustments, so will not generally employ this highly beneficial treatment which would otherwise support your recovery. Authentic Kinesio taping, as practised by Jason, uses a unique crinkling effect in the tape and gives you full range of movement during rehabilitation and recovery, so that you can return to your normal activities sooner.

Personalised Exercise & Stretching Program

At Excel Musculoskeletal Therapy, Jason will prescribe a comprehensive, personalised exercise and stretching routine with a whole body focus.

Because chiropractors are generally focused specifically on spinal adjustments, a personalised exercise and stretching routine is less likely to be prescribed, meaning you're more likely to miss out on this important aspect of your recovery. Where strengthening exercises and stretches are prescribed, they're likely to be focused only on the location of the injury, again missing valuable opportunities to achieve a more complete, sustained recovery.

Of course, we will also re-asses your prescribed routine during the course of your treatment, refining and fine-tuning your exercise and stretching routine to achieve maximum benefits.

Spinal Manipulations

Jason specialises in realigning the body. He uses a method known as MET (Muscle Energy Technique), this is a soft, gentle, pain free but very effective method to realign things such as single joints, hip height imbalances, leg length discrepencies etc, achieving lasting results. Jason believes it is one thing for the client to walk out of the session with proper alignment, it is another thing for them to return in this state. This is a major difference between Jason and most chiropractors.

Are you after lasting results or a Band Aid?