Complex surgery - amazing results!
Nikola Penny
We had the privilege of conducting their rehabilitation from immediately after surgery, through to Nikola getting back on her horse and competing.
We work closely with an exceptional group of surgeons in Cambridge regularly, but one particular case needed their detailed expertise to resolve a long standing hip problem that was stopping her from being able to ride without significant pain.
She has been through multiple surgeries, gruelling but rewarding physiotherapy sessions, and committed herself to home workouts guided by us, but she has never given up.
Ali Bajwa at the Villar Bajwa Clinic is always pushing for more effective surgical techniques, and succeeded in developing a way to reconstruct the Ligamentum Teres (which attaches the ball of the hip to the socket in the pelvis and acts like the Anterior Cruciate Ligament in the knee) which is designed to reduce the wear on the hip joint and effectively eliminate the need for repeat surgery on the hip and labrum.
I think I'd forgotten what pain free was like!"
Keep on Running!
Suzanne Conway
One of our favourite roles in clinic is to solve difficult problems, and find as elegant a solution as possible! Even long term pain can often be transformed.
"I saw many osteopaths, physios and chiropractors after a car accident in February 2004 incapacitated me for two years with a neck and back injury. Prior to this I had returned to running and was set to beat my 800m PB (2:18) the coming summer. It was incomprehensible to me that so quickly my life would become unrecognizable and no one would be able to help me. Finally I found someone who did remedy my neck and back but the accident left me with a pelvis imbalance and unable to run. I had a video of myself running and with each stride I looked as though I was falling down a kerb because my right hip was higher than my left and my pelvis was so unstable."
I took this video to the osteopath who helped me with my neck/back, and another one after that, the first one wanted to build up my shoe to make up for the discrepancy even though my legs were exactly the same length. I said, ‘we need to correct the pelvis imbalance’ and he, at least, had the decency to admit he had no idea how. The other osteopath masqueraded as an expert but didn’t help at all.
He gave me lots of core to do, including squats with heavy weights which hurt my back as my pelvis/back weren’t strong enough, or functioning well enough, to squat correctly. Then, after ten years of searching and years of exercises, which weren’t the right exercises, my triathlete friend recommended Alasdair Jones.
Immediately, it was clear that Alasdair was in a league of his own because he understood in detail the impact specific muscles have on movement and how to switch on muscles which aren’t firing. In my case, my hips and glutes hadn’t worked properly for years hence my pelvis instability. Alasdair gave me precise exercises to wake these muscles up and identified all my weaknesses! I’ve had to concentrate very hard to create that mind-body connection to activate these muscles.
The great news is my body now feels fantastic! I feel stable and balanced when I run, walk, stand, sit; I’ve been a terrible sitter for years, always uncomfortable and I couldn’t stand in one place for very long without my hip and lower back spasming and locking up.
I recently moved to Devon but there’s no way I’m relinquishing Alasdair, he’s worth the 300 mile drive in each direction. He’s been very supportive: he skypes to talk me through exercises and uses TPI where an expert performs the exercises to ensure you can do them correctly with good form.
I now run every other day and am flying because I no longer have energy being wasted with inefficient movement – all my energy is going in the right direction: propelling me forward. I have a run I do through the woods and in ten days my time has gone from 22 mins 13 to 19 mins 31.
I feel I finally have a shot at beating my 800m PB before I’m too old! I am incredibly grateful to Alasdair and my friend who recommended him. It took me ten years to find him and now I want to go out into the world with a tannoy to tell all those people feeling bewildered, helpless, and in pain, to call Alasdair Jones because he can give them their lives back.
Suzanne Conway
