Primal Therapy
At Primal Human Performance, our team is trained in the latest rehabilitation, sports science and therapy techniques. Our Physiotherapists, Chiropractors and Registered Massage Therapists are constantly updating their professional abilities by engaging in continuing education courses, advanced certifications and specialized training programs in order to offer you the best care possible.
Our Primal Practitioners, working closely in conjunction with the rest of your healthcare team, will carefully assess and evaluate your health, injury or performance status. Through structured analysis of the assessment findings and in consultation with you, your Primal Practitioner will develop a unique and comprehensive treatment plan that takes into consideration your specific requirements and will aim to get you back to optimal health and ultimate performance in the shortest time possible.
We promise we won’t ask you to share.
Unlike at many other sports medicine or injury rehabilitation facilities, all Primal Therapy sessions are one-on-one, with your Primal Practitioner by your side for your entire appointment, giving you the focused attention you deserve. Your time with your Primal Practitioner is reserved just for YOU.
At some clinics, the therapist may be working with multiple clients at the same time (sometimes up to 4-5 other people!), going back and forth between each one, and not giving you the individualized attention you may need to achieve optimal results.
At Primal Human Performance, you’ll no longer have to wonder if you’re doing your exercises correctly, if you’re posture is ideal, or how long your session will last. Your Primal Practitioner will be by your side, letting you know.
No surprises: one price for your complete treatment, whatever treatment you need.
Your treatment may include any and all techniques considered appropriate by your Primal Practitioner based on your specific case and in consultation with you. This can include soft tissue treatments such as ART®, advanced exercise design & prescription, or medical acupuncture. And like we promised, you won’t be charged any additional fees or surcharges for these highly specialized treatments or services, unlike at some other clinics.
Assess then correct.
A thorough assessment is the foundation of your treatment’s success and is required by the various regulatory agencies that govern our practitioners. These assessments allow our Primal Practitioners to use various diagnostic tools and tests which are fundamental for the development of specific, individualized treatment plans geared towards not just masking, but actually fixing, your problems.
Following your comprehensive initial assessment, your Primal Practitioner, always in consultation with you, will develop an individualized treatment plan to help you reach your specific goals and get you back on track in the shortest time possible. Your treatment plan will include your approximate treatment duration and number of treatment visits over that time-frame.
As you progress through your therapy, your Primal Practitioner will constantly re-evaluate and re-assess your specific situation and advise you of any necessary adjustments that are required to keep you moving towards your optimal health and ultimate performance.
Primal Physiotherapy
Primal physiotherapy combines specific, objective bio-mechanical assessment with individualized treatment planning to ensure you receive the best care possible to help you reach your treatment goals in the shortest time possible.
At Primal Human Performance, our therapists are trained in various forms of advanced kinesiology, manual therapy, acupuncture, soft tissue treatments and therapeutic exercise to get you back to optimal health and ultimate performance.
Whether you are looking to recover from an injury, maintain your current level of function or trying to take your performance to the next level, your Primal Physiotherapist can help you to not only get there, but stay there.
To learn more about Physiotherapy click on the following links:
Physiotherapy – Frequently Asked Questions
Primal Chiropractic
Primal chiropractors use a drug-free, manual approach to healthcare that combines specific, objective bio-mechanical assessment with individualized treatment planning to ensure you receive the best care possible. This is designed to help you reach your treatment goals in the shortest time possible and get back to doing the things you want to do.
At Primal Human Performance, our chiropractors are trained in various forms of spinal adjustments, advanced manual therapy techniques, acupuncture, soft tissue treatments and therapeutic exercise to get you back to optimal health and ultimate performance.
Whether you are looking to recover from an injury, maintain your current level of function or trying to take your performance to the next level, your Primal Chiropractor can help you to not only get there, but stay there.
To learn more about Chiropractic, click on the following links:
Chiropractic – Frequently Asked Questions
Primal Registered Massage Therapy
Massage Therapy is a regulated health profession in Ontario and should only be performed by a Registered Massage Therapist (RMT or MT) in Ontario.
Massage Therapy is a touch-based therapeutic intervention performed by a skilled therapist who manipulates the various soft tissues and joints of the body (e.g. skin, muscles, tendons, and fascia). Massage therapy is appropriate for individuals of all ages, including infants and the elderly.
The various physiological effects of these hands on treatments, depending on the manipulations applied, may be relaxing or stimulating. These techniques, the majority of which feel good, can include stretching the soft tissues, encouraging circulation and blood flow, inhibiting muscular spasm along with diverse positive nervous system effects. Some of the deeper tissue treatments may be a bit more uncomfortable, but are usually described as a “good-hurt”.
Due to the nature of the therapy, massage has the potential to positively affect all systems of the body, most notably the muscular, circulatory, lymphatic, nervous and psychological systems.
For more information, click on the links below:
Registered Massage Therapy – Frequently Asked Questions
Medical Acupuncture
Classical acupuncture forms one component of an ancient traditional Chinese Medicine system of diagnosing and treating pain, dysfunction and disease. The Chinese believed it achieved these goals by bringing the body’s energy systems, the Yin and Yang, back into balance by allowing proper and unobstructed flow of this life force, or qi (pronounced “chi”), through the various interconnected meridians of the body.
Developed and refined over thousands of years without the knowledge available through current scientific research, it has been found to be successful in treating and managing numerous conditions, most notably pain.
Modern acupuncture now involves the typically painless insertion of very fines, sterile needles through the skin and tissues at specific points on the body using an anatomical and physiological approach. Current research, which continues to build on the ever-growing body of knowledge, suggests that the needles elicit specific nervous system responses, often involving the release of specific neurotransmitters (such as endogenous opioids, which are involved in decreasing pain).
Acupuncture, in the hands of a trained practitioner, is considered a safe and effective method of encouraging tissue healing, controlling and relieving pain and improving function of affected areas with very little risk of adverse reactions, compared to traditional medical interventions such as medication.
For more information on Acupuncture, click on the following link:
Acupuncture – Frequently Asked Questions
Active Release Techniques® (ART®)
What is Active Release Techniques® (ART®)?
ART® is a patented, state of the art soft tissue system/movement based massage technique that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and nerves. Headaches, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, shin splints, shoulder pain, sciatica, plantar fasciitis, knee problems, and tennis elbow are just a few of the many conditions that can be resolved quickly and permanently with ART®. These conditions all have one important thing in common: they are often a result of overused muscles.
How do overuse conditions occur?
Over-used muscles (and other soft tissues) change in three important ways:
- acute conditions (pulls, tears, collisions, etc),
- accumulation of small tears (micro-trauma)
- not getting enough oxygen (hypoxia).
Each of these factors can cause your body to produce tough, dense scar tissue in the affected area. This scar tissue binds up and ties down tissues that need to move freely. As scar tissue builds up, muscles become shorter and weaker, tension on tendons causes tendonitis, and nerves can become trapped. This can cause reduced range of motion, loss of strength, and pain. If a nerve is trapped you may also feel tingling, numbness, and weakness.
What is an ART® treatment like?
Every ART® session is actually a combination of examination and treatment. The ART® provider uses his or her hands to evaluate the texture, tightness and movement of muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments and nerves. Abnormal tissues are treated by combining precisely directed tension with very specific patient movements.
These treatment protocols – over 500 specific moves – are unique to ART®. They allow providers to identify and correct the specific problems that are affecting each individual patient. ART® is not a cookie-cutter approach.
What is the history of Active Release Techniques®?
ART® has been developed, refined, and patented by P. Michael Leahy, DC, CCSP. Dr. Leahy noticed that his patients’ symptoms seemed to be related to changes in their soft tissue that could be felt by hand. By observing how muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments and nerves responded to different types of work, Dr. Leahy was able to consistently resolve over 90% of his patients’ problems. He now teaches and certifies health care providers all over the world to use ART®.
(credit: www.activerelease.com)
Graston Technique®
What is Graston Technique®?
Graston Technique® is an innovative and proven approach to the diagnosis and treatment of connective tissue dysfunction and injuries. The technique utilizes stainless-steel instruments specially designed to detect and treat areas exhibiting soft-tissue fibrosis or chronic inflammation. This remarkable procedure allows the clinician to detect and treat areas of scar tissue and fascial restrictions in muscles, tendons and ligaments that can lead to pain and dysfunction. This decreases overall treatment time, enhances faster rehabilitation/recovery and resolves conditions once thought to be permanent.
When connective tissue, such as muscle, ligaments or tendons become restricted or scarred, it can result in pain, tenderness, loss of flexibility and motion. It is not unusual to find a restriction in one part of the body that produces pain and dysfunction in another area, commonly known as the kinetic chain.
In the healing process the human body attempts to repair muscles, tendons and ligaments with scar tissue, which is not as strong and flexible as normal, healthy, undamaged tissue. Build up of fibrous scar tissue over time, particularly in muscles, tendons and ligaments subjected to microtrauma / overuse can lead to pain and dysfunction because this replacement tissue lacks the strength and flexibility of healthy tissue.
Treatment by Graston Technique®
Graston Technique ® treatment protocols may also include the use of heat, ice and rehabilitation to restore patients to their pre-injury level of activity. Muscle re-education, in addition to stretching and strengthening exercises are employed to provide the patient with optimal results within a minimal number of treatments. Following and staying with the plan of treatment is critical to achieving the clinical goals set by the clinician and the patient. Without full commitment to treatment, a positive outcome may not occur.
Most patients report improved function and pain reduction within the first two treatments. Although it is not unusual to experience some discomfort during initial treatment, it should dramatically lessen within a short period of time. Mild to moderate bruising may take place during the process of breaking down old scar tissue. During the course of treatment, daily consumption of 6-8 glasses of water, along with proper nutrition will also prove beneficial.
Graston Technique ® is helpful in the management of a large variety of musculoskeletal disorders, including: carpal tunnel syndrome, de Quervain’s tenosynovitis, epicondylosis (“tennis or golfer’s elbow”) , iliotibial band syndrome, medial tibial stress syndrome (”shin splints”), plantar fasciitis, neck and back pain, muscle strain, ligament sprain, tendon injuries, painful scars, post fracture pain and fibromyalgia, to name a few. However, Graston Technique® is not appropriate for every patient condition. Please speak to your clinician directly to determine whether you may be helped by this effective new treatment.
Number of Graston Technique® Treatments Required
Factors such as age, history, chronicity of the condition, occupation and lifestyle will determine the number of times that an individual will be treated. The average number of treatments is 6 to 8. Generally treatment is performed no more than twice a week unless the clinical circumstances dictate otherwise.
Summary
Graston Technique® is a proven advanced technology for the treatment of connective soft tissue injuries. The success of treatment will be directly proportionate to the individual’s commitment to the personalized treatment plan established by the clinician. When Graston Technique® is coupled with the necessary strengthening and stretching exercises, it provides a great aid to Chiropractic treatment and the patient gets better much quicker and more completely.
(Credit: www.grastontechnique.com)