Tennis or Golf Elbow?

Are you suffering with either tennis or golf elbow? Please contact me, as I may be able to help. I've had several clients who used to suffer from these, and have even worked on semi-pro golfers.

This is a common repetitive stress injury for players of these sports (as well as baseball and cricket, just). Basically the muscles and tendons of the elbow are overloaded with a stress amount that they can no longer handle, and the area starts to hurt. As a result, your performance starts to diminish. If you've had it for a while, you may start to sub-consciously alter your swing to protect the elbow. This will only lead to further problems as now you're moving in inefficient, and unnatural ways. You're also now stressing different muscles that aren't used to taking that load either. All of this could lead to more serious injuries down the line.

Tennis elbow affects the outside of the elbow, while golfers elbow the inside. It usually occurs in the dominant arm, so it can start to affect other areas of your life.

Why not do something now? Massage has been shown to help speed up recovery and prevent the injury from reoccurring (along with a cautious build up of the sport again). Why not come to a very experienced massage therapist who will be able to find your sore spots immediately and help you heal?

Contact Carolyn Burke, Cambridge's best massage therapist!

Carolyn.w.burke@gmail.com

Common problems - Low back pain

Low back pain can have many different causes, and I'm not going to pretend to know the cause of yours without seeing you. However, I can say that many people are surprised to learn that often times, low back pain has little to do with the back itself.

Your back has so many muscles that have very important functions, mostly to keep you upright. They tend to be fairly strong muscles. So much so, that when other muscles aren't firing properly, for whatever reason, the back muscles will take over and over compensate. This can lead to low back pain, when obviously the problem comes from the other muscle or muscle group misfiring.

The problem can also be related to tightness in other areas. Often people have tight hamstrings, which sit just below the glutes (the bum), which is just below the low back. Glutes tend to be weak, while the tight hamstrings can be quite strong, and the quads, on the front of your thigh, are also weak. This imbalance of large, important muscle groups can lead to tightness felt in the low back.

Another common cause for low back pain is simply a weak core and/or excess weight being carried around the middle.

And then, of course, the pain could be from the low back itself.

Massage can be a very good way of finding out where the tightness or weakness is coming from. With a few massages, and a few strengthening exercises, you can be on your way to reducing your low back pain. If you're experiencing low back pain and would like to find out how to reduce it, please contact me at

carolyn.w.burke@gmail.com

another client testimonial

Duncan Boltt - Personal trainer and massage therapist

"Carolyn is a highly skilled and respected massage therapist in Cambridge.

A good testiment to this is she regularly massages an number of other massage therapist in Cambridge.

She has an in depth knowledge of anatomy and the precise location of the muscles. Her style works really well for me, She doesn't just relax you, she fixes the problems and tension in each location. She is able to relieve pressure and fix an injury in just one session which as a therapist myself I find impressive."

also up on Twitter

Just joined twitter too. Now you can follow your local, Cambridge massage therapist there too@

http://twitter.com/#!/CarolynWBurke

check out my other online profiles

Here's my profile for personal training with Cambridge Fitness

http://www.cambridgefitness.co.uk/profiles/carolyn_burke.php

I've also got a linkedin.com profile under Carolyn Burke, and a facebook profile under CBmassage.

Please check it out.

For the best massage in Cambridge, contact Carolyn Burke!

Client Testimonial: Russell Golding

To whom it may concern,

I recently completed a very successful charity climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro. This despite injuring myself 4 months before I was due to leave for the climb. I managed to injure my knee playing football which resulted in tearing the ligaments and muscles surrounding my knee and leaving me hobbling for almost 6 weeks.

Prior to my Kilimanjaro climb I went to see Carolyn to see if she could eradicate the last few muscular problems that I was experiencing. Following 4 months of recovery from my injury, my knee felt good, but the excessive strain that I'd clearly been placing on my other muscles and joints had taken their toll. After some initial questions, Carolyn was able to quickly pin point the problem areas and was able to effectively address them within one massage session.

In my opinion, Carolyn is a very professional and competent therapist, who certainly knows her stuff. I will continue to use her services and i would gladly recommend Carolyn to any of my own friends or business contacts in the future.

Carolyn, Thanks for making the climb that little bit easier!

Yours sincerely,

Russell Golding

Managing Director

Recognition Express

Cambridge Massage Therapy

What are some of the benefits of getting regular massage?

Well, it can help keep your muscles and connective tissue loosened up to prevent future injuries. This is especially helpful for very active, sporty people. For athletes, we want to spend our time playing our sport, not sitting on the sidelines with an injury. Keeping your muscles loose can prevent you from pulling a muscle.

It can also be instrumental in the recovery period of a muscular injury. When in doubt, please ask me or another professional in the field if massage is right for your injury. It's not suitable for everything, but it can really help with muscle damage.

Post surgery, your muscles will be behaving strangely. The ones that were cut into will be extremely weak, and physio will be needed for that. Other muscles will be doing the work, then of the weakened ones, thereby fatiguing and tightening up muscles that you usually don't have problems with. Also, once the inflammation has been significantly reduced and the doctor clears you for massage, it can be very useful to help the muscles that were cut into recover from their trauma.

Certain types of medical conditions can also be greatly helped from massage. Types like MS and others that tighten muscles are key for massage.