To a wonderful member of my Health Care Team
for the excellent care he gives me
and for the many things he has taught me.
Thank you Robert, my Magic Fingered Biomechanic.
To know and to do are one - Samurai Proverb
Posture Training
I, as a nurse, thought that I knew what that meant. I went on my merry way not having any luck in improving my posture.
I have a Massage Therapist who attended a training program on Muscle Body Function Development and immediately recommended that I start on an individualized program of correcting my posture. He did my initial assessment in November of 1998.
When I looked at my misaligned stick figure of then, with my hip sticking out and one shoulder way up and my head tipped forward and to one side and the other shoulder pulled way forward and my feet splayed out, I wondered what was to become of me.
Robert gave me a set of about 10 activators (stretches and positioning) to get me started. This set was reviewed when I felt that I had reached my upper limit with it. Another assessment and another set followed. I think I received about 5 sets including the initial one and my final maintenance schedule. I was in control of how much I benefited from what I had been taught. I chose to do the activators daily as recommended and found that the activators helped lower my pain level as well as realigning my body into better posture. I could have just as easily decided to do them only three times a week and used as my excuse that my body was in too much pain.
Robert's constant cry, if he thought I might be tempted to be a bit too hard on myself, was "NO PAIN ... NO PAIN". By this he meant that I could experience some tension when doing the activators but I was to stop immediately if I felt any pain. I found this quite a welcome change from the oft heard cry of "no pain ... no gain".
Just last week, June 12, 1999, after seven months, Robert Chute, RMT, gave me my maintenance schedule of activators that should keep my 55+ year old body with reduced pain, with much improved posture and with quite a presentable range of motion in all my joints.
It is now about three years later, May 11, 2002, and I am in the process of having reevaluations and new activators as a result of an infection on my leg that threw my whole postural alignment out. It didn't seem like a problem at the time but it sure fowled up my program. Without my skeleton being well balanced, that is my posture being optimal, the Physiotherapy program that I have embarked on is not doing as well as it should. More later.
Robert is also providing two of the other treatments of choice for Myofascial Pain, Myofascia and Trigger Point Release Work and Cranio Sacral Release Work.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me or Robert for further information.
Susan N. Dunbar,
sndunbar@mac.com
phone: (519)-434-9062
Robert Chute, RMT,
consciousbodywork@hotmail.com
Robert is a Biomechanic.
He provides flexible individual programs
for pain and stress management.
phone: (519)-679-2014
Ask Rob about Pain Relief through Posture Retraining when you write or call.
PRPR, Rob introduced in 2002 as an extension of Muscle Balance Function work.
When I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Ostoarthritis and Fibromyocytis early in 1997, I was told to improve my posture. I asked "How?" and was given what I believe to be a standard answer of "Well you know, shoulders back, chest out, that sort of thing." I must say that one Physiotherapist tried to work with me to increase my stamina and hence improve my posture but to no avail.
I was receiving some pain relief and skeletal structural alignment from Chiropractic Manipulations from a Chiropractor and from other Therapeutic Modalities that Robert was using.
To hear Robert describe himself as a Biomechanic is very meaningful to me. If one thinks of the body's skeleton and the attachments to it and other stuff, stuffed into our skin I find it rather fun to think of Robert as a living-body mechanic or Biomechanic. I will be putting in his website address as soon as he gets it started but in the meantime please do not hesitate to email him if you have a question to ask this "NO PAIN" Registered Massage Therapist.
Please don't hesitate to use my name if you contact Robert. After all, on the Internet is how I found him! I knew I needed someone to do Myofascial Release Work, even though I didn't know what it was, and found his name in a list of Registered Massage Therapists. I sure was the lucky one!
Before I started on the particular Muscle Balance Function program that Robert had individualized for me, he recommended that I try to read the first of Pete Egoscue's books. I did and found it very helpful when it came to learning the activators that Robert taught me. Pete Egoscue's second book is about using these same activators for pain reduction.
I had difficulty doing a self assessment as Pete Egoscue talks about and found the assessment that Robert did to be very thorough. To learn more about the Egoscue Method please visit
his site.
I would suggest that you try to find a Physiotherapist or Chiropractor or Massage Therapist to work with you using the Muscle Balance Function program.
Whatever program you do use, recognize please, that this is a way of life to help optimize your health.
One Chiropractor, Myron Krawchuk, DC, includes much of what I have been talking in his clinic. He also discusses Chiropractic and other modalities that are available to each of us. He describes well what one would expect to experience when visiting his clinic. If you wish to read more, please visit his site. (Oops that site is down. I'll try to find another.)
So far this page has been mainly about posture.
How does this fit into self management of my health?
The Muscle Balance Function Program has been the answer to a prayer I have had since I became totally disabled in August, 1997. It is foremost in my mind as I write this page and I cannot forget the immense assistance that Robert has been to me in my quest for optimum health. I have learned that Robert has many more skills than what one usually thinks a Registered Massage Therapist can do. He is well educated and has geared his practice to assisting his clients to be in charge of their own health care. He is truly a Health Care Specialist who is committed to life-long learning and is constantly upgrading himself. Remember "NO PAIN".
I was disabled and unable to work because of chronic pain, a deconditioned body, sleep disturbance, depression and other ravages of Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoarthritis, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Myofascial Pain, Temporo Mandibular Joint Disease, Sicca Syndrome, Hypothyroidism, Cognitive Disfunction and probably a few others that my brain-fog is leaving out.
After being off work for six weeks doing next to nothing except going from Specialist to Specialist for a diagnostic work up and recommendations for treatment, I finally allowed my depression to lift enough to realize I was running out of money and I needed money to continue to live.
I knew I needed help to get this money but didn't know where to turn. Finally in desperation my Family Doctor asked me to talk with the Employee Health Nurse at work. I did and she reminded me of the Employee Assistance Program whereby any employee could get assistance from an outside agency for problems related to work or lack thereof. While I was on sick leave, and now that I am on Long Term Disability, I am considered to still be an employee. I have since learned that The Arthritis Society has Social Workers available for clients. This wasn't an option for me as yet because I had not been referred to the Arthritis Society. I had to self refer myself there a bit later.
Thanks to the assistance from one of the Social Workers from our Employee Assistance Program, I was able to process what I needed to do and to apply for Long Term Disability from Work and for Canada Pension Plan Disability. There was a period of time when I had used all my short term sick leave and I had not been accepted for Long Term Disability. My employer reminded me that I was eligible for Ontario Employment Insurance Sick Benefits and helped me to apply for them. As I had been on sick leave anyway, there was no waiting period for the Provincial assistance.
Oh yes, I am a particularly stubborn, loving and single by choice Canadian person who lives alone and has no desire to move from my two bedroom "Nook" that I share with my owner, my ginger tom cat, Mungo. I am a Nurse Educator by profession and choice and many would say that I should know all the Health Care Services that are available to me. I do know some of them and have found that being disabled myself there is a whole new way that I look at the Health Care System ... or as many would say about Ontario in 1999 ... the Illness Care System. I have learned about how to get information from persons who say "no I cannot give you that information". I have learned how to get information about myself that another has written. I have learned a lot about the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Thank you for visiting my page at Angelfire.
Please come back and visit again!
November 30, 2002.