Applied Movement Neurology – A First Hand Experience
Keith Tucker – Applied Movement Neurologist & Trainer
We, my husband and I, are very fortunate in that we live on a street with lovely friendly neighbours, one of whom is an Ironman athlete. What has this to do with ‘applied movement neurology‘, I hear you asking? Well, he happens to train with Keith Tucker, an ex-professional athlete who now trains regular people like me who either want to get in shape, stay in shape or improve their shape, as well as people like my neighbour, who compete in endurance competitions. Keith is also an applied movement neurologist.
Muscle Spasms
As I have mentioned several times in my blogs over the last few months (yawn!), I like to keep fit by eating according to Ayurveda and exercising to improve strength (weightlifting), core and cardio (Zumba and BollySlim). If I don’t follow this strict regimen, my back could get worse, as will my chronic lung condition. But even with this regimen, every so often I manage to hurt my lower back and put it into spasm. Just 8 weeks ago I did it again! Not in the gym dead-lifting but by picking up a piece of washing to put it on the washing line. How come I can bench-press 30kg (65% of my body weight) yet a piece of washing can set me back weeks?! It is so frustrating! One sports massage later and many walks of several kilometers/day and the soreness wasn’t lifting. I wanted to get back into the gym and needed help.
Keith Tucker, Applied Movement Neurologist and Trainer
Applied Movement Neurology – How Does it Work?
Griping to neighbour Ironman Martin paid off this time (poor Martin!), as it led to an introduction to the one and only, Keith Tucker. Martin’s description of what Keith does was somewhat cryptic and went something like this ‘He presses on nerves around my body in different sequences and tests the results frequently. Don’t ask me how it works, but it does!’. That was enough for me to call Keith and have a first session the very same week. Hey, give me a break! I know Martin well enough to trust his judgement and besides, I was tired of the pain!
The first session was remarkable. Martin was right! Keith explained the process (please don’t ask me to repeat the explanation, but maybe I’ll persuade him to write a guest blog to explain it) and set to work pressing on nerves and literally testing my system. I’m going to cut to the chase here. After having had several sessions, today we hit a major milestone! Neurologically I am as good as I can be given that I had a back operation as a baby and suffer the consequences). The acute back pain lifted completely after about 4 sessions, and my range of movement (ROM) improved after each session, even from the get-go. You’ll be pleased to know my belly-dancing Bollywood-style has improved.
Applied Movement Neurology as a Mainstream Therapy
In my opinion, Applied Movement Neurology should become mainstream therapy. It has worked for Martin and me, and for the many patients fortunate to have experiences it’s benefits. For example, Keith is working with a post spinal-stroke patient who has increased her ROM to the point where she can run around the block (!) and has improved to the point where the patient’s medical team is scratching its collective head.
I cannot recommend this form of therapy enough. So far I’ve benefited from neuro-skeletal level 2 work. Now we’re working on the flexibility and restrictions in my muscle movement.
I’ll most likely be adding a couple of McTimoney Chiropractic with a chap called Ian, and some extra individual muscle work with Keith and then I’ll be back to full training in the gym so watch this space! Maybe I’ll share what McTimoney Chiropractic is like if we (the team looking after me, led by Keith) decide to go ahead with the treatment.
