Flexi-Move pain management and massage therapy

Flexi-Move pain management and massage therapy Pain Management and Therapeutic Massage in Newark, Lincoln and Nottingham area's.

Therapist Who Believes in Movement, Not Miracles | Helping Bodies Stay Mobile, Strong & Pain-Free

Complementary Health Professionals member (CHP)

19/01/2026

Breathe out. Harder.
Yes, seriously. People think relaxation is deep inhalation.
Wrong.
Your nervous system relaxes not when you take in, but when you let go.
Try this:
Inhale calmly through your nose.
Now…
Blow out through tight lips, like you’re cooling hot tea (Or through the straw.)
Long. Slow. With effort. What happens?
•The brain switches from alarm mode to safe mode.
•The lungs open better.
•The neck, shoulders, jaw; finally stop guarding.
•The heart slows down.
•Pain becomes quieter.
This is not breathing magic. This is physiology.
You create pressure in the airways.
You stimulate the vagus nerve. You turn off stress circuits.
In medicine this is used for asthma and COPD.
In bodywork, for chronic pain, posture, and tension patterns.
And the best part?
You carry this tool in your body.
No equipment. No pills. No excuses.
2 minutes of resisted exhalation, a nervous system reset.
So next time stress hits you…
Don’t inhale deeper.
Exhale better.
Your massage therapist, who prefers science over myths 😉

"I have a hernia, so I can't move." This is a common belief. A hernia is often seen as a serious problem. Fact: Half...
16/01/2026

"I have a hernia, so I can't move."
This is a common belief. A hernia is often seen as a serious problem.
Fact:
Half of the people with hernias don't feel any pain at all. And half of the people who do have pain don't have hernias.
A hernia doesn't always mean pain.
A hernia is just an image or a condition.
Pain is something the brain decides.
If hernias really determined a person's fate, everyone over 30 would be crawling on the floor.

WHAT YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO GET OUT OF PAIN (it’s not willpower)Short version: you need new experiences of safety.Not moti...
14/01/2026

WHAT YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO GET OUT OF PAIN (it’s not willpower)
Short version: you need new experiences of safety.
Not motivation.
Not positivity.
Not gritting your teeth and pushing through.
You need regular proof that the brain is panicking for no good reason. Here’s what genuinely works (and almost nobody wants to hear it):
1. Stop hunting for what’s broken.
As long as you’re chasing a diagnosis, the brain stays in threat mode. It keeps waiting for danger.
Which means it keeps producing pain.
Diagnosis matters. Getting stuck in it doesn’t.
2. Do less than you can. Yes, it sounds ridiculous. But the brain learns better from success than from heroic efforts followed by setbacks.
You stop before pain ramps up.
Not because you’re weak, but because you’re smart.
3. Allow sensation instead of judging it.
Not: “Here we go again, everything’s ruined.”
But: “Interesting. There’s a sensation. It’s changing. I’m still here.”
When you stop evaluating pain,
it starts losing its grip.
4. Regular contact with the body.
•Movement.
•Breathing.
•Touch.
Not as treatment. As communication. The brain finally realises the body isn’t the enemy.
5. The most unexpected one: humour. Seriously... Laughter lowers threat. A brain that’s laughing
doesn’t switch into survival mode.
And pain eases.
Recovery isn’t the moment pain disappears. It’s the moment the brain stops supporting it.
After that, pain simply loses its purpose.

13/01/2026

3 knee self-massage mistakes that actually make pain worse.

Mistake 1. Pressing directly on the knee joint. The knee joint is not a block of wood. Cartilage, ligaments, menisci, all delicate, all sensitive.
Yet people love to dig their thumbs straight into the joint, hoping to loosen it up.
Spoiler: it doesn’t loosen. It irritates.
Do this instead:
• Massage around the knee, not on it
• Focus on the thigh muscles, lower leg, and tendons
• The knee itself should stay soft, relaxed, pain-free
• Gentle stroking and small circular movements work far better than brute force
Pain not equal progress. Especially with knees.
Mistake 2. Ignoring the muscle support system. The knee doesn’t work alone. If your thighs, glutes and calves are tight, the knee becomes the victim, taking all the load.
Massaging only the knee while ignoring the muscles is like fixing a door without touching the hinges.
Do this instead:
• Start by gently warming up the thighs and calves
• Work on the muscles around the joint
• Relieving muscle tension often reduces knee pain without touching the joint at all
Strong, relaxed muscles equal less pressure on the knee.
Mistake 3. Too fast. Too aggressive.
Some people treat self-massage like punishment. Fast. Sharp. Hard.
Result?
Micro-irritation of nerves, more pain, and the feeling that massage doesn’t help.
It does. Just not like that.
Do this instead:
• Slow, calm, circular movements
• 1–2 minutes per side is enough
• Watch your sensations: you should feel warmth and ease, not pain
Your nervous system loves calm. Your knee does too. Today’s takeaway:
Effective knee self-massage =
gentleness + working around the joint + gradual pressure. Not heroics. Not suffering. Not pushing through.
If knee pain is strong, persistent, or keeps coming back, don’t play guessing games.
Come in for a session. We’ll reduce tension safely and put together a prevention plan that actually works.
Book an appointment / message me directly.

The brain loves shortcuts.A pill - now.An injection - yesterday.Results - immediately.And medicine has spoiled it with t...
09/01/2026

The brain loves shortcuts.
A pill - now.
An injection - yesterday.
Results - immediately.

And medicine has spoiled it with that promise for decades. But chronic pain doesn’t play that game. Because chronic pain isn’t about something being broken.
It’s about learning.
If pain was built over months or years, it can disappear in one session only in adverts.
And this is where self-sabotage begins. You tried:
an exercise... for three days;
breathing... twice;
massage... “well, it was nice.”
The pain didn’t vanish instantly,
and the brain concludes:
“This is all rubbish. Let’s go back to what we know... suffering.”
This is called impatience with recovery. And it kills progress faster than any disc problem ever could.
Every time you expect a miracle,
you increase anxiety. And anxiety feeds pain... Closed loop.
Real recovery looks boring.
It’s:
•small improvements
•uneven progress
•one step forward, half a step back
•days that feel better and days that feel for God’s sake
That’s normal... The brain doesn’t believe words. It believes repeated experience.
Not one heroic push, but a hundred calm confirmations:
“I move, and the world doesn’t fall apart.”
Only then does it let go of pain.
So the key skill isn’t endurance.
The key skill is trusting the process.
Not blindly.
But consciously.

08/01/2026

Therapeutic massage that works with healthcare, not instead of it.
I'm looking to collaborate with clinics and health centres to support patients with:
•Pain & tension
•Posture problems
•Stress & burnout
•Recovery & mobility
Ideal for physio, chiro, rehab, wellbeing and community health/sport settings.
Let’s build better outcomes together. Massage doesn’t replace clinical care, it enhances it.

05/01/2026

Fascial change happens slowly. The collagen fibers in the tissue take time to respond to steady pressure, usually over minutes instead of seconds. The quick relief you feel is often just a temporary effect on your nerves. For real, lasting change, you need to apply the right amount of pressure over time. It's a gradual process, not something that happens fast. Be careful of quick solutions because your body needs time to adjust.
If your therapist claims to release fascia in seconds, they are lying.


04/01/2026

There are two kinds of tiredness, but people often treat them the same and then wonder why they feel worse.

1. Peripheral fatigue: This happens in your muscles and feels like burning or weakness. You can fix it by resting, eating well, and improving blood flow.
2. Central fatigue: This is in your brain and spinal cord. It feels heavy, makes you feel uninterested, and can cause brain fog. You can help it by calming your nervous system through sleep, breathing exercises, meditation, or relaxation techniques.
Massage is great for helping with muscle tiredness. But if your tiredness is from your brain and you just try to push through it, you’ll end up making things worse, and your body will demand a break.

CHAPTER 4. THE FRONTAL PLANE(retold by Flexi-Move)If the sagittal plane is about moving forward, the frontal plane is ab...
03/01/2026

CHAPTER 4. THE FRONTAL PLANE
(retold by Flexi-Move)

If the sagittal plane is about moving forward, the frontal plane is about not falling apart sideways. And this is where things get interesting, because most people are convinced:
“I’m not falling over, so I must be fine.”
Earls’ spoiler alert: No. You’re not.
The frontal plane is the plane of balance. The frontal plane governs left–right movement, but more importantly, control of your centre of mass over the supporting leg.
Every step includes a moment where:
•one foot is on the ground;
•the other is in the air;
•the entire body is balancing on a very narrow base.
In reality, every step is a micro-version of standing on one leg. And at that point, the body either behaves like an intelligent stabiliser, or switches to “let’s tip sideways and hope for the best”.
Lateral stability: the quiet hero of walking.
Earls points out something crucial:
we rarely notice the frontal plane until it breaks.
When frontal-plane control is poor, you start seeing:
•pelvic drop during stance;
•the torso leaning sideways;
•overloaded lower back;
•chronic neck tension;
•a sense of instability during longer walks.
And what does the modern human do? They blame the back. Or the knee. Or a weak core.
When in reality, the body simply can’t keep itself centred.
"Glutes aren’t for aesthetics"
In this chapter, Earls neatly dismantles another fitness myth.
The gluteal muscles aren’t mainly about looking toned. And they’re not even primarily about raw strength. Their main job is pelvic stabilisation in the frontal plane.
When the glutes fail to fire on time:
•the pelvis collapses to one side;
•the lower back picks up the load;
•the knee drifts inward;
•the foot scrambles to compensate.
The result?
The whole body starts behaving like a badly assembled tripod.
Why people sway when they walk?
You’ve probably seen this gait: step, the torso swings to the side;
next step, swings back again;
repeat, like a loose pendulum.
Earls explains: This isn’t style. It isn’t habit.
It’s a loss of frontal-plane stability.
The body can’t hold its centre of mass over the stance leg, so it compensates with side-bending.
It’s: energy-expensive, inefficient,
brutal for the spine.
"The frontal plane and breathing."
Here’s the unexpected, but critical link.
When sideways stability is lost:
•breathing becomes shallow;
•the ribs stop moving freely;
•the diaphragm loses rhythm.
Earls is very clear here: balance and breathing are directly connected.
An unstable body cannot breathe calmly. Calm breathing cannot exist in an unstable body.
The core message of the chapter.
The frontal plane isn’t about training lateral stabilisers. It’s about the ability to stand on one leg
without breaking yourself from the inside.
If this plane is compromised:
•walking becomes heavy;
•fatigue arrives faster;
•the body starts falling apart along the chains.
Earls sends a very clear message:
without frontal-plane stability, no gait is truly healthy, even if your forward movement looks perfect.

30/12/2025

As 2025 comes to an end, we look back on a year filled with movement, recovery, new clients, real results, and new challenges.
And one thing remained constant throughout it all: Flexi-Move was always there, helping your body feel better.
May 2026 bring you ease of movement, good health, inner balance, and joy in everyday life.
We wish you confidence in yourself, mindful care for your body without putting it off until later, warmth at home, and the support of those close to you.
We will continue refining our treatments, techniques, and approach, so you can move more freely without pain, relax more deeply, and make time for yourself and the people you love.
With care for your body,
Flexi-Move

30/12/2025

Imagine your body as a closed cylinder. The diaphragm is at the top, the pelvic floor is at the bottom, and the deep muscles in your abdomen are the sides. True core stability means you can control the pressure inside your abdomen while moving. It's like a system that works with your breath. If these muscles are weak, your spine can become unstable, and your back muscles will tense up to compensate. You don't just work on making your core stronger; you also learn how to create pressure in it.

28/12/2025

Alright, quick reality check, anatomy doesn’t care about your gender stereotypes.
Yes, both women and men have a pelvic floor. Shocking, I know.
Women do face more strain on it (thanks, biology), but men pretending it doesn’t exist is a fast track to trouble. For men, a weak pelvic floor isn’t “no big deal,” it’s linked to erectile function, s***m quality, and prostate health. For everyone else, these muscles are the quiet workers holding up your pelvis, legs, abdominal organs, and even playing a role in circulation and blood pressure.
Ignore them, and they will remind you later, usually at the worst possible moment.
Train them, and your body works smarter, not harder.
So no myths, no embarrassment.
Move, train, and respect your pelvic floor. Your future self will thank you.

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