Elephant Garden Massage Therapy

24/01/2026

Back covering at Bromsgrove, see how my back gets on with today's session. Treatments have been given, hoping for a good match 🤞🏼no juries and a good score. Come on lads ⚽

22/01/2026

Who do I treat?👇🏼

21/01/2026

20/01/2026

🦵 Struggling with nagging knee pain?

Knee discomfort doesn’t always come from damaged cartilage or “getting older.” In fact, many cases are due to muscle imbalance, poor movement patterns, or reduced joint support.

The knee relies heavily on the muscles around it — especially the quadriceps, hamstrings, calf muscles, and glutes — to stay stable and move efficiently.

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🔬 Common causes of knee pain include:

Weak or inhibited glutes (which affects knee alignment)

Tight quadriceps or calves pulling on the joint

Poor ankle mobility

Sudden increases in training volume

Suboptimal movement patterns (e.g. collapsing knees during squats)

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🧠 What actually helps:

✔️ Strengthening the hips and glutes to support knee alignment
✔️ Improving ankle mobility for better walking and squat mechanics
✔️ Massage to release tension in the quads and IT band
✔️ Gradual load management (especially for runners and gym-goers)

If you'd like any further information please do not hesitate to contact us

19/01/2026

It's been a busy day working in Birmingham today. I've meet some lovely people and given 18 neck and shoulder massages. My lovely Paul has made me tea and my princess has sat nattering to me. I think Arlo has missed me his not left my side! Now I'm ready for my pj's and some traitors ❤️

19/01/2026

🖥️ Do you sit for long hours at work?

Prolonged sitting — especially with poor posture — puts continuous low-level stress on your neck, shoulders, and upper back.
Muscles like the upper trapezius and levator scapulae work overtime to hold your head up when your posture starts to drift forward.
Over time, this leads to:

Stiffness and pain between the shoulder blades

Tight neck muscles

Tension headaches

Reduced mobility

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🔬 Why it matters

Research shows that postural fatigue often starts before you feel pain.
Sitting in one position for more than 30 minutes reduces circulation and loads passive tissues like ligaments and discs.

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💡 What helps?

✔️ Break sitting up with regular movement – stand or stretch every 30–45 mins
✔️ Strengthen postural muscles — especially the deep neck flexors and mid-back
✔️ Massage and mobilisation reduce accumulated tension
✔️ Adjust your setup – screens at eye level, feet flat, shoulders relaxed

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💬 Do you work at a desk or from home?
Comment below or message me for 3 easy stretches you can do at your desk today.

17/01/2026

✨ Dry Needling: A Precise Technique to Release Muscle Tension ✨

Many people experience areas of increased muscle tone and sensitivity that can lead to pain, discomfort, or restricted movement. These are called myofascial trigger points — hyperirritable spots within a taut band of skeletal muscle.

To help explain what happens during dry needling treatment, imagine a ripe tomato that’s firm and full of internal pressure. When gently pricked with a fine tip, the pressure releases and the tomato softens.

In a similar way, when a fine monofilament needle is carefully inserted into a trigger point, it can produce a local twitch response — a brief contraction of the muscle fibers followed by a reduction in tension.

✨ Clinical effects can include:

Decreased local and referred pain

Improved muscle flexibility and function

Increased local blood flow

Enhanced ease and quality of movement

Research shows that dry needling can influence both neurophysiological and mechanical processes. In simple terms, it can help calm overactive pain signals and mechanically disrupt trigger point activity, allowing the muscle to
return to a more relaxed, functional state.

📌 Dry needling is not the same as acupuncture.
It’s a western, evidence-based intervention used by trained clinicians to address musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction.

If you’re experiencing persistent muscle tightness, sensitivity, or reduced movement, dry needling may be an effective part of your treatment plan.

15/01/2026

✨ Contralateral Strength Training: The Missing Link Between Rehab & Long-Term Injury Prevention

If you’ve ever felt that one side of your body works harder than the other — or you keep getting the same aches and pains — you’re not alone.
These imbalances are one of the biggest reasons injuries linger or keep coming back.

This is where contralateral strength training comes in.
It simply means training one side of the body while the opposite side stabilises — the same cross-body patterns you use when walking, climbing stairs, reaching, or lifting.

🧠 Why This Matters for Injury Management

When you’re injured, your body naturally starts to compensate.
One side tightens up.
The other switches off.
Before you know it, your whole movement pattern changes.

This is why proper rehab is essential — not just for healing, but for preventing future problems.

Rehab helps you:
✔ Rebuild strength in key stabilising muscles
✔ Improve your movement patterns
✔ Reduce ongoing tension and flare-ups
✔ Support joints like hips, knees, and shoulders
✔ Stay active without fear of re-injury

💪 How Contralateral Training Supports Your Recovery

These cross-body exercises are brilliant for:
✔ Improving balance and coordination
✔ Strengthening the core and pelvis
✔ Evening out left–right imbalances
✔ Reducing strain on joints
✔ Making everyday movement feel easier and more stable

It’s not about lifting heavy — it’s about teaching the body to work together again, exactly the way it’s designed to.

⭐ Massage and rest can help you feel better…
But rehab and contralateral strength training help you stay better.

Whether you’re recovering from an injury, dealing with recurring aches, or simply want a more resilient body, this approach can make a massive difference.

If you would like to know more about this, please do not hesitate to contact us.

14/01/2026

📍 Pseudo-Sciatica: Why It Hurts & How I Can Help

If you’ve got pain in your glutes, hamstring or down the back of your leg — but it isn’t coming from a spinal disc — you might have pseudo-sciatica (often linked to the piriformis or deep glute muscles).

This isn’t “true” sciatica.
It’s usually caused by irritation or compression of the sciatic nerve inside the glute muscles, not the spine.

🔍 What I look for:

Tight or irritated deep glute muscles (piriformis, glute med/min)

Weak glutes causing overload

Hip and lumbar movement restrictions

Nerve irritation or sensitivity

👐 How treatment helps:

✔️ Deep glute & piriformis release
✔️ Hip & lower-back mobility work
✔️ Sciatic nerve glide techniques
✔️ Correcting movement patterns
✔️ Strength exercises to prevent it returning

💬 If your leg or glute pain keeps coming back, I can assess what’s driving it and help you get it under control long-term.

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13/01/2026

🔁 Why does your pain keep returning — even after it feels like it’s settled?

If you find your shoulder, back, knee or hip pain comes and goes, you’re not alone.
It’s one of the most common patterns I see in clinic.

Here’s the scientific reason:
Pain often improves before the underlying issue has actually been fixed.

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🔬 1. The body adapts — even when the problem is still there

Muscles can reduce pain through short-term compensation.
That means:

tight muscles work overtime

weaker muscles switch off

your body finds a way to “cope”

Pain eases…
…but the imbalance remains.

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🧠 2. Pain is a nervous-system response — not just a tissue problem

Your brain reduces pain when it feels “safe”, rested, or temporarily less stressed.
But if tension, poor movement patterns or weakness return…
pain switches back on.

This is why stress, bad sleep or hectic weeks often make pain flare up.

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🦴 3. Without rehab, the body stays in the same movement patterns

Massage and treatment help massively — they:
✔ reduce tension
✔ improve blood flow
✔ restore movement
✔ calm the nervous system

But after that, you need:
strength + control + mobility
or the original problem eventually returns.

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🧩 4. Fixing pain requires treating BOTH:

✔ the symptom (the pain)

✔ the cause (movement, strength, habits, posture)

This is why long-term results happen when we combine:
👐 Hands-on treatment
🏃‍♂️ Targeted rehab
📈 Better movement patterns
🧘‍♂️ Stress + sleep management

Not “quick fixes”.

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🧭 How I help

In your session we’ll look at:

how you move

which muscles are overworking

which ones aren’t doing their job

what your daily habits are doing to your body
And I’ll give you a simple plan that actually prevents the pain returning.

13/01/2026

Do you know of a care home or workplace that offer well being days? Would they benefit from short massage sessions for their residents, employees etc. for a minimal cost
I also have pamper party packages available for Friday nights and Saturdays. Please reach out if you have any questions or want more information