Sports injuries by APM- therapy

What is the significance of APM therapy for athletes?

Which sports-specific complaints are understood and can be treated?

Allow me to start with a question: In a football team, all players train roughly the same amount. Two players on the entire team have recurring adductor problems. Are these problems only caused by training?

Of course, there are physical limits to human beings. At some point, training is too much, the performance limit is reached and pain appears as a result of exceeding the limit. However, when we experience complaints, we should ask ourselves whether the physical exertion is not revealing a weak point that we can influence with suitable measures. Practical experience shows that the effect of treating sports-related complaints with energetic and static means is surprising for many athletes, and can also prove to be highly effective and can prevent many training failures or even premature termination of a sports career.

Practical examples

The following complaint reports are not intended to be exhaustive or comprehensive. They are associative reports from practice and are intended to give you an understanding of the diverse way of thinking of APM Radloff. Knee pain due to energy flow disorders The body is covered by a meridian system that supplies every structure with energy. When we exercise, we need this energy in the activated structures. If the energy in a meridian is not flowing for some reason, the attached structure is not supplied with enough energy. For example, the meridians of the stomach and spleen run across the front of the knee (inside and outside of the kneecap).

If these meridians are blocked, which interrupt the flow of energy, problems can arise in the kneecap. The knee is either supplied with too little or too much energy. Similar to a river before or after a dam. Left-sided runner's knee (specific pain that only occurs when running) can also be caused by this.

During treatment, the small dams must be found so that the knee can be optimally supplied with energy again. These dams can be acupuncture points or joints, as well as energetic disturbances in an internal organ.

Muscular imbalances due to blocked pelvic joints

We often find a twisted pelvis even in healthy people. The pelvis has three joints (the pubic bone at the front, a left and a right sacroiliac joint (=ISG) at the back). These joints allow small movements. These must be possible to the same extent in both ISGs. If this is not the case, muscular imbalances in the legs arise. In this case, specific stretching or strengthening does not help. Perhaps this one-sided mobility can be compensated with these measures, but the pelvis does not become more mobile as a result.

Imagine a runner. If his pelvis does not move freely, then different tensions affect the leg muscles. This probably does not matter for a single step, since he is flexible. Even after the hundredth step, our athlete will hardly notice anything. However, if he runs a marathon, then this muscular imbalance will play a role at some point after one of the many kilometers.

Whether a tendon attachment hurts, a joint becomes inflamed or a muscle fiber tears as a result depends on the existing weak points in the body. Instead of just stretching the muscles, it seems more sensible to find the cause and restore the pelvis to its full mobility.

The treatment is extremely simple. We Radloff therapists use simple grips to mobilize the sacroiliac joints and then treat the individual vertebrae.

Back pain due to inadequate nutrition

A triathlete had to give up her sport because of back pain that occurred when swimming, cycling and running. The pain got worse so much that she had to give up all longer competitions. After a two-year break from sport due to the pain, she came to me for treatment.

The solution to her symptoms lay in her diet. She ate primarily nuts and salads. This may be a wonderful diet, but it did not suit her. This irritated her digestive system. Now you are wondering what digestion has to do with back pain? A lot. The intestines are connected to various muscles via nerve pathways. Among other things, to the muscles of the lower back. The incorrect tension in these muscles caused the back pain. Imagine the analogy with your car. Petrol can be a wonderful fuel that allows your car to drive reliably from A to B. However, if you drive a car with a diesel engine, then despite all the advertising for premium unleaded you should just fill up with diesel.

The triathlete now “fuels her own diesel” and, after only four treatments and a change in diet, she takes part in competitions without any symptoms.

Back pain and Achilles tendon problems due to organic disorders

A cross-country skier has recurring back pain and her Achilles tendon is often irritated. When she came to me for treatment, she had already consulted physiotherapy, various manual therapy methods and sports doctors. During the treatment, we found an empty kidney and bladder meridian. (Incidentally, these run directly inside and outside the Achilles tendon and of course also supply the kidney and the area of the bladder and uterus). By toning these two meridians, the orthopedic problems disappear. During the treatment, I always explain my thoughts on this and once I mentioned that hormonal contraception could exacerbate this finding. She was already very satisfied with the success of the treatment, but wanted to find out what improvements her condition could be made with further measures. She removed her hormonal coil and was amazed that her susceptibility to bladder infections, which was already normal for her, also improved massively.

Influence on urinary incontinence

Another symptom that some runners may be familiar with is urinary incontinence when running. This is a topic that is not often discussed. However, it often happens that urine is released while jogging. Pelvic floor training can be effective. However, there are other influences: did you know that in Chinese medicine the kidney is responsible for the lower body openings? It may therefore be that the treatment of incontinence problems is indicated on a completely different level than with the commonly known muscle building training.

Conclusion

You see: we think in a very complex way. On the one hand, we treat via the meridians, the body's own energy system. At the same time, we work with statics. The pelvis and the spine play a central role here.

We also pay attention to the visceral reflex arcs, which means we treat at the organ level. The constitution of the personality or diet can also be a topic of treatment, but do not have to be. It all depends on where the cause can be found.

If we look at our football team mentioned at the beginning, it is easy to conclude that the two players who are struggling with their adductors have a dam somewhere in their system that needs to be found in order to increase their resilience.

Our way of thinking is exactly the same with other sports. Leg problems in stop-and-go sports, muscular elbow problems in climbers, shoulder problems in swimmers, one-sided muscle development in bodybuilders, knee problems in cyclists. It is always important to find the individual dams and treat them accordingly and initiate suitable changes.

(by Claudia Coulin APM-Radloff Therapist / Trainer and Lecturer at the Radloff & Peter Jeker Teaching Institute on 04.01.2024 15:07)