Myotherapy Awareness Week

This week places myotherapy into the spotlight. For everything you need to know about myotherapy and how it is a valued service within the allied health field for treating musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction click on the learn more button below.

Discover -

  • what is myotherapy

  • what musculoskeletal conditions myotherapists treat

  • which health funds offer rebates for myotherapy

Office Workspace Ergonomics


If your a full time student or in a career that requires long hours at a desk you’d probably be accustomed to a few aches and pains as a result. Along with regular exercise to reduce stiffness and pain you can make a few adjustments to your office set up to improve your posture to reduce load through your neck, shoulders and spine.

Click on the link below for a great resource poster. Created by the team at Corporate Work Health Australia, it will assist you in making some positive adjustments to your work station.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

wrist pain

Suffering wrist pain?

It could be Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome generally affects middle aged women in their dominant hand. It presents with wrist pain along with pins and needles and numbness in the fingers (usually the index, middle and side of the ring finger).

The cause is compression of the medial nerve as it passes through the carpal tunnel at the wrist. The tunnel allows tendons, blood vessels and nerves to pass from the forearm to the hand. Excess inflammation or fluid in the tunnel impacts on blood flow and nerve signalling causing pain and paraesthesia, and can eventually lead to weakness and muscle wasting of some hand and wrist muscles. 

So who is most at risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome?

- women between the ages 40 - 60 years

- people whose jobs require repetitive use of the wrist 

- pregnant women

- certain inflammatory arthritic conditions

- people who have had prior arm or wrist injuries such as sprains or fractures

Our myotherapists can assist in the treatment, management and recovery of carpal tunnel syndrome. Call our clinic to have your wrist pain assessed. 


We are Blackroll® Certified






Melbourne certified Blackroll trainers celebrating completing the course!

Melbourne certified Blackroll trainers celebrating completing the course!

Dry Needling Explained

Dry needling is specifically utilised to target and restore muscle function by improving tissue healing and reducing pain eliciting trigger points. It is based on western medicine and neuro-physiological principles. A dry needle is a once only use sterile solid filament acupuncture needle. Your myotherapist palpates specific muscles to locate trigger points within the tissue that may be contributing to a patients pain or dysfunction. The dry needle is inserted after the skin has been disinfected into the trigger point to produce a local muscle twitch response. This twitch response deactivates the trigger point, thus releasing muscle tension and pain, and also allowing the body's biochemistry to produce a natural analgesic. 

A trigger point is not to be confused with an acupuncture point. Although approximately 70% of trigger points coinside with acupuncture points, trigger points are specifically treated for the restoration of musculoskeletal pain or dysfunction. These trigger points commonly produce localised and referred pain patterns and are an important aspect to treat when a patient is experiencing pain. Acupuncture on the other hand works by redirecting the flow of energy, known as chi, within the body by inserting needles along meridians -Traditional Chinese Medicine pathways. Acupuncture is used to treat various physical and mental conditions.

During the process of dry needling, patients can experience heaviness in the limbs and a feeling of relaxation. Like with manual hands on trigger point release you can experience some local muscle soreness for 24 - 48 hours. Heat is generally recommended after a dry needling treatment to the area.

Common conditions that dry needling can be beneficial for in conjunction with other treatment techniques include:

rotator cuff pain, muscular tightness associated with back and neck pain, shin splints, golfers and tennis elbow, jaw pain, calf tightness associated with achilles tendinopathy and plantar fasciitis.

If you are coming in for dry needling it is important that you have eaten and are not tired as some people can feel a bit light headed after treatment, and always let your therapist know if you are pregnant or are taking blood thinner medications. 

What is Kinesiology Tape?

Kinesiology tape colours don't differ in their function

There are a few kinesiology tape varieties on the market that might sound familiar, the most popular used by clinicians are rock tape and kinesio tape.

The difference between kinesiology tape and rigid sports tape lies in the elasticity of the tape. It differs from conventional rigid sports tape because it mimics human skin, as it's able to stretch and move with the body rather than restricting joint movement. When it is applied to the skin on stretch it forms convulsions and wrinkles. This creates a bio-mechanical lifting of the skin that decompresses the tissues beneath. The advantage of this is that it promotes a more normal fluid movement under the tape, thus helping to reduce swelling. The tape also allows for better glide between tissue layers, and reduces pressure on nerves due to the lifting of tissue the tape creates.

As with all different types of tape they stimulate our body's own proprioception. Proprioception is the process by which our body can vary muscle contraction in immediate reaction to incoming information relating to external forces (in this case the tape), by utilising stretch receptors in our muscles to keep track of the joint position of our body. This process can both decrease pain and improve movement patterns. 

Kinesiology tape colours don’t differ in their function.

Rock tape which is one of the brands we use in our clinic is low allergy tape, and if you have tried the white coloured fixomull or hypafix tapes in the past without problems then your skin should be able to tolerate kinesiology tape without irritation. 

Other benefits of kinesiology tape is that it holds up better than rigid tape when wet. So there's no problems wearing kinesiology tape in the water. Swimmers rejoice!

Watch how Rocktape can stretch up to 180% of its original length!

3 exercises for office workers

For those of you doing your nine to five daily grind permanently glued to your chair at the office, this post is especially for you! Here are three exercises to get you through the day without seizing up at your desk and drawing strange looks from your co-workers. Best of all they can be done at your desk.

1. Backward shoulder rolls

A simple exercise to encourage your shoulders to relax and not slowly creep up towards your ears as your work day goes on. Gently roll both shoulders backwards in a circular motion.  Easy isn't it?  We recommend you do 10 repetitions at least twice during your day. 


2. Shoulder blade squeezes

Being mindful to keep your head in a neutral alignment (eg. don't poke your chin out- tuck it in, and keep your head inline with your spine), gently depress and squeeze your shoulder blades simultaneously down into a V position (visualise holding a pen between your shoulder blades) and slightly raise through your sternum. Hold this position for 10 seconds and repeat 10 times. This will help to strengthen your back and keep your shoulders from rolling forward - say no to the quasimodo posture! 


3. Forearm stretches

If you're behind a desk you are probably using a computer, so to reduce your chances of getting carpal tunnel add this stretch to your routine. To stretch your extensors (the muscles on the back of your forearm) make a fist and flex downward at your wrist whilst straightening your elbow. You can use your other hand to apply some additional pressure downward on your hand to enhance the stretch.  Now, to stretch your forearm flexors open your hand, extend your wrist back and straighten your elbow. To enhance the stretch use your other hand to pull your hand back. *If you feel any tingling sensation back off the stretch a little.

Forearm Flexor Stretch

Forearm Flexor Stretch