What our Clients say

Case Studies

NJ presented to the Fitness Fx clinic in early April 2016.  She is a middle-aged woman and ten years ago she felt weakness in her right upper glute and constant pain in this area that rated 5/10.  A short time before the initial pain starting in the glute, she had broken her ankle.  Without effective and efficient rehabilitation of the ankle and the leg, for 10 years she suffered from pain in the glute, knee and hip which became the new normal for NJ.

Approximately 18 months ago, NJ started to experience pain in the front of the right hip which for 6 months was intermittent.  However, for the past 12 months this pain had become a constant dull tooth ache and even walking slowly around the house it could produce pain up to an 8/10.

Prior to commencing treatment at Fitness Fx, NJ was the patient of another physiotherapist who after years of treatment was unable to resolve the problem.
This case identifies the importance of competent injury rehabilitation from the start to ensure the injury does not result in chronic pain or discomfort. In this particular case, the ankle and hip pain could have been completely avoided had NJ received adequate treatment of the ankle in the first instance.

After two weeks (four treatments) at Fitness Fx, NJ’s hip pain had significantly reduced and her knee pain was down to a 3/10. Three weeks into treatment (5 treatments) NJ had no hip or knee pain at all. This is an example of incorrect biomechanics between the hip and the knee as a result of the dysfunctional ankle many years prior.  The knee pain was resolved with minimal treatment, confirming it was directly related to the hip injury.  One month after her initial consultation NJ is pain free and has started with 4km walks which are not causing any discomfort.

NJ continues to come in for regular treatment and rehabilitation to ensure her pain does not return and we are currently discussing management options for once she is through the rehabilitation phase.

We treat a wide range of clients that have often seen a large number of health professionals and are frustrated with the minimal results they have achieved. It is often frustrating for people when they have been advised to have either cortisone injections or surgery to relieve their pain.  These procedures are often a band-aid to an underlying issue which will continue to cause issues in the body until it is resolved. 
This is often the reason a person’s pain will return after experiencing initial relief from the cortisone injection or when some people still experience severe pain post-surgery.

AC a woman in her early 50s came to the Fitness Fx clinic to begin an exercise program to improve her health and overall fitness. After training with us for a few months and learning more about our services and philosophy, this client decided to receive treatment on an old lower back injury which flares up now and again and causes AC to avoid certain activities.

AC hurt her back over three years ago bending and lifting and scans revealed a lumbar disc bulge.  AC had always felt stiff in her lower back and when it flared, it would become quite painful. Most recently the flare up caused constant lower back pain and referral into the right hamstring and some pain in the back of her calf. Her pain was aggravated when walking upstairs, which there are several flights of stairs at her place of work.

After three treatments at Fitness Fx, AC had no back pain and was recently able to move house lifting boxes comfortably and without pain. When twisting certain ways,
AC occasionally feels pain that she rates 1/10 in her hamstring, but otherwise is pain free. AC still trains regularly and receives treatment at the clinic to work on feelings
of stiffness.  We look forward to tracking her continued improvement.

It is not uncommon to see people put up with intermittent pain and more often than not, we see this pain eventually change to being a constant pain which the person cannot find comfort in any position. The earlier we can get on top of a minor niggle or injury, the easier and faster these conditions are to treat.

CB is in her seventies and has been a long term client of Fitness Fx, training and regularly receiving treatment at the clinic.  Two years ago she fell backwards down a flight of ten concrete stairs, hitting her back several times on the way down, cracking three ribs and hitting her head.  This type of fall would be likely to cause significant damage to someone regardless of their age.

We treated CB’s muscles which had seized from the impact of this fall and after a few weeks she was back to her normal self, besides some bruising and the healing of her three cracked ribs. CB attributes her quick recovery to the fact that she had already been receiving regular treatment prior to the accident and was regularly training in the gym. CB’s healthy muscles were able to be released quickly and permanently after an impact that would render most people unable to walk for some time and with probable ongoing chronic pain.  If she was not receiving treatment and her muscles were stiff, as would usually be the case as you age, she would find that these injuries would more likely become chronic and the consequent pain would affect her day to day abilities.

Many of our clients have regular maintenance treatments to keep on top of their niggles before they become issues. This keeps their muscles healthy and allows them to continue exercising as normal, injury and stiffness free. It is great to see people starting to take a preventative approach with their body, rather than attempting to
fix problems once they have occurred.

JM is a man in his early forties and came to the Fitness Fx clinic in mid-April 2016.  JM was suffering from a central disc bulge between L3-L4, L4 to L5 and L5-S1, severe left lower back and upper glute pain with referring pain down the back and side of his thigh and in the front of his shin. JM was at the point where he could not bend forward and would have to spend most of the day standing at work.  He was unable to sit for more than 20 minutes, which made productive meetings at work close to impossible as he would need to excuse himself because of the excruciating pain he would experience.

The pain started in October 2015 and by November of that same year the pain became unbearable. For two months JM saw a physio weekly and after very little improvement he opted to have a cortisone injection.  The injection reduced his pain in the lower back area and upper glute area from an 8/10 to a 6/10.  JM still suffered referral pain down the side and back of the thigh and in the front of the shin.

After two treatments at Fitness Fx, JM was pain free for the rest of that day.  This was the first time in over 6 months he had felt such relief! The next day some of the glute and shin pain returned to a lesser extent, however the back pain and referral pain in his thigh did not return.

One month post treatment JM experiences no back pain, no shin pain and no pain down the side or back of his thigh. JM occasionally feels an ache deep in his glute and we are continuing to work on this to ensure his pain does not return. His current glute pain has been reduced from a constant 6/10 to an occasional 2/10.

Recently JM has been able to sit comfortably on long car trips and camp overnight in a swag (something most back pain sufferers would never consider doing) and he no longer has to spend the majority of his workdays standing or avoiding long periods sitting.

People with disc bulge injuries are often led to believe that they will have pain for the rest of their lives; fortunately, this is not the case. Most people think the disc impinging on a spinal nerve is the sole cause of their pain, when more often than not, the pain they are suffering is due to muscle physiology and patterning. There are two main ways muscles can cause pain when considering a disc injury:

1. The muscles tighten excessively in protection of the disc bulging, thus creating a real feeling of stiffness and pain for the patient.
2. The muscles may have initially been the very reason the disc prolapsed because a muscle in an excessively tight position over an extended period of time pulling on the vertebrae will change the biomechanics of the spine and can cause the disc to bulge.  If these muscles are left untreated they can lead to further dysfunction and degeneration of the spine.

Soft tissue treatment and effective rehabilitation is extremely important when dealing with a prolapsed disc.  A good therapist will ensure that the strain is reduced on the spine by returning the involved muscles to the correct length at rest.  This will allow the disc to return to a more normal position. An untreated disc injury will often become chronic and the resultant poor biomechanics of the body will lead to further degeneration and a never ending cycle of pain.

A young physically fit and very active teenage male came to the Fitness Fx clinic in early October 2015. He had been selected for the Brisbane Roar Youth Soccer squad and was playing at least twice a week and training intensely every day.

JS presented with a chronic hamstring strain which was severely limiting his running capacity and consequently affected his ability to play and train.   Several muscle imbalances were identified during his treatment session and these were explained to JS.  His quadriceps and gluteal muscles were harbouring trigger points which were affecting the function of these muscles.  This had a direct and negative affect on the functioning of the hamstring group which led to the strain becoming a chronic issue.  After three treatments the hamstring complaint was resolved and JS was able to return to his heavy sporting schedule.

JS returned to the clinic mid February 2016 when he was playing soccer twice a week and training every day, at times twice per day. He was suffering from a pulling pain high on his quadricep, which was due to excessive tightening of his hip flexors. This pain was a 6/10 when trying to play and train. After only two treatments JS could play 80%
of his soccer match before his hip flexor issue would be aggravated and would temporarily flare up.

Three weeks later JS was back to playing and training pain free which was a huge success as we were able to manage him through his heavy training and playing load, without him having to miss any games and to do all this pain free after just a short time in treatment. JS continues to visit the Fitness Fx clinic as part of his health and fitness maintenance. He has learnt from his experience that it is much better to get on top of his aches in a timely manner to prevent injuries before they occur and to maximise his performance!