“It’s a bit like having your body re-moulded”

"I went to Martin to find out if my pelvis was out of alignment as one hip had started to give me pain. Martin quickly dispelled my fears about ageing and, not only fixed my hip, but also resolved long-standing problems with my posture. I now walk taller, more smoothly and free of pain. I am altogether more flexible and grounded and feel more confident. Everyday activities are much easier leaving me with far more energy. I have since slept more comfortably than I can remember and I feel much more relaxed and less stressed. Most significantly, Martin has brought about improvements in my body shape the likes of which I never thought possible. I feel very fortunate to have received such effective treatment – refreshingly, from someone so gifted yet genuine and unpretentious." – Diane W, London

Thanks so much for curing my horrible back problems. Haven't even had a twinge since November 2004. – Mel C (2 years later and, no, it’s not ‘that’ Mel C!)

Your spine is a series of joints not unlike any other joint in your body. It is held together by ligaments and moved around by muscles. This means that it is subject to the same possible problems such as tight muscles, joint compression and nerve compression. The element of nerve compression is a major one as every vertebra in your spine has a bundle of nerves passing through it, which radiate around your body like phone lines in a hugely complex telephone exchange. Therefore the problems you have with your back (in isolation) are no different from any other muscle/joint, its just that the possible implications on a nerve level make the effects more dramatic. If you compress a nerve in your spine it’s like putting a pickaxe through a TV cable. Pain, paralysis and odd sensations fly all over the place and the muscles that support your spine are thrown into panic and do the thing they do best when threatened, lock! Taking the pressure off the nerve usually has the same effect as taking the pickaxe out of the TV cable (OK so you’d have to replace the bit of cable but it’s the best analogy I have!)

Once you have identified the site of the problem, fixing it is no different and should be no more difficult that fixing any other joint. It’s important to recognize that, if your back has a joint problem it already has a muscle problem and that a muscle problem is very likely to become a joint problem if it’s not fixed soon. The components of the solution are simple and obvious but have to be addressed properly and in the right sequence or else you spend years making small improvements but never actually getting better.

Myths & Gibberish
You need a super strong ‘core’ to support your lower back! Drivel, and often the cause of more problems. If your back is in pain it is under pressure, compressed and held by tight muscles. Making them stronger will not help. If your back is pain free and you introduce sufficient strength in the muscles to crush it, they will crush it! If, as some lunatics suggest, you need to develop your ‘core muscles to stabilize (as in immobilise) your lower back, my question is this: If your lower back is not supposed to move, why did god but so many joints in it?

To be clear, there is a difference between brute strength and functional strength. Techniques such as Pilates and Gyrotonics train stability (as in stable, balanced and coordinated movement) into core muscles very effectively. My only concern is that this will train your core muscles to recognize and stabilize what will normally be a distorted structure. Their work will not correct that structure, just stabilize it. – read on

Every Human being on this planet has one leg longer than the other! Absolutely astonishing garbage. I’ve seen that one a couple of times. If anyone tells you that, you can be sure that they A) are clinically insane OR, B) listened to what they were told without engaging brain OR, C) are trying to sell you a very expensive piece of custom made carbon fiber to put in your shoes.

Unless they mean by lengths you would need a micrometer to measure, they are utterly wrong and I personally challenge them to prove otherwise. 95% of the people who have come to me for treatment (regardless of what they come for) have been found by me to have one leg that is ‘apparently’ longer than the other. The reason that one leg is ‘apparently’ longer is because their hips are ‘actually’, measurably and reversibly distorted. After treatment their hips are visibly straight and their legs are ‘apparently’ the same length, just as they always ‘actually’ were.

To understand the significance of this statement, you have to recognize that:
1. Your hips are literally and metaphorically pivotal to your skeletal structure
2. Any misalignment in your hips will have an immediate effect on the tension/balance of supporting muscles (there goes your lower back then!)
3. Any misalignment in your pelvis will have an immediate effect on the line of your spine which sits on it (and there goes the rest of your back!)
4. Any misalignment in you hips will have an immediate effect in the alignment of your legs (there – potentially – go your knees and ankles!)

Seven years ago I was fortunate enough to meet and train with a man called Alexander Barrie and my work changed forever. Everything I knew and had practiced fell into place around his Alexander Barrie System of Pelvic Correction (ABSPC). With this new understanding of pelvic structure and function, my muscular and nerve related work could change the whole skeletal alignment of clients who had previously beaten me with their banana like postures. And that’s what I’ve been doing for seven years! If you have distorted hips, back pain will invariably follow. If you have back pain, you almost certainly have distorted hips.

You can see a reduced text of an article I wrote on the subject by clicking here.