So, of course, I went to the doctor’s and after the standard prostate tests was told that it was probably just the usual prostate enlargement, that it was to be expected, and that there were some drugs that might help.

I tried the drugs. One didn’t work at all and the other – as often happens apparently – caused retrograde ejaculation. This was very unpleasant and made me feel worse than the getting up in the night! So, like so many other men, I grinned and bore it.

At the same time, I was also suffering a marked loss of genital responsiveness and arousal. This wasn’t ED, it was something about the preliminary state of readiness and interest in that part of my body. I told no one about this, not even really having the language to describe it and knowing that even if I did it would just be put down to aging.

Then the physiotherapy/pilates practice where I see my personal trainer issued a brochure that advertised the services of a “men’s health” physical therapist, which mentioned the male pelvic floor as an area which, if addressed, might improve the peeing problems. I had never seen that before, so I started looking it up on the internet. What I found was a series of American (mostly) women practitioners in the field of male pelvic health, incredibly frank and straightforward, who seemed to go directly to the heart (or the floor) of what I was experiencing and who were saying, in effect, that it wasn’t a necessary if regrettable feature of age, but things could be improved.

Discovering Ten’s Specialists in Male Pelvic Health

So I started googling practices in London and found Leanne at Ten. She was frank, straightforward and addressed my difficulties sympathetically and directly. This was important because male embarrassment, as we know, is a major inhibitory factor preventing men seeking treatment for certain conditions.

So we have been working for 10 months, with exercises and trigger point release, with Leanne setting a programme of home exercises to strengthen the pelvic floor and also to be able to relax it properly.

The results have been a revelation. There is no other way of putting it.

As of the last couple of months I no longer have to get up three or four times a night to pee – twice is a bad night and once is the standard. This has transformed my nights and therefore also improved my days! I do my floor exercises regularly – they are simple and not onerous and take little time.

We are now addressing the arousal problem with both exercise and physio therapy and though these are early days the signs are positive, and that has made a difference, frankly, to my morale!

The problems I have described as incredibly common and represent a minor and (I now realise) often unnecessary misery for too many men.  Probably the majority of us simply have no idea that we males even have a pelvic floor (imagining that only pregnant women have one) let alone that it is important and can become weak or dysfunctional and that this tendency can be countered by physiotherapy.

Well, I know better now. And I feel better now!

The post D – Men’s Health Physio appeared first on Ten Health & Fitness.

She underwent a mastectomy and started Chemotherapy a month after confirmation of her diagnosis, followed by Radiotherapy two months later.

Before the diagnosis she was fit, healthy and confident, exercising regularly and thriving on the challenges of a demanding career. But this was no longer the case when she was referred to Ten a little over a year later.

Halfway through her Chemotherapy course, she was already struggling with the physical side-effects of her treatment and was experiencing anxiety for the first time in her life. And (in her own words) she had ‘fallen off the exercise wagon.’

As a result of the chemo, she had gained weight, especially around the abdomen. She was fatigued and shaky, had lost significant core strength, and was experiencing back pain along with problems with her balance. She had also lost mobility overall, with reduced range of motion in a shoulder along with foot problems.

Ten’s Circle of Care in action

Heather’s progress at Ten incorporated almost every aspect of our unique Circle of Care. She was able to access the different services she needed within the same location, supported by an integrated and collaborative team making her journey between services seamless. We were also able manage external referrals when required, through our network of top London consultants.

With a single location for all her sessions, and much of her programme managed for her, she was able to experience a fuller and more effective process than would have been possible otherwise and was able to focus her energies on recovery without the stress of having to manage and brief different exercise and therapy professionals.

We believe that these factors had a significant effect on the speed and quality of her recovery, both physically and mentally.

Heather’s journey at Ten began with Clinical Exercise sessions, working on her mobility and strength post-surgery, fatigue management and also ensuring sessions were supportive and structured in order to help boost her confidence and morale.

After just 2 months she had already made enough progress to be referred internally to Ten’s Physiotherapy team to work on her shoulder and foot issues. We were also able to refer her to external surgical specialists to check that there were no long-term neurological pathway issues that might require a change to her programme or affect her ability to recover.

As Heather continued to progress, further internal referrals followed; firstly, to Massage Therapy to help improve her mobility and release her tight hamstrings, gluteals and pectorals, and then to Reformer Pilates classes for corrective and then functional exercise sessions.

By the time Heather left us to return home to the US she had become strong, co-ordinated and mobile enough to become a regular at Ten’s intermediate-level Dynamic Reformer Pilates classes – a full-body workout that’s demanding enough to challenge the majority of Ten’s fitness clients.

Better still, she left with the mental and physical confidence to continue her Pilates practice away from the reassurance and familiarity of Ten’s Studios.

Heather has promised us that she’ll to drop in for a class or two next time she’s in London, and have promised her that she will get a suitably challenging workout when she does!

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Charlotte is a healthy 25-year old Army officer, who tore her ACL in a skiing injury. Following surgery, she continued to experience significant pain and swelling, had limited range of motion in the knee and was reliant on crutches to walk.

She was referred to Consultant Physiotherapist Liam Rodgers at week 3 post- surgery, with her recovery some way behind where we would expect a routine surgery client to be.

The solution

Liam spent quite a lot of time educating her on how best to manage her swelling. Through the use of hands-on techniques, she also gradually increased her range of motion, enabling her to walk better, though it took several more weeks before she was able to recruit and engage the right muscles, and re-learn how to walk without limping.

Alongside her stretching exercises, Charlotte was also given a gradual strength programme. With education a key element of her treatment plan, she followed her programme diligently and progressed extremely well.

The outcome

By week 12 we would expect a normal ACL reconstruction patient to have recovered enough strength and range to commence gentle running. Despite her slow recovery in the 3 weeks following her operation, Charlotte did so well with her rehabilitation that she caught up and was able to start running by week 12.

Within 6 months of surgery, she was back to her normal fitness regime of strength training, outdoor swimming, cycling and running. Whilst not being fully ready for military duties yet, she is on track and preforming well against normal milestones.

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Molly Rådberg is a Director at a large, successful PR agency. It’s a busy and stressful job that requires her to spend a fair amount of time behind her desk as well as in an aeroplane seat. She also has scoliosis (an overly curved spine).

The muscular imbalance caused by the combination of a spinal condition and her work habits have led to discomfort and dysfunction, in particular, tight hips, a constantly stiff neck and thoracic spine, which frequently goes into spasm.

Though she had previously tried to ease the symptoms with a combination of physio, training, stretching and massage, the results were inconsistent.

The solution

When Molly began coming to Ten for Massage Therapy, she was quickly impressed with her Therapist’s professionalism and skill, not only through the understanding of the underlying issues and the resulting treatment, but also through the recommendation of complementary exercises to support the sessions.

The treatment itself centred around active release techniques and deep connective tissue work to release the muscles in Molly’s chest, thoracic and cervical spine. She was also given stretches that she could perform at home or whilst travelling to maintain the release achieved in her massage sessions.

The outcome

Since beginning her weekly sessions, Molly has seen a significant reduction in the tightness of her muscles and in the number and severity of her spasms. She is pain-free significantly more often and for longer.

Stretching has become a habit for her and she has greater awareness and control of her posture.

“I feel fantastic,” she says. “It’s well worth the financial and time commitment.  I look forward to my session every week – it’s one of my favourite hours. It’s also a great stress-buster and a brilliant form of prehab (my new buzzword!)”

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Hollie Cope Jones is a fit and active 25-year old. A keen sportswoman, she’s a competitive show jumper, who also enjoys a range of sports and workouts, including crossfit, climbing, boxing, skiing and rowing.

In September 2014, she had a riding accident, sustaining a fracture of the upper lumbar spine.

The solution

Hollie’s Orthopaedic surgeon referred her to Ten for Physiotherapy. Once the fracture was stabilised, she was able to begin progressive controlled stretching, postural correction, mobilisations, soft tissue release and progressive core stabilisation exercises.

Initially, she was extremely restricted in her movements, in significant pain and was very weak. But over the course of 4 month she worked hard at her rehab programme in the clinic, gym and at home. And by February she was able to return to jumping, and was able to go skiing a month later.

“As soon as I started physiotherapy I felt like I was making progress,” she says.” It was frustrating at first as I had lost all my muscle strength and struggled with even basic exercises, but it was rewarding when, as the weeks went by, I was able to do the exercises quite easily.”

The outcome

Hollie she has no day-to-day restrictions, has a cast iron core, excellent mobility and no major remaining pain.

More to the point, she has her life back: “Six months post fracture I am showjumping again. I’m also skiing and climbing. I can’t thank the team at TenPhysio enough, I would not be competing again if it weren’t for them. They were there to help and push me at every stage and I have learnt a lot from them through the process.”

As a prehabiltative measure, to ensure Hollie not only reaches all her goals, but also she doesn’t have lingering back pain, Hollie will continue with a truncated version of her programme and has taken up Pilates at Ten.

The post Hollie Cope Jones – Recovering from Injury appeared first on Ten Health & Fitness.

Before coming to Ten, Anisha Gulhati’s exercise routine centred on running and yoga. She had always thought of Pilates as a ‘rather slow’ form of exercise and didn’t expect it to make much difference, if any, to her body.

But as she says, “I was wrong! When I started doing Reformer Pilates, I was running and also practising yoga. After a couple of weeks at Ten, I ended up scaling down my other activities and concentrating more on the Dynamic Pilates.  I found my body was becoming more supple and also leaner, and the shape of my body was changing. I was seeing results very quickly.”

When Anisha became pregnant with her second child she was determined to keep up her Pilates but wanted to be sure the training would be safe for her and her baby.

The solution

Through both her pregnancies, Anisha has combined specialist PreNatal PT’s and Classes, designed specifically to help mothers-to-be cope with the changes and challenges of a developing pregnancy: “I find them very helpful for strengthening the muscles that inevitably are needed more to carry the baby weight i.e. back, glutes etc”.

The outcome

After the birth of her first child, she was surprised to find that she still had good muscle memory and was able to get back into shape quickly. As soon as she had the all clear from the doctor, she was back at Ten enjoying the classes and seeing results much quicker than she had expected.

“I believe the concentration on individual muscle groups both pre natal and post natal in the classes has really helped” Anisha says.

Anisha is now enjoying her second pregnancy, and is keeping up her regular Prenatal PT’s and classes. After the birth, she’s looking forward to resuming her normal training routine at Ten, a mix of Dynamic Pilates and Cardiolates classes.

From time to time, she’ll try something different somewhere else – barrecore or yoga perhaps – as she says, “it’s always good to do something new and give your body a change. But any workout that I do is always in addition to classes at TenPilates, and never a replacement!”

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For two years Journalist and Author Anna Pasternak couldn’t wear high heels, swim or drive without a stabbing pain in her lower back. She spent entire days lying on a hot water bottle with Nurofen patches stuck to her back in an effort to ease the nearly constant pain.

The cause was a damaged sacroiliac (SI) joint, probably as a result of weakened ligaments during pregnancy (a common cause), combined with too much driving and constantly picking up and lugging around a growing child, and more recently, an aged fat dachshund. It didn’t help that as a writer, she spends hours sitting at a computer screen.

Sacroiliac problems, and the intense pain that follows, are often triggered by the bend and twist action of lifting children, suitcases or heavy shopping. An estimated 25% to 40% per cent of lower back problems are related to this joint.

The solution

Anna had tried a number of options to ease the acute pain, including regular osteopathy and classic Pilates. Whilst both helped temporarily, any sudden movement or twist could put her out of alignment again, and she never felt that the SI problem was cured.

Finally, she was introduced to Ten and its Circle of Care, embarking on a combination of Physiotherapy and Dynamic Pilates.

Unlike the traditional industry model Ten’s Trainers and Therapists work side by side, sharing knowledge, insights and client history, and working together to apply the right mix of complementary skills and expertise at each stage of the client’s treatment and training.

The initial assessment showed that Anna’s pelvis was out of alignment, with the left side higher than the right, rotating the position of her spine to the left. The Ten team also realised that following Anna’s initial injury, the body’s natural protection mechanism had activated the surrounding muscles in an attempt to protect her back from further injury. But as a result, the muscles in her bottom – her gluteus – were almost redundant and therefore not stabilising the back, and that a lot of her pain was because the muscles were so weak.

The first course of action was to mobilise the damaged joint using massage and special stretching exercises and return it to a neutral alignment – her back was taped with strapping tape to support it, and to help keep the pelvis in a neutral position.

After four sessions, the position of her spine had been corrected.

Anna then began a combination of one-on one and class-based Dynamic Pilates sessions to re-educate and strengthen her muscles.

Dynamic Pilates proved to be unlike any Pilates class she had ever experienced: “You’re pushed past the limit of your pain threshold to what feels like exquisite agony. You work until your muscles shake and you moan. I would literally stagger out the sessions, afraid that the following day, I’d be unable to move. Yet I never felt in pain after a session.”

The outcome

After the first Pilates session her Trainer promised her that she would be pain-free. After years of pain and frustration, Anna burst into tears on the spot.

And he was right, she says: “After ten weeks, I am finally pain free. A bonus is that I have dropped a dress size and have stronger stomach muscles than in my twenties. This summer, I wore a bikini for the first time in a decade. Even better, I can now dance in high heels.”

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At 10.30 on a frosty Sunday morning Ben Arogundade was playing in defence for his local non-league football team.

Ben was fit – for 20 years he’d run five miles three mornings a week, and for 30 years played competitive non-league football. Despite being 48 years old – the oldest player in the team by far – Ben was still a regular on the team.

Chasing full pelt after a ball, he felt a sudden sharp pain in the back of his right thigh. He hobbled to a halt with a pulled hamstring muscle, the pain in his leg compounded by the dread that his increasing injury rate was threatening his ability to compete at the level he was used to.

The solution

Unwilling to hang up his boots just yet, Ben had heard that Pilates was recommended both to prevent injury and to enhance performance. After an initial assessment, Ben began a twice-a-week programme of Dynamic Pilates sessions, with his Trainer prescribing extra home exercises.

The outcome

In Ben’s words: “ After a few simple exercises at my first session, my body was quivering like a jelly on a washing- machine. I thought I was strong, but I was weak! I thought I was hard, but here – off the pitch – I was struggling.”

Even though Ben was a life-long exerciser, and these were beginners’ classes, he found them tough; “The first week was a blur of discomfort, and I would return home wide-eyed with pain.”

But by the second week he started to feel a difference, and after eight weeks Ben was noticeably stronger. His posture straightened and he found that he could run more efficiently. More importantly, he got through a practice football game without injury.

However, during his absence from the football team, his position had been taken by someone 15 years younger. As a natural competitor, on one level he was gutted. But on another, he had found that the physical improvement he had experienced at Ten had been matched by an important psychological lesson – and through Pilates he had learned to accept his physical limits with grace.

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Tom North is a photographer. For most of his adult life he has also been an enthusiastic gym-dodger and exercise avoider, with a running history largely limited to twice-weekly 15 minutes jogs round the park whilst trying not to pass out.

The problem was that he had signed himself up for the London Marathon, with 16 weeks to get ready.

He had set himself two goals. First, not to have a heart attack. And second, to run 26.2 miles at a sustained pace and within 4 hours.

The solution

Quite sensibly, Tom decided that his best chance of success lay in following a pre-existing Marathon training plan. He also decided that given his exercise history (or lack of), he’d take a prehabilitative approach to his training, and sought help from Ten and its Circle of Care.

Ten’s Circle of care is ideally (and as far as we know) uniquely suited to the holistic, multi-disciplinary approach that Prehab requires. Unlike the traditional fitness industry model, Ten’s Trainers and Therapists work seamlessly together to share expertise, insights and client information.

So following Tom’s initial assessment (surprisingly good flexibility, but unsurprisingly weak glutes and all-over body strength) we agreed that he would need the following:

• Gait Analysis to identify any problems with his running alignment
• Sports Massage to improve recovery time after exercise and deal with any aches, tightness or niggles as his body responded to the running schedule
• Regular Dynamic Pilates sessions to improve alignment and posture, and to strengthen his core along with his weak glutes, and increase overall muscular endurance and control.

The outcome

Gait analysis confirmed that Tom is wearing the right running shoes and insoles for his his pronation (essential if he was to last the training programme, let alone the marathon). However it also showed that his running style was inefficient. He was wasting too much energy bouncing up and down when he ran, his hips weren’t straight (a function of his weak glutes) his stride was too slow, too narrow and too long, his arms were underused, and his posture too ‘slouchy’.

Like many men, Tom arrived at his first class with the impression that that Pilates would be posturally beneficial, but more of a glorified stretch than an actual workout. He was right about the postural benefits, but after an hour of burning muscles and profuse sweating (and to be fair, some useful stretches to maintain muscle length and recovery) began to rethink his views on the workout element.

A few weeks on, his core and glute strength had improved significantly, along with his muscular endurance and control, he’s standing taller, and he’s able to perform more complex and demanding moves. In recognition of his improved ability and fitness, he’s moved to a more advanced class.

He’s already seeing the difference of improving both his running technique and his glute strength and stability. He is less tired after long runs, his interval training speed is increased and much more consistent across the high intensity bursts.

Sports Massages have helped reduced muscle soreness and tightness post-workout and enabled him to keep to a demanding training schedule (4-5 runs and 3 Pilates sessions per week).

Since writing this, we’re delighted to announce that Tom successfully completed his marathon. He finished in a time of 3 hours 57 minutes, according to his watch, but 4 hours 3 minutes according to the official marathon timer.

Tom is particularly miffed by this, and claims that it’s purely because he was unable to keep to the race line and so had to run further than the official marathon distance.

Determined to reclaim his missing 6 minutes, Tom has already signed up for his next marathon, and remains a regular at Ten, where we continue to correct his initial impression of Pilates and make sure that his muscles burn and shake, and that he still sweats as profusely as he did on day 1. We’re nice like that.

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I was particularly drawn to the cycle of theory – practical – observation – teaching. Who can complain about learning and exercising all day long? The structure of the course allowed me to actively learn meaning I could put my knowledge into practice with immediate effect. In my opinion, this way of learning is more efficient in terms of progress and practical experience.

Another unique point is the opportunity to meet and work with everyone within the company. I found this useful in learning terms because of the exposure to different teaching styles, cues, exercise sequences – everything you need to help you evolve your own style. As well as this, working with all staff evokes that sense of teamwork that I look for within a company.

This is not your typical weekend course but a thorough learning experience that will leave you wanting to know more, learn more, and be a part of the Ten team!”

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