Everything works best when it’s in the right place!

Hi everyone, it’s Dr. Lucy Gillivour blogging again. This time I’m writing as I’m sitting at Adelaide Airport waiting to board my plane back to Melbourne and I’ve got some really exciting news for you all!

I’ve spent my weekend learning a new and exciting treatment that’s going to benefit almost every one of my clients (and future clients of course). This is a treatment that ONLY 2.9% of Australia’s podiatrists are professionally trained in, by celebrity podiatrist and extraordinaire – Ted Jedynak.I’ve just spent 3 days learning Foot Mobilisation Therapies (FMT), having my feet mobilised, manipulated and adjusted and I feel fabulous! I have never felt my feet be so mobile and free, and NO PAIN! What do I always tell my current clients – anything I do to you, I have had done to myself! How else would I know the treatment I’m providing works and how it feels unless I’ve had it personally? That’s a rhetorical question of course!

Those who I’ve seen know I have a long standing injury to the tiny bones under your big toe – called your sesamoids – which I have been supporting with orthotics. My orthotics are amazing! However, just like most of you, there are times where I cannot wear them and I do have pain of a night time. Without my orthotics I would not be able to walk or run without pain. But I’ve always been at a loss of what to do for those times where I cannot wear them.

Orthotics are a great supportive and corrective device for our feet and are often very comfortable. Think of it like this, the bones in your feet are a well-oiled machine. They do their job well and sometimes require maintenance to make sure everything stays functioning. Think of your orthotics as an upgrade to make the machine work more efficiently, requiring less maintenance and cheaper to run. Great! Now that you’ve pictured that in your mind, think – what would happen if we upgraded a machine but then never bothered to maintain it? Seems pretty silly right? Exactly! We’ve upgraded your feet to function better, but we need to make sure the foot stayed functioning optimally. That’s where FMT comes in. It’s a treatment protocol aimed at mobilising stuck or tight tissues of the foot and allowing the bones, joints and tissues to return to their ‘right’ place. Everything works best when it’s in the right place!

FMT is a type of manual therapy which helps to mobilise sore and painful “jammed up” joints. It’s based on the physiological theory that “connective tissues ALWAYS adapt to their shortest functional length.” We have all experienced this, sitting at a desk all day without stretching makes our hip flexor muscles tighter, having a heavy handbag causes our shoulder to seize up, and wearing heels makes our calf muscles less flexible. This also happens to the foot! There are 28 bones in the foot (everyone forgets the 2 sesamoid bones, except me!), 33 joints and more than 100 tendons, ligaments and muscles! If these compensations occur in our large muscles, they’re going to also occur in the one part of our body we are on the most…THE FEET!

FMT can be used to treat a WIDE range of conditions including (but not limited to):

• Ankle weakness
• Musculoskeletal injuries, tears and strains
• Heel pain
• Mid foot pain
• Forefoot pain
• Osteoarthritis of the foot and ankle
• Treating Bunions, claw and hammer toes without surgery
  And sooo much more!

If you want to know more about FMT and how you can benefit from it, come and see me – Dr. Lucy Gillivour – at The Foot And Ankle Clinic in Traralgon – and see how you too can function like a well-oiled machine!