text: Movember & where it started! Movember is coming, the month of the Mo, where men around the world grow a Mo in the name of Men's Health. The Movember movement originated in our own town, Melbourne (Australia) in 2003 with with two mates joking about bringing back the Mo. Taken from the Movember website: "The two friends decided to talk their mates into growing a Mo. Inspired by a friend’s mother who was fund raising for breast cancer, they decided to make the campaign about men’s health and prostate cancer. They designed rules and guidelines for Movember (which are still in place today) and agreed to charge ten dollars to grow a Mo. Trav designed the first Movember logo, and they sent around an email titled Are you man enough to be my man? They found 30 guys willing to take up the challenge." Now Movember is focusing on raising funds for prostate cancer, testicular cancer & mental health issues, along with simply raising awareness for Men Health. My Mo History I started as a guy just 'growing a mo' in 2010, starting in the middle on November, not knowing what Movember was or why people were growing Mo's besides simply wanting to grow Mo's. The following year I was searching the internet and found out about the Campaign- raising awareness of Men's Health while also raising some money for Prostate Cancer & Mental Health Issues. At the time I was working at a bottle shop and a few of my colleagues had done Movember in the past, but this year we decided to make a group and get a few other work mates involved, while putting out donation boxes for customers to donate if they wished. Together we raised a couple of hundred dollars, which is just great. Grow a Mo, have some fun, raise a few bucks for a good cause! The following year I got my family involved (2012), including my sister, mother and especially my father who had not shaved his beard, since he left school (about 40 years!). He took some convincing, but decided to do it for the good cause that is Men's Health (see YouTube video of him shaving it off below) and guess what, now he has a Mo & goatee (not a full beard!). My sister wore all sorts of Movember tops to spread the word of Movember, while raising money for it. My mother was a traditional Mo Sista, who registered, raised awareness and some funds for Movember through word of mouth and supporting my dad. My Mo-Tivation
  What Next?! Last year (2012) I unfortunately gave Movember a miss, due to finishing off my Degree and starting my business, but this year in conjunction with the Ashburton festival it will be bigger than ever for me! The Ashburton festival will have a Health & Movember side to it this year with various health activities and health businesses and groups getting involved. More details to come, but keep the date free- Sunday 23rd Movember 12-7pm. So what can you do? Want to get involved? Here's a few things you cam do to start with
  So only males can get involved? Absolutely not!
  Females can register as Mo Sistas and get involved, but the level of involvement for Mo Sistas is really up to up. If you have a male partner you can motivate them to get involved and support them. So you could draw a fake Mo on yourself, make or buy and wear a Mo themed tee shirt and help raise awareness and funds that way! If you have any other great ideas how a Mo Sista can get involved, let us know! May the Mo be with you! Stay Tuned! Fred Saleeba - Clinical Myotherapist What are Trigger PointsTrigger points are taut bands that can be found in every muscle in your body and are commonly referred to as ‘knots’. Trigger points are most commonly seen alongside pain and tension in the body. These are often caused by stress and injury to the muscle. Trigger points are commonly treated by ischemic compression and dry needling. When a muscle is in constant contraction trigger points form due to localised build up of tension. Some example of what causes this:
  PresentationTrigger points often can cause decreased range of motion, decreased strength & ‘achy’ pain in the muscle. This can present locally (where the trigger point is) or radiate elsewhere in the muscle or other parts of the body. This is known as referred pain. I’ll give you an example: trigger points in the muscle Levator Scapulae (the muscle joining the neck to the shoulder blade) predominately present locally (see image below) Whereas another muscle in the neck, known as Sternocleidomastoid, has trigger points that refer pain to various points in the head and neck but not in the muscle itself (see image below) Treating Trigger PointsTrigger Point Therapy Uses ischemic compression to release trigger point. Ischemia is the lack of blood flow to an area. Therefore ischemic compression temporarily restricts blood flow to the area in order to promote healing and blood flow and thus releases the trigger point. In trigger point therapy the practitioner simply compresses the trigger point with their thumb, finger or elbow until the trigger point release, which could take a few seconds or a few minutes. Dry Needling Is a treatment tool that is originally and primarily used to treat trigger point. Dry needling is not acupuncture, but simply uses the same tool- the needle. In trigger point dry needling the small, thin needle is placed straight into the trigger point and therefore releases the trigger point more directly. Self Treatment Techniques There are many tool out there these days that allow for self treatment of trigger points, although foam rollers and massage balls currently the most popular at the moment. They come in all shapes and sizes with and without spikes, but all aim to do the same thing- reduce tension and deactivate trigger points (more on this to come) Stay Tuned! Fred Saleeba – Clinical Myotherapist NB- This post have been reposted from my old wordpress blog and altered & updated! :) |