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Is Your Body Ready to Exercise Again? Returning to Movement Later in Life

Thinking about getting back into exercise after some time away? Maybe you’ve recently joined a new yoga or Pilates class, started walking more regularly, or picked up light strength training. No matter where you're starting from, making the decision to move more is a fantastic step for your long-term health, mobility, and wellbeing.But if you're noticing a few more aches and pains than you expected, or wondering whether your body is ready for this new level of activity, you're not alone. We se...

Why skipping your warm-up is holding you back and risking injury

Are you someone who hits the gym, the pitch, or the pavement regularly but skips their warm-ups? If so, you’re not alone. Many active people either aren’t sure what a good warm-up looks like, or don’t realise just how important it is. But in reality, a proper warm-up is one of the easiest ways to boost performance, prevent injury, and feel better after every session.Think of your muscles like elastic bands. They lengthen and hold a lot of potential energy, but what happens to cold rubber w...

Summer Homeopathic Remedies

Summer in New Zealand is glorious long beach days, tramping adventures, backyard BBQs, and holiday road trips. But with all that outdoor activity, sun exposure, and seasonal celebration comes the inevitable bumps, burns, bites, and digestive upsets that can derail your summer fun. A homeopathic first aid kit is your natural, gentle companion for handling these common summer mishaps and is ideal for first aid situations. Homeopathy is lightweight, stable in heat, won't interfere with medications ...

Finding Balance This Summer Holiday Season

The holiday period brings long, bright days, warm weather, and plenty of social activity. And it can also place extra load on your nervous system. Even positive stress (travel, organising events, being around more people, disrupted routines) can shift the body toward a more activated, fight or flight -state. This often shows up as muscle tension, headaches, poor sleep, digestive discomfort, or that sense of being “wired but tired” and not able to relax.The good news is that small, gentle pra...

Understanding Pain and How Osteopathy Can Help

By Emma WinnPain is more than just a physical sensation — it’s a complex experience involving your body, brain, and emotions. Acute pain is your body’s warning signal and a way of protecting you, but chronic pain can persist even after tissues have healed. This happens when the nervous system becomes more sensitive, sometimes creating discomfort or flare-ups without ongoing tissue damage. Pain is personal and influenced by many factors, including stress, movement habits, and lifestyle.Oste...

Living with Chronic Pain: How Osteopathy Can Help You Regain Control

Chronic pain is a personal and often invisible struggle. It can affect every aspect of life, from your ability to work and exercise to your mood, relationships, and overall quality of life. Whether it’s persistent neck or back pain, headaches, joint discomfort, or ongoing muscle tension, the impact can be exhausting, frustrating, and, at times, overwhelming.One highly effective, drug-free approach to managing chronic pain is osteopathy. Osteopathy is a hands-on therapy that takes a whole-body ...

Visiting an Osteopath for Concussion Recovery; What Happens on a Visit

So you’ve hit your head, seen your GP, and received a concussion diagnosis. Now what?The most important next step is to see a concussion professional as soon as possible. Early assessment and rehabilitation have been shown to greatly improve the chances of a smooth, faster recovery. The sooner you start, the sooner you can return to doing the things you love.What to Expect at Your VisitsYour recovery journey will depend on how long it’s been since your injury.
If it’s been less than a we...

Concussion Recovery: Building on the Right Foundations

Besides all the exciting tests and exercises you may get, there are a few very basic things that can be invaluable to do for your concussion recovery.As with anything, getting the foundation right is key to building on it and ensuring you reach your goals — and stay there. Here’s a Concussion Recovery Pyramid (from Complete Concussions and The Concussion Fix) that helps to understand how the building blocks of recovery are organised....

Persistent Concussion Symptoms (PCS)

I recently wrote an article about what happens in a concussion when you first get one. You can read the article by clicking, here. To recap, the damage is functional with very little, if any, structural damage to the brain, and that functional deficit heals in ca 22-30 days. So why do some people still have symptoms beyond that period?Well, the consequences of the metabolic cascades that happen in the body sometimes last longer than the issues in the brain itself. So the secondary affects c...

Concussion - The Basics

What is a concussionConcussion is a temporary functional dysfunction in the brain cells.                                There is very little, if any, structural damage to the brain.What happens in a concussionThe functional dysfunction happens as a result of stretching and shearing in the brain cells. It was thought that the brain got damaged due to coup - countercoup injury, meaning that the brain was sloshing aroun...

Sinus Blockage, Facial Pain, and Headaches

Sinus infections and upper respiratory infections are a common but often underestimated cause of facial pain and headaches. When the sinuses become inflamed, either due to a viral, bacterial, or even fungal infection, the delicate drainage pathways can become blocked. This leads to a buildup of pressure, resulting in the dull, throbbing discomfort many people feel in the cheeks, forehead, or behind the eyes.The sinuses are air-filled cavities in the skull that are lined with mucous membranes. Th...

Managing Menopause with Osteopathy: More Than Just Hot Flushes

When most people think of menopause, the common symptoms that come to mind; hot flushes, night sweats, mood swings, and brain fog. These well-known effects are primarily the result of hormonal fluctuations, particularly declining estrogen and progesterone levels. However, what is less commonly discussed are the significant musculoskeletal changes that also occur during this time.Studies show that up to 71% of perimenopausal women experience musculoskeletal pain, often due to hormonal changes aff...

The Body as an Instrument: How Osteopathy Supports Ballet and Contemporary Dancers

Finding freedom in the body that works so hard to contain it.The dancer’s body is a cathedral built on bruises. Every plié is a prayer to gravity, every leap a small act of rebellion against it. Beneath the lights and silk and discipline lies something raw; tendons that ache like confession, joints that creak like the floorboards of an old stage. To watch a dancer move is to see control masquerading as freedom; to treat one is to listen to the whispers underneath the performance.In the quiet ...

How to keep mobile and supple as you get older

At around forty to fifty years of age, we usually notice our joints getting stiffer and muscles tighter. Things we could do easily at twenty, can become an effort and without a wise approach, the risk of injury increases.As a Registered Osteopath, I often hear “Oh it's just me getting older” from patients. However, have you stopped to think if that is really the case? It is true that our tissues lose some elasticity with the increasing loss of collagen as we head beyond forty, however resear...

The Savage Ballet of Ageing Bones: Mobility, Decay, and the Fight to Keep Moving

Somewhere around the age of forty, the wheels start to come off. Subtle at first: the morning stiffness, the hip that clicks like a broken metronome, the knees that howl with the savage joy of your youth’s forgotten crimes. Then suddenly, you’re staring down the barrel of fifty or sixty, and your body has become a grotesque carnival of creaks, groans, and mutinous cartilage. Friends, half-strangers, and even medical professionals will affix the expression of sympathetic relatability and tell...

What is Hypermobility? What You Can Do To Feel Better

What is hypermobility Hypermobility is a connective tissue disorder where a person's ligaments and other connective tissue is looser or more elastic than usual. This means the person’s joints can move more freely or bend further than what is considered typical. This allows joints, like knees, elbows, fingers, or shoulders, to stretch beyond the normal range of motion. Some people are naturally more flexible and may not even notice they’re hypermobile. Some people are affected in only a few j...

The Knee–Core Connection: An Osteopathic View on Injury, Integration, and Stability

The Knee–Core Connection: An Osteopathic View on Injury, Integration, and StabilityIn osteopathy, one of our core approaches to treatment is that the body is a unit; no structure works in isolation, and when one part suffers, the entire system compensates. This principle becomes especially clear in the case of knee and other lower limb injuries and their impact on overall stability and function.While a knee injury is often seen as a localised event—perhaps involving a ligament strain, menisc...

Understanding The Hidden Causes Of Knee Pain

Knee pain is one of the most common complaints seen in Osteopathic clinics.Whether it’s a dull ache when walking downstairs, sharp pain during sport, or discomfort after long periods of sitting, it’s common to assume the knee itself is the problem. Although often, it’s not that simple.Osteopaths understand that the source of pain may not always come from where you feel it. This is especially important to consider for the knee, an area that is often the victim of a dysfunction elsewhere, su...

Alleviate stress: How the Alexander Technique helps you to manage the demands of daily life

What is stress?Stress can be defined as any type of change that causes physical, emotional, or mental strain. Stress is your body response to anything that requires attention or action. Everyone experiences stress to some degree. The way you respond to stress, however, makes a big difference to your overall mental and physical well-being.Sometimes, the best way to manage your stress involves changing your situation. At other times, the best strategy involves changing the way you respond to the s...

Shoulder impingement, what is it and how can I fix it?

What is shoulder impingement?Shoulder impingement happens when soft tissues in your shoulder get pinched, usually when you raise your arm. This can cause pain, especially with overhead movements like reaching, lifting, or throwing.A Simple Look at the AnatomyYour shoulder is the most mobile joint in your body. It’s where your upper arm bone (humerus) connects to your shoulder blade (scapula), forming what’s called the glenohumeral joint.Above this joint is a bony part of the shoulder blade c...

ACT- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

ACT: A new approach to freedom from anxiety, pressure & self-doubt.ACT can help you move forward without needing to have it all figured out.Let’s be honest: trying to always stay positive or manage your mindset can feel like another full-time job. Especially when your mind is constantly:Overthinking every decisionPlaying the ‘what if’ gameHolding you back with fear, perfectionism or self-doubtYou want to live with more ease, purpose, and emotional balance but nothing seems to stick, or...

Preventative Osteopathic Care: Supporting Health Before Problems Arise

Did you know that you can come to an osteopath not only to treat issues, but to prevent problems? Many of the concerns we treat as osteopaths develop over time, creating compensations that eventually lead to the symptoms that prompt people to go and see an osteopath.  Preventative osteopathic care can be defined as regular osteopathic treatments that are aimed at maintaining optimal function in the body and preventing dysfunction. Having regular check ups with your osteopath can preve...

How Osteopathy Can Help You Avoid Surgery: A Holistic Alternative to Invasive Treatments

You may have been recommended surgery to resolve a musculoskeletal issue—but surgery isn’t always the only option. Sometimes, it’s worth seeing whether a more conservative, holistic approach could suit your situation and needs better.Osteopaths often see patients looking for less invasive, more natural ways to manage pain and improve function. Osteopathy offers a hands-on, whole-body approach that can often reduce or even eliminate the need for surgery.Osteopathy doesn't just treat symptom...

Gentle Osteopathic Care for Families in Wellington

Supporting Mums, Babies & Children with Compassionate, Expert CareAt City Osteopaths Wellington, we specialise in providing gentle, effective osteopathic care for families. Our experienced team is dedicated to supporting pregnant women, newborns, and children through every stage of growth and development. Whether you're seeking relief from back pain during pregnancy or looking to help your unsettled baby find comfort, we're here to assist you with care and expertise.Why Choose Osteopathy for...

Role of Osteopathy in Managing Cumulative Load

Cumulative load refers to the total mechanical stress experienced by a joint or tissue over time, particularly during activities such as running or lifting. Understanding cumulative load is essential for preventing injuries, especially in athletes and active individuals. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of monitoring cumulative load to mitigate the risk of overuse injuries, which can arise from both excessive training and improper biomechanics [1-2].Understanding cumulative loadCum...