Dr Jarryd Crisp says the best thing about being an Osteopath is ‘being able to help patients get back to what they love doing’.
Jarryd and the team at Western Region Health take a holistic approach to treatment, including a focus on what they call the ‘emotional event’ for each patient.
‘For example, a truck driver who can’t do their job because of low back pain,’ Jarryd explains. ‘Or a parent who can’t pick up their baby because of shoulder pain.’
Jarryd loves his work as an Osteopath, but perhaps his most enduring love affair has been with the game of cricket. But as the song goes, ‘love hurts’ – and sadly his passion for cricket led to severe low back pain in his late teens and early 20s.
‘I was probably overtraining at the time and not doing a lot of flexibility work,’ he says. ‘I remember severe episodes of painful muscle spasms, triggered by bending movements.’
‘It was very much a mechanical thing.’
Jarryd kept playing despite the pain, but says he built up ‘a lot of apprehension around some movements.’ His condition eventually progressed to chronic low back and neck pain, with possibly related headaches and migraines.
His last game of competitive cricket was just before the pandemic hit in early 2020. For a variety of reasons, including back and neck pain and work commitments, it looked like the long love affair with cricket was over.
For many people affected by back or neck pain, a fear of particular movements leads to a vicious cycle of de-conditioning and strength imbalances.
Jarryd says that guarding his movement and apprehension about strength training over a long period had resulted in ‘a low baseline of strength’.
Fortunately, a year ago Western Region Health Director and Osteopath Dr Jade Scott began investigating new treatment approaches for headache and migraine. She asked Jarryd to research the getback spinal exercise therapy devices for headache and migraine management.
‘Partly because of my own experience, headache and migraine management is one of my areas of interest at the clinic,’ Jarryd says.
‘Jade wanted to get my opinion on the devices and how they could help patients with neck pain and headaches.’
A key focus of osteopathic treatment is to facilitate and enhance the body’s self-healing mechanisms. Jarryd says that ‘deep down, I always knew the importance of the exercise rehabilitation component.’
‘But I wanted to trial a getback exercise therapy program myself, so I could truthfully and genuinely say to my patients, this is how it works.”’
After four months of his personalised getback program, Jarryd’s first-hand experience of device-based exercise therapy had led to several insights.
One of the most important was how the devices’ enhanced bio-mechanical design gives patients with chronic pain the confidence to move again.
‘That’s where these devices are so good,’ he says. ‘Because you don’t feel any strain.’
‘It feels almost effortless at times. At the start it does feel like you’re not doing much, but you see the results over time.’
‘I had a reassessment after 12 sessions, and there was significant improvement in my range of motion and strength measurements.’
‘I’ve noticed a difference in how I’m moving, and my strength and stability, especially in my lower back and neck.’
‘There’s also been a reduction in pain in the lower back and the neck and shoulder area.’
Jarryd stressed the benefits of supervision from qualified Physiotherapists and Exercise Physiologists, particularly in guiding him through segmental movement techniques on the exercise devices.
‘Natasha, Geoff and Sean have all helped to guide me through movement techniques on the devices,’ he said.
‘At the start I wasn’t aware of the need to move segmentally to activate the muscles supporting the vertebra.’
‘Once you get that education and understand how the body should be moving, you get better at using the devices.’
‘Over the last 5 to 10 sessions I’m starting to move more segmentally instead of block-like, and I can feel the difference it makes.’
The icing on the cake is that Jarryd has decided he is ready to rekindle his love affair with cricket.
‘I’ve been back in training to play for Coburg in the Subdistrict Cricket Association,’ he said.
‘I made up my mind about two months ago and training on the getback devices will have real benefits while I’m getting back into cricket.’
Jarryd also appreciates the alignment between getback’s approach to preventative health and Osteopathy, particularly for patients who may not have exercised for a long time.
‘It’s very similar, that preventative, proactive care for your general health,’ he said.
‘It keeps you moving, it keeps you playing sport, it keeps you able to look after your kids.’
‘I think it ties in really well with what we preach and how we educate our patients.’
And for Jarryd, getting back on the cricket field will certainly be an ‘emotional event’.
