The human body has a miraculous ability to repair itself, but many of the muscular complaints we see at Muscle Freedom can actually be avoided with simple preventative measures. Here, we list the 3 most common muscular issues we treat and the steps to avoid them:

1) Forward Head Carriage

This is a common condition whereby people begin to resemble a giraffe, with their necks tilted forward. Every inch your neck extends forward puts an extra 4.5kg of weight on your neck, which can lead to chronic pain, numbness in the arms and hands, pinched nerves and even decreased breathing capacity. Common causes include poor posture at the computer and incorrect sleeping positions. To check if you’re morphing into a giraffe, stand against a wall and see if the back of your head touches the wall or is leaning forward. Your ear should be directly above your shoulder, rather than in front of it.

So, how do you prevent it?

* Strengthen your neck muscles with tailored exercises, such as chin retractions and shoulder blade squeezes. Talk to your therapist at Muscle Freedom for details.

* Make sure your work station is ergonomically sound. You can read more about this here.

* Avoid carrying bags on one arm.

* Move around frequently rather than sitting for long periods.

* Invest in a decent pillow. At Muscle Freedom, we custom-fit pillows to your body.

2) Anterior Pelvic Tilt

Say what? Basically, this is a fancy way of saying that your hip is tilted forward and your butt sticks out, and not in the attractive Kim Kardashian kind of way. Because this is a musculoskeletal issue, no amount of fat loss will get rid of the butt or gut issue.

So, how do you prevent it?

* Regularly stretch your hip flexors and quads.

* Walk. Walking strengthens the abdominals, obliques, hamstrings and glutes, while also stretching your quads and hip flexors.

* Be mindful of your posture.

3) Frozen Shoulder

Coming in at number 3 is the dreaded frozen shoulder, which involves chronic and painful stiffness of the shoulder joint. You know you’re a goner if it hurts when you move your shoulder and the range of motion starts to decrease. During the frozen stage, pain may subside, but the shoulder stiffens. Whatever you do, do not follow the advice of Elsa from Frozen and “let it go, let it go” until you “can’t hold it back anymore.” You need to get it sorted, pronto.

So, how do you prevent it?

* Use it or fuse it. In other words, avoid long periods of shoulder inactivity.

* Do regular range-of-motion exercises, such as pat-on-the-back stretches. Ask your Muscle Freedom therapist for advice.

* Shameless plug alert. Remedial massage can help prevent frozen shoulder from developing by loosening and hydrating the muscles around the joint and ensuring the capsule has full range-of-motion. Fear not, we’ve also had great success at Muscle Freedom in treating frozen shoulder once it has set in.

We hope you have been inspired to take some preventative measures to protect your muscles and health. If you need any further advice, please speak to one of our remedial massage therapists at Muscle Freedom.