An essential skill for a physio is detecting the root cause of pain.

This is not always obvious, as pain is often referred.

Take the case of a lorry driver who came to PhysioExtra with severe sciatic problems.

He had already seen a series of physiotherapists and an osteopath.

After examining the patient Leon admitted that he couldn’t offer him any more treatment than he had already received from the seven other physiotherapists had seen.

But then he noticed that the patient wore quite tight jeans and carried a wallet in the back pocket.

The lorry driver said that yes, he did sit on the wallet while driving long-distance.

Leon advised him not to.

A week later the patient called Leon: “You’re a miracle-worker. The pain’s completely gone!”

Another patient came to Leon with a locked right knee. The cause turned out to be a corn on the little toe on the left foot. This was causing the patient to shift their weight onto their right leg, resulting in the muscles being overloaded in the thigh.

A bit of rolling out the ITB band and the removal of the offending corn soon cured the patient.