Patrick Esson Osteopathy

Patrick Esson Osteopathy Patrick Esson Osteopathy offers high quality osteopathic treatment and injury rehabilitation.

08/07/2026

Hands up 🙋🏻‍♂️ if you’ve got some rehab to do right now?

I do, I’ve got some plantar fascia pain and a grumbly patella tendon 🙄 so I’ve set myself some rehab.

Ideally I like to get it done first thing in the morning before breakfast, or between patients at clinic but life doesn’t always allow it. So I’ve got to be adaptable, that meant today getting some reps in whilst I cooked dinner 👨🏻‍🍳

The key 🔑 is consistency, not perfection. If you expect results from your rehab but are always chasing perfection at the expense of just regularly getting it done you’ll come unstuck.

If your rehab lacks consistency or has no room for adaptation DM me HELP now and let’s change that.


06/07/2026

If you’ve ever struggled with knee pain and not known where it’s actually coming from, this will help. 

Because knee pain is one of those things that looks straightforward on the surface. 

But it isn’t. 

The knee sits between the hip and the ankle. Which means what’s happening above and below it affects it constantly. A stiff hip or ankle. A weak glute or calf. All can impact the knee negatively. 

The knee ends up paying the price for problems it didn’t cause.
 
That’s why a proper assessment doesn’t just look at the knee. 

It looks at how you move. How you load. Where the weakness actually is. Whether the pain is coming from the joint itself, the tendons around it, the structures inside it, or something further up the chain entirely. 

What you see in this clip is just part of that process. 

Range of movement. Strength testing. How the knee behaves under various loads. How the hip and ankle are contributing. Building a picture of what’s actually going on - not just where it hurts. 

That picture is what the rehab plan then gets built around. 

Treat the knee in isolation and you’ll often end up back in the same place. Find the actual cause and you’ve got something to work with. 

If your knee has been giving you problems and you’re not sure what’s driving it - comment KNEE below and I’ll reach out.  

02/07/2026

If you’ve ever struggled with an ankle that’s never quite felt the same since you sprained it, this will help. 

A couple of weeks ago I talked about what happens when ankle sprains aren’t rehabbed properly. 

So, this is what proper rehab actually looks like. 

⚫️ Get the swelling and range of movement back first 📐 This should be the initial focus, the ankle needs to move freely and the swelling needs to settle. Pushing excessive strength work too early, before this is sorted, can slow everything down. 

⚫️ Rebuild strength through the full range 💪🏼 You’ve gone to the effort of restoring range of motion, so use it. Calf raises should cover the full movement of the joint (break each component down and build the full ROM back up), and resisted ankle work needs to be included in multiple directions. Building strength through the full range of the ankle and multi-dimensionally is needed for sprinting, cutting, and contact. 

⚫️ Retrain balance and proprioception ⚖️ This is the bit that often gets skipped. Progressing single leg balance work beyond standing on one leg while you brush your teeth is crucial. This is what rebuilds your ankle’s ability to react under pressure. 

⚫️ Reintroduce sport-specific movement gradually ⚽️ Straight line running first. Then change of direction. Then the sharp cuts and contact situations your sport actually demands. Each stage should be earned, not rushed. 

⚫️ Test before you return 🔜 Hop tests, strength comparisons side to side, movement quality under fatigue. Not “does it feel okay” but actual criteria that tells you it’s ready. 

Skip any of these stages and that “never quite right” feeling tends to stick around. 

Message me ANKLE if your ankle’s never been the same - it’s not too late to actually fix it. 

30/06/2026

4 ways soft tissue work actually helps athletes beyond just “feeling good.” 

Because most people think of it as a treat. Something nice to do after a hard week. 

But it’s more useful than that. 

1️⃣ It helps identify problems early 📍 Hands-on work provides another opportunity to feedback how you’re feeling. It can highlight areas you hadn’t noticed were sensitive and give you a head start in addressing them. Often before it turns into something that actually stops you training. 

2️⃣ It can help speed up recovery between sessions ❤️‍🩹 Soft tissue work can help reduce muscle tension and support recovery when training load is high. It’s not a replacement for resting, eating well, sleeping and keeping hydrated but can form a useful part of managing a heavy block. 

3️⃣ It improves how tissue responds to training 🏃‍♂️Tight, sore, or restricted tissue doesn’t move well under load. Soft tissue work can improve range of movement and how efficiently your body handles training,  which matters for performance, not just comfort. 

4️⃣ It’s part of injury management, not separate from it 🤝 Soft tissue work shouldn’t standalone. It works alongside a proper diagnosis, a rehab plan, and load management. Exercise plus hands-on treatment is the combination that actually gets people better. 

It’s never just a rub down. There’s a reason for everything. 

Which one of these did you not know? Drop a comment. 

23/06/2026

If you’ve ever struggled to know when you’re actually ready to return to running after a knee injury - this will help. 

Because “it feels okay” isn’t meeting a criteria. It’s a guess. 

Before we even think about running, there are boxes that need ticking ✅

Full range of movement, or as close to it as possible. No significant swelling after loading. Strength within roughly 10% of the other leg. And the ability to walk with normal gait and pain free, and then to do lower body resistance training, without a reaction the following day. 

Only then does running come into the picture 🏃‍♂️ 

And when it does, it’s not straight back to full pace. Not even close. 

It starts with straight line jogging. Low intensity, short duration, flat surface. Then we assess. How did the knee respond? Any swelling? Any pain during or after? If it tolerates that well, we progress. 
Gradual increases in distance and pace come next. Then change of direction. Then sharper angles and rapid changes in speed. Curved running, accelerations, decelerations, and cutting, movements that start to replicate what actually happens in a match. 

Each stage has to be earned. 

The video shows exactly where this athlete is right now - running drills, accelerations, curved linear running. Months of work to get here. But every milestone earned. 

This is what return to sport actually looks like when it’s done properly. 

Not a date on a calendar. A standard to reach 📈
 
Save this if you’re working through a knee injury - or share it with someone who is. Dm me KNEE if this is something you need help with. 

18/06/2026

“I’m just going to rest it for a few more week”
You might start to feel better but you’re risking just ending up where you stayed again. DM me REHAB and let’s not let June’s problem still be July’s injury.

17/06/2026

5 things that happen when you don’t rehab an ankle sprain properly.

Because ankle sprains are probably the most under-rehabbed injury in sport.

They’re seen as minor. You rest it, the swelling goes down, you walk normally again — and that feels like job done.

It isn’t.

1️⃣ You lose proprioception
Proprioception is your ankle’s ability to sense where it is in space and react to it. A sprain damages the nerves that make that happen. Without specific rehab, that deficit stays. Your ankle becomes less reliable, especially on uneven ground or under fatigue.

2️⃣ The weakness remains
Swelling gone doesn’t mean strength back. The muscles around the ankle need to be retrained to stabilise properly. Skip that and you’ve got a structurally intact joint that can’t actually do its job.

3️⃣ You change how you move without realising
Your body protects the ankle subconsciously. You shift load elsewhere. Over time that compensation can show up somewhere else - the knee, the hip, the calf. And you end up with a new problem that started with an old ankle sprain.

4️⃣ Your re-injury risk stays high
A previous ankle sprain is the single biggest risk factor for another one. Your next ankle injury isn’t bad luck but because of incomplete rehab.

5️⃣ It becomes a long-term issue
Repeated sprains lead to chronic instability. The kind that limits training, affects performance, and eventually becomes a much bigger conversation.

If you’ve “done your ankle” more than once message me ANKLE and let’s talk about preventing your next ankle injury.

16/06/2026

❌ Don’t do these things if you want your shoulder to actually recover from a rugby injury. 

If your shoulder has been niggling and you keep hoping it’ll sort itself out - it probably won’t. 

💾 Save this. 

And drop a comment if any of that sounds familiar - I read every one. 

10/06/2026

If you’ve ever struggled with groin or hip flexor pain as a sprinter ➡️ this will help. 

Because this is one of the most frustrating injury areas to manage. 

It flares in sprint sessions. It eases off with rest. Then the moment you push hard again, it’s back. 

And because it’s not dramatic, it’s easy to ignore. Until it becomes something you can’t. 

Here’s what you need to know. 

Hip flexor tightness is usually a load problem, not a flexibility problem 🏋️Stretching it constantly feels productive. But if the muscle is reacting to load it can’t handle, more stretching won’t fix it. Strength work will. 

Groin pain in sprinters is rarely just one structure 🤔 The adductors, the hip flexors, the lower abdominals they all work together in the drive phase. Pain in the groin area needs a proper assessment to understand which part is actually struggling and why. 

It gets worse if you train through the sharp stuff 🏃‍♂️ A dull ache during warm-up that settles, probably manageable, monitor it. Sharp pain during acceleration or max velocity ❌ stop. Those are different signals and they need different responses. 

Coming back too fast is how this becomes chronic ⌛️ Groin and hip flexor injuries have a habit of becoming long-term problems when they’re not rehabbed properly. The short-term fix is rarely the full fix. 
 
Save this - and share it with a sprinter who needs it. 

Fantastic week in Finland a privilege to be supporting a group of incredibly talented athletes and working with an awes...
17/07/2023

Fantastic week in Finland a privilege to be supporting a group of incredibly talented athletes and working with an awesome coaching and medical team!

Address

Ash Grove, Weedon Lane
Amersham
HP65QU

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 8pm
Tuesday 8am - 10pm
Wednesday 9am - 12pm
Thursday 9am - 8pm
Friday 3pm - 8pm
Saturday 9am - 2pm

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+447935056608

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