If you’re starting a new training programme, about to amp up your training for an event, or just want to get a sense of what your muscles are feeling like as part of your new year’s goals, an MOT may be perfect for you.

Choose from a:

• runner’s MOT,
• cyclist MOT,
• triathlete MOT,
• deskworker’s MOT,
• a mover’s MOT, or
• general MOT.

When you book the ‘plus report’ option you’ll have a record of what was covered in the session to make sure you don’t forget what we found & what your home care was.

What Is an MOT Massage?

An MOT massage is an hour or 90-minute session to check the general state of the muscles you’ll be using while you’re training or that you use day-to-day.

While with other sessions we may focus solely on one specific problem (i.e. right shoulder pain), in an MOT session we try to cover as much of the related areas as possible.

This gives you a fuller picture of where your muscles are tight and overworked and/or of any imbalances in muscle tone or tension. Armed with this information, you can adjust your stretching routine or check your technique to help you improve and hopefully prevent injury.

Here’s what’s included in every MOT:

• review of the type of MOT you’ve booked – whether it’s for an event you’re training for, a specific type of exercise, or day to day overuse & therefore where we’ll focus on
• posture & movement assessments
• a summary of the muscles we’ll be checking
• running commentary of what the therapist is finding as he or she works,
• an explanation of the most common causes of the tension and imbalances they’re finding
• 1-2 home care exercise, stretch or adjustment & a strategy on how to fit it in to your already-hectic life
• an emailed report within 48 working hours (if you choose an MOT+report) with everything we covered in the session and links for further reading.

If you’d like to book one now, click here to book online, or call 020 8185 7364 and just ask for either ‘an *insert name of MOT here* MOT’ or ‘an MOT + report’.

Why a Report?

You may be wondering ‘why do you offer the option of a report?’

After doing this for a few years, we realised that clients often walked out remembering only a small percentage of what we told them.

We want you to get the most benefit possible from our sessions, so we created a report that clients can receive as part of their MOT.

This report includes what we found, possible underlying causes, the home care we recommended, and often links for further reading.

We’ve found when clients get the report with their MOT, they stick with their home care more consistently and generally have longer-lasting results from our sessions.

If you’d like a better idea of what’s included in an MOT, here are two sample MOT sessions:

Sample MOT Massage Session for a Runner (aka Sports-Related MOT)

Let’s say you’re a runner.

You’ve taken it a bit easy recently but you’ll be starting to train for an event and increasing your mileage.

We start the session checking your posture – your hips may be forward of your ankles, indicating hamstring tension.

Or perhaps one of your feet is turned out, indicating tension in the side of the lower leg or muscles in the back of your hip. We’ll get an idea of your training program, including any non-running activities you do.

Once you’re on the table, we’ll cover the basics: quads, hams, calves, ITB’s, achilles, glutes.

Some runners get lower back pain or neck and shoulder pain while they run. If that’s you we’ll try to check that as well.

What We Might Find

Did you know most runners (and cyclists, for that matter) don’t use their legs equally?

Often one leg is tighter than the other, which can lead to fatigue, soreness, or even injury on that side. If we find this is the case for you, we’ll let you know and you can keep an eye on your running style and make sure you stretch out your ‘lead’ side.

Usually with runners, one set of glutes isn’t activated as well as it should, and as a result their quads, hamstrings, and/or ITB are tighter from compensation.

It’s also possible that your stretching, conditioning, and technique are excellent. If we don’t feel any significant tension we’ll let you know.

On the other hand, just because you’re not feeling a problem doesn’t mean an MOT might not be useful to you – we’ve had quite a few runners (and triathletes, and cyclists, and footballers, and badminton players, and cricket bowlers) who came in just because they heard sports massage was good generally, and walked out feeling lighter, looser, and reporting better results with less effort at subsequent training sessions.

Sample MOT Massage for the Office / Desk / Computer Worker (aka Occupational MOT)

You may not realise how much sitting in one place for an extended period of time can fatigue/tighten up your muscles.

They sit, frozen, holding you up for hours on end, usually not in an optimal position.

Muscles in a shortened state become tight, while stretched, overworked muscles become strained.

The stiffness slowly translates into restriction, until one day your shoulder hurts putting on your shirt, or turning your head produces a sharp pain in your neck.

The MOT session for the desk/computer/office worker is about nipping this in the bud.

People who spend a long time at a desk often develop a semi-permanent hunch, with shoulders rounded forward and head slightly in front of shoulders.

We also get an understanding of your regular day-to-day activities, even if that is just 10 hours at a desk.

Usually office workers need focus on the upper body and back, so an MOT session for you would include tops and backs of shoulders, upper and lower back, chest (as in, pectorals), neck and base of the head.

We also like to check for tight forearms and stiff hands/wrists (RSI anyone?). Again, we will tell you as we go, what’s tighter, what’s looser, and how things compare from one side to the other.

Hopefully after your MOT you’ll have a better understanding of what your muscles are doing while you’re stationery and a few simple fixes to make it easier to ward off later problems.

In addition to office workers, we’ve found ‘occupational’ MOT’s can be helpful to teachers, those in the construction industry, students, jewellers, and cleaners, to name a few. Any sort of work that is repetitive, or requires holding yourself in one position for a prolonged period of time, can cause an imbalance in the muscles, which is where the occupational MOT massage comes in.

Other MOT Massages

These are just two examples of MOT sessions.

An MOT can be useful for anyone who wants to see how their muscles are doing.

For example, when people have recently moved house, a movers’ MOT can help them get rid of muscle tension built up from moving boxes and carrying heavy furniture up and down stairs (not to mention the stress from the move itself!).

A cyclists MOT is similar to a runners, but we also take into account the slightly different strain on the upper body from your arms holding on to the handlebars.

You can have an MOT every once in a while to check in, or you can make it a regular thing and turn it into a maintenance massage.

If you would like more information about an MOT massage for yourself we are happy to provide information specific to you. Just get in touch using your preferred contact method and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

Prices/How to Book an MOT

The prices for an hour or 90-min MOT without a report is as per our 60/90 minutes SRMT sessions, and a bit more for the MOT+report which you can find on our fees page here.

To book an MOT, you can call our booking line Mon-Fri 8:30-6 on 020 8185 7364 and request a 60 or 90 minute MOT, or book a 60 or 90 minute session online and add the note ‘MOT’ when booking.