Local Massage Therapist Gaining National Attention - SteinbachOnline.com

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"I screamed in joy."

A massage therapist from Steinbach had that reaction after learning that he was being featured in a national magazine.

Caleb Fenton is a registered sports massage therapist who practices out of Steinbach Chiropractic Clinic. Fenton says he spent six months researching, writing and editing an article for submission to Massage Therapy Canada. He then found out his article, "The Down 'Low' Of Lower Back Pain", had been selected to be the cover story in the fall edition. That edition just came out.

"It was overwhelming," says Fenton. "I was incredibly excited."

He notes it is a privilege to have this national magazine publish one of his articles, but it is a whole different experience to have it be the cover story.

According to Fenton, there are approximately 35,000 massage therapists in Canada. He notes Massage Therapy Canada is a publication that is read by his peers across the country. And, when word started to spread that the Steinbach therapist was being featured, he got praise from around the nation.

As mentioned, Fenton's article touches on lower back pain, providing therapists with some tools to properly assess their clients. In his article, Fenton is clear that he does not have a cure for lower back pain or even a new approach to treating it.

"My goal is to help understand how these conditions can present themselves and they may overlap in their symptom presentation. Then, approach your own expression in treating and rehabilitation exercise, in the hopes you'll make some change," writes Fenton.

The article touches on areas like muscular trigger points, lumbar sprain/ strain, lumbar facet syndromes, sacroiliac joint pain, lumbar instability and cluneal nerve entrapment vs mainge syndrome.

"It's basically just kind of breaking down some massage therapists likelihood of types of lower back discomfort that a client would experience," he says. "Because pain is completely subjective where someone might feel uncomfortable but what's causing that discomfort."

Fenton says on a daily basis he will treat a client that is dealing with some form of lower back issues. In some cases, the issues are very mild, but with other clients, it can be severe and debilitating to the point that walking becomes difficult.

Meanwhile, Fenton says he is not opposed to people opting for back surgery when that is the last resort. In the last decade, dozens of people from southern Manitoba have headed to Germany for disc replacement surgery. Fenton says when it comes to any surgery, therapists will always suggest that as the last option.


Twenty years of l...


"There's a lot more studies coming out there that I'm reading that indicates that sometimes surgery doesn't even need to take place," he says. "When it comes to lower back pain, and chronic lower back pain and disc surgeries, it's the last resort."

However, Fenton says he has heard many positive stories about back surgery in Germany. In fact, Fenton refers to the surgeries as "fantastic," noting he has treated some people who had chronic issues, went to Germany for surgery and are now back at work.

"But what I try to do is, what I educate people on is what got them there in the first place," he says. "It's not a major injury, it's not a massive trauma that's happened to the back, it's a slow degeneration."

Fenton says he then attempts to educate the client, trying to prevent them from needing surgery through exercise and rehabilitation.

Fenton says there is a chance a part two of this article will be published. He says it will take an in-depth look at neurological causes to lower back pain.