Liaqat Ali

Honest, genuine treatment from someone who actually wants to help.

Muscle Medicine is a one-person practice, and that is deliberate. You see me every time — the same person who assessed you in the first session is the one treating you in the sixth, so nothing gets lost between appointments.

Background

I have been treating clients for 8 years, qualified to ITEC Level 4 with medical acupuncture on top.

Before and alongside that, I have spent ten years in weightlifting and powerlifting, and ten years in MMA and grappling. That matters more than it might sound. I have had the injuries I treat — the shoulder that will not sit right after a hard roll, the lower back that complains after a heavy session, the hips that stop rotating properly. When you describe what happened, I generally do not need it explained twice.

It is also why the event work is fight nights and tournaments. I know what a competitor needs ten minutes before they walk out, and what they need afterwards.

How I work

Assessment first, always. Pain is often felt somewhere other than the place causing it, and treating the sore spot without understanding why it got sore is how problems keep coming back. Your first session includes a full assessment and consultation, and you leave knowing what is actually going on and what the plan is.

After that it is hands-on treatment matched to the problem — sports massage, soft tissue work, joint mobilisation, medical acupuncture or cupping, whichever suits — plus the exercises that make the results hold. Treatment alone rarely lasts if the pattern that caused the problem is still there.

Who I see

Genuinely mixed: professional and amateur athletes, people who spend all day at a desk, and people who simply have a body that hurts and want it to stop. Most of what comes through the door is lower back pain and shoulder pain.

You do not need to play a sport to book. "Sports massage" describes the technique, not the clientele.