Health & Movement Assessment
Every treatment at That Muscle Guy begins with a thorough assessment — not a quick chat, but a structured clinical evaluation. Shaun will take a detailed health history, screen your movement patterns, and assess your posture, strength, and joint mechanics before a single treatment technique is applied. This is how we find what's actually driving your pain.
Assessment isn't a one-off box-ticking exercise. Movement is re-evaluated at each session to track progress objectively and adjust the treatment plan as your body responds. Most practitioners skip this step — we build everything on top of it.
- Comprehensive health history and symptom mapping
- Postural analysis and movement pattern screening
- Identifies the true cause, not just where it hurts
- Forms the foundation for every treatment decision
- Prevents unnecessary treatment on the wrong structures
- Ongoing re-assessment tracks real progress over time
The starting point for all treatment. We assess before we act.
Dry Needling
Dry needling uses thin, sterile monofilament needles inserted directly into trigger points — the hyperirritable, hypersensitive knots within muscle tissue that cause both local and referred pain. Unlike acupuncture, dry needling is grounded in Western anatomy and musculoskeletal science. It's one of the most effective tools available for resolving stubborn pain patterns that don't respond to hands-on therapy alone.
When the needle contacts a trigger point, a local twitch response occurs — a brief involuntary contraction that signals the muscle is releasing. This resets the muscle's resting tension, improves blood flow, and triggers the body's natural pain-modulation pathways. The result: faster, deeper relief than massage alone can achieve.
- Targets deep trigger points that manual therapy can't fully reach
- Reduces referred pain patterns (e.g. headaches from neck trigger points)
- Rapidly lowers resting muscle tension and improves range of motion
- Stimulates tissue repair via localised microtrauma response
- Highly effective for chronic neck pain, back pain, and sports injuries
- Combined with other modalities for accelerated outcomes
Sterile, evidence-based, and highly effective for chronic trigger point pain.
Electro Dry Needling
Electro dry needling builds on standard dry needling by connecting the inserted needles to a device that delivers a low-level electrical current. This electrical stimulation activates a deeper neurological response — enhancing the muscle-relaxing and pain-inhibiting effects of the needle itself. It's particularly effective for cases where standard dry needling alone isn't producing the depth or duration of relief needed.
The electrical current can be modulated to target either muscle (for spasm release) or nerve pathways (for pain modulation). This dual action makes electro dry needling a powerful option for complex, long-standing conditions where the nervous system has become sensitised to pain signals.
- Enhanced neurological pain modulation compared to standard dry needling
- Deeper muscle relaxation via sustained electrical stimulation
- Effective for chronic, sensitised pain conditions
- Promotes endorphin release through segmental and extrasegmental pathways
- Particularly useful for spinal pain, sciatica, and chronic tendinopathy
- Frequency and intensity fully controlled and adjusted to your comfort
Dry needling amplified with electrical current for deeper neurological effect.
Remedial & Relaxation Massage
This is not spa massage. Remedial massage at That Muscle Guy is a clinical, targeted soft-tissue intervention. Shaun applies deep tissue techniques — including myofascial release, cross-fibre friction, and passive stretching — to restore normal tissue mobility, improve local circulation, and accelerate recovery. Every technique has a purpose tied directly to your assessment findings.
Relaxation massage is also offered for those who need a genuine system reset — reduced cortisol, improved parasympathetic activation, and muscular recovery after high training loads. Even during a relaxation session, Shaun is assessing and noting what needs more targeted attention next visit.
- Deep tissue work targeted to assessment-identified areas of dysfunction
- Myofascial release to restore fascial glide and reduce tissue restriction
- Improves local blood flow and lymphatic drainage for faster recovery
- Reduces cortisol and supports parasympathetic nervous system recovery
- Effective for muscle soreness, tension, and post-training recovery
- Rebatable under most private health fund extras policies
Clinical soft-tissue therapy with intent — not generic table time.
Cupping Therapy
Myofascial decompression (cupping) works in the opposite direction to massage — instead of compressing tissue, suction cups lift and separate layers of skin, fascia, and muscle. This decompressive force breaks up adhesions, increases local blood flow, and facilitates the release of dense, restricted fascial tissue that hands-on pressure alone can't fully address.
At That Muscle Guy, cupping is used as part of a multi-modal approach — combined with dry needling and remedial massage for maximum tissue mobilisation. You'll likely see some discolouration (ecchymosis) after treatment, which is not bruising — it's blood being drawn to areas of poor circulation, a sign the tissue was under-perfused.
- Decompresses fascial adhesions that compression techniques can't reach
- Dramatically increases local blood flow and tissue oxygenation
- Effective for IT band, thoracic spine, and upper trapezius restriction
- Reduces chronic muscle tension and heaviness in dense tissue areas
- Popular with athletes for recovery between high training loads
- Combined with needling and massage for compounding effect
Lifts and separates tissue layers to break up deep adhesions and boost circulation.
Joint Mobilisation
Joint mobilisation uses passive, hands-on movement applied to a restricted joint to restore its normal range of motion and mechanics. Stiff, hypomobile joints are a common but overlooked cause of pain — when a joint can't move freely, the surrounding muscles compensate, overload, and eventually fail. Treating only the muscle without restoring joint mobility gets you halfway there at best.
Shaun uses graded joint mobilisation techniques (Maitland-based grading) applied to the spine, shoulder, hip, knee, ankle, and wrist — wherever restriction is identified in the assessment. This isn't manipulation or cracking; it's controlled, progressive joint movement that restores normal arthrokinematics and relieves associated muscular tension.
- Restores normal joint mechanics and arthrokinematic motion
- Relieves muscular overload caused by compensating for stiff joints
- Applied to spine, shoulder, hip, knee, ankle and wrist
- Graded techniques — gentle or deeper based on assessment findings
- Effective for post-injury stiffness and chronic joint restriction
- Reduces pain neurologically via joint mechanoreceptor stimulation
Restores joint mechanics so muscles stop compensating and overloading.
Trigger Point Therapy
Trigger points are discrete, hyperirritable spots within a muscle's taut band — they're tender under pressure, and when active, they refer pain to predictable remote areas. The classic example: a trigger point in the upper trapezius that causes a headache felt at the temple. Most people treat the headache; Shaun treats the trapezius trigger point causing it.
Manual trigger point therapy applies direct, sustained pressure to these spots — using thumbs, knuckles, or tools — to mechanically and neurologically release the point. This is the hands-on complement to dry needling, used when needles are not appropriate, or in combination to maximise trigger point resolution across a session.
- Resolves referred pain patterns at their source, not their symptom site
- Sustained manual pressure deactivates active trigger points
- Effective for headaches, neck pain, shoulder and hip referral patterns
- No needles required — appropriate for needle-averse clients
- Used in combination with dry needling for comprehensive trigger point resolution
- Immediate reduction in local tenderness and referred symptoms
Treat the source of referred pain — not where you feel it.
Nerve Mobilisation
The peripheral nervous system needs to be able to slide, glide, and move freely through surrounding tissue. When nerves become restricted — by tight muscles, fascial adhesions, or inflammatory tissue — they generate their own pain signals: burning, tingling, shooting, or electric sensations that don't respond well to standard soft-tissue treatment.
Neural mobilisation uses specific active and passive movements — nerve tensioners and nerve sliders — to restore the mechanical mobility of the nerve through its surrounding tissues. It's a cornerstone of managing sciatica, carpal tunnel syndrome, thoracic outlet syndrome, and any condition with clear neural tension signs on assessment.
- Restores free mechanical movement of restricted peripheral nerves
- Reduces neural tension pain: burning, tingling, shooting, electric sensations
- Effective for sciatica, carpal tunnel, ulnar nerve, and cervical radiculopathy
- Uses nerve sliders and tensioners calibrated to assessment findings
- Reduces inflammation at nerve entrapment sites
- Taught as a self-management technique for ongoing neural health
Restores free nerve movement to resolve burning, tingling, and shooting pain.
Exercise Rehabilitation
Targeted movements designed to reinforce the structural changes made during your session, build the strength that was missing, and correct the movement patterns that caused the problem in the first place.
Exercise prescription is not generic. It's based on your assessment findings, your training background, your equipment availability, and your goals. A marathon runner's programme looks nothing like a desk worker's. That's the point. This is how treatment stops being a cycle and starts being a solution.
- Personalised to your assessment, history, and training background
- Addresses the strength and movement deficits driving your injury
- Prevents recurrence — stops the same injury returning in 6 months
- Progressive loading protocols for tendons, muscles, and joints
- Builds on each session — programme evolves as you improve
- Delivered digitally with clear video demonstrations where needed
Personalised programmes that make treatment stick — permanently.