Balance Integrative Bodywork

Category: Remedial Massage

  • Your Body’s Balancing Act: The Bird Dog

    Your Body’s Balancing Act: The Bird Dog

    I see lower back pain almost every day in the clinic.

    In fact, around 1 in 6 Australians were reported to have chronic back problems in 2014–15. I’ve been one of them, so I know that cycle of guarding and worrying. 

    There’s a great Aussie pain scientist named Lorimer Moseley who talks about how pain can be the body’s protective response.

    When my back was at its worst, the mental weight of it made the physical tightness feel so much sharper.

    But we can actually work on building confidence in movement. We can do a lot before giving up, and for me, it starts with building confidence in my stability.

    Why the Bird Dog?

    It’s not about getting a six-pack, but it is a great way to challenge your core and trunk stability. Instead of crunching, your muscles are working quietly to keep you stable while your arms and legs move.

    The Bird Dog teaches the body to coordinate the upper and lower body through a diagonal pattern. When you reach your opposite arm and leg, your trunk has to work to keep your pelvis and spine controlled.

    For me, that’s the interesting part: your limbs are moving while your middle stays relatively quiet.

    How to set it up:

    Get on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Think of your back as a sturdy, level tabletop.

    • 1. The Arms: Make a fist and reach one arm forward, roughly level with your shoulder. Keep your torso from rotating or leaning as you reach. Bring it back and try the other side.
    • 2. The Legs: Slide one foot back and reach the leg away from you, keeping your hips level. Think about lengthening through the heel rather than lifting the leg as high as possible.
    • 3. The Reach: If you feel steady, join the two movements together and reach the opposite arm and leg at the same time.

    The Priority

    Your only job here is to imagine a level bowl of water resting on your lower back and move your limbs without spilling a single drop.

    The movement should come mainly from the hips and shoulders while your middle stays controlled.

    If you feel a wobble, just make the movement smaller. A tiny, controlled reach is way better than a big, clunky one.

    And watch that you don’t lift your heel too high towards the ceiling. The goal isn’t to get your leg as high as possible — it’s to maintain control through your pelvis and lower back while you move.

    It’s a simple move, but it’s one of my favourites for getting the whole body communicating as a single unit again.

    If you are dealing with that frustrating cycle of back pain and stiffness, sometimes your body needs a bit of hands-on help to break the cycle.

    In a remedial massage session, we can look at how your body is moving, identify areas where muscles are holding tension, and work with those areas.

    It can be a great way to ease discomfort and help you feel more comfortable getting down on the floor and working on these stability movements.

    Feel free to book a treatment at the clinic — I’d love to help you get your body moving comfortably again.

    Book Alysha
  • Meet Alysha: Movement, Massage & Longevity

    Meet Alysha: Movement, Massage & Longevity

    Hello! You may have heard that Balance Integrative Bodywork has recently welcomed a new team member—that’s me.

    Picture this: it’s 1998. I’m four years old and 102 cm tall. I’ve lined up an eclectic collection of teddy bears to form a “clinic” hallway in the lounge room, with pillows and blankets at the end.

    I ask my mum to walk through.
    “How can I help you today, miss?”

    That was my first massage clinic.

    I’ve always been a healer at heart. My great-grandmother, from Singapore, was a hands-on healer, and my mum has always said I inherited her touch.

    A Life in Motion

    Over the years, I’ve explored a wide range of physical practices—from breakdancing and Muay Thai to yoga and bouldering.

    These days, I’m especially interested in movement complexity and coordination—building a body that feels as fluid as it is strong.

    This curiosity shapes every treatment I give. It’s also what led me toward somatic work and the Feldenkrais Method, which focuses on making the “impossible possible” by uncovering more efficient and easeful patterns of movement.

    Why I Focus on Longevity & Seniors

    In modern life, it’s easy to become disconnected from the body—to get “stuck in our heads” and lose our ability to sense how we move.

    I believe that developing true body awareness—feeling how your body moves and responds—is a key part of long-term health and independence.

    I use remedial massage to help bridge that gap. By working with both the muscles and the nervous system, we can “wake up” areas that feel dull or disconnected, restoring a sense of coordination and control.

    This is why I’m particularly passionate about working with seniors and those focused on long-term mobility.

    Before becoming a remedial therapist, I spent six years working in aged care. I genuinely value the wisdom, resilience, and connection found in that work.

    One thing I’ve consistently seen is that stiffness is often accepted as inevitable with age—but in many cases, there is far more potential for ease and mobility than people expect. Sometimes, the body just needs the right input to “remember” how to move again.

    I’ve found that the body remains incredibly responsive to skilled, intentional touch at any stage of life.

    Whether your goal is to maintain your golf swing, keep up with your grandkids, or simply move through daily life with greater comfort, my aim is to help you rediscover ease and confidence in your body.

    I’m looking forward to meeting you in the clinic and supporting you in staying in motion.

    -Alysha

    Book Alysha