Conditions Megazee.com Physiotherapists Treat
The musculoskeletal problems we see most, what causes them, and how physiotherapy helps with each.
Last updated 21 September 2026
Every condition Megazee.com treats
Each one has its own guide covering how we assess it, how we treat it, and what recovery usually looks like.
Neck Pain & Whiplash
Desk strain, headaches of neck origin and post-collision recovery.
Read the guide
Shoulder & Rotator Cuff
Impingement, tendinopathy, frozen shoulder and post-dislocation rehab.
Read the guide
Sciatica & Nerve Pain
Leg pain, pins and needles or weakness from sciatic nerve irritation.
Read the guide
Post-Operative Recovery
Structured rehabilitation after joint replacement and ligament surgery.
Read the guide
Arthritis & Joint Pain
Osteoarthritis of the hip, knee and hand — staying active for longer.
Read the guide
Most people arrive at a physiotherapy clinic with a body part, not a diagnosis. Something hurts, it has been hurting for longer than you expected, and the internet has offered fourteen contradictory explanations. This page is the plain-English version.
Below are the eight problems our physiotherapists in Manchester see most often: what each one actually is, why it tends to happen, what physiotherapy can realistically do about it, and the point at which you should stop managing it alone and get assessed. These problems are not unusual. The World Health Organization estimates that around 1.71 billion people worldwide live with a musculoskeletal condition, and identifies low back pain as the single leading cause of disability globally.
Nothing on this page replaces an individual assessment. If your symptoms are severe, spreading or getting worse, read the urgent symptoms section first.
Lower Back Pain
Lower back pain is pain between the bottom of the ribs and the top of the legs, often with stiffness, spasm or difficulty straightening up after sitting. The great majority of cases are what clinicians call “non-specific”, meaning no single damaged structure can be identified as the source; the World Health Organization describes low back pain in these terms. That sounds vague, but it is genuinely good news: it usually means the problem is mechanical and responds to movement.
Common triggers include an awkward lift, a long stretch of desk work, a sudden jump in training volume, or a stressful few weeks of poor sleep. Discs, facet joints and muscles rarely act alone.
Our approach follows NICE guideline NG59, which places exercise at the centre of treatment and advises against routine scans for typical presentations. We assess how your spine loads and moves, ease stiffness with hands-on manual therapy, then build a graded programme, often through clinical Pilates.
Book an assessment if pain has not eased within two weeks, keeps returning, or travels below the knee. Read more about physiotherapy for lower back pain.
Read the full Megazee.com guide to Lower Back Pain →
Neck Pain and Whiplash
Neck pain covers everything from a stiff morning to persistent ache across the shoulder blade, sometimes with headaches that start at the base of the skull and creep behind one eye. That pattern has a name, cervicogenic headache, and it is referred pain from the upper neck joints rather than a migraine.
Sustained positions are the usual culprit: laptops on kitchen tables, long drives, phones held low. Whiplash is different. The neck is thrown rapidly forward and back, usually in a road collision, and the telling detail is that symptoms often appear 24 to 48 hours later, not at the roadside.
Physiotherapy works on joint mobility, deep neck flexor control and the shoulder girdle muscles that quietly do the holding. For desk-driven pain we also run a workplace ergonomic assessment.
Seek assessment for arm numbness, weakness, or neck pain that follows any collision. More on neck pain physiotherapy, whiplash and tension headaches.
Read the full Megazee.com guide to Neck Pain and Whiplash →
Shoulder Pain and Rotator Cuff
The rotator cuff is four muscles wrapping the shoulder joint. Their job is not to lift your arm; it is to hold the ball of the joint centred in a very shallow socket while the bigger muscles do the lifting. When that control slips, the tendons get compressed and irritated, which is why shoulder pain so often shows up as a painful arc between shoulder and head height, and as a bad night’s sleep on that side.
Causes include repetitive overhead work, a fall onto an outstretched arm, sudden decorating or gardening, and age-related tendon change. Frozen shoulder is a separate problem: the joint capsule thickens, and the giveaway is that turning the arm outwards is restricted even when someone else moves it for you.
Treatment combines manual therapy with progressive loading of the cuff and scapular muscles. See shoulder pain and frozen shoulder.
Read the full Megazee.com guide to Shoulder Pain and Rotator Cuff →
Knee Pain and ACL Injuries
Knee pain splits roughly into two stories. One is gradual: aching at the front of the kneecap with stairs, squatting or driving, common in runners and in anyone who has increased mileage quickly. The other is sudden: a twist, a pop, rapid swelling within a few hours, and a knee that feels like it might give way. That second pattern raises the possibility of an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) or meniscal injury.
ACL injuries are mostly non-contact. They happen while decelerating, landing or changing direction, not during a tackle.
Rehabilitation restores quadriceps strength, which stays measurably weaker long after the pain settles, then rebuilds single-leg control, hopping and cutting. Modern return-to-sport decisions use strength and hop symmetry testing rather than the calendar alone. See knee pain physiotherapy and our post-operative rehabilitation programme.
Read the full Megazee.com guide to Knee Pain and ACL Injuries →
Sciatica
Sciatica is a symptom, not a diagnosis. It describes irritation or compression of a nerve root in the lower spine, which sends pain down the back or side of the leg, often past the knee, sometimes with pins and needles, numbness or a feeling of heaviness. Back pain that spreads only to the buttock or upper thigh is usually referred pain, not true sciatica, and it behaves differently.
The common causes are a disc bulge pressing on the nerve root, age-related narrowing of the space the nerve travels through, or local inflammation. Most cases are not surgical.
The NHS notes that sciatica often settles within four to six weeks, though some cases take longer. Physiotherapy uses directional movement testing, nerve mobility work, manual therapy and graded loading to reduce irritation and restore confidence in bending and sitting.
See sciatica physiotherapy. Sudden leg weakness or any bladder or bowel change needs urgent medical care, not a physiotherapy appointment.
Read the full Megazee.com guide to Sciatica →
Sports Injuries
Most sports injuries are not freak accidents. They are load errors: a training spike after a quiet fortnight, a new surface, a new pair of shoes, or a race entered on optimism. Acute injuries such as ankle sprains, hamstring tears and calf strains sit alongside the slow-burn overload problems like Achilles and patellar tendinopathy, shin pain and runner’s knee.
Early management has moved on. The British Journal of Sports Medicine popularised the PEACE & LOVE framework, which replaced the old RICE advice and emphasises early gentle loading and optimism over prolonged rest.
Ankle sprains deserve a specific warning: they recur frequently when balance and proprioception are never retrained, and “it felt fine after a week” is the most common reason people sprain the same ankle again.
Explore sports injury physiotherapy, sports massage and ankle sprain rehabilitation.
Read the full Megazee.com guide to Sports Injuries →
Post-Operative Recovery
Surgery repairs a structure. It does not restore strength, range, balance or confidence, and the gap between “the operation went well” and “I am back to normal” is where rehabilitation does its work. We commonly see patients after knee and hip replacement, ACL reconstruction, rotator cuff repair, arthroscopy, spinal surgery and fracture fixation.
Every surgeon issues a protocol built around tissue healing: what you may load, what range is allowed, and when. We work to your consultant’s protocol rather than around it, and we will contact them if anything is unclear.
Early sessions focus on swelling, range of movement and reactivating muscles that switch off after surgery. Later stages rebuild strength and function toward your actual goals, whether that is stairs without a rail or a return to five-a-side.
Prehabilitation before a planned operation is also worth discussing. See post-operative physiotherapy or book an assessment.
Read the full Megazee.com guide to Post-Operative Recovery →
Arthritis and Joint Pain
Osteoarthritis is routinely described as “wear and tear”, which is misleading and unhelpful. Joint changes on an X-ray correlate poorly with how much pain someone has: plenty of people with visible changes have no symptoms at all, and plenty with severe pain have modest imaging findings. Cartilage is living tissue that responds to load, not a tyre tread wearing down.
It most often affects knees, hips, hands and the spine, with stiffness after rest that eases within about half an hour of moving.
NICE’s osteoarthritis guideline recommends therapeutic exercise as a core treatment for everyone with the condition, alongside information and weight management where relevant. Strength work does not damage arthritic joints; it typically reduces pain and improves function.
Versus Arthritis has excellent patient information. For supervised strengthening, see clinical Pilates, knee pain and hip pain.
Read the full Megazee.com guide to Arthritis and Joint Pain →
When to Seek Urgent Medical Help
Some symptoms need same-day medical assessment, not a physiotherapy appointment. Call 999 or go to your nearest emergency department if you have any of the following. If you are unsure, call NHS 111.
With back pain: loss of bladder or bowel control, difficulty passing urine, numbness around the back passage, genitals or inner thighs, or new weakness in both legs. These can indicate cauda equina syndrome, which is a surgical emergency.
After any injury: inability to put weight through a limb, visible deformity, or a joint that looks out of position.
Anywhere in the body: a hot, swollen, red joint with fever or feeling generally unwell; a swollen, painful calf with shortness of breath or chest pain; unexplained weight loss or night sweats alongside persistent pain; or pain that is severe at night and unrelieved by any position.
Signs of stroke (act FAST): face drooping, arm weakness, slurred speech. Call 999 immediately.
Sudden severe headache, especially with neck stiffness, light sensitivity, visual changes or after a head injury.
Physiotherapy is safe and effective for a wide range of musculoskeletal problems, and part of our job is recognising the problems that are not ours to treat. If your assessment suggests something outside the scope of physiotherapy, we will tell you plainly and help you get to the right clinician. More detail is in our medical disclaimer.
Not Sure Which One Fits You?
You do not need a diagnosis before you call, and you do not need a GP referral to see a physiotherapist privately. If you are unsure whether physiotherapy is the right answer, ring us on [0161 000 0000](tel:0161 000 0000) for a free ten-minute triage call, email hello@megaazee.com, or book a physiotherapy assessment online.
You can also explore our full range of physiotherapy services, check session fees and the insurers we work with, meet our registered physiotherapists or find our Manchester clinic at 14 Bridgewater House, Quay Street, Manchester M3 3HN.
Written by Dr Helena Marsh, DPhysio, MCSP · HCPC HCPC registered Clinically reviewed by Dr Helena Marsh, DPhysio, MCSP · HCPC HCPC registered Published 21 September 2026 · Last reviewed 21 September 2026 · Next review due 21 September 2027
All Megazee.com physiotherapists are registered with the Health and Care Professions Council and are chartered members of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.
Medical disclaimer: This page is general information and is not a substitute for individual assessment by a registered physiotherapist or other healthcare professional. If your symptoms are severe, worsening, or accompanied by any of the features listed above, seek urgent medical advice. Read our full medical disclaimer.