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Heart Rate Variability: A Window Into Your Health

by Altitude TrainingOsteopathyPerformance PackageRegeneration ENRunner's regeneration

Have you ever noticed that your heartbeat is not as steady as a ticking clock? This is perfectly normal—and actually a good thing! The time between two heartbeats changes from moment to moment. This natural variation is called heart rate variability (HRV). A flexible heart rhythm shows that your body can adapt to stress, rest, and activity. In fact, a higher HRV is usually a sign of a healthier, more resilient body.

How HRV Reflects Your Nervous System

Your HRV is directly connected to your autonomic nervous system. This system controls many automatic functions of your body—like breathing, digestion, blood pressure, and heartbeat. It has two main parts:

  • Sympathetic system: activates your body in stressful situations (“fight or flight”).
  • Parasympathetic system: calms your body and supports recovery (“rest and digest”).

In a balanced state, these two systems work together smoothly, keeping your heart rhythm adaptable. But if this balance is disturbed, HRV can drop.

Signs of Autonomic Dysfunction

When the autonomic nervous system is out of balance—also called autonomic dystrophy or dysfunction—you may experience symptoms such as:

  • Constant fatigue
  • Sleep problems
  • Dizziness when standing up
  • Digestive issues
  • Cold hands and feet
  • Irregular heartbeat
  • Feeling stressed or unable to recover properly

These symptoms are your body’s way of signaling that the nervous system may not be working at its best.

Why HRV Is Relevant for Your Health

Measuring HRV gives us important insights into how well your body can handle stress and how quickly it recovers. A lower HRV doesn’t necessarily mean something is seriously wrong right now—but it can be an early warning sign that your body is overloaded. That’s why HRV is increasingly used as a marker for prevention, therapy, and monitoring progress.

Interval Hypoxia-Hyperoxia Therapy (Cell Training)

One modern method to improve HRV and restore nervous system balance is interval hypoxia-hyperoxia therapy (Cell Training). During this therapy, you breathe air with alternating lower and higher oxygen levels in a safe, controlled way. Think of it as a gentle “workout” for your cells and nervous system. This training helps your body adapt better to stress, improves energy production in your cells, and can strengthen your circulation.

How Cell Training Can Help You

Many patients report that after several IHHT sessions, they feel more energetic, sleep better, and cope with stress more easily. Over time, HRV values often improve, reflecting a more flexible and resilient nervous system. In other words: by training your body with controlled oxygen intervals, you can regain balance and support long-term health.

Tip: A simple way to support your HRV every day is through breathing exercises, regular physical activity, and sufficient rest. Combined with therapies like Cell training, these lifestyle habits can make a big difference in your overall wellbeing.

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Breathe Freely – Why Your Diaphragm Matters More Than You Think

by OsteopathyPerformance PackagePersonal Training ENPhysiotherapyRegeneration ENRunner's regeneration

Breathing is automatic—but that doesn’t mean we’re doing it well. How we breathe affects everything from energy and posture to digestion and stress. At the center of it all is an often-overlooked muscle: the diaphragm. In this article, you’ll learn why the diaphragm is vital to your health, how to spot a possible dysfunction, and what you can do to support better breathing.

The Diaphragm – Your Most Underrated Muscle

The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle that separates your chest from your abdominal cavity. It plays a central role in breathing: every inhale and exhale involves its movement. But the diaphragm does more than just support respiration. It also influences posture, circulation, digestion, and even emotional balance. A well-functioning diaphragm promotes calmness, stability, and improved overall vitality.

What Happens When the Diaphragm Gets Stuck?

Stress, poor posture, shallow breathing, or prolonged sitting can cause the diaphragm to lose its mobility. When this happens, breathing becomes shallow—mostly in the chest—and the diaphragm stops moving freely. This can lead to neck and back tension, fatigue, digestive issues, or feelings of anxiety and unease. In our clinic, we often see how restoring diaphragmatic function brings noticeable improvements in both physical and mental health.

Selbsttest: Wie gut ist Ihre Atmung?

A simple tool to check your breathing efficiency is the BOLT score (Body Oxygen Level Test). Breathe in and out normally, then hold your breath after a regular exhale. Time how long it takes until you feel the first natural urge to breathe in. If your score is under 20 seconds, it may indicate dysfunctional breathing and poor diaphragm activity. This test isn’t a diagnosis, but it’s a valuable starting point for deeper awareness.

How We Can Help – Breathing Is the Gateway to Healing

If your BOLT score is low or you recognize yourself in the symptoms described, we’re here to support you. We combine breathing techniques such as the Buteyko Method, manual treatment through osteopathy, and nervous system resets like RPR (Reflexive Performance Reset) to help you activate your diaphragm and improve your breathing patterns. When you breathe better, you feel better—physically and emotionally.

👉 Schedule your appointment today and take the first step toward easier, deeper breathing.

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Homeoffice – risks and side effects

by with No Comment OsteopathyPersonal Training ENPhysiotherapyRegeneration EN

Due to the ongoing pandemic, more and more people are being forced to work from home, but not everyone has an ergonomic workplace available. People often work at the kitchen table or on the sofa and often lack the time or motivation for compensatory movement after work or during breaks. Especially in the dark season, when it is already dark outside after work, many people find it difficult to get enthusiastic about exercise and sports. Instead, they make themselves comfortable on the sofa with a bag of chips.

From a medical point of view, these factors can in the long term promote physical complaints such as tension in the neck and shoulder area and headaches or lead to pathological obesity and associated chronic cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, lack of exercise and an ergonomically inappropriate sitting position can increase the potential for musculoskeletal disorders. Through a prophylactic posture, the respiratory muscles tense up, breathing becomes shallower, we feel tired and exhausted and have difficulty concentrating.

Anyone who wants to prevent this should therefore provide for compensatory exercise in their free time. True to the motto “if you rest, you rust”, even small units of one hour per week can provide sufficient mobilization and relaxation. In our practice for physiotherapy and personal training, we offer not only classic physiotherapeutic applications but also an extensive portfolio of holistic training with a focus on joint-sparing movement sequences and medical muscle building.

We recognize and treat dysfunctions so that you can work in your home office in a relaxed and pain-free manner. Say goodbye to pain and make an appointment today.

Your Michael Boettcher Continue Reading

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Massage – using pressure against pain

by with No Comment OsteopathyPhysiotherapyRegeneration EN

Many of our patients come to our practice with muscle tension and pain resulting from it. Massages can help in this case. It is not without reason that massages are among the oldest known therapeutic treatments: The pressure on or rubbing over the tense area influences the tense condition of the muscles and fasciae, promotes blood circulation and relieves pain.

In our practice for physiotherapy we offer the following massage techniques:

  • Traditional massage: relaxes muscles, improves blood circulation, stimulates metabolism, relieves pain, improves posture and helps restore physical balance
  • Leg massage for runners: Improves performance and efficiency, prevents fatigue injuries, increases running speed, reduces muscle soreness after the run and accelerates recovery time and regeneration
  • Fascial massage: loosens the fasciae (connective tissue) so that the body is not pulled into a bad posture, reduces pulling and radiating pain, improves mobility, reduces muscle tension, positively influences the musculoskeletal system
  • Lymphatic drainage: Helps to remove swelling and water retention, improves mobility by reducing joint swelling, reduces recurrent spinal blockages, activates the autonomic nervous system, promotes regeneration

Conclusion: Massages can be helpful for a variety of muscle or joint pains and in the best case are performed by a trained physiotherapist. With the help of these techniques we can free you from pain, treat or prevent injuries and correct your posture – for a life full of mobility and without pain.

Yours Michael Boettcher

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Neck pain – causes and treatment options

by with No Comment ChiropracticOsteopathyPhysiotherapyRegeneration EN

The most common cause of neck pain is tension in the neck/shoulder area. These are usually caused by monotonous movements or an incorrect sitting position at the workplace. Especially in the home office, people do not pay attention to their sitting position, because not everyone has a fully equipped workroom. People often work at the kitchen table or on the sofa, which can lead to permanent incorrect strain on the spine and thus to pain.

What types of neck pain are known to occur?

If the pain is caused by tension that is not based on injury or pathologically changes in the vertebral bodies, it is called non-specific pain. Those are often caused by lack of movement, incorrect sitting posture in an office chair, shallow breathing or overweight. If the pain is the result of an injury or surgery, it is considered to be a specific pain, since the cause can be precisely determined: We adopt a relieving posture and the body tries to avoid movement and the pain that comes with it.

What other factors can contribute to neck pain?

Tension in the neck and shoulder area and resultant muscle hardening can also be favored by the following factors: monotonous movement patterns at work, shallow breathing, psychological factors such as stress and anxiety, posture problems or insufficiently trained neck muscles. The joints are stressed incorrectly or too much, we feel uncomfortable, flabby and have pain. The diaphragm remains largely inactive, the respiratory muscles are put under much greater strain, the muscles in the neck tense up and pain occurs.

How can neck pain be treated?

In our physiotherapy practice we offer various treatment options for neck pain. Starting with classic physiotherapeutic applications such as massages and manual therapy, dry needling, functional training, muscle building in the neck and shoulder area or physiotherapy on the machine. We accelerate the healing process and restore the mobility and stability of your musculoskeletal system so that you can live permanently pain-free and without tension.

Yours Michael Boettcher