MANZ Conference 2026

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‘BACKS TO THE FUTURE – aka; my bulging disc is bigger than your bulging disc’

This five and a half-hour pre-conference workshop will explore back and pelvic pain from a soft-tissue and neuromuscular therapy (NMT) perspective. Along the way you will appreciate the contributions of the soft-tissue luminaries Janda, Vleeming, Travell and Simons, Chaitow, Dommerholt, Fernandez-de-las-Penas, Liebenson, and Jonas; mostly not household names.

After an introduction, students will learn to take a meaningful history, conduct a short but effective physical assessment, form a treatment plan, implement said plan and finish with a reassessment. A homecare activity (HCA) will help reinforce any gains.

Muscle groups covered include the erectors, multifidi, QL, hip flexors, gluteals, TFL and deep lateral rotators.

Along the way you will learn how healing works, make use of placebo, understand lower-crossed syndrome and stratification theories, accurately know exactly what muscle you are on, implement ‘CoCo’, refute bulging discs as sources of pain, disprove most leg-length-inequalities and make use of pain science education.

Stewart Wild

NMT is a comprehensive hands-on therapy that addresses puzzling pain and dysfunction of soft-tissue origin.

Stewart Wild opened his first massage practice in Auckland, New Zealand in 1994. He began teaching Neuromuscular Therapy (NMT) at NZCM in 1998, after studying with John Barerra and Leon Botello. NMT is a comprehensive hands-on therapy that addresses puzzling pain and dysfunction of soft-tissue origin. In 2003 Stewart moved to the USA to further his knowledge and taught NMT for Judith DeLany from 2005-9.  He later certified as a CMTPT in 2009 with Myopain Seminars.  Stew was asked by owner Dr. Jan Dommerholt to design and teach a 100-hour program called ‘Manual Trigger Point Therapy (MTT). These workshops describe techniques for 170 palpable muscles and have been taught throughout the United States, Canada, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. After closing his highly successful Massachusetts clinic in 2025, Stewart is now living in Christchurch. He continues to promote his online training platform, ‘NMT Plus’ (see www.nmtplus.com ), which comprises 38 videos showing effective trigger point therapy and neuromuscular therapy for all palpable muscles of the body.