Alco Chan’s Healing Hands

Really Really great! I went to Alco after reading other Unilocal reviews and I will be back for sure.
I am recovering from knee surgery and still doing physical therapy and really needed someone who understood the healing process. Per my PT therapist’s request, she recommended I incorporate body work to help me get back in the game so I found Alco on Unilocal.
Alco is very personable, and has strong therapeutic hands. This might not be for everyone, but I truly appreciate DEEP tissue work that is just that… DEEP. Obviously you don’t have to have deep tissue work if thats not your thing, he will adjust the pressure to your needs.
He has a physical therapy AND Thai massage background which is the most amazing blend. Its hard to describe, you will just have to feel it to understand.
Being someone who also had a major knee surgery, Alco gave me the best session for my injury, stretching advice, and home exercise suggestions to help me get back to snowboarding, hiking, jogging etc. He also gave me some recommendations to take back to my physical therapists to add to my routine, which she said were RIGHT ON!
Before seeing Alco, I was a little depressed on how achy and sore I felt all the time, but he reassured me that it was just my body going through the motions of healing and that I would be back in action in NO time.
If you are looking for EXCEPTIONAL people skills and body work, Alco is your guy. Can’t wait to go back.

What do I love about Al? He doesn’t want to see you again. Fixes you and then helps give you the tools you need to take care of yourself. He’s not a «come back next week and pay me again» kind of guy. So when I have a problem, I call Al.
I’ve been going to see him since 2004. In high school for knee/​running issues. In college for a wrecked alignment. As a ballroom instructor for serious hip/​back issue that required me to see him for 7 weeks straight. He worked out the problem and this time I actually listened to him when he taught me how to take care of myself. I haven’t been back to see him since.
To this day I am grateful to him and his gf Moana, who’s also a pro dancer and is fantastically knowledgeable, for keeping me injury and pain free.

Okay, here’s my story about Alco Chan. I’ve had back problems for a few years, but recently I started having hip pain as well. I wasn’t able to sleep through the night because of the pain from simply lying down. My wife and I spent at least $ 5,000 trying different kinds of mattresses, but whenever I got up in the morning I was a wreck. Then last April things got worse during a trip to Europe. Probably the luggage. I had been going to a chiropractor for a couple of years, and he had helped a bit in the past, but he was making no headway for my hip. I finally Unilocaled «physical therapist» and found Alco. In our first session (90 minutes) he quickly noticed that my right hip was lifted: not only lifted, but rotated in («flared») and back — basically off in all three dimensions. He worked like crazy on my hips and in one session managed to straighten them out. But towards the end of the session, I was still in some pain lying down, and it became clear that my sacrum/​lower spine connection was very tight. The sacrum pain continued after our first session, so I went back about a week later, and Alco focused on that area using a special «L5/​S1» loosening trick that he has developed. It was amazing! I left the second session pain-​free and have stayed that way. I’m continuing to stretch major muscles (e.g., hamstrings, etc.) on my own and day by day I am getting looser and more flexible. Now I sleep like a baby and wake up feeling (dare I say it?) normal again! Alco is a commonsense, no-​nonsense healer, who pays close attention, figures out the problem and fixes it. I am thrilled to have found him!

Al is definitely a massage ninja! The massage I experienced by him was by far one of the most best, most thorough examples of body work my body has ever experienced! It was like his hands, forearms, elbows, knees were everywhere all at once, massaging the exact perfect points and easing my body’s tension– ninja style. Al comes highly, HIGHLY recommended!

Alco is fantastic! I could barely turn my neck when I went in and felt about 80% better after just one session. He works deep, does streching techniques and really understands the body. I highly recommend.

I found Alco at the New Living Expo last year. He totally wowed me with just 20 minutes of bodywork. Having been a bodyworker myself for over 20 years I am not easily wowed nor impressed.
Alco reeeeally knows his stuff — this guy has an incredible passion for learning and healing. Being a physical therapist gives him a working command of anatomy that really shows up when he’s figuring out how to solve the various mysteries that my body hands to him and I ain’t easy.
He is always incredibly enthusiastic and totally energetic with each session. So many other bodyworkers I have gone to get kinda lazy after awhile — not Alco. He is totally there and giving me his all EVERY time.

A friend from Ironworks gym recommended him as a guru for sports people. Since I had a chronic problem with calf cramping (I guess from flat feet) I was approaching a desperate point in my life.
Sure, I managed to accomplish a marathon and a triathlon in my 20’s, along with other sports thereafter: sort of hit or miss, depending if I was injured or not. But now in my 40’s it was becoming an ongoing problem and I could no longer run. Pretty devastating. Running makes me feel alive!
So 15 years of chronic dysfunction and I brought this problem to Alco. And I was «fixed» after seeing him once and following his advice.
Now a year later I find myself running with the dogs out at Fort Funston and I am free of all problems. Free and alive!
But of course, being athletic means you have to work through problems. Now it’s my shoulder. After 6 months of trying to take it easy I saw him today and hopefully am on my way to being healed. I have health insurance but didn’t bother with it because for me, Alco Chan is my (sports medicine) «doctor».