I'm a physio and we do not target a specific muscle.
We use mostly manual therapy (what ignorant people can define as massage, but which is not) to treat our patients.
Often, a joint is hypomobile (which means that it doesn't move enough), so surrounding joints have to compensate to do a the movement and become hypermobile. When they become hypermobile, they have a risk of becoming less stable, that's when pain appears. Roughly, manual therapy does target hypermobile joints and increase the mouvement of the joints that are ''blocked'' so that you can regain your mobility. Also, sometimes, muscles can be stiff and limit the movement of joints and create pain, thus, the utility of various techniques of stretching. Nerves can also be stuck or pinched by muscles, so exercises can be given to soften the muscular tissue.
So no, we do not fius only on muscle, but we evaluate and treat any ''neuro-musculo-squelettique'' problem.
As for osteo, I have a 2-3 friends that are currently studying in that field and most of them were physios. They do have a different approach than physio and work a lot with movements between the organs and their function in the whole body. It's less based on physical-mechanic-movements of the joints and the way they assess a patient is different. I have a seen very good physios and very crappy osteos, and the other way around. So please, JLG-racing, do not put all physios in the same basket. Thanx.
To answer your question Watcher, IMHO, the best physio clinic in Montreal is this one:
http://www.physiomk.com/en/index.html
The owners are well-known PT's around the world, and I would think that the physios that work there are top notch experts. If it's too far, you might as well try Action Sport Physio in West Island, I have a few friends that work there, and they do treat a lot of athletes. Or you can try Physimed close to Decarie, it's a Kinatex clinic, but they do treat many hockey athletes.
Hope it answers a few questions here.
