Weeding the Vegetable garden

Before you start gardening warm up muscles and joints by performing simple stretching exercises.  Start with smaller, less stressful jobs, and take regular breaks.

Snowboarder

Wrist Injuries

Snowboard injuries tend to be to the upper limb. We are 3x more likely to injure the upper limb than the lower limb, and twice as likely to have a fracture compared with skiers.

The most common area for injury is the wrist and then the shoulder.

Snowboarding relies on balance. The feet are fixed with non release bindings. Momentum being achieved by movement of the upper body and balance is achieved by the upper limbs.  When a snowboarder falls, the natural instinct is to stretch out the arms and consequently land on a outstretched hand!

70% of wrist injuries in snowboarders are fractures, which can vary in severity! A clean fracture will need immobilisation in a plaster cast for 6 weeks and then rehabilitation after this.

Prevention is better than cure!

Wrist guards have been found to prevent wrist fractures in snowboarders.  Trials have shown that those wearing wrist guards are half as likely to injure the wrist than those not wearing them, Statistics show that only 10% of boarders wear them.

A flexible guard with protection along the back of the wrist and going most of the way up the forearm is preferred.

So whichever winter sport you choose, remember to be safe.  We have been reminded recently about the importance of head injuries.  Helmets are recommended, which can reduce the severity of a head injury by up to 50%.

Be safe and have fun!

About Phil Tranter

Contact details

What a fantastic day again! The team at Impact were kept busy from 8am until 4pm, it was great to see you before and after the race.

Don’t forget to follow up the recommendations!

A huge thank-you for all the donations to the Firefighters Charity.

We are looking forward to being at the Robin Hood Marathon again this year.

Please come and visit us especially if you have any concerns before the race. If you have any problems that you are unsure of how to treat, then take the time after the race to cool down in the physio tent.

You can use our stretching area to cool down in comfort with the advice of physio’s to recommend new stretches or advise on your technique, while waiting to have an individual assessment so you know what to do next.

We plan to spend approximately 15 minutes per athlete which will allow time for an assessment and advise you on how you should tackle your problem. Anyone who visits us will be able to see us in clinic for a follow up assessment and treatment session at 50% of the usual cost.

We look forward to meeting you and wish you a good race on the day.

» Visit the Robin Hood Marathon Website

Sports Physio

Athletes always want to push themselves to go farther, higher, and harder. Because of this, sporting ailments and training regimens are common, making the demand for professionals specialized in this area imperative. Therefore, it is important to understand the roles of sports physiotherapists and what they can offer to athletes.

Physiotherapy is another term for physical therapy, a branch of medicine that focuses on rehabilitating physical injuries and impairments. In addition to a sports, some physiotherapists might focus on areas like geriatrics, orthopaedics, or cardiopulmonary. Though the idea is the same behind all these specialties, each branch of physiotherapy will employ specific techniques in order to help patients achieve their goals.

Sports physiotherapy is specialized for athletes. This includes helping athletes recover from injuries, as well as working with athletes to help improve their overall physical fitness to enhance their performance. While this branch of physiotherapy deals with athletes of all varieties, there are still some basic reasons athletes may consult with a physiotherapist.

One of the more common services offered through physiotherapy is conditioning. This can include muscle building, endurance training, and agility enhancement. Conditioning is especially important after an injury, which means the conditioning might focus on a certain area of the body or muscle in order to restore its full strength. Sports physiotherapists might also aid healthy athletes in improving their overall fitness in order to enhance performance.

Another significant area of sports physiotherapy is pain control therapies. With the physicality of athletics, pain is almost inevitable, so many athletes seek help in easing the discomfort. This can be done through various stretching exercises and massage, and can be a viable treatment for sprains, bruises, and torn ligaments.

Because most athletes receive treatment and then return to action, some sports physiotherapy also focuses on injury prevention and maintenance. In addition to helping the athlete regain strength, sports physiotherapists also help athletes learn how to avoid injury in the future as well as how to sufficiently brace injuries. This is especially helpful for injuries that are still mending while the athlete returns to action.

In this regard, sports physiotherapists can be work in several arenas. Some teams, especially on the college or professional level, will employ physiotherapists, and some individual athletes may hire them as well. Other sports physiotherapists might work in a hospital or a clinic, or any other place where athletes may go to receive treatment.

Guest post courtesy of The London Physio- specialist sports physiotherapy in London = www.thelondonphysio.com

A great deal of research has been put into this area over the last few years and the way we deal with back pain has changed considerably. You might already have experienced this with the way your GP “treats” you.
An attack of back pain can be very frightening, even a minor strain can be very painful and it is natural to think that something serious might have happened, however it has been shown that there are lots of things that you can do to help yourself.

What you do about back pain yourself is actually more important than the exact diagnosis or treatment. With acute back pain, rest for more than a day or two usually does not help and may actually prolong pain and disability. Your back is designed for movement, the sooner you get it moving the sooner you will feel better.
The acute pain usually improves within days or a few weeks, the long term outlook is good.

Your spine is one of the strongest parts of the body, it is made of strong bony blocks joined by discs to give it strength and flexibility. It is reinforced by strong ligaments and surrounded by large powerful muscles that protect it. Most simple back strains do not cause any lasting damage.

Most back pain comes from a simple strain to the “working” parts of your back, for example a ligament, muscle or small joint. Ideally, you start to move correctly to get the part working properly again which, stimulates the body’s natural ability to recover. It is when we compensate and move abnormally that a vicious circle starts resulting in chronic pain and dysfunction.

Rest or stay active?

If you rest for too long when you are in pain you feel stiff, the muscles get weaker, you lose general fitness and feel down, this is turn can make the pain feel worse and therefore it is harder to get going again. It really is “use it or lose it”!
The advice now is to keep going and rest for short periods only.
Your whole body must keep active to stay healthy, with activity the body releases natural chemicals which reduce the pain.

Activities that are good for you include walking, swimming, the exercises bike, dance, pilates, yoga, and most everyday activites and hobbies.
Different things suit different people, try out and decide what is best for you. Your goal is to get moving and increase your level of activity.

It goes without saying that if you suffer from recurrent episodes of back pain, then the interval between exacebations is a great time to try and avoid a future onset of pain.

It is worth while having an assessment to determine the probable reasons for your back to be prone to problems. For example restricted range of movement and specific weakness of muscles – in particular the core.
These are all areas that can be worked on with a specific exercises programme or by joining in one of our beginners Pilates sessions, which is tailored to suit people who do not feel confident to start an exercise programme without being supervised by a Physiotherapist who has knowledge of the factors that will benefit or cause harm to their back.

So if you suffer from episodes of back pain or are currently struggling with back pain then please feel free to contact me if I can offer any further advice or information. All of the advice that I have written above can be found in “The Back Book” which you can obtain from your GP. So take control,

“The sooner you get active – the sooner your back will feel better”

There has been lots of speculation in the news that flying in relatively cramped conditions on planes combined with inactivity may increase the risk of blood clots in the legs.

Circulation in the legs relies greatly on the calf muscles acting as a pump. Each time the foot is moved up and down the calf muscle contracts, and so massages the deep veins in the leg, squeezing the blood back towards the heart.

At rest the blood is still in circulation but more slowly. In situations where the blood flow is more sluggish, its oxygen supply is diminshed causing it to be more sticky, which can result in blood clots forming.

If the clots, or emboli, reach the heart and lungs they can block the normal flow of blood through the organs, this can lead to breathlessness and can in extreme cases be fatal.

Symptoms include:

• pain in the calf
• breathlessness

Reducing the risk:

• get up and walk around frequently
• avoid excess alcohol
• keep hydrated – drink plenty of water
• do not take sleeping tablets
• do lower limb exercises
• wear loose clothing
• wear support tights correctly

At risk:

smokers / pregnant women / women taking the contraceptive pill / those with poor circulation

Exercises

• Clenching buttocks – hold for two seconds. Repeat 10 times.
• Lift leg off the ground, move ankle up and down, stretching as far as possible in each direction
• with feet flat on the floor, lift heels up and down
• get up, walk to the end of the aisle, rise up onto the toes 10 times.

The london marathon is fast approaching, it will soon be time to begin final preparations.

The CSP’s online survey states that knee problems, shin splints and Achilles tendon problems are the 3 more common injuries that hamper attempts, 90% due to over training. Other causes are increasing milage too quickly, not taking rest days, or recovery from injury, and 40% due to using the wrong trainers.

It’s not too late to do something about this, seek advice from a specialised running shop about trainers and call us about any problems you are having.

Often neglected by runners are warm up, stretching and cooling down, you might be interested to know:

Warming up for running

The time to experiment with a new training routine is during training. Many sports use dynamic warm up in preparation for events. Dynamic warm up tends to follow a similar pattern of both general then sports specific movements:

Starting off with easy aerobic work i.e.) walking, striding, bounding, skipping and jogging at low intensity, followed by a progression to a higher intensity. Then, non sport specific full range “normal” movements of relevant muscles and joints i.e.) arm circles, leg swinging, body rotations, and lastly sports specific activities at higher intensity if required.

It has been shown that static stretching prior to activity has a negative influence on force and performance.

“Stretching” is used both for preparation of muscles prior to exercise i.e.) warm up as well as to improve mobility/flexibility in order to enhance performance. It is important to differentiate between the two in order to avoid injury.

Exercises to improve mobility should NOT be used as part of warming up. However to mainatin or improve muscle, joint or neural mobility as an integral part of an athlete’s general programme. Also after training, particularly at high intensity, athletes should stretch to return muscles to their normal resting length.

Although stretching is generally regarded as being beneficial, there are also risks with :

Using poor technique.

Allowing non-essential structures to become hyper mobile.

Having inadequate strength and control of new range of movement.

Stretching for length/mobility

Ideally all mobility regimes should be sport specific and encourage symmetry. The goal of maintaining joint mobility is important for long term effect on articular cartilage, and joint preservation.

To maintain muscle mobility, it is important to identify any key areas to focus on. The muscles that usually require the most attention are the ones that pull over more than one joint or have a multi action effect i.e.) quadriceps and hamstrings.

To affect length, there must be plastic deformation in the elastic component in the muscle, combined with relaxation of stretch reflexes. Therefore your technique must be of LOW force, LONG duration and performed at HIGH muscle temperature.

Practically, the following regimes have been suggested.

Perform stretches after training/competition or after a warm up/hot bath/shower.

4 reps per exercise.

45 seconds duration.

performed over time to maintain improvements. It may take several weeks to see an improvement.

Stretching programmes must be appropriate and balanced. It is important not to achieve increased range of movement in one area to compensate for a decrease in another.