Are you now at the stage of your life where you want to be able to continue doing the things that you love?
Do you have ambitions to continue playing sport, being active or keeping up with your kids as you get older?
There is nothing that we can do to prevent the ageing process. However, there is a lot that can be done to maintain physical and mental health as we age.
If you have a real interest in your health for the long term then maybe Longevity training is for you.
Longevity Exercise Training refers to a specialized approach to physical activity aimed at promoting overall health, well-being, and not only extending one’s lifespan but health span as well. It emphasizes exercise strategies that have been shown to have a positive impact on longevity and overall health outcomes.
This month, Lesley Wyles from Bristol Physiotherapy Sports and Injury Clinic provides us with information about Hypermobility.
What is Hypermobility?
Hypermobility refers to an increased range of motion in joints beyond what is considered typical for a person’s age and gender. It is often used to describe a condition called hypermobility spectrum disorder (HSD) or hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS), which is a group of inherited disorders affecting connective tissues.
The ligaments and tissues surrounding the joints are more lax and elastic than usual which allows the joints to move beyond their normal range, leading to increased flexibility and sometimes instability. Hypermobility can affect various joints in the body, such as the fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles.
Hypermobility can present differently in different people. Some people with hypermobility may experience few or no symptoms, while others may develop joint pain, chronic fatigue, recurrent dislocations, or subluxations (partial dislocations), soft tissue injuries, and muscle weakness. Other associated symptoms may include joint clicking or popping, double-jointedness, easy bruising, and skin that is soft, stretchy, or prone to scarring.
When hypermobility is accompanied by symptoms which impact on your quality of life, physiotherapy can make a real difference.
How can Physiotherapy help you?
Strengthening Exercises: Create exercise programs tailored to your needs, focusing on strengthening the muscles around the affected joints. Stronger muscles help provide better support and stability to the joints, reducing the risk of dislocations or subluxations.
Joint Stabilization Techniques: Specific techniques to improve your joint stability which may involve exercises targeting proprioception (awareness of joint position), balance training, and neuromuscular re-education. These techniques help you develop better control over your joint movements which should reduce the risk of injury.
Range of Motion Exercises: Although hypermobility involves excessive joint movement, you may still have areas of restricted movement or muscle tightness. Strengthening exercises can be used to improve your flexibility and maintain optimal joint range of motion. Care will be taken to avoid overstretching or exacerbating instability.
Pain Management Techniques can help you cope with discomfort which may include manual therapy techniques such as joint mobilization, soft tissue manipulation, or modalities like heat or cold therapy to alleviate pain and reduce inflammation.
Postural and Movement Correction: Poor posture and inefficient movement patterns can contribute to joint instability and pain. Our specialist physiotherapist can assess and address postural imbalances, gait abnormalities, and faulty movement patterns through postural re-education and corrective exercises. Helping you to understand the potential risks, advice on proper joint alignment and body mechanics and provide advice on lifestyle modifications, ergonomics and strategies to prevent joint injuries.
If you would like to see Lesley for a Hypermobility Assessment you can book an Initial Assessment with Lesley. The Initial Assessment is one hour and the follow-up appointments are 30 minutes.
Your hamstring is a group of 3 muscles and tendons that run along the back of your thigh, from your hip down to your knee.
Although these muscles aren’t active during walking or standing, they will help you during activities that involve bending your knee such as running, jumping and climbing.
What causes hamstring injuries?
As with any muscle injury, a hamstring injury can occur if you stretch any of these tendons or muscles beyond their limit.
During more sudden movements such as sprinting or jumping, injury is more likely. They can also occur during slower movements that cause you to overstretch your hamstring.
Types of hamstring injuries
There are 3 grades of hamstring injury:
Grade 1 – a mild muscle pull or strain
Grade 2 – a partial muscle tear
Grade 3 – a complete muscle tear
Grade 1 strains is usually mild and will cause pain suddenly and the back of thigh may be tendon. Often this can cause pain on moving your leg but you’ll retain your muscle strength.
Grade 2 involves a partial tear to your hamstring which will be tender and more painful. You may notice some swelling or even bruising to the back of your thigh. There may also be some lose of strength in your leg.
A grade 3 tear is more severe and is usually very painful, swollen and bruised. People often report a “popping” feeling at the time of injury and are unable to use the leg.
Recovery from a hamstring injury can depend on its severity. Recovery from a minor strain (grade 1) usually takes a few days to heal. You should be able to return to sporting or training activity after a few days rest. Grade 2 or 3 tears can take weeks or months to recover and you’ll be unable to train or exercise during this recovery.
Protection: splints, taping or modifying your activity with relative rest.
Rest: keep your leg still and avoid activity in the first few days. Gradually and gently load the hamstring relative to the grade of injury. This is best done under physiotherapy guidance.
Ice: apply a cold compress or cold packs (a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a towel can be used) every 2-3 hours. Do not apply directly to the skin.
Compression: strapping the thigh can provide compression and reduce swelling. This can prevent further damage due to movement of your hamstring.
Elevation: place your leg higher than your heart, on a pillow for support. This will help to reduce the swelling.
Gentle exercises and stretches
Returning to strenuous exercise too quickly could make your injury worse, but avoiding exercise for too long can cause your hamstring muscles to shrink and scar tissue to form around the tear.
To avoid this, you should start doing gentle hamstring stretches after a few days, when the pain has started to subside. This should be followed by a programme of gentle exercise, such as walking and cycling, and hamstring strengthening exercises.
Many people need to avoid sports for at least a few weeks, but the length of time you need off will depend on the severity of your injury.
Physiotherapy treatment
If your injury is taking more than a few weeks to heal, physiotherapy can be a real benefit. Physiotherapy treatment will help you:
Reduce the pain and inflammation in your hamstring
To increase your range of motion and strength in your knee muscles and hamstring
Strengthen your calves, hip and pelvis muscles which will improve your stability and balance
Improve your technique and function during activity to help prevent further injuries
It’s not just physiotherapy that our partners clinics at PhysioNet Bristol can offer to help you recover from an injury or to improve your strengthen and balance.
Pilates is a method of exercise and physical movement designed to help stretch, strengthen and balance your body. With systematic practice of specific exercises coupled with focused breathing patterns, Pilates can be invaluable. Not only as a fitness endeavour, but also as an important addition to your sports training and physical rehabilitation.
What are the benefits of Pilates?
Practised faithfully, Pilates can yield numerous benefits. Strength and flexibility, particularly of the abdomen and back muscles, and coordination – both muscular and mentally, are key components in an effective program. Posture, balance, and core strength are all heartily increased, and many experience positive body awareness for the first time.
With the ageing of our population and the increasing trend toward more mindful and moderate health practices, Pilates has become increasingly popular. It is beneficial for people of all ages and physical ability.
As the Founder Joseph Pilates once boldly quoted “I must be right. Never an aspirin. Never injured a day in my life. The whole country, the whole world, should be doing my exercises. They’d be happier.” ~ Joseph Hubertus Pilates [1965, age 86].
With the Bristol Half Marathon only a few weeks away, your hard work has been well under way already. Whether its your first or 10th half marathon, the two to three weeks before your race are just as critical.
The physio’s at PhysioNet Bristol not only treat runners and their injuries but many are seasoned marathon and half marathon runner themselves. Here is some advice for the final weeks leading up to your race.
Training
Tapering your training before race day should leave you feeling rested and energised. For half marathons, two weeks tapering is advisable. This will give your muscles a chance to recover and will help to reduce potential injuries, all to get your legs over the finish line.
Your longest distance should be about two weeks before your race.
In the following week, taper your training to 60% of your peak mileage. Keeping workouts shorter but still maintaining quality will help keep your legs fresh.
The weekend before your race should be your final long run, between 6 to 10 miles.
In the final week before your race, training should be 30 to 60 minutes each day or every other day. On non-running days, keep training light, so nothing that would cause your muscles to be sore.
If you need a running coach or something doesn’t feel quite right when training, get in touch, we have running coaches that can support you and get you ready for race day.
Diet
You have most likely been eating a healthy diet in preparation for your race but like with tapering your training, here are a few tips to get the most out of your food.
Eating carbs helps to provide energy for your muscles. This is converted to blood glucose and is stored as glycogen in your liver and muscles.
You don’t need to carb load to get the best out of your run, an increase of 10% during the 4 days before your race is enough. With the tapered training, this slight increase in carbs will help you maximise the amount of glycogen in your body
Stick to plain foods like oats, rice and pasta, high quality protein and plenty of fruit and vegetables. Nothing too fibrous to help prevent bloating.
Remember to drink plenty to help stay hydrated before the race and during it.
Sleep and rest
Although this should be important for all of us and not just for training, quality sleep and rest are important for recovery not just of the body but also the mind.
Getting 8 to 9 hours of sleep is preferable and getting this consistently will be a huge benefit.
The best night sleep should be two days before your race.
Don’t stress too much if you don’t sleep well the night before. This is normal to experience pre-race nerves. If you’ve been sleeping well the week before, you should feel rested and ready to run.
Race day and beyond
On the day, enjoy yourself and good luck!
Beyond race day, whether you live in Thornbury, North Bristol or Central Somerset, PhysioNet Bristol can connect you to sports masseurs to help with any stiff or sore muscles following your race.
Did you know that physiotherapy can help with headaches? Many of the partner clinics of PhysioNet Bristol have expert physiotherapists who can help if you’re experiencing headaches from tightness and tension around your neck. Louise from Bradley Stoke Physio and Health explains the positive benefits of seeking help for your headaches.
What causes headaches?
There are lots of types but the most common are tension type headaches. These can be stress or anxiety related, but often no one knows what causes them. The first course of action for most people is analgesic medication such as paracetamol. Occasional headaches can be managed in this way but if the pain becomes more persistent then further treatment may be appropriate. Indeed, it has been shown that frequent use of analgesics and anti- inflammatories can cause…headaches!
Headaches can sometimes come about as a secondary problem from tight muscles and tendons around the neck. These are secondary headaches and are called cervicogenic headaches.
Both types of headaches can be helped by physiotherapy techniques – indeed the NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) guidelines recommend these as treatments.
When to seek your doctor’s advice
If your headache comes on quickly and is accompanied by a fever, nausea or vomiting, or
if you become confused, have slurred speech, or weakness or numbness then seek medical advice as soon as possible.
Tips for staying headache free
To find out what causes your headaches, a good place to start is to write a pain diary. This can help you pinpoint the cause of the symptoms and help you start to manage them.
Of common tension type headaches, we know the causes can be stress, squinting, poor posture, tiredness, dehydration and irregular meals. In this case, there are a few key things
you can already do to help you prevent and manage them:
Get an eye test
Remember your posture – sit up
Sleep well
Stay hydrated
Eat regularly
When a physiotherapist can help
Physiotherapists can reduce the severity and the frequency of our headaches. They can use massage, acupuncture, joint mobilisations and even mindfulness exercises such as Pilates and Yoga to treat your headaches. You can also benefit from exercise treatment plans and advice on self-managing your pain.
If you thought physiotherapy was just for people with sports injuries or those recovering from surgery, think again. PhysioNet Bristol’s directory will link you to expert chartered physiotherapists in Bristol, Bath, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire that can help with common issues such a back pain not just from sporting injuries but from every-day tasks. Keith James Physiotherapy, a partner clinic of PhysioNet Bristol discusses how to prevent back injury and to avoid feeling stiff when gardening this Spring.
The sun is out, and the garden is coming back to life! It’s tempting to get out there and really get stuck in to clearing and planting. But it’s important to take things slowly and remember to look after your back when crouching and bending. Back pain and problems affect people of all ages and can make gardening a painful experience. By following some simple rules, you can make gardening easier on your back and help you stretch your muscles and prevent any injuries or pain.
Warm up before starting to garden by gently stretching your muscles, especially if it’s cold outside and wait until later in the day when it’s warmer. Some of the best stretches take an inspiration from Yoga which give a gentle but effective stretch to help prevent injury and stiffness in your back, lower or upper and your hamstrings.
Cat stretch Get ready to embrace your inner cat. Begin on all fours on the floor and arch your back towards the ceiling and hold. Then arch your back towards the ground and hold. Hold each stretch for 5 seconds, repeat 10 times.
Touch your toes Bend forward from your hips, dropping your arms down towards the floor and stretch as far as you can towards your toes. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds, are as long as you can.
Hamstring stretches Begin by sitting on the floor with one leg straight, and the other bent towards your inner thigh. Keeping your back flat, lean forward from the hip to your out stretched leg until you feel stretch is behind the thigh on your hamstring. Repeat on the other leg. Hold each stretch for 10 seconds, repeat 5 times.
Some further notes
Avoid repetitive garden work
Alter your position regularly as you work, take regular breaks and drink plenty of liquid
Don’t lift heavy objects. If you must lift something, remember to bend your knees and keep your back straight
Use a wheelbarrow to move objects where possible
Wear belts that support your back if necessary
If you do find that your back is causing you problems, find a specialist back pain physiotherapist near you with PhysioNet Bristol’s handy postcode search to help treat your pain and prevent further injuries.
If you’re a triathlete wanting to maximise your bike to run transitions and prevent injury – read on!
Every triathlete will share with you their tips and tricks for a speedy transition from bike to run, but when it comes to strength and conditioning exercises to help prevent injury and improve form, they are a little stumped. Most triathletes focus on speed when it comes to transitions but strengthening and injury prevention exercises will determine if you finish the race at all.
Transitioning from bike to run is extremely brutal on your body. Your glutes are lengthened from all the peddling, and your hip flexors are tight from being in a crouch position. Now you’re asking your glutes to work in a shorter range of movement and your hip flexors to stretch out immediately, with no adjustment period and for 6.2 miles.
This shift puts quite a bit of strain on the body and if you haven’t built up stability in your lower back and quality hip range, you are increasing your chance of a range of injuries, such as lower back pain, anterior knee pain, Achilles tendinopathy and shin splints.
PhysioNet Bristol’s directory for finding a private physiotherapy clinic near you, can help you find a specialist physiotherapist to help prevent further sports injuries and provide you with expertise advice. Experienced chartered physiotherapist, Alex Smart owner of TheraSmart, one of PhysioNet Bristol’s partner clinics shows you 4 exercises to help you build strength and prevent injury not just for triathletes but those with lower back or hip pain.
Single leg squats from a chair – 4 x 20 reps on each leg
From a sitting position, stand up on one leg. Keep your pelvis level and be careful not to twist it back. There is a tendency on the non-weight bearing side for the hip to rotate back. This means you are opening out your hip instead of engaging your glutes properly. Keep your shoulders and pelvis square and knee in line with your second toe. Also, be mindful to stand straight and not to side bend or arch your lower back.
Standing hamstring curls (done well) – 4 x 20 reps on each leg
Standing hamstring curls are rarely done well. Most people tend to sway their hips forward when curling their leg back, so the weight moves to the ball of their foot and they have to grip with their toes. The aim is to keep your pelvis in line so the weight is evenly spread through your foot. Make sure your lower back is flat and your tummy is engaged. If you are doing it correctly you should feel your glute and hamstring working together.
TIP: do this exercise holding onto something in front of you and with a mirror to your side to make sure you are doing it correctly.
Seated leg extensions with a football – 4 x 20 reps
From a seated position sitting upright, squeeze the ball between your ankles and start to lift your legs to straighten your knees. When your hamstrings are tight you are going to want to round your back – so fight against this urge. Maintain the pressure on the ball throughout the movement up and down. This will work your quads and VMO which is important to combat anterior knee pain. Only extend the legs as far as you can maintain a straight back.
Four-point kneeling torso rotation – 4 x 20 reps on each side
On all fours, your hands should be directly below your shoulders with straight arms, and your knees should be directly below your hips. Make sure your back is nice and straight with your head in line with your torso. Be careful not to drop your head towards the floor. Place one hand on your hip and rotate your torso towards the non-weight bearing side so you open up your shoulders. Hold for a count of 5 seconds.
PhysioNet Bristol’s member Toll House Clinic , a Bristol based Physiotherapy Clinic, help us to understand what Tennis Elbow is and what treatments are suitable for treating it. Julie from Toll House provides us with some further information about treatments available both with and without a Physio.
Tennis elbow (or lateral epicondylitis) is a common problem and is characterised by pain felt on the outside of the elbow. This is often due to inflammation of the tendons in this area and can be due to over-use.
What can I do to help ease Tennis Elbow?
The use of ICE on the painful area will help with pain relief and help reduce inflammation.
Seek the advice of a chartered physiotherapist who will undertake physical treatment and give you exercises that will help resolve your problem and prevent its further recurrence.
Acupuncture is also an option that our fully trained physiotherapists can carry out as part of their treatment.
Try a tennis elbow clasp, this helps to alleviate the pull on the tendons that are inflamed.
Remember the longer you delay treatment the longer it will take to resolve.
As a last resort your GP may suggest that you have a steroid injection into the elbow, these can also be carried out by Physiotherapist.
You may consider using ibuprofen which is an anti-inflammatory as long as you do not have any gastric problems or are asthmastic as anti-inflammatories can aggravate these conditions.
We are just over half way through 2017. Think back to January, did you have new year fitness resolution? Have you kept it up? This month Donna from Blue Sky Sports Physiotherapy gives us information about getting back on track!
Most people start with great intentions at the beginning of the year, however, slowly they start to fall back into old habits and it becomes a circle each year of not necessarily achieving the goals that you started with.
A fair few people stop their exercise because of pain, strain, a weakness or other injury. PhysioNet members are here to get you back on that track to achieving your fitness goal.
All our member practices are able to assist you with :
A thorough assessment by a senior Chartered Physiotherapist trained at the highest level
A diagnosis of any current conditions or pain syndromes
A comprehensive treatment programme
An exercise plan will be designed specifically for you
Strategies to help you manage any chronic aches and pains
Referral to orthopaedic specialists or radiologists if needed
To book a visit to a Chartered Physiotherapist, please use the find a physio on our home page – there’s plenty to pick from!
