Happy New Year!

With a new year on the horizon, we all have new goals and ambitions for this year!
With New Years Resolutions comes new exercise goals and  training regimes to start the year right!
Although this starts with your best interests, it tends to lead to an increase in injuries!

Here are our tips for starting exercise WITHOUT getting injured!

SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE

Increase your training volume steadily and slower than you think. Your bone, tendon and joints takes time to adapt to certain training loads. Irrespective of your exercise choice, a gradual return is always recommended. 

CHECK YOURSELF BEFORE YOU WRECK YOURSELF

Get any niggles or past history of injury sorted before you start. Typically preventative strengthening or flexibility programs to supplement your training will help reduce the likelihood of ending up injured whilst tackling your new years goal.

THE POWER OF CROSS TRAINING

Variety is the spice of life, by finding various ways to train it will help warn off any injuries. By utilising different muscle groups, movement patterns and planes of movement it helps prevent repetitive strain injuries from a new exercise regime.

RECOVER RECOVER RECOVER

Recovery is as important as the training itself, the time spent recovering is when your muscles are rebuilding, your tissues are getting stronger and tendons becoming robust to sustain more training. Start with a rest day between every training session. Initially you will feel like your body can keep training, but it may catch up with after a few weeks of consistent training.

USE A PROFESSIONAL TO GUIDE THE RETURN TO EXERCISE, SPORT OR ACTIVITY

Like anything using a Personal Trainer or Physio to help guide your return to exercise can be instrumental to returning without getting injured. Aside from providing structure to your training program it will provide accountability to ensure at end of January your not back into your old habits.

CONSISTENCY

Being consistent with realistic amounts of exercise over a long period is far more effective than setting unrealistic training volumes for a short period of time. Exercise and training should have a plan and have goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic + Time based). 

If you have any questions shoot us a message or book an appointment online!

Any questions about an  injury shoot us a message, give us a call on (02) 4751 9127

or book a session online here.

Written by Patrick Lincoln

(Physiotherapist)

Are you wanting to take up running in 2020?

We love seeing people out enjoying running and one of the great things is anyone at any level can run! BUT we hate seeing patients in the clinic who have started running and have ended up with an injury!

How to start your running program and avoid injury!

Consistency is key

Stopping and starting a training program often leads to injury. Make sure the program you start is going to be achievable in the coming months so that you stay consistent. Think about the number of sessions you have time for in your week and write the program to fit that.

Rest and recovery

Scheduling rest and recovery is extremely important as part of your program. Make sure you have allocated rest days each week. Recovery can look like many things depending on your program and could include a walk, swim or a yoga session (not sitting on the couch watching Netflix).

Training Load management

Too much load to soon is often the cause of many injuries we see in the clinic. This sudden increase in training volume leads to a variety of running injuries including achilles tendon issues, plantar fasciitis or gluteal tendinopathy. Start your training load at your appropriate fitness level and slowly build your load up. No more than a 10-15% increase in load per week. That load change could either be the speed of the run, distance covered or adding hills into your run.

Training Variability

Variety within a training program is great for the body and helps keep you in running pain free. Cross training such as yoga, swimming or running is a great way to get cardiovascular benefits without putting load through the same muscles used for running.

Strength Training

Strength training can help to prevent injury and make you a better runner. You don’t need to be lifting huge weights to get benefits form it. Just 1 strength session a week with some basic exercises can have huge benefit for your running performance and injury prevention. Read our 5 favourite strength exercise blog post for some strength exercise ideas you can do at home.

Happy Running Team 🙂

If you have any questions shoot us a message or book an appointment online!

Any questions about an  injury shoot us a message, give us a call on (02) 4751 9127

or book a session online here.

Written by Georgia King

(Physiotherapist)

SHOULDER PAIN AT THE GYM??

What makes up the shoulder?

The shoulder joint (Glenohumeral joint) has the greatest range of motion of any joint in the body. It is made up of three bones the humerus, scapular (shoulder blade) and clavicle (collar bone). These bones make up 3 main joints the gleno-humeral, sterno-clavicular and acromio-clavicular joints. The gleno-humeral joint is the large ball and socket joint and the socket is made deeper by surrounding cartilage. These bones provide some stability around the shoulder however majority of the shoulders stability comes from the surrounding muscles, tendons and ligaments. The muscles that move the humerus provide more stability to the shoulder than all the ligaments and capsular fibres combined. The rotator cuff muscles are the primary mechanism for supporting the shoulder joint.

A lot of people with the tasks we perform as a society, now have shoulders that are rounded forward. The problem with forward-rolled shoulders is that it puts the shoulder into an unstable position that limits the capacity to create external rotation and stability around the shoulders. The external rotators of the shoulder become overstretched, weak and stiff which can lead to acute shoulder pain at the gym.

Fortunately there are a number of things you can do to help relieve shoulder pain at the gym beginning with modifying activities, mobility work and a strength/stability rehab program.

How to reduce shoulder pain in your gym program!

The three main ways shoulders are trained are through pulling, pushing and pressing movements.

• Shoulders find pulling work the easiest as it opens the front of shoulder up and works on keeping the shoulders in a neutral position which is best for force production.
• Pushing work increases the load on the shoulder more than pulling work and therefore this type of load should be limited if the shoulder is painful.
• Overhead pressing work is the hardest for the shoulders to perform with the shoulder in the least stable position.
• Taking some time away from overhead work, limiting your pushing work and really working on your pulling work can make a huge difference in settling down your shoulder pain at the gym.

Shoulder Mobility Exercises!

Working on the mobility restrictions around the shoulder to increase the range of motion will also help to restore the shoulders to a neutral position to help optimise force production.

Shoulder capsule release
Position a lacrosse ball right behind your shoulder, just above your armpit, apply as much pressure as needed to release this tissue.

Flexion stretch kneel in front of a box with your arms facing toward your body and elbows positioned next to each other, keep elbows together and drop your head down between the box and yourself.

Banded Lat stretch: Hook your wrist through a large band, fold your body in half with your arm overhead and lean away from the band to stretch your lat.

Strength Exercises for Shoulder Pain!

Stability and strength will allow for you to keep your shoulders happy whilst training at the gym and through life. Start with stability and slowly increase the difficulty of exercises you train.

• Shoulders like a 2:1 ratio of pull:push work. Pulling work is where you will develop your shoulder stability which will allow you to do the pushing work pain free.
• The stages of strength and stability rehabilitation around the shoulder:
  • Isolate the shoulder = rotator cuff activation exercises and scapular control exercises both in a small range of motion.
  • Get the shoulder stronger = Start in neutral positions with exercises like static bear crawls, chest press from the floor and modified push ups on a bar.
  • Increase difficulty/stability = Change the exercises to have harder positions such as dynamic bear crawls, shoulder taps and mini Turkish get ups
  • Resume pressing = add a band around your wrists to increase your rotator cuff activation during your press movements to begin with and then reintroduce kettle bell press and Arnold press’.

These stages should take you between 6-12 weeks to rebuild the shoulder stability and strength. After this it is important to maintain your pulling work so that your shoulders don’t slip back into a forward rolled shoulder position. Neutral shoulder position will allow for the greatest force production pain free.

If you have any questions shoot us a message or book an appointment online!

Any questions about an  injury shoot us a message, give us a call on (02) 4751 9127

or book a session online here.

Written by Georgia King

(Physiotherapist)

SHIN SPLINTS
– Also known as that god-awful pain you get in you shin when you run!

Shin splints is the slang term used to describe pain experienced on the inside of your shin. The technical term is medial tibial stress syndrome. Typically this injury occurs gradually with the onset of increased training volume and repetitive stress to the shin.

There is sliding scale of injury when diagnosing shin splints and the management changes for each end of the spectrum. It can vary from muscle overload to an actual stress fracture of the tibia.

It is crucial you have an accurate diagnosis prior to undertaking a rehabilitation program.

Any questions about an  injury shoot us a message, give us a call on (02) 4751 9127

or book a session online here.

Written by Pat Lincoln

(Physiotherapist)

Are you struggling with persistent hip pain that is not getting better?

Do you get hip pain lying on that side in bed?

Do you suffer for a few days after a long walk or going up lots of stairs?

You could have a gluteal tendinopathy!

What is a gluteal tendinopathy?

Gluteal tendons live on the outer aspect of the hip and connect your big glute muscles to the hip bone. Their job is to stabilise the pelvic and hip during activity. Tendinopathy is characterised as tiny micro tears within the fibres of the tendon where it attaches onto the bone. The tendons job is dissipate load evenly onto the hip bone as the muscle contracts. When the load becomes to great for the tendon we get a very sore tendon that starts to break down over time. Typically this type of injury affects highly active population or sedentary females aged 40-60.

Symptoms of gluteal tendinopathy?

Soreness over the outer aspect of the hip that is often noticed during or after the following activities:

• Prolonged walking or fast walking
• Getting up after prolonged sitting
• Sitting with your legs crossed
• Getting out of bed first thing in the morning
• Sleeping on your side
• Navigating a lot of stairs
• Pain that starts with an activity like running that gets better once you warm up.
• Tenderness touching outer hip bone and muscles.
• Gym programs involving jumping work or lots of single leg strength exercises.

What causes gluteal tendinopathy to develop?

• Poor lumbo-pelvic control.
• Weakness in hip muscles: Specifically glute medius and minimus.
• Poor daily habits: Standing positions or sitting with legs crossed.
• Sitting in low chairs prolonged periods.
• Running load: Increasing speed or hill training or weekly kilometres.
• Holidays: Yes that trip to Europe with all that walking is common spike that can make tendons unhappy.
• Starting an exercise program with a little too much motivation.
• Age: As you get older your tendons get weaker generally and handle changes in load less.

Any questions about an  injury shoot us a message, give us a call on (02) 4751 9127 or book a session online here.

Written by Georgia King

(Physiotherapist)

Does your child limp after sport or activity?
Are they complaining of sore heels post activity and sport?
Do they limp after periods of running or jumping?

They may have Sever’s Disease.

Don’t worry this is not as bad it sounds.  Severs disease a condition commonly affecting the feet of children 8-14 who are growing and active. It’s typically associated with pain at the heel bone where the achilles attaches. The pain is due to inflammation at the growth plate where the achilles tendon attaches to the calcaneal apophysis due to traction and overuse.

Why do kids get Sever’s?

• Growth spurt: Bone naturally grows faster than muscle. Therefore the muscle cannot maintain optimal length at the attachment point of the tendon when kids are growing. This creates a traction effect where the tendon joins onto the bone. The pain will usually occur towards the beginning of the growth spurt so you may not have noticed the spurt yet.
• Training load: Training load can vary depending on training schedule, sessions per week or training intensity. Watch out for rapid spikes in training or at the start of new sport seasons,
• Muscle tightness: Tight calf muscle are often a big factor with severs. The tighter they are the more it will pull on the achilles attachment point.
• Gender: Unfortunately, boys get this more than girls!
• Footwear: Change of footwear can also play a big role in the development of heel pain in kids. (Try aim to keep them in shoes where the heel is slightly higher than the toe box).

What does Severs look and feel like?

• Tenderness over the base of the heel.
• Pain with prolonged running and jumping activities, typically towards the end of a training session or game.
• Walking with a mild limp or on their tippy toes after sport.
• Heel pain that goes away an hour or so after they stop exercising.

Any questions about an injury shoot us a message, give us a call on (02) 4751 9127 or book a session online here.

Written by Georgia King

(Physiotherapist)