3 things you must never do to an ACUTE injury

This post will be short and sweet but please take 30 seconds to read it.

Avoiding the three things below will save you much time in recovery.

1. Never put HEAT on an acute injury

If you have just had an acute injury the area will immediately go into an inflammatory response.

If the area around the injury is hot, red, swollen or painful you must avoid putting heat on it.

Heat will only increase the inflammatory response along with any bleeding or bruising in the area. Avoid heat at this stage! Including hot baths.

2. Never MASSAGE an acute injury

This is for exactly the same reasons as I set out above.

Massage on an acute injury will only increase blood flow which in turn will increase the inflammatory response. Avoid massage on a 'new' injury!

3. Never try to 'RUN OFF ' an acute injury

This rule really falls into the common sense category. If you've just sprained an ankle, twisted a knee or pulled a hamstring you must stop exercising if it's causing you pain.

If you keep running on a painful joint or muscle then you will be creating additional trauma to the muscle fibers or joint surfaces.

To add to this, these type of injuries can feel less severe while the muscles are still warm it's only when you stop and cool down when the joint or muscle begins to 'stiffen up'. This is the point when you realise the full extent of your injury.

STOP if you are in pain to avoid causing more damage.

When to use ice vs when to use heat?

I get asked this question most days, so I thought it would be best to write a short blog post on this area.

Ice

In the most basics terms you generally want to use ice on an acute injury when there is swelling and inflammation present. The main aim at this point is to reduce the inflammatory process. This will most likely be within the first 48 hrs of an injury occurring (although it may be a bit longer!)

Heat

Heat will most often be used on chronic problems or injuries where there is muscle spasm occurring. Never apply heat to an injury where there is still swelling and 'puffiness'.

There are occasions when heat will be used to treat chronic complaints, however its best to seek advice on this first. As always if in doubt please email me or call me first to discuss what the best action is.

A word of warning

When using ice be careful to cover your ice pack (or pack of peas) with a cloth. This will make sure you avoid ice burn or even worse, frostbite. Ice burn can occur fairly easily especially when icing areas such as the hands, feet or skin around the face.

I've see a couple of cases of ice burn first hand and it can leave some nasty blisters. When icing make sure you lift the ice pack every 2-3mins to check the skin is not reddening too much and avoid applying ice for longer then 15mins at a time.

For more information on when to use heat vs when to use ice click here.

Additionally click here for extra information on the dangers of over icing.

Treatment Room for Hire (Ringwood)

There is a treatment room available for hire / lease at the clinic.

The room would be suitable for any of the following professionals:

• Physiotherapist
• Chiropractor
• Osteopath
• Massage therapist
• Nutritionist
• Counsellor
• Podiatrist / Chiropodist
• Any similar professional

Please email Alex at office@theringwoodclinic.co.uk if you (or anyone you may know) are intersted in hiring out the treatment room.

Sport massage, injury treatment & rehabilitation

Covering Ringwood, Bournemouth, Verwood, Fordingbridge, West Moors, Ferndown and New Forest

Knee Pain? Grinding, clicking or clunking

Increasingly more and more people have been coming to see me at the clinic with Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (or pain at the front of the knee).

The pain is often associated with grinding, clicking and clunking in the knee which is made worse by squating type movements and walking up/downstairs.

This grinding, clicking and clunking is NOT normal and will most likely indicate that your patella (or knee cap) is tracking poorly. If your patella is not tracking correctly at the front of the knee then it will 'rub' against the edge of the femur, which will in turn cause it to grind, click or clunk.

Alongside the grinding, clicking and clunking some people also report a 'giving way' in the knee or a general feeling of being unstable.

Again this is NOT normal.

The good news is that with the correct treatment this pain (as well as the associated grinding, click and clunking) can normally be resolved successful with out the need for any surgical intervention.

The cause of this 'poor tracking' in the knee is often due to muscle imbalances in the thigh muscles (quadriceps) and weakness in the hip muscles.

With the correct exercises and treatment most often these imbalances can be addressed.

For a more detailed explanation of Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome click here.

Additionally if you have any questions you would like answered about you own knee pain please do email me.

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Treatments that I use to resolve Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome, may include some / all of the following:

1. Mobilisations to the patella to 'free up' tight structures.
2. Massage to the IT-Band, to help address the muscle imbalances.
3. Home exercises specifically designed to even out the muscle imbalances.
4. Ultrasound to help improve the inflammatory process.
5. Taping to help re-position the knee cap.
6. Referral to a podiatrist if your imbalances are associated with poor bio-mechanics at your feet.

If Carlsberg made clients...

If Carlsberg made clients then mine would probably be the best in the world! ;-)

In my work I come across a lot of really great people.

This is one of the benefits of my 'job'.

I have a great diversity of interesting clients. I'm lucky enough to be in the position to help them 'fix' their injuries (as well as sort out their aches and pains). However I also learn a huge amount from them in turn.

My clients are successful business owners, house mums, engineers, accountants, dentists, labourers and everything in-between.

However, occasionally someone does something for you which you wouldn't expect, last night was one of those times.

One of my clients is a local farrier. He mentioned at a previous appointment that if he gets some time he'll make a 'coal' tray at his forge for the fire place in my clinic. I didn't think to much of it at the time because he runs a busy business and finding the time to do that would be difficult.

That was a month ago but last night he came in with the 'coal' tray fully made up (see the pictures below). In his words he 'knocked it up from a few spare bits in the forge'. I have to say I'm very impressed!

So this is a 'thanks' to all my patients who have interesting jobs, do interesting things and are generally great people to have as clients.

Sport massage, injury treatment & rehabilitation

Covering Ringwood, Bournemouth, Verwood, Fordingbridge, West Moors, Ferndown and New Forest