11 things I learnt in 2011

At the end of each year I like to spend a bit of time to reflect on how my year has gone. As always I would like to have 'achieved' more than I did, but none the less I'm always surprised at how much I DID get done.

Reaching January 2012 means that I have completed one full year in my new clinic. This is obviously a significant mile stone to me and I thought it would be a shame not to mark it here on my blog.

2011 will be a special year to me for a number of reasons but most significantly it's the year I got engaged to my girlfriend Gemma. We're getting married this year (2012) in early November which we're both very excited about.

Along with reflecting on my previous 'achievements' I also like to write down some of the things I've learnt.

Here are 11 'Sports Therapy' related things I learnt (or have been reminded of) in 2011:

1) Everyones body is unique and will respond to treatments differently. For example one stretch may work well with 7 out of 10 people, however the other 3 out of 10 will require a very different approach.

2) The most common 'problem' I see in the clinic is related to shoulder and neck tension (or stiffness). The majority of this is due to poor posture. Fix your posture!

3) Writing this blog is enjoyable AND a useful tool for attracting new clients. I've had a number of people book in after reading one of my blog posts. Remarkably I had a mother bring her daughter on a 7 hour round trip from Suffolk after they read this blog post. Incredible!

4) Increasing your mobility, range of motion or flexibility in many cases is easier than most people think. It just takes a consistent (daily) approach with the right exercises or stretches.

5) Look after your body, because there are some structures and tissues that once damaged cannot be put back to 'normal'.

6) Deal with your injuries as early as possible - This really is important. Doing nothing and leaving an injury to 'settle down for a few weeks' is not a good approach.

7) When injured the majority of my clients don't know when to use ice vs when to use heat.

8) Normal people can complete extraordinary things with the right dedication. I've had a number of 'normal' clients do some extraordinary things from endurance horse riding events (100 miles) to first time iron man events. Very inspiring.

9) If you have an on going knee problem you MUST look at the joints above and below the knee (i.e. the hip and ankle).

10) The foam roller is a great self massage and treatment tool.

11) If you work in a desk job you must take time to stretch - see point 2.

And one bonus: Many people have very weak and under-active glutes that are causing back pain.

My National 3 Peaks Challenge Story

(Picture: Piper - The Highlands)

The 3 tallest mountains in the UK.

21 hours 50 minutes, 57214 steps, 25 miles and 11170 feet.

The three peaks challenge completed!

To those of you who haven't come across the

National 3 Peaks Challenge the aim is to climb Ben Nevis (Scotland), Scafell Pike (England) and Snowdon (Wales) in 24 hrs - including driving time.

This is a short post on how Matt (who talked me into doing the challenge) and I got on completing the 3 Peaks.

We started in Scotland at Ben Nevis on Friday 17th June and finished in Wales at Snowdon 21h50 later.

BEN NEVIS - The Start

(Picture: The Start - Ben Nevis visitor centre car park)

(Picture: Summit Ben Nevis)

Summit time: 2h05

Total time: 3h24

Height: 4409 ft

Steps (Pedometer): 21858

We were planning to start the challenge at 7pm (Friday), with the aim of getting up and down the Mountain before dark at around 10.30pm. However due to poor weather and less evening light we changed our plans and started early at 6.40pm.

The climb was in fairly poor weather; rain and cold, with thick cloud at the top. This made things fairly hard going, visibility at the top was down to about 15 feet.

We could easily see how people get in trouble on Ben Nevis, the cloud cover was fairly disorientating.

We managed to get up and down in fairly good time (3h24), with much of the descent done

running. By the time we reached the bottom I wasn't sure if we had gone off too fast and should have left 'more in the tank' for the next two mountains.

On getting down we managed to leave the Ben Nevis visitor centre car park fairly quickly. We got in the car for a 6 hour journey down to Scafell Pike (Lake district). At this point Matt and I did our best to get some sleep as we were being driven by my Mum and Gemma (my girlfriend).

SCAFELL PIKE

(Pictures: Top of Scafell Pike)

Summit time: ???

Total time: 3h58

Height: 3210 ft

Steps (Pedometer): 20356

After traveling to Scafell Pike overnight we arrived at about 4am. We were not sure how our legs were going to be functioning after 6 hours sitting still in the car. As it turns out the legs were actually OK, however this was the least of our worries.

After quickly getting out of the car at just after 4am we headed off on what we thought was the right track. We quickly caught up with 4 other walkers doing the 3 Peaks and checked with them that we were on the correct route. They confidently said "yes" so we got our heads down and got cracking - big mistake. To cut a long story short we had headed off on the wrong track. We had been 'at it' for 40 minutes before we realised that we had gone the wrong way! What was more soul destroying was that we realised that the quickest way to get back on track was to run right back to the start and begin again, there was no other obvious 'short cut' to get back on the correct trail from where we were.

By the time we had reached the bottom again we had wasted exactly 58 minutes, but more importantly we had sapped valuable energy out of our legs. Disaster. There was no other choice but to get started again. Although Scafell Pike is the smallest mountain in terms of height it seemed to be the toughest of the three mountains. There is a boulder field about mid way up and the top section is covered in scree which makes things hard work.

As with Ben Nevis the weather was poor so we reached the top in almost zero visibility and ice cold driving rain. We made a quick stop to take the photos and headed back down. Due to our mistake at the start we took almost 4 hrs on a mountain we were planning to complete in under 3 hrs. In low spirits we quickly got changed into dry gear and got in the car for the 5 hour journey to Snowdon.

SNOWDON

(Picture: Snowdon - at the peak)

Summit time: 1h35

Total time: 2h56

Height: 3560 ft

Steps (Pedometer): 1500 - approx

Although we wasted an hour on Scafell Pike we were still on to complete the challenge in the allotted 24 hrs - all was left to play for.

Our aim was to finish strong. That meant we had to complete Snowdon in under 3 hours. We knew it was going to be painful.

For the first time we set off without any rain, which was a great change.

We were most confident about completing Snowdon as it was the only mountain we had climbed prior to the challenge. In fact we had climbed it twice in one day while we were doing our training.

We managed a very fast time to the top, by our standards, making the peak in 1h35. The top was packed with other walkers so we quickly got our photos and began back down. By this time our legs were like jelly and are knees were sore but we had to get down quickly to make sure we made it in under 3 hours.

After what seem like an age we rounded the final corner, the visitor centre car park was in sight. We knew we were going to complete Snowdon in under 3 hrs! With 4 minutes to spare we jogged into the car park and had completed the National 3 Peaks Challenge in a total of 21h50.

Tired, beaten up but very proud we had managed to do all three of the highest mountains in the UK under 24 hours.

A great achievement.

21 hours 50 minutes, 57214 steps, 25 miles and 11170 feet.

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.

Ultrasound Treatment at Home?

Swelling? inflammation?

Hire a home use Ultrasound unit - £42 per week.

Ultrasound has traditionally been used in a 'clinical' setting by Physiotherapists (and other health professionals) to speed up the rate of healing and improve the long term quality of tissue repair.

Up until recently it has only been practical to use in a clinic, this has mainly been due to the fact clinical ultrasound units are expensive to purchase, bulky and have required specialist knowledge use.

However, recently an Australian based company have manufactured a small 'home use' ultrasound device, that has been designed to be used by the 'general public'.

*** The picture above shows on the right my clinic based ultrasound unit (pretty large!), with the home use ultrasound device on the left. The home based device has all of the electrics built into the head***

I often use ultrasound within my treatments, however the greatest benefits of using ultrasound can found in using it on a regular basis (up to twice a day). Obviously having daily ultrasound treatments are not practical unless you are a professional footballer (or athlete) with access to professional care.

The good news is that I've now purchased two 'home use' ultrasound devices. These units can be used to speed up the treatment of injuries or complaints including:

• Sprains / strains (with swelling present)
• Muscle spasms
• Tennis and golfers elbow
• Knee and ankle problems
• Back pain
• Heel spurs and achilles problems
• Joint pain
• Tendonitis
• Shin pain
• As well as a number of sports related injuires

If you have just sustained an injury or have a chronic complaint please do email me to ask if Ultrasound therapy can help you.

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

What is your Bodyfat percentage?

I can now measure your body fat using Accu-Measure bodyfat callipers.

These callipers will give you an accurate measure (within 1.1% of laboratory standard testing) of your overall fat percentage.

We simply take one skin fold measurement at your hip, just above the prominent bone at the front.

This gives us a reading in mm (or inches) which we can compare to a chart (see below). This chart adjusts for your age as well as sex and gives an accurate measurement of your overall body fat.

You will be able to find out whether you fall in the lean, ideal, average or over fat category.

Body fat measurements are much more accurate then calculating your BMI or taking your weight on scales.

Go to Accu-Measures own site if you want to know more!

***For those of you who are interested in finding out your body fat percentage please email me at office@theringwoodclinic.co.uk and we can arrange to take your measurement at your next appointment.***

Sport massage, injury treatment & rehabilitation

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