Sports massage is beneficial to everyone. Whether you are a competitive athlete, recreational sports person or gym user, a hard working business person; be it sitting over a computer for 8 hours a day, driving a car for long periods at a time or working in a stressful environment, a musician or a busy parent balancing work and home demands.

“Despite the term ‘sports massage’ – you don’t need to be a sports person to feel the benefits of sports massage.” 

The term is really used to describe massage for the specific treatment of soft tissue ailments. It covers the assessment, manipulation and rehabilitation of the muscles, ligaments and tendons of the body. It usually involves working on damaged tissues, which may be uncomfortable but if you require a more relaxing approach then this can be also be catered for.

Benefits of having a regular sports massage can include:

• Injury prevention
• Rehabilitation back to optimum functional fitness whether sporting or occupational
• Focusing on injured areas to speed recovery
• Improved general feeling of wellbeing & physical form

There are so many physical benefits that you can experience after having a sports massage. They include:

• improved circulation & lymphatic flow
• stimulation of the nervous system
• improved tissue flexibility
• prevention of excessive scar tissue formation
• reduction of existing scar tissue
• assistance in the removal of metabolic waste
• breaking down adhesions and fibrous tissue
• improved sporting performance & quality of life

Research has shown that sports massage can help with ‘delayed onset muscle soreness’ (thats the pain you feel in your muscles for a few days after you have exercised) and can improve sporting performance.

At goPhysio in Chandlers Ford, we have a very experienced sports massage therapist called Katie. Katie qualified as a Sport and Remedial Massage Therapist with a BTEC Professional Diploma in Clinical Sport and Remedial Massage Therapy (Level 5) from the London School of Sport and Remedial Massage. Katie also has a BSc in Sports Science and Geography.

Katie has always had a keen interest in sport, in her younger days she played county golf off a handicap of 5 which then lead to organising corporate golf events.

As well as her sports massage clinic, Katie teaches Pilates, Bodycombat, Bodybalance, Bodypump, Indoor Cycling and Zumba, so has an insight into many fitness related injuries (you may even have been to one of her classes locally!)

In her spare time, she loves to spend time with her husband and two children and encourage them to have lots of exercise and outdoor fun!

Our sports massage clinic is open every Wednesday at our physiotherapy clinic in Chandlers Ford. Appointments are available until 8pm in the evening. Each session lasts 55 minutes and costs £40. If you would like to book an appointment for a sports massage just give us a call on 023 8025 3317. We look forward to seeing you! 

Look out for some special introductory offers coming very soon. The best place to keep up to date is ourFacebook page, where the latest offers will be posted for you to take advantage of.

We are looking to add to our already great physio team at our fab clinic in Chandlers Ford. We want someone who loves physio as much as we do and who particularly enjoys using all those ‘hands on’ techniques & skills to get people better, quicker. You’ll need to be able to work at least 2 evenings a week, as these are really popular appointment times. You need to have bags of enthusiasm, be able to think on your feet and have a relaxed & friendly manner. Acupuncture & manipulation are almost essential treatment tools to work with us. If you’re qualified to teach Pilates, that’ll be a bonus too. You’ll reap the benefits of working in a really well established business where we keep our fingers on the pulse as to what’s happening in ‘our world’.

Interested? Don’t send a CV, but we’d love to see a 90 second video. So grab your camera, get recording & upload your video to Youtube. You can email us the link to mail@gophysiotherapy.co.uk and we’ll be in touch.

Despite the benefits & joy the garden can bring, it can also be a danger zone, with over a quarter of a million people requiring A&E treatment every year for injuries sustained while taking care of their lawns¹.

To help take the pain out of gardening, goPhysio has adapted advice from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy to produce a guide to safe gardening.

“People should get out and enjoy their gardens, but they need to be aware that gardening can be tough physical work.  Like any form of exercise or activity, gardening can increase the demands on joints, ligaments and muscles.”

10 top tips to help enthusiastic gardeners avoid a gardening injury

If you already have an injury, it is always best to seek professional advice before starting a demanding task, such as gardening. Gardening is a form of exercise, keep that in mind & approach it as you should for any other type of exercise.

• Before you start a gardening job, assess the equipment and number of people needed.  Often a job is larger than expected; underestimate your ability rather than taking on too much.
• As with any exercise, remember to gently warm up to get ready for the activity. Start with a few easier, less demanding tasks to warm your body up before tackling the harder jobs. Once your body is warm, do some gentle stretches.
• When moving heavy soil or cuttings, divide the load into smaller more manageable amounts.  Use a wheelbarrow if possible and make several trips.
• If potting containers or hanging baskets, place them on a raised surface to reduce bending. Just above waist height is best, so you can keep your back straight.
• If kneeling in the garden, place a small piece of foam or padding under the knees to limit the stress placed on the joints.
• After periods of sustained or repetitive bending, such as digging or weeding, stand up and gently lean backwards 5-10 times.  Take breaks often and drink plenty of water. Where possible, rotate the jobs, so you aren’t doing the same movement over & over again.
• When lifting, keep the load close to your body.  Bend from your knees (not from your back) and push up with your legs.
• Move with your tools and use them correctly.  When raking, digging or weeding, move to the areas you are tending instead of stretching out.  When mowing the lawn, keep your body in line with the mower and keep an upright posture.
• Beware of uneven slabs, slippery paths and broken paving slabs.  Wear suitable clothes and sturdy footwear.
• Put tools away when you are finished with them.  If left lying around, they can cause serious injuries.  Be especially vigilant if there are children or pets in the garden.

Remember, if you sustain an injury and don’t see an improvement within 48 hours, make an appointment to see us at goPhysio.  We don’t only treat sports injuries, we can help you – whatever your injury.

Call 023 8025 3317 for an appointment.

“Many gardening injuries can be prevented.  By following simple safety advice, people can minimise stress on their body and reduce their chances of getting hurt.”

1  Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents: Home and Leisure Accident Statistics 2002.  National estimate for accidents in the garden or on the lawn – 299; accidents in yard, driveway or path – 127,408; accidents on the patio – 18,840

The great thing about being armed with this knowledge is that you can so easily do something about it! You simply need to get more active & try and improve your physical fitness. This certainly doesn’t mean everyone needs to aim to run the London Marathon! Incorporate simple things into your daily life; a lunch time walk, taking the stairs rather than the lift, a kick around with the kids & a ball at the park…………..there are endless ideas. The NHS Choices website is a great resource for ideas, hints & tips to help increase activity levels.

So, how can goPhysio help? Well, it’s simple – if you have pain or injury you won’t be as active as you could be. Being injury & pain free will enable you to push your physical activity levels and more importantly help you enjoy being active. If you enjoy way you are doing, you are more likely to do more of it! We work with you to ensure that your body will work as it should do, without pain and without worry. If you do push yourself too much, causing an injury, we are here to help & advise you how to get back to what you want to be doing, whilst treating your injury to minimise time off.

goPhysio………………because time isn’t always the best healer.

The article revealed that physiotherapists in a certain area of the country are actually being banned from providing ‘hands on’ treatment in a financially driven pilot scheme. Apparently, patients with back & neck problems are only able to receive 2 physiotherapy sessions giving ‘advice & guidance’ and they only get these once they have seen their GP twice (having to wait 6 weeks between appointments).

The CSP’s Chief Executive, Phil Gray, has said that “There is no published evidence to support this approach. This farcical situation is a direct consequence of opening NHS services to this form of open market competition when the health service is facing big financial changes.”

‘Hands-on’ physiotherapy is such a huge part of our training & skill set and such an important part of helping people recover effectively from pain & injury. Not being able to use such treatments not only does a disservice to patients who may need & benefit from hands-on treatments but it also has the potential to harm the reputation of the physiotherapy profession.

I just feel relief that I am in a working environment where such restrictions are not imposed upon us. In our clinics at goPhysio, we have the freedom to independently decide which treatments are the most suitable for each individual that we see and to use those treatments to achieve the best possible outcome. Our hands are the tools of our trade & we will keep using them!

Source: ‘Hands-on physiotherapy is barred’, by Lynn Eaton, Frontline, 4 April 2012, Vol 18 No 7 pg9 

It’s now commonplace to see a whole host of crazy & creative costumes running through the finish line. It’s greatly entertaining to watch but there are a few setious considerations that you should make when choosing what to wear.

If you are thinking of opting for fancy dress, read our tips to help you make your decision….

• If you are a first-time marathon runner, don’t run in a cumbersome fancy dress costume as you don’t know if you can even complete a marathon without one!  If you insist on wearing something unusual or fun, go for something easy, simple and lightweight – like a cape or 118 man!

• Whatever fancy dress costume you decide to wear, make sure you have had enough running practice in it over long distances.  It is unlikely you will be able to cope with it on the day without previous trial.  Running several long runs in fancy dress beforehand will be sufficient.

• Running in a fancy dress costume will make you dehydrate and sweat more quickly than if running in a conventional outfit.  Sweat can aggravate the skin so practising beforehad can help you determine where you might feel excessive rubbing and chafing and at what distance it is likely to occur.  Wear loose long sleeved/legged items of clothing under the costume.  Applying petroleum jelly can make wearing your costume more comfortable.

N.B.  If there is excessive, painful rubbing, ABANDON the costume!

• If you are running in a shared costume with friends, make sure you have a contingency plan!  If you are running in flexion (bent over forwards), for example as the back end of a horse, be sure to change over with your friend(s) to distribute the load or tension.

• Be sure that your costume enables you to run in an upright position and as near to normal as possible.  It should fit properly and you must be strong enough to carry the load if it sits on your shoulders.

• Remember – make the costume work for you and not the other way round!

There is an emerging phenomenon, the ‘Multi-Screen Experience’, where people are regularly using their touch screen devices to check emails & do their social networking etc. whilst watching TV. In fact, a recent US study indicated that as many as 40% of tablet & smartphone owners used their devices whilst watching TV on a daily basis.

Most people are aware that sitting at a computer for hours can take it’s toll on the body. There are many risk factors such as chair type & position, screen position, using the mouse and keyboard – all of which can contribute to a host of injuries, particularly effecting the arm, back & neck. This awareness generally relates to the traditional set up of sitting at a desk. However, with the fast pace development of technology, sitting at a computer at a desk is no longer the ‘norm’. Accessing technology for both work & pleasure through hand held devices is growing. But what effect can using these devices have on our bodies?

The main difference is that these devices are generally controlled using very small, repetitive movements in the hand & fingers. The actual impact of these small, repetitive movements on our bodies is an area that is being researched. However, although our bodies are well designed to actually control & carry out such small movements, they are not necessarily used to such a repetitive nature. The repeated, small movements in our fingers, hand & wrist can increase the risk go ‘micro-trauma’ – also known as repetitive strain or overuse injuries. We love Apple’s ‘Bucket’ analogy of micro-trauma. They illustrate it so well by suggesting you think of each of your joints as a bucket. Micro-trauma from a variety of activities drips into your joint’s trauma bucket. Fortunately, your body can heal with time and safely absorb a certain amount of trauma. But if more trauma is placed into the bucket than can be absorbed by the natural healing process, the result can be pain and impaired movement. This is potentially what may happen over time with the increasing use of these hand held devices.

The other risk to our bodies will come from the position we are actually using the devices in. Sitting slouched on the sofa, with our heads bent down will put considerable strain on our backs & necks. The same micro-trauma can occur in these areas of our body too, over time leading to back, neck & arm pain.

Given that these devices are relatively new, their full impact on our bodies may not yet have reached our consciousness. However, as always, it’s better to prevent the potential problems. At goPhysio we are already seeing an increasing number of injuries where hand held devices could have contributed. Education & awareness is key to help minimise the potential problems.

I’ll post another blog soon on the best ways to potentially avoid the strain on your body. In the meantime, enjoy using your smartphone or tablet! They really have transformed our lives in many very positive ways!!

p.s. There are some really interesting statistics published by OFCOM here on the use of smartphones.

I couldn’t bear it though, so went to see Paul at goPhysio. Paul advised me that it wasn’t bursitis but it was in fact something called ‘piriformis syndrome’. This was caused by a combination of tight, inflexible & weak muscles around my hip (a common problem apparently).

Paul used a combination of acupuncture, soft tissue massage & exercises to treat my hip pain. I wasn’t keen on having acupuncture but Paul explained the treatment very thoroughly and showed me the needles, which were very thin. In just 4 sessions I was pain free without the need of a steroid injection. I am still doing my exercises religiously!

A big thank you to Paul and everyone at goPhysio. They will be the first people i call if I have any injuries or pain in the future!

Trochanteric Bursitis – what is it? The trochanteric bursa sits in-between the layers of muscles and bone around the hip. Sometimes this bursa can become inflamed and very painful & tender. Sometimes this is caused by a direct injury such as a fall, sometimes it can result from an ‘overuse’ injury, however, there is often no known reason for the bursa to become inflamed. It is easy to confuse this problem with a number of other pains that develop around the hip. A thorough assessment is needed to accurately diagnose this type of pain. 

Then through the recommendation of a friend I went to see Paul at goPhysio. Paul used what he called ‘myofascial acupuncture’. This involved targeting the needles at the source of my pain. He also gave me confidence that it was OK to move my neck and some exercises to help get it moving again. Within only a couple of sessions the treatment relieved all my muscle spasm & pain, much to my delight. Without Paul’s treatment I think my neck would have got stiffer and stiffer and the pain would have got worse. He gave me lot’s of advice how to prevent it becoming a problem again too – thinking about my driving and working on my computer especially.

I don’t hesitate to recommend goPhysio now to anyone in pain!

At goPhysio, our Physiotherapists often use acupuncture as part of their physiotherapy treatment.

Acupuncture is one of the many skills employed within physiotherapy as part of an integrated approach to the management of pain and inflammation. Physiotherapists base their treatments on scientific research and clinical evidence that Acupuncture can reduce pain by stimulating the brain and spinal cord to produce natural pain-relieving chemicals such as endorphins, melatonin (which promotes sleep) and serotonin (to promote well-being), to name but a few. These chemicals assist the body’s healing processes and offer pain relief as a precursor to other treatments such as manual therapy or exercise in order to aid recovery.

Acupuncture forms part of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). This ancient system of medicine dates back as far as 1000 years BC and is based on a holistic concept of treatment which regards ill health as a manifestation of imbalance in the body’s energy. Re-establishing a correct balance is the aim of TCM. Energy is referred to as Qi, (pronounced chee) and is described in terms of Yin energy – quiet and calm and Yang energy –vigorous and exciting. They are complementary opposites and in health exist in a dynamic but balanced state in the body. Practitioners of TCM believe that stimulating certain Acupuncture points on the body can help to restore the balance between Yin and Yang that becomes disturbed in illness.

AACP members combine TCM principles with scientific evidence as a means of reducing pain and promoting healing, always with the aim of enhancing physiotherapy treatments such as exercise and rehabilitation techniques to promote recovery and improve quality of life.

At goPhysio we use several techniques for applying acupuncture.

Conventional acupuncture

Conventional acupuncture involves the use of single-use, pre-sterilised disposable needles of varying widths, lengths and materials that pierce the skin at the acupuncture points. The physiotherapist will determine the locations of these points on the basis of an assessment of the cause of the imbalance. A number of needles may be used during each treatment, and these are typically left in position for between 20 and 30 minutes before being removed.

Trigger point acupuncture may also be used to facilitate relaxation in specific muscles following traumas, for longer-term unresolved muscle pain, or as a means of increasing muscle length in order to aid stretch and rehabilitation. In the latter case, the needle is inserted into the affected muscle until the tissue is felt to relax under the needle, which is then removed. Trigger point needling often produces an effect much more quickly, and therefore, does not require the 20–30-minute treatment time.

Acupressure

In acupressure treatment, physiotherapists use their hands to activate acupuncture or trigger points in order to relieve muscle tightness, or to stimulate Qi flow and balance the body. It is a healing art in which the fingers are applied to key acupuncture points. The amount of pressure used varies according to the condition and requires trained, sensitive hands. It is often used to treat patients who are sensitive, those with a phobia of needles, children and frail people.

Electroacupuncture

Following a detailed physiotherapy assessment, inserted needles can be coupled to the electrodes of an electroacupuncture machine. These units are designed to deliver variable amplitudes and frequencies of electrical impulses. Low-frequency electroacupuncture is intended to contribute to the mechanism of pain reduction, especially by stimulating chemicals in the brain that aid analgesia, relaxation and sleep.

This technique is particularly useful in chronic pain problems and solid research to supports its use. Your physiotherapist may use transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) machines over specific acupuncture points in order to help this mechanism and enhance pain modulation.

The information in this blog is taken from The Acupuncture Association of Physiotherapists (AACP) website.

If you think acupuncture could benefit you, give us a call on 023 8025 3317 to book an appointment.