rehabilitation

Plantar Fascitis

by (Physiotherapist)

Plantar FasciitisFoot pain in the morning?

Been running a lot lately and heel or foot starts to hurt at the beginning of a run and goes away?

Feeling tender on the “arch” of your foot?

Have you answered YES to any of these questions?

You might have Plantar Fascitis or Plantar Heel Pain.

What is Plantar Fascitis?

Plantar means sole of the foot and fasciitis means inflammation of the fascia of a muscle or organ. When put together you have inflammation of the fascia on your foot. This fascia is a band that originates from your heel and continues until your mid foot, then slowly divides into 5 bands to each of your toes.

Where is the pain located in Plantar Fascitis?

Normally most of the pain would come from your heel and it would feel tender in your arch of your foot.

Did you know?

In walking that fascia absorbs 1.1 times your body weight and when you are running it doubles to 2.5 times!

What are the risk factors of Plantar Fascitis? Plantar Fasciitis

1. Pes cavus (claw foot) or pes planus (flat foot) deformity

2. Excessive pronation (rolling) of your foot

3. High impact / weight bearing activities such as … read more »

Cold Therapy and Breathing Our Way To Less Stress

by (Osteopath)

Cold Therapy & Breathing Our Way To Less Stress!

Cold TherapyWith the global covid-19 pandemic taking the forefront of our lives this year, we can see the implications that an increased stress can take on our health, relationships and many other facets of our lives. Many of us manage try to manage our stress differently, from walking more, working out more or taking up meditation and mindfulness practices to name a few.

I came across a man named Wim Hof a year ago, a Dutch man nicknamed “The Iceman” who is known for breaking a number of records related to cold exposure including climbing Mt Kilamanjaro in shorts, running a half marathon above the Artic Circle barefoot, and standing in a container while covered with ice cubes for 112 minutes.

Wim has made it his mission to share his learned methods, “The Wim Hof Method” to the rest of the world to enable you to take control of your thoughts, emotions and your body. Built on three fundamental pillars of BREATHING, COMMITMENT and CONTROLLED EXPOSURE TO COLD.

The breathing method in itself will be very beneficial even if you don’t take a cold shower, as it helps to regulate the body. … read more »

Telehealth Frequently Asked Questions

by (Physiotherapist)

Here are some frequently asked questions we get around Telehealth consultations!

Teleconsult

What are Telehealth consultations?

Essentially Telehealth consultations are a form of online consultation that allows patients to receive essential health services without direct physical contact. Not only this, but Telehealth provides an alternative for people who are overseas, home-bound or unable to make it to the clinic for any reason.

Telehealth consultations can be done from the comfort of your own home at a time convenient for you. In the event you sustain an injury or are managing a condition previously treated with allied health consultations, Telehealth allows us to help you, so you may back to doing the things you love as soon as possible.

Are there any conditions/injuries you can’t treat though Telehealth?

In short, the answer is no. There is always something that can be done to carry out assessments and treatments via Telehealth. While we can’t apply “hands-on” techniques like massage, manipulations and dry needling, there is research that shows the effectiveness of Telehealth consultations.

As healthcare professionals, we are trained in exercise prescription, active (patient-involved) rehabilitation, lifestyle advice, workplace modifications and self-treatment techniques. Current research supports these “active” techniques in producing long-term health benefits.

… read more »

10 ways to make your ACL rehab easier!

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10 ways to make your ACL rehab easier!

Having an ACL reconstruction is never going to be easy, having gone through one myself in 2017 I can tell you it’s no walk in the park. However, there are ways to make life a bit more bearable – especially in the first few weeks. Ashby

1) Get a plastic chair for the shower

This might sound silly but after your surgery you’ll experience a significant feeling of instability, and the last thing you need is a slippery shower floor increasing that unstable feeling.
I found that putting a plastic chair in the shower is an easy way to feel safe in the shower during those first two to three weeks while you work on getting your knee nice and stable.

2) Change up your theraband position for leg extensions at home

If you’re working on waking up that pesky VMO at home. You’re most likely doing some form of leg extensions. A common form of this are sitting down using a theraband. Now what can commonly happen (and what happened to me) is that the theraband slides up the leg, which can be annoying and uncomfortable. However, if you twist the theraband … read more »

Knee pain and the hip-knee continuum.

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Knee pain and the hip-knee continuum.

Knee pain in the gym recently? It might be time to load up the hips!

Knee pain is one of the most common presentations we see here at Stay Tuned Sports Medicine and it affects 25% of adults at some stage in their lives (Nguyen et al., 2012). In active populations we see a number of conditions affect the knee such as patella tracking syndrome, osteoarthritis, patella tendinopathy, fat pad impingement, and more.

Unfortunately, we often see clients opt to rest these injuries and skip lower body exercises (or skip entire classes!) rather than modify the exercise to suit their needs. While this may temporarily relieve the pain, as soon as you go back to lower body exercises the pain will be as severe or worse than before due to the tissues becoming weaker and less able to tolerate the load needed to perform these exercises.

So what can we do?

A great way to modify lower body exercises is to shift away from knee dominant exercises and move towards more hip-dominant exercises.

As shown below, exercises such as lunges and squats have a strong focus on knee movement and a large amount of … read more »

Should you rest after an injury?

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Should you rest after an injury?

Perhaps not.

Traditionally, our immediate response to a musculoskeletal injury is to rest and let the body heal itself, after all everyone who has done basic first aid knows that the R in R.I.C.E. is rest!

However, the importance on rest has been greatly overemphasised in the past and this thinking has perpetuated to this day, even though we have more and more evidence telling us that this may not be the best thing to do, and may even cause harm.

The reason for this is that these types of injuries cause a decrease in our body’s function (our body’s ability to move and perform activity) therefore to recover from these injuries we must focus on improving our body’s function, rather than not moving and waiting for the injury to resolve.

Instead of completely resting after an injury, your Osteopath/ Physiotherapist may give you modified exercises that mimic your chosen activity (e.g. walking instead of running). This strategy is known as relative rest, where we decrease the workload on the body but don’t completely remove the workload – known as absolute rest.

For any chronic injuries, such as chronic low back pain, or … read more »

What Exercise Does To Your Body

by (Physiotherapist)

If I told you there was a pill that could improve your lifelong physical, emotional and mental state each day you took it, would you give it a chance?

Evidence from the past 20 years has been pointing to exercise and physical activity as the frontier of preventative medicine and considering the health benefits it has been proven to achieve, it’s really no wonder why.

A FEW BENEFITS OF EXERCISE:

  • Relief of stress & improved mood [6] [12]
  • Higher energy levels [9]
  • Reducing the risk of cardiovascular, neurological and musculoskeletal disease/injury [1] [3]
  • Pain relief [4] [5] [13]
  • Weight loss [8] [10] [11]
  • Improved sleep [14]
  • Improved cognitive function and neural plasticity [2] [7]

A SCIENCE

Exercise isn’t just to make you feel like a guest star on Jane Fonda’s 1986 Jazzercise cassette *insert Jazz hands*. But, in all seriousness, exercise works at a cellular level [5] [6].

Exercise causes an increase in blood flow and our cells’ ability to nourish themselves while removing waste products. This increase in circulation and loading to the body helps with tissue repair, increases bone mineral density and releases endorphins, our feel-good hormones [6] [12].

‘EXERCISE IS MEDICINE’

Exercise may not look … read more »

Hydrotherapy: workout in water!

by (Physiotherapist)

HYDROTHERAPY: Water As A Workout!

And you don’t need to be able to swim!

Research is consistently showing hydrotherapy, or aquatic exercise, to be as effective as land-based exercise in reducing pain and improving function [3][7]. It’s no wonder that hydrotherapy has been used as a treatment modality for hundreds of years!

  • It’s low impact

Great for managing rheumatoid or osteoarthritis, those who have difficulties exercising on land due to impact or pain [4].

  •  Thermotherapy

Relaxes muscles and relives joint stiffness [6].

  • Assists with chronic conditions

Arthritis, Parkinson’s disease, fibromyalgia [6].

  • Preparation for or rehabilitation following joint replacement surgery
  • Facilitating recovery from certain strokes and brain injuries

But what really makes hydrotherapy so effective?

THE AMAZING PROPERTIES OF WATER

Buoyancy – The deeper you are submerged in water, the less you weigh. Exercising in water lessens the effects of impact exercise and relieves the joints of much of your bodyweight [1] [5]. Hence, one can tolerate a variety of exercise with better endurance, technique and reduced or no pain.

Heat – Hydrotherapy pools measure around 34°C in temperature, much warmer than your average lap pool! Heat increases circulation through the body, which can relieve muscle tightness and relieve stiffness in … read more »

My Favourite Exercises

by (Physiotherapist)

My Favourite Exercises!

Exercise is one the most easily prescribed mode of treatment to improve health and wellbeing. There is irrefutable evidence that suggests the beneficial effects of exercise to prevent and treat several diseases. I feel privileged that I am able to use exercise as a form of treatment. In doing so, I always make sure that my client knows what the exercise is, how to do the exercise properly, why we’re doing this exercise and the benefits of the exercise. I always look for exercises where I can get the most benefit, meaning maximizing gains while promoting stability and control. Here are my top three prescribed exercises.

1. Glute Bridges
Personally, I think the gluteals are the most underrated muscle in the body. Some people would prefer bigger chest or back or biceps or triceps. They do not realize that it’s the gluteals that hold everything together. Gluteal muscle strength and endurance play a significant role in injury prevention, normalizing gait pattern and posture, eliminating pain and enhancing athletic performance.

The beauty of performing glute bridges is that unlike any other lower limb or hip exercise, you perform this exercise lying down, knees and feet hip width apart. … read more »

Australian Open Tennis: your personal entourage.

by (Osteopath)

Australian Open Tennis: your personal entourage.

Simon
​
Just a heads up, a little niggle will likely becomes a big niggle after you have played without a prep.

We have just the team, and if you are a tennis player, we can be your own private entourage prepping you for the big game. ????

I’m Simon and a tennis player myself, I love the game, and did my thesis on tennis, studying all the biomechanics, and then went and did a tennis coaching course to really understand how the game is taught at all levels.

I really enjoy linking all these bases of knowledge to help get the best outcome for my fellow tennis tragics!

… read more »