Getting fit in 2013? Kick-start the New Year with Chart Clinic’s exercise tips…

The end of the festive season sees millions of people in Britain pledge to make a New Year’s resolution. Unfortunately many of these good intentions will be abandoned by the end of January.

A December of office parties, entertaining and overindulging through the Christmas holiday are a great reason to make us want to kick-start 2013 with a healthy diet and some exercise.

Exercise related injuries are a regular occurrence in the New Year, something that we see all too frequently at our Reigate clinic.

If getting fit is on the top of your list, here are a few tips to keep you motivated and avoid injury - the two leading causes of quitting an exercise program.

• Pick a type of exercise you will enjoy– you are more likely to keep at it.
• Perform a warm up routine and stretch before and after you exercise, also do a warm down afterwards. Doing this before and after exercise decreases the chance of hurting yourself, as muscles are less likely to get injured if they are warm and relaxed.
• Build up slowly, if you haven’t exercised in a while ease yourself back in gently, a beginner to running won’t be able to run a marathon right away, mix brisk walking with some light jogging and increase distances gradually.
• Even if you are not a beginner to a sport, think about taking some coaching or a lesson. Improving your technique will decrease your chances of picking up an injury.
• Avoid being a ‘weekend warrior’ by spreading exercise throughout the week. Overdoing it at the weekend will put you more at risk of injury.
• Listen to your body. Pain, swelling and stiffness are your body’s way of telling you to ease back on an exercise routine. If you find that these symptoms do not resolve themselves, or are beyond what you consider normal, it may be time to seek medical attention.
• Prevent injury, and boredom, by balancing cardiovascular exercise, weight training and stretching in your exercise routine.
• If in doubt ask, seek advice from a professional, sports injury specialists can offer advice on taking up an exercise regime and injury care.

Wishing you a Happy New Year and a New You, Good luck!

To find out more how an Osteopath or Sports Massage can help you, or for more information visit our website www.chartclinic.co.uk or call 01737 248 023

 

Tennis Warm ups & Tennis Elbow (Not just for tennis players!)

Well the 2012 Wimbledon tournament is over, many of us may still be wallowing in disappointment after Andy Murray made a heroic effort in an amazing final yesterday, but as we all know Roger Federer proved just why he has so many titles to his name, what a match!

Well done Andy, you made us all proud!

The excitement of Wimbledon often inspires many of us to dust of our trainers and tennis racket and hit the court for a game.

What is often neglected is a warm up and cool down, this useful article gives a guide for this and is worthwhile taking into consideration before playing tennis this summer:

http://www.realbuzz.com/articles/warm-up-and-stretching-for-tennis-players-gb-en/

Tennis Elbow

With regard to Tennis Elbow, this is quite an interesting injury as you don’t have to have played tennis to suffer with it. The medical name for this condition is Lateral Epicondylitis, essentially pain in or around the outside of the elbow at the common extensor tendon insertion, located at  the part or the Humerus bone named lateral epicondyle.

It’s very common in tennis players (hence the name) and is usually associated with poor technique from back hand swing. But this condition can be seen in office workers, typists, carpenters, gas engineers, plumbers and mechanics.

It is an overuse injury, so it is common with anyone who performs repetitive manual tasks as mentioned above.

Pain arises as a consequence of inflammation of the muscular tendon at the elbow which leads to micro tears of the tendon and subsequent fibrosis of the tissues.

It presents with gradual intermittent pain in the elbow and can be associated with activities such as playing racket sports or working with tools, such as a screwdriver or even typing. Certain movements cause pain like lifting shopping bags or the kettle and even grip strength may be affected.

Tennis Elbow, often responds well to manual therapy and in the early stages it’s a good idea to follow RICE (see earlier blog).

If you think you may be suffering with Tennis Elbow, just get in touch with us.

Don’t forget the warm ups and cool downs, and more importantly enjoy the tennis, even though Andy didn’t quite get to be Wimbledon Champion this year, the Olympics are just around the corner, come on Team GB!

For Immediate Treatment Of A Sports Injury, Think R.I.C.E.

This may be obvious to the seasoned athlete but it is worth discussing the significance and reasons behind following the RICE protocol after injury, later on you will appreciate the benefits of this simple form of first aid.

The first 24 hours – Remember this is the most critical time for treatment, immediately after an acute soft tissue injury. When you injure a soft tissue such as a muscle, ligament, or tendon there is a very likely chance of injuring blood vessels too. As a result blood gathers around damaged tissues causing compression within the neighbouring tissues, which causes a secondary ‘Hypoxic’ injury that deprives the tissues of oxygen, causing more harm. As a result, every attempt should be made to decrease the bleeding at the injured area. This is where RICE comes in, a simple mnemonic to summarise 4 actions to take after injury:

Rest

Ice

Compression

Elevation

So why follow RICE and what does it do?

Rest

Where possible following injury, you should try and stop activity to reduce the bleeding and swelling. If you injured say, the muscles in the back of your lower leg (calf) bleeding will increase as you exercise these muscles whilst running. If your injury is so severe that you cannot walk without limping, then a rest from weight bearing can be achieved by using crutches for a lower body injury or a sling for an upper body injury.

Ice

Straight after injury ice is mainly used to slow down the rate at which the soft tissues work and respire. Later on after the acute phase of injury, ice may be used as therapeutic treatment for its pain-relieving affect. There are numerous ways to apply ice, this could be crushed ice wrapped in a damp cloth or tea-towel, reusable frozen gel packs or immersing injured area in a bucket of icy water. Cold water and cooling sprays are often used but these rarely penetrate enough to affect the deeper tissues. Opinions vary for how long and how often to apply ice, but a useful guide is to generally apply ice for 15 minutes every 1-2 hours, steadily reducing the time of applications over the next 24 hours. Care should be taken to protect the skin with a towel or similar barrier to avoid the ice burning the skin or causing nerve damage. People with cold allergy or peripheral vascular disorders such as Raynaud’s phenomenon should not apply ice to treat an injury.

Compression

Compression of the injured area with a firm bandage reduces bleeding and, as a result decreases swelling. It is important to apply compression during and after the application of ice, so make sure a bandage is applied throughout. The size of the bandage is dependent on the size of the injured area and should be cut accordingly. Tubigrip type bandages come in a variety of sizes and widths. The bandage should feel firm but not so tight that it aggravates painful symptoms. If bandaging from a roll, the application should start at the furthest point away, wrapping each layer so it overlaps the layer below by half and should continue to extend upwards to at least one hands width higher above the margin of the injury.

Elevation

Elevating the injured area can be accomplished by using a sling for upper limb injuries and by resting the lower limb on a chair, cushions or bucket. For this to be effective the lower limb must be elevated higher than your hips/pelvis, this enables gravity to draw away fluid accumulation at the injured area and therefore decrease pressure within the fluids that bathe all the surrounding tissues around the injury.

Remember this advice is for a soft tissue injury, If you are in any way concerned that your injury is more severe in nature, it is vital that you seek medical advice immediately.

Once you feel more comfortable and the initial swelling and inflammation is more bearable it is then time to seek the advice from a musculo-skeletal specialist such as an Osteopath, Physiotherapist, or Sports Therapist.

Follow the advice of an injury professional, in addition to therapy, you may need to do exercises and follow a rehab programme.

Finally, whatever you do avoid the temptation to return to your sport too soon. Be guided by your therapist and rest for as long as is required, or you could end up doing more damage and need even longer away from activity.

At Chart Clinic, we are happy to discuss your individual situation and advise you the best course of action for your injury, so do feel free to get in contact.

Reference:

Brukner and Khan, Clinical Sports Medicine 3e, McGraw-Hill Professional (2007)

Getting fit in 2012? Kick-start January with our new year’s resolution fitness tips!

The end of the festive season sees around 34 million Brit’s pledge to make a New Year’s resolution; did yours make the top ten? Unfortunately about 40% of these good intentions will be abandoned by the end of January. 

TOP 10 NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR 2012

1.     Become more physically fit

2.     Improve financial condition

3.     Improve health

4.     Lose weight

5.     Read more

6.     Change overall attitude: be more positive

7.     Improve family relationships

8.     Travel more

9.     Do more volunteer work

10.  Improve other relationships (friends, co-workers, neighbours)

A December of office parties, entertaining and overindulging through the Christmas holiday are a great reason to make us want to kick-start 2012 with a healthy diet and some exercise.

Exercise related injuries are a regular occurrence in the New Year, something that we see all too frequently at our Reigate clinic.

If getting fit is on the top of your list, here are a few tips to keep you motivated and avoid injury - the two leading causes of quitting an exercise program.

• Pick a type of exercise you will enjoy– you are more likely to keep at it.

• Perform a warm up routine and stretch before and after you exercise, also do a warm down afterwards. Doing this before and after exercise decreases the chance of hurting yourself, as muscles are less likely to get injured if they are warm and relaxed.

• Build up slowly, if you haven’t exercised in a while ease yourself back in gently, a beginner to running won’t be able to run a marathon right away, mix brisk walking with some light jogging and increase distances gradually.

• Even if you are not a beginner to a sport, think about taking some coaching or a lesson. Improving your technique will decrease your chances of picking up an injury.

• Avoid being a ‘weekend warrior’ by spreading exercise throughout the week. Overdoing it at the weekend will put you more at risk of injury.

• Listen to your body. Pain, swelling and stiffness are your body’s way of telling you to ease back on an exercise routine. If you find that these symptoms do not resolve themselves, or are beyond what you consider normal, it may be time to seek medical attention.

• Prevent injury, and boredom, by balancing cardiovascular exercise, weight training and stretching in your exercise routine.

• If in doubt ask, seek advice from a professional, sports injury specialists can offer advice on taking up an exercise regime and injury care.

Wishing you a Happy New Year and a New You, Good luck!

To find out more how an Osteopath or Sports Massage can help you, or for more information visit our website www.chartclinic.co.uk.