It’s a common question to be asked which exercises reduce back pain, the answer often seeming to be pilates or other “core” exercise. The idea being that a weak core means that you are over stressing weak back and core muscles and pilates addresses these issues.
Continue reading “Which exercise reduce back pain? Pilates? Walking?”
It’s a common question to be asked what is the best exercise for lower back pain, the answer often seeming to be pilates or other “core” exercise. The idea being that a weak core means that you are over stressing weak back and core muscles and pilates addresses these issues.
Continue reading “What are the best exercises for lower back pain?”
Why do I still hurt months after the initial injury or why do I keep hurting my back aren’t uncommon questions that I hear at work. There is no simple answer to these questions though I shall attempt a simplified version of what happens when we injure ourselves. Continue reading “Why do I still hurt months after the injury?”
This paper on the BJSM, Hamstring injuries: prevention and treatment—an update, is a must read for anyone who deals with athletes or are susceptible to hamstring tears
“Despite increased knowledge of hamstring muscle injuries, the incidence has not diminished. We now know that not all hamstring injuries are the same and that certain types of injuries require prolonged rehabilitation and return to play. The slow stretch type of injury and injuries involving the central tendon both require longer times to return to play. A number of factors have been proposed as being indicators of time taken to return to play, but the evidence for these is conflicting. Recurrence rates remain high and it is now thought that strength deficits may be an important factor. Strengthening exercise should be performed with the hamstrings in a lengthened position. There is conflicting evidence regarding the efficacy of platelet-rich plasma injection in the treatment of hamstring injuries so at this stage we cannot advise their use. Various tests have been proposed as predictors of hamstring injury and the use of the Nordboard is an interesting addition to the testing process. Prevention of these injuries is the ultimate aim and there is increasing evidence that Nordic hamstring exercises are effective in reducing the incidence. “
These free workbook by Greg Lehman is well worth downloading whether you are a therapist or somebody in pain. Used as part of one of Greg’s workshops it is full of very useful information from deconstructing some of the myths surrounding pain to how to choose and set realistic goals.
There have been a few stories out this week with titles such as “Fast running is as deadly as sitting on a couch, scientists find” , “Stop binge jogging” , “Too much jogging ‘as bad as none at all'” after an article was published in the Journal of the American College Cardiology about the Copenhagen City Heart Study. The study found that light to moderate running was associated with living longer in comparison to being sedentary but running more often/strenuously did not. There were some serious limitations in the study as pointed out in this article about the reactionary press response on the NHS website and that Alex at Sweat Science , who is always worth a read, point out. Continue reading “Running to much is dangerous. Really?”
This is a great little video that explains that though we all experience pain we all experience pain differently. Put together by Karen D. Davis, PhD. Karen is a Professor in the Department of Surgery and Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto, and heads the Division of Brain, Imaging and Behaviour – Systems Neuroscience at the Toronto Western Research Institute.
The study talks about exercising 3x a week for 30 minutes in healthy individuals. If we are talking about those suffering from chronic pain we might want to increase the frequency but decrease the length of time. Even going for a very short walk of 5 minutes at a time can make a significant impact. From there we can increase the number per day and then perhaps the number of times per day but the bottom line is that easy effort aerobic exercise is good for dealing with pain.
I picked this one up on Facebook and it’s a nice follow on from yesterday’s video on brain smudging. How can brain plasticity improve your marathon time? It’s also well worth checking out the article linked at the end of the blog post.
I’ve mentioned previously about how little our static posture relates to back pain and that it is the lack of movement that is more likely to be implicated in any issue we may have. Getting more movement into the day is crucial and Richmond Stace at the Specialist Pain Physio put it really well in these 3 points. Continue reading “Posture in the real world”