Managing injuries

First and foremost when trying to manage an injury we need to find out what it is. Whether you’re a runner, golfer, footballer, rugby player or any other sport there is generally plenty of advice and suggestions online on how to treat the symptoms that you have. This can be helpful in allowing you to function until you get treatment and perhaps continue to train but unless you’re very lucky the chances of your self diagnosis being correct are slim. This is where coming to see us at Performance Sports Therapy fits into your return to activity as our job is to help identify what the injury is and, perhaps more importantly, what caused it.  Continue reading “Managing injuries”

Flexibility and injury

Todd Hargrove had a great post on his better movement blog; I definitely recommend checking out his site, where he talks about the relationship between flexibility, sports performance and injury prevention. In it he makes some great points on the lack of correlation between flexibility and injury rates. It got me thinking about the issue of improving the range of movement of any joint and how this relates to stretching, of any form, soft tissue work, in the form of hands on and foam roller type work, and strength. Continue reading “Flexibility and injury”

Improving your posture

We see a lot of talk about having good posture and what to do to achieve it but what is good posture? It’s probably easier to think of it as how you would stand if you didn’t sit at a desk for 8 hours a day or hadn’t picked up any injuries from playing your chosen sport. You’re spine has natural curves that get disrupted if you don’t pay attention to how you are sitting and the effects of long periods of doing so even with good posture and what happens to how you move when you get injured. Your hips, knees, ankles, shoulders are all affected by the sitting for long periods and obviously can all be injured playing sport. If your pelvis if not constantly pulled forward and down by overly tight tissues will sit relatively level, your shoulder girdle would sit comfortably back if it wasn’t being pulled forward by your tight pec’s etc (this is simplifying it but you get the point) . All the need for holding yourself in “good posture” would be gone because it would happen on it’s own and a what you may find difficult to do at the moment would be happening without any conscious thought on your part because the imbalances you are trying to counter wouldn’t be there. Continue reading “Improving your posture”

IT Band pain

IT band pain is a common complaint amongst runners and the causes of it often appear to be mysterious but are they really?  The IT band runs down the side of the leg from the iliac crest to the lateral aspect of the tibial plateau on the tibial tubercle. It originates from the fibres of the Gluteal fascia, and the Tensor Fascia Lata and ending where it blends into the fascia of the lower leg around the peroneals and tibialis anterior. Continue reading “IT Band pain”

Runners should do some weight training

I’ve always felt there was a place for weight training in an endurance athlete’s program. Here Carson Boddicker  discusses some of the benefits for runners of including weight training within their schedule. Essentially if you’re stronger you can produce the same force with less effort so in other words you can go faster or further for the same relative effort. Another plus is in helping with injury prevention. If you’re stronger you’ll be more resiliant to the stress you expose yourself to.

Getting more fun out of going for a run

I started and stopped a couple of times last year in trying to add running into my own exercise program as it was just too uncomfortable. Now I’m not against exercise being uncomfortable but there’s a big difference between the discomfort of hard work and feeling like I’m actually damaging my body and it was the latter that I was feeling.  I’d heard Chris McDougall on the radio talking about his book “Born to Run” and had a few conversations with a couple of friends regarding barefoot running and running shoes etc and decided to ditch my nice new trainers. It was the middle winter and I wasn’t all that interested in running barefoot so I stuck a very old pair of Addidas Sambas on instead and went for a run. Continue reading “Getting more fun out of going for a run”