Better Moves Physiotherapy

Restore, Improve & Enhance Optimal Movement

Long distance running is one of the most accessible forms of exercise and is a great way to increase your cardiovascular health, and lower body strength and endurance.

There are fun runs in Melbourne almost every weekend, and whether you run for pure enjoyment or to enter into these runs for results, there is always room to improve your running technique, efficiency and subsequently, your performance! Since most people start running without getting a running coach, here are 5 tips to take your running to the next level!

1. Target muscular endurance and aerobic capacity in separate sessions!

In order to run faster for longer, you’ll need both your lungs and heart to keep up but also your leg muscles to last the distance. Include longer runs each week as well as shorter and faster runs to target both systems and increase your ability!

2. Do strength training on top of your running

Research consistently shows that doing strength training 3x weekly as well as running training yields improvements in running speed and endurance by a whopping 25% (Storen et al, 2008; Yamamoto et al, 2008)! This is because stronger and bigger muscles will be better at developing force, shock absorption, and make running less effortful.

The main muscle groups involved in running that shoulder be targeted in strength training are:

• Glutes

• Hamstrings

• Quads

• Calves

• Hip flexors

• Groin

3. Watch your technique

When you run, think about pulling the ground vs reaching for the ground in front of you, and keep a slight forward torso. Keep your shoulders relaxed and eyes slightly forward.

These cues will improve running economy (And therefore speed) and reduce the stress through the joints and soft tissues of the lower limbs for injury prevention.

 4. Pay attention to the your ankle/foot mobility

This is a HUGE aspect of running economy and injury prevention, which is often forgotten about. Every step you take has 3x your bodyweight in forces going into your feet, and this is over 10,000 steps per 8km. The more mobile your foot/ankle is, the more you will be able to absorb this shock and spring back from the ground more quickly.

Make sure you are regularly stretching your calves, and mobilise your ankles, arches and toes when you’re sitting for breakfast, in front of the tv or in bed. This can be as simple as spreading your toes, lifting your big toe up while keeping the little toes down, doing ankle circles etc.

 5. Prevent rather than fix!

Once you have an injury, you may have to take time off running and undergo months of rehab.

The best way is to stay on top of your strength and mobility work, and practice good technique and programming of your running so that you are doing as much as you can to be the best runner than you can, but steering away from injury!

If you want to have your running gait assessed, be provided with a strength and conditioning program for injury prevention/running performance or need to fix a current pain or injury, book online to see  Gabby

We are physiotherapists located in Kilsyth and Knoxfield – helping you be better by restoring, improving & enhancing your optimal movement!

By now it should come as no surprise that voltaren is a product commonly used for pain, swelling, bruising, muscular aches,

osteoarthritis, stiffness and inflammation. But when should we really be using it, and do we use the tablets or cream?”

When to use (Voltaren) Diclofen Tablets?
Most evidence can show effective analgesic properties in the short term. Therefore, injuries such as acute ligament sprains, muscle strains, and tendon injuries. However, length of treatment should always be kept as short as possible, with consideration of the specific type of injury, level of function, and pain.
If you have no other co-existing medical issues 1 box (10 days as per instructions) of the tablet is okay – Any longer get assessed by your Physio to determine how else, you can self-manage the pain

Cream Vs Tablet
The topical cream has show to be just as effectives as a dosage of 50mg 3 times daily. Although the oral tablet is rapidly absorbed after administration and has a short half-life of 1–2 hours there can be serious side effects of the drug.

Can You use Both?

For short periods it is okay. However if you can manage without the tablets you will have a much better progression in the healing process. Voltaren should just be used when there is pain. Research shows that NSAIDs (Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs) suppress the platelet expression of enzymes present (in the blood) during an inflammatory process and therefore inhibits the resolution of inflammation as prostaglandins (these are normally made during tissue damage) cannot be biosynthesized and therefore tissue healing does not occur well when taking the medication.

How can I make it more effective?
Try increasing your exercise expenditure. Optimal loading will help to increase blood flow to the painful area helping to increase the efffectiveness of the diclofenac. If you are unsure what exercises you can be doing. See the physiotherapist to advise your properly. Another reason to get into the physio is for massage. Massage has shown to increase the effects of the topical cream and pain relief to the injured site.

Tips
*Fisiocrem won’t dry out your skin
* There are minimal risks with using the cream compared to the Oral tablets

* If you’re injury is muscular in nature such as a strained muscle or sprained ligament creams that have methly siliciate will provide more heat allowing increased blood flow to the area to assist with healing. IF it is more inflammatory in nature e,g, bursitis use a cream that mainly has an anti-inflammatory agent.
*If you want to use the cream on a large surface area probably better to use a natural product like fisiocrem and the tablets to compliment each other and you won’t have to worry about the absorption of diclofen both subcateously and systemically.

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We are physiotherapists located in Kilsyth and Knoxfield – helping you be better by restoring, improving & enhancing your optimal movement!

Crossfit is taking over the world and Crossfit Knoxfield is not just another CrossFit box. With ‘Decades of experience and knowledge in the industry to create the best environment and workout’ their coaches qualifications are second to none. The Owner and Head Coach Simon Lee is also an Osteopath. With other coaches having up to Masters level 2 qualifications, experience in the Commonwealth Games and Regional Games they never fall short on structured evidence based workouts.

All self designed by Simon Lee with clear warm ups, strength and conditioning components and cardio elements their well rounded daily “WODs” [workout of the day] are always delivered with technique, movement education and precision. This background in health and understanding of movement gives Simon the ability to ‘easily scale down workouts for different needs, injuries and capabilities.’

It’s not just about lifting heavy or being the fastest. One example are their barbell classes. These are designed to teach you the principles of movement in a small and safe environment the other athletes literally like family all supporting your learning and encouraging everyone to do their best. According to coach Adam “no matter what fitness capabilities you have, the program will always allows you push yourself beyond any boundaries and exceed expectations”.

The box also offers other services such as:

• Physiotherapy (Better Moves Physiotherapy)

• Sports Massage

• Personal Training

• Bae for a day Competition

• Barbell Classes

The complete package of any elite studio helping anybody increase their cardiovascular endurance, strength and fitness. To check out the Crossfit Knoxfield website click here.

To check out Better Moves Physiotherapy and Crossfit Knoxfield click here

or book online below. Available Tuesdays from 17th April 2018 – Stay tuned for updates on services available on Thursdays and Sundays.

How to optimise your activity levels for recovery of your Achilles Tendinopathy?

Achilles Tendinopathy is the overuse condition of your Achilles Tendon as a result of excessive high load activities such as walking, running, jumping etc.

Tendons are structured to be able to store and release energy, which is seen in the Achilles Tendon as force production for locomotion.

In order to function as a healthy tendon, optimal loading is required so that the tendon can function and adapt to become stronger. An example of this is starting a running program and slowly building up running distance and frequency.

In some cases, people get too excited and jump into an intense training program with a lot of running or jumping at a level that they are not capable to tolerate, because the tendons are unable to undergo the natural repair process with such level of loading.

When this happens, the tendon goes through three main stages:

1. Reactive tendinopathy:

Thickening of the tendon as a heightened response to take on load. Collagen or blood vessel structure remains normal.

2.Tendon disrepair:

Further thickening causes the extracellular matrix and collagen structure to become disorganised – This causes weakening of the tendon

3. Denegerative tendinopathy:

Progression of matrix disorganisation and cell degeneration and death.

It is important to implement optimal loading and modify your activity levels to return the tendon back to a healthy state. Complete rest will lead to weakening of the tendon and atrophy of the calf muscles. Continuing too much activity will cause your tendinopathy to progress past stage 1 and towards the later stages, where your symptoms will be much more severe, rehab will take longer and you may sustain irreversible damage to your tendons.

Firstly, reflect on the amount of activity you have been doing in the weeks leading up to your first symptoms of Achilles Tendinopathy.

• How much have you increased the distance (Kilometers), duration (Time per session or week), frequency (Sessions per week) and intensity (Hills, stairs, speed work) of your training program?

• Have you increased your workload significantly in a small amount of time?

As mentioned above, complete rest is rarely the ‘Optimal loading’ strategy. Aim to reduce your training parameters to what you were doing previously before you started noticing any symptoms. Another option is to cut back by one parameter at a time, and re-assess whether your symptoms remain or improve.

This should help to improve the acute soreness in your Achilles region. In the meantime, you still need to partake in specific programmed exercises to strengthen up the calves and Achilles tendon so that they can get stronger and increase overall capacity for load. With proper modification of load and exercise programming, you should be able to build-up your training intensity and load again, but the next time, without the re-occurance of an Achilles Tendinopathy.

To get Physiotherapy advice on optimal loading and specific treatment and prescription of strengthening exercises,

We Service

We are physiotherapists located in Kilsyth and Knoxfield – helping you be better by restoring, improving & enhancing your optimal movement!

What are Sports Therapists?

Sports Therapy is a profession aimed towards treating active people. The therapists are able to assess, treat and manage muscular conditions with a range of therapies to changes someones movement and mobility. Sports therapists are becoming quite popular providers in the sports industry with many working with elite sporting clubs and athletes. Since its creation as a new discipline back in 1990 as a sub-section of Physiotherapy, Sports therapists have adopted many skills of a Physiotherapist in sports and exercise contexts but not in healthcare contexts.

What Can Sports Therapists do?

They have a clearly defined scope of practice; This means If a client has complex injuries, conditions or health and fitness needs they should be seen by someone that can provide and develop an appropriate treatment and management plan.

A sports therapist may assist with:

• Injury Prevention

• Recognition & evaluation Management of a particular injury

• Exercise a treatment plan & referral to a specialist or more advance healthcare provider for advice and intervention.

• Educate clients about their Rehabilitation

Sports Therapists and Physiotherapists

Since sports therapists have many skills of a Physiotherapist they can often dual treat musculoskeletal origins of pain and injury. But how do you pick a therapist that is going to work for you?
Often it comes down to the following three aspects:

• Education

• Experience

• Rapport

Many clinics will have both professions working in a team working on similar clientele. Since sports therapists can do a lot of Physiotherapy techniques required to manage active people they are used just as often as Physio’s. However when there is not a clear diagnosis of a condition the Physiotherapist must be the “go-to” professional.

When to see a Physio over a Sports Therapist?

A physiotherapist is a “first contact” healthcare provider. They can provide a diagnosis much like a doctor can. Unlike Sports Therapists/ Exercise Physiologists/ Myotherapists/Massage Therapists and Personal Trainers their education level and regulations omit them from doing this. A physiotherapist is the most commonly referred to allied health provider by GPs in Australia. This is attributed to “The depth and breadth of conditions that physio’s treat” as shown on the  APA National Advertising Campaign .

 If a clear diagnosis has been made Sports therapists can continue to carry out an appropriate treatment and management plan.

We treat clients from
City of Knox: Bayswater, Boronia, Ferntree Gully, Knoxfield, Lysterfield, Rowville, Scoresby, The Basin, Upper Ferntree Gully, Wantirna, Wantirna South
and the City of Maroondah: Bayswater North, Croydon,Croydon Hills, Croydon North, Croydon South, Heathmont, Kilsyth (part),Kilsyth South, Park Orchards (part), Ringwood, Ringwood East, Ringwood North (part), Vermont (part), Warranwood and Wonga Park (part).

We Service

We are physiotherapists located in Kilsyth and Knoxfield – helping you be better by restoring, improving & enhancing your optimal movement!