Conditions we Treat

Lower Back Pain to Full Injury Rehab

Conditions

Physios can treat many conditions. Many are not aware of how many common ailments exist that can be treated by physios that traditionally it has been understood that rest is the best remedy.

Chronic Pain

Many people have had their problems for a long while not knowing how to deal with it or simply because they thought the pains will go away. However, once the pain has been there for a while it becomes gradually more chronic. Meaning that a degeneration process has started and often they take more time to heal. However, most of the time there is a solution. But the sooner you can have an injury treated the better before it becomes chronic!

Acute Injuries

If you've just injured yourself then that is the best time to see a physio and gain the best advice.
There may be nothing that a physio can help with but you will be pointed in the right direction. More than likely we can help you get things right and provide exercises to enable you to get better quicker and avoid any symptom deteriorating .

Hip Impingement

Often described as an uncomfortable “pinching sensation” when bringing the hip towards the chest. Perhaps you can also feel it while sitting, cycling or in your daily activities. There are many tests we can do to identify whether it is a muscle or an actual joint impingement. Most people worry because the pain can be quite sharp but we can always change the soft tissue to gradually improve. In some cases, further investigation is required where there is cartilage injury or any other damaged structure.

Lower Back Pain

LBP is one of the most common injuries suffered by the general population. When you experience lower back pain in can be invalidating and lead to many weeks of work absence. LBP can have different causes but disc pathologies are the usual ones.
Because we spend a lot of time sitting on chairs, we slouch and compress the disc at the front. This makes the disc gradually move backwards and compress the nerves at the back. Then when we try to lift something or even just bending forwards, the amount of force going through your vertebrae could be 300kg or more and sends the disc back creating a nerve impingement, bulging disc or herniated disc.
The best way to treat this, depending on the injury is through deep tissue massage and passive mobilisations to try to move the disc forwards and decompress the nerve.

Sciatica

Many people have experienced un uncomfortable nervy feeling travelling from the lower back, through the glutes and down the back of the legs. This throbbing pain can be constant and very annoying. This nerve impingement could be happening at the lower back vertebras or at the glute level, where the piriformis muscle is. Trigger point release, deep tissue massage and posterior chain neural stretches usually work great for this type of injuries.

Arthiritis

As we get older our joints get less hydrated and the cartilage suffers wear and tear. This can be a painful process, making our joint feel very stiff in the morning. We can help you in doing the correct exercises that can provide pain relief and better mobility. There are also supplements that you can take to help you keep your joints better nurture. Often people experience decreasing the pain levels and are able to maintain their mobility. However, depending on the severity of the symptoms, the symptom might still remain the same.

Tendinopathies

After an acute inflammation process, the tendon can degenerate. Due to the poor blood supply that tendons have they are unable to heal properly and they start suffering micro-tears that can be very painful and can lead to muscle weakness. Through our deep tissue massage, soft mobilisation techniques, Graston and exercises we can help you recover from this type of unpleasant injuries.

Plantar Fasciitis

This one is a very common type of injury that often develops into tendinopathy. As the name suggests, most people believe it’s an inflammation of the plantar tendon. However, the most recent studies suggest that actually it’s a degeneration of the tendon. Due to this sometimes it could be a very hard injury to overcome.

Shin Splints

Very common in runners and footballers it’s often described as a sharp pain on the shin that can get worse the harder we train or bounce on the floor. In this type of injury deep tissue massage, acupuncture, trigger points and stretches are very helpful. A period of less loading should accompany the rehab to allow the bone to heal as we off load the muscle causing the problem. We will also look at running biomechanics.

Golfer’s Elbow

As the name, itself suggests. Golfer's elbow is an injury that often appears when playing the golf. The flexors of the wrist get tight and then pull from the origin on the medial side of the epicondyle or elbow bone. Although it’s common in golfers it is also affecting a large volume of people that carry heavy weights or lift heavy weights in the gym. Usually, it’s very tender at the origin of the muscle where the tendons are, so we work by offloading the flexors muscles, usually with deep tissue massage. Kinesio tape around the epicondyle works very well and acupuncture as well.

Tennis Elbow

The opposite side of the golfer's elbow, located on the lateral side of the epicondyle at the elbow. The treatment techniques are similar to the one for golfers elbow. However this often is accompanied by tightness on the back, near the thoracic spine and shoulder rotator cuff. Trigger points are a great treatment method to offload the tension on the extensors muscles.

Trapped Nerve

Depending on the severity, it may take weeks or months. We just need to understand the exact cause. But generally speaking, if it's a muscle we need to work on releasing the tension and stretching it.
There are lots of things we can do to help, depending on the cause. We can stretch the nerve itself, we can mobilise the joints and treat any soft tissue that could be compressing the nerve. Sometimes unfortunately the nerve could be damaged and we need to allow time for it to heal

ACL Injury

Thanks to my background I have dealt with many ACL injuries in my career, and I'm super confident in this area. They are difficult injuries and when it’s a full rupture, they often require surgery. If you have opted for surgery, we can help you at any stage and get you back at your best level and with confidence. The recovery times vary, but usually, it takes 3 months for gym base work, another 3 months for specific sport retraining and 3 months for a return to sport. On average it will take 9 months to get you back fully

Knee Medial Ligament Strains

A very common injury that occurs when we've had a fall or left our foot planted and twisted our body during sporting activities. Depending on the degree of severity it can take from a couple of weeks to a few months. The less aggressive ones often require a period of healing and strengthening exercises. Graston technique and Specific Soft Tissue Mobilisation work great to help to heal it faster.

Rotator Cuff Injuries

They can be very complicated as the shoulder joint has many muscles entering and exiting whilst space is limited. Posture has a big effect on this type of injury. Often due to overuse or shoulder instability can lead to a rotator cuff injury. They are 4 muscles in charge of the stability of the shoulder when rotation the arm. 2 muscles rotate the shoulder internally and 2 rotate externally. For this type of injury a lot off deep tissue massage is required, SSTM, exercises to stabilise the shoulder and stretches to help mobility. Pectoral and anterior deltoid stretches often help to stop taking the shoulder forwards.

Frozen Shoulder

Often develops when an injury to the shoulder occurs and then we just leave it. With time, due to pain, we don’t move it as much and it becomes stiff, to a point where it's frozen and we struggle to move it at all. This can be avoided if you visit your physio as soon as you suspect something is not right. The key thing is to always try to keep your shoulder moving.

Shoulder Impingements

This can lead to a frozen shoulder and a rotator cuff injury. In work or activities where it is required to lift our arm up, or due to bad postural habits can lead us to suffers from shoulder impingement. They are usually solved pretty quickly depending on how long did you suffered from it and what is the cause. If the muscle is the trouble and you only had it for a couple of weeks should be straight forward.

Muscle Tears

They need a period of rest depending on the severity, but after the 3-5 days mobility, it’s recommended. The first few days a type of collagen (glue-like protein) it’s laid on the wound followed by rest. After the 5th day until the 21st, we need another type of stronger collagen that is created through movement all of which is pain-free. If something is painful the best thing is to lower the intensity of the exercises. Gentle massage to clear all the area form unwanted fluid is helpful and later to help heal the scar quicker.

Ankle Sprains

If you practice any type of sport then most likely you have experienced an ankle ligament injury at some point in your life. When they happen, people have the tendency to leave until it stops hurting. However, when they go back to exercise it doesn’t feel the same but feels weak like you could easily twist the ankle again. That’s why early diagnosis and a visit to the physio is important. If you strengthen your ankle at an early stage and with manual therapy and taping you can recover much quicker and when you do go back to exercise, you will feel confident and strong.

Runner Knees

This pain on the anterior tendon of the knee or patella tendon hurts when overloading it or when our running mechanics are not great. Usually, with tendon mobilisations, transverse friction and by stretching and strengthening the quad we can get rid of this pain.

Headaches + Migraine

A lot of people suffer from headaches and migraines but they never go to a manual therapist, they would choose go to the doctors which it is then highly probable that they would just be recommended pain killers, anti-inflammatories etc…
What we have found is that by releasing the tension in the anterior and posterior part of the neck relieve the symptoms considerably. Later we need to look at the posture and pelvis dealignment as these tow things could be the cause of the symptoms.