Did you know that your shoe wear can be a powerful indicator of your biomechanics and even your risk of injury? That’s right! The shoes you wear can provide valuable insights into how your body moves and functions during various activities. Let’s dive deeper!
Wear Patterns: Take a close look at the soles of your shoes. Are the wear patterns even or concentrated in specific areas? Irregular patterns could signify imbalances in your foot mechanics, such as overpronation or supination. Identifying these patterns can help us understand how your body compensates and guide us towards the right solutions.
Load Distribution: The distribution of wear on the sole can reveal where your body weight is concentrated during movement. Uneven wear may suggest that certain areas of your feet are under excessive stress or that you’re not distributing weight efficiently. By addressing these imbalances, we can help prevent injuries and improve your overall performance.
Injury Prevention: Your shoes are an essential piece of the puzzle when it comes to injury prevention. Ill-fitting or worn-out footwear can contribute to various issues, including shin splints, plantar fasciitis, and even knee or hip problems. By analysing your shoe wear and considering your biomechanics, we can recommend proper footwear and orthotic solutions tailored to your needs, reducing the risk of injury.
Let’s put your shoe wear under the microscope and pave the way to optimal movement and injury-free activities!
Contact the clinic today on 0578678904 or book now.
Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) and jaw pain can be incredibly debilitating conditions, affecting not just the jaw but also the neck, shoulders, and back. Fortunately, chiropractic care can be an effective treatment for TMD and jaw pain, helping to reduce pain and improve range of motion.
Here are some ways that a chiropractic clinic can help patients with TMD and jaw pain:
Manual adjustments: We can manually adjust the joints of the jaw, neck, and spine to help relieve tension and improve mobility. Chiropractic adjustments can reduce inflammation, improve range of motion, and alleviate pain.
Soft tissue therapy: Soft tissue therapy can be an effective treatment for TMD and jaw pain. Chiropractors can use techniques like trigger point therapy and myofascial release to help loosen tight muscles and reduce inflammation in the affected areas.
Posture correction: Poor posture can contribute to TMD and jaw pain, so we may also work to correct your posture. This can involve exercises to strengthen the muscles that support the jaw and neck, as well as adjustments to the spine to improve overall posture.
Lifestyle changes: Lifestyle changes to help manage TMD and jaw pain. This could include dietary changes to reduce inflammation, stress management techniques, and ergonomic changes to the patient’s work environment.
Overall, chiropractic care can be an effective treatment option for TMD and jaw pain. By addressing the underlying causes of the condition and working to reduce inflammation and improve mobility, chiropractors can help patients find relief from their symptoms and improve their quality of life.
Contact the clinic today on 0578678904 or book now.
Shoulder pain is a common issue for gym-goers, especially those who engage in activities such as weightlifting, running, and other high-impact exercises. This pain can be caused by a variety of factors, including muscle strains, overuse injuries, and even poor posture. Fortunately, there are a variety of treatment options available to help alleviate hip pain, including dry needling and rehabilitation exercises.
Dry needling is a technique that involves inserting thin needles into trigger points in the muscles, which can help relieve pain and improve mobility. We use this technique along with other therapies, such as chiropractic adjustments and Active Release Techniques, to provide comprehensive care for shoulder pain. During a dry needling session, we insert the needles into specific points in the shoulder muscles and rotator cuff, stimulating them to release tension and improve blood flow.
Alongside dry needling, rehabilitation exercises can help to strengthen and stretch the muscles around the shoulder joint and shoulder blade, which can help alleviate pain and prevent future injuries.
If you are experiencing shoulder pain as a result of your gym activities, it is important to seek treatment as soon as possible. Ignoring the pain or continuing to push through it can lead to further injury and prolong your recovery time. In the clinic, we offer a range of treatment options, including dry needling and rehabilitation exercises, to help alleviate shoulder pain and get you back to the gym as quickly and safely as possible. Contact the clinic today on 0578678904 or book now.
Hip pain is a common issue that can affect people of all ages and activity levels. Whether it’s caused by injury, overuse, or underlying conditions such as arthritis, hip pain can significantly impact a person’s quality of life. Fortunately, there are several non-invasive treatment options that can help get rid of your hip pain, including chiropractic care, active release techniques, and dry needling.
Chiropractic care uses hands-on techniques to manipulate the spine and other joints in the body to improve mobility and reduce pain. In the case of hip pain, we may perform adjustments to the pelvis, lower back, or other areas to help relieve pressure on the hip joint.
Dry needling is a technique that involves the insertion of thin needles into trigger points or knots in the muscles. This technique can help to release tension and improve blood flow to the affected area, leading to pain relief and improved function. Dry needling can be particularly effective for hip pain caused by overuse or muscle imbalances.
Active Release Techniques (ART) is a manual therapy that is used to treat soft tissue injuries and conditions. This technique involves the application of pressure to specific areas of the body while the patient performs specific movements. ART can help to break up scar tissue, release tension, and improve mobility in the affected area. For hip pain, ART can be used to address issues such as tight hip flexors, gluteal muscles, or the iliotibial band, which can all contribute to hip pain.
Chiropractic care, ART, and dry needling are all non-invasive treatment options that can help to alleviate hip pain.
If you need help with your pains or just want some advice feel free to contact the clinic today on 0578678904 or book now.
Achilles pain is an incredibly common complaint for runners, but with the right treatment and rehabilitation strategies, you can get back on the track in no time.
The Achilles tendon is the largest and strongest tendon in the body and can be prone to injury due to overuse, tightness, and inflammation. When the Achilles tendon becomes overly strained, it can lead to pain in the heel and calf area, which can make running and exercising difficult.
Fortunately, there are a number of treatments that can help reduce the pain and discomfort associated with Achilles pain. Active Release Techniques (ART) and chiropractic care are two of the most effective methods for treating Achilles tendonitis and other related conditions.
Active Release Techniques involve using a series of targeted soft tissue manipulations to reduce tension, improve range of motion, and help restore the body’s natural balance. During treatment, a practitioner applies a specific pressure and movement to the affected area to break down scar tissue and encourage blood flow. This helps to reduce inflammation and reduce pain.
Chiropractic care is another effective treatment for Achilles tendonitis and other running-related issues. Chiropractors use manual adjustments and other treatments to improve joint mobility and reduce muscle tension. This can help reduce pain and discomfort and improve range of motion.
If you’re experiencing Achilles pain, it’s important to seek professional treatment right away. Active Release Techniques and chiropractic care can be effective treatments for reducing pain and inflammation. Additionally, a personalised exercise program can help you to reduce the risk of injury and get back on the track faster.
If you need help with your pains or just want some advice feel free to contact the clinic today on 0578678904 or book now.
There are many ways to help increase the amount you walk and to get more steps in. But normally people focus on small ways to do this for example parking further away from work so instead, we will help name some bigger-picture ways of improving your step score.
Walking the Walk
Taking a 10-minute walk after each meal is not only a good way to ensure the numbers on your pedometer rise, but it will also improve your digestion. A recent study published in Sports Medicine found that even 2 to 5 minutes of walking after a meal improved insulin and blood sugar levels which will help with your heart health. Although it is worth adding if you are going to walk 2 minutes, why not walk 10 or 15?
Post-workout walks. If you add on a 15 to 30-minute walk after your workout it can be a great way of increasing your step count. As you have already set aside time to work out you might as well take it a little bit further. Along with helping you raise your step count, walking after exercise helps you clear lactic acid so you feel less stiff the next day.
Overall if you are working out consistently and staying active you may not need to worry ahout your step count. Because whatever the activity is you’re doing for example hiking or running or Crossfit, your workout may contribute to your steps-per-day count. So overall being on your feet and moving many times a day is a good way to stay on top of your health.
Walking and talking is a great way of helping to gain an incentive to walk more. Taking the opportunity to socialise on a walk instead of for example a coffee date will help you achieve your goals quicker. Over the last couple of years people have begun to walk and talk more with gyms being shut so keeping these habits is much easier than building them. These habits resulted in great conversations, closer relationships, and more familiarity with the people in the community. And these hidden benefits are just as important for good health as the steps you’re taking.
Some athletic teams prescribe players 800 meters of walking as part of their workouts. It was shown to help players bond and enhance their playing as a result. So adding this as part of your routine or going for a post-sports training walk with some of the team can help performance and health.
If you need the incentive to walk, it is important to know it is one of the best ways to ensure that you’ll sleep well at night. Walking, even if you’re not doing it at a fast pace, is fatiguing and also being outside exposes you to light, which helps with the circadian rhythm so you sleep more routinely and better as a result.
When all else fails, get a dog. Or borrow from your friend or family members. If you’re committed to an animal, you’ll have no choice but to walk. All dogs as well as humans need to get their steps in.
If you need help with your pains or just want some advice feel free to contact the clinic today on 0578678904 or book now.
Laser therapy is a medical treatment that uses focused light to trigger a series of events in the body that leads to an increase in cellular metabolism. This can decrease pain and inflammation so the healing process can take place faster.
Laser therapy is used to treat short and long term conditions as well as post-activity recovery.
Acute Injuries
For injuries that have just occurred it is particularly effective if it is administered as quickly as possible.
Chronic Conditions
With long term conditions, laser therapy is most commonly used to help persistent pain and inflammation.
After Activity
To aid in post-activity recovery the laser is used by 250 pro, college, and Olympic sports teams across the United States and many parts of Europe.
What Does It Feel Like?
Laser therapy treatments is administered directly to skin, as clothing or topical dressings interfere with delivering light to tissues beneath the skin.
Patients will feel a soothing warmth feeling as the therapy is administered.
Patients receiving treatments with higher-power lasers also frequently report a rapid decrease in pain. For someone suffering from chronic pain, this effect can be particularly pronounced.How long do treatments last?
With LightForce lasers, treatments usually 4-7 minutes long, depending on the size of the area being treated.
How Many Treatments Will I Need?
Patients generally see results after 3 to 5 treatments.
If you need help with your tightness, pains or just want some advice feel free to contact the clinic today on 0578678904 or book now.
The foam roller is something most people have in their gym bag but is commonly used ineffectively.
Soft tissue work, including foam rolling, trigger point work, and even hands-on self myofascial release needs to be a focused process on an area. If you find that you are rolling the same muscles and areas every day or before workouts it most likely is not causing any long term benefits.
Also when using it if you are rolling on it without any feeling of mild discomfort then you won’t be performing it correctly.
If you put yourself into some serious pain for the hope of breaking down tissue to loosen your muscles out, it is not the way to create long lasting and effective results.
Do This Instead
There are a few key things you can do to manage your muscles and improve your health and performance. Prioritise your foam rolling on just a few targeted areas on the days you are training or recovery days until you feel some relief. Big muscles for example the quads and lats can be worked very well with the roller, so don’t get rid of your roller quite yet.
Overall the foam roller may not enhance your overall performance but research shows that working through your muscles yourself can temporarily reduce muscle shortness and increase your flexibility. Also if done correctly and specifically to your tight areas you can have long term reductions in tightness. So you improve your recovery.
Although if you are dealing with specific soft tissue restriction that are not being relieved long term then a hands on approach is much better as the fingertips provide a much smaller surface area that are similar to the size of the small muscles and tendons.
If you need help with your tightness, pains or just want some advice feel free to contact the clinic today on 0578678904 or book now.
As winters arrives and summer sport starts slow down it can be hard to stay motivated to keep training or exercising regularly. But continuing to do regular exercise over winter can have significant benefits for your health and will get your body prepared for when sport starts up again.
Physical activity and training in the senior population on a consistent basis can have great impacts to someone’s way of life. These benefits include that people have fewer falls with injury, improved muscular strength and endurance, a decreased incidence of coronary artery disease, and a lower risk of cardiovascular related mortality for example heart attacks
There are a number of sports to pick from that can be found locally including running, walking, swimming, golfing, lifting weights, cycling and tennis.
Based on the activity you are training for, the training regimen should be specifically designed to produce both metabolic and physical adaptations aimed to improve health and performance. But in general here are some goals and targets you can aim for to help stay active over winter.
•Train 3-5 days per week
•20 to 60 minutes aerobic activity. For example walking or running.
•Choose an activity that engages the large muscle groups. This can be walking, jogging, running, cycling, rowing, stair climbing.
•Perform resistance training: One set of 10-15 repetitions for major muscle groups, two to three days per week. This will help develop muscle strength and help you perform better at your chosen activity.
•Perform flexibility training: stretch major muscle groups at least four times each for a minimum of two to three days per week
If you need help with planning a physical activity routine or have any pains when exercising feel free to contact the clinic today on 0578678904 or book now.
When dealing with back pain a common relief strategy people use is to stretch for the back. In this weeks blog post we are going to discuss why stretching your lower back may not be an effective long term way of dealing with your pain. For a long time it was common for people to prescribe certain stretches for example pulling your knees to your chest while lying on your back as an exercise for people suffering with lower back pain.
Short term the exercise makes sense. If people had trouble standing for long periods of time or if they were in pain lying on their back then they would feel better in a flexed position. Many who complained of feeling stiff and painful in their low back had instant relief of their symptoms after performing a few of these stretches.
However, this relief is only temporary for most people. When you stretch your low back, you are stimulating the stretch receptors deep inside the muscles that give the perception of pain relief and the feeling of less stiffness.
But muscle pain and stiffness you may feel in your back is caused because of a chemical reaction called inflammation. Inflammation occurs from the real injury located deeper in the spine. This can from a bulging disc, facet irritation or other injuries. The underlying injury is what causes the secondary contraction or spasm of the surrounding muscles. This then causes pain.
So because of this when you are rehabbing a back injury the majority of people should have their focus on stabilising their core and fixing any faulty movements. This is why increasing the mobility of the surrounding muscles and joints will help fix the cause of the lower back pain rather than just focusing on the symptoms.
If you do suffer from back pain and would like us to have a look at your problem and run through advice to get you out of pain contact the clinic today on 0578678904 or book now.
