WHAT WE TREAT
Working and playing sports places a large demand on the body. Sometimes these demands can cause the muscles of the body to change length and get tired. These altered muscles can make the joints those muscle control to work inefficiently. The joint can then become painful, or the tired muscle may feel painful to the brain. This tiredness causes the brain to force the tired muscle to work harder to protect itself, getting more tired. Other times, you just might have an accident.
BACK PAIN:
Are you over 40 years old?
Do you bend, drive or sit a lot?
Does your back feel stiff in the morning?
As one gets older, one gets shorter. The reduction in height is the intervertebral disks in one's back becoming less elastic. If one spends a lot of time with their back in a bent forward position as in gardening, working, driving or sitting at a desk, it can cause the disks to protrude a little towards the back, kind of like when you squeeze the toothpaste out of the tube from the back and it comes out of the front. However, you can take control of this. Twisting the spine can help tighten up the disk, reducing the protrusion. Core exercises, which you can easily incorporate into your routine, can help support the back to prevent the disk from protruding.
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SHOULDER PAIN:
Do you do a lot of chest exercises?
Does it hurt when you bench-press a heavy weight?
We all spend a lot of time with our arms out in front of us: driving, eating and working at a desk or computer; that is life. Spending such long times in this crunched forward position causes one's shoulders to roll forward. The rotator cuff muscles are small muscles that constantly support the shoulder joint and the outstretched arm. The rotator cuff muscles can be constantly stretched, causing the muscles to fatigue. A stretched, fatigued muscle will ‘trick’ the brain into thinking that it is injured, causing the muscle to contract and fatigue more. Doing exercises that help all the muscles around the shoulder to support the shoulder and arm can help with the treatment process.
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KNEE PAIN:
Are you female?
Do you run?
Do your knees hurt when you climb the stairs or get out of a chair?
Because of the way females’ hips are designed for childbirth, their knees tend to ‘fall’ inwards. It was causing the kneecap to glide across the knee joint at a non-optimal angle. This can be made worse when there is less muscle to support the knee, as is the case in females. Ageing will also lead to reduced muscle for females and males. This can lead to a condition called patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS), leading to osteoarthritis. However, research has shown that exercise stabilising the hip and knee effectively prevents PFPS and osteoarthritis.
WORK-RELATED INJURIES:
Do you drive to work?
Do you sit at a desk all day?
Do you sit at home watching TV?
When you think of the time you spend sitting, how easily it adds up is alarming. In the modern world, we spend a lot of time sitting during the day, causing some muscles to remain in a lengthened position and others to be shortened for a considerably long time, in particular, the neck, shoulders, hips and knees, resulting in poor posture and even pain. Also, when the upper back is placed on the back of a chair, the core muscles are prevented from supporting the back, making the core weak for when it does have to support the back. Education and exercises can help reduce or avoid poor posture and pain.
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WHAT WE DO
The aim of RW Sports Injury is not only to get the patient back to being the athlete they were before the injury but better, regardless of the level that they competed. The same principles apply to work-related injuries. This is done in three parts: treatment, rehabilitation and prevention.
PRE & POST SURGERY REHABILITATION:
Have you had ACL reconstruction?
Have you had your hip or knee replaced?
Have you had your shoulder pinned after a dislocation?
It is recommended that before one goes for surgery that, one ensures that one is as fit as possible and that the limb to have the procedure is as strong as possible; this is call prehabilitation or ‘prehab’. This ensures that one’s bones are strong and that the surrounding muscles are strong enough to support the joint post-surgery. Also, it is recommended that the one move as soon as possible once the surgery is done. Once a muscle is not working as hard as it once did, it will start to waste away. Starting rehabilitation (rehab) is vital to returning to one’s daily activities, hobbies, and sports. This preparation and aftercare can give you the confidence to face your recovery head-on.
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INJURY PREVENTION:
Do you play sports?
Do your work?
Have you ever had a previous injury?
Many musculoskeletal injuries are due to poor technique, overworking one muscle, or underworking another. It could be that one is overtraining one movement or energy system. Several exercises can be used before training to activate the under-active muscle, stretch over-active muscles, mobilise stiff joints and stabilise vulnerable joints. Using various strength & conditioning techniques can help prevent fatigue and injury. Monitoring the exercise one does can help reduce accumulated fatigue and the chance of injury.
Improve Your Movement · Improve Your Performance
RETURN TO PLAY:
Do you wat to play your sport again?
Do you want to ensure you don't get injured again?
After all of the hard work of rehabilitating an injury, it is vital to ensure that the injury does not reoccur. Several injuries have a return to play protocol that if passed should reduce the risk of re-injury. Once one has returned to play, it is of the utmost importance that the exercises used to return to a sport are maintained and incorporated in the warm-up (called 'Pre-hab').
HOW WE TREAT INJURIES
Depending on the injury, there are several methods that can be used to treat and rehabilitate the issue. Every injury and patient are individual. What works for someone might not work for someone else. At RW Physiotherapy, the focus is on the patient as a whole; not just the body part that is injured.
PILATES:
Often a pain is caused by poor posture and weak stabilising muscles over a long time. Strengthening the stabilising muscles in a slow controlled manner can help improve posture and control. Pilates is about using breathing patterns while maintaining scapular and pelvic stability.
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