Health & Wellbeing - Physiotherapy

Health and Wellbeing

Preventing pain

By Scott Gormley

Some injuries and pain are not controllable and no amount of preventative measures can stop them occurring, but that is not the case for all. Most people seek out professional help after sustaining an injury, some seek out ways to help better protect themselves from them.

What injuries can we help prevent?

Strains, sprains and joint pain all have common causes, soft tissue (muscle, ligament and tendon) inflexibility and weakness are just two. Having enough flexibility and strength in these structures to carry out your daily activities and/or sport is the key to reducing the likelihood of injuring them. If your soft tissues are inflexible and your joints are stiff, you are more likely to overstretch and cause an injury and/or pain. If your soft tissues are weak, your ability to load them safely will be lower and your joints won’t be as protected and stable. How can you help yourself?

Let’s start with the activities we all do every day, sleeping and eating. The correct amounts of both can ensure: the body is repairing itself to its optimum capacity; you have enough energy to engage in physical activity; lower susceptibility to physical and mental illness; better concentration and balance and reduced weight gain. All of these benefits are essential in better protecting yourself from controllable injuries and pain. On average per day, 14-17 year olds should have 8-10 hours of sleep, 18-64 years olds should have 7-9 hours and anyone over the age of 65 should have 7-8 hours. With your diet, it is essential you have the correct amount of each food group for you and the activities you engage in. It is also imperative you are hydrated throughout the day, so if you can, drink your average daily water intake. For men it is around 3.7L and for women it is 2.7L. How can you use exercise as a way of maintaining or improving your soft tissue flexibility and strength?

Engage in at least 20 minutes of exercise which raises your heart rate per day. Warm up with moving stretches and start off slow and cool down with holding stretches and gradually regress the exercise. With your stretches you should focus on the areas you are using during the activity. You should incorporate some strength training using resistance (weights, resistance band or machines) so you can strengthen specific areas with more effectiveness. To make your exercise safer, use the correct form, allow enough time to recover between each physical activity and wear supportive (non-worn) footwear that are appropriate for the activity. What can we as a clinic help you with?

To help you increase mobility and flexibility there are a number of treatments we offer: massage techniques; acupuncture; spinal and joint mobilisations; spinal manipulation and tailored mobility and flexibility plans. To help aid soft tissue strengthening we can highlight areas of weakness and have a higher potential for injury and give exercises specific to them and monitor your progress. A common myth is that only stretching and mobility exercises can increase flexibility and some people have not got the potential to get more flexible and mobile to help prevent strains, sprains and joint pain. Some people are naturally more inflexible, but there is potential for improvement with the right treatment and advice. Massage can help by breaking down fibrous scar tissue and adhesions and relieves muscle tightness to improve your muscle flexibility and joint mobility. Spinal and joint mobilisations and manipulation can help by increasing movement directly in the area with pressure, which relaxes the muscles surrounding to increase flexibility. Acupuncture can also relieve muscle tightness, so your muscles have a greater tolerance to more stretch. Some of our clients have these treatments regularly to maintain a mobile and strong body as prevention is easier than rehabilitation.

If you need any advice or treatment, please get in touch with us on: 01952 825042 or info@shropshirephysiotherapy.co.uk

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