14 minute read
SUPPORTING ATHLETES
ActiveBody
EDITED BY KATE MAXIM
Supporting Athletes
The relationship between athlete (even amateurs) and physiotherapist is a close one, Sarah Babbs explains
HAVING SPENT THE morning handing out water and jelly babies to the brilliant runners taking part in the Stamford Strider’s Valentine’s 0k race, I have been re ecting on the role that support sta play in sport.
With both the Six Nations and the Winter
Olympics happening as I write, a lot will be seen of the physiotherapists, psychologists, water carriers, strength and conditioning coaches and other support sta . At the centre of them all is the athlete or player, supported by all around them.
For the 2020 Olympics, 52 physiotherapists were taken by Team GB to Tokyo. Of these, 40 were involved in a particular sporting discipline so would be working with the competitors both in and out of competition.
The remaining 12 work within sport and general physiotherapy and at the Olympics were looking after the athletes who did not have their own physiotherapist as well as the other non athlete members of the team. Interestingly a third of all physiotherapy treatment in the Olympic village in London 2012 was for non athletes.
From elite athletes to those playing for local teams or clubs, most of the work is done before competition so that the athlete is already confident and familiar with routines. This may even include taking familiar bedding with them to allow restful sleep, a key component of training and performance. An important study with adolescent athletes showed that those having less than eight hours sleep a night were 1.7 times more likely to be injured than those sleeping more or e ual to eight hours.
The athlete will have worked with the physiotherapist on injury prevention, using strength, balance, exibility training as well as the more mental resilience work. This may be the most important element in training, the ability to have a positive outlook regardless of the circumstances in which they find themselves. This might be supported by a sports psychologist if working at elite level.
If there has been injury then working with tissue repair, controlling in ammation throughout the injury, monitoring and improving healing and progressing rehabilitation are key. This may be done with relative rest or sometimes in acute injury, bracing and taking the weight o a limb may be re uired. This can be very frustrating so having support to look at the longer term goals is important. It is vital to keep the athlete focused and engaged.
Even for the most amateur runner, being told you can’t run due to injury can be challenging, so the physiotherapist will do their utmost to keep the athlete as active as possible. Using progressive exercise for reloading a limb is vital. eeping up not only local work around an injured joint but using what is known as the kinetic chain is important in injury recovery and prevention. This means loading through the whole of the body to spread the forces involved. or instance if someone has a recurrent shoulder problem when serving in tennis, it may be that the player has poor strength and balance in the leg. Each time they try to serve, the forces are too high in the shoulder because the leg is not taking the load correctly. Working on this will often mean that the shoulder becomes injury free.
Coming back too soon from an injury can have a damaging e ect on performance both in the short and long term. A recent study showed that returning to contact sport earlier than nine months after an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) repair has a big risk of re injury which is very di cult to hear for a keen football player. This is when education and both physical and mental support are vital. Often the later return to performance will be managed by a Strength and Conditioning Coach following the physiotherapist’s role.
Ultimately the relationship and understanding between coach, therapist and athlete are probably the most important things in their ability to perform at the top of their game.
Veins away
Varicose veins affect both men and women. Gary Trickett advises ways to keep them at bay
AN ESTIMATED ONE in four of us has varicose veins. They can be extremely painful, especially if you spend a lot of time standing. And if left untreated, can lead to skin damage, specifically red and brown skin near the ankles, venous ec ema, leg ulcers and phlebitis, which is clotting in the vein.
So what are varicose veins? The word ‘varicose’ comes from the Latin for ‘dilated.’ Varicose veins are literally veins that are permanently dilated. They occur mainly in the lower extremities because of the greater pressure exerted on them. Muscles in the foot, calf and thigh act as pumps to push blood from the foot to the heart. Valves in the vein close like gates if blood tries to run in the wrong direction. But if these valves fail to work properly blood is forced to ow back down the leg causing superficial veins under the skin to bulge. In e ect, the varicose veins you see in your legs are due to blood damming up in superficial veins and their branches. Why these veins fail is not completely understood but it may be due to a weakness in the valve itself or in the vein wall.
Many people think of varicose veins as being a female a iction.’ regnancy can be a contributing factor but many men are a ected too, especially those with jobs that require them to spend hours at a time on their feet, or sat behind a desk. In addition to the veins themselves, legs can often feel tired and heavy and may be prone to swelling and cramping.
In severe cases surgery is the sensible option, but if you take care of your legs before they get to such a serious stage, then less drastic treatments can help. Although probably not the look you’re going for, support stockings can help. They work by exerting more pressure near the ankles and feet, providing an extra s uee e that promotes blood ow.
Avoid standing for prolonged periods and if you do have to stand for a while, make a point of changing your position, shifting from one leg to the other. Try some leg exercises or wiggle your toes now and again
to help support your circulation, and give heels a miss – low heeled shoes or ats work your calf muscles harder which is better for your veins.
Maintaining a healthy weight will help to take the pressure o your veins and regular exercise will help to get your blood pumping and support your circulation. Obesity is a major contributor to the condition so following a nutrient-rich diet as well as getting plenty of exercise should go a long way towards keeping you fit and healthy.
Avoid in ammatory foods wherever possible. oods that are high in refined sugars, ca eine or alcohol are likely to stimulate an in ammatory reaction in your body which is bad news. When your body initiates a rush of in ammatory chemicals it can cause your blood vessels to dilate so the chemicals can travel faster around your body.
Instead, try to focus on a more antiin ammatory diet. Make sure you are getting plenty of fibre as constipation can make you more vulnerable to varicose veins. Eat plenty of fruit and veg and drink plenty of water to keep things moving. Certain herbs and spices are brilliant for tackling in ammation, with cinnamon, garlic, turmeric and cayenne pepper being excellent for supporting a healthy circulation. Apple cider vinegar is another natural remedy that’s great for varicose veins as it’s known to help increase your blood ow. ou can take a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar every day or you could stir a teaspoon into a glass of water to make it more palatable.
As far as herbal remedies are concerned, horse chestnut is probably the most popular herb used to help with varicose veins. It is the seeds of the horse chestnut tree which are used medicinally which are, of course, conkers. Try A Vogel’s Venaforce Horse Chestnut tablets.
To help reduce heavy legs and swelling elevate your legs above the level of your heart for about 10 minutes each day. A simple way of doing this is by lying down and resting your legs on a stack of pillows. ou could also try rubbing Venagel Horse Chestnut Gel into tired legs. With extract of fresh horse chestnut, it helps to cool and soothe tired, heavy or aching legs. Smooth upwards and massage into legs.
For further information, visit Gary and his team at The Health Store, West Bridgford or call 0115 9814080.
Yogatastic
Marcus Parr from Stamford Yoga tells us how he went from riding horses to doing the downward dog
IHAD STRUGGLED with self confidence and panic attacks throughout my teens and twenties so tried to help myself through self help books. This led me to study many subjects such as psychology and stress management in which I gained some ualifications. I was also constantly trying to lose weight and had tried many ways.
One day back in the 90s when I was 27 I came across a yoga video that explained that as well as helping to lose weight, yoga could help tone muscles, improve exibility, improve strength, improve digestion, delay signs of ageing, calm the mind, aid concentration and generally fine tune all the systems of the body. This intrigued me, I tried the video and I was hooked. It encompassed all that I had been seeking. I found yoga varied in its postures and approaches. It was this variety that kept boredom at bay when it came to exercise. I quickly lost a lot of weight, felt a great sense of good health and well-being, was rarely ill and used my breathing to calm my mind.
My panic attacks stopped and became a thing of the past. I am in my 2nd year now and still feel the benefits.
At the time I was competing horses in eventing but found it a struggle to earn a decent living, horses cost so much! So I decided to train in what I had fallen in love with, yoga, and try to make a career out of it.
My first yoga ualifications were in 2000 via The British School Of Yoga and then I started teaching in a small studio at my parents’ property in Castor. I started to get a lot of private clients many of whom had various health issues such as back, hip and knee problems, cancer, exhaustion, stress etc etc. I learnt a lot in the early years dealing with and adapting classes to suit all needs and abilities.
In 2004 I studied with international teacher and author AnneMarie Newland, founder of Sun Power Yoga. This was an intense course and I learnt so much particularly about correct alignment and injury prevention in yoga classes. The course required discipline and I don’t think I have written so many essays in my life! It was life changing though. I was awarded a Level 2 certificate, the highest at that time. My new knowledge and confidence catapulted my teaching to a di erent realm and 1 years on I can still remember the course as if it were yesterday.
I continued to study with Anne-Marie and had some amazing experiences. I featured in one of her videos, demonstrated with her at The Yoga Show on two occasions and had a teaching segment of my own at the very first show. It was at this show in 2004 that I became a founder member of the Independent Yoga Network. I was invited to join the committee and was in awe of the fact that I was with well know yogis and yoginis whose books I had studied. The network was a way of bringing together yoga teachers on a register
that honoured their teaching expertise and experience, so that students could find them and also the teachers could network.
Life ticked on and I was still competing horses as a hobby as well as teaching yoga. Then in 2014 a couple of clients who I had taught a few years earlier invited me to come and look at a building they had ac uired in central Stamford on Broad Street to see the studio there. I went out of politeness as I was uite happy at my Castor studio. However when I walked into the studio, that was still unfinished, I was struck by the beauty of it and the light that beamed through the windows.
I thought maybe I could start a new business there, which I did in 2014. It took a lot of e ort and commitment to set up with the e uipment needed and my credit cards got hammered. I managed to find some lovely sta also excited about this new venture, one of them being egina who is still with me.
I thought Stamford would be a great town for a studio as many people are health conscious. It was a steady start and mainly word of mouth that got people to join me. I am a light hearted teacher with uite a sense of humour, and this helped. Students felt more at ease to come into an environment that wasn’t too stu y’ where they didn’t need to be perfect and where we could all honour our abilities and inabilities. So word got round and the business grew and grew. The vibe was, and still is, ama ing.
I love seeing the friendships made and the cheerfulness. egular students always welcome newcomers with smiles and o er support which immediately puts them at ease. It’s not forced, it’s just the way the studio is. We have a social side too and often have meals out and other functions. Bollywood dancing nights have been a hit in the past!
Covid and lockdowns were a challenge. But with the support of students who didn’t want to see the business crumble I survived. They supported the business by doing oom classes and pre recorded videos and at times outdoor classes when we were allowed. I was uite overwhelmed by their love. The business emerged from lockdowns with fewer sta members than it originally had and restructuring of the timetable was needed. But things are steadily returning to how they used to be. A few have chosen to stay with oom for their own peace of mind or convenience. Most studio classes on the schedule have a oom option. It’s ama ing that we have had students ooming from Hong ong, Canada, Australia, Spain and rance, plus all over the U . We are open seven days a week with most classes either held in the morning around .1 am or in the evening around . 0pm with a couple of afternoon classes too. At the weekends we have morning classes only, which are very popular. Classes are mostly for all levels and ages with di erent options given where needed. We also have a couple of purely beginner level classes. Lots of themed classes are o ered such as exibility, strength, leaner physi ue, toning the mid section, back health, stress relief, slow ow yoga, power yoga, chair yoga, yoga with the ball, yoga with the bolster etc etc. The rest of the day is used for private tuition classes. A basic group class is 1 . But there are lots of money saving packages that bring the cost right down such as 10 class passes, day unlimited, week unlimited, month unlimited and unlimited memberships. We also have regular workshops so that students can immerse themselves for around three hours on a chosen subject the ‘I thought Stamford would be a relaxation one is most popular! great town for a studio as many oga has many benefits. It could be an hour to oneself to feel less tense and sti to get toned up to ease stress to feel healthier to feel people are health conscious. It was more at one with life. ust one, or all, of those benefits is a great reason to get started, so do come along and join me. a steady start and mainly word of mouth that got people to join me.’ www.stamfordyoga.co.uk. info@stamfordyoga.co.uk @stamfordyoga
