Did you know that we reach our peak muscle mass by the age of 30, and then unfortunately we start to lose it?! But don’t worry we can still gain muscle at any age - so it’s never too late to increase our strength. Maintaining our muscle strength is so important and should be done 2-3 times in the week! Have you done your resistance exercise yet?
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As some social sports are starting to commence - which is super exciting! It is important to remember if there has been a period off that sport to gradually reload to reduce injuries. Particularly common in netball is chronic ankle instability - where the ligaments have undergone deformation and is susceptible to reinjury due to a lack of passive control. But retraining through proprioception exercises and bracing or strapping to provide control can keep you in the game.
Research to Clinic - The Facts Files. Providing evidence based up-to date summaries for the busy primary health provider. Keeping you up to date.
Read MoreHip pain? Here’s some great general information on common hip pain concerns.
Read MoreSome fun facts about bone health. Osteoporosis is something that can be silent until you have an insufficiency fracture. We all should be doing daily preventative habits to help support the skeletal system, before we are diagnosed with OP or have a fracture. The list is endless to help support bone building (exercise, diet and lifestyle all impact this system). If you are unsure of how you can best support this system book today to have a chat and get a plan going. Happy moving EMP.
Read MoreWe all know we should exercise but why? Here are some of the benefits to physical activity and exercise. Now, physical activity and exercise are not synonymous to one another despite these words may be used interchangeably when talking about movement. Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement that involves the contraction of skeletal muscles above that of resting energy expenditure. Whereas, exercise is classified as a ‘type’ of physical activity that is planned, structured and repetitive to improve or maintain components of physical fitness. Physical fitness is a set of attributes that can be achieved when performing physical activity such as cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility.
Read MoreExercise is recommended for individual’s with neck pain and is the most commonly used conservative intervention. Research has shown its effectiveness for pain relief and in the prevention of neck pain or future episodes. There is also strong evidence that exercise is effective at improving neuromuscular function and changing the above aforementioned changes in neck pain individuals. A study indicated that deep neck flexor exercises produced significant immediate pain relief in order of 14-21% better than head lift only exercise. However, research has also shown that a one size fits all exercise program is not specific enough to make all of these changes. Therefore, a thorough assessment of your underling deficits to establish a specific exercise program is highly important. .
Read MoreNeck related pain from trauma i.e. from a motor vehicle accident or sporting related injury where whiplash was sustained, can lead to ongoing neck dysfunction and impairments in the future. We know from research that from the sustained injury it can lead to changes in what neck muscles we use and how. The initial change of muscle control is a protective one – good job brain! However, these sustained changes in the neck muscles is what can lead to ongoing dysfunction and pain – not so great, thanks brain! .
Read MoreWhen I assess ‘dizziness’ or more correctly speaking vertigo, the eyes can tell me a lot of information. It’s more than just staring deeply into your eyes ... I’m looking for ‘nystagmus’, which is a involuntary rhythmical eye movement that causes the eyes to ‘beat’ or move in certain directions. These ‘beating’ directions have meanings and alongside your history it fits into a clinical picture. The information gained can provide the likely source, location and if it is treatable through Physiotherapy or if you need a referral to a specialist.
Read MoreCervical (neck) proprioception is the ability to know where you are in space and is an important function in movement and posture. It takes into account the joint movement and the joint position.
Proprioception is a critical function for everyday movement such as endurance from sitting at the computer to sport that requires faster movement and coordination of the neck muscles for repositioning.
You can think of me as your own personal ‘google’ no need to Dr google - and lead yourself down a potential misdiagnosis and mismanagement.
Firstly, I love when people are informed we have more information available to us then ever. What I don’t like from google/ YouTube/ social media - is that anyone and everyone can provide information that may or may not have the right qualifications to be providing that information.
So, how’s your sleep hygiene? I’m not talking about changing the sheets every week … however, yes that is important but no I’m talking about the effects of your sleeping pattern; i.e. sleep preparation, the amount, timing and quality of sleep. As these all could be affecting your bodies’ ability to recover and hence could be creating a ‘fight-or-flight’ response to your nervous system, thus unhelpful inflammation. That doesn’t really sound restful, restorative or energising does it?
Read MoreRadicular (referred) pain as a result of lumbar disc herniation is a common complaint in patients presenting to primary health-care practitioners. The estimated prevalence of lumbosacral radiculopathy ‘sciaticia’ is 4.86-9.8 per 1000 individuals (1, 2). The natural history of lumbar radiculopathy suggests a spontaneous resolution of disc herniation with 80 and 90% of individuals showing significant improvements by six and twelve weeks, respectively (3, 4).
Read MoreGet your daily dose.
There are countless clinical practice guidelines that have grade A evidence to support exercise to manage & prevent an array of different conditions. But how often do you fall short of the national recommendation of 150mins of moderate intensity exercise per week? The Australian government have just released their new campaign “Move It” with “Find your 30” to help promote being more physically active every day.
Read MoreWhether it’s starting back up exercise after a period of time off, or coming back from an injury or performance goals; everyone can benefit from this little nugget of information.
Read MoreTendon related issues can be challenging and frustrating to manage. The frustration may lay in outdated treatment approaches and/or in not managing the external and internal forces or “load” that is being applied to the tendon. This continual mismatch of load i.e. over or under-loading without tissue adaptation can lead to ongoing dysfunction, pain and frustration.
Read MoreEmpower, movement and prevention; these three simple but powerful words underpin the philosophy at ‘Emma Murray Physiotherapy’.
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