Blog

Pilates – more than “stretching”

In the world of physiotherapy, Pilates-based exercise has been used to help people manage musculoskeletal pain, rehabilitate from injuries and improve efficiency of body movement. Physiotherapists have taken in Joseph Pilates “theory of Contrology” and layered our own professional knowledge to create a form of therapeutic exercise. Controversially starting out as the “magic pill”...

“Help, I’ve pinged my hammy”

Hamstring strains make up one of the most common sporting injuries, especially in sports that involve high levels of sprinting such as footy or soccer.  What is the hamstring? The hamstrings are the collection of muscles that make up the back of your thigh. There are three muscles; biceps femoris, semimembranosus and semitendinosus, and collectively work...

Myofascial release therapy and fascia explained

Myofascial release therapy is a technique used by qualified massage therapists to relieve pain and muscle tension related to fascial immobility. To understand how this therapy works, let me explain what fascia is and the role that it plays in everyday life.  Fascia is the connective tissue that weaves continuously throughout the entire body, surrounding...

Shoulder Bursitis

Raise your hand if you have shoulder bursitis. Ouch! Acute shoulder pain makes up 16% of the injuries that physiotherapists see each month. On many occasions, people with shoulder pain are referred for imaging such as ultrasound or MRI. But did you know that more than 25% of shoulders WITHOUT pain, show shoulder abnormalities on...

Sore Neck and Raging Headache??

We’ve all experienced headaches before, and we all know that there’s nothing worse than not being able to concentrate, or carry out our daily lives without headache pain. Migraine, tension headache and cluster headaches are all commonly heard of in the medical world, but did you know there is another type of headache: Cervicogenic...

HELP!! I rolled my ankle …

With summer slowly coming to an end and winter athletes transitioning from pre-season training to competition we are starting to see an increase in sports-related injuries presenting to the clinic. One of the most common presentations is an ankle sprain or “rolled ankle”.  It was previously believed that ankle sprains are a “self-limiting injury” meaning...

How Do I Have Tennis Elbow, When I Don’t Play Tennis???

Tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis/ epicondylalgia is quite a common injury which is treated by physiotherapists. Surprisingly,  most people with tennis elbow do not play tennis, and instead their pain is caused by either direct trauma or repeated stressors placed on an elbow tendon causing a tendinopathy.  Patients typically report their pain as a pulling...

I have chronic lower back pain – which type of exercise is the best for relieving my pain?

As Physiotherapists, one of the most common complaints our clients will seek treatment for is chronic lower back pain which is pain that either has lasted longer than a few months without settling; or repeat recurrences of the same lower back pain over a prolonged period of time. There is lots of evidence that exercise...

Vertigo

Vertigo is a relatively common complaint, and when it starts suddenly can be quite distressing. There are many causes of vertigo, with one particular type being commonly treated by physiotherapists known as Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo or BPPV. BPPV will typically produce brief periods of feelings of dizziness or spinning, which can range from mild...