Sports massage can alleviate pain in certain parts of the body, which can be caused by too much physical activity. This type of massage was originally developed to serve athletes as a way to prevent and relieve injuries, but both athletes and non-athletes can gain physiological and psychological benefits from receiving sports massage therapy.

It can help people manage stress. When a person receives a sports massage, their body releases neurotransmitters called endorphins. Endorphins that are released, help to decrease anxiety, provide pain relief, improve mood and enhance a person's state of well-being.

Who can benefit?

Peter is comfortable working with clients from a variety of backgrounds and believes that Sports massage is not just for sports people, but anyone who uses there body to perform tasks. Any activity can lead to an injury or build-up of tension.  Peter regularly treats:

Amateur and professional sports people
Musicians.
People with work related issues
Parents that are sore from the demands of parenthood
People with chronic pain
What’s involved

Chronic conditions and injuries – Peter always tries to work within your pain threshold and will seek feedback and give advice to help you relax.  This can mean some discomfort, but leads to a long lasting relief of symptoms.  Peter uses a variety of techniques based around Deep -Tissue Massage, incorporating:

• Trigger Point Therapy
• Myo-fascial Release
• Dry Needling (acupuncture)
• Muscle Energy Techniques
• Maintenance and less specific issues - Peter can provide more generalised deep tissue work to help relax and rejuvenate tired overworked muscles, helping to prevent the build-up of chronic tension and aiding recovery from activity and exercise.

Aftercare - Peter can help you to plan how massage can fit into training or practice schedules and how to vary massage around performances and events to get the most out of it.  Peter can also give advice about self-massage techniques and exercises you can do at home to help.

Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Hints from Jill Kerr Physiotherapy Edinburgh

A few helpful hints on what to do when injured!

Ankle Sprain

Firstly check if you can put your full weight onto the affected leg. If you can manage this immediately then the injury will tend not to be as severe. If you cannot put weight on it go to Accident and Emergency.

The most likely structures injured are the lateral ligaments which are over stretched with the sprain. Try and walk as normally as you can, if you cannot stop limping you may benefit from the use of crutches.

Think  POLICE…… when injured:

Protect you ankle from further stresses, this might include wearing a support, strapping or use of crutches

Optimal Loading of the joint to facilitate the best healing environment. This can mean moving and walking without aggravating the pain.

Ice with some movement can reduce the swelling. Protect your skin from ice burns with a damp face cloth and never leave on for more than 10 minutes at a time.

Compression can prevent further swelling but must not restrict normal circulation.

Elevation of the leg in a supported way with pillows can aid with the reduction of the swelling.

Generally speaking ligaments like movement and keeping the ankle still for extended periods will result in the joint feeling stiff.

So think little and often movements within pain restrictions. It is important to work on Balance and proprioception exercises once the ankle is starting to heal. This is for future injury prevention.

Physiotherapy can help to facilitate the healing environment and work on the rehabilitation of the ankle to try to prevent future problems. 

Tennis Elbow

Tennis elbow is a common overuse injury involving the tendon of the wrist extensors where they attach at the elbow. It tends to occur when you start a new activity or make a sudden increase in demand of those tendons. It can occur with tennis but often is from other activities such as decorating.

Tendons are responsible for transmitting forces from the muscles to the bony attachments and can store energy. When painful they need to have some rest from the aggravating activities and then have a progressive strengthening programme to get them used to the demands you have in your life.

Physiotherapy can direct patient on appropriate loading for the tendons and treatments available can help to alleviate the painful aspect of the tendinopathy.

Even when the pain has subsided take a graded approach to return to full activity to prevent a flare up!

Hamstring Muscle Strain

The hamstrings are never used 100% of their full capacity but can be injured through over-stretching or in a more explosive manner when sprinting.

Muscles have 2 functions to contract to move a joint and to lengthen when not contracting. When injured muscles will tend heal more effectively when early muscle pain free contraction is introduced.The POLICE principles above apply to this type of injury!

Progressing through a rehabilitation programme is key to get the appropriate strength and agility back in the tissues. Very often athletes return too quickly to full activity and have a recurrence of the problem.

Do not overstretch muscles prior to activity and ensure an appropriate cool down has been undertaken to prevent over tight shorted muscles.

Physiotherapy helps to facilitate the healing process and guide the rehabilitation programme to full recovery of the hamstring muscle.

Why Early Physiotherapy?

The benefit of early Physiotherapy intervention in all of these types of injuries can prevent some of the pain from the injury as well as facilitate the best healing environment for the tissues and future problems. Even one session of understanding what is happening within your body and what you can do to help yourself can make all the difference to how long your injury lasts or gives you pain.

Jill Kerr Physiotherapy is dedicated to giving you the most up to date information and advice on your injury and will not treat you unnecessarily. A full explanation of the problem and what you can do to help yourself as well as a hands on approach will be given if appropriate at the first session.

Jill Kerr is co- author of the textbook book A Practical Approach to Orthopaedic Medicine 3^rd Edition 2010 by Elsevier and is currently writing the next Edition titled  A Practical Approach to Musculoskeletal Medicine due out in 2015.

www.jillkerrphysiotherapy.co.uk

Q&A with Jill Kerr of Jill Kerr Physiotherapy

What is Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy?

Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy is the specialism within the profession that can assess, diagnose and treat all aspects of your outer shell: BONES, JOINTS, MUSCLES, LIGAMENTS, TENDONS, FASCIA AND NERVES. Damage and injury to these structures can happen to every single member of the population from young to not so young, from elite sports participants to those whose aim is to keep walking to the bus stop.Aches and pains can arise from all of the above structures and will give varying amount of symptoms and alteration to normal daily function.Pain is a unique experience to every individual and understanding why we are in pain and how our body responds to an injury is extremely important to aid recovery.How is a Sports Injury Different to the above?All individuals have the same anatomical make up and therefore there is no difference between receiving an injury to an anatomical structure during sport or in normal daily activities. The difference is in the degree of damage depending on the forces involved during the incident and the level of rehabilitation needed. The rehabilitation needs to be relevant and appropriate for the level of activity the individual needs to return to.Our musculoskeletal tissues need to be fit for purpose and early input to all injuries benefits the healing process. Early intervention and knowing the right thing to do for each injury will speed up recovery and prevent recurrent injuries and chronic pain.

What happens in a Physiotherapy Initial Session?

On the first appointment you can expect to be asked questions about the history of your problem with specific questions to rule out more serious pathologies, any medications you are taking and interventions already tried and investigations carried out.A thorough clinical examination will be performed of the relevant structures so wearing shorts for a lower body complaint and a vest top for upper body problems can be helpful as we need to see the area.An explanation of the potential diagnosis and treatment options available will be given. Where and when appropriate treatment and advice on self-management/exercises will also be discussed and given on that day.

How many sessions will I need?

This will vary from individual to individual and the number of sessions and frequency can differ depending on the severity of the problem and response to treatment. The key aim is that you are improving with each session. If you are not improving further examination will take place to ensure the diagnosis is correct and other treatment options will be considered.We aim to get you back to full fitness as soon as possible.