Newsletter June 2013
Hello,
Welcome to June's newsletter. I hope you enjoy reading this edition. If you decide, once you're on this page, you'd like to go to the main website instead just click on the logo above.
As usual, don't forget I'm on Facebook (click here). Thanks to all of you who entered last month's competition, it was a great success and the facebook post you had to like and share was seen by over 3,000 people. I'll be doing another very soon, so please enter again!
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter (@sportssmassage) as well.
Kind Regards,
James.
General Wellbeing - Prevention really is better than cure!
I think it's fair to say that most people do not come and see a practitioner like myself until those little niggles and aches have developed into a 'proper' pain. I think it's also fair to say that people (and I used to include myself in this category) will wait and wait to 'see if it gets better on it's own' and then only when it doesn't, do they do something about it.
The problem with this approach is that even if the pain subsides and you don't feel the need to see somebody, you can be storing up trouble for later on. Take for example, my right knee, I knew for years and years that something wasn't quite right and during my mid 20's it started causing me a little pain, but I quickly found that if I didn't run too much, or kick a ball too hard everything was 'okay'. Except that it wasn't...
What was actually happening is that instead of my kneecap moving correctly (i.e. straight up and down) when I bent and straightened my leg, it was actually moving as in the diagram across.
As a result the underside of the kneecap was wearing excessively. The clicking I heard was the tendon 'popping' out of the natural grove it should sit in if everything is working correctly.
It wasn't until I started training as a Sports & Remedial Massage Therapist (10 years later) that I casually asked one of my tutors to look at it. It turns out I have flat feet and due to this my 'gait' wasn't quite right; as a result it was causing all the muscles down the outside of my leg to be tight and this was causing my problems.
Through a combination of using orthotics, regular massage and strengthening exercises my knee is now much better...but...some damage has already been done and had I sorted it out earlier, I could have avoided / reduced the problem.