The Four Biggest Mistakes You Can Make After a Muscle Tear

As our muscles are soft and designed for flexibility, they are also prone to injury and if you have ever had a muscle tear, you know that they can be surprisingly painful. 

In the period following a muscle tear, there are a few mistakes we see people make, that can actually make their injury worse and delay healing times. Here are a few of the most common mistakes we see.

Tips for Beating Post Workout Soreness  

Nothing can ruin your enthusiasm for a new workout program faster than the pain and stiffness that sneaks up on you the day after. This delayed reaction from your muscles, known as DOMS or delayed onset muscle soreness, has affected almost all of us at one time or another.

While there is no sure-fire cure or prevention for DOMS, here are a few tips to help reduce your symptoms next time you hit the gym.

Things To Avoid When You Have Back Pain

Back pain is such a common experience that it is estimated up to 80% of adults will have at least one severe episode of back pain in their lifetime.  If you happen to be in the middle of an episode, here are a few tips to help you get through.

Three Reasons to see your Physiotherapist

Most people associate physiotherapy with pain and injury management. While helping you recover from pain is our specialty, physiotherapists are also able to help with many more issues. Here are three things that you may not have thought to visit a physiotherapist for.

Are You Suffering From Plantar Fasciitis?

Plantar Fasciitis is characterised by pain and inflammation in the thick band of tissue that connects your heel to your toes, known as the plantar fascia. Symptoms often include sharp pain in the heel or arch, especially in the morning or after long periods of rest. It can make walking or standing for extended periods quite challenging.

Hip Pain and Labral Tears

If you are experiencing pain in the front of your hip along with clicking, locking or catching of your hip joint you may have labral damage. Labral tears can occur from an injury such as a twist or slip, or damage can occur from repetitive stresses. Over time this repetitive impingement of the hip joint can cause the labrum to tear and damage to the labrum if not managed properly may lead to early degenerative arthritis.

Sever’s Disease

If you’re a young basketballer/netballer/footballer and have heel pain when playing basketball or sports involving running or jumping, you may have a particular growth pain disorder called Sever’s Disease. It is a condition (not a disease) usually affecting 9-15-year-olds that occurs at the back of the heel, where the Achilles tendon attaches to the foot. 

Surprising Reasons To See Your Physiotherapist

A visit to the physio is often at the front of your mind when you tear a muscle or wake up with a stiff neck, however, there are many other conditions that you might be surprised to hear physiotherapists can help with. Here are a few that you may not be aware of.

A Wrist Injury: Scaphoid Fractures

The scaphoid is a small bone in the wrist that connects the radius to the hand, and it is situated near the thumb. Scaphoid fractures are a relatively common wrist injury and are commonly misdiagnosed as the pain can be quite mild even when the bone has been broken. 

Scaphoid fractures are notorious for their high incidence of complications healing due to low blood supply to the area and how easily their diagnosis can be missed.

Shin Splints

Shin splints are a painful condition of the lower leg, also known as Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome; it is an overuse injury that causes pain along the inside of the tibia or shin bone. It is common in runners, hikers and running based sports – soccer, AFL, netball and basketball.
Shin splints are typified by persistent leg pain, usually the inside of the shin, halfway down the lower leg.