Hawkes Physiotherapy Blog

As a Physiotherapist I see many runners and generally I have observed that it is rare that any of these runners actually do any strengthening exercise. Even when they say they do, closer examination finds they aren't really and they are using too light of a resistance / weight and due to this, the effect that they are creating in muscular endurance. Some runners say, why do I need strength as surely the load isn't that great? Well daily activities place a lot of load through the body, for example the hip joint withstands 2610 pressure per square inch (PSI) going up the stairs (Car tyre pressure 29 PSI)! Remember this is only walking! In running your knee cap force is 3 times your body weight! If you squat and jump then the load through your kneecap is even more, with 6 times your body weight (Reid 1992). So as you can see your body is taking a pounding! So if you have stronger muscles then they can absorb some of this load: The knee is the weight...

Running is becoming more popular as a form of exercise in the general population. This is likely to be due to the fact that it is cheap and accessible. However issues can arise when people who have never run or haven’t run in a while, just put on some trainers and go out and run.  This blog series will examine the research on running related injury, injury prevention (Strength, core stability, trainer selection, running technique etc.), what to do when you are injured and how to get back to running post injury. This part is an introduction to the series and will detail the injuries and the incidence of these injuries. Whereas the next part will educate you on what you can do to prevent them amongst other things. So how do we get injured? Injury and musculoskeletal pain syndromes are seldom caused by isolated events, but are the consequences of habitual imbalances in the movement system (think cumulative build up). This point is particularly key in running ...

What is proprioception? It is the body's ability to sense movement in and around our joints. Receptors within various structures basically detect things such as of stretch, compression, tension etc.     Interesting proprioceptive fact: There are more mechanoreceptors in the cervical spine (neck) than in the lumbar spine (low back) What is the basic reason for proprioception? Proprioception enables us to know where our limbs are in space without actually looking, which is important for all everyday movements that we perform. When we perform complex movements such as sporting movements, proprioception needs to be enhanced, as precise coordination is essential to improve performance and to minimise injury risk. How does it work? The system is subconscious and often reflex, meaning that we don’t have voluntary control over it. Although we can consciously utilise the proprioceptive system and therefore we can train it and improve it. What is a good...