Hawkes Physiotherapy Blog

Chapter 1: So what is an ankle sprain? A sprain is a stretch and/or a tear of a ligament, which is a strong band of tissue that connects the end of one bone to another and its role is to stop excessive motions of that joint. In this case the ankle joint. What is the most common type of ankle sprain? This is a sprain to the Anterior Talofibular ligament, which is on the outside of the ankle joint. What are the different severities of ankle sprains? Grade I - mild stretching of the ligament complex without joint instability. Grade II - partial rupture of the ligament complex without joint instability. Grade III - complete rupture of the ligament complex with instability of the joint. What causes ankle sprains? Basically a sprain will occur as a result of abnormal or excessive forces applied to a joint. People who frequently participate in sport are more likely to sprain their ankle. Particularly sports that involve contact and are fast paced wit

If you are a swimmer then you know that shoulder problems can come with the territory.  The reasons are many but the biggest reasons are related to these two stats: Ninety percent of the propulsive force in swimming comes from the upper limbs and even more amazing the shoulder can perform 16,000 shoulder revolutions per week which is approximately 2500 revolutions per day (Pink & Tibone 2000). So it is no wonder that this can lead to lead to injury from repetitive microtrauma. Pink and Tibone (2000) state that there are many shoulder injuries that exist and generally shoulder problems are reported in 66% of swimmers. So what is swimmers shoulder? Swimmers shoulder: Caused by avascular tendinosis, impingement, labral tear or instability (active and passive) (Weldon & Richardson 2001). So it’s pretty broad then! However, it’s believed that most shoulder pain is caused by instability. This is because swimming needs an increased shoulder range of motion. Muscle im

Arthritis: What is it? So what does the word mean? Osteoarthritis: Osteon means bone, Arthro means joints, Itis means inflammation. Now this terminology is technically incorrect and OA is actually not an inflammatory condition by nature and this is why some people now call it Osteoathrosis instead. The Osis part actually means degeneration, which is more accurate. So essentially breaking down the word tells us what it is, which is degeneration of the joint. More specifically it is degeneration of the articular cartilage of the joint. This is essentially damage and loss of cartilage until the joint is “bone on bone”. The bone actually starts to thicken and wear in response to the extra load on it, which causes bony outgrowths to form, called osteophytes. The synovium around the joint also thickens and produces extra fluid making the joint swell up, which isn’t actually inflammation. So the joint looks inflamed but actually isn’t. Arthritis: How common is it?

If you are into your swimming and you want to minimise your injury risk or improve your technique and anything else to do with swimming then this playlist will have lots of content to help: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC9-VUb7hlQNlGWy0mYc6TBCht3ihu75D Here is an example video on "Does shoulder muscle imbalance increase the risk of shoulder injury in swimmers?" Telephone: 01782 771861 Mobile: 07866195914 Email: mathewhawkesphysiotherapy@gmail.com Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/HawkesPhysiotherapy Twitter:  https://twitter.com/MathewHawkes YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/user/hawkesphysiotherapy LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mathew-hawkes/1a/a45/501 Google +:  https://plus.google.com/+HawkesphysiotherapyCoUk Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mathewhawkes

Do you want to improve your fitness, strength, jump higher, build more muscle etc.? Then this playlist on the Hawkes Physiotherapy YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/hawkesphysiotherapy ....as lots of helpful exercise training tips to help you to get stronger, faster, fitter or build more muscle so check it out and subscribe to keep up to date of new content posted every week. Click the below link for the Exercise training tips video playlist: Exercise training tips video playlist Here are some of the future videos coming your way in the near future: Telephone: 01782 771861 Mobile: 07866195914 Email: mathewhawkesphysiotherapy@gmail.com Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/HawkesPhysiotherapy Twitter:  https://twitter.com/MathewHawkes YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/user/hawkesphysiotherapy LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mathew-hawkes/1a/a45/501 Google +:  https://plus.google.com/+HawkesphysiotherapyCoUk

Finally DONE! ABOVE: Me looking smug So drum roll! what are the results? Deadlift: At the start: 90KG NOW: 130KG 44% Increase Seated dumbbell shoulder press: At the start: 16.5KG NOW: 23KG Overall result of percentage increase in strength: 39% Increase Wide grip Lat pull downs: At the start: 50KG NOW: 80KG 60% Increase So overall I can conclude that over 12 weeks the Compex NMES increases strength by 39-60% overall and that anecdotally it increases muscle size and is very good for recovery too. So in summary, IT WORKS!! Telephone: 01782 771861 Mobile: 07866195914 Email: mathewhawkesphysiotherapy@gmail.com Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/HawkesPhysiotherapy Twitter:  https://twitter.com/MathewHawkes YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/user/hawkesphysiotherapy LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mathew-hawkes/1a/a45/501 Google +:  https://plus.google.com/+Hawkesphysio

So it's week 10 of training with the Compex Update: So I am nearly all recovered from my illness and I am back into good hard training but honestly I do believe that being ill has affected my strength gains as you might expect. This being said though my strength has still gone up slightly on the deadlift and amazingly so has my muscle size. I know that the muscle size has increased because my body fat percentage has dropped but I put a shirt on the other night and it was so tight on the arms that I couldn't bend the elbows! So I can not only conclude that the Compex works for strength and recovery but also hypertrophy! DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) - This has gone up due to the change in style of training but again the recovery and massage settings have helped. Strength: Only a small increase on the deadlift but the other two are no different. Week 10: Timeframe Deadlift Seated Dumbbe