It is easy to take balance for granted when we are young and have good balance. By the time we reach old age, poor balance is common. In the older population we see people walking slowly with caution, holding the railings and generally limiting activities because they feel unstable. These people risk falling and increase their risk of fractures. Continue reading →

We all know we feel much better after a good night’s sleep. Sleep is important for refreshing and restoring the function of our brain and body.

If pain is interfering with your ability to sleep well, we tend to blame our bed or pillow. For this reason, physiotherapists often get asked what the best position to sleep or what is the best bed or pillow. If you sleep in a different bed with a different pillow and your pain or restlessness that night is the same, your sleep will not be fixed by purchasing a better bed or pillow. Continue reading →

Have you ever wondered why sometimes you can do dramatic things and have no lasting pain? At other times seemingly small incidents gradually build, sometimes spread and can cause more pain or stiffness than you would expect. This presentation is remarkably common. Continue reading →

Back pain is a common complaint. It is often said that 90% of people will experience back pain in their life. For some people this will be mild and short lived, for others their back pain can be more significant.

Back pain can have significant effect on people’s lives in the severity of pain and also in fear of movement, concern about the future with regards to work and play as well as pre concieved ideas about back pain.  Continue reading →

Strong muscles give many protective benefits to our bodies. Muscles move us, keep us upright and stable, plus help strengthen our bones. For this reason, many people go to the gym and do weights, Pilates, yoga etc. They often expect because they are strengthening their muscles that they will be protected from injury or that it will solve their pain issues. Unfortunately this is an over simplified message which has become the conventional wisdom of the age. If it was true, athletes and strong people would never have a pain or injury.

Continue reading →

Both acute pain (less than two month’s duration) and chronic pain (greater than two month’s duration) are very real. Both can be mild, moderate or severe in nature. All pains are processed in the brain, but that does not mean you are weak or wimpish in the brain because you have pain. Unfortunately the saying “your pain is all in your brain” can be easily misconceived this way. Continue reading →

This time of year is when more people are involved with club level sports. As a result, there is a higher incidence of sporting injuries. These injuries can range from mild, requiring no time off, to moderate, requiring treatment and some time out of the game, to season ending injuries such as fractures and severe knee injuries.

Continue reading →

We all remember the classic song “The foot bone’s connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone’s connected to the shoulder bone…”

In many ways, this song is relevant to the way we actually function in all our movements. For example, in order to move our arm, we begin by stabilising our lower legs and the trunk muscles before moving our arm. This process involves coordination between muscles on both sides of our body and involves intricate timing between our stabilising muscles and our moving muscles.

Continue reading →