As part of your physiotherapy experience with us, your physiotherapist will strive to give you as much detail and information about your injury or condition, they types of treatment they are using and the benefits and outcomes. They will also advise you on day today management and living with your injury.

It is our philoshopy that if we empower the patient with the right kind of information this will help the patient to recover quicker as they have a better understanding of their condition and what factors may influence on this positively or negatively.

We encourage our patient to always ask questions at every stage of their treatment and to never leave a session ‘unsure’ or ‘not knowing’ why we have done a certain treatment or advised a certain exercise.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

For some injuries your physiotherapist may recommend taping or strapping a certain part of the body. This can be done for many reasons and the physio will discuss these with you on an individual basis. A few examples are listed below.

Patella Mal-tracking- tape might be applied to help keep the knee cap in the correct alignment whilst the muscles are being strengthened.

Postural conditions- The physio may apply tape to certain areas of the body to aid the muscles in learning/adapting a new posture, this may also be done post surgically.

Kinesiotape- This can be applied for a number of reasons to varies parts of the body for reducing inflammation, promotion of circulation, re-education of the neuromuscular system and preventing injury.

Joint taping/bracing- this may be done to prevent further injury or stress to a particular structure of the body. A rigid tape will be applied to limit certain joint movements whilst the body is recovering. This may be used for joint instability and ligaments sprains.

Therapeutic ultrasound has been used by physiotherapists  since the 1940’s and its benefits include, increased healing rates, tissue relaxation, tissue heating, an increase in local blood flow to the injury site and increasing scar tissue breakdown.

These properties can be particularly useful in acute injuries where there may be a lot of swelling/bruising ie ankle strain or post surgery. In tendon based injuries where blood supply is limited, such as tennis elbow or Achilles tendonitis or in muscular spasm injuries where the vibration of the ultrasound will have a relaxation effect on the muscles.

Pilates aims to strengthen the body in an even way. It particularly targets the core strength and aims to improve general fitness and well being.  Exercises are normally done on a foam mat. Pilates can offer something for people of all ages and abilities.

Benefits from regular Pilates include, better posture, increased muscle tone, improved balance and increased joint range of motion. The main difference between Pilates and yoga is that in Pilates the exercises are performed in a flowing movement without the static holding of poses which is associated with Yoga.

Acupuncture originates from traditional Chinese medicine but is today widely accepted by the western world as an effective tool to relieve pain and treat a range of medical conditions.

What is Acupuncture?

Traditional practitioners believe that an energy force known as Qi flows through the body; when Qi is insufficient, unbalanced or obstructed, it can lead to illness or injury. Acupuncture is about restoring the balance of Qi to bring you back to full health.

Western practitioners base their treatment on evidence that acupuncture stimulates nerves and muscle tissue, resulting in a change to the patient’s perception of pain.

The practice causes the body to produce natural, pain-relieving hormones such as endorphins, reduces muscle spasm, stimulates the immune system and generally relaxes the person.

What is involved?

The therapist will insert sterile, single use, disposable needles (typically 25 – 50 times thinner than a small syringe used by a doctor) into the skin at particular points of the body. Exactly where on the body will depend on the person’s specific symptoms.

Treatment tends to last 20 – 30 minutes but can be longer.

Are there any side effects?

Acupuncture is recommended by many health care professionals because it has few side effects. Acupuncture is most effective when undertaken as course of treatment (usually 8 – 10 sessions as per NICE guidelines)

Utilising a hands on approach for many injuries will help to facilate the patients to complete their exercises as well as helping to reduce muscular tension, alleviate muscle soreness and improve joint mobility.

Your physiotherapist may utilise soft tissue techniques such as massage, myofascial release, cross frictions, stretching, trigger point release and joint mobilisation

Sports massage can also be an effective way to return you to optimum performance levels in your chosen sport. You do not need to have suffered an injury as such to attend our clinics for a sports massage it is an effective way of maintaining your muscles for activity.

Evidence shows that for most injuries that our team will treat that exercise is one of the best forms of treatment to help the patient overcome their problems.

As part of your treatment course with us as Total Physiotherapy our team will provide you with a detailed and bespoke exercise plan that will help you to recover. This plan will have progressions and regressions built into it and will continuously be monitored and updated at each session to ensure that you are working on the most appropriate activities for your injury.