In January and February each year my physio clinic sees a sharp increase in injuries amongst people who’ve made these types of New Year resolutions. These patients always share one thing in common, they push themselves too much, too soon!

It is inspiring to make lifestyle changes to increase fitness and improve health and well being.  Come the 1st of January people can be seen  jogging in the park, riding their bicycles, or hard at work at the gym.  Their enthusiasm can be infectious, if not sometimes irritating! 

But my words of caution are to start slowly and progress slowly.  Any increase in exercise must be done in a gradual way- this is to allow the body a period of adaptation. Adaptation is the physiological phenomenon of the body adapting to the stresses and strains of the training you subject it to- in this case making the muscles, tendons and bones stronger and the cardiovascular system fitter.

Here is a common example.  You have decided to enter a 10km fun run.  Having never run before you begin sensibly by doing combination walking / jogging intervals for a total of 20min, 3 a times a week- a very sensible start!  After 2 weeks you are finding it all a lot easier and can jog for 20min without stopping- brilliant! You then decide to increase to 30min jogging 3 times a week- surprisingly your breathing and endurance feel good- but after your third 30min jog you notice your Achilles tendon is hurting you.  And there you have a start of Achilles tendonitis- a condition that can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months to settle down!

What went wrong, you ask yourself, I was doing so well.  Quite simply your cardiovascular fitness improved quickly, but your musculo-skeletal system did not have enough time to adapt to the new stresses of jogging.  By increasing the loading on the tendon by 50% extra from one week to the next- the Achilles tendon had not had enough time to adapt and was not strong enough to withstand the increased loading.  The tissue broke down and became inflamed.  This is a typical example of a training related injury that we see in the clinic.

The advice is quite simple- give your body, particularly your joints, muscles and tendons time to adapt to your increases in training.  Don’t be overeager and push yourself too much too soon when you feel things getting easier.  As a simple guide, increase training volume by no more than 10% each week to begin with.  Allow your body time to adapt and adjust.

My own experiences were quite similar- I took up jogging following my 30th birthday one February, having entered the Watford 10km fun run in April that year.  My first problem was shin splints (medial tibial stress syndrome), this eventually settled somewhat by the June after the fun run, my cardio fitness had improved much more quickly than my musculo-skeletal adaptation. I then entered my first half-marathon, Stevenage half marathon, that September.  Up to that point I could run 10miles with no trouble other than the shin splints.  But during the half marathon from mile 10 to 13 I began feeling pain on the outside of my foot.  I completed the half marathon in 1hr50min which I was very pleased with- but my foot hurt for 6weeks!  The upside was that I was thrilled with my half-marathon time and the shin splints never came back.  But no way could my body have adapted enough during that year to run a marathon.  It was 18months later in April 2006 that my body had adapted enough to enable me to train for and run the London marathon successfully.

Good luck and congratulations on a commendable resolution for 2012, give it time, be patient and most of all

The BOOST Blogger- Steven Berkman, Head Physiotherapist at BOOST PHYSIO, Hendon NW4

persevere.

Regards- from Steven Berkman- the BOOST BLOGGER

Avoid lower back pain by following our advice sheet on Dos and Don'ts for your back

Is loading the dishwasher causing you back pain?

Is dusting the floor stressing your discs?

Sitting at the computer giving you sciatica?

These simple day to day activities that we take for granted could be stressing or even injuring your lower back!  Want to know how to avoid unecessary pressure on your discs, muscles and ligaments in your back during common daily activities and chores?  Steven Berkmanof BOOST PHYSIO Hendon, has created an online tutorial and advice sheet covering DOs and DON’Ts your lower back.You can view the full advice sheet by following this link.  There are even short video clips demonstrating the correct techniques for you to watch.

If you wish to discuss your injury in detail or book an appointment why not call us at BOOST PHYSIO, Hendon, North West London?  Our telephone number is 020 82017788.

By The BOOST BLOGGER- Steven Berkman, Chartered Physiotherapist

Top 10 injuries in the gym

Last week I met with a group of good friends and fellow NW London Physiotherapists and Osteopaths for a delicious Chinese Meal, I mean CPD (Continued Professional Development) event.  Naturally no discussion would be complete without us outlining the top ten gym injuries and BAD exercises … so I thought I’d share it with you…

1. Dead lifts- why on earth anyone would want to lift a heavy weight with their knees locked and bending from the back is not only beyond me but idiotic!!
2. Seated Cable Rows ( sitting on floor with feet in front of you)- another lumbar disc injury waiting to happen
3. Lat Pull downs behind the head- cervical spine injury and disc irritation
4. Lateral raises with dumbells- impingement syndrome and supraspinatus tendonitis HELLOOOO!!!
5. Weighted squats- where do we begin with this one ( Lumbar spine, cervico-thoracic junction pain, knee pain, patella femoral pain)
6. Kettle Bells- the hip in vogue exercise form will do wonders for developing a lumbar disc protrusion or supraspinatus impingement
7. Vibro-gym / Power Plate- great for aggravating all existing knee conditions, particularly mensicus trouble. Also good if you have a lumbar disc that has almost blown and you really want to speed up the process, do some deep squats while vibrating away at a high frequency
8.  Step aerobics- that is if you can still find any gym silly enough to still be offering this sure fire way of developing anterior knee pain, patella femoral pain, patella tendonitis or achilles tendonitis
9. Yoga head and neck stands (Yes I do really think that resting your whole body weight through your neck is  NOT a good idea)
10. Back Extension machine – do 3 sets of 15reps heavy if  you want to have a lumbar spine facet joint problem and for about 4-6 sessions of physiotherapy

     

Clearly you can see that this is a somewhat glib listing, but please bear in mind that these warnings and concerns are based on actual injuries that I have treated and seen as a direct result of incorrect gym exercises.  If you do have any questions or have an injury related to any of these issues we can certainly help you recover quicker and more fully and prevent any further problems in future.

Call us on 020 8201 7788 or look at our main website www.boostphysio.com

My private physiotherapy clinic is in Hendon, North West London.  And of course we are BUPA and AXA PPP recognised.

Careful gym training- Steven Berkman (The BOOST BLOGGER)

What allows 1 sports person to escape injury free- and the other to be beset by injury troubles?

A couple of weeks ago I conducted an injury screening for 2 members of the Great Britain Judo team.  I concluded that Judo is a dangerous sport!  This was the week before they were representing GB in a Judo tournament- who knows they may be representing GB at the 2012 Olympics!  How did we come into contact with these Judo players?  Well…

At BOOST PHYSIO we are privileged to be a Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme  physio clinic (TASS- click here for more info about TASS).  What’s TASS I hear you ask- it is a Government funded programme to support and fast-track young sporting talent, the potential medal winners of the future- and BOOST PHYSIO is one of the clinics looking after these athletes.  Click here to view a Video about TASS.

So during this athlete screening I had to screen 2 female judo players which left me with the philosophical question- why do elite athletes have so many injuries and what leads some to succeed and others not?

One of the girls had broken her arm and her wrist  previously and had a thumb injury, the other had a dislocated thumb – all from Judo.  But these girls were tough- training hard in conjunction with their strength and conditioning coaches.  I wondered to myself- are these injuries simply the consequence of contact sport, or is it something else, perhaps the extreme lengths to which elite sports people push themselves to achieve excellence?  Could an ability to recover better from injury allow one to  to succeed while another fails?

I’ve never seen a 19year old athlete who’s had a steroid injection for an injury before (usually it’s over 30’s and sometimes those in their 20’s), so when I did this hit home and reminded me the extremes to which sports people push their bodies in pursuit of their dreams.

Rafael Nadal’s poor performance at the Australian Open seems to be put down almost entirely to injury from pushing himself too much, some critics even wonder if he’s going to be able to come back in the same way because of his injury problems.  I’ve had to treat injuries of various county level tennis players ranging from 10 to 17 years old.  The one who I think gets pushed the hardest is the 10 year old boy- whether it is him or his mum who does the pushing I am sometimes not too sure- but when kids under 14 come regularly for physio for various injuries one asks the question- is this simply the cost of the pursuit of excellence or is this abnormal.  Furthermore could it be that what dictates whether he will ever make it to Wimbeldon is actually his physical make-up and pre-disposition to injury that may make him miss 1 or 2 critical seasons of training and competition?

A recent article in the Telegraph talks about the mounting concern over the Winter Olympics casualty list and safety of the various sports- it would seem that the sports and events themselves are becoming more extreme, not only the athletes themselves who are pusing the boundaries all the time.  Clearly there is a huge psychological element to why and how athletes push themselves to the extremes.

Enough philosophising- to sum up it is clear to me that to even aspire to elite sporting success requires enormous physical sacrifice and dedication, along with mental tennacity and extreme focus.  But that to succeed in achieving the pinnacle of one’s sport will almost always be dictated by the ability to ward off  serious injury. I firmly believe that those athletes on the winners podium have their genetic code to thank in warding off career stopping injury in what Darwin would call survival of the fittest!

So the reason why I have always achieved sporting mediocrity must be down to my genetic code- it just aint good enough