Sports injury and orthopaedic rehab at Balance Performance Physiotherapy

If you’re unfortunate enough to suffer an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) rupture as Lucas Leiva did last week – the Brazil international will miss the rest of the season having injured his left knee during Tuesday’s Carling Cup quarter-final victory at Chelsea – as a professional footballer reconstructive surgery is essential to return to the game.

If you’re not a pro but the injury results in your knee continuing to irregularly give way, an operation to reconstruct the ACL is really your only option, especially if you aspire to have an active lifestyle. At Balance of course we actively encourage you to ask for more and expect more from yourself. However whether pro athlete or not the operation is only effective if followed with quality rehabilitation executed with discipline and patience. Ensure your rehab guides you far enough down the road for you to achieve a complete recovery, give you absolute confidence to return to your sport and has provided you with resilience to future injury (either to the same knee or another structure that becomes vulnerable due to inadequate rehab). Of course there is no such thing as invulnerability in a human but to reiterate – you should be asking more of yourself and more of your physio or sports therapist. Do not pull up short!

Hamstring grafts are the grafts of choice these days but patella tendon grafts can also be used and do well.

Here’s the kind of schedule you’d expect going into rehab post operatively, which is initially quite straightforward:

Weeks 1-4 focussed on range of movement.

Return to sport at 5-6 months and contact sport soon afterwards.

This timeline is dependant on the quality of rehab, the individuals discipline and motivation, their unique circumstances and complications.

Most surgeons would like to see their work relatively protected for 9 months post op.

Balance got world class judo player Winnie Gordon competing in European champs at 5.5 months but that is rare. He went in to surgery on with a good level of preinjury knee strength which gave him a useful functional reserve.

Like every injury ones success is dependent on quality of training, movement, control and motivation.

At Balance we use tools that provide results, consequently we have a vast array of “toys” to work on specific weaknesses identified in our clients. There are some tools that we use over and over again, equipment that makes rehab more effective for a variety of reasons. one such reason is the ability to introduce something as early within the rehab process as possible to familiarise a client with the tool and also because we use equipment that is scalable – it can be used with more or less intensity depending on the stage of development a client has achieved.

For example Trigger Point Performance Therapy (TPT) and Alter-G partial weight bearing treadmill are used at very early stages in ACL rehab, CrossCore180 and kettlebells arent far behind. We make use of all of our available space: in Clapham and Fulham we have 1,000s of square feet of space to utilise and matted areas for essential ground work.

When an individual has focussed on prevention (prehab) prior to their current injury (remember there is no such thing as invulnerable) their subsequent recovery is much faster. Such prehab involves a mindful approach to movement skills, joint mobility, intelligent recovery following practice/training/competition: sports massage, self massage (Trigger Point Performance Therapy), hydration and nutrition, good quality sleep, stress management (mental and emotional).

As for Lucas, he and Liverpool are now considering when last season’s player of the year should undergo surgery.

This Saturday in Edinburgh – Jonathan Lewis, Physiotherapist, Movement Strength and Conditioning coach is teaching alongside Keith Openshaw of Mad Dog Functional Training Sytems the first of a series of workshops they have written for fitness professionals, physiotherapist, sports therapists, osteopaths and chiropractors. Flow Restoration – Kettlebells for Injury Rehabilitation is a 1 day introduction to the subject (though its a subject that you could fill an MSc with).

For an overview of the workshop take a look at the Simple Strength website, our hosts in Edinburgh this Saturday. http://simplestrength.com/workshops-2/

This workshop wil be running in London and the East Midlands soon so if you are interestred in knowing more please contact either Jonathan or Keith.

Not only does the team at Balance deliver trigger point therapy but we also educate our clients about TrP therapy and how they can do it themselves using Trigger Point Performance kits and individual products.

The more we do it the better the results our clients can achieve for themselves and gain independence with the tools we recommend.

Here is just one comment directed at the TPT page on Facebook:

“Your Ultimate 6 kit helped get me through Boston [Marathon]. Sciatic pains for 2 weeks before. Ran pain free. Thank you!”

Having been at the TPT HQ in Austin Texas a couple of weeks back I have been able to pass on some additional teaching points to Kellie and Trevor (the Balance sports massage team) and Jason Progl (movement, strength and conditioning coach) so they can educate even more effectively the benefits to be had by their clients inducing trigger point release on themselves.

Trigger Point Performance HQ, Austin, Texas

To see the Trigger Point Performance Products online CLICK this underlined link TPT Kits.

for more info contact Jonathan Lewis via our contact page, Twitter, or feel free to look me up on facebook.

Updated news piece on main site:  http://bit.ly/cxTTQj

Mick and Graham "working" and forging links in Chamonix

Happy New Year from the team at Balance.

We are very excited about the year ahead even if a lot of people are talking about 2009 being a gloomy year for business.

For the past 8 years we have actively encouraged clients to take a long term perspective when it comes to dealing with their injuries, episodes of back pain, their health and fitness training.

We are in a constant state of development here to improve our effectiveness in conveying the message that “quick fix” is neither effective or economical: why keep paying to have a recurrent problem treated when you can learn to deal with it yourself for free!!).

We are seeing more clients than ever before who take their health, fitness and physical lifestyle seriously and place a greater priority on maintaining it. When an injury set back comes their way they realise a quick fix is not the right approach. Better to go for the long term solution.

People expect a lot more from the professionals looking after their sports injuries or back pain and rightly so. They want pain relieved, full function to return, to be provided with a strategy to keep improving beyond the initial stages and to be guided back to their highest possible level of performance, and they want it all from one team at one facility.

To achieve this a team must not only have an understanding of injury, healing and recovery processes but also have the space, appropriately trained professionals and inclination to develop their clients movement skills. This development follows a path from the low point that follows injury, pain or surgery all the way to the full range, maximally loaded, full speed, smooth and fluid movement by someone working at their full potential.

With the raised consciousness and awareness that people now have it is easier to identify which facilities  can genuinely provide what they need.

The range of one to one services and the health and fitness programme that Balance offers to support them is now at the most comprehensive level in our 8 year history: we have designed it to suit the schedules, aspirations and financial situation of as many different people as possible.

Balance is able to support all of our clients all of the way to full health. We have classes and workshops suitable for those who prefer to be more independent with monthly sessions to progress their fitness, movement abilities, prevent further injury and heighten performance. Our leading professionals are able to see more people at a lower cost and provide better results.

If you have any quesions about finding the right facility for the particular problem you are facing, no matter where in the world you are let us know and we will try and guide you to find the right team for the job. Even if you have to assemble them yourself we can tell you what you should be looking for in the physiotherapist, osteopath, sports injury or back pain specialist, and the movement, strength and conditioning coach that has to be involved for you to make a full recovery and show you how to build on the misfortune of injury and make it an opportunity to become better than you ever were before the injury.

All the best for 2009 from the Balance team.