Hours: evening and weekends to be negotiated.

We are needing to add members to our team due to an increased work load, and we are looking for initially two part time physiotherapists to work evening and weekends in our Selby and Garforth Clinics, and we are looking for you if you are:

Committed to providing a high quality professional service
If you have good people skills
If you are experienced or willing and determined to learn.
If you are reliable and trustworthy
If you are able to manage your own case load
If you have a good background in manual therapy

If you are interested please contact us with your CV and indicating whether you would be interested in working i our Garforth or Selby clinics at ove@indergaardphysio.com

Our patient Matthew Clough realised an ambition when he returned to road racing last weekend at the Bradford 10k after spending some time coming back from a severe knee injury. And he did it in style by winning the race in 32.31, beating his rivals by more than 80 seconds.

Here is a link to the Telegraph and Argus article

Well done Matthew and congratulations on what will hopefully be plenty more great races in the future!!

Click here to view

Happy training,

Ove Indergaard

Here at Indergaard Physiotherapy we have looked into our best referral sources and the statistics are pretty clear. Our biggest referral source is YOU, our patients. So we have decided to reward your good work.

When you refer a friend, family member or colleague to us you will receive a £10 voucher off your next treatment here at our clinic, should that be physiotherapy or a sports massage.

Once your friend has attended for their first appointment we will send you your voucher. If you do not need it right now, don’t worry, the voucher does not have an expiry date and will be valid when you need it.

So get started and the vouchers will be coming your way.

To have a look at what we treat and some of the conditions wecan help with at Indergaard Physiotherapy click here.

ps. Unfortunately the £10 voucher can’t be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount

Thanks for your support so far,

Ove Indergaard MSc MCSP HPC

What is Plantar Fasciitis?

Plantar Fasciitis is a an overuse condition of the Plantar Fascia where it attaches onto the calcaneus or heel.

It is commonly caused by activities that require the ankle to be plantarflexed and the toes to be dorsiflexed at the same time. This happens when you walk and run when you push off from the ground,  and is also commonly seen in dancers.

The attachment on the heel becomes tender to pressure and people who suffer with this always have heel pain, usually stiff and sore first thing in the morning and it usually gets better through the day. Sometimes the pain stretches into the arch area of the foot as well.

So what causes it?

Usually brought on by repetitive overuse, some research has linked overpronation to plantar fasciitis. Commonly, there is calf tightness which prevents your weight to transfer properly through the foot and instead forces the foot into pronation and also there will be biomechanical issues sometimes higher up in your system like the knee and hip which ultimately causes these problems in the first place.

How can it be treated?

Well the first line treatment is avoiding the activities that cause the pain in the first place. Secondly, applying ice to the area and some gentle stretching of the plantar fascia can help.

Most importantly, it is important to have the cause of it assessed by a physiotherapist to get to the bottom of the biomechanical causes of the problems so there can be a long term solution to the problem and prevent it from returning. The Physiotherapist will provide you with tailored exercises and stretches to address your specific problems which should have you back on track in no time.

Any questions regarding Plantar Fasciitis please email me through the site or post a comment on the blog

Happy Training,

Ove

This is a link to a sample program so you can see how it works. It is set up for myself as a sample. Once you have clicked on the link you can then chose to watch videos of the exercises and print the exercises out. It also has a tick sheet that you print out and complete as you go along with the program. Please have a look

Click here to see the sample program

Any questions please phone us on 0113 286 0333 or contact us through the website.

Ove

A little post to introduce to you our two newest members of the team here at Indergaard Physiotherapy.

Firstly, there is James Batley who is a Chartered Physiotherapist. James joined our team at the Leeds clinic back in spring 2010 and he has already established a good rapport with our clients and is having some excellent results. James works within the private setting both here at Indergaard Physiotherapy and also within a private practice in Scunthorpe.

In addition to these roles he is also the Head Physiotherapist for the Hull Stingrays Professional Ice Hockey Team. Treating sports injuries is a passion for James and he is continually updating his knowledge and skills by attending further training courses within this area.

Our second Chartered Physiotherapist is Anna Cooper who joined us in August 2010 and can be found working on Monday evenings and Saturdays here at Indergaard Physiotherapy in Leeds. In addition to working for the NHS and also for the Academy at Bolton Wanderers FC. Anna is a qualified Sports Massage Therapist and worked with clubs like Burnley FC and Bournmouth AFC before starting her Physiotherapy degree. So in addition to her physiotherapy treatment she is also offering Sports Massages at Indergaard Physiotherapy.

Please join me in welcoming these two excellent physiotherapists to our team and to book in with either of them please phone our Leeds clinic on 0113 286 0333.

Firstly I have to apologise, I have been very busy in recent months with the work in the clinic and I have sadly neglected the blog lately. I am aiming to correct that over the next few weeks and months as I have some exciting ideas for it so keep checking back or even better subscribe to the blog and receive it straight to your inbox.

Well as the headline says, I will attempt to answer the most common question put to me by nearly every patient I see who is suffering from back pain.

“What can I do to make sure this doesn’t happen again?”

Well as you can imagine every patient have a slightly different problem in the back but there are some common trends which we can change to make it less likely that your back pain returns.Unfortunately the statistics aren’t on your side, most people who get back pain have a recurring problem at some point in their life. But considering 80% of the population will have back pain at some point in their life, we can only conclude that this is normal.

The easy answer is, you need to move more.

I know what you are thinking, “but I am fairly active/I have an active job that keeps me busy etc.” so let me qualify my statement a little. The majority of people these days have jobs that require them to be sedentary for large parts of the day in a sitting posture or that they are very repetitive. We are increasingly commuting further and further for work and this is done in a sedentary sitting posture. Some people then go home and sit watching tv or at the computer at home in the evening.

What I am trying to highlight is that the problem isn’t movement but the lack of variety of movement. Do something that does the opposite of what your dominant pattern of movement is. Now I am not going to prescribe any exercises here because it is all so individual, but there should be no limit to what you can take part in from simple things like walking to joining the gym, cycling, doing pilates or yoga or take up a martial art. The recent guidelines for treatment of chronic low back pain by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists puts exercise as one of the main components to include in the rehabilitation of back pain. It did not single out any one form of exercise and showed that general exercise was as good as pilates based exercise in terms of returning people to a pain free state. With that in mind, is any one exercise better than the other in preventing back pain?

I believe in movement and the activation of your muscles, if your body gets some variety of movement it will maintain the muscles in a more active, healthier state so that they are better able to protect and support your spine when you need it. The best form of exercise is the one that you enjoy, for that is the exercise you will continue with.

in essence you need to move more…

To listen to the interview it can be accessed free through iTunes by clicking, here or directly from the Marathon Talk website.

As always any comments or questioned are welcomed.

The topic of this edition of the blog is inspired by two things, firstly the Virgin London Marathon is fast approaching and there are 14 weeks until runners both experienced and new to the sport will be nervously standing on the startline Sunday the 25^th of April. Secondly, my good friend Tom has started a new podcast about marathon running last week which can be found at www.marathontalk.com and is also available from iTunes. So I thought this would be an interesting topic to share with you.

Now, to be able to stand on the startline of any run and especially the marathon, it is essential to get good consistent training in your legs. The biggest obstacle to achieving this is to get injured and every year thousands, yes thousands of runners, get injured to degree that it stops them from participating in their chosen events. It often starts with a niggle and develops into something more serious such as runners knee (IT Band syndrome), plantarfasciitis (foot pain), shin splints and even stress fractures. Here I am going to share 9 simple things that can be done to eliminated some of the risks involved with running. But first let me give you the bad news, injuries are not an act of divine intervention and are caused by one person and one person alone, you! And you are the only one who can do something about it too!

1.Get your running style analysed and select the right shoes. Go to a reputable running shop where you can be filmed to assess your running style (or running gait) and get the correct running shoes for your style should you be an overpronator or should you require more cushioning then now is the time to sort this out, you are about to spend a lot of time running in these and using the wrong shoes can cause more problems than it is worth. This is often the number one cause why people come to see me in the clinic with running related injuries. In our local area you can go to Up and Running in Leeds, Sweatshop in York or Sportshoes in Bradford where they offer this service for free.

2. Change your shoes regularly. The cushioning in a normal running shoe will wear out after 300-500 miles, in general, in a male, a shoe is made for an average runner at around 11 ½ Stone, so adjust the amount o f milage according to your body weight closer to either end of the scale. Now this is not an absolute number as it varies from person to person, but over the years I have found it to be near enough for the purpose of injury prevention. Quite often you will feel this happen as you start with little niggles in the foot, shin or your calves are getting tight. In a club runner running 30-40 miles a week this will only be 10 weeks before the shoe is worn out, it will still look new but don’t let that fool you, the cushioning will be worn out.

Similarly, if you run on consecutive days it is a good idea to have two pairs of trainers as the midsole which offers the cushioning takes up to 48 hours to regenerate itself and won’t be fully recovered.

3. Do not stand on the startline in new shoes, make sure you have worn them in with a few runs so that they will not give you blisters and discomfort. A good idea would be to run approximately 50 miles or so in them prior to race week, then not to wear them until race morning.

4. Warm up. By ensuring that your bodytemperature gradually increases before you start any intervals or hill work, you will allow the muscles to become warm, more elastic and much less likely to tear. Start off easy and progress into movements required for the upcoming session.

5. Build a general lower limb stretching regime into your workout plan. Although stretching has in recent years become a controversial topic and should we or shouldn’t we stretch, should we stretch before or after our workouts etc. I would suggest that stretching before workouts should be limited to dynamic movements and dynamic stretches, as long static stretches will inhibit your muscles and leave them weak for the work they are about to undergo. It is however very important to incorporate flexibility training into your regime. Sstretching maintains an optimal muscle length which will maintain optimal function for your lower limb which will lead to a better running economy through an effcient power transfer and can improve your performance. Who doesn’t want that! This does not need to happen imediately after a workout but can be achieved at home whilst watching tv or more formally in a gym based stretching class or in a yoga session

6. Gradually increase the amount you run and monitor how fast you run. Injuries indicate a breakdown point for your body, and it is important to not overstretch your bodys capability of absorbing the workouts. It is commonly quoted that increasing your total training load by 10% is safe but if you are not accustomed to running you may need to do this slower. It is commonly mentioned in coaching litterature that your training runs should be done at a slower pace than your marathon target pace. Likewise it is important to be progressive about how much speed work you do in a week beit intervals and tempo runs. Slowly increase the amount of repetitions and speed for these session. The body will gradually adapt to these workloads and you will arrive on the big day in tip top condition and injury free.

7. Make sure you vary your running routes and surfaces. Therea re a few things that can influence your likelyhood of getting injured. The running surface can be too hard, too soft, uphill and downhill or they can be cambered. All these things can lead to injury if too much time is spent running on any of these surfaces, the trick is to vary them a little. For instance if you have a route near your home and you run it 3-4 times a week and always in the same direction, roads in this country are usually cambered due to the amount of rain that falls and as such this will lead to increased muscle activation in the leg which is facing the side of the road and is one of the risk factors in developing ITBS (iliotibila band syndrome). So vary your routes and try to go off road if you can. But dont forget to train on similar terrain to your target race too, if it is a road race you need to do some of your training on road and if its a lot of hills then you need to practice running up and down hills as this places additional stress on your body.

8. Have an assessment with a physiotherapist who is used to treating endurance athletes to check biomechanics, flexibility and core stability. A lot of biomechanical problems can be addressed such as overpronating feet or leg length discrepencies, and these problems usually brings with them associated muscle problems such as underactive and shortened muscles. Having someone assess wether there is a need for insoles and to prescribe you a flexibility and core stability program to address these problems will increase your chance of running in a more optimal pattern using the correct muscles and this will reduce your wisk of getting injured. To read more about how core stability influences your performance read my previous article which you can access by clicking here. Prevention is always better than the cure!

9. Recognise when you are getting injured and deal with it sooner rather than later. There are four phases of injury:

Phase 1. Pain after exercise but settles after a few hours

Phase 2. Pain causes discomfort but there is no reduction in your training or performance

Phase 3. Severe discomfort and pain which limits your training and influences your performance

Phase 4. Pain is so severe you are unable to run

These phases are progressive and the further you progress the more treatment and more time will be needed to fix the problem. The earlier you deal with you problem the quicker you will be back running. Never get past phase two without seeking advice from a chartered physiotherapist. It’s a false economy to save two sessions early on only to need ten sessions further down the line.

I hope you have found this interesting and if there are any points you wish to discuss with me then please either contact me in the clinic or throught the website and I will be more than happy to talk to you about them.

Happy Training,

Ove Indergaard