1)    Don’t wear complicated clothing or you’ll have to take more off. Shorts and t-shirt are ideal and bring your trainers 2)    Women don’t wear a sports bra if you are having neck treatment. They massively get in the way! 3)    Don’t wear see-through underwear to physio. Ever. 4)    Please wear underwear to physio. Always. 5)    Please don’t spend a lot of time researching your condition before the appointment. Google is a poor diagnostician as there is no context to it. 6)    Tell the physio what has ..read more

There is nothing quite like a new year’s resolution to get you starting something. That’s really the easy bit, the tough bit is keeping it up. You’re likely feeling fat and unfit after a festive season of excess, and whilst it is good to indulge ourselves now and again, let’s be honest if you carry on with that trajectory, you’re likely to have more than a few kilos by this time next year, you might even pick up a few illnesses and long term issues along the way too. Remember that low fitness kills more people than smoking, diabetes and obesity combined. Ref: https://blogs.bmj.com/bjsm/2011/0 ..read more

This study aimed to look at injuries in rugby union over 2 seasons in both male and female amateur rugby players. The most common injuries in men and women were concussion and ankle ligament sprains, and ACL injuries causing the most playing time lost. ? ?THE REALLY INTERESTING BIT??83% of non-contact injuries for women happened in the last quarter of the game. This shows a need for strength and conditioning training programs to decrease fatigue-related injuries… both from a physical fatigue perspective but also a mental resilience point of view; the ability to continue to maintain focus, bala ..read more

Spinal stress fractures, Severe’s Disease, Osgood Schlatter’s Disease amongst other things are the scourge of every young cricketing team. With my background in academy cricket physio and national pathway cricket, I now find myself working in private practice based at a cricket ground and so still see a lot of young cricketers, and the stories really haven’t changed that much. School, club and county are all competing for time with the kids, and parents either feel pressured or are doing the pressurising of the kids to do all of the training and matches laid on by all of the entities. Coupled ..read more

In this really interesting study in the International Journal of Sports Physiotherapy, male and female basketball players aged 14-18 were compared for overall strength, strength ratios between quads and hamstrings, and flexibility.   Strength: In males; older athletes were much stronger than younger athletes. In females there was no difference between younger and older athletes. Male athletes were SIGNIFICANTLY stronger than female athletes, but no differences were seen between males and females with regards to the ratios of strength between each individuals hamstrings and quads.   F ..read more

Ever wondered why some pains just don’t go away? Where does pain come from? Are you imagining the pain? Here are some handy infographics for you to help you understand where, what and how. Hope it helps! Kate x ..read more

As a result of this global pandemic we have all had to get creative with how we stay fit. In the summer we saw people running (and injuring themselves!) more than ever before, but now as it’s so dark and cold there has been a huge switch to online fitness. Many people have understandably turned to big trusted brands like Les Mills, Joe Wicks, Peleton and Nike Training. I’d like to challenge you to think more locally, support small business and keep the money in Derby’s economy! If you’d like to have these fitness professionals available to you at the end of this pandemic, then you need to supp ..read more

There is a huge amount of talk about deaths from Covid and numbers of people catching Covid, but very little about people recovering from Covid. In the UK 15% of people who caught Covid in April were dying, now that figure stands at approximately 3% (ourworldindata.org). A lot of patients seems to be experiencing ‘long-Covid’; exhibiting long term symptoms despite no longer actively having Covid. This includes heart and lung disease (including heart attack and ongoing breathing issues), enduring feelings of illness, fatigue and psychological issues. Another major issue with Covid is blood clot ..read more

If you had told me a month ago whilst I was basking in the glow of a fabulous celebration with some friends for my 40th birthday, and bursting with excitement at the prospect of getting married at Easter, that in a month’s time there would be no wedding and no physio practice (both of which I have worked extremely hard for in different ways!) and that I’d be locked down in my house due to the Coronavirus pandemic doing online physio consultations I would have laughed in your face. Literally. I am a hands on physio. Never mind the devastation the life stuff has caused! How on earth can I treat ..read more

I hope you have all been watching England thrashing South Africa over the last few weeks in the cricket (breaks my poor little South African heart!!). I was lucky enough to work full time in cricket for seven years (as Derbyshire County Cricket Club’s men’s physio and the BLACKCAPS (New Zealand’s International men’s team) physio, and since my time of being fully involved in one of my favourite sports, I am still fortunate enough to treat a lot of cricketers. As someone who has loved cricket for a long time the old image of cricket sometimes still rears it’s head… one of a slightly chubby, qui ..read more