The good Bike Fit

Yesterday I picked up my new road bike from Trisports.  With only 5 weeks to my first sprint triathlon I'm cutting it a little fine to say the least...  She is a Trek Lexa S, with rather awesome gold detailing (and a lid to match, of course!)  Last year I was riding a borrowed bike and towards the end of the season my back was in agony - I was well aware that the bike was too small for me, but unaware that my centre of gravity was so far forwards that it was making the handling dangerous!

As a Sports Therapist I see cyclists who clock-up anything from 20 - 300 miles a week, and a good bike fit is important for everyone.  Common problems associated with a poor bike-fit include numbness and tingling in the hands and arms due to impinged nerves, vertebral misalignment leading to back issues, and the obvious hip, knee and foot troubles due to shortened muscles and impinged tendons.

The science of bike fitting is clever, and a wee bit beyond me I'll leave that to the experts, so here is one in progress - Simon 'Bam' Douglas of Trisports.  Thank you guys for awesome service!  Credits Jayne Odell for on-the-fly iPhone photography ;-)

Gait Analysis – More than just the right shoes!

This weekend I returned to University of Bedfordshire as a student of  Sports Therapy UK to study Gait Analysis. It has been an absolutely enlightening couple of days and I have stacks of notes to write up and a huge amount of learning to integrate into my assessments!  It was great to be able to fire long pent-up questions to our tutor the highly experienced academic; ultra-runner, IronMan and former British Triathlon Assoc Coach, Senior Lecturer Pete Sheard.

How can I explain Gait Analysis to my clients?  Well I’ve thought long and hard about this…  When we walk/run on a treadmill in a running shop it’s for the purpose of buying a new pair of runners that are perceived to offer us the ‘right’ factors for our running style.  This is what most of us understand Gait Analysis to be.  True Gait Analysis is the study of your whole body’s movement – from the tip of your toes to the hair on your head, and via the path that you travel in a forwards, vertical, (and sometimes sideways!) motion.  Think ‘Gollum’ and his CGI dots that made him come to life in Lord of the Rings - that’s the type of advanced technology available at the University of Bedfordshire. Of course we don’t have that in a clinic environment, but we can use the principal visually when working with clients on a treadmill or walking /running anywhere.

It will result in informing your running shoe purchase, for sure – but it will also serve to help you understand why you move in the way that you do and, consequently why you injure in the way that you do.  A Therapist trained in Gait Analysis can identify the key factors of your motion which reduce your skill, performance, speed, and increase your likelihood of injury. Essentially Gait Analysis is about efficiency.

The topic of running shoes was of course still central to our learning…  Pronator or supinator?  Supported or inserts?  Nike or Adidas and New Balance vs Saucony.  Shoes are a lively topic - to learn about how they’re manufactured, what athletes ‘really’ train in when their sponsors aren’t looking, and quite what is essential technology and what’s just marketing tosh was incredibly valuable.  Oh, and there was of course the inevitable long discussion on barefoot or minimalist running…  Don’t get me started on that! 

Thank you Sports Therapy UK for one of the most worthwhile CPD courses I’ve attended. 

For further information I can be reached on 07588 605276 or visit www.gbsportstherapy.co.uk.

Hands-on Revision

I've been getting back to basics in the last 2 days revisiting techniques and anatomy topics that I've not practised in a little while, and I've had the benefit of learning more advanced skills alongside my older brother Alex who’s a chartered Physio.

Al is based in Hull and has just set up a mobile Physiotherapy practice.  He comes from an NHS / geriatric-care background, and wanted to offer more skills such as Sports and Remedial Massage, facilitated stretching etc as part of his tool-kit.  He covered massage a few years ago but we saw the opportunity to get together and skill-swap, and so organised 2 days-worth of patient volunteers and got stuck in!  Quite selfishly of course, because to have 48 hours with a Physio in ‘work mode’ is a fab opportunity to bounce theories and ideas… 

We started by hitting the books over a coffee and a cake at The Coach House, revising anatomy and discussing some hot topics that have been foxing us both such as the role and release of the neck-flexors in what’s known as Anterior Head Carriage…  Boring, I know – but it effects 35% of the desk-bound working population, and can be a nightmare to fix!  One successful conclusion later and we were ready to start pounding the flesh…

Every patient came in with a real niggle or problem to assess, and it’s been a great opportunity to set my theory against Alex’s and vice versa…  I absolutely love my job, but it can be quite isolating and to have the chance to try different techniques and test theories and ideas has been brilliant.  Interestingly we have been in agreement with all of our treatment plans for the problems presented and we've successfully diagnosed a couple of tricky conditions.  Hooray!

Al is now completely proficient in sports and remedial massage and I'm very pleased that my brother has become one of a small pool of Physiotherapists who are truly ‘hands-on’ with their treatment.  An unfair comment?  Well maybe, but my clinic is regularly attended by people who say that their NHS Physio didn't even lay their hands on them, and the role of healing hands is frequently unrecognised and dismissed.

A huge thank you to everyone who has given us their time over the last two days – you are superb, thank you :-)  I'm very lucky to have such brilliant clients and friends.

Georgie