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IntroductionShin splints, or medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS), are a common source of pain for athletes and active individuals. These painful sensations along the shinbone can disrupt your routine, but with the right care, you can manage and treat them effectively. In this blog, we'll delve into shin splints, their causes, symptoms, and treatment options to help you regain an active, pain-free lifestyle.Understanding Shin SplintsShin splints refer to pain and discomfort along the inside...

Introduction The Achilles tendon, the largest and strongest tendon in the body and is crucial for various physical activities, including walking, running and jumping. However, this tendon is susceptible to injuries and conditions such as Achilles tendinopathy.  Achilles tendinopathy is a common condition that results in pain, stiffness and reduced function. It primarily occurs due to overuse, repetitive stress, or a sudden increase in physical activity that the body is un-customed too. ...

Concussion is a common injury to happen in sports, usually contact sports which can leave players on the sidelines for weeks to months. We have all probably seen someone get concussed when we watch sport, but it can happen in other situations like car accidents where it may be assumed to be just whiplash. What is a concussion?A type of traumatic brain injury which leads to disruption of normal brain function. Usually scans of the head/brain will look normal, diagnosing a concussion depends...

My bike accident in October last year has definitely taught me a few things about acute, traumatic pain. The amount of pain I experienced at that time, was worse than I could ever imagine. From the moment of impacting the ground, through my whole rehab and walking away from it now (literally), I can say that I have been fortunate enough to experience how the pain mechanisms, that we physios learn about, actually happen in real-time. And I am going to try explain this to you here.The story...

I recently had an eye-opening conversation with a friend of mine who lives over East. He explained that he had ‘put his back out’ at the gym, and was going to see a therapist to ‘put it back in’.  I was immediately interested in the language he used and what his ‘back out’ looked like in his mind, and what the treatment of ‘putting it back in’ might entail (because in fact, I hear this quite a lot in physiotherapy practice). He said, “you know, get it cracked, and put it back into...

What is a milestone?Milestones are developmental achievements that children grow into and through. These milestones are important because they indicate that a child is developing normally and acquiring the necessary skills to progress to more complex tasks and abilities.Some examples of a physical milestone are bringing their feet to their mouth, crawling, standing, and walking.Some examples of a speech milestone are making sounds with their mouths, saying words, and pronouncing more...

The pelvic floor muscles are the muscles that line the base of the pelvis and have a role in maintaining continence and supporting the pelvic organs. Most people are aware of weak pelvic floor muscles after having children, but did you know that the pelvic floor muscles can also be overactive and turn on too much??Just like any other muscle in our body the pelvic floor muscles should be able to contract and relax. Pelvic floor muscles that are overactive are constantly working (contracted)...

Have you ever woken up with severe neck pain coupled with the inability to turn your head? Wondering what you might have done in your sleep to have caused this… Then you might have been a victim of “Wry Neck”. What is it? Wry neck is a condition where the neck becomes suddenly stiff and painful, and most times accompanied by muscle spasms surrounding the neck. People often report severe local pain on one side of the neck with the inability to turn it fully. It affects people of all ages,...

The meniscus is a small ‘C’ shaped structure situated deep within the knee joint, that is responsible for shock absorption and providing smooth joint function. Each knee has two menisci, medial and lateral. Meniscus tears can be broadly categorised into two categories: Acute (recent onset) or chronic (long lasting).The most common incident that results in an acute meniscus tear or sprain is a weight-bearing, twisting mechanism, on a bent knee. For example awkwardly twisting the knee while...

Two years ago, my partner and I started renovating the house we had just purchased. We told ourselves that we would try to put in as much work into it on our own as we were physically and skilfully capable. This involved smashing walls, drilling holes, prep-work (and more prep-work), painting and getting used to living within a construction site.  I learnt a lot of things in this time. I learnt the difference between a flat head and Phillips screwdriver, that you can still cook pasta on a...

At Midland Physiotherapy, all of our therapists want to help you have the best outcome from each and every consultation. We are experts at directing the consultation to help achieve your individual goals, and there is a lot that you can do as a patient to help us out. Here are my top tips of what a patient can do to get the most out of your physiotherapy treatment sessions. Be prepared – bring in any reports, scans, etc that you already have that are relevant to your problem. Even better –...

Myofascial release therapy is a technique used by qualified massage therapists to relieve pain and muscle tension related to fascial immobility. To understand how this therapy works, let me explain what fascia is and the role that it plays in everyday life. Fascia is the connective tissue that weaves continuously throughout the entire body, surrounding and holding muscles, groups of muscles and even blood vessels, nerves, and organs. Fascia is designed to bind some structures together while...

Do you ever feel dizzy? 36% of Australians over the age of 50 report having symptoms of dizziness and vertigo. Vertigo is the symptom of the room spinning around you. This can be a very alarming experience. It can interfere with many daily activities such as hanging up the washing, lying down into bed, and rolling in bed.   What causes vertigo? The most common...

Do you ever feel like there’s a tight knot in the muscles between your shoulder blades? That no matter how much you rub it, you just can’t seem to get rid of it? Then keep reading because this one is for you. Pain between the shoulder blades is a common presentation and if you’ve ever experienced this, you know just how uncomfortable it can be.  So what is causing this pain? I commonly hear patients complaining that it is worse after long hours working in the office or driving. This is...

Navigating the world of aches and pains is challenging. Do you see a Physio, Chiro, Osteo or someone else? Do you try medication, stretches, supplements, surgery, injections, massage guns or posture correctors? When you’re in pain, everyone is willing to share their opinion on what you should do and where you should go. However, getting some regular exercise may be the most beneficial idea of them all. That’s right, regular exercise is proven as the most important thing you can do for your...

Soccer season is starting up, players getting into their training gear and getting ready for a new season of Soccer! But with that also comes with injuries. And with injuries comes with time off games and training. Booo!Would it not be great if we could reduce injury rates in games? Having more time training and playing instead of sitting on the sidelines missing out?  Enter FIFA 11+FIFA 11+ is a well researched and proven series of warm-up exercises put together for that specific reason of...

What is a Frozen Shoulder?Frozen shoulder, formally known as adhesive capsulitis is a painful, and restrictive condition of the shoulder that affects up to 5% of the population. Although not truly understood in the medical world, it is believed that multiple abnormalities can bring on frozen shoulders. These can include: thickening, scaring, contraction of soft tissues and reduced joint volume.Frozen shoulder is more prevalent in women, and those aged between 35-65. The diabetic population...

Have you ever been working your abdominals and felt it in your back instead? Did you wonder why?  Read on for some answers…To correctly engage our ‘core’ or abdominal muscles, we must be able to control our pelvic position throughout. What this means is finding either a neutral/middle position, or a more posterior pelvic tilt position. In a Neutral or Posterior pelvic tilt, the back muscles are mildly ‘lengthened’ which creates a gentle shortening of the abdominal muscles which puts them in...

“Should I stop running/walking if I have knee osteoarthritis (OA)?”This is highly dependent on your condition and what the key contributors are.Background:It is important to understand not all knee pain are the same. Traditionally, when we hear OA, we think about the “wear & tear” of your joints (i.e., “The more you use it, the more you lose it.”.However, there’s huge evidence to suggest that that is not the case.In fact, a recent review (Alentorn-Geli et al., 2017) has shown: 1) A...

Today I want to talk about the effect of massage and how it helps to reduce stress. Stress is universal, and it's not always bad. Whenever you jump aside to miss getting hit by a ball, feel especially nervous before an important meeting, or hit the brakes in time to avoid an accident, stress is doing its job.  However, when there's never any relief from stress, the sustained fight-or-flight response can cause problems.  Stress actually becomes distress (a negative stress reaction). Distress...

First off, what does a pelvic health physio do? A pelvic health physio treats and manages women and men suffering from problems related to bladder, bowel or sexual functioning.I hear you ask…. “Is it really worth a visit to the pelvic health physio when all they are going to do is tell me to do pelvic floor exercises? I’m already doing these so I can’t see how much more I can gain from an appointment”.Here are five reasons you should be booking in for that pelvic health assessment:Let’s get...

Whether you have just survived the Avon Descent, are getting ready for the summer sprint season, or simply enjoy getting out for a paddle, kayaking is a great sport to improve your whole-body strength and fitness – and compared to most other sports it has a low risk of injury. However, this doesn’t mean you won’t get any aches or pains while out in your boat. One area of the body that people commonly complain about becoming sore while kayaking is your forearm – which makes sense right? You...

Do you often have a tight and achy neck? Do you wake up with pins and needles in your hands? What about suffering from headaches? Neck pain is very common. In one year up to 15% of adults experience neck pain. Neck pain can be mild or it can be severe enough to impact on your daily activities and stop you from doing activities that you love. Headaches can be even worse, and can make concentrating at work or enjoying reading your phone or book difficult. Did you know that one episode of neck...

Everyone gets injured. It’s just a part of life. But not all of us know the best way to manage our injuries when we get them. If you ask people, you can hear anything form “walk it off,” “use a hot and a cold pack,” to “just slam those pain killers down.” One of the best-known ways to manage immediate injuries is “RICER,” but today I am going to talk about an update to this, I am going to talk about “PEACE and LOVE.” This strategy focuses not just on immediate care but also the transition...

Lifting at home, work or at the gym is often associated with pain and injury. The advice has historically been to lift with a straight back and bent knees but is this advice correct and how practical is it?Our very own Nic Saraceni recently appeared on the news sharing the results of his recent study where he looked at the lifting technique of workers with and without a history of low back pain. Interestingly he found the pain free group generally lifted with a more bent back than the group...

Pain is an uncomfortable experience for most people and can make exercise or daily activities much more difficult. It is common to think that when we experience pain when doing an activity, we should stop doing that particular activity. This is because pain means that we must be hurting or causing damage to our body right? Well actually, that’s not always the case. What we know with current research today is that pain in our body does not always necessarily mean there is damage to the...

When was the last time you had a good sleep?

On average, humans spend an entire third of our lives sleeping. Just consider that for a moment. ONE ENTIRE THIRD OF YOUR LIFE. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the average life expectancy (or mortality) of an Australian born in 2020 is 84.6 years as a female and 80.5 years as a male. For those of you who reached for a calculator, let me save you the trouble; that means 25.4 years and 24.2 years of sleep for women and men, respectively.

Living the good life with arthritis   Walking, dancing, playing with your grandkids – this is the good life! While most people with arthritis know they want to be active, not everyone knows how. And even fewer people know that the steps to a healthy life with arthritis have been very well researched. Here are two evidence-based strategies for managing your arthritis:  Building your knowledge Learning about arthritis can be life-changing for some people. Understanding the basics of how...

Gee, my cat has a good life. At this time of year, his favourite pastime is basking in the sunlight as the winter sun drops lower in the sky and lights up those spots on the floor which become prime cat real estate.
Between his periods of laziness though, he does a lot. And watching him taught me plenty about what we as humans have got wrong in our modern society. Read more.