Latest Blog

Hello, my name is Melissa Marsh and I want to welcome you to our first ever blog!

Sportreat is a multidisciplinary sports medicine facility offering sports medicine, physiotherapy, exercise physiology, post-operative rehabilitation, a dietician and remedial massage.

Here at Sportreat we boast seven treatment rooms, a gymnasium & real time ultrasound.

We have seven fabulous physiotherapists who all have a range of experience & their own special interests.

Also at Sportreat we have our very own Sports Medicine Doctor – Peter Nathan, Exercise Physiologist – Fiona Ryan, Dietitian – Terreen Stenvers’ & Massage Therapist’s – Jan Ince, Sue Ker, Jemma Patterson and Tarryn Culverhouse.

To find out more about our wonderful team, simply click on ‘our people’ on the left hand column of the home page on our website.

As I am sure you would agree we are heading into the best time of the year in Perth. Summer evenings, Christmas holidays, plenty of sunshine & weekend’s spent at the beach or by the pool swimming.

I have many friends and family who have just received the confirmation of the Busselton Jetty Swim in early February with the famous Rottnest Swim commencing in late February.

Read on to find out a few tips sent from one of our Senior Physiotherapists David Toy:

Published by BUPA’s Health Information Team on SWIMMING:

Swimming is a popular way of staying physically active for young and old people alike. However, swimming involves many repetitive movements and the water provides a degree of resistance to such movements. This repetition and the work required to move through the water can sometimes result in injury.

Swimmer's shoulder

This is the most common injury in swimming and is caused chiefly by the strokes themselves. The upper body is used as the main propulsive element in butterfly, freestyle and backstroke, therefore the main shoulder stabilisers, the 'rotator cuff', work extremely hard.

Along with this the swimmer needs to have a greater than normal flexibility to have sufficient recovery of the arm overhead. These two factors cause a repetitive overuse of the rotator cuff tendons, which leads to inflammation.

The acute local inflammation can then decrease the space between the top of the shoulder blade and the top of the arm causing impingement of the soft tissues and leading to even further inflammation. This repetitive action of the swimming stroke can cause alteration in shoulder girdle posture, which will also decrease space between the girdle and top of the arm risking impingement to the rotator cuff tendon.

Technical causes:

• Low elbow during recovery of stroke.
• Insufficient body roll.
• Breathing to only one side.
• Entering arm too wide or too narrow into the water.
• Poor body position in the water.

Treatment:

• Correcting muscle imbalance between internal and external rotators.
• Correction of biomechanical faults in stroke.
• Relative rest, i.e. kicking, swimming within pain free abilities only.
• Icing post exercise for 20 minutes.
• Stretching of tight structures.
• Correction of altered shoulder girdle posture.

Knee pain

"Breaststrokers Knee" - this is the most common knee injury and is caused by an overloading of the inner (medial) structures of the knee most prevalent during breaststroke kick. This results in inflammation of the medial collateral ligament (MCL) and creates pain on the inner aspect of the knee.

Technical causes:

• Not aligning the knee with the hip during the kick.
• Not kicking feet together in the final kick phase.
• Not cross training sufficiently with other strokes.

Treatment:

• Correction of biomechanical factors.
• Regular icing post exercise.
• Encourage cross training with other strokes.

So whilst swimming is an enjoyable way to keep fit or cool during summer, it is important to look after your body whilst you are doing it. Be sure to follow the tips above for a pain-free summer, and if any symptoms present themselves, our friendly team at Sportreat are here to help.

That’s it from our first blog, we hope you have enjoyed reading it, and stay tuned for our next one.

If you have any topics that you would like to see covered in future blogs, please email Mel.marsh@sportreat.com.au

Mel Marsh