Physiotherapy Clinic in Ponteland

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Here at JL PhysioFit we provide an expert physiotherapy service that is focused on establishing the root cause of your problem, not just simply treating ‘where it hurts’. We work alongside our patients to understand their needs, whilst guiding them through a comprehensive and thorough assessment. By identifying and understanding the factors that feed in to the problem we can then construct a specific treatment plan that works for you. Information will be given to you in a clear and easy to understand manner by your clinician.

It is important to note that physiotherapy should not be seen as a passive process but rather a team effort with the common goal of restoring and optimising your health. As part of establishing your plan it is important that you understand what treatment method’s we can use in order to best target your specific problem. Below are the treatments we offer at the clinic and the conditions they may best be used for.

Manual therapy is the term used for any hands-on treatment used by the clinician. It helps to:

• restore normal tissue length
• improve joint range of movement
• identify and facilitate correct muscle firing patterns
• modulate pain
• aid relaxation
• assist the reduction of swelling and inflammation
• reduce stress levels

Acupuncture treatment has been around for over two thousand years and now has a strong evidence base supporting its use in the treatment of many acute and chronic conditions. It involves the insertion of very fine needles into the body at particular points to help restore energy imbalances.

The fine needles used act to stimulate receptors in the body, which trigger a chain of events resulting in the release of your body’s own natural pain-relieving chemicals that help to change how your body processes pain and stress, as well as aiding in the reduction of inflammation. Typically, treatments take between 15-25 minutes over a number of sessions.

Dry needling is a technique in which a fine Acupuncture needle is inserted into a trigger point (TrP), or hyper irritable spot within the muscle. The subsequent twitch response helps to break the cycle of continuous contraction reducing muscle spasm and tension and restoring function. Furthermore, as the fine needle creates micro cuts to the muscle there is a systemic response by the brain that activates our endogenous opioids or endorphins, your body’s own powerful pain-relieving chemicals.

Dry needling is a very effective and safe technique and is less time consuming than traditional methods. As with all of our treatments, dry needling where necessary, will be used as part of an overall treatment plan.

Skilled passive movements applied at varying speeds and depths are performed by the clinician to a patient’s joint with the aim of restoring movement, nourishing the joint and reducing pain.

Within the spine we have facet joints which afford us the ability to bend and rotate however, as they are highly enriched with nerve fibres, when we expose them to prolonged pressures such as with sustained sitting, they can become painful. Joint mobilisations are an excellent way to reduce these pain-sensitive structures.

There are 5 grades of mobilisation and the clinician will talk you through the appropriate one for your condition. Grades 1 and 2 are generally used for pain modulation, whilst 3 to 5 are more targeted at joint stiffness.

Trigger points (TrP’s) are referred to as hyperirritable (sensitive) nodules located within taut bands of skeletal muscle fibres. In essence, they are very small (size of a pea or less) areas of densely packed muscle fibres that sit within the muscle bellies and we all have them.

In the main, we have what’s called latent TrP’s and active TrP’s. Latent TrP’s lie dormant causing no acute or immediate pain but may still contribute to dysfunction, whereas active Trp’s act as an immediate source of pain.

TrP therapy aims to reduce the sensitivity of these points through the use of sustained pressure or movements to the area identified by the clinician. TrP’s can also be treated using Acupuncture and Dry Needling.

Exercises form an essential part to any robust and successful physiotherapy programme. We appreciate that people have busy lives, which is why we aim to develop an exercise programme that is both specific to your problem and fits around your commitments. However, it is important for you to take responsibility for doing these exercises as they form a vital part in your rehabilitation. The clinician will explain why you have been given an exercise and make sure you are comfortable with how to perform it before you leave the clinic. In most cases you will only be given a couple of exercises to start with and then the programme will progress in subsequent sessions. This is to ensure we are loading the tissue in the correct way and allows us to tweak the programme if needed.

Depending on your age and other factors it often takes 6-12 weeks of consistent work to strengthen muscle. Often pain resolves before the tissue has fully strengthened and in the absence of pain the tendency will be to give up on the exercises thinking our problem is fully resolved. Effectively we have only done ‘half the job’ and in order to reduce the risk of our pain reoccurring we must continue to strengthen. We appreciate that it can be hard to stay motivated to stick with the programme and do your home exercises once pain has gone. This is why we have created our PhysioFit Pilates classes. They have been specifically designed to address common areas of weakness, providing an excellent long-term solution to keeping you fit and healthy and out of the treatment room. For more information see Pilates (Link).

Soft tissues are structures other than bone and include muscles, ligaments, tendons and fascia (connective tissue). STM aims to restore dysfunctional soft tissues back to health through easing tightness within muscles, mobilising fascia and assisting the breakdown of adhesions and scar tissue. Techniques include:

• trigger pointing
• sports massage
• muscle energy techniques
• acupuncture

Sports massage is a form of treatment that aims to mobilise deep tissues helping to reduce muscle tension and restore optimal tone and length. Despite the name, sports massage is a highly effective treatment for everyone, not just athletes or sportspeople.

Fatigue in muscles, whether it be from a tough sporting event or maintaining a poor posture through desk work, can contribute to dysfunction if not addressed. Over time this can lead to our bodies becoming more susceptible to picking up niggles and injuries so sports massage can be an excellent option to help maintain our bodies. The benefits of sports massage include:

• Better muscle function by improving circulation and restoring chemical imbalances
• Improved lymphatic drainage and circulation
• Reduced pain and swelling
• Optimal pre-event preparation
• Improved post-workout recovery rate

Taping and strapping techniques involve the specific application of tape to a joint or muscle with the aim of providing support and relief to that area of the body. It is therefore very effective in not only helping to relieve pain but also encouraging faster rates and better conditions for healing.

Taping is used for acute problems including sprains and strains, as well as the more chronic conditions associated with poor postures. Taping is an excellent adjunct to treatment and may last up to a week, thus facilitating the work done by your clinician in the session. You will be advised on the type of tape and technique that is best suited to your problem.

At JL PhysioFit we have devised comprehensive Rehabilitation Programmes for patients struggling with more chronic problems (anything lasting longer than 3 months). The 12 session programmes are carried out with your physio and include a mixture of hands-on physio in the treatment room with one-to-one training in the studio and are always unique to each patient.

If you have been struggling with a problem for a while then your body will have put in some very subtle compensatory patterns to help you function with less pain. This for example, sometimes means you may take more weight through one leg to help offload the painful side; or it could mean that your shoulder has lifted to protect the nerve. These patterns, over time, lead to what we call muscular imbalances (muscles performing jobs they are not designed to do), which subsequently puts excess pressure on the joints they support.

To help reverse these imbalances there needs to be a specific programme that loads your muscles in the correct way and is carried out with consistency over time, otherwise, we risk the problem returning. This is where, for some people that either struggle with motivation to do their home exercise programme or for people that aren’t confident with exercise, our PhysioFit Rehab Programmes work very well.