Evidence for sports massage??

Is there any evidence to support the use of sports massage is a question I often get asked. The answer to that is simply unfortunately not a lot. So why do so many people still do it?

· Increased lymph flow
· Helps in the removal of waste
· Promotes healing
· Promotes muscle relaxation

They also believe that massage:

According to Mills and Parker Bennett (2004) these are the physiological benefits of massage:

· Increased blood circulation

· Relieves muscle tension
· Mobilises muscle fibres
· Stretches soft tissue
· Improves flexibility

However there are hardly any evidence to suggest why and how sports massage is useful but I have found in my experience that it helps. I learnt during my degree that a good sports therapist should provide treatment from a background of evidence-based practise; however I have learnt that sometimes you need to change this to practise-based evidence. I have seen that sports massage helps people improve their range of movement; I have seen that people feel better after a massage (even though it can be brutal getting a sports massage!). This is why I keep doing it and believe it does make a difference to people. Perhaps in the future sports massage will gain scientific backing, or perhaps it is purely a placebo??

Thanks

Monica

New gym induction video on it's way

For the last year I have been working part time as a gym instructor at Leeds Metropolitan University (Civic Quarter). My main responsibilities are to induct new members of the gym on all the equipment, write individualised programmes for patrons, and help and instruct members of the gym. Over the summer the gym is normally pretty quiet due to all the students going home so I was asked to be in charge of producing a new gym induction film over all the equipment we have in the gym. I thought it would be a good challenge, so I was responsible of contacting the film staff at the University and also get hold of someone who could be my “model”. One of my colleagues stepped up to the mark and offered to help me in my little project, thanks for that Johnny!

After a few meetings with the film crew to discuss how to best organise and film the video, I sat down and wrote down a script over all the 26 pieces of equipment we have in the gym. Having not really done any type of filming like this before, I decided to prepare myself by filming myself while speaking to my laptop, good job no one could hear me when I did that!! We did a test shot of me induction Johnny on the treadmill which you can laugh at underneath:

As English is not my first language a few error were made here and there like hand railings, instead of hands rails. The thing is that when you have to look straight into a film camera and think about the next sentence you have to say, things like that happens. Don’t worry the final film will hopefully be in a language you can all understand.

After getting some constructive feedback on our first attempt, we all got together to start the “real” film. The filming took just over 5 days to complete and believe it or not I think I got used to staring into a camera after a couple of days. Not too sure that weather presenter would be anything for me though.......

Anyway I will be getting the DVD back this week to see if any changes needs to be made, so the film will be ready for all the students to enjoy from the 20th of September. Bet they can’t wait...:)

Follow the link to see the video!

mms://video-2.leedsmet.ac.uk/contentglobal/080710-1021 AM-37287--1.wmv

Hard work, rehab and commitment paid off!

As mentioned before I have been working with several sports teams, groups and individuals at Carnegie at Leeds Metropolitan University over the last year. One of the groups I have worked the most with over the last few months is badminton - a nice group of hard working players! I have mainly been working alongside Sarah Milne, a talented 18 year old badminton player who recently competed in the Singapore Youth Olympics.
Less than 3 months before Sarah went to Singapore to compete she had a “small” surgery to her knee. I have been responsible for her rehabilitation and also getting her back to full fitness. I worked closely with her main coach James Vincent and Brendan Chaplin (S and C coach and supervisor), and used what I'd learnt to date to come up with a plan to achieve this goal.
Straight after the surgery Sarah had one week completely off training, to allow healing to start and the swelling go down. The first few weeks after this the training consisted of a lot of gluteus and VMO strengthening in form of glut raises, hip clams, gluteus exercises with resistance band and a lot of single leg squats in front of a mirror to control the knee. Fortunately Sarah was very strong prior to the surgery which meant that only a week after the surgery she was able to continue lifting weights such as dead lifts, squats, SLDL (straight leg deadlift), pull ups etc.

Underneath are some videos of Sarah performing some of the exercises in her programme; squat jumps, a deadlift, pull ups and SLDL (although not straight after the surgery!):

Badminton is an intense sport that demands aerobic and anaerobic endurance, speed and agility, as well as strength. Endurance was another aspect that had to be implemented as part of Sarah’s training. Initially we focused on straight line running on the athletics track, before moving onto more agility and badminton specific movements on court when we felt her knee was sufficiently recovered. Moving onto this type of exercise too soon could put recovery at risk, or worse cause further injury.

Being part of someone’s rehabilitation has taught me the importance of honest feedback about the injury and how the athlete feels. You can have all the training plans in the world and know all the science behind the injury’s stage of healing, but honest feedback from the player is important. This way you are able to change and alternate your training plans if necessary to suit the individual, rather than relying solely on the textbooks or literature!

Sarah came 4th which is a great achievement and Sarah is a living proof that hard work, commitment, effort and talent can lead to great results. Sarah has also been given the title “Player of the Month" September 2010 from Badminton England after her performance in Singapore. Check out an interview with Sarah here:

http://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/text.asp?section=903

It is a pleasure working with such a dedicated young player!

Monica

Great conditioning session for the MMA fighters

Yesterday was a great conditioning session for the MMA fighters I work alongside together with Brendan Chaplin. They started off with a good warm up consisting of some light stretching before doing some mobility exercises. They then moved on to do a plyometric/power session which I think most of them found tough judging on their facial expressions. This consisted of clap push ups, box jumps, 150 m row, rope climbing and sprints with Brendan pulling them in his “nice” rope.

After the first part was done we went straight to the gym to do some heavy strength work. This consisted of heavy clean pulls, dumbbell presses, squat, curl and press, reverse lunges, chin ups and heavy dead lifts (with Brendan’s new trap bar). The trap bar was new to me, but I like it as it adds variation to the training. The starting position with the trap bar is higher than a normal dead lift from the floor which means it is easier. That didn’t mean it was any easier than usual, because of course they had to add on more weights than they were used to.

Last but not least the conditioning session was completed with a 3 X 5 minutes intense tyreflips, sledgehammering, “tyreslams” and a great 100 metre sprint in combination with some specific 1:1 MMA work. It may look like they are hugging each other on some of the pictures, but I can guarantee you that is far from the truth! A brilliant session with loads of hard work, well done guys! I really enjoy working with such a passionate coach and athletes!

Here are some pictures from the session

Thanks!

Monica

Sports and Exercise Therapist

The day is finally here! 3 years of hard work and effort is over and I can finally call myself an undergraduate sports and exercise therapist. I am at the moment working with the rugby league referees to provide sports massage together with Ian Mitchell when they need me. I also work alongside Brendan Chaplin (strength and conditioning coach at Leeds Metropolitan University) where I have have started my case study for my UKSCA (United Kingdom Strength and Conditioning Association) accreditation on a very talented badminton player. She had a knee surgery about a month ago and was back lifting heavy weight the second week after surgery. I am convinced that the reason she was able to progress and recover so quickly is because she was very strong prior to her surgery and therefore didn't suffer any athrophy! Having said that the surgery was just a "small" clean out with no major damage. I will get some photos taken from the gym to show you some of the exercises she work on in the nearest future.

If anyone is interested in getting a sports massage or need help with injury management/rehabilitation you can contact me to arrange an appointment on 07942461440 or email me on monicatorland@hotmail.com

Tonight is the last fitness session for the 13 year olds tennis players before the summer so I will make sure they finish with a nice and tough session:)

Cheers

Scapular wall slides

Poor upper body posture can be linked to several problems such as shoulder pain and neck pain. Poor posture may be something you are born with, but more often is it linked to muscle imbalances. An exercise to target the muscles at the back of your shoulders is "scapular wall slides" (mainly rhomboids and middle trapezius). I have attached a video clip so u can have a look. Key points to consider on this exercise:

• Try to keep your back in contact with the wall
• Keep pushing your elbows into the wall
• Pinch your shoulder blades together

Give it a go, it may look simple, it's not if you do it properly.
Apologies for looking serious, just very consentrated:)
Cheers!

Fighters are some strong athletes!

Apologies for not really been to active on the blogging side over the last few weeks. It has been a bit of a hectic time and still is with four weeks left of uni, two weeks until dissertation is due and several other pieces of uni work that needs to be completed. That is the boring bit, however I have still kept going with my placement, that I really enjoy! Tennis is back on again after a few weeks of Easter break and I have recently started to join Brendan when he is working with some fighters (MMA). That has been a new experience for me! A few things have inspired me with their training. Their training includes tyreflips (80 kg), sledgehammering, heavy lifts, pulls and pushs just to mention a few. The guys I have worked with so far have an incredible work standard. Loads of sweat and blood in those session! I am convinced that whoever trains with Brendan will experience some of his "not very standard" exercise regime! Impressive to watch! After their hard sessions I have started giving a few of the guys a sports massage to prepare them for their fights which they seem to enjoy (enjoy= pain, but no pain, no gain so they can handle it).

Next weekend I am going to Edinburg for the Magic Weekend to massage the rugby league referees together with Ian Mitchell who is a sports masseur. I have been working with Ian and the referees for over a year now, but have never been to a match before so I am looking forward to it and think it will be a good experience.

Will try to keep updating my blog more in the future, so just bare with me:)

Have a great weekend, recovery is important so sometimes it is allowed to put your legs up like I will do tonight.

Cheerio for now

This is the start of a new adventure..

Welcome to all strength and conditioning interested individuals! My name is Monica Torland and I will be blogging about my experiences as a final year Sports and Excersise Therapy student and a budding strength and conditioning coach.

One of the requirements of The Society of Sports Therapy is that students perform a minimum of 100 hours practical experience on related placements. Last year one of my placements was with Teleri Wilson, who used to be the head of strength and conditioning at Leeds Met University. I really enjoyed the work and this year I have taken on another strength and conditioning placement with Brendan Chaplin, who currently is the head of Strength and Conditioning for Leeds LTA High Performance Tennis Centre. Brendan is also strength and conditioning coach for Huddersfield Giants Rugby League and has also got his own personal clients, in other words a very knowledgeable and busy man! Check out his website here

The week’s placements and lectures are now over and the weekend is approaching. Since I am in the middle of writing my dissertation about ACL rehabilitation I have got an exciting weekend of journals, journals and more journals to look forward to. Anyway this is the price we have to pay to get the degrees we want, so it’s all for a good cause after all! Keep smiling and keep training:)