Are your gluteus muscles tight??

Then get stretching!! You may think that therapists in general are very glad in advising people to stretch, stretch and stretch even more, but there is a reason why we do it. Tight muscles can for example restrict your range of movement and cause muscle strains unnecessarily which is not something you want if you are an athlete or do any type of exercise or sport.

Today I wanted to show a few good stretches for your gluteus muscles, in particular for your gluteus minimus, medius and your piriformis muscle. If you suffer from sciatic pain, which can be caused by the sciatic nerve getting pinched, there is an even bigger reason to stretch these muscle groups. The sciatic muscle runs through your piriformis muscle so for a lot of people a tight piriformis muscle can aggravate the sciatic symptoms in the buttocks and sometimes down the leg.

However everyone can benefits from gluteus stretching, but it is up to you if you want to stretch or not, so I will at least show you how you can do it. I have arranged them according to how “difficult” I think they are. Starting with the “easiest” ones first.

Sitting gluteus stretch:

• Sit upright on the floor, cross your left leg over the other

• Place the left hand behind your left side and grab hold of the left leg with your right hand and pull this to the right

• Make sure you sit with a straight upright posture and feel the stretch on the outside of your left bottom

Laying gluteus stretch

• Start by laying on your back on the floor

• Bend both knees, cross right leg on top of the left leg (the right foot should rest on top of the left knee)

• Grab your left leg behind your thigh with both hands and pull it towards you until you can feel a stretch on the outside of your right bottom

• When you are done with one leg, cross the other leg over and repeat

Standing gluteus stretch over a table/bench



As you can see I just stretch instead of watching tv!!:)

• Start by standing in front of a table or bench which is about hip height

• Place your left knee at 45° on top of the table

• Step backward with your right leg and bend the right knee slightly

• From this position lean forward from your hips and place your hand in front of you
• Lean forward even more to increase the stretch

• Feel the stretch on the outside of your left gluteus

Laying gluteus stretch on the front (you need to be quite flexible to be able to get into this position!!!)

• Start off by placing your left leg at 45° in front of you

• Use your arms to move yourself into the position outlined above (difficult to explain this one)

• Lean over until you can feel a comfortable stretch on the outside of the left gluteus

So now you can all  get stretching that gluteus between and after sessions!

And just to show you all that I have now invested in a foam roller = torture roller to keep myself busy. You can use the foam roller to all sort of exercises including press ups.

However make sure you push the foam roller down cause if you don't you may end up like this!

Good luck!

Millenium Magic Weekend in Cardiff

This weekend I met up with my previous colleagues and all the rugby referees I used to work with prior to moving to Cardiff. On Friday I met up with a few of them for a nice Italian meal, a quiet start before the next two busy days of work ahead. On Saturday there were 4 matches in total, which meant that this was the busiest day. There were 3 of us working together which meant we were able to do one referee or touch judge each before and after every game. Since the matches started every 2 hours we ended up spending most of our time in the changing rooms working, but we still managed to watch a bit of the some of the matches in between. We also had a big tv in the changing rooms so we could watch a bit of the matches whilst working, even though this was with about 5 seconds delay from live play so we would always hear when a try was scored before we could see it on the tv :) The last match finished around 8.45 so by the time we were finished treating the last group of referees and were able to leave the stadium it was nearly 10 pm. We went for a quick noodle meal in Wagamama with some of the other referees before I headed back to get some sleep before the next day.

  

On Sunday there were only 3 matches which meant it was a bit easier then the day before. We finished around 6 pm and I was home on the sofa for around 7.30 which was lovely! It was a really good weekend of hard work, and it was great to meet everyone again. There were loads of laughter and banter as usual which is always a bonus when working at an event like this!

Here you can see the stadium from the outside, the capacity is about 70 000 so it is a big stadium! They put the roof on both days so although the stadium was far from full the atmosphere was pretty good!

 

 

Achilles Injury and Pain

Since moving to Cardiff in November I have started working with Athletics. A lot of these athletes train from 10 - 14 sessions a week which means that a lot of strain is being put through their bodies on a regular basis. If you are a runner you need to run quite a few miles per week in order to get the results you need, and everyone knows that running puts a lot of force and strain through the legs in particular. Tight and sore hamstrings, gluteus, quadriceps and calves muscles are a common complaint for a lot of runners, which is not surprisingly considering all the miles they need to handle and deal with. Tight calves is present in a lot of people with Achilles problems which is what I wanted to talk about today:

The Achillies tendon is a common injury site for a lot of runners. Most people know where the Achilles tendon is as it is easily identified just above the heel bone. Underneath you can see a picture of the Achilles tendon. The Achilles tendon is attached onto heel bone and runs up to the biggest muscle group in the back of the calves; the Gastrocnemius. So the Achilles tendon is a continuation of the calf muscles allows us to transfer power from the calf muscles to our ankle and foot. The Achilles tendon is active in pretty much any movement we do and it is for a reason it is the strongest single tendon in our body.



This is taken from Dr. Harry Gouvas MD, PhD - The Acillies Tendon is the yellow part on the picture

Several injuries can happen to the A. Tendon whith the most severe one being complete rupture of the tendon. I have not personally come across that injury, but I know several athletes (fotballers) who have sustained that injuries and I have seen videos of it happening and it is not a pretty sight! Anyway today I would focus more on overuse problems such as Tendinitis/Tendinosis or Tendinopathy! First I would like to specify in simple terms the difference between the two/three commonly used terms:

Tendinitis: Means that there is inflammation present!

Tendinosis: Means degeneration without inflammation!

Tendinopathy: This is just a general term which doesn’t specify the type of injury

With any overuse injury it is the accumulation of smaller tears and wear down of the tissue that causes problems. In a lot of the tendon “diagnosis” there is a discussion whether there actually inflammation present, hence why a lot of people keep mixing the terms. In a lot of cases there may not be any signs of inflammation present (swelling, redness), but the athlete can still have a degeneration of the tendon which causes pain.

The annoying and sometimes very frustrating thing about tendon injuries in general is that they have poor blood supply which means they can take a long time to heal. There are several things that can be done in terms of conservative treatment such as ultrasound, sports massage to calves, friction massage to the tendon and probably one of the most important things to start is eccentric calf loading rehabilitation program. Eccentric loading means a lengthening of the calf muscles and tendon and I have also attached some pictures underneath to show you what eccentric loading is in practise. A 12- week program of eccentric calf loading 3x 12 repetitions 7 days a week can be a starting point for this type of training. I have added some references towards the end of this post if you want more explanation. 

Lower down with the painful leg (This is Andy Syke's calves and you can check out his blog here: andysykesonline.blogspot.com)



Push of with the opposite leg (this just shows the starting position)

Although there are some (although maybe not a lot) research and promising results on this type of training, it is definitely worth a try! Remember with any injury; seek professional help and advice prior to starting any treatment or intervention!

Hope you found it useful! Have a good weekend everyone!
References:

1. J.D Rees, A.M Wilson and R.L Wolman, Current concepts in the management of tendon disorders, Rheumatology 2006

2. E. M Roos, M Engstrom, A Lagerquist and B Soderberg, Clinical improvement after 6 weeks of eccentric exercise in patients with mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy- a randomized trial with 1-year follow-up, Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sport 2004

3. M Fahlstrom, P Jonsson, R Lorentzen and H Alfredson, Chronic Achilles tendon pain treated with eccentric calf-muscle training, Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 2003

Celtic Cup 2011

This weekend I was lucky to be selected to be a part of the Welsh team to provide sports massage to the Welsh athletes at the Celtic Cup at NIAC (National Indoor Athletic Centre). On Saturday I went to Park Inn Hotel in Cardiff where I met the athletes and staff for the first time. We had a nice meeting about the day ahead and went for some dinner afterwards. It was nice to meet everyone and I looked forward to getting started on Sunday.

On Sunday I went to NIAC for 10 am. I work alongside another masseur called Jonny Lodowski. The English team’s physiotherapist and the Scottish team’s soft tissue therapist were also based next to where we were so it was an interesting day where I got to speak to some knowledgeable people. Since I was part of the Welsh team this weekend that meant it was a lot quieter for us compared to the previous events I have done recently, but I still managed to help a few athletes. It was still a good experience where I got to meet a lot of nice people.

Of course I need to say that the Welsh team won the first overall title at senior level  which was great! Well done everyone! You can read more about the cup here:

http://www.welshathletics.org/news--media/news/track--field/wales-triumph-in-celtic-cup-sizzler.aspx

And here is a nice picture of the team including staff

In summary I think I can say Good Job (with american accent) which was a phrase that was heard often during the day on Sunday:)

Welsh Indoor Athletics Championship

This weekend has been a busy one. On Saturday I performed sports massage at the Welsh Open Senior Indoor Championship and today I was at the Welsh Open U-20 and Closed U-17, U-15 and U-13 Championship. As I was the therapist providing pre and post event massage it certainly kept me busy enough, I massaged 25 ahtletes in total in two days which I think is pretty good going. I did enjoy it as I met a lot of lovely athletes. The guy in the picture underneath is from Edinburg and I think he felt like I was a bit horrible to his legs yesterday,but he came back again today for another massage after he won the gold medal so he was really pleased. Well done!



I look like a kid in comparison:)

 Over the last few weeks I have started working with some of the UWIC athletes during the week and today a lot of them were competing in various events. Some really good results, so it looks like the training they are putting in are starting to pay off, well done everyone! As this is now the third event I have done since I moved here I have been lucky to get picked for the Celtic Cup next Sunday which is an international event where UWIC, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland will be competing. I will be one of the masseurs for the Welsh team, so that should be a really good experience. Looking forward to it!

  

Possibly putting on a brace face for the camera? :)



What happened to the smile here? :)

I think I will put my feet up now, have a cup of tea and watch some tv. Lovely!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone!

Bristol Rovers- Testing Day

I have now started my internship with Bristol Rovers Academy players (9-16 year olds). Before Christmas we had a meeting with the other sports science staff where we decided how to organise a test day for the 15 and 16 year old players. We were lucky to have several  member or staff and interns available to help out which meant that we were able to run all the tests we wanted on one day (within 2.5 hours to be precise). Time is always a big concern in most clubs as you don’t want to take up to much of the players training time, hence why we decided to try and get it all done in one day.

Why do we test players?

Because it helps us identify physical abilities and areas of improvement. It is also a good way of setting goals and targets for players.

Fotball is a complex game with several physiological requirements. The requirents will depend on the player's position, but in general fotballers need to have a combination of aerobic/anaerobic endurance, speed, agility, balance, coordination, strength and power. After you have choosen the tests you want to use, you need to organise the tests in the "right" or most logical order. This means that you always do the non fatigue tests such as anthropmetry (height and weight) first and finish with the most fatiguing tests such as for example the Bleep Test. The main reason  for doing this is to avoid fatigue to optimise each test result.

We did the following tests:

• We started with non fatigue tests first such as height, weight and flexibility tests

• We then did a functional movement screen consisting of overhead squat, back squat, single leg squat, and   80cm hop on one leg that (We filmed all these movements)

• We then did 10 and 30 metre sprints (walk in start with time gates)

• The next was countermovement jumps and squat jumps on a forceplate

• We then did a pro agility test through time gates

• Before we finished off with the lovely Bleep Test (Believe me I have suffered through this test numerous times when playing football and handball and know it can be a killer, so well done boys!)

Considering this was quite a lot to get through with two squads in the time we had available I think it was a really good experience. I have been involved with this kind of testing before, but not with this many players at the same time. It was really interesting and I found it useful as we had to be very structured as we didn't have many seconds to waste. Looking forward to get started with the coaching and get to know the players now.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Do YOU need a sports massage to help you recover?

Does your quadriceps feel like a pair of rocks at the moment?

Have you trained hard recently and feel that your calves constantly feels tight?

Or do you just want to make sure your muscles gets looked after on a regular basis to make sure you keep on top of any stupid knots and pains?

If you have answered yes to any of the questions above and live in the Cardiff area, get in touch!

I am a mobile sports therapist that can come to your house, office or wherever it would be most convenient for you!

I have worked with a variety of athletes and sports people such as the Rugby Super League Referees, TASS (Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme) athlete tennis players, rugby players, badminton players, footballer players, netballers and professional runners.

Interested? Contact me to get information about prices and arrange an appointment

Email: mtorland@googlemail.com or phone: 07942461440

Remember you don’t have to play sport to get a sports massage, anyone can benefit from a sports massage!

Looking forward to see you soon!

New Year, New Opportunities

First of all: Happy New Year everyone! Hope u all had a good Christmas and are ready to start the New Year. I managed to get home to my parents 10 days later than expected, but at least I got to spend a week at home which was lovely as usual. Christmas in the UK was pretty good after all and the turkey was excellent!

As usual a lot of people have loads of goals and courage to lose weight and get fitter as soon as January approaches. Nothing wrong with that, but a lot of people are unable to keep the enthusiasm up for too long, cause the changes people are wanting make are too extreme. Make sure you set yourself long term and short term goals, but be realistic. If you are planning to run a marathon and have not been running before, you may want to give yourself more than a month to prepare for it.

I wanted to give you a few progressions of some simple core exercises today, but if you haven’t read the previous blog post on basic core training http://strengthandrehab.blogspot.com/2010/09/tennis-injury-prerehabilitation.html you may want to start with them first. If you have never done a plank before you will probably find it quite hard the first few times, but you will progress sooner than you think (I had a coaching session in the living room with mum and dad when I was home over Christmas and the plank seemed to be a success. Keep up the good work as I will be checking your progress next time I am home:)

These exercises are similar to the exercises in the previous blog post, but with some progressions.

1. Plank with side steps

Starting position

• Start with your toes, elbows and forearms on the mat

• Your toes should be placed shoulder width apart and your elbows shoulder be placed under your shoulder

• Make sure your abdominals are pulled in and that your hips are parallel to the floor throughout the exercise

• When you are ready start taking a small step with your right toes towards the right side, step back into the middle and step out to the left side with your left toes (No picture of this)

• Make sure you keep your hips stable and don’t let them rock from side to side while moving your legs

• Keep moving from 30 – 45 seconds, then rest on the floor for 60 – 90 seconds between your sets, and repeat 3 sets

2. Side plank – lift the top leg


Starting position

• Start with your left forearm flat on the mat (in line with your shoulder)

• Stack your feet on top of each other

• Lift your body onto your forearm and the side of your left foot (only the leftfoot is in contact with the mat)

• Work to have a straight line between your head and feet

• When you are ready lift the top leg (right leg) straight up into the air (No picture of this)

• Rest your left arm by the side or lift it straight up towards the sky

• Hold this position without letting your hips drop down between 30 - 45 seconds

• Turn around and repeat on the left side

• Aim to do this 2-3 times on each side, progress the time you are holding to make it harder


3. 1-2-3-4 from a press up position



Starting position

•Start on the mat in a press up position
•Make sure your abdominals are pulled in prior to starting

• For example your left hand is 1, right hand 2, left leg 3 and right leg 4

•Let a partner shout out a number from 1-4 (or just choose a number yourself). If the number is 1 lift your left hand off the floor 1-2 cm off the floor. If the number is 2 lift right hand of the floor etc

• It is really important that you don’t lift the hand or leg far off the floor at all

•The aim is to keep the rest of your body still while lifting either your hand or leg off the floor

• Aim to hold the position for 30 – 60 seconds whilst moving hand and feet continuously. Repeat 2 – 3 times 

Left hand off the floor



Left foot of the floor



Remember the main reason why I think having a strong core is injury prevention and it supports your whole body, but of course it also helps you getting a stronger and firmer abdominal area which is always a bonus. Remember if you want to get a nice looking and faboulous abdominals (that people can see), you need to burn the fat as well...

Wise words of the day: Consistency is key! Never give up, just keep working hard!

THE CHRISTMAS snow was falling in the UK....

Today I just need to get a little bit of frustration out of my system. As most people have probably seen and heard on the news, the weather here in the UK has been pretty crazy since Friday which means that thousands of people have been and are still stuck in various airports across the country.

As I said in previous blog I was supposed to fly back to Norway (via Amsterdam) on Friday, but that never happened as both of the flights were cancelled, lucky enough I realised this before I went to the airport. I was “lucky” to get another flight for Sunday morning, but again this flight was cancelled due to the weather. Since I have tried to contact KLM probably about 50-60 times over the weekend I decided to turn up at the airport (in Cardiff) to see if someone could actually help me there, but the message everyone got there was:  Contact the airline to get a new flight!! I couldn’t believe it! Well never mind, I realised that there was not much for me to do at the airport so along with several other passengers we got the bus down to the train station to head back home. We soon realised that wasn’t a smart move as the message we got when we got down to the train station was: All busses and trains to Cardiff are not running! What??? This meant that we were all stuck at the train station for 1 hour and 30 minutes in the freezing cold weather. Eventually we managed to get the shuttle bus back to the airport; at least it was warm in there. After this I had to stay in the airport for another 2-3 hours before we finally managed to get hold of a taxi to take a few of us home.

When I finally arrived back home I decided to give up on being able to get on another flight before Christmas, it just isn't going to happend. Since I don’t get to see my family and friends at home very often I decided to book another flight from Gatwick Airport in London for Sunday night (Boxing Day), so if the weather calms down over the next few days and the roads aren’t too bad I will be driving to Gatwick on Sunday and get a direct flight to Stavanger which means I can at least spend a week with my family. I will keep my fingers, toes and everything else crossed!!!

I also wanted to mention that I contated by my local newspaper in Norway. They had heard I was "stuck" in the UK and wanted to hear my story. So since my norwegian readers will be able to read this in the paper tomorrow (Wednesday) or online. I thought I would share it with my UK readers as well. Norwegian readers can check out the article here: www.jbl.no. I was asked to take a photo of myself so people could see the snow, but that is not easy when you are on your own. Didn't fancy knocking on the neighbour's door to ask if they could do it for me, so this was all I managed to do! The funny thing is that there isn't acutally that much snow:)



Looking at the whole situation from a positive point of view I will be spending my first Christmas in the UK, and I am sure the English turkey will taste just as nice as the Norwegian one :)

I hope all of you get to spend Christmas with your loved ones. Merry Christmas everyone:)

MoTo

Update from Cardiff

Just a little update on what I have been involved in over the last week:

UWIC - ATHLETIC GRAND PRIX

Last Saturday I was invited to come along to the UWIC Indoor Athletic Centre in Cardiff to perform pre and post event massage for the competing athletes. I got to meet eight second year students and two third year students from UWIC University doing Sports Conditioning, Rehabilitation and Massage who were also there to perform massage. It was quiet when we first started as most of the athletes wanted post massage rather than pre massage. After a couple of hours it started getting busier and all of the massage tables were used. I came across a variety of athletes and met a lot of nice people. It was a great day which I really enjoyed. Hopefully I will be able to get more involved with the athletic team and join some more of their events and competitions.

FIRST MEETING AT BRISTOL ROVERS

On Monday this week I got in my car to head off to the first meeting at Bristol Rovers. As I have never driven there on my own before I wasn’t too sure of how long it would take me, and since I never like to be late I was in the car park at Bristol an hour before the meeting started, but at least I got there! I met Lee Southernwood (1st team’s S&C coach), Ken Oram (from Centre of Excellence) and Ollie which is the other intern I will work alongside. Lee and Ken introduced what we will be responsible for and how we are going to work as a team to achieve this. We also planned how we are going to perform the physical testing with the players when we start back after Christmas.

We then got to meet some of the other coaches and staff and got a tour around the facilities we will be using. We also had a look at the training session where the kids were training hard. I am looking forward to get started after Christmas, it should be good.

So I am starting to get to get involved with some sport in Cardiff. On Friday I will be heading home to Norway to see my family and friends, I am looking forward to it. I will come back with more updates after Christmas.

In people have any question regarding Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation or Strength and Conditioning in general feel free to get in touch. Here is my email address: mtorland@googlemail.com

  

  

Merry Christmas Everyone! Enjoy, but remember to get some training in as well!:) 

 

Have a good xmas!

MoTo