Pre-habilitation
Following most surgical operations, the patient is required to undergo a period of rest followed by gradual increase in activity. During this phase, muscles can lose some of their size and strength (atrophy), making a return to pre-surgery function more challenging.
At Physio Fitness, we prescribe a programme of ‘pre-habilitation exercises’ that builds up the strength in the muscles (hypertrophy) in order to minimize the impact of post-surgery rest. This is particularly important for clients who are active sports persons as this reduces the fitness loss and minimizes the time out of sport.
Rehabilitation
Following surgery or an injury, a programme of rehabilitation is required to prepare the body for the demands that daily life, including work, sports and pastimes and family life place upon it.
At Physio Fitness, we prescribe a structured, progressive exercise rehabilitation programme that will optimize the function of the injured limb/joint/muscle in isolation and as a key component of the musculoskeletal system holistically.
Aqua Therapy
For some surgeries and injuries, the contraindications require the rehabilitation programme to reduce the gravity affect; this is achieved when exercising in water.
At Physio Fitness we prescribe a fun, bespoke aqua therapy programme that fully compliments your rehabilitation generally.
We also utilize aqua therapy for those clients that feel more comfortable in the pool; this is often the case for those clients who are not familiar with a rehabilitation suite/gym environment.
Corrective Exercise Therapy
Frequently, the cause of pain and/or the limitation of movement is as a direct result of postural misalignment and/or muscular imbalance. Left without correction, these conditions can lead to chronic pain and repeated injury.
At Physio Fitness, we conduct postural and movement assessments in order to identify the problem and then prescribe a programme of corrective exercise to address the issue and return our clients to full and correct function.
Strength & Conditioning
Having completed a successful rehabilitation programme, some clients will require sport or job specific strength and conditioning training to ensure a seamless return to their workplace or their sporting programme.
Other clients will simply want to progress further from the rehabilitation to feel stronger and less vulnerable to a reoccurrence of the same injury or indeed other injuries.
At Physio Fitness we undertake a needs analysis to identify exactly what you require and then create a bespoke strength and conditioning programme to meet the identified needs.
Personal Development
Personal Training
Personal training is for EVERYBODY. It might be to get into shape for a sporting event, to lose some weight and tone up for a big occasion, to be able to keep up with the grandchildren, or simply to feel better about yourself.
At Physio Fitness, whatever your reason, we will develop an exercise programme tailored to what you enjoy doing and ensure you achieve your goal/vision.
Healthy Lifestyle Coaching
Sometimes we all need a little guidance to keep our work/life balance in check. The complexities of modern life, demands at work, children, moving house, the list is endless but they all contribute to you losing sight of looking after you.
At Physio Fitness, we can help you to manage your life with a better balance that ensures you don’t just look after everyone and everything else, but you look after YOU.
We offer you support in diet and nutrition, activity and exercise, sleep and down time, stress management, to help you optimize every day.
Body Composition & Postural Analysis
Body Composition Analysis
The body is composed of many things. For most of us, managing the simple things such as Body Mass Index (BMI), percentage of visceral fat, percentage body fat and percentage muscle mass are all achievable…..if we know what those statistics are and what they should be.
At Physio Fitness, we offer a non-invasive body composition analysis, as well as a heart rate and blood pressure assessment. We can offer you sound advice on the readings and, where necessary, how to improve those statistics to lead you towards a healthier you.
Static Postural Analysis
The human body works as a whole unit. To this end, the action of one part will impact another; this is known as the kinetic chain. When there is misalignment of part of the human structure, or an imbalance of muscle action, this often leads to movement inhibition and pain.
At Physio Fitness, we can carry out a comprehensive postural assessment to identify any misalignments or imbalances. Once these are identified, the corrective therapy required to deliver correct and pain free movement can be prescribed.
Transitional Movement Analysis
The body moves on planes and axis. In order to identify misalignment during movement, transitional movement analysis is used.
At Physio Fitness, we use a plethora of different transitional movement analysis protocols, each one identifies different movement issues at specific joints or within specific muscle groups. These findings guide us accurately towards the best corrective strategy to quickly and effectively address the imbalance.
Dynamic Movement Analysis
The dynamic movement analysis is very much focused on a specific activity or sport. For example a person who feels neck pain when walking will benefit greatly from a dynamic movement assessment on a treadmill to identify the misalignment that might be triggering the pain. Similarly, a competitive 10Km runner who experiences knee pain during a run would benefit from a dynamic movement analysis of their running gate to seek to identify misalignments or imbalances that can be the catalyst to the knee problem.
At Physio Fitness, we are able to carry out dynamic movement analysis and use the results to create a corrective exercise programme that will correct the problem, remove the pain and potentially, improve overall performance.
Taping
Taping is a relatively new phenomenon in athletics, but one that has started to gain mainstream popularity in recent years. Some of the major benefits of sports tapes are: reducing inflammation. supporting joints, ligaments and muscles. strengthening alignment to prevent injury. improving blood circulation.
Taping is not restricted to athletes; the benefits can be experienced in almost every walk of life, from work related pain to hobbies and pastimes participation.
At Physio Fitness, we can assess your discomfort or pain and, where appropriate, apply taping to provide the support and comfort it provides.
CLINICAL PILATES – the APPI approach
At Physio Fitness, we deliver Clinical Pilates that follows the Australian Physiotherapy and Pilates Institute (APPI) approach. The curriculum has been developed by physiotherapists to be more applicable to the field of exercise rehabilitation.
The traditional Pilates repertoire is broken down into clearly defined, progressive levels to ensure a standard, gradual, controlled progression towards normal functional movement. The APPI curriculum is built on a foundation of scientific evidence on segmental spine stabilisation and pelvic stability.
Our clinical Pilates is an excellent stepping stone for those wishing to progress onto or return to the traditional Pilates classes; indeed we advance our classes beyond the clinical into the traditional form of Pilates for those who want to explore the continuum.
Electrotherapy
Electrotherapy is a form of medical treatment, which uses small electrical impulses to help repair tissue, stimulate muscles, increase sensations and increase muscle fibre strength. At Physio Fitness, we use portable Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) that allows (1)the patient to be able to have input in the control of the stimulation and (2) allows us to offer clients the opportunity to have the device at home to continue their TENS treatment daily as required.
Cryotherapy
Cryotherapy is the local or general use of low temperatures in medical therapy. At Physio Fitness we use the most basic concept – simply applying ice packs to the affected site . We also use the cryo-cuff system; this is excellent for applying the RICE acronym as it allows the patient to sit or lay resting the affected site while the cryo-cuff system allows the therapist to apply cold therapy, with compression, while having the injury site elevated, all done simultaneously.
Ultrasound
Ultrasound is a method of stimulating the tissue beneath the shin’s surface using very high frequency sound waves. Therapeutic ultrasound in physical therapy is alternating compression and rarefaction of sound waves. Maximum energy absorption in soft tissue occurs from 2 to 5cm. Intensity decreases as waves penetrate deeper; they absorbed primarily by connective tissue: ligaments, tendons, fascia and scar tissue.