Hi all,

For people into golf it’s great fun, good exercise (mainly the walking and seeing how far you can throw a club on a bad day!) and great for social interactions but when conditions like golfers elbow, back pain or shoulder injury holds you back what do you do??

Why is Golf Hard?

Golf is also difficult! There is a huge amount of info online to ‘help’. When you go onto Youtube and search for anything to do with golf technique be it; correct grip, through to ‘why do I keep hitting the ball into a hedge on the right side of the fairway??’ you get hundreds of videos sometimes with millions of views! I think one of the reasons why it’s so hard is because it’s one of the few sports that you hit a totally stationery ball. You have a lot of time to think about technique or as they’re known, ‘swing thoughts’ before you hit a shot, unlike tennis for example, where a ball is travelling at speed to you and you have almost zero time to think about correct technique. We’ve all been there whilst standing over the ball I am sure! ‘Are my feet in the right place?’, ‘is my club face aligned?’, ‘is the humidity in the air going to cause me to thin the **** out of this shot??’ etc etc. It’s hard!

Golf Related Injury

In the clinic in Cobham I see, as you can imagine a lot of golfers. Surrey has more golf courses per square mile than anywhere else in the world apparently. (That might be made up, but sounds impressive.) Injuries common to golfers range from; golfers elbow and tennis elbow, shoulder and rotator cuff injuries, back and neck pain, hip issues, big toe issues, the list really goes on and on! As the golf swing is such a dynamic movement, very asymetric and also starts, as mentioned from a relatively stationary position you can potentially over load any part of your body and cause injury.

How an Osteopath can help

Let me make this clear, I am not a golf pro, however I have a particular set of skills (a bit like Liam Neeson but minus the killing bit) that mean I can look at how someone moves in their swing and link it back to the area of your body that’s injured or in pain, understand from a detailed case history what factors may also be contributing to a break down in efficient movement, like an old injury or previous surgery. What can be very useful is feeding this info back to your golf pro if you’re in the process of getting lessons. This will hopefully help them with technique changes that may be different to the so called normal approach to a golf swing. Make sense? Good!

Dave’s Story

Dave, (not his actual name. Its’s David;) came to see me recently for low back pain. He plays a lot of golf to a decent standard but has really been struggling to even finish a round due to pain. On examination his upper back has so stiff and restricted in movement. When I then got him to demonstrate his swing to me he was having to rotate through his low back as he just couldn’t get the rotation to happen higher up where he needed it. A couple of sessions of treatment, some suggested upper back exercises and an email to his pro explaining this all equalled a significant improvement very quickly. Not complicated when you know what to look for but Dave couldn’t work it out on his own. Obviously I now take full credit for his recently reduced golf handicap!

I hope some of this waffle is of interest to someone and please do pass it on to anyone you know that plays and is struggling with injury or pain particulary if they’re getting lessons and finding it tricky to move in the way they may be getting told too. Thanks so much as always. x

2021 has been another interesting year to say the least and I truly hope everyone has been doing ok? With the highs and lows that the pandemic has thrown at everyone it has felt a bit like a rollercoaster at times.  Working with you guys at varying points has been so rewarding, hearing your stories, trying to offer support when I can and sometimes being someone to lean on when injury or even just day to day life gets a little much. I constantly feel a sense of privilege that my patients feel they want to and can talk about anything with me. Moving forward into 2022 I am looking forward to working with some of you. Being proactive about how you feel rather than reactive can be very useful particularly those that are super sporty and active and also those of you with more chronic pain conditions. Please do feel free to get in touch if you have any questions about management and what we can do together to keep you feeling great. We remain open and of course following government and General Osteopathic Council’s guidelines on practice standards until Thursday 23rd Dec. We reopen after the xmas break on Tuesday 4th. Emergency appointments can be scheduled during the break if needed. I sincerely hope everyone has a great break over the next couple of weeks and sending out lots of positive vibes to you and your families. All the best, Jonny.

Is working from home a pain in the neck?? Maybe this will help…

I am sure many of you are now having to work from home, saying goodbye (for now!) to those lovely ergonomically set up desks.
Using laptops, although convenient can lead to issues like neck pain, upper back pain and even headaches originating form the neck. This tends to happen because we spend long amounts of time looking down at the screen.
Have a look at the video below for a couple of tips on how to reduce the likelihood of this happening and possibly reduce symptoms if you’re already suffering. 

Stay well and positive.

YOU ‘CAN’ HANDLE THE TRUTH! 👇

Having just got off the phone with a friend of mine who is potentially suffering with a disc injury causing weakness in his leg it amazes me that the therapist he’s been seeing hasn’t even considered this as a possibility!

Instead, treatment has been carried out with no diagnosis and no explanation of what may be causing the issue!

This blows my mind!!🤯

We don’t always have the answers. If in doubt we should REFER to get more info and to help get patients better quicker.

In my experience people want to know what’s happening in their bodies. Information is power 💪

If you go and see a healthcare practitioner it is your right to ask questions and that the treatment you receive is justified.

At Four Health we spend time trying to get to the bottom of what is causing an issue, what’s maintaining an issue and what the issue actually is. Please feel free to get in touch with us with any questions.

Have you ever wondered WHY you keep getting TIGHT/SORE MUSCLES??
If you have then have a quick read of this!

There are several potential causes of painful muscles that we, as osteopaths are trained for 5 years to help you understand.

What is pain??

Trying to answer questions like – what is pain and why something might hurt can be very useful for the patients we see at the Four Health Osteopathy clinic.

The definition of pain according to the dictionary is – ‘A highly unpleasant physical sensation caused by illness or injury.’

There are two broad categories of pain –

1. Nociceptive pain – Pain associated with tissue damage
2. Neuropathic pain – Pain arising from the nervous system

Nociceptive Pain –

This type of pain is what most people are familiar with. Nociceptive pain is caused by the stimulation of nociceptors which are sensory nerve fibres found all over your body due to tissue damage such as muscle strains or tears, impact trauma or broken bones to name but a few.

When you hurt yourself these nerve fibres are stimulated, they send a message through your nervous system to your brain where the information is interpreted. The result of this is a feeling of pain.

Nociceptive pain characteristics typically change with movement, load and position.

Neuropathic Pain –

This type of pain is caused by damage or disease to the nervous system itself. This can be due to trapped nerves, spinal cord damage, nutritional deficiencies or conditions such as diabetes, MS and strokes.

The symptoms that are common with neuropathic pain are – pins and needles, burning or coldness, numbness and itching.

Why do You Need to Feel Pain??

Simply put, you need to feel pain in order to protect yourself. Let’s say you over reach for something whilst gardening and strain a muscle in your back. Pain acts as your bodies alarm signal to let you know you’ve done something that’s compromised a muscle and caused damage. Pain may continue after the initial incident to give your body time to heal by reducing movement, it may cause you to temporarily stop what you’re doing and it serves to remind you to be careful with certain movements.

How can an Osteopath help??

The majority of patients will come to see us because they’re in pain. Helping people understand why they’re in pain, diagnosing the cause and ascertaining whether it is nociceptive, neuropathic or a combination of the two will help us form the most appropriate plan to help get you back to normality. Knowing what type of pain you’re suffering from also directs what type of treatment is appropriate to help you recover as quickly as possible.

Top Tip

As pain can be acting as your bodies alarm signal telling you that something isn’t quite right be careful when returning to the same level of activity pre-injury too quickly! The damaged tissues may still be vulnerable even if the pain has gone.

Questions

The question, ‘what is pain?’ is a very complex one. If you have any questions or would like more info please get in touch by email at – info@fourhealth.co.uk or give us a call on – 07932 022503.

Let’s talk RUNNING!!

What a week it’s been so far! Busy with patients, reaching out to local businesses to collaborate with and now writing a new blog!

I was on a home visit in Teddington and thought I’d pop into Sweat Shop on Broad Street. (www.sweatshop.com) They are running specialists. I had a great chat with Nico, one of the guys there about what they do and how they do it. They have a good understanding of gait for all you runners, a good selection of shoes and of custom moulded insoles. I love interacting with local companies like this, it gives me confidence to send patients their way when people ask for recommendations.

I’ve worked with runners a lot in the last few years of varying standards from people who just like a short jog a couple of times a week to ultra-marathon runners. I was very privileged to support a guy through his training for the Marathon Des Sables not that long ago. Having access to treadmills at the clinic in Cobham is fantastic when analysing gait and offers a true insight into your running technique.

The next blog post will be about what to do if your back goes into spasm as it seems people aren’t too sure.

In the meantime, a take home tip for runners – If you’re a road runner don’t always take the same route. Mix up which side of the road/pavement you run on and this way you reduce the risk of the camber of the surface potentially causing you issues and pain!!

Catch up soon

Jonny

Do you get Shoulder Pain?? If yes maybe this will help –

Last weekend I went off to my old university (BSO) which is now called The University College of Osteopathy to do a course based on FAR techniques in regards to shoulder pain and particularly thoracic outlet syndrome. Thoracic outlet syndrome is a group of disorders that occur when blood vessels or nerves in the space between your collarbone and your first rib are compressed. This can lead to pain in your shoulders and neck and numbness in your fingers.

FAR or Functional Active Release technique is a way of releasing tight and shortened muscle using a combination of your movements and pressures exerted by an osteopath or manual therapist. Having had shoulder pain probably from playing too much squash I can say with confidence that the technique works wonders after one of my fellow osteopaths used me as a guinea pig! One session and the difference was huge!!
If you have shoulder pain or for that matter any tight or painful muscles please get in contact for a chat and to find out how we can help you.

New  Collaboration – The PT & The Osteopath

Freddie (lead trainer of The 225 Club) and I are debuting our new collaboration, The PT & The Osteopath. What does this mean, you may ask! Well, here it is…

As an osteopath I see patients with all types of muscle and joint pain, some related to sporting injuries some just seem to start for no good reason. Current research is firmly of the opinion that a combination of treatment and strengthening is more effective than treatment on its own. At the Four Health clinic we give our patients exercise programs to follow in conjunction with treatment which can be very useful, however for some they may need and want more!

Freddie has a wealth of experience as a personal trainer with particular interest in post injury rehabilitation. He regularly sees clients that find they are being slowed down by an injury or restriction in their muscles and tissues and need help from someone like an osteopath in conjunction with their training.

Freddie and I will be offering various packages which combine our expertise and give you a collaborative approach to either help you improve what you’ve already got or help you get over an injury that’s holding you back.

All sessions will be held at The 225 Club, Cobham. Please call 01932 590030 for info and bookings.

Watch this space for more info on upcoming offers and packages.