2013 Newsletter
The Newlands Physiotherapy Practice - our latest news
Warm winter greetings from all of us here at Newlands Physiotherapy
Kerry is on the Western Cape Branch of the Orthopaedic Manipulative Physiotherapy Group (OMPTG) of the South African Society of Physiotherapy (SASP). She is on the work committee of the OMT Course. She continues to do part-time lecturing on the OMT course and on the master’s programme at Stellenbosch University and UCT.
Lara has settled in well at our practice after being here for 3 years, and continues to be a member of the OMT course committee.
Pauline celebrates 24 years since the inception of the Practice in 1989.
Avril and Di continue to run the reception admin efficiently, we thank them for their ongoing support.
We hope you enjoy looking at our website.
Details of our attendance at recent courses will be found on “About Us”.
www.newlandsphysio.co.za
The Western Cape OMPTG hosted 2 international lecturers, Dr Anneliese Pool - Goudswaardt and Dr Paul Hodges. Pauline and Lara attended Anneliese’s course, and Kerry attended Paul’s course, both of which were on the topic of compensation strategies and motor control in Lumbopelvic pain patients.
If you are someone that has experienced neck or back pain, it is quite possible that you adopted a certain posture, or avoided certain movements, in order to avoid pain. This is obviously a protective response. Your brain has concluded there is a threat, taken action, and changes occur in our motor cortex with low back pain. However, our connective tissue like our joint capsule and ligaments, also adapt to these protective postures and lack of movement within minutes.
Anneliese presented some research that was done on astronauts in space. On earth, our spine is loaded due to gravity, but in space there is zero gravity. One of the astronauts gained 10cm in length. This is due to the fact that the connective tissue adapts to the lack of loading and lengthens. They have also found that astronauts become osteoporotic for the same reason.
Loss of movement and loading results in tissue changes, and the impact of this is that the tissues are not as strong, and their ability to withstand load is less. It is extremely important that following injury, we give input to our ligaments and joint capsules through movement. There is a perception that in the presence of back pain or even after the pain has resolved, one needs to “brace” and stiffen our muscles all the time. However, this can sometimes lead to too much stiffness, when in fact we need a pliable vertebral column during daily activities. We need a balance between the ability to resist an incoming load by stiffening our spine, and the ability to respond to an incoming load with movement.
We can refer to this as motor control where we have optimal control of our spine. Thus we can adapt to different tasks and loading using a variety of movement strategies. So our posture, movement, muscle recruitment, breathing and balance are all part of good motor control.
Both Anneliese and Paul conveyed the importance of breathing. Effective, deep breathing causes movement of our spine. However, this movement is impaired when one braces the abdominals too much and breathing is hence shallow. Any exercise where one moves and breathes deeply is beneficial.
Our back classes, are an example of an effective means to improve your dynamic motor control, posture and muscle recruitment with motor learning. Options are given to breakdown a task, and practise components of it with progressions. Different aspects of strengthening, control, balance and breathing work with feedback are practised to improve dynamic function.
So get moving and breathing and remember:
Motion is lotion!
When visiting our website, www.newlandsphysio.co.za go to ”Click to view our newsletter” and you will see two sections.
- Newlands Physio, where you will find our previous Newsletters.
- Equilibrium, which is a monthly newsletter submitted by the South African Society of Physiotherapy (established in 1924) www.physiosa.org.za. There are tips and information on health events, health conditions, various injuries and self help tips. Read about “Starting a walking programme”, “How to manage sports injuries”, “It’s all about balance” and more.....
www.omptg.co.za
www.sport-physio.co.za
www.pmg.co.za
National Physiotherapy Back Week is in September. The theme is: “Movement of Good Health - Exercise”.
For more information about our Back Classes look at “Services” on our website.
We have 4 back rehab classes a week:
| Monday | 17h15 - 18h00 |
| Tuesday | 08h00 - 08h45 and 08h50 - 09h35 |
| Thursday | 17h15 - 18h00 |
The practice hours are:
| Monday - Friday | 07h00 - 18h00 |
| Saturdays | 09h00 - 12h00 |
