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Years of full-time dance, hip surgery as a teenager and a semi-recent auto-immune diagnosis means that every so often my body goes a little bit haywire and throws out a variety of physical symptoms (a flare up) that impact my day to day activities. Yes, your physio can be sore too! The nature of our work means that we are ...
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At Barefoot Physiotherapy we love meeting new clients and helping kick start them of their health journey. For most clients it is important to be completing their own exercises and muscle releases between appointments to maintain improvements. In a session with a Barefoot Physio we will do a head-to-toe assessment to work out what muscles need to be released to ...
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By Caitlin Sargent: As a physio I, along with many of my clients, expect I would rarely suffer injuries. As an elite athlete though it is kind of considered part of the deal. While it would be nice to always prevent all injuries, the nature of everyone’s lives is that at some point we are often going to accumulate too ...
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Treatment Direction Tests and Individualised Treatment Every body is different in its experience of movement and load. People have different postures, different exercise/activities, different injury history with different compensation strategies and different daily load from life, based on occupational demands, sleeping positions and much more. As a result, no two bodies are identical or present in the same way. In ...
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At Barefoot Physio we treat the whole person, not just the specific injury that brought you in. In physio we are often told to “look at the joint one above and one below”. This means if you come in with knee symptoms, your hip and ankle will also be assessed and potentially treated. The Barefoot Treatment Plan goes one further ...
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At Barefoot Physiotherapy we utilise a variety of techniques to help reduce pain and decrease muscle tightness. One of these techniques is called Dry Needling. Why we choose Dry Needling? It has numerous positive immune effects: It helps stimulate local endorphin release (which helps relieve pain) and it can increase blood flow to the symptomatic area. It has a pain ...
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Kate is a classic Barefooter… so friendly and lovely to have at the clinic and so many amazing stories to tell. We love that she speaks openly about Mental Health and advocates for people getting the help they need. We love when she comes to the clinic there is always laughter, especially when her dog Roxy comes along too! With ...
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Our friends over at Sage and Sound in Woolloongabba are a Psychology and Coaching clinic. They have shared with us some tips for self care. The five building blocks that underpin optimum mental health are to eat well, sleep enough, exercise, social interaction and do something just for you, on a daily basis. Most people have a good idea of what ...
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A common question we hear after a pain flare up or acute injury is “so, should I rest for a while?”.   The exact answer will depend on the injury but usually it’s either “no” or “yes, but only for a few days”.  Using a back flare up as an example – we’ll recommend to our clients to take it easy ...
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As Donate Life week is at the end of this month we'd like to share a Barefooter story of Lara who is an organ recipient to raise awareness of the awesomeness of Organ Donation. We usually write a little intro but I think I'll leave it to Lara to introduce herself. Questions by Sal Lara! You superstar – could you ...
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Written by Catherine - Yoga Physio As both a physio and a yoga teacher I can honestly say one of the best things you can do for your yoga practice is to use props!  It’s a legitimate game changer. It’s common for teachers to make suggestions of using a block or bolster throughout a yoga class, but often it’s a ...
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Jayde is a hilarious pocket rocket that does some pretty cool things on the weekend. We love hearing all her stories so asked her to share a bit about her life with us. Questions by Sal 1 – Superstar Jayde! You have some sweet adventurous weekends… can you explain what VMR is and what you do in it? VMR stands ...
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We love people to move well and feel great. As our communities adapt to a new way of life, which finds us all spending the majority of our time at home, a lot of us have decided it is the perfect time to pick up our old tools, bring out the vacuum cleaner or refine our green thumbs while re-landscaping ...
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The link between Physical and Mental Health The importance of mental wellbeing for overall physical health is very clear. In our increasingly busy and sometimes uncertain modern world, it is particularly important for us to give our mental health the care and attention it deserves. As physios, we have often seen the impact anxiety, depression and stress can have on ...
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More time for running With gyms closed and exercise options somewhat reduced compared to normal, a lot of people are turning to running for their endorphin dose. Running is a great form of exercise, with the added bonus of getting some vitamin D and some seeing some fresh scenery. However, there is such a thing as too much of a ...
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More time at home can mean more time for hobbies With many of us spending more time at home, we’re seeing people able to engage more with their hobbies (or even taking up new ones). It’s great to see creativity and passion being nourished like this. While the brain loves being engaged in an activity to the point of losing ...
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Shellie is a superstar - an incredible human who brings laughter and fun to everywhere she is. We have always admired her and even more after watching her learn to take care of herself fully over the last year and becoming an advocate for true self care. Here's to recharging batteries! Questions by Caitlin You have travelled to some interesting ...
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Barefoot’s 10 step plan Client’s will often ask us how we will best determine the cause of their symptoms or ask us what sets us apart from other physiotherapy clinics. Our answer is simple, our Barefoot Physiotherapy Treatment Plan. Every client we see at Barefoot Physiotherapy is always approached with the same treatment plan, a 10 step process to help ...
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Corticosteroid Injections To get a Corticosteroid injection or not is a common question we as Physiotherapists are often asked by clients. As health professionals we always respond in a way that provides our clients with all the details and facts they need to know to help them make an informed decision. Corticosteroid injections are essentially a very strong form of ...
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It is a common complaint One of the most frequent problems we see in the clinic, is people with tight shoulders. Given the prevalence of desk jobs, many consider tight shoulders just a fact of modern life. However we often find that tight upper traps are rarely the real issue and rather they are a symptom of the body being ...
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Old injuries and Accumulative Strain Remember that incident from years and years back? The one has completely healed and doesn’t give you any pain, but it was a pretty big deal at the time? It may not seem related to a pain you are currently experiencing, and maybe it isn’t, but no matter where or what the injury was, it ...
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Our rib cage is an essential for protection of our organs, having a strong trunk and is involved in our everyday movements, like breathing or turning our bodies. Our rib cage rises and falls with each breath using the muscles between the ribs and our diaphragm. Just like any other joint and muscle, these areas can be loaded and irritated ...
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Nerve pain is a common contributing factor to a person’s overall pain presentation. It can cause tight muscles, stiff joints and restricted movements. Sometimes this pain is harder to describe and localize making it a difficult condition to understand. Nerve pain can be also be described as nerve irritation or nerve inflammation. When specific branch of a nerve is involved, ...
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Hi everyone! Hannah here again. This time I'm going to be taking you through one of my favourite exercises to do - the Squat.  It's a lot more complex than you think and I've spent considerable time trying to get mine right, so I can become stronger and also lessen the risk of injury as I increase weights in the ...
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At Barefoot Physiotherapy we utilise techniques from multiple learnings all combined into our unique Barefoot Physiotherapy Plan. These techniques include; LJ Lee's training in The Thoracic Ring Approach™all of our Bachelor/Masters degrees, Mulligan, Maitland and Ridgway Methods, Western Acupuncture, Dry Needling, and Pain Science/Graded Motor Imagery. We are continually learning and evolving our Framework and an essential part of it ...
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So what is a return to walking program? We have great evidence to support gentle activity/movement being beneficial to our bodies. And the current recommendations are 30min x 5 days a week + 2 strength based sessions. So what if you can’t physically manage to walk 30min most days of the week? And you’d like to? Now if you can ...
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I'm getting into exercise, but I haven’t exercised before. Where do I begin? Our Barefoot plan brings our clients to step 10 which is ‘Living your Barefoot Lifestyle’, this includes being able to start new activities and try new things! You can also bring this up with us at any other step in the plan. Exercise can be anything that ...
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Holidays are meant to be a time for relaxation and fun. There is nothing worse than arriving at your destination with you stiff and sore body. To help avoid this, I have put my top tips together for keeping your body happy when flying. Move They say, "your best posture is your next posture." This means that essentially most bodies ...
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We all like to relax but more often than not, life gets busy. With the lead up to Christmas, school holidays, work deadlines and.... well the list goes on! This time of year can be particularly stressful and overwhelming.  It’s even more important to carve out time for active self-care when things start to get crazy. And no, I’m not ...
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You may have said out loud at some point “I really need to roll out my ___ (insert muscle here)” or "I need to do a self release". It has been back and forth in research, about whether the mechanisms through which rolling out muscles or doing self releases works, if at all. The next question we often ask ourselves ...
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At some stage you have probably meet someone, or even visited our clinic and have become intrigued as to how our Physio's have got to where they are or wanted to know what motivates them to keep their high energy levels. Catherine asks this weeks Barefoot Story questions to our very own Hannah, as we delve behind the scenes of ...
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Neck pain is one of the most common conditions that we treat at Barefoot. While there are sometimes acute or traumatic injuries (such as whiplash from a car accident) that can cause neck pain, far more common is pain caused by accumulative strain. This essentially means a variety of contributing factors such as posture (think time in front of the ...
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Do you have neck or shoulder pain that gets worse after a day at work? Have you thought about the way you sit at your desk could be contributing to strain building up in the body. Making sure you think about your body position throughout the day can reduce unwanted niggles and make you feel more comfortable. While every desk ...
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When there is pain in your head, it can be difficult to tell whether you are experiencing a headache or a migraine. Therefore it is important to work out which one it is. Faster diagnosis of a headache or migraine means faster relief through better treatments. So, how can you tell the difference between a headache and a migraine? What is a headache? ...
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Did you know Jaw pain can be treated. It can be common for clients to come to Barefoot Physiotherapy and end up getting an internal jaw release from one of the physios. Having a jaw release can sometimes come as a bit of a shock to people. This is because even though most people mention tension being held in the ...
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Why we ask what a "good result" means to you. If you have been to the clinic, you’ll know that we like to ask “What would be a good result for you?”. This may seem straightforward or even silly to some, but we have found that talking about what "good results" means to you is one of the most important ...
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The Best Mattress for Lower Back Pain Sleeping on a mattress that isn’t right for you can cause stiffness and low back pain. Mattresses that lack the right support, reinforce poor sleeping postures and build up strain. Strain can be caused on muscles, joints and nerves. All of these contribute to low back pain. Choosing your Mattress Your sleep comfort ...
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Hi everyone, Catherine here. I wanted to give you some information on medical imaging. If you have any questions after reading this article, please feel free to get in touch. When do I need a scan?  X-Rays, MRI, CT and Ultrasound. Medical imaging gives us lots of useful information regarding injuries to muscles, ligaments or bone.  It really depends on ...
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Hi team, Sal here. I recently went back to school to talk to the grade 10s about a career in physiotherapy. One of the students sent me some follow up questions for an assignment about Career in Physiotherapy. I thought it would be good to share with you. How important is self belief, resilience and motivation when being a physio? ...
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You have a huge passion for snowboarding, which as seen you going to Japan multiple times and loving it! Give us a run down of the last japan trip and how your snowboarding went. Yes, I have a huge passion for snowboarding. My last trip to Japan was my third time there. My second visit was to Niseko. It is ...
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