Physiotherapy Column

What Is Chronic Pain? Chronic pain has typically been defined as pain persisting for more than 3 months.  This pain can be experienced throughout the entire body, or at localised body parts.  Pain is a wonderful tool for our body to protect us from perceived threat of tissue damage.  However, so often our ability to accurately determine this threat is altered.  When we experience chronic, or persisting, pain it can have a large impact on all facets of our lives ...
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Pain and injury in the shoulder can have a variety of causes. One of the most common issues we see is shoulder impingement. So what is shoulder impingement? Shoulder impingement refers to a condition where poor co-ordination causes certain structures within the shoulder to get squashed or compressed when moving. Everyone is different and there are several reasons why the shoulder may be moving poorly, including muscle tightness, nerve irritation or muscle weakness. Working out the main contributing factors for ...
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Hamstring tendinopathy is becoming an increasingly recognized cause of pain in both sitting and activity related posterior thigh pain. This pain is often present at the top of the hamstring underneath the gluteal fold, where the hamstring tendon attaches onto the ischial tuberosity. It is important to know how to treat hamstring tendinopathy as the hamstrings make up the bulk of the muscle in the back of the thigh and are formed by three muscles and their tendons. The muscles ...
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There’s a reason that glute activation is such a popular area of focus for health and fitness professionals. While there are many different approaches for how to activate glutes, the importance of doing so is clear. The ‘glutes’ actually refers to a group of muscles located around the hips, that make up the buttocks. Together, the glutes play an important role in stabilising the hips and pelvis, supporting the lower back (especially during lifting) and contributing to knee and ankle ...
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Knee pain is a common reason that people present to physiotherapy. They may be suffering from knee pain in isolation or within a broader complaint of symptoms. Your knees are important in mobility and day to day activities, and are influenced directly from the feet, ankles and hips. This article will look into what causes knee pain and the most common presentations we see in our clinic. The vast majority of knee pain can be treated conservatively (without the need ...
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Running is a great form of exercise that really works the whole body from legs to lungs and everything in between. Given that running seems so simple, people often underestimate the load it places on the body, which can lead to running injuries. Runners at any level of fitness can experience pain or injuries and physios are well equipped to help manage and prevent injuries. Using hands-on treatment as well as exercise prescription and training adjustments, physios play an important ...
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At Barefoot Physiotherapy, we offer various physiotherapy services; one of them being Women's Health Physiotherapy. In fact, this is one of our primary service offerings in Brisbane. So, what is Women's Health Physiotherapy? Women's Health Physiotherapy typically refers to Physiotherapy focusing on Pelvic health. At Barefoot Physiotherapy, we use the term to cover Physiotherapy concerns across the female lifespan, including adolescence, antenatal, postnatal and menopause stages of one's life. Most commonly, all these concerns will relate to the function and ...
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Lower back pain can be one of the most debilitating conditions that clients present with at Barefoot Physiotherapy. Clients will often ask, “why do I have lower back pain?” especially when they can’t correlate it to a specific mechanism of injury or if it has a gradual onset. Physiotherapy can significantly increase the quality of life for people suffering from pain in their lower back region. Manual therapy techniques, exercise prescription, advice, and education play an important role in our ...
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How to Fix Tennis Elbow: Our Approach Tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylalgia, is a diagnosis of overuse injury to the elbow. It can be a painful injury that usually occurs when the elbow is overloaded, typically due to repetitive motions of the wrist and arm. Tennis elbow is defined as a tendinopathy of the extensor muscles in the forearm. These muscles attach to the outer part of the elbow at the lateral epicondyle of the distal humerus bone and run ...
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Hip and groin pain is prevalent across the population, from athletes to office workers. There are many factors to be considered in what causes hip and groin pain. As a person ages across the lifespan, the factors contributing to this pain change. In a younger population, muscle and cartilage tears are more prevalent in an athletic population. As you get older, muscle overload, such as tendinopathies, can occur as can osteoarthritic changes to the joint. All of these can be ...
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Throughout pregnancy, many women will experience some form of Pelvic Girdle Pain (PGP). Knowing how to relieve pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy is vital to ensure women still have a good pregnancy experience and one that allows them to continue their normal daily activities for as long as possible. PGP during pregnancy is a relatively common condition affecting approximately half of all pregnant women. For 25-30% of pregnant women, the condition can become quite severe. This blog will introduce the ...
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Back pain is one of the most common reasons that people see a physiotherapist. An important activity that back pain often interferes with is driving. People may have ongoing back pain that flares up when they drive, or sometimes the only time they have back pain is while they are driving or immediately after. Physiotherapy can help acute back pain, and long-term, chronic back pain and help you manage any back problems from driving. Why Do People Have Back Problems ...
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The goal of any Physiotherapy is ultimately empowerment and understanding, we want to provide you with the tools to be able to look after your body and to do it well. A one-size-fits-all blanket approach to self-care is not effective and in a lot of cases can do more harm than good. The human body is complex and every single one of us is different which mean our needs differ too. What one body likes, may exacerbate symptoms in someone ...
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Running technique If you ask any running coach or physio how important good technique is, you’re sure to open up a real can of worms. While there are certainly some elite athletes with unusual running technique, I believe that correct form plays a role in both injury prevention and performance enhancement. So what does good running technique look like? Overall posture – typically, we’re aiming for the same optimal alignment that we’d look for in any task. That is, a ...
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Postnatal care is an important part of physiotherapy; as helping a mother regain control of their body and understand the changes that they have undergone is vital to an effective return to their pre -pregnancy self. Empowering people to be their own health champion and live their Barefoot lifestyle is one of the pillars of our physiotherapy approach . If you are experiencing any discomfort post pregnancy, you may benefit from seeing a Barefoot Physiotherapist for pregnancy physio services. Whether ...
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As an expectant mother you may be experiencing various discomforts; whether this is baby number one or three your body will be constantly adapting over the course of your pregnancy. If you are experiencing any pain or discomfort associated with pregnancy or have any questions about your changing body, you may benefit from a prenatal physiotherapy consultation. Barefoot Physiotherapy can help you address your symptoms and be as comfortable as possible throughout your pregnancy with our leading pregnancy physio services ...
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If you are experiencing thoracic pain, you may benefit from a thorough physiotherapy assessment for thoracic pain treatment. Thoracic pain can present in many ways. You may feel stiffness or burning between the shoulder blades; tightness or pain around the mid spine or ribcage; difficulty in twisting side to side, reaching overhead or taking a deep breath. Thoracic pain or stiffness may be involved in neck pain, shoulder pain or low back pain. At Barefoot Physiotherapy we often see client ...
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Rheumatoid Arthritis When considering rheumatoid arthritis physio, there are a number of different types of arthritis, but they all are characterised by inflammation of joints. The type of arthritis most people are familiar with is osteoarthritis (OA). OA can occur in one single joint or multiple joints, is typically experienced in older populations and features loss of cartilage. Past trauma may be a contributing factor, but is not always present. By comparison, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune condition. Autoimmune ...
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Your health is not dependent on your weight. This may be surprising given the narrative spun from a host of sources including health professionals. Health at Every Size (HAES) is “an approach to public health that seeks to de-emphasise weight loss as a health goal, and reduce stigma towards people who are overweight or obese.” At Barefoot Physiotherapy, we place a lot of value in inclusion and take a non-biased approach to healthcare for our community with leading HAES physio ...
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We are often asked by clients “how does dry needling work?”. Dry needling is a treatment technique that can be used to improve function of a muscle or decrease pain felt in the body. Dry needling can be used to initiate an immune response and change activation of nerve fibres. What Is Dry Needling? Dry needling is a practice used by allied health professionals that have been specifically trained in this technique. Dry needling is named as such to contrast ...
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How to release Jaw Tension is a common question we are asked by clients at Barefoot Physiotherapy. Jaw tension and pain can be a debilitating condition that affects your neck movement, ability to eat and ability to speak. The jaw muscles are utilised every time you eat, talk and smile, and like any muscle if overworked they can become tight causing you pain and discomfort. In some cases, this can result in a locked jaw. The intensity of your jaw ...
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What shoes should I buy? What are physio recommended shoes? One of the most frequently asked questions in the clinic is “what shoes should I wear?”. With the options on the market ever expanding, this is a complex question influenced by a variety of factors. As with most things, there is no “best” shoe and the options are going to vary significantly depending on your personal physiotherapy/injury history and what you need from the shoe. While a shoe on its ...
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Foot intrinsics & intrinsic foot muscles It is a commonly known “fun fact” that the bones of the feet make up roughly 25% of the total bones in the body. What is not as commonly understood is the complexity of the role the foot plays in the overall function of the body and the importance of the muscles that control the foot. A well functioning foot can adapt shape and both generate and dissipate force depending on the demands placed ...
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Chronic Fatigue is a complex disorder characterised by debilitating fatigue which can’t be explained by any underlying medical or psychological conditions. Therefore, it is often referred to as a diagnosis of exclusion. The symptoms can vary in intensity or range from person to person but often include headaches, nausea, fibromyalgia and sleep disturbances. Physiotherapy for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome can help to manage symptoms. If you, or someone you know is suffering from chronic fatigue, get in touch with Barefoot to ...
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Menopause + exercise The importance of staying active across our lifespan is well known. However, menopause results in a number of changes including the body’s response to exercise. A shift in the way we workout can help mitigate the negative impacts of menopause and get the most out of exercise. What is happening during menopause? Estrogen and progesterone are two hormones that play a key role in normal menstrual cycles (along with luteinising hormone and follicular stimulating hormone). They both ...
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Written by: Caitlin Sargent It goes without saying that the respiratory system is essential for life. However it also has an important interplay with musculoskeletal system and stress regulation. Poor breathing patterns can contribute to pain and dysfunction in a number of areas. Likewise, stress, pain and dysfunction can also contribute to poor breathing mechanics. Normal breathing pattern A normal breathing pattern sees the diaphragm and pelvic floor muscles lengthen and drop during inhalation. And naturally elevate and gently contract ...
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Written by: Brittany Johnstone One of the areas I’m very passionate about in Physiotherapy is helping women across the lifespan live their best pain free and happy lifestyle. That is why although this blog helps everyone create a better understanding of their breathing, there will be a particular focus on an introduction into considerations for breathing in post-partum women. Breathing is the foundation of our system. When we breathe, our diaphragm and pelvic floor move together. Breathing does much more ...
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Written by: Brittany Johnstone Physiotherapists will often talk to you about your pelvic floor and its importance to your core. If we think about our core as a cylinder we have the deep abdominal muscles which wrap around the cylinder, our deep back muscles which support from behind, our diaphragm on top and then our pelvic floor muscles which yes are essentially the base. The role of our pelvic floor muscles are: Urinary and faecal continence: The muscle fibres control ...
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Written by: Caitlin Sargent What is Low Energy Availability? Research is coming to understand more and more about Low Energy Availability (LEA) and its wide-ranging implications on almost all systems of the body. Physiotherapists are well placed to help pick up on these signs to assist in early intervention. As with most conditions, prevention is better than a cure and the earlier treatment starts the better. So what is LEA? Energy availability is very self-descriptive! It is measured using 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 is the Thoracic Ring training we have had. The Thoracic Ring Approach™ is an innovative assessment and treatment technique for ...
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