Best Knee Stability Exercises

Today we will talk about all things knee joint stabilisation!

  • The stability of the knee joint is dependent upon static and dynamic factors.
  • The static stabiliser includes passive structures such as the knee joint capsule and the various ligaments and other associated structures such as the
    • Menisci
    • ligaments which all act as static stabilisers include the medial collateral ligament, the lateral collateral ligament, the ACL, PCL,
    • The iliotibial band is also considered a static stabiliser in spite of its muscular connections.
  • The dynamic stabilisers of the knee are all the muscles and their aponeuroses, including:
    • Quadriceps
    • Pes Anserinus
    • Popliteus
    • Hamstrings

Because of the static factors it’s not something we can physically make it stronger, if you ever had ACL, PCL, meniscus or any other passive knee structure injuries my advice as the physio is to then make sure it’s vital for you to build up your dynamic factors and make them as strong as possible to help manage your injuries to the best of your abilities.

I am going to show you some strengthening and stability exercises to improve just that!

Keeping in mind these exercises are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. In order to fully rehab your discomfort you will still need to continue to progress to harder and more functional strengthening exercises that are specifically tailored for you, in order to feel pain free while working.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 40-60minutes long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!  

 

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.


Fix Your Bad Back Posture With These Exercises

Do you always have a spine that looks like this no matter what you do, can’t seem to fix your bad posture? You know you are hunching and hear people talking about bad posture all the time but can’t seem to fix it? Well today in this blog post, I’m going to share with you some tips and exercises to help with this issue and also explain to you why good posture is Not good for you!

If you have scoliosis you will probably find that out quite early in your life either by a GP or nurse or any health professional that you come across as it will be very obvious that your shoulder or hip doesn’t align, and it’s hard to miss.

What I find mostly left undiagnosed are people who are suffering from mild to moderate Scheuermann’s disease or Scheuermann’s kyphosis,

  • Back pain.
  • Tight hamstrings.
  • Rigid curvature of the spine (kyphosis).
  • Loss of flexibility.
  • Slouching, or posture that gets worse over time.

Roughly 4 to 8 percent of people have it, and it occurs in males twice as often as in females. It normally runs in the family. I normally pick it up when people are lying on the treatment table facing down, if it’s a postural habit the back will be flat, if your spine is inborn with slight curvature, it will still be showing when you are lying down.

A good deal of healthcare professionals may tell you about your posture and how you need to change them. But there is no way you can change your spine to straight when they are not born straight to begin with!

So good posture for you is not an option, and you shouldn’t force yourself into the so-called “good posture” as it might just load up some other area of your spine which will lead to more issues.

Because of the nature of your spine

  • you will always have a high tendency to have spinal related problems such as neck, shoulder  and back pain.
  • you will always have certain muscle groups to be tighter and weaker,
  • you are more likely to prefer certain positions to offload the tension, which would lead to the progression of this problem

It’s not all bad. Today I’m going to share with you some exercises that will not correct the curvature of your spine but to help prevent this problem from getting worse.

These series of videos that I’m starting to make are targeting these postural muscles groups.

To help improve your conditioning workout routine, rehab and to improve your stability of your joints while you continue to enjoy the sports that you love or just to enjoy a more pain free living.

Keeping in mind, these tips and advice are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. If you are experiencing any pain or would like an individualised tailored program to help improve your running, I highly recommend you speak to any one of your physiotherapists to guide you through your running journey.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 40-60minutes long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!  

 

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.


Best Core Exercises For Runners

Did you just start running?

Well in this blog post, I’m going to share with you some simple core exercises that you can do at home to help improve your running skills

Strength and conditioning outside running is one of the most common things that is overlooked by many runners. To help you improve your speed and endurance, as well as the longevity of the sports that you like.

I cannot emphasize enough how important strength training is for running. Adding strength and conditioning exercise to your routine, even one or two times per week, can actually be very beneficial to your training—it can help prevent injuries and help to build up the efficiency of your running.

I’m going to share with you some of the exercises that I normally start off with for most runners that come into my clinic. Doing these exercises, you will be able to significantly improve the efficiency of your running.

Keeping in mind, these tips and advice are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. If you are experiencing any pain or would like an individualised tailored program to help improve your running, I highly recommend you speak to any one of your physiotherapists to guide you through your running journey.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 40-60minutes long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!  

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.


Core Strength & Stability Workout

Today in this blog, I am going to show you some core stability exercises that are absolutely vital for any sports performance or back and hip injury rehab that no one has shown you before!

I’ll be starting a new series of videos on stabilizing exercises for every major joint in our body in the upcoming few weeks. These exercises will not only be beneficial for your overall fitness but will also help improve any sports performance, help with injury rehab as well as pain management.

I’ll try to make our very complex body anatomy as simple to understand as possible. Our body is made up of two groups of muscles type

 

The Postural Muscles and The Movement Muscles

 

Postural muscles are made up of mostly ‘slow twitch” muscle fibre, they are designed to create stability in the joints to help maintain our posture and to also help stabilise our moving joints.

I see a lot of people doing core strengthening exercises, and they do have very strong core but what they are lack if is a good core control and that’s what we call “proprioception training”

Proprioception is the awareness of the body in space. It is the use of joint position sense and joint motion sense to respond to stresses placed upon the body by alteration of posture and movement.

Proprioceptive exercises are exercises which challenge and develop proprioceptive receptors. Proprioception helps to stabilise a joint during static and dynamic functional tasks. Decreased proprioception can lead to an increased risk of injury.

Having a strong core without knowing how to control them is not going to help you translate it to normal functional activities or your sports. In order to improve your sports performance and improve the efficiency and fluidity of your movement, you need to learn how to control the core muscles as and when you need them to, and learning to turn on the precise amount needed for a particular movement.

These series of blogs that I’m starting to make are targeting these postural muscles groups and your proprioception of your core/lower back and hip.

To help improve your conditioning workout routine, rehab and to improve your stability of your joints while you continue to enjoy the sports that you love or just to enjoy a more pain free living.

Keeping in mind these exercises are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. In order to fully rehab your discomfort you will still need to continue to progress to harder and more functional strengthening exercises that are specifically tailored for you,  in order to feel pain free while working.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 40-60minutes long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!  

 

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.


How To Build Hip Stability

I’ll be starting a new series of videos on stabilizing exercises for every major joint in our body in the upcoming few weeks. These exercises will not only be beneficial for your overall fitness but will also help improve any sports performance, help with injury rehab as well as pain management.

Body Anatomy

 

  • I’ll try to make our very complex body anatomy as simple to understand as possible.
  • Our body is made up of two groups of muscles type
  • The Postural Muscles and The Movement Muscles

Postural muscles are made up of mostly ‘slow twitch” muscle fibre, they are designed to create stability in the joints to help maintain our posture and to also help stabilise our moving joints. To train these muscles we must perform the exercises slowly, holding it for a longer period and with higher repetition.

The movement muscles on the other hand are normally very strong, big fast twitch muscles that are designed to give our body an outburst of power, but normally for a much shorter duration of time. To train these muscles, we will need heavy loading and shorter repetition with much more frequent rest periods to ensure the muscles can properly recover before the next activation. Most people that I see come in injured are mostly due to this imbalance between the movement muscles and the postural muscles.

These series of videos that I’m starting to make are targeting these postural muscles groups.

To help improve your conditioning workout routine, rehab and to improve your stability of your joints while you continue to enjoy the sports that you love or just to enjoy a more pain free living.

Keeping in mind, these tips/advice are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. If you are experiencing any pain or would like an individualised tailored program to help improve your symptoms, I highly recommend you speak to any one of your physiotherapists to guide you through your rehabilitation journey.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 40-60minutes long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!  

 

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.


Why Do My Lower Back Pops & Clicks?

Does your lower back or the back of your hip keep making popping noises while you do leg raises exercises? If it clicks and pops without pain should you be concerned? Can this problem be fixed? Well this is what we will be discussing in .

Our lower back is joint at the pelvis and then to the hip, this joint that connects your lower back to your pelvis is what we call the sacroiliac joint or in short the (SIJ) joint.

This structure is mostly stabilised by very very strong  ligaments around the area, hence if for some reasons your  ligaments are loosening and you don’t have the muscles strength around that area  to stabilise this structure, it will start to move every time you move your legs and your back creating a popping sound with or without pain.

If it’s causing popping sensation without pain should you be concerned? The answer is Yes. Even if you don’t feel the pain you should still be concerned as this issue is an indication that you have weak lower back and hip muscles and if left untreated you will have a higher risk of developing lower back or hip issues down the track. Especially for women, if you are already experiencing SIJ clicking now, if you are planning to have a baby in the future you have a very high risk of having lower back issues throughout the pregnancy and even after the pregnancy when there is more weight on your back and when the hormone of the pregnancy relaxes the ligaments even more.

Our back has our back muscles and bum (hip muscles) that works together to specifically stabilise this joint while they are moving. These muscle groups are what we call the Posterior Oblique Sling muscles.  

Want to know more about Melanie – Our Hawthorn Physiotherapist?

Meet Melanie Lim, a Bachelor of Physiotherapy Graduate from the University of Melbourne. She has gained a wealth of clinical experience through both public and private systems during her undergraduate studies to be here today at Capital Physiotherapy’s Hawthorn Physio clinic.

She has completed advance training to specialise in a range of physical therapy treatments such as sport, dance, pre and postnatal, and dry needling. With a keen interest in treating and educating her clients (and YouTube audience), she aims to create custom pain treatment management plans for the Hawthorn community, and Melbourne at large.

At the Hawthorn physio clinic, Capital Physiotherapy offer bulk billing for their patients. Get in contact with Melanie today and book an appointment for a one on one session with her!

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.

Keeping in mind these tips/advice are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. If you are experiencing any pain or would like an individualised tailored program to help improve your dancing, I highly recommend you speak to any one of your physiotherapists to guide you through your rehab journey.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our women’s health physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 40-60minutes long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au 


Does Strengthening Make Your Already Tight Muscles Even Tighter?

Over the past few weeks it’s been like deja vu one after another my client came into my clinic telling me they restrain from doing exercises as they are afraid it will make their already tight muscles tighter!

As weird as it may sound to you but i’m going tell you this is a myth. Strengthening your muscles does not make it “tight” or “stiff”

If done a certain way (eccentric strengthening-Eccentric training is when you contract the muscle while it is getting longer. ) it can actually help increase the stretch tolerance and flexibility of that muscles.

Just stretching and not strengthening your muscles will make those muscles prone to injuries.

A lot of our clients often report a sensation of tightness and pain in their muscles. As such we are frequently asked for stretches or whether massage or dry needling would help.

While stretching might give a short-term benefit, strong evidence have shown that that eccentric training can;

  1. Increase the length of our muscle fibres and
  2. Improve joint range of movement AND
  3. Improve muscle strength AND
  4. Reduce injury risk at the same time!

Soreness isn’t always an indicator that a muscle needs to be stretched. It can also be an indicator that the muscle itself isn’t strong enough.

A lot of times, chronically tight muscles are tight because they’re weak.

Weakness reduces efficiency of muscle activation which leads to over activating muscles fibre that is not required and constantly being overworked creating a “tightness” sensation.

By increasing the strength of the muscles, you increase the efficiency of the muscles and hence reduce unnecessary overloading of it which will help reduce that “ tight” / “stiff “ sensation.

Now, I’m not saying that stretching is useless, because if you are one of those people who never stretch in your entire life, you probably do very much need stretching, massaging, dry needling.

Our muscles work best in their mid range. However if you increase the flexibility of your muscles,your ideal/ optimal range would significantly increase as well.

So the ideal situation or training routine should have a combination of stretches and strengthening at the same time to maximise the benefit and reduce your sensation of “tightness” & “stiffness”

Want to know more about Melanie – Our Hawthorn Physiotherapist?

capital physiotherapy hawthorn clinic's physiotherapist Melanie Lim profile shotMeet Melanie Lim, a Bachelor of Physiotherapy Graduate from the University of Melbourne. She has gained a wealth of clinical experience through both public and private systems during her undergraduate studies to be here today at Capital Physiotherapy’s Hawthorn Physio clinic.

At the Hawthorn physio clinic, Capital Physiotherapy offer bulk billing for their patients. Get in contact with Melanie today and book an appointment for a one on one session with her!She has completed advance training to specialise in a range of physical therapy treatments such as sport, dance, pre and postnatal, and dry needling. With a keen interest in treating and educating her clients (and YouTube audience), she aims to create custom pain treatment management plans for the Hawthorn community, and Melbourne at large.

Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.

Keeping in mind these tips/advice are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. If you are experiencing any pain or would like an individualised tailored program to help improve your dancing, I highly recommend you speak to any one of your physiotherapists to guide you through your rehab journey.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our women’s health physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 40-60minutes long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au 

How To Improve Your Turnout Fast

ballerina posing in dance studio

Having trouble with your turn out while dancing?

Does your hip cramp up every time you try to push your turn out?

Have you been stretching heaps but still is struggling with your turn out?

Well stay tuned because in this blog I’ll show you some tips and strategies that will help improve your turn out while dancing.

 

Holding your turnout requires not only muscles & joint flexibility but also muscles strength to be able to prolong the hold without shaking and at the same time making it look graceful & effortless.

In this video I’ll run through a few simple tests to see if length or strength is your limiting factor that prevents you from maintaining your turn out.

Who knows? You might realise it’s actually both the flexibility & the strength that is limiting you!

 

close up of ballerinas feet pointing out

Keeping in mind these tips/advice are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. If you are experiencing any pain or would like an individualised tailored program to help improve your dancing, I highly recommend you speak to any one of your physiotherapists to guide you through your dance journey.

 

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

At Capital Physiotherapy, your initial appointment is 40-60minutes long. This allows our physios to be thorough in their assessment, as well as giving them enough time to give you treatment on the same consultation!

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!  

You will find us at any of our clinics near you:


Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.


 

Pointe Workout For Beginners

close up on ballerina pointe

Does your  toes get cramp every time you try to point your toes?

Want to have a nicer pointe technique?

Want to point your toes without curling?

 

Toe cramping or toe curling while pointing are all due to poor technique while pointing your toes.female hanging on silk fabric dance posing

If you are experiencing cramping while dancing it means that you are being overly tense and using the wrong muscles group to actually do the pointing motion same as if your toes are curling it means that you are not using your foot muscles (aka intrinsic muscles) to achieved those beautiful pointe but instead using your long extrinsic muscles to do the movement.

So what is intrinsic muscles and what is extrinsic muscles?

The muscles acting on the foot can be divided into two distinct groups; extrinsic and intrinsic muscles.

The extrinsic muscles arise from the anterior, posterior and lateral compartments of the leg. They are mainly responsible for big movement of your ankle.

lower leg anatomy

The intrinsic muscles are located within the foot and are responsible for the fine motor actions of the foot mainly balance and arch control.

foot anatomy

Intrinsic muscles are foot muscles that start and finish in your foot and those muscles are vital for anyone who does any kind of performing arts. It will give you stability but also help you achieve a perfect arch on your pointe without injuring your ankle and foot.

female ice skatingIf your intrinsic muscles are weak, you will end up using your extrinsic muscles.

Using extrinsic muscles to do your pointe will lead to many foot and ankle injuries in the future.

Our feet have exactly almost identical muscles as our hands so technically whatever your hands can do, if we train it well our feet should be able to do as well hence that is why you see people who lose their upper limb are able to do intricate movement with their feet. If you have always worn very supportive shoes most of the time, at home or when you run, you most likely have been neglecting your foot control muscles which are important for balance and manoeuvring the terrain when we run. Hence you rely on your extrinsic muscles to do both the actual dance movement and also the balancing, pointing, arch control. Therefore it is inevitable that they will eventually get overused and get injured. Following this video I’ll show you some exercises that you can do to start engaging your foot control muscles and in turn reduce the load of your extrinsic muscles which will then help improve your overall efficiency of your dancing and reduce your discomfort while pointing.

Keeping in mind these tips/advice are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. If you are experiencing any pain or would like an individualised tailored program to help improve your performing arts sports, I highly recommend you speak to any one of your physiotherapists to guide you through your dance journey.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!  

You will find us at any of our clinics near you:


Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.


 

Exercises to Improve Running Mechanics

Want to improve your speed? Distance? Endurance of your running?

Today in this blog I’m going to share with you some exercises that will help you improve the efficiency of your running as a whole.

Strength and conditioning outside running is one of the most common things that is overlooked by many runners. To help you improve your speed and endurance as well as the longevity of the sports that you like.

I cannot emphasize enough how important strength training is for running. Adding strength and conditioning exercise to your routine, even one or two times per week, can actually be very beneficial to your training—it can help prevent injuries and help to build up the efficiency of your running.

I’m going to share with you some of the exercises that I normally start off with for most runners that come into my clinic. Doing these exercises you will be able to significantly improve the efficiency of your running.

Keeping in mind these tips/advice are of general nature and do not take your injuries/history into considerations. If you are experiencing any pain or would like an individualised tailored program to help improve your running, I highly recommend you speak to any one of your physiotherapists to guide you through your running journey.

Here at Capital Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists are the experts in helping you to fix your issues as well as all the discomfort that comes with it!

We can help you lead a healthier and pain free lifestyle.

Our physiotherapist will be able to give a full assessment on you and come out with individualised advice/ treatment plan that is tailored for your particular needs.

For any physiotherapy related concerns drop us an email info@capitalphysiotherapy.com.au or make an appointment through our booking system!  

You will find us at any of our clinics near you:


Additional Information:

We also provide Telehealth Consultation for your safety and convenience during this pandemic.