Why Carnegie Sports Physiotherapy Clinic?
- Are you aiming to ‘get better yesterday’?
- Do you want to get back in action as soon as possible?
- Are you painfully aware that every day of training that you miss, your competitors may not be?
- Do you have one injury after another resulting in a continual adaptation of training and racing goals?
- Do you feel that you are getting nowhere with your aches, pains and injuries and are looking for a long term, permanent solution?
- Would you just like to get better at the sport you do?
We aim to get you better faster by addressing the root of your injury…not just the area that hurts. We spend time working out why you are injured and give you exercises that not only address the causes of the injury but will also help you achieve a long term permanent solution. It may be that the acute injury you come in with, is actually a result of a chronic issue elsewhere in the body, or may be due to the way you move, which can often be altered by stretches, strengthening or technical work.
Do you want to get back in action as soon as possible?
Injury Prevention is the key to consistency of training and to performance, whatever the level you are training and competing at. It is also the key to keeping you out of the treatment room!
We will never tell you “just to rest”, unless we have to, and we are able to advise you on cross training you can do to keep fit whilst injured.
At CSPC we have a passion for injury prevention and are well aware that you don’t want to be coming to the physiotherapist forever, and for this reason we try to get to the root cause of your injury, treat it in the right way, and give you exercises and guidance that support the work we do with you in the clinic, so that you can get better faster and move on from whatever it is that has been holding you back. We also work closely with coaches and their athletes, when there may be a physical reason why the athlete is struggling to achieve certain goals and we can then take a combined approach to addressing this.
We also do injury prevention screens, give exercises to improve performance, and have clients travelling from far afield, who come a few times a year for a check up or MOT, or to have their programmes progressed, to ensure that they stay in good shape, and are not heading for an injury.
Are you painfully aware that every day of training that you miss, your competitors may not be?
We treat elite athletes and teams with exactly the same issues as you have and we deliver for these clients at the highest level. We are therefore well aware of the pressures of meeting competition deadlines and getting better as soon as possible whilst minimising risk of re-injury. (i.e. Jessica Ennis World Champion Heptathlete 2009, Kelly Holmes 2004 Double Olympic Gold Medallist, Triathlon World Champions 2010 Alistair Brownlee and Jonny Brownlee). In the cases of Kelly, Jessica and Alistair we have helped these athletes come back from major injuries to compete and win gold at major championships.
We know what it takes to get you in shape and to keep you there; We have a depth of experience in our key sports and understand the issues relating to each of them. We have also work with many younger athletes, advising on how to prevent problems as they grow into adults, working on issues that may prevent them reaching their goals (Charlene Thomas, Richard Strachan, On Camp with Kelly and the Brownlee brothers). Many of us have also competed in sport and still do; therefore we know what you are going through and we understand what a nightmare it is when you are injured. We also understand the frustrations of aiming for an event, but then being unable to do it, or not doing it to the best of your ability, due to injury or missed training. We also understand that in anyone who exercises, there is a knock on effect of being unable to train, and being in pain, on work and in other areas of life.
Do you have one injury after another resulting in a continual adaptation of training and racing goals?
We have chosen as a clinic to specialise in sports and chronic injury issues. Staff at CSPC are committed to continuing professional development in order to get you better faster. We all attend many courses in a wide variety of treatment techniques so that we have more treatment options at our fingertips which we can use to help you with your injury.
We work closely with a consultant podiatrist, Karen Duff, who is an expert in her field and specialises in sporting biomechanics and has worked with runners and athletes for many years. Karen comes down from Edinburgh twice a month and has been invaluable in helping many clients with a biomechanical cause for their injuries. We also have links with other health professionals, should you need further specialist input.
Do you feel that you are getting nowhere with your aches, pains and injuries and are looking for a long term, permanent solution?
We have many different treatment options available to address your injury issues. At your initial consultation we will spend at least an hour taking a full injury history, and doing a thorough examination to work out why you are injured. We will assess you from head to foot and it may be that the root cause of your injury is a long way from the area that is sore. It may have resulted from an injury that you had years ago, that was never fully treated at the time and has now resulted in an injury elsewhere. Additionally we may also look at technique, test muscular strength and core control, assess breathing technique and discuss training where appropriate. We will spend time watching how you walk and run, or do other components of your sport or chosen activity, so that we have a good idea of why you may have become injured and why your injury just isn’t getting better.
We have a lot of success with the chronic complex injuries that may be holding you back, not just in your sport, but in life in general. Our longer appointments enable us to get to the bottom of your injury issues as best we can and the wide range of treatment options and techniques learnt on the many courses we do can then be tailored for your needs.
Many injuries, whether new or long term are due to poor postural alignment. Whether you are a sports person or not, ideal posture and good alignment is the position where muscles and joints function most efficiently. When the body is out of alignment, joints are subject to adverse loading and the muscles don’t function as efficiently. This can result in stress on joints, muscles and ligaments, which with time will result in inflammation and pain, loss of performance and injury. Research has shown that if you have been injured you are more likely to become injured again
Resting the area rarely works long term as, although it will allow inflammation to settle, when you start to exercise again, the alignment issues are still there and with time, the injury will frequently reappear. Additionally, when issues are not addressed and athletes continue to train hard around their compensations, this is when other less often treated complications arise- for example changes to breathing pattern, which can effect oxygen/carbon dioxide gas exchange at the muscles or the lungs. This results in a reduction of performance and greater effort being required to exercise at the same level.
Would you just like to get better at the sport you do?
We work with international athletes in many sports including athletics, cross country and fell running, basketball, diving, squash, triathlon, weightlifting, kayaking, netball, badminton, snow sports and swimming. We also work with sportsmen and women from rugby, football and hockey. We can draw on our experience of working with athletes and with many different professionals in all of these sports.
Whatever the cause, we pride ourselves on being as thorough as we are able to be, to ascertain the fastest and longest lasting result for you.
Whether the injury is acute or chronic, we aim to get you back on your feet as quickly as possible, and we aim to address any findings that may be affecting you, whatever the injury, in order to assist you in your training and performance goals. Treatment options include soft tissue work, stretches, and strengthening, spinal mobilisation and realignment, muscle energy techniques ( METs), joint mobilisations, acupuncture, electrotherapy, breathing exercises and visceral mobilisation. We may also refer you for assessment with our podiatrist, should that be necessary. Should you have a more complex issue that requires medical input or scanning, we have various doctors to whom we can refer who specialise in the types of injuries and conditions that we see.