After ramping up my running to train for the Gold Coast half marathon in July, I suddenly started to get knee pain. This is a great concern for any keen runner because you start to worry about long term injuries that keep you off the pavement. It turns out it was as simple as a tight ITB that was pulling my knee cap to the side and causing knee pain when I ran. I saw our physiotherapist Vanessa and she taped my knee cap and I ran 13km with no knee pain the next day.
This goes to show you the benefit of a good physiotherapist and why nearly every professional sports team has a physiotherapist in charge of their rehabilitation medical teams. If you have ITB tightness I have located a video below that demonstrates a simple stretching technique. Foam Rollers are available from Lifestyle Therapies.
We recently had the pleasure of a visit from Brad Walker, author of The Stretching Handbook. Brad took the physios through his philosophy on stretching and by the end had everyone up performing his favourite stretches. But his message is clear, just because a particular stretch is good for one person don’t assume it’s going to be good for everyone. It’s important to get advice on the right stretches for your condition.
Brad contributed an article on Flexibility for the Pyramid Of Performance which you can read here. Another point Brad made was you don’t necessarily stretch muscles where you perceive there is dysfunction. Sometimes you need to stretch the opposing muscles, an example he gave was with upper back and neck pain. Particularly for people who spend long hours on the computer, sometimes it’s more important to stretch the chest muscles, not the upper back. Ask your Lifestyle Physiotherapist for advice or if you are unable to do that, you can purchase Brad’s popular book or DVD, The Stretching Handbook.
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