Hands up who likes to warm up before a netball game? Unless you strangely love it like I do, my guess is it’s not your favourite part of playing netball. I get it. For most of us, netball is a winter sport played outdoors, so peeling off those nice warm layers when the mercury is yet to hit 10, isn’t exactly ideal! But if you’re still wearing that hoodie at the end of your warm up have you really warmed up? Probably not.

Warming up prior to a netball game is a critical part of the team routine. Often players are keen to just ‘get on with the game’, but the warm up, as far as your body is concerned, is way more important than what happens once the opposition shows up! Of course it also gives us a chance for some last minute coaching and mental preparation, but of utmost importance is getting your body fully limbered up in order to avoid injury.

A good warm up should be a progressive build up of stretching, movement, speed and ball skills, preparing your muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments for the hour ahead.

Netball is a three dimensional sport, that means movements and play happen in all directions, so let’s prepare our bodies for that. I’m going to give you an example of a simple 4 step netball warm up that progressively builds intensity and warms up your body, so you’ll come out firing in that first quarter, and decrease your time on the sideline with injury. (If you are sitting out a quarter, make sure you run through a few of these drills before you go back on).

STEP 1- DYNAMIC STRETCHES

Dynamic stretches are stretches but with movement. We all know stretches are good but we’re about to be moving on the court so let’s combine the two.

Dynamic stretches should be smooth, fluid movements and not strained or forced. Only take your body where it wants to go but doing these regularly will increase your range of movement.

We start by lining up on the base line and work to the first transverse line. Complete a different stretch on the way back.

Lunge twists: step forward into a walking lunge and hold your arms out in front. As you lunge down, gently rotate your arms and body around to the same side as the leg that is in front, continue through next step with the other leg and repeat on that side.

This works on the hips, knee, ankles and rotation through the back, needed in sprinting and throwing

Side lunge reach: stand side on to court. Step out to one side and complete a side lunge. At the same time reach down to the inside of that knee. Lead with same leg for half of the third, turn around and lead with the other for the last half of the third.

Once again hips, knees ankles, and helps with the sidestep move

Side stretch: front on to the court. Put your right leg behind your left and raise your right arm above your head, gently side bend your body to the left. Hold for 5 seconds, step forward a few steps and swap sides.

This works on arms and back, and gets us ready for all that hands over defensive pressure, and goal shooting if you’re a goalie.

Anterior chain stretch: step forward with right leg and raise both arms above your head and gently lean backwards (not to pain!) Now step forward with the left leg and repeat.

This opens up through the front of the hips, abs and arms, preparing for quick leads

Posterior chain stretch: step forward with the right leg and gently swing both arms down towards that front ankle, allow your hips and knee to fold with it. Take a few steps, then repeat on the left.

Warming up those glutes and hamstrings for powerful drives

Note: because you’ve now completed your dynamic stretches, don’t stop for a chat, keep moving – remember, we need those trackies off!

STEP 2- LOCOMOTION (AKA MOVEMENT)

This is when we start building on running style movements. This is your more traditional style netball warm up.

For us this involves:

• Jogging back and forth from the transverse line x 5
• Bum kicks x 1
• High knee x 1 (get them up!)
• Side steps x 1
• Grape vine x 1
• High skips x 1
• Dodges x 1 (actual dodges not just ambling in a wobbly line!)

STEP 3- SHORT. SHARP. SPRINTS.

By now, you should be feeling pretty warm! Perfect timing to add some speed and sprint work!

This can involve the classic pitter patter- some one calling out, GO! And then sprinting to the transverse line. It could be lining up at the goal post, sprinting out to the edge of the circle, back to the goal post and then straight up to the transverse line. Doesn’t matter how you do it but get them in there. At least 6 of them. After all we’re about to play a quick game that involves short sharp movements. If the jumpers aren’t off now, then maybe you’re not working hard enough, so do a couple more.

Time for a quick drink of water.

STEP 4- BALL WORK

Let’s warm those icy cold fingers up. Nobody likes a jarred finger!

We usually run 4 corners (with a few little variations) and goalie’s drill, but this part can be done however you like, and with what ever ball drills, passing sequences you find works for your team.

But remember. We’re warming up to play. So if you need to start off a little bit gently for those hands that’s fine. But build the speed, timing, driving and intensity, and perform them just like you would in a game.

By now, you should be warm and ready to go.  All of this should take you no more than 20-25 minutes. You have now prepared your muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons, to move in all directions, to take on whatever the next 4 quarters are going to throw at you.  Sure, it’s a contact sport and shit happens, you might still get hurt, but you’ve given yourself the best chance at avoiding and injury and turning around and doing it all again next week!

Please note, the advice above is generalised and may not be specific to your situation. If you have any specific injuries or are in doubt please contact one of our osteopaths or another health care provider to provide a specific diagnosis and treatment of your condition.

Click here to book an appointment with myself or one of our other osteopaths at Procare Geelong https://procare.cliniko.com/bookings

‘Tradie’s back’ also know as mechanical back pain refers to pain coming from the spinal structures (such as joints, muscle, ligaments, discs and nerves). I’m yet to meet a tradie who hasn’t had some form of back pain.

In tradies the most common cause is years of hard yakka on the tools. All those years of lifting, twisting and hard physical work add up. And it is incredibly common, accounting for about 97% of back pain. (1) It doesn’t take long until it really starts to affect your life.

That’s why I’ve designed the following 3 steps to get you on top of your back pain. It is important to stay on top of that niggly back pain to keep on the tools or at work as long as you can. Sometimes that ‘she’ll be right’ attitude can be your worst enemy.

It’s so rewarding to see people make the shift and get pain free and reclaim their lives.

Of course, if you’ve had any significant back injuries or get any pain while doing these exercises, please seek advice from your healthcare provider before starting or continuing these exercises.

1. Daily 5 minute stretching routine

   Movement helps to oil your joints. You wouldn’t try to drive your car without oil, so why do we try to run our bodies without it?! It only takes 5 minutes of basic stretches each day to start to see a change.

   Make sure to set aside this time each day to make it part of your daily routine.

   Start by rolling up a towel as shown and lying on the floor with a pillow behind your head and the towel vertical down your back with the top of the towel at the junction between your back at neck. Just lying there for 1 minute can feel awesome, then do 1 minute of ‘cheerleading’ arms to get the upper back moving and 1 minute of turning your neck side to side.Then switch the towel to horizontal over your low back and roll your knees side to side for 1 minute.

   Then any time you’ve got left over use a spikey ball/foam roller to do some self massage on anywhere you are feeling sore.

   

2. Twice weekly 10 minute strength exercises

   The next step is to start to get some strength back into your joints and muscles. These specific strength exercises allow you to prevent injury to your back, making the daily grind that little bit easier. This is similar to keeping your petrol tank full. Again pick two days and times that will suit, so you don’t forget to do them. I’m going to give you three exercises, that you can do as a circuit. Repeat the circuit 3 times. Start by lying on your belly, with your hand at chest level. Roll your nose forward, followed by your neck, mid-back and then finally your low back, slowly lower back down. Repeat 10-15 times.

   Then lying on your back, slowly roll your bottom up into the air, until you on are on your shoulder blades, then ‘tractor tire’ your spine back down onto the floor (starting from the mid-back) Repeat 10-15 times.

   Staying lying on your back, bring both legs into the air, with the knees at 90 degrees. Keep your back flat on the floor, while slowly dropping one heel down to the ground (be careful to only move at the hip, keep the knee at 90 degrees)

3. Monthly hands on tune ups

   Just like you would with a car, a monthly ‘tune up’ with an allied health practitioner, is a great way to help manage and control your back pain and start to prevent issues before they arise. The osteopaths at Procare use soft-tissue massage, muscle stretching, joint movement as well as joint manipulation (cracking) to start to get that stubborn back of yours moving and pain free. We can then provide you with some more specific exercises if they might be beneficial. Please note, the advice above is generalised and may not be specific to your situation. If in doubt please contact one of our osteopaths or another health care provider to provide a specific diagnosis and treatment of your condition.

Click here to book an appointment with myself or one of our other osteopaths at Procare Geelong
https://procare.cliniko.com/bookings

References

1. Chien, J. J., & Bajwa, Z. H. (2008). What is mechanical back pain and how best to treat it?. Current pain and headache reports, 12(6), 406-411.

Your knee hurts. You’ve given it time……..it still hurts. Sound familiar?

You get referred for an x-ray or MRI. Some ‘wear and tear’ is found in the knee joint and maybe even roughened or torn cartilage (meniscus). You head to an orthopaedic surgeon who can offer anything from a minor clean out to a major joint replacement. This of course will fix the problem and, after some post surgical rest, your knee will be fine.

Ah, well, sometimes that is the case. Often it is not.

This may come as a surprise to you. We have the best scanning technology we’ve ever had, with super talented orthopaedic surgeons that can operate on what is found on these detailed scans.

How can we be only tracking at sometimes in this area?

There are 2 key explanations here:

1. Findings on an x-ray or scan are not always significant to someone’s pain.
   They can be…….sometimes. Often people can experience knee pain that has little to do with normal age related wear and tear (“arthritis”) in the knee joint. In these people, getting an arthroscopic “clean out” is unlikely to make much difference to their pain.
2. A scan of the knee is like taking a photo of someone and asking a stranger to take guesses at the persons’ personality, talents, hobbies, and who their best friend is.

A photo can’t predict what a person will do, nor can a scan tell us how a knee moves and functions!

Is it strong?
Is it stable?
Is there good balance in the knee?

Does the knee have good endurance? Or does it tire quickly? Can the person co-ordinate the knee with good function at the hip and foot to take the load off the knee?

Those that don’t often then embark on a long and frustrating journey shopping around many practitioners and treatments. This can go on for months or years!!

I believe this is where the wheels tend to fall off a bit in how we manage musculoskeletal pain.

 How does Pain Become Chronic?

Chronic Pain is defined as being any pain that lasts longer than 3 or 6 months depending on where you get your definition. Either way, it is a function of time.

Chronic pain is about the body and mind adapting over time to the pain.

It could be that the nervous system just gets used to the pain signals and gets better at reporting pain.

It could be that poor movement continues to annoy the injured part long after most of the damage has healed.

Increased fear of recurrence from a person suffering from this pain could lead to avoiding normal activities, making them more inactive, unhappy and weaker. Which guess what? That’s right, leads to more pain!

Addressing the pain adaptation is so important. Even better, stopping you getting to the point of adaptation in the first place: nip the pain experience in the bud!

 A Costly – and Risky- Business

Chronic Pain costs Australia over $34 billions dollars a year 1with an estimated 6.9 million Australians suffering from some level of ongoing pain requiring treatment and often-ongoing medication.

Back pain alone affects around 3.7 million people with up to 80% of Australians experiencing back pain at some point in their lives.  That’s right, 80 percent! We’re doing something wrong.

We should be concerned by our over reliance on pain medication; reducing that alone should be motivation enough to try something new.  Common over-the-counter pain medications like Diclofenac have been linked to conditions such as stomach ulcers and even more seriously, blood clots in arteries. That’s not good! The fact is, medication should be limited to the smallest dose for the shortest time, but we know this isn’t what happens, people become reliant, and scared that if they stop taking medication, the pain will be worse. That’s human nature but it’s a mindset, and a mindset can be changed!

Catherine comes with a wealth of medical administration and management experience.

She is very efficient and organised. When ringing around her referees after interviewing Catherine, one told me “she ll organise your life if you want her to”. That had and still has great appeal.

Catherine drives from Colac to work with us 4 days a week. We are still unsure why she does this, but we are very pleased that she does.

Catherine has been heavily involved in netball at club level and with the umpires association.

We hope Catherine will continue to get in her chariot from Colac for some time yet as she adds another dimension to the Procare Team.

She comes from a hairdressing background with some administrative work in real estate more recently.

It should come as no surprise that the hairdresser/real estate combo means that Caz is not short of a word.

And like any good hairdresser she has the incredible skill of getting people to want to tell her all their ‘goss’.

Caroline left Procare Geelong briefly in 2014 as she was doing a renovation, and at times, she seemed to think she was on The Block.

Thankfully she returned after the renovation was complete, as we really enjoy “Caz” being part of our team.

Caroline is married with a school aged son and works with us on a part time basis.

At interview Erin offered very little in the way of relevant skills or experience but her warm, fun personality and strong character made her someone we wanted to work with.

From an advertising background, Erin has turned her back on the dizzy heights of new campaigns, long lunches and red carpet galas to be with us. Or so she says.

Erin has 2 school age daughters with husband Andrew and as a family they are involved with various sporting clubs, schools and other community organisations.

Erin is enjoying working with the talented and innovative team at Procare Geelong. And being part time also allows her to stay fit and healthy as well as spend more time with her family.

She looks forward to meeting you soon.

Matt loves the challenge of looking into all facets of pain problems. He likes to keep digging when others have given up.

Graduating from Victoria University in 2013, Matt’s outstanding performance was recognised by receiving the esteemed COCA (Chiropractic Osteopathic College of Australasia) award for top graduating student.

Since this time Matt has been working in the western suburbs of Melbourne.

But Matt is originally from Geelong and is a “Joeys’ boy”, so his arrival at Procare is like a homecoming.

When Matt is not practicing as an Osteopath, you’ll most likely find him out on his bodyboard, in the gym or working on his photography skills.

Matt brings an outstanding academic record and knowledge base, and when combined with his years of clinical experience and ‘know-how’ in Melbourne, we are rapt to bring Matt on board at Procare.

Originally from a nursing background, Shanti’s great hands and caring nature found her way into massage and she worked in day spas from 2001-2005 before becoming an advanced remedial massage therapist, and later a myotherapist in 2016 (that is a lot of study so she is both caring and nerdy!).

Shanti has worked in private practice for the past 10 years, gathering experience and getting great results with all sorts of muscular pain, stiffness and tightness.

Shanti summarises her treatment style as “I give the treatment that I want to receive”.

It is great to have someone so experienced, competent and caring joining our team here at Procare.

Stella is equally credentialed in both academic and athletic achievements.

She completed a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melb majoring in Anatomy, Physiology and Neuroscience before studying Osteopathy at RMIT University.

On the sporting front, she is currently a nationally ranked 400m hurdler but, like a true smart arse, didn’t take up athletics properly until after school as she was rower.

Professionally, Stella is interested in how the body moves and how this relates to injury treatment and unsurprisingly, sports performance.

In her spare time, Stella is an avid reader and enjoys listening to, and occasionally trying to play some music on guitar. It is of comfort that her guitar skills are not as elite as the rest of her many talents.

As Procare Geelong continues to raid the best young talent from Melbourne, we are really excited at Stella joining our team.