This one day course will give you the skills to confidently assess your patient’s foot and lower limb function and pathology quickly and accurately and clearly explain this and its impact to your patient. Detailed information on foot anatomy, mechanics and function and lower limb biomechanics. The 6 Key Tests for patient assessment – a practical, hands on workshop with key consultation techniques to find out the most appropriate route…
What are hamstrings? Hamstrings are the tendons connecting the group of large muscles at the back of the thigh to the bone. But the word is often used to refer to the entire group of muscles connecting the knee to the hip at the back of the thigh. The Hamstring muscles bend the knee and straighten the hip and while not very important for walking and standing they are very…
So many of us have “sprained” an ankle. That general term for “I fell and hurt my ankle and it’s still sore”. In medical terms a sprain is when there is a “stretching or tearing of ligaments” so it’s a useful catch all term for joint injuries that need a bit of rest and Ice but not much more. But a recent study suggests that there might be longer term…
I’ve spoken before about how to get the right fit for children’s school shoes (where you can download my handy guide!) but what about us adults? Aren’t our feet important too? While I’m an avid believer in orthotics and the impact they have, it helps to put them in a well-fitting pair of shoes! Do your shoes fit? The average shoe size is up about two sizes since the 1970’s,…
Sciatica, one of those wonderful medical terms which we now use in everyday conversation to cover a whole host of aches and pains. Real, true sciatica is only from problems in the disc L3 in your lower back and symptoms include: Pain in the buttocks or leg, often worse when sitting. Burning, tingling or “pins and needles” down the leg. Weakness, numbness, or difficulty moving the leg or foot. A…
Arthritis – such a common diagnosis for so many people and so many joints. But what is it? Arth – joint Itis – inflammation This can happen to any joint in the body –any point where 2 bones meet, and this includes each disc of the spine as well! Sometimes we are given more complicated names for specific joints or conditions: Osteoarthritis – when the cartilage within the joint has…
Aaaaah,Back to School time, depending on which side of the parenting fence you are on you are jumping for joy or sad for the end of summer. But whatever you feel about this time of year one thing never changes – kids grow! And that means new uniform and new school shoes. While the wrong size clothes might be annoying or irritating, the wrong size shoes can have a BIG…
I don’t think it will surprise anyone who’s met me or read my blog that in my opinion surgery is to be considered the last resort, the thing you do when you’ve tried everything else or things have got so bad there just isn’t another option. But if you are at that point then I think it’s important to get the BEST results possible. These points apply for all kind…
“I have a vision . . . . a vision of your future . . . . . it’s a pain free future . . . . . ” Yes, yes, I know, it’s an old joke that I can predict your future with gait analysis. The studies show that it can predict your outcome after hip replacement surgery and now it turns out that it can predict your injury…
In the past I have jokingly referred to gait analysis as a way to predict the future. I can watch you walk, analyse your foot function and be pretty certain whether you will have hip, knee or ankle pain in the next decade. Foot function rarely alters, it gets worse but if you have high big toe impact at 18 the chances are you will continue to have high big…