SMARTPHYSIO Blog

Are you scheduled to have surgery? Following on from your procedure we will be able to visit you in your home or at our clinics. In some cases, we can assess you before surgery and get your home ready for your return. We have been seeing patients after surgery since we opened over 35 years ago, either in their own home or in our clinics. Over this time, we have built a reputation for providing high-quality post-operative care in London. More recently, we have been seeing pati

'Injuries come with the territory, but these simple exercises will prepare you for the demands of an Alpine break' 1. Do daily squats and lunges A paucity of snow in European resorts may have deterred you from booking a January ski holiday, but it leaves more time to ensure your body is ready for the slopes before you do head off. Government stats suggest that a third of people taking their first skiing holiday risk serious injury because they are not sufficiently in shape a

Many load bearing joints can be the source of arthritic pain, and as Physios, we treat a huge number of hip, knee, foot and ankle problems. Hip The majority of hip problems tend to be associated with deficits in muscle control and strength. Most people notice an increase in hip pain as a result of a change, or an increase, in their exercise routine. Rehabilitation around the hip has to focus on the control of the pelvis and the leg (particularly the foot). The management of

A new drug-free treatment that 'retrains' the brain can offer better long-term relief from back pain than opioids, a study has suggested. Patients saw significant improvements after the 12-week course, which consisted of one hour with a physiotherapist each week. Around 11million people in the UK and 65million in the US suffer back pain, making it the leading cause of disability. Traditional therapies concentrate on fixing something in the back, such as injecting a disc, ma

Thursday February 24 2022, 12.01am, The Times How to reduce muscle soreness after exercise: advice from the experts Prepare properly for exercise to reduce post-workout muscle soreness Warm up properly If you’re getting sore after training, make sure you’ve warmed up properly and that your exercise is appropriate for your fitness level. Especially when weights are involved, there’s a temptation to go too heavy and too fast, and that’s a recipe for very unhappy muscles! Step

From an achy back to throbbing wrists, joint pain may feel like an inevitable part of getting older. Indeed, nearly nine million Britons suffer from osteoarthritis – the most common type of arthritis, associated with the wearing down of joints and the body’s attempts to repair them – with most people who get it developing it in their mid-40s or older. However, musculoskeletal conditions are more widespread than you might think. These are problems to do with your joints, bo

Physiotherapy helps to restore movement and function when someone is affected by injury, illness or disability. It can also help to reduce your risk of injury or illness in the future. It takes a holistic approach that involves the patient directly in their own care. A picture paints a thousand words so instead of words I thought that I would share some recent photos of some of our Chartered Physiotherapists in action A range of Hands-on and Hands-off approaches are used at t

ARTHRITIS is a painful chronic condition that affects millions of people in the UK. Working from home has resulted in more people experiencing chronic pain. Express.co.uk talked to Physiotherapist Sammy Margo, to find out how you can reduce your chances of developing the condition. “Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin” A phrase out of time, specifically out of the BBC Radio programme ‘Listen with Mother’, a radio show for pre-school children first broadcast in Januar

Back pain is on the increase and as Chartered Physiotherapists we are always looking at ways to treat and advise. Covid has meant that more of us are working from home and this has had a huge impact on the increase It is important to consider all pain in a ‘biopsychosocial framework’. This means there will be biological, psychological and social factors that can influence each other, and the level of pain. A biopsychosocial framework of pain: Cardiovascular fitness (healthy

Five of the best post-fall and post-operation aids If you’ve had a fall or injured a limb, you might need some help managing day-to-day activities. We asked Sammy Margo, a physiotherapist based in London, for the best gadgets to help make life easier. Height-adjustable strolley kitchen trolley £69.95, aids4mobility.co.uk EXPERT VERDICT: This trolley on wheels has clip-on trays and is a great device to help you regain confidence walking around your home after a fall. You can a

The lasting impact of the pandemic shutdown We seem to have lost our footing slightly during lockdown, with physiotherapists seeing an increase in falls in older adults. ‘During lockdown, many of my clients were only walking about a third of the amount they used to,’ says Sammy Margo, a physiotherapist based in London. ‘Reduced activity leads to muscle weakening that causes instability, particularly in older adults,’ she explains. ‘But I also think that the pandemic has desta

It’s never too late to improve your balance and reduce your chances of a trip. Here are some tips to avoid falling in the Keep moving If...

Smartphones have become our most prized possessions, holding our contacts, music, banking and our all-important social media accounts. Now, all those hours of swiping, scrolling, typing and flicking across the screen are taking their toll on users’ hands, giving rise to cases of ‘scroller thumb’. Also called ‘smartphone thumb’ or ‘text thumb’, symptoms include pain, numbness and stiffness as the tendons become inflamed – a condition called tendonitis. And it’s on the rise as