EquiPhysio - Alison Barr, MPT

09/18/2020

Hey everyone! I'm taking a step back from Facebook, which is why this page hasn't had updates in a long time. But feel free to continue to message me, and of course book in to see me at the clinic. I'm always happy to hear from you!

01/01/2020

A great post! The "healing times" portion I'm less sold on, but the general info is great!

🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️ “Most injuries occur from doing too much too fast after doing too little for too long.”
Thanks for the great quote.

🤔 Tis the season - gym memberships go through the roof, the lycra gets dusted off, the rowing machine stops being a clothes horse, people start pounding the streets........ 🏃‍♀️🏋️🚴‍♀️🤸

🙈 And then in the next few weeks the physio clinic waiting lists go up as all the injuries occur!! 🤕

So here’s my advice:

➡️ If you are new to exercise build up slowly.

➡️ Find an exercise programme you like, you are much more likely to stick to it.

➡️ If you have an injury you are recovering from seek physiotherapy advice before starting a new exercise regime.

➡️ If you are short on time but want to improve your fitness and strength, use resistance training.

➡️ If you want to lose weight you MUST reduce your calorie intake as well as doing exercise.

➡️ It’s never too late to start exercising - I have clients using the bungi from 13 years old up to 80 years old.

Want to do exercise to improve your riding?

✅ The Activate Your Seat exercise programmes are specific, targeted exercises designed by a specialist physiotherapist for horse riders.

✅ Using the resistance of the bungi we target all the muscles of the seat improving your strength, suppleness and balance in the saddle.

✅ Portable and practical - the bungi secures into any door frame so you can do your exercises at home, at the yard, at shows, anywhere, and all year, not just January 😉

🌟 To purchase your bungi and receive a link and password to the online exercise video head to www.activateyourseat.com 🌟

12/29/2019

💥 DOMS - Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness 💥

So in a bid to combat my laziness and my cheese addiction over Christmas, two days ago I did two sets of level 1 Activate Your Seat in the bungi, followed by three sets of level 2. Yesterday I had an amazing but tough flatwork lesson and today I’m feeling it in my abs and glutes!!

So what is DOMS??

➡️ Delayed onset muscle soreness is the muscle stiffness and pain you feel 24 and 48 hours after doing higher intensity exercise than your body has been used to.

➡️ It’s not a bad thing. It usually means you’ve done something right and that your fitness and strength journey is progressing.

➡️ We used to think it was a lactic acid build up in the muscles but we now know that is a myth.

✅ DOMS is actually due to micro tears and inflammation in muscles that have been overworked. It usually peaks up to 48 hours as blood cells rush to the inflamed area to heal the micro tears.

✅ The whole idea of resistance training is to create these micro tears in the main muscle groups so that they recover stronger and firmer and able to produce more power.

🤔 How can we aid recovery??

➡️ Static stretching has been shown to be of no use to aid DOMS.

➡️ Gentle exercise such as swimming or walking or yoga is of much more use.

➡️ Some people swear by Epsom salt baths whilst top athletes often use ice baths post exercise 🥶

➡️ Usually after 48 hours your body has sorted itself out and is ready to go again 💪

Anyone else working off the Christmas cheese yet???

10/30/2019

This is so true! Bad MRI or xray results can be really scary, but are not the whole picture. Getting assessed by a registered physiotherapist can help you get a better understanding of your findings and what improvements you may be able to get :)

10/29/2019

Such a great summary of the basics on back pain!

💥💥 RIDER BACK PAIN WEEK 💥💥

This week we’re talking all things back pain in riders. This is the first in a series of posts. Tonight is an overview of back pain facts 😊

✅ Back pain is common and normal

80% of people will experience an episode of back pain at some stage in their lives. Back pain is like getting tired or feeling sad, it’s not great when it happens but it does happen to almost everyone.

✅ Most episodes of back pain improve quickly

That’s the good news. Most episodes of back pain are as a result of simple sprains and strains and the prognosis is excellent. Most people will make a full recovery within a few weeks and almost 85% of people will be fully recovered within three months. Only a small percentage go on to have long term, disabling conditions.

✅ Pain does NOT reflect tissue damage

All the recent research evidence shows us that pain does not reflect tissue damage but is a complex and highly sophisticated protective mechanism. Pain is actually an output of our brain. Our bodies contain specialised nerves which detect changes in temperature, chemical balance or pressure. These danger detectors send alerts to the brain but they cannot send pain signals, only the brain can do that.

✅ Pain is all about protection

Pain is as a result of our brains evaluating information, including the danger data from this specialised detection system, our expectations, previous pain exposure, our beliefs, as well as our cultural and social norms. Our brains correlate all this information and come up with a “best guess” scenario based on this information. So, as Lorimer Mosley a leading pain scientist says, pain depends on how much danger your brain THINKS you are in not how much danger you are actually in. Anything that suggests you need protecting brings pain up and anything that suggests you don’t brings pain down.

✅ Pain and tissue state are poorly correlated

You can have major pain without major tissue damage. Think of when you have cut your finger or sprained your ankle - these things stop hurting WAY before the tissue is back to normal physically.

✅ We are amazingly adaptable

The longer we have pain, the longer our nervous and immune systems learn to make pain. But we can retrain the nervous system.

✅ Movement is key

Movement gradually suppresses the pain system. Exercise has been shown to be THE best modality in the treatment of acute and chronic back pain. Studies have shown long term benefit in a wide variety of exercise, including resistance training. No one exercise type has been shown to be better than another so find what you like and can tolerate, and build up as you can.

10/24/2019

I'm trying to gauge the interest in in-clinic education sessions for equestrians! They would be free, for groups of 6-8 people, approximately 1.5 hours on an evening, held at Eclipse Physiotherapy. Is this something you would want to attend? What subjects would interest you the most? Core, stretching, strength training?

Our goal is to provide​ the highest level of physiotherapy services to all members of the community. We utilize treatments supported by current evidence based research. We believe in approaching treatment with strong emphasis on manual and manipulative therapy combined with exercise and education....

10/23/2019

This is generally how I do massage ball releases, and a lovely explanation of how to sue them!

Using a tennis ball for self massage (or self myofascial release as it’s known) is an amazingly effective and cheap way to release knots and tension within the body. Simply trap the ball between your body and something else… like the floor or a wall. This can be used on any part of the body that you are feeling tightness.

Ok so this is the ‘fun’ part… you are looking for the painful spots. Yes I said painful. But what I actually mean is those spots that are uncomfortable when you press on them. You’ll know when you find them. *

When you find a spot, hold the ball in place with sustained pressure (or alternatively you can ‘milk’ the area by moving a couple of mm over the area).

Put enough pressure on so that you are reaching around a 7-8/10 on the discomfort scale. Breathe. Relax into the ball. Let your muscles release. Drop your shoulders.

Hold until the discomfort reduces to around 2-3/10. This sometimes takes around 2-3 minutes. If it still hasn’t dropped after this time come off and try a different spot. **

Listen to your body and stop if anything feels “not right.” It should feel like a ‘good’ pain. Again, you’ll know what I mean when you hit the right spots ;-)

* If you’re not sure if you have or not, chances are you haven’t!

**Use the 10 second rule….if the pain INCREASES after 10 seconds and you haven’t increased the pressure then this could be more of an acute injury to the tissues. This doesn’t need massage. It needs time to heal.

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For videos on how to move freely, be sure to subscribe to my channel here on Youtube: https://goo.gl/gXNqWR

For blog posts and articles, head over to my website: https://goo.gl/gXNqWR

10/08/2019

A fun challenge, and a good warm up for no stirrup November!

🌟RIDER CHALLENGE🌟⁠
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“SIT FOR TWO, RISE FOR TWO”⁠
📌To improve your coordination, balance, leg stability, and rhythm in the rising trot try sitting for two beats, and rising for two beats during the trot (instead of rising/sitting with every beat). ⁠
👉🏻How controlled are you in your descent from rising? ⁠
👉🏻Do you rely on your reins for balance? ⁠
👉🏻Can you keep your leg still when you go from rising to sitting and vice versa? ⁠
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🏇🏻🏋🏼‍♀️⚙️EQUESTRIAN BIOMECHANICS ⁠
www.equestrianbiomechanics.info⁠
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08/29/2019

Long-time Dressage Today contributor Susanne von Dietze takes us through an unmounted session where she describes the use of the rider’s seat and leads auditors...

06/01/2019

This is so true!