sports therapy

Injuries are tough mentally

Posted on by Jenna Wheatman

Injuries are not just physical but also mentally challenging especially if they are going to take over a month to heal or they become chronic in nature. Our thoughts can become more negative, it is frustrating when you cannot do what you could easily do maybe 1 year ago or even just 1 week ago. We have to let go of our ego’s and look towards the small achievements. Here at Pro-Am we aim to try and get clients to see injuries as a time of positivity. A time to reflect on training, work and life. A time for recovery. A time to work on areas you have neglected due to time constraints and perhaps look at changes that need to be made. Many top athletes come back from injury time in better health than before the injury and perform better.

Here is link I found on instagram which I think is a great way to show you how you can change your thought process to be more positive.

Let us help you

Posted on by Jenna Wheatman
  • Resolve pain
  • Reach fitness goals
  • Get back to doing what you love

Sound good? Through our guidance here at Pro-Am you will learn to understand what your limitations are (especially whilst recovering from injury) and how you can improve your posture, pain and ultimately your confidence to move (something pain can really interfere with)

How is Pro-Am different?

We have time to listen to you and explain how you can get better. What sets us apart is the knowledge we instill in our clients that you can use to address issues that may arise, throughout your life. We show how muscles and body parts work and connect.

Current healthcare over complicates diagnosis and rehabilitation and thrives on prescribing pills. I find many clients do not want this. Here at Pro-Am we teach fun and simple exercises to get you moving and pain free.

It is important to understand at the end of the day nobody can address the root cause of your issues except you. The majority of peoples imbalances, misalignment and pain occur not from one single event but years of micro traumas, stress, poor posture/technique and genetics. There may have been one single episode you felt something go but the likely hood is, it was building for quite some time and it was just the breaking point (which is why I hear often the typical ‘I am getting old’ excuse).

At Pro-Am we help you take back control of your body and life by improving the way you move through exercise and life. When you feel good you move more because it gives you energy and freedom.

We would all like a quick fix to our problems but reality is, there isn’t. Even as a therapist my participation in the hammer throw has taken it’s toll on my body and only now in my 30’s when pain and dysfunction has affected my performance do I appreciate the need for recovery and exercises to combat the repetitive nature of my sport and life. It is so important to look beyond the training and performance specific to your sport and look after the body as a whole for life and longevity.

Our goals

  • Improve body awareness
  • Gain strength
  • Improve flexibility
  • Reduce and restore pain and injuries

When injury strikes we are here to help you understand the cause. An injury consult will involve assessing movement and dysfunction which will then guide any soft tissue work and exercises. The most important part of injury recovery is finding the right exercises and level of load to allow recovery and reduce irritation on painful structures. Follow ups are there to progress exercises at the right time, we do this by having extensive knowledge in tissue healing phases and pain science. We also guide our exercises towards the type of activities or sport you partake in.

When not injured we recommend a monthly check in to get the most benefit out of our services. Our usual maintenance session will include soft tissue treatment to specific areas which just naturally take there toll in your life. A bonus, is it makes you feel better too! Then we will go through some exercises which help you specifically move and feel better. The most important part, we give you some simple exercises to do at home which can easily slot into your routine to help maintain and give consistency (Usually 4-8 exercises to mobilise, stretch, activate and combine these 3 with a functional exercise). Plus our current clients say it gives them a great motivational boost by having regular sessions. We constantly adapt and change treatment and exercises to suit your current life stresses and we find exercise variety is the key to consistent health.

Why not have a look at our Loyalty Scheme specifically designed to reward and help keep consistency of health and wellness with individual programming https://www.proamsportsinjury.co.uk/membership-card/

What to wear for a Massage

Posted on by Jenna Wheatman

A very common question I get asked when somebody books in who is new to my services is what do I need to wear? This is a very valid and appropriate question as different therapists will have their preferences depending on the type of treatments they are trained in. Here at Pro-Am it is ultimately down to what is comfortable for YOU.

As a manual therapist we are trained to adapt our techniques to suit your needs. In the UK you should never be expected to lie on a table in the buff exposed, this is not acceptable practice, you will keep under garments on and there should always be towels provided for modesty and also warmth. Most of the time only one area will be exposed to treat, for example an arm, leg or back.

We will always explain what we are going to do as we go through the treatment so you can give consent for us to go ahead. You have control and can say No Stop at anytime.

What is best?

At Pro-Am if it is your first visit to us for an injury consult then just make sure you wear comfy clothes you can move in. Sometimes we may need to expose the area we are assessing to be able to see how it moves or look for signs of injury like swelling, redness and bruising. For example if you have a knee injury wearing shorts or having shorts to change into is helpful to the therapist. If it is for the shoulder or back then removing your top can be helpful, again to assess movement. Females will never be asked to remove their bra for any assessment purposes. If you are uncomfortable unclothing, do let us know, we can still assess your injury fully clothed. You have come to us because you are in pain and we want you to feel safe and comfortable.

Sports massage/soft tissue treatments may require you to disrobe to your under garments. We will always provide towels for you to keep covered and only the specific area we treat will be exposed, unless it is the glutes then we work always through the towel. If we want to finish with some exercises like stretching then we will ask if you want to get clothed first, as some positions can make you feel a bit exposed.

The reason we ask you to disrobe and expose the area to be treated for massage is so we can visually see what we are treating and so we can use oil/wax, this helps us use more gliding type techniques which can have a soothing effect on the body and help warm up the tissue before we go into deeper techniques, if required. A therapists hands should never work underneath clothing or towelling, the therapists hands should always be visible. For more deeper techniques, we tend not to use oil/wax and quite regularly apply through towelling, we may just expose the site to get a sighting of specific landmarks to where we need to treat.

Groin injuries are the one injury most will put off seeing a specialist for, it is a sensitive area for obvious reasons. We would never ask you to expose your genitals. Wearing shorts or big knickers/pants is ideal but we can work through trousers, it can just be harder to find our anatomy reference points to make sure we are palpating specific and appropriate structures. When dealing with males we may ask you to cup and scoop sensitive areas out the way either with your own hands or provide a towel to make sure we do not come into contact with anything we should not. No palpation should ever go below the pubic bone. If this is uncomfortable for you then we can ask and direct you on what muscles/tendons/bones/ligaments to palpate. Palpation is used to find specific pain sites but it is not compulsory for diagnosis or treatment. We will always explain what we are going to do so we can ask permission for consent to go ahead. If you find it uncomfortable, tell us and we can try another position or skip it all together. We have other techniques to use if hand position in the groin area is not right for you.

If you feel at all uncomfortable during your treatment please do let us know, as we can change and adapt our treatment approach to suit you.

So if you come to us for an injury consult or massage then we do not expect you to disrobe if it makes you feel uncomfortable. Just let us know how you feel so we can make your treatment approach specific to your needs and comfort.

If the therapist finds your behaviour inappropriate at any stage they also have the right to stop your treatment and ask you to leave.

Introduction

Posted on by Jenna Wheatman

Pro-Am Sports Injury Clinic promotes and improves total body health by quickly addressing the cause of your injury with a holistical approach, individual to each patients goals. 

Who we treat? Everyone, regardless of whether you are involved in sport or not. Our role is to assess, treat and rehabilitate your aches and pains and get you back to the activities you need and love to do. Getting you back moving is the key to getting you better.

If you are involved in sport then we can take your rehabilitation that step further and get you back into your sport, aswell as design a preventative strategy.

Not sure what a Sports Therapist is? Well our training is very similar to a physiotherapist apart from we specialise in musculoskeletal (muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints) from the start, for 3 years at university. This means we spend time learning hands on muscle testing, soft tissue treatments and functional movement assessment and exercise selection.

Whether your aim is to reduce pain, increase range of motion and mobility (to enable pain free daily living) or perhaps improve at your chosen sport, we can help.

You can find out more by scrolling through our website or if you want to find out more get in touch.

Loyalty Card Membership

Posted on by Jenna Wheatman

1 year membership is £10

What you get for joining

  • 5% discount off every session booked.
  • Every time you use our services you will gain a 10% discount sticker.
  • Build up your discount and use towards the following treatment.

For example

  • If you had 5 treatments, you will have built a 50% discount which you can claim and use towards your 6th treatment. Then you can start building your discount again.
  • You may decide to bank your discounts until you have had 10 treatments. This means you can claim a free treatment.
  • Book in every month and you turn your 5% discount into an average of 10%. Book in every 2 weeks and turn your average discount to 20%.

We will also give you 5 x 5% referral cards for your friends and family. As a Thank You we will turn one of your recieved referral cards into a 10% sticker.

Massage is not a luxury its an investment in you. Your physical and mental health.Many of us put alot of energy into our exercise, work and daily life (regardless of what our individual goals may be) but we can forget about looking after the body that helps you achieve it until pain stops us in our tracks. Massage may feel like a splurge but it’s not to put off until you have a race or dealing with a nagging issue.Regular massage can help free stiff muscles making it feel easier to move more efficiently. If you feel good, you perform better. If you book in for 40 minutes every 6 weeks you can tackle problems quickly instead of pushing through pain and compounding it. Don’t just come when you are hurting, it can end up costing more and not just in money but in your time and possibly confidence and motivation to start back again.

Exercise and Massage

Posted on by Jenna Wheatman

Professional athletes training programmes have cycles of increasing volume and intensity and then decreasing back down to aid repair and recovery. Our bodies can not be pushed continually, this is when it starts to break, combine this with massage to flush the system and they feel fresh for there next block of training. Massage is part of every professional athletes training program but we also work just as hard in our jobs/exercise/hobbies and life so why don’t more people take advantage of what massage has to offer. You get your hair cut which helps keep it in good condition, why not a massage for your muscles which help you get around?

We are all told that exercise is important for the body to stay mobile and strong and it is but sometimes our daily stresses make us feel less inclined to exercise as we feel tired and achy. During these times exercise can actually add to that stress and tip our nervous system into survival mode which can then affect our sleep, hormones and our systems can become sluggish which can lead to an increase in toxins in the body. How do you remedy this, one, you can decrease the volume and intensity of your exercise (yin yoga or yoga with twists for detox) or you can have a massage.

The effects of massage have that feel good factor exercise gives you without you having g to get a sweat on or put any effort in. I am not saying to ditch exercise but once a month having a massage to help re-charge the bodies systems, can stop the build up of toxins by helping our circulation and lymphatic system.

Just like a machine our response times can slow, things may miscommunicate and get cluttered. What do we do with a printer not wanting to print, we power down and reset it. Massage can do this for the body.

However just like exercise those first few sessions may make you feel a little heavy and sluggish as your systems needs time to adjust. Massage is more beneficial if you have one regularly. Maintainance is far easier if kept on top of than it is to ignore and then only attend to it when damaged.

Many of my clients say that there first few sessions were a little uncomfortable but then they soon quickly became really relaxing and really notice the difference when they have to delay an appointment (we have seen alot of this due to covid).

So if you find your self out of balance, not sleeping well finding exercise harder than usual maybe its time for a re-set.

A monthly massage that can re-charge your body is the best approach. Here at Pro-Am we have some great health scheme offers to help keep you committed to your health and well being. Get signed up before 20th December for a fresh start in 2022 and before our prices go up.

Special Offers for November/December. Why not give someone the gift of health.