Whiplash 101
What is Whiplash? Whiplash is a sudden acceleration-deceleration of the head, most often during a motor vehicle accident, can cause injury and strain neck muscles and surrounding soft tissues. This type of injury is commonly referred to as whiplash. In such an event, the neck and head are suddenly forced backward and then forward, putting […]
Diaphragmatic Breathing: Take a Deep Breath
Take a deep breath…. When you inhaled did your belly inflate? If so, great! You were breathing through your diaphragm. If not, you are among the many and all too common chest breathers. Throughout our lives many of us start using our chest to breathe. Stress, poor posture, excess weight and many other reasons, encourage […]
To Ice or Heat? That is the Question
Therapists are frequently asked whether one should be applying ice or heat to an injury. My answer is “it depends”. Here are some simple guidelines to determine if you should be applying ice or heat: Acute injuries (occurring in the past 48 hours) should be iced. Chronic or longstanding conditions are more complicated since they […]
What do you do (as a massage therapist) to prevent injuring yourself?
Honing technique – As an RMT, it helps to pay attention to your workload in relation to your schedule. Hopefully, at the end of the day, you are not working so much or so hard as to injure yourself. A common example I see with RMTs, are thumb injuries. If injuries are common, then using […]
New Clinic, New Team Members
We’re happy to announce that our Wesbrook Village Clinic is now officially open! Located right in Wesbrook Village, close to the Wesbrook Community Centre and right above the Shopper’s Drug Mart we’re excited to become a part of the community and offer our services to UBC and the surrounding areas. In addition to our new […]
Dealing With Anxiety
Unfortunately, such a common word now and we hear it all the time. At least I do, as a mother I hear it at my kids school, as a therapist I hear it at work. Stress, nervousness, fear, worry – all common emotions and anxiety is too a primal emotion. It drives us and keeps […]
Perfect Posture, a Myth?
I know it sounds contradictory coming from a physiotherapist who repeatedly nags you about your posture and probably assessed your posture on your first visit but I can explain. First, let’s start with a definition of posture. Posture is the static alignment of the total body at a given moment where each body part or […]
5 Common Sources of Knee Pain
I’m sure that many of you have heard of various knee dysfunctions from patella femoral pain syndrome, IT band friction syndrome,and patellar tendonitis to name a few. What many people don’t know however, is that the cause of knee pain almost always is coming from dysfunctions in other parts of the body. In today’s blog […]
Does pain = injury?
So you just woke up and your neck was hurting for some reason. You go to see your favorite therapist or doctor for some relief. You are in pain and not happy about it. Your practitioner treats you and advises you to move your neck around every so often even if it hurts. Wait a […]
Running Principles
A slew of running injuries have been arriving at the clinic recently and I have found myself educating clients on efficient running mechanics. So, I thought it would be a good time to revisit a blog on running. Is there an optimal running technique? Should we all run the same way considering there are vast […]