Physiotherapists in Braintree treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Anterior Cruciate Ligament Sprain (ACL)

The anterior cruciate ligament is one of the four major ligaments of the knee joint which stabilise the joint against inappropriate movement in all directions. The ACL crosses the joint from above to below and prevents the tibia (shin bone) from slipping forwards under the condyles of the femur or thigh bone. It is a very strong ligament and very important for knee stability in activities and sports. It is most commonly injured in non-contact situations when the person is changing direction quickly such as in cutting or side-stepping in sport but can also be injured in tackles and other interactions involving another person.

Many people who have had an ACL injury report that they heard their knee go .pop. at the time, accompanied by a severe pain and an inability to weight bear on the limb. The knee typically swells up very quickly, within minutes or hours, as it fills with blood from the injury due to the rupture of the blood vessels in the ligament. Initial treatment is to splint the knee and perhaps remove some of the blood from the joint by a needle. Due to the risk of arthritis developing, the main treatment is almost always surgical reconstruction of the ligament.

Simple Neck Exercises . Three

Whilst simple neck exercises are extremely valuable to correct postural abnormalities, lengthen shortened structures and relieve painful neck problems it is important to use the correct technique to get the best from them. Incorrect technique can make the exercises effectively useless or even worsen the problem or cause injury. There are four basic directions of neck exercises: front and back (flexion and extension); side to side (side flexion); rotation; retraction (tucking the head in a bit like a chicken does when it walks). All these movements need to be performed to put the cervical structures through their full movement.

The structures which make up the body do not respond well to fast movement or great forces applied in very short time periods. The aim with simple neck exercises is to get the joints to the extremes of their movement and give a gentle end range stretch to the anatomy. To achieve this the movement needs to be steady and slow, without jerking, and held at the end with a bit of extra effort for a few seconds. It is also useful to do just one movement at a time, the common behaviour of rotating the neck in large circles being both more likely to aggravate the joints and not getting the full movement of any of them.