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

Simple Neck and Shoulder Girdle Exercises

Slow performance of the exercises is important, taking up to five seconds to get to the end of each individual direction of movement. The neck should be moved in each of the standard directions which are: turning the head left and right; side flexing left and right (ear down to same shoulder with face facing forward); bending head forward and back; tucking the head in (a bit like a chicken). It is important to do each movement separately so the maximum range is obtained as the ends of the movement are where the value is in exercising.

Shoulder movements are useful as they may be stiff or the shoulder girdle may not be moving well, and shoulder movements stress the neck to some extent. Shrugging shoulders and rolling them backwards are an example of this movements as are circling of the arms either backwards or forwards. Once the movements are easy then some auto-resisted neck strengthening can be performed with the neck being held in place as one of the hands tries to push it out of position. Holding this for about ten seconds forces the muscles to work hard to maintain the neck position.

Calf Muscle Tears

The calf muscles are large and powerful muscles in the lower leg, the main ones being named the gastrocnemius and soleus. These muscles push the body weight along in gait and help us run, exerting very high forces in the process. If the forces exerted by someone in a powerful activity exceed the ability of the calf muscle to cope then an muscle tear results. A tear of the calf muscle occurs very suddenly and is extremely painful, with swelling developing very quickly. The person is unable to put their heel down as it is much too painful to stretch the calf that way and they often walk on tiptoe if they can weight beat at all.

Physiotherapy treatment initially aims at reducing the pain and swelling with ice, compression and the provision of walking aids to reduce the stresses through the calf. Analgesics are also useful and once the pain has reduced then active movement of the foot in a downwards direction can start contracting the muscles again. Once the foot can be placed flat on the floor then normal gait can be encouraged with a heel raise in the shoe to prevent stretching. Muscle strengthening can then be prescribed by the physio as rehabilitation proceeds.