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

Lumbar Posture and Muscles

The abdominal and back muscles are affected in three main ways by changes in the posture of the spine: how long the muscles are; what angle they pull against the spine; how powerful they can be due to their changing leverage. Muscle length is important is the application of power and they develop most tension when they are stretches to about 10% above their normal resting length. If the muscle is shortened by contraction then the available strength of contraction is reduced. The fibrous elements in a muscle have their tension increased a lot by stretching, storing energy which can be released as part of enhanced contraction.

In normal standing the back muscles are shortened slightly so they develop more power when the spine is flexed, i.e. bent over to some degree. This means it may be best to bend the back somewhat to lift a heavy weight as this allows increased muscle power to be generated. Stretching of the passive fibrous structures and back muscles whilst lifting can be coupled with a lack of high tension forces on the ligaments and discs by flexing the spine at the time to most of its range.

Frozen Shoulder

Frozen shoulder is a troublesome and enigmatic condition which affects mostly middle aged people and causes significant pain and disability. As our shoulders age they become more vulnerable to injury or damage and in some cases this develops into the pain condition known as frozen shoulder. A sudden movement or small tweak of the shoulder may result in the area becoming more and more painful until the pain is very severe and interrupting sleep. This is the pain stage of frozen shoulder which is followed by the painful and stiff phase where the pain eases to some extent and the shoulder becomes restricted in movement.

Later in the process the pain recedes and the shoulder remains with just the joint stiffness so the person cannot lift their arm up far. The process may take two years or so to go through and the person may not regain their full shoulder movement. In the painful period physiotherapy is aimed at relieving the pain by gentle mobilisations and exercise and progressed to working at the joint stiffness as the pain recedes. Later physiotherapy involves stronger mobilisation techniques and stretching to ease out the strong soft tissue restrictions which have developed.