Heel Pain: Don't let Sever's stop you playing sport

It's now officially winter sports season, with every code competing last weekend, and with it there's been a spike of kids complaining of sore heels. As well as a lot of kids complaining of sore heels, there's almost as many accurate sideline diagnoses of Sever's disease, the reason being that it's relatively common. 

The literature suggests that up to 15% of active 10-12 year old will experience one or two sore heels during the sporting season, more commonly at the beginning of the season, and in boys more than girls. This age range isn't absolute and can effect boys between 7 and 15 years and girls between 9 and 13 years.

Sever's disease is a term that describes inflammation of the growth plate in the calcaneus (heel), which is a cartilage plate attaching at the top to the Achilles tendon. This growth plate becomes relatively more irritable during growth spurts and when running load has dramatically increased (like the beginning of winter sports season).

The good news however is that it's not all bad news, and that Sever's is not something kids just have to grow out of (which they eventually do when they stop growing). There are a number of known risk factors for Sever's disease; tight calves, weak calves and biomechanics that increase the torsional (twisting) forces through the heel. 

A thorough assessment can help determine your child's modifiable risk factors, develop an exercise program specific to their needs and fit custom-moulded orthotics if needed.

Kinetic Sports Physiotherapy is moving to 209 Hunter Street, and are happy to announce the expansion of our Clinical Pilates studio in Newcastle.

Kate Antcliff, Physiotherapist, is the most highly qualified Clinical Pilates clinician in Newcastle having completed her Level 4 DMA accreditation in 2016.

In our new clinic, Kate is offering more classes and the larger space allows for exciting new equipment.

For more information on Clinical Pilates in Newcastle at Kinetic Sports Physiotherapy, please call us on (02) 49292323 or email admin@kineticsportsphysio.com.au

CLINICAL PILATES: THE SUPERIOR PILATES- INDIVIDUALISED CORE STRENGTH & MOTOR CONTROL

Clinical Pilates is recognized by health professionals as one of the best forms of exercising to improve functional movement, optimizing how your body moves and the management of injuries and pain. It is also an ideal exercise method pre and post-natal.

Clinical Pilates improves posture, core control, flexibility, agility as well as combat ongoing injuries and pain.

It's pre-season training time and trial games are just around the corner.

Hamstring strain injuries are the most prevalent muscle injury in running sports, and the more time you spend sprinting the more likely you are to injure your hamstring. They generally keep you out of action for 4-6 weeks and if the tendon is involved, even longer. To make matters worse, once you've torn your hamstring, the odds are that you'll do it again. Age doesn't help either......

There is good news however! The research world is in agreement that Nordic Curls fix hamstrings (those of you that know about Nordic Curls will be already shaking at the thought of them). In fact, Nordic Curls can reduce your risk of tearing your hamstring by 70% and your risk of reinjury by 85% ! That sort of effectiveness is massive for an exercise that is easy to perform.

So, back to pre-season training. Do you know whether you're going to tear you hamstring next season? At Kinetic Sports Physiotherapy we are able to measure your risk using the Nordbord (check it out at www.valdperformance.com, it's pretty cool). The Nordbord hamstring testing system measures your hamstring strength and gives data about each leg in real time. From this we can analyse your risk profile, prescribe an injury prevention program and accurately re-assess your strength over time.

We are the only physiotherapy clinic in Newcastle with this technology. If you feel that you could benefit from testing or know someone that would, send us an email or give us a call!