Preventing Injuries and Assisting Performance
As Physiotherapists, we see teenagers here in the clinic every day with all sorts of aches, pains and niggles. It’s quite scary to think that by the time some of these teenagers turn 20, they could have already put up with 5 years or more of persistent neck, back or knee pain. Most of us associate chronic or persistent pain with adults, but our children are just as susceptible.
Most of the aches, pains and niggles we see can be attributed to the extremes of the activity spectrum. We either have teenagers getting aches from doing too little movement, either sitting and studying for long hours or overdoing it playing computer games to the other extreme where our teenagers are doing more hours than professional sports people training or playing their chosen sports. Underuse and overuse injuries can both lead to tight muscles; inefficient muscles; painful muscles and painful joints. All this can impact performance – whether it be competing in a gymnastics competition. football carnival or focusing and concentrating during school exams.
There have been multiple studies done in the pre-professional sporting scene highlighting the importance of conditioning, strengthening and cross-training in our young athletes to help them prevent injuries and assist in performance. Netball Australia has the KNEE Program; Ballet & Dance has the Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT) and the 11+ Dance programs; Soccer has the FIFA 11+ program and the list goes on. The aim of all these programs and of general conditioning and strengthening programs for our teenagers is to ensure they take an holistic approach to training or studying, are monitored for any muscular issues as they arise, that they are maintaining adequate muscle control for their desired activities and hopefully reducing the likelihood of injuries that lead to time out of their activities.
Our Teen Clinical Physiotherapy class is designed to offer our teenagers a safe and fun way to work on their activity specific conditioning under the supervision of our Pilates trained Physiotherapists. Your child will require a one on one session with a Physiotherapist before they can attend their first class, then a tailored, goal orientated exercise program is devised that will be delivered in a small group session led by one of our Pilates trained Physiotherapists.
This class is suited to kids/teens aged between 10 – 16yrs (approx), will run on Wednesdays from 3.45pm to 4.30pm and the first class starts on Wed 12th February. Bookings are essential.
Please call the clinic on 38691099 for more information or to book!
