Physio Gemma, recently attended a specialist course to train in using yoga techniques as part of physiotherapy treatment. She has started integrating some yoga principles into some of her treatment programmes and her patients are benefitting greatly. Mrs A kindly agreed for Gemma to share her success story with you.
Mrs A came to see us one year after arthroscopic knee surgery – she no longer had any pain from the knee and was exercising regularly in a gym with a personal trainer. She felt the knee was strong, however she was concerned by her lack of flexibility; both the knee and hip on the same side had stiffened up considerably since her operation and didn’t seem to be improving.
When she first came to us she couldn’t fully straighten her knee, nor bend it much past 90 degrees, and her hip was similarly stiff, especially in rotational movements.
On her first session we discussed her goals – she was keen to get back to running but mostly wanted to be fit for ski season! We started with lots of hands on mobilisations to loosen up both the hip and knee joints but we wanted to find a fun way to progress her flexibility at home as, lets face it, a series of static stretches can feel like a bit of a chore……
We took her into our studio and chunk by chunk taught her a short routine of yoga poses specifically designed to improve her hip and knee flexibility, with the added bonus of being good strength and balance poses too.
We added to this over several sessions, combining hands on treatment with 1-2-1 yoga in her physio sessions until she was confident in a 10-15 minute routine that she could practice daily at home.
Mrs A said that doing yoga rather than static stretches helped her to relax, clear her mind and focus on the poses to improve her flexibility so that it has now become an enjoyable part of her daily routine.
6 weeks later she has regained full flexibility of both the knee and hip, is back to running and confidently looking forward to ski season!
A great success story! If you think you’d benefit from an integrated approach of yoga with physiotherapy, give us a call and book an appointment to see Gemma.