Recovering From Injury : How long does it really take?

“How long will it take to heal?” is a question that we, alongside every other health practitioner, hear many times a day when diagnosing a condition or talking to patients about their recovery. And rightly so – It’s important that you know what you can expect and be able to plan the following weeks or months around your recovery.

Unfortunately, overly-optimistic perceived recovery times is a common trend we’ve noticed over the last years and after some research can conclude that this seems to be the case across numerous healthcare disciplines, injuries and procedures. Because recovering slower than perceived can have a significant negative impact on a person’s mental, emotional and physical health, we thought we’d talk about WHY these variances in recovery can occur and what you can expect from us here at Sole Motion Podiatry.

 WHY ARE THERE LARGE DISCREPANCIES IN RECOVERING FROM THE SAME INJURY?

It all begins with being able to receive so much information from so many sources about recovery. With so many statistics on-hand at the touch of a screen, we are constantly being surrounded with this information (if we look for it) without considering whether it is specific to us and our personal circumstances.

If you look for it online, you’ll undoubtedly find someone that recovered from their tendinopathy or muscle strain in just two weeks, as opposed to the recommended 6-8 weeks. For patients, this can plant the seed for a very optimistic recovery time.

The truth is that just because you and the person next to you both have ‘plantar fasciitis’ or ‘achilles tendinopathy’, does not mean your injury is the same or that you will experience the same recovery process. That blanket term for your injury provides no detail on:

• The extent of the damage to your tendon, muscle, joint or ligament
• If a tear is present, and if so, how big the tear is
• Whether the injury is an acute one-off injury or it has been building up and weakening over many months
• What bio-mechanical, physical and other factors are contributing to the development of your injury (and contributing to its progression and future recurrence)
• Your muscle strength, previous injuries, the composition of tissues and bones that will affect your recovery process
• Your overall health and body’s ability to efficiently heal and repair
• Anatomical and biomechanical variances that may slow down or speed up your recovery

And the list can go on. The reality is that you are unique, your injury is unique, and while we can give you a general idea of a recovery time, your personal recovery process will be unique, and you can’t compare yourself to anyone else – especially people you know nothing about online other than that they have an injury in a similar area to you. This is also why estimated recovery periods can be so broad (much to the patient’s displeasure), such as saying approximately 12 – 16 weeks.

IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT YOUR CHOSEN TREATMENT

While different treatment options may also present significant variances in recovery time, there’s also a lot more to the story. When two patients undergo the same treatment for their injuries, even though their injuries may have differing levels of seriousness and differing causes, they will also approach their treatment differently. You will differ in:

• How much time you are spending resting the foot
• The measures you take to offload your injury
• The time spent icing, protecting, compressing and elevating the foot
• The daily adherence to strengthening, stretching and physical therapy exercises
• How closely you adhere to each component of your treatment plan
• How quickly you return to physical activity

The way you approach the above will result in varying recovery times, even if all the other factors were relatively similar. While we provide you with all the information and treatment modalities you need for optimal recovery, it is your actions that will impact how effectively and efficiently your recovery goes.

This is why it’s always important to follow the advice of your health practitioner carefully, and listen to their estimation of your recovery time, which will take into consideration your personal circumstances.

REMEMBER

To recover from pain is relatively quick and easy, but to recover from injury and get your muscles and tissues back to their full functioning capacity takes MUCH longer.

For more information on how to maximise your recovery and get back to your best, give our fantastic Podiatry Specialists a call on 1300-FX-FEET. We are not only experts in the field of sports medicine, but are equipped with leading technology, such as the THOR laser, to speed up the repair and recovery of various musculoskeletal injuries and tendinopathies.

Pilates & Podiatry: How Pilates can help your feet!

Every day the team here at Sole Motion Podiatry have the privilege of helping patients with pain and injury in their feet and legs. Almost always, part of the treatment and prevention strategy will include components of stretching and strengthening. Often, it is actually weak or tight muscles that cause the problem to develop in the first place. Either way, it’s an important step.

Unfortunately, because a majority of foot problems make it difficult to walk and bear weight on the feet, it can make following a stretching and strengthening plan difficult. So today, we thought we’d focus on an activity that can help you regain your strength and flexibility while you recover from your injury: Pilates!


Pilates is great for both stretching and strengthening
It doesn’t need to be said that Pilates is great for both stretching and strengthening. Depending on the class you take, a large component of pilates typically involves static stretching – the kind that moves your joints and muscles through their full range of motion and pushes them past that to improve long-term flexibility. Pilates can also have an element of repeated movements, or dynamic stretches, which work to warm up and loosen joints. These get you ready for the day ahead and reduce the risk of injury throughout your day.


Pilates doesn’t require standing on injured feet
Pilates exercises are often done in a non-weight bearing (off your feet) or with not a great deal of pressure on your feet, so are ideal when you want to avoid pressure away from injured bones and structures. Exercises that may aggravate your injury are relatively easily adjusted to conduct the same movement but without the pressure. This means you recover faster while gaining the strength and flexibility you need.


Pilates allows you to focus in on your muscles and technique
Usually, when we carry out movements and activities, there is so much going on at the same time and we’re having input from so many senses that it can be difficult to focus in on the goal. The relaxed nature of pilates allows our brain to really hone in on the muscle or joints that we are working, and allow us to really feel any weakness or tightness present. This gives us a greater opportunity to focus on our technique and get our alignment right, so we get the most out of these exercises.


Your feet aren’t affected by shoes
Shoes have a great influence on the alignment of our feet and legs when we’re on our feet, and may make it more difficult for us to perform certain target movements. Stretching and strengthening without our shoes means we can carry out more precise movements, such as the curling of our toes and the inwards/outwards movement of our feet without being restricted by the tops of our shoes around our ankles.


Pilates is great for your whole body
As an added benefit we’ll add that while pilates is great for the feet and legs, you’re also working your whole body at the same time. When we treat your feet and legs, we always think of your whole body and the impact from your feet up. Maintaining good overall body conditioning and strength will help reduce your risk of injury in the future and will generally help you to feel better!

After years of treating foot and leg pain, we understand how difficult it can be to follow your rehab plan when you’re in pain, and we believe this is a great solution. To find out more about what strengthening and stretching exercises are best for your injury, give our expert podiatry team a call on 1300 – FIX – FEET. You’ll be able to take the exercises we prescribe to your pilates session and we can show you the most effective ways of integrating them in.

For a recommendation on a great pilates instructor in the area, we highly recommend Julie Ojeda from Pilates Nation. You can also check out her Facebook and Instagram! And while you’re there – don’t forget to have fun and say hi from us!

Justin & the team at Sole Motion Podiatry
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Podiatry Clinic Point Cook

Get Best Services Offered by Sole Motion Podiatry

We provide a complete range of podiatry services, just like inquiries related to sports such as shoe advice, custom orthotics, stretching advice or common podiatry problems like related to skin and toenails. Our clinics are established along with multi-disciplinary medical centers that offer proper analysis of your problem if it requires more than podiatric intervention.

Being premier Podiatric Clinic Point Cook, we usually deal with each aspect of Podiatry, especially in Biomechanical Assessment as well as Orthotic Prescription. We also offer professional management and advice as well for types of injuries in the foot and lower limb. We have a membership of Sports Medicine Australia, Australian Association of Podiatric Sports Medicine, Diabetes Australia and Australian Podiatry Association. As best Podiatry Clinic Point Cook, we focus to build up long-term relationships with customer and provide quality care with the latest technology available.

Services Offered by Sole Motion Podiatry

Podiatrist Point Cook offers following services for people-

• Ø  Sports podiatry
• Ø  Sports massage
• Ø  Laser podiatry
• Ø  Occupational podiatry
• Ø  Children podiatry
• Ø  Functional orthotics

Sports Podiatry- Podiatry Clinic Point Cook is specialized in the management as well as diagnosis of the lower part of legs and foot disorders along with sports injuries linked with lower limb and foot function. Podiatrist Point Cook performs a function via biomechanics assessment along with the inclusion of implementing the underpinning biomechanics for the specific sports of athletes. Sports Podiatry usually involve following things-

·         Joint Mobilisation or Taping of Sports

·         Evaluating past as well as current athletic footwear

·         Video Gait analysis for assessing lower limb functional patterns

·         Movement assessments to determine potential risk factors and reduce future injury.

·         Diagnosis of injury and formulation of a treatment management plan.

·         Assessing foot orthoses for reduction of the external forces to create injured tissues.

·         Referral systems to other Allied Health Specialists for further investigations.

There are following types of sports injury-

·         Forefoot metatarsal injuries

·         Hip, knee or shin pain

·         Achilles tendon and calf issues

·         Toe Joint symptoms/injuries

Sports Massage- The main purpose of sports massage in Podiatry Clinic Point Cook is helping alleviation of stress as well as the tension that builds up in soft tissues of the body while having physical activities. Minor injuries, as well as lesions, happens because of overexertion, massage can easily breakdown them by an effective method. It can also help to prevent irritating injuries and thus enhances performances of athletes. This treatment is not restricted to sportsperson only; sports massage can also benefit people who are in physically demanding jobs. Sports massage helps people to enhance their physical performance. It reduces the chances of occurring injuries during exercises. Sports massage also helps in the sooner recovery process after injury. It ensures complete joint movement and also increases the flexibility of muscles.

Laser Podiatry- Lower Level Laser Therapy is an application of red light over injuries for improvement of soft tissues and to heal them. It is usually used for treating a range of persistent conditions that are difficult to treat. Treatment is for all kinds of joint and muscle pains, sprains and strains that include back and neck pain and arthritis. This type of treatment has no side effects. It is because lasers are not strong enough to damage the cells. LLLT makes use of light energy for stimulating cells and helps to function optimally and thus enhances the healing process. After the photons find the injured tissue, they stimulate as well as energize the cells for its repair and strengthening at higher speed.

Occupational Podiatry- Podiatrist Point Cook truly understands the occupational health as well as safety issues and assessment of workplace injuries. Usually due to poor fat structure, knee, hip and back pain occurs that affects the posture of a person. Due to common issues such as corns, callus or nail disorders, systematic diseases usually affect the feet of the person. There may also occur functional or structural disorders. Employees, who need to spend a large period of time on their feet during work are more susceptible to foot as well as ankle injuries.  There are several kinds of professions that require a person to put pressure on their lower limbs and feet by standing, walking, kneeling or squatting. For such people, we assist to ensure regarding which shoes to wear, offer advice from where to buy the shoes and insert padding on shoes.

Children Podiatry- There are few things which are slightly more important for parents is the task of parenting that includes childcare regarding their interests, education, activities, and health. At our company, we will provide a compassionate professional service for the care of your little ones. In case, ankle or foot of your child get injured, our Podiatrists can help you in this regard. Our Podiatrists performs assessments, evaluations and diagnostic testing for determining a specific as well as accurate diagnosis for bringing out best remedy for the problem. We also work collectively for educating parents regarding diagnosis and discuss with them the treatment plan best suited for their child. Few parents think that children will attain growth because of the foot or leg problem, but in reality, they should not take a chance with the health of their child. In case your children suffer from a foot problem, early detection of the problem along with proper care and feet treatment is essential. It will prevent children from a multitude of mechanical and orthopedic issues as occurs in adults. Compromised posture, pain, and abnormal walking patterns may be the reasons to visit the clinic. Determination of exact problem is essential before it gets extended. Several children have walk pigeon-toed, tip-toeing, flat-footed etc that gives no symptoms.

Functional Orthotics- A foot orthotic is a kind of device that is used for reducing abnormal motion or abnormal position of the foot. It is also used for controlling abnormal motion or abnormal position of the lower extremity which gets affected by the position or motion of the foot. Custom functional foot orthotics is necessary for shoe inserts which can be prescribed as by Podiatrist or other kinds of health professionals. These devices are specifically designed and are worn inside the shoe for controlling the abnormal functioning of foot and benefit in painful areas of the foot. These devices can provide stability for the foot of the person and can correct the imbalances caused by injuries.