WE’RE NOT JUST ALL ABOUT SPORTS

You might come across the name MyoSports and think ‘oh I have to do sports to go there’ or ‘I
have to have a sporting injury to go there right?’ WRONG.

We pride ourselves with caring about the body in EVERYBODY!

Initially when the business was first established it was aimed at the sporting demographic in the
Melbourne and Perth city areas. Because there was so much on offer in those settings, our
brand needed to cater towards a specific market. Being a solo run business as well, there is
only so much one therapist can do 🙂

When moving back to the Sunraysia region it was eye opening to see just how many different
demographics needed help and just someone to give them a clear picture and direction when it
came to their concerns and discomforts. We started to broaden our net and let go that specific
market approach and start treating the community as a whole and instead of individual groups
and age brackets.

Fast forward 8 years and we have now established a larger team, with a larger skill set, to cater
for a vast majority of the community and its different age groups, lifestyles and working
environment.

Whilst sporting is still our bread and butter, our therapists are now equipped with the knowledge
and passion to treat groups like;

– Running groups (all fitness levels that want to give it a go)
– Pre and Post natal journeys
– Postural correction
– Workplace discomforts and concerns
– Adolescents and their growing bodies
– Retirees and those niggles from wear and tear over the years
– Pre and Post Surgery patients
– Persistent pain that is getting in the way of an enjoyable life…

Basically, whatever you are experiencing that you are proactive to get on top of, we are the
people to see that are passionate about helping you to achieve that goal.

Fascia 101

One of the most popular questions we get in the clinic is What is fascia?

Fascial tissue is a type of connective tissue, that runs from head to toe. Fascia is like the giant spider web of the body, connecting muscles groups and holding everything in place. It runs between and around muscles, organs, ligaments and tendons like an internal skin. Tendons, ligaments, bursae and the tissue that is contained within muscles, called the endomysium, perimysium, and epimysium are all considered to be made up of a similar connective tissue, in the same way.

Fascia is highly innervated (contains a lot of nerve endings) and mechanoreceptors (the receptors the brain uses to work out where the body is in space). The connective tissue that makes up this structure is aligned parallel to the direction of pull and fibres are in a wavy formation, closely packed together. This allows the fascia to be stretched out, a bit like elastic, when force or pressure is applied and then recoil once these are removed or stopped.

Fascia is like any other tissue and it can be damaged or become dysfunctional. Habitual or poor posture, trauma and inflammation are a few examples of how the tissue can end up this way.

So how can you manage your fascial tissue?

Treatment that we often call fascial release or myofascial release is one way to help restore the fascia’s normal length. This is done by focusing in on the “fascial sheets” that can be involved in particular movement or functional restrictions, which have been assessed and diagnosed. In a treatment cupping, dry needling, particular massage techniques and specific exercise prescription are some of the ways fascia can be released, to restore normal function. Some things that can be done at home to help manage the facial tissue are stretching, foam rolling and the use of a spiky ball as well as any home exercises you may have been prescribed from your therapist.

References:
https://www.anatomytrains.com/fascia/
https://www.physio-pedia.com/Fascia

Hydration Is Key

With the weather heating up, It’s important to stay hydrated. Staying hydrated means
keeping on top of your bodies fluid intake needs, particularly in sporting events. Fatigue will
result from the dehydration, leaving you tired and unable to perform at the level you desire.

Water assists in regulating your body temperature and lubricates your joints, it helps
transport nutrients to give you energy and if you’re not hydrated, your body will greatly
struggle to perform. As studies have shown, the fitter you are, you will start to sweat much
sooner and therefore the water amount you need will increase.

So it’s important to not limit your water intake just because you are fit.

Some symptoms can include-
# Increased body temperature.
# Increased heart rate.
# Fatigue/ weakness.
# Headaches.
# Muscle cramps.
# Dark coloured urine.
# Hallucinations.
# Confusion.

The amount of water you need can depend on climatic conditions, type of exercise intensity
and duration, your health so the amount of fluid needed to stay hydrate with vary from each
person.

To accurately work out how much fluid you need to consume, talk to your GP or an
accredited health expert for a fluids plan.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1390456/

Fartlek Running

Fartlek running

Fartlek running can be structed or completely random. The fartlek session is running with added surges, once you have completed the surge, your aim is to return to the previous pace you were just running at.

Such training can be excellent in races, imagine for example you are racing besides someone and you are able to suddenly increase the pace for a set period and then drop back to the pace you were just at.
After a few surges, your opponent will feel the pressure and let up, giving you control of the race.

A popular fartlek session in Australia is the mona fartlek which involves – 90seconds x2, 60seconds x4, 30seconds x4 and 15seconds x4. This session equals 20 minutes. So after warm up/down you are looking at covering up to 40 minutes of training!

You can also pick landmarks, sprint between telegraph poles or streets, the choice is completely up to you.

Some further examples-

#90seconds x10 with 90seconds recovery totaling 30 minutes.

#1minute on/off, 2minutes on/off, 3minutes on/off 4minutes on/off, 3min/on/off, 2minutes on/off, 1minute on/off totaling 32minutes.

Also you can try to remember how much distance you travelled, then try to beat that doing the same session next time. For example, the mona fartlek people try reach 5km or if your much more experienced, 5.5km+.

You can vary it however you choose, the important part is aim to be running at a decent pace for your off and then surge on top of that for the surges.

Fartlek sessions being high intensity should only be done once fortnightly to maintain the session quality. A massage the following 1 or 2 days will help your body recover quicker which will get you those big PB’s sooner!

Reach your Full Running Potential

With the success of parkrun in Mildura, Id like to give a few tips to assist you with reaching your full potential. Mixing up some of your training runs to work towards getting your personal goals is easy and can be a really fun journey. Whether your goal is to break 40 minutes or 20 minutes a few simple tips can help get you there.

Increasing weekly volume without causing injury- The main priority is to increase training load while avoiding injury. A general rule is no more than 10% weekly increase per month. So if you’re training 20km/week, every 4 weeks increase roughly 10%. This becomes very important when people are covering 100+km weekly. Another option is 3 week cycles. Being 2 weeks of hard training followed by 1 week of rest and recovery. Consistent running will equal those big rewards!

Thershold run- Thershold running is maintaining a uncomfortable pace for a set period of time or distance.

Speed work- Working on overall speed so you can hit at and above the pace you wanna run to break your pbs. Such session might include- 3x1km reps at current 5km pace. 5x200m sprints at your upper limit.

The Long run- once every week you should be aiming to include a long run. The important part here is its easy running! You don’t wanna go breaking your body covering the long run. Everyones long run will be different, some might be 30 minutes at 6min/km pace and others might be 2.5 hours at 4:30min/km pace.

Rest and maintaining yourself. Rest days are the most important part of your training! Also remember to get those massages/myotherapy to assist your body with recovery. Keeping on top of your well being is the most important part to being able to train consistently.

Winter Sports

The winter sporting season is well and truly underway here in Sunraysia- a busy time of year for many families getting to and from training, events/competitions and games.

This time of year brings another set of challenges for the people participating in sports and activities-
this being a more easily compromised immune system due to the cold weather. In
combination with the fatigue that activity can bring, this can play a huge part in someone becoming unwell or injured.

So how do we prevent these injuries and illness? The key is to ensure that you have plenty of good quality sleep, a nutrient packed diet with adequate hydration and to the pre and post-match/game/competition recovery is being performed.

This can be a challenge, as the one thing this all requires is time- but if you make the time and put in the effort, your body will thank you for it and you will notice the difference long-term.

In some more detail specifically for preventing injuries- if you are mid game and something occurs that may involve you feeling like you have injured an area, then go with your gut instinct and stop. You may not feel too sore at the time, but you can increase your chances of creating further tissue damage- which may only be minor, but that can instantly become a lot more serious if you push on and continue to participate- especially if you have injured that area before, meaning a longer recovery time and in the more serious cases, significant time away from the activity that you enjoy.

If you only have “niggles” or areas that are noticeably tight or giving you a bit of grief, do not ignore those! They too need attention- otherwise they would not be on your mind.

Ensure you perform some sort of recovery- this being some or a combination of stretching
thoroughly, using recovery tools such as foam rollers, spikey balls, tennis balls, water immersion or heat depending on your preferences, to help with managing muscle tension.

Regular treatment can also be very useful for anything that may linger beyond these
recovery techniques and help keep you moving long term. These are the more physical
methods to assist recovery- there may be other gaps such as inadequate nutrition whereby certain nutrients such as vitamins or minerals may be lacking or not enough sleep for example.

This may seem like a lot of work, but the key is to keep you performing the activities you love. At the end of the day, the science states that exercise or movement is the key to life and that prevention is far better than a cure!