junes news letter

Newsletter June 2012
Well, this month is going to be one of those that a few of you will be pleased to see the end of, with so many of you with youngsters taking GCSE etc, but never mind the summer will be upon us in no time and all thoughts of not completing those last few papers will be a distant memory. Very soon the Olympics will be upon us with wall to wall television and the problems of getting down to London in time to get our seats for the great spectacle. I, myself, will be getting ready to do my best, though I have to admit, it has been a little hard going getting the information but I think I have it in the bag now.  I promise that next year I will not give you so much trouble and I think Lyn has been through a rough time as well, never knowing what's about to happen.

The studio
has been a little quite for the last two weeks with so many bank holidays. No one seems to be able to arrange their lives around holiday weekends and school term breaks, but it should now settle down with a nice gentle plod until the long summer holidays, talking of which Adam and Joe have gone to Cyprus to get away from all the parties in London.  John and David seem to be taking the children on a camping holiday in Southwold; I think Ruby might be ready to give John the run around. Wednesday morning has turned into very interesting classes; Annie was on form and is getting ready for more of her art courses in India. Maryann also has a course starting up with Draw East and Annabel is also getting ready for the “tarts “next production at Maryann’s home, I will make time this year for it.  Phil has moved and Scilla has been in the studio, which is always great fun, she always has me thinking outside the box with some great papers to follow up on.  Chris and John have been making bee hives, I think the bees have been a little hard work and they are expecting the bee breeder to come and inspect the hive and the house on a regular basis.

Dance East
has been full on as well.  I have never seen the classes so busy. Not so many problems but a really good mix of clients to work with, but the class that has given me loads of fun has been the last one on a Tuesday.  Annie seems to be setting out the challenges. I have not seen Chris since the Wattisham triathlon, but I hope to find out more when he gets back to normal.  Mat has joined the later class and I think he is finding it a little challenging.

Woodbridge school
This term I have spent a lot of time dealing with youngsters who seem to have spent most of the holiday standing in growth hormone.  They all seem to have grown more than just an inch or two, even Will, so I have been left with exercises that might deal with this problem, so loads of stretches.


The council office
We have one more in the class at Hadleigh road.  Carl, I think has been enjoying some of the little banter in this group.  Everyone at Grafton house has been travelling around the world working!

This month stars
This month has been a lot of fun for loads of you.  David and Sandra have been performing well over the last few weeks and have had a win or two.  Very well done Aaron ,5 gold medals [4x100m freestyle and IM relay, 100m free, 50m free, 100m breaststroke and 4th 50m breaststroke 100 and 50] and now ranks 10th in the UK for his age.
Troy and Aaron have both been awarded a sports award !!!!
Julia from the Ipswich and Suffolk club won a gold medal at Chelsea for her flower arrangement and Jackie had a dinner for a young weightlifter in the Para Olympics, they collected £3000 towards her training.

This month I have decided to write about the shoulder, but I felt it would be better to break it down into sections over the next few months. So I felt it would be an idea to write about the shoulder blade and the reasons for it being so important whilst doing your exercises.

The scapula is an inverted triangle known as the shoulder blade, the bone has three hollows, these make a hollow on the front of the scapula and two either side of the spine of the scapula; the spine follows a line across the blade to the top angle towards the shoulder, the two hollows at the back of the scapula are above and below the spine of the shoulder blade, the top hollow being smaller than the bottom hollow. The scapula has a lip on the outer surface the indentations allowing the muscles to attach to the bone. The spine of the scapula is to the rear of the shoulder blade.

These bones give the impression of just floating in the middle of the back, and yes, we have two, one either side of the spine, far from just performing an aesthetic role, they perform an interesting role in bringing control to the arms, shoulder and spine and require 18 muscles to hold them in place. If you follow the spine of the scapula it forms a processor that joins up with the clavicle, below this processor it forms a small cup that connects to the humerus corner at the top of the arm forming the shoulder joint.
The shoulder blade often shows the signs of a problem before any other part of the body.
 How many times have you been told or you have told some youngster to stand up straight or even sit up?
 What happens as the lower back tightens up the shoulders take up the tension, which can be caused by any one of the muscles that hold the scapula in place to tighten up, not unlike that of a guy ropes on a tent, and so disrupting the movements of the whole body during our daily routine.

 So when working with you I often work with the shoulder first as this will help to reduce any tension around the shoulders and thoracic area of the body and so improve the mobility of the upper body and so help a productive session when dealing with other areas that might be under stress.

For instance, if the lower back is under tension often the neck and shoulders roll forwards to take up some of the irritation and tighten up the muscles supports the spine. I often find it unproductive to try to loosen the lower back when the shoulders are causing a problem and therefore the shoulders are unable to allow the back to relax.

may news letter

    A couple of things of interest have come up this month; one was a research paper Scilla showed me that tallied up with some information from the dance world, looking at dance injuries. I have found this interesting as it looked at the types of injuries young dancers suffered from and also at the different ways they managed the problems; one of the things that came to mind was that the youngsters suffered from their injuries at different rates throughout the year and that the winter months showed a marked change in the dancers rate of injuries, and that March was the worst month of the year. Much the same happens around the studio and at my mat classes, but I think for different reasons, as my clients seem to start to injure themselves as they wake the garden up by working on it, which we talked about last month.  The change in the weather also plays a large part in our behaviour, and [yes, I will sound like my mother] not dressing for the cold weather, as I have done it myself.

The studio news

Tuesday morning sessions have been running me round the trees a little, but by now I am used to that. Annie is enjoying the twins as well as Liz, Penny is back out on the golf course,John, on Monday is also taking a ball for a walk around. Adam and Joe are back in harness but are trying to get me to go to Ayia Napa Cyprus. I think these strapping young men have an idea that I need some help training in the bar, I think not!! But I have been around a bit and I spent a lot of time in Cyprus getting into trouble, but it was fun.

Dance east

Are all back after the Easter break everyone is trying to lose all the Easter eggs, which were eaten over the last two weeks.It's amazing how much we can eat during such a short break.

Council officers

Everyone is having fun, the Tuesday session has increased by one more; a young footballer who found the first session a little challenging, his stomach muscles hurt for a few days, but never mind he will get over it. The Friday’s class have all been travelling around the world.

Woodbridge

Should start this week, I have not seen them since the Easter break, looks like most of them will have been working hard catching up with studying, as they will be starting their exams soon.

Ipswich Cardinals

Are back to playing games instead of practice, the results do not look good but the team have been playing in the top league this season, so the results have not been good so far. Ithink they will look better by the end of the season. The last game gave me shoulder, knees and back problems to deal with.

Stars for the month

Well, Richard has completed the London Marathon in a very good time, well done.
David and Sandra are back on form, dancing back into first position and looking good for the rest of the season, as neck and shoulders are doing what we need them to do now,brilliant.
Shane has been on the radio over the last few weeks and is training hard, getting ready for a new season.
Gemma is doing well in London and hopes to be on television soon in the show, great news. You can look on her web site gogogo.
Maryann is not only doing well with her courses for Draw East but is going great guns getting ready for the “Tarts” next performance.

Thought for the month

The issue many of you seem to have developed recently is with the sciatic nerve, this has caused you some discomfort or even a lot of pain travelling down the leg towards the foot.

So let's look at the nerve itself , the sciatic nerve is a large nerve that travels posterially (to the rear of the leg) it is the largest nerve in the body, as it travels down the back of the leg and just before the knee the nerve splits into two sections, one part will travel behind the knee and the second will start to wrap itself around  the top of the femur and then breaks down in to two sections; one travels down the front of the leg, the other travels on the outside of the calf and travels down to the foot and splits into smaller nerves serving the muscles on top of the foot. The nerve that travelled to the rear of the leg continues down the back of the leg to the foot and breaks down into a series of smaller nerves that controls the muscles of the foot. The nerves job is to control and maintain the movement of the muscles of the body.

The issues pertaining to sciatica vary depending upon the severity of the condition, so a minor incident would cause discomfort around the pelvis area, radiating down the leg a short way, and can move into the foot causing a great deal more pain and discomfort. Problems other than pain around the pelvis and leg is a possible change to the patients gait and so causing a problem with the lumber area of the back, also a reduced mobility in and around the foot which would aggravate the lower back even further, increasing the amount of discomfort with the sciatica.

What can we do? Well, one of the first things to do is to reduce the inflammation in the area of the pelvis. This can be done by taking an anti-inflammatory that your doctor or pharmacist might suggest, to prevent any further tension in the area.
For exercises I like to take any tension from the lower back by doing pelvic tilts and lifts, this helps to relax the lower back and encourage a better body position.
I like to add hamstring stretches and most importantly a piriformis stretch, this can be done by bringing the leg into a table top position and drawing the knee across to the opposite side of the body. So, lay on the floor on your back, bring the left knee into a table top position, take hold of the knee with the right hand and draw the knee across to the right side and hold for five breaths and release. If this is too much, leave alone and take some advice from your doctor, never force a stretch whilst in pain.
For the foot, a massage, or sometimes, I like to use a small ball and roll my foot over it to take any tension out of the foot.

Other effective ways of dealing with this are Massage or Acupuncture, both can have a great effect on the problem, but what you must not do is just leave it as it may well become a much greater problem and will require a lot more time to heal and settle down