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