Let’s be honest—January can be a tough month. It’s cold, often wet, and finances can feel stretched after the festive season. Adding an unrealistic goal, whether related to nutrition or not, can make this time even more challenging. By the end of January, many people find themselves feeling discouraged after struggling to meet targets that were never sustainable in the first place.

The start of 2021 has not been what we would all have hoped for. As we work our way through these first few weeks of the 3rd national lockdown, I’m reminded of why January is a poignant month for me and why I hope that my own previous experience might help those who find this current period particularly challenging.

There seems to have been so many benefits from lockdown throwing us into having to work from home. Perhaps a bit more flexibility, less time commuting and certainly recent studies have shown increased productivity. However, as a Physiotherapist I have been made aware of perhaps some less positive implications with having patients with increased postural, back and neck pain from temporary make shift work stations, reduced activity levels and reduced mental wellbeing. 

During this time of lockdown you may be experiencing more aches and pains. This can be for a number of different reasons. Perhaps due to working from home with a temporary desk set up, trying new sports and activities, increased DIY and gardening or perhaps due to holding more stress and tension in your body.

Low back pain is one of the most common problems that we treat as Physiotherapists and It may be reassuring to know that if you have low back pain, you are certainly not alone. About 80 percent of adults experience low back pain at some point in their lifetime.

During this time of lockdown you may have decided to take up running or increase the distance you are running. We’re keen to keep people active for both the mental and physical benefits especially during this challenging time. However we’re also keen to keep people injury free so they can continue doing what they enjoy. Here’s our top tips to help you stay injury free when running and if you have picked up any aches and pains, here’s some self help videos to help you manage them.

With all this beautiful weather and having more time at home at the moment, you might be spending a lot more time in the garden.

Not only is gardening a good way to switch your focus at this time, it’s also a great form of exercise as it involves so many different activities. But it can be very demanding physically which can take it’s toll on parts of your body. And as we can all relate to, time often flies when you're tackling a job, so before you know it you can also end up spending a lot of time in one position. In this article, we’ll look at the main areas which can be affected and offer some tips and exercises to help keep you injury free.

It’s often at the start of a new year that we tend to think about ourselves a bit more. We start writing those to do lists or the New Years resolutions, thinking about what positive changes we can make for our own wellbeing. Often one of our biggest challenges to make change though is ‘time’ or the lack of it! Being a Pilates Instructor and Physiotherapist, people come to me wanting to get fit but their biggest complaint is that they have not got time. They often ask me how I manage to fit it all in with having a family and running a Pilates and Physiotherapy business, so here’s my top tips for getting fit when you are short on time: 

As we start to go into the festive season and life gets busy, sometimes more aches and pains can arise. One common problem we see is shoulder pain related to overloading the muscles and tendons of the shoulder. This can be due to a change in your usual activities, whether that’s doing some crazy dance moves at your Christmas party, lifting your Christmas tree onto the roof of your car or taking the turkey out of the oven.

At Cadbury Physiotherapy we’re passionate about ensuring you have an awesome time on the slopes and stay injury free. One of our snow sport specialist Physiotherapists, Tom Cadbury shows us some great exercises to prepare for your holiday in the mountains to maximise your time on the slopes and reduce the risk of getting injured.

Have you had a baby and would like to get back to running but not sure when and where to start?

I remember after having my first baby I expected to bounce back with my running trainers on in no time but quickly realised this wasn’t going to be the case. At the time there was limited evidence or advice about when or how you should get back to running after having a baby. We’re now lucky that there’s more and more evidence based research emerging about how to go about this.