We interview sports physiotherapist and martial edge contributor Dave Bryant on physiotherapies misconceptions, basic treatments and his personal philosophies. Over the next few months Dave and his team will be exploring common place and often troublesome injuries, and how you as the athlete can be proactive in your rehabilitation efforts. Martial Edge: Dave when and where did you get started in physiotherapy?
Dave Bryant: Well, I have always had an interest in the treatment of injuries, largely due to the fact that I have suffered from one or two bad ones in my sporting career. I guess becoming professionally qualified was a natural progression for me.
Martial Edge: So what is the philosophy behind your treatment?
Dave Bryant: I would say healing without machines. I am not disregarding the clinical use of machines such as ultra sound, but I am a firm believer that to treat an injury successfully you have to get to the root of the problem. To do this you need to use your fingertips and really get into the affected area.
Martial Edge: So tell me about your wide range of experiences?
Dave Bryant: I have treated a number of people from a wide range of sports. I am currently involved with Chris Beanlands Taekwondo schools ensuring that his students are taking the right steps in their preparation for the world championships. I am also involved with various sports groups in the area such as the Lancaster Rugby league club and settle harriers running club.
Martial Edge: Do you think it is important for a sports physiotherapist to actively participate in sports?
Dave Bryant: Well It certainly would help! If you are a physiotherapist that markets him/herself on sports injuries I think it is very important to have a least some participation in it. I have played semi professional martial arts, rugby and I have done a number of marathons (including two London marathons.)
Martial Edge: So you understand the punishment of a hard training regime then?
Dave Bryant: Yes absolutely, and that injuries can happen during those regimes. It is my job to ensure that I get you back on track.
Martial Edge: Ok, so someone gets an injury, what should be the first steps they should take?
Dave Bryant: My advice is to use the principle P.R.I.C.E, which stands for the following,-
*Protection
*Rest
*Ice
*Compression
*Elevation
You should be looking to Ice the affected area for 20 minutes every 2 hours. If you dont see any improvement after a few days make an appointment with a specialist and have it assessed.
Martial Edge: You mention rest, does that mean if you get injured you need to stop what you are doing?
Dave Bryant: No certainly not. I encourage active rest. I have even had clients is plaster casts before but that certainly doesn’t stop them working their body. I am a strong believer in an active rehabilitation that means you should come back stronger from an injury, something which I shall focus on in future articles
Martial Edge: An injury can be very frustrating, what is your advice on dealing with this?
Dave Bryant: Stay positive and be patient. Some people rush back from an injury and either re-injure the same muscle or something else. Treat the injury as a challenge, something that you are going to beat. Your aim is to come back to your sport stronger than you were before.
Martial Edge: There is a lot of information regarding warm ups and cool downs and how they can prevent injury. What would be your definition?
Dave Bryant: A warm up is defined as raising the body’s core temperature by 1 degree. Everyone is different in how they approach a warm up, but my advice is to be sport specific. So if your martial art involves kicking, spend five minutes executing different kicks to waist level, increasing the intensity as you do so. Like wise if your sport is grappling, and involves a lot of floor work tailor your warm up around this.I would define a cool down as lowering your core temperature slowly, therefore your intensity levels should be around 50%- 60%. Again be sport specific.
Martial Edge: Should you not include stretching in your warm up/cool down?
Dave Bryant: Stretch what though? A lot of athletes get needless injuries because their warm up was based around some simple stretches that did not help them at all. Again be sport specific and include dynamic stretching. If you are going to be working kicking combinations all throughout the class, its those muscles that need to be warmed up.
Martial Edge: Thankyou for your time Dave.
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