Survive Survive is the stage many of our clients come to us at. They may have had an acute injury, be suffering from severe pain, or have a significant health concern like chronic fatigue, diabetes or more which is stopping them from doing what they want to do! Our Services at this stage include Physiotherapy & Osteopathy to assess, diagnose and treat the problem, Exercise Physiology to kickstart working towards some health outcomes and Remedial Massage for pain & tension relief.   Products which may help to relieve your pain and make you feel better, include tape, our range of

We often get asked in practice if dry needling is the same as acupuncture. Although the same fine needles are used to elicit a change or reaction within the body, there are some key differences between the two.   What is dry needling and how does this differ to acupuncture? Dry needling involves inserting sterile needles into trigger points within the muscle. Trigger points are taut bands of muscle which can cause and contribute to pain within the body. Inserting the needle into these trigger points will elicite a local ‘twitch’ response, allowing the muscle to then relax and begin

At some point in your rehabilitation or sporting journey, you have probably heard the terms strength and conditioning thrown around. But what do these terms actually mean?  Put simply, strength and conditioning is the process most athletes will go through to better prepare their bodies for the sporting/competitive season. It is a program that is tailored to the individual athlete and their sport, and is designed to prepare their body for peak performance in their chosen sport or activity. It is a process that involves collaboration between a strength and conditioning coach, the sporting coach, and any relevant health professionals

Are you worried we’ll tell you to stop exercising after a concussion? One of the main barriers we hear from athletes against seeking help post concussion is, ‘I want to play in the Grand final/ compete in 2 weeks’ BEST PRACTICE concussion management is to obtain a baseline test at the beginning of season (so that when you sustain a concussion, we’re comparing your performance to your normal- as well as dealing with any niggling issues BEFORE the season begins… ), plus to see a practitioner with knowledge of all facets of concussion management WITHIN THE FIRST 48 HOURS POST

October is Mental Health Month!    This year, we celebrate the theme of “tuning in” to your mental health, and to the factors that may be impacting upon it. What exactly does this mean?    Put simply, tuning in means being present. It means that you aware of both what is happening within yourself, and what is happening in the world around you. It can help to build awareness of your thoughts and feelings, identify negative thought patterns, assist you in making positive choices, and build positive connections with the people around you, as well as outside influences.    How

Lets talk about lateral elbow pain, also known as “tennis elbow”, lateral epicondylitis or by the newer name lateral epicondylalgia.   It is a common overuse injury of the elbow. The cause can be repetitive overuse of the upper limb such as heavy lifting, computer use or some occupations where people have to do the same movement with their wrist or elbow repetitively (such as carpenter, gardener). Besides tennis, other sports can cause the problem as well, such as squash, badminton and baseball. It can be related to changes in biomechanical factors such as new tennis racquet, poor technique, overtraining

What and where is Tibialis Anterior? It is a muscle located in our shin, right next to the tibia bone. It is an important muscle because it is responsible for bringing our foot up (dorsiflexion) and help us for our walking. What is tibialis anterior tendinopathy? And what are the symptoms? Tibialis anterior tendinopathy is an overuse injury of the tibialis anterior muscle. If we use the tibialis anterior muscle beyond its capability, the tendon may start to get some micro injuries, and gradually become a tendinopathy. Generally, at the beginning phase, patients with tibialis anterior tendinopathy will only experience

There’s a compelling reason why the Cairns Ironman send an email out the very next day after athletes have completed their first 70.3 team or solo, or a full Ironman event on the iconic course. While we may be tired and sore, we’re also on a high from the buzz of the crowd, the pride at having completed an endurance event or the lovely medal we now own. It’s the perfect time to hit the sign up button- with many potentially thinking ‘I’ll train up next year!’ But before you get back into Netflix, camping and fishing (or whatever floats

Have you ever had a niggly hamstring and you’re wondering why it just won’t go away? First of all, let’s run through a bit of anatomy. The hamstring group is made up of three muscles. They all originate at your sit bones, and insert either side of your knee. Because they attach over two joints (hip and knee), they can produce movement at both! The main movements they produce are knee flexion, hip extension, and rotation of the hip through different movements. So, being a relatively big muscle group, why are they so often injured? Well, the hamstrings are most

Do you know what patellofemoral pain (PFP) is? It is a common condition, and studies have suggested that 25% of people suffer from PFP at some point in their lives, and 2.5 million runners experience PFP in a year. PFP is usually caused by malalignment of the knee-cap and the distal end of the thigh bone, which the knee cap glides on to when we move our legs. It is similar to a train on its track. The knee-cap is the train and the femur (thigh bone) is the track. If they are not aligned properly, the soft tissue underneath

Do you know much about bone health/bone density or osteoporosis?    What is Osteoporosis? Osteoporosis is defined as reduced bone density, and it leaves bone brittle, and at higher risk of fracture when an osteoporotic person had a fall or any other high-impact incident. Osteoporosis is a very common condition in Australia, and it was estimated that approximately 3.8% of the Australian population has osteoporosis, and it leads to over 170,000 fractures each year.    Osteoporosis is generally diagnosed with bone scan. Common osteoporotic areas such as the lumbar spine and hip will usually be scanned, and data will be

What is manual therapy? Manual therapy is a technique that is applied by hand from the physiotherapist, and has a neurophysiological effect that can modulate and reduce pain. It is an umbrella term and it consists of a variety of different techniques, such as joint mobilisation and soft tissue release techniques. What does manual therapy do? In the past, it was thought that manual therapy can physically put structures that are “at fault” or “malaligned” back into places. However, more recent scientific evidence has shown that manual therapy does not work this way. Manual therapy actually provides a neurophysiological effect

Diet is an often overlooked part of concussion management, as well as health in general. We’ve heard that your gut is a second brain. At Wellness Embodied Cairns, we’re lucky enough to have a Physiotherapist who is also a degree qualified naturopath- working out of our Scott Street clinic. Part of our CCMI concussion injury management protocol is to provide nutrition advice. BUT- what impact would it have on your sporting performance, as well as your recovery, if your nutrition was optimised BEFORE sustaining an injury? Check out our Wellness Embodied Cairns physiotherapy video discussing this here. For further information

Whether you’re frustrated with the rate of an injury healing, or your progress in training/ life, the concept of the ‘dip’ is important to be aware of. A simple case study on how injury healing isn’t linear might be a sprained ankle in a marathon runner. Say the runner simply rests for several weeks – even with Physio to restore normal range of movement and advise on protective loading. By the time they go back to training, they’ll already be a little bit behind, may have lost some vital strength in the glutes and other muscles (unless they’re very diligent

Ever get stiff and sore at your desk during the day!?   Follow along with our Cairns Physiotherapist Maigi as she leads you through a series of desk based stretches to keep the niggles at bay. If you are suffering from any desk bound aches and pains in your office or need guidance with your workstation ergonomics please contact our clinic on 42319777, email admin@wellnessembodiedcairns.com or visit our online booking page here 

Paediatric Benign Joint Hypermobility Syndrome What is benign joint hypermobility? It is when the joints move beyond the normal range of motion. Benign joint hypermobility tends to be more common in girls than boys and usually is genetic. It affects the connective tissue. Connective tissue is throughout the body, therefore, not only the joints are affected, it can affect digestion, skin, eyes and in more severe connective tissue disorders it can affect the heart.   Benign joint hypermobility syndrome is a condition when there are musculoskeletal symptoms in people with hypermobility. The most common symptom is pain. Kids can present

Many back injuries occur after incorrect bending or lifting, especially when we try to lift a heavy object up by ourselves with incorrect technique. If we try to lift something heavy with our back it would put on a big load onto our lumbar spine, which might cause injuries. Therefore, a good lifting technique is essential to protect us from sustaining a back injury. Generally, we should try to push the object rather than lift and move. If pushing is not feasible, then we try to lift it (with a correct technique!!!). Secondly, if we decide to lift something, we

What is Stroke? Stroke is one of the most common causes of death in Australia and worldwide. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2018, there was an estimated 387,000 people in Australia had had a stroke at some time in their lives. There are two types of stroke: ischemic or haemorrhagic stroke. While ischaemic stroke is caused by a blockage of a blood vessel, haemorrhagic stroke is caused by bleeding inside the brain from the result of a broken blood vessel.   Both types of stroke cause damages to the brain. Depending on the area that is damaged and

It is well known that a dysfunction of the vestibular system can cause symptoms such as vertigo, dizziness and imbalance. New research shows that kids with a vestibular dysfunction can also present learning difficulties and delayed fine and gross motor skills . At Wellness Embodied we have developed a comprehensive rehab program to improve your child’s quality of life. Common symptoms are: spinning nausea vomiting headaches imbalance falls learning difficulties, motion sickness delayed motor skills. Causes- Prevalence: Sensorineural hearing loss: 80% Cochlear implant: 51% Congenital CMV 92% Ototoxicity- Chemo: 61% Prematurity: 10% TBI: 30-80% Chronic otitis media with effusion: 71%

Neck pain is one of the most debilitating types of pain we see at our Cairns physiotherapy clinic. There are multiple factors that contribute to neck pain, including sleeping posture. Poor neck posture may not just lead to neck pain but also headache, shoulder pain and even jaw pain! A suitable and supportive pillow is essential for our sleeping quality and keeping our neck pain-free! Different people have slightly different types and curvatures of cervical spine, and different necks require different types of pillow. Here at Wellness Embodied Cairns, we recommend the Denton’s pillow and we stock these at both

Vestibular Migraines Are One Of The Most Common Causes Of Vertigo. With this condition, patients suffer from migraines that involve vestibular symptoms such as dizziness, vertigo and nausea. Headaches do not necessarily have to be present. In fact, sometimes some people may have vertigo without any headache. The term migraine in this condition means it is a spontaneous episode caused by a combination of triggers. There is not a clear explanation for why vestibular migraines happen but there are lots of things we can do to help to reduce them. Vestibular migraines present as spontaneous episodes of vertigo that last

Wellness Embodied Live is our free Weekly Facebook live series for people in isolation, or those who are keen to learn and improve their health. Videos will be available to watch online on our Facebook page or on our Youtube channel  This week, Practice Principal Suzanne Rath will share some insights from her recently completed training on Nutrition for musculoskeletal complaints- assisting you to improve your healing! You can view it here on our youtube page! We stock a large range of BioCeuticals products in our Cairns City Clinic, pop in to take a look, we can even set you

  Wellness Embodied Live is our new series for those of you working from home, in isolation, or simply worried about the current uncertain situation in the world. We’ll be producing short, sharp, free video tutorials every Wednesday at 12pm on our Facebook Page which you can tune in to at the time or later on to help you with an area of body pain, stress or tension.   See our previous Live FB events here! Rid your body of Stress and Tension – This week, Practice Principal Physiotherapist Suzanne Rath leads a short guided body tune in and gives

Let’s talk about warm-up for hamstring injury prevention! Hamstring injuries commonly occur when the muscle is subjected to an excessive stretch whilst producing high force under high speed movements. Completing a proper warm-up before commencing a game or exercise session (especially those involving high load on your hamstrings) can reduce your risk of sustaining a hamstring injury. The aim of a warm-up is to increase blood flow to your muscles prior to placing them under high stress, and taking your muscles and joints through specific exercises that are directly related to the sport or activity you are about to perform.

Hi All We’ve noticed 3 interesting additions to our physiotherapy work last week. Isolation Injuries, head/ neck/ Shoulder pain consults due to home office set up and an increase in appointments for stress. Read on to see how we can help you with these! 1) Isolation Injuries Jigsaw neck? It’s a real thing. Many of us are doing things we wouldn’t normally do at home and getting new pains and aches as a result! Suzanne had her first Video consult with a client suffering from new onset headaches (from a change in work environment) last week. While we are still

What a crazy week! We got authorisation from the government to stay open, as an essential Allied Health service and the Federal Health minister Greg Hunt reiterated this yesterday, stating that there is still a need for face to face visits and the Health Department will be releasing public information regarding the safety of Allied Health. For those of you who are part of our VIP group on Facebook, see more of the summary of this. Right now we’re happy to be assisting people with pain, stress relief and movement to get through both chronic and acute conditions. Pain and lack

Our theme for this week is sprains and strains! Watch to hear our practice principal talk about the healing phases of injury, how we can help in our Rehab Room and why RICE is no longer the treatment form of choice! #wellnessembodiedcairns #cairnsphysio Questions? For further information or to book visit our website www.wellnessembodiedcairns.com or call 42319777  

We listen. We investigate. We communicate. We look through a different lens.  We treat the person and not the symptom.  At Wellness Embodied we pride ourselves on going the extra mile for our patients. We don’t have a one size fits all approach, because we know that doesn’t work. Every person that walks through our doors is different. They have a different body, a different history, a different story. This means they will have a different presentation and a different response to treatment. Treating every person with back pain the same way simply doesn’t work, because back pain is often

What is pain? A complex, multifactorial input/output system that implies much more than just tissue health. Why do we get pain? Initially it is usually from damage to tissue and the inflammatory response. But if pain persists, we begin to see changes in the pathways between the tissue and the brain, and the nervous system gets involved. In an attempt to protect you from further damage, we feel pain to stop us doing something we shouldn’t.  The trouble is, less and less ‘threat’ or stimulus is needed before you feel pain. It is important to note that the pain you

A new specialised respiratory assessment at physio clinic Wellness Embodied aims to help high performing professionals, chronic pain sufferers and those at risk of burnout change their lives after a single hour- long session. Physiotherapist Campbell Will, who is a Certified Wim Hof Method instructor, is leading the individualised sessions, which clients already report have led to ‘the best night’s sleep ever’, ‘ simple tools to manage my stress’ and ‘better mood’. The Wim Hof Method technique was founded by the Dutch ‘Ice Man’ Wim Hof, who has been studied extensively for his ability to control his response to extreme

According to George Orwell, ‘Happiness can exist only in acceptance.’ This may seem an unusual sentiment from someone who wrote such dystopian books as 1984, but perhaps Orwell had acceptance mastered. Certainly, acceptance is an increasingly important tool in mind and body medicine.   In psychology, acceptance can be defined as our assent to the reality of our situation-whether positive or negative- without attempting to change the circumstances. In yoga, it can be summarized best by Aparigraha, meaning ‘non-attachment’. Aparigraha, one of the yamas from Patangali’s yoga sutras, teaches us that we should neither be attached to positive nor negative

Michael came in to see us last week due to persistent shoulder pain. His personal trainer had given him a few exercises but the pain wasn’t going away. His GP suggested he take panadol and ibuprofen and lay off the exercises for a week, but still no improvement. On assessment we did find his shoulder to be restricted, but also found we were able to reproduce his pain with specific neck movements. We treated Michael’s neck, restoring pain free range of motion, and provided him with postural advice, and his shoulder pain subsided. Did you know the neck can refer

Have you got pain in lots of places? Maybe you’ve been diagnosed with fibromyalgia or another chronic pain condition. Or you’ve suffered a whiplash injury where your pain started in one spot and moved to other parts of your body- sometimes weeks or even years later. Your feeling that ‘everything hurts’ could even have stemmed from something as simple as the fact that limping on a sprained ankle put your back out. Wellness Embodied physiotherapist and founder Suzanne Rath shares five key points about pain in multiple areas and explains how physiotherapy can help. ​ 1) The brain-body link. If