Tenterden Osteopath » Sport

What did I do with that 13mm spanner

Bill Ferguson — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 16:34:58 +0000

When I was a kid I used to like climbing things, usually trees as there were no climbing walls in those days. I always thought I had a good head for heights but after watching this video I am not so sure. The two engineers climb a 1768 feet transmission tower to do a bit of maintenance work at the top. Most of the climbing is in the open without safety ropes and the lead climber has a 30 lb toolbox suspended from his harness by a cord.

The two thoughts that kept coming into my head were: what if one of the rungs is rusty and it snaps off in his hand? And what if he gets to the top and finds that he has brought the wrong part? A common occurence with engineers that I have used in the past, and he can’t just nip out to the van. See it for youself and if you can’t bear to watch it all the way through, you are not alone…

Now for the osteopathic bit. When climbing use your arms as little as possible. The commonest mistake made by new male climbers is to do pull-ups, relying on upper body strength to gain height. Let’s say you gain two feet of height for every pull up, by the time you have done 20 or 30 you are 40-60 feet up the pitch and your arms are like jelly. What next?

Usually it’s time to come down, hopefully the second fastest way.

My advice: whenever possible use your hands and arms as safety hooks, make your legs do the work. Your quadriceps are potentially the biggest muscles in your body. The intelligent climber knows this and climbs by converting a bent knee to a straight knee from a position of balance, over and over again. Just like going up a ladder.

Take a deep breath and try not to splash in the wrong place

Bill Ferguson — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:53:58 +0000

Synchronised swimming is not for wimps. Look at this clip showing the Spanish team winning silver at Budapest earlier today. Try holding your breath for the same length of time as the girl who starts the sequence by diving from the poolside to the centre of the group. Don’t breathe until she does; to appreciate the difficulty of the event. Then think how stressful it must be to be competing for a medal at that level and you still have four minutes to go, most of the time upside down with your legs above water. And if you miss one breath you are in trouble.

Excellent music as well: Led Zep, Stairway to heaven.

Annual Coal Carrying Race

Bill Ferguson — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:00:30 +0000

I heard recently that the Olympic stadium in London has already cost over £300 million, and look at how much it costs to go to a football match these days. But sport needn’t be big business, you can enjoy participating in some very challenging sports for almost nothing if you are prepared to travel. I recently mentioned the cheddar cheese rolling event that was cancelled due to safety concerns (that is crowd safety – not the competitors!). I am delighted to see that another regional event went ahead as usual, I am talking about the annual Gawthorpe World Coal Carrying Championships.

The competitors run just under a mile from the Royal Oak pub in Gawthorp to the maypole on the village green, carrying a 50kg bag of coal on their shoulders. This year (and last year) the winner was Chris Birkin with a time of 4min 29sec while in the ladies race (using a 20kg bag of coal) a new world record of 4min 39sec was achieved. Watch the race here

The favourite technique seems to be the shoulder carry. I saw one or two competitors use a low back carry but this means you are running doubled over which would slow you down. The chest or abdominal carry is the least efficient as it makes breathing difficult due to tension in the arm and chest muscles. From a professional point of view I would expect some of the competitors to suffer neck pain and probably some headaches after the race from the carrying position, and maybe the odd sprained ankle or wrist.

Annual Coal Carrying Race
Photo: Yorkshire Evening Post

Osteopath saves the career of England rugby star

Bill Ferguson — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:36:34 +0000

Article in News of the World this week about Mark Cueto the England rugby player.

The editorial is mainly about him allowing his body to be used as a canvas for artist Carolyn Roper to paint his muscles. In the interest of decency she seems to have painted over his shorts, well we all know how shy and modest these rugby players can be..

For me the main story is how close he was to ending his playing career due to injuries and when the medics had given up it was an osteopath who saved the day. Take a bow Jim Webb.

Australian Open 2010 Federer v Murray

Bill Ferguson — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:48:53 +0000

I watched the Australian Open tennis final this morning. Federer was invincible but Murray had a good go at him.

Apart from the high quality of the game I am always on the lookout for injuries. I noticed that Murray grabbed his right thigh after a pretty strenuous stretch for the ball. It looked to me as though he had tweaked one of his quads. Hope he is OK. My advice would be to get some ice on the area as soon as possible because once the adrenalin wears off it will probably start to hurt.