Treatments and services

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Acupuncture Hide

At Bupa Sports Medicine we use acupuncture to help manage pain and reduce inflammation.

Acupuncture involves inserting fine needles into your skin. The number of needles inserted ranges from one to a maximum of 10. These can be left in place for a few seconds or up to 30 minutes. When the needle is inserted, you may experience a needling sensation called “De Qi”. You may feel this as tingling, warmth, heaviness or a dull ache. This sensation usually fades and your practitioner may give the needles some additional stimulation to restart the De Qi sensation.

Acupuncture is thought to increase the amount of your body’s own naturally occurring pain relieving chemicals. These same chemicals are released when performing aerobic exercise. This pain relief allows your body to start moving more freely, stimulating the healing process.

Trigger points are areas in muscle that are tender when pressed. These points can be active or inactive. An active trigger point can cause referred pain and other symptoms. Acupuncture can be used to inactivate these points and provide muscle relaxation, muscle lengthening and pain relief.

Biomechanical assessment Hide

Biomechanics is the science of how the body works to produce movement. Each person is unique and will produce movement in a slightly different way. Having good biomechanics means you move more efficiently and you are less likely to get an injury.

Assessment
A Bupa Sports Medicine podiatrist will take a full history of your injury, examine the affected area and carry out a biomechanical analysis. A biomechanical analysis looks at your body and how it functions to create movement. To analyse your biomechanics, our podiatrists will use specific clinical tests, as well as a video gait analysis of you walking and running.

Treatment may involve you using orthotics or insoles. Orthotics are custom-made foot supports that you wear in your trainers or shoes to re-align your foot. This will help to alleviate your symptoms and prevent further injury. Our podiatrists will also give you advice on rehabilitation. This involves tailoring a programme of specific stretching and strengthening exercises to your needs or devising a ‘back-to-sport’ training plan.

Biomechanical cycling assessment Hide

Matching your body to your bike is crucial for creating a great cycling experience. Bupa
Sports Medicine offers an hour-long cyclist assessment, both on and off the bike. We use a stationary trainer and video analysis to evaluate every detail affecting comfort and performance.

Cycling assessments include:

• discussion - surrounding your riding history, any injuries, and future goals
• body movement (biomechanics) - all aspects are considered including: posture, saddle height, knee over pedal axle, handlebar reach and drop, functional core stability and neutral spine. Your general flexibility, muscle balance, ranges of motion and pelvic alignment will also be examined to ensure the best cycling position
• bike set up - your bike will be adjusted to suit your body helping achieve bike-body harmony to reduce risk of injury, while maximising leverage and power
• video analysis - helps deconstruct your biomechanics, posture and pedalling style
• bespoke expert advice - on all aspects of cycling from warm-up exercises to pedalling techniques

Core stability Hide

Your core muscles (the muscles that control the mid to lower part of your spine, pelvis and hips) assist in keeping your body in an ideal position during movement, allowing your limbs move efficiently. Research has shown the benefits of improving core stability for lower back injuries and to restore function for everyday activities. For this reason, exercises to strengthen core muscles are often included in rehabilitation.

Injection therapy Hide

For some injuries, particularly chronic or overuse injuries, our sports medicine doctors may give injections to reduce pain, inflammation and speed up recovery time. They are particularly useful for inflamed tendons, joints and surrounding tissue and are almost always followed up with a rehabilitation programme.

In certain cases your injection may be given under ultrasound or x-ray guidance.

Isokinetic Testing Hide

Isokinetic muscle testing is an accurate computerised measurement of the power and strength of a muscle. The testing usually involves comparing the left and right sides of your body and enables any problems to be found and monitored during rehabilitation training. It is most commonly used on the muscles around your knees but can be adapted to almost any of the large muscles of the body.

Manipulation Hide

Manipulation is a technique in which your joint is moved using small, controlled thrusts. The joint is normally first placed at the end of its range of movement, then manipulation is used to give an extra stretch to the soft tissues adjacent to the joint.

There is often a clicking sound as pressure within the joint is released. This usually indicates that the joint has been stretched to its limit. This clicking sound is similar to cracking your knuckles.

• Manipulation can be used to:
• restore full range of motion to a joint
• release natural pain relievers within the body (endorphins)
• unlock ‘stuck’ joints
• relieve headaches
• reduce muscle spasms

Assessing which joints need manipulation, the order and type of manipulation is a specialised skill. You can rest assured that with Bupa Sports Medicine, you are experiencing care from highly trained manipulative therapists who are experts in their field.

 

Mobilisation Hide

Mobilisation is a technique in which a physiotherapist passively moves your joint repeatedly. The joint may be moved large or small amounts, slowly or quickly, firmly or gently, and for varying amounts of time.

Mobilisation aims to:

• restore the full range of motion to your joint
• relieve pain
• stimulate the area around the joint to increase awareness and position sense of the joint
   

Musculoskeletal diagnostic ultrasound Hide

Ultrasound imaging is a non-invasive test that helps to diagnose and treat medical conditions. Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves and their echoes to create images (or scans) of the inside of your body. The images are black, white and grey and are usually displayed on a computer screen.

Ultrasound images give a clear picture of soft tissues such as muscles, tendons and ligaments. They can show part of your body when you are still and when you are moving. This allows the sports medicine professionals to see exactly what is happening to the affected area – this is extremely useful in the management of sports injuries.

Ultrasound images are often used to diagnose:
 

• tendon injuries, such as tears of the rotator cuff in the shoulder or Achilles tendon in the ankle
• muscle problems, such as tears and strains
• bleeding or other fluid collections within muscles and joints
• superficial ‘lumps and bumps’, including ganglions, cysts and some soft tissue tumours
• early changes of inflammatory arthritis

Ultrasound can also be used to guide injections into soft tissues and joints.
 

Osteopathy Hide

Osteopathy is a treatment that focuses on the joints and surrounding muscles, tendons and ligaments. Osteopaths diagnose, treat and prevent musculoskeletal disorders. Their aim is to restore mobility, improve or restore function in restricted joints and the surrounding soft tissue.

Osteopaths share conventional medicine's view that the human body is like a machine and that any disease is because of a breakdown of part of the machine. However, they also believe that many health problems can be caused by poor posture and misalignment of muscles and joints. They suggest that if the structure of the body is improved, the function of the body will improve, problems will be alleviated and good health will be restored. ‘Active rehabilitation’ may also be used which focuses on fitness and endurance to help symptoms.

Your Bupa Sports Medicine osteopath will ask detailed questions about your general health, lifestyle and medical/family history. He or she will also perform a physical examination, and may ask you to sit, stand, walk and possibly carry out other movements. Some osteopaths also use X-rays and other conventional medical tests, such as blood tests, to help them make a diagnosis.

Osteopaths may carry out short, rapid forceful movements, called high-velocity thrusts, on your spine. They also use a wide range of other techniques from stretching your soft tissues and massage to rhythmic joint movements and manipulation on the body.

Physiotherapy Hide

Physiotherapy is a treatment that aims to restore movement and function to your body. It’s an integrated approach that looks at how muscles, nerves, joints and ligaments work together in the painful or injured area.

During your consultation, your physiotherapist will ask you questions about your injury to identify its exact cause and how much it is affecting your daily life. They will also examine the problem area and carry out assessments, including movement analysis tests, which will allow the physiotherapist to identify exactly where the problem lies. Once the problem has been identified, a treatment programme and management plan can be drawn up to ensure you are able to return back to your previous levels of activity. Our physiotherapists will also be able to identify if your injury needs to be assessed further by a sports medicine doctor.

Bupa Sports Medicine physiotherapists are highly qualified. They treat a wide range of sports injuries and musculoskeletal conditions using a combination of exercise and manual therapy, including:

• manipulation
• mobilisation
• soft tissue release
• stretching
• strengthening
• exercise programme
• taping
• evaluating your posture
• acupuncture
• Pilates
• musculoskeletal therapeutic ultrasound
• biomechanical assessment
   

Pilates Hide

Pilates is a form of exercise for your mind and body. It can be used to help rehabilitate and prevent the recurrence of injuries or problems.

Many of the Bupa Sports Medicine physiotherapists are trained in Pilates and regularly use this technique as part of treatment.
 

Podiatry Hide

A podiatrist specialises in the diagnosis and treatment of injuries and disorders affecting the foot, ankle and lower limb and those relating to your body’s mechanics and movement (biomechanics).

Common injuries treated by a podiatrist include:

• heel pain and plantar fasciitis
• toe deformities and pain on movement
• Achilles tendinopathy 
• calf irritation
• shin pain
  
• anterior knee pain
  
• ilio-tibial band friction syndrome
• leg length discrepancies
• low back pain 

Biomechanical Assessment
Biomechanics is the science of how the body works to produce movement. Each person is unique and will produce movement in a slightly different way. Correct biomechanics creates efficient movement and is likely to reduce injury risk.

A Bupa Sports Medicine podiatrist will take a full history of your injury, examine the affected area and carry out a biomechanical analysis. A biomechanical analysis looks at the individual structure of your body and how it functions to create movement. To determine why your injury has happened, your podiatrist will use specific clinical tests, as well as a video gait analysis of you walking and running.

Treatment may involve you using orthotics (special insoles you wear in your shoes) to re-align your foot. This will help to alleviate your symptoms and prevent further injury. Our podiatrist will also give you advice on rehabilitation. This may involve tailoring a programme of specific stretching and strengthening exercises to your needs or devising a ‘back-to-sport training plan.

 

Strengthening Hide

Strengthening is used to help the healing process and improve muscle performance and tendon strength. For example, strengthening the muscles around a swimmer’s injured shoulder will help them return to swimming. It does this by ensuring that soft tissues are strong enough to cope with the demands placed on them, as well as conditioning the body to protect and enhance the stability of a joint or joints. This can reduce the chance of an injury coming back.

Stretching Hide

Stretching involves taking the body’s soft tissues (ie, muscles, tendons and ligaments) to the end of their range of movement and holding for a short length of time. This helps soft tissue to repair and keeps your body flexible and mobile. When the body has good mobility and flexibility it is able to adapt to a greater range of physical challenges experienced during work, sport and everyday life. This helps to reduce the risk of injury.

Taping and strapping Hide

Your Bupa Sports Medicine physiotherapist may apply tape or strapping in order to help treat certain conditions. This aims to:

• reduce pain
• aid or reduce certain muscles so they can function normally
• aid posture
• help rehabilitation
• allow early return to activity

Often the use of taping techniques will allow people to return to work or sport more quickly after injury as the tape provides support for the injured area of the body. Taping can also be used very soon after an ankle sprain to provide compression and support and to help to reduce swelling.
 

Therapeutic musculoskeletal ultrasound Hide

Therapeutic musculoskeletal ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to produce mechanical energy that creates heat and chemical changes in soft tissues. It can be used to treat tendons, muscles and other soft tissues injuries.