Richard Voyce: Soft Tissue Therapy & Sports Massage

Many people are feeling weaker due to inactivity during lockdown. I think I am! If this sounds familiar, there's some sound advice and guidance here on starting to build your strength and fitness back up post-lockdown.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56887390

Lockdown muscle loss: Five ways to get back in shape Lockdown inactivity may have left people with weaker muscles - there are simple solutions.

Quick Quick Quick - Catch me while you can - https://mailchi.mp/673ef44a8aeb/quick-quick-quick

Beautiful day for it!

Childrey Stores well worth a quick stop for coffee and brownie 😍 @ Childrey Village Store

Work attire. Fetching. 🥵

My clinic room view for the next month or so 😍 could be worse!

Great advice here from my sister on exercising in the heat. I should probably get some advice as I did 32 miles on the bike this morning and despite having two full bottles I arrived home having barely touched them 🤔😳

#6 Nutrition tips for endurance: Exercising in the heat

It’s been hot in the UK! I notice a lot of people commenting on social media that they find exercise harder than normal when the temperature increases. Why is this?

Exercising in hot and/ or humid environments can lead to exertional heat stress as the body tries to maintain its core temperature and this affects your aerobic performance. With acclimatisation our bodies adapt, but here are some tips for exercising in the heat:

Adjust your training. Slow down or do shorter sessions until you acclimatise

Start exercise hydrated

Adding electrolytes (salt) to your fluids during exercise increases the amount of water your body absorbs and retains, as well as replacing the sodium you lose in sweat

Drinking to thirst or use a hydration plan are both are good strategies to prevent dehydration, try them out and see which works for you

Beware of over-hydration. Your body weight should not be higher after exercise than it was before

Rehydrate after exercise with fluids or foods containing carbohydrate and electrolytes using real food or an appropriate sports drink. A homemade banana milkshake is a good option.

You can monitor your hydration by urine colour or calculate sweat rate using changes in body weight adjusted for the volume of fluids taken during exercise

Include carbohydrates before, during and after training as your body increases its use of carbohydrates for energy in the heat

And finally, enjoy it while it lasts!

For more individual advice or help calculating your sweat rate contact me for a consultation

Lovely Saturday. Morning walk in the Town Gardens. Sausages and Veg on the BBQ. Decent Ale. Hoping I won’t take these simple things for granted in the future. 😊 @ Swindon

I've never been one to blow my own trumpet. Quite the opposite I'd say. But... I can honestly say I tick all these boxes and therefore I must be a great therapist. Or even one of the best in the galaxy. Who knew! 😉🤣

THE 10 BEST THERAPISTS A previous article I wrote called 'The 10 worst therapists' a while ago highlighted some of the flaws and issues I see in many therapists across all the professions. However, I thought it's also time to look at the other side of the coin and discuss what are the 10 attributes and traits of the best...

Hello to anybody who see's this post. I hope you're keeping well. It's been a full week since I saw any clients face-to-face on Monday 16th due to my concerns about how impossible it would be to 'socially distance' in my line of work. I was therefore quite relieved when on Wednesday 18th the Institute of Sport & Remedial Massage issued the advice to discontinue treatments and I applaud them for being well ahead of the curve in their advice.

So I've had a week of home schooling my children, figuring out how to move forward with my business. It's been a lot to get my head around. Thankfully enjoying the beautiful sunny weekend with my family was a welcome distraction.

So to business. Plans are in motion, likely to be flowing and changing as I figure out what works best. Plenty of work to do to ensure I can return to a full diary when the time comes.

I certainly plan on leaning heavily into my 'Anatomy in Motion' work which I can carry out via video (skype, zoom, facetime). As soon as I'm ready to go with this I'll be posting regularly on here.

In the meantime enjoy the sun and perhaps, if you can, follow the moto of my newly formed home school...

"Be happy and be kind"

Morning shadows. Sun on our backs. Hope everybody can find some simple pleasures and beauty in their day too ☀️

My “how did I manage to get so unfit” face.

Easy - didn’t cycle for 5 months....

A hilly, windy, empty legs 1st ride of the year. I bloody loved every painful second of it.

A humbling reminder that our bodies are incredible at adapting and they’ll get very good at whatever we dedicate time to. In my case - over the past months that clearly hasn’t been cycling 😂

Lots of work to do before the Alps in July 🚴🏻‍♂️ 🏔

Bit of a new project. Planning a workshop on feet👣 This will be way outside my comfort zone of working in clinic one to one with people. But gotta do it - so much to share on how much feet can influence how you move, pain, performance and most importantly what you can do to influence their function and their interaction with your whole body. 😊👣👍🏻

Hopefully will run them at both & The Health Hydro

Can massage reduce anxiety?

Having received two enquiries this week about the potential benefits of massage for treating stress and specifically anxiety. I thought I'd throw up a little post.

In short, yes. 😊 Evidence suggests massage therapy significantly reduces both immediate (state anxiety) and more long-term (trait anxiety) levels.

"Single sessions of Massage Therapy significantly reduce state anxiety, the momentary emotional experiences of apprehension, tension, and worry in both adults and in children, and multiple sessions of MT, performed over a period of days or weeks, significantly reduce trait anxiety, the normally stable individual tendency to experience anxiety states, to an impressive degree in adults." (1)

If you'd like to book an appointment or discuss whether I can help get in touch here or at.....

www.sportsmassageswindon.co.uk
07849 367479

(1) Moyer CA. Affective massage therapy. Int J Ther Massage Bodywork. 2008;1(2):3–5. Published 2008 Dec 15.

3 years ago yesterday I started a journey which I’m still very much on. Meeting and learning from really has changed everything about how I understand and work with the body.

I’m glad I have this photo as it captures the moment I had an epiphany after being guided through a whole body movement by Gary to challenge the transverse plane movements of my pelvis and spine/ribcage. The resulting change in how my neck felt was profound and completely unexpected. It bordered on spooky and I immediately ‘got’ how powerful full body movements can be to the body.

I continue to explore his philosophy of human movement daily within myself and through my work and fully expect to be geeking out about it forever 👣🤓

Very good article on back pain (no subscription needed but need to register)

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/01/18/back-pain-is-a-massive-problem-which-is-badly-treated

Back pain is a massive problem which is badly treated Why are better approaches to helping sufferers so slow to spread?

Thanks for the present. Probably is time to dip my toe into the world of bike fitting after years of thinking about it 🎁 🚲🤔