Naturally, when you take a Physio with your expedition they add significant value in many different ways.
They are an expert in Musculo-Skeletal injury able to provide injury prevention, treatment and management throughout the expedition.
As well as taking a stretching session after a day of hill walking.
There is lots of opinion about stretching and injury prevention and it appears that there is a lack of scientific evidence to support this.
However, when I go out on the hills I always stretch afterwards as this helps my body to recover and feel better post exercise.
I ran Yoga classes every day for those on the expedition and they all reported the benefits of feeling less stiff and painful the next day. Plus it is also a great group activity that gets everyone involved.
In addition to basic stretching and Yoga, I also use a Compex with aid with recovery.
The most common type of injury when climbing or walking up and down mountains is an over-use injury.
This typically manifests as lateral knee pain, particularly when going down hill, carrying a back pack.
This will be later diagnosed as ITB Compression syndrome.
There is no way to stretch the ITB but you can influence the lateral chain, by performing a body stretch to the side.
But this best way I have found to keep ITB under control is to roll.
Or Pulseroll to be more precise.
