Blog

The Olympics are on!  Watching olympic athletes often inspires our clients to try new sports, such as swimming.  Swimming is an excellent form of relaxation, and people of all age groups and physical abilities can enjoy it.  In fact, our physiotherapists frequently recommend swimming as an exercise that has low impact on joints. Despite the low-impact nature of swimming, however, injuries can still occur.  Swimming requires adequate flexibility, strength and cardiovascular f...

It can be scary when your knee starts hurting - especially if you don't know why.  We often see clients whose knee pain has started suddenly or gradually, and they're frustrated that the knee pain doesn't go away on its own.  One question, especially among middle-aged or advanced-aged clients, is whether the pain is from arthritis. Our physiotherapists are highly trained professionals with the skills to figure out whether your pain is arthritis, or something else.  They'll rely...

We love treating back pain, but we love PREVENTING patients’ back pain even more. Unfortunately, every year at River East Physiotherapy we see many injuries from snow shoveling.  They're usually back and shoulder injuries, caused because shovelers used poor form or don’t have the fitness level to match the amount of snow they face.   And right now we are facing so much snow! Here are three tips to help you prevent injuries from shoveling this winter. 1) Use Great F...

TENS machines feel weird.  Usually they create a buzzing, or tingling sensation to the skin, and they may even cause muscle twitching.  So why do we sometimes use them?  These hand-held machines are commonly used to treat pain, both in clinics and at home.  TENS stands for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, which means the machines transmit electricity through the skin to stimulate your nerves.  The idea is that by stimulating the nerves under your skin with...

Pregnancy and childbirth are the most common causes of injury to the pelvic floor muscles.  Since controlling urine flow is one of the things the pelvic floor muscles muscles do, it's very common for newer and experienced moms to experience urine loss ("peeing my pants") post-partum.   But just because urine loss is common after pregnancy and childbirth doesn't mean it's normal!  Urine loss doesn't have to be your new re...