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Wednesday, 06 September 2017

Here is a fantastic article on one of the Fulham's best Personal Trainers, Ben Simpkins. Read how Fulham Massage & Wellness helped him recover from a sports injury!

"Being a personal trainer I have a pretty good level of knowledge of how the body works, what muscles activate in what movements, how to build up strength and how to get people back to a desired level of fitness. 

My issue was that back in April this year I got injured during a football match, I went into a tackle and my knee came out on the losing side. This isn't normally an issue as you pick up knocks here and there, I try to use my knowledge to help the injury heal and get back to fitness as soon as possible, but this time it was more serious. I knew the second it had happened it was bad and I was concerned as after the impact I couldn't move my foot, let alone my knee.

After finally managing to get to the side of the pitch, I tried to do the usual bits, elevate it and ice it but the pain just kept getting worse and worse, I couldn't stand on it but I thought it would hopefully ease off after a couple of days, praying that it was just a bad sprain. I kept ice on it for the rest of the day and tried to take as many anti-inflammatories as possible to reduce the swelling. 

6 weeks later, I had been using an ice pack every night, taking anti-inflammatories every day, tried walking to get the blood flowing around the knee, it still wasn't feeling right and it was starting to get to me as I had entered the London marathon just days after the initial injury and I had been planning to use the summer to build up my cardio. It just was not getting better, it had improved but it wasn't right. 

I thankfully went to Agata after this 6 week period as I needed it sorted as I have a physical job working with clients and needing to demonstrate exercises. She went through her assessment of my knee and it turns out I had torn the cartilage in my knee. Not ideal!

She went to work on my knee and the surrounding areas with massages and the petrifying treatment known as acupuncture (I have a phobia of needles!) but she was absolutely brilliant with how she handled everything. It helps that I have a pretty good gym routine as I could just incorporate the exercises needed to build the leg up into my daily programme but within 6 weeks of treatment and gym work I was back playing football in a small tournament which was a great test but it has thankfully survived and been fantastic since, our season has started and I have been able to take part in full matches and get back to my squats and deadlifts, the knee is probably stronger than before as I am doing so much work to help strengthen it. 

The rehab process was so simple, it started with 3 basic exercises and then slowly incorporated exercises that would push it a little further each time, I cannot stress how important it was for me to go get proper help, even with my knowledge I don't think I would be where I am without Agata's help. 

So the main lesson here, don't wait and waste time trying to just let an issue recover, get the professional help needed to get your recovery on the right track as soon as possible, it will reduce the chance of other issues arising through overcompensation in the surrounding muscle groups and it will get you back on track much faster. As seen with me even when you have a good gym programme, you know what exercises you should be doing you may not be able to aid your full recovery. I can't recommend Fulham Massage and Wellness enough for their work and knowledge. If there is a next time, I won't spend 6 weeks trying to sort it out myself."

Ben Simpkins, Personal Trainer at Eat Move Live Better, tel: 07753110579, web: http://emlb.co.uk/Trainers/Ben-Simpkins-