Latest news with #physio
Times
4 days ago
- Health
- Times
Why is my generation so obsessed with being skinny?
I recently posted a picture of myself on social media, with one intention, but the outcome was unexpected. I put up a video on my Instagram of myself in the gym, wearing a sports bra and leggings and doing some physio exercises I'd been set in order to recover from a painful back injury. The caption read something like, 'Look, I can touch my toes again!', as I slowly bent forward with my arms outstretched towards the ground. I felt a sense of achievement, so why did the response send me into a complete spiral? 'You look incredible!', 'Skinny minny!', 'ABS!'. A flurry of messages about how good I was looking filled up my DMs. Messages that would have usually made me feel so happy, just made me cry. I couldn't understand why everyone thought I looked so good on the outside, when actually I was in the worst state I'd ever been in, physically and emotionally. It's true, I'd lost weight rapidly — 5kg in under two weeks, to be precise — thanks to a concoction of strong pain meds and an adverse gut reaction to them, meaning I hadn't been able to eat properly in weeks. Added to this I hadn't been able to work out for months and I was signed off work for a little while to try to get over the 'acute' phase of my injury. I'm someone who loves sport and fitness — I play netball, cycle long distances, play tennis and squash — as well as train in the gym. It keeps me in shape mentally as well as physically, so it was devastating to have to stop. I was in a dark place, temporarily stripped of my freedom, ability to do normal things — and my muscles were disappearing. I was miserable. And yet everyone was telling me how good I looked. • Is this new diet the secret to weight loss? I made light of it, joking that I'd gained bingo wings, waving my flabby underarms where toned triceps used to be. What people were calling 'abs' wasn't in fact the core I'd spent years building up, but rather a lack of muscles and the optical illusion of just a bit less fat around my waist. Granted, my legs looked slim for the first time ever and my cheekbones 'popped', but if you looked closely I was gaunt, grey, glassy-eyed and frankly quite sad. I might've looked good to outsiders, but I was the least healthy and happy I'd ever been. This reaction isn't a one-off. I've had similar comments over the past few months around how 'trim I'm looking these days'. A colleague at work asked me last month if I'd lost weight and most friends I see have been saying the same. One friend I went for a walk with recently even said I had 'Ozempic face … but in a good way'. These are the sorts of compliments some people dream of receiving, but I just brushed them off. I hadn't been trying to get a slimmer frame, I'd been spending most of my time lying flat on the floor, in pain and in a dark place. Is skinny back to being the new indicator of happiness? Whatever happened to 'strong is the new skinny' — a slogan that came about in the early 2010s and flooded through the fitness industry promoting body positivity? Now, seemingly, we're in a skinny jab-filled world where embracing all body types seems to have gone as quickly as any other wellness fad. • Ozempic side-effects: what weight-loss drugs do to your body As a child of the Nineties and Noughties I too have been on the body-insecurity rollercoaster. At 32 I'm part of a generation who grew up with 'burn books' and eating disorders. Going to an all-girls school helped to fuel the toxic body dysmorphia so many of us had. It was never the guys we were trying to impress, it was each other in the Topshop changing rooms, hoping to achieve the perfect 'thigh gap'. As a child I had chubby thighs that I've never really been able to shake. My mother congratulates me on inheriting the 'family thunder thighs'. But aside from the odd family jibe about a few extra pounds I put on at university I'm lucky that I've mostly been brought up in a healthy and sport-obsessed family. When strong bodies were supposedly in vogue I was in my twenties. Everybody was banging on about body positivity — society told us to look up to celebs (JLo, Beyoncé and plus-sized models such as Ashley Graham) who were celebrated for their big, healthy thighs and fit bodies. For someone who has always struggled with their weight, wanting to be smaller than my size 12-14, I gladly rode the wave. I became happy with my fit womanly physique. I've never been able to slim down, but I do so much sport I'm happy that I can always be toned. It doesn't matter that I'm not naturally a size 8. When I'm injury-free I work out at least five times a week, flitting from HIIT class to weights in the gym, spinning and reformer Pilates and running, as well as my weekly matches. I love the endorphins working out gives me, but also how much more confident it has made me feel about how my body looks in — or out of — clothes. I've come to love my muscles. I've worked hard for them. I've always been able to bat away any temptations towards eating disorders. While the girls around me lived on a diet of frozen grapes or ordered diet pills from dark corners of the internet like some of my friends at school did, I've never really even been on a diet. I think this comes more from a position of mental strength than body confidence. I won't pretend that my broad arms and stumpy thighs haven't ever bothered me. I'm just not someone who will obsess over skinniness, as so many seem to be doing again. • Weight-loss drugs shrink supermarket sales I don't judge people for having weight-loss jabs for non-medical reasons, but it makes me sad that it's fast becoming as common to discuss over the dinner table among my peers as other injectables already are. It's not even slightly unusual for women my age to have Botox — I have resisted. Since weight-loss drugs came on the scene a couple of years ago I've managed to drown out the noise with my usual coping mechanism: sport. I am still firmly in the camp that strong is better than skinny and, for now, the goal is to get my pre-injury body back and have muscly arms and abs. But it's hard to ignore what's going on around us — body positivity is a nice idea, but I'm not convinced society ever really believed in it. For a brief moment I achieved the skinny version of me I always wondered and hoped existed, and everyone else noticed her. I admit that despite my initial shock, a bit of me liked this validation, if only for a few weeks. For the first time in my life I started weighing myself every day. I even considered continuing to not eat. The people who messaged me on Instagram had good intent, but my insecurities about my body were feasting on it. It's hard to ignore what other people see, but I knew I had to start eating again in order to regain my strength to start my physical recovery, to get back to the things that make me tick; to work and to life and to be the healthy version of me, even if that did mean putting on weight. Skinny might feel good — but it leaves a bitter taste.
The Sun
14-07-2025
- Health
- The Sun
I blamed my sore knee on a drunken injury – then my leg SNAPPED sitting on the sofa and I was left fighting for my life
WHEN Lucy Worthington's knee began to ache, she assumed it was just a drunken injury. But after physio failed to sort it out, she realised it was a killer condition hiding in plain sight - one which would see the 27-year-old snap her leg in half while she was sitting on the sofa. 8 8 8 Lucy, from Bristol, UK, tells Sun Health: "I started getting pain in my right leg around my knee. "So I went to my GP who referred me for an X-ray in February, and they told me the X-ray was clear and there was nothing to report. "I thought I had just gotten drunk and hurt myself falling over. "As time went on and the pain wasn't going away, I thought what I was told - that it was a physio issue and that I would do the exercises and it would go away. "I do a lot of walking and they thought it was a pulled muscle or a trapped nerve.' When the 'intense' pain did not get better after three physio sessions, the the talent acquisition recruiter went back to the GP who reportedly referred her for an MRI scan at Bristol Royal Infirmary in August 2024. "The pain started getting worse and I got a lump,' Lucy said. 'It was a big lump that was growing just above my knee, so I went back to my doctor. "It felt like someone was crushing my knee, or grabbing it and twisting it, it was a very intense horrible pain that no painkillers would help. I was prescribed codeine and morphine and none of it would work. "I saw the physio three times, the pain wasn't getting any better and the lump kept growing. "On the third time I saw her, she said 'I'm not happy doing anything else with you until you've had some more imaging', so she urged me to go back to my GP. "As soon as my GP felt the lump, her face dropped. She realised something was seriously wrong and referred me for an MRI scan. "I was diagnosed with sarcoma and I was told it's rare and aggressive. Now I know that it [the lump] was my tumour that had started to grow out of my bone.' There are more than 100 subtypes of sarcoma, the two main ones being soft tissue and bone. Soft tissue sarcoma is a rare cancer that can start almost anywhere inside the soft tissue of the body, which include muscles, fat, blood vessels, ligaments and tendons. My mum heard the earth-shattering scream and ran in... At first i thought i just dislocated my knee but i couldn't lift my leg up, it wasn't hanging on to anything. Lucy Worthington Bone sarcoma, which is much rarer, starts in the bone, most commonly affecting the legs. Sarcoma UK say more than 5,100 people are diagnosed with the disease each year. "The tumour was 14cm, around the size of a grapefruit," Lucy says. "It was so scary to be told this all. It sounds silly because you always attribute this to older people, in your 20s it's not something you think about. 'I was Googling my symptoms but I never actually thought it would be cancer. "I had a gut feeling it might be something serious but I was in shock, it didn't really set in. 'I was told it's likely curable depending on how my body reacts to the chemo.' 8 8 8 The symptoms of sarcoma cancer The most common symptom of soft tissue sarcoma is a lump somewhere on the body. But this doesn't necessarily mean cancer - there are all sorts of reasons for lumps and swellings, but it must always be checked by a GP. The lump is usually found deep under the skin and might be felt before it can be seen. The lump is usually solid to the touch, painless and hard to move around under the skin. It will continue to grow and as it does, it can become painful. Other symptoms depend on where in the body the lump is. These can include: Tummy pain and constipation if there is a sarcoma near the tummy A cough that does not go away if there is a sarcoma near the lungs Source: NHS But before her treatment could start, in September 2024, things would come to a head when Lucy would snap her leg due to weakening bone density. She says: "Because of the type of cancer, I had no bone density in my femur so I just sat on the sofa and broke my leg. "I had been to the bathroom and I walked back to the sofa on a walking stick because they told me not to put all my weight on one leg. "My femur just shattered and it split my tumour in half. The pain was horrific, I broke the strongest bone in the human body. "My mum heard the earth-shattering scream and ran in, called 999 and the longer the ambulance was taking, the more pain I was in. She called them back and told them I have bone cancer. "At first i thought i just dislocated my knee but i couldn't lift my leg up, it wasn't hanging on to anything. At hospital, Lucy feared that she would die 'any minute'. "I definitely thought I could die - when I broke my leg and was admitted to hospital, me and my family thought I could die any minute, I was really not well. "They thought they were going to have to amputate my leg. I was so scared because he didn't know if he would be able to save my leg going into surgery. "I had to sign an on-table decision that if he thought it was necessary, he could amputate. "I went into this surgery not knowing if I would wake up with a leg or not. It was like a scene from Grey's Anatomy. I was crying and telling him he saved my leg.' 8 8 Thankfully, the surgeon was able to save her leg, but it wasn't plain sailing for Lucy afterwards. She said: "I kept getting sepsis and wasn't responding to chemo very well so in the beginning it was very worrying.' But she finished her chemo in June and is 'excited to get her life back on track'. 'I'm feeling amazing, so happy,' she says. 'I'm a bit scared of the scans to come in case it comes back or has gone anywhere else, but now I'm excited to get my life back on track.' She wants to warn others to take symptoms seriously. Her pain and lump were the only signs, other than night sweats. 'If the tumour hadn't grown out of the bone it could have been too late,' she says. 'So any aches or pains please get them checked because you never know." What are the causes of knee pain and when is it serious? Knee pain can arise from various sources, including injuries, medical conditions, and mechanical issues. It can usually be treated at home, but you should get help if it's not getting better within a few weeks. Causes can include: Sprains and strains These include ligament tears (e.g., ACL injuries), cartilage tears, fractures, dislocations, and sprains. You might have pain after overstretching, overusing or twisting, often during exercise. Or, your knee is unstable or gives way when you try to stand, you are unable to straighten or heard a 'pop' during injury. Tendonitis Tendonitis is when a tendon in the knee becomes inflamed, causing pain usually between your kneecap and shin. It is often caused by repetitive running or jumping. Arthritis Some medical conditions can cause pain without obvious injury. Arthritis (osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis) causes pain and stiffness in the knees that can make it difficult to move or walk. There may also be swelling. Gout Gout causes pain and skin that is hot and red. The attacks are sudden and cause very bad pain. When to Worry: You should consult a healthcare professional if you experience: Anything urgent: Severe pain, inability to bear weight, joint deformity, a sudden "popping" sound, sudden swelling, or signs of infection (e.g., redness, warmth, fever). Persistent issues: Pain that disrupts daily life or sleep, reduced range of motion, knee instability, locking sensations, or persistent swelling, numbness, or worsening symptoms over time. Source: NHS
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
My midlife padel hobby left me with horrific shoulder pain – here's how I fixed it
There's nothing like being inspired by a new sports fad – or Wimbledon fortnight – to send midlifers flocking to the physio. Or in my case, a heavy suitcase. Once upon a time a decade ago, around a luggage carousel far, far away, I lifted a suitcase at 'the wrong angle' and twinged my shoulder. (In the name of journalistic integrity, I should mention that the suitcase may have had a 'heavy' tag dangling from it because fabulous shoes are important on holiday.) In true midlifer fashion, I ignored the twinge, had a few jolly good games of holiday tennis – and ended up with intense shoulder pain and an arm I could no longer move. It took a week in a sling before my limb could take instruction from my brain again and I could sleep through the night, and several more weeks to be pain free. Then, for over a decade, my shoulder would flare up unpredictably like an erratic teenager, with varying degrees of pain and immobility. After multiple visits to the GP, the physio and specialists, I'd started to accept having a bad shoulder was just part of getting older, but the shoulder pain never truly left me. Until my recent romance with padel forced me to confront it once and for all. I'm one of 65,000 padel enthusiasts in the UK, a racket sport that's a cross between squash and tennis, played in doubles on a 10m by 20m court, enclosed in glass so that the ball can bounce off and stay in play. And when I first see shoulder consultant Professor Tony Kochhar, aka the Shoulder Doctor, I learn I'm one of many padel players with a dodgy shoulder. He tells me he's seen several that week – and we're all in the midlife age range. If this midlife niggle sounds all too familiar to you, know that all is not lost. This is a midlifer's fairytale: six months on from hitting rock bottom with the padel pain, I believe I have defeated my sore shoulder almost entirely – here's how. I first started playing padel about five years ago on holiday in Spain, where padel is a national passion, but it's only in this 'school year' that padel courts have started springing up near my home in north London. According to the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) there are now 800 padel courts in the UK. It doesn't need as much skill as tennis itself so it's more accessible across ages and abilities – and it's also a bit of a hoot. By the end of a super fast-paced rally, you're often breathless from exertion and laughter. So when there were suddenly two padel clubs within a 10-minute radius of my house, I was playing at least once a week: on Sunday with the kids, for a girls' night out, or even on Saturday night with another couple, followed by dinner. I could feel a low-level ache in my shoulder but it didn't bother me. Then one Sunday afternoon, while going in for a smash with all my might, I missed the ball (I didn't say I was good, just enthusiastic) and I felt a familiar pull deep in my right shoulder. By Monday morning the pain was so excruciating I couldn't think about much else and my arm was immobile. At work, I could only type (slowly) with my left hand, but driving was out of the question. On the plus side, my share of kitchen duties were all but handed over to the rest of the family (and Deliveroo). At first, a course of Naproxen from my GP helped ease the immediate pain. I also managed it with over-the-counter Biofreeze Gel, which felt miraculous in terms of cooling that intense soreness. Within a week I was over the worst of it, able to drive and type, and although it was still slightly painful and restricted, I was on the right trajectory to get my shoulder back to low-level niggle status. But this time – with the incentive of my amateur padel career as Britain's least brilliant but most enthusiastic midlife player – I felt determined to gain full recovery. I assigned myself a dream team – along with consultant Prof Kochhar, physiotherapist Rob Madden, who counts Anthony Joshua amongst his clients (who, let's face it, needs his shoulder more than I do), as well as being physio to GB Olympic skiers and snowboarders. And then personal trainer Monika Kolb to keep me on track long term. Those of us who are active and over 40 are, sadly, susceptible. 'In midlife we tend to focus on staying active but our tissues are starting to weaken, so we have to work harder to keep what we've got,' says Prof Kochhar, who explains that this process (sarcopenia) means we lose around four per cent of muscle per year. 'In midlife we're also taking up new sports, we might have more time as kids are older, we want to relive our youth… and that's where we hit that apex and get injured.' Madden explains: 'The body can cope with more or less anything. But it has to get there in a smooth, slow and sensible way. Don't fear a new sport, but we must take things up slowly and allow our body to get used to it.' According to Prof Kochhar, the rotator cuff, which is the group of muscles that make up the shoulder joint, is particularly susceptible to injury for active midlifers. 'Around other joints, like the knee and the ankle, the ligaments – which are the bits of rope that keep the joint in place – are primary for stability. But because the shoulder is so mobile, it relies on muscles to stabilise it. In the knee and ankle, the muscle only provides 10 per cent of stability, but in the shoulder it's more like 50:50 – so that muscle degradation has a greater impact on how our shoulders move and function.' Shoulder pain is often down to some type of inflammation and irritation but the question of what's causing it is key, Madden explains. For me, an ultrasound reveals calcific tendonitis of the supraspinatus – a build up of calcium in the tendons of one of the muscles that make up the shoulder. The calcification was causing acute inflammation of the tendon, which was causing tightness and preventing it from working properly. A ten-minute 'barbotage' procedure was a key next step in my recovery (look away if you're squeamish). Using an ultrasound guided needle, the calcium was broken down and then sucked out of my shoulder with a tiny syringe, followed by a steroid injection to reduce the resultant inflammation. Thankfully, the thought was more painful than the procedure itself, which was slightly uncomfortable but didn't hurt. Shoulder pain is often misdiagnosed by Dr Google as a 'frozen shoulder', says Prof Kochhar, but there are often other underlying causes creating the inflammation. The NHS defines a frozen shoulder as stiffness and pain that restricts movement of the shoulder for a number of months. Common wisdom is that with a frozen shoulder you have to wait 18-24 months for recovery and treatment, but Prof Kochhar disagrees: 'That was advice from the 1970s but with non-surgical treatment, good physio and perhaps a steroid injection, 85-90 per cent of patients are fully recovered in a matter of weeks.' Whatever the underlying cause, Prof Kochhar says that any injection that reduces inflammation 'gives you a window to try to rebalance and rehabilitate.' This is where Madden comes in to work on mobility and strength – the vital next steps to full recovery. I am 'prescribed' three exercises to do every other day – either at the gym using the cable machine, or with a resistance band at home. They are isometric exercises, which means they are static moves that focus on specific muscles, and between them they target various muscles around the shoulder. Band pull-aparts (where you stretch the band between your two hands) strengthen the mid-back and posterior shoulder muscles (rhomboids and posterior deltoid), which help improve shoulder and back posture. Single-arm horizontal band rows get into the posterior shoulder and rhomboids. Finally, diagonal high-to-low reverse flies strengthen the posterior deltoid and rotator cuff. Hold a resistance band at shoulder height with straight arms Pull it apart by squeezing your shoulder blades together Return slowly Anchor the band at chest height Stand with feet hip-width apart Pull the band toward your torso – don't let your shoulder shrug Extend the arm slowly back to the starting position Anchor the band above head height With your arm extended in front of you, hold the band Pull your arm down and out in a diagonal motion, squeezing shoulder blades Together these exercises also create stability in the shoulder capsule. Madden describes the shoulder capsule as 'the wetsuit of the joint'. He explains: 'When you have a healthy shoulder, that wetsuit wraps around the shoulder and stays nice and soft, but when you get injured it can get stiff and restrictive.' So the rehab will help get my wetsuit stretchy again but also get the necessary strength back in my shoulder. These three exercises would translate well across the majority of shoulders that are in need of strengthening, explains Madden, but he warns that there always needs to be a degree of individualisation so would recommend seeing an expert. After six weeks of getting full marks on my physio homework, Madden switches the 'band pull-aparts' for dumbbell external rotations. It gets deeper into that shoulder joint, which he recommends will get me padel ready. Kneel next to a bench (or chair) with the knee closest to the bench on the ground Position your arm at 90 degrees with your elbow pressing back against the bench holding a light weight Slowly turn your arm up into external rotation and then lower back At my 12-week check up with Prof Kochhar, it was time to see how far I'd come. 'There are no tests that are completely validated – the best way to get a sense of how your shoulder is functioning – and one that I give to my patients so they can manage their recovery themselves is the chicken wing test,' says Prof Kochhar. It simply involves putting your upper arms out to the side, bent at the elbow 90 degrees so your hands are pointing up in the air; then rotating the shoulder so that your forearms point forward, still with your elbow bent at 90 degrees. 'When your injured side is symmetrical with the healthy side, it means you're fully recovered,' explains Prof Kochhar. Both my forearms end up horizontal so I'm given top marks. The hard work unfortunately doesn't stop there. Personal trainer Monika Kolb is an expert in rehabilitation and explains: 'Keeping your shoulders strong and healthy isn't just about working on mobility and strength in the shoulder itself, but in the upper back too. A strong back supports your shoulder by sharing the workload, so your body doesn't rely on your shoulder as the default mover. This helps prevent irritation, overuse, and injury.' But strength alone isn't enough. 'Posture plays a huge role. Standing or sitting with poor posture – letting the upper back collapse or the shoulders round forward – can undo all your training. Unfortunately, many of us (especially women) develop the habit of shrinking ourselves – whether from shyness or simply from years of looking down at phones or hunching over desks.' If you want long-term shoulder health, Monika's tip is: 'Be aware of daily habits. Pay attention to how you stand and sit and don't let your back get lazy. Practice holding yourself tall with an open chest and aligned spine. No amount of exercise will fix your shoulders if you're constantly reinforcing bad posture throughout the day.' For Madden, my initial rehabilitation has been a success. He may not have given me the ability to throw a killer right hook like Joshua – or the skills to beat my kids to the bottom of a black run like Team GB ski – but I am ready for a summer of padel. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
09-07-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
My midlife padel hobby left me with horrific shoulder pain – here's how I fixed it
There's nothing like being inspired by a new sports fad – or Wimbledon fortnight – to send midlifers flocking to the physio. Or in my case, a heavy suitcase. Once upon a time a decade ago, around a luggage carousel far, far away, I lifted a suitcase at 'the wrong angle' and twinged my shoulder. (In the name of journalistic integrity, I should mention that the suitcase may have had a 'heavy' tag dangling from it because fabulous shoes are important on holiday.) In true midlifer fashion, I ignored the twinge, had a few jolly good games of holiday tennis – and ended up with intense shoulder pain and an arm I could no longer move. It took a week in a sling before my limb could take instruction from my brain again and I could sleep through the night, and several more weeks to be pain free. Then, for over a decade, my shoulder would flare up unpredictably like an erratic teenager, with varying degrees of pain and immobility. After multiple visits to the GP, the physio and specialists, I'd started to accept having a bad shoulder was just part of getting older, but the shoulder pain never truly left me. Until my recent romance with padel forced me to confront it once and for all. I'm one of 65,000 padel enthusiasts in the UK, a racket sport that's a cross between squash and tennis, played in doubles on a 10m by 20m court, enclosed in glass so that the ball can bounce off and stay in play. And when I first see shoulder consultant Professor Tony Kochhar, aka the Shoulder Doctor, I learn I'm one of many padel players with a dodgy shoulder. He tells me he's seen several that week – and we're all in the midlife age range. If this midlife niggle sounds all too familiar to you, know that all is not lost. This is a midlifer's fairytale: six months on from hitting rock bottom with the padel pain, I believe I have defeated my sore shoulder almost entirely – here's how. The moment of injury I first started playing padel about five years ago on holiday in Spain, where padel is a national passion, but it's only in this 'school year' that padel courts have started springing up near my home in north London. According to the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) there are now 800 padel courts in the UK. It doesn't need as much skill as tennis itself so it's more accessible across ages and abilities – and it's also a bit of a hoot. By the end of a super fast-paced rally, you're often breathless from exertion and laughter. So when there were suddenly two padel clubs within a 10-minute radius of my house, I was playing at least once a week: on Sunday with the kids, for a girls' night out, or even on Saturday night with another couple, followed by dinner. I could feel a low-level ache in my shoulder but it didn't bother me. Then one Sunday afternoon, while going in for a smash with all my might, I missed the ball (I didn't say I was good, just enthusiastic) and I felt a familiar pull deep in my right shoulder. By Monday morning the pain was so excruciating I couldn't think about much else and my arm was immobile. At work, I could only type (slowly) with my left hand, but driving was out of the question. On the plus side, my share of kitchen duties were all but handed over to the rest of the family (and Deliveroo). The road to recovery At first, a course of Naproxen from my GP helped ease the immediate pain. I also managed it with over-the-counter Biofreeze Gel, which felt miraculous in terms of cooling that intense soreness. Within a week I was over the worst of it, able to drive and type, and although it was still slightly painful and restricted, I was on the right trajectory to get my shoulder back to low-level niggle status. But this time – with the incentive of my amateur padel career as Britain's least brilliant but most enthusiastic midlife player – I felt determined to gain full recovery. I assigned myself a dream team – along with consultant Prof Kochhar, physiotherapist Rob Madden, who counts Anthony Joshua amongst his clients (who, let's face it, needs his shoulder more than I do), as well as being physio to GB Olympic skiers and snowboarders. And then personal trainer Monika Kolb to keep me on track long term. Those of us who are active and over 40 are, sadly, susceptible. ' In midlife we tend to focus on staying active but our tissues are starting to weaken, so we have to work harder to keep what we've got,' says Prof Kochhar, who explains that this process (sarcopenia) means we lose around four per cent of muscle per year. 'In midlife we're also taking up new sports, we might have more time as kids are older, we want to relive our youth… and that's where we hit that apex and get injured.' Madden explains: 'The body can cope with more or less anything. But it has to get there in a smooth, slow and sensible way. Don't fear a new sport, but we must take things up slowly and allow our body to get used to it.' It's true, shoulders are more susceptible to injury According to Prof Kochhar, the rotator cuff, which is the group of muscles that make up the shoulder joint, is particularly susceptible to injury for active midlifers. 'Around other joints, like the knee and the ankle, the ligaments – which are the bits of rope that keep the joint in place – are primary for stability. But because the shoulder is so mobile, it relies on muscles to stabilise it. In the knee and ankle, the muscle only provides 10 per cent of stability, but in the shoulder it's more like 50:50 – so that muscle degradation has a greater impact on how our shoulders move and function.' Shoulder pain is often down to some type of inflammation and irritation but the question of what's causing it is key, Madden explains. For me, an ultrasound reveals calcific tendonitis of the supraspinatus – a build up of calcium in the tendons of one of the muscles that make up the shoulder. The calcification was causing acute inflammation of the tendon, which was causing tightness and preventing it from working properly. A ten-minute 'barbotage' procedure was a key next step in my recovery (look away if you're squeamish). Using an ultrasound guided needle, the calcium was broken down and then sucked out of my shoulder with a tiny syringe, followed by a steroid injection to reduce the resultant inflammation. Thankfully, the thought was more painful than the procedure itself, which was slightly uncomfortable but didn't hurt. Shoulder pain is often misdiagnosed by Dr Google as a 'frozen shoulder', says Prof Kochhar, but there are often other underlying causes creating the inflammation. The NHS defines a frozen shoulder as stiffness and pain that restricts movement of the shoulder for a number of months. Common wisdom is that with a frozen shoulder you have to wait 18-24 months for recovery and treatment, but Prof Kochhar disagrees: 'That was advice from the 1970s but with non-surgical treatment, good physio and perhaps a steroid injection, 85-90 per cent of patients are fully recovered in a matter of weeks.' Whatever the underlying cause, Prof Kochhar says that any injection that reduces inflammation 'gives you a window to try to rebalance and rehabilitate.' This is where Madden comes in to work on mobility and strength – the vital next steps to full recovery. Strength homework I am 'prescribed' three exercises to do every other day – either at the gym using the cable machine, or with a resistance band at home. They are isometric exercises, which means they are static moves that focus on specific muscles, and between them they target various muscles around the shoulder. Band pull-aparts (where you stretch the band between your two hands) strengthen the mid-back and posterior shoulder muscles (rhomboids and posterior deltoid), which help improve shoulder and back posture. Single-arm horizontal band rows get into the posterior shoulder and rhomboids. Finally, diagonal high-to-low reverse flies strengthen the posterior deltoid and rotator cuff. Band pull-aparts How to do it Hold a resistance band at shoulder height with straight arms Pull it apart by squeezing your shoulder blades together Return slowly Single-arm horizontal band rows How to do it Anchor the band at chest height Stand with feet hip-width apart Pull the band toward your torso – don't let your shoulder shrug Extend the arm slowly back to the starting position Diagonal high-to-low reverse flies How to do it Anchor the band above head height With your arm extended in front of you, hold the band Pull your arm down and out in a diagonal motion, squeezing shoulder blades Together these exercises also create stability in the shoulder capsule. Madden describes the shoulder capsule as 'the wetsuit of the joint'. He explains: 'When you have a healthy shoulder, that wetsuit wraps around the shoulder and stays nice and soft, but when you get injured it can get stiff and restrictive.' So the rehab will help get my wetsuit stretchy again but also get the necessary strength back in my shoulder. These three exercises would translate well across the majority of shoulders that are in need of strengthening, explains Madden, but he warns that there always needs to be a degree of individualisation so would recommend seeing an expert. After six weeks of getting full marks on my physio homework, Madden switches the 'band pull-aparts' for dumbbell external rotations. It gets deeper into that shoulder joint, which he recommends will get me padel ready. Dumbell external rotations How to do it Kneel next to a bench (or chair) with the knee closest to the bench on the ground Position your arm at 90 degrees with your elbow pressing back against the bench holding a light weight Slowly turn your arm up into external rotation and then lower back At my 12-week check up with Prof Kochhar, it was time to see how far I'd come. 'There are no tests that are completely validated – the best way to get a sense of how your shoulder is functioning – and one that I give to my patients so they can manage their recovery themselves is the chicken wing test,' says Prof Kochhar. It simply involves putting your upper arms out to the side, bent at the elbow 90 degrees so your hands are pointing up in the air; then rotating the shoulder so that your forearms point forward, still with your elbow bent at 90 degrees. 'When your injured side is symmetrical with the healthy side, it means you're fully recovered,' explains Prof Kochhar. Both my forearms end up horizontal so I'm given top marks. Game on The hard work unfortunately doesn't stop there. Personal trainer Monika Kolb is an expert in rehabilitation and explains: 'Keeping your shoulders strong and healthy isn't just about working on mobility and strength in the shoulder itself, but in the upper back too. A strong back supports your shoulder by sharing the workload, so your body doesn't rely on your shoulder as the default mover. This helps prevent irritation, overuse, and injury.' But strength alone isn't enough. 'Posture plays a huge role. Standing or sitting with poor posture – letting the upper back collapse or the shoulders round forward – can undo all your training. Unfortunately, many of us (especially women) develop the habit of shrinking ourselves – whether from shyness or simply from years of looking down at phones or hunching over desks.' If you want long-term shoulder health, Monika's tip is: 'Be aware of daily habits. Pay attention to how you stand and sit and don't let your back get lazy. Practice holding yourself tall with an open chest and aligned spine. No amount of exercise will fix your shoulders if you're constantly reinforcing bad posture throughout the day.' For Madden, my initial rehabilitation has been a success. He may not have given me the ability to throw a killer right hook like Joshua – or the skills to beat my kids to the bottom of a black run like Team GB ski – but I am ready for a summer of padel.
The Sun
08-07-2025
- General
- The Sun
My nosy neighbour showed me pictures of my husband cheating with his colleague – but has she done me a favour?
DEAR DEIDRE: THE nosiest neighbour in town told me something no woman wants to hear – my husband is cheating. She was almost gleeful as she knocked on my door last week. My husband was at a physio session. This woman is elderly and a real curtain-twitcher. She couldn't wait to inform me that my husband's colleague had been staying over whenever I was away. She showed me photos she'd taken of her leaving our house. Now my head is spinning. We've had a few incidents with this neighbour before. She knocks on the door with a parcel she has taken in, but always seems to know what the contents are. Once I caught her reading a letter she had fished out of our bin. She said she was looking for space because her 'bin was full'. But has she actually done me a favour? My husband went back to work a year after a car accident. His employer allowed him to make a phased return. He hasn't been up to driving yet, so after a week of getting the bus into town, a new colleague offered to pick him up. He's 45 and he told me she was 25. I had no objections. I thought it was kind of her to volunteer to give him a lift. I'm 42 and my job takes me all over the country so I'm often away overnight. Cheating and can you get over it Because of his injuries, we've not had sex for months — and now I find out he's giving it to someone else. I don't know how to even tackle the conversation with him. DEIDRE SAYS: I'm afraid you don't have a choice – you have to talk to him. Find a quiet moment to tell him what the neighbour showed you and listen carefully to his response. If this woman has been staying over, he has a lot of explaining to do. If he is remorseful, only you can decide if you are prepared to work on your relationship and forgive him. He has hurt you so he will have to prove himself for any trust to return. Please don't allow him to pull the wool over your eyes with some ridiculous explanation. There really isn't any genuine innocent reason why this woman should have stayed overnight in your home, with your husband, without your prior knowledge. Talking to a counsellor in a safe space can be beneficial. My support pack, How Counselling Can Help, explains more. SHOULD I END IT WITH LAZY OVERSEAS ONLINE GUY? DEAR DEIDRE: ALL my energy is being sapped by my long-distance relationship. My boyfriend is rubbish. I'm a woman of 27 and I met him online five years ago. I am American and I came to the UK to do a masters degree. Before I left the States, I met a man of 30 online from a different state. We never actually met before I came away to study. The relationship started out as chat and then it became sexual. He would ask me to send explicit photographs, which I did. We had video sex once too. Since then the relationship hasn't progressed. He shows no sign of wanting to meet me. He doesn't support me financially or emotionally. He doesn't even answer or return my calls. It's all on his terms. Should I walk away? DEIDRE SAYS: Yes. He is bringing nothing to the table and while you can't expect financial support from him, it would be good to know if he sees a future with you. You could ask him, but don't hold your breath. It sounds as if you're an online booty call for him. It is always better if you can find somebody local where there is a mutual interest but it's not always easy. If you find someone new, really get to know them so you can be certain they want the same things as you do, and as a rule of thumb – don't send any photograph that you wouldn't be happy for your parents to see. MY WIFE'S STOPPED ENJOYING SEX NOW DEAR DEIDRE: I STILL have regular sex with my wife but it's a long time since she's had an orgasm. In our younger years we used to be sex-mad. We are both 61 now and my wife often seems to want physical intimacy when I do – she doesn't turn me down when I initiate it anyway. But she doesn't seem to enjoy it as she used to. It's a case of her enduring it rather than liking it. We still enjoy doing things together, going on nice holidays and watching films with each other. We cuddle and hold hands. I've asked her about sex and whether she enjoys it but she says: 'It's OK.' I want to make her feel like she did when we were in our twenties. DEIDRE SAYS: It is good for you physically and mentally to have sex for as long as you can. You're both in your early 60s and there's no reason why this should stop. Your wife may not feel physically the same and it may take her a little longer to get aroused because of her age and the menopause. Kissing, caressing, and massage can all help her to feel good and it's important to not have sex until she's ready. Use lubrication if that helps. My support pack Love And The Mature Woman will offer advice, along with one called Helping Your Partner To Orgasm. I'M ADDICTED TO BUYING THINGS DEAR DEIDRE: MY online shopping habit is completely out of control even though I live off my pension. I'm a man of 56 and I live alone. I've never had a relationship with anyone – ever. When I went to my nephew's wedding, I wore a three-piece suit I'd had for years. I guess it would be considered 'vintage'. I was getting lots of compliments from men and women, saying I looked 'sharp' or 'cool'. It gave me such a buzz. The attention felt so good. I'd never thought about my appearance or been interested in clothes so much, so I started shopping on my tablet. It seemed so easy. I bought a few items and then I went to a barbers and had a haircut. They suggested I grow my facial hair into a 'trendy beard with a spaghetti moustache' – so I did it! I went to my local social club and had such a nice time talking to people and feel I've reinvented myself. The attention just keeps on coming and I'm having the time of my life. It all comes at a cost though and my credit card bill is now massive. I know that I have got to stop but I feel that I'm addicted to improving my image. DEIDRE SAYS: You'll need to try to pay off some of your credit card but without an income, it might prove difficult. To make a dent in your debts, make a concerted effort to sell some things you no longer need. There are lots of different auction sites. Ask a friend or relative to help you if you're not sure how to go about it. My support pack Solving Debt Problems will show you where to find free assistance to help you get this sorted out. You can find further support through Action On Addiction, who can advise you about shopping problems too and assist you in getting the right help (
