My main aims for today was to network and increase my contacts within the Armed Forces, to hopefully open opportunities for myself later on in my career. I have known of sports rehabilitators and physio’s who have been offered paid roles at the Royal Navy field gun. The Royal Navy uses students from the University of St Mark & John, which benefits both parties, however the Army and Raf do not have this. Therefore today I wanted to create opportunities to meet the organisers on the Army and the RAF side. I got feedback off the athletes yesterday and the Royal Navy are suggesting opening a clinic down HMS Culdrose, Cornwall.
Because of several factors, few being low temperatures, athletes constantly being on and off the track and the physical demands of the sport, there was an increase of visits to us today. Many of the patients required sports massage for Delayed On-set Muscle Soreness (DOM’s), CONNOLLY, SAYERS & McHUGH, (2003) states “DOMS often result from unfamiliar predominantly eccentric exercise, such as downhill running. Furthermore, the degree of injury or damage is often a function of the trained state of the muscle. The injury itself is a mechanical disruption to sarcomeres that proliferates secondary to an inflammatory response” (PP. 197) Ice and massage can reduce Dom’s by increase the speed of lactate removal (Hartono, Widodo & Hikmatyar, 2019) Therefore I treated the athletes complaining of Dom’s with sports massage, stretches and instructed the to use cryotherapy.
I managed to treat a few of the Army athletes and had a conversation with the organiser. They have offered myself a job in next year field competition and I have given my business card’s to most of the athletes competing. I have asked everyone that I have treated to give me a review on my business Facebook page and so far, I have had positive reviews. I believe that I have made my objectives today and I am enjoying working with the team.
CONNOLLY, D., SAYERS, S., & McHUGH, M. (2003). Treatment and Prevention of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. The Journal Of Strength And Conditioning Research, 17(1), 197. doi: 10.1519/1533-4287(2003)017<0197:tapodo>2.0.co;2
Hartono, S., Widodo, A., & Hikmatyar, G. (2019). The Effects of Roller Massage, Massage, and Ice Bath on Lactate Removal and Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. Sport Mont, 17(2). doi: 10.26773/smj.190620