Physiotherapist Karen Ogilvie says she has to remind some of her patients that they are normal people.
鈥淲hen you come into a town like Squamish, everyone鈥檚 a pro athlete, or they鈥檙e training for an ultramarathon, or they鈥檙e doing four events every day,鈥� said Ogilvie, who works out of Ako Collaborative Health. 鈥淚 have to remind my more sedentary people that they are still average people.鈥�
Ogilvie is one of many physiotherapists in 麻豆社国产who are kept busy with patients who love the outdoors 鈥� a love that, it seems, isn鈥檛 always reciprocated.
The injuries she sees in 麻豆社国产are unlike anything she saw in her previous offices in Williams Lake, Quesnel, and Vancouver.
There, she said, 鈥淚t was more like the desk jockeys with sore necks and sore shoulders and sore backs. We are very different.鈥�
There are two primary types of ailments, she says, traumas and repetitive use injuries.
鈥淚n the trauma world, you tend to end up with ACL鈥檚 [anterior cruciate ligament injuries], the knee injuries, but you also end up with whiplashes from mountain biking, dislocated shoulders from snowboarding or climbing鈥� ankle sprains from playing soccer or running on trails,鈥� Ogilvie said. Repetitive injuries are especially common when we have a few days of good weather.
鈥淲e get a string of five sunny days, and everybody goes out every single day to do their thing,鈥� she said. 鈥淛ust give your body some rest.鈥�
Muscles need a chance to build, and inflammation needs to reduce for one鈥檚 body to be ready to go again.
鈥淩ecovery is really important. Most of us don鈥檛 spend enough time doing it,鈥� Ogilvie said.
Variety is not only the spice of life but important in an exercise and recreation regime, too, she said.
鈥淚f all you do is mountain bike, you鈥檙e going to get chronic tightness areas and weakness areas,鈥� Ogilvie said. 鈥溌槎股绻鷌s good this way because we have a million things we can do. But as long as you鈥檙e not mountain biking every single day, maybe you鈥檙e going for a run, going for a hike, going kiting, many different things, you may be able to balance off those strengths and weaknesses.鈥�
The other advice she offers is not to let enthusiasm overtake ability.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a tendency to get too excited and jump into your training too quickly,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really important to ramp up whatever you鈥檙e doing, rather than go full force into something.鈥�
Nina Tappin is a physiotherapist with a special interest in climbing injuries. In crack climbing, she said, ligament injuries to the wrist and finger joints are common, caused by wedging fingers into crevices and then twisting and pulling.
鈥淣ow that we鈥檝e got climbing walls in Vancouver and Squamish, we are starting to see these finger and elbow and shoulder injuries from climbing training at the climbing walls,鈥� said Tappin, who works with fellow physio Will Bateman at Project Physio, which is cleverly located within the Ground Up Climbing Centre.
鈥淲e both really promote strength and conditioning,鈥� she said. Many climbers think that it鈥檚 all about finger and arm strength.
鈥淎 lot of body tension and force comes through pulling in with your feet and standing up through your legs,鈥� Tappin said. 鈥淥bviously, your core, having a really strong torso connected to your shoulders is super important.鈥� Desk job people will be more at risk of injuring themselves because they might not have that base full-body strength that鈥檚 really needed for climbing.鈥�
While physios often see people suffering a particular ailment, Maggie Phillips-Scarlett, a physiotherapist at Sea to Sky Sports Physio, adds that plenty of Squamites ensure their bodies receive the sort of regular maintenance they provide for their car.
鈥淭here are seven physios at our clinic, and we all are busy,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e have a really active population, so there are certainly going to be鈥� injuries from doing lots of activities. But I also think that we also have a pretty wellness-focused community, so people like to take care of themselves. Instead of letting an injury linger, often people will come in, and I see lots of people on a semi-regular basis for maintenance. Every four to six weeks they will come in and do a tune-up, sort of like a car.鈥�
Conversely, there are times when an injury requires more than a physiotherapist can provide. X-rays and other hospital treatments are called for usually when a patient is having trouble bearing weight or when an injury is very swollen or very sore to the touch.
In an outdoorsy community that has grown so much so fast, 麻豆社国产General Hospital is facing challenges meeting demand. While there are no wait lists for X-rays, a patient requiring an ultrasound will wait five to six weeks.
鈥淭his is a reflection of how quickly the community is growing,鈥� said Tiffany Akins, communications leader at Vancouver Coastal Health. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a little longer than we鈥檇 like, so we recently hired two new staff who will help to address this.鈥�
CT scans, if required, are done at Lions Gate Hospital or Whistler Health Care Centre.
All the physiotherapists agree that a good warmup is the best way to prevent injury.
鈥淎t the beginning of your ride, or the beginning of your climb of the beginning of your ski, do a low-aerobic warm-up, warming up your system,鈥� Phillips-Scarlett said. 鈥淭his also prepares your brain. We know that the brain controls muscles and tendons, the system we call proprioception, that is the ability to know where your joint is in space.鈥�
Keeping limber in general helps prevent both repetitive injuries and trauma.
鈥淐ertainly as we get older and we continue to be active, we need to do our stretching and what we call mobility work,鈥� she said. 鈥淛ust do a little bit of homework to allow you to do the activities that you love.
