Your car may be ready for Winter but are you?

You have been saving up for your week on the slopes, paid your deposit and have bought all the kit to stay warm and go fast but have you invested anytime in getting your body ready?

 

Over the past year our relationship with Team GB Ski and Snowboard has led us to look after the individuals in their Mogul team and performance screen some of the governing bodies exciting new, up and coming talent. Our Director Doug Jones has been very fortunate over the past ten years to help treat and rehabilitate some of the best Red Bull sponsored Ski and Snow athletes in the country including helping Billy Morgan prepare for the Winter Olympics and return Katie Summerhayes and Katie Omerod from their knee injuries to back competing at the highest level.

 

 

Team GB’s Mogul star Leonie, Gerken-Schofield said:

“After I had dislocated my shoulder for the third time and my season was ended so abruptly it was really hard to take. The reconstruction surgery of my shoulder went very well and I was back skiing but then fractured a vertebrae in my back. Team Altius have been invaluable in helping me achieve full recovery and getting me back to doing what I love best. I couldn’t recommend the team highly enough to any winter sports person from World Cup series winner to weekend warrior”.

 

Altius is very proud to be the only clinic in Manchester to be qualified to fit and supply custom and off the self OSSUR CTi braces which are worn by Team GB stars: Billy Morgan, Katie Summerhayes and Katie Omerod. Custom braces are the choice brace for the elite athlete but we are fitting more of them each year for the more discerning weekend warrior who wants to look after their knee this winter…..so far we have already fitted four this January!

 

 

Altius Director, Doug Jones said:

“Over the past ten years we have seen a real change in approach to elite Sports Medicine. When I joined Sale Sharks in 2005 we were just focused on managing the players injuries and getting them out on the pitch as quickly and safely as we could.  By 2010 I had moved to London Wasps and was working with England Rugby. Wasps had the highest number of soft tissue injuries in the country at the time and as a team we challenged ourselves to reduce the number by half over the next two seasons. Our strategy involved screening all the players to identify where they were most at risk of injury. Altius Healthcare has provided Team GB Taekwondo with their physiotherapy service now for the past two years and the staff there use the same screening protocol that was developed during my time with Wasps and England and it will be the same method by which we screen Team GB’s new Ski and Snowboard talent this season.”

 

 

At Altius we are very conscious that our background in sport and working with athletes, and our treatment rooms and facilities at MIHP, may put the normal weekend warrior off coming to see us. The reason for this blog is to reinforce that anyone can come to see us at MIHP or our own clinic on Park Road in Hale. With our partnership with Ellis Brigham Mountain Sports and the Manchester Climbing Centre we are offering this winter season a One Hour consultation for the weekend ski, snowboard or alpine mountaineer including the Team GB screen. Based on the screening information we get, we will build a programme for you to help prevent injury and improve your performance on the slopes this year.

 

What our patients and colleagues say having been screened and completed the Fit4Snow programme or having referred patients into our programme:

 

Quintin Lyle:

 

“I found Altius through a friend who is a Red Bull Sponsored athlete. I am a part of the Scottish Highlands Mountain Rescue Team and a keen Skier and Mountaineer. I was lying in bed at home having been discharged by my local A & E after a 500ft fall down a mountain I was ski touring last season. My worry was that my legs were getting gradually more numb and the pain in my back was excruciating. My mate said ring Doug. It was the weekend and it was after 8 at night but he answered and the next day I was lying in the back of my car being transported to MIHP in Manchester. It turned out I had four fractures in my spine, two that were unstable and I should have been fitted in a corset and not discharged. Altius arranged for me to have my spine imaged after Doug had assessed me and my appointments with Mr Mohammed. Doug even sat with me during the appointment to hear first hand what my injuries were and to discuss my treatment plan with the surgeon going forward. It is ten months on now and I am back doing everything, probably stronger than I have ever been. I travelled to Manchester every month for two day visits for treatment and rehab and without their help I’m not really sure how or even if I would have recovered. I can’t thank their team of Masseurs, Pilates, Physios and rehabilitation staff enough and will be thoroughly in debt to them for all they have done above and beyond at all hours to fix my back.”

 

 

Andy Thomas:

“Over the past ten years I have been a very keen skier, including heliskiing in Canada to off piste adventure skiing across the Alps in France, Italy and Austria. I have made many knee injuries including two operations one to reconstruct my knee and another to remove most of my cartilage. Two years ago I was considering giving up skiing altogether as  my knee was continuing to swell and feel more and more unstable. I have seen many physios in my time but none better than the guys at Altius Healthcare. Thank you team Altius”.

 

Prof Phil Turner, Orthopaedic consultant Knee surgeon:

I have worked with Doug Jones since 2005 when he was at Sale Sharks and followed his career since then. I’m delighted for him that he has started Altius and that it is going so well and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend their services to anyone wanting to get back to what they were doing before they were injured or what they are aspiring to achieve in the future”.

 

Appointments with our Physiotherapy Team, Masseurs, Rehabilitation staff or Podiatrist can be made via Altius reception on 0161 401 1000 or email info@altiushealthcare.co.uk

Doug Jones to race in Challenge Roth Ironman ->