5th Element Sports Injury Clinic Sunderland and Durham

DO YOU HAVE EMPLOYEE HEALTH BENEFITS?

If you have private medical insurance or a health cash plan through work, it’s worth checking your policy. Depending on your individual cover, you may be able to claim towards treatment at 5th Element Sports Injury Clinic.

Some of the major providers include Bupa, AXA Health, Aviva, Simplyhealth, WPA and Westfield Health.

Depending on your policy, eligible treatment may include:
🔸 Physiotherapy
🔸 Osteopathy
🔸 Sports Massage Therapy
🔸 Injury Rehabilitation

Using your benefits is usually straightforward: check your policy → confirm what’s covered and whether authorisation is required → book your appointment.

Many employee benefits go unused simply because people either forget they have them or aren't sure what they can claim for. So if you've been putting off getting that persistent back, neck, shoulder, knee or sports injury assessed, check your workplace benefits first.

Your employer may already be helping to pay for your treatment.

Taking you from pain to performance.

07753 278904
www.5thelementsportsinjury.co.uk

MYTH: WEIGHT TRAINING STUNTS GROWTH IN CHILDREN

This is one of those fitness myths that has been around for decades — but the evidence tells a very different story.

When resistance training is age-appropriate, properly coached and supervised, it can be a safe and beneficial form of exercise for children and adolescents.

Rather than “stunting growth”, well-designed strength training can help young people:
- Improve bone health
- Build muscular strength
- Develop coordination and physical competence
- Improve sporting performance
- Build confidence and self-esteem
-️ Develop a stronger, more resilient body

Research has not shown appropriately prescribed resistance training to negatively affect growth plates or final adult height.

Good youth strength training should prioritise:
✅ Appropriate exercises and loads
✅ Learning good movement and lifting technique
✅ Gradual progression
✅ Qualified supervision
✅ Training suited to the child's age, maturity and ability

As with any sport or physical activity, poor technique, inappropriate loading and inadequate supervision can increase injury risk. But that isn't an argument against strength training — it's an argument for doing it properly.

💡 KEY TAKEAWAY:
Children don't need to avoid resistance training because they're still growing. With appropriate coaching and programming, getting stronger can be a positive part of growing up.

📍 Durham & Sunderland
📞 07753 278904
🌐 www.5thelementsportsinjury.co.uk

5th Element Sports Injury Clinic
Taking you from pain to performance.

RUNNING THE JARROW 10K?

To support runners taking part in the Jarrow 10K on Sunday 18th October, we’re offering a special pre & post-event Sports Massage package at 5th Element Sports Injury Clinic.

PRE + POST-RACE SPORTS MASSAGE — £75
USUALLY £100 — SAVE £25

Your pre-event massage can help get you feeling prepared for race day, while your post-event massage can focus on recovery after those 10K efforts.

HOW THE OFFER WORKS:
✅ Book your pre-event Sports Massage for the week before the race
✅ Book your post-event Sports Massage for the week after the race
✅ Both appointments must be booked together to receive the £25 discount
✅ Enter “JARROW 10K RUNNER” in the booking notes
✅ Bring evidence of your race entry/participant registration to your appointment

Taking you from pain to performance.
Durham & Sunderland
07753 278904
[email protected]

This wek in clinic - Tension Type Headache.

Tension-type headache (TTH) is the most common primary headache disorder and is often described as feeling like a tight band or pressure around the head.

Common symptoms can include:
🔸 Dull, aching or pressing pain
🔸 Pain affecting both sides of the head
🔸 Tightness around the forehead, temples or back of the head
🔸 Neck, shoulder or scalp tenderness
🔸 Mild to moderate pain
🔸 Symptoms that aren't usually aggravated by normal physical activity
🔸 Difficulty concentrating or feeling fatigued

There isn't always one simple cause. Headaches can be influenced by a combination of factors including stress, sleep, prolonged screen time, neck discomfort, fatigue, hydration, skipped meals and lifestyle demands.

Treatment should start with understanding your individual headache pattern, identifying relevant triggers and ruling out anything that may require further medical investigation.

Depending on the person, management may involve:
✅ Education and headache-management strategies
✅ Appropriate exercise and strengthening
✅ Regular movement and activity
✅ Improving sleep and recovery habits
✅ Stress-management strategies
✅ Manual therapy where appropriate
✅ Reviewing work or training demands

📍 Durham & Sunderland
📞 07753 278904
🌐 5thelementsportsinjury.co.uk

Taking you from pain to performance.

🧠 UNDERSTANDING PAIN — PART 2 OF 10: PAIN ≠ DAMAGE

One of the most important concepts in modern pain science is that the amount of pain you feel doesn’t always reflect the amount of tissue damage present.

It’s easy to assume:
More pain = more damage.
Less pain = less damage.
But the relationship isn't that simple.

Pain is a protective experience influenced by information from your tissues alongside your nervous system, previous experiences, expectations, stress, sleep, environment and many other factors.

This helps explain why:
🔸 Someone can experience severe pain without significant tissue damage.
🔸 Scans can show disc bulges, tendon changes or osteoarthritis in people who have little or no pain.
🔸 A relatively minor injury can sometimes feel extremely painful.
🔸 Significant injuries don't always produce pain proportional to the damage.
🔸 What a scan shows is only one part of the clinical picture.

Importantly, this does not mean pain should be dismissed or that it is “all in your head.” Pain is absolutely real. It simply means that pain intensity alone isn't a reliable measurement of how damaged your body is.

That's why good rehabilitation shouldn't focus solely on eliminating pain or treating an MRI finding. We also need to consider movement, strength, function, confidence, lifestyle and the individual person experiencing the symptoms.

KEY TAKEAWAY:
Pain is real, but pain does not always equal damage.

👉 Follow our 10-part Understanding Pain Series as we continue to break down the science of pain and what it means for recovery.

📍 Durham & Sunderland
📞 07753 278904
🌐 www.5thelementsportsinjury.co.uk

5th Element Sports Injury Clinic
Taking you from pain to performance.

❄️ COLD WATER AFTER STRENGTH TRAINING

Ice baths and cold-water immersion have become hugely popular for reducing soreness and helping athletes feel recovered.

But if your main goal is building muscle, jumping straight into cold water after every strength session might not be the best strategy.

If you've got another competition, match or demanding training session coming up quickly, reducing soreness and improving perceived recovery may be useful.

But if the priority of that training block is hypertrophy and long-term strength development, routinely jumping into an ice bath immediately after lifting could potentially work against that goal.

📚 Research shown: Figueiredo et al. (2019), Journal of Applied Physiology.
Infograph credit -
📍 Durham & Sunderland
🌐 www.5thelementsportsinjury.co.uk

5th Element Sports Injury Clinic
Taking you from pain to performance.

Monday's myth buster!

Myth - Protein damages your kidneys.

Protein sometimes gets a bad reputation, particularly when people start increasing their intake to support training and muscle growth.

But for people with healthy kidneys, current evidence does not show that higher-protein diets cause kidney damage.

Protein plays an important role in:
- Building and maintaining muscle
- Repairing tissue after training
- Supporting recovery and adaptation
- Maintaining bone health
- Increasing satiety and supporting body composition
- Helping you perform and recover from demanding exercise

Eating more protein can increase the workload of the kidneys and alter measures such as filtration rate — but an increased workload isn't the same thing as kidney damage.

There is, however, an important distinction: people with existing kidney disease or impaired kidney function may need to control their protein intake and should follow advice from their doctor or dietitian.

For healthy, active people, there's no need to fear protein. Focus on getting an appropriate amount from a varied diet and spreading your intake throughout the day.

Taking you from PAIN to PERFORMANCE.

RUNNING THE NEWCASTLE TOWN MOOR HALF, 10K OR 5K?

To support runners taking part in the Newcastle Town Moor Half Marathon, 10K & 5K, we’re offering a special pre & post-event Sports Massage package at 5th Element Sports Injury Clinic.

PRE + POST-RACE SPORTS MASSAGE — £75
USUALLY £100 — SAVE £25

HOW THE OFFER WORKS:
✅ Book your pre-event Sports Massage for the week before the event
✅ Book your post-event Sports Massage for the week after the event
✅ Both appointments must be booked together to receive the discounted price
✅ Enter “TOWN MOOR RUNNER” in the booking notes
✅ Bring evidence of your race entry/participant registration to your appointment
Whether you're racing the Half Marathon, 10K or 5K, make recovery part of your race plan.

Taking you from pain to performance.

Durham & Sunderland
07753 278904
[email protected]

This week in clinic - HIgh ankle (syndesmosis) sprain

Unlike a typical ankle sprain, this injury affects the ligaments connecting the tibia and fibula just above the ankle joint. Because these ligaments play an important role in stability during walking, running and pushing off, syndesmosis injuries can often take longer to recover.

⚠️ Common symptoms include:
• Pain and tenderness above the ankle
• Swelling around the upper ankle
• Pain when walking, running or pushing off
• Pain when turning the foot outwards
• A feeling of instability or the ankle “giving way”
• Difficulty returning to running, jumping or sport

Recovery isn't just about waiting for the pain to disappear. A structured rehabilitation programme should progressively restore movement, strength, balance, proprioception and sport-specific capacity before returning to full activity.

At 5th Element Sports Injury Clinic, we can assess the injury, establish its severity and build a progressive treatment and rehabilitation plan to get you safely back to what you enjoy.

📍 Durham & Sunderland
📞 07753 278904
📧 [email protected]
🌐 www.5thelementsportsinjury.co.uk

Taking you from pain to performance.

Employees, your workplace benefits could help pay for treatment?

If you work for Royal Mail, GSK, Asda, Greggs, Nexus, Amazon, Barclays or Sainsbury’s, it’s worth checking your employee benefits. Depending on your plan, you may be able to claim back some of the cost of eligible treatment at 5th Element Sports Injury Clinic.

Your cover could include physiotherapy or osteopathy. Some plans may also cover sports massage or other holistic therapies .

Before booking, check your benefits portal or contact your insurer to confirm what’s included, whether you need approval, and how to claim. Benefits can vary by employer, role and individual plan.

Any questions or querries, give the clinic a shout!

Taking you from pain to performance. 🟠⚫