It’s common that at some point in your life you’ve sprained your ankle. Whether that was 10 years ago playing a football final or yesterday afternoon carrying in the groceries to accidentally miss a step and roll your ankle. Did you seek any treatment afterwards? Often the answer is no, and it is certainly something I myself am guilty of doing. Usually, a bag of peas does the trick. However, working in the podiatry profession I am now exposed to the long term disability associated with not undertaking any rehabilitation post-injury! If I could turn back the clock, I would be urging my 14-year-old self to whip out the resistance band and start strengthening my ankles in front of the TV. 

As I mention, a history of a previous ankle injury can lead to health complications later in life. In fact, in a 10 year follow-up study of patients suffering inversion

Tara Bo(ne)wman talks 🦴 BONES 🦴 and bone stress injuries.

As someone who has endured (and I don’t use that term loosely) two bone stress injuries in the past 6 months I know all too well just how frustrating and debilitating they can be. That dull poorly localized ache that you can’t seem to shake, pain with every stride of a run, pain that coincides with an increase in training or breaks from training. These are all common signs and symptoms of a bone stress injury.

The BEST way to prevent stress fractures is to prevent them from occurring in the first place. Proper education on the risk factors and early intervention are THE KEY to avoid months off sport. Bone is an incredibly adaptive tissue that changes in response to the load placed on it. But there is a delicate equilibrium that exists between too little or too much load.

Yes it is!

If you are currently under TAC funding you can receive podiatry treatment from our clinic without any out-of-pocket expense.

If you have suffered a motor vehicle accident and are currently undergoing rehabilitation or are still having issues following an accident then we can help! We work closely with physiotherapists to provide additional, comprehensive foot and ankle treatment options including shockwave therapy, video gait analysis and custom orthoses to help get you back on track.

Under new legislation, you are often able to claim the full amount back from our services and we are able to claim it on the spot at the time of your consultation.

If you are under a TAC plan and have a foot or ankle issue then we can provide a no-obligation assessment to determine how we can help.

Call us on 1300 821 893 or email us on info@melbournepodiatryclinic.com.au for more information.

Bunions are painful bony bumps that develop on the foot, they can occur on the outside of the big toe or on the outside of the little toe. The development of a bunion is slow, and over time the affected toe can move toward the other toes, this is usually due to increased pressure through the big toe joint when walking. 

Bunions can be extremely painful and debilitating for some people, but for other people, the issue is more aesthetic. In both cases, it can be difficult to find footwear to accommodate the bunion, which can lead to inflammation of the area due to rubbing of the joint against the inside of the shoe. 

Bunions can occur for a number of different reasons and it is not attributed to one single cause. Rather the changes develop over time and can be caused by weakness of the leg and foot muscles, altered walking,

Pain in the big toe is a common problem encountered by a range of people of different ages from children to the older adult. Depending on the stage of life the pain can be caused by a number of different conditions, which can all be helped by the team at Melbourne Podiatry Clinic.

Below are the 4 main issues that most commonly affect the big toe:

Turf toe (big toe sprain):

Turf toe is a sprain of the big toe joint and occurs when the joint is bent beyond its normal range in either an upward or downward motion. These injuries can occur due to jamming the toe or from repetitive injury from pushing off during running or jumping.

The symptoms of turf toe include pain, swelling and reduce movement at the joint. The symptoms may occur suddenly or slowly progress over time depending on the way the injury occurred.

Treatment for Turf toe

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1. Address Niggles Early

Research suggests that anywhere up to 90% of people training for a marathon are injured at some point during their journey. This may happen for many reasons but training error is by far the most common. That moment where you say “I’ll just go that little bit further, faster or harder.” When you fill your glass a little too much and the body says enough is enough. Seeing a professional, developing a plan and modifying your activity to keep you on track is the best way to ensure you are reaching that finish line.

2. Get Strong!

Runners tend to just run. Run hills. Run flats. Run trails. Run track. This, unfortunately, contributes to much of the training error we commonly see repetitive stress from the same actions over and over again can lead to tissue breakdown and injury. By including at least 2 strength-training

Pain through the ball of your foot or ‘forefoot’ is a surprisingly common complaint treated here at Melbourne Podiatry Clinic. Your forefoot is a busy place with a number of structures located within a very tight space so it is easy to misdiagnose the cause of pain and often hard to isolate symptoms.

Here are our top 5 forefoot pathologies, their symptoms and recommended treatments:

Another new year has rolled around, you’ve set those all important running goals for the year and it’s time to put in the hard work. However, whether it’s hitting that Park Run PB or targetting a specific running event your risk for injury is at its highest within the first four weeks of increasing your training load. This will generally occur if the amount of increased load placed upon the body exceeds the ability of the tissue to handle the new stress, thus placing them at risk of failing under load and resulting in injury. The majority of injuries we see occur within the first 4 weeks of a return to running and therefore if you can get through this period unscathed you have a much greater chance of avoiding injury all together!

So now you have the right shoes, let’s talk running. Most first-time marathoners get injured during their training, not on race day. The reason? They do too much, too soon – i.e. they exceed their current body’s abilities to tolerate stress and this results in an injury. Your body takes time to adapt to the demands of running and therefore you must increase your load gradually to reduce your chances of developing an injury. 42,195m is a hell of a lot of distance to cover. PLANNING is what keep runners injury-free and race day ready. When it comes to planning your running week there are a few rules which will reduce your risk of injury and set you up for race day success: