Online physio treatment at Balanced, Edinburgh: Ease your way back to exercise

Targeted support at home

Log on for an online private consultation with a qualified physio with Balanced Edinburgh, which is now also open for some face-to-face treatments

The treatment

A 45-minute Online Video Physio Consultation, £55, and follow-up, £25, with Balanced Edinburgh.

Why try it?

If you’re a lockdown exercise newbie who’s overdone it, or a gym bunny who’s hopped till they’ve dropped, or maybe a regular at one of Balanced Edinburgh’s four venues, visiting a therapist is problematic in lockdown.

With me it was taking up running on muscles that don’t even run for a bus that did it. Fools rush in, but the angels at Balanced would never put it like that and will help get you back to fitness with one-to-one sessions online and a website rammed with classes, videos, information and self-help treatments on a range of therapies, including physiotherapy, pilates, podiatry, hypnotherapy and massage.

Balanced also now have physio and osteo appointments available for those whose condition requires it, covid screened and triaged by a therapist prior to face-to-face.

Our spy says

Delivered via your chosen device this couldn’t be easier. Visit Balanced’s website and they email back with an appointment and basic form. Then simply log on for your online private consultation with a qualified practitioner.

Physiotherapist Julie Kealy introduced herself, explained what the session would consist of then after general health questions we addressed my knee discomfort and muscle ache as a beginner runner. After listening to my symptoms and asking questions, over the next 25 minutes or so she took me through a range of movements to assess the damage. After diagnosing patellofemoral joint pain (or pain produced from the joint behind the knee cap), caused by widespread tightness of left leg muscles, and weak calf muscles in one leg, she advised on how to treat it myself. A series of 20 plus exercises (lumbar rotations, hamstring and gluteus maximus stretches, piriformis releases – with info on repeats, holds, frequency and videos to copy), along with more explanation and advice, arrived via email and stays in my Balanced patient portal to be accessed anytime.

A week later Julie gave me a follow-up online consultation. The exercises were working and she recommended a slow return to running with the Balanced walk/run programme which she sent along with further exercises to strengthen my calf muscles and core.

The results

Spot on diagnosis and what to do about it. The exercises made a difference immediately and over the next week my calf muscle strengthened. I was also reassured that we’re never too old or unfit to exercise – we just need to take it slower and build up at an easier pace, then we can keep it up through lockdown and beyond.

Slow and steady wins the race. Or as Julie put it: “Just don’t be in a hurry to progress too fast. Think long term!”

Balanced Edinburgh, 1 St Bernards Row, Stockbridge, Edinburgh EH4 1HW; [email protected], 0131-315 3105, www.balancededinburgh.co.uk

Janet Christie

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