Injuries

Hi team,

I have been asked by some of you (including the coach!) to recommend some good therapists in Hong Kong for muscle and ligaments pains or injuries. Well before giving you some contacts I need to tell you that the best way to recover from injury is to avoid them by regular training and exercises, a lot of stretching (yoga being fantastic for prevention) and a healthy and balanced diet including a lot of fluid intake, especially water (the Saturday night 2 liters gin&tonic does not count here).

When unfortunately injury happens, the first thing you need is ice on the injury to avoid muscle bruise (traditional Chinese doctor will tell you the opposite but this is my opinion) and rest for at least 2 weeks without intense exercise (walking, swimming, biking, yoga and slow running may still be ok).

If on the top of that, medical expertise is needed, a visit to your general practitioner might be a good start just to make sure nothing is broken or badly damaged (X-ray and RMI or scanner is a must, if you don't have it, request it from your doctor). Like many western medicine doctors in Hong Kong, you will probably get from your GP a good advise for rest and some anti-inflamatory, well thanks doc but this might hide the symptoms for a while but no cure the cause. The 2 following "doctors" will look for the cause of your injury and cure it  (through very different methods). You can combine both for excellent results.

1- Dr Chen
Flat E, 1st Fl, Ming Yin Bldg
390-396A, Lockhart Road
wanchai - HKG
2574 8046
mob: 6291 6387
Dr Chen is a traditional chinese medicine doctor with high reputation in HKG. He will treat the injury with plant cataplasms, massages, accupuncture and hot suction pads. The treatment usually requires you to go there for daily treatment for a period of 10-15 days. Yes, this is slow but believe me very efficient. It will cost you around 150 HKD/visit, check with your insurance if it can refund traditional chinese medicine. One more thing about him: he does not speak a single word of English so you'd better get with a chinese speaking person for the first visit. If the location is not convenient for you (though most of you spend quite some time in Wanchai area), then ask your office mates to recommend a traditional Chinese doctor in a more convenient location, they probably know one, all Chinese go to see Chinese doctors.

2- Physiocentral
check following website: http://www.physio-central.com/
Justin Faulkner, the guy who runs the institute, is some kind of body muscle expert and technician. For any problem he will look for the cause of the problem and give you some tips and exercise to cure it by yourself, believe me, most of the times it is really minor things that bring big troubles...Unlike many physiotherapists in Hong Kong who ask you to come visit them twice a week for 10-15 minutes and just giving you enough time to drop your 500 HKD from your wallet, Justin will most likely see you only 1 or 2 times and give you some recommandations to do specific exercises on your side. He will keep you until he has founbd the cause of your injury and give you the right tips to cure it. It is quite expensive (around 600HKD/session) but worth the money, check with your insurance for partial or total refund, you will probably need a recommendation letter from your GP. FYI, Justin has been the physio of West Ham united so he is very well aware of all football related injuries.

Warm Regards
Sebastien Hesry
French Kiss Physical Trainer