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Sophie Vowden

Director & Senior Sports Therapist

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Sophie graduated from The University of Hertfordshire in 2009 with a BSc (Hons) Sports Therapy degree.

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After becoming severely injured at the age of 14 during her County netball career, Sophie sought private help from the netball team’s sports therapist.

 

This experience inspired Sophie to become a sports therapist herself, as she wanted to help injured athletes reach their full potential, whether that be to return to recreational activity or to win an Olympic medal.

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Sophie works with a number of athletes, from beginners to Team GB Olympians; across all age groups, from young children to retirees.

 

She is passionate about biomechanics - how we walk, run and move and how to treat repetitive injuries. She treats the body holistically, ie not just focusing on the current injury, but how it was sustained and what measures can be put in place to prevent it from happening again.

Q&A with Sophie

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What is the best thing about being a sports therapist?
Helping people!

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What sports are you interested in?
Running, rugby, crossfit, triathlons, MMA and boxing.

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What sports do you do?
I train crossfit every week and have my first competition this year! I also run long distance and have raced in marathons and lots of half marathons.

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What is your favourite muscle and why?
The psoas muscle (pronounced soas) it is a deep hip flexor muscle that starts in your lower back and crosses over the hip joint. It can create a lot of problems for sporty and non sporty people alike due to poor posture and poor movement patterns and I believe it's a pre-cursor for a lot of lower back problems.

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What is your favourite joint and why?
Probably the hip because of how strong and how much force has to go through this joint, being impacted from the lower back. I had the honour of dissecting a human body in 2015 and the body I worked on had undergone a hip replacement during their lifetime. It was a real eye opener for me - such a simple joint, literally a spherical ball in a socket - yet many of us undergo such complications with this joint at various points in our lives.

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What is your favourite stretch for the body?
I really love child's pose stretch for the back and lat muscles. It's a good all-round stretch that can be modified into different variations for everyone to feel a benefit.

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Who is your favourite sportsperson at the moment and why?
Tia-Clair Toomey - crowned the 'Fittest Female Crossfit Athlete in the world' in 2017. She is only 24 years old and this year won gold in weightlifting at the Commonwealth Games. The lady is an absolute machine - incredibly gifted and comes across as beautifully humble.

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What are your sporting goals?

  • Learn how to do a muscle up in crossfit

  • Run the London Marathon

  • Run the Marathon Des Sables (6 days of marathons in the Sahara Dessert)

  • Master the splits in gymnastics!

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You are stranded on a desert island and are only allowed to have three things with you - what are they?

  • A pillow

  • A lifetime supply of peanut butter

  • Toothbrush!

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