exercise

Static vs dynamic stretching. What’s the difference and what should I be doing?

by
When it comes to preparing your body for a workout, the notion of static stretching as a warm-up is facing a considerable challenge. Recent research is uncovering potential drawbacks, revealing that this traditional approach might not be the performance booster we once believed it to be. In fact, static stretching could have the counterintuitive effect of decreasing muscle power for hours post-stretch, potentially hindering your athletic performance.

The promise of injury prevention often associated with static stretching seems to fall short in the scientific realm. Studies are urging fitness enthusiasts to pivot toward dynamic exercises for a more effective warm-up routine. Dynamic exercises, such as proprioceptive training, strength workouts, and dynamic warm-ups, are emerging as champions in preserving performance levels and reducing the risk of injuries.

The shift from static to dynamic warm-ups has a growing evidence base. Dynamic exercises engage your muscles in a way that static stretching simply doesn’t. They prepare your body for the dynamic movements that lie ahead in your workout, enhancing flexibility, blood flow, and overall performance. As we bid adieu to the old-school static stretches, consider embracing a new era of warm-up routines that incorporate dynamic, agility, strength, and balance exercises for superior results.

So, before you settle into that long-held stretch pre-workout, take a moment to reassess. Your body might just thank you for the switch, unlocking a new realm of athletic potential and injury prevention. After all, in the dynamic world of fitness, adaptability is key. ????????

Train smarter

by

Train smart

Train Smarter Not Harder!

The gyms are open!

Whether you are starting exercise as part of a New Year’s resolution, looking to shed some COVID kilos or preparing for the sporting season ahead, there are a few things to think about before getting back into training.

Change in health status?

If you have developed pain or have had a change in your health status since you were last in the gym, then it’s important to be assessed by a physiotherapist before commencing training. Understanding the source of your pain or impact of a health condition is necessary to minimise risk of further injury or illness.

If you are feeling well and ready to return, then here are a few things you should keep in mind to keep you injury free and on track with your goals.

Do not resume training at your previous loads!

We can all be eager to get straight back into training at the same weight or intensity as before the break, however jumping back in where you left off can be risky and is a common cause of injury. A good rule of thumb is to reduce your weights by 50% on your return to the gym or begin with body weight exercise before slowly adding weight.

The slower the climb, the higher the peak!

Stay on track to achieve your long-term goal by avoiding injury. Too often do people go too heavy too quickly, resulting in time spent missing training. Try to keep weight increases to no more than 10% per week. These incremental increases give your body time to adapt to the changing load.

Rest is Important!

Our bodies need rest and recovery time in between training loads to get stronger and minimise injury. It is important to program rest or active recovery days where your heart rate does not exceed 140 bpm.

Consider training every second day or complete a gentle walk, swim, or bike session on the off days if you are looking to stay active. If you need some advice to assist with getting back into the gym or run into problems on your return, the team at NU Moves Physio would be happy to give you a hand.

Walking

by
Stay active – live better

Simple things work! A systematic review and meta-analysis of walking groups looked at forty-two studies involving 1843 participants & showed significant benefits in blood pressure, resting heart rate, body fat, body mass, cholesterol and depression*.

Start a routine. We have lots of great walks locally.

  • Walk on-campus
  • Walk in blackbutt reserve
  • Anzac walk

*Hansen & Jones, 2015. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/49/11/710.short

Thoracic pain

by

thoracic pain

The thoracic spine is your mid back between lower back and neck. Each of the 12 vertebrae of your thoracic spine has a rib on each side. Acute thoracic spine pain can be very debilitating. When it hurts to breathe the joints between the ribs and the thoracic vertebral body and transverse process can be the source. Postural loading and stress are common causes of this type of pain. Another is trauma in sport, but you also need to make sure there are no rib or other fractures in these cases.

Simple analgesics are usually advised at first. Sometimes taping can limit the pain by restricting painful movement when pain is bad but shouldn’t be used for more than a few days. The next step is to get moving via walking in water or on land followed by stretches. At this stage massage and joint mobilisations can improve your overall movement and increase the speed of your recovery.

Get good advice early is the quickest way to get back to normal once you have acute thoracic pain. This also includes analysis of the causes and implementing movement-based prevention strategies. Read more here on how we can help or contact us on 4921 6879.

Get your two strength sessions in per week

by

physio newcastle university callaghan

Callaghan provides a community who strive to produce and utilise research to better ourselves and our university.

There is a single research driven intervention that increases concentration, mood, mental health, metabolic health and overall well-being. Yet most of us struggle to maintain a routine that includes it. Exercise is that intervention and it is well known that achieving the National health and WHO recommendations of 150-300 mins of exercise per week including two strength sessions provides many benefits.

So, what are the side-effects or negative consequences of achieving this? If you find the right exercise for you and use simple exercise guidelines there are minimal risks. Here are some of those recommendations:

  • If over 50 get a medical check from your GP before starting a new routine, especially if its going to be high intensity exercise.
  • Don’t go too hard at the start. Its a common source of injury when the body is not conditioned to a new activity or exercise program.
  • If you are going to lift weights, then make sure your technique is correct. A personal trainer or exercise physiologist at NU Sport can provide this advice and education.
  • Strength classes don’t have to involve weights. You can use body weight in multiple ways to achieve your two strength sessions. Learn more about strength in small group pilates style classes designed for uni staff on campus.
  • If you feel pain associated with exercise that doesn’t ease of quickly then get some advice from the uni physio clinic on campus. Don’t let pain stop you participating in activity and exercise. Early advice and management is the key.

Go to the gym and get your 2 recommended strength sessions per week! You will feel better and live healthier if you can achieve what research has clearly proven.

If you want to read more here is a summary of a research article on strength exercise.

Staying active on Callaghan campus

by

Staying active on Callaghan Campus Physio Newcastle

Its winter but your body still needs a regular dose of activity. Staying active is harder when the days get shorter but it’s still just as important and beneficial to our health. The good news is that inactivity is reversible.

The research still tells us that better cardiovascular fitness is associated with healthier living and 2 strength sessions per week can make a difference to your health in many ways. We’ve summarised the evidence of staying active via strength exercise previously. Click here to read more. There are plenty of good activity options on Callaghan campus.

  • Walking on campus – it’s the quickest and easiest option and much better than having lunch at your desk each day
  • Outdoor equipment surrounding the oval 2 and 3 outside The Forum is free and easy to use. Another great lunchtime session combined with walking between them.
  • Group fitness classes at The Forum – either before work or after or even at lunchtime, the group fitness classes
  • NU Strength classes – If you like small group, mat based pilates style exercise then NU Moves Physio provides a range of early morning, lunchtime and evening workouts to help the body and back.
  • The newly refurbished gym at The Forum is an excellent way to combine cardio exercise with some stretching and strength exercise for an overall feel better workout that you are in control of.
  • Have a swim at The Forum – its particularly quiet and calm around lunchtime for a peaceful exercise session that will make you feel great.

Feel better & get active. Its worth doing.

Shoulder posture and movement

by

Physiotherapy shoulder newcastle

The shoulder blade is an attachment point which the rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder operate from. Its only bony connection to the body is via the collar bone which in turn connects to the sternum. Otherwise it is incredibly moved and controlled by muscles connecting from the trunk and neck.

The muscles that hold the shoulder blade in position are often affected by pain in the region and what is normally a coordinated movement becomes the opposite. Because it sits over the back where you cant see it you often don’t know its moving poorly but this is sometimes what can lead to persisting shoulder pain. If assistance to correct the movement improves pain then you need to start with scapula rehabilitation.

The very old fashioned advice of shoulders “back and down” is not good advice. In fact the starting posture for a lot of us needs to be more “up, back and hold” but that also depends on your posture. The most common movement dysfunction is when the shoulder drops forwards and down and the shoulder blade wings or lifts away from the body nearest to the spine.

There are good and bad ways to correct posture of the shoulder blade. We use a combination of key verbal instructions, hands on facilitation of position and movement, mirrors for visual feedback, and sometimes tape to assist the process. Static posture holds are the starting point with correcting poor movement of the shoulder blade but it also needs to be progressed to functional movements like reaching overhead to a cupboard in front.

Some people are able to get the shoulder blade posture and movement better quite quickly but others take some time and repeated practice to move better and reduce pain. If you aren’t sure of how to correct your shoulder posture or if you have shoulder pain then we would be happy to help you. If you have shoulder pain a carefully prescribed exercise program can help.

Physiotherapy gym exercise shoulder

Read more about movement control problems in the shoulder (dyskinesia).

Starting off 2018 Pain Free and Positive

by

42345147 - side view of smiling business colleagues looking at each other

With 2018 under way and the upcoming uni semester fast approaching and workloads increasing, it is important to consider how to best maintain our health and bodies at home and at work. Particularly for those of us on campus working long hours at desks, computers and various projects, a large risk is the onset of neck pain. Not only is this uncomfortable, but impacts on our day to day routine and often effectiveness at the tasks so important to us.

As campus gets increasingly busy, it’s more important than ever to keep moving, and keep an eye on our work related postures. Although pain often follows trauma, it is often a consequence of remaining too long in one posture, whether this is sitting or standing. This may be seated at the computer desk, looking at our phones, or standing and chatting to colleagues. Chances of injury or pain is then increased with any kind of stress that may be experienced throughout the day.

As a university physiotherapy clinic that has been on campus for 14 years, NU Moves understands the workplace demands on staff, including the regular postural demands and time constraints. We are also familiar with treating a range of resulting issues such as neck, arm and lower back pain. Manual therapy or exercise prescription are extremely useful tools that our qualified physiotherapists can use to get you on track to moving well and feeling great. A great goal to aim for in terms of movement is 30 minutes a day, and 150 minutes a week, whether this is walking to lunch, your car, or to grab a coffee.

If you are experiencing pain at work, or wanting to maximise your health and movement, NU Moves Physio can help. With post graduate qualifications and experience in musculoskeletal assessment, manual therapy, exercise prescription and outstanding problem solving, out physiotherapists are here to help. One on one treatment sessions involve a thorough assessment to determine what is causing your pain, and a treatment plan explained in depth, so you know how to approach improving your health from your first appointment.

When is too much exercise a problem?

by

exercise problemExercise plays an important role in assisting in the management of mental well-being. Research exists that agrees with the idea that if we are regularly active the symptoms of depression may improve (Click here to read our previous blog on exercise and depression). If we then exercise harder, it sometimes makes us feel even better and this good feeling can both mentally and physically become addictive.

A recent practice article from Heather Hausenblas and James Smoliga in the British medical journal discusses ‘addiction to exercise’, where exercise is an essential element to every day. The discussion surrounding the difference between healthy regular exercise and an addiction to exercise is important especially when injury occurs, as a reliance on exercise is difficult to overcome.

Having a physio practice in a gym based environment means we have seen clients with a reliance on exercise to the point of it being an addiction. As a general observation it is more common now than 10 years ago, but a greater number of people have a level of awareness of their need to exercise. The greatest time of concern with exercise addiction relates to when injury occurs and the ability to exercise has decreased.

Managing an unhealthy reliance on exercise involves starting with reflecting on the motivation or reasons for needing to exercise. What are your goals for exercising? If an exercise addiction is present, then we do not need to stop exercising, but rather understand the reasons and work towards a healthy exercise routine with less risk of injury and improved health benefits. Hausenblas refers to it as reducing the rigidity of an exercise routine. If you are over-reliant on running, then we may try to change the exercise routine initially and replace a run with a swim. Gradually work towards a healthy volume of exercise is the goal.

If you are reliant on exercise and don’t feel you can stop then discuss it with your GP or a psychologist. Alternatively give us a call and we can discuss your exercise routine. We will not ask you to stop but can assist with strategies to start moving towards a healthy exercise routine.

Housenblas H, Shreiber K, Smoliga J. (2017): Addiction to exercise. The British Medical Journal. http://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j1745

Depression and the Benefits of Exercise

by

Exercising for depressionExercise is a useful method of managing depression but is not a stand-alone treatment. There is research based reviews that support that exercise can reduce the symptoms of depression, and now a recent article by Harvey et. al in the American Journal of Psychiatry has found exercise / activity can prevent future cases of depression.

There are several features of the researcher’s interpretations that are useful. They concluded that exercise intensity was not relevant to the prevented cases of depression. This means that any exercise is better than no exercise. Just going for a walk is one of the simplest and easiest forms of exercise to start with. If you can’t walk due to pain or injury then we would encourage water based exercise or an exercise bike. Even a short walk will release endorphins to begin to make you feel better.

The findings of an 11 year prospective study were that as little as 1 hour of physical activity per week prevented 12% of future cases of depression. So if you are not currently exercising then just being active for 1 hour a week can help with depression. The recommended 30 minutes per day remains an ideal amount of exercise for healthy living (combining physical, cardiovascular and metabolic health) and if you achieve this you are way above the 1 hour per week required for assisting with depression.

The researchers did not find that exercise was not helpful in preventing future cases of anxiety. If you have anxiety or depression use the resources such as websites such as beyond blue and black dog institute and discuss it with your GP.

Click here to read the black dog institute’s fact sheet on exercise and depression.

Harvey et.al (2017). Exercise and the Prevention of Depression: Results of the HUNT Cohort Study: AJP in advance. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.16111223,