Health and Wellbeing

Health and Wellbeing

Premier’s Active April

Are you looking for a month-long commitment to your health this April? Well you’re in luck as April is the “Premier’s Active” month.

Our Premier is calling on all Victorians to commit to 30 minutes of active physical activity on each day in April. It’s a great way to not only get yourself fit, but also develop solid exercise habits that will shape your future health. Formerly the Premier’s Active Family Challenge, the new name focuses on families as well as individuals and schools to adopt a healthy and sustainable approach to exercise.

If you’re looking for some extra motivation, there’s some amazing offers available to all registrants including discounts at Sportsmart, one hour free tennis court hire at Melbourne Park or Albert Reserve, two-for-one ticket offers to the Melbourne Aquarium, 10 free YMCA passes, plus a chance to win 2015 AFL Grand Final Tickets!

As a regular attendee of my local YMCA I can attest that the classes are fantastic and the gyms are well appointed. There’s even extra prizes for referring a friend.

Register your interest at www.activeapril.vic.gov.au

The effect of extra weight

Being pregnant with my second child, as my due date rapidly approaches, I have had an opportunity to think about the effect of carrying extra weight on our musculoskeletal injuries.  Having put on about the recommend 12kg during this pregnancy, I have been surprised and even shocked at the increased incidence of what most would consider normal physio-style injuries.

The physiotherapy world has been long preaching the importance of core stability in preventing back pain, neck pain and other overuse injuries, however, with even the expansion of an extra few cms around your middle, the ability of your stomach muscles to effectively hold your core and lower back is diminished.

Secondly, as I’ve approached the 10-12kg mark, I’ve been amazed at the number of “overuse” niggles I have felt in my legs such as cartilage pain in my knees, plantar fasciitis in my feet and a change in the general biomechanics of my walking stride.

It’s not difficult for the average office worker to gain 5-10kg just through a few months of poor lifestyle and so I appeal to you to keep the kgs down before it’s too late!

AFL injury update

Us physios always find this is an interesting time of year to watch the AFL injury list. We, of course, would be millionaires if we had an unconditional answer, but the question always exists at this time of year as to why Hawthorn has only has two injuries whereas St Kilda hold 11 players on its injury list.

Firstly it can’t be denied that there are plenty of bad-luck cases in AFL. The nature of the sport and the contact involved means you’ll always get bruises, contusions and falls which result in traumatic injuries.

However, many AFL injuries are of an overuse nature rather than traumatic.  Which brings me to an interesting anecdote from a few years ago at the Fremantle Football Club.

With a very high incidence of the debilitating condition, osteitis pubis, Freo overhauled its pre-season program to include hurdle requirements on glut and core strength and virtually turned their injury list from 12 to zero in a season.

The moral of the story is prepare your body for the specific forces required by your sport and reap the rewards! More info can be found at www.afl.com.au/news/injury-news/injury-list 

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