Delighted to finish in second place in the mixed team. A brilliantly organised race with loads of volunteers out from Dundrum South Dublin Athletic Club supporting the team runners making it a thoroughly enjoyable race!
We finished with a combined points total of 337!
The campaign for World Physiotherapy Day 2019 is focussed around the theme of chronic pain and the role that physiotherapy and physical activity can have in helping people manage chronic pain.
The campaign is focused around the following key messages about the benefits of using exercise to manage chronic pain to:
The British Journal of Sports Medicine published a systematic review* last year on whether schoolbag use is a risk factor for back pain in children and adolescents. This is often cited as a cause of back pain in children but the findings of the research may come as a surprise.
They found that there is no convincing evidence that aspects of schoolbag use increase the risk of back pain in children and adolescents.
The article is free to read on BJSM here https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/52/19/1241
*A systematic review – is basically a summary of the results of available carefully designed healthcare research studies (controlled trials) which provides a high level of evidence on the effectiveness of healthcare interventions
Ever wonder why you feel worse sometimes two days after starting a new exercise regime or after doing intense exercise?
A great infographic from Science for Sport explaining Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)
A great infographic here on measuring the risks of falls by Kevin Wernli Physio. Kevin is worth a follow on twitter @KWernliPhysio.
This is a really nice way to inform the risk of falls in a patient basing it on the time taken to complete a backwards walking test “as fast and as safely as possible”.
Alongside Irish Women’s hockey’s amazing few weeks, we were delighted to see our own physiotherapist Noreen Dockery represent Ireland in the Master’s hockey World Cup in Spain. Noreen received her 50th cap for Ireland during the tournament and also was the captain.
Congratulations Noreen, some going!!
“Advice to rest and avoid pain is commonly provided to people with knee and other joint pains. This advice is often wrong, and harmful. Inactivity and rest makes pain and osteoarthritis worse, not better in the longer term. Our joints need movement and exercise to stimulate repair and keep them strong. There is undisputable evidence that staying active and regular participation in exercise is safe and will help improve pain, and a person’s quality of life”
Some great work here by physiotherapist Dr. Christian Barton
Watch the video below from a patient’s perspective.
Myth Busted Exercise helps
A really nice infographic from @infophysiopt on twitter that shows what exercise is good for knee osteoarthritis. From Tai Chi and yoga to strength training, find something you enjoy and can stick to for positive results.
World Physiotherapy Day was on 8th September and a survey to mark the occasion by the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists showed that 2/3 of Irish Adults are not active enough with the shock headline: Sitting is the new smoking.
The main findings were that over 55s are outperforming all younger age groups in time spent at physical activity. However they are not getting it completely right needing to do more resistance exercise to increase quality of life in later years. The survey suggested that 18-24 year olds may be the most physically inactive amongst all adults.
New recommendations on Physical Activity levels (BMJ 2016) demonstrate that the maximum health benefits from physical activity can be achieved by getting between 3000 and 4000 MET mins of activity per week. The MET min is a unit that describes volumes of physical activity. Sixty MET mins equates to the energy consumed by sitting quietly for 1 hour. The 18-24 year olds surveyed were just expending 1496 MET mins per week while the total population was expending 2137 MET mins per week.
Physical inactivity is the fourth leading factor in global mortality and is responsible for 6% of deaths around the world. Other health benefits from engaging in more physical activity include decreased risk of:
The suggested target for older adults (>65) is 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least five times per week in bouts of 10 minutes or more. 30 minutes of brisk walking or the equivalent five days a week is often recommended. In addition, physical activity to improve strength should be done at least two days a week.
Some people can find it difficult to reach this level of activity but making modest increases in your time standing and spending less time sitting can have a positive effective.
There are associations between increased physical activity and reduction in musculoskeletal conditions such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and better cognitive acuity and mental health.
On World Physiotherapy Day at Milltown Physiotherapy we set up an information area for everyone passing through that day and gave out a copy of the two WPD infographics to take away. We measured grip strength to promote the idea of needing to do strength training on two days per week. We compared grip strength against norms in age categories and did a draw for free physiotherapy sessions giving prizes to four strong winners. They all had a story to tell as to why their grip was in the ‘strong’ category. We gave a few people frights too!