Why Exercise? Have you spent your life only exercising because you want to lose weight? Going through periods where you exercise daily and then periods where housework is your only exercise? Are you put off exercising because you think you are too overweight to exercise, too unfit to exercise or just not good enough and don’t want to make a fool of yourself? I think I could have answered yes to all of those at some point in my life. Except maybe replace housework with the short walk to University!
I recently started listening to Poorna Bell’s book Stronger. I could relate to a lot of it. From the hating school PE, largely because I was rubbish at all of it, to spending hours on the cardio machines in my 20s desperate to work off what I had eaten and drunk at the weekends. Happily though I could also relate to the feeling of empowerment gained from lifting weights in the gym.
The media, and social media, is awash these days with information and campaigns to encourage people to exercise. The focus of these is mostly still focused on exercise for weight loss. Although recently I have noticed more campaigns around exercise to improve your mental health. This angle was certainly being pushed more with the pandemic. There is lots of research evidence that shows that exercise can positively affect your mental health. Likewise there is lots of evidence that exercise improves your heart and lung health. Indeed the list of benefits of exercise and physical activity listed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is extensive.
Incidentally did you know that WHO recommends that adults aged 16 – 64 years old do at least 150 – 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, or at least 75 – 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity throughout the week? And this is the same for those over 65 years old. Did you also know that WHO recommends adults aged 18 – 64 years old do muscle-strengthening activities of moderate or greater intensity that involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week? Do you hit these targets? I digress.
As a Physiotherapist I would love to see messaging around exercise to improve musculoskeletal health. But that’s not sexy and wouldn’t get many hits on insta! Our bodies are made to move and without movement they start to stiffen up and degenerate. Think of your car if it is left parked up for a few weeks when you go on holiday, or when you were working from home during lockdown, and the noise from the breaks make when first moved. I have seen an increased number of patients with back, neck and shoulder pain from working at home due to the pandemic. In some cases this has been contributed to by poor work station set-up but not always. Before we had even heard of Covid-19 a large research study was published in the British Medical Journal which concluded that posture and how you sit is less of an issue than how long you sit for with regard to neck pain. And I think we have all been doing more sitting than ever since March 2020! But whether it is sitting for long periods, standing for long periods, or being bent over for much of your day, it seems to be sustained postures that are the issue and regular movement that is key.
Additionally I think the importance of strengthening exercise is under sold to the public. Improved muscle strength has been shown to help many musculoskeletal problems from arthritic joints to tendinopathies to ligament sprains to osteoporosis. Indeed it is often the focus of specific exercises I prescribe in clinic. In fact when I began to look for premises to house Cathryn Clark Physiotherapy one of my non-negotiables was space for a rehabilitation/strength and conditioning area, such is my passion for promoting the clinical benefits of exercise and particularly strengthening and resistance exercise.
Furthermore I have personally experienced the benefits of strengthening and resistance exercises. At the start of this blog I mentioned how I hated school PE and was rubbish at it all. That’s not strictly true as I enjoyed, and was slightly better than average, at swimming. But still my relationship with exercise was fairly strained until my mid-teens when my school got a girls rugby team. When I went to University though I stopped playing rugby and my only exercise was walking to lectures, dancing on nights out and walking home from nights out. Make note you can never get a taxi in Edinburgh after midnight. I digress again. Once I started working I felt a professional responsibility to exercise and joined a gym. Through my 20s and early 30s I did various types of exercise and can say I enjoyed it, or certainly enjoyed the feelings afterwards. It benefited my mental health, gave me a social life and helped me maintain my weight because I love food. However it was in my mid to late 30s that I discovered lifting weights.
Professionally evidence based practice was shifting towards strengthening exercise for many conditions including back pain and I had suffered episodes of sciatic since I was 19. Personally I was getting older and was aware from my professional reading that resistance exercise was good for bone health but also that I would start to lose muscle as I aged. More muscle equals more calories burnt even when you’re not moving and getting older makes it harder to maintain your weight. So I started to do more weight training other than just cardio. The happy consequences from this were that my episodic sciatica stopped flaring up – well I never – and I felt flipping awesome! I no longer needed to ask my partner to lift heavy things at home for me or the players from the rugby team I was working with to carry my treatment couch and that gave me a huge buzz. I remember being on holiday and my partner was recovering from surgery so had to be careful how much he lifted. I was over the moon stomping back to the apartment with 5 litres of water in each hand and a rucksack of beers on my back. I want to be independent for as long as possible as I grow older and I also want to be able to do the job I love for as long as I want to do it. I want to be able to enjoy my life without that sciatic pain coming back or arthritic joints holding me back. I want to thrive not just survive! And I want the same for my patients.
If you are interested in whether I can help you to thrive not just survive have a look at my services or get in touch.
https://youtu.be/F8xn9CvPuZ0https://youtu.be/xhKQfV9htbA