Category: Lifestyle

Tablets Down! Is it in the School Bag?

28/1/2017

The start of the school year heralds much blogging on childhood and adolescent back pain. School bags seem to feature prominently in these. But what is really important for healthy young backs? We will dip into a bit of back ground but then come back to the bag.

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6 tips for sitting through Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

19/12/2015

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The highly anticipated seventh installment of Star Wars will bring over 2 hours of action-packed fun for the family. Trailers have been trickling out for the last couple of months leaving fans itching for its release. I've got my tickets already and have been playing with my figurines for the last month in preparation. I’m all set!

But if you want to stay nimble, agile and healthy like Master Yoda instead of hunched over like Darth Sidious, then here are 6 tips that may help!

Book a centre seat: Not only do you get the best view, but you also wont be spending the whole movie with a twisted or extended neck being too close or too far to side of the of screen!
Preload: Drink and eat adequately. You will need your energy to pay full attention to epic light sabre battles between the Sith and the Jedi. Don’t overload to soon though or you will experience the full power of the force that will likely take you away from the screen.
Wear loose clothing: Master Luke looks pretty relaxed in his Jedi robes. As you grip the seat, the chair or the person next to you in suspense you wont want to be fighting your clothing too!
Arrive early-ish: Undoubtedly the queues will be long and trudging through them will be a bigger battle than Luke Vs Darth Vader. Seriously, who wants to stand in queue for ages getting sore and bored.
Relax: Try not to stiffen up in the chair – relax! Try clenching and relaxing your bottom, or pressing your feet to lift your heels a few times. Let the movie build suspense, not your body!
Light sabres. No amount of physiotherapy can help someone who has been struck down with one of these. Leave them at home.

So there you go! Even if you haven’t just watched all 6 previous episodes in preparation, these tips will ensure that you are nice and comfortable in the cinema enjoying the film to its fullest. So go, have fun and may the force be with you!

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Healthy mind, healthy body

10/11/2012

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Often in our busy lifestyles we get caught up or distracted by current, past and future events. This can result in a default mode of incessant thinking, or reacting which research shows results in a prolonged stress response on the body.

The stress response is useful sometimes but not all the time. It’s physiological effect can be detrimental to our well being in the longer term. Physiotherapists often come across this in our patients, especially where muscles don’t relax when they are not needed to work. At rest people can have loaded joints form excessive muscle activation.

Training ourselves to be aware of this and to learning to switch off the chatter has research-proven benefits. Life Matters on ABC Radio National has a great page called the Meditation Toolkit to learn about and practice these important skills in mindfulness, body awareness and meditation.

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