Physiotherapy is kind of new, or so I always thought. So I was surprised when the very nice man who tortured me in hospital told me that Hippocrates himself had used massage, manipulation and hydrotherapy to treat patients. Physical therapy it seems is as old as the science of medicine, dating back at least to 460 BC, and on the biggest problems physical therapists face is the varying degree’s of fitness in their patients. We all know that if you don’t use it, you loose it, but a degree of fitness is required just in order to take exercise. Not all therapies suit all patients, and while walking sounds nice and gentle, you can’t walk if you cant support your own weight, so something as fundamental as using your legs can be a problem. This is a common problem for anyone attempting serious weight loss. If you are already overweight you may find the exercise is as bad for you as the extra weight you carry, but you still need to exercise, so what do you do? (more…)
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I ignored exercise for years, until, as is always the way, the need for it hit me in an unpleasant way. After a month in hospital and an unpleasant operation I was told to go home and rest and recover, ‘Oh and by the way, don’t forget to exercise that leg’.
When you feel fragile, as you do after a month in hospital, it’s not easy to even think about exercise. I had worked with physiotherapists, but at home it was very very easy to just do the rest part and forget everything else. Weeks passed and I began to feel better, I stretched the leg, but was quite unable to go for walks, so I started to look for something that would be low impact but would let me ‘stretch my legs’.
Open any celebrity magazine and you’ll find everyone talking about how they keep slim and fit. Their exercise regime of choice? Pilates. So what’s it all about?
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Joseph Pilates was born in Germany of Greek parentage and devised his exercis
e regime in the twenties. He used his knowledge of Yoga and martial arts to put together a number of movements which would bring mind and body together. His sincere belief was that you could not improve one without the other.
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Some of our favorite quotes about good health and fitness. Some funny, some inspirational.
“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person’s determination.”
- Tommy Lasorda
“The more I talk to athletes, the more convinced I become that the method of training is relatively (more…)
If you’ve only just started setting up a home gym, you’ve probably looked at all the standard equipment, treadmill, exercise bike, rowing machine, but you may not have looked at another piece of equipment which is less well known, but becoming increasingly popular; elliptical trainers
The first elliptical exercise machines provided a good workout, but only for the lower body. Most have some sort of handrail for balance, but many now have (more…)