University of South Carolina’s Professor Steven Blair emphasised the importance of exercise over and above healthy diet and healthy lifestyle. Prof Blair has spent more than 40 years researching the impact of physical activity on health.
Prof Blair believed that inactivity causes more deaths than smoking, and although he acknowledged that healthy eating reduces a risk factor, his research suggested that being physically active has far more health benefits. His large-scale studies on cardiorespiratory fitness and mortality indicated that, in both men and women, unhealthy eating does not predict mortality risk on ‘high fit’ individuals; further, healthy eating among ‘low fit’ individuals does not seem to offer a significant advantage.
Prof Blair often gets asked what the best exercise is, and to that, he replied, “It’s the one you will do, or it’s the one that you can get your patients to do.”
When it comes to rehabilitation, our Principal and Physiotherapist Jo Mak has found that some clients are best with three exercises, and some can follow three pages of exercises. The key is to begin at a point that is practical to their lifestyle, to then turn it into a habit, and to make a regular review of the exercise program to further progress. A few helpful strategies to maintain clients’ interest and motivation include: setting a recovery goal, associating exercises with another activity that occurs everyday, using monitoring and reminding function of apps and gadgets, having a regular review with a health professional such a physiotherapist or an exercise physiologist, and engaging a coach or a trainer, to name a few. Do email us to share other ideas. We can be contacted through 13004MYREHAB (1300 469 734) or email at info@myrehabteam.com.au.
My Rehab Team offers a range of services related to exercise and diet plan. My Rehab Team offers mobile exercise physiology, physiotherapy, dietetics, along with mobile rehabilitation coach, occupational therapy, podiatry, and speech pathology.
References
Australian Physiotherapy Association (2015) Physiotherapy: In Motion. December, 2015. p29.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles @FreeDigitalPhotos.net Available at: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/, (accessed 30 March 2016).
