Exercising outdoors is associated with a whole host of health benefits in addition to the physical.  A systematic review carried out by a team at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry has analysed existing studies and concluded that there are benefits to mental and physical well-being from taking exercise in the natural environment e.g. “greater feelings of revitalisation, increased energy and positive engagement, together with decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression. Participants also reported greater enjoyment and satisfaction with outdoor activity and stated that they were more likely to repeat the activity at a later date.”

So come and join us!!

Flexibility : If your back is not flexible (and this includes your hips) you are more likely to stretch something painfully.

Strength : If your back is weak you will strain it too easily.

Endurance : If your back tires quickly, again you will strain it easily.

So, exercises should achieve:

• Good flexibility
• Good strength
• Good endurance

However, remember not to aggravate your pain by attempting exercises that are beyond you at the moment.

Our back care exercises will help you put together a self help plan using exercises from all of these categories – strength, endurance and flexibility – be sure to choose at least two from each one and do them on a daily basis.

If you need any other help remember as an Osteopath I can help you with any pain you are currently experiencing whether it is back pain, shoulder or next pain. Simply call our Edinburgh office on 0131 221 1415

1. Schedule your time

Its nice to be free and easy at festivals and walk around choosing who you watch at the time but when you do that you run the risk of turning up too early and having to stand around while you wait for your favourite artist to appear. Then you stand for 90 minutes while they perform and have to walk to the next artist or back to your tent.

When you create a rough schedule of who you want to see and at what time you avoid all the un-necessary standing about. If you already suffer from low back pain all that extra standing really won’t help!

2. Enjoy a few massage appointments before you go

Massage really can help lumber you up and relax your muscles. You may find treating yourself to a few massages before and after the festival will lessen the amount of pain that you may feel after the festival ends.

3. Carry a portable chair with you or a blanket

My first choice for you will be to carry a lightweight portable chair – note I said light weight! The kind that fold up and include a carry strap so they are easy to move around. At the very least carry a blanket in your backpack so you are not sitting on the ground – especially as it gets colder in the evenings.

4.  Take some paracetamol with you or a heat/cold back

If you are aware of the type of pain you usually encounter then make sure you carry some pain relieving items with you just in case. There are usually first aid stations at any festival should you need them and it certainly won’t hurt to carry your own.

If you are attending the Edinburgh Jazz festival or any other of the festivals coming up late July/August I hope you enjoy yourself. Should you find yourself in pain please do call us on 0131 221 1415 – we are based at 14 Stafford Street, Edinburgh and will happily fit you in if we are able to do that.

Tom understands how much staff absenteeism because of back pain costs employers every year, which is why he invented the chair.  Having to recruit temporary staff because of absenteeism can have a serious effect on your business especially if you rely on one of two key members of staff.

active-x will continue to raise awareness of back pain and the cost of absenteeism for business owners in Edinburgh – which you can talk to us about if it is something that is currently an issue for your business. Call me (Gavin Routledge) on 0132 221 1415 or click here to complete our enquiry form and someone will get back to you.

In the meantime congratulations Tom Pellereau and good luck with the promotion of your chair. You can read the story at Optimist News

can you challenge yourself for one week?

You can either eat a different superfood every day, choose the same one every day or find one and eat it 2-3 times then change to another for the rest of the week. How you work this out is up to you the most important thing here is finding a superfood that you wouldn’t normally eat and include it in your meals for the week.

You can find a blog post on 3 highly nutritional superfoods <— click the link to read it.

Below is a sample list of superfoods you can consider:

• Almonds
• Brazil nuts (and most seeds and nuts except salted peanuts)
• Broccoli
• Butternut squash
• Green leafy vegetables (e.g. spinach)
• Salmon (Sardines, Kippers and other oily fish)
• Sweet potato
• Oats

You can easily eat 6-7 nuts with your lunch and you have introduced one superfood already! See if you can introduce these foods into your normal eating plan rather than go out of your way to make something special (although you can do that too).

If you need help with changing the way you eat a nutritionist can help you do that easily by showing you how easy it is to introduce new foods. Call us on 0131 221 1415 to speak to our nutritionist.

This is the first of a series of videos that are part of my rehabilitation training that will be running over the next 12 weeks so look out for more.

You will find a complete definition of Plantar Fasciitis over at Wikipedia if you need one

If you need the support of a personal trainer to help you through plantar fasciitis or any other kind of rehabilitation injury please call Oliver Jessop on 0131 221 1415 for an informal discussion.

It also provides links to the many low back exercises we have provided and other information

If you need the support of a nutritionist, personal trainer or osteopath in Edinburgh to help improve your health and well-being please contact the active-x office on 0131 221 1415 and we will be happy to discuss how we can help.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD BACK PAIN GUIDE 10

In the meantime if you are looking to regain your strength after injury call Oliver on 0131 221 1415 to speak to him about how he can help.

Our Edinburgh diet challenge this week is to make yourself a healthy smoothie. It can be the same smoothie every day for a week or a different one but the aim here is to drink one every day. Although not as great but allowed for this week is one of the healthy smoothies you can buy in a health food or whole food shop. If you are short on time or don’t own a blender/smoothie maker then buying a fruit smoothie is another option. You must make sure it has no added sugar or salt of any kind and 100% fruit!

can you challenge yourself for one week?

Buy frozen fruit if you are worried about fresh fruit not being wasted and focus on anything with the word berries in it because they are particular wholesome fruit to eat – we are talking here about raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, acai berries – all of which can be bought frozen.

If you want to mix it up a little try 3 days with a fruit smoothie and 4 days with a vegetable smoothie.

Have fun with our food challenge and as always we would love to know if you made a smoothie. What ingredients do you use? Or anything else you want to share.

If you have trouble changing your current eating patterns and would like to speak to our nutritionist call us on 0121 221 1415 or click here to complete our enquiry form (towards the end of the page)

Today’s video is for anyone who is a runner or who is thinking about taking up running (best to get a personal trainer or join a running club if you are very unfit/overweight) and it focuses on some warmups you can do before you start your run.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It was requested by one of our Facebook Fanpage members and I am happy to make videos that will help anyone on there – all you have to do is ask by leaving a comment below or adding a comment on our fanpage (the Like button is on the right) ===>

If you are looking for a personal trainer we have a fantastic space at our offices in Edinburgh that I use to help our clients get maximum results or I can put together a program for you that you can do at home like I did for this client here.

Call us on 0131 221 1415 to arrange to talk if you are a runner looking for a new challenge or you are taking part in a competition and are looking to improve your fitness.