SJ responds to readers’ concerns in the Ponsonby News Healthy Living column.

SARAH–JANE ATTIAS: HEALTHY LIVING

It’s summer – finally!

We are all locked and loaded ready for beach holidays and fun with family and friends. With this comes a natural surge of movement as you indulge in outdoor pursuits.

Whether you are building up for a tennis tournament or jumping on your surprise Christmas present, that flashy new Avanti bike – the team here at Living Osteopathy Clinic have a ‘golden rule’, stretch to warm up and cool down for you to stay safe and avoid injury. Prevention is the best cure – at the clinic we are very busy over the holidays with people limping in suffering many preventable injuries.

Our beloved Silver Ferns, All Blacks and people of all levels of fitness, do dynamic stretches. Below I recommend a couple of one-minute stretches I personally do everyday. If you’re on a hike, stretch every two hours. You will feel de-stressed, limber and flexible – poised to enjoy the good life!

I recommend you watch me demonstrate these one minute exercises on our Youtube Channel – just tap the link on the front page of livingosteopathy.co.nz.

Quads (front of thigh): standing with the wall beside you for balance if you need it, and bend your knee, bringing your heel towards your bottom and hold your ankle. You should feel a stretch into the front of the thigh of the bent leg.

Hamstrings (back of thigh): standing upright, place a straight leg up onto the seat of the bench and slowly fold forward over the raised straight leg. You will feel a stretch into the back of the straight leg. To make it more challenging, flex your heel and bring your toes towards you.

Shoulder rotations: folding your arms at the elbows and placing your fingertips onto your shoulder tips, drop, relax your shoulders and draw your elbows forward, drawing a circle with your elbows. Moving your elbows clockwise and then anticlockwise.

There should never be any pain – if there is, stop immediately. Take a mental note of any pain: where is it exactly, is it pins and needles or a sharp or a dull ache, how would you rate it on a scale of 1 to 10? Gently re-enter the stretch to a lesser degree. If pain persists, it’s time to seek a professional such as an osteopath to diagnose and resolve.

Be mindful – it’s easy to underestimate an activity like beach walking or gardening is a good example where you could easy spend three-four hours bending, twisting, weeding, trimming, planting, dragging, lifting – all big exercise moves – but do you stretch out before and after to minimise injury?

De-stress and thank-you Christmas gifts we sell at Living Osteopathy, Grey Lynn:

Living Osteopathy Voucher – beautiful, personalised printed or digital to a value of your choice. Whatever the receiver wishes for treatments or products. Perhaps a treatment at our Mother and Child Clinic or Wellness De Stress treatment for your body? (It’s not uncommon to find a patient so relaxed they drift off to sleep!)

Spikey Balls – fantastic deep-muscle tissue treatment; affordable, compact, rubber self-massage ball. All you need is a wall to lean into. I throw ‘Spikey’ in my handbag and always have a spare in the car glove box. Great for feet, hand, hip, back and shoulders. The work-out increases blood flow to most muscle groups. Spikey are in funky, bright colours and look cute, so having one laying around your work desk people often think it’s an objet d’art.

Holiday ‘first aid’ Kit – all therapeutic-grade essential oils, New Zealand made, 100% organic.

• Absolute Essential Body Repair Cream – muscle and anti-inflamatory liniment; use a combination of icing and rubbing in (excellent when you are away and cannot seek treatment) to improve and speed up healing.
• Lavender True – bruises, calming, antiseptic.
• Stress Less – dot on pulse point and surfaces such as your pillowcase to calm the nerves of all family members, especially on long drives.
• Lemon Eucalyptus – to ward off the mozzies, World Health Organisation approved as powerful anti-bug rub on skin and clothing.

I hope that you found my Ponsonby News November article on ‘Text Neck’ interesting. On that note, we are welcoming Senior Osteopath James Hutchinson MOst, MPhil, BAppSc (Human Bio) MONZ. James completed a five-year Masters thesis on Comparative Neck Treatments; he will head our Neck and Back Health Care and Pain Relief Clinic to assess and resolve your posture issues and achieve pain-free time in general and at your computer and workstation.

NOTE – We will be one of the few practices in Auckland open over the festive season, please look on our website, book online or give us a ring. (SARAH-JANE ATTIAS)

Wishing you all a happy and safe festive season and blessings from our team:
Sarah-Jane, Bo, James, Tanah and Rachel.