Studies have linked excessive sitting with being overweight and obese, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, and premature death.

Prolonged sitting is thought to slow the metabolism, which affects the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and break down body fat.

Many adults in the UK spend more than seven hours a day sitting or lying, and this typically increases with age to 10 hours or more.

This includes watching TV, using a computer, reading, doing homework, travelling by car, bus or train – behaviours referred to as sedentary – but does not include sleeping.

Experts believe there is something specific about the act of sitting or lying for too long that is bad for our health.

One of the largest pieces of research to date on the subject – involving almost 800,000 people – found that, compared with those who sat the least, people who sat the longest had a:

• 112% increase in risk of diabetes
• 147% increase in cardiovascular events
• 90% increase in death caused by cardiovascular events
• 49% increase in death from any cause

How much sitting is too much?

The advice is clear: to reduce our risk of ill health from inactivity, we are advised to exercise regularly – at least 150 minutes a week – as well as reduce time spent sitting or lying.However, there is currently not enough evidence to set a time limit on how much time people should sit each day.

What Can You Do?

Adults aged 19 to 64 are advised to try to sit down less throughout the day, including at work, when travelling and at home.

Tips to reduce sitting time:

• stand on the train or bus
• take the stairs and walk up escalators
• set a reminder to get up every 30 minutes
• alternate working while seated with standing
• place a laptop on a box or similar to work standing
• stand or walk around while on the phone
• take a walk break every time you take a coffee or tea break
• walk to a co-worker’s desk instead of emailing or calling
• swap some TV time for more active tasks or hobbies

How much physical activity you need to do each week depends on your age.

• at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity such as cycling or fast walking every week, and
• strength exercises on two or more days a week that work all the major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms).

OR

• 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity, such as running or a game of singles tennis every week, and
• strength exercises on two or more days a week that work all the major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms).

OR

• A mix of moderate and vigorous aerobic activity every week. For example, two 30-minute runs plus 30 minutes of fast walking equates to 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity, and
• strength exercises on two or more days a week that work all the major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms).

A rule of thumb is that one minute of vigorous activity provides the same health benefits as two minutes of moderate activity.

One way to do your recommended 150 minutes of weekly physical activity is to do 30 minutes on 5 days a week.

All adults should also break up long periods of sitting with light activity. Find out why sitting is bad for your health.
What classes as Aerobic exercise:

• walking fast
• water aerobics
• riding a bike
• doubles tennis
• pushing a lawn mower
• hiking
• skateboarding
• rollerblading
• swimming
• jogging

Shoulder instability is when the ball and socket joint is not controlled well.  When the ball is sliding around it’s socket too much it can cause pain and in some cases come out of the socket and dislocate.  Sometimes the ball does not completely dislocate and is only partially out and can feel locked. With a wiggle it often returns to its normal position.  This is called subluxation.

To help improve the shoulder’s stability, the joint is supported by a thickened rim around the socket called a labrum, which deepens the shallow joint.  The capsule around this joint is also reinforced by ligaments which become taught at the end range of all shoulder movements.  When the ligaments become tight they also send important messages to the brain so that it can coordinate how the muscles around the shoulder move.

There are 3 types of shoulder instability.  The most common form of instability is caused by trauma, such as a fall.  The large force causes structural damage to the ligaments and socket rim (labrum).  This can lead to repetitive dislocations in some people.  Shoulder rehabilitation may reduce the chances of this by training the rotator cuff to fully recover and compensate.  In the younger population (below 28 years old) the chances of re-dislocation are much higher and they may require surgery.

The third type is very rare and called “abnormal muscle patterning”.  This is when the big powerful muscles that attach around the shoulder, activate inappropriately and out of sequence.  This causes very large forces that the rotator cuff simply cannot compete with.  This type of instability requires very specialist physiotherapy.  We aim to reteach these muscles to activate in a normal way and rewrite their programming.  Occasionally, the first 2 types of shoulder instability may develop these characteristics and it is important that this is identified early and addressed.

Due to the complex nature and wide spectrum of symptoms of shoulder instability, shoulder surgeons and Physiotherapists work very closely together to manage this condition.

Osteoarthritis occurs when there is damage in and around the joints that the body cannot fully repair. It’s not clear exactly why this happens in some people, although your chances of developing the condition can be influenced by a number of factors, such as your age and weight. Osteoarthritis usually develops in people over 45 years of age, although younger people can also be affected. It is commonly thought that osteoarthritis is an inevitable part of getting older, but this is not quite true. You may in fact be able to reduce your chances of developing the condition by doing regular, gentle exercises and maintaining a healthy weight.

Who’s Affected?

Although OA occurs in people of all ages, osteoarthritis is most common in people older than 65. Common risk factors include increasing age, obesity, previous joint injury, overuse of the joint, weak thigh muscles, and genetics.
Managing osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is a long-term condition and can’t be cured, but it doesn’t necessarily get any worse over time and it can sometimes gradually improve. A number of treatments are also available to reduce the symptoms.
Mild symptoms can sometimes be managed with simple measures including regular exercise to ensure the muscles surrounding the joint are in good strength to support the body weight, losing weight if you are overweight, wearing suitable footwear and using special devices to reduce the strain on your joints during your everyday activities.
If your symptoms are more severe, you may need additional treatments such as painkilling medication and a structured exercise plan carried out under the supervision of a physiotherapist.
In a small number of cases, where the above treatments haven’t helped or the damage to the joints is particularly severe, surgery may be carried out to repair, strengthen or replace a damaged joint.

It is a series of 7 movement patterns that look at the basics of human movement. Three are in weight bearing; four are on the floor. Three involve the basic foot positions of sport; two are for flexibility; and two are for stability. For each movement pattern, we are looking for asymmetries between the right and left side or limitations in the ability to perform the pattern. Each pattern is given a score between 0 and 3, with a maximal score of 21, and an average score of 14-16.
Why does this matter and why would I want one?

The key with any exercise program is to get stronger or fitter without causing other problems. But what if that isn’t happening? What if you want to get back to running after a period of time away from it, but you don’t want to hurt yourself? Or what if you keep trying to return to the sport you love, but you keep causing the same injury over and over again or a different injury every time? There is a very good reason for this. You just may not know what it is yet. By using the FMS, we will look at the basics of human movement, and see how well you, as a human, move. You will have certain tests that are really easy for you and possibly others that seem next to impossible. But you are only ever as strong as your weakest link. The FMS will help us identify what this is so that we can help you change it, and thereby, change your outcomes.
Likewise, what if you regularly lift weights in the gym but you never seem to see a difference in your performance, whether that’s in a sport or simply with daily routines? Participating in an FMS can help you identify where your weaknesses are so that you can alter your workouts to address them. Doing what you are good at does not make you better. Doing what is hard until it’s not hard any longer does make you better. If you have limited movement patterns or are working around a pre-existing problem, you will never see the changes you are looking for. An FMS will help you identify where these limitations are and ways to change them. It also gives you objective measurable ways to judge your progress.
An FMS can also identify pain. You should not train on top of pain. Pain changes the way we move in unpredictable ways. Whether you realize it or not, pain causes you to compensate and move in less than efficient patterns. The pain needs to be resolved before a pattern is regularly repeated. This can only cause more problems. Additionally, sometimes, we have pain that resolves, but we don’t necessarily resolve our compensations. Sometimes, we don’t even realize that we ever started to compensate in the first place, so we have no idea that we are moving in an altered way. An FMS can help us to identify patterns that cause pain. An SFMA or a qualified provider can help you to identify sources of pain.
To summarize, the FMS helps us to identify two main things. One, which aspects of movement need to be addressed to have the biggest impact on performance. Performance could be athletic performance, but it doesn’t have to be. It could also be squatting to retrieve items from a low shelf or reaching into an overhead cabinet or any other movement pattern that we use in everyday life. And two, it helps us to determine where a person might break down. It helps us see a potential for injury before that injury occurs, so we can stop the process and prevent it. In participating in an FMS, you will learn one of three things. Either, you are good; keeping doing what you are doing. Or, how to tailor a workout program to better meet your goals. Or lastly, that you have some underlying issues that you would be better off to address before increasing loads or repetitions. Hopefully, this has shed some light on the FMS, in general, and also, some of its benefits.

Benefits of an appropriate warm up will result in an:

• Increased speed of contraction and relaxation of warmed muscles
• Dynamic exercises reduce muscle stiffness
• Greater economy of movement because of lowered viscous resistance within warmed muscles
• Facilitated oxygen utilization by warmed muscles because haemoglobin releases oxygen more readily at higher muscle temperatures
• Facilitated nerve transmission and muscle metabolism at higher temperatures; a specific warm up can facilitate motor unit recruitment required in subsequent all out activity
• Increased blood flow through active tissues as local vascular beds dilate, increasing metabolism and muscle temperatures
• Allows the heart rate get to a workable rate for beginning exercise
• Mentally focused on the training or competition

Cool Down Cooling down after your workout allows for a gradual recovery of heart rate and blood pressure. Cooling down should consist of 5 to 10 minutes jogging/walking to decrease the body temperature and remove waste products from the working muscles. Followed by 10 minutes of static stretching. Static stretches are appropriate to the cool down as they help muscles to relax, realign muscle fibres and re-establish their normal range of movement. These stretches should be held for approximately 10 seconds. An appropriate cool down will

• Aid in the dissipation of waste products – including lactic acid
• Reduce the potential for Daily onset of muscle soreness ( DOMS)
• Reduce the chances of dizziness or fainting caused by the pooling of venous blood at the extremities
• Reduce the level of adrenaline in the blood
• Allows the heart rate to return to its resting rate