Motion Forword - Words of a Therapist: My Near Death Experience, Why Leisure exercise is better than Occupational exercise and Celebrating a Mile Stone
Welcome to Motion Forword - Words of a Therapist! Number 24!
Motion Forword is about discussing the combined benefits of movement with a positive mental attitude. Using my personal/professional experiences, evidence-based research and some of your own experiences.
Bringing some hope, positivity, happiness and maybe usefulness to those, perhaps like yourself, that needs a pick me up.
Something about me…My near death experience in Romania.
Around this time of year, you lovely lot tell me about your holiday plans: Greece (Corfu, Crete), Cyprus, Mexico, Maldives etc.
Which sounds all very lovely.
But I wanted to go a bit off the usual tourist track and try something off the typical agenda.
Eastern Europe seemed like a good place to start and we landed on Romania. Reasonably priced, beautiful weather, fun things to do. Brilliant.
I also wanted to do an active holiday. Don’t get me wrong, I love a beach. But I liked the idea of doing something.
My partner was the organiser extraordinare and planned a full on itinerary. (Which I was very grateful for!)
Flying into Bucharest, car hire and drive to Brasov, Via Ferrata, white water rafting, ebike tour up the Transfăgărășan, hiking and ziplining the 7 ladders canyon.
First of all, bloody hell! The ROADS! Unfortunately in Romania, there are no motor ways. So expect to go from 100kph to 30kph regularly as you pass through towns and over pedestrian crossings!
The scenery was beautiful though, especially as we travelled further north to Brasov.
As you may have guessed by the title of this bit, I may be catastrophising somewhat… but it was by the far the scariest thing I have ever done… Via Ferrata up Rasnov Gorge.
Rasnov Gorge
If you don’t know what a Via Ferrata is.. it means Iron Path in Italian and is where an experienced climber has put iron bolts into the cliff to allow you to climb these rock faces with a metal cable to attach to for safety.
I’d like to think of myself as a reasonable climber but this was something else…
221m of almost vertical climbing using pendulums, ladders and bolts. Oh and one zipline you pulled yourself across on:
don’t look down… don’t look down… don’t look down…
And that wasn’t even the scariest part!
Shortly after this death trap, above and slightly to the left you see the part of the cliff we climbed next. It appears like two white lines.
A series of ladders.
This was my near death experience.
As I climbed the rickety ladder, my caribenas got caught between the ladder and the rock and I couldn’t continue to climb. It wouldn’t riggle free.
I had to climb down to get it unstuck.
‘Be calm, breathe, you can do this’ - I told myself.
I have never been so scared in my life to take 2 steps downward.
Spoiler Alert! I didn’t die. I survived. But it did push me way outside of my comfort zone.
My forearms were burning where I’d gripped hard to prevent from falling and I wasn’t sure I’d finish the climb. Exhausted. Scared. I have never felt the feeling of not being able to finish something before.
We were allowed a reprieve as we caught our breath on a ridge as it began to rain. I was quite an angelic feeling, being high on the cliff side looking across, instead of up, as the rain fell. But then I also thought… ‘S**T! Everything is going to be slippy!!’
Fortunately, after this it was much easier and well within my ability and no more bloody ladders! We completed the 221m climb. I felt awesome for what I had overcome.
I think a lot of us get quite comfortable in our comfort zones. But if we can be brave enough to try, even if just a little, it is amazing what we can accomplish. Just don’t die!
Something for you… The Difference between Work Exercise and Recreational Exercise
If you are a manual labourer (builder, bricky, sparky, heating engineer, plumber, scaffolder, road worker etc) this bit is particularly important for you…
‘Why do I need to do exercises? I do loads of that at work’
If you have ever found yourself saying this, this paper has a go at answering that question.
They included 2787 people in their study and looking at the relationship of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and occupational physical activity (OPA) on persistent pain (how long they hurt) and number of pain sites (where they hurt).
They concluded that there was a relationship between moderate-high OPA people and having more pain sites and for longer, compared to higher LTPA people. (see below)
AND… those that did moderate-high LTPA tended to mitigate the effects of their moderate-high OPA.
i.e. if you did a hard labour job, you benefited (in terms of pain) by doing more leisure based physical activity. The benefit increased with more time spent doing the LTPA (>4hrs/wk).
Interestingly, they also showed that a low LTPA (inactive) and sedentary work (i.e. no OPA) had the highest relationship with persistant pain and number of pain sites.
This may suggest a protective effect of OPA compared to a sedentary job. Which fits with what I often say about a physical job is probably better than a office based one.
However, the main takeaway from this paper, is that LTPA (e.g. cycling, walks, brisk walks, light/heavy gardening, light/heavy calisthenics, ‘getting out of breath’, hard physical exercise, competitions) seems to be protective against how many pain sites you have and how long you have them.
Another reason to motion forward and get active.
A story… 7 years > 100 5 Star Reviews
Would you believe I have been a qualified Osteopath for almost 9 years and have been self-employed now for over 7 years!
And I now have over 100 5 star reviews on Google.
I am actually a little bit gob-smacked that so many of you have had such nice things to say about me!
And this doesn’t even include the positive reviews I have had from working at Hutchinson Health in Portchester.
I am very grateful for all of them, read and reply to every one personally.
It is what keeps me going when the days are long and tough, knowing that I do and can help many people.
Just a short one this month as I’ve harped on long enough about my Via Ferrata story!
But a big big thank you to you all for your help and support.
Here is one more of me…
Relief.
Still smiling!
Thanks for reading.
Until next month…
Motion Forword ⏩⏩
Nathan