Tips to start the year as you mean to go on

1. Remember, it’s about creating new habits. Therefore, any changes to your lifestyle should be sustainable long term. If you say you’ll go to the gym every day and then don’t, you may feel the whole plan is ruined if you miss one workout. Moderation is key.
2. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. You don’t have to change too much in a short space of time. Be it an activity, food choices or lifestyle change, keep it simple and stick with it.
3. Set goals. Losing weight is not a goal. Nor is eating better. It must be specific and measurable. Complete a 5km in 5 weeks for example. Or have a dry January. This will make compliance and achievement easier because well defined goals can be broken down further to help you stay on track.
4. Do your best. No one is perfect. It’s not easy changing our lifestyle and often we can be too critical of ourselves if we eat unhealthy foods or skip the gym or an activity. These negative thoughts can be hard to ignore and certainly won’t help achieve our goal. Be positive. Reward yourself for your achievements. The road to success or recovery isn’t a straight line, there will be ups and downs. Just do your best.

Here are some examples of small changes that can make a big difference

1. Walk more. Depending on your current level of activity, this might mean getting off the couch once a week for a short 10 minute walk, or adding an extra 30 minute walk to your active week. Either way, you wont regret it and it’ll keep the body and mind in good health. Learn about Parkrun Ireland
2. Move more. If I could tell one thing to my patients it would be “move”. At our desks, at home, on our commute. Roll your shoulders and loosen your neck and back every morning. Then again with your morning coffee. And again at lunch. And at your afternoon slump. On your way home. After dinner. And before bed. Easy. 1 minute of gentle movements done regularly throughout the day. Small changes, big difference over 1 week, 1 month, 1 year… It can keep you out of the physio room 😉
3. Check in. Life can be tough. And busy. And stressful. And wonderful. And busy again. We can often get too caught up with work and home life that we forget to look after ourselves and listen to our bodies. If your neck and back ache, it could be postural. Or repetitive strain injury. Or it could be life. We often hold tension in our neck and back. Add in a stressful environment and the load on these tissues can become too much. Pain. Physio. Relief. Repeat. We can change this. Healthy mind, healthy body.
4. Listen to your body. January is normally a month where people try and get more active. This is great but we do have to be careful. Our bodies are used to a certain amount of load. Getting up, going to work, doing housework, going to the gym etc. If we increase that load too much too soon, our bodies can become overloaded and pain can sometimes follow. This can because we increase our activity levels but neglect adequate rest and stretching. These areas are just as important. So if in doubt, if you’re sore, sit it out. If you’re worried about injury, get in touch.

Happy 2020 from MMC Physio