Tenterden Osteopath » Exercise

Fancy a spot of rowing

Bill Ferguson — Sat, 08 May 2010 13:33:36 +0000

I enjoyed watching this short talk by Roz Savage. She describes how she decided to change careers from a business consultant to lone rower. She has already crossed the Atlantic on her own and is currently two thirds of the way across the Pacific. Until I watched her presentation I didn’t realise quite how much pollution exists in the sea. She says there is a collection of plastic waste in the Atlantic gyre that is twice the size of Texas. For further information see Roz’s website

Roz Savage – Ocean Rower

A walk in the Park

Bill Ferguson — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:39:20 +0000

If you fancy a stroll in the park watch out for Telegraph readers in tracksuits.

This must be one of the daftest pieces of advice I have seen on how to lose weight by exercise. To make exercise interesting the "Life Coach" in the Daily Telegraph today suggests losing your beer belly by going to a park and after warming up, sprint as far as the first person you see entering the park . . . I think if a fat sweaty bloke came sprinting towards me in a park I would be shifting into fight or flight mode pretty quickly. The only logical sequence of events to fit the goal of losing weight by this method is that sooner or later you are going to be arrested and put in a holding cell with only bread and water, that would certainly have a slimming effect.

You can’t park here this is my urban gym!

Bill Ferguson — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:46:59 +0000

Go to Germany or France and any self-respecting woodland walk will have exercise stations, usually made out of tree trunks. In Spain many costal promenades have them made from steel pipes set in concrete – see images.

Not so in the UK (with one exception being the trim track at Gateshead stadium – is it still there?), so it was good to stumble upon this article – "Urban Gym: an outdoor workout in the heart of the city" – in the Guardian on using street furniture as part of your workout.

This seems to me the most natural way to exercise, especially when you remember we inhabit bodies built to the "hunter/gatherer Mk1" specification.

"Urban gym" in France

"Urban gym" in Lanzarote, Spain

Exercise can damage your health

Bill Ferguson — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:55:48 +0000

I’m not exactly anti-exercise but I sometimes wonder what damage people are doing by being over enthusiastic. When I was a student I was struck by the number of people I saw at the gym who were nursing injuries, it often seemed that there were more people with joint supports and bandages than without.

I was reminded of this last night when on my way to a quiz I looked through an open partition into a room where a tap dancing class was in progress. The class all seemed to be working hard and engrossed but the main thing I noticed was the instructor – she had bandages on both knees.

I shouldn’t knock it really, the exercise industry is good for business when you are an osteopath.

No need to exercise

Bill Ferguson — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:35:14 +0000

According to an article in the Telegraph today around 20% of the population do not get any significant aerobic fitness benefit from regular exercise.

In future you might be able to find your best way of staying healthy by having a DNA test and discovering whether you should focus on diet, exercise or taking pre-emptive medication. Read the article here www.telegraph.co.uk

This could be bad news for therapists as overtraining is a good source of patients for me.