Exercise Right Week is an annual awareness campaign held in the last full
week of May every year. Since it’s inception in 2014, the campaign has aimed to
highlight the benefits of exercise for health and well-being, and to help
Australians to understand where to get the “right” advice for their individual needs.
The campaign is brought to you by Exercise & Sports Science Australia (ESSA). ESSA is the
peak body for exercise and sports science professionals in Australia, and is
dedicated to helping Australians live healthier and more active lives.
Altaira believe exercise for the health and well being throughout the aged
care sector, is imperative. Engaging a physiotherapist is often the best
solution to encourage this at a level which is safe and tailored to individual
residents. To help meet the needs of our community, Altaira now offer
physiotherapists throughout the aged care and community sector.
You are not your Scans! Pain ≠ Tissue Damage
Technological advances have resulted in highly sensitive and detailed medical imagery now being available in the form of X-Rays, MRI, and CT scans, just to name a few. While these have brought about many positive changes in terms of obtaining an accurate diagnosis for acute injuries, they have also led to some other unintended consequences, specifically with regard to chronic injuries such as lower back, shoulder, and knee pain.
Throughout a person’s lifetime they will undergo normal age-related changes. These may be visible (e.g. wrinkled skin) or invisible (e.g. chronic body structure changes). What we often see on scans can be thought of as “wrinkles on the inside”, in that these findings are normal age-related changes, but should not necessarily result in pain. Examples of this include “disc degeneration”, “rotator cuff tears”, or “meniscus tears”. While these are often seen on scans, they are not necessarily considered to be significant.
Multiple studies have illustrated that people
with and without pain often have similar results on scans. This tells us pain
cannot be wholly explained by scans. Pain is a multifactorial experience and is
also influenced by psychological, social, and environmental factors.
When people are injured, they often retreat to bed rest and very little physical activity. It is a normal reaction to reduce our level of physical activity, but we should never completely rest and remain bed bound, as this can actually be counterproductive and lead to more pain.
A safe level of exercise can actually be very beneficial in terms of accelerating healing time and returning to your previous level of function. A trained physiotherapy assessment will allow your therapist to prescribe you a tailored exercise plan specific to your injury and current limitations. As well as assisting you to rehabilitate from your injury, it will also help you to maintain physical activity when injured.
