Facilitated by:  Kari McKeown, RPT  and Barb Cashman, RPT

Our two new physical therapists in the office were introduced and they spoke briefly about how they would be meeting with all patients pre-operatively to do a physical evaluation of mobility and making recommendations for activity that can be started prior to surgery. 

Kari shared the information from an article that states “Sitting is the New Smoking,” and how we spend a lot of time sitting behind the wheel of a car, then at a desk, then in front of the television, and how all the sitting has shown to increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and even depression.  Even if you exercise an hour a day, if you are sitting the rest of the time, you are still at risk.  “Your body is designed to move. Sitting for an extended period of time causes your body to shut down at the metabolic level.”  We all need to take breaks, get up and move, even for as short a period of time as a few minutes can improve your health.  It is important to get regular activity throughout the day in addition to regular exercising.

Barb shared information about High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), which allows you to get a higher impact training in a much shorter period of time, and talked about using Tabata Workouts on You-Tube that can help you time those workouts with high intensity for 20 seconds, 10 seconds of rest and do 2 circuits before resting for a few minutes.  Unfortunately, the video would not work, so we weren’t able to show it, but you can access it now by playing the video below. It is important to modify the exercises as you gradually work up to it, so you want to start with beginner routines.  Many of the routines are only 10 minutes long.  We hope to be able to save some of the workouts and share them at a future support group meeting.