Sport is healthy! Ubiquitous fashion for exercising is a very positive social phenomenon.
Everybody knows someone who runs, swims, cycles, with higher or lower intensity. More and more people teams up those three disciplines into one - triathlon. More and more amateur sport teams is being created. You can train alone, work with a trainer or take part in the group trainings. Every person has an individual approach when it comes to triathlon.  The number of hours you have to spend for training - doesn't matter if it is an individual training or under the supervision of a trainer is large - from a few to a dozen or so a week - when it comes to the amateur sport of course.
With some many training hours contusions aren't rare. Runner's knee, jumper's knee, shin splits, pain in plantar fascia, tearing and overloading of the muscles, contortions of the joints, pain in the toes - those are recurring problems among people training triathlon.
There is many factors causing those medical conditions   - increasing the load too quickly, inappropriate training equipment, lack of the proper warm up, no stretching, and no time for regeneration of the body .
One of the main causes is the preparation of a competitor for the intensive , specialized sports training. 
Not everyone of us has been interested in sports since childhood. Not everyone has been participating in regular physical activity since young age. It is known,  that to know how to run you first have to learn how to walk.  To learn how to walk - you have to learn how to stand. We can assume that everyone can run, but the problem isn't the activity itself but its quality.
Quality is the key to success!
It is easier to understand while studying the Pyramid of the Optimal movement preparation.(G.Cook 2012)

As the pyramid says, as it is with sport - before you may lay your body on a lemond ( technical and tactical skill) while riding, you must prepare your body so it will be able to survive long hours in the position requiring the specific ranges in the joints (basic mobility).
Before we run 42 kilometers during covering the ironman distance (directed mobility) we must strengthen the gluteal muscles (basic mobility) so you don't overload your knee or spinal joints halfway to the finish.
A conclusion is simple - you have to return to the basics. Without a good foundation,  problems will appear sooner or later in the form of  pain or contusion.

Therefore, in this and future posts, we will try to explain to you the exercises which will help you to enforce the foundation to succeed in sport.

Let's begin with central stabilization:

Training of a triathlonist is full of sacrifices.  What you are supposed to do when you don't have time for the supplement training ? Just find some time 🙂
It may be just 30 minutes a week - start and you will see a difference in quality of your triathlon training. You will avoid the situation when you work to participate in a competition whole year and just before the season a contusion occurs.

If you have second thoughts about choosing the strengthening exercises or you want  to find out how to do this properly and effectively - we want to invite you for a consultation at CORE and MORE.

Photography is very popular hobby. Each of us had an opportunity to take pictures at work, on the trip or under different circumstances. However, we very rarely look into this picture in the contests of the risk it can carry for the human's body.

Every professional photographer has experienced the consequences of this long difficult job. During the Warsaw photography fair PRESS PHOTO EXPO 2017, as a part of the project "Healthy Photographer", our physiotherapist Aleksander Wieteska had an honor to show an influence of the photographers' job on their health and the methods of treating and preventing the injuries that result from the character of this job.

The most common medical conditions are:

- Spine diseases - e.g. the pain caused by the excessive muscular tension, sciatic neuritis, brachial neuritis, degenerative changes in the spinal joints, discopathy

- Diseases of the upper limb - e.g. rotator cuff syndrome, carpal tunnel, inflammation of subacromial bursa, subacromial impingement syndrome, degenerative changes in glenohumeral joint, "tennis elbow", "golfer elbow"

- Others - e.g. inflammation of infrapatellar bursa, overextension of the sciatic ishiotibial, and gluteal muscles

Very important element is choosing the appropriate equipment for our job. If we use a satchel, we will have to remember that its weight shouldn't exceed 10% of our body mass. We should always try to divide the weight of the equipment equally between both sides our body. However, if we prefer a backpack, it should adhere tightly to our body and not hang below our lower ribs.

What are the most common mistakes made by photographers at work?:

- Working too long
- Excessive weight of the equipment
- Position taken while taking pictures tiring for the body
- Lack of physical preparation for work
- Lack of relaxation and stretching exercises after work
-"I am moving all the time, so I am in a good shape" (photographer's profession is a heavy manual labour and it shouldn't be considered as a training or strengthening our body )

If you want to prevent the eventual unpleasant results of the distress related to not ergonomic position while working you should try a few things that will help your body:

-  Put the equipment aside every 20 minutes
- Often change the techniques of taking pictures
- Take a break from work every 30 minutes
- Drink water - dehydration of the body increases the risk of soft tissue injury
- Warm up before you get down to work!
- Perform some stretching exercises after work

According to the rule "it is better to prevent then to treat" in CORE and MORE clinic we developed a specific training program which will help you to work more hours without pain and afflictions. Here is a few examples of our training programs:

Injury prevention - warm up

Injury prevention - strenghtening excercises

Injury prevention - stretching excercises

If you feel pain and excessive fatigue after work and you are able to work less and less  without feeling pain - we encourage you to contact CORE and MORE clinic. We will help you to get rid of unpleasant consequences of hard work and we will prepare your body for new professional challenges.