How to keep your calf muscles happy during quarantine

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By Bernadette Hughes

Calf pains and strains?

We are now into week six of living under quarantine measures and for many of you this has meant working from home, being furloughed or not able to work at all. We have been fortunate that this has been paired with some lovely sunshine and still being allowed to get outside for exercise.

Many of you may have increased the amount of running, cycling and working out from home you are doing and some may have just started undertaking these activities for the first time. This is of course great for both the body and mind (as long as you’re building it up slowly), but whilst your feet and legs are clocking up the miles, how are your calf muscles feeling about this?

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Running injury prevention

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By Sarah Sewell

Running is a great way to keep fit, whether you are a seasoned runner with events and medals under your belt, or you are a newbie dusting off those running shoes for a different ‘lockdown’ fitness challenge.  I believe running is a great choice for fitness due to low start-up costs plus the fact that you can do it just about anywhere and any-time. Find some suitable clothing and a good pair of running shoes, and you’re good to go. Or are you?…

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Nutrients to combat stress and improve energy

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by Jacqui Mayes

In these uncertain times when many of us feel that we have no control over what’s happening to us, stress can play a role in many of our emotions and in our health and immune response. Stress is a factor that affects all our lives in one way or another . While we can’t wave a magic wand and make our stress go away, we can choose the right foods to help our body deal with that stress. 

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Working from home posture

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By Sarah Sewell

What’s changed? 

See the source image

With the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, an unprecedented number of are now finding ourselves working from home overnight, meaning new home offices set up at kitchen and dining tables, beds and sofas!  Not all of us had a home office set up ready or had much experience as to how to make our workstation area a healthy and productive space.

Now we are settling into this new way of working, which could continue for several weeks, we are all starting to feel those muscular aches and pains resulting from poor posture and infrequent breaks from laptops and other mobile devices – I know I am! 

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Lockdown Recipes in a Mini Recipe Book to Make

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By Jacqui Mayes

This is a little something different for you today. We have 3 delicious recipes in the blog, but also a printable PDF to make them into a delightful mini book. We thought that as schools are still closed, many of you could use a little activity to do at this time. Quite frankly, it makes a cute addition to the recipe book shelf for any age.

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Infant Massage at Oak Park Clinic

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By Carolyn Fulford

We have been running an infant massage group here at Oak Park Clinic since the summer and it is proving an enormous success.

Baby massage is a longstanding parenting tradition in many cultures around the world and has gained popularity here in the UK since the late 1990s. The course draws from both Indian and Swedish massage traditions as well as incorporating principles from yoga and reflexology.

Baby massage classes offer an opportunity to meet new mothers and a special time to communicate both verbally and non verbally with your baby so that they feel loved, valued and respected.    I teach a sequence of rhythmic strokes and soothing holds which have been developed and refined over the years to help reduce crying and emotional distress, help provide relief from wind, colic, constipation and teething pain, help provide increased levels of relaxation to promote deeper and longer sleep and help for the parent or carer to understand and feel closer to their baby.  Parents have also found that it has helped significantly with symptoms of post-natal depression and bonding issues.

Our classes here at Oak Park Clinic are small and relaxed and include time for informal parent discussions.  Massage strokes are reviewed each week and handouts are given as a reminder. Parents who attend our classes learn so much more than a massage routine and leave with so much more confidence in handling their babies.

One of our recent participants has written the following review:

We absolutely loved the baby massage course at Oak Park Clinic. It was a truly valuable 5 week course, where not only did I get to spend a precious hour learning to massage my baby Charlie, it was incredibly relaxing and calming listening to Carolyn’s lovely voice and hearing her caring, kind and knowledgeable words about the ups and downs of life with a newborn! I would recommend this course to anyone with a young baby, I’ve found the massage tips super helpful not just for relaxation but also to help with digestive, teething and sleep issues. Thank you so much Carolyn

If you would like to find out when the next Baby Massage class starts here at Oak Park then please contact the clinic. 01252 850800 info@oakparkclinic.co.uk

Pregnancy and the Pelvis

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By Nicki Tottenham

Most often when pregnant women think of their pelvis and the role it plays in pregnancy it is the actual birth process that we focus on. However for many women their pelvis can start to play up during pregnancy leading to pain and sore joints especially at the end of the day when all we want to do is relax! This is partly due to the increased weight into the pelvis but also with what happens to our ligaments when we are pregnant, from the first few weeks right up to the end of breastfeeding.

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