June News and specials

Mens’ Health Week is 12 – 18 June:

For Men’s Health Week 2017 communities across Australia will come together to create fun and engaging events, promotions and activities tailored to the needs of men and boys. These events focus on improving and maintaining the health of our men, boys and their families, and having those meaningful conversations about the factors that keep us healthy inbody and mind.

This year’s theme “HEALTHY BODY – HEALTHY MIND: KEEPING THE BALANCE” explores the different ways men and boys are managing to keep healthy, physically and emotionally, in a busy and sometimes challenging world. Balancing these challenges means doing things that are nourishing and good.

Men’s Health Week is your opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of our men and boys.

A boy born in Australia in 2010 has a life expectancy of 78.0 years while a baby girl born at the same time could expect to live to 82.3 years old.  Right from the start, boys suffer more illness, more accidents and die earlier than their female counterparts.

Men take their own lives at four times the rate of women (that's five men a day, on average).  Accidents, cancer and heart disease all account for the majority of male deaths.

WHAT CAN WE DO? 

1. Be active in getting medical help if you don't feel well, have a problem that won't go away or notice unusual symptoms.
2. It's OK to seek help - don't try to do everything on your own or bury problems. Talk to your wife, friends and workmates.
3. Push hard to get the help you need to manage your life, work, family and financial needs.
4. Ladies, be proactive in helping your men and boys get the help they and you need. Use available hotlines, speak with professionals to get the best course of action and be persistent.
5. Don't leave it too late to seek help. Fear is not a killer.

EDITORIAL

Welcome to June!  The theme of this month’s newsletter has meant I’ve been reading up on the topic and am shocked to discover that biggest killer of our men and boys is self harm/suicide.  We are losing our men folk at the average rate of 5 per day nationally!   This is incredibly sad and shocking and leads me to wonder what’s going on with our men and boys.   In the least we need to open up more converstaions with our men and boys about how they are travelling.  It’s also important that they are encouraged to see their GP regularly for general health checks even if they insist they’re “fine”.  Most of what we lose them to is preventable with early detection so lets all get on their backs and nag them till they can’t stand it and get them to the Dr.  We also shine a light on the male pelvic floor (yes they have one too!) and we have some tips about healthy lifestyle tips for men – we have a pilates start-up pack on offer that may just get your guy off the couch!  Here’s some great resources online:

Useful links for Men and their health:

Govt funded resource administrated by Monash university:

www.andrologyaustralia.org

Princess Alexandra Hospital:

www.mandate.org.au

Have a great June - Jules x

MAKE HEALTH NORMAL
We are living in an environment where being unhealthy has become normal. Over half of adults and more than one in five children in NSW are overweight or obese, increasing their risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke and type 2 diabetes later in life.

The good news? It's never too late to make a change for yourself or your family. Small changes to your lifestyle can make a big difference. We need to change normal. We need to make healthy normal.

Easy meal idea: EGG, AVOCADO, AND SMOKED SALMON WRAP

Spread 2 tbsp mashed avocado onto an 8-inch whole grain tortilla; top with 1 oz smoked salmon and 1 sliced hard-boiled egg.

REVIVE ATHLETE NEWS

Elliot Compton Revive Athlete has announced his next fight will be in China at the Kunlun Fight 70kg tournament.  Elliot is in great shape at the moment and has been working with Julie and the team for 7 years.  We have managed to keep Elliot relatively injury free in that time so he’s always ready !  We are part of his team that includes a  nutritional coach, coach (his Dad) and doctor and we provide Elliot with physio/pilates and massage. Looking forward to a great result later this month.

Lucy Stirling Revive Athlete has just left for Colorada where she will compete over the next three months in 8 international competitions.  Her first is the Vail Boulder World Cup.  Good luck to Lucy who works incredibly hard to stay in competition form.  Lucy is also relatively injury free and she receives regular physio treatment and pilates sessions to achieve this.

Jane Hermann joins Revive’s Athlete program:

We are excited to announce that Jane Hermann is joining our Revive Athlete Sponsorship program!  Jane is an ironman triathlete who will be representing Australia in the 2017 Age Group Championships for long distance triathlon in Canada in September.

Sammy Brown Revive Athlete is also heading oversees to represent Australia in the Enfusion Live 2017 Reality series.  Go Sammy ! 
 

 

Clients of the month – this month we have chosen all of the lovely ladies that come to our “young at heart” classes  - all receive a half hour massages – go girls!
 

Breaking News: Men have a Pelvic Floor too!

Have you heard of your pelvic floor? They’re the muscles women have, right? The ones they talk about during pregnancy? Correct. But did you know that you also have them? And they do a lot of the same things in men as they do in women.

The pelvic floor is a group of muscles that sit “down there”. They attach, like a sling, onto the base of our spine and all around the underside of our pelvis, sitting much like a hammock underneath us. Much like the floor that we stand on, the pelvic floor is responsible for providing a resting spot, or floor, for our internal pelvic organs (bladder and bowel, and for women, their uterus). The muscles ensure that these organs are all sitting in the “right spot”. 

The pelvic floor muscles are most famous for keeping us continent. Without them we would have a constant stream or urine and other matter coming out of us all day long (just imagine!). They create a sphincter that stops us experiencing any incontinence. Incontinence is considered the involuntary loss of urine, faecal matter or wind (yes, sneaky farts that slip out uninvited are a form or incontinence and may be a sign of a weakening pelvic floor!).

Less commonly known however is the importance of the pelvic floor muscles to help us achieve and maintain an erection. Research shows us that men that have weaker pelvic floor muscles tend to have higher rates of erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation (now there’s some motivation for you to do your pelvic floor exercises!).

Having good tone and strength in your pelvic floor muscles can also speed up recovery from prostate conditions. Men who do pelvic floor strengthening exercises pre prostate surgery, as well as post-surgery, tend to gain their continence faster than men who only start their exercises after they’ve had their surgery.

Also, due to the attachments of the muscles onto the spine and pelvis, the pelvic floor muscles are considered part of our core and provide stability and support for our low back. Having good tone, strength and endurance in these muscles reduces our incidence of lower back injury and can help reduce low back pain.

So how on earth do you strengthen your pelvic floor?

There are lots of different ways to imagine how the pelvic floor contract. Some of the most common cues that men use when thinking of their pelvic floor muscles include:

• Stopping the flow of urine mid-stream
• Drawing your scrotum up inside yourself (“nuts to guts”)
• Running into the cold ocean and everything down below drawing upwards
• Pulsing your penis up and down when you have an erection (“penis push ups”)

So how often should you be strengthening this elusive pelvic floor? If you are symptom free, i.e. no incontinence or erectile issues, then once a day should suffice. If however you are experiencing some symptoms or are planning prostate surgery in the near future, then you’d benefit from three times a day.

So, what to do when strengthening your pelvic floor? Do your contraction, and then see if you can maintain it (whilst breathing!) for ten seconds. Then repeat ten times, making sure you take a few seconds break in between each rep. At the end of this set, perform ten quick sharp contractions as fast as you can. And, voila! It’s as easy as that. If you are struggling or are unsure if you are performing the correct contraction then having a review with a men’s health physiotherapist is a good idea (your GP, physiotherapist or pilates instructor can help point you in the right direction to finding a men’s health physiotherapist here in Brisbane).