Terry Mclaren Functional Physio

10/10/2025

About time someone said it 👍

10/10/2025

Awesome 👏

06/10/2025

Move🙏

✅ Clinical Highlights: Physiology of Sedentary Behavior (SB)

▪️ Sedentary behavior (SB; time spent sitting) occupies a high proportion of adults’ waking hours, and its effects can be examined distinctly from a lack of exercise or physical activity (PA)

▪️ The average energy cost of common SBs generally ranges between 1.0 and 1.5 metabolic equivalent of task (MET).
• Energy expenditure, heart rate, skeletal muscle blood flow, and contractile activity are higher during sitting compared to reclining, but these measures are lower than in a standing position and during PA of any intensity.

▪️ Prolonged and uninterrupted SB leads to numerous adverse health outcomes, including:
• Insulin resistance
• Vascular dysfunction
• A shift in substrate use toward carbohydrate oxidation
• A shift in muscle fiber from oxidative to glycolytic type
• Reduced cardiorespiratory fitness
• Loss of muscle mass and strength and bone mass
• Increased total body fat mass, visceral fat depot, blood lipid concentrations, and inflammation

▪️ From a physiological standpoint, the impacts of SB relate to those caused by physical inactivity (i.e., too little exercise). However, high volumes of SB can still have adverse physiological impacts even when large volumes of aerobic and/or resistance exercise are performed.

▪️ Acutely, reducing/interrupting SB improves:
• Postprandial glucose and insulin responses
• Systolic blood pressure
• Mean arterial pressure
• Lower limb vascular function

In the longer term, small improvements are observed in:
• Body weight
• Waist circumference
• Percent body fat
• Fasting glucose
• HbA1c and HDL concentrations
• Systolic blood pressure
• Vascular function
Evidence for other health outcomes and physiological systems in the longer term is more limited.

▪️ While reducing/interrupting SB improves body composition, intermediary metabolism, and cardiovascular health outcomes, these effects are typically small, though marginally clinically meaningful.
👉 Since most studies have been conducted in healthy population groups (where outcomes are within normal ranges), larger effects may be observed in populations that are less healthy.

▪️ The focus of contemporary public health guidelines ("sit less, move more and exercise") is largely a consensus based primarily on epidemiological findings.
Further experimental evidence is required to clarify the physiological effects of interventions that combine exercise with SB reduction/interruption.
👉Nonetheless, reducing/interrupting SB is considered a low-risk strategy that holds clinical and population health relevance, and it can serve as a stepping stone toward regular participation in moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA.

⚠️Link To Article 👇

29/09/2025

Awesome

Your Muscles and Brain Are Talking. Exercise Is the Conversation Starter! 🧠💪

▪️ Ever feel sharper and more focused after a good workout? It’s not just a feeling—it’s science! There’s a powerful, two-way communication system in your body called muscle-brain crosstalk

▪️ Here’s how it works in 3 simple steps:
💡 You Move: When you exercise, your muscles get to work. Whether it's walking, swimming, or lifting weights, this activity is the trigger.
📩 Muscles Send Messages: In response to exercise, your muscles release special messenger molecules called myokines into your bloodstream. Think of them as tiny health-boosting packages sent directly from your muscles!
🧠 Your Brain Benefits: These myokines travel to your brain and deliver incredible benefits, such as:
▪️ Protecting brain cells and helping to create new ones
▪️ Improving memory and cognitive function
▪️ Fighting inflammation in the brain, which is linked to aging and disease
▪️ Helping prevent age-related diseases like sarcopenia (muscle loss) and cognitive decline, including Alzheimer's disease

▪️ It’s a positive feedback loop! As your brain gets healthier from these messages, it becomes better at controlling your muscles, which helps them stay strong and release even more beneficial myokines

▪️ Ready to get the conversation started?
🏃 You don’t have to run a marathon! Research suggests that for older adults, aiming for low- to moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (like brisk walking) 3 times a week for 12 weeks or more can significantly boost myokine levels and support brain health.
🏋️ Resistance training 2-3 times a week is also highly effective

▪️ So next time you exercise, remember you’re not just strengthening your body—you’re sparking a vital conversation that keeps your brain young and healthy!

Link to Article👇👇

22/09/2025

Practical advice 👍

🔗📃The Relationship Between Running Biomechanics and Running Economy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies

🏃‍♂️ Running Biomechanics & Running Economy: How They Connect

🔹 Running economy (RE) is the amount of oxygen or energy your body uses to run at a steady speed.
🔹 Better RE = less energy used for the same pace = improved performance.
🔹 Alongside VO₂max and lactate threshold, RE is a key factor for distance running success.

⚙️ How Biomechanics Affect Running Economy

⏱️ Step Frequency: A slightly higher cadence is linked with a better running economy.

⬇️ Vertical Movement: Lower “up-and-down” motion reduces wasted energy.

🦵 Leg Stiffness: A stiffer spring-like leg mechanism improves energy return.

🦿 Joint Angles & Muscle Activation: Show only small or non-significant effects, but may still matter for certain runners.

🎯 Practical Ways to Improve Running Economy

1. Optimize Cadence → Gradually increase step frequency by 3–5% if cadence is very low.

2. Reduce Bounce → Focus on smooth forward motion rather than vertical lift.

3. Strength & Plyometrics → Improve leg stiffness with single-leg hops, jump squats, and calf strengthening.

4. Technique Adjustments → Small tweaks in stride length or contact time may help, especially if gait is inefficient.

5. Consistency & Training → Long-term adaptations from endurance and interval training also improve RE.

📌 Key Takeaway

Running economy is trainable. By making small biomechanical adjustments, strengthening the legs, and refining technique, runners can save energy and perform better without necessarily increasing fitness markers like VO₂max.

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⚠️Disclaimer: Sharing a study or a part of it is NOT an endorsement. Please read the original article and evaluate critically.

Link to Article 👇

06/09/2025

True!

06/09/2025

Hmmm something to think about 🤔

23/08/2025

Feel it, don’t judge it!

22/08/2025

Mix up your strength training for best results

21/08/2025

Worth a read and a think!🤔

WHY is it SO HARD to get good help for pain?! I can think of at least FIFTEEN reasons why patients feel so poorly served on average. Today, a substantive rant about 5 more of those reasons, part 2 of a 3-part series:

👉🏻 The opioid war is catastrophic for pain patients
👉🏻 Professional pride, tribalism, investment
👉🏻 Academic and intellectual weakness
👉🏻 Rank quackery, icky snake oil, and flaky bu****it
👉🏻 Tech as sneaky quackery

PART 2 is about a 7-minute read (plus a 20m audio version), members only:
PainScience.com/blog/why-is-it-so-hard-to-get-good-help-for-pain-part-2.html

PART ONE included a substantial free summary for all readers:
PainScience.com/blog/why-is-it-so-hard-to-get-good-help-for-pain-part-1.html

⚠️TRIGGER WARNING FOR PROFESSIONALS: This is a critique of what’s wrong with healthcare for pain, and so it’s going to get “negative,” and some of these points may be hard to hear. Not all pros are responsible for all of these problems, of course! And I like to think that my work attracts a better class of clinicians.

But everyone tends to be oblivious to their own shortcomings — that’s just human nature. You’ve probably never met a doctor who admitted to over-prescribing antibiotics, but we know a lot of them do it! The stats on that are quite depressing.

Part one was popular with the patients in my audience. I hope my professional readers will see the value in seeing their perspective and frustration represented here … even if it gets uncomfortable.

~ Paul Ingraham, PainScience.com publisher

21/08/2025

It happens

Healed ACL 💥
Great post by .sportsphysio:

"Another great result for our client, who initially tore her ACL playing soccer - felt a pop, knee gave way, and MRI confirmed a full rupture. She was told by a specialist she’d never return to sport without a reconstruction.

Instead, we followed a 12-week weight-bearing bracing protocol (BLEX) with a knee extension block, alongside progressive strength, balance, and control training.

12-week MRI result: “Healing of the anterior cruciate with normally aligned ligament fibres (ACLOAS grade 1)”

✅ Pivot shift = negative
✅ Lachman Test = negative

A stable, healed ACL - no surgery required."
If you want to learn about conservative ACL treatment, make sure to watch both lectures by Kieran Richardson at 😊👍

21/08/2025

You need to incorporate this into your daily routine. Little bit at a time 👍