The Suffering from foot pain? Hopewood’s expert Doug shares these helpful tips

 Hopewood’s expert Doug shares these helpful tips:

• Treat yourself to a hot foot bath. Heat water to 30 degrees, add half a glass of Epsom salts and three drops of lavender oil. Soak feet for ten minutes.
• Massage your whole foot from toes to arch to heel. Use your hands to bend and stretch your joints as you go.
• Roll a golf ball on the floor with the bottom of your foot while seated. This massages the bottom of the foot and can help relieve the discomfort of heel pain, cramps or arch strain.
• Avoid wearing high heels, cheap or old runners or poor fitting shoes.
• Don’t persevere with discomfort; a visit to the podiatrist could save you a lot of money and pain.

Doug is an Osteopath at Hopewood Health Retreat, visit www.hopewood.com.au for more information and health tips.

Gentle Benefits

If you suffer from an injury or don’t have time to attend a session at the gym, you may feel like it’s time to ditch your sneakers and give-up on exercising all together.  However first – let’s have a look at the benefits of gentle exercising.

Staying active, albeit at a leisurely pace, will maintain bone mass, increase flexibility and cardio fitness; these are only some of the physical side effects. By following a gentle exercise program, you can also reduce stress and enhance self esteem.

There are several ways to include gentle exercise in your daily lifestyle. For instance, gardening, mowing the lawn and walking will raise your heart rate and reduce knee pain (as less pressure is placed on the knees with lower impact exercising). Tai Chi, Yoga and Aqua aerobics can also be beneficial, increasing co-ordination and muscle strength.

The trick is to find something that suits you. You want to choose something you will enjoy and stick with it, because these helpful exercises are too important to your wellbeing to ignore.