Do you need some motivation to help you achieve your New Years resolution

In todays techonological world it seems that nearly everybody has a smartphone of some sorts. We have some great apps that we have found to help you achieve your New Year resolutions.

1. Streaks Motivational Calendar

For those of us who need to set goals, whether we find it satisfying or necessary, the Streaks – Motivational Calendar app is a great tool for keeping track of progress. From keeping track of how many days you’ve gone without smoking to how many times you’ve practiced violin this week, this app will help organize your progress towards your goal. It counts how many days you’ve made an effort to reach your goal and tallies them as a streak. If you miss a day, you end your streak. By keeping tabs of your longest streaks, this calendar app motivates you to compete against yourself to see how long you can continue a streak.

The calendar is customizable, giving you the ability to create and name a clendar for each goal and to choose which days of the week you allow yourself to skip. It also comes with four backgrounds to make your calendars stand out. You are responsible for marking down which days you’ve attempted to reach your goal so if you lie, the only person being cheated is you (the calendar prevents you from marking future days to help you with this as well). Overall, it’s a great app for personal organization; if you don’t want to take my word for it, it’s rated 4+ in the app store.

2. Runkeeper

RunKeeper uses the GPS technology found in the iPhone to track your fitness activity, giving you comparable results to an expensive GPS watch. Now, you can also enter your activities manually, including your treadmill runs too!

3. Daily Ab Workout

Daily Ab Workout is a great 5 to 10 minute daily ab routine for men and women that steps you through ten of the best ab-sculpting exercises you can do in the comfort of your own home. These proven exercises, demonstrated by a certified personal trainer, target all major abdominal muscles. Spending just minutes a day can strengthen your core

4. IFitness

If you're more interested in tracking weight lifting and stationary fitness routines than running and cardio activity, iFitness has you covered. iFitness has a catalog of over 300 exercises ranging from those requiring cable machines and free weights to exercises you can do without any equipment. You can easily mix together exercises to create custom routines. If you need help setting up a weight-lifting regimen, iFitness includes 20 routines designed by fitness experts. Should you ever need a refresher on proper form, each exercise cataloged in iFitness has clear pictures and videos to show you how to do the exercise safely and effectively. When you're done working out, you can save the routine and record your progress; all progress is saved locally and on the iFitness servers to keep your workout records accessible.

5. Lose It

Use this app to create a personalized plan for your weight loss goals. Then log your food intake and exercise to compare your calories in vs. calories out. The food log also provides detailed nutritional information. At any point, you can enter your current weight to see if you have made progress. The Well Community staff members who have used this app were surprised to learn how many calories they were consuming daily.

PhysioOne's top 5 tips to get you ready for summer!

Have you been telling yourself for ages to get off that couch and get in shape? You just never seem to get around to it but instead almost give yourself a scare attack when peeling off the layers of winter clothing somewhere in November. Winter puts a high toll on your body and state of mind. It is natural to be more tired and you also need more energy (so more food!), however it seems like you have less stamina to get out there and move when it gets dark as soon as 5 ‘o clock hits.

Now you have no more excuses! Daylight savings is upon us and its time to get active and ready for summer! Be active, be inspired and remember that any sort of movement can be a workout.

Here are PhysioOne’s top 5 tips to help get you ready to hit the beach this summer!

Summer foods – make the most of all the fruits and vegetables in season and feel refreshed after a delicious fruit salad for lunch instead of the podgy high calorie baked goods that we have been munching back during the colder months. Experiment different ways of preparing all these fruits and vege with smoothies, juices and salads…let your imagination soar.

Stay Hydrated - Drink lots of water! If you are active and even if you are not, in the sun you loose a lot more fluids than you might expect. It is really important to stay hydrated, not only will it benefit your skin but if you don’t drink enough your body will actually retain water and you will bloat up like a water balloon.

Give your garden some TLC - Did you know gardening could burn up to 500 calories an hour? That is probably more than most can melt away on a treadmill! Don’t have a garden of your own? How about a friend or family member you haven’t really spent quality time with? Offer to help them out and you’ll see you will actually have fun running around with a water hose, just don’t tell them you secretly have ulterior motives by using them and their lawn as a free outdoor gym!

Get a Fake Tan - Don’t let the sun’s rays harm you! And look and feel great too!

Make your feet presentable - One good pedicure is all it takes to get your feet ready for summer. Again, once professional hands have done the basic hard work, you can get by for weeks and weeks, however cack-handed you are with the nail polish (one tip: slap it on in the evening, let it all dry, and all the splashed bits can be worked off your toes in the shower the next morning).

And don’t forget that all our highly trained physios here at PhysioOne are here for you if you need some fine tuning, help getting back to the gym or to help with any niggles and tight muscles.

Give someone for Christmas a good night’s sleep

What better present could you give?

Especially when reduced from Dec 7^th – December 23^rd at PhysioOne clinics

from $100 to $90!

Head into one of our clinics now to take advantage of this 10% discount only until December 23rd.

Here is how some of our patients describe the therapeutic contoured pillow that we supply at PhysioOne….

“It’s like sleeping on a cloud” says Charles Cave 9 years old.

“I have thrown out my other contoured pillows since using the contoured neck pillow that PhysioOne provided. It really supports my neck. It is definitely the best pillow that I have used and I take it even when I travel internationally” Male 50 year old patient

Madeline Hernon PhysioOne Physio states “With the combination of Physio treatment and sleeping using the contoured pillow, my own neck is the best it has ever been and I recommend the pillows highly. I have supplied over 50 patients with these pillows and every single person has raved about the relief of neck pain, a great night’s sleep and the decreased stiffness in their neck. That is 100% satisfaction!”

Our contoured therapeutic pillows are made of memory foam. This was first developed by NASA seeking anti – gravity cushioning materials for its astronauts. They are adjustable in contour. They are great for comfort, support and provide huge relief for neck and shoulder pain sufferers. For those that don’t suffer any of that, a good night’s sleep is a definite advantage to anyone!

“I take my pillow on holiday with me now! I miss it too much” says Madeline Hernon.

Summer activities and new toys and the injuries that go with them

So Summer is finally here, and its meant to be a long and hot one. New Zealand's summer consists of sun, beach, Christmas, New Year, Family and lots of fun games and sporting activities.

With all of these activities come certain injuries. A common injury that we thought we would talk about which we see a lot of is Achilles Tendinosis.

Common symptoms of Achilles Tendinosis include pain, stiffness, aching, tenderness and pinching in the side of the tendon. What starts as a mild tendon pain, if left untreated may become a chronic tendinosis and take months to resolve...So better be safe than sorry and get those little niggles checked out!

To read more on Achilles Tendinosis/Rupture click here