The healthy blog for busy people: INTERVIEW WITH A SPORTS PHYSIOTHERAPIST: MARÍA ALONSO

Hi everyone! Today we interview María Alonso, a sports physiotherapist who works on a sports centre where they combine physiotherapy with physical activity, medicine and nutrition.

We have asked her about different issues such as the importance of physiotherapy and sport in sedentary people, or how does she combine a healthy diet with so many hours of work. The answer to all that questions and more are in the following lines.

Here we leave you the answers of all our questions:

QUESTION: Nowadays, do you find many people with injuries due to physical inactivity?

ANSWER: Far from what people think, physical inactivity causes more injuries than the activity itself. People who don’t do physical activity usually have deficitary muscular strength, and that combined with sedentary jobs or with repetitive movements. All that causes instabilities, mostly on the back and muscular decompensations in many parts of the body.

Q: ¿Do you think that physiotherapy is important in the health improvement of sedentary people? ¿And physical activity?

A: For both questions, the answer is: definitely. I will say that both are important in the same measure, and they should coordinate and work in a combined way. Physiotherapy is a tool that gives means to the body to regenerate itself, and restores the natural balance of the body. With physical activity, what we do is maintaining all the conditions that help the body to recover and prevent new injuries. It’s very important that all this process is supervised by a group of professionals.

Q: I guess that, if you are a sports physiotherapist, you like sport. But, do you think you are a physically active person? Do you practice any sport nowadays?

A: I think that nowadays I practice sport more orientated to health than to competition, but it’s true that I like to challenge myself sometimes, so I set some goals to achieve. I do running since 4 years ago, and from that moment until now I have completed many half-marathons, a marathon and an ultra-marathon.

Q: I suppose that you work a lot of hours a day, how do you do to combine work and sport?

A: I guess that the same way as everybody… getting up early haha. But anyone who likes sport sacrifices its time (for me it’s not a sacrifice) to do what he/she likes

Q: And, regarding to alimentation, ¿Is there a relationship with the risk of injuries in sedentary people?

A: The diet is one of the fundamental pillars that help us to find our internal balance, improve our performance and even prevent injuries.

Every day I realize that the importance of a good diet is not arranged in our society. That’s even worse among sedentary people, I hope that athletes have more care respect to this issue. That’s why one of the tools I use to help my patients is to recommend healthy eating habits and give some specific advice in each case, and if it’s necessary I send them to my nutritionist partners, who are really who know a lot about this.

Q: What do you do to follow a healthy diet? Do you eat at home? If negative, how do you manage to eat in a healthy way out of home?

A: Food organisation is a complex issue, because working schedules make us to adapt in the best way we can. In my case, I eat 2 days at home and the other 3 at work. When I eat at home is easier: I cook and I eat, but the rest of the days I need to anticipate and cook the previous day. It’s complicated because I like to eat what I cook, I don’t buy anything industrial or ready-to-eat. I think that that is essential, and that’s why I dedicate time to it.

Q: And the last question: What recommendations would you do to the people for them to have a more active lifestyle? Por último, ¿Qué recomendaciones harías a las personas sedentarias para que lleven un estilo de vida más activo y saludable?

A: There is a sentence that I like to say to my patients: We are what we eat… if we don’t eat in a correct way our body gets sick. Everyone needs to think if his/her diet can be improved, and if the answer is yes, talk to a specialist who guides him/her.

Nowadays life is very stressing, it goes very fast, and our body is not prepared for that, so we should train it. Everybody needs to find a sport or exercise that motivates us and gives us the results we are looking for. Is that simple, and there are a lot of qualified professionals ready to help you, you only need to turn to them!

That was all!! We hope the real opinion of a professional helped you to start changing your habits. In the following slides we have summarized the main ideas she told on the interview: