Marina is based at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, and works with children and adults with muscle-wasting conditions. As well as being the lead clinician for the Scottish Muscle Network, supporting research and education throughout Scotland since November 2013, Marina is involved in training physiotherapists for research trials globally, and also presents on standards of care at international workshops.
Marina kicked off each online physiotherapy session by talking about the barriers to being more physically active including factors such as time, support, confidence and motivation. This led to her talking about motivation more broadly and the importance of inner motivation in being able to develop long-term health behaviour changes.
She stressed the importance of choosing a physical activity that you enjoy to stay motivated and taking small steps rather than over-exerting, as part of fatigue management. She emphasised the need to gradually build the frequency, duration and intensity of exercises in accordance to your levels of mobility and what is manageable.
It was clear that the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdown and shielding have all had an impact on being able to stay active and these have also caused a dip in motivation and less opportunities for movement and activity. This was followed up with some practical advice on ways to build activity during your daily routine - whether at home or at work.
Following this, Marina led some practical seated and standing exercises with participants being able to ask questions and interact throughout. You can now watch both the seated and standing online sessions which are now available to watch below or on our YouTube channel.
View and book onto our remaining Muscles Matter 2020 online seminars.