PhysioUpdate 16th February 2023

Older adults may gain more health benefits from playing golf rather than walking or Nordic walking, a study published online today (7 February) in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine.

Golf, walking and Nordic walking – an enhanced walking technique in which people use poles to work their upper body as well as their legs – are popular, age-appropriate forms of outdoor aerobic exercise that are safe and easily accessible for many older people.

A team led by author Julia Kettinen, a doctoral researcher and teacher at the University of Eastern Finland, set out to compare the acute effects of these three different types of aerobic exercises on markers of cardiometabolic health in terms of intensity, duration and energy expenditure.

It's not terribly unusual for young people to follow a relative – a parent, an uncle or aunt or perhaps a sibling – into a profession. Physiotherapy is no different to other professions in this respect, and there have been a number of families over the years who can boast having had members from different generations working in the field. But it must be very unusual to see a student physiotherapist feeling brave enough – or perhaps 'comfortable' is the right word – to apply for a place to study on a course that's taught, at least in part, by their parent.

That's the case with Claire and her father Stuart who can both be found at the University of Salford. Here, in an exclusive PhysioUpdate interview, they explain what motivates them, how they maintain boundaries at work, and what their fascinating, but very different, personal mottos would be. Let's hear from physiotherapy lecturer and author Stuart first.