![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/david-liira.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cThe nervous system in general really fascinates me,\u201d he says, \u201cand the complexity of the nervous system within the back is super great, just with all of our nerves tapering off from the spinal cord, and [the] interaction between the peripheral nervous system and central nervous system really comes through the spinal cord.\u201d<\/p>\n
The complexity of that section of the body is part of why Liira sees so many people come to the clinic with injuries. There are numerous spinal nerves between each of the vertebrae, which means there\u2019s lots of room for ailments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just so much that can go wrong, and I think that\u2019s what\u2019s so fascinating,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s so much we can do to make it better.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Liira could prescribe one thing during isolation, it would be movement, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t stress that enough\u2026 Not only the mental-health aspect of it, but also just within physiology,\u201d he says. \u201cThe literal brain chemistry, and the studies that have been put out for both aerobic and resistance activity, it\u2019s so clear that physical activity is the best non-invasive option for improving one\u2019s mental health\u2026 I think if there\u2019s one drug we can continue to prescribe, it\u2019s the exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liira got the opportunity for a job interview at Backfit after the supervisor and another staff member\u2014both of whom graduated from the SFL program\u2014told Liira there was an opening at the clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a key link for me getting that job\u2014that community that was already established between us,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I see that at a lot of gyms in town. Camosun\u2019s Co-op education is kind of integrated into a lot of the workplaces now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here in 2020, waiting for the day when we can get back to normal will be a process that requires patience, says Liira. But sometimes things aren\u2019t as complicated as our mind tells us they are.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth and wellness, although it can be complicated, I think a lot of the things that we can do are pretty simple in nature: sit less, eat better, sleep more than we do, maybe stare at our phones a little bit less,\u201d he says. \u201cI think there are things that we know make a difference, but sometimes just putting that to practice is difficult. Especially in COVID, those simple decisions are so, so critical.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Camosun Sport and Fitness Leadership (SFL) graduate David Liira was recently featured in the winning photograph in Camosun\u2019s 2020 Co-op Photo Contest. Liira, who is now a kinesiologist at Backfit Clinic, worked at Backfit during his Co-op work term; that\u2019s when the photo of him was taken that ended up winning the contest. \u201cWe tried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-campus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20428,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20426\/revisions\/20428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}