Category Archives: physiotherapy

Aches and Pains: book review

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Tim’s current reading material is Louis Gifford’s books, Aches and Pains. This is a series of books written by one of the leading lights in physiotherapy and pain science who unfortunately passed away a few years ago. He has a lot of weight as a voice in current physiotherapy having trained with the “big names” of the last century – being obsessed with the biomedical model, and yet he has progressed onto a much wider and more inclusive view of physicality and pain science. The books are written in a very personable style, and are much easier to read than a normal … Continue reading →

Training vs Rest

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The problem with training hard for any sport is that once you get to a certain point, you aren’t necessarily getting healthier. You may be getting fitter, but healthy? Perhaps not. Alongside this, the warning signs are there, but are mainly ignored. As athletes we know that training again and again, putting ourselves back into the hole, is the best way to adapt, to become better, faster and more competitive. When we finally over-reach ourselves, something gives. Something breaks. Our ability to compete, or even train, goes down and we are faced with potentially a long, slow road to recovery. … Continue reading →

Jasmin Paris’ Record Breaking Bob Graham Round – Support

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It isn’t every day you get an email asking if you want to be involved in a “fast BG”, and when it did come through from Jasmin, my reply was “absolutely, no question…um… when you say fast… how fast exactly”? The Bob Graham can most easily be described as a Fellrunning challenge in which the runner must traverse 42 Lakeland peaks in 24 hours. About 67 miles of running, with nigh on 8000m of ascent. It is a pretty tough day out, and just by setting out you certainly are not guaranteed to be finishing it with in 24 hours. … Continue reading →

The Misconception of the Due Date

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Personally I don’t like referring to the date a baby is expected to be born as the ‘due’ date. It puts so much pressure on the situation and expectation that the baby WILL be born on that particular date. If baby doesn’t arrive on that date then what? …Waiting, anxiety, increased stress? The gestation period for a baby is around 39 weeks. Some arrive before that, some arrive later. Setting parents expectations (based on average statistics) to one day out of potentially a 3-4 week period is not necessarily helpful, and, in my opinion, wrong. So, I’m going to call it the … Continue reading →

Why Setting Goals Works

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This is applicable to many things, but I’m coming from a Personal Training perspective. When someone first comes to us we spend a good amount of time nailing down the motivation behind their desire to change, and what they ultimately wish to achieve – their GOALS. From this, we have two things – the WHY and the WHAT. But HOW do we get to the goal, and what will it take to get there?  It is these things that will keep the motivation going during a tough session or when the initial enthusiasm is wearing thin. It is exactly these issues we can … Continue reading →

Physio Exercises

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Patient: I saw a physiotherapist previously and all they did was give me exercises. Physio: Did you do them? Patient: Errr. Not really.   Not that there is anything wrong with this approach. In the past I’ve been a patient and have gone through exactly the same process. It was partially because of laziness on my part, but also because of a lack of understanding, and a lack of buy into the process of getting better and healing in general. (and also the massive amount of exercises that I was given, and the fear of doing them wrong and exacerbating … Continue reading →