Syndicate Health

08/03/2023

When I see a new client suffering from chronic pain they have often been to so many health professionals previously to seek relief and can often feel Exercise Physiology is a last resort to their problem.

The research shows us that the two most impactful aspects of any physical rehabilitation program are;

1. Therapeutic alliance (Positive relationship between client & practitioner)

2. Belief that the program will in fact be beneficial and deliver results.

That is why I truly believe there is no replacing the building of a trusting and supportive relationship with every client who is in pain to better understand their unique experience and provide a unique treatment plan.

I'm so very proud of this girl for all the work and effort she has put into her training! And also so grateful for the trust she has placed in myself to help guide her along the way.

10/02/2023

If there's one thing I want to collect throughout my career as an Exercise Physiologist it will be testimonials from the amazing people I get to meet and work with along the way.

Proof that although we all have our ups and downs, I was able to make a real difference in so many people's lives and give back to the discipline of movement as much as it has given to me.

I pride myself on working collaboratively with every client I see to support and guide them along their unique journey to a stronger, healthier and happier life, because I might be an expert in movement and physiology but no one knows you quite like you do!

27/10/2022

Temper your mind, less it betrays your body.

Training is uncomfortable, at least it should be at times because that means the stimulus is intense, and intensity is what drives adaptation!

The stimulus or environment in which you place your body will dictate how it adapts, or doesn't adapt should you stay in the same environment.

This has immense implications to creating significant change through exercise, nutrition and lifestyle change. We cannot get better in the same environment that caused us to get sick in the first place.

Your body has amazing potential for growth and change but your mind doesn't like the feeling of discomfort.

This is really the essence of discipline, you WILL NOT love it everyday but you WILL do it everyday, because you've taught your mind to accept discomfort as the gift that brings the change you wish to see in your life.

So what do you do to train your mind?
- Exercise
- Meiditation
- Heat/cold exposure
- Endurance training
🥵🥶🧠🧘‍♀️🏋️‍♂️🏊

29/09/2022

Change Talk Series #3

Testing

This is a tricky, yet vital part of any habit acquisition or training program. You're not just doing this once and it's done, we are after a life long change!

One thing I wish I did more of when I first started training was measure and test myself. I didn't want to because I wasn't proud of where I currently was and in not being honest about where I currently was, I let my ego get ahead of me and injured my shoulder.

Not only can testing illuminate problem areas to improve upon prior to jumping under heavy loads, but it's also a powerful tool in motivation to see yourself improving and look back on how far you've come!

Test ➡️ Plan Actionable Steps ➡️ Consistent effort ➡️ Retest 🔁

26/09/2022

When you workout, where is your attention?
The to-do list for the day ahead?
The movement?
The rep count?
Maybe the exit sign?

One thing I believe we don't pay as much attention to as we should is how the movement feels and how it looks 👀

Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned gym rat, having a portion of your training dedicated to always improving HOW well you are moving is a must!

We often get caught up in seeing the progress on the weights and doing more overall work.

However, with more load comes more stability demands and what was once a good looking movement pattern may be compromised because of an ill-timed change in exercise or jump in load.

Remember your body is an adaptation machine! But it takes time, so be patient and keep going!

14/09/2022

It's never too late 🙌

FRIDAY, Aug. 30, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- Even seniors who never exercised regularly can benefit from a workout program, researchers say. A new study found that men in their 70s and 80s who had never followed an exercise regimen could build muscle mass as well as "master athletes" -- those of the s....

07/09/2022

Change Talk Series #2

Visualise Your Why 👀

Our visual and motor systems are amazing in the way they interact and shape our experience.

When adopting a new habit it's important to know your Why, but it has to have meaning and importance to you (see yesterday's video for more on this)

When we can visualise an end goal, track progress towards it, and be reminded of it daily, our RAS (reticular activating system) starts to draw our attention towards anything and everything that is relevant to our goal/focus.

We also see changes in our body/physiology despite it not really moving. I'm sure you've felt your body experience all kinds of things from the video content you consume. Your body may not have moved but eyes are perceiving the world and preparing your body accordingly.

If you focus on the negative, you'll perceive the world more negatively.
If you focus on the positive, you'll perceive the world more positively.
If you focus on your why, you'll perceive the world as full of opportunities for you to action towards that goal.

07/09/2022

Change Talk Series #1

As an Exercise Physiologist, I love working with people to make them move, feel and look better. The body is a fascinating and complex system with a stubbornness towards change (or maybe that's just the mind 😉) but that being said our body and brain are INCREDIBLY adaptable.

In this series I'm going to go through a number of key steps/information that I use both personally and professionally with my clients to handle obstacles, improve performance and see greater results from an exercise intervention.

The first is more of a self reflective skill, and that is to truly understand the value, meaning and importance of why you are undertaking this journey.

Thought Experiment Example:
Why #1. I want to start exercising to lose 5kg
Why #2. I want to lose 5kg so that I get back to playing with my kids without doing my back
Why #3. I want to play with my kids more so that they understand how important activity is, I wasn't shown this as a kid and I want to be a good example for them.
Why #4. I want to be a role model for my kids to start getting healthier because I want to be around to play with their children as well.
Why #5. I want to be around for my family to support, love and enjoy life with them because that's really what means the most to me...

I can't speak for everyone but that sounds much more meaningful. Your why could be completely different and that's the beautiful but also painful thing. No one person can show you or explain it to you, it's a journey inward, a brutally honest review of life right now and the things you do vs what life will be on this different path.

"One who has a WHY to live for, can endure almost any HOW"

22/07/2022

The Lat Pulldown 🦾

It's crazy how often people miss key techniques when they are first learning to lift and then spend months/years developing strength in these "less than ideal positions".

Biomechanics is important for the efficiency and longevity of our joints.

Unfortunately the way out is relearning the fundamentals before you can load it back up.

The Lat Pull down is easily one of the more common lifts that people go too heavy, too quickly and compromise their form.

Why is this? 🤔

Well the Lat Pull down is focusing on loading the Lats (obviously) but what we often forget about our shoulder position and how well key stabilizers are acting on the shoulder.

Sadly these stabilizers are not nearly as big and strong as our Lats, so we can easily move more weight when we compromise our shoulder position.

In summary, don't let your ego dictate your training. Take the time to master the fundamentals or book an appointment with me now for inevitable shoulder problems 😅

21/07/2022

Motivation Maintenance 🔥

If you've been struggling with motivation or consistency, this one is for you.

Dopamine has some powerful effects on how we feel and act each day. This system works by maintaining a 'baseline' level and creating spikes in dopamine when we do something that makes our body say "Yes! More of that!"

However, this is a sensitive system and we live in a world of distracting, dopaminergic triggers so we can quite easily overload our system with constant bombardment. This can come from all manner of behaviors some beneficial some not so much but your dopamine system doesn't care it will just want more.

Paradoxically, every time we undertake that behavior we see smaller and smaller spikes in our dopamine from the same stimulus. Meaning you enjoy it just a little bit less each time. This normally is remedied through increasing our dose of the drug/behaviour to achieve the same result.

Over time you can see how this would get off the rails. Like most things it's about a balance! Some times we reward our efforts, sometimes not, but never preemptively before you undertake the effort.

The act of removing the reward occasionally changes a few things.

Firstly your measurement of success is now the action, not the outcome or reward itself. (although we still get the reward on occasion, we are not depending on that reward each time for motivation)

Secondly your ability to derive satisfaction from meaningful effort becomes easier and you can maintain motivation over long periods without reliance on external stimulation.

This might seem hard at first, but it works! You can start to play around with your rewards schedule and apply it in a way that works for you and your goals (gym related or otherwise)

14/07/2022

How To Restore & Maintain Motivation !

Simply put, your body constantly circulates dopamine the molecule of motivation. When levels are high we feel quite good and when levels drop we can feel down right terrible.

Dopamine regulation is where your superpower lies. If we abuse our dopamine system by creating spikes and peaks frequently, it can lower our baseline levels after those spikes.

Oh and to make matters worse, no matter your dopamine stimulus of choice, your body gets used to it. Meaning you'll need larger and larger doses every time to get the same sense of pleasure and enjoyment.

How to fix this?
Intermittent rewards scheduling!
❌❌✅❌✅❌❌❌✅❌✅❌❌❌✅❌❌✅
(remember this is not a pattern! You must not see the reward coming, every time must be random! )

Dopamine is released in anticipation of the reward. This may not sound very fun, and may take time to get used to but not only will you be able to start associating effort with pleasure but no longer completely focus on the outcome/reward.

This is the antithesis of "Growth mindset". Instead of your measuring your success and satisfaction in the outcome (often mostly out of your control) our measure for success comes from our action! (Which is always within our grasp)

As a practical tool you can use and test for yourself. Carry a coin with you and pick a practice/reward your partake in regularly and when it comes time for the reward.
Flip the coin and let fate decide.

Try this for a month and please reach out and let me know how you found it 🙏💙

09/07/2022

How to start treating pain points 🙅‍♂️🤕

Points of pain are incredibly common across all groups of people. Trained or not you will experience some form of pain at a joint or muscle attachment site.

The joints of our body are numerous and unique in nature but when we look at their structure and function compared to how a person moves, we can notice insufficiency and discrepancies that can lead to increased risk of pain and injury.

Our body can perform some pretty incredible feats of strength and movement. It achieves this by creating torque. Torque is a rotational force your body must create to move efficiently and with strength.

Torque is an external rotation force meaning the joint must rotate away from the mid line of your body. ↩️😊↪️

This inability to create sufficient torque is a common theme of anterior pain points, if you experience front sided shoulder or Hip pain, focus on creating torque

Challenge yourself to hold these externally rotated positions during some of your bigger lifts. Some examples below

1️⃣ Screw your foot into the floor (externally) and knee out during a lunge
2️⃣ Spread the floor with your feet while squatting
3️⃣ Overhead press with a micro band around your wrist (handcuff raise)
And many others.

01/07/2022

Stiff/Tight Hips? 😬

This one is for you!

I use this one a lot in my warm ups before most lower body training days.

When we think of our hips moving we often consider two main planes of motion, the Sagital (up/down & forward/backward) and the Frontal (side to side). What we often forget or simply neglect is the need for rotation of our hips.

It may not seem important but when we squat, lunge, deadlift or perform any movement through our hips there is a degree of rotation required to effectively and efficiently move into deeper ranges of movement.

Limited rotation in your hips can result in various compensations and poor bio-mechanical loading of your hips and lower back.

Be sure to save this one for your next lower body day and test yourself to improve your ability to rotate your hips!

30/06/2022

Bulletproof Shoulders 🦾 (Rotator Cuff)

Training your rotator cuff is a must for any well-designed upper body training day but it can be tricky to understand where to start and how to progress.

Structurally our shoulders are the most mobile joints we have but that mobility comes at a cost of stability. This is why when we train our shoulders we should always look to create stability first before jumping into heavy pressing movements.

This Face Pull to Overhead Press is one of my favourite ways to train my rotator cuff and get comfortable moving through a full range of rotations in the shoulder.

If you yourself have ever had any pinching, clicking or pain in your shoulders try this set up on the cable machine with the lightest weight possible to start with and you'll be surprised how quickly your shoulders start to burn 🔥

Prescription/
4 Sets, 6-8reps, moving slowly and only through a pain free range of motion.

Give it a try and let me know how you go 🙏

29/06/2022

Spinal Mechanics! 🏋️‍♀️

Sounds boring but it's quite important for reasons you might not first consider.

When we can create a neutral stable spinal position while lifting and moving, our spinal cord (that regulates both inputs and outputs) recognizes it is in a stable position and will allow you to exert more force.

This is the concept of creating stability first and applies also to our stability in contact with the ground which you can test yourself!

Next time you're in the gym. Try performing 2 very similar exercises

1. A split squat with a dumbbell at your chest
2. A split squat on the smith machine

I bet you'll be stronger on the smith machine because it creates a large amount of stability for you. This will be the case with most machine exercises when compared to their free weight counterpart because the machines keep you in a strict and stable range of motion.

As a last little visual of this stability principle, imagine firing a cannon from solid ground and the firing it from a canoe 😬 I'll let your imagination fill in the results.

What's important to remember is that every action has an equal and opposite reaction so be sure your body knows how to absorb force before trying to create it!

27/06/2022

What Is Pain?

All of us will experience pain at some point in our life. Whether it is in the gym, on the field or just a misplaced step, one way or another pain is coming.

For being one of the most prevalent health conditions across the developed world we have a pretty poor understanding of pain.

But I have good news!

One of the first steps to changing and potentially mitigating pain is to first understand what pain is.

Once we know what we are dealing with we can unpack your own
- Past experiences
- Anecdotal evidence
- Misconceptions or pain/exercise
- Ideas/beliefs of pain + much more.

Opening the door for change...