Will Goodbourn Soft Tissue Therapy & Personal Training

12/11/2025

06/11/2025

'All-cause mortality' refers to the total number of deaths from any cause in a given population over a given timeframe.

We're constantly coming across worrying statistics about certain risk factors that significantly increase all-cause mortality rates. For example:

🩸 Hypertension carries a +20% increase in risk
🍬 Type II Diabetes has a 30% increased risk
🚬 Smoking has a +50% increase

These figures are bad enough, but even this pales in comparison to the two biggest risk factors:

💪 Firstly, being physically weak compared to being strong carries a whopping 250% increase in all-cause mortality...

This highlights something I talk about a lot, which is the importance of doing strength training. This is something EVERYONE should be striving towards in the pursuit of better health. Preferably lifting very heavy weights in the gym with short number of repetitions (close to your 'one-rep max') should be the thing people aim towards. But granted everyone is at different starting points, so whatever you can do is still better than nothing to begin with.

🫁 The second big risk factor is having a low VO2 Max. Being in the bottom 25% of the population for VO2 Max scores puts you at a 400% increase of all cause mortality compared to the top 2.5%...

This is extremely worrying, and so too is that whilst it is likely the biggest risk factor of them all, many people don't even know what it is.

VO2 Max refers to the amount of oxygen that your cardiorespiratory system can take in, and utilise. What is the best way to train it? Whilst general cardiovascular exercise is good and it does carry health benefits, your long, steady-duration exercise won't significantly increase your VO2 Max i.e. just simply accumulating steps doesn't really count here. Rather, the best way of doing it is through INTENSITY. So for example, alongside your long walks/runs at chatty pace, think of also incorporating high intensity interval training! ⏱️

05/11/2025

🎁 GIFT VOUCHERS 🎁

It's getting to that time of year when we're all starting to plan gift ideas. Give the gift of health this Christmas with one of my vouchers! Valid to use on any of my services, perfect for any active individual or anyone who tends to suffer with aches and pains! 💥

More info can be found here: www.wgtherapy.com/gift-vouchers

17/10/2025

Please note that from now I will be out of office and due to return to work on Tuesday 28th October.

In the meantime I will have limited access to messages so please do expect longer response times and this will be limited to more urgent enquiries - all others will be responded to upon my return.

Cancellations have been an issue lately and this causes me a lot of stress, therefore clients are requested to keep these to a minimum for upcoming sessions wherever possible (especially for the week of my return) as ideally I don't want to be doing admin to fill these slots whilst I'm away. For this reason, my cancellation policy will need to be; as ever, strictly enforced for the week I get back.

Speak soon! 🖖

17/10/2025

This week's

03/10/2025

Here's a good case study from a recent client which is a useful consideration for any jumpers or runners with knee injuries.

When a specific joint hurts then it's quite easy to develop tunnel vision for that area of the body. But in reality, in the absence of a direct trauma it's quite rare for the site of pain and the site of causation to be the same, and this is especially the case with the knee 🦵

A recent client had been training for a running event and was developing knee pain. There wasn't really anything wrong with the knee itself, but a significant factor in the causation was that the foot wasn't moving properly. Whilst the calves had good range of motion, allowing the basic forward and back movement of the ankle, it was the lower of the two ankle joints; the subtalar joint, which was restricted, as the foot was not being allowed to pronate (roll in) on landing. This was likely due to wearing worn out trainers which over time gradually locked the foot into a more supinated (rolled out) position 👟

When you strike the floor when jumping or running, (and even walking), the force of impact has to go somewhere 💥 Hence, without the shock-absorbing effect that comes from the foot being able to pronate on landing, the force has to be absorbed elsewhere - yes, you guessed it! Dry needling the shins soon restored the pronation movement back to normal! ✅

But this effect can also come from higher up as well as lower down and the poor knees often get caught in the middle. I've had so many clients where knee pain has been caused by tightness in the hips and abdomen/visceral areas, and dysfunctional movement is then passed down 👎

Hence, you should always look at the full picture - simply resting does not necessarily solve the underlying issue. Likewise, simply doing a lot of something doesn't necessarily cause issues either 🤔 - it's the quality of movement that counts and my services can help you to reduce dysfunction and improve efficiency in your day to day movements to minimise wear and tear! 🔎