Process Physiotherapy

12/04/2026

I was delighted to be asked to deliver a couple of workshops at the youth camp at last week.

It’s great to see how far the organisation has come recently. Success has to stand on a supportive structure that has clarity and direction across all the levels of comp climbing. We’re getting there 👏

I had a morning with the athletes looking at pre session prep. They didn’t like my suggestion of calling it ‘pre-formance’ 😆

I’m on a mission to try and re frame warming up from being mindless repetition of the same exercises to prevent injury.

If you focus on what prep you need to do to perform well in that session you will cover the injury prevention.

The first rule of Injury Prevention Club is to not talk about Injury Prevention Club.

I don’t think they got the cultural reference 🤣

Putting time and effort into something you won’t know has benefitted you (how do you know the injuries you missed?) is a big ask.

Individualise your sessions and base it on what you’re about to do. A board session prep should be different than a route prep. That’s what proofs you against injury AND helps you perform better.

Can you do one armers without warming up?

Then why are you spending 10 mins at the start of your session doing 3x30 external rotations with a yellow band? That’s too low level. Get hanging and pulling.

Have objective benchmarks so you can assess what’s appropriate for you today and how that fits with your plan.

I was really taken by how aware they were of themselves and their approaches to training. Compared to a couple of years ago they are way ahead of the game.

We are making big steps forwards.

My next post will be about a session I did with the parents/caregivers on information sharing and athlete welfare.

I managed to spend a bit of time with on the wall and bump into too. I had a great day 😊

09/04/2026

It’s amazing how you can forget what’s on your doorstep.

We’re very, very, lucky to have the Lake District so close. But we don’t tend to go there much over Winter.

Great weather, great bread and cake great coffee and savoury snacks (outrageous bhajis) and the climbing is flipping brilliant too.

Two days of bouldering on volcanic tuff = happy soul but no skin left……

We’ve got a sport climbing trip next week, but once that’s over we’ll be getting lots of local trad and bouldering in.

Can’t wait 😊

07/04/2026

I had the great pleasure of taking a strong, young, indoor boulderer for their first outdoor session yesterday.

This handhold drew my attention as they were spending a lot of time trying to make it feel more comfortable.

I’d been on it and thought it was a lovely hold.

They were reluctant to pull on it as it felt very unfamiliar, uncomfortable and as if something in their hand was going to go ‘twang’.

We become what we do.

Indoors holds tend to be more regular and even. Split finger positions are rare. For your hand to feel robust in these positions it has to have spent some time in those positions.

If you come across something that feels new/unusual don’t avoid it; explore it. But don’t just assume you will be able to use it because of the grade.

We had lots of learning together yesterday and they were a tiny amount away from V6 on their first ever outdoor session. First time on Boulder mats, uneven landings, spotting, sit starts, weirdly shaped rock, standing on holds that are smaller than bolt holes. So much to deal with and they did fantastically well.

But all of that new stuff also adds to your injury risk. If you’re getting outside for the first time now the weather is (hopefully) changing I’ve yourself time and space to explore and enjoy. Don’t chase the grades until you’re comfortable and safe.

Further thoughts: why are there no sit-starts indoors anymore? Why does no one spot indoors anymore?

Those are both blanket statements to prompt conversation, i’m aware some do.

05/04/2026

Full video now on my you tube channel.

If you like it please share 🙏

Link in bio and stories/highlights for a one click way to find it.

Warming up does prevent injury. But it’s very hard to appreciate benefits you never see. How do you know about the injuries you didn’t get?

I work with people in the real world where they don’t always have the time, knowledge or discipline to perform a benchmarked off the wall warm up.

These ideas can get you warmed up well, improve your skills AND enable you to stay on the wall with your friends.

This video gives you some ideas of how to think about what to do (which only takes seconds) and then some suggested drills and ideas which will warm you up AND improve your climbing skills. If you start doing this I bet your friends start to copy you.

Adapt to what your aim is for the day, but apply the principles:

Start easy
Take small steps
Finish your warm up trying as hard as your project level
Get some fall practice in

15/03/2026

This post was inspired by a patient who is neurodiverse and really struggles with organisation and routine.

Tweaks and injuries were just not responding to rehab. This was due to them being exhausted most of the time and eating on the go with fast food, when they remembered to eat; which wasn’t often.

This picture of their food drawer was one of the biggest ‘YES!’ moments I’ve had in recent times.

Over a few weeks we had built new structures. We removed barriers and made making higher quality decisions easier.

Research shows that much of our decision making is not about willpower. It’s about structure. The right structure (such as a kitchen drawer full of food that is full of quick to prepare food that is way better than take away) leads to more positive habits as it becomes easy. It’s about reducing friction, not trying harder.

Ease of choice builds consistency and with consistency comes improvement, in rehab and training.

You won’t heal, or get stronger, if you don’t have consistent, sustainable, habits around the basics. The basics are getting enough sleep and energy in to support what you want to do.

If you’re struggling with this it’s not because you’re too weak willed. It’s because you don’t have the structures.

Think about what gets in the way of good quality sleep and nutrition and what you can practically do to improve this.

It can be as simple as having a repeating online food order that guarantees you will have easy to prep, supportive, food choices in your kitchen drawer.

Get the basics in place before you start training@and if you’re struggling find a physio/trainer who can help you with lifestyle factors, not just sets and reps.

13/03/2026

02/03/2026

Second try for this reel with now non-racist captions - thanks Instagram 🙄

If you’re carrying a bit of a ni**le in your finger when you warm up you need to isolate it for two reasons.

1 - To see how it is and inform your choices for that session

2 - To recruit it fully so it can look after itself better

It’s very common for me to see two hands that can pull the same amount. But if you isolate the injured finger and compare it to the other side they can often be 50% different.

A 4 finger pull can’t be relied upon to tell you the truth.

The body is fantastic at working around and protecting things. That can be great, but there comes a time when we need to isolate and work the finger on its own.

By testing and recruiting it like this you get a much better picture of how it actually is before you climb. You don’t want to end up on a two finger pocket way above your last bolt /gear and suddenly discover it doesn’t like that.

Warm up well first and then isolate it in open, half crimp and crimp (if you think you’re going to use those grips on your climb).

I’d recommend giving it a little boost/test before each climb too

As ever if you’re not sure get it checked out by your trusted medical provider - not all finger injuries are pulley injuries but even if it is they need a proper rehab, not just rest until it doesn’t hurt anymore.

27/02/2026

I don’t often repeat info on here but this one is worth repeating.

We had good flight times, short haul, all went smoothly, no stress. I’d rested a day or two before travelling and still my HRV changed.

It doesn’t rule my life. It helps me make decisions, it doesn’t make them for me. I still climbed as it was our first day and we were meeting up with some friends at the crag.

But it shows that travel really does affect you.

Don’t train up to the day before travel and call that a rest day!

17/02/2026

I was filming this as a demo for a patient and felt it was worth sharing more generally.

This patient was experiencing wrist and shoulder pain in press-ups.

It’s important to point out that we’re working on the issues behind the pain - this is a temporary adaptation, not the solution.

3 adaptations to one exercise!

Parallettes are great to remove wrist extension and pronation related symptoms.

This particular set was quite thin which added a stability challenge to the wrist. So fat grips solved that. But I also noted it could work as a progression for their wrist issue. As can slowly turning the parallettes into pronation over time.

The block on the floor stops me going too deep and into the range that irritates the shoulder.

It’s a foam bench press range block. 3 different heights to select from in 1 block and you put it on the bar. They’re only a few pounds.

Why bother?

It keeps you in the game. If you enjoy pressing this kind of adaptation means you can carry on doing so.

Going through 90% of a bench press range gives you 90% of the benefits of doing a bench press. Stopping bench press gives you 0% of the benefits.

It’s very common to be able to work with injuries, not stop completely.

To stick with the bench press idea you could go to incline bench for a while, purposeful end range work, dumbbells if you have a wrist issue.

There is usually a way and most people only need one adaptation, not 3.

If you can’t think of one ask your trusted provider. Personally I love the lateral thinking these kind of issues bring and you end up with a box full of them to pull out when needed, especially for fingers and pull movements.

10/02/2026

Getting excited now!

I think we’ve cracked it after spending some time HQ this morning.

Customisable for ring, index and pinky lengths.

Sustainable UK hardwood.

Hand made.

Made 9 miles from where they are shipped.

Worldwide shipping available.

Watch this space……



Go to my website to see the benefits of unlevel edges.

08/02/2026

This is my current favourite exercise.

No complicated techno babble or super boffin science.

Just give it a go.

Stay on the toe of your standing leg throughout.

Keep the back foot long and low as long as you can.

Feel it pull you back into the glutes of the standing leg.

Great for all sorts of injuries and a good exercise in its own right.

Do be careful in a cable machine though. I don’t want to see you using your new phone holder to film you dangling upside down from your ankle