Journal
Notes on pain, movement and recovery
Plain-language explanations of what we see in the clinic every week, what actually helps, what doesn't, and how to keep progress going between sessions.
Women's Health5 min readPelvic Girdle Pain in Pregnancy Is Not Something to Put Up With
Around one in five pregnancies involves it, and a great many people are told to expect it and wait. It responds well to treatment, and the treatment is not rest.
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Sports Injury5 min readShin Splints: What the Pain Down Your Shin Actually Means
Almost always a training load problem rather than a shin problem. The important job is telling it apart from a stress fracture, which needs very different management.
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Self Care4 min readShould You Stretch Before Exercise?
Almost everyone was taught to touch their toes before sport. The evidence has moved a long way since then, and what replaced it takes about the same amount of time.
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Women's Health5 min readDiastasis Recti: The Gap in Your Abdominals After Birth
Almost every pregnancy produces one. The number people fixate on, the width of the gap, turns out to be the least useful thing to measure.
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Neurological & Balance5 min readFalls Prevention: Balance Is Trainable at Any Age
Balance is not something you either have or lose with age. It is a trainable capacity, and the exercise that improves it is quite specific.
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Neck5 min readHeadaches That Start in Your Neck
If your headache is always on the same side, starts at the base of your skull and is provoked by neck movement, the source may not be your head at all.
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Knee5 min readKnee Osteoarthritis: Why 'Wear and Tear' Is the Wrong Way to Think About It
The phrase 'wear and tear' suggests a joint being used up, and it leads people to do exactly the wrong thing. Knee osteoarthritis responds to load, not to protection.
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Women's Health5 min readReturning to Running After Having a Baby
Being told you are 'cleared for exercise' at six weeks is not the same as being ready to run. Here is what readiness actually looks like, and how to build to it.
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Neurological & Balance5 min readStroke Rehabilitation at Home: What Actually Drives Recovery
The nervous system relearns through specific, repeated practice. That means most of the recovery happens between appointments, not during them.
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Elbow, Wrist & Hand5 min readTennis Elbow: Why It Hurts to Grip, and What Actually Fixes It
Most people with tennis elbow have never played tennis. The pain is a tendon problem at the outside of the elbow, and the thing that resolves it is the thing most people avoid.
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Posture & Ergonomics4 min readDesk Ergonomics: How to Set Up a Workstation That Does Not Hurt
Most workstation advice is a list of angles nobody remembers. Here is the short version that actually reduces symptoms, in the order that matters.
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Posture & Ergonomics3 min readDoes Bad Posture Actually Cause Back Pain?
The link between posture and pain is much weaker than most people assume. Here is what the research actually shows, and what to focus on instead.
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