PRO | ORA PODCAST
A podcast exploring the lives of remarkable people in their professional era. The pivotal years where discipline, purpose and identity converge. Honest conversations with those shaping their craft, their character and their impact.
PRO | ORA PODCAST
Ep 2 - Tim Barsellotti
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Tim Barsellotti îs the owner of GX Physio. Tim worked as a physiotherapist in spinal cord injury at Stoke Mandeville in the NHS. He then worked in a private practice in South Sudan and has been building his own private practice in South Bucks.
Amongst a range of topics, in this podcast Tim gives us some advice on how we can mitigate injury as we age, and how to relieve the tension that builds up from working from home.
Videos of the exercises will be shown on our Instagram channel.
Links:
GX Physio: https://gxphysio.co.uk/
Back Friend: https://bit.ly/4tPq0Q2
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Intro
SPEAKER_03Tim Barsalotti, owner of GX Video. So if you're driving in a car a lot, and then this is a lot of people, right? Or even in any sort of chair. Alright, so oh hold on. Let's get into it. Go on. What should I be doing? We find two things. Okay, so one is that people often think nice. Um, what's the exercise? Sorry for that. Clam exercise, clam shell. How does low back pain is probably the top one. That's like the battery pack to your low back. But he's had these marks from cupping. Uh okay, yeah. Hey, are you familiar with cupping? We're all pretty time-strapped. But if you were to dedicate 15 minutes to some form of what would you suggest people focus on? So the first one, and you can join me if you like. So up nice and tool. Oh, you're gonna nice clunk that yeah, you have to be creative. So I often use them as uh as weights. So uh the kids. Yeah, the kids, exactly. Yeah. Do you think there's a genetic component to our flexibility? Well, unfortunately, right now I've got a calf injury, so I can't run physio. I know. What's the difference between dry needling and acupuncture? Great question. So the tension up here is awful. Yes. My brother-in-law, he was like, mate, have you got any of those needles? I'll just leave them in. I'll leave them in. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Pleasure. Um let's start with your background, shall we? So, Tim Barcelotti, owner of GX Physio. Um, do you want to explain kind of what has brought you to this stage of your life? Yeah, so I think it all started uh obviously choosing to do physiotherapy. So that happened, went to India and saw some children having physio. I was like, I want to do that. So uh that's where it all started, and then since then it was in the NHS for about 10 years, um, spinal cord injury at Stockmanderville, um, and then I went to South Sudan, um, did a bit of private practice there as physiotherapy um and volunteered in the refugee camps, and then coming back, um, started a business called the online physiotherapist, um, treating people all around kind of the world. Um, but GX Physio really kind of started about four years ago. Um I took it over from a lady called Allison, and yeah, since then it's kind of grown into more than just physio. So it's kind of more yeah, CBT, nutrition. Um what CBT? Cognitive behavioural therapy. Okay. Yeah, so looking ultimately at what you know, what are our thoughts, what are our beliefs, how they may be holding us
Tim's experience in physiotherapy
SPEAKER_03back in injury or in other aspects of life. So it's gonna be pertinent, isn't it? Three and half, I think, in the conversation, I think. Um so let's dig into some of the injury side of things, um, things that I know are relevant to me, excuse me, in a day-to-day basis. Um, what are the most common avoidable injuries that you see walking into your clinic? Avoidable. I would say low back pain is probably the top one. I am the biggest offender in this category. I wake up every morning in agony. And why? The why is ultimately because we we're not designed to sit. We sit for you know extraordinary amounts of time and then we're active, right? So we don't go and get out and run, we go to the gym. And so that's why I say it's the most avoidable, because there are things that you know we can do to offset that more, you know, it it coming on. I think other things are shoulder impingement. So again, similar thing, we sit, we round, and everything closes in. So and again, that's quite avoidable. Alright, so hold on, let's get into it. Go on. What should I be doing? Because I sit at the desk, the kitchen table. It's not even a desk, kitchen table. I do have one of those thingies that raises the laptop up. Fine. So I'm looking up here, yes, but I find keyboard kind of on the table awful. Yes, I the tension up here is uh unholy. Yes, yeah, yeah. And so sometimes I'll put the keyboard on my lap. Uh-huh. I'm like, okay, well that's a little bit better. But yeah, tell me. Alright, so the first thing is,
Most common avoidable injuries
SPEAKER_03I mean, yeah you can't just nail one thing, unfortunately. It is that setup. So it ergonomics basically means how does your body not just fit to the environment, but the the environment fit to you. So, for example, your your chair has to be, you know, uh positioned in a way your feet you know are positioned on the floor, uh, they're not kind of tucked underneath you. A lot of people do that, and that puts pressure on the back. Um, and then you've nailed it, right? Like the desk height has to be at a position where your elbows are at 90 degrees, your wrists aren't cocked, yeah, because that's just gonna cause so many things. And then your keyboard has to be in a position close enough. Again, lots of people have chairs which don't go close enough in, and they're they're leaning forwards, back, shoulders, neck, bad news. Misery. So, yeah, exactly. So, so it has to be elbows at 90, in close enough that your keyboard can be here, uh top of the screen at eye level. Yeah. Um, yeah, separate mouse, separate keyboard, separate screen. Okay. If you're working for a laptop for an hour, fine.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But if it's more than that, it's more regularly, get a setup. It's really quick and easy. 50 pounds will get you a keyboard, mouse, and a screen raiser. So I think I do a lot of that. I think I also blend it with sat on the sofa, yeah, sat, I don't know, in bed because it's late at night and I've got to finish something. And any other I work in the car, I kind of serial offender of working on the laptop in the car, so I just spend the whole day hunched over. Um so I still struggle with back, the lower back pain. What can you recommend me to try and relieve it? Mm-hmm. Okay, so I would say three quick hacks, okay? So if you're driving in a car a lot, and then this is a lot of people, right, or even in any sort of chair, having a good lumber support will take you from here to here. And you'll find that all of your mirrors will need to adjust in your car, right? Okay, or or ultimately just making sure you're sat correctly, because that's just low-hanging fruit. Yeah. Okay, that's a quick and easy thing. Is that a pillow, or is that a like a hard one? So there's there's two, you can get kind of a McKenzie lumber roll, like a four or five inch, like a roll that goes in here. Or you can get kind of um a back friend, are they called? Um, and yeah, you can a back friend. A back friend, exactly. And that's kind of a curved mesh. You can get these kind of low quality ones out there. I wouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Just spend a bit of money that will actually cost per use, will save your back. That's number one. Okay. Number two. Can you can you recommend one? Like a specific one afterwards. Yeah, of course. Yeah, okay, great. I'll put it, I'll put a little link. Yeah, perfect. Stuff I do. Alright, nice. Yeah, all right, good. Like that. Sorry, carry on. Uh number two is this stretch. So this is a good, what we call piriformist stretch.
Help for lower back pain
SPEAKER_03So you foot's on the floor, ankles across the opposite knee. The key thing here is you sit up, right? Okay. A lot of people like push down. Don't need to do that. Okay. Sit up tall, lean forwards. Yeah, yeah. You feel that. And you hold it, generally, your age. So you hold it for if you're 40 years old, you hold it for 40 seconds.
SPEAKER_00Oh god.
SPEAKER_03Three seconds. I know. It's brutal, isn't it? It is tough. It's tough. I want those 10 seconds back from when I was a little bit more than a little bit. All this age stuff. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So um so that's why you see kids doing gymnastics and they're super flexible, they bounce back from injuries, and it just takes us, unfortunately, a bit longer as we get older. Yeah, okay. So that'd be that one, and then the final thing for a you know, low back would would ultimately be the clamshell exercise. Now that's something I can't show you here, okay? Uh, but it essentially strengthens the glute mead, okay? So your kind of your not quite your back pocket, it's it's kind of on the corner of your hip. Okay. That's like the battery pack to your low back. Okay. What's the yeah, it's the gluteus medius muscle, and it supports your back to ensure that when you're doing anything like tennis, running, okay, but but unfortunately, that muscle gets deactivated or or kind of knocked out a little bit when we sit for so long, and other muscles join in and take over that job, so that ultimately you're left in with with very little support. So that when you walk, when you stand, doesn't normal activities, right? It doesn't engage and you end up loading the back. So that'll be a muscle which in my practice 95% of people's gluteus medius muscle in here isn't sufficient, and so that's ultimately another uh way that you can prevent low back pain. Nice. Um, what's the exercise? Sorry for that. Called a clam exercise, a clamshell. How does it just roughly look like? So, do you want me to stand up or do you want me to can you describe it? Yeah, you can describe it. Alright. Plus, maybe. Alright, so I'll stand up. So essentially, if you're uh if you're bent bent knees, you're lying on the sides, okay, and then you open up like that position there. Yeah, okay, and it works this muscle here.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_03Um with a band or no band on the knees? Pretty much everybody doesn't uh need a band initially. They think they need a band. Yeah, I would. But uh yeah, so many people, it's so funny. They got they come in the room, they're like, Yeah, exactly. And they're like rolling backwards, doing that thing. I'm like, you know, you just don't know what this is, but it's not what we're after. So, no, go no band. Okay. Roll right over. That's a key thing. Yeah, roll right over and then lifting up like this. Okay. Are you rotating your shoulders over, facing towards the road? Yeah, kind of right on your sides, yeah. Okay, and you're you're rolling right over on your sides and then you're lifting up just like that. Cool. Let's put a link in the comments below. What are you working for? A little Have you got a video? Yeah. Excellent. Yeah, nice, that'd be really cool. Yeah. Great, okay. Um, well, I need to literally take all those. I do all those. You're welcome, I appreciate that. Um rehab. Yes. Easy uh to be sort of self-prescriptive as a as a I was gonna say I'm definitely not an athlete, as someone that plays sports, I like to think I have all the answers. Not always, more often than I should. Um what do most people like me get wrong about rehab? Probably parking the fact that that we often don't do it. Yeah, that's that's that cheeky one. Number one, yeah, exactly. I normally we find two things. Okay, so one is that people often think, ah, I've had this injury for so long, I just need to smash it. So they leave our physio room and they just over-push it, so they overstretch um too much, and that can cause the body to be like, Whoa, what are you doing? Like, I'm tight and I need to be warmed up a little, and they kind of just eased into it. So I always kind of over-empsized people as you leave the physio room, after the first two days, go easy, and that's the same thing. If you're self-treating, same thing. First two days, whenever you embark upon something, just take it easy, getting used to the stretches, and then your body will tell you, oh, that's okay, that's the right level, and then you can increase a bit more. Um, so that'd be number one is that people kind of, yeah, they're like, ah, so frustrated, I want to get back to my sport, so they over push it. The second thing is that they generally don't follow the advice in terms of either following the recipe of okay, this is a 10-minute programme, do this twice a day. Uh, they don't do it,
Common mistakes with rehab
SPEAKER_03and and I get it, it's hard to insert anything new into your day. Yeah, but they're like, oh, you know, I'm walking or I'm, you know, I have a bit of a regime anyway, and so they kind of go off piste. And it's like, no, actually, like, it's really important you follow the recipe to build the mobility and the strength in the right way, because that kind of is the way to build the right foundations. I'm guessing you're inundated with people coming into the to your practice wanting you to pretty much do some kind of like magic, yeah, yeah, classic, yeah, yeah. And then like you do the heavy lifting for them, sure. They leave. Yes, problem solved. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we get that a lot. And and and it's so funny. I mean, some people are like, Tim, I just I don't have time to do anything. Yeah, and it's like, okay, actually we can actually work with that, and I appreciate your honesty. Um because there is there is something in yes, we can actually help you a lot. We often say to people, James, look, there are three things that you need to do or we need to do to get you accelerating quickly out of this injury. One is you follow advice. So for for low back pain, it would be okay, don't slump, sit for longer than 20-30 minutes without getting up, moving around. You look use a lumbar support, maybe use some heat, things like that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Advice. The next thing is treatment. So things that I'm gonna do with you, where I might treat your back, okay, I might work in chapter formis, might do some dry needling, things like that to relieve the muscle tension in the low back. And the final one is your exercise programme. So doing your homework. So those stretches and the strengthening as prescribed. Um, we need those three things. For some people, they're like, I'm slammed at work for the next three weeks, I just need relief. It's like, okay, we're good, we can still help you. Try and follow some advice. I know you're not gonna need your treatment, we'll do one exercise, this one. Yeah. Um, but we can still help you, and so we'll do kind of that deep tissue work, we'll do the dry needling, um, and there's some other mobilizations and things that we can do to help. What's the difference between dry needling and acupuncture? Great question. So, acupuncture, there's two strands of that. So there's the Chinese acupuncture, kind of traditional Chinese medicine, and that works on qi, channels, meridians. Personally, I think that was something which you know the Chinese kind of used to describe what they knew in their language back then, um, to try and kind of put words and meaning to what was happening as an end result, which was, oh, I've got relaxation in kind of my back when it was in a spasm, or whatever it might be. Um, and then there's western acupuncture, which is is pretty close to our kind of dry needling. Okay, and the dry needling is a lot more um present. So acupuncture has been going on for about three, four thousand years, long time. Um, they used to kind of use very fine pieces of bone, very strange. Okay, gosh. Now we use kind of these microfine kind of needles ultimately, um, and dry needling. So, particularly some key areas we work into is yeah, low back but upper trapezius. So a lot of us hold a lot of tension in here.
SPEAKER_01I need this.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Oh, my brother-in-law, he was like, mate, have you got any of those needles? I'll just leave them in. I'll leave them in walking
Dry needling and acupuncture
SPEAKER_03around. Yeah, exactly. So um it's it's amazing because it's instant, that's the difference, because it's it's instant. You get it's it is weird, you get a muscle twitch. Right. Okay, which is But is that it is that part of the process, is that releasing the tension? Yeah, exactly. It's called a muscle twitch response, and you it's essentially that that that knot, that kind of junk joined up piece of of muscle, relaxing. Yeah, and it's immediate, like before we do it, it's like tense, tender. Um we do it, and it's immediately soft. It's like, uh, sounds good. Yeah, it is pretty good. While we're on that, and one thing I've been seeing because I'm into my tennis, and I saw um I can't remember which guy it was now, but he had these marks from cupping. Uh okay, yeah. Are you familiar with cupping as a sort of solution? Yes. Yes. What's it all about? Great question. So if we if we boil it down to the evidence alone, the evidence is poor. Like it's sh it, there's there's no improvement.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_03Evident, you know, evidentially. What's the actual process? What happens? So the the theory is ultimately that you're you're creat you're you're putting a cup on and then you uh create negative pressure. Yeah. Okay, and what that does is it draws the skin up, the fascia, the muscle, the skin, it draws it up, and then you can either leave them or you can apply a little bit of lotion and move them around on the skin. Which, you know, for some people they're like, it's amazing, it really helps me. And for those people, it's like fine, yeah, we'll do that, we'll help you. But but equally, we're very honest with people at the same time. It's like we're not only going to do coupling, we need to do it with other things. Okay. Um, so it might be a sort of temp temporary relief that it provides, but not necessarily solving root cause. Yes. That's what I would agree with. Yes. Cool. Useful. I've been wondering about that one. Um, right. We're all
About cupping
SPEAKER_03pretty time-strapped, sure. Especially if you've got young kids, even if you haven't, just you fill your day. But if you were to dedicate 15 minutes, perhaps, to some form of bodily care in a mobility sense or within your realms of expertise, what would you suggest people focus on? From a physical perspective, like key exercises to do? I think I think like parking strength training, resistance training, parking cardio, yeah, focusing specifically on kind of mobility and mitigating injury. Any thoughts on how you could best put those 15 minutes to use? Love that. Yeah, absolutely. So let's go for five. Five things. Okay. So the first one, and you can join me if you like. Right. Is the neck, okay? So sitting up nice and tall. Yep. Your hand goes underneath your bottom. Right. You might need two hands for this, but it's up to you. Okay, yeah. And then you bring it the hand.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, perfect. So up nice and tall. Oh, you've got a nice clunk there. Yeah. Ooh. Me too. Alright, here we go.
SPEAKER_03So, as I say, I I use the same, I mean, yeah. The research suggests that as you get older, you lose elastin in your muscles, and that's why you have to hold a stretch for your age. I can attest to that. Yeah. It feels like I lose elastic bands in my body. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you yeah, you do that 40 seconds two times, and then switch sides to do the other side. Right. Yeah. Okay.
15 minutes mobility per day
SPEAKER_03If we allot time as we keep going, so that's two minutes, two minutes on each side. Two minutes on each side. Oh yeah, it's three loss of 40 seconds. Oh, yeah, okay, okay. One side. Yeah. Three loss of 40 seconds, the other side. And then the next one will be our favourite. Oh yeah, cool. Pyriformis, glute stretch. So again, each side, two, two. Yeah. Um if I was to yeah, go again, it would be the clam, which we've already discussed. Yeah. Yeah. So these are really high value exercises, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Uh and if you if it's not practical, kind of come on your side. You can kind of the other the other ones you can do is band around around your ankles, yeah. Uh, or bring it higher towards your knees, and then you're essentially doing that. Oh, okay. Gemma loves these. She'll be up and down the garden like a crab. Exactly. I should do that, so I copy her, but I sort of, yeah, I'm not quite sure I'm doing it right. So that's the alternative, or you know, from a practical sense, like, okay, right, wait for my kettle to boil or whatever it might be. Um got a few minutes between the kids. Yeah, just in the kitchen at the end. You know, they love it. The kids do love it. They they're straight in. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so where are we up to? I don't know, time-wise. Oh, time-wise. So for the neck, four minutes. Yeah. For this one here, yeah, four minutes. Okay. Um for the for the crab or clam? Yeah. Okay, four minutes. So up to twelve minutes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Alright. Now I did say five, but we've only got three because we can we can we can extend if we need to. We can wiggle it then. Um I would say the yeah, the thread the needle would be the next one. Do you know thread the needle? Uh no. Okay. Do I have capacity to get on the floor here? Yeah, I don't wanna be able to see, but shall I say? Cool. So thread the needle, you're on all fours, and your right hand can come through. And you're trying to get your shoulder to the ground, and then you come back up, and then taking it up towards the ceiling, and you would typically do five on each side, and then you come and you do the same one for that one there. Nice. Was there one more exercise? There is one more exercise. Yep. So the final exercise that I would typically get people to do is the calf raise. Okay. Simple, easy, but it's again one thing which kind of come back to people where people kind of fall down and come with injuries is like Achilles tendinitis, calf strains, plant fasciitis, which often comes back to your calves being not strong enough. And tight, or like just mainly not strong enough. Yeah, I mean, yeah, they come hand in hand. So, but generally you get more tightness when they're not as strong. Yeah. So you're overloading the tissue, okay? You're overloading everything because they're not strong enough, generally. Which leads to tightness, which leads to injury. Um, are you on a step? Yeah, well, you can pushing up, or you can do it on the spot, I guess. You can do it on the spot, yeah. So you could either do kind of one one at a time, yeah. Okay, single calf raise, or you know, depends on your your age and your you know performance at that time, or you can do single. You can do it on a step, of course, um, where you're hanging off the edge of a step. Yeah. Heel drops below the level of the step. Is that is that I was it because I would I'll often do this one actually. Yeah. And I'll drop down below to stretch it and then push up and just kind of um sort of sway between the two slowly.
SPEAKER_02Cool.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's good. Yeah, and then you know, for our more elite athletes like yourself, we would uh we would do it weighted, all right? And so you can have calf machines in the gym, or you can kind of you know uh put a bolster on your back, rucksack on, fill it with tins of beans. They're they're strong muscles, these calves, so you do have to like weight it up a bit, I find. Yeah. But it's remarkable, yeah, for sure, for sure. But it is remarkable how many people, again, we see oh clearly we're a physioclinic, we we get the injuries. Yeah. But um yeah, how how calves are just undervalued. Um and so we need to we need to actually prevent injury through strengthening. Very interesting. Interesting that they make the sort of top five. Yeah, five or four exercises. We do five in there, then that's great. Thank you. That's nice. Um right, you I guess have to lead by example, Tim. Being a physiotherapist, your body must be a temple. Uh well.
SPEAKER_02You try.
SPEAKER_03Um, what what do you do to try and keep your body uh as injury-free and bulletproof as you can? Yeah. So as somebody who, as you say, physio, uh, run a physio practice, also have uh two young kids, and so tying those things together is tricky, right? You know, they're they're two and four, they're brilliant. And so, yeah, you have to be creative. So I often use them as uh as weights. So uh the kids. Yeah, the kids, exactly. Yeah, yeah. So you put them between your legs and you know you do your crunches and stuff. And they're awake or you do your press-ups. Yeah, they're they're fast asleep. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put me back to bed. Um sorry, carry on. So you put them between your legs and well, you do leg raises, or you put them on your on top of your knees. On top of your knees, yeah. Okay, and then you do your crunches. Yeah. Like your reverse crunches. Yeah, okay. You then uh they love that. You can do your press-ups, you can do your squats. There's there's so many, so many ways. Yeah, and as they get bigger, you get stronger. It's a win. But bringing it kind of into a more serious angle, uh, I do Pilates twice a week. Do you? Love it. So well behaved. It is so good. So that's uh yeah. I didn't realize how many strength training sessions do you do in a week? Well, so Pilates twice,
Tim's training regime
SPEAKER_03yeah. And then I do uh the gym twice a week. Okay, yeah, okay. So, and then are you doing any cardio outside of that? Well, unfortunately, right now I've got a a calf injury. So a calf run. I know, I need a kid run. Do you know what it is? Uh but I cycle. Okay. So yeah, so so that's something that I do either in the gym or I get out on the bike, and again, put the kids on the trailer, and off we go, and uh that gets a heart pumping. So you're hitting you're hitting each week cardio, two resistance weight lifting sessions, plus two Pilates. Just standard Pilates or a former Pilates? Uh yes, mat-based. Yeah. Map-based, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I love that. It's cheaper. It's cheaper, it's cheaper, yeah. I just also just think it's you're less prone to injury and generally, yeah. The I've I've generally found my experience is that the the quality of map-based is generally much better. That's not to knock reform. I think you can have apps. Well, I think the different days sort of end up solving to a degree different things, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, for sure. For sure.
SPEAKER_03Uh if there's one thing I could add into my life more consistently, it would be it would be Pilates. Sure. I will do a session and then I'll go, right, that's great. I'll do two this week, and then I don't get to the second, and then another week goes by, and I'm like, oh, it's now been three weeks since I've and I'm like, what's the point unless you can get some consistency going. Yeah. But yeah, that's interesting to hear that you do it. That's a good advert for the for the Pilates crew. Um anything else on the bulletproof Tim? The bullet you're talking from a physical perspective, aren't you? Yeah, yeah. I think I think that probably covers it. You know, I I do do the strengthening um piece, as I said, but the the mobility piece, I've generally found the I found there's um there's a lady locally, she is incredible, she's called Hester, and um she has recorded this 10-minute hit workout, Pilates, but it's kind of within Pilates, you have the mobility aspect and the deep strengthening bit, and so I found that a bit of a game changer in terms of working, working that side of things. Yeah. Um I want to touch on the uh psychological management of injury. I think particularly with um physical sports, boxing, rugby, I mean, but then use even with any any sport, you can get an injury and then it can play on your mind and significantly influence the way you play, whether it's being stiffer or less committed to a collision or whatever it might be. Do you have any thoughts on um how the brain can I guess become a limiting factor in our recovery? And I guess any kind of thoughts on the broader picture of how we can navigate the psychological challenge of injury. Yeah, yeah. Our brains are amazing for good and for bad. So when you have an injury, your body then learns, right? Like it's it's if you put your hand in a fire, it's gonna remember, okay, I've got to be very cautious with this now. Same thing with an injury. Um, so if you if you're playing football and somebody's tackled you or you or you're running along and your knee suddenly twists, you're then gonna your brain's teaching your body subconsciously that okay, like I've got to be a bit more cautious going into that tackle, or how fast I might run, or how fast I turn, which then impacts your performance. And so for me, I would say there's two angles to this. One is from a performance perspective, um, there is something about visualizing, you know, actually, you know, in your mind, okay, success. So visualizing, okay, um, you know, I'm visualizing running and I'm full pelt and I'm turning and I'm scoring that goal. So there is something about how to train
How the mind can influence recovery
SPEAKER_03your brain to know actually this is okay. But then also I've found for some people we have to do it with them. So we have a sports therapist, and obviously in our physio team, we get the we get people doing some very kind of um high impact or high velocity movements, teaching them to trust their body again. Because if you almost leave people to do it with a self-rehab, almost always there's kind of um a residual piece that will compound over time and grow into something else, whether or not that's an injury on the opposite side of the body, further up the chain, yeah. Um so it is worth taking the time, the resource to spend time, in my opinion, biased, I'm sure. That going to see a physio or a sports therapist to um get get overcome that injury from a psychological perspective as well, yeah, and take yourself into those extremes. Did you watch Chris Hemsworth's Limitless? I did. Did you see the second one? He went out to wherever he went, out of Mongolia or something, uh, for his back pain. He was trying to address his back pain, wasn't he, from a mental side of things. And I actually find that right, I was really intrigued in that episode because I'm like mostly in that I I suffer from back pain. It's just upper, mid, lower, the whole thing's just a bit of a failure, really. Um I just sometimes wondered, you know, James, maybe if you just pretend it doesn't exist, it could just be a mental thing that you can remove it. Yeah. Um and then I guess I was gonna sort of not quite sure where I'm going with this, but thinking about the limitation of your ability to stretch being mental as opposed to physical. Do you think that a lot of people are limited in their mobility and their um and the and the pain they're feeling in a way that they could circumvent that by thinking, oh, this is a terrible question, isn't it? But thinking about solving it, solving the mental side of it as opposed to the physical. It's a great question. Yeah. It's a rubbish question. It's a lot good intent. Yeah, good intent, good intent. Well, I know I think, yeah, I think ultimately for everyone is so different, right? You have you meet people who are so driven and they're like they push their bodies to extreme, and other people who are like, you know, they go into a small stretch and like, oh, that's painful. I'm not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And what you find is that on both extremes, you know, you're sure you can have good success on one side, but generally, yeah, we from a psychological perspective, we need somebody else sometimes to help us get through that. But more most people are gonna be able to know, okay, if I do this regularly, I'm gonna start to see a difference in my mobility and in my stretch. Um, and from a back perspective in Chris Hemsworth, yeah, I think ultimately um doing something consistently consistently is going to reap reward. Yeah. So you reap what you sow. Yeah, yeah. Okay, very interesting. Um, just on that as well. There, I'm sure I can't remember when it was, but I'm sure there was a time at school, so we're going back a couple of years, uh, where the teacher's got us doing um what do you call the stretches where you sort of like you'd bounce into the stretch and back out. Okay, like primetric. I think primetric, yeah. But you'd you'd have sort of a shorter moment where you're kind of slightly gently, not ridiculously, but generally sort of like bouncing and pushing the stretch a little bit further without sort of staying in that super high tension phase. Yeah. Um do you think there's a place for that? I do. I do. I think do you do it? Um I do. It's it has to be done when you're not an injury. So again, the research that I've read is very clear that if you have an injury, static holds, passive holds are the better way to increase the long-term uh length of your stretch. But if you're healthy and if you don't have an injury, some gentle bouncing and some gentle plimetric, so you'll probably see you know rugby players and things, they're gonna be doing those sorts of stretches and things. That's that's a great way to increase the elasticity or the lengthening of your muscle. Um but the the problem comes when you bounce is that you candy is that you can kind of rip and tear the muscle if you do it too much, okay? But if you're doing it in a controlled manner, measured bounce. Brilliant, measured bounce. Yeah, yeah. Because I do do it, but I sometimes wonder if I should be. Yeah, I think it I think it has a place. I always figured if I was trying to teach myself to do the splits, which we're in no danger of, uh, um, that that sort of like bouncing would allow, would would sort of be a gentle way of training the ligaments and the muscles to extend further. Yeah. Do you think that's true? It is. I personally, for example, if let's use that example of the splits, I would say use it in combination with so static and plimetric. Sure. I generally probably wouldn't do, you know, just one. I think they both have their place. Um, but it comes down to if you have an existing injury or you know I've got a niggle in my back, then I would treat that first to ensure that to ensure that the right muscles are being lengthened because your body will compensate. It is amazing, but it will compensate. Um do you think there's a genetic component to our flexibility? Yes. Yeah. I mean I agree. Yeah. Is that generally widely considered to be the case? It is, yeah. It is genetic. I mean it's the same thing for like, let's say, I don't know, um heart attacks, but yeah, you know, there's a genetic component, but then it's environmental. So it's also the the food that that family might eat, and similarly, the activity in the mobility piece, the flexibility you just said, but like the the the lifestyle that a certain family might lead, the foods that we eat, um, but there is absolutely fundamentally a genetic, yeah, yeah. That explains why I'm so inflexible, then it's not my fault.
SPEAKER_02It's not my fault, I love that, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um so I wanted to talk AI because it's kind of coming for everything in some regards, uh, but um specifically related to physiotherapy. Now I am I'm a bit of a serial offender at having a niggle and thinking, well, before I go and see someone, which is just I mean you're gonna hate this, but I'll just ask God or chat GPT or whatever, and get a and just get an initial kind of thought, see if it's something that I can maybe solve myself, mainly from saving time, money, and all the rest of that. Um so I'm guessing AI probably does impact the number of people you have come into the uh practice, but
Genetic impact on flexibility
SPEAKER_03um what are the reasons that people would come and see you say we're 10 years down the line, and I think there's plenty of reasons, but in your view, what are the reasons people come and see Tim despite AI? I think trust. I think AI is is fantastic. Obviously, we used to call it Doc Do Google, right? You know, we used to Google stuff, but now it's kind of gone one level up. But I think we're aware of its strengths, but we're also very aware of its weaknesses, and trust is a big one because it can it can spew out some stuff which is a bit you know
Will physiotherapists still exist despite AI
SPEAKER_03far out. Yeah um whereas I don't think anything can really replace this, and I'd really so trust is one, but the second thing is the um the the preciseness of an interaction between you and I in a physio room where AI, in my opinion, won't ever touch. It I don't think it can because your body is remarkably made, like oh my goodness, just the the fibers, the tendons, the nerves, everything in you, like yeah, it it's remarkable. It's obscenely complex, isn't it? It's obscenely complex, and as a physio, I'm like, I'm just overwhelmed by the body. I'm like, in in an in a like I'm in awe. But bringing it back, you know, if I was to look at your hip, you know, the hip is super complex, okay? There's so many ligaments and issues that can be caused in it, and I think the reason why people come and see a physio versus going to AI, we only have one body, and you know, it's not like something else, it's not like a piece of coursework or something. You know, you can hash it up and it'll be fine generally. Yeah, your body matters, all right? And so so going somebody who you trust who can be very precise and can give you some very actionable personal things to you, I think that is why I think ultimately people come to see us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, I think that I think also the face-to-face human kind of I mean you touched on it with trust, didn't you? It's basically the same thing, but there's definitely a value piece in uh feeling reassured that you've seen someone, they have a body as well, they're trained in this, they understand it.
SPEAKER_03And actually AI has never had a physical body, and although it can scan the internet for um you know the most common answers to a problem, it's still a very different way of approaching it, isn't it? Yeah, very much so. Uh great. The your business moving forwards. I'm intrigued, always intrigued about the business side of uh everything. What are you doing to build, grow? Have you got any developments coming that are worth mentioning? Yeah, so the the the ultimate vision from my perspective is I think what we what we're lacking in our today's world is that connectedness, okay, and what I mean by that is I'm quite aware that physiotherapy isn't the be all and end all, you know, it can it can sure fix some things, but we touched on this already. But there's a physical aspect, yes. There's a man mental aspect, okay. So we're bringing in CBT, um, we very much want to kind of bring in more of a mental health team. Um bringing in nutrition because again, everything interconnects, okay. So we're talking about the nutrition aspects as well. Um the social aspects, so I'd love to kind of create a co-working space. So if I give you the big picture, we've got a co-working space, we've got a cafe where like events come and happen out of it. So whether that's you know marriage events, whether that's um events for families, whether that's discipleship stuff, whether that's just meeting with friends. I'd love to have a gym space where we can do our rehab with patients, um, but also people can come and look after their body in that point of view. Um, yes, we've also
Tim's plans for his business
SPEAKER_03got the clinical team, so we've got you know GP, physio, dermatology, nutrition, sports massage, all of that side of things in there. Um and then this is where it gets a bit fun, uh, which is where you've got your sauna, your paddle courts, yeah, um, and kind of your Pilates reformer space as well. So in my in my dream, that would be what it would look like, all kind of interconnected. Um, it's quite rare, isn't it? I mean if you go to a Members Club or a I'm trying to think, a David Lloyd or something, there's sort of covering elements of that, but I think they've got to wake up or get a little bit more into uh the sort of health and recovery side of their offering. I think what you described there sounds fantastic, particularly the social side. I think we we're lacking a little bit of opportunity, and it's probably a stage of life that I'm in. I spend my whole life just like working and dealing with the kids. So the social piece doesn't really it it it exists if it's a part of those elements. Yes, and I think that's it. It works, but uh it's still spikes of limiting, isn't it, to a degree. And I think that's it. I think it's kind of okay, I'm going to have my physio, I'm going to have my coffee, you know, and you're you're building them all together. Yeah. So I think that's where it's at. So I guess the final thing ultimately is in relationship to what I've just explained in regards to the interconnectedness of all those aspects of health, physical, mental, social, you know, spiritual, and everything there, you know, thinking about a bit of a name change to reflect that. Yeah. Okay. So we're very much thinking about okay, what now represents our true identity so that people understand what we're about. So that's something we're working on, yeah. Um that will be coming out in the next you know few months, probably. Nice. Yeah. Um, okay, so I'd like to do a few quick fire questions. Right, love them. And by quickfire, I well, they're not quickfire. Brilliant, but um they'll be they'll be fun. They'll be fun and interesting. So we'll keep them sort of semi-quick fire. But um as a man who leans into faith and Christianity, what do you think atheists and agnostics miss out on by passing up on the broader package of spirituality? Nice, simple, easy question. Yes, nice. Okay, yes, no. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I would say literally we look around us, right? We can look at each other and see your body screams like a creator, like your body screams like you are intricately made. And the flowers, everything else around us is saying there is something there. In terms of personally, I can only speak from my personal experience, but having not just like uh a relationship with Jesus, but like looking into the evidence, the history, I'm like, you can, you know, people have tried to disprove it and have largely come out becoming Christians because they're like, I can't do it, like you know, and everything points towards actually there was a crucifixion, there was kind of Jesus, you know, did rise from the dead, and so there's and so for me it's like okay, there is a God who's made all of this, and then there's there's Jesus who was God, who came because he loves you, loves me, and he's like, I want this to be, I want us to do relationship, and I'm kind of giving you a bit of a blueprint, a bit of a guide as
The negatives to atheism
SPEAKER_03to how to live well. And again, a lot of people would say, Okay, just look at Jesus objectively, you know, his teachings, his his ways are like actually they're pretty good, they're pretty good, you know. Um so yeah, I would say having you know tried as I can to live in relationship with Jesus, to do life, there's just such joy and such peace, and ultimately, you know, personally, I think, well, life is here right now, and I'm gonna enjoy it, and I'm gonna, you know, do all those wonderful things, but actually for me, it's about eternity as well. So, and there's a there's a confidence and a peace that comes through knowing that deeply. When when things think when things go awry, when things go wrong, they don't go the way that you want, um, you can have a deep confidence that ultimately there's a broader picture. There's a big picture, and I can just trust trust that God's got it. Yeah. On that note, obviously you're sort of in the throes of tackling some personal challenges. And what are you currently doing to help sort of keep a positive mindset and just generally navigate through the challenges of life? Yeah, so I think akin to an injury, right? You know, when you have an injury, um, your brain's amazing, it can be both positive and negative. And so it's thinking, okay, so for me it's um taking some time each morning to yeah, to meditate on, and there's a song, and it's called It's Be Still and Know That I'm God. Okay, and it's ultimately saying, I actually. Can't control anything. All I can control is, you know, my mind and my my thought process. And so taking some time before you kind of get into the busyness of a day and you're just overcome with whether that's kids, work. So grounding yourself in that. I think the other thing is very much exercising. You know, it's it's very well documented. Endorphins are released. Um, you know, we feel stronger, we feel healthier when we do exercise. Friends who are gonna yeah, both encourage you and challenge you. You know, I think we live in a world where everyone's like, James, doing great, great. But actually, no one tells me I'm doing great. You're doing great, you're doing great. But um, but ultimately, yeah, we we we need all of that um to to become our best versions ultimately. Um, so I would say all of those things are important, and then book
Mental fortitude
SPEAKER_03a holiday. That's uh that's an important one. Yeah, book a holiday, yeah. We'll do that in 2028. Uh all right, a couple more quick fires. Go for it. I feel like we covered this earlier, but if you could pick only one, Pilates or yoga, which would you pick? I would absolutely pick Pilates. And the reason for that, I think, is that Pilates is a this isn't to to diss yoga. I'm sure yoga's great, but I've generally found Pilates to both have that beautiful combination of mobility and strengthening in the deep core, okay? And ultimately you can there's progressions to each Pilates and yoga, um, but I've generally found the the progressions in Pilates to be you know much much more effective um than yoga. Yeah, yeah, nice. Finally, what are you currently learning for fun that is stretching you, pushing you out of your comfort zone? Yeah. So there's two things that I'm learning, and they are both definitely stretching me uh in lots of ways. So guitar and kaisa. Are you learning the guitar? I am learning the guitar. Oh nice. It's in the car, actually. Is it really? Yeah, yeah, I thought you could show me a few things. Oh yeah, amazing. But um but the guitar, goodness mate, you know, just the the intricacy of of the instrument, and then I want to sing with it. So bring that in. It's just so hard. It is so hard. I mean, yeah. So that and then kaisa, it's similar thing, right? The kite setting, because you know, you're you're you've got to angle and edge the board at the same time as um, you know, swing the kite and and then catch the wind and then hold that. They're really multi-dimensional challenges, those two. Yeah. How long have you been playing the guitar? Mmm, I I've had a guitar. Different, different, different years. Yeah, had a guitar for like 10-15 years. I've been taking lessons uh for about two months. Have you? Yeah. Lessons as well. Nice. So I think I started when I was four, about eight or so, no, it must be older, but about ten. Um and we'd have lessons, but wouldn't really pick it up in between lessons. And then
What is stretching Tim right now?
SPEAKER_03I only started trying to sing while playing. I think when I was about 19. That was like it was like I was starting again. Yeah. Because the coordination piece of trying to just allow the hands to do one thing, the voice to do something else. It's unbelievably difficult, isn't it? Yeah. But you did it. Yeah, and I think I I I love the music side of things because it feels like a form of it's almost like a form of meditative therapy in a way. I think playing an instrument is just such a rewarding way of clearing the head, and again, like like you said, release the endorphins. The um the kitesurfing thing I can also relate to because I think I'm probably not too far behind you on my journey of learning. And oh my, it is such a challenging sport. It's brutal. You're like dragged into the water, yeah, yeah. The barrier to get it. I I mean you I think you can liken it to snowboarding or skiing, but I I I think it's harder, I think it's worse. I think the risks you're exposed to, the power of the wind, yeah, uh the size of the kite, getting that right, learning to body drag, get up wind, it is just constant. You need a good instructor. Fortunately, my wife, one of the best.
SPEAKER_02I've heard. I've heard.
SPEAKER_03Cool. Thanks, Tim. Uh I think that is all my quick fire questions. Is there anything that we've not covered that you would like to impart? Any pots of wisdom? There might not be anything, anything else you'd like to say to wrap up. I think we're done. Lovely, cool. Thanks, Mayor. That was all right. No problems. Just a quick one. Uh I want to let you in on a little secret. It's about the Pro Aura Merino t-shirt. So the truth is, this was inspired by a t-shirt that I used to buy and wear. And it was made of Merino. Sold to me on the fact that you can wear it over and over again without it building up odour. Which of course makes it super practical for packing light if you're going away anywhere. But the thing that used to frustrate me about the old t-shirt was that I was only able to buy it in pretty uninspiring colours, and ultimately I wanted some more distinctive and unusual colour options that would also pair with other pieces that I would wear. So, anyway, I think we've delivered on that. To say thank you to you for listening to the podcast. You can get this style at 20% off for the next week with the code MORINO. That's M-E-R-I-N-O. This code isn't actually listed anywhere, so it's just for you for listening to say thanks.