body: futureproof your body through physiotherapy with fred braithwaite
When it comes to seeing a Physio, many of us will have memories of staggering in to a treatment room in pain after you go too hard in a gym session or after an accident on a five aside pitch. Physiotherapists are way more than that. Meet Fred Braithwaite from Stronglines, who teaches his clients how to not only stay healthy and balanced but to futureproof their bodies. Fred lives for watching how people move, understanding how different muscle groups activate and why our posture might be the cause of our niggling shoulder pain. He is thorough, he digs deep below the surface to uncover what our body is really trying to tell us.
From his Northamptonshire clinic, Fred and his team have recently started to break new ground treating people with Cancer. His work has not only helped his clients through their treatment but also lifted them out of the other side with new found confidence and purpose.
What exactly is Physiotherapy?
Fred Braithwaite of Stronglines - Pic: Jack Goodman
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy definition of Physio is that we help people affected by injury, illness or disability through movement and exercise, manual therapy, education and advice. They maintain health for people of all ages, helping patients to manage pain and prevent disease.
For me, Physio is about stepping into someone’s mind, body and soul and offering them solutions to problems they may have. Physical pain or dysfunction is often the driver for people to see us. We can be complex, interesting beasts. To truly address an individuals issue, we must look at every aspect that affects it.
At our clinic, we end up being our clients go to. This is because we know them inside and out, warts and all. We have earned trust by getting under the skin of the issue and offering a genuinely impactful and often, life changing improvement.
How can it help you day to day, even if you are not injured?
These are often the best people to work with. We are geeks at Stronglines. You will catch us analysing movement and spotting dysfunction across the room or on our way to work. We can’t switch that off.
People unknowingly live with disfunction for years. It might niggle every now and again or not feel as strong as it should or maybe the movement is awkward. In that situation, as soon as the environmental load exceeds the tissue capacity, it will become sensitised and be painful. As Physio’s we have a skillset that can identify these risk factors giving us the information to build preventative strategies in place.
From a performance standpoint we do this with our athletes as a priority which dovetails really nicely with Strength & Conditioning.
““We take the time to listen, understand and produce effective strategies that are grounded in science and proven to work.””
Why did you decide to create a business within your field?
My motivation for creating Stronglines stems from my own personal injuries as a young up and coming athlete. I constantly picked up injuries trying to push myself in training, in the gym, on the field.
In my 20’s I sustained a crippling back injury that shattered any dreams of reaching my dreams of professional rugby. The sad thing is, I shouldn’t have. If I had been managed in the way I now manage my clients, the injury would have been a mere speed bump instead of what turned out to be years of agonising back pain, injections, surgery and fear.
Stronglines is a place where we understand how injury can impact lives. How it can reduce activity and confidence leading to poor lifestyle choices that create secondary and potentially more serious health conditions. Our aim is to bulletproof and futureproof you so you can use and enjoy being physically active and healthy.
Pic: Jack Goodman
Who do you think could benefit from seeing a Physiotherapist?
Obviously, I am biased but, Physio’s are in a luxurious position as health professionals as we get time with our clients. Time for them to talk and tell us the real story, the details that matter when building a rehabilitation programme that not only stops pain but eradicates the original dysfunction that caused the pain initially.
We take the time to listen, understand and produce effective strategies that are grounded in science and proven to work. We understand anatomy, physiology, disease but most importantly, ways of using exercise and movement and stimulus to bring about adaptation to fight any dysfunction in those systems. Not many other professions or areas of medicine can do that.
Pic: Jack Goodman
Many of us travel a lot, sit at desks, drive and train in the gym. What are three exercises that could help to keep people more balance every day?
Absolutely, our lifestyles are so one dimensional. We have evolved to be active, hunting, foraging. Activities that would include crawling, stalking, running, sprinting, climbing, jumping, all this either in groups on as an individual.
Our bodies respond to this sort of stimulus very positively. When we exert, we feel that ache aka DOMS. This is a sign that you have exceeded your bodies capacity and caused micro trauma or damage on a very small scale. Our bodies are incredible. Not only do we fix this trauma but we over heal in a process called super compensation. If we stimulate with the right load, allow the right amount of time and stimulate again, we ride this wave to continual gains. If we don’t, we either don’t change or we break.
Without this daily stimulus and adaptation in our lifestyles we need to choose strategies that do this on a more artificial basis e.g. at home or gym. Exercise selection is important as it can either make or break us.
So that my answer can hit the most people I have chosen three exercises that are easy to do, require no equipment and are based in solid science. These exercises are appropriate for the professional athlete or your grandma. They are especially useful if you have or have had back pain! These are taken directly from the incredible Stuart McGill who is the world authority on anything back pain. Check him out @backfitpro.
The first is called the SUPERMAN. Perform 3 sets of 6 reps each side with a 5second hold. The aim is to build endurance, coordination and strength in the abdominal musculature (aka core) with its ability to maintain a neutral spine.
The second is the SIDE PLANK. This exercise never gets easy and I challenge anyone to hit the 2 minute hold on each side with this exercise. It is hard! The target is to build endurance and strength in the obliques to maintain a neutral spine once again.
The third is the McGILL CURL UP. Perform 3 sets of 15-24 repetitions. The rep range is high as the abdominals are highly aerobic in nature and the load is relatively light (body weight). You must maintain and neutral and static lower back whilst the leg and shoulders move.
Watch Fred take you through the exercises below:
What are some of the common misconceptions of Physiotherapy?
Pic: Jack Goodman
I think there is a huge education needed generally as the profession has evolved hugely and science tells us what really works and also, what absolutely does not.
I would say if your physio does not have a gym and wants to lie you on a table every week for the rest of time, leave. The same goes for other modes of so called ‘therapy’ where people go for years and have persistent pain. Your treatment should fix you.
Good therapists will use manual therapy less and less as your physical ability improves. The end product is a client who no longer has pain, knows how to manage themselves and can perform all activities. You should aim to send someone out stronger than they walked in.
You are doing groundbreaking work within Cancer Rehabilitation at the moment, tell us a bit about it…
We are so lucky to be able to work with this population and wow we can make an enormous impact. I mean not just life changing but lifesaving.
As physio’s we have an understanding of exercise strategies, physiology and disease processes. The therapeutic application of this is called exercise medicine.
With cancer patients we are providing exercise-based interventions designed to prepare them for treatment, help them complete a course and recover from treatment. Exercise and Psychological interventions have been shown to be more effective than pharmaceutical interventions in certain populations.
The research showing exercise as being a vital part of every cancer patients treatment is so strong that many countries already prescribe it like medicine. The UK is starting to catch up and some areas have adopted it on the NHS. Most places aren’t that lucky.
We are way ahead of the curve as we have the Strength and Conditioning know how, the Physiotherapy edge and Cancer Rehab specific education. This allows us to build extremely effective strategies that fit into our clients lives at any stage of disease, living with or beyond cancer.
connect with fred & find out more…
visit his company website & book to see him here: https://www.stronglines.co.uk
