from a physiological standpoint, when you think positive, you have a physical reaction, when you think negative, you have a physical reaction. And that’s something I’ve learned the hard way. And if I ever went through, in my journey, when I was quite bad for for that first kind of four years period, if there was ever a time, when I thought negative, I would feel that feel the differences instantly. And as soon as I was positive, and I had just that 1-2% change made me more positive. And you start to feel the difference physically and mentally. And it every, every day in my treatment room. If anyone any patient comes out with a negative comment, I stopped what I’m doing. And say, let’s take that back. Because what you’ve done is you’ve just told yourself, you told your brain something negative. Let’s, let’s re-wire the brain and say that again. But say in a positive light, and then we’ll carry on.

So how would they how, how would you say for instance people with chronic pain, they feel like it’s, that situations out of control? And perhaps is not going to get better? Or the pain’s terrible and nothing helps. How can you reframe that in a positive way?

So the first thing is to read the book, that’s the first thing that read the first seven chapters, because you’re because anyone will anyone going through emotional physical stress will resonate with that for a start.

So this is your story.

This is it. This is the story. Yeah.[Yeah]. Once you have that trust factor, then you have the tools that can help with that. So there are very…

What do you mean by that ‘Well, Heather’s been through this. And she, she’s living pain free now. So I can do it as well’. Is that what you mean?

Yeah, and that’s the moral of the story. [Yeah,] when you’re when you’re in that moment, and in that bubble of pain, and horrible, horrible pain and agony, and stress it’s very difficult to look on the good side of things very difficult. I understand that very much. So there are tools that can help you. So this is where we talked about the support network. [Yeah]. The first thing that I always suggest is, write a chart, write down every symptom that you have. getting up in the morning, you feel stiff, you can’t walk first thing in the morning, it takes you how many minutes? Does it take you to straighten up in the morning? Time it. [Yeah], right. Write that down as a symptom. [Yeah], you feel pain through the day, what number out of 10 in pain, if 10 is bad and nought is nothing? So you write down every single symptom, and then give yourself a number for every single symptom. That’s the first thing that you can do.

Then you start doing the exercises, and that number will start to change. [Yeah,] that is an instant, visual positive psychological tool, right there. And it doesn’t take much energy at all. That’s really, really important. That’s That’s how how, how you do goal setting with anyone for anything, and having the visual, experiencing it is one thing but having a visual, it helps with motivation, and it helps you adhere to the exercises. And it helps you to increase your determination to carry on with everything that you need to move forward to become pain free. That’s I’d say that’s probably the most important thing, aside from having someone or a few people in your life to text, send a text every day. How are you feeling today? Is there anything I can do to help? Those two things alone are the most satisfying things to hear, when you – well you understand – when you’re suffering with chronic pain, just to have that little element of support a little bit of a shoulder to lean on? is amazing, is an amazing impact to have on somebody, and for that person to encourage you, how are you doing with it yet? Can I help you do your exercises? Why don’t I do them with you? You know, I mean, you just can’t pay for that sort of thing. You know, it’s priceless to have that type of support. Plus you have your chart your symptoms chart, then there are other things to do. visualization is probably the most powerful psychological tool I’ve ever used with pain. And with with the symptoms chart, that’s something that I again, I use with with everybody. And it’s a way of you help your brain to become to set your brain in a positive frame, which helps all your brain chemicals, it has a great physiological reaction. If you do the visualization first thing in the daytime, it sets you up for the day, you can do it through the day.

And it’s

it’s powerful from a mental standpoint with the, from the, depression factor. And it’s also powerful from a physiological standpoint. And also the fact that you are doing something to help yourself.

How would that visualization work?

So visualization, the key to visualization, which a lot of people again, we’re more savvy to

meditation these days, which is fantastic. Visual

words like holistic and meditation, were a major turnoff

A few years ago, now, and yoga is mainstream now. [Yes], yoga was for was for like, you know, kind of hippies and stuff. [Yes. Yeah]. Not that long ago.

No. and meditation was created by Yogi’s It was created by people who, you know, who, who started the yoga discipline, which is amazing, because breathing is a part of is a form of meditation, yoga, you do a lot of breathing. People wonder why they feel so Zen. When they do yoga, it’s not just the yoga itself. It’s the breathing that goes with it. Breathing, which is another, another subject to help with pain. [Yeah], mentally and physically.

Really being focused on on each breath.

Yeah. So it for [meditating on it] is a form of meditation. But just breathing alone helps to calm your nervous system. [Yeah,] which helps with pain. So which is also you know, also in the book as a form of meditation. visualization is slightly different. The Art of visualization is using all the brain senses. So you have to smell you have to hear, it’s not just about what you see, it’s about listening. It’s about what you feel, what you can touch, physically touch, and you imagine this so.

So a visualization could be five minutes, where you visualize yourself doing an activity, or you visualize yourself, playing with your children in the swimming pool, or whatever it is that you haven’t been able to do because of your pain. And just visualizing, and actually, when you get really deep into visualization, and seeing and feeling and tasting and touching it, you actually feel what you would physically feel if you were pain free. And that emotion makes you feel great. It makes you feel great physically makes you feel great mentally. And when you finish that visualization, after 5-10 minutes, you know, if you can do 20, even better, you’re in a great, you’re in a great frame of mind. And it can give you the motivation you need just to get through that day, just that one day because people in chronic pain have to take things day by day, they can’t plan things like like someone who’s pain free. So day by day, you know, you have to play that sometimes it’s playing it half a day at a time. You know, for some people, so you for some people visualizing twice a day is great. But it’s very, very, very powerful. And on top, if you’ve got the breathing on top, then you know you can; you’re on a winner. For sure. It’s it’s little steps, baby steps that can can help when you’re in chronic pain. Because it’s hard to see through the clouds, it’s hard to see through the fog, when you’re in that much agony.

For some people, they have to take really small steps to move forward. And and the the brain work, I feel is the most important as well as the physical. You know, meditation. Breathing visualization is very, very helpful for chronic pain.

Yeah. AII pain is actually made in the brain, isn’t it? [Yeah. Yeah]. Which it was just a hard concept to grasp. But but it but it is a fact. The brain interprets signals that come from the nerves and puts it together to make pain.

Yeah. Feedback from from tissue. And it’s, it’s the feedback mechanism that tells the brain, there’s a problem. [Yeah]. And the problem needs to be fixed the problem, what I’ve seen is getting to the core of the actual pain itself. [Yes]. Which is, again, you know, the reason for the book, because it’s, you know, I’m not interested in book sales, I’m interested in helping people, you know,

well, I guess the two will go together won’t they?

Yeah, I mean, you know, for a start, you only get about a fifth of what Amazon sells your book for. Yeah. You know, but, but really, and truly, it’s about helping people. And, you know, when you when someone tells you, you know, I’ve had some people who’ve come and seen me, because they found my book online, and they’ve read it, and then they come to me for treatment. That’s amazing. Yeah, but they’ve already got their pain is lessened by 50%. Just by doing the exercises. And some people, their pains gone completely by doing the exercises, because they hadn’t had have had their pain for very long, but decided to have a treatment anyway. And then you know, and then they go through the levels of the,

the exercises, and then they’re on maintenance within no time at all. And they’re living life completely different. And you can see the difference in people, you know, you see their personalities change. I’ve, I’ve experienced it myself, but I’ve seen it in so many people that have come to me for back pain issues, and you see their personalities, you see that they’ve got a cloud over their head. And and then once they become pain free, you know, they’re the happiest person, and then they’re a happier father or mother or Yeah, or husband or wife or, you know, sibling and, and the families comment and then, you know, it’s so amazing it’s priceless.

Yeah.

So you said, if you’re suffering from chronic pain, you can’t sort of make plans, you have to take one day at a time. And

in the beginning of the book, talk about the accident, and immediately before so

it’s this kind of full on lifestyle, you’ve got a career in TV, you’ve got a relationship, which is where you, you just you just moved in with your boyfriend. So quite a big, a big step forward. So that and then you had these fantastic activities going on martial arts, and you were a club DJ as well, weren’t you?

Yeah, I was I DJ’d. I think I’d been DJing for over 10 years. [Okay]. But I think by that time it was 14 years I’d been DJing, I started as a teenager, and in and then moved on to clubs. Shortly I

I had to stop myself from doing mental arithmetic there

And so the DJ thing was, you know, was a passion from from very young; always into music, and ironically, now have the brain injury. I can’t stand to listen to that loud music anymore, because it hurts my head. But DJing was a huge passion of mine I loved you know, DJing, you know, it’s always a people pleaser, you know, [yeah]. Okay. And, and that enjoyment of getting people to enjoy themselves. Yeah. And, and then the martial arts always, always loved martial arts since I was a young girl always watched Bruce Lee movies.

Yeah, Enter the Dragon

Yeah, favorite film. And, and I was, yeah, I was really I think I’ve been doing martial arts, I think, five, six years or something. And, and I loved it. And the day I had the accident was the day, I was my first day of training for my black belt. But also I was going to start training to compete.

So which particular martial art was this?

Well, it was a combination of about 10 different martial art. So we had, so you did, Judo throws you did [Yeah]. Wing chun combinations, you had Karate kicks it, there were lots of lots of different combinations. But I was going to start competing karate, which was my sensei’s speciality. He was three times world champion. And,

and that was supposed to be that Monday that I had the accident.

And then suddenly,

in the immediate aftermath of the incident, you describe how you can’t It feels like it’s a real inconvenience, your car’s written off, you’ve got to deal with insurance companies. But your your reaction is to overcome this problem, and then get back on with what you’re supposed to be doing effectively, isn’t it?

Yeah, it’s interesting how one thinks in the face of adversity. All I could think of was logic. You know, I didn’t have any clue what just happened to me. I didn’t have any idea of the intensity it was, you know, when I think back, I think, Well, I think, Wow, I’ve, I must have been quite naive. But, you know, in the last, [this is normal.] In the last 15 years, I’ve realized that’s actually really normal. [Yeah], a lot of people are exactly the same. And you don’t realize the intensity of what’s just happened. All you can think of is logic, especially for me that I didn’t have pain for a long time. You know, it was hours until I realized I was in pain.

And and and then the pain takes over. And suddenly you realize ‘Well I can’t just carry on’ [Yeah,] with, you know, my work, or was it use using where you didn’t have a car anymore? So you were forced to use public transport and every bump and jolt on the on the train or the bus was, you know, painful for you?

Yeah, again, this is the these are symptoms that you can’t learn on a course you can’t learn unless you’ve experienced them. And something that I will never forget those experiences. Because it was so horrible. Yeah, you wearing a big fat net collar, which you clearly are injured. But no-one will give their seat up.

You know, that’s London for you.

That’s any big, city to be fair

Unknown Speaker
That’s

typical, typical London, Londoners unfortunately, as much as I love London,

You’re a West London girl aren’t you?

I’m a Westie yes

I worked in Notting Hill for years.

Oh, really? Fabulous part of London. Absolutely. Fabulous. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, it, you know, the problem is, is when you have an issue with your spine, and you know, a lot of my patients who’ve suffered back pain, we say the same thing, you know, when you’re on a train or a bus and the jolt of the brain is like sending a, you know, someone is like someone’s just, you know, pokes you with a sharp edge of something, you know,

A pointy stick

A pointed stick or, you know, or or just punched you, yes, such a sharp, nasty jolt of pain. You have to suffer it, there’s nothing else you can do.

No, exactly, yeah. And yet, you’re still at this stage determined that you’re going to keep doing your career, and keep going to work every day and take on all the responsibility. And yet, in the end, you have to

in the positivity equation that you had it was acceptance. And you just have to accept that. Okay, maybe I can’t continue as I am. And you took a different job, didn’t you with less responsibility?

Yeah, I think I lived in denial for a long time. And that’s, it’s like mourning for a loved one. Yeah, you have to go through the stages of mourning. And when you have a serious injuries, you know, or a chronic illness is the same, you have to go through the psychological stages. And the last one is acceptance. And for long time, I just couldn’t accept that I was in the position I was in because I was also I was always such an outgoing, physical person, I had physical activities. And and I couldn’t accept that for a long time. And once I finally accepted it, I think, definitely through the cranial osteopath that I was seeing, and she helped me a lot in a lot of ways.

And my own, you know, the emotional side of things that I went through. One day, I just realized that, you know, this is my life now. Yes, this is it. I’m not, there isn’t a quick fix.

There certainly isn’t.

And, you know, this is going to be a journey. And and now I have to realize, having 2% change for the better is a good thing. And took me a long time to realize that. And once I realized it, then I started seeing more progress and feeling more confident about there is a light at the end of the tunnel somewhere. I don’t know how long the tunnel is, but there’s a light. And that’s when things started to change. And, and I started I changed my outlook then. Once I accepted, right, this is it. And then I started my journey. And that’s where my cranial osteopath suggested, you know, why don’t you change industry because you’re just running yourself into the ground. You know, I was taking medication that like four times the amount of medication just to do my job. Because for me, [that is not sustainable is it?] no. And for me, it was this is a feeling of pride where ‘I should be able to do my job, I should do this, I should be able to’ Yeah, I couldn’t exercise. I couldn’t do martial arts. I couldn’t weight train, I couldn’t run. And so for me, it was pride. And, you know, again, living in denial, and once I accepted it as ‘Okay, I can’t do this job the hours are too extensive.’ [Yes], ‘maybe I should think about something else’. And given that I always used to moan to my cranial osteopath. ‘I can’t do any exercise, yeah I can only do this, I can only do that’. And she suggested, well, why don’t you do a personal trainer course, you’ll be in the environment that you enjoy. And you don’t have to work, you know, 14 hour days, or, you know, 12-14 hour days. And the first course I did as a trainer was amazing. It was it was the focus I needed, which I’d lost all focus in life for a couple of years. And I was hooked straight away. And then once I studied injuries, well, that was that was the start of the journey that I’m still living today. So the best thing I could have ever done, and it was all, as you said, it’s all about acceptance, once you accept the position you’re in, then you can start doing something about it.

When I think of a personal trainer, I think of something who’s sort of low body fat, sort of fairly ripped, you know, with well defined muscles who can do all this stuff, you know? So how does it work, then, to be a personal trainer, if you’re injured and not able to do the exercises that you’re telling other people that they should be doing?

Well, there’s different levels of personal training. And I say this with no disrespect to any trainer. But there’s there’s a lower levels, kind of like your basic level personal trainer, your work in a very average gym, the you know, the average local gym, and you’ll do your right programs for people, which will be

basic, very basic. So a lot of the exercises you can give out are on machines, you can put the machine on the lightest weight and show someone how to use them.

When you when you come go up a level of personal training, that’s where you might struggle if you’re if you’re an injured trainer, because then you’ve got to show people what to do. And I have a lot of personal trainers, and and coaches on my books. And I say to them ‘you can’t squat. I don’t want you doing any squats.’ And they say, ‘Well, how am I supposed to teach my class?’ or ‘How am I supposed to teach Squats?’ I say ‘well, then you ask someone you know who can squat who can demonstrate for you. You have to avoid aggravation. You can’t squat.’ And

I noticed that you advised against squats for someone with back pain. Yeah. And And my understanding of this was is because it was a bipedal exercise. So if one of your glutes isn’t firing properly, then you’re going to kind of be overworking one and not using it the other. Have I understood this correctly?

Yeah, it’s a case of overcompensation. So most low back issues I see obviously, you know, you know, its weak, weak it weakness in the bum muscles, weakness in the core, weakness in the lower back itself, which is why you have back pain, the reason you have pain is because the lower back is overworking because the glutes aren’t doing the glutes and the core aren’t aren’t doing their job, which the lower back becomes a byproduct. And the problem is, is we’re taking all that into account when you’re doing a squat, you need all three of those to work properly. But most people who squat who have back pain, you know, anyone who has back pain, they will be over compensating usually in the front of the leg on the on the quads. And for some people, it’s the hamstrings, some people it’s it’s a combination of both maybe a little bit in the calves, as well as the lower back. The problem is that, with that, is A you’re working the wrong muscles, and B, when you add weight to that equation, then you’re overworking the wrong muscles with load. Right? Yeah, so you’re making the situation 10 times worse. often enough, most people have one side of their glutes aren’t working properly, occasionally have bad glues is very rare, I see both glutes are weak at the same point. As in, they’ve got the same amount of weakness, often one is stronger than the other. And so when you have a deficit on one side, so you’re imbalanced on one leg, which I’ll tell you how, another way I look at this, again, when you do a bilateral exercise where you’re using both legs at the same time. And then you’re, again, you’re going to overcompensate in the wrong muscles, and you’re going to make that situation 10 times worse. So that’s why I advise, fix, get the strength in your glutes, rehab, your lower back, make sure you’re doing your core work so that when you do when you get back to squats, you’re strong enough to brace your stomach on the way down on the way back up. And in that six to six minimum six weeks. You You just a unilateral exercise, you’re just doing single leg exercises.

This is what I was going to ask you, because I’ve seen recently – I can’t remember whether it was is in your book or somewhere else.- [Yeah], but a single leg deadlift with I think it was just with body weight.

Yeah, that’s a level three glute exercise in my book. But I don’t do it. I do it very differently to the to the norm.

I don’t doubt it.

Okay, this is just experimenting.

Which I experimented with this exercise for a long time. Yeah. And basically, it’s when you do the exercise in a very specific way.

It will stimulate your glutes. [Yeah], rather than stimulate your hamstrings, which its

typically used for . So even if you’re only using one leg, it might still be that you’re engaging the wrong muscles.

Yeah, yeah. But But the idea is, this is a level three exercise. So okay, well, you would have already gone through level one and level two, because, okay, one of the other things that I see Iain a lot we’re talking about the squat situation is, is a lot of people will do exercises, whether they’re body weight or in the gym doesn’t matter.

And it doesn’t matter, whatever exercises you’re doing, if your glutes are not firing properly, and they’re weak, the signal to the brain is is very, very weak. Yeah, you will be making yourself worse. So a lot of people, you see they do bridges, hip thrusters, they’ll be making themselves 10 times worse because the wrong muscles are firing. Okay,

I gave up all weight training, when I had back problems, because I found that I would just be in pain afterwards.

And this is this is exactly the reason why. Exactly.I’ll tell you, there’s another thing is this, there’s two things that I will always one thing I always ask and one thing I’ll always do in my treatment room. One is I’ll ask Where do you get muscle ache? Where do you get the DOMS ache, after you train? So if you train on the Monday, where do you ache on a Tuesday and Wednesday, you do leg workouts, even if you do running, extensive running, but leg workouts Do you feel like in your thigh?, in your hamstrings? in your quads?, your lower back?, or even doing certain exercise when you do a deadlift? Where do you feel it? And that will tell you instantly whether the glutes are working or not. And the lower back is overworking. And a lot of people will say oh yeah, I feel I only ever feel it in my quads, I never feel my bum. And never muscle ache in my bum. That’s an instant, your glutes aren’t working – Stop! Stop squatting straight away.

But one of the things that I use in my treatment room, which will tell you whether you’ve got a deficit, it won’t tell you about the glutes and the core and lower back, but it will tell you if you’re if you’ve got a deficit, which yesterday had a very very, very good typical example of that. Okay, I have two sets of scales, weighing scales, just normal digital weighing scales, one foot on one, one foot on the other. [Okay], and I use this with anyone from back pain all the way up to professional athletes, the whole range of you know, you, Joe Bloggs accountant

is your patient putting more weight on one foot than on the other?

on one leg on the whole side of the body. And this is where you can see the body’s shifting, it gives you a guide, use it as a guide, not as a specific diagnosis. But it’s a good guide to reiterate the testing that the Pearson clam test the glute tension test is a good guide to reiterate the testing. And it’s a good visual to the patient. Because then they get more of an understanding. This is why you need to do your exercises. This is why we need you to gain strength. And that’s another visual tool to help propel them to do their exercises. And so for instance, yesterday I had a patient of mine who had knee pain on one knee on the left knee and foot pain on the right foot. And we’d already diagnosed his shoulder issue, which is what he came he came to me for a shoulder and neck issue. And that it was the

body mechanical, muscular skeletal issues. I don’t think it’s uncommon for people to have more than one is it?, everything’s kind of linked together. I remember I had knee problems before I started getting back problem.

Yeah. And that’s very typical. So this this is typical example. So yesterday in the session, we’d already worked out that he’d had a car accident in 2013. And he won’t mind me me telling you this. And

the more he was telling me, I said to him, it sounds like you’re from your left knee pain and your right foot pain is either one or both of your glutes aren’t working properly. But the right side, definitely you’ve had a problem with this right side. And I said I would I would bet money that your right side is the weaker side. And and I was explaining the overcompensation thing before I did any tests. And then we got him on the scales he was

get this right, eight kilos heavier on the left side.

Sorry, six kilos heavier on the left side.

And this is the strongest side. So he’s kind of putting his body weight on the strongest side.

Yeah,but because neither glute is we hit both his glutes were weak, but the right one was very weak, neither of them were working at all, but the left glute was so slightly stronger. And that that engaged much quicker after doing the testing and the treatment. And which is very typical of knee pain, knee pain. 98% of knee pain comes from weakness in the glutes. That’s what I see every day. And then after treatment, after doing that relaxing the muscles that were over compensating, stimulating both glutes to work, then we got him back on the scales. And that deficit had come down by about two and a half kilos. [Wow.] So and that’s very, very typical of what you see where one the body is shifting and shifting and shifting. But it takes a long time for that to happen. So that you and you don’t know it until you have a symptom. [Yeah], so it’s and that’s typical of having foot pain like plantar fasciitis, and having most knee pain not all but most will come from either that same leg or the opposite leg. That the glutes

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