ABOUT ME

In 2014, I was slumped over by the side of a busy road after walking only 50m from my house.  Sharp, shooting pains in my right knee meant I had to stop. 

The knee pain wasn’t new, but it had never been this bad. Usually, I could walk at least 200m before needing to slow down or stop.

And my knee wasn’t the only pain I was suffering from. 

Since I was young, I loved playing sports. But in my late teens and early twenties, I started getting pain in different parts of my body – first my lower back, then my right shoulder, right foot, left hip, right wrist, and the right side of my neck.

Initially, and stupidly, I continued training through many of the pains, hoping they would go away over time, but they gradually got worse. So, I started to adjust my training to avoid any movements or activities that aggravated them.

During this whole period, I saw many therapists including physios, osteopaths, chiropractors, sports massage therapists and acupuncturists. Most treatments helped in the short term, but none had long-term improvements. I got to a point where I accepted that I might not be able to fix some of my problems.

In the few months leading up to me slumping over by the side of the road, I started getting pain in my right knee, which got progressively worse until it overshadowed the other injuries.

I went to see several therapists for my knee, but again, they only provided temporary relief. I had an MRI scan but it came up clear. I got blood tests to check if there was an underlying condition I was missing but they came up clear as well. I got so desperate that I even started “alternative therapists” including a woman who hooked me up to electrodes, claiming she could find my problem using electronic frequencies and then shocking them out of me. These didn’t work either.

Then someone recommended a physio named Simon saying, “He does things differently”. I didn’t expect much from “just another physio”. 

During the first session, he explained that the initial consultation was 90 minutes so he could assess the whole body, and not just my knee. He took a full injury history dating back to birth and explained that pain often comes from one part of the body compensating for another that isn’t functioning properly—usually due to an old injury or trauma. (For more detail about this, see the pain and causes page).

He explained that we shouldn’t chase pain but chase what’s not functioning properly.

He used this information to find the root cause –a foot injury I had got when I was 12.

After the session, I felt better – nothing unusual after seeing a therapist. What was unusual was that the changes lasted more than 72 hours. And with the corrective exercises he provided the pain gradually disappeared over the next few weeks in the foot and knee. As a result, the pain in the rest of my body also started to reduce.

I became fascinated so I started to study how the body worked. 

And in 2015, I decided to quit my job and start helping others in the same way.

I studied many of the methods Simon had based his practice on such as Anatomy in Motion (AiM) and completed additional courses such as Functional Range Conditioning (FRC).

Since then, I have helped many people get out of pain and start enjoying their lives again.