Mark Austin, Physiotherapist
2985 23 Ave NE #125 T1Y 7L3 Calgary, AB, Canada

Even with the perfect treatment plan or program, you are going to have ups and downs. You might even some pretty big downs. This doesn't mean things aren't working! Many of us put a lot of effort in at the beginning of a new plan. We're excited and eager to get from point A to point B. However, our bodies don't change overnight. Muscles, ligaments, and tendons take months to fully heal and remodel, even under the best of circumstances. Neuroplastic change is a gradual shift ...that takes months and even years. Sometimes when you look at things from day to day, there may not seem to be a big difference, and you may start to lose steam. Others stumble or have flare-ups and incorrectly jump to the conclusion that things aren't working. When doubt creeps in, consistency and dedication begin to fall off, and results become even more variable, which leads to even more uncertainty. Failure is often a self-fulfilling prophecy. Feelings of impatience, doubt, or failure aren't the moments where you give up or move on to a different approach-- trying too many things all at once, and never actually sticking to one plan is usually a recipe for further setback! Take a deep breath, zoom out, and look at the big picture. Think and evaluate things in the long term rather than the short. The strongest trees take the longest time to grow. Thinking long-term is often a challenge for our brains, which have been trained to look for immediate gratification, but it's actually the best shortcut to achieving success and becoming your best possible self.

'nuff said! I wouldn't even know how to do my job in less time than this anymore! Shouldn't this be the norm anyway? Book online -- link in bio, or shoot me a DM if you'd like to chat first to see if I'm the right fit for you.

When it comes to our health, we love to talk about fitness and exercise, diet and nutrition, and even mindfulness and mental health talk is becoming more mainstream. One growing problem I have seen, that has likely become worse during the pandemic, is maintaining a healthy balance between work and home life. We as humans just aren't meant to work extra long hours for long periods of time. We should have plenty of time in the day not only to focus on work, but to also pursue h...Continue reading

Thanks again everyone for all of your support!

I'm not a fan of instagram accounts with recipe-like solutions for pain and injury. Why? Because everyone is different, and pain and injury is ALWAYS multifactorial in nature. Someone with back pain might try these exercises, likely not get the results they expected, and feel demoralized and give up! I know we want things to be simple, but this just isn't how rehab works, and why we have so many different professions and researchers out there who study and treat pain and inju...ry. There is a lot of research evidence for core stability training in back pain, especially if you follow the work of Stuart McGill. A lot of my patients with back pain come in already doingthe McGillbig three (feel free to look it up!), but guess what? Their pain hasn't changed. I even had one spine surgeon who wouldrefer out EVERY single patient to physiotherapy with a prescription for a core stability routine before considering surgery. This was really nice in theory, however, a lack of core stability isn't the only cause of back pain, and for some patients, based on what we see in our assessment, core stability isn't the answer. There could be a mobility issue, a hip issue lower down, an issue with stress or fear-avoidance, or even diet. Then I would be stuck trying to reconcile the surgeon's isntructions with what my patient actually needed. Research also consistently shows that glute training helps knee pain. Does this mean every patient I see with knee pain gets glute exercises? Absolutely not! Research studies on rehab and training interventions provide us with insights with respect to generalizations, but there are always going to be outliers, and everyone's presentation is always going to be slightly different. So when a patient comes in with knee pain, we still assess to see if the glutes are actually an issue before giving out glute exercises. This applies to any case of pain or injury. There is no one-size-fits-all recipe in rehab, even when reserach supports a specific intervention. Get in touch with a trained professional and get a personalized plan suited to YOU!