Rob Jones’ PHT Success Story

Show Notes

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Rob developed a hamstring strain mid-race in January 2018 which eventually progressed into pain when sitting and driving. Initial shockwave therapy irritated symptoms for over a week and Rob struggled to get symptoms under control. 

With limited fitness equipment at home, Rob made use of what he could and with careful progressions, would see his first glimpse of hope. 

Rob shares his initial successes alongside his apprehensive/nervous start in a gym and walk-run program. 

Listen to hear the profound insights with practical takeaways in this PHT success story.

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What is Overcoming Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy?

Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy is a horrible condition affecting athletes and non-athletes alike. If you fall victim to the misguided information that is circulating the internet, symptoms can persist for months, sometimes years and start impacting your everyday life.
This podcast is for those looking for clear, evidence-based guidance to overcome Proximal Hamstring Tendinopathy. Hosted by Brodie Sharpe, an experienced physiotherapist and content creator, this podcast aims to provide you with the clarity & control you desperately need.
Each episode brings you one step closer to finally overcoming your proximal hamstring tendinopathy. With solo episodes by Brodie, success stories from past sufferers and professional interviews from physiotherapists, coaches, researchers and other health professionals so you get world class content.
Tune in from episode #1 to reap the full benefits and let's get your rehabilitation back on track!

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On today's episode, Rob Jones's PHT success story. helping you overcome your proximal hamstring tendinopathy. This podcast is designed to help you understand this condition, learn the most effective evidence-based treatments and. bust the widespread misconceptions. My name is Brody Sharp. I'm an online physiotherapist, recreational athlete, creator of the Run Smarter series and a chronic proximal hamstring tendinopathy battler. Whether you are an athlete or not, this podcast will educate and empower you in taking the right steps to overcome this horrible condition. So let's give you the right knowledge along with practical takeaways in today's lesson. We have uncovered another PhD success story. Rob Jones has come out of the woods. I found him on the Facebook PhD group and he made a post saying about his success. And I reached out and said, can you share it? And so Rob is on to chat about his PhD experience. It first came about in early 2018 when training for a running race and yeah, a whole bunch of insights working out what doesn't work, what made it worse. And then eventually what made it better. And hopefully you can take a lot of these lessons away today and sort of implement it into your own rehab. And who knows, maybe once you start implementing these, you get significantly better, then you can reach out and we can jump on to do our own success story. I love Rob's story. You all will take so much away from this. And so let's dive in. Rob, thanks for joining me on the podcast today. Yeah, no, it's good to talk to you. And it's, it's good to have a bit of a story to tell, to be honest. Yeah. And people always ask for success stories. So let's dive in, maybe just introduce yourself, uh, where you're from. And I guess what type of runner would you consider yourself? Yeah. So, um, my name's Rob and I'm from a little city called Worcester. Um, not far from Birmingham, if anybody's heard of that. Um, I'm basically, I'm, I'm a 40 year old runner. Um, or was, um, however you want to put it, um, preferred distance being kind of the marathon, but I've done all sorts down. to 10K, 5K, even a bit of track stuff. And I kind of started running just to get fit, I suppose. I got to my early 30s and wasn't very fit. And then I joined the local athletics club and whatever, and got it more into the competitive side of things, really. Nice. And I guess what's like in terms of number of marathons completed, do you know the specific number? I think I've done... nine road marathons and one off-road marathon at the last count, I think it was. The last marathon being 2019. I know we're going to talk about the PhD in a second, but any other injuries in your marathon career? There's been a few. I've had a bit of plantar fasciitis. I can't remember if it was in my PhD side or the other side. But yeah, I've had that in a bit of IT band trouble as well. Um, but nothing really significant. Um, you know, lots, lots of little niggles that marathon runners get, but nothing horrendously bad. Okay. Good to know. Well, cast us back to the time when these initial PhD symptoms, like the onset of symptoms arose, what was happening at that stage? And I guess what was, what was that experience? Yeah. So what? I was doing, I was kind of building up to London Marathon and it was, I'd entered myself into an off road race and I was using it as part of my training and about half way round I felt a bit of a funny tug or a twang or I'm not sure how to describe it really, in my hamstring and it wasn't particularly bad and I got to the end of the race, hobbled round and you know if you asked me on a pain scale what it would be I'd maybe say like a 3 out of 10 or something. and I had a bit of time off and it felt okay and I just continued to train on it which I really regret now. I had London Marathon coming up and that was really, I suppose I was almost a little bit obsessive about getting there and doing that but things just got worse and worse from there really. But if I had got it treated properly and had the correct And I probably, I probably wouldn't be talking to you now, I guess. Right. And I guess you're saying that most symptoms were kind of in the middle portion of the hamstring as it felt like a little bit of a tight strain sort of sensation. Well, initially, yeah, it was like in the belly of the hamstring. Um, but, but later on it, it wasn't, it was definitely in the upper part. You know, where the sit bones are and whatever. Definitely in the upper portion is where I had the real problem. I guess the thing I had in the belly of the hamstring and the PHT is related. I think it must be because that's the only really thing that seemed to happen that could have caused the PHT, I guess. But I guess I'll never know for sure, but that's kind of my gut feeling. And I struggled to really understand as well, because I've seen a few cases where people have reported a hamstring muscle strain that was like they even took time off or was mismanaged and that's perpetuated into the proximal hamstring tendon being irritated and that's usually what persists. It's like the hamstring tendon is something that does linger a lot longer than say a muscle strain. And why that Is the case why it leads from one to the other? I'm really unsure, but I've heard a couple of cases exactly like that. Yeah. I mean, that's when it all started and basically my symptoms from that day. Um, they, they got worse and worse over, you know, one, two, three, yeah, three years almost. Um, so, uh, yeah, I regret not taking the proper, um, precautions and getting the treatment that I needed really. But again, on the flip side of that is if I stopped at every niggle I had and got that looked at, I'd be seeing a physiotherapist every five minutes. And you know, I, you know, you'd never do any running, but you know, it's, it really wasn't a significant thing to begin with. Hmm. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. And did you make it to. the London marathon, did you persist through the London marathon with the hamstring issues? Yeah, I did. Yeah. So I, I continued my training. Um, and I got to the marathon. I completed that. Um, but you know, building up to that, the symptoms kind of were different and they behave differently and different things happen with my hamstring. You know, the, the symptoms I was having it. that they changed, you know, and the hamstring behaved differently at different times. But I think maybe getting by that like, so why were they different? So initially, it was just the first few weeks, it was just a bit of discomfort in the belly of the hamstring. Then maybe after a couple of months, I had this kind of pain or discomfort would be the right word in the top of my hamstring at the start of a run. Now that would disappear after a mile or two and I could complete any distance of run fine once it had warmed up and I figured out, okay, you know, if it's not getting worse with running, it's actually eased off and got a little bit better so it can't be bad, right? You know, that was my kind of... feeling on it but then it progressed in the months after the marathon. At the start of a run it would hurt. The further I ran it would get worse and worse. Sitting was worse. All the usual things really. And was this symptoms now originating like high up in the hamstring or was this still like a mid belly? No, this was all, this was all high up in the hamstring now. So, okay. I guess maybe a couple of months after the initial kind of belly of the hamstring issue, then it was all high up in the hamstring top of the hamstring. Okay. Well, over the subsequent months of After that marathon, like you say, things slowly started getting worse, running became a little bit more painful, sitting became a bit more irritated. Um, can you identify any things that may have helped the condition at that stage or any things that may have hindered your particular recovery? Um, certainly continue. So, um, stupidly, I, I basically. I used to do two marathons a year. So I then went and did an autumn marathon just as you know, just as you would. But continuing to do high mileage was in hindsight, it wasn't a good thing. I still hadn't had a diagnosis at this point. And I believe that it was like a sciatic nerve thing or sciatic nerve problem. So I carried on with, you know, the running the cycling. I tried periods of rest, but it actually seemed to get worse with rest to be honest, it didn't improve at all. And then it wasn't really until I had an MRI scan that I started looking at different sort of treatments and things. Okay, did someone send you to get an MRI? No. So I went to my, I went to my doctor. And I basically said. you know, I've had this pain when I sit, it's, you know, it's affecting me everywhere when I when I sleep at meal times, everything, you know, because I said, I think it's my sciatic nerve and they sent me for a scan, an MRI scan. And then it wasn't really until I got the diagnosis that I started to take it a bit more seriously. What did the MRI show can you remember? So it showed, yeah, it showed thickening of some of the tendons and I had a split in one of them as well. I can't, I mean, a lot of the language was big boy, big boy words as I call them and I couldn't understand a lot of it. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, there was the thickening of the tendon and a split in the one tendon and I went to a physio who kind of analyzed it all and And he said, Oh, you've got quite a serious problem here. Um, uh, but yeah, it was, it was quite worrying at that time. Yeah. So that was kind of like the approach to eventually seek a physio was go to your GP, get an MRI, MRI report came back and then said, okay, probably time to start some physio. Yeah. Um, but the initial physio I had wasn't, wasn't great. Um, I went to see a guy who. He's a physio for Great Britain, in one of their disciplines, if you like. So he's well-known, I guess, and quite well-respected. But I went to see him and I walked in there and I gave him my MRI report. And he basically said that I'd have this for the rest of my life and I just had to manage it. He gave me two or three exercises and basically sent my, sent me on my way. And I left fairly disheartened to be honest. Right. Can you remember what the exercises were? Yeah. So he gave me, um, like a one legged lunge on that was on a step. Sorry, not a lunge, a squat. Sorry. A squat on a step. Squat. Yeah. Single leg. Uh, and a single leg deadlift as well was one. And for where I was in my kind of rehab, they were way too advanced for me. Like they were just causing quite big flare ups. They were just too aggressive and I basically just couldn't handle them. And so that didn't really work. So yeah, that was a bit of a gutter to be honest. Was it just the one session with that? Like usually if you say you see like a pretty renowned specialist kind of physio, I've seen a lot of times it's just a one session off you go type of thing. Um, was that the case for you? Well, with this physio it was, yeah. I mean, I saw, I saw so many different people in different physios. Um, but, but with this particular physio, yeah, it was, it was just the one session. You know, he didn't really seem. Like he could help me. And so there was no real reason to go back, but I, I went and saw, um, about three other physios, I went and saw a chiropractor, uh, and two osteopaths in total. So I saw the whole caboch. Were you gaining any information or gaining any helpful resources to, to manage your recovery? Um, so initially, no, but. But then at the start of last year, I went and saw a physio who kind of got me on my way. She gave me a bit of a rehab program with some structure and started my loading exercises like a really low level. Like I was doing, holding a hamstring bridge for like five seconds, which was, you know. real low level stuff, I guess. But that's what I needed to do. Like when she gave me those exercises, I was thinking, well, what's this going to do? But that was the level I was at, realistically. So yeah, she gave me various other exercises, and then stressed the importance of the 24-hour rule, as I call it. And I'm sure you've, yeah. I call it that as well. Yeah, maybe that's where I've got it from then. Yeah, listening to your podcast. So yeah, you know, if the irritation's gone within 24 hours, then it's fine. And actually, for me, it was I found it important to irritate the tendon just slightly. But only so was, you know, the next day it was the irritation was gone, you know, and that kind of I went through a phase of not irritating the tendon at all. You know, as soon as I felt anything, I'd stop. You know, if I was on a run and I felt any little, uh, niggle or whatever, I'd stop, I'd stop running, I'd stop what I was doing, but just to go on that little bit more and just cause a little bit of a stare was I found to be a good thing in the long term. Yeah. Well, that's why the 24 hour rule and those pain rules that we sort of advise is there in the first place, because the job is to try and find that sweet spot of adaptation. And sometimes pain free exercises and pain free activities underloading you is actually doing you a disservice. Yeah. Definitely. Whereas a little bit of discomfort, which you've sort of described, you sort of managed to kick on with your rehab and actually see progress once you started like provoking it a little bit and then provide the rest of the. The pain rules, uh, were abided by. Yeah. W what, once I, once I started provoking it, as you say, that's when I, I kind of started to see, um, the biggest improvements, I guess. Like it wasn't very nice to do because you felt like you were maybe taking steps back, but it definitely, definitely helped just to, you know, I'm not, I'm not talking like, you know, go on a 10 mile run and so you can't walk for two weeks and what, you know, just, just a little flare up it is, you know, that only lasts, you know, 24 hours is, was a good thing for me anyway. Yeah, great. And so what would you... What sort of exercises once you sort of went beyond the bridges and decide to provoke things further, what did that look like? Yeah. So, you know, bridges and then eventually I moved on to deadlifts just at home. And I eventually managed to do squats. I had to do kind of squats, but not in a full range of movement, if you like, because I couldn't. But eventually I managed to get down. So my- my thighs were parallel to the ground. And then I think back in around December, January, I was listening to one of your podcasts and you were stressing the importance of your rehab being progressive. And I'd got to a stage where I was doing all these squats and deadlifts, but I was doing the same amount every day. And I was doing them at home with the same weights. And that's when I kind of took my rehab to the gym. Um, started using the weights there, squatting, using a bar and heavier weights and, and dead lifts with bigger weight. And that's when I really started to see like better progress. Yeah. Well done. Well done for taking that step. Yeah. Um, at its worst, what were symptoms like? Like, did you have to give up running completely? What was like your sitting symptoms? Like what, what did that pathology progress into? So yeah, sitting, sitting symptoms were fairly bad, like, I could maybe manage two minutes of sitting and then it would, it would start really aching. Driving, driving was, was not good. Long drives were horrendous. I used to, I used to, I used to stop at like every motorway service station just to get a bit of a bit of a break. It used to, it used to drive my wife mad. Um, but yeah, it, yeah, the sitting wasn't great. Sorry. I've forgotten the second part of the question. Uh, just like how it was progressing, how much level of activity you're doing. Yeah. Volume. Sorry. Yeah. Uh, so I, I basically, at its worst, I stopped running for around 18 months. Um, and became a couch potato, uh, but a lying down one, cause I couldn't really see it. Um, and yeah I wasn't doing anything and that was kind of in lockdown I guess. We had lockdown over here when would it have been? Mid 2019, 2020 so yeah I didn't really do anything and sleeping was bad. I couldn't really lie on my side that was uncomfortable. Whether that was related I don't know but I also had problems with kind of my quads as well. They seemed I seem to have like what felt like a permanent groin strain in both sides. Right. Yeah. Um, and my quads would become like fatigued really easily. Um, no, I don't know if that was related or not, but after having that as well for a year or whatever, that seems to have cleared up too. So I'm guessing that was somehow connected. Okay. So I guess from. Initially getting your symptoms before that marathon to then starting to do some home based exercises. How long had you had the, the PhD for just as a like average? Yeah. So it would have been around two years. I mean, I had made attempts to do exercises before and I, you know, I do stuff on YouTube and I, you know, Google certain things. But often it was the wrong advice and I wouldn't keep the exercises going very long, maybe doing three or four times. I wasn't really aware of the importance of loading the tendon. I was always under the impression that if I rest it's just like a broken bone, it'll repair itself, which isn't the case. And so I was never really religiously doing the exercises until kind of early last year. Okay. And you mentioned progressing towards getting some weights, doing some bridges. You mentioned squats, you mentioned deadlifts, anything else in your repertoire when you were at home? Um, so I would do a single leg bridge, um, which I would hold. Um, and I would do kind of hamstring curls using a resistance band. Um, Yeah, mostly I do a Nordic hamstring curl with my... but that was more of an advanced... that wasn't an initial exercise, that was kind of towards the latter part of my home rehab. Going through that routine, like how often throughout the week would you do them? How, how many times would you complete that particular routine? Yeah. So I tried, I tried to do it four or five times a week. Um, try to do it for it, which, which was tough. You know, you, it was trying to fit it in around things. Uh, and it, it got to the point as well with the home routine where I was doing like, I, I don't, the rep so high, I was doing like 90 squats. and 70 deadlifts but they were just bodyweight. You know the deadlifts with minimal weight and the squats were bodyweight so there was no... there was no real trouble doing them eventually. I mean, I know that sounds like a lot, but I built up to that and eventually they weren't challenging, which was why my kind of progress plateaued, I think. Well, you know, the first time I heard about you was actually replying to one of my posts on, on a Q and a episode, asking for questions. And you did mention that your home exercises saw a plateau in your recovery. And it wasn't until things really kickstarted that. Um, once you got into the gym and started doing some heavier stuff. Um, if you can remember, I guess, where did it plateau too? So what, what sort of improvements did you see just with your home based exercises? Yeah. So I was able to start run walking. Um, and sitting was definitely improving. Um, you know, but I was definitely still having trouble for sitting, you know, long periods. And I don't think I could have. run for any length of time really. I mean, but generally, it definitely improved. But I just feel like the gym really got things kind of going. I mean, I did go to the gym when I got my diagnosis and after I saw the physio that told me he couldn't do anything for me, I Googled. PhD treatments and found like squats deadlifts and I went to the gym and just absolutely beasted myself on everything and then my tendon didn't thank me for it because it just wasn't the right, you know I wasn't at that stage at all. So, but yeah, it's, you know I saw good improvements but you know in regards to getting back to running and running a marathon again, I knew I kind of needed to do a bit more. This podcast is sponsored by the Run Smarter series. If you want to take your knowledge building to the next level, I have built out a proximal handring tendinopathy video course, which compliments the podcast perfectly. Sometimes it's tough delivering concepts and exercises through an audio format. So the course brings a visual component full of rehab exercise examples. graphs and visual displays to enhance your understanding. Even if you sign up now, you'll have access to all current and future modules that I create. Sign up through my link in the show notes, then download the Run Smarter app, and you'll instantly have unlimited access to all the course resources on any device. And to say thanks for being a podcast listener, I want to give you a VIP offer. There will be a link in the show notes in every episode that will provide you 50% off the course price. Just click on the link and it will automatically apply your 50% discount. It's like when I talk to people jumping on like the injury chats that I offer. It's very common for someone to cause not, not everyone that develops PhDs and athlete. So not a lot of them will have a gym membership or weights at home or gym equipment. And they sort of ask like, what can I do with no equipment? I always say to them, like you're very. You're limiting yourself quite a lot. You're only just giving yourself a ceiling in terms of the, how much you can progress and how much you can, how much improvement you can see because tendons do want that slow heavy load. And I guess your story is a perfect example of really doing well strength wise at home. You know, the 70 squats, 90 squats, the deadlifts and that sort of stuff. So you've progressed quite a lot, but still not seeing a big improvement compared to what athletic endeavors you have, like your, your ambitions are marathons. So your requirements need to be quite substantial and the weights and exercises that you were doing at home just wouldn't suffice. It gets you to a certain point, but just wouldn't take you to that final stage. So it's, it's interesting that like that story and that particular, um, those particulars kind of layout and when you got to the gym, what was, what changes. did you make so in terms of weight and repetitions and how frequently you're doing it throughout the week? How did that change? Yeah, so in the initial stages, I took it steady, you know, I'd sit on the hamstring curl machine. And I think, well, I don't want to, you know, absolutely destroy myself on this, you know, I don't want to set myself back, you know. So I took it, I took it steady, you know, I can't remember exact weights of what I did. But I started at something that I thought was, was comfortable. manageable. And the same I guess with the squats and the deadlifts. I didn't do what I thought I could lift. I did a bit less and you know I went from doing 90 to doing three lots of eights as you suggested and building that up. But I found the three lots of eight with some weight a lot more challenging than doing 90 just bodyweight squats. There you go. Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. I can't remember what I started on exactly squat wise, but I've built that up over time and I'm now squatting 50K. I did four lots of 12 the day before yesterday, so I've no idea if that's good in terms of a 40-year-old male or whatever, but I'm not bothered and I'm ready to... Yeah. Up it a bit and add a bit more weight on that now. Yep. That's substantial. I'd be close to what? Like 70, 80% of your body weight and squatting four sets of that's pretty good. So, um, I think when you're talking about the hamstring curl machine, are you talking about the one where you're facing face down or the seated one? No, the seated one, which, um, I know people have a bit of trouble with because of the compression and whatever else, but yeah it's the seated one so I was always a bit wary of that. It's been okay luckily. Initially I did get a little bit of discomfort using it, but never a flare up or anything that caused me any problems. Even the little discomfort. I used to get now is fine. And I've managed to up the weight on that a fair bit now. So that's, that's good as well. Nice. Were you following the same particular approach of irritating it just a little bit and then paying attention to it afterwards when you're in the gym? Yeah, yeah. So just keeping an eye on it on everything really. And, you know, when I was, you know, doing my squats and whatever, I wasn't going out of my way to irritate it because I was already doing the weight with the squats and with the deadlifts and so initially I just took it cage-ily but I found that they didn't become irritated really with the gym work and I actually found that some days I'd go to the gym and I'd think, ah, should I be doing this? My tendon doesn't feel 100% here, should I do this? And then I would actually, it would actually improve for doing the exercises. Like, so, you know, I come out with the tendon feeling better and with no flare up, so that was a bit strange, but you know, I'm not, I'm not complaining. That was a, that was a pretty good thing. Yeah. It can get to that stage. Like we know that slow heavy load or like loaded exercises has a benefit, like an immediate benefit of a, what we call an analgesic effect, if you do have a bit of discomfort. those heavy exercises tend to settle down pain for some, not for everyone, but that's probably what you're experiencing every time you went into the gym. Yeah. And how about the running? Was that building up alongside your gym program? Yeah. So, I mean, I, I got a little bit distracted because I'd also started spin classes at the gym and I was doing my loading and the running was now taking a bit of a backseat, but then I thought, well, I need to get my running kickstarted cause that's kind of my end goal. Um, And so yeah, that's been improving. I started run walking kind of the end of last year, just one minute walk, one minute run. The same thing, there was definitely discomfort at times in the tendon when I was doing that, but as long as it was gone the next day, then I was just progressing that further and further. And I've kept progressing up until. you know, just recently. How long has it been now? How long have you maintained this gym routine? Uh, so do you, do you mean with the, the weights or the, the loading? Just like in general from when you first jumped into the gym to today, like how long have you been spending in the gym during this routine? So since, since January, really. Um, I mean, I have been doing spin classes for a while now, but I never really considered using the gym for my rehab, I was never really ready for it. But I was. I've been doing spin for about 18 months, but in terms of the loading and the, the exercises and the weights in the gym, uh, since, since January, I was going to say what would symptoms be like currently? Like, so what sort of stuff are you facing in terms of running, sitting exercises? Yeah. So things at the moment, uh, really, really kind of good. Um, I recently sat for kind of four hours on a flight with no issue. Um, I went to see a cricket game also in one of those hard plastic chairs they have in the stadiums and I sat on that for like four hours. Well, say four, there was a couple of mandatory runs to the bar, but yeah. Understandable. Yeah. So there was four hours on one of those hideous chairs, which I thought, ah, this is not going to go well. But to my surprise, it was good. I've recently got up to... 16 miles on my long run too. Um, which is, which is great. So, and that was, you know, with no, no pain or flare up or anything. So that was, that was really a bit of a result that I was, you know, pretty happy about. Excellent. Well done. Um, back on your whole journey, have there been any things that you did try or maybe you were suggested or what? Health professionals might have prescribed to you that weren't that effective. Yeah. So I did have shockwave. I had two, lots of four sessions of shockwave, um, which I don't feel like that helped at all. Like I feel like they really irritated the tendon short term, um, to the point where I couldn't do my loading exercises for like a week or so, um, but, but nothing, I don't feel like they did anything for me long term. I mean I went to one physio with the intention of having PRP injections but he basically told me that he'd been involved in a study with them and there was no evidence to suggest that they worked so that was a that was kind of a no-go but apart from those two things not really. Okay. Excellent. Well, sounds like you've made considerable gains. So you're still maintaining the same sort of routine in the gym, just, you know, slightly progressing as, as the body feels fit. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I'm, I'm kind of scared to, um, to stop, to be honest. I mean, and I never did any strength work before I had the PhD. So, you know, it might even compliment, compliment my running. So it can only, it can only be a good thing. So I think I'll carry on regardless. And yeah, I'm, I'm going to go, go to the gym tomorrow, I guess. Um, cause I need to get another session in this week. So tomorrow will be gym day. You mentioned squats, deadlifts, um, seated hamstring curl. Is there anything else relative to your rehab? Um, I get it. I do get on the leg press. Um, I like the leg press and what else do I do? I have tried some hip thrusts as well. And also I've done some walking lunges with some dumbbells. I usually do those or split squats. I'm not really sure which of those is more beneficial. So I tend to alternate them. But yeah, something that, you know, gets a bit of flexion at the hip and some compression with a bit of weight. And, you know, I struggled to do squats for a long. a long time, sorry, lunges for a long time. Um, so yeah, to be doing those with weight is a, you know, that feels good. Yeah. You're definitely going to become a strong runner. These sort of exercises. The only thing you're missing is essentially calf raises and that, that you tick off all the, the strength exercises I'd like to see for a runner. Okay. Yeah. Maybe I can add those in. I mean, I do get on the leg extension machine, which is a quad machine. Um, so I, I've got. healthy quads. So yeah, maybe just to get on the calves and then I'll be complete. Yeah. Ticking all the boxes. All right, mate. Well done. Well, congratulations to, I guess, take the initiative to start the gym membership. And actually, I know it seems a bit daunting for some people to start a new routine, new gym. What are the exercises look like? What are the, you know, it's, it lacks the familiar sense and it can be a big hurdle for a lot of people, but Well done, well done for sticking it out, learning about it and progressing and seeing the good results. It seems like it's a, it's been a game changer for you. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Thank you. Um, I mean, I, I still get a bit, you know, when I go over to the squat rack, I'm still a bit nervous. And if there's, you know, some bodybuilding guy in there with, you know, I do get a bit, uh, I'll wait until he's gone before I get in there, but I always make sure it gets done. So it's unfortunate that such a intimidating environment for some people. And, you know, sometimes it's a bit ego driven for some big bodybuilders that go there, but, um, a conversation for an other day, any final takeaways or final pieces of advice that you might have for someone who does have PhD and is struggling with their rehab? Yeah. So what I would say is, um, the physio that helped me the most, she suggested that I keep a diary of my rehab. Um, and at the time I thought, I'm not sure about this. Um, but I actually wrote things down, like what I was doing in terms of exercises and then later on in terms of my runs. And because progress can seem quite slow if you keep a diary of it, you can look back and you know sometimes I would have thought, I'm not getting anywhere here, I'm still on these squats and I'm only doing this many or whatever but I'd look back and four weeks later I'd see that I was doing significantly less but I'd just forgotten because you know you're doing so many exercises and time seems to go so slowly that you just forget where you are. So I think it's definitely worth keeping a diary of what you've done. And with the running, like I, you know, if I completed a three mile run, I'll maybe have a little bit of irritation at the end, but I might see that three weeks earlier, I'd only done a one mile run and that was irritated at the end. So, you know, I think you get a better idea of where you're at and it's, it can be demoralizing if you think you're not making progress, especially if you are. Yeah. Sometimes it's hard to identify long-term trends. I've seen tons of people who are just saying, I'm not getting anywhere. And you say, well, hang on, look back four weeks ago. Um, yes, you're probably lifting the same amount, but look at your symptoms. Look at how much you can tolerate. You're sitting now. Let's how much our sore it is in the morning compared to how it was like those sort of things won't be. picked up unless you are writing things down and identifying that long-term trends, that's a good tip. Any other final takeaways? Yeah. So I would say just, I made this mistake, um, several times. And, but I'd say when you get your exercises, find the exercises that are right for where you are in your rehab. So I'd mentioned at one point I dived in and went to the gym and hit the gym. And I just wasn't, my tendon wasn't ready for it whatsoever, you know? Um, and it, it just didn't get me anywhere. So. you know, if you need to start with isometrics or whatever it might be, then do that but don't just jump straight in at the deep end and you know, get on the deadlifts and with the I don't know 80 kg and be smashing those out if you're not ready for it because it just it didn't work for me anyway and it just gets demoralizing when you have a bad flare up. Yeah. That's good advice. I, the amount of times I've seen people do their body weight bridges, see initial success and then be told they need to start doing deadlifts and then they do three sets of 10 full range of movement deadlifts and just flares them up for a week and then they're scared for the, you know, for a long time and to stick to their, what they know to be safe. When in fact, you know, deadlifts are good. It just, what is the right stage for you? No, no one knows until you give it a trial with a, an initial. I guess safe amount and then just progress from there. Yeah, great advice. Yeah. Anything else? Just definitely trial and error. No, I think that's it really. That's, well, I mean, you could say, you know, if something's not working, then maybe change it up, change it up a little bit, you know, change things around. If you're doing, like I was, I was doing exercises and just being quite safe with them. And I spent ages doing that and, and not really making much progress. So I, I eventually thought, oh, you know, I might just provoke the tendon a little bit. And, and that little change just, just seemed to, you know, really kickstart things off. Um, and eventually, yeah, eventually got me to the gym. But. Nice. Well, Rob, um, it's a good story. It's, it's got a lot of little nuggets in there for a lot of PhD suffers to take away. So. Well done for being a good student of the podcast, like listening to the podcast and like sort of knowing what needs to be implemented and seeking out that taking action and, um, the story will help a lot of people. So thanks for coming on and sharing. No, thanks for having me. It's been great. Thanks once again for listening and taking control of your rehab. If you are a runner and love learning through the podcast format, then go ahead and check out the run smarter podcast hosted by me. I'll include the link along with all the other links mentioned today in the show notes. So open up your device, click on the show description and all the links will be there waiting for you. Congratulations on paving your way forward towards an empowering, pain-free future and remember knowledge is power.