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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, have Jane's PHT success story. Welcome to the podcast that gives you the most up to date, evidence based information on PHT rehab. My name is Brodie. I am an online physio, but I've also managed to overcome my own battle with PHT in the past. And now I've made it my mission to give you all the resources you need to overcome this condition yourself. So with that, let's dive into today's episode. We have Jane on the podcast today who is a lifelong runner from Scotland and has been battling PhD for several years now. Jane, she'll tell her story, but she's tried everything shockwave, dry needling, stretching, massage, foam rolling, and many others, which we'll discuss in the podcast. And while they did provide temporary relief, the problem continued, unfortunately. Earlier this year, Jane reached a point where she could hardly walk, couldn't walk forwards. She'll talk about that in a second. And sitting. was really, really uncomfortable. Sleeping was extremely difficult and she questioned whether she'd ever recover and return to running again. But then Jane discovered the podcast. Well, her husband did as we'll soon discuss and joined my 60 day PhD recovery blueprint, which is an online course designed to help you. self-guide your way through managing PHT. And in this episode, we unpack that entire journey, the mistakes, the confusions along the way, why progressive loading was a big turning point for Jane. And there was a lot of emotional ups and downs, which Jane was grateful enough to share. And then the incredible moment. in the gym when Jane finally realized this is actually working. Most importantly, if you're struggling with PhD and wondering whether you'll get back to running or fitness or whatever meaningful task you're having your life, I think Jane's story will give you both hope and some practical lessons for your own recovery. If you are interested in the PhD Blueprint, the online course I was just mentioning, it will be available in the show notes. Jane, thank you very much for joining me on the podcast. No, thank you for having me. I want to get started. of my audience learning about you. So would you mind just taking us back before the PhD and what sort of exercise, fitness stuff were you involved in? Well, sports always been my life basically, even from school, hockey, running, athletics, you name it, tennis, badminton. But running really became a big part of my life when I moved up North Scotland to marry my husband. At age of 30, I started taking running a lot more serious and soon enjoyed sort of the success I was very lucky to achieve in cross country, 10 kilometers, half marathons. And only occasionally picking up little niggles, usually shin splints from running on the tarmac. But by mid 30s, I'd run sort of a 36, 10K and 36 minute 10K and 119 half marathon. I was doing really well. Then at age 38, I started picking up lots of little niggles here and there, even more niggles than before. I was becoming increasingly frustrated and there were injuries were coming. I was training harder and getting more injuries. And then just also constant pressure of chasing sort of victories and personal bests and expectations of people. So about age 38, I stopped racing. And I did a master's degree instead. So I all the dedicated time and structure I had for doing my racing training into the master's degree. But I still continued running because I was teaching. So after school, would run to de-stress the head and a bit of downtime. And then I retired in June 2018. And unfortunately, my meniscus and my cartilage and my knee ripped. So I was out for about a year in crutches and doing rehabilitation for that, which was mostly spent in the pool with non weight bearing. And then once COVID was over, husband and I decided to rejoin our old running club and take part in the cross country. And at that point, I wasn't having too many issues. So I was doing really well and around 20 minute 40 part runs and I think I did a 41 10 K. Everything was going okay. then, and at that point, sorry, all I was doing was very light. bodyweight strength exercises, because I guess we didn't really know much about it in those days. Same with when I was racing when I was younger, we didn't do any strength, it was just racing. So everything was fine. I just carried on, didn't expect anything, thought I would be going on forever, pain free more or less, it's just that they want niggle. And then, about age 54, began to experience more persistent pain, which kept moving around, topped the hamstring. Never down the cap, but top the hamstring into the glutes or under the seat bone area. And I kept trying to run through it, train through it. I just was never performing to my best. I just didn't feel I had any power. And I was going to think there's something more than just a niggle here. There's something more going on. And that's when sort of, I guess, I started looking into other options like physios and osteopaths and... what exercises or what sort of massage techniques I could use myself. Would you say it was just a very gradual onset that it started off with some vague sort of tightness and then just persisted after that? Yes, I think so. Because at that point, it was still racing when it was only this year, and that it got really bad. That was a crunch when I had to stop racing, I realized it was really bad. But at that point, it was still running. It was just always there. And I remember I used to say to my husband, used to say, I was okay today or I just wouldn't go away today. There was always something going on but again didn't know what it was. Was it piriformis? Was it glute? Was it something more than sciatica? My sciatica rubbing off my piriformis. I began grasping at straws as to what it was and did all the research on the internet and you know sort of still wasn't getting anywhere. Went to the physio and she said it was weak glutes so she gave me exercises to sort of stretch. She did, she gave me some short-wave therapy and that helped a wee bit. But she told me to do some stretches and body weight, clams and body weight, bridges, which I now realize is a complete waste of time. Rolling on a year and a half later. And then I also went to an osteopath and she gave me dry needling and that worked for a short period. But then I now know why. why I didn't go on forever. And again, she gave me some exercises and tennis ball, know, sitting on tennis balls and things like that. And so yes, I've come a long way from there, realizing that all of that stuff really wasn't any good. Yeah. You mentioned that more recently, things started to flare up. What was happening around that time? Well, that was, I suppose, I came back and I tried to do the cross country and Gordon's students. was the North District Championships and I hadn't really been doing many hills because when sort of October, November, I was beginning to feel pain when I was doing hills. So I was doing mostly flat running and I was okay with the flat running. There was some pain, you know, I wasn't getting the full push off my legs and I knew that it wasn't right. But anyway, I came and did December, beginning of December, did the cross country and although I had a really good run, couldn't walk at the end of it and was extreme pain and had to walk backwards. Then I got the dry needling and I managed that and then I didn't do any running until I did the 10 miler and I did a really good 10 miler, I think did 72 minutes or something like that but I hadn't done any running for a while so whether that was just the rest that got me through that and then I trained up to get half marathon in February. which again I did really well and I think I did 1.33 but maybe I put the mileage up too quickly to get to the half marathon in February, looking back at it. And then that was mid February, quite a lot of pain, but still running. And then I did a 10K in March and it was very, very windy at Nairn, extremely windy. Did a 43 something. Again, I wasn't getting the power and I was sore afterwards. And then April, things just getting worse and down and down. And then I knew the crunch basically of when things were really rock bottom and I was in a lot of trouble. I did two races in April when I was in Cyprus. And the first one, the 45 minute pacer went past me and I thought that's never ever happened in my life before. I'm usually two minutes ahead at least. And then the next race and finished that sorry, I know, couldn't walk afterwards, I had to walk backwards, which seems to be still is the go to for me. I love walking backwards. It seems to be something about it. don't know what. And then I did another 10k in April again, and my husband flew past me and I thought, oh, this is something is dreadfully wrong. when I look at the picture, not the husband. He should be anywhere near me. He's a great runner. And then I just, when I look at the pictures of me in the race and I'm in such pain and you can see I'm struggling running and my body form is completely all over the place. And at the end of the race, I was in such pain, matter what I did, I just couldn't, I couldn't get rid of the pain. And at that point, that was it. just quit racing. yeah. Telling your story, sort of makes me think. When we look at tendons and we think of, where's the tendon capacity, there's symptoms will emerge as soon as like that run or the weekly mileage or speed exceeds that capacity. And what I'm envisioning through that whole story is race per race of like trying to put in a decent effort. Like you're, going out hard. You're trying to run each race followed by a bit of rest, then another race, then another race. and more and more symptomatic just makes me think like every attempt, every run is just diminishing the tendons capacity while you're still pushing the load. So the discrepancy between the load that you're forcing the tendon to do, like this far outreaches that ever diminishing capacity that it has, because as it becomes more irritated and more symptomatic, often the capacity slowly, slowly diminishes. And so the bigger gap you see between load and capacity, the more and more symptomatic it gets. And as you're just working through that timeline of pushing races and symptoms getting worse and worse pace, dropping off, losing power, starting to be in real, real pain during the run. That's sort of like the, the visual that I'm sort of painting as you go through that history, would that make sense? Did that, would that resonate with you? Yes, because I've learned a lot now after sort of following your course and what I now know an awful lot about the load and the capacity and recovery. so, yes, now looking back from what I know now and I knew nothing then. You thought I knew everything then. So yeah, I completely agree. was just too much. And I now know that when I'm beginning to get back to running, I know that's much further on, but I need to make sure it's a very controlled progression. And that the load and the capacity are both sort of prepared at the same time. The balance is correct. When did a diagnosis come about? Because up until this point, you were mentioning weak glutes, were mentioning, uh, piriformis or, you know, a bit of a less directed rehab. When did that come about? Um, I guess was, that was probably when I was at sort of in a lot of pain. So that we're talking sort of end of April. and I wasn't able to even walk forwards. I couldn't do anything basically. Walking backwards was my go-to and I must admit I got an awful lot of strange looks walking backwards and everyone else was walking forwards. The minute I looked at a hill I went, oh really do I have to go up that slight slope? I couldn't sleep, I couldn't sit because of the pain. So everything. And so at that point, because we tried what other physios and osteopaths and all the rest had done. We'd been trying all the techniques, the cupping, the massaging, the shot way therapy, what we shot with therapy machine, we tried pressure points, massaging, I think every gadget on the zone we had tried. I've got a list of the modalities you mentioned here. So let me just run through them. So you sent me shockwave, dry needling, stretching, massage, massage guns, foam roller, KT tape, nerve flossing, ice and heat as modalities that you have attempted. So yeah, definitely trying to throw a lot at it. Yeah. And so the one that really worked was the ice and heat, which I now know is just the as all of these are, they're just analgesic. And thanks to the knowledge I've learned from you. And that always was as I've of put the thought in that it's like sticking putting a sticking plaster on a gushing artery. It's not ever going to sort it. It's just momentarily going to ease it for a bit and then again you're like, oh, where's the ice? Where's the heat again? That plaster's come off. So my husband just did an awful lot of research because he's great on the internet, fortunately, I'm very lucky that way. And that was when he came across some podcasts that you'd done. And he said, Jane, you need to come over and you need to listen to this. And he said, Brody is talking about exactly the experiences that you are getting. He's nailing it on the thumb and I think it's PhD. So we started looking into it. You look more at your website. And he said, we've got to go for this because there's nothing else. Let's join the course. And that's probably the best thing I've ever done because I know it's a long journey, but I've learned so much. where I was, oh, that was the 3rd of May I started. And what's today the 10th of August. Where I was in the 3rd of May, I would never have thought. where I am now. And hopefully in a year's time, I'll be thinking I'm a lot further on from where I am. Still, I just can't believe the difference that following your expertise and knowledge and understanding of the PhD in attendance has just brought me on so much and just that what my own week 14 now. Talk me through like the emotional struggle with you. Like you say, you got to the point where sitting was painful, walking forwards was painful, sitting, sleeping was painful. How did you manage that? Because that's what far from running and running races and running PBs and all the stuff that you were striving towards. How are you managing that? I've got pretty low. I have to admit. Um, yeah, it's really worrying because you just thought at one point I just thought nothing is ever working. Um, even, you know, that's when I started doing all your exercises and I was lifting hardly any weights and I couldn't shift the eccentric because one of the daily exercises that you gave was just trying the band and pushing it back from neutral to the eccentric extension and I couldn't even shift it to neutral. Everything was just so painful and just thought and at that point I was managing just to sit on the bike a bit but at one point I was just thinking. I wish I could just take a holiday from all this pain because it's so sore and everything I was doing apart from unless it sitting in heat and ice, everything was just so sore. I just thought this is never going to get anywhere. Would you say it got to a point where you generally thought that it wasn't going to get better? Yeah. Yeah, I did. But then again, I'd listen to a lot of your podcasts and you've interviewed people who've had PhD. and they have come out the other side. And I kept trying to say to myself, I need to be positive. I need to believe in what you're telling me to do and to do this loaded, slow, progressive work on the tendon. And I'm telling you, that's the thing that gave me a bit of hope, actually, I should have said. Because I thought, I'm never going to be able to do anything. I better just not do anything. And you said, wrong thing to do. Tendons hate not to do something. They love to be challenged. They love to be worked, they love to be loaded, slow progressive loading. And at that point, we've got a small gym here, but it's only got tiny weights in it. So Ian said, right, we're going to join the gym because we need big machines, we need big weights and okay, might not be able to lift them now, but we need to progress slowly to that. So we joined the gym. And that's when things did begin to get better because there was something as a purpose for me to do either the daily maintenance little things I had to do at home, was basically I had, you know, deadlifts with next to no weight and a few step ups and then my sort of isometrics, which I love isometrics. Thank you for introducing me to them. So we did that and then the gym, we'd go and try and do some heavier strength days, sort of maybe twice a week. And yeah, that's when things began to... Feel as if I'm doing something here that actually is beginning to make a difference because what I was lifting when I started to what I'm lifting now, I think I'm now lifting 45 kilograms in a deadlift and I'm 48 kilograms. And I was struggling lifting 20. in sports. I ask, you stumbled upon the podcast while your husband stumbled upon the podcast. Then you realized I had this online course that sort of guides you through PhD rehab and you made a start. there's, I guess, a big hesitation or like sticking point that some people when they get to the course is working out their starting point because everyone's going to be different. Everyone has different sensitivities and access to weights and their irritability is slightly different. Everyone has a different capacity. And so what I try to allay in the course is, okay, you need to find your own starting point. These are the principles you can follow. But some people just still get a bit stuck with that and a bit confused with that. How did you go with finding that starting point? Did you have any trouble? Not too bad. Ian was with me. So I guess we worked on that together. And I knew from what you'd said that the pain must be at less than three. And then you had to return to baseline the following day. And of course, you stipulated make sure you record everything. and any change so that you can monitor if there's soreness the following day what you've done wrong. So I guess we did that. We did a lot of the monitoring to find. And I guess we maybe started sort of, would you call it conservative? Really quite light. So I guess we started that and then realized actually I'm okay the following day. Let's, and the next time we do this exercise, let's put up a wee bit. But I remember you saying, you know, everyone's different. So I cannot say to you, you must start at this. Um, I think I started at 20 kilograms, um, in total. Okay. So I was starting quite low. but I needed that made sure as you've always said, the baseline, make sure you can return to baseline. So you mentioned you did some lighter loading exercises more frequently at home. So you did some lighter deadlifts, some lighter step ups, uh, and then twice a week doing more of a heavier session. going into the gym, um, they were with. deadlifts, still the same type of exercises, just heavier? Deadlifts, squats, we're doing squat machine. And then started doing some static or isometric hip, hip bridges with weights, weights on which again, we just sort of been gradually increasing that. And then the quad machine and then as you'd mentioned, the prone hamstring curl, which we don't have the one where you lie like that, but the one we've got is at an angle, you know, 45 degree angle. Okay, And I couldn't shift that at all. Right. So and the same with the eccentric hip extension with the band, I wasn't able to move that at first. So that was sort they were sort of like my tests to go to each time to see if I was getting any, especially the band, if I could or the cable machine because it was a cable machine there. So I was using that at times just to see if I could shift any more with a lightweight. So that was sort of my go-to test to see if there was any slight improvement. Yeah. I haven't come across that kneeling one, the kneeling prone hamstring curl too often. So like you say, it's kind of like you're laying on your stomach, but you're kind of on an incline. And would that be, I guess you'd have to do it with a single leg hamstring curl, wouldn't you? If you're in that kneeling position. Yes. Okay. And when you're starting to do those exercises, you've put no weight on it you couldn't even shift it with one curl. Yeah, I think the bar, well, I think bar itself is seven and a half kilos. So I couldn't shift that at all. I think I made my breakthrough. I think I said to you it was about week nine or 10. No, was week 11, I think I actually began, it moved. But yes, it was seven and a half. And that's why I sort of the cable was easier because I could move it slightly before and try and do some isometrics on that. So when I wasn't able to shift the machine, I was trying to build up in the isometric extension hold and begin to get past neutral with that, which it was beginning to do over time. And as well as dressing of the deadlift. Yep. You said that straight away you felt better, because you had a bit more of a goal, you had a bit more of like, an action plan that sort of helped you emotionally mentally. When did you start seeing some improvements physically? When did you start seeing like improvements in sitting or pain or walking or anything like that? I think I've got every gadget under the seat here in a kneeling seat and all sorts of things. And that that came very slowly. The sleeping with a pillow had a pillow under or either slept in my front or a pillow under my legs because the pain was just so sore. And I guess things I was coming back from Cyprus, that was May and that was terrible. I just had to get up the whole time, had an aisle seat, fortunately. I guess the sitting began to get, it's still not perfect, but it got a easier over time, a long time. I'd say in the last four weeks in particular, it's been getting better and the sleeping is much better. I don't have to use the pillow quite as much. I maybe drifted off the question here, so can you just remind me? Improvements, improvements in sitting or walking or just day to day function? The walking, I guess the walking came quite quickly after I started doing sort of the deadlifts and things, it was becoming easier. Hills, walking up hills, much slower. But I was able to do that. I was able to go on the bike. So I was able to do a of that, a bit of the cross trainer. cross training, swimming and aqua jogging. And then also I was doing some skipping and banded running. And what I couldn't understand was I was able to skip and I was beginning not to feel any pain. was being do hopping, skipping, no pain, even on the right side, although my right and my left were sore. It's always my right under seat bone that was always the worst, the tendon there. But And what I couldn't understand was why I could do banded running. To explain banded running? Attached to big, something static and I was able to just run on the spot against the band and I was able to skip. But as soon as I tried to run, the pain returned and I just couldn't get my head around that at all. Yeah, I was getting some hope that I was able to do stuff and get my cardio going, but I just couldn't understand why as soon as I actually tried to run forward and push off the leg rail and just even banded running. I just couldn't do it. was just the pain just straight back. Yep. That's a very interesting insight. I've come across someone who's tried banded running. And so my initial assumption would be, well, you're not bringing your leg forward. When you're, when you're banned, when you do your banded stuff, if the bands around your waist and you've got around like a fixed object behind you, you have to lean forward in order to like, you know, keep upright. Um, and so like you couldn't possibly like you sort of forbidden from moving any sort of part of your knee or leg or, um, forward, but that's what you have to do when you run. If you try and run the same way you do with your bandaid running, you just hit your face on the floor. Like you just planted because you need a little bit of a breaking force, a little bit of your, um, forward foot contact in order to remain balanced. So I guess that. slight difference is what made the difference in your symptoms. And I should say like when you talk about skipping, um, for North American audience as well, that's like jump rope. Uh, cause a lot of Americans, I, I know exactly what you mean when I say skipping, cause we call it skipping, but they think that's like frolicking in the fields, skipping. so like, we need to make that distinction. You are doing some jump rope, double leg, single leg, and those sorts of things. Okay. So you said that you were slowly making improvements in symptoms and Um, slowly building upon the getting heavier and heavier in the gym. Um, was there smooth sailings? I typically talk about, we know we're on the right track load management wise. we see slow, steady improvements week by week. Uh, but I know it's not always progress on a linear fashion. Did, can you recall any setbacks? guess it was not really any flare ups because we're really. careful about putting the weight up and recording everything. Sorry, Ian keeps pointing that I need to hold up my sheet, then I had everything, you would have said, you make sure you write everything down and the weight and how many reps you do and all these sort of things. guess, I maybe started when I started on the treadmill, I decided that's how I'd introduce my running. And I guess, because that was new, I was only trying like the one minute. At first I wasn't managing the one minute. In fact, Ian got me to run downhill and try a one minute run downhill first. So I did that and I managed to do that. But I guess the aggravation or the sort of the flare ups or sort of irritations was basically me trying to introduce the running even with one minute on, one minute off, one minute on. But again, I did a bit of that. then we take a bit of a break, not try it. So really slow introducing the running. And that would only maybe just once a week trying just a couple of minutes with the interval one minute on, one minute walk, one minute run, one minute and very, very slow. So I guess we've been trying to introduce that and build that up. And we're managing to do that quite successfully now. But no, I haven't fortunately had too many flare ups. What I do find is like, We'd just been down to Edinburgh, which is almost a five hour drive. And although we stopped a lot on the way down for me with the sitting and things, I was really sore when we got down there, really sore. And for the two or three days that we were down there, I just couldn't shift. We tried to run down there and I wasn't running, you know, with sort of, I was running with more pain than I would normally where I am now. And was the same when we came back up. took me a day or two for just my bottom just to sort of calm down. And then when I tried to run a couple of days after we got back, I thought, things was no pain again. Because I was beginning to run at times as with little or no pain. I'd say to him, that was only a half today. Oh, I didn't think about pain for a minute or two. So I'm fine. I found that was probably the worst is when I've been sitting for a really long time. even with short intervals, standing up, walking around a lay by or whatever, and then getting back in. That is taking a couple of days to settle with that. And then of course the journey back up to a couple of days. And then it's sort of been easing off again since we got back in about a week ago, think. Yeah. Which is understandable. Like I have a lot of clients that make improvements. They're getting encouraged. They're optimistic. And then they go on a long haul flight or a trip, long, long car ride. And they're bummed out because They have a, they have an increase in symptoms. And I'm, say like, it's expected if you, if you're finding sitting is irritating you and then you have to sit for that long. It's yeah, it's expected. We should just recognize reality. And I sort of remind them that the, the more you commit to building a really strong base, the better foundation you have, the quicker you actually return back to baseline. Sure. It's painful and it's painful for 24, 48 hours. or even longer, depending on how sensitive the tendon is. people often surprise themselves at how quickly it bounces back when they really put in the work and put in the dedication. And it's probably not outside the realms of possibility that you're back to running 30 minutes continuous and really getting symptoms under control. And then you have to sit on a plane for 12 hours and then it's a bit sore after that and you're a bit bummed, but it's only sore for 12 hours. And then you bounce back and you're symptom free the next day. it's, that emotional kind of process that everyone kind of needs a bit of a realistic way. You do sort of you get frustrated because you think I was doing so well and then you know why why and then as you said sort of a wee bit after I mean we came back on the Friday and then the Saturday we thought we'll go straight into the gym and get on with things and I think by the Sunday I was sort of more or less beginning to sort of think oh I'm running again sort of like a wee bit for like for I was for I went away. And with the pain with pain levels and things. And so yeah, so I'm not going down to Edinburgh for a weeks. So I can keep moving around. Can I ask, emotionally speaking, when you were, you know, racing, running fast, running far doing all the things that you love, having to return to running with one minute on one minute off, like that huge discrepancy between what you want to do or what you have done previously to what you're doing now. Where were you mentally? Cause some people find it really, really frustrating, but some people like, look, I'm just happy to be out there. Even if it's just a 30 second jog, I'm okay with that. do you place yourself? It was hard. It was very mixed because when I was, I was thinking, Hey, I've managed to do a minute, but at the same time, you know, or maybe one day it's like, Oh, I've done two minutes. But at the same time you're thinking, jing, I've got an awful long way to go. If I'm only running two minutes and I'm doing three lots of two minutes and I used to run for like an hour and a half, two hours, without even thinking about it, you sort of think, oh. And then the next time you go and you maybe manage, you saw that you did three lots of two minutes, you did four lots of two minutes. You thought, well, I did an extra two minutes. it was trying to sort of always, and that's where recording everything was always really good. I'd look back and think, well, last time I did it, I only did three of that. I mean, I did a session the other day and I said to Ian, I did a bit of an interval because I'm trying to introduce hills and some speed work now. And I said to Ian, I did two minutes at such and such a speed, think it was like four minutes, 20 I managed to get up to. did two minutes last week at that and this week I did three minutes at 420 and I did one minute at such and such. So was only one minute increments I was adding. So that was motivation. I was coming off going, I did three minutes today at such and such a pace. And I was actually feeling as if I was getting somewhere because I was getting some speed. And that brings hope because I'm thinking, well, I'm getting a wee bit closer to some of the speed. OK, it might just be for two minutes, but at least I'm hitting those four minutes, almost four minute kilometres. Even it's just for that short brief spell. Like 14 weeks ago, I couldn't even do one minute at six kilometre paces. six kilometer pace. yeah, it's always looking back at the records and thinking, well actually look what I used to do and look what I'm doing now. And then maybe that's week 14 for me, so I had another 14 weeks on. Where might I be in 14 weeks? Because I think the progression begins, is beginning to be a bit faster. That was really slow, the first really hard and really slow. It's only very slow, slow, slight. improvements you were seeing, whereas now I'm beginning to see it slightly accelerate. And that's where I need to be careful that I don't jump in with two feet. Yeah. And I think natural, like when you have such a painful, sensitive tendon, yes, the progressions do need to be very, very small. You'd notice in the progression chart that I have for people in the course, like it is one minute progressions, but then when you get further down, it's like five to 10 minute jumps and the It's just like you allow yourself a bit more wiggle room. Once you have a bit more stability, once you have a bit more confidence in the tendon, because a lot of my clients, they're like, man, I can't envision if I'm just going from three minutes of running to four minutes of running to five minutes of running, I can't envision, you know, an hour of running. Like that's going to take me two years to progress. And that's when I remind them, like once we have a bit more stability and we have a bit more foundation, that's when we can make bigger jumps in your. progressions and so it encourages people a little bit more. Yeah, because what I've noticed and also what you'd mentioned was you need to, and this is in some of your YouTube's as well, the importance is having sort of a base foundation, the volume of running. And so I've done a lot of like at six minute, really slow, but I've built that up to like 30 minutes, it's slow, 30. And I've been doing that a couple of times a week. So I'm building my volume up. And then actually, yesterday or two days ago I managed 15 kilometers, very slow, but just sort of building that very gradually building that progression of volume up at a slow pace. And I'm only trying to do a one sort of interval, call it interval, where I'm trying to raise the speeds, that's only once a week, where I'm doing those one minute increments or slightly longer at a certain pace, but adding another one minute at a slightly higher volume. And higher speed, should say, but I've been trying to increase the volume gradually, very gradually. Um, again, I never thought would, I would get 15 kilometers a month ago. Speaking of little milestones, people might not know this, but as a member of the PhD blueprint course, you get access to a community, Facebook community of people just doing attending this course. And you shared on that community, the success you had with moving the hamstring curl machine for the first time. Would you mind retelling that story? That was an emotional moment. Now I look back, quite an embarrassing moment. Yeah, I've been struggling, as I said earlier, with this leg curl machine. I couldn't shift it at all. Week eight, I couldn't shift it. Week nine, still couldn't. My left leg, was, because it's not as bad, I was beginning to move it slightly, but my right one just wasn't shifting. And then I think it was about a week. I'd been away in a trek and I came back, so I'd not been on it for about two weeks. And I came back and I looked at it, because I always look at the machine and think, oh, jingles, I'm have to try this. And I sort of build up the courage to try it, because I know it's gonna move. So I looked at it and I went on and no weight, of course, as usual. And I thought, well, I'll just go on and see if I can shift it. even slightly bit expecting nothing to happen and it moved and I just I looked across at Ian and I just burst into tears I went it And he looked and he went do it again so I sort of did it again and although it was was just marginal but I moved it and it was just like a major breakthrough and of course I burst into tears I'm looking around going I'm in this big gym with all these big men in muscly bony ears this little lady going I moved it, I moved it. So that was like a major breakthrough to me because it meant that there was something was definitely working. Although that had taken, I think this was a, did I say week 11 or something? And actually the other day I put a one and a you 1.25 kilogram on it and I managed to move it up a bit. So I started working, only doing sets of five. but I managed to move it. So yeah, that was, oh, that was a wonderful moment. Yeah, excellent story. Yep. It's very inspirational. If we look ahead and sort of forecast like a year from now, what can you see yourself doing that you may not have considered possible, say six months ago? Right, well, targets. I was really enjoying doing plyometrics. I've not really got back into them yet, but that's something I want to start trying soon because I love doing them. Not just my skipping, but I love doing the other plyometric work. So where do see myself in a year's time? Well, I'll be almost, I will 59 by then. So I'd like to be running pain free. I will always continue with the work. that you've taught me, that's now just become routine, that's part of my daily life, daily life with my maintenance things and going to the gym to do the strength work. I'm fortunate I love doing it anyway. I get a lot from it, I enjoy it. So that will always be part of me. I've been to, the reason I went down to Edinburgh was I went to the ORIM, the Scottish Performance Sports Centre, because I was beginning to think that The reason, I was managing to do everything by now, pain free, apart from the running. So there was something about the running. And as you'd mentioned with my banded running and then me trying to progress into running, it's something, and it was whether I was over striding, which I thought I possibly was, because Ian had videoed me. But we decided to go down to this gate assessment analysis on my running performance and get some feedback because as I said to the gentleman David Gibson, said, I want to be able to run pain free, but I want to be able to run where my PhD does not come back. So I need to know what it is with my running technique that I need to, even if it's small tweaks, what do I need to do to be able to return to running safely without agonizing and ending up with these flare ups I've. clearly had going on and on for years and years and years, but just run through it. Because I don't want to do that anymore. I want to run pain free. So he's given me quite a lot of information, really good information, which I'm working on my running technique. And so where I would like to be in a year's time, definitely two years time, well two years time I'll be 60. So my coach, my husband, is aiming to hopefully make me one of the top in Scotland when I reach 60. and still be pretty well up there 55, 59. I'll be 59 later on. So yeah, maybe still get good times when I'm 59, but by 60, that gives me sort of a good length of time to gain confidence in my running and get all my top speed back. So yeah, I'd like to run competitively. I'd like to run pain free and continue with all the strength work. I'd like to be able to do 40, 10 K, 40 minute 10 K and 19 20 minute part runs. I know I've got it in me. I've just not be able to. I've not had the power in my legs because the pain's always been there. So if I can just keep doing what you've been teaching me and be able to run in a running technique that's not going to cause me agony, then that's that's what I want to achieve. And I think it is achievable because you've taught me so much. I mean, they've accomplished in this time. it's definitely within the realms of possibility. And the last question I had written down is, you have any advice for those who may have like chronic or severe PhD and found themselves in your position, tried a lot and just not seeing any improvements? If they're losing hope, what advice do you have for them? Don't lose hope. I've been there and I've seen actually don't lose hope because you will progress. It will be slow. My first piece of advice is I'd say don't procrastinate, don't just try and fix it yourself. You need to get professional help like I sought your help, your knowledge, your expertise, how to go about it, all the videos, all the resources you've given me. So don't procrastinate, get on some kind of sensible progressive loading program where you can ask for help, get advice. As I say, there's so much in your course and your chronic reset course. And that has so much information as well. I remember one time sorry, I messaged you it's quite early on the course. And I messaged you I think it was week one. And I looked at the first videos for the first few days of the of that course. And I messaged you saying, but what about sitting I can't sit and you said, just go and see video wait. And I went oh there it is. So everything is everything was there for me to just to Tap into it, so get expert advice. I would say that you need to get into a gym if possible or buy, there's now so many weights you can buy for your home and things like that. So get a decent set of weights at home that you can progress with or definitely get into a gym. Isometrics, make that a daily thing. I think it was Keith Barr you talked about and I've looked up lot about Keith Barr and his isometrics and tendons and all sorts. So that's been a huge learning. So yes, isometrics, progressive loading, don't rush it. Do not rush it. You have to record everything. And that's one thing that you said you must do, record everything. So that if the following day you have a baseline and it's not returned to your baseline, you can look at your sheet and go. I put that weight up yesterday, that's why I'm sore today. I put it up too much, I need to put it back down. I'm not ready to go up or anything like that. So you have to record meticulously everything that you do. Record your pain. I did that as well. I always recorded what my pain was when I was doing the exercise. So record everything. You mustn't lose hope. Be positive. Be dedicated to it. Don't just say, oh. I'm going to go into this and then you only do it a few days a week. It's like going to a physio asking for exercises and then you go back to the physio and he says, well, did you do your exercises every day? No, not really, but I'm no better. Well, you didn't do the exercises. So, you you need to be dedicated. You need to say, right, this is my life. will find even if I'm working or I've got family or whatever, I will find time. That is my slot. That is where I need to do my hard work if I'm going to make this. this change in my life. So yeah, be dedicated, be controlled over the progression, be patient. And that's what I'm telling myself, my head for, I'm getting excited about running, but I need to be patient about it. And anything that I've got coming up is just a stepping stone. And so it's going to be more like a training exercise. If I've got a race coming up, I'll just use it as a training, not to expect to get my 41s or 42s, but to be. Sub 45, not let my husband run past me. I'll use that as training. So be patient, be positive. You need to keep progressing with the strength, but lower the reps. Don't expect to put the strength up. Again, what you said, don't put the strength up and manage to do the same reps as you're doing. You must take that down. One thing also that helped me, because I remember I was struggling when I was putting the weights up. I went to one of your videos and it said on the course and it said, what if you're struggling with the weights? And I went, that's me because I'm so weak up here and I'm not very big and I'm struggling to lift these weights that are getting heavier and heavier. And you went on about breathing techniques and you went on about different strategies for lifting weights, whether it was your change of grip or, and I bought in straps, weight lifting straps I put round and that has made a huge difference as well. So looking to get that sort of thing to help you be able to, because I thought, I said to you and I said, I can't lift any heavier because I just don't have the upper body strength. I can't go anywhere with this. And that's where we looked at your, because my grip strength and my upper body strength isn't strong enough. And that's where we looked at your video and we went up, we need to get some of them. So yeah, so get things to help you with your grip strength so that you can do the heavier weight, but you need to get, keep progressing and you need to make sure you're back to baseline. That's really important. If you're not back to baseline the next day, don't do anything. Don't try and increase anything. You need to get that back. So yeah, you need to be positive and get the load and capacity balanced, which was not what I was doing. That's really important. But yeah, don't think negatively. You will have ups and downs. We all have ups and downs at times. But you need to think where you were and where you are now. And as you said, where will I be? And when I think I'm week 14, where I was week one when I came to you going, oh, can't do anything, to where I am now, I've got a long journey to go, but I'm positive because I'm looking at, jinks, look where I've come in that time. And that first eight weeks, nothing very much seemed to be happening. And all of a sudden it's speeding up and it's just like, wow. And so be patient, be positive. Plenty of takeaways there. Excellent. Yeah. When you first signed up and you were sending me emails and you're engaging in the Facebook group and you're letting us know what progress you made. I'm like, she's taking the bull by the horns here. You really dove into it. You really took action straight away. And like you say, stay dedicated. You were one of the more dedicated people. And after listening to your story, think Ian had a big, big part to play in that. You said he was behind the camera. Can he come on and just give me a wave? Appreciate your dedication, Ian. Hi, Brodie. Pleasure meeting you, mate. Yeah, very pivotal part of the story. So thank you for your success story as well. Yeah, one thing Jane didn't mention is that she's not very good at spreadsheets. So you have a very sophisticated spreadsheet, which I've been using to track things. But Jane said, when I go to the gym, I like to be able to. So as soon as she saw the spreadsheet, she got a ruler. a piece of paper and start drawing lots of spreadsheets. It's kind of old school with things like that. That has been one of the biggest sticking points for a lot of people is the, yeah, trying to dive straight into the spreadsheets. like, yeah, like I said, after listening to your story has been a teamwork nonetheless, not only to find the content, but then to stay dedicated. I'm no doubt that your level of commitment and accountability has been a part of because of Ian as well. yeah. great to hear the teamwork come together. And I appreciate you coming on and sharing the story. know it's tough talking about yourself and sharing all these insights, but it's going to help a lot of people because there are a lot of people that are suffering with PhD. It's been a really good reflection for me and of my journey, actually. So it's helped me to realize where I have come because of, know, when you first asked me, thought, oh, and then Ian said, we're really good for you to actually look back. And then you'll appreciate where you were and where you've come. And then you'll actually appreciate how well and how much you have. Cause at times you think, not really done very much. But then when you look back, you see the difference. And so it's been a good reflective journey for me as well. Well, once again, I appreciate you coming on and sharing a story, giving us a ton of insights and giving a lot of people a lot of hope. So thanks for coming on and sharing. I just like, I can't thank you enough Brody for all your incredible support. your deep knowledge and understanding of PhD is truly remarkable. And I feel incredibly fortunate to have managed to find your course or for Ian to find your course and to be able to participate it. A time when I thought the pain would never sort of go and there was no way forward, you brought me that hope with your whole course and the way it was structured and as your Facebook page, your AI assistant, know, all the resources that you share. It's been amazing. There was so much in depth information videos in your course. You covered every aspect. There was a PhD, as I said, I came to you said, what about the settings? I just got a video eight and it's there. And I remember, well, also your podcast, you're amazing. I love listening to them and all the different people that you interview with, you know, their knowledge and their expertise. But no, thank you for all your your advice, your deep knowledge. Thank you very much. You're very welcome. Well, yeah, I think that's a nice sign off from there. So appreciate the dedication, best of luck for the forthcoming future and the rehab and I look forward to hearing all the milestones you pass from here on out. I will keep you updated. If you are looking for more PhD resources, then check out my website link in the show notes. There you will find my free PhD five day course, other online content and ways you can personally connect with me. Well done for taking an active role in your rehab by listening to content like this and together we can start ticking off all of your rehab goals and finally overcome your PHT.