Your comments: 19 July 2017

With a remit to develop a ‘new model of care’, Live Well Leeds has the headspace to think differently. As a result, we got in touch with Level Up – a local company specialising in teaching younger people Parkour (free running). Together, we developed a version of Parkour that would be suitable for older people with long-term conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The aim is strengthening muscles, improving balance and confidence. There is also an element of peer support and social interaction. After running some trials, we are delighted to say that Leeds City Council has funded a six-session programme with discussions underway about making this a more permanent fixture in the community.

 

As a physio, it has been so exciting to see how functional movements can be done in a fresh new way. The movements in Parkour are similar to getting into and out of a bath or bed, or on or off a bus – but done in an exciting and innovative way. The patient feedback has been amazing.  

 

I thought I would respond to the 3 minutes feature with Georgie Oldfield. See here. It resonated with my own current health challenges, which are most likely driven by my stress levels, my own personality traits and an underlying and newly-diagnosed autoimmune disease. 

 

I am pretty sure that many physios will recognise the issues put forward in this article – particularly as so many of us seem to fit the profile that Georgie describes.

 

While highlighting the tacit role that stress plays in the chronic pain affecting our patients, we need to become conscious of the same factors that can so easily become a toxic cocktail for our own lives. 

 

Physiotherapy practice is changing with the times. The internet is a huge resource for patients wanting to carry out self-help programmes. 

 

I established Leeds Physiotherapy and Pilates Practice in 2010. We now run 28 clinical Pilates classes a week for people with all sorts of musculoskeletal problems. 

 

In April 2016 I filmed a number of videos to create a YouTube channel for the practice. One of 30-minute video was a basic clinical Pilates workout. It had an amazing response with almost 21,000 views and comments, and I received messages from people all over the world. This response stimulated the idea of setting up my new website. 

 

The subscription-based website offers monthly and annual plans. At sign-up, users complete health questionnaires about potential problems, such as disc prolapse. Their responses are used to create tailor-made programmes based on the types of exercises that suit that problem. All workouts last 30 minutes and we plan to keep adding new workouts to the site.

 

I hope the site offers people a safe space to do a clinical back pain specific workout online and that they don’t seek workouts that might not be appropriate for them. I have found the website is popular with male users that perhaps haven’t wanted to attend a classes and also both male and female users that find it difficult to attend classes because of work/lifestyle issues.