How long will it take?

How long will it take?

How long will it take?

How long will it take…That is the question.

How long will it take to lose weight? To fit into my favourite pair of jeans?

How long will it take to build muscle? To get lean and ripped? To see a six pack?

How long will it take for my injury to heal? To get back to sports? To doing the things I love to do?

How long will it take to get fit? To get healthy? To have more energy and stamina?

While the end results of all of these questions may be a little different from each other, with some focusing on changing physiques, other dealing with injury rehabilitation and some primarily focused on general health and wellbeing, all of these questions are really asking one thing:

“How long will it take before I see changes?”

If we were to base our expectations on the headlines often seen on the covers of any of the health, fitness or fashion magazines that we’re constantly bombarded with, the answer lies somewhere between 10 days and 12 weeks.

We read about celebrities and their fad diets and intensive training regimens dropping 10 lbs in 10 days, or bulking up and adding massive slabs of muscles to their frames for their upcoming superhero roles in just 12 short weeks.

We see athletes with seemingly unsurmountable injuries return to play in what appears to be just mere weeks or months after major surgical repairs and broken bones.

And then we believe that’s what the norm is. We believe that those types of results are typical. That those types of results are the expectation.

We use those media published stories as the foundation of our own barometer of success.

Have I lost weight fast enough?

Have I put on muscle fast enough?

Have I come back to sport soon enough?

And then sadly, we are disappointed when our reality sets in and we haven’t achieved those lofty goals in the desired timeframe.

The scale has hardly budged. Our injury hasn’t healed.

So what’s missing?

Why didn’t our reality match the other reality?

Why weren’t we able to do what “they” did?

One thing: context.

For those actors and celebrities transforming their bodies, their work opportunities (and corresponding paycheques) often depend on their physical appearance. The roles they’re cast in may require a certain look or physique such as Christian Bale’s extreme and drastic transformations from The Machinist to The Dark Knight.

The same broad scenario applies to the high performance and professional athletes, whose finely-tuned bodies are the tools of their trade. The performance of their bodies dictates their salaries and endorsements. It has very real and tangible impacts on their livelihoods.

For them, they now have the drivers (both internal and external) to push them to allocate the resources (or find the resources) to achieve these targets.

They have teams of highly skilled and trained people at their disposal.

They can hire the elite physiotherapists, personal chefs, sports nutritionists, and specialized personal trainers to craft structured programs.  They have the time and resources to allocate to go to work – in this case, changing their bodies, building their bodies or healing them.

For them, their body is their job.

For those of us not in that context, we have matters that may take greater precedence. Like young kids or aging parents. Like our jobs and careers, the means by which we pay for life. Like our housework and chores. Our day to day tasks.

By the time these pressing daily items are dealt with, we often don’t have the eight or nine hours left in the day to sleep and recover. We don’t have the two, three or more hours a day to lift weights, do cardio or rehab. Our meals are often grabbed on the go, instead of being homemade, perfectly balanced, and fully nutritious.

Our context, when put in perspective against these media marketed norms, is very, very different.

So how long will it take?

As always, the honest answer is it depends.

It depends on our context.

It depends on what resources we can invest into our results – how much time, money, effort and energy we have to spare.

What we’re willing to sacrifice.

So while these media based standards of transformation and rehab seem unattainable, that’s not to say that we can’t make change happen. We can. Our bodies are capable of incredible feats, if given the opportunities and means.

We just have to figure out what we’re willing, and able, to put in.

From there, we can then figure out how long it will take.

And looking honestly at our context, it may just take longer.

Chunking your way to fitness

Chunking.

Sounds like something that’s done to a piece of chocolate before it’s put into a cookie, but in this case it’s much more than that.

It’s a way to chop yourself back to fitness in small steps, each one building on the previous step.

Chunking is a tool used to solve a problem or complete a task. It’s when a bigger problem or issue is broken down into smaller more manageable pieces. As each piece is resolved, there is less of the whole to complete, making the overall task much less daunting.

To use a non-fitness example of chunking, let’s use one of everyone’s favourite pastimes…cleaning.

Let’s assume you haven’t cleaned your place in weeks.

You’ve got a kitchen counter piled full of dirty dishes because the sinks already full, you’ve amassed a collection of laundry hampers overflowing with pretty and not so pretty underthings and overthings, you’ve seen the dust bunnies replicating exponentially in every dark, hidden corner, and you’ve created your own leaning towers of papers piled up on every available horizontal surface.

Every time you open the door, that’s the scene you’re greeted with.

And every time, you push the thought of even starting the momentous cleaning task to the back of your mind because it’s just that overwhelming.

You don’t even know where to begin. So you don’t.

Instead, you add more clothes, more dishes and more papers to the ever growing piles. And then you repeat the same steps again tomorrow. And the day after that.

Now let’s imagine that one day, you read this blog post and it stuck in your mind. At that instant, you make a decision that today is the day that you’ll get your place clean and you’ll use chunking to accomplish it.

Let the chunking begin…

You take stock of what needs to get done in a global sense, but this time, you don’t let that foreboding sense of doom stop you in your tracks.

Using your newly found chunking skills, you decide that you’ll start your chunking with the laundry.

Because once you’ve started the laundry, you’ll have the washing time to work on another task, thus increasing your efficiency and decreasing the overall time you have to put into cleaning.

You sort and start the wash.

It’s not as bad as you originally thought (or maybe it is, but as piles are organized and distributed to the machine, there’s less of an affront to your eyes, and it doesn’t seem as overwhelming anymore ). You’ve got a load in the wash, and a few more piles patiently awaiting their turn in the machine.

You know you have roughly an hour for the cycle to complete, so you move on to your next task.

You decide that the stench of the dirty dishes is no longer tolerable, so that will be the next chunked task. As each dish is washed and dried, the counter space opens up and the once bare cupboards are now back to their glorious fullness and the kitchen is clean.

This is getting fun now!

Each completed task encourages you with the results you’re seeing, a deep sense of accomplishment washing over you with every square inch of your place becoming visible again, with every now fresh breath you take.

By this time, the washing machine has gone through a cycle, you flip the freshly washed clothes to the clothes dryer and add another load to the washing machine.

Chunked, which now gives you time to work on those papers. You sort the mail, file the receipts and recycle the unopened weekly flyers and advertisements.

And so on and so forth.

What started off as a huge, seemingly insurmountable task of cleaning your whole apartment just became a series of smaller, interdependent tasks that don’t paralyze you with their sheer scope.

As each task was completed, the overall problem grew smaller.

Now let’s use that same process with chunking your way to fitness.

Let’s say you’ve been mostly sedentary for quite a few years now. You’ve been dutifully paying your monthly gym fees, but you haven’t actually been going. You work a desk job and you have a busy social calendar, often involving socializing with good food and just as good drink.

With the above scenario, it’s possible that over the years you’ve put on a few extra pounds. Or maybe you’ve put on more than just a few, maybe 20 or 30 lbs extra and now you’ve noticed it’s impacting your health and vitality.

You’ve just identified the larger problem (you’re out of shape and overweight) and you’ve made the decision that you want to remedy it (you want to lean up and improve your fitness).

The major issue is that looking at a problem like the one above on its own often leads to paralysis.

Where do you even begin? What should you even do? What type of diet? What type of exercise? How much? At what intensity? How long will it take?

All these questions and all the questions the answers to these questions may bring…It’s overwhelming.

It’s probably better to just have some wine and cheesecake and think about them.

Well, that’s what the old you might have said, but this is the new, chunking you.

Whereas before, identifying the problem would have lead you to just quit before you even started, the new you takes that big problem and chops it up into small, manageable pieces.

You’ve taken the first step, you decided that you are ready to start your fitness journey, that you’re ready to trim down and shed those extra pounds and improve your fitness.

You want to feel energetic and vibrant again. Since we’re all about honesty, you know that leaning out would make you look good again, too.

Once that important decision is made (this is the same as deciding that today was the day you’re cleaning your place), let the chunking begin…

Since chunking involves taking a much larger problem and breaking it down into smaller, more manageable chunks, you realize that improving your fitness has two major, equally important components: exercise and nutrition. You recognize that both play different, but complementary roles in your overall health and fitness journey.

So you chunk both of them, making your bigger problem (being out of shape and over weight) into two smaller problems (lacking consistent exercise, lack of nutritional plan).

And then you chunk some more in each of those two areas.

In your exercise chunk, you know you need to start. But where and how? You could start with adding something as simple as 10 minutes of moderate to faster paced walking a day after dinner.

In your nutrition chunk instead of trying to overhaul your diet completely and putting yourself on some intense, highly restrictive and daunting diet-of-the-week, it can be something as simple as eating slower, or taking more lean protein at every meal. Something that’s just a little different than what you’re already doing but aligned with your end goals.

That’s it.

It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.

Now instead of worrying about being out of shape and overweight, you just need to focus on and complete the two tasks you’ve decided on. That’s how you’ll work on resolving your chunked problem.

As these tasks push you past your inertia and you get comfortable doing them consistently, you can add more tasks, still keeping each task fairly small and manageable.

It may be as simple as adding 10 more minutes of fast walking for a total of 20 minutes or adding 2 servings of high fibre veggies to every meal.

In any case, all you’re doing is consistently and diligently completing very small tasks that work towards resolving your major issue without getting caught up in the enormity of “losing 30 lbs” or going from “unfit to fit” in one fell swoop.

For many of these chunked tasks, the time commitment is small, but over time, the effects add up.

Here’s the caveat with this type of chunking…

You will have to set your expectations appropriately.

Making these types of very small changes usually don’t lead to very rapid changes. These are not the changes that will give you the hyped up, gimmicky results that are plastered all over the supermarket impulse buy magazine racks. You won’t “lose 10 lbs in 10 days”, or “drop 4 dress sizes in a month”, or “build a six pack in six weeks”.

However, at these levels of change, these chunked habits are sustainable.

These chunks lower the barrier to resistance dramatically.

Tell me, which seems much less draconian to the average person:

Scenario 1: Full diet mode with restricted food items, no eating past certain times of the day, limited flexibility/control.  Restrictive practices may lead to later binge eating (you know that feeling when you’re told you can’t have something). Committing substantial amounts of time to exercise in the 5-10 hrs/week range at moderate to high intensity while already deprived of energy from food. You will likely be moody, tired, fatigued, and generally irritable.

It’s quite possible that you’ll see rapid drop in weight initially (N.B. this drop may not be all fat loss, but also loss of important lean tissues like muscle – the number on the scale would just be smaller) but after this initial drop, you will likely hit a plateau (if you’re eating so little already, it’s very hard to eat even less, and if you’re already exercising so much, it’s tough to add more in).

Scenario 2: Chunking both exercise and nutrition. Making one small change in each area such as eating each meal slower (20-30 minutes rather than scarfing down meal) allowing hunger cues to dictate how much you really need to ingest, eating 2 or more servings of veggies with each meal, or making sure that each meal has a lean source of protein. Adding one small element of exercise daily such as a 20-30 minute brisk walk after dinner, a short morning swim before work or a circuit-based body weight workout building up to 3-5+ hrs of moderately vigorous activity a week.

With the above, there will likely be very little initial change in weight or appearance but the new chunked habits are not drastic and would cause very minimal disruption to current habits and behaviours. Over time, these would lead to fairly significant yet sustainable changes. Your new fit, healthy lifestyle.

I think it’s pretty easy to see which one of these two choices is more comfortable, and more importantly, sustainable over the long term.

And that’s where results will be found.

But I just don’t have enough time for exercise

Time. There’s never enough time.

Sound familiar?

Any time the phrase “but I just don’t have enough time” escapes open lips, it’s often met with a round of heads nodding in agreement and a cacophony of “oh yes, me too” and “same here”.

It’s an epidemic. Or it would seem that way.

But is it really?

Is there really such a shortage of time that we can’t fit everything we need to get done in the time we have available? Do people really not have enough time in the week to accomplish what we want to get done?

Not enough time for exerciseLet’s look at exercise.

We know it’s good for us.

We’re well aware of the incredible physical and mental benefits that it offers. We know that almost every aspect of our lives improve when we get enough physical activity including general health, work performance, mood and learning to name a few.

And yet we know we often don’t get enough.

When life gets busy, when we’re stressed, when we’re tired, when we’re pretty much anything, it’s the first item that can be rescheduled, shuffled, delayed and abandoned because we just don’t have enough time for it.

But is it really a matter of having enough time? If our days were an hour or two longer, would that really suddenly allow us to get our exercise in? Would any portion of that extra hour or two be used to get our heart rates up and our muscles working?

For a small number of people, perhaps. But for a vast majority, it’s not really about time, it’s about priorities.

Exercise is just not important enough because if it were, it would get done.

This is not to say that spending an hour in the gym with a half hour commute each way is going to be feasible for everyone, nor should it be.

But this is to say that many people just don’t place exercise high enough of the priorities list to have it reschedule, shuffle, delay or abandon another activity such as watching a movie on Netflix or perusing Facebook.

Let’s talk a little about priorities.

What are yours?

We may have a list of priorities in our minds, but our actual priorities may be very different in real life.

How can you find out?

Here’s a quick and easy way to get a rough estimate of your actual vs imagined priorities.

Take a piece of paper (or use your smartphone) and note down how you’ve spent your last week. Mark down how many hours you’ve spent doing various things from work, to exercise, to meal prep, to Facebook, to sleep, to Netflix or TV, to reading, to child minding etc.

Be brutally honest otherwise you’re only lying to yourself. As a side note, memory recall is quite fallible, so these won’t be extremely accurate for most people, but will give you a general idea. If you want a more accurate measure, keep a notebook and a timer with you and start clocking.

Tally up all the hours under the various headings. Divide each by 168 for the total hours available per week, multiply by 100 and voila, you have your weekly priorities in percentage form.

e.g. If I sleep 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, that gives me 56 hours per week. Divide 56 by 168 = 0.333 multiplied by 100 = 33.3%

Now that you have that information available, you can decide if there are any changes you need (or want) to make.

And if their costs are worth it.

How to build a better athlete – starting in kindergarten

This Saturday, while drinking my morning tea and perusing the health and fitness sections of various online newspapers as I often do before a starting work, I came across a headline that caught my attention.

Yup, it’s the same one you read above.

Pretty catchy, isn’t it?

You can read the full article from the Globe and Mail here: Build A Better Athlete – Starting in Kindergarten.

The article starts with a vivid recollection of a knee injury suffered by a young man, Eric Sung, while attempting a skateboarding move, described as a bunny hop, in his driveway at home. The journalist then postulates on a potential reason for all the ligaments of his knee tearing with what was described as an odd-angle landing:

“He was 24 at the time, but Mr. Sung’s childhood phys ed teachers could be to blame. According to a growing body of research, the torn knees, twisted ankles and sore backs that plague so many active adults have their origins in the school gymnasium.”

While the fault for Mr. Sung’s knee injury on his childhood teachers is highly debatable and virtually impossible to prove (it was more likely the “odd angle” at which he landed), the idea that the movement patterns we learn as children may serve us in our adulthood is definitely an important one and an area that needs to be further explored.

With many changes in education curricula shifting focus towards pure academic subjects and increased technology use by children and youth (iPads/smartphones/online gaming), there’s been a substantial shift away from physical activity and transitioning towards increased screen time and sedentary behaviours.

Even with (dwindling) mandated physical education classes in school, many children and youth are still missing out on enough appropriate exposure to fundamental movement skills (also called physical literacy – the ability to complete basic movement patterns safely and effectively) required to create a solid movement foundation for later in life.

“Comprehensive Canadian data presented in Montreal this month shows we’re doing no better: Researchers looked at Grade 4 and 5 students in Manitoba, and whether they had acquired 18 basic movement skills – such as running, kicking and hopping – all of which are laid out in the physical education curriculum. The results were dismal. No more than 10 per cent of the kids showed proficiency in any one of the movements. (As in Australia, girls fared the worst.)”

Is that it?

As our youth age, will they be at greater risk for various aches, pains, and traumas? Do we become a nation of adults prone to injury because we didn’t learn to move well as children?

Is there anything that can save us?

Is there any way to reverse this negative trend and create a nation of agile, nimble, injury-proof* citizens?

In the article, Dr Dean Kriellaars, an associate professor in the department of physical therapy at the University of Manitoba “says that as little as two or three hours a week on basic movement skills can boost kids’ proficiency dramatically and nearly eliminate performance differences between boys and girls.”

And this doesn’t have to be accomplished with traditional competitive sports.

In fact, many of the movement training strategies suggested by Dr. Kriellars would simply be playing games where the foundational physical skills and patterns are an integral part of the game but aren’t the main focus. Think back to the days of playing hopscotch or frozen tag in the playground – those simple games helped improve certain physical skills, but those skills weren’t the focus of those games.

The main focus should be on making movement fun, for life.

And that may be the secret on how to build a better athlete.

Here at Primal Human Performance, we couldn’t agree more.

This includes making movement fun for children and youth who aren’t “athletic” in the traditional sense, who aren’t interested in organized, competitive sports.

In our youth programs and working with youth, we believe that every child, with the right guidance and coaching, has the potential to be athletic in their life. They have the potential to master the fundamental movement skills that will allow them to participate in physical activity of their choosing, to the extent that they wish. They can learn to love to move and use their bodies to their full potential.

To that end, our programs are tailored to the individual and designed on building a solid physical literacy foundation for life, minimizing injury risk, and optimizing performance potential, for every type of child.

For some of our clients, that means systematically progressing to higher performance athletic development as they mature and progress, with an end goal of successfully entering collegiate or professional athletics. This may encompass progression to sports specific training, a greater focus on strength and conditioning, or power drills to enhance explosiveness.

For others, it may simply mean learning how to use their bodies efficiently so that they can stay healthy, active and happy as they grow up. Learning to improve their body awareness, basic balance and general coordination. Often, it’s a stepping stone to get a more sedentary child to feel comfortable in their own skin, outside of a potentially daunting competitive gym class where they feel judged and compared to their more athletic peers.

In the end, we really want everyone to move more. And revel in the enjoyment of that movement.

In essence, we want you to play.

*While the term “injury-proof” was used, I’m not aware of any method to completely eliminate the risk of injury from physical activity or even life. What we aim to do is minimize the risk of injury by trying to control for the factors that we can control.

The quick fix myth

The quick fix.

The magic bullet.

The < insert whatever-you’re-trying-to-shortcut > hack.

Sure these can exist. And at times these may be exactly what you need.

They may even do the job you need them to do.

In that moment.

But these results are almost never lasting, specifically when it comes to your health, well-being and fitness.

If you’re looking to drop 10 lbs, sure you can starve and dehydrate yourself, and achieve that end result in just a few short days.

While likely effective, is it safe? Is it healthy? What cost are you willing to pay?

And what happens to your body when you ingest that first glorious meal after the self-imposed drought and famine?

Undoubtedly, you’re weight will rebound very quickly. Your body may even compensate and add more to the mix.

You could potentially be worse off than when you started…the unfortunate start to the all-too-common yo-yo cycle with much bigger emotional ramifications than even physical ones.

How about the injury quick fix?

What if you’re trying to deal with low back pain, or some other injury?

Well, you could pop all the pain pills and use all the icy-hot patches and supportive braces you want, to give yourself temporary, symptomatic relief.

But do any those quick-fixes above address any of the possible underlying pain or injury mechanisms, of which there are many?

Do they take into consideration any of the myriad biopsychosocial inputs that make you a whole person? The different stressors in your life? Your habitual postures or positions? Your emotional states or beliefs? Your physical status?

Or do they address any of the long term habits and behaviors that would allow you to maintain your results, that would allow you to break the repeating cycle of boom and bust?

In my view, the answer is a resounding no.

I’m not suggesting that quick-fixes be abandoned.

In many cases they serve a useful purpose to initiate forward progress, to overcome inertia, and to get the ball rolling.

But they shouldn’t be considered the best course, or a lasting solution. They should be quickly replaced by consistent positive habits and behaviors (mental, physical and emotional) that will build a solid foundation.

This often takes effort. And time. And consistency of that effort over time.

But this often leads to long-term success.

Optimal health. Ultimate performance.

 

The Web of Persistence

Every few days, in a very specific area of the clinic, I notice an intricate spider web.

It’s silken threads form an incredible lattice of amazing beauty and engineering ingenuity. It comes complete with structural supports, kitchen area, living room and an array of the other amenities that would make any spider lucky to call such luxurious accommodations, home.

And every few days, I take it down.

I feel bad. I really do.

I can appreciate the hard work that went in to building such a functional structure. And I do understand that those spiders, and their webs, play a role in trapping the myriad of annoying insects that one will find in urban life.

But that doesn’t stop me and down the web goes.

Duster 1 – Spider web 0

Until just a few days later, when seemingly overnight, a new bigger, grander web has taken its place. With more silk. With more living space. With more effort.

What can we learn from this spider?

In this seemingly endless battle between me and Charlotte’s kin, there will be no winner, but we both will persevere. A battle of the ages.

And that is the lesson here.

Perseverance.

Each time I “bring down the house”, that spider doubles down and rebuilds. Unfortunately for me, it doesn’t quit, or give up, or even move to my neighbour’s unit. It stands its ground. And each time, the results are more spectacular that the previous.

Duster 1 – Spider web 1

Imagine we use the same mindset when dealing with with our human performance or injury rehabilitation goals?

Imagine we kept working at improving our physical limitations or deficiencies by exercising diligently? By endeavoring to regularly eat fresh, healthy, nutritious foods?

Imagine we consistently worked on building strength, endurance or stamina without stopping at every obstacle or set back? Imagine the foundational structure we could build.

Imagine the web we could weave…

Small steps, big results…

More often than not, by the time my clients come see me, they have a problem.

And to them, it’s often a big one. Well, big enough for them to seek outside help.

This can include general problems like low back pain or neck pain, sports injuries like sprained ankles or twisted knees, or functional limitations such as loss of strength or loss of flexibility after a surgery or medical procedure.

In almost every case, the rehabilitation protocol will follow a set procedure of problem solving which involves the use a technique called chunking.

What is chunking?

Chunking is exactly what it sounds like: breaking a bigger, more challenging problem into smaller, more manageable bits, or “chunks”.

Take for example someone coming in with low back pain.

Their present level of pain may be so bad that the idea of doing exercises makes them feel ill; their protective guards would go up and the minute I suggest exercise, they’d look at me like I was out of my mind – there would be no buy-in.

And without that buy-in, most physical therapy doesn’t work as well.

But if I know that specific movement would help get them out of pain and back to their regular activities, how could I overcome that initial resistance and get them to start?

By chunking it.

Instead of going head first in to more complicated exercises or rehab movements, I may just work on something that they already do or that they already need to do.

In many cases, I just work on the basic transition from lying to sitting, or sitting to standing – activities that they would need to do already anyway. By working on these simple tasks and enabling them to solve a small problem in the context of the bigger problem, my clients are empowered. Confidence goes up. And usually, pain levels go down. When pain goes down, function usually improves. And a positive feed-forward loop is created with subsequent chunks added in.

In the end, all these little chunks add up, creating big results.

The best part about chunking: it can be used for almost any problem, in any area of your life.

From human performance to debt management.

Now that’s a chunk of advice I’m glad I came across.

 

 

Human Performance

What does human performance even mean?

Does it represent how fast or far someone can run? Is it related to their stamina or endurance? Their strength or power? Is it related to sport specific skills? Dexterity, flexibility, or coordination?

Or could it represent mental abilities or fortitude?

Or is it simply the ability to tolerate stress, mental, physical and emotional, in order to achieve a lofty, desired outcome. Perhaps it represents the ability to avoid injury or recovery from one?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve really had an opportunity to think about the significance of those two words. I’m constantly surrounded by them. With every email I receive. With every phone call I take. The company logo and moniker. Human performance is everywhere…I’m enveloped by the words but haven’t spent any time putting down in words what they mean to me.

So here it is:

Human performance is more than a singular skill, trait or ability. To me, it’s the ability to do what you want, when you want, in the manner you want.

That’s a broad, encompassing statement, you say…

And so it is!

But that’s exactly what human performance is. It’s not one set of arbitrary designations or skills or abilities. It’s not just the physical attributes, nor is it just the mental or emotional ones. It’s the distinct balance between all three.

It is the ability for an individual to engage in the activities that he or she wishes to engage in, at the level of that he or she wishes to perform at given that the requisite effort, time and price has been paid.

That to me, is human performance.

And that’s something that we can all work on improving, if that’s what we choose to do.

Primal Human Performance

 

 

 

 

 

Girl Gone Strong

A Different Kind of Physiotherapy in Woodbridge and Vaughan

If you’ve found this page, you were likely looking for physiotherapy treatment in Woodbridge from a registered physiotherapist.

You might’ve been looking for a solution to that pesky, long-standing back pain that’s been stopping you from doing what you really want to do.

Like getting down on the floor and playing with your kids, or participating in your favorite golf tournament and taking home the long drive trophy.

Or even looking for a way out of the pain so that you can be more productive at work, so you can tolerate sitting down at your desk without having to shift around to try and find a comfortable position.

Heck, it might not even be back pain on your mind. Could be your shoulders, your neck your ankle or your knees.

Wherever it is, it’s definitely painful and you want it to stop.

You’re tired of it and you want to be back in control again.

Maybe it’s not even an old injury.

Maybe it’s something more recent and acute. A sports injury or trauma. Aches and pains from a fall.

Or perhaps you’ve recently had some shoulder or knee surgery and you’re looking for focused high-performance physiotherapy and rehabilitation to get you back on track again. Some post-op therapy. You’ve been told by your surgeon to “get some physiotherapy” without any real instruction beyond those words. And you’re not sure what to do.

Maybe you don’t have any injuries right now but you just want to improve your health, fitness or athletic performance.

It’s possible that you just want to be able to go up a few set of stairs without ending up doubled up huffing and puffing because you’re that out of shape.

Maybe you want to be able to prepare for that 5K starter run because you know you can.

Or you’re a seasoned athlete looking to take your athletic development and performance to the next level, pushing limits and resetting boundaries. Becoming the champion you know you can be.

No matter what your reason for searching for a physiotherapist in Woodbridge and Vaughan, you’ve found this page.

Why choose us?

That’s a great question. And I’m sure it’s one that’s at the top of your mind.

Why choose our physiotherapy clinic when you have so many other choices for your physiotherapy treatment in Woodbridge and Vaughan?

Why choose us when there are a so many other physiotherapists in Woodbridge and Vaughan?

The Primal Difference.

That’s why.