Prior to becoming a physiotherapist, yes there was a time, I saw different health professionals for what condition or injury I had. As I spent most of my free time in a dance class, I did end up with a few injuries. After one particularly painful and high grade ankle sprain I ended up in a Pilates studio. I had tried manual therapy and home exercise without benefit, and given I was spending so much time going to dance classes, I was very keen to get back to full form. Long story short, it worked, I loved going to small personalised pilates classes to help rehabilitate my ankle and progressively get back to dancing at the capacity I wanted. Even after I had recovered I continued going and here’s why.

Group based exercise has many benefits, it gives you the opportunity to get out into the community, it creates accountability for people and improves compliance to exercise regimes, it’s a great place to make friends who are in similar situations and of similar mind, its helpful for your injury and condition as exercise is the most evidence based form of treatment out there and it normalises engagement in practices of health and well-being.

I’ve run my fair share of exercise classes, some were in the public/private hospital system including cardiopumonary rehabilitation classes, falls prevention classes; others were group based pilates classes mostly using equipment with adolescents and adults in a private setting, and activity based play classes with children aged 4-6years of age.

The best thing about running sn exercise class, apart from meeting new people, is seeing the impact it has on peoples lives. How do you know you have? its simple things really, their demeanour changes, they smile more, they tell you! their objective measures whatever they may be such as walking capacity improve, but mostly they end up getting more out of their lives and quality of life measures improve.

I have continued to run classes in my current clinic on a small level, 2 people per session works well for me and the patients. I have everything I need now I have my own clinic, with reformer, Cadillac, split chair, Cables, balance and full weight training available I can organise the space and programs as patients need. And as a therapist, it gives me satisfaction in my job and self worth. If you are interested in being a part of our classes you can contact me via our social media platforms for more information. As my classes are therapeutic based they are designed around injury prevention, rehabilitation and management of conditions.

Sam