From Constant Pain to Running Again: Jane’s PHT Success Story

On today's episode, we 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 PHT 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. 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 PHT 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 PHT, and wondering whether you'll get back to running or fitness, or whatever meaningful task you have in 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 PHT 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. Oh, 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 PHT 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 sort of really became a big part of my life when I moved up north to Scotland to marry my husband, at the age of 30, I started taking running a lot more serious and soon enjoyed sort of the success I was very lucky to achieve, cross-country, 10 kilometers, half marathons. And only occasionally picking up little niggles, usually shin splints from running on the tarmac. But by mid thirties, I'd run sort of a 36, a 36 10K and a 36 minute 10K and a 119 half marathon. So 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 put all my sort of dedicated time and structure I had for doing my racing training into sort of the master's degree, but still continued running because I was teaching. So after school, I 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 in my knee ripped. So I was out for about a year in crutches and sort of doing rehabilitation for that, which was mostly spent in the pool with non-weight bearing. And then once COVID was over, my husband and I decided to join, 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 minutes, 40 part runs. And I think I did a 41 10K. Now everything was going okay. And then, and at that point, sorry, all I was doing was very light body weight strength exercises. Cause then 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. Um, so everything was fine. I just carried on. Didn't expect anything. So I would be going on forever pain-free more or less. It's just that they want to go and then we'll about age 54, um, began to experience more. Persistent. Pain, which kept moving around and top of the hamstring, never down the cap at the top of the hamstring into the glutes or under the seat bone area. Um, and I kept trying to run through it, train through it. Um, I just was never performing to my best. I just didn't feel I had any power and I was beginning to think there's something more than just a niggle here. There's something more going on. Um, and that's when sort of, I guess, uh, started leaning into other options. Like physios and osteopaths and, uh, what exercises or what sort of massage techniques I could use myself. Would you say it was a, 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. Um, because at that point it was still racing when it was only this year, um, that it got really bad. That was a crunch when I stopped racing. I realized it was really bad, but at that point it was still running. It was just always there. Um, and I remember it used to saying to my husband, he used to say, I was okay today, or 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, um, something more than that? Sciatica? My sciatica rubbing off my piriformis. He sort of 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, um, stretch. Um, she did, um, she gave me some shortwave therapy and that helped a wee bit. Um, but, uh, 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. Um, rolling on a year and a half later. Um, and then I also went to an osteopath and she gave me dry needling, um, and that worked for a short period. Um, but then I now know why I didn't go on forever. Um, and again, she gave me some exercises and tennis ball, you know, sitting on tennis balls and things like that. Um, so yeah, so I've come a long way from there realizing that all of that stuff really wasn't any good. Yeah. You mentioned that, uh, more recently things started to flare up. Uh, what was happening around that time? Well, that was, I suppose. Um, I came back and I tried to do the cross country in Gordonstoun, it 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 in the, when I was doing hills. Um, so I was doing mostly flat running, um, 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 wasn't right. But anyway, I came in, did December, beginning of December, did the cross country, um, and although I had a really good run. I couldn't walk at the end of it and it was extreme pain and had to walk backwards. Um, then I got the dry needling and I managed that and then I didn't do any running until I did the 10 miler. Um, and I did a really good 10 miler, I think I did 72 minutes or something like that. Um, 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, um, in February, which again, I did really well. And. Yeah. I think I did 133, but maybe I put the mileage up too quickly to get to the half marathon in February, looking back at it. Um, and then that was mid February, um, 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. Um, again, I wasn't getting the power and I was sore afterwards. And then April, things just kept getting worse and down. And then I knew the crunch basically when things were really rock bottom and I was in a lot of trouble was I did, I did two races in April when I was in, um, Cyprus and, uh, the first one, the 45 minute pacer went past me and I thought that's never, ever happened in my life before. Uh, I'm usually two minutes ahead at least. Um, and then the next race and finished that, sorry. And I couldn't walk afterwards. I had to walk backwards, which seems to be. It still is the go-to for me. I love walking backwards. It seems to be something about it. I don't know what. And then I did, um, another 10K, uh, in April again, and my husband flew past me and I thought, Oh, this is something is dreadfully wrong. And when I look at the picture, not the husband, he shouldn't be anywhere near me, which is a great runner, but, um, and then I just want to look at the pictures of me in the race and I'm in such pain. and you can see I'm struggling running body form is completely all over the place and at the end of the race i was in such pain no matter what i did i just couldn't i couldn't get rid of the pain and at that point that was it i just quit racing um so yeah telling your story it sort of makes me think when we look at tendons and we think of okay 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 for 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 it's 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 um after sort of following your course and whatnot i know an awful lot about the load and the capacity and recovery and so yes now looking back um from what i know now and i knew nothing then you thought i knew everything then uh so yeah i completely agree it was just too too much um and i now know that when i i'm sort of 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 um 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 you were mentioning uh piriformis or you know a bit of a less directed rehab when did that come about um i guess it 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 um and i wasn't able to even walk forwards um 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 and the minute i looked at i had a lot of hill i went oh really do i have to go up that slight slope um i couldn't sleep i couldn't sit because of the pain um so everything um and so at that point because we tried what the other physios and osteopaths and all the rest of it had done we'd been trying all the techniques the cupping the massaging the shortwave therapy even bought a wee shortwave therapy machine we tried or pressure points massaging i think every gadget on the song we had a lot of pressure points massaging tried i've got a list of the modalities you mentioned here so let me just run through them so you you sent me uh shockwave dry needling stretching massage massage guns foam roller kt tape nerve flossing ice and heat as modalities that you have attempted um so yeah definitely trying to throw a lot at it yeah um so the one that really worked was the ice and heat which i now know is just as all of these are they're just analgesic um thanks to the knowledge i've learned from you um and that always was as i've sort of sort of put the the thought in that it's like sticking putting a sticking plaster on a gushing artery it's 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 that plaster's come off um so my husband just did an awful lot of research because he's great on the internet fortunately i'm very lucky that way um 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 broody is talking about exactly the experiences that you are getting he's 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 uh he said we've got to go for this because there's nothing else let's join the course um and that's probably the best thing i've ever done because i know it's a long journey but it's i've learned so much and uh you know where i've been i've learned so much and i've learned so i was oh that was 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 and the tendons has just brought me on so much and just that's what my own week 14 now talk me through like the emotional with you like you say you got to the point where sitting was painful walking forwards was painful sitting sleeping was painful um 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 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 the daily exercises that you gave was just trying the band and pushing it back from you know from neutral to extension to the eccentric extension and i couldn't even shift it to neutral um everything was just so painful and i just thought and at that point i was i was managing just to sit in the bike a bit but i was just 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 we're sitting 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 um generally thought that it wasn't going to get better yeah yeah i did um but then again i'd listen to a lot of your podcasts and you've interviewed people who have 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 in what you're telling me to do and to do this loaded slow progressive um work on the tendon and i'm telling you that's 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 um 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 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 we might not be able to lift them now but we need to progress slowly to that so we joined the gym um 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 which 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 um 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 um and yeah that's when things began to feel as if yeah i'm doing something here that actually is beginning to make a difference because what i was lifting when i 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 um and can i ask so 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 um hesitation or like sticking point that someone has to make and you're like oh my god i'm gonna have to do this people when they get to the course uh 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 um so i guess we worked on that together um 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 um 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 um and i guess we maybe started sort of what you call it conservative at really quite light um uh so i guess we started that that and then realize actually i'm okay the following day let's and the next time we do this exercise let's put up a wee bit um 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 um but i needed that make 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 so going into the gym um they were with deadlifts still the same type of exercises just heavier uh deadlifts squats we were doing the squat machine um and then started doing some um static or isometric hip hip bridges with weights on which again we just sort of you know 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 sort of 40 is a 45 degree angle okay at the gym um and i couldn't shift that at all right and so and the same with the eccentric um hip extension with the band i wasn't able to move that at first so that was sort of 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 light weight 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 uh 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 put no weight on it and you couldn't even shift it with one curl yeah i think the bar um well i think bar itself is seven and a half kilos so i couldn't shift that at all um i think i made my breakthrough i think i said to you it's about week nine or ten no it was week 11 i think i actually began it moved um but yeah yes it's it was seven and a half and that's why 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 curl machine i was sort of trying to build up on the isometric extension hold and begin to get past neutral with that which i was beginning to do over time and as well as the dressing of the deadlift yep you said that straight away you felt better uh because you had a bit more recovery from phd has never been simpler if you've been struggling with this condition and you're not sure what to do next i've put together something to help linked in the show notes is a 30 second questionnaire literally just six multiple choice questions and based on your answers i'll point you towards the most effective next step for your situation because over the years i've created a range of resources from free education to structured self-guided programs all the way up to working with me directly all of which are aimed to strip away the mouth of your body from the mountain of misinformation about recovering from this diagnosis and taking out all the guesswork that leaves people like you overwhelmed if that sounds helpful don't wait until the end of this episode click on the link in the show notes now and i'll guide you from there for 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 do you start seeing like improvements in sitting or pain or walking or anything like that i think i've got every sick gadget under the sea here in a kneeling seat and all sorts of things um that that came very slowly the sleeping with a pillow had a pillow under or i either slept on my front or a pillow under my legs because the pain was just so sore um 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 i had an aisle seat fortunately um i guess the seat sitting began to get still not perfect um but um it got a bit easier over time a long time i'd say in the last four weeks in particular um it's been getting better and the sleeping is much better i don't have to use the pillow quite as much um but uh i've maybe drifted off the question here so you just remind me improvements improvements in sitting or walking or uh just day-to-day function the walking i guess the walking came quite quickly um after i started doing sort of the deadlifts and things it was becoming easier hills walking up hills it's much slower um but i was able to do that i was able to go on the bike so i was able to do a bit of that but the cross trainer cross training so and swimming and aqua jogging jogging and then also i was doing some skipping and um banded running and what i couldn't understand was i was able to skip and i was beginning not to feel any pain i was being hopping skipping no pain even on the right side although my right and my left were sore it's always my right so right under seat bone that was always the worst the tendon there um but what i couldn't understand was why i could do banded running and explain banded running attached a big um 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 being i was 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 rather than just even banded running i just couldn't do it it was just the pain just straight back yeah that's a very interesting insight i've never uh come across someone who's tried banded running and so uh my initial assumption would be well you're not bringing your leg forward uh when you're when you're banned when you do your banded stuff if the band's 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're sort of forbidden from moving any sort of part of your knee or leg or um foot forward but that's what you have to do when you run if you try and run the same way you do with your banded running you just hit your face on the floor like you just plant it 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 because a lot of americans i i know exactly what you mean when i say skipping because we call it skipping but they think that's like frolicking in the fields skipping and 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 like i typically talk about we know we're on the right track load management wise if 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 i guess it was not really any flare-ups because we're really careful about putting the weight up and recording everything um the um sorry ian keeps pointing that i need to hold up my sheet but um you know i had everything i you would have said you make make sure you write everything down and the weight and how many reps you do and all these sort of things um i guess i maybe i started when i started on the because the treadmill decided that's how i'd introduce my running um and i guess because that was new it 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 um 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 one minute on one minute off one minute on but again uh i did a bit of that then we'd take a bit of a break not try it so i was really slow introducing the running and that would only maybe just once a once a week trying just a couple of minutes with the you know the interval one minute on one minute walk one minute run one and very slowly and then i was like oh my god i'm not going to be able to do that so i'm going to be very very slow um so i guess we've been trying to introduce that and build that up um 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've 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 and things uh i was really sore when we got down there really sore and And for the two or three days that we were down there, 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 um and it was the same when we came back up it took me a day or two for just my bottom just to sort of calm down um and then when i tried to run a couple of days after we got back i thought oh things was no pain again because i was beginning to run at times as with little or no pain i'd say to you that was only a half today oh i didn't didn't think about pain for a minute or two um 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 in a lay-by or whatever and then getting back in but it's taken 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 about a week ago i think yeah 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 um i 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 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 uh how sensitive the tendon is but 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 a day and then you're back to running 30 minutes a day and then you're back to running 30 minutes a day and then 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 like it's it's that emotional kind of process that everyone kind of needs a bit of a realistic lens is it that you do sort of you get frustrated because you think i was doing so well and then you know why why why and then as you said sort of a wee bit after i mean we came back on the friday um 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 before like before i was before i went away um with the pain with pain levels and things um so yeah so i'm not going down to edinburgh for a few 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 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 um where were you mentally because 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 where do you place yourself it was hard it i've managed to do a minute but at the same time you know or maybe one day it's like i've done two minutes but at the same time you're thinking james i've got an awful long way to go you know if i'm only running two minutes and i'm doing three three three lots of two minutes and i used to run for like an hour and a half two hours you know 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 so it was trying to sort of always and that's where recording everything was always really good because you i'd look back and think well last last month did it only did three of that i mean i did a session the other day and i said to you and i did a bit of an interval because i'm trying to introduce hills and some speed work now um and i said to you and i did two minutes at such and such a speed i think it was like four minutes 20 i managed to get up to i did two minutes last week at that and this week i did three minutes at 4 20 and i did one minute at such and such so it was only one minute increments i was adding so i was sort of that was motivation i was coming off going oh i i did 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 and that brings hope because i'm thinking well i'm getting a wee bit closer to sort of some of the speed okay it might just be for two minutes but at least i'm hitting sort of those four minutes almost four minute kilometers even it's just for that short brief spell like 14 weeks ago i couldn't even do one minute at six kilometer paces and i was like oh my god i'm not gonna make it i'm not gonna make it i'm not gonna make it i'm not gonna six kilometer pace so 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 add another 14 weeks on where where might i be in 14 weeks um 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 like 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 uh 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 ten minute jumps and 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 that still encourages people a little bit more yeah because i the what i've noticed and also what you've been mentioned was you need to and this in some of your youtubes 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 um and then actually yesterday or two days ago i managed 15 kilometers um very slow um but just sort of building that very gradually building that progression of volume up at a slow pace and only i'm only trying to do one sort of where interval call it interval um where i'm trying to raise the speeds that's only once a week um 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 i should say but i've been trying to increase the volume of running and i've been trying to increase the volume of running 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 a 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 what do you think about that and what do you think about that and what do you think about that and what do you think about that and what do you think about that and what do you think mind uh are you telling 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 um i couldn't shift it at all um week eight i couldn't shift it week nine still couldn't my left leg i 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 not being 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 james right i'm gonna 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 um 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 and he sort of and he looked and he went do it again so i sort of did it again um and although it was it was just hard to know but i moved it and it was just like a major breakthrough and of course i'd burst into tears i'm looking around going i'm in this big gym with all these big men and muscly one here's this little lady going i moved it i moved it so that was like a major breakthrough um to me because it meant that there was something was definitely working um although that would take him i think this was a did i say week 11 or something and actually the other day i put a one and a half and a 1.25 kilogram on it um and i managed to move it um up a bit so i started working only doing sets of five um but i managed to move it so yeah that was oh that was just a wonderful moment yeah very excellent story yeah it's very uh inspirational if we look ahead and sort of forecast like a year from now uh what can you see yourself doing that you may not have considered possible say six months ago right well targets um 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 um not just my skipping but i love doing the other plyometric work um so where do i 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 um i will always continue with the work that you've taught me um 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 um i get a lot from it i enjoy it so that that will always be part of me um i've been to the reason i went down to edinburgh is i went to the orium the scottish performance sports center because i was beginning to think um that the reason it 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 um but we decided to go down to this assessment analysis on my running performance and get some feedback because as I said to the gentleman David Gibson I 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 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 and 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 you know 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 my my all my top speed back and so yeah I'd like to run competitively I'd like to run pain-free and continue and with all the strength work I'd like to be able to do a 40 10k 40 minute 10k and 19 20 minute park runs I know I've got it in me I've just not been 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 yeah I mean the amount you've accomplished in this time I've been able to do a 40 10k 40 minute 10k and 19 20 minute park runs I know I've got it in me I've it's definitely within the realms of possibility and the last question I had written down is do 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 they're there you will progress it will be slow and 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 saw your your help your knowledge your expertise how to go about it all the videos all the resources you've given me um so don't procrastinate get on some kind of sensible progressive loading program um where you can ask for help get advice um as I say there's so much in your course and your chronic reset course um that has so much information as well I remember one time sorry I I messaged you it was quite early on the course and I messaged you I think it was week one and I'd 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 weight and I went oh there it is so everything is everything was there for me just to tap into it so get expert advice and I've been there for a long time so I would say that um you need to get into a gym um if possible or buy um 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 but definitely get into a gym isometrics make that a daily thing um I think you it was Keith Barr you talked about and I've looked up a lot of 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 um and that's one thing that you you said you must do record everything so that if if the following day you have a baseline and it's not returned to your baseline you can look at your sheet and go uh 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 um 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 um be positive be dedicated to it don't just say oh I'm going to 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 exercise every day no not really but I'm no better well you didn't do the exercise so you know you need to be dedicated you need to say right this is my life I 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 out I'll just use it as a training not to expect to get my 41s or 42s but to be sub 45 and not let my husband run past me and you know I'll use that as training so be patient be positive and 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 and one thing also that helped me because I remember I was struggling when I was putting the weights up and I went to one of your videos and it said on the course and it said and what if you're struggling with the weights and I went that's me because I'm so weak up here I'm not very big and I'm struggling to leave 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 and weight lifting straps I put round and that has made a huge difference as well and so looking to getting 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 what we looked at your your video and we went up we need to get some of them um so yeah so get things to help you and I'll see you in the coming weeks and I'll see you in the coming weeks and I'll see you in the coming weeks and I'll see you with your grip strength so that you can do the the heavier weight but you need to forget to get keep progressing and you need to make sure you're back to baseline that's that's really important don't 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 you need to be need to be positive um and get the load and capacity balanced which was not what I was doing that that's really important yeah but yeah don't don't think negatively you will have ups and downs we all have ups and downs at times um 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 I 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 James look where I've come in at that time you know it's and that first eight weeks nothing better than that and I'm positive because I'm looking at James look where I've come in that any much seemed to be happening and all of a sudden it's speeding up and it's just like wow um so be be patient be positive plenty of takeaways there excellent uh 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 I think Ian had a big big part to play in that um you said he was behind the camera can he come on and just give me a wave appreciate your dedication Ian Brodie pleasure meeting you mate yep very pivotal part of the story so thank you for your success story as well yeah one thing uh Jane didn't mention is that she's not very good at spreadsheets um so you have a very sophisticated spreadsheet which I've been using to track things but uh Jane said when I go to the gym I like to be able so as soon as she saw the spreadsheet she got a ruler a piece of paper and started drawing lots of lines uh spreadsheets it's kind of old school with things like that and that has been one of the biggest sticking points for a lot of people is the yeah trying to dive straight into the spreadsheets but like yeah like I said after listening to your story it 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 so yep great to hear the teamwork come together and I appreciate you coming on and sharing the story 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 um reflection for me um of my journey actually so it's helped me to realize where I have come because of you know when you first asked me I thought oh and then Ian said it'll be 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 because at times you think well I'm 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 yeah well once again I appreciate you coming on 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 well I just like I can't thank you enough Brodie for all your incredible support and your deep knowledge and understanding of PhD and I'll see you in the next one bye bye PhD is truly remarkable um and I feel incredibly fortunate to have managed to find find your course or for Ian to find your course and to be able to participate it at a time when I thought the pain would never sort of go and there was no way forward you you you brought me that hope um with your whole course and the way it was structured and as your Facebook page your AI assistant you know all the resources that you share um it's been amazing there was so much in-depth information videos in your course and I think it's been a great experience for me to be able to share with you um thank you very much you're very welcome well yeah thank you for all your your advice your deep knowledge thank you very much you're very welcome well yeah thank you very much yeah thank you for all your your advice your deep knowledge thank you very much you're very welcome well yeah thank you for all your your your advice your deep knowledge thank you very much you're very welcome well yeah thank you for all your your advice your deep knowledge thank you very much you're very welcome yeah I think that's a nice sign off from there so uh appreciate the dedication best of luck for the forthcoming uh future and the the rehab and I look forward to hearing all the milestones that you pass from here on out I will keep you updated if you are looking for more PHT resources then check out my website link in the show notes there you will find my free PHT 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