Q&A: My Best Two Exercises, Will Pain Ever Go, Troubleshooting Running Pain, Home Rehab From Scratch

On today's episode I'm answering all of your PhD questions. Welcome to the podcast that gives you the most up-to-date evidence-based information on PhD rehab. My name is Brody, I am an online physio, but I've also managed to overcome my own battle with PhD in the past, and now I've made 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. Welcome back to another installment of this Q&A where I had emailed message my email list asking for questions and just going through the list obviously went through our last episode covering as many questions as I could. And I think the next batch of questions that have come in have been relatively concise. The questions are simple but easy to answer like one topic, so I'm going to try and cover as many as I can, try to be as helpful as I can. But first one comes in from Thomas, who says, "I've managed to get my PhD under control and running pain-free while done, Thomas." And he says, "What are one to two strength exercises I should include in my workouts to keep it at bay?" My answer is going to be very similar to the exercises we use to rehab it in the first place because the exercises we do to kind of keep it at bay, I guess the aim is to preserve and maintain high function, high capacity of the tendon so that it doesn't theoretically de-condition and therefore when we return to training and we return to pushing our limits that might be with distance or speed or hills, it's at a high capacity. The function of the tendon is really, really robust and it's harder and harder to exceed that capacity within our training and therefore theoretically keeping it at bay. I'll talk about expectations moving forward in a different question later on, but that's the, I guess, idea around why we do exercises to keep it at bay. Deadlifts is just, there's no other exercise. I think deadlifts are going to be in almost every answer that I give for a lot of these questions. I apologize, but it's just stimulates the upper hamstring in a way that's eccentric load in a way that can be quite heavy, in a way that fosters compression of the tendon and just really stimulates that area for triggering adaptation, growth, strength, function, all the stuff we want. It's just controlling the dosage and whenever I say dosage I usually mean sets, reps, weight, rest period, frequency throughout the week. Diling that in is the tricky part for a lot. So yeah, if we're at a maintenance phase and just trying to keep it at bay, one to two exercises, number one would be the deadlifts. My second one, if I'm really trying to narrow it down to two, it would depend on your goals Thomas. So if your goals are just to keep to slow running and you're happy with that and you just want to maybe slowly build upon distance, let's say you want to train for a marathon, but you don't really want to do a fast marathon or just happy keeping it slow and don't want to do any interval training or anything like that. I'd say exercise number two would be a pretty stock standard hamstring curl, prone hamstring curl with a machine at the gym, laying only stomach, curling your knees, curling your legs against resistance and then the deadlift. However, if your goal was to add in speedwork, intervals, heel sprints, all those sorts of things, and I had to really narrow it down just to two exercises, the deadlifts would be in there, but rather than the prone hamstring curl, I would do a Nordic curl, which if for those who are familiar, you know, strap your ankles down and lower your whole entire body, most people are familiar with the Nordic curl by now with the episodes that I've described in the past, but that would just be a higher eccentric load, which is definitely required more and more for speed. And so that's what I would include. Usually hover around four sets of five, four sets of six and just trying to lower yourself as controlled and as slow as possible as you get stronger, it's still the same dosage, still around four sets of five or six, but just trying to control your descent more and more and more. And yeah, just get really, really good at that. So pending the goals, that would be my answer. And in terms of frequency, like if you're really keeping things at bay, rather than doing your exercises twice, two or three times per week, you could probably do it once or twice. I mean, now I'm kind of in the maintenance phase now that my upper hair shrink is feeling quite good. My dead lips and curls are just at once a week as I have a very busy schedule, trying to squeeze everything else in, but that's what I, the frequency I choose when keeping things at bay. Thanks for your question, Thomas. Next one comes in from Julie, who says, "I've been doing well, but suddenly I'm in pain again. I'm wondering if the rowing machine is the culprit. My question is, does PhD ever really go away or do we have to manage it carefully for the rest of our lives?" Thanks for all the insight. Happy to help you out here, Julie. So let's go back to the row after the row. It can be a culprit. It is compressing the tendon both for one sitting, but also for high or deep kind of hip flexion. It's not only bringing your knees to your chest quite a lot and then pushing away and creating a bit of tension there, but it's also the compression of sitting, which is why sometimes people with PhD get discomfort cycling. Sometimes it is the simple fact that it's sitting in the saddle that irritates, but it could be the culprit. You just need to do some testing to see if you go a couple of days without rowing as a feel. And once you reintroduce the rowing, does it irritate, does it come back, follow that 24-hour response and see if there's evidence there that it might be. Because if it isn't, then you can keep it in. Okay. Can we return pain free? Yes, we can return to symptom free full function. There is definitely the goal we have seen in research. We have seen case studies. We have seen success stories on this podcast that no matter how severe, no matter how. Long, you've had it for. If you do the right things, it may take time six months for some, more than 12 months for some, but you can return pain free full function. There still might be an underlying tendon opathy there though. I would imagine that if we were to really scan a lot of my tendons in really high definition, there would be a lot of tendon opacies around. And that doesn't mean that we should be cautious with anything. That shouldn't mean that we should avoid things. It just so happens to mean that if you do push yourself and you do overlaid yourself, it's those areas that are most likely going to come back. But it could be said that for a lot of injuries. I mean, for those who have shin splints, they could be pain free for five years, but as soon as they up their mileage or do something, they shouldn't or have six months of down time and then return to running, the shin splints comes back. Whether that's because of the way they're running or something to do with their anatomy, but it just exists there, particularly prone to that particular injury. I have had a history of patellar femoral pain if I overdo my squats. So if I really overdo lunges or wallballs or anything of those high rocks workouts, it comes back. But then if I really dial in my training and progress and progress and progress very, very sensibly, it doesn't come back. And so it's a fight to say like people with PhD, yes, it is very worrying for a lot of people to have it returned because it can be like they just look back on how disruptive it's been with PhD. And then once they've seen the other side of it, they're quite fearful to return to that place again, but where I sit with some realistic expectations is, yes, like I say, do the right things, build the strength, you can return to pain for a full function, sitting all day, doing your strength workouts, doing your runs, doing sprinting and without it coming back. That's definitely a goal, definitely within reasonable expectations. However, we have lives and if you so happen to fly across the world to run a marathon, then you run that marathon, you fly across the world back home again, really pushing the tendon. Look, there could be a possibility of you being symptom free for five years and symptoms returning. But in those five years of being symptom free, if you have managed a very, if you've consistently trained well, fueled well, kept a high functioning tendon, that is not going to be a bothersome flare up. It's going to be a reminder that you've had it in the past and it's going to be sore for 24 hours and this is going to go away. You're going to do the right things and it's just going to settle. This is what I expect. time and time again with injuries just really take care of them, keep the function high. If we drop the ball and we totally relax for 12 months, really taking a load off and then go and push ourselves again and do something that's really not sensible and it comes back, it might be a bit more severe. And so if you ever decide to push your limits, make sure it's gradual, make sure we take the necessary time to build up and build so we never threaten too much of a the level of threat is never too high. But the thing that causes tendon up is in the first place, it's very rarely just one big session. It's usually a series of sessions and a gradual onset and several weeks of overload that just goes ignored or just, you know, sometimes not ignored, but just trying to do the right things and then up to being the wrong things and then it's just error after error after error and then it's hard to manage. People just push beyond, they try to listen to their body while they don't, some people don't listen to their body but it starts off as a tightness, then a nag, then a soreness, then a pain and they're just trying to run through it all the time because they've got a marathon coming up and then to the end of the marathon, all of a sudden they've had it for two months and then they're trying to heal it from there. You're listening to this podcast, so that's not going to be you moving forward. Like you're going to do the right things, symptoms are going to settle and then if so happen in several years from now if it does come back you're not going to ignore it, you are going to do the right things straight away and it's not going to be a big issue. But I can't say that, you know, this is going to go away for good. We, like I say, we always want to push our limits, we always want to test ourselves and we enjoy running and races and cycling or it might even just be sitting, it might just be we need to sit for work or travel or conferences and those sorts of things and look that's a life as well that we need to live and we just need to make sure that we're sensible about these things and just keep our capacity high. If symptoms increase we do the right things to adjust and bring them back under control. So that seems that's sort of my advice when it comes to realistic expectations. There's a lot of hope, there's a lot of optimism in there, but also some realistic expectations as to not over promise over deliver. Hopefully you find that helpful, Julie. Kani asks, "Hi Brody, I've been wondering whether an old PhD rupture 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." LinkedIn, 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 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. Guild non-surgically would explain a lot of hip problems like fascia lata rupture and glute tendonitis. Thanks in advance. Okay, so it seems like you've had a PhD rupture, which was treated conservatively and now leading on from that, you've had issues with fascia lata, I'm guessing, tensor fascia lata, the TFL, so that's like a small muscle at the front/slash side of the hip, which is ruptured and also a glute tendonitis. I wouldn't say it would be directly correlated or direct, the problem wouldn't be as straightforward as that as in people who've had PhD and were likely to develop TFL ruptures or glute tendonitis. But there may be compensations, maybe there's something within the conservative approach, something to do within your rehab, something to do with just hasn't quite nailed the return to full function and maybe you're moving slightly differently and compensating in a different way, which then could lead to load elsewhere in the body. Maybe some carryover dysfunction could be. And we also want to analyse sort of training philosophies and training intensities and recovery and kind of just like big picture is the body constantly being overloaded because if someone is one to over train under fuel, not sleep as well, not recover as well, they are likely to get multiple injuries and if a PhD was the first one, first domino to fall, yet the return back to running or races or sport and just pushing their limits is that philosophy and attitude and intensity still there, it's likely just to cause you know overload elsewhere, hence other injuries popping up. We know certain people have a genetic predisposition to tendon opities. I being one of those people who genetically unfortunate to have such a predisposition, but yeah, we just want to make sure that overall philosophies are in check because there's been a lot of times I've consulted with people who are like, yep, I've got this injury, this injury, this injury, are they all related? And then I just have a look at globally at their training and they're running hard, most of their sessions, getting very little recovery, not really fueling that well, not really sleeping that well, and their attitude is just to go hard, go hard, go hard, and once we dial all that back, they build some stability, they build that foundation and all of a sudden they're not getting those injuries anymore, but I would say wouldn't rule out that there may be some movement patterns that have been picked up or acquired due to the PhD, but nonetheless, if you no longer have PhD symptoms and now you have sort of a glute tendonitis, the rehab is still the same, whether it is directly contributed from the PhD or not, it's still trying to identify where are those movement patterns? Are there any faulty movement patterns? Are there any structures that need to raise their capacity if it's a glute tendonopathy then definitely would be strengthening the glutes and just go through that standard rehab like no other, doesn't matter if it's PhD, influence or not. Okay, any asks? Things have started to improve since listening to your podcast and taking your advice, so thank you very much. The main improvement is with sitting tolerance. This initially was my main symptom and most debilitating. Initially I could run without any issues however, it took a switch really and I'm struggling to run as much as I could. As soon as I go for a run, I can start to feel a twinge towards the end of the run and then it feels mainly tight afterwards. This is only when doing a gentle 5k, so why off where are you used to be? What's your advice on getting myself back to running as often as I did approximately five or six days weekly? And get me running my half marathon race in September. I had issues with PhD for about seven months now and it's driving me mad, but only issues with running for the last three months. I hope you can help. Try to help as best I can any with the information you've provided. Let's see. So I guess what you want to try to do right now is find your running sweet spot. If you say that there's pain towards the end during the run but towards the end and there's a bit of time and afterwards, it's sort of if it's lingering into the next day, I would say yeah, you're just pushing above where that capacity is and it's not really going to get better if you just keep poking into irritation. Even though it might be mild, like I have these pain rules that we follow, like pain should be less than a four out of 10 during the run. It should return back to baseline by the next morning when you wake up. And the third pain rule is symptoms need to improve week by week. If we do all those things, we know that we're still remaining active. We're still keeping the capacity of the tendon high because we're still, we're not resting. But if symptoms are improving week by week, we're sort of fostering the right environment for the tendon to heal. And so my guess is you may be passing the first two rules. You say that, okay, it's only mild soreness towards the end. It might feel a little bit tight afterwards. Haven't really talked about what it feels like the next day, but let's just assume that it's feeling fine the next day. Great seems like we're passing those, but is it really improving week by week? My assumption based on what you've told me is that no, because you said the issues have been lingering with the running for about three months. I'm also a bit wary that there's a half marathon in September, So maybe that benchmark. stone is sort of lingering in the back of your head and maybe you're running a little bit faster or maybe getting a little bit carried away when things feel good. My advice, okay let's try a few different things, okay. You say that there's pain towards the end, what happens if we cut it slightly short? If you're running say three days a week, what happens if we just modify two of those runs in the week and we just cut it short so that it doesn't create pain towards the end? Maybe there's no tightness afterwards and then maybe you try your third run of the week that is maybe a bit longer, maybe as we approach that say 4K or 5K when it typically would start being symptomatic, what about if we adopt a run walk strategy? So like the first 4Ks is continuous but the last one or even two Ks is like a one minute on one minute off. Does that cause that twinge that then starts to feel tight afterwards or is that dissipated? Can we just slow things down? I would like to know what pace you're running at because some people say yeah I'm running slow, I'm running at like a 530 minute per kilometer pace and then I say well what about we do a 630 and then all of a sudden they're successfully doing 5, 6, 7Ks and sure it's really slow, sure but it's symptom free if we do that for maybe only two of the runs per week, maybe you can do another two runs throughout the week where it is a little bit faster but those two runs maybe done on a Monday and a Wednesday and then your next runs on a Friday you've probably had like four days in the week of it being really settled and maybe that is enough to start seeing that improvement week by week because we're giving the tended enough time but if say you're running three days a week and just poking into a little bit of irritation every run that's almost every second day that we're poking poking poking and it's not really going to again get that enough time enough to nurture and foster healing week by week month by month we need to try and think longer term rather than just every single run and I'm passing my pain rules so yeah maybe that's only finding one run per week to push yourself and challenge yourself and reassess things rather than multiple times a week of just mildly irritating and then if we do start seeing some improvement week by week then we can start adding in other variables maybe that's when we can patiently add in either like an extra run day because it seems like your goal is to run around five to six days a week is that the next experiment do we just lay her in a really slow really short fourth or fifth day and see how things are are we still on the right trend great if we are keep it there for a couple of weeks what is it like now if we take one of those runs still keep all the other slow but we just take one of those runs and try a short segment of speed what's that like reassess and then we just start layering things in so that's my advice around the running side of things plenty of different combinations of the advice I was just given like the slow things down do some run walks just cut that all short or together see how that is but I guess the other thing that comes to mind which I don't have any detail which I'd love to know the other levers we can pull is what are we doing with our strength training what are we doing with our cross training what are we doing with our nutrition these are other levers that we can use to our advantage to help better handle these run sessions better handle a better environment for the tendent to heal so yeah I guess it's worth exploring which is exactly what I do with my clients I just take a broad scope sort of narrowing on someone's sort of running goals but then also take a broader scope of has everything else going outside of training outside of running and see if there's any other things we can manipulate to accelerate the healing Nickos asks hi Brody thank you for the opportunity to get your expert advice on this persistent issue I injured my PhD on June 2025 while training for the Berlin marathon after completing rehab I started a return to running protocol at the beginning of this year I am currently running every other day though not yet at my previous pace on the days I do not run I experience a dull nagging sensation in the hamstring though there is still no actual pain is this something I should be concerned about as I continue my recovery thanks again happy to help you out here Nickos I would say it's still a symptom that is worth tracking so sure you may not perceive it as pain but I would say any kind of dull nagging sensation might be like a one out of ten on the pain scale I might interpret it as such and so it should be treated as such it should be treated as like something that's abnormal and something that's worth paying attention to and then tracking to see if we're heading in the right direction step one would be to try to identify is there any variable in your training that's creating more or less nagging more or less of that dull kind of sensation in the hamstring is it something is it something to do with a longer run or a faster run or a hill is it when you run in the morning or when you haven't had a proper warm up or is it at night if you do a run at night and it's more in the morning that you notice it like just try to find something that may pinpoint this or maybe it's just every run I don't know but you know some testing is required and if you're just unsure just keep testing keep testing the variable see if you're short in the run see if you slow the run see if you keep it on the flats add some hills what happens does it change at all because while this is happening on your non-run days my suspicion is that there's just a carryover it's becoming symptomate due to the running the day before that's what I'm assuming but like this is why it's hard trying to answer these questions off the limited information that I'm provided but once identified if you have identified a variable it might be the longer or faster or helia runs then we just need to modify need to modify and identify and then similar to my previous response see if we can see that trend improve week by week month by month we want to get on that trend so just treat it as such like sure you might interpret as dull nagging sensation but it's not really pain I would treat it as if it's mild pain and apply those same pain rules the third one being see improvements week by week but as I mentioned like when I work with clients broad my scope maybe there's some you know nerve tension that's going on and maybe some nerve flossing might be helpful I don't know worth testing but I'm not going to try to attempt to diagnose people with these questions but you know there's there may be other levers to pull or maybe other things to explore if you're still not noticing that improvement which you know I help with my clients okay Sarah says hello my son is 15 years old and he has had multiple MRIs and they are showing nothing it's all clear but he has had pain in his upper hamstring when sitting since May 2025 he's gone to PT but that has made it worse he is currently feeling better but he hasn't had any PT or any kind of activity for many months but he can't sit for long periods of time which is cause him to not be able to sit or attend high school in person we are so confused as to what to do with him I have an appointment with a chiro today and we'll be speaking to him about symptoms we also don't know how this started it just slowly started to hurt and it's kept getting worse thank you so much okay thank you Sarah and on behalf of your son happy to try and help out as best I can MRIs can be clear for a tendon opathy it doesn't have to be thickening tearing degeneration those sorts of things you can have a very mild tendon opathy let's just say it's like embedded within the fibers it's not like one of the out to layers of the fibers it can be quite deep to which an MRI might not pick it up so it could like it's definitely not going to have confidence in ruling out a tendon opathy but it could still be something else I'm not going to dismiss it either but Drew is still out see if you are consistent with other pht like tests is it localized to the sit bone do you have a positive shoe off test so like digging in a stance position trying to dig your heel into the other shoe other foot like you're you're trying to slide off your shoe if that reaper produces pain or like a heel press test. So lying on your back, hips at 90, knee at 90, heel resting on like a firm surface, like a bench or a chair or something, and you're just pressing your heel directly down towards the ground. Does that reproduce symptoms? If it does, if you're showing all of those signs, it increases our confidence that it is PhD. It can be a gradual onset as well. It does, I'm just trying to interpret things here, but you sound like a bit puzzled as to why it's come on and it just slowly started hurting and then just slowly kept getting worse. And that could be typical with a tendonopathy, particularly for a very active kid who's playing basketball, doing so daily, maybe once just pushed a little bit too hard, and then it's exceeded the capacity, starts off as tightness, continue playing basketball, continue sitting, continue doing other sports, and it just continues to drive and drive higher irritation, which reduces capacity, which means the gap between the current capacity and load being applied, stretches greater and greater, therefore symptoms get worse and worse. So yeah, it can be a typical presentation. I'd like a deeper dive though into the PT. You said, attended PT and that made it worse. Was it certain strength exercises that made it worse? Or was it massage or something else? If it is like cross friction massage at the sip bone and that made it worse, that was actually a clinical test that we used to do for PhD. You'd rub the sip bone back and forth and sort of kind of rub the tendon cross friction, and it was really irritated the next day. Therapists would say, "Hey, that's consistent with PhD, "but we just don't like putting people through a lot of pain, "so we don't really do that anymore." But if it was like strength exercises, that also can be helpful data, because some people can say, I did a whole bunch of hamstring curls, or they made me do deadlifts, or they made me do lunges or something else, and I was just flared up for days. Well, that's unfortunate and a very unpleasant experience. It's still quite helpful for us to know those things in terms of diagnosing. Like if someone did a deadlift and did multiple deadlifts as a part of rehab and they'll really saw the next day, that's still really, really consistent with proximal hamstring tendonopathy. Like one of the other diagnoses that really overlap with PhD would be something like impingement, posterior, what we call iscio-femoral impingement, but that would be totally fine doing deadlifts. And so we can almost not rule it out, but increase our likelihood that it is PhD and not impingement, could still be like a lower back or side of the car issue, could still be in the trapped nerve somewhere, but that's when we'd go ahead and do other tests, and sort of differentiate. But if it is behaving like PhD and you do some exercises that load up the hamstring and you are flared up the next day, it could mean that those exercises are the right exercises, but the dosage is off. We've just done too many, too heavy, yeah, all of the range of movement was too aggressive for that particular period of time. So once things settle down, it's now our job as a therapist to readjust those numbers and bring it back to within the sweet spot of the tendon, 'cause we never really know where the capacity is or where that sweet spot is until we just trial things out, start with conservative dosage, start with reduced range of movement, and if that doesn't irritate, then we slightly bump up those numbers until we're eventually hitting that right sweet spot. But if we overshoot it initially, it will be flared up for several days after, and it does create a lot of people very discouraged to resume them. So many times I jump on chats with people, they say, "Did deadlifts flared me up for several weeks "and there's no way I'm returning back to them." And so we've just turned it taking out my number one exercise that I love doing for PhD. It's just, like I say, the dosage is off. So, like I say, if it's behaving like a tendon for your son, Sarah, I would encourage doing the right exercises with the right dosage, with the pure aim of increasing the capacity of the tendon, particularly to compression if sitting is an irritant, and that comes with doing exercises that encourage compression. They are deadlifts, maybe lunges, maybe step ups, maybe something to that effect, which I've talked about in previous episodes. If you're still stuck, look, I do offer free injury chats. I do offer online consults. I've been jumping on a bunch of second opinion calls as well. If you so happen to still be misguided and left in the dark, I'll be happy to help out. Okay, next one comes in from Sonia. I was trying to squeeze in her questions because she did ask several, I think there was six or seven questions in it. And so, don't have time to answer every single one of those. So, now I apologize, but let's go straight to your questions. I know you also submitted several paragraphs of context, but I think I can just dive straight into your questions. You ask, I feel like a lot of people on forums are very fit and or active. I.e. sort of runners trying to get back to what they love. Where do you start if you have more like me, older, Sonia said she was 57 and not at all fit or not very strong. Are they helpful exercises I can do at home? If you have not had access to a gym or the time to go and exercise that doesn't take too long. Also asked is three times per week enough to make a difference? Let me help you out with these questions that you ask Sonia. So, where do you start for someone who is not very good or very fit and active? And what else on good home exercises? I would say yes, you can start with home rehab. I always remind people that it does create a bit of a ceiling for yourself, your potential to improve, your potential to have effective rehab and full recovery is limited. You do create a ceiling for yourself if you don't have good access to weights to slowly build that capacity. If you just do bands and really light weights and you just keep to those, you can increase your capacity if that initially is challenging, but it won't be challenging for very long. And you need to keep challenging the tendon in order for rehab to still be effective in order to still create an adaptation in order to still increase this capacity to get to what's required. That might be sitting for several hours or walking, walking the dog, walking up hills, doing hiking, those sorts of things, but you can start at home though. You can start and maybe just keep upgrading your weights if you wanted to. And I usually recommend just buy some adjustable dumbbells. The dumbbells are the weights, separate weights that go in each hand. And I always recommend just buying them secondhand 'cause weights are always weights just because they're brand new, doesn't make them any different from old rusty weights. You can just go on Facebook, marketplace, have a look around, you can get some for really, really cheap. But the adjustable dumbbells are the ones with the kind of screw on and off dials that you can come off different combinations of weights. So there might be like a half pound, pound or quarter kilo, half kilo, kilo weights, you just use the combination. And you can probably just get like an initial set that go from everywhere from like one kilo to five kilos. And if that's five kilos, any chance, that's 10 kilos in total. And then we're just trying to adjust from there and work where your sweet spot is. We don't know where that is for the individuals. That's why I never really, I got a Facebook comment in the groups of like, Brody never talks about the right sets, reps, weights. And I'm like, well, it's just different for everyone. I'd hate to say, okay, foremost, start with three sets of 10, 10 kilos, full range of motion, go for it. And then it flares up a quarter of them, a quarter of the people who listen. And it's underdone for a quarter of the people that read it like this is why it's very, why I'm very cautious about delivering that sort of stuff that needs a tailored slant to it. But what I'd suggest is adjustable dumbbells that could find that sweet spot for you. Those exercises, yes, we can do some dead lips at home that would be suitable, probably start with reduced range of movement. Even though your question Sonia was around, okay, where do I start if I'm not that active, you can start with five pound dead lips at one quarter range of movement for three sets of five. You don't need to be very fit to do that. You don't need to be very strong to do that. But my guess is even the most unfit person could probably handle a little bit more than that example. And so we just find that sweet spot. We do the right exercise, we just adjust the dosage and find that sweet spot for you and then just build up. So yes, dead lips would be one of them. I would say weighted step ups as well. So you hold those same dumbbells in each hand and you can just walk up the stairs if you wanted to or just find something that may be a little bit higher, maybe a bench or something of that effect. And then we're doing step ups. It can be hovering around three, sets of six to eight. I only say that because we talked about time. If you don't have a lot of time to do these exercises, three sets of six to eight for each of those exercises, deadlifts and step-ups should take five to ten minutes. You also asked if, well, I should say like when it comes to frequency because you asked about is three times a week enough to make a difference, it definitely is enough to make a difference. Sure, if you're starting a really light if you're starting at ten pounds, you might want to do it four to five times a week, but you know, that's initially, but as you get stronger and once it gets heavier and it's slightly more challenging, two to three times a week would be adequate for most. Again, I say for most because I don't want to be very precise or detailed, which means like this will fit you. This is what you need to do, but for most, that would be an ideal frequency and then we just work from there. We just pay attention to your symptoms. If you work, because I do have very, very busy clients that can't really squeeze a lot in, just do the deadlifts, just find the right exercise, but if you've got a little bit more time, maybe we get a band for home and do some hamstring curls. They're not my favourite, but it would probably be the third one that I'll add in there on top of the deadlifts and step-ups if we had time to work something else in and you did have resistance bands available. We work out how much time you can afford and then we just base it off that. If you can do a 20-minute workout, I'll do that. We can create something around that. If you only have three minutes, I'm sure I could create something for you, but it's better than doing nothing at all. That would be my advice. Thanks for your questions on now. Thanks for everyone else who submitted their questions. Hopefully, my answer is at a quality and level of detail that will suffice and I've already heard responses back from some of the people who submitted questions in the last episode, thanking me, they're finding them helpful. So I'm glad you're finding them useful. Even though if you did not submit one, I hope you've taken some nuggets away that applies to your rehab. If you're not on my email list, there is a five-day PhD email sequence that's in the show notes of each podcast and that automatically gets you onto my list. So if I am looking for questions in the future, you will then be notified you then have that email. Hopefully you found this effective. I do have free injury chats. I do have online consults if you so are looking for more tailored advice. But hopefully, hopefully if you found this podcast effective. If you are looking for more PhD resources, then check out my website link in the show notes. There you will find my free PhD five-day course, other online content and ways you can personally connect with me, including a free 20-minute injury chat to discuss your current rehab and any tweaks you might need to make. While done, you're taking active role in your rehab, quite listening to content like this and together, we can start ticking off all of your rehab goals and finally overcome your PhD.