In my clinical practice I often see patients who present with long-term conditions that they need to manage, such as rheumatological conditions (rheumatoid arthritis, palindromic arthritis, lupus), hyper mobility and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, or fibromyalgia. They are not easy to manage, are often misdiagnosed, and patients may have had a long journey of increasing pain and sometimes loss of function.

Sometimes these conditions can’t be fixed - but they can be managed. What can help, is a good multidisciplinary team around the patient, deep understanding of the condition, and even deeper understanding of how the body deals with such a conditions. What the signs and symptoms of a flare up are, where we can push and where we can rest, how can we learn to work with our bodies and not against them.

I’ve worked with many people with these complex conditions, the focus has often been on sport and exercise - how to return to sport, how to increase the exercise capacity and move, without causing flare up and more pain. Together, we can explore specific exercises that are good for you to strengthen your body, talk about the bespoke activity plan that will help you achieve your goals, and learn what load management strategies are best to help you keep going!