The Barefoot Therapist

10/10/2026

💪💪Two Simple Strength Tests and Your Fall Risk💪💪

Once you start falling… your independence is seriously threatened. And it might occur long before you’re 80.

As we age, fall-prevention strategies should top our priorities… And you should execute on that strategy long before you plan where to retire. I spend a lot of time talking about preventing falls by improving balance, removing home hazards, checking medications, and making sure vision is adequate.

A recent study showed that strength remains extraordinarily important, especially after age 80. Many fall studies don’t look at folks this old… although they should.

Researchers followed 3,000 + Norwegian adults aged 80 and older. They measured handgrip strength and lower-body function by how quickly someone could stand up from a chair five times without using their hands.

They then followed these adults for an average of 3.4 years, looking specifically for serious falls that resulted in hospital, emergency, specialist care, or death.

People classified as having strong leg strength had about a 40% lower adjusted risk of a serious fall injury. Strong grip strength was associated with a similar reduction overall, although when the researchers separated men and women, the grip-strength association was evident in women but not men.

Men who could complete five sit-to-stands in 13.2 seconds or less had a 59% lower adjusted risk of a serious fall injury compared with men who took longer or couldn't complete the test.

For women, completing five repetitions in 14.3 seconds or less was associated with a 35% lower risk.

Getting out of a chair requires leg strength, coordination, balance, and enough power to move your body against gravity. In other words, the ability to stand quickly from a chair is capturing more than muscle strength alone.

Those are precisely the abilities we need when we stumble, step off a curb awkwardly, or need to recover quickly before a loss of balance becomes a fall.

This was also an observational study, so it doesn't prove that making someone stronger will reduce their fall risk by 40 or 50 percent. The authors appropriately describe these strength measurements as markers of vulnerability rather than proven treatment targets, and they note that the thresholds need validation in other populations.

But the larger message is difficult to ignore. Hitting your 80s strong and capable is a top anti-fragile, anti-fall goal. And please do not wait until then to start.

If you want to kick ass in your 80s, you had better be kicking ass in your 50s and beyond. The biology of aging and the rules that govern training and adaptation change as we age— and not in our favor.

Thanks for info Dr. Howard Luks

Many tips for strength and conditioning available if you search on my page. 🔍.

💪 🤝 💪

09/10/2026

This is a clip from 'The Menopausal Athlete' from a few years ago....a great read 📚 👍

"M" is for moody, madwoman, morose, mental, mean, muscle aches....... and Menopausal!

‘It's been some months since I posted, no particular reason except didn't feel I had any newsworthy posts! However talking to friends I have been encouraged to pick up the menopausal mantle again and reach out to any new or even old sufferers who feel like they are losing the plot or have lost the plot.....You are NOT going mad and you're not alone, it's temporary, but with care and determination you can develop coping mechanisms and strategies to deal with these debilitating symptoms!

The worst thing about the dreaded M it has a nasty habit of catching us off guard, mine was different as bought on by surgery but many of my friends were not expecting it.
Sadly It usually comes at that time, when if you have children, they are less dependent on you, you may have less financial worries and it should be the time you may be thinking of allocating more time to yourself then crash bang wallop it hits you like a speeding train!

Brain fog, memory loss, weight gain, insomnia, hot flushes, night sweats, aches and pains, mood swings!! We are not greedy people but we get the whole shebang if we’re unlucky! Not to mention gaining facial hair whilst losing it in places we don't want to .....what's that all about!!! And to top it all, to add to the ever-growing list, the eyesight goes at the same time!

So whilst ideally you should be ploughing money into your pension or treating yourself to some well-deserved luxuries, we find ourselves purchasing magnesium tablets, gels, flakes, salts by the barrowful, sage tablets (5 star rating…..they really work!), books on "are we going mad?" facial waxing…….in my case, repurchasing lost items ( I've now just lost my second pair of bi-focal sunglasses in 18 months) and now into double digits for the number of times have had to replace lost credit cards........!

As for the glasses, I have a spare pair of glasses in my gym bag, car, bedside table and the latest addition in the bathroom so I can distinguish between conditioner and shampoo when squinting amidst a mop of dripping hair. USEFUL TIP……shampoo has 7 letters, conditioner has 11!!! Useful too for differentiating between the hair and the face serum!!!

So what's the answer?

Talk about it, laugh about it! Write a daily log/note so you know what works and what doesn't!

Exercise more, stretch loads, eat well! Try magnesium tablets and as for sage supplements, I can’t rate the little gems enough for stopping night sweats, but you do need to give them a chance to work, they are a miracle pill in my eyes but they are not instantaneous and may not work for everyone!

Don't feel bad about throwing all the windows open day and night whilst the rest of your family complain of getting frostbite......they can always put another jumper on! Whilst you need to learn to dress in layers so you can whip each layer off as that familiar burning sensation rises from your toes to your temples! 🥵

Carry a notebook to write useful prompts, birthdays, appointments, reminders of where you've left things! I have my favourite hiding places which are my 'GO TO' place when searching for missing objects: Freezer, fridge, TV cabinet, cleaning cupboard, vegetable rack!!!

Talk about it, share your thoughts and experiences. Ask your friends to be honest when they spot a wiry dark hair protruding from your chin...... and most of all laugh about it! We are in it together!

🤔🙃
😁

08/10/2026

*FOOT ALERT REHAB*



The importance of the initial assessment of any discomfort, niggle or injury is still key to the guidance and rehab program that will follow as part of the online or physical consultation.

Meanwhile, today starts with sharing a tip created on the run...👣👣👣👇

Sometimes a nagging niggle can be caused not by injury, but by physiology. In the feet toe length, arch height and foot shape can play a major part in determining how well this immensely strong but very vulnerable appendage can cope with absorbing 4 x your body weight EVERY SINGLE TIME IT HITS THE GROUND.
Did you know in just one foot, there are 26 bones, 33 joints and more than 100
tendons, ligaments and muscles.... these little dudes need some TLC right from the very sole (apologies for that pun😉) 👣
Here's a tip on how to help this amazing little shock absorber, whether on the run or sat in front of the box 👣🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️📺...👉👉👉👉

Foot manipulation rehab - it only takes a minute...

07/10/2026

"Found grace in my pace and floated through the miles"
Simples.....and a great mantra. 👏👣🙏

06/10/2026

Hamstring problems??

Can you do this simple towel drag exercise for 10 reps? If not 🫣 You’ve got some work to do!
Weak hamstrings get crazy tight and sometimes stretching is not the answer 💪



💪👌👏
Thanks Tom Morrison 👏👏👏

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Cphxw5bLY/

06/10/2026

Interesting, one for more research 👌🏋🏻‍♀️👏

This immediately caught my attention.

Researchers took bone-marrow mesenchymal stromal cells from 10 women with advanced osteoporosis, modified the cells' surface so they would preferentially travel back to bone, and then gave the women a single IV infusion of their own engineered cells.

The clever part was the targeting. Stem cells injected into knees don’t work because they don’t know what to do or where to go once they get there. These researchers found a way to get the stem cells where they need to go. They modified the cells' ‘glycocalyx’—the complex layer of sugars and proteins on the cell surface—essentially giving the cells a biological address label that helped them home to bone.

Over the following two years, markers of bone formation increased, along with bone tissue area and volumetric bone mineral density. The investigators also reported a sustained and significant reduction in fragility fractures and no serious treatment-related adverse events.

Now… a very important caveat: this was only 10 patients, with no placebo group. It is a proof-of-concept study, not evidence that we suddenly have a new treatment for osteoporosis. This isn't a treatment you can get right now.

But I find the concept fascinating.
Most osteoporosis therapies either slow bone breakdown or stimulate bone formation. This approach asks a different question: Can we take a patient's own regenerative cells, direct them specifically to bone, and actually help rebuild the skeletal environment?

The future of stem-cell therapy isn't simply about finding better cells…
It’s about figuring out how to get the right cells to the right place.

05/10/2026

*Shoulder Pain*
Free advice and strengthening workouts below 💪 ⚕🎁

Following an online 📱consultation regarding shoulder pain, I thought it would be useful to share more of the guidance provided to others.🫶💞

Symptoms......
➡️ It feels like a constant weight on your shoulders.
➡️ The tension in your neck and upper back never seems to go away.
➡️ You sometimes get headaches from the neck tightness. Sounds familiar?

You could be suffering from tight traps and trapezius pain, which can be frustrating conditions.

✅ However, with the right exercises, you can manage and reduce the pain. 🏁💪🙏

➡️ Three important stages to recover from injury and niggles:-

✅ Stabilisation
✅ Mobilisation
✅ Strengthening
All three are required for those pesky niggles or injuries.

➡️ The key benefits seeing an experienced Sports Therapist/Health Professional are:
Visual assesment 👀 of your symptoms,
The many years of experience to diagnose 🤔, and offer appropriate rehabilitation to get you back on track. Then you can start to control your own recovery. Most importantly, what you CAN'T, and what you CAN do. 💪👍

✅️ Click here for the rehab and strengthening exercises ⤵️ https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise/lower-trap-exercises

You could get shoulder strength like GEORGE! 💪🐈😁❤️


SydSnippets

04/10/2026

Nice reminder 👌🫶💪
Six Things That Narrow a Person’s World…. Before Their Joints Do

I am 62. I have spent twenty-five years as a Sports Therapist watching people’s worlds get smaller. Sometimes a joint is the reason, but more often, the joint is just the last thing that made it obvious.

The narrowing starts earlier than the eventual MRI. It starts with a set of decisions that seem reasonable at the time.

1. They stopped doing the things that felt optional.

The extra flight of stairs. Getting on the floor with a grandchild. Walking the long way from the parking lot. While not a workout, each one is practice for staying someone who can still do those things. When they disappear, capacity disappears with them, and we normalise the abilities we lose and don’t notice until a single hard day makes it obvious.

2. They treated pain as a stop sign instead of a signal.

Pain is information; it is not always a reason to quit. The people whose worlds shrink fastest are often the ones who were told to rest, protect, and wait, and then never rebuilt what they lost. Every injury or illness resets our baseline fitness to a lower level. Rest has a place, but more permanent unloading does not.

3. They waited to feel motivated.

The patients who stay capable at 75 did not wake up excited for thirty years. They had a reason that outlasted their mood. A dog. A spouse. A garden. A standing date. Motivation is a poor operating system for a body you plan to use for decades. A calendar is better. Consistency is key… 👌

4. They let one missed week become an identity.

A trip, an illness, a bad month at work. That is life!! The damage starts when “I missed two weeks” turns into “I’m not an active person anymore.” Consistency is not lost when we stop for a day or two. It is lost if we don’t start back up again.

5. They trained for a body that looks fit instead of a body that can still participate.

Looking good at 50 and remaining independent at 80 are not the same project. Aerobic work on the bike does not save you on an uneven sidewalk. If the training never includes carrying, getting up, turning quickly, or walking long enough to be useful, it is incomplete.

6. They had nothing pulling them forward.

The patients who keep a large life almost always have an answer when I ask what they are looking forward to. A trip, or perhaps a person or even their dog. A job they still care about. A garden that needs them. When nothing drives the enthusiasm for the effort, the effort eventually loses. Joints do not close a life by themselves. A life with no next thing does.

Your world is either being protected or quietly contracting. That process is already underway. The good news is that it still answers to what you do this week. 💯🫶👌💪

Thanks Dr. Howard Luks for the reminder 👌🫶💪

🫶

03/10/2026

💤💤💤 Sleep 💤💤💤

Why it's SO important.....🤔

A new paper in Cell Reports Medicine argues exactly that: sleep should be elevated to a global health priority. And when you look at what happens inside your body while you sleep, it becomes easier to understand why.

Sleep may look like a period of inactivity, but biologically, your body is anything but idle. While you sleep, your brain engages processes involving the glymphatic system that help clear metabolic waste, including beta-amyloid proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Your cardiovascular 🫀 system gets a break from the sympathetic drive that keeps your body alert during the day. Blood pressure 🩸📉and heart rate generally fall. Your metabolism is regulated, your immune system recalibrates, and damaged tissues undergo repair.

Sleep isn't time lost. It's time your body uses to maintain itself.👌🫶💪
This is where the difference between one bad night and years of poor sleep matters.

We've all had nights when sleep doesn't go as planned. Stress, travel, work, illness, or simply having too much on your mind can interfere with sleep. One bad night isn't going to ruin your health. The problem is when poor sleep becomes the pattern.😬

Think of it as an area-under-the-curve problem.
One night is a small event. But hundreds or thousands of nights of inadequate or disrupted sleep can add up over decades. The goal isn't perfect sleep every night. It's creating a pattern that gives your body enough opportunity to recover.

For many adults, around seven hours appears to be a reasonable target, although individual sleep needs vary. Our bodies also love rhythm. Your brain doesn't just benefit from getting enough sleep; it benefits from knowing when sleep is coming. Going to bed and waking up around the same time each day gives your body predictable signals that help regulate your internal clock.🛌⏰🧠

There are a few simple habits you can try to follow as consistently as possible.👌
✅1. Go to sleep and wake up at roughly the same time each day.
✅2. Try to finish eating at least three hours before bed.
✅3. Avoid heavy alcohol use🍷🚫. Alcohol may make you feel sleepy, but it can interfere with sleep quality.
✅4. Avoid heavy exercise immediately before bedtime. Exercise is excellent for sleep overall, but intense late-night workouts can be stimulating for some people.
✅5. Create a wind-down ritual. A sauna or hot bath🛀♨️ followed by cooling down 🆒 can help signal to your body that it's time to relax.
✅6. Keep screens out of bed. 📵Your bed should become a cue for sleep, not another place to scroll.
✅7. And perhaps most importantly, don't panic over a few nights of poor sleep. Stressing about sleep can become part of the problem. Your goal is not perfection. Your goal is consistency.👌

Now zoom out, because this isn't just about individual bedtime habits.
The paper argues that modern society itself is working against healthy sleep. Climate change, light pollution, noise, shift work, and our 24/7 digital culture are making it harder for entire populations to get adequate sleep. The burden is particularly significant among lower-income communities and older adults.

The economic consequences are enormous. The authors estimate that poor sleep costs five industrialised countries approximately $680 billion each year through lost productivity and healthcare spending. (Apologies it's an American piece of research 🗽🔍💲)

Even our changing climate may affect how much we sleep. Warmer nights alone are projected to cost each person roughly 50–58 hours of sleep per year by the end of the century.🥵🫠

That's more than six nights of sleep.
So perhaps it's time to stop thinking about sleep as something we squeeze in after everything else is finished.🤔

We talk about longevity through nutrition and exercise. We discuss strength training, cardiovascular fitness, metabolic health, and healthy weight. All of those things matter.

But sleep belongs in that conversation too.
You can eat well. You can exercise regularly🏋️🚴🚶🤸🧘. You can maintain a healthy weight. But if you're consistently depriving your body of the time it needs to repair and regulate itself, you're leaving out one of the most fundamental pieces of the puzzle.

Sleep isn't the reward you get after finishing everything else.
Sleep is part of the work.👌
Tonight, you don't need to completely redesign your life. Start smaller.🤏

Set a consistent bedtime. Put the phone away. Dim the lights. Give yourself enough time in bed. Create a routine your brain can recognise. (My cats tell me, straight up the stairs before me 😁🐈🐈)

Because the goal isn't simply to live longer.
It's to remain healthy, strong, and capable enough to enjoy the years you've worked so hard to earn.
Your future self may not remember the emails you answered at midnight.
However your future body will remember how you treated it for decades. 👌🫶💗

Thanks Dr. Howard Luks for the reminder.
Also watch a cat, they are the masters of sleep..🐈💤😁🫶

😴💤🥱🛌
SydSnippets 🐈🫶

03/10/2026

Sharing for a friend, and helpful for many others 🦶👣👟🫶

Learn the warning signs, the right strengthening exercises, and the recovery strategies to keep Achilles pain from becoming a major injury.