Episode 1Who are NK Active and what do we do?

Nick

How are we doing? I am Nick, the owner of NK Active, and welcome to our new podcast. It’s going to be a new thing that we’re going to be releasing episodes, just chatting about the team we have at NK Active. What we do, common conditions, different guests, but we’ll chat more about that later, what’s going to come up in future episodes. But with me today, I have Natalie.

Natalie:

Hello.

Nick

And we have then Charlie.

Charlie

Hiya.

Nick

So, Natalie is our exercise rehab specialist, and then Charlie’s another podiatrist like myself. So, I think today we’re just going to give people a flavor of what is it like to actually come to NK Active and what is it that us three actually do? Because we all do slightly different things.

Nick

So NK Active, to give you a bit of a background really is my little baby, as it were. It started as what was known as Winchester Sports Podiatry is where it first started in Winchester, obviously. Then that then evolved into NK Sports Podiatry. And at that time we were just renting different space out of South Hampton and Basingstoke and Winchester area. And then we then brought Natalie on board. So then when bringing Natalie on board, that’s when we then merged into NK Active. It wasn’t just podiatrists we were employing anymore. And then at that time that’s when we then moved to this lovely building that we’re all currently sat in now. And we moved in, it will be a year ago in seven, eight days time. I think it is. So obviously we were open for six months and then COVID happened. So we opened for six months and then shut for sort of three months. And then now just coming out of that sort of lockdown period.

Nick

So a bit about me for people that don’t know me, I’m a Podiatrist by background, trained at Northampton. Sort of fell into podiatry by mistake. Was going to be a physiotherapist, things didn’t really go to plan during my A level, shall we say. Then someone said, “What about podiatry?” And I thought, “What is that?” I was 17 at the time, I had no idea what it was. Went and shadowed a chap called Paul Harradine. About that time I looked in that thing called Yellow Pages.

Nick

And back then Yellow Pages was about that thick. And I’m not even sure they exist anymore. Well I shadowed him and thought, No, do you know what? I really like what you’re doing. Where did you go study? Northampton? So I got a space in clearing And the rest is history. And I sort of always had that passion around sort of what we call musculoskeletal injury. So the sort of muscles and tendons and bone problems and whatnot, and played a lot of exercise and sport myself. And over time then just progressed. Just finished my masters, about to publish first study in looking at shin pain in runners. So that’s me. So Natalie, tell us about your journey and how you’ve got to where we are now.

Natalie

So I studied my undergrad at Heartfordshire University and I did Sports Therapy like yourself. I kind of fell into it. I knew I wanted to stay in the sports industry and it wasn’t until I decided that I wanted to go to uni. I looked at courses and the sports therapy course just stood out to me by a mile. So I went for the interview. Luckily got a place at my first choice, did three years there. And I was also fortunate enough to do a sandwich year. So between my second and third year, you can go and do a year’s experience. So I actually went to Australia, experienced the Western Australian cricket team and Perth Glory, which is a soccer team out there.

Natalie

Had an absolutely amazing time. And that sort of set me up for my third year. So we went back, finished and then I had a year out of working and then I decided to do my masters in sport and exercise medicine, which I’m literally just about to finish. And then it was last year I was looking for a job and I came across the application for NK Active and it sounded right up my street. And then yeah, got the interview. And then-

Nick

So then what was it made decided that actually you know NK Active is where I want to be

Natalie

I think it was the whole ethics of injury prevention, injury rehabilitation. A lot of people who I’ve previously been with, haven’t solely focused on the rehab side. And for me, I found that that has been the most beneficial throughout the whole process that I’ve been through. And I’ve seen patients the same sort of way and yeah, the way that you structured, it just fitted the way that I wanted to work.

Nick

And then I think you’re also missing out another big part of your life, which isn’t NK Active related, but you rather enjoy running, cycling and swimming?

Natalie

Yes. I’m a huge fan of triathlon. I’ve been fortunate enough to represent Great Britain. So I did that last year, got a silver at the Europeans, which I was super happy with. I was meant to be doing it this year, but obviously COVID’s here. So that’s sort of taken a year out, but yeah, keen to get back and carry on.

Nick

Yeah. And then also with yourself, have there any sort of mishaps and injuries along the way?

Natalie

Yes, there were, so I suffered from a stress fracture. My navicular in December the 14th to be exact.

Nick

It’s a good job you work with a team of podiatrists.

Natalie

Exactly, Yeah. So I was actually seen by yourself and yeah, you’ve taken me through the whole process. You’ve treated me like a patient. So I’ve seen that side of things and I’ve received the care that our patients would receive. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the process, well some of it. It’s been ups and downs, but yeah-

Nick

Few tears along the way.

Natalie

Yeah. A lot of tears, but yeah, no, I can safely say that I’m now back to running full-time and yeah. Back on track to where I would have been-

Nick

Good stuff. I think that would actually make a nice little podcast on its own, is going through that whole journey of you’re not sort of the practitioner, you were the patient and just so then people can then see that process and know that you’ve gone through that process.

Natalie

Yeah and I think it helps me relate to people that are going through the same process because sometimes you don’t understand the mental side of things in an injury, especially if you haven’t been through one.

Nick

Oh, for me when I ruptured my ankle ligaments I seriously do think when I was out from hockey for I think it was 12 to 14 weeks. I think there must’ve been a point where my wife was near enough just going to divorce me, I guess. So grumpy if I’m not doing exercise or sport.

Natalie

Yeah, no, exactly the same.

Nick

Same. So yeah, and Charlie then tell us about your journey into how you’ve got to where you are.

Charlie

No. So I knew I wanted to be a podiatrist and I was 10 years old, so-

Nick

Really?

Charlie

Yeah. So I knew that was what I wanted to do. So geared all of my kind of teaching career towards that. Completed my degree at the University of Southampton and then kind of never left them and stayed to do a PhD along the route as a clinical academic. So I combined clinical practice with completing my studies and along that pathway I found you Mr. Nicholas. So yeah, I got to spend some time with you and then fell in love with this part of podiatry. And my area of research and interest was in, why does the foot work that way? Why do muscles behave that way? How do we diagnose and how do we manage patients effectively? So coming to a place where I could see the theory in practice was really quite important. So once I finished my PhD studies, it meant that actually I wanted to still be the researcher, but also be the clinician. And I got to work here. You said yes.

Nick

And it’s sort of super embarrassing for me in a way, because-

Charlie

Don’t remember me, do you?

Nick

No.

Charlie

You can’t even remember.

Nick

When I was working for the NHS I think you said you were… You come and sat in, you were a student and I honestly…

Charlie

We had over 30 hours of mentorship time together that you do not remember.

Nick

Yeah, I’m sorry about that.

Charlie

So it was either amazing or traumatic.

Nick

Yeah. and then what do you then obviously talk us about what you then do outside of work? Because obviously you don’t do triathlons, but you do other things.

Charlie

Yeah. So you lot do all that running jazz , which is just too complicated for my little body, but no, I’m more of a keen walker towards cake and tea. It’s always a good outcome. I’m into surfing, cycling, I’m a gym goer and I like to lift weights. So I’ve got hypermobility. And so lifting weight helps me manage my symptoms.

Nick

And that is, I think a really important point is actually good point, having that increased flexibility and actually lifting weights. I think there’s still this stigma out there, isn’t it? That if you’re flexible the amount of people with hypermobility we see in clinic who actually are then still doing stretches, you thinking actually you’re super supple anyway, the last thing you need is more flexibility. You just need to get-

Charlie

Yeah, and it’s that education-

Nick

Stronger.

Charlie

Isn’t it? It’s about getting people to understand their condition, which I think is one of the values that we have here. We give you time to be able to ask those questions, to have those moments, while you try things, some of them fail, some of them succeed, and we’re there to kind of support you along your journey.

Nick

And it’s interesting that you say that you like lifting weights, but it’s then trying to then break this persona that you lift weights on a regular basis, but you don’t look like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Charlie

No, thank goodness.

Nick

So then what then sort of attracts you to the whole NK Active side of things?

Charlie

Oh, so I’m a little bit of a data nerd and I like to be able to see what happens in practice and then be able to work out why things work that way. And I guess being here, there was this lovely opportunity where we didn’t know whether we were doing okay and what patients were going through. And so I think being able to use my academic skill set as well as my clinical skill set and then combining them together and then us being, I guess, innovative and creative has been quite a lovely thing. So we’ve brought all three aspects together.

Nick

Yeah. And I think that’s- I don’t know I’m going to be biased because it is my little clinic that I think it’s one of our big USPs Is that we do collect all our own data and we’ll order. And if we’re not performing or something or we see we’ll just-

Charlie

We can change it.

Nick

Change and I sort of think about this journey we’ve been on the year since being in this lovely building, how much things have actually changed over that year already and a lot of that, it’s just come back from our data set that we’re collecting-

Charlie

And I guess credit to you as well that that ability to see a friction-free slick service and guess I can be that person that can help you and support you as well as Natalie to deliver that. And I guess that’s quite exciting. And then I guess the love of having patients and meeting lots of different people from lots of different backgrounds and with lots of different goals and being able to take them from being kind of a bit grumpy, teary, hobbly To actually being able to do their dream goal and sometimes having a different goal. I think that’s quite nice. That’s the bit I’m enjoying at the moment. If they start with goal one, but we’re definitely on goal three, maybe four now, by the time they’re finished with us and that’s quite a nice day of work.

Nick

Oh yes. when we asked them at the beginning of the process, what’s your goal? What is your aim? So then I think also then what we want to try and do in these podcasts is try and let people know what is it like coming to NK Active. So what do we think that our sort of USPs or things that we do really well? Are you two?

Natalie

For me personally, I think that we have a good report with our patients. And so we always sort of check in to make sure they’re okay. If they’ve got any worries or queries, they’re always able to talk to the person they’re working with or someone else if we’re not around. And so they always know that they’ve got us there if they need us and we follow them through the whole process. And then we do a six month checkup after they’ve had their safe rehabilitation package. And then they always know that they can come back to us and that we have all their records on detail and they can trust us. And I think that’s a really important thing that we have is a lot of trust from our patients.

Charlie

I think it’s probably the way that you’ve structured the whole experience. So getting to us, you’re in a really lovely environment. We have fields, we have cows, we have the sunshine, most days.

Nick

Flies.

Charlie

Flies. And then as you walk through the door, you’re greeted by everyone in the team. It’s a lovely open space. It’s a space to come and work. It’s a space of calm. And then yeah, you have access to all of us and all of our facilities. You’re not withheld from anything, which I think is really quite lovely. And we’re able to select the interventions and treatments that we need to make sure that we get you where you wish to be. And I think being able to have that choice and ability to use the latest technology or the thing with the most amount of evidence to get that person back to wellness in whatever form that looks like is something really important.

Nick

Yeah. And I think it’s just that part also that education isn’t it? That we try and educate everyone along the journey on how to manage problems.

Charlie

Yeah. And we tailor it, specific to them I think.

Nick

Yeah. And it is teaching people that, okay, you’ve got an injury, got a problem, but then actually how we can then educate people to overcome that and then arm them with the tools to then reduce the risk of it, then coming back again. So what do we then think he’s… Well, I like my kit and I like my gadgets. What do you guys, what’s the favourite bit about the whole clinic here?

Charlie

For me, it starts with being able to put people on their baseline. So we’re able to do all the strength testing and assessments that we need to do to show you where you are today, and then be able to take you through your journey to the point of when you last have your appointment with us to then show you where you’ve come from and being able to show change and your impact as a result of that. And then continuing to follow that up, up to a year later, I think is invaluable. And not just within our own little community here, but to the wider health community that we serve. And I think that’s a lovely thing.

Natalie

Yeah. I’m much the same. I think having the data there and actually showing a patient where they’ve started to where they’ve got now is a great thing to do. And for us to actually show people that, and then they can sort of judge for themselves of where they’ve come from.

Nick

Yeah. And I think all of them really helps us then from a clinical aspect of our data collection as well, because then we can say, okay, look, you’ve got 50, 60, 80, a hundred percent stronger on tests. And does this then… Does that mean we then got used to that point where you then achieve your goals because you’ve now got that new level of strength where you’re functioning differently or anything along those lines. For me I do like the 3D gait stuff. For anyone that’s not aware of it. We basically if you Think Planet of the Apes and Avatar, we have the ability here to stick loads of markers to your lower limb and basically build a skeleton of yourself.

Nick

We had a patient once described it as an MRI of how you can run. So I think what I really like about that side of things is that it’s not my opinion of I think you’re running. I think you’re walking in a certain way. It’s this is the data. And then it’s the key part is to then link that back to any problems. And I think if you got to be really careful is that you just don’t go looking for problems, because I think if you stop every single person who are 3D gait analysis, you would find issues of a lot of people, but actually a lot of the time those issues aren’t actually related to any symptoms whatsoever. So obviously we’re lucky to have a gym on site. I think we’re one of the few clinics that have a 3D gait system, shockwave and a gym all under one roof. We all love the gym. What’s your one bit of favorite equipment in the gym?

Natalie

Ooh, I really like the Smith machine.

Nick

This is like massively off-script. I haven’t plan this.

Natalie

I really like the Smith machine. I think you can do so much with it and it’s assisted as well. So if I’m here on my own, I don’t have to get the squat rack out. I can do it on the Smith machine and yeah, I can do calf raises, squats, split squats. So yeah, that’d be my choice to take home.

Charlie

I love the step box. There’s always a bit of equipment at home that can be used like a step box.

Nick

I wasn’t expecting that, the step box.

Natalie

I know

Nick

For me it has to be the seated calf raise.

Natalie

Yeah, we know that’s your favourite.

Nick

When planning the clinic that was the first bit of equipment that Ii-

Natalie

Must have.

Charlie

Yeah.

Nick

Well, we see so many… Being sort of a mainly lower limb injury clinic. We see so many calf, achilles, plantar fascia issues, and they’ve all got that weakness in soleus and soleus is that small muscle… Well it’s just not a massively small muscle that sits behind the gastrocnemius, which is that sort of big showy calf muscle there. So, and that’s the one that we think is actually really important when it comes to calf, plantar fascia, achilies has problems. So I think what we want to try and do with future episodes is line-up some guest speakers, previous patients. Hoping to get Caroline French from French’s Shoe Shop to come and we can have a chat all things footwear related because I’m constantly being told off by my wife we’re buying too many running shoes. We’re

Nick

We’re going off track slightly, I recently got a set of the Saucony Endorphin Pros. My wife said to me, well, how’d you get those? So I said, well I emailed Saucony and they then just sent them to me. And then a day later I said, they did send me an invoice as well. I didn’t quite get away with that one too much, but yeah. And then we’ve planned like a chat about different problems that you may have, so different lower limb conditions, different sports that you’re interested in, chatting about possibly interesting cases we have in clinic, but it’s actually then asking you guys, people listening and watching to this. Is there any topic you want us to chat about? So you can learn and we all love the educating here. We all have a tag line here of, when you leave we’d say we hope we never see you again in the nicest possible way, because we want to get people to a point where they can manage it themselves.

Nick

And actually, if we can do things that could prevent you coming to need to see us in the first place, that’s even better. So I think that brings our first podcast to wrap up. Don’t forget to subscribe. If you’ve got any comments we’d love to hear from you. Like and share. If you want to find us on Facebook just search for NK Active. We’re nkactiveclinics on Instagram. So, if you want to drop us an email, just enquiries@nkactive.co.uk. But lastly, just want to say massive thank you to Natalie and Charlie for coming on and just having a chat about what we do here. Have you two got any last things you want to add that you think I’ve missed or anything?

Natalie

No.

Charlie

No. We’re All right.

Nick

No? Perfect, great stuff. We shall see you all on the next episode.