Latest / The Uplift- with Luke Pollock / #16 - The Practicalities of Online Rehab- Solo Pod
Transcript
- Luke Pollock: Hello and welcome back to another episode of the uplift. This episode is another shoulder pod. They're one of them in row now and to be honest, I've been quite enjoying them. Less prep is needed. And I've just enjoyed getting used to sharing my thoughts and where I'm at with the business side of things. This episode is going to be a little bit different, however, as I'm just going through my offer for clients, potential clients, other physios. and anyone really who's interested at all. So I'm just going to go through my offer from start to finish what that actually ⁓ entails. and how I'm delivering my offer at the minute. So how I'm delivering the service and what gets included if someone signs up with me today. So firstly, ⁓ we're going to go through the online rehab offer. It's my main offer. It's how I get most of my clients at the minute. And it's where I feel like I the best results at the minute. So we would initially jump on a discovery call with a client. And that's just really to find out if they're a good fit for me and I'm a good fit for them. So we find out what the potential clients expectations are, what they expect of the service, what they're struggling with at the minute, what they've maybe tried before. That gives me a good idea. I'm actually gonna be able to help this person. And most of the time I am, but the old time I've had to be like, listen, you'd be better going and seeing a sports consultant or maybe just like an NHS practitioner for this one. It seems ⁓ more straightforward or, you know, it might seem like. It's actually not a sporting injury at all. And it's not something that I feel I could help with online. That's happened a few times, but 90 % of the time I would say I can help because 90 % of the time someone has come across my content and reached out that way. So most of my calls are ACLs, but I've had a lot of angles through recently as well. I also rehab. I'd pretty much be confident rehabbing any... lower limb or upper limb injury, which is sports related at this point, which is quite nice. I've dealt with shoulders, knees, backs, ⁓ ankles as well. yeah, I would get on that call with them, discuss what they're looking for and what I can offer. ⁓ If they are a good fit, then I'll talk through the service itself. So if it's primarily online, I charge a monthly rate. and get them to sign up for a few months in advance, just because that allows me to plan out the next few months of rehab as we go. So we're gonna take an ACL for example, just because that's who I work the most with and it's what I'm familiar rehabbing. Ideally the client or the athlete would reach out to me pre-op so we could start working together pre-op. The pre-op phase is often missed and is... Yeah, it just gives us such a massive head start on the rehab if we can work before the operation actually happens. So we'll come up with a bit of a pre-op plan. We'll really kneel down what's going to happen during the operation, what that's going to feel like, get into a lot of detail about what that's going to look like immediately post-op. So things like an ice on board, if they need a game ready or not, et cetera, et cetera. Then I will onboard them to my app where I deliver all my sessions. So my sessions get delivered via an app over the phone. ⁓ It's not like a normal standardized PDF. It's not like a one size fits all approach either. The sessions are unique and the rehab program is unique to each athlete because every athlete is different. So if we take a rugby player, for example, a hooker's rehab program is going to slightly different to a wingers rehab program. more in the mid and late stage, but even in the early stage as well, because their muscle mass might be a bit different. They might have reps and sets they can withstand might be a bit different. Their volume they can withstand might be different as well. So everyone is unique that comes into the program. From there, then we will talk through really their schedule, how that's gonna work. And then I will send out their first program. ⁓ There's goals attached to each program. the rehab is broken up into big phases, okay? And then those phases are broken down into smaller goals. And each week we sort of have a goal that we're working towards that week. Once they graduate through those goals, then the program will be updated accordingly. So it might be. that Luke gets a program zero to two weeks post-op and his goals are full extension post-op. I won't really necessarily progress the athlete on until they've hit that goal. So it's very milestones and goals focused over just being timeline focused. I find that this is a big difference in my approach to a lot of other physios approach. And it's really the safest way to approach the rehab. During this time then, the client will have access to me via WhatsApp. So there's loads of touch points with online rehab. And that is why I really enjoy it to be honest. ⁓ So they'll have access to me via WhatsApp, Monday through Friday, weekends off and then ⁓ about nine to five. But I do reply in the evenings quite a lot these days. And then we have a formal touch point once a week as well. So on a Monday will be like my formal check in with all my clients. And whether that's a video call, whether that's a video message or it's just a voice note or a text, we will have some sort of formal ⁓ touch point. And that for me is a response to the check-in form they fill in on a Sunday. ⁓ So they'll fill in the check-in form every Sunday. I'll get back to them on the Monday about, ⁓ yeah, early in the day just to respond to that. If they're struggling with something in particular and it's a quick fix, might just be that I send them a video message across. If it's a longer term or a bigger issue, we might get on a video call and we might run through even a rehab session that day. So my Mondays are kept pretty free unless I'm in a retail, but most of the time I'm at home doing my check-ins, which takes up most of the day, Monday. But I find that that day is really, really good because I can go the rest of my week knowing that my athletes have a plan to follow that they're relatively happy with. Throughout the week then, the athletes will have a few exercises in mind each week to video. They will record these if possible and send them across at any point they can via WhatsApp. On the Monday check-in, I normally will go through some of those videos just to make sure everything's looking good. If there's something I'm not happy with, I will send them a video check-in saying, can you try this instead of this? Can you move your legs this way slightly? So like I said, loads and loads of touch points and loads of feedback. So it's not that I'm just sending a blank. across and saying yeah all the best. We will actually do that program together each week as well. Then the program will get updated as they progress through. Then as they progress through the phases the whole block will be updated as well. It's worth noting as well what I do is slightly different to other physios because I have an S &C background so I will, well not really background but I'm just really into my S &C. It sounds, I mean it sounds like I've done a degree. I haven't, I've done a physio degree, but I'm really into my strength and conditioning. So I like to take full control over the athletes, ⁓ week. So not only will they have their rehab session scheduled nine times out of 10, ⁓ they'll have their upper body and their conditioning scheduled through me as well. So that's why we set like some rugby or sports specific goals for the rehab. ⁓ so if it's, want to put on a few kilos of lean mass, or I want to get faster. Then I can tell her the whole program around that. And it's not just a one-stop shop of this is my physio work. And then this is my gym work. And they kind of clash. They kind of don't Mari up very nicely. No, I like to take control of the full week. If the athlete will allow me to, and it has been the case where some people are like, I want to just crack on with my own upper body stuff. You just do my lower limb. And that was absolutely fine. If you have preference in that I have no problem. I'm my ego doesn't get in the way, but I do find like a better results. if I have full control over the week so I know ⁓ what's happening each I will even like program and schedule their rest days during that week as well. ⁓ So yeah, I that's main crux of it. Further to that then, on the app there is educational stuff for them to go through. I'm a really big fan of letting my athletes know why they're doing something rather than just sending them a program and saying all the best. I want them to know why they're doing it, what we're aiming towards and how this particular exercise or workout will help us get to the end goal. ⁓ So there's some educational stuff on the app as well for them to go through. This has always been updated and I need to update a lot more. And then obviously the podcast as well, all the clients have access to like everyone does. ⁓ So yeah, I also will have little things now and then like, you know, a discount code for nutrition X or whatever that I'll just chuck over there, get people slightly cheaper supplements or slightly cheaper recovery gear, like a game ready, et cetera. So I'm trying to make it a little bit more of a one-stop shop. If you join on with me, you get access to quite a lot of different benefits. It's not just rehab exercises and a weekly check-in. ⁓ I want to encapsulate more and more and more. as the program continues to grow, as I continue to bring on more athletes and I've got six on at the minute, which is really nice because I had about five lads go back in February to rugby, February, March time. So April and May are just going to be building that back up. So I've got six on at the minute, most like four ACLs and then two others. So yeah, I'm just, I'm really enjoying building that back up. ⁓ And I think that is me ⁓ done just talking through what the program offers. Obviously there's loads of specifics and different details within So it might be, ⁓ you know, it might be a late stage SEL we're doing a lot more pitch sessions and I'm having to ⁓ send them a lot more info of what I from their pitch session ⁓ and what that looks like. But yeah, ultimately online is a very effective way to rehab and I feel confidence in it. It just puts a lot of onus on you as the physio or the practitioner to ⁓ understand the client, understand what the common things people struggle with are ⁓ understand why you're giving them what you're giving them. ⁓ Otherwise, things just start to not really add up marry up very well ⁓ and the athlete might lose a bit of faith ⁓ what you're doing. So for any athletes out there, that's what I offer. If you're looking for this, I'm on a shame to say, please do get in contact and we can jump on that free consultation call where we discuss if I'm a good fit for you. ⁓ If you've got to the end of this, I probably am. and any other physios reaching out asking me how I do my online rehab and how I run the business, this is how I do it. So I've sort of shared everything and that's been the goal of the podcast to document what I'm doing, document how that evolves over time and also try and not like hold my cards too close to my chest. No, in saying that I haven't mentioned on this podcast how much I charge because that's always changing. And I want this podcast to be evergreen. So as I get more and more clients, I do raise my prices. Um, but I tend to think it's, it's a lot more affordable than like in-person physio in London. Um, so yeah, I don't want to say I charge this because that will always change. then if an athlete watches this and comes to, or listens to this and comes to me and says, Oh, you charge this. I'll say, no, that was my old price. And then it just gets awkward. So better leaving money out of it for now and just trying to give as much value as I can ⁓ across this episode. So yeah, I think that's everything. Thanks very much for listening again. This was a short episode. We'll be back with the guest episodes next week. I've got a few guests lined up, got nutritionists lined up and a few more GAA guests, which will be good. So yeah, keep listening, keep chatting with people and keep giving me some feedback. I always do appreciate that. I hope the sound quality has got a little bit better because I'm using a new mic. I hope you enjoyed that and it was more pleasant for your ears. Have a good week and a good day. Thanks for listening.