The Physio Pulse Podcast

We're always told to avoid dorsiflexion with insertional Achilles tendinopathies, but is this accurate? We discuss the 2025 paper - Effectiveness of reducing tendon compression in the rehabilitation of insertional Achilles tendinopathy: a randomised clinical trialhttps://bjsm.bmj.com/content/59/9/640.long

Jeff discusses a rationale he can see to justify the use of a bosu ball, despite not actually using them himself! Paper for affordances and chronic pain HERE Embodied pain HERE Enactive biopsychosocial model HERE Please note, this episode does not constitute medical advice.

James presents a case study of a patient who came to see him with bilateral knee pains, but all is not as it seems...

Jeff shares his most successful prank on James, and we talk about injections for tennis elbow with some good talking points around placebo / contextual effects and open science. Please note, this episode does not constitute medical advice.

Today on Physio pulse James has some beef Jeff ruins a shirt We dive into the world of blood flow restriction training for knee OA with the very recent Jacobs et al 2025 paper making the rounds on social media.

This week we dip our toe into the political space and accompany this with the first meta-analysis investigating socioeconomic status and chronic pain. Jeff has an apology to make for the listeners and gets excited about a funnel plot (he's not got much going on right now). James keeps conversation on track as the more politically aware of the two of us and makes this a passable episode. Please not...

Struggle to get your head around the ascending and descending pathways? And what even is pain gate?? Well in our clinical pearl episode this week James gives a quick overview in 6 minutes Hope you enjoy!

Today on the Physio Pulse we had the pleasure of speaking with Joe Palmer who is a lecturer and researcher working in Sheffield and was in the first cohort of clinicians who moved into the First Contact Physiotherapy roles. We speak about the realities of lecturing and research, the trials and tribulations of FCP and how to get clinicians to fall in love with stats. Hope you enjoy! Click here for...

We sit down and read the Kim Herbert-Losier paper on updated normative values and reliability of the calf raise test. What does the average actually show, how should it be completed to have comparative values and what does it inform? Also, James confesses to having very skinny calves. Apologies as Jeff's audio is a little bit low on this one! Please note, this episode does not constitute medic...

In this episode, we’re joined by Paul Houghoughi , better known as The Climbing Physio , to dive deep into the world of climbing injuries, rehab, and performance. Paul shares his insights on the most common climbing-related injuries, the unique demands of the sport and the best strategies for rehab and prevention. Tune in and learn how to take your hand rehab game—to the next level!

This week James and Jeff delve into one (...of the many) subgroup analyses of the DREAM study. What is better surgery or Physiotherapy for meniscal tears? How can we predict which patients will do well in each group? Why does Jeff hate the world of research?

This week we have a great discussion with Dr. Jared Powell on all things relating to dispositional causation and how this relates to positive clinical improvements in people with shoulder pain (but this could be extended to most MSK pain really!) These complex topics are broken down into very digestible soundbites and we think this episode is a must listen, and probably one to revisit in the futur...

Would you have ever considered injection someone with mid-portion achilles tendinopathy 3 times in the space of 12 weeks? Johanssen et al (2022) did in todays paper and the results might surprise you! This is the closest we have come on having genuinely different views on a paper and was a fun conversation! Please note, this episode does not constitute medical advice.

A quick overview of RCRSP - What is the literature around diagnosis? - Are special tests useful for this condition? - Brief overview of the history of this condition - What is the evidence around strengthening exercises for this condition? Hope you enjoy!

Should we be ordering imaging for patients when it won't change management, but it is perceived (sometimes wrongly?) that it could help their health anxiety? This is a clinically grey area, and one we have tried to tackle in the absence of any strong direction from the literature. Jeff and James take opposite sides in the debate initially before settling into what we think good practice looks like...

We're back for 2025! Looking at the recent Heide et al 2024 paper comparing Shockwave, Sham Shockwave, Exercise and Education + Custom Insoles. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11347971/ Jeff reads the wrong paper James has a bee in his bonnet

This week we chat around James' injection skills, what we have found doing a podcast is like and recommendations for 2025. James also provides an update to a case study he raised a few episodes back. See you in 2025!

If you want to skip past the discussion on the recent assisted dying bill in the UK then head to 09:20. We take a deep dive into movement science, ecological dynamics and a research paper looking at different ways to 'teach movement' Please note, this episode does not constitute medical advice.

This week we dive into a qualitative paper for the first time all around perceptions of sciatica from the patients perspective! James talks about wearing high heels. Please note, this episode does not constitute medical advice.

In the intro to this episode we discuss our thoughts on the HCPC hearing Adam Meakins is currently going through, Jeff makes a bet that he won't swear for the remainder of the episode and James leads a conversation on a patient with shoulder pain that wasn't improving with rehabilitation! Please note, this episode does not constitute medical advice.

This paper has made a huge splash and influenced so many physios treatments. So naturally we need to dive into it a bit deeper to see what it actually shows. Jeff has beef (surprise), James googles more things. Please note, this episode does not constitute medical advice.

You may have seen all the recent hype around Ozempic and other "miracle" Semaglutide medications for weight loss in the recent months... But what is the clinical utility of these for OA?? We explore the new 2024 paper "Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Persons with Obesity and Knee Osteoarthritis by Bliddal et al" James tries not to get sued Jeff mobs a hip

It's time for another case study! This week we run through a complex presentation of bilateral buttock pain. James scored 9/10 on the possible differentials. Jeff talks about his upcoming course. If you would like to show support for the show, it would be much appreciated and you can explore this more here Please note, this episode does not constitute medical advice.

James compliments Jeff. Also, we discuss Messier et al (2021) which compared an 18 month long high and low intensity exercise compared to an attention control in people with knee osteoarthritis... the results of which may surprise you! *Regarding discussion on strength, the 3Nm/kg statistic we talked about is for isometric testing so strictly is not right to compare to 30 degrees/second isokinetic...

We sit down to discuss a golden oldie from the research base. The study that gave us the straight leg raise and an insight into how the thinking around radicular pain developed! We use this as a jumping off point before discussing different types of nerve root problems and how we think about them clinically. Please note this episode does not constitute medical advice.