Finding PEAK (and Nickelback)

Ed’s wife encouraged him to see the team at PEAK back in May 2024. She had been to the clinic after a friend’s recommendation and didn’t hesitate to encourage him to book in once the pain started. He connected with one of our awesome physiotherapists, Lleyton, who quickly eased Ed out of his severe low back pain flare and helped him ignite a love for Nickelback. After re-aggravating his back with an almighty sneeze (a sudden movement in everyday life which has claimed many backs before), the value of shifting his mindset towards the prevention pathway instead of just managing unpredictable flares when they arose became obvious, and so Ed transitioned to PEAKs exercise-led prevention classes! He understood the benefits of strength training from his sporadic sessions over the years, but knew if he trained smarter and got stronger, then his biking adventures were more likely to go smoother.

The classes gave him confidence — not just in the gym, but in his body. Under Lleyton’s expert guidance on proper technique and progressive overload, he has almost doubled his barbell back squat from 45kg to 87.5kg. Ed says a year ago he would have written it off as a goal completely out of reach, but now has his eyes on the big 100kg milestone, with the confidence in himself and his physio, that he can get himself there. Lleyton believes that the real reason Ed keeps coming back to the sessions is the relentless Nickelback playlist making it onto the speakers each week, but that depends on who you ask.