The Recovery Project NZ

The Recovery Project NZ Rehab and wellness clinic in Cromwell offering osteopathy and Injury Rehabilitation.

Whether you're in pain, stuck with old injuries, we don’t just treat symptoms, we guide you to real, lasting results.

07/06/2026

The deadbug is one of the most misunderstood core exercises.
Most people think the goal is to move their arms and legs.
It’s not.
The goal is to resist movement through your spine while your arms and legs move around it.
Think about everyday life.
Carrying groceries.
Picking up your kids.
Walking uphill.
Lifting weights.
Your trunk’s job isn’t always to create movement. Often, it’s to control it.
That’s why I spend so much time coaching breathing, rib position, and control during this exercise.

A few cues I like:
✅ draw the ribs down
✅ Breathe in as you reach
✅ Don’t let your back arch excessively either way
✅ Stay calm and controlled through the middle while

your limbs move: the torso should stay relatively still whilst you move the limbs we’re teaching your body to resist unwanted movement. Your arms and legs move, but your trunk stays calm, controlled, and strong. That’s often what we need for lifting, running, carrying kids, gardening, and managing back pain

Remember, if your back is moving more than your arms and legs, you’ve probably missed the point.

Control first.
Strength second.
Load later.

Relieve pain. Rebuild strength. Return resilient.

TheRecoveryProje

One of the biggest frustrations for people with spinal stenosis is that improvement rarely happens as quickly as they ex...
04/06/2026

One of the biggest frustrations for people with spinal stenosis is that improvement rarely happens as quickly as they expect.

They learn a new exercise.
They learn pelvic control.

They start understanding how to stand differently.

Then a week later they’re frustrated because they still can’t stand through cooking dinner or walk around the supermarket without symptoms.

The mistake is assuming that understanding a movement is the same as building the capacity to use it.

They’re not the same thing.
Think about learning to drive.
After one lesson, you understand where the pedals are and how the car works.

That doesn’t mean you’re ready for a 4-hour road trip.
Spinal stenosis is often similar.

Learning control is important, but control is only the foundation.

Your body then needs time to build the strength, endurance, and confidence to maintain that control while living your life.

That’s why many people feel disappointed.

They expect:
Exercise → Relief → Fixed

When the reality is often:
Exercise → Better control → Improved endurance → Increased capacity → Better function

The biggest wins often aren’t seen in the first few sessions.

They’re seen when you suddenly realise:
✔ You cooked dinner without sitting down.
✔ You walked around the supermarket without leaning on the trolley.
✔ You stood chatting for longer than usual.
✔ You didn’t spend the whole afternoon recovering afterwards.

Those changes can feel slow while they’re happening.
But they’re often the things that matter most.

If you have spinal stenosis, don’t judge your progress by what happened this week.

Ask yourself:
“Can I do more than I could 6 weeks ago?”
Because that’s usually where the real progress is hiding

03/06/2026

Hamstring pain can be frustrating.

You stretch it.
You foam roll it.
You rest it.

Then it flares up again the next time you run, lift, sprint, or even walk uphill

One of the first places we often start is with isometrics.
In this video I’m using both a short lever and a long lever hamstring hold with my heel resting on a stool.
Why?

Because isometrics can be a useful way to gradually reintroduce load to the hamstring without asking it to repeatedly lengthen and shorten under tension.

The short lever position is usually a little easier and allows us to start building confidence and tolerance.
The long lever position increases the demand on the hamstring and is often a progression once symptoms are settling.

The goal isn’t just pain relief.

The goal is building a hamstring that can tolerate more load so you can eventually get back to running, lifting, hiking, sport, and life without constantly worrying about it.

Remember, these are often a starting point, not the entire rehab plan.
Relieve pain. Rebuild strength. Return resilient.

One of the biggest misconceptions I see around lumbar spine surgery is that it is designed to completely eliminate back ...
02/06/2026

One of the biggest misconceptions I see around lumbar spine surgery is that it is designed to completely eliminate back pain.

Sometimes it can.

But often the primary reason surgery is recommended is because of worsening leg pain, sciatica, numbness, tingling, weakness, or loss of function.

I want to be clear:
I am not anti-surgery.

I’ve seen surgery completely change people’s lives.
I’ve seen people who couldn’t walk properly, couldn’t sleep, or were losing strength in their leg get their life back after the right procedure.

The key is understanding why you’re having surgery.
If the goal is to reduce nerve compression, improve leg symptoms, or prevent neurological decline, surgery can be incredibly effective.

The challenge comes when people expect surgery to solve every contributor to their back pain.

Back pain is often influenced by many factors including strength, fitness, movement tolerance, stress, sleep, lifestyle, and overall capacity.

That’s why surgery and rehab work best together.
The surgery may create the opportunity.

Rehab helps you build the resilience to keep moving forward.

Understanding the goal of surgery often leads to better decisions, better expectations, and ultimately better outcomes.





01/06/2026

One of the biggest things we see in people with persistent hip, knee and back pain is a loss of power.
Not just strength.
Power.

The ability to push off the ground.
Climb stairs with confidence.
Change direction.
Catch yourself when you trip.

Get up from a chair without thinking about it.
Many people spend months or years avoiding movements that feel uncomfortable.

Over time, they stop trusting their body, start moving cautiously, and lose the ability to produce force through their legs.

This is why rehab isn’t just about stretching, massage, or pain relief exercises.

It’s about learning how to control your body again.

Being present in the movement.

Feeling where your weight is.

Learning how to hinge, squat, step and push properly.

Building confidence before building intensity.

Control creates the foundation.

Then strength gives you capacity.
Then power gives you your life back.

If you’ve ever felt weak, unstable, hesitant or like your legs just don’t do what they used to, it might not be because you’re getting old.

It might be because you’ve stopped training the qualities that matter.

Pain relief is the start.
Strength, control and power are what keep you moving long term.

TheRecoveryProject

One of the biggest misconceptions in chronic back pain is that every flare-up means you need a new exercise.Sometimes wh...
01/06/2026

One of the biggest misconceptions in chronic back pain is that every flare-up means you need a new exercise.
Sometimes what you actually need is an honest audit of your life.

➡️How many responsibilities are you carrying?
➡️How many things are competing for your attention?
➡️How often do you ignore your own needs to keep everyone else happy?

Pain isn’t always a tissue problem.
Sometimes it’s a capacity problem.

And until we address that, the exercises often don’t land the way we’d hope.

What’s one thing you know is draining your capacity right now? 👇

A lot of people hear “hip extension” and immediately think it’s some complicated rehab term…But you do it every single d...
25/05/2026

A lot of people hear “hip extension” and immediately think it’s some complicated rehab term…
But you do it every single day without realising.
Hip extension is simply your leg moving backwards behind you.

You use it when you:
➡️Walk
➡️Run
➡️Push off going upstairs
➡️Get out of a chair
➡️Deadlift
➡️Lunge
➡️Stand upright

Every step you take requires your hip to move behind your body slightly.

And when that movement happens well:

➡️The glutes help drive you forward
➡️The hips absorb load efficiently
➡️The pelvis and spine share movement properly

But when the body struggles to create that movement from the hip…

The lower back often steps in to help.
So instead of the hip opening and extending backwards, people arch through their lower back to create the movement somewhere else.

That’s why some people constantly feel:
➡️Tight through the lower back
➡️Pinching at the front of the hip
➡️Hamstrings always “on”
➡️Compression standing upright
➡️Stiffness walking after sitting

The body still found movement…
Just not from the area we wanted.
And importantly movement in the lower back is NOT bad.
Your spine is supposed to move.

The issue is when the lower back repeatedly becomes the main area creating movement and load without enough strength or conditioning to tolerate it.

That’s why rehab is often about:
1️⃣Improving hip strength
2️⃣Teaching the glutes to contribute
3️⃣Improving pelvic control
4️⃣Building spinal strength and tolerance
5️⃣Helping the body share movement better

Not trying to make the spine perfectly stiff forever.

Because a healthy body is not one where nothing moves.
It’s one where movement is shared well.

29/11/2025

1️⃣ Lack of control: especially with shear
Most people move well until they reach the edges of a movement.That’s where the spine starts to shear (slide instead of stay stacked).

In a strong, controlled movement, the blocks stay neatly on top of each other.In a shear movement, one block glides forward or backward compared to the others.

It’s not dangerous it just means the muscles that should control that movement aren’t doing their job well enough in that moment.If you can’t control those end ranges, your back gets irritated fast.

2️⃣ Too much load too quickly
Your body can handle stress, but only if it builds up gradually. The fastest way to flare your back is jumping into weight, reps, or movements your body isn’t ready for.

3️⃣ The combination of both (the perfect storm)
Most “out of nowhere” flare-ups happen when someone:loses control and adds too much load or volume too fast
Weak control + big load = irritated spine.

4️⃣ Bonus: Moving too fast / rushing reps
Speed hides poor mechanics.
The faster you go, the more your spine cheats to keep up.
Slow = control. Fast = flare-up.

5️⃣ And sometimes… the programming itself is the issue, When you repeat the same patterns over and over (hinge + hinge, squat + squat), the spine gets tired, loses control, and reacts.

If your back pain keeps coming back, this is exactly what we help people fix at The Recovery Project.

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1/39 Barry Avenue
Cromwell
9310

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Tuesday 10am - 5:30am
Wednesday 10am - 7pm
Friday 9am - 3:30am

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