Category: News
UPMC Sports Surgery Clinic welcomes new Consultants
SSC are delighted to welcome the following consultants to our team.
Maurice O’Flaherty
Mr Maurice O’Flaherty MSc (Sports Med) FRCSEd (Tr & Ortho) is a Consultant Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgeon, specialising in Foot & Ankle Surgery, Trauma Surgery and Sports injuries.
He graduated in Medicine (MB BCh BaO) at Queens University Belfast in 2002, going on to follow a surgical career path, gaining a place on the Northern Ireland Orthopaedic Higher Surgical Training scheme in 2007. He obtained his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh (Trauma & Orthopaedics) in 2012 and went on to take up a place on the prestigious Surrey Foot and Ankle Fellowship in London.
Mr O’Flaherty has also graduated from the University of Bath, England, gaining a Masters of Science degree in Sports & Exercise Medicine. He spent time training with doctors and allied health professionals from all aspects of sport and exercise medicine, including Premier League Football and Rugby Union. He works with many high-level sportspersons including GAA players, Ulster Rugby, Ulster Hockey, NI Netball and Irish League Soccer.
He is a Consultant in the Royal Victoria Hospital and Musgrave Park Hospital Belfast, being a member of the on-call Trauma team in the former, which is a designated Major Trauma Centre. He is currently a certified Advanced Trauma Life Support Instructor.
He was appointed Lead Clinician for Foot & Ankle Surgery in the Belfast Health & Social Care Trust in 2019.
Specialist interests include all aspects of complex foot and ankle problems including ankle instability and stabilisation, ankle arthroscopy (keyhole surgery), lower limb sports injuries and fractures, achilles tendon injuries and surgery, bunion (hallux valgus) surgery, lesser toe deformities, heel pain, tendon problems and foot and ankle arthritis.
Professor Joseph M Queally
Professor Queally is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the UPMC Sports Surgery Clinic and Associate Professor at Trinity College Dublin. He specialises in treating patients with musculoskeletal injuries (both trauma and sports injuries) and chronic conditions affecting the lower limb including the hip, knee and ankle joints. He has specific expertise in hip and knee joint replacement (primary, complex and revision), arthroscopic (keyhole) knee surgery, upper and lower limb fracture fixation and joint injection.
Professor Queally graduated from University College Dublin in 2002 and completed the Irish surgical training programme in Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery with the award of FRCS (Tr &Orth) in 2014. He then completed a fellowship in complex trauma (pelvic and lower limb) and joint replacement at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge in 2015. Addenbrooke’s is a major academic health science centre in the UK and is the major trauma centre for the East of England with a 21-bed trauma ICU and a trauma catchment population of 6 million. He was subsequently appointed a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Addenbrooke’s in 2016 and was the departmental Head of Trauma at the time of his return to Ireland in 2019 to a Consultant post at St James’s Hospital.
“My philosophy of care is to understand the individual needs of my patients and deliver a bespoke treatment plan that is based on the most up to date evidence. Ultimately the primary aim is to achieve a return to the best possible level of function so patients can return to daily life as soon as possible.”
Senior Times Podcast – Mike Murphy meets Ray Moran
In this Podcast published by Senior Times Magazine, Mike Murphy interviews Mr Ray Moran, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon specialising in knee pain and Medical Director of UPMC Sports Surgery Clinic.
During this interview, Ray discusses his career in Orthopaedics, his vision for founding the UPMC Sports Surgery Clinic and how the perception of the athlete has been redefined in recent years. They also discuss how orthopaedic surgery such as knee replacement or ACL repair has developed over the past few years and how someone can be referred to SSC.
Redefining the Athlete
At SSC, we believe its time to redefine the term, Athlete. Traditionally athletes are viewed as younger elite sportspeople. However, in today’s society, regardless of age, people are becoming more aware of their physical activity level. There is an understanding of the importance of getting and remaining active from both a physical and mental health perspective.
People are becoming much more active in middle age, and later life/retirement be it walking, golfing, cycling or running, and this increase in physical activity is exposing musculoskeletal problems for some.
The recreational 70-year-old golfer, therefore, is very much an athlete in every sense of the word. If this person can no longer play the back nine holes at their course due to pain in their back, hip or knee – we are here to help.
The vast majority of people who present at SSC for treatment are middle-aged or older. Many have a desire to remain active and maintain some form of fitness level but are restricted physically by some musculoskeletal problem.
| For further information on knee pain or to make an appointment with a knee specialist in Santry please contact info@sportssurgeryclinic.com |
Evening for Golfers – A selection of Photographs
Here are a selection of photographs taken at UPMC Sports Surgery Clinic’s ‘Evening For Golfers’ series which took place in several Golf Clubs earlier this year.
These events focused on the prevention of back pain and exercises to improve golf performance and minimise the risk of injury when playing golf.
Presentations and practical demonstrations were by Katie Gill, Senior Physiotherapist at SSC specialising in back pain and Luke Hart, Senior Strength & Conditioning Coach and Fitness Lead at SSC Sports Medicine.
Many thanks to Edmondstown Golf Club, Donabate Golf Club, Roganstown Golf Club and Balbriggan Golf Club for facilitating these talks.
A copy of Luke Hart’s Strength & Conditioning program for golfers is available by clicking here.
| For further information on low back pain or SSC fitness programmes, please contact sportsmedicine@sportssurgeryclinic.com |
Dr Cruciate: Surgeon Ray Moran on growing up with his famous brother Kevin and getting the cream of Irish sport back on track
The Big Interview: Surgeon Ray Moran talks about getting Jon Bon Jovi back on stage, growing up alongside his famous brother Kevin, working with the cream of Irish sport and getting them back on track plus why surgery is not always the best option and how doctors should treat the patient, not the scan or the X-ray…
This article by Michael Verney was published in the Irish Independent on May 30th 2020. Photos by David Conachy.
The moniker of being ‘surgeon to the stars’ is taken to a different stratosphere when a name like Jon Bon Jovi is thrown into the mix and the rock star is just one of thousands who have come under the watchful eyes of Ray Moran.
Patient Confidentiality prevents him from documenting most of the clients who have passed through the doors of the UPMC Sports Surgery Clinic (SSC) in Santry but standing proudly in the corner of his office is a glowing testimonial from the music icon.
The Bon Jovi frontman was “Livin’ on a Prayer” when he heard a pop and blew out the meniscus in his knee halfway through a concert in front of 40,000 screaming fans in Helsinki nine years ago only for Moran to quickly ride to the rescue.
Referred by American doctor Steve O’Brien after initially being advised to cancel his European Tour and leave his adoring public heartbroken, Bon Jovi made a swift transfer to Dublin and was back on stage a week later. Everything was a bed of roses again.
“The doctor suggested I consider postponing six weeks’ full of stadium shows across Europe. But the knee bone is not connected to the singing bone, my dear doctor. Surrender was not an option and eight days later I was back on the stage jumping around once again,” his tribute reads.
It was a routine procedure for the vastly experienced Moran and he never missed a beat as he did what he does best with “the easiest patient”.
“He was funny. He came in and he was like, ‘Hey Doc, this knee I’ve got to get it sorted Doc, I’m on stage in eight days’ time in Athens, gotta fix it Doc, they told me to cancel 80,000 fans Doc’. I was like, ‘What are they on about? We got it’,” Moran recalls.
“He was in and it was bang, bang, done. The easiest patient, a little bit like the elite athlete, he knew exactly where he wanted to be, like someone targeting a match, they’re probably going to make it unless there’s some overwhelming reason not to. They won’t be going, ‘No, I’m too sore’. Motivation is everything.”
Moran got an early taste for the company of greatness growing up in Drimnagh alongside his younger brother Kevin, who shot to fame winning two All-Ireland SFC titles with the Dubs in the 1970s before going on to star for Manchester United and Ireland, winning 71 caps for his country.
Kevin’s remarkable talent sent Ray, who is two years his elder, into “early retirement” as regards his playing days but the affinity he garnered for sportspeople along the way – as well as having a famous brother that people regularly inquired about – helped to pave the path for an extraordinary career in orthopaedic surgery.
“We had a little garden out the front with a set of goalposts and we’d play a little bit of football but it’s very hard for an older brother to look at a younger brother and say, ‘He’s a special talent’. In fact, you’re in denial.
“We’d be kicking balls in from the side and heading them and you’d be in goal and when Kevin headed the ball it was like it had been kicked full speed. So you’d stand in goal and be like, ‘No you moved too early’, or there’d be some technical objection to make him do it again.
“There was an assumption then when I started in practice and saw patients that I would have empathy because I was Kevin’s brother. I remembering doing a ward round in Beaumont (Hospital) way back when and there was a young fella in his bed.
“People were slightly formal and it was ‘Dr Moran’ or ‘Mr Moran’ but this young fella in his mid-teens looks up and says, ‘Howya Ray, how’s a going? How’s Kev?’ They weren’t looking at you as the white coat man, they assumed you weren’t some high high-falutin looking down on them and ‘you’re one of us’.”
Moran specialises in everything related to the knee – particularly cruciate ligament surgery – and having founded the UPMC Sports Surgery Clinic in 2007 and “ridden out the storm” of the financial crash in its early years, he has watched it grow beyond recognition with over 500 people now employed at their Santry base.
His list of patients reads like a who’s who of sport with Kerry football legend Colm ‘Gooch’ Cooper, former Dublin star Bernard Brogan, Tipperary hurler Brendan Maher, Leinster and Ireland rugby flanker Josh van der Flier and world-renowned stunt driver Mattie Griffin just a handful of those who have gone under his knife.
Clare hurling captain John Conlon was one of the last patients to negotiate surgery on a ruptured ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) before lockdown hit and Moran relishes dealing with elite athletes.
There have been some miraculous recoveries following his handiwork with Brogan returning in 23 weeks but former Munster and Ireland back row Alan Quinlan reckons he boasts the record having trained fully five months after cruciate surgery and played just two weeks later.
There is “a strangely personal” connection built up between doctor and patient, though, and Moran is not a good spectator. Instead, he prefers to hear or read about their success.
“I still find it almost easier not to watch it. When players come back for key games, if you’re watching it you’re almost like a relative, you’re following everything and wincing and it’s almost selfish from a surgeon’s perspective,” he says.
“You love to hear when so and so returned and you make sure that they weren’t substituted and that they went through the game. You’d have a fantastic fascination and when you’re dealing with players, it doesn’t matter what county, it’s all about the player.
“You want to see them play well and I’m a supporter of so many counties. People often ask, ‘What kind of loyalty is that?’, but you’re thrilled and delighted when you see guys back and playing at a good level.
“Dealing with people like that is a pleasure and an honour because they’re focused. We do assessments after surgery and when you’re dealing with athletes like that, you get these results back and you’re saying, ‘Wow’.
“How come the really talented athletes tend to be the best? Well, they tend to be the hardest working too.”
Known as Dr Cruciate for his unparalleled expertise in that area, Moran “will never tire of working with motivated patients” but the coronavirus pandemic has brought his creation – for which Kevin is also a board member and shareholder – to a standstill. With the Dublin 9 clinic taken over by the HSE, it gives him some rare time to reflect. Interviews are scarce as he wouldn’t have the time given that he oversees around 600 surgeries per year – bigger numbers than anywhere in the world – spread over Tuesdays and Fridays with the cruciate operation taking roughly an hour.
There’s normally a massive waiting list for his services with spring and summer a hive of activity as cruciate injuries are most common during that time given the torque and twisting in sports like GAA, rugby, soccer and basketball.
Silk, silver, wire, polyester and carbon fibre have all been used to replace the cruciate in years gone by but grafts from the patellar tendon (knee), his personal preference where possible, the hamstring and the quadriceps are most common now as sports science continues to advance.
Young Hurler of the Year Adrian Mullen and Limerick’s All-Star defender Richie English are two of many to have suffered the dreaded curse of the cruciate – which usually requires at least nine months on the sidelines – already this year but Moran doesn’t view sport as some sort of “kamikaze mission”.
Yes, there is an increased risk given that the cruciate is “a modest ligament” being put under more pressure than it is constructed to absorb but he doesn’t consider it to be an epidemic.
“We’re biologically not rotational animals. What we’ve evolved to in terms of normal on earth day-to-day activity, be it hunting or whatever it was, it would be more than adequate for that. But when we brought sport into the picture, that wasn’t part of the evolutionary process,” he says.
“So next thing something happens to your cruciate and it’s like, ‘Oh my God’, and that’s the long and short of it. Animals have better ACLs than we would. The mountain lion, for example, has a triple-bundle ACL, very sophisticated because it has evolved. If it slips off a cliff edge, it’s gone. That’s evolution and nature. We wouldn’t have too many knee problems if we just walked the dog but that’s not where we want to be and we don’t want our body to be perfect as we sign off. Torque rotation will always have a risk factor because it’s basically doing something that we’re not necessarily designed for.
“All of our preventative treatments are dealing with a situation that puts a demand on the knee but we have to accept that and work as best we can to minimise the injury rates. People’s fitness levels have gone up so much that people think there’s an incremental increase in the injury rate.
“I’m not sure about that, we don’t have stats to compare this with 30 years ago. I would still see patients that would come into me in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s and they’ve torn their cruciate and had an injury way back and I’ve seen plenty from then that didn’t even know they had it.”
What pleases him most is results of extensive research carried out at SSC (which was published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine) highlighting that a two-year follow-up on nearly 1,500 patients resulted in over 80 per cent returning to competitive sport after cruciate surgery.
The development of 3G (Third Generation synthetic) pitches and other all-weather surfaces is often blamed for a spike in injuries but he is “not quite sure if the artificial surfaces are as guilty as they are made out to be”.
Regenerative
Moran is keen to pour cold water on the benefit of stem cell treatments, though, as he operates on the maxim of “numbers, numbers, numbers” to reinforce his practice and he doesn’t believe the evidence is there to support such regenerative medicines.
“People sometimes say have you tried stem cell? I say, ‘Hang on guys, where’s the data?’ You have to look at data in relation to it because there’s a lot of funny stuff. You have to be data-driven, you have to be able to collect your data both orthopaedically and in sports medicine,” he outlines.
“You have to be able to stand over the results and say they are verifiable as opposed to, ‘Why don’t you try this or that?’ It’s a disappointment really. We were looking at bringing the programme here because it’s exciting, front-foot stuff but let’s look at the data first and foremost.
“They get some results saying patients feel a bit better after a year or two but there’s no studies that show that stem cells regenerate articular cartilage, none. If you image the knee a year later, it will show no evidence that the defects have been filled so that’s not very encouraging.
“You have to make sure that you’re not being hoodwinked or that you’re not doing change for change’s sake,” he adds. “I don’t think we should be imposing ourselves as much on the body and trying to tweak it. If you get too clever with it, it can bite back.”
With players often eager to return to full health as soon as possible when sidelined, there can be a temptation to go for surgery as a quick-fix to get back in the mix but Moran always puts himself in the patient’s chair.
‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ is his philosophy and with his average patient being “middle-aged and playing golf or working out or doing hill walks”, he gasps at clients being advised to go under the knife based on X-rays or MRIs, rather than reality.
“I’d say 95 per cent of people that tell me that they were told they’d need a hip or a knee replacement in 10 years, it turns out not to be the case. I’m always astonished by the number of people that tell people that and I sometimes give them a second opinion and I’m like, ‘What? Where are you saying this?’.
“Because it’s something on an X-ray – go way out of that. ACLs all show some wear and tear but how many end up with joint replacements? Bugger all. I’ve seen people abandon things because of advice they didn’t need to have. If you have an injury, a bit of wear and tear, and you’re able to comfortable do whatever, then comfortably do it.
Rush
“There’s very little data to suggest otherwise. It’s a quality of life issue and if I see a patient coming in to me after three months. I’ll say, ‘That’s too early, there’s no rush’. Operate on the patient, not the scan or the X-ray.
“I remember looking at a knee and saying, ‘You must be really suffering with that’, and they went, ‘Ah, a bit stiff Doc’. It’s not a wimpy factor or tolerating pain well, it’s a level of biology. We’re at the foothills in regards to the overall explanation of the human body and it should keep us humble because it will forever surprise us.”
Moran craves “the competitive edge” of surgery and is itching to get back in action after lockdown. It enthuses him to leave his Rathgar home early every morning to beat the traffic and work “seven to seven” with over 30 years in medicine not dimming his passion one iota.
Zoom meetings are a decent alternative during unprecedented times but he can’t wait to “see the whites of the eyes” of his patients, all part of getting to know the people that place their trust in him. A round of golf in the Castle golf club last week was a nice change of pace but there’s nothing like the operating theatre.
He craves the endorphins which dealing with the elite brings and the SSC has attracted athletes from far afield like Spain, France, Italy and Australia with several AFL players making the 35,000-km round-trip to be in their care. Head of sport and high performance Enda King has overseen the development of a 10,000-sq foot Sports Medicine department which is in a league of its own, catering for 240 patients per day pre Covid-19.
A fellowship to the US in his younger days blew Moran’s mind and he returned with lofty ambitions. Little did he think that it would “go places that I never saw it going to” and it’s now a one-stop shop for the full array of sporting ailments.
It’s currently valued at over €60million but “it never felt like work” to Moran and he has his eyes on luring Premier League footballers to Santry as “there’s never an end point” with the next goal around the corner.
One thing is for certain, any patient who comes in contact with Moran will be in the safest hands of them all – thousands will attest to that.
Indo Sport
| For further information on ACL Repair or to make an appointment with a knee specialist at SSC please contact info@sportssurgeryclinic.com |
Preparation Exercises for Golf
Our team of Strength & Conditioning coaches at UPMC Sports Surgery Clinic have created the following exercises aimed at helping you prepare for your round of golf and improve your overall performance.
| • Cues: Sit back into a chair – Shirt logo facing forward – Belt buckle up • Increase range (depth) throughout the set (maintain spine angle) • 2 x 8 reps |
| • Cues: Split stance – Upper body quiet (statue) – Belt buckle up • Carousel drop – Increase range throughout the set • 2 x 6 reps each side |
| • Cues: Split stance with weight on the front foot • Rock back and forward keeping the heel on the ground • 2 x 10 reps each side + 10 second stretch at the end |
| • Cues: Extend one arm – Short grip on a band – Pull the bow • 2 x 6 reps each side |
| • Cues: Hands behind the head (or hold a band or club) • Fix hips – Rotate upper body (minimal lower back) – Increase range • 2 x 6 reps each side |
| • Hinge over like your bowing to the crowd – Maintain spine angle – Belt buckle • Increase range throughout the set (feel stretch through rear thigh) • 2 x 8 reps each side |
| • Athletic stance – Quiet hips and lower body – Rotate upper body forcefully • Arms remain locked out (stiff) and a wide arc is created • 2 x 6 reps each side |
| • Band, stick or club rotate forward and back over the head • Object remains on a wide arc -Posture remains tall and quiet • 2 x 10 reps each way |
You can download the exercise sheet by clicking below. A sample S&C planner is also available to download below.
|
SSC Celebrate International Nurses Day 2020
Happy International Nurses Day – A message from Breda Brennan, Director of Nursing, SSC
Today May 12th marks the annual celebration of “International Nurses day”. Every day I encounter and observe the dedication and the commitment that our Nurses give to our patients here at SSC. The positive feedback that I get demonstrates the wonderful service they provide daily which is praise that is well deserved. Nurses are pivotal to healthcare systems worldwide and today all around the world our colleagues are working tirelessly proving compassion and care and attention to people whenever and wherever they need it. What a fortunate time to publically share this recognition.
I am thankful that by working together we are able to create the best experience for our patients as they take their journey with us and I would like to personally thank all of our SSC Nurses for the kindness, compassion and excellent care they provide to our patients. When you meet our nurses today please thank them congratulate them on this special day. #internationalnursesday
‘I feel fitter, stronger and more energy-filled than I have in a long time’
‘I feel fitter, stronger and more energy-filled than I have in a long time’ – Clare McKenna reveals results midway through six-month health overhaul.
This article by Clare McKenna was published in the Sunday Independent on April 19th
Our world has changed utterly since February, when radio host Clare McKenna started her health overhaul, but our physical and mental well-being have never been so important. Here, we check in with her midway through the journey she is sharing with Sunday Independent LIFE.
A lot has changed in the three months since I pledged to give my overall health an overhaul. This health journey now pales into insignificance compared to the global health journey we have all been on with Covid-19, but as health and wellness take centre stage, our ability to fortify our own is perhaps more pertinent than ever. So, a reminder about my premise: my intention was to consistently follow advice on health and wellness to see how it felt to operate at optimum. As presenter of Newstalk’s health and wellness show, Alive and Kicking, I have met some incredible minds, and managed to convince some of them to work with me over six months.
I started with a complete health check, beginning with bloods, at my GP, Dr Sinead Hussey. She recommends that anyone over the age of 40 (I am 42 this month), and maybe a little earlier, should undergo an annual review of this kind, and at €35, it can provide peace of mind. Most tests came back normal, thankfully. She did say there was evidence of more saturated fat in my blood that she would have liked, but as it was January 7, it seemed plausible that the season to be jolly was clinging to me as much as I was still clinging to it.
The other red flag was that my calcium levels were a little low; not worrying yet, but not something she’d like to see worsen. This came as a wake-up call for me, and is a massive reminder of why I wanted to set out on this journey at all. I’ve got lost on the wellness road before, and become overwhelmed with the mixed messages around what we should and shouldn’t eat. I’ve been on every bandwagon and tried every fad going, in the pursuit of health. But was I actually making trendy decisions at the cost of my health?
I’ve been half-vegan, half-paleo, half keeping an eye on what I’m eating and half ‘sure who cares, I’m busy’, without ever truly understanding the impact any of this was having on my health. Years ago, I read (from a celebrity, not a dermatologist) that dairy can cause skin congestion, so as I was getting a spot or two, I self-diagnosed and decided to cut out a food group. I did see a difference in my skin, by the way, but I didn’t think about what might be happening on the inside.
And here is where I think many of us fall short; we focus on the aesthetic, what’s on the outside, and not enough on our inner health, which ironically is the best way to improve how you look and feel. We see popping abs on an Instagram post, and without knowing anything about the actual health of the person in the photo, begin taking lifestyle advice from them. I’ve been there!
| After the GP, my next port of call was to the UPMC Sports Surgery Clinic in Santry, Dublin. It offers a range of health checks for everyone from elite athletes to those with health issues. Using specialist equipment, you really get an in-depth analysis of your overall health. |
I was quietly confident. I work out regularly – although maybe not as consistently as I should when I let family or work-life override it. I also eat well and I’m comfortable in my own skin. I don’t spend time obsessing over my dress size; if my clothes feel tight, I eat less; a back-and-forth that has continued pretty much all of my adult life. As it happened, I was feeling good that day.
Somewhat sobering results
After an initial chat with the fascinating Dr Andrew Franklyn-Miller, it was time to don the hospital gown. I didn’t step on any scales or have anybody measurements taken; the Dexa scan reading of body-fat percentage and lean muscle mass was all the health indication I needed. The Dexa scanner uses a very low dose of radiation to scan your body, rather like an X-ray. It takes about five minutes, and you get the results immediately. Mine were somewhat sobering. For my age range (41-45 years), my percentage of body fat – 36.5pc – put me in the overweight category by 0.5pc. I was never as happy to be in an older age bracket, because if I were younger, the result would have been worse. In the 41-45 age bracket, 35-38pc is considered overweight; after that, it’s into obese territory. Bear in mind that, although I had taken the wheels off over Christmas, I am health conscious and exercise regularly. Dr Franklyn-Miller explained that while using calipers to pinch and assess body fat is fairly accurate, we can distribute fat in different areas of our body, including around our organs, and the Dexa scanner is the only way to truly detect this fat. I didn’t get my bone density assessed, but Dr Franklyn-Miller did tell me that lower calcium levels in my blood was reason enough to be concerned about osteopenia (when bones are weaker than normal) or osteoporosis (brittle bones) later in life. More sobering news.
As well as filling out a detailed lifestyle questionnaire, I also wore a heart monitor for five days to assess my heart-rate variability and stress handling during everything from sleeping to eating to working out. The research shows that the time between your heartbeats will lessen if you’re more stressed, and conversely, the beats will be farther apart if you are relaxed and your body is coping better through nutrition, rest and recovery. My results came back with a label of ‘pretty good’. I wore the monitor on a week where excessive exercise wasn’t a major feature, which was a shame, but no red markers for stress showed, and the quality of my sleep was good.
The Health Lab also takes a detailed look at bloods to check for markers of bone health, cellular health and inflammation. Dr Franklyn-Miller says that increasingly they see people who want to take control of their own health, and one of the ways to be empowered is by having information about how healthy you really are.
He also said there is potential for me to make changes to my body composition through looking at my nutrition and taking more consistent exercise. By reducing body fat and the extra load on my body, both of which cause stress to my organs, he explained that I’d have less chance of developing type 2 diabetes and other inflammation issues.
And so to Daniel Davey, performance nutritionist. It was he who started me on this journey when he joined me on Alive and Kicking to talk about his book, Eat Up Raise Your Game. He set me a target of reducing my body fat by losing a one pound a week over a six-month period: a steady and gradual loss. The Dexa scan had shown that my lean muscle mass was 43.6kg. Shockingly, to increase this even to 45.6kg would be pretty miraculous, Daniel said. Fat so much easier to put on.
Why is increasing muscle mass important? This has nothing to do with the aesthetic. More muscle means better resistance to disease, a lower level of mortality, better insulin sensitivity and more resistance to injury. This is not about becoming ripped, it’s about extending the quality and length of your life in a healthy and consistent manner. So, my homework was set: I was to eat proper, balanced meals consisting of 40pc carbohydrate, 30pc fat and 30pc protein at every sitting. Daniel set me a calorie intake I was never to go below. I was to focus on fuelling my consistent workouts, which had to include resistance training, and afterwards, I had to eat adequately to recover from those sessions.
I have never looked at food in this way in my life. I see food as pleasure, although I also swing between that and eating in deprivation to make up for a splurge – an attitude that isn’t as balanced as I thought it was. Over the last three months, I have eaten more than I have in a long time. I’m not afraid to overeat and I’m not categorising any food groups as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but I am assessing everything in terms of how it affects my body, and how this makes me feel. Introducing this way of eating has improved my energy levels and I’ve been on the search for a magic pill to do that for years – let food be thy medicine! At the moment, I am more motivated to train, because I have more energy and I’m sleeping better. I have had to meal-plan and cook more. I had let a busy work and family life stand in the way of this, often grabbing trays of pre-prepared meals in the supermarket, or having food-on-the-go in the car, but I have found that if I take the time to batch-cook one or two days of the week, I have more time on the other days, as I reach for dinner from the freezer or have food on hand that will nourish me and that I enjoy.
I haven’t spent time weighing amounts or agonising over percentages – it’s been a rough gauge; through trial and error, I’ve figured out what works for me. For example, before lockdown, there was a busy work day when I left a too-long gap between breakfast and lunch. When I eventually made it to one of my favourite salad bars, where they have plenty of ‘carbohydrate, fat and protein’-combination options, I temporarily slipped back to my ‘eat less is better’ ways and ordered mainly veg and leaves. It didn’t fill me, and even though I ate a proper dinner that evening, I was off-kilter and woke the next morning feeling exhausted. I would have often woken that way after a solid seven or eight hours sleep, but until now I never made the link between that tiredness and what I’d eaten the day before. I had assumed I was eating healthily because there wasn’t an abundance of processed food and takeaways, but I wasn’t fuelling my body correctly.
When it came to my training, another former Alive and Kicking guest who made a big impression was Claire McGrath, a major achiever in everything from gymnastics to body building and yoga teacher training. She’s even a headstand expert! And along with an in-depth knowledge of muscle and strength building, she has the zen of being a yoga teacher, meditation master and breathwork expert.
For my wedding back in 2008, I punished myself with a very strict regime. With the thought of wedding photos as my motivator, I trained hard, I trained consistently, and I never even had a cheat day. I felt fit, strong and there were lots of positives, but it wasn’t balanced and so I couldn’t sustain it in the long term. Once I went on honeymoon, I relaxed a bit and realised the world wouldn’t end, and I never really went back.
Because of that, I loved Claire’s approach – it seemed relaxed and more focused on a positive body image than driving yourself to a deprivation diet and workout programme designed to essentially change yourself.
Claire set up Yo Yo Om with her business partner, Rosie Harte. They met on the IFBB Pro circuit and became kindred spirits, initially bonding over the consequences of coming out of the strict regime of body-building competitions. Yo Yo Om gives courses on health, well-being and mindset, with a big focus on why our eating can become disordered, and fostering a healthy relationship with our bodies. I was invited to work with the girls through their online and video-call coaching, to see where I was at with food and body image.
This wasn’t a road I had intended to go down when I set off, but I have always been open to the mind, body and soul aspect of wellness, and while I was excited by what I learnt from Dr Franklyn-Miller and Daniel Davey – that consistent nutrition and exercise will bring about long-term health – I think it is worth considering our emotional selves too, and exploring why we eat the way we eat.
Embarking on The Reset
So I started with one of the Yo Yo Om courses, The Reset. The word ‘detox’ has amassed much criticism, mainly due to the fact that there is little scientific evidence to back up the notion that our bodies require extra help to process and purge toxins. We have organs, such as the skin and the liver, which are designed to do just that. Also, if you’ve ever done a ‘detox’ – be it juice or shake derived – you spend a few days feeling fairly hungry, and once you return to ‘normal’ eating, you revert back to how you were before. But the idea of their reset appealed to me. This is not a deprivation diet: you do not go hungry, and there are lots of things you can eat as much of as you like, but all the usual culprits are gone – sugar, caffeine, processed foods. It was described as a rest for the body, and I did it for 10 days.
I have to add that this went against the advice of Daniel Davey – and isn’t suitable for many people – but personally I felt I needed a kick. Not a weight-loss kick, but to break some bad habits and start with a clean slate. And it worked for me. I ate lots of rice and veg and porridge, and undid so many of the tales I was telling myself: that I couldn’t function without coffee; that I needed a little something sweet after dinner. I did it for journalistic endeavour, and I did it because it appealed to me, and I have no regrets. The reset set me up for my new way of looking at food, and I no longer framed the nutrition plan ahead as something difficult. If I could reset for 10 days, I could do anything.
Claire and Rosie also asked me some big questions during our coaching calls. They didn’t disagree with the idea that reducing body fat and increasing lean muscle mass is good for overall health, but they asked about the happiness that comes when the number on the scales or scan results change, and talked through the emotions attached to eating. While my plan of body-fat reduction and keeping a keen eye on what I ate went against their intuitive eating ideal, likewise theirs jarred with the thoughts of Daniel Davey, but we found a way to work the two in tandem. I followed the exercise and nutrition plan, which I have loved and really benefited from; and they continue to coach me through thoughts, feelings and mindset, from which I have learned so much.
But I also needed a trainer, someone to set me some resistance-based weight training and keep an eye on my progress, and that came from Fiona Oppermann of Dublin Sports Clinic. A former international sprinter, Fiona is now highly qualified in the areas of sports and exercise management, exercise physiology, and is a sports therapist and strength and conditioning coach. She’s also a ball of energy who makes me wish I’d been more into athletics than speech and drama at school, and she doesn’t let you set foot in the gym or lift a weight before she’s fully assessed you on the plinth.
She checked all my muscles and joints, and my overall mobility. From that, she could see any deficiencies that needed to be worked on before I could begin to build more muscle. I got up off that bed with a feeling that myself and my muscle composition were severely lacking, but Fiona assured me that with a little work ironing out kinks, and a bit more focus on muscle repair with things like foam-rolling and Epsom-salt baths, we’d be building lean muscle in no time.
Fiona then set me a series of exercises using a resistance band and weights that I could do twice a week at my local gym, with some added exercise, such as a hike or HIIT class. She also set me the challenge of running a mile a day for 40 days. She reckons that regardless of religious beliefs, there is something about Lent that Irish people still tap into, so she uses that template.
Like the reset with Yo Yo Om, this was something relatively small – a mile is just 1.6km; a jog around my block that took 10 to 12 minutes, but it became something massive. In the early days, I would procrastinate about it all day until I eventually did it, and it was always absolutely fine. I enjoyed it and felt better for it, and that was the lesson. You think you can’t do certain things, but really, you can do anything you put your mind to.
I started to see a change in my fitness levels and that, matched with the strength programme in the gym and the way I’ve been eating, meant I began to feel stronger and run better. I’d recommend something like the mile run as an easy kickstart. If you need to walk a bit, that’s fine, you can build up, but you still get the challenge, the achievement and the endorphin rush without having to set something eye-watering like getting up at 5 am to run 10k. It’s definitely been one of the most informative things I have ever done. In fact, the whole three months has – I feel fitter, stronger and more energy-filled than I have in a long time. And for the first time, it doesn’t feel like hard work or as if I’m depriving myself in any way. I know I’ve been very lucky to have so much input from so many brilliant people, and the motivation of writing this article, but, to be honest, the info I’ve tapped into is there for everyone. The main thing is the commitment to change, and that comes from you. From time to time I have struggled, as I often do, to keep all the plates in the air, and exercise can often be an easy one to drop. The kids; my work; my husband’s work; spending time with my ageing dad; hanging out with my pals – these can all be used as excuses to let things slip, but if you try, you can rearrange the priority list. Once you begin to feel the benefits of keeping exercise and nutrition on point, it really becomes the new normal.
Since the restrictions around Covid-19 have come into play, I haven’t felt the urge to fall off the wagon. Keeping my focus on exercise and eating well has actually been a massive saviour. Getting to the gym has obviously not been possible in the last while, but it’s been amazing to see how people have adapted, and discover the wealth of classes on Zoom, an app I didn’t know existed a month or so ago.
In a few months, I intend to return to the Dexa scanner, Covid-19 allowing, to see if I have been able to turn the stats around. In the meantime, I have noticed a difference in my clothes; my body feels stronger, and I feel fitter. Consistency really is key.
As I said, I believe that true health and wellness is a mind, body and soul endeavour, and so for the next three months, while I continue with all I have in place so far, I want to explore the mind and soul element a little further.
Yo Yo Om want to delve a little deeper into my closet to see what skeletons drag me to the fridge from time to time, and I want to include more mind-exercising into my everyday. I’ve already begun to meditate a lot more, and this is a tool I have relied on heavily as social distancing and work and school closures came into force. I’ve found great solace in it.
Being freelance means every week is different. It can be tricky to figure out the difference between work-time and downtime, and where training fits into this, so I plan to work with motivation coach Andy Ramage over the next three months to quieten down the voice in my head that sometimes wavers in its commitment.
I’ve also become fascinated with morning routines and the overlap of the things that successful people and thought leaders do first thing every day. From meditating and journaling to just making your bed, the non-negotiables we place at the top of our days seem to shape the rest of it. So while routines have changed somewhat in the last few weeks, I have found the markers of making my bed and taking time just to sit and breathe have made all the difference. One of the silver linings has been that there is more time for this in our slowed-down life. With any health journey, there can be a lot to take on and it can feel overwhelming, so I’d say change one thing at a time, whether that is focusing on your breakfast, upping your fruit and veg intake, or introducing a walk or run to your day. Go slowly, and you’re more likely to go the distance. There have been times where I’ve felt there was a lot to think about, but I just focused on one thing at a time and it has all fallen into place quite nicely.
I can’t say what the next three months will bring. I cling to the idea that the world will emerge from all this kinder, and we will hang on to the lessons we have learnt about what is really important. Exactly when I get back into a gym or on a Dexa scanner remains to be seen, but I’ll be continuing to lean on all I have learnt about health and wellness. I’ll continue to nourish my mind, body and soul.
I’m hooked, and I feel great.
Follow Clare’s journey @clareslair on Instagram.
Clare presents ‘Alive and Kicking’ on Newstalk, Sundays from 9am. Clothing throughout, New Dimensions Active
| For further information on SSC’s Health Lab please call 01 526 2050 or email fitnesslab@sportssurgeryclinic.com |
Tom Parsons on his road to recovery from knee injury
In this interview with Newstalk’s Off The Ball, Mayo footballer Tom Parsons discusses his rehabilitation following a severe knee injury picked up in 2018.
“I didn’t focus on the end goal of coming back to play, I just had mini-goals. One of my coaches, Enda King, said ‘Tom, just every Friday write down the [answer to the] question are you stronger this Friday than you were last Friday?’ If that answer is yes every week then eventually you will get to the goal you want to get to.”
| To book an appointment with UPMC Sports Surgery Clinic’s Sports Medicine Department call +353 1 5262030 or email sportsmedicine@sportssurgeryclinic.com |
