Blog

By David Abi-Arrage

Here at 4D Health and Performance, as our name implies, we aim to be the best at providing a multidisciplinary approach to health and high performance. We like to say that we are the best at taking you from injury back to high performance whether you are an elite level athlete or a weekend warrior. Our Instagram and Facebook posts frequently show some of our top athletes going on to compete at professional and international events because we are very proud of their efforts and let’s be honest, we may be having a little bit of a humble brag!

99% of our patients and clients are not however, elite level athletes and sportspeople. 99% of our patients and clients are corporate workers who play social soccer or cycle on the weekends. They have their kids footy on the weekends and try to hit the gym or go for a run 2-3 times a week. They don’t care about vertical jump height, 100m sprint times or how many minutes they can play on the rugby field.

So, do we still qualify as a high-performance facility!?

We consider every patient and client that walks through our door as high-performance!

Each individual has performance goals, targets and requirements for each aspect of their lives.

From a sporting viewpoint, whether you are racing in the 100m Olympic finals, or playing squash one night a week with work mates, you need to be performing at your best! We see performance targets in all levels of activity.

• Decreasing your time for ‘Grace’ in Crossfit;
• Increasing your snatch 1RM in preparation for your first weightlifting competition;
• Acing your first serve in tennis.

There is nobody out there, competing in any level of sport, who is not trying to improve their performance.

But what about patients who are not playing sport or are not physically active? Do they still qualify as high-performance? Of course, they do!

I couldn’t even begin to guess how many times in practice I’ve heard the following:

“I can’t concentrate at work because of the pain – my work is really suffering!”

“I can’t look over my shoulder when trying to change lanes, I’m now scared to drive!”

“My kids wanted to have a wrestle on the weekend and I snapped at them because they jumped on my back and set it off!”

“I get tired and my knee aches when I try to walk up the stairs at home!”

These are what we call activities of daily living. They are things that you need to be able to do to get about your life as easily and efficiently as possible. For the above people – these things are required in order to maximize performance.

High-performance for the corporate lawyer may involve spending 12 hours a day researching for a case. That may be a little bit hard when you can’t move your neck and have a splitting headache

High-performance for the personal trainer involves demonstrating certain exercises and being on your feet all day – tough when you have a lumbar sprain/strain.

High performance for the barista is pumping out 100+ coffees in the morning rush – try doing that with wrist sprain/strain.

The point is, everybody has a level of performance that they need to achieve!

The 4 pillars of human performance that we strive to educate all of our patients and client on, are designed to help motivate and empower people to take control of their own performance, and to minimize the risk of injury and illness.

They are:

• Recovery
• Mindset
• Movement
• Nutrition

No matter what context, or what level of athlete you are, prioritizing these 4 points and applying them to your version of high performance, will allow you to get the most out of your day.

Our next blog will go into more detail around the 4 pillars of human performance and how to implement them into your lives, but for the purpose of the point I am trying to make here, they can be easily simplified.

Adequate sleep, adequate exercise, positive open mindset, eating real food.

Looks like all those Men’s/Women’s health articles were onto something after all!