Oliver Finlay is an accomplished sports performance professional, a highly educated and chartered physiotherapist with over 16 years in top-tier national and international sport, supporting elite players and coaches in achieving the highest levels of athletic success.
Based in Edinburgh, Finlay has worked with Olympic Medal winners and world champions, in addition to championship and cup winning teams, with a client roster including Team Great Britain, including during the 2012 Olympic Games, Scottish Rugby Union, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Giants, and Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.
Given their mutual interest in sports medicine and human performance, Finlay recently reached out to sports medicine and back pain expert Dr. Sean Wheeler, to discuss Dr. Wheeler’s new book UPRISE, soon to be published in the United States.
“We struck up a conversation regarding a book [Dr. Wheeler] has been writing over the last seven years.
Dr. Sean Wheeler is one of those guys you wished you had known for years, had the chance to collaborate with, bounce ideas around with & learn from during subsequent conversations.
Even in his emails, a passion for the work he has immersed himself in resonates loudly & his vocabulary is a refreshing music to the ears of those that work in the rehabilitation battlefield.
I can’t wait to read his book UPRISE, once you read the interview Sean kindly agreed to do with me, I think you might understand why.”
During an exclusive interview in which Dr. Wheeler describes why he wants to change the way the world treats back pain, he shares the thinking behind UPRISE and what he hopes to achieve:
OLIVER FINLAY: How do you hope that the approach to treatment in the [low back pain] field could develop over the next ten years in light of the work you are doing?
DR. SEAN WHEELER: I hope to reframe everything that is being done in spinal research. The entire field has been built upon the flawed idea that discs just break down. We have to change that fundamental belief.
I hope to change musculoskeletal medicine with the idea that, in addition to the back, there are five other areas in your body that have to be stable and weaken quickly: the neck, shoulders, hips, ankles and feet. Subsequently, when you get an injury that lasts for more than five days, you must not only address the injury, but also address the muscles that stabilize that area.
For example, I hope to change the way we view the chairs our kids sit in. The posture we accept in our children. The fundamental strengthening of our children as they grow to prevent future back pain, neck pain, knee and hip arthritis, among other things.
Read the full interview for more insights behind the coming revolution—the revolution in medical care for low back pain.
