Less Time Injured. More Time Progressing. Here's What Makes the Difference.
When your osteopath and personal trainer actually communicate everything changes; your recovery, your programming and your long-term progress
By Dr Harry Shirley (Osteopath), in collaboration with Club Forma · Richmond, Melbourne
Most people who train and see a health practitioner treat the two as completely separate things. The osteopath handles the clinical side. The trainer handles the gym. The two rarely talk and the client ends up passing information between them hoping they've translated it accurately.
This is the normal model. It's also a significant gap and one of the main reasons people plateau, get hurt or spend months training around a problem that could have been resolved a lot sooner.
Here's how it actually works and why it gets better results than either of us could achieve alone.
What I Need to Know About How You Train
When a client comes to see me who also trains at CF I start with a different set of questions. I want to understand what movements they're loading, what volumes they're working at and how they've been responding week to week.
This changes my assessment significantly. A finding that might seem minor in isolation becomes clinically important when I know someone is training four or five times a week. That context tells me how urgent the issue is and how quickly I need to address it.
It also explains symptom patterns that would otherwise be hard to pin down. A client presenting with lower back tightness after every session isn't just a back pain patient. Their training programme may be contributing directly to the problem and without that context I'm working with half the picture.
What the CF Trainers Need to Know That Only I Can Tell Them
It works the other way too. After I've assessed a CF client the trainers have a much fuller picture of how that person's body actually moves and what it needs.
For example a note about a hip restriction that affects how someone loads one side, clearance for a client returning to hinges post-injury with specific cues to use, or a flag that someone is in early recovery and should stay away from heavier compound work for a few more weeks.
Without that information even a well-designed programme is working in the dark.
What My Clients Actually Notice
People who see me and train with the CF team are often surprised by how much each side already knows and how much that changes their experience in both settings.
In the gym the trainer isn't guessing or working around vague descriptions of what hurts. In the clinic I'm not starting from scratch at every appointment. I know how the client has been training, what's changed and whether the work we've done together is actually showing up when they're under load.
My clients have full control over what gets shared. But once people see how it works most of them actively want the two of us talking.
Why This Kind of Care Is Hard to Find
This kind of collaboration needs trust, proximity and a genuine shared interest in the same outcome. Most practitioners don't have a working relationship with anyone on the training side. Most trainers don't have a clinician they can refer to with real confidence.
My relationship with Club Forma grew because we work with the same people in the same part of Melbourne and because we've put time into understanding each other's work. It's not a formal referral arrangement. It's a real working relationship built over time and that's what makes it useful.
What This Means for You
If you're a CF client who hasn't seen me yet an initial assessment gives me a baseline of how you move and gives your trainers better information from your very next session.
If you're a patient of mine who hasn't trained at CF yet the programme there has been built with clinical context in mind. It's not a generic gym environment.
The collaboration only works when both sides are involved.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will you share my health information with my trainer without asking me first? Never. You have full control over what gets shared. Most of my clients choose to have both sides talking once they see the benefit but nothing happens without your knowledge.
I'm currently injured. Is it still worth starting at Club Forma? Often yes. When I've assessed you and spoken with the CF team your programme can be built around your injury from day one rather than reactively working around it. The sooner both sides have the full picture the better the outcome.
I've never seen an osteopath before. What does an initial assessment with you involve? I look at how you move, any symptoms or injury history and the context of your training. It gives me a baseline to work from and gives the CF team specific information that's useful from your very first session.
Can I see you if I don't train at Club Forma? Yes. I see clients independently of CF. If you decide to start training there later the working relationship is already in place.
How is this different from just telling my trainer what you said? When a client passes information between practitioners things get lost or mistranslated. When I communicate directly with the CF team we're both working from the same picture and making better decisions about your training and your care.
Is this only relevant if I'm injured? Not at all. I work with plenty of healthy clients who simply want to train well long term. Understanding how someone moves and where their limits are doesn't just prevent injury. It makes the whole programme more effective from the start.
How do I get started? Book an initial assessment with me. From there I'll be in touch with the CF team directly and your next session at the gym will already be better informed. You can also reach out to the Club Forma team and they'll sort you out from there.
Questions about how it works in practice? Get in touch with me directly or speak to the CF team. We're both happy to walk you through what it looks like for your situation.
→ Book an initial assessment with Dr Harry Shirley → Learn more about Club Forma's approach to training → Visit Club Forma Richmond
