← Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Darren Harper: Martial Arts, Rehabilitation and Wellness for Reach for Health
00:27:36
Darren Harper shares his journey from martial arts esports to rehabilitation coach empowering individuals in Daventry, England to overcome physical and mental health challenges. Discover how his holistic approach transforms lives through the charity's innovative fitness and recovery programs.
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- [00:01]
A
Happy Holidays. Want to give your host a gift? Consider subscribing, rating and reviewing the show this holiday season. It really helps the show grow from all of us at Believe. Have a Merry Christmas, everyone and a happy holiday.
- [00:26]
B
Welcome to why Not Me? Embracing Autism and Mental Health Worldwide hosted by Tony Mentor, broadcasting from the heart of Music City usa, Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as our guests share their raw, powerful stories. Some will spark laughter, others will move you to tears. These real life journeys inspire, connect and remind you that you're never alone. We're igniting a global movement to empower everyone to make a lasting difference by fostering deep awareness, unwavering acceptance and profound understanding of autism and mental health. Tune in, be inspired and join us in transforming the world one story at a time.
- [01:22]
Hi, I'm Tony Mantour. Welcome to why Not Embracing Autism and Mental Health Worldwide. Joining us today is Darren Harper. As course leader at Reach for Health center in Daventry, he drives transformative rehabilitation programs for individuals with chronic conditions, injuries or disabilities. He oversees tailored physical therapy and exercise initiatives that promote recovery and long term wellness, targeting issues like strokes, heart disease and diabetes. His work emphasizes accessible evidence based interventions fostering physical and mental resilience. Through community focused sessions. He ensures underserved groups receive personalized support empowering them to regain independence and improve their quality of life. His leadership helps the charity deliver impactful holistic care across England. He has a wealth of information to give us today. So before we dive into our episode, we'll be back with an uninterrupted show right after a word from our sponsors. Thanks for coming on.
- [02:25]
C
Oh, pleasure. Thank you for having me.
- [02:27]
B
Oh, it's my pleasure. If you would give us a little background on your journey to what you are doing today.
- [02:33]
C
So about 20 years ago I got involved in general health and fitness. So I've always been into martial arts. I was 15. I've always wanted to help people. So I was learning Kung fu and bits and pieces. Age of 15 turned 17, I got interested in a film called Twin warriors with Jet Li. Got into a bit of Tai chi. Taji is very much holistic about wellness and well being and trying to help understand your body the more who you are. Which led me into becoming a personal trainer and obviously a rehabilitation practitioner in the UK and obviously 20 years later I'm still continuing the same field and I love every minute of doing it because it's always different, it's unique and every day is a blessing in some senses. The amount of people able to help and support. Yeah. And it's been basically developing from there, really.
- [03:14]
B
Now, in anyone's journey, there's always challenges. Were there any challenges you faced that you had to overcome that helped you along the way?
- [03:23]
C
Oh, so, I mean, my dyslexia was one level. So obviously at school, having dyslexia, learning about how to perceive things in the right sort of level, obviously, my thing was when I was younger, I'd read a paragraph or a line, for example, and I'd probably add in extra words, you know, to make it sound differently. That's part of my dyslexia, as you start to work with that. And I think the martial arts helped me out of a lot because you're training the different parts of the brain to become active. So you have underactive lobes and they have overactive lobes. In this case here, it was about using, like, my hands more and my legs more, coordinating more, and then developing different sorts of structures. That was one level, obviously, of me trying to understand how to slow things down from a mental capacity. So working with the public, you know, writing down notes or workout cards or rehabilitation notes for people.
- [04:09]
B
Once you decided to focus on helping people, what was your pathway to getting there? What were some of the things that you had to do that taught you so that you could actually do this?
- [04:21]
C
Oh, so I became a gym instructor. First a level two gym instructor, and then I became a level three personal trainer. And I became what's called an activity and referralist, which is level three, and then became a pulmonary specialist in level four over the course of 20 years of the amount of experience you gain in rehabilitation. My boss back then, obviously, and also my. My teacher was a physiotherapist and the back specialist, and he was covered in different areas of wellness and different areas of medical understanding the body. And our location, which is called the Regional Health center now in Daventry, we are based on rehabilitation. So we've always been into medical fitness. And having him, you know, as my guide and obviously a teacher at the same time, to be involved with the public, to learn how to work medical conditions, to support the teachings I suppose I had from the courses that I did to make it more realistic, more real, and to get my own experiences to understand what's what and why. That was what helped me a lot to understand how the body works and obviously how things are. The nobody off for.
- [05:17]
B
Can you expand and give us a little more information on how the Reach for Health center helps people stay fit and healthy as they age?
- [05:27]
C
Completely. Yeah. When we cover all areas of wellness and medical Conditions and all age ranges too from the age of 13 years plus. So some people might have like neuromuscular system difficulties, they could have like arthritic joints, they could have cardiac problem with like heart and lungs maybe it could be things like diabetes, it could be weight loss, I mean you name it, we pretty much cover it everything. Our clientele we do definitely work on force prevention priority is quite a big factor as we know this day and age going forward. It's more recognized now because obviously the more people are more aware of how their structure life is. So we're trying to support that classes that we do here or program developments that we do for certain people, depending of course on what they're trying to go for.
- [06:07]
B
With everything that you do, what's your day to day look like?
- [06:12]
C
Well at the center. So it would normally be either consultations where we meet new people for the first time and obviously we'd have a sit down chat about a good half an hour now. So to understand who they are, what their primary condition is like, why they come here for. It could be like maybe high blood pressure, it could be arthritis, it could be anything you can think of. Then we can work on comorbidities too as well, which would be secondary conditions and obviously help support program for the men. We also develop on one to ones. So once that individual's had a consultation, you know, for example at the center, then we would put them in for another two sessions as a one to one to help create a program on a one to one basis for them and to guide them through it so they feel happy and they're confident in what they're doing. When it comes down for workout, then we have options to help people like to support that one to one basis. They feel like they need it or maybe like balance development or they're not feeling really 100% confident what they're doing with their program. Or we also have what's called an assistance scheme as well, which is when people who will book in to come and see us, it's completely free, but we'll be able to support them in their like setting for machinery which could be like bicycles, maybe cycles, feather cycles, you know, treadmills, resistant machines, whatever they feel they're still not really happy with. They can do most of the program themselves but need that little bit of support. Sometimes a certain machine just to get the confidence what they're doing. And after that we have people who have classes that we wouldn't send as well. We have a functional fitness class we run and that's based on different sorts of mythologies like cardiovascular, low impact circuit training, bit of Tai Chi maybe. It could be stretching, mobility and it could be force prevention. We cover that all in that functional fitness course or class that we run which is ongoing throughout the year. What's called a force prevention class, which is based on the Otago scheme of training. We call it strength and balance. We that three times a week we have a Tai Chi class, we run, pulmonary class, work on lungs and rehabilitation and pretty much we have a general like a gym structure. You could say people come in for regular workouts. You have your records that come every day. Of course it could like maybe come up Monday, Wednesday and Friday or it could be depending on what they want to come down. Yeah, it's quite busy day. We have a lot going on.
- [08:11]
B
Yes, that's a very busy day. Now you cover a variety of things. With all the things that you do. Is there a common thread that seems to just stand out?
- [08:22]
C
Yeah, I definitely would say falls prevention, as in falls is quite a big thing and that would be due to people from the age of 60 years. Plus from what we see here, of course at the center could be non logical. Like a lot of stroke victims we have here. So like post stroke victims and obviously depending of course on the level of severity the stroke cause, we will definitely guide and support them and help them after say their 12 weeks of rehabilitation from the services, they obviously be discharged and they'll continue on with us or they'll come and see us before, as in they're going through the discharge process and we'll give a bit of support and guidance to help them through their process on their journey as well.
- [08:56]
B
Yeah, that's great. Now with all the people that you deal with, do you have mental illness that will come in to be a factor? As we know if people aren't feeling good about themselves, it can cause depression, anxiety. How do you work with people that have those issues?
- [09:15]
C
Yeah, so mental health is a really big thing, but we do at center because as you know, physical development of the body is correspondence to mental wellness in the first place. So how as a human being, how we perceive things to be is a reflection of how we feel, of what something is. So we physically reflect that verbal physical action. So when we're working with somebody, say it could be a stroke, could be someone who's working on say improving their strength and their balance for their particular condition, it's about trying to reinforce, force them to recognize that there's a goal going forward that we want to try and achieve, to give them like direction and give them drive and to keep the will go, to keep pushing to achieve that goal. But motivational, you know, to try and keep supporting them and to show them that what they can do is they keep pushing this direction or keep working on this exercise, this movement, then they should be able to see a difference in achieving that goal. And it plays a big part in what they do going forward because it helps them feel more confident as well and more, more aware of what they can and can't do.
- [10:12]
B
Have you had people come in that had the attitude, well, I'm here, but I really don't need to be here. They're depressed, they've got anxiety, whatever they might have, you can tell they're going through some emotional issues. Because of the emotional issues, they're kind of self defeating. How do you get around that so you can turn that negativity into positivity.
- [10:36]
C
So normally it'd be showing them an exercise they haven't done before, or let's say take a stroke victim, bless them and obviously or stroke person. And they've obviously had on their limbs, say the left or right limb, upper limb is non active and they've got too much, not enough extension range in the hand. And then just by working on that limb or that particular part of the body, allowing it to show a difference in what it can and can't do. Because sometimes they just need someone to show them something to give them a visual perception of what's going on. Say their hands in a fish shape. And for a long time they've not been able to extend those fingers for any particular reason too. By working with those fingers, for example, trying to slowly expand them at a pace, they feel comfortable so they can actually see and feel the difference of that sensation. See, the fingers are physically moving. It's a great indication, say, okay, there's a possibility that we can get more movement going long term in here and we can start to see progression. It's those sort of things to visually seeing the change of what's going on. So probably I'd say in this case experiencing a movement or an exercise they haven't done before and then seeing the change and saying, wow, that can actually happen to me, I'm actually doing this or like, you know, as a possibility it might improve is those sort of things that we find change my people's mindsets around to become a lot more competent and more driven to want to do more and see more positivity in it.
- [11:51]
B
You work with so many People there and have had so many success stories. Do you have anything that just stands out to you?
- [11:59]
C
Oh, God, there's been so many. Can't think of the top of my head because we do so much down here. We're so involved with people and obviously we meet people in our diaries, for example, it's about, say, what, seven to eight members of staff that work in rehabilitation, and then we'll flurry between different people, depending, of course, on our diary structure too. I would say the center itself is one big level that we've seen a really big progression with because we've seen the change and the involvement and how we evolve as a center to support more capabilities. Of course, that's one level. People who have spinal injuries, for example, I mean, here they'd like to say disability walking. They're able to walk the end. We have got some stories here and some amazing stories, and they're actually on our Instagram and on Facebook as well. And a lot of that was spinal difficulties, of course, but there were just. There are loads because of how much we. Who we work with and how much you work with as well, which is amazing. Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah.
- [12:50]
B
Yes. That is awesome that you have that kind of success. Can you tell us your areas that you cover?
- [12:56]
C
We're based in Daventry, which is obviously in the Midlands, in Northamptonshire, in the uk, so we can cover anyone's welcome to come down. We have the villages supporting the town for us, and obviously we have North Phantomshire. Generally, anyone from people like from Kettering, even like Wiltshire, about 45 minutes away from Daventry, will pop in and see us and they'll come for regular sessions. And it all depends on the financial structure of the individual coming down. You know, what they. What they're happy doing, really.
- [13:21]
B
Sure. That makes perfect sense. Are you integrated with other programs or systems similar to yourself, or are you a standalone entity?
- [13:29]
C
We're a charity, but we have different connections with different people. But they're their own individual charities, I believe, as well. So we just support each other so we can signpost them to us and vice versa as well, to help support where's necessary. It all depends on what that person needs or what that other charity would be beneficial for them, that individual, so they can support them by them here and vice versa for us as well.
- [13:51]
B
Yeah, that's great. What do you think is important that the listeners hear about what you're doing and how it's helping the community that you're in?
- [13:59]
C
I would say the key for what we do is rehabilitation. But rehabilitation comes in many different ways. It comes through physical actions, it comes through mental wellness, emotional well being as well. I would say find out what makes you happy and try and pursue that. And that's what I would say as a goal. If you're going through rehabilitation yourself, try and find out what you need to rehabilitate on whether it's physical, whether it's normal, on whether it's mental, emotional. And try and keep active to the best you can because physical activity will make such a big difference to lifestyle and overallness as well.
- [14:31]
B
Yes, I totally agree. Staying active is very, very important. As you're working with these people, helping them towards their goals, you must take great pride in seeing how their demeanor changes over a period of time.
- [14:43]
C
Yeah, definitely. Because they're, because they're growing and they're progressing. Because every time you go through an experience where you've had a condition, you change, don't you have to adjust and adapt to yourself mentally as well as emotionally how you feel about what's going on. So as they start, see progression or start to change in themselves, they're starting to feel better about themselves generally and it helps them to kind of see a difference. And they're changing their Persona, like you said across there, to see that they can make a difference going forward and they can start to feel better. They are able to do more things, whether it's more activities or. We call them ADL's, don't we? Which are activity a day living. So a lot of people have these and which we, we obviously do of course, like washing, cleaning or you know, whatever it could be. When these bits get easy to do at home life, that's where you'll start to see a big progression with your capabilities. You know, going to like family events maybe or social events. When they feel easier to do and there's less stress, less tension within us individually, then it's a big way away off our shoulders of course, because we can do more things and we can enjoy more about what's going on. So yeah, we do see a big difference in people completely because they're seeing more achievements without realizing it, which is really good.
- [15:50]
B
What kind of program do you set up for these people? It can be once or twice a week, three times a week or I guess as many times as they need. After that is set up, how long does it last Once they get to a certain level, does it end or do you extend it and tweak it so that they can continue it?
- [16:08]
C
Yeah, so that's a Great question, actually. So what we would normally do is when we create that program, from day one, had the consultation, we've had a chat, we've seen where we want to go going forward. So they would have that program roughly say between four to six weeks and then when we review the program and do a whole brand new program. And this would continue every six to eight weeks, roughly as well. Because then we always want to keep seeing progression, we want to keep supporting everyone and stop the, I wouldn't say the boredom. That's the wrong word. But people need to see change, don't they? As much they can do, obviously to the point they can in a balanced sense and not seeing it too quickly, but knowing that they can recognize that it'll take a bit longer to see the change in this and this and this, where it's range of road from or whatever it could be. What we also do is, although they've got programs written out for themselves, which they will follow through either individual one to one scheme like ourselves too, is that we will go and speak to the member or that person and we'll say on a regular basis, like how are things going? How you finding it? Is this getting too easy? Fancy more change? We add some new movements into your program and we'll start to tweak in, add things in, you know, all to support them in their development. Because the average human being start to get stronger to about two weeks generally anyway. If they're doing the same thing twice a week, three times a week, you'll see a big progression quite quickly. If they're keeping that regularity of coming down at least here and then working at home as well, doing bits and pieces too. So yeah, we do try and keep adding things into the program maybe every week to two weeks, like a little exercise or repetition change here and then just to kind of keep it working and to keep them driven as well. So they keep pushing forward, you know, to want to keep doing more and adding more to their programs and so better themselves going forward.
- [17:40]
B
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. If you keep doing the same exercise, your muscles will get used to that same exercise. Yeah, so you have to tweak the exercises so they can continue to grow.
- [17:52]
C
Yeah, completely. Right. And that happens so quickly as well. It's always good doing the same exercise, but change the morphology behind it, like the method scheme, as in change your rep count, change your resistance, change the stretch of how you do it too. So say you're doing a pet depth machine, just for example, and you're doing say reps of 15 repetitions on, say, I know, 10 kilograms, for example, and you feel it working after the first two or three sets, then you know you're in a good position. But let's say you go ahead two or three weeks later, and that's got a lot easier, which you put it anyway, too. Then you can even increase the repetitions by no, but, or you can decrease, depending on what you're trying to achieve long term going forward, and add more resistance to it. Or create a superset effect when you obviously have that pet, that machine and another chest exercise machine, and you come back to it again. There's lots of options you've got as far as, like, trying to spice up the program, you could say, and make it more unique.
- [18:41]
B
Once you get a person to the range of motion that they're hoping to get to, you want to tweak it, you want to make it better for them to increase their mobility. What would your plan be to change it up without adding a lot more weight so they can still achieve mobility? And while they're doing that, they add a little muscle tone to it as well.
- [19:04]
C
Do you want to keep toned and flexible technically? I suppose so. Ultimately, it's repetitions, because the more reps you do, the more you work in the joint. So take the hinge being the elbow joint, for example. You know, we do your bicep curls. So if you do a bicep curl with no weight, flat palm or fist and hand, depending what you feel comfortable over time, the slower you go, the more the muscles are going to start to work for a longer period of time through contraction and elephanting. So they're going to essentially contract longer as well as consensually contract, too. Now, that itself is going to start to make the muscles stretch longer and become literally more mobile through a period of time, because the resistance is not there. But the control list and the repetition will create the toning effect of the muscle fibers, allow the capsule within the joint to become more mobile and more active as well. So I would say to keep that level of flexibility, range of motion and toning within a certain joint, either go very slowly with no resistance with the hand movement, or start to do a bit more repetitions, like high reps of 10 to 15 repetitions. Then do the other arm, for example, and then repeat two or three sets. That way there's no resistance as such with gravity away, but there is the hand going up and down, back and forth.
- [20:11]
B
Have you seen people that have been challenged mentally? And when I say that it's more self esteem rather than mental illness. Yet it still affects people mentally if they don't feel like they can do something. Have you seen their attitude and just mental awareness change after you set them up with a program and then they finally believe that it's working for themselves.
- [20:36]
C
Yeah. So from a motor function point of view, when you move in the part, the part of the body for example, so let's say they were able to do it first and obviously then they, they only get so far, for example, and they get a bit of like they can still move it but they're not going as far range as they would like to go, I suppose you could say. So what we would do in that sense we would assist by putting a little bit of support behind the hand to support the hand. Can we up and back down just for example. It would give them the confidence to know that they can do it. Them, they just need a little bit of push you could say here to help engage that motor function. Because it takes about a thousand repetitions roughly for a stroke victim to obviously be able to gain sensory development and motor function to a stronger level, of course. But it's about knowing that person, about knowing what they can and can't do and giving them that confidence too. But yeah, if your motor neurons are slightly out of action because they're underactive, which is what happens after you have a stroke on a particular part of the body because it's not being used for a period of time and it's because it's underactive because it's not been able to be moved around, you know, due to the stroke occurrence. If it's a different mental condition as well, and let's say it's due with not so much a physical condition, but say it's neurological and it's not allowing the transition of movement, then by doing support assisted movements is a great way of training those motor neurons to say okay, that's actually a good movement to do. It's more natural for me. It just takes a while for me to get used to it. Because all you're doing effectively is when you move the body, the muscles move, but they only move because the brain says to move them. So the brain sends a signal to the individual muscle that it then moves the muscle. When the muscle then moves from the tendon pulling it actually moves the joint at the same time. So the joints are last part to move. It's really more like brain to muscle and obviously end to joint, you could say. So all we're trying to do, trying to Reconnect the opposite way around and go movement to brain. So we're going to actually move the hands for example here, the bicep curl and it's going to start to come up to the shoulder and then the neurological system is going to get used to that signal going over and over again. Repetition and you'll start to create a stronger sense. And that's the best way to support anyone really from like a, you know, a motor functional development Anyway.
- [22:36]
B
So being in your area as long as you have, do you get a lot of referrals from doctors, nurses, hospitals, people within the business that know what you do and know that you're the ones to send them to?
- [22:49]
C
We do not so much hospitals. We have referrals from the GPs and the practice around our surrounding areas too. And it will have other people who assign post to us from different areas in this field you could say quite physiotherapists or diabetic nurses maybe. Anyone who feels like we can support them we will do. But from the hostels not so much. Unfortunately we have more GP referrals or the public themselves who've been with us for years and years, you know, for different reasons they might came across for medical referral themselves and then explains their friends and family. They're coming down here to improve their health, their wellness, their fitness and so forth. And it could be a connection that way. So it could be word of mouth as well. But we do have a lot of specialists, you know, obviously HCPs obviously do refer people to us as well.
- [23:31]
B
Yeah, that's great. Now is there anything that I haven't asked or we haven't covered that you think is important that we do cover?
- [23:37]
C
I would say we've covered most of it to be fair. All I say is that if you think about generally for rehabilitation that just be mindful that it covers not just physical but like we said before, it covers that mental wellness and that emotional wellness. Your emotional wellness is the mental the biggest part to who we are and how we feel and how we express ourselves is ultimately about what we want to be as an individual person. And expression is the key is what I would say the expressions the key to develop ourselves as humans. If you get stress related issues that occur on a very emotional point of view, it's because the mental mind is not comprehending what's going on and that reflects physically in different sorts of ways. So I would say be passionate and trust your feelings. What say try and be expressive. But father center and rehabilitation you pretty much covered most Things.
- [24:23]
B
Yeah, I think it's a really good thing that you brought up the emotional part. It affects the mind in so many different ways. When it affects the mind, it also affects the body. With all that going on, then they can easily talk themselves into a very bad mindset. How do you get that negativity out of their mind so they can start focusing on the positive things that they need to do in order to have a better future?
- [24:50]
C
Yeah, I think that's a really good question actually about changing the perception of some. Isn't it so American, allowing them to become more aware of the other angle which they're not seeing from. If you imagine like not that we see things from a narrow minded point of view, but when you're one directional and all you can see is this, it's very hard to do the external around it. So if you can see things from a bird's eye point of view, you know, let's say you're seeing it from above that person so, so and so is feeling this way because of this particular reason, because of circumstances around that person, afraid to what's happened. Now we can see from a bird's eye point of view the things that were created in the first place to create that situation. Now for that person to feel low or heavy and let's say it's down to not being happy with a program they've got or the way a family member was. You know, it could be anything, a physical, mental thing or verbal that's meant to feel off balance. If we can explain to them or show them another angle now what's going on and say, okay, you're seeing from this point of view, but try seeing from this angle because of this reason and why? Because we have to explain to people from a mental perception what's going on so they understand, okay, logically that makes sense why something is the way it is. For if you can break that logic down to show whatever angle it starts to open their mind more, their perception will change and they become more willing to accept another angle. Because when you're emotionally feeling low, as much as you want to change those feelings and emotions, and we all do, we want to feel happy and positive and balanced the best we can. Until you have that direction or guidance or verbal physical activity or interaction, it's not going to change. You need to have something to show you another angle, another perception, what something hits. And as an outsider it can be easier to do that because you're seeing from a whole different angle too. You know, we do have it down here quite a lot when people they like given and very like focused on one thing particular because I think that's going to help them heal them. And it will of course, to a certain extent, but it won't achieve the whole goal. So we have to logically say to them, yes, you're going to get this and this there. It's going to be excellent. But don't forget about this, this and this too as well because there's a whole supporting mechanism and building bridge. You need to have to create something funny as well because you're just trying to create something differently from a different angle. Yeah, but bird's eye point of view, if you could do a bird's eye view angle, it makes a difference to how we see things to be.
- [26:58]
B
Yeah, absolutely. Well, this has been great, great conversation, great information. I really appreciate you taking the time to join us today.
- [27:06]
C
No, thank you so much for having me. It's been great to to meet you as well. There's so much about you as well, Tony. So thank you.
- [27:11]
B
Oh, it's been my pleasure. Thanks again.
- [27:20]
Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to listen to our show today. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. If you know someone who has a story to share, tell them to contact us at WhyNotMe World. One last thing, spread the word about why not me. Our conversations are inspiring guests that show you are not alone in this world.
- [27:56]
A
If you like the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.
- [28:11]
Happy holidays. Want to give your host a gift? Consider subscribing, rating and reviewing the show this holiday season. It really helps the show grow. From all of us at Believe, have a merry Christmas, everyone, and a happy holiday.