Kingsley Flett
My interest in back injury prevention began at age 19 years when I seriously injured my lower back while working on a balance-tank valve in a swimming complex. Looking back on the incident, with 30 odd years of professional experience, I’ve concluded that the technical cause of my injury was ‘being an idiot’.
At the time I also concluded that I’d be less of an idiot if I went to university. The motivation to rehabilitate the injury and stop it from ever happening again guided much of my study – the structure and function of the spine was my major area of interest through a bachelors and master’s degree in Human Movement at the University of Western Australia.
After a stint in the WA Fire Brigade in 1986; the light bulb moment came while working as a rehabilitation counsellor for SECWA in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Seeing the same people come back time and time again with recurring injuries, I reasoned that there were a lot of other idiots out there who needed help – there was a need for a teaching system that could be used in injury prevention and rehabilitation that would create lasting change in people’s habits.
The Strong Spine system began in 1993 and in the last 24 years : Oil rig workers, miners, farmers, drillers, customs officers, policemen, nurses, soldiers, grave-diggers, plumbers, mechanical fitters, electricians, carpenters, diesel fitters, chefs, fishermen and divers are but a few of the hundreds of thousands of people who have benefited from the training across Australia, New Zealand and India.
I’ve also learned to apply my knowledge of spinal biomechanics to my favorite sport – Disc Golf. I’ve twice been Australian Masters Tour champion and was selected in the Australian team in 2016. This proves that anyone can represent their country if they choose a small enough sport.
Kieran Bell
Like most of us I was brought up to chip in and do my bit where I could. After hearing many stories of how we break, how we repair and what we can do about it, its good to be able to share this stuff in an occupational health setting with the aim of preventing injuries.
I’ve experienced strong debilitating back pain early in my life and learnt many ways to manage it over the years. All of them involve movement of some kind. My go to is still stretching and I tend to stay focused on the ones that are going to keep me doing the things I love, like surfing, running and trying to keep up with my kids.
I’ve always had an interest in science and in particular how the body worked. Jobs were slim pickings in 1995 when I graduated physio school, so I travelled to find work. First the United Kingdom, then Louisiana in the US, where I was exposed to industrial health and ergonomics for the first time.
I liked the simplicity of this approach, and for a while, I entered a phase of measuring ergonomic risk on a purely biomechanical level. It became a bit of an obsession. It’s been humbling to have to gradually acknowledge the limitations of this approach. It turns out there’s more to people than mechanics.
We never stop learning and reflecting on our experiences. I’ve always been taught to stay working where the data shows we can make a difference. “Heed the evidence” as Alf Nachemson, pioneering back researcher was famous for saying. Loosening the screws on limiting and unhelpful narratives around how we move, how we get injured, and how we recover is a big part of what we do with the Strong Spine program. Myth busting and teaching sound movement strategies.
After seeing the Strong Spine program for the first time in the early 2000s I wanted all our clients to benefit from it and brokered a deal with Kingsley to train all our staff to make it part of what my business at the time offered. Since exiting that business in 2015, I’ve had more time to pursue key work interests, one of which is Strong Spine.
Kingsley and I teamed up in 2016 and continue to roll out the program, adapting it to new learnings as we go.