SL Physiotherapy & Coaching

SL Physiotherapy & Coaching Shari Leedahl
Physiotherapist
Strength & Conditioning / Running coaching

Let me profess my love of intervals for a moment….
03/30/2026

Let me profess my love of intervals for a moment….

Canadian 24 Hour Movement Guidelines (continued)Next up - "Reduce Sedentary Time"Even if we ensure we are active through...
03/17/2026

Canadian 24 Hour Movement Guidelines (continued)

Next up - "Reduce Sedentary Time"
Even if we ensure we are active through part of our day, prolonged inactivity is detrimental to our health.

The guidelines recommend limiting sedentary time to less than 8hours including no more than 3 hours of recreational screen time and breaking up long periods of sitting.

The other way to look at this ... if you are find that recommendation of 150 minutes of vigorous activity per week daunting, start here. Get up and move periodically throughout your day. Even short bouts of activity can help.

OK...back to those 24hr Canadian Movement Guidelines~ move more ~ reduce sedentary time ~ sleep well ~"Move More" by aim...
03/15/2026

OK...back to those 24hr Canadian Movement Guidelines
~ move more ~ reduce sedentary time ~ sleep well ~

"Move More" by aiming for 150minutes / week of "moderate to vigorous" aerobic activity. Additionally, add some strength training at least 2x/week. These are the "adult guidelines". Over 65? Same guidelines, friend. Keep moving.

What is "moderate to vigorous"? It's hard enough activity that your breathing and heart rate are increased. Yet, you still should be able to chat at least one short sentence at a time to your walking / running / biking / yardwork buddy. This can be done in as small as 10 minutes at a time.
How to fit it in? 10 minutes, 2x/day, every day. Or perhaps 30 minutes 5x/wk. Make it work for your schedule, your health and ability.
What activity? Something fun! If you are trying really hard to increase your activity and you dread the chosen activity, try something else!! Something that you will look forward to doing. Want to try pickleball? Find a gym time to join. Always, wanted to try a spin class? That will be available in Sundre soon. Love the outdoors? Enjoy the tail end of skiing and snowshoeing season or just find a trail near you.

Now that strength piece... People have been found to experience significant improvements with strength training with as little as 2 sessions each week. And the benefits are endless. Increased bone health, increased balance, decreased joint pain, easier day to day function ~ all because you're stronger. Positive changes can be seen with work in the gym or at home. Not sure where to start? Hire a trainer or follow an on-line group. Biggest thing to remember is there is no one way to do it. So, if someone says their way is the best / only way, perhaps have another look around. It needs to fit in to your life.

This past weekend, I attended the 2nd annual Women’s Health Symposium in Calgary. Highly recommended! Put it in your ca...
03/10/2026

This past weekend, I attended the 2nd annual Women’s Health Symposium in Calgary. Highly recommended! Put it in your calendar for next year!!

Topics included osteoporosis, premenstrual disorders, exercise past mid-life, pelvic floor physiotherapy, ADHD in women and (peri)menopause.

Let’s chat briefly about that exercise one. Despite what your social media feed may be telling you, activity requirements don’t drastically change after you crest that hill.

The Canadian 24hr Movement Guidelines are simple but based on solid evidence. I’ll dive in to each a little more over the next week but until then

🚴Move more
🛌 Sleep well
💃Reduce sedentary time

What's your "why"?This is a common question when it comes to training and really any goal setting. Today, I am going to ...
03/03/2026

What's your "why"?

This is a common question when it comes to training and really any goal setting. Today, I am going to answer this question related to the way I roll for this new business model.

Firstly, WHAT am I doing?
I am still a physiotherapist. I am still doing a thorough PT assessment. But rather than booking physiotherapy treatments afterwards one by one, I am booking people on as coaching clients. Coaching clients will pay a monthly rate and we will follow up at least weekly either in-person or by phone/email (depending on what is needed) to progress an individualized program.

What is my WHY?
I believe whole-heartedly in the value of active rehabilitation. Research proves the value of active rehabilitation over and over again. My experience, both with clients and my own injuries, has been that those that do the work, get better sooner and experience less reinjuries.

I do still believe in the value of manual therapy. I still use acupuncture needles in practice. I will still recommend those things if I feel they will make a meaningful difference in your path toward your goals. But I firmly believe, most of the time, those are the bits that just assist. It's the active rehab / exercise bit that allows clients to see real change.

I book appointments after a consult call to ensure we are a good match, that I can meet your expectations and help you toward your goals.

When will I refer you on?
~ You are not interested in adding more exercise / activity to your day. You want to focus on manual therapy (massage, joint mobilization etc), modalities (laser, shockwave, ultrasound etc).
~If you are interested in the coaching piece but it is felt that you will see further improvement with the addition of modalities, I am also happy to refer you on.

Not sure but interested? Give me a call. We can chat and I will give you my thoughts as to how I can help and/or who else may be able to help.
403-638-7580 / shari@thetrailheadsundre.ca

There was a stretch of a few years when this graph kept showing up in literature, courses, articles. Basically what it i...
02/26/2026

There was a stretch of a few years when this graph kept showing up in literature, courses, articles. Basically what it is showing is how muscle strength diminishes with age (bottom line) but at a significantly lower rate in those that exercise (top line). But let's unpack this a little more.

See that first dotted line between "Early life" and "Adult life" where the line starts to drop? What age do you think that it? IT'S 35!!

Exercise and general active living help immensely. Strength training continues to shine however as the "fountain of youth". The earlier we start the better to reap the benefits of strength training but it truly is never too late.

More recently, I read about physical changes to the muscle unit as we age. There is a "chaperone-mediated autophagy"(CMA) clean-up system that starts to fail contributing to sarcopenia (progressive muscle weakness). The actual structure of the muscle unit changes not allowing normal contraction. Muscle cells also lose their ability to repair themselves. Research is being done to find ways to boost CMA activity.

But what else can help? One guess!
Ya, that's right! Good ol' movement. Mice that participated in moderate aerobic exercise daily had significant increases in CMA activity.

Moral of the story
1. Work on strength now even if it feels challenging to start. It will feel more challenging to start 5 years from now.
2. Picture that little mouse running on a treadmill. Don't let him participate in research in vain!! Go do something to get your heart rate up.

Sticking with the theme of finding ways to gradually get back at it ... let's chat about intervals. Interval training co...
02/17/2026

Sticking with the theme of finding ways to gradually get back at it ... let's chat about intervals.

Interval training comes in all shapes and forms. Basically, it means at times you're working hard and at times you're working not so hard. "Hard" is relative to your capacity and depends on your health and fitness level.

You've probably heard of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and the benefits of such exercise programs. But what if that is too difficult based on your current ability?

Sure, in the harder phases of training for a race I may do intervals that are a mix of "fast" and "easy" bouts of running. But earlier in the season, intervals will look very different. If you are new to running and just getting accustomed to the load that comes along with running, you may do jog:walk intervals. For an injured runner (like myself), I am doing the same to increase the time on my feet but without all the impact of running. For people with health conditions, for example COPD or heart disease, intervals may be a mix walking and sitting to rest.

So ... the same point of my previous post. There is no need to wait to start training; sometimes the starting point is just a little different than other people or other times in your life. And that's okay!

Let’s chat about the value of isometric strengthening.Isometric means that a muscle is exerting a force without moving. ...
02/10/2026

Let’s chat about the value of isometric strengthening.

Isometric means that a muscle is exerting a force without moving. Isometrics can be utilized in any strength training program to gain similar benefits as regular lifting however they are more commonly seen in the rehabilitation of injuries. Isometrics are often the starting point of adding load to injured tissue. I have heard myself say to clients many times – “tendons (or muscle, bones…) need load to heal and get stronger. The trick is to figure out how much load is enough and how much is too much.” In regard to rehab, isometrics promote collagen repair and tendon stiffness assisting with those persistent tendinopathies. They also have a role in decreasing pain however the physiology of that is not well understood.

Moral of the story…if you are waiting to start working on strength because of an injury, stop waiting. Your starting point may be different than someone else’s and that’s okay!!

One more thing to say about recovery…for now - There is decent research supporting using various tools for self - soft t...
02/06/2026

One more thing to say about recovery…for now -
There is decent research supporting using various tools for self - soft tissue / myofascial work when combined with exercise. (Very little is alone compared to exercise anymore; exercise always wins.) When exercise alone is compared to exercise with all those tools, there is a trend towards improvement in recovery.
I love my myofascial cups, massage gun and assortment of lacrosse and racquet balls. If you do too, I would challenge you as to why you need them. Muscles get sore and tight when they are tired. Expected if you’re in a particularly hard phase of training. However, if you need them all the time, I would challenge you to ask “why”. It is often a sign of underlying weakness or poor endurance.
So use the tools to work out those tight bits, absolutely ensure you have rest days in your program but otherwise you just have to do the work. Get stronger.

02/06/2026

Big things are happening!! The Snake Hill Backyard Ultra has some new Gold ($300 plus), Silver ($200) sponsors that are helping make the prizes and swag bags awesome!! RLB roofing has become a gold sponsor with seed money for swag and prizes, and Elk and Owl Coffee Company is now a silver sponsor with high quality coffee pouches for the swag bags! Rival Trade Brewing Co. has joined as a gold sponsor with tasty beer and prizes! To further incentivize early registration we'll be doing a draw of anyone who has registered between the 11th and 30th registration for a Live Elements Yoga 10-punch pass valued at $145 to help with your training!! AND NEW PRIZE CATEGORIES have been added! If you sign up as a team of 4 on race day (indicated by costume or other outfit continuity) you're eligible for prizes for Best Costume for a team and most cumulative laps/team! Also there's a best individual costume prize!! Now's the time to find your people, get registered, and start your goal setting and training for this awesome and fun event (type 1, 2, 3 fun guaranteed)!!!

01/28/2026

Aside from needing to vacuum and Stella loving her rubber chicken, there are other things to see here.

It’s the “off-season”. You don’t have to push hard. You have goals for the summer. So how about honour this recovery time / preparation phase. Maybe work on that ankle stiffness that’s creeping back post-ankle fracture? Maybe work on your foot mobility that seems to get worse because you walk goofy when your hip is cranky and weak. And maybe, as your 16 year old suggests, work on NOT “walking like you’ve got a stick up your butt”.

Running is hard. Injuries are harder. (Living with the honesty of a 16 year old falls somewhere in the middle.)

Honour your rest days. Actively work on your recovery. I promise you’ll come out the other side stronger.

It’s that time of year when runners are looking to the season ahead. Depending on the timing of your ‘A’ race, you still...
01/26/2026

It’s that time of year when runners are looking to the season ahead. Depending on the timing of your ‘A’ race, you still may be in the rest/recovery phase of your year or rolling toward a building phase.
The next couple weeks, I’ll chat about the importance of rest and what that may look like. Hint: it rarely refers to nothing.
What’s your ‘A’ race?

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