Aimée Barnes Biokineticists

29/10/2025

After the Op - Rehabbing Like a Bio (part 4)

I was struck by the relationship I could develop with my knee. Like, I was doing a dance of activity. ☀️
For the frist 3 weeks my rehab sheet instructed me to do a slew of exercises, "3 sets of 20 reps, twice a day".

I did not.🙊

On some days, I did more, but on most days I did less. Because I listened. ✨
Our bodies are intelligent, self-healing organisms. After bouts of activity my knee would be tender and it would ask me (through pain) to rest. And I would, until it felt better.

Rehabbing after an op is it a bit more scary. You have a wound, you have a lot of swelling and the pain is intense. Consistent, gentle effort leads to amazing results and I am on track to being stronger than before my ligament tear.

Things that helped a lot: ❤️❤️
1. Having a great physio (Thanks Kat!)
2. Using a neuromuscular TENS machine
3. Finding a balance between rest and rehab

19/10/2025

The Early Days: Rest, Ice and Reality Checks (PART 3) 
💤🧊😭

The first few days after surgery were humbling. It was brutally painful. 😩

I couldn't lay on my side and any movement was a slow and delicate process. 

I had to carry my leg off the bed with my other leg with gentle care. 
There was much clattering of crutches. 🩼🩼
Walking was slow.
When I stood, pressure quickly pooled in my foot and leg and I would feel a painful thud.

At this point, I was feeling frightened.
Had I made a mistake? 😝

Would I be one of those unfortunate people who didn't heal properly from some obscure complication? 
Would I always feel so vulnerable and weak? Would I ever feel pain free again? 

After 3 nights of virtually no sleep, Tommy ordered me a hospital bed to make it easier to make me comfortable. That did the trick. I had more control over how my knee was positioned so I could rest, the greatest healer. 🖤

In the first 2 weeks after surgery, I was icing my leg with a special device. I would ice for an hour 3 times a day and it worked well to manage my pain and reduce inflammation. 🧊🧊🧊

This is a time where one needs to practice tremendous self-compassion. I am grateful for the practice. I wasn't always very good at it but I think I stretched my capacity a lot. 🫂

I  feel so grateful for how much love and support Tommy and I got. We got visited and fed and given lots of flowers and it meant the world. 💐🌺💐🌻🌼

17/10/2025

Today I sat cross legged for the first time since the op. It was marvellous to feel that external rotation into my hip ❤️❤️ tomorrow my first (very flat) hike. Tiny baby steps, so grateful!

14/10/2025

THE SURGERY AFTER THE FALL (PART 2)

After an MRI confirmed the tear, I did some thinking... ACL surgery is intense, invasive and the recovery is long. It would take me away from my work and it would be very painful. I did some gentle rehab with my knee and quickly realised that I could conservatively recover but I would always have to live with a certain amount of instability and laxity in my knee. A feeling of "slipping" or "giving way" that I was not prepared to live with. I am a dancer, a gym goer, a yoga and pilates instructor, a Biokineticist and a hiking enthuisiast. Had I been less active, or perhaps older, I might have made a different choice. These knees still need to take me from the window to the wall, so I decided to bite the bullet, commit to the surgery and get back to full strength, even if that took some time.

My first major decision was choosing a surgeon. Dr Glen Vardi was my first and most natural choice. He is so well respected and works exclusively with knees. During my first appointment with him, he remarked that I was quite excited for someone about to have knee surgery. The truth is that I was star struck to be meeting such a well respected member of the community. My surgery was booked and I began telling my friends I needed their love and support. It is so important to get your head into the right frame of mind. The surgery was a resounding success. I walked after I woke up from the anaesthetic and although I couldn’t pee (some weird symptom of morphine) I felt good. Of course this was only the beginning.

14/10/2025

THE SURGERY AFTER THE FALL PART 1

Three months ago, I was fortunate enough to experience the Lesotho mountains covered in snow. Yes, there were snowmen built. But I was unfortunate because, on day one, I fell on the "big slopes" and tore my right ACL, a ligament in my knee. Since then, I have been on a long journey to recovery and I want to share a bit about it here over a couple of posts. In some ways, it has been a post-graduate education, and I am very grateful to the experience.

It is weird having professional insight, while you are experiencing an injury. On one hand, I was thinking, "Ouch, that hurt my knee!" and on the other hand thinking, "That was an interesting sensation, I think I just tore my ACL!". When the well meaning ski instructor tried to help me to my feet and I felt me knee joint "slip", I thought "oh that is what that feels like!" and "Oh %^ #!, yes I have damaged my ACL!".

21/08/2025

Your workout is not just building muscle, it is reprogramming your entire body at the cellular level. Groundbreaking research from Stanford Medicine and the MoTrPAC consortium has revealed that physical activity triggers molecular and cellular changes across 19 different organs, not just the muscles you are targeting.

In the brain, exercise boosts stress resilience and improves neural communication. The heart develops greater cardiovascular efficiency, while the lungs enhance oxygen processing. The liver becomes more effective at burning fat and lowering inflammation, and the kidneys improve filtration and detox capabilities. Even skeletal muscles do more than get stronger, they release powerful biochemical signals that communicate with other organs.

The most fascinating finding is that exercise rewires how organs “talk” to each other, creating a whole-body communication network that regulates immunity, inflammation, and disease prevention. This helps explain why consistent physical activity reduces the risk of heart disease, fatty liver, cognitive decline, and countless other health conditions.

This is the largest NIH-funded study ever conducted on how exercise improves health, with huge implications for personalised medicine and future exercise prescriptions. The takeaway is simple yet powerful: every workout is a full-body molecular upgrade that strengthens your biological operating system from the inside out.

14/07/2025

Finally!

I'm practicing what I preach. My STANDING DESK is in sitchu, in my office. 🪴
I get asked frequently about standing desks and I highly encourage them but there is some nuance and context that I think is IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND. 💡

People often ask if it is "better" to either sit or stand, and the answer is yes and yes ✅✅😂
Our bodies are designed to MOVE. 💪 There isn't a single organ system that doesn't benefit from you moving about. From your brain to your gut, from your hormones to your to bones. So really, what we're aiming to do is prevent STILLNESS, STAGNATION and STUCKNESS.
Changing positions, from standing to seated is useful for that. Your body will appreciate the change in position as much as it will appreciate the position itself. 🪑🧍🏿

STANDING IS COOL. 😎 Standing in an extended position is useful to prevent all the shortening of the tissues we get from SLOUCHING when seated. But, we also benefit from the IMPROVED ERGONOMICS that the desk provides. It elevates your screen for when you are seated, meaning we are less likely to slouch in the first place. 🤙

An IMPORTANT CAVEAT is that standing still for long periods of time is something that causes CIRCULATION PROBLEMS in our legs and feet. When transitioning into using a standing desk YOU CAN HELP YOURSELF BY:
👣 - standing on a slightly padded surface, like a yoga mat, or thick carpet.
⏱️ - starting with short bursts (think 20 mins) and increasing this gradually over time (weeks and months as opposed to days)
🦵- doing calf raises while standing (your calves are "muscular pumps" that help push blood back up to the heart. This happens naturally when walking and moving and is something we have to think about when standing still for long periods.

Here's to better posture 🤸‍♂️

17/06/2025

I thoroughly enjoyed guiding the team at in another Wellness Session today.

We discussed Physical Wellness and how to think holistically using the "Wellness Wheel."

We closed the session with some simple but delicious movement and a brief meditation.

Many of us know WHAT to do but being reminded is helpful and inspiring.

13/06/2025

11/06/2025

Cold plunges are having a moment! 💧💧💧

Wim Hof popularised it, and now everyone (and their influencer brother) has swept in.
There is some promising research that indicates it is very helpful for reducing inflammation, but did you know women and men respond differently? And guess what? Most research is (still) done on men. 📖📚

If you are of the female persuasion, here are 3 things you should know, according to Dr Stacy Sims, an exercise physiologist and academic specialising in women's health:

Cold plunges are beneficial ✅
Women experience peripheral vasodilation post-exercise (blood goes away from the core to the limbs), so a cool plunge helps return blood centrally, improving recovery.

When women immerse in ice-cold water (0 degrees 🧊), the body reacts with an intense sympathetic stress, leading to vasoconstriction but no shivering. Without shivering, the metabolic benefits common in men, like improved glucose tolerance and fat metabolism, don’t materialise for many women. That feels like a waste of suffering. 😅

Instead, Sims recommends temperatures around 15–16 °C, where women do vasoconstrict and begin shivering, triggering those beneficial metabolic effects. Warmer than ice, this induces beneficial stress and recovery responses, without the harsh shock. 🌡️💪

And then P.P.S - It seems that heat exposure (like that experienced in a sauna or hot yoga class) are tolerated very well by women, and they get all of the metabolic benefits described above. So choose your poison! 🔥😉

10/06/2025

Yesterday, I shared that I'm "mid-fall" off the bandwagon in my exercise routine, and that I'm not having a cadenza about it.

In fact, I'm trusting it. And I wanted to motivate a little more around my reasoning.
"Exercise" for many of us is something that we need to do intentionally. And, in the planning and doing, there can be a lot of internal dialogue that goes along with it. Sometimes my inner dialogue sounds more like a drill sergeant than a friend.

When I returned home from a 3 week trip a month ago, I was less inclined to lean on the sergeant for support. I decided to let my inner friend guide me instead. And while that part of me has been less inclined for HIIT sessions at gym, she has guided me into twice weekly dance classes. Lots less sweat. But lots more hugs and deep breaths.

Healing one's body means healing one's relationship with it.
It's not just what we do, but how we do it.

The journey to improve one's self talk happens at the gym too.
My inner friend is starting to feel keen for some weights, and I'm happy about that because I'm missing them too. But this feels more like an integrated choice than simply feeling like I have to.

Experiment with introducing kindness to your inner dialogue and trust your inner friend to plan your movement and health ❤️

09/06/2025

I have fallen off the bandwagon.
Like right off.
It feels like it wheeled off a while ago and I lost the urge to jump back on.

In practical terms, it means that I have gone to the gym only twice in the last month and my average step count is only half of the 10 000 that I aim for.
Food wise, I've been avs... But snacking like a soon-to-be-hibernating bear.

I work with and counsel people for weight management within my scope of my practice and I encourage people to do all the things... All the things we already know we should be doing but sometimes stop doing or don't feel we can.
And I always tell them that "I fall off the bandwagon too."
When they tilt their chin and look at me with big eyes, I know there is a part of them that doesn't believe me so, here I am, making it known!

I am mid-fall and guess what?
I am still being kind to myself.

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