Why I Created Adventure Physio
A group of women on a women's social mountain bike ride gather at the top of Mount Gunjin in Kalamunda. This is a social ride that was led by Stephanie Lock, Adventure Physio
For several months in 2019, I lead women's social mountain bike rides. This was the first one, with an amazing turn out to show the demand for women's group mountain bike events in Perth. I was looking for a women’s ride to join as a VERY inexperienced mountain bike rider and when I couldn’t find one I just advertised one myself. I met some friends on that ride who are still close today but ultimately decided the responsibility of running them was a bit much when I was such a beginner.
Being outdoors and doing sports with friends has always been an important piece of my identity and personality since I started rock climbing when I was 18. It might even go further back than that, to family camping trips with my VERY unsporty family.
It taught me how to use my body, how to love the Earth, and how to safely push my boundaries and live outside my comfort zone in a way that nothing else ever could.
It helped change me from an unhealthy, chubby, fearful and awkward young woman into one that was probably still all of those things but no longer unhealthy.
I found a community, a place that felt like a spiritual home, a sport that tested me and pushed me both physically and mentally and enduring love of being outside.
Since then, this love has extended to other sports which always involve being outside, with friends, pushing my limits and eating delicious food. Always, this has an element of adventure in it.
There has always been a hunch in the back of my head that I should be working with people who feel the same as I do. That the need to be outside pushing out boundaries bit by bit is integral to happiness and makes the rest of our lives function properly.
The kind of people who understand that a wrist injury means more than just not being able to ride, it means the joy of life is dampened a little and that things are a little more grey-tinted without it. The kind of people who understand that pushing grades in rock climbing is a metaphor for life and when it feels like you’re failing at that, it also feels like you’re failing at progress in other parts of your life.
I want to be able to help bond people into the community with each other over this shared passion for outdoor adventurous sports.
Steph at the Break the Boundary adaptive mountain bike camp in 2021
Personally, I feel like this will allow me to live my passions, walk my talk, and combine the things that help me live a satisfying life with the work that I want to do. It is a way of still connecting with like-minded people without the heaviness of other forms of physio work that I also love but maybe take too much from me.
Professionally I feel like this will be able to focus my passions on the people who can most benefit from my help. Knowing it’s more than being about a sport, it’s about your lifestyle and happy place being affected. I want to feel like my life work is making a positive impact and that I can help bring more joy and fulfillment into other people’s existences.