Meet Zac Turner Camino's in house physiotherapist
I am super excited to be introducing myself as part of the Camino team. My name is Zac Turner and I am a physiotherapist based in Geelong, Victoria and an avid triathlete. I first got involved in triathlon whilst looking for a sport I could structure around work and day-to-day life, which sounds silly given the hours of training required for triathlon. However, I found I was able to plan my training sessions in my own time, and balance this between other commitments. It wasn’t long before triathlon had me sucked in. It started with Olympic distance, then went to “I wouldn’t mind doing a 70.3,” then “I reckon I could do an Ironman,” and now “I want to get to Kona.” It would be fair to say that the addiction set in, and the thrill of wanting to go one better kept me going back for more.
As a physiotherapist I soon saw the opportunity to combine both of my passions. As an athlete I am too familiar with the frustrations of injury, and I wanted to use my work as a physio to help those in triathlon, and the overall sporting world. I have a special interest in the prevention and management of overuse injuries, and love helping athletes of all levels get back out doing what they love. My view is, that in a perfect world there would be no need for injury management. I don’t necessarily feel that this is realistic, but prevention is the best management, and if we can prevent their occurrence firstly, there would be no injury to manage. Hence, most of my work as a physio surrounds the preventative measures we can use to optimise performance and reduce injury risk and occurrence.
As I touched on briefly, my main goal for the next 12 months is to secure a Kona spot for 2019. I am under no illusions how much work I have ahead of me to get this, but nothing good has ever come from comfort zones. I have a coach in Geelong who keeps me accountable to my training, and balancing this with work, and now a newborn child will be a challenge, but one that I’m up for. I intend to share my journey over the next 12 months of training and racing, and fingers crossed I’m writing to you all from a sunny Hawaiian island in 12 months from now.
I can’t wait to keep you all informed with my injury advice, and I hope it helps each and every reader out there to stay racing, and far away from injury. If there are any injuries holding you back feel free to let me know, and I will endeavour to offer my advice.
Zac is a physiotherapist with special interest in overuse injuries in sporting populations, particularly triathlon.
Follow Zac and get in touch via Instagram at @tri.physio
