Specialised Health

Specialised Health Specialised Health provides exercise physiology services for those undergoing rehabilitation in the Income Protection, CTP and Workcover schemes.

Our objective is to work with your rehab team to help you achieve your recovery goals. We help clients return to work and everything else they loved doing before injury or illness took over. From mental illness to musculoskeletal injuries, our awesome Exercise Physiologists tailor exercise-based rehab programs to meet each client's needs.

27/05/2026

One of the easiest ways to misread progress in a rehab plan?

Only looking at what the client did.

Attended sessions ✅
Increased activity ✅
Following the plan ✅

On paper, it looks like progress.

But that’s only half the picture.

What matters just as much is how they recover from that load.

We’ve seen clients:

Increasing activity
Staying consistent
Doing “all the right things”

But their recovery tells a different story:

Sleep getting worse
Energy dropping across the week
Struggling to switch off

That’s where things start to drift.

Using HRV, we track how the system is actually responding behind the scenes.

It gives us a clearer view of:

Whether the load is being tolerated
Whether recovery is keeping up
Whether the plan is sustainable

A simple shift that helps:

Instead of just asking “What did they do this week?”
Start asking “How did they recover from it?”

That’s often where the real insight sits.

25/05/2026

Many RTW plans focus on:

Hours
Duties
Capacity

All important.

But one piece often gets missed:

How well the client is recovering from those demands.

In a recent case, HRV helped us track how a client’s system was responding to:

Work tasks
Exercise
Daily stress

It gave us a clearer picture of:

When to push
When to scale back
What was actually helping vs. adding load

This made planning more precise and gave the Rehab Provider better insight into what was driving progress.

For mental health claims, recovery isn’t a “nice to have.”

It’s a key part of the plan.

We are stoked to welcome back a familiar face - Brad McGregor - who is returning to the Specialised Health team! Based i...
22/05/2026

We are stoked to welcome back a familiar face - Brad McGregor - who is returning to the Specialised Health team!

Based in Brisbane (Inner & North Metro), Brad has a wealth of experience both as an accredited EP and in the adult education sector. His thoughtful, evidence-based approach to rehabilitation means that he is highly regarded as a clinical specialist within our team. We couldn't be happier to have him back in our eco system!

We asked Brad what drew him back to Specialised Health:
"The decision to rejoin Specialised Health after a 5-year hiatus was borne out of my desire to get 'back on the tools' & help people. The ecosystem that Brad & his leadership have created allows EP's to be creative & think laterally in helping customers get back to work & back to life. I am excited to be a part of it once more."

A warm welcome to Brad!

20/05/2026

We often encourage clients to stay active.

And for good reason.

But sometimes, more activity isn’t the solution.

We recently worked with a client who was:

Training 5x per week
Pushing through fatigue
Still not improving

The issue wasn’t effort.

It was recovery.

Using HRV, we could see his system was under constant stress — no real reset between sessions.

So we adjusted:

Less high-intensity work
More recovery-focused strategies
Better structure across the week

That’s when progress started.

For some clients, especially in mental health claims:

It’s not about doing more.
It’s about recovering better.

19/05/2026

Most high-performers don't have a motivation problem.

They have a regulation problem.

Take Alex, a GP who was training 5 days a week while spiraling into severe depression and OCD.

He used high-intensity gym sessions to burn off stress.

But he was actually pouring petrol on a fire.

His body was stuck in a permanent fight-or-flight loop.

He wasn't training but he was overtaxing an already exhausted nervous system until he was physically vomiting from exertion.

The fix wasn't more rest. It was better data.

We used HRV (Heart Rate Variability) to show him, objectively, when his system was redlining.

We swapped the heavy lifting for down-regulation work: yoga, salsa dancing and vagus nerve stimulation.

When you align your output with your internal capacity, recovery happens fast.

Alex is now back in the clinic, working 20 hours a week with a toolkit that prevents the boom-and-bust cycle for good.

If your client is doing all the right things but getting worse, stop looking at their willpower and start looking at their nervous system.

Meet Alex, a GP registrar struggling with depression, anxiety, and OCD.Alex was forced to stop work. His clinical precis...
17/05/2026

Meet Alex, a GP registrar struggling with depression, anxiety, and OCD.

Alex was forced to stop work. His clinical precision had become a compulsive burden; he was staying up all night analyzing patient notes, unable to switch off. Even his "escape" - the gym - was a trap. He was training 5 days a week through exhaustion, keeping his body in a permanent state of "fight or flight."

When our Exercise Physiologist, Caitlin, stepped in, she didn’t tell him to push harder. She taught him to pace smarter.

By using Heart Rate Variability (HRV) tracking, Alex finally had the data to see when his nervous system was overtaxed. Caitlin swapped grueling workouts for "down-regulation" like yoga and deep breathing, and used 15-minute cognitive "sprints" to rebuild his work stamina without the emotional weight.

The Result? Alex returned to work at 20 hours a week with a toolkit for longevity.

Check out our latest case study blog for the full story!

13/05/2026

One of the biggest bottlenecks in RTW plans?

Getting alignment with the GP.

They’re being asked to sign off on increased hours or duties often with limited objective information.

That’s where HRV becomes useful.

It gives a simple, measurable insight into how the claimant is recovering in response to load.

So when we’re discussing upgrades, we can show:

How the claimant responded to the last increase
Whether recovery remained stable
Whether the system is under strain or adapting well

It shifts the conversation from opinion… to evidence.

And when GPs have clear data, they can certify progression with more confidence.

Better alignment → smoother upgrades → more durable RTW outcomes.

11/05/2026

“Can we justify increasing their hours?”

It’s a fair question, especially from a GP.

Most of the time, the answer is based on:

Subjective reports
Observations
“They seem to be going okay”

Helpful… but not always convincing.

This is where Heart Rate Variability (HRV) adds value.

After increasing load (hours, duties, exercise), we track HRV to see how the system responds.

If HRV remains stable → the load is being tolerated
If HRV drops → recovery is being compromised

It gives us objective evidence to support what we’re recommending.

Which makes conversations with GPs a lot easier.

Because instead of saying:
“They feel ready”

We can say:
“Their system is coping with the current load and here’s the data to support progression.”

07/05/2026

"How do you feel?" is a dangerous question to build a rehab plan on.

Subjective feedback is messy.

Some claimants push through pain they shouldn't, while others hold back when they are actually ready to fly.

Both lead to delayed claims and wasted costs.

Data doesn’t have a "hero complex."

By tracking HRV, we get an objective window into the total stress on a claimant's system, physical, social and psychological.

If we increase work hours and the HRV stays stable, we have physiological proof they can handle the load.

If it plummets, we catch the crash before it happens.

Objective data creates durable outcomes.

Save this post if you want to move from subjective "feelings" to objective RTW data.

05/05/2026

The "boom and bust" cycle is the silent killer of rehab progress.

We’ve all seen it.

A claimant feels great on Tuesday, overdoes it on Wednesday, and is sidelined until the following Monday.

They’re guessing.

You’re guessing.

The employer is frustrated.

We stopped guessing by looking at Heart Rate Variability (HRV).

Think of HRV as the "thermostat gauge" on the nervous system.

When HRV shows us that the system is responding well we push.

When it’s showing us the system is under stress and struggling, we pivot to recovery.

It’s not about doing less but it’s about doing the right work at the right time.

If you want a return-to-work plan that actually sticks, you need to not only measure the physical load but also the recovery capacity.

Check the blog to see how we use biometrics to prevent the plateau.

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PO Box 604
Mosman, NSW
2088

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