About Us
Just Move
Sports physiotherapy practice and Pilates/barre studio ‘Just Move’ opened in February 2018. The name was inspired by Founder, Susan Heagney's postgraduate diploma in Sports and Exercise Medicine. With a large emphasis in the diploma on the benefits of exercise, Susan's eyes were opened to the fact that more than a quarter of the world’s population simply do not get enough.
The recommended levels of excercise for good health are at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week. However, Susan realised that as much as exercise was good for us, being sedentary i.e. spending too much time sitting and watching TV, was bad for us.
High levels of sitting are linked to breast, colon and ovarian cancers, type 2 diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Susan realised that in addition to promoting exercise, just encouraging people to sit less could have positive health outcomes. She felt with her background as a physiotherapist and a Pilates instructor that she had the skills required to promote this public health message to the people of Marlborough.
Meet the Founder
Susan Heagney
Susan has had a love for sport and exercise since her days representing Ireland as a junior tennis player. Combining this with her favourite subjects at school, anatomy and biology, led to a career in physiotherapy, which she qualified for in 2000 from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. She went on to complete her rotations in one of the big teaching hospitals in Dublin.
In 2005 Susan travelled to Perth, Western Australia and studied for a postgraduate certificate in Orthopaedic Manual Therapy at Curtin University. From there she went to New Zealand and worked at Sports Med in Christchurch. What was supposed to be a few months working overseas did not exactly work out as planned. Susan met her Kiwi (now) husband Kyle while working in Christchurch! They both returned to Ireland in 2006.
In 2007 Susan’s Mum encouraged her to train as Pilates instructor (her and her friends wanted to do Pilates but couldn’t find a course that suited!) and she has been combining physiotherapy and Pilates teaching ever since.
Susan and Kyle moved back to Blenheim in 2009, and Susan worked for the DHB and then at a local private practice, while getting married and giving birth to twin boys in 2010, and another little boy in 2013. In 2015, wanting to ensure she was up to date with current evidence based practice, Susan undertook a postgraduate diploma in Sports and Exercise Medicine at the University of Otago. It wasn’t an easy few years studying, working and looking after three young children but it was worth it when, in 2018, Susan completed the diploma and decided to open Just Move.
Initially Just Move focused on sports physiotherapy and mat pilates classes, then Susan added barre classes to her skill set after completing her barre training in April 2019.
When Susan is not working she can be found kicking a rugby ball, bowling a cricket ball or playing tennis with her three boys. She comes into work for a break!
In 2005 Susan travelled to Perth, Western Australia and studied for a postgraduate certificate in Orthopaedic Manual Therapy at Curtin University. From there she went to New Zealand and worked at Sports Med in Christchurch. What was supposed to be a few months working overseas did not exactly work out as planned. Susan met her Kiwi (now) husband Kyle while working in Christchurch! They both returned to Ireland in 2006.
In 2007 Susan’s Mum encouraged her to train as Pilates instructor (her and her friends wanted to do Pilates but couldn’t find a course that suited!) and she has been combining physiotherapy and Pilates teaching ever since.
Susan and Kyle moved back to Blenheim in 2009, and Susan worked for the DHB and then at a local private practice, while getting married and giving birth to twin boys in 2010, and another little boy in 2013. In 2015, wanting to ensure she was up to date with current evidence based practice, Susan undertook a postgraduate diploma in Sports and Exercise Medicine at the University of Otago. It wasn’t an easy few years studying, working and looking after three young children but it was worth it when, in 2018, Susan completed the diploma and decided to open Just Move.
Initially Just Move focused on sports physiotherapy and mat pilates classes, then Susan added barre classes to her skill set after completing her barre training in April 2019.
When Susan is not working she can be found kicking a rugby ball, bowling a cricket ball or playing tennis with her three boys. She comes into work for a break!
