Force & Function Services Explained: What's Offered
When people hear "exercise physiology," they often think of gym programs, injury rehab, or general exercise advice. Those can all be part of it, but exercise physiology is broader than simply handing someone a workout. At Force & Function, we use structured, evidence-based exercise to help people rebuild strength, restore movement, improve physical capacity, and regain confidence in their bodies — delivered as home visits across the Gold Coast, or via telehealth.
This guide explains the main services we offer and who each may suit.
What is exercise physiology?
Exercise physiology is a clinical allied health service that uses exercise as a form of treatment and management. As your Exercise Physiologist, we assess your current capacity, understand your health history and goals, identify barriers to movement, and prescribe exercise that's safe, structured, and specific to your needs — strength training, mobility work, balance exercises, cardiovascular conditioning, functional movement training, return-to-work preparation, pain education, or home exercise programming. The goal isn't just to exercise for the sake of it; it's to improve how your body functions in real life.
Injury rehabilitation
Our injury rehabilitation programs help clients restore strength, mobility, and function after musculoskeletal injuries, post-surgical recovery, or periods of reduced physical capacity — including back, neck, shoulder, hip, knee, or general joint pain, muscle strains and tendon injuries, post-surgical rehabilitation, and rebuilding movement confidence after pain or injury. We start by understanding your injury, symptoms, current limitations, and goals, then build a program that progresses safely over time. Rehabilitation isn't just about reducing pain — it's about rebuilding the capacity to move, lift, walk, work, and live with confidence.
WorkCover rehabilitation
We provide exercise physiology support for WorkCover rehabilitation, helping injured workers rebuild capacity and progress toward safe work participation where appropriate. This may involve assessing current physical capacity, identifying work-related movement limitations, building tolerance for lifting, carrying, bending, standing, or repetitive tasks, and supporting graded return-to-work planning. The aim is to make rehabilitation practical and work-focused — connected to the physical demands of your actual role, not just general exercise in isolation.
Veterans programs
We offer specialised rehabilitation for DVA clients, including support for musculoskeletal injuries, PTSD, and chronic pain management. This area is particularly important to us — Force & Function was built from lived experience, with founder Jordan Slack having served in the Australian Army before becoming an Accredited Exercise Physiologist. That experience with injury and rehabilitation helped shape the mission behind the practice: structured, dedicated care for people rebuilding strength, function, and confidence.
Veterans programs may focus on chronic pain management, injury rehabilitation, strength and mobility, physical reconditioning, confidence with movement, mental health support through exercise, and sustainable long-term health habits. Rehabilitation isn't only physical — for many veterans, pain, injury, mental health, identity, routine, and confidence all influence the recovery process.
Chronic disease management
We provide evidence-based exercise therapy for chronic disease management, including support for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and chronic pain, delivered through Medicare Chronic Disease Management (CDM) plans or private referrals where appropriate. This may involve improving strength, aerobic fitness, blood glucose control, blood pressure, weight management behaviours, pain confidence, mobility, fatigue tolerance, and daily function.
Exercise is one of the most valuable tools available for managing many chronic health conditions — but the program needs to be appropriate for the person, taking into account your current fitness, medical history, medications, symptoms, confidence, and any barriers to exercising safely and consistently.
NDIS exercise therapy
We provide functional movement programs for NDIS participants to help improve coordination, physical capacity, mobility, and independence in daily life. This isn't just about fitness — it's about building capacity in ways that support everyday function: strength, balance, coordination, walking tolerance, postural control, transfers, confidence with movement, and participation in home, community, or recreational activities. That might mean helping a client move more safely at home, access the community with more confidence, or build strength for specific functional tasks.
Mental health and exercise
We support movement-based programs for mental health recovery, including structured exercise for people managing depression, anxiety, and PTSD (currently delivered one-on-one, with group classes in development — see our hours and appointments guide for updates). Exercise can play an important role in supporting mental health when it's delivered in a structured, supportive, and achievable way — building routine, improving confidence, reducing avoidance, increasing energy, supporting mood regulation, and creating a genuine sense of progress. For some clients this begins with very simple movement goals; for others it involves progressive strength training or cardiovascular exercise. The key is meeting the person where they are and progressing at the right pace.
Telehealth programs
We offer remote exercise coaching and program reviews to support clients throughout South-East Queensland and rural areas, as well as clients who need support between in-person sessions. Telehealth may suit clients who live outside the local area, have difficulty attending in person, need program reviews, want guidance with a home exercise plan, or are transitioning from supervised sessions to independent exercise. It doesn't mean generic programming — we still aim to understand your goals, current capacity, available equipment, and environment before providing guidance.
What happens in the first appointment?
Your first appointment is focused on assessment and planning. We want to understand who you are, what's brought you in, what you want to achieve, and what's currently limiting you — your injury or condition, current symptoms, physical limitations, goals, previous exercise experience, confidence with movement, and your funding or referral pathway. We may also complete objective testing where appropriate: strength, mobility, balance, functional movement, cardiovascular tolerance, or task-specific assessments. From there, we build a plan that's specific to you.
How we choose the right service for you
You don't need to know exactly what type of program you need before booking — that's part of our role. Some clients come in for injury rehabilitation but also need chronic disease support. Others attend through NDIS but have goals related to strength, confidence, and community access. A WorkCover client may need both physical conditioning and reassurance around safe movement. We look at the whole picture, and the right plan may include one-on-one exercise physiology, a structured rehabilitation program, a home exercise program, telehealth reviews, ongoing progression and reassessment, or communication with referrers where required. The service should fit the person, not the other way around.
Who do we work with?
People who may be recovering from injury, managing chronic pain, rebuilding after surgery, living with chronic disease, accessing NDIS supports, seeking DVA exercise physiology, recovering from a workplace injury, managing anxiety, depression, or PTSD, feeling deconditioned, or simply wanting to improve strength, mobility, and function. You don't need to be fit or confident before starting — our job is to help you build from your current level.
Why choose Force & Function?
Our approach is built around strength, function, and confidence. We don't believe in generic exercise programs that ignore your history, goals, or limitations — we believe in assessment, clear planning, education, technique coaching, and safe progression. That may mean returning to work, improving independence, managing pain, supporting mental health, improving chronic disease outcomes, or simply feeling more capable in daily life.