Kimberley Shamtally, Entrepreneur, author, and Physical therapist. Leader in identifying patterns of muscle behaviour, experienced through trauma. Kimberley’s son, diagnosed with a brain tumour, experienced Posterior Fossa Syndrome after surgery. She helped him to create new neural pathways to use all his muscles again. With life experience documenting the ongoing recovery came the vision to help heal others by launching Muscle Mechanics Balms. The cooperation of nature and self-healing. Giving up is not an option when young lives are depending on you, Kimberley strives to improve resilience against adversity through invention.
Kimberley Shamtally, Entrepreneur, Author and Physical Therapist
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
Hi, I am Kimberley Shamtally. A high energy Mother to three children, one of whom has a range of physical needs that require my one-to-one attention. I am also a business owner and creator of Muscle Mechanics Balms. When people say you are an entrepreneur, it does not really hit me until I realise the number of projects and ideas I am spinning at the same time. That, that is what an entrepreneur successfully manages to accomplish. Being a keen writer, I am about to publish my son’s recovery journey. This is the culmination of around five years of hard, punishing and at times, heartbreaking work. Throughout these difficult periods of my life with my children it has given me the confidence to find ways through the challenges we face. Life within my household is a complex combination of schedules, meetings football and dance shows. But we all manage to find time to be together in the evening. This may include having a digital break from my work to set the example to the children that we do have a life outside of social media and computers. I have a real love of nature and enjoy running in the woods, feeling that fresh air on my face and the smell of autumn leaves. There is something comforting about taking a walk around the country parks or going to the beach on those lazy weekends during the summer. Working out in the gym or at home gives me a sense of calmness when my days are full of meetings and spreadsheets. Enjoying my connection to nature formed the basis of my company Muscle Mechanics Balms.
What is your business name and how do you help your clients?
My business, Muscle Mechanics Balms, helps people find that inner peace during chaotic times, of recovery from a sporting injury or the sadness of grief. Each client can present as healthy, but they may have a reoccurring pain that never seems to go away. If this affects them physically, I enjoy investigating the root cause of this to establish a better way of moving so they can go on and enjoy the sport they love or a favourite hobby. Showing that clients can find another way to deal with pain helps them to move forward and change their lives to become more in tune with themselves then the outside world. With so many options and opinions of how we should live our lives, I take a different approach and ask them what do they want? What would make the biggest impact if they could move better? Then I listen and wait. This can take clients a while to understand that I am not here to enforce a way of living but to understand them. Giving them the chance to be listened to, is immensely powerful and sometimes tears will fall but this is all part of clearing the suppressed feelings we can all hold inside.
Who inspires you to be the best that you can be?
My inspiration to be the best person I can be comes from my children. When I see those faces every morning and before they go to bed, I am incredibly grateful to have them in my life. I remember at one point both of my boys’ lives were in danger and imagining a life without them, I just simply could not comprehend that. Without sounding like a cliché, every facet of my personality is under evaluation and assessed to the maximum with their needs and especially my son Jenson’s rehabilitation needs. If I did not have a clue about something, I made it my mission to find out all that I could. I listen to Tony Robbins and find his approach to working through the yukky stuff in life works for me. Sometimes you need to face those areas head on and break each problem down by visualising a solution. Allowing that creativity to flow. David Goggin’s incredible way of optimising his body through the hardest physical challenges he can find, inspires me to keep going and to not get comfortable when you know deep down you want to do more but find excuses not to. Making the impossible, possible is a saying we love in our house.
What is your work inspired by?
Inspired by the beauty of the human body. How one system relies on another and the harmony that occurs to keep us in the right rhythm with the activity we are involved in. When we run and it becomes effortless, each muscle, tendon and ligament form a perfect relationship to release that raw speed and power. The endurance that our skin takes when we prepare for motherhood. How we evolve as we train to become an athlete of our own life. Seeing food as our medicine to fuel for the day, clearing all that brain fog that comes with the relentless stress of our environment that we live in. Acknowledging a series of patterns that facilitate movement and how we programme ourselves on an individual basis, we can affect change anytime we want. This is the best part of my work, showing individuals that they can achieve what they desire so long as they know what it is that they want. Science and medicine are interests of mine and I like to read latest research and innovations projects to help my clients achieve a better outcomes.
Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.
This year Muscle Mechanics has achieved a special recognition from The Federation of Holistic Therapists. This felt like we had finally arrived as a service that is valued for the volunteering and challenging work that goes into educating others about alternative therapies. We came runner-up at The Business Success Recognition Awards within the Overcoming Adversity category. As a full-time carer to my son, that continues to recover from a brain tumour diagnosis in 2017, this nomination gave me the chance to show that carers can have financial turmoil and restriction to how they earn but with the right team around them they can go on to build sustainable businesses that give their loved ones the support they need. Sometimes we must generate a new pathway to succeed and through the toughest challenges, we show of what we are capable. The biggest breakthrough achieving an editorial within Men’s Health Magazine. We wanted to build seriously as a family business, and with all our research into how our blends work and the sporting events that we had attended. This was a giant step in the right direction. My son’s use of all the balm products demonstrates how gentle and versatile the blend can be. He had a series of major operations and life-saving medical treatments, he was the right case study for this to become a go-to method of treating everyday aches and pains. Personally, I have achieved my running goals of completing a virtual London Marathon and seven half marathons using my blends within the recovery period. Assisting many more marathon runners at the national shows. Our aim is to help as many people as we can to feel better.
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