Beyond Recovery: A Conversation with Robbie Wells
As a Beyond the Cage ambassador, Robbie Wells brings a unique blend of experience as a world champion martial artist, physiotherapist, and educator. His journey from overcoming childhood fear to working with elite athletes gives him a deep understanding of resilience, patience, and the importance of support. In this conversation, Robbie shares how his philosophy goes beyond recovery to inspire new ways of thinking about health, performance, and life.
Q: You’ve lived in both elite sport and physiotherapy. How do those experiences come together in your work today?
Robbie: For me it’s about integration. In sport and recovery, the physical side often takes centre stage. But that’s never the full picture. Listening, talking, and education are just as important as exercises. Real progress happens when the physical, psychological, and emotional aspects are all connected.
Q: Injury isn’t just physical. How do you support people through the emotional side of recovery?
Robbie: The frustration of not being able to do what you love can be harder than the pain itself. Coming from a fighting background, I’ve had to learn patience, and working with elite athletes reminds me of that constantly. Shay Walsh, a former MMA world champion whose career was cut short by injury, shows this on another level: when an injury ends your career, the challenge becomes about finding meaning and purpose, not just healing.
Q: You’ve faced injury yourself. How did that shape your perspective?
Robbie: My biggest struggles came through gymnastics. I had recurring shoulder injuries that tested me for years. At first, I found it hard to listen to my own professional advice. What shifted things was reading Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.
Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor who built his philosophy around the idea that humans can endure almost anything if they can find meaning in it. He wrote, “In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.”
That line stayed with me. It helped me see my own injuries differently, not just as setbacks, but as experiences that could help me connect with my clients. It taught me to see injury as a teacher, not only an obstacle.
Q: You’ve trained with some of the best athletes in the world. What lessons stand out from that environment?
Robbie: That we all need support. No matter what level you reach, you can’t do it alone. I had the privilege of training with Georges St. Pierre in Thailand, a complete martial artists and widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time. I remember asking him how he managed to retire at the very top.
He said: “Great question. I was very fortunate to have good people around me that I could trust and who were honest. Often fighter’s just want to keep going, and it’s easy for their team to want the same because of the big occasions, but they need to care for the fighter.”
It was such a great reminder that to be at our best, we need a support structure around us that genuinely care.
Q: What values guide you most in your own practice?
Robbie: Honesty, accountability, and patience. They came from martial arts and gymnastics, and they’ve carried through to physiotherapy. The details of exercises matter less than the attitude you bring. How you show up, consistently, is what makes the real difference.
Q: And if there’s one takeaway you’d want people to remember?
Robbie: Consistency. It’s obvious, but it’s the most overlooked aspect of training and recovery. You don’t need to be perfect, you just need to keep showing up, with the right values and the right support. That’s where real progress happens.
Through Beyond the Cage, Robbie brings this philosophy beyond the clinic into schools, universities, and communities. His story and practice show that recovery is never just physical. It’s about resilience, reflection, and finding meaning in challenge. As an ambassador, Robbie’s role is to inspire others to embrace patience, values, and support as the foundations of lasting growth.
