#18 Dr. Hussain Al-Zubaidi Movement as Medicine: What Primary Care Could Be

This week’s guest is Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi, a GP who’s challenging the way primary care approaches health, ageing, and behaviour change. This episode is not about tips or techniques, it’s about rethinking how we structure support.Andrew and Hussain explore what happens when we stop asking people to ‘try harder’ and start changing the environments around them. They talk about the limits of the 10-minute appointment, why traditional advice-based models often fall flat, and the power of social prescribing, group consultations, and joy-led activity.Hussain shares his personal story, from receiving a fatty liver diagnosis in his twenties to attending his first Park Run in a pair of paint-stained joggers, and how this experience reshaped his practice as a GP.This is a conversation about ladders, not lectures. Strength, not prescriptions. And the vital difference between telling people what to do- and helping them build the confidence to try.Bio:Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi is a GP with an extended role in lifestyle medicine (GPwERLM). He has always endeavoured to take a holistic view on healthcare and is the personalised care lead for the Leamington PCN. He leads the RCGP’s lifestyle and physical activity team; heads the UK’s first PCN-based fitness club; works as a TV doctor on This Morningand Good Morning Britain; leads on health partnerships for parkrun UK; is a trustee at ThinkActive (the regional active partnership); and sits on the advisory board for SWIM England. When not working, Hussain is a keen triathlete, representing his country.Timestamps: 00:00 – Introduction and Hussain’s early story01:40 – Barriers to movement growing up04:30 – A wake-up call: fatty liver diagnosis06:00 – Parkrun with no trainers: a new chapter08:00 – Identity shift through movement10:45 – Behaviour change: ladders vs mountains14:30 – How group consultations change outcomes18:20 – Why the 10-minute model is failing25:00 – The structure of Leamington’s lifestyle clinics33:00 – The TOY method: Trust – Observe – Yield42:00 – Challenging well-meaning but limiting advice45:00 – Strength and age: doing more, not less51:00 – Building social options for meaningful strength55:00 – What gives Hussain hope about the system60:00 – Final reflections and a story of reversalResources & Links:RCGP GP with extended role in lifestyle medicineRCGP Physical Activity HubRed Whale Lifestyle Medicine CourseParkrun Practice InitiativeMental Health SwimsThink ActiveMusic: Opening and closing music by Mary Erskine aka Me for Queen, from the track Exercise. Used with kind permission.