Believe me, I’ve been there.
I have spent way more time (and energy and money) on physical therapy than I care to add up.
After competing as a Division I runner, I graduated college pretty beat up. The years following graduation involved a lot of time in rehab programs trying to get the tendons in ankles healthy again. I spent a lot of time frustrated. When injuries become chronic, they are hard to recover from.
I learned a lot from my personal journey with injury. Like common rehabilitative exercises and how (good) PT’s think about problems, tracing them back to their root causes and piecing together the biomechanics of movement (hint: everything is connected).
I learned that getting stronger is one of the most effective and lasting ways to get out of chronic pain and injury, which was so profound and inspiring to me that I decided to quit my corporate job to become a personal trainer focused specifically on strength training.
Along the way, I have also learned a lot about the psychology of injury and chronic pain (from myself and from my clients). For example, I learned that there are areas of overlap between emotional health and physical health and that the body’s nervous system can become more sensitive to specific sensations over time, through adverse feedback mechanisms we often aren’t aware of, which can make it harder for people to recover from pain.
Today, I am able to do the physical activities I enjoy again after the better part of a decade spent on the sidelines. That was not a quick or easy process. But I am grateful for it because I learned so much and it has allowed me to truly connect with other people who are “stuck” and work on helping them get unstuck.
My body doesn’t feel perfect all the time. But I’ve learned how to work with it. And how to slowly re-acquaint it with doing difficult activities, at a rate that allows it to adapt and get stronger.
You can do this, too.
I’d love to help. Contact me to learn more.
