Get to know Dr. BettyLou, PT, DPT
As a competitive dancer from a young age, Dr. BettyLou’s passion for movement started early. After experiencing multiple physical therapy journeys herself — some empowering, others frustrating — she became committed to doing things differently.
She earned her Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology in 2018 and completed her Doctorate of Physical Therapy in 2021. Her approach blends clinical expertise with a whole-body, nervous-system-focused philosophy that looks beyond just the injured area. She specializes in helping clients overcome back pain, knee injuries, shoulder limitations, post-surgical recovery, and chronic movement issues by restoring trust, strength, and control.
What makes her unique is the bridge she builds between physical therapy and real-world strength training. Rather than discharging clients with a sheet of exercises, she integrates rehabilitation directly into structured strength coaching — helping people transition safely back into the gym, return to sport, and build long-term resilience.
Whether someone is searching for expert physical therapy or a gym that understands injury recovery, Dr. BettyLou’s mission is the same: help people move confidently, train safely, and stay strong for life.
Transcript:
Doctor BettyLou, welcome to the Bod Pod.
Thank you. Anthony named it.
I know. Is it sticking?
I love it. It’s good.
Yeah. When I first saw it, I was like, “I know I can get behind that.” That’s good.
And I asked first. It’s not because it’s a completely different use than the Bod Pod. It still clears room stuff.
Yes. That’s why we have the lawyer friends.
Yeah. Okay. So there’s quite a few things I want to talk about today. I’m really excited.
We don’t talk all that much anymore. I know that we were supposed to have monthly meetings, so I just need direct access to your calendar.
I’m just putting myself in so we can hang out at least once a month and talk about things.
Do you not have direct access to my account?
No. I texted you asking.
You okay?
Yeah, but you know, we have this girl over here. She can—
Do you have access to my calendar?
Okay. There you go.
She can see it, but she can’t put things in.
Got it. So I was really trying to get to know when you had free time versus texting you, and then when a clear spot opened up, I was like, “Oh, can I have this time?” and I already have it open.
Yeah. Okay.
So let’s start with your background. I would say most people don’t know that you started here as a coach, right? And have transitioned to owning your own practice doing physical therapy.
So, yes—take us through your journey. How did you get into fitness and now into PT and all that?
I actually really love talking about my story because you can see God’s plan. People are always like, “Oh, you’ll know.” You don’t really know until you look back.
And I love looking back because there were a lot of bad things in there, but the way the dominoes fell… I love my story.
So I inevitably went to school at Northern Arizona University with my sister. The reason I ended up there is because that whole time in my life—when you’re supposed to apply to school and everything—went downhill in my personal life. So I only applied to one school, I got it, and it was the school with my sister.
So I went to NAU and worked my way all the way through school with my exercise science degree, which was supposed to be the pre-physical therapy program. They took it away the semester I got there.
So when we were sitting in our meeting, it was like, “Oh, it’s no longer pre-physical therapy.” Okay.
So you knew right away. You knew right away, like, “I want to be in physical health.”
I knew my junior year of high school, and that was after a few visits to physical therapy for myself.
So I had gone for my neck, I had gone for my jaw, and then I dislocated my knee.
In dance.
In dance, yes. I was a dancer, and I was ballet en pointe. So when I was in pointe class, I lost my kneecap for a split second and went to physical therapy.
That therapy experience was very odd. I was a junior in high school, and the situation was just awkward. I didn’t feel comfortable. The exercises weren’t very explained. It was just a weird situation.
Needless to say, I got discharged—and then the next week I lost my knee again. I ended up back on the floor, and I was like, “Okay, great. So there’s round two.”
I went to a different physical therapy place, and that’s where I met this lady that I was like, “Oh, I really like her.” She had a history in dance.
Her degree was on the wall, so I had seen it, and it was Saint Augustine—which didn’t hit my head until I was at Saint Augustine talking about my story. And I was like, “Oh my God. The physical therapist that I ended up really liking went to this school.”
So that was another weird piece that just fit.
But she was great. And I could see the vision of how, in that space, people could heal physically, mentally, emotionally—if you did it right. And there was a lot of connection that could be built, just like sitting on the equipment next to people.
It was a great experience. That’s when my mind shifted from being a pediatrician to being a physical therapist.
So yeah, that took me all the way through my undergrad at Northern Arizona University. I did exercise science as my major, but I minored in psychology and health and wellness coaching… and chemistry—but that didn’t really matter.
More than anything, I wanted to be well-versed in how to speak to people, how to communicate with them, how to understand, and how to encourage change or growth. That’s why I did all the things.
I didn’t know that. I didn’t know you did that. But now hearing that, I’m like, “Oh wow.” That makes so much sense because you’ve always been more in touch with people than the surface level of whatever their goal is or whatever they’re struggling with.
You’ve always had this unique ability to get underneath some of these things.
Thank you.
I saw it very early on. You would ask questions that sometimes people think, “What does that have to do with anything?”
Everything.
Yeah. Getting to know people on a deeper level is super important. I think I do do it well—thank you for saying that—and it takes practice.
But reading people is so valuable to understanding how the day is going to go, especially if you only have minutes within an hour, like when I was training here, or the full hour that I have with someone now.
Being able to read someone’s personality as you get to know them, but also their day-to-day energy and what’s happening in their world—that’s how you can communicate better and encourage them.
You never really know if it’s going to be a “hurrah” or a “hey, let’s be real” type of day. So yeah.
I literally just had that conversation with someone today: it’s so much more than a treatment plan—a list of saved movements, whether it’s exercises or therapeutic techniques.
When we’re trying to guide people towards a goal, it’s so much more than that sequence of events. Understanding the person, the state of mind they’re in, how their day has been… all of that makes a huge difference in the outcome of the exact same thing you would have done.
And that’s one of the things that sets you apart so much in physical therapy, because it’s worse in the PT industry as a whole—really attending to those things.
Yes. That’s why even as a junior in high school, I was like, “This is so awkward.” Nobody tries to talk to you or get to know you.
And I’m not an adult at that time. I’m a high school kid—help me out here. Connect with me and tell me what to do.
But even as an adult, you should be telling them what to do. They’re there to be served.
It just felt like everybody was fending for themselves in my first experience.
But yeah—learning how to read people, mirror people, understanding what vulnerability really is and how to connect with someone… that was a huge part of what shaped me.
I was a mentor in college, so I had a lot of practice coming out of school with what it meant to connect with people. We were talking about deep stuff—mentoring kids from out of state, they’re homesick, and all the things that happen in college. That gives you insight into how to get personal with someone.
You know, anybody who’s been injured to a significant extent—whether it’s something major or chronic—there’s so much emotional and mental baggage that comes with it. It weighs on you.
I’d consider what I went through last year pretty minor, but I tore my meniscus. It was the most significant injury I’d had in a long time.
There were days where I thought, “Is this all I’m going to get?” And the unknown part was really difficult. Those were the weeks where I’d text you like, “Can we check things out?”
You didn’t necessarily need to do anything significant—just give me hope or confidence that I was on the right path.
Yeah. My heart goes out to knee people because I was that person. The knee is such a catch-all. It feels different than an ankle or hip or even a back. When you lose trust in your knee, it’s different.
I’ve been through all of it. I get it. I’ve seen so many people and they all say the same thing—you can see hesitation in their face. And I saw it in yours. I felt so bad.
But the knee will come back. You have to give it grace, time, and effort. There are so many moving pieces.
When you would text me, my heart would flutter because I’ve been in that moment. Meeting you where you’re at—“this is what you’ve been doing, this is the change you’ve been seeing”—and then putting attention somewhere else so you’re still progressing the knee but your thought process is elsewhere.
And I told you: trust is the biggest thing. We have to keep giving you options and you have to keep doing things where you regain the relationship with your knee.
Yeah—especially because you like to snowboard. That’s what I was like: you’re going to go snowboarding.
Honestly, that was the biggest fear I had. I texted you because the thought in my head was: “Am I ever going to be able to get on a mountain and snowboard with my boys?”
That would’ve hurt. If I can’t play basketball at the level I want, I’m fine with that. But the snowboarding thing—that’s family.
It’s interesting thinking about the downstream effects of conversations like that. When you gave me hope and confidence—“keep going”—it changed everything.
When people are in pain, you doubt: “Am I doing the right thing?” Too many unknowns and you freeze. You stop. But when you gave me confidence, I did what I needed to do with better consistency.
And if we hadn’t had those moments, I might’ve slowed down or pulled back.
I want you to hear me in your head. Hear me in your head. Dream about me. Think about me all day long. Text me whatever. Be obsessed.
Because the more you can hear me in your head, the more I know you’ll do what you’re supposed to be doing.
It’s about reframing your perspective of movement, how you feel about your body, not passing judgment on yourself, and giving yourself grace to continue through it.
That nervous system approach—and the reason I start my sessions with assessing the nervous system—is because it allows you to heal better. That pullback or hesitation gives you more room for error, and we don’t need that.
Being consistent is key. But being capable and having the capacity to do things because your body feels safe—that’s the underlying piece. If you don’t have a sturdy foundation, you won’t go as far as you think you’ll go.
Okay—there are three things right there I really want to talk about. I want to talk about the “painting,” but you just used the name of your business.
Is that where “Rise & Reframe” comes from?
Yeah. I found myself saying that a lot in my internships: reframing your thought process, reframing the movement pattern, reframing the perspective.
I was like, “That’s literally it.” That’s me in a nutshell. I talk about this every day with almost every person. It matters in almost every category: how it’s framed.
It’s my delivery. How do I deliver? How do you receive? What does that framing look like for how you move through the process—thoughts, feelings, all of it.
When I kept hearing myself say “reframe,” I was like, “That has to be something.”
And I already knew I was coming out of school and going into my practice because of the experiences I’d had.
So I was always thinking, “What am I going to name this business?” That’s big.
The “Rise” came from a message that kept coming through me when I was in or around a church. Rising from the ashes, rising to your potential—my job is to lift you up. I’m going to continue to lift and you’re going to continue to rise.
I had insecurity about having a long name, but I couldn’t let one go. I needed both. I absolutely love it. It encapsulates everything I want to provide.
So the reframing part comes from pain science. For those of us that don’t know: explain why it matters that we change the way we think during pain cycles.
Your brain is powerful. What we tell ourselves is what’s going to happen. It’s your choice to choose what you believe.
And in the middle of that belief word is “lie.” You get to choose which lie—or the truth—you’re going to take.
If you tell yourself you’re going to get better, you’re going to get better. But if you keep telling yourself “this isn’t working, I’m in pain, I’m in pain,” all your brain hears is “I’m in pain,” and it’s going to produce pain.
So the way we talk to ourselves and the reframing of our thoughts is huge. Also: fake it till you make it. Give yourself the chance to actually make it by telling yourself positive things.
We have post-it notes everywhere back there: take one home. Put it on your counter. Make sure you see it: “I’m going to get better. I am better.”
That is plasticity—the neuroplasticity of rewiring how things connect: thoughts, emotions, and movement.
So if we go into it and make sure your nervous system feels safe and your body is balanced, now you have a clearer pathway to connect your brain to your body.
That sense of trust, movement, and sensation comes together. And if you’re in a movement and you start to doubt yourself—especially with the knee—you have to learn to trust your knee again.
You can’t go into a single-leg movement thinking, “Oh God, I’m going to fall, it’s going to hurt.” You have to go in confidently: “I’m strong. I can see my quad fire. I know I’m doing the movement right.”
“My person is right here. They’ll catch me if I fall—but I’m not going to fall because my foot is grounded.”
Walking through the thoughts you need to be connected to your body, you’re seeing function happen, you’re doing the movement, and you’re building pathways so your body says, “That was safe. I can hold on to that. I can use it again.”
So you’re saying pain isn’t necessarily just physical—it’s also your brain’s perception of safety.
Yeah. Pain does not always mean something is structurally wrong. Pain is a signal from your body saying, “I need change. I need help. Something needs to be assisted.”
I have people come in with back pain, knee pain, ankle pain—and it has nothing to do with that area. We find it somewhere else: between their eyes, their ears, or in an organ system.
And then they’re like, “You didn’t even touch my ankle.”
It wasn’t your ankle.
Sometimes pain is just the loudest one in the room. Typically that’s me. But it’s not necessarily the issue.
You have to decipher. People ask, “What’s the root cause?” I’m not an MRI. I’m not an X-ray. There are tests to tell me if something is structurally wrong, and we’ll always look.
But I’m going to find something else in your body. And when we test and retest and the pain area changes, they start to believe me.
It’s rare that any problem is only one thing causing it. There are usually multiple factors.
You can add factors one, two, three and maybe there’s no pain. Add four, five, six and bam—your body says, “I can take three, I can’t take six. Fix me. Change something.”
We talk about the threat bucket. I learned it from Missy Bunge—she coined it as the threat bucket.
You have a capacity line. When life is poured into the bucket, it’s not that you bent over to get the laundry. It’s that your bucket overflowed at the moment you bent over.
That overflow could be because your kid yelled at you, you and your spouse are fighting, money’s tight, the lights are flickering, the fire alarm’s going off, you have to pick someone up at five, and the dog just threw up.
Now you bend over to get the laundry and the bucket overflows.
You don’t have a problem bending over. You’ve done it a million times. That’s not the problem. But you felt it.
And now every time you bend over, you’re scared. Pain is fast. It takes over. It changes everything.
That’s why trust in your body is huge.
The traditional physical therapy model cannot handle care the way you’re talking about. It doesn’t allow it.
Yeah. The structure doesn’t allow you to do that.
Explain the difference between traditional PT and what you’re doing now.
I’ve never worked for a traditional PT clinic in California—only internships. None were the best, and the system is broken.
The way reimbursement works, the units and the time—it’s about getting a dollar amount so you can get reimbursed.
People are being seen for 30 minutes, not an hour. It’s turnover. They need more people per hour.
A PT might make contact with three people in one hour, then they go to a PTA or an aide.
Thank goodness for those guys—they handle a huge load. But the therapist might have eight minutes of manual therapy, while also checking in, getting updated numbers, doing an eval, and doing paperwork.
It’s burnout. You don’t have time to connect with the person because you’re too busy working on the number to be approved.
And if they mention another body part not directly connected, it’s like, “I would love to help you, but I can’t.”
So you’re saying in a traditional clinic you’re focused so much on insurance steps that you can’t focus on actually helping. And there are tools you have that you’re not allowed to use.
Yeah. If it’s a different limb and the paper only says “left knee,” but their right hip is hurting, you know why—the compensation—but you have to justify treating the right hip. You get denied. So you stop trying.
You’re trying to do the right thing within the constraints, but it’s not covered. Then you’re not meeting KPIs. The person is left confused and still hurting.
So explain what your normal process looks like.
I see people for an hour. Sometimes I wish it was two hours. I might change the initial appointment.
They get paperwork ahead of time, and it hits the biopsychosocial model: how long they’ve dealt with something, what they’ve tried, how it limits them, what they’re looking for, how strong their conviction is, whether they’re leaning toward surgery or exercise, and their emotional capacity.
Before they even see you, that’s all on paper.
And I look more at those than the injury section because I don’t want to be biased. People tell you what they think is wrong because it’s their body and the brain is fast.
My brain is like a book and a roadmap. If you say something, I’m flipping chapters and building a map.
So I try not to look at the injury details. I don’t start by looking at that part of the body.
After a medical screen to make sure they’re safe, I understand where they’re at emotionally. They come in and we talk: “How are you today? What’s going on? Is there anything you want to talk about before I start?”
I give them the mic. They don’t know what to expect. I leave it wide open because I want to know their expectations so I can meet them—or reframe them.
I hear a lot of stories like, “I went to so-and-so and it was like this…” I’m very face-driven, so I have to keep my energy and face neutral even when I’m like, “Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” or “Let me burn it down for you.”
But I give them the mic. I’m transparent: ask questions, tell me if I don’t make sense.
We start by looking at the nervous system first and always.
If they can stand, we do a posture analysis. I walk them through their stacking. I do an eyes-closed march to see where their body takes them.
I take out the visual system and see if they have good balance and coordination. Most people travel forward and drift to a side and have no idea.
I mark the spot, keep my tone consistent—even if they move away, I just get a little louder so they don’t realize.
Then I say, “Without moving—don’t move—you can open your eyes.” Half the time they’re like, “Oh my God, I had no idea I was over here.”
And I’m like, “I told you not to move.”
So if their perception is “I’m marching in place” but they end up somewhere else, their body is getting incorrect signals.
And if pain is a signal from body to brain, then your brain may not be perceiving what’s true in your body.
Tell me more—how does it work?
All day, your eyes are recalibrating what your body is doing. That takes space and power.
We have mechanoreceptors in joints that tell us where we are in space. If I take out eyes and their body turns or drifts, we can look at it as muscle/posture—or something else.
Maybe their posture matches their drift. Or maybe it’s the opposite: half the body wants to go one way, the nervous system keeps them from going that way. That’s pull on the body.
Chicken or egg doesn’t matter. It’s a puzzle piece to address.
My perspective is calming the nervous system. If there’s a protection pattern from visual, organ, or hard frame, we find it.
Sensory always comes before motor. We test sensation: “Does this feel the same?” We’re not doing dermatomes by-the-book unless it’s appropriate. We’re figuring out their body’s handbook.
If someone says, “I feel like a bag of pudding,” I’m like, “Yeah, that makes sense. It’s okay. Let’s get you out of the bag of pudding and back into your body.”
That makes sense across life. Missed expectations and perception cause frustration. The brain expects certain things; when it’s mismatched, it works harder.
Talk about the threat bucket—how much that takes up space.
Then we go into the known: if you have limited hip range, I treat it, and you have full range. That wasn’t the issue.
We’re not wasting time on pigeon stretch if your butt cheek is fine.
And you’re saying the answer isn’t just more stretching.
It’s definitely not. I’m not a fan of stretching everything.
It comes down to strength because you want control over every degree of range you have.
You can stretch your leg to your head? I’m going to make you kick your leg to your head. You need control. We’re not leaving room for error.
We move sensory to motor. We look at what’s structural. We go through tissue and joint. We talk about dynamic stretching with control.
I break things down into as individual as possible. There’s no true individual muscle activation, but you can get pretty close.
We build pieces. We talk about the “one Lego effect”: one Lego at a time.
Find your bicep, find your butt cheek, feel the squeeze. Then add shoulder or knee. Rebuild the ability to find the body part, use it, and control it with another body part.
Then you add on, restack, rebuild, and reframe how they move.
What’s crazy about expectations: I ask people what their expectations are, and most say, “I have no expectations.”
Then they walk out and say, “Man, I never know what to expect coming in here.”
When you remove expectations because people trust you, that’s different.
They walk through the curtain and they’re like, “Wow.”
They walk through our gym, then enter the room and it’s a different vibe. I want it peaceful, calm, comfortable.
They say, “It’s really nice in here,” and I’m like, “Yeah—let’s chill.” It doesn’t feel like a clinic.
Let’s come down. Let’s breathe. Not be stimulated by bright lights, sounds, and people moving around.
If what they need is trust, we end up on the gym floor. That’s why I’m in the gym.
I want it to go from my room to their confidence—whatever they decide to do. That means moving in the gym with weights and barbells. They won’t be limited.
They’ll have confidence and knowledge to do bodyweight on their own or use a mini band. You have to give people options.
A plan of action: are you at home, in a gym, what do you want to do?
It’s the same in fitness as in PT: people rarely walk in with no past experience. They have expectations and a perception.
So asking them is important. And letting people relax and let their guard down matters—so you can treat them and connect.
From my side, setting expectations is huge: “Here’s what’s going to happen next.”
If their mind is stuck on “What’s next? How much is it? Is it going to work?” they’re not present.
Setting expectations brings their guard down so they have space.
We have a map on the website, parking info, clear directions. People have to think less. That removes obstacles.
Even if the door has a number, people don’t see it when they’re nervous. People pull on the wrong door even with arrows.
Our body is meant for survival. It’s not looking at everything—it’s looking to survive.
So we take survival down and guide them.
At the end I ask: “How do you feel? Did I give you everything you need? Do you feel comfortable leaving? Be honest. What do you need? What did I miss?”
I send a recap, give homework, explain what happens next time, and if I want them dressed differently, I’ll say, “Next time I need you in shorts.”
Laying out expectations and checking in after the appointment.
They get access to communicate with you outside of session.
Oh yeah. Whether you think it’s appropriate or not, everybody has my personal number.
Message me if you have questions. Things come up. Buyer’s remorse happens. “Oh yeah, I forgot XYZ.”
I’m an adult. I can set boundaries. I’m not worried about me; I’m worried about them.
They need access. They can text me. There’s the business line too.
They can communicate about homework. If something’s off, they can send video: “Am I doing it right?” I watch and respond: “Try this.” “You’re doing great.” “Keep going.”
So you have patients send videos of their homework?
Yeah, if they need. Options are there. People use them—great. If not, okay. Grace. “You didn’t do homework, we’ll try again.”
When you made the transition where you’re doing physical therapy, how does the handoff happen?
The whole time we’re talking about a plan: what’s the plan.
After the first appointment, when we dive in, I’m like: these are your protections, this is what’s happening structurally, this is your hallmark plan, this is what to expect.
And: how far do you want to go?
There’s biological healing time, give or take based on the person and environment.
As we get closer to those marks, I ask: “What’s your plan?”
Do you want to go to a gym? Home gym? Stay in our gym? I’m not biased—but I think our gym is best.
I can continue programming for you. I don’t need you to need me. But if you want me, you’re welcome to come back.
People can see me once or twice a month, or I can continue programming.
But in-person accountability matters. Connection matters. Not everyone wants to work out alone. You don’t have eyeballs floating above you to see posture.
So: “You don’t need me. You can want me. What’s next?”
If they’re falling in love with equipment like the trap bar, we can program around it. Do you have that at your other gym? Probably not.
Sled at home? Probably not.
So when the gym becomes an option and they’re seeing the value—they walk in and out, see community, feel welcomed, get introduced to people—they start feeling the energy and connection.
They’re integrated already: front desk, coaches, massage services, events—whatever it is. They feel comfortable.
When we talk about joining the gym, I pre-lay out pricing options and next steps. Once they give me the green flag, I connect them directly to you.
I put them in a group chat. Scheduling. They meet you directly.
From there, if they’re on board, we set them up in the gym.
I’ve already had their notes and taken them through programming. I still want them paired with a coach—having a coach matters.
Now they get a tag team. I collaborate on the program and connect with the coach: “That’s a no-go.” “That’s a yellow.” “Let’s work it toward a green.”
They have access to me and access to the coach. Collaboration. I don’t know everything. The energy and flow of the gym floor is different than one-on-one in my room.
That communication and collaboration benefits the person so much.
It’s not even a handoff. You’re still there.
Exactly. It’s like a second person grabbing the other hand. It gives us more information to meet them exactly where they are.
Because there are situations where people have surgery, do PT, and then end up in a gym and it’s like… PT gave them a couple sheets of paper.
The same sheet that guy got over there.
There’s not much to get from that.
And that’s why I worked in the hospital too. It’s mind blowing how many people have surgery and say, “Nobody taught me this.” “I didn’t know I could do that.” “I didn’t know when I was allowed.” “Nobody told me I could bend my knee.”
So I got a job at a hospital to see what it’s really like.
It is like that: printed precaution sheets—which is great—but then what?
No fine print: “This is for this long.” “Don’t be afraid to move to something more challenging.” “Yes, you can put your pants on.”
No guidance.
After surgery, fear is huge. Then we’re back to all the limitations.
That transition is a missed opportunity.
I’ve seen so many people fall off the wagon. In clinic: “Yeah, I was here a couple months ago. I got discharged. Then I had to wait. I didn’t do anything while I waited.”
And you’re like—why are people falling off the wagon?
That’s why I harp on: “What’s your plan?”
You can leave, but what’s your plan?
I’m going to text you even when you’re not paying me anymore. I may not be your PT, but now I’m your friend. I’m going to be a little annoying because I want to know what you’re doing in a month.
That window is important. Especially for major injuries and surgeries—the window for healing is the window for healing. It closes.
The longer we go, the longer it takes to fix. The amount of possible recovery has limitations based on time.
Okay. Rapid fire: injuries and misconceptions.
Low back pain is probably the most common. What are people missing the most?
Breathwork.
Breathing?
Yes. Nervous system regulation. Rib cage positioning. Pelvic floor capability.
Pelvic floor—everybody?
Everybody has a pelvic floor.
Men don’t even know it’s a thing. Would you say they’re worse?
Not to offend anyone, but it’s kind of comical. Ask a man to move their pelvis and they’re like, “Where is that?”
No movement: front/back, side-to-side, rotation.
Or breathing. They can’t get a proper inhale or mechanics go opposite. Nothing is sequencing correctly.
So for low back pain, you’re going for breath first.
Yeah.
Okay. Shoulders. It’s probably your neck or thoracic spine.
Spine.
Really?
Yeah. System and spine.
Daily upkeep—what should people do on their own?
Thoracic mobility.
Example for men: get against a wall and do a standing open book, hips locked.
Men walk stiff—proud chest, whatever posture they’re holding.
They also suck in their gut. They tell me: “I gotta hold my gut in.”
And I’m like, women too.
But it was eye-opening that men think about it that much.
They hold the gut in and puff the chest out. That creates lack of rotation across the spine.
If you can get your spine to move, you get out of a lot of shoulder injuries—especially because men do more upper body.
The rib cage needs to move with breath instead of being stuck. Holding in and puffing out is a lot of pressure, and it can go the wrong direction.
Neck issues: simple things at home?
Get against a wall. Goal post position. Open the chest. Actively move through the arms.
Static stretching doesn’t teach you anything. I think back work and pulling is more important.
Everything is in front of us—driving, texting, eating, family time, cell phone time. It’s forward head, rounded shoulders.
Computer apnea is real: people stop breathing while on screens.
So more open body positions: on the floor or wall, head back, stretch and then move through positioning.
I try to do a 2:1 ratio now and I figure I have about 15 years to make up for going the other direction.
Well, thank you.
Anything else you want to go over?
Yeah, we didn’t talk about the rest of my lead-up here—BHP, any of the story.
We’ll do it another time.
We’ll do that another time. Just saying—gotta be ready to cry.
Today, I was just thinking: eight years here… that’s a lot of life. A lot’s happened.
I had a memory come up last night for the one-year anniversary that happened two years later. It was on my Facebook last night.
So good stuff.
Yeah. Thank you. We’ve got to do this again sometime. Maybe next one we can do more movement and you can actually—
Oh, this weekend.
Yeah, I am—and you’ll have plenty to show people.
That’s funny. Every coach needs a coach.
Absolutely.
And you’ve been taking care of yourself real good.
Any time.
Thank you. That was fun.
We love a Bod Pod.