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Tera Sandona

strength training for runners

September 10, 2024 · In: Movement, Strength for Resilience

Why Strength Training for Runners is Important

For all runners, muscular strength plays a crucial role in your running performance. Strength training, specifically designed for runners, targets the muscle groups that need strength and endurance when running….

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relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs)

September 3, 2024 · In: Pain Science and Healing, Science-Backed Education

Understanding Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs)

When an athlete’s performance begins to falter without an apparent reason, it’s essential to look beyond the physical injuries and consider other potential factors affecting health and performance. Relative Energy…

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shoulder warm-up

August 13, 2024 · In: Mobility and Restoration, Movement

The Shoulder Warm-Up You Need Before Lifting

Nothing sets the stage better than a thorough shoulder warm-up. Whether you do this before every upper body lifting session, as a quick shoulder burnout, or on rest days, there…

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foot posture

July 30, 2024 · In: Body Region Support, Foot/Ankle, Science-Backed Education

Understanding the Connection Between Foot Posture and Back Health

When you think about what affects your back health, foot posture might not be the first thing that comes to mind. However, the way your feet align as you stand,…

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rotator cuff strain

July 16, 2024 · In: Injuries and Surgeries, Science-Backed Education

The Difference Between a Rotator Cuff Strain Vs Tear

Rotator cuff injuries can be traumatic or atraumatic. Regardless of how your shoulder pain starts, it is important to consider what could be contributing to your discomfort. So how can…

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herniated disc treatment

July 2, 2024 · In: Injuries and Surgeries, Science-Backed Education

What to Know About Herniated Disc Treatment

So you find out you have a herniated disc. Now what? A herniated disc occurs when the softer material inside a spinal disc pushes out through a crack in its…

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Meet Tera

Meet Tera
hi friends!

I'm a practicing physical therapist based out of sunny SoCal who loves to educate others and share information and knowledge. You can typically find me hard at work trying to manage normal life or cuddled up under a blanket enjoying coffee or desserts I can never seem to get away from!

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Featured Posts

woman experiencing pain that moves around the body, chronic pain explained

Pain That Moves Around Your Body: What Your Nervous System Is Trying to Tell You

woman practicing real rest for chronic pain, calming her nervous system

What Real Rest Actually Looks Like for Chronic Pain (And Why Sleeping More Isn’t the Whole Answer)

Woman experiencing the freeze response, a dorsal vagal shutdown pattern linked to chronic pain and nervous system dysregulation

The Freeze Response in Chronic Pain: When Your Body Shuts Down Instead of Fighting Back

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terasandona

Chronic pain coaching for high-achieving women
Licensed DPT • Regulate first, rebuild second, then layer
👇🏻 Free nervous system workbook

Saying “I’m fine” hasn’t been a lie in a long time Saying “I’m fine” hasn’t been a lie in a long time. Right now it’s probably just the fastest thing you know how to say.

When you’ve been dealing with this for as long as you have, saying “I’m in pain” over and over stops feeling worth it.

Chronic pain means every day carries some of it, so every day would mean saying it again. At some point, you stop wanting to be the person who’s always the one bringing it up. So “I’m in pain” turns into “I’m fine,” not because it stopped being true, but because you got tired of being the one who has to keep announcing it.

I know this one myself. Saying it enough times starts to cost more than staying quiet does. Next time, try something closer to the truth, something like “I’m managing, but it’s a lot today.” That’s honest enough to let someone actually see you, without turning into the running commentary you’re tired of giving.

Are you trying to convince everyone else you’re fine or are you trying to convince yourself?

Send this to someone who needs to stop convincing herself she’s fine.
I hear this one on repeat. It started in your shou I hear this one on repeat. It started in your shoulder, now it’s crept into your shoulder blade, and maybe down toward your mid back. And the first thought is always the same: something new is wrong now or something else is breaking down.

But that’s not usually what’s happening. Pain that spreads to the region right next door isn’t a new injury announcing itself (unless you legitimately injured yourself again).

When pain spreads without a new injury behind it, it’s been part of the picture for a while, and showed up out of nowhere, it’s usually the same alarm system that’s been running in the background. It’s now been ringing long enough that the areas nearby started picking up the signal too.

Think of it less like a break and more like a smoke detector that won’t stop going off until the whole hallway of detectors starts sounding along with it. Nothing new caught fire. The system’s just been on for a long time.

If you’ve already had this checked and nothing new turned up to explain it, pay attention to that. It’s usually your best clue that this is your nervous system spreading the pain to a new area, not a new injury needing its own workup.

Comment “MINE DID THIS” if pain has crept into the area right next to where it started. I’ll send you my blog post I wrote on this exact topic that goes more in depth on what’s actually going on.
But here’s what’s actually true. You’ve probably But here’s what’s actually true.

You’ve probably been told for years that any movement counts as building strength, and in the very beginning, it kind of does. If you’re coming from little to no activity, walking, Pilates, biking, or yoga will strengthen you…at first. Your body is adapting to a demand it hasn’t had to meet before.

But that adaptation has a ceiling. Once your body reaches its load tolerance for that amount of activity, doing more of the same thing doesn’t build you past it. You’re not getting stronger anymore. You’re just maintaining the level you already reached.

This is where cardiovascular and endurance work split from strength work. Walking and biking stay focused on the cardiovascular system. They’re not increasing the load on your muscles. You’re training your heart and lungs instead.

Pilates and yoga work your muscles through holds, which builds muscular endurance and helps your muscles sustain a position under fatigue. That’s a real adaptation. It’s just not the same one as strength.

Real strength requires loading a specific muscle heavy enough, and consistently enough, that it has a reason to adapt again.

If you keep exposing your body to the exact same stimulus, no further change happens. The muscle already met that demand. It has nothing left to respond to.

Comment “MAXED OUT” if you just realized you’ve been maintaining instead of building for a while now.
Everyone sees you making it through the day just f Everyone sees you making it through the day just fine. They don’t see what it’s costing you to get there or what happens once you finally stop.

You show up. You answer the emails, sit through the meetings, keep your voice even when it needs to be, and nobody watching would ever guess anything is off.

They don’t see how tirelessly you work the second you walk back in the door, taking care of everyone else before you’ve had a single second to take care of yourself. They don’t see whatever you’re quietly carrying right now…the thing nobody’s asked about because you never said it out loud.

But your nervous system has been working the entire time to keep you looking like that. Holding the line through every part of the day you couldn’t afford to fall apart in.

And by evening, when nothing else is asking anything of you, it finally stops pretending. Not a dramatic collapse, just a flatness. It’s in the plans you cancel, the conversation you can’t hold, the two hours you lose staring at nothingwhen there’s nothing left keeping the performance up.

Nobody sees the discipline it takes to hold that together all day. They only see the version of you that’s left once it’s finally safe to stop.

If this is you, let the plans stay cancelled tonight. That’s not falling behind. You’ve already asked enough of yourself today.

Send this to someone who’s fine all day and disappears the second it’s finally safe to stop.
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