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Blog

Developing healthy habits for life

July 18, 2023 · In: Habits for Healing, Holistic Self-Care and Sustainable Healing

7 Simple Healthy Habits a Physical Therapist Would Recommend

Healthy habits don’t have to cost an exorbitant amount or take out a huge chunk of your time. You could start today with small, easy tasks that can be implemented…

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shoulder strength and stability

July 11, 2023 · In: Movement, Strength for Resilience

Shoulder Strength and Stability: A Beginner’s Guide

Whether you’re having pain reaching for the coffee mug in the overhead cabinet or you have pain when pitching on the mound, shoulder strength and stability is important. The shoulder…

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Low back pain when getting up

July 4, 2023 · In: Back, Body Region Support, Science-Backed Education

Low Back Pain Upon Waking Up? Try These 3 Things!

A common complaint I hear in the clinic revolves around low back pain when first waking up in the morning. This blog post addresses a few common ways to help…

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easy habits

June 20, 2023 · In: Habits for Healing, Holistic Self-Care and Sustainable Healing

Easy Habits for Health & Wellness: A Physical Therapist’s Approach

Do you have any routines or easy habits you follow for your own health and wellness journey? In this post, we’ll take a look at how this blog came to…

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how long does carpal tunnel last

June 13, 2023 · In: Body Region Support, Elbow, Wrist, and Hand, Science-Backed Education

How to Get Rid of the Symptoms of Carpal Tunnel

Carpal tunnel is the most common neuropathy in the hand, affecting females more than males, according to the NIH. With carpal tunnel, simple tasks can become difficult challenges. This condition…

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is walking good for piriformis syndrome

June 6, 2023 · In: Pain Science and Healing, Science-Backed Education

How to Get Rid of the Pain from Piriformis Syndrome

Ever had a nagging pain in your butt, more than just an ordinary ache? You could be dealing from piriformis syndrome. Piriformis syndrome can be a source of that nagging…

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physical therapy exercises for shoulder pain

May 30, 2023 · In: Movement, Strength for Resilience

Physical Therapy Exercises for Shoulder Pain: What You Should Know

Physical therapy exercises for shoulder pain are specific to each individual person. This is typically determined by what is found in their initial evaluation. Each exercise performed targets something that…

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acl reconstruction

May 23, 2023 · In: Injuries and Surgeries, Science-Backed Education

ACL Stability: How to Improve Strength for Return to Sport

One of the most common injuries of the knee involves ACL injuries. Your ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), along with many other ligaments, provides stability to your knee. When the ACL…

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how to strengthen knees

May 16, 2023 · In: Movement, Strength for Resilience

How to Strengthen Knees for Function and Performance

One common question I frequently hear of is how to strengthen knees, whether it is for athletic performance, going on hikes, or going up and down the stairs. This article…

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exercises for plantar fasciitis

May 9, 2023 · In: Mobility and Restoration, Movement

Pain When Walking First Thing in the Morning? Try These 7 Exercises for Plantar Fasciitis

Are you or have you dealt with sharp pain in your heel when walking? Do you notice the pain more first thing in the morning? If so, you may be…

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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

how to start exercising again after a chronic pain flare

How to Start Exercising Again After a Pain Flare or Long Layoff (Without Setting Yourself Back)

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

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

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Chronic pain coaching for high-achieving women
Licensed DPT • Regulate first, rebuild second, then layer
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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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