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confidence with movement

core stability exercises

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

Unlock Your Athletic Potential With Core Stability Exercises

Core stability. We all hear it, but what is it? It does refer to the core, and a strong one, at that. But core stability is much more than just…

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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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achilles tear recovery time

June 25, 2024 · In: Injuries and Surgeries, Science-Backed Education

What to Know About the Achilles Tear Recovery Time

Finding yourself facing an unsettling injury like an Achilles tear can be daunting. Understanding the Achilles tear recovery time becomes essential for anyone looking to step back into their routine,…

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balance exercises for seniors

April 16, 2024 · In: Movement, Strength for Resilience

A Complete Guide to Mastering Balance Exercises

As we age, maintaining independence becomes a priority and balance exercises are at the forefront of fall prevention. Imagine stepping forward confidently, each movement steady and secure. This vision can…

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quadriceps strain

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

What You Need to Know About a Quadriceps Strain

A quadriceps strain can significantly limit your ability to perform most daily tasks. The quads are used in every day activities such as walking, standing, and going up and down…

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weak ankles

November 21, 2023 · In: Movement, Strength for Resilience

How to Fix Weak Ankles: The Ankle Support You Need

Weak ankles are a sign of poor stability in the distal lower leg. On occasion, external support may be necessary for safety and pain management. Strengthening the muscles around the…

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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

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.
It’s Friday night. The week is finally behind you. It’s Friday night. The week is finally behind you. And you still don’t feel like you got anything back.

You’re not lazy. You’re using the wrong tool for the kind of tired you’re actually experiencing.

I know why you think something’s off. You slept enough. You even took the whole day off. And your mind still felt like it never turned off, replaying the week, running tomorrow’s list, and staying half on alert even while lying still.

The only explanation that makes sense is that you’re bad at resting, or too wound up to relax, or just built wrong.

But here’s the truth: physical stillness only covers one kind of exhaustion. If your eyes, ears, and screen never got a break, that’s sensory depletion still running underneath you. If you spent the day holding everything together for everyone else, that’s emotional depletion still running. If your brain never stopped making decisions, that’s mental depletion still running.

You didn’t fail at resting. You used the right tool on the wrong job…the screwdriver when you needed scissors.

So if you want to try this differently tonight, here’s where to start:

First, name which kind you’re actually short on (sensory, emotional, or mental) instead of defaulting to more sleep.

Second, match the rest to the deficit. Sensory rest means screens off and quiet, no noise. Emotional rest means nothing that requires you to hold anyone else up. Mental rest means no decisions, not even small ones, for one hour.

Third, expect it to feel smaller than you think rest should look like. It still counts and it adds up over time. Small consistencies matter here.

You’re not lazy. You’ve just been resting the wrong thing.

Save this so you know which kind of rest to reach for tonight.
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