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healing over time

osteoarthritis treatment

April 30, 2024 · In: Pain Science and Healing, Science-Backed Education

Osteoarthritis Treatment for the Knee: What You Need to Know

Osteoarthritis is a chronic joint condition that involves the wearing down of cartilage in the joints. Think of it as normal “wear and tear” on the body. However, it can…

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calf strains

April 23, 2024 · In: Injuries and Surgeries, Science-Backed Education

What to Know About Calf Strains: Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery

One common but often overlooked injury that sneaks up on us is the calf strain. Whether you’re a seasoned athlete or someone who enjoys a casual run in the park,…

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tennis elbow

April 9, 2024 · In: Injuries and Surgeries, Science-Backed Education

Prevention and Care of Tennis Elbow: What You Need to Know

Tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylitis, might sound like a sports-specific injury, but its reach extends far beyond the tennis courts. This overuse injury affects the forearm muscles, leading to tendon…

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what not to do after knee replacement

March 12, 2024 · In: Injuries and Surgeries, Science-Backed Education

4 Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make After Knee Replacement Surgery

Embarking on the journey to recovery after knee replacement surgery requires more than just physical healing; it involves a keen awareness of the potential pitfalls that could derail your progress….

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recovery time for knee replacement

February 27, 2024 · In: Injuries and Surgeries, Science-Backed Education

What is the Recovery Time for Knee Replacement?

When you’re faced with the decision of undergoing knee arthroplasty, it’s natural to wonder about the recovery time for knee replacement. The journey to full recovery after knee arthroplasty—a surgical…

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golfers elbow

February 20, 2024 · In: Injuries and Surgeries, Science-Backed Education

What to Know About Golfer’s Elbow | Medial Epicondylitis

When there’s no exact incident that flags the onset of medial elbow pain, our eyes turn towards a common culprit: medial epicondylitis. Medial epicondylitis, aka “golfer’s elbow”, manifests as pain or discomfort on the inside of the elbow….

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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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