Tools You Can Use When Working with a Physical Therapist, Personal Trainer, or Any Expert in the Fitness Field
The missing link between a treatment helping you or hurting you is you.
While working in hospitals for over two decades, I’ve heard many comments from massage therapists, personal trainers, and physicians. They often express how impressed they are with individuals who attend Miracle Ball Method classes. They described them as more “in touch” with their body, and can be active participants in their treatments.
We all know that we learn from those who have more experience in a given area. Whether we’re looking to improve our appearance, feel better, or heal from a chronic injury, we often seek guidance from experts. In fitness and rehab, many times, the “right” movements and exercises are used. Chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncturists, and kinesiologists each have their own specialized skills. While treatment may work for some, it doesn’t always for others—and sometimes, it can even cause harm in the long run. Why is that?
The Old Paradigm of Exercise Doesn’t Work
Let’s explore this further. I believe the way exercise is taught is the problem. It’s not the exercise itself that heals—it’s the person’s body. If exercise alone were the solution, no one would suffer from low back pain, chronic shoulder issues, or knee problems. Many top athletes, who exercise constantly, still struggle with chronic pain. Chronic pain and physical challenges don’t discriminate between those in perfect shape and those who avoid exercising altogether.
In fact, I’ve always found it fascinating that people who don’t work out often seem to have the worst alignment issues but experience little to no pain. Meanwhile, those with seemingly perfect bodies can struggle with chronic injuries of all kinds.
The Missing Link: Why Exercise/Treatment Doesn’t Always Work
One of the most curious things I do in my practice is ask people to feel what they don’t feel. We ask people to move their bodies, but I’ve found that many individuals have key areas they simply don’t feel. This lack of awareness can prevent natural adjustments in the body and limit the benefits of treatment. You can’t move what you don’t feel.
Bodies move through coordination, and all parts must adjust during any movement. Some areas need more tension during certain actions, while others must accommodate that added effort. There are countless natural adjustments our nervous system makes to help us move effectively.
Common Key Areas Most People Never Move
When you neglect key areas of your body—such as the pelvis, thoracic region, feet, or jaw—these areas can become tight, weak, and inefficient. Injuries, trauma, chronic pain, and illness can separate us from parts of our bodies that would otherwise serve us well for a lifetime. But how do we know what we’re not feeling?
Personally, I contracted an illness during a visit to my father’s village in Greece when I was 15. It took a long time for doctors to determine why I spent most of my days sleeping. Eventually, I was hospitalized and had a spinal tap. The illness left me weak and disconnected from certain areas of my body. I never returned to sports the same way, and by 19, I began losing feeling in my right leg as my sister’s was terminally ill. As with most people, what we experience physically is many times complicated with many aspects of who we are, and what we have experienced.
Through my experience, I learned first-hand how strange things can happen to our bodies. It was a long journey with many doctors, treatments, and misdiagnoses. Though the initial illness was treated, its repercussions on my physical health—chronic pain and weakness—were often mislabeled or misunderstood.
The Missing Link
Tension is a good thing. The body doesn’t want to be limp or afraid of movement. Often, a fear of movement arises—especially when pain has been present for a while. Classic advice from many professionals, particularly in the medical community, sounds like this: “Don’t do that. Don’t move that way. That movement will hurt you.” But how does one move? The body knows. The professional can offer guidance, but without engaging the body’s ability to realign, adjust, and reconnect, it feels like digging a deeper hole. Many people become more confused over time, relying solely on outside advice that many times doesn’t fit with what we are experiencing.
While such advice is often well-meaning, I’ve seen its consequences during my 20 years of working in hospitals. People unknowingly trained themselves to move less and less, leading to greater weakness and fear of movement. The less you move, of course, the weaker you get. And when you move less, you also start to believe that certain movements are the source of your problems. But I don’t believe that’s the case.
It’s not the movement that’s the problem, it’s the ability to feel your physical body again.
Reconnect: Use the Amazing Asset of Your Nervous System
Using your nervous system is something we can relearn and different from what most fitness professionals are offering. Once you do most treatments, your body must be tuned up like a guitarist would tune their instrument to play a song. The exercise is the song, your nervous system gets you ready to move by being tuned up. It’s in the nervous system—the electrical current that runs through our muscles and bones.
This is the missing link: the ability to sense your physical body and allow the nervous system to coordinate and engage key areas that may not have been active before.
Why Is It Important to Have a Class?
Life experiences can leave people physically and emotionally damaged—much like what happened to me. These issues can persist for a lifetime. Take something as seemingly simple as back pain. It may seem confined to the lower back, but it can be one of the most debilitating pains a person can endure. The muscles in this region are strong and interact with nearly every movement, whether standing, sitting, or reaching for something.
When you experience pain, you become hyper-aware of every movement, afraid that even the smallest motion could trigger it.
When you go to physical therapy, you’re likely doing the right things, but can we also address the emotional and psychological aspects of the pain? Can we tell people that pain isn’t inherently negative?
Think of a simple cut. You know what to do: stop the bleeding, clean the wound, and treat it. If you didn’t feel the cut, you wouldn’t stop the bleeding, clean it, or prevent further damage. Similarly, pain is your body’s way of telling you that something needs attention. It’s not necessarily a signal that something is “wrong,” but rather that your body needs movement and care.
Regaining Confidence during Chronic Pain
Physical pain is complicated, although your body knows how to move and heal there are many ways it which we can feel fearful and completely not trust this. It tells you to move, but how do you do that without worsening the pain? Remember acute pain is different than chronic pain. Acute pain is something that has recently occurred and you need to attend to it, like an accident. Chronic pain is when you have been living with the pain after treatments and are not making the progress you would like, and it becomes part of your day to day life.
One of the greatest gifts of being alive is the confidence to move our bodies. But when people are told that because they hurt their ankle, their entire body is now injured and incapable of healing without special instructions, we diminish their ability to heal naturally.
The Role of Professionals
Physical therapists, personal trainers, exercise instructors, dancers, and martial arts experts are all valuable professionals who can help.
But let me tell you this: they are not the instrument. They may be the type of music a person wants to play, but they are not the piano.
The Miracle Ball Method
The Miracle Ball Method teaches people how to feel their bodies again. It helps them tune up their “instrument,” find key areas of their body, and re-engage them. That’s the miracle: the human body knows how to realign itself, take stress off chronically strained areas, breathe again, and heal.
When a person regains confidence in their body, they are empowered to heal. They can go home after treatment, workout, or their favorite sport and allow their own body to realign and adjust sometimes in minutes. Feel your body again, only then can they truly begin to heal.
Upcoming Classes and Events:
- Prenatal and Postpartum Classes begin in March
- FREE Webinar February 22nd Why Your Back Hurts