“One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.” - Mary Oliver
In the time since I closed my orthopedic practice in Northern California, and started the love of my professional life- preventative orthopedic movement instruction, I have become acutely aware of how unpopular and unsexy the concept of prevention is.
Prevention does not sell! It is, in fact, the opposite of consumption at it allows us to be all that we need.
I stopped going on social media about 8 months ago, because I was so disappointed by the lack of insight and intelligence from the social accounts I kept getting exposed to.
“Never feel your back pain again!” “Get the body of your dreams without breaking a sweat!”
“Build six pack abs without ever doing a crunch!”"Heal your body by walking 8 hours a day!"
My beloved field of fitness is swimming in superstition and superficial guidance. I can get so overwhelmed and exhausted at trying to offer guidance to help people pull themselves back from following extreme ideas- so much so, that I have stopped that practice. I cannot stem the tide of culture.
These sexy, optimistic, unrealistic headlines are the most popular on youtube and Instagram and tiktok. They are also the voices shouting bad advice that Mary Oliver speaks of in her poem, “The Journey”.
In truth, having a whole hearted relationship with your physical movement is an ongoing and constant relationship- similar to the process of your marriage to your beloved, your growth in your career, or your spiritual relationship. There is no end to it- no finish line that marks an end to the process.
Our relationship to our physical movement is an ever changing process, marked by seasons. The seasons of: youth, competitive athletics, injury and illness, death and disease. Everyone of us will experience the full spectrum of physical reality- from exultation to devastating defeat- and ultimately complete loss.
It is my sincerest hope, that through my work I can illuminate a different path forward. A path that allows for less suffering, more compassion and more understanding. We need more common sense in a field fueled by what appears to me to be insanity. May we move the the locus of control from outside of ourselves to a place where we remember our starring role in co-creating our physical reality.
The true journey toward health is constant, as likely to be heart breaking as exhilarating and ever changing. It requires curiosity, hard work and the ability to continue to change in response to the new “what is”.
The hard won truths that I know to be true at this stage in my practice:
1) All women need strength training focused on function and muscle growth, 2-4 days per week until the day they die
2) All cells are bioplastic- capable of change – and that change is relative to how you change your input (changing how you eat, move and think/ emote)
3) Middle of road approaches- (not pushing all the time, and also not taking it easy all the time, not only stretching, and not never stretching) are best for making lasting change
4) Our physical movement practices can be entry points for our emotional and spiritual growth
5) Not one person can ever heal us, save us or make us feel better. That is uniquely our own responsibility.
May you make choices in your movement life that serve your long term life goals, and choices that invite you into a deeper relationship with your presence, your capacity toward constant change and your personal truths. Our movement can be all that.
Happy healing and happy changing,
Trina
