I’ve been a collegiate and professional volleyball player, was an outside hitter and played all the way around for most of my career, and even competed overseas for a little while.
Shoulder problems snuck up on me in my last few seasons and started to impact my ability to play adult indoor tournaments like the PVL, Doble, and popular competitions at my old club. I had an idea that something wasn’t right ever since I failed my first physical going into my first collegiate preseason, but that’s a story for another day. I hoped it would go away, and it actually wasn’t an issue until it was a big one.
I started physical therapy school and decided to turn towards beach volleyball. A bunch of my friends were playing and it was honestly not so tough on the shoulder. That continued as I graduated with my clinical doctorate and into my first few years as a licensed practitioner.
But eventually I couldn’t keep up with it. I started playing less and less because it was such a chore to warm up. I wasn’t asking anyone to play in tournaments with me, wasn’t practicing as much as I would have liked to, never stayed after work and did my own shoulder rehab, and I let it fall to the side. It was hard to feel competitive like that and I lost some love for the game.
Suddenly I became a mom. When my little guy was first born, of course he was smaller so it didn’t impact me that much to hold and carry him everywhere. As he started getting heavier and heavier, he still wanted to be held, but it got more difficult quickly. I want to pick him up, play, throw him in the air, kiss and love on him, show him the world at eye level, and do everything a mom wants to do to make the most of her time with her little one. I was struggling.
I thought enough is enough, and started getting back in the gym and lifting more. It was time for me to be the person I was pushing my clients to be. The kind of person who does what they say they’re going to do, actively solves problems instead of letting them overwhelm me, and being the mom my son deserves. I started to find my purpose again and started thinking about the life I want to live, what makes me happy and what I need to do to get there. I feel competitive again, but in a totally new and unexpected way. It’s a deeper purpose that has helped me recover parts of myself that I thought were lost, and brought back my motivation to get better and compete.
When I reflect on how I got here, I think about other volleyball players, athletes, and young adults who might have pain or mobility issues and don’t know that they can do something about it. That it might affect their health and wellbeing in a big way, either now or down the road. I think about the person who lacks awareness and wishes their pain away. And it makes me want to help you.
So Better Shoulder Physical Therapy is exactly that- a way for someone who has been in your shoes to take the reins in educating you, before warming up is a chore and you can’t do the things you love with the people you love. I want to find all the barriers that are holding you back, and then find ways to overcome them. I want to be the person who understands exactly what you are going through, and guide you to the other side of it.
The shoulder is one of the most important and vulnerable joints in the body, because you can’t go a day without using it. So let me help you make yours better.