Exercise Therapy & Conditioning

My approach to aid in healthy aging, movement, and wellness in general, is holistic. There are many factors that influence the way your body feels, moves, and ages. The areas in which I focus are posture, balance, stability, mobility, strength, and cardiovascular health.

Our ability to balance declines as we age. Luckily, it’s an easy thing to improve with regular practice. Balance is so crucial to healthy aging that ignoring it can be a dangerous thing. Unless you actively work on your balance, it will not improve.

Stability is the ability to control your movements. For example, moving one body part (like your leg) while the rest of your body remains centered and still. Most of us can stand on one leg, but how many can stand on one leg while rotating the other without losing our balance? Stability and balance are intertwined and crucial to our overall health.

Mobility is another word for range of motion. When we have a restricted range of motion, we will often experience tightness and pain. Our bodies feel their best when they are in alignment and balanced left to right.There are protocols that can ease restriction, improve range of motion, and ultimately improve function and relieve pain.

Much like balance, strength is something that diminishes with age if we don’t do anything about it. As already mentioned, we lose muscle mass very rapidly once we hit 50. Our strength is what allows us to maintain a great quality of life as we age and affords us the opportunities to do the things that bring us joy. The good news is this one of the easiest areas to work on!

Cardiovascular health is also important to pay attention to as we age. When we exercise and get our heart rate up, the heart gets stronger. Then when we are at rest, our hearts operate more efficiently and don’t have to work as hard. The health benefit of a lower resting heart rate means less risk of heart disease.

It's more than pain management

Posture is in everything that we do. It’s how we sit, bend, stand, walk, turn, sleep, and play. Some postural issues can be improved through movement education and awareness. Each of us has postural issues that can affect how we move, but it is never too late to improve in all of these areas.

Sometimes poor posture, inefficient movement patterns, and misalignment can result in pain and discomfort. In other words, the site of the pain is not always the source. If your knee is hurting, it may be because your hips are misaligned and as a result you may have a slight discrepancy in the length of your legs..

Exercise therapy operates to improve your posture through a series of exercises that will address the imbalances that are causing the pain.

Corrective exercises are what restored me to health and  healed me after decades of chronic pain. Read my story in the link below!

How posture therapy pain relief works

1

Initial visit

Your first visit will be an initial consultation where we review your health history, establish a baseline of where you are currently, and where we want to improve. I’ll test your movements and determine what is the right course of action for you.

2

Personalized sessions

Each time we meet, I will guide you through a series of exercises that will change based on how you are progressing. These could focus on strength, balance, mobility, stability, posture, or cardiovascular health.

Testimonials

What my clients say:

Words can’t really do justice to the level of individual care and intelligence Nicole puts into her craft.

Nick R.

Nicole is by far one of the best practitioners I have encountered in the US! She really cares for her clients and that shows!

Tania M.

Nicole at Pain Free Philly is a true Wonder Woman! I am 100% satisfied as I am well on the road to being 100% pain free.

Deidre F.

Working with [Nicole] has truly changed my life! She is an exceptional therapist.

A.S.