Next week will mark my 5th year with Empowered. In some ways, it feels like it’s been longer than that, and in many ways, I can still feel the excitement I felt after my very first meeting with Alli in what was then the bones of the Empowered space. To be frank, I didn’t plan on taking the job. I had a cushy, safe hospital job with great benefits, an awesome schedule, and the ability to leave work and completely turn it off when I wasn’t there. I decided to meet with Alli because a few of my...

When people first walk into the clinic, we often hear the phrases “I just want this to go away” or “I want to be able to do x,y,z pain free” or “I just want to get stronger” (this one is the best to hear!) These are all extremely valid for different reasons – why wouldn’t you want to be out of pain? It’s uncomfortable. When something hurts, you want relief. But if our only goal is to calm pain as quickly as possible, we sometimes miss the bigger opportunity — building a body that is more...

I’ve been in a ton of evaluations over the years at Empowered and other practices where patients will say “Okay, so give me a few stretches and exercises and I’ll be good to go!” More so, there have been countless times I’ve had people come up to me at the gym and say something along the lines of “My knee hurts, what exercise should I do for that?” Here's the thing: It’s not about the exercises. Honestly, not even a little bit… and I feel this way for so many reasons. Welcome to my TED...