Erika’s Background

A little bit about Erika, she has a B.S in Kinesiology, which is the study of the mechanics of body movement and exercise science! (so yes!! super movement geek like we said!)  She is a NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, an ACE Certified Personal Trainer, a FMS Level 1 Certified Professional. 

Erika started college studying Kinesiology and felt drawn towards Physical Therapy School, but towards the end of college, she developed a serious injury called Exertional Compartment Syndrome in her lower legs which caused tremendous pain and burning. {That feeling in your legs that you get when you’ve done a ton of squats, yeah. That is what Erika felt like all the time with everyday things like walking or going up a flight of stairs.}  

She spent years battling this and continuously searching for ways to work around this pain and injury.  And THIS is where she took her knowledge of how the body moves and works and put it towards her recovery and getting back to where she wanted to be. 

To this day Erika still cannot run, but it fueled a fire within her to find a way to workout with this pain and injury, after physical therapy, the right way, and help others who may be dealing with similar issues.  

There is a huge gap in what happens in Physical Therapy and what happens on the gym floor post Physical Therapy. (No fault to Physical Therapists, but their hands are completely tied by insurance in a lot of places.) Erika found that gap and found her spot in that gap and decided to stay there.   

 For 10 years she has been working in personal training and working on filling this void between Physical Therapy and Fitness.  Now she is helping others who are stuck between that gap and helping them get from post Physical Therapy to where they ultimately want to be, and it all starts with the right movement! 

“People are trying to get from A, which is finishing Physical Therapy, to C where they want to be.  But the gap is not knowing what B is as an exercise, protocol, or what kind of modifications they can use to get to C.” 

You are not stuck

The most common thing Ericka sees is clients becoming totally discouraged thinking they are doomed to be stuck by their limitations.  A Doctor may have told them that they have “bad knees” so certain exercises are no longer on the table for them. This conversation isn’t to discredit any doctors or Physical Therapists, but telling someone to NOT DO ANYTHING anymore… I scratch my head!! 

Let’s draw a comparison to dieting… Where if we tell people don’t eat sweets, don’t eat cake, don’t eat cookies, RATHER than do eat protein and do eat vegetables. It’s kind of the same thing as telling this patient they cannot do anything anymore,  where one way of looking at it is just completely disheartening and discouraging, and the other is actually empowering and giving someone an action that they can take and that they can implement to improve on nutrition or exercise. 

 Erika focuses on a specific exercise and specific movements that THEY CAN DO, that will help them over time and really take that into their own power.  It is helping them to feel like they’re on the right track and not feeling like a victim of her circumstance. 

This brings us to our next part of MOVEMENT and why it is SOO important to move every single day, whether you have an injury or not!! As we get older, and I see this all the time with the women over 40 that I work with, we become CREAKY!! Yes, we start aching and popping and cracking all over as we move or workout.  Part of that is due to the buildup of inflammation over time, and the other is because of our Fascia System that is made up of tiny webbing throughout our whole body that goes from under our feet to the back of our neck. And over time when we don’t move or stretch, while we sleep that fascia builds up and it begins to tighten.  

 We can attribute all the creakiness that we start to develop to not going through the simple ranges of motion to break up the fascia that builds up every night we go to sleep. 

(For all of my VISUAL LEARNERS.. When we are babies our Fascia is like Fillet Mignon. It’s a soft buttery meat that just melts in your mouth…Then as we age, it starts to toughen up and turns into jerky if we don’t move or do anything. We get a totally different give and movement in that fillet then we do in the jerky. We want to be that Fillet! Not the jerky!!!) 

Quick Summary

 I know people are going to ask… What should we do if we are someone who sits at our desk all day, and then we get into a car and drive home, and we are not moving for sometimes 8 hours or more’.. I am glad you asked! 

1. The key is variable movements more than it is how long are you sitting still in a certain posture for 8 hours at a time. So, MOVE every so often. 

1. Getting up from your desk, doing some stretches, and taking a quick walk down the hall and back.  

1. Get in a couple of walks here and there, getting more steps in through the day. (The more frequently you move, the more you will be breaking up this tissue and loosening it up.) 

1. Set an alarm or reminder to get up and MOVE! 

1. Get 2 minutes of movement in every hour or so. If you can get in more, then awesome. But it’s really about the frequency of moving through the motions that really add up.  

1. Go on a walk for 10 minutes after eating lunch. (especially if you are having lunch at their desk). This will help your productivity, help your stress levels and help your movement. 

These non-exercise activities are giving us more of a boost then actually working out in some cases, so we have to break that mentality that these regular movements throughout the day can contribute to reaching those fitness and weight loss goals. Whether you have an injury or not, find something like a short routine that you can fit into your day, maybe with stuff that you have at home, and gradually build from there. By increasing the number of steps, you can do, you can then increase the number of exercises you can do. 

Movement matters in all ways of life. 

And sometimes different movements can lead to further injuries or pain, so it’s all about doing the right movements for your body and how much movement your body can handle.  It took 8 years of my Sciatica pain to have someone look at me and tell me my hips are not aligned and it’s because of HOW I MOVE! So, by moving the right way, I was able to alleviate that pain.  We aren’t the movement police! We just want to be there to help you and coach you enhance your movements when issues arise.  

It’s All About The Booty

Lastly, some of the most important parts of our body to get, AND KEEP them engaged and moving the right way, is our ankle mobility and our glutes!  If the ankle is locked up, then the glutes are not working properly and if the glutes aren’t working then the rest of our body is affected!  Our butts are like the lazy people in the office, we don’t know what they do, but they always seem to be on a union break!  We need to get them fired up with little glute activation exercises, everything else becomes easier.. than as a result you can move better, and you have A NICE ASS! 

To wrap everything up in some nice bullets as some of the most important takeaways from today is…  

• If you are in between physical therapy and getting to where you want to be, reach out to Erika for help and get your body moving in the right direction. (her contact info will be at the bottom of this blog.) 
• MOVE every single day and get in your steps!  
• Find a good coach that can help you get moving and move the right way.  
• Pay attention to your body and how things feel when you do them. 
• Do simple, everyday movements to work out that Fascia and keep it from becoming jerky!!  

• And be patient! Patience is KEY.  All will come in due time, and as I like to say, the Grand Canyon WAS NOT formed overnight. It takes time and work and dedication, and with that you can get to where you want to be with your recovery time from an injury, your health, your fitness goals and your body! 

What makes you feel magical’

 At the end of my interview with Erika, I asked her this.. What makes her feel magical.  And her response was pure perfection… 

 “When I create an AHA moment in my client’s movement. It’s kind of this amazing thing that if I get someone who can’t touch their toes, and I find the right exercise for them to work on for 2 minutes, and then they can touch their toes for sometimes for the first time in their lives. THAT is what makes me keep going, keep showing up to work, and continue to keep doing these fitness programs. That is where I am like, YES I AM MAGICAL!” 

Links
Follow Erika on Instagram: coach.erika

And you can check out her website: https://coacherika.com/

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