Dance, Rehab, and Staying Active for Life | Vita Maida

What can elite dance teach us about movement, injuries, and staying active for life?

In this episode, physical therapist Vita Maida joins the podcast to share her journey from nationally ranked dancer to physical therapist. We talk about the injuries and challenges that helped shape her career, the value of staying curious and humble, and how adapting to setbacks can lead to unexpected opportunities.

 We also discuss how investing in movement today can help you keep doing what you love, be who you are, and stay active for years to come. 

If you've ever dealt with an injury, faced a setback, or simply want to stay active as you get older, this episode is for you.

Follow Vita Maida on Instagram! 

@maidamethod

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Today I have Bita Maida on the podcast with me. She's a doctor of physical therapy, certified personal trainer, and strength and conditioning specialist dedicated to helping people improve their movement, performance, rehab injuries, and learn more about their overall health. Pretty cool. Her professional background combines rehabilitation, fitness, and athletic performance, allowing her to work with individuals across a wide range of goals and abilities. In addition to her work in healthcare and fitness, she is a Latin and ballroom dance instructor. You don't hear that one every day, with a competitive dance background spanning many, many years. Having trained and competed extensively when she was younger, she developed a deep appreciation for movement, discipline, and the connection between physical performance and artistry. Today, she brings together her expertise in physical therapy, strength training, and dance to help others move with confidence, strength, and purpose. I hope you guys enjoy. I really enjoyed this talk, and thank you for listening to Life in Motion. Very happy to have you here.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

Super excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Vita Maida. Yeah. My old co-worker.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Yeah, it's Maida. A lot of people say Maida, but it's Maida.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Maida, Vita Maida, my old coworker and old trainer at Westwood Country Club. We met a few years ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Yeah, back in the day. I miss Westwood so much. Shout out Rob for the connection. Um, yeah, great community over there. Miss you all guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Yeah, and we miss you too. People always remember you from your smile, your energetic, lively attitude. And it was fun working with you. Yeah, Rob misses you. We do talk about you a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Maybe I'll be back. Maybe I'll be back.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

That would be cool.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

He finally kicked me off the roster after like a six-month hiatus. He's like, Vita, you have not been in here. I was like, I know. I've been focused on my big girl job, PT, and I just hadn't gotten a chance to get in and train some people, but I do miss it. I do.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

And we're gonna talk to Rob about why he did that. That's that's not cool.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

I will talk to Rob because maybe who knows? One day I'll come back and teach injury prevention classes. We'll get into that.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yeah, which would be awesome. Like you said, you're a physical therapist now. It's your big girl job. That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Yeah, it was kind of a natural transition for me from personal training. I wanted to, you know, go into this from personal training because people would come up to me and be like, I have tennis elbow, golfer's elbow. Some people have all these neurological conditions like post-stroke or other different conditions. And I did not feel that I had the proper training or education to help them. And I deep down, even with personal training, the whole drive for me was helping people get better, live better lives, be healthy. So that naturally drove me to do physical therapy school and go back to higher education.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

And I find that very inspiring. Just bluntly, you're really good at what you do. Even when you were a trainer and now, as a physical therapist, people speak very highly of you. I will also say that I'm thankful to have you on, given you're dealing with a little voice or vocal polyp.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Yeah. So I recently was diagnosed with a vocal polyp, which is essentially a little blister on a vocal cord. Some people have nodules from misuse, overuse. Um, as you said, I used to train at Westwood. I would do group classes. I also teach dance, which maybe we'll get into later. And after kind of a bout of strep throat earlier this year, it was already naturally aggravated in my vocal cords. And I taught a dance class to a bunch of little girls, super cute, love them. It's not their fault. I just was super passionate about getting them ready for the recital coming up, and I was yelling cues over loud music, which in the past has never been a problem for me. The doctor just said it was the perfect storm, and I got this little blister on my vocal cord. So I apologize if y'all can't understand everything, but maybe we'll do a post-surgery podcast.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Oh, for sure. Yeah. And good luck with your surgery. Thank you. And I also gotta share when you first texted me. So I texted you a few months ago asking if you would do this, and you said yes. And then it was about a day or two later, you sent me a follow-up text about oh, we might have to postpone. I got a voice pollute, and I was like, what is that?

SPEAKER_02 5:29

I had no clue. My mother, so we're loud Italian women, okay? I love to yap. Usually I am just yapping a little bit louder than I am right now. I have to take work for two weeks, which is not ideal, but I've tried all the things. I've tried conservative management, which included speech therapy, which PTs and hospitals work with speech therapists. I've never personally worked with them myself, but for people post-stroke or brain injuries, car accidents, sometimes people have difficulty with speaking, and speech therapists come in. So I've seen them, I've never had it on myself. It was quite silly at first, but I see the benefits. Um, I felt like I was getting stronger, but saw the surgeon recently and he was like, Your job, you gotta talk. Like you're not gonna get better unless we do the surgery. So I'm doing it and I'll continue some speech therapy, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Yeah, I learned something new through this. If you're listening to this, take care of your voice.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Exactly. And since I might still teach dance, and I've been doing or have been asked to do some injury prevention, big classes for a bunch of dance studios around Austin. I bought myself because the surgeon recommended it, a little microphones, yeah, little speakers. So I got one off of Amazon, and I've been using it at work, and everyone's cracking up because they're just like, this is so on brand for me. And this was just a natural progression. It's like I know, but yeah, I love my little speaker. I'll be using my little speaker for future, even post-surgery group classes where I'll have to yell. But yeah, the surgeon has done singers, he's done coaches, like football coaches, because they scream over the game.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Yeah, I just didn't realize it. But anyway, yeah, 2026, bring awareness to resting your voice and not overdoing it.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Cool. Yeah, that's the theme of today's podcast. That's why I had you on. This doesn't hurt your voice, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Not at all. It just, you know, by the end of the day or the end of the work week, it feels a little strained, and obviously it doesn't sound normal, it sounds raspy, but no, it's not painful at all. Thank you for asking.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

That's good. With that said, you had mentioned dance. I want to talk about what you do today, but to backtrack, you have a background in elite level competitive dance. Yeah. And can you tell me a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Yeah, so I have been moving and grooving since I was two. So I started dance when I was two, just doing general ballet, tap, jazz, um, stuff like that. Then when I was nine, kind of corny story. I watched this TV show called Dancing with the Stars.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yup.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

And I said, Mom, dad, I would like to try this kind of dance. It's ballroom in Latin, international style. And my dad, this is a very odd story. My dad loves to dance as well. He's an engineer and his brain is very science-y, but his artistic outlet is dance. It's so funny. I've learned a lot from him too, because he grew up in Houston with this other guy named Corky Ballas, who is a world-ranked ballroom and Latin dancer.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

His son, Corky's son, Mark Ballas, is a professional in dancing with the stars. So Corky and my dad, and Corky's been on the show too, Dancing with the Stars. Corky grew up with my dad and taught my dad how to dance Latin and ballroom a little bit. My dad's not very good because he didn't practice. He went to school and Corky went on to compete in ballroom and Latin dancing all over the world. Um, he trained professionals that are on Dancing with the Stars today. So my dad calls Corky when I was nine and is like, my daughter wants to do what you do. Where do I put her? So he connected me. He trained me a little bit. Then he connected me with more and more professional dancers in the Houston area, which it's not, it's not a big community, especially in Houston. It's more New York, LA. Yeah. So sometimes I would fly out there. It was an expensive sport, I will say. Yeah, thank you, mom and dad, for supporting that. But yeah, it was my life from nine years old, I fell in love with it, till I was about 18. That's when things started to slow down. I got an injury to my hamstring from prepping to try out for these shows. So I was prepping to try out for a show called So You Think You Can Dance. But then I got hurt. So it kind of messed up my audition to an extent. So from there, I was like, I need to slow my role and realize is this something that I think I can do long term? Or do I want to go the health and fitness route in college? So that's kind of how everything started. This path to PT is from my love for dance. And I'll never not love dance.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

And that is cool. I've known you for some time now, but that's the first time I'm hearing this story.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

It's a wild story. Like I said, Houston doesn't have a big ballroom and Latin community, but my dad's friend Quirky Ballas really helped put Houston on the map a little bit. And then, you know, he went on to be a world champion. He helped me get second place at nationals when I was 16 and seventh in the world at another different world competition. But yeah, I was a lot of traveling. It was almost a full-time job when I was training. I would take off of high school early. Somehow, me and my mother convinced the school that I would be able to get off early. I think I had to make up some hours in school. Like I'd go straight to the studio or straight to some sort of training. And we can also get into that because that's what I've realized now being a physical therapist and seeing young girls in dance get hurt and they're still pushing through in classes. Yeah. So it's a big deal, especially in I know you work with athletes at Westwood. It's a big deal of no pain, no gain. But it it comes to a point now where we're recognizing, thank God, that we need to slow down and really take recovery seriously.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

For sure. Train smarter, not harder.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

Yeah, yeah. And just knowing when you've pushed your limit. Obviously, I'm still dealing with that with my vocal cord, but just physically with the body, knowing your limits, but like you don't know until you try to an extent. But especially with dancers and young dancers, at least from my experience, there was a lot of long hours. You don't really recognize pain because you're running on adrenaline in the next competition, which you do multiple a year, like you can do over 20 a year or whatever. You can do one a week, but it is intense, and there's also a lot of body issues and nutrition misguidance or misleading.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

And you kind of have to. You can't do something that intense for so long forever.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Yes. And or at least without some sort of proper nutrition regime or recovery policy. Yeah. I never got a DEXA scan in high school or anything like that. But I'm sure it was not great numbers as far as body fat percentage, as I didn't have a menstrual cycle. I never had one. You hear about gymnasts in the Olympics stunting their growth and also having issues with their periods or missing things and missing milestones of growth. And I literally did that. And people would ask my parents, is she anorexic or are y'all taking care of her? And we're Italian. Again, my mom would feed me, but I was literally just training more than I was sitting for a meal. And it it sneaks up on me because I was so passionate. And you know, I would have times where it was so stressful too, but I loved it so much that I didn't want to stop. It was an addiction in a sense. Yeah. And it didn't lead me to pushing it too much. And I did one trick um when I was prepping for the audition in high school. That wasn't a trick that I normally do. It's called an aerial. It's basically a cartwheel with no hands.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

I was doing it as like, oh, like ballroom and Latin dancers don't normally do tricks like this. I was doing it in my little Latina eals, and I really strained my hamstring and I couldn't walk for two weeks. It was insane. So then I went to physical therapy, and I learned a lot just in a couple of sessions about slowing down, doing little movements, and kind of realizing how fragile my body really is.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

So well, through all of that, I'm glad you loved what you were doing, but it is unfortunate. The body has limitations. And like you said, it's possible to perform that highly doing something like that, but you gotta pay attention to nutrition, recovery, sleep.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Yeah, and it's it's hard to conceptualize at that age.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

You don't really think longevity.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

No, you're invincible at that age. That's what I thought, you know.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Until you aren't.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

Right. But I will say we're making progress with athletic trainers at high schools now, for even lacrosse teams, football teams. There's no physical therapist at any local high schools that I know of, but athletic trainers, I know. So, and they have training in some aspects of recovery and rehabilitation. So it's getting better. It's not how it used to be even just 10 years ago, seven years ago.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Oh, for sure. My local high school never or didn't have a strength coach at the time, and now they do. And that's cool. It's just having people that specialize or will focus on this one thing that you'll probably overlook if there's not that person there. Again, high school is probably not gonna care about what they eat or if they stretch or if they're running on two hours of sleep.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Exactly. Yeah, I was just teaching dance the other day, and there's girls in there that have dislocated their patella, their kneecaps, and they just put on a brace, they're like, No, I'm ready to go, I'm ready to rock and roll.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

I was like, so you're gonna, you know, sit out for a little bit. I'll bring you in where I think there's things that you can do that are safe. But to me, seeing that still go on is a little sad, but hopefully with these injury prevention classes that I will do soon at those studios, we'll learn something.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Yeah, I think the that mindset's kind of inspiring to push through things, but you have to know your limitations. I I often think about like when I tweak something while I want to go out, I I know I should probably stay in, even if it's for a day. Don't do this activity, that activity, like just tweak things because if you go on Netflix and look at these like documentaries from football players in the NFL or MLB athletes, they are recovering quite quick, but they also have a team of people with them, modern medicine, therapeutic accessories. It's it's quite extensive, and I don't have that. I'm not a professional athlete, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

Right, right. I wish we all had access to all those cool new devices that are coming out for quicker recovery times, which will also help, but just modifying things is important. Listen to your body. I believe you've talked about sleep on the podcast before. Doing things that you think are safe. Movement will help, but gentle. It's okay to go gentle some days on yourself and not lift the heaviest thing in the gym or look over to the side and see someone doing one exercise and think you have to one up them because there's a lot of that going on as well.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Now, shifting to it is unfortunate the body has limitations, it will inevitably be tweaked, but I believe you don't have to wait until an injury to strengthen your shoulders, increase your mobility, your hip mobility, stretch out your calves, do things to decrease inflammation. You don't have to wait until an injury. So, how do you go about motivating clients to take measures before something goes really, really wrong?

SPEAKER_02 20:18

Yeah, I just educate, educate, educate. Like this, well, so by the time they get to me now, like not as a personal trainer, but as a physical therapist, it's when they're in pain, when they're in their most vulnerable state. I've had tears on my evaluations. I've just been not only a physical therapist, but a little bit of like a mental one too, not diagnosing things, but just being there for them and listening. It's a lot of listening, and just being there for them and explaining in a way that's maybe different than how their other medical providers have told them things, not cultivating any fear around their pain. But yeah, they already come to me in pain now. So once I get them out of that state, that's when I start really honing in on, okay, now what are we gonna do about preventing this in the future? And what I've learned to tell people, I've had mentorship for this because people come in and go, Oh, I can't wait for you to cure me. Cure me. That's not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

I wish that was the case.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

I wish I had a magic one. I tell them all the time. Yeah, I'm not doubting you, but um, I wish I was that good. Life happens, sleep happens, dress happens. I can't prevent you retweaking or re injuring yourself. I cannot, we say injury prevention, I cannot fully, wholeheartedly tell you what. What this will do for you will prevent injury. Life happens, clearly, my vocal cords. What I can do is educate and give them tools to help them for a lifetime and to help semi prevent to the best of our ability together, because it's a teamwork. I tell them we're a team. It's not just me in this, it's you. Give them stuff to do for maintenance, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

Maintenance. That's not talked about enough.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Yeah. As far as prehab, when I was a personal trainer, I would try my best to educate people on injury prevention, which aka is a fancy term for prehab, but it wasn't resonated with as well because I don't think you think about it until it happens to you. So unless it's happening to you or about to happen with pain and injuries, I just don't think you think about doing certain mobility drills or adding plometrics to your training because X, Y, and Z. From a young age, people do one sport and like example, me dance, and they're not moving their bodies in different ways. And then that can also lead to injury. There's a lot of different ways that people can eventually become injured. And it's hard to predict what would have helped. But what I can do is help when it's happening and prevent it from being as intense when it comes again. It's about when, not if it'll come again.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

That's you hit that one on the spot. There are exercises and things we can do to yeah, decrease the likelihood of something happening. We can strengthen things, move things, bring attention to habits, but it will still happen. See, I was gonna say might. It will still happen. It's just about when and to what extent.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

Exactly. And again, we don't put fear in people's heads. They're like, oh my God, this will happen again. I and I try to tell them it will. I can't prevent you from never getting stressed again and maybe tightening, like if they were coming in for neck pain or low back pain, especially those people. Um, and I struggle with low back pain as well occasionally. But again, I do maintenance. I have my own tools in my toolkit that I've figured out through the years through PT and education that fix me within at most two weeks. And that's what I give people too. If I get to a point in their rehab process now, I'm not talking about prehab, their rehab process of they're about to discharge, they feel great, they're on a high. I tell them before I send them off and flying away, I say, if you ever need me again, I give them my email, give them all my information. If you feel like you're getting this pain again, you feel it creeping on, whether it's any pain, whatever it is, I want you to try your stuff every day for a solid two weeks. Everything that we've talked about, all the habits, all the healthy habits to sleep, nutrition, too included, because that's so important and so overlooked too in physical therapy. Anyway, I tell them all of this and I say, if you try that for a solid, let's say two max three weeks, I'd push it, and you're not feeling one ounce better. And maybe you're even feeling worse. That's when I'd say, okay, come back or go see your medical provider again, maybe do another ball of physical therapy. We can do a tune-up.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

I like that. They gotta still do the work, at least try to do the work at first, and then move on to plan B.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Yeah, yeah, because at that point I've gotten them a list of at least five different things that are like an emergency exit. Oh my God, I'm getting that pain again. I'm scared. Because it is scary when you're at the level of pain to where you come to physical therapy. Sometimes people are scared. And it's okay to be scared because you don't know what's happening. That's my job. My job is to educate you. And that's a part of the reason why I love doing what I'm doing, because I want to bring awareness that yes, although it may be frightening at first, there is a way for you to help yourself.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

And you can always not fix the problem, but try or do something about it. And that's cool. I mean, we need more people like you and other coaches like that.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Yeah. So I think it's getting better in the physical therapy world too, where if I'm treating someone and things aren't going as I would expect, as I've learned in school. They're not progressing as expected. Something's happening, and I think I need outside assistance from a different provider. I love collaborating with other providers, whether that's chiropractors, whether that's primary care physician, neurologist, anything like that. I am not one to say, I am the one that can fix you by myself. No, it's a team effort. I've said it from the start. We're a team. If we need external help, I'll get external help. Sometimes it's not just physical therapy that can help you. Sometimes we need that steroid shot, unfortunately. We have a saying called, sometimes we do need to fight chemicals with chemicals. And if you're so inflamed and you need that oral pack of steroids or a shot to get you down, and we can progress you in physical therapy after, that's fine. But I feel like some clinicians don't do that enough.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

I would agree. And modern medicine is cool. There are a lot of ways to attack a problem. Hearing you talk makes me think, guys, if you're listening to this and are hurting and need physical therapy, please go see Vita. She's she is really good at what she does, you'll be in good hands. We'll circle back to that. But you also touched on when people go to see you, but like you said, they don't go to see you oftentimes until something bad has happened. And man, that is human nature. I wish it wasn't. Like, I take for granted my big toe until I stub my big toe from getting up at night to use the restroom. And then for a week straight, I'm just thinking about my big toe. I'm like, man, I should have done this or that differently. And then when I heal, I never think about my big toe until it happens again.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

Yeah, yeah. I think we're doing better in healthcare, but there's still so many things to fix. And that is also the cycle of rehabilitation and then back into prehab. That cycle, especially with I guess say the active adult, we see, and Austin is super, all of you guys are super active, and I love it. We see a return to whatever activity they're trying to get back to, maybe a little too abruptly. There's some great clinicians out there, and then there's some that don't connect the loop of let's say on evaluation, I'm a patient and I say, I have back pain, I want to get back to deadlifting X amount of weight. I, as the physical therapist, obviously take note of that. And as also a strength and conditioning specialist and personal training background, I know two plus two, I have to see them try deadlifting at some point in our program. Maybe it's on day one. You're let's say you're on fire with your back because there's nerve pain, whatever it may be. But before I let you go, I want to at least get you real close to your goal, real close, and give you every tool. Maybe I sometimes provide like YouTube videos of like deadlifting tips because I mean I don't deadlift maybe as much as my patient. Maybe my patient's a bodybuilder or like huge guy, but I can still help get you there. Maybe I can't personally do it, but I can watch you guide you through the correct form. But there are some times in physical therapy, and it's getting better. I'm gonna preface that a lot.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

Where sometimes the clinician misses that big point in the patient goal should be the primary centered focus of our program. So maybe the clinician lets them go, like, oh, we got your pain down. That's great.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:32

They go back out in the world, they deadlift, boom, happens again. They weren't properly assessed in clinic by the physical therapist. And physical therapy programs in general are getting better about educating on strength and conditioning. It's not the best. And that's why I outsourced my own CSCS or other aspects of training or other mentorship outside of PT school because that patient that just went off on his own, deadlifted, and let's say back to pain, will start saying physical therapy didn't work for me. Physical therapy didn't work for me. We hear that all the time. And maybe it doesn't work for everyone, maybe there's other things that we missed. Yeah. But sometimes it's the simple things we missed. We missed their goal.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Yeah. It happens.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

We're so hyper fixated on decreasing their pain, which should be one of the goals. But if it's not the ultimate goal is to return to X, Y, and Z and you miss all of that, then you let them go, and oops, they get re-injured, or oops, they get their pain back and they just go off in the world and say physical therapy doesn't work.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

Yeah, which makes me think that's even more of a reason to have a team of people, not to put myself or you down. But while I I have that same urge, Bita, I want to fix everyone.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

I know.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

And I think we can get to their goals tomorrow. I'm not not gonna shoot for that, but at the same time, that's not realistic. They probably have to go see other people for nutrition. I'm not a nutritionist, I'm not legally or ethically allowed to give people plans to put them on this and that. So there's a time to outsource to people, and if you want them to maximize their potential and hit their goal, like you said, I try not to speak in absolutes. It has to take that.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

99% of the time.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree because I'm also not a nutritionalist. Do people ask both of us all the time? You as a personal trainer, me as a physical therapist, what should I be eating? What should I be doing? How are oh peptides, man?

SPEAKER_01 34:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

That's a huge thing in our world right now. Should I be taking peptides? Should I not? I am not legally or ethically allowed to say yes, no in absolutes.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:20

Am I allowed to give recommendations or, you know, talk to your provider about it? There's not enough long-term research out right now. Do your own research before just injecting everything. Be curious about anything and everything in the fitness online world. I am gullible sometimes, even online, and question a bunch of different fitness influencers' decisions. But I challenge my patients to do the same where everything online is planned, it's processed, it's edited, including this.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

Yeah, including this. There are no secrets.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

There's no secrets, including my own platform too, online. Like everything is edited, everything is out there. What I urge my patients to do is ask questions, whether it be directly to the fitness influencer they're obsessed with, or on their own, or to a more highly educated individual, like a medical provider, instead of ChatGPT. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

There's a time and a place.

SPEAKER_02 35:40

Man, I'm not an ENT, but my vocal cord injury, I have definitely looked up on Chat GPT. But then I went to an ENT because Chat GPT is not a doctor. Let's just preface that.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

It's not.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

It's not a personal trainer, it's not a doctor. It can give you advice, but it doesn't mean you should live by it.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

About how I have to shout out my dad. My parents are in the process of becoming active. My dad's trying to lose some weight. And for years now, because of what we do, or how I'm a trainer and you're a physical therapist, he's asked me for nutrition advice, every question under the sun, which I don't mind. But he finally just got a nutritionist, which at first I was like, wait, so now you're not gonna ask me? I guess you don't think that highly of me. And then I thought about it, and I realized that no, that is the best decision ever. I'm not certified, and someone else out there knows more than me. Most people, actually, everybody knows more than me.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

And you know what? That's called being humble. And I I have a funny saying on like my little platform I've tried to cultivate here. Let's get humbled. And it's I like that it's important to constantly question things, question yourself, how much you know, be curious to want to learn more, and be accepting that others do know more than you, and that maybe in your case, your family members could benefit from external help outside of you.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

For sure. And you also touched on I think it's good to stay curious in a non-aggressive way. Like question what your what I do, what your trainer does, what Vita does, your physical therapist, at least ask or know why you're doing what you're doing. Yeah, it's not that you distrust the person, just be in the know.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

Oh, yeah. And with this raspy voice issue, I think that's my biggest struggle because I do love when patients are super curious. Why are we doing this? What's the point of this? I love that. They should be asking, why are we doing this? And hope your physical therapist has a direct answer.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

And they should have a direct answer. There's also the other end of it where you ask and distrust everything so much that you're a skeptic. Yeah. Wow. Don't be a skeptic, but also do a little bit of research, be curious, and then you do have to put good faith and trust in people like us or other physicians, and ultimately, I hope it's a team of people that you can outsource who all have your best interest in mind.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Yeah, I mean, I haven't even been a physical therapist for a year yet, or close, August 18th, which is crazy. It's flown by. I have gotten reviews, I've gotten a lot good, thank goodness. And I got one bad that stuck with me. And it was the fact that I couldn't cure the person. And I told him, I said, there's, you know, there's other people with other devices. The world has developed all kinds of crazy things. There's probably so many things I don't know exist. And I used to work for a Cairo, he's amazing. Shout out Dr. Bob Meyer in Westlake. He has so many fun tools. I've recommended multiple patients go see him and try it because I recognize, again, we talked about I can't fix everyone. Sometimes people need more external help than others. Some people do feel fine from just PT. Some people need a whole other team, need um modalities too. So I recognize that, but all the good reviews are great, and then you get one not so good when you're like, ah, let me rethink how I word things next time.

SPEAKER_00 40:23

And you're being honest with people. I respect that there have been clients that did not like working with me, or they just stopped working with me and then went on to see other people, and that's okay. Like that is part of the process. That's okay.

SPEAKER_02 40:41

Yeah, not everyone's gonna like you. I've even had patients where I thought they hated me and left the best reveal ever.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

And my surprise.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

And I was like, oh my god, it's just you don't know what a person is thinking unless you ask. If you don't ask how they're feeling throughout the process, you might not know. You know, how do you feel like this is going? Do you feel like this is a good fit for you? Some people like other providers. I've been accepting, let's just say that.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

You have to be. We all go through that. Yeah, I still kind of go through that.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:23

And what was your saying? Let's be humbled. Let's get humbled. Let's get humbled.

SPEAKER_02 41:28

Let's get humbled. It kind of came from me personal training at Westwood. And I was thinking I was so strong. I taught the core class there. Shout out whoever showed up to that. Um, I forgot what days I did that. But I taught a core class, taught a balance class. I remember that. Yeah, taught all these classes. I thought I was so strong. I get to PC school, I get in maybe one of the first semester classes. I can't remember quite which one. They were all humbling, let's just say that. But I volunteer. I was never afraid to ask questions or be a guinea pig for the class. I raised my hand, I volunteer to do this core exercise. I said, I can do that. Easy. It was like a dead bug version of some sort. I was like, I've taught core class at Westfoot. I know what I'm doing. And I'm strong. Test me. So all of the professors are physical therapists themselves. Yeah. They did something, I can't quite remember what it was. And the whole class started laughing. I started laughing. I couldn't hold whatever position they were trying to test me in. I was shaking. They did like a little quick push to my muscles. I wasn't even engaging the right muscles. I was so humbled in the best way. Personally, it takes a lot for me to be embarrassed because I'm so curious. Not in a bad way, like we talked about, but I just want to know things and I want to try things. And if I'm humbled at them, like if if they are so challenging that maybe I don't understand it the first time, maybe I have to come back to it. I love that. I love the challenge. So yeah, that's where let's get humbled started because I was just humbled throughout physical therapy school in multiple ways, physically, mentally, emotionally.

SPEAKER_00 43:26

Wow. All the things. A dancer embarrassed? That does take a lot.

SPEAKER_02 43:31

It does, yeah. I think yeah, dance definitely helped with that. Um, it taught me confidence, but it also taught me to if the teacher brings you up and you're doing something and you can't do it, not get upset about it, but to take it as a challenge.

SPEAKER_00 43:49

So I like that. I love these perspectives and mindsets. I have to remind myself half the time I fall into old habits. Happens.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:02

Now, in your daily schedule, what are some of the most common injuries you see in active adults who are running, exercising, maybe playing sports like tennis and golf?

SPEAKER_02 44:15

I'd say, especially with golf and tennis, a lot of shoulder and knee pain and runners, knee and low back, sometimes even like a lot of hips too, hip pain, but hip pain can also be referred from back. It's it kind of gets a little sticky.

SPEAKER_00 44:34

Yeah. And those are quite common injuries or areas of injuries. That said, what is something or what are exercises that people, assuming they're healthy adults, what are some exercises or things they should be thinking about as they continue to play sports?

SPEAKER_02 44:57

You're not gonna like this answer. But it was a lot of the answers in physical therapy school, and we all just gritted our teeth. But it truly depends.

SPEAKER_00 45:06

It does.

SPEAKER_02 45:07

Um, and I'm sure you've heard that multiple times too. But doing things that are functional for them and safe for them, not overdoing it, something to include balance, like an RDL of some single leg RDL of some sort, single leg balance progression, something that combines multiple body parts. Um, but it truly depends on the sport, the person, the age, I can go on.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

But it does depend, and that's why if you don't have a team or need to go see a physical therapist or want a trainer, at least check in with somebody to see what you need to work on. Like I had this, the kids in college now, but I had this very strong injacked football player that I trained, trained in years past, and I remember he had passed every test, came to me to get in better shape, was already phenomenally strong and conditioned. The only other thing that we knew about him was that he suffered from chronic ankle injuries, but the dude's quads are the size of my head, his biceps are bulging, and he's at that time he was like 16, 17. So there wasn't anything that I could offer him other than balance training. We worked on balance and he could not hold a one-leg lift, like standing on one leg for more than five seconds without almost falling over. And I was like, wow, this kid needs to work on balance, like keep doing what you're doing, keep training the way you train. You don't need to come see me, but do work on balance. So we did for a few weeks and it got a lot better.

SPEAKER_02 47:11

Yeah, I bet you he had chronic ankle instability, but that's a whole nother subject. But yeah, you did the right thing. Balance gets so overlooked, and I think it's so important at least once a week or once every other week, to challenge yourself and your training to corporate arms and legs, but some sort of balance challenge, because that often gets overlooked and ankle instability from ankle sprains, multiple ankle sprains, is also very, very common, especially in young football players as well. They just crack their ankles and be done with it and wrap it up, and they push through, and then they come years later with either ankle, hip or knee problems because everything starts going up the chain.

SPEAKER_00 48:03

I yeah. I oftentimes hear the word balance, I don't know about you. I think younger people think, oh, I don't need that or need to work on it because balance is synonymous with falling down, and that's not always the case. Yeah. Um, it is maybe as you age, but if you're not coordinated, stable, or able to balance as a mom and dad, even who's not that old in the grand scheme of things, you still use balance, like you said. We can't say you won't, but we can lessen the chances of an ankle sprain, a tweak, a little jerk here and there, when you're running around a tennis court on the golf course, running marathons. We can't cure you, but we can help minimize the likelihood of something like that. You still need balance.

SPEAKER_02 49:06

No one can see me, but the amount of times I've nodded my head at everything he just said. Yeah, yeah. You said it, you summed it up very nicely. I think that's what helped me with dance, too, is I knew the benefits of balance and coordination and body awareness that not a lot of young kids that are in other sports know. And then it translates to adulthood, and then they get injured and then they come to me. And then unfortunately, when you fall in physical therapy, like from an exercise, let's say I give you something hard, which I've done. It's a big, it's a big no-no when you're a PT student to have a patient fall. You don't want anyone to fall, right? We don't want people to fall, we want to challenge you, yeah. But sometimes it happens because I get a little overzealous and I love you know, people returning people to their sport. A lot of soccer players also are coming to me right now, yeah. Uh for just that, like ankle sprains leading up into knee pain. And I did have a patient fall, and in my world, I have to do a lot of paperwork for when someone falls. But I preface the patient with, you're getting better. I am challenging you, I pushed you, and you fell. But it doesn't happen often, sometimes it does, and it's just the day, but it's important from youth, especially into geriatrics and older age. I don't treat a lot of Medicare patients, which is 65 and older, you start going on Medicare. But when I do, healthcare insurance always asks me. I have a series of qu like three questions to ask every time. Have you felt fallen in the past 12 months? How many times? I forgot the third question, but something about falls. They do a quick screen.

SPEAKER_00 51:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:09

And if they say no, easy, we can move on. If they say yes, then it leads me to do a balance assessment, even if they're not there necessarily for balance. It makes me double check, which I love. I actually went to Washington, DC and advocated for more balance training for older adults. I was trying to pass a bill, but don't know how much the bill got through. But it's a bigger problem than you probably see at Westwood. But I start seeing as more Medicare patients come in as people are saying yes to falling. And then they go, but it wasn't my fault. It was like something in the way. And I'm like, I still gotta look. And yeah, their balance ends up being trash, but that's something we work on, and there you go, it all connects, it all connects.

SPEAKER_00 52:06

I love that, and wow, you're getting some really good experience in yeah, yeah. Only get better at what you do, and you're already very good at what you do, and you're full of knowledge, and that's I've really enjoyed this talk.

SPEAKER_02 52:27

That's very nice for you to say. I still consider myself a new clinician, right? We have a term called first years, and that can be a new PT, new grad. People consider that just one year of physical therapy treating or up to five years, because when you graduate physical therapy school, you graduate with treating birth to death, quite literally, like as a generalist.

SPEAKER_01 52:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:54

Then once you go off in the real world and you get a job, you start figuring out what you want to specialize in, or in some people's cases, they already know that, write out of PT school and they do what's called a residency or a fellowship, which are things I've considered, but and like what we've talked about, I'm humbled. I do recognize I don't know everything. I'm new. I'm a part of a mentorship group. I meet every Monday at seven online. Shout out Sean Harris. He's one of my many mentors because it's a team effort to treat people and to help people in your field too. I would want to make people better. So we get ideas from others. And PT school, I got called out on this all the time. But zooming out and zooming in, I tend to zoom in on things and see the leaves of like if we had a metaphor of like a tree. I see the leaves and I see every detail of the leaf. And then I had some friends that I would study with that would see the whole tree. And it worked for us, not to toot my own horn, but I did very well in PT school because I worked with people that were not like me. And I think our little group of people that I studied with did very well because we would go back and forth. I would see this one detail on a slide, and they would be like, Vita, you're missing the big point of the case.

SPEAKER_00 54:17

Yeah. See, it's usually good to have more perspectives on. I have an off question. This wasn't in the notes. You're dating Hunter Hall.

SPEAKER_01 54:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:29

I'm gonna podcast with him shortly.

SPEAKER_01 54:31

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 54:31

Also excited for that.

SPEAKER_01 54:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:34

How does he generally see things? Is he the opposite of you? How do you all balance that?

SPEAKER_02 54:40

He is he sees the bigger picture for sure. When he was helping me study in PT school, my goodness, poor man. He had to do all my flashcards with me for anatomy. Shout out Hunter. Oh my god. Hunter helped me so much through physical therapy school.

SPEAKER_00 54:57

He's a good man.

SPEAKER_02 54:58

Great man. But not only that, he has also helped me see the big picture of the business aspect of physical therapy, which he's always believed that I could have my own little personal training, physical therapy thing one day. But he helped me with like my interview process, negotiating salaries, stuff they don't teach me in physical therapy school. So he brought a different perspective for healthcare for me, business-wise.

SPEAKER_00 55:28

Can y'all see a theme now? More perspectives. There's more promise.

SPEAKER_02 55:34

Exactly. I mean, we need to talk to people, we need different ideas. And the best way to do it is just to meet people, get out there. I love this podcast. That's probably your point of doing this is talking with all kinds of different people.

SPEAKER_00 55:50

Yeah, and it's genuinely fun.

SPEAKER_02 55:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:53

I mean, this has been fun. We're catching up, and I got to talk to Hunter and you guys, and I do miss our conversations at Westwood. There was a lot of that yeah. It was good to bounce ideas off you. It always is. And maybe we'll get you back one day.

SPEAKER_02 56:14

Maybe, maybe, maybe more soon than later. I miss personal training. I really do. So once I get this surgery done, if I can train people again to some degree, the place I work at now knows I do personal training and injury prevention for dancers and my little Instagram videos that are for physical therapy tips, dance tips, injury prevention tips, all kinds of things right now. My goal is to educate.

SPEAKER_00 56:45

I like that. It's made a method, right? Yeah. Made a method.

SPEAKER_02 56:49

It's a little play on words. Um so my last name is MADA. So, like made a method to hopefully help other people make a method of their own personal health and wellness goals or prehab, like we talked about injury prevention tools. I want to help everyone make their own method of health and well-being.

SPEAKER_00 57:14

And I'm not a dancer, I do follow your page. I have took some tips and tricks from you. It's it's fun.

SPEAKER_02 57:22

It's so fun.

SPEAKER_00 57:23

It's quality content.

SPEAKER_02 57:25

Quality content, very humbling. So don't go into it not thinking it's gonna be a challenge because it will be.

SPEAKER_00 57:33

Yeah, made a made a method. I'll drop your information in the show notes so people can find you.

SPEAKER_02 57:39

Yeah, if anyone has questions about personal training, anything like that, physical therapy, the cycle, dancing, send me a DM.

SPEAKER_00 57:49

Cool. Hey, just some random little side questions.

SPEAKER_02 57:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:56

How do you spend your free time?

SPEAKER_02 57:59

Easy. Dancing, hanging out with Hunter.

SPEAKER_00 58:03

Y'all are very social.

SPEAKER_02 58:05

Yeah, yeah, very to the extent where this vocal cord polyp recovery will be a very big challenge, and I'm gonna learn to be a great listener.

SPEAKER_00 58:18

What's your favorite exercise?

SPEAKER_02 58:20

Oh, I talked about my hamstring strain. There's one that I call the hamstring triple threat. Shout out my other mentor, Dee Dee, at Austin Sports Medicine, for teaching me that one during my time as a student. It's a circuit of straight leg bridges to hamstring curls holding a bridge, and then into a bit-ny bridge. I'll show you. It's on the it's on the made of method.

SPEAKER_00 58:48

I bet it's hard. It's so hard. Oh gosh. Humbling.

SPEAKER_02 58:53

Very now.

SPEAKER_00 58:54

What's your least favorite exercise?

SPEAKER_02 58:57

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 58:58

Is it the same?

SPEAKER_02 59:00

Honestly, it's also another circuit. Shout out my other mentor, Dr. Trax at Athlete's Edge, called the upper extremity triple threat, or I like to call it that. I don't know exactly what he calls it, but it's sidelining shoulder external rotation, shoulder flexion to 90, and shoulder horizontal abduction. It's also on Meta Method, but it's never not hard. I'm gonna throw Hunter under the bus a little bit. He can do like eight to ten pounds on this one. It is hard for your shoulders. I never like to say bulletproof your shoulder, but it's a good warm-up for a shoulder workout. I'll say that. I do five pounds and I'm struggling.

SPEAKER_00 59:47

I know that's hard. Just you describing it. I know exactly what it works. I know it's hard. And how did you meet Hunter?

SPEAKER_02 59:57

Ooh, in 2020, through a mutual friend, um, shout out Sammy Feingold. She introduced us, she knew him, and he was taking the boat out on Lake Austin, and we met on Lake Austin.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:12

Y'all also love boating.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:14

Yeah, yeah. Um we also met with masks on, by the way, to preface that, because it was 2020.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:20

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:21

I was quarantined and met with a mask on, so we didn't even see my full face.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:27

Oh man, I want to make jokes, but I'm not.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:31

It's crazy. It's crazy. That is crazy. Crazy times.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:35

And does Hunter dance?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:37

A little bit, a little bit. We're actually gonna work on some stuff today because we went out dancing last night and it gosh, we had some miss missteps.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:47

It happens. I can't dance. I think everyone can if they they put in the time and the word. Yeah, it's I don't dance for fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:55

It just takes practice.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:57

Yeah. And I'll kind of tie everything together. Let's leave the listeners with some takeaways. If they forgot everything, every single thing from this podcast, what do you want them to take away?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:20

Stay humble. Stay curious.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:24

Mic drop.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:27

Seriously, seriously.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:30

I mean, well said, yeah, stay humble. Definitely stay curious. Clients and coaches. This is for some of the coaches out there, for us. Yeah, stay curious, stay humble. And how do you see physical therapy itself evolving over the next decade or few years?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:53

Love that question. I think a lot of it is gonna be going to some sort of online platform. Telehealth is also in the works. COVID rapidly sped up things with online performance. I'm sure also in the personal training field. To an extent we can do things online, it would be kind of like a hybrid program. I'm I'm seeing that being more of the theme.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:19

I like that. And that works for people's lives if they do a lot of traveling or in and out. People live busy lives.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:27

I know.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:28

Hybrid is the move, then.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:30

Yeah, yeah. I'm excited for hybrid in our future. I think it's a good challenge for clinicians as well because we do so much hands-on evaluations and retesting things that we have to get really creative with different angles online and different cues to tell patients try this on yourself. Is it painful? I've already talked to multiple other clinicians that are doing it right now. And it's it poses a big challenge, but you can get through it. You just have to put in some critical thinking and be present with them in a different way.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:09

Last question. Yeah. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:11

Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:13

What is your why Vita? What keeps you motivated in and outside of the gym and work or when you're having a bad day? What keeps you going? That's a good question. Putting you on the spot. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:29

From personal experience, like we talked about, from seeing my parents, which shout out to your dad for getting a nutritional list. I, dad, if you're listening, which I'm gonna send this to you, yeah. Um, seeing aging happen with my own family, with myself and my patients, I just know how important it is to maintain things. So whether it's a good day or a bad day, doing something. Whether it's walking, I just tell people to walk sometimes. I see so many benefits from that, and it makes me a happier person that keeps me going.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:10

It does keep you going. I love that. And I have this saying like, you take care of your health, or you train to do what you do and be who you are for as long as you can, and we can't escape some things, but you can do stuff about it. So very inspiring to hear your story. It's a cool perspective. I learned a lot. Um, I'm glad.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:36

I'm glad.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:37

And I love catching up with you. Yeah, we can go on talks at Westwood.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:41

I miss them too in the little court courtside cafe area or near the lake. Y'all have a great view at Westwood. I miss that probably the most too.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:52

I I say we, I'm not a member, but the club is very blessed to have that view. It's right on the lake. Oh my god, it's right by Mount Benel. It's so gorgeous, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:04

Yeah, so motivating. But yeah, miss our catch-ups. We could go on and on, and I would love to do one post vocal polyp so you all really hear what I have to say.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:15

Yeah, the listeners are not gonna recognize you. He's truly gonna be different.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:19

But thank you for having me on.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:21

Best of luck with your surgery, and I hope we can catch up again soon. And super cool. I'm gonna podcast with Hunter very shortly.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:31

So exciting.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:32

Guys, go go check out Made a Method. Perfect. If you are in need of somebody, reach out to Vita. You're in great hands, she's amazing, and I enjoy doing this.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:45

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:47

Talk soon.