Personal Training and Wellness Advice from Crux Fitness – Why You Need to Hire a Health Professional
A year ago I thought I was in a really good spot. I had just graduated university after six long, hard years. I damn near doubled my income because my 25-hour work weeks were now 40-hour work weeks, with the increased pay that comes with a kinesiology degree. My lifestyle habits were on point as well; eating tons of nutrient-dense foods and training consistently. Unbeknownst to me however was the fact that I was fucked and about crash and burn really, really hard. Gradually over the course of a few months problems that I’ve always had and thought were normal – namely low-grade leaky gut syndrome, restless sleep, and hip pain – became worse and worse. Finally shit got so bad that the leaky gut turned into extreme bloating and nausea 24/7 (I was dry heaving and vomiting multiple times a day), the restless sleep turned into severe insomnia, and the hip pain became unbearable to the point that I couldn’t train properly. I was properly fucked.
After wading through the (metaphorically, of course) Coronavirus-laden swamp of apathetic or incompetent health practitioners (altogether I saw 9 different GPs, naturopaths, hospital specialists, and physiotherapists), I landed on two very thoughtful and holistic-minded professionals: My naturopath Dr. Drew Jamieson who finally diagnosed me with SIBO and has helped to reconstruct my gut over the last seven months, and my physiotherapist Chris Krammer who has rewired my nervous system to hold less tension and therefore move through the world more efficiently.
Anyways, I wanted to share with you the shit show that has been my health for the last year and the subsequent recovery from all these issues to punch home the point that you need professionals in your life to help you stay healthy and happy. Here are the 4 main reasons why you should hire a health professional:
- They will see holes in your life that you are blind to. Take it from me, the strength and conditioning coach who thought he was eating, sleeping, and breathing right. In my case I was blind to some of my own chronic stress, anxiety, and sketchy eating behaviours. Trust me, we don’t have our shit together as much as we think we do.
- Working together with a health professional and bouncing ideas off each other will help you connect dots in your life that had causal connections you were not aware of. For example, the chronic stress and anxiety of 60+ hour work/school weeks, plus my high sugar intake (to make up for the fact that I was rapidly losing weight due to the inability to absorb the food I was eating), plus the tightness in the fascia around my pelvis that played a huge role in fucking up my gut motility were all contributing factors to the development of a bacterial overgrowth in my small intestine.
- They will expand your worldview rather than shrink it due to fear, laziness, anxiety, or depression. Having to do so many new health behaviours (e.g. an hour of physiotherapy-related work every day for the last 3 months, and strict adherence to a low FODMAPs diet until my gut heals over) has been similar to a high-dose psychedelic trip. I had no idea that I had the capacity to implement so many different changes in my life all at once. It’s completely changed my outlook on life.
- You can’t put a price on health and happiness. Your mind and body are the vehicle in which you experience life. Cover up your discomfort with Netflix and expensive clothes all you want, but the true underlying cause of all your dis-ease is the fact that your mind and/or body are not working properly. Spend the damn money to work with a health professional, address the underlying causes of all your physical, mental, and emotional aliments and then you’ll truly experience what good living is.
As always, if you’d like to know more about, and start taking responsibility for your own health, fitness, and wellness, please reach out to Crux Fitness Richmond for any of your personal training needs.
Patrick Koo – Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Personal Trainer at Crux Fitness Richmond
