Hi, I’m Renzo

I was 18 years old when I herniated two discs in my lower back. After a year of failed therapies and chronic, shooting pains in my left leg, I scheduled a consult with an orthopaedic surgeon who told me that while I wasn’t a surgical candidate, I’d likely never make a full recovery. According to him, the best I could do was to avoid sports and heavy lifting to keep it from getting worse.

Thanks to my parents, I had a very active upbringing; exposing me to a variety of sports from a young age instilled in me a deep love for movement and trust in my body’s ability to heal. This left me confused at how some therapies could work for other people with my condition, but not for me. I was also frustrated at the limitations of my appointments with healthcare professionals, which were expensive, passive, and failed to provide any lasting progress.

Searching for an answer to my pain, I studied human kinetics at TWU and then physical therapy at UBC while exploring a variety of movement-based approaches on my own. After four years of pain, I found something that worked for me (it was a unique cue I found in a Youtube deadlift tutorial that really clicked for me, which was ironic because every clinician told me to avoid that exercise), and from that point on, I gradually rebuilt my strength, mobility, and confidence. Now I can move as though the injury never happened.

I believe in the healing power of movement, and I believe that physical therapy has more to offer than machines and cookie-cutter exercise programs. The culmination of my study, research, and personal movement practice has led me to a nervous system approach to movement and rehab, which I use in my clinical practice as a physical therapist, and which I share in my programs and courses. You can read more about my nervous system approach here.