1. Where are you from,do you have siblings/children? I was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and moved to Antioch, California when I was 10 years old.  I remained in California until 2 years ago when I moved with my husband and two sons to Colorado. My parents, two sisters and their families all still live in the Antioch, CA area. 

2.  What brought you to Colorado? My husband's job transferred us to Colorado.  My husband's parents had moved to Colorado from California 5 years prior to us, so we were happy to reunite with them. Our whole family has come to love Colorado; its beautiful sights, skies and plethora of activities to participate in have all made Colorado a great place to live. Our most difficult adjustments have been living in the snow and not being able to camp at the ocean, one of our favorite things to do.

3. What did you want to be when you grew up?  As a young girl I wanted to be Wonder Woman!  In high school I decided the next best thing would be to help people in whatever way I could. That desire eventually translated into becoming a childcare provider when I became a mother, a volunteer community first responder, and most recently a fitness instructor, personal trainer and Pilates coach. It was through my continuing education courses that I was first exposed to Pilates. I became drawn to it immediately due to its therapeutic qualities. What I appreciate most about Pilates is that it's low impact, it creates body awareness and thoughtfulness, and it allows safe and effective exercise for individuals with limitations.

4. What was your favorite part of the Olympics? I watched as much Olympics as I could. My favorite events were gymnastics, women's beach volleyball and soccer.

5. What is your top advice for taking care of your health?  Spend time getting to know your body and how it works.  Then, trust your instincts about it.

Natalie Coughlin isn't just one of the most decorated American female Olympians of all time, she's also a great cook. The swimmer discovered her love of shawarma after enjoying some late night street food around London. Here, she serves up her own recipe for beef shawarma with a fresh sauce to drizzle on top.   

 Click here for the recipe and a video of Natalie making it 

The value for an athlete in developing an alliance with a physical therapist can offer the following major benefits:

1. If you are an athlete and have ever experienced pain or an injury that prevented you from sport, you know how frustrating that can be.  A physical therapist can not only help to reduce your pain, but can get you on the road to recovery via rehabilitation and can ultimately return you to your sport.  A PT can assist you in all phases of rehab - getting over the pain and injury, helping restore your ability to perform, and even helping you perform at a higher performance level. 

2. Something that deters an athlete from seeking a physical therapist is fear of being removed from sport. There are instances where an athlete may need to abstain from their sport, but in most cases a PT will work together with the coach/trainer to keep the athlete on the field. Often times it's finding and fixing a mechanical problem, or decreasing strain by using manual techniques and/or taping that is needed.

3. Physical therapists are the musculoskeletal experts and can really help diagnose and assess the problem without a series of medical tests or X-rays. That knee pain that keeps you from your peak performance may actually be from a stiff hip, or tightness in your leg musculature.  A PT can also direct you to the appropriate physician when an orthopedic consult is needed.

4.  A PT can be a great asset in helping to reduce or eliminate "risk of injury". One of the things a PT looks for in determining "risk of injury" is whether the athlete is training appropriately. The most effective way to look at how an athlete should be training is often misunderstood. The sports world tends to favor skill level or performance (conditioning or fitness level) as the foundation of training.  Instead, focus should be on movement patterns first - for how can we train conditioning (performance) or skill (sport specific ability) if we are not moving well?  An athlete who cannot perform a normal movement with good form and without pain (like a squat) should not be expected to train and perform conditioning exercises that require it.  What usually happens with this type of training is the breakdown of wherever the poor movement pattern is and then injury results. What a PT will do is assess the movement required, and if there is a poor or painful movement, the PT can restore and improve that movement.  At this point the athlete can work through their conditioning exercise and hone their sport specific skill knowing that any risk of injury is extremely low. There have been studies that found it's whether the athlete has a good functional movement pattern that can predict injury (and thus prevent it). Therefore, it is proactive to have your physical therapist screen you for correct movement patterns prior to sport specific training and/or to have your PT to help set you up with the correct exercises that will work in synergy to your conditioning and skill training.

Visit our website at www.denverptis.com to learn about our great PTs and choose the one that's right for you.