How DVRT Changed How I Think of Fitness

Jessica Bento, Physical Therapist (Creator of DVRT Restoration Certification & DVRT Shoulder Restoration Course)

The tears were streaming down my face. The realization that it was over was one of the most painful and impactful times in my life. Knowing that not only my life as I knew it was done, but the dream of being an Olympic athlete died with it was as well. While this may not seem like the end of the world to many, it was what I had dedicated my life to for almost a decade.

It was going to train when it was cold and still dark outside.

It was giving up time going out with friends to spend that extra time practicing and training.

It was giving everything I had to this singular goal that seemed so close and then was taken from me so abruptly.

That was the feelings I had when I learned I could do longer swim competitively because I had so badly torn both rotator cuffs in my shoulders. As you could guess, not having the ability to recover from rotator cuff injuries could spell the end for any swimmer.

The truth was it wasn’t just losing the ability to do what I had so much love for, it was all that I lost with it! I was on track, I had the times, the right people were watching. In my mind there was no question that I would be on that Olympic team that would compete in the Atlanta Olympics.

Full of pride, confidence, it is where my whole self stemmed from, being in the water was the most natural place for me. Having that all taken away with, not because it was my time, or I wasn’t good enough, no, because my body failed me was hard for me to digest.

For quite some time I felt lost, when you put all of yourself into something like that and have it taken away, you don’t know where to go. Your friends, your family, your circle of everything you care about has been driven to this one thing. Then it is gone.

This was a big part of what made me want to become a physical therapist. Hoping that I could help some stay with their dreams and help others regain their ability to live their daily lives better is what inspired me.

I did it, I became a physical therapist, I thought I was sorta helping people. After all, I learned all the classic methods for “fixing” people’s ailments. This exercise for this, this treatment for that. In reality though I knew something was missing, I just didn’t exactly know what.

It wasn’t until I met Josh and he started to share with me his view on the body. The challenges he had faced, the failures he had experienced, and how he had regained so much of what he had lost. Meeting someone that had gone through some similar struggles was easy to relate to and helped put things in perspective.

The “thing” I was missing after all was that I really wasn’t treating the person, I was treating a part of the body. Even with all my schooling I didn’t realize that we weren’t taught to treat the body as a whole, but as some weird collection of parts.

I wasn’t helping them connect with their bodies. If I wasn’t doing that, how could I ever TRULY help them get better!

Learning about movement and truly how the body functions started to shift my perspective of what we needed to do with people to make a real difference. Educating and empowering them on simple concepts would drastically change the impact we could make.

I know this all to be true because that is my journey. Never it my wildest dreams would I think I would be able to do things like push-ups or lift overhead. Here I am knocking out push-ups for reps and lifting solid weight overhead. All without pain or apprehension.

The funny part is that it isn’t doing a push-up over lifting a heavy kettlebell overhead that is really meaningful, it is what those movements represent. The ability to use my body in ways that mean something, without restriction, without fear is a BIG deal!

That’s why when people ask me, “so what is the DVRT Shoulder Restoration course about?” It is about all of this, how to give people back the hope, the excitement, the know how to live strong and do the things they love.

Having DVRT help me regain what I thought I had lost was more than just learning more about fitness.! 

I wanted to help professionals or those that are going through similar battles the knowledge of the body so they could reach their best. So that they could re-claim movement and freedom to use their bodies in ways that mean so much to them. It isn’t about using Ultimate Sandbags, kettlebells, or suspension trainers. It isn’t about finding a “cool” new exercise.

It IS about helping people understand how their body works and how to create training programs that honestly make the body work better. Allowing us to achieve the goals that mean the most to us, allowing us to live the lives that we want.

If you want to really know how to transform people you have to have the how’s and the why’s of how the body works. Our DVRT Shoulder Restoration course is designed to arm you with the science in a way that you can immediately impact the way people live, feel, and perform.

Making a change isn’t easy, achieving great things isn’t easy, if it were, everyone would do it!

That’s why we want you to experience the difference of DVRT. With the announcement of our DVRT Shoulder Restoration Course you can now save 25% for a limited time with coupon code “shoulder” HERE. This program will change how you train and what you think is possible!