Why I Go to Physical Therapy Every Week Even Though It Wrecks My Schedule

Nobody wants to hear this, but I'm going to say it anyway.

I go to physical every single week. Not because I'm injured. Not because something is broken. Not because a doctor told me I had to.

I go because I refuse to become the person who waits until something breaks to start paying attention, and when you've been lifting for two decades, you got to ensure you keep the engine running via optimization.

PT is inconvenient as hell. It doesn't fit neatly into my schedule. The sessions aren't relaxing. They're painful - though my PT instructor tries to ask funny questions while I do uncomfotable exercises like (who holds the world record for pushups and pullups (😒).

And every week, part of me wants to cancel because I have "more important" things to do.

I go anyway.

Because the math is simple: one hour of intentional discomfort now versus years of limitation later.

That trade-off isn't even close.

What Actually Happens in That Hour

Let me be clear about what this looks like. It's not massage. It's not stretching on a foam roller while checking my phone. It's not passive.

Dry needling. Stabilization work. Mobility drills. Activation exercises for muscles that stopped firing correctly because I sit too much, train hard, and accumulate tension like everyone else.

Dry needling is exactly what it sounds like. Thin needles inserted into trigger points and tight tissue (much deeper than acupuncture). Sometimes it's fine. Sometimes my leg twitches involuntarily for thirty seconds. Though, I find the needling to be the best part cause of the release you experience in the muscles afterwards.

Tension that stretching couldn't touch - gone. Mobility that felt blocked - restored. It's not pleasant in the moment. But the results speak for themselves.

Stabilization work targets the small muscles that don't get trained in a normal workout. The ones that protect joints, maintain posture, and prevent compensation patterns from turning into injuries. Glute med. Deep core. Rotator cuff. The unsexy stuff that keeps everything else working.

Mobility exercises aren't just "stretching more." They're controlled movements through ranges of motion that I've lost access to - or never had in the first place. Hips that don't rotate fully. Shoulders that don't move cleanly overhead. A thoracic spine that forgot it was supposed to extend.

None of this looks impressive. All of it matters.

Why I Don't Wait Until Something Hurts (NOW)

Here's the pattern I've watched play out with other people.

Everything feels fine. Training is going well. Life is busy. PT seems unnecessary - an expense, a time suck, something for injured people or athletes with teams of specialists.

Then one day, something tweaks. A shoulder that doesn't feel right. A knee that aches after sitting too long. A back that locks up out of nowhere.

Now PT becomes urgent. Reactive. Expensive in a different way - not just money, but momentum. Training stops. Progress reverses. Confidence drops. The body becomes something to manage instead of something to use.

I've seen this enough times to know I don't want it.

Proactive PT keeps me out of that cycle. Problems get caught when they're small. Compensation patterns get corrected before they become injuries. Mobility gets maintained instead of rebuilt from scratch.

It's not that I'm immune to injury. I'm just not waiting for one to take my body seriously.

I reached a point during one of my workouts a few months ago, where I was felt an incoming pre-injury status, and I knew I needed to get some consistent work done. So I'm back at it.

The Inconvenience Is the Point

I'm not going to pretend this fits smoothly into my week. It doesn't.

The appointment takes an hour. Travel takes time. Recovery afterward sometimes means I'm not operating at full capacity for the rest of the day. There are weeks where I look at my calendar and genuinely don't know how I'm going to make it work.

I make it work anyway.

Because here's what I've learned: if something is only important when it's convenient, it's not actually important to you.

Health is either a priority or it isn't. And priorities show up in your schedule, not your intentions.

The inconvenience is actually part of the value. It forces a decision every week. Do I actually care about this, or do I just like the idea of caring about it?

Showing up when it's annoying is what builds the identity. Not the days when I have free time and feel motivated. The days when I'd rather skip.

Pain Now or Pain Later .  Pick One

That hour every week is uncomfortable. Sometimes it hurts. My PT digs into tissue that doesn't want to be touched. Needles hit spots that make my entire muscle cramp and release. Exercises expose weaknesses I didn't know I had. Only being able to lift a few pounds with certain muscles makes me look like I haven't been working out at all.

None of it is fun in the moment.

But here's the alternative: don't go. Let tightness accumulate. Let imbalances deepen. Let mobility quietly disappear until one day my body starts saying no to things I used to do without thinking.

Pain is coming either way. The only question is whether I choose it on my terms - controlled, intentional, productive - or let it choose me later in the form of injury, limitation, and regret.

I'd rather hurt for an hour every week than spend months rehabbing something that didn't have to happen.

This Is What Longevity Actually Looks Like

People love talking about longevity like it's supplements and cold plunges and optimizing sleep scores.

Real longevity is showing up to the boring, uncomfortable, unglamorous appointments that keep your body functional.

Real longevity is admitting you have limitations and working on them instead of pretending they don't exist.

Real longevity is investing in maintenance before the breakdown - not after.

I don't go to PT because I'm broken. I go because I want to stay unbroken as long as possible.

The people I've met who move well in their 60s and 70s all have something in common: they never stopped paying attention. They didn't wait for pain to become their teacher. They caught problems early and addressed them consistently.

That's the game. Not perfection. Consistency.

What I'd Tell Someone Considering This

Find a PT who works with people proactively, not just post-injury. Not every physical therapist operates this way. Some only see patients after something goes wrong. Look for someone who understands movement quality, not just pain management.

Expect discomfort. If every session feels like a spa day, you're probably not addressing real issues. The work should challenge you. It should expose weaknesses. That's how you know it's working.

Protect the appointment. Treat it like a meeting you can't cancel. Because the moment it becomes optional, you'll start finding reasons to skip. And skipping compounds just like investing - except in the wrong direction.

Think in decades, not weeks. One session doesn't change much. Fifty sessions over a year changes everything. Two hundred sessions over four years? You're a different person with a different body.

I don't enjoy PT.

But I do enjoy the benefits.

I'm not one of those people who "learns to love" discomfort. The hour is inconvenient. The work is hard. My schedule suffers every single week.

I keep going because I've done the math.

An hour of proactive pain now costs almost nothing compared to the months of reactive pain later. The inconvenience of maintenance is nothing compared to the inconvenience of injury.

My body is the only one I get. Waiting until it fails to start caring for it is a losing strategy.

So every week, I show up. I get needled. I stabilize. I mobilize. I leave feeling worked over and slightly annoyed at how much time it took.

And then I go live my life in a body that still cooperates - because I earned that cooperation.

That's the trade.

Worth it every time.

Tired of missing workouts? Same here.

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This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your health practices.