In our normal day-to-day, Local is not a desk-centric culture. We’re moving around all day to different meetings, whiteboard sessions, and have lots of comfortable and creative work spaces. Since the transition to working from home, we all quickly recognized some new major tensions we were feeling. Not in how we work together, but in our bodies. At the end of the first week, we were all griping about extreme stiffness in our neck and shoulders. Ouch.
One evening I was catching up with my sister, Kristen, who is a rehabilitation specialist at Active Chiropractic in Eugene, Oregon, and sharing about the woes of this new work style. Her business had also transitioned from in-person hands-on consultations with clients to completely remote. While she was able to pivot some of her offerings to virtual, their ability to serve their clients had significantly reduced. We both quickly realized there was an opportunity here. We could help each other.
For the last month, Kristen has been leading the Local team in a very unique movement enhancement class called Kinstretch. Every Friday morning, we get together with Kristen on Zoom from the other side of the country to lead us through an hour of mindfulness and joint strength training to offer our bodies some relief and relaxation at the end of the week.
This is a perfect example of the many ways we have seen entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs during Covid. In our normal work day, we probably would not have slowed down enough to recognize the care our bodies needed or see an opportunity with someone in the family to introduce a new practice to our team. It has been a great way to take a minute to breathe, focus on some much needed self care, and introduce our work family to my family.
Kristen was kind enough to answer a few questions about what she’s seeing in Eugene and how she and other entrepreneurs are adapting. Check out her inspiring story below.
And if you run a small business or know an entrepreneur that could use some fresh thinking, get in touch. We’d love to help.
I work as a Physical Rehabilitation Specialist at Active Chiropractic in Eugene, Oregon where I do one-on-one rehabilitation and fitness sessions. Most of my clients come in with some sort of physical ailment they are looking to correct, and we work with them to build a specialized program to help them feel great again. This can take on a lot of forms including improving movement patterns and joint dysfunction, joint strength training and mobility enhancement, and mind to body neurological training to name a few.
Like most places in the country, Eugene is very quiet. However, this time of year in the Pacific Northwest is when the weather turns from cloudy to Sunny and 65 nearly every day. We have about 6 months of epic weather and the beginning of the season elicits feelings of anticipation and excitement for what the spring and summer will bring! The extra time and nice weather is giving us all a chance to be active outdoors.
Thankfully, the doctors at Active Chiropractic have been able to continue treating patients in need, however my rehabilitation department has switched solely to virtual video appointments. The massage therapy portion of the clinic has closed completely. I have continued my side work with rehabilitation training and movement enhancement classes virtually…something I never imagined I would do since so much of our work is hands on with clients.
Given our practice has downsized to a much smaller staff, I’m wearing a lot of hats. I’ve had to get creative with pivoting our rehabilitation treatments to continue to offer a way to care for patients in a completely different way. In addition to treating our patients, I’ve started working with companies like Local, offering them a specialized type of movement enhancement called Kinstretch through Zoom in order to help them keep healthy bodies as they all work from home! I even taught a Facebook Live foam rolling class to help support another local Eugene small business, Run Hub. Even though nothing will replace a one-to-one interaction, it’s important to continue to be able to offer people whatever I can so that they can take care of their bodies and maintain their health.
While this crisis brings major changes for businesses and our economy, I also see it is as a gift. It’s an opportunity to slow down. We no longer have the excuse of being too busy to take care of our health mentally or physically. We can focus on what we really need. There is no better time to establish new healthy routines that can be integrated into our lifestyles even post crisis. I’ve seen this happen with so many of my clients in the last 30 days and couldn’t be more excited to see how others have used this time to establish new habits to create a healthy lifestyle!
Two things. First, use this time to focus on creating a healthy routine with food. Food is medicine and our bodies need nutrident dense food now more than ever. Challenge yourself to prepare all of your meals for a whole week, and I bet you’ll feel a noticeable difference.
Second, try a Kinstretch class! It it’s like stretching on steroids with an addition of some of the hardest and most humbling positions you’ve ever been in. Its formally known as a movement enhancement system that develops maximum body control, flexibility and USABLE ranges of motion. One of the most crucial differences between Kinstretch and other approaches is that it utilizes active range of motion (vs. passive) to build a foundation for healthy joints. In addition, the joints are where all movements are initiated, and when there is joint dysfunction there a greater chance for pain, loss of performance, or increased chance of injury. Teaching the brain how to move the joints properly will enhance joint function therefore decreasing pain and enhancing human performance!
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