Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Villalobos.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Adam. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I remember the butterflies and excitement my first time looking down on the earth from 1200 feet in the air, waiting for my green light to jump out of the plane. I remember my first firefight in Afghanistan, where I got trapped in an ambush and had to run through a swarm of bullets to make it out alive. After everything I went through, I looked unstoppable. But as I was transitioning out of the army, I wasn’t just leaving with good and terrible memories; I was leaving with this false image of being the man with a plan. I had severe lower back and hip pain, insomnia, and a crippling fear of losing my image. And because of that, I was quickly losing my strength.
When I became a veteran, my goal was to become the best trainer out there, but how was I supposed to convince people I can help them if I’m not in the best shape of my life? So I decided to get in shape, just like how I was before going to Afghanistan. But as I started to work out, I kept cutting my workouts shorter and shorter until I stopped going to the gym altogether. All because of the tearing and stabbing pain in my back and hips.
I became embarrassed about not being in great shape. Even though I was a trainer and came from an athletic background, I felt like a failure and just as expendable as a piece of garbage.
It wasn’t until I felt a sharp pain in my hip that forced me to stumble in a grocery store that I decided to get professional help. I went to the VA to see my options and just like how a bride will try every wedding dress, I tested out every service that could help me relieve my pain. I tried chiropractors, Physical Therapists, Acupuncture, and more but nothing seemed to help. I wasn’t ready to give up just yet.
As I was continuing my education and going through a corrective exercise course, I figured out why most of us had chronic pain in the first place and what trainers can do to help.
What I discovered was muscles acted like a rope within the body by securing and pulling on different joints. We all sit, walk, stand, and move in different ways, and because of our repetitive posture, we end up strengthening some muscles more than others. These patterns cause those stronger muscles to knot up and shorten, much like a rope would. And when a muscle becomes shorter and shorter, the opposite muscle that helps keep you’re joint lined up becomes lengthened and weak, almost like a rope down to its last thread.
When a muscle is filled with knots and pulls harder on a joint, then that joint falls out of alignment and jams into other tissues, causing pain. And because these are habits we aren’t aware of, the pain becomes chronic.
What I discovered in class was to help relieve the pain, you must first use a foam roller to disarm the muscle’s nervous system, which will help release the knots. Then you must stretch that muscle out to realign the joint. Finally, you must work out the opposite muscles to hold that joint in the proper place.
And then it happened my eureka moment.
I had a strong gut feeling that if I could properly stretch out all the tight muscles on my body and learn how to shut off the nervous system, then I could finally get rid of this back and hip pain.
I planned to take a six-month yoga teacher course, where I would not only be able to stretch daily, but I would also be able to teach it to my personal training clients.
I also had to learn how to release tight muscles via the nervous system, and I found out the most effective way to do that is through sports massage. So, I also enrolled myself in a 15-month massage program to learn all the tricks of the trade.
I spent almost two years of my life, learning how to stretch and release tight muscles properly. Most of the time, I would be sitting there, listening to lectures and feeling my back and hip flare-up. I would shift positions every five minutes to avoid a pain level higher than a 4/10. I couldn’t lay on massage tables for long because it would make my hips tighten up. I had to learn all new theories about trigger points and fascia and how to successfully manipulate muscle tissue to release knots.
The hardest part of it all was figuring out how to piece everything together, in which order to organize everything, and how to build a system I could use over and over to get permanent relief.
It took me seven years to figure it out, but I was finally able to relieve my chronic pain and at the same time, create a program for helping others who want to improve their health but suffer in similar ways. I thought that if I could figure out how to put this all together, then I could do what I love without suffering every time. And after years of continually updating and tweaking my plans, I finally created the Pain into Strength Program.
Now I’m able to release and stretch my tight muscles with massage techniques and then quickly improve the muscle-joint balance and my strength at the same time and in the same session.
I’m still not as strong or able to lift as much as I use to, but I’m ok with it now. I’m proud of the journey I’ve taken and everyone I’ve helped along the way. With 2x the energy and barely any pain left in my body, I now feel more at peace and successful than I ever had. I’m now able to enjoy my life and help as many people as I can.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
My journey to opening up my own business has been everything but a smooth road. One of the biggest challenges I had starting was finding a niche to work with. I never wanted to narrow my target in fear of losing potential customers. But as I experimented with different niches, I was noticing an interesting pattern. The more narrow and specific I made my niche, the more leads I ended up gaining.
I use to work with people who wanted to lose weight and get in shape. But as I kept experimenting and getting more specific, I ended up working with mostly people who have chronic muscle and joint pain but want to lose belly fat and increase their energy. I also noticed most of my clientele are married, over the age of 50, like to go on vacations, and have their own business.
Your niche can target people’s hobbies, jobs, how they identify themselves, the social group they belong too, regardless of the direction you go, narrow it down and be specific.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
Train & Massage is a mobile health service and known for offering the only program in San Diego to combine sports massage and personal training into one program. We also do one on one training, massage, and nutrition coaching.
It makes me proud to see my clients get the results they have been chasing and knowing it came from a system I worked so hard on.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up I played a lot of sports, loved to build with anything I could use. I was always looking for ways to improve the things around me like adjusting my room to make more space or taking apart a nerf gun to make the spring stronger.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 6195479530
- Email: adam@trainandmassage.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/train_and_massagesd/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Trainmassage/
- Other: www.trainandmassage.com
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