My name is Piotr Kasprzyk. I am a Physical Therapist at Total Health Systems. My testimonial starts in Poland. During high school in Poland, I was a good math and physics student, so a natural choice for my college education was engineering school. During the first semester, I realized that engineering didn’t involve much Human interaction and connection. This was something I felt I needed in my career. I felt that I was entering an abstract world created by people but far away from reality. I wanted to do something directly connected to people, so I started to look for healthcare professions.
My choice was physical therapy. Using exercise, rehabilitation, and physical modalities to help to restore lost function became my passion. I learned how to train people with muscular dysfunction and muscle imbalance and how to use variety of physical therapy treatment to bring their body to optimal level.
During the course of study and work, I started to discover more information about the traditional osteopathic approach to medicine –manual medicine. This is a realm of osteopathic medicine almost forgotten or abandoned by osteopathic doctors. That method allowed me to discover muscle imbalance in the body and bring it back to optimal function by simply using my hands on techniques. I noticed that by utilizing these hands on techniques, patients where recovering much faster and results were longer lasting. I pursued and become proficient in variety of manual techniques like myofascial release, muscle energy, craniosacral therapy, and functional release to be more effective in my treatment.
A few years after immigrating to the USA, I started to live the American dream: working a lot of hours, lying on the couch watching TV, indulging unhealthy food and walking only to and from the parking lot. Fifty pounds later I had hard time recognizing myself in the pictures. I looked like the “full moon”. I was getting winded after rushing to cross the street and I didn’t look forward to tying my shoes. Even though I didn’t have any pain and never got sick, I didn’t feel that I was healthy either.
I decided that I have to do something to be more active. It wasn’t right that I was trying to encourage patients to have an active lifestyle, when I wasn’t doing much to help myself. I needed to practice what I preach.
I am strong believer that we should tackle our weakest spots to balance our body. For me it was endurance, so I chose a sport that requires a lot of it – triathlon. I decided to do something that at the time I didn’t believe I was capable of doing –an Ironman triathlon competition: 2.4 mile swim, 112miles on bike and 26.2miles run. In order to accomplish it I had to change my habits. I started to eat better since I needed nutrition to train, I had to lose weight to be able to run better and I had to exercise many hours a week to be able to complete the distance. It required a lot of commitment but I was up to the challenge. Three years later I completed the Ironman triathlon. It took me from sunrise till sunset to finish and it felt great to cross the finish line and reach my goal. My biggest benefit though was the fact that I changed my lifestyle in the process of getting ready for this event.
Total Health Systems of Macomb County was a great resource for enhancing my health. I was able to use all the services that we provide to get my body in good shape. Our vision of wellness goes far beyond lack of pain and I was able to utilize it. I was in perfect position to see how Total Health Systems in Clinton Township and Chesterfield can help people to get healthier.
