We are Idaho’s top performance-based physical therapy (PT) practice. We provide
individualized care along the fitness continuum from injury to high-level strength and
conditioning. Our hope is to elevate how rehab and fitness are being delivered so
that people can live a more active, pain-free life!
Many people ask, “Why ‘Achilles’?” Or, “Do you just work with people that have
achilles tendon injuries?” Let’s discuss.
My thought when creating this business was that I wanted to engineer a new and
better way of helping people. I saw the need to enhance fitness services to be more
specialized, safe, and sustainable. I also saw the need for more effective injury rehab,
and maybe most importantly, to make physical therapy cool.
I started my career in a PT clinic that shared a space with a gym. So many members
struggled with various pains and tweaks, but it was hard to “get them over to the PT
side.” They wanted to keep lifting and doing the “sexy stuff.” Let’s face it, physical
therapy isn’t sexy. Or at least it hasn’t been until now!
With the right blend of rehab and fitness training, we hope to bring sexy back for the
profession of Physical Therapy. I’m actually not quite sure how PT went down the
route it did, while the fitness community went the opposite direction. But we hope
to bring the two together a bit more so that you can truly move better, get stronger
and hurt less!
Ok, so our name…
There is a reason why I did not put the words “Physical Therapy” in our name.
Achilles
A Greek mythological character who was dipped in the River Styx by his
mother, Thetis, as an infant to make him immortal. He was impervious to any
attacks to any part of his body except his Achilles tendon, where his mother had
been holding him as she dunked him in the river. It was his weak link. He didn’t
know it, but it was there all along. And, had he known, he would have prepared
better for the battle in which he died from being shot in his “Achilles heel.” Maybe he
would have worn a sweet metal-plated heel boot or something.
In alignment with this story, we aim to Find Your Weakness and Make it a Strength.
That’s our tagline and that's what we do. It’s an uplifting experience, full of learning,
development, and growth.
In our culture, we often feel bad or ashamed about our weaknesses or issues.
We hide them from others, hoping to blend in. But we look at things differently at AFI.
We all have strengths and weaknesses. We all need different things to make us
better, make us stop hurting, make us stronger. We believe that in order to address
things optimally, we just acknowledge that we need help and then get with a pro to
help us.
Fitness
The condition of being physically fit and healthy. The quality of being
suitable to fulfill a particular role or task.
We look at fitness as a continuum, not a yes/no, fit/unfit situation. On the left side of
the spectrum is dead and the other end is professional athlete, we're all floating
somewhere in between (for me it depends on how much my kids let me sleep the
night before).
When you’re injured, your fitness for that particular tissue or body part declines.
Often, people allow the rest of their bodies to decline in fitness while recovering from
injury. While this may be necessary at first to allow safe healing, we believe that we
should be much more proactive in building our fitness in a rehabilitation setting
than is traditionally prescribed.
So instead of just being “physical therapists” bound to what insurance companies
allow us to do with our clients, we focus on the fitness of each person we work with.
What are their individual goals and aspirations? How do we help them build their
body (by addressing pain, building strength, etc.) so that they can achieve those
goals?
Institute
A society or organization having a particular object or common factor,
especially a scientific, educational, or social one. An organization for the promotion
of a cause. An educational institution and especially one devoted to technical fields.
We are more than simply a physical therapy clinic. More than just a gym. We are an
institute. A center for learning, growth, and development. Your growth and
development. We have dedicated ourselves to learning how to optimally restore
function after injury and build the body to move better, get stronger, and hurt less.
And we absolutely love this work! It gets us up and going in the morning. It often
keeps our minds racing at night - figuring out how to optimize the human body in a
way that everyday people like you and me can do.
So now when you see our logo of a shield and an arrow, you’ll think about Greek
Achilles. You’ll think about building your body to change your weaknesses into
strengths. And most importantly, we hope that you feel empowered to achieve your
goals.
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