How Physical Therapist Nick Helton Combines PT & Strength Training

Physical therapist and strength coach Nick Helton is building a bridge between traditional fitness and rehabilitation training in order to help active adults live pain-free, while still reaching their goals in the gym. He’s bringing his immense knowledge to his new fitness app with the objective of helping as many people as possible.

“I really want to find a way to make rehab more accessible to people,” Helton says about creating his new app. “I think there is sort of a disconnect between the fitness community and physical therapy.”

This disconnect is what Helton says motivated him to pursue his physical therapy career. As a young athlete, Helton experienced a variety of sports- and exercise-induced injuries. It was then that he realized the two — physical therapy and strength training — do not have to be separate entities.

“I look at physical therapy on one end of the continuum and training on the other, and sometimes people think that they have to be separate or you can’t do both,” Helton says. “I really think that if you combine the two and maximize what you can get out of physical therapy, you can incorporate that into your strength training.”

Helton’s app includes a Low Back Rehab, Shoulder Rehab, Hip Library, and Full Body Library. The rehab programs guide users through a six-week journey of improving mobility, stiffness, and weak points in the body. The library sections of Helton’s app are broken down into mobility circuits and single exercises designed to rehabilitate specific areas of the body with targeted movements.

“I try to make [the programming] as specific as possible and the long-term goal is to try to bridge that into more general fitness,” Helton says.

Helton says his app’s content is a great starting point for those who want to work out and be healthy but are unsure where to start because of an injury.

“My area of knowledge is helping people who are injured or have pain modify or learn what is appropriate to start with. I think sometimes the hardest thing is figuring out where to start,” Helton says.

As a physical therapist, Helton says he “can provide a unique perspective as far as building a training program and getting someone to be active in the gym.” He says once someone has started to rehabilitate their body, their confidence will go up and they can progress from there in terms of training.

Movement is very important to Helton, and he says he’s on a mission to increase the amount of movement each person who uses his app does, whether that means working out in a gym to build strength or rehabilitating existing injuries.

“My goal is to try to get more people to be more active,” Helton says. “I really think that with the technology and a simple-to-use app, we can remove any barriers and get people moving and get general health trending in the right direction.”

If your body needs some extra TLC or you are looking to get into a good gym routine, Nick Helton’s new fitness app will help you establish healthy habits and learn how to move in an effective, pain-free way.