Dr. Helen Harrod Clark, DPT
Triathlete. Strength coach. Educator.

Performance never came easily for me. I had to dig for it. And in the digging, I uncovered something I never stopped chasing: the science of how the human body actually works.

I started running in high school. On the cross country team, I was always the one at the back of the pack. Sometimes absolutely last place.

In my junior year, I found a gym that changed the game.

Soon, I found myself learning what muscles were involved in running. I learned how to strengthen those muscles. I learned how to add power into the mix. I learned how training smart could directly impact my running performance, and suddenly the sky felt like the limit.

What stopped me, looking back, wasn't the lack of talent. It was the lack of an owner's manual. The information existed. It just hadn't reached me.

With proper training, I went from back of the pack to top seven on my high school team. Then I continued running in college.

Around the same time, I became certified in personal training, excited to share what felt like a secret with the world. One of my first clients had stopped squatting because every time she went to do one, her hip would pinch. Someone had told her she should just stop squatting.

In our first session, we found a way for her body to squat again. Not a workaround. A full squat, without pain.

I remember thinking this can't be the first time someone has shown her this. But it was.

That moment is when I knew I was going to be a physical therapist. Not only to help people come back from injury, but because I wanted to give people the thing nobody had given me until I stumbled onto it: a real understanding of the body they live in, and what it's actually capable of.

That's the work I do now. Every session, every plan, every conversation, I'm trying to close the same gap I crossed in high school. The research exists. The answers exist. They just don't reach the table often enough.

You deserve to be an expert in your body.