When Natan first came in, he told me about his back. Getting rid of that pain was his number one goal.
He wanted a back that would hold up for what he loves doing outside: hiking, climbing and skiing.
Last ski season, it didn’t. His back flared in the position you hold through a whole run, braced and rotating.
So his program started with his back, and it’s been written for him from the first session.
Over the summer he set personal bests on reverse lunges. His split squats went up in weight, and so did his kettlebell cleans.
Exercises that used to worry him stopped bothering his back.
When one did, we swapped it for a version that didn’t. After a long weekend hike left him sore, we worked around it that week.
Three months in, I asked what he was proudest of. He wrote:
“Getting stronger without letting my back cripple me.”
The strength came first. The trust has been catching up.
Earlier this year he couldn’t think about getting back on the mountain. Now he’s planning for it.
When I asked him what would get in his way, he was honest:
“Myself, my ski form and my fear/trust in my body.”
His next program is built around exactly that: rotation and anti-rotation, single-leg stability, ankle mobility, and the short, hard efforts a ski run asks for. It also includes real-world tests outside the gym, so his trust comes from evidence.
Every piece of Natan’s program has been written for his body and changed whenever his body told us something. That’s how every program at RE:GEN works.
His first day on the mountain is at the end of November. He’s aiming for ten ski days this winter.
