JOHN RAINERI

I have always been a very active kid, spending every spare moment playing soccer, skateboarding, riding bikes, swimming or just running around buildings and parks. I then turned towards aesthetic pursuits when I was 17 and got into bodybuilding. Mostly abandoning those other enjoyments to lift weights, 2 years into the bodybuilding I injured my back and was out of action for 8 months. I spent that time not being able to bend over, sit down, turn over in bed or do anything without pain. I spent the first half of my life studying and practicing music. I injured my back auditioning for Opera at the Conservatorium of Music. I knew something was very wrong with what I was doing but I couldn’t seem to find an answer.

After seeing many health professionals without any relief, and being told by a spinal surgeon that I should avoid, bending, twisting and any sort of loading of the spine (because I had the spinal degeneration of a 52 year old at 22.) I finally got cortisone (last resort) which managed to finally relieve the pain. I was then back to the gym trying to get “bigger & leaner” but I only ended up injured a few months later. I was also practicing guitar and singing as I managed to get into the Conservatorium of Music. This time I spent the next year delving into yoga, mobility and all sorts of “injury prevention” methods, and by the end of the year I was feeling unfulfilled with any activity I was participating in. Nothing was making me feel strong, able and free and my back injury kept rearing it’s head.

A couple of years past this way and I was now teaching guitar and voice, and not exercising at all, despite purchasing all of my gym equipment for my apartment. I kept running into my friend Marko in Sydney who was doing some pretty cool stuff with his training. After bumping into him for the 3rd time, I decided to catch up with him to see what the deal was. The last I had seen of Marko he had been bodybuilding too and struggling with chronic fatigue. But he seemed to be thriving, moving and doing more than ever before, and seemed to transform into someone that I wanted to become too. He had a very developed movement practice from the guidance of Ido Portal’s coaches. I was sold. I quit my music teaching job and went back to Uni to study Physiotherapy and delve into the movement world theoretically and physically.

4 years on, I am feeling stronger, more able and freer in my body, just like I used to feel when I was a child and a teenager. I can do things that I never thought I was able to do, I am able to deal with injuries without being crippled by them, and most importantly I am out of pain and doing everything that the spinal surgeon told me I shouldn’t do and more. And I feel great. I found that attuning my body, learning about it and experiencing things with it bought back a sense of wonder, curiosity and intuition that I had lost.

My movement practice is still evolving and developing and I am working as a Personal Trainer at Aequus Movement in Kingston and in my 4th and final year of Physiotherapy.