I have two arms and two legs — all of which are in pretty good working order. I can run, I can jump and I even can attempt a handstand if I really wanted to. On the flip side, I can barely touch my toes, my back is a mess and my hips don’t lie — but not in the Shakira sort of way. Essentially, my body’s a mess and all of the running and exercises I’ve been doing of late has not been helping.

When I was introduced to Myodetox and its revolutionary form of manual therapy, I was instantly intrigued. Then I met Vinh (Vinnie) Pham, the founder, and I was a complete convert. Although I’ve only had one physio assessment before, a single sports massage and one chiro experience, they were all enough to know just how different Myodetox is.

In between gasps of pain and ugly grimaces — nothing worthwhile comes easy — I asked Vinnie what exactly it is he created and why. “Myodetox is essentially my interpretation of what the ultimate rehab should be. I travelled around the world and fused physio, chiro, massage and other healing arts together.” At my assessment session a couple weeks before, he called Myodetox the MMAs of rehab.

He goes on, “The idea is that in life everything is moving towards disorder and clutter. What we’re trying to do is uncluttered your body. How do we get you from disorganized to organized and more symmetrical. Not a lot of therapy looks at it like that. They basically look at where it hurts and think, ‘Let me make it not hurt.’ I think, ‘How is your body disordered and causing you to move in a way that’s not more efficient.’ It’s more about efficiency. How do I make you so inline with gravity and everything just looks perfect and that way you use less energy so that you can put more into your performance. You waste energy when you’re constantly correcting yourself as you move.”

As for what we did Week 1 of my treatment journey: “Today we’re working on the super fascia backline, all the posterior structures — everything in your back. Your hamstrings, your calves, upper back and into your foot. It’s obviously very painful.” It was not a pleasant experience, but I felt an immediate difference, which is not surprising since the entire back of my body needs a lot of work according to Vinnie.

Immediately after the treatment, I was taller and slimmer. Although there are clearly still a lot of work to be done. Just look at how unbalanced my shoulders are. Next week he’ll be working on my side body. I’ll be honest, I’m almost as terrified as I am excited at the prospect of further alignment.