In this episode of the David Grey Rehab Podcast, I chat with Rua Gilna, the Founder and Director of Fitness at Bua Fitness. With nearly two decades of years of experience in health and fitness, coaching, martial arts, gymnastics, rock climbing, weightlifting, and breakdancing, Rua’s real passion is going from pain to performance. His clientele range from people with chronic pain to professional athletes and everyone in between. His passion for rehab and performance comes from his own experience with traumatic brain injury and neck injury.

Listen in as we talk about the principles and methods he uses, from PRI and elsewhere, to help his clients heal from chronic pain and train after a TBI. He then shares his best advice for learning and growing fast as a new trainer and why he only works with referrals (that wear good shoes).

You’ll gain insight into Rua’s experience recovering from concussions while he explains how traumatic brain and neck injury impacts your movement and behavior. You’ll hear Rua’s candid thoughts on the use of orthotics, identifying cranial torsions in clients, and even preventing chronic pain in powerlifters.

“Pain can be so useful… Everyone thinks pain is a bad thing. Pain is like ringing the alarm bell telling us what’s going on. Unfortunately, sometimes we don’t have the tools ourselves to take us out of that alarm bell stage and that’s kind of where a lot of people end up.” – Rua Gilna

Episode Timeline | What You’ll Learn:

00:00 – Intro

03:42 – Introducing Rua Gilna & The topics of today’s episode.

11:31 – The cost of specialization & The negative transfer of training.

17:44 – Is it possible to prevent chronic pain in powerlifters?

20:43 – Rua’s experience with concussions & How TBI impacts your life.

26:30 – Methods for training people with concussions/TBI and chronic pain.

56:28 – Why we should procrastinate using orthotics and actually wean people off of orthosis & The importance of wearing good shoes.

1:10:17 – Key factors in recovering from concussions.

1:25:26 – Misconceptions of PRI and the relationship between pain and posture.

1:32:23 – Do people with neck and jaw tension just need to be better at the basics of movement?

1:32:54 – Building trust with clients & Why Rua coached pro bono as a new trainer.

1:40:07 – How to connect with Rua Gilna.

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Resources Mentioned:

Listen to Episode #26 with John Kiely

Postural Restoration Institute

Connect with David Grey Rehab:

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Check out our programs

About the Guest:

Rua Gilna has ~19 years of experience in health, fitness and coaching with a background in martial arts, gymnastics, rock climbing, weightlifting and breakdancing. He moved to New York almost 10 years ago and currently works in both NY and NJ. His clientele range from chronic pain to professional athletes and everything in between. His passion for rehab and performance comes from his own experience with traumatic brain injury and neck injury.

Connect with Rua:

Visit Bua Fitness’s website

Follow him on Instagram

Connect with him on LinkedIn