He watched me for 10 seconds and saw things I’d missed for years
I first met Avineet Bakshi in November last year.
My coach Ankush had been talking about him for a while. Very enthusiastically.
He had hired him as his PT and kept saying he could understand the body in a way he had never seen before.
I’ll be honest. The first few times I heard that, I thought it sounded too good to be true, but Ankush didn’t let it go. He was so certain it would be good for me that he eventually gifted me two sessions with Avineet.
At the time, I had a few things going on. Some injury issues. My mobility and flexibility weren’t where I wanted them to be and I also had an ongoing issue with quadricep tendinopathy in my left leg.
So, I said yes.
In that first session, I told him how I trained and what I wanted to work on. He asked me to stand with my back to the camera. Watched for a few seconds, then asked me to squat.
“Hmmmm.”
Side on. Same again.
“Hmmmm.”
Facing him. Same again.
“Hmmmm.”
Then he started telling me what he was seeing. Weakness and imbalance in my hips and groin. Something going on with my IT band. He went into detail.
I didn’t fully understand it. But what stopped me was this. He was describing things I hadn’t told him. So, I told him a bit more. A niggle in my left hip when I ran. Especially after impact work, like broad jumps. Tightness in my left calf after sessions like that. A long-standing tightness on the inside of my left leg.
“Hmmmm.”
We worked on hips, groin, IT band. A few sessions in, I could see real change. My squat was deeper. More stable. Things were moving. Then something else showed up. Pain on the inside of my right knee.
Straight away my head went to the worst place. I had surgery there three years ago for a meniscus tear. Avineet wasn’t interested in that story.
“It’s not your knee.” He kept coming back to one thing. Sartorius. I didn’t believe him. So, I got an ultrasound scan. It showed degenerative wear and tear. I thought that proved my point.
He didn’t move. “It’s not your knee. It’s your sartorius.”
I followed his advice. Within a couple of weeks, the pain was gone. He was right.
Then we came back to the original issue. Every time I ran, there was still a discomfort in my left hip. Anything with impact, my calf tightened.
He went deeper. Same view on my hips. Weak. But this time he found something else. Instability in my left ankle. Then he made a bold call.
“Peter, I want you to stop all plyometrics for two months.”
“What about running?”
“No running.”
Silence.
Inside my head, it was chaos. No running for two months? Then another thought came in. “He hasn’t been wrong yet.”
Every time I’ve doubted him, he’s held his ground and been right.
So, I said yes.
I’ve been doing the work. Strengthening my hips. Building the ankle work in.
It’s early. But I can feel what’s coming. Strength where there wasn’t strength. Stability where there wasn’t stability. A different body.
Avineet is incredible. His ability to look at how a body moves and understand what’s going on is something I’ve never seen before. And he does it through a screen.
But this isn’t just about Avineet. It’s about something else. For years, I tried to figure everything out on my own.
Trying to prove I was good enough and trying to solve everything myself.
That makes no sense to me now. There are people out there who can see what I can’t. People who can help me create results I would never create on my own.
Sometimes the fastest way forward is to trust someone who can see what you can’t.
Ankush. Jordan. And now Avineet. Three coaches in my corner opening me up to new levels of possibility.
And in Avineet’s case, opening me up to ways this 57-year-old body can move that I thought had passed me by.
Much love
Peter