A few years ago, after decades of lethargy, I got myself in decent shape - nothing compared to most of you here, but I'd lost 60 pounds, was down to 16% body fat, and could participate in any sports I wanted to.
Then, a new trainer at the gym had me do some hamstring stretches, dancer-style - on the ground, legs out, my feet touching his feet, with him pulling me over. Naturally, my lower back went "ping!" and I've been unable to get any traction (ha!) ever since.
That's largely healed, but I gained all the weight back, and now I'm so sedentary that five minutes on an ArcTrainer makes my knees pop and my quads hurt (and not the muscle-synthesis kind of hurt). After any sort of light workout, I can spend the next two hours with a TheraCane and foam roller and still not hit all the trigger points. Every third workout or so, I'll pull a muscle in my obliques or mid-back and have to stop for a week. And I'm really not overdoing it in the general sense; we're talking very light weights, mostly selectorized machines, a few dumbbells, simple paths of motion.
I did PT for a while, I've done Active Release Therapy with good results, and I've worked with a few different trainers. But I can't seem to find someone who knows enough about exercise physiology to really help me get over the hump. I can read all about it myself, but I can't see what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. I have poor kinesthesis, proprioception, whatever you want to call it. I used to walk with my calf muscles; I think I still do lat pulls with my traps. (I'm sure both are technically impossible, but you know what I mean. I'm a singer, and there are singers who "sing with their jaw" or "breathe with their shoulders". It's like that.)
I was looking at Marc McDougal's excellent "Corrective Methods" shoulder article, and I realized that what I need is someone who thinks at that level - muscle by muscle, insertion by insertion. But I have yet to meet a trainer, at any gym, at any level, who even knows what a coracobrachialis is, let alone why it's stopping me from doing pulldowns. I need someone who can watch me and notice when my shoulder rotates forward, or when my pelvic tilt is off, etc. etc. Which means someone who can tell the difference between "tighten your transverse abdominals" and "suck in that gut". My last trainer, despite his eight years of experience, would tell me to keep my diaphragm stiff while breathing deeply; I would like to see that trick.
So is anyone, or is anyone aware of, trainers in Boston who'd help me get back in shape without re-injuring myself? My apartment (near Fenway Park) has a decent gym available, and I'd like to work out there.