Hello :)

Hi! My name is Theofanis. I'm here to help you improve your wellbeing. I’ll tell you the truth about how to diet and nurture your body into your optimal health, and assist you with my knowledge in physical training to create a solid posture and a functional body, explaining you the basic principles of movement. My ultimate goal is to make you autonomous, independent when it comes to diet and training. If you are interested to learn about my story, go on!

Who Am I

Hi friends! My name is Theofanis Katsoulis and I am here to help you improve your life by providing you with all my knowledge in nutrition science and physical exercise. But before we start our journey together, let me first introduce myself.

I am Greek -not that it really matters- and I as far as I remember myself, I have been doing one main thing: researching. It might not be very common, but at some point in my life I decided to leave behind my “successful” industrial & academic career in Engineering, after many years of working experience, a Master in Mechanical Engineering, a Master in Renewable Energy, and a PhD in Naval Architecture. The reason was my passion to find the secrets of life in necessary things, such as nutrition and movement, and share them with as many people as I can.

Experience and Qualifications

The last 15 years, in parallel with my Engineering life, I have been researching the fields of alternative medicine, mental health, nutrition and physical exercise. If you ask why, the reason is simple: NEED. My body and mind have been rebelling against the “normal” way of living; personally, for myself, but also collectively, other people's lifestyle. I have been struggling with several issues, such as gut problems, stomach problems, muscle problems, spinal problems, mental struggle, and so on, but at the same time I have been observing around me and have identified the same issues in almost every single one of us. It was an instictive reaction to start working on these problems and address them for myself and other people, so here I am!

During this journey, STANFORD UNIVERSITY has enriched my knowledge on "Nutrition Science", CLEAN HEALTH FITNESS INSTITUTE added on my knowledge about "Sports Nutrition" as well as "Training the Female Athlete", while NASM and EREPS provided me with the skills and qualifications to become a knowledgeable personal trainer. All along these past 15 years, I engaged in different kind of learnings. To mention some of them here: Muay Thai, Ninjutsu, Tai Chi, Chi Kung, Ayurveda, Bach Flower Remedies, Yoga, Meditation, Philosophy, and so many others.

A personal experience: an injury that changed my life goals

21st July 2020 was the day that changed how I see things in life. The second day of a trip in Crete, Greece, I had a serious injury while practicing yoga outdoors. I misjudged a handstand posture and I crushed my head on the ground. My body fell without any ability to control it. I had lost the control of my body due to the impact of my head with the ground, because – as I realised days later after having had the MRIs – a disc of my cervical spine decided to do a little trip out of my neck, but I was lucky enough to keep it almost at it’s original position. To explain, the disc hit the spinal cord, everything shut down, and for some seconds I was paralysed from neck to feet. I remember being lied down, my eyes opened as just having been reborn, staring at the sky. The sunlight was immensely bright, I was trying to move my feet and arms, the electrical signal was initiating from my brain but it was stopping at my neck and didn;t travel through my body to reach the point of action. I was completely shocked and scared! Fortunately, after some seconds, I was able to move. The pain was extreme on my arms and legs, especially my hands, like million burning needles needling my skin. Painkillers only slightly bettered the pain. Eventually, I had been lucky enough to get rid of this unbearable feeling after 3-4 weeks. All day suffering, no sleep, no rest, no nothing.

The visits to neurosurgeons and orthopaedic surgeons started then. Most of them insisted I should get a surgery (fusion or disc replacement). Some of them were very hard on me (and my parents who accompanied me to the doctors) even telling us I am going to get paralysed if I don’t do the surgery. But, as always, I had to make my research. To make a long story short, I realised that cervical surgeries are only short-term solutions, because the pain comes back, the mobility reduces day by day, more surgeries are needed in the next few years, and again, and again. So, I decided to fix it without surgery.

I started visiting all kind of therapists, reflexologists, physiotherapists, doctors, and so on. I am pretty sure all of them did good to me. But the solution was very simple. Take care of the body, re-adjust the spine, learn how to move, use hips for proper movement, loosen the muscles, eat well, get the proper supplements when absolutely necessary, and the body will heal itself. And that’s what happened. After a year of absolute dedication and huge amount of help from all the people I visited, my body healed itself. During a visit in a well-known military neurosurgeon, he addressed to his assistant and daughter and said: “This is what I meant when I told you the body heals itself when you treat it in the proper way”.

You can also check the MRI pictures after the injury (left) and one year later (right). Check out how far the disc was displaced, pushing the spinal cord. In the right picture, the normal cervical lordosis (the curvature of the cervical spine) has been also reversed compared to the straightened cervical spine (result of forward-head posture) in the picture at the left. The straightening did not happen due to the accident, but it was the result of bad habits, bad posture, and not proper movement and mobilisation of the spine.

Why choose BodyAlign

Simply because I care, I am really interested in helping people and understanding their needs, finding solutions, and improve their health and life.