Jenna Smith LMT

12/17/2025

🎄 Only a few days of appointments left before my Christmas break! 🎄

I’ll be out of the office Tuesday, Dec. 23rd through Saturday, Dec. 27th, and back in the office for appointments on Sunday, Dec. 28th.

If you’ve been meaning to get in before Christmas — or want to grab a spot for when I’m back — now’s the time.

📌 Important note:
I’ll be completely off during my break and will not be answering calls, texts, or messages during that time so I can fully unplug and be present with my family.

📅 The best way to schedule (before or after the break) is to book online through my website.

Wishing you a smoother, calmer body heading into the holidays 💚

— Jenna Smith LMT
Your local RAPID pain relief specialist

🔗 Book online here: https://www.jennasmithlmt.com

12/15/2025

Inflammation & Pain: Why This Conversation Is Finally Catching Up 👀

A brand-new landmark study just came out linking higher levels of inflammation in the body to low back pain — even when imaging looks “normal.”

Here’s the part that caught a lot of attention:
• People with high inflammation had up to 66% greater odds of low back pain
• Younger adults with higher inflammation were twice as likely to report back pain

And while this sounds groundbreaking…
those of us trained in RAPID have been talking about this connection between inflammation and pain for years.

So when a study like this comes out, I can’t help but have a little giggle. Not because the study isn’t solid (it is 👏), but because it confirms something I see every week in my office.
To me, it’s not surprising — it’s validating.

Here’s the simple truth 👇
Inflammation isn’t the enemy.
Stuck inflammation is.

When inflammation lingers, it can sensitize the nervous system. Pain receptors become jumpy, signals fire too easily, and suddenly:
• Normal movement hurts
• Light touch feels intense
• Pain sticks around long after tissue should’ve healed

This is how acute pain quietly turns into chronic pain.

Here’s where most people get stuck 👇
We’re taught to shut inflammation down:
❄️ Ice
💊 Anti-inflammatories
🛋️ Endless rest

But aggressively stopping inflammation can interrupt the body’s natural healing cycle — meaning the cleanup never finishes and pain hangs around longer.

So how does pain actually resolve?

When inflammation is allowed to complete its cycle, the body:
✔ Cleans up damaged tissue
✔ Resets irritated pain receptors
✔ Updates the nervous system
✔ Restores normal movement

This is where RAPID NeuroFascial Reset comes in.

RAPID doesn’t fight your body — it works with it. Using precise, strategic input, we help wake up stalled healing processes, calm the nervous system, and allow the body to finish what it started.

That’s why so many people find relief when nothing else has worked.

Bottom line 👇
Inflammation can create pain.
🤯 Inflammation can end pain.
It just needs the right direction.

If you’ve been told “everything looks fine” but your body says otherwise — this conversation matters. 💬

12/10/2025

Comparing a sunburn to chronic pain seems…icky to me. I don’t think much of anything truly compares. But I digress.

Chronic pain is much more about sensitivity, as explained here in this RAPID post. My goal in every manual therapy session is to get that sensitivity to tone down. The results often speak for themselves: people amazed at how much better they feel.

Yeesh, yesterday I came across a post comparing a sunburn to chronic pain. 🤦‍♀️ The main gist was that you wouldn’t apply pressure to a sunburn and expect that to help resolve it, so why do we do this for chronic pain?

Now using a sunburn to explain chronic pain might sound clever… but it falls apart fast once we look at what’s actually happening in the body.

A sunburn is tissue damage.
The skin is injured, the nociceptors are firing like crazy, and the mechanoreceptors that normally help modulate sensation are too irritated to do their job. Even a feather feels like fire because the system is reacting to acute, active inflammation.

But chronic pain?
Totally different story.

Most people living with persistent pain don’t have damaged skin -they have an overprotective nervous system that’s interpreting normal input as a threat. Their mechanoreceptors, joints, fascia, and movement patterns are sending unclear or conflicting information, and the brain responds by turning the volume up.

One is a warning signal from injured tissue.
The other is a warning signal from a sensitized system.

If we treat chronic pain like a sunburn, we miss the whole point.

Chronic pain isn’t solved by avoiding pressure, avoiding movement, or tiptoeing around the body. It’s addressed by giving the nervous system better input -pressure with purpose, movement with meaning, and sensory information the brain can trust.

This is why RAPID works.
We’re not bullying tissue, and we’re not babying it either.
We’re helping the nervous system recalibrate through precise touch, movement, and neurological clarity.

A sunburn needs protection.
A sensitized system needs information.

They are not the same thing -and treating them like they are keeps people in pain longer than they need to be.

12/10/2025

🚫🧊 Why I Don’t Recommend Ice for Most Injuries Anymore
(And what actually helps your body heal faster)

We’ve all been told the same thing growing up:
“You hurt yourself? Throw some ice on it.”

But here’s the thing: the more we understand how the body actually heals, the less that advice holds up.
Yes—ice can numb an area and give some short-term relief (and sometimes that’s helpful!).
But when it comes to real healing?

❄️➡️🛑 The research is pointing in another direction.

Here’s what you really need to know:

🔥 Inflammation isn’t the enemy — it’s the beginning of healing.
When you get injured, your body intentionally sends inflammation to the area.
That inflammation brings in macrophages, which release IGF-1 — a major driver of tissue repair.
Ice shuts that process down.
Less blood flow = fewer healing cells = slower recovery.
Inflammation isn’t the problem.
It’s the process.

💧 Ice can actually increase swelling.
Wild, right?
Prolonged icing can change how the lymphatic system drains… sometimes pushing more fluid back into the tissue.
More puffiness. More stiffness. More pain.

⚠️ Too much icing can irritate nerves.
Too much vasoconstriction → low oxygen → irritated nerves or slower tissue healing.
Not exactly what we want when the body is trying to repair.

🧊 Ice doesn’t cool deep injuries anyway.
Most of the cooling is at skin level.
Deep muscles and joints barely notice it.
So even if icing felt right… it might not be doing much where you need it.

🏃‍♀️ Movement beats immobilization
Long rest = long recovery.
Your body responds SO much better to early, gentle, controlled movement—what is often called optimal loading.
This is exactly why RAPID works so well.
We give your nervous system better information through movement, which is why RAPID protocol says, “Move it to prove it.”
Every safe rep tells your brain, “We’re good here.”

🔙 Even the guy who created RICE has walked it back.
Dr. Gabe Mirkin (the creator of Rest–Ice–Compression–Elevation) publicly retracted his own protocol in 2015 because new research showed… icing may delay healing.
When the father of RICE says “my bad,” it’s worth paying attention.

❄️ So should you never use ice?
Not exactly.
Ice still has a place when:
* swelling is so severe it limits movement
* pain is so sharp that you can’t begin gentle movement yet
But for most people, most of the time, supporting your body’s natural healing process beats shutting it down.

🧠 The takeaway
Pain doesn’t always mean damage.
Inflammation isn’t the enemy.
And movement—safe, smart movement—is one of the best ways to encourage healing.

If you’re dealing with a new tweak, pull, sprain, or flare-up and you’re unsure whether to ice, heat, rest, or move — reach out.
This is what I help people with every day.

Your body knows how to heal.
I just help it get the right information to do it faster.

— Jenna Smith LMT
Your local pain relief specialist
(aka: the one who helps you move like yourself again)

12/08/2025

12/08/2025

You ever wake up with that “I slept wrong and now I’m broken” neck?
If you’ve been there… you know it hits HARD. You’re totally fine going to bed and then you wake up feeling like you lost a fight with your own pillow. 😅

That’s exactly what happened to a client I saw this week.

He spent a whole week trying to shake it off—got a regular massage, even saw a chiropractor. His movement improved, but the pain would not let go, and he was over it.

So he came in and we did what I do best: talk through what he was feeling, assess, and then work through very specific areas using movement + targeted pressure (the RAPID magic ✨) to get to the real root of the pain.

We found one spot that was really aggravated and giving him sharp pain. I could tell it worried him (understandably!), so we shifted to some other areas of the neck and shoulder to help reset what was actually driving the tension.

And then—my favorite part—he sat up and said:
“It’s gone! You fixed me.”
He even joked, “Don’t be offended if you don’t hear from me. No news is good news - and means I am feeling great.” 😂

These are the wins I love: helping someone go from stuck and hurting to relief in one focused session.

If you’re living with that “I slept wrong and now I can’t function” pain… you don’t have to just wait it out. I’ve got you.

12/02/2025

Closed this afternoon so I can go watch my kids at their homeschool theater & dance performance. ❤️

They’ve been practicing for months and are so excited, and I’m grateful I get to be there for it.

I’ll be back in the office tomorrow!
Hope you all have a great Tuesday.

12/01/2025

Pain can feel scary — especially when your body tightens up and every instinct says “don’t move.”

But here’s the truth most people never hear:
Movement is one of the fastest ways to calm the nervous system and turn down pain.

Your brain is constantly scanning for danger. When something hurts, it often hits the alarm even when nothing is actually damaged. Gentle, guided movement sends powerful messages back to the brain that say:
✔️ I can feel this.
✔️ I can do this.
✔️ I am safe.

That’s a huge part of what I focus on in my sessions.
With techniques like RAPID NeuroFascial Reset, we use specific movements to retrain the nervous system, release restrictions, and help your body update the story it’s been holding onto.

More calm. Less guarding. Less pain. More freedom to move.

If you’re stuck in a pain loop and feel like nothing is changing, this is exactly the kind of work I help people with every day.
You don’t have to just “live with it.”

11/19/2025

Every time I see results like this, it reminds me exactly why I’m all-in on RAPID NFR.
When you work with the nervous system instead of just chasing tight muscles, the body can change fast — sometimes in minutes.

I’ve taken multiple RAPID courses, I study this work constantly, and I practice it every single day because this is what it makes possible:
people going from stuck to moving, from “I can’t” to “wait… I actually can,” from living around pain to getting back to their life.

And that’s why I specialize in RAPID.
I’m currently the only RAPID Specialist within hours of our area, and my whole goal is to bring this level of results right here to our community.

Sharing this video from RAPID because it’s such a powerful reminder:
when you help the nervous system reset, everything changes.

This is the kind of work I love. This is why I keep investing.

This is why I do what I do.

11/17/2025

✨ Real Client Wins From Last Week — and why I’m so excited about my new Core training ✨

I had a client reach out the other day absolutely blown away by the changes they noticed after our last session.

They told me their surgical scar felt completely different—more level with the surrounding tissue—after years of being different and sensitive. They also noticed something huge: they could take a deep breath on the right side without that little “catch” they’ve had for a long time.

And then they said something that genuinely made my day:
🗣️ “If you can help me get my core working and my pain under control, I could actually get back to working out. That would be fantastic.”

For a lot of people who’ve been dealing with pain, even thinking like this is a big deal. It means they’re already noticing enough change to believe their body can improve. It means they’re imagining a future where pain isn’t calling the shots. And it means their confidence in their body is coming back.

That spark of hope is everything — and it tells me we’re on the right track.

THIS is exactly why I went to the RAPID Core class in Orlando.

When we get the core firing correctly
→ breathing improves
→ posture changes
→ movement becomes easier
→ pain decreases
→ and the whole body responds in ways people don’t expect.

And when scar tissue stops acting like a “speed bump” in the system? Even better.

These kinds of early wins are why I’m obsessed with bringing these new techniques into every session where they’re a good fit. Watching someone feel hope again—especially when they’ve been struggling—is the best part of what I do.

If you’ve been dealing with pain, movement restrictions, or you feel like your body just isn’t “coordinating” the way it used to, this new approach might be exactly what you need.

💬 Want to see if this type of session could help you too? Send me a message or book a spot this week.

From pain to possibility. Let’s go. 🙌

11/07/2025

Road trip time! 🎉 My “co-pilot” (who’s definitely the actual pilot 😅) and I are off to Orlando for RAPID Core training! I can’t wait to dive deeper into the work that helps my clients get out of pain faster and back to living their lives. Let’s do this! 💪✨

11/03/2025

📣 Quick heads up!

I’ll be out of town starting Friday for advanced training (so excited to keep leveling up how I help you find relief 🙌).

If you’ve been meaning to get in before I go,
I still have a few open spots Tuesday–Thursday this week!

These are perfect if you’ve been dealing with:
👉 A nagging ache that just won’t quit
👉 Tightness holding you back at work or in the gym
👉 Or if you just want to feel better heading into the weekend

Once I’m gone, I’ll be out until Tuesday next week — so grab your spot while you can!

📅 Book here: https://www.jennasmithlmt.com/book-now