Integrated Functional Performance - Jeff Powell

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Integrated Functional Performance - Jeff Powell

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01/09/2026

Nerve irritation rarely starts with pain.

It usually starts quietly.

The nervous system detects a threat before you ever feel it.
So it protects you.
It creates subtle muscle tension.
It dials down access to strength.
It changes how joints move and how muscles fire.

At this stage, most people feel… fine.
Maybe a little tight.
A small ache that comes and goes.
A knot that never quite leaves.
Nothing serious.
This is where the body is adapting, not failing.

If this continues, the movement pattern slowly shifts.
Balance becomes less precise.
Coordination drops just enough to matter.
Muscles start doing jobs they were never meant to do.
Eventually, the alarm bells turn up.

That’s when people notice real problems.
Sharp joint pain.
Disc flare-ups.
Nerve symptoms like tingling, pins and needles, shocks, numbness, or sudden weakness.
This is usually when help is finally sought.

And here’s the part that’s hard to talk about.

Most people stop their recovery as soon as things calm down.
They aim for “better than before,” not fully restored.
They return to the small aches.
The constant tightness.
The guarded movement.
They function.
But they don’t feel free.

What’s tragic is this.

If they continued down the full recovery path—
Not just pain reduction, but restoring clean movement, strength, balance, and nervous system confidence—
They could regain genuine function again.
Not just fewer symptoms.

Freedom.

This is not about pushing harder.
And it's not just about improving mobility and strength like most people think.
There needs to be a strategic method to specifically recover the nerves then the discs.
Pain going away is not the same as recovery.
And the body never forgets unfinished business.

If this resonates, it’s probably because you’ve lived part of this story already.
Awareness is the first step toward changing the ending.

01/07/2026

Why should you prioritize a FULL recovery from injury, especially disc and nerve issues?

How about early death.

That sounds dramatic, but stay with me.

When a disc or nerve injury is left to “heal on its own” or managed to a level that feels “good enough,” the pain may fade, but the problem often doesn’t fully resolve.

The body adapts.
It learns new ways to move around pain, weakness, tightness ... dysfunction
Shorter steps.
Less rotation.
More stiffness.
More bracing.

At first, this feels like success.
Less discomfort.
More tolerance.
Back to life.

But under the surface, something important has changed.

Your nervous system now has an altered read of your environment.
Movement becomes less precise.
Balance becomes less reliable.
Reaction time slows.
Strength and coordination stop matching the demands of your lifestyle.
This isn’t about discomfort anymore.
It’s about control.
As we age, compromised balance is not a minor issue.
Falls become a big big deal.

For adults over 65, falls are one of the leading contributors to serious injury and early death.
Not because people are fragile.
But because they are often under-prepared for the forces life still asks them to manage.

A “good enough” recovery leaves gaps.
Gaps in motor patterns.
Gaps in strength.
Gaps in confidence.

A full recovery does something different.

It restores clean movement.
It rebuilds strength and conditioning specific to how you live, work, train, and move.
It retrains the nervous system to accurately read the environment again.

So balance improves.
Reactions sharpen.
Confidence returns.

This is not about chasing perfection.
And it’s not about fear.
It’s about understanding that how you recover from injury quietly shapes how you age.
Pain going away is not the same as recovery.

If this made you pause, good.
That pause is awareness.
And awareness is where better outcomes start.

01/04/2026

A lot of you messaged me about discs, nerves, and the fear of making the wrong next move.

That tells me something important.
Smart people are tired of guessing.
They are tired of being told to wait, rest, or manage symptoms forever.

That is why every client starts the same way.
With a Recovery Audit.

I work with men and women who live with persistent pain and still have a full life to run.
Careers.
Families.
Responsibilities that do not pause because their back or nerve hurts.

The Recovery Audit is not treatment.
It is clarity.
It shows you what is actually keeping your pain pattern alive.
Not theories.
Not generic advice.
Your nervous system.
Your movement patterns.
Your daily demands.

Here is what the audit gives you.
→ Straight answers about what is driving your pain
→ Clear direction on what matters and what does not
→ A recovery path that fits your real schedule

This is especially for people trying to avoid surgery or long-term damage.
People who want to make a smart, informed decision instead of an emotional one.

If the audit shows we are a good fit, I open one of the remaining January spots.
We build a structured recovery plan around your life.
So pain stops dictating how you work, train, and live.
This is done without.
→ Being told to stop moving
→ Masking symptoms with medication
→ Rushing into procedures out of fear

Our work stays focused on three key areas that calm the nervous system and restore movement.
So your body stops overreacting.
And starts cooperating again.

Most people living with pain are about 30 days away from a very different chapter.
A chapter with clarity instead of doubt.
A chapter with progress instead of flare-ups.

If you read my last post and this one landed, the next step is simple.
Message me the word “RECOVERY.”
We start with clarity and decide from there.

01/01/2026

New year.

Same nerve pain.
Same stiffness.
Same fear that this is just how life is now.

January is when I open a limited number of coaching spots.

I work with men and women who live with disc, nerve, and joint pain that keeps coming back.

They have tried various therapies, exercise plans, rest, and “being careful.”
They are tired of guessing.
They want a clear plan that actually respects how the nervous system works.

Most of my clients are still working, still parenting, still training, and still pushing through pain every day.
They do not want motivation.
They want their body to cooperate again.

Here is what we focus on.
→ Reducing the nervous system threat that keeps pain switched on
→ Restoring clean movement without flaring symptoms
→ Rebuilding trust in the body instead of bracing and avoiding

This is not done with random YouTube exercises.
This is not done by masking pain with medication.
This is not done by being told to rest and wait.

We build a structured plan that fits real life.
Work schedules.
Family demands.
Energy levels.

The goal is simple.
Move without pain calling the shots.
Wake up with less stiffness.
Return to daily life without constantly managing symptoms.

Most people in pain are about 30 days away from a very different chapter.
A chapter with clarity instead of confusion.
A chapter with progress instead of flare-ups.
A chapter where the body starts responding again.

Everything is done online.
No travel required.

If you are reading this and thinking, “This sounds like me,” that matters.
If you want to explore whether this is a fit, message me the word “RECOVERY.”

After we talk, one of three things will happen.
→ We work together and build your personalized plan
→ We decide it is not the right fit
→ I refer you to someone better suited to help

January spots are limited.
If this resonated, do not overthink it.

Message me “RECOVERY” and let’s see what is actually possible for your body.

12/31/2025

Wishing you all happiness, health, togetherness, and growth in 2026
♥️🙏

12/30/2025

Pain shrinks lives quietly.

Not all at once.
But day by day.

This year reminded me why I do this work.
Because when pain releases its grip, life rushes back in.

Teresa lived with debilitating sciatic and low back pain for over a decade.
Ten years of limits.
Ten years of managing.
Within three days, she felt real relief.
Not hope.
Not distraction.
Relief.
Four months later, she was stronger, more mobile, and more capable than she had been before the pain ever started.
That kind of change rewires what someone believes about their body.

Brad had already fought through multiple serious health challenges.
Then a stubborn lumbar flare hit him hard.
It felt like a brutal slap in the face.
Instead of pushing through, we respected the signal.
We tracked the source.
We removed the aggravation.
We rebuilt capacity in the right order.
Brad got his riverside vacation back.
His fun back.
And now he is building strength and endurance with eyes on a powerful 2026.

Christina felt fast relief too.
But her story was layered.
Years of arm pain and other various pain and nerve symptoms.
Years of failed answers.
Layer after layer to unwind.
Patiently, we worked step by step.
Nothing skipped.
Nothing rushed.
Today she has nearly full, free use again.
And she is building strength where there was once only fear.

These stories are different.
But the pattern is the same.
Relief first.
Clarity next.
Strength rebuilt in the right environment.

My goal moving forward is simple.
Help more people stop managing pain.
Help them stop shrinking their lives.
And help them get back to movement that feels free and fun again.

If this sounds like the change you have been waiting for, you are not late.
You are right on time.

12/29/2025

I was looking back at 2025 and the results my clients created.

What stood out was not just the change in their bodies.
It was the change in what they believed was possible.

Most people are told disc and nerve issues take forever to improve.
That belief quietly breaks people.
Yes, full recovery can take time.
But meaningful relief should not be years away.

If a plan promises payoff someday while today keeps getting worse, people quit.
Not because they are weak.
Because the plan is wrong.

This is why I always start with reliable relief first.
Relief builds trust.
Trust creates momentum.

Alicia had felt stuck for years.
A recent knee surgery only deepened the frustration.
Her fitness kept starting and stopping without explanation.
We uncovered an unrecognized lumbar instability driving the pattern.
That clarity gave us a real base.
We built Foundation Work.
The work that lets your body do the things you want it to do.
From there, her progress became steady.
Predictable.
Repeatable.
Most importantly, she learned to trust her body again.

Brianna was overwhelmed by life.
Pain and weakness from a cervical nerve issue made everything heavier.
Using a simple tracking process, we found the source fast.
We unloaded the irritation driving her symptoms.
Then we rebuilt her capacity for harder tasks.
The pain quieted.
Her focus returned.
She could finally give energy to what mattered most.

Robert drives a truck.
Long hours.
Little margin of time for anything "extra".
Neck pain, nerve symptoms, and back pain had taken over his thinking.
Feeling better felt unrealistic.
We applied the same clear strategy.
Find the source.
Remove the aggravation.
Build strength in the right order.
Robert is now moving forward in a transformation that surprises everyone.
Including him.

None of these results were accidental.
They came from simple logic.
Systematic steps.
And doing the right thing at the right time.

This year proved something important.
Change does not have to be dramatic to be life altering.
It just has to be accurate and correct for your life, needs, and goals.

12/24/2025

And my third psa this holiday season is for those suffering stubborn disc issues.
Feeling for you as well:

Disc pain is treated like the problem.

That is the mistake.
Most therapies chase the disc itself.
Injections.
Decompression tables.
Endless imaging.
That approach ignores how discs actually recover.

Here is the reality.

→ Discs do not heal in isolation.
→ They respond to the environment around them.
→ That environment is created by small, local stabilizing muscles.
→ Those muscles must be responsive, not rigid or asleep.

Discs live like pumps.

They need compression and decompression.
They need rotation and its opposite.
They need load and release.
Without these, nutrition can't get into the disc and waste can't get out.
These pressures also stimulate health of the disc structure.
But only in the right environment.
If the surrounding muscles are guarded, delayed, or overworking, the pump fails.
No amount of disc focused therapy fixes that.

Here is the aha moment.

Muscles do not organize themselves.
Nerves control timing, coordination, and protection.
If the nerves are irritated or underperforming, the muscles misfire.
If the muscles misfire, the environment breaks down.
If the environment breaks down, the disc cannot recover.

That is why I start with the nerves.

Strategically.
Deliberately.
Because without healthy nerve signaling, the disc has very little chance.

Heal the nerves.
Restore muscle control.
Create the right environment.
Then the disc finally has a real chance to recover.

12/23/2025

I mentioned neck pain and upper body nerve pain yesterday.
I do know and did not intend to leave out those with low back and lower body nerve pain.
You're all dealing w an extra burden this holiday as well.

Here is your psa. :)

Low back pain is rarely just a tight muscle.
It is often a nerve issue that shows up late.
Here is what most people are missing.

→ Lumbar nerve symptoms do not always start in the back.
→ It can show up first in the foot.
→ Or the calf.
→ Or one spot in the hip that comes and goes.
→ It can skip areas entirely.
→ It can feel random.

It is not random.
The lumbar nerves supply the hips, glutes, legs, and feet.
Where you feel it depends on which fibers are stressed and how your body is compensating.

Pain is not the first message from a nerve.

Pain is late.
Long before pain, there is strength loss.
Or subtle clenching in muscles trying to protect the nerve.
That protection changes how you move.
That movement change loads the wrong tissues.
Then pain shows up.
That is why pain relief alone is not the same as nerve health.
A nerve can stop hurting and still be dysfunctional.
That is why symptoms return from time to time even when things have felt "good" for a while.
The nerve issue never fully went away.
It was just the loudest "alarms" were turned down or off.

If you have numbness, burning, tingling, weakness, or unexplained tightness, pay attention.

Muscles do not send mixed signals.
Nerves do.
Restore nerve health, and movement quality follows.

12/22/2025

Most of us are getting settled in for the holidays.
Unfortunately, many people in the supportive communities I host are stuck sorting through complex neck and nerve pain.

Here's a holiday psa from me to you. ❤

If your neck and arm pain feels like a puzzle with pieces that keep moving, you are not imagining it.
One day it is the neck, then the shoulder, then the arm, then the hand.
That confusion is not failure.
That confusion is nerve physiology.

Here is what most people are never told about irritated cervical nerves.

Nerve compression does not always need a clear blockage to cause pain.
An irritated nerve swells.
Swollen nerves take up more space even when nothing looks “out of place.”
That means compression can exist without a visible obstruction.
And compression almost never happens in just one spot.

→ A nerve can be irritated at the neck.
→ Then again near the shoulder.
→ Then again at the elbow or wrist.

Each location changes how the nerve behaves everywhere else.
Now add tension.
Irritated nerves hate tension.
Especially nerves that have been guarded and protected for months or years.
The body stiffens around them to keep them safe.
That protection becomes another source of stress.
Then comes sliding.
Healthy nerves must glide smoothly inside their containers.
Swelling or adhesions stop that glide.
When nerves cannot slide, every movement feels threatening.

That is why this pain feels unpredictable.

It is not random.
It is layered.
And layered problems require strategy.
The solution is not force.
The solution is not stretching harder.
The solution is a strategic and systematic way to unload nerve irritation.
Then a strategic and systematic way to rebuild fluid, relaxed, resilient muscle support.
That is how nerves calm down.
That is how the pieces stop moving.
And that is how upper body nerve pain finally makes sense again.

12/09/2025

So many New Client Launches and I'm behind but let's start cheering these folks!

First, I have to brag on Diana and her courage to confront stubborn nerve pain for a moment.

Just days into her "7 Day First Steps Plan", she messaged me saying:

“I’ve been standing and walking around the kitchen for an hour and haven’t had to take a break.”

This from someone who was genuinely considering surgery after years of exhausting pain.

In our first conversation she said, "I have no relief".

That's amazing progress in just a few days!

But the part that inspires me most isn’t the progress.

It’s who she had to become to make that progress possible.

Diana didn’t get here by luck.
She got here because she chose courage when most people choose fear.

→ She stayed open minded when the mainstream options weren’t giving her answers.

→ She trusted her own judgment instead of assuming the only path forward was the one she kept being handed.

→ She listened to her body with curiosity instead of panic.

→ She stepped into a process that made sense for her nervous system, even though it wasn’t the typical “protocol.”

→ And she gave herself permission to start something new, even after so many dead ends.

That kind of courage is rare.
That kind of discernment is powerful.

And that kind of open-mindedness is exactly why she’s seeing shifts that once felt impossible.

We’re not finished.
Not by a long shot.
But this beginning says everything about her character and her capacity to heal.

I’m cheering for her.
She’s doing the work.
And she’s proving what’s possible when someone refuses to give up on the life they love.

12/07/2025

You do not need a perfect plan to get out of disc and nerve pain.

You need momentum.

I used to freeze until I had everything mapped out first.
Most of the people I work with do the same thing.
They wait for certainty while their world quietly shrinks.

Here is how that usually shows up.
→ They want to know exactly what is causing their pain before they move.
→ They keep chasing the next image that will finally explain everything.
→ They hunt for a single tip or trick that will make the symptoms disappear so they can forget this ever happened.
→ They ride the insurance train because it feels safe and scientific.

The problem is that this search for the perfect plan keeps them stuck.
A diagnosis can help, but it almost never tells the full story of why you hurt and how to fully recover.
Images and symptoms often do not match, so the picture on the screen is not a reliable roadmap for every piece of your pain.
Insurance care is built to manage cost and risk, not to give you a flexible, complete solution for your life and goals.

So if there is no perfect plan, what actually works.

Imperfect, informed action.
Not random action.
Smart, simple steps that you can adjust as you go.
You gather the best information you can.
You listen to your own experience and instincts.
You take a clear next step instead of waiting for total certainty.
Then you watch what changes.
You keep what helps.
You adjust what does not.
That is how real disc and nerve recovery works.
Not one magic exercise.
A series of simple moves that slowly pull you out of pain and back into your life.

In my world, that series is built on a few key fundamentals.
→ A clear picture of the pain free, active future you are working toward.
→ The nutrients your discs and nerves need so they can repair instead of defend.
→ Skills that calm pain and rebuild strength without setting off threat alarms in your nervous system.
→ Safe, progressive training that teaches your body how to handle force again.
→ Quality sleep so your brain can lock in the progress you make.

You do not have to get all of this perfect before you start.
You just need a starting point that makes sense and respects your body.
If you are living with disc or nerve pain.
If you feel like you have tried everything and are still stuck.
But you are open to a clear, well tested way to move forward.

Please feel invited to comment "Interested".

I will reach out for a brief conversation.
If it looks like I can help, I will tell you.
If it does not, I will tell you that too.

Either way, use today to take one real step instead of waiting for the perfect plan.

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O'Fallon, MO
63368

Website

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My Bio

Hi! I’m Jeff Powell and I’ve devoted my entire adult life (over 30 years) to delivering a better service for my clients. My quest: To be able to engage and support you, my client, from wherever you walked in to wherever you want to go. Even if you are bed-ridden with pain and want to see yourself competing among the elite. I don’t want any “holes” in my method.

The result of this quest is Integrated Functional Therapy and Performance. Another result has been the creation of a SuperTeam of trainers at Mastery Coaching Systems,LLC (go like that FaceBook page too!) in Manchester, Missouri. We truly have the ability to meet any client at any point in their development and offer them the next best steps to their personal quest! This is such a satisfying place to be for me and for my team at Mastery Coaching Systems,LLC!

The Latest!: We have launched a new program called, Super Charged Training! This system, coupled with our one-of-a-kind muscle specific technology demonstrates dramatically accelerated results for muscle, tone, strength, recovery, performance and more. Since it is so unique and yields such amazing results in such a short time, we are happy to offer a complimentary “taste test” for you, your team, your company or organization. We can answer all your questions but we prefer to prove it to you.

Here are some of my qualifications and experiences for those of you wondering: