“Teaching people to tap into that strength they have inside is our special sauce,” Sinead FitzGibbon said at her and George Wilson’s Latitude Physical Therapy studio on Sag Harbor’s Bay Street the other day.
“We expect everyone we work with to use free weights, including our 90-year-olds with osteoporosis — that’s what sets us apart. We’re having them work up to lifting 75 percent of their body weight,” she said, showing her interviewer a cellphone photo of Calista Washburn deadlifting 50 pounds of kettlebells “as a warmup.”
“The common denominator,” said FitzGibbon, who holds a doctorate in physical therapy and who has vied in international rowing and mountain-biking competitions, “is building resiliency in our bodies . . . not just doing something once and then not doing it. The key to becoming more resilient is persistence and progression, and then a little reflection on techniques. Consistency and progression are critical. I train with Ed Cashin. He’s been instrumental in helping me bring strength conditioning into physical therapy. He often talks about ‘relentless forward progression’ — those three elements.”
“Relentless refers to consistency — you’re frequently challenging yourself. The forward part is goal-oriented — you have to have objectives in mind, your objectives, what it is that gives meaning to what you’re doing — the ‘why’ of it. And progression is constantly striving to get better, to change things. We want people not just to have a long life, but a strong life, to be as capable as they can be, rather than just drift off. Peter Attia,” in his book “The Science and Art of Longevity,” “talks about life span versus health span.”
“George and I really feel,” she added, “that our version of physical therapy taps into health span, into expanding the amount of time that you’re vital and strong. You don’t want to do balance exercises and step-ups forever. You want to run after your grandkids, and, in your case, crush it on the tennis court. . . . We want our athletes to keep enjoying what they do so they can continue to live not just a long life, but a healthy life.”
Asked why she and Wilson, whose late father, Rich, was a science teacher at Pierson High School in Sag Harbor for many years, had named their business Latitude Physical Therapy, FitzGibbon said, “We both grew up on the water. He grew up surfing here, I grew up in Ireland sailing and swimming. . . . Latitude is a reference point in the ocean where you can locate yourself. Latitude and longitude is where we find ourselves. We want to help people connect with where they need to be.”
Mention of George’s father brought a smile to her face. “You know, he used to tell George, ‘Don’t trust anything, don’t go into business with anyone. . . .’ But when I met Rich, he said, ‘George, don’t go into business with anyone but Sinead.’ I knew George and I would mesh well when, during a dinner we had together, he started eating the French fries off of my plate and dipping them in ketchup. Ketchup people are my kind of people,” she said.
Latitude Physical Therapy expanded recently, opening a studio in New York City, near the New York Public Library, that “another East Hamptoner, Bill Collins, who has worked with us in the summers, is running. . . . George and I have a big following. We’ve got a strong connection locally, but also we have strong connections in the city. Bill has a following of his own too. So, we figured it was time not only to provide coverage for people who live here and work in the city, but also for those who live in the city and come to play here.”
“Ultimately,” FitzGibbon said in parting, “we’ll take over the world.”
