What are the opening hours?

Monday 7am - 8pm Tuesday 7am - 5pm Wednesday 7am - 8pm Thursday 7am - 8pm Friday 7am - 5pm

Core Wellness & Physical Therapy

Home
United States
Alexandria, VA
Core Wellness & Physical Therapy

Call Directions Website Contact the practice

ONLINE SCHEDULING AVAILABLE Our highly experienced physical therapists are passionate about helping you reach your goals. We look forward to serving you.

Core Wellness & Physical Therapy’s highly experienced physical therapists are passionate about helping you receive the personalized care you deserve and we look forward to serving you. Core Wellness & Physical Therapy is built on the belief that rehabilitation, prevention, and treatment in one-on-one sessions is the key to optimizing your success. Using an integrative approach, that includes a spectrum of hands on manual care, modalities, exercise prescription, and comprehensive education regarding your condition, you will receive the personalized care you deserve. We believe that your body has the capacity to heal and restore itself. With the right guidance, the appropriate treatment, and conscious commitment; your quality of life can improve dramatically. There are a variety of practitioners that may aid in your pursuit of health and healing. We will refer you to a variety of specialists as needed to build your “Wellness Dream Team”, and keep you on your journey to optimal health. Appointments are available within 24 hours of your call, Monday-Friday. We are wheelchair accessible and with handicap parking available.

09/28/2026

For perimenopausal women, getting stronger on one leg at a time is about so much more than stronger legs.

It’s about balance, stability, longevity, and confidence in what your body is capable of.

As our bodies change through perimenopause, strength training becomes an incredibly valuable tool and unilateral work is one of our favorites to incorporate.

Here are 5 reasons we regularly program movements like split squats and step-ups:

💪🏼 Improve balance & stability
Single-leg work challenges your nervous system to control and stabilize your body in ways bilateral exercises simply can’t.

💪🏼 Address side-to-side differences
We all have a dominant side. Unilateral training gives us an opportunity to identify and work through those asymmetries rather than allowing the stronger side to do all the work.

💪🏼 Build strong, resilient joints
Unilateral exercises can create a meaningful strength stimulus without requiring the same overall load as some bilateral movements—making them a smart addition to a well-rounded program.

💪🏼 Build strength that translates to real life
Climbing stairs. Getting up from the floor. Carrying groceries. Walking, hiking, traveling. Real life rarely happens with your feet perfectly planted side by side.

💪🏼 Challenge your core and pelvic floor

Single-leg movements require your trunk and pelvis to stabilize while you move. Learning to coordinate breath, pressure, and muscular engagement can be an incredibly valuable part of pelvic health and functional strength.
And this is where individualized coaching matters.

The exercise itself is only part of the equation. How you breathe, load, align, and control the movement can completely change what your body gets from it.
We need to get really good at getting stronger for the body we have—and the life we want to keep living.

If you’re ready to build strength, stability, and confidence through this season of life, call or text 571-403-2673.

We’d love to help you create a program that works with your body, not against it. 🤍

09/26/2026

This one blows our expecting moms’ minds every single time.

What does your jaw have to do with your pelvic floor? More than you might think. 👀

Your body isn’t a collection of isolated parts. Your jaw, breathing mechanics, trunk, pelvis, and pelvic floor all participate in coordinated patterns of tension, pressure, and movement.

Emerging research is giving us some pretty fascinating insight into these connections - a randomized controlled trial found that just 15 minutes of soft-tissue treatment to the jaw changed pelvic floor muscle activity... a 52.94% increase in measured pelvic floor activation during contraction.

The treatment wasn’t performed on the pelvis at all.

Now, we also recognize the discrepancy here: a single study showing an immediate change in muscle activity does not mean that treating the jaw “treats” pelvic floor dysfunction. More research is needed to understand exactly what’s happening.

But this is where clinical experience gets really interesting.

At Core Wellness, we see these kinds of connections in practice all the time. When you understand the body as an interconnected system, it gives us the opportunity to be resourceful, thoughtful, and creative with manual care.

Sometimes the place you feel the problem isn’t the only place we need to look.

When a woman comes to us with pelvic floor symptoms, we’re not just thinking about the pelvic floor.
We’re looking at:
🌸 How are you breathing?
🌸 Are you clenching your jaw?
🌸 What is your nervous system doing?
🌸 How are your ribs and diaphragm moving?
🌸 Where are you holding tension?
🌸 How are you moving through your entire body?

This is the heart of an integrative approach to pelvic health.

Because your body is beautifully interconnected and sometimes the most meaningful change comes from looking somewhere unexpected.

It’s one of the reasons we’ve been treating women this way since 2009.

If you’re pregnant, postpartum, experiencing pelvic floor symptoms, dealing with jaw tension, or simply feel like your body isn’t moving and functioning the way it should, we’d love to take a closer look.

Your body is talking. Let’s listen to the whole conversation. 🤍

09/18/2026

One of the best gifts I’ve given myself lately? A rest day—and swapping one of my lifting days for mobility.

And yes… I know. 😂

I tell my patients to do mobility work all the time. But if I’m being completely honest, because I don’t particularly love it, I’d find a million other things to do instead.

Not anymore.

And the science has given me even more reason to stick with it.

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine compared 12 weeks of dedicated mobility training with standard repetitive cardio using an elliptical. The mobility group came out ahead in some pretty compelling ways:

🧘🏼‍♀️ Greater improvements in joint flexibility with dedicated mobility training.
⚖️ Better ability to address asymmetries and greater body awareness.
💪🏼 And an important reminder that repetitive, cyclic movement isn’t necessarily the same thing as giving your body the mobility and tissue variety it needs.

This is especially relevant when we spend a lot of our time asking our bodies to do the same things over and over…heavy lifting, running, cycling, elliptical, even sitting.

Our bodies are incredibly adaptable. But they adapt to what we repeatedly ask of them.

When we continually load the same patterns without intentionally working on joint range of motion, tissue quality, and movement variability, compensations can begin to creep in.

So I’m taking my own advice: Lift. Move. Recover. Mobilize. Repeat.

Because mobility isn’t about becoming bendy for the sake of being bendy.

It’s about having the movement options you need to stay strong, capable, and resilient for the long haul.

And apparently, I needed to become my own patient. 😉

If you need help creating a mobility routine that actually addresses your restrictions and movement patterns, call or text 571-403-2673.

Let’s get you moving and keep you moving. 🤍

09/14/2026

“It just happens as you get older.”

How many times have you heard that when you mention the nagging knee, stiff low back, or shoulder that just doesn’t move the way it used to?

Yes, our bodies change as we age.

But pain, stiffness, and losing the ability to move well are not things you simply have to accept.

Every season of life asks something different of your body. Your strength, mobility, recovery, and tolerance for load all evolve—and your movement strategy should evolve with them.

That morning stiffness or recurring ache may be your body’s way of telling you that something needs attention. Sometimes it’s a compensation. Sometimes it’s a mismatch between what you’re asking of your tissues and what they currently have the capacity to tolerate.

Either way, it deserves more than a shrug and a “well, I’m getting older.”

We believe in finding the right dose of movement for your body—enough to build capacity, without constantly pushing you past it.

Because motion is lotion. And staying strong, mobile, and capable is one of the best investments you can make in the decades ahead.

You deserve to feel like your body is something you can rely on—not something you have to work around.

If you’re ready to stop accepting discomfort as your baseline, we’d love to help you build a stronger, more resilient body for the life you want to live.

Call or text 571-403-2673 to schedule your evaluation.

Let’s stop blaming your age and start listening to your body. 🤍

09/11/2026

We have a few months left in the year—which makes this a beautiful time to pause and ask: How is your body feeling?

Fall in the DMV is one of our favorite seasons. Cooler temperatures, crisp air, long walks, and plenty of reasons to get outside and explore.

But if your feet, knees, hips, or low back are starting to complain after a few miles, it may be time to pay attention to what your body is telling you.

At Core Wellness, we don’t believe in treating the foot in isolation.

Our custom orthotic process considers your full-body alignment, gait mechanics, movement patterns, and lifestyle so we can understand what’s happening from the ground up.

And our approach to wellness goes far beyond orthotics.

Fall is also the perfect time to invest in your health before the holiday season arrives. Through a comprehensive evaluation, we can identify opportunities to improve your strength, mobility, movement, and daily habits—and create a plan that actually fits your life.

From Clinical Pilates integration and personalized exercise programming to lifestyle coaching and collaboration with complementary providers, we look at the whole picture.

Because feeling well isn’t about waiting until something hurts enough to demand your attention.

It’s about taking care of your body while it’s still asking for a little help.

So, as we head into the final months of the year, what would it look like to feel stronger, move better, and enjoy your body a little more?

Call or text 571-403-2673 to get started. We’d love to help you make the most of the season ahead. 🍂

09/06/2026

There’s a trend going around about the things that are “kinda chic,” and honestly? We’re here for romanticizing the way we take care of our bodies. ✨

Because at Core Wellness, we think it’s kinda chic to:

✨ Have 50 uninterrupted minutes with ONE provider who knows your body, your history, and your goals.

✨ Receive thoughtful, hands-on care from your Doctor of Physical Therapy—not just a sheet of exercises and a timer.

✨ Make mobility, strength, and nourishment part of your everyday life.

✨ Stop normalizing that nagging ache and actually take the time to understand why it’s there.

✨ Invest in feeling good in your body—not just getting through the day.

We live in a culture that tells us to push harder, move faster, and ignore the signals our bodies are sending.

We think there’s something much more sophisticated about slowing down enough to listen.

Taking care of your body. Being curious about what it needs. Refusing to accept discomfort as something you simply have to “live with.”

That’s not indulgent.

That’s kinda chic. 🤍

If your body has been asking for a little more attention, call or text 571-403-2673 to schedule your personalized evaluation.

We’d love to help you feel at home in your body again.

09/04/2026

Del Ray, Old Town, and Belle Haven have always been at the heart of Core Wellness, and we’re so honored to be featured in this month’s issue of Stroll Belle Haven. 🤍

This community means so much to us. To be recognized as a local practice committed to helping people move, feel, and live better is incredibly meaningful.

At Core Wellness, we believe care should feel personal.

Whether you’re recovering from an injury, navigating postpartum changes, working through a stubborn ache, or simply wanting to move well and stay strong for the years ahead, our approach is always the same: thoughtful, integrative, one-on-one care designed around you.

Thank you to Dana and the Stroll team for welcoming us so warmly, and to every patient who has trusted us with their care. It is a privilege we never take for granted.

If you’re in Belle Haven, keep an eye out for this month’s issue in your mailbox. And if there’s something your body has been asking you to address—or you’re ready to make your health and movement a priority this fall—we’d love to meet you.

Call or text 571-403-2673 to get started.

Here’s to feeling your best, moving with confidence, and taking care of yourself for the long game. ✨

08/08/2026

Summer weather in Virginia brings out the "weekend warrior" in many of us, jumping into hours of tennis, pickleball, yard work, or hiking on Saturdays and Sundays after sitting at a desk all week.

While the activity is great for your cardiovascular health, this pattern often leads to a mismatch between the demand you are placing on your body and your tissues' recovery capacity.

When you ask your body to perform high-intensity movements only two days a week, your tendons and joints do not have the consistent, progressive loading required to adapt to those forces.

This is when compensatory patterns take over. Your body will find a way to get the job done, but it will often borrow mobility or stability from adjacent joints, leading to repetitive strain in the knees, Achilles tendons, or lower back, to name a few.

To stay active all summer without the Monday morning limp:

🎾 Bridge the gap during the week with targeted mobility and light resistance training.

🎾 Warm up your nervous system before weekend activities, a 5-minute dynamic warm-up prepares your tissues for load.

🎾 Listen to the difference between normal muscle fatigue and sharp, localized joint pain.

If you are dealing with a nagging injury that flares up regularly…it might be time for some hands on treatments to optimize your biomechanics, healing potential, along with prescribed therapeutic exercises and lifestyle modifications.

Call or text us at 571-403-2673 to get started!

08/05/2026

There is a common misconception in women's health that all pelvic floor dysfunction is caused by weakness, and the universal solution is simply to "do more Kegels."

From a clinical perspective, this is often the exact opposite of what the body needs.

Many women, particularly high-functioning, active adults, actually experience pelvic floor hypertonicity. This means the muscles of the pelvic floor are in a constant state of high tension and are unable to fully relax.

When a muscle is constantly contracted, it becomes fatigued and loses its ability to generate force when you actually need it (like when coughing, sneezing, or lifting).

Doing strengthening exercises on a muscle that is already overworked and unable to relax can often exacerbate symptoms like pain, urgency, or leaking.

A healthy pelvic floor needs to be dynamic:

🌸 It must have the strength to contract and support load.
🌸 It must have the mobility to fully relax and yield.
🌸 It must have the coordination to react appropriately to changes in intra-abdominal pressure.

If you are experiencing pelvic floor symptoms that aren't resolving, preparing for birth, or are post-partum, a specialized examination is crucial. Based on your presentation, we will spend our time together doing what you cannot do for yourself, and progressing exercises and lifestyle modifications that keep you doing what you love, with who you love rather than in and out of PT all week long. Did you know we see patients once a week or less in most instances? That you are welcome to bring your little one with you to your appointment?

Call or text us for more information, we would love to learn more about how we can help you.

08/02/2026

Summer vacations are meant to be relaxing, but the logistics of travel, packing, and disrupted routines often leave our nervous systems more dysregulated than when we left.

When your body is operating in a state of high sympathetic drive (managing work, family, and travel stress), it alters how you process physical sensation. A dysregulated nervous system lowers your threshold for pain and increases resting muscle tension.

Additionally, the sudden shift from a highly structured routine to a relaxed one can sometimes cause the body to "let down its guard," bringing underlying movement dysfunctions and accumulated fatigue to the surface.

To support your body during summer travel:

✈️ Maintain basic hydration and prioritize movement - don't completely abandon movement just because you are away. Consider your strategy before you leave!

✈️ Incorporate 5 minutes of parasympathetic breathing (longer exhales than inhales) during transit to signal safety to your nervous system. Look up “box breathing”.

✈️ Give yourself a buffer day between returning home and returning to work. Savoring and slowing down, vs rushing to get it all in before getting back to the grind.

If you find that your body feels "off" or your pain patterns return despite taking time to rest, give us a call to learn more about our integrative approach, personalized to you and your needs.

Address

2212 Mount Vernon Avenue
Alexandria, VA
22301

Opening Hours

Monday	7am - 8pm
Tuesday	7am - 5pm
Wednesday	7am - 8pm
Thursday	7am - 8pm
Friday	7am - 5pm

Telephone

+15714032673

Website

http://www.alexandriaphysicaltherapist.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Core Wellness & Physical Therapy posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to Core Wellness & Physical Therapy:

Want your practice to be the top-listed clinic in Alexandria?