Today we’d like to introduce you to Ted Lim.
Hi Ted, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I am driven by two main desires:
1. To help strength athletes (Olympic weightlifters, powerlifters, CrossFit athletes, etc.) get rid of their pain so they can train and compete hard.
2. To coach an athlete to the Olympics in weightlifting
The first part of my story was realizing I was deaf and Asian, and what that truly meant. It meant I was too different. I grew up in an area dominantly white and Hispanic. My middle and high school had five Asians out of thousands of students, and two of them were me and my sister. Being deaf with a cochlear implant meant I was never going to communicate like hearing people and was always going to be a major disadvantage when socializing.
Because of this, I learned from a young age I was never going to be the perfect child or the model student. And if the path of fitting in American society with its socio-cultural ideals wasn’t possible, then I was going to live for the life I wanted, live for my ideals, and be the best version of me.
The second part of my story starts in 10th grade Weight Room class, where all I did was bench press, and at one point, dropped a loaded barbell on my forehead. That resulted in several stitches, a scar I still have to this day, and a burgeoning lesson–gains and improvement come from struggle, discomfort, and sometimes, getting bloodied from failure.
The third part of my story comes from a youth of watching Star Wars, reading fantasy books, and most importantly, Top Gun. I gained a dream, a dream to be the best fighter pilot ever to fly the bright blue skies above. I would beg military recruiters in high school and in undergrad at UC Irvine for a way to join the US Air Force or become a Navy Pilot. But, deaf people with poor depth perception can’t be fighter pilots. From that dream’s death, I inherited a deep desire to be the absolute best in something.
The fourth part of my story is when I discovered and fell in love with Olympic weightlifting in 2011. Weightlifting is the oldest and purest combination of strength and athleticism and has been a part of the modern Olympics since the beginning. During my obsession with weightlifting, I accumulated many injuries that significantly affected my training. I went to local medical doctors, physical therapists, and chiropractors, and none of them were able to help me because none of them understood the nature of weightlifting and strength sports in general. Frustrated, I did two things. I switched to coaching weightlifting with the goal of coaching weightlifters to world teams and the Olympics. I also went back to school to get a doctorate in physical therapy, to help weightlifters and powerlifters with injuries, so no one would go through the struggle of not being able to find someone to help them recover their injuries.
This has all led to today. My dreams are to coach someone in weightlifting to the Olympics, to be the best strength sports physical therapist for athletes that love lifting, and make both my professional career.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I was born profoundly deaf with Waardenburg Syndrome, and use a cochlear implant to hear. This effectively means I have an invisible social disability which severely impacts my ability to communicate. Normal hearing people can understand what another person is saying without effort, but I have to devote mental energy in actively listening to sounds, processing what the sounds were into words, and then responding to those words. Often, I can’t figure out all of the words said in a sentence, so I have to use words and the conversation context to hopefully correctly figure out what was communicated.
That’s for face-to-face conversations. Add in group conversations, a noisy background, or listening to a professor 15 feet away made the whole process exponentially more difficult. I made it through with help from my friends and lots of hard work.
When I started my physical therapy practice in Jan 2020, I had many grand plans…until COVID happened. I spent the first half of 2020 doubting if I could ever be successful, but as time went on, and the people I helped referred others to me, I started to be able to make a good living and am now doing far better in every aspect than I would have been if I had instead worked for someone else in a PT clinic.
I went from coaching less than 10 athletes total at the start of 2020 to coaching several dozen local and remote athletes a year and a half later. I have a great group of local athletes at Liberation Barbell Club and coaching them is an absolute joy.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Kilo Physio and Kuma Weightlifting?
I have two main businesses:
The Kilo Physio:
Sports physical therapy to rehabilitate strength athletes (powerlifters, Olympic weightlifters, strongman, highland games, etc.). My coaching expertise and own lifting experience help integrate lifting with rehab, often leading to lifetime personal records while rehabbing injury or pain!
Kuma Weightlifting:
Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting coaching. I have been coaching since 2015. I coach several dozen athletes and I have coached athletes from all over the world, from absolute beginner to elite senior national level weightlifters. My experience and knowledge as a physical therapist help reduce injury risk, understand human biomechanics and anatomy to a doctoral level, and recognize and start rehabilitation for any injury or pain that may occur during training.
Even though those two businesses are distinct, they have overlapping skill sets. I combine the two skill sets to help both my rehab patients and competitive athletes. Often, someone will be getting both rehab and weightlifting coaching!
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
When COVID hit, I switched entirely to online services. I learned I vastly prefer video calls over in-person sessions–because with Google Meet’s Live captions, it’s far easier to understand the patient. It’s almost like I don’t have a hearing disability! It allows me to devote much more brain energy thinking about what the patient is really saying and using my clinical reasoning on the best next steps, as well as expressing my personality. This also made me realize how much easier communicating and the majority of my endeavors would be if I had normal hearing, and it leaves a bittersweet feeling.
Pricing:
- Physical therapy or rehab services: Depends on your needs and goals
- Remote weightlifting, powerlifting, or supertotal coaching: $175/month, $449/3 months, $799/6 months
- Kuma Weightlifting Team Coaching at Liberation Barbell Club: $99/month (separate from LBC gym membership
Contact Info:
- Email: ted@thekilophysio.com
- Website: www.thekilophysio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ted.thekilophysio/
- Other: www.kumaweightlifting.com | https://www.instagram.com/kumaweightlifting
Image Credits
Will Breault
Ashley Segura
Tori Abell
