Article Rundown

• Panel discusses rehab, mechanics, and career paths.
• Joe applies McGill principles to full-body pain problems.
• Dr. Roman blends regenerative medicine with sound mechanics.
• McGill shares his unlikely journey and the power of mentorship.

Inside the Boston Panel

When we wrapped up a full day at Mike Shacklock’s Neurodynamics Solutions seminar in Boston, a handful of us stayed behind to debrief. These post-seminar conversations are often where the best teaching happens. There’s no clock running, no slides to get through, just a group of clinicians sitting together and talking honestly about the cases we see, the strategies we use, and the paths that brought us here. On this particular day, I was joined by three people I have a tremendous amount of respect for: McGill Master Clinician Joe Camisa out of New Jersey, pain management and regenerative specialist Dr. Steve Roman, and of course Professor Stuart McGill, the man whose work changed the entire trajectory of my life back in 2013.

What started as a casual conversation quickly turned into a deeper look at how each of us arrived in this space—how a plumber-in-training became the world’s leading spine biomechanist, how a physical therapist built his own highly respected system for solving complex pain problems, and how regenerative medicine is being used responsibly alongside sound mechanical thinking. It was a reminder that none of us land where we do by accident.

Joe Camisa: Engineering the Body Back to Performance

I asked Joe to start by sharing a bit about who he is and what he does, because people hear me mention him but don’t always know his full story. Joe is a physical therapist practicing in northern New Jersey and a McGill Master Clinician. He first encountered McGill’s work while he was still in school, but like many of us, it wasn’t until he experienced his own back issues that he really dug in. That personal struggle pushed him to study more deeply, not just accepting any one system at face value but testing it, integrating it, and seeing what truly held up under the microscope of clinical reality.

Joe’s practice revolves around difficult cases—backs, shoulders, knees, hips, and other joints that other providers often struggle to solve. He has a strong interest in sports medicine and orthopedics, and while he does some strength and conditioning, his main focus is rehabbing injuries and getting people back to the activities and sports they care about. What I appreciate about Joe is that he thinks like an engineer. He looks at pain through the lens of stress, load, and structure. Everything he uses has to be mechanically compatible with the McGill Method. That doesn’t mean he’s limited by it; instead, he uses it as a foundation and then builds out his own “Camisa method,” as I jokingly called it earlier in the day. The truth is, he has taken the principles of identifying pain generators and stress concentrations and applied them not only to the spine but to shoulders, necks, and knees in a way that goes beyond what I do in my own practice.

People sometimes pigeonhole me as just “the powerlifter guy” or “the barbell back specialist,” and yes, that is a big part of my world. But most of the people I see are regular folks—average Joes and Marys who want to live without pain. Joe is working the same population, but with a wider variety of body regions, all using the same kind of disciplined, mechanically driven thinking. That’s why I respect what he does so much.

Dr. Steve Roman: Regeneration Grounded in Mechanics

Next up was Dr. Steve Roman, whom I was meeting in person for the first time, even though his name had already come across my radar through clients asking about his treatments. Some had seen him for PRP or other regenerative procedures and reported significant improvements, especially when combined with good mechanical coaching. Others had more gradual results. That’s the reality of biology—no single intervention is a magic bullet—but it was clear he was doing something right.

Steve recently opened the Regenerative Spine and Joint Institute, where his focus is on non-surgical, natural options for people dealing with spine and joint disorders. His goal is to help people stay active as long as possible without resorting to surgery unless absolutely necessary. What stood out to me is how committed he is to staying inside FDA regulations while still using the latest regenerative techniques. In a field that can attract a lot of questionable claims and “miracle cures,” his approach is conservative in the right ways and progressive where it counts. He gives patients additional tools, but he does it in a way that respects the mechanical realities of the body and doesn’t pretend that an injection alone will fix a fundamentally flawed movement pattern.

Steve fit right into the panel, because he thinks in terms of load, structure, and long-term durability. Regenerative techniques are powerful when they’re used in context—paired with smart assessment, load management, and the kind of spine and joint mechanics that Joe, McGill, and I obsess over.

Professor McGill: From “Wasted Potential” to World Authority

From there, I turned the spotlight toward someone who usually prefers to talk about others instead of himself: Professor Stuart McGill. Most of my audience already knows him as the world’s leading authority on spine biomechanics and injury mechanisms. What fewer people know is how close he came to never stepping foot in a university again after high school.

Stuart shared that he actually left high school to become a plumber. His guidance counselor had told his father that he was essentially a waste of time academically and would be better off in the trades. That’s the kind of label that can easily derail a young person’s life. The turning point came when his high school football coach stepped in and told his mother, “No, he needs to come back.” That decision pulled him back into school and onto the football field, where he was later recruited by multiple universities. The fact that he doesn’t talk about this much made it even more powerful to hear in that room. It was emotional for me, because I’ve seen the damage that careless words from authority figures can do to young people. We can all think of examples—high performers who were told they’d never make it. In this case, that young “plumbing student” became the person who would help rebuild my broken spine and change my entire life.

From there, a series of mentors and seemingly small events guided him forward. A math professor at the University of Toronto, Professor Kleinbauer, reframed calculus for him in a way that made sense to a mechanically minded kid. Instead of abstract “limits as x tends to zero,” it became about flow through pipes, pressure changes, and how one variable influences another. Stuart said he could “feel mathematics in his hands,” and that shifted everything. Physics, biology, and even chemistry started to fuse together for him through the lens of mechanics.

Later, while playing hockey as a master’s student, he met a professor from the University of Waterloo who invited him to visit the lab. That visit eventually led him to switch into spine biomechanics. The jump from lab work to seeing patients came next, again through what looked like chance at the time: a physician at a conference asked him to come evaluate a patient. Stuart initially said he didn’t see patients, but they insisted he just “show us what you see.” What followed was pure engineering logic applied to humans—identify variables, provoke and relieve pain, narrow down mechanisms, and build a precise understanding of what was causing the problem.

That same troubleshooting system now underpins the McGill Method that Joe, Steve, and I all use in our different arenas. We identify pain-generating movements, we find stress concentrations, we manage load, and we rebuild capacity in a way that creates durable, sustainable performance. It all started with mentors who refused to let him be written off and with a mind that was willing to see mechanics where others saw chaos.

Full Circle: When Mentors Become Colleagues

One of the most meaningful moments in that discussion was when McGill turned to Joe and me and said that we—and a few others—have now become his mentors in a way. He watches how we apply the system in the real world, how we solve complex problems, and how we push the boundaries in different directions, whether that’s in barbell sport, general population rehab, or regenerative integration. For me, as someone whose life was rebuilt under his guidance back in 2013, that’s incredibly humbling to hear.

What this panel highlighted more than anything is that great outcomes don’t come from isolated tools or single professions. They come from a shared framework and a commitment to truth. Joe brings a deep rehab lens and full-body mechanical thinking. Steve brings regenerative tools grounded in reality and regulation. McGill brings a lifetime of science, clinical observation, and mentorship. I try to bridge these pieces for lifters and everyday people—taking what we know from the lab and the clinic and turning it into training and daily strategies that actually work.

This Boston panel was just part one, but it captured something important: four different paths, one shared mission. Mechanics matter. Load matters. Mentors matter. And sometimes the kid they said wouldn’t amount to much ends up being the one who changes the game for everyone else.

BRIAN DOES ONLINE AND IN-PERSON COACHING!

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