10 Dec Boston Panel Part II: Becoming a Movement Specialist & The Future of Regenerative Spine Care
Article Rundown
- Dr. Joe Camisa explains why understanding full-body movement matters more than single-joint specialization.
- Movement problems often share the same root cause, even when injuries look different.
- Dr. Steve Roman outlines why regenerative medicine offers safer, more effective options than steroid epidurals.
- The future of spine care blends movement mastery with regenerative treatments to restore long-term function.
Becoming a Movement Specialist & The Future of Regenerative Spine Care
In Part II of our Boston panel series, I continued the conversation with Dr. Joe Camisa, Dr. Steve Roman, and Dr. Stuart McGill. What unfolded was a deep dive into the difference between simply treating pain and truly understanding human movement. We also explored why regenerative medicine is becoming a game-changer for people who want to stay active without relying on surgery.
This segment highlighted why the best clinicians aren’t just experts in one joint — they’re experts in how the entire body works as a unit.
Why I Challenged Joe — And Why His Answer Matters
I kicked off this section by asking Dr. Joe Camisa a question I’ve had for a long time: How did he avoid becoming just “the back guy” or “the hip guy”? I recently pushed him on the idea of specialization, arguing that the world needs experts dedicated to specific areas. But Joe pushed back in a thoughtful way.
He explained that while specialization has its place, a clinician can’t understand any one joint in isolation. If you treat the knee without understanding the hip and ankle, you’re blind to the bigger picture. Joe’s view wasn’t that specialists shouldn’t exist — but that true specialists must understand movement first.
What impressed me most was how he framed the body as a system governed by rules. Once he learned those rules, everything else became clearer.
Dr. Joe Camisa’s Path to Becoming a Movement Specialist
Joe told us he built his framework from studying Stu’s work, along with pioneers like Vladimir Janda and Shirley Sahrmann. Even though these experts came from different generations and backgrounds, their principles all pointed toward the same truth: the body functions as a coordinated chain.
Once Joe understood the mobility–stability roles of each joint, he no longer viewed injuries as isolated events. Poor pelvic stability could show up as back pain in one athlete, hip tendinopathy in another, or even an ACL tear in a third. The symptoms varied, but the underlying impairment was the same.
This is when Joe committed to becoming a movement specialist, not a joint specialist. Once he made that shift, he could solve problems anywhere in the chain, because he understood how all the joints interplayed.
When Cueing Isn’t Enough — Fixing Hardware Before Software
Joe shared something every coach and clinician eventually learns the hard way: cueing and bracing only work if the athlete has the mobility to use them. Many athletes compensate at the lumbar spine not because they don’t understand bracing, but because they physically can’t move at their hip or thoracic spine.
That’s when Joe expanded his toolbox. Manual therapy, needling, cupping, and frequency-specific microcurrent became ways to unlock restricted joints so the athlete could finally move the right way. These weren’t replacements for the McGill principles — they were tools that allowed the principles to work.
Joe’s goal wasn’t to add complexity. It was to clear mechanical roadblocks so that movement could be retrained correctly and sustainably.
Dr. Steve Roman’s Journey Into Regenerative Medicine
After Joe’s segment, I turned to Dr. Steve Roman to talk about why he left traditional pain management for regenerative medicine. Steve spent years performing minimally invasive procedures and epidural steroid injections, but he kept seeing the limits. Many patients weren’t improving, and too many were being pushed toward surgeries like lumbar fusions.
When he began hearing about patients who avoided surgery through regenerative methods, he didn’t dismiss it. Instead, he traveled internationally to learn from world leaders in biologics. What he discovered was a rapidly developing field focused on restoring function rather than masking symptoms.
That shift inspired Steve to open a regenerative-only practice, giving patients options that simply didn’t exist 10 or 15 years ago.
Why PRP Epidurals Are Changing the Game
One of the biggest takeaways from Steve’s explanation was the contrast between steroid epidurals and regenerative injections. The FDA has officially discouraged steroid epidurals because of the long list of risks: weakened bone density, blood sugar spikes, nerve injury, and systemic complications.
Steroids may calm inflammation, but they do nothing to promote healing. In fact, they’re catabolic — meaning they break tissue down over time.
Regenerative solutions like PRP, platelet lysate, and alpha-2 macroglobulin do the opposite. They create an environment that supports repair and gives irritated nerves the chance to regenerate. Instead of shutting down the body’s response, they guide it toward restoration.
It’s one of the most meaningful advances we’ve seen in the spine world in decades.
What This Means for Athletes, Lifters, and Anyone in Pain
The insights from Joe and Steve make one thing clear: the future of rehab and spine care lies in understanding the whole body, not isolated parts. Movement drives everything. When the body moves well, loads distribute well. When movement breaks down, injuries cluster where the system is weakest.
And now, with regenerative medicine, people have options that support healing rather than forcing the body to compensate.
For athletes, lifters, and everyday people trying to avoid surgery, this combination — movement mastery and regenerative tools — represents a path forward that didn’t exist a generation ago.
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