Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie LaMendola.
Hi Natalie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Running has been a big part of my life ever since I was introduced to it in junior high, when my dad let me join him for his evening jogs around the neighborhood. He encouraged me to join my school’s track team, and I was hooked. I ran through high school and competed collegiately at Rockhurst University here in KC. A string of running injuries first introduced me to physical therapy as a patient, and I witnessed firsthand just how incredible this profession is. I knew that I wanted to spend my time providing the same kind of care to others that was given to me. As I continued to run through PT school, I realized that I could combine these two passions into a successful career by helping runners through their injuries in the clinic. Over the last 4.5 years as an orthopedic physical therapist, I’ve grown my practice to focus specifically on the running population locally here in KC. As my own running career continued to progress, I also realized how much I loved learning about the “why” behind my training and the physiology of it all; this led me to get my RRCA certification and begin virtual run coaching as well in 2024.
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?
It hasn’t always been easy to get to this point. Physical therapy school was certainly challenging, as it is a three-year clinical doctorate-level degree. In 2024, my twins were born, and the initial return to working while trying to both care for them and return to running proved to be quite difficult. Due to a number of factors related to fueling and training, I ended up with a sacral stress fracture this summer. This was the first major running injury that I had, and it directly affected my ability to connect with my local running community. I wasn’t able to join in my usual running club meet-ups or run with other friends, so I had to find other ways to connect with my patients and clients. I learned a lot of valuable lessons from that time that I will carry with me now that I’m back on the run – it gave me a whole new perspective.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m with an awesome team at TrueFix Physical Therapy, a clinic here in town with locations both in Overland Park and Shawnee. We are out of network with all commercial insurance payers; this allows us to avoid any potentially constraining issues with reimbursement for our services and, to the benefit of the patient, allows us to provide better quality care overall. I treat all orthopedic and musculoskeletal conditions, but the majority of my caseload is distance runners. I treat running injuries and offer performance-related services as well, like gait analyses and custom strength training programming. Additionally, I am a certified running coach with the group Running Explained, a virtual coaching community. These two roles inform each other – my knowledge about injuries and the science of running as a PT help inform my run coaching, especially for those who have past injuries, and my knowledge about training methodology and racing as a running coach helps inform my clinical decision-making as a PT.
What’s next?
As of right now, I just want to continue to work with local runners across the Kansas City metro and help them come back from injury, get stronger for their racing seasons, and educate on all things injury prevention. I lead a small-group strength training cohort in the winter time, an off-season of sorts for runners, and the second portion of that will begin in late January. I love getting involved with local races, and springtime brings quite a few of those as well – expect to see me out there at all the 2026 events!
Pricing:
- $185/session – physical therapy
- $185/month – 12 weeks of custom strength training programming
- $175-245/month for 1:1 custom run coaching
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.truefixphysicaltherapy.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natlamendola/
- Other: https://www.runningexplained.com/
