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How a Busy Mom Found Time, Lost the Back Pain, and Got Her Life Back
Shaina Ziolkowski will be the first to tell you she is not a natural gym person.
She doesn’t love to sweat. She doesn’t enjoy hard, physical things.
And when her chiropractor and a close friend both told her she needed to start strength training, her first instinct was to prove them wrong — not by refusing to go, but by showing up and demonstrating she simply couldn’t make it work.
“I came to prove to myself that I didn’t have time for it,” she said. “And it’s never been a problem attending.”
That was January 2025. Shaina was homeschooling six kids, managing a full and demanding household, and living with chronic mid-back pain that sent her to the chiropractor every single week.
Today, that back pain is gone. Her chiropractor visits have dropped from weekly appointments to once every four weeks — for maintenance.
Her energy is up. Her body feels like it’s holding itself together in a way it never did before. And Shaina, who once believed she had no room in her life for strength training, hasn’t missed a beat.
“I HAD NO EXCUSE NOT TO COME”
For a lot of people, the biggest barrier to getting started isn’t motivation — it’s the story they tell themselves about ‘time’.
Shaina had every reason to tell that story. She homeschools her children and manages a household that, by any measure, runs at full speed every single day. She also has a son who has severe cerebral palsy and requires physical care that most people will never fully understand.
But when she sat down and looked at the reality of her schedule against the reality of PowerStrength — one hour, with multiple session times available throughout the day — she ran out of excuses.
“There are so many slots during the day that you have no excuse not to come twice a week,” she said.
What made it stick wasn’t just the schedule flexibility. It was the structure.
Shaina is honest about the fact that she’s never been self-motivated at a gym. Without accountability, she won’t push herself – and without a plan, she won’t show up.
At PowerStrength, every part of the session is led by a coach 100%.
“Once the appointment is made, I’m committed,” she said. “I don’t have to come up with my own thing to do. It’s always changing, so it’s not boring. And it’s challenging in a good way — mentally and physically.”
That single structural shift — trading open-ended gym access for a scheduled, trainer-led session — is what turned a lifelong pattern of starting and stopping into something that finally works.
FROM WEEKLY CHIROPRACTIC VISITS TO NO BACK PAIN
Shaina didn’t come to PowerStrength because she wanted to look different. She came because her back hurt — consistently, persistently, and in a way that was affecting her daily life.
Her chiropractor, who trains at PowerStrength himself, was direct with her: if you don’t start lifting, you’re never going to fix this.
He was right.
Since committing to strength training and building a stronger core, Shaina’s mid-back pain has effectively disappeared. The tension that used to lock up her back and limit her rotation is gone.
“I actually wasn’t even able to rotate my back before because whatever was bothering it, I was just super stiff,” she said. “Now I have way more rotation, and I’m just physically better.”
The change showed up everywhere — not just in her back. Headaches that used to come regularly faded. Energy that had been running low started coming back. Everyday tasks that once required effort started feeling effortless.
“Life just seems easier,” she said. “I feel like my body is holding itself up better. I have a stronger core, so everything else is easier.”
STRONGER FOR WHAT MATTERS MOST
For Shaina, getting stronger isn’t about performance numbers or aesthetics. It’s about being capable for the life she actually lives.
Her son Ben is 15 years old, weighs 75 pounds, and has severe cerebral palsy. Every day, Shaina lifts and transfers him — from his bed to his wheelchair, from his chair to the floor. It’s physical work that doesn’t stop, and for a long time, it came with a cost.
“If I lifted him too many times in a day, I used to get worse back pain. That just doesn’t happen anymore.”
That sentence is worth sitting with.
The chronic back pain that once compounded with every transfer, every lift, every moment of caregiving — it’s gone.
Not managed. Gone.
This is what strength training actually looks like in a real person’s real life. It’s not about the gym or the numbers, it’s about what you can do when you leave it.
BUILDING A LIFE SHE CAN COUNT ON
Shaina is in her early 40s, and she thinks about the future with unusual clarity.
She has watched people she loves — family members — quietly resign themselves to getting older. Less activity. Less capability. Less life.
“They decided they were old,” she said, “and they just did less and less.”
She has decided that won’t be her story.
“I am super confident that as long as I keep this up, I will be fine when I’m in my 50s, 60s, 70s. I just want to be stronger. I don’t want to be resigned to old age when it just doesn’t have to happen the same way.”
The research Shaina has done on her own lines up with what she’s experienced firsthand. Muscle is medicine. Strength built now is health protected later. The decade ahead of you is shaped by the habits you build today.
“I think that when you’re older, it’s a lot easier to train to avoid injury than it is to be injured and then try to walk back from that,” she said. “The more physically fit and strong your body is now, you’re setting yourself up in a good way for the future.”
When Shaina sat down for this interview, she was two weeks from welcoming her seventh child — and still training. But what matters most about Shaina’s story isn’t that she trained through a pregnancy. It’s that she built a foundation of strength that has changed the way she moves through every single day — and will continue to for decades to come.
“PowerStrength is a lifestyle,” she said. “In a good way. And something that you need to do for the rest of your life.”
READY TO MAKE YOUR NEXT 10 YEARS YOUR STRONGEST EVER?
Men and women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s who want to get stronger and have more energy can join the Personal Training Program at PowerStrength at any time. No previous workout experience is required — each program is customized to the fitness and ability level of each individual.
Multiple personal training sessions are offered in the early morning, mid-morning, late afternoon, and evening. Find your nearest PowerStrength location — Alpine, Kentwood, Jenison, Plainfield, Holland, or Byron Center
Click HERE to learn more program details and schedule your risk-free consultation.