We have another relatively new staff member that we would love to have you know better here at Tomsic PT! In October of 2020, we welcomed Dr. Nathan Dailey onto our staff just days after he finished his service with the US Army.
– How did you end up in Durango and where did you live previously?
My wife was fortunate enough to get a tenure-track professor position in Marketing at FLC early in FEB 2020 before this COVID craziness began. I was nearing the end of my contract w/ the Army and was excited to move out here with her and our 4-year-old son. My wife was coming from a professor position at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and I was finishing an assignment at Fort Sill, OK (one of 4 basic training posts for the Army in the US). We are so happy to now call Durango home and to have our son grow up where there’s snow!
– What do you love about working in Durango/at Tomsic?
One of the first things I noticed after only a few days of working here is how incredibly fit so many of the Durango residents are into their later years. So often we see the poor health outcomes associated with inactivity and Durango is an incredible little microcosm, a testament to how powerful remaining active is. I love treating patients who tell me that they ABSOLUTELY MUST return to skiing, hiking 14’ers, mountain biking and playing 2+ hour games of pickle ball.
Regarding the staff, I have been overjoyed to find that not one of them is unkind, mean-spirited or attempts to undermine me or the other members of the team; this was definitely not the case with some of my previous jobs and it makes going to work every day a pleasure.
– What are your special interests in PT and how do you incorporate them into your clinical time at Tomsic?
Anyone who talks to me for more than five seconds will realize that I am incredibly passionate about incorporating traditional elements of strength training into my clinical practice. I love not just incorporating the loaded movements themselves, but geeking out about such minutiae as load progression, volume manipulation and periodization. As most of the patients who come to see me have athletic goals (return to hiking every week for at least 9 miles per hike, be able to run across Zion National Monument in a single day, return to swing dancing), marrying these patients’ rehab w/ sport performance makes sense to me. This is something I did nearly every day while in the military and I am incredibly excited to bring this treatment style to the Durango community.
– What’s one fun fact about yourself that you’d like to share?
I am incredibly afraid of heights, but that didn’t stop me from jumping out of a perfectly good airplane (skydiving) in the spring of 2014 w/ my wife or sitting in the hurricane seat (near the window facing the wind) on several Black Hawk flights in Iraq. I continue to try to face my fears.
– Anything else that you’d like to highlight, feel free to share!
I am passionate about reducing the risk of injury to athletes (tactical or civilian) through careful manipulation of training load and slow introduction of resistance training. I have a white board and plenty of dry erase markers and am all too happy to share the insights I’ve learned!
Nathan, we are so happy to have you on our team!
