Exploring Life & Business with Bri Watts of Lotus Bodyworks

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bri Watts.

Hi Bri, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was always the “touchy, feely” kid. Whether it was massaging the family dog or rubbing on family members. So when I started massage school just a few weeks after graduating high school in 2000, I am sure it was no surprise to those who knew me. During the end of massage school, I endured a significant whiplash injury that would prove to be one of life’s biggest teachers for me.

It would lead me toward a deeper understanding of anatomy, a deeper understanding of both acute and chronic pain, and a deep compassion for the human experience. This neck injury would prove to be the painful catalyst for everything good in my life that was yet to come. Even though I barely made it through massage school due to my injuries, I graduated in 2002 as a certified massage therapist and certified sports massage therapist. The first mentor I had, my sports massage instructor, told me “You are going to heal from this injury. You are going to get better and you’re going to help a ton of people.”

I took a year off from doing massage after school and tried to heal my neck. I did just about every modality out there from pilates and chiropractic to energy healing and brain work. From there, I assumed that I was just going to have to learn how to live with my headaches and unhealed spine pain. Some bodywork made the pain worse, some would help a little, but it always returned to haunt me. During that time, that same mentor gave me a seasonal job on the Rocky Mountain Sports Massage Team and I built a successful private practice in Denver West. Successful in the sense that my clients there truly benefited from their sessions and referred others. But I found myself treating the same injuries with clients over and over again, wishing I had the answer of why, like mine, their past injuries would eventually return to haunt them too.

In 2006, a fellow therapist, who had been my bodyworker for my injuries, convinced me to take a weekend training for a new muscle therapy called PUSH Therapy. Since the therapy was new, I was fortunate to be able to learn directly from the creator himself, Michael Takatsuno. PUSH Therapy was unlike any other form of bodywork I had tried (and I tried them all!). And even though I wasn’t healed in a weekend, I felt a big enough pull in those few days that I knew that this was not only the answer to my injury but it was my calling. PUSH Therapy was the thing that was sent to soften me, save me, and set me free. And you know what freedom does when you get to the other side? It makes you want to go back and help free others…

PUSH is an acronym for Power Under Soft Hands. It’s a specialized form of muscle therapy specifically designed for releasing chronic tension and pain. Over the next year, under the power of soft hands, I started on my designed path toward freedom from my past injuries and became a certified PUSH therapist. In 2007, the creator of PUSH, Michael, gave me the opportunity to become one of his assistants, and I watched up close as he continued to create and develop this amazing bodywork as he certified therapists in California, Illinois, Colorado, and Utah.

Not long after, in 2008, another teacher would show up to guide me. And that teacher was in the form of another acute injury, breaking my right arm… in 5 places. With a broken arm, I couldn’t do traditional massage therapy anymore, so this is when I decided to retire as a massage therapist and do PUSH Therapy full time. With PUSH Therapy, I was able to help people in a fuller capacity, and to me, the potential seemed limitless. Over the next decade, my PUSH practice grew, along with my gratitude for my relief, and my clients experienced profound, long-lasting results.

In the spring of 2020, the global pandemic brought my PUSH Therapy practice to an absolute standstill. We could no longer use in-person manual therapy to treat our clients, friends, or families’ tension and pain. Our fearless PUSH founder, Michael had been in the background creating a new form of dynamic, progressive functional training and decided it was the right time to implement and share it with the world. I had been doing the training and having amazing results with tension release, strength, and increased mobility. Michael asked me to help him build the business and together, we decided to call it RooT Fx – Functional Strength and Mobility Training.

I was so grateful that I was able to be part of the process as we built an online community of people from all over the nation, all working towards finding a solution for their tension, pain, and lack of mobility. This form of training the body is the most unique form of functional training in the world. Its application is both dynamic and progressive. And as the classes, programs, and seminars continue to grow, Michael and I have worked together to bring it to life. We feel like RooT Fx can help an unlimited amount of people to become strong, functional, and mobile.

We want to change the narrative of living with dysfunction, pain, and reduction to one of living with grace, mobility, and experiencing a fullness of life’s activities.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As a bodyworker, I have had many challenges along my journey. Injuries, chronic illness, the death of family members, and a global pandemic. But I grew from these events in ways I wouldn’t have without them.

They made me the person, therapist, trainer, and teacher I am today. My practice wouldn’t be what it is now without the adversity and challenges I faced. We focus every day on what we can do to live a more dynamic and mobile life, no matter our situation, and we invite others to do the same.

As you know, we’re big fans of Lotus Bodyworks. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Lotus Bodyworks is the private practice of Certified PUSH Therapist Bri Watts and the home of PUSH Therapy and RooT Fx Functional Training.

Our RooT Fx Team of instructors offers both in-person and online private sessions, online group classes six days a week, online and in-person workshops, seminars, and Sports Clinics. I specialize in helping people with chronic pain, sports injuries, and repetitive injuries become strong and mobile. I teach people how to properly use their muscles and how to take the stress off their backs and joints.

How do you think about luck?
I feel so fortunate that I had amazing teachers, mentors, and guides I did along my path. All of them led me to understand that the magic in the world is found in our daily practices of being human.

Whether it be in our bodies, with the earth, or with the people around us, strengthening our connections enhances our lives. We can’t always be lucky. But we can always be more rooted and connected.

Contact Info:

• Website: lotusbodyworks.com
• Instagram: @bodyworkwithbri
• Other: rootfx.net

Image Credits
Kathy Spanski Photography