Clinical sports physical therapy specialist and personal trainer Vijay Daryanani said there are five fundamental building blocks to life:
“If you remove one of those five pillars, you’ve adjusted 20%, and then if you take away one more of those pillars, well now you’ve adjusted 40%,” Daryanani said.
“That’s not Newton’s Theory of Relativity, it’s pretty straightforward when you think about it. The night you don’t sleep so well you wake up the next day and don’t perform so well, right? When you’re thirsty, you can’t really exercise as well. If you don’t exercise you feel lethargic. If you have a bad meal, you don’t feel so great. If you don’t find time to be spiritual and slow down and meditate, that also affects you,” Daryanani added.
They’re all little components, Daryanani said, of who we are as humans.
Daryanani has worked with Spaulding Rehabilitation for 25 years as part of the Mass General Brigham network. For the last 10 years he has also served as the site supervisor of the outpatient centers at the Lynch/Van Otterloo YMCA and the Jewish Community Center. He runs physical therapy clinics at the Marblehead JCC and YMCA, and also owns a personal training business, V Fit Productions.
He has been working with Spaulding since 1999. Daryanani, who grew up in Wakefield, is a second-generation American whose father is from India and mother is from China.
Daryanani said he always liked sports growing up, which led him to pursue physical therapy.
“I was just very fortunate to find a profession where I could help people,” he said.
Daryanani was initially a staff physical therapist. Shortly after beginning his career as a physical therapist, he started V Fit.
“The passion, which I think is important when you’re involved in health care, is helping people,” Daryanani said. “I say this at least once a day, that I’ve never gone to work. I enjoy thoroughly what I do and I get an opportunity to impact people on various levels.
“As a physical therapist, oftentimes there is a physical ailment, but a lot of times we’re able to work with individuals on a far deeper level, whether it’s emotionally, psychologically, mentally, socially. We get an opportunity to really work and completely heal someone and help restore their function, and they get a chance to be a productive part of society,” he said.
He serves patients as young as 10 years old and as old as 99. However, they all share something in common: They want to stay fit and live active lifestyles.
Daryanani said he started working in personal training because he had time on his hands and wanted to give back more.
“Physical therapy is an intervention, but personal training is more prevention,” Daryanani said.
He cherishes the personal relationships he has developed over time and said it is much more rewarding and enriching when he builds these close bonds with clients and patients.
“We’re in a unique environment in Marblehead and Swampscott where health care has such a high priority and individuals value those healthcare professionals,” he said. “Whether it’s a physical therapist, a personal trainer, a yoga instructor, a pilates instructor, there’s a lot of deep-rooted relationships you develop, so you almost become a family.
“They know my wife, they know my kids, we go to dinners with them, we get invited to weddings,” he said. “It’s really family, it’s really community, so that’s what’s so special about what we have up here.”
— Vijay Daryanani
If 1% of the population was a little more patient or a little more flexible or a little more understanding, this entire world would change.
Daryanani specializes in orthopedic and sports-related injuries. He has a staff of 10 therapists that service close to 20,000 patients every year.
At the Spaulding JCC, his team includes Patient Service Representative Jayne Ryan, Physical Therapy Technician Bill Wyman, Staff Physical Therapy Assistant Blake Forman, and Staff Physical Therapists Michael Clem and Chris Morin. At the Spaulding YMCA, it includes Patient Service Representative Eliza Johnson, Physical Therapy Technician Stephen Badger, Staff Physical Therapy Assistant Catherine Roy, and Staff Physical Therapists Mary Delaney, Frank Giordano, Jennifer Gray, Cathy Millen, Shawn Pedicini, and Kristen Woodman.
He said he finds it gratifying to see patients get back on the ski slopes after injuries, or to help someone who wants to walk with more strength and endurance.
Typically when he meets with a client for physical therapy, he asks what their goal is. Based on their answer, Daryanani tailors a program specifically for them.
Daryanani said he will travel pretty much anywhere to teach proper form, technique, body control, and mechanics.
“I’m a very mobile person and I phrase it as total body solutions,” he said.
Because of his unique background, Daryanani worked for ESPN at the Winter and Summer X Games for 20 years.
“I was able to work on a greater stage with athletes that are performing tricks on snowboards, skateboards, and bicycles so my background gave me that ability to travel to Aspen, Colo. for many years, and Los Angeles,” he said.
Over the years, he has built relationships with orthopedic and primary-care physicians. A lot of his business comes from word-of-mouth referrals.
Daryanani noted that as the health-care landscape is changing, he feels grateful that he is able to help the community by giving patients access to great physical therapy services that allow people to live better.
“I feel like that’s such an important part of health care that’s overlooked,” he said. “Through our Mass General Brigham system, I’m able to help individuals who normally have to wait certain time frames to get in to see physicians. We’re able to facilitate faster service for them to be seen.
“Our system has been wonderful and we’ve massaged it over time — no pun intended — to give people access, and I think that’s really a fun part of it,” he said.
Some tips for his clients and patients include setting realistic goals, being mindful and present, and putting in the necessary time and effort. The most important thing, he said, is to feel good physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally.
In doing so, he said people will impact others around them more positively. Daryanani said that he often jokes about the impact that a small number of people could have on the wider world.
“If 1% of the population was a little more patient or a little more flexible or a little more understanding, this entire world would change,” he said.
