Brookline Residents Bring Wellness In Motion To Washington Square

BROOKLINE, MA — You may have seen the sign in the window in one of the empty store fronts in Washington Square. Wellness in Motion opened quietly where previously there was once a hair salon.

What does that mean? Two Brookline residents, a husband and wife duo, have expanded their Beacon Hill business to open a second chiropractic, yoga, and wellness center geared specifically to athletic individuals (their first is in Boston).

Wellness in Motion is the first chiropractic wellness center of its kind in the Boston area. They take on patients who have sports-related muscle injuries; from pro athletes to day-to-day runners, triathletes, and skiiers. The center offers a mix of massage therapy, acupuncture, cupping and chiropractic work as well as yoga for athletes. And the owners, themselves, are athletes.

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"We want to treat people who are active," said Ian Nurse, owner of the center with his wife Amanda, and a trained chiropractic. "Athletes like to be treated by other athletes, there's nothing like having a doc who says stop running. For a runner that's just not an option."

The chiropractic and wellness centers offer deep tissue sports massages and a no frills everyone-is-welcome style yoga as they recover; perfect for runners recovering after the Boston Marathon, but also for those working to heal from sports-related injuries.

"Most people think of people who crack backs and are only focused on the spine. Whereas the newer generation [of chiropractors] are more focused on muscle and geared toward repetitive use injuries," said Ian.

Ian specializes in a type of active release technique that breaks up scar tissue that forms through overuse by using the muscle in full range of motion.

"I can crack your back every day and it might not do anything for you. The real thing is muscles move bones."

"My job is really satisfying because it's the last resort for a lot of people and they're really fed up with traditional medicine. They're told to take some medicine that they don't know anything about or a shot or rest. This is a breath of fresh air for many of them," said Ian.

There are definitely people, he can't help but he says he's honest with those folks and he does his best to refer people to places where they can go to get their treatment if it's not what he does.

"I'm not a magician, even though I'd love to touch your leg and the problem is solved but it's not that easy."

How it came to be:

The duo moved to Brookline in 2015. Originally from Acton and Portland, Maine, New England weather and activities run through their veins. So does a desire to help people.

Ian grew up in Acton and played soccer and lacrosse in high school and continued that at Colby College where he was an American Literature major who wanted to become a teacher. He worked at a charter school after college, missed sports, so got into running, which as with so many college athletes helped fill that need to be active as an adult. He took a job at Central Square's Miracle of Science, a job he planned to have for a year while he thought about applying for Grad School. And one year turned into five years there. His life was running, managing the bar and visits to his chiropractor who'd helped him with running-related injuries.

As his 30th birthday approached, he took stock of his life and knew it was time to make a career change.

He told his chiropractor how he was frustrated and was considering a career change.

He remembers she dropped the hint that he might want to go back to school for it. "I remember her saying we need more sports-oriented chiropractors," he said.

And something clicked.

"It was like a light bulb went off. It was like: That's awesome," he said. "Runners all deal with the same running injuries. I thought it would be such a good job to help get rid of people's running problems."

He moved out to Oregon in January 2009 to get training in it, and came back in May of 2012 and worked in the same chiropractic office where he was first encouraged to go out for the job. But not long after, he branched out on his own with his own practice, which opened in 2014.

Suddenly that space was too small and he was set to move to Old City Hall. With Amanda's help, they turned an open conference room into a yoga space, adding that for the first time in 2016.

Amanda also had a background in sports in college (Bowdoin College for education undergrad and social work at BU where she got her masters). She, like Ian, switched careers looking for a way to incorporate her athleticism and desire to help others and became the yoga manager and instructor.

And the two created the thing they discovered just wasn't available: A place where people who had sports related injuries could get treatment from people who understood sports-related injuries and how to recover from them.

Both Amanda and Ian are known as the running couple they're active with various Boston running and athletic groups, Amanda went to the Olympic trials in London for marathon running.

In October the couple had their first child. And of course, on April 16, off the couple ran in the Boston Marathon. Amanda came in the top 20 female runners, and was the second fastest woman from Massachusetts.

>> You might want to check out both of their times: Brookline's Fastest Men And Women: Boston Marathon 2018.

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Photos of the space by Jenna Fisher/Patch Photo of Ian and Amanda courtesy Ian. Charles River, April 2016