Meet Lina Cook

I started gymnastics when I was 5. During my entire childhood and well into my teenage years, I trained 5-6 hours a day 5 days a week as a competitive gymnast. As a level 10 gymnast, it was school, conditioning, gymnastics repeat, and lots of traveling. I even was homeschooled during my 6th-grade year to allow for more training time. My mom cleaned the 15,000-square-foot gymnastics facility at night to pay my tuition. Moving to Nashville as a teenager was a huge culture shock compared to Southern California. When I decided to go to a Historically black college, I knew continuing gymnastics wouldn’t be an option. There was no HBCU that had a gymnastics program. I am proud of the decision I made to attend Fisk University and the black college experience. After graduating from Fisk University, I returned to Los Angeles and pursued a doctorate degree in chiropractic and sports medicine. I decided on this because growing up in the gymnastics world I was surrounded by chiropractors. Most of us didn’t want to see a surgeon (although sometimes necessary) because that could mean a career-ending injury. Everyone’s constantly trying to avoid that. At least that was our thought process at the time. We (young gymnasts) wanted to preserve our bodies and prevent injuries. I went on to work at several orthopedic surgery group practices.

In 2019 I started my own practice and a blog. https://www.drlinacook.com. I currently work at a Pain Management clinic with some really great healthcare providers in a multidisciplinary practice setting.

Fisk University recently announced the first HBCU women’s gymnastics team. It’s really cool to have a front-row seat to history being made. So currently I help them as much as I can; medical recommendations, coaching, fundraising, marketing, and consulting. Honestly anywhere they need me. I also love the girls on the team and connecting with them. They are so talented, smart, and ambitious. I hope to advocate for them in ways that only someone that’s been in their shoes can. My experiences are similar, which is, growing up as the only black girl in a predominantly white high-end sport. I am so thankful to Coach Corrine Tarver and Frank Simmons for always keeping me in the loop and including me. I am a former level 10 gymnast and an alumna so it’s only fitting. I’m so excited they got the opportunity that I didn’t have. They don’t have to choose between an HBCU and continuing gymnastics. Life is so unpredictable, it’s exciting to see everything come full circle. If you’re interested in the first ever HBCU women’s gymnastics team please visit https://fiskgymnastics.com and consider donating!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Smooth? Absolutely not. So obviously training like that at such a young age is hard. I have been setting goals and balancing a rigorous schedule since an extremely young age. Sometimes my work ethic is a little intense compared to my peers. In my first job out of graduate school, the company had some questionable business practices. I really struggled with this. The harder I tried to be positive and make positive changes the more pushback I got. That was bewildering to me. I was working long hours at multiple locations with no paid sick or vacation time. During that time, I also lost my grandmother whom I was close to. In addition to my mother having her own health issues and trying to be there for the family. It was just a really hard time for me in general. I’m no stranger to adversity but with so much loss at one time by myself in one of the most expensive cities in the world I struggled. I can admit that now. It really took a toll on me mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Unfortunately at the time, all I could see was failure. I was failing at work, as a friend, as a partner, as a daughter just failing at everything no matter how hard I tried to improve. I desperately needed something to go right and nothing good comes out of desperation. For someone like me, failure isn’t an option. My gymnastics mindset is repetition and pushing myself way past my limits which just led to anxiety, panic attacks, fear, burnout, tears, and hopelessness. Then I would be frustrated with being frustrated. The work environment was toxic, plain and simple. Then there was the obstacle of getting out of the one-sided work contract which was a whole other battle in itself. Then the pandemic hit. I couldn’t catch a break. I didn’t have the perspective of maybe I’m struggling or maybe this just isn’t a good fit.  All I’m thinking to myself is you’re not working hard enough and stop complaining.  Work harder. I think people around me assume that I always have it together and during that last year, that wasn’t the case. I think those closest to me found that hard to believe. That made asking for help challenging. Most people didn’t believe that work was having such a negative effect on me physically and I didn’t want to disappoint anyone.

Many of us learned a lot about ourselves during the pandemic and identified where changes need to be made in our lives. I don’t think that time was easy for anyone. Looking back there was a lot of drama and I believe that’s why I was struggling so much because I’m not confrontational and I hate drama. I like positivity, laughter, growth, solutions, strategizing, and learning from past mistakes. If you’re working hard and committed, we all deserve to flourish at work. That’s just not the work environment I was in. This environment was focused on intimidation, fear, and threats.

These experiences, although painful, taught me so much. I’m tremendously grateful for the people that didn’t give up on me when that may have been an easier option. I learned my limitations, discerning when to push myself and when to rest, forgiveness including forgiving myself, perseverance, stress management, setting healthy boundaries and actually sticking to them, and improving my communication skills with those I love. With therapy I was able to address people pleasing, and how to walk away from people and situations that no longer serve me without feeling like a quitter. Pulling myself out of such a dark place really increased my self-esteem and confidence. Many people can relate to this and if you’ve done this for yourself you should be very proud. Overall it taught me how to take better care of myself. Bouncing back after a season of defeat has become my specialty. There are still days I feel like I’m failing but there’s no day that goes by that I feel like losing. That’s what keeps me going. My competitive nature always helps me refocus. The things that I accomplish after tons of self-work are remarkable. I like to face problems head-on because once I make it through the storm I’m confident I will come out stronger and better. Regardless of what anyone thinks or says, that was a tough time period in my life but not who I am. I have to remind myself of this often. I’ve wasted a lot of time trying to be perfect and those days are over. If I’m not learning something or it’s not bringing me joy, I don’t want to be involved. I’m in such a better place surrounded by people that love and support me. It shows through their actions. I think we are all searching for that and trust me it’s out there.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
The purpose of my blog was to share knowledge on common musculoskeletal injuries, injury prevention, and rehab. The goal was to share insight from my professional colleagues in all specialties. I wanted to create a network of surgeons, primary care physicians, chiropractors, physical therapists, and parents that are familiar with the struggles of student-athletes. My goal was to help athletes transition after sports. Many amazing athletes do not make it to the Olympics, the NFL, or the NBA. Learning how to transfer the productive skills learned like discipline, time management, and teamwork from sports into your job or other aspects of your life is important. People seemed to really like the blog and thought it was beneficial. I’m proud of that. My target audience has always been overachieving student-athletes, parents, coaches, and the medical professionals that treat them.

I have successfully earned a Diplomate from the American Chiropractic Board of Sports Physicians (DACBSP®) certification. It requires the doctor to attend a minimum of 300 hours of postgraduate education, take and successfully pass a comprehensive written examination, a practical (hands-on) exam, submit a sports injury-related paper published in a peer-reviewed journal and a minimum of 100 hours providing hands-on treatment to athletes outside of the clinical setting.This certification provides me with knowledge on treating sports-related injuries and injury prevention.

With a patient-focused practice approach, professional athletes, young athletes, dancers, weekend warriors, PI cases, worker’s compensation cases, gymnasts, and athletes from a wide range of sports all seek treatment. During the summer I love coaching gymnastics camps, doing private lessons and seeing kids have fun and thrive. Kids should be able to be kids and I am passionate about that. I can’t describe the joy of working with a kid and they finally nail a skill. Their eyes light up and they are extremely excited. The feeling of accomplishment is palpable. In my spare time, I love traveling and I also enjoy mentoring student-athletes and medical mission trips.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What I love most about Nashville is the HBCU culture. I love attending Fisk and Tennessee State University homecoming events, like the parade. I love how so many people from the community come together for those events.

I love the food and southern hospitality. What do I like the least, well I’m from Los Angeles so I would say the weather.