Your Questions Answered
Straight answers about how we work, who we help, and what to expect. If your question isn't here, the fastest way to get it answered is a quick call.
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No. Florida is a direct-access state, so you can start without a doctor's referral. Florida law allows up to 30 days of treatment before a physician needs to review the plan, but for most clients that window never becomes a factor. You can book and get answers this week.
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No. Nex is a cash-based, out-of-network concierge practice by choice. Insurance decides how long your session runs, what treatment is "allowed," and how many patients a therapist has to see in an hour. We don't build care around those limits. You get the full session, one-on-one with a doctor of physical therapy, built around your body and your training. Many clients still get money back: we provide a superbill you can submit for out-of-network reimbursement, and Florida direct access means no referral is needed to start.
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The right plan depends on what we find and what you're working toward, so we go over pricing on a quick call instead of dropping a one-size number here. You'll get the full cost and a Good Faith Estimate before anything is committed. What's worth weighing isn't the session cost. It's another year or two of recurring pain and missed training.
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Our studio is in North Miami Beach at 18384 West Dixie Hwy, Suite D. We work with active adults and athletes across North Miami Beach, Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach, Bal Harbour, and the surrounding Miami areas. If the studio isn't practical, we bring the session to your home or your gym in those areas. Most clients are seen within a few days. No waitlist.
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Both. Most clients train at our North Miami Beach studio, but we'll bring the session to your home or your gym across Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach, and Bal Harbour when your schedule needs it. At-home and on-site visits include a travel fee based on drive time, laid out clearly before you book.
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Yes. Virtual coaching works for clients who travel, live outside the area, or want to hold momentum between in-person visits. Same personalized programming, form coaching over video, and direct access to me. It's not a watered-down version of care.
Getting Started (Insurance, Cost, and Logistics)
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Yes, that's most of who we work with. Nex is built for people who lift, run, do CrossFit or HYROX, or compete recreationally and want to keep training through an injury instead of shutting it all down. We speak barbell. Whether it's low back pain under a deadlift, a shoulder that flares on overhead work, or knee pain from squats, lunges, and sled pushes, we treat the injury and rebuild the movement so you get back under load with a plan. Dr. Castro has coached and competed since 2014, so your training isn't something you have to explain from scratch.
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We treat the injuries that interrupt training and daily life for active adults: low back pain and sciatica, disc-related and movement-control issues, shoulder pain including rotator cuff, labral, and impingement problems, knee pain from patellar tendon issues, meniscus, or post-ACL and PCL surgery, hip pain and FAI, and the overuse injuries that come with lifting, running, CrossFit, and HYROX. We also handle return-to-sport and post-surgical rehab. If you're not sure your issue fits, a quick call sorts it out fast.
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Short version: soreness that fades in a day or two with normal movement is usually fine to train around. Pain that's sharp, one-sided, wakes you at night, sends numbness or tingling down a limb, or keeps showing up in the same spot for more than a week is worth getting assessed. Rest has a place, but open-ended rest is where a lot of people quietly lose strength and land right back where they started. The faster answer is almost never "stop everything," it's "load it the right way." If you're on the fence, an evaluation tells you which one you're dealing with instead of guessing.
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Almost always, yes. That's the whole point of how we work. We're built for people who refuse to stop training. Quitting everything is rarely the answer anyway. We modify what you do and how much, so your body keeps adapting while it heals instead of breaking down on the couch.
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Yes. Standard post-surgical rehab usually stops the moment you're "cleared," which means you can handle daily tasks, not that you're ready to train, lift, or play. That gap is exactly where people get stuck or reinjured. We pick it up there and rebuild real strength and confidence in the area so you get back to what you actually want to do.
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Almost certainly not. Structural findings on imaging are common in people with zero pain, including plenty of strong, active ones. A disc bulge or a labral tear on a scan does not decide what your body can do. What decides it is capacity: how well the surrounding system moves, absorbs load, and holds up under your training. That's what we build. The diagnosis is a data point, not a life sentence, and treating it like the end is how a lot of capable bodies get talked into the couch.
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When they help, yes, but they're never the plan. Dry needling, cupping, massage, and similar tools can take the edge off in the moment. They don't build the strength and movement capacity that actually keeps pain from coming back. If you've been bouncing between appointments that feel good for a day and then fade, that's the tell that the tool became the treatment. Here the fundamentals come first: progressive loading, intelligent programming, and real capacity. The tools support that work, they don't replace it.
Training, Injuries, and What We Treat
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At a typical insurance clinic, a therapist juggles 15 to 20 patients a day, your hour turns into 15 minutes of hands-on time, and you get handed a theraband while they move to the next room. Nex is the opposite by design. Every session is one-on-one with Dr. Castro, start to finish, no techs and no shared time. Because we're cash-based, insurance doesn't cap how long you're seen or how you're treated. And we don't stop at pain relief. We find why the injury happened and rebuild the strength and movement underneath it, so the fix holds. That's the difference between feeling better for a week and not ending up back here.
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We hear this constantly, and most of the time the reason it didn't stick is simple: you got symptom care, not root-cause care. Generic exercises, a rushed room, treatment aimed at where it hurts instead of why it hurts. Here it starts with a full assessment of how your body actually moves. We find the driver, then combine hands-on work with progressive strength so the result holds. The goal was never a week of relief. It's leaving stronger and more durable than before the pain started, so the cycle ends.
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There's a mountain of free content and some of it is good. But it's general, not built for you. Here's the tell: if the fix were as simple as a video, you wouldn't still be dealing with this. One session gives you a plan built for your body, your specific deficits, and your goals, instead of months of trial and error that keep landing you back at the same search bar.
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Honest answer: no one can promise 100% resolution, and anyone who guarantees a full fix before assessing you is lying. The body is complex. But a plan built around your specific body beats guessing on your own or cycling through generic care. If we hit a wall, I'll find out why, and if that means bringing in another professional, I'll do it. Your outcome is the point.
Is This Right For Me?
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The right plan depends on what we find and what you're working toward, so we go over pricing on a quick call rather than dropping a one-size number here. You'll get the full cost and a Good Faith Estimate before anything is committed. The real cost to weigh isn't the session. It's another year or two of recurring pain and missed training.
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It depends on what we find and what you're training for, and anyone who quotes you a number before assessing you is guessing. That said, most people aren't looking at an open-ended commitment. The evaluation gives you a 90-day roadmap with a clear starting point and a real endpoint, because the goal is for you to manage your own body, not depend on me forever.
What to Expect
Still Have Questions?
The fastest way to get them answered is a quick call. No pressure, no commitment. Just clarity on whether this is the right fit for you.