by John Davis, Community Relations Director
Hagen Davis can clearly recall the chain of events that led to him pursuing a career as a physical therapist. As a football player at Leake County Academy, Davis suffered a herniated disk injury during two-a-day practices.
His pain didn’t dissipate in a few days, forcing him to endure greater and greater pain, and eventually seek the medical expertise of an orthopedic surgeon. That visit led Davis to meet his first physical therapist, and within a few months, he was back playing basketball and baseball.
“That was the end of my high school football career,” Davis added. “To this day, it was the worst pain in my life. But I did the physical therapy exercises and that was a blessing from the Lord. I knew that was such an important job, and it made such a difference in my life.”
Davis ended up in Oxford at Ole Miss over 3 years ago. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science in May of 2025. Davis has been commuting back and forth from Olive Branch daily as he undergoes clinicals to become a physical therapist.
“It has been a lot of studying and been challenging, but I have really enjoyed the experience of becoming a physical therapist,” Davis said. “I work clinicals from 8 in the morning until 3. I go to the gym to get a brain break and then spend the rest of the night studying.”
Davis earned his personal trainer certificate after his freshman year at Ole Miss, and he worked 3 years training clients at Rebel Body Fitness. Davis came up with a new class offering — Mobility & Strength Training — to help combine his knowledge of personal training with the specifics that he is learning in PT school.
He said posture and tight muscles are tied together in a lot of cases.
“People spend a lot of time on laptops and not moving around much. You can see a lot of similarities in muscles that are inherently tight in patients due to certain postures we adopt,” Davis said. “We have muscles that don’t get as much attention and get weak. I will help people target the muscles that don’t usually get targeted but need to be turned on. And turn off the muscles that are over active.”
Over the past year, Davis said he has learned a lot and helped patients move back to a normal setting through clinicals. He has a plan to implement exercises that will help all sorts of muscles, including some people don’t have much knowledge on. Better education, and the implementation of a physical routine, should also help prevent some injuries.
“For example, there is a muscle called the transverse abdominis that holds everything steady and braces the spine and how important it is for the body,” Davis said. “We will do core exercises, exercises like bird dogs that helps improves stability, posture and lower back health. I will be able to help them know when the muscle is on and off and how it helps and what it does.”
The first Mobility and Strength Training session is an expo that is free for ages 18 and up to participate in. All other class options are just $10. Sign up now through the OPC website for the class dates that work best for your schedule.
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