When pain makes you question your next move, Dr. Derick Luu helps you find a way forward.

When pain interrupts your training, work, or everyday routine, you want more than a list of things to avoid. You want someone who understands what you are trying to get back to. Dr. Derick Luu, DC, MSc, brings together hospital-based rehabilitation experience, research into complex regional pain syndrome, and firsthand experience as a competitive powerlifter to help you work toward that return.

As a chiropractor in Waterloo, Dr. Luu provides comprehensive musculoskeletal care, with particular depth in barbell sports and strength training, post-surgical conditions, and chronic pain. His approach combines research, clinical experience, and your priorities rather than making a diagnosis the whole story of your care.

You do not need a competition on the calendar or a complicated medical history to see him. Whether your goal is to return to lifting or feel more capable in daily life, your starting point and the activities that matter most to you guide the work.

You do not have to be a strength athlete to benefit from Dr. Luu’s rehabilitation-focused care.

Dr. Derick Luu, DC, MSc, offers general chiropractic assessment and treatment grounded in rehabilitation and strength and conditioning. His private-practice experience spans everyday musculoskeletal concerns and athletic rehabilitation, from youth through older adulthood. That breadth matters when you need a plan that fits your abilities rather than an assumption about how active you should be.

His work at Altum Health at Toronto Western Hospital has involved post-surgical orthopaedic conditions and complex pain alongside an interdisciplinary team. He also teaches clinicians and coaches through the Barbell Rehab Method certification course and supervises chiropractic interns at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College.

For you, these roles bring clinical rehabilitation, practical exercise programming, and an educator’s perspective into the same conversation. The focus is not simply on doing an exercise, but understanding how it connects to your goals. He also speaks conversational Cantonese.

Your care connects hands-on treatment, purposeful exercise, and a team working toward your goals.

Derick’s approach begins with assessment: understanding your concerns, examining your movement and physical capacity, and considering what you need to do at home, at work, or in sport. Your treatment plan draws on those findings, your preferences, and the demands of your daily life.

His chiropractic care may include soft tissue therapy, joint mobilization or manipulation, pain education, and exercise rehabilitation, selected according to your needs. Strength and conditioning are central to his approach, while graded exposure offers a structured way to work toward activities you have become hesitant to attempt. He considers the physical, psychological, and social factors that may affect your rehabilitation, rather than looking only at a painful body part.

At CARESPACE Uptown Waterloo, this approach fits within coordinated, multidisciplinary care. Derick brings experience collaborating with physiotherapists, occupational therapists, kinesiologists, psychotherapists, and orthopaedic surgeons. Where appropriate, your care can connect with other professionals so that rehabilitation supports your broader health and return-to-activity goals.

His clinical teaching and CRPS research bring depth to the decisions you make about your recovery.

Derick earned his Bachelor of Arts in Kinesiology at York University, followed by his Doctor of Chiropractic with honours at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. He completed a research-based Master of Science in Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University, focusing on complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS).

That combination connects movement science, clinical assessment, and a deeper examination of persistent pain. It gives your care a foundation in both clinical work and research, with an emphasis on understanding the reasoning behind rehabilitation decisions rather than relying on a single technique.

As a clinical educator at CMCC, he teaches and supervises fourth-year chiropractic interns. His Barbell Rehab teaching focuses on managing musculoskeletal injuries and pain in barbell athletes, linking rehabilitation principles with practical training decisions.

His previous leadership of a conservative chronic pain program adds experience with assessment, physical capacity testing, and exercise-focused rehabilitation. Across these settings, the emphasis stays on function and what your care needs to help you do.

Your training, post-surgical recovery, or persistent pain deserves more than a one-size-fits-all exercise plan.

In addition to general chiropractic care, Derick brings focused experience to three areas where the details of your activity and recovery matter.

Your barbell training deserves care that understands the lifts you want to return to. Through his work with powerlifters and weightlifters, Derick has combined chiropractic assessment, rehabilitation programming, and collaboration with coaches. If pain is disrupting your strength training, that background helps keep your training goals part of the rehabilitation conversation. Exercise, graded exposure, and strength and conditioning can be considered within an individualized plan, rather than treating your sport as separate from your recovery.

Your post-surgical rehabilitation should connect with the rest of your care. Derick’s hospital-based experience includes assessing and treating post-surgical orthopaedic conditions alongside surgical and rehabilitation professionals. That work has also involved coordinating return-to-work plans. Whether you are working toward job duties, everyday tasks, or sport, the focus is on understanding your current capacity and the next appropriate steps. Your surgical team’s guidance and any restrictions remain important to planning care; being eager to progress does not mean skipping those considerations.

Your chronic pain deserves attention to both your experience and your function. Derick’s master’s research focused on complex regional pain syndrome, and his clinical background includes complex chronic pain rehabilitation. His approach can draw on pain neuroscience education, exercise rehabilitation, and graded exposure as appropriate. These tools are considered in the context of your needs, not presented as a single formula for CRPS. The aim is to support understanding, movement, and participation in activities that matter to you, while recognizing the value of coordinated care when pain is complex.

Derick knows the commitment behind your goals because he has competed on the world stage.

Derick represented Team Canada at the 2023 IPF World Powerlifting Championships and earned a national championship title that same year. He knows the training and commitment behind stepping onto a competition platform because he has done it himself. You do not have to share his sport to connect with that perspective: your goals deserve to be taken seriously, whether they involve a barbell, your work, or an activity you miss.

Book your first visit and take the next step toward moving with greater confidence.

Book your appointment with Derick today to explore a rehabilitation-focused plan for your pain, post-surgical recovery, or training goals—and begin working toward the activities that matter to you.