Physio Room

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The Role of a Physical Therapist in Running Longevity and Performance

Taylor Aglio — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 02:16:38 +0000

The Role of a Physical Therapist in Running Longevity and Performance

Running can be wonderfully simple: lace up your shoes, step outside, and go.

Becoming a stronger, faster, and more resilient runner, however, is anything but simple.

Whether you’re training for your first 5K, chasing a PR, or preparing for your next ultra, a performance-focused physical therapist can play an important role in helping you stay healthy, train consistently, and perform at your best.

But physical therapy for runners doesn’t have to start when something hurts. A running assessment can give you a better understanding of how your body moves, how it responds as training demands increase, and where there may be opportunities to improve.

How Can a Running Assessment Help?

A running assessment goes beyond simply watching you run. It combines an outside perspective with objective data and an understanding of your training history, goals, strength, mobility, and previous injuries.

Here’s what that can look like.

1. Get an Outside Perspective on Your Running

Runners spend countless hours thinking about their training, but surprisingly few spend time objectively evaluating how they actually run.

And that’s understandable. It’s incredibly difficult to accurately assess your own stride while you’re moving at speed.

You may think you’re overstriding when you’re not. You might believe you’re a heel or forefoot striker when the reality is the opposite—you’d be surprised how often this happens. Or you may not realize how significantly your mechanics change as you fatigue.

That’s where an outside perspective becomes valuable.

A physical therapist can observe your running mechanics and identify movement patterns that may be difficult to recognize on your own. More importantly, those observations can be considered alongside your training history, goals, strength, mobility, and injury history to create a more complete picture.

2. Use Objective Data to Understand Your Stride

A running assessment doesn’t have to rely solely on what the eye can see.

Using specialized technology, a physical therapist can collect objective data on factors such as:

Hip, knee, and ankle joint angles
Cadence
Dynamic stability
Impact magnitude
Symmetry

These measurements can provide a more detailed look at what’s happening during your stride.

Assessments can also incorporate a progressive speed test. By gradually increasing your pace, we can see how your mechanics and running metrics change from an easy-run pace all the way through threshold effort.

And importantly, the goal isn’t to find a “perfect” running form.

The goal is to understand your running mechanics and determine whether there are opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce unnecessary stress, or build greater capacity for the demands you’re placing on your body.

3. Think Proactively—Not Just Reactively

One of the biggest misconceptions about running injuries is that they happen in a single moment.

Sometimes they do.

But many running injuries develop gradually as stress accumulates over time. Factors can include:

Weeks or months of increasing mileage
A sudden change in intensity
Insufficient recovery
Changes in fueling
Strength deficits
Repetitive movement patterns
Simply asking your body to do more than it currently has the capacity to handle

The day you finally feel pain may be the day you notice the problem—not necessarily the day the problem started.

This is where physical therapy can shift from being purely reactive to being proactive.

Instead of waiting until something hurts enough to stop you from running, a physical therapist can help identify areas that may need attention and develop a plan to address them.

That could mean improving strength, modifying training load, addressing mobility limitations, refining mechanics, improving recovery strategies, or simply helping you better understand how your body is responding to training.

The Importance of Having a Physical Therapist in Your Corner

Running is inherently uncomfortable.

When you’re in the final 400 meters of a 5K, your quads are going to be screaming. When you’re 60 miles into an ultra, your legs are probably going to feel like bricks.

But there’s a difference between the discomfort of hard effort and the pain of an injury.

Knowing where that line is can be difficult.

You can try to figure it out on your own, or you can work with a performance-based physical therapist who understands runners and running-related injuries and can help you make more informed decisions about when to push, when to modify, and when something deserves a closer look.

That confidence matters because the goal isn’t simply to get through today’s workout.

The goal is to string together weeks and months of consistent training.

Train Consistently. Push Hard. Recover Smarter.

Running longevity isn’t about avoiding every uncomfortable feeling or eliminating every imperfection in your stride.

It’s about building a body that can handle the demands of running—and understanding how to respond when those demands change.

A physical therapist can be an important part of that process.

Through running assessments, objective data, strength and movement evaluations, injury prevention strategies, and individualized guidance, a PT can help you better understand your body and make smarter decisions throughout your training.

The result?

More confidence in your training. More consistency. Smarter recovery. And a better ability to push your limits when it matters most.

Because ultimately, running performance isn’t just about how fast you can run today.

It’s about how long you can keep running—and how much you can accomplish along the way.

Written by Dr. Drew Short PT, DPT, CMFA, Cert. DN | Physio Room

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243. How to Communicate with Anyone | David “Kiwi” Kiwimagi

Andrew Fix — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 12:00:22 +0000

Communications coach David “Kiwi” Kiwimagi joins Dr. Andrew Fix to explain why unspoken expectations quietly wreck marriages and workplaces alike, and how a few simple frameworks can turn resentment into agreement before it ever takes root.

Kiwi built his coaching career on a hard truth learned from his own marriage: most conflict has nothing to do with bad intentions and everything to do with expectations nobody bothered to state out loud. Trouble starts when two people both assume the other one owns a task, or when a conversation begins with no sense of where it’s headed. Kiwi walks through his “frame it” method for opening any conversation with a clear time, topic, and outcome, a technique that works as well in a sales call as it does at the end of a long day at home.

The most useful idea here might be the three mental loads behind every task: execution, logistics, and the emotional weight of getting something done right. Kiwi uses laundry and dinner as his examples, but the real payoff is a new lens for spotting effort that usually goes unnoticed. He also shares “couch time,” a three-question daily ritual he still uses with his wife after a decade of marriage, and a lasagna story that took ten years to resolve for the simple reason that nobody said what they actually wanted.

Good communication keeps conflict from festering into resentment. Whether the relationship in question is a marriage, a team, or a client engagement: clarity offered earlier and more often beats effort spent cleaning up after the fact.

Quotes

“I firmly believe that when you improve your communication, you improve every relationship in your life.” (08:54 | David “Kiwi” Kiwimagi)
“Uncertainty creates anxiety.” (11:18 | David “Kiwi” Kiwimagi)
“Unmet expectations lead to resentment. And resentment can grow like a weed in the garden of your relationship. And so in situations like this, turning unmet expectations into agreements is vital.” (27:28 | David “Kiwi” Kiwimagi)
“Sometimes something is unrealistic because of the time you wanna do it in.” (28:33 | David “Kiwi” Kiwimagi)
“With simple communication techniques, you can avoid 10 years of resentment.You can turn unmet expectations into agreements. You can avoid 10 years of frustration. And when you learn how to frame conversations, you can eliminate wasting time, energy, and effort.” (1:08:03 | David “Kiwi” Kiwimagi)

Links

Connect with David “Kiwi” Kiwimagi:
Kiwi Coaching

David “Kiwi” Kiwimagi is a Navy veteran and 15-year speaker who helps business owners fix the one thing standing between a great presentation and a booked client: the presentation itself. Through Maximize My Message, he’s helped over 150 people stop getting compliments and start getting calls.

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Performance Physical Therapy for Gymnasts: What You Need to Know

Taylor Aglio — Wed, 16 Sep 2026 02:52:26 +0000

Performance Physical Therapy for Gymnasts: What You Need to Know

Every gymnast knows the feeling: a wrist that starts aching after bars, a pull in the low back after beam, or a shoulder that just doesn’t feel right after a big tumbling day.

And every coach knows the harder question that follows:

Is this something we can safely work around—or something we need to take seriously?

From the gym floor, the answer isn’t always obvious.

That’s where performance-based physical therapy for gymnasts can help. Rather than replacing a coach’s expertise, physical therapy can give athletes and coaches more information about pain, movement, strength, mobility, and training tolerance so they can make better decisions about what comes next.

Common Questions Gymnasts Have About Pain and Injuries

When something starts hurting, gymnasts often have the same questions:

Is my wrist pain normal, or could it be gymnast’s wrist?
Could my back pain be related to a stress injury?
Should I tell my coach that something hurts?
How can I return to gymnastics after an injury without losing my skills?
Why am I nervous to perform a skill again after getting hurt?

These questions matter because gymnastics places unique demands on the body. Athletes repeatedly load their wrists, shoulders, spine, knees, and ankles through ranges and forces that aren’t common in everyday activities.

Knowing when discomfort is something to monitor—and when it deserves an evaluation—can make a significant difference.

What Gymnastics Coaches Want to Know

Coaches often look at the issue from a different perspective. Instead of managing one painful joint, they’re thinking about the health and performance of an entire team.

Common questions include:

How can I create a culture where athletes feel comfortable reporting pain early?
What accessory or strength work may help athletes tolerate the demands of gymnastics?
How can I recognize signs that an athlete may not be recovering adequately?
When should training be modified versus stopped?
What does a gradual return-to-skill progression look like after an injury?

Performance-based physical therapy can help bridge the gap between rehabilitation and gymnastics performance.

4 Common Areas of Injury in Gymnasts

Gymnastics can challenge nearly every part of the body, but several areas tend to experience particularly high demands.

1. Wrist Pain and “Gymnast’s Wrist”

Gymnasts load their wrists almost like other athletes load their feet.

Handstands, tumbling, vault, and other skills repeatedly place body weight through the hands while the wrist is extended.

For growing athletes, repetitive loading can sometimes irritate the growth plate near the wrist, a condition commonly referred to as gymnast’s wrist.

Symptoms may develop gradually rather than from one obvious injury. A gymnast might initially notice mild discomfort during weight-bearing skills that becomes more noticeable as training volume increases.

Persistent or worsening wrist pain—especially in a growing gymnast—is worth having evaluated rather than repeatedly training through it.

2. Low Back Pain and Spondylolysis

Gymnastics frequently requires repeated spinal extension, or arching, during skills such as walkovers, tumbling, and beam work.

Because of these repeated demands, low back pain in young gymnasts deserves attention. In adolescent athletes, repetitive loading of the spine can sometimes contribute to bone stress injuries such as spondylolysis.

That doesn’t mean every gymnast with back pain has a stress fracture.

However, persistent pain—particularly pain associated with repeated extension or gymnastics skills—shouldn’t automatically be dismissed as normal soreness.

3. Shoulder Pain and Instability

Bars, rings, handstands, and other gymnastics skills require an unusual combination of mobility, strength, and stabilityfrom the shoulder.

Athletes need enough mobility to achieve demanding overhead positions while also having enough muscular control to manage significant forces.

When strength, control, mobility, or training demands aren’t well matched, shoulder pain or feelings of instability can develop.

Performance-based PT can evaluate how the shoulder blade, rotator cuff, trunk, and surrounding musculature are working together during gymnastics-specific movements.

4. Ankle and Knee Injuries From Landing

Vault, floor routines, beam dismounts, and tumbling all require athletes to repeatedly absorb substantial landing forces.

How well an athlete controls those forces depends on more than the knees alone.

Hip strength, ankle mobility, balance, coordination, and landing mechanics all contribute to how force is absorbed.

Evaluating the entire movement pattern can help identify areas that may need additional strength, mobility, or control.

When Is Gymnastics Pain More Than Normal Soreness?

Soreness can be a normal part of training, particularly after a difficult practice, increased training volume, or learning new skills.

But pain deserves more attention when it:

Continues to worsen with training
Consistently returns during the same skill
Changes the way the gymnast moves or lands
Causes the athlete to avoid certain movements
Persists despite rest or modifications
Interferes with performance
Makes an athlete hesitant or fearful during previously comfortable skills

The goal isn’t to make athletes afraid of every ache.

It’s to recognize when the body may be telling us that the current training demand is exceeding what it can tolerate.

What Is Performance-Based Physical Therapy?

Many people think of physical therapy as something that happens only after an injury.

Traditional rehabilitation is an important part of PT, but performance-based physical therapy goes further.

Instead of asking only:

“How do we get this athlete out of pain?”

We also ask:

“What does this athlete need to return to gymnastics—and perform at their previous level or better?”

That means evaluating the actual demands of the sport.

For a gymnast, performance-based PT might include:

Assessing wrist and shoulder capacity for handstands, bars, and other upper-extremity loading
Evaluating hip and ankle mobility for landing and tumbling
Building trunk strength and control for gymnastics-specific positions
Improving landing mechanics and force absorption
Identifying meaningful strength or mobility differences
Gradually rebuilding tolerance to gymnastics-specific skills
Developing accessory strength work that complements practice

The goal is to build a body that can better tolerate the demands gymnastics places on it.

Physical Therapy Should Work With Gymnastics Coaching—Not Against It

One of the biggest advantages of performance-based physical therapy is the opportunity for collaboration.

Coaches understand the sport. They see the athlete train, know the skills they’re working toward, and understand the technical demands of gymnastics.

Physical therapists understand rehabilitation and movement. They can evaluate strength, mobility, tissue tolerance, pain, and physical capacity.

When those perspectives work together, athletes can receive a more complete plan.

Instead of simply being told to “rest until it feels better,” the athlete may be able to modify certain skills, continue appropriate training, work on specific deficits, and progressively rebuild toward full gymnastics participation.

Returning to Gymnastics After an Injury

Being pain-free is important, but it isn’t always the final step before returning to full gymnastics.

An athlete may feel fine during everyday activities and still not be ready for repeated tumbling, hard landings, handstands, or high-volume bar work.

A return-to-gymnastics plan should consider the specific demands the athlete needs to tolerate.

Depending on the injury and athlete, progression may involve:

Basic strength and mobility → controlled gymnastics movements → partial skills → increased repetitions → full skills → normal training volume

The exact progression should be individualized rather than based solely on the amount of time that has passed.

The Mental Side of Returning to Gymnastics Matters, Too

Physical readiness is only part of returning from an injury.

An athlete may regain their strength and mobility but still feel hesitant about a skill associated with their injury.

That hesitation shouldn’t automatically be viewed as weakness or something the gymnast needs to “push through.”

Gradual exposure, appropriate progressions, communication between the athlete and coach, and successful repetitions can all help rebuild confidence.

The goal is to restore both physical capacity and confidence in movement.

Why Early Communication Matters

Gymnasts are tough. That’s part of what makes them successful.

But toughness shouldn’t mean hiding pain until an athlete can no longer train.

Creating an environment where gymnasts can mention symptoms early gives coaches, parents, and healthcare providers more opportunities to modify training and address potential problems before they become more limiting.

An athlete saying “this hurts” doesn’t automatically mean they need to stop gymnastics.

Sometimes it simply means it’s time to gather more information.

Performance-Based Physical Therapy for Gymnasts

Whether you’re a gymnast wondering if that nagging ache deserves attention or a coach trying to help your athletes train hard while staying healthy, performance-based physical therapy can help bridge the gap between rehabilitation and performance.

At Physio Room, we look beyond the painful area to evaluate the strength, mobility, movement patterns, and sport-specific demands that may be contributing to the problem.

Because the goal isn’t simply to get a gymnast back into the gym.

It’s to help them return strong, confident, and prepared for the demands of their sport.

If pain is affecting training or performance, our physical therapy team can assess the problem and create an individualized plan built around the athlete’s gymnastics goals.

Written by Dr. Ally Nelson PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, CIDN | Physio Room

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242. Preparedness Beats Frustration Every Time

Andrew Fix — Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:00:22 +0000

You can’t expect to get better at anything you’ve never actually practiced, and Dr. Andrew Fix explains why performance and practice are two completely different skills.

Picture missing shot after shot on a basketball hoop you haven’t touched in years. Then getting annoyed at yourself for being rusty. Andrew unpacks the real gap. You have the ability. You skipped the practice. When was the last time you actually practiced the thing you expect yourself to be good at?

He explains why golfers who play a few rounds a year never improve, why runners who race every training session tend to get hurt instead of getting faster, and why top athletes spend far more time drilling and reviewing film than competing. The performance is only a small piece of the process. The rest happens in drills and film review.

Then he applies the idea to conversations. What changes if you prepare for a hard talk with your kid, your partner, or a client the same way an athlete preps for a big game, instead of hoping the right words show up on the spot? Communication breaks down for the same reason a jump shot does. Nobody rehearses it.

Pick the thing you keep getting frustrated about. Have you ever practiced it outside the moment it counts? If not, that’s where to start.

Quotes

“Practice is really where the gains can be made to acquire the skills that you’re trying to acquire, no matter what we’re talking about.” (01:24 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
“If we do anything like that, like we only do something occasionally, it’s always a performance, it’s always a game or a round of golf when we’re playing with no intentional practice, how can we expect to get better at it?” (03:57 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
“We can get better at any multitude of things, but we have to practice them. And we have to practice different than when we’re performing.” (05:26 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
“Try not to get frustrated with yourself when something doesn’t go according to plan, when you didn’t put any real effort into getting better at that thing before the performance came up, before the opportunity presented itself for you to play.” (10:29 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
“Where you put that time and intention into, that area of your life is going to grow no matter what it is.” (11:15 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

Links

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Pelvic Floor Pain When Squatting: How to Lift Without Pain, Pressure, or Leakage

Taylor Aglio — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 21:30:42 +0000

Pelvic Floor Pain When Squatting: How to Lift Without Pain, Pressure, or Leakage

Pelvic floor discomfort, pressure, or urinary leakage during squatting is surprisingly common among strength athletes. When symptoms show up—especially as the barbell gets heavier—it’s easy to assume:

“I need to brace better.”
“My core isn’t strong enough.”
“I’m going too heavy.”

Sometimes those things matter. But sometimes, they aren’t the whole story.

For some athletes, the better questions are:

Is your squat position allowing you to manage pressure effectively?
Are your breathing and bracing strategies supporting the demands of the lift?
Do you have the strength and power needed to move efficiently through the hardest part of the squat?

As a physical therapist who works with strength athletes, I often help athletes experiment with their squat position, bracing strategy, and training variables to find an approach that allows them to continue lifting while reducing pelvic floor symptoms.

Your Squat Position Can Influence How You Manage Pressure

There isn’t one “perfect” squat position for everyone.

Small changes in bar position, torso angle, and stance width can affect your mechanics and how you manage the load. What works well for one lifter may not work for another.

Your anatomy, mobility, strength, training history, and individual movement strategy all matter.

Bar Position Matters

A higher bar position places the bar closer to the neck and typically requires a more upright torso than a lower-bar squat.

For some lifters, maintaining that upright position may also be accompanied by greater lumbar extension during the descent.

But this isn’t universally true.

Every athlete has different proportions, mobility, strength, and movement strategies. If your current setup seems to contribute to pelvic floor symptoms, experimenting with a slightly lower or hybrid bar position may be worth considering.

A more posterior bar position can change the torso angle required to keep the bar balanced over the midfoot, potentially allowing you to find a position that feels stronger and more sustainable.

The goal isn’t to make everyone squat low bar.

It’s to find the bar position that works best for your body.

A Little Torso Angle Isn’t Necessarily a Bad Thing

One common misconception is that you need to stay as upright as possible during a squat.

You don’t.

Some forward torso inclination is a normal part of squatting, and the amount you need depends on your anatomy, bar position, stance, and goals.

Rather than forcing an artificially upright position, the goal is to find a torso angle that allows you to stay balanced, maintain control, and effectively manage the demands of the lift.

In other words, don’t chase the “perfect-looking” squat.

Find the squat position that allows your body to manage the load well.

Stance Width Can Matter, Too

Stance width is another variable worth exploring.

For some athletes, a slightly wider stance gives the hips more room to move and makes the bottom of the squat feel more comfortable and controlled.

Changing stance width also changes hip mechanics, which may influence how an athlete experiences and manages pressure during the lift.

Again, there’s no universal stance width that prevents pelvic floor symptoms.

The right stance is the one that works with your anatomy, mobility, strength, and symptoms.

Bracing for Heavy Squats: Think Pressure, Not “Push Down”

When pelvic floor symptoms occur during lifting, one of the first things athletes often hear is:

“Brace harder.”

But a stronger brace isn’t necessarily a better brace—especially if “bracing harder” feels like actively bearing down or pushing pressure toward the pelvic floor.

Instead, think about creating 360-degree pressure and tension throughout the trunk.

During heavy lifting, athletes often use a Valsalva maneuver to increase intra-abdominal pressure and create trunk stiffness. That pressure helps stabilize the body so it can efficiently transfer force during the lift.

The goal isn’t to intentionally force all that pressure downward.

It’s to create and maintain pressure throughout the trunk while coordinating your breathing, abdominal muscles, and pelvic floor with the demands of the movement.

For someone experiencing pelvic floor pain, heaviness, pressure, or leakage, learning how to coordinate breathing, bracing, and pelvic floor function under load can be an important part of physical therapy.

What If It’s a Strength and Power Problem—Not Just Pressure?

Sometimes pelvic floor symptoms aren’t simply a bracing problem.

Strength and power may be part of the picture, too.

Some athletes struggle to produce enough force to efficiently get out of the bottom of a heavy squat. As the load increases, that sticking point becomes even more obvious.

If you struggle to accelerate out of the bottom, you may spend more time grinding under a heavy load. For an athlete already experiencing pelvic floor symptoms, that may be another training variable worth evaluating.

This is one situation where accommodating resistance, such as bands or chains, can be useful.

How Banded Squats Can Help Build Strength and Power

With a banded squat, resistance changes throughout the movement.

At the bottom: Less external resistance from the bands
As you stand: Resistance progressively increases

This allows an athlete to work on producing force and maintaining good technique through the bottom of the squat while progressively increasing the challenge as they move into stronger portions of the range.

As you stand, the increasing resistance demands continued force production from the quads, glutes, and other supporting musculature.

Instead of simply grinding through your sticking point, you can practice accelerating out of the hole and continuing to produce force throughout the lift.

Banded squats aren’t a universal solution for pelvic floor symptoms. But for the right athlete, they may be a useful training modification while building the strength, power, and confidence needed for heavier squatting.

Pelvic Floor Symptoms Don’t Automatically Mean You Need to Stop Squatting

Experiencing leakage, pressure, heaviness, or pain during squatting doesn’t automatically mean you need to give up the barbell.

And the solution isn’t always as simple as “brace harder.”

Depending on the athlete, treatment and training modifications might include:

Changing bar position
Adjusting stance width
Finding a more appropriate torso angle
Improving breathing and pressure management
Building strength through the bottom of the squat
Developing power and rate of force production
Using bands or chains to modify resistance
Retraining trunk and pelvic floor coordination under load
Temporarily adjusting training intensity or volume while symptoms improve

The right strategy depends on why you’re experiencing symptoms in the first place.

That’s why an individualized assessment matters.

Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy for Strength Athletes

The goal of physical therapy isn’t simply to make your symptoms disappear.

For strength athletes, it’s also about understanding why those symptoms are happening and developing strategies that allow you to continue training while building the capacity your body needs.

You shouldn’t automatically have to choose between your pelvic floor and your barbell.

If you’re experiencing pelvic floor pain, urinary leakage, heaviness, pressure, or discomfort during squatting or strength training, a pelvic floor physical therapist can assess your individual mechanics, breathing and pressure-management strategies, strength, and training demands.

At Physio Room, we work with strength athletes to address pelvic floor symptoms while keeping their goals—including squatting, strength training, powerlifting, and weightlifting—at the center of their physical therapy plan.

Ready to lift with more confidence? Schedule a pelvic floor physical therapy assessment and let’s find a strategy that works for your body and your training goals.

Written by Dr. Jessie Czarnecki PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, Cert. DN | Physio Room

The post Pelvic Floor Pain When Squatting: How to Lift Without Pain, Pressure, or Leakage appeared first on Physio Room.

241. The Future of Nutrition: Making Supplements More Convenient, Effective & Enjoyable | Don Dillon

Andrew Fix — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:00:43 +0000

Don Dillon endured roughly four years of unexplained seizures and immune collapse during his Navy years, and decades later he built a supplement bar designed to survive the very manufacturing process that destroys most nutrients before they ever reach your mouth.

Dillon is the founder and CEO of Sound Foods, and he joins Dr. Fix to unpack the real reason most people quit their supplement routine within 90 days. It’s not a lack of discipline. Pills are unpleasant, powders are a hassle, and the “convenient” alternatives on shelves rely on heat and sugar that wreck the nutrients they’re supposed to deliver. So what happens when a bar can hold its shape without any of that?

Sound Foods uses an ultrasonic manufacturing process that binds ingredients cold and skips the sugar syrups and gums that give most protein bars their gummy, overly sweet texture. The result tastes closer to a crumbly cookie, and it opens the door to putting real, functional doses of nutrients like creatine or nootropics into something people will actually want to eat.

The bigger idea here is where this technology could go. Dillon describes a future where your blood work or wearable data could inform a bar built specifically for your body. If a supplement finally tasted good and worked with your biology instead of against it, would you still need the pill bottle at all?

The two also get into Dillon’s own health detective work, including a stubborn 2 a.m. wake-up habit he’s still trying to solve, and why chasing symptoms with quick fixes rarely gets you closer to what’s actually going on underneath.

Quotes

“The challenge is what is nutritious is not convenient. What is convenient is not nutritious.” (08:15 | Don Dillon)
“What I needed is something that was convenient and that I could work or do whatever if I’m traveling, what have you. It just didn’t exist.” (08:23 | Don Dillon)
“Eighty percent of people who start a supplement program fall off within ninety days. ‘Cause it just is not pleasant. Nobody likes to swallow a bunch of pills or mix up powders. It’s not pleasant, it’s not convenient.” (10:24 | Don Dillon)
“If you don’t eat it, it ain’t nutrition.” (11:53 | Don Dillon)
“I like to say I don’t have a headache because I don’t have enough Tylenol in my diet. That’s not why.” (28:43 | Don Dillon)

Connect with Don Dillon:

Sound Foods Website

Don Dillon is the founder and chief executive officer of Sound Foods, a food technology company redefining the intersection of nutrition, supplements, and snacking. At Sound, Dillon draws on a broad range of professional and life experiences to advance a radically new food production technology designed to democratize access to advanced nutrition for consumers, manufacturers, and the U.S. military.

Dillon’s drive to create a new category of food is deeply personal. While serving in the U.S. Navy, he developed a medical condition that led him to explore what would later become known as the biohacker lifestyle. He started biohacking with food and later with supplements, but not for performance optimization, but to regain normal function and quality of life.

As his supplement regimen grew, Dillon became increasingly aware of the complexity and inconvenience of the biohacker approach, particularly its incompatibility with everyday eating habits. This realization sparked a search for a technology that could fundamentally change how people snack, eat, and consume supplements. Through industry connections, he discovered and acquired a proprietary ultrasonic cold-forming process capable of shaping ingredients into a bar or similar form in a fraction of a second. The process enables the inclusion of heat-sensitive and encapsulated bioactive ingredients in the forming process, something traditional food manufacturing cannot achieve.

An entrepreneur at heart, Dillon immediately recognized the potential of this technology to deliver supplement-grade nutrition in an enjoyable, familiar food format bringing simplicity, accessibility, and even joy to advanced nutrition and human optimization.

Prior to founding Sound Foods, Dillon demonstrated the same entrepreneurial drive as the founder and president of Voloren, a construction company focused on modernizing large government buildings through comprehensive energy retrofitting, a role he has held since April 2016.

Earlier in his career, Dillon spent more than a decade gaining exposure to a wide range of public-and private-sector business initiatives through roles at Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). He holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and a master’s degree in finance and investment from New York University

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The Aging Flex Curve: Why Your Once-Perfect Bike Fit May Now Cause Pain

Taylor Aglio — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 23:36:37 +0000

The Aging Flex Curve: Why Your Once-Perfect Bike Fit May Now Cause Pain

A Denver-area bike fitter’s guide to changing hamstring and spinal mobility and what to do when your old bike fit no longer works.

That aggressive race position that felt perfect in your 30s might not feel quite as comfortable in your 40s, 50s, and beyond.

If you’re suddenly experiencing lower back pain, hamstring discomfort, or hip tightness on the bike, your bike may not be the problem. Your body may have changed.

Over time, changes in flexibility, tissue tolerance, and spinal mobility can make it harder to comfortably maintain the same riding position you’ve used for years.

We call this the Aging Flex Curve.

The good news? You don’t necessarily have to accept the discomfort—or stop riding the way you love. Understanding how your body has changed can help you adjust your bike fit and training so you can continue riding comfortably and performing at a high level.

The Key Takeaways

A bike position that once felt comfortable may begin causing back, hip, or hamstring discomfort as your mobility changes.
Hamstring flexibility, spinal mobility, and connective tissue adaptability can change over time.
An aggressive cycling position may eventually require more mobility than your body currently has available.
A physical therapy–informed bike fit can assess both your body and your bike to determine where adjustments may help.
Small changes to your position, combined with targeted mobility and strength work, can help you continue riding comfortably for years to come.

Why Your Bike Fit May Need to Change as You Age

We see this frequently among cyclists throughout the Denver metro area and at our Highlands Ranch clinic: riders who have trained and raced for years with a dialed-in bike fit, only to find that the same position gradually becomes uncomfortable.

The bike didn’t necessarily change.

The cyclist did.

Aging can bring gradual changes in tissue flexibility, mobility, recovery, and tolerance to sustained positions. Those changes may eventually turn a once-comfortable race position into one that requires your body to compensate.

Here are three areas that can play a role.

1. Hamstring Flexibility Can Decrease

Flexibility can gradually decline without consistent mobility and strength work.

For cyclists, changes in hamstring and posterior-chain mobility can be particularly important because an aggressive riding position requires adequate mobility through the hips and surrounding tissues.

When that mobility becomes limited, your body still has to find a way to reach the handlebars.

Instead of comfortably rotating through the pelvis and hips, you may begin compensating elsewhere—often through the lower back.

Over hundreds or thousands of pedal strokes, that compensation can contribute to discomfort.

2. Your Spine May Not Move the Way It Used To

Spinal mobility can also change over time.

Normal age-related changes to the discs, joints, and surrounding tissues can affect how comfortably your spine moves and tolerates prolonged positions.

That doesn’t mean cycling needs to become painful as you age.

It does mean that a highly aggressive position established 10 or 20 years ago may no longer match the mobility you have today.

When your body can’t comfortably achieve the position your bike requires, certain areas may take on more stress. For some cyclists, that can show up as persistent lower back pain during longer rides.

3. Connective Tissue Adaptability Can Change

It’s not just about muscles and joints.

The connective tissues surrounding the hamstrings, glutes, hips, and lower back also influence how your body transfers force and moves while cycling.

Changes in tissue mobility can affect the entire posterior chain. When one area becomes less adaptable, another area may compensate.

That’s one reason the location of your pain doesn’t always tell us the full story.

Why Does Cycling Pain Sometimes Feel Like It Started Suddenly?

Most cyclists don’t wake up one morning and suddenly lose their mobility.

The changes tend to happen gradually.

Pain, however, can feel much more sudden.

You might feel fine for months until something pushes your body past its current capacity, such as:

A high-volume training block
A particularly long ride
Increased climbing
A new race schedule
More time spent in an aggressive position
Changes in strength or mobility
A period of reduced training followed by a rapid increase

The discomfort may seem new, but the underlying changes could have been developing for much longer.

Why “Just Get More Flexible” Isn’t the Whole Answer

Should you work on mobility? Absolutely.

Targeted mobility and strength training can help improve the way your body handles your riding position. But simply stretching your hamstrings isn’t always enough.

Mobility improvements require consistency, and your individual anatomy, training history, strength, and riding demands all matter.

More importantly, your bike fit should evolve alongside your body.

Rather than forcing yourself into a position chosen years ago, the goal should be finding the best position for the cyclist you are today.

What Makes a Physical Therapy–Based Bike Fit Different?

A traditional bike fit often focuses heavily on optimizing the relationship between the cyclist and the bike.

A physical therapy–based bike fit adds another layer by asking not only where your bike should be positioned, but also:

What position can your body comfortably, efficiently, and sustainably maintain?

At Physio Room, the bike fitting process can assess:

Posterior Chain & Pelvic Mobility

How much mobility do you currently have through your hips, hamstrings, and pelvis?

Spinal Mobility

How well can your spine move through the ranges necessary for your preferred cycling position?

Dynamic Movement on the Bike

What actually happens to your hips, pelvis, knees, and spine once you begin pedaling under load?

Your Performance Goals

Are you trying to maximize aerodynamics for racing, prepare for a century, or simply ride comfortably for several hours?

Your Current Physical Capacity

Does your body currently have the mobility, strength, and tolerance required to maintain your desired position?

From there, adjustments may be made to areas such as saddle position, handlebar height, reach, stack, and setback.

Sometimes a relatively small adjustment can significantly improve comfort.

Other times, the best approach combines bike-fit changes with targeted strength or mobility work.

The goal isn’t necessarily to make your position less performance-oriented. It’s to find the best balance between performance, efficiency, and what your body can sustainably tolerate.

Signs Your Old Bike Fit May No Longer Fit You

Consider having your bike fit and mobility assessed if you notice:

Lower back pain that increases the longer you ride
New or persistent hamstring tightness
Hip or posterior thigh discomfort
A riding position that suddenly feels like a constant stretch
Difficulty staying in an aerodynamic position
Needing to sit upright more frequently to relieve tension
Pain that improves when you’re off the bike but consistently returns when you ride
A previously comfortable bike position becoming progressively harder to maintain

These symptoms don’t automatically mean your bike fit is the cause. But they’re good reasons to look at your body and your bike together rather than treating them as separate problems.

You Don’t Have to Choose Between Performance and Comfort

Getting older doesn’t mean giving up performance.

It may simply mean your training and bike fit need to evolve with you.

A position that worked perfectly at 30 doesn’t necessarily need to remain unchanged at 45 or 55. Small adjustments can allow you to continue riding efficiently while respecting the mobility and capacity you have today.

When appropriate, targeted mobility and strength work may also help you regain some of the capacity needed for a more aggressive position.

Denver-Area & Colorado Springs Professional Bike Fitting

At Physio Room, we combine physical therapy assessment with professional bike fitting to look beyond the bike itself.

For cyclists throughout Denver, Highlands Ranch, the South Metro area, Colorado Springs, and the Front Range, this means you don’t have to choose between addressing pain and improving performance.

Whether you’re training for a Colorado gran fondo, preparing for a Front Range century, racing competitively, or simply hoping to keep riding comfortably into your 40s, 50s, and beyond, we can assess how your mobility, strength, and bike position are working together.

Because the goal isn’t simply to make your bike fit.

It’s to make sure your bike still fits you.

Ready to find out if your fit still fits? Contact our Highlands Ranch or Colorado Springs clinic to schedule a professional bike fit and movement assessment.

Written by Dr. Tim Tracy, PT, DPT, OCS, Cert. DN | Physio Room

The post The Aging Flex Curve: Why Your Once-Perfect Bike Fit May Now Cause Pain appeared first on Physio Room.

240. 3 Exercises for Knee Pain? I’m Calling BS.

Andrew Fix — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:00:42 +0000

Two runners can have identical knee pain and need completely different fixes, and Dr. Andrew Fix explains why chasing generic advice off YouTube usually leaves the real problem untouched.

The same symptom can point to a different injury, and even the same injury can have a different cause. One runner’s knee pain might come from a tendon pushed past its capacity by too much training volume too fast, while another’s identical pain traces back to a stiff ankle or weak hip forcing the knee to compensate for something else entirely. Hand both runners the same two exercises and you’re guessing.

That distinction drives his frustration with generic internet fixes. Quiet the symptoms without addressing the underlying deficit and they come back. The person then assumes they did something wrong, when the fix was incomplete from the start.

There’s also a case for urgency worth sitting with. Addressing an injury early costs less time and money, and needs less intensive treatment, than waiting until it forces your hand. But the real stakes aren’t financial. What do you actually lose by putting off care, and can you get that time back later? A missed hike or a skipped game of catch because something hurt too much to move doesn’t come back around.

PhysioRoom’s Health and Performance Summit lands October 3rd in Denver, which fits the episode’s bigger point: individualized care matters more as everyone defaults to searching for answers online instead of getting assessed by another human.

Quotes

“We need to pair the solution to the actual problem that the individual is dealing with.” (05:05 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
“Nobody has the exact same body that you have.You are a unique individual and unique individuals need personalized solutions to their problems.” (10:19 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
“The sooner you address something, the quicker it’s going to be resolved.” (12:50 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
“Spending money on your health is one of the greatest investments that you can make because it gives you time.” (13:37 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
“Don’t let things just continue to build up and build up and build up while you continue to sweep things under the rug and not do something about it when you have the choice to do it.” (13:40 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

Links

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Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The post 240. 3 Exercises for Knee Pain? I’m Calling BS. appeared first on Physio Room.

Postpartum Return to Running: How Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Can Help

Taylor Aglio — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 20:43:46 +0000

Postpartum Return to Running: How Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Can Help

Returning to running after having a baby can be an exciting milestone—but it involves more than simply lacing up your shoes and hitting the pavement.

Pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum recovery can affect your core, pelvic floor, strength, coordination, and ability to manage pressure. A thoughtful return-to-running plan can help you rebuild strength and confidence while reducing the risk of symptoms and setbacks.

Why the Pelvic Floor Matters When Returning to Running

Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles that supports your bladder, uterus, and bowel. These muscles work closely with your deep abdominal muscles, diaphragm, and hips to stabilize your pelvis and manage pressure during movement.

Running is a high-impact activity. With every stride, your body must absorb and manage force efficiently. Your pelvic floor and core need to respond to these changes in pressure while coordinating with your feet, hips, and spine.

After pregnancy and childbirth, these systems may need time and intentional training to regain strength, endurance, and coordination—even if you otherwise feel like you have recovered.

Signs You May Benefit From Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy

You don’t need to be experiencing symptoms to benefit from a postpartum pelvic floor assessment. However, the following signs may indicate that your body needs additional support before or during your return to running:

Urinary leakage during or after running
Urinary urgency or frequent trips to the bathroom
Heaviness, pressure, or a dragging sensation in the pelvis
Pelvic, hip, or low back pain
Abdominal weakness, coning, or difficulty coordinating your core
Feeling unstable or weak while running, jumping, or changing direction
Difficulty increasing your running distance without developing symptoms
Uncertainty about whether your body is ready for impact

These symptoms may be common, but they are not something you simply have to live with after having a baby.

How Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Can Help

A postpartum pelvic floor physical therapist can assess how your body responds to the demands of running and create an individualized plan based on your symptoms, needs, and goals.

1. Assess Your Pelvic Floor

A pelvic floor assessment can evaluate muscle strength, endurance, coordination, relaxation, and your ability to respond appropriately to increases in pressure.

Importantly, pelvic floor rehabilitation isn’t always about making the muscles stronger. Some postpartum runners have weak pelvic floor muscles, while others have muscles that are overly tense or have difficulty relaxing.

Your treatment plan should be based on what your body needs.

2. Rebuild Core and Hip Strength

Your pelvic floor doesn’t work in isolation. Your diaphragm, deep core, hips, and pelvic floor work together to provide stability and manage the forces created during running.

Postpartum rehabilitation may include exercises that target:

Deep abdominal strength
Glute and lateral hip strength
Adductor strength
Pelvic floor strength and coordination
Single-leg stability
Trunk and pelvic control

The goal is to build a strong foundation that can handle the demands of running.

3. Improve Pressure Management

One of the most important parts of postpartum rehabilitation is learning how to coordinate your breathing, core, and pelvic floor during movement.

Rather than constantly bracing your core or squeezing your pelvic floor, you want these muscles to respond appropriately to the task. This coordination becomes especially important during higher-impact activities such as running, jumping, and sprinting.

4. Gradually Reintroduce Impact

Returning to running should be a progression—not a single event.

Before increasing your mileage, your body should have an opportunity to gradually build its tolerance to impact. Your progression may include:

Walking
Strength training
Single-leg exercises
Hopping and jumping
Running-specific drills
Walk-run intervals

A physical therapist at Physio Room can help determine the right progression based on your strength, symptoms, training history, and goals.

5. Return to the Running You Love

Your return to running should be centered around your goals.

You may want to run a few miles around the neighborhood, return to your favorite trail, train for a marathon, or simply feel confident chasing your kids. Whatever running looks like for you, postpartum rehabilitation can help you work toward it safely and confidently.

You don’t need to rush your recovery—and you don’t need to avoid running indefinitely.

You Deserve Support During Your Postpartum Recovery

Your postpartum body has been through a tremendous amount of change. Returning to running is an opportunity to rebuild strength, confidence, and connection with your body—not to “bounce back” to who you were before pregnancy.

If you’re experiencing leaking, pelvic pressure, pain, weakness, or uncertainty about returning to running, pelvic floor physical therapy can help identify what your body needs and create a plan to get you back to the activities you love.

At Physio Room, we specialize in helping women return to the activities they love feeling stronger, more confident, and more connected to their bodies.

Written by Dr. Brooke Malloy, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, Cert. DN | Physio Room

The post Postpartum Return to Running: How Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Can Help appeared first on Physio Room.

239. From an Eating Disorder to the Olympic Trials | Amanda Theodore

Andrew Fix — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 12:00:35 +0000

Amanda Theodore is training for the 2028 Olympic Trials marathon with Pop-Tarts before most runs and a hard lesson about what happens when athletes eat too little instead of too much.

Amanda joins Dr. Andrew Fix for a conversation about marathon training that moves well past splits and mileage logs. She talks openly about the eating disorder she developed at Duke, the femoral neck stress fracture that followed, and why she waited until she had recovered from disordered eating before starting her path toward becoming a sports dietitian. What does recovery actually look like when your sport depends on discipline around eating? For Amanda, it means dropping the all-or-nothing mindset entirely. Dessert most days, a gluten-free Pop Tart before runs, a four-to-one carb-to-protein shake after them. The science stays in place. The rigidity does not.

She and Dr. Fix dig into why under-fueling carries far greater risk than over-fueling, especially for young athletes still figuring out what their bodies need, and why disordered eating patterns often hide behind the language of discipline. Amanda shares how routine bloodwork caught low ferritin levels early in her marathon buildup and how she scaled back training for three weeks rather than push through it. The two also trade notes on the unglamorous habits that keep athletes healthy enough to show up on race day, the warm-ups, cool-downs, and few minutes of mobility work on the living room floor. As Amanda puts it, getting to the start line healthy is sometimes the harder win.

Quotes

“If you feel like you need help, you need help.” (11:20 | Amanda Theodore)
“It’s really hard to overeat as an athlete, and it’s really easy to undereat, and the consequences of undereating are much greater than the consequences of overeating.” (39:51 | Amanda Theodore)
“When you’re talking about overeating and under-eating, I think society pushes a lot of weight with that. But how are your labs looking?” (44:13 | Amanda Theodore)
“You can’t just have a supplement and expect that it’s going to fix everything.” (50:13 | Amanda Theodore)
“If you have a goal, don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do it.” (51:30 | Amanda Theodore)

Links

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Tracksmith Stamata: Team Biographies

Amanda Theodore is an elite marathon runner and dietetics graduate student living and training in Colorado. After competing for Duke University and Florida State University in college, she set new goals at the marathon distance, running a personal best of 2:34 at the 2025 Boston Marathon. She has since qualified for the 2028 US Olympic Trials in the marathon and competes for Tracksmith Stamata. She is passionate about nutrition, with her perspective having been shaped by years of learning how proper fueling and recovery can contribute to a sustainable and fulfilling athletic career.

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