Most exercise and fitness plans fail the moment real life gets in the way, but training around how the body is built to move creates strength that holds up no matter how busy the gym or unpredictable your schedule becomes.

Better results in training do not come from more complicated programs or chasing the perfect lifting routine. They come from understanding how the body is meant to move and training those patterns with consistency. When squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, carrying, rotating, and absorbing force become the focus, workouts stop feeling fragile and start working in the context of real life.

The perspective here is long-term. Smart lifting and strength work support bone health, muscle mass, energy, and the ability to respond when life demands quick or unexpected movement. What gets lost when those capacities are no longer trained? What quietly fades when movement becomes narrow or cautious?

The takeaway is steady and practical. When plans fall apart, the answer is not starting over or doing more. It is returning to the fundamentals and letting them guide your choices. That shift turns training into something you can sustain across seasons, schedules, and decades.

Quotes

• “I want to help you not become one of those numbers of the statistics where you start something and you fall off the wagon just a few weeks into the new year.” (01:55 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “Continue to live a healthy, active life, regardless of how old you are and as you age, continue to be that way.”  (02:59 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “Focus on the movement pattern, not on the exact exercise.” (17:16 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “You can easily replace a squat with a leg press, a leg press with a squat. You can do the same movement a different way because exercises are just ways that you accomplish movement patterns, not the other way around.” (17:28 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “We definitely think more about the movement patterns as it relates to the function of our own bodies and being able to continue to move and do things for years and years in the future.” (17:43 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

Links

SideKick Tool

Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board

15% off Promo Code: DRA15

RAD Roller

Revogreen

HYDRAGUN 

Athletic Brewing

20% off: ANDREWF20

Connect with Physio Room:

Visit the Physio Room Website

Follow Physio Room on Instagram

Follow Physio Room on Facebook

Andrew’s Personal Instagram

Andrew’s Personal Facebook

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The post 205. The 7 Movement Patterns Every Program Should Be Built On appeared first on Physio Room.

Your environment, including the people who you surround yourself with, is the clearest indicator of who you are and who you are becoming. I was thinking about this quote one Sunday as I was prepping my lunches for the upcoming week. It makes my mornings really easy for me each day of the work week. I just reach in the fridge, grab my stuff, throw it in my lunch bag and hit the road without having to do a lot of preparation on a daily basis.. because my environment is stronger than my willpower.

Is what you’re doing in your daily life serving you towards accomplishing the goals you have set for yourself? Are you setting yourself up for success? That’s one of the things we talk about with clients all the time in our office at Physio Room; setting themselves up for success!

So let’s take food prep for example. If you’re prepping your food in advance, you’re taking the guesswork out of what your meals are going to be throughout the week and you are much more likely to stick to whatever your dietary plan is for that week. That’s because the decisions are already made for you. Like, “oh, yes, I’m eating this for lunch every single day because I prepped it.”

Now, I have a little bit of variety built into mine. I sort of altered some of the ingredients and the spices in some of my meals so that they don’t taste exactly the same and to prevent me from getting bored. But a lot of the decision making is gone for me. So now the likelihood that I’m going to stop at a fast food place or on the way home because I’m hungry is virtually eliminated.

It’s virtually zero. Because unless I go through the food significantly faster than I planned on, I already know what I’m going to eat for the week. So I’m not going to get what we call “decision fatigue”. And I’m sure you’ve all been there. Say you’re at a party or something and you go into that party hungry and there’s a bunch of really good food, healthy foods, vegetables, fruits, proteins, and things to choose from.

But then there’s that dessert table sitting there too, and you’re hanging out at the party. You nibble on some fruit and nibble on some vegetables, and you’re making really good decisions early on. But how hard is it to keep that up? The decision fatigue starts to set in and the more decisions you have to make, the harder it is to continue to make the really, really good, healthy decisions over and over and over again.

If you can set your environment up so that those decisions aren’t really there, you’re going to be so much better off.

Here’s another example with people who exercise on a regular basis. Part of their lifestyle is that the people who are the most consistent with their exercise routines are the ones who work out in the morning. Now, you might say, “Andrew, my lifestyle and my responsibilities don’t accommodate me working out in the morning. I would have to wake up at 04:00 a.m. in order to do that.”

And that might be very well true.

I’m just saying what the statistics show and it’s that the people who are the most consistent with their workouts and not missing them are the ones who work out in the morning. Well, one of the reasons is.. it doesn’t allow to hit the fan throughout the day that derails your plans to go work out. Say, for example, I’m planning to work out after work. I get up, get dressed, go to work, have a normal day, and then I drive home. I’m planning to get home, change clothes, and then go do my workout.

But right when I get home, the phone rings and it’s something that I have to take care of right at that moment. It’s a semi emergency. Maybe it’s not a real significant emergency (like someone’s health or anything like that) but something very pressing distracts you from what your plan originally was. So say that takes you an hour to take care of that issue from that phone call. What’s the likelihood that you’re still going to change into your workout clothes and get your workout in that you had planned on?

Maybe, maybe not! But now, your environment is making it challenging for you to prioritize your workout and you will need to rely much more on your willpower.

Remember, your environment is stronger than your willpower every single time.

Your willpower is like a muscle and eventually it’s going to fatigue and you want to be able to fall back on your environment when you need to.

If you’re looking for some guidance, our team at Physio Room can definitely help you. We are more than healthcare providers. We’re your support system! We’re here to make your life better and set you up for success. Contact us anytime. 

The post “Your environment is stronger than willpower.” appeared first on Physio Room.

Yikes. We’ve been there. 

Let’s talk about why you might have some shoulder or neck issues.

When your shoulder gets irritated, three things happen.

1. Guarding

Naturally, as humans, we don’t like pain, so we end up trying to guard it. When your peck gets tight, it pulls your shoulder forward. 

2. Elevation

On the other side of that, if you use your upper trap muscle, that elevates it and you’re walking around with a raised, tight trap. 

3. Deltoid guarding

Deltoid pain on the side of your shoulder feels like someone is punching you. Imagine you make a fist, and your knuckles turn white because there’s no blood supply. 

When you’re guarding a muscle like your deltoid, you ache because there’s no blood supply. 

What we want to do is hit the reset button on this process when you’re experiencing shoulder pain. 

In order to start alleviating some of these symptoms and put yourself in a better postural position and get stronger, we want to use the lower trap. 

The fibers in your lower trap can pull the shoulder blade down and in. We want to use these more. 

When the fibers in your lower trap start pulling up, that’s when you start feeling tension. You start getting tension headaches at the back of your head and behind the eyes, and many other issues.

We see this ALL of the time at Physio Room. People are referred in with shoulder issues and it’s really a neck issue. Or vice versa. 

It’s not always a cookie cutter issue, and there are SPECIFICS to your own body. Not all shoulder and neck pain is created equal.

Now, let’s talk about the rotator cuff. 

When people have rotator cuff issues, the space between their humerus and scapula bones get smaller, and the supraspinatus muscle gets pinched.

When this happens, we see syndromes like impingement syndrome or uncomfortable rubbing to a breaking point. 

Surgeons might shave the bone, but one of the BEST things that you can do is strengthening your rotator cuff. 

If you combine this rotator cuff strength with pulling your lower trap DOWN and IN, your upper trap gets less tight and you’ll see less irritation and dysfunction in that zone. 

The goal here is to set your body up into a better postural position. 

Surgery, drugs and injections are not necessarily the answer here. You can avoid that by catching this pain early on!

View our full YouTube video tutorial here to learn more about these muscles, bones, and how to navigate this shoulder and neck pain issue. 

If you have questions or want to learn more, give us a call at 720.316.9974. 

The post OUCH. Got Sharp Shoulder Pain? Here’s Why… appeared first on Physio Room.

“I have a lot of skills from my sports experience that can help people,” explains Kristin Jones, Elite Speed, Sports Performance Specialist. A life-long athlete from Colorado, Kristin started a grassroots effort to help others stay active during the pandemic with her business, The Fit & Fuel Youth Training Program. With a passion for fitness professionally and personally, Kristin’s mission is to help others get stronger, faster, and more consistent in their daily lives.

During the pandemic, Kristin saw a surge of people feeling unmotivated to exercise and spending too much time drinking wine and watching Netflix. Realizing her athletic skills and experience could be of service, Kristen worked to get people training not only for their physical, but mental health too. Ultimately, Kristin stresses the importance of building a sports foundation because it’s impossible to get desired results without that.

Tune into this week’s episode of The Code for an exciting conversation on seizing opportunities. Learn more about Kristin’s athletic and career journey, why you should have kids take ownership of their training, and the components of a quality warm-up program.

Quotes

• “If you’re not here focused and putting your effort into this mentally and physically, you will not perform well.” (10:22-10:29) | Kristin)

• “I have a lot of skills from my sports experience that can help people.” (14:01-14:07) | Kristin)

• “If you’re not sleeping well, eating well, and taking care of yourself at a foundational level, all the recovery tools in the world will not help you. That’s secondary.” (26:03-26:16) | Kristin)

• “If you want to become a better athlete, surround yourself with great athletes.” (43:08-43:12) | Kristin)

• “Pain doesn’t have to be normal. You don’t have to live with pain. It just takes work.” (54:39-54:45) | Kristin)

Links

Connect with Kristin Jones:

https://www.instagram.com/kristinjones_22/

https://fitandfuel.godaddysites.com

https://elitespeedsp.com

Connect with Physio Room: 

Website | ​​https://physioroomco.com/

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/physioroomco/

Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/physioroomco

Andrew’s Personal Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/dr.andrewfix/

Andrew’s Personal Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/andrew.fix.9/

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

The post 25. Seize the Opportunity with Kristin Jones appeared first on Physio Room.

This patient had been experiencing some acute knee pain for 6 months when she walked through our door and was, understandably, very frustrated with her lack of progress over those 6 months. The first question I asked her was why now? Why did it take her so long to get her in here to address this pain? Her answer was not too uncommon. Our client said that she had slowly become depressed – she had always enjoyed skiing, wanted to find enjoyment in cycling again, but was unable to participate in the things she enjoys because the pain always interfered. She was fearful of what all this meant.

This is where the pain snowball tends to begin. She began experiencing symptoms of depression because she simply couldn’t do the things she desired due to the knee pain. Those depressive symptoms then create a state of irritability. Overall she had become very stressed and, above all else, she felt anxious as she didn’t have any idea what this persistent problem meant for her. Her anxiousness and uncertainty centered around whether or not this pain was going to last forever, whether she would just have to give up skiing or quit cycling entirely or, and this is one of the most common anxieties or uncertainties we see in the clinic, would she require major surgery to regain her quality of life?

As her provider, I began her treatment program by first explaining to her that fear is nothing but false expectation, or an appearance that something is real. You think a particular outcome of all this pain is likely, you worry that some particular problem is causing it and you build it up into something you feel very anxious and fearful about. However, when you make the move to come in to see us, we can concretely measure the specifics of your pain, investigate the potential causes of your pain and talk with you about how your pain is interfering with your lifestyle. This often helps to decrease that fear, decrease those feelings of anxiety or depression.

Our client began our knee pain program and remained dedicated to sticking with the treatment plan through the end. By doing this she was able to regain so much of the happiness she had been lacking! Slowly becoming able to participate in the activities she was missing out on due to pain eased all of the fear she had created for herself.

So, if this sounds like you or someone you know, a person who may be on a path to a very negative mind space or beginning to feel depressed or anxious due to pain, PLEASE give Physio Room a call. We can help you sort through your fears and come up with a program that will get you back to skiing and cycling, or whatever it is that you want to do.

Thank you very much and have a good day!

The post Reasons Never to Put Off Knee Pain… appeared first on Physio Room.