My guest for this podcast is Greg Lehman. Greg is a physical therapist, chiropractor, and researcher. Our main subject was a new study that found very positive results for Cognitive Functional Therapy (CFT). I thought Greg would be a good guy to ask about the strengths and weaknesses of the study, and how to interpret its meaning in light of the broader literature. Greg is a popular writer and teacher whose main interest is reconciling pain science with biomechanics. Part of his approach...

Today’s podcast is a 15-minute movement lesson you can do in a chair. It's a novel way to get the pelvis and spine moving, and bring some awareness to how they coordinate to keep you comfortable and balanced. It involves walking the sit bones over the base of your chair as if they were feet. Maybe the best alternative to getting up and going for a walk. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit...

Leigh Egger is a physiotherapist and trainer working as head of performance at Feyenoord Rotterdam, a Dutch professional soccer club. I first became interested in Leigh’s work because he had extensive knowledge about applying the ideas of Frans Bosch to athletic training and injury prevention. Bosch is the author of two fascinating books on movement (one of which I reviewed here.) His ideas are notoriously original, controversial, and somewhat confusing. Leigh has worked with Bosch closely...

My guest for today’s podcast is Tom Jesson. Tom is a physiotherapist and author of a two excellent books related to nerve root pain: Sciatica: The Clinician’s Guide and Cauda Equina: The MSK Clinician’s Guide. He also writes a newsletter on nerve root pain here. I highly recommend Tom’s writing because it is well-researched, easy to read, and respects the complexity of the subject matter. In this interview we talked about about sciatica including: the difference between referred pain,...

If you are interested in predictive processing, you should definitely listen to this podcast. It’s an interview with Mark Miller, a philosopher and cognitive scientist who studied under John Vervaeke and did his PhD with Andy Clark. I've read a bunch of Mark’s papers on using predictive processing to understand psychopathology, well-being, addiction, substance abuse, social media use, and playful behavior. These papers are filled with interesting insights about perception and action (along...

The podcast today features a 15-minute Feldenkrais-style movement lesson that you can do while sitting in a chair. It's a progression from a couple other sitting lessons which you can find here and here. (You can do the lessons in any order by the way.) Each lesson is about expanding you're sitting “vocabulary”, by which I mean all the different configurations of the pelvis, spine and ribs that can keep you in a balanced and comfortable position. Let me know what you think in the comments....

Christopher Johnson is a physical therapist, performance coach, international speaker, published researcher, and elite triathlete. I consider Chris to be a world-class source of information about the connection between movement and pain, especially in the context of endurance running. He knows all the research, has years of experience working with runners, and competes at the highest level. Chris lives here in Seattle, so I’ve had many chances to get together with Chris and geek out about...

Listen now | Why coordination matters more than you think This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at toddhargrove.substack.com/subscribe

For this week’s episode of the podcast I have a 15-minute movement lesson you can do while sitting in a chair. The goal is to release unnecessary tension in the shoulders and neck. Based on the Feldenkrais Method. If you are enjoying these movement lessons, stay tuned for a coming announcement about a new series of online classes starting in January. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at toddhargrove.substack.com/subscribe

Listen now | Joletta Belton writes and speaks about her experience with chronic pain so that patients, clinicians and researchers can understand the patient perspective. I have heard Joletta speak several times at pain conferences in San Diego and in Oslo, Norway, and each time she had one of the most informative and engaging presentations. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at toddhargrove.substack.com/subscribe

Listen now (69 min) | Rob Gray is an expert on motor learning, especially as applied to sports. I’ve been following his research for years, as well as his excellent Perception & Action Podcast, which is one of the best sources of online information about skill acquisition for sports. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at toddhargrove.substack.com/subscribe

Listen now | Dr. Tasha Stanton is a physiotherapist and a clinical scientist. After completing her PhD at the University of Sydney, she did post-doctoral work under the mentorship of professor Lorimer Moseley. She now leads her own research group as a senior research fellow at the University of South Australia Adelaide, studying perception, multisensory integration, cortical body representation, and pain. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at...

Here’s the second of a series of lessons to help you sit with more comfort. The first focused on flexion/extension movements, this one is more about side bending. You don’t have to do the lessons in order, but they go well together. Let me know what you think in the comments. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit toddhargrove.substack.com/subscribe

Listen now (59 min) | How attention affects motor learning This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at toddhargrove.substack.com/subscribe

Listen now | A 10-minute Feldenkrais-style movement lesson Get full access to Better Movement at toddhargrove.substack.com/subscribe

Ebonie Rio talks about her research on tendon pain: how they adapt to stress, how they can degenerate, why they hurt, and how to make them feel better.  

Sports scientist Israel Halperin has traveled the world competing in and coaching elite level kickboxing and MMA. In this podcast we talk about why athletes perform better when they can choose their exercises, the complexity of assessing fatigue, the use of RPE to guide training intensity, internal versus external cues, and the replication crisis in sports science.

Paul Ingraham, author of the amazing website PainScience.com, discuses his career writing evidence-based articles and e-books about musculoskeletal pain, including: his involvement in the skeptic community; his work as an editor at the Science Based Medicine blog; his own experience with chronic pain; his recent studies into neuroinflammation and its potential role in medically unexplained symptoms.

Sports scientist James Steele talks about back pain from an evolutionary perspective, the activity levels and health of hunter-gatherers, and his research into high-intensity training as a treatment for low back pain.

Neuroscientist Dr. Melissa Farmer talks about her ground-breaking research into chronic pain, including the use of fMRI to find "pain signatures" in the brain, the key role of emotional learning, and mindfulness-based therapies for treating chronic pain.

Neuroscientist, obesity researcher, and author Stephan Guyenet talks about the diets of hunter-gatherers, the true cause of the obesity epidemic (no, it's not sugar), how to get your kids to eat broccoli, and how the role of the brain in weight regulation.

Greg Lehman on myths about posture and movement "dysfunction", and why exercise actually helps with pain.