Tom Walters: Empowering People with Simple Exercises to Alleviate Pain and Recover from Injury

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Tom Walters
Empowering People with Simple Exercises to Alleviate Pain and Recover from Injury

Dr. Tom Walters is a board-certified orthopedic physical therapist that specializes in the treatment of pain and movement disorders. He is the founder of Rehab Science and dedicates his time to teaching people about human movement, pain, and how to most effectively recover from injury. Besides running his clinical practice, Tom served as a full-time undergraduate kinesiology professor for eight years where he taught human biomechanics, therapeutic exercise, and pain science.

Kelly has known Tom for a long time and really appreciates his new book Rehab Science. It reiterates what Kelly has been preaching for years: that “All human beings should be able to perform basic maintenance on themselves”. Much like Becoming a Supple Leopard, this book empowers people to take a crack at fixing their bodies before having to see a professional.

For more info about Tom, check out his website or follow him on instagram.

Points of interest in the episode: 

05:18  Tom’s new book is Rehab Science: How to Overcome Pain and Heal From Injury
06:44  Why this book, why now?
08:57  Tom’s professional trajectory as a physical therapist
10:11  The system isn’t set up for therapists to provide quality care
16:38  How do we change the model?; Danny Matta
20:40  Rehab Science gives people a simple blueprint to solve very common musculoskeletal problems
22:20  Basic interventions are pretty universal
23:56  How do we get people to care before they need to seek treatment
27:40  Dan Buettner (Blue Zones) is using his findings to work toward policy change
30:30  WALL-E; Idiocracy
35:12  The health and fitness Industry is doing a better job of educating women on the importance of resistance and strength training
37:50  Complementary and alternative interventions
39:04  We rely on colleagues that are deep in the research; Brent Brookbush, Flexibility Research, Biolayne
42:45  The Pain Spiral
44:00  Pain science; Explain Pain; The Body Keeps the Score
49:54  Modern life might be too comfortable; Michael Easter’s The Comfort Crisis
50:55  Graded exposure
52:00  The Judo story
53:55  “Life is pain, highness” – The Princess Bride
55:40  The household is the functional unit of change
56:40  The solution doesn’t have to be complicated
58:20  What is Tom excited about/looking forward to?
62:35  Tom’s socials

Full Transcript

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