How to Train Without Pain (Back, Shoulders, Mobility & Strength) | Dr. John Rusin

1. Dr. Andy Galpin

   The science and practice of enhancing human performance for sport, play, and life. Welcome to Perform. I'm Dr. Andy Galpin. I'm a professor and scientist of human performance. Today I'm talking with Dr. John Rusin. John is a physical therapist and world expert in pain and performance. In this conversation, you're going to learn a tremendous amount about how to stay out of and return from chronic pain. We're talking about back, neck, shoulder, knee, and all of those nagging areas that just won't seem to go away. John's career over the last several decades has focused on specifically that question: how do we make sure we're using things like your warm-up, corrective exercises, soft tissue, and foam rolling tools to make real, measurable, and significant changes? So regardless of whether you are someone who is in a lot of pain or not, there are so many useful tools in this conversation that I think everyone's going to enjoy it.

2. Dr. Andy Galpin

   So with that being said, please enjoy today's conversation with Dr. John Rusin. Dr. John Rusin, you're finally here.

3. Dr. John Rusin

   Finally here. Glad to be here. Thanks so much.

4. Dr. Andy Galpin

   You have done such a good job, in my opinion, of blending these fields of performance and physical therapy. I've not always saw eye to eye personally with the field of physical therapy. That's your academic degree. Your doctorate is in that side. But you moved in this direction. I'm wondering, right out the gates here, can you just share with me how did that get into your brain? Why did you start developing this model that has this combination of being out of pain, being out of injury, moving well, but at the same time trying to perform at your best? How did that come about?

5. Dr. John Rusin

   As cliche as it sounds, I grew up as an athlete myself, and I lived in a household that was very unique because I had my mom, who had a PhD, and she worked at Daemen College in Buffalo, New York, where I'm from, and my dad also had a doctorate, and he had a doctorate in education, and he was the athletic director of 27 schools in the Western New York area. And that's the house that I lived in, Dr. and Dr. Rusin, and I played sports growing up, and I took that to a college level, and after I was done with my collegiate baseball career, I took a job as a strength and conditioning coach.

6. Dr. Andy Galpin

   Mm.

7. Dr. John Rusin

   Division One, it was my epitome of everything. And very clearly, I knew that I needed to chase some more academics because always been good in school. And I didn't know what I wanted to do because I was already in the weight room. I was already working with high-performance athletes. That was my forever job. And I got introduced to this topic, which was new at the time, doctorate of physical therapy.

8. Dr. Andy Galpin

   Right.

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