Today, we are talking about the body's foundation: the feet.

Your feet don't care what sport you play or what activity you do. It cares if it can handle the load.

Once again, it's all about physical capacity.

This episode is for those keep taping their ankle and pretending everything is fine; for those who wonder if their shoes are helping or hindering them; for those who wants to know the secret of how the big toe is the key for vertical jump; and for those who have no idea that their feet might be the real reason why their lower back is screaming at them every day for exactly 23 hours and 51 minutes.

Don't ask us about the remaining 9 minutes.

Let’s get into it.

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WELCOME TO PAST YOUR PRIME!

The podcast for active adults balancing fitness, family, and real life.

Each episode, hosts Craig Smith (Physical Therapist, Strength Coach & Life Professional) and Alex Keicher (Pro Athlete, Busy Dad & Physically Broken) unpack real-world strategies for overcoming injuries, staying strong, and living pain-free... even when life gets chaotic!

💡 Learn more, access resources, and join our community: 👉 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠pastyourprime.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on Instagram:

📲 Alex – @spikerkeicher⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠📲 Craig – @craigsmithPT⁠

Tightness. Stiffness. Inflexibility.

Or some other loss of motion might be the most common complaint Craig hears after pain.

But tightness is a description, not a diagnosis.

So, if you came here hoping Craig would give you a new stretch for your ‘tight’ hamstrings… sorry, today, you will have the definitive answer to this question: “What do you actually mean by ‘tight’?”. Today, on this Past Your Prime Podcast episode, we will debunk this Tightness myth once and for all.

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WELCOME TO PAST YOUR PRIME!

The podcast for active adults balancing fitness, family, and real life.

Each episode, hosts Craig Smith (Physical Therapist, Strength Coach & Life Professional) and Alex Keicher (Pro Athlete, Busy Dad & Physically Broken) unpack real-world strategies for overcoming injuries, staying strong, and living pain-free... even when life gets chaotic!

💡 Learn more, access resources, and join our community: 👉 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠pastyourprime.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on Instagram:

📲 Alex –⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@spikerkeicher⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠📲 Craig –⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@craigsmithPT⁠

Today we’re talking about returning to playing sports.

Most people don’t quit because they’re lazy, they quit because something keeps breaking, hurting, or derailing them. And, most importantly, they don’t know how to develop a better standard, realistic timelines or a plan that doesn’t assume they’re still 21 and sleeping ten hours a night.

If you need help figuring out how to stop restarting your favorite sport every six months, whether you’re training in rehab mode or high-performance mode, this episode is for you.

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WELCOME TO PAST YOUR PRIME!

The podcast for active adults balancing fitness, family, and real life.

Each episode, hosts Craig Smith (Physical Therapist, Strength Coach & Life Professional) and Alex Keicher (Pro Athlete, Busy Dad & Physically Broken) unpack real-world strategies for overcoming injuries, staying strong, and living pain-free... even when life gets chaotic!

💡 Learn more, access resources, and join our community: 👉 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠pastyourprime.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on Instagram:

📲 Alex –⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@spikerkeicher⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠📲 Craig –⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@craigsmithPT⁠

Why every time one thing starts to feel better, something else decides to hurt? Is that bad rehab? Or is that actually how bodies work?

Because if you’ve ever felt like rehab turns into "injury whack-a-mole", where you fix one problem and another one pops up... well, this Past Your Prime episode is for you!

Craig’s has seen this pattern constantly, especially with foot injuries, and today we’re putting a name to it: Layered Pathology. Let's break it down together, and understand why this doesn’t mean you are broken... or doing something wrong.

Check out our blog: Why rehab feels like chasing injuries

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Welcome to Past Your Prime – the podcast for active adults balancing training, rehab, family, and real life.

Each episode, hosts Craig Smith (PT & coach) and Alex Keicher (pro athlete & busy dad) unpack real-world strategies for overcoming injuries, staying strong, and living pain-free—even when life gets chaotic.

💡 Learn more, access resources, and join our community:👉 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠pastyourprime.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on Instagram:

📲 Alex –⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@spikerkeicher⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠📲 Craig –⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@craigsmithPT⁠

Alright, folks: you know the drill.

You are scrolling through YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, YouNameItNewSocialMediaHere and what not.

Then, you see the shiny and new fitness influencer of the hour telling what exercise you shouldn’t do in fifteen seconds or so.

No context, no explanation, no nuance or even logic. Just Doomsday talk: do a deadlift and you will DIE A TERRIBLE DEATH AND THE UNIVERSE WILL EXPLODE!!!

Well, it's time to go through the five most controversial exercises in 2026: should you do them? Should you avoid them? Are there alternatives for these exercises? Or should you make them even HARDER?

Well, let’s find out together in this brand new episode of Past Your Prime.

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Welcome to Past Your Prime – the podcast for active adults balancing training, rehab, family, and real life.

Each episode, hosts Craig Smith (PT & coach) and Alex Keicher (pro athlete & busy dad) unpack real-world strategies for overcoming injuries, staying strong, and living pain-free—even when life gets chaotic.

💡 Read more about our take on the 5 most controversial exercises👉 Debunking the 5 Most Controversial Exercises in 2026

Follow us on Instagram:

📲 Alex –⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@spikerkeicher⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠📲 Craig –⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@craigsmithPT⁠

Craig often thinks about the New Year as another point in time to analyze, commit, and change his current system. At this time of year, he spends about 50% of his time discussing goals.

Alex, on the other hand, spends 90% of his time getting hurt.

Most New Year's resolutions are not goals - they are challenges. On this episode of Past Your Prime, we get back to the useful framework of identity, meaning, direction, and system. And we're gonna help you start your new chapter with a BANG!

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Welcome to Past Your Prime – the podcast for active adults balancing training, rehab, family, and real life.

Each episode, hosts Craig Smith (PT & coach) and Alex Keicher (pro athlete & busy dad) unpack real-world strategies for overcoming injuries, staying strong, and living pain-free—even when life gets chaotic.

💡 Learn more, access resources, and join our community:👉 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠pastyourprime.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on Instagram:

📲 Alex –⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@spikerkeicher⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠📲 Craig –⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@craigsmithPT⁠

It's the holiday season and your New Year’s Resolutions are that you are going to be more active in 2026.

But you have done this a million New Year’s before, haven't you? And being more active felt worse… until you eventually quit, anyway.

This is Exercise Hell: when movement consistently makes you feel worse, not better.

In today’s episode we will dive deep into how to avoid this Hell altogether and what strategies to apply if you find yourself in this situation. But one thing is for sure: after this episode, you will be able to finally stay committed to your New Year’s Resolutions in 2026.

The goal isn’t to fall in love with exercise. The goal is to stop being punished by it and get the best bang for your buck.

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Welcome to Past Your Prime – the podcast for active adults balancing training, rehab, family, and real life.

Each episode, hosts Craig Smith (PT & coach) and Alex Keicher (pro athlete & busy dad) unpack real-world strategies for overcoming injuries, staying strong, and living pain-free—even when life gets chaotic.

💡 Learn more, access resources, and join our community:👉 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠pastyourprime.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on Instagram:

📲 Alex – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@spikerkeicher⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠📲 Craig – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@craigsmithPT⁠

Imagine the following scenario: you are someone who likes to lift and/or exercise.

One day, you have a mild lower back pain and it is not even clear which exercise did this to you!

After two weeks you notice more symptoms with higher-intensity exercise. You reduce your activity for about a month or so and avoid things that cause pain but try to stay active.

Then, you go back to your original daily routine and feel good over the course of several weeks.

But then you have another lower back pain incident. This repeats over the course of weeks, months or even years, sometimes with longer gaps in between but you eventually stop lifting at higher weights or you avoid specific exercises. And that list seems to be growing!Wanna know what the hell happened?

Watch today's episode to find out!

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Welcome to Past Your Prime – the podcast for active adults balancing training, rehab, family, and real life.

Each episode, hosts Craig Smith (PT & coach) and Alex Keicher (pro athlete & busy dad) unpack real-world strategies for overcoming injuries, staying strong, and living pain-free—even when life gets chaotic.

💡 Learn more, access resources, and join our community:👉 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠pastyourprime.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Follow us on Instagram:

📲 Alex – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@spikerkeicher⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠📲 Craig – ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@craigsmithPT⁠