Most people think back pain means something is “out of place.” But recurrent low back pain isn’t a structural problem—it’s a capacity problem.

In this episode, Craig and Alex dig into why back pain keeps coming back, why stretching often makes it worse, and how to rebuild the ability to handle load again.

They cover:• The real cause of recurrent low back pain (tissue capacity mismatch)• Hidden triggers like sitting, exercise timing, and regional weakness• Why “feeling better” isn’t the same as healing• How to use traction, soft tissue work, and coordination training safely• The difference between activation, strength, and endurance• How to maintain your progress using the “therapeutic gap”

If your back keeps flaring up no matter what you do, this episode will finally help you understand why—and what to change for lasting relief.

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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

Most people think shin splints are just part of running. But “shin splints” isn’t a diagnosis—it’s a location.
In this episode, Craig and Alex break down what’s really happening when your shins hurt, why rest rarely fixes it, and how to rebuild the ability to absorb force.

They cover:• The two main causes—medial tibial stress syndrome and posterior tibialis overload• Why “overpronation” isn’t the problem (it’s pronating too fast)• How force absorption errors lead to recurring pain• The role of taping, bracing, and load management• When to use tools like orthotics—and when they become crutches• How to actually fix the root cause and get back to running pain-free

If you’ve dealt with shin splints that never seem to go away, this episode will finally make sense of why.

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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 and Alex Keicher dive into 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

Our second Past Your Prime comment section is here — where we take your comments from Spotify and YouTube and turn them into full conversations.

In this one, we cover everything from dietary fiber to what actually happens when tissues are injured, joint replacement training tips, and even the wild mechanics of reverse shoulder replacements. We also get into cramping, neuromas, and the connection between the foot and Achilles tendon.

Basically — if you drop a comment, we’ll talk about it.

What we hit in this episode:

• Fiber intake and Alex's bean strategy

• What “tissue damage” really means

• Training tips after knee, hip, and shoulder replacements

• Reverse shoulder replacement (and why it’s so different)

• Flexor digitorum brevis, neuromas, and cramping connections

• Why fast “fix knee pain” videos are clickbait (yep, we said it)

• Craig’s family vs. Alex’s family in the comment section battle

Keep the comments coming — we’ll keep breaking them down.

Most people think challenges like 75 Hard are just about willpower or discipline. At Past Your Prime, we see them differently: they’re a way to stress test your system—to find out if your daily habits, identity, and direction actually hold up under pressure.

In this episode, Alex and Craig break down:

• What really makes 75 Hard difficult (hint: not the workouts).

• How challenges reveal cracks in your system.

• The identity shifts that stick long after the challenge ends.

• Why 75 days is the sweet spot for habit change.

• The “keep, adjust, drop” lessons Craig took forward.

• How to build quarterly challenges with washout months that refine your system.

Challenges aren’t about checking a box. They’re about refining your system and proving who you want to be—one challenge at a time.

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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 and Alex Keicher dive into 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

Most people think once they’re pain free, the problem is solved. But pain free doesn’t mean inhibition free. Muscle inhibition—the silent limiter that keeps certain muscles from firing—can stall your progress, cause recurring flare-ups, and make workouts feel harder than they should.

In this episode of Past Your Prime, Craig and Alex break down:

• What muscle inhibition really is (and why it lingers after rehab)

• The difference between the rehab gap and the therapeutic gap

• Key signs that your muscles aren’t firing (tightness, cramps, plateaus)

• Why you can test strong on the table but fail under load

• Common muscles that shut off (glutes, quads, rotator cuff, foot stabilizers)

• How to build warmups that screen and fix inhibition before training

• Why “pain free ≠ firing on all cylinders”

If you’ve been doing the work but keep hitting the same wall, this episode shows you the hidden reason—and how to clear it.

💡 Takeaway: Use your warmup as a daily screen. Treat the joint, wake up the right muscle, clear trigger points, and test your key signs.

____________________________________

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

Each episode, hosts Craig Smith and Alex Keicher dive into 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

Some treatments feel amazing in the moment—but are they actually helping you recover, or just keeping you stuck?

In this episode of Past Your Prime, Alex and Craig dig into “triggers hiding as therapy,” the hidden danger of unverified treatments that mask symptoms without building capacity. From stretching to massage guns to even certain injections and surgeries, they unpack why so many popular approaches provide short-term relief but can lower your tissue capacity in the long run.

You’ll learn:

• Why the real goal of therapy is to close the rehab gap (tissue vs. physical capacity).

• How to spot the difference between pain relief and true progress.

• Common “hidden triggers” that feel good but can make you worse.

• The tools Craig uses in clinic to verify if a treatment is actually building capacity.

• Why relying on a treatment just because it feels good is one of the biggest traps in rehab.

💡 Don’t just feel better—get better.

____________________________________

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

Each episode, hosts Craig Smith and Alex Keicher dive into 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

Most people believe rest = healing = problem solved. But if you’ve dealt with the same injury over and over, you already know the truth: taking time off usually makes things worse.

In this episode of Past Your Prime, Craig Smith (PT & life professional) and Alex Keicher (pro athlete & busy dad) break down:

• Why time off creates “fake improvement” and the dreaded doom loop

• When rest actually works (and when it doesn’t)

• The difference between tissue capacity and exercise capacity

• Hidden triggers that keep injuries coming back

• How to create a therapeutic gap where healing outweighs irritation

• Practical strategies like lateralization, cool-downs, and trigger management

Whether you’re a weekend warrior, a parent trying to stay active, or someone tired of the same injury cycle, this episode will help you understand why rest alone won’t fix the problem—and how to finally break free.

____________________________________

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

Each episode, hosts Craig Smith and Alex Keicher dive into 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

Old injuries that never seem to stay gone?
Taking time off, stretching harder, or grinding through ibuprofen won’t break the cycle. If you keep re-irritating the same spots, it’s not because you’re weak or unlucky—it’s because your programming isn’t addressing tissue capacity and you’re ignoring the feedback that matters.

In this episode of Past Your Prime, Craig uses Alex as a live case study to show how recurring injuries happen and—more importantly—how to stop them. We dig into the body inventory, needs analysis, and therapeutic gap to build a framework that actually reduces flare-ups and keeps you on the court, field, or trail.

You’ll learn how to set up training that builds resilience instead of breakdowns, why key signs are non-negotiable, and why warm-ups and cool-downs are more than box-checking—they’re your chance to test and reset your body so it recovers stronger.

In this episode:– Why old injuries keep coming back (and why “time off” isn’t the fix)– How to use a body inventory and needs analysis to prioritize what really matters– The concept of the therapeutic gap and why athletes with high physical capacity are at higher risk– Why warm-ups and cool-downs should revolve around your key signs– How to design a simple, two-day program that builds tissue capacity without triggering flare-ups– Why avoiding unforced errors in the gym is the key to staying competitive

If you’re tired of living in flare-up mode and want to finally build confidence in your body again, this one’s for you.

____________________________________

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

Each episode, hosts Craig Smith and Alex Keicher dive into 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