Shapeshift Wellness

Shapeshift Wellness We empower people with chronic low back pain & sciatica to reclaim the active life they love.

06/06/2026

❌ You know NOTHING about chronic pain. Listen Up. He's Got Something To Say...
People don't take him seriously, but he's dropping mics left and right. 🤷
Okay, but in all seriousness, you might actually not know as much as you think about chronic pain.
Mainly, if you still blame chronic pain on anatomy and asymmetry, listen up.
Most people have disc herniations, degeneration, and even nerve compression on their MRI, whether or not they have pain.
Everybody is asymmetrical, whether or not you have pain, and you can't fix it.
Chronic pain does not have one singular root cause. Chronic pain is multifactorial, and the factors that influence each person's pain are unique to you.
Zoom out, look at the big picture, look at yourself like a whole human being, and there is a path forward out of chronic pain.

06/05/2026

What's the best diet? (Day three of losing twenty pounds without a diet I hate)
Seriously, comment below. What do you think is the best diet?
Also, as you answer that question, ask yourself: what criteria are you using to judge a diet?
Are you relying on fad influencer jargon?
Are you relying on influencer fear tactics?
Are you primarily concerned with micronutrients or toxins or inflammatory compounds?
In the hunt for a perfect diet, do you genuinely believe in your heart of hearts that there is one singular correct diet for all human beings?
If so, what is it and why?
Also, consider: what is the value of a perfect diet that you don't stick to?
Versus what is the value of a decent diet that is actually sustainable?
Which is better?
Seriously, I want your thoughts in the comments 👇
If you want to follow along and do a 30-day challenge with me, join our free group and pick something you want to work on for your health, and let's do it together!
So comment "free group". Join the group, and we'll see there! 👇

06/04/2026

⬇️ Comment "FREE GROUP" and join our 30-day challenge to improve your chronic pain.
Day two of losing 20 lb to reduce systemic inflammation and get back on track with my four pillars of health practices...
First up: Smoothies. Are they good or bad for weight loss?
I drink a smoothie every single morning for a variety of reasons:
1. I hate mornings. I'm super groggy. I don't want to cook anything.
2. I just don't feel hungry in the mornings, but I do need to eat something; otherwise I won't have any energy.
3. I need to hit my protein goals, and this is the quickest way to get a bunch of protein.
4. It's easy and repeatable. Don't make me think.
However, liquid calories do not register in your body as well as chewable calories.
So the benefit of my smoothies is that they are high in protein and high in fiber, which is likely to fill me up and help me hit some important goals
The negative is I'm drinking the calories instead of eating them and chewing them, which means it's not going to be quite as satiating. It's just easier to accidentally overdo it with calories this way.
That said, for the next couple of weeks, I will continue my normal morning routine with smoothies, but if I'm not losing weight at the rate that I want, cutting out liquid calories would be one of the first and simplest choices.
Please take note that I am using water as the liquid base rather than using something like milk or yogurt or ice cream that might be unnecessary calories.
Also, a quick note that I've mentioned calories a lot. Obviously, there are a lot of different strategies with weight loss, and many of them work, but they depend on the personality type. There are ways that you can achieve the results without hyper-fixating on calories, and I'll discuss some of those options over the next 30 days.
If you want to follow along and do a 30-day challenge with me, join our free group and pick something you want to work on for your health, and let's do it together!
So comment "free group". Join the group, and we'll see there! 👇

06/03/2026

⬇️ Comment "FREE GROUP" and join our 30-day challenge to improve your chronic pain.
I've got to confess something, folks... I've been slacking. 😅
I've been sick for the last two weeks, which is way longer than it should have been, and on top of that I've been noticing some other random weird little aches and pains, and it's starting to p**s me off.
Upon thinking this through, I have not been taking care of my own four pillars lately.
In case you aren't familiar with our four pillars, they are:
- exercise
- mental health
- nutrition
- sleep
First and foremost, I need to lose some weight, so I will document that journey and show you how I'm making weight loss extremely simple and making it not feel restrictive.
Some of you might relate to knowing that you need to do some things for your health, but for one reason or another, life gets in the way and you're just not on top of it right now.
If that's you, then I would love you to join our impromptu, spontaneous 30-day challenge. Basically, I'm challenging myself to get my s**t together and pick a few things that are going to improve my life and my health and stay accountable. I figured if I'm doing this for myself, why not invite you guys along for the ride? We can all hold each other accountable and share our successes and challenges and insights and do this together 💪
So comment "free group". Join the group, and we'll see there! 👇

06/03/2026

⬇️ Comment "FREE GROUP" and join our 30-day challenge to improve your chronic pain.
I've got to confess something, folks... I've been slacking. 😅
I've been sick for the last two weeks, which is way longer than it should have been, and on top of that I've been noticing some other random weird little aches and pains, and it's starting to p**s me off.
Upon thinking this through, I have not been taking care of my own four pillars lately.
In case you aren't familiar with our four pillars, they are:
- exercise
- mental health
- nutrition
- sleep
First and foremost, I need to lose some weight, so I will document that journey and show you how I'm making weight loss extremely simple and making it not feel restrictive.
Some of you might relate to knowing that you need to do some things for your health, but for one reason or another, life gets in the way and you're just not on top of it right now.
If that's you, then I would love you to join our impromptu, spontaneous 30-day challenge. Basically, I'm challenging myself to get my s**t together and pick a few things that are going to improve my life and my health and stay accountable. I figured if I'm doing this for myself, why not invite you guys along for the ride? We can all hold each other accountable and share our successes and challenges and insights and do this together 💪
So comment "free group". Join the group, and we'll see there! 👇

05/25/2026

⬇️ Did your doctors lie to you about your disc herniation?
Many people have been told that their spinal discs are like jelly donuts.

When you bend forward, it squishes the jelly out the back, causing a disc herniation or making it worse.
Through my doctoral program and as a college anatomy and physiology professor, I have dissected enough spines to know that the intervertebral disc is much tougher than you've been led to believe.
Discs are made of fibrocartilage, which is a tough, rubbery substance.
It's true the inside, called the nucleus pulposus, is a semi-solid substance, but it's not like jelly. It's more like chewing gum or Play-Doh.
If you have to picture the anatomy of the spinal discs, think of a car tire filled with chewing gum or Play-Doh wrapped with tough athletic tape.
Not only that, but we know from research that spinal bending is not only safe for disc herniations but, in appropriate amounts, can aid in the recovery of disc herniations and the maintenance of healthy disc tissue
Don't be afraid of your spine. Motion is lotion. You just need to find the Goldilocks zone between pushing and doing too much too fast versus babying yourself and doing too little for too long.
⬇️ Comment "free group" for free training on how to overcome chronic back pain and sciatica ⬇️

05/24/2026

⬇️ There is no "root cause" of chronic back pain and sciatica...
If a line of dominoes falls, which one is to blame?
Most people would blame the first domino, but if there were no other dominoes, there's nothing there to collapse.
It's the collection of all of the factors together that add up and create the experience of chronic pain.
As long as we are trying to find one single thing that is going to instantly and permanently fix our pain, we're missing the plot completely.
Chronic pain is multifactorial, and our lifestyle, exercise, nutrition, mental health, and sleep impact pain dramatically.
Which factors impact each person the most and are unique to each person.
So for one person, we might see dramatic improvements with mobility and strength progressions.
While another person sees a stronger influence from their mental health and stress, fear, or anxiety...
So we need to look at you like a whole human being, and as far as exercise is concerned, look at full body mobility and strength.
Don't get caught in the weeds. Zoom out and look at the bigger picture.
⬇️ Comment "free group" for free training on how to overcome chronic back pain and sciatica ⬇️

05/23/2026

⬇️ The "safe" option for back pain might be MORE dangerous...
It's very natural and intuitive to avoid things that cause pain.
We assume that if a movement or position or activity hurts, then it must be causing damage to the body.
It makes sense to think that pain is telling us that we're doing something dangerous, so we should avoid that thing, right?
This can work in a limited context for a short period of time with extremely severe pain.
In other words, taking it easy in the beginning of a new injury or flare-up is fine.
The problem is if we take it easy for too long, a lot of bad things happen, like:
❌ You become weaker and deconditioned.
❌ Or you lose your strength and mobility.
❌ Or you stop getting blood flow, oxygenation, and nutrient delivery to the tissues while they're healing.
❌ Or you become extremely guarded and overprotective.
❌ Or you get reflexive muscle spasms because your body is trying to keep yourself safe, which just creates more pain and flare-ups.
❌ Or you become fearful of movement, which leads to avoidance, which then leads to all of the above issues you
Instead, what we want to do with a flare-up is slowly reintroduce activities within our pain tolerance and get back to normal life as fast as possible. Even if activities do cause a little bit of pain, that's perfectly safe!
So, in a flare-up, what we like to do is this:
1. Take a deep breath and calm your nervous system down so you don't panic.
2. Remind yourself that pain does not necessarily mean that you're damaging yourself. It's okay to continue your activities with a little bit of pain.
3. It's perfectly fine to reach for some pain relief through ointments or self-massage, or whatever your favorite short-term pain reliever is.
4. We want to figure out why this happened in the first place. Doing too much too fast or too little for too long? Maybe you were under a great deal of stress, or you were getting crappy sleep and eating crappy food.
5. We want to reintroduce exercises, mobility, and strength, and we just do that slowly over time.
⬇️ Comment "free group" for free training on how to overcome chronic back pain and sciatica ⬇️

05/22/2026

⬇️ Your SI joint is NOT "out of place"...
I don't care what your chiropractor said, they're wrong.
The sacroiliac or SI joint is one of the single strongest joints in the human body.
In fact, it's so strong and moves so little that it's almost fused.
If we literally threw you off of a building or you got in a horrible car wreck, your sacroiliac joint would be one of the last things to have an issue.
⬇️ Now let's be clear. There are some things that can absolutely happen to the SI joint, like:
🔥 a sprain of the ligaments surrounding the joint
🔥 irritation of the joint cartilage
🔥 inflammation in this region
🔥 irritation in muscles or nerves
🔥 general overuse of all of the above-mentioned tissues
However, the following things are outdated myths:
❌ The SI joint does not go out of place.
❌ Chiropractors do not put it back into place.
❌ It does not get stuck or rotated.
❌ It does not suddenly become unstable (it's one of the most stable joints in the human body).
So, is it possible to have sacroiliac joint pain? Sure.
Pain in the area does not mean that there's something damaged or wrong or out of place.
In fact, when I had chronic pain, the majority of my back pain was primarily in or around my sacroiliac joint.
I was definitely making it worse by exploiting my hypermobility and doing a lot of yoga that resembled contortionism.
So yes, there are some things we can do with exercise to work around pain in this particular location.
We need to get past the idea that there is a single structural anomaly that we can magically fix with hands-on treatment or corrective exercises. None of that is true.
In fact, the best way to address the sacroiliac joint pain is to simply take a full body approach with graded exposure to full body mobility and strength, including the back and hips and pelvis and upper and lower body.
zoom out. Focus on the big picture.
I mean the really big picture. Not just full body mobility and strength, but also lifestyle, stress, nutrition, and sleep.
Not everything is a bio-mechanical issue.
⬇️ Comment "free group" for free training on how to overcome chronic back pain and sciatica ⬇️

05/21/2026

⬇️ To stretch or not to stretch? (Back Pain & Sciatica)
By far the most common question I get from people is, "Which exercises and stretches should you do?"
The problem is, it depends.
It depends on your symptoms, abilities, limitations, strengths, and weaknesses.
It depends on your goals and your condition.
What works for one person doesn't always work for another person and sometimes makes them worse.
As for stretching, here are some general guidelines...
When NOT to stretch:
❌ When it flares things up
❌ If you're aggressively stretching your sciatic nerve
❌ If you have hyper mobility and stretching is the only thing you do
When stretching can be helpful:
✅ If you're in severe pain and gentle stretching is the only thing you can tolerate
✅ If you lack the mobility to perform the tasks you need to live a normal life
✅ If you lack mobility for sports or hobbies that you enjoy
✅ If it feels good and provides some short-term pain relief
Most importantly, stretching is simply a type of movement that exists on a continuum of difficulty.
Instead of asking, "Should you stretch?", you should ask, "Is stretching too hard or too easy for me right now?"
If stretching is too easy, then it's not going to get you stronger, and it's not going to lead to real progress.
If certain stretches are too challenging and flare you up, then of course you're going to set back your progress and irritate things.
When you're trying to find exercises for chronic back pain and sciatica, it's more about finding the appropriate level of difficulty rather than finding the perfect exercise.
⬇️ Comment "free group" for free training on how to overcome chronic back pain and sciatica ⬇️

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