The secret to training success? The right type of exercise in the right dose for the right person. Dr. Mark Goodman is an emergency and sports medicine physician who utilizes this secret to help athletes understand how to make the most of their time spent in the gym. Dr. Goodman received his medical training at Oregon Health and Science University and completed his residency at University of Utah, followed by a fellowship in Sports Medicine. He has worked with athletes of all levels and voluntee...
May 25, 2021•49 min
At age 20, Sarah Adams was surprised to learn she had Asperger Syndrome. She had taken advanced classes in school, played competitive sports, attended college, and overall enjoyed a happy, healthy childhood. After receiving her diagnosis, some of the symptoms and signs of the condition she experienced as a child began to make sense. Rather than feel limited by her diagnosis, Sarah has been able to use this knowledge as a powerful tool, implementing strategies to be successful in both her persona...
May 18, 2021•58 min
"Imagine you’re doing thrusters, but you can breathe like you’re going for a walk." Max Finkbeiner and Kate Caines have developed a methodology to help do just that. By using science, data, targeted assessments, and technology, they derive relative intensity personalized to individuals. These athletes can then use this information to inform their training, making sure to work on all of their energy systems with their own personal targets in mind. This methodology is not just limited to elite ath...
May 11, 2021•1 hr 16 min
Scott Switzer is a former athlete, CrossFit Level 1 Trainer, and a familiar face at CrossFit events across the country. He has a remarkable transformation story, having lost nearly 250 pounds and reversing his diabetes with the help of his neighbor, his family, and his CrossFit community. But Scott’s journey has not been without setbacks. Back surgery, a vascular condition, and an ongoing struggle with depression have resulted in regaining weight, but he’s not giving up. In this episode, Scott s...
May 04, 2021•53 min
David Haase, MD, is a doctor, teacher, author and innovator. In his practice, he strives to be a super-generalist, looking at the human body as a whole and applying relentless curiosity to identify and treat the root cause of a patient’s disease. Dr. Haase received his medical training at Vanderbilt University and completed his residency in family medicine at the Mayo Clinic. He is board certified in family medicine, integrative holistic medicine, neurofeedback and functional medicine. He also h...
Apr 27, 2021•58 min
Three-time PGA Tour winner Scott Stallings has been a professional golfer since 2010. Despite turning in successful performances on green, off the course, Scott struggled with sleep, excess weight, and lack of energy, all compounded by a grueling travel schedule. He finally decided enough was enough and made a huge lifestyle overhaul. He worked with a physician to address hormone imbalances and to correct a sinus problem that was causing sleep apnea. He cleaned up his diet, incorporated CrossFit...
Apr 20, 2021•1 hr 3 min
Katie Spotz is an incredibly impressive ultra-endurance athlete who has undertaken enormous adventures across the globe to help raise funds for clean water and sanitation for underserved communities. Just a few highlights: at 22, she rowed solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 70 days, becoming the youngest person ever to do so. In 2020, she ran 138-miles nonstop in 33-hours across the state of Maine. She was also the first person to swim the length of the Allegheny river at 325 miles, she’s cycled ...
Apr 13, 2021•59 min
At a very young age, Jess Esch became aware that her shape and size did not fit in amongst her friends. She struggled with years of shame and insecurity and fell into a pattern of starving herself, followed by large binges. By 16, her weight peaked at 220 lbs, and her doctor began discussing the potential for gastric bypass surgery. Jess was devastated by the idea, and instead turned to her faith to re-frame her mindset. She began to recognize that her value and worth are not determined by her w...
Apr 06, 2021•46 min
Chris Kresser is a leading clinician and top educator in the fields of Functional Medicine and ancestral health, and the New York Times-bestselling author of The Paleo Cure. In 2015, Chris founded The Kresser Institute to provide the next generation of functional health practitioners and coaches with the skills and tools they need to turn the tide of chronic disease—and change the future of medicine. Through the Institute, he also created and launched the ADAPT Practitioner and Health Coach Trai...
Mar 30, 2021•57 min
Sharon Cabe was a young, vibrant, active wife and mother of two, so she was shocked when an exploratory colonoscopy resulted in finding a mass so large that her doctor immediately took her into surgery to remove the growth. She underwent a year of chemotherapy, and all signs of the cancer disappeared. However, it wasn’t too long before a routine follow-up scan revealed a node in her lung. Her colon cancer had become metastatic. In the 8 years that followed, Sharon underwent a multitude of treatm...
Mar 23, 2021•33 min
Zack George finished the 2020 Open as the Fittest Man in the UK and 26th worldwide, but hearing this accomplishment, you would never guess how far he’s come. As a child, a steady diet of sweets and fast food led to him being extremely overweight and self conscious. With the support of his family, he was slowly able to transform from a kid who hated exercise to one of the most athletic teens in his school. Fueled by the knowledge of how much better he felt living a healthy lifestyle, Zack has mad...
Mar 16, 2021•1 hr 4 min
“I have changed so much as a person over these past 5 and a half years, I almost don’t recognize myself. I feel as if I have lived my life as two very different people, but yet I am very much the same person that I have always been.” In this week’s episode of Pursuing Health, Haley Morrone shares the story of her tumultuous childhood during which she experienced sexual abuse, depression, and drug and alcohol abuse. As she grew up and became a young mother, she found herself facing even more chal...
Mar 09, 2021•49 min
47-year old Darryl Chajon didn’t start CrossFit until later in life, but once he did, he was hooked. After several years of regular training, he even set his sights on becoming a competitor. He started ramping up the volume and intensity of his sessions, dialed in his nutrition, and worked hard to get in better shape than ever. Then, in March of 2020, just as he was preparing for a competition, he came down with extreme fatigue, a cough, and a fever: classic symptoms of COVID-19. His symptoms pr...
Mar 02, 2021•38 min
Dr. David Johnson is a brain and spinal neurosurgeon who has had a pioneering role in the establishment of multidisciplinary spinal practices and holistic care for neurosurgical patients in Brisbane, Australia. He is also the co-owner of CrossFit Neuro, the first clinical CrossFit affiliate. By combining his passion for CrossFit, Olympic weightlifting, neurosurgery, and science, Dr. Johnson works to deliver the fundamental message that learning to move proficiently is key to preventing movement ...
Feb 23, 2021•58 min
Robb Wolf is a former research biochemist and 2X New York Times/Wall Street Journal Best-selling author of The Paleo Solution and Wired To Eat . He and co-author Diana Rodgers recently released their book, Sacred Cow , which explains why well-raised meat is good for us and good for the planet. Robb is a longtime CrossFit enthusiast, and he is the co-founder of the 1st and 4th CrossFit affiliates in the world. Robb has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world via ...
Feb 16, 2021•57 min
Seemingly healthy and in his late thirties, Robert Oh was shocked when routine blood work showed that he was prediabetic. He was at a healthy weight, did CrossFit 3-4 times per week, ate mostly healthy foods, and worked as a military family physician. He had no family history and no risk factors, and he had no intentions of starting the metformin recommended by his colleagues. The more he researched, the more Dr. Oh began to believe that a statin medication he had been taking for 10 years contri...
Feb 09, 2021•49 min
Alec Smith is a 3-time CrossFit Games competitor who is perhaps best known for his incredible expertise at gymnastics, and for being one of the first openly gay male athletes in the sport. He started in gymnastics at age 2, and excelled at the sport through middle school when a car accident forced him to retire. After recovering and dabbling in several other sports, he eventually began training CrossFit alongside his older brother, Ben Smith. In 2013 Alec qualified for his first Regionals, and b...
Feb 02, 2021•48 min
This week’s story features Katie Spilka who shares her story of being diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease called scleroderma at age 16 and how CrossFit and a positive outlook have helped her put her symptoms into remission. Katie was an everyday teenager when she first experienced unusual symptoms, including numbness in her fingers. Because of her family’s medical history, Katie’s mom advocated for her to see a rheumatologist, and conversations with the doctor revealed that symptoms Katie h...
Jan 26, 2021•49 min
At age 18 and finishing high school, Alan Fredendall topped the scales at over 400 pounds. Climbing a single flight of stairs to attend class on the second story of his school left him wheezing and breathless. During college, he began a weight loss journey involving body building and lots of cardio, but he hadn’t yet found a way to make sustainable, long term changes. A stent in the Army gave him the motivation he needed to maintain a healthier weight for several years, but it also left him look...
Jan 19, 2021•53 min
Despite being the youngest Individual competitor at the 2020 CrossFit Games, Haley Adams brought a wealth of experience to the field, including three CrossFit Games podium finishes as a teen competitor. In 2019, Haley’s first year participating in the Women’s division, she finished in 6th and earned the title “Rookie of the Year.” In 2020, she continued to climb her way up the leaderboard and left no doubt that even at a young age, she’s ready to be one of the top CrossFit athletes in the world....
Jan 12, 2021•32 min
Maddie Tretter was an accomplished Division 1 swimmer at Cleveland State, preparing for the Olympic Trials, when she she started coming down with a laundry list of seemingly unrelated symptoms: panic attacks, nausea, migraines, swollen joints and more. After trying several treatments with no success, Maddie was encouraged when she finally tested positive for Lyme disease - she figured now that she had a diagnosis, she’d complete a course of antibiotics and be back in the pool. Despite treatment,...
Jan 05, 2021•35 min
“If a woman can understand how she feels on different days her cycle, then she can start dialing and being more personalized with her training. When the hormones are low, this is where women have more power, more speed, recover better, have more “mojo” because they have less central nervous system fatigue. Around ovulation, with that boost of estrogen, some women feel bulletproof and other women feel a little bit flat, and then a couple days later they’ll feel bulletproof, so, understanding that...
Dec 29, 2020•51 min
“I think the biggest thing that I take away are these transferable skills where, you would think that touring the country and hustling and making it happen in that way is specific to music, but it’s really not. That’s going to help us in the future with our gym, it has already as we bootstrapped the gym and figured that whole thing out, and even with our kids, just that idea of one step at a time. All you have control over is your next step. And that was all the music ever was, too, what’s my ne...
Dec 22, 2020•54 min
We noticed her speech was definitely years ahead of her age, her confidence, her ability to walk into a room and own it, and other people started noticing all of these social, emotional, physical things about her, and we’re like, “yeah, it really works.” Through physical activity you can really have an impact on a child’s social-emotional health, you can. Mental health, speech, everything. So, Matt said, if we want this for her, imagine how many parents would also be interested in this? This was...
Dec 15, 2020•57 min
“For all my friends who are struggling to find where to get started, just do something. Just find something you love. It does not have to be CrossFit. I love CrossFit, and I would love if you loved CrossFit, too, so we could talk that language together, but just find something. Just start. Baby steps. You’ll be far more successful just by taking baby steps instead of trying to do everything all at once.” - Carrie McCall “I knew I was overweight and it wasn’t healthy but I didn’t know what to do ...
Dec 08, 2020•58 min
“The model of medicine where you base treatment of patients on statistics and epidemiology- what works for most people- we felt like we could do better as a society and as a group of physicians, and that’s what took us down the route of creating Wild Health and focusing on precision medicine.” - Dr. Matthew Dawson, Wild Health CEO Can human performance be optimized by tailoring medical care to each patient’s unique genetic makeup? Matt Dawson, MD and Mike Mallin, MD are the co-founders of Wild H...
Dec 01, 2020•1 hr 1 min
“When we think about exercise in general as sort of a hermetic stressor, it just makes sense to think about, if you’re going to do it at a higher intensity and have these repeated hormetic stressors, you’re going to get an overall greater response. It’s a lot of the same mechanisms that we see for exercise causing a lot of great brain health and cognitive benefits, but we’re just seeing it to a greater degree.” - Julie Foucher-Urcuyo, MD In this special edition of Pursuing Health Pearls, I'm joi...
Nov 24, 2020•40 min
Six-time CrossFit Games athlete Brooke Wells was just 19 when she qualified for her first CrossFit Games in 2015, and she's competed at every CrossFit Games since, always placing inside the top 20. This year, at the 2020 CrossFit Games, Brooke earned her best finish yet, placing 5th amongst an elite field of competitors. When Brooke started CrossFit, she had a natural gift for strength and lifting heavy weights. Combine that with a background in track and gymnastics, plus several years of hard w...
Nov 17, 2020•48 min•Ep. 253
“You have something like a major surgery, whether you have MS specifically or whether you have any other type of autoimmune disease or anything like that, but those don’t have to be death sentences. Even though that’s what they feel like when you first get diagnosed, and if the relapses are hitting harder and harder, or if the symptoms are getting worse. It’s easy to think it’s just going downhill. The biggest thing that CrossFit has done for me is to remind me or show me that I can take control...
Nov 10, 2020•54 min
As you learn more, and more, and more about disease, prevention is the key. Why get sick in the first place? Don’t get sick! Why are we going to wait until you’re end-stage or sick as a dog before we try and provide you with help? No. Let’s be smarter with our minds, resources and approaches. It just doesn’t make sense when you think about it, really. A lot of times we’re just putting Band-Aids on [things]. Let’s get to the root cause and, really, stop you from entering the door.” - Dr. Kwadwo K...
Nov 03, 2020•1 hr 6 min
