The FAKTR Podcast

By Jessica Riddle, Todd Riddle

Welcome to the FAKTR Podcast, where we talk about the stuff they didn’t teach you in school—how to grow your practice, refine your clinical skills, and get better results for your patients. We’re here... more

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FAQs about The FAKTR Podcast:

How many episodes does The FAKTR Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 122 episodes available.

The FAKTR Podcast episodes:

February 06, 2026#121 - From Metrics to Movement: Performance Tech for Better Clinical Decisions, Part 2
From Metrics to Movement (Part 2): Workflow + ROI with Dr. Michael Giammarco

Performance tech is everywhere — but data doesn’t create clarity. Frameworks do.

In Part 2 of this series, Jessica Riddle and Dr. Michael Giammarco shift from theory to execution: how to implement performance metrics in real clinic flow, how to communicate results so patients buy in, and how to think about ROI so your tools don’t become expensive decorations.

If Part 1 helped you understand what these tools measure, Part 2 helps you use them.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
How to integrate objective testing into clinic workflow without slowing visits down
How to choose a few meaningful metrics (instead of collecting everything and using nothing)
How to communicate results to patients in a way that increases trust and adherence
How to connect performance data to progression decisions (not just documentation)
How to evaluate ROI: when tech makes sense — and when it’s just “cool”
🔗 RESOURCES & LINKS:

If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, start there to get the foundational framework — then come back to this episode for implementation. Listen here 👉https://tinyurl.com/FAKTR-ep120

Join the 2026 FAKTR Live Course Priority Waitlist to get notified when a regional cohort opens in your area. Click here to learn more and get on the list 👉

🎙️ SUPPORT THE SHOW: Visit our website at faktrpodcast.com to leave a review or comment

🎓ABOUT DR. MICHAEL GIAMMARCO: Dr. Mike Giammarco is a rehabilitation-focused chiropractor, strength coach, and educator based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Learn more about Dr. Michael Giammarco👉 here
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46min
January 24, 2026#120 - From Metrics to Movement: Performance Tech for Better Clinical Decisions, Part 1
Performance technology is everywhere right now.

Force plates. Dynamometry. Movement analysis. Dashboards full of numbers that look impressive and explain nothing. In Part 1 of this two-part series, Dr. Michael “Dr. G” Giammarco breaks down how performance technology should actually be used in clinical and performance settings. Not as a diagnosis machine, but as a decision-support tool that adds context, clarity, and confidence to your reasoning.

This conversation focuses on cutting through the noise. Instead of chasing more data, Dr. G explains how to select the right metrics, interpret them intelligently, and integrate technology into real-world workflows without slowing sessions, overwhelming staff, or confusing patients.

If you have ever felt stuck between ignoring tech completely or drowning in dashboards you do not fully trust, this episode provides a clear reset. This episode is especially valuable for: Healthcare providers, rehab professionals, strength coaches, athletic trainers, and clinic owners who want technology to support their thinking, not replace it.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
What performance technology actually includes and what it does not
Why collecting more metrics often leads to less clarity
How dashboards create analysis paralysis without a guiding framework
How to choose metrics that match the person in front of you
The real-world realities of implementation, including needs analysis, staff training, workflow bottlenecks, and ROI
Why technology should add context rather than override clinical reasoning
This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Tune in for Part 2 (Episode 121) in two weeks.

🔗 RESOURCES & LINKS:
Watch the recorded replay of the full training here
Interested in being a guest presenter? Submit an application here
🎙️ SUPPORT THE SHOW: Visit our website at faktrpodcast.com to leave a review or comment
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32min
January 09, 2026#119 - Why Stronger Isn’t Always Better: Rethinking Performance Training for Young Athletes, Part 2
What We’re Getting Wrong When Training Youth Athletes

Strength, movement quality, and long-term resilience in youth sports with Matthew McKayBuilding resilient athletes isn’t about pushing harder — it’s about training smarter.

In Part Two of this two-part series, Matthew McKay returns to the FAKTR Podcast to move from philosophy into real-world application. This episode builds directly on the foundation laid in Part One, shifting the focus toward practical strategies that support long-term athletic resilience, performance consistency, and injury prevention in young athletes.

Matthew breaks down why unilateral training reveals what bilateral strength can hide, how movement quality should guide programming decisions, and how even warm-ups can serve as powerful assessment tools when you know what to look for. Rather than chasing short-term performance gains, this conversation emphasizes sustainability — helping athletes stay healthy, adaptable, and available across seasons and stages of development.

This episode is especially valuable for healthcare providers, strength coaches, athletic trainers, and anyone working with middle school or high school athletes who want to support longevity without sacrificing performance.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
Why unilateral training plays a critical role in developing resilient young athletes
How bilateral strength can mask asymmetries and compensation patterns
How to use movement quality as an ongoing assessment tool
Strategies for reducing injury risk without overloading developing bodies
How to support consistency and performance without driving burnout
🔗 RESOURCES & LINKS:
Listen to Part 1 (Episode 118) Here 👉
Why Stronger Isn’t Always Better →🎙️
SUPPORT THE SHOW: Visit our website at faktrpodcast.com to leave a review or comment
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52min
December 19, 2025#118 - Why Stronger Isn’t Always Better: Rethinking Performance Training for Young Athletes, Part 1
Why Stronger Isn’t Always Better: Rethinking Performance Training for Young Athletes with Matthew McKay

In youth sports, performance training often prioritizes strength, dominance, and early specialization — but at what cost?

In Part 1 of this two-part series, Matthew McKay returns to the FAKTR Podcast to challenge some of the most common assumptions in youth performance training. This conversation reframes what “success” actually looks like for developing athletes and why chasing strength numbers too early can quietly undermine long-term health, consistency, and performance.

Rather than focusing on short-term dominance, this episode explores how movement quality, training age, and foundational strength skills play a far more critical role in helping young athletes stay healthy and competitive over time.

This episode is essential listening for healthcare providers, strength coaches, athletic trainers, and anyone working with middle school and high school athletes.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
Why strength should be treated as a skill before it’s treated as a metric
How early performance gains can mask poor movement quality and compensation
The risks of prioritizing dominance over durability in young athletes
Why many youth training programs unintentionally increase injury risk
How movement patterns reveal readiness, limitations, and future risk long before pain appears
🔗 RESOURCES & LINKS:
🎄 FAKTR’s 12 Days of Christmas are live — a curated series of limited-time educational, product and partner offers, discounts and freebies for clinicians and performance professionals. Explore what’s available at https://tinyurl.com/faktrpod-118

🎙️ SUPPORT THE SHOW: Visit our website at faktrpodcast.com to leave a review or comment
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27min
December 05, 2025#117 - Finish Strong: How High-Performing Healthcare Providers Use December to Win the New Year
Finish Strong: How High-Performing Healthcare Providers Use December to Win the New Year

Most healthcare providers treat December like a throwaway month — a time to coast, slow down, and push everything important into January. But the truth is: January is too late.

In this solo episode, host Jessica Riddle pulls back the curtain on how top-performing clinicians, practice owners, and healthcare entrepreneurs use December as their strategic advantage. Instead of waiting for the new year to start strong, they use the final weeks of Q4 to expand capacity, eliminate friction, reset systems, and set themselves up for their best year yet.

This isn’t another “set goals for 2025” pep talk. It’s a contrarian, deeply strategic, clinician-focused blueprint for ending the year intentionally and stepping boldly into the next one.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
The real reason clinicians get stuck — and why it’s NOT a goal problem
Why a Stop-Doing List will unlock more growth than any resolution
The Pre-January Strategy: Your 2-week head start on the entire industry
Why planning by energy — not time — will transform your productivity
The identity shift required to hit your next level in 2025
The Done-By-December Checklist
🔗 RESOURCES & LINKS:
FAKTR Online Courses & Upcoming Webinars: FAKTRstore.com
Follow FAKTR on Instagram: @faktreducation
Connect on LinkedIn: Jessica Riddle
🎙️ SUPPORT THE SHOW: Visit our website at faktrpodcast.com to leave a review or comment

💻 REGISTER FOR OUR NEXT FREE MASTERCLASS DECEMBER 16 HERE This episode is sponsored by MicroLight Lasers. More details to come!
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36min
November 07, 2025#116 - Inside the Athlete’s Brain - Understanding Concussions and Neurofeedback with Dr. Kevin Butterfield, Part 2
Inside the Athlete's Brain Part 2: Rewiring Performance, Recovery and Focus with Dr. Kevin Butterfield

In Part 2 of our two-part series with Dr. Kevin Butterfield, founder of Hippocampus Labs, we move from the science to the stories — exploring how neurofeedback and brain mapping are transforming recovery, focus, and cognitive performance across all ages and activity levels.

Today’s conversation takes you inside real-world case studies — from youth athletes and college students to professional race-car drivers, veterans, and patients with ADHD, PTSD, addiction, and cognitive decline.

You’ll hear how neurofeedback is helping these individuals retrain their brains, regulate emotion, improve focus, and achieve measurable improvements in both performance and quality of life.

Dr. Butterfield also shares practical insight for clinicians who want to integrate brain-based training into practice — treating the whole person and unlocking a new level of patient outcomes.

💡 WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE:
How neurofeedback rewires electrical communication in the brain for faster recovery and sharper focus.
Real-world examples of athletes, veterans, and children achieving breakthroughs through brain training.
Why neuroplasticity makes lifelong brain change possible.
The future of performance-based rehabilitation and “neck-up” care.
🎧 If you missed Part 1 of this series, you can listen to episode 115 here

🔗 RESOURCES & LINKS:
Learn more about Hippocampus Labs and download a free white paper here
🎙️ SUPPORT THE SHOW: Visit our website at faktrpodcast.com to leave a review or comment💻
REGISTER FOR OUR NEXT FREE MASTERCLASS NOVEMBER 18 HERE
This episode sponsored by the Clinical Human Performance Practitioner Program. Learn more and enroll today here. Use promo code FAKTRPOD for $150 off of your registration now through December 1st.
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38min
October 24, 2025#115 - Inside the Athlete’s Brain - Understanding Concussions and Neurofeedback with Dr. Kevin Butterfield, Part 1
Inside the Athlete’s Brain Part 1: Understanding Concussions and Neurofeedback with Dr. Kevin Butterfield

What really happens inside the athlete’s brain after a concussion?

In this first part of our two-part follow-up series with Dr. Kevin Butterfield, founder of Hippocampus Labs, we take a closer look at how concussions disrupt neural communication—and how neurofeedback is helping clinicians retrain the brain for faster recovery and peak performance.

Following the overwhelming response to Episode 112: The Future of Sports Medicine – Brain Training with Neurofeedback, Dr. Butterfield returns to go deeper into the science, showing how brain mapping reveals what traditional imaging can’t. From understanding the gut–brain connection to decoding brain-wave dysfunction, this episode will challenge the way you view concussion management.

💡 WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE:
What neurofeedback is and how it differs from traditional imaging tools.
How concussions cause electrical —not just structural —disruption in the brain.
The link between brain inflammation, the vagus nerve, and gut health.
Practical ways clinicians can begin integrating neurofeedback and brain mapping into sports-medicine and rehab practice.
🎧 If you missed our earlier episode with Dr. Butterfield, you can access Episode 112 here🔗 RESOURCES & LINKS:
Learn more about Hippocampus Labs and download a free white paper here
🎙️ SUPPORT THE SHOW: Visit our website at faktrpodcast.com to leave a review or comment
💻 SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACK: https://faktrpodcast.substack.com/
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29min
October 10, 2025#114 - Unlocking Flexibility: How Breath, Brain, and Emotions Shape Effective Stretching with Butch Phelps, LMT, Part 2
Unlocking Flexibility, Pt 2.: Practical Techniques for Calves, Hamstrings and Beyond with Butch Phelps, LMT

Did you know that 99% of golfers with back pain who worked with today’s guest found the real problem wasn’t in their spine at all—but in their calves and hamstrings?

It’s insights like this that reveal why lasting change requires a completely different approach to stretching.

In Part 2 of our conversation, we continue our conversation with Butch Phelps, LMT, creator of the Stretch and Release Technique and author of the award-winning book Stretch and Release. Building on the foundation from Episode 113, Butch shares practical applications you can use immediately with your patients and clients.

💡 WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE:
Step-by-step strategies for releasing tension in the calves and hamstrings
Why targeting individual muscles is more effective than stretching groups all at once
How to combine stretching with breathwork and self-massage to retrain the nervous system
Real-world examples of athletes and aging adults who found relief using this approach
Whether you treat athletes, older adults, or everyday patients, these strategies can help you create lasting results and empower your patients to take an active role in their recovery.

🎧 If you missed Part 1 (Episode 113), go back and listen first—it sets the stage for everything we cover here.

🔗 RESOURCES & LINKS:
Learn more about Butch Phelps: musclerepairshop.com
Watch over 200 instructional videos on his YouTube channel: The Muscle Repair Shop
Grab a copy of his award-winning book Stretch and Release here.
🎙️ SUPPORT THE SHOW: Visit our website at faktrpodcast.com to leave a review or comment💻 SUBSCRIBE ON SUBSTACK: https://faktrpodcast.substack.com/
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32min
September 26, 2025#113-Unlocking Flexibility: How Breath, Brain, and Emotions Shape Effective Stretching with Butch Phelps, LMT, Part 1
Unlocking Flexibility: How Breath, Brain, and Emotions Shape Effective Stretching with Butch Phelps, LMT

What if the biggest barrier to flexibility isn’t your muscles — but your brain?

Research shows that traditional static stretching can actually trigger your nervous system to tighten, making it harder—not easier—to release tension.

In this first installment of our two-part series, we sit down with Butch Phelps, LMT, creator of the Stretch and Release Technique and author of the award-winning book Stretch and Release. With more than 20 years of experience studying muscle science, Butch reveals why so much of what we were taught about stretching doesn’t hold up—and how shifting to a neurofascial approach can transform outcomes for your patients.

💡 WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE:
Why static stretching often fails to create lasting change
How the brain—not just the body—controls muscle tension and flexibility
The role of emotions, stress, and past experiences in chronic tightness
A new way to think about stretching that integrates breathwork, self-awareness, and the brain-muscle connection
This conversation will challenge what you thought you knew about stretching and open the door to more effective ways of addressing pain, mobility, and function.

🔗 RESOURCES & LINKS:
Learn more about Butch Phelps: musclerepairshop.com
Watch over 200 instructional videos on his YouTube channel: The Muscle Repair Shop
Grab a copy of his award-winning book Stretch and Release here.
🎧 Don’t miss Part 2 of this series (Episode 114), where Butch shares specific techniques for calves, hamstrings, and more—and how to integrate them into practice for real-world results.
🎙️ SUPPORT THE SHOW: Visit our website at faktrpodcast.com to leave a review or comment
💻 JOIN US FOR A FREE MASTERCLASS: October 2, 2025 at 1pm EST. Learn More
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29min
September 12, 2025#112 - The Future of Sports Medicine: Brain Training with Neurofeedback with Dr. Kevin Butterfield
The Future of Sports Medicine: Brain Training with Neurofeedback with Dr. Kevin Butterfield

What if the next frontier in sports medicine and performance wasn’t just physical—it was neurological?In this special episode, we’re excited to announce the launch of the FAKTR Podcast Network and introduce our very first partner podcast: Better Brains, Better Futures from Hippocampus Labs. You’ll hear the full premiere episode, featuring Dr. Kevin Butterfield and his AI-powered Neuro Team, as they explore how neurofeedback is reshaping the way athletes recover from concussions, build resilience, and gain a competitive edge.

From professional NFL quarterbacks and Olympic legends to youth athletes in high school sports, the applications of neurofeedback are transforming both recovery and performance. This episode offers a glimpse into the future of brain training—and why it matters for healthcare providers, coaches, parents, and athletes alike.💡 WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE:
Why neurofeedback is emerging as a powerful tool for concussion recovery in youth and professional sports
How athletes from the NFL, MLB, Olympics, and World Cup soccer are using brain training to improve focus, reaction times, and resilience under pressure
The science behind qEEG brain mapping and how it allows for personalized neurofeedback protocols
Real-world success stories—from retired NFL players regaining clarity to active pros shaving milliseconds off reaction time
How these once elite-only tools are now being democratized for student-athletes, clinics, and everyday patients
🎓 LEARN MORE ABOUT HIPPOCAMPUS LABS HERE 🎙️ SUPPORT THE SHOW: Visit our website at faktrpodcast.com to leave a review or comment
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25min

FAQs about The FAKTR Podcast:

How many episodes does The FAKTR Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 122 episodes available.