The Level Up Podcast

I remember the feeling of craving intensive clinical mentorship as a new grad. I had applied to one residency, it didn’t work out, but ultimately I wasn’t sure the traditional residency model was right for me. Not that there is anything wrong with traditional residency, it can be great for the right person. But ultimately, they are extremely scare, competitive, and don’t always align with your clinical values.

Luckily, I had been doing some informal mentorship under someone I really admired, Ramez Antoun, who had been extensively trained under a diverse spectrum of approaches spanning orthopedics, PNF, pain science, and strength and conditioning. 

When we joked about creating our own “residency” for me to complete under him, we suddenly realized this sounded like an awesome idea. And I am forever grateful to Ramez for taking the time to construct such a thoughtful and incredible learning experience!

It was such an incredible and formative experience, and my hope is that for some of you, you are able to pave your own path of what YOUR ideal clinical mentorship looks like!

Hope you enjoy this episode and let us know your thoughts!

Please make sure to throw Ramez a follow on IG: @neuropedics

and if you would like to learn more from Ramez, please check out the following links!

Neuropedics Newsletter : https://unique-author-8436.ck.page/01ee69fcf7

Neuropedics Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1ig6bCzo8Wr3nOYFP2kSyh?si=fDvhBBSrQJOr7B_q270OkA

______________________________________________________ Want to get involved in our community? Join our FREE CALU Community for monthly journal clubs and bi-monthly case studies! CALU Community FB Group

In today's episode, we are joined by cofounder of The Honey Badger Project, Frank Benedetto. Frank is also a cofounder of Level Up, and has been a primary mentor for us since 2017. What we really appreciate about Frank is his unwillingness to compromise his values, and his willingness to say the things we don’t want to hear, but need to hear.

Frank has been a constant source of growth for us over the years, constantly pushing us outside of our comfort zone, and we think you will enjoy this very open conversation we had with him about coming to terms with “rethinking” what it means to run a business along with the reality of working full time in the best of in-network insurance driven models.

If you are a clinician who is burnt out, you need to listen to this episode. Then register for our special webinar we are hosting on Nov 16th at 8pm EST. Our early bird rate ends next Thursday!

https://www.drfrankbenedetto.com/Calu-workshop

____________________________________________________________ Want to get involved in our CALU community? Our free FB group with monthly journal clubs and quarterly case studies is the best place to start CALU Community FB Group

In today's bonus episode, we are dropping a conversation with the Exxentric team and Quinn Henoch!   If you ever wanted to know what fly wheel training is, what the relevance is for MSK rehab, and how to get your hands on some equipment, then this episode is for you!!!   Till the end of sept, Exxentric is offering 15% off to CALU Summit attendees and 10% off to our CALU Community. Simply email [email protected] to lock in your equipment order today! __________________________________________________   Want to get involved in our community? Well here is an incredible and FREE opportunity to see what we are about! CALU Community FB Group

A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of sitting down with three incredibly bright, passionate, and humble clinicians and philosophers to have a jam-packed conversation reflecting on clinical practice, and more specifically, the philosophy of pain we use to navigate MSK pain and rehab.

While reflecting on your own biases can be challenging, it is ultimately the only way to improve, get better, and provide better care! And, the more you do it, it almost becomes “fun.”

Here are some of the episode topics we covered, and we really hope that you enjoy the discussion!!!

✔️Philosophical frameworks for understanding pain

✔️Acute vs. chronic pain

✔️At what point does acute transition to chronic?

✔️How are they different aside from temporality?

✔️Operational definitions for philosophical terms

• Phenomenology, Existentialism, Salience, Valence, Enactivism, Affordances

✔️The role of clinicians in helping patients expand possible affordances

✔️How expectations influence pain experience

✔️Can clinicians really be objective?

✔️How an enactive approach is like a cake

✔️How an enactive approach is also like a video game

Tune in and let us know what ya think!

Thank you again to Mike, Sabrina, and Peter for such a wonderful conversation!

Podcast team: @weswax and @jasmine_dragon831

Join us for the second installment of the CALU Clinical Files!

Today, Zak walks you through his line of reasoning and thought process for how he managed this case!

Case Study Context: Pt is a later 20 year old, F, works in Television (currently work from home). She reports that 1.5-2 years ago, she had a goal of running and marathon and had a major uptick in her running volume, and participated in roughly 9 races (avg distance of 5k). Pt reports that towards the tail end of her running, she began to get R knee pain which was dx as ITB syndrome. She received PT in NYC and had some resolution over a few months, but then had an onset of R sided lateral hip pain, which was originally dx as R GT bursitis.

She had been receiving virtual PT at this point, but reports it was largely ineffective for her sx. She did end up getting imaging which reveals R labral tear, but was able to rule out potential boney stress injuries. Currently, she is c/o R sided lateral hip and groin pain that is worsened by prolonged sitting, squatting, running, and walking.

Pt is frustrated by her lack of progress with non-operative management and is considering surgical repair of her R labrum. Pt does reports that the past year has been extremely stressful as she has been dealing with three other undisclosed health issues that are now resolved. Pain 4/10, Achey, sharp, R lateral hip and groin, acute on chronic for past 1.5 years.

Podcast team: @weswax and @jasmine_dragon831

____________________________________________________________ Want to get involved in our community? Here are two incredible (and free) opportunities!    CALU Community FB Group Four Month Mentorship   And if you have not yet, lock in your spot for the best con ed event of the year!  calusummit.com

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Rachel Zoffness and have an open conversation about the merits of pain education, some critiques of pain education, but most importantly, help provide a crash course in relevant pain neuroscience along with some practical ways to start weaving it into your patient care!   Dr. Z is a fierce advocate for pushing the collective healthcare industry forward and we were pumped to have her on! Make sure you toss her a follow and check out her pain workbook if you are looking to learn more from her!   Episode Topics:   ✅ Chronic pain from the perspective of a pain psychologist   ✅ What actually goes into our experience of pain?   ✅ How much agency do we actually have over our body and our pain?   ✅ Cognitive behavioral therapy   ✅ Interpreting the evidence     ✅ Individualizing the treatment plan   ✅ Defining successful treatment   ✅ Setting realistic expectations   ✅ Creating opportunities for mastery experiences   ✅ Barriers to this treatment   Podcast team: @weswax @jasmine_dragon831 ____________________________________________________________ Want to get involved in our community? Here are two incredible (and free) opportunities!  CALU Community FB Group Four Month MentorshipAnd if you have not yet, lock in your spot for the best con ed event of the year! calusummit.com   thelevelupinitiative.mykajabi.com The CALU Community Learn more about what's included by being a part of the CALU Community! Community, Journal Clubs, Case Studies, and Resources.

Find yourself feeling burnt out? You will DEFINITELY want to listen in on this one!

Dr. Thomas Lee, author of “Becoming a Good Doctor,” is a wealth of knowledge and wisdom. This was a fruitful conversation on providing pragmatic ways to help create a fulfilling career in healthcare.

Episode topics

✅ Elements of a good team

✅ Balancing care for the team with care for the individuals on the team

✅ Elements of burnout 

✅ Solutions to address and prevent it

✅ Inherent rewards and external stressors of working in healthcare 

✅ Using fury as fuel 

✅ Reengineering the patient experience to reduce fear 

✅ The intersection between a compassionate business model and a profitable one

✅ Empathy

Podcast team: @weswax @jasmine_dragon831 ____________________________________________________________ Want to get involved in our community? Here are two incredible (and free) opportunities!  CALU Community FB Group Four Month Mentorship

 

Looking for more clinical education? Welcome to CALU Clinical Files: Level Up Edition. Today, Shelbie Miller will be walking us through her thought process on a challenging clinical presentation of a mother and fitness instructor who suffered a complex set of injuries and trauma following a motor vehicle accident.

Case Description:

A 36 year-old female fitness instructor sustained right arm weakness, pain, numbness, and color changes during a motor vehicle accident. She was in the car with her children and admits to having nightmares and anxiety every night since the accident. This patient presented to PT 1 month later with a guarded arm, gross arm weakness that did not follow a specific pattern, significant grip weakness, lateral hand numbness and admitted to a syncope episode after the accident. She has difficulty with all ADLs and hopes to return to teaching barre and cycling classes. Tune in to hear how to navigate a complex case by addressing the psychosocial factors at play as well as the exercise progression used to return this patient back to fitness instructing!

Let us know what ya think and if you have any questions on the clinical reasoning/management, shoot us a message! ____________________________________________________________ Want to get involved in our community? Here are two incredible (and free) opportunities!  CALU Community FB Group Four Month Mentorship

In this episode, we sat down with former APTA president (among many other things) Dr. Marilyn Moffat, who is a very outspoken advocate for embracing stronger Exercise foundation in our curricula as PTs.

She makes a very compelling case for why we should be embracing Exercise over Manual Therapy as our identity to better treat and manage both NCDs and CDs.

We also discuss:

✔️Dr. Moffat’s experience creating guidelines to implement exercise based curricula

✔️Acknowledging constraints that academicians face to implanting better Exercise coursework in curricula

✔️Why this is a huge opportunity for the PT profession to make a meaningful impact on the current healthcare landscape

✔️ Lessons learned from decades of fierce advocacy across her many leadership positions.

Trust us, you will NOT want to miss this one.

MAJOR shout out to our podcast producer @weswax (follow this man!!!) for cooking up this new intro that captures the intense but swaggy vibe we were looking for. Lucky to be surrounded by some incredibly talented and creative individuals. Let us know what ya think!

Podcast team: @weswax and @jasmine_dragon831 ____________________________________________________________ Want to get involved in our community? Here are two incredible (and free) opportunities!  CALU Community FB Group Four Month Mentorship

Interested in attending the CALU Summit? Our early bird rate ends at the end of May! Learn more and secure your spot today: calusummit.com  

In this episode, we go behind the scenes with the co-founders of Clinical Athlete and Level Up to discuss more about the CALU Summit!

If you had any questions about the summit, listen in, and if you still have questions, send us a message!

We discuss:

✔️ What made last year’s summit such a hit?

✔️ What is the mission behind the summit?

✔️ What makes the summit special?

✔️ Why the sessions are designed the way they are

✔️ Why we are SO excited about this year’s speakers

✔️ Why we are SO excited about this year’s sponsors

✔️ Why you CAN’T miss this learning experience!

 

Limited tickets still available at our best rate! Lock in your spot today at 👉 calusummit.com