The Power of Doing What Matters

Kelly Baez joins Dr. Clayton Skaggs to share how persistent back pain gave way to a fuller life, from cooking to playing golf. They discuss consistency, encouragement, and recovery with purpose, alongside a reading of the CIHP Insight "What's Next." Kelly describes the daily choices that helped her look beyond tomorrow toward the years ahead.

• (00:00) - A life beyond pain

Click here to view the episode transcript.

Scott Fulton joins Dr. Clayton Skaggs to discuss staying capable as we age, finding overlooked weaknesses, and making room for simple daily habits. Dr. Skaggs reads “Stop It!” a CIHP Insight about fear, familiar patterns, and the challenge of choosing simplicity.

Scott Fulton: https://www.whealthspan.com/
FUNCTION by Scott Fulton: https://www.whealthspan.com/function/
CIHP: https://cihp.com/
The Power of Doing What Matters: https://powerofdoingwhatmatters.com/

For educational purposes only; not a substitute for personalized medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

When progress is hard to feel, how do you know what is changing? Jason Saul shares his experience of persistent back and leg pain, the daily work of recovery, and returning to more comfortable walking and travel.

Jason, author and CEO of Impact Genome, joins Dr. Clayton Skaggs to discuss trust, consistency, and learning to recognize progress in his own life.

Dr. Skaggs reads “What Happened? Part 2”, a CIHP Insight poem. Jason connects the reading to the shift he calls calm inquiry and the support that helped him make it.

• Asking why, beyond where it hurts
• Building strength and practicing everyday movement
• Staying consistent through uneven progress
• Finding the support to approach uncertainty with curiosity

Guest: Jason Saul
Host: Dr. Clayton Skaggs

Jason Saul, University of Chicago profile: https://harris.uchicago.edu/directory/jason-saul
Central Institute for Human Performance: https://cihp.com/
The Power of Doing What Matters, the book: https://powerofdoingwhatmatters.com/

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Jason is describing his individual experience; results and appropriate care vary by person.

Dr. Lindsey Helmerich feared back pain would end her work as a dentist and keep her from skiing with her family. Her story explores how understanding symptoms and building confidence helped her navigate setbacks and return to the things she loves.

Lindsey joins Dr. Clayton Skaggs to discuss her experience as a CIHP client, from the burden of seeing seven providers to finding a plan she could trust. She describes gradual progress, ongoing adjustments, and the support that helped her return to dentistry and skiing with her children.

Dr. Skaggs reads “What Happened?” This CIHP Insight explores responding to pain with curiosity. Lindsey connects the reading to learning to ask what happened, consider her recent activity, and work with her care team on what comes next.

In this episode:

• Finding clarity when treatment takes over daily life
• Building trust through listening and realistic expectations
• Responding to setbacks with curiosity and support
• Rebuilding confidence in work and family activities

Guest: Dr. Lindsey Helmerich, dentist and CIHP client
Host: Dr. Clayton Skaggs

00:00 An early reason to trust the process
00:50 When back pain changes daily life
03:30 Seven providers and getting time back
05:43 Building trust in recovery
07:31 An early sign of progress
10:03 What Happened? A CIHP Insight
15:22 Learning what happened
17:21 Responding to pain as a signal
20:10 Working through setbacks
22:48 Understanding a setback
24:15 Returning to dentistry and skiing
27:36 Keep doing what matters

Click here to view the episode transcript.

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Lindsey is describing her individual experience; results and appropriate care vary by person.

Peter Fritz joins Dr. Clayton Skaggs to explain how his family’s long search for help led them to CIHP and how he moved from an all-or-nothing, “more is better” mindset to greater precision, self-efficacy, and confidence when setbacks occur.

In this episode:

• How Peter and Michelle found CIHP from San Diego
• The virtual breathing session that prompted them to make the trip
• Why Peter’s engineering mindset responded to a whole-body explanation
• A “whole new shoulder” and the importance of teaching lasting change
• Learning not to spiral when pain signals return
• Self-efficacy as confidence built through experience
• The Goldilocks zone and the precision to stay near the target
• Dr. Skaggs’s “That’s Enough” CIHP Insight
• Peter’s shift from “more is better” to doing less
• Why simple is not the same as easy
• Becoming more active and capable as a family

Click here to view the episode transcript.

Learn more about the Central Institute for Human Performance: https://cihp.com/  
Learn about The Power of Doing What Matters: https://powerofdoingwhatmatters.com/

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Peter is describing his family’s individual experience; results and appropriate care vary by person.

Chris Shepherd had spent much of his life playing competitive sports. Then, during a squash tournament, he could no longer feel his feet. His condition progressed until he could not walk more than 20 yards without numbness—and he received a recommendation for at least a two-level spinal fusion.

In this episode, Chris joins Dr. Clayton Skaggs to discuss his personal decision to seek another opinion and commit to a long recovery process at the Central Institute for Human Performance. Subjective improvement took approximately 18 months, even as the CIHP team documented smaller objective changes along the way.

Chris explains why returning to sport mattered far beyond competition, how training became something like taking his medicine, and why he now considers himself stronger than ever as he approaches 60. He also shares what happened when he was thrown from a horse in Breckenridge, landed directly on his lower back, and discovered how much capacity he had built.

Dr. Skaggs reads “Poise(d) to Win,” a CIHP insight about preparation, relaxation, and responding well under stress. The reading considers Ash Barty's decision to retire from professional tennis while ranked number one and a CIHP client's response to an unexpected fall.

In this episode:

• Losing feeling in his feet during a squash tournament
• Chris's personal response to a spinal-fusion recommendation
• Staying persistent when meaningful improvement took approximately 18 months
• Why returning to sport also meant restoring friendship, competition, and joy
• Feeling stronger than ever as he approaches 60
• Choosing to do the hard things and see the process through
• Building a reservoir of stability and relaxation before stressful events
• How a horseback fall tested the resilience Chris had accumulated
• Slowing down and remembering that recovery is not a race against time

Click here to view the episode transcript.

Learn more about the Central Institute for Human Performance: https://cihp.com/

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Chris is describing his individual experience and decisions; results and appropriate care vary by person.

After years of recurring pain and setbacks following back surgery, Scott Kuhta had become accustomed to climbing toward recovery only to experience another painful crash. He wanted more than a short-term fix—he wanted the strength, confidence, and capacity to get his life back.

In this episode, Scott joins Dr. Clayton Skaggs to reflect on his three-year journey with the Central Institute for Human Performance. He describes moving from difficulty sitting, standing, and balancing on one leg to lifting more weight than ever, returning to outdoor activities, playing music, and meeting new physical challenges with far less fear.

Their conversation centers on poise: the ability to relax, act with appropriate intensity, and relax again. Scott shares how trust in his practitioners, objective evidence of progress, and gradually accumulated physical capacity helped change his response to pain and injury.

Dr. Skaggs also reads “Poised to Recover,” a CIHP Insight built around Ash Barty's return from a significant groin injury to win Wimbledon—and the role the mind, environment, preparation, and physical capacity can play in recovery.

In this episode:

• Scott's long journey through back injury, surgery, recurring pain, and setbacks
• Why being active did not necessarily mean his system was prepared to recover
• The one-leg balance test that changed how Scott saw his fitness
• Recovering from a hamstring injury while preparing for a fishing trip
• Learning not to make pain his identity
• How music, games, movement, and meaningful activities helped him relax
• The transition from fearing new exercises to trusting his capacity
• Why recovery became a long-term lifestyle rather than a six-week fix

Click here to view the episode transcript.

Learn more about the Central Institute for Human Performance: https://cihp.com/

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Scott is describing his individual experience; results and appropriate care vary by person.

What separates a fluid professional golf swing from an amateur gripping the club as tightly as possible? According to Dr. Jim George, one of the biggest differences is the ability to regulate tension: relax, contract powerfully at the right moment, and then relax again.

In this episode, Dr. George joins Dr. Clayton Skaggs to explore how that same principle applies far beyond sport. They discuss muscle activation, contract-relax techniques, responding to pain signals, preparing for stressful moments, and deliberately building more relaxation into ordinary life.

Jim also reflects on more than two decades at the Central Institute for Human Performance—from student and intern to Clinical Director and partner. He shares practical ways he resets during the day, including breathing, elevating his legs at lunch, and walking outside without headphones.

Dr. Skaggs reads “Free Kick,” a CIHP Insight about United States soccer player Malik Tillman's relaxed execution under pressure. The reading considers how relaxation before, during, and immediately after a powerful action can support precision, performance, recovery, movement, sleep, and our response to challenging thoughts.

In this episode:

• Why professional golfers remain relaxed until the moment of contact
• The difference between relaxed power and simply trying harder
• How contract-relax techniques influence the nervous system
• Why incomplete relaxation can limit a therapeutic or athletic movement
• Malik Tillman's free kick and the relax-contract-relax principle
• What youth soccer in Norway and Erling Haaland can teach us about childlike play
• Jim's experience learning to loosen his grip while playing padel
• Breathing, midday resets, and time outside as practical relaxation habits
• The high-pressure presentation that tested Jim early in his career

Click here to view the episode transcript.

Learn more about the Central Institute for Human Performance: https://cihp.com/  
Meet the CIHP team: https://cihp.com/about/

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

After years of traveling with a neck pillow, a back pillow, and a brace Robin Feder wanted a more sustainable way to keep doing what mattered to her.

In this episode, Robin joins Dr. Clayton Skaggs to reflect on 11 years at the Central Institute for Human Performance. She shares how her relationship with movement, travel, gardening, and occasional pain signals has changed, and how small daily cues have become tools she can use with greater confidence.

The conversation centers on a simple but powerful idea: progress is easier to recognize when we learn to notice the lights. Those lights may be moving better, growing stronger, understanding what a signal means, or seeing objective measures improve before every symptom has resolved.

Dr. Skaggs also reads “Patience: Lights Will Guide You Home,” a CIHP Insight about perspective, self-efficacy, strength, simplicity, and continuing to put attention toward the good things we can do.

In this episode:

• How back trouble had made travel increasingly cumbersome for Robin
• The small movement cues she uses during ordinary activities
• Why she thinks of her CIHP lessons as tools in a toolkit
• Learning to treat pain as useful information rather than an automatic crisis
• How movement, strength, and other objective measures can reveal progress
• Why positivity and a data-driven approach work together in Robin’s experience

• (00:00) - Cold open: Traveling without the supports

Learn more about the Central Institute for Human Performance: https://cihp.com/  
Learn more about the Central Institute for the Deaf: https://cid.edu/

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Patience in recovery is not passive waiting. It works alongside trust, precision, clear objectives, and the gradual accumulation of physical capacity.

In this episode, Melissa Filla joins Dr. Clayton Skaggs to offer a practitioner's perspective on helping people through persistent pain and long recovery processes. Melissa explains why simple recommendations can require tremendous trust and why understanding a client's perspective matters when progress takes time.

The conversation includes a clip from Mark's recovery story and another example of a highly active client who temporarily stepped away from paddle boarding, pickleball, hiking, and weightlifting. After reassessment showed consistent neuromuscular progress, he could begin grading meaningful activities back into his life with greater capacity and support.

Melissa and Dr. Skaggs also discuss a particularly difficult part of recovery: the period when pain signals remain even though objective measures are improving. Better movement tolerance, increased strength, changes in body composition, and the ability to perform previously unavailable movements may all provide evidence that the process is moving forward.

Melissa closes with a principle that brings the conversation together: when patience is paired with precision and clear objectives, it can help build the self-efficacy people need to keep doing what matters.

In this episode:
Why patience, trust, and recovery are closely connected
Seeing the process through the client's perspective
Mark's reflection on years of pushing through pain
Temporarily limiting meaningful activities to build capacity
Using reassessment and objective measures to guide the next step
Grading paddle boarding, pickleball, hiking, and strength work back into life
Progress that may be present even while pain signals remain
How new responses to familiar movements can develop over time
Why patience becomes more useful when paired with precision

Click here to view the episode transcript.

Learn more about the Central Institute for Human Performance: https://cihp.com/  
Meet the CIHP team: https://cihp.com/about/

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The examples discussed are individual experiences; results and appropriate care vary by person.