Two runners can have identical knee pain and need completely different fixes, and Dr. Andrew Fix explains why chasing generic advice off YouTube usually leaves the real problem untouched.

The same symptom can point to a different injury, and even the same injury can have a different cause. One runner's knee pain might come from a tendon pushed past its capacity by too much training volume too fast, while another's identical pain traces back to a stiff ankle or weak hip forcing the knee to compensate for something else entirely. Hand both runners the same two exercises and you're guessing.

That distinction drives his frustration with generic internet fixes. Quiet the symptoms without addressing the underlying deficit and they come back. The person then assumes they did something wrong, when the fix was incomplete from the start.

There's also a case for urgency worth sitting with. Addressing an injury early costs less time and money, and needs less intensive treatment, than waiting until it forces your hand. But the real stakes aren't financial. What do you actually lose by putting off care, and can you get that time back later? A missed hike or a skipped game of catch because something hurt too much to move doesn't come back around.

PhysioRoom's Health and Performance Summit lands October 3rd in Denver, which fits the episode's bigger point: individualized care matters more as everyone defaults to searching for answers online instead of getting assessed by another human.

Quotes

• "We need to pair the solution to the actual problem that the individual is dealing with." (05:05 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "Nobody has the exact same body that you have.You are a unique individual and unique individuals need personalized solutions to their problems." (10:19 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "The sooner you address something, the quicker it's going to be resolved." (12:50 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "Spending money on your health is one of the greatest investments that you can make because it gives you time." (13:37 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "Don't let things just continue to build up and build up and build up while you continue to sweep things under the rug and not do something about it when you have the choice to do it." (13:40 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

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Amanda Theodore is training for the 2028 Olympic Trials marathon with Pop-Tarts before most runs and a hard lesson about what happens when athletes eat too little instead of too much.

Amanda joins Dr. Andrew Fix for a conversation about marathon training that moves well past splits and mileage logs. She talks openly about the eating disorder she developed at Duke, the femoral neck stress fracture that followed, and why she waited until she had recovered from disordered eating before starting her path toward becoming a sports dietitian. What does recovery actually look like when your sport depends on discipline around eating? For Amanda, it means dropping the all-or-nothing mindset entirely. Dessert most days, a gluten-free Pop Tart before runs, a four-to-one carb-to-protein shake after them. The science stays in place. The rigidity does not.

She and Dr. Fix dig into why under-fueling carries far greater risk than over-fueling, especially for young athletes still figuring out what their bodies need, and why disordered eating patterns often hide behind the language of discipline. Amanda shares how routine bloodwork caught low ferritin levels early in her marathon buildup and how she scaled back training for three weeks rather than push through it. The two also trade notes on the unglamorous habits that keep athletes healthy enough to show up on race day, the warm-ups, cool-downs, and few minutes of mobility work on the living room floor. As Amanda puts it, getting to the start line healthy is sometimes the harder win.

Quotes

• "If you feel like you need help, you need help." (11:20 | Amanda Theodore)
• "It's really hard to overeat as an athlete, and it's really easy to undereat, and the consequences of undereating are much greater than the consequences of overeating." (39:51 | Amanda Theodore)
• "When you're talking about overeating and under-eating, I think society pushes a lot of weight with that. But how are your labs looking?" (44:13 | Amanda Theodore)
• "You can't just have a supplement and expect that it's going to fix everything." (50:13 | Amanda Theodore)
• "If you have a goal, don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it." (51:30 | Amanda Theodore)

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Tracksmith Stamata: Team Biographies

Amanda Theodore is an elite marathon runner and dietetics graduate student living and training in Colorado. After competing for Duke University and Florida State University in college, she set new goals at the marathon distance, running a personal best of 2:34 at the 2025 Boston Marathon. She has since qualified for the 2028 US Olympic Trials in the marathon and competes for Tracksmith Stamata. She is passionate about nutrition, with her perspective having been shaped by years of learning how proper fueling and recovery can contribute to a sustainable and fulfilling athletic career.

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From behind the wheel on a travel day fueled by too little sleep and too much airport food, Dr. Andrew Fix breaks down what it takes to protect your training, nutrition, and sanity when travel throws your routine into chaos.

Two flights, two little ones, and a 2 a.m. wake-up call set the stage for a candid look at what happens when the ideal routine falls apart under the weight of travel. Andrew shares how he and his wife handled beer, pizza, and broken sleep without spiraling, and why he refuses to let his wearable data dictate his mood the morning after a rough travel day. Consistency on the road might be the workouts you squeeze in, the food choices you make at the airport, or how fast you get back to normal once you land.

Between packed protein shakes, two gym sessions squeezed in while visiting family, and an honest take on why he won't stress over a bad recovery score, Andrew makes the case for intuitive movement and eating over rigid rules. He closes with a challenge worth sitting with before your next trip. Are you planning your travel around your goals, or only your itinerary?

Quotes

• "Ate some things that I don't eat every single day, some sweets and whatnot. Had a bunch of pizza last night .I'm not overly concerned about that because we're gonna get back here, we're gonna get back on track." (03:42 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “Try to maintain some semblance of a schedule from a fitness perspective. We went for a walk or two and didn't just completely sit around, which is so easy to do when you're home, you're visiting family, you're spending time hanging and talking with relatives.” (04:17 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "I'm guessing if I look at my watch app or my Oura Ring app, it's gonna probably tell me that my sleep was low, that my recovery is low. What I'm just gonna try not to do, not that I shouldn't pay attention to that, is I'm just gonna try not to get concerned about it, get worried about it." (05:33 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "Can you pack some high fiber, high protein snacks and stay hydrated? That's gonna go a long way to keeping you on track with your goals when it comes to traveling and navigating the food." (07:33 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "You don't need to make your trip all about the fitness or all about the food or anything like that. You just need to intuitively eat, intuitively move." (08:28 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

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Dr. Andrew Fix pushed his body through a full HYROX simulation in the Colorado heat and walked away with a hard lesson about pacing that every first-timer needs to hear before race day.

What happens when a plan built on paper meets an actual clock, real heat, and eight stations back-to-back? Andrew found out firsthand at a HYROX simulation held with the team from CrossFit Falcon View. He went out too fast on the ski erg, a decision that cost him on the run that followed, and the pattern repeated throughout the event. Running makes up the majority of HYROX, and it rarely happens on fresh legs, so Andrew breaks down why compromised running deserves a real spot in training plans rather than an afterthought.

Fueling gets its own moment too. A single gel packet, taken with intention rather than panic, made a measurable difference in how he handled the back half of the event. Preparing for something he'd never done before came down to one move. Run the simulation, feel the heart rate spike, and test the fueling strategy before it counts on race day.

He also gets honest about the discomfort of pushing into unfamiliar territory and admits the experience left him humbled about what he thought he knew going in. HYROX rewards people who compete against their own benchmark rather than the person next to them. His finishing time now becomes a marker to measure against and learn from, not a number to chase blindly. For anyone eyeing a HYROX event this year, this episode offers a real look at what preparation actually demands.

Quotes

• "Make sure you do a simulation. Get yourself prepared for what the actual race environment is going to feel like rather than showing up on race day." (13:25 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "You need to practice fueling on some of these longer runs because you're going to have to fuel on these race days." (14:07 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• “You're comparing yourself against your own thing. It doesn't have to be you competing with other people. It's you competing with you.” (16:18 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "No matter how fit you are, this can still make you feel extremely exhausted." (16:51 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "It's all part of the learning curve and pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone and doing something that challenges you at the end of the day." (17:10 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

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Dr. Andrew Fix once called HYROX dumb, so why did he sign up for the hardest fitness competition of his life anyway?

Dr. Andrew Fix records this episode from the parking lot of REI's Denver flagship, prepping for a Run Denver Day event, and uses the moment to talk through his decision to race HYROX this November. He breaks down what the competition actually involves: eight one-kilometer runs split by eight functional stations, sled pushes, wall balls, rowing, and more, all standardized across every city in the world. That global consistency is part of what has turned HYROX into one of the fastest-growing fitness competitions anywhere, but Andrew spends most of the episode on something bigger than the race itself.

What happens to your training when nothing is on the calendar? He argues that a real goal, with a real race date attached, changes the entire relationship between effort and motivation. He's honest about the parts of HYROX that make him nervous, including how his legs will hold up during the final wall ball station, and he treats that uncertainty as useful rather than something to avoid. Stress and discomfort, he says, are the stimulus for growth.

So what's your version of HYROX? Andrew makes the case that the specific challenge matters far less than the fact of having one. A half marathon, a 14er hike, a dance recital, a fitness show. The finish line matters less than the discipline required to get there and the person you become along the way.

Quotes

• "We all benefit from having some sort of a goal, some sort of a thing on the calendar." (04:17 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "It doesn't matter what the thing is. What matters is that when we have something that's on the calendar, it gives us something to work towards. It gives us a light at the end of the tunnel and it gives us a why." (05:07 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "When we can train with purpose or train on purpose for something, it keeps us motivated." (05:24 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "Get out there and do the thing. Put yourself in a scenario that makes you a little bit uncomfortable because we know that stress and discomfort is the stimulus for growth." (15:04 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "The real benefits can come from the journey of how you got there." (15:36 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

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What happens to your identity the day you can no longer do the thing you built it on?

Dr. Andrew Fix reflects on a recent 5K to explore a question most people avoid. Are you measuring your worth against a version of yourself that no longer exists? He breaks down why running a race and comparing the result to an old personal record ignores everything that has changed along the way, from injuries and surgeries to the demands of raising a family. A little perspective changes the whole picture.

The conversation moves beyond running into something bigger. Why do so many people introduce themselves through a job title or a sport they used to play? Dr. Fix shares an analogy he loves, building your identity on a single role or activity is like standing on a football. It feels solid until the moment it isn't.

He also calls out a pattern he sees constantly in his practice. People say they used to play softball or throw the ball with their kids, but their shoulder or knee stops them now. Is that really the injury talking, or is it easier to hide behind an old identity than to do the work required to reclaim it?

This episode is a challenge to stop living through who you were and start paying attention to who you're becoming. What would change if you answered "What do you do?" with something other than your job?

Quotes

• "Are you still living in the past, holding on to the things that you used to do and the person that you used to be? Or are you focused on who you are today and the person that you're becoming?" (00:34 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "We should lead with who we are and what we're becoming now. And we should also not try to have our identity wrapped up necessarily in the things that we do." (04:07 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "If you try to build your life foundation on top of a football, like on a football, that is a very wobbly foundation to try and stand on." (04:27 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "If your identity is wrapped up in I am this thing that I do, I am a football player, then that's going to be a very difficult thing when that is stripped away from you, however that happens." (05:32 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
• "That's also one of these same things where you're holding on to an identity of something that you're not, in a way, potentially because you're afraid of the truth." (07:28 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

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Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm