In this episode, Sarah looks at two broad pain patterns, people who tend to push through pain and people who tend to avoid it, and explains how each one can shape your relationship with exercise. Before getting into those categories, she lays out a key foundation of modern pain science: pain is not a simple one-to-one signal of tissue damage. Instead, pain is a subjective experience shaped by the brain’s interpretation of threat, context, past experiences, beliefs, and emotions. She also explains why the common zero-to-10 pain scale is often misunderstood, what it is useful for, and why phrases like “I have a high pain tolerance” or “my pain is a 10 out of 10” may not communicate what people think they do.

From there, the episode walks through the fear avoidance model, pain catastrophizing, and the avoidance-endurance model to explain why some people stop moving the moment something feels wrong while others ignore pain until it becomes a much bigger problem. Sarah breaks down the strengths and liabilities of both patterns, including how pain avoiders can become deconditioned by steering clear of normal exercise discomfort and how pain endurers can blow past clear warning signs and delay recovery. She also talks through how these patterns show up in real life, how to tell which direction you tend to lean, and how better pain literacy, gradual progression, and thoughtful exercise programming can help you recalibrate your response to pain without swinging all the way to the opposite extreme.

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RESOURCES

Fear Avoidance Model revisited

Pain Catastrophizing Model

Avoidance-Endurance Model

Pain Catastrophizing Scale

Avoidance-Endurance Questionnaire

Dr. Vanessa Komarek, PsyD joins Laurel for a conversation about strength training, trauma myths, gymtimidation, training through pregnancy, and what it actually means to be trauma informed as a coach. They talk about how lifting can support mental health, why fear-based messaging can backfire, where coaching ends and therapy begins, and which evidence-based PTSD treatments deserve more attention than social media trauma narratives.

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RESOURCES

Dr. Vanessa Komarek, PsyD

Instagram @HeavyLiftingPychologist

Website www.weightsforwellbeing.com

In this episode, Laurel and Sarah talk with menopause educator and advocate Amanda Thebe about Midi Health, its public messaging, and what happens when menopause care becomes a venture-backed business model. Amanda shares how she first noticed Midi when a physician moved from a major hospital to join the telemedicine platform, and why she initially saw it as a promising solution to a real problem, women being dismissed, under-treated, and unable to access knowledgeable care. Over time, she describes getting “amber flags” from Midi’s marketing, especially the way hormone therapy was framed as a near-universal fix with benefits that outpaced the evidence, a pattern she contrasts with other companies she feels communicate more responsibly.

The conversation digs into the incentives created by venture capital funding and what it can do to a company’s priorities, shifting from careful medical decision-making to selling more, retaining customers longer, and expanding into profitable add-ons. They discuss Midi’s move into wellness-style offerings and unproven products, including rapamycin framed for longevity, compounded and non-evidence-based creams, and the broader drift of menopause platforms into weight loss and longevity medicine to keep people buying beyond the menopause transition. They also unpack why influential clinician-brands can develop intensely loyal followings that resist criticism, and what it signals when platforms partner with high-profile figures like Mary Claire Haver. Throughout, Amanda emphasizes that the real need is ethical, evidence-based care that doesn’t put profit before patients, and she offers practical advice for what a solid menopause appointment looks like, how to prepare, where to look for reputable resources, and how to block the noise.

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RESOURCES
Instagram: Amanda Thebe
Website: amandathebe.com
LinkedIn: Amanda Thebe

Movement Logic: Doctor vs Brand IG post
Amanda Thebe: Midi Health IG post

Instagram: Dr. Pauline Maki
Instagram: Professor Susan Davis

The Menopause Society: Provider directory and resources