Pain to Performance

Bradlee Morgan

Pain shows up everywhere. In our bodies, in our work, and in the way we perform every day. Pain to Performance is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth conversations with industry experts across health, pain reduction, sports, and workplace wellbeing. Each episode explores how pain actually functions in the body and mind, why it is often misunderstood, and how reducing it can unlock stronger, more sustainable performance. Hosted by Bradlee Morgan, the show brings together clinicians, performance specialists, and business professionals to examine how physical stress, mental load, movement, and environment impact how we work, move, and live. Sometimes those perspectives align. Sometimes they challenge each other. Always, they provide insight you can apply. This is not a podcast about pushing harder or ignoring discomfort. It is about understanding the signals your body and nervous system are sending and using that information to perform better at work, in sport, and in everyday life. Because when pain is understood, performance follows.

  1. 5 DAYS AGO

    Stop Fighting Your Body: How to Heal When the Medical System Leaves You Behind

    What happens when you wake up from surgery at 11 years old in a body you no longer recognize, and nobody tells you what to do next? In this episode of Pain to Performance, host Bradley Morgan sits down with Dr. Laura Glazebrook, a Doctor of Physical Therapy who specializes in scoliosis, spinal fusion rehabilitation, pelvic health, and pregnancy and postpartum care. Dr. Laura is not just a clinician. She is a spinal fusion survivor who has lived the very recovery she now guides others through. At age 11, Laura underwent a long spinal fusion for severe scoliosis, a surgery that left her with titanium rods and an entire section of her spine that no longer moves. She received almost no guidance on how to exist in her new body afterward, and that experience became the foundation of her entire practice. Today, she helps patients around the world relearn how to move, rebuild confidence, and stop seeing their bodies as broken. This conversation goes well beyond posture and pain relief. Brad and Laura dig into the mind-body connection, why the medical model fails people by compartmentalizing the body, how a foot surgery can cause hip pain years later, the surprising link between scoliosis and pelvic floor dysfunction, and why radical acceptance is the first real step toward recovery. Laura shares her go-to tool for patients stuck in a negative mindset: find one thing you love about your body and start there. If you have ever been told your body is fragile, that pain is just something you have to live with, or that you have simply been "cleared" with no plan for what comes next, this episode is for you. Topics covered: scoliosis, spinal fusion surgery, spinal fusion recovery, physical therapy, pelvic floor dysfunction, chronic pain, body image, radical acceptance, mind-body connection, medical trauma, connective tissue, postpartum recovery, movement coaching, body awareness, PT vs chiropractor for scoliosis, pediatric scoliosis, long spinal fusion, pain mindset, empowerment in recovery To connect with Dr. Laura Glazebrook, visit her website and social media channels. Listen to Pain to Performance on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Website: paintoperformancepodcast.com Follow, subscribe, and leave a review. If this episode made you think of someone who needs to hear it, send it their way. Pain is rarely a solo experience and a good conversation is better shared.

    46 min

  2. 8 MAY

    It's Not Just Physical: How Stress, Shame, and Silence Are Killing Your Sex Life

    Nobody wants to talk about it. But erectile dysfunction, loss of desire, and sexual shutdown are affecting millions of people, and the silence is making it worse. In this episode of Pain to Performance, host Bradley Morgan sits down with Mark Prevet, a licensed professional counselor, certified sex therapist, trauma specialist, and disabled veteran who works directly with veteran populations and high-stress individuals. Together they unpack what really happens when sex disappears from your life, not by choice, but because trauma, anxiety, or stress made that decision for you. Mark breaks down how the nervous system gets stuck in survival mode, why younger men are being prescribed ED medication at alarming rates, the role that pornography and social media play in distorted sexual messaging, and what partners can do to support without shaming. He also shares practical tools, including polyvagal breathing techniques and the power of simply giving yourself permission to have fun again. If you or someone you love is struggling with sexual health, intimacy issues, or the fallout of trauma on your relationship, this is the conversation that changes everything. Topics covered: erectile dysfunction, sexual health, trauma and intimacy, PTSD and sex, veterans and sexual dysfunction, mind-body connection, polyvagal theory, relationship communication, sex therapy myths, performance anxiety, loss of libido, certified sex therapist, couples and intimacy, mental health and sexual wellness To connect with Mark Prevet: Website: www.brighthookcounselingllc.com AASECT directory for finding a certified sex therapist near you: www.aasect.org Follow, subscribe, and leave a review. If this episode hit home, send it to the person who needs to hear it. That is how we break the silence.

    59 min

  3. 8 MAY

    Stop Forcing It: How One Tissue System Controls Your Pain, Posture, and Performance

    You are doing the reps. You are following the program. And you are still in pain. What if the problem was never your muscles at all? In this episode of Pain to Performance, host Bradley Morgan sits down with Shari Zisk, a human kinetics graduate, level four MELT Method instructor, and former bodybuilder who spent over 20 years in traditional fitness before discovering that fascia changed everything she thought she knew about the human body. Together they break down what fascia actually is, why it matters more than most trainers and even medical professionals realize, and how dehydrated fascial tissue creates mystery pain, restricted mobility, poor posture, and nervous system fatigue. Shari shares how a simple 30-minute hand and foot technique helped a man raise his arms overhead for the first time in three years, and why force and deep pressure are not always the answer. Brad validates these findings from his own neuromuscular therapy practice and together they give you practical steps you can start tonight: body scans to find asymmetries and tension, gentle compression techniques, fascial lengthening versus traditional stretching, and why seeing a fascia-informed manual therapist is the gold standard. If you have been grinding through workouts, pushing through pain, and blaming yourself for not getting better, this is the episode that reframes everything. Topics covered: fascia, fascial hydration, MELT Method, myofascial release, chronic pain, mystery pain, nervous system regulation, posture correction, dehydrated tissue, foam rolling, mobility training, mind-body connection, personal training, neuromuscular therapy, injury recovery, workout recovery, fitness misconceptions, hyaluronic acid, stuck stress, body scan techniques To connect with Shari Zisk: www.Sharizisk.com | Instagram: @trainerShari Follow, subscribe, and leave a review. If this episode changed how you think about your body, send it to the person who is grinding, hurting, and blaming themselves. They deserve to know there is another way.

    58 min

  4. 8 APR

    The Day a Student Took Everything: One Life Rebuilt

    This conversation includes content related to physical assault and PTSD. If that's heavy for you today, please listen with care. Sarah Alepin was 25 years old, a master's degree in hand, teaching high school photography in a classroom full of students she adored. She was exactly where she was meant to be — until a student fight in the hallway ended with her foot crushed, a nerve dying from her knee to her toes, and a future she'd carefully built quietly slipping out of her hands. This is one of the most important conversations Pain to Performance has hosted to date. In this episode, Sarah walks through the full arc — the assault, the year of misdiagnoses, the surgery that left her with "nothing but three scars," the MRSA infection, and the slow heartbreak of realizing she'd never stand in a classroom the same way again. She talks openly about what it's like to retire from your dream career in your twenties, to face down the rest of your life from a wheelchair you don't yet need, and to rebuild a body and a mind that no longer respond the way they used to. We talk about the PTSD that arrived after the physical injury — the disordered sleep, the hair-trigger anger, the crowds that suddenly felt like threats — and the cognitive behavioral therapy work that brought her back to herself. We get into what nerve injuries actually feel like, why invisible pain so often goes unbelieved, and what it means to find a doctor who finally listens. And we dig into the parallel rebuilding she did emotionally, physically, and creatively — at the same time, every day, for years. Sarah talks about the photography business she had to map around her body's limits, the networking circles that iced her out, and the moment she stopped trying to fit into rooms that weren't built for her and started building her own. That decision became District Bliss — a heart-centered networking community that has helped business owners book tens of thousands of dollars in work and now spans continents. It was born from the exact kind of pain that makes most people give up. One step took everything. One year of grit, therapy, surgery, and stubborn hope rebuilt a whole life. If you're sitting in the rubble of something that wasn't your fault, this episode is proof that the worst chapter doesn't have to be the last one. Connect with Sarah Alepin: District Bliss: districtbliss.comInstagram: @districtblisseventsPhotos from the Harty: photosfromtheharty.com Instagram: @photosfromtheharty Listen to Pain to Performance on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Website: paintoperformancepodcast.com

    1hr 5min

  5. 1 APR

    Eat Less, Move More Is a Lie

    She cut the carbs, trained for triathlons, did CrossFit at 5:30 a.m., and tracked every calorie. And it worked — until it didn't. The weight came back, the brain fog rolled in, and no matter how hard she pushed, her body just stopped cooperating. The worst part wasn't the scale. It was the voice that said, what's wrong with me? Sue Soha is a physical therapist, women's wellness coach, and founder of Wholey Healed Community. She's also someone who spent years doing everything she was told — and still hit a wall she couldn't push through. After being diagnosed with celiac disease, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, ADHD, and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Sue had to throw out the old playbook entirely and rebuild her approach to health from the ground up. In this episode, Sue breaks down what actually changed when she flipped the food pyramid upside down, dropped sugar, and stopped treating cardio like the answer to everything. She shares how she lost four dress sizes and 10% body fat — not by pushing harder, but by finally listening to what her body had been trying to tell her all along. We dig into why the "eat less, move more" approach fails women in perimenopause. Why most weight loss research was done on male bodies and younger women — and why that matters more than most people realize. Why lifting heavy won't make you bulky, why your body holds onto fat when you starve it, and why the kitchen matters more than the gym for women navigating midlife. Sue also gets real about perfectionism, people-pleasing, and what happens when your stress response never turns off. We talk about the mind-body connection, how fear shows up physically, and why the body truly does keep the score. If you've been eating less and moving more and wondering why nothing's changed — especially past 35 — this episode is your permission slip to stop blaming yourself and start playing by the rules that were actually written for you. Connect with Sue Soha: Wholey Healed Community:wholeyhealed.com Special Settings Physical Therapy: specialsettingspt.com Listen to Pain to Performance on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Website: paintoperformancepodcast.com

    50 min

  6. 27 MAR

    Make The Decision Already

    You've been there. You had all the information, but you still couldn't pull the trigger. You kept looking for one more opinion, one more data point, one more sign that you were making the right call. And while you were running back and forth between options — the window closed. That's not a confidence problem. It's a process problem. LaKiesha Tomlin is a mechanical engineer turned technical leader and founder of the Profitable Traders Academy. She spent over a decade in aerospace and tech leading global teams — and she used to be the person who couldn't answer "tell me about a time you made a decision with limited information" in a job interview. That frustration sent her on a months-long journey through her own notebooks, career stories, and past decisions to reverse-engineer what actually works when the pressure is on and the data isn't all there. What she built is a six-step decision-making framework rooted in real experience — not theory. In this episode, LaKiesha walks through every step: embracing uncertainty, committing to decide, sorting decisions by actual stakes, executing without second-guessing, knowing when to pivot, and closing the loop with honest feedback. It's the kind of structure that sounds simple on paper — until you realize almost nobody actually follows it. We get into why most people burn level-two brainpower on level-one decisions. Why the classroom habit of needing to be 100% right before raising your hand follows us straight into the boardroom. Why more information and more time almost never lead to better outcomes — and why the real cost of waiting isn't a bad decision, it's the opportunity that disappeared while you were thinking about it. LaKiesha shares the story of a media opportunity she let pass because she didn't feel ready — and how that moment became one of the clearest lessons in her career. We also talk about what it means to be confidently wrong, why that's a better strategy than being quietly right, and how an iterative feedback loop turns every decision into proof that you can trust yourself next time. If you're stuck right now — on a career move, a business decision, or something you've been "sleeping on" for months — this one's for you. You already have the answer. Make the decision already. Connect with LaKiesha Tomlin: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chartconfidence/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lakieshatomlin/ Listen to Pain to Performance on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Website: paintoperformancepodcast.com

    49 min

  7. 19 MAR

    You're Not Bad at Relationships. You're Just Carrying Something That Was Never Yours.

    You've felt it. That slow, creeping distance from the people you love most. The relationship that looks fine on the outside but feels like something is just slightly out of reach on the inside. And somewhere along the way, you decided that meant something was wrong with you. Andrew Wallace wants you to know that it doesn't. Andrew is a licensed clinical social worker specializing in play therapy, family therapy, and trauma-informed care. His work sits at the intersection of generational trauma, attachment theory, and the quiet relationship patterns most of us carry into adulthood without ever realizing it. But what makes this conversation different is not his credentials. It is the way he reframes everything. The cycles you keep repeating in your relationships are not character flaws. They are generational knowledge. Learned. Inherited. And most importantly, changeable. In this episode, Andrew breaks down why real empathy is so rare and what it actually looks like when you get it right, how your childhood attachment style, whether anxious, avoidant, or otherwise, is quietly running your adult relationships, what most parents are getting wrong about discipline and connection, and why the most powerful relationship skill you will ever develop starts with the one you have with yourself. Brad gets personal in this one too, opening up about his own anxious attachment style and what it has looked like to start untangling the nervous system patterns and family of origin wounds he carried into his own relationships without even knowing it. If you have ever felt stuck in a cycle you could not name, this episode will name it for you. This is a conversation about emotional healing, relationship dysfunction, inner child work, and what it actually means to break a generational cycle. Not with a dramatic overhaul, but with one honest inventory at a time. Andrew's closing thought is worth sitting with: the most powerful thing you can do right now is not a new strategy or a new communication skill. It is the courage to look at what is working and what is not. Because you cannot give to the people you love what you have never given to yourself first. About Andrew Wallace: Andrew Wallace is a licensed clinical social worker and play therapist at ATL Well, a group private practice in Marietta, Georgia. He specializes in trauma-informed therapy, identity work, family therapy, and is currently training to become a certified sex addiction therapist. atlwell.com/andrew-wallace

    58 min

  8. 11 MAR

    You're Not Lazy. Your Brain Just Hasn't Been Given the Right Framework.

    You made the list. You had the plan. You were ready. And then Friday came and almost none of it got done. And instead of asking what went wrong, you just decided something was wrong with you. That story is one of the most common things Brianna Perry hears when someone walks into her office for the first time. They come in saying they're overwhelmed, they can't focus, they feel like they're failing at everything quietly while the rest of the world thinks they have it all together. And what she finds underneath all of that, almost every single time, is not a lack of discipline. It's shame. And shame, as she explains in this episode, is not just a feeling. It is a neurological event that is actively keeping your brain from doing the thing you desperately want it to do. In this conversation, Brianna breaks down the real science behind why your productivity crashes, what ADHD and dopamine deficiency actually look like in high achievers, and why the to-do list was never the problem in the first place. She introduces her INCUP motivator framework, a practical tool for understanding why certain tasks feel impossible and how to actually get them done without the shame spiral that follows. And she ends with one of the most grounding takeaways this show has ever delivered: get clear on your why, because without it, no system, no habit stack, and no planner is ever going to stick. This one is for the person who has tried everything and still feels stuck. The person who is crushing it on the outside and quietly falling apart on the inside. The person who just needs someone to tell them the truth: you are not broken. Your brain just needs a better framework. About Brianna Perry: Brianna Perry is a licensed clinical social worker and the founder of Rooted Swan Wellness, a practice dedicated to helping high-achieving individuals break through the cycles of burnout, shame, and chronic overwhelm. She specializes in ADHD, trauma-informed care, and identity-based therapeutic work. RootedSwanWellness.com Instagram: @RootedSwanWellness Topics covered: ADHD in high achievers, dopamine and motivation, shame and the nervous system, INCUP motivator framework, habit stacking, burnout recovery, productivity and focus, therapy for overwhelm, mental health for high performers, licensed clinical social worker, Rooted Swan Wellness, Brianna Perry, Pain to Performance podcast

    1hr 6min
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About

Pain shows up everywhere. In our bodies, in our work, and in the way we perform every day. Pain to Performance is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth conversations with industry experts across health, pain reduction, sports, and workplace wellbeing. Each episode explores how pain actually functions in the body and mind, why it is often misunderstood, and how reducing it can unlock stronger, more sustainable performance. Hosted by Bradlee Morgan, the show brings together clinicians, performance specialists, and business professionals to examine how physical stress, mental load, movement, and environment impact how we work, move, and live. Sometimes those perspectives align. Sometimes they challenge each other. Always, they provide insight you can apply. This is not a podcast about pushing harder or ignoring discomfort. It is about understanding the signals your body and nervous system are sending and using that information to perform better at work, in sport, and in everyday life. Because when pain is understood, performance follows.

Information

  • Creator
    Bradlee Morgan
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Bradlee Morgan