The Code: A Guide to Health and Human Performance

Dr. Andrew Fix

Welcome to The Code, where we give you the guide to living the ultimate human life. Join host Dr. Andrew Fix as he deep dives into the key areas that drive our health and wellness. You’ll learn about topics such as sleep hygiene, stress management, nutrition, movement, relationships, and more. Listen in as he interviews fitness professionals, athletes, coaches, doctors and other industry experts to hear how they implement these strategies into their own and clients’ lives. If you are ready to crack the code on health and human performance, this show is for you.

  1. 4d ago

    230. The Mitochondrial Advantage: How Red Light Impacts Human Performance | Scott Chaverri

    Red and near-infrared light may be the most underestimated recovery tool in your environment, and the science behind what it actually does inside your cells is far more compelling than the wellness industry gives it credit for.   Scott Chaverri didn't set out to build one of the leading red light therapy companies in the country. He was a burnt-out caregiver looking for anything that would help him sleep and function after two years of watching his son fight cancer. He found red light therapy in 2017 and noticed real changes. When the price of adding more panels shocked him, he decided to build his own. Mito Red Light did a million dollars in sales its first year.   The science behind photobiomodulation is worth understanding. Red and near-infrared wavelengths penetrate several centimeters into the body and act directly on the mitochondria, accelerating ATP production and triggering downstream effects that include better circulation, reduced inflammation, and a meaningful boost in cellular melatonin. A study on elite female basketball players found serum melatonin levels rose 67% after a single 30-minute session, which lines up with the number one piece of feedback Mito receives from customers: better sleep. Scott's broader argument reframes the whole conversation too. Modern humans spend roughly 93% of their time indoors, and much of what red light therapy accomplishes is correcting a light deficiency most people don't know they have. For the biohacking crowd chasing marginal gains, that reframe matters.   Dr. Fix brings a clinician's perspective throughout, connecting photobiomodulation to the laser and dry needling work at PhysioRoom and asking the questions practitioners actually want answered: dosing, distance, timing, device selection, and when a panel outperforms a mask. The episode also gets into the single biggest reason people return their devices without ever giving them a real shot, and it has nothing to do with the technology.   Quotes “Modern humans have very indoor lifestyles and they're sunlight deficient." (08:44 | Scott Chaverri) "If the cells have more energy at their disposal, they can do their jobs better. And so theoretically, any cell that has mitochondria, which is every cell in the human body except red blood cells, has the potential to benefit from exposure to these wavelengths of light due to that increased ATP production." (11:36 | Scott Chaverri) "We're spending 93% of our time indoors. And so when they correct the deficiency, they notice that they're feeling better, they sleep better, whatever the case is." (09:01 | Scott Chaverri) "We just giving it a little bit more energy so it can do its job. It knows what to do. Just have to give it what it needs." (21:50 | Scott Chaverri) "The sun rises. We're meant to get copious amounts of red and infrared light at dawn. It's the reason why the sky is red at sunrise and sunset, because that's the only wavelengths that are reaching us. And so that is like the signal to wake up." (1:01:40 | Scott Chaverri) Connect with Scott Chaverri: Visit The Mito Red Light Website  Red Light Therapy (@mitoredlightofficial)   Scott worked for several Fortune 500 companies, in the business services, medical device, financial services and ecommerce industries. Having dealt with health challenges in childhood and early adulthood, Scott has always been passionate about all things health and wellness. Constantly learning, tinkering and evolving, his goal is to build Mito Red Light Inc into a preeminent health and wellness company empowering people with tools and information to optimize their performance and maximize their health spans.     SideKick Tool   Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board 15% off Promo Code: DRA15   RAD Roller   Revogreen   HYDRAGUN    Athletic Brewing 20% off: ANDREWF20     Connect with Physio Room: Visit the Physio Room Website Follow Physio Room on Instagram Follow Physio Room on Facebook Andrew’s Personal Instagram Andrew’s Personal Facebook     Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    1h 12m

  2. Jun 16

    229. What if Your Tightness is Trying to Protect You?

    That tight hamstring you've been stretching might be your nervous system asking for something else entirely.   When pain shows up in one place, the source is often somewhere else. Dr. Andrew Fix walks through a real patient case from Physio Room where a woman who was experiencing persistent pain in her hamstring had been doing what most people do: stretching it out and hoping mobility work would eventually help. The sciatic nerve originates from the lowest nerve roots of the lumbar spine, and when those roots get irritated, the nerve signals the hamstring to hold protective tension. What feels like tightness is the nervous system protecting itself. Stretching works against that response.   In many cases like this one, the root cause is a lack of spinal stability. Without adequate muscular control around the pelvis and lumbar spine, gravity loads the vertebral joints and compresses the nerve roots every time you sit or stand. Dr. Fix explains how positional testing revealed exactly this pattern: her hamstring tested pain-free lying down but reproduced symptoms seated. When she was cued to engage her deep core before repeating the painful test, symptoms dropped roughly 70% without a single hands-on intervention. The muscle was the same. The spinal load was not.   How often are people chasing mobility and flexibility when the real missing ingredient is stability and control? Dr. Fix makes the case for thorough assessment before any treatment begins, and offers a clear signal to watch for: if a practitioner skips the diagnostic work and goes straight to treating what you describe, it is worth getting a second opinion.   Quotes "Nerves are like electrical cords. They don't enjoy being tugged on." (04:25 | Dr. Andrew Fix) "Your body's trying to have this protective mechanism, we're trying to stretch and take it away, and we're not necessarily helping ourselves out. We're temporarily relieving symptoms, but we're not addressing the real issue at hand." (04:40 | Dr. Andrew Fix) "When you have a lack of stability, what you cannot do is you cannot stretch it away. Because stretching doesn't give you stability. Stability is like strength and control, your ability to control the joints and the tissues while you're going through movement." (05:20 | Dr. Andrew Fix) "It hurts when there's no stability being created for the spine. But it doesn't hurt or doesn't hurt nearly as much when we do create some stability for the spine." (11:17 | Dr. Andrew Fix) "They shouldn't be just starting to treat something before they've really done a thorough assessment to know what they need to treat in the first place." (13:54 | Dr. Andrew Fix)   Links SideKick Tool   Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board 15% off Promo Code: DRA15   RAD Roller   Revogreen   HYDRAGUN    Athletic Brewing 20% off: ANDREWF20     Connect with Physio Room: Visit the Physio Room Website Follow Physio Room on Instagram Follow Physio Room on Facebook Andrew’s Personal Instagram Andrew’s Personal Facebook     Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    15 min

  3. Jun 9

    228. Why You'll Rake Leaves But Skip the Gym

    The secret to staying consistent might be hiding in your backyard.   Most people quit their fitness routines not because they lack discipline, but because progress is invisible in the short term. We live in a world wired for instant gratification, and when weeks of hard work in the gym produce no visible results, that invisibility is defeating. Yard work offers a useful contrast. Pull a weed, see the bare ground. Mow a strip of lawn, see exactly what you've covered. The feedback is immediate, and that immediacy does something powerful for motivation.   Dr. Andrew Fix uses that observation as a jumping-off point for a bigger question: how do you stay motivated when the progress you're working toward won't show up for weeks or months? His answer has less to do with willpower than with learning to notice smaller signals along the way. What went right today, even if the day itself felt like a loss? What did you learn from the thing that didn't work out? The people who eventually reach their goals tend to be the ones who get good at asking those questions rather than waiting for a big win to validate the effort.   The episode is a good reminder that consistency isn't a personality trait. It's a practice, and part of that practice is training yourself to find evidence that the work is worth continuing, even when the scoreboard doesn't show it yet.   Quotes "It takes a lot of time, weeks, months of consistency to really be able to sometimes see with your own eyes the progress that's happening. That can be very defeating sometimes." (04:35 | Dr. Andrew Fix) "What happens is they keep hopping from thing to thing, fad to fad, diet to diet, new workout plan to new workout plan. And you never stick with something long enough to actually see the results take shape." (05:02 | Dr. Andrew Fix) "Even on days that are not going according to plan, are there little things that worked out?" (07:10| Dr. Andrew Fix) "The people who are going to succeed and the people who are going to be in a farther place at the end of the day are going to have failed more times than the people who never got to that place." (07:55 | Dr. Andrew Fix) "Just keep falling and failing forward, and we'll eventually make it to where we want to go." (09:05 | Dr. Andrew Fix) Links SideKick Tool   Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board 15% off Promo Code: DRA15   RAD Roller   Revogreen   HYDRAGUN    Athletic Brewing 20% off: ANDREWF20     Connect with Physio Room: Visit the Physio Room Website Follow Physio Room on Instagram Follow Physio Room on Facebook Andrew’s Personal Instagram Andrew’s Personal Facebook     Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    10 min

  4. Jun 2

    227. Finding Your Perfect Stride | Dr. Vikash Sharma

    When the question every injured runner is afraid to ask, "Do I have to stop?",  finally gets a straight answer, it turns out the real story has less to do with the pain itself and more to do with everything the runner wasn't tracking.   Dr. Andrew Fix sits down with Dr. Vikash Sharma, DPT, founder of Perfect Stride Physical Therapy in New York, to talk through managing running injuries, avoiding stress fractures, and building a smart return to running after time off.   Stress fractures get missed more often than they should, and the clue is usually hiding in a two-minute conversation about nutrition and training load. Has your mileage gone up? Has your food intake kept pace? For a lot of runners, the answer to that second question is no.   For soft tissue injuries, Sharma's approach is less about stopping and more about finding a sustainable baseline, trimming the run, filling the rest with cross-training, and using that window to build the strength and mobility that likely broke down first.   The conversation also covers training load management, deload weeks, why most runners' strength work stopped producing results long ago, and what a real return-to-run progression actually looks like.   Find Dr. Vikash Sharma at @vikashsharma_dpt on Instagram or at perfectstridept.com. His clinical education platform for coaches and clinicians is at runningforlifeeducation.     Quotes "Runners run. That's what they want to do, and they'll keep running until the wheels fall off." (09:48 | Dr. Vikash Sharma) "If two months ago you were running X amount of mileage and now you're up 75% from that, but your nutrition hasn't really changed at all, and now you're starting to get signs and symptoms that make me think you have a bone stress injury, a hundred percent we're shutting it down." (10:39| Dr. Vikash Sharma) "Just like training their musculoskeletal system, just like training their nervous system and their brain — we got to train your gut as well." (22:13 | Dr. Vikash Sharma) "Your low days need to be low so that your high days can truly be high days." (32:53 | Dr. Vikash Sharma) "There's always a story behind this human. There is a human in front of you. Just get back to that human element and dig — a lot of your questions will get answered the more they're talking to you." (54:23 | Dr. Vikash Sharma) Connect with Dr. Vikash Sharma: Perfect Stride Physical Therapy Follow Perfect Stride Physical Therapy on Instagram SideKick Tool   Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board 15% off Promo Code: DRA15   RAD Roller   Revogreen   HYDRAGUN    Athletic Brewing 20% off: ANDREWF20     Connect with Physio Room: Visit the Physio Room Website Follow Physio Room on Instagram Follow Physio Room on Facebook Andrew’s Personal Instagram Andrew’s Personal Facebook     Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    59 min

  5. May 26

    226. Fast Comes Last: Getting Back to Running the Right Way | Dr. Drew Short

    Most runners are one bad training week away from an injury they never saw coming, and the way they think about shoes, strength, and recovery is probably making that worse.   Dr. Drew Short specializes in working with runners at PhysioRoom, and his approach to running injury recovery starts somewhere most people wouldn't expect: months back in an athlete's training log. The culprit behind most injuries isn't a single bad run. It's accumulated load, under-fueling, or a strength gap that quietly grew until something gave out. When the mechanical picture looks clean, Drew digs deeper, sometimes all the way to blood work and nutritional consults. Multiple tendon issues flaring up in different parts of the body at once? That's a systemic story, not a mechanical one.   The calf conversation is worth sitting with. Runners stretch it religiously and almost never strengthen it the way running actually demands. The soleus does significant work during each stride, but only when the knee is bent, which is almost never how people train it. A calf that always feels tight is probably asking for load, not length.   On the trail running vs. road running question, the differences go deeper than terrain. Strength demands, stability requirements, and pacing strategy all shift in ways that catch road runners off guard when they head onto the trails. And carbon-plated shoes? Both Drew and Dr. Ficks agree they have a place, but earning them matters more than buying them.   Quotes "The downside to under-fueling is you're going to hit a brick wall. The downside to over-fueling is maybe a rumbly stomach…I'd rather be on that end of the spectrum." (14:58 | Dr. Drew Short) "You might meet the rep scheme on a calf raise, but whenever you start making it more ballistic and you start using the tendon more, it doesn't like that. The rate of fire is just a lot slower on that side." (25:50 | Dr. Drew Short) "Stiffer tendons or more robust tendons — that's just free energy. If you're able to use that elasticity like a rubber band whenever you hit the ground, that's less that the muscles are having to push off." (33:19 | Dr. Drew Short) "If your calf always feels like it needs to be stretched, honestly, your tendon probably needs some load. You probably do need to be doing some heavy slow resistance through that tendon. Otherwise, you just keep stretching it all day every day." (34:32 | Dr. Drew Short) "If I'm doing a long effort and I can still breathe just through my nose, I know I'm gonna be fine at hour three, hour four." (48:26 | Dr. Drew Short) Connect with Dr. Drew Short: https://www.instagram.com/thenamesdrew/ SideKick Tool   Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board 15% off Promo Code: DRA15   RAD Roller   Revogreen   HYDRAGUN    Athletic Brewing 20% off: ANDREWF20   Connect with Physio Room: Visit the Physio Room Website Follow Physio Room on Instagram Follow Physio Room on Facebook Andrew’s Personal Instagram Andrew’s Personal Facebook     Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    1h 9m

  6. May 19

    225. The Code to Sleep Hygiene

    Sleep isn't a luxury you negotiate with; it's the biological foundation every other health habit is built on, and most people are getting far less of it than they think.   Dr. Andrew Fix revisits one of the show's most foundational episodes for Better Sleep Month, and the timing feels personal. A new baby at home has a way of clarifying just how much everything falls apart when sleep does. Drawing from Matthew Walker's landmark book Why We Sleep, this episode makes a compelling case that sleep deprivation isn't just fatigue. It's a direct line to cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, weight gain, and a compromised immune system.   Here's a question worth sitting with: if you went to bed at 10 and woke up at 6, did you actually get eight hours of sleep? Probably not. Time in bed and time asleep are not the same thing, and that gap is where most people are quietly losing ground.   Dr. Fix gets practical without being prescriptive. A consistent sleep schedule, a cooler and darker room, cutting caffeine earlier than feels necessary, and keeping alcohol away from bedtime are the kinds of shifts that build real resilience over time. He also draws a connection that often gets overlooked in fitness culture: sleep is where recovery actually happens, and poor sleep throws off the hormones that regulate hunger, making weight management an uphill battle no matter how clean your diet is or how early you get to the gym.   What would change about your daily habits if you treated sleep as seriously as your workouts or your nutrition? That's the real question this episode leaves you with.   Quotes “I think it's a shock to nobody that sleep is the most important thing in our lives. If we don't get enough of it, pretty much every major function of our body is going to suffer.” (02:37 | Dr. Andrew Fix) "The amount of time that you spend in bed that you think you are asleep does not equal or correlate to the amount of time that you actually sleep." ( 06:27 | Dr. Andrew Fix) “I do have a change in my sleep quality when I cut that caffeine out earlier. So, avoiding caffeine and nicotine, in theory, will help with your sleep quality.” (13:52 | Dr. Andrew Fix) “You want your brain to be planning to go to bed when you get in bed. You want your body's cycle to be just so in tune with, ‘Oh, this is where I come when I want to go to sleep.’” (20:19 | Dr. Andrew Fix) “All of the professional athletes that we watch on television and whatnot, I can tell you that they are putting a much higher emphasis on sleep than we do in our normal lives.” (31:59 | Dr. Andrew Fix)   Links   https://www.sleepdiplomat.com/  SideKick Tool   Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board 15% off Promo Code: DRA15   RAD Roller   Revogreen   HYDRAGUN    Athletic Brewing 20% off: ANDREWF20   Connect with Physio Room: Visit the Physio Room Website Follow Physio Room on Instagram Follow Physio Room on Facebook Andrew’s Personal Instagram Andrew’s Personal Facebook     Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    35 min

  7. May 12

    224. The Recipe to Lifelong Wellbeing | Eileen Kopsaftis

    Aging gets blamed for a lot of things that may have more to do with disuse, fear, and incomplete advice than the number of candles on your birthday cake.   Dr. Andrew Fix talks with physical therapist Eileen Kopsaftis about pain, aging, and strength through a lens that challenges the usual story of decline. Eileen questions the idea that weakness, balance issues, loss of independence, and chronic pain are simply part of getting older. Some of these changes may be common, but are they truly normal?   Andrew and Eileen unpack why pain often points to a bigger movement story. A shoulder issue may trace back to an ankle. Foot pain may connect to the hips. A limitation may have less to do with the part that hurts and more to do with the way the whole body works together.   They also talk about strength, stairs, muscle loss, and the subtle ways convenience can speed up physical decline. What happens when we stop taking the stairs? How much of aging is shaped by what we believe our bodies are capable of? This episode is a smart reminder that the body is a system, and aging can look very different when we keep building capacity instead of accepting decline as destiny.   Quotes “You have to believe that your body was designed to perform based on how you work it, based on how you feed it, based on how you live your life.” (Eileen Kopsaftis | 16:04) “There is a choice. If you believe you're gonna decline no matter what you do, you're not gonna do anything.” (Eileen Kopsaftis | 18:20) “The human body is not designed on a cellular level to decline. When you're doing the right things the right way, your body responds. doesn't matter how old you are.” (Eileen Kopsaftis | 26:45) “But as soon as that person stops having to climb stairs, they decline.” (Eileen Kopsaftis | 40:43) “It's important for people to remember that they're a whole body and they're not a body part.” (Eileen Kopsaftis | 56:37) Connect with Eileen Kopsaftis: Have Lifelong Wellbeing Subscribe to Eileen's YouTube SideKick Tool   Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board 15% off Promo Code: DRA15   RAD Roller   Revogreen   HYDRAGUN    Athletic Brewing 20% off: ANDREWF20     Connect with Physio Room: Visit the Physio Room Website Follow Physio Room on Instagram Follow Physio Room on Facebook Andrew’s Personal Instagram Andrew’s Personal Facebook     Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    59 min

  8. May 5

    223. Don’t Let Injuries Become Setbacks

    An injury can sideline one limb without giving the rest of your body permission to quit.   When you’re in a sling, boot, or on crutches, the instinct is often to stop everything until you’re “cleared.” But what does that pause really cost? In this episode of The Code, Dr. Andrew Fix breaks down cross education and why training the uninjured side of the body can help preserve strength, limit atrophy, and support recovery on the injured side.   This conversation challenges the all-or-nothing mindset that often shows up after injury or surgery. Many people are told what not to do, but not what they can still do. That missing guidance can lead to lost habits, lower motivation, and a harder return to activity. With the right modifications, safe movement can keep the body and brain connected to the larger goal.   The bigger message is simple: recovery does not have to mean disappearing from your routines, your community, or your goals. Consistency still matters. And sometimes the best question after an injury is not, “How long until I’m back?” It’s, “What can I still do today?”   Quotes “The body is a fantastic machine. And it's smart enough to know that when we have an injury where we have something that's bothering us, we can't just stop moving. We need to keep moving.” (Dr. Andrew Fix | 01:23) “Continue to train the movements that you would do with that injured limb if it wasn't injured.” (03:27 | Dr. Andrew Fix) “One of the missed opportunities when it comes to rehabilitation and training is maintaining the consistency when something happens.” (04:09 | Dr. Andrew Fix) “Your goals don't stop just because something happened to you.” (06:42 | Dr. Andrew Fix) “The worst thing you could do is use that time to do nothing.” (09:01 | Dr. Andrew Fix)   Links https://www.google.com/search?q=cross+education+body+injury&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS987US989&oq=cross+education+body+injury&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRifBTIHCAYQIRifBTIHCAcQIRifBTIHCAgQIRifBTIHCAkQIRifBdIBCDU2NDNqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8    SideKick Tool   Movemate: Award-Winning Active Standing Board 15% off Promo Code: DRA15   RAD Roller   Revogreen   HYDRAGUN    Athletic Brewing 20% off: ANDREWF20     Connect with Physio Room: Visit the Physio Room Website Follow Physio Room on Instagram Follow Physio Room on Facebook Andrew’s Personal Instagram Andrew’s Personal Facebook     Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

    15 min
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About

Welcome to The Code, where we give you the guide to living the ultimate human life. Join host Dr. Andrew Fix as he deep dives into the key areas that drive our health and wellness. You’ll learn about topics such as sleep hygiene, stress management, nutrition, movement, relationships, and more. Listen in as he interviews fitness professionals, athletes, coaches, doctors and other industry experts to hear how they implement these strategies into their own and clients’ lives. If you are ready to crack the code on health and human performance, this show is for you.

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