Cue The Burn

Mark M Lusk, DPT
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Cue the Burn is a podcast for the performers, the athletes, and the hard-driving humans who never stop showing up. Hosted by Mark Lusk—a manual physical therapist, former professional dancer, educator, and still-grinding NYC athlete over 50—this show explores what it takes to move well, perform strong, and stay fired up through every chapter of your training and your life. From evidence-based insights to raw, real-world stories, each episode blends science, strategy, and sweat to help you stay resilient, curious, and relentlessly lit from within. Because when there’s nothing left to burn

  1. 6d ago

    EP 23 - After the 26.2: What Happens When You Stop

    EP 23 | After the 26.2: What Happens When You StopThe finish line ends the race. It doesn't end the athlete. You've spent months preparing. Early mornings, long runs, tempo workouts, and countless miles. Then you cross the finish line of the New York City Marathon. Now what? In this episode of Cue The Burn, Mark Lusk explores what happens after the marathon, when the soreness begins to fade, the training calendar goes quiet, and the next challenge isn't necessarily another race. We'll look at the physical demands of marathon recovery, why a lack of soreness doesn't always mean your body is fully recovered, and how to approach your return to running without rushing the process. But recovery isn't just physical. Running provides structure, accomplishment, community, and a powerful sense of identity. Drawing on his own experience transitioning out of a professional dance career, Mark explores why stepping away from something you love can feel surprisingly difficult. And we'll tackle an important distinction: Do you NEED to run again, or do you WANT to run again? This Week's Burn ToolkitRecover Like You Trained: Give recovery the same intention and attention you gave your preparation.Take Inventory Before You Make Another Plan: Check in with your body, energy, and motivation before committing to the next challenge.Reconnect Before You Recommit: Stay connected to the people, experiences, and identity that make running meaningful.Whether you've just completed 26.2 miles or you're navigating the end of another major athletic goal, this episode is a reminder that taking time to recover doesn't make you any less of an athlete. The Burn Cue: The finish line ends the race. It doesn't end the athlete. Keep Moving. Keep Living. Move to Live. Connect with MVMT Physical TherapyNavigating post-marathon recovery or dealing with lingering aches? Schedule a FREE 30-minute Discovery Visit at MVMT Physical Therapy in NYC to discuss your recovery and return-to-training goals. Website: https://www.mvmtpt.com Instagram: @mvmtpt If you enjoyed this episode, follow Cue The Burn, leave a review, and share it with an athlete who's learning that recovery is part of the journey.

  2. Oct 31

    EP 22 - 26.2 Miles Isn't The Whole Race

    26.2 Miles Isn't the Whole Race The New York City Marathon is 26.2 miles through five boroughs. But the real journey begins long before the starting cannon fires on Staten Island. In this episode of Cue The Burn, Mark Lusk takes you through the bridges, hills, crowds, and quiet moments that make the NYC Marathon one of the most extraordinary experiences in sports. From the spectacular Verrazzano Bridge to the silence of the Queensboro, the roar of First Avenue, and the final climb toward Central Park, we explore what this iconic course demands of its runners and why the preparation matters just as much as the finish line. Whether you're running the marathon, cheering from the sidewalks, or working toward a personal goal of your own, this episode is a celebration of the commitment, resilience, and countless unseen miles that make achievement possible. The distance is 26.2 miles. The journey is all five boroughs.

  3. Oct 30

    EP 21 - The Hay Is In The Barn

    Why More Training Won't Save Your Marathon Now Perfect for the final weeks. Explain what fitness can realistically still be built, why panic mileage and make-up workouts can backfire, and why arriving slightly undertrained but healthy beats squeezing every last workout out of the calendar. Current marathon guidance emphasizes flexibility, consistency and protecting priority workouts rather than blindly completing every scheduled session. This should be your big pre-marathon education episode. The work is largely done. Don't suddenly cram mileage, strength sessions and heroic make-up workouts into the final two weeks.

  4. Oct 29

    EP20 - Is It Pesky or a Problem?

    When Should Runners Worry About Pain? Calf tightness. Achilles soreness. A cranky knee. Welcome to October. Instead of giving listeners a simplistic pain scale, teach them to examine trends: Is it worsening? Changing gait? Lasting longer? Affecting daily life? This creates a natural bridge to getting assessed before a manageable problem becomes a race-ending one. This is when marathoners start noticing every calf twitch and wondering whether their left knee has always made that noise. The key message is not symptom paranoia. It's recognizing trends and changes in capacity early enough to do something useful.

  5. Oct 15

    EP19 - Your Achilles Has a Training Log

    Your Achilles Has a Training Log: And It Remembers Everything Ever finish a workout feeling great, only to wake up a day or two later with a stiff, cranky Achilles? Here's the thing: your Achilles doesn't know whether you're running, doing double-unders at CrossFit, or pushing a sled at HYROX. It just knows load, and it's been keeping track. In this episode of Cue The Burn, orthopedic manual physical therapist and CrossFitter Mark M Lusk, DPT explains why Achilles symptoms can show up days after training, how cumulative workload affects tendon health, and why feeling better after warming up doesn't necessarily mean you're ready for more. You'll learn how to recognize the signs of tendon overload, monitor your body's 24-hour response, and use progressive strengthening to build resilience for the activities you love. Because the goal isn't simply to get rid of discomfort. It's to prepare your body for whatever comes next. This week's Burn Cue: Build capacity, not just comfort. Cue The Burn | Move to Live

  6. Oct 5

    EP18 - Elbow Pain

    Reach your arm out. Imagine opening a stubborn pickle jar. Now a backhand. A pickleball serve. Shaking someone's hand. Did your elbow answer before your brain did? If so — this episode is for you. Because today isn't really about elbows. It's about why one body part sometimes ends up doing everyone else's work. Every summer, almost like clockwork, Mark's schedule starts telling the same story. Shoulders, calves, Achilles, low backs — and this year, elbows. A recreational tennis player walked in holding a racket and told Mark he'd looked it up online: apparently he had golfer's elbow. Mark looked at the racket. Looked at the patient. And smiled — because the names haven't exactly done us any favors. That conversation led somewhere far more interesting than tennis elbow vs. golfer's elbow. It led to why the elbow had quietly become the busiest employee in the building. In this episode, Mark clears up the tennis elbow vs. golfer's elbow confusion (spoiler: it's just geography), explains why summer is the perfect storm for elbow issues in NYC, introduces the overworked employee analogy that reframes the entire conversation, and breaks down what tendons actually need to become resilient. He closes with three Burn Toolkit strategies to stay in the game — adjusted dose, warming up the whole team, and building grip strength for life, not just sport. Key TakeawaysTennis elbow and golfer's elbow are named by location, not by sport — golfers get tennis elbow, tennis players get golfer's elbow, office workers get bothThe real story isn't the tendon that hurts — it's the teammates that stopped showing upEvery summer in NYC follows the same pattern: months of winter inactivity, then 18 holes on Friday, pickleball Saturday, tennis Sunday — and tendons that are still thawing out"It happened because your first weekend looked like your 20th. That's a preparation problem, not a participation problem."The overworked employee analogy: when the shoulder stiffens, the upper back locks up, the core goes on PTO, and the hips stop rotating — the elbow quietly starts answering every phone in the officeA baseball batter swinging with only his arms is a perfect picture of what happens when the elbow has no teammatesTendons don't hate activity — they hate surprises. Ask them gradually and they'll rise to the occasion. Skip the buildup and they'll let you know.Stretching a tendon that isn't tolerating load is like fixing worn-out brakes by washing the carWhat tendons actually respond to: progressive loading — the right amount, at the right time, repeated consistentlyShockwave therapy combined with progressive loading can help stubborn tendons restart the remodeling process — it's never passive treatment vs. exercise, it's bothAfter 40, we're not fragile — we just need to prepare for what we're about to doThe goal isn't to prove how much you can tolerate today — it's to build what you can tolerate next monthWhat we're really protecting isn't the elbow — it's the capability to keep saying yesResources MentionedMVMT Physical Therapy: www.mvmtpt.comSocial: @MVMTPTBlog: Deeper dive into elbow pain and tendon health at mvmtpt.com

  7. Sep 21

    EP 17 - Calculated Ups & Downs - Periodization Explained

    For years before the PT degree, before the certifications, before becoming the movement nerd he is today, Mark Lusk was just a guy who showed up to the gym every single day and never really got anywhere. Back on Monday. Chest on Tuesday. Legs when he felt guilty enough. Same exercises, same weights, same routine — week after week, month after month. And every time he caught his reflection between sets, the same thought crept in: why don't I look or perform like I thought I would by now? Here's what he knows now, nearly two decades later: he had a destination. He just didn't have a map. And without a map, even the most disciplined athlete is just wandering. In this episode, Mark breaks down periodization — a concept that sounds intimidating, costs nothing, and might be the single biggest upgrade any athlete can make to their training right now. He walks through the three building blocks (macrocycle, mesocycle, microcycle), introduces two athlete archetypes he sees constantly in the clinic (the aimless wanderer and the Terminator), and uses a Manhattan skyscraper analogy to explain exactly why so many NYC athletes end up injured — not from one bad workout, but from six months of skipping the foundation and going straight to the 40th floor. Then the Burn Toolkit delivers five immediately actionable steps to build a real periodization plan this week. Key TakeawaysPeriodization simply means the planned organization of training over time — the intentional manipulation of volume, intensity, frequency, and recovery pointed toward a specific goalTwo athlete archetypes dominate every gym: the aimless wanderer (consistent but circling the same goal with no structure) and the Terminator (motivated but treating every session like the final mile of the race)Periodization sits right in the middle — it gives you a destination and a roadmap, and tells you when to push and when to back offThe macrocycle is your big picture destination (3–12 months); mesocycles are focused 4–12 week blocks with one primary emphasis; the microcycle is your weekThe biggest mistake recreational athletes make: trying to improve everything simultaneously — strength, speed, endurance, power, body composition — all at onceHyrox participation has grown over 1,000% in five years — and data shows athletes who don't periodize plateau within six months at significantly higher rates than those who doThe skyscraper principle: foundation first, then structure, then performance — skip any phase and the building doesn't fail on day one, it fails later when it actually mattersAfter 40, recovery capacity shifts — not broken, just different — and the most resilient athletes plan recovery proactively, not reactively after something breaks downYour nervous system doesn't distinguish between a deadlift and a deadline — life load counts as training loadFitness = stress + recovery + time. Most people only focus on the stress part. ResourcesMVMT Physical Therapy: www.mvmtpt.comSocial: @MVMTPTWho This Episode Is ForAthletes who've been training consistently for months (or years) and can't figure out why they're stuckThe person who treats every workout like a test and wonders why they're always beat up or injuredNYC marathon runners, Hyrox competitors, CrossFitters, tennis and golf players planning a seasonMasters athletes (40+) who want to stay strong and performing well into their 60s and beyond

  8. Aug 24

    EP 16 - Mid-Year Athletic Audit

    Your smartwatch can tell you your heart rate, your recovery score, your training volume — even if you had a drink last night. But it can't answer the one question that actually matters: are you becoming the athlete you set out to be? In this episode, Mark Lusk pauses the workout to run a mid-year athletic audit — not a fitness test, not a movement screen, but an honest check-in on direction. Drawing from his own path from professional dancer to a stint behind a desk to CrossFit athlete at 53, Mark walks through four areas every athlete should revisit at the halfway point of the year: destination, identity, capacity, and mindset. If you've been showing up, working hard, and still not sure you're making progress, this episode gives you the framework to find out — and the toolkit to course-correct. Key TakeawaysBusy isn't the same as becoming — data can show you where you've been, but it can't choose your destinationA mid-year audit isn't about guilt or working harder — it's about alignment between your goals, habits, identity, and current abilitiesDestination: if you don't know what you're training for, no amount of hard work points you in the right directionIdentity: who you're becoming matters as much as what you're trying to accomplish — identity isn't something you announce, it's something you practiceCapacity has three parts — mechanical (is the engine sound?), functional (is it running efficiently?), and endurance (is there enough gas in the tank?)Mindset is the fuel — the story you tell yourself about what's possible can derail the entire process, even with a clear goal and the physical capacity to reach itPain isn't always a stop sign, but it's always part of the auditYou don't have to chase the athlete you were at 25 — you get to build something new that fits who you are now Chapter Timestamps0:00 The question your watch can't answer — what are you training for? 2:50 Why goals quietly fade by mid-year 4:50 Destination Audit — where are you actually going? 7:09 Identity Audit — who are you becoming? 9:33 Capacity Audit — mechanical, functional, endurance 12:21 Mindset Audit — the story you're telling yourself 15:21 Your Burn Toolkit — 3 steps to close the gap 18:26 Closing thoughts — athletes don't drift into resilience, they train into it Resources Mentioned Mid-Year Athletic Audit worksheet (in show notes)MVMT Physical Therapy: www.mvmtpt.comSocial: @MVMTPT Who This Episode Is ForAthletes who set a goal in January and aren't sure they're still on trackAnyone who feels busy in their training but unsure they're actually improvingAthletes navigating a career or identity shift (like Mark's move from dancer to desk job to CrossFit athlete)Coaches and trainers who want a mid-season check-in framework for clientsAnyone quietly comparing their current body to the one they had 10, 20, or 30 years ago

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About

Cue the Burn is a podcast for the performers, the athletes, and the hard-driving humans who never stop showing up. Hosted by Mark Lusk—a manual physical therapist, former professional dancer, educator, and still-grinding NYC athlete over 50—this show explores what it takes to move well, perform strong, and stay fired up through every chapter of your training and your life. From evidence-based insights to raw, real-world stories, each episode blends science, strategy, and sweat to help you stay resilient, curious, and relentlessly lit from within. Because when there’s nothing left to burn

Information

  • Creator
    Mark M Lusk, DPT
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    23
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Mark M Lusk, DPT
  • Show Website
    Cue The Burn