Ep 356 - Pain-Free Training (ft. Dr. John Rusin)
Iron Culture presented by MASS
The MASS Crew
4.8 • 827 Ratings
🗓️ 3 December 2025
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Iron Culture, Eric Trexler interviews Dr. John Rusin, a personal trainer and strength coach with a doctorate in physical therapy. They discuss Dr. Rusin's journey from working with professional athletes to focusing on general population training, emphasizing the importance of injury prevention and pain management. Dr. Rusin shares insights from his new book, 'Pain-Free Performance,' which outlines foundational movement patterns and the significance of individualization in training. The conversation highlights the need for a well-rounded approach to fitness that prioritizes health and longevity alongside performance.
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If you want to check out Dr. Rusin's new book, app, or coaching services, check out these links:
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Dr. John Rusin
02:44 Journey from Athlete to Coach
05:52 High Performance Athletics and Injury Prevention
08:46 Transitioning from Physical Therapy to Performance Coaching
11:38 The Shift to General Population and Longevity
14:43 Understanding Pain and Movement
17:34 Foundational Movement Patterns in Training
31:44 Rebuilding the Foundation: Movement Patterns and Training
40:31 The Six Physical Characteristics of Health and Longevity
52:49 Individualization and Optimization in Movement
01:00:41 Empowering Pain-Free Performance
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody, welcome back to Iron Culture. It is me, Eric Trexler. Um, huge relief by the grace of God. |
| 0:11.2 | We are not joined by Dr. Eric Helms tonight. It is just me and our esteemed guest, Dr. John, |
| 0:17.3 | Russ and John. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Eric, it's my pleasure. Thank you. |
| 0:22.8 | So, uh, to get. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Eric, it's my pleasure. Thank you. So to get started here, I don't think we've ever had you on the show, which is a bit of a |
| 0:27.3 | surprise, but we're happy to have you now. That is our mistake. We're 350-something episodes in. We |
| 0:33.1 | finally rectified that. But John, just in case, I'm sure many people in our audience will be |
| 0:38.9 | very familiar with you and your work. Some percentage will not be so. Do you mind giving us, |
| 0:44.7 | you know, just kind of a quick overview of your background, how you got into the space, |
| 0:48.8 | maybe some of your credentials and really what is your, what is your thing that you kind of bring to fitness? What is your |
| 0:56.0 | area that kind of occupies your mind? Well, I'm a personal trainer, strength coach. I went to |
| 1:00.6 | school and have a doctorate in physical therapy. And over the last 19 years, I've worked in a lot |
| 1:05.9 | of different areas of the fitness in the sports performance industry. After leaving |
| 1:10.6 | doctorate physical therapy |
| 1:11.9 | graduate school, I didn't end up being a physical therapist. I went right back into sports |
| 1:16.0 | performance where I actually got my start. And I ended up working for about a decade in high |
| 1:21.2 | performance athletics with mostly major league baseball, NFL off season, and then working with |
| 1:26.3 | the Olympic athletes as well. |
| 1:28.2 | And that was super cool. And that's what I wanted to do, especially when I was coming up as an |
| 1:32.6 | athlete myself. And then, you know, 10 years later, I find myself dabbling into the focus being |
| 1:39.4 | health and longevity and taking myself from 99% of my client load being professional athletes to now |
| 1:45.7 | 90% of my client load being just general people that want to look and feel good, that want to be |
| 1:51.8 | healthy, want to extend their lives and have longevity and use training and nutrition and |
... |
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