Smith Performance Center Blog
Your Trusted Physical Therapy and Strength Training Blog for Injury Rehab and Pain Management
Welcome to the physical therapy blog from Smith Performance Center—your source for expert guidance on injury recovery, pain management, strength training, and sustainable health habits. Whether you’re managing chronic pain, recovering from surgery, or building long-term fitness, our team shares actionable strategies backed by clinical experience and real-world success. Stay up to date with new posts on rehab phases, movement progression, exercise programming, and the science behind making healthcare work for you.
How to start 2026 with the BEST strategy
Past Your Prime Podcast – Episode 49 Listen on:Spotify | Apple | Youtube Every January, the same thing happens. Motivation spikes. Calendars reset. People decide this is the year they “finally get serious.” And by February? Most of those plans are dead. Not because people are lazy. Not because motivation disappeared. But because what they set wasn’t a goal. It was a challenge. In Episode 49 of the Past Your Prime podcast, we break down why New Year’s resolutions fail, what goals actually are, and how to set something that doesn’t wreck your system by mid-winter. The New Year is a Time Marker, not Magic The New Year doesn’t reset anything. It’s just a time marker; a moment that invites reflection. That’s why January feels different: About half of
How to Avoid “Exercise Hell” (When Exercise Makes You Feel Worse)
When exercise makes you feel worse instead of better, motivation isn’t the problem. Learn why this happens and how to avoid “exercise hell.”
How That First Injury Can Change You Forever
Why injuries keep coming back after the first one. Learn how tissue capacity, compensation, and the therapeutic gap lead to recurrent injury.
Why Your Hamstrings Hurt After Stretching (and What’s Really Going On)
Stretching is supposed to make your hamstrings feel better—looser, lighter, more flexible. So why are you experiencing only temporary relief at best—and often feel even more sore after stretching? There’s a deep cultural belief in the power of stretching to reduce pain, improve mobility, and prevent injury. The support for those claims is, at best, inconsistent or non-existent. 1,2 If you’ve found this article, you’ve likely noticed a pattern yourself: every time you stretch your hamstrings, they get worse. At Smith Performance Center, we see this pattern constantly. The sensation of “tight” hamstrings is rarely about flexibility—even in those with limited motion. We hear people complain of tightness in tissue disorders that actually cause more motion than normal. More often, it’s a protective signal that
Why Big Toe Pain Keeps Coming Back (and Why It’s So Hard to Fix)
Case Study: The Dancer With Recurrent Big Toe Pain A former college dancer came into the clinic frustrated. She’d stopped dancing years ago, but every time she returned to even basic classes, her big-toe pain spiked. She tolerated hiking in her stiff boots, a little pain but nothing that stopped her — yet one night of dancing, and she’d hobble for a week with a throbbing big toe. Her frustration was visible, and the best advice she’d heard—stop dancing—wasn’t one she wanted to follow. Her last visit with a podiatrist ended with an injection that helped for about a week before the pain returned. She started to believe her big toe would never handle the way she moved in college. There didn’t seem to be
Osteoporosis & Lifting: How SPC Builds Bone Safely
Learn how Smith Performance Center helps people with osteoporosis and lifting programs that build stronger bones safely through progressive strength and impact training in Tucson.
How to start 2026 with the BEST strategy
Past Your Prime Podcast – Episode 49 Listen on:Spotify | Apple | Youtube Every January, the same thing happens. Motivation spikes. Calendars reset. People decide this is the year they “finally get serious.” And by February? Most of those plans are dead. Not because people are lazy. Not because motivation disappeared. But because what they set wasn’t a goal. It was a challenge. In Episode 49 of the Past Your Prime podcast, we break down why New Year’s resolutions fail, what goals actually are, and how to set something that doesn’t wreck your system by mid-winter. The New Year is a Time Marker, not Magic The New Year doesn’t reset anything. It’s just a time marker; a moment that invites reflection. That’s why January feels different: About half of
How to Avoid “Exercise Hell” (When Exercise Makes You Feel Worse)
When exercise makes you feel worse instead of better, motivation isn’t the problem. Learn why this happens and how to avoid “exercise hell.”
How That First Injury Can Change You Forever
Why injuries keep coming back after the first one. Learn how tissue capacity, compensation, and the therapeutic gap lead to recurrent injury.
Why Your Hamstrings Hurt After Stretching (and What’s Really Going On)
Stretching is supposed to make your hamstrings feel better—looser, lighter, more flexible. So why are you experiencing only temporary relief at best—and often feel even more sore after stretching? There’s a deep cultural belief in the power of stretching to reduce pain, improve mobility, and prevent injury. The support for those claims is, at best, inconsistent or non-existent. 1,2 If you’ve found this article, you’ve likely noticed a pattern yourself: every time you stretch your hamstrings, they get worse. At Smith Performance Center, we see this pattern constantly. The sensation of “tight” hamstrings is rarely about flexibility—even in those with limited motion. We hear people complain of tightness in tissue disorders that actually cause more motion than normal. More often, it’s a protective signal that
Why Big Toe Pain Keeps Coming Back (and Why It’s So Hard to Fix)
Case Study: The Dancer With Recurrent Big Toe Pain A former college dancer came into the clinic frustrated. She’d stopped dancing years ago, but every time she returned to even basic classes, her big-toe pain spiked. She tolerated hiking in her stiff boots, a little pain but nothing that stopped her — yet one night of dancing, and she’d hobble for a week with a throbbing big toe. Her frustration was visible, and the best advice she’d heard—stop dancing—wasn’t one she wanted to follow. Her last visit with a podiatrist ended with an injection that helped for about a week before the pain returned. She started to believe her big toe would never handle the way she moved in college. There didn’t seem to be
Osteoporosis & Lifting: How SPC Builds Bone Safely
Learn how Smith Performance Center helps people with osteoporosis and lifting programs that build stronger bones safely through progressive strength and impact training in Tucson.