The Crackin' Backs Podcast

HAVE WE BEEN WRONG ABOUT CREATINE AND PROTEIN ALL ALONG? | Dr. Jose Antonio For years, creatine has been labeled a "muscle-building supplement" and protein has been at the center of endless nutrition debates. But what if these two nutritional powerhouses are about far more than building muscle? What if they are among the most important tools we have for healthy aging, brain health, cogni...

MICRODOSING: BREAKTHROUGH OR DANGEROUS TREND? | Alicia Vera Garcia What if the thing millions of people are searching for isn't another medication, supplement, or productivity hack—but a completely different relationship with their own mind? Microdosing psychedelics has quietly moved from the fringes into mainstream conversations about anxiety, burnout, ADHD, depression, creativity, trauma re...

What if your exhaustion, brain fog, poor sleep, burnout, lack of focus, and chronic stress aren't signs that something is wrong with you—but signs that your body is responding exactly as it was designed to? In this eye-opening episode of Crackin' Backs , we sit down with Andrew Herr, one of the leading minds in human performance, resilience, travel health, and performance optimization. A...

What if one of the biggest beliefs in fitness is completely wrong? For decades, athletes, coaches, and gym-goers have been told that building serious muscle requires meat, animal protein, and mountains of chicken breasts. But today's guest has spent nearly 30 years challenging that belief—and backing it up with results. In this episode of Crackin' Backs , we sit down with IFBB Pro Bodybu...

Your Feet Are Getting Weaker. Here's Why. | Dr. Mark Wallen What if the root cause of your knee pain, poor balance, declining mobility, and even faster aging starts with something you rarely think about... your feet? For decades, medicine treated the foot as an isolated body part—something to cushion, brace, inject, or surgically repair. But after spending more than 40 years as a podiatric su...

Today’s episode may completely change the way you look at one of the most misunderstood foods on the planet… sardines. Joining us is Dr. Andria Klioze , a physician who spent decades inside the VA healthcare system treating some of the sickest chronic disease patients in America before stepping away from the traditional “pill-for-every-problem” model to build a more root-cause driven approach to h...

Most people think chronic illness is only about pain. But what if the real battle is losing your identity, your purpose, and the life you thought you were going to live? In this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast, we sit down with psychologist Jeffrey Bone Psy. D for one of the most honest conversations we’ve ever had about the emotional and psychological reality of living with chronic illness...

Tapping your face to reduce anxiety? It sounds strange… until you understand what’s actually happening in the body. In this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast , we sit down with Gwenn Bonnell , an expert in EFT tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique) and energy medicine, to explore one of the most talked-about—and debated—tools for stress relief, anxiety, trauma, chronic pain, and nervous system...

How do you find joy… when you’ve lost everything? In this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast, we sit down with Brandon Riedel , a businessman whose life changed in an instant after being crushed by a falling tree—resulting in the loss of his right hand and right leg. But this is not just a story about survival. It’s a deep exploration of identity, resilience, mindset, and faith—and what it real...

Most people say they want change. But very few are willing to do what change actually requires. In this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast , we sit down with Terrance Ogden, founder of Project G.R.I.T . , whose life is a real-world example of what it means to go from rock bottom to purpose-driven living. This isn’t just another comeback story. Terrance went from homelessness, drug addiction, an...

Most people don’t fail because of their limitations… They fail because of the limits placed on them. In this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast , we sit down with Kyle Landi and his mother Kimberly—a duo who are redefining what’s possible for individuals living with Down syndrome, autism, and developmental challenges. Kyle was born into a world that immediately labeled him. Low expectations. Bo...

Most people think healing gives you your life back. But what if it costs you the life you knew? In this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast, we sit down with Scott Roessler , an 11-tour Special Operations veteran who stepped into one of the most controversial and rapidly emerging treatments in mental health— ibogaine therapy . After years of invisible battles with PTSD, trauma, and nervous syste...

Everyone’s chasing the next breakthrough in health. Peptides.  Hormones.  IV therapy.  Regenerative injections. But what if the real problem isn’t what you’re taking…  it’s that your body has stopped responding? In this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast , we sit down with Dr. Jason Pencek to explore a different lens on healing—one based on cellular signaling, communication, and restoring the b...

Why are so many high performers quietly falling apart? They’re disciplined. They’re successful. They’re doing everything “right.” And yet… anxiety, burnout, and emotional instability are rising—especially among high-achieving professionals. In this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast , we sit down with Ashley Alderette, PsyD , to explore a powerful shift in how we understand mental health: It’s...

Peptides are everywhere right now. From fat loss and muscle growth to injury healing, anti-aging, and longevity, these tiny signaling molecules are being marketed as the future of medicine. But between influencer hype, online “research peptides,” and biohacking trends… most people have no idea what’s real—and what could actually hurt them. In this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast , we sit dow...

If you’ve ever felt confused by nutrition… you’re not alone. Calories matter.  Calories don’t matter.  Carbs are the problem.  Carbs are essential. In today’s world, nutrition advice is louder than ever—but rarely grounded in real science. In this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast , we sit down with Douglas Kalman PhD to break down what decades of research actually say about calories, metaboli...

Women’s health and performance science is finally catching up—but for decades, much of the research guiding training, nutrition, and recovery was built primarily on male physiology. That mismatch has left many women feeling like they’re doing everything right—training hard, eating “clean,” tracking their metrics—yet still struggling with energy, metabolism, recovery, and body composition. In this...

Your brain doesn’t just run on chemistry.  It runs on time. Every day your body broadcasts signals through sleep timing, light exposure, body temperature, hormones, and circadian rhythms—yet most people ignore these patterns while chasing pills, supplements, and productivity hacks. In this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast , we sit down with Benjamin Smarr to explore a new frontier of human bi...

What happens when everything you thought defined you… is taken in a single moment? For Daniel Carlton , that moment came in 2012 while serving as a U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret, when he stepped on an IED—losing one leg and nearly losing the other. It was a near-death experience that would have ended most people’s story. It didn’t end his. In this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast , we...

What if chronic pain isn’t a tissue problem —but a brain map problem ? If you’ve ever thought, “My pain must be structural,” today’s episode flips that script. On the Crackin’ Backs Podcast we dive into why pain persists, how the nervous system and brain maps shape sensation, and how skilled manual therapy can update the body’s map instead of masking symptoms . We’re joined by Dr. Steven Capobianc...

If you’re tired of working harder and getting the same results… this episode is for you. Most people don’t fail because they lack effort. They fail because they repeat the same thinking, habits, and identity—year after year—with new goals but the same outcomes. Today on the Crackin’ Backs Podcast , we go beyond motivation to expose the invisible mental patterns that quietly control discipline, con...

What if spine surgery isn’t the breakthrough—it's the backup plan? In a world where millions are told “scalpel first” for back pain, joint degeneration, and nerve issues, a quiet revolution is happening in regenerative medicine , non-surgical spine care , stem cells , exosomes , and peptides . On this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast , we sit down with one of the true pioneers in the fie...

Most athletes don’t lose because they lack talent. They lose because their internal system collapses under pressure. They dominate in practice. They prepare, train, visualize… Then the lights come on—and something shuts down. In this episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast, we dive deep into the real mental game of performance with Brandon Sprout, a mental performance coach who works at the intersec...

In a world where women follow the same training, nutrition, and recovery advice as men—and still feel off, overtrained, or under-recovered—this episode changes everything you thought you knew. Today we’re joined by Dr. Stacy T. Sims, PhD , a world-renowned exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist who has spent over two decades challenging the idea that “women are small men.” Instead, she’s he...

Fix This and Radically Reduce Your Shoulder Pain | Dr. Josh Satterlee If shoulder pain were truly a shoulder problem, we would’ve solved it by now. Yet millions of people—and even athletes—are stuck chasing rotator cuff diagnoses, endless rehab exercises, and generic advice that never fully works. In this episode of the Crackin Backs Podcast , we sit down with Dr. Josh Satterlee , a nationally rec...