Physio Pain Coach

01/10/2026

One of the most valuable, yet contested corners of chronic pain care? Exercise.

Dr Mitchell Gibbs (Senior Lecturer and Program Lead in Exercise Physiology at UNSW Sydney, and a researcher with NeuRA) started his career hunting for the specific exercise, the right modality, the movement pattern that would fix a person’s pain.

What he’s found since, across a PhD built around powerlifting and years of research: all exercise seems to work about the same. Getting stronger doesn’t appear to be what actually helps. Whether exercise is painful or pain-free barely moves the needle. What matters, again and again, is self-efficacy, fear, belief - and above all, whether the movement is meaningful to the person doing it.

In the new episode of the Pain Coach Podcast, Mitch and Lachlan get into:

- the “philosophy is a luxury” dilemma of holding scientific nuance and a patient’s need for a clear answer at the same time

- why most exercise trials don’t come close to the physical activity levels needed for someone’s broader health

- specific exercise vs geenral exercises

- pain free vs painful exercise

- whether getting stronger helps for pain.

Mitch also shares the story of being a supremely confident 20-year-old personal trainer who thought he’d cracked back pain - until none of his clients improved. The curosity and drive to help people in pain lead him into this field of research.

Tap the link to listen to the full episode.

03/09/2026

Stop the pain advice rot

01/09/2026

Derek has a knack in making complex pain simple!

The primary discussion revolves around the neuroimmune contributions to persistent pain and the simple downstream levers that clinicians and patients have to impact it.

We also touch on things like…
- pain as a protector
- where modern pain explanations go wrong
- why pain education alone is not enough
- we weigh in on the "is nociception required for pain" debate
- Telehealth vs in-person care & the hands-on debate

DM or comment DEREK for the link to the full episode.

09/08/2026

I was sick and tired of seeing people drown in the complexities of chronic pain...

I was sitting in post-grad studies in pain science, listening to Lorimer Moseley speak, thinking to myself...

Pain is complex but people don't want complexity. They want simple actionable solutions.

This was the spark that began the journey towards Pain Coach.

I wanted to stay true to the pain science and yet give people what they desperately want and need: simple, actionable solutions.

This was no easy task because the science demonstrates that thousands of things contribute to pain across the biological, psychological, and social domains.

Many people have lived experience of this, unclear as to what aggravates or eases their symptoms due to the multifactorial nature of pain.

How could I distil 10+ years of studying pain science, being in the trenches with people suffering chronic pain and my own personal experience, into a tool that analysed personal data and spat out actionable habits that would genuinely move the needle for people in pain?

What was the biggest lever I could pull? What did the science say was most important when it comes to pain?

You see the science is complex but it all points towards a very simple idea: the power of lifestyle habits.

The science is clear that five broad lifestyle categories influence pain:
- Sleep
- psychological distress
- exercise
- social connection
- nutrition

So I built a spreadsheet distilling these categories into 15 questions, my patienrs would fill it out and I'd run correlations on these anonymized records through ChatGPT to find what habit would likely yield the best outcome?

My patients found this clunky process helpful to understand their pain symptoms.

So I pitched the idea to my now tech co-founder, Evan.

I've calculated that i've sacrificed over $50,000 to build this tool....

And after years of stress, sleepless nights, fear of failure, and thousands of reiterations... I'm extremely proud of what we've built and I'd love to share more with you.

We are partnering with pain clinics across Australia to bring this valuable tool to people suffering with chronic pain.

To a world with less pain,
Lachy

04/08/2026

I must admit I was outside of my window of tolerance creating this carousel… 🤣
..so I hope you all find it useful.

I'd love to hear your go-to's for regulating your nervous system when you find yourself outside of your window of tolerance. Please share in the comments.

Now time for some deep breathing... WoWhoosh

To a world with less pain,
Lachy

P.S. Comment/DM SOPHIE and I will give you the link to the full conversation.

22/07/2026

16/07/2026

What do you do when surgery goes well but the pain remains?

"The carpentry looks good."

This is how a knee surgeon Lachy works with described a replacement that went perfectly. But the person was still in real pain long after they should have healed.

If the joint looks good, the pain is being driven by something the scan and the surgical report don't show.

The full conversation with Prof. Tasha Stanton is out now. Comment "EPISODE" and we'll DM you the link.

10/12/2025

Two powerful words if you feel dismissed or invalidated by a pain clinician.

01/12/2025

Find out why this doctor makes his patients cry…

New Pain Coach podcast out now - this conversation is jam packed with gold!

Here are 4 things I really appreciate about Dr Dan Bates’ approach:
1. Validation: Dan understands the power of telling patients, “Your pain is real”
2. “Pain amplifiers”: He breaks down how lifestyle, stress, mood, sleep, and other biopsychosocial factors can turn the pain volume up or down.
3. The “wanna swap?” power move: His simple line for patients who’ve been told “it’s all in your head” is pure gold.
4. Algorithmic approach: Dan brings structure and clarity to diagnosing and treating pain - cutting through complexity with a clear, stepwise method.

Do you want to hear from someone in the trenches with patients suffering with persistent pain? This episode is worth your time.

DM or comment Pain Coach for the link