The Healthy Movement Podcast

Hosted by Kim Nartker

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250

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Founder of Stretch Mobility Coach™ and Creator of The Stretch Method® Owner of The Stretch Mobility Coach Studio's Kim Nartker is a healthy movement pioneer who spent more than 20 years studying how the body moves only to discover the truth most of us were never taught: stiffness, soreness and tightness are the signals our bodies send when our movement system needs support. These signals precede pain and chronic loss of joint mobility after age 40. After decades of working inside traditional healthcare as a PTA. Kim stepped away to open a concierge membership practice that focused on healthy movement testing, tracking, restoring and preserving the health of your movement system. She found in doing this she can help people move better everyday while improving how well people moved through their entire life. Healthy movement can be preserved with the right support and coaching. The show is all about helping you learn how to listen to your movement system, to support it and preserve the health of your movement system. Preserve your healthy movement system so that you are capable of moving well at every stage of life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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60 recent

October 2, 202633 min

Ep# 254 Can You Avoid a Hip Replacement?

Can you avoid a hip replacement, or at least delay it? In this episode of The Healthy Movement Podcast, Kim Nartker walks through what the research actually shows about delaying hip replacement surgery and what standard hip testing will do for you and what it misses that you might be unaware of. You will learn why a "clear" X ray only means you do not have arthritis yet, and why it says nothing about how well your hip moves. Kim breaks down a study of people with early hip pain where two thirds had painful or restricted hip flexion while most X rays showed little change. She explains the difference between range of motion and joint restriction, what research shows about how a replaced hip moves compared with a healthy one, and a six year randomized trial where exercise therapy plus education kept more people on their own hip and delayed surgery by about two years. Kim also shares what she sees in her clinic when clients restore and preserve their hip mobility over years, a simple hip self check you can do at home, and the one question to ask any provider before you start care for hip pain. Next week: cortisone, gel injections, PRP and stem cells for the hip. Become a member of the Healthy Movement Collective for $7.99 a month and get a new healthy movement training every month. This month: how to preserve your hip mobility and stay off the hip replacement path. Cancel anytime. Join here: https://www.wellnessliving.com/rs/catalog-payment.html?k_id=4320795&sid_purchase_item=promotion&id_sale=13&k_business=770209 This episode is for education only and is not medical advice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

September 25, 202613 min

Ep# 253 Hip Mobility After 50

Hip mobility after 50 is the question people keep asking me. Why do my hips feel like this when I did not do anything to cause it? In this episode I continue the hip series and break down what has actually happened to your hips by the time you reach 50. You will learn the four parts that make a hip healthy: the joint, the muscle, the nervous system and the cell inside that muscle. You will learn the six ways your hip moves and the movement you had as a child that you no longer have. You will also learn what else is gone by 50 besides the mobility itself. I explain why walking and stretching and mobility drills and strength training can feel like progress when your body is really pulling movement from somewhere else. They help you keep going but they do not restore the motion inside the joint. I also share what I have found in fourteen years of testing people who were tight and stiff and sore and frustrated. And I explain why I believe testing should start at puberty and continue for life. If you are in your 50s and feel like your body is falling apart there is more going on than what you feel. Book your Healthy Movement Testing at Beckett Ridge: www.thestretchmobilitycoach.com Not local? Start with the virtual Healthy Joint Mobility intro:www.thestretchmobilitycoach.com/resources Next week: Hip replacement surgery. What you gain and what you lose. This is movement health education. It is not medical advice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

September 18, 202622 min

Ep #251 Ever Experience Knee Pain That Came Out Of Nowhere?

Knee pain out of nowhere is the signal almost everyone misreads. You did not fall. You did not twist it. You got out of the car or stepped down a stair and your knee twinged, and now you are searching for stretches and exercises and trying creams and braces and inserts that work for a little while before the pain comes back. In this episode I break down what I find when I test somebody whose knee started hurting for no reason. The restriction is not in the knee. It is above it in the hip and below it in the ankle and foot, and it was already there long before the knee ever hurt. Your knee is a hinge with a rotational component, and when the joints on either side of it lose their capacity to move, your nervous system locks that knee down. You feel it on stairs, in squats and every time you lower yourself onto something. I also cover the research. A review of 18 studies following 4,818 people with no knee pain found that the ones who went on to develop it had not started out with weaker hips. So if weakness is not the root cause, strengthening a restricted joint is not going to give you back what your body took away. You will learn the difference between real strength loss and a communication loss that feels identical, why an improved range of motion measurement is not proof your joint capacity came back, and the two questions to ask any professional working on your knee. Then get tested. Full body Healthy Movement Testing in person at Beckett Ridge gives you your Healthy Movement Score, your Movement Age and your Blueprint. Virtual testing covers one area and gives you a Mobility Health Score. Book here: https://www.wellnessliving.com/rs/appointment-start.html?id_class_tab=3&id_mode=1&k_business=770209&k_class_tab=78026&k_service=321431 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

September 11, 202623 min

Ep #251 Sitting Is Not Shortening Your Hip Muscles

Sitting is not shortening your hip muscles. I read the research and it does not support what we have all been taught. I spent over 20 years as a PTA teaching people that sitting shortened their hip flexors and that aging was why they felt tight. This episode is where I show you what changed my mind. We look at what two studies on hamstring length and hip muscle length actually concluded. We look at what sitting really does inside the first hour and why the fix is not a stretch. Then we get into what is quietly taking your muscle and your joint movement while you are busy blaming your chair. Your hip flexor group is five muscles and some of them begin to atrophy long before you feel anything. This is part of my series for people over 50 who want to keep their hips mobile and healthy. If you feel tight and stiff and heavy in your body this one is for you. www.thestretchmobilitycoach.com/beckett to connect Until next week. Move and feel amazing when you do. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

September 4, 202634 min

Ep #250 Why Does Your Hip Flexor Stretch Stop Working After Age 40

Your hip flexor stretch stops holding after 40 and the reason has nothing to do with how much you stretch. In this episode I go through the actual stretching research and show you the number nobody hands you. How much stretching it really takes before your range of motion moves enough to count as a real change. Then I show you what happened when researchers stood those same people up and asked them to run. I spent over twenty five years in physical therapy as a PTA before I opened my own studio and started testing the joint instead of the muscle. This is episode one in a new series on the hip. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE Why the hip flexor stretch feels right and still does not hold The two kinds of stretching and which one is available on every corner What a range of motion score actually measures and why it cannot tell you where your loss is coming from The dose response research on how much stretching it takes to see a detectable change Why passive hip extension improved in a study and running did not change at all What no stretching study has ever measured What changes in your body after 40 and why the same program does not work The study from 1991 that says mobility loss is not aging What I actually do with a client over 40 Want to connect with me. Email me at info@thestretchmobilitycoach.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 21, 202637 min

Ep # 249 How to Open Up Tight Joints Without Surgery or Injections after age 40

Can you open up space in a tight joint without surgery or injections after 40. Yes. But not with stretching. There are two types of motion in every joint. One you can partly control and it is the one everybody measures. The other lives inside the joint capsule and you have no voluntary control over it at all. You cannot stretch it. You cannot strengthen it. You cannot foam roll it. And it is the one that decides how far the first one can go. Kim Nartker spent over twenty five years in physical therapy as a PTA and ran her own practice before building The Stretch Mobility Coach. In this episode she breaks down what accessory motion actually is and why a range of motion score cannot tell you where your loss is coming from. She explains what a stretch session reaches and what it never touches. She walks through what physical therapists and chiropractors and osteopathic doctors each do to a joint and what the research says about when any of them do it. Then she gets to the rusted hinge. A door in your house that will not open the way it used to. You can pull on it as hard as you like. The rust is the problem and pulling harder has never once removed rust. She also looks at what a knee replacement actually gives back. The straightening improves. The bend usually does not. And the hip and the ankle and the back that nobody tested are still sitting there restricted. The most useful thing in this episode is a question. Before you agree to any treatment ask what movement can I expect from this. Then ask how long do I keep it after the treatment stops. Write both down. Most people never ask either one. Book your Unlock Healthy Joint Mobility session and get your Mobility Health Score. https://www.wellnessliving.com/rs/appointment-start.html?id_class_tab=3&id_mode=1&k_business=770209&k_class_tab=78026&k_service=319744 In person in West Chester Ohio. Virtual available worldwide. info@thestretchmobilitycoach.com Movement health education. Not medical advice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 13, 20261 hr 17 min

Ep# 248 Why Does My Knee Feel Pressure When I Bend Down?

Your knee feels fine walking. Fine on stairs. Then you go down to the floor and there is a pressure. Most people call this pressure aging. and avoid that deep knee bend. It is not aging. Your knee has a lock and unlock mechanism you have no control over, and going to the floor is the only movement in your day that will tell you it has stopped working. In this episode I break down what that pressure actually is, what the research supports, where the evidence runs out, and three real women standing at three different points on the same road. Please share this episode with friends or family that want answers about knee pain or pressure with deep bending positions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 4, 202645 min

Ep #247 Healthy Movement 101

Healthy Movement 101: What You Can Control, What's Stealing Your Movement, and the Gap Between Them This is the foundational episode — the one to start with, and the one to share when someone asks what healthy movement actually is. We cover a lot of ground. First, what you can control: why holding any position too long lets the tissues around your joints slowly deform and quiet the muscles that stabilize them, why keeping your strength is one of the highest-leverage things you can do, what stretching and mobility work actually change, and how sleep, stress, and nutrition support the system. Then, what steals your movement: a layer of motion deep inside the joint that is not under your voluntary control, how it can begin to fail before you feel anything, and the cycle that follows — what the research calls arthrogenic muscle inhibition, and what I call the Silent Shutdown Cycle. And finally, the gap between the two: the things you can do act on the layer you can reach, while the decline begins in the layer you cannot. Along the way we stay honest about what the research establishes and what I am proposing from what I see in my studio. If you have ever done everything right and still felt yourself getting tighter, stiffer, or less capable with the years, this episode explains why. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 28, 202632 min

Ep# 246 Why You Wake Up Stiff, Tight, and Sore

You wake up stiff. Your back, your hips, your feet take a while to loosen up. You stretch, it helps for an hour, and the tightness comes right back. Most of us call this aging and move on. In this episode, movement coach Kim Nartker explains what is actually happening — a documented process the research calls arthrogenic muscle inhibition, and what she calls the Silent Shutdown Cycle. You'll learn why your tightness is a signal from the joint, not a short muscle; why stretching never seems to hold; and how this cycle can run silently for years before pain ever shows up. Kim shares three real case studies of hypermobile women who woke up in pain with no injury, and what changed when they stopped chasing the symptom and started supporting the system underneath it. If you have tightness that appears and lingers, this episode explains why — and what you can actually do about it. https://www.wellnessliving.com/rs/appointment-start.html?id_class_tab=3&id_mode=1&k_business=770209&k_class_tab=78026&k_service=319744 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 21, 20265 min

Ep #245 What Is Healthy Movement

Key Points Keywords healthy movement, movement system, joint health, pain management, functional movement, aging, muscle function, mobility, nervous system, joint space Summary In this conversation, Kim discusses the concept of healthy movement, emphasizing the importance of understanding the movement system that governs our physical capabilities. She explains how aging and pain are often misinterpreted, and introduces the idea of a silent shutdown cycle that leads to joint restrictions and functional decline. Kim advocates for a proactive approach to maintaining movement health through awareness and targeted practices. Takeaways Healthy movement is about the integrated health of your movement system. Pain is often a late signal of deeper issues. The movement system includes joints, muscles, and nerves working together. Range of motion alone does not indicate overall movement health. Joint restrictions can occur without immediate pain signals. The nervous system plays a crucial role in movement restrictions. Functional joint space is essential for healthy movement. The silent shutdown cycle can lead to chronic pain and mobility issues. Healthy movement can be measured and scored for better awareness. A proactive approach to movement health can enhance quality of life. titles Unlocking the Secrets of Healthy Movement Sound Bites 00:00 "Healthy movement is a lifelong approach." Chapters 00:00 Understanding Healthy Movement 02:51 The Movement System Explained 05:43 The Silent Shutdown Cycle and Its Implications Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.