Why Simple Often is Better Than Complex

Photos are AI generated, the words are straight from my brain though!

Here is an issue from our bi weekly newsletter specifically for health and fitness professionals. Our owner, Jesse Lewis, shares his experience and ideas as well as stories to help the health and fitness community connect and learn from each other.

3 Minute Read on Simplicity over Complexity

From the Clinic

Physical therapists LOVE making things complicated.

We love being a body detective, finding the missing piece of someone's pain, and figuring out how it all fits together

For years, I remember being so proud that I “fixed” someone’s low back by improving their big toe mobility.

Unfortunately, I think we jump to complicated answers before trying the simplest one. And I see too many people not get better because of it.

I was guilty of this all the time — especially in the middle part of my career. (Probably right at the top of the Dunning-Kruger curve, if you know that)

Some recent examples I’ve heard:

• Someone was told by a PT that their left hip pain was caused by their right shoulder being too far forward

• Someone else was told by a chiro that their right shoulder was being thrown off by their flat left foot

  
  

And then we had a perfect example of this in the clinic.

What We Saw Lately

A group fitness coach came in with knee pain.

He’d seen another PT who apparently couldn’t figure it out. There was some temporary relief, but the pain kept coming back.

When I asked what they’d tried, it was:

• Glute strengthening

• Dry needling in the low back (in case it was referring pain)

• Fixing his foot position

• Working on alignment

• 
  

All of those are valid. But nobody had tried a pretty obvious solution: working on his knee! He had knee pain! All of the exclamation points because this gets me on my soapbox!

Just from listening to his story, I had a good idea what we’d find. The assessment confirmed it: a significant lack of quad strength in that knee.

The quad is the biggest muscle in the leg. It crosses directly over the front of the knee. If it’s weak, it doesn’t matter what the foot or hip or spine is doing. That knee is going to take on stress it’s not ready for.

We started with basic quad strengthening. We’re still working through the plan, but so far he’s training harder, moving better, and having less pain.

And this isn’t rare. PTs love going deep before they go obvious.

How We Use This Approach

We’ve shifted our entire approach to start with the lowest-hanging fruit first — and we've found we have much better results.

Healthcare loves overcomplicating things. I think we can learn from that and do better. 

Simple often works best. Now I ask myself two things:

1. What’s the simplest possible cause for this issue?

2. What’s the simplest explanation I can give them?

   
   

Another way I think about it is like this: Imagine throwing a rock into a pond. 

The ripples are biggest closest to the impact and get smaller as they spread out. 

Same with the body.

If someone has hip pain, what’s closest to the hip is more likely the issue than their opposite shoulder or foot.

Same with movement cues. I used to give step-by-step breakdowns every time someone moved.

Now, I try one simple cue. I see if it works. Then I adjust from there instead of piling on more.

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