The Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Show
The Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Show

Dr. JJ Thomas: Pain Is an Alarm. Why Your Injury Keeps Coming Back and How To Fix It

October 6, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In a striking clinical moment, Dr. JJ Thomas describes watching a colleague with severely limited neck rotation—barely 30 degrees when 80 is normal—stand up after having a few needles placed in his quad and groin muscles, and find his neck motion completely normalized. She had not touched his neck. That experience crystallized her core insight: pain is an alarm, and most treatment approaches just take the batteries out of the alarm instead of looking for the fire.

Thomas, a physical therapist who works with NBA players and Olympians but also with 40-year-old parents, argues that the standard medical approach of isolating a painful body part and treating it directly is fundamentally backward. The body operates as an interconnected system of movement patterns, not as a collection of independent parts. When something hurts—a hamstring, a shoulder, a neck—the pain is a signal that some other part of the system is not doing its job. Treating the painful site without addressing the underlying pattern failure is why injuries become chronic and keep coming back.

Why overuse injuries are really underuse injuries

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:00) **Pain Is an Alarm, Not the Problem** - JJ Thomas introduces the core metaphor: pain is an alarm, and medicine often just "takes the batteries out" instead of finding the signal.
  • 2 (04:56) **Why Eccentric Loading Isn't Enough** - A deep dive into tendinopathy and why fixing the movement pattern is critical for long-term resolution.
  • 3 (07:05) **The Alarming Statistics of Sedentary Life** - JJ lays out the data on how much we sit and the direct link to mortality.
  • 4 (09:03) **The "M.O.R.E." Acronym: Reframing Movement** - JJ introduces a framework for thinking about movement as a primary driver of health, not just a support.
  • 5 (11:49) **The 7 Foundational Movement Patterns** - JJ outlines the specific patterns we need to maintain to future-proof our bodies.
  • 6 (14:49) **Primal Movements & "Adult Tummy Time"** - The concept of developmental movement and why getting on the floor is a non-negotiable.
  • 7 (27:08) **Scapular Stability: The Key to Everything** - A detailed explanation of why the shoulder blades are the gateway to pelvic and core health.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

When you have musculoskeletal pain, the natural instinct is to try and treat it directly. But the cause of that pain often starts somewhere else in the body.

I learned that from this week's guest, Dr. JJ Thomas, who is my physical therapist and good friend. She was my patient first, and now we are each other's patients. She has practiced physical therapy for more than 25 years and has worked with the Philadelphia 76ers, the Philadelphia Eagles, and athletes from the UFC and US Olympic programs.

What you'll learn in this episode:

  • Why a chronic tendon injury can come right back, even after eccentric loading or PRP
  • Whether a frozen shoulder in menopause is a hormone problem, and one of the first movements Dr. Thomas checks
  • Why she works lying on her stomach, and the 10-minute band routine she wrote for an eight-hour desk day
  • Why sitting up taller won't fix your posture, and what poor posture tells her about your body
  • Why she gives patients shoulder blade exercises for their pelvic floor
  • How much a standard squat does for your posterior chain, and the position she wants you in more often
  • Why she believes “overuse” injuries are often underuse injuries, and how that changes the way she treats shin splints
  • Why needling a clinician's quad and adductors normalized his neck rotation
  • What her blood work showed after years of hard training, and the nutrition change she calls her “game changer”

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Find Dr. JJ Thomas at:

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@drjjthomas

• Website: https://pri

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