S E28: Ep 28 – The Real Benefits of Exercise and why it’s never too late to start!

Hello and welcome to the Pain Free Living Podcast.

My name is Bob Allen.

I'm Louise Gordon and I'm not an osteopath.

I'm a change coach and consultant working with businesses and individuals.

And basically I'm here to ask Bob.

All the questions and she will ask lots of questions.

And today's podcast is all about exercise, the benefits of it, why you should do it, and some of the benefits of exercising.

So over to you.

Okay, so I thought we could perhaps start with a definition of exercise according to Wikipedia.

I'm going to read this.

Exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness.

Good definition.

In other words, exercise is good for you and the more you do, the healthier you will become.

That's the takeaway from the definition.

I also looked at the NHS recommendation for exercise, which actually was really interesting, which said to do 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise plus two strength sessions per week.

That is a lot.

That is a lot.

Yeah.

And I was feeling quite proud of myself, thinking, I know that I go to the gym twice a week and I'm in a really good routine, I miss it if I don't go.

I also try and keep steps in, but when I read that, I actually felt a bit disappointed in myself because I don't think I'm doing that much.

And funnily enough, most people don't.

This is one of the issues I have with the definition.

It's well researched and they know that if you do more than 150 minutes of moderate exercise or more than 75 minutes of vigorous exercise, plus two strengths training sessions, you will get benefits from doing that.

And I think it's worthwhile listing some of the benefits that you will get.

And I'm going to have to read this as well because I don't know the answer.

So if you do that level of exercise, you will reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancer by 50%.

You will reduce the risk of early death by 40%.

You reduce the risk of dementia by 30%.

It increases the production of endorphins to get off, feel good and hormones, all dependent on exercise.

And it will help you to keep your joints supple, reduce pain and help maintain muscle tummy.

Now, all of that is true and exercise is dose dependent, so the more of it you do, the more benefits you'll get.

From this list up to a Point because if you over train you then tip into the, you start to get problems, muscle and joint issues, et cetera, et cetera.

So yeah, exercise is dose dependent and is beneficial to a point, but not overdoing it.

So that's part of the key now because the Recommendation is for 150 minutes, which obviously works out as 30 minutes per day, 5 days a week, 2 strength sessions as well.

Most people, I'm surprised, don't do it because it is, you know, we live busy lives, we work, we do lots of things outside of work.

Can we dedicate 30 minutes of exercise five days a week to building our strength?

You'd think it was a no brainer because yeah, the more exercise you do, the better your health, therefore the longer you will live, etc.

What this doesn't take into account is quality of life.

It doesn't take into account the day to day stresses that we're all under.

So although hitting those targets is the ideal, realistically you'll still get benefits from just increasing your activity.

So people are tending to lead a more sedentary lifestyle.

We spend a lot of time on the phones, we spend a lot of time commuting to and from work, etc.

Etc.

Our lives are busy with stress.

To fit, to then ask them to fit in 30 minutes of exercise in all of that.

A lot of people think I can't do it.

So therefore they don't bother, they don't bother trying.

And I guess that, you know, in my head I was going through what is moderate exercise, you know, yes, I do go for a walk.

Yes, I've got my two gym sessions.

One of those is definitely a strength session.

The other's not that probably is more cardio, but it's, you know, sometimes I go for a walk, yeah, I do get, you know, get warm.

I know that, you know, my body's pumping that blood around.

But you know, what is moderate exercise?

I kind of got an idea of vigorous.

Yeah, vigorous is running or go ball hit sessions, that sort of thing.

Moderate exercise in this context it's tennis, badminton, squash is a little bit more active.

So when they're talking about vigorous, moderate, it's more to do with cardio, it's more to do with heart rate.

Yeah, moderate exercise, like I said, it's, you know, brisk walking, that sort of thing.

To be honest, it's a bit of a, the definition's a bit woolly, so you probably won't find much of a definition for what that, what that constitutes, but it's a good question.

I guess with all of these things, it's a guideline, isn't it?

Yes, it's something to, to just bear in mind.

But when I did read the actual recommendation, I did think I am doing exercise and I'm, I, you know, I try and do it consistently, not all the time, but when I read the kind of specifications there, I couldn't tick those boxes.

No, but like you said, it's guideline, it's say if you want to be perfect, you want to get all of these benefits, then you need to do this amount of exercise.

Reality is that if you look at it in terms of quality of life, then you can make a massive difference to your quality of life by doing some exercise that can be as simple as going out for a walk.

If you, it can be as simple as going up and down the stairs.

So one of the things you need to take into account is your level or is the level of activity you are capable of doing.

You know, so if you're 90, you're not going to be, you're not, you're probably not going to be doing 150 minutes of moderate exercise.

You can, and people do, and, you know, I'm not sure how old the oldest person just run a marathon, but I think they were in the 90s.

That's not to say that you can't do it, but, but realistically, most people won't.

And because it can be seen as quite a daunting target to hit, people will go, well, I can't do that, so I won't get those benefits, so why should I bother?

Is there any point, is there any point in just doing a little bit?

Well, actually, the answer is yes, there is.

There is always a point to doing exercise.

And anyone that's been to see me professionally as an osteopath will know I will give them exercises to do.

What I do is I make them practical and I pitch them the level of the ability of the person I'm talking to.

So if you're in your 70s, you haven't done any exercise for the last 30 years.

I'm not going to get you running around the block.

What I will do is I'll get you to potentially do simple stuff like going up or down the stairs, going from sitting to standing and then going back down to sitting again.

So, so I'll always make the exercise applicable to the person that I'm working with.

Exercise is really, really important.

There are so many benefits to doing it.

And one of the things that they don't actually talk about that often in NHS terms is that exercise can actually help reduce joint pain.

Because one of the things that people do, sprained ankle, Okay.

I can't put weight through the ankle, so I'm just going to sit and I'm not going to do anything.

Yeah.

Whereas actually we've talked about it in other podcasts as well, but there's this thing called active rest.

So in pre.

Yeah, I talk about it a lot.

I'm laughing.

Yeah.

So one of the phrases I use a lot is active rest.

The other one I know, the other one that you'll hear me use quite a lot is it depends because I'm not a big fan of absolutes.

So if I've got somebody who's quite active, they come in and got an injury, I, I will very rare, rarely if ever say you can't exercise and can't do anything.

You know, broken bones.

Yeah.

You're not gonna, there's not much you can do in terms of anti respiratory broken bones.

But anything else, even if it's a severely sprained ankle, you can still get some movement in as long as you get movement.

In my world, that's exercise.

And like I said, one of the things that I don't think the NHS highlights enough is that exercise can help to reduce joint and muscle pain.

You know, as long as you move, it's all about movement.

So as long as you move within your pain tolerance, discomfort is okay, pain is not.

Then it will help to reduce joint pain.

Because what, and how, how, just on the back of that, then how does it help to reduce joint pain?

Okay, so most, most joint, most joints have got what we call a capsule around them and that capsule has cells in which produce the body's equivalent of WD40.

So it's called synovial fluid.

So what happens is the more a joint moves, the more it stimulates the cells, the more the cells will produce this equivalent of WD40.

And it will help to lubricate the joint and help it to move better.

So what happens when you have pain is you tend not to move it.

So this is one of the reasons why it's always key to move as much as you can, hence active rest.

And the more you do that, the less stiff the joints will be.

So there's lots of benefits to it.

That, and there's a saying I've heard a lot of times around, move it or lose it.

Absolutely, yeah, yeah.

And that is a good thing because the body has this thing called built in redundancy.

So if you have A joint or muscle that you don't move or use, it will find another way to share those resources around the body.

So, yeah, move it or lose.

It's a very good phrase.

Hey, and I'm not the osteopath.

I like that.

Okay, So I think if we were to ask, myself included, could you do more exercise than what you're currently doing?

Majority of people will say yes.

What do you see?

You know, from the people that you.

You treat, you know, why aren't we exercising more?

A lot of the people I see, it's because they don't have time.

So.

And this, this goes back to what we're talking about earlier on, you know, 150 minutes.

Most people will say, I can't fit in 150 minutes of exercise into my.

My working week.

Or, you know, you're.

You've got a small child, or whatever, whatever the reason is, they'll just say, I haven't got time to do that.

And then they.

Then they go, I'm not going to do it.

Your average therapist will get 20% of the people that come to see them to do the exercises that they're given.

And a few of the people I see who have come from NHS videos.

The NHS is wonderful, by the way.

I'm not slagging it off, but there are certain processes that I'm not particularly happy with.

They'll come to me, they'll have a list of 10 exercises to do, three sets of 10.

All of those could take 25 for 80 minutes.

And most people just will not do them because they can be complicated, they can be painful.

So what I do is knowing the patient and knowing what they are capable of doing, I will give them exercises to do that they can do, that I know they can do.

I will see them do them.

And then the other thing that I'll do as well is I'll advise them to tag them onto a routine.

So most of us have got a morning routine or an evening routine or a bedtime routine.

We get up, go to the loo, brush our teeth, grab a shower, whatever it is.

So if you tag the exercises that you've got into the.

Make them part of your routine, you're more likely to do them.

If, on the other hand, you go, okay, I've got 10 minutes here and I'll do the exercises now.

And then tomorrow you're.

You've got 10 minutes there and you do them then.

And then what happens is life just takes over and you just run out of time and you stop doing them.

But what I found is as long as I can get people to kind of add them into part of their routine, it's part of their routine.

They do it every day.

So if you then do your exercises as part of the routine, you're more likely to do them.

So for me, I tend to find that 80, 85% of the people I give exercises to will do them.

The other advantage that I've found is that if you explain to people why they're doing exercise, the benefits of doing that exercise, again, they are more likely to do them because if they know that it's going to make them pain free, they're much more likely to do them.

So compliance with exercises for me is generally pretty good because they know why they're doing them, that sort of thing.

And I know that a lot of people think that exercising is about a gym membership, and not everybody can afford a gym membership.

Be interested in your view on that one.

This is a bugbear for mine about the fitness industry.

Generally, it's very much the six pack, the buns of steel, the big biceps, all of those sorts of things.

That is unfortunately, a bit of a view of exercise that is very common.

And you can go onto Instagram and you can see people doing ridiculous exercises with really fit bodies.

Unfortunately, the reality is 95% of people don't want the body like that.

What they want to be able to do is to do things they enjoy.

Whether that's going for a walk, whether it's playing football with the kids, whether it's whatever activity they want to do, they want to be able to do that.

Your average man in his 50s, 60s, or woman in their 50s and 60s, I'm not going to be too worried about getting beach bodies or looking like some love island.

So giving them exercises to do that will give them that kind of body.

Most of them aren't interested.

So again, they're not going to do it.

But if you say to them, well, okay, you want to play football with your young.

And in fact, funny enough, I saw somebody yesterday who wanted to play football with his grandson and he couldn't because we have a knee pain.

So we worked on resolving the knee pain to get him so that he could play football, you know, that that's kind of fitness that I'm more interested in.

And that's where exercises can have that benefit, I guess.

What would you say then to somebody that might be listening to this or thinking, crikey, I really, I'm hardly doing anything.

You know, I would actually put myself in A sedentary ox.

If I had to tick a tick of ox.

How would you say about getting started then?

What's, you know, how would you advise them to do that?

To be honest, I'd just say start.

You know, it's again, there's people that think exercise is all about going to a gym, ending up in a sweaty heap in a corner after you hit session or you've gone through the weights or whatever it is that you do.

Whereas the reality is you can get the benefits of exercise starting wherever you are.

So I will meet them wherever they are if they've never exercised before.

Walk around the block.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

Do that for a week and then walk around the block a little bit faster, Go up and down the stairs five times, whatever it is, you know, the more you move, the better it is for you, whatever that movement is.

I've worked with people in retirement homes, bed bound and I can still find ways to get them to exercise.

In fact, I have never met anyone that I can't give exercises to.

So there's a challenge.

But yeah, you know, I used to run an exercise class for older adults and the oldest person in the class was 99 and she was, she, she was well, well up for it.

I've worked with a lot of people that are considered old and yeah, again, I've never met anyone that I can't give exercises to.

Regardless of whether they have a disability or whatever it is, it's just having a big set of exercises in your head and then you just adapt it for whoever you're working with.

And there will be people who think, oh, you know, I can't do that for whatever reason, just not physically able to do that.

But you know, the message loud and clear from you is around there will be something that they can do and it's finding that something that is always something and I guess it's something that they enjoy doing as well.

Perfect.

Yeah, exactly that.

One of the things that I do is I'll find out what they enjoy and what they don't enjoy.

So if you don't like going to the gym for whatever reason, I'm not going to send you to the gym.

If you don't like swimming, I'm not going to send you swimming.

If you don't like running, I'm not going to get you running, but I will find something that you enjoy doing and we'll do that.

So I guess there are lots of different types of exercises and they all have different benefits.

Shall we walk through a number of them?

And then you can offer your advice, guidance around them.

So we can walk through, jog through, we can do cartwheels.

I don't mind.

Yeah, go for it.

How about we start with aerobic cardio exercise?

Yeah, aerobic cardio exercise has benefits, in fact, will cover a lot of the benefits that we read out in the list earlier on.

So aerobic exercise can help reduce heart disease, can help reduce type 2 diabetes, it can help reduce a wide range of problems.

So, you know, things like Zumba and Pilates.

That's not just being on a treadmill, is it?

It's not just about being on a treadmill because that's a lot of the time.

That's what I see people doing in the gym.

And it's great if you can motivate yourself to do that, but it is a little bit boring.

There are other things out there.

So in terms of if somebody was aware that they probably are not getting their heart rate up in that cardio, what would your recommendation be there?

If you're doing cardio, it will get your heart rate up.

If you are not enjoying doing cardio, then there are other things that you can do that will be.

But can be equally beneficial.

But an elevated heart rate is quite important.

So, yeah, do it again.

It's about reducing heart disease.

It's about reducing.

I believe that there will be studies out there that shows it can help reduce dementia and lots of other diseases as well.

So, yeah, cardio.

Having an element of cardio in your exercise routine is a good thing.

Okay, what about this is what.

Flexibility training.

Flexibility training.

Again, it's about joints making joints more mobile.

And we talked earlier on about the benefits of mobile joints.

So the more you put a joint through its range of movement, the more supple that joint and the muscles attached to that joint will be.

So flexibility training, again, quite important things like yoga, that sort of thing.

If you, if you're not a big fan of yoga, you can adapt things like strength training to help improve mobility.

So there are certain exercises, like squats, for example, brilliant mobility exercise for knees, ankles, hips, you know.

So again, there will always be things that you can do to work on your mobility.

It doesn't have to be just Pilates or yoga.

So it depends on what.

Depends on what you.

What you enjoy.

Depends on what you get.

Tai Chi.

That's Tai Chi, Yeah.

Tai Chi is another good exercise.

So, yeah, like I said, there's something for everyone.

You just need to find what it is that works for you.

Okay, and what about.

So you've mentioned strength training.

Yeah.

Big fan of strength training.

Big, big fan of strength.

So what, I guess, what is strength training?

Strength.

Well, it's.

It's resistance training.

Yes.

Using weights in the gym, so you can use free weights or.

Or you can use machines.

I've got some kettlebells at home, so I don't go to the gym, I work out from home.

Because the advantage of kettlebells is they don't take up a lot of space, but you can do as much.

There's versatile, if not more versatile than the barbells and dumbbells.

So that's what strength training is.

And again, Buck said it can help with mobility.

It can.

Depending on the weight you do and the number of reps you do, it can help with cardio.

There are a lot of benefits to strength training, which is why the NHS recommend strength training in addition to exercise.

And I know there's a big thing on strength training, particularly for women, menopause, for convention of osteoporosis as well.

Yeah, yeah.

And the younger you start with that, the better, because one of the things about osteoporosis is the sooner you start with resistance in the form of weight training, jogging, whatever it is, there is carryover too, as you get older.

Right.

So soon you start thinking the benefits.

But equally, even if you haven't done any kind of resistance training, strength training before, it's never too old.

You're never too old to start.

So, you know, you can be in your 50s and 60s and 70s and you can still do resistance training, strength training.

Okay, Bit of takeaway there.

Then the old strength training.

And then there's functional training.

Yeah, functional training.

It's a little bit like strength training, but it's more specific.

So if functional training is defined as it's got a carry over into the real world, so you're doing something like going from sitting to standing.

Yeah.

If you've got a weight in your hands, then that.

Then that will strengthen the muscles in the legs, calves and feet, you know.

So functional training is strength training that's applicable to everyday life.

That makes sense, yeah.

And you were talking about, you know, doing the training with some of your, you know, older, older clients.

And you're a.

You're a qualified Otago instructor.

I am a qualified Otago instructor.

So what types of exercises were you doing, you know, with your.

With your groups?

I mean, it.

So Otago came about, originated in us in a town in New Zealand called Otago, funny enough.

So if you Google it, that's what you're going to come up with the town in New Zealand.

But Otago is a strength and balance program targeted at older adults.

Because what every country realizes is that as you get older, you tend to be more prone to poor balance.

Balance is like a muscle.

You either use it or lose it.

So what, what the exercise, it's a very simple program you can do at home.

It's about.

It's got some strength training in there.

So you start off doing some simple exercises.

You can then you add weight to that to increase muscle strength.

And there's some balance exercises as well, because again, balance is like a muscle.

You use it or lose it.

If you don't practice your balance, it gets worse as you get older, which is why older people are more prone to falls.

So I ran an exercise class for about a year and people, the transformation from people when they first started to when they finished, very, very different, much stronger, much healthier.

And there was also a big social aspect to it as well.

So, yeah, no, really enjoyed it, but it can make a massive difference.

So the key takeaway in that is you're never too.

To exercise.