S2 E6: S2 Ep 6 – Exercise Is Movement Medicine, let’s Find the Right Fit for You

Hello and welcome to the part two of our Pain Free Living podcast on exercise.

So in the first episode, if you've missed it, skip back to the previous one.

We talked about the benefits of exercise or why people should do it.

In this one we talk about the different types of exercise that are available.

I keep saying exercise.

What I actually mean is movement medicine.

If you don't know what that means, have a look at the previous episode, Diving straight in.

We're going to be talking about different types of exercise and the benefits of the different types of.

Shall we start off by talking about neat, Claire?

Yes.

Okay.

Neat, for those of you who don't know, is non exercise activity thermogenesis.

And basically, as I understand it, you could probably correct me if I'm wrong, but if I understand it, neat is the kind of activity that you do that at home, hoovering, washing windows, doing stuff, moving around, but it wouldn't actually be classed as exercise.

Spot on.

But there's a really interesting study on this.

And this goes back to maybe an episode before that we did on placebo effect, which was.

And they studied the activity, the physical activity of, I think it was 84 housekeepers who worked across seven hotels.

And they divided the housekeepers up into two groups.

One group, they told them that all the general activity that they did with cleaning rooms and taking things out and going up and down stairs actually met the Surgeon General's definition of physical exercise.

This is in America.

But the other group, they didn't tell them that talk.

And what they did was they monitored them over four weeks.

And what actually happened at the end of four weeks, that the group that was an informed group, an arwise group, that was aware that they were doing meet.

So the non activity, non exercise activity thermogenesis, they induce their bni, they reduce their stress, they reduce their waist hip ratio, they lost weight, but they didn't actually do anything different.

No.

So even just doing NEAT as you're going about your day, and I would actually include gardening in NEAT as well, so.

So it's just your normal activities, walking to the shops.

Maybe you've heard all this before about getting off on the bus one stop before walking upstairs rather than taking the lift, I feel this would all be classed as neat.

Would you agree?

I would agree.

Because if you remember from the last episode we talked about the definition of exercise, which was planned, structured and purposeful movement to improve physical fitness.

And well, being so non exercise activity, thermo hygienesis or neat is not that.

But actually it's just being more active and so.

And again, one of the things we covered in the last episode was, was the fact that there are a lot of people out there who are allergic to.

To the word exercise.

You say it to them and they cringe and they go, I can't do exercise.

I think that's more about how as a society or how media portray what exercise is rather than the fact that people can't do it.

Yes, I think that there is a bit of an obsession with.

You haven't had a good workout until you end up in a corner regime in a sweaty cape on the floor and you can't move, you can't walk, you crawl out of the gym and you spend the next two days with delayed onset muscle soreness or very sore muscles of the limp because you overwork, because you've overdone it.

Unfortunately, that is the way the exercise is sold.

And that is what I think that's a big reason part of why people don't exercise.

I think the other thing as well, and we were talking off camera earlier on, I think the other thing is that gyms, people think you have to go to a gym to exercise and gyms are not the most welcoming places in the world.

So again, I think that's another thing that puts people off.

Whereas if we were talking about exercise being stuff where you're just getting on with your daily life.

There was another study which looked at people working in office where some were sat at a desk and some were standing.

Now, I don't know who worked those stats out, but it is.

I can put the study in the show notes.

But yeah, that's just the evidence that all it takes is going is standing a bit more.

Yeah.

And you are burning more calories.

Now, I know I hate running, I don't run.

I'd much rather just do a bit of standing up with this.

But you know when you say, and it's like the study that you mentioned where you're talking about the only difference between two groups is that one was told that this is, you know, this is going to help Burkhard.

This is exercise.

And the other group doing exactly the same things were not told.

That just shows the power of doing single.

The power of doing more.

Yeah.

And, you know, and so everyone can do more.

Neat.

Yeah.

And I think having worked in retail many, many moons ago, and I mean, standing on my feet all day, you know, you only have to work in hospitality or retail in a shop where you're, you know, you're not allowed to sit down, working in factories, that kind of thing, you know, that is still neat.

Yeah.

Oh, you're not going to turn you into a world class athlete.

If that's what you want, then you have, then you do have to get them down.

But you can be fitter and healthier just by increasing the activity that you'd normally do.

So and I think that's the thing that we need to get across to people is that you do not have to go to the gym and work yourself into buckets of sweat to get the benefit of moving more.

I mean, to be honest, the benefits of walking, just walking are amazing.

And if that is, I know walking isn't available to everyone and it's not accessible to people, but if you can get outside and do a bliss walk for even 10 minutes, do that 10 minutes a day, that puts you into what's called zone two or second gear.

So zone one.

Bob and I are sat here at the moment, you know, chatting.

So we are first gear.

Zone one.

Heart rates are our resting heart rate.

If you can get a brisk walk in where you're lifting your heart rate up so you can still.

So if Bob and I were doing this, we would be walking briskly, but we would still be able to talk, but we might feel a little bit out of breath.

That's where you want to be.

And if you can do that for, you know, 10 minutes a day, minimum 20 minutes, you will.

Not only will you improve your autonomic nervous system, you feel calmer, you reduce your stress because you're outside, you're in nature.

It also, again, going back to a study that I mentioned in the previous episode by Louisa Nicola, who's the neurophysiologist that has been shown to stimulate the release of BDNF hormone, which then actually increases the size of your hippocampus.

And this is where your gray matter is.

And if you can stimulate the size of your hippocampus and make it, you know, expand, then actually that's going to improve your executive functioning.

It's going to improve your mood and basically how you live your life.

So just even if you can walk 20 minutes a day briskly, you're going to make a difference.

Yeah.

And that fits into, interesting.

That fits into the definition of moderator size within the World Health Organization.

So if you can do 20 minutes a day, then, you know, do that seven days a week and you've hit your, you pretty much hit your target for World Health Organization getting all those benefits.

So.

Yeah.

And, and this is the thing that always makes me smile when people come through my door, they're in pain for whatever reason.

We go through the cases and they, and I say, so, do you exercise?

And they go, no, not really, no.

But I do walk, I do go out dog walking 45 minutes every day.

And I kind of have to go, yeah, that is actually really, really good exercise.

Yeah.

You know, so, yeah, people do, do have kind of like a skew view of what exercise is.

So what we're going to do in this, this episode, apart from that little pre handle there, which I think has been really, really beneficial and that sums up the benefits of just doing a bit of exercise.

Yeah.

So what we're going to do is just talk about different types because not everybody likes doing the same things.

You know, I don't run, but I do like weights, I do like martial arts, so I tend to learn.

So that's how I get my exercise.

So what we're going to do is just do a little bit of a breakdown of the different types, just so people have an idea of what's available.

There's a whole lot more than what we're going to talk about, but it just gives them a taste for what's available.

And, you know, depending on what they're after from their exercise, it will give them to hope you narrow down some of the choices that they know.

Yeah.

And I think it's key that you've got to really do something that you enjoy.

Absolutely.

Or you've got to be super motivated.

So if the gym is your, is your jam, then you've got to be super motivated to go and have an absolute reason.

But if it's something that gives you joy and the best is the kind of thing that you don't even realize you are exercising, then it just makes it so much easier.

And do, and I would agree.

And it's one of the things for me is I always, you know, when people come to see me, I always ask them, okay, you're here, you're in pain, I can help get you out of pain.

But why?

You know, this problem has been there for two years, so why now?

And they'll, they'll say something like, well, I want to get back into walking football or I want to get back into walking netball or I want to be able to play with the grandkids, actually get down on the floor and be able to get back up again.

That sounds quite amusing, but actually if you're in your 70s and you haven't done anything for a while, getting up off the floor is not an easy task.

So something as simple as that.

But then once you've got that goal, once you understand why they're there to get out of the pain, you can then tailor what you give them to help.

So if we were talking about the types of exercise which we are, and let's start talking about cardio.

Yes.

Okay, so what does that do for you?

Oh, running.

Really?

Running, cycling, swimming.

Something that gets heart rate elevated and out of breath basically.

Yeah, all those themes.

Also squash, badminton, racket sports.

Because with those you're playing against someone and therefore you have to run, you have to get the, you know, you have to hit the shots.

Yeah, football.

Yes.

Yeah, it would be anything where you're running.

Really.

Anything.

Okay, well, it's a couple you have missed out on.

So one of them is CrossFit and the other is Hyrox.

Oh, right, Guess I see you're doing.

Hyrox, which is very similar to, it's very similar to CrossFit.

Now I never advocate people to not exercise.

There are risks with CrossFit and there are risks with sports like that because they push you beyond your limit.

So training in the gym, doing CrossFit are hard to find because it's a controlled environment, but where there's a risk of injury is where they push you beyond what your body is physically capable of doing.

And, and the issue I have is that that is the whole point of the CrossFit competition, that's the whole point of the high rise competition is to do as many as we can.

And if you do as many reps as you can, the first few will be absolutely fine.

But once you start hitting your limits, you then have to go beyond those limits, which can then affect.

And because you're tired and because you're not fully functioning, that's when you're more likely to get injured.

So while I have no issues with those as, as exercises, it can, there is a risk.

And as long as people understand there's a risk with that, I'm all for it.

But yeah, that, I think that sums up cardio pretty well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, that's, I mean, that's as I understand it, aerobic exercise.

Aerobic exercise, not.

And I think that I think it's the cardio that gives people that impression that exercise has to be.

Or.

Yeah.

Have to, you know, you take yourself to that limit and beyond it.

Sweaty.

Exactly.

I think.

And Myspur, Taiwana.

So.

And most people.

And that's.

And I think one of the aims of the podcast is to give people idea and understanding that there is a lot more out there than just going into the gym, getting into the sweaty heat.

Yeah.

So if you want to do cardio, absolutely no issue with that at all.

You know, especially if you go, if you, if you're competitive, great, go for it.

But that's not the all and all.

Yeah.

Of, of exercise or fitness.

So the next one on my list is bodybuilding.

Clear bodybuilding and aesthetics.

Well, I've nothing about bodybuilding, I'm sure you know, you know, lots.

I mean, aesthetics, I do have a problem with that, you know, from a mental health perspective, because it's all about perfection or as people perceive perfection, and that's really tough.

And I think with social media these days, with Long island for example, there are other programs available.

There is this look, if you like, that people feel they should have, and if they don't look like that, they're less, they're less than.

They're not enough.

And actually I've dealt with quite a number of clients where that's exactly the issue for them.

And that then leads to a spiral, a down spiral of lower self esteem when actually there's nothing.

They are perfectly beautiful in their own way and they don't have to have all the aesthetic procedures like the boat box and all that kind of stuff.

So yeah, I do have a real issue with it.

Yeah, you could say the same about bodybuilding, to be honest.

Bodybuilding's probably taken that to even more of an extreme.

I have known a couple of bodybuilders, they are very, very rigid in their training program because it's all about symmetry.

So it's all about, if I sit on this 15 inch bicep on this side, I need a 15 inch bicep on this sides, etc.

Etc.

And yeah, but bodybuilders, they, they are a lot of people hold them in.

Very nice thing.

And I, I can appreciate the work that goes into sculpting a body that looks the way they do.

But actually in terms of physical health, it Ain't great.

It ain't great.

But we are going to cover that in another episode.

So I don't dive too deeply into that.

But if you really are into how you look and you want to take that to a competitive extreme, then, yeah, bodybuilding may be for you, but it comes with a big health warning.

So it's not something that will be taken lightly.

But like I said, we're going to do an episode on where we talk about some of the potential downsides of exercise as well.

So this bodybuilding.

And then we were talking about mind, body movement, which is basically both of what.

Yeah, we were all about.

Yeah, no, this is.

I, I love this because.

Well, when I was in my twenties, quite a while ago, I didn't really understand yoga and I didn't get it.

It wasn't fast enough, it wasn't, you know, I, I though I, I couldn't see any physical changes in doing yoga and what I've realized now is actually it's not quite that at all.

It is own practice.

Yep.

It's not even progress over perfection.

It is literally just practice and therefore it's a fight.

Being able to sim.

Simulate.

I don't know if that's quite the right word, but, but our body, our mind, with our movement, with our breath, and that is wonderful for our vagus nerve and our autonomic nervous system.

It is.

You know, when you get to Saint Amiste at the end of the yoga session, you should feel really quite chilled.

Yeah.

So I just think it's fantastic for mental health and it's that marrying of the.

Which I find really difficult.

I still haven't got there.

It's a practice.

It is a practice, but it's not all about poses.

It's about being able to get that breath.

For me, that breath and that movement synced together.

Tai Chi, I imagine, is very much the same.

I've not tried it.

Oh, I have.

I think I might fall over if I tried that.

It's balance, isn't it?

It's balance, but it is strength as well.

And there is a martial element to it which doesn't get taught by that many instructors.

But again, it is, it's about marrying movement of breath.

Yeah.

It's deep.

In the same way that yoga can be just the poses.

Yeah.

Or it can be poses with breath.

And again, it's, it'll build strength.

It won't make you necessarily make your way aerobically fit.

No.

So you ain't going to run a marathon if you're yoga expert, but in terms of movement and coordination and body awareness.

Yoga, Tai chi, Pilates.

Yes.

Yeah.

Can't say it.

Calisthetics?

Calisthenics.

Calisthenics, yeah.

That's more.

It's kind of borderline movement and a little bit ticking to the aerobic, depending on how you do it.

But yeah, so there's that mind, body, and also dance, which I believe you know something about.

Do you happen to know a bit about dancing?

Yeah.

So I would put.

Social connection is huge, for we need it as humans.

Not for everybody, must admit, not for everybody.

But most of us need some human connection.

We need that social interaction and dance.

Going to a dance class, any kind of class, actually, you know, I'm thinking Zumba classes, anything that's arranged around dance.

Because what you have to do is you have to be able to coordinate your mind and your body, and that's quite challenging.

And then you've got balance put in there as well.

I used to do competitive ballroom dancing, Boreham and Latin.

And that was very aerobic, I would say that was absolutely aerobic.

Whereas social dancing, I wouldn't say is quite.

Because that.

But in his ceremony involves the coordination.

It's got the social aspect.

It's music as well, which is really important.

Music.

Yeah.

And it just.

For me, it's the best.

It's the one that suits me best because it's the kind of exercise that I do and I don't realize I'm doing it.

And that's the best kind of exercise.

Yes.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

So.

And that's.

So that's kind of like mind, body, connection.

And one of the things I find a lot is there are certain exercises I give people to do which involve coordination of brain, breathing and hip movement, back movement.

And most people can't do it.

They have not got that connection because it's not something that we are trained to do.

It's not something they're used to doing.

And even simple movements like moving their shoulder, you know, to get somebody to move their shoulder without moving other body parts at the same time can take a bit of effort.

Well, once people make that connection, it's then.

Then they've got it, they've established it.

But it.

It's.

Yeah.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people that walk through my door who.

Who.

Who view their body as a number of different limbs and there is no coordination between any operation.

I mean, tango, if anyone ever watches Strictly Tango, is fantastic for Argentine tango as well as ballroom tango.

Fantastic for what they call body disassociation.

So you need to be able to move your top half in a different direction to your bottom half and still stay coordinated.

And for the woman, dance backwards, generally in the heels.

So there's loads and loads to think I could have doing that.

But yeah, and I know that with more contemporary styles, you know, you watch some YouTube videos and they can literally move different parts of the body in isolation.

Yeah.

But they have to have a massive amount of body awareness to be able to do it.

So first of all, you have to connect everything.

So once you've connected everything, then you can disconnect, but you are aware of where your body is, the space and time, all the time.

We could talk about proprioception, the vestibular system and the visual system, but we're not going to do that.

So every time.

So that's that.

Yeah, so that was.

Yeah.

Mind body movements.

And then we have what I call functional.

Okay.

So that is more about exercise and building strength in everyday activities.

So it's getting out of a chair, for example, if you can squat, you can get in and out of chair, if you can.

If you can get up without using your hands to push yourself up.

Again, it's equivalent squat.

So squats.

I'm a big fan of compound.

Compound lifts.

Rather than the isolated trying to develop the bicep, for example, what would be.

A compound exercise like a squat, because.

You have to use your legs, you have to use your glutes, you have to use your back.

So big muscles.

Yeah, yeah.

But again, it's coordination.

But it's coordination, using as many muscles as you need to do the task.

So another one is like the farmer's walk, if you've ever been to a gym.

It's carrying weight in each arm as far as you can.

The equivalent of carrying a couple of heavy shopping bags after being down to Aldi and being able to lift them and put them onto your work surface in the kitchen, those sorts of functions, that's a functional exercise.

Going up and down the stairs.

Again, that's a functional exercise where you have to be able to balance and coordinate one foot at a time.

Going upstairs, coordination.

Going downstairs, coordination.

Again, another functional exercise, being able to lift and put something up onto the top shelf in your kitchen, for example, another functional exercise, overhead press.

So a lot of the.

I call them functional exercises.

They're things you can do in the gym or you can do at home, but they're actually building strength to allow you to do the things that you need to do, you know, Again, the example I gave earlier on about somebody who's in their 70s who is terrified of getting down on the floor because their dodgy knees and ankles will not allow them to get back up again.

You know, you can train doing squats for example, doing simple single leg balance exercises with weights, you know, ankle weights, stuff like that.

Those are things that will help as we get older.

They will help prevent the decline muscle weakness, osteoporosis, the things that we get from more prone.

So as we get older, if you exercise in the right way, then that won't happen.

And again, I mentioned Otago earlier on.

Otago is I think it's 12 or 14 exercises, but really simple.

But they're all geared around improving balance and improving strength and improving coordination.

So that for me is functional.

I'm sure that maybe one or two people watching the podcast who may have a different view on it, but that's my take on it.

So I'm big, big fan of functional exercise.

I'm very conscious being I'm a certain age about strength training and persistence training with osteoporosis and geostin to build muscle.

As you know, we start to lose a muscle, if I understand it correctly, by the age of 30.

So Dalia B. Yeah.

And then you throw the menopause into the mix.

He turns out it's really important for women to build muscle to counteract those the reduction and therefore it's mostly willing as I understand it.

You know, when we've.

It's more likely if we fail in later life we would, you know, break our hip or something like that.

So therefore having the ability to protect our bones with our vessels and being able to then be to get ourselves back up and outflow situations is crucial.

So strength training is the one that I've never done before and it's Bob that got me into it.

I will take that.

But yeah, and the thing so actually men do, we don't go through menopause, but we do have a reduction in testosterone as we get older.

And that can lead to not muscle atrophy because that's something different.

But that can lead to a reduction in muscle mass.

So it's important for male and female.

One of the things that doesn't get emphasized enough is that the fitter and healthier you are in your 30s, there is a carryover to that as we get older.

So osteoporosis, great example.

The more resistance based exercise you can do at a younger age, the, the stronger the bones are as you get older.

Yeah.

Yes.

It's important to still carry on exercising.

But when you are doing it and you know in your 20s and 30s, you're putting, you're putting bone in the bank always for as you get older.

Yeah.

So you know, that's, that's part of why resistance training, strength training is so important.

But yeah, that's.

That for me is what functional training, functional exercise is all about.

And the last thing that I have got here is it's just about team stuff.

It's about exercise classes.

And you mentioned Zumba and then you mentioned dancing, you know, those sorts of things.

Some people are more solitary.

I'm not necessarily a team sport person.

So I like.

So I used to go to the gym.

I just got a load of weights and stuff.

I do my own thing now because I'm a qualified sports strength and functional coach.

So I can do all that stuff.

Yes.

You know, so I know what I'm doing.

Yeah.

I think that's the thing that's the worry for people is going to the gym and not knowing what to do and the equipment all looks a bit scary.

Yeah.

And you know, you could get stuck in it.

So having a, like a personal trainer or someone who actually is able to help you and reduce the risk of injury is really good.

But that will presupposes that you can actually afford the gym membership in first place and then the personal train back.

So it's not a cheap option for me.

Social would include things like play.

I play Bathman to absolutely love it.

And that's a really social sport to do.

And I know that there's a lot of leisure centers and places that have over 50s where they will literally have, you know, table tennis, badminton, squash, racquetball.

So if you don't feel up for doing the squash anymore, there's definitely racquetball.

There's a new things night paddle as well, which I haven't tried but I told.

It's really good, really fun.

Okay.

That's the new one I made.

Yeah, no, it's.

My sons both play and they say it's really good.

So.

Yeah.

So check out your local leisure center because they put all this on and again it's.

It's really sociable.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I, I think that that kind of covers what we're going to cover in this episode.

What we will do when we are at the end of the final episode of this.

This little series is we'll talk about.

We'll put a lot of links into the show.

Notes about places that we personally recommend in terms of.

I know a few personal trainers, a couple of gyms that are really, really good and worth going to, etc.

Etc.

So we can put some stuff into the the last show in the series about that.

But apart from that, as far as exercises are concerned, I think that will be it for this one.

And thanks for listening, thanks for watching, and we'll see you at the next one.