It’s About Your Back and Belly
I am always on the look out for new ideas in exercise. Of course, one of my all time heroes is Jack LaLanne who may have been the first professional fitness coach and he did it all with just a chair. He was a self confessed sugarholic and junk food junkie until age 15 when he heard a health lecture that changed his life. Jack LaLanne had the first and longest running TV show where he did exercises and promoted eating right. The man practiced what he preached…at the age of 70, handcuffed and shackled, he towed 70 boats, carrying a total of 70 people, a mile and a half through Long Beach Harbor. How could I not admire a guy who preached diet and exercise? Yes, he popularized resistance bands, juicing, and protein shakes but his big push was for people to just eat healthy and move their bodies.
Of course, the real problem with exercise isn’t that you don’t know how, it’s not really time issues, it’s not the equipment, it’s your motivation. It’s inertia. It’s hard getting started and easy to get derailed. People will have some exercise activity and get hurt and stop everything. You sprain your ankle and all of a sudden you can’t do pushups? You hurt your shoulder and can no longer walk? Injury doesn’t mean stop exercising, it means switching things up. Yes, if you find some activity you really enjoy, it’s easier to keep a good program up. Some people do better with classes. Some people do better watching videos in their home. Some people like social exercises like Crossfit and Pickleball (yes I can put them in the same sentence) and others want to walk alone. It’s all good in the hood but you have to move!
Let’s take an issue like depression. It affects millions of people and America’s first choice usually isn’t talk therapy but medication. These pills are dirt cheap and easy to prescribe but they should be used as part of a program and that part usually never happens. The medicines can make you feel less…less anxiety…less depression but also less joy and connectedness. The medicines can have very serious side effects and are very hard to eventually stop. Remember, the studies which were used to approve these meds were only 12 weeks long but people stay on these meds forever. So, you risk side effects and dependency to feel less. Exercise has been shown repeatedly in large studies from across the world to treat depression as well if not better than the medications. Exercises like walking, yoga etc. have no cost, have the additional advantage of lowering your blood pressure, improving your insulin resistance, lowering your risk for stroke, heart attack, dementia, diabetes etc. Here’s just one link for you doubters…BMJ 2024; 384 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-075847 (published 14 February 2024)
Of course, you can avail yourself of both medications and exercise but in my long experience most people take the medication and just don’t do the exercises. I keep preaching but I can’t tell if the mic is on. I honestly don’t know what to say to motivate people. As I have said many times and I don’t know who to credit for this saying but change comes from inspiration or desperation. I want to work on the inspiration side.
One of the nicest things about starting an exercise program is how obvious it is early on that you can feel better so quickly. You can feel yourself and see yourself getting into better shape. I like to measure things…how long can you plank?…how many pushups can you do?..how fast can you do a 5k run? Some things are easier to measure than others. I have found something new for me and it’s measuring my core strength. I think I have a pretty good core from doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu but how do you measure it? I was introduced to the Allcore 360 machine at Trillium Fitness on Erie Blvd. I don’t have any financial relationship with the Trillium people and the Allcore 360 machine. This machine works your core in ways you have never experienced. I have started recommending this machine to my patients with back pain to see what this can offer them and to my regular exercisers to challenge them. I am doing a package of ten sessions over 5 weeks …the sessions only take 10 minutes and I can tell you that you will feel it at the end of the session. So, if you have not found what you are looking for in an exercise routine why not try this device out? It’s not going to be your whole routine but it’s a nice start and you are working on your core which is crucial to overall health. Already work out regularly? Why not test yourself with this equipment? There is only one other machine like it in New York State so it’s something new for everyone.
Motion is the medicine. Move a little bit every hour at a minimum. Until next month…Get well and stay well. JT BARRY MD
