In this bonus episode, our hosts Callie Chamberlain and Dr. Kenny Poole talk through options for gentle activities that can be adapted to a variety of ability levels and exercise needs to keep us moving at any age.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another bonus episode of Until It's Fixed. I'm Dr. Kenny Poole.
Speaker 2: And I'm Callie Chamberlain.
Speaker 1: These bonus episodes are all about drawing connections between the big topics we dig into in the main show and our own lives. In each episode we'll talk through one thing we can do for ourselves related to those topics. So last week we had a really big conversation around some of the issues that are related to what happens [00:00:30] when we don't adequately serve our older population, but we didn't talk about what we could do that is within our control as we age. Like we can't control the clock, we can't control time as we get older, but what we can control is how we prepare ourselves for aging and also how we engage with the world as we do get over the age of 65 and get into our seventies, eighties, [00:01:00] nineties, et cetera.
Speaker 2: I think that's a great distinction because so many people I speak with and work with enjoy actually the process of getting older, but they feel like that is deeply connected to their physical quality of life declining. And so I think it's great that we can separate those things and talk about things that we can do to be able to make sure that we still feel good as we get older.
Speaker 1: I think that one of the key parts to good long-term health is an accurate understanding of how to help yourself be healthy and mainstream culture [00:01:30] is full of misconceptions about that. A lot of people think that you have to be extremely active in terms of high impact or really vigorous exercise in order to stay and be healthy, and there's some truth to that, but there's a big misconception. I mean, we do tell people that it's important for them to get 30 to 60 minutes of moderate exercise three to five times a week, and I like to tell patients that [00:02:00] I define moderate exercise as something that's going to get your heart rate up and cause you to have a little bit of sweat. But we all know that for some people that's not enough. And for other people, that's not possible. And so we should think about what are other things that we can do in our day-to-day lives to stay active that will give us just as much bang for our buck as the vigorous exercise that we think of stereotypically in the gym, or when we hear about people that are weak weekend warriors or doing [00:02:30] really high impact exercise.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like this idea of like what is easy and so moderate exercise, being able to just move our bodies a little bit more, taking the stairs, walking a little bit longer if we're taking a pet outside, all of those things seem a little bit more accessible than thinking about getting in 30 to 60 minutes of intense exercise, especially if you have a lot going on that can feel overwhelming.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the other thing that I like to think about Callie is what [00:03:00] can you do in some of your normal activity? What can you add to some of your normal activity that will give a little bit of boost of exercise? So for example, I love playing golf and you know, before the pandemic, particularly because I lived in Arizona most of the time, if I played golf with a group of guys, I'd ride in a golf cart. And you know, in Arizona, a lot of the golf courses, the holes are [00:03:30] very far apart. And so we rode in golf carts. Well, once the pandemic came along and people wanted to practice social distancing, the golf cart's got thrown to the wayside and more people started walking when they played golf. And so something like that is a small variation, but can create a huge impact and exercise for something that people are already doing anyway.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that. I live in New York City and so I'm walking everywhere and I've noticed that when I travel to other countries, they're also naturally walking [00:04:00] everywhere, and that's something that's accessible to a lot of people as well. I love the example of, you know, being on the golf course and doing that, but it, it's such a mental health thing for me, but also just getting in some extra steps and like feeling healthier and my day-to-day.
Speaker 1: Right, and I'm glad you mentioned what you've experienced in other countries because we also know that we live in a very diverse environment here in the United States even, right? There are some people that live in extremely walkable neighborhoods [00:04:30] in terms of safety and amenities and others that live in walkable neighborhoods in terms of access to stores and things like that. On the other extreme that people that live in neighborhoods where it's either not safe for them to walk or where walking does not provide any access to stores or shops, but there's things that people can do around their home. There's even things that people can do in terms of activities of daily living, whether it's [00:05:00] puttering around in the kitchen or strolling through, you know, their home up and down the stairs, or room to room knitting or even doing things in terms of housework. Those type of things can sometimes get our heart rates up and keep us moving and provide a health benefit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love how we're talking about all of these things adding up and making it really accessible and easy. So these are a lot of different suggestions that maybe you all can think about. I know I'll be thinking about them. Some additional [00:05:30] low impact exercises that we wanna include just as options for you is water exercise, so swimming, um, simple water, stretching, aerobics. This is really good for your, it's really good for your body and it can expand your body's range of motion. There are also things like tai chi and yoga, which again is just the physical and mental components together and can be really good for your balance and control, which we know is important as you age. And then finally, like we've talked a lot about walking. That can be something like hiking that can be just strolling around your neighborhood. [00:06:00] It can just be like Dr. Pool said, moving around your house. But all of these things count and they're all important as we think about just movement.
Speaker 1: And I'm glad you brought up things like Tai chi and yoga, which I'm not familiar with either of them, even though people talk about them all the time. But the reason I bring those up is that there are apps that are out there for people to engage in where they can do these things in the comfort of their own home. So again, even if people don't have access [00:06:30] to yoga studios or Tai Chi studios or nice gyms, having access to apps that allow you to interact with those things with other people, either in a recorded or even a live format, is something that provides just as much benefit as going to the class live and in person.
Speaker 2: These are such great tips. Thank you everyone for joining us for one thing today where we talked about starting to invest in low impact, gentle exercise that will be able to keep us moving [00:07:00] even as our bodies' needs and abilities change. Join us next week for a conversation on an important topic in my life, mental health and therapy.
Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe and follow so you get notified of future episodes. Catch you next time.