Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from news talk s.
Speaker 2: Y's welcome back. This is the Weekend Collective. A little
Speaker 2: bit of the rolling stance to get us going there.
Speaker 2: I think we're gonna have to have a bit of
Speaker 2: satisfaction later on. I think we're gonna have to get
Speaker 2: sick with the theme on the old rock front and
Speaker 2: we'll welcome back anyway. By the way, if you missed
Speaker 2: our discussion on Politics Central, quite a lot of feedback
Speaker 2: from people on the on the Boy Razor crackdown as well.
Speaker 2: I think it's gonna be a popular move for the government,
Speaker 2: and good on them because I don't know how many
Speaker 2: people I've got too much sympathy with people who put
Speaker 2: the public's lives in danger. You can check it out
Speaker 2: on a podcast. Go to iheartradioor newstalk s, head Beat
Speaker 2: or Carried in Z and look for the Weekend Collective.
Speaker 2: We get our each hour. We get loaded pretty quickly
Speaker 2: after we've done the show, so you can be confident
Speaker 2: and if you've just missed the hour and going back
Speaker 2: and checking the podcast. But right now it is time
Speaker 2: for the Health Hub and before we introduce our guest,
Speaker 2: the theme that we're looking at are a couple of
Speaker 2: themes to one, whether you can actually exercise and eat
Speaker 2: and have an exercise and a lifestyle regime where you
Speaker 2: can maybe try and give yourself a chance of mimicking
Speaker 2: those people who may know, the people who live in
Speaker 2: the green and what is it not the green zone
Speaker 2: the blue zones around the world. You know, the Mediterranean
Speaker 2: diet and you see these people they live to over
Speaker 2: one hundred And I mean, is it just genetics or
Speaker 2: is it just eating copious amounts of olives? Because all
Speaker 2: I think is the Mediterranean diet if you don't like olives.
Speaker 2: But anyway, that's a very simplistic and ignorant take from me.
Speaker 2: But also the question around as you get older, you
Speaker 2: may be sitting there thinking, you know what, I've had
Speaker 2: this sort of sedentary lifestyle, but I've left it too late.
Speaker 2: Is there such a thing as leaving it too late
Speaker 2: to actually get yourself in order? And this is all
Speaker 2: to do with longevity as well. I'm living longer, But
Speaker 2: have you got to a point where you think, oh, look,
Speaker 2: it's just too late to turn things back physically or
Speaker 2: are you one of those people who's actually made a
Speaker 2: fitness come back. You know you thought, oh my goodness,
Speaker 2: I've left it till I don't know, my fifties, sixties, seventies,
Speaker 2: I don't know. And I have seen people have turned
Speaker 2: their lives around, I think even in their seventies. So
Speaker 2: have you done it? And if you've got any questions,
Speaker 2: because I think that's one of the big questions for
Speaker 2: people around fitness is off and we feel, oh, I've
Speaker 2: let myself slip, I've left it too late. Well, we've
Speaker 2: got the perfect guest in the studio. Of course, he
Speaker 2: does deal with sometimes some more mature exercises, but he's
Speaker 2: also helped people turn their lives around who may have
Speaker 2: had days of glory. I mean we all had days
Speaker 2: of glory, didn't we. When you're in your teens, you
Speaker 2: know you've played for this team or that team I
Speaker 2: played for the third fifteen or and you look back
Speaker 2: and I'm never going to get in that shape again.
Speaker 2: But he is involved in turning people around, and he
Speaker 2: is the founder and coach at Body Talk. And his
Speaker 2: name is almost need a drum roll after that introduction
Speaker 2: as Alex Fluint Gaday, Alex A game.
Speaker 3: Good a ten. Thank you for that kind introduction.
Speaker 2: But that is your business. It's I mean, I guess
Speaker 2: if you're involved in fitness, we are by definition just
Speaker 2: about everyone's trying to turn something around, aren't they.
Speaker 3: They are. It's a very positive industry to work in. Basically,
Speaker 3: everyone that walks through the door that I see at
Speaker 3: my gym is there for self improvement, which is a
Speaker 3: great thing to be a part of. But yep, everyone's
Speaker 3: looking to turn something around, whether it's their on field performance,
Speaker 3: their half marathon time, maybe it's their cholesterols too high,
Speaker 3: or they their knees don't work quite like they used to.
Speaker 3: And they're all really good things that we can chase
Speaker 3: through healthy lifestyles.
Speaker 2: Speaking of turning things around, I'm not sure that's quite
Speaker 2: the right segue for me to say it. But when
Speaker 2: we met, I mean, you're a you are a very
Speaker 2: fit looking man, but you look like you've you look
Speaker 2: like you've lost a few kilos or something. I did
Speaker 2: notice that. Not that I'm tracking your fitness, you tracked mine.
Speaker 2: And you know, stick me on that. What's that thing
Speaker 2: I swiveled around on It measus all your body fat
Speaker 2: and stuff.
Speaker 3: Three D scanner.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fun, isn't it? Anyway? What are you up to?
Speaker 2: You look like you have you dropped the weights or something,
Speaker 2: or you're toning down.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, up until twenty twenty two, I competed in
Speaker 3: powerlifting in master's powerlifting.
Speaker 2: Love it.
Speaker 3: I love strength sports and weightlifting in general, and I
Speaker 3: was competing internationally up until then. But unfortunately my body
Speaker 3: just started to fail me with that really sort of
Speaker 3: extreme approach, which, like any sport, you know, there's there's healthy,
Speaker 3: and there's optimum, and then there's the extreme that you
Speaker 3: need to be at for your sport. So unfortunately I
Speaker 3: had to sort of give it away.
Speaker 2: Does that mean that there's is that maybe a twinge
Speaker 2: here and a twinge there, and you think, oh, you
Speaker 2: know what, I might have to just tone it down.
Speaker 3: About Yeah, especially my poor old hip is not what
Speaker 3: it used to be. And that's largely just I mean,
Speaker 3: when you compete in any sport, you're trying to get
Speaker 3: the absolute most out of your body. Actually I just
Speaker 3: can't do that really really super heavy lifting, so I've
Speaker 3: stopped doing that. I still weight train three times a week,
Speaker 3: but now I've decided I want to run a marathon,
Speaker 3: so hence all my weight is dropping off.
Speaker 2: But a lot of that.
Speaker 3: Actually, scarily, there is a reasonablemount of muscle mass that's
Speaker 3: come off for me as well. But yeah, I'm about
Speaker 3: ten kilos lighter than Wow.
Speaker 2: Are you changing the way you're ex I mean, obviously
Speaker 2: getting rid of from marathon is one thing. Are you
Speaker 2: changing the way you do weights as well for the marathon?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So my weight training has become a lot more.
Speaker 3: I'd say it's like a supporting role now. So I
Speaker 3: view it as something which is keeping my body together
Speaker 3: so that I can stay on the on the road.
Speaker 3: So I do a lot more kind of prehab and rehabilitation,
Speaker 3: soul work and functional strengths just to make sure that
Speaker 3: all the things that running can kind of I guess
Speaker 3: bang up a little bit in your hamstrings, you lower back,
Speaker 3: your glutes, you're upper back miles. Yeah, I do a
Speaker 3: lot of strength working that. But still there is still
Speaker 3: probably some stuff that we'll talk about later today, some
Speaker 3: key lifts that you want to keep in your your regime,
Speaker 3: regardless of whatelse what else.
Speaker 2: I'm just making a note of that right now. Actually
Speaker 2: it's funny, but so how long are you giving yourself
Speaker 2: to train for the marathon?
Speaker 3: Specifically about sixteen weeks. But I've been at it a
Speaker 3: bit longer than that. I'd run a half marathon. At
Speaker 3: the end of last year I did the Queenstown half
Speaker 3: Marathon and then I did the the Auckland Waterfront one.
Speaker 3: So I've been at it for a while, but I'm
Speaker 3: sixteen weeks. Honestly, it's a It's the total opposite end
Speaker 3: of the spectrum to strength sports. And I still I've
Speaker 3: run twenty four k today and I still think, how
Speaker 3: am I ever going to get that's some forty two kilometers.
Speaker 3: I've not built a low way.
Speaker 2: Actually, funny thing is I when I arrived at work,
Speaker 2: I often go and to have a chat at the
Speaker 2: news desk just say you know what's going on? One
Speaker 2: of the what's you know? What are the exciting stories
Speaker 2: of the day, and our news director Danakha I said,
Speaker 2: I find it. Didn't see you last weekend, And all
Speaker 2: I do is I just I don't think I've ever
Speaker 2: seen down standing up because she's always at the news
Speaker 2: desk working hard, and she said, I was are way down.
Speaker 2: I did the rot Room marathon last week Wow, and
Speaker 2: it's it's you know, But she seems to the way
Speaker 2: she described it. I wouldn't say she found it effortless.
Speaker 2: She talked about how heart it was, but she did
Speaker 2: sort of discovery did the marathon. That's incredible. Even trumpet it,
Speaker 2: it's just like, you know whatever, just drop that in there.
Speaker 3: I have quite a few marathon runners, a lot of
Speaker 3: women that come to my gym that run marathon, and
Speaker 3: I've gained a whole new level of respect for just
Speaker 3: what it takes. You know, and it's not only the
Speaker 3: actual event, it's the training and you know, the dedication.
Speaker 3: So everyone out there that's run a marathon have huge
Speaker 3: respect for you.
Speaker 2: I think the training would be the harder part, because
Speaker 2: at least with the marath this is just I've never
Speaker 2: done one, so what do I know? But I have
Speaker 2: I think the tough days when you don't feel like
Speaker 2: doing that run, and the conditions you'd have to go
Speaker 2: out and pushing yourself. If your training on your own,
Speaker 2: as opposed to when you're in a marathon, there must
Speaker 2: be some level of emotional impetus that you get from
Speaker 2: the fact that you are one of I don't know
Speaker 2: hundreds or thouds of people doing it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you definitely get swept up in the crowds is
Speaker 3: a huge part of it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think the other thing is just a discipline. You know,
Speaker 3: like every Saturday or Sunday on shaping up to do
Speaker 3: this really long run. And you know that means that
Speaker 3: there's a lot of stuff that you have to put
Speaker 3: on hold.
Speaker 2: So have you done twenty sand morning, twenty four this morning?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 2: Good, good good, I'm glad, you're glad you made it.
Speaker 3: In Yeah, why don't you just run and slower?
Speaker 2: Except hey, now, is it is it ever too late
Speaker 2: to sort yourself out? You think you've you've left it
Speaker 2: too long? I mean how late? It is too late?
Speaker 3: The best to saying I've ever heard is the best
Speaker 3: time to start, Well, it's actually come from planting a tree.
Speaker 3: The best time to plant a tree was yesterday and
Speaker 3: the second best time is today. And that's exactly the
Speaker 3: same when it comes to exercise. So while the best
Speaker 3: benefits are going to come through a build up over time,
Speaker 3: regardless of that what the style of exercise you're doing,
Speaker 3: it really is never too late. And when I was
Speaker 3: at university, I can still remember doing looking at some
Speaker 3: studies that were using some women in nursing homes that
Speaker 3: could no longer stand up, and after six short weeks
Speaker 3: of doing physical therapy and exercise, our back standing up.
Speaker 3: So if you extrapolate that out, that means that they're
Speaker 3: now more likely to be able to walk there, obviously
Speaker 3: more able to use their muscles, and from that stems
Speaker 3: a flow of maybe gaining back some independence. So that's
Speaker 3: someone you know that's in the very late stages of
Speaker 3: their life. We specialize at my gym in forties, fifties,
Speaker 3: and sixty year olds and that it is incredible the
Speaker 3: shape that people get in and we have. I can
Speaker 3: think of one lady actually who had never ever lifted
Speaker 3: a weight in her life until she was in her sixties.
Speaker 3: When she first came into our gym. It's been a
Speaker 3: slow burn for her. Her expectations probably had to be
Speaker 3: tempered a bit because I think she thought things were
Speaker 3: going to turn around.
Speaker 2: Very next week.
Speaker 3: So I'm rocking, yeah, Yeah, And she's incredible now.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: My head coach and my gym Phil and I just
Speaker 3: marvel about it every day, like what she's like. Literally,
Speaker 3: I think it's like that sliding door analogy. Where would
Speaker 3: she be if she just kept on down that road
Speaker 3: and now turning it around so whether it's muscle mass,
Speaker 3: so it's cardiovascular fitness, your flexibility. Most of the research
Speaker 3: shows that well into our seventies we can still get
Speaker 3: very good improvement at some stage. Obviously, you know, once
Speaker 3: we've passed our thirties and into our forties and fifties,
Speaker 3: potentially we start to look at more kind of hold
Speaker 3: on trying to hold on to what we've got. But
Speaker 3: that really depends on where you're at at that time.
Speaker 3: So if we're talking about an All Black, you know,
Speaker 3: like they're going to they had elite levels of fitness,
Speaker 3: so for them to hold onto that over their life.
Speaker 3: But if we've got someone who's not really done much exercise,
Speaker 3: they can get huge improvements right throughout life, regardless of age.
Speaker 2: I actually wonder whether it's sometimes it's harder for the
Speaker 2: elite sports people because there's i mean the sacrifice and
Speaker 2: time sacrifice to maintain yourself in that sort of peak
Speaker 2: physical condition, and it must be exhausting. And if you
Speaker 2: get to a normal life where you sort of just
Speaker 2: tone it down, there'll be and as you will have seen,
Speaker 2: you get problems with keeping the same diet when you're
Speaker 2: not burning the same thing. Before you know, what you're
Speaker 2: looking at is not a shadow of your formal self,
Speaker 2: but about three shadows.
Speaker 3: And three chins together.
Speaker 2: I mean, in a way, I wonder if is that
Speaker 2: a harder adjustment for people who can remember the glory
Speaker 2: days and think, God, I'm a tragedy.
Speaker 3: I think it comes down actually a lot too, because obviously,
Speaker 3: once you've finished a professional sports career, you don't need
Speaker 3: the same level of physical abilities. So it depends why
Speaker 3: you're doing it after that. So if you've still got purpose,
Speaker 3: if you're someone that thrives on competition, you know that
Speaker 3: that's someone that you know if you look at Rick himccall.
Speaker 3: I was about to.
Speaker 2: Say, the poster boy must be Richie mccaugh. Isn't he insufferable?
Speaker 2: We see that calling Richie? Tell us what keeps you going?
Speaker 2: Because it literally he went from being this behemoth of
Speaker 2: a flanker and world rugby legend to some of you
Speaker 2: must didn't recognize. But he's he must There must be
Speaker 2: something hard wide in him and that he just loves that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've never met Richie, but obviously he loves competition
Speaker 3: and challenging himself. But then on the other side of it,
Speaker 3: you know, if you've if you're very injured, if you
Speaker 3: were in that physical condition purely to play your sport,
Speaker 3: it might not be a hobby. So therefore, you know
Speaker 3: what life looks like after professional sport very it varies
Speaker 3: a lot.
Speaker 2: Well, what's the most obviously the thing is, it's not
Speaker 2: one thing to sit on your couch and think, you
Speaker 2: know what, I'm going to get up and I'm going
Speaker 2: to go see Alex. I'm going to go see a
Speaker 2: personal train and I'm going to get my life in hand.
Speaker 2: But what is the what is the most important thing?
Speaker 2: And to of the psychology of it, because it's one
Speaker 2: thing to have the ambition and have a couple of
Speaker 2: bad workouts in your back on the couch. Again, what
Speaker 2: do you see as being the common denominator mentally to
Speaker 2: make the change.
Speaker 3: It has to start with a sense of purpose as
Speaker 3: to why you're doing it and why it's important for you.
Speaker 3: If you don't have that, it's one of those we
Speaker 3: all know that we should be out walking or going
Speaker 3: to the gym, But for a lot of us, the
Speaker 3: reality is we got busy lives. We've got kids or
Speaker 3: grandkids or you know, work commitments, whatever it might be.
Speaker 3: We have a body that is you feel overwhelmed, it's
Speaker 3: out of shape, you're worried about your health, you don't
Speaker 3: know where to start. But that sense of purpose of
Speaker 3: knowing why do I want to do this? And that's
Speaker 3: some really interesting things that we'll probably talk about today,
Speaker 3: just knowing how much of a difference it can make,
Speaker 3: especially just a couple of three things, your muscle mass,
Speaker 3: your cardiovascular fitness, and your balance and agility, and what
Speaker 3: a difference that can make. Often we talk about sort
Speaker 3: of building a war chest. So unfortunately, as we get
Speaker 3: a little on, you know, we start to our risk
Speaker 3: factors for all diseases start to go up. Obviously through
Speaker 3: our fifties and sixties, we're more likely to be exposed
Speaker 3: to things. The higher your level of cardiovascular fitness, the
Speaker 3: higher your muscle mess and the better your strength are
Speaker 3: your balance and agility, the better position you are in
Speaker 3: to be able to ward off, fight and come back
Speaker 3: from those things. And that is all causes of mortality,
Speaker 3: whether it's cancer, whether it's heart disease, whether it's accidents,
Speaker 3: all of those, whether it's mental health, they're all better
Speaker 3: off when we're in great shape.
Speaker 2: Because I mean, for me, I always thought when I mean,
Speaker 2: I haven't been running much lately, I've probably got to
Speaker 2: get back into it. But I found that the if
Speaker 2: I thought about I've got to go for a run,
Speaker 2: and I imagined the beginning of the middle and the
Speaker 2: end of the run, I'd be like, oh goodness me.
Speaker 2: So for me, I just said, Tim, just put your
Speaker 2: shoes on and get out the door, and the rest
Speaker 2: will follow. Is there something in that of setting the
Speaker 2: most basic of tasks and then the rest follows or
Speaker 2: is that just particularly my psychology.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's definitely a great way to go about it.
Speaker 3: And I really think it depends. You know, you get
Speaker 3: sort of a type personalities that want to plan everything
Speaker 3: out and they you know, they're very meticulous, and other
Speaker 3: people are sort of they just enjoy the fun side
Speaker 3: of it, you know, they want to go to a class.
Speaker 2: I've seen you. I've seen the amount of resources you've
Speaker 2: got through your app on the Body Talk, and I'm
Speaker 2: thinking you're type. It's a lot of it's a lot
Speaker 2: of organization in that.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm definitely an exercise nerd. I just I just
Speaker 3: love it. Yeah, so my I have to have something
Speaker 3: to train towards. Hence while I'm doing a run. I
Speaker 3: find it very hard just I know that exercise is
Speaker 3: great for my health, but I need to be able
Speaker 3: to check something off, whether it's an event or there's
Speaker 3: there's got to be something there for me. But yeah,
Speaker 3: so it does come down. You know, a lot of
Speaker 3: people love the social side of it, so they go
Speaker 3: to group fitness classes and that's a great way to
Speaker 3: do so just step in the door of that group
Speaker 3: fitness class. For others, you know, the biggest barrier might
Speaker 3: be they don't have time. So, like you say, just
Speaker 3: put your shoes on and get out the door. But
Speaker 3: the worst thing can do is sit on the couch.
Speaker 2: We love your calls on this because I think every
Speaker 2: look to be honest. I think most people if you
Speaker 2: are wanting to get into shape and you're not, everyone
Speaker 2: worries that you've let yourself slip. It's not necessarily just
Speaker 2: an age question, but I use someone who's worried about
Speaker 2: getting back into exercise. And if you'd like to give
Speaker 2: us a call and pick Alex's brain if there's a question,
Speaker 2: we'd love to hear from you. But have you successfully
Speaker 2: made a fitness come back? And what's the secret to
Speaker 2: your success. What because in the end, I think it
Speaker 2: has to be a triumph of mind over matter, doesn't
Speaker 2: it if your mind's not in there, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Unless you're mindlessly just and can exercise without thinking about
Speaker 2: it too much, and you're just a creature of habit,
Speaker 2: I don't know. But we want your calls eight hundred
Speaker 2: and eighty ten eighty anything. Any other questions you've got
Speaker 2: about getting fit and diet and looking after yourself. We're
Speaker 2: with Alex Flint. He's a founder and coach at body Talk.
Speaker 2: I'm by the way, I'm Alex has currently done a
Speaker 2: program for me through the app and everything, as well
Speaker 2: as scanning me. I don't think we need to do
Speaker 2: the scanner anytime soon. I'll pup to cut out sugar first, Alex.
Speaker 2: But I can tell you that it definitely is making
Speaker 2: a difference, unless Alex OFFI is going to say, mate,
Speaker 2: you need to work harder. But we want your calls.
Speaker 2: Eight hundred eighty ten eighty text nine two nine two.
Speaker 2: It's twenty four past four News Talk s ed B.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the health of news Talk, said B.
Speaker 2: Is it too late to turn your life around? Have
Speaker 2: you turned your life around. We're with Alex Flint, He's
Speaker 2: founder and coach at body Talk by the way, body
Speaker 2: talk dot co dot nz if you want to check
Speaker 2: out the resources they've got there, and Alex can design
Speaker 2: a program for you no matter where you are as well,
Speaker 2: which is the beauty of that app as well. But
Speaker 2: if you've got any questions for Alex eight hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty ten eighty right, let's go to Harry Gooday.
Speaker 5: So is that for Harry?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's you, Harry Gooday good.
Speaker 5: Hey, Yeah. I wouldn't say have been a great exercise
Speaker 5: During my life. I've played a fair amount of sports,
Speaker 5: done the topway bike rice a few times. I'm seventy
Speaker 5: three years old. I'm starting to struggle with lower back
Speaker 5: pain and I just wonder if there's something that I
Speaker 5: can do to actually relieve that or improve that so
Speaker 5: that it's not such a restriction on exercise cad I Harry, Yeah, sorry,
Speaker 5: do you get that?
Speaker 6: Sorry?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I forgot to swatch alexis micro on So I
Speaker 2: started talking of my fault.
Speaker 3: Way we go, Harry, when do you get the back pain?
Speaker 5: About four months ago, I guess, and I re prior
Speaker 5: to that, I don't recall having any problems. I did
Speaker 5: have a a few years ago, probably about six or
Speaker 5: seven years ago. I helped a neighbor moose and furniture
Speaker 5: and tweak my back. I went saw a sports medicine
Speaker 5: guy and it sort of came right by itself. But yeah,
Speaker 5: that's the history of it. Yeah, so fleared up in
Speaker 5: the last few months.
Speaker 3: So, Harry, the first part of that always when you're
Speaker 3: dealing with an injury, you've just got to be really careful.
Speaker 3: At the start of the commencement of when you start
Speaker 3: to bring in some strengthening exercises. There is if you
Speaker 3: look up, there's a guy called Stuart McGill, doctor Stuart McGill,
Speaker 3: and he came up with three exercises which, funny enough,
Speaker 3: are called the Stuart McGill Big Three and they are
Speaker 3: time tested when it comes to strengthening core and lower
Speaker 3: back and reducing lower back pain. So the first exercise
Speaker 3: is what we call an abdominal curl up. So if
Speaker 3: you can imagine lying on the ground facing upwards, one
Speaker 3: leg is out straight. The other one is that your
Speaker 3: knee is pulled up, so you've got one knee bent
Speaker 3: both that foot is flat on the ground, and then
Speaker 3: we simply try and sit forward and up so you
Speaker 3: can't come up very far off the ground, and we
Speaker 3: hold for five seconds at a time, so we do
Speaker 3: these little abdominal curl ups. We do a couple of
Speaker 3: those on each side, so that's about a minute's worth
Speaker 3: of it's almost like a static crunch.
Speaker 2: We hold those.
Speaker 3: Then the exercise number two is a plank, so no
Speaker 3: doubt probably tried an abdominal plank at some stage where
Speaker 3: we're sort of prone. We're facing face down and we
Speaker 3: have our elbows on the ground and our feet on
Speaker 3: the ground and we try and keep the rest of
Speaker 3: us in a hover position. So that's the second exercise,
Speaker 3: and then the third one is called a bird dog,
Speaker 3: where we're on hands and knees and then we straighten
Speaker 3: one arm and the opposite leg out, so it's almost
Speaker 3: like we're pointing like a hunting dog. So arm goes
Speaker 3: out in front, the leg goes behind. But if you
Speaker 3: were to look up the Stuart McGill Big three for
Speaker 3: back lower back, it's about five minutes worth of exercise
Speaker 3: a day, and that will make a big inroad into
Speaker 3: you getting over them, because largely when it comes to
Speaker 3: lower back issues. The first thing you've got to do
Speaker 3: is build a really strong abdominal corset, and that's your
Speaker 3: lower back muscles, the abdominals, your obliques and your front
Speaker 3: abdominals and all the inner ones. So those three exercises
Speaker 3: have proved to be really, really good.
Speaker 5: Thank you for that. I will left that up.
Speaker 2: What's the name again? The Big Three?
Speaker 6: By who?
Speaker 3: Stuart McGill.
Speaker 2: Stuart McGill. Yeah.
Speaker 5: The other issue is that it is my favorite exercise
Speaker 5: is cychling fun.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: Well, you've done the top bike race. That was a
Speaker 2: bit of a humble brag, I think there, Harry.
Speaker 5: Well, not really. I mean I used to about fourteen thousand,
Speaker 5: just went around it every year. I mean it was
Speaker 5: just such a wonderful event that, you know, just so
Speaker 5: many bloody hills. Yeah, but yeah, no, I've done that
Speaker 5: a few times, but I haven't done it for probably
Speaker 5: five or six years. And I've seen the guys. I
Speaker 5: did for one of three and passed away and yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, things go on, but it's time to get
Speaker 5: off my backside and start getting back into it. I
Speaker 5: think in a series.
Speaker 3: Yep, absolutely, Harry, cycling fantastic way to strengthen your legs,
Speaker 3: strengthen your heart, your lungs. And what we do know
Speaker 3: is that those that for any age have the highest
Speaker 3: aerobic fitness, they have the lowest risk of all mortality.
Speaker 3: So you keep yourself going for longer than fitty you are,
Speaker 3: and that bike is a great way to do it
Speaker 3: because it takes all the stress out of your joints,
Speaker 3: so you definitely get onto it.
Speaker 2: Cheers. Actually, the back pain thing just quickly. I mean
Speaker 2: I noticed. I mean, I'm getting a little bit older,
Speaker 2: I guess, but if I'm sitting in a static position,
Speaker 2: you know, when you're younger, just get up and get moving.
Speaker 2: But it's one of those things I do notice. It's, oh,
Speaker 2: you know, just just a bit of stiffness from Is that?
Speaker 2: Is that just something you get as you get older,
Speaker 2: regardless of what you exercise us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely postural. You know, you just examine the
Speaker 3: positions that we sit in which are not necessarily optimal.
Speaker 3: I mean, it doesn't take long in the day before
Speaker 3: you catch yourself slouching, and it's you know, it's it's
Speaker 3: a compound effect over days, months, years of bad posh
Speaker 3: and that happens in exercise as well. You know, you
Speaker 3: exercise in poor positions, we end up getting injured. And
Speaker 3: it's no different.
Speaker 2: Just quickly, somebody suggested to me, you know, the plank,
Speaker 2: so you're on your elbow. It's basically press up position,
Speaker 2: but you're on your elbows and holding yourself there for
Speaker 2: an interminable length of time. Are you better? Somebody suggested
Speaker 2: to me that you're better to introduce a bit of
Speaker 2: instability that holding is so because I try and hold
Speaker 2: myself as still as possible, because I know as you
Speaker 2: get tired, quicker if I start twitching. But that's what's
Speaker 2: what's what's the go with that static versus a little
Speaker 2: bit of instability lifting a leg here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it comes down to progressive overload. So every
Speaker 3: exercise that we do we need a stimulus from. So
Speaker 3: if our body is already accomplished and it can do that,
Speaker 3: then we need to find a way to challenge it.
Speaker 3: So if you've never done a plank in your life,
Speaker 3: you start with your knees on the ground and then slowly,
Speaker 3: over time we get you know, knees come off the ground,
Speaker 3: and then we start to bring in instability. So if
Speaker 3: if you can, you want you want to bring in
Speaker 3: some things like that. You could put your elbows on
Speaker 3: a Swiss ball, you could go on one leg, you
Speaker 3: could put something underneath your feet.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I'm still a beginner level. When I get
Speaker 2: through it a minute, I'm sort of three times and
Speaker 2: that's you know, so I need to do something else.
Speaker 3: Then I'll bet I'll bet you can do better.
Speaker 2: I probably can. And actually there have been some times
Speaker 2: when I'm like a bitch, if Alex was here, come on,
Speaker 2: you can do another ten seconds. What's wrong with you? Anyway,
Speaker 2: It's not about me. Let's talk about you. I eight
Speaker 2: one hundred and eighty ten eighty Donna. Hello, Hi, Donna?
Speaker 4: Hello, how are you good?
Speaker 3: Thank you?
Speaker 4: That's good. Hey, listen, I've got a question about lower
Speaker 4: back pain as well. I've suffered since my early twenties
Speaker 4: was quite bad lower back pain. And I've flipped a
Speaker 4: disk and then I've obviously I've ruptured at a couple
Speaker 4: of couple of times over the years. And what I
Speaker 4: try and do twenty minutes of pilarates every morning, which
Speaker 4: consists of the bood dog and the plane king. And
Speaker 4: so I'm trying to build my core and I do
Speaker 4: thirty minute. It's every day of power walking as well
Speaker 4: on my lunchtime. But I'm just wondering. I recently just
Speaker 4: you know, bent over the wrong way in the morning
Speaker 4: to feed the cat and bang my back went on
Speaker 4: me for about a week. And I'm just wondering if
Speaker 4: you have any recommendations for how to get sort of
Speaker 4: back into it as quickly as possible after injuries like that,
Speaker 4: because at the moment I'm doing sailing as a sport
Speaker 4: as well, and I have to wear a back brace
Speaker 4: because there's a lot of bending over and it just yeah,
Speaker 4: it's just quite frustrating because sometimes I can't go sailing
Speaker 4: if my back's really really bad. So I'm just wondering
Speaker 4: if you've got any recommendations. Am I doing the right things?
Speaker 4: And b is there any anything else I could be doing?
Speaker 3: Perhaps? Yeah, absolutely, Well, it sounds like you're really, you know,
Speaker 3: you're onto it in terms of you're getting that daily
Speaker 3: work in and doing things like we talked about bird
Speaker 3: dogs and planking and so forth. Is fantastic. When you've
Speaker 3: had a long term history of back pain, there's probably
Speaker 3: a little bit more to it. Knowing sort of what
Speaker 3: if there's any underlying damage. There is one thing, but
Speaker 3: probably the simplest way to think about it is what
Speaker 3: I find is often back pain or back incidents happen
Speaker 3: doing unusual things like it literally will be like you know,
Speaker 3: bending over to feed the cat, or someone's been gardening
Speaker 3: and they're you know, they're on an odd angle. So
Speaker 3: our backs get get caught in odd positions without being
Speaker 3: able to give you like a full progressive program that
Speaker 3: goes on for months. What you need to do is
Speaker 3: start to challenge your back and your hips. So one
Speaker 3: of the big things is making sure you've got plenty
Speaker 3: of glute strength. I don't know if you do anything
Speaker 3: with a glute band at all, some sort of glut
Speaker 3: bridges or some crab walks the marches.
Speaker 4: No, I'll probably have to start doing that, yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, So just look up glute bands and
Speaker 3: glute band exit sizes. And then the next thing that
Speaker 3: you really need to look at doing is starting to
Speaker 3: incorporate exercises which are getting you to hinge at the hips.
Speaker 3: So take that to the end point would say, well,
Speaker 3: the biggest hinge of your hips is like doing a deadlift. Now,
Speaker 3: if you're going to pick it, if you hope to
Speaker 3: be able to pick things off the ground or probably
Speaker 3: you know when you're in a sailing position, you know
Speaker 3: you've got your legs in a strong position and your
Speaker 3: back's upright. You really need to be strong in those positions,
Speaker 3: but also learn how to do them well. And that's
Speaker 3: so that you get movement proficiency, because sometimes we just
Speaker 3: don't quite understand that the position that we're in and
Speaker 3: our discs can be exposed and then we can end
Speaker 3: up with an injury. So the next thing for you
Speaker 3: would probably be to go into looking at movements strength,
Speaker 3: movements that incorporate hip hinging, whether that's deadlifting or you know,
Speaker 3: like actually a bird dog is the first one of those,
Speaker 3: so you sort of and you move on from there.
Speaker 3: So doing those types of X sizes strategically over time,
Speaker 3: making them slightly more advanced, that's probably your way out
Speaker 3: of that. But I would also look at that glute strength.
Speaker 4: Okay, cool, excellent, Thank you for that.
Speaker 6: Appreciate that.
Speaker 2: Thanks Dona. A couple of questions here, as a rower
Speaker 2: a rowing machine's good for overall fitness? How do they
Speaker 2: fit into the whole thing?
Speaker 3: They're fantastic. Yeah, I think if there is one piece
Speaker 3: of equipment that you're going to get provided again actually
Speaker 3: a little bit what we're talking about with Donna. You
Speaker 3: do need to make sure that you row with good posture,
Speaker 3: and I do see people injure their backs quite badly
Speaker 3: if they sort of slouch when they row. So a
Speaker 3: rowing machine absolutely fantastic. It hits everything. Strength, fitness is
Speaker 3: a great all round tool. It's low impact. But just
Speaker 3: learn to row well, you know, whether that's YouTube videos
Speaker 3: or you get someone to coach you.
Speaker 2: But yeah, absolutely on that machine.
Speaker 6: Thing.
Speaker 2: Somebody else has asked about the cross training machine? Are
Speaker 2: those cross training things? Are those the one where you're
Speaker 2: sort of like cross country skiing, like you're sort of
Speaker 2: going up and down with your hands and a push pull,
Speaker 2: and then you're also marching up and down with your feets.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so your legs are sort of sliding back and
Speaker 3: forth and then you've got your arms. Yeah, it's like.
Speaker 2: Skin Nordic skiing. That's the one I'm thinking.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so those who are obviously invented because the Nordic
Speaker 3: skiers have got some of the best Votwo max fitness.
Speaker 3: They're aerobic fitness in the world. You know, they're up
Speaker 3: there and you're upright, but there's no impact, so it's
Speaker 3: great in terms of like running can be hard on
Speaker 3: your joints, but being upright in that position means there's
Speaker 3: more gravity working against you, so your heart's got to
Speaker 3: work harder. So they're great. One thing on that though,
Speaker 3: is there's no one best exercise. Unfortunately, if you're talking
Speaker 3: about you know, for home, that's great one piece of
Speaker 3: equipment if that's going to get you on it. But
Speaker 3: variation is key because what happens over time our bodies
Speaker 3: adapt to whatever we do. So if you think about
Speaker 3: someone who is, for example, a great marathon runner, then
Speaker 3: what they've trained is efficiency in running, so that is
Speaker 3: no longer such a difficult task for them. Put them
Speaker 3: in a swimming pool and that might be very hard
Speaker 3: for them. So if they were looking for a way
Speaker 3: to challenge their body or you know, and it wasn't
Speaker 3: that they were competing in running, then you've got to
Speaker 3: look for what are the things that challenge you. So
Speaker 3: when it comes to fitness, do lots of different stuff.
Speaker 3: When it comes to strength training, do lots of different stuff.
Speaker 3: Yoga pilates are all great in terms of mobility, flexibility
Speaker 3: and the variation of the spice Alife.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're going to take some more calls in just
Speaker 2: a moment, but we need to take another break and
Speaker 2: we'll be back in just to ticket. It's twenty to
Speaker 2: five newstalks.
Speaker 6: It beat.
Speaker 2: Yes, welcome back to the Weekend Collective. This is the
Speaker 2: health of Alex Flint from Bodytalk, Dot, cod At and Zaid.
Speaker 2: He's with us. He's a founder and coach there and
Speaker 2: does great work with turning your life around. By the way,
Speaker 2: if you are someone who's thinking of it, whether it's
Speaker 2: too late or not, give us a call you've got
Speaker 2: any questions. Just before we go to Tom, here's a
Speaker 2: question from I'm a thirty five year old male. I
Speaker 2: have a fifteen year old son who's starting to lift
Speaker 2: more than me at the gym. He's almost half a
Speaker 2: foot taller. How do I keep up? Or is it
Speaker 2: just time to accept reality?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's age does wary is but I think you
Speaker 3: should be able to hold on for a little bit longer.
Speaker 3: But yeah, that fifteen year old injection of testosterone. No
Speaker 3: doubt he's coming for you.
Speaker 2: See is it? I mean again? At a distance, it's
Speaker 2: just a text. It's difficult to give advice, but I
Speaker 2: reckon that there's more chance at the fifteen year old son.
Speaker 2: You know, they're energetic and he's putting everything into it,
Speaker 2: and he's got his dad he wants to overtake. Is
Speaker 2: there a chance that dad just needs to re examine
Speaker 2: whether he's really working hard enough, you know, I mean
Speaker 2: in terms of just pushing that weight up, you know,
Speaker 2: dropping the sets, getting to exhaustion, you know, when I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well we have we have to overload our body,
Speaker 3: like we have to provide stimulus. But I think one
Speaker 3: of the things you know that that'spring to moment I
Speaker 3: just hear that is how fantastic that is is a
Speaker 3: you know, a father and son training together and your
Speaker 3: boy's probably getting a ton out of trying to catch you.
Speaker 3: So what a what a great relationship with a good
Speaker 3: thing to keep up and hold him at bay for
Speaker 3: as long as you can.
Speaker 2: It's funny that actually I'm the Jim. I go to there,
Speaker 2: you see a young callow youth turn up, and I
Speaker 2: saw some kid turn up. He looked pretty gangly, and
Speaker 2: then I saw the weight he's stuck on. I thought,
Speaker 2: I need up my game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, mid love crisis and again you have to be careful. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think it's particularly a male fault is going to
Speaker 3: the gym and just thinking about how much weight is
Speaker 3: on the bar, and it's something that yeah, it matters
Speaker 3: over time that we're lifting more weight, but it really
Speaker 3: shouldn't be the focus of weight training.
Speaker 2: Well, the other question is I've remind him myself of
Speaker 2: this a couple of times. I'm like, well, hang on,
Speaker 2: I'm up that weight and I got through it, and
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, how did I really focus on technique? Because
Speaker 2: if you see quite a lot where a trainer will say, well,
Speaker 2: let's just drop that weight down and work on your technique,
Speaker 2: and the persons like, god, this is this is weighing
Speaker 2: a ton. Yeah, that's well.
Speaker 3: I mean, your body has no idea what the weight
Speaker 3: is on the bar. It just feels tension. So there's
Speaker 3: lots of different ways to do that and make sure
Speaker 3: that weight training stays safer for the long term when
Speaker 3: we focus on great technique creating tension in our bodies,
Speaker 3: and then that way we get a hard workout without
Speaker 3: necessarily having to go to the absolute extremes.
Speaker 2: With thirty five year old dad check out, we have
Speaker 2: a chat with Alex and see if he can. He
Speaker 2: could be your secret weapon. Your son will be like, geez, Dad,
Speaker 2: what's happening?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 2: Nothing, I'm just caring as the usual. Okay, let's take
Speaker 2: some more course, John.
Speaker 6: Hello, yeah, goody, how's it going good?
Speaker 2: Thanks?
Speaker 4: John.
Speaker 6: I'm forty nine years old and I've always been by
Speaker 6: Let's put it that way, shall we. Ever? As a kid,
Speaker 6: even as a kid in high school, my nickname was
Speaker 6: Fred's big white and full of food. It was basically,
Speaker 6: I've always been that person who is a little bit
Speaker 6: of overweight. And now I've hit for forty nine. Is
Speaker 6: as I said. I do walking and hiking, that's my thing,
Speaker 6: but it's not enough to keep the weight off. And
Speaker 6: I'm still the size I've always been, which is B
Speaker 6: and I like high. But now I'm starting to get
Speaker 6: high blood pressure, and I suffer from anemia and I've
Speaker 6: got low hemoglobin levels and so I don't have a
Speaker 6: lot of energy. But I need to do more. But
Speaker 6: the more has to be effective, and I just seem
Speaker 6: to be always on the back foot. What should I try?
Speaker 4: John?
Speaker 3: Good on you for getting out there and exercising. The
Speaker 3: biggest thing that we find with daily exercise, whether it's
Speaker 3: cardiovascular training, walking, swimming, lifting weights is there's a tremendous
Speaker 3: compensatory effect when it comes to our appetite, so we
Speaker 3: will eat more when we exercise, and that is one
Speaker 3: of the biggest issues. So and you almost need to
Speaker 3: be smarter with your diet, with your nutrition when you
Speaker 3: are trying to exercise for a change in your health
Speaker 3: or for a change in your body weight. So usually
Speaker 3: barking up the more exercise is what I need tree
Speaker 3: likely is not the right approach. It's a look into
Speaker 3: your nutritional habits, and the reason for.
Speaker 6: That is more deficit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and usually the first and best way to do
Speaker 3: that is not to actually start eating less. It's to
Speaker 3: improve the quality of foods that you are eating. So
Speaker 3: if you just focus on eating more fruit and vegetables,
Speaker 3: more good lean proteins, more quality whole grains, what you'll
Speaker 3: find is that you're starting to crowd out the good
Speaker 3: with the bad. And you shouldn't actually have to starve yourself.
Speaker 3: But especially if you've got things like a you know,
Speaker 3: iron issues, doing more exercise, to be honest, is probably
Speaker 3: just going to leave you feeling really exhausted.
Speaker 4: So you know, that's true.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that is what I find. I've started trying to
Speaker 6: do more, but it's just it's counter productive.
Speaker 3: It it doesn't work, no, and it's you know, it's
Speaker 3: just so easy to eat back the calories that you've
Speaker 3: burnt off. So unfortunately, unless you're in your twenties. I
Speaker 3: can remember as a personal training in my twenties thinking
Speaker 3: that all my forty fifty and six year old clients
Speaker 3: were not telling the truth that they couldn't lose weight.
Speaker 3: And then all of a sudden I was one, and
Speaker 3: you realize that, actually, the calorice equation is just very,
Speaker 3: very difficult if it's just through exercise. So you can
Speaker 3: do an hour of exercise and you can eat back
Speaker 3: those calories in about ten minutes. So it's Yeah, what
Speaker 3: I would really suggest, John, is you start to look
Speaker 3: at just improving the quality of your diet, whether that's
Speaker 3: you look at working with someone just to get some help,
Speaker 3: but definitely don't starve yourself. Just start by looking at
Speaker 3: improving what you're doing and measuring it some way, whether
Speaker 3: it's a food diary, it's on the scales.
Speaker 2: Yeah, cheers, John, thanks for your Actually for me, I
Speaker 2: can echo that because I I'm aware. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: if I've put on weight or anything, but you do naturally,
Speaker 2: we've put on a bit of muscle. But I think
Speaker 2: it's I think my thing. I've got to be aware
Speaker 2: with it. Its just sugar. For some reason, I think
Speaker 2: if I get hungry, you know, I am drawn a
Speaker 2: little bit to more the sugar retreats. And I'm not
Speaker 2: sure if there's a reason for that, but.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well often, I mean in daily life, it's like
Speaker 3: a stress modulator, you know what I mean, Like if
Speaker 3: you're tired, or you're fatigued, or you're into high stress.
Speaker 3: Treat foods are things that make us feel better. They
Speaker 3: increase happy hormones. So what happens is we tend to
Speaker 3: lean on those and they're just hyper palatable. It's easy
Speaker 3: to overeat them, and there's calories that don't really help us.
Speaker 2: And peanuts, by the way, But anyway, like I'll ask
Speaker 2: you about that in our own time, which is coming
Speaker 2: up now. We'll be back in just a ticke. It's
Speaker 2: nine minutes to vide and news talks. He'd be yes,
Speaker 2: news talk Sai'd be look only a couple of minutes ago.
Speaker 2: I'm with Alex Flint. By the way, if you're curious
Speaker 2: on tracking Alex down with what he does, you can
Speaker 2: go to body talk dot co, dot nzet and he's
Speaker 2: done some great work with a lot of people. And
Speaker 2: I would say possibly in quitcluding me now, I'd say, Alex,
Speaker 2: even though we've had a bit of a chat about
Speaker 2: some of my snacking, we might have to work on
Speaker 2: this text from Victoria. Hi, I'm a sixty one year
Speaker 2: old woman, fairly fit through running, but core and strength
Speaker 2: need more attention. I've heard women should be lifting heavy weights. Alex,
Speaker 2: address this and can you please explain the app given
Speaker 2: I'm not an Auckland chairs Victoria, And that's yeah, Sorry
Speaker 2: I didn't switch the mark on there again, sorry, Alex.
Speaker 3: So it's what happens when we age, is we lose
Speaker 3: muscle mass. That just happens over time. I don't know
Speaker 3: if you know out there you've seen there's a really
Speaker 3: famous picture of a seventy year old triathletes thighs compared
Speaker 3: to a seventy seven year old sedentary man and the
Speaker 3: difference in the cross section when they've done an MRI
Speaker 3: on them, and while they're relatively the same size, the
Speaker 3: inside of those one is full of body fat and
Speaker 3: the other one still full of muscle. And largely what
Speaker 3: happens is just through inactivity, and that can happen at
Speaker 3: any age, but especially as we get older, our muscle
Speaker 3: muscle mass starts to dwindle. Now, interestingly, even if you
Speaker 3: are running or you're doing cycling, there's still that effect
Speaker 3: of phenomenon still happens, the atrophy of muscles as we
Speaker 3: get older. So strength training for men and women as
Speaker 3: we age is really important.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: For women it's particularly important through menopause and postmenopause because
Speaker 3: of things like bone density and because on the other
Speaker 3: side of menopause, this loss of muscle mass can create
Speaker 3: a lot of health disorders down the track. So lifting
Speaker 3: heavy is a relative term. So when we're talking lifting heavy,
Speaker 3: if we think about pilates, that's high reps. What we
Speaker 3: need is heavy weights fifteen ten or less repetitions and
Speaker 3: over time where we're stressing our body through increasing those weights.
Speaker 3: So heavy few right now will be different to what
Speaker 3: heavy to you is in ten much time.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what. I'm sorry, we've run out of
Speaker 2: time there, so we haven't even got on to living longer,
Speaker 2: have we Alex, well after that, but start getting fitter
Speaker 2: and that will probably stick. Tick the first box. Hey Alex,
Speaker 2: thanks so much. By the way, when I say body talk,
Speaker 2: it's t O r q u E as opposed to
Speaker 2: chitty chats. So thanks Alex, good to see.
Speaker 3: You mate, Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Tim Janet Zakara is next. We're going to be talking trusts,
Speaker 2: News Talks eb on smart money coming.
Speaker 1: Up and just make for more from the Weekend Collective.
Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks ed B weekends from three pm,
Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.