Movement Matters

Celeste Pinney and Mark Bunn discuss simple and effective ways for nurses and midwives to include more movement in their routine. ‘Movement Matters’ is part of six podcasts under the theme of "Wellness Reimagined: How to Thrive in Stressful Times," and it explores the role of movement in our lives and ways we can begin to incorporate this to improve our wellbeing. 

Transcript

Transcript

Podcast Series: Wellness Reimagined: How to Thrive in Stressful Times

Episode 4: Movement Matters

Celeste: Welcome aboard to week four of the Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria's podcast series Wellness Reimagined: How to thrive in stressful times. I'm Celeste Pinney, a Registered Midwife and Senior Clinician at the Nursing and Midwifery Health Program Victoria and host of the podcast, and I'm joined by wellness speaker Mark Bunn, welcome back, Mark.

Mark: Great to be with you, Celeste.

Celeste: Thank you. Our theme today is movement matters. And we intentionally use the word movement instead of exercise, because, ah, especially if you listened in last week, we want to talk more about just moving the body regularly rather than formal exercise. I think we've all heard about the benefits of formal exercise, and probably don't need to, you know, talk too much about that, but yeah, movement matters. 

Nurses and Midwives probably do understand the importance of exercise and its health benefits, but what often gets in the way people's ability to move more is lack of time, and often lack of energy. Nurses and midwives are frequently tired, often juggling many obligations which interferes with motivation to exercise, and they can feel guilty for not exercising too. For nurses and midwife struggling with fatigue and low energy. Mark, do you have any suggestions on how exercise could be incorporated into their lives?

Mark: I do, and I think that introduction really, really nice, because it touches on a couple of sort of pillars that I think, yeah, this idea of just focusing on activity, not exercise. You know, I think when people think of exercise, drums up all these perceptions of, you know, have to change clothes and put the runners on and go to the gym, and I need 45 minutes, or else it's not going to get a benefit and, and basically that's not the case, and I always come back to the long living cultures and traditional cultures that I've researched, and I'm always I laugh almost. You know, they never go to the gym and don’t do yoga, and they don't get changed five times to get into their exercise. It's part of their life. 

And so I was really enjoyed coming across the research about incidental exercise and accumulating activity is most important. And the key to this is that every little bit counts, and so the two minute walk rather than sitting on the chair, the five or 10 minutes at the end of a shift before we go home to do sleep or whatever it is, all add up and are really, really important. The other part, which is a little bit counter intuitive in some ways, but you mentioned the word guilt when we don't exercise as much as we invert a commas ‘think we should’. But I think if we're really fatigued, fatigue, according to the ancient sciences, is a feedback that we need rest. And so it's actually not a time to think we have to go and do the spin class, or, you know, the strength based yoga class. Or if we're really, really tired, then rest is the best thing that we need. 

And so being okay that while exercise might be good in a, you know, perfect scenario, rest is more important at that time, once we're rested, then we can come to the exercise. So, yeah, I think, and that just helps get rid of that, that guilt aspect to it. So one of my teachers says, be guilty, but don't feel guilty. It's modern life. We can't do everything. We get bombarded from every direction every day about all the things we should do for our health. We've got to eat these fats and not these fats, and get this amount of sleep and do this much exercise, and it's just impossible. So just giving up trying to do everything being kind to ourselves, and just if we're tired, rest is okay. Once we've had the rest, then we can just get into gentle, gentle exercise is fine.

Celeste: So just basically making the most of it. When you're feeling like you can exercise and you've got the energy, and if not, then you just take the rest.

Mark: Yeah, and just that, that idea of building in little 5 or 10 minutes here or there, you know, again, getting out. I don't have time or energy to exercise because we think it's the 45 minute walk around the Albert Park Lake, or it's the, you know, hour at the gym, or it's whatever it's, but just think, what can I do for 5minutes here, or 10 minutes here, or even two minutes, you know, little things will really, really help.

Celeste: Better to do something than to sort of give up because you think you haven't got that full hour, or you haven't got the energy to, you know, really smash it out at the gym. Sounds like just, there's all of, like you said, accumulative, all those bits of exercise add up.

Mark: Absolutely

Celeste: Yeah, great. And I mean, this sort of might relate to what we've just been talking about, did you have any hacks or tips for motivating oneself to exercise? Or maybe that's the wrong question. Should we not be pushing ourselves to exercise if we're feeling unmotivated? But what about the people you know, sometimes we do talk to people who just really don't ever feel motivated to exercise. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on that. 

Mark: Yes, I think it's a fabulous question, one of my favorite of all time, because it comes back to one of my key principles, and it applies to everything; food, relationships, work, but we have just completely lost sight of the fact that, and I'm going to use the word exercise, but activity, should be enjoyable. I wanted every listener to think of when they're a little boy or girl, four years old, five years old, or children that they have now that haven't got grown up, that they think the iPad and the video games are more fun. But as children, we love to move. It's just, it's fun. 

And so what we've missed in this motivation is we think exercise has to be these certain things. I have to go to the gym for an hour, and people feel dread and people looking at them in the mirrors, or they have to go into yoga, and they're not good at yoga, or they… but we don't. All we have to do is move our bodies in ways that we enjoy, and everyone will have at least one or two ways that they enjoy. Gardening is an amazing activity. Your muscles, our muscles don't know the difference between lifting a 20 kilogram wheelbarrow full of soil or bricks, as it does lifting a 20 kilogram barbell at the gym. The heart and lungs don't know the difference between dancing for an hour, ballroom dancing or tango or whatever people are into which they love, heart and lungs and the balance and the coordination. Don't know the difference between lifting weights at a gym. So it's about broadening our appreciation of what activity or exercise can be, and just keep asking that question, how can I move my body in ways that I enjoy? 

And there's so many different ways people, some people prefer to swim or water sports. You know, they're just water Babies, anything to do with water. So can you get a paddle board or kayak or just swim, if you hate the water and you're more land based, can you play golf or join a netball group or just get some friends and walk? It's but just, I think broadening that idea and just bringing the fun, fun is the number one way for motivation, because we don't even need motivation when it's fun, we look forward to it, we plan it. And yeah, so take away that idea of exercise has to be a certain thing. And what can I do to that's moving but something I enjoy?

Celeste: Yeah, so not following a prescription, but thinking about what is it that you would really like to do that makes you feel good?

Mark: Yep, beautiful.

Celeste: Fantastic. That's a great suggestion. Many nurses and midwives walk for a large part of their shift on wards, probably racking up a pretty impressive step count. Do you think that's an enough exercise, or are there other forms of exercise that are important to include in one's routine?

Mark: Yeah, it's a little bit like how long's a piece of string? So different nurses, obviously, different roles, nursing home versus hospital ward, I would say, just testing, you know, for the cost of a little watch or a way to monitor your steps, to see if getting up to

Celeste: Pedometer

Mark: 10,000 steps would be really helpful. You know, obviously, if down towards 3000 or 4000 only, then would need to be a bit extra in addition. But yeah, if you're getting your 10,000 steps a day already from the work shift, then I would focus much more on strength based activities. And so the research probably over, particularly over the last five years, Dr Peter Attia anyone read his book outlive he's really brought to light this importance of more strength based activity and so 10,000 steps, aerobic, fantastic, and particularly nurses and midwives, balancing or complementing that with either more strength based yoga here and there. 

If you don't mind going to the gym or enjoy going to the gym, that sort of activity, really good. If you hate the gym, then finding maybe something at home with videos or friends or just circuit training type things that you can do, which is more strength based, you really, really a good supplement to the 10,000 steps.

Celeste: I think more, I mean, not to be gender based, because, of course, there are male nurses as well as female nurses and people who don't identify and are non binary. But I think for people who identify as being women, there has been, I think, more of a movement towards strength training in recent years, and more women realising the benefits of strength training and feeling really good getting stronger I think that can feel really fantastic for females.

Mark: It's been incredible. I go to the gym, not a lot, but maybe a couple of times a week. And I was in Bali, middle of the year, and over there, often I would note that at least 50% were people that identified as female. I'm sure, women as much as men, in the gym, and not only that, but doing strength based activities. You know, traditionally, 10 years ago, 5 years often, you know, the men would be lifting the weights predominantly, and women sort of doing the treadmill or the aerobic activities. But now really, sort of seeing a really 50/50, split, and then back in Australia, very, very similar. So it's great. And I would really sort of encourage that.

Celeste: Yeah it's very good to see. And we know that a lot of nurses and midwives experience stress, sometimes really high levels of stress. And people have probably heard that movement, exercise, activity, is really good for stress. Do you have any idea about what, is there a more effective form of exercise for stress, or is just sort of getting, you know, that really regular, frequent movement in throughout the day kind of the most beneficial way of getting our stress levels down, or helping to manage stress.

Mark: Yes, it seems that it's individual specific, and so stress is not just a generic thing that happens to us. We have different types of stress, and therefore the exercise that's most effective to combat that is quite specific. So someone, where the stress is just that overload, you know, like mental overload, too much on their mind, can't settle the mind down. It might be more like a yin yoga practice, which has that very sort of calming effect on the mind. If it's some, some stress that's more a physiological, you know, a build up of sort of tension physically in the body, then you know that, going for a good walk, brisk walk, more sort of vigorous activity, will be generally more effective. 

So horses for courses, and I think nurses and midwives are generally very good at knowing what works best for them. I think, like all of us, always, the challenge is just overriding or trying to block out what everyone else is telling us. You know, you know you should go to the gym for an hour 3 times a week, or, you know you got to walk around the lake 5 times a week. You got to do that. You should do this. And the new research comes out, but it's very individual, and so I think it's just really trusting those gut instincts about what we find best for ourselves. So, umm yeah, no one size fits all, but very, very individual.

Celeste: Mmm taking a personalized approach, I think, is probably the way to go, from what you're saying, rather than a cookie cutter, you know, everyone should just do X, Y, Z.

Mark: Yes, I agree. 

Celeste: And I think maybe also from what you're saying, adjusting, tailoring it to how you're feeling on the day of the week. For example, you might have planned to go to the gym on a day where you've woken up and you've had little sleep, or you've had a really terrible day at work, and maybe you feel like, oh, my body needs something more restful say, like you said, a slow yoga practice, or tai chi, or just a gentle walk in the park, something like that.

Mark: I love that because it reminds me of, well, in my training Ayurveda, they call it self referral wisdom, but it's throughout all the age old cultures, all the traditional sciences. And it's just that in built innate gut wisdom. And it's basically the body every single day, every minute of every day, is telling us what it most wants. You know, when we're hungry, it's telling us to eat. When we're tired, it's telling us to sleep. And it will tell us exactly, for our individual body in each moment, in each, depending on what shift, what we need. And so it will tell us whether we yeah, as you say, we need just that really calm, sort of lie down yin yoga, we need something a bit more vigorous and stimulating, and it might change from day to day or week to week. So again, that the key is just having that confidence that our body knows most about what we need, and you know what's in the latest health magazine, or the you know, what the personal trainer is telling us, or the you know, person next door

Celeste: Instagram

Mark: Yeah, Instagram, exactly. Take it on board, you know, filter it through, but yeah, sort of just really trusting our bodies that it knows whether we need more rest or more activity, and what type of activity and, and, yeah, I think that's the way to bring it together

Celeste: Listening, listening to oneself. And it's common as well for nurses and midwives to have, like, bad backs, back pain, aches and pains, injuries from repetitive movement, lifting at work. How can exercise be included for people battling these types of issues do you think, Mark?

Mark: Yeah, I think this is a really important one, I think, definitely utilising the services of trained professionals, you know, physiotherapists or doctors, etc, if there's, you know, acute injuries that need to be to be managed. But I think it also comes back to this idea we touched on at the beginning, this attention to a little bit more strength based activity. So again, Dr Peter Attia had a lot to do with, you know, as we get older, particularly, you know, balance and coordination and obviously, yeah, the lifting you speak about as nurses, particularly having that focus on strength and flexibility. So those sort of more strength based yoga type classes, where you're getting a strength benefit as well as flexibility, can be really, really important and but, yeah, obviously doing that where needed under the guidance of, you know, say, physios or professionals, where, where injuries need to be taken into account.

Yeah, the stronger we are, the better we do all these things. And particularly as we age, the research showing you know, particularly, you know, for falls and things, it's this idea of improving our balance and even downhill activities. So if we can't get to the gyms or whatever, we want, to do things ourselves, and it's a really great way to do it cheaply in our own time, is just using a slightly weighted backpack, so you have there, and there's ones you can buy that are fitted around the chest, so it distributes the weight evenly, and then walking both slight undulation, so uphills and downhills. So it's this slight downhill, this eccentric contraction of the muscles as we go downhill with a little bit of weight, which has been shown to just be fantastic for improved balance and coordination and things like that. So that's one to look into. They call it rucking, I believe. 

Celeste: I’ve read about that in Peter Attias book. Yes, it's good that one.

Mark: Yeah it’s a great book. 

Celeste: Yeah, some good little gems there. I love that. Thanks, Mark. Well, look, that's all we've got time for today. And thank you for joining us, Mark on this really important topic. We look forward to being with you next week for our discussion, which is going to be all about stress.

Mark: Look forward to it. Thanks so much. 

Celeste: Thank you, Mark. So we're only nurse or midwife in need of support, please feel free to call us on 9415 7551 to make a free and confidential appointment with one of our nurse and wife clinicians. We'll see you next time you.