Episode 127: 1 Simple Way to Ensure You're Stronger 1 Year From Today
Jan 01, 2024
Jenni
Are you currently treating your symptoms or your problems? Join us, Dr. Jake Berman and Jenny Berman, as we usher in the new year with a renewed focus on resolving core health issues rather than merely managing symptoms. We urge you to question traditional medical practices, track your progress objectively and always aim for improvement, not just maintenance.
In this enlightening episode, we also underscore the seriousness of regular health checks and the potential dangers of ignoring minor health discrepancies. Sharing from our personal experiences, we highlight the role of accountability and the benefits of having a health coach. We close by stressing the importance of setting realistic health goals, frequently assessing our capabilities, and the potential perils of overestimating our physical fitness. Join us in this journey to prioritize health and actively work towards longevity.
Check Us Out On Social Media - Facebook: @bermanwellness , @physicaltherapynaples, @Berman Golf Instagram: @berman_wellness, @bermanphysicaltherapy , @Berman Golf Youtube: Berman Golf, Berman Physical Therapy TikTok: Bermangolf, Bermanwellness
Email us - drberman@bermanpt.com jenni@bermanwellness.com
Check out our website - https://www.bermanpt.com/ https://www.bermanpt.com/wellness/ https://bermangolf.com/
Are you currently treating your symptoms or your problems? Join us, Dr. Jake Berman and Jenny Berman, as we usher in the new year with a renewed focus on resolving core health issues rather than merely managing symptoms. We urge you to question traditional medical practices, track your progress objectively and always aim for improvement, not just maintenance.
In this enlightening episode, we also underscore the seriousness of regular health checks and the potential dangers of ignoring minor health discrepancies. Sharing from our personal experiences, we highlight the role of accountability and the benefits of having a health coach. We close by stressing the importance of setting realistic health goals, frequently assessing our capabilities, and the potential perils of overestimating our physical fitness. Join us in this journey to prioritize health and actively work towards longevity.
Check Us Out On Social Media - Facebook: @bermanwellness , @physicaltherapynaples, @Berman Golf Instagram: @berman_wellness, @bermanphysicaltherapy , @Berman Golf Youtube: Berman Golf, Berman Physical Therapy TikTok: Bermangolf, Bermanwellness
Email us - drberman@bermanpt.com jenni@bermanwellness.com
Check out our website - https://www.bermanpt.com/ https://www.bermanpt.com/wellness/ https://bermangolf.com/
Speaker 1:
This is the Berman Method Podcast, featuring Dr Jake Berman and physician assistant Jenny Berman. We are here to treat problems and not symptoms. Disclaimer this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and not to treat anyone or to give medical advice. If you are interested in any information that we are giving and would like to use this for yourself, we recommend that you contact your primary care physician or reach out to us and ask us questions about yourself specifically. Enjoy.
Speaker 2:
And we're back, baby. The Berman Method of treating problems and not symptoms. 2020, 24 edition. Happy new year. We are back and ready to take charge. A new year is here, 2023 has come and gone and we are ready to be even more explicit this year, more explicit than ever. I guess myself, jenny, that we are gone. I mean, I'm not. I'm not being explicit, you're the explicit one. Dr Jake Berman, here with Jenny Berman, physician assistant.
Speaker 1:
I was actually thinking I didn't know you could get more explicit. That's more what I was thinking.
Speaker 2:
The corporate medical system does not have your best interest in mind, and that is my goal for 2024 is to be even more loud, more explicit, because it's at least on a weekly basis, if not a daily basis, where I run into somebody or hear a story of somebody that just got caught up in the medical system because they didn't question what they were being told, they just did what the old school thought process was, where the doctor told me to do it and the doctor knows best. So I'm doing it and fast forward. Five years later, they've almost completely lost their independence and they're just hanging on by a thread. They're back pain so bad, their knee pain so bad, or they can't do the things that they need to do to maintain their independence anymore. So they're just a hair away from having to sell their house or condo and go into assisted living, like I see it, at least once a week.
Speaker 1:
It's just such a slippery slope because it starts out with oh man, it kind of hurts to sit down on the ground and it's a little bit hard to get up off the ground, and then within four months, your independence is suffering.
Speaker 2:
It's right and it is a slippery slope, and that was one of the main things that I wanted to communicate today, because we are in a brand new year and my question to you, the listener, is are you stronger, more mobile, more flexible, more agile? Whatever you want to say, are you better off today than you were a year ago? Now there's a lot of you listening that are going to say yes, I am better today. Or some of you are going to say I'm no better today, but I'm no worse than I am today, and my every buttle is how do you know? Yeah, how do you know? How do you know if you are better today than you were a year ago today? How do you know? This is probably the majority of you listening probably answered I'm no better today, but I'm no worse today. How do you know you're not worse today than you were a year ago today?
Speaker 2:
And the only way that you can objectively know is if you write it down and I mentioned this a handful of times over the past year, over 2023, that one of the biggest changes I made in 2023 was I started writing down my PRs, my personal records of things that I was getting as far as sets, reps, the weight that I was lifting, the what is it called on? Peloton, the kilo cows, the K cows that I would get for a 20 minute ride or 30 minute ride. So I was writing all these things down so that I knew oh wow, four months ago I was able to do 15 reps at this weight and because of one thing or another I got away from doing that, and today I can only do nine. So I am not better than I was four months ago, but if you don't write these things down, you would never know.
Speaker 1:
That's right, and you know we've talked about all the time how I write our workouts the night before we do them, and I have thousands of workouts documented in my phone under the notes section and I'll oftentimes go back to them. I'll go back to a workout two years ago and have us repeat it and see how we feel with repeating that workout. But something you and I had talked about just last week was in the new year, so let's back up a little bit. I was a gymnast for forever, for a long time 18 years I did competitive gymnastics growing up and we were talking about how we had monthly testing. When I was in gymnastics and with the team that I was on, we had to get tested every single month. The first of the month we would do five different workouts essentially, so it was like pull-ups, jumping on the balance, beam leg lifts, something called boot scoop and boogie, and then trying to think another core exercise.
Speaker 2:
I thought it was jump roping on the balance beam.
Speaker 1:
So I was doing it.
Speaker 2:
You said jumping on the balance beam.
Speaker 1:
Jump roping on the balance beam yes, so pull-ups, jump roping, our boot scoop and boogie which that's a unique name for an exercise leg lifts and maybe sit-ups, or there was another core exercise. I'm going to have to ask my old gymnastics friends and figure it out, but it was something you and I said is at the first of the year. We're going to start doing that every month, do that testing and write down what we get each month through that testing and complete it for the 12 months of 2024 and see, we agreed to this.
Speaker 1:
If we're better in 2025 than we are at the start of 2024.
Speaker 2:
Was I part of this conversation? Yes, I was. Yes, are you sure?
Speaker 1:
Positive. We were walking when we were talking about it.
Speaker 2:
Oh no, I kind of blocked that one from my recollection. Sounds like it.
Speaker 1:
So that's a way for us to see and you know it's not just the physical attributes. You know you could be measuring other things. You could be looking at your hemoglobin A1C, which is the average of your blood sugar over 90 days. Check it quarterly this year and see is your A1C better in starting 2025 than it is today? Look at your vitamin levels. Are you taking your vitamins consistently? Check your cholesterol levels. Your cholesterol is going to be directly affected by the food that you're eating and the amount of inflammation in your body. So if your cholesterol values are not better a year from now than they are today, you are not in a better position. You are not improving or You're not progressing.
Speaker 1:
Progressing for longevity.
Speaker 2:
So that means you're regressing. You're not progressing, then you're regressing. There's no in between. Nothing alive stays the same. There's nothing alive on planet Earth that maintains status quo. You're either getting better or you're getting worse. You're either growing or you're shrinking. You're either progressing or you're regressing. Nothing can stay the same. So if you're not getting better, then you are getting worse, because time never quits, gravity never quits. It keeps going, and all you can do is try to keep getting better and better and better so that you can keep the upper hand.
Speaker 1:
And who's going to hold you accountable to it? Who's going to hold you accountable to doing that monthly physical testing for yourself or doing the blood testing, staying on track with your meal plan? Get a coach to help you stay accountable.
Speaker 2:
You know what's funny about getting a coach and staying accountable? We are. I opened up Berman PT in 2015, october 2015. And over the years, I've met a lot of clients who, on day one, I would never, ever, ever guess that this would be the person that decides that they want to continue on with monthly check-ins after their plan of care is up. So if somebody comes in for back pain on day one, I'm judging that person, saying there's no way that this person cares enough about their health to continue into a monthly check-in which everybody should do, by the way Yet they do so.
Speaker 2:
Over the years, we've accumulated quite a few people who are doing monthly 30-minute or even 60-minute check-ins with us because they know how bad life sucked when they were in that vulnerable state, when their back pain was so bad that they couldn't get out of bed or they couldn't get down on the ground or whatever it was. They never, ever, ever want to experience it again and they're willing to invest their time and their money into monthly check-ins to make sure that it never happens. And the thing that I can say with 100% honesty and clarity is that there's not a single time that somebody comes in for a monthly check-in and they're still doing their homework 100% correct. So if you're not doing your homework 100% correctly, that means you're doing it some percentage in credit and that only goes in the wrong direction as time goes on and on and on. So if you're after a month you're doing homework 95% correct and 5% incorrect, in two months it's probably going to be down to 90% correct and 10% incorrect.
Speaker 2:
Think about that. Two months after the last time you saw me it's only been 60 days since you've seen me you are now doing your homework 10% incorrectly. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to understand that the return on investment that you're going to get from said exercise is going to be minuscule or even detrimental. I mean, think about that. If you're doing an exercise 10% wrong, how do you know it's even beneficial at all and not detrimental, right I?
Speaker 1:
agree with you. I mean even for us. I'm seeing your physical therapist.
Speaker 2:
Yes, you are For my hip. I'm so proud of you.
Speaker 1:
You know, that was. I started off this podcast, this conversation, saying it's a slippery slope and I was just thinking this morning when I was on the bike, how, when I first started to see Holly I think one of the biggest Holly is the physical therapist here then I'm seeing, I think, one of the biggest things that pushed me to finally say, okay, I've got to go see Holly for my hip. I'm having hip pain. Backstory Having hip pain I couldn't sit on the floor of a Stella to play. It was affecting my quality of life to be able to sit down on the floor and play with my kid and be able to get back up. And that's a slippery slope. Four weeks ago I was having hip pain, but not to the point that I couldn't sit on the floor.
Speaker 2:
Let's make a really explicitly clear example of slippery slope because this is the reason why I wanted to talk about this today was because we were having breakfast at First Watch this weekend after the gym, and there was this group of people in front of us and there was one older lady in the group and she looked like she had to have been in her late 80s and she looked like the typical elderly person that was not independent at all. She had a death grip on what must have been her grandson, trying to weave in between the tables, trying to get to their table, and then it was a whole ordeal to help her sit down and then scoot her up to the table. And I'm just going. Oh, my goodness, this is not something that you just wake up with, you know. Granted, there are extreme examples of pathology where, yes, yesterday I was fine, today I'm not. However, the vast majority of time, when you're seeing these people in public or you're seeing them in your life, this has been going on for minimum minimum of 30 years. I mean. It happens right now to you and me in our 30s. This is when it starts happening.
Speaker 2:
When is the last time you did a cartwheel? Well, jenny, it might be different, how about? But for me I'm like a cartwheel. Why would I ever do a cartwheel? I remember I think it was probably around, I don't know, five years ago or so. I went to go do a cartwheel and I thought that I tore my adductor right off because you don't think about how much abduction so bringing your hips out to the side you don't think about how much abduction is required to do a cartwheel as a grownup, because as a kid you just did it. So I went to do it. I'm going. Oh my God, I think I just ripped my adductor. That's the muscle on the inner part of your thigh. I think I just ripped it off. I'm like, oh man.
Speaker 1:
And then you had vertigo for the rest of the day.
Speaker 2:
But that's a perfect example of a slippery slope where I didn't think that I was that bad In my mind. I thought that I could just go bang out five cartwheels in a row. You can't though because when's the last time I did it? 30 years ago.
Speaker 1:
Right, yep. And then there's the opposite of my next door neighbor from home. The grandma just turned 100 and she is still living independently, walking without a walker or a cane.
Speaker 2:
So we really got to be careful when we say those things, because everybody knows somebody where it's like. This person smokes two packs of cigarettes a day and they're 107 years old and they're still doing just fine. So exercise is bad for you. What there's always going to be an outlier. The thing that we have to remember is we've got to give ourselves a fighting chance, because at the same time that your next door neighbor's grandma just turned 100, there's somebody that's turning 70 that is deathly afraid to get down on the ground and get back up again.
Speaker 1:
Right, right, but they stopped doing it. Yes, or they stopped having their monthly check-ins, or they stopped doing their glued exercises, and that's the problem.
Speaker 2:
Yes. So I think that let's bring this thing back into New Year's, because everybody's all excited right now New Year's resolutions. Every year, all of the gyms make the vast majority of their profit margins. This month, january, everybody's excited. Let's go sign up for a year membership, because it's a better price per month than if I just do a la carte months. And they use it for the first three and a half weeks and then where did my fob go again? Where did my key swiper go again?
Speaker 1:
You don't even go.
Speaker 2:
You don't even step foot in the door anymore. So what we really should be doing today, or this week and this month is let's write down things that we're doing. How many air squats can you do in 60 seconds? How many air squats can you do in 30 seconds? How many times can you get down on the ground and get back up again without using your hands in 10 seconds? Can you touch your toes with completely straight knees in the standing position? Or how many inches away from the floor are your fingertips? Measure it. Order some other things. Cardio. How long does it take you to walk a mile? How many minutes does it take you to walk a mile? So, if you can walk a mile in 15 minutes, can you walk a mile in 10 minutes? By the time July rolls around, can you walk a mile in? I don't know. Is a 10 minute mile that fast Walking?
Speaker 1:
yes, yeah, I don't even run a 10 minute mile. A typical walking mile is generally like if you're in leisure power walking between 16 and 18 minutes.
Speaker 2:
Oh man.
Speaker 1:
So then 15 minutes would be a good pace. 14 minutes is a really good walking pace. That would be.
Speaker 2:
So the point is just measure it. Let's measure everything that we possibly can today, this week, this month, and then let's check it every single month, write it down. Are you better in February than you were in January? Are you better in March than you were in February, and so on and so forth. And the thing that you'll start to find out is something is going to happen, because it happens to me, at least on a quarterly basis, where I remember last year, in the middle of the summer, I had what was it? Oh yeah, I had the, my lymph node in my axilla swelled up. Real bad.
Speaker 1:
I got cat scratch fever from a fucking cat.
Speaker 2:
And when that lymph node swelled up in my armpit I couldn't do bench press anymore. Prior to that, I had been pushing really, really hard to get my weight and reps back up and I've been measuring it every single week so fast forward. My axilla was hurting because my lymph node swelled up and it probably took three months for it to get back to a point where I felt comfortable doing bench press again. When I looked at my numbers on what I could do on that day compared to what I had done three months prior to that, I'm like oh my goodness, it was almost half. And here we are in January and I'm still not back in January six months later, to where I was six months ago. So it happens fast and then it takes a long time to get it back. And the thing that I want everybody to take away from this is had I not written it down, it wouldn't be screamingly clear and I wouldn't realize the intensity or the severity of how bad that little three months setback actually was.
Speaker 1:
You probably wouldn't even know, you wouldn't remember what you lifted six months ago.
Speaker 2:
There's no way that I would know that I did 23 reps of 130 pounds six months ago or 135, whatever it was Like. That was really good for me. I felt really good for that. That was a lot of reps with 45 plates on the bar, my man that felt good. Now I'd be lucky to get 15 or 18. It's going in the right direction, but it's only going in that direction because I measured it.
Speaker 1:
Right, right, and this can go. You know, same thing with body composition. Don't look at the total number on the scale and say, oh, I'm, you know, one pound up from where I was last year. Big deal on the number on the scale. Let's look at your actual body composition. Is that one pound water weight, which means that maybe you're holding more inflammation? Or is that one pound muscle, so maybe you're better than you were last year? Or is that one pound fat? And what can we do to help reduce that fat and convert it over to muscle? So look at your body composition. Look at blood work, look at the numbers. Come see us so that we can check your numbers and help you to stay accountable to checking them more frequently. Doing your blood work once a year or once every five years for some of you is not okay, dr Berman.
Speaker 2:
Oh, are you talking to me? Yeah, we really should do that. I should do the blood work, we should do my food sensitivity thing again. We should set me up with the CGM monitor again.
Speaker 1:
The continuous glucose monitor. That is great objective data. Do a CGM once a month for the whole year and let's see if your blood sugar is staying stable or improving, especially through hunting and holiday season.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I actually meant to tell you that I was going to sign up with Katie and make her do a CGM with me and I think it's a great idea.
Speaker 1:
It's a great idea. The CGM really is helps a lot of people to hold them accountable. So, even if you don't have an issue with diabetes or even pre-diabetes, the CGM the continuous glucose monitor it's a monitor that checks your blood sugar every minute of the day for 24 hours a day for 10 days, can be very helpful just to hold you accountable to the meal plan and making sure you're getting enough protein and improving your muscle mass.
Speaker 2:
Accountable definitely keeps you. The thing that helps it helps the most with, though, is clarity Right, because I've been living with you and living in this world for how many years? And it wasn't until I put that thing on a year ago that I saw how much my blood sugar levels were directly affected in a positive way with more vegetables and more protein and I know I mentioned this a couple of times historically on this podcast. I thought that I was eating enough protein and enough veggies. I thought I was doing a pretty darn good job, and my blood sugar never dropped below 100, I think it was.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it was staying pretty consistent above 100.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it wasn't spiking crazy, but it just wasn't dropping and I'm going. What the hell is going on? And Jenny, of course, is in the background mumbling and whispering thing. Maybe you should eat a little more vegetables, a little more protein. I'm like, what do you know?
Speaker 1:
Because I've been telling you that for a long time You've been telling me that for five years.
Speaker 2:
What do you know? So finally, on day seven out of 10, I'm like screw it. And I mowed down some broccoli one night and I forced myself to eat almost double the amount of protein chicken or beef, whatever, or not beef, but venison, whatever it was and it dropped like a brick. My blood sugar dropped like a brick. First time it dropped into the 80s, since I was wearing it for seven days and I'm not a bad drop, but drop to normal.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, drop to where it should have been and I'm going. Son of a gun, all right, damn it.
Speaker 1:
Jenny might know what she's talking about.
Speaker 2:
Yep, yep. So anyways, it made it explicitly clear to me because I thought I knew what the answer was, but it wasn't until I saw the numbers. I'm going oh shit, I don't know what the answers are. So, yeah, I'm going to sign up and do it again.
Speaker 1:
It's objective, for it's not the same for everybody. So some people, their blood sugar levels will increase, which, when your blood sugar level is higher, your body's going to hold on to more fat. Number one, number two it slows down your metabolism, can cause brain fog, tea cravings, there's all sorts of things that go along with it. But for some people, food sensitivities will increase their blood sugar. Not getting enough fiber in the meal plan will cause the blood sugar levels to rise consistently, eating too much saturated fat. So stress is a big one. It's different for everybody, but the CGM allows us to see objective data on where is the problem coming from. Okay, good, happy.
Speaker 2:
New Year everybody, happy New Year. So big take home message for today is write it down. Write down whatever you're doing today physically, whatever you're doing this week physically, whatever you're doing this month physically, even if you're not writing down exercises. How many times can you get down on the ground and back up again in 10 seconds? How many air squats can you do in 30 seconds or 60 seconds? Write it down and then see if you're better one month from today. See if you're better six months from today, nine months, 12 months from today, in January 2025, pull out your note and see am I really better today than I was a year ago?
Speaker 2:
This is the last thing that I'll leave you with, because I tell or I ask this question to so many of my clients on day one. So every single seminar that I give, every country club that I go into and give a talk, I ask people this question and I say does anybody in here plan on dying in the next year? And everybody always laughs and like what are you talking about? I'm like, seriously, if you don't plan on dying in the next year, why don't you plan on being better a year from today than you are right now, more physically able a year from today than you are right now, better numbers on your blood work a year from today than you are right now.
Speaker 2:
Because the thing that you don't realize sometimes is that the body has the ability to get better until the day you die. So you have the ability to hypertrophy. Muscles have the ability to hypertrophy and get bigger and stronger until the day you die. So there's no age limit where it's like screw it, I'm done, I can't do it anymore. If you don't plan on dying in the next year, then why not plan on being better a year from now than you are today? The only way that it's going to happen is you freaking, write it down and measure it.
Speaker 1:
Measure it progress, not regress. Good, Great.
Speaker 2:
All right.
Speaker 1:
Happy New Year everybody.
Speaker 2:
Like, subscribe. Share this thing, baby, share it. Let's get excited, let's get pumped. The motivation without action is worthless.
Speaker 1:
Worthless Chat for now. Thank you for subscribing on your social media and podcast platforms to the Berman Method Dr Jake Berman with Berman Physical Therapy and Jenny Berman, physician Assistant, with Berman Health and Wellness. You can find more information on our website wwwbermanptcom for physical therapy bermanptcom for health and wellness. You can also find us on social media, facebook, instagram and on your podcast platforms, so be sure to follow us, like us, subscribe to us and, if you would like any further information, definitely visit our website and reach out to us. You may also find our free reports on the websites as well, where you can download this free information for yourself. Have a great day.