The Berman Method
The Berman Method
Episode #195: Life Hack to Achieve More Success with your Goals!
Tired of being told there's no solution for your chronic health problems? The Berman Method offers a revolutionary approach to taking control of your own health journey.
Dr. Jake Berman and PA Jenni Berman take on the corporate medical system that consistently chooses profits over patient outcomes. Their David versus Goliath approach empowers patients to become what they playfully call "ask-holes" – persistent question-askers who refuse to accept inadequate answers about their health. This episode delivers practical strategies for reclaiming your health autonomy in a system not designed to prioritize your wellbeing.
The podcast introduces listeners to the groundbreaking StemPod technology, a non-invasive treatment that "reboots" damaged nerves to address conditions like neuropathy, sciatica, and other nerve-related issues conventionally considered "incurable." Unlike traditional approaches that mask symptoms with medications like Gabapentin, the StemPod targets root causes. Dr. Berman announces an upcoming free workshop featuring world-renowned neurology specialist Dr. Collins, offering a rare opportunity for those suffering from complex nerve conditions.
Perhaps the most powerful takeaway from this episode centers on the transformative impact of documentation. The Bermans share their personal system of monthly fitness testing and how writing down results has revealed patterns, breakthroughs, and plateaus that would otherwise go unnoticed. Dr. Berman recounts pushing through a mental barrier during his toes-to-bar exercise, achieving what felt physically impossible moments earlier – all because he had documented his previous performance and set a concrete goal.
Whether you're struggling with a chronic condition, trying to optimize your fitness routine, or simply wanting to take a more proactive approach to your health, this episode delivers actionable insights that challenge the status quo of passive patienthood. Ready to stop accepting "no cure" narratives and start taking your health into your own hands? The Berman Method shows you how.
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 rolling with the Berman Method podcast, dr Jake Berman here with my beautiful co-host, jenny Berman, physician assistant. We are, david, going against Goliath, goliath being the corporate medical system, big pharma, health insurance companies. They do not have your best interests in mind. They will choose profits over patient outcomes every single time, because they're businesses. You can't blame them. You just have to get smarter. You have to take your own health into your own power and do your own research and ask questions. Become an ask-hole. Become like Vera, our two-year-old right now. Holy cow, can I have a cookie? No, can I have a cookie? No, can I have a cookie? No, can I have a cookie? No. And this game just goes on, and on, and on and on until one of us breaks.
Speaker 1:We try to redirect, we try other offers. Just keep asking. Eventually somebody will say yes.
Speaker 2:Eventually somebody will say yes, become an askhole. So that's what we're doing. We're trying to spread knowledge and real quick plug. We've got an awesome workshop coming up here in the brick and mortar location here in downtown Naples this July 18th and 19th for our new StemPod machine. Stempod is ridiculous. It's groundbreaking technology. Nobody else in Southwest Florida has this. It specializes in neuropathy, sciatica, anything nerve related. It even helps out a lot with incontinence, vagal nerve stimulation. So this machine is ridiculous. It's got a patented technology on how it reboots nerves. That's the simplest way to say it. It's got a pulse on it that reboots your nerve and allows it to heal and the surrounding tissues to heal.
Speaker 1:Yes, and it's non-invasive, not painful.
Speaker 2:Non-invasive, non-painful, Takes five minutes to do it and we're doing a workshop this Friday, July 18th. So we'll have two time frames one at two o'clock, one at six o'clock PM and then one Saturday morning at 9am, and we're doing three of these workshops because it's going to fill up.
Speaker 1:It already is filling up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're two weeks out right now. So by the time this podcast airs will be one week out, and this is ridiculous. This is the most exciting thing since sliced bread when it comes to neuropathy, nerve pain, sciatica so reach out, drberman at bermanptcom, text me, email me 239-431-0232. You got to know somebody with neuropathy. Everybody knows somebody, and it's one of those diagnoses that really fits in with what we're preaching here on this podcast, where there's no cure for it, there's no solution for neuropathy, diabetic neuropathy, nerve pain, numbness, tingling in the feet the doctors pretty much just say take gabapentin and good luck.
Speaker 2:And gabapentin makes you feel like crap. Right.
Speaker 1:Nothing helps, right? They're not looking at the problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's actually causing it? So you have to know somebody. Reach out, because this is a game changer for them. This will dramatically improve their quality of life and we can mail these units out across the country. So if you're listening to this episode, not in Naples Florida reach out to me, because we've mailed out quite a few of these StemPod units to my clients that are snowbirds out of town for the summer. So there's my plug for StemPod the workshop is free.
Speaker 1:The workshop is free. It's a free workshop July 18th and 19th.
Speaker 2:Yep, 90 minutes long. Because, oh crap, I forgot the most exciting part. We're flying in world-renowned neurology specialist, dr Collins, who he's one of the front runners of this machine, so he's flying in for these workshops. Holy cow, how did I forget the most important part, the most exciting part?
Speaker 1:That, yes is astounding. It's not always about me, jamie, so Dr Collins is coming.
Speaker 2:Yes, we're flying in Dr Collins and he is going to co-treat. He's going to train our whole entire staff, more than we've already been trained, and he is going to help us treat the most complicated cases we can possibly come up with Friday morning in preparation for the workshop, at two o'clock and at six o'clock on Friday and then nine o'clock on Saturday.
Speaker 1:So if you are struggling or know someone struggling, maybe they can work one-on-one with Dr Collins.
Speaker 2:Yes, the most complicated cases. We're trying to find five minimum, a minimum of five of the most complicated cases we can possibly find of diabetic neuropathy, neuropathy, nerve pain, sciatica, carpal tunnel, maybe even incontinence, vagal anxiety, incontinence vagal anxiety those kind of things. Awesome, that's exciting.
Speaker 1:July 18th.
Speaker 2:Yep Friday July 18th and Saturday July 19th.
Speaker 1:So reach out ASAP, drberman at bermanptcom or text 239-4310-232. Okay, good, awesome.
Speaker 2:Shifting gears? Yes, to what?
Speaker 1:Well, you're just so proud of yourself right now. I am proud of myself. Tell us more. Why are you so proud of yourself on July? Whatever the beginning of July? What happens at the beginning of every month?
Speaker 2:Monthly testing. So we've talked about this quite a few times over the months and even years on this podcast how Jenny and I do monthly testing in the gym at the beginning of every month. So the first Sunday of every month we go through five to six exercises to do monthly testing to see if we're progressing, regressing or just flatlining, essentially. And Jenny comes up with these exercises every January and we test the first Sunday of every month throughout the entire year, all 12 months, all 12 months, so that we can see how far we've come or not over the course of a year.
Speaker 1:And the most important part is, we don't just do the testing, we write it down.
Speaker 2:We write it down.
Speaker 1:We have a running note in our phone that we share that has both of our stats and, every month of the stats, the results, so that we can see each month if we're progressing, regressing or staying the same.
Speaker 2:Yes, and this is something that you guys just have to do. You have to start writing it down, and it doesn't have to be an exercise. It could be anything Like literally. It could be anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Mental health gratitude.
Speaker 2:Anything, milestones, you just have to write it down. If you want to get better at it, right. If you don't want to get better at it, quit talking about it.
Speaker 1:Right, I was just talking about this last week with one of my clients that I was seeing, as we were talking about where she was two years ago versus now.
Speaker 1:She went through some tough stuff I'm going to just call it stuff difficult things at home and in her overall life, has had a lot of stress over the last 18 months and certainly she has recognized that she put some things on the back burner in terms of taking care of herself over the last 18 months.
Speaker 1:It has not stopped her from working with us in our practice and we've been with her through every step of the way of all the stress that she's been going through and she should have regressed a lot more than she actually did. But we started talking about what she was doing two years ago or 18 months ago that really worked for her and because we were writing things down at that time, we were able to go back in her food logs, in her activity log, in her journaling back 18 months ago and see what she was doing that actually really worked for her at the time and just re-implement it. So not just about writing down to see your progression over the last one month, three months, six months, nine months, one year, but even going back to say, okay, what did I do 18 months ago that I can repeat now and do even better love it, love it, love it, love it.
Speaker 2:And if it wasn't written down, that wouldn't be possible. And then you're sitting there spinning your wheels trying to figure it out again, versus wait a minute. Here's the answer. Here's the playbook, right here. It's kind of like water boy right. The other coach stole the playbook and so he kept winning. It's much easier to win when you have the playbook.
Speaker 1:We're not about stealing, however, when you have the playbook Right Right, Papi Boucher. We're not about stealing, however, no, you just have to. When you have it written down, yeah, yes.
Speaker 2:So I do have to bring up one example of my monthly testing yesterday, where I went through and I looked at all of my numbers that I've gotten the previous month and for whatever reason, I had a vendetta yesterday and I was like I'm going to go hard in the paint and I'm going to beat every single one of these. Was my plan. Going into it and right out of the gate, all right, cool Did better on pull-ups. All right, cool Did better on bench press. All right, cool Did better on my rower. And then I kept avoiding doing one that I've not changed in six months Hanging toes to bar.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So I, at the beginning of the workout, before I did anything, I looked at hanging toes to bar and I'm like shit, it really hasn't changed since January. It's been 18 to 20. And it's gone up, down, up, down, up down, nothing, just flatline. It hasn't changed really, from January. So I go okay, quit avoiding this one, do this one next and you're going to do 21.
Speaker 1:In a minute.
Speaker 2:In one minute.
Speaker 1:Yep, it's all timed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in one minute. I'm like okay, the goal is 21. So I start doing them and I start out doing really really good, felt really good for the first 10, 12, 14, 15, doing okay, 16, getting tired, 17, getting really tired, 18,. It felt like I hit a wall, an absolute wall. I wanted to drop off the bar and I'm going there. How in the world am I going to do three more? And at that time the timer was at 12 seconds and I'm going just go, mother ever.
Speaker 2:And somehow I figured out a way to get up to number 19. I'm like keep going. Your shoulders feel like they're about to fall out of the socket. My grip strength. I'm slipping off the bar. Do another one. And my toes went up and touched the bar again and there was three seconds left. One more, just do the one more. And I don't know how, but I figured out a way to do one more and I did 21 in 60 seconds and I had not done that in six months.
Speaker 2:And the thing that I want to bring up is my brain told me to give up at 18. Like, I hit a wall at 18. I was done. I couldn't do another one at 18. But I set the goal for 21. So there's this mental battle that you have to do to say, okay, my body was given out at 18, but my brain was saying you can't give out, you have to keep going. But my body was saying there's no chance, you can do three more. How did you even make it 18? But my brain's going you have to make it 21 and somehow figured out a way to make it 21. Now the point of this is that if I'd never written it down, there's a really good chance that I would have stopped at 16. Right.
Speaker 2:And then how many months would I do that? Right. How many months would turn into how many years. And the next thing, you know, 10 years has passed by and you're going. Okay, I've done a lot of work, I've worked out for 10 years now, but I really don't see anything different. I don't feel anything different, right?
Speaker 1:And we're just aging and as we age we know that muscle mass naturally starts to decline if we're not doing the right things to support muscle mass. Not doing the right things to support muscle mass and exercising every day, walking every day, riding your bike every day, getting in the pool every day by itself is probably not enough to prevent the sarcopenia, this loss of muscle mass, from occurring. But with fueling your body appropriately and pushing yourself and writing things down, we are able to combat that. But the point is is, if you were doing, you know, 10 or 12 of these 10 years from now, you've actually regressed quite a bit because you're aging, you're losing muscle mass and you're doing less exactly right what you're talking about right there.
Speaker 2:How many times do we have clients come in in their 60s, 70s, 80s saying, yeah, I exercise every single day and I'm going okay, well, what is the routine? And you've seen these people. You might be, you the listener, you might be one of these people where, yeah, I exercise every day. You go into the gym and you do the same exact routine, the same sets, the same reps, the same weight, every single day. You might very want a fraction here or a percent there, but you're doing the same thing every single day. And what Jenny's saying is, if you do the same thing every single day, as you get older you're actually getting weaker.
Speaker 1:Right, you're doing less yeah.
Speaker 2:I guess hard to conceptualize that, but if you write it down on a graph on paper and you see it, it's true. So you have to find a way to write it down and progress something, whether it's sets, reps, intensity, frequency, duration, something has to progress every single day. Or it's technically not exercise, it's just work by definition. It's just work because exercise is, by definition, progressive.
Speaker 1:Right, right, it's improving in something the reps, the weight, the intensity, the sets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can't just walk five miles every single day in the same exact time and call it exercise.
Speaker 1:That's just work. Well, sure, and you know, walking is good. It's not building strength.
Speaker 2:It's not. Here's a perfect example. I've noticed this a lot over the past couple of months. If I go two weeks without riding the Peloton, for whatever reason, I'm running elliptical stairmaster, whatever. I just haven't done the Peloton in two weeks and then I do the Peloton, I want to die and my numbers are horrible. It's 50% less than what a good quote, unquote good ride for me is. But I've been doing cardio, I've been running. Right.
Speaker 2:I've been doing the elliptical stair master. It's just different because you quit doing it. But then if I do the Peloton three days in a row it goes up 50%. What I can do on the third day compared to the first day.
Speaker 1:Right right, different muscle activation, different type of cardio, different strength. But the point is we have to be changing things up. We can't do the same thing every day and we need to write it down. We need to perform different exercises, different reps, different sets, different weights, but we need to write it down so that we can see the progression reps, different sets, different weights, but we need to write it down so that we can see the progression. So if we do a workout, you know we do a different workout Monday through Friday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday then the next week we go back and repeat that same week. We should be able to progress in some way and that's an appropriate way to actually exercise, versus doing the same routine Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday.
Speaker 2:I love that and that's what I've been doing since January. Before we had kids, I used to work out with Jenny every single morning. She writes her workouts every single night and it's a different workout every single day. So there was constant muscle confusion and I never had to think I just would do whatever she told me to do and it was great. Then we have kids and then we were on opposite schedules and I was left on my own to just do my own thing. So I've been working out for five years on my own, thinking that I'm doing a good job.
Speaker 2:But the objective reality is I'm not, because I wasn't writing anything down.
Speaker 2:And if I did write it down, I wasn't consistently writing it down. So in January we mentioned this back in January or February I signed up with a virtual personal trainer that came with an app and every single day the workout was written down and all I had to do is punch in sets, reps, resistance, how much weight I used, and then the very next week, doing the same exact exercise. I can see what I did the previous week. So now I could say oh, this is what I did last week. I did 20 pounds 10 times, so today I'm going to do 20 pounds 11 times, or I'm going to do 25 pounds 10 times. Whatever it was, I could see what I did a week ago and it just gives you a little bit more mental clarity on what the actual goal is. The goal is not 20 pounds 10 times, week after week after week, but if you don't write it down, you don't know what you did last week, so you won't push yourself to do something different this week.
Speaker 1:Right, right. And then changing the workouts on a monthly basis. So you might do the same thing every Monday for a month, every Tuesday for a month, every Wednesday, now that they change day to day. Monday to Tuesday, tuesday to Wednesday are all different, but then the next month we're doing a totally different set of exercise, and that's a good way to get your body into a routine. So you're moving your body five days a week. You're in a routine every day the same time you're going to work out, you're doing the same duration of your workout 30 minutes, 40 minutes but doing different exercises, and then just put that on repeat for a month. The next month we change it up.
Speaker 2:Yes, love it.
Speaker 1:Write it down and not just exercise. As you mentioned. Meal planning deciding what meals you're going to cook for the week. Write it down on Sunday, write out where you're going to cook, buy the groceries for it. Then you have a plan set up for Monday through Friday to be able to perform those meals that we've decided upon. Then it's chosen for you.
Speaker 1:You don't have to think about it. We don't have to succumb to fast food at the end of the day because we just don't know what we're going to eat. But we also then can go back to our meal plans and say, okay, I'm stuck on ideas, let's go back to a meal plan from four months ago and see what we ate for the week and choose those meals again. So we have something that we can fall back onto to keep us into a solid routine. It could be with your mental health tasks that you need to be doing on a daily basis. It could be writing things down as far as what you were able to complete in the day and what you got checked off your list. It doesn't have to be just about exercise.
Speaker 2:Just write it down Awesome, good yeah. So remember, stem pod workshops coming up July 18, july 19,. We've got three openings Friday, july 18, 2pm. Friday, july 18, 6pm. Saturday, july 19, 9am. There's 10 seats max in each one of those three and at the time of this recording we're almost 50% filled. So if you know somebody that needs to be at this free workshop for neuropathy diabetic neuropathy, sciatica, nerve pain, incontinence, vagal nerve stimulation please, please, please, reach out today, listening to this podcast today, reach out today and even if you're virtual, if you're not in Naples, reach out anyways, because I've got something for you too.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Happy Monday everybody. Ciao, 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. Wwwbermanptcom forward slash wellness for the health and wellness. You can also find us on social media Facebook, instagram and on your podcast platform, 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.