Episode #220: Back and Knee Pain: The Silent Thieves of Independence

In this episode of the Berman Method Podcast, Dr. Jake Berman and physician assistant Jenni Berman take a candid look at the realities of today’s healthcare system and why true longevity requires more than traditional “sick care.” They discuss the growing challenges patients face with insurance-driven medicine and shift the conversation toward what actually helps people maintain strength, independence, and quality of life as they age.

Wrapping up their five essential physical pillars for longevity, the Bermans focus on one of the biggest predictors of long-term health: living without chronic knee or back pain. They break down why pain is not an inevitable part of aging, how muscle inefficiencies—especially weak or inactive glutes and core—drive most non-traumatic back issues, and why strength, mobility, and proper movement patterns matter more than imaging results or diagnoses alone.

Through real patient experiences and personal stories, this episode highlights practical ways to protect mobility, prevent injury, and “arrive at 80 feeling 60”—proving that staying active, capable, and pain-free is achievable at any stage of life.

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Transcript

Rant On Insurance And Sick Care

Speaker 0:00

We are back, baby, with the Berman Method Podcast, treating problems, not symptoms. Dr. Jake Berman here, my beautiful co-host. Jenni Berman, physician assistant. We are David going against Goliath. Goliath, we in the corporate medical system, big pharmaceutical companies. Your health insurance companies, they don't care about you. It's not health care, it's sick care. Come on.

Speaker 4 0:24

Correct. They don't care about your anti-aging and longevity. They don't. Or really anything, actually.

Speaker 0:32

I don't know what they do care about other than profits.

Speaker 4 0:34

Yes, that is what they care about.

Speaker 0:36

They care about denying.

Speaker 4 0:38

Deny? Deny.

Speaker 0:40

100% of claims are denied on the first attempt.

Speaker 4 0:45

100%.

Speaker 0:46

I don't know. I'm just making that up. But that's what it feels like. Yeah, based off of our experience, I can't imagine that that's far off. I mean, 100% of the time that we've submitted on the first time, it's been denied.

Speaker 4 0:58

Correct.

Speaker 0:58

That's a fact.

Speaker 4 0:59

Yes. Or yes. At least they'll come back with some bogus number, and then we're like, no.

Speaker 1:08

We'll cover 28 cents on this $14,000 procedure.

Speaker 2 1:14

$625 on a $12,000 bill.

Speaker 1:17

It's like, what world are we living in here?

Speaker 2 1:21

Anyway.

Speaker 1:21

But that is the world that we're living in right now where things have changed. They've changed so much so fast. I mean, it's really not that long ago where if you had a good insurance, everything was covered.

Speaker 4 1:34

Right.

Speaker 1:35

Everything.

Speaker 4 1:35

Yes.

Speaker 1:36

I mean, I guess it was a long time ago when you say it out loud, 20 years ago.

Speaker 3 1:41

Right.

Speaker 1:42

But that's what it was. It was 20 years ago. And the challenge that people are running into now is that it's taken a while to affect everybody.

Speaker 4 1:52

Right. And but now more and more and more people are experiencing that and just saying, like, what am I paying for?

Speaker 2:01

I can't tell you how many times when I opened up Berman Physical Therapy in 2015, we never took insurance. I never took it. Not one time did we ever even consider taking it because I previous two jobs that I had did take insurance and it was nonstop. And I tell the story time and time again. The final straw for me to make the decision that when I did open up my own practice that I would not take insurance was in the last place that I worked, I found myself trying to get really articulate with my documentation so that I could justify medical necessity for somebody who had Medicare and they ran out of their quote unquote visits for the year, because Medicare only gives you X amount of visits for physical therapy services for a year because of this crazy thing that happened with legislation where they put a comma instead of a period. Don't hold me to that, but it was this this silly where they combine in physical therapy and occupational therapy or something like that. And it was literally the reason why physical therapy services were limited was because of they put a period instead of a comma or a comma instead of a period. This was 30 years ago.

Speaker 4 3:20

Right, right.

Speaker 3:21

But that's the world that we live in. So in my last job, I'm sitting here spending 20 minutes on figuring out how I can uh document this patient who needed clearly needed more service. But I'm like, I I gotta get cutesy and say that this is medically necessary for them to keep coming here, but it had to be linked to ADLs, and if you couldn't link it the right way, then it was gonna deny coverage and it was gonna put the clinic at risk for being audited. And I'm going, what the F is happening right now?

Speaker 4 3:53

Right. You have to figure out a way to for the insurance company and say, okay, yes, they need to keep coming back for physical therapy when you know they need to be coming back, or asking the right questions. I had to do this in internal medicine. I had to ask questions where I knew I would get the patient to say the answer that I needed them to say in order to document it that way, to order whatever testing I needed to order when it came to blood work or further testing. I had to like, yeah, just figure out okay, what exactly can I ask them for them to respond the exact right way that I need them to respond for me to document this?

Speaker 4:32

That's exactly what I'm talking about. So some 75-year-old male with back pain that's limiting his ability to play golf comes in for physical therapy. And I have to say, Well, I can't treat you to get you back on the golf course.

Speaker 3 4:49

Right.

Speaker 4:49

Are you sure that your back pain doesn't limit your ability to get dressed in the morning? Right. Wink, wink.

Speaker 4 4:57

Nodding your head yes as you're asking the question.

Speaker 5:00

Nodding my head yes and winking like they're like Bob's like, Do you have something in your eye?

Speaker 2 5:05

Yeah, dude.

Speaker 5:07

I'm like, no, are you sure that your back doesn't limit your ability to don and doff your shoes and socks? That means put on and put off. I'm going, this is a freaking joke.

Speaker 2 5:18

Right.

Speaker 5:18

This is a joke. And this was 15, 20 years ago.

Speaker 4 5:21

I was asked by questions. I'm nodding my head. Do you have fatigue?

Speaker 5:27

Nodding your head, yes.

Speaker 4 5:28

Yes, yes, I do. Okay, great. Thank you.

Speaker 5:32

So that's where we were 15 years ago. It has just gotten just brutal, absolutely brutal in the past six to eighteen months. Where it's not healthcare, it is black and white sick care. Because a patient cured is a customer lost. You have to realize that that is truth. A patient cured is a customer loss. That's why 100% of pharmaceutical medications don't cure anything. I mean, sky rizzy. Like, let's see if we can get in trouble by one. Just all no, I see the commercials every freaking night. But these results happen after you take this consistently every single day for three and a half to four and a half years in four percent of the demographic. Right.

Speaker 4 6:20

Yeah. You're modest moderate to severe.

Speaker 6:24

Like, think about that for a minute. This medication works if you take it every day for four years and it's gonna work for six percent of the population that takes it.

Speaker 1 6:32

Right.

unknown 6:33

Yeah.

Speaker 6:34

But oh my gosh, I'm glad we could start this thing off with raising my blood pressure through the roof.

Why We Chose Cash-Based Care

Speaker 2 6:40

That's not even what we wanted to talk about today.

Speaker 6:42

Yeah, so today we're wrapping everything up with the fifth thing, the fifth physical thing that contributes to your overall ability to maintain a high quality of life and dominate the second half of your life and arrive at 80 feeling 60. And if you're already 80, kick 90's ass.

Speaker 4 6:59

Right.

Speaker 7:00

Number one was balance. Yes, single-leg balance, number two was bending over and touching your toes. So in a standing position with straight knees, bending over and touching your toes, even if you've never been able to do it before in your life, you should be able to.

Speaker 4 7:16

We've already had some people like, hey, I've been practicing what you said on your podcast, and I'm so surprised at how much improvement I had in just like five minutes of working on it. Yeah. So if you missed that episode, go back.

Speaker 7:29

Yeah.

Speaker 4 7:29

Touching your toes.

Speaker 7:30

And then number three was getting down on the ground and back up again. Why are you shaking your head? No.

Speaker 4 7:36

You missed one. Walking for 60 seconds, 60 minutes.

Speaker 7:39

I thought that was number four.

Speaker 4 7:40

No, that was three.

Speaker 7:42

Okay. So number three is walking for 60 sec 60 minutes.

Speaker 4 7:46

60 minutes.

Speaker 7:46

With relatively no complaints. Like you don't have to stop and rest. And then number four is getting down on the ground and back up again. Correct. Are you sure?

Speaker 4 7:56

I'm sure.

Speaker 7:57

Okay. Doesn't matter. They're all very important. Yes. Without using your hands, because that's a single greatest predictor of your quality of life. Think about that. If you can't get down on the ground and get back up again, your life becomes more confined. I'm not going to go garden anymore because what if I fall? Right. I can't get back up again. I'm not going to go out and play catch with my grandkids when their parents are gone. Because what if I fall? My grandkids can't help me back up.

Speaker 4 8:30

Right.

Speaker 8:31

So you stop doing it.

Speaker 4 8:32

Speaking of that, we saw somebody fall down an escalator and they were able to get back up. It was quite incredible. Oh my gosh. And they had to have been upper 60s, 70s. I don't know.

Speaker 8:43

I every bit of 70s.

Speaker 4 8:44

Yeah.

Speaker 8:45

We were going down the escalator at the Miami boat show.

Speaker 4 8:49

Yeah. He was going up an escalator.

Speaker 8:51

And he fell down.

Speaker 4 8:54

He fell down going the on the up.

Speaker 8:56

Oh my gosh. Like this was right next to us.

Speaker 4 8:59

And there was nothing we could do.

Speaker 9:01

There was nothing. Talk about feeling helpless. Yeah. There was literally nothing we could do. Like our hands are filled with kids and well, and we're on the opposite side of the escalator. We're gonna just jump over it. Well, I could. I mean, I'm athletic enough that I could do that if I except if you would have done that.

Speaker 4 9:17

You were holding a double bob stroller going down an escalator.

Speaker 9:24

Yeah, so it just was not good. It was not a good situation. So he was able to get back up again.

Speaker 4 9:32

Yes.

Speaker 9:32

That was the best part. That was the absolute best part. But think about that. How many of you could fall down an escalator and get back up again?

Speaker 4 9:43

Right. And he did with no help, really. So yes, you have to be able to get down and off the ground and get back up again. God forbid you fall down an escalator. Hopefully that never happens to anybody. However, you just can't live in fear. Like you have to be able to get yourself up.

Speaker 10:00

So the best part of this whole experience, none of it was good, right? Some guy fell down the escalator. Luckily, he was able to get back up again. Nothing was great. Yeah, I couldn't believe there was no blood. Nothing visible, anyways. Yeah. I mean, who knows what was happening internally. But he gets he the he gets to the top of the escalator because it never stopped moving.

Speaker 3 10:19

Right.

Speaker 10:20

He gets to the top and gets off of it, and some guy is frantically down at the bottom of the escalator to looking for the button to stop it. The guy gets off and is, you know, gone. And the guy finally finds the button and says, Stop.

Speaker 4 10:35

And turns the escalator off. After he was already off. You know, even again, like none of it was good, but I I guess he was holding a camera when he fell because the first thing he did when he stood up goes, What happened to the camera? And I'm all, dude, what about you? Like, are you okay? Not the camera.

Speaker 10:54

Fell down metal, sharp stairs.

Speaker 4 10:57

Oh, it's horrible. Okay, anyway, so.

Speaker 10:59

So that was all four.

Speaker 4 11:00

Yes.

Speaker 11:01

Now the fifth one. This one's big. They're all big, but this one's really big. Not having knee pain or back pain.

unknown 11:10

Right.

Speaker 11:11

Now, when you hear that on a superficial level, the first thing that you say is, that's not me, or you say, That is me, but I just deal with it.

Speaker 4 11:20

And it's never gonna go away.

Speaker 11:21

And it's never gonna go away. I just have a bad back. Now, here's the thing that you have to understand is that knee pain and back pain are the two places in your whole entire body that directly negatively affect your ability to live.

Speaker 4 11:38

Right.

Speaker 11:39

Because if your right knee hurts, it's really hard to walk without your right knee.

The Five Physical Pillars Recap

Speaker 4 11:46

Or yeah, balance, get down on the ground, get back up. It affects all the things that you have to be able to do.

Speaker 11:52

It does, but where I was going with that is if your right shoulder hurts, you don't have to use your shoulder to walk. Right. So you could still live a pretty full life if you've got shoulder pain.

Speaker 4 12:07

Yes.

Speaker 12:08

Like you can still live, you can still walk, you can still travel, you can still go to your grandkids' sporting events and sit in the stands.

Speaker 4 12:15

Right.

Speaker 12:16

But if you have knee pain, that's not true.

Speaker 4 12:19

Right. Can't walk, not gonna climb the bleachers.

Speaker 12:23

If you have back pain, it's really not true. Yeah, it's not true at all. At least with knee pain, you can kind of favor and get off the bad knee onto the quote unquote good knee until that good knee goes bad. Right. But with back pain, you can't do anything about it. You feel it every movement that you make.

Speaker 4 12:42

Upper body, lower body, feet, everywhere.

Speaker 12:46

And the thing about it is, it will get worse. Back pain and knee pain will get worse. It never stays the same unless you do something about it.

Speaker 4 12:59

Right. I was gonna say, unless you come to Berman Health Club. Unless you come to us.

Speaker 13:03

Back pains are bread and butter. It really is. I mean, back pain is so simple, not easy. It's so simple, not easy, because the number one cause of back pain is a weak butt. Weak ass syndrome. Like we're not we're being blunt on here, not weak butt. Got it. Weak ass syndrome. So the number one cause of non-traumatic back pain is inefficiencies in your glutes. It doesn't necessarily mean they're weak, it just means they're inefficient because there's a lot of times where we have people come in who can do squats and lunges. Jenni's raising her hand right now. Covering my face. Are you covering your face and raising your hand? You're saying.

Speaker 4 13:45

It's me, but don't look at me.

Speaker 13:47

It's me, but don't look at me. You like our dog when it's in trouble. I did it, but I'm gonna hide under my paws.

Speaker 1 13:56

Yeah.

Speaker 13:57

So right now we're we're training for this competition, this exercise competition called HyROX, which is absolutely insane. And one of the things that you have to do in this competition is walking lunges for a hundred meters with how much weight.

Speaker 4 14:13

I'm at 35, you're at 45 or 33 and 44.

Speaker 14:18

Yeah, so it doesn't sound like it's that much weight, but if you realize what that particular task is sprinkled into, it's like you run 0.62 miles and then you ski erg a thousand meters, and then you run point two six point two miles, then you do a hundred wall balls.

Speaker 4 14:39

Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of things. And the lunges are like second or third to last of the strength after you've already run four plus miles.

Speaker 14:49

Right. So if you watch Jenni train for this thing, she puts me to shame with these walk-in lunges, and we're pretty much, for all intents and purposes, lifting the same amount of weight. Like I got the bar on my back, which is 45 pounds, and Jenni has the bar on her back, which is 45 pounds. I'm like, don't you want to do less? She goes, No, you over-train so that you can be prepared for the competition.

Speaker 4 15:12

That's right. Train heavy.

Speaker 15:15

So I make it halfway, I make it 50 meters, and I'm going, oh my gosh, I'm shaking my legs out. This is crazy. My glutes are on fire. And Jenni just turns around and just keeps going, no real brakes. And I'm going, man, she's really, really strong. But but but her butt might not be as efficient. So there are times where you get a little tweaky, not twerky, right? But your back just feels a little like, oh, that's kind of weird. And it just happened four weeks ago.

Speaker 4 15:48

Yeah. Yes, trying to feed my kid at the kitchen table.

Speaker 15:53

You're sitting on the bar stool at our house, and you twist to your left to feed Vera a bite because she had just broken her arm and she's helpless, poor thing, helpless. And you almost hit the ground because your back went out.

Speaker 3 16:10

I did. Yeah. I was like, oh, I think, yeah.

Speaker 16:14

It's broken. And I'm sitting right next to you and I'm I'm in disbelief going, are you effing with me right now? Are you serious? You're like, I can't breathe. It's hard to breathe. I can't move. I'm going, what are you even talking about as I'm eating my salad?

Speaker 2 16:32

Yeah, not concerned about me at all. To not offer to help me.

Speaker 16:38

But I'm serious. So this is Jenni, the same person that can do walking lunges, she can run eight miles, box jumps, she can do a hundred wall balls with 18-pound wall ball within 90 seconds.

Speaker 3 16:55

No, not 90 seconds, but two minutes. Anyway, keep going.

Speaker 17:00

Keep going. Squat it. You're doing max squats that you haven't done ever, so you're doing personal records. Yet you are sitting on a bar stool and you turned to your left to give our poor, innocent, helpless daughter who has a broken arm a bite of her mashed potatoes, and you almost hit the floor. It was probably broccoli. Yeah. Chicken or broccoli.

Speaker 4 17:26

Yeah. I don't eat mashed potatoes. Uh but yes, about threw my back out.

Speaker 17:32

You did throw your back out, not about.

Speaker 4 17:34

But not like I mean, I wasn't out of commission for weeks. I was really only out of commission for 12 hours. Yeah. It was like 12 hours after fixing my pelvis a few times.

Speaker 17:46

Yeah, your pelvic alignment and getting the muscles firing again.

Speaker 4 17:49

Getting my glutes back on. Yeah. 16 hours later I went back to normal workout.

Speaker 17:55

Exactly. So what I'm trying to get at here is Jenni is extremely strong. She got extremely strong legs, glutes, everything's firing like crazy when she's doing workouts. But they're that doesn't mean that they're necessarily efficient with standing, walking.

Speaker 4 18:13

If I'm not consciously thinking about it.

Speaker 18:15

Right.

Getting Up Without Hands Matters

Speaker 4 18:16

Which maybe it shouldn't have to be conscious, but yeah, you have to consciously think about. And I mean, I am four months post-abdominal surgery, right, at this point also. So I have to really think about and consciously focus on correctly activating the core and activating the glutes when I'm doing anything right now. Because otherwise my core just doesn't turn on by itself yet.

Speaker 18:44

It doesn't turn on by itself yet because you just had a major, major surgery.

Speaker 4 18:47

Right.

Speaker 18:48

But at the same time, it's not going to turn on when you sit more than you stand. Not you personally, but those of you listening. The reality is your core and your glutes turn off as soon as you sit into a chair. That's the reason why people in third world countries they don't have hip pain, back pain, they don't have hip replacements or knee replacements because they don't sit in chairs.

Speaker 3 19:11

Right.

Speaker 19:11

They either stand or they do a full squat to rest.

Speaker 3 19:16

Yeah.

Speaker 19:17

I got this image clear as day in my head where some crazy thing, this is before AI was even a thing, showed up on my newsfeed or some social posts where somebody in India, somewhere in India, popping a full squat with a hand line, so some fishing line in his hand, fishing in a drain, like off of a street. There's cars, not cars, there's like mop heads and little scooters driving behind him. He's on the street with a full squat with a hand line, fishing into this storm drain, pulling out these fish. They're like two and three and four-pound fish pulling them right out of the drain, but he's in a full squat, completely comfortable.

Speaker 3 20:02

Right.

Speaker 20:02

How many of you listening to this right now could do that for even 10 seconds? Or just period.

Speaker 4 20:09

Yeah, probably not many. I think about all the time when you know we have a cousin who's Japanese and she sits in full squats. That's how they ate in Japan, was sitting in a full squat, a little like floor kind of table. And she could still do it. So that's yeah, it's amazing. I'm not one of those.

Speaker 20:30

Well, very few Americans are one of those because as soon as you sit into a chair, your glutes in your core turn off. And just because you get out of the chair doesn't mean that your glutes in your core turn back on the way that they should.

Speaker 4 20:42

We have to work at it, and I happened. Cell and I stretched yesterday, and part of our stretching was to sit in a deep squat like that, with our knees outside of our elbows. I'm getting better. And you have I have to admit, I have far less hip and back pain working on things like that on a regular basis, especially with this high intensity training that we're doing. I make it a purpose at the end of at least three days a week, trying to do more, four or five days a week, of at the end of the workouts, sitting in that squat, sitting in a you know, cross-legged, what is it called, a four position?

Speaker 1 21:18

Figure four. Figure four.

Speaker 4 21:21

Sitting like that and really like getting the glutes to stretch, but then also focusing on the activation of them.

Speaker 21:29

That's the big thing, is it's not just stretching, it's stretching and then activating the muscles after you stretch them. That's the number one reason why when yogis come into my office, they're just baffled. I can't believe I have back pain. I do yoga 38 times a day, and I can stand on one leg and put my other leg behind my head. Like I don't understand why I have back pain. It just I can't stretch it away. And I'm going, stretching's not is your problem. If you're too flexible, it needs to be equal. You have to have as much strength as you do flexibility. Right. And once you have an imbalance, that's when injury occurs. You have to have equal strength, equal flexibility. Once you have a delta, a difference between the two, that's where injury occurs. But to come back full circle to this thing, knee pain, back pain, this is it's number five for a reason. This is my last one, by the way. So moving forward, we're going to go over Jenni's five things on the chemical side that help contribute to the ten things that will allow you to arrive at 80 feeling 60 or give you the best chance at doing so. Number five is no neck or knee pain or back pain for a reason. Because the first four things really contribute to your ability to have the fifth thing.

Speaker 3 22:47

Right.

Speaker 22:48

If you can balance on one leg, both sides, 60 seconds, you're less likely to have knee pain or back pain.

Speaker 4 22:54

Correct.

Speaker 22:55

If you can get down on the ground and get back up again without using your hands, you're less likely to have knee pain or back pain. If you can stand up with straight knees and touch your toes, you're less likely to have knee pain or back pain. If you can walk for an hour, you're less likely to have knee pain or back pain.

Speaker 4 23:11

Yes.

Speaker 23:12

So you can think of numbers one, two, three, four as the uh critical driver or the thing that leads to the key performance indicator if you want to go into the business world or the lagging uh indicator, which is back pain or knee pain.

Speaker 4 23:29

Well, and so many think that back pain and knee pain are just inevitable. Like your joints wear down, it has to be this way, and it really isn't. If you're having that stress across the joint, there's a reason you're having the stress. Probably, well, not probably, because your glutes are weak. You're putting more stress through the knee because the quads aren't activating the way they should be in and balance, like you said, with the glutes, that's gonna cause your knee pain. Same with the back, your glute weakness has a lot to do with your back pain as well. These pains don't have to be the inevitables.

Speaker 24:02

I love that you said that. So many people, let's res say it one more time. So many people think that pain is a normal part of aging. My knees hurt, that's a normal part of aging. I can't stand this one. My knees hurt because I wore them out.

Speaker 4 24:18

They're bone-on-bone.

Speaker 24:19

Yeah, I was an athlete, so I really used and abused my my body. That may be true for some, but it's rare that it's true for everybody. And the biggest one is back pain. Your back does not hurt. 99% of the time, your back pain doesn't come from whatever you see on an x-ray or an MRI.

Speaker 3 24:40

Right.

Speaker 24:40

99% of the time, what you see on an X-ray or an MRI was there before your back ever started hurting.

Speaker 3 24:48

Right.

Speaker 24:48

For non-traumatic cases, that statement is true. They've done research, they've done study after study proving that what I just said is true. Now, I'm going to paraphrase this, so don't quote me to this one exactly. But it's something crazy. Like 60% of those people over the age of 40 who have no pain at all, no back pain at all, and get an MRI of their back, have something that shows up on their MRI disc bulging, disc herniation, disc degeneration. 60% of those over the age of 40, but you don't have any pain.

Speaker 4 25:30

You fit in that category now.

Speaker 25:32

Because I'm over 40. Look at how funny you think you are. You're laughing so much.

Speaker 2 25:42

Well, we used to always say like over 40, like, oh, we have so much longer until we get there.

Speaker 4 25:47

We don't.

Speaker 25:48

Yeah, you're laughing at me right now because I'm two weeks past a haircut, too. And you see all the the salt in there, salt and pepper look that I got going on. I'm like, what in the world is happening? Let's buzz this crap off like yesterday.

Speaker 2 26:04

Man, getting getting over 40 is a whole new ball game.

Speaker 26:09

It's a whole new world.

Speaker 4 26:10

So, anyways, most people over 40, yes, have some type of abnormality or some finding on their MRI. Though if your back doesn't start hurting until you're 52, newsflash. It's been there a while. It's not your pain.

Speaker 26:28

What's on your MRI? Yes, that's correct. Here's the simplest thing, and this is true at least 80% of the time when there's no trauma. Trauma means an accident. This is true at least 80% of the time when there's no trauma. Your back pain is because of weakness.

Speaker 4 26:48

Yes.

Speaker 26:50

Throwing your back out is because of weakness.

Speaker 4 26:54

Sitting at a table is because of an imbalanced weakness.

Speaker 26:59

You know, most people wake up in the morning injured, right? That's what that's the tall tell tell tall tall tale sign.

Speaker 3 27:08

Telltale? Telltale sign.

Speaker 27:10

Whatever that sign is. That's the number one way you know that you're getting old is you went to sleep great and you woke up and you're like, oh my god.

Speaker 2 27:18

What happened to me? Poor Stella, like that.

Speaker 27:22

Oh my goodness gracious. That's funny. Her first experience of DOMS.

Speaker 2 27:28

Of being sore.

Speaker 27:29

Delayed onset muscle soreness. She was so proud of it.

Speaker 2 27:33

With sore calves.

Speaker 4 27:35

And she's like, Mom, my legs, I can't walk. Aww. Okay, anyway. So what were you gonna say? Most people, yeah, they feel like they get old when they wake up and something happened getting out of bed. Like I went to bed fine, and now I got this crick in my neck. I must be getting old.

Speaker 27:53

Let me just tell this real quick. We've got enough time, and this will be a good way to wrap up this episode. I hurt my back in, I think it was 2018, something like that, when I was golfing with Rob. Yeah, and I was playing a really good round at that point in my golfing career, and on the fifth or sixth hole on the T-Box, it felt like somebody stabbed me. Super long story short. I know I've sold this, told this story multiple places, so I don't want to get into it too much. But the next day I could not get out of bed in the morning.

Speaker 3 28:27

Right.

Speaker 28:28

I literally had to roll onto the ground, and it's again, super long story short, it took me two hours of me self-diagnosing and self-treating before I could actually stand up. And then another hour for me to be able to walk, it took three hours for me to be able to get up, walk, and move. But one thing that I didn't realize was prior to that occurring, prior to that Friday of me feeling that, I wouldn't have told you that I have a bad back. But what was happening on a regular basis was I was getting out of bed in the morning for at least six months before this ever occurred. And I'm going, oh my gosh, my back is killing me. But it only lasted for three minutes, four minutes, five minutes. And once I started moving, it just went away. But every single morning I got up, I'm like, my back's killing me. This bed sucks. We've got to get rid of this bed. Right. And you know, this is 2018, like just neither one we were paying off loans, student loans. We had 250 grand in student loans, and we didn't have any money to spend on a new mattress. The mattress we currently had, my mom bought us for our wedding. I'm going, we can't buy a new mattress, just deal with it. But this went on for six months. My back goes out. I fix my back. Three took me about three months to get it to where I was 95% better.

Speaker 3 29:54

Right.

Speaker 29:56

Never changed the mattress. No, I'm getting then I was getting up and there was no pain in my back anymore.

Speaker 3 30:02

Right. So it wasn't the mattress.

Speaker 30:04

The mattress wasn't the problem.

Speaker 3 30:06

Yeah.

Speaker 30:06

It was a signal that something was coming. But I didn't know it at the time. I was just like, my mattress sucks. It wasn't the problem.

Speaker 4 30:14

Right, right.

Speaker 30:15

So think about that one for a minute.

Speaker 4 30:18

Well, everybody's gonna be like, well, what was the problem?

Speaker 30:20

The problem was I had inefficiencies in my glutes. So when I was using them all day, every day, standing, treating all day, exercising pretty intensely, I was creating microinflammation. But that inflammation wasn't able to present itself until I laid statically for six to eight hours. Never eight, eight hours, six, six hours. And then when I got up, my brain was able to focus on that inflammatory reaction or what was going on there and going, pain, pain, pain, pain. I'm going, oh crap, there's something going on there. But then once you start moving and grooving again, the juices start flowing again, and that that uh level, that threshold was not there, so you didn't know that inflammation was occurring. You just kept moving.

Speaker 4 31:08

Right. And then the golf thing happened and it went.

Weak Glutes As Root Cause

Speaker 31:13

Yeah, triplet, triplet rotational motion with a hundred and fifty mile an hour clubhead speed. All you golfers out there should be laughing right now. I'm kidding. That was a joke.

Speaker 4 31:25

I'm like, is that good or bad?

Speaker 31:27

Yeah, is that good or bad?

Speaker 4 31:30

Um, all right, so back pain, knee pain, don't have to be inevitable, really limited limit your quality of life and that entire anti-aging longevity aspect. So you need to be evaluated by Berman Health Club and figure out why you have the knee pain and back pain. Get on the right treatment protocol to fix it and don't let it be a normal part of aging.

Speaker 31:54

Yeah, it doesn't have to be a normal part of aging. Right. Good.

Speaker 4 31:58

Awesome. Ciao for now.