Behind the Bluff
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Behind the Bluff
Strong Bones Don't Happen By Accident | Casey Bonomo
Casey Bonomo shares the revolutionary approach of OsteoStrong Bluffton, a wellness center changing the game in bone health through a system called osteogenic loading.
• Designed by Dr. John Jaquish after seeking safer methods to increase his mother's bone density
• Complete sessions take just 10-15 minutes per week with no sweating or changing clothes
• Four specialized machines target different body areas through brief, high-intensity force application
• Creates forces equivalent to 4.2 times body weight, comparable to landing from jumps but in a controlled environment
• Helps combat osteoporosis and osteopenia without medications
• Benefits include improved posture, reduced chronic pain, and enhanced athletic performance
• Complementary modalities like the BioCharger provide additional wellness benefits
• Natural bone health strategies include proper nutrition, resistance training, and stress management
Visit OsteoStrong Bluffton to see the facility and learn how this innovative approach can help strengthen your skeletal system.
Are you ready to live an active lifestyle? Welcome to Behind the Bluff, where we believe every moment of your life is an opportunity to pursue wellness on your terms. Let me ask you have you been concerned about your bone health? I'm your host, jeff Ford, and joined with me today is Casey Bonomo, one of the proud owners of OsteoStrong Bluffton, a revolutionary wellness center that's changing the game in bone health, strength training and performance. Osteostrong isn't your typical gym or clinic. It's a system designed to help people of all ages build skeletal strength, improve balance and reverse bone loss, and you wouldn't believe it all in under 10 minutes a week. Today, we'll dive into the story behind OsteoStrong, how it's helping people live stronger, pain-free lives, and what makes this method so powerful and unique. Casey, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks for having me on, Jeff. I'm really happy to be here.
Speaker 1:I know we've been working on this for about a month now, excited to explore everything OsteoStrong today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now it's gonna be exciting. We're gonna have a good talk. I'm looking forward to it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, let's dive right in. What is OsteoStrong and how did it get started?
Speaker 2:So OsteoStrong is a wellness center designed to enhance skeletal strength and it's through a process known as osteogenic loading.
Speaker 2:The concept of OsteoStrong is actually relatively new. It was about 15 years ago and how it was kind of founded was there was this biomechanics engineer named Dr John Jaquish and he had a problem and that was the problem of his mother had osteoporosis and she was a fragile old lady. She was kind of in her like upper seventies, lower eighties. She was a little bit older and he was kind of seeking a safe and effective method to increase bone density without kind of the risk associated with kind of high impact activities, which typically is what helps our bone density grow naturally. And his research led him to design specialized equipment that could deliver the necessary mechanical loads to stimulate bone growth safely. And this innovation kind of just laid the foundation for what would become osteostrong. After this kind of this science was developed by him, he took it to his friend and entrepreneur Kausi Groutsky, and he immediately kind of recognized the potential of the science behind it and they decided to kind of work together and put together Osteostrong to kind of bring it to a broader audience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it sounds like after research was done, finding the business mind and then bringing it to the masses, and we're starting to see a lot more osteo strongs in America, right, how many are there currently?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there's about 250 worldwide, um, about 150, um, you know, in the United States, and they're growing um, pretty commonly. Uh, we've, even when we were opening up, we had about five or six that are opening right around the same timetable and it seems like they're growing pretty quickly. We're the first one in the state of South Carolina.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:But some other states are pretty well ahead of it, even just like the state of Missouri, which you wouldn't think is a place for biohacking and something like this, but there's 13 centers in Missouri, so it's something where it kind of just depends on the area and who's decided to kind of bring it to that certain area. But yeah, it's, I'm. I'm pretty sure that it'll be growing pretty quickly and soon enough that hopefully the osteo strong is pretty much everywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's so interesting. With fitness franchises, we see waves of new innovative approaches to assisting people with training their bodies, and that's why I was so curious to meet with you discuss this, because osteogenic loading has been around for a while, but not in this type of training, and what I mean by that is anytime someone puts weight on their body. It technically could be helpful for folks who can't tolerate those high impact movements anymore. Or maybe what I find most interesting about it is there's a lot of people who don't like traditional gyms, so I'm sure we're going to dig that. Dig into that here soon. But let me learn a bit more about the core concept behind osteo strong. Could you explain it to our listeners in simple terms?
Speaker 2:Yes, so, like I said, the core concept of OsteoStrong is osteogenic loading. Kind of what this method entails is you're just applying brief but high intensity forces to the bones, which stimulates bone growth and it just improves your overall musculoskeletal health. Unlike traditional exercise routines, like you said, the OsteoStrong sessions are pretty quick. It could be done in less than 10 to 15 minutes. Um, and they're quick, only about once a week or so and they're designed to be painless and sweat free. So it's kind of a come as you are system. Um, get, just go through it pretty quick and knock it out, you're good for the day.
Speaker 1:You go play some golf.
Speaker 2:pretty much, yeah, you play golf pickleball walk around do whatever you got to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think we're all about efficiency and that term, biohacking, comes up a lot in health and wellness now and it's interesting that it's now being applied in a strength method perspective. So, casey, you kind of alluded to it, this shortness of the protocol. I found the protocol intriguing myself and when we met you gave me an excellent tour of the facility. I was definitely taking notes as we went and you described an engagement. Push is the beginning of a repetition, if you will, kind of the starting point for folks when they get on an osteo strong machine and essentially each repetition is 15 total seconds the majority of the machines. I know there's some nuances depending on which machine we put the individual on. Could you just explain further for our listeners that protocol?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the main reason we do the engagement push is really just for neurological adaptation. It kind of just signals to our bot from the brain to the body. Okay, we're going to be kind of putting this load under our system here and kind of how it works, in that because the bones instead of muscles, they actually respond to force instead of movement. And, like I said, osteogenic loading kind of works by applying high mechanical loads to the skeletal system. Something similar could be doing jumping or sprinting or lifting very heavy weight. And then obviously this is just without the risks of some of those movements that could be damaging to other things.
Speaker 2:And the 15 seconds, that's really what is. It's kind of deemed enough to be able to reach our maximum force. It really just takes about 5 to 10 seconds actually to reach maximal isometric effort and that's kind of when our body can reach our peak force output. But holding for 15 seconds ensures that peak force is achieved and sustained briefly for about five seconds or so. It's about that peak force. There's enough stimulus to trigger bone remodeling, because that's ultimately what we're doing and the muscle fatigue stays low relatively because there's no repetitive motion.
Speaker 1:Gotcha Gotcha Because eccentric phase of say let's just take a squat can be very taxing on the muscles. So when we go slowly down through the bottom of a squat, that is obviously a lot more muscle soreness is going to be a result of that. So kind of what I hear you saying is the you're getting the force extremely high, very intense, for a brief period of time, without the uh drawback of being under that load for a long period of time.
Speaker 2:Yeah and stuff like that. Obviously it's all good, but it could, uh, obviously be very taxing on the joints and our muscles and other factors. So this is kind of a way to be able to do it safely without the other risks involved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think like a lot of people don't realize that doing things for five to 10 seconds can be extremely beneficial. You use the example of a jump, and there are so many people out there that once they turn 30 years old, 40 years old, they just stop jumping and they stop doing what I would deem essential, like power patterns almost. And so, from what I've just learned so far and through our conversation the other day, it's it's so wild to hear that we can have these controlled isometric contractions and still generate the same force as something that is of higher intensity and a little more problematic, depending on the person's joints.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's kind of what these machines are designed to do. They're able to kind of emulate these high impact like high intensity exercises, but do them, obviously, in a safe and efficient manner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, let's let's dive into the machines. We walked through a typical session. You showed me four main machines. I believe they were upper, lower core and postural growth. That one sounds inviting. Could you describe each of the machines and let's go right where you shared there? What movements do they mimic in our daily lives?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so just a quick summary. There's four machines, like you said an upper growth trigger, lower growth trigger, a core growth trigger and a postural growth trigger. Um. We start off typically with the upper growth trigger Um. It kind of just looks like your typical chest press at the gym, but really what it's actually mimicking is it you're going through kind of a forceful pushing movement and it's it would be mimicking something, whether if you were to do something like falling down and catch yourself or if you were to push a heavy object. That's kind of what that machine is kind of designed to emulate that force, um, that could be done even during sports. So there's a lot of kind of things with that.
Speaker 2:Uh. Lower growth trigger kind of looks more like a leg press, but really what it's actually emulating is if you're landing a jump um, or jumping off a box, um, something where it's actually really good for your bones is like high level gymnastics, um. Obviously that's not something that not many people people could do at any age, especially as we're growing a little bit older. Um, but that lower growth trigger, um, it's jumping on a box and the reason for that is because jumping typically produces force of anywhere between like four to 12 times our body weight, wow. And through the legs and the hips and that strongly stimulates bone remodeling in the femur and the hips. And that's machines designed to emulate.
Speaker 1:That makes a lot of sense that it's referred to more of a jump versus, like a squatting pattern, because even with running, running is essentially jumping. So when we land on one leg it is three to four times our body weight and I can see how that would lead to bone remodeling. I think running gets a really bad rap. Um, obviously we have to run with good, good mechanics, uh, but it is a high impact source, uh sport. Most people cannot run and most people do not jump, so it's it's great to hear that lower is focused on kind of that uh patterning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and this is one really the one way to kind of there's almost differences, differentiates between what you could do in here and what you maybe you could do in a gym, because to achieve kind of a rapid growth trigger, on that lower growth trigger, it's 4.2 multiples of your body weight, um, which obviously if you're going to a commercial gym you could face some challenges there, whether just from a safety perspective or even just, you know, just putting that all together, and it might take some time and I don't even I don't think any gym owner would be really happy to see you doing that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and as an example, that would be like putting you know I, as an example, that would be like putting you know I weigh about I don't know, let's say, a buck 50. That would be me putting what have you Close to 650 pounds, 650 pounds on my back and none of us are squatting that amount.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Not even the strongest people out there typically, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, just to finish up, the core growth trigger. That's kind of like a core pull, like spinal flexion movement. It's really more about like bracing, so like kind of what we tell our members when they're going through is think about if somebody is gonna like hit you in the gut and kind of brace your core, just naturally. That's kind of what that's doing, um, and that's kind of going through that's going to protect us from any lifting, twisting, um, really good for like stabilization under any sort of load. Um, and we're just engaging actually a lot of like the spinal stabilizers as well while we're going through that machine. Um, the deep abdominal, deep abdominal muscles that kind of just help us with any heavy or any sudden movement that we go through. Um, and then that last um machine is the postural growth trigger.
Speaker 2:Uh, this kind of actually can emulate a lot of different things. Um, it could be also another one where we're landing from a jump. It could be carrying any heavy loads, um, oh, so almost like a farmer carry pretty much, yeah. So obviously we're picking up things all day. It could be even as simple as picking up our groceries and walking back to the car. Um, it could be kind of similar to that Um. Yeah, so it just really that one replicates really high impact axial loading on the spine and pelvis um, which is really essential for improving our posture and definitely our spinal bone density, which is really key, because a lot of the members we see that is where they do have their osteoporosis osteopenia, which is really key, because a lot of the members we see that is where they do have their osteoporosis osteopenia which is in the spine.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, Well, thank you for going into depth on the four different machines. Also the protocol. Now you stumbled into it there. You've got a lot of people coming in because they've maybe gotten a recent DEXA scan and they've been told they have osteopenia or they're already at a stage of osteoporosis. So I'm wondering who is OsteoStrong designed for, and is it just for people who have osteoporosis?
Speaker 2:So it's not just for people with osteoporosis or osteopenia, but that will always be kind of our core target market. The reason why it's mainly for people with osteoporosis and osteopenia, but that will always be kind of our core target market. Um, the reason why it's mainly for people with osteoporosis and osteopenia is it was originally created to help, uh combat bone loss conditions. Um, it's kind of our one way we could uh increase our bone density safely, efficiently and kind of low risk and no drugs or no anything else involved with that, which many people who have osteoporosis or osteopenia are led to believe that that's their only option. But it could really be for anyone else as well, especially like aging adults, because whether you're a male or a female, everybody starts losing bone density at age 30, which you really think is pretty early if you think about it. But so really could be anybody who's a little bit older, busy professionals Obviously, the sessions being 10 to 15 minutes just once a week, kind of.
Speaker 2:Come as you are, that could really work into a busy schedule, because not everybody has time to go to the gym and do five 90-minute workouts every week. It's just not practical for some. It could also just be for people looking to deal with chronic pain. It could also just be for people looking to deal with chronic pain. We actually, while we were going through the process of opening this up, we met a couple who was opening up one just north of Pittsburgh and they were in their 40s and we asked them like, hey, what made you get into OsteoStrong? And they initially went for their chronic pain. They both had had serious back pain, multiple back surgeries, serious back pain, multiple back surgeries, and the wife who was a part of it.
Speaker 2:She had gotten to $120,000 in spending for back surgeries and taking care of her back pain and she finally decided let me just try something else. And they said, after going to Osteostrong just for three months, their chronic pain was severely reduced. And actually the husband he's got a really cool story. He said that when his son was two years old he couldn't lift his son above his head. Now his son is eight and he could lift him up, which is pretty incredible to kind of see everything. So there are huge believers in it and they had been going. They've been going for a few years now and they're so into it that they decided to open one up for themselves.
Speaker 2:Yep, I believe they just opened up about right when we opened up about two months ago, so they're really, uh, really excited about it. So that's a cool one, and then really just any athlete fitness enthusiast and what you mentioned earlier, biohacker um, it just does help develop stronger bones, connective tissue to support athletic performance, and one way someone put it simply to me is for especially for younger athletes is you can only put on as much muscle as your skeletal system will allow you to. So if your skeletal system is not strong enough to support a frame that has a lot of muscle, you're just not going to put on a lot of muscle. So you need a strong skeletal system, and that kind of is the core root of everything and allows you to be able to do what you got to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's an interesting angle to it for sure, and I appreciate you sharing that story about, uh, the owners in Pittsburgh. I assume you meant them during training and during like getting osteo strong up and going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a few of the um looming franchise owners around the country. Uh, we would always kind of gather on weekly zoom calls to kind of kind of uh touch base prepare, prepare.
Speaker 1:See how we can help each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we had owners in pittsburgh, huntsville, alabama, who I actually went to their center before they opened um ashfield, north carolina, westfield, indiana. So there's quite a few of us that were kind of going into it together and, like I mentioned earlier, we were all kind of on the same path. We all opened up within about the same month or two frames. So we actually still kind of communicate to this day and kind of as we're opening and yeah, support communicating new practices and can supporting each other, so it's been really helpful to kind of lean on them as well.
Speaker 1:Very cool, casey. We we kind of stumbled into it. I mean you're sharing uh impactful stories of of folks who have gotten into the osteo strong brand. Uh, I remember you sharing with me you were a college baseball player. I'm just interested what inspired you to get into the business of helping people with their bone density?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, like I've always been into uh, I've always been into athletics, but not only that, just kind of overall wellness, feeling good, looking good, biohacking, um, kind of how we initially even heard of osteo strong was actually my aunt Marcia, all the way out in South Dakota. She was in her low 60s, she had osteopenia and but it was mainly her posture wasn't the best. She had some other issues as well, and then this past summer my family and I were out there and her posture was just so much greater, improved. She was just looking around, looking better, moving around, pretty good, and we were like, hey, like what'd you do here? Um, and she was actually ready to tell us about osteo strong because my family's got a medical background. Um, both of my parents are physical therapists. They've been physical therapists for over 30 years, so she kind of took us out. She actually drives nearly an hour to her osteo strong session nearly every week.
Speaker 1:She is that committed and she's seen the difference.
Speaker 2:Yep, she's seen the difference and a bunch of her friends are doing it too, and they've all had various results, but all positive, whether it's just improved posture, whether it's improved comfort while just moving around or increased DEXA scans. So I mean they've all really had a good result from it. And we kind of just we were all out there, we kind of were really intrigued with the idea of it and we kind of looked into it and saw that this area, kind of the Beaufort County area, had nothing even close to the sort of this sort of thing. So I just decided to kind of go into it together and it's been really rewarding so far.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, I'm sure, with, like opening any business, it's been rewarding, challenging and getting the word out Um well, thank you for sharing a little bit more about your background.
Speaker 1:I'd like to talk a little bit more about your facility and program, because, outside of the core osteo strong machines that are part of the center, you also offer additional services and modalities, like the biocharger. I found this extremely unique. Could you explain to listeners what is a biocharger and how does it make a positive impact on health?
Speaker 2:Yes, so, as you touched on, we do have a few additional modalities which could help with our bone density but also is really just good for overall wellness, anti-aging. We've got things such as like red light therapy, a PMT mat, compression boots, but, like you highlighted, one of our probably most unique one is called the biocharger.
Speaker 2:And what the biocharger is? It's really like a non-contact energy therapy device and how it kind of works. It combines four lights, four energy sources that we typically get naturally from the earth, this being pulsed electromagnetic fields, pmf if you're familiar at all with like grounding, that's kind of where that comes from Voltage, frequency and harmonics, and then phototonic light, kind of putting all this together. This is actually something natural we typically get from earth's kind of energies and whatnot, but obviously now as humans we're inside way more. We're not able to kind of get what we need to get, whether it's from just being outside or being in the sunlight or touching grass, as some people like to say but when we're kind of in here and going through a biocharger session, it kind of speeds up the body's natural healing processes.
Speaker 2:Typically you go through a recipe. It's kind of more designed specifically on what you're trying to go for. Typically, the recipes typically go anywhere between like 10 to 30 minutes or so and the recipes really are just like a preset program with frequencies designed to target particular health or wellness goals. Like we have one that's been pretty popular, just like an energy one A lot of people like to take in the morning, or one that's for like relax and sleep, another one that's really for like arthritis support or bone support. Um, so there's quite a few of them. Then we've really been getting a lot of positive feedback from them, because you sit there and you don't necessarily feel anything.
Speaker 2:I know we kind of went through a few minutes sitting up there, but it's been pretty unbelievable kind of having our members come back in like a week or two after it was like I don't know if I think it was this, but like I felt so much better. My head was so clear. I slept so well at the night after, so it's been really really pretty uh fascinating to kind of see the feedback and everything from there so far.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sounds like a lot of anecdotal evidence that members have felt better by taking advantage of the biocharger.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and it's understandably. Uh, people come in and they've never heard of such a thing.
Speaker 1:Even me being like I've very.
Speaker 2:I was very into all this kind of biohacking, alternative wellness stuff and all of our other modalities I had known about for several years, but this biocharter is something I had never even heard of this was one that to you, you were a little bit of a skeptic? I would assume I was definitely a skeptic as well because, I mean it's almost hard not to be. I mean you're just sitting in front of a thing that kind of looks like a campfire and you just see all these people sitting around. You're like what?
Speaker 1:could this possibly be?
Speaker 2:doing here. But it's something where, like I said, it's something you feel, I know, I feel it. Even the first time I was a little skeptical on it. I'm sitting there, I'm like I'm just kind of a naturally skeptic person, even knowing what I know with kind of wellness and how our body works. It's a little tough to kind of wrap your head around. But once you kind of go through it a few times and have an open mind, then you talk to everybody else who's doing it. It's really pretty phenomenal, and some people even have some crazier stories than I do. I mean even somebody who's kind of like a higher up in Osteostrong, she's big into the biocharger, she has an autistic son and who's kind of nonverbal only when he goes into the pool can he kind of start talking a little bit and she actually ended up getting a biocharger for their house. He goes in front of the biocharger and is becoming a little bit more verbal as well. So there really is pretty magical, some of the things that could be going on there.
Speaker 1:Well it's. It's great to have you share more about the biocharger, because I think conversations like this we have to stay open-minded in health and wellness. We have to be open to what's coming next, because if we think of even the simplest form of of movement, or one of what I would consider one of the simple forms of movement, it hasn't really gotten big until the until the last 10 years that people are even focused on strength training.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so if we keep an open mind and we realize that there's this thing out there called artificial intelligence, we have to understand just like people keep getting faster in in running and in sport, there's always a different level to training and there's always different approaches, and that's why I think it's so great to hear that you're starting to integrate some of these newer age type modalities so that people can start to try and see what fits with their way of living. So cool to hear more about the biocharger. I definitely feel like I got to get an extended session sometime. We'll figure that out.
Speaker 2:We'd love to have you, we'd love to have you.
Speaker 1:So we stumbled onto it a little bit, I think. With new concepts, new protocols I always live by. There's this law in life. It's called the law of diffusion theory and I didn't make it up. I don't know the actual creator of it, but we have early adopters. And then we have what I would call laggards, people who are a little more skeptical, maybe like even you and I. So many people might believe regular weight training, resistance exercises and proper nutrition are the gold standard for maintaining bone health and strength. We all know those things are important. But why should someone consider OsteoStrong over a traditional gym or physical therapy program?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so osteo strong is kind of the one program that's out there that's directly going for skeletal strength growth, bone growth, obviously some of the other things you mentioned. Obviously they're great for overall health, but nothing is specifically going for bone growth. Um, you mentioned a gym. Um, weight bearing exercise is obviously great but, as we mentioned a little bit earlier when you were talking about the lower growth trigger, um, it's pretty hard for people to kind of be able to get the amount of force that's actually necessary to increase bone growth. It's a little bit different than muscles. Um, like I said on the lower growth trigger, it's 4.2 multiples of your body weight.
Speaker 2:So if you're thinking of someone who's 120 pounds an osteoporotic it's pretty hard to see someone who's going to be an osteoporotic woman in their sixties or seventies pushing 500 pounds at the gym. And it's just safe. It's very safe for people with kind of joint issues, other limitations, the machines that really is actually kind of like a computer on the machine that kind of tracks and measures your progress, see how you're kind of improving, and it's really good, especially for stabilizing muscles. And posture, which is posture, is something we've actually already been able to see from some of our members, we haven't even been open for two months and we've already started to improve posture and, honestly, the number one thing is, like I mentioned a little earlier, most people with osteoporosis are led to believe that kind of drugs or medications the only way to kind of treat your bone density losses, and I think mainly this being a non-medical, non-pharmaceutical way to kind of go about things and be able to take care of your body naturally is really the most appealing part of doing this compared to really anything else.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, maybe versus supplementation giving osteo strong and try to increase bone density first.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's been a very similar, I would say almost all of our members who've come in. Almost all of them have a very similar story, whether it's we took the bone medication, drugs or the injections and had adverse reactions, or that they are kind of refusing or pushing it off in order to try and do it naturally. So it sounds like people who are coming in. They're trying to do it the right way, which I could definitely applaud them for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, we always want to go after things as naturally as possible, so I think that's a great angle to be aware of with this approach as well, and we see that a lot in our population of members. We have folks who are starting to take more of our strength training-based classes this approach as well, and we we see that a lot in our population of members. You know we have folks who are starting to take more of our strength training-based classes.
Speaker 1:Muscle wraps around bone. When you can track muscle, get it stronger, there definitely is is benefit to to bone strengthening, and the only direct way that we're able to measure it on site here is we've got a in-body device and what's cool is we can see the muscle progression. And then we have members who get annual DEXA scans. So I think just a plug you know I'm kind of going sidebar here is you always want to be testing like on an annual basis, like what does the DEXA scan look like? What does uh, your muscle improvement? Because after the age of 35, we're progressively losing muscle and bone every year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and it's. It's unfortunately too late for some. Some people may never get a DEXA scan. Um, they fall, they break a hip and all of a sudden they realize oh like, oh, shoot, I was, I've been.
Speaker 1:I was severely osteoporotic.
Speaker 2:Um. So if we could kind of get ahead of these sorts of things and make sure that we know what we're dealing with with our bodies, whether it is with our bones or our muscles or even just anything to do with our nervous system it kind of help us treat the problem and make sure that it we kind of get ahead of it before it, even before it becomes a problem.
Speaker 1:Casey, well said, all right. Well, we're getting close to the end of our time. I love that we've had more details into osteo strong. I I obviously this is going to be a new movement across the broader United States internationally. Uh, you said there's more osteo strong as internationally right now than in the States. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:There's about 150 nationwide and 100 internationally.
Speaker 1:Okay, so America's got the jump on it A little bit yeah.
Speaker 2:There's actually places that are somewhat similar in Europe that have to do with kind of osteogenicity, but in terms of being osteo-strong, there's more here. But it's, you know, they actually people in Europe. Ironically or not ironically, they don't seem to have as many as these problems because just they're naturally healthier and they're doing things at a much younger age and not exposed to certain things that we are in America.
Speaker 1:But that's a whole other uh that is a whole other podcast, so we'll go down that, uh, that road too far. Yeah, good pause. And what I would say just to that is definitely they're walking more than us, so that is loading their bones more. So maybe that has some interplay to that conversation.
Speaker 2:Better nutrition yeah.
Speaker 1:Well for listeners who may not have access to an Ostro Strong Center. Most of our listeners are obviously our Pulmonary Bluff members here, but as someone who's knowledgeable about health and fitness, I like to get very tactical with our guests at the end of our time. So I'd love for you to just share general tips. You know, regardless of if someone comes to visit OsteoStrong and starts a program with you, what tips would you provide for maintaining improving bone health, naturally through lifestyle, nutrition and exercise?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a lot of the things that help with bone health or really just go over overall health as well. Obviously your nutrition is incredibly important, whether it be whole foods, to make sure you're getting enough calcium and K2, magnesium, protein is a big thing. Any sort of resistance training we could do we talked about kind of jumping and walking and running and any strength training could help as well. Really a big one actually, for bone density seems pretty basic. But no, smoking, alcohol, stress is a big one. So again, that kind of just goes back to overall health. Prioritizing sleep's another one that kind of a lot of people miss but could be really helpful for our skeletal system. So it all really kind of comes back to just being overall healthy and living a healthy lifestyle and kind of staying away from some of these negative sort of things that are out there.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um. One last question. Do you see osteo strong as a replacement for traditional exercise, or is it more of a compliment to it?
Speaker 2:It really should be a compliment to kind of everything else you're doing. Obviously, if, uh, we're something for bone density, you're going to get some muscle strength as well and some mobility. But obviously there's certain other things like cardiovascular health. Obviously you got to eat right, you got to sleep, you got to kind of do everything you got to do. So, ideally, osteostrong is just kind of a piece of the puzzle to be able to live your best self and be able to kind of age gracefully and live, have a very high quality of life. Um, so yeah, I definitely wouldn't tell anybody that this is a replacement for anything, whether it's going to the gym or whether it's walking. Every day you're playing their pickle ball or golf. So, yeah, I think, in an ideal world, that it's just a, like I said, just a compliment to everything else you're doing and that could really help you round out a really fantastic lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Excellent, excellent. Well Casey, that brings us to the end of our time together. Today, I'd love to hear from you what does wellness mean?
Speaker 2:to you.
Speaker 2:To me, wellness means everything, to me, like, health is wealth, so we could have everything else going on and everything else be good, but if we don't have our health, if we can't do what we want to do with our bodies, um, it really doesn't mean too much now, does it?
Speaker 2:Um, it's really just about not only looking good, feeling good, um, just being able to kind of be our best self and be at the top of our game, whether it's if you're in a career, or whether you're want to be a parent or whatever you're trying to do, um, we just want to be our best selves and we have to be at our best health to be able to do it. So wellness really means everything. I think it's kind of the core of everything that we do, and I think, uh, it's something that I've. Thankfully, we have been kind of seeing a Renaissance of people really focusing on that and making a priority, and I'm hoping that that continues, because it's something where everybody needs it. It's not something where people can just forego it and hope that it doesn't come back to bite them.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, no opting out of wellness. Nope, no opting out for sure. Uh well, casey, thanks for making the time today. It's been an absolute pleasure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you for hosting me. I really, uh really, enjoyed this. Yeah, you're very welcome Listeners.
Speaker 1:Feel free to hang out with me for a few more minutes and get some healthy momentum the rest of your week. That was such a fun quick chat with Casey today. If you're interested in checking out OsteoStrong Bluffton, go online. You can find their website and contact information. I'm sure Casey would love to show you around the facility. Would love to show you around the facility. For me, today's conversation triggered a critical reminder of the importance of remaining open-minded, especially when it comes to an innovation that may or may not change our current practices.
Speaker 1:Do you remember Blockbuster Video? You remember Blockbuster Video? Founded in 1985 by David Cook in Dallas, texas, blockbuster revolutionized video rentals for families. They created an atmosphere that was so inviting and I don't know about you, but if you remember, the massive amount of selections of titles they had was always mind-blowing. When I walked in there, I remember being young and countless times jumping into the car with my parents or one parent, and we'd go to pick out a movie. It was great, because selecting a movie also meant we were picking up pizza or some other form of takeout. I mean, who doesn't like takeout as a kid? By the late 1990s this is what's interesting Blockbuster had over 9,000 stores worldwide and it was generating billions in revenue. You couldn't go into a town and not see a blockbuster video. It became the go-to place for movie rentals and if you're anything like me, you frequented there often when you were growing up as well.
Speaker 1:But then came along Netflix. I don't know if you've heard this story before, but I have read countless business books or heard from various podcasts this take a moment and reflect story. In 2000, netflix actually offered to sell their DVD by mail company to Blockbuster for $50 million. And here's what Blockbuster did they laughed them out of the room and they failed to recognize the potential of the subscription model and also the internet's rising influence and change that it was creating on our habits on our habits. Then wouldn't you have it? Netflix in 2007 later pivoted. This was about the time when I was in college and I remember still my roommate mailing in his DVDs. But right about a couple years into college they started their streaming service and blockbuster failed to keep pace at this time, with the change in the times. That's, that's an important phrase here change in the times. Are we keeping up with it? And blockbuster? They eventually tried to adopt a digital strategy, but by then it was way too late. Netflix had already taken over the market, and to me, this is a cautionary tale of not only missed opportunities, but resistance to innovation and a testament to the brutal pace of technological change.
Speaker 1:This story reminds me of where we're currently at with artificial intelligence like chat, gpt. Those who do not remain open-minded, those who do not adopt new behaviors, may or may not be left behind. So what's the message here? What do we do? Is it appropriate to dive in headfirst with every single new innovation there? Of course not, but what we should seek to do is our research and keep an essence of open-mindedness.
Speaker 1:Let clear results speak for themselves. For example, if you start an OsteoStrong program, measure it with data. Any approach we take with fitness must come with a level of reliable, validated results and not to generalize as we wrap up here but I'm going to. As we age, I think there is a tendency to be stuck in our ways and to resist change. To get your healthy momentum this week, ask yourself where in your life are you resisting change and how can you? How can we become more open-minded so that we don't get left behind? That is a wrap on this week's episode. We want to thank you for spending some time with us this week and remember to actively participate in life on your terms.
