The Masters Athlete Survival Guide
We explore thriving as an athlete after 40. Each episode, we’ll dive into tips, hacks, and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes and our personal experience. Whether you’re a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong, and motivated
The Masters Athlete Survival Guide
Unlocking Athletic Potential Through Posturology with Mike Saffell
Unlock the secrets to optimizing your athletic performance with Certified Posturologist Mike Saffell (@saffell_posturology) in this enlightening episode of the Masters Athlete Survival Guide. Discover how you can dramatically improve your speed, endurance, and recovery times by addressing alignment issues from head to toe. Mike takes us through the fundamentals of posturology, explaining the far-reaching consequences of misalignments and how they can impede athletic success across all age groups, from young athletes to seasoned masters.
Gain practical insights into improving posture and correcting imbalances with tools like the Donnie Thompson bow tie. Mike shares fascinating anecdotes about how unconventional developmental stages, like crawling patterns, impact adult posture and muscle flexibility. Through real-life examples, we highlight how making small adjustments can lead to significant improvements in both performance and comfort. Our conversation also delves into the gender nuances of posturology and how these considerations can affect training routines, using the log press event as a vivid example.
Join us for a memorable mix of expert advice and entertaining stories, including a humorous detour to Grandpa's Cheese Barn. Look forward to Mike's sneak peek into the upcoming Posturology Week and practical tips for enhancing grip and overall physical readiness as athletes age. Whether you're a competitive athlete or simply looking to stay fit and strong, this episode is packed with valuable insights to keep you motivated and performing at your best.
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New episodes come out every other Thursday!
Welcome to the Master's Athlete Survival Guide, where we explore the secrets to thriving in sports after 40. I'm John Catalinas and, along with Scott Fyke, we'll dive into training tips, nutrition hacks and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes who defy age limits. Whether you're a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong and motivated. Let's get started and we're back. Hi, this is John, and I'm here with Scott, and we have an expert on the phone Mike Saffel, or Saffel or Saffel.
Speaker 2:Or Saffel, I go by any way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we just spent about five minutes discussing Mike's last name. Mike, why don't you tell our seven listers who you are and what you're doing?
Speaker 2:Let's see. My name is Mike Sappel, I'm in Ohio, I'm a certified posturologist. I also have my CSCS with the NSCA. I run a gym here. Well, it's a private gym, but I train mostly junior, high, high school, college athletes out of it.
Speaker 1:Cool, cool. So today's topic is posturology, and if you haven't heard it, join the crowd. I hadn't heard of it either, but when we were hanging out with Mike at the armlifting world championships at the Mr Olympia in Orlando, where I won a silver medal and set a world record but that's a different podcast Um, mike, mike did some things that I initially thought were parlor tricks, um, but he basically and looking at my eyes and my feet, made me both more stable and perceptively stronger with with just some key attentions to things which led me down the posterology route. So, mike is a practitioner. Are you a proc?
Speaker 1:Oh, I knew I was going to do this I know, I knew I was going to do it, though I knew I was going to do it, I was going to do it as a joke, and then I knew, then, once I did it, I did it it.
Speaker 2:Have that ass man. Uh, yeah, do you have that? Do you have the ohio version of that? Excellent, yeah, so it is no, mike.
Speaker 1:I did research for this and, and I gotta tell you, I watched 20 ted talks and looked at 100 websites and everybody's got a slight different take. So how do you interpret posterology?
Speaker 2:uh, to me. So for the most part I do the posterology on my athletes. That's my target demographic, that's who I work with the most and it's basically trying to not leave any stone unturned on how to get them, how to get the most juice out of them, I guess make them better athletes, and through posturology, um, all right, why, why is your hamstring tight, like why, why aren't you hitting this kind of speed when I know your strength is there? I know you're elastic, um that sort of thing. Why do you die later in races and so? So, with the posturology looking at the eyes, the feet and some other things um, we're able to kind of pinpoint, I guess, kind of what they need as far as hey, this is why this is off today, yeah, or something like that so I mean I'm assuming you see improvement.
Speaker 1:How long have you been applying posturology to your athletes?
Speaker 2:Um, well, I've, I've kind of dabbled, not dabbled in it. Um, I started last year in I think it was April yeah, pretty sure it was April, and I became a certified posturologist in March of this year, went to Canada and became that.
Speaker 1:Did you bring back any Coffee Crisp bars, which are my favorite and not?
Speaker 2:a sponsor of the podcast. I did not, but if you would have mentioned it, then, maybe I would have that's fine.
Speaker 3:Well, we are not sponsored by Cheetos. We've strongly established that fact as well.
Speaker 1:So basically, sometimes I keep mentioning things on this podcast and no one sponsors me, but, and we just keep crossing them off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all right, mike you, you let me jump in here with a quick question because you work. You said a lot with junior high, high school, college athletes at some point. You know we were all there. You know a little bit younger than John and myself, but I guess one of the things that we really look at is being old guys, being master athletes. You know a couple of things that if you could sort of go to and give us some ideas on, how does this help with, maybe, injury recovery or the, the degeneration of everything that happens as you get older?
Speaker 2:Okay, uh, so it would apply. Um, I guess, no matter what age you are, if your body is not not a lot I mean, I know the heart isn't in the center of your body and you have different organs on different sides, that sort of thing but, um, but as far as posturally, if you're not aligned, if your feet aren't aligned the right way, you could have, like, your feet go into flat feet. Basically, you can have flat feet. That in turn would make your knee go into valgus. Think, knock knees In turn. What happens there is your hips would shift, your shoulders would shift, possibly your head would tilt, that sort of thing. And if you are not aligned, that cuts into your recovery, because your body's always trying to find balance and if it can't find balance that way, then you won't be able to recover as well.
Speaker 3:So does the body try to overcompensate.
Speaker 2:Uh, yes, so, um, so let's say your. So your feet can be different. Like, let's say, one foot goes into valgus again with the flat foot. The other foot is either aligned properly or looking at your ankles I guess and your other foot kind of goes the other way, or it's aligned the proper way. If your foot that goes into, so let's the proper way.
Speaker 2:If your foot that goes into, so let's say it's your right foot that goes into valgus, um, your hip will turn your right hip, it's right foot, um, right foot goes into valgus. Your right hip would turn um forward anteriorly, I guess, um, and then in turn shoulder, your left shoulder would go posterior and then that would. That could cause tightness, that could cause like low back tightness why is my shoulder always hurt? And then also, your head could go do any which way. Your head could go go any which way, um, because if you're trying to look ahead like straight ahead, then everything kind of gets out of whack and and therefore you might not feel anything. Let's, let's say, when you're 12, 20 years old, once you're 40, 50, after years of you being out of alignment, all of a sudden, oh, this really hurts today and my back's so tight. I can't get out of bed.
Speaker 1:Also amen, you're speaking our language. Before we go too much farther, mike, because some of our listeners aren't as technical as you and by some of our listeners.
Speaker 2:I mean me and me.
Speaker 1:Me too Valgus. Tell me what is Valgus. Tell me what is Valgus.
Speaker 2:Tell me, tell me, valgus, um. So people, people know Valgus as a knock need your knees cave in, like, say, when you squat that sort of thing, that's actually Val gum. Um, it kind of starts with the foot. So knees would be Val gum, feet would be Valgus or Varus.
Speaker 1:Okay, so so your I mean it's. It sounds like one of the foundational tenants of posturology. Is it kind of all starts with the feet?
Speaker 2:Um, yes, which we look at a few different things, but yeah, the feet are the first thing we kind of look at.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I, I, I see, you know it's funny, I see that for ankles and knees and maybe to some extent hips, I mean, I think guy on the street might be able to make that leap, but you mentioned things like shoulders and neck. That that's surprising to me, not like it doesn't make sense, but um, it just seems like it's got. You know, that imbalance has got a long way to travel. Does that mean that everything between the shoulder and the, the feet, are kind of overcompensating, skewed?
Speaker 2:um, I would say normally, yes, okay, um, so you have to say the feet from the bottom. Um, maboulet, uh, that's that, who's? That's who's my mentor, that's who's taught me posturology. He's in Canada. He always says the feet are like the tires on your car, you need them balanced. And then your eyes are kind of like the steering wheel on your car. Also, it needs to be in alignment.
Speaker 1:So the eyes kind of work from the top down, feet kind of work top up, and then there's a few other things in between we look at that contribute to your balance, that's ironic, and I think it speaks to what level of expert you are, because I came across that name and those discussions in a couple of places on the internet. So you were taught well, or at least you were taught by a rock star, for sure.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, uh, matt's got it going on yeah.
Speaker 1:So somebody in someone in diet, what would you call the practical application of posturology? I need posture correction, I think. I think for the layman, one of the one of the unfortunate things is like when I saw posturology and I'm sure you've heard this before it sounds like you know if you stand up straight, you've solved all your problems. It really sounds like just stand up straight. And I now know it's far more complex than that, but, um right, it is sort of deceptively named yeah, um.
Speaker 2:So that's one thing like, if you like, if you, if you tell your kids or you think to yourself, hey, I need to stand up straight. Yeah, you can stand up straight. Well, some people can't, but basically you can stand up straight while you're thinking about it, but once you stop thinking about it, you go back to what your normal is Right, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So, like you're sitting at your desk or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, Go ahead.
Speaker 2:So like, if you're sitting at your desk or whatever and you find yourself slouching, well then you pull your shoulders back, you sit upright and then you start talking to somebody. Next thing you know you're back to slouching again. Yeah, and with the posturology, what we try to do is get that to your new normal of you sitting up straight without thinking about it. Okay, Give me an example of how you would go about normal of you sitting up straight without thinking about it.
Speaker 1:And okay, give me an example of how you would go about that. And I got to tell you my. My fix for that is the Donnie Thompson bow tie, where, basically, I'm just lashing my shoulders back with a bunch of elastic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have. I have every size of the dog.
Speaker 1:It works, it feels, it feels really great and it think it does. Oh yeah, I don't know if it, I don't know that. I I've never thought that it was like a forever fix, but it is awesome for those days that you honestly feel like the hunchback of notre dame yeah, sometimes that stretching does help.
Speaker 2:Um, not that, not that I uh I have any of my athletes static stretch, um with with eye movements and say the postural insoles we wear, the mobility you gain from it kind of becomes your new normal okay.
Speaker 1:So before we went down the bow tie route, I was asking you well, it's because it's a, it's a, it's a good quick I saw something shiny too, so yeah, let's talk about that. Um, how would we transition from my hunchbacked life uh, grueling away at my desk 80 hours a day to, um, to actually correcting it in a manner that doesn't require like thought?
Speaker 2:Um, well, specifically like that, um, I would kind of back it up a little bit. Um. So, after your postural assessment, kind of see where you're at on stuff, um, seeing where your feet are Um, I'll give you kind of like the general, just kind of how I'd go about an assessment here. I'd look at your feet, I'd test you in the sagittal plane, the transverse plane and the I'm drawing a blank sagittal frontal plane yeah, I'd test you on those. Then your eyes would get tested, kind of see where your eyes are going, and then from there we kind of put you in the insoles, see how that and then retest everything and go from there. It could be for you I'm just taking a guess. It could be for you it could be an eye issue. Right, guess, um, it could be for you. It could be, um, an eye issue. Uh could be, um, could be something developmental when you're a baby. Did not, uh, did not get integrated properly.
Speaker 1:Oh really. So we carry that kind of imbalance like through our lives to imbalance, like through our lives. Yes, um. So let's say, let's say, uh, you're a baby and you you crawled, weird Um.
Speaker 2:Hey, no insulting on my baby crawling, damn it. Um. So let's say you, uh, let's say with your left hand you crawled normal hand on the ground like flat hand on the ground. Um, everything looked fine that way. Your right hand let's say you commando crawled um, which isn't too uncommon. Or you butt scooted or something like that. Yeah, I can picture.
Speaker 1:I can picture friends, kids, doing all manner of crawling that isn't you know? Textbook crawling for lack of better Right.
Speaker 2:And so so later in life, um, I want to say I haven't worked with anyone this young, but I think I'm pretty sure don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure Matt said he does not work with anybody under seven years of old. Seven years of age, Um, and by that time, um, all your like primitive reflexes, that sort of thing should be integrated, Okay.
Speaker 1:So is there some? Is there some self correction that might happen below seven? Is that sort of the hope?
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, yeah, you outgrow stuff, um, start moving more. And I, I also think the uh, the seven is probably about when you've you're able to follow instructions. Well, most of us. Well, yeah, I'm 47 and that's my wife.
Speaker 2:How, uh, how well I listen and follow directions. Yes, dear, but yeah, so. So if you commando crawled with that right arm well later in life, why is my right arm always tight? Why, let's say, why is my right hand ticklish? Why am I not as strong with my right as I'm with my left, but I'm right-handed? Um, that could all manifest into something like that, yeah, something like that, and I will truth this statement like that and I will truth this statement.
Speaker 1:As I said in up the podcast with Mike, we were texting back and forth a little and I mentioned that I'm blind in my left eye and he goes oh, you probably have this problem with your hip and low back, and I'm like, oh, I do Was.
Speaker 3:I right on that. Yeah, absolutely, with zero assessment and through text.
Speaker 1:So not even inflection. Eye movement, nothing. Mike nailed the fact that I have sort of this chronic tightness in my low back and I mean I'm not against the fact that it comes from the eye. I think that being blind in the eye does a lot of weird imbalances to me, so it certainly makes sense.
Speaker 3:You know it brings up kind of a weird story. Oh boy, sense, you know it brings up a kind of a weird story. Oh boy. We were up in uh peterborough in canada doing an assessment on my son for a gym we were about to hire into a hockey league that I worked with and they went through everything, mike and I didn't even put two and two together until we started having this conversation. They were doing poster, and this was a number of years ago, because they were okay, do this, get into this position, do that. And we completely blanked on an injury that Ben had had where he had tore. He had hyperextended his list, frank tendon. And the guy goes you did something to your left foot. And Ben looks at me. He goes oh my God, dad, I forgot to put that on the sheet and it wasn't like we planned it. But you're right, it's. You know, this testing just brings it out and shows where weaknesses and compensations can come in.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, yeah, I mean this, this, this whole podcast is so selfish. But really, mike, in talking to you in posturology, it just it seemed like I mean, you know, this is the master's guide to survival. Exactly, and it just spoke to me because I can only imagine, like, like your athletes are kind of what high school collegiate kind of.
Speaker 2:I have. I have a handful in college. Most of them are high school. Yeah, Not all but mostly runners, okay yeah.
Speaker 1:So you see that the things that Scott and I did when we were 17-year-old idiots have just compounded over years. You need to know, mike and I'm sorry this isn't a video podcast but Scott has been pointing to his shoulder this whole time because he's super excited that there might be hope, because it is one of those things scott does amazing prehab and warming and training and everything and he's just got a shoulder that just won't listen it holds me back like, like, no one's business, so so after the podcast, we'll be talking about when we're going to see you next.
Speaker 1:I feel like there's a an impromptu assessment in your future that I will be making an appointment. Yeah, an appointment.
Speaker 3:So one of the things I guess to John's point, he said we're called the Master's Athlete Survival Guide. I guess my question, now that my eyes are opening up a little bit here and starting to see some of the possibilities, what are some things without going too far into it, it that the average joe like me and john could look for in ourselves.
Speaker 2:That might help us, you know, start looking in that direction uh, let's see, um, I can give you some exercises to maybe get you moving slightly better. Hit us Definitely Okay. So let's see, I'll give you a. So go ahead and test something Shoulder flexion, toe touch, anything you kind of maybe suck at.
Speaker 1:Oh, shoulder flexion starts, starts. I don't have to stand up to tell you how bad I am at that scott's worse right arm is fine.
Speaker 3:Left arm screams when I move.
Speaker 2:Yeah okay, um. So let's try, let's try this. I'll give you, I'll give you guys both, an eye exercise here. This is called the VOR. It's one of the first. It's the vestibular ocular reflex. It's one of the. It's like the, the basic of the basic, I guess, eye exercises. Okay, so what you'll do is you'll, you'll kind of put your hands together, put your thumbs up, if that makes sense, and what you're going to do, at about arm's length, maybe a little bit of, a little bit of bend in your arms, you're going to look at your thumbs and you're going to rotate your head back and forth. I'd say, for the sake of time on the podcast we usually do stuff for a minute. I'd say maybe 20, 30 seconds.
Speaker 1:I can twist my head and talk gibberish. Oh, okay, yeah, and just so you know we were both standing here, basically praying for mobility with our hands. That's it.
Speaker 2:Well, we'll see if this is one of the exercises your body needs. Yes, it may. It may not, I don't know. We're just experimenting here. I like it. So what you're going to do is your eyes stay fixed on your thumbs and you're going to turn your head left and right, not super fast, but keep your uh, keep your eyes on your thumbs okay, scott is currently doing that, I am so yeah, 30 seconds to a minute. Um, however, you want to go there yeah, we'll do.
Speaker 1:We'll do it for a minute because scott's doing it and I will.
Speaker 2:I will talk about how you'll watch him make fun of him he doesn't need any help from you.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing when I was 20, I would have made fun of him. Now that I'm 57, I'm like, oh my god, this might work. I think I would wear a pink dress and skip down the street if I thought it would help with my back mobility did I see a picture or video of you on Instagram?
Speaker 2:wearing a pink tutu.
Speaker 1:I sent that to you privately.
Speaker 2:Alright, Mike, we did my minute. It's Scott's minute. Okay, go ahead and retest See if that made any improvement. Like I said, it may not have, I do not know. Oh jeez.
Speaker 1:Holy shit, I should have taken a picture of his face.
Speaker 3:I really do now wish this was video, because I'm lifting my arm over my head and there is absolutely no pain in my left arm.
Speaker 1:Wow, honestly, he was shocked, and he does have significant more mobility. Oh my god, yeah, oh, that is so weird.
Speaker 3:Guess what I'm doing when I do my Vipers next week.
Speaker 1:So let's not leave this quickly. So A, what did Scott just do? What were we doing there by doing that?
Speaker 2:For whatever reason, I did not. I haven't done an eye assessment on him. I haven't seen him in person since the the arnold, so, yeah, so I don't. I don't really know what his eyes do. Um, I would guess somewhere in there, um, you have one or both eyes off on one of the one of the eye tests that we do, or maybe it's all three of the eye tests, and so with the vestibular ocular reflex, one of your cranial nerves connects to, kind of your neck, your shoulder, that sort of thing, and we just kind of gave the body not to get technical with it, because I'll jumble it up if I try to get technical with it. No, that's fine, but basically we gave the body.
Speaker 1:what to get technical with it?
Speaker 2:Um, cause I'll I'll jumble it up if I try to get technical with it. Um, but basically, we gave the body what it needs right now.
Speaker 1:I mean I can't overstate the impact of that little. And first of all I mean for everybody listening, you know Mike's not done this, you know in person for reels ever We've talked about it in person but we've never really done anything. So just some, some and we haven't seen, like like you said, since the arnold and march.
Speaker 3:So just some thing on the phone, I mean holy, I can tell you right now scott is going to pursue a posturologist somewhere mike, if I get a drive down to your place, because ohio is not that far I I will be there, but I mean honestly. I mean we Nationals this past year for Master Strongman, the only reason I could do as well as I did because it was a one arm pressing motion and I did everything with my right arm.
Speaker 1:Oh, did you go to Masters National Strongman? Yes, I did. How did you do?
Speaker 3:I did. I did all right for myself. What did you do? I did second.
Speaker 1:Is that a silver medal? That would be a silver medal.
Speaker 3:Yes, thank you, john, that was not quite where I was going, and you know that no, but I asked for doing now.
Speaker 1:But see, it balances out the fact that I bring up my own accolades, so I like to care about others.
Speaker 3:but honestly, I mean that was the reason I could compete and do as well as I did. When, like next year's, I've already qualified, I'm registered and I'm dreading it in one sense because it's a log press. Now I can viper a ton of weight, but I it's going to depend on where it is in the sequence, how it's going to impact the rest of my lifting because of my left shoulder. Yeah, honest to god, when I picked my shoulder up, even even before I got to Aurora Studios today, my shoulder was in a lot of pain. I just did that for a minute, maybe a little bit more, because I started when you said and when you said, now check your shoulder out, the look on, I mean I was utterly shocked and that takes something to get me to that point. John was right, that actually blew me away. So I say I, but it'll be John and myself that'll be taking a little sojourn down to Ohio at some point, if for nothing else, just to see it, because it's been a minute.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the reality, I am on the way to the Arnold.
Speaker 2:You actually passed my exit on the way to the Arnold.
Speaker 1:Where are you? No-transcript? Are you near Grandpa's Cheese Barn, because then we'll be there in 10 minutes. Also, do you know about Grandpa's Cheese Barn?
Speaker 3:They're not a sponsor but, oh, you don't In Ashland.
Speaker 2:I do like cheese. Ashland, ohio Grandpa's Cheese Barn.
Speaker 1:Picture hickory farms on steroids where everything is utterly delicious and sampleable. Yeah, they give you free samples, mike, it's a bull. Yeah, they give you free samples, mike. It's great, the best, that's awesome. Yeah, no, I don't think we'd wait that long because, see, here's the deal, mike and this. This is why we kind of started the podcast. Like you know, scott and I know how to lift heavy things, we know how to train, I can push my body, but there's these, these impasses, and one of the things for scott is he's a very strong presser until he butts up against this shoulder mobility thing, and it's just the one, and it's decided so like, we will definitely see you before he goes to masters nationals, because he'll probably can log press 50 pounds more on one side than the other.
Speaker 1:Um, and we're gonna solve that sounds good to me yeah, um all right, so so so you've made an impact in our lives and we love you. Um. So we talked about sort of your athletes and where they are, and we've talked about Scott and I. I have us written down as seniors, which makes me sad. Um, are there differences between men and women?
Speaker 2:Um as far as posturology.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, um, as far as posturology, yeah Well, that was my attempt at a joke right there.
Speaker 1:I thought Mike was just going to give me the like well, johnny, you know when a man loves a woman.
Speaker 3:In my best kindergarten cop voice boys have a penis, girls have a vagina. Thanks brother.
Speaker 1:Let me rephrase my question for the adults in the room. Mike, as a posturologist, do you treat men and women differently?
Speaker 2:sounds like another loaded question yeah, oh geez, it does.
Speaker 1:That's what she said. Hey, yes I know, oh boy, um no, not really, no, no, okay, I didn't know and where I went with this is when you told me about the, even though you've never diagnosed me or really gone through this in person. When you told me about my tight back and hip, I was thinking, you know, women's hips are sort of geometrically different and I didn't know if there was any implications of that if there was any implications of that From what I've worked with so far.
Speaker 2:No, not really. Yeah, Matt Boulay would be the guy to ask about that one. I can ask him and I can get back to you on that. I'm not really sure. I do not believe so, Okay.
Speaker 1:Well, I guess the short answer is that as a posturologist, a certified posturologist, you treat them not differently. I'm sure there's probably a case out there where they are different. I mean, we're all individuals, regardless of sex. Now, normally the females listen better. That's true too. Scott already left, and he's just staring at his thumbs, moving his head back and forth.
Speaker 3:I lost him all right. I guess it's funny because let's sort of jump backwards a number of steps. The way we met mike was through arm lifting. Yeah, okay, you know mike is younger than we are younger than john, well, younger than John. Younger than John by a lot, because John is just old. He is a senior, you could be my son, grandson maybe but that being said it was.
Speaker 3:You know, we always had the conversation. We'd get up there and Mike competes very successfully in the pro open classes and one of the things that John and I always noticed is you would get up there, you'd plant your feet and then the way you would rotate your arms around to get set yes, and I guess that's where our conversations always started yes, and I think it was at the Olympias where you had the first conversation with him said all right, we've been watching this now for what? Two conversation with him? Said all right, we've been watching this now for what? Two years, a year and a half, something like that. Talk to us. Yeah, tell us about that side of it for just a minute here.
Speaker 3:How does that impact? I mean, you've talked about when you've worked with younger athletes. You know, you said yourself, you're in your late forties. How does it impact you as an athlete who is starting to get higher, into that master's class, competing as a pro, lifting some significantly heavy weights? For people that don't know what arm lifting is, because the name is kind of deceptive, it's basically a test of grip. Imagine taking a Coke can, having it be 8 feet long and putting 100 kilos on it and then lifting it up and then going to 200 kilos and 200 plus kilos. So I mean we're talking two, three, 400 plus pounds. How does that? How does posturology help you?
Speaker 2:as an athlete, compete at that high of a level, yeah, uh. So I would say and you guys probably attest to this too, as we get older, we get more in tune with our bodies. Um, we know, hey, this feels off today, this hurts. Maybe I shouldn't push this posturology like when I first met you guys or anything, right okay, but I was doing similar stuff, not as good as posturology, but similar stuff to that. If you would kind of see me like backstage or whatever I'd be like rolling my feet out with the ball, I'd be doing different, uh like rubbing, rubbing uh different body parts and uh, kind of like the hell's this guy doing? He's having a seizure, that sort of thing, um, um. But that's a little bit of the RPR stuff, um, things like that. So that's a whole whole nother, a whole nother story there with with that stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we, we shouldn't gloss over the fact that you just said rolling your feet out to do a heavy hand lifting athletic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean so, um, so I'll give you another exercise here as far as that goes. Um, so, what we use in its ip, um, that's another one of matt boulet's classes that he teaches. It goes kind of hand-in-hand with posturology In the IP stuff we start, it's a neuro spike ball, think like one of those dryer balls that has the spikes on it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, a couple different companies make things like kelly stirret makes a thing a knobby lacrosse kind of ball thing yeah, yeah, something, something like that.
Speaker 2:These are a little bit harder than the, the dryer balls and stuff, but but yeah, um, so you roll, you roll out your feet. That gets kind of the uh, the tactile sensation going. Um, you could do the same thing with your hands. Um, if you do not have a neuro spike ball, what you guys could do right now? Um, do you have, like, say, a pin or pin cap or um, anything like that?
Speaker 1:Yes, we have quite an ample um office supply budget here at Aurora studio, so we have more than one pen.
Speaker 2:Awesome, yeah, so, um. So I don't want anybody taking their socks off and that sort of thing right now. So, even though I can't see it, Scott's got a foot thing.
Speaker 2:I don't like take my Scott, my socks off in front of him anyway, Uh, makes sense, Um, so, so what you could try here, um, before you deadlift, or you could uh even check some more of that shoulder mobility or anything like that. Um, you could take that pin cap and so the the part you'd like put on your shirt or whatever to like, hold it on yeah that part of the pin cap, um, or I guess you could use the actual pen so so something pointy that isn't going to break the skin okay right um back of a spoon, something like that, and what you do for, like say, that minute.
Speaker 2:So say, scott, you're. You said your right shoulder my left yeah that left shoulder. Okay, so test it on your right, like rub that on your right. Just kind of go from your palm up towards your fingers See if it's ticklish on your right. Do that a few times and then test it on your left, see if that left is more sensitive. Yep, for our listeners, it may or may not be, I don't know.
Speaker 3:He's currently rubbing. It's not really, but I mean I do a lot of exercise that almost dead and sensation in my shoulders too.
Speaker 2:Okay, gotcha, um, so sometimes I get better, better stuff with the feet, but sometimes if you're, if your left hand is a very sensitive you, that might be might be a sign of that would be your commando crawling when you're a baby or whatever. You weren't grabbing stuff when you're a kid. You're basically using, like, say, your right hand, something like that, and with the posturalogy we look at, I guess, getting what you didn't get as a kid, I guess. Okay, um, so maybe, maybe that may not be a good exercise for you, or it might be, um, before I, before I lift in, like an arm lifting competition, like before I I get up to the platform, you might see me doing like, uh, just like finger touches, like touching my thumb to each finger, um, and what that does. It just kind of heightens the uh, what's going on in my hand, okay, I guess, is that. Is that basically?
Speaker 1:are you just trying to make your brain more aware that, hey, I'm about to use the crap out of my fingers and um, yes, yes, kind of working on that connection there.
Speaker 1:That's interesting, okay, I think we've talked a lot about feet. I know that eyes are an important input in posturology too. How does how does that translate what's going on there? Cause I get sort of the baby crawling. Or if the fact that, um, you know you had an injury or just some limitation growing up that you might, you know, be handling yourself different. But how do eyes factor into all this?
Speaker 2:Um, so the eyes. So one of the tests we do in posturology is just your basic convergence test. Um, uh, take a finger or a pen, um, at arm's length, and what you do is you bring your finger in towards your nose and your eyes stay on that finger or pen or whatever. Yep, if one of those eyes. So in posturology we try to get the eyes to converge on that pen at the root of the nose. Okay, so that's where your, where your nose, meets your skull there.
Speaker 1:Wow, I don't mean to interrupt, but here's an interesting thing. I just watched Scott do it and his right eye didn't converge until the last minute. I could see a difference and I don't know anything, but there was not a uniform, I don't know. Crossing of the eye, I guess, is what I would call it. Is that?
Speaker 2:right? Is that the kind of thing you're looking?
Speaker 1:at.
Speaker 2:Um, yes, oh, um, different ways. Sometimes they don't go in at all on one eye. Um, sometimes both eyes don't go in at all. Um, sometimes you, your eyes, stop converging before you get to the tip of your nose.
Speaker 1:Um yeah, so scott's, scott's right eye comes in late it like.
Speaker 2:So that would be a, that would be a hypo convergent right eye oh, look at that, you have a hypo convergent right eye so and I mean's different. We don't call it different degrees of it, but you can tell one's almost there, One's straight dog shit and that sort of thing.
Speaker 3:So what's, what's the implication of straight dog shit?
Speaker 1:Yeah, basically I'm glad someone else said it now and he's got, he's certified, so he certified.
Speaker 3:To tell you you're certified. So what is that?
Speaker 1:indicative of like what? What does that show in scott? Is that just something?
Speaker 2:so. So if scott has a, I'm just guessing again. I haven't, I haven't really looked at him at all. Yeah, yeah, um. So let's say he has a hypo convergent right eye, he probably, um, turns his head to the right some so his left can see better. Probably a good chance he has a head tilt. I'm not saying that for sure, but there's a good chance of that.
Speaker 1:No, I think that's true. Again, this is creepy because, again, to everybody listening, we know Mike, but we haven't done this in person and he's sort of diagnosing us on the phone and I hate to say how spot on he is, but damn yeah but yeah, so with that, uh so with that head turned, it could be a left or right um shoulder turning anteriorly, oh my God.
Speaker 2:And then again that goes with, like the back tightness, one hip could be shifted back, the other one shifted forward. Yeah, it goes to a whole multitude of issues.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the truth of posterology. Right Like there's not, not like one thing doesn't lead to one thing, it seems like one thing starts the chain of right changes absolutely overcompensations, yeah, yeah I don't know they're not even, they don't even feel like overcompensations in the way that, if you like, stepped on attack.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they just seem like your body sort of makes these they're not yeah and they're not giant adjustments but like, for example, your shoulder being so out of whack for not really a great reason. I mean if and if it's some of this, that's amazing.
Speaker 3:Well, mike, I meant when I said john and I will be down. You know, the next month. For the two of us it's kind of busy a month and a half, but we will most definitely be making a trip down via. Grandpa's. Cheese Barn and then coming down to see you and the missus, Because otherwise we wouldn't see you again until probably.
Speaker 1:When are we going to see you again? What are you competing in next?
Speaker 2:Well, we're doing the Super Series here. I don't assume you guys are coming down for that.
Speaker 1:We're not, we have. We have our own toys. Thank you Right on.
Speaker 2:Um, I think we're going to hit the uh Olympia this year in Vegas. I'm I'm about 98 ish percent Sure Um.
Speaker 3:I think Scott building a house right now.
Speaker 2:So, we're kind of yeah, so the gym will be at the house and conditioning.
Speaker 1:Do you need our input, Like do you want to know what our room should look like and our color?
Speaker 2:choices Um. I do have a spare bedroom.
Speaker 1:Nice, here we go. A week, a week of posturology. I like this. This is getting better and better.
Speaker 2:So so I actually might be living, the wife and I might be living at the gym here, because we're in the process of also selling the house, oh, geez, yeah. So there might be a little assuming everything goes through, we might have a little lag of maybe a couple months living at the gym.
Speaker 1:Oh, so we should probably see you before your wife murders you. Okay, that sounds excellent uh that might be about a daily occurrence, yeah, well, yeah, whether we're living in like one room or not, that's true. I, I have met you. I'm assuming that the house is such that you get a room and she gets everything else. Is that about right?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'd say so.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's how it should be, we do know you and that's best. And then Mike, on that note, I think I will be the only one that's coming down, because John just got himself in more trouble. Yeah, he might have.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, we're getting towards the ends of things, Mike. I guess the one thing is is there anything like? Is there any takeaways? Are there any self like? If you wanted to give, if you could imagine, like, stand on top of the Eiffel Tower and tell every athlete in Paris, try this one thing, what would that one thing be? Is there one thing that just screams out you need posterology. Yeah, don't ask the easy questions. Let me tell you, yeah, yeah, don't ask the easy questions.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you, yeah, I would say, hit these, hit some eye movements and kind of see if you get an improvement out of it. That's what your body needs at that time. Okay, because with the posturology what we try to do is six weeks. Every six weeks, we're making improvement, you're getting better. So that VOR that Scott did, maybe six weeks from now the VOR doesn't do much, or Scott has, uh, in advanced Romberg position or stand on one leg to get that to improve. But that also works your balance some and which is never a bad thing for us old people?
Speaker 2:Not at all.
Speaker 1:Okay. Um all right. Well, two things then. Uh, where can our listeners learn more about posturology?
Speaker 2:and then I'd like to know a little bit about where they can find you on the interwebs, as far as, uh, what you do and how people can reach out to you um, well, as far as learning, I mean, you can always get on my website or on my instagram or facebook for uh stuff that I'm posting, but from the source, uh, matt Boulay. Now, matt did not invent posturology, that was Dr Bricot back in 1985. But Matt is the uh pretty much the guy for teaching um in North America.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:How do you know how do?
Speaker 1:you spell Matt's last name. Do you know? E O U L E oh okay, that was a lot easier than I expected There'd be a lot of silent Canadian vowels in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean there's some. I think there's a tilde or something like that Oxant Grav. Wow, nice.
Speaker 1:I'm probably way off on that thing Cultural there. I knew what you meant. At least you didn't say umlaut, I think that's German.
Speaker 2:So didn't say umlaut, I think that's german. So there you go, um. But yeah, so I I don't know when this will air, but um, I'll give a little shout out to the next posturology class. I do believe we are doing a posturology um. It's called posturology week. It's going to be the twin. I think it starts the 26th of august. Okay, I'm actually doing a presentation on that that I need to get on. I'm doing a case study on one of my guys. But that is to kind of promote the next class of posturologists.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:So if you guys want to become posturologists or any of your of your other uh, five or six listeners, um, seven, seven, seven, seven my bad, my bad, that's fine. I was counting myself. Oh, that's right. Never word eight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I don't know that this will come out by them, but what I will tell you is that when I see that pop up on your social, I will share the living hell out of it, because I this, this is, this is like a rose out of stone. This is another tool for Masters athletes that are a little befuddled.
Speaker 1:They go to the chiropractor, they go to their GP, they do some stuff they saw on the internet and nothing seems to improve. I hate to see it, but so many of my fellow athletes then drift. Either to well, I'm just addicted to aspirin now, or I'm looking for a surgeon to cut that piece off me and tie it back together right, like why am I clenching my jaw all the time? Um, that's yeah that sort of thing. Oh, is that a wait? We can't gloss over that. Is that a posterology thing too?
Speaker 2:um, yes, oh, geez.
Speaker 3:So well, john is now coming down for sure with me, because that's John's biggest issue.
Speaker 1:That absolutely is. I cracked a tooth in a gym. Oh geez, Mike, we need you more than I thought we needed you and I thought we needed you so let me ask you this Are you not counting your wisdom teeth?
Speaker 2:Are you missing any teeth on the bottom? That? You don't have anything filled with.
Speaker 1:I'll buy you a beer and tell you about the time I got hit in the face with a champagne bottle as a bouncer in college.
Speaker 3:Yes, I admit I miss it anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there is not a tooth there anymore, and then I then I crack the one next to it in the gym and, uh, that's dude. I'm actually replacing that one because I'm running out of things to chew with yeah gotcha, so a little tidbit.
Speaker 2:So your tongue plays a giant role in your posture. Oh good Lord. My whole body's broken. I have a missing tooth also. Okay, and I knew nothing of this until I took the posturology class. Yeah, we do weird stuff in Ohio, we understand. I took a posturology class and we do weird stuff in Ohio, we understand. Um, but so if you have a missing tooth, your tongue tries to fill that hole? Yeah, absolutely, and and therefore, therefore, that'll throw off your, uh, your posture.
Speaker 1:Damn it. All right. So we're, yeah, we're going to see you, cause, apparently, apparently, both Scott and I are just broken, old men, broken old men, okay, my friend mike, I appreciate everything.
Speaker 2:um, what's your instagram? I don't remember. Is it saf? Um, I have two instagrams. One is saf 73, saf uh, and then the number seven, three, um, you will get everything on there that I post on my posturology Instagram, plus pictures of beer and, uh, concert stuff that I go to all the time and, uh, some of my athletes doing doing weird funky stuff in the gym Cool, yeah, the gym, cool, yeah, um, and then saffold, my. My actual posturology one is uh, where is it saffold?
Speaker 1:underscore posturology okay, yeah, I believe that's true. I follow both those and they're both entertaining. I I've seen everything. I've seen everything from adjusting my posture to a hollywood undead concert. That looked really great. So, yeah, I'm cyber stalking you, mike. Hey, mike, I really appreciate your time. Um, you know, I think what we're going to do is we're definitely going to come to you and then, I think, sometime in the future, let's redo this and talk about sort of what happened, cause I think this is, this is one of those hidden keys in the toolbox that I think is probably completely underexploited, that I think really has a lot of impact.
Speaker 2:It sounds great to me. Cool, I'll be here. All right, take care of my friend. All right For everybody, that was Mike.
Speaker 1:Saffel posturologist extraordinaire. He's still Scott, I'm still John. Talk to you next time. Bye. Thanks for listening. If you bye. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post it on your social media or leave a review. To catch all the latest from us, you can follow us on Instagram at Masters Athlete Survival Guide. Thanks again. Now get off our lawn, you damn kids.