Haque's Health Hacks
Haque's Health Hacks with Dr. Anita Haque
Haque's Health Hacks
Movement is Medicine: Daily Fitness Hacks
In Episode 2 of Haque’s Health Hacks, Dr. Anita Haque of Haque Chiropractic is joined by her husband and longtime fitness expert, Don Parker, to discuss practical ways to stay active and injury-free. With nearly 50 years of fitness experience, Don shares his insights on staying consistent, adapting workouts for chronic pain, and finding motivation even on the toughest days. Together, Dr. Haque and Don explore how movement truly is medicine—and how small, sustainable habits can lead to lifelong health benefits.
There are things that you do every day that can essentially be an exercise, but you're doing it in the wrong range of motion or your body is twisted. So if you have the idea of what you want to work on, okay, you just, whatever activity you're doing throughout the day, pick that muscle and there's an exercise.
Don Parker:you could do with that activity, contracting that muscle and moving in the right range of motion to protect your back and your joints. Welcome to the Hawks Health Hacks podcast, your trusted source for wellness, fitness and healthy lifestyle insights. We believe in empowering you with knowledge to take control of your health. Join us as we explore the latest in self-care, share expert advice and guide you on your journey to optimal well-being. Let's embark on this path to a healthier you together.
Dr. Anita Haque:Hi and welcome to my second episode of Hawk's Health Podcast. I am here today to discuss with my husband, who is a fitness expert and has influenced my life greatly with exercise and fitness and does so much with our day-to-day with our patients. But I have him here on this podcast as my guest today so we can kind of talk a little bit more with you on how to get more regimented with your exercise and some hacks. Maybe that can be implemented in your life. So, dawn, thank you so much for coming on. Oh, it's a pleasure.
Dr. Anita Haque:So I just want to dive in right away and, to our listeners, give a little background about you that you have been a lifelong fitness advocate, working out, as you shared with me since you were 14 years old, which changed the trajectory of your life, your journey with fitness and exercise, and I know that you know when we first got together over 20 years ago. How we got together was because you had a personal training gym next door to my chiropractic office, which led us to meet and led us to work more closely on helping people with fitness and pain right. So one of the biggest struggles that you and I hear in practice and with patients and, I'm sure with your clients is, you know, being consistent, right, try to get consistent. Exercise so with your story and wealth of knowledge. Why, would you say to our listeners, movement is so essential for long-term health?
Don Parker:Well, that's an easy one. I mean, you know that old saying if you don't use it, you lose it. Well, that, in a lot of cases, is true. So movement is essential, because if you stay stagnant, you you're leading a sedentary life and of course I I view this as as a machine and we're all machines, you know just like a car. If you leave a car stagnant for a long period of time, you know the parts on it are going to start wearing out and they're not going to be operating the way they should be. So it's the same thing with the human body. I mean, you have to use it, you have to move, you have to create that blood flow, you know, and that's very important as far as health goes.
Dr. Anita Haque:And that's such a good point, because they say like you should start your car even if you're not using it on a regular, so it doesn't rust out Right, so kind of like you know, and you don't want to rust. No, we don't want to. Now, if I can share with our listeners.
Dr. Anita Haque:I think one of the biggest things for me and getting inspired with your consistency and watching you, you know, throughout our marriage of 20 years is you are very consistent with exercise and because of that if I could just add this tip in, because you said you know why is it so essential Most of our listeners, if they're actually watching you, you know, on YouTube or you know, actually can see you. You're 67 years old and you probably, I know, look like you're, probably, you know, maybe in your late forties, early fifties. I know that you get that all the time People have their jaws dropping, you know, open when you tell them your age or when I tell them your age, because they can't believe how young you look and how vibrant you are and how young you move. So I would like to kind of add in there you know it's essential because it's part of what keeps you also from degenerating, you know, moving something around. And if you wouldn't agree, yeah, you tell me if you agree with that.
Don Parker:I do agree with that. Movement is life, of course, and you know the more you move, the more you work your muscles okay the more protection you're going to have around your joints. So that's very important also. So exercise, that's what makes exercise so important and so essential in your health. Because of that, Absolutely.
Dr. Anita Haque:And like I know that you, you know a lot of people ask me too, like what are the benefits for, you know, regular movement? As a doctor of chiropractic I can list out so many scientific things from you know, lubricating your joints, because it's through movement that we get blood flow to our joints, into our muscles, to preventing, you know, degeneration, which I mentioned. But if I was to say, one of the biggest health benefits personally for me, you know I've also been a lifelong exerciser since I was 14 years of age and I found that, you know, my perspective on why exercise is so important has changed, and here's why I think, like a lot of people, I used to regard exercise as a weight loss tool, and I know that you have also gotten many clients to come see you. They want to lose weight, yeah right, that's the main thing. What's exercise right? So I used to look at that.
Dr. Anita Haque:You know, sometimes because of my own, you know issues with my weight or with eating.
Dr. Anita Haque:If I had a bad day of eating when I was younger, I would tell myself that's okay, I'm going to burn this off on the treadmill tomorrow, I'm going to make a deficit of calories, right, but as I've aged and gotten more mature, I've learned that exercise really is not the main result or main goal isn't weight loss. The main goal is your cardiovascular. Your movement is medicine, it's your joints and also it's for the chemical releases of our body, the endorphins, the dopamine things that are, you know, antidepressant, anti-anxiety is linked to just movement, you know, without having to take a pill per se, right. So now, for me, movement, why it's so essential, is because what keeps me youthful, it keeps my body strong and able to do the things, things I need to do in terms of taking care of patients and moving people around. So it keeps me healthy, it keeps me strong, it keeps me young. Weight loss is is actually probably more tied up into our diet, which we'll talk about in another future podcast, of course podcast, of course, all about food.
Don Parker:Yeah. So, Doc, is that some of the biggest mistakes you see people make leading to injury? And exercising you know? Categorizing their fitness to weight loss. That's one of your big deals right, absolutely.
Dr. Anita Haque:And that's a great question about the mistakes, because I think the fastest way a lot of people get injured when they are exercising. Actually, there's probably two main things. I would say maybe even three. Ok, first is they're not warming themselves up, and I know you see this with me in office with our patients, right, people come in after you know, trying, you know, maybe to run or do something on the weekend, but you know they pulled a muscle. Why? Well, you didn't warm up. You don't even think about stretching and warming up your body by just doing some simple stretches of the muscles you're about to move, breathing and releasing and kind of getting that flexibility can definitely be right. So that's one big mistake.
Dr. Anita Haque:The second mistake that I see frequently is people who try to go from zero to 100. So perhaps this is the person who has weight loss as their goal and they maybe haven't worked out in years, right, but they're remembering themselves to the time when they used to work out and maybe they were young and they were healthier and they think that going in the gym they can do exactly what they did 10 years ago. So maybe they start lifting a heavier weight, maybe they, you know, start to run from zero, not running for years, and then boom, they hurt themselves. So sometimes our ego can get in the way of you know, taking things one step at a time, which can lead to injury.
Don Parker:Okay, that's true, that's true.
Dr. Anita Haque:So that for sure, without stretching. And then the third thing is knowing the difference between hurt in a good way and hurt in a bad way, because it's true, we can lift weights and it hurts, right it's. It's hard to lift, like you know, heavy weight. It's sometimes to to move your joints around when you haven't moved around. But there is a difference between good and bad pain. And I would say to patients, frequently, if you're exercising and you feel sharp pain, severe pain, something that is piercing and makes you feel angry, that's an alarm that I need to stop what I'm doing Now.
Dr. Anita Haque:if you feel soreness achiness, that this is just fatiguing, this is just challenging. That's some type of a good pain you want to work through. So those are kind of the mistakes of not listening to your body, not warming yourself up and then maybe hitting it too too soon is what I find. And don't you see that like? I mean, what would you give advice to? You know someone who's dealing with injuries, for example, and they still want to remain active, because I know that you get, I'm sorry, people with chronic pain. You know someone who's got a chronic injury and they come and see you, you know, for training. How do you usually tell them to like stay active and prevent further injuries?
Don Parker:Well, depending on the injury, okay the chronic pain, you could just start really slow, and you know what I have band stretches that you could do, many different kinds of band stretches depending on where the injury is and what the injury is. There is also light yoga that you could do, which is essential for stretching and stuff like that. Best way to go for chronic pain, you know, would probably be swimming. Swimming is an excellent exercise, you know, for overall body strength. So there's many things you could do. When you're hurting or have chronic pain, you know, to keep yourself going, keep yourself mobile.
Dr. Anita Haque:And Dawn. I think that's like kind of what we try to tackle a little bit with some of the things we've done together and maybe our listeners don't know is. You know, about 10 years ago, because of working together with so many clients and patients who suffered, for example, with back pain and couldn't exercise, we put together three different exercise routines for back pain sufferers. We gave specific stretching-like, slower-paced exercises that were effective, which is obviously available on Amazon Prime as well for anybody who wants to maybe check out our video. And then now, as we work together on our fitness app, infinite Athletes, there is the ability, of course, as we put together where you can choose you you know, if you're rehabbing an injury, then certain exercises would be more geared for you. And then also in the app we have stretches and things that will be a little bit more conducive for someone who is maybe dealing with a chronic injury or some sort of ache and pain that still wants to get healthy movement in so, doc, do you have any specific exercises that you recommend for improving back pain?
Dr. Anita Haque:I do and I know you know what my answer is. But for our listeners, if I was to simplify, you know, if you're having back pain and you want to strengthen and of course you know one size doesn't fit all you might want to. You know my disclaimer.
Dr. Anita Haque:Speak to your doctor, I'm not examining maybe all of our listeners here, but one of the biggest things that I say to patients is anytime you're going to be maybe hurting your back or you want to protect your back, you have a back brace that you are living in constantly. What is this back brace that we all have? That is our core. So every time you tighten your core, we tighten our core. Our core is the muscles that are not just your abs, but they're also the muscles that go all the way towards the back of the spine. So it's all the muscles that surround the front and back of the spine. So it includes your abs, includes the deeper tissues, includes the spinal muscles. So as soon as you tighten your stomach and if you do as a listener right now, just suck it in right now with me. As soon as you suck it in, you'll feel all those core muscles engage and so bend over, grab a weight.
Dr. Anita Haque:But if you first tightened your core, you're more likely to protect your back and strengthen your back while you're performing that exercise. Even the simple act of like bicep curls, if it hurts your lower back. If you tightened your your core and then did the bicep curls, you might actually prevent hurting your lower back. So that is kind of the biggest thing is just kind of using your back, brace your core. And then the second exercise that's really really simple to strengthen that core would be the cat cow exercise. I know I've done many videos on YouTube for patients. It's also in our app how to do the cat cow, which is you're on your hands and knees and you're arching your lower back and you're flexing your back At the same time. You're kind of doing this cat cobra. You can do it seated, you could also do it laying down. So that's probably one of the biggest, most effective exercises to strengthen the back.
Don Parker:Very good, and that's good for working your abs all day long too. You could actually, you know, work the abs throughout the day.
Dr. Anita Haque:And you get more calorie burn out of it. Now, I know that we hear this often Dawn like and that is probably even some of our listeners might feel like you want to exercise right, the intentions are good, it's part of the goal plan even maybe the beginning of the year, beginning of the month, beginning of the week, right plan, even maybe the beginning of the year, beginning of the month, beginning of the week, right but it's hard to fit it in right. A lot of our clients, patients, say they want to do it but they're just so busy and the day gets away with, you know, without them even getting a chance to get movement in. So what do you usually recommend to clients and patients of ours that tell you that they're just so busy to get that exercise in?
Don Parker:What's a good tip oh, there's no excuse for not working out. I mean, you can work out throughout the day doing your everyday activities, you know, doing housework, vacuuming, you know, and there are things that you do every day that can essentially be an exercise, but you're doing it in the wrong range of motion or your body is twisted. So if you have the idea of what you want to work on, okay, you just, whatever activity you're doing throughout the day, pick that muscle and there's an exercise you could do with that activity contracting that muscle and moving in the right range of motion to protect your back and your joints.
Dr. Anita Haque:That's a good point, don. Like you said, like even housework, and it's making me think of like vacuuming, for example. Right, like if someone's vacuuming, they could you know if they put themselves in the right range of motion and have the thought process of that. Am I going to make this into a workout while I clean that house? Kind of lunge, you know your legs and alternate them to get more of a workout while I clean that house kind of lunge, you know your legs and alternate them to get more of a workout while you're cleaning the house. Is that kind of what you mean?
Don Parker:Yeah, oh, absolutely. Because, by the way, exercise and contracting muscles and working out is 75 to 80% mental anyway. So if you're mentally thinking about that muscle while you're doing some chore or while you're doing a work activity or sitting at your desk or even on your phone, okay, there are things that you could do to contract that muscle without injuring that area.
Dr. Anita Haque:And you know, even like you said, it's like if you just think about it, you know you don't have to spend hours in the gym, right, like people can get small, short bursts of activity. That increases their endorphins, increases their heart rate, whether it's a 10 minute walk or parking maybe further away from the entrance of the building, you know to get that, you know activity and so all of that matters, even if they're not hitting the gym for a full hour or getting outside for a full hour, like even the 10 minutes at lunch break.
Dr. Anita Haque:Or I also sometimes recommend to patients you know why don't if you're sedentary you're sitting at the computer all day can you take a phone call or a meeting standing up. You know that would also be suffice for getting some more activity versus nothing.
Don Parker:Yeah, 15 or 20 minutes of workout or movement each day is way better than a two and a half hour, three hour visit to the gym, and then you don't show up again for another week or so. So when you do, when you do that, it's like starting over again. But consistency is what we've been talking about.
Dr. Anita Haque:Consistency is the key. Right and that's the hardest part is the start stop and not being consistent.
Dr. Anita Haque:So even if someone can get consistent with little bits of movement, it's a great way to start getting more movement going versus not Now I do want to switch gears, if that's okay with you, dawn, and ask you more of a personal question, because you know, when we first met over 20 years ago and I introduced myself as the chiropractor next door and that I was happy to you know, help any of your clients that might need some help, you know, with injuries or back pain or neck pain, shoulder pain.
Dr. Anita Haque:But one thing that you had alerted to me at the time and I think you're 45 or 46 years old it was that you had never been adjusted, you had not been to a chiropractor before, which blew me like blew my mind, because I'm like, how are you referring people and you have no experience, as you know, tight and fit as you are, with chiropractic? It kind of like shocked me. So I guess my question for you is you know, how do you feel chiropractic has played a role, even for you in terms of you know helping, and how does it help people recover from injuries, enhance their performance, or how did that actually work out for you? And I know that you're maybe biased because you're married to me, but I would love to truly know what that means.
Don Parker:Well, I wasn't married to you then, and my thing about that is you know how you work out and you take care of other people and you totally forget about yourself, because you're doing things for other people, okay, and you think, okay, you'll wait on your own health status or your own. You know health issues. So that's what happened to me, and you know what has made a difference in my life. I would work out and I would struggle through workouts because, you know, maybe my joints were out of alignment and I didn't even know this at the time, but I'm thinking, oh, I'm just too sore or what have you.
Don Parker:But after getting adjusted and going through that process, it clicked. This is what I needed and you know, moving my joints back into the proper place allowed me to work out better. Not only that, it allowed me to sleep better, because I wasn't getting enough sleep each night. And I would say, you know and I told you this a while ago my first week of adjustments with you was the first time I slept through the night in years. So my hat's off to you and chiropractic for helping me with that.
Dr. Anita Haque:Not me, it's chiropractic, I just do the well you, you well, you're my chiropractor. So so much Um, but yeah no, and I remember that one of the things that you had also shared with me, too, was, like when we first met, you were taking like aspirin or Tylenol like on a regular for your aches and pains and your joints. That you just got used to doing, and now I don't even think we have aspirin or talanol at home, like it's been years very, very, very good point.
Don Parker:I was going through a bottle of advil almost every month and it was crazy because it started. It stopped helping me, you know. So I haven't taken advil in years, you know, and that's because of chiropractic. I haven't taken any, you know, pain meds in years. So that is a huge, huge accomplishment in my life. This is, it's just an eye-opening accomplishment.
Dr. Anita Haque:And I think, like you and I have discovered, you know from my experience in terms of how chiropractic really helps more with someone who is trying to work out or become more athletic, even if they're not an athlete or they're rehabbing an injury is what people don't realize is if your joints aren't moving correctly and then you try to strengthen them on like a bad structure, then you're kind of asking for aches and pains and further injury.
Dr. Anita Haque:Yeah, and getting getting things aligned is not just about the alignment is that, it's more about the brain's ability to communicate with the body. And that's because the nervous system, the spinal cord and the nerves are inside the spine right. So if something's off, kilter and it irritates one of the nerves in there, that can affect the function or the communication from the brain to that nerve, which might impact the calf muscle or the, you know, the quadriceps muscle or maybe the triceps muscle. So everything is interconnected. So when you have proper structure you're more likely to have better function, and when you have better function you can do all the activities, including your exercise, that much more effective, right? So I know that you and I are going to hopefully empower our listeners today with you know, what we struggle with is getting consistent. So what do you think would be a great tip, a fitness hack that you can share to our listeners today with your depth of knowledge and experience over, almost, you know, 50 years of working out and training other people?
Don Parker:Oh, my fitness hack. Well, I would say that you need more than one fitness hack. You can't have just one, because that one will wear out on you in a minute. You can't have just one because that one will wear out on you in a minute. I always think, well, if I don't work out, how am I going to feel? I'm going to be sorry, I didn't do it?
Don Parker:Who's ever worked out before, or who has worked out in the past or has worked out before and said, oh, I hate that I worked out in the past? Or has worked out before and said, oh, I hate that I worked out. It's always I hate that I didn't work out, I hate that I didn't work out. So, in thinking in that way, you're more likely to do it than not. Okay, and it's the little things you know. Like you said, you don't have to spend two and a half hours or three hours in the gym. You can do little bits of a workout each and every day and get consistent with it. So that's the biggest hack I could tell people is if they're struggling to work out and struggling with being consistent with it.
Don Parker:So start somewhere, start small, start somewhere small, absolutely, and you know, tell yourself would I feel better if I don't, or would I feel better if I do?
Dr. Anita Haque:Ask a good question for yourself, yeah.
Don Parker:Ask that question to yourself, and, and the answer is always the same I'll feel better if I do. You know, it's just getting started. That's the whole idea.
Dr. Anita Haque:Well, I got to tell you I can't remember any time in my years of working out since, like I said, I was 14, right, so over 30 years now I am me regretting a workout, but I can definitely recall many regrets of days that I didn't work out and feeling that guilt.
Don Parker:And you regret it.
Dr. Anita Haque:Yeah, that's a good point is like are you gonna regret it to do it or you're gonna regret not doing it? Right, who is it doing it?
Don Parker:so um great hack so if you have that kind of positive attitude, you're more than likely to be consistent in a workout routine and get a get. Get a small routine for yourself that you could live with and that's easy for you. And trust me, once you do the easy stuff on a consistent basis, it'll make you want to do more and harder stuff.
Dr. Anita Haque:And I think that's a really good point, because sometimes we skip the easy, because we think it's not that impactful that it's easy to get it all or easy not to do as well, but it's always those little things which I discussed in my first podcast.
Dr. Anita Haque:It's always the little things that can move the needle and it compounds over time to really making that bigger impact. If there was probably, you know, one simple actionable tip or health hack that I would probably share to help empower our listeners to get more movement, and I would like to kind of share my health hack and I do work out, as you know, dawn, we work out regularly four, five five days a week.
Dr. Anita Haque:We're really consistent over many, many years and I still struggle. I still struggle to feel motivated and I remember that if someone who's regular working out and they struggle to be motivated to work out, that people who don't work out regularly are definitely struggling to stay motivated or to get motivated to get moving. So one of my biggest things, I tell myself, is two things I know. Okay, one I often say this to you, dawn, out loud when we're both dreading a workout is you know what I get to do this versus I have to do this, I have to work out. I've started to switch my perspective and thinking that how lucky, how grateful am I that I get to move my body this way. I get to get it stronger. I get I'm able to do this because I am very aware just from patients I take care of that probably would wish that they could do some of the activities or move their bodies in ways that they aren't able to right now. Think of the paraplegic, that extreme example, who wishes they could go out for a walk. So sometimes I have to remind myself when I'm dreading a workout, you know, just a little perspective shift and the second health hack that's really important that I also use on a regular basis to get myself to work out, you know, because I can talk myself out of it just like anyone else is get to 10 minutes, the power of 10. And here's what the power of 10 is. The power of 10. And here's what the power of 10 is Scientifically, biochemistry changes when we get our heart rate up after 10 minutes somewhere between seven to 10 minutes for most of us humans.
Dr. Anita Haque:When we're pushing ourselves to breathe harder, you know, to start moving. Whether it's a power walk, whether it's, you know, doing pushups, whatever it may be, that's getting our heart rate up. The first 10 minutes are usually painful and that's because your chemistry is going. So after about seven, eight minutes, guess what happens? The endorphins start going, the dopamine starts going, your chemistry, the hormones start changing and what those that chemistry is is, it starts to make you feel better. It actually starts to help you enjoy the exercise more. I know this firsthand every single time and I know you, dawn, know this too, because we talk about it.
Don Parker:I do and I get to work out with you also. You know that is one of my good deals, my good hacks, but I have to admit sometimes it takes me 15 to 20 minutes to get that going. But yes, you're absolutely right about that.
Dr. Anita Haque:But I always say like, if you're, if you're listening here today and you want to start and you can talk yourself out of it. We all can as humans. Right, our brains can give us an excuse to not do something. Just think of the power of 10. Can I just do 10 minutes? And if you just did 10 minutes of movement, those short spurts, I guarantee that 10 will expand because you'll feel better at 10 minutes to do more if you give yourself the time to do more. And then, like you said, dawn, earlier, you know it builds. Once you start doing stuff it starts to get easier. You want to do more because it's like progress. You feel the progress Exactly and it's a good reminder.
Don Parker:You want to do more. Yes.
Dr. Anita Haque:So that would definitely, I think, be a game changer if you use it, because it's absolutely a game changer for me. Even at this point, like I said, still have to coax myself into working out and change my perspective on a day-to-day basis.
Don Parker:We both do. Yeah, I do too.
Dr. Anita Haque:I have to motivate myself.
Dr. Anita Haque:Hey, that's why we have each other and that's why we're here today on this podcast, hoping to motivate our listeners to know that you got to start somewhere and starting small is still a great start. So hopefully, you know, if you're struggling with exercise, you're not sure where to start, you can have access to, you know, getting a little bit of like 10 minutes in getting some stretching, warm your body up, start where you are and, you know, consider having a health professional help you if you're uncertain, from trainers, physical therapists, chiropractic. Our fitness app, Infinite Athletes, is also another great place if you're not certain and you want some more guided help from the two of us. We're happy to help people because we know movement is medicine and so hopefully people will put that more into their lives on a day-to-day basis it's always good to have a partner that's a good one too.
Dr. Anita Haque:Yeah, hold you accountable right, just like we have, but yeah, and that's what the app is about too, so so we hold each other accountable, so right on. Thank you so much. This was great to have your expertise and, like I said, you've always been an inspiration to me and knowing that age is just a number. Your youth and your vitality is based on how well you move, how well you take care of yourself. So thank you for being such an example and inspiration.
Don Parker:Well, thank you for having me. Yes, absolutely, it's my pleasure.
Dr. Anita Haque:Well, you know, if I didn't, I'd get in trouble with our marriage. I had to have you on.
Don Parker:No, I'm kidding, oh you know that, so yes, this was fun.
Dr. Anita Haque:Well, thank you so much again and thank you listeners. We were so happy to have you here and hopefully you gain something out of this today with our health hacks.
Don Parker:Thank you for tuning in to the Hawks Health Hacks podcast. We hope today's discussion has provided valuable insights into achieving and maintaining your health. Remember your well-being is our priority. Visit us at hotchiropracticcom or call 925-960-1960 to learn more or schedule an appointment.