Reaching New Heights for a Better Future
Reaching New Heights for a Better Future is a powerful podcast from 14 Wing Health Promotion. Each episode brings together voices from the military and surrounding community to tackle the topics that matter most—from mental health and addictions awareness to fitness, nutrition, injury prevention, and more. You'll hear from subject matter experts and everyday changemakers sharing insights to help you grow stronger, live better, and lead forward.
« Atteindre de nouveaux sommets pour un avenir meilleur » est un balado percutant de la Promotion de la santé de la 14e Escadre. Chaque épisode réunit des voix du milieu militaire et de la communauté environnante pour aborder les sujets qui comptent le plus — de la santé mentale et la sensibilisation aux dépendances à la condition physique, la nutrition, la prévention des blessures, et bien plus encore. Vous entendrez des spécialistes du domaine ainsi que des agents de changement du quotidien partager des idées pour vous aider à devenir plus fort, vivre mieux et aller de l’avant.
Reaching New Heights for a Better Future
Men's Health with guest Tommy Daniels
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In this special Men’s Health episode of Reaching New Heights for a Better Future, host Lisa White from 14 Wing Health Promotion sits down with guest Tommy Daniels for an engaging conversation on the importance of both physical and mental well-being.
Together, they explore the unique challenges men face when it comes to prioritizing health, breaking down stigmas, and building resilience. From practical strategies to stay physically active to open discussions about mental health and seeking support, this episode aims to inspire listeners to take meaningful steps toward a healthier, more balanced life.
Dans cet épisode spécial sur la santé des hommes de Reaching New Heights for a Better Future, l’animatrice Lisa White, de la Promotion de la santé de la 14e Escadre, s’entretient avec son invité Tommy Daniels dans le cadre d’une conversation captivante sur l’importance du bien-être physique et mental.
Ensemble, ils explorent les défis uniques auxquels les hommes font face lorsqu’il s’agit de prioriser leur santé, de briser les stigmates et de développer leur résilience. Des stratégies pratiques pour rester physiquement actif aux discussions ouvertes sur la santé mentale et la recherche de soutien, cet épisode vise à inspirer les auditeurs à poser des gestes concrets pour mener une vie plus saine et mieux équilibrée.
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Welcome. My name is Lisa White. I'm the Health Promotion Manager, and welcome to Fort Team Lean Health Promotions Podcast, Reaching New Heights for a Better Future. And with me today, I have Tommy Daniels, who is the fitness coordinator at the Fitness and Sports Center. Welcome, Tommy. Hey Lisa, thanks for having me. How are you doing? Good. How are you? Good, thanks. Tell me a little bit about what you do over there at Fitness and Sports Center.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so as the as the fitness or fitness coordinator, rather, we look after our one of the biggest things is forest testing. So I've got the annual fitness tests that the CAF members have to participate in, but we also uh we coordinate the different classes, whether that's unit PT or drop-in classes. We do specialty testing as well, it's for free-entry for SyRtex or JPF2. So it really just kind of encompasses all of the different uh fitness aspects of the CAF. And we've got a smaller staff here in Greenwood, but if we're fully staffed, we have up to three fitness instructors that host the classes, um, do the force tests. We do lots of lifeguarding and things like that as well.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Well, I appreciate the partnership and I appreciate you coming out. We're here today because June is men's health month. So we want to celebrate men's health. And there's a couple of websites that people can check out if they're looking for information. A couple of them that we're we're uh promoting right now is men'shealthfoundation.ca, and we're also promoting the government of Canada because there's a lot of good information on there, and they're credible websites. And some of the topics, even on the foundation uh website, is there's articles, there's a podcast, there's a men's health check. You can uh get active, eat healthier, lower stress, sleep better, drink less, quit smoking, listen to real life stories, all that kind of stuff. So there's a lot of good information on there. Yeah, well, especially the health checklist. I was looking at that earlier today. So you can just go through and you can go through the mental health checklist, there's simple men's health tips, all kinds of good information on there that that men can go and look at.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's great.
SPEAKER_00So, what do you do to keep healthy or keep fit or you know I've I've always been an exerciser.
SPEAKER_01Um, I think from you know, growing up I played sports, and then the kind of a natural transition was to trying to lift weights to improve at those schools. I was always kind of a smaller, skinnier kid growing up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I started playing rugby in grade nine and kind of identified the fact that it would be nice to be a little bit bigger than I than I am. A little more muscular would be would be helpful when I'm trying to tackle other guys that are bigger and more muscular than I am. Yeah, so that kind of started my my training process. Um and I've just kind of been at it ever since, probably for the last like 14, 15 years. I've been working out pretty consistently. It's always been um a mix of things. Like I said, I kind of started with the sport performance side, and then as I like transitioned to attending Acadia, I played rugby there. So some still training for sports performance in that regard, but then shifted more to competitive powerlifting. Right. So I was just focused mostly on the squat, bench press, and deadlift. And yeah, I did that for a number of years. Yeah, I had some injuries and setbacks along the way, but was still able to fit training in. And then uh most recently I've been doing some running. But it's obvious, I'm always I've always been training. I was actually thinking about that. I was in the pool this morning. Um, you know, I've been here with PSP for six years. I've always I've had lots of different goals, whether it's been powerlifting or running or swimming, but training, routinely training has always been a big, a big part of my life, something I've been able to stick with even when the goals change. Yeah, just focusing on at least getting some kind of training in every week.
SPEAKER_00So and you you you're full-time and you also have a family and you have a daughter. Right. So how does how do you um maintain your your sleep and your mental health and and and maintain that energy level to still exercise?
SPEAKER_01That's a good question. I guess yes, we had our first daughter last this past September. And that was kind of when I started the running thing, because I I was kind of looking at the writing on the wall. I thought, okay, things life is gonna get busy, yeah. It'd be easy to not train or not to train as consistently as I would like to. So I just thought, okay, I'll pick something to train for. So I thought, well, maybe I'll train and try and do a half marathon. I've been running a little bit already, and I've you know, I had texted a friend who I was kind of always game to do anything, and I said, What do you think? Do you want to try this? And it was and this was in the fall, and then the half marathon was in February in Halifax, which is not the warmest time of the year to run a half marathon outside. I text him to see if he was interested. You know, you can talk to about the training process because the you know it's not always linear. Some weeks you're not feeling as good or you you can't fit a workout in the end, and it can be frustrating to have somebody else to to balance those ideas.
SPEAKER_00And hold you accountable. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Right? Yeah. And then I would say with the yeah, with the sleep, of course, with a newborn, some of that's just sacrifice sweating with the window. Just trying to do what I can, you know. If I know if I'm gonna get up earlier, I'll try to get to bed a little bit earlier. And you know, sometimes you just have to take what the day gives you. It's easy to get frustrated with the lack of sleep and how it might impact your training. But at the end of the day, this time will pass. And uh yeah, I think it's just important to uh just to be positive and yeah, not don't expect too much from the day. You know, if you know you only got four hours of broken up sleep, it doesn't need to be the world's hardest training days. So just to have a you know a realistic perspective, but also yeah, having that increased accountability with others, I thought was really helpful.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01And then of course, I'm fortunate that I can train at work, so not everybody has that helps a lot, which is huge. Uh you know, there's different units here at 14 Wing where they do have that that opportunity, but others don't. And that's definitely a can be tricky to fit it in. You know, you've got kids and all kinds of different activities right after school. It can be it can be really hard to fit it in. I think that just goes back to you know, taking what the day gives you and not not making it too much. You know, you don't need you don't need two or three hours to train. Yeah. And you can get in, you know, twice a week for 30 minutes, get some sort of full-body routine, yeah, some free weights, some conditioning at the end. That's good enough for most people.
SPEAKER_00And so and sometimes it's the routine that you need to establish first. Like just getting here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, just get it.
SPEAKER_00Just to get here and change and walk around and get used to the building.
SPEAKER_01With the gym, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Then just continue and do that on a regular basis, and then you can increase your time and you can increase your your reach, whether it's adding more props of training in.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. You've got to find the you know what you what training style you like and things you don't like. And like I said, I've you know switched up my goals many times over the years, but but training has been the one thing.
SPEAKER_00Well, let's take a look at men's health within the Canadian Armed Forces. So, why should men's health be seen as mission critical, not just personal, do you think?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. I mean, obviously, the just the factor of operational readiness is so huge in the CAF. And you know, it's a it's an ever-changing, ever-evolving world, especially on the international scene. Um so maintaining that operational readiness is is obviously very critical for the CAF members. I get to work out for the things that I want to do, but for CAF members too, they do have that, you know, that physical requirement. Yeah. You know, it's so important to maintain that operational readiness. And again, that you know, you don't have to be an all-star triathlete or you don't have to be on the SISM soccer team in order to do that. But to but just to have that baseline of fitness, you know, to be able to pass your force test and have to worry about it when it's coming up, you know, just be able to get through the day easily too. You know, life is life is stressful enough without having the physical ailments that can come along with being in poor physical shape.
SPEAKER_00That's what I was gonna say, because it's also disease prevention. We're also looking at your physical fitness also impacts your mental health. That's right. Right? And if you if you want to be mentally fit, it's uh it helps if you're physically fit as well. They kind of each other.
SPEAKER_01They complement each other. Yeah, and and and one can quickly take away from the other. If your mental fitness is lacking, it's it can be much harder, you know, to be motivated to get to the gym and and then vice versa as well. If your physical fitness is lacking, that can have a mental health impact, especially if you you know it gets to the point where you're uh not able to you're taking time off work for different for different preventable diseases. Yeah. You know, again, just yes, I always think life is stressful enough. You know, we don't don't need to add to it, but your physical fitness and your mental fitness, your mental health can be a real driver of positive change.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, they say that chronic disease, like heart disease, is causing 55,000 deaths per year in Canada alone.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and a lot of them probably preventable. You know, I don't I couldn't tell you the exact statistics. I mean, of course, you know, there's a heart disease is something that runs in my family, so that's something I don't try to be cognizant out. I like the um an analogy one of my professors at Acadia used is that you know, if you think of it as a as a gun, you know, your your genetics loads it, but your lifestyle can pull the trigger.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I like that.
SPEAKER_01You're gonna be you might be predisposed to heart disease. Yeah. It doesn't mean you just have to accept that fate and lay down. You can just based on, like I said, just those two days a week of some some hard exercise. So you again, you don't have to become a marathon runner or a or a triathlete or leave, but there's a lot you can do, even if you have that genetic predisposition to counteract those issues.
SPEAKER_00For about motivation, how do you motivate people who are busy at work and busy at home with a family life? You know, kids are in activity and they they want to find the time and they're that person that doesn't get support at work to go out and train. What would be your advice?
SPEAKER_01I think the biggest thing is find something that you enjoy. I think people get started with exercise and they think it's gonna be this like horribly difficult thing. Often, if I or I provide a training plan to a member, they you know, if let's say it's a strength-focus plan and they ask what they should do for cardio, I always just say find something you love. What did you like growing up? Did you like to bike? Did you like to walk? Did you like to run, swim? Yeah, find something you enjoy. You know, the motivation will come and go. Overall, find something you enjoy and find somebody else that's doing it. For my wife, she, you know, she would work out three times a week without fail, but she's still trying to get back into things after having our first daughter in September. And you'd think, you know, you think it might be easier, but she's actually like had had that habit of training two or three times a week for like 10 years. All of a sudden, you have this little eight-pound baby that totally dictates your schedule.
SPEAKER_02It's making it hard.
SPEAKER_01It can be a hard transition to make, I think. But just accepting, you know, that maybe this isn't the time where I'm gonna train as much as I want to, but I gotta find something. So it's whether that's a walk involving the kids in some way, maybe we're doing it at a park, something like that. But yeah, finding ways to incorporate it into the things you're already doing, yes, instead of looking at it as another thing to add to your schedule.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, in the Berwick Arena, they have a track above it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. My wife plays RingApp, yeah, and um her home games are at Acadia, and there's a guy there every time we're there. So I assume he's there every Sunday morning. A stroller and he just runs laps. And I you know it's like those little opportunities. You're gonna have to search for them. You're gonna have to fight for them a little bit. Of course, it's easier, you know, to grab some French fries from the canteen and sit down and watch the game.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Not to say you have to do that every time. There are little opportunities if you keep your eye out and look for them. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And 67% of Canadian men have not sought professional mental health support. So why do you think so many people struggle in silence?
SPEAKER_01I think there are definitely, you know, of course, this the idea of the stigma around mental health is is huge. And it's something that's seems like it's improving, but obviously still exists. And I think there's, yeah, maybe this desire to appear like you have everything together, which I think is kind of natural. And so that might lead people to not reach out or not not access the services that they have. I think often people think they just expect that things will get better, you know. You think, okay, this is maybe I'm starting to feel some symptoms of depression or or anxiety or something like that, but you just assume that all this is just it's related to this one event or this one thing that's coming up. And then all of a sudden, you know, you're a few months, a few years down the road, and you're still dealing with them. So I think it's easy to convince yourself that oh no, this is just a short-term thing, but then all of a sudden, you know, you've been dealing with that for for a while.
SPEAKER_00Like a frog in hot water.
SPEAKER_01That's right, exactly. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. And yeah, all of a sudden, you know, you're burnt. Yeah, you don't do the things you used to do. Yeah, you're maybe you're doing the same things, but you're not enjoying it as much. So yeah, I think that's that can be a lot of it. It's of course, like the you know, you want to appear like things are fine, which I think is a very normal kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01And then also like our tendency maybe to isolate things to just one instance or one event.
SPEAKER_00So when your clients come to you and your fitness staff, when they're talking to you about you know developing a plan for themselves, do and what are some of the things that they might be ignoring when it comes to their health?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I would I mean I think the easy one is some sort of cardio. People they want to come, they want a strength training program. A guy that I really like, his training content, uh, his name is Mike Boyle. And he has a strength and conditioning facility. And he traditionally worked with pro-athletes a lot, but now they are mostly like general population, you know, like middle-aged to older adults. And he always talks about, you know, the you can strength train four or five days a week, and that gives you exactly zero minutes of your recommended 150 minutes of aerobic activity.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Right? Like you you can strength train all the time, but you're still not getting that aerobic and that heart health. Not that it's not that you shouldn't train if you're already, but that cardiovascular component is huge. It's huge for health and even performance too. Like you're, you know, if the fitter you are aerobically, the faster you're gonna recover even between sets while you're training in the weight room, or use the force test, for example. You know, you get that five-minute break. Often people will be able to do one event really fast, but they can't recover in the five-minute rest. So they're then they're kind of lagging behind, not able to keep up with those times. So they can demonstrate their fitness once, but they don't have the ability to recover and do it again. So I think that's often the biggest thing is that yeah.
SPEAKER_00What about the aging athlete? So when we think about the military, a lot more people are staying in longer and longer. They left the age up to 60, and sometimes people are staying in 62. Yeah. So forget like that's so important to get that strength training. 100% bone density and all that. Right, right. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, bone density, preserving a muscle mass as you age. One interesting thing, you know, is you as you age your muscle atrophies, even even though you are training, there's still some you know, unavoidable muscle atrophies. And what you typically lose faster and earlier is your type two muscle fibers, it's your fast twitch, kind of expanded. So if you think of even like even much further along down the road, like you're walking along the sidewalk, those are the muscles that let you stick out your foot so you don't fall, right? And so that strength component will help you to preserve those type two muscle fibers. So, yeah, it's super important to have that as part of your routine. Again, you don't need to be, you know, a world record setting power lifter, but just continuing to strength train all the way through your career. It just will reap benefits that's uh it's almost like you know, when you when you're investing for your retirement, you know, you don't see a whole lot for a long time, and all of a sudden compound interest becomes your best friend. You know, a little bit every week, a little bit every paycheck. All of a sudden you look up 30 years from now and there's a bunch of money in there.
SPEAKER_00What role do you think leaders play in ment's health?
SPEAKER_01You know, just just one example as far as as unit PT goes. As your schedule allows, we would hope that whether it's the unit chief or whoever whoever has that authority can allow time for unit PT. And I think not just PT on your own, I think unit PT is because it brings everybody together. And then having the chain of command present, the biggest numbers you can say, you know, we value exercise or we value your health. I think it goes a lot further.
SPEAKER_00So let's just talk about one more topic to lead with. What are the top five things men should start today?
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's a great question. Definitely should move. Just think about moving more. Like I said, easy. It's easy to think, you know, I've got to start this big routine, but just moving more. I think try to increase your sleep. You know, however much you're sleeping now, just try to get a little bit more or try to have the sleep quality improved a little bit. Maybe get a little bit darker in your room, a little bit cooler where you're sleeping. Just something like that. Strength training component, like we said, just trying to get in twice a week. Right. You can strength train, you could do a full body session twice a week, do it in 30 minutes. It doesn't have to be at the gym. You know, you can do body weight exercises and be you know, dumbbell or resistance bands at home. Just something to kind of set that routine and have those two days set aside. I find ways to manage your stress. So whether that's have somebody that you can talk to about those kind of things, you're reaching out, you know, you guys have the stress management courses through health promotion, or you have mental health services uh through the calf to just yeah, some way, some way to manage stress. And that can be even things like improving your time management skill, but having a having a more written out schedule that you have, just being able to see things coming at um ahead of time instead of just reacting to things each day that you come into work, or we have activities that you've got to get people to after work. Uh, lastly, again, we kind of talked on this, but just seeking support early. Like I said before, you know, sometimes we think these you know, these mental illnesses or or mental health concerns are just tied to one event here or one event there, or recognizing that you know these things are likely not just gonna go away on their own. Some people it might it might just be that you know you're anxious for one thing, the thing is done, and you never feel that again. Yeah. But for a lot of people, it can kind of slowly build in the background. That you said the like the frog of hot water, you just don't even notice how how stressful things are or how long it's been going on. So yeah, trying to become aware of the resources that are available to you and like I said, reach out early.
SPEAKER_00We have we do have a website, it's www.cfmws.ca. Well, Tommy, I want to thank you very much for spending some time with us today and enjoy the rest of your day and thanks again for being a guest on our show.