GHUTV LIVE! How to Deal with Acute and Chronic Injuries

Well hello everybody, how are you? My name is Chris Freytag and I have Sam Cameranesi with me again today. Hi, how are you? Good. How are you? Hope everybody out there is doing well. This is our Get Healthy UTV monthly Q, and A. For those of you who might be new to it, every single month, we do an hour long Q and A, we have for years now. There's lots of past Q and A's that you can watch, right on gethealthyutv.com. I believe it's under free videos, or is it under... she Johnny ------- She got it ready to go. It's under free video. So if you go to gethealthyutv.com and click on free videos, up will come all the live Q and A's from the past, and we do... You know, we try to pick a theme every time, but we'll take any question that you have. We always ask for pre asked questions, and we got a boatload yesterday. So talking about injuries, acute injuries, and chronic pain today, but feel free to ask anything else along the way. We did get a whole bunch. So we've got a lot to get to, so I wanna just start cooking along. If you are not a Get Healthy UTV member, We'll talk about that a little later in the hour, but everybody is welcome, this is a free Q and A. Just to qualify myself. I'm Chris Freytag, I've been in the industry for over 30 years. I'm a certified personal trainer, a group fitness instructor, Pilates instructor, yoga, certified health coach, but I'm not a doctor. I am not a physical therapist . We started reading some of the questions that were coming in, and I was like, "Oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to qualify this.". That in many cases, I'm going to tell you that you should see your doctor. And interestingly enough, my brother is an orthopedic surgeon, so I go to him all the time with any issues and questions, and so, yeah, I kind of mix it maybe a little bit more where I know where you really should go to a doctor, and when it's something you can do at home. So I'm gonna do the best I can, but just letting you know that I am not your doctor, I'm gonna give you as much advice as I can, on acute injuries, chronic injuries, and then, you know, pain that you're experiencing throughout your body. I think it's pretty typical, it happens to you. Everyone. I'm looking at her to you. It happens to those of us as we're aging, you kind of hit the over 50 crowd, and all of a sudden everyday we're talking about, "My shoulder hurts. My knee hurts. My hip hurts.". Pretty normal wear and tear, that's what arthritis is, just normal wear and tear of the body, and there are many different kinds of arthritis but that is typically, it just means wear and tear to the joint. So, there are some things that you can do to heal them. Anyway, that was my intro everybody. So I sit on back, and Sam let's just start talking about the questions, and see what we can get through today. So we'll get through it as much as we can. The very first one is a meniscus tear, manageable but not getting surgery, what are some recommended exercises for a meniscus tear? So meniscus tear, typically is going to be in the knee. A meniscus tear can heal itself, that I do know. Like a labrum tear, does not heal itself. And we're gonna talk about that in a while. But a meniscus can heal itself, and from what I know, it's about four to eight weeks, for a meniscus to heal. So, if you're an active person four to eight weeks feels like four to eight years. It does. It does people. And you know it's so funny, today I ran into a gentlemen, who was... I just said, "Hey, how are you? I haven't seen you for a while.". And he said, "Oh, I have a meniscus tear. So I'm being really careful with high impact exercise.". So the bottom line is, you wanna avoid pain, right? You wanna do things that are gentle to it. You might even... When it first happens, you might obviously rest ice compression elevation, but you might take a few days off, just to let the inflammation go down. And then start to do things that are a little more gentle, no, high-impact, no plyometrics, no major squats and lunges. Walking is typically okay, unless you've got horrible pain. Yoga, it depends on how intense your yoga is, tends to work. I was just looking to see what a couple of the physical therapists say out there. And they say, "You know what? Just do a lot of things that don't require deep knee bending.". I mean, because , you know, let's face it, a deep knee bend, getting that meniscus, it's gonna create any kind of, you know, friction tension, problems in there. So, it's just letting it heal. It's so hard. I think I had a meniscus tear at one point, this was probably about 10 years ago, I wasn't diagnosed with it, but I kind of self-diagnosed myself, but I ended up just giving up lunges for awhile. Yeah. Lunges were really just causing way too much pain in my left knee, and it did subside. So I guess the lesson learned here, is a meniscus meniscus tear can heal on its own, it's usually about four to eight weeks, avoid anything that causes pain go easy, gentle, no high impact. And typically you're gonna get better from a meniscus injury. Kind of along the same lines with the knee, there's a lot of questions about knees. A lot of questions about knees. Yeah. What's the best way to strengthen knees that are kind of old and worn out. How do you strengthen those? I love that question, I saw that kind of old. I love that, whoever asked. You know my knees are kinda old. You know, again, osteoarthritis is wear and tear to the joints. But it happens from a lot of use, and let me tell you, exercise is amazing. So anybody who's been exercising their whole life, yeah you. But you might start to have some issues with joints, because where joints are where two bones come together, and there's cartilage and padding and synovial fluid in there, and you wanna keep it feeling really comfortable., but what happens is, wear and tear, you start to reduce some of that padding in there, and you start to have some pain. So, you know strengthening the muscles that surround the knee, is supersmart. And how do you do that? Leg lifts? You know, even like, you know, laying on your back, straight leg lifts and squeezing your quad muscles. So when you squeeze that quad muscle, it's using the muscles around the side of the knee. Laying on your side, and doing side leg lifts. Some of those things we used to do in the '80s- In aerobics. If you were a Jane Fonda girl, fire hydrants, you're on all four and you'd take that leg up and out. You know, and it's just bending and strengthening that knee, straight leg squeezing the quad, doing things that are low-impact. Step ups, go to your stairs in your house, step up one step, step back down, step up two steps, step back down, just to stay between one and two steps, nothing too over the top. But that will help to strengthen it. Now, if you have chronic pain in your knees, you might wanna see a doctor, because you could have arthritis, you could have a bone on bone. I have a friend who in both her knees, is now on bone on bone. And so, walking does not hurt her, but anything that's really intense and certainly no plyometrics for her, it just really hurts. She's going through some things right now with her doctor. Again, this is so far out of my realm, for STEM cells, and trying to add some padding into those knees. That is very, very new stuff going on in the world of health, that is something that she's doing, but you know you have to just see what you can live with. But definitely work on strengthening. We do have an article that Sam will put a link to right here, about exercises for bad knees. It's one of our most popular blogs, that we have on gethealthyu.com. And so I guess that would be my advice. Whenever you hit pain though, like discomfort is like, "Oh that bugs me a little bit, I'm gonna just do this kind of squat instead of that kind. Or I don't like to step to the side or whatever, but when it's like, "Oh my gosh, that really hurts.", you should definitely go to see a doctor. At the very least, see if you... And I know in many cases an MRI is super expensive, but if you can prove a reason why you need an MRI, because it's an inhibiting your ability to do your job or to work or to walk or whatever, sometimes you can see what's going on inside that knee. Let's see, we have a lot of questions rolling in. There is somebody saying that she did the lunge challenge last month, and towards the end, her knee started to hurt. So, still hurts every now and then but it's not to the point where she can't work out. Could she have been doing them possibly wrong? You could have been doing them wrong. It could have been too much too quick. You know, if someone hasn't been exercising for two decades, and they come to me and they're like, "I'm ready, I've gained 20 pounds, 30 pounds, I got to exercise.". I'm like, "Yay you.". But my biggest piece of advice, is ramp up slowly. You didn't gain weight overnight, don't ramp up your exercise overnight. It's just when I see... You know, we got that mentality from the Biggest Loser back in the day, remember that show? Yeah. And they would just, you know, beat the crap out of themselves. I used to like... The hair on the back of my neck would stand up, cause I'm like, "That is absolutely what you should not do, if you're overweight and deconditioned.". You need to ramp up slowly. So you need to give your body opportunity to acclimate. I've worked with people in my past 30 years, that just, you know, we're getting started and when they were doing lunges, they're just moving their range of motion very small, a very small bend in the knees, maybe holding on for balance, trying to tighten their core. And it takes them a month, maybe more, to work down into a full range of motion. So, you know, we do offer at Get Healthy U TV, a variety of workouts geared for all fitness levels, and just own your fitness life. Like I don't care if you're deconditioned, and you have an exercise in 20 years, yay you for making the choice, that you're going to change, and ramp it up slowly. Start with our indoor walking, where you're marching, doing you know, less deep squats, where you're not jumping, all that good kind of stuff. And our chair workouts. And our chair workouts. Oh my gosh, those were such a surprise for Sam and I. Yes. So, truth be told when we were filming those... And we filmed them because so many of you have come to us and said, "I have an injury. I'm wearing a boot. I have an ankle sprain. I have plantar fasciitis. I have...". Which we have to talk about. question . And you know, we were seeing this need for chair workouts, also de-conditioned people who came and said, "Listen, I can't stand up for 30 minutes of exercise, that's too much for my body now, until I get stronger.". So we created these chair workouts and they were a super surprise to us, because the next day, my hip flexors from just lifting my knees in a chair, felt it sore. They're a great routine for sure. They are. We have Jodi. She said, "it seems like I pulled a muscle in my right butt, how should I handle this?. And what stretches are good for that?". That stinks. You could have pulled a glute It could be a little over use. So a great glute stretch, is a seated twist, where you put that leg over... You can't really see me, can you? And you wanna sit up tall, you don't want to sit like this, you wanna sit up tall, pull your opposite arm around, and you're gonna feel that. So I'm gonna stand up, so you can see me here. You're gonna feel it all the way through here. Medial glute, gluteus maximus, all through there. That's a great glute stretch, butterfly where you take your heels together, like this, and sit like this and open your knees to the side, that gets into the glutes. Do you have any other glute stretches you like? Those are kind of the big ones. I feel like those are the ones that I do a lot. And then like pigeon or- Pigeon or runners lunge. Laying on your back to when you do it, if you have knee issues, like if you're laying, and then you will cross one over and you pull it in. Yeah, if you have any knee injuries, pigeon pose in yoga, where you kind of press into a bent knee, doesn't work for people. So then you can do what we call flip the pigeon, and lay on your back and pull your knee in. And you can also do this one, where you pull this over and this. Did you think this is what . Oh my gosh! So good luck with that. But hopefully, you know, strains and sprains typically depending on the severity of it, sometimes sprains and strains are like two, three days, and sometimes they're two three weeks to heal, but they do heal, so? Victoria had said to, and something to keep in mind if you're watching Get Healthy U TV workouts, she loves that we have two instructors, one that does the modified version. So, I always know that there are modified errors in there. Yeah, we do try to show modifications in every workout. And therefore, because sometimes people like to do a more challenging workout, but then need to pick modifications on maybe, you know, half the exercises or whatever there is, and we've always said, "No shame in the modify game.". No. Listen to your body. Muscle fatigue is, "Ooh, I can barely do another repetition.". Pain is, "Ouch, that hurts me.". Muscle fatigue is always our goal, muscle pain, stop what you're doing, and pay attention to your body and see, you know, what you can do to change that or take care of it. Absolutely Best exercise is to strengthen mobility, and your hips, and then the shoulders as well. Aha, well, you hit the nail right on the head. Shoulders and hips are the two ball and socket joints in your body. They fully circumduct, the hips and the shoulders. The other joints in your body are hinges. So hinge joints are still... There's a lot of problems that happened in elbows and wrists, and knees, but these ball and socket joints are very complicated, and it's super important that you warm them up, it's also super important that you pay attention to any pain that you might have in them. We do have.. Sam, well I'm keeping her busy today, we'll put up a link to an article about how to deal with shoulder pain, and some exercises to help with that, and also how to deal with hip pain, and how to deal with that. Hip bursitis is also another thing that we hear a lot about. The bursa sac in a joint, can become irritated. It's like a little watery sack, and if it becomes irritated you can create some pain. So, the bottom line is, you wanna warm up these joints before you work out. So, if you're about to do an upper body workout, you'll notice on Get Healthy U TV, we always have you peddling your arms backward, big range of motion, pedaling them forward, we have your hips going in circles, we do runners lunges, we do some planks, where we're working those arms and we've pushed back and forth. We do things to warm up those joints, so that they prepare the body for what's to come. The question though was about pain in them? Yup, and how to... Like, best exercises to kind of stretch them. Yeah, you're gonna wanna watch this, or look at these two articles, but you're gonna wanna do some of the easier stretches when it comes to shoulders. This is one that you can do, where you just kind of lift up, and just... Not on top of the joint but on the side, and pull up, and I can really feel that through my shoulders interlacing your fingers in the back, going into a corner of a room, putting your hand on either corner and pressing your chest forward. So, you feel that. Yoga always incorporates a lot of different stretches that will work the shoulders also, but take a look at these articles because we do give you, some rehab type exercises in there. Yeah This is a good one, and very... It kind of speaks to what we're in right now, in the phase of our life and world dealing with some neck pain since working from home, any stretches, you recommend. A lot of us looking down at a computer might not be in the best chairs, maybe slouching a little bit more. Oh my gosh. Tech neck is a real thing that's been going on for like the last eight years. And then this whole idea of working from home now, people aren't just sitting like this at a desk, but they're slouching on their couches, and they have their neck, all cranked, and so, neck pain is real. So, re tell me one more time. So I hit it right on the head, the neck. Dealing with neck pain since working from home. So stretches . The back of your neck you have seven vertebrate C1 through C7. It's called your cervical spine. Then you have T1 through T 12, which is your thoracic spine, that's your mid back. And then you have five lumbar, down low. Okay? So five, 12 and seven. So these seven vertebrae, first of all, just throughout the day, doing stretches where you lift forward and back, where you, circumduct your head both directions, where you, you know, take your opposite arm and just pull over ear to shoulder, do those. Then strengthening that mid back, that thoracic spine, from the base of your neck to your mid back, is going to help relax your neck. So it's really important. I often say that women, as we get older, we tend to do this, I call it the, just drip. It's just a little one inch drip, where people lose strength in their mid back and their shoulders start to round, and they're just hunching forward, just a little bit. So we have to take those 12 vertebrae like a ruler, and really strengthen them. And doing things like on your abs, where you lift up, and then back down, that's gonna strengthen that mid back, taking dumbbells and doing these flies, or rowing back. Those are all going to be things that strengthen, your mid back, and that's gonna help. For any kind of back issues, whether it's your neck, your mid back or your low back, I'm going to say Pilates, Pilates, Pilates. It is a method that is life changing- Absolutely. For people who have any disc issues, vertebrae issues, strength issues, with their back extensors, and of core, it's known for the core, but I became Pilate certified, I don't know, 15 plus years ago, it was after I had three babies, so it was probably... My youngest is 23. And so maybe it's about 20 years. And I just started realizing that after that third baby that my abs had really changed in terms of strength, and I started having low back pain. I was like, "Oh my gosh, I've got to figure this out". So I not only started doing Pilates, I decided to get certified in Pilates, and it's gentle, graceful, powerful movements. Get Healthy U TV gold members, we have a whole selection of abs and core, go in there, because that is mapped Pilates one, two and three. There's a whole bunch of other ab exercises trainer. Kate Laing, our trainer, she specializes in Pilates, that's what she does all day, every day. So, she has done some amazing Pilates type workouts, in the gold arena. So go in the abs core area, and then you'll find all the Pilates workouts. That being said, you know, you can massage around your neck, but something about your vertebrae that I want to make clear is that like, I brought my little massage ball today, because I'm gonna talk about how I use this. But even if you put this against a wall, and just kind of press it or use it right here, and just press it up and down, never go on top of your spine, go to the side of your spine, where all the back extensors and everything connect. You don't wanna rub anything down the middle of your vertebrae. It's a bony area. So you wanna rub it like this, I could just feel this actually, I have kind of a nerve thing going on, just right. I don't know if it's like C6, C5. I've had it for years and I can just feel it, and I just try to kind of massage it out with this massage ball. And this is such a good tool, to go on the back of my neck, I don't even need to press against the wall, I just use my own, you know, strength and I can really feel it. So that's that That's that. Going back to your comment about Pilates, we have somebody mentioning that she has a daughter who is nine years old, and she slouches like so bad at age nine. So she says, "Is she too young to start a Pilates routine? Or what should you do? You know, may be too young to start Pilates that's for sure. The focus is hard, starting yoga, my daughter now is 26, but when she was younger... You weren't at the Dance Studio at the time, I don't think. We weren't combined yet. Yeah weren't... Okay. Because she's a little younger than Sam. Yeah. I would come in the summertime and teach kids yoga, and we didn't do like a serious yoga class, but we had fun like calling out animal names. You know, we'd all be in a circle and then we'd get into that pose, whether it was down dog or rabbit or frog or, you know, lizard or whatever it might be, and we'd have... We'd play statue maker, and get into it... It was just really fun. So kids can really benefit from yoga, which is gonna help with posture. A friend of mine created an app, I'm pretty much sure it's free, on Apple products. It's on your iPhone, and on your iPad. It's called the Adventures of Super Stretch. Look it up. It is adorable. So it is yoga that kids can do by themselves. Like a nine year old would love it. You open up the app, and then there's all these different characters, super stretches, like the guy with the Cape, you know, but then they have like down dog, and meet all these different characters and animals, and then they do the pose with you, and then little kids, also do the pose with you, and it talks to you and it counts you down. It's absolutely adorable. It's completely for kids to use on their own. I love that. So check that out because you're smart to start early, because nine is not too young to start giving suggestions about better posture, but to like make them do a very focused exercise routine is probably going to be hard. It's gotta be, it's gotta be a game. Kids will only pay attention to games. That is true. Keep them entertained. Going along a little bit further down the spine, low back pain and weak hips as a runner. Any suggestions on what to do for low back pain and weakness hips. Low back pain and weak hips as a runner. Yeah. That's gonna be really tough, Cause running is one of the hardest exercises on your low back and your hips. So I would not put on too many miles too soon. I would really focus on this low back and hip issue, lunges and squats for your hips. You need to do lunges and squats. Yoga also strengthens the hips, due to the isometric holds of the warrior poses, the down dogs, the, you know all of the different poses where you have your, you know you're basically holding a lunge. So start working on strengthening those hips so that you feel stronger. Always start with range of motion. So whenever you're about to work out you should always start with range of motion. The warm up is always about range of motion. So it's move the shoulders, move the hips, move the joints, rotate through your core, reach your arms out. When I lead a workout, the purpose of the warm up for me is to hit all your joints and get them moving and then get your blood pumping so that you're ready to go. So always do that. Then we're kind of strengthening the hips. Strengthening the low back is going to be from exercises like rowing, like planking, like Pilates like even, you know, any, a lot of core work. It's all gonna be about the back and the front. So you want to strengthen and then if you do feel tightness, stretching. And maybe we should just get right into that cause I know we have a question about low back pain. Low back pain is probably, I don't know number one or number two reason why people go to the doctor Absolutely. And it's really, really common. Especially as we age again, back to us to arthritis it's wear and tear to the body. I've had a couple of MRIs of my low back. I had chronic horrible low back pain about six plus years ago, seven years ago. And I had a couple of MRIs and my orthopedic said, your back looks like, you know 48 at the time you're old woman who's been exercising a lot. There's just a lot of wear and tear. So people end up with a degenerated disc or a ruptured disc or a herniated disc or a smushed disc or whatever it might be. There's so many different words for it and different degrees of it. But low back pain is a real thing. So definitely go to your doctor find out like there are people who I, you know, I come in contact with a lot of people, right? I know a lot of people have had surgery. They've had to fuse two, two or three vertebrae together because of serious other issues going on. But if it is just osteoarthritis, if it is just tight muscles, if it is just like for me, it's a degenerated disc. So my grapes between my vertebrae, each vertebrae has like a watery grape in between it. Just with age my grapes are smushing into raisins. And so I have to be really conscious about doing more therapeutic work, to keep the pain away and keep all those back extensors, you know from over tightening and not allowing me to move and causing pain. So if that is your issue, we have a 10 minute video on gethealthyutv.com. It is free. We'll give you the link to it. I did a little video of what I do every single morning for 10 minutes every single morning. So I brought in, I told Sam I brought in my infrared heating pad today. Infrared heat is a LightWave that is not visible to the naked eye. So you can't see it. It's not like this is going to turn on and illuminate and look all bright like it's a heating pad. Now, this heating pad and other infrared heating pads I've seen, incorporate regular heat along with infrared cause infrared is actually not hot, it's a wavelength. But people like the feeling of warmth. So this particular back thing I have, you need it to touch your skin. So I would put it underneath my shirt. I Velcro it on. I actually invested in the remote battery because I don't like to have to sit next to a plug. Oh yeah. Especially in the morning. So I put this on in the morning. I turn it on. There is, this is going to turn on for me, low medium and high is blue. And then it's on my skin under my shirt. And I walk around, I go get my coffee and I go do whatever I'm doing. And I brush my teeth and then I get ready for my workout or whatever it is. And I let this heating pad be on my back for 20 plus minutes a morning, 20 to 30 minutes. That's my first thing I do. So infrared wavelength is anti-inflammatory. I'm not a doctor. I'm just telling you, this is what I know. I've used infrared heat for my shoulder, for my knee. My dad, I got him an infrared heating pad for his knee. There's one that's shaped for the knee and that's really helped him. My husband and I, we have an infrared sauna in our house that you can sit in that reduces inflammation. So again, you make your own judgment on that but that's the first thing I do. Then I take this little ball. I lay the floor and I put it underneath my back and not on top of my spine. That's very important. It's not on your spine. I do the right side and I do the left side. Watch the video that I made. I moved my leg, I lift my hips. I do this 365 days a year. I literally put this in my suitcase wherever I go. Although I've gotten nowhere in five months. But I use it every day and my back pain went from being so bad I couldn't do a burpee and barely bend over to really nothing. I wake up in the morning and I'm stiff because I'm 54 but I put on my heating pad. I do my little stretching routine and I can squat, I can lunge, I can jump. I can burpee ,I can do whatever. She can do it all people. And I'm hoping I can do it for a long period of time. Now that's not to say that it's going to and it didn't happen overnight either. It took a couple of months till everything subsided in terms of inflammation for me. But anyway, that's something else. And then the other thing I do wanna mention about inflammatory pain, I just have been seeing TV ads everywhere now for Voltaren cream. Have you heard of it? Not V O L T A R E N, I think. It used to be an over-the-counter prescription. It is an anti-inflammatory cream. I came in contact with it from my daughter. Who's a professional ballet dancer. And it was something that the ballerinas used to reduce inflammation because they always had chronic pain in their ankles and feet and blah, blah, blah. It is now over the counter. I see ads for it every single day on my regular TV. So I'm not telling you about any drug. I mean, it's something you can go into the drug store now and just get, but I don't love to take a lot of pills. So to me, anything you can put on topically or like infrared heat or Voltaren cream or user massage ball and manage your pain. Most people who have a little bit of pain the biggest issue is you have to manage it. You have to manage it. And usually when people come to me and they're like, "Oh my gosh, my hip really hurts. Or my back really hurts." And I'm like, okay, you know provided nothing completely huge is wrong. I'll say, well, "What do you do every day for it?" And they're like, "Nothing." I just complain. And I'm like, okay, that is the issue. Because physical therapy is all about doing something Over time. Over time regularly. Most of us can't go see a physical therapist, you know seven days a week. That's just not going to happen. So you have to adapt your own therapy. So like, I'm on my soapbox right now, standing saying those of you who have pain, have to figure out what you can do on the regular at home. And it goes back to everything that has to do with health. It's all about consistency. It's not what you do once. It's not because you ate broccoli one time. It's because you eat vegetables every day. You know what I mean? And on the flip side, doesn't matter if you eat an ice cream cone once who cares once a week, once a month whatever. But if you eat a quarter of ice cream every day. Could be a problem. That's where it all boils down to. Yeah. I think it's super important cause we always focused so much on like the exercise part of it, which is awesome. But we also have to take those days.. The recovery. The recovery. And a lot of us don't think about that then we're like, well, why is all this happening? So it's just like, you have to incorporate those into your weekly schedule as well, or every day. If it's something that you need to be consistently doing. Also mentioning the foam roller, we put a 10 minute foam rolling workout on Get Healthy U TV for free. We did that because you guys were asking for it. Foam rolling is self myofascial release. It's just getting into those muscles and helping to reduce any kind of adhesions and knots. And again, a little tip from me is that when I have my foam roller in the basement, I use it like once a month. Because I'm just like, even after a workout when I'm down in my basement, I'm like, " Eh, whatever." We move the foam roller and this massage ball into our master bathroom. Okay. Because for us, my husband and I it's like, if I see it in the morning, I'm like, "Oh I can handle five minutes of foam rolling." And it was a game changer. So, you know, put things where you will visibly see them. Which leads me to the fact that we also have this great download on, Get Healthy U TV. We have this download that's about the five do's and don'ts of working out at home and yeah. And all you have to do is put your name and give us your email and we'll send you this little download. But one of the, one of the tips is really about like have a plan, find a space in your house. That's, you know, doable. Like if you really hate going down in your base and everyday don't make that your workout space because you're not going to go. Some of it is obvious and some of it is a little bit more interesting and fun. So check it out. It's a great download. Okay. Going back to your heating pad, somebody's asking do you think that would work for someone with a herniated disc. Depending on the degree of herniation. Again, if you've got like a severe herniated disc that's causing, like once it starts to cause nerve pain like when people start to have nerve pain my leg is going numb. My hip is going numb. I can't sit for more than 30 seconds. Absolutely go to a doctor. Me personally, I would require an MRI. I would make sure I would get an MRI covered by insurance. You have to prove why it's bothering you so much. You can't just walk in and say, "Hey, give me an MRI of my arm." But when you're in a position where you can't function or do your daily job, often they'll order you up an MRI. And then you, you can see MRI shows, soft tissue and what's happening. And then your doctor can give you that advice. But if it's just, you know, something that's causing you chronic pain and muscle tension, then yes. I mean, infrared heat helps to reduce inflammation. That's the goal Recommendation on what to do when you're super sore from working out. Should you take a day off or should there be some movement? Absolutely. Take a day off. There is no shame in taking a day off and as I get older, I have become way more okay with that day off. I heard you saying that like that's just the other day, actually Because I used to be a little bit more hyper about, Oh I took a day off or I took two days off. And I never feel guilty about it anymore. For a couple of reasons of all, as I've gotten older one of my main goals is avoiding injury. And overuse can lead to injury. And when I noticed that I'm starting to get super fatigued my back is bugging me a little more than normal because like I said, I haven't checked but every so often I'm like, "Oh" When I get up and I'm a little more stiff than normal when my glutes are really sore from like an intense workout or whatever it might be then I just take a day off because doms D O M S stands for delayed onset muscle soreness. Typically when you've done something that is really injured and broken down those muscles, it takes 24 to 48 hours for you to feel it. Haven't you ever liked dental work out on a Monday and Tuesday. You're like, "Hmm, I'm not that bad." Wednesday wake up. And you're like, "I can't walk." That's delayed onset muscle soreness. Now muscle fibers need to be broken up. It's like putting a hammer on a piece of wood and break, you know, cutting it up. And then over time those muscles repair and they get stronger. And that's how you become stronger and more toned. But when it's severe soreness, just take a day off drink a lot of water, stay hydrated, get some sleep give yourself a break. Now we at Get Healthy U TV. We call it A D O R. Yes. We call them active days of rest. Because you you don't have to lay on the couch all day. But you know perhaps you're gonna skip an organized workout. You're not going to do a bunch of squats and lunges and pushups and whatever it might be. But taking the dog for a walk, great. That's active walking with your girlfriends. Great. That's active going for a paddle board on the Lake. Great. You know, something that's not overtaxing can happen on a day off. So for me, I kind of, my schedule changes every year depending on my lifestyle, my kids where I am in lots of different things. But I now pretty much take Saturdays and Sundays as my two days of rest where I walk but I don't do a whole lot of intense exercise. I just give myself that too. And I kind of like the weekend being my two day rest. Yeah. Just because it meant, you know then I don't feel so the need to fit in it. But some Saturdays I do a really intense workout. I don't know. Just depends. But don't feel guilty about days off. And a matter of fact, when you start to overtrain you will notice that your heart rate won't go up, that you don't sleep well, that you feel less euphoric about the exercise. And then that's a time where you say time to tailor back. Back. Ah yup. Along the same lines of recovery, what are your thoughts on ice baths? I hate cold. She's like, I don't like doing it. Supposedly really really good for anti-inflammatory much like infrared heat, ice baths are gonna really be a quick anti-inflammatory really good for you. Just like icing an injury. Anything that's an acute injury, meaning it's something that just happened. You did a hard workout and you're really sore the next day. Or, you know, anything that lasts like under a week or two or three is acute pain. Anything that is chronic. You know, honestly, I can't remember if it's a three month mark or a six month mark for chronic pain. But once you hit that point where you've been complaining for three months or you've been complaining for six months then it becomes chronic pain. And then often heat helps more than ice. But ice is definitely geared towards acute pain. An ice bath is amazing. I just hate cold water. So I just hate everything about being cold. That like to submerge myself in ice, is, I don't know. I it's mentally, I have our mental barrier against it. There's also those cryotherapy machines out there where you get like closed into a tube that is as cold as the Antarctica. Oh my, I did it once for a TV segment. It was so brutal. Like I literally was like freaking out, but it's only for like a minutes. It's a minute. Yeah. And you really have to like mentally just Have you done it? Yeah. And I've done ice bath growing up. What do you think? I mean, it's cold. You like mentally have to put yourself somewhere else just to like get yourself through it. If you like, When I used to do ice baths consistently when I needed to for my hip and a torn labrum, it's that first initial like shock as you're going in is definitely super hard. But I think over time it really helps with the inflammation and just feeling like it is recovering a little bit. So, I don't love doing them but I do think that they work. If yeah, you need it. I agree ,I agree. We should probably hit the torn labrum thing. Yeah. Because I saw.. We did have a question We have a couple of them, right? A shoulder and hip. Yup. So we can start with the we've got a few shoulder ones, so let's hop to that after but the first one about torn labrum and arthritis and hip how do you not injure that more? A torn labrum is a big deal. I mean, it is a hard thing because a labrum doesn't heal on its own. Like a meniscus that can heal, a strain, a sprain, a little, you know, tear of some sort like a muscle strain that heals. A labrum does not heal. Now that does not mean you have to jump to surgery. Cause people will avoid surgery forever. I mean, and I think you'd be a great one to talk about it. I'm going to have Sam talk about her torn labrum. But if you do have a torn labrum in the hip and we're going to get to the shoulder there are things that you need to do to be smart. You need to warm up. You need to be smart about your range of motion depending on your fitness level and your age. You need I want you to talk about what you do and what you experienced through physical therapy because she's living and breathing. And when you see Sam move, you think how possibly could she have a torn labrum. Now she's young, but talk about it. Yeah. So I used to be a dancer. And so moving my hips in ways that are not normal for most people. Right. That's where that came from. So I have definitely like, I do love to run but I've noticed as a run more often that I have to do a foam rolling every single day. when I don't, I feel it. I also have like the Theragun that gets a little bit deeper in to the, you know, the hip and stuff like that. I stay away from any exercise or, you know routines that don't good. I noticed when I don't do yoga as much. So when I add that back in or even just a 10 minute session, can really just put my body in a place that just feels better. And yoga can help with joint stability. So one of the things, when you got to labor and tear you want your joint to have stability, right? Cause you don't want your hip doing anything crazy and tear it more. So hip stability can happen again. Yoga is so good with those. We have a yin. Is it flow and yin in yoga? Yes. I did both of those. We might have to get Sheila to do a flow and yin. Yeah. That would be awesome. One of our trainers. So flow and yin is like, we start with flowing yoga and then yin is all about holding poses. And man, that is hard while you're doing it. You're thinking to yourself, okay this is kind of hard the next day. I'm always so sore. Like I can really feel it isometric means to hold steady but it's good for joint stabilization. So try that. But with a torn labrum, you really do, like Sam said have to get in touch with what range of motion works for you and what doesn't. I said this earlier, I'll say it again. You know, muscle fatigue is, "Oh wow. I'm tired." Muscle pain is, "Oh my gosh, that doesn't feel right." Right. And so stop. Yeah. And so here you are, you know how many years later just find and I know a lot of people who have avoided surgery. Yup. I will do anything to not have surgery and I can you know, sometimes I can feel it even just sitting down but that's acute to me to like stand up. And do your foam rolling. And do your we're getting back into the whole idea that, when you're dealing with acute pain, rest ice compression, elevation some of the things that you can do and do your foam rolling and blah, blah, blah. But when you got chronic pain and you've got something going on, a tear, a strain a sprain, chronic back problems, chronic neck problems. You have to become your own physical therapist in a way and find a routine that you can do daily to help you recover. Absolutely. And I think just checking in like I will sometimes notice, you know like my family has back and all those issues when we noticed like when you wear your pants and it's kind of like this I do have to just go get that checked to make sure like my hips are level and stuff. So do that check in and be like, Hey, is something super off? You know Chiropractors can be really good for joints. I mean, again, it's what your comfort level is. Massages are great. Chiropractors are great. It's, it's an acupuncture for a lot of people helps relieve a lot of tension and pain. And the other thing I was gonna mention is you mentioned your Theragun. So you might see in the marketplace now there are these new devices that are kind of like drills. They look like a little scary. They, you know, came onto the market about four years ago. I first came in contact with them. One of my kids who's a hockey player was like, "Mom I gotta have this Theragun." Well now they've made different models of it, you know So that they're a little more affordable. And they basically, again it's like self myofascial release. It's like, it gets into that tendon into that muscle and helps to relieve tension. There's the Theragun, the Hypervolts, there's the trigger point therapy. They make one, there's a lot of different brands out there. You could definitely research it if you're interested or DM us and we can help you Yeah. It's easy to do on yourself. And me and my siblings do it to each other, a little bit of torture, you know, we try and help each other. We kinda tip each other over the edge a little bit, but it's kind of fun. I like it. I know. Okay. So moving to the shoulder issue modifications for shoulder issues especially we've had a few people asking about frozen shoulder typically happens for women in forties to sixties. Yeah. And you have to do therapy. You have to address for frozen shoulder right away. Don't live with it. Don't go six months. Get to your doctor, get diagnosed with frozen shoulder and then start physical therapy exercises. Typically they're going to prescribe like a couple of times to physical therapy for you. And you're going to get a list of exercises. However, in today's world, google frozen shoulder exercises and you're going to see them on the internet. And there's a whole bunch of different things that you have to do to that shoulder every single day. You know, now I have a friend who had frozen shoulder in both shoulders at the same time. Oh no. And it just started happening and she was freaking out about it. And she did this saline treatment. Again, I am not a doctor. I'm not saying I've done any of these treatments but she found a natural path or somebody or a physical therapist that did they injected saline. And then they move your joint through a range of motion. And then she did her physical therapy exercises. Boom. Problem went away. Definitely address frozen shoulder. Don't live with it, go see your doctor. It's very, very curable. Yeah, absolutely. My mom had it one day and was like I can't move my arm. And then she got checked in. I had to do therapy. Do the therapy. Do it right away. Yeah. And when it comes to the shoulder you can tear the labrum in the shoulder too. And you know, again, ball and socket joints we use them every single day. We rely on them. So it's so important that you're careful with them same kind of protocol. You don't need to jump to surgery. There are people who have torn labrums and they live with it forever. And you know, but the thing is definitely, first of all, you got to get diagnosed. You got to talk to your doctor, you got to get to a physical therapist and get a few things that you can do on your own at home and then be relentless and religious about doing that physical therapy daily to help you. Kind of going along that same lines. We have some people saying that they have elbow and shoulder issues when they're doing side planks. Is there anything that they can do for that? Well, again, it depends on what the shoulder issue is. I mean, again, because there are so many complicated things you can have a torn labrum, you can have a rotator cuff issue. You can, for me, it's an AC joint issue. There's so many different things that happen. So you need to know what's going on or why the shoulder bothers you. It could be weakness if you haven't exercised a lot in the elbow. Typically the elbow is the stabilizer, so that doesn't give you a lot of pain but if you have any bursitis in the joint or if you have any tendonitis in the arm there's tennis elbow and golfer's elbow. Yeah. So tennis elbow is here. Golfer's elbow is on the inside here. And so again, tendonitis is something that goes away through a little physical therapy and paying attention to it. For tennis elbow, which is right here at the front of the joint where it's just like, it hurts right there. When you go to a physical therapist, they take this tool. That's like, it looks like a butter knife. And they.. They just strip the tendon over and over. That's kind of why I liked that the Theragun, the hypervolt, because you can kind of do that right there. You have to be a little more careful with golfer's elbow on the inside but it's just stripping that joint, massaging it every day. Doing some of the exercises that are prescribed to you that will help get rid of it. And again, if it starts to, you know if it is just fitness level, like, Oh, it's just too hard for me to hold that plank for two minutes then only hold it for 30 seconds. Take a break, see how you feel, get back into it. Do you have any recommendations for, or modifications for like side planks or planks with the shoulder issues? A lot of people are wondering what those modifications are. So if you can't do a side plank based on your issue, first of all, I tell people go from hand to elbow. But if you can't do the elbow like if we're in regular plank and people go, Oh like I absolutely can't do that. Then have them come down to their elbows. The next thing would be to put a knee down. So either put both knees down or if you're in a side plank put that bottom knee to the ground again. Next thing is put your butt to the ground. So what we're doing is just slowly but surely reducing the body weight that's pressuring into that shoulder. If you absolutely just can't put any pressure on the shoulder, roll over on your back and do a different exercise, like a chest press Kinda going along with the elbow, we have somebody saying that she has a bone spur in her right elbow. What are the best exercises that she can do? She loves doing strength workouts. So can she still do dumbbell workouts or is.. That is one thing I honestly don't know about bone spurs? Do you know? I do not know about those. I mean, those bone spurs like heel spurs when those develop you, there's different things you can put in your shoes, pads that like surround the bone spurs so that it co it cushions it and you don't have as much trouble but when it comes to an elbow and you're going like this I honestly don't have an answer for a bone spur. I would have to look it up on Google. I don't know that answer. I wish I did. Look it up. And like I said, when something bothers you enough that you talk about it every day for, you know a couple of weeks make a doctor's appointment. It's totally worth it. You know, or get to a physical therapist or go see your chiropractor cause they're knowledgeable and can very much so help you. Yeah. And they can give you all the exercises and tools to do that. Let's see Sharon says that, that she is 57 years old and wants to know what exercises are best for working out the lower body. She doesn't want to necessarily grow her glutes but she wants them to become smaller. Since menopause they've gotten bigger. So typically muscle overgrowth is not going to be a female's problem. Like you're not going to bulk up and get a huge butt from doing squats and lunges. Now, if you went to the gym and you back squatted, you know 200 pounds every single day you might hyper trophy those muscles quite quickly. But your basic squats and lunges and things that we do with Get healthy U TV are just strengthening those muscles and adding very little bulk. So what you want to do is you want to strengthen the muscles and you want to reduce the upholstery on the outside. AKA, the extra adipose tissue is they call it body fat. So that's, don't be afraid of squats and lunges to tone that upper body those are going to help firm the butt they're going to strengthen the glutes and they're going to help you tone. And then of course you need that little bit of cardio and you know, eating healthy to reduce the extra. As I was calling it, adipose tissue, the extra body fat. That leads me into our newest programs. Leads you in there. Yeah. We have a new program at Get Healthy U TV. We add for those of you who are our premium members we add a program every quarter, sometimes a little more often than that. For those of you that are gold members, you get all of these premium workouts as well as a new live workout every Monday. So we have two levels of membership. This was the build and burn program that we just filmed. There you are Sam. There I am, my first one. Oh yeah. Girl. You did good. This is a program where we burn for the first half of the workout and we build on the second. So it's cardio for the first half strength for the second half. That's Leah, one of our GHG TV trainers, myself and Sam. It is see I'm doing the modifications in the back. So you will notice that we show modifications for almost any exercise that we deem to be a little bit more advanced. And then we'll give you guys a modification. But this is such a fun program because typically here's the deal. We love strength. We love cardio. We love flexibility and recovery. Some of you like to do cardio separate from strength. So if you'd like to combine the two some of you do a strength day than a cardio day. And at the end of the day it's keeping your mind interested in it. So we love to change things up. So this was, we tend to mix cardio and strength into our intervals together. But what you just saw was a new program where we take the burn on the front end and the build on the back end. So I'm excited about, people are liking it. Yeah. It was a fun one to do. And it switches things up a little bit. Yeah so if you are a premium member, you have access to that. If you are a gold member yup. You have access to that too. So check it out. That's our newest one that just went live this week. It did. Yes. And we're super excited about it. We have Vicki asking any advice after a hysterectomy and prolapse surgeries. Oh, that's tough. First of all, talk to your doctor about your time frame. Cause everybody like hysterectomy is people have different time frames depending on how it all went for you and any other prolapse or whatever other surgeries and things going on. I can't really give you a time frame because I don't know. But what I do know is be diligent and positive about the fact that you can get back. So many women exercise after babies. So many women exercise after hysterectomy depending on what your path is, if they feel like it's long and daunting, but go with the protocol ease into it slowly but surely. You know as your body is re-regulating in your hormones just take it easy, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate and add that exercise in slowly. I have talked to a lot of women who love the walking workouts after hysterectomy because it is a way to get that heart rate up really high but it's not as taxing on the body keeping things low impact. We have a whole low impact section. So again, get that protocol from your doctor as to how you can add in more exercise, listen to your body and then have that positive attitude that yes you can. It says it right here on my cup. Yes you can attitude of, you know, it's going to take time but you absolutely can get back to where you were at post hysterectomy. Absolutely. We have a question about, she's read that it's better to weight train before cardio. Is that true? What are your thoughts? It does not matter. It does not matter. It's like, do what floats your boat. So for me, I like to do cardio before strength. I do too. I like to get like mentally euphoric, you know, you're a natural, happy drug releases and your endorphins and get a good sweat on. And then I pick up those weights and I feel really good. For me when I strength train first, I'm kind of tired at the end of it. Cause my muscles are so fatigued that the idea of doing cardio at that point for me is just ugh. But everybody's different. Do what works for you. There is no right way to do it. And people will tell you, "Ooh you have to do cardio after strength. You have to eat fruit after vegetables." It's like, no, you don't. No, you don't. Do what works for you. Don't be stifled by so many rules that you don't do it. Yeah, absolutely. We have Jodi saying that her mom is 76 years old and she needs to strengthen her muscles. Any suggestions on where or how to start with her. She does have some heart issues. So she likes to sit a lot but anything slow to get her started would be helpful. Jodi? Was it a Jodi? Yeah. That's.. Jodi. Yeah. DM me, I can give you some routines online that are geared towards 70 and 80 year olds who are sitting, who are very sedentary. My mom is 81 and she just works on little things that she can do in her chair, moving her legs, getting her heart pumping. So, you know, obviously we have chair work cuts. We have walking workouts, but they are for beginners but they do have intensity to them. When someone tells me they're in their late seventies, early eighties and super sedentary and you know, hasn't done anything. There are some great programs out there for geared towards those seniors. So DM me and I'll help you out. We do have a Christine saying she would love some more videos for bad knee. So a little bit more low impact. So something we can add to our lists. Absolutely. Low impact is, you know I always tell people low impact is not low intensity. Right. Right? I mean, you can stay low impact and really get on a great workout. We just added to no jumping strength workouts to the gold workouts. And there will be a new 10 minute hopefully. Yeah. A new 10 minutes. So they're called no jumping strength. People have loved them. Sam did one. Yup. Lindsey did one. Yup. And they're intense. And I did Sam's I did that one on my own at home. It was hard. Yeah. But I mentally was really prepared for it that day. So I was like, I don't feel like jumping. And so like I knew that I didn't have to jump. So I really, you know, picked up my heavier weights and I loved it. And it's amazing how high your heart rate can get without doing any of that jumping in depth. And you just feel like you kinda conquered the world a little bit, cause you picked up those heavy weights. So, but that's a good piece of advice. Sam, keeps track of everything. I try, we have not talked about this one but I think it's an important one to hit on. Plantar fasciitis. Oh my goodness. We need to talk about it. That is very, very common. I had a friend text me this weekend and she said "I woke up today and I can't stand on my foot." And I'm so bummed. I've been doing a ton of outdoor exercise. I've ramped it up. I'm feeling so good this summer. What is going on? So she and I were texting back and forth and it's definitely plantar fasciitis. And it just kind of comes on and it's for all from overuse and having the wrong, you know, padding for your arch and your shoe and all of a sudden, one day you wake up and you're like, Oh my gosh, I can't walk. My foot hurts so much. So here's the thing with plantar fasciitis. It's if you look at the bottom of your foot, there's an arch. Okay. And what happens is if you don't have arch support under that arch, the proper support and most tennis shoes, even though they're expensive don't have great art support in them. They spend no money on the insert. So that tendon is like pulling away a lot throughout the day and you're running and you're walking, you're doing and you've go your barefoot or your in flip flip flops are the worst. Cause that tenant just constantly gets pulled away. And all of a sudden you have intense pain in the arch of your foot. So a couple of things that you should do and if you let it go long enough, it goes into your heel. So you should get inserts for your shoes. You can go online to amazon.com and google foot sleeves on plantar fasciitis or search for plantar fasciitis. And you're getting a whole bunch of different products that you can get like neoprene sleeves that you can slide onto your foot and you can buy, like I buy Dr. Scholl's inserts. And when I get a new pair of tennis shoes I take out the cheap inserts that came with the shoe and I'm putting my Dr. Scholl's with the arch support. So that's first thing, second thing stop wearing flip-flops. Flip-flops are horrible for anyone who has plantar fasciitis. You got to give those up for a little while. Third thing, tape your foot, get sports tape. You can get it at Target and get it at Walmart. It costs like a dollar 99 for a roll. You're going to take your foot, your bare foot. And you're going to take that tape. And it's almost like you're taping the tendon to the bottom of the foot. Now don't tape it so tight that when you stand up, your foot goes now. So what you have to do is you have to like put one round on and then you got to kind of stand up and go. Yup. That's good. But the other round on and keep that foot tape keep that tendon taped 24/7 for a couple of weeks. Because you want to avoid that tendon from pulling away. And then one last piece of advice, get a sleeping boot. Yeah. A sleeping boot makes a difference. So they make these splinters that look like this sorry for putting my foot on the table, Sam. That's okay. They keep your foot flexed the whole night. So you put it on your foot and you just Velcro it. And then there's a piece of Velcro here that pulls and attaches here and it keeps your foot flex like this so that while you're sleeping your foot, doesn't go like this. Cause guess what's happening when I do this. I am lengthening the tendon and it's going to get so sore in the morning when I mean, I'm shortening the tendon. And then when I go like this, it's going to kill me. So it keeps it like this so it can heal. And typically, if you are willing to take your foot and you are willing to wear the boot it'll go away in anywhere from two weeks to two months. Awesome. We are close to time but we do have Melinda who just hopped on asking a question. So I'll hit this one. She has two bad knees that make it really hard to do lunges and squats. She can't even make it close to the ground. Yogi squats are definitely out of the picture. What are some options? As far as you know, two bad knees.. Well work in your range of motion. I mean, I know like when you see someone squatting and touching the ground, you're like, shoot I want to do that. But you know, life is hard, right? I said it in class today, what did I say? Pick your hard. If your knees don't give you that range of motion, work with the range of motion that it does give you and make sure you are really focusing on squeezing your glutes, because that makes a difference. Do glute bridges on the floor, take some of that weight off of your knees and do those glute bridges where you raise up like a bridge and really squeeze your glutes. When you do that, get a stability ball or use a chair put your feet up on there. And then you've got even a higher bridge. That really squeezes your glutes and keeps it low impact off of your knees. So let's say you're doing a workout with Get Healthy U TV. And there's so many squats and lunges just drop down and do glute bridges as a modification. I always say, you have to be creative in fitness. You have to be willing to get creative. And if you're like, Hey, that hurts me. Then pick something else to do and do that instead. But just, you know, just go with the less range of motion. There's not a whole lot you can do about that. If you're, you know you've got wear and tear to the knees. Right we are.. Are we at time? Yeah. we have so many any questions. But a lot of them, we could couple it together. So hopefully we hit everyone's. You know, injury is normal. It just happens from moving your body. It just, sometimes you don't even know what it is. You wake up and you go, Oh, my foot hurts. My knee hurts. And other times you hear it when it happens and you go, oops, something just popped. And so just be kind your body. It's a part of life. The option of staying sedentary is so much worse than the option of moving. And you will stay stronger. You just have to get really smart about joints, about muscles, about recovery. I think we covered a ton. We did. One more time. I'm not a doctor. I'm just giving you the advice that I give you. And I always tell you, if you have intense pain go to a doctor. And just differentiate between acute and chronic pain. Acute pain is like it's been bugging you for a couple of days, couple of weeks. And it's going to heal. Chronic pain is did we figure out or no? Six months. Six months. Yup. Anything that's been bugging you for over six months, that's chronic pain. And then you really need to address that. And what I find out is it's not what you do once. It's what you do daily. That makes the difference. So, well, that was fun. I feel like I've just been talking. You have. Non stop. It's good information to hear it. it is. It's good for everybody. So take care of your bodies. We'll be back in August with another QA. Sometimes we bring the trainers on, you know and have them discuss with us which is kind of fun and get their opinions. So maybe we'll bring a trainer on in August. We typically pick a subject and we ask you guys for pre ask questions anytime. So stay tuned. Thanks for following us on social media. Thanks for being a Get Healthy U TV member. If you are not DM us because we can give you a special, super duper deal to join. All right. That's it. That's it. Have a great one. See ya.