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Barrier Busting
The Barrier Busting podcast offers insights, strategies, and inspiring stories that explore practical tips and powerful tools for unlocking our full potential.
Barrier Busting
Achieving Wellness with Ergonomic Adjustments
Discover how to transform your home office into an ergonomic haven with insights from Dr. Greg Zaccone, a distinguished physical therapist and the founder of Spectrum Physical Therapy and Athletic Training. Learn essential tips for preventing common injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis by optimizing your workspace setup. Dr. Zaccone shares practical advice on the ideal positioning of your computer screen, keyboard, and chair, ensuring you maintain a comfortable and injury-free environment while working from home.
Elevate your posture game with our detailed guide to workstation ergonomics. We go beyond the basics to uncover the benefits of using a laptop stand, the importance of a 90-degree angle at your knees and hips, and how a sitting cushion can enhance your spinal alignment. Plus, discover why alternating between sitting and standing throughout your workday can make a significant difference in preventing discomfort and strain. Our comprehensive discussion covers everything from mouse and keyboard placement to the critical role of movement and stretching in your daily routine.
Examine the balance between technology and mindful movement in maintaining overall health. We explore how modern devices like Fitbits and smartwatches can aid in monitoring physical activity and diagnosing health issues, while also addressing the potential pitfalls of over-reliance on such technology. Additionally, Dr. Zaccone offers valuable tips on aging well, emphasizing the importance of regular exercise and weightlifting for sustaining both physical and mental health. This episode is your all-in-one guide to overcoming barriers to health and success, with expert advice that is both actionable and insightful.
Are you feeling stuck? Is something holding you back? Are there obstacles in your way? Well, let's smash through those obstacles so that you can live your best life. Hi, I'm Matt Brooks, founder of Matt Brooks Coaching, and I'm fascinated with how people overcome barriers and achieve success. Join me for insights, strategies and inspiring stories as we explore practical tips and powerful tools to unlock your full potential.
Speaker 1:This is the Barrier Busting Podcast. All right, I am back today with a guest from last week who was so great. I'm so excited to have him back for another half hour. He's a physical therapist. His name is Dr Greg Zaccone. If you listened last time, you heard him talk a lot about exercise, how important it is, some tips on how you should do it. We talked about how various things that we do, various habits that we have physical habits will ultimately cause us some issues in our lives. We're going to talk more about that today and a lot of other things, so let me just go over this.
Speaker 1:If you're just tuning in for the first time or if you don't remember from last week, my guest is Dr Greg Zacon, a physical therapist who is the founder and president of Spectrum Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, which has two locations in New Jersey, one in Old Tappan and the other in Edgewater, and you can find out more about them and him at wwwspectrumptatcom. Dr Zacon is board certified in New Jersey as a clinical specialist in sports therapy, is an advanced clinician for hip and joint conditions and has worked in a number of major hospital institutions. As a certified athletic trainer, Dr Zaccone has experience at the professional, collegiate and high school levels and, most notably, has served as an intern athletic trainer for the New York Giants minicamp and head athletic trainer for the Fordham University men's basketball team, among several other university positions. Dr Zaccone holds both a doctorate and a master's degree from Columbia University of Physicians and Surgeons and a bachelor's degree in athletic training from the University of Delaware, and I am really pleased to have him back with us today. Welcome, Dr Zaccone. Great to see you again.
Speaker 2:Thanks for the opportunity. It's a pleasure to always talk to you and your audience, and I'm looking forward to helping your audience become more educated and safer, not only with their normal activities, for work demands, but also for exercise.
Speaker 1:Well, we need that. I think it's often taken for granted that everybody's walking around with common knowledge about all these things, and I just don't think we all know about all these things, and I just don't think we all know. I know that when I go see doctors, for instance, they'll often talk over my head with things that I probably should know, but I just don't. So we need people to speak in a common language so that we can understand what it is we need to know, and I so appreciated you last time doing that. I know you're going to do more this time.
Speaker 1:Let's start out by talking about environmental factors, such as workspace ergonomics and home setup and how they influence your health habits in general. In particular, not only how they influence your habits, but what changes people can make to their environments to support better health or better physical health habits and fewer work-related injuries. I mean, a lot of people have carpal tunnel syndrome. A lot of people a lot of tendonitis out there. I'm sure you see a lot of that. What should we do to change the environment where we work that will help minimize future problems like that?
Speaker 2:Well, that's a great start to today's podcast, because a lot of today, more than ever, people are working more from home, so their home environment is their work office, matt. So what we recommend to our patients is number one if you're going to have a work environment at home, you should have the computer screen, the keyboard, right in front of you, where it's close, where your arms are kind of to put it in layman's terminology, your elbows are bent about 90 degrees, your arms are resting comfortably in front of the keyboard and you're sitting in a chair with your back maybe flush, where you're kind of looking down towards the screen, instead of having the screen up a little bit higher, where you're maybe extending your neck too much.
Speaker 1:Let me interrupt. You don't want to look down too low, because I think I might have mentioned this to you last time. I ended up getting a stand for my laptop because I noticed that when it was flat on my desk or on a table that I had a tendency to hunch over, even from sitting in the chair, and I started to feel it in my neck a little bit. Every now and then I'd feel just it would tighten up and I thought, well, that's going to have a long-term effect, it's not going to be good, am I right? So I lifted the screen up so that it's not. It's not above me, but it's kind of directly in front of me. Is that? Is that good?
Speaker 2:Yeah, directly in front and maybe just a little bit downward. So you're not. You're not extending your neck and your shoulders. Basically, you want to have your shoulders back and your head up, as if someone's got a string right above your skull, and pulling your neck straight up to a position where your shoulders and your neck are a little bit more aligned, not too much in front and not too much in back.
Speaker 1:Well, I see, that's. What was worrying me was my shoulders in particular being hunched over, and I noticed, by putting the computer on a stand it sort of automatically corrected my posture in that regard you know I started sitting up straight without thinking. I mean it was, and I and you know I've talked a lot about habits, and habits are things that we develop so that our brains don't have to think about those things right, to give our brains a rest and automatically what?
Speaker 2:yeah, you want an efficient. You want an efficient um workstation. You're exactly right where. You're not thinking about it, you're just doing your work, like you're doing your work right now. I'm doing my work. You just want to sit comfortably. And the biggest thing too, we didn't talk about having the legs flat on the ground, um in front of you, not crossing your legs or having your leg kind of tucked in underneath you while you're sitting in the chair. You know so, just sitting in that position, I even tell our patients just keep your shoulders back, as if you're pinching your shoulders, as if someone has like a hundred dollar bill on your shoulder blades and you don't want to let them take that a hundred dollar bill away from you.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's good. That's good. What about foot rests for under the desk? Good.
Speaker 2:That's good. What about footrests for under the desk? What do you think about those? Well, you know, some people can. Perhaps if their chair is a little bit higher, if they have longer legs, maybe they have their feet on something that can they can rest comfortably on. We just want to almost have I know I used it before with the elbows, but have the knees almost in a 90 degree angle, the hips in a 90 degree angle and your feet flat on the floor. If you want to be a little bit more elevated, you can get a small cushion, maybe a four to six inch cushion, to sit on. That's something that's easy to purchase. You know you can get it on online. You know sitting foam cushion is something that we also recommend to our patients.
Speaker 1:Okay, Actually, I used to work at my dining room table and I ended up getting one of those cushions and the good doctor is giving good advice here because I noticed immediately a difference from that cushion. You know, yeah, we tell a lot of our.
Speaker 2:that's a great point. Even our patients that go out to dinner, or they go out to their their grandchild's football game, or you go to a baseball game, you're not really sure what kind of environment you're going to sit on. The stands are cold, or it's getting colder now with the change in season. We tell our patients just bring your own cushion with you to a restaurant or where you're going outdoors and you can use it as if it's like another piece of equipment to help you.
Speaker 1:And it's not just so that your tushy is not sore, right. It has to do with your back. Right, talk about your back and how, because I think that's something we should always be thinking about is our backs. As I mentioned last time, I've known some people with chronic back pain. Don't want that. That's awful. I mentioned last time, I've known some people with chronic back pain. Don't want that. That's awful. But how we align our spine is really important to our overall health for the long term, right?
Speaker 2:Correct. We talked a little bit about that last time just making sure that your spine health is something that you do take care of and if you have good posture while you're at your workstation, the computer, the mouse too we didn't talk about the mouse too much keeping the mouse close to you but not too far away, where you're maintaining that elbow at 90 degrees. Um, you know that's that's also going to help for your shoulder and for your neck and for your wrist. So you know that's from a sitting standpoint, matt. You know we can certainly get a standing workstation and when you're standing you're maintaining the same thing with your upper body. Your elbows are still bent at 90. The computer screen, the keyboard is still in front of you but you're just standing upright with your feet in the same underneath you. You're not leaning towards one side, you're just kind of standing upright with your shoulders back.
Speaker 2:So those two recommendations we have for sitting and standing, and standing. You should be standing more than sitting during the day. It's kind of like compound interest for your body. It's exercise to stand, your heart works harder. The research shows that across the board that it is healthier to stand more than sit. So even if you can break it up 50-50 split of sitting and standing at your workstation. There's some great workstation desks that are not that expensive that you can just put your keyboard on and just elevate the workstation desk to the point where you can stand and be in front of your computer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, you really made that point last week and I've been making sure since to stand a lot more during the day. I mean, it's been on my mind, so it's a really great point. And I want to ask you about that. With a standing workstation, all the rage now is to have a treadmill underneath it and I, you know, I kind of wonder. I get on a treadmill every day, but I kind of wonder how I can type and be focused on, you know, the computer and everything well, on a treadmill, without falling off and breaking my neck. But what do you think about that, that sort of thing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean safety first in the clinic. Sometimes we have people on the treadmill and they're texting and they're looking down. We had someone the other a couple of years ago. They dropped the phone. They went to grab it. As the treadmill is moving, they hit their head on the crossbar and they almost passed out.
Speaker 2:It becomes like a comic show yeah, we just if you're going to be walking, I would say, just be headset, uh, hands-free. Whatever technology is out there where you can have, you know, a dictation or something where you're you're focusing on what you're doing without holding on to something so maybe these under desk treadmills are probably not a great idea.
Speaker 1:I personally don't think they're a great idea. Also, though, my mom who's 98, god bless her about seven, eight, nine years ago got on a treadmill at the place she was living at without any instructions, so you know what happened. Very quickly she had a bad fall, and at that age age, bad falls are really problematic. So, yeah, those treadmills can be dangerous. Everybody watch out for them. So, um, let's talk a little bit about overuse injuries. All right, because you know, I have a thing to rest my wrist on when I'm using my mouse and and to rest my wrist on when I'm using the computer to avoid carpal tunnel issues. I had a little bit of that when I was young, and I also have a couple spots on my body where I have some tendonitis from using those areas incorrectly over the years. What should we know about overuse injuries and what should we know about how to look out for or what I'm sorry I'm not saying this well, but ways to avoid them?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's a good point, matt, because overuse injuries obviously that, like they're their name, right it's something that you do over and over again. So, for the mouse, if you can have your hand in more of a neutral position and I think some of the mouses today that are online you can purchase one that's a little bit more ergonomic or something where you can rest your wrist comfortably. I don't know the research if one is better than the other, but something along those lines where, hey, my wrist is comfortably in a position where I'm really not moving my wrist side to side or up and down too much, it's just in a neutral position and I can use a couple of clicks of the finger.
Speaker 2:That's something where you just want to keep an eye on if you're getting any numbness or tingling in your fingers or any wrist pain while you're doing that motion or any, you know, wrist pain while you're doing that motion. We talked a little bit, you and I personally, about if you're going to be lifting things or moving things, trying to keep your thumbs up in a neutral position with your shoulders back. You know that's something too, where if you're reaching or grabbing, if you're not only in a workstation but maybe you're doing something more physical. Whether you are, you know a conductor or whether you are doing, you know, construction work. Thumbs up whenever you're lifting. That will help avoid those overuse rotator cuff injuries that everyone you know will experience at some point.
Speaker 1:And probably I'm not a doctor but probably all nerve injuries, right? Because when you isn't it? When you're like you have your hands, like you're doing push-ups or the reverse, doesn't it turn the two bones in your wrist and it can push against it?
Speaker 2:Yes, you're talking about the two forearm bones of the radius and the ulna.
Speaker 2:So even if you are doing the push-up, we say thumbs up or neutral hand position and trying to avoid thumbs down, or if you're reaching behind you in a car, your thumb comes down behind you. Your arm becomes behind your back. If you're reaching for something to the side, reach for palms up, the biceps muscle. It's more engaged when you're doing palms up instead of reaching for something thumbs down. So thumbs down is no good. And when you're doing work on the mouse, trying to keep it more in a neutral, you know thumb position, where maybe the thumb is not completely turned down but it's a little bit more upright.
Speaker 1:Okay, and that actually is a good segue to my next question, which isn't just about workplace issues but issues in general. You know what are some common behavioral triggers that can either support or sabotage good health habits? And I'll give you a silly one that I can think of just right off the top of my head. Getting out of my car Many years ago I dislocated my left ankle and every now and then I get out of the car and I put that left foot down and I kind of spin on it without thinking and it just sort of it activates that injury just slightly and I can feel it. You know what are some of the triggers that we have in our lives that we should be aware of that could sabotage or support good health?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know when you're moving in different planes of motion.
Speaker 2:For example, like you said, if you're getting out of a car, right, you're sitting and you're facing forward and you're trying to rotate towards your left side, or you're trying to move, you know, in a different plane and you're trying to trying to swivel.
Speaker 2:We always tell our patients in the clinic keep it simple, move in a straight line. And it takes a little bit more time. But, for example, if you're getting out of a car, you may want to turn your body first towards the passenger car side and then have the legs outside of the car If you need to pull them up manually with your own hands or just pick them up. So you're facing. Now you're at a 90 degree angle of your car and then you're pushing your hands off of the car seat or using a handle that's in the car to kind of help. You know, get up from a standing position or from a sitting position, rather. In other words, you want to push from a surface that you're getting up from and you want to have your hands on the surface that you're sitting down onto and you want your body.
Speaker 1:You want your body facing the direction you're moving towards right, so that you're not twisting that ankle right what if someone avoid the twisting? Right. Are there any other sort of common things like that that we would do during the day that we should be looking out for, because it could have an ultimately a bad effect? Anything you can think of?
Speaker 2:You know, besides the car, I always like reminding patients when they're in bed. You know when you're, when you're sleeping for seven, you know, hopefully, for you know, six to eight hours at a time. You do want to be in a comfortable position, you know, preferably on your left side, with a pillow between your legs, a pillow underneath your top arm and maybe a pillow in front of you so your top arm doesn't come across the midline and your neck a little bit more positioned where it's not on an angle towards the mattress, it's just a little bit more straight. So those are things that we emphasize. For our patients that are sleeping, maybe a little bit more awkwardly Sometimes people sleep on their stomach or they're very restless we try to tell them hey, be in a position of comfort, Certainly getting on and off a chair.
Speaker 2:For the patients that have a little bit more difficulty, we try to tell those elderly patients get towards the edge of the chair, have your nose over your toes. When you're trying to stand up right, Push from the surface behind you with your hands, nose over toes, push, bring your hips forward and stand up nice and straight, Nose over toes, nose over toes I like that.
Speaker 1:That sounds like a t-shirt or a coffee mug man. Let's switch gears now. Just briefly, um, to talk about you and I were talking in private about the importance of stretching and, let's be honest, nobody does enough of this, right, unless you're a real athlete. Nobody stretches, nobody thinks to, certainly not enough, or certainly not until after you feel oh my god, I should have stretched because now I'm sore. So talk about the importance of stretching and simple stretches we should be doing every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so stretching, you know there was a belief that you know you would get out of bed and just start stretching without the body being warmed up. So what the research has been conclusive with supporting is what we call dynamic warmups. So when we're ready, before we start stretching, matt, we want to do movement patterns that will break a little bit of a sweat. For example, maybe you go for you know you do some slow marching or some side to side movements or some crossover with your legs, or maybe you do some light, light jogs, something where you start to sweat Once your core body temperature is elevated and you're sweating. That's when you want to start stretching and you'll get more of the muscle to lengthen when you're warmed up to stretch Rather than stretching cold. You're just going to stretch the tendons.
Speaker 1:So you're wait a minute. You're saying run first and then stretch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm saying, get yourself warmed up first and even if you want to take a warm shower or soak in some warm water where your core body temperature is maybe elevated a little bit, that's the point that you want before you start stretching. And yes, when you start stretching, you want to hold the position for, you know, 45 seconds, 45 to 60 seconds, and let the muscle stretch rather than the tendons. If you're cold, which sometimes happens, and what are we stretching?
Speaker 1:Just our legs, or are we stretching our fingers? I mean, I know, you know, pianists, for instance, will stretch their fingers every day. They'll do these little exercises.
Speaker 2:What are we stretching? Sure, you know it depends. If you want to stretch your hands, there's nothing wrong with soaking your hands in some warm water and keeping them submerged. So the you know, so the buoyancy of the water can help and you can move your fingers up and down or squeeze a sponge. We tell that to our patients that have arthritis of the hands or need to use their hands, whether you're in music or a skilled profession. So that's one area that we tell our patients to try. And if you're stretching your hamstrings, which are the muscles in the back of your leg, that's something where, safely, you can either be lying on your back and using an old belt or something to pull your leg towards you, or if you can lean on know, lean on something.
Speaker 2:I don't want to get too complicated with that, because sometimes we want to make sure that the patient is safe. Sure, and then you know, stretching the arms. You know, certainly you know, the wrists to the elbows, to the shoulders. There are certain positions that you know. Perhaps we'd be happy to, you know, maybe instruct a little bit more for the patients that are interested. But those sort of stretches, absolutely Just holding them for, you know, 45 to 60 seconds.
Speaker 1:And stretching is really, you know, I know it does a lot for us, but it really is about injury prevention, right?
Speaker 2:Correct. People forget when we're lifting weights you're ripping muscle apart. So if you go to the gym and you lift really heavy weights and you do a couple of repetitions, microscopically you've just ripped that muscle tissue and that's how our muscles get stronger. But after you've exercised whether you run, jog, do elliptical or break a sweat the muscles have been used, so they're going to naturally get tighter. You want to stretch the muscles so that they don't get too tight, so you lose your range of motion and your mobility. You want to maintain the mobility and that's where the stretching comes in, and it's certainly best to do that after you've lifted or after you've worked out or broken a sweat.
Speaker 1:All right. So stretching, stretching, stretching is really important. That's great. This is a great place to take a quick break and when we come back we're going to talk about technology, physical therapy and technology. We'll be right back.
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Speaker 1:All right, let's talk technology. I mean technology has taken over our lives in every way. I know that running my own business technology has taken over our lives in every way. I know that running my own business technology is a huge blessing because there's so many things that really really help, like automate tasks, so I don't ever have to think about them. How has technology influenced the physical therapy world?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, you know, it's a good question, I think, for the practitioners of physical therapy, the physical therapists or the medical doctors, we're relying on technology to help us, you know, assess, diagnose and document our notes and our information. I think that's where technology is going to help make our lives a lot easier.
Speaker 1:But how does it help you? I'm sorry, how does it help you diagnose?
Speaker 2:Well, there may be a cluster of symptoms or signs, you know, perhaps, that you want to look for or ask the patient, and once you put those clusters in the software or in technology software, whatever you may use, it'll kind of put you or push you in a direction of clinical assessment. I see, I see, okay, so that's one sort of thing to use. It'll kind of put you or push you in a direction of clinical assessment. Basically, I see, okay, so that's one sort of thing. You know, the technology, though, today, from an exercise standpoint, I mean even something as simple as your Fitbit or something that you wear on your watch, you know, that can monitor your heart rate and you can kind of see how hard you're working.
Speaker 2:We talked about it last time, matt, with your heart rate being elevated to a certain percentage. So those devices, today, the technology can also, you know, monitor heart rate and alert us if we're in a different you know cardiac rhythm or if we're not in a normal cardiac rhythm. Perhaps people are, you know, may need to see a cardiologist, and that has happened, where the technology that we're relying on has given us an alert and someone has had to go to the cardiologist. And oh, yeah, by the way, you are having an abnormal heart rate. You know we have to either put you on medication or maybe do something different. You?
Speaker 2:know whether it's a pacemaker or you know some other defibrillator.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, it's good for all those reasons. But as a life coach, I'm also concerned all the time about anxiety, right with my clients, people I talk to, and having a wearable device like an Apple Watch or a smartwatch of any kind or a Fitbit. I've noticed some people become really obsessed with it and I think it can bring on a little anxiety. Can you give a little advice as to how we balance using these devices without you know having them put more stress and guilt on us? You know what I'm. Do you know what I'm talking?
Speaker 2:about? Yeah, I do, and you know I I'm not a big. You know the phone has become the boss of all of us these days. You know you look at people and they're holding the phone six to eight inches away from their face. That's right, and you can't even get eye contact from someone. You know the technology should just be something to supplement and help make your life easier, not kind of take over your, your daily routine.
Speaker 1:Oh, man, you know, I tell my son this all the time and he's pretty good about it. But I say, look, it's a machine. It's there to help you. But it's a machine, don't let it control you. You control it, right.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I mean, we're the ones with the mind. If you're, if you're doing something mindless, what good? Why do you need to be involved? It's taking over your mind.
Speaker 1:Right. But what I'm getting at here, though, is, if I start really tracking myself with my smartwatch, even I, after a while, become kind of obsessed with the numbers, and I can feel minor anxiety. I know how to kind of shake that off, but I think some people can really get messed up by being too obsessed by this.
Speaker 2:When is it no longer helpful? You know, I would say that you know when you're more obsessed with numbers than actual activity. You know people should be exercising just for the pure enjoyment of exercising, right, I mean that's. And when you're doing it and you're having fun and it's, you can get a companion or someone to help monitor you, you know, or work with you, then that's fun. But if you're constantly looking at the device and you're worried more about the numbers, I mean once you are exercising regularly, you should kind of get an idea of how hard you're working. That's just knowing your body, that's just getting an idea.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm kind of breathing a little bit heavier. Let me just see what my heart rate is. Or you know I'm doing this activity for two minutes. You know I've been doing it for so long. I know the rhythm that I need to do or the sequence. You know you can use the technology, maybe a metronome, that where it's more controlled, so someone doesn't have to focus on that. Where it's more controlled, so someone doesn't have to focus on. Am I hitting my goal? Am I hitting my number? There's a rhythm that's kind of guiding you rather than you looking for something to kind of reach for. Does that?
Speaker 1:make sense. I like that a lot. I think that's a really good way to think about it. I mean, I have a friend who's a uh, one of these guys who runs marathons all the time and he runs these, you know, weekend long marathons. You run for 48 hours or something. You know. I can't even comprehend that, but he's obsessed with the numbers on his watch and he has reason to be because he's training all the time.
Speaker 1:But I think for the average person, we want to be working out, we want to be healthy, but there are things we can do, like become obsessed with these devices, these, these numbers that we're seeing, that can actually have an adverse effect on our mental health. And you know it's a proven fact Science has proven this over and over too that your mental health affects your physical health and vice versa. So we've got to protect both. So sorry I had to jump in there, but as a life coach, I don't want people getting the guilt trips that they'll put on themselves often from these devices and from all this information that you got to get in the gym and work out. And how hard do you need to work out? What you're really saying is people. What I loved about. What you said last week was simple the body is meant to move. The body is meant to move, so we just need to move. We don't need to all be Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know lifting weights, but we need to move right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't need to compete as much, as just start simple we talked about it and just move. And this is where I kind of defer to a professional like yourself from a mental health standpoint, you know if the two professions can kind of be there for the patient or for the client at the same time. Hey, matt, what do you think? How's this patient doing? Are they more anxious? Because it's getting in the way of how they move? I can see that they're moving improperly, but what do you think? What are some techniques? This is where I would defer to you, matt, and other healthcare professionals for the mind.
Speaker 1:Well, let me be clear for the listeners. I trained as a therapist. I have an MSW and I trained. My training was clinical focus, but I'm a life coach, which is a little bit different than a therapist, so I don't want to give the wrong impression of myself. But I do work with people with anxiety and most of my clients have some anxiety in one way or the other, and so I'm always it's always on my mind how can we, you know, lessen anxiety and get rid of anxiety? So enough enough on this. Let me move real quick to are there any specific devices or apps that you recommend people use?
Speaker 2:I use the Fitbit.
Speaker 2:I think the Fitbit has its own app, I'm not too sure what other you know brand new apps are out there, whether it's Pulse or whether it's Polar, those are some brand names that are you know, that are out there, that kind of provide people you know with some sort of you know base and foundation of technology. Yeah, everything is changing, changing. You know technology changes so quick. That's the other thing, that's the truth. You know it's so tough to kind of keep up with everything. Um, you know we use a fit um fit light in our clinic, um, which is basically just you know these devices that light up and we can measure how quickly someone can move or react. And you know that's something the cognitive training, I think, for reaction time, whether it's using it for you know lights that are lighting up and you kind of create the environment where people can kind of touch them. And most of the phones today or most of the apps that are free and provide some sort of you know technology that people can kind of use to for their, for their exercise.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, I'm going to shift gears here because this is a topic that's passionate to me. I remember when I was in my early 40s, I was at my doctor's office and it was during a period of intense stress in my life and he was telling me you know, I need to, you know, to get rid of some of the stress, and blah, blah, blah. But he said something to me that really stuck and he said now that you're in your 40s, you got to start thinking about 50, because 50 is when the wheels start coming off the wagon. I'll never forget him saying that to me. Our working out, our physical bodies change after 50. And so, from a physical therapist perspective, what do we need to know? For those of us that are over 50? What do we? What do we need to be doing? I've heard we need to lift more weights for a couple different reasons. What? What specific to people over 50 should we be thinking about?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, when you're in your 50s it's really about the consistency, matt. That's the biggest thing. And on our last session we talked about, you know, lifting weights a couple of times a week and exercising where you're getting your heart rate elevated a couple times a week. You really have to stay consistent with some sort of exercise regularly, because what ends up happening is, like you're saying, when you're in your 50s, if something has to come up where you need surgery, it's proven, the better condition and shape you're in, you're going to recover quicker from the surgery.
Speaker 2:Even the surgeons if they say, hey, you need a knee replacement at 58, you're going to have to do physical therapy before the knee replacement so you can recover better and quicker after the knee replacement. Your body, like we talked about it, needs to move it's tissue and if it's in, if it's consistently being used, whether it's with exercise or stress, from a physical standpoint you just will recover a lot better and you'll slow that process down in your fifties. I mean that's the whole idea. We want to. We all want to age gracefully here. We don't want to, you know, kind of go from 40s to 50s and it's like, holy God, I can't even get out of bed.
Speaker 2:No, the exercise is slowing that process down and it has such a huge effect on not only your body, but also your anxiety too, as you're in these different life events here yeah, life changes.
Speaker 1:So really there's. It's not anything specific we need to think about when we're in our fifties or different changes we need to make. We just need to be consistent. That's what you're saying, right?
Speaker 2:Just be consistent, I think last week we talked about you know you have options, whether it's walking or the elliptical or the bike. You know not over doing the same motion over and over again If you're a runner I know people love to run, but you know the variety I think is more important and the consistency with the variety. You know, one day you go for a walk, one day maybe you swim, one day you go for a bike ride. And then we've talked about last week on your podcast keeping that heart rate elevated about 65% of its max in order to find that max heart rate to 20 minus your age. So if you're 40 years old to 20 minus 40 is 180 and you want to be at 65% of 180 beats per minute to kind of work within.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So those are the things that we continue to recommend.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. You did say one thing last week that we didn't have time to follow up on. I want to follow up on real quick, and that was weightlifting, in particular for men because of testosterone. You said something. Explain that a little bit, please.
Speaker 2:So you know, when you're weightlifting you are helping your testosterone levels, you know, elevate and for men it's very important to keep your testosterone levels high. Important to keep your testosterone levels high, you know that's kind of working for all of our metabolism. So we're burning more fuel, we're not getting that, that fat around the gut area. And muscle mass is very important for men. You know, as we continue to age we do lose muscle mass, which is totally normal. But if we can keep our muscle mass high, you know, with some weightlifting it's also a good way to kind of help our mental health. You know, understanding that we can control our aggression and control things a little bit more with physicality. You know, men do get physically, you know, active and upset at times and that's okay and we just it's just an outlet and a stress release.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm glad you brought that up. I'm going to take it away from physical therapy for a second because you gave it to me. But I actually did a thesis on male depression and you know women are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression as men, but men are more than four times as likely to commit suicide. So there's something there that I was curious about, and one of the problems is, in terms of men being diagnosed with depression is that men tend to express symptomology in a very different way than what the diagnostic criteria says it is, and one of those ways you hit on, men have a tendency not all men, but men in general have a tendency to deal with stress and depression in physical ways, sometimes even violent ways, and that's just kind of I don't know, ingrained in us, and it is one of the things we should think about, which is why, you know, I remember when I was going through a phase, a doctor said to me get a punching bag.
Speaker 1:Just get a punching bag and do hard workouts on that punching bag. You're going to feel better. And he was absolutely right because I was able to take out that physical aggression. So I'm glad we could talk about this briefly. We have gone a little long tonight, but I think that's good because we got a lot of information out. I just want to ask you if you have any final thoughts for us about you know. I mean, most of us are going to end up seeing somebody like you at some point in our lives, whether that's from a new place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, right so what final thoughts do you have for us to help us try to avoid? I know you want the business, but how do we avoid seeing you? What things do we think should we add to our discussion, if there's anything left to add that we should be thinking about as we go forward in our lives?
Speaker 2:Well, I tell all of our patients you know, you know your body best and if something starts to bother you, you know, don't have a knee-jerk reaction. Stay away from self-diagnosing on the internet. Stay away from, you know, running to the doctor and saying you know feeling that, you know you have to see someone See how things unfold in a couple of days. You know, typically if things are moving in the in the right direction, then that's something that is favorable and you know look for. If you have commercial insurance, you can always see a physical therapist. To the state of New Jersey for direct access and it's worth it.
Speaker 2:You know asking, you know your physical therapist that you're comfortable with hey, this is what I'm noticing. What do you, what do you think therapist that you're comfortable with? Hey, this is what I'm noticing. What do you think? Do I need to go to an orthopedist or a medical doctor or a specialist? Usually, the physical therapist is pretty good at assessing those sort of musculoskeletal or pains and aches across our bodies. But I would go somewhere wherever you're comfortable. If you have a physical therapist that you're comfortable with, if the environment's comfortable for you, great. And as we talked about to avoid getting injured, just staying consistent, starting small, building on it a couple days a week, maybe two days becomes three days Finding a partner that you can share the exercise with. It's so important, like you mentioned just prior here, not only for our physical health but the mental health, for depression for women and suicidal outcomes for men.
Speaker 1:It's just so important for us. And if I can just throw in even a simpler thing exercise just makes you sleep better. If you sleep better, everything's better, Am I right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm in agreement. Eat better, everything's better, am I right? Yeah, I'm in agreement, you got to it's all mind, body, diet, rest, you know, and just trying to enjoy things that give you some sort of peace and some sort of satisfaction each day.
Speaker 1:What a great place to end the show. Peace and satisfaction, I'm all about that.
Speaker 2:If we could all get that every day, you know oh would that be?
Speaker 1:that would be utopia, right. But anyways, listen, dr Zacon. You've given me two shows, given all of us who listen to shows can't thank you enough for the really valuable information you've given us and I hope I can get you back one of these days to talk about something else, because you're a great guest to have. But I just want to say thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Matt, it's a pleasure. Just want to say thank you for being with us. Yeah, Matt, it's a pleasure and I'm happy to speak to your audience and hopefully, you know, someone can get 10% of what we talked about tonight and make things better in their own livelihood.
Speaker 1:Right, I hope so too.
Speaker 1:I really do. All right. Well, thank you again. Thank you all for listening today. If you enjoyed this, please hit that subscribe or follow button so you can be notified every time I drop a new episode. I'm going to stop talking about habits. Now it's been seven straight weeks of habits. We're going to move on to a new topic. Next week we're going to start talking about pivoting, career pivoting, and at some point I'm going to talk about pivoting in your 50s and ageism. So I've got also several guests who have pivoted lined up and a professional job recruiter. So this should be another interesting series. I hope you've enjoyed the last one. Again, like I said, if you have, please hit the Like or Subscribe button. Take care of yourselves, be well, and I will catch you next time on the Barrier Busting Podcast. Thank you,
