The diet and lifestyle for Sean (a 26 year old professional football player) wont work for me (a 49 year old physician/yoga practitioner)------------------------>
"You have to start exercising!" I caught myself saying to a patient. Then I asked, have you ever exercised before? No....well, there was badminton in high school. Now if I didnt ask, I would assume she would just go back to her "Bally's" membership and start her old routine again. I imagine some people leaving with suggestions I made and getting home but not knowing how to begin. Maybe going out and starting to jog with 2 year old pair of tennis shoes with no arch support. (That would eventually lead to shin splints, pain for days with walking down the stairs and having to indulge in a few advils, get reflux symptoms then curse me for having made the darn suggestion to begin with.) Or the 40 year old that buys a treadmill again only to use it for hanging laundry after 3 months because its boring to run in the house. The word "exercise" can actually connotate fear and embarassment in some that didnt like gym class in highschool. In 2005-6, only 53% of students in the US participated in athletics. That can be translated to 47% didnt like gym or have great experience with finding a sport or just arent aware of healthy forms of exercise short of running and calisthenics (-Arnold Schartzneggars attempt at the presidential physical fitness awards). Zooming to the CDC's statistics, if 2/3rds of the population is overweight, then dare I say more than 1/2 of that group may not have any experience/knowledge of activity that could save their lives short of running that will probably hurt their knees. Oh.... "pre-habilitiation exercise education" is not covered by insurance but a below the knee amputation for diabetes pays "good money" to the surgeon and hospital.
I have coined the phrase "Heart Healthy Activity" to be spoken instead of "exercise". It doesnt conger up experiences from highschool for some and it opens ideas up for the ex-athletes that are stuck on one kind of routine. Andy Weil professes in his book "Optimum Health"....act your age. To prevent injury in activity not designed for the decade of life you are in. Heart Healthy Activity for a 20 year old differs from that for a 40 year old. The HHA for an obese 20 year old differs from that for a lean 20 y/o. A 40 year old on high blood pressure medications cant measure heart rate like a diabetic on sugar medicine. A 49 year old ex-bodybuilding, high school sprinter (booya) usually will be against starting yoga with the typical preconceived notion that "I'm not flexible so don't think its right for me". Bottom line is just like some medicines cause back side effects in one person but lifesaving results in another, HHA has to be "tailor-made" to the persons age, loves, goals, economic status, physical disability, sex, family responsibility and free time. I believe if this basic lifestyle change is to be sustainable, then thought, design, and a good intention to make the patient successful in changing has to be invested. This is why I work with chiropractors, a physical therapist, a registered dietician/personal trainer, exercise physiologists and counselors. A well rounded team can provide several different "in-roads" to attempt with each patient in order to design a HHA that they will be able to embrace to initiate a change. The more you change with HHA, the more you improve the chronic medical disease: the more you improve the chronic medical disease, the better you feel: the better you feel, the more empowered you are to make the next change.......
As a patient, you have to be willing to try new things outside normal comfort zone....essentially trust that the person designing the program has the best intentions and desires for your success. As a provider of healthcare (doctor trainer, yoga teacher...), we have to keep in mind, not every prescription for lifestyle change is the same for a given patient.
