The Unfiltered Health Podcast
The Unfiltered Health Podcast delivers real, authentic conversations about health, wellness, and longevity. We break down complex health topics, sharing evidence-based insights, practical advice, and personal experiences. Our mission is to educate, inspire, and build a supportive community committed to living well and thriving together—no filters, just the truth about what it takes to achieve lasting health.
The Unfiltered Health Podcast
71 - Unlock the Secrets to Stable Health Outcomes and How Everything is Connected
Want to unlock the secrets to stable health outcomes? Tune in to our latest episode as we uncover the five essential building blocks for peak wellness. We kick things off by emphasizing the crucial role of sleep, explaining why seven to nine hours of quality shut-eye can be a game changer for stress levels, weight management, and cognitive function. From practical tips for light sleepers to the hormonal impacts of sleep deprivation, we explore the science and strategies behind achieving consistent rest.
We then shift our focus to hydration and its significant effect on cognitive performance, decision-making, and overall mood. You’ll discover how even a slight drop in your hydration levels can wreak havoc on your body and mind. We share actionable advice on how to stay hydrated throughout the day, including creative ways to make drinking water more enjoyable and effective. A well-hydrated body is more resilient, productive, and even sleeps better, so don't miss these game-changing tips.
Finally, we delve into the interconnectedness of nutrition, breathing techniques, and the mind-body connection. Learn how to optimize your diet with water-rich fruits and vegetables while minimizing processed foods that can damage gut health. We also cover essential supplements to support your overall well-being and introduce breathing techniques that reduce stress and improve lung function. Wrap up with insights into how chronic pain can be managed through both mental and physical health strategies, making this episode a comprehensive guide to mastering your health journey.
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Hey there everyone. Welcome to our podcast where we deep dive into everything health, fitness and wellbeing. Today, we are bringing you something foundational. Literally, we're breaking down what we believe are the five basics to achieving stable health outcomes. These aren't just trends or quick fixes. They're time-tested principles that create a solid foundation for your overall health and wellness. Now you might be wondering what are these five basics we're talking about. Number one I'm sure you can guess is sleep. Number two, stress management. Three, water intake. Four, food quality and intake. Five is breathing, and if you want to hear more about breathing, definitely check out episode 68. We're also going to throw in a bonus six factor, which is crucial mental health and mind mindset, because, let's be real, it's all connected. So, for each of these, we're going to share two facts, maybe maybe more, and some simple ways to make them work for you. So are we ready, steph?
Speaker 2:Yeah let's do it. Let's start off with number one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's go with sleep. So fact one I'm sure everyone knows. Did you know that adults need at least seven to nine hours of sleep per night?
Speaker 2:Inadequate sleep can lead to high stress, weight gain, decreased cognitive function and I also really believe that it changes your appetite yeah, it does, and it can change your mood, um, and there's also a lot of research suggests that it can lead to issues, health issues such as, like you know, hypertension, um, heart related issues. So sleep is absolutely vital for your health and your function.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like the one thing I remember, this episode of Joe Rogan with Matthew Walker, and if anyone knows this episode, it's like the Holy Grail, because this is what started, I guess, this trend and like really getting deeper into your sleep and how, actually, from an ancestral point of view view, matthew Walker coins it as like it's such a disadvantage to have been needed to sleep for seven to nine hours a night because in the wild, when you didn't have these boxed in homes with locks and security cameras, and it's just a psychological disadvantage, sorry, a physiological disadvantage, because you're, you've got predators everywhere. So from a like an evolution point of view, this has definitely been one thing that obviously our body, our brains, our organs, everything falls back onto sleep and our development, because I'm pretty sure our development is also really closely linked to our ability to rest and recover and the sleep is what facilitates that yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And sleep is where the body rests and digests. Right, that's why we get that saying you know, fight or flight, rest and digest, um, and it is when you're, literally your digestive system and all your other organs are functioning, because during the day, that's not the priority. During the day is, you know, going about daily life, working whatever it may be, and at night, that's when our organs, our body, starts to recover, starts to repair, digest, do whatever it needs to do. So we're not getting that adequate amount of sleep, then our body isn't able to properly recover, which means we're waking up in a non-optimal sort of state, and then that just becomes a snowball effect.
Speaker 1:I think it's like a survival mode kind of instinct, like you're just running off fumes. There's no actual energy behind it. It's just you're like burning the end, burning the candle at both ends, like there's no actual energy behind it. It's just you're like burning the end, burning the candle at both ends, like there's no way you can be productive, there's no way you can make good, conscious, healthy decisions. It's just like quick fixes almost. And that's maybe if this sounds really relatable to you and you're not sleeping a lot in our audience, well, maybe have a think about the things that you're struggling with and maybe just need some more sleep and deeper sleep too and I definitely think you know having good quality sleep, that that's seven to nine hours, like every single day, probably isn't realistic for some people, like some people you know, I think, controversial.
Speaker 2:Controversial because I think you know there is stuff that happens in life where we may not be able to get that sleep. Um, for example, if you're unwell or I don't know, you have an emergency, or you know something happens that stops you from sleeping. I definitely think that you know, in a perfect world it'd be great to say, can we get seven to nine hours of sleep every single night, but I think, realistically we just want to be doing it as much as possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:On most, you know, on most nights, consistency, Exactly, and if we do fall off a little bit because something's happened, cool, let's try the next, you know, the next night to get a good proper sleep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, trying to think when it's acceptable to like not have seven to nine hours of sleep, I think like a night out. Yeah, that makes sense to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I mean, Like you know, obviously a night out, you know, if you can, well, I guess sometimes you might get a seven to nine hour sleep if you can sleep in the next day, right, but is it quality? Yeah, exactly, most of the time it's probably not quality too, because that's the thing.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like define quality. Does it have to be seven to nine hours of deep, yes, undisturbed sleep? Yes, absolutely yeah. I think for some people would be hard to have that deep sleep, especially if you've got kids or you're with a someone in the bed who snores, maybe that's you know you're a light sleeper. Maybe that's very like distracting for you. Yes, um, the bed, you know how comfortable maybe it might be. Your pillows I know we spoke about this last time and we're like no, it doesn't really matter, but I guess like comfort and comfort absolutely body position.
Speaker 1:Maybe that does change. You know how well you can sleep. Um, I was gonna say, and I just, it just flies out of my head, these things on a monday never mind, let's, let's continue on Monday-itis.
Speaker 1:Yeah, monday-itis. The fact, too, that I had was poor sleep disrupts hormone regulation, including insulin sensitivity, which can increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease, which you were also touching on about. How lack of sleep can also be related to heart attacks, strokes, depression, and I was kind of linking it how it goes through appetite. I think if you don't have the ability to sleep and rest properly, your choices in life are the quick fix ones and you start making choices that are not advantageous for you. For you, it's just gonna. You're just trying to bump up your energy. Rather than actually relying on this really, really, really important factor in your life, you're trying to do it through external factors and I think an important one is it can lead to injuring yourself from, yes, poor and inadequate sleep.
Speaker 2:Um, I see quite a few clients that they're training hard, they're working, working hard, their sleep is absolutely terrible and some time down the line they end up burning out in the capacity where they hurt themselves at the gym, and most of the time it's just because of poor sleep, especially with athletes. I say this a lot with athletes because sleep is the number one form of recovery and if you're not getting sleep but you're training hard 24-7, eventually your body's going to burn out and that will lead to something like a soft tissue injury or cramping or, even worse, acl injuries. Sleep is so, so important and detrimental, especially if you're an athlete training hard maybe that's what happened to carlton this year, because I had all these injuries and they were sleeping.
Speaker 2:About that, my heart is still aching oh you're coming. Sport too, my heart is still aching. I'm still trying to find them because they were not on the field. I'm still trying to find them. I don't know where they went. They're enjoying.
Speaker 1:Brisbane weather. It's been 90 years. That's what it feels like.
Speaker 2:Maybe on our 90th birthday we'll see Carlton with a permission. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Hopefully, hopefully, we get to see their lifestyle. We're going to be one of those oldies that get interviewed and we're like.
Speaker 2:I've been a Carlton supporter for 80 strong years. About time it's about time Almost gave up.
Speaker 1:But I'm still here, oh my god anyway. So coming back to the sleep, um, I think can have a consistent bedtime yep create some calming pre-sleep routine.
Speaker 1:Look, I don't think this is necessarily easy for mums or parents. Try do something, like you know, with the washing. I think that might be a good activity. Do the folding, hang the washing before bed. Try get the house in some form of order. Maybe dim the lights around and just clean the space up. That could be something that allows you to feel more tired rather than sitting in bed and just clean the space up. That could be something that allows you to feel more tired rather than sitting in bed and just scrolling, scrolling.
Speaker 2:Definitely stay away from the phones if you can. I think they say at least like 30 minutes to an hour before sleeping.
Speaker 1:There should be that's generous, I think that's generous yeah, I think you should be having that technology away from your face for at least probably two hours, because your melatonin I think you know you'd be aware of this. Yeah, your circadian rhythm and your melatonin release is regulated by the sun and daylight hours. As soon as you have blue light in front of you, obviously it suppresses the melatonin release. Melatonin release is what makes us sleepy. So if the blue light in our faces are suppressing that you want to go to bed when you turn your phone off and stop scrolling, but your mind's still racing because the melatonin hasn't been dumped enough to actually go. Oh, I need to sleep. So, exactly, I think that's being nice. So two hours, yeah, phones away and at a distance at least at a distance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely in the past too yeah I think that's a big one, things to relax your body um and put you kind of in in a sleepy um environment. I always say like lavender oil or having a bath, something to yeah something therapeutic if you find that works for you.
Speaker 2:And again, these are just suggestions. You know what works for some people might not work for everyone, but at least there are a few options that you can at least try. I know some people find meditation, music really helps to calm them down. Breath work to help get them to sleep that's always a nice one.
Speaker 1:It's always the box breathing like four in, four, hold four out, four, hold four in and you just suck. Yeah, they also say a cool dark room, like having lights on in your room, like anything that's flashing, anything that you can see visually when you open your eyes, is not actually good for sleep. You should have a completely dark room. There should be nothing coming in, no light, no lights flashing, no reds, no blues, no colors, no cameras, no sound. It should just be quiet, dark and cool, because temperature also, your body falls asleep based on temperature too. Yes, I think it's 16 degrees.
Speaker 2:I think I've read. Don't quote me on it, but I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that it needs to be 16 degrees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that sounds familiar for me too. Anything above that, look, you probably can fall asleep. But if it's hot, like you know, on a hot night you can't yes, exactly, but on a cool night you cozy up up, you get cuddly, and then your body just rests, yeah.
Speaker 2:Moving on, moving on. Okay, I think we've covered that in terms of sleep. Yeah, I think that was pretty detailed.
Speaker 1:Number two is stress management. So, fact one chronic stress can wreak havoc on your body by increasing inflammation. Inflammation is the body's immune defense system, which is linked to almost every major health issue, including heart disease and depression. Fact two high stress levels can lead to overeating or making poor food choices, which affects overall wellness and you'll notice a pattern.
Speaker 2:Every single topic that we speak about is that it's all going to be linked back to much of it, or not. Enough of it is going to lead to health issues, which is why these are the foundations and why working on them and managing these is going to allow you to have a more optimum lifestyle and health and well-being I think with stress like there'll be a lot of people who come to me in the fitness industry and I'm sure you'll see with pain, pain management as well, because we know sugar affects pain.
Speaker 1:But with overeating, like when you're stressed and you're simply going for food as a comfort source. I understand that, but I think you have to break that habit and there has to be a better way to manage our stress. So when it comes to stress relief practices, I always think of being outside of your four walls and going outside to free your mind as a starting point, because when you are constantly in a stress state or you're at work and you're just feeling like you're pumped, try do something before you start your work. Like today, for example, I don't really have a chance to go for a walk outside, but I have started my morning with some breakfast outside, so I've gone out of my waking space and my workspace, done five to 10 minutes outside, did some little light stretches, had my water, had my coffee, and come back in and go. Okay, I'm ready to do this. Like I know I'm not going to have a chance to do all the things that I'd love to just be calm and cool, collected today. But I can do something like that.
Speaker 2:You've got to give yourself a break, and it's definitely more the reaction of the stress that's the biggest thing, because a lot of people think stress is a bad thing. We definitely need stress. Stress is a good thing. Need stress. This is very. Stress is a good thing. Our body needs stress in order to survive, in order to adapt, in order to grow, in order to learn. We do need stress in our lives to challenge us, but when?
Speaker 2:that stress becomes too much or when we we can't react to it well or respond to it well. That's when it can lead to being over stress and that's when you can be flooded with all those thoughts, feelings, behaviors, et cetera.
Speaker 1:I think, yeah, it's managing really, and this is why it's called stress management, because we're trying to manage this as best as possible.
Speaker 1:It's not going to be perfect. I think sleep we can make better. I think stress management is not going to be perfect, especially in our society. It's just really on the go, especially in our society. It's just really on the go and you have to find something where you can fall back on whether it's a hobby, something calming, some space in the day where you have a break. I know a lot of people who have their lunches at their desk and continue to work on. That break is there for you to go out and get away from the workspace.
Speaker 1:So use that at your advantage and go outside, because it actually might make you more productive. It might actually make you happier seeing someone walk past saying hello, how are you? That can be sometimes when I'm in, like my head I've got things on my mind. I go outside, some lady might go hey, good morning. And that might just be ah that might be the switch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely help you switch your chemistry in your mind that, okay, like you're thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, but then there's a reality of like it's going to get done eventually yeah, and from a pain perspective, stress can actually lead to chronic pain, illness.
Speaker 2:So I always explain this to my clients in terms of I use the stress cup analogy. So you've got or stress bucket analogy and every single thing that may be involved in what is influencing your stress, such as sleep or diet, lack of movement, work relationships if that just keeps getting filled in terms of your cup. If your cup keeps getting filled and you don't have things in place to manage or reduce that stress, that's when it becomes overflowed and that's when you start to get issues. So you have two options you either take the things out or find strategies that is going to help reduce the things in that cup, or you get a bigger cup. I like that. When you get a bigger cup, that means you start putting things in place so you can react and respond better to the stress that is being put in your cup.
Speaker 1:Would a bigger cup? I've just got a question about that. Would a bigger cup mean that you also have more space for those things? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:And it just means that they don't affect you as much, okay, as what they usually might. Okay, because it because you're responding to it better and you're learning how to manage it better I like that yeah yeah, that's really important.
Speaker 1:That's a really good analogy. Hmm, thanks for sharing that stuff. No problem, um, do we have anything else in stress?
Speaker 2:I think in terms of how to manage stress.
Speaker 2:It's always going to be different, again, from person to person, um, but rachel mentioned quite a few good tips in terms of if you're feeling a little bit, you know, stuck in these four walls at work especially, you know, get up, go outside for a walk, speak to different people. If you feel like you're in your head a little bit, um, if you're feeling stressed, then that that stress leads to, you know, feelings of overwhelm or anxiety. You can always go and seek professional advice and support. Um, and I guess just catch yourself in terms of if you feel like you are a little bit stressed and that may be impacting your day and your thoughts and your feelings. Catch yourself before it gets to the point where you know you overflow in terms of you get sick or you burn out or you injure yourself. Know the signs, like that's when it's getting to understand yourself better and being more in tune with yourself and recognising your signs when you're feeling a bit stressed and then having good things in place to try and bring those stress levels down. Awareness.
Speaker 1:I totally agree with that. Like I said, it can be so hard, like we both said, it can be so hard for us to just slow down sometimes. But if you have, like what Steph has said, some practices in place and also just knowing who you are around certain situations and, when it's getting too much, asking for help whether it's someone a colleague, a friend, a family member, like rather than lashing out or taking everything as on your responsibility, I think something I've really learned recently is just asking for help or just stating I'm really struggling or I can't keep up at the moment. Can we get to this in a in a week's time or can, like, putting some boundaries in place can also really help with stress management.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Okay. Well, this leads us to water intake. So water is probably the one thing that I see clients on my side do really poorly. When they come in originally to see us, they just are drinking less than a liter a day. Sometimes some clients are really good they're already drinking two to three, which is fantastic. There is the spectrum where I see a lot more people not drinking enough water, so super dehydrated. This can be related to our sleep quality and also stress management, because in relation to sleep, water is also part of the cooling and our temperature regulation. With stress management.
Speaker 1:When you're dehydrated, you also make poor choices because your cognitive function is not where it needs to be. I think it's like a 2% Don't quote me, I've got this somewhere in my, my fact sheet somewhere A 2% drop in baseline hydration is related to serious poor function cognitively. Think decision-making, ability to process information, productivity, mood, memory and just performance in general. So water makes up around. The stats keep changing, I feel like, but I've got anywhere between 60 and 80 percent um, so you need to drink water. I would probably tell everyone to be drinking minimum two to two and a half liters a day and when you're training, three to three and a half it. It sounds like a lot of water, but if you're drinking from the very moment you wake up, it's actually not a lot, and you will feel so much better when you're hydrated versus when you're not, and you'll also make better food choices when you're hydrated yeah, and you know, lack of from my perspective in things that I see with clients is, you know, if you're not hydrated, it can lead to headaches.
Speaker 2:Headaches is one thing that I do see with a lot of clients, and the first thing I will ask is are you drinking water? And most of the time they're not drinking nowhere near enough water, so water intake is extremely important.
Speaker 1:I know a lot of people prefer to reach for their coffee than a glass of water and coffee but we can have both, we can exactly we can have both just water, more it's like you know, when you go out for a night out and you have alcohol, it's like they say a one-to-one one drink with one water to keep you, like, somewhat hydrated, because alcohol is also dehydrating and also really can mess you up. So you need to have some baseline, because the more dehydrated you are and also the less food you've had, the more drunk you will get yes quick, absolutely, I think also from pain and immune immune system.
Speaker 1:Water helps flush the lymphatic system. So the lymphatic system is like our second circulatory system in our body that doesn't actually have a like a heart to pump fluid or like it doesn't actually require it doesn't have an organ that assists it in its function. So when we do any exercise or when we drink water, it actually helps the body flush that system and the lymphatic system has all our white blood cells and it picks up all the debris and toxins essentially and flushes it out. So if you're not drinking any water and you do have an injury, from an injury prevention and pain management perspective, water is going to assist in that rehabilitation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely they say, uh, what else have we got here? I think when you're thirsty, you've probably gone past the point that you should be like you shouldn't be thirsty.
Speaker 1:They say yeah, okay, that's interesting yeah I think they say that you should always be having water, but you shouldn't be getting to the point where you're so thirsty, because, you know, there's some times where I've had days where I've gone a whole day. I've been so busy talking here, talking there, on my feet, working, and by the time it gets to the night time I am so thirsty I can't catch up, like my body cannot catch up, and I'm just drinking, drinking, drinking, and then I need to go toilet yeah in the night and that just messes my sleep up right so they I think they do say to not get to the point of being thirsty okay, so pace yourself throughout the day yeah, as I reach my water pace yourself throughout the day.
Speaker 2:What are some tips we could share with our listeners in terms of ways to drink water or, to you know, reach the goal of at least two, two liters a day, because I know a lot of people struggle with this. I know one thing is to actually have a water bottle next to you. I farm. When I have a water water bottle next to me, I am more likely to drink water, exactly. Um, I know some people don't like the taste of water, so maybe putting in like a so, like a salt. I know you use sody.
Speaker 2:Yes, so dehydration yep, um, or something flavored to change the taste, like berries or something like that, to infuse it to lemon to make it a bit more palatable good word, I think.
Speaker 1:Um, I'd say like a cup an hour or two cup an hour, one to two cups of water an hour, that's. That's again being generous, like I'd want to punch a liter before, like 11 o'clock and then another I think you need to right.
Speaker 2:If you don't at least punch a liter before midday, like that's already half your day gone and then you're just going to be playing catch up, depending what time you?
Speaker 1:wake up, exactly, yeah, and then you're going to probably be spending most of your time in the bathroom, peeing every 20 minutes exactly and like I get a lot of clients that we do ask like how's your sleep, and they're like, oh, it's cool, but I wake up to pee a lot. I can't remember two or three times like okay, so you're really not having enough water in the day and then you're backlogging at night. Yeah, something's going wrong. Exactly this can also be related to sunburn.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty sure water is related to a lot of things, because skin is an organ, yep, and so when you're dehydrated from the sun, it can't draw any more water out from those cells. So when you're sweating, yeah, it's a good thing, you're hot, it's pulling out, it's. The vitamin d is doing its thing. It has a really good antibacterial effect on the skin as well, antiviral properties from the sun. But when you're pulling all this water out, it gets to a point where the skin is going to burn a bit quicker that's interesting, okay, yeah, wow, I didn't know that that's cool things.
Speaker 2:Are light bulbs going off? Yeah, that's really cool, I like that yeah, um.
Speaker 1:The other tip maybe is like look at having some fruits. Fruits are just like watermelon, oranges, juicy peaches. They are a lot cucumbers, cucumbers yes, it's a really good one um, carrots, yeah, they've got more water in them.
Speaker 1:So that's a nice little trick that maybe, if you're not happy, if you don't like the taste of water, maybe have some fruit with your water, like you said, or on the side, yeah, uh. Next one is food intake and quality. So, fact one, the quality of your food matters just as much as the quantity. So your nutritional habits have have sorry, nutritional dance through the mumble. Your nutritional habits have an effect on your ability to recover your performance, and also just in terms of diseases I like to think of diseases as dis ease in the body.
Speaker 1:So I really recommend a lot of quality vegetables, lean protein sources, healthy fat sources and carbohydrates that are not refined and I like yeah fact two is processed fruits often contain additives and chemicals that disrupt our gut health, leading to poor digestion, mood swings, a weakened immune system, aggravated skin, reproductive health, endocrine issues.
Speaker 2:The list goes on yeah, and I think, like it is common sense. You know, in terms of you know you fuel your body and whatever you feel your body, the body is going to absorb. So you need to make sure that what you're fueling the body with is the right nutrients to power, to power your body.
Speaker 1:Essentially, it's the um, it's the fuel for your car, essentially I think, like I wish more people understood the impact that food has on their body, their mind, their health, their performance, their skin. I see a lot of like young teenagers who do have breakouts and I'm like, firstly, you're going through puberty changes, but secondly, what's going on in your gut health?
Speaker 1:absolutely even a lot of women that do come to us. They do have maybe some pimples and they've got, like their skin and their hair is fine, um and dry. So I think, okay, what are you eating? Are you eating enough fats to support your hormones? Because your fats in your body essentially regulate a lot of the hormones that we do have. So there's this. This food stuff is a really big topic, and the quality of the food, I think just as much as the intake.
Speaker 1:I do see a lot of people under eating and that can also be related to stress. If you're under eating, you possibly will also have high stress levels. Your body can't just run off fumes, like we said at the start, needs energy behind it, that's. I think that's why I may have said that, because I was going to get to this point anyway. Um, so you can't just be eating low calories all the time and expect good health.
Speaker 1:You can't sleep if you're malnourished. I know when I was bikini competing and I was eating very, very low and exercising all the time, my sleep I'd wake up at least every hour, stressed and hungry, stressed and hungry a trifle of sleep, stressed and hungry. Like I was so malnourished that it was so hard for me to get any form of quality sleep that my stress was just exacerbated throughout the night. And then in the morning I'd wake up and I was anxious. Yeah, wow, it was horrible. It was so horrible. My skin was dry, I had no nutrients. So my skin I would start to like notice it was just so fragile. So simple cuts and bruises wouldn't heal as fast and people who are malnourished don't really have the support in their body to heal quickly. You might get a lot of rashes and on your face, if you do have a lot of pimples, a lot of acne, it's related to your gut health usually, so you might have something there that you need to look at.
Speaker 2:This is um it. This actually reminds me of a client I was working with a couple of months ago, um, and they'd come to me because they'd hurt themselves playing soccer they had a hamstring injury and we were going over the why it had happened. And they spoke me basically through the timeline of their days and what their weeks looked like. And obviously my first question it is with most people is the basics in terms of are you eating well, are you sleeping? Mental health, blah, blah, blah. And they were getting three hours a night sleep because work was a bit weird and crazy.
Speaker 2:They weren't eating good foods or eating enough, so when they were eating, it was pretty crappy food. They were training four or five, probably no, probably five, six times a week, um, that's including like soccer training and games and gym and stress levels were quite high. And so, before, even looking from a physical point of view, if there was any areas that were weak that may have, you know, may have resulted in the hamstring strain, I looked at the basics. I was like these, this is, these are the reasons why you've injured your hamstring, not because that you're not strong, because you're definitely strong. You train a lot and they train hard in the gym, it's because their recovery and all their foundations was extremely poor and that resulted in them hurting themselves on the field. And when we broke it down and when I explained that to them, they looked at me and they're like, oh shit, that actually makes sense yeah so it's so complicated, you know
Speaker 1:absolutely absolutely that they came to you to figure that out. It's just a little thing. Did you actually?
Speaker 2:to ask those questions was something not adding up well, they're usually my go-tos in terms of that's the checklist that I will follow, regardless of what injury, of what pain someone has, purely because it all intertwines and it all affects each other and they all influence each other. So if these basics are not as optimal as what they could be, I'm not looking anywhere else. Um, because it doesn't matter. If you know I can give them the best exercises or I can give them the best stretches, but if they're not nailing those basics to properly optimize their body, make sure that their body is working and being fueled that hundred percent, then those exercises are not going to mean a thing yeah, yeah, I'm so glad you said that because, it honestly, is so important and often overlooked as well.
Speaker 1:Often overlooked yeah, and that's why we're talking about them today, because I think like, even though we think that everyone should know this, most people don't realize this and it all comes back into each other and, like everything we've spoken about today, like from top to bottom and we still got maybe two more to go they still interrelate with the whole web of us and being a human. And these are just like the main basics.
Speaker 1:There's other things that external the basics that will get us through and really push and facilitate a lot better changes than just trying to add on extra things into your life, absolutely like supplements. I think this is what I was thinking about before, that I forgot. Supplements are not necessarily what's going to be the game changer in terms of changing your entire life.
Speaker 1:There's no secret supplement. Yeah, there are supplements that are good, like vitamin d. I've probably said this before. Everyone should probably be having a vitamin d, if you live in melbourne especially but there's nothing really out there that everyone needs to take all the time, just really depends. But there's nothing also magic magical about supplements. They just facilitate. They're just supplementing things that we're not getting. So some people need more of it.
Speaker 2:Some people might not I think that's important because a lot of people will look to supplements as like the, the medicine to fix them, and it's like if you're eating well first, you don't necessarily need the supplements, because they're there to help you and to supplement. They're not there to replace.
Speaker 1:There's so much information on supplements, it's so overwhelming. If anyone wants the basics that I would suggest it's vitamin D, a magnesium, possibly a creatine if you're training. They're like my top three that I usually go for. And then there are other more specific things, maybe like a digestive enzyme, maybe like a Vitex Chastery, if you've got reproductive stuff, digestion issues. There's the specifics that maybe that might be more relatable for, but again, unless you're doing these, it doesn't really matter. Yeah, number five was our breathing. The episode 68 is where we'd love you to go to listen to our breathing conversation. It was such a good conversation and I know someone a few people actually reached out to me who listened to the podcast and they were like I really love listening to it. It really helped me re-emphasize that I'm doing the right things and that some things I didn't even know about.
Speaker 2:So that's awesome, yeah, I know, I love, I love hearing great so please that one.
Speaker 1:So we did speak about it, but we will just kind of rephrase it or brush over it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, brush over it.
Speaker 1:Fact one improper breathing, like shallow chest breathing, can increase stress. Well, it's probably linked to your stress and anxiety. Two deep diaphragmatic breathing lowers blood pressure, improves lung function and enhances relaxation. And I think fact three that I'd just like to randomly add here was if you're not nose breathing and your mouth breathing, it will change your face structure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And it can change your stress levels. It can change what muscles are used for your breathing. It can change so many things. So it is another area that I tend to have a look at and assess with clients in terms of the way that they are breathing. Um, your breathing can also affect your sleep. So this just goes into the addition of the tangled web of these these areas that they all go hand in hand. If you're not breathing very well, you're not getting enough oxygen in. Therefore, you're not getting a good new, fresh oxygen to your body. It can influence your muscles, it can influence your stress levels, it can influence your gut, it can influence your mental health. So, in terms of how we breathe and the way we breathe is so, so important and, like Raquel said, we did have a massive episode on this a couple episodes back. So what number? 68. Did you say 68? That's right. So if you want to go back and have a listen, I highly recommend Me too.
Speaker 1:Because it was a good one, it was very good, it was great. The other thing I was going to say is you have been nominated as the my Therapist of the Year. As a nominee so far, I hope you do win this.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I think this is amazing.
Speaker 1:So I do think Steph does this really, really, really incoming swear word fucking well. So if you have got pain, issues related to anything, steph's your go-to. Thank you, I appreciate it. Yeah, the things that I've learned from you and also my team that's learned from you has been like essential and it has helped facilitate so many good conversations in general, but just overall. These are the basics and you know you do them so fucking well and I think this they're so important and they're so overlooked.
Speaker 2:You know you could, you could turn around and say that you've learned this new fancy exercise that can help with x, y and z, but the reality of it is, if you're not nailing these basics and you're not looking at these basics um, and looking at how they may influence a person and a person's pain, then you're missing a massive piece of the puzzle yeah I agree massively.
Speaker 1:Our bonus one for today was mental health and mindset. So I think we have spoken about stress and kind of interrelated into a few things, but we will just talk about it. So a positive mindset and good mental health are just as important as physical health. Studies do show that people with an optimistic outlook are more likely to achieve their health goals, which I think is not really a fun fact.
Speaker 1:It's just like no shit chronic negative emotions can lead to physical symptoms, including headaches, digestive problems and a weakened immune system. The fun, the really fun fact here is that the more stressed you are, the lack sorry, not the lack the inability of your digestive system to actually digest. Things is so true. Um, if you eat when you're driving, if you're eating at the desk which is why I was saying, go away from the desk when you have a break to eat if you're eating and trying to do something, that you're focusing on something else rather than just digesting, your digestive system actually doesn't break it down properly. So it does affect. It does affect how you feel and possibly can make you have some negative digestive symptoms, like just this gastric pain, bloating. It's probably the two main things that come to mind with this one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and especially from a health pain perspective. This is often spoken a lot in terms of chronic pain, because when clients fall into that chronic pain category it no longer becomes like a tissue issue. I was going to say tissue issue.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:It no longer becomes a a tissue, tissue issue I was gonna say tissue issue arrives, it no longer becomes a tissue issue, it becomes more of a sensory issue, but also a lot to do with our brain and our brain's pain receptors. Can you talk more about this? So, in terms of when you're dealing with chronic pain, our receptors basically? So, when we are in pain or we're in danger, our body sends an alert, essentially, or our brain sends an alert to let us know that there is a danger and then to respond. Now, that response can be, you know, if you're touching a hot candle, you know you're pulling your arm back so then you don't get burnt. If you're I don't know lifting a little bit too heavy, and you know it might give you a bit of a pull through your lower back to let you know how you need to back off a little bit because we feel a bit uncomfortable. So, basically, if your body feels like it's in danger, your pain receptors are going to fire off. Now, when you have chronic pain, your pain receptors kind of become an overprotective, like an extremely overprotective parent, where it doesn't matter what you do. It could be the smallest thing. They will alert you that you're in pain. Now there's a big thing in terms of learning to rewire that pattern and to pull that back, to kind of retrain your brain, to stop being so overprotective and to actually calm down. That in itself allows the pain to slowly start to settle down and reduce and you start being able to tolerate a lot more and not be as sensitive to things. And it's so complex. It is so, so, so complex and I love talking about it because it's so interesting and there's so much more like the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know and I go down a rabbit hole and it's, it's really, really cool. But this goes down to when I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:When I'm talking to clients that have chronic pain. The way they speak to themselves and the way they talk about themselves can actually influence their pain and how long they take to get better. Like if they have a really bad flare-up in their pain and all they're thinking about is you know, this is the worst. They're feeling sorry for themselves. They're never going to get better. Anything they do is going to hurt. That's actually going to create more fear in their brain, which then they will become more sensitive to pain and it's harder to get out of. So it's this huge element of being able to shift their mindset, being able to think a little bit more positively, and that's a massive component to them actually getting out of that chronic pain, yeah, which is so interesting this is like some things I see in like our personal training clients is those who have had some form of trauma, something related to their body.
Speaker 1:I do see this come up a lot where there's either been, like a car accident, some personal situation where they've had something happen to them that they can't recover. They are finding it hard to recover from and still hold those bad memories in that site of their body or somewhere where they like maybe tense up all the time. Um, it could even be people just sitting at a desk who are stressed and they've literally just got these shoulders to their ears kind of pattern hunched over like that is also a sign that they need to just calm down right but I do see this a lot with some clients who just really need to have that body, body awareness, have a bit more positive self-talk and try to move through it, and this at a lower intensity.
Speaker 1:I do think it's really interesting. I do think the book that I read the body keeps a score a very long time ago really made me more aware of that. This is a thing that people do struggle with. I probably wasn't aware of that as a trainer back when I first started and I read this maybe during lockdown, so it's something that I'm a bit more informed of.
Speaker 1:There are a lot of people I've seen in the industry, like physios, who really don't like the pain science stuff and look, I think, each to their own. But this was like back in the day when people were saying, um, artificial sweeteners don't disrupt the gut. Like bio lane whatever what his name is dr lane norton was saying this and then two years later he came back and said he was wrong and the science had changed. So I think when it comes to what someone's feeling in their body, it is very valid to explore that. If you're comfortable and aware that this has happened, you need to be open to it and you just need to learn how, you need to work with someone who can help you manage it, because it is so complex, like you said. Like this this the signs and the things change there is and women are underrepresented in data.
Speaker 1:We like make up five percent of the data most of the data is from males, so women are so underrepresented in in everything in science. So you know what? Just stuff anyone who tells you what you're feeling is invalid and come see people who can try help you and just kind of see the bigger picture and work with you to get you more to that optimistic outlook to work through things. Just be aware of it. It's so hard. Mental health is huge and it has changed dramatically, I think, after COVID. Not necessarily for the worst. I think it's just made everyone a bit more aware how big mental health is and how much people are going through.
Speaker 1:But I do think that if you're stuck in your bad memories and stuck in PTSD stuck, you're stuck in your bad memories and stuck in ptsd, stuck in these situations in your life that have happened in the past and you can't get out of them and you're struggling, you need to talk to someone professionally. You need to surround yourself with the community of people who can help you. You need to reach out to someone who can help you specifically with that thing, who gets it and who's not going to be an extremist on one thing, who's going to have it depends kind of view.
Speaker 1:I think those people like me and you who have a, really it depends. I think we are. I'm going to be biased. We are the best kind of people to work with because we're not we're not biased in one one simple thing. We're going okay. But have you thought of this? Have you thought of that? Has this happened before? Are you comfortable talking about this? Are you thought of this? Have you thought of that? Has this happened before? Are you comfortable talking about this? Are you comfortable doing this?
Speaker 2:And really, kind of setting the standard in terms of, like this is what we can do, but we just need to start somewhere. Yeah, absolutely. And in terms of, like you know your mental health and the way you see things, perceive things, your environment and you know who you hang around like Raquel said and the people that you are surrounding yourself with, is so important. So, if you feel like you are struggling or you're in that kind of tunnel vision and all you're seeing is kind of negative thoughts, negative feelings, negative behaviours, you've got to make sure that you do see people. Or hang around with people and surround yourself with people that are doing the opposite I agree, because it will make your life better.
Speaker 1:or hang around with people and surround yourself with people that are doing the opposite. I agree, because it will make it. You'll make your life better. You will change so much by being around people who can just kind of see from your point of view. Maybe maybe they can't empathize, like physically empathize with what you're going on, but they can actually feel that you need to change and they can help you because I think and open your lens a little bit. Yeah, the perspective changes I love that yeah, perspective is so wonderful.
Speaker 1:I feel like sometimes, when I'm stressed, like I really lean on James and I or my mom, my best friend, because I'm like hey, what do you think about this? Or even my girls, like my team, you know, I might say something and then Kiara or Nico go, hmm nah, and I'm like oh, I never thought of it like that you know, yeah, that can just be the one thing that goes okay, we can move on and we can change, you know that's the light bulb to get you out of that tunnel vision of thinking one way
Speaker 2:all you need is just a different perspective absolutely the community.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's the thing everyone needs is a good community. Truly believe that. Well, that's the foundations, folks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's really now these five or six basics.
Speaker 1:They'll set you on the path to achieving the stable, long-lasting health outcomes you deserve. Feel free to reach out to either of us with any questions we like we said we were going to.
Speaker 2:We had an announcement but we lied. We're sorry, guys, we're sorry.
Speaker 1:We were going to do it today. We were going to do it today. We were going to do it. Should I just name the podcast Clickbait? Yeah, no, I won't do that. That's not good. We have nailed these. We really went through them in detail. We are going to talk about it. We're just waiting for some new podcast art to also match the show so it's all branded and at least pretty. I think that's important to have. So we will get there, I promise. But we'll make sure we unleash that maybe on the stories and say, hey, it's gonna be announced this week and then we can chat and elaborate more now in our app.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, um, but otherwise, like I said, if you need to reach out, you know where to find us. And thanks for listening, thanks for being here. We appreciate your listens and if you have any questions, slash want to let us know that you love the episode, please let us know we love that. Thanks, guys, see you.