Real Rebels: Melissa

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

What's up, y'all, and welcome back to another episode of Real Talk with Rebel. We're here in season two. We've got a great episode with a great guest today. I'm here with my friend and hopefully soon to be yours, Melissa Bono. Melissa, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I'm excited to have you here. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, and I've had the pleasure of you know getting to know you pretty well. You're a good friend of mine now, but let the people know who you are and what you do and why you're here.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Well, uh, I would say I'll start with why I'm here is that after COVID, um, well, before COVID, I had a total knee replacement in my left knee. And I was looking for a trainer trying to get back in the gym. Uh, I kind of fell out of physical therapy because of COVID. And um, long story short, I found Shamar, who also has a total knee replacement.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Uh, so it's been so exciting to work with someone who can really understand the difficulties and challenges I'm dealing with, and we've made like crazy, tremendous progress.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

So it's been awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

That's why I'm here.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

Well, thank you for the hype up. I appreciate that, you know. And then, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

What else am I supposed to say?

SPEAKER_03 1:08

What do you do? You know, what do I do?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Oh, yeah. So um, well, I feel like recently I've been playing too much. I play a lot.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

So very playful.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

I'm very playful. So uh the things that I do to play that make it possible for me to work are I strength train at least once a week with Shamar, sometimes twice on my own. Nothing crazy, but very intentional. Uh I do yoga once a week, I swim once a week, and then I dance and drum and paddleboard and garden and hike and bike. Is that all? Something else, probably, but yeah, so on the weekends.

SPEAKER_03 1:46

Yeah. Dance and drum and socialize and all the things.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

All the things. Um so I guess I'm trying to, you know, walk the talk. And what I keep telling people is, especially as we are aging, the name of the game is to widen our repertoire of movement. Typically, what happens is it shrinks and shrinks and shrinks and shrinks, and we don't even realize it until it's so bad that we're in pain and we can't function.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Very true.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

So my goal is to make sure that I keep exploring where is my range, what can I do, uh, and having fun with it.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

There you go. And you're a massage therapist, but not the average type of massage therapist that people would think about when, you know, at least that I think comes to mind for the average person. So, how would you describe your massage therapy practice?

SPEAKER_01 2:34

My massage therapy practice is based mostly on helping people to connect with their bodies. So it's not just me doing something to them, even though it can be very quiet and it's not like we're having um necessarily a verbal dialogue, but when I come to the table, I come to the table as a therapist with the awareness that this is kind of a dance we're doing together. Um and there's nothing wrong with a typical massage. I think that's also great. And um nurturing touch, safe touch, uh there are all these things that are really helpful about that. Um, however, for me, uh it's more interesting if I can go deeper and really help people feel the patterns in their nervous system that are kind of keeping them uh trapped in not being able to move more freely, not being able to get out of that pain cycle. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

Um sometimes not just like a temporary relief of discomfort, but like almost teaching them how to try to stay out of those uncomfortable or painful positions.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Um, not really. Um sometimes it's actually the opposite. Like when we have, for example, with my knee and my hip, and you know, when you have one problem in a joint somewhere, the body tends to compensate. Uh, we set up guarding patterns. So actually, I think a lot of the time what's happening is I'm gently trying to encourage the body to be able to go into a place that seems uncomfortable or unaccessible so that you know it could be more free again. Um so to make it more concrete, I spent a lot of time in Japan and originally I thought I was gonna be an acupuncturist. So I focus more, I partially think I focus on the nervous system because that's how I began with my understanding. Um, that's the wiring that controls everything. Um so just working superficially is not gonna change the underlying programming.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_03 4:47

Yeah, no, I think that's a very powerful way to put it because that's that's somewhat the way I was getting at. You know, you can't just like massage something out to where it doesn't hurt right now and then expect that not to come back if you're still going through the same patterns. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 5:01

Kind of like the same way that uh chiropractors, you know, are a great quick fix or can get you into a comfortable position, but it's not necessarily gonna fix the underlying problems or stop you from going back into those positions where you would need a chiropractor again.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Right. Which is why we have people like personal trainers that help us learn to move in a different way. So um, but I also send people to chiropractors because uh, you know, we all have kind of a part to play in the play.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Um, so I think we all have a place in what we do to help people.

SPEAKER_03 5:37

Yeah, we always promote, you know, seeing a massage therapist, uh a personal trainer, a physical therapist, because each of us have our part like in the chain, right? You can't just go to the chiropractor, you can't just go to a personal trainer because you might be at a trainer and they can't help you fully if you don't have the right adjustment, right? Or you might go to a chiropractor and they solve it temporarily, but without the proper muscles to improve your posture, the this the problem's just gonna come back. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Um and then there's doctors. I refer people to doctors a lot as well. Um, there's sometimes there's um some sort of chemical, biological thing going on that you know, physical manipulation is not gonna fix. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Then what was your initial interest in the body in general? Like why did you want to be an acupuncturist to begin with?

SPEAKER_01 6:26

To begin with. Well, that's a good question. Uh I think I was thinking about medicine, about being a doctor. Um, and even um even a long time ago, uh, it already looked like medicine was going more into a um I'm not sure what the word is, uh more of sort of administrative logistical path. And it frankly, it looked like there was so much red tape and so much uh other things that I would have to do besides treating patients that I I I didn't think that you know would be satisfying or fulfeeling or maybe even effective, to be quite honest. Um so I was looking for a different modality, a different mindset. And traditional Chinese medicine looked like to me, it addressed the whole body more so than kind of typical Western medicine. The specialization is sometimes really wonderful, but we also need something that looks at the whole person. Yeah. Um, and a lot of doctors will tell you that it's frustrating for them as well.

SPEAKER_03 7:37

Um another reason that we need, you know, nutritionists and people, right? Because people go to their doctors for general weight loss advice, but a doctor has a very small amount of nutrition experience in comparison to somebody who does it for a living. Right. You know, so it's right, they can give you the the basis of calories in, calories out, here's how BMI works, but it's not their job to understand the macronutrient breakdowns of food the same way it is for a dietitian or a nutritionist. So I agree. Yeah, it's a very good point.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

And then how do you think going into these practices affected you in your own personal relationship with fitness and health at the time? Has it changed your you know, belief systems and your approach to fitness as you've changed your modalities or changed your amount of knowledge?

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Um, I think so. It's hard to sort of tease out which part was which. Um let's see. Um I think that when I first started doing massage, I had gotten some training in Japan, but not formally. And then I did formal training in the United States um in Moorhead City at the community college there. Uh so I was a few years into my practice, but I kept thinking, honestly, that I was kind of working too hard. There should be an easier way. So I started looking at other modalities that were more kind of holistic and movement-based. Uh, anybody knows anything about it, like Felden Crisis, something that's usually more familiar. Some physical therapists do that. Um, different sorts of somatic modalities. And the one that I landed on that worked for me at the time logistically, as far as getting training and also a good fit for me was something called the Traeger approach. Um, and I didn't become I didn't finish the very last process certification. I had a lot going on in my life, that's a different story. But um, I had just phenomenal training in this, and that really opened up my eyes to how the best way for me to help the person on the table is for me to understand my body better and my movement better. So I think that's the time probably when I started understanding that just this static manipulation of the body on the table was not as effective as me knowing my body, where my weight is, where I'm shifting weight, and how I'm approaching the body. And when I do all that, then I can do what I love to do and keep doing it without working so hard. Um, so that's been super exciting for me. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

Yeah, that's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

I have a I have a big exercise ball that I sit on when I work. So I can literally be sitting while I'm working, but also able to move. Yeah. Yeah. Lots of different little tricks like that.

SPEAKER_03 10:35

For little tricks like that, for you know, the the average person at home, whether they have an office job or they're just a work-from-home job, but it's still more sedentary. What are good little movement-based things or kind of tricks that you would do throughout the day if you just were trying to up your movement or kind of take away from the sedentary lifestyle?

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Oh, well, you know, that's my jam. That's what I'm excited about now. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

You know, I gotta get you going.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Yeah. So I have I have a YouTube channel, um, and I'm also working on getting more content done myself. One reason we're doing this. Uh it's not uh not as easy as I would like for it to be. Uh, so if I were gonna show, I have so many ideas. Um one of the interesting things is probably not gonna be in the camera here, but uh there's a pretty oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. We got a full body cam. We got a full body. Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

Um for our audio only listeners, you might need to go to YouTube for this portion. Oh, oh, I didn't think about that.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

But we do have video. So you have video.

SPEAKER_03 11:38

Yeah, there is a YouTube as well. So some people might just have to go to the YouTube and normally have to go to the YouTube video. But the video also gets uploaded to the podcast things just a little bit later. So it'll be on Spotify as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

So if you have something to show, please show.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

This will be our first physical segment on Real Talk with Red.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Oh, well, I don't know what you expected when you asked me to come.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

I had a feeling.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, I'll do it. I'll see if I can kind of talk through it. Uh it's pretty simple. If you're sitting in a chair, uh I'm sitting in a chair now, kind of far back. So if you're sitting far back, like say if you're on an airplane and you happen to have a tiny bit of leg room, even just bringing your feet off the floor activates your core a little bit. Um, and if you can allow yourself to be kind of playful, maybe pretend you're three years old and do the things that three-year-olds do. And an aside to that, is I think one reason so many of us move, don't move as much as we could, is because we were chastised for that as children. Be quiet, be still. That's true. That's not natural, it's not normal, and it's not even healthy.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

That's very true. Yeah, a lot of how I try to help people is just getting them to move again the way they did when they were a child, right? Like if exactly one of my big examples is if a child sees a bug on the ground and they're gonna go squat and look at it, they're not gonna, you know, bend over and hurt their back, they're gonna drop into the deepest squat possible, their heads. In between their legs, their foreheads almost on the floor because they're looking at the bug. Looking at the bug, right? Because we're supposed to be able to bend and move and move laterally and move backwards and squat and jump, and it's not supposed to be a problem, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Right, right. So while we've been talking, I've been dangling my feet here, right? Um, and if you have room, like if you're at a desk somewhere, not on an airplane trapped, you can just stretch your legs out, you can still be here, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:30

Just like almost like a static quad extension.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Static quad extension, you can point. This is a big thing too, we lose with our feet. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about feet and hands because that's where we come in contact with the environment.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

That's very true.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

So with the feet, uh, a lot of times people don't realize it's been a long, long time since they actually really pointed their toes. So if you really, really, really point, sometimes you'll get a cramp because you haven't done it in so long. The muscle's like, hey, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah. Uh, and flexing the same thing, trying to get really, you know, how much can your ankle move? Um and circling. Uh, we could do a whole segment about all these movements. In fact, I have a video about this. It's called Airplane Exercises. What can you do when you're sitting on a plane?

SPEAKER_03 14:13

Well, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Who would have thunk it?

SPEAKER_03 14:15

Playing the YouTube channel.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yes. I'll probably should say my business, right? Wholesome healing is the name of my business. Um, I thought early on that I would eventually expand, which I did for a little while, and then I just went back to being on my own. Can I show my toy? 100%. Okay. So you're gonna have to go to the video to see this toy. It makes a noise. There we go.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

For our audio only listeners. Yes. Shake, shake, shake.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Um, yeah, shake your okay. So, um, yeah, so this is one of my favorite toys. Uh, it's supposed to be for someone that's about two years old, which is about where I'm at. Um, the cool thing about it is you can throw it.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Oh, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Uh-huh. Throw it out. And it's light enough, right? Won't hurt you. You can roll it on the floor. We won't do that right now. Um, you can, you know, toss it up in the air and catch it, that kind of thing. What's really cool about this, too, that I like to use to illustrate to people is you can squish it almost completely flat, like that. And when you let go, it bounces back. Um, I can also be a little nerdy. I love science. And so what's cool about this is that this is really a better representation of a cell in our bodies. It's not like an egg yolk at all, like we learned in school. It's more like this, it has all these protein integers that come in and out, and it needs to be able to move. Like if you press your skin, it doesn't hurt usually, and you can push in just like you could on a piece of foam, and when you take your finger away, it comes back. Yeah. Right. So this happens at the cellular level, micro level, and macro level. Um, and this is one of the reasons that massage is effective. Yeah. So this mechanical pressure and movement is not just mechanical, it also changes the chemistry in the body. Um, so during massage, the connective tissue can go from like a uh saw state to a gel state. So like honey. So uh, you know, honey can be a much harder in the refrigerator. You shake it up, warm it up, and then it's almost as liquid as water.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

So our connective tissue has that property. Um, which is why one of the reasons that exercise and movement is so important. Um, and massage is sort of like can be sort of like passive exercise. Um, it also stimulates lymphatic system, you know, just gets all the we're mostly water, we're mostly fluid. So getting all that to move is so essential.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Um I forgot what the question was. Oh, we were just talking about the toy, right? Yeah. Yeah, so that's pretty much the toy. Um, if you do have a two-year-old, this is a great toy for other reasons. Um uh yes, a great toy. So a plug for the squish store, if they even make it anymore. I think it's made like in Denmark or somewhere like that.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

That's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Germany, maybe. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:07

And then how often do you think somebody that's you know at a at a desk job, more sedentary, should be doing these movements, should be getting up and down?

SPEAKER_00 17:19

Huh.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

Just to avoid, you know, the the low back pain, the slouching, a lot of the stuff that we're seeing from the extreme amount of time in front of a computer and at a desk?

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Um, I would say I know the the quandary for a lot of people is whatever it is they're focused on, you know, if they stop and then they come back, then it can feel like they're being less productive because they got this transition time of refocusing. But um, just like a lot of other things, um it can feel less productive, but it's actually more productive when you give your brain and your body a rest and a reset and come back, you can come back refreshed. Um there's also um depending upon the person's level of ability, it can be really quick. And it can be like a jump start for your brain and your nervous system, your heart, everything. But just not being in the same position can help. Um, I would say, so all that to say that I think that most people, if they can get into the habit of it, could set a timer or something so that every hour, even if it was only one minute, they would just try to be childlike. I can emphasize that enough. Try to be childlike, get out of that responsibility mode, be in your body, give yourself permission to be playful for a little bit, set a timer for a minute, two minutes, five minutes if you can do it. Um and then I don't know. I mean, I guess you could start with my my YouTube videos because I have a bunch of them, like little snack breaks, um, movement snack breaks. Um so one is just getting up and bouncing, you know, on the balls of your feet.

SPEAKER_03 19:03

Yeah. Um that's good for lymphatic training, lymphatic.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Um it's kind of it can be kind of like jumping rope. Even if you don't leave the floor, just the bouncing is really important. That's one. Another one is um if you have anywhere where you can put your arms up, a lot of times we don't do that and we don't even realize we can't do this anymore because we haven't done it in so long.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

It seems easy, but especially as you get older, if you haven't done it, you find out you can't. Yeah, so just arms over the arms stretched all the way out. We just don't go to the ends of where we can go very often.

SPEAKER_03 19:36

It's really reaching.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Really reaching. Um, and then you know, reaching out, same thing. Also turning. Um, eyes. Another thing that you could do that seems less active, but is to move your eyes in different ways. Um, there's that. Um, just covering the eyes and giving them relief from the light.

SPEAKER_03 19:57

That's a big thing. Yeah, I have a lot of friends that struggle with headaches or they really can't sleep well just because there's such constant blue light exposure. So, yeah, taking those little breaks, I think, makes a big difference.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Big difference. Um, so yeah, setting a time or maybe pick a spot. Like if you're not worried about messing up your hair like I am right now, um, you can put your fingers and just give yourself a scalp massage for a minute. It's incredible how much difference that can make. Covering your eyes and sort of like looking at a clock to change the movement of your eyes, that alone. Oh, the other big thing is the jaw. So so many people are clenching their face and clenching their jaw. That's huge.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Um, that would look really weird on the video, but the but I guess there's not a lot of video, so I I don't know. Anyway, I won't do that right now. I don't want you to look down my throat. Um but uh but it really makes a lot of difference if you can let yourself be really goofy. Okay, so here's one where you would not be looking down my throat, but it is fun and it will help um is the raspberries. Do you know what that? Do you know what I mean? Absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah. So shall we?

SPEAKER_00 21:02

You go.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Um, it also helps to breath work. All right, so we're gonna take a big breath and we're gonna see who can do a raspberry the longest. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Oh lord.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Okay, you ready? All right, take a breath. Here we go. All right, you got me.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

That lung capacity. Let's go. Yeah, nobody can raspberry like me, boy.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

All right, well, let's try it again because I hate to lose.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

We don't have time for that, Melissa. We'll have to do that on free time. Off cam, off cam. We'll have a tournament of raspberries.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Yeah, I think I lost just because you made me laugh. I think. I think that's what it was.

SPEAKER_03 21:47

Mental games.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Yeah, yeah. Well, um that's good.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

But I mean, I think that's also helpful to people that they can just think about not even having to like get up and go walk around the block, right? Because I think a lot of people they think they have to. Get up and go for a walk and get up and do some squats or do some this and that. But even just taking a break and like just extending your spine, right? Just sitting up from that crouch position, just reaching up. There are so many things you could do even while you're still sitting. Because we still sitting we encourage people to get up so often, but even if it feels like you can't leave the screen right now, you're on this Zoom meeting, whatever, could you slide your chair back just a little bit, extend the legs, extend the spine, kind of rotate like you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Yeah, you can do all kinds of things with the arms. Um, usually I tell people I actually just scoot forward on their chair. Um, then you're then you can feel your sits bones and uh also taking your shoes off. Why people wear their shoes. Anyway, we won't get into that.

SPEAKER_03 22:47

But the more um so many, so many rantal topics. There's a lot of things that make Melissa a little bit pissed off.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Just a little.

SPEAKER_03 22:56

Just a little.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Yeah. Um, yeah, so you can take your shoes off and let your at least let your feet be free. Wiggle your toes, stretch your toes. That's another one. Uh if you are kind of stuck in a chair, pressing your head back is a big thing.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Right. So I don't have anything here to press on, but um uh yes, you can sit in your chair and move a lot. Um, there's also the you know, doing all sorts of things with your legs and bringing your feet up. Um yeah, so you don't have to get up and jump necessarily. Um, just figuring out how can you move where you are in space. Yeah. Um, especially the head and the neck, the jaw. Even if you do nothing else, if you can like get your jaw and your throat and your your head and your neck to move, that's that's a win.

SPEAKER_03 23:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:45

And so you mentioned earlier that you have a pretty fleshed out routine of type different movements that you do and different activities throughout the week. How often do you think somebody should be doing some sort of mobility routine, mobility practice?

SPEAKER_01 24:02

A mobility routine.

SPEAKER_03 24:03

Or just like, you know, kind of stretching, moving, if they were, you know, loosening up the hips, the low back, something like that.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Huh.

SPEAKER_03 24:11

I know you do yoga and a lot of different things, but if somebody that wasn't doing, you know, all these different things, like then maybe they work out one to three times a week, how often should they be doing mindful movement, mobility, stretching, that type of deal?

SPEAKER_01 24:27

Well, um for for me, I know I said I do all these things, but for me, I think the key is especially when I've had times in my life where I got out of my routine for whatever reason, and I've had surgeries and children and all that. Of course, life happens, and um I think for me the important thing is is just doing a little bit. Um and if you think, oh, I've got to put this mobility thing on my calendar to do, I think a lot of times it can be overwhelming.

SPEAKER_03 25:03

Oh, yeah. Well, that's thinking of it as like a less scheduled on the calendar thing, but maybe just five minutes of mindful movement, if you were to recommend that, you know, just one, one to three times a week, a little bit every day.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

But here's what I'm thinking. What I'm thinking is if you are already doing something, right? Let's say you're already doing something. Um, see if you can like add a different flavor. Like if you were cooking, you're like, you know, I always just use salt and pepper. What if I throw in a little cayenne? Or what if I add a little splash of vinegar or lime juice or something to this? Uh I would say um find some other way of moving, um, and just give yourself permission to do it. If that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 25:52

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Yeah. Um I mean, if you want to be systematic, there are all sorts of like systems out there that you can go for. But if you want to say, like, how can my body move? Like sitting here in the chair, there's this, right? The shoulder, that's my big thing. Now I really want to be able to go like duga-da-da-da-da and like with me with my shoulders. I can't do that yet. So I'm just like practicing. Oh, this is a good one. So if you put your fingers, I'll give you this. You put your fingers on your on your top of your humor humerus here. It would help if maybe people looked at a skeleton so they even knew like what bones they have in their bodies. But yeah, so just putting your fingers here for some people, this is difficult. And realizing this is difficult, that's step one, right? So if this is too difficult, you can't do it. Uh I guess come see me, I'll tell you what to do later, right? Uh, but here we are. So this can help to really isolate where your shoulder is. And you know, when you move your elbows, then you're realizing what's happening with your shoulder and your clavicle here. Yeah. So this is a great one to do. Um, you can do all kinds of fun things like pretending you have maybe a um like a paintbrush on your elbows and your or or like those big ribbons they use, you know, and fun square circus events. Yeah. Um mic's kind of in the way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:11

Um Carissa always sits the mic and she always sits there, so you're just keeping it alive.

SPEAKER_01 27:15

Me and Carissa, man.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Yeah, soul animals.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

We're like sisters, yeah. Um, but yeah, so um, yeah, and if you got a mic in your way and you can move it, move it so you have more space to move.

SPEAKER_03 27:26

No mics needed for these mindful movement exercises.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

That's right, that's right. Um, yeah, what else? Is there something else important to talk about?

SPEAKER_03 27:34

Um I got a couple more questions.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

Okay, all right, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 27:39

So how early on do you think, or let me rephrase in your massage practice? Yes, around what age do you see that people really kind of give up that movement or start to just feel like it's they're out of their prime, I guess? Like a lot of people just kind of believe they're supposed to hurt at a certain age, I think. So do you see like a common demographic of ages on your table, or is it fully around the spectrum?

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Oh, these are hard questions.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

I've been trying to dig deep in it.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Yeah, yeah. Just so the audience knows, like this is really like live. Like, I had no prep about like what questions I was gonna be asked. Okay, so on the fly, I would say um the surprising thing to me is I really don't think it's age-based. Um and I uh and also I think that there is some degree of discomfort that comes with aging that's unavoidable. Yeah, of course. Because um the connective tissue becomes less elastic as we age. Um however, I guess what I've seen during this time that I've been a massage therapist, unfortunately, it's sad to see how our society and our culture uh generally has been moving less, taking rest recess time out of school, and then we had COVID and kids were stuck at home, and I could go on and on. So yeah, so in general, I just see that in our culture and our systems that we live in, people are not encouraged to move. Yeah, period.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

No, I I agree. I have a lot of friends in my age demographic, just you know, 25 to 35, that are already kind of just complaining about their aches and pains. They don't move like they they already talk about themselves like their prime is behind them, you know, and they're not even 40, not even 30 a lot of the time. They're like, well, I'm not gonna move like that again, or it's never gonna be that easy or that pain-free again, and they're, you know, not even in their 30s or 40s. And I just think I didn't know if that was also reflected like on your table that you're seeing younger and younger people come in with there being less movement encouraged at a at younger ages.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Absolutely. Um, I would say I'm 57, and so I would say the flip side is that there are a lot of people in closer to my age that um I guess it's I guess it's a different mentality. You know, when when we were growing up, most of us had a lot more freedom and we played outside more. Um, we got hurt and um just had to deal with it. Um, so there's also a different mentality now about raising children and trying to keep them safe all the time. And I mean, if we just had to figure stuff out. Um, so there's that too. I I think that I know this is kind of a different topic, but I do think there is something to be said for having some pain tolerance. Like things are gonna hurt.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

Yeah, you know, yeah, that's something we talk about in here as well. Is like, you know, just because squatting hurts, that doesn't mean never squat again, right? That means do squats slowly but surely, or take away some range of motion, or do something else that strengthens the knees, so hopefully you can squat again. But just because a squat hurts one time, that shouldn't take squatting off the agenda of life.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Right. Right. So I I do think there's that. Um, not just the physicality of it, but also the mentality of trying to trying to keep kids from hurting. Um, I don't want to sound weird about it, but I mean that's part of life. Like if you're a kid and you're running along and you're try you're just only three years old and your balance is that great, you're gonna fall. But if somebody rushes over like it's a crisis every time, that doesn't help you learn to cope with it. That's true, you know. Um, so there's that. Um, I I think it makes it hard for people who are in your position trying to train somebody who's been raised like that, yeah. Um, then they're so afraid, which is the saddest thing. Like, don't be afraid, be curious. Yeah, you know. Um, that's what I would say. Maybe that's the number one thing that I'm finding recently is what a difference it makes when you're genuinely curious. Um and just want to find out more.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

Instead of like stopping at some kind of assumption or judgment about how you're gonna like it, not like it, you can do it, you can't do it about anything. Yeah, be curious.

SPEAKER_03 32:23

So that would be probably your your main if if someone was gonna take something away from today, like when it comes to movement, really just just be curious.

SPEAKER_01 32:31

Be curious, yeah. And if you feel afraid, that's a good sign.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

Okay, we've yeah, we've done a lot of that. A lot of the the early exercises or the the PT esque stuff that we were doing early on in your rehab process, you know, sometimes you would have some some tears, right? The the nervous system would just like, hey, I I can't, this is scary, let's not, but it was just uh slowly but surely, how much more range can we get? Yep, how much more strength can we get in this, you know, this area? How much more connected can I be to this part of my body that's felt asleep for so long? Yeah. So yeah, that's a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

Yeah, so you know, if it if you get so frustrated that you cry or your body freaks out and and shakes and is trying to figure it out because your muscles are so weak, um, I'm not saying it's easy, but I'm saying um stay with it.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

Yeah, failure is part of the process.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Failure is part of the process. Um and not even just failing, but like kind of getting to the edge, you know. Um, getting to the edge and then saying, I can't jump. Um, you're never never gonna know what it feels like to jump if you just get to the edge and you're like, well, nope, can't jump. You gotta jump. Have a tether, right?

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Have a tether.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Have a tether. There you go. Um, it's not a free fall where you're gonna splat and die. You know, have a tether, have a coach. Um, but yeah, be brave, be curious.

SPEAKER_03 33:58

There we go. Well, heard it here first, y'all. Be curious, be childlike, be playful, let your body move, allow your body to have fun and find a way that movement and fitness feels like something you enjoy and you look forward to, not something that's such a punishment, something that hurts you, something that takes you back to a time in life that makes you feel less. Let movement be medicinal, let movement be joyous and stay curious. Melissa, thank you so much for being here today.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

Do you have any other closing statements or do you feel pretty good?

SPEAKER_01 34:34

I think we got to take a minute to do that raspberry contest again.

SPEAKER_03 34:37

But if you check on the bloopers, you may see a secondary raspberry contest. But thank you so much for being here today. All right, thanks for having me. Of course. We'll be back again soon. Make sure to check out Melissa on her YouTube. Is it also under wholesome healing?

SPEAKER_01 34:52

It's also under wholesome healing.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

Yeah, so her YouTube, her Instagram, wholesome healing. Check her out, give her a call book and appointment at Wholesome Healing. She's amazing. She's my massage therapist, she's helped me out a lot as well. And look forward to seeing you in the gym next week, my lady.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

All right, thank you, sir.

SPEAKER_03 35:08

Later, y'all.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

All right, bye-bye.