Welcome to Straight Talk on Health. I’m your host Dr. Chet Zelasko. Straight Talk on Health is a joint production with WGVU in Grand Rapids MI. With a PhD in exercise physiology, I’ve been teaching people how to improve their health through diet, exercise, and supplementation for over 30 years. I look at the science behind all the headlines and social media and let you know whether it’s something to consider or not. You can check out other things that I do on my website Drchet.com and sign up for my free emails.
In this episode of Straight Talk on Health, we're going to pivot. I’ve pretty much always examined the research behind studies to provide insight on what’s real and what’s imagined when it comes to health. But finding out the boundaries that govern our health potential is also important. In order to improve, we need to be challenged. We have to be willing to endure some discomfort, even a little pain, in order to grow. This episode is an example of the extremes of challenging oneself. Just remember that while this is extreme, it’s relative to our own bodies where we are right now. Simply standing up may be as exhausting as what I’m going to describe but it’s no less challenging.
I’m reviewing the content of a movie that was recently released. It's actually a behind-the-scenes documentary called Wick is Pain. It stars Keanu Reeves, as well as the stunt people and the directors and producers of the John Wick series. It may not seem relevant to begin with, but I think there are some lessons that we can learn.
Changing your lifestyle is difficult. I've been working at mine for many years, and I still don't have it exactly where I'd like it to be. That's okay, because life is a learning process. But I would like to think, with the knowledge base that I have, that I could be further ahead than I am. I'm not done growing yet. Taking what you know versus, let's call it book knowledge, and then transforming that into lifestyle, something that you can adapt and put into your lifestyle every day—that's the challenge. While the knowledge seems so simple—eat less, move more, etc.—it isn't always easy to do on a regular basis, especially when we live in a world that has so many other distractions. It's easier to sit on the couch and watch a series. It's easier to eat junk food. However, that doesn't always lend itself to a healthy outcome. It is challenging at times to do the things that we know we need to do. And I think that depending on how you look at life, there may be some things that we can learn from the Wick is Pain documentary.
Let me give you an example of two or three things that I found in watching the movie. First is the absolute dedication it takes from the stunt people, as well as the actors that have starred in the John Wick series. And that all begins with Keanu Reeves. Probably an undervalued actor simply because of the film choices he's been in, but an amazing physical actor at the same time. When you think of the series that he's been in with The Matrix and then the John Wick series, that's sort of his genre: he's been an action star. The thing that amazed me is the physical toll that it takes. More than that, it's his acknowledgement that he physically cannot do the things today as fast as he used to be able to do them. And I think that's an awareness that we all come up with at some point in time. Simply running after a soccer ball seems like a greater challenge than it should be for me.
I've likened life for some people to one of those coin drops; kids love them: you put a coin in a little slot and it starts going around in a circle. And as it goes down this tube, the circle gets smaller and smaller, and the coin accelerates and accelerates until it finally just reaches the end and it drops through. I think that's what happens with a lot of people in their lives. As the physical limitations arrive—and they will arrive, whether it's due to joint pains, whether it's due to sarcopenia, the loss of muscle as we get older—those things are going to continue to happen to us. I think that people withdraw. They don't do the things that they always used to do. As I said, going to play soccer with Riley is a challenge for me. My balance isn't what it was. My coordination is nowhere near what it used to be. Tripping over my own feet is one of the things that I try to avoid. When you have osteoporosis, it's something that you certainly don't want to do, and that's fall. But it doesn't mean that those things cannot be improved. You can't get back to where you were when you were in your teens or in your 20s. But what you can do is improve the state of where you are, if and only if, you're willing to accept the fact that you're going to have to train these things.
I think that when you look at the tremendous physical training it takes to do some of the combat and fight scenes in the John Wick movies and in others—pick your action hero—the things that they have to go through to be able to endure the physical toll on their body is absolutely tremendous. Again, I'm not suggesting that any of us should try to be action stars, but we can certainly do better in our own life, whether it's something simple as taking a fiber supplement every day because you don't eat the best diet in the world and you know you need to do better. That's a relatively simple thing to do, but trying to incorporate that day in and day out can be somewhat challenging.
If we want to go down the exercise route, putting on different clothes perhaps than you're used to, and going out and taking a walk, or lifting those weights, or doing the stretches that you know will increase your flexibility, but that you avoid—especially if you get a slight change in your schedule where you don't have all the time you think you need to be able to do those kinds of things. Not making the time is why we continue to regress as we get older. You can't turn back the clock completely. That's a fallacy. But what you can do is be better off than you are. And I think that's one of the lessons that I've taken from watching the documentary.
Let me give you a couple of examples. In one scene in the documentary, Keanu is working with a trainer to be able to master a specific type of fall. It's not on the floor, but it is a specific fall on mats that's going to be part of a routine that's going to be in a fight scene. And he wants to do 50 repetitions. Now the problem is that—and I can't remember which coast is which at that point—but the actor is on the west coast, the trainer is on the east coast. And the trainer is supposed to be watching him fall to make sure that he's doing it correctly. He gets to a certain number and he feels like the trainer isn't watching him because he's not correcting him. And that happened to be correct. But can you imagine intentionally doing something where you try to master something as simple as a fall? And then making sure you’re being corrected on each attempt if you don’t do it correctly?
Look, we can all fall. All we’ve got to do is just get our feet tangled up as happens the older that we get. But to willingly go and do that, to practice it, so that when it comes time to do that, it's second nature so that we can do it correctly and not get hurt—that's what training is all about. It isn't always about a 15-second fight scene. Life happens to us every day.
There’s another scene in the documentary where Keanu spends a day and a half trying to get the timing in a very complicated fight scene just right. And he repeats it over and over and over again, which means all the people that he works with have to do it over and over and over again until they get it perfectly. For a day and a half! Doing 50 reps of a curl up or 10 push-ups pales in comparison but we often don’t find the time to do it.
When you see the intensity behind the stunts that they do, and especially Keanu does himself together with his stunt double, it's amazing. But there's a certain degree of wisdom in there, and that's what I'm sort of striving for to get across to you.
So you may not be a fan of the genre, and certainly if you don't like F-bombs and you don't want to hear foul language, then maybe it's not for you. But I think that there are some things that we can gain by looking at the training of people whose job is to entertain us and know the sacrifice and the intensity with which they train their bodies so that we can enjoy the fruits of their labors. I believe that we need to do the same thing in our own lives: be willing to accept that little bit of discomfort, maybe even a little bit of pain—again, not encouraging you to do anything your doctor doesn't approve of—but we have to be willing to do that in order to see improvement in our own health and to increase our health span. Check out Wick is Pain on your streaming device.
That’s all the time I have for this episode. If you like this podcast, hit the subscribe button and send a link to your friends and colleagues about it. Until next time, this is Dr. Chet Zelasko saying health is a choice. Choose wisely today and every day.
