Latest / The Power of Doing What Matters / Looking for a Brake: Mark on Patience and Building Capacity
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- Patience: Looking for a Brake The Power of Doing What Matters Host: Dr. Clayton Skaggs Guest: Mark Final transcript Mark: [00:00:00] I got up out of the chair, and I felt it grab, and my mind immediately went a bit negative. I thought the golf was probably over for the next couple of weeks. I thought all, you know, weightlifting, other activities were off for probably two weeks 'cause that had been my past with back spasms. And I just kinda turned the corner within that next few hours and began to think about all the work that I'd done in the last year, and I got right into my exercises after that had happened and that evening. And by the next day I felt 50 to 75 percent better, and the day after that I was actually hitting range balls and felt like I had fully recovered [00:01:00] Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Hello and welcome to another audio broadcast with CIHP. I'm Clayton Skaggs, and today I'm joined by Mark. Mark is a client of CIHP for, Mark, what? Approximately over a year now? Is that, is that about the time period? Mark: Yeah, right at a year. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Yeah. Fantastic. Mark: Yeah. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: And he comes from out west. He can give you maybe a little more details of that as he tells you a little bit of his background. Mark's joining us because he's had some really good recovery of late even within the, you know a couple additional nice steps in the last [00:02:00] few months. And his journey matches up nicely with last week's insight on patience and how that is so valuable as you're moving down this resilience track towards good things. And so Mark, maybe as we start off here today, maybe just give a little background on how you got to us and what, how things were presenting initially and a bit of how you've had some nice change. Mark: Yeah. Well, thank you, Dr. Skaggs. First off, I just wanna say it's been a real pleasure to have been working with yourself and your team in this last year and just all the, all the gain that I've seen in my mobility and flexibility and strength and just the ability to recover.[00:03:00] I originally came to CIHP hearing from one of our friends and we hadn't seen this couple for probably, I would say probably a year, and we just sat down and had some breakfast with them and I asked, her name is I'll just use Janet. Her name is Janet, and I asked her how her back was doing. I thought I'd remembered that she had been having some back trouble. And unbeknownst to me she'd had as severe a back trouble as I'd been having the last twenty years. And she had mentioned that she was now coming to CIHP, and I think at the time it had been about a year for her. And I asked her what that was all about, and she began to explain that it's doing these real simple daily [00:04:00] exercises morning and evening, along with a deep breathing exercise both in the morning and evening. And she just spoke about her recovery and how far she had come in the last year, and I was pretty intrigued. And then her husband Jim, had spoke up and said that, Yeah, he said, "Dr. Skaggs also has written a book called 'The Power of Doing What Matters.'" And I'm an avid book reader, and I ordered the book up immediately. I was vacationing actually down in Palm Springs area, California. And I ordered the book up, and I really enjoyed I re-really enjoyed your book that you had written there. And I was intrigued, and I decided to make the call. Probably a couple of months went by before I made the call, and I wanted to do an evaluation. And that's how, that's how it got started. [00:05:00] Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Fantastic. Yeah, I was just remembering that you came from those folks. They're, they're wonderful. And, and so maybe talk a little bit, Mark, about how you didn't have you know, significant just immediate change. It took a little bit and you actually had a few you know, times of signal that- Mark: Mm-hmm Dr. Clayton Skaggs: that increased along the way. And then, and then, how things kind of just took off at certain points. Mark: Yeah. Well, as I said earlier, I've been suffering from low back pain for probably close to 20 years, and it was last spring just in [00:06:00] playing, playing golf, especially golf. My low back was really in pain each round I played. And I've tried, I've done years of chiropractic, and I've done years of physical therapy, and I've just never really gotten any better from either one of those modalities and I first started out with the exercise that you had given me. I have to admit, probably in that first six weeks, maybe even eight weeks, I really questioned whether these were doing anything. And then it was probably at about the three-month timeframe that I began to feel like I was starting to get some results. I had less pain sitting, I had less pain [00:07:00] just being upright and walking. I had less pain. I didn't golf for a six-month period, as that was your recommendation at the time, and a good one. And but I just began to feel like I was moving better as each month went by. By sticking to the plan, I didn't miss a day. I was very diligent in deep breathing exercises first thing in the morning, and followed by my roughly 10 to 15 minutes of exercises in my menu. And, the same thing at night. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Wonderful. Mark: Oh, it's just a real welcome change for me. And then the next three months I began to even experience more, and then I got introduced back into strength training. And, I didn't realize just [00:08:00] how dysfunctional my body had been for so many years. And I remember I think it was in our first visit, Dr. Skaggs, you had mentioned that there would be no golf for for at least six months, no weight training for probably six months, and the only aerobic activity that you were gonna let me do was a half-hour walk per day, and maybe two of those, maybe one in the morning and evening, and I just kinda stuck with a half hour a day. But that really puzzled me that I couldn't go to the gym. All these years I knew how good strength training was for the human body. But it also made sense because my body really was in a dysfunctional state, and what good would it do to go to the gym and further increase that dysfunction? Dr. Clayton Skaggs: [00:09:00] Wonderful. And, and yeah, you know, that you did, did listen to those recommendations and stop stop those things. And maybe speak to how much you really like golf, you really like strength training. It's sort of, sort of been your, you know, part of your, big part of your life for decades. Mark: Mm-hmm ... Dr. Clayton Skaggs: and so to stop that takes some some patience, takes, takes some investment, correct? Mark: Yeah. That was, that was really hard to not be able to go to the gym and work out. That had been part of my daily life since probably the age of 16. I'm now 64. And same with golf. I love golf. I've been playing golf since about the age of eight, and I'm an avid [00:10:00] golfer, and it was really hard to sit out last season when all my buddies are down at the course and having a great time and playing the game we all love. I still made sure that I got to the golf course just to be around the guys. Sometimes I would merely just go out in a cart and watch and interact, and that was fun, but it wasn't the same as playing the game. I do remember early on, your recommendation was no golf, and I thought maybe I could do a little chipping one weekend in my backyard, and I had a little bit of an episode. Had a slight back spasm a couple days later, and I remember having the conversation with you And you had just asked what the last several days, you know, what I had done, what kind of activity I'd done, and I was [00:11:00] kinda dancing around the issue a bit, and finally I told you that, well, I did hit some chip shots. And, you had just reminded me that that was not on the, on the menu. I got a bit of a chuckle out of that. But yeah, lesson learned. I think you said, "Let's just chalk that up as a mistake and let's carry on." So, uh, good words from you. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Mm. Mark: And yeah, my personality is one in which I just, I wanna go. I wanna do things, and, I thought, "What could a little bit of chipping in the backyard hurt?" But it, it activated something there, and, yeah, I went into a slight spasm a couple days later, and so I didn't chip thereafter. I didn't putt. I didn't do any type of golf. Anything associated with golf. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Correct, yeah. Mark: Yeah. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Yeah, I think that, that kinda speaks to a phrase that, [00:12:00] that I picked up recently that precision is high value, and, and sometimes precision is everything. And, and so, so for some of our cases, precision's high value, and you can, you can sort of miss the target here and there and still, still move down the, down the path. And for some, you and especially in those initial phases, you just cannot miss the target or you'll you'll have effect. And- Mark: Yeah. I agree with that Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Yeah. And, and so you know that those initial phases yeah, those, those are hard. And, and but maybe now, before I jump into my reading, speak a little bit to where you are now and, and how you are strength training, you're playing golf and how some of those transitions have gone. Mark: Yeah. [00:13:00] Yeah, they've gone really well. I spent a couple of months down in the California desert this last winter, and I played golf, I would say at least two if not three days a week, going to the range on occasion in between that. And I had one episode in the desert. I did, I did have a spasm that really acted up one day. I was just simply finishing up a Zoom call, and I got, I got up out of the chair, and I felt it grab, and my mind immediately went a bit negative. I thought the golf was probably over for the next couple of weeks. I thought all, you know, weightlifting, other activities were off for probably two weeks 'cause that had been my past with back spasms. And [00:14:00] I just kinda turned the corner within that next few hours and began to think about all the work that I'd done in the last year, and I got right into my exercises after that had happened and that evening. And by the next day I felt 50 to 75 percent better, and the day after that I was actually hitting range balls and felt like I had fully recovered So that was remarkable for me 'cause I had always chased down, I'd always gone, you know, directly to physical therapy or directly to a chiropractor to try to work this spasm out and just recovering my own, recovering on my own with the things that I knew to do and then just my [00:15:00] attitude and mindset was different about it. I think that had a lot to do with my recovery as well Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Yeah. Mark: It's been- Dr. Clayton Skaggs: 100%, yeah. Mark: Yeah, it's been great to, to be back in the gym, to be able to work all day and a fair amount of sitting, and just do those exercises when I've been sitting for a couple of hours or if I've been driving my car for a couple of hours. I know those kinda go-to couple exercises that I can do that just give me instant relief. And, I think one of the big things that I had learned from you early on was that my... more than likely my entire core muscles were shut off and not working properly. And I knew of all different types of core exercises to do, but simply doing the exercises on the menu that you had given me were [00:16:00] starting to turn those core muscles back on. So I really believe today that's a big part of what is going on, is those core muscles are functioning properly, properly. And not only that, I've been gaining strength through that area this last year. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Absolutely, yeah. Mark: Yeah. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Yeah. You, you... Because of your precision and your discipline and, and patience, you have improved your capacity from the inside out. Yeah. And, and that's, that's what gave you that self-efficacy during that, that recent signaling, that episode you had to keep looking forward and moving forward. Yeah. So I'm gonna go ahead and do our reading here and then maybe at the end we can loop in the [00:17:00] aspect of your thinking that, that's been, been helpful, the experience and learning that helped you understand that capacity. Mark: Mm-hmm. Okay. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: So, Patience, Looking for a Break. It was Lamborghini purple and looked like a Jaguar. This was my five-year-old grandson's new bike. He had more than outgrown his last one. The previous one, sky blue and compact, reminded us of how much he had also matured. My wife, who goes by Nana, and my grandson scouted and purchased the new bike together She shared how his eyes lit up when he got on the bike. How his excitement rose a little higher with the new very racy helmet. The day after the purchase, my son-in-law loaded the bike in their van so that my grandson could ride his new [00:18:00] bike in our neighborhood. Nana, his partner with this new machine, unloaded the bike with him, and they started to take off down the driveway. The bike nearly toppled over when they realized the brake was stuck. This bike has a single handbrake on the right side. Nana tried to release the brake, and after several attempts, called for me. They were very upset. The new bike that had been working a few hours ago and tested at the shop was now not working. My grandson's head was down, and Nana was ready to take it back to the shop. My wife relayed that the bike was kind of scrunched in the van, and maybe the handbrake was damaged on the trip over to the house. There seemed to be a small scratch on the lever near the brake. I looked and moved the lever of the handbrake, and it was clearly not working. No matter how you squeezed it, it was not affecting the mechanism [00:19:00] on the back tire. I loosened the washer on the brake cable with my hand, but it had no effect. I then brought out a wrench and attempted to loosen the washer and manipulate the handbrake where it hinged. Again, no effect. The lever on the handbrake was stiff and not moving. I gave it a few cautious whacks to see if it would free the tension. There was no response. About that time, my son-in-law walked up and was told the story. He began looking at the handbrake and the unresponsive clamping mechanism on the back tire After a brief review, he said, "Well, maybe we have to go home and do some research and figure this out." My grandson was leaning on me, saddened that his new bike was broken, and Nana was frowning. Within a few minutes, my son-in-law announced, "Oh, there you [00:20:00] go. That's it. It's fixed." He then proceeded to show how the front tire and handlebar had simply gotten twisted. He showed how he spun the handlebars and tire round one time in the opposite direction. The brake cable was merely being stretched to such tension that the handbrake could not work. The cable had been wound too tight to work. My son-in-law simply unwound it. The brake pads on the rear tire released, and it worked like normal. When something isn't working, we often focus on the thing that isn't working. Sometimes the thing that isn't working is not the problem. Mind and body resilience follows similar principles. The part that is not working is rarely the main problem, especially with neuromuscular conditions like back pain, nerve pain, and other joint [00:21:00] pains like knee pain and shoulder pain. As Karel Lewit said, "If you're treating at the site of pain, you're likely lost." Most of the time, connections have become twisted, tense, wound up, and are causing many parts not to work well or at all. Sometimes we have to replace a part. It is wonderful when we find this twisted and stressed mechanism within a few hours, days, or weeks of it occurring. The results can be as extraordinary as my grandson's bike. If the twisted area persists for months, years, or decades, the consequences can multiply. When we have pain or problems in an area of our body that persist, sometimes for years, we often want to take a hammer to it. We sometimes immediately go for the wrench. To help identify what is wound up, stressed, or twisted takes [00:22:00] patience. It often takes a team. To allow healing for what has been wound up, stressed, or twisted takes patience, time, and relentlessly doing what matters. Patience can help provide the break or brake you have been looking for. All right. Well, there you go. Mark, any, any add to that, that piece and what it speaks to? Mark: Yeah, I think of all the years that I had been working out in the gym, and I had been in pain in many parts of my body for probably twenty-five to thirty years, and yet I continued to [00:23:00] work through it. In my mind, I thought I still need to go to the gym and work out even though I'm feeling certain pain and you know, pain in different body parts. It's still good to work out, and I should continue it. But just after hearing this story, that you just told about the bicycle, I was merely taking a hammer to my body every time I went to the gym. Like I was taking a hammer to my body every time I took a golf swing, and I was just creating more and more dysfunction. You know, a year ago or so, I had mentioned to you that I golf with a lot of guys in their mid-60s and they're not having any problems, and you had said, "Not yet." And it makes me think of so [00:24:00] many of us start to have some dysfunction in our body in our 30s, 40s, 50s, and your comment of not yet was spot on because a year has gone by and several of my buddies have have got issues now. One is looking at a knee replacement, the other one's looking at a hip replacement, the other one's looking at having his neck fused. None of these problems existed a year ago, and the question I always like to ask is did, did you have a severe injury to that part of your body? Seems like a basic common sense question, and the answer always is no. So I see a lot of people in a dysfunctional state, especially in their mid-60s and even earlier, and many times they do need a replacement. But, so often I think that time and patience and building up that resiliency [00:25:00] can, I just look at what the clinic has done for me. I'm in an, a completely different place now. Just feeling healthy, feeling more joyful, feeling strong, and, looking at life just, much differently these days, 'cause I'm feeling good Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Wonderful. Wonderful, Mark. Well, that's... You, you really, tapped into, have tapped into that message really well. And, and, and what you're speaking to there is, is the why of, why we get signals, why we get pain- Mark: Mm-hmm Dr. Clayton Skaggs: is usually not recognized. And so that's the, that's the twisted, tense, or wound-up [00:26:00] cable. Mark: Mm-hmm. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: And, and so we'll often be doing stretches or treatments or heat or cold or different things to that part, to that, Yeah ... that break, that break lever, trying to ease it. Mm-hmm. And that's only allowing the twist and wounding and tension to persist. And yeah, then, then eventually you'll get a big enough signal that, that yeah, sometimes a part does need to get replaced. And- Mark: Mm-hmm ... Dr. Clayton Skaggs: certainly that is, that is sometimes indicated and surgery is very resourceful for those types of things. It's amazing. I mean, it's, it's incredible- Mark: Yeah ... Dr. Clayton Skaggs: what can be done there. Mark: Yeah. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: And, and yet it should be the last thing that, that's considered- Mark: Yeah ... [00:27:00] in Dr. Clayton Skaggs: many of these cases. Yeah. And when it is considered that you still address the wound-up cable because- Mark: Yeah ... Dr. Clayton Skaggs: the wound-up cable's still there usually, right? Mark: Yep. Yep. I had mentioned to you about that fall I had taken just a week ago at the golf course going down a steep slope, and my feet came right out from underneath me, and I landed pretty hard on my low back, buttocks area. And I just think back of what would've happened in that fall, what kind of condition would I have been in after that fall a year ago And it wouldn't have been good. I went on to finish the round. It was another nine holes we had to play to finish the round after my spill. And I started to really feel some pain in the low back at the end of that round. And again, I got into my exercises, and by that evening I was 50% better, and by the next morning the pain was gone.[00:28:00] And I just found that remarkable, absolutely remarkable how quickly I recovered from that fall. And it was, it was a hard fall. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Yeah. I, I love the message you sent on that, and you, you can tolerate those things and sometimes- Mark: Yes ... Dr. Clayton Skaggs: when people have these falls, these injuries and have, you know, those kinds of success or even before they're feeling better I'll be rejoicing because I... It is your test. It's your, it's your recognition of the tolerance you have or you don't. And often you do have it at this stage. Yeah. And you recognized your resilience through previous events. Mm-hmm. And that's why you... [00:29:00] and I loved your message. You, you sent this in your email that when it happened and you were having pain after that fall, you thought to yourself, "Hey I've, I recovered a few months ago. I can do it again." Yeah. And that, that was huge. Yeah. That moment, I love those moments. Mark: Mm-hmm ... Dr. Clayton Skaggs: You had self-efficacy and you knew that you could recover, and that's what helped engage that capacity you have. Mark: Yeah. Very much so. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: That's I love those, those stories, those moments. It's, uh, it, it's, it's your, your experience, the knowledge, all that that you've brought forward to allow your physical capacity [00:30:00] to engage. Really- Mark: Yeah ... Dr. Clayton Skaggs: really fun. Mark: Yeah. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Really fun. Mark: There's definitely a connection there, isn't there? Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Oh, it's- It's game changing. It's game changing. Mark: Just the belief. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it Mark: is. The belief that you can do it. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: 100%. And, but you have- Yeah ... the capacity, and I think sometimes- Mm-hmm ... that's what's misplaced is, you can't just believe without having the fitness, the capacity to engage. Mark: Exactly Dr. Clayton Skaggs: It's a combination for sure. Mark: Yeah, yeah. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: All right, sir. Well, I appreciate your time. Mark: Yeah ... Dr. Clayton Skaggs: and I'll just wrap up here with certainly thanking you with for Mark: Mm-hmm ... Dr. Clayton Skaggs: for having the confidence and trust in our team and our work, and look forward to seeing you really soon. Mark: [00:31:00] Yeah. Well, thank you for including me today, and I just wanna give a shout-out to yourself and your entire team back there in St. Louis. I've just really enjoyed my experience. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Fantastic. Mark: Thank you so much. Dr. Clayton Skaggs: Thank you, Mark. And just to recommend everyone else to continue to reach for the stars. 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