Latest / Making Muscle Memories / You are not Your Diagnosis

Transcript

You are not Your Diagnosis · Making Muscle Memories

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: What if your biggest obstacle is not your knee or your hip or your back or even your age?
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: What if it is the stories that you are telling yourself about who you are?
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: After 40 years of work in the fitness industry, I have learned that real strength isn't just built through exercise, but through experience.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I will share with you some of the science as well as the stories that have shaped my work.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: We are all building muscle memories.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: One rep, one story, and one day at a time.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Making Muscle Memories Podcast.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Lauren Irk, and I will be your host.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: In this episode, I want to talk with you about how your diagnosis does not define who you are.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, being in the fitness industry for over four decades, I've noticed something.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: People, when they experience a lot of different things in their health, they oftentimes seek out a doctor so that the doctor can observe them and come up with some sort of a diagnosis.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is a diagnosis?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: A diagnosis is a set of symptoms or a set of tests that a person displays that fit under a specific protocol, a specific standard of care that are aligned to abide by a specific diagnosis that can only be defined by a medical practitioner.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: It can't be defined from someone like myself that's in fitness because I don't have the license to diagnose.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: When this is diagnosed, it is written up by that medical professional under a specific code, and this particular patient now can go through a certain amount of care that is defined by the diagnosis.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it kind of defines recovery for someone and it gives a certain timeline in terms of when I would need to have surgery, when would I need to administer some type of medication?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: What are going to be sort of the benchmarks about when this person is getting better?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like how much range of motion should I have at three weeks versus six weeks?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: When should I have this person stop home care?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And on and on and on.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is where diagnoses come into play.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: However, one thing that I will say that I find interesting about diagnoses.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Once someone has a diagnosis, some people are immediately defined by that.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: That becomes their label.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: So you meet them and it is, hello, my name is Susan.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I have fibro.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is my fibro.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's like their pet, their pet fibro that they walk around with them.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And this is not a downer about fibromyalgia, but you hear things like this.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or I'm John.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: I recently had a back surgery, and that's why I can't walk well.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Or I have MS, so I have a hard time balancing.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I heard this a lot of times in group fitness.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: People would come into our studio and they would immediately tell us, because they had to, but you know, I have cerebral palsy, I have MS, I just, whatever it was, and that sort of defined who they were.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so everyone identified, and as a matter of fact, we'd have sometimes we would, you know, discuss a client because we were trying to help someone with my staff, and the the staff member would say, Oh, she's the woman with blah blah blah, and then you immediately go, Oh yeah.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: We don't even think about their name, they become their diagnosis, right?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to be very, very careful about saying that a diagnosis is who we are.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes a diagnosis can be a bad thing.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: I had a client once who had a very awkward gait pattern.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: He sort of swayed from side to side, and he was really stomping on one of his feet poorly.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: He had been through a number of practitioners, and he was sent to me from my skill set, and I did a hybrid approach, both seeing him in person as well as online, assigning him exercises in my app, FIS on Demand.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And what we noticed is that over time we uncovered that he had a lot of imbalances in his trunk and spine as well as in his hip joints.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were doing a combination of isometric training, muscle activation techniques, and he would go home and do exercises on his own, shifting his weight, uh taking his leg, pushing it against the wall, doing light isometrics to train his hips, working with his foot and ankle stability and mobility.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And what we noticed over a period of time, he was walking better, he had less pain.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um I was noticing that when I when I tested him, he had more muscle function.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: He also had greater amount of confidence.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Then one day he went to a chiropractor because he felt like, and and I get it, right?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: They want to see doctors, they want to see this was a doctorate of chiropractic, and he felt very um important.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: He said that it was very important for him to go.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And this chiropractor sort of put the fear of God in him, gave him a diagnosis, and told him that this was gonna be a permanent thing, that he needed to not move, that his spine could literally break in half.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he was advising uh laser treatment, uh, dry needling and light adjusting, and he told him to stop exercising entirely.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: So when he came back to talk to me, it was like a different person.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: He was like completely afraid, and he told me that he was gonna stop working with me and he was gonna go and work with this program.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: This chiropractor sold him a really long program of several weeks that he was gonna get better.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, I can't say anything.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's his it's his body, it's his choice, he's the patient, I'm a practitioner.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Person wants to leave me, that's their decision, right?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I knew in my mind what was going to happen.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I didn't say to this person, and what I I wish I could have said to this person, was that there is something that happens when, even with the diagnosis, and let's say the diagnosis was really gonna be something bad.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, let's say that he had cerebral palsy that was incurable, that was gonna continue to get worse and worse and worse.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Even with that, still, the brain is malleable.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna say it, the brain is malleable because I've seen it.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: It may not be visible one person to the next, it may be a lot of change in this person, is not as much change, but there is change.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Neuroplasticity is the science that says with repeated efforts of input, and that input can come from force application, it can be from medication, it could be from something emotional, maybe we're giving that person an affirmation.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: If this general affirmation is said enough, that person will change their outcome.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this is because we're changing the messaging from one neuron to another neuron, which is very, very important.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the idea in the 70s when they said, This is your brain, they put the egg and it would be on the on the frying pan.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is your brain on drugs.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: We thought that once somebody had a close head injury or someone did drugs or whatever, they're done.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be a vegetable from from from then on out.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: We now know that this is not true.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: We know that with with careful input, change can happen.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Brain, the brain, the the parts of the brain can be changed.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the study of meditation have taught that.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: We can actually improve our prefrontal cortex and our ability to reason, our ability to regulate our emotions just by breathing on purpose and meditating and being calm.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: So neuroplasticity is a real thing, and I believe that was what was happening with this particular client.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there is something that is very real in the field of psychology called fear avoidance.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I did a whole episode on the fear of, you know, that the the um when we start to give into feeling that might we might have pain and we avoid exercise and what the cost is for that.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: When we fear movement, when we fear something because of a diagnosis, like, oh my gosh, my you know, the doctor told me I should never move again, so I'll just sit on the couch.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: What's gonna happen to our muscular system when we stop moving?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: We are going to lose muscle, we're going to atrophy, we're gonna have more joint pain, we're gonna have more tightness, we're gonna have more joint synovium inflammation, we are going to lose bone density, we are going to lose our mobility, we are gonna have lower confidence, we're going to have less ability to navigate our daily life, our daily task, which is gonna decrease our confidence and increase our risk of death of depression, and we could draw a roadmap to death because this person may have to get on more medications, which complicate the whole deal, and on and on and on and on and on.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I I do believe that we can fear ourselves out of living.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: I once had a doctor told me, and I've told this on other episodes, in my 20s, after a knee operation, he said, You're gonna come see me in the next five years for a replacement.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I was teaching group fitness at the time, that was career-ending for me.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I was going through a divorce at the same time, and so I went home and I was just so distraught, and I was like, oh my gosh, this cannot be my life.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I decided I wasn't gonna take that in.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: He told me never to leg press or squat or lunge or anything like that.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I did none of those things.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I kept on doing all of those things.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And this today, at this episode, I'm a month out of turning 57.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: I have never stopped doing any of those things, and I've never had a knee replacement.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do I have for offer arthritis?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, but I definitely will tell you that by doing those things, I have hardly any pain.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: If I do have pain, I know exactly what to do to fix it.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I work on my isometrics and I work on the same methodology that I have in my app, FIS On Demand.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: I do a progressive series of isometrics to bodyweight training, to strength training, and try to address my weaknesses on a regular basis.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when we think about the idea of self-efficacy, if I would have said, yep, I believe this guy's gonna, he's right, and I'm gonna have to have a knee replacement, I might have had that knee replacement.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I might have had two by now.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: I might have had the knee replacement, might have had maybe gone into a back problem or a hip problem or whatever.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: But instead, I told myself that wasn't gonna happen to me.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: I and I knew in my mind, like when I got home and I kind of processed the whole thing, I was like, this is not going to be me.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: I saw it in my own mind.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is not gonna be Lauren Urk.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Lauren Urk is not gonna have a knee replacement.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Lauren Urk is not gonna have a career-ending disease or problem or whatever, and I'm going to triumph, and I did.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw my recent client do the opposite.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: My recent client, because of whatever this chiropractor said, I don't know this chiropractor, and this was a while back that this happened, so if um, you know, this is a certainly would not want to give any names or anything like that.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know anything about what happened to this guy, but I would venture to say that he's not in a good place right now because he has told himself this is who I'm going to be, and now he is completely sedentary, right?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to think about what it is that we are telling ourselves because whatever we think, whatever we say to ourselves repeatedly, that's who we will be.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: That is the foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous, one day at a time.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Today, I'm not going to drink.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I am not an alcoholic today.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: We have to reframe who we are and how we get past problems.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're asking, you know, this all sounds great, this all sounds really inspirational, but I'm still not sold.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a there's a book, one of the greatest books that have ever been written, I say, I say one of, the greatest book that has ever been written, the most downloaded, the most purchased, has never stopped being on the best seller list of all time, and that is the Bible.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And in the Bible, there are many stories.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing that I have always noticed, as I've studied the Bible since I was a young girl up to now, God uses broken people all the time.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just say for a minute that Moses, who stuttered all the time and he had a temper.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say that when God showed him the burning bush and told him to lead these Israelites out of Egypt into the promised land, Moses said, No, I can't do that.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: I can't talk to the Pharaoh because I stutter and I have an anger problem, and why would you ask me?
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he did ask those things, but then he sent him Aaron.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: He sent him a helper.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what happened?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Moses gave us the ability to be who we are now, right?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's a part of our culture, he's a part of everyone's culture.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: What about Peter?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Peter was one of Jesus' beloved disciples who pr who told him that he would always have loyalty, but then Peter denied Jesus three times.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus still said to him, On this rock, I will build my church, and he did.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: What about Paul?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Forty percent of the New Testament was written by Paul, and he was the one that persecuted Christians vigorously, but he was completely transformed.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: He was given this, you know, Jesus came to him and appeared to him, and he was blinded and changed his whole life around.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, what about Jacob, the deceiver?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: He was talked about, the name Jacob means the deceiver.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: He deceived his brother Esau out of his birthright.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: But what happened to Jacob?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: He was renamed Israel.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Jacob was a hero in the Bible.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we can't always look at our labels, our diagnosis, and say, I'm the MS person, I'm the back pain person, I'm the anorexic, I'm the fibro person.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: You are who you say you are, right?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to think, after listening to this episode, what are the lies that you're telling yourself?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And who who put those lies in your head?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was a doctor, maybe it wasn't.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was something else, right?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: But we have to ask, why are those lies in there?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because we don't want to become that diagnosis.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: If anything, we can use that as, okay, I've got a diagnosis, that's information, now I'm going to see what it is that I'm going to do about that, right?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to think the diagnosis may explain where we are today, but that diagnosis has no right to explain who we can be tomorrow.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope this episode has helped you.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: How can we take the necessary steps to not be what's on our diagnosis?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: If it's from a muscular standpoint, I highly would love for you to go to my platform FIS on demand.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: I have a seven-day strength experience.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: It is absolutely free.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to help you to experience some quick wins in your body by going through some isometrics, by going through some mobility work and some light strength work where you can start to feel proud of your body again, start to move a little better and experience less pain.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: I oftentimes hear from my clients, especially those that have been lost, that have felt like their body was completely failing them, that everything they did wasn't working, and then they started doing something regularly, piece by piece, and through neuroplasticity and building muscle over progressive overload over time, they completely transformed their lives.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: I love stories like this, and I would love for that to be your story.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if this episode helped you, please forward this to someone that you know so that I can help them.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to hear from you if you're watching this on YouTube.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: What are some things that you're gonna do right now to change your story?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're just listening to this episode on some other platform, thank you so much for following.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Please give me a good rating if you liked it.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that on the next episode we can continue the story.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you next time.