Wealth is Health a conversation with Jeff Whittle of Silverstrong Fitness

In this episode I had the pleasure of speaking to Jeff Whittle of  @silverstrong.fitness  

He not only shares his journey to becoming a personal trainer for those over 50 but hidden in his words is the story of reinvention from Iowa to California and then San Diego over his lifetime. 

For those yet to reach their sixties Jeff inspires us to never give up, he is a wonderful example of moving forward in life following your inner messenger and collecting pieces of knowledge, wisdom and constantly being what you love. 

So listen intently as he takes you from a farm to a city from moving away from breaking your back to getting stuck at a desk only to find the balance between both and being able to live a full and rich life into your late late years.

If you want to reach out to Jeff everything you need to do so is below...

Email: info@silverstrong.fitness
Website: www.siverstrong.fitness
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/silverstrongfit/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/silverstrong-fitness/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0n8YMfOTBfM8VzSTtCpqQg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silverstrong.fitness/
Scheduling: https://calendly.com/silverstrongfitness

Testimonials from two of his clients: 

Cheryl S. Video Testimonial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atBzR14vzic

Monica H. Video Testimonial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oDiM3BSumU

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Transcript

0:00

welcome to the Diary of a muse podcast I'm Tess day and I'm absolutely thrilled to

0:05

have you here with me embarking on this journey of Discovery and transformation well Jeff it is

0:12

absolutely lovely to have you here with us today very excited to speak to you our listeners are probably chomping at

0:19

the bit to hear your quotation that you have to share with us today so let's start right off there before we even

0:25

introduce you and tell them all about you all right we'll say uh we must all suffer one of two things

0:34

the pain of discipline uh the pain of regret or disappointment oh wow I think that is a

0:42

beautiful uh way to begin this conversation today we had a conversation a little while ago um I found out some

0:50

really interesting things about you I've read your bio um really interesting start to life very different to the life

0:58

you've LED and where you find yourself now doing what you're doing so do you

1:04

want to just give us a little insight into the early days in Iowa and what then sparked that journey into shall I

1:12

let everybody know radio and then last but not least a life of being a personal

1:17

trainer for a very special select group of people so yes a lot of people are interested in that Journey they're like

1:24

how did you go from where you were to where you are now so you mentioned I

1:29

Iowa so I grew up on a farm in the Midwest of the United States a small farm near a big city but outside of town

1:37

I we lived in town until I was about nine and then we moved my parents moved to the farm so all of a sudden there

1:44

were no kids next door like there was when I lived in the city you know classmates people in my same grade or so

1:51

lived a few houses away or a block or two away so we were always hanging out after school or on the weekends and

1:58

playing baseball and doing whatever all of a sudden I'm on the farm the nearest

2:03

boy my age was like 3/4 of a mile away and he didn't even go to the same school

2:09

as I did so I didn't know him that well my best friend from the school I went to was like a mile away of course we were

2:16

both on farms and had Farm chores to do and things like that so we got together rarely so most day and I had three

2:23

younger sisters no brothers oh wow so I was kind of stranded so to speak so um

2:32

you know I read a lot when I was growing up a lot of books now I listen to audio books while I'm exercising and running

2:39

and stuff so I don't read as much as I did because I had a lot of spare time and time to myself and I fell in love

2:46

with listening to the radio because I could get the radio and that was a constant companion and when I was doing

2:51

chores or you know doing stuff I always had the transistor radio on back in

2:56

those days in the 1970s really fell in love with it just listening to not only the music but then got fascinated by

3:04

radio the DJs and stuff the presenters you know talking in between and I always

3:11

was a good speaker and a good reader and could read aloud when I was in the Catholic School Whenever there was a

3:17

speech contest the nuns would volun tell me that I was going to be in the speech contest so I did you know a lot of

3:25

speaking from a young age and my dad was big into radio and into speaking so he

3:31

told me you know if you can make a living talking it's way better than making a living you know breaking your

3:37

back doing manual labor or something like that so my parents totally encourag that and I'm like I could make a living

3:43

being on the radio playing records oh my God so you know that was all I wanted to

3:49

do so I was on my first two radio stations when I was still in high school so I had just really pushed my senior

3:57

year in high school I started at a little tiny station by the time I graduated high school I had making tapes

4:03

of myself and parlayed that into a job at the biggest station in town even

4:08

before I went to college and then of course I went to radio broadcasting I think it was just mass communications at

4:14

that time and and was on the campus radio station and worked at commercial station in town part-time you know on

4:21

the weekends and just kind of did that and then graduated from college moved from Iowa to California to Los Angeles

4:28

where hug huge radio market and if you want to be anyone in entertainment in United States you go to Los Angeles

4:35

pretty much or New York weather much better in Los Angeles than New York so that's where I wound up there and the

4:41

beaches are a lot better so I did that for you know so around 2000 the year I

4:48

turned 40 because I'd been in radio it's not a healthy lifestyle like being a rock and roll DJ top 40 DJ so I would be

4:56

you know sitting at my at a microphone like this right here sometimes working really early morning so I had weird

5:03

hours so I ate badly and you know didn't do really any health stuff so I was

5:09

getting overweight I was about 30 lbs overweight by the time I turned 40 and through my wife's radio station cuz

5:15

she's also in radio and that's how I met her they were offering two for one gym memberships for like the new year for

5:20

the first of the year when everybody makes their resolutions to you know get in shape and she's like you kind of

5:26

talked about needing to get in shape should we do it and I said sure so we went into the the gym and we signed up

5:33

and then the really you know the turning point was the guy that from the gym said

5:39

do you know anything about you know exercise and training and how to use the machines and stuff and I said no you

5:46

know not really and he said well you'll just kind of copy what other people do you know you'll see them do something so

5:52

you'll do something you don't have a plan you won't really see any results and you'll stop coming after 3 months or

5:58

something like that so we really suggest you hire a personal trainer and I said makees sense they didn't push for a big

6:04

package and try to you know get a ton of money out of me but they said even just do like a five pack of sessions just so

6:11

you kind of know what you're doing and turns out so he said sure So our appointment was for the next day or two

6:17

we show up for the personal trainer never met him didn't know who he was turns out he was also from Iowa he also

6:24

went to the University of Iowa graduated just like me but he had played in the National Football League he was a

6:30

professional football player that had just gotten out of the league and was going into personal training but since

6:35

we had all this common background we hit it off really well the other big important thing was I really liked

6:42

personal training because just being able to challenge yourself you know it's like oh can I do a little bit more today

6:48

and seeing myself get stronger losing the weight I was really happy everybody

6:54

was like going wow you're looking great I'm like yeah I'm working out I'm watching my diet I've got a trainer all

7:00

of this stuff so we did I did that for a few years and things were going great and then he the trainer moved a little

7:06

ways away not horribly far but I stopped going seeing him thought oh I'll just do

7:12

this on my own I know what's going on but I didn't have the accountability so I would go to the gym less and less

7:19

started eating worse and worse again ended up gaining all the weight back and even a little more I'm like 40 lbs

7:26

overweight this is like 10 or more years later and so now I'm in my early 50s so

7:32

of course your metabolism slows down and your body's changing I'm like uh-oh I got really mad at myself I saw some

7:39

pictures of myself and I'm like I got to get back in shape it was so good earlier and I let it all get away so I called up

7:46

my that trainer again started driving to see him started working out got my buddy

7:51

to do it with me cuz he heard me you know raving about all of this so I got back in shape and this time while I'm

7:57

training with Austin is name I'm like I need to become a trainer too because I

8:02

like the stuff he was telling me about like the what was going on why we were doing the exercises and the muscles we

8:08

were working as well so I was kind of fascinated by the whole physiological as

8:14

opposed to just seeing how much weight I could lift and he even commented on that he's like you're kind of learning this

8:19

stuff pretty well and I'm like I need to get certified myself so I can control my own weight and and diet and and strength

8:28

and then maybe pass that on to others and since I was already in my mid-50s I thought you know what these young kids

8:34

don't want to work out with me in their 20s and 30s people my age or older will

8:39

listen to me I know what they're going through so I start I specialize now in training seniors specifically women in

8:46

their 60s and 70s and 80s and that's where we are so and that I was still

8:52

just so I just started training uh part-time from like 2015 and then when covid hit I lost my last radio job the

9:00

internet's really taking its toll on radio radio is kind of in decline because of the internet so I just

9:07

switched when I'd lost that last job and just went to training full-time like 40y

9:12

year history I mean there's so many things I absolutely love about what you've just told us H you know one of

9:19

the things you also I read um when I was you know reading up about you was you know that strong work ethic that you

9:26

really realized you had from those days on the farm you know that ability to follow routine get up early work hard

9:32

maybe break your back a little bit and all those things but it's those F foundational things that you sort of

9:37

never lose as you move forward in life but the other thing that was fascinating and I'm fascinated with books as well

9:44

reading helps us grow our imagination so even though perhaps your your scenery and your view was the same every day it

9:51

was the ability to escape to other places through the books you read that helped you build a picture of the kind

9:58

of life you wanted to have even though you probably didn't know exactly how that was going to unfold it certainly

10:04

didn't limit your ability to say well I'm just here and this is just my life and then of course the love of radio and

10:10

music because you do like Foo Fighters did I get that right the Foo Fighters so

10:16

last month well in August yes I saw three there are three concerts in Southern California two in Los Angeles

10:23

and the one in San Diego I now live in San Diego most of my life you know I've been in Los Angeles so I went to those

10:31

three alternative rock they call it Dad Rock now you know uh Green Day they saw

10:38

them in Los Angeles two weeks ago seen them this week here in San Diego the show there so I still go to a ton of

10:44

concerts still love music you know I probably been to eight concerts this year you know still so I go to a lot of

10:50

live shows cuz I love that so that's always going to be a part of me but I and that's I guess still kind of the

10:56

long hair I'm still kind of live one foot in that rock and roll DJ lifestyle I can't give that up and go you're

11:03

corporate or whatever but uh but yes that really as a kid on the farm sparked

11:09

my imagination you know I was reading about you know a lot of the classics and

11:15

so I was like transported all over the world even from my bedroom you know reading at night before I would go to

11:21

bed always knew that I was going to get out of Iowa and go to some place that

11:27

was happening and exciting nothing against Iowa but that just wasn't anything there to hold me back my

11:35

parents still live there my two living Sisters still live there I'm like oh no I go back once or twice a year and I was

11:42

just back from my 45th High School reunion you know and great to see everybody and it's part of my past and a

11:48

very important part of my formation you know of who I am now but it's like there's a lot more out there that you

11:54

know I just have to be a part of and see and live and I guess you know what what

12:00

what's also interesting is the fact that you've stepped into that world of personal training health and well-being

12:06

looking after yourself it's probably the one magical ingredient that has allowed

12:11

you to have the opportunity to be well enough fit enough and able enough to attend concerts like the food Fighters

12:19

which perhaps if you hadn't and you maybe were still overweight and weren't

12:25

as sort of energized as you absolutely come across on this chat um you wouldn't

12:30

have been able to have the energy to be able to go out and enjoy those things so it's it's amazing how the choices we

12:36

make really do impact the way our life plays out and I think that is fundamentally what you are doing with

12:44

your more mature clients you're helping them have the best possible life experience that they can because they're

12:50

looking after their bodies so so what really drives you to work with the the

12:56

sort of more mature person I fall into that category these days so you know and I I resonate with a lot of things you

13:02

say our bodies change over 50 what used to be so effortless Now isn't

13:07

necessarily so easy we know in the back of our minds that uh we have to look

13:13

after ourselves we have to be active we have to do strength training for bone density all the things you and I have

13:20

spoken about it's one thing to know it it's a whole different thing to actually have the confidence or even the KN how

13:27

of where to go and how to even start that if we haven't done it for a while talk us through maybe some examples and

13:34

how you even encourage older people to get involved in that that more physical

13:40

side of looking after our bodies so you touched on some great points uh you know

13:45

one of the basics is you know the bodies change as we age you know cells are

13:51

always constantly dying off but when we're young they replace themselves really quickly and that's why younger

13:56

people grow and get bigger and then why older people usually tend to get skinnier and start shrinking again is

14:02

those cells aren't replaced that includes the nervous system the muscles

14:08

so you touched on you know bone density so osteoporosis especially with women

14:14

post hor postmenopausal and the other huge one and maybe even bigger especially for men

14:20

it's called sarcopenia it's age related muscle loss so when people become frail

14:28

it's usually musle muscle loss of muscle mass and it's an exponential loss in

14:34

strength compared to the mass so losing a little bit of mass makes an even

14:39

bigger loss in strength and you see older people their arms and legs are this you know big around especially you

14:46

know ladies once they're getting late 70s or 80s maybe they have a tummy because of their diet but their arms and

14:52

legs become really skinny that is linked to all cause mortality people with that

14:59

sarcopenia die quicker you become a fall Hazard because you don't have the strength in your legs and your core to

15:07

stay upright to correct your balance if if something happens if you trip if somebody bumps into you things like that

15:14

so you T you mentioned strength training so that's really a key there then so you

15:19

know my mom was in her mid late 70s and I'm trying to get her to train on Zoom you know cuz I'm out here and she's in

15:25

Iowa she's like well I don't want to get too big and muscular you know and I'm like Mom that's not going to happen but

15:32

if you start getting your muscles start getting too big we'll just stop the training or cut back okay just smiling

15:38

KN that isn't going to be the problem either slow the loss of muscle mass or

15:43

maybe even reverse it and actually start building muscle mass again is huge and

15:49

the beautiful thing is is the exact same things we do for the to counter the

15:55

muscle loss helps the bone loss as well so that we can fight the osteoporosis

16:02

and the muscle loss the sarcopenia at the exact same time by strength training and it doesn't have to be lifting big

16:08

heavy weights you can be using some bands and tubes body weight exercises

16:14

we'll do push-ups but we'll do them off of like a high bar so you're only you know it's not like you're on the floor

16:20

trying to grind them out or you can do them against a wall and just do a little bit at a time so we can adapt things to

16:27

suit where you are physically so that's a huge thing so um and also I mentioned

16:34

the nervous system when we start doing things like that the nervous system kind of revs up again where if we just kind

16:40

of sit in the chair walk a little bit walk around the block a couple of times oh I'm getting my exercise I walk around

16:46

the block twice a day it's like that certainly isn't enough we're not challenging the nervous system that's

16:52

what keeps you know everything functioning really well if you trip your reflexes are faster uh so it's safer

17:00

balance is a huge thing so osteoporosis the sarcopenia and poor

17:06

balance are the three things that most of the ladies I work with all suffer from now they have other goals you know

17:11

we do try to get them you know stronger or you know maybe some weight loss but getting their legs strong is the number

17:18

one thing because if a fall can be just devastating you know injury broken hip L

17:25

have to move out of your home into a care facility all of that so usually the number one thingi top priority is get

17:31

them more stable on their feet and then we start working on building muscle cognitive I do cognitive training too so

17:38

it's physical exercises with mental exercises at the same time word list and

17:45

word games math problems different all different types of things like that

17:51

reflex things to rev up the nervous system also helping strengthen the brain

17:56

you know uh loss of muscle mass ass uh is associated with uh dementia as well

18:04

uh low heart rate because getting blood and nutrients oxygen to the brain

18:10

keeping that flowing is keeps the you know helps fight dementia so when you're just sedentary and you know you're

18:17

losing muscle mass you're at a bigger risk of of dementias as well including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's yeah that's

18:24

me back to that saying if you don't use it you lose it that's right that is certainly right do you want to just

18:30

remind us of your quotation again my quotation yes just read it out again

18:36

because it's relevant I think right at this point that certainly is we must all

18:41

suffer one of two things the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or

18:47

disappointment and that's from business philosopher Jim ran oh

18:52

RN I've Loved Jim ran since I had an audio cassette of him speaking in

18:58

college and I'm like oh my gosh it really opened up my mind to the possibilities of what I should do to

19:05

make something of my life yes he's definitely one of the fathers I would say of coaching you yes highly

19:10

inspirational and yes there is a price to pay and there's a win on either side but you know if we don't sit up and pay

19:18

attention or we don't ask questions about where we're at along our life

19:24

Journey we are going to have regrets foresight thinking ahead watching others

19:29

looking and identifying people why is so and so so active and so out there and how come they get to do all these

19:36

amazing things sometimes identifying somebody what H how do you do that oh I

19:41

go and work out with Jeff or I'm active I'm an active person and and I would

19:47

imagine you bring a lot of confidence to people to actually continue to be out there interacting yes it's it's our

19:55

health and well-being but it's our connection with others as well that must play a huge part especially as we get

20:01

older and feel less um essential certainly and that's a a great tie in to

20:08

like balance because millions of people older people they feel unstable on their

20:15

feet they're afraid of falling so they don't go out and do things well

20:20

unfortunately that starts a downward spiral because then sitting at home afraid to go out means you're only going

20:27

to get weaker and weaker and become a bigger fall Hazard and then of course that leads to loneliness and isolation

20:33

and depression all of those things the lack of socialization all related to

20:39

mental health as well um you know higher rates of dementia among people with

20:44

depression and isolation lack of social contact really that you know strength

20:50

and balance training uh and and of course the cognitive training helps the

20:55

body and the mind both you know they're tied in completely yeah really

21:01

interesting you've been doing um some further study on mind haven't you in

21:07

cognitive work alongside the personal training which I think you've probably sort of mastered more over the last sort

21:15

of couple of years or how long have you been doing anoun you said at 55 you qualifi I got trained in 2015

21:22

certified and so I've been a trainer for nine years one of my first certificates

21:27

besides my regular personal training certification was a specialty certification in uh senior Fitness so

21:35

just like you know nurses or doctors they have to keep taking classes to keep their skills up and to be up to date on

21:42

the latest things so like the first continuing education credit that I ever

21:47

got was to be a senior Fitness specialist and then I have you know several others pain-free CER you know

21:54

Mobility I do have group exercise instructor weight management certification as well so I can coach

22:00

people on weight loss it's not the number one thing I do because there's a lot of emotional component with weight

22:06

loss I you know real quickly on that people can go home after a workout and

22:12

eat more calories than we burned in the training session I don't have control of

22:17

them over those other 166 hours a week I only have two hours a week however with

22:23

the strength and balance training we work hard those two 1H hour sessions perhaps no matter if they sit on the

22:30

sofa the rest of the week they're still going to be stronger you know the the

22:35

strength works that way and the balance it helps obviously if they're doing things on their own but they can't

22:41

counteract the work we've done even by sitting there I mean we've got those muscles stronger so I don't specialize

22:47

in the weight loss but uh you know but do you find when somebody starts coming to your classes they tend to even if

22:55

they are on the sofa they tend to spend less time on the sofa over time purely because they feel better and they're

23:02

stronger their balance is is less of an issue so it changes their lifestyle they have more energy so they want to do more

23:10

things they feel like they can do more things and on the diet they start eating

23:15

better because all of a sudden health and fitness is a much bigger part of their life because they are there and

23:21

they're seeing other people and we're talking about it it's they usually start eating better as well because they're

23:27

like I know how hard I'm working in the gym I don't want to come home and blow it by eating stuff that's bad for me we

23:34

talk about can you cut out half of the bad stuff of the bad food we're not even asking you to go on like this vegetable

23:41

and chicken breast diet no one wants to do that I don't want to do that but can we cut out half of the bad stuff and add

23:49

in a little more replace it with a little more of the good stuff and people are like okay I can do that and they

23:55

start seeing results and then with the exercise on top of it it it makes the weight loss easier of course as well as

24:02

opposed to just you know if you're just sitting around cutting a few calories or trying to eat better isn't going to have

24:07

nearly the effect and of course as we see progress that motivates us to to do

24:12

even more or at least to continue so why are you so passionate about this because you you're so passionate your energy

24:19

just shines through so what is it that drives you in this is it really an underlying factor that you know that as

24:26

as you help these clients of your it's keeping you fully embraced and so

24:31

it's benefiting you um what drives what drives you that is a big part of it you

24:37

know I've seen with my own family my mom and my sisters are overweight there's so

24:43

much more they could do um I see people hobble down the sidewalk down the street

24:50

when I'm passing them you you could make your life so much better so much easier you'd be so much happier if you just put

24:57

in the effort I mean I don't run up I'm half tempted to come up and say we can do you don't have to be like this you

25:04

know we can do something but of course that would not be right and it's their

25:09

decision but trying to reach people and spread the word and if someone says yes I do want to change and I don't like my

25:17

current situation and I want to do something about it I would love to do that and getting the feedback from

25:23

people that tell me I have literally changed their life and even after a short period period of time they now see

25:30

the light and they go oh wow you know they didn't know what they didn't know and now I've shown them like you know we

25:37

can make things a lot better you'll be happier people you know all you'll be self-confident not only on your feet but

25:44

when you look in the mirror you'll have a better self-image so that boosts your you know your mental you know condition

25:51

you're much happier about yourself and the fact that I'm actually training

25:56

people and moving with them it does keep me a lot stronger I have trainer in the

26:01

gym just like two weeks ago and I told him I'm going to be 64 next month he's

26:06

like oh my God I would have never guessed that he goes and I hope I have even some of the energy that you have

26:13

when I'm that age because I'm twice as old as he is and he's like I can't even imagine having that much energy at your

26:19

age so you know I do drink a lot of coffee I'll admit but uh but it keeps me

26:25

going yeah okay I've got my cold cold brew coffee in here right here but you

26:30

know I get up around 5:00 a.m. I already ran about three miles this morning with our dogs before our interview which

26:37

started at 8:00 California time in the morning so I get up and hit it early um

26:43

I do go to bed early just because I'm tired by the end of the day but yeah it definitely keeps me strong too and

26:49

people are seeing me and they're like oh my God you're in great shape and I go well it's a benefit of my job it's a

26:54

side you know it's a side benefit of my job working with other people and you

26:59

know so I feel like I'm doing good for them and it's doing good for me just as a byproduct so that's and you're a good

27:06

walking example you lead by example yes exactly oh I do in fact they see that

27:13

and you know a a selling point is the fact that I'm almost 64 and they're like oh my God I would have thought you were

27:19

in your late 40s or maybe 50 or something like that and I'm like we can

27:25

impart a little bit of like of that on you you know come join me we can look younger than we really are and feel

27:32

younger than we really are let's do what I've been doing and try to make that

27:37

happen for you as well so I think it is you know I see trainers and not to judge

27:42

you know because you don't know their health problems and and all of that but I see trainers that are considerably

27:49

overweight and I'm like you're not being a good role model I don't tell them that but I'm thinking I go that's not a good

27:55

role model for your clients to lose weight they see you you know and like I say I I really that's a big thing is try

28:03

not to judge somebody really heavy comes into the gym awesome for them they

28:09

realize they've gotten to a bad place for whatever reason emotional maybe

28:14

they've had physical problems you don't know what their background is they may have some serious things that that

28:19

caused them to gain weight maybe they were on me life-saving medication that caused them to gain weight so I really

28:25

go out of my way not to judge but I'm like if they're there trying to help themselves great you know sometimes you

28:32

see looks from Young buff people going like oh what are they doing here I'm like they need to be here more than You'

28:37

need to be here so you know don't give me any of that I mean they don't tell me that but you see the looks you know and

28:44

it's like no they're here trying to get better God bless them you know I'm totally supporting them I agree I think

28:51

when we're younger I mean cuz I've obviously we've all walked our own Journey but you know as a younger person

28:57

with less life experience you you only know what you know right um so when you look at somebody um across the way who's

29:04

perhaps a bit older and you go gosh because you're looking and basing it on your experience you don't know like you

29:10

said what they've been through so you know we are quick to judge but as we get older and we get a little wiser we would

29:16

hope to imagine that you know we're all just a little bit more compassionate and less less critical of of individuals

29:24

because life does happen you know people have accidents and that can really set back somebody's ability to be physically

29:31

active as well you you must obviously come across people who have had a variety of things happen to them through

29:37

their life and now they're in front of you how do they come to you do they do they just call you up do you meet them

29:44

at certain places do people refer clients to you what makes a more mature

29:50

person come out and say I'd like to work with you so that's kind of the battle is is reaching people yeah you know not

29:58

just to to for me to to get clients but for the people out there they don't know

30:03

I just had a a lady she started with me about a month ago I had met her doctor

30:09

and someone introduced me to her doctor because they were talking about this book called outlive by Dr Peter AA it's

30:17

been a New York Times bestseller it came out like a year ago year and a half ago and it talks about all the things you

30:25

can do to not only extend your life span but what's called Health span how long

30:31

are you going to be healthy you can live to be 85 but if those last 10 years are in a hospital bed on a respirator that's

30:38

not Health span you know that that's lifespan but we want to extend the quality of life that as long as we can

30:46

as well so he really talks about that and they were talking and IID recommended the book to my friend and he

30:53

was talking to his friend who's a doctor and she was reading the same book and

30:58

she's like you have to meet my friend who's a trainer because he talks and lives this stuff and does this stuff

31:05

with clients all the time so she's now started referring some of her clients to me and the lady that I just started with

31:11

about a month ago she's like I had no idea there was like a personal trainer for seniors this is awesome she's

31:18

already seen progress she's giving me glowing reviews and things just because

31:23

she had no idea this world existed that could really help her her she's had heart failure she's had you know serious

31:31

she now has diabetes or doctors like you need to work with Jeff and she's you know sold so I have I've had people

31:39

refer there that's a lot of it I'm in you know I do networking with doctors and and other people who get the word

31:45

out I try to spread the word by speaking to groups as much as I can you know um

31:53

you know a lot of people just don't know that type of of service exists out there so really trying to break through the

32:00

Clutter of Fitness where most people think it's for 20 and 30 year olds you know who would just want to get really

32:06

big and and buff looking and not realize that so it it is a challenge and that's

32:12

kind of the thing is you know posting on Facebook and other social medias videos

32:18

of me working with clients and just doing Simple stepping exercises to improve their footwork simple strength

32:25

exercises saying you know we're we don't have to make it like some military you

32:30

know boot camp training you know we we can do it age appropriate you're can

32:36

appropriate to where you are physically now and then try to advance you but not

32:41

say okay we're going to hand you 40 lb weights and you have to do these bicep curls or whatever it's we can I have I

32:48

have one pound weights and sometimes we're starting with one pound weight sometimes we're just doing arm their AR

32:55

their bare arms with no weights just to get the movement going and get the blood flowing and then when that gets easy

33:02

it's like okay now we've got one pound weights now we're going to do that when that get so just a slow steady

33:08

progression sometimes it's like oh my shoulder starting to hurt okay we're going to back off of that and let that

33:14

rest so you know I'm always like anything hurt your knee okay cuz you know most older folks their shoulders

33:20

hurt their knees hurt mainly sometimes they hip of course a lot of back pain so I'm working around that with each person

33:27

you know it's like is this yeah this is fine okay we're going to do this you know oh that kind of hurts okay we're

33:33

going to do so that's a huge part of what I do and other trainers notice that too you know when when we're in the gym

33:39

they're like you know you're working around somebody comes in with braces on their legs that I actually work with you

33:45

know so we have to do all kinds of different things and people are looking going oh my gosh but the stuff she's

33:51

doing now compared to when she started coming in it's amazing you know so so a

33:56

big part of it is being appr rate in advancing people a lot of older folks think they're going to get hurt because

34:02

the weights are going to be too strong so it's like we we try to get as much improvement as we can while still doing

34:08

it safely taking it easy on your body not doing anything that could be a fall risk I'm a lot of times they're doing

34:15

balance exercise and they're doing it against a wall or a railing and I'm behind them with my arms out like this

34:20

to catch them in case they kind of lean backwards you know so I'm like a mother hen hovering over them just to keep them

34:27

as safe as possible plus they're always you know do we need to be hanging on to something when we're doing this to start

34:33

you know and now we'll just hang on with one arm but I'm going to be right here next to you to make sure if you kind of

34:39

start to wobble that I've got you you know so that's a big part Factor huge trust Factor here as yeah it is and some

34:45

of them are scared you know they're like I don't think I want to do that so A lot of times I know they could do it but

34:51

they don't think they can do it or they're afraid so we hold off until they feel confident okay I think I can let go

34:58

now and we can do this without me holding on even though the the bar is right there and I'm still right there

35:04

it's like if you start to feel it you can grab on you know but a lot of that is yeah for them to trust me yeah I mean

35:10

there's a couple of things that was springing to mind as you were speaking there one of them was you know when we get a beautiful antique item and we want

35:18

to restore it we have to approach it completely differently to the way we would a big strong oak table that is

35:25

solid you know you could be tough with it or more harsh with it whereas with an antique you've got to trade carefully

35:31

you don't want it to break but when you've restored it it can live on for so

35:36

much longer and be enjoyed and appreciated by so many so for a senior

35:42

person who is stronger and more confident they can go out their family can get more from them they're they have

35:48

happier um interactions and all those things I was just seeing the other day Jane funder um out on social media again

35:56

I mean it blows my mind how fabulous she does look I know with her financial

36:03

backing she's probably had a lot of extra things done to assist the way she

36:09

looks but it's not about how she looks it's how she moves her body her mind her

36:14

agility I I go back to days when I was 10 years older my aunt was doing Jane

36:20

Fonda workouts on the TV you know um and there was Jane doing all these things

36:25

but I mean that was 40 45 years ago you know and she is

36:31

still strong active and so involved in her life and if she's an example of of

36:38

the journey that we all go on she's always stayed in touch with looking after her body because it's our Temple

36:45

right we only have one I I think it's amazing that you you have this passion

36:50

and this um I don't know this interest to care about a group of people that AR

36:57

doing it for the bikini on the beach in the summer but really for quality of

37:03

life and enjoyment because there's nothing worse than having an active mind but your body just won't allow you to

37:11

really experience what you could through your thoughts and that often is as we

37:16

get older we've been behind desks or we've worked at desks for so long we haven't been active and now we don't

37:22

have our desk anymore but our body needs to hold itself up sure so what advice

37:28

would you give to someone who's listening who didn't know that you existed how would they begin to almost

37:35

mentally prepare themselves to reach out and say Jeff or someone else in another

37:40

part of the World perhaps who does something similar to you how do I sign up I'm in my 70s I'm really not digital

37:48

friendly even though there are a lot of older people who are my world comes from a very different place how do I even

37:54

begin to pave a pathway for myself to even do this kind of exercise thing

38:01

right and I do train on zoom and I do have people halfway around the world I do even though I'm in Southern

38:07

California I train someone in Europe someone in Malta on Zoom twice a week

38:14

but for people you know closer to home at least in the United States we have like senior centers senior community

38:21

centers they'll offer maybe chair yoga classes which is a good low level for

38:28

people to start out so you it's hard to fall out of the chair you know so you can still do lift your legs and do leg

38:35

exercises marching while sitting and then arm things like that and they do

38:40

twisting and turning to strengthen the core and help your balance even though you're still sitting down Tai Chi

38:47

classes are great they call it uh meditation in motion is Tai Chi so it's

38:54

like a very gentle yoga slow movement so you know it's safe and if you have

39:00

creaky shoulders and things like that you know you can always modify but that's at least to get the blood flowing

39:07

and to start getting some you know working on your balance and getting Mobility the flexibility you know lack

39:13

of flexibility stiff ankles is one of the number one things that it makes you a fall risk if your ankles are stiff so

39:22

doing you know pumping your your foot like sitting down and even if you have your heel on the floor and just doing

39:29

some of this and then maybe some ankle circles things like that because they're

39:34

like your shock absorbers when you walk and if you step on something uneven and if you're you're going to go over if

39:39

your ankle can't accommodate that you know that so that's a Hu and in the hips but ankles are like number one in Mo so

39:47

just getting the muscles stretching a little more limber uh then if you God forbid do fall

39:54

you're less likely to hurt yourself if you're a little more limber than if you're brittle and stiff you know so

40:00

like look looking at senior centers even there's you know a Yoga Center near you and they have very basic beginner yoga

40:07

and then you still don't have to follow along with what the teacher does you know sometimes they're even a little

40:12

more enthusiastic and it's like okay I can't do that I'm just going to kind of sit here and hold this little bit of a

40:19

pose instead of trying to go into this full pose and stuff Aqua aerobics are really good you know stuff in the pool

40:26

your waist high and the water adds resistance and if it's a heated pool it

40:31

feels good on your muscles and Joints so those are some really good places to

40:37

start and uh and even maybe that's people would be content to do that you

40:43

know having individual coaching or small group coaching where we're actually trying to progress you see where you are

40:50

where you want to be and then do the appropriate exercises and Mo and modifications of those exercises to get

40:57

you a little stronger that takes usually a little more personalized training as

41:04

opposed to just a group class they'll probably have you doing the same thing pretty much every week but it's a great

41:09

place to start and for some people that's enough or financially some of those group classes are really

41:15

inexpensive you know like at a senior center maybe a chair yoga is $5 or something like that and doing that a

41:22

couple of times a week you would see big improvements way better than just sitting on your sofa for folks can

41:27

always reach out to me just for inspiration you know and then there's there's some things online of course

41:34

it's not specialized and you're not getting any feedback if you're doing something wrong no one will tell you and

41:39

you don't know so there's some injuries you know a lot of people are like well there's tons of YouTube videos I'll just

41:45

watch somebody else and yes but you're not getting the the safety and the the critical feedback on on proper technique

41:53

where you may not realize you think you're doing it right but people don't have great body awareness especially

41:58

when they start and their back's hunched over and they don't realize they're not sitting upright and they're not holding

42:04

their stomach in you know to protect their lumbar spine by keeping a strong core things like that but certainly

42:11

doing something's better than nothing especially if it's not real vigorous you know that's when you can more likely to

42:17

hurt yourself if you go from not doing anything to try to like I'm going to be in shape in three weeks I'm going to

42:22

work so hard you know then you're just going to hurt yourself so that's a big temp things too people get too

42:28

enthusiastic and they want to see results immediately they didn't get in poor shape overnight you're not going to

42:35

get back in shape and strong overnight either now it was probably a many year

42:40

or maybe even multi-decade decline yeah you have to expect it to take at least several

42:46

months or even a year or two to to make big changes everything is better if we can stop the decline and at least level

42:53

it off and then slowly start to you know go back up way better and usually safer

42:58

for most you know if you're young if you're in your 20s or 30s or even 40s it's different but once you're in your

43:05

60s and and 70s and 80s we have to be a lot more careful on trying to change the

43:11

trajectory of that you know curve yes and how often do we forget that Although

43:17

our mind is Young our body is slightly different you know and it is important

43:24

that when people start out especially like you were advised advised if you go back to the beginning of your story you

43:30

know when you you and your wife joined the gym and you were taken around it was advised that you perhaps had five

43:36

sessions in the beginning with somebody to help you start right and so why

43:42

should that be any different at any stage of Our Lives when we're getting into it for the first time or getting

43:47

reintroduced into it at a different stage of our life I've actually met

43:53

people who in their youth 1920 were big on the gym uh lifting weights doing all

44:01

things and then they're 45 and they say okay I've got to lose all this belly you know all those business lunches or

44:07

whatever I'm going to go back to the gym and they go back trying to pick up the same weights they did when they were 20

44:12

at their Peak Fitness it's not same experience so I think having yeah and

44:20

yeah and they do get hurt and the hurt getting hurt stops them from going back and so they compound the issue cuz now

44:27

it's even harder to return but your energy I would imagine would be such a beautiful added advantage to getting fit

44:36

because there's a lot of um encouragement and this is not difficult

44:42

it doesn't have to be hard we're not looking for Perfection we're here to have fun but to make sure that life is

44:48

good and and I think that is often a deciding factor when it comes to actually deciding if I'm going to have a

44:54

personal trainer regardless of my age who is that person on the other side do

45:00

they really want to be here or are they just doing the job and I feel that you

45:06

genuinely want to make a difference for other people and that would sign me up straight away okay great you know the

45:14

trainers I admire that I see that are you know some of the the nationally

45:20

known trainers are very up and energetic and enthusiastic and motivate people the

45:26

ones that are just kind of okay now we're going to do 10 situps we're going to do 10 you know and it's like they're

45:32

not motivating anyone so the ones I really admire I always had this energy

45:38

you know being on the radio the the program directors are always like oh I love your energy on the air you know you

45:43

don't sound like you're you're not putting people to sleep you're like getting people energized even for the music the music was energetic I kind of

45:50

matched my Tempo to the music you know since I like you know the rock and roll

45:56

and stuff it's like energetic music I just an energetic person um and the

46:03

trainers I see you know that are I and with most clients they really feed into

46:09

that you know most of them are drawn to a more energetic trainer and enthusiastic because people love you

46:16

know most people love that enthusiasm the cynical ones maybe not as much you

46:21

know older guys maybe less than than older ladies one reason I specialize and

46:27

working with older ladies they're usually much more pleasant to work with just because they're more open to things

46:33

if you go to a yoga or a Zumba class or a pilates class it's 95% ladies and not

46:39

guys the and and part of it is going back to the point that you talked about that oh yeah they were an athlete in

46:45

high school or college and I get so much of that from guys well I played football

46:50

in high school and I'm like that was 60 years ago you know you're not there

46:57

we can't do that same they're like well we used to do this and I'm 60 years ago

47:02

dude we're going to have to go back and make up a little lost ground type of thing and a lot of them and even with

47:09

older ladies and myself it's just hard to comprehend that we're this age and

47:14

our minds were always like in our high school teen years I mean we never really grow out of that and so it is hard to

47:22

accept I mean I get the folks every day saying I can't believe I'm this old I can't believe my body's failing on me

47:29

and I'm like yes but let's just do what we can to get it better that's all we

47:35

can do we can't go back in time you know we can't change I have people say God I wish I'd trained with you started 20

47:42

years ago I'd be in so much better shape if I would have started with you when I was 55 now that I'm 75 I'd be so much

47:49

better and I'm like we can't do that let's just try to take you from where you are to where you would like to be

47:55

safely now I get so much of that oh yeah well back in the day I was you know I

48:01

could do all of this I'm like well we can't do it now and if you try you're going to hurt yourself and then you'll never be back in the gym again because

48:07

you'll be in pain on the sofa and then you're really not going to move and you're going to grumpy and grouchy on

48:14

top of it which is not going to make you get any friends anyway so Jeff what's one bit of advice you'd give to somebody

48:21

um maybe they've just come out of surgery they've been told they have to do exercise so there's that resistance

48:28

okay I'm so I'm scared I you have to do exercise what would you say to somebody

48:33

like that who's in a recovery State because I know you work with people there as well don't you I do and there's

48:40

you know a couple of so that's like ex trinic motivation you're told you have

48:45

to your doctor says you better lose weight and you better get stronger your diet you're going to put you on Diabetes

48:51

medication or we're going to have to amputate your leg you know I mean that's really is a thing and then intrinsic

48:57

motivation where you do it because you want to obviously the people that do it because they want to stick to it much

49:04

more the other thing of extrinsic maybe it's your spouse your spouse is prodding you and I've had some of that and they

49:11

don't really want to be there and they look for every excuse not to show up oh I've got this thing I can't come today

49:18

oh I sore I can't really do anything you know so that that's a big that's

49:23

definitely a big part of it people that are there because they need to but they really don't want to the best advice is

49:31

start with something you can do and you're willing to do and then build on it they say if you are just going to

49:37

walk for five minutes just go out the door and walk down three houses and turn

49:44

around and walk back and come in and just do that and maybe the next day and just do that for a week and then maybe

49:50

okay I can go to the end of the block and I'll come back and do that and then maybe I'll I'll go around the block and

49:56

maybe you'll it'll help your mental attitude as well where you're like going to do it but when people see all of the

50:04

things they should be doing oh my diet my exercise all this it's overwhelming

50:10

and it's easier not to do anything so it's like let's just take one little thing that you think you can do and go

50:17

with that and then make small incremental additions to not get overwhelmed because the biggest way to

50:23

overwhelm somebody's like you completely have to revamp your diet everything in refrigerator has to get thrown out we

50:28

have to buy all new stuff that you've never eaten before that you don't know how to cook you don't know when you're going to eat eat it and how to eat it

50:35

and all of that stuff then they don't do anything so I have a certification called Behavior change in exercise

50:41

you'll only change when the pain of where you are your present circumstances is greater than the fear or pain of

50:49

change you're like I am so sick of being overweight and being unhealthy and

50:55

sitting in this chair I am ready to run through a brick wall to change my

51:01

current condition they are ready to change if people are like yeah I don't like things they are but boy I don't

51:08

like going to the gym and I'm afraid of what they're going to make me do then they're not going to change so the the

51:15

pain of where you are has to be greater than the fear of change or the pain of change brilliant that is such a great

51:22

way to sort of uh round this up because that is where the stops I think you know at the end of the day it is about us and

51:31

what we want from our lives and you know we all have a choice and whatever we

51:37

choose will determine the result in the end I don't think we need to say any more than that because ultimately the

51:43

opportunities are out there people like you who do what you do are there available ready to help all the person

51:50

has to do is take that first step reach out and say how do we do this yeah right

51:55

exactly and it's like I'll take over from there yeah I've coached a lot of people through it you just have to show

52:01

up and be ready to do it it's like you don't have to know how you anything uh that's what I do you just show up ready

52:09

to do what it's going to take and we'll figure out what's an appropriate pace

52:15

and all of that and safely and I always take feedback it's like I can't feel what you feel if something hurts if

52:21

something doesn't feel right let me know immediately we'll modify there's a million different Maneuvers we can do to

52:28

reach the same goal you know if this street doesn't work we'll go around the block and we'll come in and we'll get we'll get there you know we'll get you

52:35

stronger there this one way there's not just one path to get anywhere so we can always modify you know to get you there

52:41

safely and painfree the no pain no gain that's I don't believe that at all

52:46

usually now muscle burn if we've done a few reps and it's okay the muscle's getting fatigued and there's a burn in

52:52

there that's different than oh my elbow hurts or my should hurts so people need

52:58

to know that difference you know but but that part of oh it really hurt but I kept doing it my back really hurt but I

53:04

kept doing it and I'm like no don't chances are it's because you were doing it the wrong way or your posture was

53:10

wrong and so you shouldn't have been in that pain I can show you a pain you should be feeling right right muscle but

53:17

not the not not that type of pain wow Jeff that's this time has just flown by thank you so much for for stepping in I

53:24

think if anything you will have inspired the listeners to really think about

53:31

where they are right now what is one thing with regards to their health and well-being their body Health that

53:39

perhaps it's niggling and I'm sure you and I would both say don't let the niggle grow into a problem exactly I

53:45

always say tell people even if they're in their 70s we're we're not training for today we're training for 10 years

53:51

from now 15 years from now if we don't do anything now where are you going to be in 10 or 15 years you're really going

53:58

to be in trouble you know so we're always kind of looking at where our future self is going to be what are we

54:04

going to do now to make our future better think of it that way more of a long-term thing yeah and the bonus of

54:11

being 60 or 70 when you're looking at 10 years ahead is that you've probably got

54:16

60 or 70 years behind you and you kind of know a lot of stuff already about how

54:22

this is usually unfolded so do you want it to be the same or do you want something fresh new and wonderful so

54:29

Jeff thanks so much for being with us today on the Diary of amuse podcast I am certainly inspired and I know that my

54:36

activity is just about to go up excellent Tess thank you so much for

54:42

giving me the opportunity to spread the message of health and wellness and fitness to folks out there I've you know

54:49

taken that on as a mission of mine obviously so I really appreciate the

54:54

opportunity absolute gift I can way to share this conversation with a lot of people so that they too May um ask

55:01

themselves some interesting questions and maybe get just a little bit more active than they were yesterday so guys

55:07

thanks for tuning in today and listening to our episode with Jeff Whittle from

55:13

Silver strong Fitness um you will find all the details of how you can reach out

55:18

to him in the sort of Contex SE content section of the podcast but really at the

55:25

end of the day go out right now and do something active whether it is a gentle stretch or an ankle swirl not quite the

55:34

word Jeff would have used just think about that beautiful body you have and how long do you want it to be working

55:40

for you rather than against you and uh I'll be back soon with something else to

55:46

talk about but for now just look after that body nurture it and if you have any

55:53

questions I have no doubt Jeff would love to hear from you and he will

55:58

happily guide you direct you or answer any concerns you might have about where

56:03

you are questions certainly so take care thanks very much and we'll be back again

56:09

soon bye for now