Transcription:

RadioMD Presents: HER Radio | Original Air Date: April 30, 2015
Host: Michelle King Robson and Pam Peeke, MD

It's all about her. Her body. Her Mind. Her Wellness. Her sex. Her relationships. Her aging. Her beauty. It's HER Radio. Starring acclaimed entrepreneur and women's advocate, Michelle King Robson, and leading women's health expert, the doc who walks the talk, Dr. Pam Peeke.

PAM: I'm Dr. Pam Peeke. Michelle's off today.
Alright if you're a woman out there, you want to know what's going on when it comes to exercising and taking good care of yourself. So, we're going to be talking about five ways to regain youthfulness with the right kind of exercise. And with us is Jerzy Gregorek, who is the author of The Happy Body: The Simple Signs of Nutrition, Exercise, and Relaxation.
Jerzy, welcome to HER Radio.

JERZY: Well, thank you. I appreciate it.

PAM: Alright, so we got a good book here and listen, at the end of the day, we don't want short term results that can be bad for longevity. People kill themselves for quick whatever, competition or back and forth. Is that really good for you? Heck, no! So, the five ways to be able to regain youthfulness with the right kind of exercise. Let's just hop right into them, shall we? How about doing something like, oh, I don't know. How about get flexible? Let's go to flexible.

JERZY: Well, flexibility is important. Yes, because if we are stiff and tight then it causes inflammation and it's not good for us. We can develop pains and so on. So, how to get flexible? Well, we can do yoga or we can do some stretches 'and so on. But the best way is to incorporate that flexibility within exercise routine. So, actually we can do the routine for fifty minutes. And all the exercises have the capability to make you flexible. Then, you exercise then as well, you improve your flexibility.

PAM: Well, you better listen up out there, HER Radio, because you're listening to Jerzy Gregorek, who's world weight lifting champion and founder and head coach of the University of California, Los Angeles, weight lifting team. If anybody knows anything about successful fitness, it's got to be Jerzy. So, flexibility is number one. How about be strong now? I'm heavily biased. Because I've been lifting weights for over thirty years, so hmm. Be strong resonates very nicely with me, speaking of weight lifting. But how about for all of our women out there in HER Radio land?

JERZY: So, be strong. Why to be strong? Well the immunity depends on it and out health and strength and size of the muscle, leanness. So, if we are getting stronger then, we are, of course, getting more youthful and we can be lean instead of being skinny fat. So, this strength and size of the muscle, crucial.

PAM: Yes. I mean, that skinny fat thing is so important. When I wrote Body for Life for Women, this was all about women and body composition, which I'm all about. Bag to scale, honey. I want to know how much fat and muscle you have on board. And when you say skinny fat, that means so many to women out there who just stare to scale, starve themselves, don't exercise enough, don't weight lift. And what they end up doing, "Oh, sure. You're in a size four, but you're floppy, you're soft and if I actually measured your body fat, it would be higher than normal. And your lean body mass--your muscle—would ,be way low. Right? So, skinny fat, we don't want. Right, Jerzy?

JERZY: We don't want. It's just, you know the whole BMI created the situation and misleads people because you can have perfect BMI and you can be obese while being a hundred pounds.

PAM: Exactly! And BMI doesn't speak the body composition at all.

JERZY: Not at all.

PAM: All it is, is weight for height. That's all it is. It doesn't say the quality of your body. So, huh! Here's number three. Speed up. I just love this. You know, One of the whole marks of old age, ahem, of the aging process is everything slows down. We walk slower and all this stuff. So, what do you mean by "peed up"?

JERZY: Well, you know, the whole nervous system has to be quicker and do exercise faster. It means speed up and you know improve your nervous system. You just talk about the brain. So, the brain also slows down and our, you know, possibilities to actually save ourselves from falling depends on the speed of the brain. So, if you move faster let's say doing the exercise, they open pathways in the brain and the whole nervous system to be quicker and then, of course, age slower.

PAM: I love it! So, you want to get faster and in a way you open yourself up to doing it safely. And reminding yourself --it's also psychological play. You think, "Oh, I'm going to give myself permission to go slower because I'm getting older." Well, I don't want to break anyone's heart, honey. There's a group called the senior Olympics. I'm actually a triathlete and a senior Olympian. And I'm going to tell you, honey, we've got seventy year olds in there who can, you know, outpace twenty year olds. So, come on, forget all this stuff about slowing down. That's a head trip. You know?
JERZY: Based on speed, the quicker we are, the [05:57 inaudible)

PAM: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Now the next one is get lean. What you mean by that?
JERZY: Well, get lean is just the same almost as be strong and not to be obese. We should have certain leanness it means body fat percentage that is reflecting that we have enough muscle and, you know, getting older is muscle loss. So, the more muscle we have, the less fat. We are more lean. And in that way, we are more youthful.

PAM: Well, I love some of your points from the book. And so, you want to eat every three hours or so, but only the amount that could be burned in two hours so that you're actually hungry for your next whatever maybe be—a snack or meal. So, when you eat every three hours, you're not having a Bochnaian feast here, guys. You know? This is all about making sure to kind of evenly divide it out over the entire day. And in getting lean really it doesn't mean you're going to be some Skinny Minnie or some nasty looking thing. No, no, no, no! You're going to be healthy and fit. Healthy and fit. And just keep aiming to decrease excess body fat but not getting crazy about it. Just being reasonable.

JERZY: Also be...

PAM: Right?

JERZY: Also be a certain weight so you're not too skinny. And they are more you know, the happy body is more like body weight of a dancer—A contemporary dancer. So, you are athletic . Athletic, beautiful and attractive. But you have some meat on you. So, you're not just too skinny.

PAM: Oh, yeah. I love that meat on you thing. You know, I'm all about that! And then, you're fifth point is straighten up. What do you mean by straighten up? What is this? Uh Oh! Just a moment here, I'm correcting my posture already. Because you just made me very "ahem". So, tell me about straighten up.

JERZY: Well, you know, the first sign of aging is that our chest collapses and cannot. We learn forward. Oh, the rib cage gets tighter and we cannot bend anymore a more backward. You could some things. People when they kind of lean forward and walk on toes and, you know, they cannot really arch backwards. So, you have to exercise that would correct all of that and improve our thoracic spine. It's essential. So, in the Happy Body program there are about five or six exercises that are specifically designed to help people not to age the spine. So, they don't.

PAM: I love it! I absolutely love this! I was so happy when I saw you deal with the posture thing. So, everyone, we're listening to Jerzy Gregorek. With UCLA weight lifting team and a world weight lifting champion and author of The Happy Body: The Simple Sings of Nutrition, Exercise and Relaxation.

And go to his website thehappybody.com He's helped us understand those five ways to be able to be a happy body. Flexibility, strength, speeding up, getting lean and straightening up. Thank you, Jersey. We so appreciate you for being on HER Radio. I doctor Pam Peeke with Michelle King Robson.

And you're listening to HER radio on RadioMD. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter. And stay well.