Welcome to Active Living with April.

On this episode, we’ll be talking about one of the easiest things you can do for your health, walking.

How to get started, how to pick the right walking shoes, and how to help keep your balance.

That’s next, on Active Living with April Production support provided by West Side chiropractic, offering patient specific care and massage therapy located at 2732 Mt.

Vernon Avenue, Evansville.

Kasey Fuquay, State Farm Insurance Protecting Futures.

Today.

The injury law firm of Robert John and Associates, proudly supports Public media.

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and viewers like you.

Thank you.

So, you know, one of the greatest things you could do for yourself of you're looking for an activity is to start walking.

Laura Hudson is with us from the YMCA.

Thank you for walking with me today.

You're welcome.

Tell me about why walking is so good for people.

It is easy to do in your everyday life.

It can be very social.

You can walk with your family.

You can find groups in Evansville, which we have plenty of those that meet through the week.

You can walk anywhere you want in the mall, in the Y outside.

So it's very easy activity to be accessible to.

What are some of the benefits from walking?

You want to get your heart rate out of its comfort zone.

Okay.

But it's something your body is used to doing every day.

So it's not going to be a big change in what you're doing, but how you can change it is by pace, hills, and different...different variables So if somebody let's say, somebody is watching and they're like, they're not doing any kind of activity at all.

How would you suggest that they start their walking program?

Find a good, safe place to walk.

I would start out on a good, nice, pleasant day.

Yes.

And where appropriate, clothing and shoes.

Shoes are one of the most important things to consider before you start doing an activity.

Make sure you don't have any restrictions from your doctor.

Right.

And go out there, walk three or four blocks.

And if that felt good, then you keep adding or add a few hills or maybe a little longer, maybe a little intervals, or just walk at a nice, easy pace.

Whatever works for you.

And see that was one of the things I was wondering is how do you measure?

Should they start off with.

I'm just like you said, I'm just going to walk to the mailbox and back or, you know, how.

Yes.

Do they get their pedometer?

What?

How should they be?

People like to count steps.

Some people like to go just by distance or time.

There is no right or wrong.

That's what is a nice thing about walking, is you don't have to put certain restrictions on how long, how far you can pick and choose, how you would like to monitor that type of exercise.

And it doesn't matter like I know, as you mentioned, walking outdoors, that has added benefits of its own, doesn't it?

I mean, just being in the outdoors.

Yes.

In nature.

Yes.

It keeps your mind off how far you've been walking.

It's very good to get out when that air is a little cool and crisp, a little more difficult in the summer.

But it's got all of its benefits.

Sure.

Yes.

And same way with you know, I will have to say that sometimes I used to make fun of mall walkers but now I see why they walk at the mall.

I mean, especially on an inclement day or something like that.

Yes.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with walking indoors.

No.

And we have different types of facilities here in Evansville that you could.

One is a treadmill.

One is our YMCA track.

We have one here at Dunigan and the downtown Y, the mall.

We have two different malls that you can actually walk at.

Right.

So they are so there's more than one situation where you can go walk and outside is still the best answer.

We have parks.

Sure, we have Garvin Park.

We have different areas where you can walk and it's very safe with the river.

It's a beautiful place to walk.

And what about is there even a little bit of a social aspect in walking?

Yeah.

Some people meet their friends in the morning, some of my clients have certain people they meet a certain time in a certain place and walk three or four times a week.

And that helps your time go bye by, You're just there for each other.

Sure.

And it's also a great thing you could do with your pet if you have a dog.

Absolutely.

Just make sure you're safe with the leash at the right.

Yes, yes, yes.

And if you're meeting somebody or a group, it also makes you accountable.

So using the accountability word, I mean, isn't that probably important not just for walking but for anything, but I mean, how does that help with somebody with their physical activity?

It's a whole lot easier to say no to yourself than to another person that you are supposed to be meeting.

So or a group.

So if you have that appointment set up with a person, it's more likely you're going to go and be accountable meeting someone than on your own.

Right.

And yeah, and it's also just so good with going again, back to the social aspects, having that other person to talk to while you're participating in some activity is just so good for you.

Yes, you can vent, You can talk about yesterday, you can talk about what's going on in your life and it helps you keep going because you have somebody there with you.

Yeah.

And I think a lot of times people don't realize the psychological aspects of physical activity, how it really is.

It is helping with your body and everything, but it's really helping up here.

Yes.

And getting that heart rate up, even in a brisk walk, helps the endorphins and it makes a world of difference on the rest of your day.

Right.

It's a huge mood booster.

It is.

And it also helps you sleep better.

Your appetite, it makes you accountable, more of what you're eating and not eating.

It's a great aspect all the way around.

All right.

Well, thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Hopefully people will be walking with us every day now.

Big part of your every day walking is balance.

Just do anything mobile.

You need good balance.

So Stacy is joining us to talk about some things you can do to help improve your balance.

Right.

So let's start off well, first of all, how why is balance so important, though?

Well, you know, in your twenties, you don't think much about balance and then you come to yoga for the first time or any kind of exercise and people think, I don't have that balance gene.

That gene that everyone should have.

The thing of it is It's not a gene.

It is actually something as a skill that you have to build.

And the more you build upon it, the older we get, the more important it is.

So you don't want to fall out of a chair.

Getting up walking requires a certain amount of balance, walking in a straight line.

You don’t think about that, those things in your twenties.

But then you go to yoga or you age and you think, I should do balance, but I don’t know how.

But you know To your point.

I see plenty of people who come into yoga in their twenties who don't have good balance.

That's right.

But like you said, they try to brush it off as, I just don't have good balance.

Yes, you will if you work on it.

Right.

And it's never too late to start.

We're never too late.

So and it's a skill.

And once, you know the basic things about balance, it makes it better.

It's easier to do, actually.

So there's a there's a couple of things that you have to do every time you balance.

And I remember this all the time.

I say this all the time in my classes.

Okay, so let's start off.

I like what you were talking about earlier.

You were you were talking about how you want to think about your ankles.

So let's start with that.

So, you know, all the time and I kind of demonstrate this from the side, if your knee is bent and you pick up one leg.

Look at my ankles.

My poor little ankle is I'm requiring my ankle to do all of the work.

And it is fighting the muscles around that are fighting for me to stay stable.

But look what happens once I engage that quadricep and then I bring it up to my core and then I come up really nice and strong, like I could balance in any position that I want to by keeping this nice firm base right here.

And the core is a big part of balance.

People think that, it's just their leg or whatever, and you're certainly your leg, your quad is involved.

But core is a huge, huge part of balance, right?

So Exactly.

And why not engage it, keeping that leg straight?

Like when my leg is straight, my quadricep is firing, I can actually feel it firing.

Then I can pull that up and pull that core in and the balance is even stronger.

Now, this is not something that you would think about when you're walking, but like you said, the stronger you are in all of those areas, the more those things tend to fire.

Right.

And when you're in something like yoga and you're reminded about that, then it's going to fire and you're going to do better.

When the other thing about balance is it's one of the things that's going to help keep you from falling.

And that's another thing.

As you age, how many people fall and break a hip or an arm or a shoulder or whatever?

And if they had better balance, I mean, you can't prevent everything, right?

But that will help keep you from falling.

And that's one reason why it's so important.

So so important.

So you were talking about maybe doing Tree.

Yeah, we're going to start with Tree now.

We have this chair here.

But you know, tree pose is one of those things like we can always kickstand this out making sure if you want to get a little bit more adventurous, we can take that foot below the knee.

You can take it above the knee as long as it isn't pushing on that knee.

So wherever you want it today, and if you're going to practice that, let's practice with that standing leg being nice and strong, and now let's just kind of focus on bringing that right, that quadricep nice and tight and then engaging that core.

And sometimes I just put my hands here, just think about pulling that core in.

Really, that is a knitting it in.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good idea.

Knitting it in, pulling that in.

That includes the obliques upper and lower abs pulling that all in and look at this balance like we could stand here keeping this all engaged for a pretty long time right.

Sure.

I mean let's not test it.

I'm going to say now not gonna break out the stopwatch or anything like that but so important.

And now my leg, like shake your leg out.

Right.

My leg is working.

Right?

So, I mean, definitely so at any level for tree, let's go back and say you have no skill, no balance.

No balance, gene, none of us have that.

But we're going to use a chair here.

So anybody at any age, let's try that same thing, but kind of use that skill of having a chair nearby just for now.

Also, you made a good point.

We want that chair on the side that our leg is standing on, the straight leg.

That's you.

We don't want your hair over here.

Right.

You want it here.

So having that here now, let's think about really engaging that quadricep like it's firing, bringing that core in.

And then notice what happens.

Also with the top of my head, I'm also feel like I'm standing improves your posture.

It does and does.

And, you know, one of the things I like to say is engaging your quad, you may feel your kneecap lift.

Yeah.

Because I mean, and if you see it, you can even see it in the mirror.

A lot of times when you engage your quad, your kneecap, you know, which it's strengthening your kneecap.

It is so and that's a good thing.

So if you're using the chair, though, it's you want to try and lightly touch right, lightly touch and then, and then maybe you feel like you have it.

Then let's take let's take a off, right.

And maybe take the hands and prayer.

And you always have this here.

If you feel like you're going to fall.

So this is a good one.

One thing we talked about, you know, in my twenties, I have children now in my twenties and they're like, I don't need balance.

I don't need balance, but we can make it a little bit harder, Right?

Okay.

So there's always there's always something else.

So let's come back to that tree, start engaging that we can even take our arms up, maybe over our head.

Maybe we can look up to the sky in our back bend.

Right?

That's going to be more challenging.

Yes, we can add movement either leaning down or leaning one side to the other.

As it were blowing in the wind were blowing trees in the wind, and you could really do that foundation.

Yeah.

With your leg and your core.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Now I'm breaking a sweat.

Now can you feel like your body is doing something so easy and simple?

But it is working.

It is.

We're very work.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

So was there another one?

You.

I did.

I just wanted to show one last thing.

If we're going to balance on one leg, picking up that outside leg here and keeping that here, then we can add a twist.

We can reach that hand behind us, where we're holding on, and then we can add more by reaching the other hand towards the front and our twist.

yeah, very nice.

So it's the same principle if you need it.

Right.

And so you can still get that twist the balance reaching.

And then like you said, that's something to work on is maybe and then maybe to look back at that back hand, that will give you, if you can extend that leg they extended like out.

there's always something more that you can be thinking more.

So those 20 year olds, you think balance is difficult or easy.

Add something else and if you don't use it, you lose it.

So it's a skill we got to build on the balance.

Okay.

Well, thank you so much.

I thought this was good pointers.

All right.

Thank you.

We'll be back.

One of the best fitness activities you can take up is walking.

And one of the most important things about walking is having appropriate footwear.

So here today to talk to us about that is Curt and Cory Jones from Ultimate Fit.

And thank you for being here with us.

Thanks for having us.

Now, tell me about how important is it.

I know I said is one of the most important things.

I mean.

Yeah, it really is.

And people they really don't always think about that.

Whenever somebody goes out to start on a exercise routine, they wake up one day, or maybe they thought about it a couple of days and they go into their closet and they drag out whatever shoe they have and they take off.

And, you know, that may work as you go maybe around the block once or something.

But as you increase your time out there doing the exercise, an activity, you'll find that you need to have more than that.

And besides that, the shoe that's in the closet, you know, people think that shoes last forever.

They look at the bottom, them go, Well, they're good.

Well, truthfully, shoes last depending on how much you use them, six, eight months a year.

And so when you go out there and do that and you start increasing that distance, then you have to have more cushioning.

You need to have the right support.

There's other things that are also important.

So going to say when you were talking about how long they last, that's probably true that people look at the sole and they say, there are no holes, or whatever, it still look right?

What are you talking about?

Is how long it lasts, what is lasting?

so they can look good on the top and they may even look good on the bottom as they're being a little dirty.

But this midsole and that's what this is called, this midsole crushes down.

Okay.

This will offer you the support and cushioning for a while.

Then it needs to be replaced.

And we have people that come in that have shoes that look great and they'll say, I have a specific lady one time, come in and she said, I've got this specific brand.

And she said, I just want to say I've had them about a year.

So I want to compare them to a new one because I think they're fine.

This is sure.

So we put one on one, foot, her old on the other, and she stood up.

She went, okay, now you feel the difference.

She could tell the difference right there, but I'm guessing that you don't notice as you're wearing them that it's getting worse.

Really, You really don't For the most part, You know, over time, it slowly breaks down as you're walking.

You might notice knee’s tweaking just a little bit, my hip’s tweaking just a little bit.

But it's not just a quick my shoes are totally just worn out all of a sudden.

But as somebody is walking and you notice, you know, my knees just sort of ache a little bit and that's not normal.

It might be time.

So really, what are some of the bad things that can happen if you don't have the right shoes?

Sure.

So the shoes are the foundation of your feet is what it is.

So if you build a home, you don't build a foundation like this or this which we see that in people when they come in, when they walk in this way or this way.

And our whole thing is to get somebody to be neutral, to go down through the gate cycle through the middle and and when you when you do that, then you're less prone to injuries than the ankles, the knees, the hips and even the back.

And I think, as Cory mentioned, people can all of a sudden start feeling their knees hurting, even if they have the proper footwear.

If they were too long, then the knee starts to hurt and they don't know what that is.

But sometimes if you just replace that footwear, if it's been maybe eight months, you've used it every day, it's probably time to replace that.

And that can help So one of the things you're talking about, like watching them walk, is that's something you guys do when they come in.

We sure do We go through what we call a gate analysis, which is where we watch them walk, see how things want to move, and then we go into a machine that helps actually create a 3D image of those feet in the important positions.

So we can see, you know, okay, this is happening to the foot.

So this is what we need to do either shoe wise or shoe and insole wise or whatever the case may be, to make sure everything is aligned.

Kind of like he was talking about what the structures of the house.

So if somebody just wanted to go in the store and buy them on their own, what should they be thinking about?

Like I'm guilty of, I get the shoe on and I say, that's really cute.

And I walk around a few times and then I might go ahead and buy it.

But what should you be thinking about being, you know, noticing when you're walking this Funny you say, you know, because the eye buys a lot and I've been guilty of that all my life.

And still am somewhat, what you need to look for is three things the cushioning and the wraparound and the upper and then the proper size.

Okay.

Number one mistake people make on shoes this size and buy them too small every time.

You know, just about.

Why is that?

Well, because they for 40 years, 30 years, 50 years, they've worn a shoe that feels like this and they don't know any different.

You know, whenever you get used to something, sometimes you just get used to it, you know?

So it's an education when they come in, because we had they sit down with a professional fitter that goes through this and so you don't have to guess and know those things.

We just sit down and figure it out with you.

So just don't touch on some of the other things you have with you.

What about socks?

How important are your socks?

I call it the forgotten hero.

People can come in and they they buy the shoes and that's great.

Again, you go around the block, it may be okay, but when you start stretching it out, okay, now you're doing a mile or five miles or whatever it may be.

Then the socks come into play.

This brand, for example, are there left and right specific.

They have compression in the arch.

They don't slip.

They're moisture management materials.

They pull the sweat away, they blister.

Free blisters are a thing as you continue to go further.

Also, I would it matter if the socks are left or right?

That is for the arch support.

Okay.

It's made for the left foot and the right foot.

So the arch supports the right place.

This sock is unique as it is like almost like gloves.

It's toe socks.

And this works well for a lot of cases.

But the one I find that it's the best for is if you have an overlapping toe and then it adds a layer of protection in between there instead of just, you know, just touching on the inside of a regular sock.

Now, what about I guess these are just insoles.

Yeah, this is a really important thing that we do.

It's so we make custom insoles and I have people come in and say, you know, which shoe has, And I left that off wile ago, you know, what should you be looking for?

Arch support is really important.

Which one has the best arch support?

And I'll say the one that has the custom insole.

These start just like this flat.

And then what they do is they mold molded right there in the store to your foot.

And so people generally have one arch that’s higher, one that's lower works great for that.

They're not like an orthotic.

So they have a little give when you're walking.

They don't feel like this table, right?

They actually have some comfort but still give you that support.

So that is huge.

One of the most important it really is.

And most people don't know what kind of arch they have until they.

Absolutely.

We have ways to figure that out there at the store, too.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thanks so much for being here.

This is very informative and it makes me think gives me pause as to what kind of footwear I should be using.

When I’m walking I'm trying to get those 10,000 steps.

yea Yep.

Go out and get them in good shape.

All right.

Thank you so much.

We'll be back So I like to talk to people about their fitness routines.

And with me and Diana Holland, who is a huge fitness buff.

And I love that about you.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

And so tell me about some of the things you do for your workout.

So I do a lot of things.

I look at it like a big salad.

So I do three times a week, weight training, twice a week swimming.

I do yoga at home now and I do Orange theory pure bar, cycle bar.

And then for fun, I kayak and hike.

But there's other things you do you think are fun.

Yeah.

I think you enjoy it.

Yeah.

And I know you were saying sometimes people harass you about it a little bit because you do so many things, but it's because you love them.

Yeah, I've been working out since I was seven.

I mean, my dad got me on a tennis court when I was seven, and we had to do lessons and play tournaments and all that.

And then he had me run in early in the morning.

There's eight kids, but me and my sister were the two that would respond to being pulled on by toes early in the morning to get up and run to spend time with my dad.

So yeah, I've been working out all my life and I just think it's fun.

And then you even had your own fitness center.

Right?

Yeah.

And what was that?

So I moved to Evansville.

I was a phys Ed major, and there were no jobs to be had then.

So I opened up body in action with my husband, and it was a aerobics studio.

45 classes a week and a million corporate sites.

So we took fitness, all these different companies and did that for ten years.

my gosh.

Yeah.

my gosh, that's fun.

But then after that, you know, aerobics was kind of your main thing.

Yes.

Okay.

And body.

I was a bodybuilder, so I competed.

That's right.

Okay.

And then I had a 10 lb, 10 oz baby.

So that kind of ended.

And the fact that a lot of body builders were on steroids and I wasn't going to do that.

So that was about a 2 to 3 year thing.

And then I was done.

So.

And now you're we're both we're all in later in life.

And some would say, you know, so you would say in our sixties.

But what do you think?

You notice any difference in your workout since you as you've aged?

Not really, no.

No.

Yeah.

No, I just like I have fun doing all of it.

I really don't hurt.

I know a lot of people hurt and say, you got to take it easy.

I think that my secret is that there's so much variety.

I don't ever wear anything, any one thing out.

Like I don't run, run, run.

I run an orange theory and we might run for 20 minutes twice a week.

That's not that much on these beautiful treadmills that have give right then then cycle bar.

You know, I'm not out on this tour.

I used to be out on the streets.

I'm not going to run over a turtle or have a squirrel go through my spokes and break a collarbone and cars hit you.

I'm sitting on a bike motivated by a bunch of people in music, and I'm in and out.

45 minutes.

So I just I just figured it all out.

And I move quick from one thing to the next.

You made your salad.

I made my big fitness salad, and it just worked.

What would you tell other people?

You know, obviously everyone's aging, but other people who are older about having a fitness routine.

I think like the most important thing you can do is stay flexible and stay strong.

And so if you can at least incorporate some yoga and some weight training, it would be the best the best thing.

Yeah.

And just and stay active and stay active.

Stay active.

Say.

One of the things we're going to do to stay active, we're going to come down on the floor and we're going to do a plank.

Yeah, it's one of my very favorite things to do.

So.

So we're going to do a plank on our hands.

So what is it you were saying?

We always give people time to get on the floor with us.

Yeah, I give to you now, lady, you couch, we want we're going to have the timer on the screen so people can plank with us.

And we're just we're going to plank for a minute.

I usually plank for 5 minutes, but we're not doing that.

We're just we're I say I don't want to say just because for somebody starting off, you know, a minute can be a lot, but it's something to work up to.

So we're going to if you're doing planking with us at home, you want to make sure you have good form.

And my stopwatch is not set correctly.

So here we are.

We're just going to keep talking in.

Do you Plank Usually I do.

You do a pure bar.

You plank every every single class.

How long do you plank?

Usually 3 to 4 minutes.

3 to 4 with a variety of legs out, arms out.

We dance.

We dance over there.

my gosh.

Okay, so this is fun.

Starting in your table.

This is how we want to set up.

Pull your shoulders down your back, then lift your upper back.

Lift your chest.

Pull in your belly.

Come up on your toes.

Shift your weight forward slightly.

The timer has begun.

Here we go.

So once you're in your plank, you want to do everything again, Press into the floor, actually broaden your upper back a little bit, tighten up your glutes, even.

You know you really want that knees tight, tight derriere.

And I've even read where they say, pretend like somebody is punching you in the stomach.

That's how much you should be pulling in your navel also.

And how long did you say you usually hold a plank when you're doing it?

About 3 minutes.

3 minutes.

Okay.

So you know what I mean I love plank I mean, I just think is one of the best things you can do for overall body.

I agree.

Yeah.

You can just feel everything is okay and strong.

I mean, look at your arms, girl.

Yeah, You're working on your hands, your wrist, your arms, your shoulders, working on, you know, you're toning everything, toning your legs.

It helps with your posture.

You know what I always, always say?

Push ups are a moving plank.

So don't ever, I think a push ups line as just a moving plane.

That's right.

That's right.

You know, it, doesn't it didn't go fast.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy That’s what you want it to get you want it to be easy Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for joining us.

It was a great big fun.

And thank you for watching.

We'll be back again with another active living with April.

Production support provided by The injury law firm of Robert John and Associates, proudly supports Public media.

Robert John and, Associates.

Kasey Fuquay, State Farm Insurance Protecting Futures.

Today.

West Side chiropractic, offering patient specific care and massage therapy located at 2732 Mt.

Vernon Avenue, Evansville.

and viewers like you.

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