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Welcome to the Treatment Table Podcast.
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This is your mini consult.
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This is where I take one question or one topic and break it down into one easy takeaway.
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I'm your host, Doctor of Physiotherapy, Matthew Archer.
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Hey Renel, do you want to jump into today's question from Mike?
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It's a bit of a long one today.
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With all the free information out there about fitness and nutrition, I noticed a lot of the information that gets fed forward first is more specific to individuals that perform at amateur to elite athlete level of activity within, say, a week.
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What are the pros and cons for general population taking on advice that's more nuanced?
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Is there more harm than good being done to them optimizing their overall health and lifestyle habits, especially if they're taking advice from AI coaching slash the algorithm?
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Now, I think what he's trying to say is that most of the information that you get from AI is more for athletes, like whether they be amateur or elite, but it's more complicated.
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And is that good for the everyday person?
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I think that's what he's trying to say.
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Yeah, there's a lot.
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Thanks, Mike, for the question.
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There's a lot to unpack there.
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Let me break it down a bit more simpler.
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And one of the things that I start to see more and more every day is that because we have access to more information.
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So we've got YouTube, we've got Instagram, we've got AI, we've got Google.
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Generally, what happened before we had access to all information was that the information came from one source, and that source of information was either some expert or a coach, and they were able to pick the level that you're at, and then give you the right advice at the right time.
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What's happening now is we're getting little bits from everywhere.
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And so I think what Mike is saying is that there's a combination of advice from social media of what is trending, what the algorithm is pushing out.
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And then there's another thing that people are using, which is more AI, and they're asking specific programs and updates.
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Um, so we'll dive into a little bit of the difference to address that first part of that question.
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How do we use the best parts from say athletes or specific sports into our day-to-day general population?
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And then what I'm going to go through is how I would use AI to optimize my program, or how do I use AI to create a program that's very specific for me?
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So there's a lot of advantages, I guess, to having all this access to this information.
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Before we were maybe only given little bits, or we didn't understand the full story.
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Now we have immediate information at our fingertips, and that's instant.
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So as long as you're asking the right question and you're given enough information and you understand the processes, that can be really helpful.
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And one of the positives that I'm starting to see with the access to information is a lot of clients now asking the right types of questions.
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And so as long as you have done your research and you're not asking a bunch of generalized questions, if you can be really specific with your questions, you're gonna get better answers.
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So better questions, better answers.
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Um saying that though, there are times where I see people doing certain techniques or certain exercises that are specific from a sport or a specific, so it could be powerlifting, it could be sprinting, and they're not a power lifter and they're not a sprinter.
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One of the discussions, we'll call it, that I quite quite commonly have is some of the power lifting movements are very much strength-based and they allow you to lift as really, really heavy weights.
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And the technique that they're doing to lift those heavy weights are putting your body in positions to achieve an outcome that's specific to the power lifting rules.
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So the rules of the sport determine how people can use their bodies.
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Now, it doesn't mean that is the best technique or the best position to put yourself in if you're not trying to achieve your PB in power lifting or a bench press or a deadlift.
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But because that's what people see on Instagram and they see people lifting really, really heavy, and generally they're not really big people.
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So they're small people um lifting big amounts, and they're like, okay, well, that must be the right technique.
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That might be the right best way.
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But if you're not powerlifting and you're not building yourself into that position, it's the same like sprinters, right?
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You're not gonna go from couch to sprinting 100 meters um because you've watched the athletics.
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You've got to build into that program, and it needs to be specific to you and the level that you're at.
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So basically, it's all about building the foundations first.
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That's right.
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You can't go from zero to a hundred and expect not to get injured.
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And that's again what I tend to see a lot of.
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It's that someone has picked up something that they've seen YouTube, Instagram, Google, and they've given it a go, and then they've got injured.
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And like, there's nothing wrong with that exercise.
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It's probably just at the wrong time.
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So there was a runner that came in to see me this morning.
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She wants to run half marathon.
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Great.
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She started an exercise that she saw on YouTube.
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The problem is the level that she was at was probably four levels below, and it was irritating her Achilles tendon.
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So it was too much too soon, and she was on the right path, the right track.
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But that specific exercise that she picked up for her goal of being able to run half marathon isn't helpful at this time.
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So again, helpful, but the issue is that when you take a very specific exercise out of context from a sport and apply to general populations, most of the time, without more context and someone to guide you through that process, you're gonna get it wrong.
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It kind of reminds me of the Pilates classes that we do, where the instructor will take you through the very first basic movement, and it may just be moving your hips, like tilting your hips back and forth before you move into the bridge.
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So it's like making sure you establish that base movement first, and then you build on it once you're comfortable, and then you build on it, and then you build on it, and then you're doing bridges and crazy stuff, crazy stuff, legs in the air.
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Yep.
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Yeah, another great example I was thinking about is like if you're learning to drive a car and you're on your L's and you're on your learner's permit, and you start watching videos of the Formula One, and you think, all right, cool, like this is gonna be me driving, like the reality of you getting in the car and you stall on it, you know, if you still drive a manual, um, that's something that's gonna be completely different.
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So, yes, you can't just go from zero to a hundred, the right approach and the right question to the right answer at the right time, very, very important.
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So, with like the power lifting and the sprinting and that, is there a way to navigate, figuring out when is the right time to use those tools?
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Yeah, so let's just break it down again in terms of coming back to Mike's question.
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The difference is when you have an athlete or someone that's performing at an elite level, they generally have a whole team behind them.
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They're gonna have a coach, they're gonna have a physio, they're gonna have a dietitian.
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Their job is to perform at a really, really high level, and their goal is to be the number one at that sport.
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Most of our day-to-day are not trying to compete against the world's best.
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We're just trying to get through the day, right?
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And to be the best that we can be.
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And we don't have all of us have access to a dietitian, a physio, a coach, um, but we do have access to the information.
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So what's really important is that we think about foundations of movement.
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And what I run my clients through is really simple, right?
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It's it's can you move through that movement without pain?
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So if we're talking about running, can you single leg squat?
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Can you double leg squat?
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Is that pain-free?
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Can you then have the stability?
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Can you balance on it in that single leg position?
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Then can you add the strength and the power?
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Can you go into a hop?
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Can you land?
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Can you jump?
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And so it's progressing through what we call stability, mobility, adding the strength, and then adding the power and apply metrics, which is the jump in, into that.
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And all those have to be laid on a strong foundation when you try and jump straight to the fancy stuff that you see on Instagram, which is the hop in and the jump in.
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And because the algorithm feeds up, because people want to see that, because it's exciting, that's what we get fed.
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And we're like, okay, well, I need to be able to do that now, now, now.
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And I'm like, hold on, you can't run 5Ks yet.
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You can't even balance on one leg.
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Let's just calm down a little bit, pull it back, you will get you there, but at the right time, at the right pace.
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Okay, well, how can we use AI then?
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Great.
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So, one of the things with before you go and implement what you find, and if you think it's a good idea, the first thing I want you to do is ask yourself a really simple question is have I covered the three foundations?
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So we talked about this in a lot of previous episodes.
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A three-legged stool, really, really important.
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So, general movement again, can you move without pain?
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Are you eating well?
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Are you covering through making sure you're getting good carbohydrates, good protein, and are you having good recovery and sleep?
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Those three have to be covered first before you start adding on things like icebars and creatine, because those are what we call the one percents.
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And for athletes that are already performing in 99%, they're looking for that extra edge, it does help them.
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And like I spoke about a little bit with our on the nutrition episode, like beetroot shots during competition for me were really helpful because of the nitrates that helps release um increases your blood flow.
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But if you're not sleeping, you're running on two hours of sleep, you're sitting for 12 hours a day, taking all that creatine and that pre-workout might help a little bit, but is it gonna have that significant effect?
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Probably not.
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So before you jump onto anything, make sure you tick off your three foundations, sleep well, eat well, move well, and then you can try and add on.
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So the way to use AI, and the way I would use AI, is to ask very specific questions.
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Give as much information as you can, and that way it's gonna give you a bit better of a response that's in context to where you're at.
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So you need to say, not what is the best exercise for run-in.
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You need to say, hey, I'm currently running five Ks.
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I want to run half a marathon, and I have Achilles pain, I can do 20 calf raises on my right, but I can do 10 on my left.
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You know, what is the best exercise?
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So very as specific as you can and as objective as you can, the more information you give it, the better response you're gonna get.
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So, Mike, thank you very much for your question.
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There was heaps to cover in there.
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So, not everyone can afford a trainer or a specific coach or someone that's specialized in that sport, right?
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So the great thing is you're gonna get AI, you're gonna get really helpful information to use that.
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Then if you're really struggling, you know, continue to use that, but maybe reach out, see if someone physio, excess physiologist, pick their brain and let them know.
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Say, hey, look, this is the this is the program, this is the AI program using.
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What do you think?
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But what I want you to come back to, please make sure that you're covering your three basic foundations first.
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Are you moving well?
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Are you moving pain-free?
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Are you eating and fueling your body correctly?
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And are you getting enough sleep?
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Tick those three boxes first.
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That's your main takeaway before you start adding on specific exercises that you've picked up.
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They might be a great exercise or a great program, but make sure the timing is right for you.
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So if you are going to use an AI coach, please give it as much information and understand.
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Let the AI coach understand where you want to go, what your goals are, and where you're currently at.
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Thanks, Mike, for your great question.
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Please continue to send your questions through.
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You can DM us on our Instagram account, Treatment Table Podcast, or send us an email, thetreatment tablepodcast at gmail.com.
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And we'll see you next week on the treatment table.