Mat Lock
Hi there, Ben. Welcome to the podcast. Great to have you here.
Ben Reuter
Mat, thanks for having me. Always happy to talk about movement and talk with somebody who I think is a kindred spirit.
Mat Lock
Yeah, that's exactly right. When we first chatted a few weeks ago, it became obvious we chatted for way longer than normal. And I thoroughly enjoyed so I'm really looking forward to you sharing your pearls of wisdom and expertise over this conversation. But before we jump into all of that, tell us a little bit about who you are and where you are and what you do.
Ben Reuter
Well, I am about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the United States. My real job is Associate Professor at California University of Pennsylvania. I dabble in personal training, I dabble in podcasting. And I like to say if you look at my Twitter handle, I kind of straddle the line between academic and practitioner. But above all, what I what I think I've found my messages to remind people or teach people or encourage people to look at movement as a lifestyle, and not just an activity or a workout that you have to complete.
Mat Lock
Absolutely. And in fact, you're amongst everything else. You're also the host of the move to live podcast, correct?
Ben Reuter
Yes, moving to live, and also one local here in the Pittsburgh area of GitLab, Pittsburgh, or fitness lab, Pittsburgh.
Mat Lock
Fantastic, let's maybe let's start on the moving to lead podcast, because obviously, it's interesting, as I will know, and you do it out, it's an investment of time and energy to run a podcast, I mean, for sure, it's a wonderful excuse to network with some amazing people, as well and talk about all things that we enjoy. But what's the history of moving to live podcast, the motivation behind it.
Ben Reuter
I think I'm probably one of the few people around who remembers when iTunes first came around, and you could actually download podcasts for free. And the first podcast I ever learned about was dirtbag diaries, which were people telling stories about doing things in the outdoors. And this was probably 2005 2006. And I remember thinking, you know, I could hear these stories from people literally all over the world. And it was free. And to me, the amazing thing was that it was free, cuz you know, I was, I was a young professional. And the idea of actually paying for content other than cable TV just never occurred to me. Fast forward a few years, as I mentioned, I'm an exercise physiologist by training. And by the way, for your guests who are listening, if you notice that I'm moving around during the interview, I'm actually at a standing desk on a wobble board. So the wobble board is moving around. It's not that I'm extremely nervous to be talking to that, well, you
Mat Lock
have one up me, I'm going to stand up desk as well. But I don't have a wobble board.
Ben Reuter
Well, that'll that'll get it that actually plays in very well with with the story about how moving to live started, as I listened to more and more podcasts, and for lack of a better term, what we're all in, whether it's you whether it's me, whether it's physical therapists who have podcasts, whether it's physicians who have podcast, we're in the movement field, at the end of the day, most of us unless we're dealing with surgeries, or things like that, we want our patients clients or athletes to either move more, or move better and but better, maybe more efficiently. If they're an athlete better maybe if you're working with somebody who is injured, or somebody who has a chronic disease where they're in a wheelchair or something that makes it easier for them to move. So that's the field we're in. And as I listen to people across the field and podcasts, say around 2015 2016, I came to a couple of realizations. The first realization was, there were a lot of people out there doing podcasts, who only talked to people who thought like they did. So the strength coaches, we talked to the strength coaches, the physical therapists, we talked to the physical therapists, and so on and so forth. So we have these layers. And I think anybody who's in this field would agree with this. We have these layers of silo knowledge where you've, you know, when you talk to people and you gain knowledge, you have these people that you look for, or these websites or these journals that you read, never recognizing that somebody in another movement related field, maybe saying something or doing something, it's like, Wow, that's really interesting, or that's something if you can help me with the people that I work with. So I was out with my dogs. One of them was a chocolate Labrador, who unfortunately has since passed, and that's where the standing desk comes in with a wobble board. This is actually a wobble board on orbs. It's called opponent on a board. It's on little air balls. And the reason I had to get that is my dog. My late dog would like to sit at my feet when I did podcasting work at the standing desk, and I was worried with a standard wobble board that I would pinch your nose So the neat thing about this is I actually have a picture of her well that my girlfriend took while I was doing a podcast, where she's sitting with her, her nose resting on my toes that are on this wobble board.
But to get back to why the podcast or how it started is I was listening to a podcast and somebody who's very well respected in the biomechanics fields. And you know, some of the people doing the best things in the world are the best things in our field you'd ever hear about, because they worry about that, and not their social media. I realized, you know, I'd like to find some of these people. And I'm just innately curious, I always like to talk to people who who do something that I don't know. And so I went out and I bought all this podcasting equipment. And it's, I've told this story before, it's sat on my kitchen table, and it's like crap, I don't know how to use this. So I am not a Pittsburgh native. I have lived in Pittsburgh in the Pittsburgh area for almost 20 years. And I believe when we chatted last you said in a former career, you've spent some time in Pittsburgh, so you can appreciate this, although maybe some of your listeners don't. Pittsburgh is two things. First of all, it's a city of neighborhoods. So there are, I'm going to get this wrong, somewhere over 90 different neighborhoods in Pittsburgh. And the second thing is Pittsburgh has because of its topography, it's a city of rivers and tunnels that take you through hills or underneath rivers. The joke in Pittsburgh is people don't like to go across bridges or through tunnels. So there could be something fairly close to you. And you'll appreciate this having lived in a variety of places in the world. I live 18 miles from the center of the Liberty bridge in Pittsburgh. And if I told that to somebody who lived in downtown Pittsburgh, they'd say, Wow, you live out in the boondocks. Whereas if you told somebody in Atlanta, Georgia, or Charlotte or some other place, I'm 18 miles from downtown, they said, Oh, it's a nice easy trip in. But it isn't easy to get around in Pittsburgh. Because of the topography, it's if there's difficulty going straight lines, you may have to go someplace, but you may have to go around a mountain or find the right bridge to go through. So my podcast idea that I originally had to boy, I want to interview these people and break down these knowledge silos moving to live. Before I started cold, calling people literally across the world, I needed to learn how to use this equipment. And Pittsburgh, as well as being a neighborhood city is a city that 4550 years ago was a working class city, steel mills, coal mines in the surrounding area. And movement is not something that everybody does or takes for granted. It's not like if you go to Denver, Colorado, and every house has 2.5 bicycles for every person. And I'm kind of exaggerating there. But I realized there were all kinds of people and businesses and activities in Pittsburgh, that emphasize movement, whether it was somebody who did kayaking, whether it was somebody who taught Tai Chi, whether it was somebody who organized an event that promoted movement. So my girlfriend and I who do this started going around and interviewing people in the Pittsburgh area, literally just cold calling and saying, Hey, we got this podcast, I'd like to talk to you. And you get three groups of people. And you probably find this in your podcasting career, one of the groups of people is kind of like you and me, absolutely love to talk to you. I'm sure I'm gonna have you on my podcast moving to live hopefully in a few weeks. And it's kind of like, we're just going to talk because you are excited about what you talk about, and you want to talk to other people and share what you do. That's one group. Another group is kind of like, I don't know why you want to talk to me, I'm just like, this is just not something I'm not comfortable. And one of the things you have to admit it's really easy to type something out on social media on Facebook or Instagram. But it's a lot more intimate, to have a face to face, even though where 1000s of miles away. We're pretty much everybody's listening to what I say the foibles, the fumbles, etc. And I understand some people are not comfortable with that. And then there's the final group of people that thankfully have been the minority they just never respond, you contact them and whether it's they're just they don't want to respond or there's so many different ways to to get in touch with people you know, you and I probably each have five or six different social media profiles. So I started doing these fit lab Pittsburgh or fitness lab Pittsburgh things thinking it would go away interviews thinking it would go away now we're over well over 200 interviews.
And then I started doing moving to live because I had the knowledge and I thought fit lab Pittsburgh would go away. But I have a series of interviews that goes 14 or 15 people to kind of leapfrogs excuse me, back and forth between fit lab Pittsburgh and moving to live and you really realize that when you start doing things with podcasting, it really is global. So Phil out of Pittsburgh is still here moving to live, which has always been virtual, like the conversations you and I have is still here. Moving to live has been more about interviewing professionals to find out How they got to where they are. And I know you've got an interesting story to hopefully you'll tell in a few weeks. And we've also had the opportunity to interview just because people have suggested them. movers who have an interesting story, a gentleman who's an ultra runner who lost his vision and lost his hearing, and still is able to run. And to me, the incredible thing about that is he has a cochlear implant. So we actually did a zoom call, just like you and I are doing right here. And this is a gentleman who had no vision and no hearing without the cochlear implant. And if you listen to this, it sounds just like you and I are talking. So to kind of sum it up to podcast, fitness lab, Pittsburgh, which is kind of more local, moving to live, which I can say is international because we've interviewed a few Aussies a couple Australians, etc. And in addition with fit lab, Pittsburgh, because I really believe that movement is a lifestyle. Three times a week, we do one minute videos that we post on our various social media channels. And the one minute videos are movement, tip lifestyle hacks, really simple things we're actually doing for the month of August, we're doing this interview and I guess we're in mid August. Now it's hard to believe that, but for the month of August, we're doing words, and we're talking about how words relate to movement, you know, motivation, different things like that. Most of these videos take place outdoors when I'm running or biking. And I tell people, if you don't want to be motivated to move if you don't take movement, seriously, watch the videos because many of them show my Labradors or if we do the videos at home, my cats, basically making fools of themselves. So you can see Labradors or cats doing funny tricks. So that's kind of the story in a nutshell of moving to live in fitness lab, Pittsburgh, the podcasts to promote movement as a lifestyle, not just an activity.
Mat Lock
Fantastic. And let's face it, as we well know, the internet was actually designed for funny videos with dogs and cats. So appreciate that you're using the internet, but what it's really about.
Ben Reuter
And actually, I have to say this too, and I think you'll appreciate it and your listeners too. In the Pittsburgh area, there's been twice when I've been out with my dogs and people have run up to me and said, I recognize the Labradors from the fit lab Pittsburgh videos, not that they recognize me. And to me, that's actually more exciting than somebody saying, Hey, I love your podcast, because it's showing me they're watching him. And of course, if you have dogs or cats, the dogs, the dogs are absolutely going crazy, because somebody recognizes me and is paying attention to me. So my dogs, I like to say are more famous in the Pittsburgh area than I am.
Mat Lock
We'll have to work on getting their their poor autograph at some stage. Now look, I love the I love the background to moving to live. And that certainly movement as a lifestyle is something that resonates deeply with me with the whole team at this end, no question about it. I think what? What would be really interesting, I mean, given that you've interviewed by now, so many professionals have interesting people from different parts of the world in the field of movement. You're probably Yeah, I don't know if it's unfair or not. But if we were to, if you would pick out your top five takeaways, I mean, what we're trying to do with this podcast, is, I guess, give it full access and extract actionable implementable sort of nuggets of wisdom. I mean, as you say, you know, often it's all bundled up in knowledge silos, and this is a perfect forum for getting it out there and sharing it across different groups, different demographics. So if you were to pick out your top five takeaways, and it could be on any subjects, with the commonality being movement related. Would you want to give that a go?
Ben Reuter
Sure, I think the one and for some of them, I'm going to mention the people who brought it to mind. Yeah, and some of them, I won't mention it, because I'm horrible with names. So I can think the first one, the first one I'm going to say is people would often will often say to me, and I'm sure they often say to you, what's the best type of exercise or what's the best type of activity to do? And this came from a mental health professional who when we did the interview, every time I would ask a question, this was this was a it was a phenomenal interview, he would say it depends, and then explain further what he meant. So it almost got to be a catch line in the interview. It depends, and we'd laugh, and then he'd go on and give more information. So I think the first thing to say is movement is a lifestyle. And when somebody says well, how should I move? It depends. what's right for you is not necessarily right. For me. I think the one thing that we can take away from it is move it is important. Whatever it is, whether it's walking your dog, whether it's literally fidgeting when you're sitting at the desk or doing as you and I are standing at a standing desk, anything that makes us move is better than staying still. So I think the first one is it depends on what type of movement Well, it depends what type of movement is best. I think the second thing is don't overcomplicate it. There are wonderful gyms out there. They're a wonderful thing. fitness classes out there. There are wonderful professionals out there, there are national and international organizations that have done reams and reams of research that talks about this is how you should exercise this is how much you should exercise, etc. And I think it was when you and I were chatting a few weeks ago before, before we recorded the interview, I commented that there's something like a third of the adult population in the world does not move on a regular basis. And we're not talking about people who are unable to because of medical issues, just a third of the people don't move. So I think the second or the second. It's a scary statistic. And it's it's something and this will play into my third point, excuse me, coming on. But my second point with that is everybody can benefit from some sort of movement. So pick something that you enjoy doing, you can do the official cardiovascular recommendation, you can do the official strength and resistance training recommendations. But at the end of the day, if you want to move for a lifetime, if you want to have the ability to do what you want to do your idea of what you want to do, maybe you want to go surfing, five out of seven days, every week, on the other hand, you may want to say, you know, in 25 years, I want to be able to get down on the floor and play with my grandkids and and get and get back up again. Yes, that's something sometimes we forget that that's the extremely difficult, difficult part. So I think the second piece of it is if you're going to move, which I strongly encourage everybody, and I'm sure we'll get into this more, something that you do, the majority of the time should be something that you enjoy, because if you don't enjoy doing it, you're less likely to do it.
Mat Lock
That's exactly right. It's such a solid piece of advice. And I think people I know that people in our circles here, often it becomes a barrier to movement, and it's purely psychological. But they think they think of movement, they are going to go to the gym or go to go to gym classes. And you know, a lot of people enjoy gym classes I do. And that's fine. But that's as you said, it's only one form of movement. And the movement is even if it's making it a routine of just get up and go for a walk. Even if you don't have a dog, pretend you got a dog, take your virtual dog for a walk for 10 or 20 minutes every morning, get some fresh air, maybe get some sunlight, it's a bit of Indian and just move and, and that and
Ben Reuter
I think that's going to have not only a physical benefit, but that's that's going to have a psychological benefit. And, you know, it gives you the opportunity to see some incredible things and be one of the things that I've gotten to see from that's one of the things I do most days of the week my dogs go to a local park and a two and a half years ago, as I'm pulling into the park, I see three deer swimming across the stream, which I mean, I assumed the deer swam I didn't know that for sure. But I saw them and this was a This was in the spring when that when the water was relatively high. And I watched two deer very easily swim across the street. clamber up on shore, the third year started getting swept down towards a bridge and my first thought was Oh no, I'm going to watch this deer drown. I was not crazy enough or stupid enough to think I'm gonna jump in the water and save the deer. But as I watched it, the deer just kind of let the current take it until it got to an eddy. The deer crawled up or trotted up on the shore kind of shook itself and ran off with its friends. And to me one of the neat things about that is I actually had the impetus or intelligence to pull out my cell phone and record it. So I have this neat little video of that that if I hadn't made the decision to get up on a day that was kind of rainy, kind of cloudy kind of sucky if you'd like sunny weather. And I had this thing that I can look back and say wow, that's pretty cool that I got to see that here regardless of the benefits physically or psychologically that I got for movement. So I think that's picking something that I enjoyed and I was able to gain a memory that probably not probably definitely was totally unexpected when I got up that morning or even when I probably grumbles. You know, I really kind of I'm not going to enjoy this but I'm going to do it because I know I'll feel better when I'm done.
Mat Lock
Yeah, that's the point actually a couple of things and certainly on the subject of just walking I read the other day she's interesting that a brisk walk, you don't have to run a brisk walk will release the same range of neuro chemicals that give runners their runner's high and the endorphins the dopamine and show and you get that from a brisk walk actually, and obviously what you don't get from if you are running you don't get then that physical stressor which leads to recovery and, and all those other things, but actually a brisk walk to so much value in it and speaking to the mental health piece, let alone from a neurochemical release perspective. Just grab a mate you know, we'll take a family member or grab a mate and forget, you know, tricky at the moment because we've gone back down into lockdown, so because of COVID but you're allowed one mate so that's okay. But go for a walk and yeah, have that mental health benefits that are our untold. The second point to what you've just said is reminded me of a quote from a lady called Felicity Lemke a good friend of ours, who's a two time gold medalist, Olympian. And, sadly, she gets asked a lot about the subject of motivation. And how, you know, how, how did you stay so motivated to train at those levels? And she said, Well, even today, should I don't bounce out of bed every morning, naturally full of joy, looking forward to in the back in the day going and swimming, miles and miles in the pool shed. But should I said it to myself then? And I said to myself now, I've never regretted a workout after I've done it. Never. And that's the point, isn't it? Just speaking to your point, you know, sometimes you're the thought of rolling out of bed on a cold morning, and just Yeah, sometimes it just doesn't appeal, but you do it anyway. Because you know, that you'll feel better for it. And it sets you up for the day. Just perfect.
Ben Reuter
So I think I've got a couple more kind of pearls or things that I've picked up. Yeah, sure. I'm going to contribute or tribute two of these to somebody who is an Irishman living in Australia, he has a podcast related to sleep. And I apologize if I pronounce his last name wrong. Dr. Ian denikin, or Ian dunnigan. He is a sleep researcher. And from my podcast for him, I don't remember if this was actually an our conversation before or after, because I'm sure as you found, often the pearls come out when you're chatting before after recording. But he said two things. He said, he said First of all, and I kind of primed the pump with this one. As Americans, we have a tendency to have huge portions of food. So I think rather than and this is not getting into doing nutritional advice, or anything like that, but each one of us has to really look at the food that we eat and say, how much do we eat? And what do we like what are what are our triggers for eating things. So realize that what we put in our mouths is our choice. So we choose whether we're going to have the large french fries, or the medium french fries. And to me one of the things that was the biggest educator for me on this is just being aware of what you put in your mouth, not dieting, not saying dieting, or this is good food, or this is bad food. Just be conscious of what you put in your mouth. And I think for you can't do it now because you're closed down next time. You know, think about it, when you go out to a Mexican food restaurant. The first thing many of these restaurants do is they bring you a big big bowl of chips. So you're there you're talking to your mate, you're you're chatting and before you know it, you've gone through three or four bowls of chips, and you haven't even ordered the main dish. So that's kind of just mindless doing something. No, if you have had a good workout and you decide, you know, this is the day that I really want to hang out with my friends and I'm going to enjoy myself and not worry about what I'm going to eat, then by all means enjoy yourself, but just be mindful of what it is. I mean, I know for me that if I don't set out this stuff the night before. I'm not going to eat good things that are good for me for breakfast. This is something I've learned over 53 years that I've learned that if I don't eat a good breakfast, it's not good for me. So I think the third message is just be aware of what you eat and why. And maybe in some instances, to get a good idea you have to talk to a professional you know, in the United States, a registered dietician or somebody who does that, just to talk it through, not saying there's good foods, bad foods, give me a program, just be aware. So that's number one from Dr. denikin. Number two is make an appointment with yourself or be consciously aware that movement is part of your life. So he said something that really struck with me and when I looked back at my practice, as he said, It is almost an unwritten rule with me that as many days as possible of the week, I do at least an hour a day of movement. Now this may be excessive for some people so we don't want this to come out and say you have to do an hour of movement. He said I don't do that for physical means he said I do that for mental means for my productivity for my for my outlook on life. And as I thought about it, and I went back and looked at it, for me, the sweet spot seems to be if I can do some sort of movement, and Dr. denikin said, You know, sometimes that is a walk sometimes that's calisthenics in his room. But if I can do for me, somewhere around 40 to 45 minutes most days of the week, and for me that's at a minimum, my mental outlook is so much better. And my quality of life is so much better. And to kind of build on that when I went back to school I was a a traditional doctoral student I was 27 or 28. I'd worked for a couple years. And I found out after the fact that my mentor a gentleman who really has been helpful throughout my career and still is told my doctoral adviser, hey, if Ben's a real jerk to deal with, send it out for a run or a bike ride because if he's a jerk, he probably hasn't got enough movement in that day. So Find what that sweet spot is for you. And for some people starting out, it may be just a 10 minute walk and do your best most days of the week. I mean, I know there have been times when I've been traveling. And that 40 or 45 minutes has been between flights walking up and down the Air Corps con airplane concourse, which maybe isn't my first choice, but it's a lot better than sitting in an airport restaurant eating bad food or sitting at the gate going like this on my phone.
Mat Lock
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it can be depending on the height of the building, but take the stairs, not the lift that kind of just to make that choice, just where there's an opportunity to move rather than not. I mean, I certainly take that not to take lifts don't feature a lot in my world anymore since I left the corporate space, but that's okay. I don't mind but don't miss them. But it's no, it's great advice. I mean, I think we can all ultimately create opportunities for movement more than we do like you and I were standing at our desks. Now we've chosen to have a stand up desk. And I know that I actually stand up mine, I would say 90 95% of the time, I mean, I've got a chair underneath that I can drop it down if I need to. But I tend not to. Because otherwise, what's the point of having a standard desk,
Ben Reuter
it's my anticipation was I was going to do it about 5050. And I'm like you I'm 90 95%. And I would go to a laptop for the other five or 10%. And I found that what I get uncomfortable standing, if I look at my watch, I realized that I've probably spent too much time standing and I need to take a break for five or 10 minutes to do something else. Whether it's go get an espresso pet the dogs go for a walk, you know around the house or something. But you know, we have a tendency if we sit at a desk, or at least I did to just hunched over the desk with bad posture and not concentrated before you know it. significant amount of time, there's a favorite, favorite, relatively famous in the United States. Physical Therapist, I believe she's still giving seminars, Dr. Shirley sermon, and she has a comment, I believe it's in a number of her books. And I've heard her say it before, it's like don't stay in one position for more than 20 minutes. Right. So if you're standing at your desk, and obviously when we're flying, if if I was to fly from the United States to Australia to visit you, I may not be able to do that. But I'm the person when the seatbelt light goes off. I'm walking up and down, walking up and down the aisle, but try to try to move around frequently. I think I think that's, that's probably my fifth point. And I'll have one more for you after that. So my fifth point would be try to move frequently, if you're not an exerciser, and not everybody's an exercise or not, not everybody's going to be like you and me We enjoy doing this. It's part of our life. But everybody can make a conscious choice to be a mover. So as you said, not not taking the lift, you know, parking with a little farther away in the in the carpark. So I guess that would be my fifth is micro movement times throughout the day. So rather than saying, Oh God, I've got to do a 20 minute walk or a 30 minute walk to say, Where are the places in my life where I can add movement, without it being? Oh, God, I've got to move. And I think micro movements or small periods of time when you can do that are a great way to add it in I I interviewed a physician who's got a kettlebell, and he's got a pull up bar. And he may have a trs also in his office and when he's between patients or patient candle cancels, he goes back in his office, and he does a little mini workout. So I think that's the thing when people say I don't have time, it's like start with small things. And that will add more movement to your life.
Mat Lock
Yeah, absolutely. We actually that one thing I've enjoyed recently, sort of the last month or so, and we're going to continue doing it. There's a local company called it Basecamp here who certainly handle all of our digital stuff. And they're great. They have a boot camp twice a week. But what we've got into habit now is a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, they asked me are would you do just a sort of a core session for us at lunchtime core session, mostly body weight. And it's something I enjoy anyways, it's like yeah, sure, we can do that. And they've stream it by their team's app, and so on and they get a whole bunch of their staff involved. And actually I've really started appreciating that I had, I'm normally I'm normally the guy who gets up super early and will train early in the morning and then I'll train again at night. So I tend to train twice a day to hangover from my sort of ultra distance triathlon days. But I enjoy to do routine, it's certainly good for my head as it is for my body. But actually I'm really enjoying the sort of 2025 minutes that's all there. At lunchtime today. As I said all mostly body weight, because we have to cater for people who are at home or wherever they are. And so occasionally there's some Russian twists on it with a kettlebell. But I can't tell you the difference it makes my afternoon just for getting away from all things work, breaking the concentration and focusing on something else and moving and sure a light sweat and then up heavy sessions. Let's say it's maybe a light sweat, but I just feel great afterwards and everyone else is saying the same. So For those who are going to move, train, let's say, workout or whatever it is once a day, I have to say, I mean other than that the advantage of starting your day with it, getting outside and getting some vitamin D, and sunlight and all of those things, if you can, where you are. lunchtime lunchtimes are great. For just, I guess it's like a shot in the arm really and natural shutting down, where it just puts a spring back in your step, physically and mentally, and get you ready for the second half of the day of the working day, at least. So that's something I've really started enjoying and appreciating. So it's not something I've really, really done before training at lunchtime. So there you go, some something we're enjoying, at this end,
Ben Reuter
you kind of allowed me or like going to allow me to add on to my final play, or my final to kind of take home messages saying that thing that I've learned
Mat Lock
number seven, number seven of your top five.
Ben Reuter
Yes,
Mat Lock
I'm keep going for the very Oh, here with the top 50,
Ben Reuter
I would say it actually I'll use what you just described kind of is a excellent explanation of that. Everybody's different. So what I mean by that is, everybody needs to move. But what's right for you is not necessarily right for me, and what's your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, best friend enjoys, may or may not be what you do at all the perfect example. I've done yoga before, I don't like you. So I don't do yoga. That does not mean that I think Yoga is bad. I think Yoga is phenomenal. If you have a good instructor, and you have somebody who enjoys doing it, and I know there are people who are doing it. But as a corollary of that, I would say, don't be afraid to try something, don't just say, I don't like it, or I can't do that, try something. And then after you've tried it if you realize but I don't like that type of movement or that type of activity. Or even I mean, we can even go back to when you were a kid and your mom or dad said, you know, try this, try this vegetable. And if you don't like it, you don't have to eat it. And you may have found that you actually love broccoli. But to me, a great example of that is when I first started started dating my girlfriend, she didn't ride a bike, she knew how to ride a bike, she didn't enjoy it. She started a little bit and now she has three bicycles and is probably looking at maybe getting her fourth. And she never mountain bike. And now see mountain bikes, I would say everybody's different. Pick things that you enjoy, do them the board jority of the time, don't do things you don't enjoy. But try something new once in a while, and you may find what you try new is something that you actually enjoy. So I've probably given you eight or nine things rather than the five. So maybe I'm an overachiever. Or maybe I don't follow directions very well.
Mat Lock
Well, as I say, Can we top 50 I don't mind it that good. I think you're dropping knowledge bombs all over the place, which is fantastic. I'm the subject of your government's bikes. It's the classic game of endless one, isn't it? exact such thing as too many bikes, it's not possible.
Ben Reuter
And I am back back when I was getting my doctorate degree, I'll have to confess I was kind of the I had 15 bicycles at one point in time, in a two bedroom apartment. Fortunately, I'm down to five bicycles, and I can honestly say, A, I ride all of them at least within a two week period. And B, I'd have to think really, really hard before I could come up with another bicycle that I wanted, subject to change, so don't hold me to that.
Mat Lock
Dammit, we're recording this, he said we've got a little bit of time left, actually. And I'd love to when we talked last time we touched some other subjects, which I'd love to come back to, because you use the term energy vampires last time and, and talk about avoiding and energy vampires. And I'd love you to just dive into that a little bit. Because I think it's such a valuable observation.
Ben Reuter
I'm gonna attribute the that actual phrase to Dr. denic. And again, and I don't think that's on the podcast with him. But with our talking. And I think all of us would agree. One of the one of the things that all of us have to recognize. And I think this is where you can get into the great thing about social media is there's a lot of information out there. The bad thing about social media is there's a lot of information about there. Unless you have a very unless you have a very strong filter to filter the good stuff versus the bad stuff. You can get really messed up psychologically and physically. So energy vampire, think think about it this way. All of us have stress in our life. No matter what kind of life we have, you could have what you term as your absolutely perfect life. And you're still gonna have stress. Some of that stress is good stress or people who remember the basic psychology classes are use stress. Some of it is bad stress or distress. So if we just accept a that we all have stress, B some of it is good, some of it is bad, then what we have to do is not about necessarily Eliminating stress but controlling how we deal with it. So there are some people that no matter what they have a negative effect on us we leave we feel angry, we know we have a meeting with them, you know, our shoulders go up, our palms get clenched, get clenched, we reach for the nearest comfort food or, or comfort drink. And in some instances, we can avoid that. I've had bosses in past jobs that I mean, literally, if I saw them, now I would walk across the street and around the corner to avoid even seeing. I'm sure we all know people like that. At that time, I couldn't avoid dealing with them day to day because I needed the job. But I was searching on the on the back side and off hours to find to change my employment. Everybody has energy vampires. And I think the important thing that we need to recognize for quality of life is figure out those people that you have to deal with. And those people that you can, for lack of a better term not deal with, if there's somebody that just absolutely leaves you feeling badly all of the time, and you can remove them from your life, then remove them from your life. And it sounds simple, but we all have those people and we all have those jobs or those situations, well, I have to do it, well, I have to do this or that. And yes, it's sometimes the difficulty is we have this job, or we have the situation where it's a temporary or a transient thing. But we know eventually, we're going to be able to go through that and get rid of that. So I think what I found, as I've gotten older in life, and had an epileptic dog, which caused a significant change in my life for four years, and had some serious eye problems is I become much more cognizant of people that I want to deal with that I have a choice to deal with, and people that I don't. And I think since I've done that, I've become a happier person. But more importantly, the things that I've been able to do and the pearls, as you said that I've had it become much more positive because I'm not dreading like I was not I was nervous to come and talk to you because I'm always nervous to come on, on a podcast, because you're talking publicly, but it wasn't like, Oh, crap, I gotta talk to Matt, he's gonna make me feel like crap, I feel I get off the podcast by talking to somebody like you or the or the guests that I pick. Because I'm energized, we're talking, we're exchanging energy, even though it's over the internet, we're exchanging ideas. We're not having somebody who's taking taking taking, and to drop the name of another person who I've interviewed, because, literally, for me, my podcasts are not about me, it's about getting the message out or getting making people aware. One of the first people I interviewed is a professional colleague, I serve on a couple of committees with him. For one of my professional organizations, his name is Rick Howard, he's over in the eastern half of Pennsylvania. And one of the first times I interviewed Rick or talked to Rick, he said, You know, I never want to be that person, when somebody calls and wants to talk to me, that I don't have time for them. So when I say, eliminate the energy vampires, it doesn't mean don't talk to people. Somebody calls me up, or somebody contacts me, they want to talk to me, I'm going to talk to them, I'm going to I'm going to, you know, give them information. It's to me, it's it's one of the great things where I am where I am now is because people have took a chance on me, people gave me the opportunity. But doing that to people is not the same as letting them take advantage. So if you said it another time, just as an example, hey, Ben, I'd like to pick your brain about what you're doing with this is that absolutely no problem. But if all of a sudden, I found that you and I were having to have or I was getting emails from you, and this is slightly facetious. I'm not accusing you of this at all. But if
Mat Lock
I was fine, I'm taking notes.
Ben Reuter
Here's what I don't do to put them up. But if all of a sudden that I was finding is I was getting long emails from you five or six times a week with questions and asking me to do things, and it was all a tape, tape tape, that would tell me, you're an energy vampire. And this is something that's not giving me the advantage. On the other hand, if I found that we were in a communication five or six times a week where we were exchanging ideas back and forth, that's not an energy vampire situation. And sometimes it's a matter of talking it over. We all have two or three trusted people. I mean, I've got I've got a couple of good friends, I've got one good friend, it's absolutely not unusual for him to call me and say we're not having this conversation, but and then he's basically asked questions or talks to me, bouncing it off somebody who doesn't have an emotional attachment to it, it's going to help you identify those people or those individuals or those situations, because it may be an involvement with an organization or a club or something that has that negative stress effect. And I suspect step one is recognizing it. Step two is recognizing Is this something I can get out of right now or can I make a plan to get out of it or do I have to stay in it. And step three is actually extracting yourself from that situation. And then the long term or the big term which we all struggle with Sometimes we get caught up with it with the best thing is avoiding getting in those situations. And I think the only thing that can help you avoid getting into those situations is a little bit of luck. And be a bit of experience where you've been in those situations and kind of something else happens and you get that red flag if the red flags going up, but it keeps waving keeps waving your intuitions telling you something. So that's kind of, in a nutshell, probably a little more than you wanted the energy vampire theory.
Mat Lock
Oh, look, I appreciate it. I can relate. I had someone I've been mates with for some years. And they've been very helpful to me in a bit of a tricky phase of my life. And I felt somehow indebted to that person. And you know, they it was in their turn to get through a tricky aspect of life. And I for sure was there for them. 100% and, and then it happened again, and I was there again. And then it happened again. And I was there again. And I realized after a while and look, you know, I'm not my first rodeo, for sure. You know, I've heard many times about, you know, how you sometimes have people in your life that can become toxic. And as you said, you know, just sort of suck the life out of you. And it's not something that I did. It wasn't easy for me, I'm a very, I'm a deeply loyal person. And but it got to the point where I just had to cut them loose, and it was a conscious decision. And it felt bad in the moment. And we kind of faded away, let us stay away. It wasn't that there was a big conversation around it. But what I won't forget is that for weeks and weeks after that, as that distance grew in that day, I didn't have that constant drain of my energy in my life. I was it felt liberating I could I still even now I've sensed I remember if I feel it now almost viscerally how free I felt, and only then became obvious to me. How much of a drain that person had become on my energy and my positivity. And it was interesting, because loads of other people around me today. I don't know how you continue to have that person in your life. That said, there's not someone they'd want in their life. And I just kind of went with it. But anyway, so I would say for anyone who's listening to this, who has an inkling that someone might be an energy vampire, I'd certainly encourage them to have a really good Think about that. And ultimately, you know, make the decision to do something about it. And it doesn't have to be a big, a big drama, it can just be you stop calling them. You've stopped messaging them, you just
Ben Reuter
kind of as a corollary, I've always tried to if I have anybody apologize, I tried to avoid being an energy vampire. Yeah, I've always almost wanted to, I want to be, I actually want to be in the situation where somebody says, Well, what can I do for you? Not? Because not because, you know, I want them to obey. But it's I don't want to be in a situation where it's like, Oh, God, I got to ask Matt for a favor again. And you know, he, he's already up three, one. That's it, anybody's keeping score. But I think it's, we all like to think on the one hand that we're special. But on the other hand, we're not special. And you know, we all have our needs. And we all have the things that we want. But we also have to recognize, you know, maybe saying, Well, Matt, you can do this for me, it's not a big deal. I don't know what else is going on in your life and what other things are going on. This may be that stressor, whether it's a good stress or bad stress, that pushes you over over the line for becoming ill or causes causes something else to work. So it's, it's a checks and balances. It's a give there, there is no easy answer. But I think as you said just a moment ago, you know, you had a good Think about it. And a lot of these things, it's too easy, especially if you watch sitcoms on television, which I don't watch a whole bunch anymore. Or you look on social media, you know, it's so easy to make a thing, well, you just make a snap decision. Well, things are not always a snap decision. Sometimes you have to ruminate on it and, you know, seek guidance, and sometimes you make the wrong decision. But I suspect, you know, this is again, mentors in relying on people I mentioned that the gentleman who was a very good mentor who told me told my, my doctoral professor, send them for run. I've learned so much from him from doing things with him professionally, because at times when I'm likely to flash out or send that angry email, he's the one who sends the email says, Hey, I'm aware of this. I'm working on it. You know, I'll get back to you in a couple of days. And whenever you get that, that email, I mean obviously there are exceptions or whatever you get that person Hey, I need your decision. Now. That's probably telling you the message that you need. So I think the big thing that I've learned is slow down think and usually you'll make the right decision.
Mat Lock
Absolutely. Ben, I'm conscious of time. We're probably going to wrap it up here if there's any any last point you'd like to bring to the table around the subject of making movement or lifestyle or I'd certainly love to share it with the world.
Ben Reuter
I think the thing people need to recognize is or two things people recognize is, first of all, if you get to the end of the year, or the end of the six month period, or whatever, and you schedule moving into your life, which I firmly encourage everybody to do, and you've achieved that movement 75 to 80% of the time, you've been successful, because that's, that's a really good so if you said to yourself, I'm going to take a walk five days a week for 25 minutes, and you get a year in and you did that 75 to 80% of the time, that's successful. I think the second thing to remember is be cognizant that movement is a lifestyle or as part of your lifestyle. And it's going to have ebbs and flows, there's going to be periods of time where maybe if you enjoy moving, you're going to move more, you mentioned your ultra triathlon career. I suspect just from chatting with you a little bit the things that you have going on if I said, Hey, man, let's train for an Iron Man next year, you kind of look at me and go, probably right now isn't the right time. Simply because I know you've got a lot of things going on professionally. So recognize there are certain periods of time that you're more or less able to move more or less, and also recognize the ebbs and flows. You mentioned, the the middle of the day where you're really enjoying that class. You know, people need to look at their schedules. If you're somebody who has young kids, your time to move may be very early in the morning before the rest of your family is up. My training partner for ultra triathlons when I was in grad school, was a psych professor at Auburn University. psych professor had five kids, four of them in school, our training time was five, five o'clock 515 in the morning to seven he's like I gotta be back, feed the kids breakfast and do that. It worked for him. Now he's retired and he can do more things. So I think it's going to be be flexible of when you move and recognize that based on where you are in your life may influence how much you're able to move.
Mat Lock
Absolutely. Now Thank you very much, Ben. It's been a pleasure, I can say as always, no, because it's more than once an absolute pleasure, I look forward to chatting again in the future and and to everyone else. Thanks very much for listening. And if you've enjoyed this, please go ahead and leave us a review on whichever platform you're using. It really does help more than you know. And if you're interested in grabbing a copy of my book, which talks about how you can unleash your potential at work and in life, I'd love to send one to you. If you go to book dot, the impact projects.io and take a trip down that path. It'll be on your doorstep in no time. I thanks to Ben again and until next time, be brave, have fun, and make yourself busy unleashing your potential on the world.
