#214 – Parkour and Pickleball: Tips on Active Aging with Erin Eleuterio

Wes Moss [00:00:41]:
I guess I’ll tell a quick story. I don’t know if I’ve told this on the podcast before, but I was always pretty physically active. I played sports through high school a little bit. I stayed active through college, and I have four kids or boys, so we’re pretty active family, and I have tried to stay pretty active. And in one, I’ve done a couple different boot camps over the years and different gyms and. And about. I guess this is definitely, it was pre Covid, I want to say. Between 2018, I did a gym workout.

Wes Moss [00:01:13]:
I was with the group, and I was probably a month or two in getting in pretty good shape, kind of re engaging, and I ended up getting. We did a floor workout in a really seedy gym, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It was just an old basement gym. And I’m gonna say it’s not even the gym’s fault, but I had a cut in my elbow. And after this hour and a half workout, the next day, my elbow was swollen, and I thought that I had just bruised it. Long story short, it turned out to be a staph infection in my elbow. I ended up in the hospital. I had to be iv antibiotics.

Wes Moss [00:01:49]:
It was like a nightmare. It took. It really was. It was rough. So I kind of after, and I was fine. But it was a couple days of a little bit nervousness, redness, spreading up my arm. My doctor, an earlier joke, like, oh, might have to saw your arm off. And then, and then two or three days later, I’m in the hospital.

Wes Moss [00:02:10]:
I was like, that’s actually not funny. It was not a funny comment because I really had to. Anyway, so what it did is it knocked me out of working out. I almost had, like, a little bit of PTSD for a couple of years now. I was somewhat active coaching and doing some other things, but it took me a while, Aaron, to kind of get back to working out, and I don’t know what the motivation was. I finally about six months ago, made a promise to myself that I would do it, and I finally found somebody. And now I’ve been. I’ve now been back active again several days a week, and it really has been phenomenal.

Wes Moss [00:02:50]:
I do always wear long sleeve shirts now. Cause I’m always worried I’m gonna get some infection somewhere, but. So I’ve got some residual nervousness about it. But it’s been awesome to get back and moving. And I’m not quite at this 50 year mark, but I’m pretty darn close. And I know that it just gets harder and harder and harder. One of the really important things that we know, besides diet is movement and being healthy. And I wanted to kind of get back to your theme around your podcast.

Wes Moss [00:03:22]:
You’re interviewing people that are professionals that are helping, really, people that are, what, 50 plus? Get moving. How often is it people getting back, moving after not, or they just. What’s the state of play? If you’re 50 in America right now, are you more likely that you’ve been a couch potato and you’re not moving? Is it a small percentage of people. How many people kind of get back to it? What do you think the state of play is?

Erin Eleuterio [00:03:49]:
Yeah. So, really, the majority of Americans, just across the board, are not getting the physical activity that they. That’s required, that’s put out by American College of Sports Medicine with the cardiovascular and strength training. So most people aren’t. However, what I find encouraging is they’ve done a study, and on the over 65 population, it is growing. So I think from it was like 1990 to about 2019, it was like 4% of people over 65 were meeting the physical activity requirements, and now it’s like 4%. 4%, yeah, 4%. And now it’s getting up to 14%, which, of course, is definitely the minority.

Erin Eleuterio [00:04:30]:
But I choose to look at it, that’s it’s growing like this massive progress. It’s really considerate progress. And people over 50 are getting more and more concerned about health span, and a big part of that is physical activity and being able to retain our physical abilities as we get older. So there’s an increased focus on health span, even though most people aren’t meeting the physical activity guidelines. So I think that that’s encouraging. And a lot of those people that are active, they are inspiring those of us that maybe don’t have that level of activity, but they’re showing us what’s possible in those later stages of life. And those are a lot of the people that I feature on my podcast.

Wes Moss [00:05:16]:
Yeah. So you feature professionals that are helping folks that are 50 plus. Are they 50 plus? What’s the. Tell us about your podcast just a little bit.

Erin Eleuterio [00:05:27]:
The vast majority of my podcast guests are over 50 and they’ve taken on a second act career endorsing physical activity. So it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re a personal trainer. Although I did interview world’s oldest active personal trainer. He’s 81 and he’s a retired financial planner. So they’re not necessarily a personal trainer, which we think of as a fitness professional, but they are encouraging physical activity. And I’ve had people that are in conducting clubs for outdoor enthusiasts. So there’s a Pikes peak over the hill gang in my local area, and they do all, it’s a social club for outdoor sports. So they’re skiing together, they’re hiking together, golf, pickleball, and it’s wildly popular.

Erin Eleuterio [00:06:13]:
So I try to feature.

Wes Moss [00:06:15]:
You’re in Colorado Springs.

Erin Eleuterio [00:06:17]:
Yeah.

Wes Moss [00:06:18]:
So you’re in kind of the mecca of Colorado is such an amazing outdoor place. The weather’s better than people think. It’s really kind of, it’s really conducive to being active.

Erin Eleuterio [00:06:31]:
Definitely.

Wes Moss [00:06:31]:
And I think, though, the other thing that through some of your work that I’ve read and listened to is that it’s not necessarily about going and finding a trainer per se, because you don’t have to go to a gym and start moving necessarily and lifting and doing squats. It’s really just about figuring out a way. And I guess this is the thought around blue zones where kind of to active places where we’re just automatically moving. Maybe talk about just how do we engage or incorporate being active without actually having to go to go to the gym?

Erin Eleuterio [00:07:06]:
Yeah, you don’t have to go to a gym, but first and foremost, it has to be fun. I mean, you know, we’re adults. It’s adults all day long, and it should be something that’s enjoyable. And so I think that’s first and foremost, like find something that’s a fun for you so it doesn’t feel like work and a slog. And some people it is the gym, but some people it’s not. And I also think about what are the physical abilities that you want to have decades from now. So you’re moving today is going to determine how you move tomorrow. So I think about movement that way.

Erin Eleuterio [00:07:39]:
And movement is much more palpable thing to think about than exercise, which makes it think like working hard and going to the gym and the grind and all of that. But any movement that you’re doing today, you’re making deposits into what I call your physiological 401k. So what you do today, this is a retirement podcast, determines what you get to do tomorrow and the day after that. So think about movement in that way. And for example, I sit on the floor a lot because I want my 90 year old self to be sitting on the floor. So I’m going to make those investments now and do things now so that my future self can continue to have this ability. So I think if we think about movement in that way and how we can make investments in our movement patterns and what we want to be able to do, we all know people older than us and we can see areas that they struggle and things that they can’t do. And what do you want for yourself? What do you need to be doing now so that you can do it in the future?

Wes Moss [00:08:37]:
So it’s. Maybe we have this culture, and maybe this is my bias, but I, I guess to some extent, we have this planet fitness culture where we see gyms all over the place and we think about working out as we’ve got to go to some sort of place and some sort of gym. But I think that what you’re saying here is to kind of just stop thinking about it that way. Obviously, that’s fine, great. If you do that, you go sign up. But the reality here is just activity and movement. Now, that’s not easy in every urbanization environment, though. Not everybody lives in Colorado Springs.

Wes Moss [00:09:14]:
So I guess my question is that what if your neighborhood isn’t necessarily, what do we give us some actionable ideas around getting moving if you’re not necessarily. If you don’t live on a. Have a wonderful trail in your backyard.

Erin Eleuterio [00:09:31]:
Yeah. Find ways that you can stack movement into your everyday life so it doesn’t have to be a 2030 minutes workout. That could mean if you have a community mailbox, you don’t drive to the community mailbox. You walk to the community mailbox. Anytime you sit down, you’re going to do three to five sit to stands before you sit down. If you’re in your kitchen and you’re waiting for the water to boil, maybe you’re doing countertop push ups. These are all ways that we can just get movement throughout our whole day. If you’re going to the grocery store, rather than pushing the carta to your car, you’re going to carry your groceries to the car.

Erin Eleuterio [00:10:08]:
Um, and finding ways that we can walk a little bit more. Maybe it’s just, you know, parking further out so you walk into the store. These are all little ways that we can get movement into our life and build a more movement rich lifestyle. That doesn’t necessarily mean exercise, going to the gym, which is all great, um, but finding ways that you can move more throughout your day and not always defaulting to machines, escalators, elevators, chairs, that get us up out of to standing if you don’t have to find ways that you can use your body to do those things. And I think that’s a much more accessible way to enter a more movement rich lifestyle.

Wes Moss [00:10:47]:
Well, I was going to ask you, and I think it’s now the wrong question. I was going to say, well, how do you find one of these health professionals? I mean, you obviously interview often different people that are helping folks that are 50 plus and this is their second at career. So that is one. Right. So it’s one thing to find those professionals and I want to ask, how do you do that? And then I guess the other one. And the reason I’m saying that’s maybe the wrong question. It’s not necessarily about finding fitness professionals and it’s really finding groups that propagate or help facilitate just movement in general to kind of like your pike’s peak group. So let’s start with how do you, how do you find someone that can kind of kickstart you?

Erin Eleuterio [00:11:31]:
Yeah. So if you’re looking for a fitness professional that specializes with older adults, you know, you can certainly go to gyms and interview the trainers and see if they have training in working with older adults. Functional aging institute is a wonderful resource. It’s where I got my training from and they offer a lot of continuing education certifications for fitness professionals that specifically want to work with over 50 population. And they have a website with a directory of people that have been trained through them. So finding those people that have specifically trained with this demographic can be really important just to make sure that you are working with somebody that’s aware of things that tend to happen as we get older and that they can equip you with building the capacities that you want so you have the physical abilities throughout the rest of your life. But I think interviewing, making sure you’re getting the right professional and also just somebody that you resonate with. I mean, just this is somebody that you’re working with.

Erin Eleuterio [00:12:24]:
I think we do this for any kind of service that we have, whether it be a financial planner, real estate agent, make sure there’s a connection there with that person that not only do they have the credentials and the qualifications, but you feel comfortable with them and you trust them.

Wes Moss [00:12:37]:
You know, I remember, I think it was a spin class or some sort of class that I did at one point, and the instructor would yell out, even Flo Joe had a coach and that it’s almost anybody. Even if you’re an elite athlete, it does help to have someone there, whether it’s teaching improving motivation. But what does it cost to do this? And I would contend that the cost is minimal relative to the gain here. What do people usually pay if you’re engaging someone like this? And how often do you need somebody to coach you?

Erin Eleuterio [00:13:13]:
For personal training in particular, you’re going to be paying at a minimum, $50 an hour for a trained professional, and it could easily go closer to $100 an hour, uh, for that one on one training. A lot of trainers are doing small group training sessions, so it can be a way to get more social connection and work with people. So you have that camaraderie aspect, and then you’re usually going to pay a little bit less. And it could be, you know, closer to 40, $50 per session for a group training session. Um, and those can be ways that, you know, you’re making an investment in your health. So this is more of, I think of fitness and exercise as true health care. We’re caring for somebody’s health, so it’s preventative and it’s an investment in that preventative care rather than a lot of times healthcare. What we call healthcare now is actually sick care, and we’re just managing sickness and illness.

Erin Eleuterio [00:14:03]:
This is a way to maintain your physical abilities going forward. So that’s how I would think about what you’re paying for your trainer. It’s an investment in your health. Yeah.

Wes Moss [00:14:12]:
And when you think about, it’s funny to think of it that 50 is old, but it’s so 50 is not old. Let’s just say that for our listeners, is 50 is not old. But when you’re starting to, when you’re doing workouts in your fifties and then your sixties and your seventies end up, the exercises are, can, I think it does make sense that they’re more functional. And as I’ve learned more and more about this population and the kind of exercises that may make some sense, they’re around being able to, if you recover from a fall or not get hurt, if you were to fall or how to sit down and get up and use those muscles that are, and I guess what you would call this in a very functional way, this is functional exercise. Can you kind of explain that to our listeners?

Erin Eleuterio [00:15:01]:
Yeah, if you’re going to be exercising at a gym or even on your own, you want to find exercises that are mimicking day to day life. So that’s squats. Like, we squat, we sit down all day long, you know, whether it’s at the dining room, table, bathroom, whatever, we’re doing squats all day long. So that’s a really important exercise. Deadlifts, we’re carrying load from the floor. We’re bringing it up towards us, or we’re, we’re lifting load over our head. So, like shoulder pressing, um, pushing and pulling with our upper body. These are all things that we do day to day life.

Erin Eleuterio [00:15:31]:
And so if we mimic those with our workouts, it makes us better equipped for those day to day activities that if we need to, you know, pick up, maybe it’s a small pet or a grandchild from the floor, that is essentially a deadlift. So if we can practice those movements.

Wes Moss [00:15:46]:
Thinking about picking up a grandchild? Yeah.

Erin Eleuterio [00:15:48]:
Yeah. And if you’re holding the grandchild and sitting down with them, that’s like a goblet squat. So where you’re having the weight or holding a weight in front of you and you’re sitting down and up, these are things that we are doing day to day. Um, groceries. You know, you, you have your bag of flour and you’re putting it up on the top shelf. Like, that is a shoulder press type of action. So I always say we lift weights all day long. We just don’t always, they’re just not shaped like dumbbells.

Erin Eleuterio [00:16:13]:
They’re shaped as babies and groceries and small pets. So think about how you’re moving day to day with load. You know, a gallon of milk, that’s load. And you’re pulling it off the shelf. See if you can do things that mimic those activities so that they just become easier for you as you get older. And it’s not something that is a struggle.

Wes Moss [00:16:40]:
If you’ve ever done a Jane Fonda workout or if you remember as a kid, Rocky running the steps. And if Michael Keaton is still mister mom to you, then guess what? It’s officially time to do some retirement planning. It’s Wes Moss. Weren’t those the good old days? Well, with a little bit of retirement planning, there are plenty of good days ahead. Schedule an appointment with our team today@yourwealth.com. dot that’s your, yourwealth.com. i’d love to hear some stories around, or I’d love, love for you to share some stories that you’ve either had because you do group training for seniors and also some of your guests. I mean, there was a story that I recall of someone who was kind of out of shape, but this is a, I think you were interviewing a male trainer who their client was out of shape.

Wes Moss [00:17:35]:
They got them back into shape. They unfortunately passed away, I think was the story. However, that latter part of their life, being more in shape was much better than prior. And I think that that’s kind of, I’d love to hear that kind of motivation around getting back in shape.

Erin Eleuterio [00:17:54]:
I’ve had a couple of guests. One memorable story was from a fellow trainer and she was training a gentleman that was 95, and he was getting back into doing physical activities. And he said, you know, I really want to get back to revving my chainsaw again. He was, you know, chainsawing with his, with wood and he’s like, I want to get back to that. So, you know, they used bands and they were pulling and pulling and she was able to get him back to revving a chainsaw, which is not the first thing you think of when you think of like, I’m going to train a 95 year old. What should I have him do? You think of, like squats. But it was training him to using his chainsaw again because that was a meaningful activity for him. So that was a very memorable story.

Erin Eleuterio [00:18:36]:
And of course, so did he get.

Wes Moss [00:18:37]:
Back to using the chainsaw?

Erin Eleuterio [00:18:39]:
He got back to using the chainsaw, yeah, after training with her. So that was one of my more memorable stories. And of course, since then he’s passed. And that was years ago that she had trained him, but that was one of her most memorable stories. And then I had interviewed a guy who had retired. He was working in the college system. He retired and he was in his sixties. He decided, you know what? I really need to make, I have more time on my hands.

Erin Eleuterio [00:19:01]:
I’m going to make investment in myself and in my health. And he decided to start weightlifting and start going to the gym in his sixties. So he walked into a 24 hours.

Wes Moss [00:19:10]:
So hold on. He had never really done it before.

Erin Eleuterio [00:19:12]:
No, it was kind of touch and go. He would sometimes be a little more active in his life and other times, but he had never really done it. But relatively inactive, never had a dedicated exercise program. So in his sixties, he decided to walk into a gym and hire a personal trainer. And he started his weightlifting program in his sixties and he’s now in his seventies. He’s got a popular instagram account and he’s lifting heavy weights in his seventies and he is showing that it’s not too, you know, you can’t be too old. It’s not too late. You can start in your sixties, you can start in your seventies.

Erin Eleuterio [00:19:46]:
Build capacity, of course. But he’s just an inspiration, and I call him an instagram encourager to show people what’s possible later in life. And he’s been a very inspirational story. He’s had setbacks, but he stays the course. And so I think having examples like that for people is so important because so many times people discount their physical abilities simply based on age alone. And, and a lot of times, there’s a great quote that’s, we are limited more by our beliefs than by age itself. And so when we show people that are doing the things that people didn’t think was possible, it makes people rethink of what’s possible at that stage of life.

Wes Moss [00:20:27]:
Social media encouragers, not necessarily influencers.

Erin Eleuterio [00:20:31]:
Yes. That’s how I think about it.

Wes Moss [00:20:33]:
What about the thought around, it’s not that uncommon that, first of all, people do get hurt working out. So there’s, and I’m not, let’s disregard my weird story about being, you know, getting some sort of weird infection, but people do get hurt working out. And I know that doctors, sometimes the medical community will, will maybe poo poo. What you’re able to do in the gym to some extent. Do you see that as part of the issue here is that, oh, well, once you reach a certain age, you shouldn’t be doing. You shouldn’t be doing that?

Erin Eleuterio [00:21:09]:
Yes. There’s a lot of ageism. Our culture really fosters this idea of, of what older people are capable of. And we see this a lot in our environment, and it influences older adults abilities and fitness levels when we are shown images of only older people lifting small, tiny dumbbells. And the healthcare system can be the same way. Yeah, like, I mean, you hear stories where people.

Wes Moss [00:21:35]:
The one pound weights.

Erin Eleuterio [00:21:37]:
Yeah, exactly. And I always think, like, what if that was a 20 year old holding one pound weights? Like, that would be weird. But when it’s somebody with a gray hair, you’re like, oh, yeah, we see that all the time. You know, pictures of old people lifting small weights. But it’s, but it’s also, what does that communicate? It communicates that old people are weak. And that’s what it communicates, even though it doesn’t explicitly say that. And we see this, we can see this in healthcare. We see it all over.

Erin Eleuterio [00:22:01]:
And you hear stories of people where their doctors are discounting them. Well, you’re 70 now. You just have aches and pains or people are just handed a cane because they’re 90. Well, you know, maybe. Maybe that’s not necessarily the case for that person. And so I think we need to get to this place where we’re challenging that. And a lot of my podcast guests, I feel like, are really challenging the images of what we see with this older population. When we have rock climbers and we have low flying trapeze for people over 60, it’s challenging what we.

Wes Moss [00:22:35]:
Hold on. Let’s go back to that. So you’ve got people in their sixties rock climbing, and I don’t even. What is low? What is it? Low.

Erin Eleuterio [00:22:44]:
Low flying trapeze? Yeah. So it’s not as high, you know, where you’re like, you think about the circus and they’re like sky high. It’s not that high, but it’s high enough to get their feet off. I forget the exact level, but it’s high enough to get their feet off the floor and they can swing. It’s a form of circus art. And I have a lady in her seventies that teaches the class for people from their sixties to their nineties are doing low flying trapeze. And when you hear that, you think like, wait, what? You don’t think of that for an older adult. So it’s challenging those beliefs.

Wes Moss [00:23:20]:
Low flying, I don’t know if you’ve ever even heard of that. You know what? I’ve seen people set up tightropes between trees that are pretty low. Maybe that’s a little different than trapeze. Trapeze is swinging. Where maybe I’m thinking about tightrope walking, which looks really, really difficult, by the way.

Erin Eleuterio [00:23:38]:
No. Yeah, trapeze is swinging.

Wes Moss [00:23:40]:
How about maybe talk a little bit about yoga? How do you like yoga as an exercise for someone who are, you know, call it 50 plus.

Erin Eleuterio [00:23:52]:
Yeah. I think yoga is a phenomenal exercise. One thing about yoga is it really ties into, like, your inner landscape, it ties into breath. It really makes you, it can make you more mindful. So I think it can really help with anxiety, things like that. And it can be a great physical practice for opening up your body. I think yoga is fantastic. But do it if you enjoy it.

Erin Eleuterio [00:24:18]:
I mean, that’s the big thing. Like, if it’s not fun, people aren’t going to stick with it. So if you don’t like yoga, like, don’t do it, or maybe find one or two poses that you do. Like, if you feel, if it feels good in your body, do that. I think yoga can be a phenomenal practice.

Wes Moss [00:24:33]:
I guess then you would say there’s really no exercise that we shouldn’t do. It’s pretty much whatever is fun we should be doing and not have limitations on what we should or shouldn’t be doing.

Erin Eleuterio [00:24:44]:
Yeah, I wouldn’t put limitations on it. The two things that I would keep in mind is if you have not been active at all and you are just now starting a physical activity program, a couple of things I would keep in mind that happen with age are, you know, your reaction time and being able to quickly move, you know, your physical ability to move quickly, um, and your bone health. So those are things to keep in mind if you’re starting later in life and if you don’t already have a movement practice. So I’m not saying don’t do those things, but just be mindful of, of how you are building that capacity and easing into exercises like pickleball. I mean, that pickleball is great, but, um, it is, does require quick movement reaction time. So give yourself time to ease into those activities. But I say, you know, sky’s the limit. If you want to do it, do it and find the right people to guide you and build up those physical abilities.

Wes Moss [00:25:34]:
It’s funny, I saw a research report from a financial services firm that was predicting the cost on the healthcare system in the United States to be. It was some multibillion dollar number because pickleball has gotten so popular. And of course, there’s more injuries, nominally, because there’s more people playing pickleball than ever. And it’s something like, er, visits and broken bones and surgeries, because of pickleball are going to cost the country billions of dollars. But of course, I think the, obviously the other side of that is that what are the health benefits of people actually being outside, being active. Of course.

Erin Eleuterio [00:26:09]:
Absolutely. And that’s the thing that’s kind of the issue I have with some of those things is the health care costs with pickleball injuries. And a lot of those injuries are, one, they’re acute, so they’re not lasting a lifetime, like cardiovascular disease, and they’re not taxing the healthcare system like diabetes, where those are really like, long haul, tend to be long haul types of diseases, whereas this is injuries. And what is this doing for people’s mental health and social health? And so I think the upside of pickleball far outweighs the downside. I would much rather see somebody coming in to a hospital from a pickleball injury than a broken diabetes. Yeah, or diabetes or a broken hip because they fell down the stairs. That should just be like a day to day activity should be able to do. So that’s really.

Erin Eleuterio [00:26:58]:
Yeah, I’m all for pickleball.

Wes Moss [00:27:00]:
Well, tell me some of the other maybe creative ways. I mean, you’ve already mentioned trapeze, low flying trapeze. But you’re in Colorado where it’s like, there’s no limit on activities out there for some. It’s a wonderful thing about Colorado. But what are some other innovative or just interesting ways that you’ve seen people get kind of make sure they stay active?

Erin Eleuterio [00:27:22]:
Yeah. So there is a couple of ladies that are doing parkour for people over 50. It’s parkour for seniors. This takes place in Wisconsin, and these two ladies have teamed up, and they take adults out to the playground and they practice parkour, which is typically known. Typically, you think of a lot younger people doing parkour, and you can think of, like, stunt doubles and things like that.

Wes Moss [00:27:48]:
Hold on. What is parkour? Parkour?

Erin Eleuterio [00:27:52]:
Yeah. So what is parkour? Yeah, essentially it is locomotion, but a lot of times you’ll see people, a lot of stunt double stuff, like, you know, on the extreme end of things, it’s people jumping off of buildings and jumping off of railings. And it is, it can be a pretty risky sport for those that are very advanced in it.

Wes Moss [00:28:14]:
You see these things on social media where people are jumping from a building to a railing to a stair to. Yeah, okay, so that’s called parkour.

Erin Eleuterio [00:28:23]:
Parkour, right. Yeah.

Wes Moss [00:28:24]:
This is like a light version of that.

Erin Eleuterio [00:28:27]:
Yeah, this is a scaled down version of that, of course. So it’s taking that parkour concept and that locomotion, like, at its core, it’s. How do you get from point a to point b? And, yeah, you could jump off of a building. That’s one end of it. Or maybe it’s like a leap, or maybe you are crawling or maybe you’re rolling. So they’re showing all these different ways that we can locomote with our bodies, and it’s more of a playful practice. And they’re taking older adults out onto playgrounds and doing that. It’s really a fall resiliency program.

Erin Eleuterio [00:28:58]:
They’re showing people how to fall, how to recover from a fall, how to be comfortable maneuvering on the ground and maneuvering your body in different ways. So that’s a really creative, very fun way that they’re keeping those people there physically active.

Wes Moss [00:29:17]:
Two brand new words I’ve never heard before. One parkour sec, and I’ve never heard of loca Motion those are two new words here to the podcast. That’s good.

Erin Eleuterio [00:29:27]:
Yeah, yeah. Locomotion just moving in space. I think there was a song about it.

Wes Moss [00:29:33]:
I wanted to talk about nutrition and diet here for a second. If I think about a. What do you think about the ozempic movement? I mean, it’s funny, I feel like every day I see another miracle side effect that was. I think I just saw that. I don’t know, there’s, what, a handful of these drugs that are similar, but it was that cures or helps sleep apnea, helps your heart, it reduces your weight. Obviously, these were originally just diabetes drugs. Have you seen success with that at all? Have you seen some of your. Have you ever talked about that on your podcast or seen anybody that’s had some success with one of these weight loss drugs and then it’s helped them be able to get back moving again as well?

Erin Eleuterio [00:30:17]:
Yeah, personally, I haven’t seen that. You know, I don’t work with people that have been on those drugs. I haven’t. Based on what I’ve seen years, anecdotally with. From colleagues online and stuff, people have had success with it, and I think that’s a personal decision that people need to make with their doctors and to see if that works best for them. I think it’s probably right for certain people. Yeah, I mean, that is definitely when you get into the drug part of things. I think that that is more personal decision with their doctor, and it can certainly have some health benefits, not against it, and it’s new.

Erin Eleuterio [00:30:54]:
So we will have to see what that holds in the future and how that holds for the older adults specifically, and how that’s influencing their body composition.

Wes Moss [00:31:06]:
Now, how about just nutrition? I mean, is it. I think of if you’re unhealthy, you’re not moving, it’s a wonderful leap to get moving and get active again, or for the first time. I think of diet maybe as a similar challenge where you can have an unhealthy diet for a long time, but it’s kind of never too late to get back to a healthy diet or restart a healthy diethouse. Have you seen people be able to make that switch? Or is that even harder than getting back moving?

Erin Eleuterio [00:31:38]:
Yeah, people make that switch. Um, sometimes I find that healthy habits can stack on top of each other. So maybe somebody starts moving and they start a pickleball practice, and now they start thinking about their nutrition. Like, what do I need to do to fuel this activity? Um, so I think sometimes physical activity can get people more engaged in their nutrition and thinking about how they need to be feeding their body to support the activities that they’re doing. And sometimes it works reverse. Sometimes people start thinking like they want to change their diet and feel a little bit better, and then they start thinking, well, what else can I be doing for my health? And now maybe I’ll start a movement practice or exercise. So I think that they can complement each other very well, and sometimes it starts with one, and then they build other health habits on top of that. Um, and nutrition is important.

Erin Eleuterio [00:32:23]:
We want to make sure that we’re having the nutrition to fuel the activities that we want to do, because nutrition is energy. So we.

Wes Moss [00:32:29]:
We.

Erin Eleuterio [00:32:29]:
Our body needs that. Our bones need, um, our bones, all of our organs need that nutrition. So I think it’s important to make sure we’re feeding ourselves, especially for those people that are very active and proteins are really big, is an important part for older adults.

Wes Moss [00:32:46]:
Well, I guess part of that is that. What is your experience with folks that are helping with nutrition as well? Because I think that’s hard, too. We live in this. We live in a world with information overload. There’s a million people that can supposedly help you working out. There’s a million people talking about this diet or that diet. Is it not necessarily about finding the perfect person for nutrition, but finding how many of these professionals that are helping folks 50 plus, are they, are they also helping with diet, nutrition, or is that somebody separate?

Erin Eleuterio [00:33:21]:
Usually some are, some are strictly just teaching a movement practice, and that’s all they do. But I have interviewed health coaches, and health coaches are really there, trained to teach and help people more, help people and be a guide for them along, adopting healthy habits. And so people, health coaches are really trained to make their client put their client in the driver’s seat of how they want to build a healthier lifestyle. So health coaches are doing that, and they’re the very skilled at partnering with their client in that regard. I’ve also interviewed people that are, let’s see if I get this right, functional, integrated nutritionists, where they are certified in nutrition specifically, and specialize in working with people over 50 on nutrition and looking at their blood work, seeing how they can help them with their nutrition habits, but also just really making it about, um, about them and making sure that it’s, this is realistic for them. It’s not dictating this is what you eat. It’s more of acting as a guide for them. So there are people that are specialized in that.

Wes Moss [00:34:29]:
So that’s a functional, integrated nutritionist.

Erin Eleuterio [00:34:32]:
Yeah, functional it’s a certification that they have. So I’ve interviewed a few people that have certified in that.

Wes Moss [00:34:43]:
When it comes to health coaches, are there any particular ways to. Any certifications that we should be looking for? What would be an industry type standard? If you’re looking for somebody who’s a health coach or something like this, and someone who’s a personal trainer, too, I guess those are two separate things. A health coach, a personal trainer. Is there anything we should be looking for?

Erin Eleuterio [00:35:05]:
Yeah, I mean, I would look that people have a certification and see if that certification is like an accredited certification so that they have the training, the credentials, when it’s accredited, it means that that certification met certain standards. So looking for those health coaches that have a certification, they’re not just calling themselves a health coach. There’s some kind of, they went through some training for that. Same with personal trainers. There are accredited personal training certifications.

Wes Moss [00:35:34]:
Are there hundreds of different accreditations and licenses or certifications, or are there like a top few? Like, are there three or four that.

Erin Eleuterio [00:35:43]:
Are really good personal training? There’s a top few health coaches. I’m not sure quite what the health coach is, which ones, how many are accredited, but, yeah, I would look for a nationally known certification. NSCA, National Strength and Conditioning Association, American College.

Wes Moss [00:36:02]:
NSC is one.

Erin Eleuterio [00:36:04]:
Yeah. American College of Sports Medicine, National Academy of sports medicine. Like, some of these are some of the well known accredited certification companies.

Wes Moss [00:36:15]:
Is it true that the norwegian study or the scandinavian study that playing tennis adds 9.7 years to your longevity and your life expectancy?

Erin Eleuterio [00:36:28]:
Oh, I have not heard that.

Wes Moss [00:36:30]:
Oh, you have not heard this?

Erin Eleuterio [00:36:31]:
No, I have not. I have not. Oh, interesting.

Wes Moss [00:36:35]:
For some reason, there’s always these great studies out of Scandinavia, or I guess it’s, it feels like so many interesting studies are from Norway or Sweden or whatever it might be, but they ranked, they looked, and it was a long study, it may have been a multi decade study that tracked different physical activities and then related those, it correlated those longevity, and it was pretty much anything that was active did relative to the control group that wasn’t active added a year or two or three or four or five years on average longevity. But tennis was number one, and tennis added on average. It was almost a decade of longevity to the participants of the study. So I’ve always been fascinated by that particular study, and I do think about some of the families that I work with over the years. Think about this. If you’re playing tennis and you’re 78, that’s a pretty darn good sign of your current state of health. And so maybe there’s a little bit of causation versus correlation, but. But I think there’s got to be.

Wes Moss [00:37:41]:
I think it probably works both ways. If you’re 80 and you’re playing tennis still. My goodness, there’s a lot of things that have to be going right for that.

Erin Eleuterio [00:37:48]:
Yeah. Oh, most definitely. Yeah. I mean, it’s a very reaction, you know, based sport. Yeah. I think that it’s phenomenal, and it’s. And there’s a social component, too, so I think that that’s amazing. Yeah.

Wes Moss [00:38:00]:
Well, and I think that some of the groups that you’ve talked about here, it’s. It’s both movement and the socialization is such a big part of this. I mean, we talk about happy retirees, on average, have 3.6 core pursuits, which we think of as hobbies on steroids, and they’re not necessarily all active. They could be music or woodworking, but a lot of them do tend to be exercise oriented. So they’re walking, the ings, the walking, biking, hiking, running, and then most of those can be really social, to your point. So it’s certainly a bias of a happy retiree to be doing something that’s a core pursuit that’s active. And it sounds like these are things that you’re constantly trying to get people to do and spread the word. And I love the thought that, what an interesting statistic that we’ve gone from 65 plus, only 4% used to be active today, now 14% over the last, what, decade or two decades?

Erin Eleuterio [00:38:58]:
Couple decades. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like most of those people probably live in Colorado. No, I don’t. It seems that way. Yeah.

Erin Eleuterio [00:39:07]:
So they’re. They’re getting increasingly more active, and I think that’s super encouraging. And I really. That was part of the goal with the podcast, is to tap into that demographic and to tap into this whole idea of unretirement. I know you had a podcast recently on unretirement, and this is a trend. People want to continue working. And I think the last statistic I heard was, like, about 40% of people over 65 decide to return back to work. And so the goal with the podcast was to show people that are finding ways to encourage physical activity as, like, their second act career, and they know the importance of the social component.

Erin Eleuterio [00:39:46]:
So that comes up with all of these podcast episodes. They’re not just creating an opportunity for older adults to stay active, creating opportunity for them to stay social connected, which is the thing that people miss the most when they retire.

Wes Moss [00:39:59]:
So you’ve seen, folks, you had mentioned a financial advisor who ended up being some sort of coach as well. But so you see, people just have never done physical activity as a career at all. Just start later in life doing this. Not just doing it to get in shape, but actually helping folks.

Erin Eleuterio [00:40:18]:
Yeah. The lady that teaches low flying trapeze, she was in the tech industry before she retired, and now she’s teaching low flying trapeze. I had another lady that was a teacher also in it, and after she retired, she’s now teaching a program called Ageless Grace, which is a brain health exercise program. And she’s in her. She’s 77, and she’s teaching this at a retirement community. So she had no previous experience.

Wes Moss [00:40:48]:
Wait, what is that?

Erin Eleuterio [00:40:49]:
So, it’s using movement to help with cognition. So, our body helps our brain think when we move in certain ways, it helps with our cognition, and it helps with thinking. So, this brain health exercise program are giving people exercises that they can do in a group setting that are exercising their brain. So, if you want an example of one.

Wes Moss [00:41:17]:
Yeah, I need an example.

Erin Eleuterio [00:41:18]:
Try drawing a circle with your left hand, and then with your right foot, draw a square on the floor. That’s pretty tough. Yeah. It’s making your brain. It’s like rubbing your head, patting your stomach at the same time. So it’s a challenge to the brain.

Wes Moss [00:41:40]:
That’s like your left hand and your right hand on the piano doing totally separate things. It does take a lot.

Erin Eleuterio [00:41:45]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it’s a really fun, playful program and helping people, you know, continue move, but also challenge the brain.

Wes Moss [00:41:54]:
I’m gonna. All day long, I need to be. I’m gonna be drawing. I’m gonna be wax on over here. Draw a square with my foot over here.

Erin Eleuterio [00:42:01]:
Yeah.

Wes Moss [00:42:01]:
And it’s helping my brain and my body altogether. I really do. I will say over the last several months as I’ve been back, kind of being much more movement oriented. I think a friend of mine asked, hey, what kind of workouts are you doing? And in my mind, I just said, they’re just total body. You’re doing all this. It’s not doing one particular thing, or I think about a bench press as a very singular thing. The kind of things that I’ve been doing have been, let’s say, squatting and moving a medicine ball all at the same time when you’re lunging. And I asked, so the gym I go to, I asked, like, what do you guys call this? I call it total body.

Wes Moss [00:42:45]:
And they said, functional. Something functional. Something, I guess functional working out or functional.

Erin Eleuterio [00:42:51]:
Functional training.

Wes Moss [00:42:52]:
Functional movement. Functional movement workouts where you’re doing a bunch of different things all at once and look, I don’t know. I hope I keep doing it. I don’t know. It’s.

Erin Eleuterio [00:43:02]:
Yeah, yeah.

Wes Moss [00:43:03]:
I hope I keep it up.

Erin Eleuterio [00:43:05]:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It’s using multiple joints a lot of times that’s involved with a lot of functional activities where it’s. I mean, bicep curls are functional, but pulling things like that recruit more muscles, and it is something that we do in day to day activities, so trying to mimic day to day activities.

Wes Moss [00:43:23]:
Yeah. And I do think it’s important. So even Flo Jo had a coach, and to me, it’s that a, you get a little bit of nudge when you have you work with someone, and I hope, and this is probably not every professional that does this or someone who does this as second act, but I think there is an awful lot to making sure you do not get hurt when you start working out, especially when you’re newer or let’s say you’ve been not as active and then you get active again. It’s so easy to kind of get hurt doing it even a little bit, and then it takes you back off track. And the one thing I’ve really appreciated with the group that I’ve used is they’ve been very careful about nothing, me not getting hurt, because they want you to keep coming back. So I just feel like that’s a really important question when you’re interviewing anyone that’s going to help you in movement, to really stress so that you don’t get hurt.

Erin Eleuterio [00:44:14]:
Yeah. Too much, too soon is the typical way people get injured, and it really needs to be strategic, what we call progressive overload, challenging yourself in a very slow, methodical way, especially if you are just getting back into this and having somebody to guide you through that process.

Wes Moss [00:44:35]:
Strategic progressive load. Yeah, I get that. Maybe I would ask, as we wrap up today, where should people go to look and find someone? Is it as simple as a Google, or is there any other place that you should be looking to find someone to help you, whether it’s a health coach or a functional, integrated nutritionist or a personal trainer? Like, where do we go to find these people?

Erin Eleuterio [00:45:00]:
That’s a great question. It depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a personal trainer that’s specifically working with older adults, there’s a couple places that you can go. Functional aging institute is a certifying agency, and they have a directory of people that have been trained there. Idea fitness is another place that has a directory of health and fitness professionals, and you can see kind of their bio, a little bit of the resume, see what their trainings are to see if they have the training that you are looking for. So I think idea is, would be a good fit for people that might be.

Wes Moss [00:45:32]:
Idea fitness is another one.

Erin Eleuterio [00:45:34]:
Idea fitness. Yeah, they have a directory, a directory for specific health coaches I’m not aware of. But idea is probably a great place to start to find health coaches as well as people that are certified in fitness and make sure that they have the credentials and the training.

Wes Moss [00:45:51]:
Before we go, I also wanted to ask you about your group training you work with. What’s the average age of the folks that you typically are working with?

Erin Eleuterio [00:45:59]:
So I teach at a senior living facility and the average age is probably around 80. And I also do this parkour type. I call it a parkour based fall resiliency there. So we are doing, we are moving in different and creative ways around hallways and dining rooms. So that’s one place that I teach, and then I teach at a senior center, a local senior center. So it’s a little bit younger, seventies, and I incorporate some of those parkour type methodologies, but also resistance training so that they are building up their strength. Because essentially my goal is I want people to be strong and resilient for a lifetime. That’s my goal.

Wes Moss [00:46:39]:
Tell me about silver sneakers. Is that a. Was it. Is that what it is?

Erin Eleuterio [00:46:45]:
There is a fitness program called Silversneakers. Yes. And it is a. It’s a program that’s tied to specific health plans. So when. When people have a specific health plan, they. It could be a Medicare advantage plan. It could be a group retiree plan.

Erin Eleuterio [00:47:01]:
They may have that benefit of silver sneakers, which gives them access to. It could be fitness centers. I think they might have access to online fitness resources.

Wes Moss [00:47:11]:
Do you like a program like Silversneakers? Is that known to be good or.

Erin Eleuterio [00:47:16]:
Yeah, it’s been great. I actually used to work for silversneakers. I did. I did. But it’s been a long time. It’s been a little while since I worked for them. So I think things have evolved since I’ve worked there, and I don’t know how things have changed since the pandemic, but it’s a fantastic program to get people active, and sometimes it lowers that barrier of I need to pay for a fitness membership. So for some people, it just makes it a little more accessible for them.

Erin Eleuterio [00:47:41]:
And there’s some great programs going on online for those people and at those participating locations. So it’s worth checking to see if people have that benefit.

Wes Moss [00:47:52]:
As we wrap up, one thing that our listeners can do today, Erin, to get motivated to do something.

Erin Eleuterio [00:48:01]:
Yeah. I would just go back to that mindset of how do you need to move today to be able to move tomorrow? What do you need to do to engage in those activities that bring you joy?

Wes Moss [00:48:15]:
It should be fun.

Erin Eleuterio [00:48:16]:
It should be fun. It should be fun.

Wes Moss [00:48:18]:
Should be fun. Social. It shouldn’t be a grind. And then where do we find more about you and your podcast?

Erin Eleuterio [00:48:24]:
Yeah, so my podcast is called second act fit Pros, and you can find it at all the outlets for podcasts. My website is Erin Elou. E l e u. I did not do my whole last name. It’s too long.

Wes Moss [00:48:39]:
Erin Elou. Okay.

Erin Eleuterio [00:48:41]:
Yeah, I do teach an online class, the parkour based fall resiliency program online, so you can do parkour at home. So those are the best places to find me. And I’m also active on LinkedIn. So if you want to connect with me on LinkedIn, I’m happy to do that too. But those are the best places.

Wes Moss [00:48:56]:
And I bet you’re connected to some good folks. I bet you’re connected to people that are health oriented, health coach, functional integrated nutritionists. I bet you you’re connected to some of those folks.

Erin Eleuterio [00:49:08]:
Absolutely. I am happy to connect people.

Wes Moss [00:49:11]:
Oh, cool. Okay. On LinkedIn, I think we’ll find Aaron E. Luterio on LinkedIn as well. So awesome. Well, listen, Aaron, thank you so much for being with us today and sharing this idea that we should move. It should be fun. It should be creative.

Wes Moss [00:49:25]:
It doesn’t have to be that we have to hire an expensive personal trainer to get back jim, but just have fun and get back moving again. Is it’s really about your health span as opposed to just your lifespan?

Erin Eleuterio [00:49:38]:
Absolutely.

Mallory Boggs [00:49:40]:
Hey, y’all, this is Mallory with the retire sooner team. Please be sure to rate and subscribe to this podcast and share it with a friend. If you have any questions, you can find us@westmoss.com dot. That’s wesmoss.com. you can also follow us on Instagram and YouTube. You’ll find us under the handle Retire Sooner podcast. And now for our show’s disclosure. This information is provided to you as a resource for informational purposes only and is not to be viewed as investment advice or recommendations.

Mallory Boggs [00:50:08]:
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Mallory Boggs [00:50:52]:
Investment decisions should not be based solely on information contained here. This information is not intended to and should not form a primary basis for any investment decision that you may make. Always consult your own legal, tax or investment advisor before making any investment tax, estate or financial planning considerations or decisions. The information contained here is strictly an opinion and it is not known whether the strategies will be successful. The views and opinions expressed are for educational purposes only as of the date of production and may change without notice at any time based on numerous factors such as market and other conditions.