Summary
This episode of CareLab explores the physical and emotional toll of caregiving and how movement-based strategies can help caregivers maintain their strength and health. Donny DeQuine, a physical therapist and founder of Freedom PTTC, shares insights on how caregivers—particularly those over 50—can reclaim their mobility, strength, and overall wellness through simplified strength training. The conversation focuses on combating the mismatch between increased life expectancy and declining physical function, reframing beliefs about aging, and building resilience through structured movement practices.
Key Questions Answered
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Why is strength training important for caregivers, especially those over 50?
Strength training helps prevent the physical decline often associated with aging. For caregivers, who frequently face physical demands, building muscle strength can protect against injury, increase energy, and help maintain independence as they age. -
What beliefs limit older adults from starting strength training?
Many believe they’re either “too old” or “too broken” from past injuries to train safely. Donny points out that these beliefs, rather than actual physical limitations, are often the biggest barriers to starting and benefiting from strength training. -
What are the 12 foundational movements mentioned, and which are most important?
While all 12 weren’t listed, Donny highlights four critical ones: cardiovascular exercise (like rowing or walking), deadlifts, squats, and overhead presses. These movements target longevity, muscle function, and real-life strength. -
How is working with a physical therapist different from working with a personal trainer?
Physical therapists have extensive medical and anatomical training, allowing them to help individuals recover from injuries, manage chronic conditions, and safely transition into strength programs. Trainers are helpful too, but PTs are particularly well-equipped for more complex needs. -
What mindset shift is essential for older adults starting a fitness journey?
People must realize that it’s never too late to begin. Muscle growth and physical improvement are still possible, even at 80. Having hope, setting realistic goals, and focusing on long-term progress—rather than immediate perfection—are key to success.
Transcript
Emilia Bourland
Caregiving is demanding, physically, mentally, emotionally, but what happens when your own health starts slipping through the cracks? In this episode, we're tackling the physical toll of caregiving and how to reclaim your strength, mobility, and energy without needing a gym membership or hours of free time. You'll learn why simple movements be intense workouts, how to build habits that actually stick, and how reframing self-care can help you show up stronger for both yourself and the person you care for.
Brandy Archie
And we are doing that today with Don DeQuine and he is a physical therapist and founder of Freedom PTTC, which is in Shawnee, Kansas, close to where I am. And he combines his doctorate in physical therapy and a degree in psychology to help individuals who are over 40 reclaim their strength, mobility and confidence. And after overcoming his own life's changing snowboarding injury, Don's passion for healing.
and human performance led him to work with athletes of all levels. So now he's focused on solving a really critical issue in which medicine, while medicine is helping us live longer, our muscles, tendons and joints are often failing us, even though our bodies are alive. So that leaves us with longevity, but not really the quality of life that we all really want. So through a simplified strength and conditioning program, built around these 12 key movements, which we are definitely gonna dig into, his clinic empowers
members to improve their strength, their flexibility, and their cardiovascular health. This unique combination of PT expertise and psychological insight helps not only in teaching correct movement patterns, but also in motivating members to stay committed to their fitness journey, which is the hardest thing. So with expert coaching, accountability, and a results-driven approach, Freedom PTTC equips adults with the tools they need to stay active, injury-free, and enjoy more vibrant life as they age.
Donny Dequine
Yeah.
Brandy Archie
So Don, thank you so much for joining us and we can't wait to dig in.
Donny Dequine
That was incredible. That was absolutely amazing. I could, yeah, if I could share that for what we talk about here, that'd be incredible. That was awesome. Well done, guys. Thank you. Thank you for the introduction.
Emilia Bourland
Thank you. The episode is over now, actually.
Brandy Archie
The end!
Brandy Archie
Please do.
Emilia Bourland
Yeah, well, thank you so much for being here. I wonder if you would just start off talking a little bit about your own journey to becoming a PT and understanding like the power of health and wellness, if you don't mind.
Donny Dequine
Yeah, no, actually I went to college to play soccer and I was one of the first in my family, I'm the youngest of six, to go to college. So didn't have a whole lot of direction, let's put it that way. My parents really believed in education, they always said education first. But I went to school for soccer and when I was there, I didn't think that I was smart. So science, that was out of the question.
And I didn't even know what psychology was, fell in love with it with my first class, because I stumbled into it. So long story short, I did not go into school thinking that I had the ability to get a doctorate or even be in the medical field. That just wasn't even a thing. But when you're a young guy, you don't have the experience and or the ability to process, I can do this.
Through that, long story short, man, fell in love with people and realized, hey, the behavior of people is dependent on not only the experiences that they had, but choices, and those choices ultimately are gonna impact their futures. So what are we doing now, you know, as youngsters to impact ourselves so that we can be better for the future? And that was like a behavioral type of thing that I was thinking. And then from there,
Brandy Archie
You
Donny Dequine
There's not a lot that goes with psychology unless you're go down that master's of family therapy route or clinical psychology and fell upon some different jobs and going at a church. And when I was at the church, I was doing sports ministry where I was mobilizing a massive church. It was a really, really big church. was mobilizing people to get involved into volunteering as coaches and mission strips and things like that.
But I had some really awesome high-impact leaders that were teaching me what it was to lead at a high level, and I felt great about that because I was young. Then I had a friend that was in PT school, and she was so convincing to go that PT route. And I'm like, wait a second, I don't think that I'm smart enough, I don't think that I can. And God really just implanted it on my heart.
I was put on this planet so that I can help people from where they are to where they should and could be emotionally, that's the psychology component of it, physically, which is the athlete, right? When you're an athlete, you just kind of have that drive to want to be physically fit to be able to do the job that you need to do, and then spiritually, right? Which is the church component. So long story, I am a physical therapist because it is the best industry in the entire world to help people emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
That's the long and the short of it.
Brandy Archie
That's the long and the short of it. Okay, that's more things that I definitely knew. So that's interesting. Okay, so you became a PT and then one of the, so the way that we met is I got to hear you speak to a group of physical therapists and occupational therapists about this kind of controversial, if you think about it, thought process of like how we can, our life expectancy has gotten long.
Donny Dequine
Sure, yeah.
Brandy Archie
but that our quality of life hasn't necessarily gotten better. And then because you were talking to a bunch of rehab people, know, like we're a part of that, you know, perspective and like maybe you were not doing the things that we think that we're doing in a good way. And so I guess my question to you, especially for these, all the family caregivers that are listening is like, what does that mean for our everyday lives? Like, I think a lot of us see this exact thing happening. Like, yeah, my person is living.
but they're not like living their life. know, like they're alive, but they're not living. And so like, what are the things that maybe, maybe if it's not even possible for them, but for our own selves that we should be doing that you've come across and why did you notice these things?
Donny Dequine
Yeah, I got into physical therapy to work with athletes and most people do, right? When you're a young athlete yourself, you're going into that. But over these 10 years, this decade of being in private practice, it became very apparent that something is happening with this next generation that I call it. And I call it the next generation because they're not the generation that's passing away. It's this next generation, the 50, 60 and 70 year olds that are having to now take care of, caregivers.
for the generation that's passing away. And that generation that's passing away is they're living forever. They're living a very, very long time. So there is starting to become more research that's coming out of proving that longevity is happening because of modern medicine and the comforts of what we have. there's research that's coming. But just even anecdotally of being a physical therapist for 10 years, right? Where you're seeing that age demographic, 50 and 60 and 70, predominantly. It's a real thing. It's an epidemic that's happening.
Like you said, people are living longer. I think modern medicine has a lot to do with that, which is fantastic and great. But the caregivers, that next generation, are really struggling to figure out, A, I don't want to end up like that physically, and B, how do I actually help the loved ones that I have to take care of? I'm not sure why balloons keep popping up, but let's just celebrate what's going on there.
Emilia Bourland
We aren't, I tell you what, we aren't either. We are, this is new for us too. If you are, if you're watching on the YouTube channel and you're seeing balloons, I mean, if you're listening, you might consider watching this on our YouTube channel because there are visual effects with this episode that we have no control over, but I'm excited to see what else is gonna happen here.
Donny Dequine
yeah, I don't know. my goodness.
Donny Dequine
Yeah
The new MacBook Pro. yeah, going back to your point, right? There is an epidemic that's happening and we feel it and we see it and we got to figure out what to do about it. And I think that's where the transition went from. can I continue to go after these young athletes? Sure. Yeah, absolutely. But where's the need? And that was definitely in that demographic of 50, 60 and 70 year olds. Those who are looking to the future and saying, I don't want to be like that.
but I don't know how to get there. And also, how do I help the individuals that are in that current state now? What do I need to do in order to be the best prepared to help that loved one?
Emilia Bourland
think it's also really complicated for caregivers as well because like, yeah, you want to take care of yourself and be healthy and you want to help the person that your care partner. But I mean, being a caregiver often comes with not just the tasks that you have as caregiver, but like you have the rest of your life too. You know, we talk a lot about sandwich generation caregivers. might have.
Donny Dequine
Mm-hmm.
Emilia Bourland
you've got your own job, you've got kids that you're taking care of and trying to work out their life. You have a spouse that you're trying to spend time with maybe, but whatever it is, there's so many things going on that just saying like, okay, well, this is what I want to do. And being able to actually put that into practice is really, really challenging. How do you work with caregivers or like what kind of tips do you have for them for that?
Donny Dequine
Yeah.
Donny Dequine
Yeah, think, gosh, I think all the caregivers that are probably listening to this podcast already know that they have to take care of themselves, right? So it's not like we need to say, hey, take care of yourself. I mean, they know that they need to do that. And again, you know, Victor Franco, man search for meaning that book, he talked about hope. Those who are in the concentration camps, the one who survived, they had hope. And so I think it's hard when you're thinking of caregiving, because do you have, like if you're specifically thinking of like cognitive decline.
Emilia Bourland
Of course. Yeah.
Donny Dequine
Is there hope that they're going to regenerate and potentially come back and be the person that they used to be? I don't know that there's a whole lot of hope in that, but the question that we could potentially ask is where is the hope and what is the hope that you have? And finding what that hope is. So your loved one potentially won't regenerate and come back. We know that. And unless some science and research comes out, which maybe we're all hoping for, is that the research comes and we find a cure for Alzheimer's or dementia or something like that.
But the thing that I would come back to is what is the hope that you do have? And what is the pathway that you are taking to achieve that hope? That's probably what I would say is where's the hope? What do you have? And then what is the plan and the pathway that you have to go after that hope? And I think that's where the disconnect happens with most people is first and foremost, they don't have the hope. So if you don't have the hope, you gotta go figure out what that hope is. Then once you find what the hope is,
You have to create a plan to get to that hope. And the quote that I live by and I've said it every single time I've almost ever had a speaking engagement is direction not intention leads to destination. So first you have to have a destination and the up direction to get there. You can't just intend to get there because it's when you intend to get there. That's when you get the most frustrated.
Brandy Archie
Cause you're doing a lot of motions, a lot of actions, but you're not getting anywhere because you don't have a direct place to go. So that makes this a great cause totally. So give us some direction. what is, tell us a little bit about those 12 key movements and the steps and like the plan that you've created and how you're seeing it work for your patients.
Donny Dequine
Yeah. Yeah.
Donny Dequine
Right, so the problem is that you're going to live a long time. That's the problem in essence. And then your last 10 years or 20 years or however potentially, depending on your history, are going to be dysfunctional, meaning your muscles, tendons, and bones are going to give out on you. So the reality is the notion in the world is that we have tickets to go on rides, right? Our muscles, tendons, and bones only get so many rides.
and then the tickets are out and then we get arthritis and then we can't move. And so it's because you've just abused your joints for your whole life. Well, now it's contradictory because now we're trying to say, no, no, actually, the more you move, the more tickets you get. And we know that, right? But you tell someone who's 50, 60 or 70 that when they move, it hurts, right? That you need to move more. That's a big problem, right? It's contradictory in their beliefs.
but it's also contradictory in what they feel. So that's probably really important to get out there is young, healthy physical therapists, occupational therapists, rehab specialists, and even now doctors, medical doctors are coming out and saying, hey, you probably need to strength train. And that's a scary thing to tell someone who's in that generation specifically that, it has a belief system. Well, I don't sweat, right? Because I'm not an athlete.
So, and I never was athletic, so I can't strength train. That's a big belief that's in that generation, number one. Or number two, like I was an athlete and now I'm so beat up because of all the years of stress that I put on my body, that now I can't do it, right? So those are two big beliefs that we'd have to overcome. And therefore, come back with a hope situation. Well, the solution to not end up dysfunctional in your last decade.
is simply to have muscles, tendons, and bones that are strong. The only way you can do that, get muscles that are strong, is to lift weights. Now, you're asking kind of like, do we do, right, to help them with that? That's like the big thing. Like, what do you do? How do you help them? And it really simply comes down to like taking a huge elephant and eating it one bite at a time. That's the big idea. And so the way that we've done it is we simplified strength training into 12 movements, right?
Donny Dequine
12 movements. And all 12 of the movements are relatively functional. We'll use deadlift as an example. So deadlift is where you squat down, you pick something up from the floor. You pick it up, then you lift it up. We do it every single day. Get anything off the floor, you're deadlifting. To grab your dog food at the store, you're deadlifting. To grab a case of water, you're deadlifting. You're deadlifting every single day. And what we've done is we've said,
We know that we do deadlifting functionally throughout the day. It is a very proven tool to help so that you can do something every day. Well, now let's perfect it inside a safe environment, like a gym, where you can slowly build it up to where you can push your strength so that you can pick up that bottle of water or that case of water or that bag of dog food and not be at risk for injuring yourself outside.
That helpful? guess, yeah, help me direct where you want to go.
Emilia Bourland
Can I, I think that's, no, I think that's super helpful, but I also want, I think it'd be really helpful also if you could kind of clarify what the difference is between seeing a physical therapist for something like this and going and working with like a trainer at the gym for something like this. Like why should someone go and see a PT for these types of things instead of working with like a personal trainer?
Donny Dequine
yeah.
Donny Dequine
Mmm.
Emilia Bourland
And which isn't to say like sometimes working with a personal trainer is totally appropriate and great for people, but sometimes people really do need to see someone with medical background at like a physical therapist. Can you talk a little bit about what the difference is there and why someone might need that?
Donny Dequine
Sure.
Donny Dequine
Yeah, that's a tricky one because there are personal trainers out there that are phenomenal and fantastic and they would do a fantastic job. And quite honestly, if you know somebody or found somebody that you trust and you're seeing results with, stick with them. I think that's the idea is find that person that is helping you set those goals and then they're helping you get there. And there's personal trainers that are doing an amazing job at that out there.
Emilia Bourland
Yeah.
Donny Dequine
Why I got into physical therapy was I was doing personal training stuff before and I just and I didn't know what I was doing I just didn't know what I didn't know and and just being kind of the the Perfectionist I'm not sure what the term is but I wanted to be the best that I could be for the people that I was working with and That kept me up that I didn't know all that I could know and when I found that there was evidence-based Research that you could go learn right going to school for
I dove after it because I just wanted to know that I knew everything. So a physical therapist is very well-trained. Let's put it that way. It's pretty well known that physical therapists know anatomy and physiology better than any other medical provider. And that's not just me trying to pump up physical therapy. It just is what it is. So when you do go find someone like a physical therapist, you're going after the most
Educated and potentially the most Yeah, trying to think about that that's a that's a tough question I'm trying to clarify what that is. We might need to edit that you guys can edit that part just because I feel like it's just a little rambling there, but Yeah, I did that let's cut let's cut there. Yeah, yeah
Emilia Bourland
Yep, that's fine.
Emilia Bourland
That's why we say if you want to edit something, yeah, just let us know. We can take care of it.
Brandy Archie
Yep.
Donny Dequine
Yeah, that's a tough one with regards to that. Let me start back there with that physical therapy thing. No, that's okay. No, that was good. No, it's not. think I just want to be, So personal trainers are fantastic and they can go after the right things as well. Physical therapists do have the education and the experience to help individuals, but what
Emilia Bourland
Sure, sure, sorry, my intention to stump you.
Brandy Archie
Yeah.
Donny Dequine
I'm really pushing is that I believe physical therapists right now have way more available to them. Meaning that American Physical Therapy Association says that our job as physical therapists is to help people get back to their prior level of function. So when you go to physical therapy, we are going to take you from where you are, which is probably injured or in pain or not very flexible. And we're going to help you get back to where you can be.
before you started physical therapy. The problem is that level of function got you in the mess that you are in the first place. And it's the strength training that's gonna help you get out of it. Now, a doctor of physical therapy has so much education, fact, and evidence to help people go from zero, literally like stitched muscles back together, to fully functional again. Why can't we also go the next level and say, okay,
Now that you're here, right, back to your prior level function, I'm gonna help you slowly step into strength training to where you can actually build upon what you just received. And I think physical therapists have an amazing opportunity for that. And that's what I'm really pushing for is physical therapy to go after strength training specifically for the generation of 50, 60 and 70 and up, 80s, because of those beliefs that we talked about earlier.
Right? We are the most equipped, we are the most educated, and we have the most experience to help that generation of people overcome those beliefs and the dysfunctions of their bodies because of what they've put themselves through. So nothing against personal trainers. I think they can do a great job. And I think that there are really good ones out there. I just think for specifically that generation of people, think physical therapists are prime to help them out. Not only just to get them back to their prior level function, but to...
to go beyond that.
Brandy Archie
I think you're hitting on like this very particular nuance that a lot of people would have lumped all together. Cause I think most people would have said like, okay, I went to PT, I'm in pain, I had a back surgery, let's say. And then they got, I improved my strength and I'm back to where I was before my back surgery. But you had to have a back surgery for a reason. And that reason without me even seeing you is probably cause you didn't have enough strength, right? To support around your core.
Donny Dequine
Yeah.
Brandy Archie
And so what you're saying is that, yes, you did get stronger, but strength training is actually this other thing that takes you from, it's more athletic. It's more like what athletes are doing to like super maximize what their bodies are capable of doing that we sometimes feel like we need to opt out of as non-athletes. And you're saying, maybe we don't need to go to that level, but we do need to increase the stress. That's not the right word.
Donny Dequine
Mmm.
Brandy Archie
but increase the effort that our bodies are outputting so we can improve our muscle strength beyond just being able to get out of a chair and walk, doing more than that. Is that a fair qualifier of the two things?
Donny Dequine
Yeah, 100%. That's exactly right. Our bodies adapt to the stress applied to it, right? And for me to sit here and say like, oh, aging is not a thing. No, aging is real. Like our cells die as we get older. And, you know, a typical skin cell might take 25 to 48 days for a young individual to regenerate, right? Because we get new skin all the time. Well, it's
85 plus days for an older adult. Does it still regenerate? Absolutely. But does it take longer when we get older? Yes. So aging is a real thing, right? Do we slow down? Yes. Do our muscles take longer to grow? Yes. All those things happen as we get older. The other thing that happens with typical aging is we lose what? I think it's like 1 to 3 % of lean mass every year after the age of 35. If we're not f-
Brandy Archie
Ooh, I don't think I knew that.
Donny Dequine
If we're not fighting against it, right? If we're not fighting against it, then we're going down with it. The only way we can fight against that is to reverse it and stress our bodies, right? With muscles, tendons, and bones. you know, potentially it's a cultural thing now where we are a little bit more sedentary, but it's declining faster than ever. And that's where the epidemic is, is the decline is happening faster than ever, but our longevity
is rising greater than ever. So the last decade is miserable, not only on the person, but it's miserable on the caretaker.
Emilia Bourland
want to bring up some research that I thought was really interesting that I would love to get your take on too. A lot of times, there is this assumption that if we're working with an older adult or if we are an older adult that you have to always be more gentle with things, lighter weights, going slower. And actually what the research shows us is kind of the opposite. And the thought is that, you can't tolerate it. And actually research has been demonstrating that
Donny Dequine
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Donny Dequine
Mmm.
Emilia Bourland
Older adults actually do tolerate stress and heavy weights, and they can respond to that really well. And actually, we can see really there's a huge potential for gains, and we can see gains really quickly, a lot of times because the starting point where we're at is sort of ripe for potential, essentially, there. So I'd love to hear your perspective on that research. I thought it was really interesting.
Donny Dequine
Yeah.
Donny Dequine
Yeah, so the first one is that our bodies, this is the thing that I love most about our bodies, our bodies are not mechanical machines where, you know, a machine has a lever arm and it's going to have a specific amount of strength just based off of what it can do. That's a machine. Our bodies are alive and we have emotions. We have beliefs. And when I go to lift something up, I'm terrified to lift it up potentially because of what happened the last time I lifted up.
That make sense? So I'm not only just fighting the mechanical strength of what my muscles, tendons, and bones can do, I'm also fighting the 30 years of whatever my story is when I go to lift that up. And again, as we go into low back pain, what is it, 85 % of humans have low back pain? So it's pretty sure that you're have low back pain, and the last time you had the worst low back pain is when you lifted something heavy. So when you go to lift something again, your experience...
Brandy Archie
Mm-hmm.
Donny Dequine
is, that really hurt my low back. I don't want to do that again, so I'm not going to do it again. So there's a belief system to that. So when you have that belief system and you're going in to lift something, it's really hard to overcome. But your muscles, tendons, and bones are probably pretty strong, right? So you can lift things more than you think you can. That's why the programming is so important. If you walk into a gym and you don't pay heed to the beliefs that you have and the experiences,
you do run the risk of hurting yourself. You really do, right? And that's the cycle that's happening right now is people wanna get healthier so they go to the gym and they lift something and then they get hurt. They go to physical therapists and they build back up and then they go back to the gym and then they get hurt. You do that once or twice and you're done. And you're like, I'm just gonna sit on the couch, it's way more comfortable. But to your point, know, Amelia, is the muscles, tendons and bones of adults are stronger than they think it is. And if they were able to get themselves
Brandy Archie
Mm-hmm.
Donny Dequine
into a comfortable environment with a program that allowed for them to use the muscles, tendons, appropriately, they would find, wow, I actually am stronger than I think I am. And therefore, I can push myself more. And it's the belief that they have to overcome more so than the actual physiological strength of the muscle, right? The myofibrils and things like that. Is that?
Emilia Bourland
Don't you think, also that, like, because I think you're not telling people, like, if it hurts, keep doing it. Like, that's not the message that you're trying to send at all right now. But it is also about, like, understanding and getting training from someone like a physical therapist. OK, you want to be able to do this thing. Let's talk about strengthening the right muscles and what is the right way to do it. Because so often people hurt themselves because they're maybe not using, like,
Donny Dequine
No, of course.
Emilia Bourland
People hurt their low backs all the time, not because they're not strong enough, but because they're not using their muscles correctly or they're not using the right technique, right? Like this is something that I teach all the time and teaching people like safe transfers and safe lifting strategies for caregiving.
Donny Dequine
Mm. Mm. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, there's a lot packed into that, what you just said, right? Because let's say if we're talking about a caregiver who's doing a transfer and they have a, let's say it's a woman who has a husband that weighs 200 pounds and they're trying to lift that person. It's very, no it's not possible, it is that you are too weak to lift that person. You're just not strong enough. So you have to create transfer techniques.
Emilia Bourland
Mm-hmm.
Emilia Bourland
Sure, yeah.
Donny Dequine
to help overcome your weaknesses, right? That's what you have to do. But a better solution is be strong enough to lift your husband. That's a better solution is be strong enough to lift your husband. And if you're able to do that, then you're less likely to injure yourself the one time you have to lift your husband.
Brandy Archie
Mm-hmm.
Emilia Bourland
So I have to push back on that a little bit, because sometimes I don't disagree with you. I think it's a combination, though, because if you're a 120 pound woman and your husband is 300 pounds, get strong enough is probably not just the realistic answer. It's also about, do you have a transfer board? Do you have the right equipment that you need in order to do this? Do you need to bring in more support to do this? So it's not just a matter of brute strength.
Donny Dequine
Yeah, go ahead.
Donny Dequine
Mm-hmm. yeah, sure, sure.
Donny Dequine
Yeah.
That's true.
Emilia Bourland
on these things too. Like it is about understanding the whole bigger picture. And again, I think that's why working with like a licensed therapist can be really helpful in these situations.
Donny Dequine
of course. of course. Yeah. And there's an intelligence side of it too, right? When you're 150 pounds, stripping wet and your 300 pound husband's right there, you're like, hmm. Like, nah.
Brandy Archie
But I think you're also saying like, that's how we should be thinking now, before we need to move the 300 pound husband, right? Like we need to be strength training in order to be stronger than just enough to lift our own body weight, right? Because we do more than lift our own body weight anyway. We pick up grandkids, we pick up water, we collect groceries. And because we're technically in a sedentary style of life, our muscles really are only strong enough to lift our own body.
Donny Dequine
Yeah.
Emilia Bourland
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Donny Dequine
That's it.
Donny Dequine
Absolutely.
Donny Dequine
Yeah.
Brandy Archie
And so when we do extra stuff only once or twice, we're not doing it enough to build strength and therefore there's a risk for getting hurt. And then when it does, as we all age and as things change, then you're actually not capable of doing the thing that you need to do. So you're saying as a lifestyle, we need to be working towards stressing our muscles so that our strength is bigger and better. Not just enough to not be sick, but enough to be really well. Is that fair?
Donny Dequine
That's exactly right.
Donny Dequine
Yeah.
100 % and to understand like it if you're not screwed if you're 80 and You're weaker than heck right? It's not like you're already done No, like until you're dead your muscles have the ability to grow and you have the ability to get stronger Is it gonna take longer and is it gonna be harder than if you were 20? Yes, right? Do you have more baggage with regards to your emotions and beliefs that you have to overcome? Yes
Emilia Bourland
Mm-hmm.
Donny Dequine
That's the reality of how it is. But is it impossible for you to start now? And the answer is no. No matter how old you are, your body has the ability to improve physiologically and emotionally, you can do it. And that's probably really important to understand, specifically to those who are probably listening to this.
Brandy Archie
Can you give us like, sorry. Can you give us an example, like a case study of somebody who had, that has kind of gone through this process with you, meaning like they wanted, they kind of want to be stronger. They've had this cycle. They think they really can't do it. And now at the end of your therapy or maybe just the transition away from your clinic and into their own stuff that they're like doing so much more than they ever thought that they were going to do.
Emilia Bourland
Would you talk? sorry. Go ahead, Brandy.
Donny Dequine
Yeah.
Donny Dequine
Yeah, so if you come to physical therapy at freedom, you are going to be encouraged to jump into our group personal training classes, right? So there is no end of physical therapy here. It's, you're going from therapy to strength, and this is how you're going to do it. And we believe in groups because in a tribal mentality, you're more likely to show up. And if you're all going after common goals, you're more likely to do it. So.
And accountability is huge because you get going and all of sudden priorities start happening and lifestyle starts happening and then, you miss a class or then you miss a couple of classes and then you don't see the results you want. You're like, man, that was just a fun phase of life and I'm done with it. So big picture. You've got to do things in groups because community is going to impact you and hold you accountable so that you can achieve the hope that you want. So that's important. So that's number one. I've got hundreds of case studies that I could talk about.
Recently, gosh, we've got Becky. Her name's Becky. I won't say her last name, but Becky is somebody who started with us probably within the last six months. She's a caregiver. Her husband's going through dementia and she initially found, yep.
Emilia Bourland
Hold on, I'm gonna stop. Can we put an edit in there? Why don't you actually change her name? Like just give her a different name.
Donny Dequine
okay, not Becky.
Emilia Bourland
Yeah, I mean, I just like if this is for your own HIPAA reasons, like people know that she's a patient.
Donny Dequine
Yeah, I was-
Does HIPAA matter in fitness? She's not a patient. No, she's in our fitness classes. No, that's okay. Yeah, do you want me to say a story about a patient who then came into the fitness classes that are now having that? I can do that too. We got tons of those too.
Emilia Bourland
Well, she's not a patient, it's fitness. Okay, I misunderstood that. Okay, I'm sorry, I totally misunderstood that. was like.
Emilia Bourland
I don't have a preference there. Okay.
Brandy Archie
love that.
Donny Dequine
Okay, okay, let's do that. Let's do that. Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah. And then I'll make a fake name because they were a patient. All hold on, time out, out. Let me think, let me think, let me think.
Brandy Archie
Okay, we're gonna cut the whole Becky part out and then whoever you talk about now, make a fake name.
Emilia Bourland
Okay, sorry.
Brandy Archie
Okay.
Donny Dequine
All the cool stories that I have right off the bat just came off the street, but I'm trying to think of all the, there's so many that came over from physical therapy.
Emilia Bourland
I can never remember anything if people put me on the spot about it, so.
Donny Dequine
No, no, give me 30 seconds. I'm gonna think of, I'm trying to think of who's in my classes right now.
Brandy Archie
I know, I was like...
Donny Dequine
yeah
Okay, all right, I got it. Okay. All right, so yeah, there is somebody that I can think of who was a physical therapy patient of ours, and she actually initially came in with her husband, and her husband is cognitively declining, and I would watch them walk, and she would walk with him. So the physical therapist was walking with him, and I'd always see her walking with him as well. And I just thought it was really, really cute.
Brandy Archie
Okay, I'm ready.
Donny Dequine
Ultimately, at first, I didn't know who was in therapy. I don't know if he was or she was, but they were just doing like the six minute walk test to see how far they could go. And not long after that, I realized that, he was there for gait analysis and gait training for cognitive decline. Well, then she started developing low back pain because of how she was trying to help him. So because of the experience her husband had, she's like, I'm going to go there.
Well, she started coming to physical therapy here and as she was getting better with her low back pain and her sciatic pain, one of her friends from church was like, hey, you should join us in the strength training after your physical therapy. So it was like the physical therapist was introducing the strength training idea to her, know, but not, we don't ever get pushy. It was the friend at church was like, you need to join in with us. So six months ago, she was discharged from physical therapy. She came over into the group.
Personal training she when we start with deadlift. We've keyed on that one. She We just haven't touched a 12 inch box So the the 12 inch box is about you know 12 inches high and you just step over the corner of it and you just you know I'm trying to demonstrate it but you like squat down and you just touch the corner of the box and then you come back up Okay, and then No, you just 12 12th floor. You're just touching that 12 inches and coming back back up. All right, that's where she started
Brandy Archie
You
Brandy Archie
So you're not always going all the way to the floor. You're just going 12 inches from the floor.
Donny Dequine
She started just touching the 12 inches. After physical therapy, she came and just touching the 12 inches in our fitness classes. So six months later, two quarters later, she deadlifted. How much did she deadlift? She had 85 pounds, 95? She had 95 pounds that she was deadlifting six months later. He is 78 years old.
Emilia Bourland
That's bonkers. Yes. That's great.
Brandy Archie
That's what I'm talking about.
Donny Dequine
Yeah, yeah, right. And she had to overcome the belief that she was old, right? She is one of the older ones in the class. She's not the oldest, but she's one of the older ones in the class. So as she's walking around, she had to really think about that. She's like, no, I'm the oldest one here, you know? Luckily, she's a stubborn old bird, so she says that. But the reality of it was is she literally went from just touching a box with excruciating low back pain to now being able to lift almost 100 pounds.
In six months. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So that's one that I can think of. And the other one too is we had a lady who is in her 50s and she came over from physical therapy. She was a runner. But when she came over, one of our standards is that for females is four pull-ups. Now a standard is something we are going to help you shoot for, right? And then it's the process and the journey that's more important than the actual end result.
Brandy Archie
Yeah, that's not even that long of a time frame.
Emilia Bourland
Mm-mm.
Donny Dequine
But she came over and she's like, I've been a runner my whole life. I have no upper body strength. There's no way I'm ever going to do a pull-up in my life. Just this last quarter. just like last week was our benchmark week. She did two pull-ups after a year of being in it. So it's like this really cool. I know that that is, you know, maybe a pull-up is not, but this is this idea of I could never do that because I was this. And then when you slowly steady plot over time, you start to see results.
The joy on her face when she did the first pull-up and then was able to do the second pull-up was really powerful. anyways, it's just that idea and that concept.
Emilia Bourland
Brandy, how many pull-ups can you do?
Brandy Archie
I put him on the spot like maybe to maybe and I and I might be able to like and that's probably horrible form but like I think the important part is that You're not just saying get in the gym and work out you're saying there's a lot that has to do with the psychology of you Right and what you think about in order to be able to be there and it's not like you're having a Pollyanna kind of like effect of like well don't have to think everything is possible. I could do anything I want to do
Donny Dequine
yeah, let's-
Hey, there you go. That's awesome.
Donny Dequine
yeah!
Brandy Archie
but kinda you can if you think that you can. And so like, and even if you don't reach your whatever goal, if you're lifting 90 pounds, like you're gonna do a lot better job getting yourself out of bed, helping other people, your, putting your groceries away. Like it applies to your everyday life. And if those muscles are that strong, if you do happen to have an injury or get sick, the...
Donny Dequine
No.
Brandy Archie
The distance that you fall is a lot less. So the rehab that you need to get back up here is a lot better. what you're basically telling us is like, build up our stamina and ability earlier on as we can or wherever you are, start doing it today so that you're more prepared for the future.
Donny Dequine
That's right. Yeah, that's right. And the other thing too is like we over complicate exercise. It's not that complicated. It really is not that complicated, right? Even if you have no idea what you're doing, which of course, there's so much resources out there now, you can find a video or something or a grandson or somebody that can teach you how to do a deadlift, right? And if we just simplify, do deadlifts. If everyone listening right here just slowly started progressing their deadlift,
they would be great, right? Because you have grip strength involved in it, which there's correlations to fragility and cognition as well with grip strength. And that's a big thing that's researched right now. So just grip strength and then back strength, hip strength, and slowly touch a box, then grab five pounds, then grab 10 pounds, then grab 20 pounds, then grab 30 pounds, then grab 40 pounds. And slowly over time, just push yourself every other day to be able to lift the same amount or a little bit more, right?
Simplify it. It doesn't have to be complicated. If you just simplify that and slowly build that tolerance over time, then you're going to do great. The other thing I would really like to really push and encourage is let's say you get hurt. One day you had a bad night of sleep. Things are going bad with your loved one. You're stressed out of your mind and you go to do your exercises because you're committed at this point and your body's just not ready for it and you lift too much and you hurt yourself.
That doesn't mean you're damned. Injury is not the failure. That's important for people to know. Injury is not the failure. Pain is not the failure. The failure is not letting yourself go back at it and getting back up and doing it. And so there's medical providers out there that can help you with that and beyond. But don't throw in the towel and say, it was bad for me to do. I should never have done it in the first place. Look at what it did to me. I'm injured. And now I'll never be the same.
That's the failure.
Emilia Bourland
Okay, well, I think before we wrap up here, there's something that we promised listeners that I think we have to go over or we would be remiss. One is, you, and you don't have to go into depth on these, but you talk about 12 foundational movements. Can you just like list what those are or talk about that a little bit and then share a little bit about where people can find you and your resources and all that good stuff.
Donny Dequine
Yeah, so there's four really important ones that you just need to focus on. The first one is cardiovascular fitness. So whatever that may be, walking, rowing, skiering, running, cardiovascular fitness, your VO2 max is a direct correlation to longevity. So that's just your aerobic capacity. So improve your aerobic capacity any way that you possibly can.
Emilia Bourland
Mm.
Donny Dequine
Okay, so that's number one. We like to do it with a skier again here and we do two minutes and we try to see how far you can get in meters in two minutes. And then we test you based off of your body weight. And we say that you should probably get, you know, and I'll say most humans, but you know, the weight of a hundred and 200 pounds are going to fall into 500 meters. So I would just suggest people like do your best to get on a skier, the ones that's hanging down and grab those suckers and roll them down and see how far you can get in two minutes and shoot to try to get around the 500 range.
So that's one specific exercise with some metrics and standards to say, try that. Another one is a deadlift. Picking the weight up off the floor, we've talked a lot about that exhaustively. It is our belief that if you, as a female, are able to do 125 % of your body weight from the floor up, that is fantastic for three reps. So that's something that you're shooting for, a deadlift. For males, 150 % of your body weight, trying to lift that. Now, don't go do that right now.
slowly build yourself up to that tolerance, because your body adapts to the stress you're applied to. The last one, well there's two more, overhead press. Just standing, how much can you press over your head? Right, all the way back to, you know, get your arms back behind your ears. And then the last one is squats. How much weight can you put on your back? How low can you get down, and how much can you get back up? longevity is correlated to your VO2, which is cardiovascular. Deadlifts, squats, overhead press, those are the...
three big ones that you can do.
Donny Dequine
and slowly build it up and see what your tolerance can do. And even take that to a personal trainer and say, hey, these are the three that I really want to focus on. Right. And say, you know, help me, help me get there in a slow progressive way. And if you do that, you're going to have a lot of success, tons of success.
Brandy Archie
So thank you for going over those. And that is pretty simple. And like, it gives us numbers to go back on. And the great thing about Pocket is you can rewind it and write all that down if you want to. But tell us if somebody wants to have more interaction with you and ask more questions or connect with you, how can they do that?
Donny Dequine
We are in West Shawnee. We're on K-7 just between Shawnee, Mission Parkway and K-10. And we are a physical therapy practice that does direct and people towards strength so that they can have a high quality of life. And you can look at our website, freedompttc.com or follow us on social media at freedompttc. Those are probably the best ways to get a hold of us. Yeah.
Emilia Bourland
and we will make sure to link that website down in the show notes. Dawn, thank you so much for being on this episode of CareLab podcast. Listener, if you made it to the end of this episode, please make sure to take a second to like, subscribe, follow wherever you are watching or listening to this. Take a moment if you can to leave a comment or a review. Those are the best ways to help other people find this content. Until next time, we'll see you right back here on CareLab. Bye.
Donny Dequine
Okay. Yeah.
Brandy Archie
Bye everybody.
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