HJNO Jan/Feb 2022

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  JAN / FEB 2022 17 and cool down. The last principle I want to highlight is the low-impact conditioning, which, for obvi- ous reasons, saved my joints and muscle tis- sue from breaking down too much through the years of training. Reducing the wear and tear on my joints back then, enabled me to engage in all the activities I love today. Al and Erik were truly pioneers in this area of mechanical strength training and recovery. Editor How can we who are older or more sedentary utilize some of those techniques to avoid injury as we begin lifestyle change that will include more physical exercise? Fontenot First, I would recom- mend building a vision for what you hope to accomplish. If you are older, your goal might be to gain some flexibil- ity or improve your balance. If you are younger, it might be to gain muscle and/or burn body fat. If you have been sedentary for quite some time, you may wish to improve your cardio- vascular condition. Figuring out what your ultimate aspi- rations are is vital in establish- ing a direction to head. Once you’ve done this, then consult your physician, as then you will have pertinent questions to ask him/her with regard to your goals. It is important to have a clear understanding of any physical or mental limita- tions that you may have, so you can set up an appropriate exercise regimen. Then, establish what kind of routine is feasible for your lifestyle. Some of you will have more spare time than others, and some may have little spare time at all. Figuring this out early will help with your ability to comply with whatever protocol you choose to engage. I would also recommend start- ing slowly then building up as you go. See what your body and mind are capable of fromwherever you are starting so that you don’t get discouraged and go right back to where you came from. Editor OK, so, most of us are not world- class athletes. We often work 12-hour shifts, and even if it is only eight hours, that doesn’t include drive time. We have kids, perhaps a partner. We have shopping to do, meals to fix, a house to clean, schoolwork to help with, bills to pay, activities to attend … an attempt at a social life. There simply are not enough hours in a day, and we haven’t even laid in the stress of working during a pandemic. We know we should be more active, healthy, but where is the time? Help me understand how to put the oxygen mask on me first. My inclination is to put it on others first, and someday I will put mine on. Fontenot This is a subject that I am par- ticularly sensitive to as a coach in Green Bay, Wisconsin, for 10 seasons, and any- one that knows anything about coaching understands that there is very little free time to engage in anything outside of work. It was not uncommon to work 16 to 18-hour days. I would attempt to carve out 30 min- utes prior to the workday starting to get a workout in. It worked periodically. At other times, I was just too swamped with work/ meetings/practice or being sleep-deprived to be comfortable with that setup on a daily basis. The volume of stressors seemed unsurmountable at times, but upon fur- ther inspection and motivation, I managed to formulate a system that worked for me based on one fundamental idea — that no workout is too small! For a former professional athlete to buy into this idea took me a lot of reps and infor- mation gathering. There are many studies out there that show that postprandial (after-eat- ing) walks of as little as 10 minutes can be benefi- cial for burning not only calories, but fat as well. I would leave the cafeteria, head up to the third floor (where my office was) and head out into Lambeau field to do laps inside the stadium. On a typical day, I could get in 3 to 4 laps at a decent pace. I under- stood this was a practice I could implement after every meal at work (where all of them were), and, at the end of the day, I would have gotten in 9 to 12 laps, equating to 2 to 3 miles! What started happen- ing on the front end of this exercise, which was completely uninten- tional, is that I began to eat a lot smarter: I ate more balanced foods and foods that were more nutrient-rich and easy to digest so that I was comfortable walking immedi- ately after meals. If I was fortunate enough to find myself with another few minutes of spare time during the day, which I often did, I would do bodyweight squats, pushups and anything else that I could come up with to