Dean Pohlman: Hey guys it’s Dean Welcome to the Betterment podcast. Today I am joined by Barry Power who has like many of you, been doing Man Flow Yoga since the pandemic. So Barry, thanks for chatting with me today.
Barry P: Thanks a lot.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So, so I understand you were doing some physio, you had some leg pain, you had some lack of core strength issues that you were working on. Is that what brought you into man for yoga?
Barry P: Pretty much. Yeah. So just before the pandemic, we had a family ski trip when my son was home from university for a week. And, as I hadn’t been skiing for a few years, and I really noticed how out of shape I was, towards the end of the day, I fell, and, I ended up with some back pain as a result of that.
Barry P: So I was in physio. He said that I needed to strengthen my core, which I knew after a day of skiing and, and, was doing some exercises when the pandemic hit. I started looking for stuff online, and that’s when I found Man Flow. And, I had done yoga previously, so I was pretty familiar with it and knew some of the the positive things that could come from it in terms of, I had previously had plantar fasciitis and was able to clear that up largely through yoga.
Barry P: So it was a pretty comfortable transition for me to go to, to joining Man Flow Yoga.
Dean Pohlman: Got it. How old were you when, the skiing incident happened?
Barry P: I would have been. 55.
Dean Pohlman: Okay. Were you were you relatively active up until that point, or had you been active at one point in your life? And then it kind of just fell off at some point?
Barry P: At the time of the skiing wipeout, I had been sedentary for a couple of years. I had been fairly regularly going to the gym, previously and just kind of fell out of the habit, and was getting back into it just before the pandemic as well. So, I knew that I had a lot of stuff that I needed to improve.
Barry P: So,
Dean Pohlman: So I, I like to bring up this idea of, like, this oh, shit moment where you realize, like, oh, wow, I’m not as strong as I used to be. I need to make a change. Was there was there that moment for you? Was the skiing incident that or was it just kind of a softer, oh, I’m going to start working out again.
Barry P: The whole ski day was sort of that moment for me. I could tell that my legs were a lot weaker than they had been the last time I had been skiing. My core was a lot weaker. I had been snowboarding previously as well. And, so you need a lot of core strength to do that.
Barry P: I’m pretty sure I would not have been able to, be very proficient on a snowboard that day.
Dean Pohlman: You better at skiing or snowboarding?
Barry P: Probably skiing. Yeah. I’ve given up snowboarding now, after a couple of falls. So, Yeah. Yeah. So I’m much better at skiing. My son is very good at skiing, so I was trying to keep up with him that day. He learned to ski at quite a young age, and I learned in my 20s.
Barry P: So he, he never quite learned the respect for gravity that you have when you start things as an adult. Yeah. So that’s.
Dean Pohlman: Cool. I lost my train of thought. So where was I going with that?
Dean Pohlman: Okay, so you get injured, or you have that that back pain from the skiing incident, you noticed that you’re lacking strength. So then you you go, you go to a physio, and then you do some rehab. What’s, what happens after that or what’s what’s kind of that process look like?
Barry P: So I was probably in physio for about three weeks when the lockdown hit here. So I had been it was fairly early on and I was starting to do some core strengthening exercises. And I just kind of transitioned to doing it online. I was working from home, so it was it was easy for me to work it into my routine to do it before work.
Barry P: So that that’s kind of what it was. And to be honest, I, I, I much preferred doing the yoga routines because it’s, you know, physio therapy exercises tend to be kind of dull and boring.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah, totally.
Barry P: Yeah. Don’t tell your wife I said that, she she knows, and, Yeah. So. And so the, the yoga was something I was familiar with. And I could tell that it was working my core, and there were a few routines. I started with you on YouTube. There were a few routines that were fairly core specific.
Barry P: So I started doing those at the beginning and then worked into others. As I got more comfortable with it.
Dean Pohlman: Gotcha. So when did, what enabled you to be consistent initially?
Barry P: What do you think? Well, we were in lockdown, so there wasn’t a lot to do. So, the pandemic actually one of the positives for the pandemic, for me was that it helped me to, get back into a regular routine of exercise and walking and, my dog was getting a lot older at that point, so wasn’t going for the long walks that we used to do when he was younger.
Barry P: And, so I think what I started doing was, doing my yoga before I would sit down to, to work for the day. I always found that it was easiest for me to go to the gym in the morning before work. If I left it to later in the day. There were just too many excuses and distractions and other things that could keep me from going to the gym.
Barry P: So, I was usually sort of a 6 a.m., 6:30 a.m. at the gym guy and then I’d get home, before my son went off to school and, take care of him and then go off to work. So that was a habit that I developed before the pandemic. And so, you know, during the pandemic, it just helped me get back into that.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Did you have, so on days where you, you didn’t really want to do it or, you know, you had to force yourself to do it or you just didn’t feel like doing it. Did you have, you know, did you did you have a conversation with yourself? Was there was there something that that drove you to do it or some sort of motivation that that that helped?
Barry P: For me, it was the, the back pain. I knew I needed to strengthen my core to, to get rid of that. It was pretty quick, in terms of starting to recover after I started doing the yoga for both the back pain and, the leg pain that I was happy. Yeah. So for me, having a quick win like that is always a good motivator and just reinforces that what I’m doing is the right path.
Barry P: Yeah. So, that I would say that was sort of the main thing that helped me be more consistent. Once I, became a member of Man Flow, then I started using the calendar, and that was that was a lot better as well, because, I, I knew what I had to do. I could plan it out for the week.
Barry P: I didn’t have to think about it. I can just get up, open my computer, my iPad, and and go to it.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. That, knowing what you’re going to be doing ahead of time definitely, definitely helps. So how quickly did you notice results? When did you. Because, you know, it’s really helpful to to notice results, to encourage you to keep doing it. Yeah. How quick was it.
Barry P: So I would have started middle of March and I would I think I joined as a member in April. So it was within a month I started noticing some improvements. I, I don’t remember exactly, but I would say the back pain largely resolved within that period of time. And I was starting to notice that the leg pain, was, was improving as well.
Barry P: The leg pain was mostly, if I was sitting for a period of time, my right leg in particular would start to ache. And, as I started doing more Man Flow Yoga, it it became less and less noticeable, and I rarely have an issue with it now.
Dean Pohlman: Gotcha. So you were initially you were doing some of the, the core, the core focused routines. Did you how did that progress? And and how of actually how often were you doing those workouts initially?
Barry P: Probably initially I was doing about three a week. And then, when I became a member, I started doing the strength foundations. So I started doing that every day. Okay. And it was you know, there it was easy for me to fit it into my day before work. So it was, it was it was a pretty easy transition from three days a week to five days a week.
Barry P: And most of it was stuff that I could do. I wasn’t necessarily great at it. But I could definitely, do a lot of it, partly because I had done yoga previously, so I knew a lot of the poses, but also, you know, you give a lot of cues in terms of modifications and using props and so on.
Barry P: And so it it just made it easy to do.
Dean Pohlman: Got it. Cool. So how did that, how did that progressed? Did you, did you did is you know, I don’t know. So I’m so I’m asking much has your, you know, is that where you’re at now and you’re, you’re still following just the program or did that eventually lead into you exploring other areas of your health and wellness or getting curious about, you know, other, other aspects of it?
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. For so for the first, for.
Barry P: Most of 2020, I would say, I was fairly consistent with doing Man Flow Yoga about five times a week. I started paying a bit more attention to my diet and trying to gain some weight. And while I was being sedentary. So I was just trying to be more conscious of what, what I was eating. How.
Dean Pohlman: Much can I ask? How much you how much did you weigh then? How tall are you?
Barry P: So I’m, 182cm or just shy of six feet, probably five, 11.75. And at that point, I was probably close to 200 pounds, somewhere between 195 and 200. And over by the summer, I was down into the one 80s, partly from being consistent with Man Flow Yoga, but also going for making sure that I went for walks at lunchtime, being more aware of what I was eating.
Barry P: And then, over the, the next year or so, my weight always fluctuates. And, we started cross-country skiing in the winter. I live in Ottawa. We get a lot of snow here. So, that also helped, but, the following year, I. For winter, I decided to buy a stationary bike because I wanted to add some more cardio to my, my physical, my, just my, exercise regimen.
Barry P: And, I at that point, I was pretty sure I was not going to go back to gyms. So I was enjoying working out at home. Any little extra stuff that I have to do to exercise is a big obstacle I find. So if I have to leave the house, it makes it harder. If I have to drive somewhere to workout, it makes it harder.
Barry P: So if I can just go down into our basement and workout in our very little gym area, then that’s really easy. So I bought a stationary bike. And then I started doing that. I was doing that about five times a week, and then I’d follow it with the Man Flow Yoga routines. Then I got Covid, and, that was a big setback.
Barry P: Physically, I found it really difficult to come back from, so the second half, I guess was 20, 22 was a little more difficult. It was a lot easier to stick with the yoga than it was to go back into the cardio. That took me a lot longer to, to get back into it. Also, we had a big storm here, and we ended up with a tree on our house at one point.
Barry P: So from, from clean up, I managed to get myself a good case of tennis elbow so that was somewhat limiting. And I ended up back in physiotherapy again. So, those were all problems that came up in the latter half of 2022, and I was able to get back into a fairly consistent routine of biking 3 or 4 times a week, and mostly most of the time I would do yoga five times a week.
Barry P: Still. You know, I found the challenge is really helpful to if if I’ve starting to fall off to get back into a routine and, then, last year, in 2023, I made the decision I was going to retire. And, the foot came off the gas a little bit, for a bunch of things. And, so I slacked off a little bit on exercising over the course of the, the fall and into Christmas season and, gained a bunch of weight again.
Barry P: So I’m back on track. I decided so I had another moment, where I was either going to have to lose weight or buy new pants, and, I’m really cheap, so I didn’t want to buy new parents, so I, I actually did go back to a gym for a while just to see if, I could stick with the weight training routine and, I did for a while.
Barry P: And then I decided to just buy some stuff so I can workout at home. And that’s going much, much better. So I’m down, about 15 pounds from where I was, at the beginning of the year, which is good.
Dean Pohlman: Nice. Yeah. That’s significant. So.
Barry P: So I’m. I told my wife I’m down to our wedding weight.
Dean Pohlman: So, so there’s three things that I, that I, that I’m, that I’m looking at. So you have your yoga, you have your yoga phase where you’re doing yoga, you’re also doing cardio. You you get Covid, right. That that. Yeah. That basically, you know, you’ve got two weeks where you’re feeling like crap and then you’ve got like however many ones where you’re just weeks or months where you’re just weak.
Dean Pohlman: You get tennis elbow, you see golfer’s elbow or a tennis, tennis, a tennis, tennis elbow. And then you have your and then eventually you recover, you fix yourself and you get back into doing yoga again. Challenges are helpful. And you’re also doing weight training now. So that’s that’s pretty cool. So I think one thing that, all of us are going to go through and all of us that, that, that sucks for everybody.
Dean Pohlman: But maybe talking about it can be helpful is the getting injured part. So. Right. Do you want to talk about the golfer’s elbow for you and how you, you know, how long did it take for you to get better? And what was the process.
Barry P: Yeah. So, so I, I’ve now had tennis elbow in both arms. So I had had it previously, maybe ten years ago and, the physio at the time and I both think it was from shoveling snow. In a probably I probably started physio, in July and I continued until November. And it was, it was a very long process.
Barry P: It wasn’t completely resolved when I stopped going to physio, but it was it was very minimal at that point. Yeah.
Dean Pohlman: Physio physios, they just, they have a different, they’re not trying to keep you for as long as possible. If they’re good physios they’re like they get you back to like are you okay. No not are you perfect. Are you okay. Great. Get out. I have other people to help.
Barry P: Exactly. And, the other thing that I did was I, started having massage therapy, and I found that that helped quite a lot because, probably a lot of my tennis elbow is related to tightness in my shoulders and also just upper body weakness in general. So that that started to clear up, my dog also started, he was 15 and just started, not being able to go up the stairs and stuff.
Barry P: So I was carrying a lot down the stairs a lot. So I ended up re aggravating tennis elbow in my right arm, but I also managed to get tennis elbow in my left arm. Because he was he was not a small dog. And, so that’s what I’ve been in physio for most recently. There been a bunch of things that I’ve had to modify.
Barry P: So I, I find doing planks, with my hands down really aggravates it. So I’ll either do a plank on fists, using blocks or forearms. So that’s an easy modification to do. There were there was a time where, you know, doing something like a bicep curl would just kill and, so, so I had to be very, very careful about that and, and work with physio, on how to, to increase that gradually.
Barry P: So we started with fairly low weights and worked our way up, when the, when the tennis elbow was really bad, I wouldn’t even be able to pick up, my teacup. Wow. So it was, it was quite severe, on the right. So, so there was quite a lengthy period of time where I was limited in what I can do.
Barry P: The pain is a really good motivator to keep doing your physio exercises. So, you know, I was very diligent about doing that. And I think that is probably the main thing. If anybody ends up with an injury, make sure you do your exercises. If they if you’re given them by a physio,
Dean Pohlman: Did you have a way that you were reminded yourself to do them?
Barry P: I worked it into my whole exercise routine so I would, I would bike, then I would do physio and then I would do yoga. Okay. I just combined them all. And, you know, there were always some days where I was a little crunched for time, so I would either drop the biking, the amount of time I would bike or I would pick a shorter yoga routine so that I would make sure I’d be able to do the, the physio, because that was, that was really a big, focus and goal of mine is to recover from that.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So, you brought up this, you brought this up kind of indirectly. But, you know, you said that you couldn’t do a plank, so you modified and I just want to point out how important that is to just.
Barry P:
Dean Pohlman: Staying consistent with exercise in general, because, yes, it’s, you know, it’s really frustrating when you can’t do the exercise that you want to do, but also recognizing, oh, I can’t do this, but there’s so many other things that I can do. And and staying consistent like that. Do you want to speak to your experience with that?
Barry P: Sure. So, I would always try, the routines and see, see what I could do. But I got to the point where I knew that there were certain things that would aggravate my tennis elbow. So, any kind of hands down, where I had to flex my hands. I would modify those to either forearm or fist.
Barry P: Those were the main things that I found were problematic. Most of the other yoga poses didn’t aggravated. And, there were there’s, a wrist and elbow routine that I would do every once in a while that that, also helped quite a bit. It was, it was very, very consistent with what I was doing from physio.
Barry P: So, everyone so I just fire that up. So, so that that’s kind of, what I found in terms of modifications. There’s a lot of balance stuff that I have trouble with. And I’m not. I’m 60 years old, so I’m, I’m not super flexible. So there are a couple of things like, side angle.
Barry P: I have a lot of trouble with, Halfmoon is is near impossible for.
Dean Pohlman: Me and is a really weird pose.
Barry P: For every. Yeah, yeah. So, I move the block around. So that it’s. I’m more stable if I have to do have to, And I just accept the fact that I’m not going to be pretty, so, you know, I’m not recording videos, so I don’t have to look good. And then, every once in a while, it’ll be something that I just kind of sit out, they.
Barry P: I try it, and it’s not working, so I’ll just kind of do what I can. Yeah. So, like, I might go into a pyramid or, you know, if it’s some kind of plank, I’ll just. I’ll go to forearms quite often. I, I never do the yoga push ups. Anymore. I, I think I’m probably at a point where I can probably start to try them again.
Barry P: But I want to give it a little bit longer before I, I start doing that.
Dean Pohlman: Try getting up push up bars.
Barry P: Yeah, I have, so I was trying with, some dumbbells and, it was helpful, but, it still would aggravate the elbow. Yeah, a bit. So I just.
Dean Pohlman: There’s just like, as seen on TV product from, like, the 2000s called the perfect pushup that I still have that I actually I think it works great for that. So yeah, if you’re having pain there, that could also help.
Barry P: Yeah. And so that’s something that I’ve looked at possibly getting as well.
Dean Pohlman: So then the next phase is the yoga and weights phase. So so I’m curious for you and because a lot of people, there’s a lot of people in our community who, they’ve been consistent with yoga and they’re like, I don’t want to do weights. I don’t want to go pump iron, because there’s this perception that, like, resistance training is you have to live like Arnold.
Dean Pohlman: You know, you have to be in the gym lifting a ton of weight and screaming and grunting. And, you know, you can if you want. But like, there’s so many different ways to resistance training. So what was the difference for you in terms of how you felt day to day and the results of yoga and cardio, versus how do you feel with doing resistance training, cardio and yoga?
Barry P: So I started the year by incorporating resistance band, for resistance training. I was just finding it wasn’t enough. Okay. I never. Like, if you’re lifting weights, you should feel like you’re exhausted at some point and maybe a little bit stiff the next day. I never really felt that with the resistance bands I was, so I went to, to dumbbells, mostly.
Barry P: And, so what I’ve noticed, I guess I’ve been doing weight training since April. It’s now September, so close to six months. I’m just starting to find that, my endurance is better. So, some of the yoga poses are a lot easier. More slowly, where I notice it is going up and downstairs. And I noticed that with yoga as well, that going up and down stairs just got to be easier.
Barry P: It wasn’t, it’s not that it was painful. It’s just it just got easier. And then with the weights, I’m finding that it’s easier. Still. I’m just finding overall, I feel better. My. I’ve lost some weight, which is good. And, you know, my wife and I kayak, and we, we bike and, I golf.
Barry P: And so all of those are a little bit easier as well, where I really notice it is in kayaking because, I’ve always had very weak upper body. And so that’s one of the, the main points that I want to improve with the weight training. So I am noticing that paddling is much easier and my back doesn’t get as fatigued as quickly.
Barry P: Since I’ve started the weight training.
Dean Pohlman: Cool. So so the other question I had, so a lot of people in demand for your community are also at this age where they’re either they’ve been retired for a few years or they’re retiring or they’re they’re like, or they’re about to retire. What’s the, what’s suck? Retiring and fitness. Like, what are the you mentioned that, you know, you kind of took the stepped off the gas a little bit.
Dean Pohlman: I’ve also heard, you know, the opposite end where people stop, you know, stop working, and they’re trying to find a purpose. And they’re like, well, now my purpose is working out my, my health. So what’s what’s your experience been with that?
Barry P: Yeah. So I took the foot off the gas. Sort of my last six months at work, there was a lot of stuff going on at work. And, my dog was not well. And so there’s just a lot of things going on. And then when I retired, suddenly I had all this time, and so I could, I could spend more time doing my cardio and yoga and added in some, some resistance training.
Barry P: So for me, retirement’s been great because I now have time to do a lot of things that I probably could have done before. But, you know, when you’re working, when you have kids, when you have family responsibilities or you just have a busy social life, it can be really difficult and exercising becomes one more thing that you have to do, and it just increases stress for a lot of people.
Barry P: So I’ve made it a priority for myself in retirement. I watched, both my parents get old and, you know, it didn’t go well for my mom. She was very sedentary, for most of her life. And her aging was very, very unpleasant. My dad remained active his whole life. And he was he was very active until the last year of his life, probably.
Barry P: And soon he was in his late 80s. So,
Dean Pohlman: How old was your mom?
Barry P: My mom was 82 when she passed away. And she in her late 50s. She had a heart attack, and that really debilitated her. But, you know, she smoked and, was sedentary, so always overweight. And, so there were a lot of factors that played in, for her. But my dad always, always, always would go for a walk and, you know, he didn’t do what a lot of people would consider, traditional exercise, but he always kept busy.
Barry P: He he grew up on a farm, so he was always doing stuff outside. And, you know, just was yesterday, you know, he had a fairly physical job. He was an electrician, you know, a steel plant. So there’s a lot of climbing ladders, and they’re just long distances to walk and carrying heavy equipment and so on. So, you know, when you have those two extremes in your life, you it helps you make a decision which way you want to go.
Barry P: You know, and my mother in law also remained very active. And so she was she was in very good shape until she passed away in her late 80s as well. So that, that’s been a lot of the inspiration for me remaining active. I also my career is in health care, so I saw people who did not remain active and who had very unhealthy lifestyles and all of the complications that they had, whether it was diabetes or heart disease, strokes, arthritis, etc..
Barry P: So there’s a lot that you can do by remaining active and trying to strengthen your body that will help to prevent things like, diabetes, heart disease, chronic pain that I think, people overlook.
Dean Pohlman: What was your job in health care?
Barry P: I was a pharmacist. I still am a pharmacist. I still work, so, but, Yeah. So, you know, you see people coming in and getting ten, 15 medications, and as soon as somebody has a heart attack or if they’re diagnosed with diabetes, they’re on a minimum of five medications. So my, my goal is to not be on any of those medications.
Barry P: Yeah. So it’s, it’s quite, a spiral. Once you have some of those things come in to, to your life. Yeah. And there have been a few people in the, the mental community who’ve talked about losing weight and stopping medications that they were taking for some chronic disease. And that’s that’s a really good sign, that exercise.
Barry P: And, being more conscious about your life and your lifestyle can make big improvements.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah, there’s definitely a strong, group of, there’s definitely a strong sentiment among a, I would say, majority of people within the man for your community, about this desire to stay away from not necessarily stay away from medications, but not get to the point where they’re reliant on medications long term. And also, like you were saying before, this desire to not end up like somebody they saw who was older than them, who didn’t take as good care of themself, who wasn’t active.
Dean Pohlman: So, yeah, I think those are two things that a lot of people can relate to.
Barry P: Yeah. Yeah.
Dean Pohlman: So how how helpful has the just you know you mentioned the Man Flow Yoga community. But in general how how helpful has community been to overall health and wellness.
Barry P: So I would say the manifold community has been very helpful, especially early on in the pandemic. His, you know, I think there is probably more activity because people are at home with not a lot to do. But, you definitely see it when there’s a community challenge and people start talking about what they’re doing and challenges and so on.
Barry P: Anybody who puts out a question gets an answer right away. So it’s really good to be able to see that sort of support. On the personal side, I have a number of friends that I, I, do different activities with, whether it’s, cycling, golf, kayaking, my wife and I do a lot of stuff together, as well.
Barry P: So, it’s for me. Exercising is easier if you do it with somebody else. Or it’s easier to get started if you do somebody else as well. But I for me, I find once I get started and I get into a groove, I’m fine to do things on my own. And that’s probably one of the things that I really disliked about going to the gym, is, you know, you go to the gym by yourself and,
Dean Pohlman: So you’re with other people, but ironically, you feel like you’re in a silo by yourself.
Barry P: Exactly. You’re you’re alone together. And, there’s there’s a definite gym culture that I don’t like. It’s, very, you know, we’re here to pump you up sort of thing. And, I’ve never liked that. So it’s for me, it’s easier to work out at home by myself.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah, yeah, it’s definitely more convenient.
Barry P: Yeah. And that’s probably one of the really big things is, you know, if you if you go to the gym, then you have to you have to, you know, you have to get your stuff ready. You have to get in the car, you have to drive to the gym, you have to get changed, you have to go out and then you have to know what you’re going to do.
Barry P: Whereas I can just go downstairs and start working out anytime I want. I still do it between, like, I try to start by 730, most days, even though I’m retired and I don’t need to get up, I still do.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. I mean, that’s great. You finish your workout by, like, nine, and you just have the whole day to, I mean, you know, other things to do, but, you know, I’ve never been able to lift weights in the morning. I can do some yoga in the morning. So I’m like, lower intensity, medium intensity stuff in the morning.
Dean Pohlman: I go for walks in the morning. I like cycling in the morning, taking my kids to daycare on the bike. But like, yeah, if you said that I had to lift weights in the morning, I could, I can probably do it. But, yeah, I’m not I’m not one of those. So I respect you for being able to get the stuff done in the morning.
Dean Pohlman: That’s pretty cool.
Barry P: Yeah. It’s just I know if I leave it till later in the day, it’s not going to happen.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah, yeah, I remember you saying that before. Just excuses come up. It’s easier to not do it. So what’s the what’s the next thing that you want to work on in your, in your health and fitness. What’s the what’s the next initiative?
Barry P: I haven’t really thought about a next step. I’m still focused on trying to build up some upper body strength, because I think that’s, that’s been a big issue with a number of my injuries. And then, we’ll go from there, see how, see how bulked up I want to get. Which at 60 is not easy to do.
Barry P: It’s hard. Yeah, it’s hard at any time, but, so, I think, one thing I would like to do is get back to doing yoga 3 to 4 times a week. Right now, I’m doing it 2 to 3 times, and I, I would like to go back to 3 to 4. I just find that’s sort of the sweet spot for me.
Barry P: The doing it five times is good. The challenges that are six days kill me. Yeah. I just yeah, I just we’ve.
Dean Pohlman: Learned to make options. For those ones, try to do 3 to 6 instead of. Yeah, definitely six. And definitely seven a week didn’t work out. So, yeah.
Barry P: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, there probably some people, you know, maybe ten years ago I would have been fine doing it. But, just I’m, I am starting to notice I need more time to recover. And, injuries take a long time to, to get over now.
Dean Pohlman: So, I forgot to ask this, but you were talking about, you know, it sounds like you have a really, a really good support network. And a support network isn’t the right word. You have close friends. You have close friends. I do hang out with you. You know, you get to do you do stuff with your wife.
Dean Pohlman: You guys go kayak together. Me listening to that, I’m curious, based on what you know about Americans, do you think that there is more value on relationships, people in Canada versus people in the US?
Barry P:
Barry P: I don’t know if you can really make that kind of generalization. I think it’s very individual. You know, I’m, I’m a textbook introvert in a lot of ways. So I have some good friends, but I don’t like to be in big crowds. I can turn it on if I need to. You know, I used to have a staff of 23, so I can.
Barry P: I can lead a big group. But I my interactions tend to be kind of one on one, or with a small group of people. So it. It depends. Some people need to be around other people all the time. And some people are more like me where it’s, it’s prescribed amounts of contact with other people, and and you need some great time.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Cool. Yeah. I’m, I’m reading the Oprah book right now. Oprah. And I forgot what the other guy’s name is, but it’s the art in the science of happiness. And there’s a there’s a section on it talking about introverts versus extroverts and how they, the introverts are, more inclined to have deeper, more meaningful relationships with a small amount of people, whereas the extroverts, they have a lot more relationships, but they’re more surface level.
Dean Pohlman: They don’t go, what do you. Yeah.
Barry P: Yeah, yeah. There’s a good book called quiet. I forget the author, but the subtitle is The Power of Introverts in a World that Won’t Stop Talking.
Dean Pohlman: It’s great. That’s such a that’s that’s like a passive aggressive, like subject title written by, written by an introvert that that makes me smile.
Barry P: And, so when I read everybody shut Up. Yeah. When I read it, I said, oh, this really explains our son. And my wife is like, this explains you. So, Yeah. So I am a fairly classic introvert in a lot of ways. Yeah. Which is where, you know, working out alone in my basement really comes in handy.
Dean Pohlman: Right? Yeah, exactly. It’s like, no, it’s not that we don’t love you. It’s that we just like being by ourselves, too.
Barry P: Exactly.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. All right, well, I’ve got 5 or 4 quick, rapid fire questions for you. What’s the, what do you think is one habit, belief or mindset that’s helped you the most with your overall health and wellness?
Barry P: I think the main thing is that I want to age like my dad. So I want to remain active as long as possible. And, you know, he was still going at 87. He needed a walker towards the end, but he was he was quite a dynamo.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. What’s one thing that you do for your health that you believe is often overlooked or undervalued?
Barry P: That’s a good question. I think, I, you know, I joke around with a lot of people, since I’ve retired, I do nothing a lot. And I think, some quiet time, where you’re not on your phone and you’re not looking at screens. Maybe you’re reading or, you know, gardening. Something nice and quiet for your mind to have a rest is is really underrated.
Dean Pohlman: That was the exact answer that Jesse just gave in the last interview.
Barry P: So. Well, he’s half Canadian, so.
Dean Pohlman: Oh, you’re right, he’s rising here.
Barry P: This is.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. You guys are on to something up there. What’s the most stressful part of your day to day life?
Barry P: Since I retired, there’s honestly very little stress. Sometimes I’ll have a day where I have appointments or lunch dates that I have to juggle around. So that’s about as difficult as it gets most of the time. We’re planning a few trips. So that that’s, taking up a lot of our time. Which is good stress, but, for the most part, it’s not, my life has gotten really unstressed since I stopped working.
Dean Pohlman: And your son’s been a college for how long? Or uni for how long?
Barry P: He, He finished his bachelor’s degree in 2020, just as the pandemic was hitting, and he’s just gone back to school. He started a masters. So he’s he’s 26.
Dean Pohlman: Got it. All right. So you still have to worry about him until he gets a job. But.
Barry P: Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even after that, you still worry.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So what’s your best piece of advice for men who want to be healthier?
Barry P: Don’t delay. Start something. Start something small.
Dean Pohlman: That was. I don’t know what Jesse’s just saying. You guys are, like, cheating. You guys are?
Barry P: Yeah. We talked. Yeah. No, seriously. Start start doing something small. Go for a walk. One thing that I started doing that I found very helpful recently is tracking my food to find out exactly how much I’m actually eating. And I was I was kind of surprised at how much I was eating because it doesn’t seem like it.
Dean Pohlman: Carbs add up, man.
Barry P: Yeah. And it’s. Yeah. And so I was very heavy on the curb side, so I’ve, I’ve cut back a bit on carbs, try to try to get carbs and protein kind of balanced. And I find the science sort of takes care of itself. So, so that’s something else that, you know, if one of your goals is weight loss, you know, get a food tracker app of some sort and do that for a couple of weeks and just see where you are.
Dean Pohlman: Cool. All right. Well, those are all my questions. So very, thank you for doing this and sharing your insight and sharing your experience with all this stuff.
Barry P: Well, hopefully it’s helpful to somebody,
Dean Pohlman: Good stuff in here. Yeah, I think it will be, definitely. Don’t contact Barry in the Facebook group, but he is there. But, you know, I don’t know. Do you want people to be able to say hi to you or.
Barry P: Sure, they can say hi if they want? If I’m an introverted moment, I might not reply.
Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So, so next time we’re doing a challenge, be sure to call out Barry and say, Barry, we need your accountability post selling on Twitter.
Barry P: Yes, yes, yes. I don’t like posting pictures of myself, so,
Dean Pohlman: That’s okay. Hey. That’s yours. That’s your next thing. That’s your next.
Barry P: Maybe. Yeah.
Dean Pohlman: Thanks.
Barry P: Maybe. Yeah. We’ll see.
Dean Pohlman: All right. Cool. All right, well, once again, Barry, thank you for joining me. On, this member interview series. And, I look forward to seeing you in, the members area and beyond. And, guys listening in. I hope this inspires you to be a better man.
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