Meet Marie. Shes a 70-year-old client of ours, who is semi-retired, and works as a wedding officiant.
When she first started working with us, she had severe back pain, which spread to her entire body, serious mobility limitations, low energy levels, and pretty rampant, uncontrolled type 2 diabetes.
But a lot of that stuff is history.
The back pain went from hurting 75% of the time, to now, only 25%.
The mobility limitations very minor now.
The energy levels she has plenty now. Enough to do all the housework that she needs to do.
And her diabetes waaaayyyyy better controlled (Ill show you some numbers later in the article).
How did she do it? Thats exactly what Ill cover in this article. But if you want to hear it directly from Marie herself check out the video below:
In this article, Ill cover:
- Maries goals, and how her problems were affecting her life
- What Marie has tried in the past to improve her health problems
- Maries hesitations before she started working with Meagan (her trainer)
- The exercise strategies that Meagan used to help Marie significantly reduce her back pain, improve her mobility, and get her diabetes under control
- The nutritional strategies that Meagan used with Marie
- The bottom line results that Marie experienced
- Any stumbling blocks along the way
- How her life is different now that her back is almost pain-free, and her diabetes is under control.
And if youre jealous of Maries success, and want similar results, you can see if you qualify to work with us, by just emailing me with the words Fitness Over 50 in the subject line.
Maries Goals and How Her Problems Were Affecting Her Life
Marie was in a pretty bad place when she first started working with us.
Four years before she started working with us, she hurt her back, and was in her words out for 6 months.
And that started a vicious cycle. Her back hurt, so she moved less. She moved less, so the pain spread to other areas of her body. She was in even more pain, so she moved even less. As she moved even less, she lost a lot more mobility and strength. And her pre-existing diabetes got worse. If you move less, you burn fewer calories. You burn fewer calories, blood sugar rises even higher than it already was.
The future wasnt looking very bright for her. In her video, she said she could see herself using a walker or a wheelchair if she didnt change something. And as someone with lots of future plans, she didnt want to go down that route.
What Marie Has Tried in the Past
Marie has tried a number of things to improve the lower back pain and diabetes.
For the lower back pain, Marie went to physiotherapy for 6 months but wasnt getting the results that she wanted. Namely there was a small improvement, but very little. And who even knows whether that improvement was because of physiotherapy, or just because time passed. Unfortunately thats the story of a lot of our clients going through chronic pain they try a bunch of therapies or practitioners that dont work, before coming to us, and going through our Rapid Rehab program.
As for what she did to manage her type 2 diabetes, that was a mess.
She would go to the gym for 3 hours at a time, to try to manage her blood sugar. First of all, not very many people need 3-hour workouts. Second of all, if you do the wrong things during those 3 hours, it might be good for your blood sugar, but your joints take a beating. Which makes her problem worse. Her joints were already aching, and beating them up with the wrong stuff at the gym makes her want to exercise less. Which perpetuates the vicious cycle of: pain no desire to exercise worse blood sugar.
What Marie needed was exercise thats good for both her blood sugar, but also her joints. Not just one or the other. Unlike marriage there was no compromise here
Nutritionally, what Marie tried to improve her blood sugar was simple eat as little as possible. But that strategy had 2 problems:
- You cant eat very little forever. Eventually comes this thing called hunger. So once she got hungry, shed overcompensate for the periods of light eating, and eat a lot. That would cause her blood sugar to spike. And if theres anything worse than chronically high blood sugar, its large fluctuations in blood sugar (FYI: for a non-diabetic, blood sugar fluctuations of around 3.5-4.0 mmol/l are acceptable. So at your lowest point, you can be around, say, 4.0 mmol/l, and at your highest point, like after a meal, you should be no higher than around 7.5 mmol/l. Maries sugars would go well above 20 mmol/l after meals).
- Because there were periods of very little food, it didnt give her joints the nutrients and energy she needed to heal.
On top of all that, she was hearing a lot of conflicting advice about nutrition for diabetes.
Eventually, her previous trainer had referred her to me, knowing that I have a team of trainers who help clients who are just like Marie.
Maries Hesitations
Despite having worked with a personal trainer in the past, Marie still had some hesitations before she started working with Meagan.
Firstly, she was skeptical about online training. Can it really work? This is a very common hesitation amongst our clients. But after working with us for a bit, they see yes online training works. I explain to clients that there are 2 keys to making online training work:
- Good camera angles (knowing where to position the camera, so that the trainer can see the right segments of the body moving).
- Good verbal instructions (giving accurate verbal cues to get the client to perform the motions that we want them to perform).
I further reassured her that the vast majority of our clients who came to us during COVID were online clients (because theyd come from everywhere Ottawa, BC, California, Florida, and other places). And that didnt stop them from getting results on par with our in-person clients.
Clients like:
- Lourens, who lost 12 pounds, and got rid of lifelong headaches in 3 months. He lives in Toronto, but his trainer is in BC.
- Valerie, who stopped using her cane and pain meds. She lives in Mississauga, but her trainer is near Ottawa.
- Laura, who reversed her osteoporosis, and increased her bone density at the hip by 8.4%. She lives in Los Angeles, but her trainer is in Toronto.
- John, who reversed his type 2 diabetes, and reduced his knee pain. Hes in Nunavut, and his trainer is in Toronto.
and others.
So this helped put some of her worries to rest. But not all of them. This was enough for her to buy just a small number of sessions, just to dip her toes in the water, and see how it worked.
Besides that, she had a couple of other hesitations.
- She was afraid she wouldnt like it.
- She was afraid that it would be too hard.
These are valid concerns for most personal trainers. But if I may toot our horn a little bit we arent most personal trainers.
Most personal trainers try to fit the client to the program (if they have a program to begin with. As I talk about in my article on the biggest mistakes that personal trainers make, most personal trainers dont have programs). We take a more client-centred approach. We fit the program to the client. The client finds the program too difficult? Simple solution make it easier. And then work through a progression that allows the client to do what was originally planned.
As Marie mentioned at 3:03 of her video, she really appreciated that Meagan is a master of tweaking. If something didnt work, or if something hurt, Meagan just made a small modification to a different exercise, grip or stance that didnt hurt. Whereas other practitioners that Marie had worked with in the past made her feel like if something hurt, it was her fault.
The Exercise Strategies That Meagan Used to Improve Maries Back Pain and Diabetes
As mentioned earlier, Maries mobility was severely limited due to her back pain. A lot of basic motions were either painful, or she just couldnt do.
- Just sitting was uncomfortable. During Maries initial assessment, Meagan noticed how much squirming Marie had to do just to be comfortable. She couldnt stay in any position for a long period of time.
- Simply getting up and down off the floor was really difficult.
- Getting out of a chair or couch was pretty tough.
- Even walking for 10 minutes hurt.
When such bare basics are difficult and painful, you can imagine how difficult it is to live life, doing things that we otherwise take for granted, like grocery shopping, vacuuming, doing laundry, etc.
Meagan had her work cut out for her, so she designed Maries program with those limitations in mind and with the goal of removing those limitations.
So what exactly did Meagan do with Marie? Here are the highlights:
Sitting to Standing
Meagan saw that Marie couldnt get off her chair or couch without a lot of discomfort. So she had to start with an even smaller range of motion.
So she had Marie start from a standing position, and sit to a target of just a quarter squat. If sitting on a chair is a half squat, then a quarter squat is significantly easier. And pain-free.
Marie liked this, because she found something that is both challenging, but pain-free. She felt the first little bit of success.
They started off with 2 sets of 8-10 repetitions.
As Maries strength improved, Meagan lowered the target that Marie had to sit down to. Eventually, she would sit on progressively lower targets, and nowadays (about 7 months after she first started), Marie can squat down below the height of her chair or couch. And she can hold a squat in the air for about 15 seconds.
As I always say life is easier when youre stronger.
You can imagine that if Marie can now squat below the height of her chair/couch, getting up and down off the chair/couch is no big deal anymore. Oh, and her squats are pain-free now.
Walking
Walking was also a painful movement for Marie, so we had to get her out of pain. For this, Meagan simply had Marie marching in place for 5-10 steps per side, of 2-3 sets.
Marie improved pretty quickly (secret: the more out of shape you are, the faster progress comes. Youre basically regaining lost fitness, as opposed to gaining new fitness).
As I talked about in my article on the most important factor in an exercise program, its progression not even the exercises themselves. So the program wasnt static. As Maries strength and endurance improved, the program got more challenging objectively, but not subjectively.
Pretty soon, Marie was walking for 10 minutes, pain-free, and nowadays, has even done a few walks of over 70 minutes, all pain-free. On top of that, nowadays she cycles for over 30 minutes, 4+ days per week. That was unfathomable just 7 months earlier.
Upper Body
Of course, you cant just rely on your lower body to get around. You also need upper body strength and core strength.
So Meagan incorporated some upper body and core exercises into Maries routine. Because we dont want strength that looks good in the gym (gym is in quotation marks, because Marie was exercising at home. So that was her gym), but doesnt carry over to life outside the gym. We want real-world strength, so Meagan used exercises that mimic daily activities, but with either dumbbells or resistance bands simple equipment that Marie had at home.
The Nutritional Strategies that Marie Used
Although Marie tried to eat very little to manage her blood sugar (and pay for it later with overeating), the foods she was eating were actually pretty clean.
So Meagan had to really dig deep to find what opportunities did we have to improve her blood sugar?
As I mention in my diabetes book, one of the most powerful ways to reverse type 2 diabetes is by just optimizing the fibre content (I recommend 35-50 grams per day). Multiple studies have concluded that the fibre requirements of diabetics are higher than non-diabetics, and eating 35-50 grams of fiber per day (or about 20 grams for every 1000 calories) can drop HbA1C by almost 3%. Thats huge. A drop from 9% to 6% is significant.
In addition to all of Maries issues with pain and diabetes, she also suffered from bloating. My team and I try to find the common denominator. While they seem like 3 separate problems (diabetes, bloating, and joint pain), there is one nutritional commonality to all 3: food intolerances.
Those are foods that you might like but they dont like you.
To identify food intolerances, Meagan used the low-tech, but gold standard elimination diet. I wont get into the details of the diet (heres a great infographic on the topic). Meagan and Marie used both the scale and waist circumferences to see which foods trigger bloating, and experiment with eliminating those.
As a bonus, to help with the bloating, Meagan recommended lots of anti-inflammatory herbs/spices (like ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, basil, parsley, etc.). Sure enough, it worked (as youll see in the next section, with her results)!
Maries Results
Maries results are nothing short of phenomenal.
Yes, its nice to read about the methods, but what are the bottom-line results? Here they are, my analytical friend:
- Her weight decreased from 122.7 lbs, to 116
- Her waist circumference decreased from 35 inches to 30.5. In large part due to a reduction in bloating.
As for her blood sugar improvements seriously impressive.
- She started with 11 units of insulin. Most of the time now, shes around 7 units of insulin (and has been as low as 5).
- Her blood sugar used to spike a crazy amount after meals over 10 mmol/l (it should spike no more than 3.5-4 mmol/l). Thats a spike from maybe 9 to 19. Thats very uncontrolled diabetes. Nowadays, her blood sugar spikes are only about 2-4 mmol/l after meals.
- Nowadays, her blood sugar only goes in the 8-15 range in the evenings. The rest of the day, she has the blood sugar levels of essentially a non-diabetic. And thats not fasting thats after meals! Yes, theres still more work to do, but a lot of progress has already been made.
- About 6 months into working with us, she was able to go off one of her medications (diamicron). Thats not because we told her to (were not allowed to we dont give any advice on medications). Thats because her doctor told her to.
Lastly, her back pain went from feeling it 75% of the time to 25% of the time. And the impact thats had is significant!
- Even 10 minutes of walking used to bother her. Now, she can walk for over 70 minutes, pain-free.
- She can do all the housework that she needs and wants to do
- She has no problems getting out of her chair. She doesnt need to brace for it anymore. She just gets up without giving it any thought.
To say that Maries progress is incredible is an understatement.
Challenges Along the Way
Although Marie is a wonderful success story, it isnt all just sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. There were certain stumbling blocks along the way.
As far as exercise is concerned, her mobility limitations and chronic pain made her hesitant to do anything, for fear of making the pain worse. The solution was simple start at a level that she could tolerate.
The greater challenge was really on the nutrition side of things.
Marie would go to diabetes centers, and they didnt really give the greatest advice eat lots of carbs to keep blood sugar balanced. Carbs are not the best thing for a diabetic. But that was the old rhetoric, and it takes about 20 years to change long-standing advice. Fortunately, because were a small business, we stay on the cutting edge of research, so we can keep up, and make fast changes, when the science shows a better method.
So hearing conflicting advice was certainly challenging, especially when the advice was my diabetes centre vs. my trainer.
Fortunately, were not in the business of faith. You dont have to believe us for our suggestions to work. You can follow 2 different pieces of advice, and measure your own blood sugar after each piece of advice. The one that yields the better blood sugar is the one you stick with. You dont have to believe us. You just have to believe your glucometer, and then make your own conclusions.
The other nutritional challenge was her mental/emotional response to food. You dont get to be a diabetic without some kind of mental/emotional connection to food, so Meagan had to help Marie with that as well.
Despite all those challenges, Marie persevered, and was rewarded with significantly improved blood sugar control, a better relationship with food, and much better strength and endurance.
How Her Life is Different Now
Now that Maries diabetes, bloating and back pain are all much better, how is her life different now? Dramatically.
Besides the hard numbers I mentioned in the previous section, there are also certain things that cant really be quantified that are quite different for her.
- Because shes not in pain as frequently anymore, her blood sugar is better, and shes not bloated, her mood is much better. Shes a more jovial person.
- With better nutrition came better skin.
- As Meagan points out in their video Marie has nicer legs than Meagan now
- Marie has a better relationship with food she understands the difference between cravings and hunger.
- She is more content with life, because she can do more things. She accomplishes more in her day.
- The future is looking bright for her. Whereas before, she thought that the chances of ending up with a walker, or in a wheelchair were very likely, now that seems almost laughable.
Overall, Marie has made some dramatic improvements, and keeps on going. She saw how much progress shes made, and she continues to train with us, because she looks forward to making even more progress.
If you want the same kinds of results as Marie, you can see whether you qualify to work with us by just emailing me with the subject line Fitness Over 50.