Dr. Brandon Parker on Moving Better, Setting Goals, & Building Habits that Last | DFIO Ep.275
About Today’s Episode:
In today's episode, I interviewed a good friend of mine, Dr. Brandon Parker. The main reason I wanted to get Brandon on here was to talk about mobility and the mindset and perspective you need to have in order to just move better.
Most people have it in their heads that it's normal to, as we get older, tend to be hurting and to not move as well. That’s not the case at all!
Brandon is amazing with this stuff and puts out some of the best content around it and I wanted to get his perspective around not only this but the mindset and the things you need to be doing in order to move better. So you just walk around with less pain and so you can be happier and live a better life.
At the end of the day, if you're in pain all the time—physically, let alone emotionally and mentally—that's going to dampen your experiences in life. It's going to kill anything you do and you're overall going to not be as happy of a person.
We get into a lot in this episode, including how to fix your relationship with exercise and the mindset you need to have going into moving better and mobility. I hope you guys stick around for the whole thing because I know you’re going to get a lot out of this!
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro & About Today’s Episode
04:00 Sponsors
06:56 About Dr. Brandon Parker
10:09 Diametric Views On Chiropractors
13:44 Maintenance Chiropractic Work
16:49 Layman’s Terms in Chiropractic Work
20:10 Missing Pieces in Chiropractic Work
22:07 Finding the Right Chiropractor
25:22 Why Mobility Matters
33:47 Where to Start
43:53 Fixing Your Relationship with Exercise
59:26 What Dr. Brandon is Currently Excited About
1:04:38 Outro—freebies & how to apply for coaching
Transcript (click to expand)
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Dr. Brandon Parker on Moving Better, Setting Goals, & Building Habits that Last | DFIO Ep.275
0:00:00.0 Dr. Brandon Parker: I think a lot of people just build these problems to be on this pedestal that they can't reach, and that's not necessarily the truth. How can I lower the activation level so much so that you don't even question it, you just do it? And then before you know it, you're looking around like, "What just happened? How am I here now?" Well, you took the first step and you realize that the first step wasn't this big weary thing, you just had to do it.
[music]
0:00:27.1 Jared Hamilton: What's going on, friends? Welcome back to a brand new episode of Dieting From the Inside Out, because we all know outer work without inner work just doesn't work. And that's what the show is about. And I'm so pumped to bring you another episode and another guest that you're gonna want to start following and get to know. In today's episode, I interviewed a good friend of mine. His name is Dr. Brandon Parker. A lot of you guys probably follow him on Instagram because he's got a million plus followers and puts out some amazing, amazing content. And the reason I wanted to get Brandon on here was to talk about... The boring version is to talk about mobility. [chuckle] I know that sounds boring, but it gets deeper than this. I got Brandon on here 'cause I wanted him to talk about the mindset and perspective you need to have in order to just move better. Most people... And I'm assuming you that's listening to this or watching this, most people have it in their heads that it's normal as we get older to be hurting and to not move as well, and, oh, it's just what happens sometimes, and back pain and knee pain. It's like that's not the case at all.
0:01:28.9 Jared Hamilton: And Brandon is amazing with this stuff and puts out some of the best content around this. And I wanted to come in and get his perspective around all of these things, like the mindset that you need to have going into moving better, the things you need to be doing so you just walk around with less pain and so you can be happier and live a better life. 'Cause at the end of the day, if you're in pain all the time, physically, let alone emotionally and mentally, but if you're in physical pain all the time, that's going to dampen your experiences in life, it's gonna kill anything you do, and overall, you're gonna not be as happy of a person.
0:01:58.5 Jared Hamilton: So I wanted to get him on here and hit this thing from a different perspective on just how to move better, but then the cool thing was our conversation. So my favorite things about the podcast is conversations would just go different ways. And so I don't have a whole lot of an agenda when I speak with people on the show, because I like the conversation to just go where it's supposed to. And we even got into a lot of the levels of how to fix your relationship with exercise and fix the relationship that you have with your body. This way, it's not just a... A lot of people have it in their head that so much of exercise is punishment or it's something that it only meets the criteria if it's for this long and you're sweating and you're sore, which is not the case at all. So we talked about how to fix your relationship with exercise, the mindset you need to have going into moving better and mobility, things like that. Let me look at my notes. Excuse me.
0:02:47.0 Jared Hamilton: Talked about a few other... I even got into... I wanted to know his perspective on why some people think guys like chiropractors, 'cause that's what he is, are just quacks, but others love him or love chiros and stuff. So we just had a great conversation around all this stuff. And then especially how to start making these changes if you're in one of those places where you're like, "Bro, I barely have time to eat, let alone work on moving better and being happier and feeling better." Well, we talked about that and how it's crazy, the little things that you can do that makes such an impactful difference on your life. So it was just a great episode. I really enjoyed my conversation with Brandon, and I know it will make your life better. So you wanna stick around for the whole thing. Be sure to subscribe to the show if you haven't already. That way you can be notified every time a new episode comes out so you don't miss any of the cool stuff I have lined up for you. The other thing too is I did this interview. It's on YouTube as well. So if you have not checked out the YouTube on the show, whenever I have these guest interviews, I'm telling you, you are missing out on some of my best content because we have a full production on the show just for the YouTube videos alone. So it's really, really cool. 'Cause I wanna make this better and more enjoyable for you to absorb.
0:04:00.2 Jared Hamilton: But before we get into the actual nuts and bolts of the episode or the interview with Brandon, big thank yous to the sponsors of the show. Sponsor number one, FlexPro Meals. I literally just had one right before I came up here because between calls and meetings and my day-to-day, I just got back from travel, so needless to say I just need something to throw in the microwave and get up back up to my office. So FlexPro came in clutch for that. So if you have that kind of lifestyle where it's not always convenient making food or you don't always want the food you have or you just need to grab and go, a lot of times that can is just what you need. Well, why not have stuff that meets those criteria that's in line with your goals, that tastes really good, that meets your numbers, that makes fat loss even easier? So definitely check them out. Go to flexpromeals.com or hit the link below. And if you use my code, HamiltonTrained, it'll save you like 20% at check out, which is pretty cool.
0:04:49.1 Jared Hamilton: Next sponsor is 1st Phorm. I've actually got on my 1st Phorm Christmas shirt because I think everyone needs to be more jolly, and I love my Christmas shirt. But, anyway, big thank you to 1st Phorm and all that they do. It's one of those things where we all know supplements are what their name is. It's a supplement. But they do have their time and their place contrary and what some people believe, because if you can get everything you need from actual food, more power to you. Good for you. If you're getting all the protein you need, all the recovery things you need, if you're getting enough omegas, if you're getting enough energy, if you're getting enough fruits and vegetables, awesome. I love that. But for most people, that's not very practical. Just this week, I was talking to a coach where she is anti-supplement. Someone said, "Well, what supplements do you recommend?" She goes, "None." And someone said, "Well, what do you do if your client just can't get in enough protein?" She goes, "Eat more chicken." And then I jokingly said... As a joke, I said, "Just throw it in a blender and make your own protein shake." And she went, "Yeah, absolutely."
0:05:54.5 Jared Hamilton: And my thing is like, "That's just not practical." Yes, the optimal way is never touch a supplement and only eat food. But most people's just lives aren't that centered around fat loss and optimization and fitness to make that happen, so having a protein shake, having a multi-vitamin, having a pre-workout, having... If you're not eating enough fruits and vegetables, having like a green supplement, something like that can be really, really helpful and not just living in the land of optimal where you're blending chicken breast and shit. So that's why I love 1st Phorm is because you know you're getting great products that are accurate, they're safe, they're made in an actual HQ, not in someone's basement. So if that's your cup of tea and you wanna look into upgrading what you take or seeing what you should take, I also have a video below that walks you through my perspective on what I take, what our clients take and my suggestion with supplements. All that will be below, as well as the link to get some free shipping via 1st Phorm. So that is it for the sponsors. Let's get into the actual nuts and bolts of the episode with Brandon, and I will talk to you soon.
0:06:57.0 Jared Hamilton: Do people just come to your practice and they're just like... Or someone's like, "Hey, who do you work with?" And they go, "Oh, motherfucker that looks like Thor." [laughter]
0:07:04.4 Dr. Brandon Parker: It's either that or if my elastic band breaks, everyone's like, "Yeah, Fabio over here." [laughter]
0:07:09.3 Jared Hamilton: Wow. Bro, you know you're probably... [chuckle] This is gonna go on a weird dive. You know this is probably some person's fantasy coming to see you and have you adjust them, and you this like Thor looking, Fabio having ass dude... You're just probably some middle-aged woman's fantasy. She reads this in a book...
0:07:27.1 Dr. Brandon Parker: I'll tell you what, man... [laughter] Well, I'll tell you what, man, there's times where I'm like, "You're completely fine. You don't have to keep coming." "Oh no, I'll keep coming. I'll keep coming this way." And it's like, [laughter] "All right."
0:07:40.3 Jared Hamilton: Like, "All right, we'll just keep that... Let's just keep her going." Like, "Oh no, you're good."
[laughter]
0:07:43.3 Dr. Brandon Parker: "Let's keep this energy going." [laughter]
0:07:46.9 Jared Hamilton: I love it. I'm so happy we started off like this. This makes me so happy. Oh, fuck, this is great. I'm super pumped. So fun fact, this is the... This is... I've never had someone in your realm on the show ever. I think, actually, today you have the biggest following of any guests I've had on, which is pretty neat.
0:08:05.9 Dr. Brandon Parker: Really?
0:08:07.2 Jared Hamilton: Yeah. I've had some pretty big, big name people, but I think you have the biggest following. But then also, I've never had someone talk about your kind of stuff. But I've been wanting to, I just haven't found anyone who I don't think would sound like a history teacher.
0:08:24.3 Dr. Brandon Parker: I see.
0:08:24.8 Jared Hamilton: You know what I'm saying?
[laughter]
0:08:25.9 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah.
0:08:27.0 Jared Hamilton: But then as you and I have gotten to know each other and gotten connected more, I'm like, "This is really perfect." So that's why I was really glad that you were down to do it. So give everyone listening a little idea of who you are and then we'll just dive into the shenanigans.
0:08:38.8 Dr. Brandon Parker: Sure, sure. I should have practiced my elevator speech here or pitch, but I'm gonna do my best where I'm...
0:08:43.9 Jared Hamilton: Oh, we're talking about you being your patients' fantasies. I think that's enough right there.
[laughter]
0:08:48.9 Dr. Brandon Parker: Everyone's introduced to me. But my name is Dr. Brandon Parker. I'm a chiropractor and strength coach. Those are my classical trainings. But now I'm specializing in helping people overcome the pain that they've been dealing with and then hopefully get them back to living the lives that they want to live. Started off as a strength and conditioning coach, working with elite athletes at the professional level. And honestly, I just got sick and tired of waking up at 4:00 AM just for somebody to say like, "Oh, my back hurts. I don't wanna work out." And then [chuckle] I was like, "Okay, if I go to additional schooling, I can start to set my own hours." And then from there, I started to shift my focus towards people that really wanted to unlock a better side of their life, 'cause a lot of people, they have a bad knee and they blame it on their genetics, they blame it on their... All these outside factors when they don't even consider the internal factors that are actually the large contributing factor to what's happening. So yeah, I guess now what I'm doing is just helping people be human again.
0:09:48.2 Jared Hamilton: I love that, dude. And this is where it blends really well. I mean, the show is called Dieting From the Inside Out. So I was gonna ask you to approach this from like, "All right, what kind of mental perspectives or the internal perspectives can we attack at this?" And you just did it without even thinking about it. I love it. So here's something I...
[laughter]
0:10:03.1 Dr. Brandon Parker: We just blend together. [laughter]
0:10:04.5 Jared Hamilton: Right, right, right. You just have a better beard than I do. It's fine. That's fine. Here's my question, and I love... 'Cause I wanna, honest to God, know your answer. Why is it... I've always been the biggest fan of chiropractic, so I've been going to a chiropractor in some capacity since I was... My first experience with a chiro locally to me was when I was 12. I woke up with headaches every single morning and I just needed a couple of snaps and pops, and we were good. So I've been a fan of chiropractic work forever, especially if we can avoid surgery or avoid whatever. But why is it you have half of the population who are like me, raving fans of chiros, and the other half, not just isn't a fan, but they think y'all aren't even a medical degree or they think you guys are a bunch of quacks, that's just dangerous and hurting. It's like, let's say cilantro. Everyone on Instagram knows I love cilantro, but some people are like, "Yeah, I'm not a fan. I just I don't care for it. I just don't think it tastes good." That's fine. But I feel like with chiropractic, it's like, "Oh, I love them," or they should all go, "Just be eradicated from the Earth." Talk about that.
[laughter]
0:11:16.1 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah. So to give you my perspective, I don't tell anybody what I do, what my actual profession is, because you only get one or two options and it's never really fruitful for me. So first and foremost is, "Hey, I'm a chiropractor." And it's just like, "Oh, I heard they're quacks," and it's like, "All right, [laughter] I don't know how I'm gonna continue this conversation. Nice to meet you." Or it's the other side of things where it's just like, "Oh really? I had this lower back pain. Do you think you can help me?" And it's just like this whole circumstance where it's like...
0:11:40.8 Jared Hamilton: "Please, look at this."
0:11:42.7 Dr. Brandon Parker: Right. Exactly. It's like I'm in a bar right now. I'm not gonna do a consult right here in the middle of... [laughter] So to answer your question, it's fully... It's deserved. Our chiropractic profession is very wide when it comes to our scope. And because we are open portal practitioners, meaning anybody can come to us without a referral, we have this opportunity to treat such a large array of pathologies. But the thing is, some of those pathologies are not in our scope, and as a ethical practitioner, you need to be able to send them to the right areas. And this is where things get into hot water, because we have ego get in the way of healthcare, and you should never have that circumstance. And you have chiropractors trying to blame all these pathologies on a single source of Your back's out of alignment. And without me getting on this huge rabbit hole, your back does not go out of alignment. If I had the ability to push on your back and push a bone back into place, every NFL player would be screwed. Could you imagine?
[laughter]
0:12:56.3 Dr. Brandon Parker: So to answer your question, I had the same experience with you. I grew up... I found an amazing chiropractor. I had what we call a lumbar radiculopathy. I woke up, stood out of bed and my left leg gave out from underneath me, couldn't do sports, couldn't do anything. And that was my identity. So if I couldn't do that and I'm stuck on a couch, I am screwed. Chiropractor comes in, says, "Hey, look, I'm gonna adjust you. It's gonna be a temporary pain relief. And then from there, I want you to do these exercises and ease your way back into sports." I saw him three times and I never saw him again other than saying hello. Not this prototypical, "Hey, I need to see you 30 times to make sure that this mythical pathology that I'm blaming it on is corrected." Does that make sense?
0:13:43.1 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm curious, so are you a fan... 'Cause I hear several thoughts with this. Are you a fan of maintenance chiropractic work? Let me give you a case in point. So the chiro that I've seen, he has done more progress for my issues than I have ever had in my life, as in, once he got my X-rays, I had... I'm not a medical doctor, obviously, whatsoever, but as soon as those x-rays popped up, I'm across the room and I go, "Holy shit." I said, [chuckle] "I'm not a chiro, but that's crooked as fuck, isn't it?" He goes, "Oh yeah, it's bad." Or like my shoulder gave... My shoulders giving me so many issues over the years. I talk about them on the Instagram and stuff, where I have a crooked collar bone, and my right side is all raised funny, but then my chiro measured it, and my AC joint on my left side, my good shoulder, I think it's like a 3 or 4 mm gap, I guess, normal, whatever. This one's 12. And I'm like, "Oh, so this is why I can't press anything over my head without it feeling like someone shoving a pencil into my arm.
0:14:53.6 Jared Hamilton: And through the process of the next few months, I'm back to... I'm binging hundreds on incline, I'm feeling the most... And I jiu-jitsu way easier now, I'm in the least amount of pain I've ever been in my life. So now I'm like, "Do I keep going?" Even he's like, "Bro, you're fixed. You're good. Things are awesome," but I hear a lot of people talk about having maintenance chiropractic work and just going like once a month. Is that even valid then?
0:15:20.5 Dr. Brandon Parker: Great question. So it comes down to, are you trending towards a goal, and are you making progress through the... Like, of you going. So for example, when you are working with me, it's not just the chiropractic adjustments, which a lot of people make that synonymous. Like, you're a chiropractor, therefore all you do is adjust. Me personally, I hardly adjust. I adjust as a potential technique to decrease or down-regulate the pain that you are currently feeling. And there's a million different ways to do that; heat, ice, massage, or an isometric exercise. So for example, if somebody has a tendinopathy and they still wanna train, they still wanna do jiu-jitsu or some type of fighting style, I can just simply say, "Hey look, if we need to get you through this session, let's try these asymmetric." So if you're dealing with a hamstring tendinopathy, the hamstring tendon issue, we'll just do a glute bridge, hold it for 30 seconds until the area feels warm. 9 times out of 10, they'll be able to get through their session pain-free, and they'll feel much better. Now, to answer your... Like, circle back, is it worth for maintenance care? Well, if you seeing me on a monthly basis to talk shops, maybe change your programming, perhaps work on an area that you need a little bit more deep dive on, then yes. But for the sake of just go in and getting adjusted, at that point, it's more like, "Do I get benefit from the post-adjustment stress reduction?" Does that make sense?
0:16:47.7 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, absolutely. No, for sure. Whenever you talk about chiros using terms like, "Oh, you're back's out alignment, or whatever," and you're like, "That's not a thing," in that area of chiropractic, do you find it's because they're giving either unethical or complete wrong advice or they're teaching wrong, or is it the equivalent of someone coming to my neck of the woods and I say, "Yeah, we're toning your back." I know toning doesn't exist, but I'm not gonna give the client who's not educated in what I'm educated in. They want a toned back, so I'm like, "We're gonna tone your back." Toning doesn't exist, but what we're gonna do is gonna give them the result of a toned back. Is it that kind of thing or is it different?
0:17:26.5 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah, I love the fact that you ask this question, because I think it's both, 'cause we're talking for a large majority of people here. So it's very important for you to use language that your client or your patient knows what you're talking about. When you talk over their head, they're lost, and then why are you talking in the first place? So first and foremost, do I think some people are using terminology in a way that's just making sure that it's received well? Yes. But I think that they're not necessarily considering the backlash that these simplistic terms may cause. The easiest example is, "Oh yeah, your back's out of whack," or, "Your back's out of place," "Oh it's out of place? Okay, so when you adjust me, I feel better, therefore it's in place." Well, if this person can adjust me and it pops in and out that easy, I probably shouldn't do these exercises 'cause I have very weak back. And then it kind of snowballs and snowballs, and that's where we start to see the opening of the door of chronic pain. Because if we have fear and avoidance, now we're scared to do something, but because we haven't been doing anything a long time, now we're deconditioned, now we don't have this strength buffer that protects us in our daily lives.
0:18:39.0 Dr. Brandon Parker: So the things that we like to do. And I don't know about you, if somebody were to take away BJJ or whatever type of fighting style you do, because they said, "Hey, you can't do that, your hips are screwed," you're gonna... A part of you... A part of your identity is gonna go to the wayside, and that's gonna really mess with your psyche, and the other side of things, we also have to consider is this, we are... For a lack... Healthcare is a business. It is what it is. And in order for a practitioner to make money, in that model, without charging higher prices, they have to see a lot of faces in a small amount of time. So they have to rely on these short, easy, understandable phrases 'cause it gets them in and out of the door quickly.
0:19:20.1 Jared Hamilton: That makes a lot of sense. So that it is really both. Well, and that's why I think any... We'll call it, maybe not provider, any professional, let's say coach or chiro, I feel like there's that middle ground where... You can have both where you're teaching like, "Hey, well, it's actually not out of alignment, what you're feeling is this." And it's like the CliffsNotes version. It's like when a client comes to me and says, "Hey, I wanna tone my back." I go, "Okay, well, toned is actually a way to describe something. It's not an actual verb. We're not toning shit. We can do these things and it's gonna make a toned look, but toning doesn't... " And they go, "Oh," and then that breeds a great conversation. I feel like it's the same thing.
0:19:57.4 Dr. Brandon Parker: It's 100% the same thing. You just have to take that extra step, which I understand can get stressful if you're looking at the time clock saying, "I'm already five minutes behind and I need to get to the next patient."
[laughter]
0:20:08.8 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, do you feel like... It's interesting, I did not think we were gonna go this way with the conversation, but it's why I love going to these with no agenda. Do you think the world of chiropractic is missing a lot of pieces? For example, the first chiro I went to, it was, I walk in there, pop me, lots of pretzel, set me on my way. That was it. There was no conversation of, did tissue work, or rehab work or PT or anything like that. The chiro I go to right now does that. I see... Well, usually if I go, depending on what's going on, I'm getting deep tissue work done, I'm getting adjustment work done, and I'm getting sent with a plan home of what to do with my shoulder or a rehab-type exercises.
0:20:49.8 Dr. Brandon Parker: 100%. It's 1,000% missing, and I think it's because there is no incentive. The insurance companies don't incentivize it. And I mean, maybe to a little, a bit, but it's kind of like, "All right, you get... You can charge for heat and stem," which means I can put you on something, walk away, and never have to see you until it's time to adjust you, and I can do that for six plus people, which I think you and I would agree is very low value care. They can do that at home. And then manual therapy, you can bill for it, but it's not super... It's not a large reimbursement. It's not something that you would spend a lot of time on to get money for. And then last but not least, the big bang for your buck is the adjustment. So as a business owner, and most people are like, "Okay, how can I maximize my output?" Now, if I feel like if insurance was more so... Maybe they reimbursed in the way that would reward doing all these different facets in a way that was ethical, I think you would see much more of it, but at the end of the day, it's like the way that people are treating is born out of necessity to meet their own personal goals. And some people get into healthcare not because they truly wanna help somebody but because there is big dollar signs if you can maximize your output.
0:22:07.1 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. So as the consumer that's listening, who's going to a chiro and all of a sudden now they're like, "Holy fuck, my chiro is a scam artist or whatever," [laughter] how does someone... 'Cause the amount of people that I know that are all going to chiros have been going to chiros for years and stuff, or different levels of massage therapists or whatever the case is. From your perspective, how does someone find the right person, other than like, yeah, there's the conversation about who's in your network? That stuff aside, who actually is going to give them the care that they need? Is there a thought process to picking the right one?
0:22:42.6 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah, yeah. So it's a little bit... I would say from a overarching without breaking it down to easy as something more simplistic is, you need to find somebody that is maximizing their knowledge to a point where they can break it down to something you can understand, and it all comes off of just effective communication. And if the doctor cuts you off within the first five minutes of you sitting down asking you what your problem is or you feel like you haven't been able to express what's going on, express how you feel and get validated by the doctor, perhaps you could find somebody else. But that being said, everyone has a different flavor of choice. You might like vanilla, I might like chocolate and it comes down to is your needs being met? Now, when you go into a practitioner's office, you should have the effective communication piece and they should be telling you why they're doing things. And if they can't explain to you what they're doing, they're not doing informed consent, which is in our duties. [laughter] You have to explain what you're doing and why, and you also know it, and a lot of people don't do this, is you also have to explain like, "Hey, if you didn't wanna do this, you could do all these other things. In fact, I can send you to somebody else that can do it."
0:24:00.8 Dr. Brandon Parker: So if you feel like a chiropractor is really trying to get you, like, "Oh, no, you have to do 30 visits and X, Y, Z," and you feel almost like they're being predatory or you feel like you're being pushed into care, get out of there. There's plenty of great practitioners, and this is my own bias here, is you shouldn't be able to tell the difference between a chiropractor, a physical therapist, and a medical doctor who is in the pain and rehabilitation space, because we're all following the same... Not the same scope of practice, but the same evidence that's constantly being updated. Now, the physical therapist and the chiropractor have a much more similar scope, so you really shouldn't tell the difference between those two.
0:24:44.0 Jared Hamilton: Wow, that's so fascinating. That's so fascinating. I love that. That's crazy, man. And all this like... I'm still a fan of my guy now. Okay, this has just reaffirmed, it's like, my guy or whatever. [laughter] But I don't even know, he might listen to the show, he asking me about... Every time I see him he asks me about business and work and my show. And so for all I know, like, what up Dr. Curtis? [laughter] So let me ask you this, one of the things I was wanting to get in to talk to you about, if someone were to just hop on your Instagram that... And it is a ridiculous Instagram. You put so much shit on there. And we'll be sure to link everything in the show notes. You're like the... I would say my... At first glances, you're the mobility guy. I don't know maybe that's a right assessment or wrong, but at first glance, I'm like, "Oh, this guy just is about getting people moving pain-free." Just so everyone's clear, a lot of people will bring together flexibility and mobility, and we think it's the same thing, so touch on what the difference is and why mobility is such a big deal.
0:25:47.8 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah. I use mobility almost like it's a buzzword. You kinda just summarized very well. I am trying to get people to be strong throughout the entire range of motion that they have access to. And if you have that strength even at your end range, the chances of you being in a wrong position and being susceptible to injury is much lower. So my goal is for that to be... Being happened, but also in this time that I'm helping you restore strength and mobility to whatever injury you have, I wanna build your confidence. Because once again, we talked about how chronic pain is such a prevalent thing, especially with people who happen to follow what I have to do, because it's kind of... This is the common question I get: "I've had this injury for 20 plus years, why is it that your simple exercises that you're giving away for free is giving me the results I'm looking for? I tried PT, I tried all these things." And I don't have the answer for that because pain is such a messy circumstance. Perhaps you're just in a more receptive circumstance now, but it's not as complicated as some people make it, and I think that people make it convoluted so they can sell stuff.
0:27:01.1 Dr. Brandon Parker: Whereas if you just did this one thing which places stress on the injury and allowed your body to recover, your body will therefore adapt over time. And if your injury is dependent on being stronger and that's the reason why you're pain, you will be out of pain. Now, granted, chronic pain is a little bit more psychogenic and stuff like that, but that's kind of what my goal is, is just kind of having people get simple solutions and they can just help themselves. And if they feel like I've given them enough value, then perhaps I can help them with the other facets of life, which could be motivation, habit building, nutrition, so on and so forth.
0:27:43.1 Jared Hamilton: Hey, dude, I have never seen anyone else... When you and I were just bullshitting on the phone the other day, I've never seen anyone else in your realm, like a chiro or... So basically in... Like you're talking about, like PT or sports med, whatever, build out an entire program that gets to everything else, like nutrition, habits, mindset, I've never seen anyone do it. They come in, "What's my exact... I pop you. Oh, I just make you do a bunch of external rotations for 20 minutes with my other seven PT clients, and then you leave." I've never seen anyone do what you're doing. I think it's incredible.
0:28:17.8 Dr. Brandon Parker: Some of the motivation, or at least some of the inspiration I got is, of course, all the stuff that you put out, man, is just like, makes me think to myself like, "Oh, there's a whole different perspective that I really need to read up on. There's... " You ever have a client or a patient that you might think to yourself like, "Oh, I really haven't dealt with this"? Maybe not now 'cause you're a weathered veteran, but have you ever came across a patient where you thought to yourself like, "Oh man, this is... "
[overlapping conversation]
[laughter]
0:28:45.9 Jared Hamilton: Yeah.
0:28:50.1 Dr. Brandon Parker: And that's kind of what it was is, I started to take on... Because I have such a wide base of, I guess, you call marketing content, whatever you wanna call, I do attract a lot of different people, and I like the challenge, and that does come with a lot of extra stress. But that's what kind of was the catalyst. It just kinda like, if you do wanna cast a wide net and help as many people, you need to get really good at the basics. And as I said earlier, is, how do we teach you how to be a great human being. Because if you can master your sleep, have great coping mechanisms, make sure that you're eating quality nutrition so your body has the proper building materials to repair, then are we also having a great training program that auto-regulates according to all the stresses that I just talked about? And then of course, and then if you think about this, I'm sure you're well aware of this, you have a great community is, is can there be a community that supply support when this person is down? Because that, I think, is the number one thing that's going to decide if somebody is going to push through or fall back to their old ways.
0:29:56.0 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, I would agree with that completely. It was Bob... When I first got into just personal development and looking at other... Like especially psychology and things like that, it was Bob Proctor. He just died like two... One or two years ago. One of the things... I was at a Bob Proctor seminar, and he said, "Your environment has more to do with who you are than your heredity." And I was like, "Holy shit." Because if we take someone and put them and... Take someone, just a piece of shit, or that have shitty habits or just is not in a... And even not a good person, you put them in the right group of people, magic shit happens. It's like we see... It's what's crazy is we... People as adults have a hard time believing that, but they do it with their kids. If they see their good Little Billy hanging out with shitheads, they know that Little Billy is gonna turn into a shithead. But they think that Mom Karen goes and spends time with all her stuck friends. All top five of her friends are stuck, all five of her friends have body pains, all five of her friends, we'll just say, don't have good results, let's say they're all 50 pounds overweight. Let's say all five of her friends are negative. It's no wonder Karen has the exact same issue, she's number six.
0:31:06.1 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah. Environment plays such a massive role. Part of the thing that I always... I made this little e-book for most of my clients where it just kinda goes over the most easy things that you can do to solicit a behavioral change. And one of them is just change your environment. For me, granted there are facets of people that I can't speak for it, but if we're on talking about the average person, if you didn't have these types of foods that we all can agree on that are low in nutrition and high in calorie around the house, the average person is not gonna get in the car and drive to go get this thing, because it's not necessarily a necessity or a huge desire, it's just, "Hey, this is the best thing that I have right now that I see." And if it wasn't there to begin with, I don't think these people would be eating these foods. Now granted, that's not the crutch of it all, there's other things, but that's just one example of how your environment can either set you up for failure or success.
0:32:04.8 Jared Hamilton: Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, no doubt at all. I get people asking me all the time, they would say, "What's the easiest way to get motivated?" And I say, "Get around motivated motherfuckers." Like that's it.
[laughter]
0:32:14.4 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah, so true. So true.
0:32:15.6 Jared Hamilton: How do you make money? Get around a bunch of wealthy motherfuckers. How to be happier, get around a bunch of happy people. It's the cheat code of anything. Mentorship and hiring people like you or me is, I think, the ultimate cheat code. It's why we all have mentors, but the cheapest life hack ever is get around people who have the thing that you want. If your marriage sucks, get around some great marriages. If your communication sucks, get around some really great communicators. I remember the first time I did that, I got around... I still don't claim to be this great communicator, but I remember it hit me how fast I talk. When I got around a bunch of more stoic people who are great speakers and they hosted podcasts and communicators, I realized how much I started saying, "like," I realized how fast I talked, and I realized how I really need to slow down. And I didn't realize that until I got around these very well-spoken other people. And we have all these magical things that started to happen. It's crazy.
0:33:15.7 Dr. Brandon Parker: I will second that. And that's one thing that I've been trying to work on myself. Remember when you initially asked like, "Hey, do you wanna go on the podcast?" Is like, "Well, I gotta make sure that I exercise. I gotta make sure that I'm doing all these things, because I will sound like a cracked-out squirrel." If I'm talking to somebody that I like [laughter] and I like to talk about the thing we're talking about, I just get faster and faster and faster.
[laughter]
0:33:36.9 Jared Hamilton: Absolutely. I'm the same way, dude. I said that and everyone listening is like, "Bro, you still talk fast. You still say filler words way too much." And I'm like, "Yo, I am working on it. We are a work in progress." But so let me ask you this, so where would the average person start with this stuff? 'Cause the average person listening to this is just your average person who's been struggling to lose weight forever and they just wanna be happy, healthy, and feel better, but... And most of the people that listen to this or in my community barely have time already to work out or go on a walk two, three days a week. So I'm sure the first thought is, "I don't even have time to get started with this. I don't have all the crazy weird equipment that they have at the PT offices or whatever."b How do I even approach mobility and bullshit? Well, that's... If that's where everyone's heads at right now, what would your suggestion be?
0:34:29.0 Dr. Brandon Parker: I'll start off and say, let's demystify mobility and just say it's exercising through a full range of motion. A lot of people are like, "Is this mobility? Is this mobility?" Now, honestly, as long as you are exercising, once again, through a full range of motion, that means your nervous system is going to be prepared for you to be in some weird funky situation and you have to resist something, and that's what's going to have the protective benefits that you would be building. How would somebody start? So the number one thing that I hear is, one, how do I start? But also two, how do you make time? I'm sure every coach gets these questions.
0:35:04.7 Jared Hamilton: 100%.
0:35:05.6 Dr. Brandon Parker: For me, I always like to do the simple activity, it's just called The Habit Scorecard, I'm sure you've read Atomic Habits, that's one of my favorite things to use.
[laughter]
0:35:14.5 Jared Hamilton: I tried getting James on the podcast and he... They politely declined, so we're working on that, but yeah.
0:35:21.8 Dr. Brandon Parker: Well, it's a little bit more and you can mention that you had somebody with a million followers on and then he's like, "Okay, maybe I... "
[laughter]
0:35:28.2 Jared Hamilton: That's right. That's right.
0:35:28.2 Dr. Brandon Parker: But between The Habit Scorecard and then also just having people write down what they do throughout the day, it is a big eye-opener. And it's like, "Okay, well, I spent 20 minutes scrolling on the phone today, and I thought it was much less than that." It's like, "Okay, well, can we cut that down to half and then spend 10 minutes doing one exercise." What I've noticed is whether it be nutrition, just general habit building, or exercise, it all comes down to similar principles where if you wanna do something, let's take away as much friction as possible from that activity. So if it's like I wanna get in shape and therefore I have to do these things, keep breaking down those things until it's an absolute joke. And when you get to that point where you're like, "This is so easy. Why can't I do it?" You can, you can do it. And with you looking at your habits scorecard, you'll be like, "Oh, you mean to tell me that I can just brush my teeth and then when I'm done brushing my teeth, I can drop down and touch my toes to build up my hamstring flexibility?" Yeah, I can definitely do that. And what they show is, if you do two sets of about 30 seconds per day of the week days, that's enough of effective dose for you to actually build lifelong flexibility. You got a minute. You have a minute.
[laughter]
0:36:57.4 Jared Hamilton: Well, and I love that where if someone's like, "I don't have a minute," I go, "Well, then you either are lying to yourself or your life has some serious organizational issues 'cause if you... " This is the barricade that I talk to people about meditating and journaling with getting into the inner work, and they're like, "I don't have five minutes," and then my thing is, "If you do not have five minutes to take care of your brain, then we're in some serious shit and your life needs entirely reorganized."
0:37:25.0 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yep. I wanted to ask you this because it's something that I am always constantly working on and perhaps it's something that I struggle with because I deal with such a wide array of types of people is, where do you draw the line between keeping it real, like, "Hey, look, you do have time," and then also throwing the patient or client a bone, right? It's just like, "Hey, I understand you're validating their circumstance," but then you hit 'em with the real stuff. You know what I'm saying?
0:37:55.5 Jared Hamilton: Yeah. It's both. I think it depends on who I'm talking to. There's some people who they need loving bluntness. If I just come on and say, "Hey, you're a degenerate lazy piece of shit. Get your shit together," there's like 1% of people who will resonate with that but the majority won't. But I think the other piece is people... The way that I view these, people like myself, this is what I tell my coaching staff, is when my coaches... 'Cause my coaches are the best coaches in the world. They love so hard and they want to help people and they're like, "Ah, I'm having a trouble with this client and I just need to tell them this, but I'm just having a hard time. And they're not listening."
0:38:38.5 Jared Hamilton: And I say, "They are paying to... The client pays us to be willing to have the hard conversations that they need to hear for their betterment. You have a moral obligation to communicate effectively and have the hard conversation with them. Most people in our lives are yes-men and are people pleasers and they are not willing to have conversations. But people like you and me are one of the few people in other people's lives who sign up to have that hard conversation." I think there is an intention behind it that supersedes bluntness or, well, I get it, but whatever. And that's kind of my thought on it. But at the end of the day, the thing has to get said. For example, it's why I like to pull out other stuff. When someone says, "I don't have time." I go, "Do me a favor. Pull up in your phone right now. Go into your settings. What's your screen time today?"
[chuckle]
0:39:33.1 Jared Hamilton: And they're like, "Four hours." [laughter] I go, "Okay, so we spent four hours on Instagram today." Or I'll give an example of someone who's 18 times busier than them. Let's say an average person will tell me how busy they are, and I'll go, "Oh, well I have this client named Sarah. Sarah's a single mom 'cause her husband's a narcissist. So she's in the middle of divorcing him. They have four kids, she works three jobs, oh, and is in school with double credit hours and still manages to sleep eight hours a night."
0:40:04.8 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yep.
0:40:06.7 Jared Hamilton: Where are we missing this? The other thing I like to bring up is the fact that the number one driver of human behavior is avoidance of pain. So what I think for some people is putting it flat out which hurts worse. Hey, look, I get you don't have time, but which hurts worse. Would you rather the life that you're trying to get away from that stays the same. But, hey, you got the extra time for Netflix tonight. Or are you willing to give up 30 minutes of that Netflix and you never be in pain ever again? And I think putting it on the table is one of the biggest game changers.
0:40:38.7 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah. And I would also say the what... Back to what we're saying, removing all the friction. I know some people, they look forward to that nighttime Netflix routine. Nothing stops you from getting down on the floor and watching your television and working on your body while you're there. I feel like there's a lot of expectations or what characterizes what exercise is and what mobility and flexibility is where they're afraid they're doing something wrong. But if we were to just rewind 100 years where nothing really mattered, we had strong men just lifting stuff in weird ways, never getting injured, I think we wouldn't be so afraid. For example, we demonize the deadlift, but the only reason why the deadlift is the way the deadlift is is because somebody randomly decided the 45 plates are gonna be this size and the bar is gonna be this long and that's why we have the deadlift. Versus back in 100 years ago, maybe less, maybe 60 years ago, they did a deadlift from the middle of the thighs. Right? Our culture, it really dictates what we are doing. And I feel like people get paralysis by the analysis. Just move. And if it feels good, awesome. 9 times out of 10, I feel pretty safe as saying this, you'll know if you did something wrong almost immediately or the day after, right?
[laughter]
0:42:00.3 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, for sure. Actually, it's funny you brought that up. So my surgery knee gives me some trouble sometimes still when I... I tore my meniscus and stuff. I was finishing up a workout right before we had this podcast. The gym I'm going to has some equipment I haven't had much experience with, so I'm just playing with the new toys. I was doing pendulum squats 'cause that's a... It's like the hack squat's evil old brother. But all of a sudden I did first set, great; second set, great. And I'm not going heavy 'cause it's a pendulum squat. [laughter] Third set on rep three, I had searing pain go over the top of my kneecap. Searing pain. I went, "Nope." We reacted. And 'cause I wanna see how I do the... Because I remember there's been times before I've pushed through my inner meathead and I can't hardly walk the rest of the day. I had the sharp shooting pain, I go, "We're done." And so now I'm playing it by ear the rest of the day. My knee's okay right now. And so next day I have this workout split. I'm gonna try it again and see kind of where things are at. But like you said, it's gonna let when things aren't okay, so.
[laughter]
0:43:07.3 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah. Yeah. And that's where the importance of a coach or somebody that's at least been through it, it comes very important because it's... You have to have that distinction of is the next two sets really going to be the thing that's going to get me to my goal? And the answer is no, it's really not. It's not about the single exercise, a single set, single day of... Even a week, realistically, right? A lot of people are afraid they leave the gym for a vacation for a week and they think that they lose it all. And it's not the case. And as for your circumstance with the pendulum squat, I mean, my first thoughts are you're playing with new toys, which your body is now trying out new stimuluses and perhaps you just hit your particular volume and then your body basically let you know. It's like, "All right, that's it."
[laughter]
0:43:50.9 Jared Hamilton: Yep. Absolutely. I totally agree with that. I want to kind of go back. One thing that you mentioned with these... For the paralysis by analysis with like, "Hey, if you like your show on Netflix, there's nothing wrong with getting on the floor and doing some of the mobility stuff while watching House of Cards or whatever." But I think this opens up another black hole that... One of the biggest issues that I see a lot of people struggle with, that I talk about a lot is I think people have this really fucked up relationship with exercise and movement, which is why we almost self categorize, "Oh, that counts as working out, but this doesn't." I remember one of the... I was working with a client who, one of the reasons she started working with us is she needed to fix her relationship with food and her relationship with exercise because it's always been punishment. And for some reason in her head, yoga did not count as exercise. Walking her dog did not count as exercise. Dancing, which she loved to do, did not count as exercise. So I'm like, "What qualifies as exercise to you?" And she's like, "Oh, in a gym at least an hour and I have to be in pain and sweating my off." [laughter] And I go, "No, no, no, no, no. That's... "
0:45:00.5 Dr. Brandon Parker: That's rough.
0:45:00.6 Jared Hamilton: "That's rough." And I think we have it set up whether it be because of college sports or mom or dad or bullshit from ninth grade, we have it set up that exercise is punishment, it's torture, it's, you have to reach this point of your crawling out of the gym. Whereas we need to fix that relationship with movement in our body and exercise and so much takes care of itself.
0:45:22.2 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah. I feel like the old man yelling at clouds, and I'm a part of the issue is like, I feel like a lot of this also is created by just where all of our attention goes. I mean, we're flipping through Instagram or whatever social media app you use and you're seeing these videos that are getting tens of thousands of likes and it's of course it's just some hardcore lifting style because realistically somebody bending over the touch their toes to a tolerance level that they can handle is not sexy. It's not appealing. It's boring to watch. And I feel like we are subconsciously teaching ourselves improper categorizations of what exercise is and what it isn't.
0:46:00.7 Jared Hamilton: Dude I agree with that so much. And to be honest, I think just with what we teach around how we fix a relationship with food or fix a relationship with ourselves or fix a relationship with all these areas, I think neurologically and from a neuroplasticity standpoint, enjoying your favorite show while doing some basic flexibility mobility work, it's literally rewiring your brain to enjoy like, "Wait, yo, this stuff is actually okay. Look, I'm enjoying this." Those cells are firing and wiring and the cells of down here are firing and wiring and it's going to fix the relationship with whatever it was, with exercise or movement. I think that's a fantastic idea.
0:46:40.9 Dr. Brandon Parker: I mean, I love it. And back to the habit building, right? Is if you want something to stick around, you should reward it. I mean, me personally, this works for me. It may not work for everyone. But I know that my job requires me to be on my feet all day but I'm not necessarily getting any cardio. And that means I have to... I like to do the whole 10,000 steps, which is around 3.5 miles, give or take. So what do I do? It is after dinner, it's good to walk after you eat. I just hop on my little walking desk, I put it in front of my TV to watch Netflix and I'll sit there, God bless my wife, God bless her. [laughter] 'Cause all she hears is... She hears...
[vocalization]
0:47:19.5 Dr. Brandon Parker: And then she hears me commenting about the Netflix show. And she doesn't say a single word.
[laughter]
0:47:24.9 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, I love it. I love it. Well, it's... Dudes, I feel like we all have that 'cause that's how we create permanent change in everything. That's originally why I started jiu-jitsu. Time is such a weird thing. I started jiu-jitsu five and a half years ago. One, any habit you can do for five and a half years; playing guitar, singing, walking every day, that's a powerhouse of consistency. Not trying to brag, but I'm just saying that if you can do something for five years, that's crazy. But it's because of how... For me, it's because of how I set it up. I started jiu-jitsu 'cause, dude, I've been in the biggest rut exercise-wise. I talk about this on Instagram a lot, is I hurt my relationship with exercise back when I thought I was a bodybuilder. I was a personal trainer in a gym working 4:30 in the morning and 9:00 o'clock at night.
0:48:12.3 Jared Hamilton: Saw 200 sessions a month. I was training for a bodybuilding show. So I was literally at the gym seven days a week. And I ate, slept and breath bodybuilding. So you do that for a couple years at a time, dude, I wanted nothing to do with the gym and my job is in the fitness space. So it got to the point where, 'cause working out was a hobby, then I built this big business and now it's my job. And so then it hit me. I went, "When was the last time I enjoyed a hobby but also exercise and stuff?" And I'm gonna go, "It was the mats. It was rolling around with a bunch of sweaty other dudes in angry pajamas." [laughter] So I went and bought a membership at the local jiu-jitsu academy. And because I love it and enjoy it, I get my exercise in, I get my cardio in. It's a whole... Everyone knows it's jiu-jitsu. And then lo and behold, I feel like five years went by that fast because of the internal change, not the external.
0:49:08.9 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah, it's interesting you say that 'cause I'm also... I would say I'm out of the rut, but just freshly out of the rut. For me it was, I got super into the data. Like, what is the most optimal way to do X, Y, Z? I'm such a busy guy. I don't want to do anything that's gonna not be the most optimal for the outcome of building muscle and looking good and being healthy, right? So it's like, all right, 10,000 steps. Make sure that you're training to proximity to failure. Make sure you're hitting every muscle group at least two to three times per week, and then your volume somewhere between 10 to 20 sets per week. Right? And it really sucked the fun out of my training. It was just basically I would get in there, do the thing that was the most optimal, which we... The recent research is showing, if you train your muscle groups at a lengthened position, you'll get a higher hypertrophic response.
0:50:00.4 Dr. Brandon Parker: But I kept on thinking about all these things and then eventually it's just like, I don't even wanna go in there. I don't wanna do these things. And then also another thing that I was battling was I train in my practice's gym where people will come in and, they'll talk to me because they see Dr. Parker lifting in the gym. So that was a distraction. And then of course, as we were talking about before, I don't know if it was recording, I have ADHD and if I have a ding on my phone and I see that it might be a client or I forgot to post on Instagram, now my anxiety's through the roof. So now I'm sitting here typing away on my phone. I look at the time it's been 30 minutes. I haven't broken a sweat yet. And what I've been doing to get out of my rut was, well, first and foremost I put the phone away, right? But I also just... I just went in there. I said, "I'm not gonna follow any plan. Of course I'm going to make sure it's well-rounded. I'm hitting all the groups. I'm not just gonna skip legs for the next three months, [laughter] but I'm just gonna do whatever feels right. And if I don't feel like there's a good connection or contraction with a certain exercise, 'cause that's what I derive as fun, I'm not gonna do it." And it's been helping a lot.
0:51:08.9 Jared Hamilton: Yeah. That's incredible man. So one of the changes that I've made recently as well with this is I just hated the... Well, we moved. Wow. I just said a whole bunch of words and no sentences came out. [laughter] That's the worst thing with ADHD brain, dude, is you have like 17 sentences at once and you try to say all of them and you sound crazy. But anyway, we moved to this... We've been living in this house for, I don't know, a little year and a quarter maybe. And the closest gym was in any time fitness, walking distance. It was literally five minutes away, a five minute walk, so like a 90 second drive. So with how busy my schedule is, I prioritized going there because of my schedule. And it was good for about the first year. But then I went back to just... I just didn't enjoy it. No energy in there, it's all old people. It was small. Nothing wrong with those gyms, but it just wasn't... I wasn't feeling it. And then, one day I go, "You know what? I wanna just see," 'cause I live in Indianapolis. There's gyms everywhere. So this newer gym opened up and I go, "You know what? I'm gonna just change the scenery. I'm just gonna go buy a day pass." And I walked in there and it was what I call a meathead gym. It's called American Muscle Factory. [laughter] Bro, their t-shirts say "The Mecca of the Midwest," old school shit. I walk in and it's over 20,000 square feet.
0:52:37.1 Jared Hamilton: It's humongous. And every dude in there is geared out of his gourd. I walked in there and I went, "I'm as soft as puppy shit." There's an IFBB Pro that runs the place. He came in fifth at The O or the Olympia. And every dude in there and every girl in there looks amazing and they're getting after it. You walk in there and you felt something, you felt different. And all of a sudden... And then, I literally signed up for a year, paid in full. I'm like, "This is exactly where I need to be." And then the other day I actually got... I ran into the owner. His name's Nathan Epler. He came in fifth at the 212 at the Olympia. Great dude. And we hadn't met. He goes, "Oh yeah, yeah, how long you been coming?" And I said, "O2h, just like a month and a half." He goes, "Well, what do you think so far?" And I go, "Yeah, it's great, man." He goes, "Man, when I built this place," he goes, "all I wanted it to be a place where people think fitness has to be this hard thing. You have to hate it all. And they hate working out. And I wanted a community and a culture where you come in and as soon as you walk in these doors, you smile." He's like, "That's all I wanted."
0:53:41.8 Jared Hamilton: And then lo and behold, he has this thriving business and this thriving gym. And I look forward to every single workout now. I was in a rut for the last five years, hated every training session. And I look forward to every single training session now. And just from an environment change, it's crazy.
0:54:00.2 Dr. Brandon Parker: I mean, I could be a broken record and say that over and over and over again. Environment, environment, environment, environment. And as you can see, it is as simple as just going down the road and finding another gym if that's what you have access to. And I think a lot of people just build these problems to be on this pedestal that they can't reach. And that's not necessarily the truth. I guess, I'm sure everyone has heard that the circumstances of your biggest fears are always worse in your head versus when you actually face them. And it's so true. That's kind of where my style of teaching and my style of practicing is just how can I lower the activation level so much so that you don't even question it, you just do it. And then before you know it, you're looking around like, "What just happened? How am I here now?" And just, "Well, you took the first step and you realized that the first step wasn't this big weary thing. You just had to do it."
0:54:56.5 Jared Hamilton: Yeah. That's incredible man. So what would you say to the person listening who is, that's square one. They're like, "Okay, this has been eyeopening, but I don't even know where to get started with feeling better and all this stuff." Where's the best place for someone to get started with this kind of stuff?
0:55:12.1 Dr. Brandon Parker: So the number one thing I can say is always start with a goal, right? First it could be the subjective goal, and then let's try to objectify it, right? It doesn't have to be the super scientific approach, but it's better to have some type of objectivity just in case you ever feel like you're not making the progress you're making, you have something to fall back on, data. It doesn't care about your feeling. 'Cause you can see the trend line going up or down depending on the goal that you're trying to pursue. So first and foremost, have a deep rooted reason why you're doing something. And it doesn't have to make sense to anyone other than yourself. And when you accept that fact, and 'cause I know people, they're like, "I just wanna get jacked." And it's like, "That's pretty vague." And then they can go down this... They can go to like six, seven reasons why they want to get jacked. Then it's like, "Okay, that's no longer vague anymore. It may have seemed super subjective and didn't matter to me, but you just explained to me why it does." So once you have that anchor point, now you can start to make changes to your lifestyle or start implementing strategies.
0:56:20.0 Dr. Brandon Parker: Just start trending towards that goal. Now, a lot of people try to say, "Make goals that are timely." I don't agree with that, especially with pain. When you put a six to eight-week time frame on something like that, now you're getting anxious because you felt like you didn't make any progress. Now, I understand you should be re-checking your goals to make sure you are making progress or you need to change up something, sure. But don't put a hard deadline to get the results you're looking for, just because it can get really hairy and demoralizing. After you have this deep rooted why and you start to change up your environment, you start changing up your lifestyle, now it's a matter of just making sure that you stay, not necessarily motivated, 'cause we all know that is just a thing in the wind, it's here and it's gone, it's here and it's gone. But ways that we can start developing the discipline muscle.
0:57:15.0 Dr. Brandon Parker: Everyone's like, "How do you get all this discipline?" I mean, at the end of the day, you have to build it. Well, I guess I go two ways on this, you can build your discipline, but then there's also these circumstances where you're burning your will power on things that don't necessarily matter. A lot of people, once again, they force feed, I gotta back squat because I want big legs. Well, no you can pendulum squat, you can leg extension, you can leg press, you can do deadlift if you're trying to build up your posterior chain. There's so many different strategies, and that was just an exercise. It could be a habit, that could be nutrition, that could be anything you can think of. So I guess this is the ADHD, I just went in this big circle, I don't really know where I'm ending here.
0:57:58.1 Dr. Brandon Parker: But I would just say make a goal, after you make the goal that's deep rooted and it really means a lot to you, then start to figure out the things that you need to do to make that goal happen. Break down those things until it's a point where you're like, "This is so easy, it's a joke if I don't get this done." And then once those are super easy, find out where you can place it in your day-to-day life and that's where the writing down what you do on a typical day helps a lot. And it's like, "Okay, I need two minutes to do hamstring stretches, I'm gonna do that while I'm making my coffee." Done. It's already happening. So now, and then, of course, if we wanna get a little step further here, if coffee is a treat to you, now you're reinforcing the hamstring stretching. So...
[laughter]
0:58:40.3 Jared Hamilton: That's awesome, man.
0:58:40.5 Dr. Brandon Parker: So after that, it's so simple 'cause it just adapts to all other principles of, okay, this got easy. In order for my body to continue to adapt, I need to make it slightly harder, what is that next step? And of course, if you get a little stuck, that's where a coach comes in. But a lot of times, it just kind of comes second nature. Okay, I did stretching twice per week, now I'm gonna do it three times per week.
0:59:03.2 Jared Hamilton: Absolutely. That's such a beautiful answer, man. I think anything that we're doing, it has to be dumbed down to simplicity. I always tell people I'm not that smart of a person, I grew up struggling with learning, and for... That's why I feel like my one superpower is to make everything simple, 'cause it's the only way I can make it actionable for me. And I think everyone lives there though, I think that's what everyone should do, but. Last question, what are you excited about right now? I know from our conversations, you're in the middle, balls deep on some crazy stuff. So what are you excited about right now that you're working on?
0:59:39.2 Dr. Brandon Parker: The one thing that I'm super excited about is... So I started this thing called the Mobility Manual, and it's full transparency, if you wanted to just go through all my exercises on Instagram, you're getting the same product essentially without sets and reps. But I think where the real benefit comes is, not only do you get sets and reps in a design program to help take a specific joint from zero to level five, which a level five should be able to... Let you be able to run, jump and play again. But I really think is really cool is we have a community. In this community, it's full access to me, and I think I spend too much time on it. Or if somebody asks a question, I'm back answering to them. It's just the opportunity to connect with people that are also battling this... They're battling their pain and trying to overcome their circumstances, but also start implementing low level things to help better their wellness. And so I'm currently excited about that because I'm now releasing the shoulder portion of it, which right now we only have the hip and ankle. I'm releasing the shoulder soon, which I gotta do all the editing, you know how bad that can be.
1:00:47.5 Jared Hamilton: Yeah. [laughter]
1:00:47.9 Dr. Brandon Parker: And I'm gonna be sitting in front of a computer for God knows how long. And then I'll start by doing the ankles... Not the ankle, the neck, and then the spine, and then from there, it's gonna be some other things. Because my ultimate goal here is, can I make a one-stop shop for just general information and implementation for most of the most common injuries. And of course, some people are gonna need some additional support and that's where the coaching comes in line. But if I can get everyone to help themselves, that was my goal when I started as a chiropractor, as a doctor, because empowering somebody to do it on their own is so damn cool, my friend.
1:01:27.1 Jared Hamilton: That's incredible, Brandon. I love that. Is that... So that's live now, people can get it? Or is it still... Or is it still in waiting list times?
1:01:35.5 Dr. Brandon Parker: Beta stuff? Yeah. So the Mobility Manual itself, it's open, it's... Right now, it's live to hips and ankles. And it's kind of like a rolling thing, when I finish it, I release it to whoever has it. 'Cause how I price this is because I always... This is what I always say is like, "Look, I'm gonna charge you something 'cause I wanna hold you accountable to the program." That's about it. And once you pay this one-time fee, you have it for the duration, as long as the internet is a thing, you have access to this. I'm not gonna kick you out. So that's kind of my dream is to just eventually, once I cover the whole body of all the different things, then I'll probably start going into more the wellness side of things, mentality speaking, nutrition speaking. But right now, I'm just trying to lay the ground work with the movement.
1:02:23.3 Jared Hamilton: Where can people get that manual at?
1:02:26.3 Dr. Brandon Parker: You... So our generation, I guess. But you click the link in my bio. [laughter] I gotta find a better way of saying that. But yeah, you go on my profile, go on...
1:02:37.8 Jared Hamilton: Okay, cool. What we'll do is we'll put it in the show notes, so just send me... After we're over at some point, just send me the link, and we'll throw the link where people can grab it. 'Cause I know there'd be people where it's like, "I want it now." So just send it to me and we'll throw it in the show notes of the show when it comes out.
1:02:54.4 Dr. Brandon Parker: I appreciate that.
1:02:55.3 Jared Hamilton: So yeah, man. So where can people find you? 'Cause obviously, I can tell already people are gonna... My community's gonna love you. So where can people find you with your stuff?
1:03:04.0 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah. So the main one that I will respond to as many people as possible, which I hope I didn't open up a flood gate here, but. Is my Instagram... So @bs.parker. Fun fact, S literally means nothing, it was the only way I could get a user name that had my first initial and my last name into one heading.
1:03:25.4 Jared Hamilton: Really?
1:03:26.3 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah. I tried everything, Brandon Parker, Dr. Brandon Parker. Literally everything to the point where it's like, @bs.parker. [laughter] So...
1:03:33.5 Jared Hamilton: Bullshit.
1:03:33.6 Dr. Brandon Parker: Yeah.
[laughter]
1:03:34.7 Dr. Brandon Parker: That's what everyones says, it's just like, you know what, this is my life now. But yeah, that's where I do all my responses and all that. Then TikTok is just kind of like a re-posting board at this point. And then YouTube kind of the same. So if you want to get in contact with me, if I can help you through a voice message, as long as you're willing to listen to my voice, I will be more than willing to help you.
1:03:55.8 Jared Hamilton: That's right. [laughter] I love it, man. Man, this has been so good. I can't believe it's already been an hour, it's fucking incredible.
1:04:02.0 Dr. Brandon Parker: Every time I talk to you, man, it's always a great time. And for everyone that's listening, Jared is a wealth of knowledge, and not only does he put on this happy friendly persona, it's real. I called, DM'd this guy after meeting him three, four years ago when he came onto my podcast, and he just rolled out the red carpet to me. So I always tell him, every time I talk to him, if there is a way that you could use me as an asset, please do. 'Cause I'll dive on a grenade, my friend.
[laughter]
1:04:29.3 Jared Hamilton: I love it. That's the kind of people I like. I love it, dude. Man, it's been good. Thank you so much again for doing this.
1:04:35.5 Dr. Brandon Parker: Of course, man.
1:04:35.9 Jared Hamilton: Yeah, I can't say... We'll just see whatever on things and what comes of it, so...
1:04:39.6 Dr. Brandon Parker: Fingers crossed.
1:04:42.5 Jared Hamilton: And we're back. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of Dieting From The Inside Out. I know if you stuck around for the whole thing, you got a ton of value out of this. Be sure and follow Brandon. Be sure and shoot him a message on Instagram, tell him that you heard him on the show. If you liked the show and it was really valuable, please share it, please share it. Do you not keep this information to yourself. Be sure to subscribe, that way you're notified any time we have a new episode. And if this resonated with you, please leave a review on the... Please leave a review, a five-star rating, wherever you're listening to this on. But before you go, I do have a few things for you. Number one is, if you are a little bit newer and you're not quite sure even where to start with this game of weight loss and nutrition, and losing weight and making your life better, you should go through my free course.
1:05:27.4 Jared Hamilton: I have a free fat loss course called the Fat Loss Checklist, it's in the description. It's basically a five-day mini-course that's gonna show you how to make weight loss and losing weight and nutrition, not just doable for your everyday life, but it goes against all of the diet culture bullshit you've been brought up believing. So you wanna check that out. Number two, if... You may know what to do, but you may just struggle doing it, or you just kinda feel alone, like you're lone wolfing this, 'cause you don't have a support system. Well, I have a spot where you can go to. Because so many of our problems in life and in transformation and all this stuff can get solved getting around the right group of people. Well, I have that, I have made it for this exact purpose. It's completely free, I have a private Facebook group, it's open to the public, but you do have to add yourself and things like that. It's called Fat Loss Simplified.
1:06:10.5 Jared Hamilton: Basically, I'm in there, my team's in there, and a bunch of other people who are on the same road as you and who have been struggling, and now are changing their lives, are in there. Outside of the podcast, it's where I put some of my best free content inside that Facebook group. You can go in there, ask for help, ask for support, get loved on, get your questions answered, and actually change your life, so I'll even leak down below for that as well.
1:06:33.7 Jared Hamilton: And then finally, if you are really just ready to expedite your results and you want your result as fast as possible, but not so fast that you lose and it's unsustainable, and you're tired of the mental gymnastics in hoop jumping, trying to get to where you wanna be, you can apply for coaching. I have a very special link below that's only for my podcast listeners where you can apply for coaching, because if you come from the show, you have a very special place in my heart. So I'm giving... Basically, anyone who gets accepted into coaching from the podcast, I'm giving number one, about $4000 worth of stuff away to you for free, completely for free. But also, you can go to the front of the line. So generally... So we can only take on every month, a certain amount of new clients, that way we can ensure our client process in our client journey is top notch. We don't wanna sacrifice that just because more people are coming in. At the time of recording this, we filled up again, so we'll fill... We have a tendency to fill up and start a waitlist for the following month.
1:07:29.9 Jared Hamilton: Well, if you get accepted into coaching from the podcast, you go straight to the front of the line. So if you are in... Especially if you're in a hurry to get to where you wanna be, but again, not so much to sacrifice your ability to stay there and the sustainability of it, that's what that's there for. So if you need help, hit that link below, apply for coaching and we'll see if it's a good fit, and if it is a good fit, we can talk about possible next steps. But otherwise, that is it for today's episode. I really, really appreciate you being here. Thank you so much once again. Be sure to subscribe to the show. Be sure to check out all of the things the podcast touches, the podcast site dietingfromtheinsideout.com. You can even read the episode in blog fashion there, and watch the YouTube video and all the things that it touches. But otherwise, I appreciate the fuck out of you. Thank you so much for being here, I love you. And we will talk to you next time.
[music]
About Dr. Brandon Parker:
Dr. Brandon started out as a strength and conditioning coach for elite and professional-level athletes, but eventually grew tired of the early hours and working with people who didn’t really want to be at their training sessions.
He decided to pursue further education so he could not only set his own hours, but also focus on working with individuals who truly wanted to unlock a better side of life.
Now he focuses on helping people be human again.
Diametric Views On Chiropractors:
Jared finds that public opinion on chiropractors is very split—with some absolutely loving them and others believing that all chiropractors are quacks.
Dr. Brandon says these divisive views are deserved.
Chiropractors can—and have the opportunity to—treat a wide range of pathologies, but some are not in the scope of a chiropractor. When that occurs, the person should be referred elsewhere, but oftentimes ego gets in the way of healthcare and these chiropractors will blame all sorts of things on a mythical pathology.
Dr. Brandon had a very good experience with a chiropractor when he was young, and he only needed to see that doctor 3 times to completely alleviate his issues—not 30 times chasing something made up.
Maintenance Chiropractic Work:
Dr. Brandon believes that seeing a chiropractor for maintenance can be viable, but it depends on what you are getting out of it and if it is helping you progress in some way.
If you are going simply to get adjusted for the sake of being adjusted, it’s probably not really beneficial. If you are seeing a chiropractor, talking shop, changing programming, or getting a deeper dive on certain areas, then “maintenance visits” can absolutely be worthwhile.
Layman’s Terms in Chiropractic:
Dr. Brandon believes that using terms like your back being “out of alignment”—which is not really a thing—often happens because doctors are simply speaking to patients in a way they can understand. However, they are often inadvertently teaching the patient incorrectly.
It’s very important to use language that the patient will be able to digest, however, some doctors are not always considering the impact of using very simplistic terms.
For example, a patient may think that if their back is “out of place,” then they get adjusted and now their back is “in place,” and they should avoid certain exercises because they now mistakenly believe that the exercise is to blame for their back being “out of place” to begin with.
When that happens, there can be a snowball effect where that person avoids or has fear around doing things over a long period of time. This can cause strength to be lost and can really mess with a person’s psyche.
Another reason for the use of overly simplistic terminology is simply that the doctors need to see a lot of people—and using simplified language helps get patients in and out the door quickly.
Jared finds that, as a coach, it’s best to give a sort of Cliff’s Notes version, so if a client says,
“Hey, I want to tone my back.”
He says, “Okay, well, toned is actually a way to describe something. It's not a verb. We're not toning anything. We can do these things. It's going to make a toned look.”
This opens the door for a great conversation with the client.
Dr. Brandon agrees that professionals need to take that extra step when speaking with patients.
Missing Pieces in Chiropractic:
When Jared sees his chiropractor, he gets deep tissue work, adjustments, and a plan of rehab exercises, but not everyone has this experience with their chiropractor.
Dr. Brandon believes that a large part of the reason behind the missing pieces—like the additional therapies Jared gets at his chiropractor—is mostly because it’s not incentivized by insurance companies.
There are also, unfortunately, some people who get into healthcare not because they truly want to help people, but because there can be a lot of money for those that maximize their output.
Finding the Right Chiropractor:
Dr. Brandon says, “You need to find somebody that is maximizing their knowledge to a point where they can break it down to something you can understand.”
He says you need to look for effective communication.
The doctor should be able to explain to you what they are doing, any alternatives to their treatment plan, and you should be heard as well.
He says, “If the doctor cuts you off within the first 5 minutes of you sitting down and asking you what your problem is, or you feel like you haven't been able to express what's going on, express how you feel, and get validated by the doctor, perhaps you could find somebody else.”
If you feel like you're being pushed into care, get out of there.
Why Mobility Matters:
Dr. Brandon endeavors to get people strong throughout the entire range of motion that they have access to and build their confidence.
Though chronic pain is more psychogenic—and pain, in general, can be extremely complex—Dr. Brandon believes that if he can help a person by giving them simple solutions so they can help themselves, it may improve other facets of their life too, like nutrition, motivation, and habit building.
Dr. Brandon believes that a supportive community is also vital to a person sustaining long-term positive change in their lives.
Your environment can either set you up for failure or success—not only is it the people you choose to surround yourself with, but it can even come down to the food choices you make in your home.
Where to Start:
Dr. Brandon starts by saying that, “Mobility is exercising through a full range of motion.” He says that starting with writing down what you do throughout the day is a big eye-opener.
You may find you are spending a lot more time doing something like scrolling through social media than you thought—and if you cut that time in half, you could get in some activity.
Whether it’s nutrition, general habit building, or exercise, it all comes down to taking away as much friction as possible from that activity.
He goes on to say that there is nothing stopping you from getting down on the floor and working on your body while you watch Netflix.
Fixing Your Relationship with Exercise:
Dr. Brandon believes that social media plays a role in what people perceive exercise to be and not be.
Scrolling through something like Instagram, you are exposed to videos/images of people doing what is often “hardcore” lifting—or something on a more extreme end—and that influences our beliefs.
If you want something to stick around you should reward it. Dr. Brandon personally walks while he watches Netflix because, although he is on his feet a lot, he doesn’t really get much cardiovascular work through his job.
Jared started Jiu-jitsu because, after working long hours as a personal trainer and training for a bodybuilding show, he wasn’t really enjoying fitness as a hobby and was in an exercise rut.
Jiu-jitsu was a physical activity that he could enjoy and now he has been doing it for 5 1/2 years.
Both Jared and Dr. Brandon emphasize again the importance of the environment you’re in.
One gym may not be motivating for you, while another gym may be the type of place that you can’t wait to get back to. Jared changed gyms and the change of scenery alone has made a huge difference for him.
Dr. Brandon continues on the idea of where to start by saying that you should start with a goal.
It can be a subjective goal at first, but you should try to develop some objectivity because data can keep you on track.
Data doesn’t care about your feelings—you can see the trendline going up or going down.
He says you need a deep-rooted reason for doing something—and it doesn’t need to make sense to anyone other than yourself. From there, you make changes to your lifestyle and start working towards your goal.
He also says not to focus on timelines or put hard deadlines on your goal because it can lead to stress and anxiety of worrying about not making progress fast enough.
Figure out what you need to do to get to that goal and break everything down until it’s so easy that “it’s a joke if you don’t get it done.”
What Dr. Brandon is Currently Excited About:
Dr. Brandon is working on his Mobility Manual, which is a fully designed program to help you get a joint from level 0 to 5—5 being where you can run, jump, and play again.
Hips and ankles are currently available and he is releasing the shoulder portion soon.
His goal is to make a one-stop shop for general information and implementation around the most common injuries.
CONNECT WITH BRANDON:
‣ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bs.parker
‣ Mobility Manual Program & Community: https://www.revivaltreatment.com/mobility-manual
‣ All Other Links: https://linktr.ee/b.parker
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