Movement as medicine

Veterinary medicine is like a sport. The physical demands—bending, twisting, reaching down—coupled with the stress of the profession, can take a toll on the body. Through personal anecdotes and practical tips, hosts Aaron Shaw, OTR/L, CHT, CSCS, and Jennifer Edwards, DVM, ACC, CPC, ELI-MP, talk about how just 15 minutes each day can make work easier in this episode of The Resilient Vet.

Partial transcript:

Edwards: For me, movement is medicine. I’ve been a couples dancer as my primary hobby for my entire adult life, so I danced a lot. And the dancing that I would do [was] very physical. [There was] a lot of West Coast Swing [and] Two-Step, so there was a lot of controlled twisting and controlled stopping, which helped to build muscles that, honestly, I didn’t even know I had.

I’ve also been a very longtime practitioner of yoga. I would make jokes sometimes in the exam room because as I would be trying to look at the underside of the German shepherd—that would have nothing to do with being stood up on his hind legs so I could see the hot spot—I would literally be in a squat position with my entire torso bent forward and my head turned as I was parting the fur to look at a lesion or something on the underside of a dog.

So, the practice of yoga was huge for me in maintaining my core strength, my flexibility, and my ability to get in and out of some of these awkward positions that we find ourselves in.

I’m not a person who can tie myself into a pretzel. You don’t have to be flexible in that regard, but it’s having your body used to having that range of motion....

Shaw: I think that what’s key—what you were doing with your yoga practice and with swinging and dancing.... You’re not waiting to be in the [operating room]. You're not waiting for what I consider “game day” in the clinic.

You don’t wait for that most challenging thing when you absolutely have to perform it. The key is making sure that you can perform it by practicing it [and] by maintaining health outside of the clinic on your own time.

So when the time comes that you have to get into those occasional contorted positions, if your body is at least somewhat acclimated [and] somewhat trained to be able to do that, your chances of success [increase]. Success [meaning] not getting injured [while] doing it [and] being able to tolerate those physical demands so you can actually provide the care that you know how to do.

Your brain can have all the smarts in the world—you [can] know exactly what to do—but if you can’t contort your body or hold your body in a certain position, you’re not going to be able to execute what you’re capable of. So, it’s also an issue of really reaching your...career potential.

Edwards: And what happens—and I've seen it over and over—is that our bodies are not conditioned to do these tasks. I've seen it in veterinary technicians and veterinarians alike; the body is not in a capacity to be able to do the task, but we do them anyway.

I find that people are not always lifting correctly. Even now, since I've started working out with a personal trainer, as much as I thought...I was lifting properly, I really wasn't. There are ways of doing things and prepping the body so that the things we're going to do anyway are easier and safer.

The other thing I used to do a lot was walk. I've never been a runner—never liked running. I went through [a] phase [of] cycling, but I would always walk.

[There were] so many nights—I can't even tell you, and I'm sure a lot of doctors out there can resonate—[where] I just wanted to flop myself on my couch. I was exhausted when I came home, and I would feel that and put my dog on a leash and go [a] mile around the block. It didn't take super long. Sometimes it was hot, sometimes it was cold, but I went.

And interestingly, almost without question, that increased my energy. It did not drain my energy more, but that movement—getting all that energy out that’d just been building up all day, the cardio effect, all of that—was very healthy. Of course, we're going to talk about this in another episode, but the mindset benefits that go along with that are huge, as well.