Teaser 1: A Conversation with Brent Collier, Exercise Physiologist

Listen in to an insightful chat at the Wooloware Family Medical Practice launch about a rarely addressed but crucial aspect of medicine: Dad Health. The discussion features Brent Collier, a local father and experienced exercise physiologist who shares his insights into common fatherhood-associated injuries and preventative measures.

During the talk, Collier recommends that first-time fathers think ahead and prepare themselves physically for the challenges of parenthood. The conversation covers the sudden lifestyle changes that including sleep deprivation and the dual responsibilities of home and work that can affect a father's physical condition.

Underlining the importance of community involvement and staying active, Collier shares his mantra: find your tribe, move, and stay connected, which he notes helps in maintaining good health. He also shares his personal experiences involving his children, who participate in the local surf club. This, he says, allows for plenty of beach time and interacting with other parents, which can indirectly help maintain a healthy lifestyle.

He sees the rapidly growing interest in mountain biking in his area as another excellent opportunity for new dads. While he has mixed feelings about the recent trend of e-bikes, he believes that if they encourage more dads to get moving, then they're useful tools.

Speaking from his experience as an exercise physiologist, Collier dismisses the myth that workouts have to be long and strenuous. Encouraging expectant and new fathers to start with small, manageable changes, he suggests functional exercises that can fit into a busy routine like squatting while changing a baby's diaper.

To learn more about Brent's expertise and community work, visit Peak Health at Gymea.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey guys, I'm here at the Willoware Family Medical Practice launch.
We're here with Brent Collier, who's a local dad, as well as an exercise physiologist.
Welcome, Ben. Thank you. Thank you for having me. All right.
All right. So we're talking dad stuff. Can you give me your dad specs first?
How many kids have you got? How old are they? Yeah, I've got three kids.
My eldest made me feel really old.

(00:20):
She's actually a second year exercise physiology student at the same uni that
I went to, and I'm actually lecturing there.
So that made me feel a bit old. My second daughter is 17, so we do HSC this
year. So all us parents are doing the HSC.
And then my youngest son is in year 10, so he's 15.
Now, dad health is a really interesting area of medicine because I might engage

(00:42):
with a male patient on maybe an ankle sprain, an injury, a back injury,
but I might not see them for 20 years after that. Yeah.
One of the big times when they will come to see me for a general checkup is when they become a dad.
They're like, I've got a new kid, my brain's been rewired, and I want to be
healthy so I see this kid for 50 years.
So it's a really interesting area of medicine. You kind of have one chance to

(01:02):
catch them and change that trajectory of that dad's life but also their family's.
Tell me about the stuff you do with dads because there's a lot of injuries to dad's kids.
Yeah, so the biggest ones we see in the clinic, injuries to dad is the little
boy or the little girl starts riding a skateboard or a scooter,
dad's fall over and they hurt themselves that way.
So we try to think of getting people ready

(01:26):
ready for being a dad and they may not have played sport themselves for
many years or they may not have been overly active and then
they're getting sleep deprivation oh yeah
they've still got to go to work and then they've got to come home and work again
so we try to condition them for what's going to happen so it makes it a bit
easier that i've had through myself so i can my personal experience there but

(01:47):
we're always learning different stuff and i think as someone who's only got
a six-week goal, which is a beautiful experience.
But you sort of look at that and you're like, I've got a lot to learn.
You're sort of looking for those people in the community, you know,
who've done the rounds. They've had kids, they've raised them.
And it's hard to know what to do to stay in good health and to stay a good, healthy dad.

(02:09):
But I think a lot of it is movement, finding your tribe and staying connected
with people in the community.
100%. And you do things that are all three of those categories.
Yeah. So, look, we were pretty lucky. My kids all wanted to be involved in the surf club.
So we're down the beach all the time, you know, so we see lots of parents there

(02:30):
as well, first time. teaching.
Annalise is at Cronulla. So that's where I first met her was actually through
the surf club. So we'll see a lot of new parents coming along to Nippers.
Their child's four, five, six, and they go and do their bronze medallion.
So we get them on their lifesavers on the weekends and it starts out so they
can just do water safety for the kids.
So that's, that's a, that's a one example of things. So getting lots of,

(02:53):
you know, new dads taking up mountain biking, which is, it's probably the,
I think around here is one of the fastest growing allowing sports,
particularly now with e-bikes, because it's made it a little bit easier for
them to, they don't have to have the full fitness before they start.
So my line of thinking is I still think we should be pedaling wheelbikes,
but it's getting people out there. Controversial. Yeah, it's getting out there. Yeah.

(03:13):
So again, getting involved with the community, you know, if your kids are into
sport, you tend to meet the parents of the other kids and try to get involved.
So don't sit on the sidelines. There was, you know, there's always parent helpers,
you know, try to get them on, go to training with them, run around,
netball, soccer, whatever it is.
So I was interviewing someone from Park Run the other day, and they were talking
about the fact that Park Run is now just not running. You can take a pram,

(03:35):
you can walk it, you can volunteer.
And that's what a lot of these community programs are trying to do.
They're trying to be inclusive. Because, you know, I have a six-week-old.
Exercise is something I'm trying to get, but it's cramming in 20 minutes at a time.
And I see a lot of dads who get overwhelmed with that, and they just need a
bit of encouragement to get back out there, really.
Yeah, there's a lot of things that we, again, see in the clinic,

(03:57):
talking about exercise. There's a lot of myths out there.
I've got to train to the gym for an hour. No, you don't. Okay.
Exercise is a cumulative. So if you can do two minutes there while you're changing
the baby's bottom, well, you can do a squat.
Okay. You can go up and down. You pick up the nappy bag.
Yeah. So do functional type things. Just keep yourself moving.

(04:17):
Well, thank you for chatting to us. Not a problem. Absolute pleasure.
And if people want to check out your various pages, what are they? Yep.
So peakhealth at Guy Meir. so peak-health.com.au or you could Google exercise physiology.
We tend to be up the top because I'm old and I've been there for a while. Thank you very much.