All Episodes

February 27, 2024 • 13 mins

This is the next section of my presentation at EPIC on physical activity and exercise!


Let me know your thoughts and questions!

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey everyone, welcome back. It's great to be with you.
Thank you so much for joining mefor another episode of the
podcast. This week we are going to carry
on with our epic series and haveAQ and A on exercise and
physical activity. In this episode I dive into
obviously the benefits of exercise for our Physiology, but
I really lean into the benefits of exercise for your psychology

(00:22):
and for mental health. I know that that is such a
massive issue for so many peopleright now and so every chance
that I get to share information about how we can use movement to
elevate our mind, I'm all over that these days.
And of course as per the last few weeks, there were loads of
questions. And so I am sharing a few of the
key ones that we feel are reallyrelevant that a lot of people

(00:43):
have been having recently in thehopes that those are also
questions that you have as well.If you have any questions
whatsoever that I don't get to, that you want to know about when
it comes to exercise and physical activity, make sure you
ping me on social at Doctor GregWells.
Let me know through my website, doctorgregwells.com.
And that way we can make sure that we are generating
information for you this year that really addresses your

(01:07):
interests, your concerns, your questions, your challenges and
your dreams. That is really what this year is
all about, is just facilitating the community that is engaged
with my content over the last few years.
With my. Books with my podcast, with the
videos on social and just elevate everybody to a
completely different level. So whatever you want to know,
make sure you ask and that way we can help you out as much as

(01:29):
possible. All right, with no further
delays. Please enjoy this epic Q&A on
exercise and physical activity from the Epic Community event
back in December. It was what the plan was.
So as usual, yeah, this happens every single year.
I should get used to this by now.
I just want to finish with talking about exercise, and I
have a nuance to how I want you to think about exercise this

(01:52):
year. We have been using this for the
last three to four years just simply to cope and survive with
the craziness of the last few years.
Given I've had two kids that have gone through a global
pandemic and the only thing thatkept us going as a family
literally was getting them outdoors, running around as much
as we possibly could. We know that when we exercise,

(02:13):
all sorts of wonderful things happen inside the human body.
I was bored one day at work, so I jumped in the MRI.
I MRI D myself. That's me.
So just jumped in the magnet andpressed go so you can see my
that's your tax dollars at work,Canadians.
So there's my lungs, my heart, another lung, pancreas, liver,

(02:35):
digestive tract. All of those improve when we
exercise. You also get more red blood
cells. These carry oxygen throughout
your body to give you more oxygen to fuel your metabolism.
You get more mitochondria, the energy factories inside your
brain, your muscles, all of yourorgans.
The only place mitochondria are not is in your red blood cells,
but they're everywhere else. Obviously your muscle function
improves and you move fluids through your lymphatic system,

(02:57):
which we talked about earlier. And we know that if you exercise
at a moderate intensity for about 20 minutes a day, you
decrease your risk for upper respiratory tract infections by
about 75%. So colds and flus go down by
75%. If you do about 20 minutes of
easy walking a day, you don't have to do much.
It does need to be very, very difficult.

(03:18):
But if you do it consistently, your immune system is
supercharged, such to such an extent that 30 minutes of
walking a day lowers your risk for 13 different types of cancer
by 24 to 40%. So you can cut your risk of
cancer almost in half with a daily walk.
Again, we're not sweating. We're not going to the gym.

(03:38):
You're putting on some shoes andgoing for a walk at lunch.
You get all of these these benefits, they also lengthen and
exercise also lengthens and strengthens your telomeres,
which is the little caps on the end of your DNA that protect
your DNA from breaking apart andfraying.
Just like aglets on the end of your shoelaces.
That's what they're called, aglets, and they hold your
shoelaces together. When they shorten and breakdown,

(03:59):
your shoelaces start to fray apart.
The same thing happens as we agewith our DNA.
The DNA telomeres of 55 year oldrunners are the same length and
strength as 25 year olds. So when we move, you protect
your DNA. You also, interestingly enough,
release something called stem cells, which you've probably

(04:19):
heard of stem cell therapy and all sorts of things like that.
Those are naturally released throughout your entire body
every single time that you exercise.
So that's why if we heal, we repair, we regenerate, we get
stronger. We can reverse cardiovascular
disease, we can reverse type 2 diabetes.
We can reverse metabolic syndrome, we can impact
neurodegenerative diseases. We can reverse depression, get
rid of anxiety through all of these simple practices like

(04:42):
going for a walk, and we can even lengthen our life.
I'm going to skip that one, Go to this one, which shows that
the more physical activity we add to the week, the lower a
risk of all 'cause mortality. Literally, the more that you
move, the longer you live. That data is now absolutely
clear. And it's not you have to go to

(05:03):
the gym and sweat. It's not you have to lift
weights. It's not you have to run.
It's not that you have to hit a certain target heart rate zone,
which breaks my heart to some extent because I've spent five
years building an app called Vivio that tracks every piece of
data that you could possibly want as a high level exercise
physiologist with like heart rate and all sorts of other

(05:24):
stuff. And actually the only thing that
I really should have included here is steps I let.
You could have had a pedometer done five years ago and gotten
the data that you actually need to live a very, very, very long
time. I'm not selling the app very
well right now, but it also doesall sorts of other wonderful
things. I'm going to make sure all of
you guys got invited to it and get the pro version for 12

(05:46):
months so that you don't need toworry about paying for it or
anything like that. But literally like if you can
increase the number of steps that you take, that is the
number one thing that you can dowith regards to your health and
well-being for the long, Paul, physically and mentally.
So my tactic when it comes to movement is simply to sprinkle
physical activity throughout thecourse of your day.
And the impact of this is absolutely profound.

(06:08):
The numbers are incredible. We can cut cardiovascular
disease in half, reduce upper respiratory tract infections by
75%. It is incredible what this can
do physically, but it also does amazing things mentally.
I've shown this video every single time that I've spoken for
like the last eight years. This electrical activity inside
the brain of a zebra fish at rest.

(06:30):
As soon as it starts to swim, the whole brain lights up.
You are seeing the mind body connection in action.
It is absolutely incredible. When you move, the brain comes
to life. There's data from an inner city
school in Chicago where they took a group of kids and they
did nothing. Another group of kids and they
walked up and down the stairs before math class.

(06:52):
And another group of kids, sorry, walked up and down the
hall before math class. And another group of kids, and
they walked up and down the stairs before math class.
And there was a direct relationship between the amount
and intensity of physical activity and their results in
mathematics. They MRI D the brains of the
children. And the kids who did the stairs
had an increased neural density.So more neurons in the frontal

(07:13):
lobe of the brain where executive functioning happens.
So it's actually anatomical changes inside their brains.
That data was replicated in a study in the United Kingdom that
showed that for every 15 minutesof physical activity that was
added to the school day, GPS went up a quarter grade point,
up to a maximum of one hour, beyond which there were no
further benefits. So my recommendation to you for
your longevity, Living a long time, just take steps When it

(07:37):
comes to your cognitive performance, I would like you to
consider 15 to 60 minutes a day of anything.
Walk, run, jog, swim, bike, paddle, don't care if you want
your brain to function at the highest level.
We're just doing something most days, basically.
We now know that exercise specifically improves
concentration and alertness, learning and strategic thinking,

(08:01):
creativity and agile thinking, but in different ways that I'll
get into tomorrow. And when it comes to your mental
health, there's super cool data that I'll highlight here.
I've shown it before, but it's super interesting because what
we've discovered is that if you get 3-4 or five workouts a week,
you have a lower risk for depression and anxiety.
So 3-4 or five workouts a week? Best possible mental health

(08:24):
outcomes just three times a week.
Doesn't matter what you do, it'sthe exact same pattern.
Walk, run, jog, swim, bike. Pardon.
Paddle, gardening, housework. It all makes a difference.
And 45 minutes appears to be thebest duration.
So if you're struggling with depression, anxiety, 25% of the
population is statistically 3 workouts a week, 45 minutes,

(08:48):
Anything you want. Vacuum the house, go for a walk,
hit the gym, do some yoga, lift some weights.
Doesn't matter. And we'll have a significant
reduction in mental health burden that persists for quite
some time. So that's literally what we're
looking for when it comes to 45 minutes.
And then once again, it doesn't matter what you do, it's all the
same. And us all of the same benefits.

(09:09):
Which is why we've been trying to do so much of this as a
family. Every single chance that we get.
We've been getting outside, we've been doing different
things. We've been exploring, we've been
trying to keep moving and there are five types of movement that
have specific benefits. The first one is that's Ingrid
Her lat is now bigger than mine.But anyway, the first type is

(09:34):
anything that improves your fitness.
So cardio, walk, run, jog, swim,bike, paddle, elevate your heart
rate for an extended period of time, improves heart, lung,
blood, second type. So that's the first F of fitness
is fitness. The second one is anything that
is fast, like Alec on the treadmill this morning next to

(09:54):
me. Holy smokes dude, that was an
impressive workout. Way to go.
Good job buddy. Super impressive.
So anything that is fast intervals because you have two
different types of muscle fibers.
Fast twitch, slow twitch, A little bit of cardio for your
slow twitch, a little bit of fast for your fast twitch, which
also stimulates the entire spinal cord and the brain.

(10:16):
So your nervous system and your muscles benefit from anything
where you change speeds. That's a spin class.
That's yoga, that's running for the bus, right?
Anything where you're just changing things up just a touch.
Every team. Sport.
Squash, racquets, pickleball, tennis, all of that works.
The next type is flexibility. Reaching, stretching, yoga.

(10:40):
All of those make a huge difference.
Again, we're trying to do this as much as we can with our kids.
There's fast fitness and flexibility.
The force, the 4th one is this is the only video that I could
come up with. So it's the force creating force
with your muscles. But this is my kids on the beach
and I'm just having fun now at the end of our presentation

(11:00):
today that's Ingred and Adam hammering away and trying to do
you know what they do? And then Adam smokes Ingred's
hand and she shuts it down. But so this is the 4th F of
fitness is force, which is strength.
That's lifting weights, that is doing yoga.
That is anything where you create resistance inside your
body. But the end message of all of

(11:21):
this is they all work. They all do incredible things.
But the one piece that's often missing, and when I first wrote
about this, I wrote the four FS of fitness, I've actually
realized there's five. And the fifth one is simply to
have fun, right? Watch Ingrid here through you a
few years ago, and we did a lot of rock climbing to help her

(11:43):
recover. She's like, you have to announce
me, gentlemen, Miss Ingrid Wallace is about to climb all
the way to the ceiling. She has a confidence problem.
We're working on that pool before she goes.
Racing Miss Marissa. On your marks, get set, go and

(12:04):
she goes rocketing to the top here.
I am a huge fan of anything where my children can make
mistakes and fail. The fact that we do not allow
our children to fail in school right now is one of, I think,
the greatest disservices that wecan possibly be giving to our
children. I love the fact that she's
struggling with anxiety right here.
That's scary. Obviously she's safe, but I want

(12:24):
her to try to deal with all of those sorts of things.
And as you can see, she comes down here and she gets off this
and look at her face. She's so happy.
Compare her face right there to the typical look on someone's
face at the gym, on the elliptical pain, suffering,

(12:45):
sacrifice, Constipation. Right.
Like, really bad. We have completely forgotten
that physical activity actually feels good.
Hi everyone. Thanks for tuning in.
I really. Hope that was helpful.
Obviously it's a little bit of adifferent format, but super
psyched to be able to share thatinformation with you.

(13:06):
I hope that it was helpful. If it was, please share this
with your community. Please let someone else know
about the show, let someone elseknow about the episode, forward
it to them. And that helps us tremendously.
If you could also leave a reviewon your podcast platform of
choice, whether that's iTunes orSpotify, that also makes a
massive difference for us and really helps us out.

(13:27):
And of course, if you can followme on Social at Doctor Greg
Wells or on LinkedIn forward slash Doctor Greg Wells, that
would be tremendously wonderful as well.
Ping me with questions. Make sure that this is all about
you. And we will continue to build
content for you this year that helps you to be healthy, to
perform better and to get to a place where your well-being is
exactly where you want it to be.All right, everyone.

(13:48):
Thanks again. We'll see you in the next
episode. Really, really soon.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie

Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club

The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.