Powerline Podcast | Troubleshoot Your Body Like a Pro

Ryan Lucas | Powerline Podcast

Dr. Kevin Rindal | Vimocity

Okay, Kev, we went over your past, your story, and in the first episode, we went and talked dove deep on finding your why, finding your purpose. Because before you start any sort of physical, mental, personal journey, you've really got to define and figure out what your purpose, what your why is. That episode, I highly recommend any of you, if this is the first one you're listening to, go back to the episode before, listen to that one. It's going to give you great context for this one.

I want to dive into human capacity and how to troubleshoot your body. So, like, we figured it out, we want to make a change, and I'm a working guy or gal, or, you know, like, I want to figure out how to troubleshoot what's going on inside my body. What can I do, that sort of thing? So, what's human capacity and why is it critical to overall health and health management?

Yeah, awesome. Well, we ended the last episode talking about human capacity, but I'll just give a quick primer, sure. So, again, Quanta, unbelievable job at creating this capacity model, looking at work environments, how people can identify hazards, identify the stuff that can kill you, so that they can work safely. And from an athletic standpoint, which is where my background is, in sports medicine, really focuses on how do we build resilience or capacity in the human? And so, that's your body can handle more stress with less impact. And so, there are so many different things that lead to human capacity. We could, you know, touch on quite a few in this conversation, but the big thing is, if we're not doing things to help the body repair, build up, prepare for activity, our body's going to start to fall into almost like a breakdown pattern.

And so, we've all been there at different points when we've pushed hard. I mean, a lot of your listeners will work a storm and they're getting like four hours of sleep on a good night, if that. And so, then you start to just feel your body start to get worn down. And if you're not doing things to build it back up again, then we start to, you know, to break down rather than build up.
And so, human capacity is really a focus on how do we build that resilience so that we can continue to build up rather than break down. The capacity model is awesome because it gives you, it gives you like a wheel, and it gets you to look at each and every thing that could possibly go wrong. We call it sticky, the that can kill you. It's like, look, let's look at, is there hydraulic systems, air systems, like whatever, these different systems. Look at those systems, look at what's within those, and what is the potential for incident to happen? Because with the capacity model, the biggest thing is, it's not if, it's when something is going to happen. Like, something happens, yes. And so, how can we build the capacity to fail safely?

Yes. So, I love this, like, looking at the human body this way, because like, capacity is great for these systems that are outside of the human body. But like you said with sports, like, try to try to work the capacity model into running down a football field as a receiver, or something. Like, how do you even look at that? So, how do you measure and assess human capacity in the workplace?

Yeah, yeah. So, measuring human capacity, it's difficult to quantify it, you know what I mean? And, but I think that there are some things that people can do just on a daily basis to assess their human capacity. And a lot of it is before you start the work, just doing what we call a Readiness score. I mean, with most sports teams that I've been a part of, from, you know, sports medicine staff, we would do a Readiness score before every single practice where people would literally, it's pretty subjective, but they just, you know, they'd take like a minute to just take inventory of their body and pay attention to, you know, am I tight here? Am I sore here? How's my, is my head in the game? How do I sleep last night? Do I feel ready to perform?

And, you know, those athletes are so in tune with their body, they know when they don't feel great, versus when they feel like they're ready to go out. And so, then on a scale of zero to ten, they'd, you know, rate their Readiness to either perform at that practice or in a game. And it just, what it does is it helps them quantify that in their mind, and then focus on the areas that maybe they need to fine-tune so that they can be their best when they perform that.
So, I see, even like at a pre-job brief, and again, most people are going to listen to this, they're like, that's never going to happen at a pre-job brief or tailboard. But in an ideal world, people would take a minute to say, am I ready to perform? Is there something that I need to fine-tune? Maybe my shoulders tight, and I need to, you know, grab a lacrosse ball, roll it out for a couple minutes, just to make sure that my shoulders ready to go. Or, you know, it's 100 degrees and I'm dehydrated, and we know that 1% dehydration can cause, you know, a lack of clarity when we're performing work. And, you know, that could be something where a major hazard is missed in a, when you're performing, you know, hazard analysis, because your head's not in the game.

So, I do think that some of those concepts from like a Readiness score could definitely apply to the work. I think it could almost be put on the wheel, to be honest. It's like, because we look at things like hydraulics, for example. Like, let's look at our hydraulic systems and hydraulics out there. Is there something that could possibly go wrong where we could, you know, have some sort of incident happen? And can we put a barrier in place to protect us against that? Or electricity, for example, since we're all dealing with electricity every day. Can we do something to put barriers in place? Yeah, we can add cover up, we can wear our protective equipment like rubber gloves or use hot sticks, or, you know, our energized work methods. Like, these are all barriers that if done right, will protect us against electricity. Yeah, same sort of thing. Like, why not start with an inventory of your body?

Yeah, it sounds woo-woo, I know, you guys, but it's legit. It's like, okay, I'm tight here, I am tight here, I am, you know, like, maybe I could use a lacrosse ball and roll out, or you need a roller and just roll my legs out, or something. Because like, man, I don't know, we climbed a lot of towers yesterday, yeah, and my legs are freaking tired today and spent, and they're in recovery mode. But guess what? I don't have time to recover, because I have to work another day. Guess what? I have to work another six days in a row at this, yeah. Like, how am I going to get through this without being injured? Like, yeah, taking a mental inventory, just to highlight that, it's a great way to start.

No, for sure. And, you know, we actually created a short, like, safety moment for, you know, pre-job brief video about that. It's called, "Take a 360 Walk Around Under Your Body." And it's like, everyone has this mindset of, I'm going to do a 360 walk around of my vehicle before I do the work. I'm going to inspect my bucket, I'm going to inspect my tools. But, you know, doing that same thing for your body, it will, it will help you make better choices. And I think if you have, you know, a crew that has, they're all on the same page, and they have that trust in each other, if somebody's not ready to perform the work, I mean, you swap duties, you figure out like, what else do we need to do so that we can ensure we're all going to be safe when we're on this job.

Yeah, we've all had that guy, and speaking to you guys listening, we've all had that guy where we've gone up to them in the morning and been like, you know, we're clipping your wings today. Like, you're not going in the bucket, you're not, your head's not in the game. We've either said that to somebody, or they've come up to us and say, "Hey, I think you need to clip my wings today. I can't, you know, I have some stuff going on at home. I really am not in the right mindset to be up in the air dealing with live electricity today."

Yeah, and it's, "Okay, okay, fine, I got you. We'll swap you out. I'll take your spot, yeah, down on the ground, get your head right, you know, spend the day." Yeah, but that's like, that's a great point. And like, that's it right there, that's the barrier in place. And that's one of those pieces where like, if we want to get SIFs down to zero, I think that's like one of the other steps that needs to be a part of this whole work environment in terms of like, making that a normal conversation. Because that's really going to, I think, create the safest environment and allow those hazards to be identified. And, you know, that now we have full capacity.

What are the most common issues to reduce human capacity in physically demanding jobs? So, that was just one thing I had written down. But like, if we're going to hone in on like common issues, like, what are the most common ones that you see, things that reduce human capacity?

I would say a lot of it goes back to recovery. So, you work a physically demanding day, and if you go home and you're not doing the things that are going to allow your body to rest, recover, to show up the next day, I mean, it's a lot of things. It's the things we eat, it's the things we drink. I mean, some of my good friends, the working athlete guys, you know, Dylan and Coach P, I mean, they always talk about like, the water you drink, you know, today or tonight, is the water that you have first thing in the morning. Like, different things like that are going to completely change how your brain functions.
We know that 1% of dehydration, you know, impacts the way that your brain functions. We know that even just a slight amount of dehydration changes the way that the muscles are structured in terms of like their resilience. And so, you're at a much higher risk of a sprain and strain if you're dehydrated. We know that, you know, if you're eating foods that are creating inflammation in your body, it's going to put you at high risk for an injury, and you're just going to, your muscles aren't going to be able to actually heal and repair.
So, there, I would say that that whole recovery piece is number one. Sleep, I mean, yeah, it's huge. And we'll hone in on this on three. But like, I love that we're bringing this up. And like, when you talked about dehydration, I've talked about this with the working athlete guys, but I just, to bring it up again, like, I don't think we realize how dehydrated we are, and like, chronically dehydrated. Like, every single person.

Yeah, this program that I've been on lately, I've had to drink three to five liters. For you Canadians, that's a gallon to two gallons a day. It's a lot. For you Americans, how many of you guys are drinking two gallons of water a day? You know, and then even thinking, like, you're at work, so you're probably out in the heat or the weather, or you're sweating, or you're, like, you're having to drink even more just to stay hydrated. We live in a chronically dehydrated state.

So, you say like 1% dehydration can cause massive cognitive decline and make you make bad decisions. Basically, put that in layman's terms, you're going to make stupid decisions at work, which could end up costing you your life.

Yeah, and here's the thing, like, you know, most athletes, when they train, compete, it's maybe four hours a day is probably, you know, the time limit. Yeah, most of the people who are listening to this, they're working, you know, anywhere between 10 and 18 hours a day. I mean, that is a lot of physical activity. And when you think about how much fuel and water that takes to actually run your human body efficiently, it's a massive amount.

And it's not just water, too. It's, it's like the electrolytes, it's all these other things. I mean, we're electrical beings. Like, every muscle contraction, every aspect of, like, our body's physiology is all, you know, sodium chloride, you know, potassium, all these different vitamins and minerals, like, being required for those processes to take place. And so, yeah, what you put in your body is so important.

And I just always think, like, if you have, you know, this beautiful F-350, jacked up, you know, beautiful rig, you're not going to put like low octane fuel in it. You're going to, you're going to put what's best in it so you can get the most out of that. And I mean, same with your body, you, you've got to, you know, put that, that best blend in it for to, to have that optimized performance.

Dive a little deeper on the idea of workforce athlete. Again, I talked to the working athlete, same in terminology. They have, I always tell Dylan, they, they pick the best name in the world for their company, because it's like 100% spot on. But a lot of people listening go, "What do you mean, I'm an athlete?" They look at themselves in the mirror, they're like, like I was, it's like, "I'm not an athlete."

Yeah, but you're doing a job that is as intense as athletics. Yeah, okay, here's an example. I just watched Chris Bumstead, C-Bum. If any of you know who C-Bum is, world champion, like six-time world champion in classic physique bodybuilding, right? Mr. Olympia, six-time world champion. He talked about like his daily routine, right? This is a world champion athlete, you know, his daily routine is like, do a little cardio, eat some food, rest, go to the gym, work out, rest. Yeah, might do a little bit more of a workout, rest.

So, anyway, you take his working out time in there, and he's maybe like working out for like three hours a day. Yeah, what are you guys doing out there? You know, you're getting up at 5:00 a.m. and you're working your ass off until 6:00 at night, and then you're probably going home to your kids and working your ass off some more at home. So, like, you're an athlete in all terms, you know, you just don't, you're not called that in the daily.

Yeah, dive a little deeper on that. Yeah, I mean, you laid it out really well. It's like, when you're physically doing those type of tasks, you're exerting force, you're having to do precision work. Like, all that is the definition of what an athlete does, and it's day in and day out. And there aren't too many rest days, you know, compared to what an athlete does.

So, I mean, when I look at this, we call it, yeah, industrial athletics. I love the name, working athlete. I mean, I think part of that is embracing the fact that that's what you are, and realizing that those demands are real. And so, it requires, you know, being focused on keeping that machine running well. Otherwise, you get to the end of your career and you're depleted, and you're, you know, feeling broken down. It's not the way it should be.

So, we talked about showing up on the job site, or even you can do this, like, when you first wake up in the morning, doing your 360, kind of like, walk around your body and figuring out where you're tight and all these sorts of things. Get into like troubleshooting the body a little bit more. Like, how does, how do you, how does Vimocity look and define and address like troubleshooting your body?

Yeah, yeah, that's great. Let's talk about like, we have three buckets that we talked about in that first one. So, we have like the movement health, we have ergonomics, body positioning, and then we have like the recovery or performance aspect.
So, if I were to break things down into like bucket number one, of movement health, I'm going to dive a little bit deep on the science, because I think that this is important, because if you understand some of these concepts, then you can understand the troubleshooting concept a little better.

So, our formula focuses on first rolling the muscles, then what we call diaphragmatic breathing, which is engaging your diaphragm, because really the core, your core comes from properly being able to create pressure within your core.
And the number three is dynamic movement. So, it's taking a joint through a full range of motion versus like a static stretch. So, the reason why rolling is so important, and every athlete, you know, focuses on rolling. And so, I would say the more common way that people prepare their bodies now is actually starting out by rolling the muscle. Because when I roll a muscle, and you, it sounds like you've done this a lot, you have your trigger point gun and stuff like that.

But when we roll out a muscle, like with a foam roller, a handheld massage roller, lacrosse ball, whatever it is, what we're doing is we're increasing the blood flow to the tissue. And then between each layer of muscle, like, imagine you're cutting apart a steak, and there's that shiny layer in between the layers of muscle. In between those layers of muscle is what's called fascia.

And so, when we overuse a muscle, and we've probably, you probably felt like a muscle knot, like in the top part of your shoulder, or something like that. That muscle knot is usually from an injury, or it's from repetitive use. And what the body does is it starts to lay down scar tissue, almost like in a patch, that what it does is it helps heal that muscle and repair it, but it also decreases the flexibility.

So, let's imagine that I strain my hamstring, and you feel like this knot in the middle of your hamstring every time that you bend down, take a step. What's happening is that, like, let's say it's my left hamstring, my left hamstring is physiologically shorter than the right hamstring. And I could stretch it and stretch it and stretch it, but I'm never going to restore that, that length to the muscle. But if I roll that muscle, what happens is those tissues start to realign into a more symmetrical pattern, or a parallel pattern, that allows that muscle to regain its flexibility.

But when I roll it as well, I'm getting blood flow, increased oxygen to the tissue. Between each layer of muscle, there's what this, this stuff called interstitial fluid. The way that we sometimes describe it, it's almost like, it's like honey. And so, it lubricates the muscles and allows muscles to roll over each other.

So, if you, like, let's say, wake up first in the morning, and you feel stiff and sore, and then you take 20 steps, and you're like, "Okay, I'm feeling a little bit better." What's happening is that we're warming up that tissue. And so, think of it like, you're sleeping all night, that interstitial fluid becomes like crystallized honey. And then when you heat it up, the tissue becomes like liquid honey, and it can flow better. So, that's the same thing with our muscles.
And so, when we roll out that, that muscle, like, let's say our hamstring, we're increasing the blood flow, increasing the, making that solution less viscous, and we just become more flexible. So, like, you could take somebody who, like, they try to bend down and touch their toes, and they're like eight inches from the floor, and all they do is roll out their calf muscles. Well, those calf muscles connect to the hamstrings, which connect all the way up. They'll get like four inches farther just by rolling out their calf muscles, because that whole, like, line of fascia is being loosened up.

And so, I'm a huge advocate for, let's roll first to get the muscles warmed up. Because if I take a cold muscle and just immediately go to a static stretch, I'm not actually stretching out the muscle. I'm probably just pulling at the tendons where it attaches to the bones, creating inflammation. So, I mean, hundreds and hundreds, like, injury, like, for sure. Oh, man, I've seen so many people who, like, had Achilles tendinopathy. So, you know, you get that pain down by the heel, and they're just stretching, stretching, stretching.

And so, I'd be like, "Don't stretch to start out with. Roll out the calf muscle, roll out the arch of the foot." So, roll out above and below. And then it alleviates some of that pull where the tendon attaches onto the heel. And it's not that stretching is bad, it's just that we tend to do it out of order. So, I always say, if you're going to stretch, roll first, or get warmed up, and then stretch second. So, I still stretch all the time, but I just do it afterwards.

So, the rolling is part number one. Part number two is like the breathing aspect. And so, you know, we breathe 20,000 times every single day. Other than our heartbeat, it's like the thing that happens the most of anything we do. But for most of us, if you think about it, we work out in front of us, or, you know, behind a keyboard, or behind a steering wheel, we're working out in front of us. So, everything in our life pulls things forward.

And so, we tend to get short in the chest muscles, our hip flexors get tight, and it starts to actually change the position of our rib cage in breathing. So, you know, you could do this right now, listeners could do this. You can sit up nice and tall, take a big breath in, and all the way out. And now just try to slouch just a little bit, and now try to take a breath in. Yeah, it's like, you can't even do it.

So, it's tough. So, our rib cage mechanically locks down, just even going from here to here. And most people live like 90% of their life in this position. And so, we tend to take these short, shallow breaths, which means we can't fully engage our diaphragm, we can't create pressure that supports our core. We start to breathe through our neck and shoulders, that starts to create, you know, tension up here.

And so, just getting re-centered on our posture, and getting our rib cage in the right position, and taking full breaths is a great way to do that. And I love it, like Jocko Willink in the Navy Seals, they teach box breathing, which is a great technique to, like, engage your core, get your mind right, get everything, you know, prepared for battle. But then you have Brené Brown, who's like talking about box breathing from a stress reduction. So, there's like a lot of utility in that.

So, rolling first, breathing, and then the third piece is moving. And it's more of a dynamic movement. So, it's taking a joint through a full range of motion. You and I, between sessions here, just did a couple of those dynamic movements. And what it, what it does is it, you know, joints like to move. When a joint goes through full range of motion, it starts to lubricate, it releases stuff called synovial fluid. So, I always say, "Motion is lotion."

When you take that joint through full range, or you reverse a posture that you've been in for a long time, the body really likes it. So, if we're here all day long, we want to open stuff up, right? If we're working with our hips bent forward out in front of us, we want to take a hip through full range of motion so that we can, you know, change the position, activate different muscles.
And so, anyhow, what I found over the years is that, you know, that formula works really well for, you know, just everyday people, for athletes, and definitely for working athletes as well. Well, go over that three-step process again. Just, yeah, so rolling, breathing, and moving.

And so, when you're talking about troubleshooting, I mean, that's one of the skills that I've always found is been the most important thing. Like, in my clinical practice, I always told people, "My goal is not to see you. If I'm not seeing you, that means I'm doing my job. Because what I've done is I've educated you on how your body works and things that you can do to troubleshoot it."

And I mean, on this podcast, we've got a bunch of troubleshooters listening, you know what I mean? Your whole, your whole profession is troubleshooting. It's, it's figuring out what the problem is, and then coming up with a solution. So, like, if I wake up with, like, a spot in my upper back that's tight, like, right along the shoulder blade, you know, I'm going to probably, you know, get a massage ball or a lacrosse ball. I'm going to roll up and down in that area to warm up the tissue, to loosen up that area. I'm going to do things that are going to open up my chest. I'm going to take some deep breaths in.
Or if my lower back's tight, it's, you know, my lower back is where, you know, the pain might be. But we know that typically it's because the hips are tight, the upper back's tight. So, we've got to loosen up areas above and below. So, when people start to learn some of those concepts, I mean, literally, you can take care of like 95% of your issues. You just need to know, like, okay, yeah, what should I apply in this situation?

What are some early warning signs that your body is like nearing it and or nearing capacity, I guess? Yeah, well, I mean, I think we all have been there where you've sensed vulnerability. I don't know if you've ever felt that word. It's just like, "Man, I don't want to take a move. I don't want to cough. I don't want to do anything." Just because I, I can tell my body's, you know, potentially going to break.

And I always think of it like, you know, a paperclip. You can only bend it back and forth so many times before it just goes. And, you know, usually in those situations, there's, there's a lot going on. There's probably mental stress. There could be stress from a bunch of different things. Cortisol is high. Maybe we're not sleeping and recovering as much. You and I talked about the Whoop, you know, tracking your sleep. I, I was traveling all last week through Chicago. And my Whoop was just like, I was in the green leading up to it. And then I was like 20%, 22%, 23%. And like, by the end of that trip, it was just like, "Man, I'm not feeling great."

So, I mean, I went home, I slept nine hours. Like, that never happens. But I'm like, it pulled me out of it. So, I, I think it's understanding those warning signs. And having data, I think, does help you understand like, when you're, when you're on the brink. But I again, I say all this, and then realize that, like, for a lot of your listeners, they're like, "Hey, when a storm's happening, you know, I don't have a choice. Like, I've got to, got to work."
And so, going back to where we started out this conversation with, you know, doing that self-assessment, I think it's, you know, it's really identifying those signs and saying, "This is off. This is off. Here's where I need to take care of myself for, you know, maybe I shouldn't be doing this particular job this day. And I should tap out and, you know, let someone else do something that, you know, might put me in a spot where, you know, things might break."

That's why I like, that's why I've been such a big proponent of like, a wearable. Yeah, with, I, I love like the wearable paired with that self-assessment. Because that self-assessment is literally just you gathering data. Yeah, like, you're just getting your own metrics over time. Like, you're going to notice if you're doing this over time, you're getting the same things, because you're just collecting data.

Yeah, right. And then same with the wearable, like a Whoop or an Oura, or something. It's just like collecting data. Yeah, it's not for that one time that you go on storm. It's like that one time on storm was maybe one hurricane a year that you went on. And the rest of the time throughout the year, it's just allowing you to collect data and make small adjustments, small decisions.

Like, I went to Vegas last year, the same thing, sort of thing. Like, you notice reds. Like, I'd had like a whole month of green recoveries. And then I go to Vegas and, like, typical, you can guess, it's a week of red recovery. It's like, "Are you dead?" And, yeah, I feel like after, no kidding, we just went to Vegas for a week, we're going to feel like at the end. But, but now, like, what can you do to bring yourself out of that?
Yeah, you know, I just like the idea of tracking. Yeah, I've never been like a big tracker, like, like analyzing data. But it's not in your face. It's like, literally just like little things that you can start seeing. Like, sleep. Like, just, I don't know, if I add an extra hour sleep, I'm going to probably be better recovery tomorrow. You can see how much sleep debt you're getting. Like, I don't know, you just make all these small decisions.

Well, what I've always found, too, and you and I had this conversation, leading up to this, that, I mean, you've been on this journey of weight loss, and, you know, you made comments about how much better you feel. And it's like, I think sometimes people have, have gone so long feeling a certain way that they don't know what, you know, good or better feels like. And so, when you do start to make some changes, you start to, you know, have more data.
And it's like, "Oh, I lost five pounds. I'm eating a little bit better, doing some mobility work. My body isn't in pain." Sometimes it's the absence of pain, discomfort, and the way that you've been feeling to open your eyes of like, "Oh, man, actually, I, I could be feeling better. And this could become my new normal."
And then you start slowly making those shifts in a better direction. And, and so, and then when you backslide, which we all do, then you're like, "Oh, I forgot how much better. Like, I forgot what that felt like. And, and how much better I feel when I'm doing these things." And I, and I honestly think it's like the outcomes that reinforce the behaviors. But you have to, you know, have a structure, you have to have something to hold you accountable.

But the thing is, like, I've never seen someone successful with like, going all out and just trying to, like, change stuff massively in a short period of time. It's, it's like slow and steady. It's like small habits that accumulate, that lead to long-term change.

I got a great example. I went to, I went to Mount Everest Base Camp. It's always something I wanted to do. I did that trek at 225 pounds. And, oh, like, man, I thought sore knees was something like, I've always given, like, I got bad knees. It's just something I'd adopted. Like, okay, I'm going to have this for the rest of my life. I played a lot, like, very competitive ice hockey when I was younger. And then I climbed poles and towers for 15 years after playing ice hockey for 17 years. It's like 30 years of abuse on my knees. Sore knees is something I'm always going to have.
I go to Everest Base Camp at 225. So, since this last April, so it's been like six months, I've been on this, like, weight loss journey, lost 34 pounds so far. Like, I was telling you that, like, I put a rucksack on now and put 35 pounds in that rucksack. And I'm like, "Holy, like, this is what I took on my body, never mind the pack I was wearing on top of that to Everest." And like, sore knees, my knee pain literally just like disappeared. Yeah, and it like disappears in a, like, you just don't notice it anymore. It's gone. I don't have sore knees anymore. I can go up and down hills without the front of my kneecaps feeling like they're going to blow off my body. And it's all just because, like, I changed my eating, I lost a bit of weight. Yeah, my body's now at a level where it's like, it's a weight, it's acceptable. Yeah, like, it's amazing. I don't know, people just don't realize, you adopt this mindset, like, this is just something I got to live with.

Yeah, you know, man, I used to see that all the time in my practice, too. I call it the negative spiral health. And so, you know, I'll never forget this one woman, Jan. She came into me. And like a year previous, she just was walking through her backyard, stepped in a hole, twisted her knee. And she had like knee pain. She went to a medical doctor. He looked at X-ray. Everything came back normal. Wasn't getting better. Then had an MRI. Everything showed up normal. And so, she adopted this mindset, like, this is probably just the way that it's always going to be.
So, when she had the knee pain, that knee pain limited her from being able to go out and walk as much. So, she went from like walking her dog like five miles a day to like, you know, just 10 minutes a day. Yeah, then she started to feel like, you know, not quite as good. And we know that when you're not exercising, it changes mood. It, it impacts like even eating habits. So, she started, you know, to not have as high quality of diet. Pretty soon, she put on 25 pounds over a year. So, now she went from like being pretty fit and healthy to 25 pounds heavier, knee pain. This is kind of the way it's always going to be.

And so I did an assessment of her knee. Like, there was nothing major going on. It was just like, "Oh, you strained this muscle. This muscle is tight. It's pulling your kneecap over." And so that's causing things not to line up. So every time you bend, squat, step, it's creating friction on the underside of your kneecap, and that's creating the pain. So we just worked on some simple things to reduce that pain. And like, literally within a week, she's like, "Man, I can walk now."

So she went from like 10 minutes back to like, you know, 30 minutes, and then it went to an hour. And over the course of six months, she lost that 25 lbs. Knee wasn't bothering her. Like, just completely changed everything. Her, I mean, she was on like low-level anti-depressants. She was able to talk to her doctor, get off of that, get off the pre-diabetic medication that she had started to go on. So it's just funny how all these things can be connected. And sometimes it's, it's just a loss of mobility, or it's, you know, feeling like, "Man, this is the way it's always going to be." And but for her, it was like, "Okay, I actually do have a say in this." And it's not going to be true for everyone, but, you know, a lot of times it's just simple things, and that can have a profound impact on somebody's overall health.

What are some actionable steps then to improving capacity in daily life? Yeah, regardless of that work or not. Yeah, excuse me. So again, I think it goes back to some of those, those three buckets that we've talked about. So the movement health piece, I think, is a critical piece. But then going back to body positioning, ergonomics, like if you're a working athlete and you're spending, you know, 10 to 14 hours on the job doing physical work, try to put your body in the best position so that when you're performing those job tests, you're getting stronger rather than breaking down.

I always think, you know, an athlete in the gym, they are more focused on their body positioning and their mechanics when they're lifting that weight, rather than how much they're actually lifting. Because, you know, you could lift a small amount of weight but do it improperly, and it's going to create increased strain to your body. Or you could lift a really heavy weight with good posture, and it makes you stronger. And so I always see that, you know, work when done right can actually build you up and make you stronger.

And then number three goes back to just that, you know, trying to figure out like, what is the formula for you? Like, do you need to focus a little bit on sleep, focus a little bit on nutrition, like hydration, stress reduction? Like, what are those, those other things that are impacting your recovery? Because all, all those aspects, you know, are going to impact human capacity. And it sounds overwhelming. You're like, "Man, this is 20 things now I have to think of." But it's, it's interesting when, when you break it down into just like small choices over the course of your day, and it's grounded in, you know, the bigger why, like we talked about in the last podcast, you're going to start to make small changes just in everyday life.
And it, it really doesn't, it's not that much. It's just like, you know, it just becomes the way that you live your life. You know what I mean? You never think about brushing your teeth as being like something that's arduous. You just do it because it's part of your daily routine. And I think if you can make these things part of that daily routine, it becomes way more attainable if you connect it to your bigger why. Yeah, you'll find a way to make it happen. And it's again, like, choose your hard. Everything's hard. Yeah, so it might be difficult to work all of this stuff into daily routine, but over time, like you said, it just becomes normal. It's your new norm.

Totally right. Yeah, yeah. You're going to lift stuff all day long anyway, just adjust your body positioning. It's one of the things like diving into your stuff and your program that totally want to give you props for is like, it's identifying those things that we as utility workers do on the daily in, in work, at work. Yeah, that are those lifting things that we don't, we don't think about as like, because it's not like lifting a barbell. Yeah, it's like pulling cable. Okay, I'm pulling cable off this reel. Yeah, like that, that one video I watched, pulling cable off the reel. Well, there's a dumb way to do that, and there's a good way to do that. Like, there's a way that's going to benefit your body, and there's a way that's not going to benefit your body.

Explain that a little bit because, yeah, like, I think that's super huge and important and something valuable. Yeah, when we went into this space, we saw a huge opportunity. I just have a heart for people who do the, you know, this type of work. It's my whole life was spent around people who worked hard with their bodies, and most of them, like, were completely broken by the time they hit retirement. And so, like, my heart is really to serve these, these folks.
But one of the first things that I encountered when I started working with utility workers is like, you have to, you have to show this group that you get them and that you care about them. And I learned that right away. Like, if, if, if I'm not relating it to, to what they do on a day in, day out basis, it's just, you know, white noise, and we're going to tune it out. So, you know, a big part of the service that we deliver is creating content. And so, what we found is that every company does safety moments, you know, before every meeting or, you know, at a pre-job brief. So, it's like, how can we create learning moments that just take a minute that continue to compound people's knowledge about the work that they do, and how can they can best set themselves up for success?
And so, one of the pieces of content that we deliver is what we call in the field videos. So, it's, you know, pictures of linemen and gas workers, generation workers doing those jobs, but not telling people how to do their jobs. It's just how can you best position your body when you perform that? And again, short, short bits of content that show, you know, do this, not that kind of style.

And, you know, we live in this YouTube culture or every, or even Tik Tok culture where everybody learns, you know, in short bits of information. And so, we found that that's really resonated with people. And it's not just an actor in a warehouse, you know, demonstrating how to do this or that. It's, it's actual line workers. And so, it's, it's been a cool way to, to really reach those people and build that trust. I think it's super important. Honestly, we can't always get our bodies in the right positions. Like, I think about like so many times when you're, when you got two, two hooks planted on a pole, and you got limited ability to, like, you got to reach over your back. But is there some way that you can position your legs, turn your leg over your other, and can you like reach out differently where you got your core more supported than like flopping over your back? And, you know, just things like that. Like, so important to pay attention to.
Yeah, and that's, I think that's one of the most important things here, because I would say that a majority of the time with the work that you all do, you can't put your body in, in ideal position. So, you have to step back and say, say, you know, given the limitations, I have, the checklist is, what is the position of my base? So, my, you know, feet. In most instances, it might be you're on one knee. And so, that's your base. But what is the position of my base, the position of my trunk, and the position of my shoulders? And am I working in the power zone, meaning keeping it as close to my center of gravity? If you can do that checklist on every job task you do, it takes no time at all. So, base, trunk, and shoulders, and then working in the power zone. Like, that checklist, 99% of the time, you'll be able to, to figure out how to problem solve that situation. At least make yourself as strong as you can be.

When you're doing this like 360 walk around, I just want to go back to this for a second, because how do you do, how do you do this? Like, you're just talking 360. What are you starting with? Or what's the process? Like, do you have a process? Like a checklist, almost. Like, where do I start? Top my head, or what? Like, what do I, what am I looking for?
Yeah, totally. That's actually a good point, right? Because we, we probably need to put together like something that's a little bit more of a formula checklist. But I always think about like, number one, do an assessment of your body first. Like, start at the feet, work your way up, and just take a quick inventory. Do I have discomfort anywhere? Do I feel tight, restricted? So, that's a good starting point.

Number two is like, how's my head? Am I, you know, ready to perform the work that I'm focused on? Yeah, mentally, exactly. You know, are there things I'm stressed out about, distracted by, things that, you know, may put me at risk? And then also thinking about, you know, what are some of the external factors? Like, if I'm going to be up in a bucket, and I'm not going to be able to go up and down and, you know, get stuff to shield me from the sun, or if I'm going to be dehydrated, like, what do I have with me so that I can ensure that I'm going to actually be able to, you know, go for three or four hours at a time?
You know, listen into that podcast with Working Athlete, they're talking about that exact scenario. And it's like, you know, if you're an athlete, you're taking in a sports drink, you're taking in some nutrition, like every 20 minutes to keep you going, keep your, you know, glucose to your brain, keep those electrolytes going, keep your, you know, your brain is mostly water and sugar. Like, how, how are you feeding that? And so, you know, not saying, you know, "I probably have 45 more minutes left on this job. I can just get it out." I, those are the moments when, when I think errors happen, because, you know, we're not performing at peak perspective.
So, I think it's that 360 checklist is also saying, you know, what are the things that I may need to, to think about as this job progresses, so I can ensure that I'm ready to go? I'll give you some examples of what, what we're doing on the job, and you probably know this already. But like, say, take, like, a warm environment, like working in Texas with rubber gloves on. Right? And you've probably seen these guys pull rubber gloves off their hands after like, you know, half an hour in the air and just pour sweat, water out of that. That's just coming from like the arms, never mind like what you're losing on the rest of your body, the same amount.

Right? And like, you bring up a good point of like athletes running these marathons. And I've see, you know, I follow Nick Bear, I follow like a bunch of these guys on, on social, and they're like at those checkpoints, like, "I, you know, four miles in, I've had my first glucose, like my first gel pack, and I took some electrolytes and this and that." Like, linemen don't do that. Yeah, but they're probably losing more or doing more physical work, yeah, in a demanding environment than a lot of like runners and athletes do.

Man, it's crazy. And not even thinking about like what it's doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, I, I do a lot of like long endurance events, and those may take 6 to 12 hours. And it's like, it doesn't matter how good a shape you're in if you don't have a nutrition plan and a plan to deal with the heat, like, you're toast. And so, again, it, I think we just haven't made that a big part of like, the thinking or the preparation for the workforce. And it's definitely an opportunity, I think, where we can advance things.

A lot of these guys, like, a lot of your, you out there, a lot of your nutrition plans are a store stop at the beginning of a day where you grab three Monsters for the day, two tacos from the stand behind the gas station, and like, whatever. Like, if, if you even get anything for lunch, like, that's usually what you're pounding in the morning. That's not a nutrition plan. Yeah, it's like, you gotta, got to start planning better. Yeah, it's like that, that's the plan. Like, that's the, a lot of them, it's just like dehydrating you more, not providing you with the right nutrition.

Yeah, I mean, it's a huge opportunity, and it's, it's part of the culture. And I, I get that. But it's one of those things, too, again, going back to that example that I gave. You'd never put like crappy gas into your truck, you know what I mean? Because it's going to impact things. But for, for our body, it's like everything that we do on a daily basis requires the right vitamins, minerals. And so, that extra 10 minutes can make a huge difference in terms of like, just preparing to have the right types of foods to help you perform.

Is there anything else that's like the most misunderstood aspects of human capacity in the workplace from what you've seen? So, one thing we haven't talked much about, but I think is a real deal, is pain. Again, I've, I've been spoken to so many linemen over the years, and every time I ask, "How many of you are you dealing with pain?" It's like 80 to 100% of the hands go up. And pain is one of those things that I think a lot of people just deal with. And, and if you don't have a framework for how to offset it or how to, you know, again, go back to maintaining your muscle and your joint health, it just becomes a way of life.

And, but pain mechanically changes the way that the brain functions. It starts to, you know, pull into that reptilian, you know, fight or flight part of the brain. Critical thinking does not happen as well. When we talk about hazard recognition, like when we're in pain, literally we start to get tunnel vision. And so, we can't see the things out there. And, you know, a lot of the research on, you know, SIF prevention, hazard recognition, shows that on our best day, we only see about 45% of the risks that are out there. And so, if we're in pain, like, you know, what is our capacity to actually to see the risks that are out there?

And so, anyhow, I, I think that giving people a tool set for how to, you know, recognize when they're in pain, how to troubleshoot, like we just talked about, how to maintain things so you don't get to the point where you're chronically in pain, is, is a really big deal. Because, I mean, how many people, and, and I know this from like a personal experience from my family, a lot of people go to alcohol. They, you know, the pain is intolerable. They get into the medicine cabinet, and their spouse just had a, you know, root canal. And so, then they start getting on, you know, coding or something like that. It, it's, it's just there are a lot of things that to me, it's, it's a route that can lead to, you know, you know, not, not good places.

Yeah, it's just a mask, Band-Aid, whatever you want to call. Exactly. So, what, what should somebody do about that then? Like, straight to professional help to try to, like, yeah, I, again, I think that there are situations where people have been dealing with it so long. I mean, chronic pain is often times a lot harder to, to manage than acute pain. You know, acute pain, it's relatively recent. That's where troubleshooting, doing stuff like that, can be really effective.

What we teach people is, you know, here's your tool set, here's stuff that you can do. But if that's not solving it, definitely go, you know, get some professional help. But again, what my experience has been is that it's a combination of a bunch of different things. If you have a musculoskeletal problem, you're eating garbage, you're dehydrated, you're not sleeping well, you're stressed out. You know, all these things are increasing inflammation in your body. And so, you've got a fire going on, and then you're just throwing gasoline on the fire. Like, it's tough to beat.

And I think for most of us, we just are like, you know, "I take Vitamin I every day," which is ibuprofen. You know what I mean? It's just like you try to put out the fire rather than dealing with, you know, some of this other stuff that's probably causing that to continue. So, it's complex. But I think when people have more knowledge, and, you know, if you do that self-assessment and can start to get on top of it, it doesn't get out of control, because now you have a way to actually address it before it turns into something bigger.
How can leaders foster an environment that promotes high human capacity in their teams? Like, again, speaking from that perspective of leadership or the employer, you know, employer or employer management to the employee or the dirt-level person on the ground type person. What can they do to foster?

Totally. And, you know, you're right, because it does come from culture. You know, it's a culture that says, "Hey, we really care about you. You're our greatest assets." And, you know, we tell you to, to inspect your tools, to maintain your tools. Your body's your most important tool out there. And so, it's within the workday, creating opportunities where people can do those self-assessments, where people have the knowledge and the tools to troubleshoot their body. It's, you know, providing maybe even some nutrition and hydration options that are going to be healthier substitutes and making that a part of the culture.

It's doing a Readiness score at the start of a pre-job brief just to make sure everyone's fit for duty and ready to go. So, I mean, I've seen some tremendous examples of different utilities that just are like, "This is the most important thing." And it's, I'll tell you what, their productivity, they're some of the most successful, you know, companies out there. And they're spending a lot of time investing in their people, but their people are, they're, I mean, they're doing amazing stuff.

And so, I think there's sometimes a myth out there that if you focus on this stuff, it's going to slow you down. But sometimes you have to slow down so you can speed up.

Yes. I love that. And on that point, if you're the boots on the ground person, don't sit back and wait for your employer to make the change. Because sometimes they have a lot of other things going on, not even of their fault or anything. They just got other focuses. Bring this stuff up to them. Like, you can start implementing this just on your crew. Like, if you're just the leader of a person crew, start providing hydration packs and start talking about, start taking time to do assessments and rolling and stretch. Like, start implementing this stuff and be that leader and show your leadership that this stuff's important.
Because again, like, if you implement this just on your crew, yeah, your crew starts performing better. Your crew starts having zero injuries. Your crew, all of a sudden, your leadership's going to be looking at you going, "Holy cow, their metrics." Because they're paying attention to metrics. Their metrics, their numbers, their production, all of it's better. Their attitude, everything. "What are you guys doing?" They're going to ask you questions.
Totally. And what I've seen is that the executive level, most of the time, they're supportive of this stuff. You know what I mean? They want to see people successful. But really, it's the crew leads and the foreman that I think are most influential in this entire process. And what I've seen, the people who really like knock it out of the park, they've also have like 25 years under their belt. And they've been like, "I've been there, done that. And if I were in your shoes, you know, five years out, you're going to be thanking yourself later on down the road if you do these things."
And so, it's often times those people who are super influential and, you know, speak from experience and say, "Hey, this is going to become a priority." And you're exactly right. Like, the numbers do not lie. Like, I, I can think of many examples where these crews really embrace us, and they're the top performers. And it's like, it speaks, it speaks volumes for sure.
What's, okay, give, give me one takeaway from this episode then. If there's one, maybe there's more, feel free. Simple daily habit, the biggest one. Like, if you're going to start changing something now, do this, even if something we talked about.

Yeah, so I would say one thing that would probably be the best starting point is until you step back to recognize what you need to work on, you're going to have no idea. And so, I think doing that Readiness score, whether it's with your crew or it's you doing it personally, until you take the moment to step back and just analyze stuff, you won't even know where to start.

We've talked about, you know, 20 different things that you can do. But when you start to become more in tune with your body, and you start to have data, you start to, you know, just become more aware, then you can start to implement some of those troubleshooting things that we talked about, the recovery aspect. So, I, I think a lot of it is just awareness, and it's, it's taking the time, because we're all going a million miles an hour. Until you stop, it's just day in, day out, you just keep doing the same thing.

Love it. Okay, episode one, we talked about finding your why and your purpose, which is really the mindset that's going to drive wanting to make change in yourself. Yeah, episode two, this episode, we talked about human performance and troubleshooting these aches, pains, things. Set up episode three, which of this series, which will be the final episode, we're going to talk about implementation. Yeah, food, nutrition, you know, different things, recovery, massively talk about recovery. Anything you want to say about that before we jump into that?
Yeah, I think that this episode really touched on stuff that are pretty high level. But again, recovery is absolutely the most important aspect of a long-term career, and just again, being able to show up day in and day out at your best. So, yeah, I'm excited to have that conversation.

All right, guys, tune in episode three coming at you.

Thanks a lot, Ryan. I hope you guys got some value out of that episode. I hope you enjoyed it.

I just want to draw your awareness to a couple of other things. So, we make these podcasts, yes, but it's not the only thing that we put out as far as content. Our social media are full of valuable cuts from the podcast itself, as well as just a bunch of other educational stuff and entertainment. So, go follow us at Powerline Podcast on all social media platforms. And then also YouTube, I don't think that a lot of you are aware of this, but we don't just load these podcasts onto YouTube. We also make vlogs, which are super educational, entertaining, great place to direct people to learn about the industry, learn about the trade, or just learn about what's going on within either Quanta or the Powerline industry in general.

So, hit up our YouTube channel, again, it's at Powerline Podcast. You can catch those vlogs on there. We also load a bunch of other extra content in video form. We try to up the quality every time we do this. We try to up that quality. So, hit up the YouTube channel and make sure you're subbed to all those platforms. Appreciate you guys. Hope to see you again soon. We'll see you again soon. Peace.