Revive Aesthetics and Wellness Strength and Fitness
As Revive evolves, we are identifying where we can most effectively help our clients and patients maximize the feel and the look of vitality and vigor. Revive is a bit unique in that our mission is to address hormonal health, aesthetics, and fitness all in one practice. Most medical practices are not designed to help people pursue truly optimal fitness, as this requires not just aerobic exercise recommendations, but also help with the strength training so necessary to build muscular fitness. Medical school, internships, and residencies simply do not teach it. A few physicians go on to non-surgical sports medicine fellowships which do teach it, but most doctors simply must pursue the necessary knowledge and experience themselves. Performance Medicine may well be a bona fide subspeciality in the future, with university programs to support it. Organizations like A4M provide excellent educational opportunities for physicians interested in the science of performance, but frankly, our clients and patients at Revive want ground level, actionable advice for here and now. Does this describe you? Are you looking for an “overhaul”?
Can do! We are here to help! The key is in creating the necessary hormonal environment to allow for a transformation and combine that with the appropriate fitness protocol.
Quite a few of our patients and clients come to us from excellent personal trainers with whom they are already working. These are ideal scenarios and make our task much easier. We communicate with that trainer as to what we have in mind hormonally and nutritionally, we combine forces, and that closes the loop. For people interested in starting with a personal trainer, we can offer the right recommendations. We’ve worked closely with a number of local trainers, so we are comfortable recommending them to the people we see here at Revive. A good personal trainer is simply a great investment for our clients and patients.
I just turned sixty myself. I’ve been with a personal trainer for nearly thirty years, and I consider it to be one of the best investments I’ve ever made, now more than ever. Let’s face it. At age 60, statistically at least, most of my life is over. Time is now a precious commodity, so I need to spend it wisely. The four hours each week I spend building strength and fitness under expert supervision are simply indispensable. They make the other 164 hours of the week that much better. Yes, it costs money, but I see myself as worth it. What return on investment could possibly beat the feeling of health and vitality that I get from professional strength training?! And, it makes it much easier for me to remain accountable and disciplined. I commit to the training time. I show up willing to put in the effort. I leave the rest to my trainer. I have learned a great deal about strength and fitness over the years, but I “prefer to defer” to my trainer when it comes to my own regimen. He can be objective. He can make sure that I am not favoring one exercise over another. He can police my form. Most critically, he frees me from my tendency to overthink, at least during my training hour. In other words, I get a break from myself.
Whatever your age, once you’ve made the decision to remain or become an amateur athlete (which is what you are if you are exercising every day without being paid to do it) you have placed yourself into a fairly small minority. Not many people are amateur athletes, and far fewer are professional. Overall, perhaps 23% of North Americans exercise adequately, and that number drops with age. By the time we reach age 60 plus, fewer than 1 in 5 of us gets adequate exercise regularly.
The reasons for this exercise deficit vary, but here are a few of the big ones: aversion to putting forth the effort; fear of injury; chronic illness or injury causing pain and or fatigue; fixed income. But if we dig a bit deeper, and question a bit more incisively, we come up with a fifth big reason, the most discouraging reason of all: lack of progress despite putting forth effort/disappointment with results of exercise. This just does not have to be the case, but most of us have been through this at least once or twice. Are you going through this now yourself? Is this why you’ve quit fitness training? Stop selling yourself short. Let’s change this. Now.
Along these lines, each patient who receives or has received a BHRT package can schedule an appointment to begin assessing strength and fitness goals and strategies. At this appointment, we’ll set aside the nuts and bolts of your hormone therapy and instead focus upon exercise and nutrition. We will look at current body composition, previous physique/figure experiences, chronic injuries that may be contributing to the situation (my experience as a pain specialist will really help here), general and specific goals, and then decide what comes next. We can jumpstart the entire process if you bring in a 2-day nutritional intake log. This could be via an app like MyFitnessPal or simply cell phone pictures of everything you have had to eat and drink over 48 consecutive hours. Either way, the process is non-judgmental! I have plenty of nutritional “sins” myself.
Next, we will look at your exercise preferences, equipment access, the relative costs involved, intended time commitment, etc. There are many, many options that we can use to reach the same endpoint. We consider things as simple as starting with complete workouts via resistance exercise bands at home. We can go all-in with comprehensive personal training, perhaps with one of the experts we can recommend or with one you’ve already selected. We can look at a do-it-yourself program in your home gym or a local gym. We can arrange for a program design/ 6-12 session training package with a personal trainer. We can work with free weights or machines. In other words, the overhaul can be your reality.
I think we have always known intuitively that consistent, vigorous exercise is in our best interest, but now, the science is simply undeniable. Peter Attia’s book Outlive, which I highly recommend, highlights this. The single greatest health preserver and life extender we have available to us is exercise. The single most productive aesthetic treatment available to us is exercise. The single most effective maneuver to release endorphins and increase dopamine levels is exercise. The vast majority of Revive patients find that once their gonadal hormones are restored, their motivation to exercise returns. So let’s get to work! We’ve got your back on this.
Revive Aesthetics and Wellness Basic Supplement Recommendations
In the U.S., supplements are not government-supervised or controlled. In Canada, supplements do require compliance with a “must be safe to consume” rule, but this does not ensure quality of the product or accuracy of labeling. In the European Union, supplements are regulated somewhat like prescription pharmaceuticals are regulated. In other countries, regulation is by and large absent.
Yet even where supplement quality is ensured by government inspection, it is very difficult to find any consensus on use and dosing. Truly scientific studies using the double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled method (akin to what we require before allowing a prescription medication to be released) often suggest possible benefits from various supplements, but very little seems iron-clad. We do have the “recommended daily allowance” tables originally created in 1943 in response to the blatant malnutrition seen in military draftees, but fortunately, the sort of extreme poverty and lack of food choices faced by previous generations just isn’t common nowadays.
Our patients and clients at Revive tend to be proactive, health-focused, responsible, and informed. Some of you have studied supplementation yourself and know the literature better than I know it. But for those of you looking for guidance, I can offer a basic supplementation regimen.
I put this together with the help of the pharmacists at Keystone Pharmacy. Dave Miller and Logan Morse are both PharmD’s. They continually update their knowledge bases. Over the years, they and their team have helped us provide the best care for our patients.
Keep in mind that there are some circumstances that might require adjustment of our protocol. For instance, people on certain blood thinners should be cautious with omega three fatty acids. People with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer or certain prostate cancers should be cautious with DHEA. Hence, the protocol should be adapted if you have certain chronic conditions or medication regimens. We can help you adjust if you fall into these categories.
In terms of supplement quality, there is variability. One option is to purchase supplements that carry an “EU” stamp, meaning the European Union approves them for sale. Another option is to stick with a consistently high quality brand like Metagenics or Ortho Molecular (we can direct you to a website that offers a built -in discount on Metagenics product that a doctor has recommended). A third option is to utilize Keystone Pharmacy and tap into their experience with different brands.
Here are what we consider the “big ones” for our BHRT patients:
1. Omega three fatty acids/fish oil capsules, at least 3 grams per day
2. Daily multi-strain probiotic supplement designed for gut health
3. Vitamin D 10,000 units per week; we will adjust this based upon your blood work
* All information subject to change. Images may contain models. Individual results are not guaranteed and may vary.