Pūtahi Hauora
Defence Health HubWellbeing week
Press Pause
NZDF's first Wellbeing Week is on from Monday, June 13!
It's a timely reminder for us all to Press Pause - and check in with how you - and those around you - are doing.
When you're juggling work, home life and other responsibilities it's easy to let healthy habits and self-care slide, and ignore signs that you might not be feeling 100 percent.
Let's Press Pause, and reset. We have a great line up of speakers and something for everyone this week.
Download the week's programme here
Find out what's on:
Monday
Checking in on wellbeing
Have you got a lot on your plate? Are you worried you're not firing on all cylinders, or are you concerned about someone else? Maybe you have a big event coming up and want to make sure you're ‘fighting fit’ in all aspects of health.
If you want to learn more about wellbeing, and the tools and resources available to help you thrive and perform at your best, then this pre-recorded webinar is for you!
Our panelists share their mātauranga (knowledge) and personal experiences about why it's important to Press Pause.
Who?
Facilitator: Kate Heather-Smith
Panel:
- LTCOL Bob Duncan
- LAC Anaru Tepania
- Angeline Lambert
- SQNLDR Carsten Grimm
- Chaplain Tony Brooking
- WO Lance Graham
- WO1 Jason Rapana
- Antonia Nicholson
- Laura Barnes
Spotlight on Wellbeing - Knowing when to Press Pause
0:05
and thank you for joining us today in our first session for the defence well-being week
0:11
uh my name is kate heather smith and i'll be the facilitator for this session today so firstly just to open the
0:17
session i'd like to welcome ange lambert one of our panel members here today from turangawaiwai to
0:24
open this session for us with the karakia thank you ange
0:57
so the the theme for this well-being week that we have running within defence is press pause um we know that 2022 has
1:04
been a busy year already and um this week provides us an opportunity to pause get in with how we're going check
1:10
checking with those around us and how they're going as well so have you got a lot of things on the
1:17
go are you a bit worried about big things coming up are you wanting to make sure that you're fighting fit
1:23
across all the domains of health or are you wanting to learn more about tools and resources that we've got available for you within the nzdf
1:31
this webinar should be really helpful for you thank you for listening
1:36
so in this session today we're going to hear from our wonderful panel members thank you again for being part of this
1:43
um so our panel members today have offered to share share their thoughts and their experiences across our theme
1:49
which is press pause and the importance of nurturing all our domains of health
1:56
so when we talk about the domains of health we're referring to our te whatever farm model of health
2:01
and this is a model that we use within defence the panel members will also talk about
2:07
knowing when it's time to press pause and share their tips for maximizing health and where you can go for a
2:14
helping hand throughout the session today we will always be referring back to our new new defense
2:20
health hub website hutahi hiyora
2:25
so firstly today i'm just going to introduce um to pharaoh
2:31
our maori model of health that i mentioned before that we use within defence so as you can see on the slide this
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model has four equal sides which represent physical well-being mental and emotional
2:44
well-being spiritual well-being and social well-being so this model shows that all
2:52
four pillars are critical to health and they're all interconnected
2:57
um all these pillars must work together and to bring balance to our lives and to
3:02
ensure holistic wellness so each of our panel members today will be focusing on one of these pillars of
3:08
health or a combination of these pillars and the importance of nurturing all these pillars to bring health and
3:15
wellness so firstly i'd like to welcome warrant officer jason rapana
3:21
so he's the warrant officer of the people capability portfolio and jason's going
3:26
to talk about the importance of taking the time to press pause and focusing on
3:32
self-care thank you jason
3:39
uh yeah um
3:58
uh um it's great to be part of this uh well-being uh kopapa and the initiatives
4:04
uh that have come with the order uh it's great to see and firstly
4:11
i just wanna say that it's okay to prioritize your own well-being
4:16
it's 100 okay and this is what uh this is about uh for everyone you know uh life gets a bit uh
4:23
tough sometimes you know whether it be mahi whether it be the stresses around mahi uh in defense where you might be
4:29
covering three or four hats uh home life uh culture uh the complexities around family
4:36
teenagers and and what life brains and uh it is important
4:41
actually stop and pause and reflect a rest uh and chicken
4:47
on others and that's a critical part of it too um but certainly for yourself and it's
4:52
about finding a balance and in my time and experience in um to my toeing it has been a few times
4:59
that i've had to sit back have a rest and really reflect on where i'm going and what i'm doing and that work life
5:04
balance now i just want to sort of uh talk about uh what kate talked about was
5:10
uh the concept being spiritual physical uh mental social and with whanau
5:17
and the phenomena that foundation that that sits on um
5:22
you know perfection is the enemy of good and so you can't
5:27
cover everything off but certainly within those uh taha uh you can actually find really good
5:33
nuggets that um will help you uh and um tools to help others uh within
5:39
wellbeing um so uh i just said to finish you know it's about finding a balance it's about
5:45
stepping back it's taking pause it's for you and your whanau and just so we can keep on top of that game so uh thanks
5:51
very much kia ora okay
5:59
kyoto jason thank you very much for that um so bob passing over to you so you're our chief
6:05
medical officer here at the new zealand defence force um it would be great to hear your thoughts about the importance
6:11
of monitoring uh physical health as a key foundation for our overall health and wellbeing
6:16
thank you bob and we've got some slides from you
6:34
okay thank you um kia ora everyone
6:40
physical well being consists of two main factors
6:46
cardiovascular fitness and illness prevention whilst we're serving in ncdf
6:52
this allows us fuller employment beyond then said df it allows us wider
6:57
employment opportunities greater leisure activities and longer life
7:06
um there's a picture which hopefully will come up of an american medical officer
7:11
by the name of kenneth h cooper in 1960 when he was aged 29
7:18
kenneth cooper was water skiing when he experienced chest pain palpitations and shortness of breath
7:24
he was rushed to the local hospital for investigations and they told him that he wasn't
7:29
suffering from a heart attack but he was overweight unfit and his heart was under
7:34
strain he was told that if he didn't make changes to his life he was likely to have a heart attack in
7:41
his 30s or 40s and be dead by the time he was 50.
7:46
dr cooper decided to change his lifestyle and focus his medical work on
7:52
research and fitness and helping people gain healthier lives and live longer
8:01
at that time in the 1960s most people accepted that they'd reach a peak of physical performance in their 30s
8:08
and then there would be a slow progression as they grew older and we see this deterioration in health
8:14
today due to these diseases such as obesity premature heart disease and type 2
8:20
diabetes dr cooper challenged this and taught
8:26
that if you follow some basic health rules you can remain healthy for far longer with good physical function into
8:33
your 60s 70s and 80s and he described this as squaring the curve
8:40
so here are kenneth cooper's rules to health
8:47
this first rule is don't smoke most people understand that smoking's bad for their lungs but it's also the
8:54
most important factor in early heart disease no amount of smoking is okay
9:01
vaping may be useful as a way of stopping smoking but vaping is also potentially harmful
9:07
so don't smoke don't vape moderate alcohol
9:12
what does this mean well current guidelines in new zealand our women should drink no more than two
9:19
standard drinks a day and no more than 10 standard drinks a week and for men
9:25
three standard drinks a day and no more than 15 standard drinks a week with at least two alcohol-free days a week
9:35
for many people in new zealand they drink far more than this
9:40
the sooner we make changes to our drinking the sooner we can reap the benefits
9:48
your medical staff can explain what moderated drinking might look for you
9:55
eat healthfully most of the time
10:01
the basics of healthy eating are drink plenty of water eat plenty of vegetables and fruit
10:08
eat some cereal and grains eat some dairy and lean protein
10:14
try and avoid processed food salt and sugar most of the time acknowledges that we
10:21
all eat unhealthy food occasionally the key is not doing it too often
10:26
if you've got a medical condition or you're training at a high level you might need a more specialized diet and
10:32
again your medical staff can give you more detailed information
10:38
maintain an appropriate weight it can be difficult working out what an
10:43
appropriate weight for you is it will depend on many factors like your sex age genetics and the type of
10:52
physical activity you want to perform for all of us though excess body fat
10:58
leads to early reduction in physical performance and an increased risk of heart disease
11:06
stress management i know one of my colleagues will probably talk about this
11:11
but a moderate degree of stress can help keep us on our toes and improve performance but too much stress can
11:18
affect physical as well as mental health and is a major factor in heart disease and early death
11:23
there are practical ways that we can manage stress identifying the main cause of the stress is often a good start and depending on
11:31
the cause there are some practical ways of dealing with both work and family stress
11:36
our occupational psychologists and doctors can help you find ways that may help you
11:44
finally get regular health checkouts checkups are important to detect early
11:50
signs of disease and address them before they become too serious
11:55
our regular force personnel currently get health checkups every five years from the age of 35.
12:02
if you're in a high risk group your doctor may arrange for checkups to either start earlier or be more frequent
12:11
today there are lots of health advice out there being advertised particularly
12:16
regarding nutrition and diet and it can be confusing and contradictory
12:22
however kenneth cooper's seven rules have survived over 50 years and are still a
12:27
useful guide to healthier living today
12:34
since his health scare in the 1960s kenneth cooper has continued to research fitness and particularly childhood
12:40
obesity in the united states he was successful in getting physical education reintroduced into american
12:47
schools this year he's 91 years old and despite his poor health and his health scare at
12:54
age 29 is still mentally fit and physically active today
13:01
and for those of you into cars you'll see at 91 he's also driving an aston
13:06
martin thank you very much kate
13:12
thank you bob so that's yeah provided us with some really good reminders about the importance of physical health and
13:18
monitoring it over time and taking the time to press pause to really focus on that so thank you for that
13:26
so carson uh so you're one of our defense psychologists um and we'd just like to
13:32
you know hand over to you now to discuss the importance of mental health and what are some of the important important
13:38
areas that we need to focus on within that thank you carson
13:45
kyoto kate now
14:01
i'm a defensive psychologist currently in the health directorate uh researching our mental health system
14:08
so te taha hinonaro is a topic that's really close to my heart and so in five minutes or less what i'd
14:15
like to do is just remind us about a couple of principles to do with the mental health continuum so the topic
14:22
that i'm sure that we're all really familiar with here at defence which is great this idea that mental
14:27
health is not fixed in fact it can fluctuate depending on what's going on in our lives
14:32
and what i like to do is just take this idea a little bit further and relate it to the performance cycle that we're
14:37
quite fond of within psychology it's one of our coaching tools prepare perform recover so that's this
14:44
idea when you look across any area of high performance what you find is that people who take this seriously they
14:51
honor these particular cycles of getting ready for something difficult really reaching into doing something
14:56
difficult and then inevitably getting fatigued and then going into a recovery space catching your breath
15:02
and then the cycle repeats so the idea here in defense of course is we want to live most of our lives in the
15:09
green zone we want to stay in a healthy space of course but we're really interested in high performance we're a high performance organisation and of
15:15
course we want to reach you to do difficult things from time to time as part of our mahi now if you consult your own experience
15:21
much like myself what you'll notice is that if you've had a difficult pt session you've been on a difficult
15:26
exercise you've been on a deployment what inevitably happens when you've been doing the business for a while it's
15:32
going well you're doing difficult things but you get fatigued okay and what typically
15:37
tends to happen in my experience the folks that i work with is that actually you don't just go from reaching into the
15:43
high performance zone back to the green actually you probably go back into the yellow zone where you are fatigued right
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and that's normal in terms of training that's what we're looking for we're trying to induce fatigue because when we recover from that we grow back stronger
15:57
so we can't stay in the blue zone we surge into the blue zone and then we go into the yellow we want to recover back
16:03
into green back to baseline and the cycle repeats now let's talk about what happens if we
16:10
stay too long in the yellow zone so what we notice is that a lot of performance problems end up being
16:17
recovery problems right so you'll see that half of the yellow zone is okay normal natural
16:24
healthy fatigue and you can recover from that but what i find is if you start staying in the yellow zone for too long
16:30
you start to lose your healthy sense of perspective and what starts to happen is you spend too much time in the yellow zone you're
16:37
not recovering accurately and now you're trying to surge into the high performance zone it can quickly go from being okay to not
16:43
okay very quickly you end up in the orange of the red zone where you really need to start getting some professional support
16:48
okay so what can we do well what i find is like in any area of our lives if we
16:54
want to try and improve things just like if you're trying to improve your physical performance in pt you want to be a little bit deliberate
17:00
about it so it pays to have a plan so if you're someone where you've got like you know duncan says you've got
17:07
your sleep diet and exercise all dialed in what i find in terms of your well-being it's a really solid
17:12
foundation kind of like the base of your pyramid from which you can start building on other mental skills training
17:17
right and i've always said if you want to train your mental fitness in the same way that you train your physical fitness
17:24
it's really smart to have some kind of attention training practice like mindfulness
17:30
where you can start to learn how to pay attention to your thoughts and feelings and instead of being yanked around by
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your difficult thoughts and feelings you can start to notice them start to unhook from them and have a little bit more
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choice about what types of thoughts and feelings you pay attention to and what you react to if that's a good fit for you and you
17:48
want to try um training your mental fitness with mindfulness i highly recommend the headspace set uh it's
17:53
one of the best entry-level mindfulness apps on the market with access to it for free you can download it and access the
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details uh for that are on the defence health website so if that's the right
18:06
choice for you highly recommend it so mental health it's not fixed
18:11
fluctuates depending on what's going on in our lives the high performance cycle prepare perform recover is a really
18:16
great way of thinking about what phase of this performance cycle are you in we tend to under invest in our recovery
18:23
right we need to pay a little bit more attention to that and we can train our mental fitness in the same way that we
18:28
train our physical fitness by being deliberate about it having a plan mindfulness is right for you highly
18:33
recommend that we implement some way training our attention so that we can do the things that we need to do and stay
18:40
healthy and honor each phase of the high performance cycle
18:51
model thank you carson
18:57
so yeah that's really um highlighted to us the importance of mental and emotional health and um you
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know there's some really great tips that you had there for us and um in that area so thank you
19:09
now i'd like to pass over to tony nicholson who's our national manager at social services within the nct
19:16
um and tony's going to speak to us um on to taha whanau
19:22
and that domain of health so thank you tony for joining us today
19:27
thanks kate kiyora tatou my name's tony nicholson i
19:32
work in the health directorate and i'm the social services manager for defence
19:38
i'm here to talk about the importance of our social and family whanau connections
19:43
to our overall well-being so kate's described to ferrari tapafar and how our social and family
19:49
connections form one of the walls of our foray we're hardwired to have these social
19:55
connections with social beings and through these social connections we build a sense of belonging
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when we have the sense of belonging we feel that we're well we're able to contribute to our family to our teams to
20:08
our work and from the sense of well-being we get a sense of satisfaction with life so it
20:14
makes us feel well in general we have a good vibe with things in general
20:20
i wonder if you could just press pause for a moment take a moment to think about the times when you've had
20:26
success or when you've had something really awesome to celebrate what did you do
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no doubt you shared it with someone your family your friends those who you work with and the same happens when we celebrate
20:40
milestones like birthdays if we have a new child if we start a new job complete a course or achieve a
20:47
sporting goal we generally end up spending these celebrations with other people because
20:53
it's other people that fill us up and give us that sense of well-being
20:59
when we have these social connections we develop a sense of or an element of teflon or a protective
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factor for our health and well-being there's a lot of research that gives
21:11
evidence to this effect people who are well-connected socially may live longer and have less chronic
21:18
health issues like cardiovascular or obesity the findings are similar for mental
21:24
health with social support and belonging being a buffer for depression and
21:30
other poor psychological health however we do need to be mindful that
21:35
the converse is true where we are involved with relationships that involve conflict
21:41
that can be harmful for our wellbeing and mental health
21:46
social connections have a role in protecting against decline in our cognition and potentially boosting our
21:53
immune system making us less susceptible to illness for our teenagers in our whanau having a
22:00
supportive family and being connected with our school community is predictive of healthy adjustment
22:06
later in life the connections contribute to positively to education and wellbeing and basically
22:13
set us up for life in the long term having these social connections doesn't
22:18
mean that you need to have a huge social network it's more about the um
22:24
the perception that you have of the social connection so the value that you put on them and the strength of those social
22:30
connections on the other hand it's important that you're also able to care for others so
22:37
one that you have those close connections and feel supported by people around you who are close to you and
22:42
likewise that you're able to care for others who are around you if our social and family connections are
22:50
now furry it's not strong it weakens the other walls of the foray we need all the
22:55
areas of our well-being walls to be in harmony for us to have good health
23:00
i wonder if you would like to press pause and have a look at some of the awesome resources on our health website
23:06
putahiro that can help you in this space on the social and wha now or taha papu
23:13
taha whanau pages you can find heaps of information about relationships keeping connected
23:20
parenting and how to manage time apart to name a few we want you to have all the tools
23:25
available in your kitty so you can manage your wellbeing and gather support before things get too big so jump in and
23:31
have a look and let us know what you think
23:37
thank you tony that's provided us some really helpful insights into this pillar of health
23:43
so now on to the last pillar in our phototypifa model of health that we've
23:48
referred to frequently throughout today is
23:54
which is our spiritual well-being so we're lucky enough today to have um a
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few speakers on this so we've got um chaplain tony brooking sharing his insights first followed by
24:06
andrew and ange from turanga wai marai so thank you very much to all three of you um
24:12
i'll hand over to you first tony
24:54
absolutely um great uh to be a part of the panel today and just
25:00
like to support and endorse all of the uh great um comments and uh
25:05
words of the uh previous uh speakers um
25:11
for me is one of the walls that we often um
25:17
don't really take much notice of in our well-being now um i'd just like to support um
25:23
squadron leader grim's words around how we go about exercising those
25:30
particular walls now we spoke of uh going to the gym perspectively and how you go about exercising your physical
25:37
side how you go about exercising your relational opportunities
25:42
and how that supports your health how we go about um looking at our um
25:50
and those resources that uh have already been presented today
25:56
my question for us now is how do you exercise how do you exercise the spiritual wall
26:04
in your house if we're looking at ensuring that we're providing the best opportunity for
26:09
well-being uh as a person as an individual but also as a collective how do we go about exercising that and i'm
26:16
not talking about religion however i am one of many padre that we have available
26:21
to us in our camps and basis are those padre and our role really is around
26:26
supporting your spiritual well-being in a way that you best understand it for
26:31
yourself the majority of us of course um come from religious backgrounds actually one of us
26:37
and we are all christians at this particular point however that doesn't restrict us
26:43
from helping you investigate ways in which you can exercise that spirituality
26:48
for yourself about finding that little why within yourself and how you nurture
26:54
them it's often again like i said earlier the um the wall itself is something that we
27:00
don't often focus on in our busy lives our busy lives we might again unless you go to the gym
27:06
and exercise our physical side but when one of the walls in your house is weak
27:13
um can your house stand up if one of your walls is weak yes it can
27:19
but the vulnerability provided in that particular area of your life can again
27:25
as we've already heard expose the other areas of your health um to deterioration
27:31
so i'd like to um look at the spiritual world from a christian perspective as doing things
27:37
like uh contributing to my wider community um providing best examples of
27:43
how i would think christ will live his life amongst us they can also present itself in other
27:49
ways other religions or through other means of spirituality about being good
27:55
to each other some of the simple things that um if you're good to your neighbor wouldn't
28:01
the world be a better place if we could all just get that right um on that note
28:07
um again access to uh spiritual support on your camps and basis uh please contact
28:14
your padre on or your chaplains within those particular areas um they are very
28:20
skilled and are supporting us all in those areas we also provide um
28:26
i suppose our main role pastoral support to your tahawidu and that pastoral support comes in many ways and avenues
28:33
and as i said i will do our best to ensure that we provide you support and
28:39
finding the best way if you're a little bit weak in that wall to support growth
28:44
health and some form of exercise in your tahoe
28:50
kyoto
29:03
thank you tony i'll pass on to anaru and and
29:10
nakaito
29:28
thank you very much kate for the invitation it's a it's a real privilege and honor to be here presenting on this
29:35
panel today so i'm carrying on from uh
29:53
um you can break it down further as well but for me waitu is um energy it's
30:00
essence it's my essence it's having a balance between physical
30:05
and metaphysical um it's my being so
30:11
for me how do i look after my waidua or how
30:16
what are things that can affect my waiter so for me it's about um
30:22
it could be things with regards to the other parts of my faith so for example if
30:29
if my whanau aren't well my wairua becomes unwell as well so
30:35
also if i'm around uh if you're around negative people and their energies can
30:41
be projected onto you that could affect your waidua also so keeping our fare
30:46
intact and well balanced is a good way to look after your waiter
30:53
some of the things that i do for my wairua is one i try and keep myself in a good
31:00
routine so in the morning i will takutaku which is my um my incantations
31:05
to start my day um i'll also do urukuroa which uh states
31:10
of maori meditation and andes as well as the headspace app there's a good app um called orokuroa
31:18
so i practice that every morning as well as well as breath work so
31:24
taking um doing breath breathing exercises and breath work also helps
31:31
to regulate your body and balance your energies as well another thing i like to do is to
31:37
reconnect to my whakapapa and um so making sure that my um
31:46
my maori um space and my my maori wealth and health
31:53
is well looked after so for me it's about reconnecting to tau maori making
31:58
sure um learning about history and protocols tikkana and kawa
32:07
reconnecting to my ancestors and my tibuna and my geological genealogical
32:13
connections so for me being connected to tau mari is
32:19
huge for my wife also being connected to tita to the
32:24
environment so looking around at the environment and seeing what it's doing at the moment
32:31
we're coming into winter so the environment itself is quite um there's a low energy um especially in
32:38
this week during these luna phases so the environment's
32:43
changing so i expect that my waidua would would change as well so just knowing
32:50
myself and knowing what my energy levels are and how i can rebalance and and
32:57
um make sure the flow of my radar is um as
33:02
intact and um and my essence is um as flowing you know
33:08
so it's all about balance for me for wairua so some of the things i can suggest is
33:14
maybe looking at meditation apps like headspace like
33:20
um if you're on your basis and camps please contact your service marae
33:28
um and you have the air force tournament here at oahakia for air force on each
33:35
base we have maori liaison offices so if you're wanting to reconnect
33:40
through the to the tournament through there as well but um an important thing too is
33:47
make sure that you're surrounded with like-minded people people who can lift your energies um people who have the
33:54
same purpose as you who are on the same wavelength um and just
33:59
surround yourself with good things that can lift your spirits and lift your way so um nami here i hope that was um
34:07
a bit informative and helpful but um i'll i'll pass it over to um for his input
34:17
uh [Music]
34:32
north and i currently work here at te turdanga huawei of the air force uh
34:38
turango y um so uh before a hui um engine i talked about what waidua is to us
34:45
and uh you know why do what to me is like uh energy um i don't
34:50
really see it as spiritual but to me it's like energy um uh they're different things that can um
34:58
take take out energy and and different things that can give us uh energy
35:03
um um so uh for me um i think it's important to have our other
35:10
three taha in place and and thriving for alta hawaii to be at a good place
35:16
for example you know like going to the gym is very important for me and those days when i
35:23
don't go to the gym it really affects my weight and it puts me in a low space
35:28
so um or or having a good relationship with my kids or um my whanau my friends um if
35:35
i don't have that then that affects my waidua um so that's how i see why do i um
35:43
um yeah there's uh it's just a a balance of all the taha
35:49
um to really um um just uh really um i think of the world
35:58
yeah just just basically balance between the all uh all the taha um that really
36:03
helps our way to uh yeah thrive so uh that's
36:08
that's it for me really uh yeah
36:16
thank you thank you that's that's really um really insightful from all of you to um
36:22
really focus on and the uh of that pillar um when we're taking time to to press
36:29
pause so thank you all for your insights on that um so now on to lance so lance is our
36:36
warrant officer of the the navy um so as a leader role model and someone
36:41
who's been in our organization for um some time it would be great to hear your thoughts lance about the importance of
36:48
pressing pause so i'll hand over to you thank you
37:08
hey thanks tony um and thanks to the awesome panelists it's been really cool um to listen and remind ourselves uh
37:16
about this area of our work and life right and existence that we often forget
37:21
about and particularly the wairua which was a good reminder just on some
37:27
some stuff that i could you know probably get back into which is uh yeah which is awesome thank you i thought i'd share just a quick
37:33
personal example and it may touch on it will touch on i think most of the areas that we talked about here um and it's a
37:39
situation that that happened a while back um while i was this rank uh maybe eight
37:45
years ago or something and i i think it's as i look at it and
37:51
have helped people since then it's a it's a common situation because i was in
37:56
a place as many of us are a work where i was wearing three to four hats as many
38:01
people do and within that situation there an added challenge came in uh from work which was
38:08
linked to the afda armed forces disconnect uh linked to a whole bunch of people support and everything else so
38:14
whilst doing the three or four hats providing necessary support and the amount of people grew
38:20
under that another straw was thrown in that piece and at home um my
38:27
partner of the time and i with two kids were weren't doing so well so um
38:32
we're in the middle of all that we we separated and i found myself so busy uh with work that i'd worked during the day
38:39
then work at night um then work during the day again i ended up having uh i think it was one hour sleep at the end
38:45
of it i was doing about one hour sleep at night during that time i lost 10 kgs in about seven days so it was complete burning
38:53
out my partner and kids walked out the door and i recall looking over at them
38:58
but as too i had to finish what i was doing as they walked out the door um and the final final straw of this
39:04
whole period i i guess was a prolonged period of it um but i was sort of throwing a quick
39:09
lifeline at some point so i had to go to the doctor to the medic for something and i'll never forget the blood
39:16
um pressure that they they took and it was something in the region of 176 over 112
39:22
and the comment of the nurse was hey man you've hit the wall and you have to stop
39:27
and i've said i said something then that or thought something then that we all have i'm sure
39:33
was that that belief of on the single point of failure so i can't stop and i have to keep on going so so i did keep on going
39:40
but at one point in time right at the end of end of all of this as i i ended up in front of my computer
39:48
i couldn't get what was in my brain to my fingers to connect to the keyboard to tell the uh to put onto the screen so
39:54
i recall distinctly pushing my keyboard away uh and calling up the devonport naval health service and said hey man
40:01
i need help i'm not in a good way and i have to say um the support that descended and immediately i got two
40:08
hours with the doctor and there was a bunch of follow-on services i i think that the reason i
40:13
wanted to bring up this that quick snapshot was that he asked me a question and i i've reflected on this ever since
40:21
and his question was what do you love to do what do you miss what are you doing
40:27
now wow that's that's a good question and i i love pt as i talked about earlier i hadn't trained uh properly for
40:34
a long time maybe a year i love to play guitar played for 35 years or something
40:39
i hadn't touched the guitar for about two years i loved surfing hadn't been surfing i had to reflect on my
40:45
connections my social connections i hadn't been out with friends for over a year or connected with anyone so
40:52
and when we as we went through this discussion of two hours um two hours with the doctor
40:58
um i actually came up read complete red on the health continuum
41:04
so um so the and that was talked about before but
41:09
that was my my moment to to reflect on i need a pause and thankfully the system recognized that
41:15
too and gave me that pause and i took time out i was actually given three weeks um three weeks um
41:22
sick leaves i call it where i just handed all my hats over and just walked away literally
41:27
um and i must i have to say that i was probably good after two or three
41:32
days because just that the immediate release of the pressure
41:38
within a very short period of time had an extremely positive effect i remember meeting up with friends on the second
41:44
day and laughing like i've never laughed for five years or so and connecting like i've never connected before
41:51
everything tasted better i could smell things i started to sleep
41:56
i got some great support i was given support external of the um
42:02
of the system as well with a civilian professional and that was done because i've also acquired a uh unhealthy
42:09
drinking habit as well which which i took care of so so all of that none of that would have
42:14
happened um if i wouldn't have okay let's be honest i didn't i did recognize it but didn't act on it and i
42:21
needed some other but but the second time around i recognized it i reached out for help got
42:27
the help and um i guess the key is just took the time out and now so how does that affect me now
42:33
or what do i do now is um i've like i'm like i've got a partner who picks me up and says when is the last time you
42:38
picked that guitar up oh yeah good point so i go and have a jam she makes sure i go surfing with surfing this weekend
42:45
um and we just spend time together and i just enjoy enjoy finding that balance i'm liberal so we're scales right so
42:51
don't always get it right but it's always that constant battle to try and try and figure that piece out so i just
42:56
wanted to share that story because i i think it ties in um it's a bunch of what we're talking about
43:02
i think it shows the importance of um self-help and and checking yourself out
43:07
and the importance of having those around you check you out as well and i've done this on several occasions since
43:14
and uh reached in when i've seen the same things same patterns that i was living um happen so uh kyora thanks for your time thanks
43:20
kate for all this just awesome to be with these great panelists and um yeah thank you
43:28
great thank you lance it was um a really great story that you've shared with us and as you see um a really great example
43:35
of the importance of pressing pause and knowing when's a good time to do that so thank you very much
43:40
so finally i'll hand over to laura barnes from our integrated wellness team and she's going to share with us
43:47
some of the highlights from our defense health website and some tools and resources um that are
43:55
available there and within the nct so thank you laura well thanks kate um cured everyone um
44:03
i'm laura buns i'm one of the senior wellness advisors um here with defence
44:09
health um so as as we've heard from our speakers today um each domain of tafaditafar is
44:16
interconnected with one another and so it's really important as everyone's highlighted to make sure that we're
44:22
taking time to nurture all four domains of to maintain our well-being
44:27
and our well-being isn't stability so how we're going is going to continuously
44:32
be impacted by life's triumphs and also its challenges and all of us are going to move back and forth along this
44:38
continuum of wellness at different points in our lives and that's totally normal um but when we are feeling like we're
44:45
not at our best or we might be struggling with something the fact is is that things don't normally fix
44:50
themselves as much as it would be nice sometimes if they did um but taking active steps in order for
44:58
us to improve our situations is one of the best things that we can do but sometimes we might find ourselves
45:04
thinking that we want to take action or we want to start making a plan but we're not really sure where to start
45:10
um our new external facing defense health website
45:16
um has a range of self-checks and self-management tools it's also got some really helpful advice and resources
45:23
which can bridge that kind of initial starting point for you if you want to make a change um there's a range of self-assessment
45:29
tools for you and this helps you check in on how you're going you can come back to these at any time to track how you're
45:36
getting on and to see your progress from those results and there's also problem solving goal
45:42
setting and action planning guides and to begin setting out some of those small changes that might make a really big
45:48
difference to how you're feeling um now's also the perfect time just to take a minute um and just think about what do
45:56
i really need in terms of self-care at the moment so do you have health concerns that might need some focus or
46:02
are there areas that you've been thinking about making some improvements to and we've got a range of self-management
46:09
tools as well and they provide some really simple realistic strategies to help you
46:14
navigate um the challenges that life can throw at us sometimes um
46:20
the pause that you take might also make you realize that actually you could do with a helping hand from someone else
46:26
or maybe there's someone in your life at the moment that you care about um and that you're a bit worried about um but
46:32
you're not really sure how to approach the situation or um what the best support to give to them
46:38
is um the biggest thing i could say is that you don't need to wait until
46:44
things feel really bad before you seek help um reaching in early to all of the
46:49
support services that we have available can make a big difference in aiding your recovery
46:56
the website puts both internal and external support services all together
47:01
in one place so the knowing how or how to contact has become
47:06
a lot easier for everyone and so when you take a moment um when
47:11
you want to yeah reset press pause um i encourage you all on
47:17
your own time just to visit the website and just to have a look on what's on offer there
47:22
um also i encourage you to uh check out and join the webinars across the rest of the week um and
47:28
you'll get to hear some more great advice um tools and lived experience stories
47:34
unless i've done today um but for now um i'm going to quickly um play a short video with you and then
47:41
you can hear about um you can hear from some of our people about their experiences with using the
47:47
site and the support that they've gotten from um
48:01
hi i'm caroline and i am a reserve in the new zealand army i've had a really exciting opportunity this summer to work
48:07
within the defence health directorate and one of my projects has been helping develop the new defense health website
48:13
it's really exciting because this is an external website so anyone can access it
48:24
we've designed it to be a one-stop shop for all things health and well-being there are some unique and engaging
48:29
features to the site that we're really excited to share with you guys here are some interactive self-help quizzes as
48:34
well as some fitness videos some personal stories and a massive reserve of information on so many different
48:40
health topics ultimately it's just a safe space for you to learn engage and help yourself and your peers i've
48:46
reached out to a few people to review the site and speak about what stood out to them here's what they had to say
48:51
hey i'm soph and i'm a private in army reserves and a recent graduate of ohio university personally i found there's
48:57
lots of resources on training gaining physical fitness and how to pass that next witness test there are also
49:02
walkthrough videos detailing different exercises and recovery that show the technical side of things to help prevent
49:07
injury with unilife stress and anxiety are a given especially around exam time but on
49:13
the new defense health website there's a range of resources that can help you achieve goals and manage stressful times
49:19
there's also some amazing personal stories that i would highly recommend checking out to give you a fresh view on how to deal with life's problems
49:26
all civilian employees have access to health providers including nzdf social
49:31
workers chaplains our sexual assault prevention and response advisors as well as our gender and pacifica networks nzdf
49:40
4u wellbeing support is an amazing resource that nzdev have made available to us
49:45
please visit the nzdf health hub for more information
49:51
[Music]
50:04
great thank you laura so yeah thank you very much to our panel
50:10
today for being involved in this discussion and we really appreciate the insights the
50:16
stories and the information that you've shared with us today and overall just reminding us the importance
50:22
of pressing pause on the screen here you'll see um just a small summary of the support
50:29
that's available within the nzdf and as laura mentioned all of this information
50:34
and how to contact each of these support services is available on our defence health website
50:41
um so i'll now pass back to our chapman tony brooking uh just to close out the session today and thank you for joining
50:48
us again just to support and address all
50:53
the words and opportunities uh to exercise um all of your rules and your
51:01
um
51:06
foreign although there are four walls in your house there is only one house so the better we look after that house
51:13
the more we are chucking all of those walls uh the better and uh the more
51:19
our well-being will be supported by them
51:34
and thank you very much have a great day
51:41
don't forget to check out our website
51:57
you
and thank you for joining us today in our first session for the defence well-being week
0:11
uh my name is kate heather smith and i'll be the facilitator for this session today so firstly just to open the
0:17
session i'd like to welcome ange lambert one of our panel members here today from turangawaiwai to
0:24
open this session for us with the karakia thank you ange
0:57
so the the theme for this well-being week that we have running within defence is press pause um we know that 2022 has
1:04
been a busy year already and um this week provides us an opportunity to pause get in with how we're going check
1:10
checking with those around us and how they're going as well so have you got a lot of things on the
1:17
go are you a bit worried about big things coming up are you wanting to make sure that you're fighting fit
1:23
across all the domains of health or are you wanting to learn more about tools and resources that we've got available for you within the nzdf
1:31
this webinar should be really helpful for you thank you for listening
1:36
so in this session today we're going to hear from our wonderful panel members thank you again for being part of this
1:43
um so our panel members today have offered to share share their thoughts and their experiences across our theme
1:49
which is press pause and the importance of nurturing all our domains of health
1:56
so when we talk about the domains of health we're referring to our te whatever farm model of health
2:01
and this is a model that we use within defence the panel members will also talk about
2:07
knowing when it's time to press pause and share their tips for maximizing health and where you can go for a
2:14
helping hand throughout the session today we will always be referring back to our new new defense
2:20
health hub website hutahi hiyora
2:25
so firstly today i'm just going to introduce um to pharaoh
2:31
our maori model of health that i mentioned before that we use within defence so as you can see on the slide this
2:38
model has four equal sides which represent physical well-being mental and emotional
2:44
well-being spiritual well-being and social well-being so this model shows that all
2:52
four pillars are critical to health and they're all interconnected
2:57
um all these pillars must work together and to bring balance to our lives and to
3:02
ensure holistic wellness so each of our panel members today will be focusing on one of these pillars of
3:08
health or a combination of these pillars and the importance of nurturing all these pillars to bring health and
3:15
wellness so firstly i'd like to welcome warrant officer jason rapana
3:21
so he's the warrant officer of the people capability portfolio and jason's going
3:26
to talk about the importance of taking the time to press pause and focusing on
3:32
self-care thank you jason
3:39
uh yeah um
3:58
uh um it's great to be part of this uh well-being uh kopapa and the initiatives
4:04
uh that have come with the order uh it's great to see and firstly
4:11
i just wanna say that it's okay to prioritize your own well-being
4:16
it's 100 okay and this is what uh this is about uh for everyone you know uh life gets a bit uh
4:23
tough sometimes you know whether it be mahi whether it be the stresses around mahi uh in defense where you might be
4:29
covering three or four hats uh home life uh culture uh the complexities around family
4:36
teenagers and and what life brains and uh it is important
4:41
actually stop and pause and reflect a rest uh and chicken
4:47
on others and that's a critical part of it too um but certainly for yourself and it's
4:52
about finding a balance and in my time and experience in um to my toeing it has been a few times
4:59
that i've had to sit back have a rest and really reflect on where i'm going and what i'm doing and that work life
5:04
balance now i just want to sort of uh talk about uh what kate talked about was
5:10
uh the concept being spiritual physical uh mental social and with whanau
5:17
and the phenomena that foundation that that sits on um
5:22
you know perfection is the enemy of good and so you can't
5:27
cover everything off but certainly within those uh taha uh you can actually find really good
5:33
nuggets that um will help you uh and um tools to help others uh within
5:39
wellbeing um so uh i just said to finish you know it's about finding a balance it's about
5:45
stepping back it's taking pause it's for you and your whanau and just so we can keep on top of that game so uh thanks
5:51
very much kia ora okay
5:59
kyoto jason thank you very much for that um so bob passing over to you so you're our chief
6:05
medical officer here at the new zealand defence force um it would be great to hear your thoughts about the importance
6:11
of monitoring uh physical health as a key foundation for our overall health and wellbeing
6:16
thank you bob and we've got some slides from you
6:34
okay thank you um kia ora everyone
6:40
physical well being consists of two main factors
6:46
cardiovascular fitness and illness prevention whilst we're serving in ncdf
6:52
this allows us fuller employment beyond then said df it allows us wider
6:57
employment opportunities greater leisure activities and longer life
7:06
um there's a picture which hopefully will come up of an american medical officer
7:11
by the name of kenneth h cooper in 1960 when he was aged 29
7:18
kenneth cooper was water skiing when he experienced chest pain palpitations and shortness of breath
7:24
he was rushed to the local hospital for investigations and they told him that he wasn't
7:29
suffering from a heart attack but he was overweight unfit and his heart was under
7:34
strain he was told that if he didn't make changes to his life he was likely to have a heart attack in
7:41
his 30s or 40s and be dead by the time he was 50.
7:46
dr cooper decided to change his lifestyle and focus his medical work on
7:52
research and fitness and helping people gain healthier lives and live longer
8:01
at that time in the 1960s most people accepted that they'd reach a peak of physical performance in their 30s
8:08
and then there would be a slow progression as they grew older and we see this deterioration in health
8:14
today due to these diseases such as obesity premature heart disease and type 2
8:20
diabetes dr cooper challenged this and taught
8:26
that if you follow some basic health rules you can remain healthy for far longer with good physical function into
8:33
your 60s 70s and 80s and he described this as squaring the curve
8:40
so here are kenneth cooper's rules to health
8:47
this first rule is don't smoke most people understand that smoking's bad for their lungs but it's also the
8:54
most important factor in early heart disease no amount of smoking is okay
9:01
vaping may be useful as a way of stopping smoking but vaping is also potentially harmful
9:07
so don't smoke don't vape moderate alcohol
9:12
what does this mean well current guidelines in new zealand our women should drink no more than two
9:19
standard drinks a day and no more than 10 standard drinks a week and for men
9:25
three standard drinks a day and no more than 15 standard drinks a week with at least two alcohol-free days a week
9:35
for many people in new zealand they drink far more than this
9:40
the sooner we make changes to our drinking the sooner we can reap the benefits
9:48
your medical staff can explain what moderated drinking might look for you
9:55
eat healthfully most of the time
10:01
the basics of healthy eating are drink plenty of water eat plenty of vegetables and fruit
10:08
eat some cereal and grains eat some dairy and lean protein
10:14
try and avoid processed food salt and sugar most of the time acknowledges that we
10:21
all eat unhealthy food occasionally the key is not doing it too often
10:26
if you've got a medical condition or you're training at a high level you might need a more specialized diet and
10:32
again your medical staff can give you more detailed information
10:38
maintain an appropriate weight it can be difficult working out what an
10:43
appropriate weight for you is it will depend on many factors like your sex age genetics and the type of
10:52
physical activity you want to perform for all of us though excess body fat
10:58
leads to early reduction in physical performance and an increased risk of heart disease
11:06
stress management i know one of my colleagues will probably talk about this
11:11
but a moderate degree of stress can help keep us on our toes and improve performance but too much stress can
11:18
affect physical as well as mental health and is a major factor in heart disease and early death
11:23
there are practical ways that we can manage stress identifying the main cause of the stress is often a good start and depending on
11:31
the cause there are some practical ways of dealing with both work and family stress
11:36
our occupational psychologists and doctors can help you find ways that may help you
11:44
finally get regular health checkouts checkups are important to detect early
11:50
signs of disease and address them before they become too serious
11:55
our regular force personnel currently get health checkups every five years from the age of 35.
12:02
if you're in a high risk group your doctor may arrange for checkups to either start earlier or be more frequent
12:11
today there are lots of health advice out there being advertised particularly
12:16
regarding nutrition and diet and it can be confusing and contradictory
12:22
however kenneth cooper's seven rules have survived over 50 years and are still a
12:27
useful guide to healthier living today
12:34
since his health scare in the 1960s kenneth cooper has continued to research fitness and particularly childhood
12:40
obesity in the united states he was successful in getting physical education reintroduced into american
12:47
schools this year he's 91 years old and despite his poor health and his health scare at
12:54
age 29 is still mentally fit and physically active today
13:01
and for those of you into cars you'll see at 91 he's also driving an aston
13:06
martin thank you very much kate
13:12
thank you bob so that's yeah provided us with some really good reminders about the importance of physical health and
13:18
monitoring it over time and taking the time to press pause to really focus on that so thank you for that
13:26
so carson uh so you're one of our defense psychologists um and we'd just like to
13:32
you know hand over to you now to discuss the importance of mental health and what are some of the important important
13:38
areas that we need to focus on within that thank you carson
13:45
kyoto kate now
14:01
i'm a defensive psychologist currently in the health directorate uh researching our mental health system
14:08
so te taha hinonaro is a topic that's really close to my heart and so in five minutes or less what i'd
14:15
like to do is just remind us about a couple of principles to do with the mental health continuum so the topic
14:22
that i'm sure that we're all really familiar with here at defence which is great this idea that mental
14:27
health is not fixed in fact it can fluctuate depending on what's going on in our lives
14:32
and what i like to do is just take this idea a little bit further and relate it to the performance cycle that we're
14:37
quite fond of within psychology it's one of our coaching tools prepare perform recover so that's this
14:44
idea when you look across any area of high performance what you find is that people who take this seriously they
14:51
honor these particular cycles of getting ready for something difficult really reaching into doing something
14:56
difficult and then inevitably getting fatigued and then going into a recovery space catching your breath
15:02
and then the cycle repeats so the idea here in defense of course is we want to live most of our lives in the
15:09
green zone we want to stay in a healthy space of course but we're really interested in high performance we're a high performance organisation and of
15:15
course we want to reach you to do difficult things from time to time as part of our mahi now if you consult your own experience
15:21
much like myself what you'll notice is that if you've had a difficult pt session you've been on a difficult
15:26
exercise you've been on a deployment what inevitably happens when you've been doing the business for a while it's
15:32
going well you're doing difficult things but you get fatigued okay and what typically
15:37
tends to happen in my experience the folks that i work with is that actually you don't just go from reaching into the
15:43
high performance zone back to the green actually you probably go back into the yellow zone where you are fatigued right
15:49
and that's normal in terms of training that's what we're looking for we're trying to induce fatigue because when we recover from that we grow back stronger
15:57
so we can't stay in the blue zone we surge into the blue zone and then we go into the yellow we want to recover back
16:03
into green back to baseline and the cycle repeats now let's talk about what happens if we
16:10
stay too long in the yellow zone so what we notice is that a lot of performance problems end up being
16:17
recovery problems right so you'll see that half of the yellow zone is okay normal natural
16:24
healthy fatigue and you can recover from that but what i find is if you start staying in the yellow zone for too long
16:30
you start to lose your healthy sense of perspective and what starts to happen is you spend too much time in the yellow zone you're
16:37
not recovering accurately and now you're trying to surge into the high performance zone it can quickly go from being okay to not
16:43
okay very quickly you end up in the orange of the red zone where you really need to start getting some professional support
16:48
okay so what can we do well what i find is like in any area of our lives if we
16:54
want to try and improve things just like if you're trying to improve your physical performance in pt you want to be a little bit deliberate
17:00
about it so it pays to have a plan so if you're someone where you've got like you know duncan says you've got
17:07
your sleep diet and exercise all dialed in what i find in terms of your well-being it's a really solid
17:12
foundation kind of like the base of your pyramid from which you can start building on other mental skills training
17:17
right and i've always said if you want to train your mental fitness in the same way that you train your physical fitness
17:24
it's really smart to have some kind of attention training practice like mindfulness
17:30
where you can start to learn how to pay attention to your thoughts and feelings and instead of being yanked around by
17:36
your difficult thoughts and feelings you can start to notice them start to unhook from them and have a little bit more
17:41
choice about what types of thoughts and feelings you pay attention to and what you react to if that's a good fit for you and you
17:48
want to try um training your mental fitness with mindfulness i highly recommend the headspace set uh it's
17:53
one of the best entry-level mindfulness apps on the market with access to it for free you can download it and access the
18:00
details uh for that are on the defence health website so if that's the right
18:06
choice for you highly recommend it so mental health it's not fixed
18:11
fluctuates depending on what's going on in our lives the high performance cycle prepare perform recover is a really
18:16
great way of thinking about what phase of this performance cycle are you in we tend to under invest in our recovery
18:23
right we need to pay a little bit more attention to that and we can train our mental fitness in the same way that we
18:28
train our physical fitness by being deliberate about it having a plan mindfulness is right for you highly
18:33
recommend that we implement some way training our attention so that we can do the things that we need to do and stay
18:40
healthy and honor each phase of the high performance cycle
18:51
model thank you carson
18:57
so yeah that's really um highlighted to us the importance of mental and emotional health and um you
19:03
know there's some really great tips that you had there for us and um in that area so thank you
19:09
now i'd like to pass over to tony nicholson who's our national manager at social services within the nct
19:16
um and tony's going to speak to us um on to taha whanau
19:22
and that domain of health so thank you tony for joining us today
19:27
thanks kate kiyora tatou my name's tony nicholson i
19:32
work in the health directorate and i'm the social services manager for defence
19:38
i'm here to talk about the importance of our social and family whanau connections
19:43
to our overall well-being so kate's described to ferrari tapafar and how our social and family
19:49
connections form one of the walls of our foray we're hardwired to have these social
19:55
connections with social beings and through these social connections we build a sense of belonging
20:01
when we have the sense of belonging we feel that we're well we're able to contribute to our family to our teams to
20:08
our work and from the sense of well-being we get a sense of satisfaction with life so it
20:14
makes us feel well in general we have a good vibe with things in general
20:20
i wonder if you could just press pause for a moment take a moment to think about the times when you've had
20:26
success or when you've had something really awesome to celebrate what did you do
20:33
no doubt you shared it with someone your family your friends those who you work with and the same happens when we celebrate
20:40
milestones like birthdays if we have a new child if we start a new job complete a course or achieve a
20:47
sporting goal we generally end up spending these celebrations with other people because
20:53
it's other people that fill us up and give us that sense of well-being
20:59
when we have these social connections we develop a sense of or an element of teflon or a protective
21:06
factor for our health and well-being there's a lot of research that gives
21:11
evidence to this effect people who are well-connected socially may live longer and have less chronic
21:18
health issues like cardiovascular or obesity the findings are similar for mental
21:24
health with social support and belonging being a buffer for depression and
21:30
other poor psychological health however we do need to be mindful that
21:35
the converse is true where we are involved with relationships that involve conflict
21:41
that can be harmful for our wellbeing and mental health
21:46
social connections have a role in protecting against decline in our cognition and potentially boosting our
21:53
immune system making us less susceptible to illness for our teenagers in our whanau having a
22:00
supportive family and being connected with our school community is predictive of healthy adjustment
22:06
later in life the connections contribute to positively to education and wellbeing and basically
22:13
set us up for life in the long term having these social connections doesn't
22:18
mean that you need to have a huge social network it's more about the um
22:24
the perception that you have of the social connection so the value that you put on them and the strength of those social
22:30
connections on the other hand it's important that you're also able to care for others so
22:37
one that you have those close connections and feel supported by people around you who are close to you and
22:42
likewise that you're able to care for others who are around you if our social and family connections are
22:50
now furry it's not strong it weakens the other walls of the foray we need all the
22:55
areas of our well-being walls to be in harmony for us to have good health
23:00
i wonder if you would like to press pause and have a look at some of the awesome resources on our health website
23:06
putahiro that can help you in this space on the social and wha now or taha papu
23:13
taha whanau pages you can find heaps of information about relationships keeping connected
23:20
parenting and how to manage time apart to name a few we want you to have all the tools
23:25
available in your kitty so you can manage your wellbeing and gather support before things get too big so jump in and
23:31
have a look and let us know what you think
23:37
thank you tony that's provided us some really helpful insights into this pillar of health
23:43
so now on to the last pillar in our phototypifa model of health that we've
23:48
referred to frequently throughout today is
23:54
which is our spiritual well-being so we're lucky enough today to have um a
23:59
few speakers on this so we've got um chaplain tony brooking sharing his insights first followed by
24:06
andrew and ange from turanga wai marai so thank you very much to all three of you um
24:12
i'll hand over to you first tony
24:54
absolutely um great uh to be a part of the panel today and just
25:00
like to support and endorse all of the uh great um comments and uh
25:05
words of the uh previous uh speakers um
25:11
for me is one of the walls that we often um
25:17
don't really take much notice of in our well-being now um i'd just like to support um
25:23
squadron leader grim's words around how we go about exercising those
25:30
particular walls now we spoke of uh going to the gym perspectively and how you go about exercising your physical
25:37
side how you go about exercising your relational opportunities
25:42
and how that supports your health how we go about um looking at our um
25:50
and those resources that uh have already been presented today
25:56
my question for us now is how do you exercise how do you exercise the spiritual wall
26:04
in your house if we're looking at ensuring that we're providing the best opportunity for
26:09
well-being uh as a person as an individual but also as a collective how do we go about exercising that and i'm
26:16
not talking about religion however i am one of many padre that we have available
26:21
to us in our camps and basis are those padre and our role really is around
26:26
supporting your spiritual well-being in a way that you best understand it for
26:31
yourself the majority of us of course um come from religious backgrounds actually one of us
26:37
and we are all christians at this particular point however that doesn't restrict us
26:43
from helping you investigate ways in which you can exercise that spirituality
26:48
for yourself about finding that little why within yourself and how you nurture
26:54
them it's often again like i said earlier the um the wall itself is something that we
27:00
don't often focus on in our busy lives our busy lives we might again unless you go to the gym
27:06
and exercise our physical side but when one of the walls in your house is weak
27:13
um can your house stand up if one of your walls is weak yes it can
27:19
but the vulnerability provided in that particular area of your life can again
27:25
as we've already heard expose the other areas of your health um to deterioration
27:31
so i'd like to um look at the spiritual world from a christian perspective as doing things
27:37
like uh contributing to my wider community um providing best examples of
27:43
how i would think christ will live his life amongst us they can also present itself in other
27:49
ways other religions or through other means of spirituality about being good
27:55
to each other some of the simple things that um if you're good to your neighbor wouldn't
28:01
the world be a better place if we could all just get that right um on that note
28:07
um again access to uh spiritual support on your camps and basis uh please contact
28:14
your padre on or your chaplains within those particular areas um they are very
28:20
skilled and are supporting us all in those areas we also provide um
28:26
i suppose our main role pastoral support to your tahawidu and that pastoral support comes in many ways and avenues
28:33
and as i said i will do our best to ensure that we provide you support and
28:39
finding the best way if you're a little bit weak in that wall to support growth
28:44
health and some form of exercise in your tahoe
28:50
kyoto
29:03
thank you tony i'll pass on to anaru and and
29:10
nakaito
29:28
thank you very much kate for the invitation it's a it's a real privilege and honor to be here presenting on this
29:35
panel today so i'm carrying on from uh
29:53
um you can break it down further as well but for me waitu is um energy it's
30:00
essence it's my essence it's having a balance between physical
30:05
and metaphysical um it's my being so
30:11
for me how do i look after my waidua or how
30:16
what are things that can affect my waiter so for me it's about um
30:22
it could be things with regards to the other parts of my faith so for example if
30:29
if my whanau aren't well my wairua becomes unwell as well so
30:35
also if i'm around uh if you're around negative people and their energies can
30:41
be projected onto you that could affect your waidua also so keeping our fare
30:46
intact and well balanced is a good way to look after your waiter
30:53
some of the things that i do for my wairua is one i try and keep myself in a good
31:00
routine so in the morning i will takutaku which is my um my incantations
31:05
to start my day um i'll also do urukuroa which uh states
31:10
of maori meditation and andes as well as the headspace app there's a good app um called orokuroa
31:18
so i practice that every morning as well as well as breath work so
31:24
taking um doing breath breathing exercises and breath work also helps
31:31
to regulate your body and balance your energies as well another thing i like to do is to
31:37
reconnect to my whakapapa and um so making sure that my um
31:46
my maori um space and my my maori wealth and health
31:53
is well looked after so for me it's about reconnecting to tau maori making
31:58
sure um learning about history and protocols tikkana and kawa
32:07
reconnecting to my ancestors and my tibuna and my geological genealogical
32:13
connections so for me being connected to tau mari is
32:19
huge for my wife also being connected to tita to the
32:24
environment so looking around at the environment and seeing what it's doing at the moment
32:31
we're coming into winter so the environment itself is quite um there's a low energy um especially in
32:38
this week during these luna phases so the environment's
32:43
changing so i expect that my waidua would would change as well so just knowing
32:50
myself and knowing what my energy levels are and how i can rebalance and and
32:57
um make sure the flow of my radar is um as
33:02
intact and um and my essence is um as flowing you know
33:08
so it's all about balance for me for wairua so some of the things i can suggest is
33:14
maybe looking at meditation apps like headspace like
33:20
um if you're on your basis and camps please contact your service marae
33:28
um and you have the air force tournament here at oahakia for air force on each
33:35
base we have maori liaison offices so if you're wanting to reconnect
33:40
through the to the tournament through there as well but um an important thing too is
33:47
make sure that you're surrounded with like-minded people people who can lift your energies um people who have the
33:54
same purpose as you who are on the same wavelength um and just
33:59
surround yourself with good things that can lift your spirits and lift your way so um nami here i hope that was um
34:07
a bit informative and helpful but um i'll i'll pass it over to um for his input
34:17
uh [Music]
34:32
north and i currently work here at te turdanga huawei of the air force uh
34:38
turango y um so uh before a hui um engine i talked about what waidua is to us
34:45
and uh you know why do what to me is like uh energy um i don't
34:50
really see it as spiritual but to me it's like energy um uh they're different things that can um
34:58
take take out energy and and different things that can give us uh energy
35:03
um um so uh for me um i think it's important to have our other
35:10
three taha in place and and thriving for alta hawaii to be at a good place
35:16
for example you know like going to the gym is very important for me and those days when i
35:23
don't go to the gym it really affects my weight and it puts me in a low space
35:28
so um or or having a good relationship with my kids or um my whanau my friends um if
35:35
i don't have that then that affects my waidua um so that's how i see why do i um
35:43
um yeah there's uh it's just a a balance of all the taha
35:49
um to really um um just uh really um i think of the world
35:58
yeah just just basically balance between the all uh all the taha um that really
36:03
helps our way to uh yeah thrive so uh that's
36:08
that's it for me really uh yeah
36:16
thank you thank you that's that's really um really insightful from all of you to um
36:22
really focus on and the uh of that pillar um when we're taking time to to press
36:29
pause so thank you all for your insights on that um so now on to lance so lance is our
36:36
warrant officer of the the navy um so as a leader role model and someone
36:41
who's been in our organization for um some time it would be great to hear your thoughts lance about the importance of
36:48
pressing pause so i'll hand over to you thank you
37:08
hey thanks tony um and thanks to the awesome panelists it's been really cool um to listen and remind ourselves uh
37:16
about this area of our work and life right and existence that we often forget
37:21
about and particularly the wairua which was a good reminder just on some
37:27
some stuff that i could you know probably get back into which is uh yeah which is awesome thank you i thought i'd share just a quick
37:33
personal example and it may touch on it will touch on i think most of the areas that we talked about here um and it's a
37:39
situation that that happened a while back um while i was this rank uh maybe eight
37:45
years ago or something and i i think it's as i look at it and
37:51
have helped people since then it's a it's a common situation because i was in
37:56
a place as many of us are a work where i was wearing three to four hats as many
38:01
people do and within that situation there an added challenge came in uh from work which was
38:08
linked to the afda armed forces disconnect uh linked to a whole bunch of people support and everything else so
38:14
whilst doing the three or four hats providing necessary support and the amount of people grew
38:20
under that another straw was thrown in that piece and at home um my
38:27
partner of the time and i with two kids were weren't doing so well so um
38:32
we're in the middle of all that we we separated and i found myself so busy uh with work that i'd worked during the day
38:39
then work at night um then work during the day again i ended up having uh i think it was one hour sleep at the end
38:45
of it i was doing about one hour sleep at night during that time i lost 10 kgs in about seven days so it was complete burning
38:53
out my partner and kids walked out the door and i recall looking over at them
38:58
but as too i had to finish what i was doing as they walked out the door um and the final final straw of this
39:04
whole period i i guess was a prolonged period of it um but i was sort of throwing a quick
39:09
lifeline at some point so i had to go to the doctor to the medic for something and i'll never forget the blood
39:16
um pressure that they they took and it was something in the region of 176 over 112
39:22
and the comment of the nurse was hey man you've hit the wall and you have to stop
39:27
and i've said i said something then that or thought something then that we all have i'm sure
39:33
was that that belief of on the single point of failure so i can't stop and i have to keep on going so so i did keep on going
39:40
but at one point in time right at the end of end of all of this as i i ended up in front of my computer
39:48
i couldn't get what was in my brain to my fingers to connect to the keyboard to tell the uh to put onto the screen so
39:54
i recall distinctly pushing my keyboard away uh and calling up the devonport naval health service and said hey man
40:01
i need help i'm not in a good way and i have to say um the support that descended and immediately i got two
40:08
hours with the doctor and there was a bunch of follow-on services i i think that the reason i
40:13
wanted to bring up this that quick snapshot was that he asked me a question and i i've reflected on this ever since
40:21
and his question was what do you love to do what do you miss what are you doing
40:27
now wow that's that's a good question and i i love pt as i talked about earlier i hadn't trained uh properly for
40:34
a long time maybe a year i love to play guitar played for 35 years or something
40:39
i hadn't touched the guitar for about two years i loved surfing hadn't been surfing i had to reflect on my
40:45
connections my social connections i hadn't been out with friends for over a year or connected with anyone so
40:52
and when we as we went through this discussion of two hours um two hours with the doctor
40:58
um i actually came up read complete red on the health continuum
41:04
so um so the and that was talked about before but
41:09
that was my my moment to to reflect on i need a pause and thankfully the system recognized that
41:15
too and gave me that pause and i took time out i was actually given three weeks um three weeks um
41:22
sick leaves i call it where i just handed all my hats over and just walked away literally
41:27
um and i must i have to say that i was probably good after two or three
41:32
days because just that the immediate release of the pressure
41:38
within a very short period of time had an extremely positive effect i remember meeting up with friends on the second
41:44
day and laughing like i've never laughed for five years or so and connecting like i've never connected before
41:51
everything tasted better i could smell things i started to sleep
41:56
i got some great support i was given support external of the um
42:02
of the system as well with a civilian professional and that was done because i've also acquired a uh unhealthy
42:09
drinking habit as well which which i took care of so so all of that none of that would have
42:14
happened um if i wouldn't have okay let's be honest i didn't i did recognize it but didn't act on it and i
42:21
needed some other but but the second time around i recognized it i reached out for help got
42:27
the help and um i guess the key is just took the time out and now so how does that affect me now
42:33
or what do i do now is um i've like i'm like i've got a partner who picks me up and says when is the last time you
42:38
picked that guitar up oh yeah good point so i go and have a jam she makes sure i go surfing with surfing this weekend
42:45
um and we just spend time together and i just enjoy enjoy finding that balance i'm liberal so we're scales right so
42:51
don't always get it right but it's always that constant battle to try and try and figure that piece out so i just
42:56
wanted to share that story because i i think it ties in um it's a bunch of what we're talking about
43:02
i think it shows the importance of um self-help and and checking yourself out
43:07
and the importance of having those around you check you out as well and i've done this on several occasions since
43:14
and uh reached in when i've seen the same things same patterns that i was living um happen so uh kyora thanks for your time thanks
43:20
kate for all this just awesome to be with these great panelists and um yeah thank you
43:28
great thank you lance it was um a really great story that you've shared with us and as you see um a really great example
43:35
of the importance of pressing pause and knowing when's a good time to do that so thank you very much
43:40
so finally i'll hand over to laura barnes from our integrated wellness team and she's going to share with us
43:47
some of the highlights from our defense health website and some tools and resources um that are
43:55
available there and within the nct so thank you laura well thanks kate um cured everyone um
44:03
i'm laura buns i'm one of the senior wellness advisors um here with defence
44:09
health um so as as we've heard from our speakers today um each domain of tafaditafar is
44:16
interconnected with one another and so it's really important as everyone's highlighted to make sure that we're
44:22
taking time to nurture all four domains of to maintain our well-being
44:27
and our well-being isn't stability so how we're going is going to continuously
44:32
be impacted by life's triumphs and also its challenges and all of us are going to move back and forth along this
44:38
continuum of wellness at different points in our lives and that's totally normal um but when we are feeling like we're
44:45
not at our best or we might be struggling with something the fact is is that things don't normally fix
44:50
themselves as much as it would be nice sometimes if they did um but taking active steps in order for
44:58
us to improve our situations is one of the best things that we can do but sometimes we might find ourselves
45:04
thinking that we want to take action or we want to start making a plan but we're not really sure where to start
45:10
um our new external facing defense health website
45:16
um has a range of self-checks and self-management tools it's also got some really helpful advice and resources
45:23
which can bridge that kind of initial starting point for you if you want to make a change um there's a range of self-assessment
45:29
tools for you and this helps you check in on how you're going you can come back to these at any time to track how you're
45:36
getting on and to see your progress from those results and there's also problem solving goal
45:42
setting and action planning guides and to begin setting out some of those small changes that might make a really big
45:48
difference to how you're feeling um now's also the perfect time just to take a minute um and just think about what do
45:56
i really need in terms of self-care at the moment so do you have health concerns that might need some focus or
46:02
are there areas that you've been thinking about making some improvements to and we've got a range of self-management
46:09
tools as well and they provide some really simple realistic strategies to help you
46:14
navigate um the challenges that life can throw at us sometimes um
46:20
the pause that you take might also make you realize that actually you could do with a helping hand from someone else
46:26
or maybe there's someone in your life at the moment that you care about um and that you're a bit worried about um but
46:32
you're not really sure how to approach the situation or um what the best support to give to them
46:38
is um the biggest thing i could say is that you don't need to wait until
46:44
things feel really bad before you seek help um reaching in early to all of the
46:49
support services that we have available can make a big difference in aiding your recovery
46:56
the website puts both internal and external support services all together
47:01
in one place so the knowing how or how to contact has become
47:06
a lot easier for everyone and so when you take a moment um when
47:11
you want to yeah reset press pause um i encourage you all on
47:17
your own time just to visit the website and just to have a look on what's on offer there
47:22
um also i encourage you to uh check out and join the webinars across the rest of the week um and
47:28
you'll get to hear some more great advice um tools and lived experience stories
47:34
unless i've done today um but for now um i'm going to quickly um play a short video with you and then
47:41
you can hear about um you can hear from some of our people about their experiences with using the
47:47
site and the support that they've gotten from um
48:01
hi i'm caroline and i am a reserve in the new zealand army i've had a really exciting opportunity this summer to work
48:07
within the defence health directorate and one of my projects has been helping develop the new defense health website
48:13
it's really exciting because this is an external website so anyone can access it
48:24
we've designed it to be a one-stop shop for all things health and well-being there are some unique and engaging
48:29
features to the site that we're really excited to share with you guys here are some interactive self-help quizzes as
48:34
well as some fitness videos some personal stories and a massive reserve of information on so many different
48:40
health topics ultimately it's just a safe space for you to learn engage and help yourself and your peers i've
48:46
reached out to a few people to review the site and speak about what stood out to them here's what they had to say
48:51
hey i'm soph and i'm a private in army reserves and a recent graduate of ohio university personally i found there's
48:57
lots of resources on training gaining physical fitness and how to pass that next witness test there are also
49:02
walkthrough videos detailing different exercises and recovery that show the technical side of things to help prevent
49:07
injury with unilife stress and anxiety are a given especially around exam time but on
49:13
the new defense health website there's a range of resources that can help you achieve goals and manage stressful times
49:19
there's also some amazing personal stories that i would highly recommend checking out to give you a fresh view on how to deal with life's problems
49:26
all civilian employees have access to health providers including nzdf social
49:31
workers chaplains our sexual assault prevention and response advisors as well as our gender and pacifica networks nzdf
49:40
4u wellbeing support is an amazing resource that nzdev have made available to us
49:45
please visit the nzdf health hub for more information
49:51
[Music]
50:04
great thank you laura so yeah thank you very much to our panel
50:10
today for being involved in this discussion and we really appreciate the insights the
50:16
stories and the information that you've shared with us today and overall just reminding us the importance
50:22
of pressing pause on the screen here you'll see um just a small summary of the support
50:29
that's available within the nzdf and as laura mentioned all of this information
50:34
and how to contact each of these support services is available on our defence health website
50:41
um so i'll now pass back to our chapman tony brooking uh just to close out the session today and thank you for joining
50:48
us again just to support and address all
50:53
the words and opportunities uh to exercise um all of your rules and your
51:01
um
51:06
foreign although there are four walls in your house there is only one house so the better we look after that house
51:13
the more we are chucking all of those walls uh the better and uh the more
51:19
our well-being will be supported by them
51:34
and thank you very much have a great day
51:41
don't forget to check out our website
51:57
you
Spotlight on wellbeing for Men's health week
It's also 'Men's Health Week'.
Join this discussion to hear from our 'front line operators' as they share their personal stories about wellbeing, times they wish they had pressed pause, and what they learned along the way.
Who?
Facilitator: LTCOL Steve Kearney - Chief Mental Health Officer
Panel:
- Kane Briscoe - Farmstrong
- Josh Darby - Fire and Emergency New Zealand
- WO1 Jason Rapana - NZDF
Spotlight on Wellbeing for Men's Health Week
0:00
to attend today there we go thank you and uh and just to remind everyone uh we're recording
0:05
today's session so um if there's anything you get out of today that you want to share with people around you or other people in your workplace that link
0:12
will be live via the website by the defense health website and and also we'll see that i'll
0:18
follow up email around the cancer basis after this as well um so uh
0:24
welcome uh and uh i guess to start off today i'd like to begin with a whakatoki that i think captures some of the
0:30
sentiment that we might touch on today and also one that's dear to my heart as in my
0:36
work as a soldier and as a as a mental health practitioner so um it's a very brief one hitawato mataro bravery has
0:43
many resting places and i think that that's particularly relevant to us here in defence obviously because
0:49
courage is one of our core values and bravery on the battlefield is sort of an inherent part of what we do and who we
0:56
are however i challenge everyone to kind of bring some bravery to other aspects of their life and think about how they
1:01
might use our con what we talk about today to inform other aspects of their life as well and how they might be brave
1:07
about applying some of the stuff we talk about today to other aspects of their life so by way of introduction um i'm steve
1:14
kearney attentional steve kearney i'm the chief mental health officer for nzdf and i work in the health directorate and
1:20
my job essentially is to try and improve the mental health experience and journey for our service members
1:27
um with me today today we have a number of panelists and i'll get them to introduce themselves very shortly um but
1:33
just to kind of introduce the cope up before our session today and to explain a bit of the background
1:39
this week is uh our well-being week uh hosted within defence and we've got a whole bunch of people and events going
1:44
on across camps and bases a whole bunch of people providing either in-person or online webinars
1:50
and the intent of this week is really just to give everyone a chance to pause and reset it's been a very busy couple
1:56
of years for nzdf with myths and with a whole range of other challenges
2:02
the tempo has been high and people have been busy not just our service members but their whanau as well and so as we
2:09
head now head into the kind of regeneration of our of our warfighting capability our defense capability uh and
2:15
the work that comes with that and the focus that is going to come with that we thought it'd be good for everyone just to kind of pause and reflect at this
2:21
stage so we're hoping that everyone uses these seminars or this week as a chance just to stop and think and see if
2:27
there's anything we might need to rejig to head into into the second half of this
2:32
year it's also coincidental that this week across the country is men's health
2:38
and so we wanted to provide a bit of a forum um for people to talk about well-being and then and at the intent
2:44
for this panel and this discussion is that we get it from
2:50
an expert on wellbeing from sort of the ground up which we know from the research that men in particular do do
2:56
tend to listen to their peers as much as experts and over the course of this week we've got a bunch of experts providing
3:01
webinars and camps and seminars on campus and bases we've got dr lucy ohio later in the week talking about
3:07
resilience and well-being under under in really difficult times we've got gemma mccor later this week talking about
3:14
resilience in her perspective on resilience and so we thought this week today and this we're gonna it'll be good
3:19
to talk to some frontline operators so we've got some great guests we've got uh kane briscoe from farmstrom talking
3:25
about his perspective on mental health and wellbeing more broadly we've got josh derby from the fire service
3:31
sorry from foreign emergency new zealand and now we've got jason from our own nzdf
3:37
so the plan for today is that we're going to
3:43
each of our guests is going to provide a short corridor on their perspective and the kind of top tips and
3:49
a bit of this you know what they think matters and and why they think that in terms of their journey and their history um and then we'll have a discussion with
3:56
around a few key questions and if anything else comes up then we'll touch on that with a view to that if you've
4:01
got any questions for our panelists today then please don't hesitate to put them in the q a and we will um and we will
4:08
sort those as they go as we go through and put those to the panel if and when the opportunity allows
4:14
thanks very much team so without sort of further ado i guess we'll get straight to the panel so perhaps uh kane you're
4:20
at the top of my like brady bunch array so i'll start off with you mate if if
4:25
you wouldn't mind maybe just giving us a brief intro to yourself and uh perhaps we start off with just
4:31
brief intros from everyone and then we'll get going to each of your kind of own stories right so maybe a brief intro
4:36
came from yourself yes where it is and uh yeah thanks for having me on um
4:41
so i am uh what am i 35 years old now i'm a currently a dairy farmer but i've
4:46
been in agriculture half my life now so i left left school at the age of 17 and
4:53
went farming and i've done a range of different jobs within the agricultural sector but um you've got a real passion
4:58
for uh animals in the land and working outside um and also i guess as i've as i've gone through
5:05
life's journey a real passion for um helping other people and understanding other people and why we do and say and
5:11
and do all sorts of things and um you're really trying to i guess uplift people through all walks
5:18
of life um i think my story and lessons i've learned is is uh transferable to
5:23
many different people so stoked to be able to talk to a different audience um and yeah big part of me is being sport
5:31
and exercise um so you played rugby all my life and and also dabbled in a bit of boxing and
5:37
rug endurance running and that's really been a big part of
5:42
me trying to be the best person i can and the best farmer i can so that's sort of what i've focused on the last few
5:48
years is is using some of those physical tools to help make other people um
5:53
rise to the challenge of of farming and life and uh get through it a bit easier awesome kane thanks so much mate so a
6:00
lot of threads they're very consistent with kind of defense life in terms of physical fitness being the kind of foundation for for for um
6:08
uh well-being so that's awesome keen to hear more josh if you wouldn't mind kind of just introducing yourself
6:14
even uh kyoto everyone uh josh darvey i'm a career firefighter well um
6:20
seconded it uh currently so off the trucks at the moment but up until recently uh a firefighter on blue watch based at
6:27
ellsley station most of my career i've worked in um the central auckland central district
6:33
um and have a few other little endeavors i like to do i do some writing for fishing news i love i love my fishing
6:39
that's part of my kind of well-being outlet uh and i also am a
6:44
trauma researcher um specific specifically around um
6:51
and my organizational development role at the moment is a movember funded initiative uh basically looking to
6:57
design and evaluate a mental ill health and suicide prevention program for first responders so that that's the
7:04
mahi for me at the moment awesome thanks josh jase you want to introduce yourself briefly
7:11
uh yeah my talk to you at the welcome to work with the manganese
7:29
me i'm currently the uh a wine officer uh within pcp i work closely with the cpo brigadier matt winston
7:36
um oh yeah so but on me i've been in the defense force for 36 years it goes
7:41
pretty quick i really enjoy it it's about our people and our culture
7:47
um outside of it uh you know rugby league fishing all those type of things that
7:52
sort of get out recreationally but really um thrilled to be on the panel today and
7:58
just talk about uh a well-being and some experiences and i think it's about uh i think when i have a clue or someone um
8:05
be able to reminisce uh and actually agree uh
8:11
to how we've sort of evolved through the 80s uh to now so cure thanks very much jason awesome to have
8:17
you all right so uh what we've asked the panel members to do is just to kind of provide a sort of their top tips and a
8:23
bit of their story maybe if that's relevant and and some guidance and then and then as i said we'll we'll go and
8:29
have a bit of discussion around those things so maybe once again if you start with the uk and you've already sort of foreshadowed some of your kind of key
8:35
messages so so what's your soldier's five as we would say in the army anyway around kind of well-being
8:41
and looking after yourself yeah and it's it's it's um you know it's pretty general for everyone i think no
8:47
matter what sort of industry you're in um for me my my sort of big motto is
8:53
you know you can't expect to have good mental health without doing physical things to support it
8:59
like i touched on earlier fitness is fitness and exercise and getting out in nature is really cool for me
9:05
but it's only one of many many tools that i use so um like i'm really big on on those
9:11
physical habits you know i think fellas generally turn towards that exercise in sport
9:18
is the go-to which is nothing wrong with that it's a great way to release a bit of tension and and
9:24
get out with your mates or whatever and do something you love but um you know for me
9:29
uh farming is quite stressful we have a lot of a lot of problems thrown at us just as you guys would um so it's
9:36
actually about trying to strip the emotion out of some of those problems um
9:42
and get them out of my head so i've been really big the last probably five or six years on uh
9:47
i know some people would call it journaling i just call it writing down but you know it's just getting some
9:52
of that clutter out of my head um and and dealing with the facts on a piece of paper i've found hugely
9:59
important and hugely beneficial to uh you know sleeping at night um and and
10:04
relieving some of that stress so i always sort of look at my own health as
10:09
uh the legs on a table so each table has four legs uh or four pillars of health
10:15
um and they uh what you consume and and that's not just what you put in your mouth it's it's who you surround
10:22
yourself with uh what you're watching on the telly or your phone uh what you're listening to who you're listening to all
10:28
of those things that you consume as a person all go into making up your thoughts and actions
10:33
so i'm really clear on you know surrounding myself with positive people and not not buying into
10:39
some of the rubbish on on social media or whatever movement so obviously most of us fellas
10:45
uh get that pretty nailed down you know having an outlet a positive outlet to relieve some of that stress and tension
10:52
and anger or whatever it may be it's really important that we're able to move freely and and do the job
10:58
i guess that we're getting paid to do with um you know physically um stress
11:03
is huge you know a lot of our relationships whether it's with your your work mates your friends or your
11:09
partners um a lot of stress can come from that at times a lot a lot of stress from work
11:14
being having a clear process to be able to manage that stress is really important to um
11:20
to staying healthy upstairs so getting some getting some solid tools in the bank for that
11:26
and um sleep is probably i think one of the number one
11:31
things that that i try and look after you know um farming's an everyday job just like you fellows out out in the
11:37
field uh there's not always a day off sometimes you've got to push through the tough stuff and then work long hours so
11:43
it's really key to be able to um have a process to set yourself up for a good night's sleep
11:51
um and that sort of ties in with that that stress and and movement as well they all work together to support that
11:56
table of health so that would be my my biggest things is is really having a good awareness
12:03
of where you're at what legs on your table are are good and what ones are broken or struggling and
12:10
being able to identify those and and work on them has been really key to be being a good
12:16
functional person and and farmer as well
12:23
that's great kane and a couple of things pop out what you consume not just in terms of what you eat but kind of what you take in that's i think a really
12:30
interesting point and uh and well worth reflecting on um i we've also cause because you gave us a
12:36
heads up on what you're going to talk about we've got a poll ready to go here so just be interested in folks what from
12:42
everyone from those that are attending you know what do they think is most important for them in terms of those four pillars that kane kane mentioned
12:49
right so which would you prioritize getting better at for yourself would what you consume how you move
12:56
managing stress or sleep
13:02
can you guys see that at your end yep so we've got um
13:07
it's pretty even match actually across these at the moment which i guess just goes to your point
13:13
about all these things being interconnected right you know stress impacts on sleep exercise impacts on stress and sleep what you consume draws
13:20
all those things so they're all kind of heavily interconnected
13:26
yeah cool
13:32
okay so pretty even match interesting cool so i might come back to that
13:38
a bit later on good so josh handing over to you before you
13:43
get into a larger discussion what's um what's your top tip what some of your top tips for kind of looking at yourself
13:50
yeah thanks steve i thought i'd change it up a little bit maybe just and talk a little bit about my um my own well-being
13:55
journey and there might be some tips in there along the way people get out of it yeah um
14:00
so i um actually come from a little place called kaiku which is on the west coast on northland
14:05
you go um through dargaville past kaiwee lakes so i kind of grew up there in a rural setting and then when i was about
14:12
eight years old moved up to the phantom peninsula which was pretty sweet because the fishings are real good there if
14:17
you're into your um and while i was going to school and my school was at the bottom of it of
14:22
a hill and at the top of the hill was the volunteer fire brigade and they were short of volunteer
14:29
firefighters during the day so they had this uh pretty good recruitment uh strategy and that was to bring down a couple of fire engines and start up a
14:35
big water fight which of course drew me in i was into that and then what the real clinch was though
14:41
is that one of those volunteer firefighters came over and they had a little uh black object it was a pager
14:46
and they said oh josh if you if you sign up today mate we'll give you this pager and whenever it goes off you can leave school
14:52
um so that that was certainly the ticket for me i i was right into that later that year we had our end of year
14:58
exams and the pager went off so i got to get out of those which was nice um and then
15:04
i was at 18 i was going to university and i dropped out of there because that wasn't really my deal at the time
15:09
and i applied for and was accepted into what was then the new zealand fire service it's now called um foreign emergency new zealand
15:16
as a career fifa in new zealand we've got a national fire service so it's not um region based or
15:21
anything like that go to about 80 000 emergency call-outs each year so that's everything from like motor
15:27
vehicle accidents uh structure fires vehicle fires industrial entrapments and now we also go to a lot
15:34
of medical calls so they call them purple calls anything involving cardiac or respiratory arrest
15:40
so i've been doing that as a career firefighter for 16 years now um and yeah hopefully
15:46
that's a little bit of background to my operational service but in terms of how i got involved in
15:52
the mental health side of things the well-being side of things uh there's a few things that are contributed to that
15:58
uh probably one of the more uh difficult ones to talk about right which is is kind of in part i think
16:05
while we're here today is because of the stigma involved in it so when i talk a little bit about my own experience of psychological injury
16:11
so like in my mid-20s um i experienced psychological injury uh for me it started as anxiety so um
16:19
the symptoms i kind of noticed was um just tightness in the chest i'd get this
16:24
thing called air hunger where i'd be breathing but it didn't feel like i was getting enough oxygen and and and it started to manifest in me
16:31
like being worried about my health being hyper vigilant around my health or having some type of medical event even
16:36
though physically i was in i was in pretty good knit um so i had that for quite a while and it was pretty intense
16:43
um and then after a couple years actually started experiencing depression or noticing that i was just feeling like
16:49
really down and hopeless and that went on for a couple years and i ended up experiencing um the fancy
16:57
term as suicidal ideation um but it basically meant that i started to have these kind of intrusive thoughts
17:03
about taking my own life and i was actually scared by them like i didn't want to take my own life but i think i've been feeling so hopeless for
17:10
so long that that is an option started to just come into my head you know i'd be driving along and i'd see a powerpoint i
17:17
feel like uh you know i could drive into that so like a pretty pretty dark place to be
17:22
a pretty despairing place to be and and i guess the real unfortunate thing
17:28
um is that it had to get to that before i felt like i should reach out to someone right it took years of first
17:35
anxiety and then depression and then getting to the state of having these suicidal thoughts um
17:40
that i that i went man i got to talk to someone about it and i did i reached out to a fellow firefighter i mean i think
17:46
part of the reason i hadn't done it earlier is honestly i felt i was afraid that i'd be thought of as a you know like i
17:53
work in a job much like um you all do where it's based around
17:58
the form and turning up for people and being strong and being brave and so i just thought you know this kind
18:04
of violates part of what i'm supposed to be and part of what i'm supposed to do and you know the really toxic side of
18:11
that is it meant that my what i was going through my injury got worse and worse and worse you know i could have
18:16
gotten to this years earlier and i'm pretty sure it wouldn't have um taken such a long time to heal
18:21
um so yeah i did i reached out to a fellow um firefighter and he wasn't a cli a psychologist or a counselor or
18:27
anything he was just a guy that um that was a friend that was non-judgmental um that held
18:34
space for me you know he'd like come around and say come on mate um let's get out let's do some exercise
18:40
um you know let's get out and do something together um but also encouraged me to connect up with some professional support so um
18:46
through my gp i was connected with a clinical psychologist and um yeah did therapy and it was
18:52
honestly one of the most um life-changing things i've i've ever done you know as reaching out to someone
18:58
and also getting some therapy and it was through that process of getting therapy like as difficult as it was at times
19:04
that i just became really intensely interested in like how how would i how had i found myself in this place you
19:09
know what what were the things that had led to this for me and um as i got well i i decided to push
19:16
into that i went back to university and i studied um violence and trauma a postgraduate pathway of violence and
19:21
trauma i became a peer supporter within foreign emergency and that was a really interesting thing because
19:27
you know when i was depressed and feel like i could talk to anyone part of
19:34
that was because i felt like i was the only one maybe i was the only one having these feelings or having these experiences
19:40
and what was interesting about going into peer support as i became more confident about telling my story was that my mates started
19:47
opening up to me and you know sometimes their anxiety or their depression was a
19:52
consequence of post-traumatic stuff so the calls we go to uh sometimes it was a result of stuff
19:58
from their childhood that they hadn't worked through or stuff going on in the um in their family life often it was
20:03
kind of a combination of all of that stuff coming together and there's a bit of a breaking point like that's kind of what my experience was
20:10
um but what i knew for sure after that was man i spent all those years thinking
20:15
i'm the only one going through this and i dare not tell anyone because they'll think i'm strange or weak or
20:20
and what i found out was actually now heaps of my mates and heaps of my colleagues were um navigating tough
20:26
times you know and actually found real value and and talking about it and sharing
20:31
um and so i got to i got the chance to kind of that that it was kind of funny like i'd be on overtime at a different
20:38
station and i literally had this experience a number of times where one of the guys would grab me uh pull me into an office shut the door
20:45
and be like and real hash tones you know being like oh bro you know you know how you've talked about your mental health
20:50
i'm actually struggling at the moment you know and it's kind of sad you know that that that's that's kind of what
20:56
stigma does you know about something that impacts a lot of us so fortunately um you know it's great
21:02
that you've got steve leading this stuff we're actually beginning to talk more about this stuff and that's certainly happening in fire stations too you know
21:09
we talk about um the stuff we're going through around the coffee table now a lot more than 10 or 20 years ago so
21:14
that's really encouraging to see um so yeah now i i guess the other part of
21:20
that is kind of 10 years on from that time in my life man how things have changed you know and i think one of the messages
21:27
um for anyone that's listening or has people that are struggling whether it's anxiety depression even suicidal
21:33
thinking is there is always hope you know and um it's hard at the time when you're in that kind of mindset
21:40
to find that but uh it is there and at least from my experiment experience the
21:46
truth has been that suffering's a part of life and these and these moments in our lives and darkness are a part of
21:51
life but the promise um that i've experienced on the other side of that has always been like restoration and and hope and
21:58
life again you know and like i've gone on now to be involved in work that i
22:04
wake up in the morning and i look forward to you know i love my life i really enjoy my life now and 10 years
22:09
ago they just that didn't seem like it would ever be possible i remember a moment at night thinking like i just
22:15
don't see any way out of this i don't see this ever getting better
22:22
than it ever did even before i experienced that psychological injury so yeah um that message of hope um of
22:28
reaching out to someone else you know um you're not a burden that's what i found as well people want to help
22:33
out you know i find it a privilege when someone reaches out to me and the biggest thing that i figured out
22:40
about this whole stigma thing is people see what i've done now in terms of speaking out about my psychological
22:46
injury and you know my moments of um vulnerability they actually see it as strength you know no one's no one said
22:53
i'm a or thought i'm a because of that they've actually seen it as a real strength and i've said man i wish i had the courage to do that you
22:58
know to talk about my journey or to share so openly so um i think that's been a big thing as well
23:06
awesome thanks josh and some really powerful messages there um and i'm definitely going to circle back
23:12
to some of that uh leonard conversation later on because there's a few things there i'd like to follow up with you on um jason
23:19
your turn mate yeah hey um yeah i suppose uh
23:25
just i suppose just a quick example of how um you know uh
23:30
mental well-being can sort of affect um people and this particular soldiers i'll just give a good example then i'll just
23:36
give some tips um like i was asked i like so i joined up in sort of the the mid 80s and uh around there you know
23:43
eight week exercises uh 180k kilometer marches fitness you know
23:49
weekly you know those type of things and they're currently loads over uh big terrain with
23:56
substandard kit you know all those type of things and uh that was the nature of uh
24:01
within the infantry and uh that was our job and so uh but over a long period of time it didn't
24:07
take a toll physically on uh on our people and i think my cohort out here
24:13
sort of my age will sort of uh may hear that and go yeah that was i
24:18
think however in those days um if you got an injury or you're feeling ill or you weren't up
24:24
to it you was frowned upon to go to the medical center and if you're caught outside there you'd
24:30
be frowned upon because um you'd be sort of looked at like you couldn't handle it
24:37
uh you're weak um you're a bit of a malingerer um and you're trying to get like duty so
24:43
there's that real um sticking around so people wouldn't go so the second and third order effect of that is
24:49
painkillers now long eight week exercise you've got to get up for the next game and it
24:54
continues so you know some soldiers were taking painkillers to get through they didn't want to
25:01
look weak in front of those um inspiring leaders and those mentors so
25:07
that's what happened so physically if you're broken down and you're taking those type of things mentally it takes a
25:12
toll and uh over time some of my friends left and uh some
25:19
got chord changes to other um to other cause trades that didn't have
25:24
that sort of meat-eating uh mentality
25:29
uh you know i know that uh uh some some out there will reminisce with that and that's why i think some of
25:35
my cohort right now um that's why they're still broken that's why they're more broken than most inside as in as an
25:42
engine physically because we never got the help we needed because uh it wasn't the thing to do so that's one example of
25:48
it i think that mentality changed when operations came around within 95 up to 2000s where
25:55
my thing change too we need to be healthy we need to be fit to be able to go on operations and we need to look after each other and that that change
26:02
over time so that's i think that's an example of what i've seen coming through of how it's spun around but
26:09
certainly still affects uh my code because i know that someone listening um still find it hard to
26:15
ask for help and i totally call kane and josh around talking about it but still you know
26:22
still a lot of us think we're bulletproof um uh and it won't affect us but it has
26:28
you just baggaged it up and that's all that is you know uh so just a couple of tips that i've got uh that i've um i
26:34
think the big one in our total um um josh around uh
26:39
a confidant in your corner you know someone who's trusted you can tell everything now when i say confidant
26:46
uh they don't listen to fix they listen to listen and that and over my time um it's
26:52
that's really helped me just i know i can just uh vent or i can just talk about things that happen in my life uh
26:59
and it's not going anywhere and they're just listening so i think that's really really takes a lot of weight off
27:04
it's 100 okay to uh prioritize your own wellness you know and especially leaders
27:12
uh leaders of the worst they spend all their career looking after people it's their focus that's their mahi
27:18
that's the responsibility and they forget forget it and neglect themselves all the time and i've done that before
27:25
and it took a trusted friend to say hey you need to stop me you need to look after yourself
27:30
and uh you know it's an oldie but a goodie by my old man always said to me like uh if you're not right how do you expect
27:36
to look after others and that's sort of uh i think that's key the other thing too is um
27:42
you know this you know you don't have to be kano to uh check in on your mates you know now now it's platform basically just
27:47
soon getting this meeting or facetime it's it's easy just to check in so that's why other one is although
27:53
something might not affect you uh just checking on your mates um and we all know that in defense um it's easy to
27:59
pick up a phone sometimes we don't but hey you know it's there yeah so that's that's my tips
28:05
awesome jose thanks very much so uh great tips so what we'll do i've got another poll here launch drawing on both
28:11
kind of josh's and and jason's tips right around you know just talked about and joseph talked about the imports of
28:17
who you go to and knowing who to go to and they've both talked about sort of stigma and and engaging with the medical
28:22
system or the health system so we're going to launch this poll now and there's two questions there so i'm interested in people kind of uh filling
28:28
that out and see and let's see where we land on this question
28:35
cool so the first one is if you're struggling
28:40
who would you feel comfortable going to and then the second question there
28:47
is what might be some reasons which would make you hesitant to reach out for support or have difficulty
28:53
reaching out for support you guys see those here we go
28:59
[Music]
29:32
okay so currently in terms of for you to reach our two partners and mates the top of the list
29:39
health provider or gp is there but it's it's uh lagging well behind
29:46
colleagues or workers there but again it doesn't marry up or mention them so mates and far and partners are the kind
29:52
of key supports most of us
30:00
and then our second question there you know and everyone sort of touched on it in their own way of stigma writing about
30:05
how you might be treated or judged is the kind of key concern
30:11
as well as a preference to manage things yourself and we know that in our workforce in the defence force there's a
30:16
strong preference to manage things yourself part of that it comes from that i think
30:22
that desire to be sort of autonomous and independent but i suspect part of it is also related to that
30:28
stigma stuff as well cool okay so we'll draw those calls to a
30:34
close now but some some clear kind of trends here right um partners and stigma is a very real
30:41
issue for for many of you okay have you guys so have you guys got any comments on those poll results any
30:47
observations as you see those
30:56
not really no surprises oh yeah i mean i i totally agree with mates you know
31:01
there's a shared experience you know with friends and i i get the partner thing but then i think some some
31:06
of my friends has gone to mates because it's a shared experience and there's an understanding that you've been through the same experience that
31:12
you've got to understand a little bit more yeah yeah kind of like what jason's saying
31:18
like that's why um we do the peer support system now you know because it's that lived experiencing um you might not be
31:26
comfortable like in our context telling your partner about some of the calls you go to
31:32
asking him um you might not be comfortable you know talking to someone you don't know at all a mental health professional
31:38
but you can talk to talk to one of your mates about it i think the important thing is to have you know more than one door you can
31:44
knock on you know so whether that's a partner or a trusted gp
31:50
or a peer it's good to have a couple doors open to you
31:55
yeah great great observation and just to kind of answer that question here and now as well like if you're in the defence force
32:01
we do have a lot of doors right we've got our chaplains our social workers health centers oh 800 nz dfu is another
32:07
free phone line so so if you are struggling you know just to remind you that there are a lot of places you can go and just i'll just jump on that
32:14
opportunity as the as achievement health officer to do that yeah um good uh okay so that makes sense right
32:21
and it's really consistent uh if you look on the new defense health website um
32:26
health.nb um there is um
32:33
uh a whole bunch of stories of people who and their own journeys with well-being and the consistent theme that and it's
32:40
similar to what you said josh in those is that now once people start opening up um
32:46
they're often surprised and relieved to find that many of their mates are going through the same sort of stuff and uh
32:51
and that really helps when it comes to dealing with it and doing things that are that are going to help you get
32:57
things better for you as well so oftentimes we do assume that we're by ourselves and we're the only ones going through
33:04
this and and it's when we kind of seek help that we realize that that's that's not true
33:10
cool so i wanted to kind of touch on one of the points that that some of you made as well it's kind of my opening question
33:15
and in in each of your own stories you sort of alluded to um kind of early or the the barriers that
33:23
people face so what i wanted to talk about was what are some of the internal barriers
33:29
so there's like the stigma being one of those what are some of the things that we tell ourselves
33:35
that stop us from seeking help when we see when we notice maybe we could do with a hand so we might notice some of
33:41
those signs josh talked about or where i might notice our stress to pick up on cain's point getting on top of us or our
33:47
sleep getting disrupted or we might notice like injuries that we're ignoring and that's impacting on our life so what
33:53
are some of the things that that we tell ourselves that stop us from from your observation from getting help kane you
33:59
come with me yeah so i just wanted to um i think this ties in nicely with what josh and jason
34:05
have said as well they both mentioned uh toughness um and you know the industries that
34:11
we're all in you know when you think about guys in the army or defence force you think david goggins and and how much of a hard bastard he is and you know the
34:18
typical farmer we have a massive problem with it here um we measure a lot of our worth on how tough we are
34:25
and um you know in terms of my own story like i was a really shy kid
34:31
and when i was about nine years old i was actually sexually abused as well so i had had uh you know zero confidence
34:38
but also had a had a bit of an anger and hatred uh brewing through my teenage
34:43
years and you can imagine that went really well um teenagers are already angry enough and and i had a bit of a bit more reason to
34:49
be angry and particularly through my early career uh farming i was thrown into
34:55
[Music] roles that were really challenging i went to quite a high level quite quickly
35:00
so sort of thrown in the fire and learnt a lot of things the hard way and
35:05
you know i took up took up boxing at a young young age as a way to um prove my toughness but also get rid
35:12
of you know release some of that anger in a positive way which i'm really thankful for but you know when i look back at my life
35:18
now a lot of those teenage years and and right through my 20s was spent
35:24
um trying to prove to people that i was tough and what i've found is that
35:30
uh toughness does wear away over time um when you i i used to rely on my toughness to just
35:37
grin and bear you know day after day whether it was out on the farm or on the rugby field or in the boxing ring
35:43
you know you just completely rely on it all the time it was my go-to to just just head down ass
35:49
up and just just go through whatever it took to get the job done um
35:54
but what i've found as i look back on life now is that
35:59
if you're smart about things and you can um you know deal with things in another
36:05
way without relying on your toughness it actually makes you tougher because that toughness doesn't get worn
36:10
down so quick you know so it's for me that that that battle in my head to go and get
36:17
help and and sort some of my out was not to rely on my toughness you know not
36:22
to tough it out it was to say well actually i'm not getting any tougher i'm
36:27
just just like it's it's someone hammering away on a rock of toughness you know sooner or later one of those
36:33
hammers is gonna gonna start chipping some stone off and and that's what happens with life and that's what i see
36:38
uh a lot in the farming community and no doubt it's no different there is is that sooner or later those challenges that
36:45
get fired at that rock of hardness gets gets battered and chipped away whereas we actually need to stop the hammering
36:51
so much you know that's the smart way to do it um and you know so for me it was
36:56
it was really that big obstacle of of i don't need to prove to anyone else that i'm tough uh you know i know what i've
37:03
been through and what i've overcome to be who i am and where i am i don't have to prove any of that to
37:08
anyone else it's it's you know understanding and start telling yourself that story that
37:14
you know to get through life and live to a ripe old age and and be successful and positive in life we actually need to be
37:21
smart about what we're doing and you know that ties into everything i think we've said is you know
37:27
uh being able to be vulnerable going to get help when you need it um being smart with who you hang around
37:33
with what you consume and how you look after yourself i think was was a really big barrier for me was
37:38
just you stripping away that toughness as the first first layer of defense and um
37:45
just being smarter about stuff smarter about yourself and and how you live your life
37:51
yeah a lot of that resonates i think certainly with me kane and with when i've heard the stories of service members there's a great deal of that
37:57
that sounds very familiar but i can just speak to that to say i was thinking about um what you're saying
38:02
there cane as well and i think part of the reason why um like when i think about toughness
38:09
it's it can be um interesting right because i i don't find it that difficult to go into a fully involved structure
38:14
fire right like in these phrases you know firefighters go in one direction when everyone else is going out the
38:20
other you know and actually the hardest things i've had to do in my life haven't had to do with cutting people out of cars or going into
38:26
a burning building like undoubtedly it's been this journey with my mental health you know
38:31
the hardest things like and and the things that um require the most bravery or courage from me hasn't been going
38:37
into a burning building it's been reaching out for help funnily enough um and i think about that sometimes
38:42
because like part of the reason i'm not too worried about going into these dangerous situations job is i've got really good
38:49
um protective equipment i've had lots of training um you know i'm familiar with those environments
38:55
but i i don't have those same tools around my mental health you know and so
39:01
i think that's one of the things that these types of initiatives help with are like so people can feel
39:07
um like they can push into vulnerability more like what are the tools um what is the training you've had in it do you
39:13
have people who have been there before and done it that can give you the confidence that hey i can be vulnerable
39:18
and it's not going to end me you know just in the same way that when i went and did my national training center
39:23
course i've exposed the these situations time and time again in a controlled environment where i went yeah i can go
39:30
into this fire and come out all right in the same way i think you know we need more of that culture and
39:36
um that demonstrate and almost train us in vulnerability that we know hey i can be vulnerable um i can admit that i'm
39:43
not invincible and and i'll be okay not only will i be okay i can
39:48
grow and be more of a person be more courageous be more brave as a consequence of those things so yeah
39:54
that's something that i think about quite often when we talk about you know um invulnerability and bravery and
39:59
courage you know it's like it's easier for me to go into a um burning building than it was to pick up the phone and and
40:05
call a psychologist you know i see there's a um question there too around um what if
40:11
what if those things aren't options and um it reminded me of a piece of research
40:17
they i'm trying to stay away from the research today but they did this big study over in australia like 20 000 first responders i
40:23
think it might have been defence force personnel as well and they looked at stigma and what they found was this
40:28
there was this huge perception around stigma that if i was open and vulnerable my peers would think poorly of me
40:35
um but they also asked those peers or everyone what would you think of someone um if they opened up to you that are
40:41
struggling with something and it was less than one percent of people um that that would make a difference in
40:48
their change of view of people so so what they told us is actually it's our perceptions
40:53
um of how other people would respond if we're vulnerable then the reality of that situation and that's certainly been
40:59
true of my story like i had that perception as well but it hasn't held true like the more i've talked about it
41:04
and i'm not saying there won't be some people that are um not further enough along in their journey that they might
41:09
bring some you know really unhelpful stuff if you opened up that's of course a possibility but in large and from my
41:16
experience it's been the opposite so um you know if you if you don't have a partner you can open up to a gp
41:22
uh or a friend then there are there's there's those other options you know if you don't feel uncomfortable about defense force um
41:29
helplines uh in new zealand you got 1737 you can call or text anytime 24 7 that's
41:35
free um so there's definitely other options outside your kind of family setting or even your work setting that
41:40
you can kind of reach out to for help yeah great josh and and you know just without wanting to kind of go down a
41:46
research rabbit hole in terms of that research that you mentioned we know from research across military personnel that
41:54
if you are struggling you particularly think that others are going to judge you so when you're in a good state of mind
41:59
you're less inclined to feel judged if you if you but because when you're struggling you're in a threat to taking you know
42:06
you're in a threat detection kind of mindset you assume others are going to judge you even when they're not you're more likely to do that right so so again
42:13
the you know that's just another kind of barrier to people when they're really struggling jumping into hell
42:20
jace you've got any kind of thoughts around just kind of what what gets in the way and any other observations around that
42:27
yeah it's such a like a kiwi guy thing you know i'll tough that pass you know i'll wait it out it's just
42:34
something i've got to get through and i think over time our communication has mentioned it has evolved you know 15 years ago on a
42:42
penalty pop might not have got a few anyone yeah uh but you know so yeah we've evolved in
42:47
that type of uh but it is i think it's communication i'll sort of go back to why um
42:52
people will not ask for help um and uh and a lot of this pertain to me also i mean not wanting to put to
42:59
burden others with your stuff you know that's a that's a big one that's how i sort of grew up in a maori
43:04
family you didn't sort of don't want to burden anyone and again for our people what new zealanders
43:11
they don't want to burden everyone and it's that sort of tough uh exterior uh not one week we've talked about that um in
43:18
front of respected mentors or people you know you don't want them to think any different of you
43:24
especially for our young people um and i was gave an example before in the beginning of the 80s 90s
43:31
uh who did i go to like who did i go to to talk to
43:36
and that was stuff that i especially asked for help and i suppose there's a thing about i forgot you know well-being seems to be in some
43:44
some areas it could be frowned upon you're not up to it and then people are afraid that they may get medically discharged or
43:50
treated differently by the medical system so they won't they'll go outside of the organisation and you know that can be so you won't
43:56
hear about it they'll do it by themselves outside um yeah interesting about knowing who to
44:02
talk to i think one one um so just one quick example of that is i got an appointment uh and then it was
44:07
appointment that i really really enjoyed and wanted and i focused 100 on it and i focused in and you know sort of
44:14
working six to nine at night and um and i didn't see it i was in the game and one of the trusted
44:21
uh friend of mine sort of came and spoke to me about it because i might lost my sense of humor i was making so i was
44:26
agitated i was just really focused and it came and then trusted confidence came in and sort of
44:33
sort of spelt it out to me i really did look back and i reflected and i said yeah i mean i don't know what happened there i just you know uh and things were
44:40
suffering so i stood back um and i paused and i had a look at it and i really worked it out but what i
44:45
was really disappointed is i was actually showing people what bad look like
44:51
you know and we're balanced on preaching work balance life balance and well-being but i was showing them what bad look
44:57
like and i really disappointed me because you know people look to you they look up to you and so i really really
45:02
worked on that and to show them what good looked like and i think that was key for me
45:08
awesome chase yeah a very true point i've seen that many times in defense too you know
45:14
any other any other comments for you guys before i launch went into another question so i guess just to build on that right
45:20
you know you've all talked about early warning signs you know you talked about sort of anger being one for you kane and
45:25
and that kind of being an early warning sign and josh you talked about anxiety and some of the stuff attached to that as well then
45:31
you know write it down until feeling suicidal uh towards the end of it just in the latter part of that journey and
45:37
then nj she talked about uh you know other early warning signs and yourself in terms of losing your sense of humor
45:44
so what tips would you give to someone who sees it in a mate or in a colleague or
45:49
in someone they work with about how to how to how to what to do next if they see early
45:55
warning signs and someone and they're not sure what to do about it because i think for a lot of us that's a question that we we grapple with right
46:02
so what would you what tips would you give someone who's seen early warning signs in a mate and uh and what to do next
46:10
yeah i think um you know we touched on vulnerability um a little bit earlier but
46:18
you know for those people if you do see someone struggling as you've sort of got to reach out and and show some
46:23
vulnerability first and you know if you have a think about yourself people you would talk to it's the people that you
46:30
perceive as open already and and not gonna judge um so so you need to show that to those
46:37
around you as well and and it really starts with actually i think the people that are in a good place
46:43
um still being open and honest with those around them and and you'll find that
46:49
those people that are struggling or certainly i have they'll come to you because they see you as that person
46:54
that's not going to judge and you know you've talked about your own before um you know so so you're seen as a safe
47:01
um safe place you know and i think that's really the key is is we all we've all got to buy into just
47:08
being open and honest and showing a bit of vulnerability so that others will come to us and and um and be willing i think
47:16
yeah what about yourself joshua yeah that's a tough one eh because you
47:21
can you can have trained uh mental health professionals that that miss out on on science's
47:28
responsibility to kind of be over top of that but i think what can help with that is that that phenomena peace right which
47:33
is like if you're you're if you're actually connected to someone you know got a strong friendship you know what
47:39
normal looks like for them and then that makes it easier to pick up on things that are maybe not so normal so like i
47:45
think about that in terms of you know if we go to a potentially traumatic call like a suicide or a
47:50
homicide or something and then you know one of the guys who's normally quite extroverted and you know at the
47:57
smoke table with the banter is you know just hanging out in their room
48:03
for the next couple weeks because i know what their normal is you know because we've got their friendship and that relationship i can actually go oh that's
48:10
i can hurt him up and say hey man like you know normally you're out of the smoke table you know with some good natured ribbing and i've just noticed
48:16
you've been hanging out in your room like is everything okay um because for some other people like
48:22
maybe they're more introverted and hanging out in their room is normal for them they like some alone time so i think that that foundation of
48:28
relationship and friendship can be key to kind of helping us understand you know when
48:34
someone's not out of their kind of normal space and i think something else that comes out there um where the research can help a little
48:40
bit is people sometimes um are worried about asking people if they're okay um or
48:46
worried about asking like a hard question like hey are you having suicidal thoughts maybe you're really worried about someone
48:52
and they're worried that maybe if i asked them about you know suicide or something like that that that
48:59
would trigger suicide or contribute to them actually taking that step and um what we know from the research is
49:05
that's absolutely not the case if anything it gives them an opportunity um or a daughter to reaching out and so i
49:12
think that can be quite helpful to know is like if you are really worried about someone and you and you've picked up on
49:17
some stuff maybe through your relationship with them that hey things are not right like this is not how they normally act
49:22
it's okay to actually reach out to them and say hey that you're not hanging out anymore or
49:29
you're not making contact or you're not exercising anymore i noticed that you've been despondent have you been have you
49:35
been thinking about taking your own life which seems like a real heavy thing to say but if they're not they'll tell you
49:41
and if they are there's a chance that your doorway for them to to connect and so um i think that that can be helpful
49:48
to know is that um it's okay to ask people that kind of real direct question
49:54
yeah great point josh and just as a advert if anyone's unit wants some
49:59
guidance or some training on how to ask those questions in a bit of practice you know those really serious questions about suicide or self-harm then let me
50:07
know get in touch with me and we'll uh help you sort that out and arrange that stuff but um josh's point about uh
50:14
just being brave uh and having that and that and saying that the sort of answer asking the answer question that's that's
50:21
very consistent with the research as well so jay mister rapin have you got any kind of uh thoughts around what to do if
50:27
you're worried about a guy yeah so uh sometimes it takes a lot of time uh two you know there's these mates and
50:33
then there's trusted trusted friends so you get you know you get their trust over time to pick it up uh but yeah
50:40
there's two two two thoughts and i've done it two ways and there's the direct there's the direct because you know and
50:46
that's what happened to me when i see my mate came in that was he was direct because he couldn't use my friend and you know shock and capture in it
50:54
got to realize what's happening but then that's it taking time and what i've found is like i said before just got to listen you know listen for those cues or
51:01
watch for the social cues and what i've found passive i see that um
51:07
i may talk about a personal story to them about me and i've found that that um just that
51:13
sort of vulnerability there uh actually um shakes somehow and it is that you start
51:19
that that sort of uh talk with them and i've found that's happened a couple of times too because they're in the same boat
51:25
just like uh josh said before sometimes you'll think the only one with an issue um you know everyone's got a story and
51:31
everyone's got something going on it's complex life and so yeah starting with yourself and i think
51:36
that really opens people up yeah awesome and i you know that's no i agree with all of that and if i could um
51:43
just because i can't help myself off for a couple of my thought or top tips as well as trust your gut man like the
51:49
number of times if you've got a bad feeling you know if you've got a bad gut feel about something or someone
51:56
then trust that you know and when we're busy stress we forget to do that right so so um so let yourself notice that and
52:03
then the other one on my other tip to people is don't wait for it not to be awkward because it's probably and in fact if it's awkward
52:10
that's because you made the right call you know if it's not awkward then then you know nothing to see here but if it
52:15
gets awkward that's probably because you did exactly the right thing so so don't wait for it not to be awkward and kind of trust your courage i can trust you
52:21
and trust your um uh that you know you can be there with them in that even when it's hard and
52:27
it's going to be okay because they're not alone cool so we've got um we've got about
52:32
five minutes left so this is a question here that i thought it might be useful just to touch on from someone in
52:38
the audience so um so imposter syndrome and performance anxiety is something that that many of
52:43
us struggle with and you've also alluded to that sense of uh wanting to be a high performer and protecting that
52:50
version of yourself and that impression of yourself um so i just wanted does anyone have any tips on kind of how to
52:58
address that that performance anxiety and and desire to and you know push yourself
53:05
don't worry about being seen as um imposter syndrome is definitely something i've
53:12
battled with on and off um over particularly over the last couple of years since i've been on sort of social
53:17
media and putting my head up against above the the other poppies i guess but
53:23
um i think the thing to remember with uh particularly impostor syndrome is
53:29
imposter syndrome is all about other people and when you have that i think you're
53:35
taking the focus off yourself and what you believe in and what you're you're doing and you're giving that power to someone
53:41
else um so it's it's a thing but it's not actually a thing because no one actually gives a um generally you know um
53:49
you know you can be whatever you want to be in it and it's not many people are actually going to
53:55
call you out on it or or um you know question your your capabilities in most
54:00
cases so um for me what i what i really focus on when i do feel that is is
54:06
putting my focus back on me and back on my insider and you know my purpose of what i'm doing and
54:13
you know as long as you're doing it for the right reasons there's no actual uh there shouldn't be a reason to have
54:19
impostor syndrome so it's all about refocusing on myself that's how i deal with it
54:24
and performance anxiety i'm a big believer in competence creates confidence
54:30
um you know it's something we all go through and deal with you can ask any sportsman or any high performer they
54:37
still get nervous and and to me that's a good sign um it shows that you care um
54:43
but it's just being able to have that power so that you can use it in a positive and it doesn't take over so i
54:49
don't have a lot of tips on that um but for me it's just about refocusing on on
54:54
me and what i know i can do what i know i'm good at what are my strengths are and when you can focus on your
55:00
weaknesses and and just um you know have a have a sharp blade so to speak in all areas
55:06
uh but yeah that's that's about what i've got to offer on that thanks kane any any other tips on
55:12
imposter syndrome or yeah yeah i've just got i suppose um especially for uh our people's fishing
55:18
and defense perfection is the enemy of good you know it always has been and um you
55:24
know good for you is good enough and we can build on that um uh and another thing i i just mean that
55:31
i saw was look in the mirror that's your competition and not worry about uh you know others
55:38
and where they're at and you'll get to where you want and just be your best you know
55:43
around so that's what yeah so that's my comments around that yeah
55:49
josh you've got anything to add to those no no no not really i i think um
55:55
yeah i think the one the only other thing i wanted to talk to um steve that we kind of talked about is this idea of
56:01
well-being and you know um we've talked a lot about the individual things we can do you know to look out
56:07
for our our own well-being but there's this kind of saying that you're 100 responsible for your 50
56:14
you know which i think really rings true and you know we do have a responsibility to our own well-being you know whether
56:20
that's eating well exercising you know reaching out but actually you know the organizations that we that
56:26
we um preside and you know the societies that we're in they also have a responsibility to to the well-being of
56:32
their people and so i think that's a challenge um you know for steve and his crew as much as anything because as too
56:38
often i find um you know and i i'll be honest like i was a little bit hesitant about this webinar because it's like
56:45
you know often this kind of stuff can be perceived as a as a box sticking exercise you know we've got an eap service you know we've got josh and um
56:53
uh kane and jason and to speak sweet we've done we've done our bit but actually you know it's so important that
56:59
organizations are taking um they're 100 responsible of their 50
57:05
you know and that's making sure that as a leadership they're living out this these things we've talked about a vulnerability you know of of reframing
57:13
courage of putting people before you know business you know that it's incredibly important um and so i think
57:19
that's a challenge to we've gotta share for individuals but there also needs to be a challenge for for organizations for
57:25
governments to to step up and and take responsibility for for the well-being of their people as well and and both of
57:32
those things are important you know and both of those things need to happen side by side
57:40
responsibility gets laid on the individual and um and it's actually violated by how an organization at times
57:46
or a leadership behaves so um yeah i i really appreciated this opportunity steve and you know you're the one who
57:52
said yeah mate talk about that side of stuff as well which i think is is of um real credit to you and and the
57:58
organization if that's the culture that you guys are working towards so yeah cheers oh yeah looking um i'm glad you raised
58:05
that uh josh because that we know from the research around military one of the best predictors of whether the service
58:10
member is going to come home okay from mission is their answer to the question do you trust your team and do you trust your
58:16
boss and if those two the answers to those two questions is yes then they're much more likely to come home okay right
58:21
you know so so all the good things that all the things that we know make for good leaders and good units in terms of
58:27
looking out for each other being real with each other with being okay to not be okay today you know all that kind of
58:33
stuff all the stuff that you guys have touched on are all all important kind of organizational and
58:38
team level um factors that contribute to kind of being well and doing well on battlefield now
58:45
at home with your whanau and and you know we're working on all that stuff in defence but i fully acknowledge
58:50
that there's a lot of stuff we can and should do better and if you've got good ideas about that then please if you're
58:55
watching this don't hesitate to get in touch with me we've got a you know a number of pieces of work underway which won't bore you
59:01
with where we're trying to begin to address some of those things but but if you've got good ideas please
59:07
don't hesitate to get in touch um and if you see any real burning platforms in terms of the way the organization is
59:13
working with them for our people and please also get in touch with me around that stuff and i will and i will endeavour to
59:20
address those things so i know that we've had our the end of our one hour and so i just first of all
59:26
want to thank you all for sharing so readily of your experience and sharing some very very and being vulnerable and
59:31
modeling that vulnerability and and i know that some of the topics that we've touched on today are going to
59:37
be very real for us uh things like suicide sexual abuse
59:44
having a kind of even some of that uh sort of very isolated man up i think meat eating culture is that kind of um
59:52
is very real and very and leaves many of our people feeling lonely so so i just want to acknowledge the kind
59:58
of that the weight of some of our content from today and uh and
1:00:05
so before we close things off um i'd just like to draw a few a few kind
1:00:11
of observations or tips that stood out to me one is um was actually kane's point about writing
1:00:18
stuff down you know we know that that makes a difference and is often a thing that doesn't occur to service members
1:00:23
the benefit of that so i really would encourage you to come to to sort of think trial that particularly for things
1:00:29
like sleep if you're having worry with sleep that kind of stuff's really important like as a practical tip um but also you know the importance of
1:00:35
modeling good good well-being behaviors of of being vulnerable being human with the
1:00:42
people you're around around you all and so there's so many good points from today
1:00:47
so i just want to thank all of you for those um and uh and so but just to close things off today what i'd like to do is just
1:00:53
offer us more karakia acknowledging the weight of some of the stuff that we talked about um and then and then we'll
1:00:59
close the session off and carry on with our busy lives
1:01:25
so um thanks so much to you guys for um for making time today and uh we'll see
1:01:32
and thanks to those of you who are tinted today as well um well i'll hang around for a little bit if there's anyone any questions that anyone has for
1:01:38
me or anyone wants to raise anything with me um but for that for our attendees thanks again i'll see you uh
1:01:44
see you when we see you awesome to our panelists thanks very much panelists we'll catch you later
1:01:50
thank you very much can't wait
to attend today there we go thank you and uh and just to remind everyone uh we're recording
0:05
today's session so um if there's anything you get out of today that you want to share with people around you or other people in your workplace that link
0:12
will be live via the website by the defense health website and and also we'll see that i'll
0:18
follow up email around the cancer basis after this as well um so uh
0:24
welcome uh and uh i guess to start off today i'd like to begin with a whakatoki that i think captures some of the
0:30
sentiment that we might touch on today and also one that's dear to my heart as in my
0:36
work as a soldier and as a as a mental health practitioner so um it's a very brief one hitawato mataro bravery has
0:43
many resting places and i think that that's particularly relevant to us here in defence obviously because
0:49
courage is one of our core values and bravery on the battlefield is sort of an inherent part of what we do and who we
0:56
are however i challenge everyone to kind of bring some bravery to other aspects of their life and think about how they
1:01
might use our con what we talk about today to inform other aspects of their life as well and how they might be brave
1:07
about applying some of the stuff we talk about today to other aspects of their life so by way of introduction um i'm steve
1:14
kearney attentional steve kearney i'm the chief mental health officer for nzdf and i work in the health directorate and
1:20
my job essentially is to try and improve the mental health experience and journey for our service members
1:27
um with me today today we have a number of panelists and i'll get them to introduce themselves very shortly um but
1:33
just to kind of introduce the cope up before our session today and to explain a bit of the background
1:39
this week is uh our well-being week uh hosted within defence and we've got a whole bunch of people and events going
1:44
on across camps and bases a whole bunch of people providing either in-person or online webinars
1:50
and the intent of this week is really just to give everyone a chance to pause and reset it's been a very busy couple
1:56
of years for nzdf with myths and with a whole range of other challenges
2:02
the tempo has been high and people have been busy not just our service members but their whanau as well and so as we
2:09
head now head into the kind of regeneration of our of our warfighting capability our defense capability uh and
2:15
the work that comes with that and the focus that is going to come with that we thought it'd be good for everyone just to kind of pause and reflect at this
2:21
stage so we're hoping that everyone uses these seminars or this week as a chance just to stop and think and see if
2:27
there's anything we might need to rejig to head into into the second half of this
2:32
year it's also coincidental that this week across the country is men's health
2:38
and so we wanted to provide a bit of a forum um for people to talk about well-being and then and at the intent
2:44
for this panel and this discussion is that we get it from
2:50
an expert on wellbeing from sort of the ground up which we know from the research that men in particular do do
2:56
tend to listen to their peers as much as experts and over the course of this week we've got a bunch of experts providing
3:01
webinars and camps and seminars on campus and bases we've got dr lucy ohio later in the week talking about
3:07
resilience and well-being under under in really difficult times we've got gemma mccor later this week talking about
3:14
resilience in her perspective on resilience and so we thought this week today and this we're gonna it'll be good
3:19
to talk to some frontline operators so we've got some great guests we've got uh kane briscoe from farmstrom talking
3:25
about his perspective on mental health and wellbeing more broadly we've got josh derby from the fire service
3:31
sorry from foreign emergency new zealand and now we've got jason from our own nzdf
3:37
so the plan for today is that we're going to
3:43
each of our guests is going to provide a short corridor on their perspective and the kind of top tips and
3:49
a bit of this you know what they think matters and and why they think that in terms of their journey and their history um and then we'll have a discussion with
3:56
around a few key questions and if anything else comes up then we'll touch on that with a view to that if you've
4:01
got any questions for our panelists today then please don't hesitate to put them in the q a and we will um and we will
4:08
sort those as they go as we go through and put those to the panel if and when the opportunity allows
4:14
thanks very much team so without sort of further ado i guess we'll get straight to the panel so perhaps uh kane you're
4:20
at the top of my like brady bunch array so i'll start off with you mate if if
4:25
you wouldn't mind maybe just giving us a brief intro to yourself and uh perhaps we start off with just
4:31
brief intros from everyone and then we'll get going to each of your kind of own stories right so maybe a brief intro
4:36
came from yourself yes where it is and uh yeah thanks for having me on um
4:41
so i am uh what am i 35 years old now i'm a currently a dairy farmer but i've
4:46
been in agriculture half my life now so i left left school at the age of 17 and
4:53
went farming and i've done a range of different jobs within the agricultural sector but um you've got a real passion
4:58
for uh animals in the land and working outside um and also i guess as i've as i've gone through
5:05
life's journey a real passion for um helping other people and understanding other people and why we do and say and
5:11
and do all sorts of things and um you're really trying to i guess uplift people through all walks
5:18
of life um i think my story and lessons i've learned is is uh transferable to
5:23
many different people so stoked to be able to talk to a different audience um and yeah big part of me is being sport
5:31
and exercise um so you played rugby all my life and and also dabbled in a bit of boxing and
5:37
rug endurance running and that's really been a big part of
5:42
me trying to be the best person i can and the best farmer i can so that's sort of what i've focused on the last few
5:48
years is is using some of those physical tools to help make other people um
5:53
rise to the challenge of of farming and life and uh get through it a bit easier awesome kane thanks so much mate so a
6:00
lot of threads they're very consistent with kind of defense life in terms of physical fitness being the kind of foundation for for for um
6:08
uh well-being so that's awesome keen to hear more josh if you wouldn't mind kind of just introducing yourself
6:14
even uh kyoto everyone uh josh darvey i'm a career firefighter well um
6:20
seconded it uh currently so off the trucks at the moment but up until recently uh a firefighter on blue watch based at
6:27
ellsley station most of my career i've worked in um the central auckland central district
6:33
um and have a few other little endeavors i like to do i do some writing for fishing news i love i love my fishing
6:39
that's part of my kind of well-being outlet uh and i also am a
6:44
trauma researcher um specific specifically around um
6:51
and my organizational development role at the moment is a movember funded initiative uh basically looking to
6:57
design and evaluate a mental ill health and suicide prevention program for first responders so that that's the
7:04
mahi for me at the moment awesome thanks josh jase you want to introduce yourself briefly
7:11
uh yeah my talk to you at the welcome to work with the manganese
7:29
me i'm currently the uh a wine officer uh within pcp i work closely with the cpo brigadier matt winston
7:36
um oh yeah so but on me i've been in the defense force for 36 years it goes
7:41
pretty quick i really enjoy it it's about our people and our culture
7:47
um outside of it uh you know rugby league fishing all those type of things that
7:52
sort of get out recreationally but really um thrilled to be on the panel today and
7:58
just talk about uh a well-being and some experiences and i think it's about uh i think when i have a clue or someone um
8:05
be able to reminisce uh and actually agree uh
8:11
to how we've sort of evolved through the 80s uh to now so cure thanks very much jason awesome to have
8:17
you all right so uh what we've asked the panel members to do is just to kind of provide a sort of their top tips and a
8:23
bit of their story maybe if that's relevant and and some guidance and then and then as i said we'll we'll go and
8:29
have a bit of discussion around those things so maybe once again if you start with the uk and you've already sort of foreshadowed some of your kind of key
8:35
messages so so what's your soldier's five as we would say in the army anyway around kind of well-being
8:41
and looking after yourself yeah and it's it's it's um you know it's pretty general for everyone i think no
8:47
matter what sort of industry you're in um for me my my sort of big motto is
8:53
you know you can't expect to have good mental health without doing physical things to support it
8:59
like i touched on earlier fitness is fitness and exercise and getting out in nature is really cool for me
9:05
but it's only one of many many tools that i use so um like i'm really big on on those
9:11
physical habits you know i think fellas generally turn towards that exercise in sport
9:18
is the go-to which is nothing wrong with that it's a great way to release a bit of tension and and
9:24
get out with your mates or whatever and do something you love but um you know for me
9:29
uh farming is quite stressful we have a lot of a lot of problems thrown at us just as you guys would um so it's
9:36
actually about trying to strip the emotion out of some of those problems um
9:42
and get them out of my head so i've been really big the last probably five or six years on uh
9:47
i know some people would call it journaling i just call it writing down but you know it's just getting some
9:52
of that clutter out of my head um and and dealing with the facts on a piece of paper i've found hugely
9:59
important and hugely beneficial to uh you know sleeping at night um and and
10:04
relieving some of that stress so i always sort of look at my own health as
10:09
uh the legs on a table so each table has four legs uh or four pillars of health
10:15
um and they uh what you consume and and that's not just what you put in your mouth it's it's who you surround
10:22
yourself with uh what you're watching on the telly or your phone uh what you're listening to who you're listening to all
10:28
of those things that you consume as a person all go into making up your thoughts and actions
10:33
so i'm really clear on you know surrounding myself with positive people and not not buying into
10:39
some of the rubbish on on social media or whatever movement so obviously most of us fellas
10:45
uh get that pretty nailed down you know having an outlet a positive outlet to relieve some of that stress and tension
10:52
and anger or whatever it may be it's really important that we're able to move freely and and do the job
10:58
i guess that we're getting paid to do with um you know physically um stress
11:03
is huge you know a lot of our relationships whether it's with your your work mates your friends or your
11:09
partners um a lot of stress can come from that at times a lot a lot of stress from work
11:14
being having a clear process to be able to manage that stress is really important to um
11:20
to staying healthy upstairs so getting some getting some solid tools in the bank for that
11:26
and um sleep is probably i think one of the number one
11:31
things that that i try and look after you know um farming's an everyday job just like you fellows out out in the
11:37
field uh there's not always a day off sometimes you've got to push through the tough stuff and then work long hours so
11:43
it's really key to be able to um have a process to set yourself up for a good night's sleep
11:51
um and that sort of ties in with that that stress and and movement as well they all work together to support that
11:56
table of health so that would be my my biggest things is is really having a good awareness
12:03
of where you're at what legs on your table are are good and what ones are broken or struggling and
12:10
being able to identify those and and work on them has been really key to be being a good
12:16
functional person and and farmer as well
12:23
that's great kane and a couple of things pop out what you consume not just in terms of what you eat but kind of what you take in that's i think a really
12:30
interesting point and uh and well worth reflecting on um i we've also cause because you gave us a
12:36
heads up on what you're going to talk about we've got a poll ready to go here so just be interested in folks what from
12:42
everyone from those that are attending you know what do they think is most important for them in terms of those four pillars that kane kane mentioned
12:49
right so which would you prioritize getting better at for yourself would what you consume how you move
12:56
managing stress or sleep
13:02
can you guys see that at your end yep so we've got um
13:07
it's pretty even match actually across these at the moment which i guess just goes to your point
13:13
about all these things being interconnected right you know stress impacts on sleep exercise impacts on stress and sleep what you consume draws
13:20
all those things so they're all kind of heavily interconnected
13:26
yeah cool
13:32
okay so pretty even match interesting cool so i might come back to that
13:38
a bit later on good so josh handing over to you before you
13:43
get into a larger discussion what's um what's your top tip what some of your top tips for kind of looking at yourself
13:50
yeah thanks steve i thought i'd change it up a little bit maybe just and talk a little bit about my um my own well-being
13:55
journey and there might be some tips in there along the way people get out of it yeah um
14:00
so i um actually come from a little place called kaiku which is on the west coast on northland
14:05
you go um through dargaville past kaiwee lakes so i kind of grew up there in a rural setting and then when i was about
14:12
eight years old moved up to the phantom peninsula which was pretty sweet because the fishings are real good there if
14:17
you're into your um and while i was going to school and my school was at the bottom of it of
14:22
a hill and at the top of the hill was the volunteer fire brigade and they were short of volunteer
14:29
firefighters during the day so they had this uh pretty good recruitment uh strategy and that was to bring down a couple of fire engines and start up a
14:35
big water fight which of course drew me in i was into that and then what the real clinch was though
14:41
is that one of those volunteer firefighters came over and they had a little uh black object it was a pager
14:46
and they said oh josh if you if you sign up today mate we'll give you this pager and whenever it goes off you can leave school
14:52
um so that that was certainly the ticket for me i i was right into that later that year we had our end of year
14:58
exams and the pager went off so i got to get out of those which was nice um and then
15:04
i was at 18 i was going to university and i dropped out of there because that wasn't really my deal at the time
15:09
and i applied for and was accepted into what was then the new zealand fire service it's now called um foreign emergency new zealand
15:16
as a career fifa in new zealand we've got a national fire service so it's not um region based or
15:21
anything like that go to about 80 000 emergency call-outs each year so that's everything from like motor
15:27
vehicle accidents uh structure fires vehicle fires industrial entrapments and now we also go to a lot
15:34
of medical calls so they call them purple calls anything involving cardiac or respiratory arrest
15:40
so i've been doing that as a career firefighter for 16 years now um and yeah hopefully
15:46
that's a little bit of background to my operational service but in terms of how i got involved in
15:52
the mental health side of things the well-being side of things uh there's a few things that are contributed to that
15:58
uh probably one of the more uh difficult ones to talk about right which is is kind of in part i think
16:05
while we're here today is because of the stigma involved in it so when i talk a little bit about my own experience of psychological injury
16:11
so like in my mid-20s um i experienced psychological injury uh for me it started as anxiety so um
16:19
the symptoms i kind of noticed was um just tightness in the chest i'd get this
16:24
thing called air hunger where i'd be breathing but it didn't feel like i was getting enough oxygen and and and it started to manifest in me
16:31
like being worried about my health being hyper vigilant around my health or having some type of medical event even
16:36
though physically i was in i was in pretty good knit um so i had that for quite a while and it was pretty intense
16:43
um and then after a couple years actually started experiencing depression or noticing that i was just feeling like
16:49
really down and hopeless and that went on for a couple years and i ended up experiencing um the fancy
16:57
term as suicidal ideation um but it basically meant that i started to have these kind of intrusive thoughts
17:03
about taking my own life and i was actually scared by them like i didn't want to take my own life but i think i've been feeling so hopeless for
17:10
so long that that is an option started to just come into my head you know i'd be driving along and i'd see a powerpoint i
17:17
feel like uh you know i could drive into that so like a pretty pretty dark place to be
17:22
a pretty despairing place to be and and i guess the real unfortunate thing
17:28
um is that it had to get to that before i felt like i should reach out to someone right it took years of first
17:35
anxiety and then depression and then getting to the state of having these suicidal thoughts um
17:40
that i that i went man i got to talk to someone about it and i did i reached out to a fellow firefighter i mean i think
17:46
part of the reason i hadn't done it earlier is honestly i felt i was afraid that i'd be thought of as a you know like i
17:53
work in a job much like um you all do where it's based around
17:58
the form and turning up for people and being strong and being brave and so i just thought you know this kind
18:04
of violates part of what i'm supposed to be and part of what i'm supposed to do and you know the really toxic side of
18:11
that is it meant that my what i was going through my injury got worse and worse and worse you know i could have
18:16
gotten to this years earlier and i'm pretty sure it wouldn't have um taken such a long time to heal
18:21
um so yeah i did i reached out to a fellow um firefighter and he wasn't a cli a psychologist or a counselor or
18:27
anything he was just a guy that um that was a friend that was non-judgmental um that held
18:34
space for me you know he'd like come around and say come on mate um let's get out let's do some exercise
18:40
um you know let's get out and do something together um but also encouraged me to connect up with some professional support so um
18:46
through my gp i was connected with a clinical psychologist and um yeah did therapy and it was
18:52
honestly one of the most um life-changing things i've i've ever done you know as reaching out to someone
18:58
and also getting some therapy and it was through that process of getting therapy like as difficult as it was at times
19:04
that i just became really intensely interested in like how how would i how had i found myself in this place you
19:09
know what what were the things that had led to this for me and um as i got well i i decided to push
19:16
into that i went back to university and i studied um violence and trauma a postgraduate pathway of violence and
19:21
trauma i became a peer supporter within foreign emergency and that was a really interesting thing because
19:27
you know when i was depressed and feel like i could talk to anyone part of
19:34
that was because i felt like i was the only one maybe i was the only one having these feelings or having these experiences
19:40
and what was interesting about going into peer support as i became more confident about telling my story was that my mates started
19:47
opening up to me and you know sometimes their anxiety or their depression was a
19:52
consequence of post-traumatic stuff so the calls we go to uh sometimes it was a result of stuff
19:58
from their childhood that they hadn't worked through or stuff going on in the um in their family life often it was
20:03
kind of a combination of all of that stuff coming together and there's a bit of a breaking point like that's kind of what my experience was
20:10
um but what i knew for sure after that was man i spent all those years thinking
20:15
i'm the only one going through this and i dare not tell anyone because they'll think i'm strange or weak or
20:20
and what i found out was actually now heaps of my mates and heaps of my colleagues were um navigating tough
20:26
times you know and actually found real value and and talking about it and sharing
20:31
um and so i got to i got the chance to kind of that that it was kind of funny like i'd be on overtime at a different
20:38
station and i literally had this experience a number of times where one of the guys would grab me uh pull me into an office shut the door
20:45
and be like and real hash tones you know being like oh bro you know you know how you've talked about your mental health
20:50
i'm actually struggling at the moment you know and it's kind of sad you know that that that's that's kind of what
20:56
stigma does you know about something that impacts a lot of us so fortunately um you know it's great
21:02
that you've got steve leading this stuff we're actually beginning to talk more about this stuff and that's certainly happening in fire stations too you know
21:09
we talk about um the stuff we're going through around the coffee table now a lot more than 10 or 20 years ago so
21:14
that's really encouraging to see um so yeah now i i guess the other part of
21:20
that is kind of 10 years on from that time in my life man how things have changed you know and i think one of the messages
21:27
um for anyone that's listening or has people that are struggling whether it's anxiety depression even suicidal
21:33
thinking is there is always hope you know and um it's hard at the time when you're in that kind of mindset
21:40
to find that but uh it is there and at least from my experiment experience the
21:46
truth has been that suffering's a part of life and these and these moments in our lives and darkness are a part of
21:51
life but the promise um that i've experienced on the other side of that has always been like restoration and and hope and
21:58
life again you know and like i've gone on now to be involved in work that i
22:04
wake up in the morning and i look forward to you know i love my life i really enjoy my life now and 10 years
22:09
ago they just that didn't seem like it would ever be possible i remember a moment at night thinking like i just
22:15
don't see any way out of this i don't see this ever getting better
22:22
than it ever did even before i experienced that psychological injury so yeah um that message of hope um of
22:28
reaching out to someone else you know um you're not a burden that's what i found as well people want to help
22:33
out you know i find it a privilege when someone reaches out to me and the biggest thing that i figured out
22:40
about this whole stigma thing is people see what i've done now in terms of speaking out about my psychological
22:46
injury and you know my moments of um vulnerability they actually see it as strength you know no one's no one said
22:53
i'm a or thought i'm a because of that they've actually seen it as a real strength and i've said man i wish i had the courage to do that you
22:58
know to talk about my journey or to share so openly so um i think that's been a big thing as well
23:06
awesome thanks josh and some really powerful messages there um and i'm definitely going to circle back
23:12
to some of that uh leonard conversation later on because there's a few things there i'd like to follow up with you on um jason
23:19
your turn mate yeah hey um yeah i suppose uh
23:25
just i suppose just a quick example of how um you know uh
23:30
mental well-being can sort of affect um people and this particular soldiers i'll just give a good example then i'll just
23:36
give some tips um like i was asked i like so i joined up in sort of the the mid 80s and uh around there you know
23:43
eight week exercises uh 180k kilometer marches fitness you know
23:49
weekly you know those type of things and they're currently loads over uh big terrain with
23:56
substandard kit you know all those type of things and uh that was the nature of uh
24:01
within the infantry and uh that was our job and so uh but over a long period of time it didn't
24:07
take a toll physically on uh on our people and i think my cohort out here
24:13
sort of my age will sort of uh may hear that and go yeah that was i
24:18
think however in those days um if you got an injury or you're feeling ill or you weren't up
24:24
to it you was frowned upon to go to the medical center and if you're caught outside there you'd
24:30
be frowned upon because um you'd be sort of looked at like you couldn't handle it
24:37
uh you're weak um you're a bit of a malingerer um and you're trying to get like duty so
24:43
there's that real um sticking around so people wouldn't go so the second and third order effect of that is
24:49
painkillers now long eight week exercise you've got to get up for the next game and it
24:54
continues so you know some soldiers were taking painkillers to get through they didn't want to
25:01
look weak in front of those um inspiring leaders and those mentors so
25:07
that's what happened so physically if you're broken down and you're taking those type of things mentally it takes a
25:12
toll and uh over time some of my friends left and uh some
25:19
got chord changes to other um to other cause trades that didn't have
25:24
that sort of meat-eating uh mentality
25:29
uh you know i know that uh uh some some out there will reminisce with that and that's why i think some of
25:35
my cohort right now um that's why they're still broken that's why they're more broken than most inside as in as an
25:42
engine physically because we never got the help we needed because uh it wasn't the thing to do so that's one example of
25:48
it i think that mentality changed when operations came around within 95 up to 2000s where
25:55
my thing change too we need to be healthy we need to be fit to be able to go on operations and we need to look after each other and that that change
26:02
over time so that's i think that's an example of what i've seen coming through of how it's spun around but
26:09
certainly still affects uh my code because i know that someone listening um still find it hard to
26:15
ask for help and i totally call kane and josh around talking about it but still you know
26:22
still a lot of us think we're bulletproof um uh and it won't affect us but it has
26:28
you just baggaged it up and that's all that is you know uh so just a couple of tips that i've got uh that i've um i
26:34
think the big one in our total um um josh around uh
26:39
a confidant in your corner you know someone who's trusted you can tell everything now when i say confidant
26:46
uh they don't listen to fix they listen to listen and that and over my time um it's
26:52
that's really helped me just i know i can just uh vent or i can just talk about things that happen in my life uh
26:59
and it's not going anywhere and they're just listening so i think that's really really takes a lot of weight off
27:04
it's 100 okay to uh prioritize your own wellness you know and especially leaders
27:12
uh leaders of the worst they spend all their career looking after people it's their focus that's their mahi
27:18
that's the responsibility and they forget forget it and neglect themselves all the time and i've done that before
27:25
and it took a trusted friend to say hey you need to stop me you need to look after yourself
27:30
and uh you know it's an oldie but a goodie by my old man always said to me like uh if you're not right how do you expect
27:36
to look after others and that's sort of uh i think that's key the other thing too is um
27:42
you know this you know you don't have to be kano to uh check in on your mates you know now now it's platform basically just
27:47
soon getting this meeting or facetime it's it's easy just to check in so that's why other one is although
27:53
something might not affect you uh just checking on your mates um and we all know that in defense um it's easy to
27:59
pick up a phone sometimes we don't but hey you know it's there yeah so that's that's my tips
28:05
awesome jose thanks very much so uh great tips so what we'll do i've got another poll here launch drawing on both
28:11
kind of josh's and and jason's tips right around you know just talked about and joseph talked about the imports of
28:17
who you go to and knowing who to go to and they've both talked about sort of stigma and and engaging with the medical
28:22
system or the health system so we're going to launch this poll now and there's two questions there so i'm interested in people kind of uh filling
28:28
that out and see and let's see where we land on this question
28:35
cool so the first one is if you're struggling
28:40
who would you feel comfortable going to and then the second question there
28:47
is what might be some reasons which would make you hesitant to reach out for support or have difficulty
28:53
reaching out for support you guys see those here we go
28:59
[Music]
29:32
okay so currently in terms of for you to reach our two partners and mates the top of the list
29:39
health provider or gp is there but it's it's uh lagging well behind
29:46
colleagues or workers there but again it doesn't marry up or mention them so mates and far and partners are the kind
29:52
of key supports most of us
30:00
and then our second question there you know and everyone sort of touched on it in their own way of stigma writing about
30:05
how you might be treated or judged is the kind of key concern
30:11
as well as a preference to manage things yourself and we know that in our workforce in the defence force there's a
30:16
strong preference to manage things yourself part of that it comes from that i think
30:22
that desire to be sort of autonomous and independent but i suspect part of it is also related to that
30:28
stigma stuff as well cool okay so we'll draw those calls to a
30:34
close now but some some clear kind of trends here right um partners and stigma is a very real
30:41
issue for for many of you okay have you guys so have you guys got any comments on those poll results any
30:47
observations as you see those
30:56
not really no surprises oh yeah i mean i i totally agree with mates you know
31:01
there's a shared experience you know with friends and i i get the partner thing but then i think some some
31:06
of my friends has gone to mates because it's a shared experience and there's an understanding that you've been through the same experience that
31:12
you've got to understand a little bit more yeah yeah kind of like what jason's saying
31:18
like that's why um we do the peer support system now you know because it's that lived experiencing um you might not be
31:26
comfortable like in our context telling your partner about some of the calls you go to
31:32
asking him um you might not be comfortable you know talking to someone you don't know at all a mental health professional
31:38
but you can talk to talk to one of your mates about it i think the important thing is to have you know more than one door you can
31:44
knock on you know so whether that's a partner or a trusted gp
31:50
or a peer it's good to have a couple doors open to you
31:55
yeah great great observation and just to kind of answer that question here and now as well like if you're in the defence force
32:01
we do have a lot of doors right we've got our chaplains our social workers health centers oh 800 nz dfu is another
32:07
free phone line so so if you are struggling you know just to remind you that there are a lot of places you can go and just i'll just jump on that
32:14
opportunity as the as achievement health officer to do that yeah um good uh okay so that makes sense right
32:21
and it's really consistent uh if you look on the new defense health website um
32:26
health.nb um there is um
32:33
uh a whole bunch of stories of people who and their own journeys with well-being and the consistent theme that and it's
32:40
similar to what you said josh in those is that now once people start opening up um
32:46
they're often surprised and relieved to find that many of their mates are going through the same sort of stuff and uh
32:51
and that really helps when it comes to dealing with it and doing things that are that are going to help you get
32:57
things better for you as well so oftentimes we do assume that we're by ourselves and we're the only ones going through
33:04
this and and it's when we kind of seek help that we realize that that's that's not true
33:10
cool so i wanted to kind of touch on one of the points that that some of you made as well it's kind of my opening question
33:15
and in in each of your own stories you sort of alluded to um kind of early or the the barriers that
33:23
people face so what i wanted to talk about was what are some of the internal barriers
33:29
so there's like the stigma being one of those what are some of the things that we tell ourselves
33:35
that stop us from seeking help when we see when we notice maybe we could do with a hand so we might notice some of
33:41
those signs josh talked about or where i might notice our stress to pick up on cain's point getting on top of us or our
33:47
sleep getting disrupted or we might notice like injuries that we're ignoring and that's impacting on our life so what
33:53
are some of the things that that we tell ourselves that stop us from from your observation from getting help kane you
33:59
come with me yeah so i just wanted to um i think this ties in nicely with what josh and jason
34:05
have said as well they both mentioned uh toughness um and you know the industries that
34:11
we're all in you know when you think about guys in the army or defence force you think david goggins and and how much of a hard bastard he is and you know the
34:18
typical farmer we have a massive problem with it here um we measure a lot of our worth on how tough we are
34:25
and um you know in terms of my own story like i was a really shy kid
34:31
and when i was about nine years old i was actually sexually abused as well so i had had uh you know zero confidence
34:38
but also had a had a bit of an anger and hatred uh brewing through my teenage
34:43
years and you can imagine that went really well um teenagers are already angry enough and and i had a bit of a bit more reason to
34:49
be angry and particularly through my early career uh farming i was thrown into
34:55
[Music] roles that were really challenging i went to quite a high level quite quickly
35:00
so sort of thrown in the fire and learnt a lot of things the hard way and
35:05
you know i took up took up boxing at a young young age as a way to um prove my toughness but also get rid
35:12
of you know release some of that anger in a positive way which i'm really thankful for but you know when i look back at my life
35:18
now a lot of those teenage years and and right through my 20s was spent
35:24
um trying to prove to people that i was tough and what i've found is that
35:30
uh toughness does wear away over time um when you i i used to rely on my toughness to just
35:37
grin and bear you know day after day whether it was out on the farm or on the rugby field or in the boxing ring
35:43
you know you just completely rely on it all the time it was my go-to to just just head down ass
35:49
up and just just go through whatever it took to get the job done um
35:54
but what i've found as i look back on life now is that
35:59
if you're smart about things and you can um you know deal with things in another
36:05
way without relying on your toughness it actually makes you tougher because that toughness doesn't get worn
36:10
down so quick you know so it's for me that that that battle in my head to go and get
36:17
help and and sort some of my out was not to rely on my toughness you know not
36:22
to tough it out it was to say well actually i'm not getting any tougher i'm
36:27
just just like it's it's someone hammering away on a rock of toughness you know sooner or later one of those
36:33
hammers is gonna gonna start chipping some stone off and and that's what happens with life and that's what i see
36:38
uh a lot in the farming community and no doubt it's no different there is is that sooner or later those challenges that
36:45
get fired at that rock of hardness gets gets battered and chipped away whereas we actually need to stop the hammering
36:51
so much you know that's the smart way to do it um and you know so for me it was
36:56
it was really that big obstacle of of i don't need to prove to anyone else that i'm tough uh you know i know what i've
37:03
been through and what i've overcome to be who i am and where i am i don't have to prove any of that to
37:08
anyone else it's it's you know understanding and start telling yourself that story that
37:14
you know to get through life and live to a ripe old age and and be successful and positive in life we actually need to be
37:21
smart about what we're doing and you know that ties into everything i think we've said is you know
37:27
uh being able to be vulnerable going to get help when you need it um being smart with who you hang around
37:33
with what you consume and how you look after yourself i think was was a really big barrier for me was
37:38
just you stripping away that toughness as the first first layer of defense and um
37:45
just being smarter about stuff smarter about yourself and and how you live your life
37:51
yeah a lot of that resonates i think certainly with me kane and with when i've heard the stories of service members there's a great deal of that
37:57
that sounds very familiar but i can just speak to that to say i was thinking about um what you're saying
38:02
there cane as well and i think part of the reason why um like when i think about toughness
38:09
it's it can be um interesting right because i i don't find it that difficult to go into a fully involved structure
38:14
fire right like in these phrases you know firefighters go in one direction when everyone else is going out the
38:20
other you know and actually the hardest things i've had to do in my life haven't had to do with cutting people out of cars or going into
38:26
a burning building like undoubtedly it's been this journey with my mental health you know
38:31
the hardest things like and and the things that um require the most bravery or courage from me hasn't been going
38:37
into a burning building it's been reaching out for help funnily enough um and i think about that sometimes
38:42
because like part of the reason i'm not too worried about going into these dangerous situations job is i've got really good
38:49
um protective equipment i've had lots of training um you know i'm familiar with those environments
38:55
but i i don't have those same tools around my mental health you know and so
39:01
i think that's one of the things that these types of initiatives help with are like so people can feel
39:07
um like they can push into vulnerability more like what are the tools um what is the training you've had in it do you
39:13
have people who have been there before and done it that can give you the confidence that hey i can be vulnerable
39:18
and it's not going to end me you know just in the same way that when i went and did my national training center
39:23
course i've exposed the these situations time and time again in a controlled environment where i went yeah i can go
39:30
into this fire and come out all right in the same way i think you know we need more of that culture and
39:36
um that demonstrate and almost train us in vulnerability that we know hey i can be vulnerable um i can admit that i'm
39:43
not invincible and and i'll be okay not only will i be okay i can
39:48
grow and be more of a person be more courageous be more brave as a consequence of those things so yeah
39:54
that's something that i think about quite often when we talk about you know um invulnerability and bravery and
39:59
courage you know it's like it's easier for me to go into a um burning building than it was to pick up the phone and and
40:05
call a psychologist you know i see there's a um question there too around um what if
40:11
what if those things aren't options and um it reminded me of a piece of research
40:17
they i'm trying to stay away from the research today but they did this big study over in australia like 20 000 first responders i
40:23
think it might have been defence force personnel as well and they looked at stigma and what they found was this
40:28
there was this huge perception around stigma that if i was open and vulnerable my peers would think poorly of me
40:35
um but they also asked those peers or everyone what would you think of someone um if they opened up to you that are
40:41
struggling with something and it was less than one percent of people um that that would make a difference in
40:48
their change of view of people so so what they told us is actually it's our perceptions
40:53
um of how other people would respond if we're vulnerable then the reality of that situation and that's certainly been
40:59
true of my story like i had that perception as well but it hasn't held true like the more i've talked about it
41:04
and i'm not saying there won't be some people that are um not further enough along in their journey that they might
41:09
bring some you know really unhelpful stuff if you opened up that's of course a possibility but in large and from my
41:16
experience it's been the opposite so um you know if you if you don't have a partner you can open up to a gp
41:22
uh or a friend then there are there's there's those other options you know if you don't feel uncomfortable about defense force um
41:29
helplines uh in new zealand you got 1737 you can call or text anytime 24 7 that's
41:35
free um so there's definitely other options outside your kind of family setting or even your work setting that
41:40
you can kind of reach out to for help yeah great josh and and you know just without wanting to kind of go down a
41:46
research rabbit hole in terms of that research that you mentioned we know from research across military personnel that
41:54
if you are struggling you particularly think that others are going to judge you so when you're in a good state of mind
41:59
you're less inclined to feel judged if you if you but because when you're struggling you're in a threat to taking you know
42:06
you're in a threat detection kind of mindset you assume others are going to judge you even when they're not you're more likely to do that right so so again
42:13
the you know that's just another kind of barrier to people when they're really struggling jumping into hell
42:20
jace you've got any kind of thoughts around just kind of what what gets in the way and any other observations around that
42:27
yeah it's such a like a kiwi guy thing you know i'll tough that pass you know i'll wait it out it's just
42:34
something i've got to get through and i think over time our communication has mentioned it has evolved you know 15 years ago on a
42:42
penalty pop might not have got a few anyone yeah uh but you know so yeah we've evolved in
42:47
that type of uh but it is i think it's communication i'll sort of go back to why um
42:52
people will not ask for help um and uh and a lot of this pertain to me also i mean not wanting to put to
42:59
burden others with your stuff you know that's a that's a big one that's how i sort of grew up in a maori
43:04
family you didn't sort of don't want to burden anyone and again for our people what new zealanders
43:11
they don't want to burden everyone and it's that sort of tough uh exterior uh not one week we've talked about that um in
43:18
front of respected mentors or people you know you don't want them to think any different of you
43:24
especially for our young people um and i was gave an example before in the beginning of the 80s 90s
43:31
uh who did i go to like who did i go to to talk to
43:36
and that was stuff that i especially asked for help and i suppose there's a thing about i forgot you know well-being seems to be in some
43:44
some areas it could be frowned upon you're not up to it and then people are afraid that they may get medically discharged or
43:50
treated differently by the medical system so they won't they'll go outside of the organisation and you know that can be so you won't
43:56
hear about it they'll do it by themselves outside um yeah interesting about knowing who to
44:02
talk to i think one one um so just one quick example of that is i got an appointment uh and then it was
44:07
appointment that i really really enjoyed and wanted and i focused 100 on it and i focused in and you know sort of
44:14
working six to nine at night and um and i didn't see it i was in the game and one of the trusted
44:21
uh friend of mine sort of came and spoke to me about it because i might lost my sense of humor i was making so i was
44:26
agitated i was just really focused and it came and then trusted confidence came in and sort of
44:33
sort of spelt it out to me i really did look back and i reflected and i said yeah i mean i don't know what happened there i just you know uh and things were
44:40
suffering so i stood back um and i paused and i had a look at it and i really worked it out but what i
44:45
was really disappointed is i was actually showing people what bad look like
44:51
you know and we're balanced on preaching work balance life balance and well-being but i was showing them what bad look
44:57
like and i really disappointed me because you know people look to you they look up to you and so i really really
45:02
worked on that and to show them what good looked like and i think that was key for me
45:08
awesome chase yeah a very true point i've seen that many times in defense too you know
45:14
any other any other comments for you guys before i launch went into another question so i guess just to build on that right
45:20
you know you've all talked about early warning signs you know you talked about sort of anger being one for you kane and
45:25
and that kind of being an early warning sign and josh you talked about anxiety and some of the stuff attached to that as well then
45:31
you know write it down until feeling suicidal uh towards the end of it just in the latter part of that journey and
45:37
then nj she talked about uh you know other early warning signs and yourself in terms of losing your sense of humor
45:44
so what tips would you give to someone who sees it in a mate or in a colleague or
45:49
in someone they work with about how to how to how to what to do next if they see early
45:55
warning signs and someone and they're not sure what to do about it because i think for a lot of us that's a question that we we grapple with right
46:02
so what would you what tips would you give someone who's seen early warning signs in a mate and uh and what to do next
46:10
yeah i think um you know we touched on vulnerability um a little bit earlier but
46:18
you know for those people if you do see someone struggling as you've sort of got to reach out and and show some
46:23
vulnerability first and you know if you have a think about yourself people you would talk to it's the people that you
46:30
perceive as open already and and not gonna judge um so so you need to show that to those
46:37
around you as well and and it really starts with actually i think the people that are in a good place
46:43
um still being open and honest with those around them and and you'll find that
46:49
those people that are struggling or certainly i have they'll come to you because they see you as that person
46:54
that's not going to judge and you know you've talked about your own before um you know so so you're seen as a safe
47:01
um safe place you know and i think that's really the key is is we all we've all got to buy into just
47:08
being open and honest and showing a bit of vulnerability so that others will come to us and and um and be willing i think
47:16
yeah what about yourself joshua yeah that's a tough one eh because you
47:21
can you can have trained uh mental health professionals that that miss out on on science's
47:28
responsibility to kind of be over top of that but i think what can help with that is that that phenomena peace right which
47:33
is like if you're you're if you're actually connected to someone you know got a strong friendship you know what
47:39
normal looks like for them and then that makes it easier to pick up on things that are maybe not so normal so like i
47:45
think about that in terms of you know if we go to a potentially traumatic call like a suicide or a
47:50
homicide or something and then you know one of the guys who's normally quite extroverted and you know at the
47:57
smoke table with the banter is you know just hanging out in their room
48:03
for the next couple weeks because i know what their normal is you know because we've got their friendship and that relationship i can actually go oh that's
48:10
i can hurt him up and say hey man like you know normally you're out of the smoke table you know with some good natured ribbing and i've just noticed
48:16
you've been hanging out in your room like is everything okay um because for some other people like
48:22
maybe they're more introverted and hanging out in their room is normal for them they like some alone time so i think that that foundation of
48:28
relationship and friendship can be key to kind of helping us understand you know when
48:34
someone's not out of their kind of normal space and i think something else that comes out there um where the research can help a little
48:40
bit is people sometimes um are worried about asking people if they're okay um or
48:46
worried about asking like a hard question like hey are you having suicidal thoughts maybe you're really worried about someone
48:52
and they're worried that maybe if i asked them about you know suicide or something like that that that
48:59
would trigger suicide or contribute to them actually taking that step and um what we know from the research is
49:05
that's absolutely not the case if anything it gives them an opportunity um or a daughter to reaching out and so i
49:12
think that can be quite helpful to know is like if you are really worried about someone and you and you've picked up on
49:17
some stuff maybe through your relationship with them that hey things are not right like this is not how they normally act
49:22
it's okay to actually reach out to them and say hey that you're not hanging out anymore or
49:29
you're not making contact or you're not exercising anymore i noticed that you've been despondent have you been have you
49:35
been thinking about taking your own life which seems like a real heavy thing to say but if they're not they'll tell you
49:41
and if they are there's a chance that your doorway for them to to connect and so um i think that that can be helpful
49:48
to know is that um it's okay to ask people that kind of real direct question
49:54
yeah great point josh and just as a advert if anyone's unit wants some
49:59
guidance or some training on how to ask those questions in a bit of practice you know those really serious questions about suicide or self-harm then let me
50:07
know get in touch with me and we'll uh help you sort that out and arrange that stuff but um josh's point about uh
50:14
just being brave uh and having that and that and saying that the sort of answer asking the answer question that's that's
50:21
very consistent with the research as well so jay mister rapin have you got any kind of uh thoughts around what to do if
50:27
you're worried about a guy yeah so uh sometimes it takes a lot of time uh two you know there's these mates and
50:33
then there's trusted trusted friends so you get you know you get their trust over time to pick it up uh but yeah
50:40
there's two two two thoughts and i've done it two ways and there's the direct there's the direct because you know and
50:46
that's what happened to me when i see my mate came in that was he was direct because he couldn't use my friend and you know shock and capture in it
50:54
got to realize what's happening but then that's it taking time and what i've found is like i said before just got to listen you know listen for those cues or
51:01
watch for the social cues and what i've found passive i see that um
51:07
i may talk about a personal story to them about me and i've found that that um just that
51:13
sort of vulnerability there uh actually um shakes somehow and it is that you start
51:19
that that sort of uh talk with them and i've found that's happened a couple of times too because they're in the same boat
51:25
just like uh josh said before sometimes you'll think the only one with an issue um you know everyone's got a story and
51:31
everyone's got something going on it's complex life and so yeah starting with yourself and i think
51:36
that really opens people up yeah awesome and i you know that's no i agree with all of that and if i could um
51:43
just because i can't help myself off for a couple of my thought or top tips as well as trust your gut man like the
51:49
number of times if you've got a bad feeling you know if you've got a bad gut feel about something or someone
51:56
then trust that you know and when we're busy stress we forget to do that right so so um so let yourself notice that and
52:03
then the other one on my other tip to people is don't wait for it not to be awkward because it's probably and in fact if it's awkward
52:10
that's because you made the right call you know if it's not awkward then then you know nothing to see here but if it
52:15
gets awkward that's probably because you did exactly the right thing so so don't wait for it not to be awkward and kind of trust your courage i can trust you
52:21
and trust your um uh that you know you can be there with them in that even when it's hard and
52:27
it's going to be okay because they're not alone cool so we've got um we've got about
52:32
five minutes left so this is a question here that i thought it might be useful just to touch on from someone in
52:38
the audience so um so imposter syndrome and performance anxiety is something that that many of
52:43
us struggle with and you've also alluded to that sense of uh wanting to be a high performer and protecting that
52:50
version of yourself and that impression of yourself um so i just wanted does anyone have any tips on kind of how to
52:58
address that that performance anxiety and and desire to and you know push yourself
53:05
don't worry about being seen as um imposter syndrome is definitely something i've
53:12
battled with on and off um over particularly over the last couple of years since i've been on sort of social
53:17
media and putting my head up against above the the other poppies i guess but
53:23
um i think the thing to remember with uh particularly impostor syndrome is
53:29
imposter syndrome is all about other people and when you have that i think you're
53:35
taking the focus off yourself and what you believe in and what you're you're doing and you're giving that power to someone
53:41
else um so it's it's a thing but it's not actually a thing because no one actually gives a um generally you know um
53:49
you know you can be whatever you want to be in it and it's not many people are actually going to
53:55
call you out on it or or um you know question your your capabilities in most
54:00
cases so um for me what i what i really focus on when i do feel that is is
54:06
putting my focus back on me and back on my insider and you know my purpose of what i'm doing and
54:13
you know as long as you're doing it for the right reasons there's no actual uh there shouldn't be a reason to have
54:19
impostor syndrome so it's all about refocusing on myself that's how i deal with it
54:24
and performance anxiety i'm a big believer in competence creates confidence
54:30
um you know it's something we all go through and deal with you can ask any sportsman or any high performer they
54:37
still get nervous and and to me that's a good sign um it shows that you care um
54:43
but it's just being able to have that power so that you can use it in a positive and it doesn't take over so i
54:49
don't have a lot of tips on that um but for me it's just about refocusing on on
54:54
me and what i know i can do what i know i'm good at what are my strengths are and when you can focus on your
55:00
weaknesses and and just um you know have a have a sharp blade so to speak in all areas
55:06
uh but yeah that's that's about what i've got to offer on that thanks kane any any other tips on
55:12
imposter syndrome or yeah yeah i've just got i suppose um especially for uh our people's fishing
55:18
and defense perfection is the enemy of good you know it always has been and um you
55:24
know good for you is good enough and we can build on that um uh and another thing i i just mean that
55:31
i saw was look in the mirror that's your competition and not worry about uh you know others
55:38
and where they're at and you'll get to where you want and just be your best you know
55:43
around so that's what yeah so that's my comments around that yeah
55:49
josh you've got anything to add to those no no no not really i i think um
55:55
yeah i think the one the only other thing i wanted to talk to um steve that we kind of talked about is this idea of
56:01
well-being and you know um we've talked a lot about the individual things we can do you know to look out
56:07
for our our own well-being but there's this kind of saying that you're 100 responsible for your 50
56:14
you know which i think really rings true and you know we do have a responsibility to our own well-being you know whether
56:20
that's eating well exercising you know reaching out but actually you know the organizations that we that
56:26
we um preside and you know the societies that we're in they also have a responsibility to to the well-being of
56:32
their people and so i think that's a challenge um you know for steve and his crew as much as anything because as too
56:38
often i find um you know and i i'll be honest like i was a little bit hesitant about this webinar because it's like
56:45
you know often this kind of stuff can be perceived as a as a box sticking exercise you know we've got an eap service you know we've got josh and um
56:53
uh kane and jason and to speak sweet we've done we've done our bit but actually you know it's so important that
56:59
organizations are taking um they're 100 responsible of their 50
57:05
you know and that's making sure that as a leadership they're living out this these things we've talked about a vulnerability you know of of reframing
57:13
courage of putting people before you know business you know that it's incredibly important um and so i think
57:19
that's a challenge to we've gotta share for individuals but there also needs to be a challenge for for organizations for
57:25
governments to to step up and and take responsibility for for the well-being of their people as well and and both of
57:32
those things are important you know and both of those things need to happen side by side
57:40
responsibility gets laid on the individual and um and it's actually violated by how an organization at times
57:46
or a leadership behaves so um yeah i i really appreciated this opportunity steve and you know you're the one who
57:52
said yeah mate talk about that side of stuff as well which i think is is of um real credit to you and and the
57:58
organization if that's the culture that you guys are working towards so yeah cheers oh yeah looking um i'm glad you raised
58:05
that uh josh because that we know from the research around military one of the best predictors of whether the service
58:10
member is going to come home okay from mission is their answer to the question do you trust your team and do you trust your
58:16
boss and if those two the answers to those two questions is yes then they're much more likely to come home okay right
58:21
you know so so all the good things that all the things that we know make for good leaders and good units in terms of
58:27
looking out for each other being real with each other with being okay to not be okay today you know all that kind of
58:33
stuff all the stuff that you guys have touched on are all all important kind of organizational and
58:38
team level um factors that contribute to kind of being well and doing well on battlefield now
58:45
at home with your whanau and and you know we're working on all that stuff in defence but i fully acknowledge
58:50
that there's a lot of stuff we can and should do better and if you've got good ideas about that then please if you're
58:55
watching this don't hesitate to get in touch with me we've got a you know a number of pieces of work underway which won't bore you
59:01
with where we're trying to begin to address some of those things but but if you've got good ideas please
59:07
don't hesitate to get in touch um and if you see any real burning platforms in terms of the way the organization is
59:13
working with them for our people and please also get in touch with me around that stuff and i will and i will endeavour to
59:20
address those things so i know that we've had our the end of our one hour and so i just first of all
59:26
want to thank you all for sharing so readily of your experience and sharing some very very and being vulnerable and
59:31
modeling that vulnerability and and i know that some of the topics that we've touched on today are going to
59:37
be very real for us uh things like suicide sexual abuse
59:44
having a kind of even some of that uh sort of very isolated man up i think meat eating culture is that kind of um
59:52
is very real and very and leaves many of our people feeling lonely so so i just want to acknowledge the kind
59:58
of that the weight of some of our content from today and uh and
1:00:05
so before we close things off um i'd just like to draw a few a few kind
1:00:11
of observations or tips that stood out to me one is um was actually kane's point about writing
1:00:18
stuff down you know we know that that makes a difference and is often a thing that doesn't occur to service members
1:00:23
the benefit of that so i really would encourage you to come to to sort of think trial that particularly for things
1:00:29
like sleep if you're having worry with sleep that kind of stuff's really important like as a practical tip um but also you know the importance of
1:00:35
modeling good good well-being behaviors of of being vulnerable being human with the
1:00:42
people you're around around you all and so there's so many good points from today
1:00:47
so i just want to thank all of you for those um and uh and so but just to close things off today what i'd like to do is just
1:00:53
offer us more karakia acknowledging the weight of some of the stuff that we talked about um and then and then we'll
1:00:59
close the session off and carry on with our busy lives
1:01:25
so um thanks so much to you guys for um for making time today and uh we'll see
1:01:32
and thanks to those of you who are tinted today as well um well i'll hang around for a little bit if there's anyone any questions that anyone has for
1:01:38
me or anyone wants to raise anything with me um but for that for our attendees thanks again i'll see you uh
1:01:44
see you when we see you awesome to our panelists thanks very much panelists we'll catch you later
1:01:50
thank you very much can't wait
Tuesday
Is it time to rethink how we train and recover?
Join Physio Jo Williams as they run you through the principles for training and recovery in the COVID-19 environment.
Is it time to rethink how we train and recover?
0:02
i'm a physiotherapist currently working at linton but over the last uh five years working
0:08
with apm also managing the physiotherapy services
0:14
nationally um up till this up to this point and today i am um talking to you
0:19
from wayu where it's a nice five degrees outside
0:27
so i wanted to take this opportunity to have a discussion about whether now
0:32
would be a good time to rethink uh how we train and recover
0:37
and some of this is around the types of people that we that we see within the
0:42
physiotherapy services so approximately one-third of the injuries that we see
0:48
occur outside of work so you know on the playing field at home with kids mountain biking
0:54
uh and so on which leaves two-thirds of the injuries that we see occurring predominantly uh
1:01
within the workplace now a third of those again are straightforward injuries and accidents
1:07
you know they have enduring pt during training fitness testing inter-unit sports and challenges
1:13
particularly social sports social sports days are always a
1:19
great way i guess of providing us with clientele because the next day we have a
1:26
lot of people knocking at the door of wanting physiotherapy and then the last uh third are not
1:32
necessarily directly injury related anymore but they may have had an injury in the past and that's flaring up may
1:40
have some overload injuries from running from pack marching the usual back and neck pain but a lot
1:46
of people attribute their presentation now with something that happened
1:52
earlier in their defence force career and is still flaring up or niggling from time to time
1:58
um and impacting on their ability to maintain their fitness complete their work tasks fully
2:04
and perform as a full defense member several years later now we know it's getting harder and
2:10
harder to recruit so those people that we recruit we want to retain um
2:17
we don't want to break our recruits through basic training or immediately afterwards
2:22
so those who continue to struggle for some years after basic you know are not going to be enjoying their jobs or
2:28
feeling job satisfaction and we we see that quite regularly so they struggle with pain and discomfort they're not
2:34
keeping up with their peers they're always feeling like they're letting people down and yet they have to keep
2:39
pushing themselves and sometimes to the detriment actually of their rehabilitation and recovery
2:45
we also know that the world is becoming much more sedentary even for those kids that play some sports
2:51
their downtime is still spent a lot of the time on devices now sitting on the couch
2:57
and this doesn't prepare people for the physical demands required in defence
3:02
research actually shows that no or little uh participation in sports or
3:08
time on your feet prior to life in the army has a strong correlation with injury
3:13
and that again needs to be something that maybe we consider when we're choosing our recruits or how we're
3:18
training some groups of recruits who come from a more sedentary lifestyle and haven't spent enough time on their feet
3:24
you know when they arrive and why you do and we know it's not just defense
3:29
employers across the world are experiencing the mass exit uh as it's been called of trained staff no
3:36
retention in any work environment from 2022 onwards is going to be a constant challenge for employers and so how can
3:43
we look at keeping everyone healthier and well and less injured
3:48
equally we know that currently the site across society morale is low
3:53
stress and anxiety levels are high uh in this post-pandemic climate so we see this reflected
3:59
i think quite regularly at the moment with minor injuries that are causing some disproportionate angst and
4:05
suffering um and i really believe that as a society we're going to see a surge
4:10
in chronic pain post-pandemic just due to the complex ways that the last few years have impacted on society and on
4:18
individual psychological and like social well-being however
4:23
we don't have to go living in the past and all the doom and gloom whilst you know the last few years have
4:28
been disruptive and like nothing most of us have ever experienced in our in our lifetime we can decide to reframe our
4:35
future um i don't know if any of you have listened to jill bolt taylor she's got a
4:40
ted talk on my stroke of insight she was a neuroanatomist who had a massive stroke um
4:47
as a result of an aneurysm um and she chose to rewire her brain through her rehab so she decided that she wanted
4:54
certain areas of her brain to function more than what they used to in the past and leave some of the things behind that
5:01
she found was negative and unhelpful and i think that's kind of what we want to look at going forward as well
5:07
so i see 2022 as an opportunity for employers in fact for all of us to do
5:12
the same thing it is a chance to restart make a fresh beginning
5:18
and maybe for defense to reconsider how pers train and maintain their fitness
5:24
you know the military is steeped in wonderful history but sports medicine and research and exercise and training has really
5:30
progressed um and as has our medical knowledge behind certain injury types
5:36
and we really need to use this information to remodel how defense operates to keep its workforce fit and healthy
5:43
and we know that a certain healthy workforce is a happy engaged workforce which i think is something we all want
5:50
none of us want to be working along you know grumpy glogs next door we like to work alongside people that are happy and
5:56
positive all the time so i'm really happy to have this opportunity today to discuss something that i have raised with many
6:03
people that i um see when i'm talking to them about their injuries and that is the desire to see training
6:09
become more individualized so what i want to um look at is how we
6:15
train how we recover is this plays the most important part in how we keep ourselves healthy and well
6:22
and what can we learn and implement from the people that do this really well so if we take arguably our number one team
6:28
the all blacks we know they need to have a team fit for a season of games uh plus they're
6:35
keeping you know an eye on the world cup every four years you know they have travel
6:41
uh international and domestic um and they so they can trade at home they train away very similar to defense
6:49
so what do they do that we should think about copying so when they train together do they all
6:55
do the same training no they don't major point of difference
7:01
and the reason why is because they all have different roles to play they have a different role to play on the field
7:06
they each have a different body and physique some will even experience an injury or
7:11
maybe two or three players have different levels of experience and expertise both for how
7:18
they train and complete fitness regimes as well as actually on the field and therefore the needs of the
7:24
individual to become fit stay fit minimise injury during training are unique to that person and their
7:30
needs just like our defence personnel
7:36
so whilst they train together they don't do the same training and i think this is really important
7:42
because just because their training is individualized does not mean that they can't fulfill working together
7:48
training together as a cohesive unit or team camaraderie you know
7:54
competitive spirit team spirit unity all of those great things that come from
8:00
training together can still be had so let's consider two soldiers
8:05
so if we've got a 22 year old with lean muscle mass who's perhaps only been in the army a few years hasn't injured
8:11
themselves yet you know we know they can do more of certain activities within unit pt
8:18
uh they can probably go for longer pack marches uh complete some heavier more demanding work tasks primarily because
8:25
they're young and they have fabulous type 1 collagen fibers making up their muscles tendons and ligaments
8:31
and this is the strongest most optimal type of tissue we can have in our body um and we can do a lot when we have a
8:38
musculoskeletal system that consists of a grade muscle ligament bone but if we compare that to a colleague
8:45
who's 48 starting to carry a little bit of body fat has a history of injury
8:51
you know that person is not going to be able to undertake the same amount of results they're not going to be able to complete
8:56
the same intensity of battle pt as our 22 year old without a much increased risk of injury
9:03
and research tells us that the best predictor of injury is previous injury now we've always known that for back
9:09
pain i come from background in occupational health and vocational rehab and employers were always asking me after
9:16
after i'm returning somebody following back pain oh you know can you
9:23
guarantee they're not going to hurt their back again well nobody can guarantee that obviously but we know the
9:28
best predictor of them having an episode again is the fact they've had a previous one and
9:33
research into military injuries so shows exactly the same thing and we see that every day where we have people come in
9:39
with the shoulder and then they go oh well actually my knee's playing up or my hips playing up
9:45
so something else we also know that uh within the military injuries um increased body fat
9:54
age um and being overweight or being
10:00
underweight is also strongly correlated with injury risk and nick gill who's the strength and
10:06
conditioning coach for the all blacks says past injuries are a dominant factor in what they consider when the team
10:12
comes together to train so they want to ensure that their player is doing rehab specific work for that
10:17
body part to ensure it will cope with the rigors of training and that maybe they'll need different types of
10:23
exercises to maintain their gain strength and fitness and we have a lot of pers that need that
10:28
during unit pt as well and if we look at another scenario where we have a petite female soldier say
10:35
that's around 50 55 kgs carrying webbing or wearing webbing sorry and carrying a
10:41
weighty pack with a taller male 90 kg counterpart wearing the same webby
10:47
webbing impact so i use ginger specific terms here because again research identifies that being female puts you at
10:54
risk of injury in the military now that's not just because you're a win it is for a lot of the secondary factors
11:00
that are not often considered when we are thinking about training uh and particularly in a male dominate dominant
11:06
workforce so you know if we've got a smaller uh a frame a different shaped frame means you know
11:13
uniforms don't fit as well packs definitely might not fit as well and if a pack doesn't fit as well it's not
11:19
going to be positioned correctly to distribute load correctly um not everyone but some of our females are
11:25
going to be lighter and then again potentially in the underweight category compared to men and it is the fact that
11:31
men have more muscle and that is distributed differently to us as women
11:37
so when we know that load carriage is probably the most significant cause of injury and defense
11:43
and that's worldwide it's really easy to see that a 50 kg person carrying more
11:49
than a hundred percent of their body weight and load is much more at risk of harm
11:54
during the pac-mart or field exercise then a larger individual who's only carrying you know half to two-thirds of
12:00
their body weight so we need to consider about these individual traits during training and
12:05
during work because all these individuals have something to offer they all have important skill sets and they
12:11
can all be fit and deployable however they may not all be able to do the equivalent type of training or work
12:18
tasks as each other every day if we don't want them broken so the second thing
12:24
uh within the all blacks is that they look at the positional differences with the players so which injuries are more
12:30
likely in certain positions you know if you are a hooker versus an open side flanker or
12:35
if you're on the wing and therefore how are you training to prepare and avoid these so again you know within defense
12:42
if you're a pilot inserting high g or if you're in the infantry lifting heavy and carrying heavy loads all the time
12:48
you know there are going to be injury risks that are inherent to that work role and we need to consider the
12:54
training specific to those but think about the pers that make up your units you know who has new injuries
13:00
who's got old injuries who's you know got to reduce fitness who's got a lot going on in their personal life
13:07
and then think about what are they best at performing in their day-to-day work so some units will
13:13
have many people performing the same tasks but you'll know who's better at
13:18
say assembling or disassembling weaponry who can lift and carry heavy components more easily with great body mechanics
13:24
you know who are your best drivers who's got the better skills in those areas and
13:29
so on you know you have some purrs who have small statures who are better suited to
13:34
lighter tasks or can use their skill sets for organizing or managing people rather than cutting heavy loads
13:41
and maybe their small nimble hands might be much better suited for some small component free work rather than you know some big burly
13:48
person with grabbing meetings so bringing this back to training how the injured your unit trained to
13:55
develop the potential of each individual per because we're only as strong as our weakest link
14:00
but yes we can train together but the content should not be the same for everyone
14:07
and if we take another example of an athlete and how they go about training your cameron brown who's a long distance
14:14
triathlete anyone who doesn't know he's planning to compete at the hawaiian iron man again this year despite being 50
14:21
years of age and he has been in the sport 35 years which is a long time by any standards and doing heavy physical
14:28
demands triathletes have some of the best structured training regimes around
14:35
they take their event just as you know the black ferns fern any other team does and they work
14:41
backwards from where they want to peak or maybe several points from where they want to peak you know obviously an
14:46
individual event like the olympics happens once every four years but there's going to be competitions along the way to test yourself
14:53
a team sport with a season might need to hold a peak for a longer period of time you know defeats um going on a
14:59
deployment or doing a field exercise again might want to hold that peak for several weeks several months at a time
15:06
and i was thinking about this and somebody was talking about the crusaders at the weekend and you know they can often have a pretty ho-hum season but
15:13
then they do enough uh to get themselves into the top of the table uh and then are usually really good at achieving
15:19
peak performance when it counts in the semis and in the finals although not this year because i think they just lost for the chiefs
15:25
um so cameron brown's training will take into consideration you know how many months he has to prepare and all the
15:32
conditions and eventualities that might occur during a race so he's going to look at the environment obviously hawaii
15:39
is one of the hottest most humid uh environments that triathletes can now compete in
15:45
and many fall by the wayside with dehydration like fuel the distance is competed um
15:52
4k swim you know 180 k's on the bike and then running a 42k marathon to finish
15:58
what kind of terrain is that performed on you know is it gonna be flat hilly undulating steep what kind of fuel is he
16:04
going to use um to keep himself hydrated to keep his energies levels up but not
16:10
suffer with gut issues um and who else is going to be involved you know who does he need to look out
16:15
for he's going to be fastest in the water who pulls away on the bike or in the run so that he can pace himself
16:20
appropriately um for a good spot to lead to a win so a lot of planning is involved
16:26
in processes around that and you know many of our ptis are well placed to do that for us
16:33
and what do we so what is required with the net planning so what we need to look at is what is the next field exercise
16:39
you know what is the next deployment how long do we have to get people ready for this
16:44
we know that the number one injury prevention strategy that's proven over and over and over in all different
16:50
sporting codes and physical codes is graduated loading if we run too fast after a break if we
16:56
run too far we add hills too quickly or we add too much weight or too much too early in training
17:04
we break and there's a simple mistake that people make all the time uh equally increasing weights or loads of the gym
17:11
suddenly doing a heavy battle pt after weeks of different workouts or lighter activities
17:17
and people get injured let's think about a hypothetical example
17:22
say new zealand defense was going to go to the ukraine in april 2023 to help
17:28
rebuild um after the fighting maybe along the way there's going to be a natural disaster that we need to go
17:34
you know go and support you know hurricane relief in the pacific islands um or something closer to home given the
17:40
way the patterns we've been having lately um or just even some field exercises um to
17:46
help with our preparedness so what skills will be required you know will there be long days with little
17:51
sleep will there be lifting and carrying what kinds of loads are going to be required um what terrain will you be covering
17:58
what other environmental conditions need consideration will it require endurance or a short burst of intensive activity
18:06
then some specific training needs need to be established for that period of time and the objectives of this will be
18:12
set out depending on the criteria required yeah maybe people will need to be completing 40 000 steps a day
18:20
maybe they'll be wearing webbing or packs for 40 of the time how much lifting and carrying and what
18:26
kind of weights are going to be involved what items might need to be built or put together will there be the need to run over
18:33
uneven terrain in the dark and then that planning would work backwards day from april
18:39
from now providing about 10 months of freak time so the aim would be that this allows us
18:45
to provide greater exposure to build up that tolerance on feet the ability to handle load and maybe we can slot in
18:51
some of those training peaks along the way in order to manage this we all need
18:57
a base and in an ideal world uh within defence all personnel would maintain
19:03
their base and improve on it year by year rather than letting their cardiovascular fitness slide obviously every year we
19:10
remain fit the much better our engine is that is our heart and lungs and usually our base period of fitness
19:17
needs to be our longest period of training and so therefore the earlier it can be commenced allowing for enough
19:23
time between when it will be needed um is ideal and again this will be graded you know
19:28
running pack matching convincing with a short time or distance and then gradually
19:34
progressing how many times a week over how many weeks how many months to achieve what we
19:39
want and then once we have that base specific skill training needs to be
19:45
introduced and you know that might be some form of weight training it might be some speed work might be some battle pt
19:51
and again this will be for a shorter period and usually higher intensity so fewer sessions with other activities in
19:57
between and then prior to any event there's a bit of a taper whereby you reduce some
20:02
of that training load in order to be fresh and able to perform optimally during the very exercise that we want
20:08
people fresh for so a common area that we see um
20:14
and maybe it's predominantly because we see the people that are injured who are making that mistake is how people go
20:20
about that trading how they ignore that that base and they just think they can train specific to the event so ie if we take
20:28
an rfl distance people train for the rfl only doing rfl distances
20:34
so typically they'll do that just with intervals and whilst intervals are relevant prior to testing to help with
20:40
speed intervals are skill specific and they don't build the same degree of aerobic
20:45
passive capacity uh that people need and everybody within defense whether you're an air force navy
20:51
army need a good aerobic base and that means doing regular cardiovascular exercise
20:57
at least three or four times a week and if we're looking at running distance for a 2.4 you know people should be able to
21:03
run comfortably at least 5k on a regular basis if we only run 2.4 two and a half we
21:11
might get a little faster over the distance but actually see very little change in our performance over time
21:17
and in fact most of the time what we say is people go to do it they fail by a short amount of time you know maybe half
21:24
a minute uh and then work on their sprinting to get over the line by a tiny amount or
21:29
they just get their grade two and then g2 fitness so then they are having to do it every six months
21:35
if they trained over a longer distance or for longer periods of time then that 2.4 becomes easier and easier
21:42
and then closer to the testing they can do their sprint involves their running drills for skill and speed and boom a
21:48
better run time is achieved you know we need mileage under our belt there was a reason why arthur lydia's um training
21:54
regimes have been adapted uh and still utilized across the sporting codes and
22:00
disciplines today albeit and a lot of um you know slightly different formats
22:06
and we know this we know who our personnel are who who do their fitness all year round of the home our fitness
22:11
test is no problem um but also we have people who aren't the
22:16
build of a runner so running is not ever going to be easy for them so again if we individualize their training and we
22:22
utilize more cross training to protect their body uh by cycling or walking in between with fewer runs per week
22:29
um we've got to think about how do they do that training they may need longer time on the cycle longer time with their
22:35
speed walking to get the same bank back that running will get and actually we still have to be able to run to run i
22:42
was having this conversation with a client yesterday um who doesn't like to run and they're a little bit of a
22:48
heavier build a bit more solid so you know they struggle with it all the time but until we get to a point where we can
22:54
comfortably do it it's always going to be a struggle and it's always going to be a struggle year on year on year so we're having a conversation about how
23:01
could he become a lover of running if he went about it in the right way
23:08
and every year that we stay fit is obviously um improving our aerobic base all of the
23:15
time and our performance all of the time and if we aren't injured and we're not hurting this is obviously easier to do
23:20
every time we stop and have to restart we lose a lot of our base and unfortunately we do tend to lose it a
23:26
lot faster than we gain it which is a little bit sad um
23:31
if we're thinking about you know in the army wearing webbing carrying packs we need a strength base
23:37
and research again tells us that load carriage i.e the wearing of load is strongly correlated with risk of
23:43
injury which is something that you will all know some consistent resistance training to
23:49
maintain muscle mass which helps our metabolism weight management power and speed amongst other things as well
23:55
again like cardiovascular training needs to be periodized to achieve goals and support certain work activities for like
24:02
running we need to increase our load gradually we need to use proper form and technique
24:07
and include some really good functional exercises to provide a good broad range of strength and skill and then again
24:13
some specific weighted exercises to mimic what's going to be required you know are you going to be lifting 20 kgs
24:19
to the back of the mall are you going to be carrying logs between a couple of people you can be digging trenches
24:25
so activities need to be specific and then posterior activity
24:31
so our field exercise our deployment uh we need recovery and unfortunately
24:37
recovery seems to be a bit of a dirty word in defense really do we hear anybody talking
24:42
positively about their recovery regimes but what we do see are people who neglect recovery and injure themselves
24:52
so even during the all blacks rugby season they have their recovery schedule built in at least one day off midweek in
25:00
a recovery activity following game day and again depending on our intensity and duration
25:06
um of our peak event that's going to determine the length of time we need for recovery
25:12
i had a client come in a year or so ago who'd done a 60k endurance event over
25:18
the weekend and then proceeded to tell me she was carrying on doing some hit workouts that week
25:24
while struggling with her niggling injury and why i said to hear um why are you
25:30
doing high-intensity workouts this week when you should be recovering and her answer was i don't want to lose
25:37
my fitness i'm feeling fit i'm feeling fantastic because i've just done this massive event i don't want to lose any
25:42
of that but we can't maintain peak performance we know now that many olympic athletes
25:48
struggle you know they train for four years for that one event that one high that one peak and win or lose it's then
25:55
all over um and even with a win they really struggle coming off their adrenaline and cortisol high
26:02
and bodybuilders struggle with this also you know you can't maintain a shredded dehydrated body that's going to be
26:08
competing on stage to show every little striation of muscle fiber you know it's not healthy your kidneys will completely
26:14
pick up but as soon as you start rehydrating you know add another kilo or two of healthy
26:21
body weight which is next to nothing um after an event for them they struggle
26:26
with their body image and seeing that difference again but we can't maintain that peak performance
26:32
what we can do is build on peak month by month and year by year so that yes we
26:37
can be better and stronger at 30 than we were at 20. um i was actually at my most
26:42
fittest at 40 which was pretty pretty cool but then decided to have a baby and have lost my fitness every year
26:49
since which is not so hot um the catchphrase physio that we hear by people is oh i guess it's just
26:56
because i'm getting older the trouble is these guys are only 23 24 or 25
27:01
that's still pretty young and you know if we're over 40 in defense i think it's potential you know that's okay to
27:07
probably say yeah i'm getting older i might be starting to break down a bit and our younger uh personnel probably
27:15
not such a great thing if they're feeling like they are breaking down and aging faster
27:20
at that much younger age and maybe they are because of the heavy loads overloading
27:25
not following training protocols and not doing recovery so in this post covert era recovery is
27:33
even more important than ever if we wish to avoid uh or manage long covered well
27:38
and with stats saying that you know long covered might occur in as many as one in three or one in ten uh people that have
27:45
had covered that's high numbers so any illness though even a good old common
27:50
cold or the flu will take its toll on the body um and many things coming out of the overseas studies in our reviews
27:57
on postcode is that this is a very individualized experience you're getting the theme here
28:02
individual much like a pregnant um or postpartum uh purse as well one size
28:08
does not fit all we can't all do the same thing and researchers are still trying to understand why covet is affecting
28:14
people's energy and ability to exercise as it is but we know that for some it is a constant struggle
28:20
with the hallmark symptom being extreme fatigue but there are other things that people present with you know reduced
28:26
peak aerobic capacity shortness of breath low blood pressure racing heart
28:31
brain fog um and in many you know up to as many as 90 a worsening of symptoms
28:37
after exercise and we've even seen and people who don't feel that they've suffering from low
28:43
long cover that have head covered um struggling to exercise that racing and
28:48
erratic heart rate in a low level of exercise is very real and we're also seeing an extended period of time to
28:55
bring that heart rate back down to our normal resting rate so you know for
29:00
example doing a fairly low level um exercise you know just a simple walk on
29:07
the on the treadmill for a short period of time and we're seeing heart rate bounce all over the place and for somebody that's normally fit and healthy
29:14
and would barely climb a few beats per minute um it would normally hop off and you
29:19
know if their heart rate would be back to normal in one to two minutes you know it's 20 to 30 minutes afterwards so
29:25
we're really going to have to look at our recovery sessions after any exercise session
29:31
and when it's going to be um ready to do the next exercise session so this capacity to recover allows a
29:38
high level of performance next time around for appropriate higher training volume
29:43
and intensity to be achieved without injury and if we take appropriate recovery we also
29:49
don't get those other detrimental effects of over training such as a reduced immune system so i think we also
29:54
all know people who are super fit and healthy that catch every gold and every flu bug that comes around again their
29:59
immune system is compromised because they've overstressed their body too much too long without adequate recovery
30:07
um and again now post cover we don't want to be doing that for anyone so training you know has to result in
30:13
some sort of skeletal muscle damage if we want to create an adaptation and change and when damage is still present
30:19
it obviously results in lower ability to generate force at the next session it impairs our ability to transport blood
30:25
glucose to feed our cells and therefore again less capacity to replenish those
30:30
stores which are needed to fuel future exercise sessions and again damage can lead to some soreness and pain all
30:36
impacting on the ability to undertake another good uh exercise session which limits the results from all that time
30:43
spent working out but the american council of exercise medicine suggests we consider fit for
30:49
when we're determining how much recovery we need for fit is fi tt as opposed to hit hit
30:58
so frequency of recovery how long does someone need you know do they need one day today several days and again if
31:04
you've done an olympics if you've done a full rugby season um if you've done a month-long field exercise you know that
31:11
may need several weeks of recovery before you start building back up into another training regime and then we have
31:18
to think about the intensity of recovery so if we're doing intervals for example
31:23
that are high intensity if we're thinking 90 95 percent of our max
31:28
we need some active recovery within the intervals and that will be at a specific intensity obviously a lot lower maybe
31:35
around 40 to 60 to allow that next high intensity interval to be performed well but if
31:41
we're working towards our max you know we're only going to be able to do x amount of cycles of that incision over
31:46
short sharp burst and that's active recovery during that session but we also need to have
31:52
adequate recovery after that session and from a intense session like that we need at
31:58
least 48 hours and we should only perform two maximum three hit sessions a week now
32:04
again i hear people talking about doing one every day but either they're not
32:10
performing at their level of intensity or they are over training again not allowing themselves um adequate
32:17
recovery and again injury is going to happen the time
32:23
so what kind of time frame length of time for recovery do we need
32:28
you know that could be three or four hours that could be 24 hours that again could be days
32:34
or weeks and then type so that's our last t frequency intensity time and type and
32:42
type is active or passive passive is fairly self-explanatory complete rest
32:47
and we very rarely actually need to do complete rest but again if we've been unwell
32:53
if we're recovering from injury uh if we've just been training really hard for a long period of time there may be days
32:59
that we need complete rest to provide adequate recovery most of the time we will do some form of
33:06
active recovery but active recovery is not active training and going hard out
33:12
so everybody at a minimum if they train most days of the week should have at least one day a week off uh and that one
33:20
day a week off might be playing with the kids it might be going for a walk in the bush uh but at a cruisy pace you know no
33:27
big trend going hunting that kind of thing um rather than doing nothing at all
33:33
and that fits nicely with our active recovery rather than going down and doing a massive weight session or still
33:40
going for a four-hour cycle uh ride an active recovery should be performed
33:46
you know at their much lower level of intensity much lower part of active recovery is a cool down
33:53
at the end of a workout um and that is especially important to women because our femoral regulation is
34:00
different to men for some people active recovery will be more cross-training such as swimming and
34:06
cycling so again those people that don't run very well or we've got you know worn out knees or hips
34:12
we're not going to be doing so so much weight loaded activity without making sure we've got plenty of other
34:17
cross-training in between and swimming and you know hydrotherapy has always been a great way of having a recovery
34:24
day an easier workout session unloaded in the water you want to you know these things will
34:30
help maintain your cardiovascular fitness but we're not overloading ourselves
34:37
secondary to this uh you know nutrition is going to be really important to recovery i'm only just going to touch on that briefly
34:43
because that's not my area of things but we need carbohydrates post exercise
34:48
with protein so refill the body support that glycogen resynthesis maintain our
34:54
fuel store spin and energy or next time and there is a period of acute recovery
35:00
and then there's a longer phase of recovery and again women thank you spacey sims for um you know getting that
35:06
information out to the wider community um are different to men and have a much shorter window to refuel appropriately
35:14
to save their muscle stores so women have to be really um onto it in terms of what they eat prior
35:21
to workout and what and when they eat straight after a workout men get a much
35:26
um a longer period of time to refill themselves and despite my leaving this to the last
35:33
uh sleep is the most important contributor to recovery and no fancy gimmicks those supplements
35:40
will make up for a lack of sleep and poor nutrition in regards to recovery sleep allows for autophagy so this is
35:47
the body's way of cleaning up its debris and damaged cells and allowing new healthy cells to regenerate now in
35:54
recent times fasting and intermittent fasting had become very popular primarily because there is this feeling
36:00
that this may increase our autophagy um although actually there's only a small amount of research that's been done on
36:06
people per day um and again a lot of that research has been on men compared
36:12
to women and certain groups of women i.e um postmenopausal women
36:17
uh intermittent fasting and fasting regimes are not considered to be as beneficial
36:22
a healthy amount of sleep is necessary for brain plasticity or the ability of the brain to adapt to
36:29
all these new things and training we've been putting our body through it allows us to process what's happened through
36:35
the day file that information in appropriate places of storage and then allow us to retain that information at a
36:40
later date to support recovery sorry support memory so we now know that sleep can create
36:47
altered metabolic states it contributes to metabolic syndrome pre-diabetic conditions and even people who'd
36:54
otherwise be healthy lack of sleep can contribute to weight gain it can compromise our immune system
37:00
and it will compromise our general health and we know it increases our risk of illness and disease
37:06
given how important sleep is to training and recovery again we really need to be aware of
37:11
what's going on for our personnel you know do we have parents of a new baby or a toddler who's not sleeping well
37:17
uh are people's workloads high you know we've had um a lot of staff shortages across across the board um
37:25
and that creates sense of overwhelm and an increased stress and you know with staff off sick or
37:31
isolating and others left to carry the workload of people that are missing you know put everybody under increased
37:36
pressure and stress and if we're not maintaining some really good sleep hygiene um and some sleep habits
37:44
poor sleep is going to be the result of that and therefore physical and mental well-being just goes down the door
37:52
how do we know when this is impacting our ability to train now if we're really good at reading our bodies listening to
37:58
our bodies knowing how we feel we should know that we should know that we don't actually have a desire to train today
38:04
we're feeling a bit ho ha we don't actually jump out of bed with energy because we've had a restorative sleep
38:09
the night before and we're ready to go um we've got lots of you know
38:15
trackers and fancy apps these days our aura rings our garmin watches our fitbits
38:20
to track and monitor the heart rate and again you know elevated heart rate is a good
38:25
indicator of needing more rest so typically when it's you know 10 to 20 beats potentially above our
38:32
normal baseline resting heart rate we're thinking okay we're experiencing an overtraining response from this because
38:39
it means our body is in a much more sympathetic state which is a wired state which is not where we need it to be
38:47
in this hopefully even stage of the pandemic we will see the impact that having coveted his head on sleep and
38:53
recovery and we will need to be mindful of the guidelines that are provided and remember that in these circumstances
39:00
more is better so more sleep more recovery is going to be necessary to minimize long-term effects or longer
39:06
durations of being unable to train well and we shouldn't be pushing through things
39:13
i really want to thank you for this opportunity to have this conversation today and raise these ideas with you and
39:20
that's me i'm happy to answer any questions um and hope you have a fabulous rest of your week
39:34
now
i'm a physiotherapist currently working at linton but over the last uh five years working
0:08
with apm also managing the physiotherapy services
0:14
nationally um up till this up to this point and today i am um talking to you
0:19
from wayu where it's a nice five degrees outside
0:27
so i wanted to take this opportunity to have a discussion about whether now
0:32
would be a good time to rethink uh how we train and recover
0:37
and some of this is around the types of people that we that we see within the
0:42
physiotherapy services so approximately one-third of the injuries that we see
0:48
occur outside of work so you know on the playing field at home with kids mountain biking
0:54
uh and so on which leaves two-thirds of the injuries that we see occurring predominantly uh
1:01
within the workplace now a third of those again are straightforward injuries and accidents
1:07
you know they have enduring pt during training fitness testing inter-unit sports and challenges
1:13
particularly social sports social sports days are always a
1:19
great way i guess of providing us with clientele because the next day we have a
1:26
lot of people knocking at the door of wanting physiotherapy and then the last uh third are not
1:32
necessarily directly injury related anymore but they may have had an injury in the past and that's flaring up may
1:40
have some overload injuries from running from pack marching the usual back and neck pain but a lot
1:46
of people attribute their presentation now with something that happened
1:52
earlier in their defence force career and is still flaring up or niggling from time to time
1:58
um and impacting on their ability to maintain their fitness complete their work tasks fully
2:04
and perform as a full defense member several years later now we know it's getting harder and
2:10
harder to recruit so those people that we recruit we want to retain um
2:17
we don't want to break our recruits through basic training or immediately afterwards
2:22
so those who continue to struggle for some years after basic you know are not going to be enjoying their jobs or
2:28
feeling job satisfaction and we we see that quite regularly so they struggle with pain and discomfort they're not
2:34
keeping up with their peers they're always feeling like they're letting people down and yet they have to keep
2:39
pushing themselves and sometimes to the detriment actually of their rehabilitation and recovery
2:45
we also know that the world is becoming much more sedentary even for those kids that play some sports
2:51
their downtime is still spent a lot of the time on devices now sitting on the couch
2:57
and this doesn't prepare people for the physical demands required in defence
3:02
research actually shows that no or little uh participation in sports or
3:08
time on your feet prior to life in the army has a strong correlation with injury
3:13
and that again needs to be something that maybe we consider when we're choosing our recruits or how we're
3:18
training some groups of recruits who come from a more sedentary lifestyle and haven't spent enough time on their feet
3:24
you know when they arrive and why you do and we know it's not just defense
3:29
employers across the world are experiencing the mass exit uh as it's been called of trained staff no
3:36
retention in any work environment from 2022 onwards is going to be a constant challenge for employers and so how can
3:43
we look at keeping everyone healthier and well and less injured
3:48
equally we know that currently the site across society morale is low
3:53
stress and anxiety levels are high uh in this post-pandemic climate so we see this reflected
3:59
i think quite regularly at the moment with minor injuries that are causing some disproportionate angst and
4:05
suffering um and i really believe that as a society we're going to see a surge
4:10
in chronic pain post-pandemic just due to the complex ways that the last few years have impacted on society and on
4:18
individual psychological and like social well-being however
4:23
we don't have to go living in the past and all the doom and gloom whilst you know the last few years have
4:28
been disruptive and like nothing most of us have ever experienced in our in our lifetime we can decide to reframe our
4:35
future um i don't know if any of you have listened to jill bolt taylor she's got a
4:40
ted talk on my stroke of insight she was a neuroanatomist who had a massive stroke um
4:47
as a result of an aneurysm um and she chose to rewire her brain through her rehab so she decided that she wanted
4:54
certain areas of her brain to function more than what they used to in the past and leave some of the things behind that
5:01
she found was negative and unhelpful and i think that's kind of what we want to look at going forward as well
5:07
so i see 2022 as an opportunity for employers in fact for all of us to do
5:12
the same thing it is a chance to restart make a fresh beginning
5:18
and maybe for defense to reconsider how pers train and maintain their fitness
5:24
you know the military is steeped in wonderful history but sports medicine and research and exercise and training has really
5:30
progressed um and as has our medical knowledge behind certain injury types
5:36
and we really need to use this information to remodel how defense operates to keep its workforce fit and healthy
5:43
and we know that a certain healthy workforce is a happy engaged workforce which i think is something we all want
5:50
none of us want to be working along you know grumpy glogs next door we like to work alongside people that are happy and
5:56
positive all the time so i'm really happy to have this opportunity today to discuss something that i have raised with many
6:03
people that i um see when i'm talking to them about their injuries and that is the desire to see training
6:09
become more individualized so what i want to um look at is how we
6:15
train how we recover is this plays the most important part in how we keep ourselves healthy and well
6:22
and what can we learn and implement from the people that do this really well so if we take arguably our number one team
6:28
the all blacks we know they need to have a team fit for a season of games uh plus they're
6:35
keeping you know an eye on the world cup every four years you know they have travel
6:41
uh international and domestic um and they so they can trade at home they train away very similar to defense
6:49
so what do they do that we should think about copying so when they train together do they all
6:55
do the same training no they don't major point of difference
7:01
and the reason why is because they all have different roles to play they have a different role to play on the field
7:06
they each have a different body and physique some will even experience an injury or
7:11
maybe two or three players have different levels of experience and expertise both for how
7:18
they train and complete fitness regimes as well as actually on the field and therefore the needs of the
7:24
individual to become fit stay fit minimise injury during training are unique to that person and their
7:30
needs just like our defence personnel
7:36
so whilst they train together they don't do the same training and i think this is really important
7:42
because just because their training is individualized does not mean that they can't fulfill working together
7:48
training together as a cohesive unit or team camaraderie you know
7:54
competitive spirit team spirit unity all of those great things that come from
8:00
training together can still be had so let's consider two soldiers
8:05
so if we've got a 22 year old with lean muscle mass who's perhaps only been in the army a few years hasn't injured
8:11
themselves yet you know we know they can do more of certain activities within unit pt
8:18
uh they can probably go for longer pack marches uh complete some heavier more demanding work tasks primarily because
8:25
they're young and they have fabulous type 1 collagen fibers making up their muscles tendons and ligaments
8:31
and this is the strongest most optimal type of tissue we can have in our body um and we can do a lot when we have a
8:38
musculoskeletal system that consists of a grade muscle ligament bone but if we compare that to a colleague
8:45
who's 48 starting to carry a little bit of body fat has a history of injury
8:51
you know that person is not going to be able to undertake the same amount of results they're not going to be able to complete
8:56
the same intensity of battle pt as our 22 year old without a much increased risk of injury
9:03
and research tells us that the best predictor of injury is previous injury now we've always known that for back
9:09
pain i come from background in occupational health and vocational rehab and employers were always asking me after
9:16
after i'm returning somebody following back pain oh you know can you
9:23
guarantee they're not going to hurt their back again well nobody can guarantee that obviously but we know the
9:28
best predictor of them having an episode again is the fact they've had a previous one and
9:33
research into military injuries so shows exactly the same thing and we see that every day where we have people come in
9:39
with the shoulder and then they go oh well actually my knee's playing up or my hips playing up
9:45
so something else we also know that uh within the military injuries um increased body fat
9:54
age um and being overweight or being
10:00
underweight is also strongly correlated with injury risk and nick gill who's the strength and
10:06
conditioning coach for the all blacks says past injuries are a dominant factor in what they consider when the team
10:12
comes together to train so they want to ensure that their player is doing rehab specific work for that
10:17
body part to ensure it will cope with the rigors of training and that maybe they'll need different types of
10:23
exercises to maintain their gain strength and fitness and we have a lot of pers that need that
10:28
during unit pt as well and if we look at another scenario where we have a petite female soldier say
10:35
that's around 50 55 kgs carrying webbing or wearing webbing sorry and carrying a
10:41
weighty pack with a taller male 90 kg counterpart wearing the same webby
10:47
webbing impact so i use ginger specific terms here because again research identifies that being female puts you at
10:54
risk of injury in the military now that's not just because you're a win it is for a lot of the secondary factors
11:00
that are not often considered when we are thinking about training uh and particularly in a male dominate dominant
11:06
workforce so you know if we've got a smaller uh a frame a different shaped frame means you know
11:13
uniforms don't fit as well packs definitely might not fit as well and if a pack doesn't fit as well it's not
11:19
going to be positioned correctly to distribute load correctly um not everyone but some of our females are
11:25
going to be lighter and then again potentially in the underweight category compared to men and it is the fact that
11:31
men have more muscle and that is distributed differently to us as women
11:37
so when we know that load carriage is probably the most significant cause of injury and defense
11:43
and that's worldwide it's really easy to see that a 50 kg person carrying more
11:49
than a hundred percent of their body weight and load is much more at risk of harm
11:54
during the pac-mart or field exercise then a larger individual who's only carrying you know half to two-thirds of
12:00
their body weight so we need to consider about these individual traits during training and
12:05
during work because all these individuals have something to offer they all have important skill sets and they
12:11
can all be fit and deployable however they may not all be able to do the equivalent type of training or work
12:18
tasks as each other every day if we don't want them broken so the second thing
12:24
uh within the all blacks is that they look at the positional differences with the players so which injuries are more
12:30
likely in certain positions you know if you are a hooker versus an open side flanker or
12:35
if you're on the wing and therefore how are you training to prepare and avoid these so again you know within defense
12:42
if you're a pilot inserting high g or if you're in the infantry lifting heavy and carrying heavy loads all the time
12:48
you know there are going to be injury risks that are inherent to that work role and we need to consider the
12:54
training specific to those but think about the pers that make up your units you know who has new injuries
13:00
who's got old injuries who's you know got to reduce fitness who's got a lot going on in their personal life
13:07
and then think about what are they best at performing in their day-to-day work so some units will
13:13
have many people performing the same tasks but you'll know who's better at
13:18
say assembling or disassembling weaponry who can lift and carry heavy components more easily with great body mechanics
13:24
you know who are your best drivers who's got the better skills in those areas and
13:29
so on you know you have some purrs who have small statures who are better suited to
13:34
lighter tasks or can use their skill sets for organizing or managing people rather than cutting heavy loads
13:41
and maybe their small nimble hands might be much better suited for some small component free work rather than you know some big burly
13:48
person with grabbing meetings so bringing this back to training how the injured your unit trained to
13:55
develop the potential of each individual per because we're only as strong as our weakest link
14:00
but yes we can train together but the content should not be the same for everyone
14:07
and if we take another example of an athlete and how they go about training your cameron brown who's a long distance
14:14
triathlete anyone who doesn't know he's planning to compete at the hawaiian iron man again this year despite being 50
14:21
years of age and he has been in the sport 35 years which is a long time by any standards and doing heavy physical
14:28
demands triathletes have some of the best structured training regimes around
14:35
they take their event just as you know the black ferns fern any other team does and they work
14:41
backwards from where they want to peak or maybe several points from where they want to peak you know obviously an
14:46
individual event like the olympics happens once every four years but there's going to be competitions along the way to test yourself
14:53
a team sport with a season might need to hold a peak for a longer period of time you know defeats um going on a
14:59
deployment or doing a field exercise again might want to hold that peak for several weeks several months at a time
15:06
and i was thinking about this and somebody was talking about the crusaders at the weekend and you know they can often have a pretty ho-hum season but
15:13
then they do enough uh to get themselves into the top of the table uh and then are usually really good at achieving
15:19
peak performance when it counts in the semis and in the finals although not this year because i think they just lost for the chiefs
15:25
um so cameron brown's training will take into consideration you know how many months he has to prepare and all the
15:32
conditions and eventualities that might occur during a race so he's going to look at the environment obviously hawaii
15:39
is one of the hottest most humid uh environments that triathletes can now compete in
15:45
and many fall by the wayside with dehydration like fuel the distance is competed um
15:52
4k swim you know 180 k's on the bike and then running a 42k marathon to finish
15:58
what kind of terrain is that performed on you know is it gonna be flat hilly undulating steep what kind of fuel is he
16:04
going to use um to keep himself hydrated to keep his energies levels up but not
16:10
suffer with gut issues um and who else is going to be involved you know who does he need to look out
16:15
for he's going to be fastest in the water who pulls away on the bike or in the run so that he can pace himself
16:20
appropriately um for a good spot to lead to a win so a lot of planning is involved
16:26
in processes around that and you know many of our ptis are well placed to do that for us
16:33
and what do we so what is required with the net planning so what we need to look at is what is the next field exercise
16:39
you know what is the next deployment how long do we have to get people ready for this
16:44
we know that the number one injury prevention strategy that's proven over and over and over in all different
16:50
sporting codes and physical codes is graduated loading if we run too fast after a break if we
16:56
run too far we add hills too quickly or we add too much weight or too much too early in training
17:04
we break and there's a simple mistake that people make all the time uh equally increasing weights or loads of the gym
17:11
suddenly doing a heavy battle pt after weeks of different workouts or lighter activities
17:17
and people get injured let's think about a hypothetical example
17:22
say new zealand defense was going to go to the ukraine in april 2023 to help
17:28
rebuild um after the fighting maybe along the way there's going to be a natural disaster that we need to go
17:34
you know go and support you know hurricane relief in the pacific islands um or something closer to home given the
17:40
way the patterns we've been having lately um or just even some field exercises um to
17:46
help with our preparedness so what skills will be required you know will there be long days with little
17:51
sleep will there be lifting and carrying what kinds of loads are going to be required um what terrain will you be covering
17:58
what other environmental conditions need consideration will it require endurance or a short burst of intensive activity
18:06
then some specific training needs need to be established for that period of time and the objectives of this will be
18:12
set out depending on the criteria required yeah maybe people will need to be completing 40 000 steps a day
18:20
maybe they'll be wearing webbing or packs for 40 of the time how much lifting and carrying and what
18:26
kind of weights are going to be involved what items might need to be built or put together will there be the need to run over
18:33
uneven terrain in the dark and then that planning would work backwards day from april
18:39
from now providing about 10 months of freak time so the aim would be that this allows us
18:45
to provide greater exposure to build up that tolerance on feet the ability to handle load and maybe we can slot in
18:51
some of those training peaks along the way in order to manage this we all need
18:57
a base and in an ideal world uh within defence all personnel would maintain
19:03
their base and improve on it year by year rather than letting their cardiovascular fitness slide obviously every year we
19:10
remain fit the much better our engine is that is our heart and lungs and usually our base period of fitness
19:17
needs to be our longest period of training and so therefore the earlier it can be commenced allowing for enough
19:23
time between when it will be needed um is ideal and again this will be graded you know
19:28
running pack matching convincing with a short time or distance and then gradually
19:34
progressing how many times a week over how many weeks how many months to achieve what we
19:39
want and then once we have that base specific skill training needs to be
19:45
introduced and you know that might be some form of weight training it might be some speed work might be some battle pt
19:51
and again this will be for a shorter period and usually higher intensity so fewer sessions with other activities in
19:57
between and then prior to any event there's a bit of a taper whereby you reduce some
20:02
of that training load in order to be fresh and able to perform optimally during the very exercise that we want
20:08
people fresh for so a common area that we see um
20:14
and maybe it's predominantly because we see the people that are injured who are making that mistake is how people go
20:20
about that trading how they ignore that that base and they just think they can train specific to the event so ie if we take
20:28
an rfl distance people train for the rfl only doing rfl distances
20:34
so typically they'll do that just with intervals and whilst intervals are relevant prior to testing to help with
20:40
speed intervals are skill specific and they don't build the same degree of aerobic
20:45
passive capacity uh that people need and everybody within defense whether you're an air force navy
20:51
army need a good aerobic base and that means doing regular cardiovascular exercise
20:57
at least three or four times a week and if we're looking at running distance for a 2.4 you know people should be able to
21:03
run comfortably at least 5k on a regular basis if we only run 2.4 two and a half we
21:11
might get a little faster over the distance but actually see very little change in our performance over time
21:17
and in fact most of the time what we say is people go to do it they fail by a short amount of time you know maybe half
21:24
a minute uh and then work on their sprinting to get over the line by a tiny amount or
21:29
they just get their grade two and then g2 fitness so then they are having to do it every six months
21:35
if they trained over a longer distance or for longer periods of time then that 2.4 becomes easier and easier
21:42
and then closer to the testing they can do their sprint involves their running drills for skill and speed and boom a
21:48
better run time is achieved you know we need mileage under our belt there was a reason why arthur lydia's um training
21:54
regimes have been adapted uh and still utilized across the sporting codes and
22:00
disciplines today albeit and a lot of um you know slightly different formats
22:06
and we know this we know who our personnel are who who do their fitness all year round of the home our fitness
22:11
test is no problem um but also we have people who aren't the
22:16
build of a runner so running is not ever going to be easy for them so again if we individualize their training and we
22:22
utilize more cross training to protect their body uh by cycling or walking in between with fewer runs per week
22:29
um we've got to think about how do they do that training they may need longer time on the cycle longer time with their
22:35
speed walking to get the same bank back that running will get and actually we still have to be able to run to run i
22:42
was having this conversation with a client yesterday um who doesn't like to run and they're a little bit of a
22:48
heavier build a bit more solid so you know they struggle with it all the time but until we get to a point where we can
22:54
comfortably do it it's always going to be a struggle and it's always going to be a struggle year on year on year so we're having a conversation about how
23:01
could he become a lover of running if he went about it in the right way
23:08
and every year that we stay fit is obviously um improving our aerobic base all of the
23:15
time and our performance all of the time and if we aren't injured and we're not hurting this is obviously easier to do
23:20
every time we stop and have to restart we lose a lot of our base and unfortunately we do tend to lose it a
23:26
lot faster than we gain it which is a little bit sad um
23:31
if we're thinking about you know in the army wearing webbing carrying packs we need a strength base
23:37
and research again tells us that load carriage i.e the wearing of load is strongly correlated with risk of
23:43
injury which is something that you will all know some consistent resistance training to
23:49
maintain muscle mass which helps our metabolism weight management power and speed amongst other things as well
23:55
again like cardiovascular training needs to be periodized to achieve goals and support certain work activities for like
24:02
running we need to increase our load gradually we need to use proper form and technique
24:07
and include some really good functional exercises to provide a good broad range of strength and skill and then again
24:13
some specific weighted exercises to mimic what's going to be required you know are you going to be lifting 20 kgs
24:19
to the back of the mall are you going to be carrying logs between a couple of people you can be digging trenches
24:25
so activities need to be specific and then posterior activity
24:31
so our field exercise our deployment uh we need recovery and unfortunately
24:37
recovery seems to be a bit of a dirty word in defense really do we hear anybody talking
24:42
positively about their recovery regimes but what we do see are people who neglect recovery and injure themselves
24:52
so even during the all blacks rugby season they have their recovery schedule built in at least one day off midweek in
25:00
a recovery activity following game day and again depending on our intensity and duration
25:06
um of our peak event that's going to determine the length of time we need for recovery
25:12
i had a client come in a year or so ago who'd done a 60k endurance event over
25:18
the weekend and then proceeded to tell me she was carrying on doing some hit workouts that week
25:24
while struggling with her niggling injury and why i said to hear um why are you
25:30
doing high-intensity workouts this week when you should be recovering and her answer was i don't want to lose
25:37
my fitness i'm feeling fit i'm feeling fantastic because i've just done this massive event i don't want to lose any
25:42
of that but we can't maintain peak performance we know now that many olympic athletes
25:48
struggle you know they train for four years for that one event that one high that one peak and win or lose it's then
25:55
all over um and even with a win they really struggle coming off their adrenaline and cortisol high
26:02
and bodybuilders struggle with this also you know you can't maintain a shredded dehydrated body that's going to be
26:08
competing on stage to show every little striation of muscle fiber you know it's not healthy your kidneys will completely
26:14
pick up but as soon as you start rehydrating you know add another kilo or two of healthy
26:21
body weight which is next to nothing um after an event for them they struggle
26:26
with their body image and seeing that difference again but we can't maintain that peak performance
26:32
what we can do is build on peak month by month and year by year so that yes we
26:37
can be better and stronger at 30 than we were at 20. um i was actually at my most
26:42
fittest at 40 which was pretty pretty cool but then decided to have a baby and have lost my fitness every year
26:49
since which is not so hot um the catchphrase physio that we hear by people is oh i guess it's just
26:56
because i'm getting older the trouble is these guys are only 23 24 or 25
27:01
that's still pretty young and you know if we're over 40 in defense i think it's potential you know that's okay to
27:07
probably say yeah i'm getting older i might be starting to break down a bit and our younger uh personnel probably
27:15
not such a great thing if they're feeling like they are breaking down and aging faster
27:20
at that much younger age and maybe they are because of the heavy loads overloading
27:25
not following training protocols and not doing recovery so in this post covert era recovery is
27:33
even more important than ever if we wish to avoid uh or manage long covered well
27:38
and with stats saying that you know long covered might occur in as many as one in three or one in ten uh people that have
27:45
had covered that's high numbers so any illness though even a good old common
27:50
cold or the flu will take its toll on the body um and many things coming out of the overseas studies in our reviews
27:57
on postcode is that this is a very individualized experience you're getting the theme here
28:02
individual much like a pregnant um or postpartum uh purse as well one size
28:08
does not fit all we can't all do the same thing and researchers are still trying to understand why covet is affecting
28:14
people's energy and ability to exercise as it is but we know that for some it is a constant struggle
28:20
with the hallmark symptom being extreme fatigue but there are other things that people present with you know reduced
28:26
peak aerobic capacity shortness of breath low blood pressure racing heart
28:31
brain fog um and in many you know up to as many as 90 a worsening of symptoms
28:37
after exercise and we've even seen and people who don't feel that they've suffering from low
28:43
long cover that have head covered um struggling to exercise that racing and
28:48
erratic heart rate in a low level of exercise is very real and we're also seeing an extended period of time to
28:55
bring that heart rate back down to our normal resting rate so you know for
29:00
example doing a fairly low level um exercise you know just a simple walk on
29:07
the on the treadmill for a short period of time and we're seeing heart rate bounce all over the place and for somebody that's normally fit and healthy
29:14
and would barely climb a few beats per minute um it would normally hop off and you
29:19
know if their heart rate would be back to normal in one to two minutes you know it's 20 to 30 minutes afterwards so
29:25
we're really going to have to look at our recovery sessions after any exercise session
29:31
and when it's going to be um ready to do the next exercise session so this capacity to recover allows a
29:38
high level of performance next time around for appropriate higher training volume
29:43
and intensity to be achieved without injury and if we take appropriate recovery we also
29:49
don't get those other detrimental effects of over training such as a reduced immune system so i think we also
29:54
all know people who are super fit and healthy that catch every gold and every flu bug that comes around again their
29:59
immune system is compromised because they've overstressed their body too much too long without adequate recovery
30:07
um and again now post cover we don't want to be doing that for anyone so training you know has to result in
30:13
some sort of skeletal muscle damage if we want to create an adaptation and change and when damage is still present
30:19
it obviously results in lower ability to generate force at the next session it impairs our ability to transport blood
30:25
glucose to feed our cells and therefore again less capacity to replenish those
30:30
stores which are needed to fuel future exercise sessions and again damage can lead to some soreness and pain all
30:36
impacting on the ability to undertake another good uh exercise session which limits the results from all that time
30:43
spent working out but the american council of exercise medicine suggests we consider fit for
30:49
when we're determining how much recovery we need for fit is fi tt as opposed to hit hit
30:58
so frequency of recovery how long does someone need you know do they need one day today several days and again if
31:04
you've done an olympics if you've done a full rugby season um if you've done a month-long field exercise you know that
31:11
may need several weeks of recovery before you start building back up into another training regime and then we have
31:18
to think about the intensity of recovery so if we're doing intervals for example
31:23
that are high intensity if we're thinking 90 95 percent of our max
31:28
we need some active recovery within the intervals and that will be at a specific intensity obviously a lot lower maybe
31:35
around 40 to 60 to allow that next high intensity interval to be performed well but if
31:41
we're working towards our max you know we're only going to be able to do x amount of cycles of that incision over
31:46
short sharp burst and that's active recovery during that session but we also need to have
31:52
adequate recovery after that session and from a intense session like that we need at
31:58
least 48 hours and we should only perform two maximum three hit sessions a week now
32:04
again i hear people talking about doing one every day but either they're not
32:10
performing at their level of intensity or they are over training again not allowing themselves um adequate
32:17
recovery and again injury is going to happen the time
32:23
so what kind of time frame length of time for recovery do we need
32:28
you know that could be three or four hours that could be 24 hours that again could be days
32:34
or weeks and then type so that's our last t frequency intensity time and type and
32:42
type is active or passive passive is fairly self-explanatory complete rest
32:47
and we very rarely actually need to do complete rest but again if we've been unwell
32:53
if we're recovering from injury uh if we've just been training really hard for a long period of time there may be days
32:59
that we need complete rest to provide adequate recovery most of the time we will do some form of
33:06
active recovery but active recovery is not active training and going hard out
33:12
so everybody at a minimum if they train most days of the week should have at least one day a week off uh and that one
33:20
day a week off might be playing with the kids it might be going for a walk in the bush uh but at a cruisy pace you know no
33:27
big trend going hunting that kind of thing um rather than doing nothing at all
33:33
and that fits nicely with our active recovery rather than going down and doing a massive weight session or still
33:40
going for a four-hour cycle uh ride an active recovery should be performed
33:46
you know at their much lower level of intensity much lower part of active recovery is a cool down
33:53
at the end of a workout um and that is especially important to women because our femoral regulation is
34:00
different to men for some people active recovery will be more cross-training such as swimming and
34:06
cycling so again those people that don't run very well or we've got you know worn out knees or hips
34:12
we're not going to be doing so so much weight loaded activity without making sure we've got plenty of other
34:17
cross-training in between and swimming and you know hydrotherapy has always been a great way of having a recovery
34:24
day an easier workout session unloaded in the water you want to you know these things will
34:30
help maintain your cardiovascular fitness but we're not overloading ourselves
34:37
secondary to this uh you know nutrition is going to be really important to recovery i'm only just going to touch on that briefly
34:43
because that's not my area of things but we need carbohydrates post exercise
34:48
with protein so refill the body support that glycogen resynthesis maintain our
34:54
fuel store spin and energy or next time and there is a period of acute recovery
35:00
and then there's a longer phase of recovery and again women thank you spacey sims for um you know getting that
35:06
information out to the wider community um are different to men and have a much shorter window to refuel appropriately
35:14
to save their muscle stores so women have to be really um onto it in terms of what they eat prior
35:21
to workout and what and when they eat straight after a workout men get a much
35:26
um a longer period of time to refill themselves and despite my leaving this to the last
35:33
uh sleep is the most important contributor to recovery and no fancy gimmicks those supplements
35:40
will make up for a lack of sleep and poor nutrition in regards to recovery sleep allows for autophagy so this is
35:47
the body's way of cleaning up its debris and damaged cells and allowing new healthy cells to regenerate now in
35:54
recent times fasting and intermittent fasting had become very popular primarily because there is this feeling
36:00
that this may increase our autophagy um although actually there's only a small amount of research that's been done on
36:06
people per day um and again a lot of that research has been on men compared
36:12
to women and certain groups of women i.e um postmenopausal women
36:17
uh intermittent fasting and fasting regimes are not considered to be as beneficial
36:22
a healthy amount of sleep is necessary for brain plasticity or the ability of the brain to adapt to
36:29
all these new things and training we've been putting our body through it allows us to process what's happened through
36:35
the day file that information in appropriate places of storage and then allow us to retain that information at a
36:40
later date to support recovery sorry support memory so we now know that sleep can create
36:47
altered metabolic states it contributes to metabolic syndrome pre-diabetic conditions and even people who'd
36:54
otherwise be healthy lack of sleep can contribute to weight gain it can compromise our immune system
37:00
and it will compromise our general health and we know it increases our risk of illness and disease
37:06
given how important sleep is to training and recovery again we really need to be aware of
37:11
what's going on for our personnel you know do we have parents of a new baby or a toddler who's not sleeping well
37:17
uh are people's workloads high you know we've had um a lot of staff shortages across across the board um
37:25
and that creates sense of overwhelm and an increased stress and you know with staff off sick or
37:31
isolating and others left to carry the workload of people that are missing you know put everybody under increased
37:36
pressure and stress and if we're not maintaining some really good sleep hygiene um and some sleep habits
37:44
poor sleep is going to be the result of that and therefore physical and mental well-being just goes down the door
37:52
how do we know when this is impacting our ability to train now if we're really good at reading our bodies listening to
37:58
our bodies knowing how we feel we should know that we should know that we don't actually have a desire to train today
38:04
we're feeling a bit ho ha we don't actually jump out of bed with energy because we've had a restorative sleep
38:09
the night before and we're ready to go um we've got lots of you know
38:15
trackers and fancy apps these days our aura rings our garmin watches our fitbits
38:20
to track and monitor the heart rate and again you know elevated heart rate is a good
38:25
indicator of needing more rest so typically when it's you know 10 to 20 beats potentially above our
38:32
normal baseline resting heart rate we're thinking okay we're experiencing an overtraining response from this because
38:39
it means our body is in a much more sympathetic state which is a wired state which is not where we need it to be
38:47
in this hopefully even stage of the pandemic we will see the impact that having coveted his head on sleep and
38:53
recovery and we will need to be mindful of the guidelines that are provided and remember that in these circumstances
39:00
more is better so more sleep more recovery is going to be necessary to minimize long-term effects or longer
39:06
durations of being unable to train well and we shouldn't be pushing through things
39:13
i really want to thank you for this opportunity to have this conversation today and raise these ideas with you and
39:20
that's me i'm happy to answer any questions um and hope you have a fabulous rest of your week
39:34
now
Press Pause to talk finances
Mark Williamson from our Force Financial Hub will be talking about the importance of financial health - and offering tips for how to improve and maintain it.
Tune in to learn about what tools are available to help you with budgeting, investments, and superannuation, and to receive some guidance on where to start.
Let's Talk finances
0:00
those of you haven't met um for those of you who haven't met me before next slide please sarah
0:06
um i'm mark williamson i'm the benefits manager for the new zealand defence force located in level 8 of defence
0:12
house what we're doing today is we're running through a series of presentations talking about the
0:18
benefits available through the force financial hub and the particular theme for this week
0:23
is taking a pause to do your stock take looking at where you are with things in your life and of course finances are a
0:30
very important part of that so that includes looking at your finances looking at your other risk
0:35
aspects including your insurances uh your will as you're well up to date all those sort of things uh looking at
0:42
your savings schemes look at your member statements and all that sort of thing so that's what we're going to cover off today the good news for you all is i'm
0:48
going to speak very briefly and then i'll be handing across to my colleagues from a variety of
0:53
organizations who are going to present today we're going to have we've broken up the session into 10-minute segments
1:00
and at the end of each segment there will be a pause for questions and we will we do welcome questions from many
1:05
of you please and then at the end of the session just before one o'clock there'll be the opportunity to further the
1:11
questions as well next slide please sarah
1:18
next one okay so there's a a female commentator who writes for the herald called francis
1:24
cook she also runs a podcast on a regular basis called cocking the books her latest book came out earlier this
1:31
year it's a very good read available on what calls for 29 i just want to draw your attention to this quote because i actually thought it
1:37
was a very powerful quote being financially insecure sucks out your brain power
1:43
leading to poor decisions your day-to-day life figuring out ways to survive consume your brain power leaving less available
1:50
for making the smart mating decisions that could get you out of trouble and i think this is a very act quote because
1:55
what it does does it highlights the problems that many of us face at different stages in our life with getting to grips with our finances
2:02
and when you're experiencing financial difficulties either temporarily or on a long-term basis it can have a
2:09
significant impact on your life on your relationships on your workplace and everything else and this
2:15
is why the force financial hub working with the nzf and a variety of providers puts in place
2:22
a number of tools to help us manage our our finances next slide please sir
2:28
so reflecting the theme of this week this is the opportunity to press pause to take stock of our finances our
2:35
insurances our well is it up to date whether we're saving for a first time or
2:40
we're actually getting prepared for retirement this is the opportunity to have a look at all the things we've got going on in our life at this particular
2:46
time to see what what changes we may want to make next one please
2:51
so the sort of things i think it's it's a good opportunity for us for us to look at probably at least once a year
2:57
is do we do we have financial goals do we have a financial plan and if so
3:02
what's the time frame for that financial plan is there a household budget is there a rainy day fund for the
3:09
emergencies that come up on a on a monthly or or six monthly basis
3:14
if we have debts is there a debt management plan in place to help us control those debts and ideally over a
3:21
period of time run down those debts and for those like you the older ones in particular do we have a retirement plan
3:28
this is a particularly important aspect i think for people who are getting closer to retirement they need to have a
3:34
think about uh how long their money is going to last we make the expectation that we'll be retired for 25 to 30 years
3:41
of retirement and we need to make sure that we actually have a plan around how long our money will last over
3:46
that period supplementing national superannuation payments and then from a risk management perspective is our well up to date sadly
3:54
we had a young death of a young chap over the weekend and so we regularly have within defense 14 to 15 deaths per
4:02
year we do provide an up-to-date will service and kaye will talk about that
4:07
and it is really important that all of us have a date a will that actually reflects our current circumstances in
4:12
life and then from an insurance perspective do we have our insurance assorted and again we've got kay and
4:19
ashish to talk about our insurance program that's available next one so what's the forced financial
4:24
hub about and what are we able to do to help so the goal of the forced financial hub
4:29
is that we have all our defence members are financially secure they're financially capable or literate
4:37
and for those who aspire to own their own home uh they're in their own home or they've got a plan to help them get into their
4:43
own home and whilst we don't make decisions for people obviously what we're endeavoring
4:48
to do is to provide support and tools to help people make the best decisions for their
4:54
household but also to achieve that long-term aspiration of the force financial hub
4:59
next one sarah so what is the force financial hub but it's internet based it's a one-stop shop it provides a range
5:07
of benefits products services and tools for members of the defence community including families and including
5:12
veterans and their families and a key point about the force financial hub is that when you leave defence when your career with us with us
5:19
comes to an end then you continue to access all these benefits and tools and your family
5:25
do as well next month please syrup so what are the key components well we have our savings
5:31
schemes and sarah for merce is going to be talking about those very shortly we have our email ibp staff insurance
5:37
program our southern cross medical insurance program and our wells service and katie from ion will be talking about
5:43
those we have our domestic insurance program ashish from tower we'll be talking about that we
5:50
have our financial advice service and our mortgage broker service and we have julian from become wealth uh talking
5:56
about those services and then we have a variety of tools and resources available on the force financial hub we have a
6:03
preferential banking arrangement with anz and we also have a comprehensive financial capability program that we run
6:08
through um the camps and basis on a regular basis and supplementing with that we've been running a series of
6:14
webinars that have been recorded and are also on the force financial hub next one please sarah one of the things we also
6:21
do is to help people their retirement uh planning and you'll see that every year we link
6:27
into annual mass many massey university research that they do they what they do
6:33
is they interview a cross section of retirees across the country to work out how much they may be spending in
6:38
retirement to supplement national super and how much they may need as a lump sum
6:43
to give them that additional income that they require and those figures are updated annually um and next one please
6:49
sir you can see that we will be running a campaign again very shortly around how much do i need for my retirement because
6:55
we've now got the latest figures from massey university and as an example for people thinking
7:00
about retiring in wellington or auckland and you're wanting a choices retirement when i think most of us would be in that
7:07
category then um you'd be spending roughly about fourteen hundred and seventy dollars a
7:12
week as a couple of which you'll be getting 777 from national super and you'll be needing
7:18
around around about 800 a week coming from from your own resources and again for a one person household
7:25
again you wanted to live in auckland wellington or christchurch then again you'll be spending about a thousand
7:31
dollars a week of which 462 comes from national super and again you need roughly 600 coming in from your own
7:37
resources and that's over the period of 25 to 30 years that you may expect to be retired
7:43
so those figures look very daunting and there is a comprehensive report that actually underpins that research and all
7:49
of that's available on the force financial hub as well um i'd just like to round off so next
7:54
slide please sarah just a reminder that we do work very closely with the retirement commission
8:00
and providing a range of financial capability programs we haven't been able to do so much classroom-based activity
8:06
over the last two years because of covert but we are getting underway again very shortly
8:11
you'll see in the campsite basis and head office will be advertising a range of
8:17
financial capability programs that we provide we provide it on work time we pay
8:22
it's our investment as part of your development and so we do encourage people to register for our financial
8:28
capability programs and to look out for the local um advertising details i'm going to pause
8:35
at this stage um and just ask for any questions
8:46
okay what i'd like to do now please is hand across to sarah barnaby and sarah's
8:51
going to talk about the services that are provided to us through mercer the fund managers for our
8:57
savings schemes that's the new zealand defensible kiwisaver scheme the flexi saver scheme and the of course the dfss
9:04
which is closed off to members but still very much alive and being actively managed sarah the floor's all yours
9:16
thank you mark i'm just sorry juggling the technology as we move from one presentation to another
9:21
um thanks for having us today as mark said i'm from mercer and we look after the um defense new zealand defence force
9:27
saving schemes um just uh um our disclosure notice to start off with i'm
9:34
gonna run through a bunch of information about the schemes today but none of it's personal financial advice so it doesn't
9:40
take into account your situation and the aim today is to give you an overview about what's available to you
9:46
and as mark suggested you know take the opportunity to take stock of where you are today and think about whether
9:52
there's anything you can do that might help set you up the best possible way for the future
10:03
so just a bit of background in terms of who mercer is so um mercer is a global organization we've been in new zealand
10:10
for more than 60 years and worked with the defence force for more than 10 years now and we really value our partnership
10:17
the new zealand defence force our expertise is really in working with employers to help their
10:24
people uh set themselves up for retirement and in kiwisaver and we work with a number of large well
10:30
organizations of all size really to do just that
10:35
um but i have to say that the new zealand defence force has an amazing offering for its people in terms of
10:42
particularly kiwisaver which really shows uh the value that they place on the
10:47
financial security of their people and there are some benefits in the new zealand defense force kiwisaver scheme
10:55
which is unique in its own rights the only employer-sponsored kiwi server scheme
11:01
and there's some benefits in that that you won't find anywhere else so there's a four percent employer
11:07
contribution so that's whether you're a member of the new zealand defence force kiwi service scheme or any other kiwi
11:13
server scheme but there's some other things that you don't often find in other places so there's monthly prezi
11:20
card draws so by being a member of the scheme by making contributions by having
11:26
set your communication preferences so that you can get some information about the scheme you go into the draw to win
11:33
um a prezi card each month and people have one more than once so that's
11:39
something designed to encourage you to set things up well
11:45
there are incentive payments that the chief of defense force makes available to you so there's three one thousand
11:51
dollar payments from cdf in years one four and seven of your membership um in
11:59
the scheme and i'll come back to that in a minute there's also really good access to financial advice so you'll talk to julia
12:06
here from julian a little bit later on from become wealth and the become wealth team
12:12
there to help you if you need any advice and then there's also another scheme
12:18
called the new zealand defense force flexi saver scheme which is also available to you to use for other
12:24
savings goals so not for saving for your first time or retirement necessarily but for any of those other
12:30
goals that you might have um so just a bit more information on the
12:36
retention payments um as i said there's three thousand one thousand dollar payments that's before
12:42
tax which are paid into your nzdf kiwisaver account so you do need to
12:49
be a member of the defense force scheme in order to be eligible for that
12:54
you need to be serving as a member of nzdf
13:00
and the payments are made after after you've been a member of the scheme for a year four years and seven years and
13:07
they're paid directly into your ncdf kiwisaver account
13:12
and the good thing is that the payments aren't ring fenced so it means that they can't be taken back once they've gone in
13:18
they're yours so if you um left the defense force those payments
13:24
still remain in your account in your kiwisaver account once you've left
13:29
and if you change providers they would come with you and they can be used as part of your
13:34
a first home withdrawal that you might make so that makes them um you know an
13:39
extra help along the way in your savings journey
13:46
i just thought i'd go through some kiwisaver basics um
13:51
we get to deal with kiwisaver all day every day but i know that's not the case for everyone um if you're thinking about your
13:57
contributions so the minimum contribution for an employer is three percent your employer already gives you
14:04
a head start and contributing four you can then choose to contribute three four six eight or ten percent of
14:12
your um earnings and you can make extra voluntary contributions along the way if you want
14:19
to um so this is a good opportunity to think about what's the right contribution rate for you what can i
14:25
afford what are my goals how can i best get there and choose the contribution rate that best fits with
14:30
that there's a government contribution available to you each year and that's up
14:38
to 521 and 43 cents for most people who are
14:45
earning and on a salary then they will qualify to receive the full
14:50
government contribution each year the focus of the scheme is on all
14:57
kiwisaver schemes is on either buying your first home or on retirement
15:03
um and what that means is that there are limited circumstances in which you can get your money out so
15:08
if you qualify for the first time withdrawal you can do that otherwise generally it's not available until
15:15
you're at the moment age 65 and there's really limited other circumstances that you might be able to
15:20
but it's designed to be for you to save money for a long-term goal
15:27
yeah so funds are locked in until they age 65 unless unless you meet some pretty specific criteria
15:36
and of course your three 1 000 payments go in there as well um as i said there's um also the nzdf
15:44
flexi saver scheme which sits alongside uh kiwisaver so it's complementary to it
15:51
um as the name might suggest it's a bit more flexible than
15:56
kiwisaver is and it's designed to be focused on other financial goals so you can put in what you want and when you
16:03
want you can contribute via payroll if you'd like to but it might be for things for
16:09
example i have a flexi saver account for my children and i'm putting money in there
16:14
to save for their tertiary education but it might be for any other financial goal that you might have
16:21
you can withdraw funds at any time so it's not locked in by like kiwisavers
16:29
and i'll come on to what the investment options look like but there are the same
16:34
investment options as there are in the defence force kiwisaver scheme so relatively easy to understand
16:42
once you get your head around it different from kiwisaver there's no employer contribution no government
16:48
contribution and no cdf retention payments that go in there
16:55
but yes you can have both a kiwisaver and a flexi saver account if you would like to and in fact many people do
17:02
so i mentioned before that there are seven different investment options that you can choose from in either the kiwisa
17:09
and new zealand defense force kiwi server scheme or flexi saver they range as you can see from here from
17:17
low risk to higher risk and low expected long-term
17:23
return to higher expected long-term return so one of the things that's worthwhile
17:30
thinking about regularly is which of these options are best for you given
17:35
your attitude to risk and your goals and the like and there are some
17:41
tools on the website that can help you choose which one of these funds is right for you
17:48
many people in kiwisaver there are also many people who don't know which of these funds that
17:53
they are in and i just encourage you all to have a look find out which one you're in and check
17:58
whether that's still the right one for you
18:05
um this slide here shows the seven different
18:10
investment options on the left and what the returns have looked like in the last 12 months but also the last five years
18:18
so for those of you who joined the call early you might have heard mark talking about
18:24
some of the volatility that's happening in the markets at the moment and this year particularly with
18:29
the situation in ukraine it has meant that there has been lots of ups and downs and uncertainty in the market
18:37
so you can see that in the one-year returns there have been negative
18:43
returns across the board other than for the cash fund
18:48
however when you look in the five-year returns those numbers are positive and that's great because particularly
18:54
for kiwisaver it's a long-term investment it's designed to help you save for your retirement which for most
19:00
people will be more than five years away but it also shows you that for the higher risk
19:07
funds so the growth and high growth and shares funds the returns um
19:13
are greater than for the cash and conservative funds so it just shows the higher risk higher returns
19:20
you'd expect more volatility in the growth in high growth and shares funds than you would for the ones at the other
19:26
end of the spectrum but also higher expected returns
19:33
so this chart here just shows what a difference a choice in fund makes so this shows
19:41
an investment of ten thousand dollars that was made in october 2015 which is when the kiwisaver and flexi saver
19:48
schemes were established and what has happened since then for each of the funds so you'll be able to
19:54
see there's a couple of dips there uh the biggest one was a time that we'll
20:00
probably all remember around um march 2019 uh when covert really hit
20:06
and then bounced back after that and a bit of a dip more recently but you'll be able to see that the
20:13
cash fund at the bottom the light blue line at the bottom has grown but not by a great deal but it
20:19
has been steady along that time whereas at the other end of the spectrum the the shares fund which is at the highest
20:25
end of the um expected return and risk um
20:31
continuum has had more steep ups and downs but has resulted in
20:37
a greater overall return at the end so just encourage you to think about which of
20:43
the options is right for you because you can see here what difference that could make
20:48
value for money is one of the things that we're really conscious of and we work closely with mark and with
20:54
others of your leaders to make sure that mercer is the provider of the schemes is
20:59
giving you good value for money so this chart here compares the fees
21:05
in yellow for the nzdf kiwi saver scheme against the market average in grey so
21:11
you can see that where the schemes are given good value for money they're below the market
21:16
average we don't aim to be the cheapest but we do aim to represent
21:22
give you good value for money and the fees that you're paying in your kiwi service scheme
21:30
if you're a member of the scheme you might know this already but there's a there's an app that's available to you so you
21:35
can get access to your balances when you need it you know on your phone um you can download that from
21:42
the app store or from get it from google play and this is what the website looks like
21:47
this is actually the desktop version but it just shows you what you can see so on the
21:53
dashboard page it gives you a break that gives you your balance it gives you a breakdown of what you've
21:59
contributed and what the investment earnings that you've earned on your investment is
22:05
in the middle there the retirement benefit is a projection of
22:10
what the estimate of your balance would be at retirement age and if you click through
22:16
on the view more details you can play around with a number of things like contribution rates of when you want to retire and it will change
22:23
show you the impact on that number so you can see what you might need to do to get to your
22:28
retirement goals so important question how do you sign up
22:34
um if you probably the easiest things for you guys if anyone's interested in joining is to google force financial hub
22:41
which has all of the information about the benefits that mark talked about earlier but it also has a link through
22:47
to the savings schemes and online joining the forms for both kiwisaver and
22:52
flexisaver so quite an easy joining process if you'd like to do that if
22:57
you're already with another kiwisaver provider and you're interested in joining the defence force
23:03
kiwisaver scheme all you have to do is fill out the joining form and then we take care
23:08
of the rest you don't need to talk to your current provider about making a change that's all done in the background
23:13
by us all right um that was all i had but happy to take any questions now if there
23:20
are any there's also the q a and chat function
23:26
so feel free to use that if anyone would like to but if not i will hand back to mark
23:34
okay thank you very much for that sarah that was great um what i'd like to do now is introduce
23:39
you please julian lingard who's with our financial advice and financial planning service become wealth previously known
23:46
as milestone direct limited um at the beginning of june
23:51
the milestone merged with another company called become wealth and i'm pleased to have julian here today to
23:58
represent us so julian when you're ready the floor's all yours
24:17
i think julian's still on mute
24:22
you okay there julian yep sorry just having some technical
24:30
difficulties getting my microphone come back up sorry about that everyone thanks very much for that mark and um and
24:36
thanks for that uh great information on the defence force kiwisaver and super saver schemes
24:42
let's bring my presentation up bear with me for a second
24:50
as i was coming in to um to become part of the panel that this
24:58
afternoon my computer decided to shut itself down so i do apologize
25:15
uh um laura are you there have you got julian's presentation
25:21
i don't sorry mark okay right okay
25:28
right right here we go let's cover up now julian well done excellent thank you
25:41
okay so um become well i've been with become wealth since um
25:48
since the recent merger i've been involved in the financial services industry in new zealand for about 20
25:54
years and i've been providing financial advice for a full team um become wealth's really proud to be
26:01
involved in what mark and his team are doing with the new zealand defence force
26:07
and we are the official advice provider to all the new zealand defense force members their families and of course the
26:13
defense community so what's the benefit of gauging with us
26:18
well but we sit at the center of what really can be quite a lot of complex um
26:25
and diverse range of products available to um to defence force members in terms of
26:32
reaching your desired financial outcomes in life whether that be saving for a house saving for retirement um we we
26:39
bring all these things together for you so you see we're involved in um in
26:44
helping with some budgeting advice around debt repayment savings for
26:50
um for the goals outside of capital growth um helping you make good decisions
26:55
around um around investments and how they should be structured and of course um the kiwisaver aspect so um we're all
27:04
very familiar with the um with the tools that mersa makes
27:10
available through the defence force kiwisaver scheme and of course the flexi saver schemes
27:17
and we work with those tools to help you achieve that outcomes that you'd um that you want to achieve so
27:23
see bringing all these things together for
27:28
you makes it a lot easier for you we we sit in the middle where
27:34
we're looking after all those bits and pieces you engage with us um you've got a single port of call to um to enable
27:42
us to provide the bits and pieces that you need
27:47
so there's been a lot of talk recently um about um about debt uh interest rates
27:54
are going up um the cost of living in general is getting more expensive but um we just
28:00
want to point out here that there is such a thing as as good debt versus bad debt right and so that this is a good
28:07
highlight of what this looks like so when you invest in a house yep you're going into debt um but the the reality
28:15
is that the house is an investment for the most part over a long period of time will will go up in value
28:22
um so while you are spending money um to purchase a home and you're borrowing money from the bank to do that
28:29
that that's a prudent way of spending money because it is actually providing you with um with capital
28:36
growth you're paying down that debt over a long period of time houses continue to go up in value
28:42
you're winning versus the not so good death so you know we all have um we'll have
28:49
things that we would like to um that would like to enjoy in life whether that be a
28:55
flash car or trips overseas or those sorts of bits and pieces it's important to remember that um if if you're going
29:03
to enjoy those sorts of things perhaps debt isn't the best way to go about doing that savings
29:09
is typically a better way to achieve those goals and i think this highlights
29:14
um that quite nicely so you can see though the purchase of the home a deposit of 60 000
29:21
um the equity that you'll have in five years time on that home approximately 260 000
29:28
whereas if you buy a vehicle with the same amount of money of course they drop significantly in value in year one um
29:35
and then the value of that 16 000 that you've spent on that vehicle in five years time
29:41
is less than twenty thousand dollars so you can see there's a significant um significant difference there
29:48
julian sarah here sorry to interrupt um your slides are still showing on the first one can you scroll through
29:55
to i think you intending to be on a different one okay
30:03
i think you're up to four or five now julian
30:22
okay so can you all see goodbyes bad debt with the
30:29
yeah okay no oh i can i think what we can see is the front page julie
30:36
hi jillian sorry it's laura um screen sharing yep so if you just go to the slide that you
30:42
want to share so the one that you're up
30:48
to yep and now go slide show
30:54
one of the tabs on the on the top no and down
31:00
a slideshow it's links to animations yeah that's not coming through here is
31:06
it i've just hit that and it's not
31:17
let me escape back out of here
31:25
okay that's good okay and so if you press slideshow
31:31
not that one and so yep keep going along yup that one
31:37
yep and press um not now sorry not now
31:43
um and if you press from current slide which is just the second tab up the top um on your left hand side
31:51
yeah
31:58
okay are you seeing that properly now uh yeah we're on the one with the car to
32:05
buy property first and the fun stuff cool
32:10
sorry about that people okay okay
32:16
so saving for retirement or saving for
32:22
anything um is a long-term prospect and that the the
32:28
sooner we get started on doing that the the better that that ends up being for all of us so we're
32:35
this little slide you can see here we've got several different ranges of people
32:40
um who are saving long term julian go to the next
32:46
slide please go to the next one
32:52
you want the mirror slide
33:07
yeah yep okay
33:15
okay so we've got three different ages of people here we've got samantha who starts saving at age 18.
33:21
um we've got simon who starts saving just three years later at age 21
33:27
and then will who starts at age 25. now we can see the difference of time
33:35
with total accumulation by age by age 30 so you can see samantha's
33:41
starting at age 18 manages to accumulate close to
33:47
close to 94 000 by the time she's she's 30 years old
33:52
um simon is not too badly off here um starting at age 21 he's still got nine
33:58
years with the savings there so he's he's getting um to about two-thirds of
34:04
what samantha will say but well starting some seven years later than samantha is um is only at one third of um of of that
34:12
capacity of the other two so how the how does some of the benefits of the new
34:19
zealand defence force help you achieve better things here well
34:24
um if you're determined and you're frugal to be able to um to
34:31
save up accumulate funds in a relatively quick quick way um the
34:37
contributions from the flexi saver and the new zealand defence force kiwisaver schemes you can actually accumulate
34:44
quite a lot of money in a relatively quick period of time and and this is here how it works so
34:50
if you're putting in 500 a fortnight into your flexi saver um you're contributing three percent
34:56
into your um into your kiwisaver the defence force is
35:01
obviously putting in four percent you get your government contributions of 521
35:06
and some change each year um and then of course is the retention payments both for being involved and
35:12
continuing on to be involved in the defence force kiwisaver scheme so
35:18
over a five-year period you qualify um for two of the three payments there
35:25
and over the space of just five years you can accumulate 95 000 which for a
35:32
lot of us goes a long way towards the deposit on our first home
35:38
which is fantastic um this is being highlighted being operated
35:43
in a moderate fund which is a relatively relatively low risk not a lot of
35:49
volatility um as sarah was just talking about in some of the more higher performing funds over the
35:56
long term but just to highlight that if i share this next screen with you
36:03
and just revisit sarah's little graph that she showed us before
36:10
you can see you know saving money in a bank account to um to get a deposit for your first
36:16
home purchase for example is not going to serve you particularly
36:22
well is not going to help you get to where you need to be and this is where the you know shutting down the the likes of us
36:29
can help put you on track and um and sort of identify and and make the
36:35
best of what you've got available both yourselves with an income point of view and also to um to the benefits of
36:43
being involved with the extra things you get from the defence war schemes um i'm just hovering my mouse around
36:49
here you can see um that that's where the moderate fund sits so you can see you're not getting
36:55
the um the high growth that you do in the the share portfolio for example but
37:01
the rationale behind doing the moderate fund is that you don't want this sort of thing to happen when
37:07
you're about ready to go purchase your first home that would be rather demoralizing and um
37:13
and annoying but when you get to that point in time of course we can also help you with
37:20
with mortgage advice and helping with a uh we've got an in house finance team um that can help you
37:27
navigate your way through purchasing um first time next time dream home etc uh
37:34
the benefits of using a mortgage broker um we've got access to products that may not be available to
37:41
the general public because we are very familiar with the
37:47
lending criteria for all the major banks we can quickly circumvent going to banks
37:54
that won't help and make sure that we're putting you in the best possible position
38:00
at one point of contact rather than having to deal with several people or potentially several different people
38:06
at bank and we can help from start to finish there so if you're not quite ready to purchase your first home but you know
38:12
you're not too far away often a chat with a with a mortgage broker will um will give you some tips
38:19
and tricks and um help you get prepared for
38:24
that first home purchase it's been in the media quite a bit recently and the government's making
38:30
some changes but there was a quite a lot of heartache with some changes to um
38:35
to legislation which saw banks taking a much tougher approach um in the way they lean people money uh our team got across
38:42
that pretty quickly and uh and have been helping people who thought they weren't able to get
38:48
borrowing actually continue to be able to do so so they um it's a very worthwhile service
38:57
so in summary um there's a lot of wonderful um things
39:02
available to you through the new zealand defense force scheme um and the defence
39:08
force financial hub so the the opportunity really is there um so for
39:14
you to get stuck in and come and have a chat with us and we'll help you navigate
39:19
um your way through the different through the different products and services that are available through that hub
39:25
and you can engage with us one-on-one to uh to to get some advice
39:30
and that sort of looks like this so depending on um on how you're a member
39:36
of the defensive scheme there are several different membership levels of being involved
39:41
there but in general terms you can get 30 minutes worth of free or general advice over the phone with us um
39:48
we normally charge that out to uh to normal retail clients the rate of 500 per hour
39:55
you get mortgage broking from us uh that's a free service that's provided so you get to engage the services of
40:02
professional who knows the entire market um and we can provide some
40:08
comprehensive financial planning from from around 500 uh that sees you getting up to five
40:14
hours worth of um worth of financial planning which reasonably out in the
40:20
again out in the general retail market we um we would see a cost of at least
40:25
three thousand dollars uh plus to um to get that level of advice so very worthwhile very good value for money um
40:34
and i highly recommend reaching out to it
40:39
that's where i'm going to stop for today is there any questions
40:48
coming back from the audience
40:58
julian thank you very much for that just a couple of points from julian's slideshow apologies for the technology
41:04
everyone this this odds lord these things occur at times but a couple of key points for julian's
41:09
presentation i think was the power of starting early with the compounding effect the earlier one starts saving or
41:16
investing the easier it is it's never too late to start investing so for older people don't be discouraged you haven't
41:22
been able to do much up until now but the sooner you're able to start even if it's just putting three percent away
41:28
into your kiwis over each fortnight and not thinking about it then you're over a period of time with that compounding effect you do see your funds accumulate
41:36
okay thank you very much for that julian what we're going to do now is again in
41:41
in keeping with our theme around doing a stock take of where we are in life what we're going to do now is to
41:46
shift to other aspects of our risk management and i'd like to introduce you to k hamilton from ion and k is going to
41:53
talk to you about our mi bp insurance program our walls program and the relationship that we have sub with
41:59
southern cross for our medical insurance program okay the floor's all yours
42:13
thanks mark sorry i just had to take myself off mute and hopefully everyone can see my slides
42:18
now and ms mark said i'm kay hamilton and i am from aon so we look after the member
42:25
insurance benefits program that you've got at defence now this covers civilians regular force reserves and
42:32
all of you there um and i'm just going to walk through the benefits that we've got in place and so please do ask
42:39
questions if you can along the way um who are new zealand so it's similar to sarah when she was talking about
42:45
mercer we are a multinational broking firm um we have um offices all over the
42:51
world um and a number in new zealand i think we've got about 70 offices throughout new zealand so you've no doubt seen one of our branches um
42:58
along the rows um and the member insurance benefits program is your life
43:03
insurance income protection cover that you've bought as members of fence and i'll come on to that in a bit more detail shortly
43:10
eon's role as the broker is to work alongside defense and source the best
43:16
insurance for you and defense force understandably have a very unique um
43:22
job role and getting insurance that's going to be fit for purpose is not um is not
43:29
as simple as it would be for other occupations so that's why um given the uniqueness we have been able to make
43:35
sure that the member insurance benefits program is fit for purpose for you all
43:42
okay so the types of insurance i'll cover um are life insurance income protection critical illness and medical
43:49
insurance and as a bit of a background um around insurance and this is um
43:54
getting a bit depressing but around one um around for every thousand um people in
44:02
the workforce there's a right one death so with this size of defence force being around 14
44:08
14 000 members that's around 14 deaths per year that we can statistically
44:14
expect and that's from a range of causes so illness accidents
44:21
sadly um all of those come into play um and defenses is is not unique in that in
44:29
in the realm of every other client out there so they're all suffering and the kind of same situations
44:35
um life insurance i'll just go into a little bit um it's not really life insurance it's
44:41
death insurance but um marketing makes it because it sounds a little bit more appealing and calling it life insurance
44:48
but effectively if you pass away then the life insurance benefit will be paid
44:53
to your estate um so if it's kind of the most selfless benefit that you can have because it's
44:59
not really designable to you um however if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness and it's likely that you'll pass
45:06
away within 12 months and as diagnosed by your specialist then that benefit can be paid to you in
45:12
advance of your death and that means that you can have some choices around what that benefit goes towards
45:19
then you get income protection very similar to and you may be more familiar with acc and how that works if you're
45:26
unable to work due to an accident or injury acc will come to the party and provide a benefit if you're not able to
45:33
work and give you some rehab and get you back work quickly as possible income protection works in a very similar way
45:40
and where it will respond if you're unable to work due to illness so um
45:46
significant illnesses such as um could be cancer mental health um disorders
45:52
um heart attacks those kind of things where you're unable to work for some time then
45:58
income protection would would come to the party and pay you a benefit until you can come back to work um or
46:05
for until the end of that period term then we've got critical illness which is also called trauma cover and that again
46:13
is a lump sum cash benefit that's paid to you in the event that you're diagnosed with one of the conditions in
46:19
the policy there are around 40 different conditions covered under critical illness policies and but the most
46:25
commonly claimed events are your heart attacks and cancers and last but not least um medical
46:32
insurance i'll just cover off and that's really your fast access to care and
46:37
that's available as well so just in terms of what is actually available for you as defence force
46:44
members um we do have six tiers of insurance benefits um and i'll try and
46:50
not confuse things too much um and hopefully a lot of you will be relatively familiar with what you've got
46:57
and but tier one is probably the most important one that you know about and that is completely free for
47:04
entity members so civilians and regular force members get the same benefits
47:09
under tier one it's completely free defense force pays for that for you and no pre-existing um sorry all
47:16
pre-existing conditions are covered and no questions asked it's 24 7 worldwide cover um so it's really really great
47:24
then we've got tier two which is where you can add on extra insurance if you wish um at your own expense
47:30
and tier three is open to your partners or spouses and then tier four is where
47:36
you've got x defense members tier five is a funeral plan we've developed for the wider defense
47:43
community and tier six is really anything that's not covered in tiers one to five and so we really do want to
47:50
cater for the wider defense community and the mibp and we hope that that is what we're achieving here
47:58
so tier one i'll just go into a bit of detail about what tier one is and as i said it's fully paid for by defense
48:04
and for you all you've all got three hundred thousand dollars worth of life and terminal illness cover so that death
48:10
cover i mentioned earlier including that is up to fifty thousand dollars worth of physical loss so that
48:17
covers accidental injury and you've also looked at that income protection cover so that one that's
48:23
similar to ecc where it will pay you a benefit of 75 percent of your base salary plus military factor if you're
48:30
regular force um up for up to two years after 98 week period
48:35
um so crucially all members are automatically covered it doesn't take into consideration any sort of history
48:41
of health and you've all got that from day one of joining with defence
48:47
so these are really really comprehensive benefits that you've got automatically um that you should
48:52
be familiar with and obviously share this information with your family so that they know you have this in place as
48:57
well so one of the great things about this
49:04
insurance is that you can take it with you if you decide to leave defence um the continuation cover so that means
49:11
that you can transfer tier one into tier two and pay for the benefit yourself after
49:17
you transfer it but crucially if you do so within 60 days you don't have to be health assessed by the insurer and so it
49:24
means if you if you're still with defense in a number of years time and you've developed some health issues along the way and you decide to leave
49:31
defense you can transfer that cover into a personal um tier two pay for this that
49:37
benefit yourself but know that you don't have to be health assessed so you don't have to worry about filling in any
49:43
lengthy health declarations so tier two is where you can purchase
49:50
additional cover and now coming up from one july we run these um we've run these
49:56
for the last few years and we're really delighted to be doing it again this year where we run a special offer from one
50:02
july through to the end of august where all regular force civilians can and reserve force can take them taking up
50:09
can take up extra cover with limited um underwriting so you can you can apply
50:16
for up to three hundred thousand dollars worth of life cover up to sixty thousand dollars worth of critical illness cover
50:23
and extend that income protection benefits through to five years now there are some conditions and that
50:29
if you have previously applied for a special offer then you may not be able to apply for any extra because you've
50:35
already maxed out your opportunity previously and or if you've been underwritten previously and there's
50:40
terms those terms would apply to the new cover um but certainly if you are looking at
50:46
purchasing some extra cover or you're you're having a think about you're not you don't have adequate insurance in
50:52
place then please do consider getting it over the next two months it's a it's a really good opportunity to do it without
50:58
having to be health assessed we also do a special events cover which
51:04
is available at any time and that means that you can purchase additional life cover if you are going
51:11
through any one of these special events um and that means that you can get up to a maximum of 150 000 for a new
51:19
mortgage if you're buying a home or an extra 50k life cover if you're getting married having a baby um
51:28
getting divorced even all of these constitute as a special event and it means that you don't have to be health
51:34
assessed and so please do contact us if any of these apply so that we can provide you with the code of what that
51:40
would look like for you and just to cover up why it's such a
51:45
good time to take the cover under one of these special offers um usually what happens is if you apply for
51:52
insurance at any other time and you have to be medically underwritten for it you will have to fill in a lengthy
51:58
questionnaire about your history of health and declare any issues that you may have had and the insurer can also request
52:05
your medical notes from your gp and so in that if you're perfectly healthy then it's unlikely to be an
52:12
issue but um as you go through life and and as we age
52:17
certain health issues can crop up and where applying for insurance can get a bit more problematic
52:23
and then cheater will look at that and look at the risk profile and think oh well you're a bit risky and may exclude
52:30
some conditions or increase the premium um for you so being able to take cover
52:36
under a special offer window not having to go through the underwriting process is a really good opportunity so it's
52:42
well worth um thinking about if you do need to take cover please do it over the next two months
52:49
and so tier three is for your partners and spouses where they can apply for a cover as well and they also have the
52:56
opportunity to apply for some cover under the special offer that's coming up and where they can get up to a hundred
53:01
and fifty thousand dollars worth of life cover and also up to twenty thousand dollars worth of critical illness cover
53:08
as well and may the cover so i'll just touch on
53:14
um health insurance um defense have a relationship with southern cross where they offer a 22
53:21
discount of the retail rate for defence members so if anyone has existing cover
53:27
through southern cross that is not part of the maybe i'm sorry part of the southern cross um defense force scheme
53:33
please do give them a call and let them know that you're a defense force member because you may be able to save some premiums there
53:39
um but crucially one of the the differences that southern cross provide in the df members
53:46
in particular the regular force is a non-claiming option which enables you to sign up for cover
53:54
lock in your good health now um and then transfer it to a claiming option in a few years time so it
54:00
basically means that you're securing your health now and paying a nominal fee every every month and which is anything
54:07
from 10 to 15 is very low um and noting that if you if you continue
54:14
that and decide to leave defense in a number of years and have developed some health conditions know that they would
54:19
be covered and when you did leave and transfer it
54:24
okay just cover that i'm just going to bring up another um presentation
54:30
um but before i do that does anyone get any questions around the mibp
54:44
okay great so i'll just move on to footprint and mark alluded to the fact that we
54:49
work with footprint which is the digital arm of perpetual guardian and we provide
54:54
with them access to online free wills for defense for members and their partners and spouses
55:01
and mark actually reminded me that sadly we had a death last april in defence and there was no will in place
55:09
and we are just getting the letters of administration through now from the court which means that that money and
55:15
that 300k that was due to go to that family has been sitting unable to be paid to the feed out until that time so
55:24
it's just a just a little um information about why it's so important to have a willing place
55:30
and when we talk about your assets they are your life insurance that i've spoken about so that three
55:35
hundred thousand your house your kiwisaver any money you've got in your community safer
55:41
basically anything that you've got that value is over fifteen thousand
55:46
is um part of your estate so it's all your assets together
55:53
now will is there to crucially protect your loved ones and make sure that you have the final say in
55:59
what happens such um such as what happens to your assets who looks after your children if you're no longer around
56:06
and where you can express your funeral wishes reasons to get and will and why
56:14
if you get a new career so you just join defense perhaps you're getting a your first home
56:20
um any sort of life changes you're getting married and getting divorced having children those kind of things you
56:27
want to be thinking and setting up a will
56:33
and part of the process of setting up here well you will need to appoint an executor
56:38
now that can be a family member or you can appoint a lawyer or perpetual guardian to do that on your
56:44
behalf but crucially the executor is that person that's going to be responsible for administering their
56:49
states and probate is the process of getting approval to administer your estate so
56:56
there is quite a lot of work in being an executor and it's something that you
57:02
should give thought to um and it is a job if you do want to appoint a family
57:07
member then please discuss it with them prior to obviously nominating them on your form
57:13
now if you don't have a will like what um what i mentioned before about that that person that passed away last year
57:20
it can take a really long time for the benefit to be paid to to the estate and
57:25
for for all to to get to the right people in the end and new zealand legislation dictates who gets what and
57:32
how much of your estate so meaning that you actually don't get a c anymore so it's so important and
57:38
obviously the longer it takes to to do this the more time and money that's eating away at what benefit is going to
57:45
be paid out in the end so we are covering aeon is covering the
57:52
cost of the footprint will it package and for all defense personnel it's
57:57
really really easy to set up it can take as quickly as 10 minutes it's all online
58:03
and you just follow the link um and the link is on the force for families um web page as well
58:11
and you just follow the prompts and it's it's really really easy to set up you just have to enter a code to make sure
58:17
that there's no cost to you so that's a on 105 or a on 10
58:23
msp for your spouse and um just cycle through all the pages
58:28
but it's um it's it's such an important thing to do and it's something that you really should think about and especially
58:34
if you've had any sort of life change changing events such as having children or purchasing a home um and things like
58:41
that it's very important okay so this is what the website looks
58:47
like and that's just showing you where you need to go so select the will it package
58:54
not the well package
59:00
and i'll just flick through some of the questions what it looks like but
59:05
yeah i've been replying to the questions that have come through okay oh sorry i can't see this oh okay i've
59:12
been doing it on the chat um sorry on the q a thing i've been replying to them i'm perfect thank you
59:18
um okay i think we better pause here thank you very much um so um please is kay highlighted this some
59:25
really powerful information there do have a look at any queries please either email ion
59:31
directly or you can come through to us benefits at nzbf dot mil dot nz
59:36
what i'd like to do now is hand across to a shee sharma who is going to talk to us about the services available to us
59:42
through tower ashish are you ready to go
59:49
floor's all yours thanks for the introduction there mark
59:54
um i'll just want to get the slides going
1:00:00
i don't can you see the slideshow going there yes we can yes we can oh brilliant
1:00:06
so in the interest of time i'll um you know try and um be as quick as i can but
1:00:11
thanks for that introduction really uh pleased to be here well at the end of the day any insurance
1:00:18
um you know it's it's it's it's a grudge purchase nobody um you know wants to talk about it
1:00:24
whether um you know that's do you see the picture of the cat on your screens there that's the feeling um you know
1:00:30
anyone would get when anyone wants to talk about insurance and i i'm sure you you all feel the same
1:00:38
in them you know people think oh it can happen to anyone it's not me it's always someone else actually it can happen to
1:00:45
anyone like just this morning or when i was in the gym i don't know if you can see my phone got smashed um when i was
1:00:51
just lifting some weight so anything can um you know happen and we're here at tower to um you know
1:00:57
protect um your general um assets which is your home car
1:01:03
contents and then we also offer barracks cover now before i get into technical um and
1:01:10
talk about the company and products i wanted to share this information with you guys um about the
1:01:15
climate change and it is here and it is to study and this is just from last year's um
1:01:21
shareholders report i took it it shows how many weather related events um you
1:01:26
know we have in new zealand and this this doesn't include anything after
1:01:31
august 21 and you might have read in the news like we had to talk many tornado and living and like floods
1:01:38
um in esport and then i'm gonna fight some wellington as well so you know it's
1:01:44
ongoing but as you can see in the slide in a period of a year tower insurance paid
1:01:50
26.3 million just in large events and that included cars and homes and
1:01:56
there are many other insurance companies in the markets and now you can understand the depth of um you know
1:02:01
climate change and um you know what what we have what we have there
1:02:07
now it can it can happen to anyone um as i said um earlier
1:02:14
it happened to me this morning i broke my phone i could get we all know who these people
1:02:20
are and every one of them had um you know insurance a lot of active events
1:02:26
as you can see on the screen um yeah [Music] mr bean's um you know car got crashed
1:02:32
into smashing to twice um you know queens wins the castle got burned down
1:02:37
michael hell um he actually started off his business um with um his house
1:02:43
getting burned down and his stores were ram raided charles when his medals were stolen and then
1:02:49
so it can happen to anyone so what are we doing here for new zealand defense
1:02:55
force is offering a package to cover um
1:03:00
your home contents and car and this is a unique offering um which we've um got in place
1:03:07
what this offering does is gives you a straight up 10 discount on our standard
1:03:12
products and we also have a unique featuring um for barracks cover usually
1:03:17
when we make a payment on any insurance you know if you pay monthly or fortnightly and annually you get a
1:03:24
certain discount when you pay annually whereas with barracks cover there's there's no loading there and all the
1:03:30
policies aren't written by tower we've got a minus um excellent trading
1:03:36
by in best financials and what it means is when the rubber hits the road there's plenty of money um in the kitty to um
1:03:43
go through and take care of the claims we offer package discounts and i'm an indian if it's coming from me um you
1:03:49
know we've got one of the best package of discounts it is one of the best in the market more than three products you get up to 20 discount 10 points
1:03:58
my wife's a big disney fan for the last three years we've been accumulating all those airplanes every
1:04:03
100 premium we get on one airplane we've booked the holidays for september using those airpoints and
1:04:10
you guys can do the same um if you're not already with tower join in and take
1:04:15
advantage of the air points i just want to cover it quickly and you know on barracks insurance because it's
1:04:22
it's it's a unique offering on its own so we we cut we offer a cover for personal effects um
1:04:29
for full replacement value all the items um while you're on the base and that includes military
1:04:34
equipment issued to you it's covered your personal um you know effects are covered and there's no limit um on
1:04:41
mobile phone now my mobile phone which i smashed this morning in the gym it cost me two thousand dollars um and
1:04:50
if if it happened to one of you guys there's no limit i'm gonna and you can just pay your access and claim that
1:04:56
and the cover is automatically there if you transfer to a base or another cab
1:05:02
and um it's also there when you're in the defense foreign anywhere in the world
1:05:09
now let's let's talk about um the house insurance and um you know what java does
1:05:14
um differently and the market we know um you know insurance as um could be could be a
1:05:20
tricky um for some people like everyone sees it as like a cost um rather than seeing it as a benefit so
1:05:28
we do offer a different level of cover they've got a premium cover we've got a plus cover and we've got a um standard
1:05:36
cover as well and we when you when you contact us we'll go through what it all means and explain
1:05:42
you you know which cover could be suitable for you just give us a call we'll have that in the discussion with
1:05:47
you and we also offer an extended sum insured for fire so in case of fire we
1:05:54
did an additional 20 buffer we also have additional um demand search protection buffers so say for instance
1:06:01
if there's a um earthquake or a massive catastrophe everyone in the market will be looking
1:06:06
to rebuild which our insurance is an additional buffer which goes up to 15
1:06:12
and a unique offering which we do for defense force is a cover remains in force if the house is unoccupied due to
1:06:20
that posting um usually um if for house insurance if it's unoccupied
1:06:26
you need to notify your insurances and there's this certain clauses whereas with defense form
1:06:32
it's um that's a unique offering we offer we do rental properties we do um you know home
1:06:38
properties pretty much everything um in-house insurance contents covers
1:06:45
um you again we have different tiers we've got a premium cover plus cover and standard cover now for
1:06:51
instance to give you an example like if you say i'm going to standard cover there will be a certain limit for
1:06:57
certain items a plus cover might have a higher item
1:07:02
but if you specify any item um you know then it would be uncovered whatever the
1:07:07
amount you specified and um you know we will have the policies um wording which we have at
1:07:13
tower is so simple if you go through the policy wording you can see it is all on the table give it to 11 year old they can read and
1:07:20
understand it in fact there's a award for it which is called as right mark tickerbot and tower has one that award
1:07:27
for playing policy wording and an additional unique offering which we
1:07:33
offer the news new zealand defense foreign personnel is any kit or military equipment issued to you
1:07:39
it's full replacement value regardless of which i'm gonna tear you got so that's that's also an add-on
1:07:47
now car insurance um you know um we've got third party comprehensive
1:07:54
third-party firing test now it it comes down to like how much you love your car and um how you want to
1:08:01
cover it it is very important um you know you have um all these insurances because
1:08:09
insurance is there to protect you from um any financial burden it's it's it's like um it's
1:08:16
it's like a parent which always gives back um and um you know if you follow um and read the policy wording and
1:08:23
understand you got the right cover but again if you have any questions and uh how to
1:08:29
sign up or um you know who to ask leave we're here for you you can see two
1:08:35
qr codes on the screen so for new zealand defense um serving personal if you scan the qr code
1:08:41
it will take you to the website and you can sign up yourself we've got a 24 7 online access
1:08:47
you can quote purchase a policy and logic line and if you like to talk to someone we've got
1:08:54
a dedicated team just for the defense force and the contact number is 800 for enforce the
1:09:01
operating hours are 8 am to 7 pm monday to friday and then we are available on
1:09:07
saturday as well if you like the type of email you can send in your queries to enforcer
1:09:13
tower.nz and if there's anyone on the webinar who's a retired person or you want to
1:09:19
extend its offering to your friends and family the qr code there um if you scan
1:09:24
it or we'll take you through the self-serve portal but again if you're confused way to find
1:09:29
us we also have a link mark has done a really good job i would force up like
1:09:34
all the information is there if you go on the page you can see um the link there and it will guide you and whatever
1:09:42
i just discussed um that information is available there as well and if you have any questions i'm here to
1:09:49
take them you can type them you can unmute yourself um ask the questions
1:09:55
other than that um it is pretty straightforward we're here i'm gonna provide you a dedicated
1:10:02
service and we offer 10 discount on top of the package discounts which we do for new
1:10:08
zealand defense force now to give you um i just want to end the presentation by
1:10:14
saying like every company has as a character just like human beings to
1:10:19
give you um you know a bit of a background of tower as character like we've been around 150 years with new
1:10:25
zealand owned and operated in during covert um nobody was driving the cast they were
1:10:31
just sitting at um tower insurance has actually paid all its customers 7.2 million um on car
1:10:38
insurance premiums because they were not really using it so it was that just shows
1:10:44
um the character of the company nobody asked us to do it we just did it because it was the right thing to do
1:10:50
over to you that's great thank you very much for that i see we've got still got 19 people on
1:10:56
so that's great um sir if you're able to bring up the final page of my presentation please but i'll just i'm
1:11:02
just conscious that people will be wanting to get off to other things but look thank you very very much uh everyone for attending
1:11:09
today that's been really great and thank you to the fellow presenters um
1:11:16
sorry for some reason i've lost my screen okay that's great thanks sarah so just in terms of summary um in terms of
1:11:22
this is a good opportunity to do a stock take of where we are in life with our finances i do urge people if you haven't done it
1:11:28
already please our financial wellbeing survey is available online we encourage everyone to participate in that because
1:11:34
it gives us an opportunity to see how people are feeling about life from a financial perspective and it also we use
1:11:40
the data to help plan future financial well-being initiatives as well i do urge everyone to check the force financial
1:11:47
hub remember it's internet-based you don't have to be at work to look at it and your family members can look at it
1:11:52
anytime they like as long as they have access to the internet as well this is a good opportunity for us to do
1:11:58
a stock take of where we are with our finances our investments things like as sarah highlighted our
1:12:04
investment allocation our diversification what sort of portfolio do we have our money invested in it's a
1:12:11
good opportunity to do a stock take of our insurances have we got all the insurances we need from both a life
1:12:16
perspective and a household house vehicle perspective and of course this is also the
1:12:23
opportunity to take a stock taker where we are with our will is our well up to date does actually
1:12:28
reflect our current family circumstances uh do we need a power of attorney
1:12:33
remember there's two poas available as well through our services um
1:12:39
the contact details for all the benefit providers are on the force financial hub so if you want to talk to anyone at any
1:12:45
stage you can contact them directly or you're welcome to come through us through the benefit site by emailing
1:12:51
benefits at ncdev.net.nz for members of the kiwisaver scheme the
1:12:57
defence force superannuation scheme or the ssrss the member statements would have gone out over the last month they
1:13:03
went out at the end of may for our schemes and probably for other kiwisaver schemes around about the same time
1:13:09
you're getting some really powerful information in your member statements now to help with your financial planning
1:13:14
particularly with your retirement planning and as sarah highlighted in her presentation when you have a look at our
1:13:20
the app for our savings schemes there's some really good innovative information there as well to help with your planning
1:13:28
so even if you only do it once a year please take the opportunity to have a look at your member statement have a
1:13:33
look at your projections have a look at where you've got your money invested is it the right portfolio for you in terms of your plans um and everything else
1:13:40
we also work very closely with the retirement commission who maintained a very comprehensive site
1:13:47
called the sorted site it's available to us all it's free as long as you have access to the internet again
1:13:54
some really powerful tools there to help with your planning there's a mortgage calculator a debt
1:13:59
calculator retirement calculator all of that sort of thing that's available free i've actually taken a number of the
1:14:05
tools myself and downloaded them on my system and on a regular basis i go through and update things to make sure
1:14:12
it reflects where i am in life as well for me i've got less than 10 years to go before i retire
1:14:17
so again i use the sorted site to help with my retirement projections and my planning and everything else
1:14:23
and as i mentioned earlier also we are going to be running some more classroom financial capability programs
1:14:30
um so watch out for the advertisements around those but during the cobid we weren't we weren't standing still
1:14:36
we actually worked with the retirement commission in uh recording a series of webinars which again are available on
1:14:42
the resources page of the force financial hub and of course they're available to family members as well
1:14:48
and become wealth also did some very good things in the podcast
1:14:53
space and mercer have also been preparing a series of um podcasts
1:14:59
short six to seven minute podcasts and and videos and things which are available on their site
1:15:05
uh also available on the force for the force financial hub giving people an update on what has
1:15:10
happened with the markets particularly we've gone through a lot of market volatility over the last two years people get very anxious about where they
1:15:17
are with their money and what they they see happening to their kiwisaver balances and so again you'll see there's
1:15:23
some really good stuff on the mercer site and people have got concerns of course are welcome to contact become wealth at
1:15:29
any stage to make sure that things are in the right position for them in terms of their portfolio where they've got
1:15:36
their money invested and everything else um i see we've still got 20 people online which is really great so look
1:15:43
please happy to take any questions around anything that people may have around any of the things that
1:15:48
we've covered off today or any of the things that we haven't covered and people feel there's things that we've missed out
1:15:53
please this is the opportunity to ask um so otherwise
1:15:59
just if anyone's got any further questions please either raise your hand or send a question through the q a
1:16:10
can't see anything further okay that's great look thank you very much everyone have a great afternoon uh we
1:16:17
are presenting again at seven o'clock tomorrow night so family members are most welcome to
1:16:23
attend and we do encourage that and i think uh claire and laura have been recording this session as well
1:16:30
and presumably will appear at some stage in the future as well for people who want to go back and check things as well
1:16:35
so thank you very much everyone have a great afternoon and please feel free to contact us at any stage
1:16:42
thank you
those of you haven't met um for those of you who haven't met me before next slide please sarah
0:06
um i'm mark williamson i'm the benefits manager for the new zealand defence force located in level 8 of defence
0:12
house what we're doing today is we're running through a series of presentations talking about the
0:18
benefits available through the force financial hub and the particular theme for this week
0:23
is taking a pause to do your stock take looking at where you are with things in your life and of course finances are a
0:30
very important part of that so that includes looking at your finances looking at your other risk
0:35
aspects including your insurances uh your will as you're well up to date all those sort of things uh looking at
0:42
your savings schemes look at your member statements and all that sort of thing so that's what we're going to cover off today the good news for you all is i'm
0:48
going to speak very briefly and then i'll be handing across to my colleagues from a variety of
0:53
organizations who are going to present today we're going to have we've broken up the session into 10-minute segments
1:00
and at the end of each segment there will be a pause for questions and we will we do welcome questions from many
1:05
of you please and then at the end of the session just before one o'clock there'll be the opportunity to further the
1:11
questions as well next slide please sarah
1:18
next one okay so there's a a female commentator who writes for the herald called francis
1:24
cook she also runs a podcast on a regular basis called cocking the books her latest book came out earlier this
1:31
year it's a very good read available on what calls for 29 i just want to draw your attention to this quote because i actually thought it
1:37
was a very powerful quote being financially insecure sucks out your brain power
1:43
leading to poor decisions your day-to-day life figuring out ways to survive consume your brain power leaving less available
1:50
for making the smart mating decisions that could get you out of trouble and i think this is a very act quote because
1:55
what it does does it highlights the problems that many of us face at different stages in our life with getting to grips with our finances
2:02
and when you're experiencing financial difficulties either temporarily or on a long-term basis it can have a
2:09
significant impact on your life on your relationships on your workplace and everything else and this
2:15
is why the force financial hub working with the nzf and a variety of providers puts in place
2:22
a number of tools to help us manage our our finances next slide please sir
2:28
so reflecting the theme of this week this is the opportunity to press pause to take stock of our finances our
2:35
insurances our well is it up to date whether we're saving for a first time or
2:40
we're actually getting prepared for retirement this is the opportunity to have a look at all the things we've got going on in our life at this particular
2:46
time to see what what changes we may want to make next one please
2:51
so the sort of things i think it's it's a good opportunity for us for us to look at probably at least once a year
2:57
is do we do we have financial goals do we have a financial plan and if so
3:02
what's the time frame for that financial plan is there a household budget is there a rainy day fund for the
3:09
emergencies that come up on a on a monthly or or six monthly basis
3:14
if we have debts is there a debt management plan in place to help us control those debts and ideally over a
3:21
period of time run down those debts and for those like you the older ones in particular do we have a retirement plan
3:28
this is a particularly important aspect i think for people who are getting closer to retirement they need to have a
3:34
think about uh how long their money is going to last we make the expectation that we'll be retired for 25 to 30 years
3:41
of retirement and we need to make sure that we actually have a plan around how long our money will last over
3:46
that period supplementing national superannuation payments and then from a risk management perspective is our well up to date sadly
3:54
we had a young death of a young chap over the weekend and so we regularly have within defense 14 to 15 deaths per
4:02
year we do provide an up-to-date will service and kaye will talk about that
4:07
and it is really important that all of us have a date a will that actually reflects our current circumstances in
4:12
life and then from an insurance perspective do we have our insurance assorted and again we've got kay and
4:19
ashish to talk about our insurance program that's available next one so what's the forced financial
4:24
hub about and what are we able to do to help so the goal of the forced financial hub
4:29
is that we have all our defence members are financially secure they're financially capable or literate
4:37
and for those who aspire to own their own home uh they're in their own home or they've got a plan to help them get into their
4:43
own home and whilst we don't make decisions for people obviously what we're endeavoring
4:48
to do is to provide support and tools to help people make the best decisions for their
4:54
household but also to achieve that long-term aspiration of the force financial hub
4:59
next one sarah so what is the force financial hub but it's internet based it's a one-stop shop it provides a range
5:07
of benefits products services and tools for members of the defence community including families and including
5:12
veterans and their families and a key point about the force financial hub is that when you leave defence when your career with us with us
5:19
comes to an end then you continue to access all these benefits and tools and your family
5:25
do as well next month please syrup so what are the key components well we have our savings
5:31
schemes and sarah for merce is going to be talking about those very shortly we have our email ibp staff insurance
5:37
program our southern cross medical insurance program and our wells service and katie from ion will be talking about
5:43
those we have our domestic insurance program ashish from tower we'll be talking about that we
5:50
have our financial advice service and our mortgage broker service and we have julian from become wealth uh talking
5:56
about those services and then we have a variety of tools and resources available on the force financial hub we have a
6:03
preferential banking arrangement with anz and we also have a comprehensive financial capability program that we run
6:08
through um the camps and basis on a regular basis and supplementing with that we've been running a series of
6:14
webinars that have been recorded and are also on the force financial hub next one please sarah one of the things we also
6:21
do is to help people their retirement uh planning and you'll see that every year we link
6:27
into annual mass many massey university research that they do they what they do
6:33
is they interview a cross section of retirees across the country to work out how much they may be spending in
6:38
retirement to supplement national super and how much they may need as a lump sum
6:43
to give them that additional income that they require and those figures are updated annually um and next one please
6:49
sir you can see that we will be running a campaign again very shortly around how much do i need for my retirement because
6:55
we've now got the latest figures from massey university and as an example for people thinking
7:00
about retiring in wellington or auckland and you're wanting a choices retirement when i think most of us would be in that
7:07
category then um you'd be spending roughly about fourteen hundred and seventy dollars a
7:12
week as a couple of which you'll be getting 777 from national super and you'll be needing
7:18
around around about 800 a week coming from from your own resources and again for a one person household
7:25
again you wanted to live in auckland wellington or christchurch then again you'll be spending about a thousand
7:31
dollars a week of which 462 comes from national super and again you need roughly 600 coming in from your own
7:37
resources and that's over the period of 25 to 30 years that you may expect to be retired
7:43
so those figures look very daunting and there is a comprehensive report that actually underpins that research and all
7:49
of that's available on the force financial hub as well um i'd just like to round off so next
7:54
slide please sarah just a reminder that we do work very closely with the retirement commission
8:00
and providing a range of financial capability programs we haven't been able to do so much classroom-based activity
8:06
over the last two years because of covert but we are getting underway again very shortly
8:11
you'll see in the campsite basis and head office will be advertising a range of
8:17
financial capability programs that we provide we provide it on work time we pay
8:22
it's our investment as part of your development and so we do encourage people to register for our financial
8:28
capability programs and to look out for the local um advertising details i'm going to pause
8:35
at this stage um and just ask for any questions
8:46
okay what i'd like to do now please is hand across to sarah barnaby and sarah's
8:51
going to talk about the services that are provided to us through mercer the fund managers for our
8:57
savings schemes that's the new zealand defensible kiwisaver scheme the flexi saver scheme and the of course the dfss
9:04
which is closed off to members but still very much alive and being actively managed sarah the floor's all yours
9:16
thank you mark i'm just sorry juggling the technology as we move from one presentation to another
9:21
um thanks for having us today as mark said i'm from mercer and we look after the um defense new zealand defence force
9:27
saving schemes um just uh um our disclosure notice to start off with i'm
9:34
gonna run through a bunch of information about the schemes today but none of it's personal financial advice so it doesn't
9:40
take into account your situation and the aim today is to give you an overview about what's available to you
9:46
and as mark suggested you know take the opportunity to take stock of where you are today and think about whether
9:52
there's anything you can do that might help set you up the best possible way for the future
10:03
so just a bit of background in terms of who mercer is so um mercer is a global organization we've been in new zealand
10:10
for more than 60 years and worked with the defence force for more than 10 years now and we really value our partnership
10:17
the new zealand defence force our expertise is really in working with employers to help their
10:24
people uh set themselves up for retirement and in kiwisaver and we work with a number of large well
10:30
organizations of all size really to do just that
10:35
um but i have to say that the new zealand defence force has an amazing offering for its people in terms of
10:42
particularly kiwisaver which really shows uh the value that they place on the
10:47
financial security of their people and there are some benefits in the new zealand defense force kiwisaver scheme
10:55
which is unique in its own rights the only employer-sponsored kiwi server scheme
11:01
and there's some benefits in that that you won't find anywhere else so there's a four percent employer
11:07
contribution so that's whether you're a member of the new zealand defence force kiwi service scheme or any other kiwi
11:13
server scheme but there's some other things that you don't often find in other places so there's monthly prezi
11:20
card draws so by being a member of the scheme by making contributions by having
11:26
set your communication preferences so that you can get some information about the scheme you go into the draw to win
11:33
um a prezi card each month and people have one more than once so that's
11:39
something designed to encourage you to set things up well
11:45
there are incentive payments that the chief of defense force makes available to you so there's three one thousand
11:51
dollar payments from cdf in years one four and seven of your membership um in
11:59
the scheme and i'll come back to that in a minute there's also really good access to financial advice so you'll talk to julia
12:06
here from julian a little bit later on from become wealth and the become wealth team
12:12
there to help you if you need any advice and then there's also another scheme
12:18
called the new zealand defense force flexi saver scheme which is also available to you to use for other
12:24
savings goals so not for saving for your first time or retirement necessarily but for any of those other
12:30
goals that you might have um so just a bit more information on the
12:36
retention payments um as i said there's three thousand one thousand dollar payments that's before
12:42
tax which are paid into your nzdf kiwisaver account so you do need to
12:49
be a member of the defense force scheme in order to be eligible for that
12:54
you need to be serving as a member of nzdf
13:00
and the payments are made after after you've been a member of the scheme for a year four years and seven years and
13:07
they're paid directly into your ncdf kiwisaver account
13:12
and the good thing is that the payments aren't ring fenced so it means that they can't be taken back once they've gone in
13:18
they're yours so if you um left the defense force those payments
13:24
still remain in your account in your kiwisaver account once you've left
13:29
and if you change providers they would come with you and they can be used as part of your
13:34
a first home withdrawal that you might make so that makes them um you know an
13:39
extra help along the way in your savings journey
13:46
i just thought i'd go through some kiwisaver basics um
13:51
we get to deal with kiwisaver all day every day but i know that's not the case for everyone um if you're thinking about your
13:57
contributions so the minimum contribution for an employer is three percent your employer already gives you
14:04
a head start and contributing four you can then choose to contribute three four six eight or ten percent of
14:12
your um earnings and you can make extra voluntary contributions along the way if you want
14:19
to um so this is a good opportunity to think about what's the right contribution rate for you what can i
14:25
afford what are my goals how can i best get there and choose the contribution rate that best fits with
14:30
that there's a government contribution available to you each year and that's up
14:38
to 521 and 43 cents for most people who are
14:45
earning and on a salary then they will qualify to receive the full
14:50
government contribution each year the focus of the scheme is on all
14:57
kiwisaver schemes is on either buying your first home or on retirement
15:03
um and what that means is that there are limited circumstances in which you can get your money out so
15:08
if you qualify for the first time withdrawal you can do that otherwise generally it's not available until
15:15
you're at the moment age 65 and there's really limited other circumstances that you might be able to
15:20
but it's designed to be for you to save money for a long-term goal
15:27
yeah so funds are locked in until they age 65 unless unless you meet some pretty specific criteria
15:36
and of course your three 1 000 payments go in there as well um as i said there's um also the nzdf
15:44
flexi saver scheme which sits alongside uh kiwisaver so it's complementary to it
15:51
um as the name might suggest it's a bit more flexible than
15:56
kiwisaver is and it's designed to be focused on other financial goals so you can put in what you want and when you
16:03
want you can contribute via payroll if you'd like to but it might be for things for
16:09
example i have a flexi saver account for my children and i'm putting money in there
16:14
to save for their tertiary education but it might be for any other financial goal that you might have
16:21
you can withdraw funds at any time so it's not locked in by like kiwisavers
16:29
and i'll come on to what the investment options look like but there are the same
16:34
investment options as there are in the defence force kiwisaver scheme so relatively easy to understand
16:42
once you get your head around it different from kiwisaver there's no employer contribution no government
16:48
contribution and no cdf retention payments that go in there
16:55
but yes you can have both a kiwisaver and a flexi saver account if you would like to and in fact many people do
17:02
so i mentioned before that there are seven different investment options that you can choose from in either the kiwisa
17:09
and new zealand defense force kiwi server scheme or flexi saver they range as you can see from here from
17:17
low risk to higher risk and low expected long-term
17:23
return to higher expected long-term return so one of the things that's worthwhile
17:30
thinking about regularly is which of these options are best for you given
17:35
your attitude to risk and your goals and the like and there are some
17:41
tools on the website that can help you choose which one of these funds is right for you
17:48
many people in kiwisaver there are also many people who don't know which of these funds that
17:53
they are in and i just encourage you all to have a look find out which one you're in and check
17:58
whether that's still the right one for you
18:05
um this slide here shows the seven different
18:10
investment options on the left and what the returns have looked like in the last 12 months but also the last five years
18:18
so for those of you who joined the call early you might have heard mark talking about
18:24
some of the volatility that's happening in the markets at the moment and this year particularly with
18:29
the situation in ukraine it has meant that there has been lots of ups and downs and uncertainty in the market
18:37
so you can see that in the one-year returns there have been negative
18:43
returns across the board other than for the cash fund
18:48
however when you look in the five-year returns those numbers are positive and that's great because particularly
18:54
for kiwisaver it's a long-term investment it's designed to help you save for your retirement which for most
19:00
people will be more than five years away but it also shows you that for the higher risk
19:07
funds so the growth and high growth and shares funds the returns um
19:13
are greater than for the cash and conservative funds so it just shows the higher risk higher returns
19:20
you'd expect more volatility in the growth in high growth and shares funds than you would for the ones at the other
19:26
end of the spectrum but also higher expected returns
19:33
so this chart here just shows what a difference a choice in fund makes so this shows
19:41
an investment of ten thousand dollars that was made in october 2015 which is when the kiwisaver and flexi saver
19:48
schemes were established and what has happened since then for each of the funds so you'll be able to
19:54
see there's a couple of dips there uh the biggest one was a time that we'll
20:00
probably all remember around um march 2019 uh when covert really hit
20:06
and then bounced back after that and a bit of a dip more recently but you'll be able to see that the
20:13
cash fund at the bottom the light blue line at the bottom has grown but not by a great deal but it
20:19
has been steady along that time whereas at the other end of the spectrum the the shares fund which is at the highest
20:25
end of the um expected return and risk um
20:31
continuum has had more steep ups and downs but has resulted in
20:37
a greater overall return at the end so just encourage you to think about which of
20:43
the options is right for you because you can see here what difference that could make
20:48
value for money is one of the things that we're really conscious of and we work closely with mark and with
20:54
others of your leaders to make sure that mercer is the provider of the schemes is
20:59
giving you good value for money so this chart here compares the fees
21:05
in yellow for the nzdf kiwi saver scheme against the market average in grey so
21:11
you can see that where the schemes are given good value for money they're below the market
21:16
average we don't aim to be the cheapest but we do aim to represent
21:22
give you good value for money and the fees that you're paying in your kiwi service scheme
21:30
if you're a member of the scheme you might know this already but there's a there's an app that's available to you so you
21:35
can get access to your balances when you need it you know on your phone um you can download that from
21:42
the app store or from get it from google play and this is what the website looks like
21:47
this is actually the desktop version but it just shows you what you can see so on the
21:53
dashboard page it gives you a break that gives you your balance it gives you a breakdown of what you've
21:59
contributed and what the investment earnings that you've earned on your investment is
22:05
in the middle there the retirement benefit is a projection of
22:10
what the estimate of your balance would be at retirement age and if you click through
22:16
on the view more details you can play around with a number of things like contribution rates of when you want to retire and it will change
22:23
show you the impact on that number so you can see what you might need to do to get to your
22:28
retirement goals so important question how do you sign up
22:34
um if you probably the easiest things for you guys if anyone's interested in joining is to google force financial hub
22:41
which has all of the information about the benefits that mark talked about earlier but it also has a link through
22:47
to the savings schemes and online joining the forms for both kiwisaver and
22:52
flexisaver so quite an easy joining process if you'd like to do that if
22:57
you're already with another kiwisaver provider and you're interested in joining the defence force
23:03
kiwisaver scheme all you have to do is fill out the joining form and then we take care
23:08
of the rest you don't need to talk to your current provider about making a change that's all done in the background
23:13
by us all right um that was all i had but happy to take any questions now if there
23:20
are any there's also the q a and chat function
23:26
so feel free to use that if anyone would like to but if not i will hand back to mark
23:34
okay thank you very much for that sarah that was great um what i'd like to do now is introduce
23:39
you please julian lingard who's with our financial advice and financial planning service become wealth previously known
23:46
as milestone direct limited um at the beginning of june
23:51
the milestone merged with another company called become wealth and i'm pleased to have julian here today to
23:58
represent us so julian when you're ready the floor's all yours
24:17
i think julian's still on mute
24:22
you okay there julian yep sorry just having some technical
24:30
difficulties getting my microphone come back up sorry about that everyone thanks very much for that mark and um and
24:36
thanks for that uh great information on the defence force kiwisaver and super saver schemes
24:42
let's bring my presentation up bear with me for a second
24:50
as i was coming in to um to become part of the panel that this
24:58
afternoon my computer decided to shut itself down so i do apologize
25:15
uh um laura are you there have you got julian's presentation
25:21
i don't sorry mark okay right okay
25:28
right right here we go let's cover up now julian well done excellent thank you
25:41
okay so um become well i've been with become wealth since um
25:48
since the recent merger i've been involved in the financial services industry in new zealand for about 20
25:54
years and i've been providing financial advice for a full team um become wealth's really proud to be
26:01
involved in what mark and his team are doing with the new zealand defence force
26:07
and we are the official advice provider to all the new zealand defense force members their families and of course the
26:13
defense community so what's the benefit of gauging with us
26:18
well but we sit at the center of what really can be quite a lot of complex um
26:25
and diverse range of products available to um to defence force members in terms of
26:32
reaching your desired financial outcomes in life whether that be saving for a house saving for retirement um we we
26:39
bring all these things together for you so you see we're involved in um in
26:44
helping with some budgeting advice around debt repayment savings for
26:50
um for the goals outside of capital growth um helping you make good decisions
26:55
around um around investments and how they should be structured and of course um the kiwisaver aspect so um we're all
27:04
very familiar with the um with the tools that mersa makes
27:10
available through the defence force kiwisaver scheme and of course the flexi saver schemes
27:17
and we work with those tools to help you achieve that outcomes that you'd um that you want to achieve so
27:23
see bringing all these things together for
27:28
you makes it a lot easier for you we we sit in the middle where
27:34
we're looking after all those bits and pieces you engage with us um you've got a single port of call to um to enable
27:42
us to provide the bits and pieces that you need
27:47
so there's been a lot of talk recently um about um about debt uh interest rates
27:54
are going up um the cost of living in general is getting more expensive but um we just
28:00
want to point out here that there is such a thing as as good debt versus bad debt right and so that this is a good
28:07
highlight of what this looks like so when you invest in a house yep you're going into debt um but the the reality
28:15
is that the house is an investment for the most part over a long period of time will will go up in value
28:22
um so while you are spending money um to purchase a home and you're borrowing money from the bank to do that
28:29
that that's a prudent way of spending money because it is actually providing you with um with capital
28:36
growth you're paying down that debt over a long period of time houses continue to go up in value
28:42
you're winning versus the not so good death so you know we all have um we'll have
28:49
things that we would like to um that would like to enjoy in life whether that be a
28:55
flash car or trips overseas or those sorts of bits and pieces it's important to remember that um if if you're going
29:03
to enjoy those sorts of things perhaps debt isn't the best way to go about doing that savings
29:09
is typically a better way to achieve those goals and i think this highlights
29:14
um that quite nicely so you can see though the purchase of the home a deposit of 60 000
29:21
um the equity that you'll have in five years time on that home approximately 260 000
29:28
whereas if you buy a vehicle with the same amount of money of course they drop significantly in value in year one um
29:35
and then the value of that 16 000 that you've spent on that vehicle in five years time
29:41
is less than twenty thousand dollars so you can see there's a significant um significant difference there
29:48
julian sarah here sorry to interrupt um your slides are still showing on the first one can you scroll through
29:55
to i think you intending to be on a different one okay
30:03
i think you're up to four or five now julian
30:22
okay so can you all see goodbyes bad debt with the
30:29
yeah okay no oh i can i think what we can see is the front page julie
30:36
hi jillian sorry it's laura um screen sharing yep so if you just go to the slide that you
30:42
want to share so the one that you're up
30:48
to yep and now go slide show
30:54
one of the tabs on the on the top no and down
31:00
a slideshow it's links to animations yeah that's not coming through here is
31:06
it i've just hit that and it's not
31:17
let me escape back out of here
31:25
okay that's good okay and so if you press slideshow
31:31
not that one and so yep keep going along yup that one
31:37
yep and press um not now sorry not now
31:43
um and if you press from current slide which is just the second tab up the top um on your left hand side
31:51
yeah
31:58
okay are you seeing that properly now uh yeah we're on the one with the car to
32:05
buy property first and the fun stuff cool
32:10
sorry about that people okay okay
32:16
so saving for retirement or saving for
32:22
anything um is a long-term prospect and that the the
32:28
sooner we get started on doing that the the better that that ends up being for all of us so we're
32:35
this little slide you can see here we've got several different ranges of people
32:40
um who are saving long term julian go to the next
32:46
slide please go to the next one
32:52
you want the mirror slide
33:07
yeah yep okay
33:15
okay so we've got three different ages of people here we've got samantha who starts saving at age 18.
33:21
um we've got simon who starts saving just three years later at age 21
33:27
and then will who starts at age 25. now we can see the difference of time
33:35
with total accumulation by age by age 30 so you can see samantha's
33:41
starting at age 18 manages to accumulate close to
33:47
close to 94 000 by the time she's she's 30 years old
33:52
um simon is not too badly off here um starting at age 21 he's still got nine
33:58
years with the savings there so he's he's getting um to about two-thirds of
34:04
what samantha will say but well starting some seven years later than samantha is um is only at one third of um of of that
34:12
capacity of the other two so how the how does some of the benefits of the new
34:19
zealand defence force help you achieve better things here well
34:24
um if you're determined and you're frugal to be able to um to
34:31
save up accumulate funds in a relatively quick quick way um the
34:37
contributions from the flexi saver and the new zealand defence force kiwisaver schemes you can actually accumulate
34:44
quite a lot of money in a relatively quick period of time and and this is here how it works so
34:50
if you're putting in 500 a fortnight into your flexi saver um you're contributing three percent
34:56
into your um into your kiwisaver the defence force is
35:01
obviously putting in four percent you get your government contributions of 521
35:06
and some change each year um and then of course is the retention payments both for being involved and
35:12
continuing on to be involved in the defence force kiwisaver scheme so
35:18
over a five-year period you qualify um for two of the three payments there
35:25
and over the space of just five years you can accumulate 95 000 which for a
35:32
lot of us goes a long way towards the deposit on our first home
35:38
which is fantastic um this is being highlighted being operated
35:43
in a moderate fund which is a relatively relatively low risk not a lot of
35:49
volatility um as sarah was just talking about in some of the more higher performing funds over the
35:56
long term but just to highlight that if i share this next screen with you
36:03
and just revisit sarah's little graph that she showed us before
36:10
you can see you know saving money in a bank account to um to get a deposit for your first
36:16
home purchase for example is not going to serve you particularly
36:22
well is not going to help you get to where you need to be and this is where the you know shutting down the the likes of us
36:29
can help put you on track and um and sort of identify and and make the
36:35
best of what you've got available both yourselves with an income point of view and also to um to the benefits of
36:43
being involved with the extra things you get from the defence war schemes um i'm just hovering my mouse around
36:49
here you can see um that that's where the moderate fund sits so you can see you're not getting
36:55
the um the high growth that you do in the the share portfolio for example but
37:01
the rationale behind doing the moderate fund is that you don't want this sort of thing to happen when
37:07
you're about ready to go purchase your first home that would be rather demoralizing and um
37:13
and annoying but when you get to that point in time of course we can also help you with
37:20
with mortgage advice and helping with a uh we've got an in house finance team um that can help you
37:27
navigate your way through purchasing um first time next time dream home etc uh
37:34
the benefits of using a mortgage broker um we've got access to products that may not be available to
37:41
the general public because we are very familiar with the
37:47
lending criteria for all the major banks we can quickly circumvent going to banks
37:54
that won't help and make sure that we're putting you in the best possible position
38:00
at one point of contact rather than having to deal with several people or potentially several different people
38:06
at bank and we can help from start to finish there so if you're not quite ready to purchase your first home but you know
38:12
you're not too far away often a chat with a with a mortgage broker will um will give you some tips
38:19
and tricks and um help you get prepared for
38:24
that first home purchase it's been in the media quite a bit recently and the government's making
38:30
some changes but there was a quite a lot of heartache with some changes to um
38:35
to legislation which saw banks taking a much tougher approach um in the way they lean people money uh our team got across
38:42
that pretty quickly and uh and have been helping people who thought they weren't able to get
38:48
borrowing actually continue to be able to do so so they um it's a very worthwhile service
38:57
so in summary um there's a lot of wonderful um things
39:02
available to you through the new zealand defense force scheme um and the defence
39:08
force financial hub so the the opportunity really is there um so for
39:14
you to get stuck in and come and have a chat with us and we'll help you navigate
39:19
um your way through the different through the different products and services that are available through that hub
39:25
and you can engage with us one-on-one to uh to to get some advice
39:30
and that sort of looks like this so depending on um on how you're a member
39:36
of the defensive scheme there are several different membership levels of being involved
39:41
there but in general terms you can get 30 minutes worth of free or general advice over the phone with us um
39:48
we normally charge that out to uh to normal retail clients the rate of 500 per hour
39:55
you get mortgage broking from us uh that's a free service that's provided so you get to engage the services of
40:02
professional who knows the entire market um and we can provide some
40:08
comprehensive financial planning from from around 500 uh that sees you getting up to five
40:14
hours worth of um worth of financial planning which reasonably out in the
40:20
again out in the general retail market we um we would see a cost of at least
40:25
three thousand dollars uh plus to um to get that level of advice so very worthwhile very good value for money um
40:34
and i highly recommend reaching out to it
40:39
that's where i'm going to stop for today is there any questions
40:48
coming back from the audience
40:58
julian thank you very much for that just a couple of points from julian's slideshow apologies for the technology
41:04
everyone this this odds lord these things occur at times but a couple of key points for julian's
41:09
presentation i think was the power of starting early with the compounding effect the earlier one starts saving or
41:16
investing the easier it is it's never too late to start investing so for older people don't be discouraged you haven't
41:22
been able to do much up until now but the sooner you're able to start even if it's just putting three percent away
41:28
into your kiwis over each fortnight and not thinking about it then you're over a period of time with that compounding effect you do see your funds accumulate
41:36
okay thank you very much for that julian what we're going to do now is again in
41:41
in keeping with our theme around doing a stock take of where we are in life what we're going to do now is to
41:46
shift to other aspects of our risk management and i'd like to introduce you to k hamilton from ion and k is going to
41:53
talk to you about our mi bp insurance program our walls program and the relationship that we have sub with
41:59
southern cross for our medical insurance program okay the floor's all yours
42:13
thanks mark sorry i just had to take myself off mute and hopefully everyone can see my slides
42:18
now and ms mark said i'm kay hamilton and i am from aon so we look after the member
42:25
insurance benefits program that you've got at defence now this covers civilians regular force reserves and
42:32
all of you there um and i'm just going to walk through the benefits that we've got in place and so please do ask
42:39
questions if you can along the way um who are new zealand so it's similar to sarah when she was talking about
42:45
mercer we are a multinational broking firm um we have um offices all over the
42:51
world um and a number in new zealand i think we've got about 70 offices throughout new zealand so you've no doubt seen one of our branches um
42:58
along the rows um and the member insurance benefits program is your life
43:03
insurance income protection cover that you've bought as members of fence and i'll come on to that in a bit more detail shortly
43:10
eon's role as the broker is to work alongside defense and source the best
43:16
insurance for you and defense force understandably have a very unique um
43:22
job role and getting insurance that's going to be fit for purpose is not um is not
43:29
as simple as it would be for other occupations so that's why um given the uniqueness we have been able to make
43:35
sure that the member insurance benefits program is fit for purpose for you all
43:42
okay so the types of insurance i'll cover um are life insurance income protection critical illness and medical
43:49
insurance and as a bit of a background um around insurance and this is um
43:54
getting a bit depressing but around one um around for every thousand um people in
44:02
the workforce there's a right one death so with this size of defence force being around 14
44:08
14 000 members that's around 14 deaths per year that we can statistically
44:14
expect and that's from a range of causes so illness accidents
44:21
sadly um all of those come into play um and defenses is is not unique in that in
44:29
in the realm of every other client out there so they're all suffering and the kind of same situations
44:35
um life insurance i'll just go into a little bit um it's not really life insurance it's
44:41
death insurance but um marketing makes it because it sounds a little bit more appealing and calling it life insurance
44:48
but effectively if you pass away then the life insurance benefit will be paid
44:53
to your estate um so if it's kind of the most selfless benefit that you can have because it's
44:59
not really designable to you um however if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness and it's likely that you'll pass
45:06
away within 12 months and as diagnosed by your specialist then that benefit can be paid to you in
45:12
advance of your death and that means that you can have some choices around what that benefit goes towards
45:19
then you get income protection very similar to and you may be more familiar with acc and how that works if you're
45:26
unable to work due to an accident or injury acc will come to the party and provide a benefit if you're not able to
45:33
work and give you some rehab and get you back work quickly as possible income protection works in a very similar way
45:40
and where it will respond if you're unable to work due to illness so um
45:46
significant illnesses such as um could be cancer mental health um disorders
45:52
um heart attacks those kind of things where you're unable to work for some time then
45:58
income protection would would come to the party and pay you a benefit until you can come back to work um or
46:05
for until the end of that period term then we've got critical illness which is also called trauma cover and that again
46:13
is a lump sum cash benefit that's paid to you in the event that you're diagnosed with one of the conditions in
46:19
the policy there are around 40 different conditions covered under critical illness policies and but the most
46:25
commonly claimed events are your heart attacks and cancers and last but not least um medical
46:32
insurance i'll just cover off and that's really your fast access to care and
46:37
that's available as well so just in terms of what is actually available for you as defence force
46:44
members um we do have six tiers of insurance benefits um and i'll try and
46:50
not confuse things too much um and hopefully a lot of you will be relatively familiar with what you've got
46:57
and but tier one is probably the most important one that you know about and that is completely free for
47:04
entity members so civilians and regular force members get the same benefits
47:09
under tier one it's completely free defense force pays for that for you and no pre-existing um sorry all
47:16
pre-existing conditions are covered and no questions asked it's 24 7 worldwide cover um so it's really really great
47:24
then we've got tier two which is where you can add on extra insurance if you wish um at your own expense
47:30
and tier three is open to your partners or spouses and then tier four is where
47:36
you've got x defense members tier five is a funeral plan we've developed for the wider defense
47:43
community and tier six is really anything that's not covered in tiers one to five and so we really do want to
47:50
cater for the wider defense community and the mibp and we hope that that is what we're achieving here
47:58
so tier one i'll just go into a bit of detail about what tier one is and as i said it's fully paid for by defense
48:04
and for you all you've all got three hundred thousand dollars worth of life and terminal illness cover so that death
48:10
cover i mentioned earlier including that is up to fifty thousand dollars worth of physical loss so that
48:17
covers accidental injury and you've also looked at that income protection cover so that one that's
48:23
similar to ecc where it will pay you a benefit of 75 percent of your base salary plus military factor if you're
48:30
regular force um up for up to two years after 98 week period
48:35
um so crucially all members are automatically covered it doesn't take into consideration any sort of history
48:41
of health and you've all got that from day one of joining with defence
48:47
so these are really really comprehensive benefits that you've got automatically um that you should
48:52
be familiar with and obviously share this information with your family so that they know you have this in place as
48:57
well so one of the great things about this
49:04
insurance is that you can take it with you if you decide to leave defence um the continuation cover so that means
49:11
that you can transfer tier one into tier two and pay for the benefit yourself after
49:17
you transfer it but crucially if you do so within 60 days you don't have to be health assessed by the insurer and so it
49:24
means if you if you're still with defense in a number of years time and you've developed some health issues along the way and you decide to leave
49:31
defense you can transfer that cover into a personal um tier two pay for this that
49:37
benefit yourself but know that you don't have to be health assessed so you don't have to worry about filling in any
49:43
lengthy health declarations so tier two is where you can purchase
49:50
additional cover and now coming up from one july we run these um we've run these
49:56
for the last few years and we're really delighted to be doing it again this year where we run a special offer from one
50:02
july through to the end of august where all regular force civilians can and reserve force can take them taking up
50:09
can take up extra cover with limited um underwriting so you can you can apply
50:16
for up to three hundred thousand dollars worth of life cover up to sixty thousand dollars worth of critical illness cover
50:23
and extend that income protection benefits through to five years now there are some conditions and that
50:29
if you have previously applied for a special offer then you may not be able to apply for any extra because you've
50:35
already maxed out your opportunity previously and or if you've been underwritten previously and there's
50:40
terms those terms would apply to the new cover um but certainly if you are looking at
50:46
purchasing some extra cover or you're you're having a think about you're not you don't have adequate insurance in
50:52
place then please do consider getting it over the next two months it's a it's a really good opportunity to do it without
50:58
having to be health assessed we also do a special events cover which
51:04
is available at any time and that means that you can purchase additional life cover if you are going
51:11
through any one of these special events um and that means that you can get up to a maximum of 150 000 for a new
51:19
mortgage if you're buying a home or an extra 50k life cover if you're getting married having a baby um
51:28
getting divorced even all of these constitute as a special event and it means that you don't have to be health
51:34
assessed and so please do contact us if any of these apply so that we can provide you with the code of what that
51:40
would look like for you and just to cover up why it's such a
51:45
good time to take the cover under one of these special offers um usually what happens is if you apply for
51:52
insurance at any other time and you have to be medically underwritten for it you will have to fill in a lengthy
51:58
questionnaire about your history of health and declare any issues that you may have had and the insurer can also request
52:05
your medical notes from your gp and so in that if you're perfectly healthy then it's unlikely to be an
52:12
issue but um as you go through life and and as we age
52:17
certain health issues can crop up and where applying for insurance can get a bit more problematic
52:23
and then cheater will look at that and look at the risk profile and think oh well you're a bit risky and may exclude
52:30
some conditions or increase the premium um for you so being able to take cover
52:36
under a special offer window not having to go through the underwriting process is a really good opportunity so it's
52:42
well worth um thinking about if you do need to take cover please do it over the next two months
52:49
and so tier three is for your partners and spouses where they can apply for a cover as well and they also have the
52:56
opportunity to apply for some cover under the special offer that's coming up and where they can get up to a hundred
53:01
and fifty thousand dollars worth of life cover and also up to twenty thousand dollars worth of critical illness cover
53:08
as well and may the cover so i'll just touch on
53:14
um health insurance um defense have a relationship with southern cross where they offer a 22
53:21
discount of the retail rate for defence members so if anyone has existing cover
53:27
through southern cross that is not part of the maybe i'm sorry part of the southern cross um defense force scheme
53:33
please do give them a call and let them know that you're a defense force member because you may be able to save some premiums there
53:39
um but crucially one of the the differences that southern cross provide in the df members
53:46
in particular the regular force is a non-claiming option which enables you to sign up for cover
53:54
lock in your good health now um and then transfer it to a claiming option in a few years time so it
54:00
basically means that you're securing your health now and paying a nominal fee every every month and which is anything
54:07
from 10 to 15 is very low um and noting that if you if you continue
54:14
that and decide to leave defense in a number of years and have developed some health conditions know that they would
54:19
be covered and when you did leave and transfer it
54:24
okay just cover that i'm just going to bring up another um presentation
54:30
um but before i do that does anyone get any questions around the mibp
54:44
okay great so i'll just move on to footprint and mark alluded to the fact that we
54:49
work with footprint which is the digital arm of perpetual guardian and we provide
54:54
with them access to online free wills for defense for members and their partners and spouses
55:01
and mark actually reminded me that sadly we had a death last april in defence and there was no will in place
55:09
and we are just getting the letters of administration through now from the court which means that that money and
55:15
that 300k that was due to go to that family has been sitting unable to be paid to the feed out until that time so
55:24
it's just a just a little um information about why it's so important to have a willing place
55:30
and when we talk about your assets they are your life insurance that i've spoken about so that three
55:35
hundred thousand your house your kiwisaver any money you've got in your community safer
55:41
basically anything that you've got that value is over fifteen thousand
55:46
is um part of your estate so it's all your assets together
55:53
now will is there to crucially protect your loved ones and make sure that you have the final say in
55:59
what happens such um such as what happens to your assets who looks after your children if you're no longer around
56:06
and where you can express your funeral wishes reasons to get and will and why
56:14
if you get a new career so you just join defense perhaps you're getting a your first home
56:20
um any sort of life changes you're getting married and getting divorced having children those kind of things you
56:27
want to be thinking and setting up a will
56:33
and part of the process of setting up here well you will need to appoint an executor
56:38
now that can be a family member or you can appoint a lawyer or perpetual guardian to do that on your
56:44
behalf but crucially the executor is that person that's going to be responsible for administering their
56:49
states and probate is the process of getting approval to administer your estate so
56:56
there is quite a lot of work in being an executor and it's something that you
57:02
should give thought to um and it is a job if you do want to appoint a family
57:07
member then please discuss it with them prior to obviously nominating them on your form
57:13
now if you don't have a will like what um what i mentioned before about that that person that passed away last year
57:20
it can take a really long time for the benefit to be paid to to the estate and
57:25
for for all to to get to the right people in the end and new zealand legislation dictates who gets what and
57:32
how much of your estate so meaning that you actually don't get a c anymore so it's so important and
57:38
obviously the longer it takes to to do this the more time and money that's eating away at what benefit is going to
57:45
be paid out in the end so we are covering aeon is covering the
57:52
cost of the footprint will it package and for all defense personnel it's
57:57
really really easy to set up it can take as quickly as 10 minutes it's all online
58:03
and you just follow the link um and the link is on the force for families um web page as well
58:11
and you just follow the prompts and it's it's really really easy to set up you just have to enter a code to make sure
58:17
that there's no cost to you so that's a on 105 or a on 10
58:23
msp for your spouse and um just cycle through all the pages
58:28
but it's um it's it's such an important thing to do and it's something that you really should think about and especially
58:34
if you've had any sort of life change changing events such as having children or purchasing a home um and things like
58:41
that it's very important okay so this is what the website looks
58:47
like and that's just showing you where you need to go so select the will it package
58:54
not the well package
59:00
and i'll just flick through some of the questions what it looks like but
59:05
yeah i've been replying to the questions that have come through okay oh sorry i can't see this oh okay i've
59:12
been doing it on the chat um sorry on the q a thing i've been replying to them i'm perfect thank you
59:18
um okay i think we better pause here thank you very much um so um please is kay highlighted this some
59:25
really powerful information there do have a look at any queries please either email ion
59:31
directly or you can come through to us benefits at nzbf dot mil dot nz
59:36
what i'd like to do now is hand across to a shee sharma who is going to talk to us about the services available to us
59:42
through tower ashish are you ready to go
59:49
floor's all yours thanks for the introduction there mark
59:54
um i'll just want to get the slides going
1:00:00
i don't can you see the slideshow going there yes we can yes we can oh brilliant
1:00:06
so in the interest of time i'll um you know try and um be as quick as i can but
1:00:11
thanks for that introduction really uh pleased to be here well at the end of the day any insurance
1:00:18
um you know it's it's it's it's a grudge purchase nobody um you know wants to talk about it
1:00:24
whether um you know that's do you see the picture of the cat on your screens there that's the feeling um you know
1:00:30
anyone would get when anyone wants to talk about insurance and i i'm sure you you all feel the same
1:00:38
in them you know people think oh it can happen to anyone it's not me it's always someone else actually it can happen to
1:00:45
anyone like just this morning or when i was in the gym i don't know if you can see my phone got smashed um when i was
1:00:51
just lifting some weight so anything can um you know happen and we're here at tower to um you know
1:00:57
protect um your general um assets which is your home car
1:01:03
contents and then we also offer barracks cover now before i get into technical um and
1:01:10
talk about the company and products i wanted to share this information with you guys um about the
1:01:15
climate change and it is here and it is to study and this is just from last year's um
1:01:21
shareholders report i took it it shows how many weather related events um you
1:01:26
know we have in new zealand and this this doesn't include anything after
1:01:31
august 21 and you might have read in the news like we had to talk many tornado and living and like floods
1:01:38
um in esport and then i'm gonna fight some wellington as well so you know it's
1:01:44
ongoing but as you can see in the slide in a period of a year tower insurance paid
1:01:50
26.3 million just in large events and that included cars and homes and
1:01:56
there are many other insurance companies in the markets and now you can understand the depth of um you know
1:02:01
climate change and um you know what what we have what we have there
1:02:07
now it can it can happen to anyone um as i said um earlier
1:02:14
it happened to me this morning i broke my phone i could get we all know who these people
1:02:20
are and every one of them had um you know insurance a lot of active events
1:02:26
as you can see on the screen um yeah [Music] mr bean's um you know car got crashed
1:02:32
into smashing to twice um you know queens wins the castle got burned down
1:02:37
michael hell um he actually started off his business um with um his house
1:02:43
getting burned down and his stores were ram raided charles when his medals were stolen and then
1:02:49
so it can happen to anyone so what are we doing here for new zealand defense
1:02:55
force is offering a package to cover um
1:03:00
your home contents and car and this is a unique offering um which we've um got in place
1:03:07
what this offering does is gives you a straight up 10 discount on our standard
1:03:12
products and we also have a unique featuring um for barracks cover usually
1:03:17
when we make a payment on any insurance you know if you pay monthly or fortnightly and annually you get a
1:03:24
certain discount when you pay annually whereas with barracks cover there's there's no loading there and all the
1:03:30
policies aren't written by tower we've got a minus um excellent trading
1:03:36
by in best financials and what it means is when the rubber hits the road there's plenty of money um in the kitty to um
1:03:43
go through and take care of the claims we offer package discounts and i'm an indian if it's coming from me um you
1:03:49
know we've got one of the best package of discounts it is one of the best in the market more than three products you get up to 20 discount 10 points
1:03:58
my wife's a big disney fan for the last three years we've been accumulating all those airplanes every
1:04:03
100 premium we get on one airplane we've booked the holidays for september using those airpoints and
1:04:10
you guys can do the same um if you're not already with tower join in and take
1:04:15
advantage of the air points i just want to cover it quickly and you know on barracks insurance because it's
1:04:22
it's it's a unique offering on its own so we we cut we offer a cover for personal effects um
1:04:29
for full replacement value all the items um while you're on the base and that includes military
1:04:34
equipment issued to you it's covered your personal um you know effects are covered and there's no limit um on
1:04:41
mobile phone now my mobile phone which i smashed this morning in the gym it cost me two thousand dollars um and
1:04:50
if if it happened to one of you guys there's no limit i'm gonna and you can just pay your access and claim that
1:04:56
and the cover is automatically there if you transfer to a base or another cab
1:05:02
and um it's also there when you're in the defense foreign anywhere in the world
1:05:09
now let's let's talk about um the house insurance and um you know what java does
1:05:14
um differently and the market we know um you know insurance as um could be could be a
1:05:20
tricky um for some people like everyone sees it as like a cost um rather than seeing it as a benefit so
1:05:28
we do offer a different level of cover they've got a premium cover we've got a plus cover and we've got a um standard
1:05:36
cover as well and we when you when you contact us we'll go through what it all means and explain
1:05:42
you you know which cover could be suitable for you just give us a call we'll have that in the discussion with
1:05:47
you and we also offer an extended sum insured for fire so in case of fire we
1:05:54
did an additional 20 buffer we also have additional um demand search protection buffers so say for instance
1:06:01
if there's a um earthquake or a massive catastrophe everyone in the market will be looking
1:06:06
to rebuild which our insurance is an additional buffer which goes up to 15
1:06:12
and a unique offering which we do for defense force is a cover remains in force if the house is unoccupied due to
1:06:20
that posting um usually um if for house insurance if it's unoccupied
1:06:26
you need to notify your insurances and there's this certain clauses whereas with defense form
1:06:32
it's um that's a unique offering we offer we do rental properties we do um you know home
1:06:38
properties pretty much everything um in-house insurance contents covers
1:06:45
um you again we have different tiers we've got a premium cover plus cover and standard cover now for
1:06:51
instance to give you an example like if you say i'm going to standard cover there will be a certain limit for
1:06:57
certain items a plus cover might have a higher item
1:07:02
but if you specify any item um you know then it would be uncovered whatever the
1:07:07
amount you specified and um you know we will have the policies um wording which we have at
1:07:13
tower is so simple if you go through the policy wording you can see it is all on the table give it to 11 year old they can read and
1:07:20
understand it in fact there's a award for it which is called as right mark tickerbot and tower has one that award
1:07:27
for playing policy wording and an additional unique offering which we
1:07:33
offer the news new zealand defense foreign personnel is any kit or military equipment issued to you
1:07:39
it's full replacement value regardless of which i'm gonna tear you got so that's that's also an add-on
1:07:47
now car insurance um you know um we've got third party comprehensive
1:07:54
third-party firing test now it it comes down to like how much you love your car and um how you want to
1:08:01
cover it it is very important um you know you have um all these insurances because
1:08:09
insurance is there to protect you from um any financial burden it's it's it's like um it's
1:08:16
it's like a parent which always gives back um and um you know if you follow um and read the policy wording and
1:08:23
understand you got the right cover but again if you have any questions and uh how to
1:08:29
sign up or um you know who to ask leave we're here for you you can see two
1:08:35
qr codes on the screen so for new zealand defense um serving personal if you scan the qr code
1:08:41
it will take you to the website and you can sign up yourself we've got a 24 7 online access
1:08:47
you can quote purchase a policy and logic line and if you like to talk to someone we've got
1:08:54
a dedicated team just for the defense force and the contact number is 800 for enforce the
1:09:01
operating hours are 8 am to 7 pm monday to friday and then we are available on
1:09:07
saturday as well if you like the type of email you can send in your queries to enforcer
1:09:13
tower.nz and if there's anyone on the webinar who's a retired person or you want to
1:09:19
extend its offering to your friends and family the qr code there um if you scan
1:09:24
it or we'll take you through the self-serve portal but again if you're confused way to find
1:09:29
us we also have a link mark has done a really good job i would force up like
1:09:34
all the information is there if you go on the page you can see um the link there and it will guide you and whatever
1:09:42
i just discussed um that information is available there as well and if you have any questions i'm here to
1:09:49
take them you can type them you can unmute yourself um ask the questions
1:09:55
other than that um it is pretty straightforward we're here i'm gonna provide you a dedicated
1:10:02
service and we offer 10 discount on top of the package discounts which we do for new
1:10:08
zealand defense force now to give you um i just want to end the presentation by
1:10:14
saying like every company has as a character just like human beings to
1:10:19
give you um you know a bit of a background of tower as character like we've been around 150 years with new
1:10:25
zealand owned and operated in during covert um nobody was driving the cast they were
1:10:31
just sitting at um tower insurance has actually paid all its customers 7.2 million um on car
1:10:38
insurance premiums because they were not really using it so it was that just shows
1:10:44
um the character of the company nobody asked us to do it we just did it because it was the right thing to do
1:10:50
over to you that's great thank you very much for that i see we've got still got 19 people on
1:10:56
so that's great um sir if you're able to bring up the final page of my presentation please but i'll just i'm
1:11:02
just conscious that people will be wanting to get off to other things but look thank you very very much uh everyone for attending
1:11:09
today that's been really great and thank you to the fellow presenters um
1:11:16
sorry for some reason i've lost my screen okay that's great thanks sarah so just in terms of summary um in terms of
1:11:22
this is a good opportunity to do a stock take of where we are in life with our finances i do urge people if you haven't done it
1:11:28
already please our financial wellbeing survey is available online we encourage everyone to participate in that because
1:11:34
it gives us an opportunity to see how people are feeling about life from a financial perspective and it also we use
1:11:40
the data to help plan future financial well-being initiatives as well i do urge everyone to check the force financial
1:11:47
hub remember it's internet-based you don't have to be at work to look at it and your family members can look at it
1:11:52
anytime they like as long as they have access to the internet as well this is a good opportunity for us to do
1:11:58
a stock take of where we are with our finances our investments things like as sarah highlighted our
1:12:04
investment allocation our diversification what sort of portfolio do we have our money invested in it's a
1:12:11
good opportunity to do a stock take of our insurances have we got all the insurances we need from both a life
1:12:16
perspective and a household house vehicle perspective and of course this is also the
1:12:23
opportunity to take a stock taker where we are with our will is our well up to date does actually
1:12:28
reflect our current family circumstances uh do we need a power of attorney
1:12:33
remember there's two poas available as well through our services um
1:12:39
the contact details for all the benefit providers are on the force financial hub so if you want to talk to anyone at any
1:12:45
stage you can contact them directly or you're welcome to come through us through the benefit site by emailing
1:12:51
benefits at ncdev.net.nz for members of the kiwisaver scheme the
1:12:57
defence force superannuation scheme or the ssrss the member statements would have gone out over the last month they
1:13:03
went out at the end of may for our schemes and probably for other kiwisaver schemes around about the same time
1:13:09
you're getting some really powerful information in your member statements now to help with your financial planning
1:13:14
particularly with your retirement planning and as sarah highlighted in her presentation when you have a look at our
1:13:20
the app for our savings schemes there's some really good innovative information there as well to help with your planning
1:13:28
so even if you only do it once a year please take the opportunity to have a look at your member statement have a
1:13:33
look at your projections have a look at where you've got your money invested is it the right portfolio for you in terms of your plans um and everything else
1:13:40
we also work very closely with the retirement commission who maintained a very comprehensive site
1:13:47
called the sorted site it's available to us all it's free as long as you have access to the internet again
1:13:54
some really powerful tools there to help with your planning there's a mortgage calculator a debt
1:13:59
calculator retirement calculator all of that sort of thing that's available free i've actually taken a number of the
1:14:05
tools myself and downloaded them on my system and on a regular basis i go through and update things to make sure
1:14:12
it reflects where i am in life as well for me i've got less than 10 years to go before i retire
1:14:17
so again i use the sorted site to help with my retirement projections and my planning and everything else
1:14:23
and as i mentioned earlier also we are going to be running some more classroom financial capability programs
1:14:30
um so watch out for the advertisements around those but during the cobid we weren't we weren't standing still
1:14:36
we actually worked with the retirement commission in uh recording a series of webinars which again are available on
1:14:42
the resources page of the force financial hub and of course they're available to family members as well
1:14:48
and become wealth also did some very good things in the podcast
1:14:53
space and mercer have also been preparing a series of um podcasts
1:14:59
short six to seven minute podcasts and and videos and things which are available on their site
1:15:05
uh also available on the force for the force financial hub giving people an update on what has
1:15:10
happened with the markets particularly we've gone through a lot of market volatility over the last two years people get very anxious about where they
1:15:17
are with their money and what they they see happening to their kiwisaver balances and so again you'll see there's
1:15:23
some really good stuff on the mercer site and people have got concerns of course are welcome to contact become wealth at
1:15:29
any stage to make sure that things are in the right position for them in terms of their portfolio where they've got
1:15:36
their money invested and everything else um i see we've still got 20 people online which is really great so look
1:15:43
please happy to take any questions around anything that people may have around any of the things that
1:15:48
we've covered off today or any of the things that we haven't covered and people feel there's things that we've missed out
1:15:53
please this is the opportunity to ask um so otherwise
1:15:59
just if anyone's got any further questions please either raise your hand or send a question through the q a
1:16:10
can't see anything further okay that's great look thank you very much everyone have a great afternoon uh we
1:16:17
are presenting again at seven o'clock tomorrow night so family members are most welcome to
1:16:23
attend and we do encourage that and i think uh claire and laura have been recording this session as well
1:16:30
and presumably will appear at some stage in the future as well for people who want to go back and check things as well
1:16:35
so thank you very much everyone have a great afternoon and please feel free to contact us at any stage
1:16:42
thank you
Press Pause to reconnect
Life can be challenging for NZDF families, particularly for military families as they post around the country or take care of things at home.
Join an NZDF social worker as they talk with former Black Sticks hockey player Gemma McCaw about relationships and family health.
Recording of the webinar COMING SOON
Wednesday
Press Pause to boost healthy habits
What you eat can have a huge impact on how you feel, both physically and mentally.
Join Professor Julia Rucklidge below to learn about how your diet can help bolster resilience, minimise the risk of developing common mental health issues, and help keep you performing at the top of your game even through more challenging times.
Dr Julia Rucklidge - Nutrition
0:01
so what i want to talk about today is
0:03
going to be about the power of nutrition
0:04
and nutrients in mental health and
0:06
before i start though i just need to let
0:08
you know
0:09
that i don't make any money out of the
0:12
sale of any of the products that we've
0:14
been studying in my research lab over
0:16
the last decade
0:17
but i also want to make this general
0:19
note that
0:20
nutrition while important and i think
0:22
that we need to have be really really
0:25
thinking about our food environment
0:27
if we could eliminate poverty or racism
0:29
or the effects of colonization
0:32
or trauma with our children then we
0:34
would go a long way towards reducing the
0:36
incidence of mental health in new
0:38
zealand
0:40
but what is the scale of the problem
0:42
here we are on the south island and the
0:44
south island has about a fifth of the
0:46
population it's about a million people
0:48
and that's the number of people who are
0:49
struggling with a mental health problem
0:50
in any one given year so it's enormous
0:53
and the sad thing is is that despite
0:56
enormous amount of money that has been
0:58
put into mental health over the last
1:00
well you know years but particularly
1:02
over the last five years we haven't made
1:05
a dent and in fact more and more people
1:07
are presenting with mental health
1:09
problems and to be honest the problems
1:11
that we're seeing i am seeing as a
1:13
clinical psychologist are becoming more
1:15
and more severe and more complex
1:18
so we have at this stage at this point
1:21
an epidemic proportion of problems in
1:23
terms of the increasing number of people
1:25
who
1:26
are being identified with a mental
1:27
health problem and conventional
1:30
treatments are sadly
1:31
not helping enough people or else the
1:35
number of people would be going down
1:37
over time and that's kind of sobering to
1:39
let that sink in
1:41
and it's not that medications and the
1:43
psychotherapy don't help people of
1:44
course they do and they save lives but
1:47
not enough people get well and i suspect
1:50
that right here in fact there would be
1:52
people who would identify with that you
1:53
know maybe if i could just do a hands up
1:56
how many people here know of someone who
1:58
struggles with a mental health issue
1:59
friend or family member okay and then
2:02
put your hand up about whether or not
2:04
that person you're thinking of has had
2:06
their problems resolved with current
2:08
conventional treatments
2:11
there you go so
2:13
and that's
2:14
no one no one put their hand up um and
2:17
i've done that i've asked that question
2:18
of
2:20
large audiences with thousands of people
2:23
and we get you know a handful
2:26
and that is it's it is sobering and i
2:28
wish sometimes that the minister of
2:30
health could be in this kind of room and
2:32
see that
2:33
that we're not we're not if we just keep
2:36
doing the same thing
2:37
we're not going to go um get much
2:39
further so what are we going to do
2:42
let's talk about the brain
2:44
so the brain i call the brain the
2:46
hungriest organ and that's because it
2:48
punches above its weight it's two
2:50
percent of body weight and yet it
2:52
consumes between 20 to 40 percent
2:55
of the nutrients that you eat
2:58
so when you eat
3:00
you might be surprised to learn that you
3:02
are predominantly feeding your brain now
3:04
you've probably been told that it's
3:05
about muscles and bones and growth but
3:09
in fact those nutrients are going to
3:11
your brain and that's what you need in
3:13
order to be able to concentrate or
3:15
regulate your mood or regulate your
3:17
anxiety
3:18
you need those nutrients to help serve
3:20
your brain
3:22
so we have one of the biggest social
3:24
experiments happening right now
3:27
and that is this
3:31
we have changed our food environment so
3:33
dramatically
3:35
in a very short period of time that we
3:37
have not evolved to be able to digest
3:40
and utilize these foods nor do i think
3:42
we ever will
3:43
and the simple reason being is that
3:46
these foods are devoid and low in
3:49
micronutrients and i'm going to explain
3:51
why that's so important to us
3:54
so we've changed from
3:56
a diet that was mostly whole foods to a
3:59
diet that is ultra processed products
4:03
processing foods i do need to make sure
4:05
you understand is that some forms of
4:07
processing are absolutely fine
4:09
freezing canning pasteurization heating
4:13
things that's all forms of
4:14
processing and that is okay
4:17
it's when we get into the ultra
4:18
processed
4:20
foods and those are the foods that
4:21
you'll know when you turn them around
4:23
and they've got a lot of ingredients and
4:25
they've got numbers and they've got
4:26
ingredients that you don't understand or
4:28
can pronounce
4:30
that's your a clue that that food is
4:32
going to be ultra processed
4:35
so to give you a sample
4:38
of
4:39
thinking about the nutrient content of
4:41
ultra-processed foods versus
4:44
real whole foods what i've done is i've
4:46
just put together these graphs
4:49
these graphs are showing you
4:51
how much of the
4:52
the
4:53
american public sorry it's hard to get
4:55
this kind of data in new zealand but how
4:58
much of the american public is eating
5:00
these ultra-processed foods and so what
5:03
we see here is that over 50 percent
5:07
of the foods that people are eating in
5:09
north america are coming from ultra
5:12
processed products
5:13
in contrast less than 15
5:17
of the american population is eating
5:20
fruits and vegetables and meeting the
5:22
daily quota
5:23
so
5:24
are we any different in new zealand 69
5:27
of the foods that are sold in new
5:28
zealand supermarkets are ultra processed
5:32
so
5:33
when i think about the work that i've
5:34
been doing which is around giving people
5:37
extra nutrients and a pill form
5:40
and i think why does it work why is it
5:42
that we've seen so many benefits from
5:44
giving people extra vitamins and
5:45
minerals in this pill form and the
5:47
reason for that is that we're probably
5:50
supplementing
5:52
the lack of nutrients that people are
5:54
getting out of their foods even if they
5:56
think that they're eating well and i'll
5:57
explain why
6:00
so what do we know now about the
6:03
relationship between this
6:05
ultra-processed environment and we call
6:07
this this either you call the sad diet
6:09
which is the standard american diet or
6:10
you can call the western diet
6:12
um what do we know about the
6:14
relationship between this dietary
6:16
pattern and mental health so the
6:19
exciting thing is is that over the last
6:22
two decades there have been dozens of
6:24
really large studies we call them
6:26
epidemiological studies they're done on
6:28
populations and what they've shown us is
6:30
the same thing which is the more you eat
6:33
a diet that is consistent with a
6:35
mediterranean-style diet
6:37
which is
6:39
high in your fish
6:41
your healthy fats
6:43
your fruits and vegetables
6:45
then the lower the likelihood of having
6:47
a mental health problem
6:49
and the more your diet is consistent
6:51
with the western style diet
6:54
the greater the likelihood you're going
6:56
to have a mental health issue
6:58
so those studies kind of you you think
7:00
well yeah they're associational they're
7:02
not causal so it might be that when i'm
7:04
sad i feel like i want to eat those
7:06
types of foods but in fact there are now
7:09
studies that have followed people over
7:11
long periods of time and looked at their
7:13
diet at say time one to see whether or
7:15
not it predicts your mental health down
7:17
the road five years eight years later
7:19
and indeed it does
7:21
so can either be protective in terms of
7:23
you're eating a diet consistent with a
7:25
mediterranean-style diet or it can
7:28
increase your risk if you're eating
7:30
foods that are consistent with a
7:31
western-style diet low in fruits and
7:33
vegetables high in your sugary drinks
7:35
high in your takeaway then the greater
7:37
the likelihood that you're going to have
7:39
a mental health problem down the road so
7:41
this is a really modifiable risk factor
7:43
and that's the good news is that you can
7:46
change your diet and improve your mental
7:48
health in doing so
7:50
there's also a lot of studies out there
7:52
now where they've taken people
7:54
and they've manipulated their diet in
7:56
terms of they've taken people who are
7:57
struggling with eating well
7:59
and they're struggling with their mental
8:00
health and then they randomize them to
8:02
receive either some counseling on how to
8:04
eat well so meeting up with a
8:06
nutritionist or a dietitian versus
8:09
getting some you know a control group
8:11
that might consist of a befriending or
8:13
some social support group and there's
8:15
greater likelihood that you'll go in
8:17
into remission and your depression if
8:19
you were randomized to the group that
8:21
received the dietary counseling so
8:23
there's really robust data out there
8:26
that suggests that what we really need
8:28
to do is tell everyone to eat better
8:31
and that is absolutely the starting
8:33
point but i'm going to explain why that
8:35
might not be sufficient but i think one
8:37
of them is that the food messaging that
8:40
we have
8:41
is confusing
8:43
it leads us to eat more ultra processed
8:46
products
8:47
and i don't think it's been helping us
8:49
in the big picture
8:51
so when you think about diet and what
8:55
you should eat and what's good for you
8:57
and i'm guessing that people here would
8:58
like to eat
9:00
foods that are going to be good for your
9:01
brain
9:02
you know what what is out there to help
9:03
you
9:04
so
9:05
one thing might be that you have
9:07
nutritional fats have you seen these
9:09
they're on every package
9:12
and so i've spent a lot of time in
9:13
supermarkets reading these and what i
9:15
found was that
9:17
you it ends up telling you about
9:18
calories which is an outdated concept a
9:21
calorie and is not a calorie out
9:23
so that's a problem right from the start
9:25
and the focus though is on what we call
9:27
macronutrients which is on your fats and
9:29
your proteins and your carbs and it's
9:31
not to say that fats proteins and carbs
9:32
aren't good for you of course they are
9:34
we need them they're building blocks of
9:35
the brain
9:36
but it overshadows the importance of the
9:39
micronutrients which are often down here
9:42
they usually say there's not a lot in
9:44
them like zero percent or one percent or
9:46
five percent of rda of recommended
9:48
dietary allowance
9:49
and the bottom line is that they don't
9:51
list the entire 30 essential minerals
9:54
and vitamins that you should be eating
9:56
every day
9:57
why not
9:59
how did that happen how is it why is it
10:01
that they're not required on food labels
10:04
and i can only surmise is that they're
10:06
not in the food
10:07
and that it would be to the detriment of
10:10
the food industry in order to have to
10:12
label whether or not it had molybdenum
10:14
in there
10:15
or if it had copper in there that those
10:18
would be zero definitely i think we
10:21
focus on the carbs the fats and the
10:22
proteins
10:24
and then the focus though on that means
10:26
that when you compare a big mac with a
10:29
falafel salad
10:31
what you find is well they're equivalent
10:33
well if you were somebody who was going
10:34
okay well
10:36
all calories are the same if you're sort
10:38
of working on that principle
10:40
then you might go for the big mac
10:42
because it looks pretty equivalent but
10:45
hopefully you intuitively all know
10:47
that they're not the same and that
10:49
you're going to get more nutrition and a
10:52
richer experience in terms of
10:54
nutritional value from your falafel
10:56
salad
10:58
the star ratings have you seen these on
11:01
on packages they're on a lot of
11:03
ultra-processed products
11:05
so
11:06
i you know as somebody who's not a
11:07
dietitian who's not a nutritionist who
11:09
just comes to this incredibly naively
11:11
and just starts to look and go
11:13
wow what are these what do these star
11:15
ratings tell us
11:16
and so i was surprised to learn
11:19
that they are about what's not in your
11:21
food rather than what is in your food
11:23
so they're about low in calories low in
11:25
saturated fats low in salt
11:28
low in sugar that's four stars and
11:31
fortified with one nutrient like iron
11:34
will get you five stars
11:37
well a cardboard box would hit four
11:41
that doesn't mean that you have to eat
11:43
it
11:44
so
11:45
we have a star system
11:47
where inanimate objects would achieve a
11:50
high rating
11:52
do you think that's necessarily going to
11:54
be good for your brain there is nothing
11:56
in there really other than that one
11:58
possible nutrient fortification one
12:01
nutrient not the full 30 that's going to
12:04
be able to help you
12:05
so it's not to say that a five-star
12:07
rating food is necessarily bad
12:10
but it also means that a 1.5 star rating
12:13
is not necessary it could very well be
12:15
good for you 1.5 could be your high fat
12:18
yogurt it could be
12:21
coconut milk which i was using the other
12:22
day wow it's only 1.5 star ratings and
12:25
yet that's a that's a product that's a
12:27
food that is incredibly nourishing and
12:29
rich in nutrients
12:32
so i've come to the conclusion that our
12:35
food industry and the pa the way we
12:37
package our food and the messages that
12:39
are out there are not really helping us
12:41
in terms of ensuring that you're
12:42
adequately feeding your brain with
12:44
micronutrients and that is your vitamins
12:46
and minerals so why should we care about
12:48
those
12:52
are required for everything that's
12:54
happening in the manufacture of the
12:55
neurotransmitters you need to make
12:58
serotonin you've probably heard of that
13:00
that's a mood regulating
13:01
neurotransmitter or dopamine
13:03
or enzymes
13:05
hormones
13:06
they all require the presence of the
13:08
full array of vitamins and minerals
13:10
there is no special one vitamin and
13:12
mineral you always hear about that in
13:14
the hi the hype in the media you know
13:16
just take vitamin d or take zinc or
13:18
magnesium or whatever it is that that
13:20
special nutrient is at the nutrient of
13:22
the day
13:23
i can assure you
13:25
that
13:26
just focusing on one nutrient is
13:29
unlikely to solve complex mental health
13:32
issues that we need the full array in
13:34
order to be able to make those
13:35
neurotransmitters that are so important
13:37
for brain signaling brain messaging so
13:40
why do we need them we need them for the
13:42
signaling in our brain
13:44
we need them to support the mitochondria
13:47
they're in every single one of your
13:48
cells and they make a really special
13:50
molecule called atp that is important
13:52
for energy production
13:54
and it is entirely reliant on the full
13:57
array of vitamins and minerals
14:00
inflammation to combat inflammation you
14:02
need to make things like glutathione
14:04
that are going to be able to help you in
14:05
combating and reducing inflammation
14:08
glute the production of glutathione is
14:09
entirely dependent presence of vitamins
14:12
and minerals turning your genes on and
14:14
off requires the presence of vitamins
14:16
and minerals
14:18
they assist in the process of making
14:20
something that's called a methyl group
14:22
and it attaches itself to the dna it
14:24
allows the gene to be red or not to be
14:26
read so it up regulates or down
14:28
regulates essential in terms of that
14:30
regulation of your genes
14:33
and eliminating toxins our environment
14:35
is full of toxins plastics pollution
14:39
we have detoxification pathways that are
14:41
amazing
14:42
and they're entirely reliant on the
14:44
presence of vitamins and minerals so
14:45
hopefully you're kind of going wow i
14:47
really should be eating these so where
14:49
am i going to get them from
14:51
so
14:51
i want if you can take one thing away it
14:53
would be this it's just thinking about
14:56
simple brain metabolism when you go from
14:59
chemical this is happening all the time
15:00
making your your serotonin requires you
15:02
going from tryptophan to serotonin you
15:04
can eat tryptophan you can't eat
15:06
serotonin
15:07
so tryptophan needs to be converted and
15:10
in order to do that you need presence of
15:12
an enzyme and you need presence of these
15:14
cofactors that are minerals and vitamins
15:16
they support the enzyme they allow the
15:18
enzyme to do its job
15:20
so if you don't have those present then
15:22
you can imagine what's going to happen
15:24
is that your chemical reactions are
15:26
going to be slow metabolic reactions are
15:27
going to be slow and sluggish
15:29
and so you're not going to be able to
15:31
fully achieve what you want to achieve
15:33
because you don't have the presence of
15:35
those supporting workers there to um to
15:39
make those those very very important
15:42
transmitters for example so here i'm
15:44
showing you the the pathways that are
15:47
involved in the manufacturer's serotonin
15:49
and this is just a small portion of it
15:52
but what i want to bring to your
15:53
attention is all of those nutrients and
15:55
you know them you've heard of them iron
15:58
calcium vitamin b6 zinc
16:01
phosphorus molybdenum
16:03
riboflavin those are some of the b
16:05
vitamins vitamin c they're all required
16:08
so i ask you this
16:10
will you get an adequate supply of the
16:13
vitamins and minerals from the western
16:16
diet
16:17
will our children
16:19
be able to get an adequate amount of
16:21
those foods from the foods that are are
16:24
provided to them in schools
16:26
depends on the school doesn't it will
16:28
they get it from the dairy highly
16:30
unlikely
16:32
so where do we get them from
16:34
these vitamins and minerals
16:36
simple
16:37
the minerals are in your soil we need to
16:39
care about being good stewards of the
16:42
soil because that's a huge problem not
16:44
just in new zealand but all over the
16:46
world
16:47
and
16:48
the minerals are in the soil the plant
16:51
takes them up through the root system
16:52
and then uses those minerals to make
16:55
vitamins
16:56
we can manufacture a few vitamins in our
16:59
gut our bacteria can make some of the b
17:01
vitamins and you can make vitamin d of
17:03
course from going out in the sun
17:05
but for the most part the place where
17:07
you get your vitamins and minerals from
17:09
is from the food that you eat and that's
17:11
what we call them essential because you
17:12
can't make it
17:14
so you either need to eat the plants
17:17
that have the vitamins and minerals or
17:19
eat an animal that has eaten the plant
17:22
and that is how you're going to get them
17:25
and so here are some of the great
17:27
sources of getting these
17:29
vitamins and minerals your fish your
17:31
legumes
17:33
your
17:34
your chickpeas your fruits and your
17:36
vegetables your nuts
17:38
your grass-fed meats
17:42
so this graph which i thought i was
17:44
showing you earlier
17:45
is um showing you the percentage
17:49
of
17:50
relative to recommended dietary
17:52
allowance the rda of different types of
17:55
foods either
17:56
ultra processed foods or your whole real
17:59
foods and what i've done here is i've
18:01
listed vitamins and minerals here and
18:04
then over here is relative to the
18:06
recommended dietary allowance now i'm
18:08
not a huge fan of the rda because it
18:10
really tells you the minimum amount in
18:13
order to prevent a frank nutritional
18:15
deficiency like scurvy but it is not
18:18
telling us what is optimal for brain
18:20
health and more research more recently
18:23
is identifying that the rda recommended
18:26
dietary allowance for your brain
18:28
is probably higher than the rda levels
18:31
so when you're eating you're thinking i
18:32
just need to get 100 rda
18:35
you're probably
18:36
letting your brain down
18:39
so here we'll start with a
18:40
doughnut your hot dog
18:44
your spice spam or spiced ham
18:47
french fries your slice of white bread
18:51
tablespoon of margarine
18:54
soft drink nothing there
18:57
no zero it's called coke zero for a
18:59
really good reason
19:02
five crackers okay
19:04
so they're not getting anywhere actually
19:06
anywhere close to even twenty percent
19:09
let's go through some whole real foods
19:11
your kiwi fruit
19:13
a cup of kale
19:15
half a fillet salmon cup of lentils
19:19
a banana 100 grams of steak an egg six
19:22
brazil nuts
19:24
so which diet
19:26
would you want to eat
19:29
it's obvious isn't it completely and one
19:32
hundred percent obvious which foods we
19:34
should be eating if we want to make sure
19:36
that our brain has an adequate supply
19:39
so this means that the nutrient density
19:41
and variety of food is essential
19:44
but
19:45
this is the big problem
19:48
even if we were to get the entire
19:50
population to start eating this way
19:52
there are some reasons why some people
19:54
may need more and i just want to talk a
19:56
little bit about those
19:58
one of them is that we are selecting our
20:00
foods to be pretty
20:03
to
20:04
store well
20:05
to transport well
20:08
and we're not we are not selecting them
20:10
for their nutritional value
20:12
so they're ending up we're actually
20:14
selecting fruits and vegetables that are
20:16
sweeter because that's what our palate
20:18
is asking for
20:20
and the sweeter they are the less they
20:23
are going to be nutritious
20:26
we are not adequately managing our soil
20:30
so i talk about here just about
20:32
replenishing that at the moment we we
20:34
might put in three nutrients and back
20:36
into the soil as fertilizer
20:39
but
20:40
that is prob that's probably an
20:42
inadequate way of dealing with it is to
20:43
just put lots of fertilizer on there
20:45
with a full array of nutrients we need
20:47
to think about how we're utilizing our
20:49
soil and whether or not the intensive
20:51
agriculture that we're currently sort of
20:54
enmeshed with is going to help us
20:56
sustain ourselves ourselves long term
20:59
or whether or not we should start
21:00
embracing new ventures such as say for
21:03
example regenerative agriculture
21:06
we are spraying our fields and our crops
21:09
with herbicides like glyphosate
21:12
so what is glyphosate originally
21:15
patented to do it's a mineral chelator
21:18
and what that means is that it pulls the
21:20
minerals out of the plant
21:22
and that means there's less available in
21:23
that plant and there's research that's
21:25
shown that this is the case over time
21:28
but the other worrying thing is is that
21:30
we use glyphosate as a desiccant and so
21:33
it's put on the crops right at the end
21:36
of the you know when we're just about to
21:38
harvest
21:39
and so what that does means is that it
21:41
ends up in the soil and if it then rains
21:44
and that the the glyphosate has attached
21:47
itself to the minerals in the soil where
21:49
is it what's going to happen when it
21:50
rains
21:52
it's going to wash away
21:54
so we're depleting the minerals in our
21:56
soil and this is something that is
21:57
incredibly urgent that we need to
22:00
address
22:01
because even if you eat well if the
22:03
minerals are not in the soil your your
22:06
your plants are going to be depleted and
22:08
there is research that has shown that
22:11
the peach that my grandmother would have
22:13
eaten is no longer as nourishing as it
22:16
was for her
22:18
and the effects of climate change on
22:21
agriculture is that your you your plants
22:24
can grow more quickly but as a
22:26
consequence of that you can't pull those
22:29
minerals out of the soil as well because
22:32
there's less time available to do that
22:34
and so again the consequences of that is
22:36
reduction of the nutrient value of your
22:38
food
22:40
then there's on top of that there's some
22:42
individual variables and factors that
22:45
can influence whether or not you can
22:47
adequately use nutrients even if you're
22:49
eating good foods
22:51
things like your genetic makeup some of
22:54
us have what's called an inborn era of
22:56
metabolism and all that means is that
22:58
when i showed you a to b
23:01
that that enzyme might there might be a
23:03
defect in it and it doesn't work as well
23:05
and it just slows down that process and
23:08
it might make it more sluggish and slow
23:11
and therefore you may not make as much
23:13
of a say for example serotonin or
23:15
dopamine or adrenaline etc
23:18
as we age sadly
23:21
we cannot use the nutrients as
23:23
adequately that are coming into us we're
23:25
just not as good at taking them out of
23:27
the food and so that's an unfortunate
23:29
prop one of the unfortunate problems of
23:31
aging
23:32
we're using a lot of medications that
23:33
have transformed lives but one of the
23:35
downside of using these medications is
23:37
they can they can
23:39
lead to nutritional deficiencies some
23:41
examples of medications that can do that
23:43
are things like statins antidepressants
23:45
aspirins contraceptive you can look
23:48
those up and find out what specific
23:49
nutrient deficiencies are caused by
23:51
those medications
23:53
i've mentioned inflammation already
23:55
stages of life either pregnancy or some
23:58
i think about teenagers a lot i have two
24:00
of them and i think about their brains
24:02
as being under reconstruction because
24:04
that's pretty much what happens during
24:05
those teenage years so you're basically
24:07
having to rebuild the frontal lobes of
24:09
the brain
24:10
do you think that would require vitamins
24:12
and minerals
24:14
absolutely
24:16
i've talked about the toxins in our
24:17
environment and we are
24:19
we are increasingly exposed to toxins so
24:22
that means those detoxification pathways
24:24
are working overtime they're reliant on
24:26
vitamins and minerals that means there's
24:27
fewer vitamins and minerals available
24:29
for things like regulation of your mood
24:31
or anxiety
24:33
people's gut health is influencing your
24:35
ability to absorb nutrients
24:37
um food addictions
24:40
so that's a that's a huge challenge of
24:42
getting people even if they want to
24:44
being able to shift away from the
24:46
western style diet can be really really
24:48
difficult and i want to acknowledge that
24:51
and then finally stress
24:53
stress is all around us we've all
24:55
experienced stress over the last couple
24:56
of years but as somebody who lives in
24:58
christchurch we've experienced the
24:59
earthquakes we've experienced floods
25:01
we've experienced the mosque shooting so
25:03
there's enormous number of things that
25:05
we've been under
25:06
and one of the things about the stress
25:07
response is that it triggers the fight
25:10
flight response and you're probably
25:11
really familiar with that the fight
25:13
flight response is going to it always
25:15
predominates it trumps every other
25:17
function your body because it's about
25:19
survival and the fight flight response
25:21
is entirely dependent on vitamins and
25:24
minerals so if you're under chronic
25:26
stress then you're depleting yourself
25:27
with those vitamins and minerals so we
25:29
need to replenish those so all of these
25:31
factors could result in fewer nutrients
25:34
available for brain health
25:35
so one solution then is supplementation
25:38
and that's the work that i've been doing
25:40
over the last
25:41
decade
25:42
and i don't want to i'll just spend just
25:44
a little bit of time on this but i just
25:46
want you to be aware that there's been
25:47
studies now
25:49
randomized controlled trials that are
25:50
showing that you can reduce aggression
25:52
in prisoners you can slow cognitive
25:55
decline in the elderly you can help
25:57
people with reducing depression anxiety
26:00
stress and adhd
26:03
and i mentioned some of the stressors in
26:05
our city the earthquakes this was a
26:09
flood in june 2013 where we did a study
26:11
looking to see if supplementing people
26:13
following a stressor could be helpful
26:16
and then in the mosque after the mass
26:17
shooting we gave people who had been
26:20
either in the in the um
26:22
the the mosque or that they knew people
26:25
who had been there we gave them some new
26:27
extra nutrients and we found real huge
26:30
benefits in terms of their resilience
26:32
and ability to recover
26:35
so i it has led me to wonder whether or
26:37
not our resilience is lower due to our
26:40
poor nutrient intake
26:42
so what can you do what are the steps
26:44
for you to start to stay at the top of
26:46
your game
26:48
change your diet
26:50
make sure you exercise we engage our
26:53
children in learning how to cook
26:55
we meditate we stay socially connected
26:59
and consider supplementation of those
27:00
things don't work nutrition is the
27:03
foundation of our mental health
27:05
it's based on the correlational studies
27:07
longitudinal studies the treatment
27:09
studies and the supplementation studies
27:12
people are fed by a food industry which
27:14
pays no attention to health and are
27:16
treated
27:17
to a by a health industry which pays no
27:20
attention to food
27:24
so i'm going to finish with this in the
27:26
1600s randomized trials showed that
27:28
putting limes aboard ships headed out
27:30
for long voyages completely eliminated
27:32
the 40 percent mortality from scurvy
27:35
but it took 264 years for the british
27:38
government to mandate that all ships
27:40
must carry citrus for the sailors
27:42
so how long is it going to take our
27:44
society to recognize that sub-optimal
27:46
nutrition is contributing to the current
27:48
epidemic of mental health distress
27:52
so
27:54
thank you very much for listening
27:56
and i have two re resources if you want
27:59
to know more there's the better brain
28:02
and there is a online
28:05
mental it's called the mental health and
28:06
food or mental health and nutrition on
28:08
edx platform that's completely free and
28:11
it's a six week course if you want to
28:12
learn more about nutrition
28:15
so people often say what have you been
28:17
studying and i'm not here to sell
28:19
products but if you want to know more
28:20
you can either go to those two resources
28:22
it's all written in the better brain or
28:24
you can email my lab
28:26
and if you want to keep up with our
28:27
research then here's some of our you
28:29
know different links and things like
28:31
that
28:32
so i think that's it
so what i want to talk about today is
0:03
going to be about the power of nutrition
0:04
and nutrients in mental health and
0:06
before i start though i just need to let
0:08
you know
0:09
that i don't make any money out of the
0:12
sale of any of the products that we've
0:14
been studying in my research lab over
0:16
the last decade
0:17
but i also want to make this general
0:19
note that
0:20
nutrition while important and i think
0:22
that we need to have be really really
0:25
thinking about our food environment
0:27
if we could eliminate poverty or racism
0:29
or the effects of colonization
0:32
or trauma with our children then we
0:34
would go a long way towards reducing the
0:36
incidence of mental health in new
0:38
zealand
0:40
but what is the scale of the problem
0:42
here we are on the south island and the
0:44
south island has about a fifth of the
0:46
population it's about a million people
0:48
and that's the number of people who are
0:49
struggling with a mental health problem
0:50
in any one given year so it's enormous
0:53
and the sad thing is is that despite
0:56
enormous amount of money that has been
0:58
put into mental health over the last
1:00
well you know years but particularly
1:02
over the last five years we haven't made
1:05
a dent and in fact more and more people
1:07
are presenting with mental health
1:09
problems and to be honest the problems
1:11
that we're seeing i am seeing as a
1:13
clinical psychologist are becoming more
1:15
and more severe and more complex
1:18
so we have at this stage at this point
1:21
an epidemic proportion of problems in
1:23
terms of the increasing number of people
1:25
who
1:26
are being identified with a mental
1:27
health problem and conventional
1:30
treatments are sadly
1:31
not helping enough people or else the
1:35
number of people would be going down
1:37
over time and that's kind of sobering to
1:39
let that sink in
1:41
and it's not that medications and the
1:43
psychotherapy don't help people of
1:44
course they do and they save lives but
1:47
not enough people get well and i suspect
1:50
that right here in fact there would be
1:52
people who would identify with that you
1:53
know maybe if i could just do a hands up
1:56
how many people here know of someone who
1:58
struggles with a mental health issue
1:59
friend or family member okay and then
2:02
put your hand up about whether or not
2:04
that person you're thinking of has had
2:06
their problems resolved with current
2:08
conventional treatments
2:11
there you go so
2:13
and that's
2:14
no one no one put their hand up um and
2:17
i've done that i've asked that question
2:18
of
2:20
large audiences with thousands of people
2:23
and we get you know a handful
2:26
and that is it's it is sobering and i
2:28
wish sometimes that the minister of
2:30
health could be in this kind of room and
2:32
see that
2:33
that we're not we're not if we just keep
2:36
doing the same thing
2:37
we're not going to go um get much
2:39
further so what are we going to do
2:42
let's talk about the brain
2:44
so the brain i call the brain the
2:46
hungriest organ and that's because it
2:48
punches above its weight it's two
2:50
percent of body weight and yet it
2:52
consumes between 20 to 40 percent
2:55
of the nutrients that you eat
2:58
so when you eat
3:00
you might be surprised to learn that you
3:02
are predominantly feeding your brain now
3:04
you've probably been told that it's
3:05
about muscles and bones and growth but
3:09
in fact those nutrients are going to
3:11
your brain and that's what you need in
3:13
order to be able to concentrate or
3:15
regulate your mood or regulate your
3:17
anxiety
3:18
you need those nutrients to help serve
3:20
your brain
3:22
so we have one of the biggest social
3:24
experiments happening right now
3:27
and that is this
3:31
we have changed our food environment so
3:33
dramatically
3:35
in a very short period of time that we
3:37
have not evolved to be able to digest
3:40
and utilize these foods nor do i think
3:42
we ever will
3:43
and the simple reason being is that
3:46
these foods are devoid and low in
3:49
micronutrients and i'm going to explain
3:51
why that's so important to us
3:54
so we've changed from
3:56
a diet that was mostly whole foods to a
3:59
diet that is ultra processed products
4:03
processing foods i do need to make sure
4:05
you understand is that some forms of
4:07
processing are absolutely fine
4:09
freezing canning pasteurization heating
4:13
things that's all forms of
4:14
processing and that is okay
4:17
it's when we get into the ultra
4:18
processed
4:20
foods and those are the foods that
4:21
you'll know when you turn them around
4:23
and they've got a lot of ingredients and
4:25
they've got numbers and they've got
4:26
ingredients that you don't understand or
4:28
can pronounce
4:30
that's your a clue that that food is
4:32
going to be ultra processed
4:35
so to give you a sample
4:38
of
4:39
thinking about the nutrient content of
4:41
ultra-processed foods versus
4:44
real whole foods what i've done is i've
4:46
just put together these graphs
4:49
these graphs are showing you
4:51
how much of the
4:52
the
4:53
american public sorry it's hard to get
4:55
this kind of data in new zealand but how
4:58
much of the american public is eating
5:00
these ultra-processed foods and so what
5:03
we see here is that over 50 percent
5:07
of the foods that people are eating in
5:09
north america are coming from ultra
5:12
processed products
5:13
in contrast less than 15
5:17
of the american population is eating
5:20
fruits and vegetables and meeting the
5:22
daily quota
5:23
so
5:24
are we any different in new zealand 69
5:27
of the foods that are sold in new
5:28
zealand supermarkets are ultra processed
5:32
so
5:33
when i think about the work that i've
5:34
been doing which is around giving people
5:37
extra nutrients and a pill form
5:40
and i think why does it work why is it
5:42
that we've seen so many benefits from
5:44
giving people extra vitamins and
5:45
minerals in this pill form and the
5:47
reason for that is that we're probably
5:50
supplementing
5:52
the lack of nutrients that people are
5:54
getting out of their foods even if they
5:56
think that they're eating well and i'll
5:57
explain why
6:00
so what do we know now about the
6:03
relationship between this
6:05
ultra-processed environment and we call
6:07
this this either you call the sad diet
6:09
which is the standard american diet or
6:10
you can call the western diet
6:12
um what do we know about the
6:14
relationship between this dietary
6:16
pattern and mental health so the
6:19
exciting thing is is that over the last
6:22
two decades there have been dozens of
6:24
really large studies we call them
6:26
epidemiological studies they're done on
6:28
populations and what they've shown us is
6:30
the same thing which is the more you eat
6:33
a diet that is consistent with a
6:35
mediterranean-style diet
6:37
which is
6:39
high in your fish
6:41
your healthy fats
6:43
your fruits and vegetables
6:45
then the lower the likelihood of having
6:47
a mental health problem
6:49
and the more your diet is consistent
6:51
with the western style diet
6:54
the greater the likelihood you're going
6:56
to have a mental health issue
6:58
so those studies kind of you you think
7:00
well yeah they're associational they're
7:02
not causal so it might be that when i'm
7:04
sad i feel like i want to eat those
7:06
types of foods but in fact there are now
7:09
studies that have followed people over
7:11
long periods of time and looked at their
7:13
diet at say time one to see whether or
7:15
not it predicts your mental health down
7:17
the road five years eight years later
7:19
and indeed it does
7:21
so can either be protective in terms of
7:23
you're eating a diet consistent with a
7:25
mediterranean-style diet or it can
7:28
increase your risk if you're eating
7:30
foods that are consistent with a
7:31
western-style diet low in fruits and
7:33
vegetables high in your sugary drinks
7:35
high in your takeaway then the greater
7:37
the likelihood that you're going to have
7:39
a mental health problem down the road so
7:41
this is a really modifiable risk factor
7:43
and that's the good news is that you can
7:46
change your diet and improve your mental
7:48
health in doing so
7:50
there's also a lot of studies out there
7:52
now where they've taken people
7:54
and they've manipulated their diet in
7:56
terms of they've taken people who are
7:57
struggling with eating well
7:59
and they're struggling with their mental
8:00
health and then they randomize them to
8:02
receive either some counseling on how to
8:04
eat well so meeting up with a
8:06
nutritionist or a dietitian versus
8:09
getting some you know a control group
8:11
that might consist of a befriending or
8:13
some social support group and there's
8:15
greater likelihood that you'll go in
8:17
into remission and your depression if
8:19
you were randomized to the group that
8:21
received the dietary counseling so
8:23
there's really robust data out there
8:26
that suggests that what we really need
8:28
to do is tell everyone to eat better
8:31
and that is absolutely the starting
8:33
point but i'm going to explain why that
8:35
might not be sufficient but i think one
8:37
of them is that the food messaging that
8:40
we have
8:41
is confusing
8:43
it leads us to eat more ultra processed
8:46
products
8:47
and i don't think it's been helping us
8:49
in the big picture
8:51
so when you think about diet and what
8:55
you should eat and what's good for you
8:57
and i'm guessing that people here would
8:58
like to eat
9:00
foods that are going to be good for your
9:01
brain
9:02
you know what what is out there to help
9:03
you
9:04
so
9:05
one thing might be that you have
9:07
nutritional fats have you seen these
9:09
they're on every package
9:12
and so i've spent a lot of time in
9:13
supermarkets reading these and what i
9:15
found was that
9:17
you it ends up telling you about
9:18
calories which is an outdated concept a
9:21
calorie and is not a calorie out
9:23
so that's a problem right from the start
9:25
and the focus though is on what we call
9:27
macronutrients which is on your fats and
9:29
your proteins and your carbs and it's
9:31
not to say that fats proteins and carbs
9:32
aren't good for you of course they are
9:34
we need them they're building blocks of
9:35
the brain
9:36
but it overshadows the importance of the
9:39
micronutrients which are often down here
9:42
they usually say there's not a lot in
9:44
them like zero percent or one percent or
9:46
five percent of rda of recommended
9:48
dietary allowance
9:49
and the bottom line is that they don't
9:51
list the entire 30 essential minerals
9:54
and vitamins that you should be eating
9:56
every day
9:57
why not
9:59
how did that happen how is it why is it
10:01
that they're not required on food labels
10:04
and i can only surmise is that they're
10:06
not in the food
10:07
and that it would be to the detriment of
10:10
the food industry in order to have to
10:12
label whether or not it had molybdenum
10:14
in there
10:15
or if it had copper in there that those
10:18
would be zero definitely i think we
10:21
focus on the carbs the fats and the
10:22
proteins
10:24
and then the focus though on that means
10:26
that when you compare a big mac with a
10:29
falafel salad
10:31
what you find is well they're equivalent
10:33
well if you were somebody who was going
10:34
okay well
10:36
all calories are the same if you're sort
10:38
of working on that principle
10:40
then you might go for the big mac
10:42
because it looks pretty equivalent but
10:45
hopefully you intuitively all know
10:47
that they're not the same and that
10:49
you're going to get more nutrition and a
10:52
richer experience in terms of
10:54
nutritional value from your falafel
10:56
salad
10:58
the star ratings have you seen these on
11:01
on packages they're on a lot of
11:03
ultra-processed products
11:05
so
11:06
i you know as somebody who's not a
11:07
dietitian who's not a nutritionist who
11:09
just comes to this incredibly naively
11:11
and just starts to look and go
11:13
wow what are these what do these star
11:15
ratings tell us
11:16
and so i was surprised to learn
11:19
that they are about what's not in your
11:21
food rather than what is in your food
11:23
so they're about low in calories low in
11:25
saturated fats low in salt
11:28
low in sugar that's four stars and
11:31
fortified with one nutrient like iron
11:34
will get you five stars
11:37
well a cardboard box would hit four
11:41
that doesn't mean that you have to eat
11:43
it
11:44
so
11:45
we have a star system
11:47
where inanimate objects would achieve a
11:50
high rating
11:52
do you think that's necessarily going to
11:54
be good for your brain there is nothing
11:56
in there really other than that one
11:58
possible nutrient fortification one
12:01
nutrient not the full 30 that's going to
12:04
be able to help you
12:05
so it's not to say that a five-star
12:07
rating food is necessarily bad
12:10
but it also means that a 1.5 star rating
12:13
is not necessary it could very well be
12:15
good for you 1.5 could be your high fat
12:18
yogurt it could be
12:21
coconut milk which i was using the other
12:22
day wow it's only 1.5 star ratings and
12:25
yet that's a that's a product that's a
12:27
food that is incredibly nourishing and
12:29
rich in nutrients
12:32
so i've come to the conclusion that our
12:35
food industry and the pa the way we
12:37
package our food and the messages that
12:39
are out there are not really helping us
12:41
in terms of ensuring that you're
12:42
adequately feeding your brain with
12:44
micronutrients and that is your vitamins
12:46
and minerals so why should we care about
12:48
those
12:52
are required for everything that's
12:54
happening in the manufacture of the
12:55
neurotransmitters you need to make
12:58
serotonin you've probably heard of that
13:00
that's a mood regulating
13:01
neurotransmitter or dopamine
13:03
or enzymes
13:05
hormones
13:06
they all require the presence of the
13:08
full array of vitamins and minerals
13:10
there is no special one vitamin and
13:12
mineral you always hear about that in
13:14
the hi the hype in the media you know
13:16
just take vitamin d or take zinc or
13:18
magnesium or whatever it is that that
13:20
special nutrient is at the nutrient of
13:22
the day
13:23
i can assure you
13:25
that
13:26
just focusing on one nutrient is
13:29
unlikely to solve complex mental health
13:32
issues that we need the full array in
13:34
order to be able to make those
13:35
neurotransmitters that are so important
13:37
for brain signaling brain messaging so
13:40
why do we need them we need them for the
13:42
signaling in our brain
13:44
we need them to support the mitochondria
13:47
they're in every single one of your
13:48
cells and they make a really special
13:50
molecule called atp that is important
13:52
for energy production
13:54
and it is entirely reliant on the full
13:57
array of vitamins and minerals
14:00
inflammation to combat inflammation you
14:02
need to make things like glutathione
14:04
that are going to be able to help you in
14:05
combating and reducing inflammation
14:08
glute the production of glutathione is
14:09
entirely dependent presence of vitamins
14:12
and minerals turning your genes on and
14:14
off requires the presence of vitamins
14:16
and minerals
14:18
they assist in the process of making
14:20
something that's called a methyl group
14:22
and it attaches itself to the dna it
14:24
allows the gene to be red or not to be
14:26
read so it up regulates or down
14:28
regulates essential in terms of that
14:30
regulation of your genes
14:33
and eliminating toxins our environment
14:35
is full of toxins plastics pollution
14:39
we have detoxification pathways that are
14:41
amazing
14:42
and they're entirely reliant on the
14:44
presence of vitamins and minerals so
14:45
hopefully you're kind of going wow i
14:47
really should be eating these so where
14:49
am i going to get them from
14:51
so
14:51
i want if you can take one thing away it
14:53
would be this it's just thinking about
14:56
simple brain metabolism when you go from
14:59
chemical this is happening all the time
15:00
making your your serotonin requires you
15:02
going from tryptophan to serotonin you
15:04
can eat tryptophan you can't eat
15:06
serotonin
15:07
so tryptophan needs to be converted and
15:10
in order to do that you need presence of
15:12
an enzyme and you need presence of these
15:14
cofactors that are minerals and vitamins
15:16
they support the enzyme they allow the
15:18
enzyme to do its job
15:20
so if you don't have those present then
15:22
you can imagine what's going to happen
15:24
is that your chemical reactions are
15:26
going to be slow metabolic reactions are
15:27
going to be slow and sluggish
15:29
and so you're not going to be able to
15:31
fully achieve what you want to achieve
15:33
because you don't have the presence of
15:35
those supporting workers there to um to
15:39
make those those very very important
15:42
transmitters for example so here i'm
15:44
showing you the the pathways that are
15:47
involved in the manufacturer's serotonin
15:49
and this is just a small portion of it
15:52
but what i want to bring to your
15:53
attention is all of those nutrients and
15:55
you know them you've heard of them iron
15:58
calcium vitamin b6 zinc
16:01
phosphorus molybdenum
16:03
riboflavin those are some of the b
16:05
vitamins vitamin c they're all required
16:08
so i ask you this
16:10
will you get an adequate supply of the
16:13
vitamins and minerals from the western
16:16
diet
16:17
will our children
16:19
be able to get an adequate amount of
16:21
those foods from the foods that are are
16:24
provided to them in schools
16:26
depends on the school doesn't it will
16:28
they get it from the dairy highly
16:30
unlikely
16:32
so where do we get them from
16:34
these vitamins and minerals
16:36
simple
16:37
the minerals are in your soil we need to
16:39
care about being good stewards of the
16:42
soil because that's a huge problem not
16:44
just in new zealand but all over the
16:46
world
16:47
and
16:48
the minerals are in the soil the plant
16:51
takes them up through the root system
16:52
and then uses those minerals to make
16:55
vitamins
16:56
we can manufacture a few vitamins in our
16:59
gut our bacteria can make some of the b
17:01
vitamins and you can make vitamin d of
17:03
course from going out in the sun
17:05
but for the most part the place where
17:07
you get your vitamins and minerals from
17:09
is from the food that you eat and that's
17:11
what we call them essential because you
17:12
can't make it
17:14
so you either need to eat the plants
17:17
that have the vitamins and minerals or
17:19
eat an animal that has eaten the plant
17:22
and that is how you're going to get them
17:25
and so here are some of the great
17:27
sources of getting these
17:29
vitamins and minerals your fish your
17:31
legumes
17:33
your
17:34
your chickpeas your fruits and your
17:36
vegetables your nuts
17:38
your grass-fed meats
17:42
so this graph which i thought i was
17:44
showing you earlier
17:45
is um showing you the percentage
17:49
of
17:50
relative to recommended dietary
17:52
allowance the rda of different types of
17:55
foods either
17:56
ultra processed foods or your whole real
17:59
foods and what i've done here is i've
18:01
listed vitamins and minerals here and
18:04
then over here is relative to the
18:06
recommended dietary allowance now i'm
18:08
not a huge fan of the rda because it
18:10
really tells you the minimum amount in
18:13
order to prevent a frank nutritional
18:15
deficiency like scurvy but it is not
18:18
telling us what is optimal for brain
18:20
health and more research more recently
18:23
is identifying that the rda recommended
18:26
dietary allowance for your brain
18:28
is probably higher than the rda levels
18:31
so when you're eating you're thinking i
18:32
just need to get 100 rda
18:35
you're probably
18:36
letting your brain down
18:39
so here we'll start with a
18:40
doughnut your hot dog
18:44
your spice spam or spiced ham
18:47
french fries your slice of white bread
18:51
tablespoon of margarine
18:54
soft drink nothing there
18:57
no zero it's called coke zero for a
18:59
really good reason
19:02
five crackers okay
19:04
so they're not getting anywhere actually
19:06
anywhere close to even twenty percent
19:09
let's go through some whole real foods
19:11
your kiwi fruit
19:13
a cup of kale
19:15
half a fillet salmon cup of lentils
19:19
a banana 100 grams of steak an egg six
19:22
brazil nuts
19:24
so which diet
19:26
would you want to eat
19:29
it's obvious isn't it completely and one
19:32
hundred percent obvious which foods we
19:34
should be eating if we want to make sure
19:36
that our brain has an adequate supply
19:39
so this means that the nutrient density
19:41
and variety of food is essential
19:44
but
19:45
this is the big problem
19:48
even if we were to get the entire
19:50
population to start eating this way
19:52
there are some reasons why some people
19:54
may need more and i just want to talk a
19:56
little bit about those
19:58
one of them is that we are selecting our
20:00
foods to be pretty
20:03
to
20:04
store well
20:05
to transport well
20:08
and we're not we are not selecting them
20:10
for their nutritional value
20:12
so they're ending up we're actually
20:14
selecting fruits and vegetables that are
20:16
sweeter because that's what our palate
20:18
is asking for
20:20
and the sweeter they are the less they
20:23
are going to be nutritious
20:26
we are not adequately managing our soil
20:30
so i talk about here just about
20:32
replenishing that at the moment we we
20:34
might put in three nutrients and back
20:36
into the soil as fertilizer
20:39
but
20:40
that is prob that's probably an
20:42
inadequate way of dealing with it is to
20:43
just put lots of fertilizer on there
20:45
with a full array of nutrients we need
20:47
to think about how we're utilizing our
20:49
soil and whether or not the intensive
20:51
agriculture that we're currently sort of
20:54
enmeshed with is going to help us
20:56
sustain ourselves ourselves long term
20:59
or whether or not we should start
21:00
embracing new ventures such as say for
21:03
example regenerative agriculture
21:06
we are spraying our fields and our crops
21:09
with herbicides like glyphosate
21:12
so what is glyphosate originally
21:15
patented to do it's a mineral chelator
21:18
and what that means is that it pulls the
21:20
minerals out of the plant
21:22
and that means there's less available in
21:23
that plant and there's research that's
21:25
shown that this is the case over time
21:28
but the other worrying thing is is that
21:30
we use glyphosate as a desiccant and so
21:33
it's put on the crops right at the end
21:36
of the you know when we're just about to
21:38
harvest
21:39
and so what that does means is that it
21:41
ends up in the soil and if it then rains
21:44
and that the the glyphosate has attached
21:47
itself to the minerals in the soil where
21:49
is it what's going to happen when it
21:50
rains
21:52
it's going to wash away
21:54
so we're depleting the minerals in our
21:56
soil and this is something that is
21:57
incredibly urgent that we need to
22:00
address
22:01
because even if you eat well if the
22:03
minerals are not in the soil your your
22:06
your plants are going to be depleted and
22:08
there is research that has shown that
22:11
the peach that my grandmother would have
22:13
eaten is no longer as nourishing as it
22:16
was for her
22:18
and the effects of climate change on
22:21
agriculture is that your you your plants
22:24
can grow more quickly but as a
22:26
consequence of that you can't pull those
22:29
minerals out of the soil as well because
22:32
there's less time available to do that
22:34
and so again the consequences of that is
22:36
reduction of the nutrient value of your
22:38
food
22:40
then there's on top of that there's some
22:42
individual variables and factors that
22:45
can influence whether or not you can
22:47
adequately use nutrients even if you're
22:49
eating good foods
22:51
things like your genetic makeup some of
22:54
us have what's called an inborn era of
22:56
metabolism and all that means is that
22:58
when i showed you a to b
23:01
that that enzyme might there might be a
23:03
defect in it and it doesn't work as well
23:05
and it just slows down that process and
23:08
it might make it more sluggish and slow
23:11
and therefore you may not make as much
23:13
of a say for example serotonin or
23:15
dopamine or adrenaline etc
23:18
as we age sadly
23:21
we cannot use the nutrients as
23:23
adequately that are coming into us we're
23:25
just not as good at taking them out of
23:27
the food and so that's an unfortunate
23:29
prop one of the unfortunate problems of
23:31
aging
23:32
we're using a lot of medications that
23:33
have transformed lives but one of the
23:35
downside of using these medications is
23:37
they can they can
23:39
lead to nutritional deficiencies some
23:41
examples of medications that can do that
23:43
are things like statins antidepressants
23:45
aspirins contraceptive you can look
23:48
those up and find out what specific
23:49
nutrient deficiencies are caused by
23:51
those medications
23:53
i've mentioned inflammation already
23:55
stages of life either pregnancy or some
23:58
i think about teenagers a lot i have two
24:00
of them and i think about their brains
24:02
as being under reconstruction because
24:04
that's pretty much what happens during
24:05
those teenage years so you're basically
24:07
having to rebuild the frontal lobes of
24:09
the brain
24:10
do you think that would require vitamins
24:12
and minerals
24:14
absolutely
24:16
i've talked about the toxins in our
24:17
environment and we are
24:19
we are increasingly exposed to toxins so
24:22
that means those detoxification pathways
24:24
are working overtime they're reliant on
24:26
vitamins and minerals that means there's
24:27
fewer vitamins and minerals available
24:29
for things like regulation of your mood
24:31
or anxiety
24:33
people's gut health is influencing your
24:35
ability to absorb nutrients
24:37
um food addictions
24:40
so that's a that's a huge challenge of
24:42
getting people even if they want to
24:44
being able to shift away from the
24:46
western style diet can be really really
24:48
difficult and i want to acknowledge that
24:51
and then finally stress
24:53
stress is all around us we've all
24:55
experienced stress over the last couple
24:56
of years but as somebody who lives in
24:58
christchurch we've experienced the
24:59
earthquakes we've experienced floods
25:01
we've experienced the mosque shooting so
25:03
there's enormous number of things that
25:05
we've been under
25:06
and one of the things about the stress
25:07
response is that it triggers the fight
25:10
flight response and you're probably
25:11
really familiar with that the fight
25:13
flight response is going to it always
25:15
predominates it trumps every other
25:17
function your body because it's about
25:19
survival and the fight flight response
25:21
is entirely dependent on vitamins and
25:24
minerals so if you're under chronic
25:26
stress then you're depleting yourself
25:27
with those vitamins and minerals so we
25:29
need to replenish those so all of these
25:31
factors could result in fewer nutrients
25:34
available for brain health
25:35
so one solution then is supplementation
25:38
and that's the work that i've been doing
25:40
over the last
25:41
decade
25:42
and i don't want to i'll just spend just
25:44
a little bit of time on this but i just
25:46
want you to be aware that there's been
25:47
studies now
25:49
randomized controlled trials that are
25:50
showing that you can reduce aggression
25:52
in prisoners you can slow cognitive
25:55
decline in the elderly you can help
25:57
people with reducing depression anxiety
26:00
stress and adhd
26:03
and i mentioned some of the stressors in
26:05
our city the earthquakes this was a
26:09
flood in june 2013 where we did a study
26:11
looking to see if supplementing people
26:13
following a stressor could be helpful
26:16
and then in the mosque after the mass
26:17
shooting we gave people who had been
26:20
either in the in the um
26:22
the the mosque or that they knew people
26:25
who had been there we gave them some new
26:27
extra nutrients and we found real huge
26:30
benefits in terms of their resilience
26:32
and ability to recover
26:35
so i it has led me to wonder whether or
26:37
not our resilience is lower due to our
26:40
poor nutrient intake
26:42
so what can you do what are the steps
26:44
for you to start to stay at the top of
26:46
your game
26:48
change your diet
26:50
make sure you exercise we engage our
26:53
children in learning how to cook
26:55
we meditate we stay socially connected
26:59
and consider supplementation of those
27:00
things don't work nutrition is the
27:03
foundation of our mental health
27:05
it's based on the correlational studies
27:07
longitudinal studies the treatment
27:09
studies and the supplementation studies
27:12
people are fed by a food industry which
27:14
pays no attention to health and are
27:16
treated
27:17
to a by a health industry which pays no
27:20
attention to food
27:24
so i'm going to finish with this in the
27:26
1600s randomized trials showed that
27:28
putting limes aboard ships headed out
27:30
for long voyages completely eliminated
27:32
the 40 percent mortality from scurvy
27:35
but it took 264 years for the british
27:38
government to mandate that all ships
27:40
must carry citrus for the sailors
27:42
so how long is it going to take our
27:44
society to recognize that sub-optimal
27:46
nutrition is contributing to the current
27:48
epidemic of mental health distress
27:52
so
27:54
thank you very much for listening
27:56
and i have two re resources if you want
27:59
to know more there's the better brain
28:02
and there is a online
28:05
mental it's called the mental health and
28:06
food or mental health and nutrition on
28:08
edx platform that's completely free and
28:11
it's a six week course if you want to
28:12
learn more about nutrition
28:15
so people often say what have you been
28:17
studying and i'm not here to sell
28:19
products but if you want to know more
28:20
you can either go to those two resources
28:22
it's all written in the better brain or
28:24
you can email my lab
28:26
and if you want to keep up with our
28:27
research then here's some of our you
28:29
know different links and things like
28:31
that
28:32
so i think that's it
Healthy habits - Exercise during pregnancy
Join Major Raylene Grant from the Physical Performance Squadron as she talks the How and Why of safe exercising after pregnancy and when to return to running.
Healthy habits Exercise during pregnancy
0:10
hey everybody and welcome it's great to have you here today to talk about exercise and pregnancy my name is major
0:17
raylene grant i've been working with a team over the last six months to produce
0:22
a guide which really gives a a really nice clear guide in the journey
0:29
as our pregnant wahine navigate their way through pregnancy and
0:36
managing work and the pressures and many of us have joined the military because we really like that
0:43
hands-on aspect and physical type of work and then when we become
0:49
hapu our bodies change and our ability to do different things change so we've put together this guide to make it
0:56
really clear um you know the the types of things that are recommended and not recommended and the sorts of support
1:03
that are in and around you i'll go through the guide and yeah let me know if you've got any questions
1:09
along the way
1:18
um the guide starts off just with a couple of four words so the first one is from the commander of the joint support
1:23
group who manages all of defence health and my immediate manager who's the
1:29
who manages all the garrison support of health and i think the main points there is
1:36
that there is a lot of support around us in that with our medical offices our doctors
1:41
with our physical training instructors with our physiotherapists who are all working together to help you through
1:46
this journey there's in
1:52
when we start sending out this document you can just press on um you know the
1:57
bits that interest you and it does look like there's quite a lot there but because it's broken down into separate trimesters and into a pregnancy and then
2:05
the postnatal part separately hopefully that's not too overwhelming
2:12
in terms of the introduction for the majority of women and for the majority of pregnancies staying fit and active
2:19
and healthy throughout our pregnancies is going to be really good in preparing the bodies for childbirth reducing
2:25
injury maintaining a healthy body weight getting those feel good hormones and if
2:31
we have any of our pregnant wahine online which we probably do many of you might be thinking oh man like exercising
2:38
is the last thing i feel like doing at the moment and through our pregnancies we're going to be tired angry sad fatigued and
2:46
everything in between and it's really a matter of balancing you know those times where we are feeling good and do have a
2:51
little bit of extra energy to get out and do regular exercise because it is so
2:56
important it reduces the pre and postnatal depression enables a faster recovery
3:03
after the birth and all the benefits of exercise actually extend to the fetus as well
3:09
which is awesome initially when i um started this
3:16
when i was going to um do this presentation i was like oh well i'll skip over all the you know appointments
3:21
and scans and bits and pieces and sometimes during pregnancy you just feel like that initial part of pregnancy is a blur
3:29
of appointments and scans and everything in between but i think it's important that we do go through this and
3:35
how it's relevant to new zealand defence force so when we find out that we are hapu or think that
3:41
we may be habu the first thing that we do is obviously go and catch up with one of the medical officers who will confirm
3:47
our pregnancy and talk to us about our role and as we talked about before being in the
3:53
military we've probably joined up because we love that hands-on aspect of it and there may be aspects of our role
3:59
that we can no longer do so it's going to be a matter of talking you know with the medical officer working with our
4:05
manager and commander and working with our health and safety advisor so that we've we're kept safe in the
4:11
workplace and we are no longer i guess you know because it's not about us
4:18
anymore you know it's about the life growing inside us and i know that there's a real want to be you know part
4:24
of the team and you know one of the guys and but i think that it's really important to acknowledge that you know
4:31
there we are going through special changes and so to really you know these recommendations from the
4:37
medical offices is going to be really important to make sure that you're kept safe and baby kept
4:43
safe we obviously choose our lead maternity carer pretty early on in the piece and
4:49
they're going to manage us right throughout our pregnancy and will tell us to continue exercise if there's no
4:55
complications in the pregnancies and we'll talk a little bit more about if there are complications the different
5:01
types of exercises that we can do and the mo is able to refer us off to
5:07
different special exercise classes if we you know do come under that umbrella of
5:13
having complications in our pregnancy which you know which does happen to a certain percentage
5:19
of our pregnancies in terms of our maori and pacific lead
5:26
maternity carers and we can elect to choose these online as we choose our uh
5:32
individual lead maternity carer and some of the aspects of uh for example um
5:38
maori birthing previously you know squatting and holding on to posts during uh the birthing process was
5:46
really important so potentially your exercise plan you know this may be important to you so as you work through
5:52
your different exercise program if this is important for you to do a specific
5:58
type of birthing bring this up with your physiotherapist exercise rehabilitation instructor or
6:04
whoever you're working closely with to create your exercise program informing your manager can often feel
6:11
like quite a daunting task especially if you know you've had previous miscarriages and find this a difficult
6:18
conversation to have but as soon as you're really uncomfortable to do this this needs to happen
6:25
to make sure that yourself and your baby are kept safe so that they are able to alter the duties in and around you
6:33
so that you're working in a safe way to keep yourself um well and still involved in work
6:41
but in a way that's not going to compromise yourself or your pregnancy unless you elect to do so you're not
6:46
required to attend formal pt unit sports field exercises shift work drill or parades which you
6:52
probably know but there are some people that you know want to keep doing this and so it's just
6:58
a matter of you're making it really clear with the you know with your manager and with the mo whether this is
7:05
going to be safe for you to do so within the new zealand defence force the
7:12
mo is able to refer you for a pelvic health physiotherapist review and
7:18
this is really important to do often we do it around the 20-week mark the pelvic health physiotherapist we'll talk to you
7:25
about specific exercises that are important to do for example our pelvic
7:30
floor and core are going to be really important the pelvic health physiotherapists are
7:36
the only people that are actually able to give us feedback whether we're doing these exercises
7:42
right and with your consent they will do an internal examination to make sure that there is correct activation of the
7:50
pelvic floor muscles the pelvic floor muscles which we talked about in a couple of pages away
7:55
are really important because there's a lot more weight put on these muscles uh
8:01
during pregnancy as we carry that additional weight and then these muscles are going to be really key for
8:07
the um birthing process when we push the baby out so the stronger and more
8:12
functional these muscles are during during our pregnancy the more likely we're going to be able to bounce
8:19
back quickly after and not have some of the complications that can come following pregnancies such as urinary
8:25
incontinence or painful sex and all the things that are
8:31
really important in our normal functioning lives after you have been cleared to continue
8:39
exercising book an appointment with either the physiotherapist or the your
8:44
local uh exercise rehabilitation instructor and some people have said well like you
8:49
know who do i book an appointment with with physiotherapists they are obviously
8:55
movement specialists who if you have if you know if you have any injuries or any
9:00
specific sort of medical stuff they're going to be really good at that for our exercise rehabilitation
9:07
instructors they've done special coursing in pre and postnatal training and have a really
9:13
good understanding of specific exercises to do and to not do
9:18
during exercise and you can catch up with both of these people as well and as we talked about during pregnancy it
9:24
sometimes feels like a bit of a blur of appointments and scans but it is important that you've got all of the
9:31
support around you and getting all the information that you need specifically around exercising and keeping healthy
9:37
and well so in this booklet it's got a couple of links there for booking them with the
9:42
physio or if you don't know who your rehabilitation instructor is in your camp there's an email there to touch
9:48
base and find out more so getting into the specific
9:55
points about exercising during pregnancy the pregnancy program is designed to
10:01
maintain good pelvic health and good health correction core health to prepare your
10:06
body for birth and recovery if you've been for example a runner before pregnancy
10:14
you can keep doing that but it's just a matter of changing the intensity and duration
10:20
during this during pregnancy it's not about whether can i it's more about
10:25
should i and during this period it's not about trying to get our personal best and sometimes it feels like it's a
10:32
little bit of a competition to do so like oh i could still do that during my pregnancy and that's really great if
10:38
some people are talking like that but really keep going back to that tagline um
10:43
can i you know versus should i and i really cringe when i look back on some of the
10:50
things that i was doing in my pregnancy and but i think the fact that we now
10:55
have you know really clear recommendations of what we should be doing and shouldn't be doing and as i say it doesn't mean that you have to um
11:03
you know only do these exercises if you are lifting a lot of weights beforehand you can still lift weights but it's just
11:09
a matter of reducing that intensity and reducing the you know the sort of weight that you're throwing around
11:18
the recommended type of exercises that we should be doing is moderate intensity exercise including
11:25
aerobic activity walking swimming water aerobic cycling low impact aerobics for
11:31
30 minutes for most days of the week you might want to jump into pregnancy
11:36
exercise classes such as pilates pregnancy yoga yoga hydrotherapy aqua
11:42
jogging but we can also do a lot of strength stuff as well which is going to be
11:47
really important particularly around preparing the body for childbirth so light to moderate resistance training
11:53
using bands or weights and if you're used to doing weights keep doing them but just decrease the load
11:59
the amount the range of movement as your pregnancy progresses and if you've already engaged in
12:04
vigorous activity or are highly active and if you feel well enough you can
12:10
continue to do this but just really stay closely monitored with the with your lead maternity carer and
12:16
continue to ask yourself you know can i versus should i
12:21
the type of things that are not recommended are activities where
12:28
such as rugby where there's collision where there could be um you know after that three month
12:34
period and the baby has moved up out of the pelvis we want to avoid any
12:39
type of activities type of pt sports you know where there could be a collision the fast change of direction
12:46
stuff so when we're going through pregnancy as you're aware our um the relaxin
12:54
and hormones change to make our body more flexible more subtle to prepare the
13:01
body for childbirth so if we're doing those quick direction quick change of direction type
13:06
activities there's an increased chance that we may become injured because our joints are more
13:13
lacks and flexible it's not recommended that you conduct heavy weight training so the you know
13:20
one repetition maximum you know particularly where the breath changes and you know there's a really
13:26
bearing down on the pelvic floor uh endurance exercise so we talked
13:32
before about you know if you're an endurance runner call you can continue
13:38
to run but it's recommended that you don't run for over 60
13:44
minutes because of the increase of our body temperature
13:50
and our fetus our baby its temperature is two degrees higher than ours anyway and so we just want to
13:57
be really aware to not increase our temperature too much because it's going
14:02
to increase you know the baby's two degrees more than ours which moves us into the next one
14:09
activities that cause a rapid or prolonged increase in heart rate for over 60 minutes are not recommended the
14:15
heart is already working twice as hard as normal so our hearts during pregnancy
14:20
work as hard as what the cyclists do and the tour de france in terms of how much blood we're pumping
14:26
around the body and activities that cause our heart to work at really high intensities are
14:34
not recommended for long periods of time exercising in high
14:40
temperatures or high humidity similarly is going to increase our temperatures too much and the babies
14:47
for some people who really have um
14:54
a lot of joint laxity through the relaxin um it may be painful for them to do
15:00
squats and lunges and any exercise that place pressure on the low back and groin
15:07
so for example if in your exercise program you know there is squats
15:12
you just want to take it to a point that's comfortable for you and not go into a deep squat or not go into a wide squat and
15:19
you know because there's so much changes to the hormones in and around the body
15:24
exercises where you lie flat on your back after 20 weeks are not recommended so anything where you're doing core
15:31
stuff just pop you know a bolster or a pillow or do it in a sitting position after that 20 week period and that's
15:38
related to the uh compromise of the the blood vessels in the back so we want to make sure
15:44
obviously that baby's getting lots of blood to the area exercise that cause coning or doming of
15:51
your abdominal muscles so if you're doing a sit up for example and the
15:56
abdominal is coming into a coning shape it means that we're putting too much pressure in on the on the core
16:07
um so those abdominal exercises will go through you know the type of core
16:12
exercises that will be suitable for doing during pregnancy
16:18
um if you get any of these symptoms stop exercising so if you develop shortness of breath
16:23
in term i mean when we're exercising obviously we want to increase
16:29
the you know increase our
16:35
breathlessness but you know we still need to get air in and should still be able to talk so if you get to a point
16:41
where you're unable to breathe that's you we need to stop immediately and um
16:46
call the dhc or head on down chest pain deep calf swelling any vaginal bleeding cramps or pain
16:55
uh contractions any leaking of amnionic fluid and have sharp intense pain in the
17:00
pelvic region you need to stop exercising immediately and touch base with the defense health
17:07
center or your lead maternity carer and then if you're feeling um unusual
17:14
sort of muscle pressure feeling dizzy faint develop a headache and you know just touch base with your lead maternity
17:21
carer immediately for our warm up and cool down
17:29
during a pregnancy our blood volume doubles and our heart will work twice as hard as what it normally does
17:35
and therefore our warm up should just be a real gradual increase of this heart
17:40
rate so it could be going for a light jog or it could be jumping on the bike or the cross trainer
17:47
cooldowns same again should be gradual and really concentrate on bringing that
17:53
heart rate back down to its base rate and just a really light cardio activity of your choice
18:01
stretching exercises are important as part of this cool down but we just want
18:06
to take it to a point of discomfort in those vigorous end range stretches and not recommended during pregnancy because
18:14
as we talked about the relaxin you know our joints and muscles are already a lot more flexible and subtle
18:20
than what they usually are so we just want to take the stretches to a point of discomfort and
18:28
not vigorous ones the talk test during exercise so we want
18:33
to when we're exercising we still want to be able to have a conversation it should be a little bit hard but we
18:40
shouldn't be gasping for breath you should be doing enough to make you breathe deeply but shouldn't have to
18:46
gasp for breath if you can say a whole sentence before having to take a breath your activity is
18:53
about right let's talk about
18:59
the anatomy of a couple of really important uh parts of the body during pregnancy so the pelvic floor
19:07
are a strong group of muscles which attach from the front of your pelvis to the back of the tailbone
19:12
they are a very important group of muscles as they are the base of our abdomen and the
19:17
floor of our core and if we can really make sure that these muscles are strong and functional
19:24
during our pregnancy then it's going to make it a lot easier for childbirth and we are going to be
19:33
able to bounce back a lot easier after having baby and avoid
19:39
complications that come with pelvic floor dysfunction our deep core and stabilizing muscles
19:46
are really important to keep strong and functional during pregnancy uh
19:52
this will help us maintain a good posture as our center of gravity changes
19:57
keep the muscles strong as they stretch to accommodate the growing baby support our spine and pelvic joints to
20:04
prevent low back pain pelvic pain or groin pain and work with the uterus to help to push
20:11
the baby out and therefore core muscle strengthening and pelvic floor strengthening really
20:18
make up a key part of our pregnancy exercise program
20:25
we'll talk a little bit about the first trimester and
20:30
the changes that occurring in that first trimester so often in our first
20:35
trimester you know we are completely naked we might be unwell and feeling pretty
20:43
crook and if possible you know we still want to stay active in this if we can and
20:49
just exercising in those days where we're feeling well enough to do so
20:54
our energy levels may be low and morning sickness may occur so
21:00
we just want to do what we can so even if it's just a short walk around the block that's still going to be really beneficial for ourselves and baby
21:07
joints and ligaments become hyper flexible during pregnancy and we just need to assure ensure we're not over
21:13
stretching the joints and ligaments during this time the hormone relaxin stays in the body
21:19
for three months following birth and for three months following breastfeeding and so it's important to
21:26
gradually return to training following birth and breastfeeding for anyone that
21:31
has a miscarriage over this time it's often you know we'll want to
21:37
i guess sort of avoid the grief and get straight back into training as soon as we can but
21:42
a point here is you know there's still going to be the high levels of relaxing in the body and a lot of people do
21:47
experience injury during this time and so if they're you know if you
21:54
do have a miscarriage during this time don't rush back to exercise because there you know the body is going to take
22:00
a while to come back to normal and this is the same with termination also
22:07
hydration it's really important that we stay really well hydrated during that first trimester and throughout pregnancy
22:14
so take a water bottle along to your workout and drink throughout our workout
22:19
and we want to make sure that we're drinking at least eight to twelve glasses a day and the body needs so much
22:25
more water during pregnancy because it's creating more blood more amniotic fluid and you know doing
22:32
um amniotic fluid producing extra blood volume and carrying the nutrients to to
22:37
flush out any wastes and toxins so it's really important that we keep up a really high hydration during pregnancy
22:45
so exercise during the first trimester generally we can keep doing what we were
22:52
doing but we need to decrease the intensity try to keep the heart rate below 120
22:59
beats per minute and manage the temperature and ensure you're not overheating
23:04
and making sure that we add pelvic floor and deep core exercises into our routines
23:12
we've got a bit of a checklist there which is a lot of appointments and scans and just making
23:17
sure that we're touching base with the right people
23:23
pelvic floor strengthening exercises how do we do these you've probably heard of kegel exercises and on this page it just
23:30
talks about how we do these kegel exercises and the easiest way to start doing it is lying on our backs we talked
23:37
about we don't want to lie on our backs after the first 20 weeks but before then
23:43
that's fine we want to start lying on our back
23:50
just because this is the easiest way to get them working as we exhale we want to
23:58
lift and contract the pelvic floor muscles and cues that might help you do this
24:05
to visualize a marble at the opening of your vagina
24:10
and visualize it sucking it up into the vagina for some people the cues
24:16
such as you know suck up a tampon or hold in a fat
24:22
or stop yourself peeing you know grip on a straw and you know suck up the smoothie
24:28
so there's different cues that may work for you but we want to maintain this maximal effort for
24:35
10 seconds ideally or up to 10 seconds if we're still you know working up to it to it and we don't have that endurance
24:42
quite yet we then want to fully relax and repeat this for
24:49
10 times so we're working on the endurance aspect because these are how these muscles work however we also want
24:56
to work the fast twitch aspect of the pelvic floor and how we do this is we do
25:03
ten quick flicks so we do the you know the suck up and the pull of the
25:10
pelvic floor muscles but really quickly for 10 seconds
25:15
for our deep core muscle strengthening similarly the easiest way to get into
25:20
these is lying on our backs we want to put our hands on our hip bones and just come in
25:25
one centimeter if we do a small cough we will feel these muscles contracting
25:31
underneath our our fingers to get the deep core muscles working
25:38
and similarly on our exhale breath we just want to draw in slightly at the abdomen at the
25:45
underlying we want to hold for 10 seconds keep breathing throughout and complete five to ten rep repetitions of
25:53
this and this is our real sort of entry level stuff to make sure that these muscles
25:59
are working and activating and the more that we progress through our pregnancy and
26:06
working these muscles they're going to get stronger and we're going to be able to
26:11
get them contracting and you know sitting and standing and as we're doing our exercises which is what we want to
26:16
progress to in
26:21
in each of the trimesters we have included in this booklet uh
26:28
the pelvic floor and deep core muscles there's a youtube link
26:34
that you can click onto to watch our model do these different exercises
26:42
which may help also there's also a strengthening component
26:48
and we're not by any matter of means saying that you know you need to do this
26:54
exercise program as we talked about whatever you have been doing prior to becoming pregnant you can keep doing
27:00
that but just changing up the intensity and how much weight you're
27:06
lifting and the duration and so we've put this these exercise components in here if
27:13
you're like oh far out like i really don't know where to start so there's a push and a pull and a squat and a lift
27:19
and we just want to do these with a weight that you're comfortable doing
27:25
and as i say you know you don't have to do this program but it's a safe
27:31
type of exercise that you can do during pregnancy if you're starting exercising just make
27:37
sure that you go down and catch up with your exercise rehabilitation instructor and they'll make sure that you're doing
27:42
all the exercises right as you go on similarly there's a link there that
27:48
um will take you through to a video of um mary alice going through this
27:55
exercise program and a bit of core stuff at the end there
28:02
nice and moving into our second trimester during our second trimester
28:09
the baby's getting a little bit bigger hopefully we've got some of our energy back and hopefully some of that morning
28:15
sickness will have passed so we can start getting into our training a little bit more um the breast tenderness may have
28:22
subsided but you know the breasts are still growing and probably starting to feel
28:28
heavy as the milk ducts develop
28:33
stretching and thinning of the abdominal muscles during pregnancy is normal
28:40
and will go back to normal after we have baby
28:45
however exercise during this trimester should not put additional pressure on
28:50
those abdominal muscles and core muscles so exercises that work the rectus
28:55
abdominis that muscle at the front of our core the superficial ones
29:01
such as sit ups bicycles leg throws are not recommended during this time because the
29:09
abdominal muscles are already under quite a lot of pressure as they thin and
29:15
separate for accommodating the growing baby repair and recovery from diastasis recti
29:22
which is the normal sort of thinning and separating of the rectus abdominy usually takes between 6 and 24 months to
29:29
come right following birth following birth the
29:34
lead maternity carer and your pelvic health physiotherapist and the you know eri will be able to
29:42
advise you you know whether they're whether you you know do have diastasis recti
29:47
and specific exercises such as the deep core muscles and the pelvic floor muscles are going to be
29:54
really key for helping this return back to normal
30:00
maternity support belts can be really helpful for people that are experiencing
30:05
pelvic pain and joint pain i understand that you can you know touch
30:10
base with your defense health center or ap and physio to order these belts if this is important to you
30:17
however you might just want to grab one online or at one of the stores so smiley
30:22
bouts or some roll abouts are common in new zealand and they're made of like that thick wetsuit type material and
30:29
often people who are pregnant um you know find these really really comforting
30:34
to just support the low back and pelvis a lot better
30:40
let's talk about our bladder and what is normal so a healthy bladder doesn't leak
30:47
it tells you when it's full and gives you time to get to the toilet it can hold between 460 ml of urine and
30:55
empties you know once every two to three hours you may wake up
31:01
in the night you know particularly in that first trimester and third trimester when there's a lot more pressure on the
31:07
bladder and a normal bladder completely empties each time
31:12
an unhealthy bladder leaks urine when coughing sneezing
31:17
lifting jumping skipping and running and if you are experiencing any of this
31:24
during your pregnancy touch base with your pelvic health physiotherapist
31:29
following referral from the medical officer to make sure that the
31:35
pelvic floor are working well uh other signs that you need you know
31:40
that that the pelvic floor isn't working as well as it needs to be is if you have a sudden urge to pee
31:46
if you need to go to the toilet more than every two hours um you know if there's a heaviness in
31:53
your underpants if it can't hold enough urine you know less than 300
31:59
millimeters you have to get up more than twice per night um it does not feel comfortable after
32:05
you've been to the toilet and passed urine and the urge is so strong that you can't get to the toilet in time so this
32:11
is not normal and you just make sure that you get the scene to a lot of people particularly in our military just
32:18
like oh well you know it's you know everybody you know like i've talked to other ladies and this is normal for them to like pee when they're
32:25
you know doing a skipping rope and just because it's common it doesn't mean that it's normal
32:31
and we don't want to have long-term problems problems from our pregnancy you know we
32:36
want to bounce back and be fit and deployable so make sure you get this sort of stuff sorted out rather than just putting it
32:42
off for um you know i'll be fine
32:48
exercise during the second trimester your bump will be growing and things like running or high impact activities
32:54
will start to feel uncomfortable so try swapping them out for a low impact activities such as walking or
33:00
swimming and group training classes are fun um but make sure that you let your
33:06
instructor know that you are pregnant and they'll just be able to keep an eye on you and give you progressions and regressions of
33:12
exercises when required exercising lying flat on your back is not recommended after the 20 weeks so up
33:19
to do exercises in a sitting or inclined position
33:25
here is some exercises for the second trimester pelvic floor and
33:31
core so in this trimester we're doing the pelvic floor
33:36
and core in our four point kneeling position and this is still a nice easy position to get the pelvic floor and
33:43
core muscles working in terms of our strength training program it's the same
33:50
exercises as before but they've just been regressed so instead of doing
33:56
a press up on our knees on the floor we're doing an incline press up against a bench press in this activity and the
34:04
in the second trimester um our model here is using dumbbells so
34:09
i mean you can continue to use barbells if you want to and we've just regressed
34:16
the the amount of weight and the um yeah the weight and intensity of
34:21
these exercises so exactly the same exercises as the first trimester strength stuff
34:28
but we're not going quite as deep and we're not lifting quite as much
34:35
we've added in a pregnancy stretching pregnancy stretching program into the
34:41
second trimester as well and the first one
34:46
you know just sitting down and coming and really connecting with the breath is going to be important and really seeing
34:52
if we can start to teach the body to breathe wide so there's going to be not
34:57
so much room for our lungs sitting here so if we can really teach and initiate that wide
35:03
breathing that's going to be good for when the baby starts to get bigger and pushing on all our lungs and
35:10
organs as we move into our third trimester baby
35:18
is rapidly putting on weight which make which may make you feel heavy tired sore
35:24
and achy you might feel discomfort in your pelvis hips back as the ligaments loosen to
35:29
prepare for labor so during this as we talked about we
35:35
you know are probably going to be feeling tired and sore so we want to
35:41
change our exercises so we're still doing it but the intensity is going to be light
35:46
potentially things like swimming and aqua jogging is going to feel a lot better for us in
35:52
this trimester because it's going to take that weight off the feet knees tummy
36:00
it's normal to gain a 20 weight gain during pregnancy and i
36:05
think that often you know when we get pregnant we'll think that we'll have the baby and then you know put on our size 8
36:13
jeans and walk out of the hospital and i think it's important that you know we do take a long-term approach to our
36:20
bodies and that we've gone through a pretty amazing transformation and created life
36:26
and out to the back of it you know have probably come out with stretch marks and
36:32
ziggy bits that we didn't used to have and really take that long-term approach and don't put pressure on yourself to
36:39
you know squeeze into those jeans and walk out of the hospital because it's going to take a long time for your body
36:45
to get back to normal for me about two years and you know for some
36:51
people longer than this so i think just really taking that long-term approach to
36:56
you know the changes that your body goes through and how long it's going to take
37:01
to get back to normal the you know talking to fitness trainers that work in this
37:06
industry you know one of their comments were you know working with
37:12
postpartum females excuse me if they
37:17
from from their sort of experiences if ladies have had you know babies less than sort of two
37:25
years apart then the body doesn't really go back to that initial sort of state and so
37:32
generally with babies sort of three years apart that you know the body can go back to that
37:38
you know full strength full fitness and so i guess the point that i wanted to make there is that we just really
37:44
need to take a really long term approach of what our bodies will look like as we've
37:50
put on the extra weight to grow a baby uh the baby will add pressure onto your
37:56
organs which may lead you to feel breathless have heartburn and go to the toilet
38:03
often and continue exercising as long as you feel well enough to do so and continue those
38:10
continual checks with your lead maternity carer up to 45
38:16
of our ladies you know do experience back and pelvic pain the maternity belts
38:22
might help uh you know staying nice and strong through the the core might help
38:28
and you know catching up with a physiotherapist is going to be beneficial as well other things that we can do is reduce
38:35
the distance and speed of our walks avoid uneven terrain reduce stride
38:41
length avoid activities where you cross your legs um getting in and out of the car
38:48
you know just imagine like there's a zipper up the thighs and keeping the legs together as we pivot out of the
38:54
car so it doesn't bring on that groin and pelvic pain similarly if we're getting up out of bed in the morning
39:01
zip put that zipper you know right up the thighs and keeping the legs together avoiding activities where we stand on
39:08
one leg and sitting down for dressing and putting on shoes so it doesn't put you know so much weight and this won't
39:14
be relevant to everyone but you know there's some people in the end of that third trimester where everything is just
39:21
sore and hurting and achy so we just want to really make sure that we're not putting additional pressure by standing
39:27
on one leg by crossing the midline that sort of stuff
39:33
pelvic floor injury and dysfunction is common in pregnancy and postpartum woman
39:40
and up to 80 of women will leak when they are pregnant and over 30 percent
39:46
will continue to leak after childbirth although this is common it is not normal
39:53
so if this is happening it's not normal and make sure that you are touching base with your pelvic
39:59
health physiotherapist to you know really get this sorted
40:05
exercise in the third trimester swimming is going to be um
40:12
really nice for us and you can continue exercising unless you know your maternity carer has advised against it
40:19
so low pay low impact activities such as strength training walking and swimming is going to be good during this time
40:33
when we move into our third trimester for our core and pelvic floor we can
40:38
either do this in sitting or in side lying and it's the same exercises just the positional change
40:45
similarly our strength training is the same exercises but the weight might be lighter and for our press up we've gone
40:54
from an incline press up to a wall press up
41:00
we want to continue our stretches during the third trimester also
41:07
hey and that concludes the main points for our pregnancy and exercise presentation uh
41:14
congratulations to all of you out there who are currently hapu or may have
41:20
partners who are happy the key points is if you know you were
41:25
already training you can keep doing that training but continue to ask yourself um you know just because i can do it you
41:31
know doesn't mean that i should do it and you know growing a life inside us is a pretty exceptional
41:40
um thing to do and so we want to make sure that we're looking after ourselves and baby
41:45
as we go as we progress through our pregnancy we can keep doing the same exercises but we're just changing the
41:51
duration changing the intensity and working within what our body can do wishing you all the best for your
41:58
journey and thank you very much for your time today thanks
42:04
thanks so much roland and we've just got a question as well from one of the attendees um if you don't mind
42:12
so they've said is there any appetite in engaging with the lmcs so they are able
42:17
to work for defence i attach to our medical facilities for our defence personnel sometimes wanting
42:24
that separation um from defence in this case
42:29
nice that's a really good question which i'm going to write down because i think that's an amazing idea
42:36
and as we you know look to have our multi-disciplinary teams all located in
42:42
that same position you know in that same location man how cool would that be and i'm going to write that down thank
42:48
you good
42:56
question perfect right well i think we'll um oh no we've got another question coming sorry
43:04
um somebody's just asking as well if there would be any way to access the powerpoint after the webinar as well
43:12
yeah of course so um maybe i'll send it to you laura i've um
43:18
posted it up on our facebook page which is called nzdf
43:24
um force health physical performance so you can get it off the
43:30
um facebook page there this is the this will be released within the next
43:36
couple of weeks so it's just sitting with dpa at the moment we've just got a few more changes to make and then the
43:42
booklets will be printed and they'll be at the defense health centers and it'll be up on the health website
43:50
and yeah hopefully the nzdf social media will be able to post it as well so and
43:55
answer your question yes absolutely this is not the final product but it's um you know the content won't
44:00
change it'll just be a couple of things that need to be updated so if i send that through to you
44:07
laura and the people that want it um can touch base with you will that work
44:13
yes that's perfect um i can i'll pop our integrated wellness email address in the
44:19
chat um as well and so if yeah anyone wishes to yeah get a copy of your slides
44:25
um they can contact us that way as well great perfect all right well thank you so much
44:32
for your time um and yeah for i think there'll be a lot of people out there that will get a lot of use out of
44:38
this and um be able to get some yeah real um valuable guidance from this so no thank you so much and yeah i think
44:45
we'll we'll wrap up there awesome thanks laura thanks for having me
hey everybody and welcome it's great to have you here today to talk about exercise and pregnancy my name is major
0:17
raylene grant i've been working with a team over the last six months to produce
0:22
a guide which really gives a a really nice clear guide in the journey
0:29
as our pregnant wahine navigate their way through pregnancy and
0:36
managing work and the pressures and many of us have joined the military because we really like that
0:43
hands-on aspect and physical type of work and then when we become
0:49
hapu our bodies change and our ability to do different things change so we've put together this guide to make it
0:56
really clear um you know the the types of things that are recommended and not recommended and the sorts of support
1:03
that are in and around you i'll go through the guide and yeah let me know if you've got any questions
1:09
along the way
1:18
um the guide starts off just with a couple of four words so the first one is from the commander of the joint support
1:23
group who manages all of defence health and my immediate manager who's the
1:29
who manages all the garrison support of health and i think the main points there is
1:36
that there is a lot of support around us in that with our medical offices our doctors
1:41
with our physical training instructors with our physiotherapists who are all working together to help you through
1:46
this journey there's in
1:52
when we start sending out this document you can just press on um you know the
1:57
bits that interest you and it does look like there's quite a lot there but because it's broken down into separate trimesters and into a pregnancy and then
2:05
the postnatal part separately hopefully that's not too overwhelming
2:12
in terms of the introduction for the majority of women and for the majority of pregnancies staying fit and active
2:19
and healthy throughout our pregnancies is going to be really good in preparing the bodies for childbirth reducing
2:25
injury maintaining a healthy body weight getting those feel good hormones and if
2:31
we have any of our pregnant wahine online which we probably do many of you might be thinking oh man like exercising
2:38
is the last thing i feel like doing at the moment and through our pregnancies we're going to be tired angry sad fatigued and
2:46
everything in between and it's really a matter of balancing you know those times where we are feeling good and do have a
2:51
little bit of extra energy to get out and do regular exercise because it is so
2:56
important it reduces the pre and postnatal depression enables a faster recovery
3:03
after the birth and all the benefits of exercise actually extend to the fetus as well
3:09
which is awesome initially when i um started this
3:16
when i was going to um do this presentation i was like oh well i'll skip over all the you know appointments
3:21
and scans and bits and pieces and sometimes during pregnancy you just feel like that initial part of pregnancy is a blur
3:29
of appointments and scans and everything in between but i think it's important that we do go through this and
3:35
how it's relevant to new zealand defence force so when we find out that we are hapu or think that
3:41
we may be habu the first thing that we do is obviously go and catch up with one of the medical officers who will confirm
3:47
our pregnancy and talk to us about our role and as we talked about before being in the
3:53
military we've probably joined up because we love that hands-on aspect of it and there may be aspects of our role
3:59
that we can no longer do so it's going to be a matter of talking you know with the medical officer working with our
4:05
manager and commander and working with our health and safety advisor so that we've we're kept safe in the
4:11
workplace and we are no longer i guess you know because it's not about us
4:18
anymore you know it's about the life growing inside us and i know that there's a real want to be you know part
4:24
of the team and you know one of the guys and but i think that it's really important to acknowledge that you know
4:31
there we are going through special changes and so to really you know these recommendations from the
4:37
medical offices is going to be really important to make sure that you're kept safe and baby kept
4:43
safe we obviously choose our lead maternity carer pretty early on in the piece and
4:49
they're going to manage us right throughout our pregnancy and will tell us to continue exercise if there's no
4:55
complications in the pregnancies and we'll talk a little bit more about if there are complications the different
5:01
types of exercises that we can do and the mo is able to refer us off to
5:07
different special exercise classes if we you know do come under that umbrella of
5:13
having complications in our pregnancy which you know which does happen to a certain percentage
5:19
of our pregnancies in terms of our maori and pacific lead
5:26
maternity carers and we can elect to choose these online as we choose our uh
5:32
individual lead maternity carer and some of the aspects of uh for example um
5:38
maori birthing previously you know squatting and holding on to posts during uh the birthing process was
5:46
really important so potentially your exercise plan you know this may be important to you so as you work through
5:52
your different exercise program if this is important for you to do a specific
5:58
type of birthing bring this up with your physiotherapist exercise rehabilitation instructor or
6:04
whoever you're working closely with to create your exercise program informing your manager can often feel
6:11
like quite a daunting task especially if you know you've had previous miscarriages and find this a difficult
6:18
conversation to have but as soon as you're really uncomfortable to do this this needs to happen
6:25
to make sure that yourself and your baby are kept safe so that they are able to alter the duties in and around you
6:33
so that you're working in a safe way to keep yourself um well and still involved in work
6:41
but in a way that's not going to compromise yourself or your pregnancy unless you elect to do so you're not
6:46
required to attend formal pt unit sports field exercises shift work drill or parades which you
6:52
probably know but there are some people that you know want to keep doing this and so it's just
6:58
a matter of you're making it really clear with the you know with your manager and with the mo whether this is
7:05
going to be safe for you to do so within the new zealand defence force the
7:12
mo is able to refer you for a pelvic health physiotherapist review and
7:18
this is really important to do often we do it around the 20-week mark the pelvic health physiotherapist we'll talk to you
7:25
about specific exercises that are important to do for example our pelvic
7:30
floor and core are going to be really important the pelvic health physiotherapists are
7:36
the only people that are actually able to give us feedback whether we're doing these exercises
7:42
right and with your consent they will do an internal examination to make sure that there is correct activation of the
7:50
pelvic floor muscles the pelvic floor muscles which we talked about in a couple of pages away
7:55
are really important because there's a lot more weight put on these muscles uh
8:01
during pregnancy as we carry that additional weight and then these muscles are going to be really key for
8:07
the um birthing process when we push the baby out so the stronger and more
8:12
functional these muscles are during during our pregnancy the more likely we're going to be able to bounce
8:19
back quickly after and not have some of the complications that can come following pregnancies such as urinary
8:25
incontinence or painful sex and all the things that are
8:31
really important in our normal functioning lives after you have been cleared to continue
8:39
exercising book an appointment with either the physiotherapist or the your
8:44
local uh exercise rehabilitation instructor and some people have said well like you
8:49
know who do i book an appointment with with physiotherapists they are obviously
8:55
movement specialists who if you have if you know if you have any injuries or any
9:00
specific sort of medical stuff they're going to be really good at that for our exercise rehabilitation
9:07
instructors they've done special coursing in pre and postnatal training and have a really
9:13
good understanding of specific exercises to do and to not do
9:18
during exercise and you can catch up with both of these people as well and as we talked about during pregnancy it
9:24
sometimes feels like a bit of a blur of appointments and scans but it is important that you've got all of the
9:31
support around you and getting all the information that you need specifically around exercising and keeping healthy
9:37
and well so in this booklet it's got a couple of links there for booking them with the
9:42
physio or if you don't know who your rehabilitation instructor is in your camp there's an email there to touch
9:48
base and find out more so getting into the specific
9:55
points about exercising during pregnancy the pregnancy program is designed to
10:01
maintain good pelvic health and good health correction core health to prepare your
10:06
body for birth and recovery if you've been for example a runner before pregnancy
10:14
you can keep doing that but it's just a matter of changing the intensity and duration
10:20
during this during pregnancy it's not about whether can i it's more about
10:25
should i and during this period it's not about trying to get our personal best and sometimes it feels like it's a
10:32
little bit of a competition to do so like oh i could still do that during my pregnancy and that's really great if
10:38
some people are talking like that but really keep going back to that tagline um
10:43
can i you know versus should i and i really cringe when i look back on some of the
10:50
things that i was doing in my pregnancy and but i think the fact that we now
10:55
have you know really clear recommendations of what we should be doing and shouldn't be doing and as i say it doesn't mean that you have to um
11:03
you know only do these exercises if you are lifting a lot of weights beforehand you can still lift weights but it's just
11:09
a matter of reducing that intensity and reducing the you know the sort of weight that you're throwing around
11:18
the recommended type of exercises that we should be doing is moderate intensity exercise including
11:25
aerobic activity walking swimming water aerobic cycling low impact aerobics for
11:31
30 minutes for most days of the week you might want to jump into pregnancy
11:36
exercise classes such as pilates pregnancy yoga yoga hydrotherapy aqua
11:42
jogging but we can also do a lot of strength stuff as well which is going to be
11:47
really important particularly around preparing the body for childbirth so light to moderate resistance training
11:53
using bands or weights and if you're used to doing weights keep doing them but just decrease the load
11:59
the amount the range of movement as your pregnancy progresses and if you've already engaged in
12:04
vigorous activity or are highly active and if you feel well enough you can
12:10
continue to do this but just really stay closely monitored with the with your lead maternity carer and
12:16
continue to ask yourself you know can i versus should i
12:21
the type of things that are not recommended are activities where
12:28
such as rugby where there's collision where there could be um you know after that three month
12:34
period and the baby has moved up out of the pelvis we want to avoid any
12:39
type of activities type of pt sports you know where there could be a collision the fast change of direction
12:46
stuff so when we're going through pregnancy as you're aware our um the relaxin
12:54
and hormones change to make our body more flexible more subtle to prepare the
13:01
body for childbirth so if we're doing those quick direction quick change of direction type
13:06
activities there's an increased chance that we may become injured because our joints are more
13:13
lacks and flexible it's not recommended that you conduct heavy weight training so the you know
13:20
one repetition maximum you know particularly where the breath changes and you know there's a really
13:26
bearing down on the pelvic floor uh endurance exercise so we talked
13:32
before about you know if you're an endurance runner call you can continue
13:38
to run but it's recommended that you don't run for over 60
13:44
minutes because of the increase of our body temperature
13:50
and our fetus our baby its temperature is two degrees higher than ours anyway and so we just want to
13:57
be really aware to not increase our temperature too much because it's going
14:02
to increase you know the baby's two degrees more than ours which moves us into the next one
14:09
activities that cause a rapid or prolonged increase in heart rate for over 60 minutes are not recommended the
14:15
heart is already working twice as hard as normal so our hearts during pregnancy
14:20
work as hard as what the cyclists do and the tour de france in terms of how much blood we're pumping
14:26
around the body and activities that cause our heart to work at really high intensities are
14:34
not recommended for long periods of time exercising in high
14:40
temperatures or high humidity similarly is going to increase our temperatures too much and the babies
14:47
for some people who really have um
14:54
a lot of joint laxity through the relaxin um it may be painful for them to do
15:00
squats and lunges and any exercise that place pressure on the low back and groin
15:07
so for example if in your exercise program you know there is squats
15:12
you just want to take it to a point that's comfortable for you and not go into a deep squat or not go into a wide squat and
15:19
you know because there's so much changes to the hormones in and around the body
15:24
exercises where you lie flat on your back after 20 weeks are not recommended so anything where you're doing core
15:31
stuff just pop you know a bolster or a pillow or do it in a sitting position after that 20 week period and that's
15:38
related to the uh compromise of the the blood vessels in the back so we want to make sure
15:44
obviously that baby's getting lots of blood to the area exercise that cause coning or doming of
15:51
your abdominal muscles so if you're doing a sit up for example and the
15:56
abdominal is coming into a coning shape it means that we're putting too much pressure in on the on the core
16:07
um so those abdominal exercises will go through you know the type of core
16:12
exercises that will be suitable for doing during pregnancy
16:18
um if you get any of these symptoms stop exercising so if you develop shortness of breath
16:23
in term i mean when we're exercising obviously we want to increase
16:29
the you know increase our
16:35
breathlessness but you know we still need to get air in and should still be able to talk so if you get to a point
16:41
where you're unable to breathe that's you we need to stop immediately and um
16:46
call the dhc or head on down chest pain deep calf swelling any vaginal bleeding cramps or pain
16:55
uh contractions any leaking of amnionic fluid and have sharp intense pain in the
17:00
pelvic region you need to stop exercising immediately and touch base with the defense health
17:07
center or your lead maternity carer and then if you're feeling um unusual
17:14
sort of muscle pressure feeling dizzy faint develop a headache and you know just touch base with your lead maternity
17:21
carer immediately for our warm up and cool down
17:29
during a pregnancy our blood volume doubles and our heart will work twice as hard as what it normally does
17:35
and therefore our warm up should just be a real gradual increase of this heart
17:40
rate so it could be going for a light jog or it could be jumping on the bike or the cross trainer
17:47
cooldowns same again should be gradual and really concentrate on bringing that
17:53
heart rate back down to its base rate and just a really light cardio activity of your choice
18:01
stretching exercises are important as part of this cool down but we just want
18:06
to take it to a point of discomfort in those vigorous end range stretches and not recommended during pregnancy because
18:14
as we talked about the relaxin you know our joints and muscles are already a lot more flexible and subtle
18:20
than what they usually are so we just want to take the stretches to a point of discomfort and
18:28
not vigorous ones the talk test during exercise so we want
18:33
to when we're exercising we still want to be able to have a conversation it should be a little bit hard but we
18:40
shouldn't be gasping for breath you should be doing enough to make you breathe deeply but shouldn't have to
18:46
gasp for breath if you can say a whole sentence before having to take a breath your activity is
18:53
about right let's talk about
18:59
the anatomy of a couple of really important uh parts of the body during pregnancy so the pelvic floor
19:07
are a strong group of muscles which attach from the front of your pelvis to the back of the tailbone
19:12
they are a very important group of muscles as they are the base of our abdomen and the
19:17
floor of our core and if we can really make sure that these muscles are strong and functional
19:24
during our pregnancy then it's going to make it a lot easier for childbirth and we are going to be
19:33
able to bounce back a lot easier after having baby and avoid
19:39
complications that come with pelvic floor dysfunction our deep core and stabilizing muscles
19:46
are really important to keep strong and functional during pregnancy uh
19:52
this will help us maintain a good posture as our center of gravity changes
19:57
keep the muscles strong as they stretch to accommodate the growing baby support our spine and pelvic joints to
20:04
prevent low back pain pelvic pain or groin pain and work with the uterus to help to push
20:11
the baby out and therefore core muscle strengthening and pelvic floor strengthening really
20:18
make up a key part of our pregnancy exercise program
20:25
we'll talk a little bit about the first trimester and
20:30
the changes that occurring in that first trimester so often in our first
20:35
trimester you know we are completely naked we might be unwell and feeling pretty
20:43
crook and if possible you know we still want to stay active in this if we can and
20:49
just exercising in those days where we're feeling well enough to do so
20:54
our energy levels may be low and morning sickness may occur so
21:00
we just want to do what we can so even if it's just a short walk around the block that's still going to be really beneficial for ourselves and baby
21:07
joints and ligaments become hyper flexible during pregnancy and we just need to assure ensure we're not over
21:13
stretching the joints and ligaments during this time the hormone relaxin stays in the body
21:19
for three months following birth and for three months following breastfeeding and so it's important to
21:26
gradually return to training following birth and breastfeeding for anyone that
21:31
has a miscarriage over this time it's often you know we'll want to
21:37
i guess sort of avoid the grief and get straight back into training as soon as we can but
21:42
a point here is you know there's still going to be the high levels of relaxing in the body and a lot of people do
21:47
experience injury during this time and so if they're you know if you
21:54
do have a miscarriage during this time don't rush back to exercise because there you know the body is going to take
22:00
a while to come back to normal and this is the same with termination also
22:07
hydration it's really important that we stay really well hydrated during that first trimester and throughout pregnancy
22:14
so take a water bottle along to your workout and drink throughout our workout
22:19
and we want to make sure that we're drinking at least eight to twelve glasses a day and the body needs so much
22:25
more water during pregnancy because it's creating more blood more amniotic fluid and you know doing
22:32
um amniotic fluid producing extra blood volume and carrying the nutrients to to
22:37
flush out any wastes and toxins so it's really important that we keep up a really high hydration during pregnancy
22:45
so exercise during the first trimester generally we can keep doing what we were
22:52
doing but we need to decrease the intensity try to keep the heart rate below 120
22:59
beats per minute and manage the temperature and ensure you're not overheating
23:04
and making sure that we add pelvic floor and deep core exercises into our routines
23:12
we've got a bit of a checklist there which is a lot of appointments and scans and just making
23:17
sure that we're touching base with the right people
23:23
pelvic floor strengthening exercises how do we do these you've probably heard of kegel exercises and on this page it just
23:30
talks about how we do these kegel exercises and the easiest way to start doing it is lying on our backs we talked
23:37
about we don't want to lie on our backs after the first 20 weeks but before then
23:43
that's fine we want to start lying on our back
23:50
just because this is the easiest way to get them working as we exhale we want to
23:58
lift and contract the pelvic floor muscles and cues that might help you do this
24:05
to visualize a marble at the opening of your vagina
24:10
and visualize it sucking it up into the vagina for some people the cues
24:16
such as you know suck up a tampon or hold in a fat
24:22
or stop yourself peeing you know grip on a straw and you know suck up the smoothie
24:28
so there's different cues that may work for you but we want to maintain this maximal effort for
24:35
10 seconds ideally or up to 10 seconds if we're still you know working up to it to it and we don't have that endurance
24:42
quite yet we then want to fully relax and repeat this for
24:49
10 times so we're working on the endurance aspect because these are how these muscles work however we also want
24:56
to work the fast twitch aspect of the pelvic floor and how we do this is we do
25:03
ten quick flicks so we do the you know the suck up and the pull of the
25:10
pelvic floor muscles but really quickly for 10 seconds
25:15
for our deep core muscle strengthening similarly the easiest way to get into
25:20
these is lying on our backs we want to put our hands on our hip bones and just come in
25:25
one centimeter if we do a small cough we will feel these muscles contracting
25:31
underneath our our fingers to get the deep core muscles working
25:38
and similarly on our exhale breath we just want to draw in slightly at the abdomen at the
25:45
underlying we want to hold for 10 seconds keep breathing throughout and complete five to ten rep repetitions of
25:53
this and this is our real sort of entry level stuff to make sure that these muscles
25:59
are working and activating and the more that we progress through our pregnancy and
26:06
working these muscles they're going to get stronger and we're going to be able to
26:11
get them contracting and you know sitting and standing and as we're doing our exercises which is what we want to
26:16
progress to in
26:21
in each of the trimesters we have included in this booklet uh
26:28
the pelvic floor and deep core muscles there's a youtube link
26:34
that you can click onto to watch our model do these different exercises
26:42
which may help also there's also a strengthening component
26:48
and we're not by any matter of means saying that you know you need to do this
26:54
exercise program as we talked about whatever you have been doing prior to becoming pregnant you can keep doing
27:00
that but just changing up the intensity and how much weight you're
27:06
lifting and the duration and so we've put this these exercise components in here if
27:13
you're like oh far out like i really don't know where to start so there's a push and a pull and a squat and a lift
27:19
and we just want to do these with a weight that you're comfortable doing
27:25
and as i say you know you don't have to do this program but it's a safe
27:31
type of exercise that you can do during pregnancy if you're starting exercising just make
27:37
sure that you go down and catch up with your exercise rehabilitation instructor and they'll make sure that you're doing
27:42
all the exercises right as you go on similarly there's a link there that
27:48
um will take you through to a video of um mary alice going through this
27:55
exercise program and a bit of core stuff at the end there
28:02
nice and moving into our second trimester during our second trimester
28:09
the baby's getting a little bit bigger hopefully we've got some of our energy back and hopefully some of that morning
28:15
sickness will have passed so we can start getting into our training a little bit more um the breast tenderness may have
28:22
subsided but you know the breasts are still growing and probably starting to feel
28:28
heavy as the milk ducts develop
28:33
stretching and thinning of the abdominal muscles during pregnancy is normal
28:40
and will go back to normal after we have baby
28:45
however exercise during this trimester should not put additional pressure on
28:50
those abdominal muscles and core muscles so exercises that work the rectus
28:55
abdominis that muscle at the front of our core the superficial ones
29:01
such as sit ups bicycles leg throws are not recommended during this time because the
29:09
abdominal muscles are already under quite a lot of pressure as they thin and
29:15
separate for accommodating the growing baby repair and recovery from diastasis recti
29:22
which is the normal sort of thinning and separating of the rectus abdominy usually takes between 6 and 24 months to
29:29
come right following birth following birth the
29:34
lead maternity carer and your pelvic health physiotherapist and the you know eri will be able to
29:42
advise you you know whether they're whether you you know do have diastasis recti
29:47
and specific exercises such as the deep core muscles and the pelvic floor muscles are going to be
29:54
really key for helping this return back to normal
30:00
maternity support belts can be really helpful for people that are experiencing
30:05
pelvic pain and joint pain i understand that you can you know touch
30:10
base with your defense health center or ap and physio to order these belts if this is important to you
30:17
however you might just want to grab one online or at one of the stores so smiley
30:22
bouts or some roll abouts are common in new zealand and they're made of like that thick wetsuit type material and
30:29
often people who are pregnant um you know find these really really comforting
30:34
to just support the low back and pelvis a lot better
30:40
let's talk about our bladder and what is normal so a healthy bladder doesn't leak
30:47
it tells you when it's full and gives you time to get to the toilet it can hold between 460 ml of urine and
30:55
empties you know once every two to three hours you may wake up
31:01
in the night you know particularly in that first trimester and third trimester when there's a lot more pressure on the
31:07
bladder and a normal bladder completely empties each time
31:12
an unhealthy bladder leaks urine when coughing sneezing
31:17
lifting jumping skipping and running and if you are experiencing any of this
31:24
during your pregnancy touch base with your pelvic health physiotherapist
31:29
following referral from the medical officer to make sure that the
31:35
pelvic floor are working well uh other signs that you need you know
31:40
that that the pelvic floor isn't working as well as it needs to be is if you have a sudden urge to pee
31:46
if you need to go to the toilet more than every two hours um you know if there's a heaviness in
31:53
your underpants if it can't hold enough urine you know less than 300
31:59
millimeters you have to get up more than twice per night um it does not feel comfortable after
32:05
you've been to the toilet and passed urine and the urge is so strong that you can't get to the toilet in time so this
32:11
is not normal and you just make sure that you get the scene to a lot of people particularly in our military just
32:18
like oh well you know it's you know everybody you know like i've talked to other ladies and this is normal for them to like pee when they're
32:25
you know doing a skipping rope and just because it's common it doesn't mean that it's normal
32:31
and we don't want to have long-term problems problems from our pregnancy you know we
32:36
want to bounce back and be fit and deployable so make sure you get this sort of stuff sorted out rather than just putting it
32:42
off for um you know i'll be fine
32:48
exercise during the second trimester your bump will be growing and things like running or high impact activities
32:54
will start to feel uncomfortable so try swapping them out for a low impact activities such as walking or
33:00
swimming and group training classes are fun um but make sure that you let your
33:06
instructor know that you are pregnant and they'll just be able to keep an eye on you and give you progressions and regressions of
33:12
exercises when required exercising lying flat on your back is not recommended after the 20 weeks so up
33:19
to do exercises in a sitting or inclined position
33:25
here is some exercises for the second trimester pelvic floor and
33:31
core so in this trimester we're doing the pelvic floor
33:36
and core in our four point kneeling position and this is still a nice easy position to get the pelvic floor and
33:43
core muscles working in terms of our strength training program it's the same
33:50
exercises as before but they've just been regressed so instead of doing
33:56
a press up on our knees on the floor we're doing an incline press up against a bench press in this activity and the
34:04
in the second trimester um our model here is using dumbbells so
34:09
i mean you can continue to use barbells if you want to and we've just regressed
34:16
the the amount of weight and the um yeah the weight and intensity of
34:21
these exercises so exactly the same exercises as the first trimester strength stuff
34:28
but we're not going quite as deep and we're not lifting quite as much
34:35
we've added in a pregnancy stretching pregnancy stretching program into the
34:41
second trimester as well and the first one
34:46
you know just sitting down and coming and really connecting with the breath is going to be important and really seeing
34:52
if we can start to teach the body to breathe wide so there's going to be not
34:57
so much room for our lungs sitting here so if we can really teach and initiate that wide
35:03
breathing that's going to be good for when the baby starts to get bigger and pushing on all our lungs and
35:10
organs as we move into our third trimester baby
35:18
is rapidly putting on weight which make which may make you feel heavy tired sore
35:24
and achy you might feel discomfort in your pelvis hips back as the ligaments loosen to
35:29
prepare for labor so during this as we talked about we
35:35
you know are probably going to be feeling tired and sore so we want to
35:41
change our exercises so we're still doing it but the intensity is going to be light
35:46
potentially things like swimming and aqua jogging is going to feel a lot better for us in
35:52
this trimester because it's going to take that weight off the feet knees tummy
36:00
it's normal to gain a 20 weight gain during pregnancy and i
36:05
think that often you know when we get pregnant we'll think that we'll have the baby and then you know put on our size 8
36:13
jeans and walk out of the hospital and i think it's important that you know we do take a long-term approach to our
36:20
bodies and that we've gone through a pretty amazing transformation and created life
36:26
and out to the back of it you know have probably come out with stretch marks and
36:32
ziggy bits that we didn't used to have and really take that long-term approach and don't put pressure on yourself to
36:39
you know squeeze into those jeans and walk out of the hospital because it's going to take a long time for your body
36:45
to get back to normal for me about two years and you know for some
36:51
people longer than this so i think just really taking that long-term approach to
36:56
you know the changes that your body goes through and how long it's going to take
37:01
to get back to normal the you know talking to fitness trainers that work in this
37:06
industry you know one of their comments were you know working with
37:12
postpartum females excuse me if they
37:17
from from their sort of experiences if ladies have had you know babies less than sort of two
37:25
years apart then the body doesn't really go back to that initial sort of state and so
37:32
generally with babies sort of three years apart that you know the body can go back to that
37:38
you know full strength full fitness and so i guess the point that i wanted to make there is that we just really
37:44
need to take a really long term approach of what our bodies will look like as we've
37:50
put on the extra weight to grow a baby uh the baby will add pressure onto your
37:56
organs which may lead you to feel breathless have heartburn and go to the toilet
38:03
often and continue exercising as long as you feel well enough to do so and continue those
38:10
continual checks with your lead maternity carer up to 45
38:16
of our ladies you know do experience back and pelvic pain the maternity belts
38:22
might help uh you know staying nice and strong through the the core might help
38:28
and you know catching up with a physiotherapist is going to be beneficial as well other things that we can do is reduce
38:35
the distance and speed of our walks avoid uneven terrain reduce stride
38:41
length avoid activities where you cross your legs um getting in and out of the car
38:48
you know just imagine like there's a zipper up the thighs and keeping the legs together as we pivot out of the
38:54
car so it doesn't bring on that groin and pelvic pain similarly if we're getting up out of bed in the morning
39:01
zip put that zipper you know right up the thighs and keeping the legs together avoiding activities where we stand on
39:08
one leg and sitting down for dressing and putting on shoes so it doesn't put you know so much weight and this won't
39:14
be relevant to everyone but you know there's some people in the end of that third trimester where everything is just
39:21
sore and hurting and achy so we just want to really make sure that we're not putting additional pressure by standing
39:27
on one leg by crossing the midline that sort of stuff
39:33
pelvic floor injury and dysfunction is common in pregnancy and postpartum woman
39:40
and up to 80 of women will leak when they are pregnant and over 30 percent
39:46
will continue to leak after childbirth although this is common it is not normal
39:53
so if this is happening it's not normal and make sure that you are touching base with your pelvic
39:59
health physiotherapist to you know really get this sorted
40:05
exercise in the third trimester swimming is going to be um
40:12
really nice for us and you can continue exercising unless you know your maternity carer has advised against it
40:19
so low pay low impact activities such as strength training walking and swimming is going to be good during this time
40:33
when we move into our third trimester for our core and pelvic floor we can
40:38
either do this in sitting or in side lying and it's the same exercises just the positional change
40:45
similarly our strength training is the same exercises but the weight might be lighter and for our press up we've gone
40:54
from an incline press up to a wall press up
41:00
we want to continue our stretches during the third trimester also
41:07
hey and that concludes the main points for our pregnancy and exercise presentation uh
41:14
congratulations to all of you out there who are currently hapu or may have
41:20
partners who are happy the key points is if you know you were
41:25
already training you can keep doing that training but continue to ask yourself um you know just because i can do it you
41:31
know doesn't mean that i should do it and you know growing a life inside us is a pretty exceptional
41:40
um thing to do and so we want to make sure that we're looking after ourselves and baby
41:45
as we go as we progress through our pregnancy we can keep doing the same exercises but we're just changing the
41:51
duration changing the intensity and working within what our body can do wishing you all the best for your
41:58
journey and thank you very much for your time today thanks
42:04
thanks so much roland and we've just got a question as well from one of the attendees um if you don't mind
42:12
so they've said is there any appetite in engaging with the lmcs so they are able
42:17
to work for defence i attach to our medical facilities for our defence personnel sometimes wanting
42:24
that separation um from defence in this case
42:29
nice that's a really good question which i'm going to write down because i think that's an amazing idea
42:36
and as we you know look to have our multi-disciplinary teams all located in
42:42
that same position you know in that same location man how cool would that be and i'm going to write that down thank
42:48
you good
42:56
question perfect right well i think we'll um oh no we've got another question coming sorry
43:04
um somebody's just asking as well if there would be any way to access the powerpoint after the webinar as well
43:12
yeah of course so um maybe i'll send it to you laura i've um
43:18
posted it up on our facebook page which is called nzdf
43:24
um force health physical performance so you can get it off the
43:30
um facebook page there this is the this will be released within the next
43:36
couple of weeks so it's just sitting with dpa at the moment we've just got a few more changes to make and then the
43:42
booklets will be printed and they'll be at the defense health centers and it'll be up on the health website
43:50
and yeah hopefully the nzdf social media will be able to post it as well so and
43:55
answer your question yes absolutely this is not the final product but it's um you know the content won't
44:00
change it'll just be a couple of things that need to be updated so if i send that through to you
44:07
laura and the people that want it um can touch base with you will that work
44:13
yes that's perfect um i can i'll pop our integrated wellness email address in the
44:19
chat um as well and so if yeah anyone wishes to yeah get a copy of your slides
44:25
um they can contact us that way as well great perfect all right well thank you so much
44:32
for your time um and yeah for i think there'll be a lot of people out there that will get a lot of use out of
44:38
this and um be able to get some yeah real um valuable guidance from this so no thank you so much and yeah i think
44:45
we'll we'll wrap up there awesome thanks laura thanks for having me
Pelvic Floor exercises
0:02
hello everyone and welcome to this uh nzdf health week presentation
0:08
um my name is narissa chapman and i am a physiotherapist by trade
0:14
and i have uh recently completed uh some further study into
0:20
pelvic health physio today i am going to be talking about the
0:25
floor to your core and why the pelvic floor is so important
0:40
so looking at this slide here there might be some of you out there that do uh
0:46
sympathize with this uh lady here so sometimes i laugh so hard that tears run
0:51
down my legs so we're actually going to be covering this because what what's likely happening here is that this poor
0:58
um woman is suffering from something called stress urinary incontinence which we
1:04
will talk about a little further on so what we're going to cover in this
1:09
presentation is just uh understanding a little bit about what the pelvic floor is
1:16
what are some risk factors out there for developing pelvic floor dysfunction
1:21
what types of pelvic floor dysfunction are out there what can we do to actually identify if
1:29
we've got a well-functioning pelvic floor or do we perhaps have some dysfunction there
1:35
i'll then go through some education with you all followed by uh
1:41
understanding how we can strengthen it well how most people can strengthen their pelvic floor and where do we go
1:48
from there so first of all what is the pelvic floor
1:55
so the pelvic floor is a group of muscles ligaments and fascia that form the base of your core
2:02
it sits low in your pelvis and it acts like a hammock to support to correction to support your bladder
2:08
bowel and obviously in females the uterus
2:13
it has both a superficial and a deep layer so the superficial layers
2:19
are down by your perineum and the deep layers are roughly two centimeters
2:24
above that so it works synergistically with other muscles in your core so they work they
2:30
work together so the other muscles that it works with is your diaphragm which is obviously at
2:36
the top of your abdomen and the most important muscle for breathing
2:43
it works with your transverse abdominis muscle which acts like a big corset all
2:49
the way around your abdomen and also with your back musculature in
2:55
particular a really a small muscle called the multifidus the multifidus
3:00
muscle is deep in beside your vertebral column and these muscles along with the pelvic
3:07
floor they act to provide core and pelvic stability which is obviously
3:13
really important when we are moving they support your pelvic organs and they
3:18
also contribute to managing the intra-abdominal pressure
3:24
the pelvic floor muscles are really really important for maintaining both urinary and anal continence and control
3:32
so that's things like uh being able to
3:38
go to the bathroom both for peeing and for pooping
3:43
as well as being really important in sexual function so things like your pelvic floor muscles
3:51
if you have a penis they work to
3:57
help you get and maintain an erection they are also important
4:03
in orgasm both for males and for females
4:10
and that moves on to our next thing so both males and females have have a pelvic floor a lot of guys out there
4:17
might be thinking this lecture is not relevant for me but actually males have
4:22
a pelvic floor as well however dysfunction is significantly
4:27
more common in females than it is in males
4:34
so this slide just shows a few pictures of what i was talking about before so
4:40
this picture up here on the left as we look at the screen this
4:46
just talks about that kind of the pelvic floor being that floor to your core so
4:51
we've got our multifidus at the back we've got our transverse abdominis which wraps around our abdomen and we've got
4:58
our diaphragm up here and you may hear people talk about the kind of can theory of core stability so
5:06
if you think about a can when it's got its top and it's bottom
5:11
on it's really really hard to crush that can isn't it and you can pretty much stand on it
5:17
and it'll support your weight the same kind of thing works here and that the diaphragm and the pelvic floor as we uh
5:26
kinda breathe in the diaphragm drops down to allow that oxygen to go into our
5:32
lungs our pelvic floor also drops down a little bit and our transverse abdominals
5:38
they expand a little bit and then as we exhale everything kind of moves up and
5:45
in forcing that air out of our body this picture down here is a female
5:52
pelvic floor as you can see it's got the three holes so that is the rectum for the vagina and
6:00
at the front here that is the opening where the urethra passes through and as
6:06
you can see it's like a hammock right down the bottom of our pelvic girdle so
6:12
these are our hip bones or our iliums coming down with our pubic bone at the
6:19
front and deep down in here is a bone called the ischium or the sit bones that you can feel when you're sitting down on
6:26
a chair and coming up here this is just a side view of the pelvic floor and obviously
6:33
in men they just and males they just have two openings so a little opening here to the um front which is where the
6:40
urethra comes through and obviously to the back where uh the rectum passes
6:47
through on females we have an additional uh
6:52
hole in our pelvic floor and that is where the vagina passes through
6:58
so a couple of important anatomical structures here at the back we've obviously got the bowel or the rectum
7:05
coming down to uh the anus we've got the uterus
7:10
down into the vagina and bladder and urethra here on male and
7:15
female uh just interest uh important to note that the urethra on females is obviously
7:22
a lot shorter than on males which can obviously be a varying varying lengths
7:32
cool so i'll get you guys just to um pause the video here and if you click on the
7:39
link it'll take you to an interesting uh video that i'll get you to watch
7:45
while this video is quite old 2013 this is still an issue with uh
7:52
females who participate in high impact sport so i'll get you guys to pause the
7:59
video here and go away and click on that youtube link and
8:04
have a think about what you see there
8:21
cool hopefully that uh link link worked for you so really interesting there isn't it
8:27
that um working through there a lot of those uh women and in that high impact sport of crossfit
8:35
they had essentially normalized this stress urinary incontinence
8:41
or as they talk about in their exercise induced urinary leakage
8:47
so the medical term is stress urinary incontinence and what that means is an involuntary
8:55
loss of urine on effort of physical exertion and this can happen
9:00
with things like sporting activities uh sneezing coughing laughing
9:08
it's really common in uh sporting activities such as double unders because
9:13
double unders are a really really quick exercise and your pelvic floor doesn't
9:19
really get a chance to fully release and relax before you kind of back up in the air again so if you do have some
9:26
dysfunction there it can really test it so whilst that video was in 2013
9:35
there's actually been a number of studies that have been published looking at crossfit in the last few years
9:41
probably since about 2019 and in 2022 there was a a meta-analysis
9:48
done so that's when they look at all kinds of studies that that fit uh criteria and they um
9:56
judge them to actually see what the kind of level of evidence is in each of those studies and overall
10:03
they found that there's a prevalence of about 44 and a half percent among female
10:08
crossfitters so these studies did actually include women who hadn't had children so nulli
10:15
paris woman uh and women of all ages so from 16 to
10:22
65 was roughly the population that they were looking at
10:28
uh noting there that obviously women who have had kids are more likely to have
10:34
these issues um the other thing here is that just
10:40
because you have these issues doesn't mean you can't do your high impact sport so it's not just crossfit it's really
10:47
prevalent in runners in particular people who do a lot of long distance
10:53
running so the the prevalence of urinary incontinence of stress urinary incontinence and long-distance runners
11:00
is very similar to in crossfit around 40 percent uh that increases in some sport so such
11:07
as trampolining the prevalence of stress urinary incontinence and that sport is
11:12
up above kind of 60 and the other sports that also have quite high prevalence uh olympic lifting
11:20
so studies vary in that between kind of 40 and 60 60 prevalence
11:27
uh and also uh gymnastics
11:34
the thing here is you do not have to give these sports up so you want to train to the weakest link so we had that
11:41
diagram before about the core and often a lot of people work really really hard
11:46
to get that really killer six-pack and they forget about their pelvic floor
11:52
so key thing throughout if you're training the training the cord don't forget the floor so it's really
11:58
important to kind of train to that weakest link because you're only as strong as that weakest link
12:04
so we can't we can increase the strength there which we'll talk about later on in this presentation
12:10
about 80 percent of people will improve or fully resolve with pelvic floor
12:16
muscle training so it is able to be treated if that muscle is intact and it's not
12:23
structurally damaged and it has a nerve supply it's the same as any other muscle
12:28
in your body so if you pull your calf you tend to do some rehab you know some
12:33
calf raises some stretching to strengthen that up and then then you're away again same thing with
12:39
your pelvic floor it is a muscle that we can control and it is a must and it is muscles that we can train
12:48
so some risk factors for pelvic floor dysfunction i've already talked about a couple of them but one of the kind of
12:54
main ones out there is parity so the number of pregnancies that an individual has had so this incr this increases your
13:02
risks of developing a pelvic floor dysfunction the more pregnancies you have
13:09
and it exponentially increases after the kind of third pregnancy
13:14
a vaginal delivery is associated with a greater risk of pelvic floor dysfunction
13:21
this is obviously understandable here so during a normal vaginal delivery your
13:27
pelvic floor muscles can stretch anywhere between 62 and 276
13:33
percent of their original uh tensile strength that's uh
13:40
that's a phenomenal amount when you compare to another muscle like
13:47
your hamstring or your calf you start doing damage when it gets to kinda 30 to
13:53
50 percent above its normal normal load
13:58
a long second stage of labor so that is the active pushing stage of labor so if
14:03
you have been in labor and you were pushing for more than 60 minutes that
14:09
increases your chances of developing a pelvic floor dysfunction if you have a
14:14
large baby and a large baby is considered 4 kgs or more for obvious reasons it's more likely to
14:21
do more damage if you are overweight this is a significant risk factor irrespective of
14:29
if you have had ever been pregnant or had any children
14:34
this is a particular risk factor for developing pelvic organ prolapse
14:40
a chronic cough so things like having allergies that mean you cough or
14:46
sneeze quite often having asthma and smoking so a chronic
14:51
cough coughing increases your intra-abdominal pressure and increasing your intra-abdominal
14:57
pressure forces that pelvic floor down and if you're doing it too often it can
15:02
then actually lengthen and damage those structures in your pelvic floor such as
15:08
the muscles or the fascia these two are highlighted in blue
15:13
because they are something that uh potentially you could say is an occupational risk factor for being a
15:21
being in the military so if your occupation involves regular heavy lifting so be that as occupation so a
15:29
lot of studies have been done in nurses and uh traditionally that is an
15:35
occupation that involved a lot of heavy lifting before you know they had like
15:41
hoists in that to assist uh but also a lot of recreational
15:47
lifting so things like olympic lifting and going to the gym lifting heavy weights
15:53
things like that uh the other risk factor there is high impact exercise so
16:00
in particular things like running in gymnastics they have traditionally been um
16:08
been sports where there is a high prevalence of pelvic floor dysfunction uh but also
16:16
recently a lot of work and with the kind of popularity of high intensity interval training such as
16:23
crossfit f45 um that has also
16:30
started to um to have a prevalence that is similar to
16:38
these other traditionally high impact sports and this is also interesting this sport because it's really taken off with
16:45
females uh input you know females haven't traditionally been
16:50
big gym goers and big weightlifters but crossfit is actually allowing a lot
16:57
more people to actually get involved in these sports
17:02
other risk factor is any kind of pelvic surgery so if they have actually gone in
17:08
and uh cut through the tissues in there or removed any of the structures in your
17:15
pelvis such as your uterus and a hysterectomy that can be a risk factor
17:21
for developing pelvic floor dysfunction a lot of these are for males but uh
17:27
prostate cancer so if you've had prostate cancer and you've had that that treated be it surgically or they've used
17:35
radiotherapy on that that is a significant risk factor for developing pelvic floor dysfunction
17:44
in particular urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction for that one uh if
17:51
you post menopause so due to the um decrease in in the
17:56
hormones post menopause the tins the tins the tissues and the and the
18:02
pelvic floor can become thin and drier which then actually and the
18:07
muscles can actually atrophy which obviously increases your chances
18:13
of developing a dysfunction uh if you had an assisted delivery so if
18:18
you gave a vaginal birth and they needed to use things like
18:24
forceps or suction or do an episiotomy these things can
18:32
increase your chances of a pelvic floor dysfunction if you have a history of trauma
18:38
so people have been sexually assaulted or if they've had quite a significant
18:44
injury to that area such as a pelvic fracture or a fracture in their
18:49
in their tailbone they can develop pelvic floor dysfunction
18:55
if you have chronic constipation it makes sense here if you are constantly straining
19:02
and your bowel has been uh impacted
19:08
then this can also lead to pelvic floor dysfunction and the last one there is a family history there's starting to be a
19:15
lot of evidence out there that says pelvic floor dysfunction uh
19:21
has a genetic component and a lot of this is around the kind of fascia and
19:26
how kind of um i suppose loose your fascia fascia can
19:32
become so if your kind of mother and grandmother had have issues with their
19:37
pelvic floor then potentially this is something that you you could develop
19:43
so all these risk factors they're just risk factors so you might have everything on there and your pelvic
19:50
floor might be a hundred percent but they're just things things to look out for and to be aware of and maybe
19:57
actually take some kind of preemptive rehabilitation in there and work on your pelvic floor before it uh
20:04
has any issues so there's a number of different types
20:10
of pelvic floor dysfunction that's out there
20:15
and the most common one is stress urinary incontinence which we talked about before so that's that involuntary
20:23
loss of urine on effort or physical exertion so this is uh things like
20:29
sporting activities or if you're increasing your intra-abdominal pressure so such as with a coughing
20:37
or sneezing it's activity related and does not have a psychological
20:44
component it is one of the most common urinary tract disorders that women
20:52
seek medical attention for it is not very common in males unless they've had
20:58
prostate surgery so the other type of uh incontinence out
21:06
there is urge incontinence so this is an involuntary leakage of urine that is
21:12
accompanied or immediately preceded by urgency so you get that need to go and
21:19
you need to go now if you don't make it to the toilet uh
21:24
you can end up having an accident so
21:30
it's as often things like every time when you get home from work and you put the key in the door that act of putting
21:37
the key in the door triggers yes i need to go toilet and i need to go now you've
21:44
also got mixed incontinence which is a mixture of the stress urinary incontinence and the urge incontinence
21:51
you can have anal incontinence and so that is things like actual fecal matter so it
21:58
might be just kind of liquid or it could actually be formed stills
22:04
or you have loss of uh flattest so so farting that is actually
22:12
a form of anal incontinence if you were trying not to fart but couldn't
22:17
hold them and one kind of slipped out sexual dysfunctions so these are quite
22:24
common in people with pelvic floor dysfunction so some of the common ones that you'll
22:30
see are pain and that's uh in women that can be both with penetration but also around the um
22:38
the vulva uh and with men kind of the most common
22:44
things that you'll see with men are erectile dysfunction so an inability to get an erection or an
22:51
inability to maintain their erection and also things like premature
22:56
ejaculation so not being able to control when they ejaculate
23:04
uh pregnancy big risk factor here and likely to cause pelvic floor dysfunction
23:11
because you've got a heavy baby that is basically pushing down on
23:16
your pelvic floor uh so some other types of dysfunction are people with
23:23
persistent pelvic pain quite often they can have a dysfunctional pelvic floor so
23:28
their pelvic floor might not be working in harmony with their um other parts of
23:33
their core it might be too tight and not relaxing at the right time or it might
23:39
be relaxing when it's meant to be contracting um similar to the uncoordinated and
23:44
disenergy down there a pelvic floor disorders also really
23:50
really common in people who have chronic low back pain so they've done some
23:55
studies and they reckon that about 70 percent of people who have long term chronic low back pain have an element of
24:02
pelvic floor dysfunction in there so often it's really important if you've
24:09
got back pain and it doesn't seem to be resolving it's actually really important to maybe consider hey is there an
24:16
element of pelvic floor dysfunction here that is also the same with long-term hip
24:21
and groin pain the disc synergy and the uncoordinated
24:27
pelvic floor a lot of that is around um
24:32
it potentially being too tight or hypertonic and not being able to relax when it's meant to be relaxing i.e when
24:39
you are having a bowel motion you want everything to be
24:44
relaxed so those are the different types of pelvic floor dysfunctions out there
24:49
for females far and away the most common type of pelvic floor dysfunction would
24:55
be the stress urinary incontinence uh pain and sexual dysfunction so pain
25:03
on intercourse is actually also very common in particular with a woman who
25:09
have not had children and maybe are doing quite a lot of high impact
25:15
exercise they can have a a deep kind of pelvic pain on
25:22
intercourse so what are some of the management
25:28
strategies for pelvic floor dysfunction that we have talked about here so
25:37
first thing we want to do is actually id if you have dysfunction so how we can do that is
25:44
obviously going to visit a pelvic health physio so in new zealand probably a pelvic health physio is the
25:51
the main type of person who would assess this there is also some continence nurse
25:57
specialists out there uh so they tend to identify functional
26:04
issues um whereas if you went to like a gynecologist they are more likely
26:11
to identify if there is structural issues going on
26:16
so really important to to self screen and i've got a a link on the next slide
26:22
that you can have a look through that's just a kind of quick link to identify if you're potentially at risk of having a
26:28
pelvic floor dysfunction or if maybe you do have an element of pelvic floor dysfunction
26:35
uh losing weight so maintaining a healthy body weight this is a really important
26:41
step that you can actually do to decrease your chances of developing a
26:47
pelvic floor dysfunction in particular pelvic organ prolapse which i don't think i covered on the
26:53
last slide so pelvic organ prolapse but it can also help with our stress
27:00
urinary incontinence as well so we want to try and maintain a healthy body weight you want to strengthen your
27:07
pelvic floor muscles but it's also really important to fully relax these muscles as well as strengthening
27:13
them you want to have a look at how you're going to the toilet because there's strong links between our dysfunctional
27:20
bladder and bowel habits and pelvic floor dysfunction you want to have a look at your diet are you drinking
27:27
enough uh are you getting enough fibre or maybe if you've got some urge
27:33
continents actually you are taking a lot of substances that are bladder about
27:39
irritants so a key one out there is caffeine caffeine is a really strong um
27:47
irritants for the bladder as is alcohol and you want to make sure that you are
27:53
conducting regular exercise because this in general just keeps everything moving
27:58
in your um bowels but it also helps keep the
28:04
muscles of your core uh in good tone there are some exercises out there that
28:11
aren't pelvic floor friendly and you just need to be careful about these if you do have dysfunction so some prime
28:19
examples of uh exercises that aren't very friendly on the pelvic floor are things like box
28:26
jumps double wonders burpees deep sumo squats running
28:35
the other thing is you need to address any chronic constipation or chronic cough that you have by talking to your
28:41
gp and the definition that we're using here of constipation
28:46
is a bowel motion that is
28:52
there's not really any definitions out there on constipation but
28:57
it's like that complaints of a bowel movement that's infrequent and or incomplete so you don't feel like you've
29:04
got everything out and it wasn't satisfying
29:09
really key here to talk to your doctor about uh getting on top of this because the
29:15
longer you let that chronic constipation and chronic cough happen the more damage they're going to be doing to your pelvic
29:21
floor so really important to talk to your doc about getting some help with that
29:29
this slide has just got some links on it to a really easy basic screening tool
29:34
that you can do it's a screening tool that's been designed for fitness professionals so if you are
29:41
going along to a gym to see a trainer it's a screening tool that's been designed for use by trainers
29:49
um but it's actually a really easy to go through screening tool in general
29:55
so there's one for males and one for females and they are from the continents.org dot nz website but they
30:03
have been adapted from the continents foundation of australia which are the really those two websites are really
30:10
good websites to look up a lot of different resources and kind of tips out there around uh managing the pelvic
30:17
floor so how so if we've id'd we think maybe
30:23
we have an issue uh you can actually do a self-test it's not
30:28
as obviously it's not as reliable as actually going to get a professional who is trained to do
30:36
internal assessments and assess the pelvic floor muscles but it's a it's a good start if you're
30:43
not yet comfortable to reach out to a health professional trained in this area
30:48
so for females really really important to actually
30:54
see what it looks like down there um and you know they're all they're all
31:00
different um and so it's really important to actually have a look what what it looks like down
31:06
there on you so the easiest kind of position to do this is kind of reclined
31:12
on your back with your your hips and your knees kind of bent so kind of lying in the sit up position
31:18
you want to look for closing and tightening around the anus and vagina and a lifting of the perineum so the
31:25
perineum is that little bit of skin between your vagina and your anus the
31:30
muscles should draw in and up you really want to make sure that when you're contracting them that they're not
31:37
kind of pushing out uh as that could mean you're bearing down and if you are bearing down you
31:44
could increase you could do damage to your pelvic floor
31:50
roughly about 30 of people do not know how to do a pelvic floor
31:55
uh sorry about 30 percent of people when they're
32:01
doing a pelvic floor contraction they are actually bearing down
32:06
which is actually quite uh quite a large number of people
32:12
probably only about 30 percent of people can actually do a pelvic floor muscle properly without being trained at pelvic
32:20
floor muscle contraction properly without being trained to do this
32:26
um the other thing you can also do is a self-internal vaginal palpation
32:33
so to do this you want to again adopt a comfortable position so it's really important that you're as comfortable as
32:40
you can be because you actually want these muscles to be relaxed i
32:46
recommend using a small amount of lubricant on your finger just to make it more comfortable and you
32:54
want to insert one finger into your vagina and it only needs to go in about
32:59
two centimeters the pelvic floor muscles are relatively superficial so it basically only really needs to go into
33:07
that kind of middle finger joint and you want to press into the side walls of your vagina not the front and the back
33:14
because at the front there's your bladder and at the back there's your rectum so they don't have kind of that
33:19
that's not where the muscles are so once you're pressing onto the side wall of your vagina
33:26
you want to think about contracting your pelvic floor muscles so using cues like thinking about um
33:33
sucking a tampon up and in and you want to think about
33:38
and see if those muscles can contract around your finger and does it feel even
33:43
on both the left and the right sides you could also think about holding a fasten
33:49
and the other thing that you can do key here do not do it more than once a week
33:55
because it can actually cause you a pelvic floor dysfunction
34:00
thinking about when you're going through a wee thinking about trying to stop that flow of urine
34:07
can you stop the flow of urine or um is that difficult for you so that is the
34:13
action that we are trying to look for for men a lot easier for you to um to
34:20
assess your pelvic floor so again you won't have a look that's it's
34:26
it's so much easier with visual cl uh visual cues so for men you want to stand in front of
34:33
a mirror without kind of pants and undies on so you can see roughly belly button and below
34:39
spelling mistake on that slide but you want to think about contracting your pelvic floor so they've actually done
34:46
studies on what cues work really well for men and for most men the cue
34:51
bring your nuts to your guts is a really easy cue for most men to actually figure
34:58
out and get the right movement the other thing you can think about is visualizing if you're say walking
35:05
into a really really cold cold river and it's starting to get kind of
35:11
slowly creeping up your your thighs what are your test is likely to do they're
35:17
likely to go up and in aren't they so we're thinking about this we're
35:22
thinking about contracting the testes so that they lift up and
35:28
what we what we should see in our mirror is we should see the testicles lift up
35:33
and there should be a little dip kind of like a little dimple that just appears just above your penis if that happens
35:40
you are lightly doing a correct pelvic floor contraction next thing there is to actually see how
35:47
long you can hold that for you can also do some self palpation of
35:52
the perennial muscles so when that happens does your perineum lift up and away from your
35:59
fingertips uh also practicing holding a fountain and for men
36:04
stopping that flow of urine again no more than once per week just because it
36:10
can actually cause issues with your bladder by teaching you not to fully empty your
36:17
bladder so next thing there is moving on to
36:23
actually learning how to go to the toilet properly you may think i've been going to the
36:28
toilet all my life i know how to um actually go and have a poo
36:33
but you'd actually be surprised about at how many people do not know how to
36:41
adopt a position that takes the pressure off their pelvic floor muscles
36:48
and there's a lot of strong links here between poor toileting that's the bladder and bowel and pelvic floor
36:54
muscle dysfunction and again for females we're more likely to have poor toileting technique
37:01
and that can be for a number of reasons so you know busy with children getting
37:07
them off to school you haven't actually got time to go to the loo you hold on or social reasons you might
37:14
not want to go and have a poo in a public area for example so that leads you to then
37:22
to then hold on which can then um make it difficult for you to then uh
37:29
pass that stall later on so this is the bristol stool chart so
37:34
designed obviously in the in the uk and basically it just outlines seven different types of stools that you can
37:41
have and the key thing we want to actually sit between a three and a four
37:47
so kind of like a sausage number three like a sausage and number four like a smooth
37:53
sausage so that's the key there we want it to be kind of well lubricated
37:58
but formed uh other things here you know if you're
38:04
kind of down in that type 1 and type 2 what is your fiber and fluid intake like
38:10
if you're higher up there are you actually taking something that really does not agree with your bowels is it
38:17
links to a certain type of food um if you are having issues with this and
38:24
it is long term go and talk to your gp because
38:29
you actually want to make sure that you are pooping correctly
38:36
uh next thing um so what what's actually normal so there's not really real
38:42
definition of normal out there the key thing is what is normal for you and what we're looking for here is any changes in
38:49
normal so normal can be anywhere between going three times a day
38:55
to three times per week it has a consistent pattern and that's
39:01
what we're looking out for here so pooping technique
39:08
this lovely drawing here is the position that you should adopt when both for men
39:14
and women you are going for a number two the other thing here is don't hold on so
39:21
when you first feel the urge make sure you act on it obviously occasionally you do need to
39:28
hold on but ideally when you feel the urge to go you want to go within 10 to
39:35
15 minutes of feeling that first uh need to go and have a poo
39:43
so position so you want to be seated with your whole foot supported so you want your feet kind of flat you want to
39:49
have your knees higher than your hips so 30 degrees kind of hip hip flexion you may need to elevate your
39:57
feet to achieve this so thinking about like a toilet roll is like two toilet
40:02
rolls that's kind of the ideal height or um make some kind of stool up no pun
40:09
intended there all these other devices out there such as the squatty potty which are
40:15
purposefully designed for this this is only really an issue in western
40:21
cultures where heat where we have designed our toilets to basically sit us
40:27
in an unnatural position humans are designed to squat to go
40:34
number for a poo um not obviously an issue if you're in
40:40
asia because their toilets are actually designed to put your bowel in an ideal
40:46
position when you are going to the loo the other thing here is you actually want your feet to be
40:53
at least kind of 30 centimeters apart and leaning forwards propping your arms
40:59
on your thighs you want to maintain a neutral spine position so you're not
41:04
kind of rolled back flattening your back and you're not all the way arched forward you're just nice and neutral
41:11
with that slight bend in your lower back you want to relax and you want to
41:16
actually bulge your belly out rather than pushing down through your bum you want to kind of bulge your belly out
41:24
relax breathe and it should happen now the other little note down there is
41:31
if you ask someone who has a prolapse so uh part of your bladder or bowel has moved
41:39
then uh you may need to support that so ie holding your perineum or there is
41:45
devices out there to assist with that
41:50
i don't think i talked about prolapse when i was talking through the pelvic floor dysfunction so prolapse is
41:57
basically when uh one of your organs has moved into a different area so for
42:05
example in women you can have an anterior wall prolapse so in that
42:10
situation your bladder can bulge into your vagina
42:15
you can have a posterior prolapse where your rectum is bulging into your vagina
42:22
or you can have a a prolapse where your uterus descends
42:28
down into your vagina men can also get prolapses they are not as common but
42:35
men can actually prolapse their rectum
42:43
prolapses are actually really really common so 50 of women
42:49
will have or will develop a prolapse at some time in their life they are very
42:55
common i'll get you guys to break here to pause
43:02
the video here and if you feel like a good laugh after talking about poo
43:07
i'll get you to click on that if you haven't seen it before and it will cement everything i've talked about with
43:14
great comedic relief
43:28
cool welcome back hopefully uh you guys haven't laughed so hard that tears have been running down your legs because of
43:36
that if that was the case we've got some interesting stuff coming up for you
43:42
so we think we might have an issue we've done some screening
43:47
actually how do we treat this so pelvic four muscle training is the gold
43:52
standard treatment for most pelvic floor dysfunctions
43:59
pelvic floor muscles same as pretty much any other muscle musculoskeletal kind of skeletal muscle
44:06
in our body and it responds to standard muscle strengthening principles so we've
44:12
got to overload it we've got to rest it we've got to progress it constantly
44:17
challenge it and it will adapt it's really really important with pelvic floor muscles to start with isolated
44:24
strengthening first so you want to work that pelvic floor all on its own to make
44:29
sure we're actually getting it to work because quite often with the pelvic floor
44:35
um your body kind of compensates by cheating by using your abdominal muscles
44:40
and your kind of glutes to try and get that stability in your pelvis and these are really strong muscles so quite often
44:47
they can dominate and your pelvic floor doesn't actually get a chance to work
44:53
so really important here to start with that isolated strengthening so we know how to target that pelvic floor we can
45:00
work on it get it strong all on its own and then we want to put it into more
45:06
functional movements with other muscles around it working to stabilize
45:13
so another key thing here is we want to progress up to training in the position that causes symptoms so if you have
45:19
symptoms when you're out running you need to work on your pelvic floor
45:26
muscle position in a position similar to running such as standing so you're
45:31
having to fight those forces of gravity particularly important if you do have a
45:36
prolapse things like jumping things like dead lifting we want to actually try and
45:43
start working our pelvic floor muscles in these positions that cause us issues
45:49
so if you are dead lifting and you have some stress urine incontinence when you
45:55
lift 100 kilos but when you lift 70 kilos you don't have any issues
46:01
go back to the 70 kilos work on your pelvic floor strength and slowly build
46:06
up from there you will get up to what you wear lifting and possibly you'll end up overtaking
46:13
your pb because now your core will actually be working together and you'll be able to be stronger and generate more
46:20
power so initially you might be weaker but in the long run you will end up stronger
46:26
guaranteed so the other thing to think about with our pelvic floor contraction especially
46:33
if we're really struggling is to think about linking it to the breath so naturally when you exhale if if your
46:42
pelvic floor is working in synergy with the rest of your core when you exhale
46:47
your pelvic floor muscle should contract and lift up so initially start thinking about tying
46:55
that contraction to the exhale breath but as you become more stronger
47:00
you need to be able to work maintaining that pelvic floor contraction throughout the breath cycle
47:08
key thing here when you strengthen the core remember the floor so i like to always start with pelvic
47:15
floor isolation work before moving on to other core work just to make sure that
47:21
that pelvic floor is activated and engaged
47:26
how do we strengthen the pelvic floor so these exercises you might have heard people talking about kegels
47:32
so they basically kegels are exercises to
47:39
strengthen the pelvic floor named after an american kind of
47:45
gynecologist who came up with this in the 1940s
47:50
and he noticed that he was a gynecologist and he noticed that his
47:56
patients who he got to do strengthening work they recovered from childbirth a
48:02
lot quicker than the ones who didn't so that's kind of where where this this started
48:08
so the key thing here is if if you don't know how to do these positions you want to
48:14
do these exercises sorry you want to start in a position where you're not
48:19
having to counter gravity so it's easiest to actually start these when you're lying on your back
48:26
if you're pregnant uh and your past kind of 20 weeks
48:32
it's probably best to start in like four point kneeling or uh sitting on the edge
48:38
of a chair or lying on your side but for most people it start lying on your back
48:45
you might want to place a pillow under your pelvis just to make it a little bit more comfortable and it just helps to
48:51
kind of open up that pelvic area you want to think about visualizing a
48:56
marble at the opening of your vagina and you want to squeeze and lift and thinking about squeezing and lifting
49:04
through the vagina and the anus or thinking about bringing that tailbone
49:09
towards the pubic bone you want to keep working to maintain this maximum effort
49:15
for 10 seconds that's our kind of goal but if you can only hold it for a couple
49:20
of seconds come off there don't don't try and hold a sub
49:25
standard rep for the 10 seconds if you can only get to 2 seconds so work on quality over
49:33
quantity you want to rest for 10 seconds in between and then repeat 10 times and you
49:41
want to do this three times a day other thing here is you want to try not
49:46
to use your glutes or abdominal muscles because as we previously mentioned really important to do these isolated
49:53
exercises first make sure you breathe a lot of people hold their breath when they're trying to
49:58
strengthen their pelvic floor which means you're not going to get very far because it has to work
50:04
synergistically with that diaphragm to be functional so make sure we breathe
50:11
in addition to those holding maximum effort for 10 seconds it's also really
50:16
important to train the fast twitch fibers in your pelvic floor so muscles have fast twitch and slow
50:22
twitch fibers and the fast twitch fibers in your pelvic floor are really important for things like if we suddenly
50:29
squeeze or cough or change direction they kind of come on really quickly
50:35
really reflect with it reflectively and we want to make sure that they are all
50:41
so strong so adopting that same position as we previously talked about we want to
50:47
activate our pelvic floor at a fast maximal contraction we want to relax
50:53
immediately after hitting that maximum force and then repeating 10 times
50:58
you really want to make sure you relax fully between each contraction
51:05
it's that short fast contraction all the way on all the way off that we're working for here same thing again three
51:12
times a day so key points here for that strengthening
51:18
to progress this you're going to increase the duration of the hold so if you're a long distance runner and you're
51:25
out running for hours at the end you might actually need to work up to being able to hold a maximum pelvic floor
51:32
contraction for 60 seconds those muscles are going to need really good endurance
51:39
uh you also want to think about changing positions so moving into a more functional position so maybe the bottom
51:46
part of the squat that is quite a challenging position for the pelvic floor because your um
51:54
pelvic hiatus actually opens up a little bit when you're down at the bottom of a squat so a lot more challenging to try
52:01
and contract it in that position the other really important thing here is relaxing the pelvic floor that's really
52:09
really important and actually some people can actually have issues with relaxing their pelvic
52:16
floor so strength is not so much the issue it's the relaxing of the pelvic floor
52:21
and these are more likely people who have like pain on intercourse they tend
52:28
to have a more um i suppose hyperactive uncoordinated
52:34
pelvic floor as opposed to a weak pelvic floor
52:39
so being able to relax is really really important and that's kind of the benefit
52:45
of actually going to visit someone who's trained to do uh internal pelvic floor
52:51
assessments they can actually pick up if you're one of the few those few minority
52:57
individuals who actually have issues with relaxing your pelvic floor as
53:03
opposed to your pelvic floor being weak
53:09
relaxation really really important because you might be working on this and then you throw yourself to be one of
53:16
those people who can't actually relax their pelvic floor so really really important to
53:23
to relax the other thing that you can do to kind of increase the the challenge of your
53:29
pelvic floor there's a number of kind of um training aids out there that you can
53:34
utilize to assist so some of them you've probably heard of so things like benoit balls and yoni
53:41
eggs there's also quite a lot of now more
53:47
integrated pelvic floor muscle trainers out there so such as there's a new
53:52
zealand one that's got a lot of research behind it called fimfit by junofem
53:59
perryfit that's a device that they use kind of biofeedback and a lot of them are linked to games
54:06
that you can play on your cell phone so they can actually make pelvic floor muscle training really fun and really
54:13
interactive
54:18
but the more the most important thing there is getting the basics right first before you're going to buy any of these
54:25
flash devices vaginal weights etc you've got to do the basics first and these are
54:31
just adjuncts to increase that challenge on your pelvic floor particularly if you
54:37
uh do a lot of sports that will challenge your pelvic floor
54:42
so basically where to from here really important again cannot emphasize how
54:47
important it is to talk to your doc about managing chronic constipation and cough this can do a lot of damage
54:56
that it just won't recover from so actually you really want to get on top of
55:01
managing that constipation and your cough if you're pregnant postpartum or had any
55:07
prostate kind of treatments recommended to get an assessment by a pelvic health physio
55:15
to actually have a look at how those pelvic floor muscles are functioning are
55:20
you likely to have have some issues develop afterwards
55:26
uh generally if you've had no improvement in four to six weeks of doing strengthening you do act if if
55:33
you're just going to strengthen without without being under the um guidance of a
55:40
person who's trained in this area if after four to six weeks you're still having the same level of symptoms and
55:47
you've had no change no improvement in your symptoms you want to go and get a review because you might actually be one
55:55
of those few that actually bear down instead of contracting up or
56:00
you might actually have some structural damage in there so for example the actual nerves might have been damaged in
56:08
childbirth so that muscle it isn't going to work because it doesn't have any nerve supply to it
56:14
or um the other injury that's not common but it it can occur i think it's about
56:20
10 of people can actually evolve their pelvic floor muscles can come off
56:26
the bone during labor so in general you're not going to be
56:31
able to actually see improvement in that because the muscles are not attached or they're not receiving innovation
56:38
so it's really it's important to actually know this there's not a lot that they can do for it at the moment
56:45
but it's actually important to actually know if you do have that issue
56:50
um and some other things like is there been damage to some of the like sphincter
56:57
muscles things like that and they can sometimes need kind of
57:02
surgical repair for those but the good news is a majority of
57:08
pelvic floor dysfunctions can be managed by conservative treatment so roughly 80
57:14
percent of people with pelvic floor dysfunction will be fully resolved or significantly their
57:21
symptoms will be significantly improved just by undertaking pelvic floor muscle
57:26
training do not suffer in silence they reckon about 80 percent of people do not build
57:34
up enough courage to talk to their health care provider about this and on average it takes seven years for people
57:41
to actually go and start seeking treatment get help get help early it's common it's
57:48
not normal don't let anyone tell you it is normal to wee when you're doing a double under
57:54
it is not normal common not normal uh and the last but not least really
58:01
important to train the weakest link in that chain and quite often it is the
58:07
pelvic floor because we spend a lot of time working on our on our six-pack
58:13
um and diaphragms and generally in most people in good condition because you know you breathe all the time
58:20
um so really important to train that weakest link and it's often the pelvic
58:25
floor this uh website is just showing some really good kind of resources that you
58:32
could click on the links should work so that first one's just a really good summary that's done up by pelvic floor
58:38
physio that's based in wellington the other two are links for those screens which we had further on
58:46
and have a look on the continents foundation australia and continents.organz they've got some
58:52
really good information on there uh in particular around pelvic floor safe exercise uh pelvic floor accredited
59:00
trainers in both new zealand and australia
59:05
good tips on maintaining bladder and bowel health and the last link on there is just a
59:12
really really good laugh to really test your pelvic floor if it's working well it's a pelvic floor physio who's
59:20
actually a comedian and her kind of stand-up gig is all around the pelvic
59:27
floor last is just some extra reading if you're interested
59:34
thanks very much for listening to this webinar and if you have any questions
59:40
feel free to email me i'm just on dixus narissa chapman
59:46
and i will get back to you if i can help you out or send you on to someone who
59:52
can cool do not suffer in silence thank you
1:00:06
you
hello everyone and welcome to this uh nzdf health week presentation
0:08
um my name is narissa chapman and i am a physiotherapist by trade
0:14
and i have uh recently completed uh some further study into
0:20
pelvic health physio today i am going to be talking about the
0:25
floor to your core and why the pelvic floor is so important
0:40
so looking at this slide here there might be some of you out there that do uh
0:46
sympathize with this uh lady here so sometimes i laugh so hard that tears run
0:51
down my legs so we're actually going to be covering this because what what's likely happening here is that this poor
0:58
um woman is suffering from something called stress urinary incontinence which we
1:04
will talk about a little further on so what we're going to cover in this
1:09
presentation is just uh understanding a little bit about what the pelvic floor is
1:16
what are some risk factors out there for developing pelvic floor dysfunction
1:21
what types of pelvic floor dysfunction are out there what can we do to actually identify if
1:29
we've got a well-functioning pelvic floor or do we perhaps have some dysfunction there
1:35
i'll then go through some education with you all followed by uh
1:41
understanding how we can strengthen it well how most people can strengthen their pelvic floor and where do we go
1:48
from there so first of all what is the pelvic floor
1:55
so the pelvic floor is a group of muscles ligaments and fascia that form the base of your core
2:02
it sits low in your pelvis and it acts like a hammock to support to correction to support your bladder
2:08
bowel and obviously in females the uterus
2:13
it has both a superficial and a deep layer so the superficial layers
2:19
are down by your perineum and the deep layers are roughly two centimeters
2:24
above that so it works synergistically with other muscles in your core so they work they
2:30
work together so the other muscles that it works with is your diaphragm which is obviously at
2:36
the top of your abdomen and the most important muscle for breathing
2:43
it works with your transverse abdominis muscle which acts like a big corset all
2:49
the way around your abdomen and also with your back musculature in
2:55
particular a really a small muscle called the multifidus the multifidus
3:00
muscle is deep in beside your vertebral column and these muscles along with the pelvic
3:07
floor they act to provide core and pelvic stability which is obviously
3:13
really important when we are moving they support your pelvic organs and they
3:18
also contribute to managing the intra-abdominal pressure
3:24
the pelvic floor muscles are really really important for maintaining both urinary and anal continence and control
3:32
so that's things like uh being able to
3:38
go to the bathroom both for peeing and for pooping
3:43
as well as being really important in sexual function so things like your pelvic floor muscles
3:51
if you have a penis they work to
3:57
help you get and maintain an erection they are also important
4:03
in orgasm both for males and for females
4:10
and that moves on to our next thing so both males and females have have a pelvic floor a lot of guys out there
4:17
might be thinking this lecture is not relevant for me but actually males have
4:22
a pelvic floor as well however dysfunction is significantly
4:27
more common in females than it is in males
4:34
so this slide just shows a few pictures of what i was talking about before so
4:40
this picture up here on the left as we look at the screen this
4:46
just talks about that kind of the pelvic floor being that floor to your core so
4:51
we've got our multifidus at the back we've got our transverse abdominis which wraps around our abdomen and we've got
4:58
our diaphragm up here and you may hear people talk about the kind of can theory of core stability so
5:06
if you think about a can when it's got its top and it's bottom
5:11
on it's really really hard to crush that can isn't it and you can pretty much stand on it
5:17
and it'll support your weight the same kind of thing works here and that the diaphragm and the pelvic floor as we uh
5:26
kinda breathe in the diaphragm drops down to allow that oxygen to go into our
5:32
lungs our pelvic floor also drops down a little bit and our transverse abdominals
5:38
they expand a little bit and then as we exhale everything kind of moves up and
5:45
in forcing that air out of our body this picture down here is a female
5:52
pelvic floor as you can see it's got the three holes so that is the rectum for the vagina and
6:00
at the front here that is the opening where the urethra passes through and as
6:06
you can see it's like a hammock right down the bottom of our pelvic girdle so
6:12
these are our hip bones or our iliums coming down with our pubic bone at the
6:19
front and deep down in here is a bone called the ischium or the sit bones that you can feel when you're sitting down on
6:26
a chair and coming up here this is just a side view of the pelvic floor and obviously
6:33
in men they just and males they just have two openings so a little opening here to the um front which is where the
6:40
urethra comes through and obviously to the back where uh the rectum passes
6:47
through on females we have an additional uh
6:52
hole in our pelvic floor and that is where the vagina passes through
6:58
so a couple of important anatomical structures here at the back we've obviously got the bowel or the rectum
7:05
coming down to uh the anus we've got the uterus
7:10
down into the vagina and bladder and urethra here on male and
7:15
female uh just interest uh important to note that the urethra on females is obviously
7:22
a lot shorter than on males which can obviously be a varying varying lengths
7:32
cool so i'll get you guys just to um pause the video here and if you click on the
7:39
link it'll take you to an interesting uh video that i'll get you to watch
7:45
while this video is quite old 2013 this is still an issue with uh
7:52
females who participate in high impact sport so i'll get you guys to pause the
7:59
video here and go away and click on that youtube link and
8:04
have a think about what you see there
8:21
cool hopefully that uh link link worked for you so really interesting there isn't it
8:27
that um working through there a lot of those uh women and in that high impact sport of crossfit
8:35
they had essentially normalized this stress urinary incontinence
8:41
or as they talk about in their exercise induced urinary leakage
8:47
so the medical term is stress urinary incontinence and what that means is an involuntary
8:55
loss of urine on effort of physical exertion and this can happen
9:00
with things like sporting activities uh sneezing coughing laughing
9:08
it's really common in uh sporting activities such as double unders because
9:13
double unders are a really really quick exercise and your pelvic floor doesn't
9:19
really get a chance to fully release and relax before you kind of back up in the air again so if you do have some
9:26
dysfunction there it can really test it so whilst that video was in 2013
9:35
there's actually been a number of studies that have been published looking at crossfit in the last few years
9:41
probably since about 2019 and in 2022 there was a a meta-analysis
9:48
done so that's when they look at all kinds of studies that that fit uh criteria and they um
9:56
judge them to actually see what the kind of level of evidence is in each of those studies and overall
10:03
they found that there's a prevalence of about 44 and a half percent among female
10:08
crossfitters so these studies did actually include women who hadn't had children so nulli
10:15
paris woman uh and women of all ages so from 16 to
10:22
65 was roughly the population that they were looking at
10:28
uh noting there that obviously women who have had kids are more likely to have
10:34
these issues um the other thing here is that just
10:40
because you have these issues doesn't mean you can't do your high impact sport so it's not just crossfit it's really
10:47
prevalent in runners in particular people who do a lot of long distance
10:53
running so the the prevalence of urinary incontinence of stress urinary incontinence and long-distance runners
11:00
is very similar to in crossfit around 40 percent uh that increases in some sport so such
11:07
as trampolining the prevalence of stress urinary incontinence and that sport is
11:12
up above kind of 60 and the other sports that also have quite high prevalence uh olympic lifting
11:20
so studies vary in that between kind of 40 and 60 60 prevalence
11:27
uh and also uh gymnastics
11:34
the thing here is you do not have to give these sports up so you want to train to the weakest link so we had that
11:41
diagram before about the core and often a lot of people work really really hard
11:46
to get that really killer six-pack and they forget about their pelvic floor
11:52
so key thing throughout if you're training the training the cord don't forget the floor so it's really
11:58
important to kind of train to that weakest link because you're only as strong as that weakest link
12:04
so we can't we can increase the strength there which we'll talk about later on in this presentation
12:10
about 80 percent of people will improve or fully resolve with pelvic floor
12:16
muscle training so it is able to be treated if that muscle is intact and it's not
12:23
structurally damaged and it has a nerve supply it's the same as any other muscle
12:28
in your body so if you pull your calf you tend to do some rehab you know some
12:33
calf raises some stretching to strengthen that up and then then you're away again same thing with
12:39
your pelvic floor it is a muscle that we can control and it is a must and it is muscles that we can train
12:48
so some risk factors for pelvic floor dysfunction i've already talked about a couple of them but one of the kind of
12:54
main ones out there is parity so the number of pregnancies that an individual has had so this incr this increases your
13:02
risks of developing a pelvic floor dysfunction the more pregnancies you have
13:09
and it exponentially increases after the kind of third pregnancy
13:14
a vaginal delivery is associated with a greater risk of pelvic floor dysfunction
13:21
this is obviously understandable here so during a normal vaginal delivery your
13:27
pelvic floor muscles can stretch anywhere between 62 and 276
13:33
percent of their original uh tensile strength that's uh
13:40
that's a phenomenal amount when you compare to another muscle like
13:47
your hamstring or your calf you start doing damage when it gets to kinda 30 to
13:53
50 percent above its normal normal load
13:58
a long second stage of labor so that is the active pushing stage of labor so if
14:03
you have been in labor and you were pushing for more than 60 minutes that
14:09
increases your chances of developing a pelvic floor dysfunction if you have a
14:14
large baby and a large baby is considered 4 kgs or more for obvious reasons it's more likely to
14:21
do more damage if you are overweight this is a significant risk factor irrespective of
14:29
if you have had ever been pregnant or had any children
14:34
this is a particular risk factor for developing pelvic organ prolapse
14:40
a chronic cough so things like having allergies that mean you cough or
14:46
sneeze quite often having asthma and smoking so a chronic
14:51
cough coughing increases your intra-abdominal pressure and increasing your intra-abdominal
14:57
pressure forces that pelvic floor down and if you're doing it too often it can
15:02
then actually lengthen and damage those structures in your pelvic floor such as
15:08
the muscles or the fascia these two are highlighted in blue
15:13
because they are something that uh potentially you could say is an occupational risk factor for being a
15:21
being in the military so if your occupation involves regular heavy lifting so be that as occupation so a
15:29
lot of studies have been done in nurses and uh traditionally that is an
15:35
occupation that involved a lot of heavy lifting before you know they had like
15:41
hoists in that to assist uh but also a lot of recreational
15:47
lifting so things like olympic lifting and going to the gym lifting heavy weights
15:53
things like that uh the other risk factor there is high impact exercise so
16:00
in particular things like running in gymnastics they have traditionally been um
16:08
been sports where there is a high prevalence of pelvic floor dysfunction uh but also
16:16
recently a lot of work and with the kind of popularity of high intensity interval training such as
16:23
crossfit f45 um that has also
16:30
started to um to have a prevalence that is similar to
16:38
these other traditionally high impact sports and this is also interesting this sport because it's really taken off with
16:45
females uh input you know females haven't traditionally been
16:50
big gym goers and big weightlifters but crossfit is actually allowing a lot
16:57
more people to actually get involved in these sports
17:02
other risk factor is any kind of pelvic surgery so if they have actually gone in
17:08
and uh cut through the tissues in there or removed any of the structures in your
17:15
pelvis such as your uterus and a hysterectomy that can be a risk factor
17:21
for developing pelvic floor dysfunction a lot of these are for males but uh
17:27
prostate cancer so if you've had prostate cancer and you've had that that treated be it surgically or they've used
17:35
radiotherapy on that that is a significant risk factor for developing pelvic floor dysfunction
17:44
in particular urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction for that one uh if
17:51
you post menopause so due to the um decrease in in the
17:56
hormones post menopause the tins the tins the tissues and the and the
18:02
pelvic floor can become thin and drier which then actually and the
18:07
muscles can actually atrophy which obviously increases your chances
18:13
of developing a dysfunction uh if you had an assisted delivery so if
18:18
you gave a vaginal birth and they needed to use things like
18:24
forceps or suction or do an episiotomy these things can
18:32
increase your chances of a pelvic floor dysfunction if you have a history of trauma
18:38
so people have been sexually assaulted or if they've had quite a significant
18:44
injury to that area such as a pelvic fracture or a fracture in their
18:49
in their tailbone they can develop pelvic floor dysfunction
18:55
if you have chronic constipation it makes sense here if you are constantly straining
19:02
and your bowel has been uh impacted
19:08
then this can also lead to pelvic floor dysfunction and the last one there is a family history there's starting to be a
19:15
lot of evidence out there that says pelvic floor dysfunction uh
19:21
has a genetic component and a lot of this is around the kind of fascia and
19:26
how kind of um i suppose loose your fascia fascia can
19:32
become so if your kind of mother and grandmother had have issues with their
19:37
pelvic floor then potentially this is something that you you could develop
19:43
so all these risk factors they're just risk factors so you might have everything on there and your pelvic
19:50
floor might be a hundred percent but they're just things things to look out for and to be aware of and maybe
19:57
actually take some kind of preemptive rehabilitation in there and work on your pelvic floor before it uh
20:04
has any issues so there's a number of different types
20:10
of pelvic floor dysfunction that's out there
20:15
and the most common one is stress urinary incontinence which we talked about before so that's that involuntary
20:23
loss of urine on effort or physical exertion so this is uh things like
20:29
sporting activities or if you're increasing your intra-abdominal pressure so such as with a coughing
20:37
or sneezing it's activity related and does not have a psychological
20:44
component it is one of the most common urinary tract disorders that women
20:52
seek medical attention for it is not very common in males unless they've had
20:58
prostate surgery so the other type of uh incontinence out
21:06
there is urge incontinence so this is an involuntary leakage of urine that is
21:12
accompanied or immediately preceded by urgency so you get that need to go and
21:19
you need to go now if you don't make it to the toilet uh
21:24
you can end up having an accident so
21:30
it's as often things like every time when you get home from work and you put the key in the door that act of putting
21:37
the key in the door triggers yes i need to go toilet and i need to go now you've
21:44
also got mixed incontinence which is a mixture of the stress urinary incontinence and the urge incontinence
21:51
you can have anal incontinence and so that is things like actual fecal matter so it
21:58
might be just kind of liquid or it could actually be formed stills
22:04
or you have loss of uh flattest so so farting that is actually
22:12
a form of anal incontinence if you were trying not to fart but couldn't
22:17
hold them and one kind of slipped out sexual dysfunctions so these are quite
22:24
common in people with pelvic floor dysfunction so some of the common ones that you'll
22:30
see are pain and that's uh in women that can be both with penetration but also around the um
22:38
the vulva uh and with men kind of the most common
22:44
things that you'll see with men are erectile dysfunction so an inability to get an erection or an
22:51
inability to maintain their erection and also things like premature
22:56
ejaculation so not being able to control when they ejaculate
23:04
uh pregnancy big risk factor here and likely to cause pelvic floor dysfunction
23:11
because you've got a heavy baby that is basically pushing down on
23:16
your pelvic floor uh so some other types of dysfunction are people with
23:23
persistent pelvic pain quite often they can have a dysfunctional pelvic floor so
23:28
their pelvic floor might not be working in harmony with their um other parts of
23:33
their core it might be too tight and not relaxing at the right time or it might
23:39
be relaxing when it's meant to be contracting um similar to the uncoordinated and
23:44
disenergy down there a pelvic floor disorders also really
23:50
really common in people who have chronic low back pain so they've done some
23:55
studies and they reckon that about 70 percent of people who have long term chronic low back pain have an element of
24:02
pelvic floor dysfunction in there so often it's really important if you've
24:09
got back pain and it doesn't seem to be resolving it's actually really important to maybe consider hey is there an
24:16
element of pelvic floor dysfunction here that is also the same with long-term hip
24:21
and groin pain the disc synergy and the uncoordinated
24:27
pelvic floor a lot of that is around um
24:32
it potentially being too tight or hypertonic and not being able to relax when it's meant to be relaxing i.e when
24:39
you are having a bowel motion you want everything to be
24:44
relaxed so those are the different types of pelvic floor dysfunctions out there
24:49
for females far and away the most common type of pelvic floor dysfunction would
24:55
be the stress urinary incontinence uh pain and sexual dysfunction so pain
25:03
on intercourse is actually also very common in particular with a woman who
25:09
have not had children and maybe are doing quite a lot of high impact
25:15
exercise they can have a a deep kind of pelvic pain on
25:22
intercourse so what are some of the management
25:28
strategies for pelvic floor dysfunction that we have talked about here so
25:37
first thing we want to do is actually id if you have dysfunction so how we can do that is
25:44
obviously going to visit a pelvic health physio so in new zealand probably a pelvic health physio is the
25:51
the main type of person who would assess this there is also some continence nurse
25:57
specialists out there uh so they tend to identify functional
26:04
issues um whereas if you went to like a gynecologist they are more likely
26:11
to identify if there is structural issues going on
26:16
so really important to to self screen and i've got a a link on the next slide
26:22
that you can have a look through that's just a kind of quick link to identify if you're potentially at risk of having a
26:28
pelvic floor dysfunction or if maybe you do have an element of pelvic floor dysfunction
26:35
uh losing weight so maintaining a healthy body weight this is a really important
26:41
step that you can actually do to decrease your chances of developing a
26:47
pelvic floor dysfunction in particular pelvic organ prolapse which i don't think i covered on the
26:53
last slide so pelvic organ prolapse but it can also help with our stress
27:00
urinary incontinence as well so we want to try and maintain a healthy body weight you want to strengthen your
27:07
pelvic floor muscles but it's also really important to fully relax these muscles as well as strengthening
27:13
them you want to have a look at how you're going to the toilet because there's strong links between our dysfunctional
27:20
bladder and bowel habits and pelvic floor dysfunction you want to have a look at your diet are you drinking
27:27
enough uh are you getting enough fibre or maybe if you've got some urge
27:33
continents actually you are taking a lot of substances that are bladder about
27:39
irritants so a key one out there is caffeine caffeine is a really strong um
27:47
irritants for the bladder as is alcohol and you want to make sure that you are
27:53
conducting regular exercise because this in general just keeps everything moving
27:58
in your um bowels but it also helps keep the
28:04
muscles of your core uh in good tone there are some exercises out there that
28:11
aren't pelvic floor friendly and you just need to be careful about these if you do have dysfunction so some prime
28:19
examples of uh exercises that aren't very friendly on the pelvic floor are things like box
28:26
jumps double wonders burpees deep sumo squats running
28:35
the other thing is you need to address any chronic constipation or chronic cough that you have by talking to your
28:41
gp and the definition that we're using here of constipation
28:46
is a bowel motion that is
28:52
there's not really any definitions out there on constipation but
28:57
it's like that complaints of a bowel movement that's infrequent and or incomplete so you don't feel like you've
29:04
got everything out and it wasn't satisfying
29:09
really key here to talk to your doctor about uh getting on top of this because the
29:15
longer you let that chronic constipation and chronic cough happen the more damage they're going to be doing to your pelvic
29:21
floor so really important to talk to your doc about getting some help with that
29:29
this slide has just got some links on it to a really easy basic screening tool
29:34
that you can do it's a screening tool that's been designed for fitness professionals so if you are
29:41
going along to a gym to see a trainer it's a screening tool that's been designed for use by trainers
29:49
um but it's actually a really easy to go through screening tool in general
29:55
so there's one for males and one for females and they are from the continents.org dot nz website but they
30:03
have been adapted from the continents foundation of australia which are the really those two websites are really
30:10
good websites to look up a lot of different resources and kind of tips out there around uh managing the pelvic
30:17
floor so how so if we've id'd we think maybe
30:23
we have an issue uh you can actually do a self-test it's not
30:28
as obviously it's not as reliable as actually going to get a professional who is trained to do
30:36
internal assessments and assess the pelvic floor muscles but it's a it's a good start if you're
30:43
not yet comfortable to reach out to a health professional trained in this area
30:48
so for females really really important to actually
30:54
see what it looks like down there um and you know they're all they're all
31:00
different um and so it's really important to actually have a look what what it looks like down
31:06
there on you so the easiest kind of position to do this is kind of reclined
31:12
on your back with your your hips and your knees kind of bent so kind of lying in the sit up position
31:18
you want to look for closing and tightening around the anus and vagina and a lifting of the perineum so the
31:25
perineum is that little bit of skin between your vagina and your anus the
31:30
muscles should draw in and up you really want to make sure that when you're contracting them that they're not
31:37
kind of pushing out uh as that could mean you're bearing down and if you are bearing down you
31:44
could increase you could do damage to your pelvic floor
31:50
roughly about 30 of people do not know how to do a pelvic floor
31:55
uh sorry about 30 percent of people when they're
32:01
doing a pelvic floor contraction they are actually bearing down
32:06
which is actually quite uh quite a large number of people
32:12
probably only about 30 percent of people can actually do a pelvic floor muscle properly without being trained at pelvic
32:20
floor muscle contraction properly without being trained to do this
32:26
um the other thing you can also do is a self-internal vaginal palpation
32:33
so to do this you want to again adopt a comfortable position so it's really important that you're as comfortable as
32:40
you can be because you actually want these muscles to be relaxed i
32:46
recommend using a small amount of lubricant on your finger just to make it more comfortable and you
32:54
want to insert one finger into your vagina and it only needs to go in about
32:59
two centimeters the pelvic floor muscles are relatively superficial so it basically only really needs to go into
33:07
that kind of middle finger joint and you want to press into the side walls of your vagina not the front and the back
33:14
because at the front there's your bladder and at the back there's your rectum so they don't have kind of that
33:19
that's not where the muscles are so once you're pressing onto the side wall of your vagina
33:26
you want to think about contracting your pelvic floor muscles so using cues like thinking about um
33:33
sucking a tampon up and in and you want to think about
33:38
and see if those muscles can contract around your finger and does it feel even
33:43
on both the left and the right sides you could also think about holding a fasten
33:49
and the other thing that you can do key here do not do it more than once a week
33:55
because it can actually cause you a pelvic floor dysfunction
34:00
thinking about when you're going through a wee thinking about trying to stop that flow of urine
34:07
can you stop the flow of urine or um is that difficult for you so that is the
34:13
action that we are trying to look for for men a lot easier for you to um to
34:20
assess your pelvic floor so again you won't have a look that's it's
34:26
it's so much easier with visual cl uh visual cues so for men you want to stand in front of
34:33
a mirror without kind of pants and undies on so you can see roughly belly button and below
34:39
spelling mistake on that slide but you want to think about contracting your pelvic floor so they've actually done
34:46
studies on what cues work really well for men and for most men the cue
34:51
bring your nuts to your guts is a really easy cue for most men to actually figure
34:58
out and get the right movement the other thing you can think about is visualizing if you're say walking
35:05
into a really really cold cold river and it's starting to get kind of
35:11
slowly creeping up your your thighs what are your test is likely to do they're
35:17
likely to go up and in aren't they so we're thinking about this we're
35:22
thinking about contracting the testes so that they lift up and
35:28
what we what we should see in our mirror is we should see the testicles lift up
35:33
and there should be a little dip kind of like a little dimple that just appears just above your penis if that happens
35:40
you are lightly doing a correct pelvic floor contraction next thing there is to actually see how
35:47
long you can hold that for you can also do some self palpation of
35:52
the perennial muscles so when that happens does your perineum lift up and away from your
35:59
fingertips uh also practicing holding a fountain and for men
36:04
stopping that flow of urine again no more than once per week just because it
36:10
can actually cause issues with your bladder by teaching you not to fully empty your
36:17
bladder so next thing there is moving on to
36:23
actually learning how to go to the toilet properly you may think i've been going to the
36:28
toilet all my life i know how to um actually go and have a poo
36:33
but you'd actually be surprised about at how many people do not know how to
36:41
adopt a position that takes the pressure off their pelvic floor muscles
36:48
and there's a lot of strong links here between poor toileting that's the bladder and bowel and pelvic floor
36:54
muscle dysfunction and again for females we're more likely to have poor toileting technique
37:01
and that can be for a number of reasons so you know busy with children getting
37:07
them off to school you haven't actually got time to go to the loo you hold on or social reasons you might
37:14
not want to go and have a poo in a public area for example so that leads you to then
37:22
to then hold on which can then um make it difficult for you to then uh
37:29
pass that stall later on so this is the bristol stool chart so
37:34
designed obviously in the in the uk and basically it just outlines seven different types of stools that you can
37:41
have and the key thing we want to actually sit between a three and a four
37:47
so kind of like a sausage number three like a sausage and number four like a smooth
37:53
sausage so that's the key there we want it to be kind of well lubricated
37:58
but formed uh other things here you know if you're
38:04
kind of down in that type 1 and type 2 what is your fiber and fluid intake like
38:10
if you're higher up there are you actually taking something that really does not agree with your bowels is it
38:17
links to a certain type of food um if you are having issues with this and
38:24
it is long term go and talk to your gp because
38:29
you actually want to make sure that you are pooping correctly
38:36
uh next thing um so what what's actually normal so there's not really real
38:42
definition of normal out there the key thing is what is normal for you and what we're looking for here is any changes in
38:49
normal so normal can be anywhere between going three times a day
38:55
to three times per week it has a consistent pattern and that's
39:01
what we're looking out for here so pooping technique
39:08
this lovely drawing here is the position that you should adopt when both for men
39:14
and women you are going for a number two the other thing here is don't hold on so
39:21
when you first feel the urge make sure you act on it obviously occasionally you do need to
39:28
hold on but ideally when you feel the urge to go you want to go within 10 to
39:35
15 minutes of feeling that first uh need to go and have a poo
39:43
so position so you want to be seated with your whole foot supported so you want your feet kind of flat you want to
39:49
have your knees higher than your hips so 30 degrees kind of hip hip flexion you may need to elevate your
39:57
feet to achieve this so thinking about like a toilet roll is like two toilet
40:02
rolls that's kind of the ideal height or um make some kind of stool up no pun
40:09
intended there all these other devices out there such as the squatty potty which are
40:15
purposefully designed for this this is only really an issue in western
40:21
cultures where heat where we have designed our toilets to basically sit us
40:27
in an unnatural position humans are designed to squat to go
40:34
number for a poo um not obviously an issue if you're in
40:40
asia because their toilets are actually designed to put your bowel in an ideal
40:46
position when you are going to the loo the other thing here is you actually want your feet to be
40:53
at least kind of 30 centimeters apart and leaning forwards propping your arms
40:59
on your thighs you want to maintain a neutral spine position so you're not
41:04
kind of rolled back flattening your back and you're not all the way arched forward you're just nice and neutral
41:11
with that slight bend in your lower back you want to relax and you want to
41:16
actually bulge your belly out rather than pushing down through your bum you want to kind of bulge your belly out
41:24
relax breathe and it should happen now the other little note down there is
41:31
if you ask someone who has a prolapse so uh part of your bladder or bowel has moved
41:39
then uh you may need to support that so ie holding your perineum or there is
41:45
devices out there to assist with that
41:50
i don't think i talked about prolapse when i was talking through the pelvic floor dysfunction so prolapse is
41:57
basically when uh one of your organs has moved into a different area so for
42:05
example in women you can have an anterior wall prolapse so in that
42:10
situation your bladder can bulge into your vagina
42:15
you can have a posterior prolapse where your rectum is bulging into your vagina
42:22
or you can have a a prolapse where your uterus descends
42:28
down into your vagina men can also get prolapses they are not as common but
42:35
men can actually prolapse their rectum
42:43
prolapses are actually really really common so 50 of women
42:49
will have or will develop a prolapse at some time in their life they are very
42:55
common i'll get you guys to break here to pause
43:02
the video here and if you feel like a good laugh after talking about poo
43:07
i'll get you to click on that if you haven't seen it before and it will cement everything i've talked about with
43:14
great comedic relief
43:28
cool welcome back hopefully uh you guys haven't laughed so hard that tears have been running down your legs because of
43:36
that if that was the case we've got some interesting stuff coming up for you
43:42
so we think we might have an issue we've done some screening
43:47
actually how do we treat this so pelvic four muscle training is the gold
43:52
standard treatment for most pelvic floor dysfunctions
43:59
pelvic floor muscles same as pretty much any other muscle musculoskeletal kind of skeletal muscle
44:06
in our body and it responds to standard muscle strengthening principles so we've
44:12
got to overload it we've got to rest it we've got to progress it constantly
44:17
challenge it and it will adapt it's really really important with pelvic floor muscles to start with isolated
44:24
strengthening first so you want to work that pelvic floor all on its own to make
44:29
sure we're actually getting it to work because quite often with the pelvic floor
44:35
um your body kind of compensates by cheating by using your abdominal muscles
44:40
and your kind of glutes to try and get that stability in your pelvis and these are really strong muscles so quite often
44:47
they can dominate and your pelvic floor doesn't actually get a chance to work
44:53
so really important here to start with that isolated strengthening so we know how to target that pelvic floor we can
45:00
work on it get it strong all on its own and then we want to put it into more
45:06
functional movements with other muscles around it working to stabilize
45:13
so another key thing here is we want to progress up to training in the position that causes symptoms so if you have
45:19
symptoms when you're out running you need to work on your pelvic floor
45:26
muscle position in a position similar to running such as standing so you're
45:31
having to fight those forces of gravity particularly important if you do have a
45:36
prolapse things like jumping things like dead lifting we want to actually try and
45:43
start working our pelvic floor muscles in these positions that cause us issues
45:49
so if you are dead lifting and you have some stress urine incontinence when you
45:55
lift 100 kilos but when you lift 70 kilos you don't have any issues
46:01
go back to the 70 kilos work on your pelvic floor strength and slowly build
46:06
up from there you will get up to what you wear lifting and possibly you'll end up overtaking
46:13
your pb because now your core will actually be working together and you'll be able to be stronger and generate more
46:20
power so initially you might be weaker but in the long run you will end up stronger
46:26
guaranteed so the other thing to think about with our pelvic floor contraction especially
46:33
if we're really struggling is to think about linking it to the breath so naturally when you exhale if if your
46:42
pelvic floor is working in synergy with the rest of your core when you exhale
46:47
your pelvic floor muscle should contract and lift up so initially start thinking about tying
46:55
that contraction to the exhale breath but as you become more stronger
47:00
you need to be able to work maintaining that pelvic floor contraction throughout the breath cycle
47:08
key thing here when you strengthen the core remember the floor so i like to always start with pelvic
47:15
floor isolation work before moving on to other core work just to make sure that
47:21
that pelvic floor is activated and engaged
47:26
how do we strengthen the pelvic floor so these exercises you might have heard people talking about kegels
47:32
so they basically kegels are exercises to
47:39
strengthen the pelvic floor named after an american kind of
47:45
gynecologist who came up with this in the 1940s
47:50
and he noticed that he was a gynecologist and he noticed that his
47:56
patients who he got to do strengthening work they recovered from childbirth a
48:02
lot quicker than the ones who didn't so that's kind of where where this this started
48:08
so the key thing here is if if you don't know how to do these positions you want to
48:14
do these exercises sorry you want to start in a position where you're not
48:19
having to counter gravity so it's easiest to actually start these when you're lying on your back
48:26
if you're pregnant uh and your past kind of 20 weeks
48:32
it's probably best to start in like four point kneeling or uh sitting on the edge
48:38
of a chair or lying on your side but for most people it start lying on your back
48:45
you might want to place a pillow under your pelvis just to make it a little bit more comfortable and it just helps to
48:51
kind of open up that pelvic area you want to think about visualizing a
48:56
marble at the opening of your vagina and you want to squeeze and lift and thinking about squeezing and lifting
49:04
through the vagina and the anus or thinking about bringing that tailbone
49:09
towards the pubic bone you want to keep working to maintain this maximum effort
49:15
for 10 seconds that's our kind of goal but if you can only hold it for a couple
49:20
of seconds come off there don't don't try and hold a sub
49:25
standard rep for the 10 seconds if you can only get to 2 seconds so work on quality over
49:33
quantity you want to rest for 10 seconds in between and then repeat 10 times and you
49:41
want to do this three times a day other thing here is you want to try not
49:46
to use your glutes or abdominal muscles because as we previously mentioned really important to do these isolated
49:53
exercises first make sure you breathe a lot of people hold their breath when they're trying to
49:58
strengthen their pelvic floor which means you're not going to get very far because it has to work
50:04
synergistically with that diaphragm to be functional so make sure we breathe
50:11
in addition to those holding maximum effort for 10 seconds it's also really
50:16
important to train the fast twitch fibers in your pelvic floor so muscles have fast twitch and slow
50:22
twitch fibers and the fast twitch fibers in your pelvic floor are really important for things like if we suddenly
50:29
squeeze or cough or change direction they kind of come on really quickly
50:35
really reflect with it reflectively and we want to make sure that they are all
50:41
so strong so adopting that same position as we previously talked about we want to
50:47
activate our pelvic floor at a fast maximal contraction we want to relax
50:53
immediately after hitting that maximum force and then repeating 10 times
50:58
you really want to make sure you relax fully between each contraction
51:05
it's that short fast contraction all the way on all the way off that we're working for here same thing again three
51:12
times a day so key points here for that strengthening
51:18
to progress this you're going to increase the duration of the hold so if you're a long distance runner and you're
51:25
out running for hours at the end you might actually need to work up to being able to hold a maximum pelvic floor
51:32
contraction for 60 seconds those muscles are going to need really good endurance
51:39
uh you also want to think about changing positions so moving into a more functional position so maybe the bottom
51:46
part of the squat that is quite a challenging position for the pelvic floor because your um
51:54
pelvic hiatus actually opens up a little bit when you're down at the bottom of a squat so a lot more challenging to try
52:01
and contract it in that position the other really important thing here is relaxing the pelvic floor that's really
52:09
really important and actually some people can actually have issues with relaxing their pelvic
52:16
floor so strength is not so much the issue it's the relaxing of the pelvic floor
52:21
and these are more likely people who have like pain on intercourse they tend
52:28
to have a more um i suppose hyperactive uncoordinated
52:34
pelvic floor as opposed to a weak pelvic floor
52:39
so being able to relax is really really important and that's kind of the benefit
52:45
of actually going to visit someone who's trained to do uh internal pelvic floor
52:51
assessments they can actually pick up if you're one of the few those few minority
52:57
individuals who actually have issues with relaxing your pelvic floor as
53:03
opposed to your pelvic floor being weak
53:09
relaxation really really important because you might be working on this and then you throw yourself to be one of
53:16
those people who can't actually relax their pelvic floor so really really important to
53:23
to relax the other thing that you can do to kind of increase the the challenge of your
53:29
pelvic floor there's a number of kind of um training aids out there that you can
53:34
utilize to assist so some of them you've probably heard of so things like benoit balls and yoni
53:41
eggs there's also quite a lot of now more
53:47
integrated pelvic floor muscle trainers out there so such as there's a new
53:52
zealand one that's got a lot of research behind it called fimfit by junofem
53:59
perryfit that's a device that they use kind of biofeedback and a lot of them are linked to games
54:06
that you can play on your cell phone so they can actually make pelvic floor muscle training really fun and really
54:13
interactive
54:18
but the more the most important thing there is getting the basics right first before you're going to buy any of these
54:25
flash devices vaginal weights etc you've got to do the basics first and these are
54:31
just adjuncts to increase that challenge on your pelvic floor particularly if you
54:37
uh do a lot of sports that will challenge your pelvic floor
54:42
so basically where to from here really important again cannot emphasize how
54:47
important it is to talk to your doc about managing chronic constipation and cough this can do a lot of damage
54:56
that it just won't recover from so actually you really want to get on top of
55:01
managing that constipation and your cough if you're pregnant postpartum or had any
55:07
prostate kind of treatments recommended to get an assessment by a pelvic health physio
55:15
to actually have a look at how those pelvic floor muscles are functioning are
55:20
you likely to have have some issues develop afterwards
55:26
uh generally if you've had no improvement in four to six weeks of doing strengthening you do act if if
55:33
you're just going to strengthen without without being under the um guidance of a
55:40
person who's trained in this area if after four to six weeks you're still having the same level of symptoms and
55:47
you've had no change no improvement in your symptoms you want to go and get a review because you might actually be one
55:55
of those few that actually bear down instead of contracting up or
56:00
you might actually have some structural damage in there so for example the actual nerves might have been damaged in
56:08
childbirth so that muscle it isn't going to work because it doesn't have any nerve supply to it
56:14
or um the other injury that's not common but it it can occur i think it's about
56:20
10 of people can actually evolve their pelvic floor muscles can come off
56:26
the bone during labor so in general you're not going to be
56:31
able to actually see improvement in that because the muscles are not attached or they're not receiving innovation
56:38
so it's really it's important to actually know this there's not a lot that they can do for it at the moment
56:45
but it's actually important to actually know if you do have that issue
56:50
um and some other things like is there been damage to some of the like sphincter
56:57
muscles things like that and they can sometimes need kind of
57:02
surgical repair for those but the good news is a majority of
57:08
pelvic floor dysfunctions can be managed by conservative treatment so roughly 80
57:14
percent of people with pelvic floor dysfunction will be fully resolved or significantly their
57:21
symptoms will be significantly improved just by undertaking pelvic floor muscle
57:26
training do not suffer in silence they reckon about 80 percent of people do not build
57:34
up enough courage to talk to their health care provider about this and on average it takes seven years for people
57:41
to actually go and start seeking treatment get help get help early it's common it's
57:48
not normal don't let anyone tell you it is normal to wee when you're doing a double under
57:54
it is not normal common not normal uh and the last but not least really
58:01
important to train the weakest link in that chain and quite often it is the
58:07
pelvic floor because we spend a lot of time working on our on our six-pack
58:13
um and diaphragms and generally in most people in good condition because you know you breathe all the time
58:20
um so really important to train that weakest link and it's often the pelvic
58:25
floor this uh website is just showing some really good kind of resources that you
58:32
could click on the links should work so that first one's just a really good summary that's done up by pelvic floor
58:38
physio that's based in wellington the other two are links for those screens which we had further on
58:46
and have a look on the continents foundation australia and continents.organz they've got some
58:52
really good information on there uh in particular around pelvic floor safe exercise uh pelvic floor accredited
59:00
trainers in both new zealand and australia
59:05
good tips on maintaining bladder and bowel health and the last link on there is just a
59:12
really really good laugh to really test your pelvic floor if it's working well it's a pelvic floor physio who's
59:20
actually a comedian and her kind of stand-up gig is all around the pelvic
59:27
floor last is just some extra reading if you're interested
59:34
thanks very much for listening to this webinar and if you have any questions
59:40
feel free to email me i'm just on dixus narissa chapman
59:46
and i will get back to you if i can help you out or send you on to someone who
59:52
can cool do not suffer in silence thank you
1:00:06
you
-
The floor to your core presentationThe floor to your core presentation
Boosting physical performance and sleeping well
Within NZDF is a group of uniformed scientists, who know a lot about helping people thrive in challenging circumstances.
Join Major Jacques Rousseau and Captain Dave Edgar from the Human Performance Cell as they share advice and tips for exercising as we grow older.
They'll also talk about the importance of healthy sleep habits and what you can do if you're not sleeping well.
Boosting physical performance and sleeping well
0:02
well there we go fantastic good day everybody um
0:08
thank you for joining us in this um webinar uh i'm major giarson
0:14
captain david uh we're both from the human performance cell uh it's part of a jsg joint support group um my background
0:22
is a clinical exercise physiology so i graduated with a degree in exercise
0:28
physiology specialized more in the clinical side of there um i hold a degree a phd degree my topic there was
0:35
uh injury prevention uh in the new zealand army and that's where the garrison shoe
0:42
comes from a lot of research went into that what we do we look after human performance in the defence force
0:49
our main aim is to improve performance so we get better outcomes for our service men and women
0:55
yeah my my background is strength and conditioning sport science so previously defense left and studied uh did the
1:02
otago physical education degree then did a masters in hamilton while i was working a professional rugby uh but back in
1:09
defence loving defence and now submit a phd next month actually looking
1:16
at sleep um and the benefits around what we're doing in defense or what is happening in defence and the projects we
1:22
work on we have a really good team approach and it's we do research not for research sake but to enhance and benefit the
1:29
organization right so let's jump into it so today we are going to give a little bit
1:36
of a talk around boosting physical performance and a little bit about sleep or not a little bit quite a bit about
1:42
sleep to be honest um but the focus we'd like to go into is more around um
1:49
the older person or the mature person i've got to be careful when we say there uh so more our older people or older
1:56
service men and women um because in the military you know physical fitness is
2:01
often focused on the younger generation and there's no problem with that it's rightfully so
2:07
because these folks our younger people they're on the front lines and they have to be fitted strong
2:13
but as we age fitness seems to fall to the wayside you know we become busier we become caught
2:20
up in you know more management processes and when with the current climate as it
2:26
is we often uh end up double heading uh sometimes even triple triple hitting
2:32
um but this mean you know you don't have to give up on your your fitness
2:37
because when you're in the defense force uh we all require to be fit and healthy
2:44
um so you know looking after your fitness being fit and healthy is really important to leading
2:50
a better life to having better quality of life at the end of the day um so one of those aspects of fitness
2:56
training that that we'd like to talk to about today and discuss a little bit more is the importance of strength
3:02
training that this is the one component of fitness that's often neglected
3:07
particularly by our mature people you know as we grow old we take to not want
3:13
to do some strength training there's that perception you know we might get hurt if we're lifting weights um but but
3:19
actually it's not the case um and strength training is often thought to be the domain of the younger
3:26
you know younger people so dave you've encountered this as well oh yeah definitely i know i think
3:33
definitely within defense and what we do we see a lot of injuries coming through uh in later serving years but we have to
3:38
remember that we need to stay strong and at the end of the day it's strength training but it's to keep our function
3:43
and our form so as we age we can and we should keep strength training
3:49
but we don't have to replicate what other people are doing and the thing i really want to push you is you know it's
3:54
nothing to be scared of we don't need to be scared of the gym or scared of strength training it's actually a really really cool area i guess where we go
4:00
wrong is not lifting the way that we should lift uh not doing the right exercises that we should do but at the
4:06
end of the day it's nothing to be scared of and there's some fantastic benefits to be had from it 100
4:12
absolutely you absolutely have to take care of your muscles you know and yeah and taking care of your muscles is
4:19
basically doing strength training and as we age we really need to do more strength
4:25
training i mean a lot of research has actually gone into this and you may ask well you know why so the big thing is as we age we start
4:32
to lose muscle mass it's a normal process it's called cyclopenia it happens to all of us and as we all
4:39
must as we get older muscle mass is going to decrease so with this happens and we're not doing anything about it
4:46
it's going to lead to weakness we're going to get a loss of balance coordination is going to decrease or uh
4:54
yep and when you uh lose a lot of your coordination your balance and stability
5:00
then the uh risk of injury is going to increase so you're going to be more susceptible to tripping slipping and
5:08
falling over so if we improve and maintain muscle mass
5:13
it's going to improve our overall health so having a stronger body
5:19
it's going to help you perform activities and those power cut movements
5:25
you've got to do you're going to be able to do that easier and without fatigue um
5:30
so it also helps us to maintain body weight and it helps us
5:36
increase energy expenditure so the more muscle mass you have you're going to have a higher resting metabolic rate and
5:43
this is going to increase your your body composition and if you've got a good body composition you know you're kind of
5:49
looking really good you know you're going to feel better about yourself so
5:55
also we're going to get an increase in um mood levels energy levels and
6:00
improving our confidence so this is going to help uh you know us feel better
6:07
um but a really interesting here is you know is that formal function when we do strength
6:13
training 100 i think before you just hit the nail on the head so we talk about form and function balance and stability
6:19
so if we can improve we want to be improving our balance our stability our reaction time our form because it's
6:25
about doing our tasks in the defence force but hey how do we how are we starting to feel after a day out in the
6:32
bush chopping firewood or a day in the garden how does that now now make you feel or a day doing a day trend we want
6:38
to be able to do those things and then front up the next day and carry on you know a day in the garden now your backs
6:43
or your hip sore uh and if we look at things like posture and stability if we can do those sorts of activities
6:49
and then crack on the next day there's got to be a big win and that tends to be the things that start to hold us up absolutely so we're talking here about
6:57
the what's known as adls so those activities of daily living so if you've got to
7:03
increase your strength your stability and your form and function as dave just said here then you're going to have a
7:09
better quality of life now another really interesting thing with strength training and this especially for the
7:16
ladies out there is that strength training is going to help increase your bone mineral density and as we age we
7:24
know bone mineral density is going to decrease and that's the result of the menopause
7:30
so if bone mineral density decreases at a faster rate that's when you start
7:35
developing osteoporosis and strength training has been shown to decrease the
7:42
onset of osteoporosis so there you go you know there's a lot of benefits around this and we saw a lot of these
7:49
benefits when we did the females in uniform study dave can you elaborate a bit on this yeah um what we saw it was
7:56
fantastic so young and old ages um all females in defense our project last year
8:02
at the end of the day what we saw was those that did strength training or everybody did street training all of those in the program that did strength
8:08
training simply improved strength but what we saw was fantastic confidence where those
8:14
that were starting to age a little bit we had a lot of females sort of around the 40 50 years old who were novices in
8:20
the gym part of the program they had to complete jim's strength training sessions and power sessions and the confidence was
8:26
just phenomenal so the confidence and the strength gains so going from never having squatted to
8:32
doing squats with you know bar on the shoulders lifting weight sitting pbs coming into the gym feeling
8:39
comfortable chucking their weights up not worrying about who's around so um as
8:44
long as we have incremental gains at the level we're at strength training will improve strength and enhance overall
8:50
activities overall and it doesn't mean you're going to have huge muscles you're
8:56
not going to be an arnold schwarzenegger because that's not the case um
9:01
when we do strength training and when we start trend training the first adaptation that takes place is in the
9:07
nervous system it's that neuromuscular adaptation and this is when
9:12
you are recruiting more muscle fibers so the more muscle fibers you can fire up the stronger you're going to be
9:20
so you know the stronger that muscle can uh the more muscle fiber story the more muscle fibers we uh
9:27
get moving the stronger that contraction is um so you're not going to get more
9:33
muscle and more bulky and this is particularly where the females come yeah look
9:39
it's a really interesting one and you know and work that i've done with with previous athletes also you know athletes
9:45
that don't want to put on weight when you suggest stream training also females first and foremost i think we should put
9:51
this to bed because the what the queries i'll get back is oh i don't want to put on weight i don't want to get bulky it
9:56
is damn hard to actually put on lean muscle mass you have to be very training very diligently your
10:03
nutrition needs to be on point and you're doing a lot of gym sessions so you're not going to bulk up
10:08
what we may see and we do see the with females when you start training properly in training in a gym okay let's be
10:15
realistic here muscle weighs heavier than fat so at the end of the day you may not have massive
10:21
declines in weight because of your strength training you get um stronger muscles that maintain and we lose fat
10:28
so you can get really really strong without bulking up and the key thing here is don't panic about um you may
10:35
tone up but would you rather not be toned and have really good form and function and you're not injured you can do your job you can get out of the
10:41
weekends that's the whole point of why we strength train absolutely absolutely and the other thing is you've probably
10:47
heard about the expression use it or lose it and this is so true when it comes to strength training so if you
10:54
don't regularly switch your muscles on particularly at a relatively high intensity and this is
11:00
where strength training comes in again the motor units that switch on those fast stretch muscle fibers are going to
11:07
thin out and they're not going to work as well as they should so you'll be talking about a
11:13
little about the the right type of intensity that we should be training it you know as we all as we get older we
11:19
don't want to overdo things either but there is an intensity that we should work towards so
11:24
if you can tell us a little bit more about you know what is the right intensity when we're doing our strength training yeah and again i this is a
11:31
really good area i'm glad you brought this up sir because when we talk about intensity i guess it's i'm going to the
11:36
gym um i want to get improvement i want to get in condition i want to improve my strength to improve condition and get
11:43
stronger in simple terms we need to be lifting some weight we need to be lifting some turn if we want to say that but we don't
11:49
need to be afraid of that that that's all good and when we're talking about what we should be doing we should be
11:55
still be trying to work to a rep range that's suited to us but if we're doing a 12 10 8 6 we should be lifting weight
12:02
that that will that should be targeted for that rep range that rep max so you're doing weight that i can lift for 12.
12:09
then dropping it to 10 then dropping it to 8. as the reps come down my weight goes up so incrementally i get
12:16
incremental adaptation at the end of the day different people in a group different
12:22
people training together we can go to the gym and train together like we recently did on exercise nemesis
12:28
and very late very late nights or early mornings and then trying to get in the afternoon and maintain ours we could go
12:34
and train in the gym together we both might be squatting but we're changing the weight and doing the reps that we need so we're not just trying to copy
12:40
each other i'm not just following what everyone else is doing in my group i'm lifting what i need to do yes we can
12:46
have a big group of people working together but you're lifting the weight that you need for your benefit
12:51
absolutely absolutely um so the other thing what we're trying to say yeah when you start stream trend you're switching
12:57
on more muscles as your nervous system adapts to the loads that are being lifted
13:02
so once this adaptation takes place another adaptation starts taking place and this
13:09
is what we call hypertrophy so this is when we get an increase in muscle cell
13:14
size or the number of muscle cells and this is very interesting now because
13:19
this is where we start getting differences between males and females and hypertrophy is more related to males
13:28
than females and as we've just said you know ladies don't be scared of bulking up because you don't have a lot of
13:34
testosterone floating around in your bodies as this is more of a male hormone so males are going to be more uh prone
13:43
to hypertrophy than females do the thing is ladies you rely more on
13:49
this neural neuromuscular adaptation for strength increases and the other thing
13:55
here dave as you well know is genetics genetics plays a huge role in
14:01
hypertrophy you know we can't all have big bulky muscles some of us you know are skinny and we try as hard as we can
14:08
to put on a lot of muscle we want to look you know those beach muscles we'd like to talk about but you just can't
14:14
and that's your genetics that plays a big role there but that doesn't mean you're not going to be
14:19
stronger so this is where we talk about the neural adaptation that's going to have more effect i think a key point to
14:25
really push out here let's go the other end of the scale for those of you wanting to put on weight uh if we're switching into traditional hypertrophy
14:32
training we up the load or we up the load as in we pull our weight back a bit where do we do a lot more reps what we
14:38
need to keep in mind is that in a defense setting or a military setting if
14:43
i'm already spending time on feet if i'm already doing military pt i'm doing other training and i'm trying to do
14:48
hypertrophy weight training on top of already an intense lifestyle program it actually creates the opposite effect it
14:55
doesn't create a hypertrophy effect it actually creates a catabolic effect because all i'm doing is extra extra
15:01
conditioning so yeah we we need to be quite specific in that you need to have specific days to
15:06
train specific rest days um a really good nutrition plan um
15:12
supplementation but that's another whole topic from today uh but yeah so there's good gains if you're wanting to put on
15:18
weight we need to be quite specific as well another really interesting thing is as
15:24
we age uh the playing field between males and females starts to even out and
15:30
this is because the testosterone levels in males start to decrease so this now
15:36
means that hypertrophy adaptation decreases and genes we then start relying more on
15:43
that neuromuscular adaptation for those strength increases that we're really looking for however
15:49
there is some good news here and that is particularly uh relatively heavyweight
15:56
training does increase the testosterone production and then that will have an
16:01
influence on your hypertrophy gains so
16:06
you're probably all going asking well what is the right type of training that we're doing now what should i be doing
16:12
how many sets repetitions blah blah blah shall i be doing and this is where um
16:17
dave is going to jump in again and tell us more about this i guess um firstly
16:22
what it says if you look on the um on the new health website there are quite a few introductory strengths and
16:29
conditioning um programs that uh human performance we have put together and overseeing so
16:34
they're quite specific around introduction level so there's some good programs there to take a look at those um and what we suggest is
16:42
in the initial stages you want full body programs full body training exercises so
16:47
you get really good bang for buck but at the same time you don't need to be just doing bicep curls and tricep dips unless
16:54
it's for a specific reason you can be quite specific around what you do so first and foremost what i would be
17:00
recommending a squat we need to be squatting fantastic exercise regardless when anyone says one of my go-to
17:05
exercises generally includes every muscle group in the lower limb
17:11
also includes your hips your lower back and your posterior chain your back so squatting um yeah and
17:19
that's a really good way to start yes we should be squatting with the bar we want to be squatting with weight the bar nice
17:24
and straight on your back but squatting is going to be really really good um if you're having any issues with um
17:31
lower back or introduction type exercises would be your exercises like leg press maybe leg curl leg extension
17:37
to get you started but um you should definitely have a squat within your program what very interesting and very
17:43
good advice there but now as i'm getting older my knees my hips you know being been
17:50
around for a long time carrying heavy pecs in the field that sort of thing our knees and our backs are now and our hips
17:55
start you know getting a little bit painful and it does become a bit more
18:01
difficult to do squats so what is the advice you can give me or give us when
18:06
it comes to doing squats as we age every age oh fantastic because i had a note
18:11
about this to bring up so really glad you brought that up what i recommend is we may have heard this is box warning
18:17
so what i 100 recommend is box squatting so when we say box it could be an actual box from the gym or sitting on the the
18:23
bench the 45 centimeter bench and we can stand over the bench so
18:28
a lot of work i mean i'm uh doing you know doing a little bit of professional development work with um towards the
18:36
world cup and that's a key exercise we have in the program is box squat box squat for your skinny outside backs to
18:42
120 kg prop why do we do box squat similar to a elite athlete to an aging athlete or
18:48
someone whose knees are starting to give a bit of trouble is because the supportive aspects of a
18:55
box squat so nine times out of ten i'll say to people why don't you have a crack at the box squat i want a back squat then you we go
19:01
backwards and forwards and why do you want a back squat oh cause i want to squat that little bit deeper okay can you show me your um show me your your
19:08
back squat then when they do a back squat so here's here's the legs coming down they want to get deep so there's
19:14
the butt over here the butt comes down and then to get nice and deep all i see is the butt gets to a point where it
19:19
stops because we're not strong enough to get down and the shoulders lean right forward so all i'm essentially doing
19:24
is this here and just leaning right forward so we're not actually getting any extra depth out of the bar and
19:30
wouldn't you be working your back doing that oh 100 yes because you're in creating that force times momentum the
19:36
lever on your back is longer with the box squat we can squat right down and then when people do a box squat
19:42
they actually come down uh and when we see their butt they're getting lower on a box spot than they would on a normal
19:47
back squat so we're actually squatting and we're sitting down and then we yes that's called the unload phase yeah so
19:54
we go down we're squatting we sit down we unload and then really good neurally we've
20:00
really touched on that today nearly my body is forced to fire my quads specifically your vmos and your glute
20:07
med uh those are the muscles that support our near nail hits they have to fire to get us back up
20:13
when we really centralize or um specialize into those little muscles our strength or our adaption to that pure
20:20
strength is actually better than just using momentum and bouncing up and down another key thing is just that's the
20:26
back there i should be nice and straight i've done my squat i sit on the box my back's come slightly out of kilter what
20:32
i can do is straighten my back up then squeeze and push up um before i come up whereas if i'm doing
20:40
a back squat when you're stuck in that position you're stuck in that position you're not going to get out of it in a
20:45
deep top squat so 100 squats and again like i say leading into it if we need to
20:50
do leg press um calf raise leg extension leg cool really good but bang for buck squat
20:56
covers all your muscles in the lower room and that is so true i have to say and i have to but that i have been doing the
21:02
box squat lately because to be honest my knees cannot handle a deep squat anymore um and actually getting quite strong
21:09
stronger than him so doing a bulk squat is really really
21:14
good and i find it does save my knees and it also is much easier on on the
21:20
hips um so if we go further we've talked a lot about the squat now so what about the
21:26
upper body yeah upper body and it goes without saying we've got to do upper body we can still keep this really simple and really effective so
21:33
our tune we're using strength conditioning is push pull so we want to be pushing and pulling so simple terms
21:38
we're pushing and we're pulling so we're working opposite side opposite agonist antagonist yes yes against antagonist a
21:44
simple way to do a push in the pull what i recommend is two push exercises two pull exercises one
21:50
in a um horizontal plane there one in a vertical plane so i'm pushing and pulling i guess frontwards
21:58
and i'm pushing and pulling overhead pretty simple here uh on a bench doing
22:03
bench press or dumbbell bench doing a seated row or a dumbbell row and i can
22:09
be doing a bar overhead push or dumbbell push or even simply doing chins yes
22:15
chins can be challenging but we can easily use a band absolutely yes
22:20
i'm talking about these exercises the range that we've got to move through that's pretty important as well often
22:27
you'll go to the gym and you will see people you know they've got weights that are so heavy so they you know by using
22:33
momentum to lift the weight so that's not really going to be a much benefit is it no it's not um
22:39
i guess there's a whole different aspects to gym training extreme training we're trying to do power training when we've made different ways different ways
22:46
but generally to get the best effect for the type of training we want to do slow and controlled exercises
22:52
we're not saying we need to go light but we just need to do them slow and controlled to really target the area
22:57
we're trying to work on keep in mind we're talking strength here when we talk we're not really talking power training today power training is a different kind
23:03
of fish in total different movements but for your strength training for the balance stability the function the form
23:09
good controlled good range of motion um under control again if you're not sure of the range of motion that's where you
23:16
can look at some of the programs or seek advice from your pcis great and you don't talk about rubber
23:21
bands earlier on now really really good and you get more of a control when you're
23:27
using your rubber bands um and a lot of research has shown that rubber bands are
23:32
just as good for us as weights are so what's the real benefit of a rubber band
23:38
well the rubber the rubber band or conditioning band we call it um and we're not talking about the skinny
23:43
theraband that you would use for rehab that's a different conditioning band so you can get some that look like big
23:49
rubber bands um or what i've been recommending lately is kmart kmart has some fantastic tools
23:55
absolutely um we have sometimes have things but kmart at the moment have this fantastic band uh trainer system you can
24:03
buy different colored bands so like an easy moderate high uh they're about ten dollars each with a
24:08
set of handles which are about ten dollars each uh you can have the band with your handles you can do all your push or you pull you can use them for
24:16
squats you uh bung a dingy ring up on the wall at home you've got a fantastic universal system uh when we travel for
24:22
work when i'm traveling away i just take another strap that i can put to a tree a doorway and do the bands so the bands
24:29
offer us that concentric and eccentric movements yeah
24:34
under control so it's first forcing us to work on our way back as well as our way up whichever range of motion we're
24:40
going the other things it does is it forces us to work our stability really really strong taps into the angle on the
24:47
joints so we're working ligaments and tendons as well absolutely and you did mention eccentric
24:53
loading and that's when we lengthen the muscle fibers so going down very slowly and coming back up and as you said when
25:00
we do uh resistance training we often drop the weights yeah so there's no real control there but with a rubber band you
25:06
get that nice control and you're getting that eccentric load which is going to improve your uh
25:13
um gains yes it is and that's not it's not the easy way up no i
25:19
use bands in my garage at home uh for my endurance swimming that i do i've recently set quite a few people up in
25:24
their own garages at home and we're talking sort of elite swimmers to um your sort of masters groups and then
25:31
also away on the road with teams or you know professional teams are taking band systems to to ensure that they've got
25:37
some type of resistance training they're ready to go we're now recommending to unit steve and take them into the field
25:43
and different things like that so again if you get a system that has a low medium high you can actually adjust to
25:48
what you need yeah they're really fantastic um so really really good so when we get all this and
25:55
we training and we get older um i don't really like that term but as we
26:01
mature um you know we've got to be really careful about the amount of strength training do
26:06
the amount of work we do so recovery yeah this is also an area
26:11
that you're really uh interested in how important is that a question i should get quite often
26:18
really really good question because my same answer is how important recovery or how also you know how important is your
26:23
wall down as important as the main session recovery is as important if we do not recover we do not get adaptation
26:30
we do not get um improvements we do not get freshness we do not get any adaptation to what we are
26:36
trying to do and we talk about recovery recovery within sessions uh recovery
26:43
within a day recovery within a week with recovery is really really important i
26:48
mean we could go on we could talk for hours about recovery but your your compression your tights your hydration
26:54
your food and sleep absolutely sleep is really important i'm glad you mentioned sleep um sleep's one
27:00
of those areas that there's a lot of work being done around there and dave's actually uh
27:06
busy with his with his phd that's got a lot to do with sleep um so what the the
27:13
really interesting that happens if we don't get enough sleep is we get a lot of fat and we get a lot of
27:22
uh that belly fat and as i like to say that those beautiful six
27:28
of this and that six-pack you've worked on for so long and this knows turning into a keg
27:33
so what happens here normally the body prefers to store fat
27:39
subcutaneously and that's under the skin so if i do that that's the subcutaneous fat it's under the skin
27:45
and when we're not getting enough sleep what happens here
27:52
the body seems to redirect fat to the visceral compartment and this is deep
27:58
inside your body this is where your internal organs are so that's that compartment
28:04
and when you're not getting enough sleep we're getting a lot of this fat directed
28:09
to the internal organs so what happens increasing visceral fat this fat then
28:15
starts wrapping around your internal organs deep within the abdomen and this is not really good for us
28:22
because it starts to smother those internal organs and what happens now if
28:27
we get an accumulation of this visceral fat it starts producing its own metabolic
28:33
by-products so we're getting fat and more fat and more fat eventually if
28:38
this is not under control we get lipotoxicity which is basically
28:44
poisoning by fail and that's really not good you really don't want that so
28:50
if we look at this in the long term inadequate sleep that can really be seen as a contributor
28:56
to the increases in obesity cardiovascular disease and other metabolic diseases now dave you've been
29:04
doing a lot of work around sleep and specifically the term sleep hygiene which is really interesting can you tell
29:11
us more about this i guess just to pick up on your last point there to do
29:16
it for the last four years uh thousands of sleep articles military civilian sorts that i've had to
29:22
research and read and get my hidden and it's blowing me away it's it's uncanny the amount
29:28
of illnesses sicknesses and ailments that can be related back to sleep chronic sleep deprivation and parsley
29:34
yeah it's it's it's everywhere it's everywhere um and at the end of the day sleep isn't just for our recovery from
29:41
fitness or for health recovery we are not going to learn and consolidate our learning if
29:47
we don't get good sleep yeah we need consolidated blocks of sleep to consolidate that learning 100
29:53
um so the sleep hygiene what is sleep hygiene i guess it started i get the start of it sleep hygiene is around how
30:00
we wanted to sleep we have sleep um sleep cycles roughly about 90 minutes at
30:06
night we go through a few different things we have a sleep phase we come in then we go into rem sleep rapid eye
30:11
movement then in our non-rapid eye movement we want that key non-rapid eye movement that's where we heal that's
30:17
where we get you know our body really adapts we want about three to four processes each night
30:23
ideally four if not five but sleep hygiene this all relates into it how do i improve those sleep cycles a
30:30
key thing here i put to you is sleep hygiene is how we approach it so put this to your suit your alarm goes off in
30:36
the morning what time does your alarm go off six o'clock six o'clock oh okay nice and
30:41
early nice and early watch your next process after the alarm goes off when alarm goes off then i have my routine you know you get up
30:48
have a washed you know that normally brush my teeth have breakfast it's a routine that i got
30:54
what you're saying to me is the alarm goes off you don't just then go for a pee get up walk to
31:00
your truck hop in your truck drive to work in your oh okay we've got to have a routine
31:05
right there's a routine there so what i'm getting at is you don't do that i'm sure none of you do that but that's how
31:10
we approach our sleep we stood on the couch we watched tvs we're drinking coffee i'm on my phone oh crappy it's 10
31:17
30. i'm off to bed switch i go to bed i lie in bed wonder why i can't sleep i've just totally messed up the process that
31:22
process is called sleep hygiene so it's a process that we have to be able to
31:28
sleep better unfortunately in modern society it's working against everything that we need to sleep better we need
31:35
melatonin release everything around us is really pressuring us to suppress melatonin
31:41
modern society we build new houses we want the brightest white led lights that run cheap in the bedroom in the kitchen
31:47
and the lounge we all want the big bright led tvs we want the latest ipads we want the latest
31:53
phones the high level of blue light is suppressing our melatonin so it actually works against us
31:59
if you want some more information actually around those sleep cycles the rem sleep in rmc on the health website
32:05
again um dan ford's done some really good work around the sleep there's some really good information there also if you are
32:12
suffering from sleep i'm coming to some really good points in a minute there's um a potential course that may interest
32:17
you around insomnia and that's um for defense pers that's free and that's at just a thought dot co dot
32:25
nz forward slash insomnia so just a thought
32:31
dot co dot nz forward slash insomnia so these um sleep hygiene how do we
32:37
improve the sleep hygiene so if you go on to on the health website also
32:43
there is a link to this article one of my phd articles that was published about 18 months ago on sleep
32:48
is actually sleep and defense it's on stuff at the moment if you type into stuff
32:53
sleep in the military it should be about the second article that comes up i checked it this morning and it is still coming up so it's to do with my research
33:00
in defence what i talk about then what i'm going to give you right now so get your pencils ready is my top
33:06
six tips for better sleep how to enhance your sleep and this pretty much is the process for psychology so
33:13
number one plan your sleep routine we've just spoken around this have a plan for what
33:18
you're going to do how does that work about an hour before bed have your shower get nice and warm put your night
33:24
wheel you just can go down put your slippers on our bodies really smart it'll adapt to what's going on have a
33:30
nice warm drink um uh you have a nice warm drink and maybe
33:35
start reading book there some really good information talking about a your is
33:40
i like to have a glass of warm milk before i go to see and why is that because milk is one of the greatest
33:48
sources of tryptophan choco fan is an amino acid and tryptophan really helps us to sleep well
33:56
so there you go a nice warm milk yep
34:02
really good point this year because like we distilled the myth earlier around i'm going to bulk up and look like
34:07
arnold schwarzenegger from five minutes in the gym this is the actual our lifestyle that we will we'll advocate we
34:13
both tried it um just because we lecture and teacher in this we're still managing sleep issues at times but that is one
34:19
thing really good point uh number two just touched on this but reduce the
34:24
bright light in the evening make a big effort to do this so in the lounge in the hallways and in the kitchen in the
34:30
kitchen if you can get the lights on dimmers in the lounge switch to just lamps
34:36
around or plume lights the ideal thing we want to do is create a nice warm glow in the room so we don't
34:42
need to make it pitch black you should still be able to read a book but make it nice and warm we want to reduce it so we start teaching the body to say hey the
34:49
lights have come down it's starting to be bedtime we want to ensure that we get that release of
34:55
melatonin another little tip for you changes that i've made since i've learnt about this is in our house we have a
35:01
salt lamp himalayan salt lamp down in the hallway that's the only light on at night so that anyone gets up from any of
35:07
the bedrooms you can see that light and it guides you enough to go to the toilet go to the kitchen without having to turn
35:13
on anything absolutely as we know as we get older we have to go to the point now i think we do
35:18
well okay number three here we go get off the voices get off the vices um
35:26
yeah and this is a challenge in this day and age because so many people know oh that's the last thing i do i check my
35:32
phone and go to bed get off that device and when we're talking about devices key things are phones ipads other gadgets
35:38
yes get off your laptops earlier and try and get off the tvs but devices in bed that's a no-no big release of blue light
35:45
suppresses our melatonin we want that melatonin relief get off your devices
35:54
no see no tv in the bedroom unfortunately get that tv out of the bedroom um and that comes to my next
36:00
point number four reduce artificial light in the bedroom so what we're talking about is if you do have bright
36:06
lights switch it off i highly recommend switching to old school incandescent bulbs 60 watts bedside lamps have a nice
36:14
warm glow and you can um you read to that in the evening and that'll help bring you down yes don't charge your
36:20
phones in the bedroom don't have ipads in maybe things like your hair dryers and definitely do not have a tv in the
36:26
bedroom a little point for you even subconsciously if there's a tv in the corner you turn the tv off that little
36:32
red light or that little red light from the phone or the hair dryer in the corner of the room even when we sleep
36:39
subconsciously our body will pick that up and that's enough to interfere with our sleep and disrupt those sleep cycles
36:44
so yeah definitely get them out of the bedroom get the tv out of the video number five
36:50
keep the bedroom cool so contrary to maybe what we sort of think here it's winter time we go to bed it's pretty you
36:56
know it's getting a bit chilly definitely snow starting to drop down south but keep the bedroom cooler if you
37:02
can have a bedroom door open maybe the fire the heater from the rest of the house coming down but um try not to have
37:08
a heater in the bedroom and keep it a little bit cooler what you don't want to do is have uh things like hot um electric blankets
37:16
having the bed really really hot now our body temperature rises a little bit at night one to two degrees uh and this
37:22
helps to kill germs and do healing within the body so a little bit warmer anyway and another key thing that i
37:28
really recommend is just have a window open a jar if you can get a little bit of fresh air circulating it actually
37:34
helps us breathe better and settles us if you have to have an extra blanket on the bed but keep the bedroom cool you
37:40
will sleep better and finally a big challenge here for the fence get a lot of little giggles and smokes around this
37:45
one reduce your caffeine intake can reduce your caffeine consumption more specifically reduce it from about
37:51
lunchtime 12 o'clock lunch time i've really pushed this on a lot of the
37:57
leadership courses that we work on and different people suffering with sleep and it's really really neat to see the people that come back with feedback that
38:03
i tried that and it's you know fantastic results so with caffeine we're also talking around energy drinks uh
38:10
pre-workouts anything you take in the afternoon that would stimulate you you could put caffeine in the same group as
38:16
medicine medical where drugs will be put into a life and a half-life with caffeine exactly the same
38:23
it has a life and a half-life so caffeine can still have a half-life four to six hours later so if we're
38:28
having a nice strong coffee in the evening at 8 p.m one two three in the morning i can still
38:35
have a half-life of that caffeine floating around my bloodstream i'm lying on the pillow wondering why i can't sleep because i'm dog tired i've
38:41
probably woken me up i've gotten my bad habits set on the phone again but keep that caffeine or reduce that caffeine um
38:48
as best we can six tips and it's all in their article
38:53
as well yeah and you can find those on the website you can yes now another question i have
38:59
this is often we go to sleep we we're doing all our uh sleep hygiene what
39:04
happens if i wake up at night and i can't go back yeah what what the price we've got
39:10
yeah we get that a lot and not uncommon look it's um it's not always easy and quite often we
39:17
just we wake up stuck awake i've got a presentation the next day i've forgot something i'm supposed to i'm supposed
39:22
to have done or do i've got something coming in i need to sort out not uncommon to have that happen but what i recommend is what
39:29
tends to happen is i wake up in the night and i'm nice and sleepy i wake up and then it's like oh my goodness i've got that presentation i've got to do
39:35
something for the kids i've got my whatever tomorrow it's like go back to sleep go back to sleep the more we tell ourselves to go back to sleep the worse
39:42
it becomes so we've got to almost we've got to cut that we've got to break that connection
39:47
with the brain so we want to connect it the bedrooms were sleeping so what i recommend is if you get to that point
39:52
you give it a minute you can't get back to sleep get up and leave the bedroom get up and leave the bedroom head to the
39:58
lounge or the kitchen okay get up put a dressing gown on put a jersey on stay stay warm um
40:04
but break that connection with the bedroom okay get up if it's something worrying you about work or presentation
40:10
or the family with the kids or to find it get down get your notebook out or pitch back and drop some notes down so that you have the comfort that actually
40:16
i've got that down i can address it in the morning um or otherwise read a book and it's uncanny nine times out of ten where
40:23
something that's stressing us at night when we get up in the morning and have a look at that we think oh it wasn't even that bad i know what i'm gonna do but at
40:30
least because we've written it down that will sit on so write a list or read a book the other thing is your half glass
40:36
of milk to get that release or tryptophan to help you sleep that will work generally what happens is give it a few
40:42
minutes five minutes ten minutes maybe staying in a dim environment you'll start to feel a little bit sleepy your
40:47
body we've reset the process go back to the bedroom going to sleep and we find
40:52
really good benefits that does help you then go back to sleep and you can generally get up at a normal time
40:58
fantastic um right so hopefully um
41:03
you've all learned something from this and you've enjoyed a presentation
41:09
so i guess at the end of the day what we're trying to say is look after yourselves you know get enough exercise
41:16
do some strength training get good sleep and a good thing is you know set yourself some goals you know have a look
41:23
at some activities that are coming up something that you can work towards and a great activity that we
41:30
we've seen and heard about and that is the navy and friends half marathon that's taking place on the 4th of
41:36
september so get uh involved in this it's open to everyone in defence force and and
41:41
friends of the navy a great event it's a nice amount of time leading up to this so you can board
41:48
towards that do your strength training uh and get going get moving uh sleep
41:53
well uh the big thing we like to say is you know you've only got one life and you've only
42:00
got one body so take care of it and look after it really well and if you do your
42:05
your strength training you know you're sleeping well it's not just strength training you have to do you know just keeping fit and
42:11
healthy there's a lot of activities as david said you know that you can participate to keep those activities of
42:17
daily life going um that just makes quality of life much easier for us and the last thing you you don't want is as
42:24
we age because age is a natural process we all get older you want to hate i'd
42:30
like to say gracefully but you want to age strongly as well so you can do what
42:35
you want to do you can enjoy life as we go through the different stages of life yeah so yeah it's
42:41
100 agree and it's it's to do with the benefits look at the end of the day the guts of it is there's benefits from
42:48
enhancing your resistance training your strength improving your sleep but it's up to you uh do you want to have better
42:54
health better blood flow better posture less fatigue more energy and at the end of the day
43:00
there's lots of activities out there find something that suits you it doesn't have to be running it doesn't have to be
43:06
you know different full-on triathlons or marathons but a master swimming group that has six lanes that you can go into
43:12
the slowest lane or a hash house harriers group that all has house harry's groups have a walking group
43:17
or you know find a strength training class that's for beginners or a walking group a surfing group a kite surfing
43:23
group bowls whatever we can do but do something and get out there that it's enjoyable and find a way to make it
43:29
work that's right um so that's pretty much i think so uh we're open for questions now
43:43
great thank you so much jax and dave and we do have um a couple of questions that have just popped up um so the first one
43:50
and for you is um what are your thoughts on following a low-carb diet when time for exercise
43:57
might be limited
44:08
so yeah i i guess i'm hearing it's um when
44:13
time's a bit of a limitation and about exercise this is actually really a really good question because that is
44:19
something that comes up quite often um and a lot of research is showing us that you know you don't need to exercise
44:25
hours and hours and hours so a good high intensity intermittent training session
44:30
is really really good and all you really need to get the benefits out of that is about 15 minutes so it's it's almost
44:38
like interval training where you're up and you're down and you're up and you're down you can do this uh with resistance
44:44
training you can do it just uh with aerobic type of training so you for example you'd be on a on an exercise
44:51
bike so you would start off with a good warm-up i guess you would probably start with 30 seconds of a real high intensity
44:58
drop back down again to a lower intensity move it back up drop down and about i would say 15 minutes of this is
45:06
ideal a lot of researchers come back and say really high intensity sessions of
45:11
about two minutes is really beneficial for us so you know there are ways to get
45:16
around it if you don't have time because the big thing uh is when we run out of time the first thing that goes out of
45:23
the window is our exercise program so i don't know they have more about this around resistance training
45:29
yeah i guess i want to just keen to the first part of that question to do with the low carb so
45:35
again the key thing today is not a nutrition presentation um but i do i i think there's massive benefits to it
45:42
i'll be honest i am advocate of lchf low carb high fat and we've spoken around this a lot in the past a key thing here
45:49
is just reducing energy or just reducing carbs our energy intake because time is low uh can be a negative why is time low
45:57
that should be the other question is it because of workload family load we might we've a key thing we've got to remember
46:02
at the end of the day is that the best burnt the best burnt fuel source for the brain
46:07
is carbohydrates so we i lower the carbs i can't think properly i'm doing a crap job anyway i'm going to feel bad about
46:14
that i try to train i've got no energy i'm feeling bad if we become fat adapted
46:21
which takes a bit of a process 100 uh we can be smart around this again there's probably discussion for another
46:27
day but we can be really smart around this in regard to yes reducing your carbs but just sort of doing carb input
46:35
as you need it so a few jet pains before you go and train or if you are having a cup of tea have a teaspoon of sugar in
46:41
that tea that we can get that little spike of energy i don't necessarily think we should be um
46:47
hitting energy drinks and things like that maybe if it's warranted a little bit of power egg or something but yes a little
46:53
some carbs that facilitates that glycogen source for the muscle uh but in
46:58
short yes the lowering carbs if time is limited can work but there's a process that needs to
47:04
be put in place absolutely the thing with with low carb the low carb high fat is you still need carbohydrates but it's
47:12
the good carbohydrates that you're putting into your body so you've got to avoid you know those processed carbohydrates you know uh like the white
47:19
breads the pastas that sort of stuff and also the fat be careful to
47:25
not to put the unhealthy fats in your body so we're talking about healthy fats when we talk about low carb high fat
47:30
diet you know so it's your amigos your your salmons your avocados that's the
47:35
fat you want you know not that juicy fat on top of the steak you want to avoid that although it's delicious but stay
47:41
away from that um yeah so hopefully that answers that question
47:47
well great thank you um so we do have a few more as well um so the next one we've got is some of us live in a busier
47:55
neighborhood so um sound of people on the street traffic driving by nightlights um what are your
48:02
thoughts on sleeping with earbuds
48:10
if you feel all right 100 yeah it's something that we would both pack with your head away when i head away with my wife for the
48:17
weekend she'll always pack her earplugs uh 100 i guess the key thing with that is just
48:23
ensuring that they will block it out and if they're comfortable but missing alarm clocks or timings but if you're
48:28
comfortable with it no worries at okay all the next one we've got is how
48:35
many times a week would you strength train versus run if you were training for a marathon or half marathon
48:42
oh good question i this is more i think in your domain but
48:49
speaking from experience um uh i like to say i used to be a runner but
48:56
then you know age catches up and my knees hips i kind of don't want me to run that much anymore but i've increased
49:04
my strength training a lot more and i do find that when we have a lot more strength in in the legs you can
49:12
handle those distances a lot better because you've got a lot more strength and that sustains you quite longer so i
49:18
managed to do um an rfl without doing
49:23
very much uh running training i think i was running about only once or twice a week
49:29
but the rest of the week i was doing quite a bit of strength training i did this just to uh as an experiment on
49:36
myself and it really really did work but i guess if we do talk about marathon and
49:42
um half marathon type distance that's a lot more you're definitely going to need to
49:47
train because you need that time on feet you know for to cover those densest distances but strength training is
49:54
definitely going to help and i don't think you need to do like daily strength training in that instance but about
50:00
twice a week yeah i'd say um twice is it twice would be absolutely ample three times awesome yeah but twice
50:08
would be absolutely adequate a key thing with that would be fitting in on certain days so with marathon
50:15
running having done quite a few marathons myself and already having represented new zealand at five world
50:20
triathlon champs and iron man um i look back when i used to race i would do a lot more strength training
50:26
um so definitely just slide around days that you can do but however a key thing to remember here is that when we talk
50:32
about uh gym training or traditional strength training you know most people would say 60 to 90 minutes i'd beg to differ 30
50:39
minutes in the gym 35 minutes you can do everything you need to do especially in a program like that get in and be quite
50:45
specific i go back to what i was saying around the rep ranges even as a marathon runner you want to get to get under like
50:51
we say lift some weight get the weight under the bar what's what's comfortable for you but you want to be lifting sort
50:56
of those eight six four five reps you don't need to be doing fifteens twenties no no no and and the other thing
51:03
with strength training and training for marathons and for distance running is you cannot
51:09
neglect your recovery don't because it's so important and as we've
51:14
already touched on recovery um the physiological adaptations take place
51:20
during the recovery phase so that's why good sleep is also very important for you so when you recover that's when your
51:26
body makes all these little changes that start happening uh and often uh in the
51:32
military we know this that militaries across the world are not really good at
51:38
recovery and recovery programs because for us it's you know go go go go but in the last couple of years a lot more
51:44
emphasis has been putting has been put on recovery because that's when we actually get stronger that's when the
51:50
those little differences start getting um more visible so recovery is really
51:56
really important but then there's also don't do too much recovery and recovery is also not lying on the couch with a
52:01
coke in your hand you know there's active recovery uh during recovery you know look after your your nutrition your
52:07
hydration that sort of stuff yeah yeah your ice baths your vibration yeah
52:14
yeah cool great so the next one we've got is is
52:19
there a better time of day to work out generally speaking or is this just down to the person and what works for them
52:26
we're talking about is that um is this resistance training or is that um they haven't specified but i'm i'm
52:33
thinking just uh yeah the time of day where people yeah are working out this is this is really interesting i know
52:40
there was some talk uh a week or so ago about when to train and some research came up about there's
52:47
a difference between men and women and that sort of stuff but i think it's all up to the individual and
52:53
in the past we have done some research with we've done research with cardiac patients and
52:59
we looked at you know this very thing uh what time of day is is best for us to exercise what we
53:05
actually found with the cardiac patients and the exercise rehabilitation program that
53:12
when they trained early in the morning first thing in the morning we found that they had better um
53:18
responses or better gains to strength and the reason was this is because of growth hormone so when you sleep there's
53:24
another good reason why you should sleep when you sleep the body releases growth hormone and growth hormone is released
53:31
in pulses so it releases it stops releases and it stops so when you wake up in the morning there's still growth
53:37
hormone floating around in the body and what does growth hormone do it helps with that repair process it helps with
53:44
the increase in in in muscle mass and helps maintain muscle mass um
53:50
so we found that when we had these cardiac patients come in and do the exercise there was still a
53:56
lot of growth hormone circulating so what happens when we exercise we also release growth hormone so you basically
54:03
got a double whammy of this growth hormone in your body which is going to assist with the
54:09
exercise response which was which was really fantastic but the interesting thing here
54:14
is once you uh stop your exercise and if you eat uh you
54:20
know fatty foods and those processed carbohydrates that growth hormone production is kind of like
54:28
cut off straight away so the thing there was exercise early in the morning before you
54:34
have breakfast you know you can have a drink of water or something like that and then wait about half an hour and
54:39
then have something to eat so that was just the research uh findings that we had when working with
54:46
that group of people so um dave i don't know if you have anything about them
54:52
yeah 100 agree with it i think it can be different to the individual on our most high performing teams most high
54:58
performance institutes professional teams tend to jim train sort of that mid-morning yeah just before lunch probably partly out of convenience um a
55:06
little bit after lunch with january in the morning i know to lift better for
55:11
heavy heavy resistance you're probably better to go slightly later in the day once the hormones have warmed up and the muscles have really warmed up
55:18
with and i guess what you could look at is look at your individual your individual service fitness tests
55:24
when do you tend to do a better time when do you do a better um lcft time or oft time or rfl time is it first thing
55:32
in the morning or was it one o'clock or is it later in the day there can be individual aspects around
55:38
that to do with our um our genetics and things like that so yeah a little bit of it is exploring and finding out what
55:44
works for yourself yeah i guess it's convenience you know when's it more convenient for you to do your exercise
55:50
yeah hey um and we've just got time for um
55:58
one last question for you um so somebody's asked um that the sleep advice on the website
56:05
says to avoid daytime nets but this person finds that they can sleep better at night if
56:11
they sometimes have a short 20 to 40 minute nap late in the afternoon or early evening um what are your thoughts
56:18
on this and are you able to talk a little bit more around daytime
56:24
yeah i i guess again it's it's um
56:29
i'm not saying that's conflicting information but it again it can be very individual um
56:35
we there can be people it's it's sort of like i mean you can go back to the very basics and look um when your kids were
56:41
young i know when my kids were young if you thought oh i won't give them an afternoon sleep because i want them to be tired and go to sleep well tonight
56:48
the opposite would actually happen or you keep kids up late you know and then oh because they're sleeping well no you
56:54
just have grumpy kids in the morning i think as adults we forget that and it's sort of the same i think a key thing to remember here is
57:00
uh there's a mechanism built into us called sleep pressure and it's we can only go so long without our body
57:07
not sleeping hence why people will fall asleep driving or you know truckers fall asleep and crash their trucks because it
57:14
gets to the point we have to sleep if you're someone that sounds like for you if you find that it works really
57:19
really well i would say stick with it and try it uh power naps have been advocated with high performance athletes
57:26
when we talk about napping though it only wants to be about that 15 to 20 minutes we don't want to get into that
57:31
full sleep cycle because we'll wake halfway through that deep sleep cycle because that's when it can actually put us off
57:37
so again yes benefits to it uh if it sounds like it is working it does help
57:42
you sleep it's probably working with your metabolism and things like that if you were someone that you found you had
57:48
asleep you can't sleep at night no i would cut that out um and i guess it's finding the right environment to sleep in as well again i
57:54
think there's a little bit of individualization sort of thing
58:02
great well thank you so much jackson dave for your time today um and thanks everyone for attending i think there are
58:08
yeah a lot of great information it's an absolute pleasure and you know
58:13
there's great resources on on the website here so you know go and have a look at them exercise sleep nutrition
58:20
you know fantastic job to those who put the website up well done and if you see us around just come and chat we love
58:26
what we do and we always we're happy to talk shop no thank you so much um to everyone
58:33
that's still um stayed around on the webinar q a so we're just going to pop up a quick feedback poll um for the end
58:40
and and then we'll let um uh dave and sharks get back to their um yeah busy busy working day i'm sure um
58:47
but no thank you so much for you joining us today and yeah thanks again to jackson dave thanks
59:25
thanks everyone
well there we go fantastic good day everybody um
0:08
thank you for joining us in this um webinar uh i'm major giarson
0:14
captain david uh we're both from the human performance cell uh it's part of a jsg joint support group um my background
0:22
is a clinical exercise physiology so i graduated with a degree in exercise
0:28
physiology specialized more in the clinical side of there um i hold a degree a phd degree my topic there was
0:35
uh injury prevention uh in the new zealand army and that's where the garrison shoe
0:42
comes from a lot of research went into that what we do we look after human performance in the defence force
0:49
our main aim is to improve performance so we get better outcomes for our service men and women
0:55
yeah my my background is strength and conditioning sport science so previously defense left and studied uh did the
1:02
otago physical education degree then did a masters in hamilton while i was working a professional rugby uh but back in
1:09
defence loving defence and now submit a phd next month actually looking
1:16
at sleep um and the benefits around what we're doing in defense or what is happening in defence and the projects we
1:22
work on we have a really good team approach and it's we do research not for research sake but to enhance and benefit the
1:29
organization right so let's jump into it so today we are going to give a little bit
1:36
of a talk around boosting physical performance and a little bit about sleep or not a little bit quite a bit about
1:42
sleep to be honest um but the focus we'd like to go into is more around um
1:49
the older person or the mature person i've got to be careful when we say there uh so more our older people or older
1:56
service men and women um because in the military you know physical fitness is
2:01
often focused on the younger generation and there's no problem with that it's rightfully so
2:07
because these folks our younger people they're on the front lines and they have to be fitted strong
2:13
but as we age fitness seems to fall to the wayside you know we become busier we become caught
2:20
up in you know more management processes and when with the current climate as it
2:26
is we often uh end up double heading uh sometimes even triple triple hitting
2:32
um but this mean you know you don't have to give up on your your fitness
2:37
because when you're in the defense force uh we all require to be fit and healthy
2:44
um so you know looking after your fitness being fit and healthy is really important to leading
2:50
a better life to having better quality of life at the end of the day um so one of those aspects of fitness
2:56
training that that we'd like to talk to about today and discuss a little bit more is the importance of strength
3:02
training that this is the one component of fitness that's often neglected
3:07
particularly by our mature people you know as we grow old we take to not want
3:13
to do some strength training there's that perception you know we might get hurt if we're lifting weights um but but
3:19
actually it's not the case um and strength training is often thought to be the domain of the younger
3:26
you know younger people so dave you've encountered this as well oh yeah definitely i know i think
3:33
definitely within defense and what we do we see a lot of injuries coming through uh in later serving years but we have to
3:38
remember that we need to stay strong and at the end of the day it's strength training but it's to keep our function
3:43
and our form so as we age we can and we should keep strength training
3:49
but we don't have to replicate what other people are doing and the thing i really want to push you is you know it's
3:54
nothing to be scared of we don't need to be scared of the gym or scared of strength training it's actually a really really cool area i guess where we go
4:00
wrong is not lifting the way that we should lift uh not doing the right exercises that we should do but at the
4:06
end of the day it's nothing to be scared of and there's some fantastic benefits to be had from it 100
4:12
absolutely you absolutely have to take care of your muscles you know and yeah and taking care of your muscles is
4:19
basically doing strength training and as we age we really need to do more strength
4:25
training i mean a lot of research has actually gone into this and you may ask well you know why so the big thing is as we age we start
4:32
to lose muscle mass it's a normal process it's called cyclopenia it happens to all of us and as we all
4:39
must as we get older muscle mass is going to decrease so with this happens and we're not doing anything about it
4:46
it's going to lead to weakness we're going to get a loss of balance coordination is going to decrease or uh
4:54
yep and when you uh lose a lot of your coordination your balance and stability
5:00
then the uh risk of injury is going to increase so you're going to be more susceptible to tripping slipping and
5:08
falling over so if we improve and maintain muscle mass
5:13
it's going to improve our overall health so having a stronger body
5:19
it's going to help you perform activities and those power cut movements
5:25
you've got to do you're going to be able to do that easier and without fatigue um
5:30
so it also helps us to maintain body weight and it helps us
5:36
increase energy expenditure so the more muscle mass you have you're going to have a higher resting metabolic rate and
5:43
this is going to increase your your body composition and if you've got a good body composition you know you're kind of
5:49
looking really good you know you're going to feel better about yourself so
5:55
also we're going to get an increase in um mood levels energy levels and
6:00
improving our confidence so this is going to help uh you know us feel better
6:07
um but a really interesting here is you know is that formal function when we do strength
6:13
training 100 i think before you just hit the nail on the head so we talk about form and function balance and stability
6:19
so if we can improve we want to be improving our balance our stability our reaction time our form because it's
6:25
about doing our tasks in the defence force but hey how do we how are we starting to feel after a day out in the
6:32
bush chopping firewood or a day in the garden how does that now now make you feel or a day doing a day trend we want
6:38
to be able to do those things and then front up the next day and carry on you know a day in the garden now your backs
6:43
or your hip sore uh and if we look at things like posture and stability if we can do those sorts of activities
6:49
and then crack on the next day there's got to be a big win and that tends to be the things that start to hold us up absolutely so we're talking here about
6:57
the what's known as adls so those activities of daily living so if you've got to
7:03
increase your strength your stability and your form and function as dave just said here then you're going to have a
7:09
better quality of life now another really interesting thing with strength training and this especially for the
7:16
ladies out there is that strength training is going to help increase your bone mineral density and as we age we
7:24
know bone mineral density is going to decrease and that's the result of the menopause
7:30
so if bone mineral density decreases at a faster rate that's when you start
7:35
developing osteoporosis and strength training has been shown to decrease the
7:42
onset of osteoporosis so there you go you know there's a lot of benefits around this and we saw a lot of these
7:49
benefits when we did the females in uniform study dave can you elaborate a bit on this yeah um what we saw it was
7:56
fantastic so young and old ages um all females in defense our project last year
8:02
at the end of the day what we saw was those that did strength training or everybody did street training all of those in the program that did strength
8:08
training simply improved strength but what we saw was fantastic confidence where those
8:14
that were starting to age a little bit we had a lot of females sort of around the 40 50 years old who were novices in
8:20
the gym part of the program they had to complete jim's strength training sessions and power sessions and the confidence was
8:26
just phenomenal so the confidence and the strength gains so going from never having squatted to
8:32
doing squats with you know bar on the shoulders lifting weight sitting pbs coming into the gym feeling
8:39
comfortable chucking their weights up not worrying about who's around so um as
8:44
long as we have incremental gains at the level we're at strength training will improve strength and enhance overall
8:50
activities overall and it doesn't mean you're going to have huge muscles you're
8:56
not going to be an arnold schwarzenegger because that's not the case um
9:01
when we do strength training and when we start trend training the first adaptation that takes place is in the
9:07
nervous system it's that neuromuscular adaptation and this is when
9:12
you are recruiting more muscle fibers so the more muscle fibers you can fire up the stronger you're going to be
9:20
so you know the stronger that muscle can uh the more muscle fiber story the more muscle fibers we uh
9:27
get moving the stronger that contraction is um so you're not going to get more
9:33
muscle and more bulky and this is particularly where the females come yeah look
9:39
it's a really interesting one and you know and work that i've done with with previous athletes also you know athletes
9:45
that don't want to put on weight when you suggest stream training also females first and foremost i think we should put
9:51
this to bed because the what the queries i'll get back is oh i don't want to put on weight i don't want to get bulky it
9:56
is damn hard to actually put on lean muscle mass you have to be very training very diligently your
10:03
nutrition needs to be on point and you're doing a lot of gym sessions so you're not going to bulk up
10:08
what we may see and we do see the with females when you start training properly in training in a gym okay let's be
10:15
realistic here muscle weighs heavier than fat so at the end of the day you may not have massive
10:21
declines in weight because of your strength training you get um stronger muscles that maintain and we lose fat
10:28
so you can get really really strong without bulking up and the key thing here is don't panic about um you may
10:35
tone up but would you rather not be toned and have really good form and function and you're not injured you can do your job you can get out of the
10:41
weekends that's the whole point of why we strength train absolutely absolutely and the other thing is you've probably
10:47
heard about the expression use it or lose it and this is so true when it comes to strength training so if you
10:54
don't regularly switch your muscles on particularly at a relatively high intensity and this is
11:00
where strength training comes in again the motor units that switch on those fast stretch muscle fibers are going to
11:07
thin out and they're not going to work as well as they should so you'll be talking about a
11:13
little about the the right type of intensity that we should be training it you know as we all as we get older we
11:19
don't want to overdo things either but there is an intensity that we should work towards so
11:24
if you can tell us a little bit more about you know what is the right intensity when we're doing our strength training yeah and again i this is a
11:31
really good area i'm glad you brought this up sir because when we talk about intensity i guess it's i'm going to the
11:36
gym um i want to get improvement i want to get in condition i want to improve my strength to improve condition and get
11:43
stronger in simple terms we need to be lifting some weight we need to be lifting some turn if we want to say that but we don't
11:49
need to be afraid of that that that's all good and when we're talking about what we should be doing we should be
11:55
still be trying to work to a rep range that's suited to us but if we're doing a 12 10 8 6 we should be lifting weight
12:02
that that will that should be targeted for that rep range that rep max so you're doing weight that i can lift for 12.
12:09
then dropping it to 10 then dropping it to 8. as the reps come down my weight goes up so incrementally i get
12:16
incremental adaptation at the end of the day different people in a group different
12:22
people training together we can go to the gym and train together like we recently did on exercise nemesis
12:28
and very late very late nights or early mornings and then trying to get in the afternoon and maintain ours we could go
12:34
and train in the gym together we both might be squatting but we're changing the weight and doing the reps that we need so we're not just trying to copy
12:40
each other i'm not just following what everyone else is doing in my group i'm lifting what i need to do yes we can
12:46
have a big group of people working together but you're lifting the weight that you need for your benefit
12:51
absolutely absolutely um so the other thing what we're trying to say yeah when you start stream trend you're switching
12:57
on more muscles as your nervous system adapts to the loads that are being lifted
13:02
so once this adaptation takes place another adaptation starts taking place and this
13:09
is what we call hypertrophy so this is when we get an increase in muscle cell
13:14
size or the number of muscle cells and this is very interesting now because
13:19
this is where we start getting differences between males and females and hypertrophy is more related to males
13:28
than females and as we've just said you know ladies don't be scared of bulking up because you don't have a lot of
13:34
testosterone floating around in your bodies as this is more of a male hormone so males are going to be more uh prone
13:43
to hypertrophy than females do the thing is ladies you rely more on
13:49
this neural neuromuscular adaptation for strength increases and the other thing
13:55
here dave as you well know is genetics genetics plays a huge role in
14:01
hypertrophy you know we can't all have big bulky muscles some of us you know are skinny and we try as hard as we can
14:08
to put on a lot of muscle we want to look you know those beach muscles we'd like to talk about but you just can't
14:14
and that's your genetics that plays a big role there but that doesn't mean you're not going to be
14:19
stronger so this is where we talk about the neural adaptation that's going to have more effect i think a key point to
14:25
really push out here let's go the other end of the scale for those of you wanting to put on weight uh if we're switching into traditional hypertrophy
14:32
training we up the load or we up the load as in we pull our weight back a bit where do we do a lot more reps what we
14:38
need to keep in mind is that in a defense setting or a military setting if
14:43
i'm already spending time on feet if i'm already doing military pt i'm doing other training and i'm trying to do
14:48
hypertrophy weight training on top of already an intense lifestyle program it actually creates the opposite effect it
14:55
doesn't create a hypertrophy effect it actually creates a catabolic effect because all i'm doing is extra extra
15:01
conditioning so yeah we we need to be quite specific in that you need to have specific days to
15:06
train specific rest days um a really good nutrition plan um
15:12
supplementation but that's another whole topic from today uh but yeah so there's good gains if you're wanting to put on
15:18
weight we need to be quite specific as well another really interesting thing is as
15:24
we age uh the playing field between males and females starts to even out and
15:30
this is because the testosterone levels in males start to decrease so this now
15:36
means that hypertrophy adaptation decreases and genes we then start relying more on
15:43
that neuromuscular adaptation for those strength increases that we're really looking for however
15:49
there is some good news here and that is particularly uh relatively heavyweight
15:56
training does increase the testosterone production and then that will have an
16:01
influence on your hypertrophy gains so
16:06
you're probably all going asking well what is the right type of training that we're doing now what should i be doing
16:12
how many sets repetitions blah blah blah shall i be doing and this is where um
16:17
dave is going to jump in again and tell us more about this i guess um firstly
16:22
what it says if you look on the um on the new health website there are quite a few introductory strengths and
16:29
conditioning um programs that uh human performance we have put together and overseeing so
16:34
they're quite specific around introduction level so there's some good programs there to take a look at those um and what we suggest is
16:42
in the initial stages you want full body programs full body training exercises so
16:47
you get really good bang for buck but at the same time you don't need to be just doing bicep curls and tricep dips unless
16:54
it's for a specific reason you can be quite specific around what you do so first and foremost what i would be
17:00
recommending a squat we need to be squatting fantastic exercise regardless when anyone says one of my go-to
17:05
exercises generally includes every muscle group in the lower limb
17:11
also includes your hips your lower back and your posterior chain your back so squatting um yeah and
17:19
that's a really good way to start yes we should be squatting with the bar we want to be squatting with weight the bar nice
17:24
and straight on your back but squatting is going to be really really good um if you're having any issues with um
17:31
lower back or introduction type exercises would be your exercises like leg press maybe leg curl leg extension
17:37
to get you started but um you should definitely have a squat within your program what very interesting and very
17:43
good advice there but now as i'm getting older my knees my hips you know being been
17:50
around for a long time carrying heavy pecs in the field that sort of thing our knees and our backs are now and our hips
17:55
start you know getting a little bit painful and it does become a bit more
18:01
difficult to do squats so what is the advice you can give me or give us when
18:06
it comes to doing squats as we age every age oh fantastic because i had a note
18:11
about this to bring up so really glad you brought that up what i recommend is we may have heard this is box warning
18:17
so what i 100 recommend is box squatting so when we say box it could be an actual box from the gym or sitting on the the
18:23
bench the 45 centimeter bench and we can stand over the bench so
18:28
a lot of work i mean i'm uh doing you know doing a little bit of professional development work with um towards the
18:36
world cup and that's a key exercise we have in the program is box squat box squat for your skinny outside backs to
18:42
120 kg prop why do we do box squat similar to a elite athlete to an aging athlete or
18:48
someone whose knees are starting to give a bit of trouble is because the supportive aspects of a
18:55
box squat so nine times out of ten i'll say to people why don't you have a crack at the box squat i want a back squat then you we go
19:01
backwards and forwards and why do you want a back squat oh cause i want to squat that little bit deeper okay can you show me your um show me your your
19:08
back squat then when they do a back squat so here's here's the legs coming down they want to get deep so there's
19:14
the butt over here the butt comes down and then to get nice and deep all i see is the butt gets to a point where it
19:19
stops because we're not strong enough to get down and the shoulders lean right forward so all i'm essentially doing
19:24
is this here and just leaning right forward so we're not actually getting any extra depth out of the bar and
19:30
wouldn't you be working your back doing that oh 100 yes because you're in creating that force times momentum the
19:36
lever on your back is longer with the box squat we can squat right down and then when people do a box squat
19:42
they actually come down uh and when we see their butt they're getting lower on a box spot than they would on a normal
19:47
back squat so we're actually squatting and we're sitting down and then we yes that's called the unload phase yeah so
19:54
we go down we're squatting we sit down we unload and then really good neurally we've
20:00
really touched on that today nearly my body is forced to fire my quads specifically your vmos and your glute
20:07
med uh those are the muscles that support our near nail hits they have to fire to get us back up
20:13
when we really centralize or um specialize into those little muscles our strength or our adaption to that pure
20:20
strength is actually better than just using momentum and bouncing up and down another key thing is just that's the
20:26
back there i should be nice and straight i've done my squat i sit on the box my back's come slightly out of kilter what
20:32
i can do is straighten my back up then squeeze and push up um before i come up whereas if i'm doing
20:40
a back squat when you're stuck in that position you're stuck in that position you're not going to get out of it in a
20:45
deep top squat so 100 squats and again like i say leading into it if we need to
20:50
do leg press um calf raise leg extension leg cool really good but bang for buck squat
20:56
covers all your muscles in the lower room and that is so true i have to say and i have to but that i have been doing the
21:02
box squat lately because to be honest my knees cannot handle a deep squat anymore um and actually getting quite strong
21:09
stronger than him so doing a bulk squat is really really
21:14
good and i find it does save my knees and it also is much easier on on the
21:20
hips um so if we go further we've talked a lot about the squat now so what about the
21:26
upper body yeah upper body and it goes without saying we've got to do upper body we can still keep this really simple and really effective so
21:33
our tune we're using strength conditioning is push pull so we want to be pushing and pulling so simple terms
21:38
we're pushing and we're pulling so we're working opposite side opposite agonist antagonist yes yes against antagonist a
21:44
simple way to do a push in the pull what i recommend is two push exercises two pull exercises one
21:50
in a um horizontal plane there one in a vertical plane so i'm pushing and pulling i guess frontwards
21:58
and i'm pushing and pulling overhead pretty simple here uh on a bench doing
22:03
bench press or dumbbell bench doing a seated row or a dumbbell row and i can
22:09
be doing a bar overhead push or dumbbell push or even simply doing chins yes
22:15
chins can be challenging but we can easily use a band absolutely yes
22:20
i'm talking about these exercises the range that we've got to move through that's pretty important as well often
22:27
you'll go to the gym and you will see people you know they've got weights that are so heavy so they you know by using
22:33
momentum to lift the weight so that's not really going to be a much benefit is it no it's not um
22:39
i guess there's a whole different aspects to gym training extreme training we're trying to do power training when we've made different ways different ways
22:46
but generally to get the best effect for the type of training we want to do slow and controlled exercises
22:52
we're not saying we need to go light but we just need to do them slow and controlled to really target the area
22:57
we're trying to work on keep in mind we're talking strength here when we talk we're not really talking power training today power training is a different kind
23:03
of fish in total different movements but for your strength training for the balance stability the function the form
23:09
good controlled good range of motion um under control again if you're not sure of the range of motion that's where you
23:16
can look at some of the programs or seek advice from your pcis great and you don't talk about rubber
23:21
bands earlier on now really really good and you get more of a control when you're
23:27
using your rubber bands um and a lot of research has shown that rubber bands are
23:32
just as good for us as weights are so what's the real benefit of a rubber band
23:38
well the rubber the rubber band or conditioning band we call it um and we're not talking about the skinny
23:43
theraband that you would use for rehab that's a different conditioning band so you can get some that look like big
23:49
rubber bands um or what i've been recommending lately is kmart kmart has some fantastic tools
23:55
absolutely um we have sometimes have things but kmart at the moment have this fantastic band uh trainer system you can
24:03
buy different colored bands so like an easy moderate high uh they're about ten dollars each with a
24:08
set of handles which are about ten dollars each uh you can have the band with your handles you can do all your push or you pull you can use them for
24:16
squats you uh bung a dingy ring up on the wall at home you've got a fantastic universal system uh when we travel for
24:22
work when i'm traveling away i just take another strap that i can put to a tree a doorway and do the bands so the bands
24:29
offer us that concentric and eccentric movements yeah
24:34
under control so it's first forcing us to work on our way back as well as our way up whichever range of motion we're
24:40
going the other things it does is it forces us to work our stability really really strong taps into the angle on the
24:47
joints so we're working ligaments and tendons as well absolutely and you did mention eccentric
24:53
loading and that's when we lengthen the muscle fibers so going down very slowly and coming back up and as you said when
25:00
we do uh resistance training we often drop the weights yeah so there's no real control there but with a rubber band you
25:06
get that nice control and you're getting that eccentric load which is going to improve your uh
25:13
um gains yes it is and that's not it's not the easy way up no i
25:19
use bands in my garage at home uh for my endurance swimming that i do i've recently set quite a few people up in
25:24
their own garages at home and we're talking sort of elite swimmers to um your sort of masters groups and then
25:31
also away on the road with teams or you know professional teams are taking band systems to to ensure that they've got
25:37
some type of resistance training they're ready to go we're now recommending to unit steve and take them into the field
25:43
and different things like that so again if you get a system that has a low medium high you can actually adjust to
25:48
what you need yeah they're really fantastic um so really really good so when we get all this and
25:55
we training and we get older um i don't really like that term but as we
26:01
mature um you know we've got to be really careful about the amount of strength training do
26:06
the amount of work we do so recovery yeah this is also an area
26:11
that you're really uh interested in how important is that a question i should get quite often
26:18
really really good question because my same answer is how important recovery or how also you know how important is your
26:23
wall down as important as the main session recovery is as important if we do not recover we do not get adaptation
26:30
we do not get um improvements we do not get freshness we do not get any adaptation to what we are
26:36
trying to do and we talk about recovery recovery within sessions uh recovery
26:43
within a day recovery within a week with recovery is really really important i
26:48
mean we could go on we could talk for hours about recovery but your your compression your tights your hydration
26:54
your food and sleep absolutely sleep is really important i'm glad you mentioned sleep um sleep's one
27:00
of those areas that there's a lot of work being done around there and dave's actually uh
27:06
busy with his with his phd that's got a lot to do with sleep um so what the the
27:13
really interesting that happens if we don't get enough sleep is we get a lot of fat and we get a lot of
27:22
uh that belly fat and as i like to say that those beautiful six
27:28
of this and that six-pack you've worked on for so long and this knows turning into a keg
27:33
so what happens here normally the body prefers to store fat
27:39
subcutaneously and that's under the skin so if i do that that's the subcutaneous fat it's under the skin
27:45
and when we're not getting enough sleep what happens here
27:52
the body seems to redirect fat to the visceral compartment and this is deep
27:58
inside your body this is where your internal organs are so that's that compartment
28:04
and when you're not getting enough sleep we're getting a lot of this fat directed
28:09
to the internal organs so what happens increasing visceral fat this fat then
28:15
starts wrapping around your internal organs deep within the abdomen and this is not really good for us
28:22
because it starts to smother those internal organs and what happens now if
28:27
we get an accumulation of this visceral fat it starts producing its own metabolic
28:33
by-products so we're getting fat and more fat and more fat eventually if
28:38
this is not under control we get lipotoxicity which is basically
28:44
poisoning by fail and that's really not good you really don't want that so
28:50
if we look at this in the long term inadequate sleep that can really be seen as a contributor
28:56
to the increases in obesity cardiovascular disease and other metabolic diseases now dave you've been
29:04
doing a lot of work around sleep and specifically the term sleep hygiene which is really interesting can you tell
29:11
us more about this i guess just to pick up on your last point there to do
29:16
it for the last four years uh thousands of sleep articles military civilian sorts that i've had to
29:22
research and read and get my hidden and it's blowing me away it's it's uncanny the amount
29:28
of illnesses sicknesses and ailments that can be related back to sleep chronic sleep deprivation and parsley
29:34
yeah it's it's it's everywhere it's everywhere um and at the end of the day sleep isn't just for our recovery from
29:41
fitness or for health recovery we are not going to learn and consolidate our learning if
29:47
we don't get good sleep yeah we need consolidated blocks of sleep to consolidate that learning 100
29:53
um so the sleep hygiene what is sleep hygiene i guess it started i get the start of it sleep hygiene is around how
30:00
we wanted to sleep we have sleep um sleep cycles roughly about 90 minutes at
30:06
night we go through a few different things we have a sleep phase we come in then we go into rem sleep rapid eye
30:11
movement then in our non-rapid eye movement we want that key non-rapid eye movement that's where we heal that's
30:17
where we get you know our body really adapts we want about three to four processes each night
30:23
ideally four if not five but sleep hygiene this all relates into it how do i improve those sleep cycles a
30:30
key thing here i put to you is sleep hygiene is how we approach it so put this to your suit your alarm goes off in
30:36
the morning what time does your alarm go off six o'clock six o'clock oh okay nice and
30:41
early nice and early watch your next process after the alarm goes off when alarm goes off then i have my routine you know you get up
30:48
have a washed you know that normally brush my teeth have breakfast it's a routine that i got
30:54
what you're saying to me is the alarm goes off you don't just then go for a pee get up walk to
31:00
your truck hop in your truck drive to work in your oh okay we've got to have a routine
31:05
right there's a routine there so what i'm getting at is you don't do that i'm sure none of you do that but that's how
31:10
we approach our sleep we stood on the couch we watched tvs we're drinking coffee i'm on my phone oh crappy it's 10
31:17
30. i'm off to bed switch i go to bed i lie in bed wonder why i can't sleep i've just totally messed up the process that
31:22
process is called sleep hygiene so it's a process that we have to be able to
31:28
sleep better unfortunately in modern society it's working against everything that we need to sleep better we need
31:35
melatonin release everything around us is really pressuring us to suppress melatonin
31:41
modern society we build new houses we want the brightest white led lights that run cheap in the bedroom in the kitchen
31:47
and the lounge we all want the big bright led tvs we want the latest ipads we want the latest
31:53
phones the high level of blue light is suppressing our melatonin so it actually works against us
31:59
if you want some more information actually around those sleep cycles the rem sleep in rmc on the health website
32:05
again um dan ford's done some really good work around the sleep there's some really good information there also if you are
32:12
suffering from sleep i'm coming to some really good points in a minute there's um a potential course that may interest
32:17
you around insomnia and that's um for defense pers that's free and that's at just a thought dot co dot
32:25
nz forward slash insomnia so just a thought
32:31
dot co dot nz forward slash insomnia so these um sleep hygiene how do we
32:37
improve the sleep hygiene so if you go on to on the health website also
32:43
there is a link to this article one of my phd articles that was published about 18 months ago on sleep
32:48
is actually sleep and defense it's on stuff at the moment if you type into stuff
32:53
sleep in the military it should be about the second article that comes up i checked it this morning and it is still coming up so it's to do with my research
33:00
in defence what i talk about then what i'm going to give you right now so get your pencils ready is my top
33:06
six tips for better sleep how to enhance your sleep and this pretty much is the process for psychology so
33:13
number one plan your sleep routine we've just spoken around this have a plan for what
33:18
you're going to do how does that work about an hour before bed have your shower get nice and warm put your night
33:24
wheel you just can go down put your slippers on our bodies really smart it'll adapt to what's going on have a
33:30
nice warm drink um uh you have a nice warm drink and maybe
33:35
start reading book there some really good information talking about a your is
33:40
i like to have a glass of warm milk before i go to see and why is that because milk is one of the greatest
33:48
sources of tryptophan choco fan is an amino acid and tryptophan really helps us to sleep well
33:56
so there you go a nice warm milk yep
34:02
really good point this year because like we distilled the myth earlier around i'm going to bulk up and look like
34:07
arnold schwarzenegger from five minutes in the gym this is the actual our lifestyle that we will we'll advocate we
34:13
both tried it um just because we lecture and teacher in this we're still managing sleep issues at times but that is one
34:19
thing really good point uh number two just touched on this but reduce the
34:24
bright light in the evening make a big effort to do this so in the lounge in the hallways and in the kitchen in the
34:30
kitchen if you can get the lights on dimmers in the lounge switch to just lamps
34:36
around or plume lights the ideal thing we want to do is create a nice warm glow in the room so we don't
34:42
need to make it pitch black you should still be able to read a book but make it nice and warm we want to reduce it so we start teaching the body to say hey the
34:49
lights have come down it's starting to be bedtime we want to ensure that we get that release of
34:55
melatonin another little tip for you changes that i've made since i've learnt about this is in our house we have a
35:01
salt lamp himalayan salt lamp down in the hallway that's the only light on at night so that anyone gets up from any of
35:07
the bedrooms you can see that light and it guides you enough to go to the toilet go to the kitchen without having to turn
35:13
on anything absolutely as we know as we get older we have to go to the point now i think we do
35:18
well okay number three here we go get off the voices get off the vices um
35:26
yeah and this is a challenge in this day and age because so many people know oh that's the last thing i do i check my
35:32
phone and go to bed get off that device and when we're talking about devices key things are phones ipads other gadgets
35:38
yes get off your laptops earlier and try and get off the tvs but devices in bed that's a no-no big release of blue light
35:45
suppresses our melatonin we want that melatonin relief get off your devices
35:54
no see no tv in the bedroom unfortunately get that tv out of the bedroom um and that comes to my next
36:00
point number four reduce artificial light in the bedroom so what we're talking about is if you do have bright
36:06
lights switch it off i highly recommend switching to old school incandescent bulbs 60 watts bedside lamps have a nice
36:14
warm glow and you can um you read to that in the evening and that'll help bring you down yes don't charge your
36:20
phones in the bedroom don't have ipads in maybe things like your hair dryers and definitely do not have a tv in the
36:26
bedroom a little point for you even subconsciously if there's a tv in the corner you turn the tv off that little
36:32
red light or that little red light from the phone or the hair dryer in the corner of the room even when we sleep
36:39
subconsciously our body will pick that up and that's enough to interfere with our sleep and disrupt those sleep cycles
36:44
so yeah definitely get them out of the bedroom get the tv out of the video number five
36:50
keep the bedroom cool so contrary to maybe what we sort of think here it's winter time we go to bed it's pretty you
36:56
know it's getting a bit chilly definitely snow starting to drop down south but keep the bedroom cooler if you
37:02
can have a bedroom door open maybe the fire the heater from the rest of the house coming down but um try not to have
37:08
a heater in the bedroom and keep it a little bit cooler what you don't want to do is have uh things like hot um electric blankets
37:16
having the bed really really hot now our body temperature rises a little bit at night one to two degrees uh and this
37:22
helps to kill germs and do healing within the body so a little bit warmer anyway and another key thing that i
37:28
really recommend is just have a window open a jar if you can get a little bit of fresh air circulating it actually
37:34
helps us breathe better and settles us if you have to have an extra blanket on the bed but keep the bedroom cool you
37:40
will sleep better and finally a big challenge here for the fence get a lot of little giggles and smokes around this
37:45
one reduce your caffeine intake can reduce your caffeine consumption more specifically reduce it from about
37:51
lunchtime 12 o'clock lunch time i've really pushed this on a lot of the
37:57
leadership courses that we work on and different people suffering with sleep and it's really really neat to see the people that come back with feedback that
38:03
i tried that and it's you know fantastic results so with caffeine we're also talking around energy drinks uh
38:10
pre-workouts anything you take in the afternoon that would stimulate you you could put caffeine in the same group as
38:16
medicine medical where drugs will be put into a life and a half-life with caffeine exactly the same
38:23
it has a life and a half-life so caffeine can still have a half-life four to six hours later so if we're
38:28
having a nice strong coffee in the evening at 8 p.m one two three in the morning i can still
38:35
have a half-life of that caffeine floating around my bloodstream i'm lying on the pillow wondering why i can't sleep because i'm dog tired i've
38:41
probably woken me up i've gotten my bad habits set on the phone again but keep that caffeine or reduce that caffeine um
38:48
as best we can six tips and it's all in their article
38:53
as well yeah and you can find those on the website you can yes now another question i have
38:59
this is often we go to sleep we we're doing all our uh sleep hygiene what
39:04
happens if i wake up at night and i can't go back yeah what what the price we've got
39:10
yeah we get that a lot and not uncommon look it's um it's not always easy and quite often we
39:17
just we wake up stuck awake i've got a presentation the next day i've forgot something i'm supposed to i'm supposed
39:22
to have done or do i've got something coming in i need to sort out not uncommon to have that happen but what i recommend is what
39:29
tends to happen is i wake up in the night and i'm nice and sleepy i wake up and then it's like oh my goodness i've got that presentation i've got to do
39:35
something for the kids i've got my whatever tomorrow it's like go back to sleep go back to sleep the more we tell ourselves to go back to sleep the worse
39:42
it becomes so we've got to almost we've got to cut that we've got to break that connection
39:47
with the brain so we want to connect it the bedrooms were sleeping so what i recommend is if you get to that point
39:52
you give it a minute you can't get back to sleep get up and leave the bedroom get up and leave the bedroom head to the
39:58
lounge or the kitchen okay get up put a dressing gown on put a jersey on stay stay warm um
40:04
but break that connection with the bedroom okay get up if it's something worrying you about work or presentation
40:10
or the family with the kids or to find it get down get your notebook out or pitch back and drop some notes down so that you have the comfort that actually
40:16
i've got that down i can address it in the morning um or otherwise read a book and it's uncanny nine times out of ten where
40:23
something that's stressing us at night when we get up in the morning and have a look at that we think oh it wasn't even that bad i know what i'm gonna do but at
40:30
least because we've written it down that will sit on so write a list or read a book the other thing is your half glass
40:36
of milk to get that release or tryptophan to help you sleep that will work generally what happens is give it a few
40:42
minutes five minutes ten minutes maybe staying in a dim environment you'll start to feel a little bit sleepy your
40:47
body we've reset the process go back to the bedroom going to sleep and we find
40:52
really good benefits that does help you then go back to sleep and you can generally get up at a normal time
40:58
fantastic um right so hopefully um
41:03
you've all learned something from this and you've enjoyed a presentation
41:09
so i guess at the end of the day what we're trying to say is look after yourselves you know get enough exercise
41:16
do some strength training get good sleep and a good thing is you know set yourself some goals you know have a look
41:23
at some activities that are coming up something that you can work towards and a great activity that we
41:30
we've seen and heard about and that is the navy and friends half marathon that's taking place on the 4th of
41:36
september so get uh involved in this it's open to everyone in defence force and and
41:41
friends of the navy a great event it's a nice amount of time leading up to this so you can board
41:48
towards that do your strength training uh and get going get moving uh sleep
41:53
well uh the big thing we like to say is you know you've only got one life and you've only
42:00
got one body so take care of it and look after it really well and if you do your
42:05
your strength training you know you're sleeping well it's not just strength training you have to do you know just keeping fit and
42:11
healthy there's a lot of activities as david said you know that you can participate to keep those activities of
42:17
daily life going um that just makes quality of life much easier for us and the last thing you you don't want is as
42:24
we age because age is a natural process we all get older you want to hate i'd
42:30
like to say gracefully but you want to age strongly as well so you can do what
42:35
you want to do you can enjoy life as we go through the different stages of life yeah so yeah it's
42:41
100 agree and it's it's to do with the benefits look at the end of the day the guts of it is there's benefits from
42:48
enhancing your resistance training your strength improving your sleep but it's up to you uh do you want to have better
42:54
health better blood flow better posture less fatigue more energy and at the end of the day
43:00
there's lots of activities out there find something that suits you it doesn't have to be running it doesn't have to be
43:06
you know different full-on triathlons or marathons but a master swimming group that has six lanes that you can go into
43:12
the slowest lane or a hash house harriers group that all has house harry's groups have a walking group
43:17
or you know find a strength training class that's for beginners or a walking group a surfing group a kite surfing
43:23
group bowls whatever we can do but do something and get out there that it's enjoyable and find a way to make it
43:29
work that's right um so that's pretty much i think so uh we're open for questions now
43:43
great thank you so much jax and dave and we do have um a couple of questions that have just popped up um so the first one
43:50
and for you is um what are your thoughts on following a low-carb diet when time for exercise
43:57
might be limited
44:08
so yeah i i guess i'm hearing it's um when
44:13
time's a bit of a limitation and about exercise this is actually really a really good question because that is
44:19
something that comes up quite often um and a lot of research is showing us that you know you don't need to exercise
44:25
hours and hours and hours so a good high intensity intermittent training session
44:30
is really really good and all you really need to get the benefits out of that is about 15 minutes so it's it's almost
44:38
like interval training where you're up and you're down and you're up and you're down you can do this uh with resistance
44:44
training you can do it just uh with aerobic type of training so you for example you'd be on a on an exercise
44:51
bike so you would start off with a good warm-up i guess you would probably start with 30 seconds of a real high intensity
44:58
drop back down again to a lower intensity move it back up drop down and about i would say 15 minutes of this is
45:06
ideal a lot of researchers come back and say really high intensity sessions of
45:11
about two minutes is really beneficial for us so you know there are ways to get
45:16
around it if you don't have time because the big thing uh is when we run out of time the first thing that goes out of
45:23
the window is our exercise program so i don't know they have more about this around resistance training
45:29
yeah i guess i want to just keen to the first part of that question to do with the low carb so
45:35
again the key thing today is not a nutrition presentation um but i do i i think there's massive benefits to it
45:42
i'll be honest i am advocate of lchf low carb high fat and we've spoken around this a lot in the past a key thing here
45:49
is just reducing energy or just reducing carbs our energy intake because time is low uh can be a negative why is time low
45:57
that should be the other question is it because of workload family load we might we've a key thing we've got to remember
46:02
at the end of the day is that the best burnt the best burnt fuel source for the brain
46:07
is carbohydrates so we i lower the carbs i can't think properly i'm doing a crap job anyway i'm going to feel bad about
46:14
that i try to train i've got no energy i'm feeling bad if we become fat adapted
46:21
which takes a bit of a process 100 uh we can be smart around this again there's probably discussion for another
46:27
day but we can be really smart around this in regard to yes reducing your carbs but just sort of doing carb input
46:35
as you need it so a few jet pains before you go and train or if you are having a cup of tea have a teaspoon of sugar in
46:41
that tea that we can get that little spike of energy i don't necessarily think we should be um
46:47
hitting energy drinks and things like that maybe if it's warranted a little bit of power egg or something but yes a little
46:53
some carbs that facilitates that glycogen source for the muscle uh but in
46:58
short yes the lowering carbs if time is limited can work but there's a process that needs to
47:04
be put in place absolutely the thing with with low carb the low carb high fat is you still need carbohydrates but it's
47:12
the good carbohydrates that you're putting into your body so you've got to avoid you know those processed carbohydrates you know uh like the white
47:19
breads the pastas that sort of stuff and also the fat be careful to
47:25
not to put the unhealthy fats in your body so we're talking about healthy fats when we talk about low carb high fat
47:30
diet you know so it's your amigos your your salmons your avocados that's the
47:35
fat you want you know not that juicy fat on top of the steak you want to avoid that although it's delicious but stay
47:41
away from that um yeah so hopefully that answers that question
47:47
well great thank you um so we do have a few more as well um so the next one we've got is some of us live in a busier
47:55
neighborhood so um sound of people on the street traffic driving by nightlights um what are your
48:02
thoughts on sleeping with earbuds
48:10
if you feel all right 100 yeah it's something that we would both pack with your head away when i head away with my wife for the
48:17
weekend she'll always pack her earplugs uh 100 i guess the key thing with that is just
48:23
ensuring that they will block it out and if they're comfortable but missing alarm clocks or timings but if you're
48:28
comfortable with it no worries at okay all the next one we've got is how
48:35
many times a week would you strength train versus run if you were training for a marathon or half marathon
48:42
oh good question i this is more i think in your domain but
48:49
speaking from experience um uh i like to say i used to be a runner but
48:56
then you know age catches up and my knees hips i kind of don't want me to run that much anymore but i've increased
49:04
my strength training a lot more and i do find that when we have a lot more strength in in the legs you can
49:12
handle those distances a lot better because you've got a lot more strength and that sustains you quite longer so i
49:18
managed to do um an rfl without doing
49:23
very much uh running training i think i was running about only once or twice a week
49:29
but the rest of the week i was doing quite a bit of strength training i did this just to uh as an experiment on
49:36
myself and it really really did work but i guess if we do talk about marathon and
49:42
um half marathon type distance that's a lot more you're definitely going to need to
49:47
train because you need that time on feet you know for to cover those densest distances but strength training is
49:54
definitely going to help and i don't think you need to do like daily strength training in that instance but about
50:00
twice a week yeah i'd say um twice is it twice would be absolutely ample three times awesome yeah but twice
50:08
would be absolutely adequate a key thing with that would be fitting in on certain days so with marathon
50:15
running having done quite a few marathons myself and already having represented new zealand at five world
50:20
triathlon champs and iron man um i look back when i used to race i would do a lot more strength training
50:26
um so definitely just slide around days that you can do but however a key thing to remember here is that when we talk
50:32
about uh gym training or traditional strength training you know most people would say 60 to 90 minutes i'd beg to differ 30
50:39
minutes in the gym 35 minutes you can do everything you need to do especially in a program like that get in and be quite
50:45
specific i go back to what i was saying around the rep ranges even as a marathon runner you want to get to get under like
50:51
we say lift some weight get the weight under the bar what's what's comfortable for you but you want to be lifting sort
50:56
of those eight six four five reps you don't need to be doing fifteens twenties no no no and and the other thing
51:03
with strength training and training for marathons and for distance running is you cannot
51:09
neglect your recovery don't because it's so important and as we've
51:14
already touched on recovery um the physiological adaptations take place
51:20
during the recovery phase so that's why good sleep is also very important for you so when you recover that's when your
51:26
body makes all these little changes that start happening uh and often uh in the
51:32
military we know this that militaries across the world are not really good at
51:38
recovery and recovery programs because for us it's you know go go go go but in the last couple of years a lot more
51:44
emphasis has been putting has been put on recovery because that's when we actually get stronger that's when the
51:50
those little differences start getting um more visible so recovery is really
51:56
really important but then there's also don't do too much recovery and recovery is also not lying on the couch with a
52:01
coke in your hand you know there's active recovery uh during recovery you know look after your your nutrition your
52:07
hydration that sort of stuff yeah yeah your ice baths your vibration yeah
52:14
yeah cool great so the next one we've got is is
52:19
there a better time of day to work out generally speaking or is this just down to the person and what works for them
52:26
we're talking about is that um is this resistance training or is that um they haven't specified but i'm i'm
52:33
thinking just uh yeah the time of day where people yeah are working out this is this is really interesting i know
52:40
there was some talk uh a week or so ago about when to train and some research came up about there's
52:47
a difference between men and women and that sort of stuff but i think it's all up to the individual and
52:53
in the past we have done some research with we've done research with cardiac patients and
52:59
we looked at you know this very thing uh what time of day is is best for us to exercise what we
53:05
actually found with the cardiac patients and the exercise rehabilitation program that
53:12
when they trained early in the morning first thing in the morning we found that they had better um
53:18
responses or better gains to strength and the reason was this is because of growth hormone so when you sleep there's
53:24
another good reason why you should sleep when you sleep the body releases growth hormone and growth hormone is released
53:31
in pulses so it releases it stops releases and it stops so when you wake up in the morning there's still growth
53:37
hormone floating around in the body and what does growth hormone do it helps with that repair process it helps with
53:44
the increase in in in muscle mass and helps maintain muscle mass um
53:50
so we found that when we had these cardiac patients come in and do the exercise there was still a
53:56
lot of growth hormone circulating so what happens when we exercise we also release growth hormone so you basically
54:03
got a double whammy of this growth hormone in your body which is going to assist with the
54:09
exercise response which was which was really fantastic but the interesting thing here
54:14
is once you uh stop your exercise and if you eat uh you
54:20
know fatty foods and those processed carbohydrates that growth hormone production is kind of like
54:28
cut off straight away so the thing there was exercise early in the morning before you
54:34
have breakfast you know you can have a drink of water or something like that and then wait about half an hour and
54:39
then have something to eat so that was just the research uh findings that we had when working with
54:46
that group of people so um dave i don't know if you have anything about them
54:52
yeah 100 agree with it i think it can be different to the individual on our most high performing teams most high
54:58
performance institutes professional teams tend to jim train sort of that mid-morning yeah just before lunch probably partly out of convenience um a
55:06
little bit after lunch with january in the morning i know to lift better for
55:11
heavy heavy resistance you're probably better to go slightly later in the day once the hormones have warmed up and the muscles have really warmed up
55:18
with and i guess what you could look at is look at your individual your individual service fitness tests
55:24
when do you tend to do a better time when do you do a better um lcft time or oft time or rfl time is it first thing
55:32
in the morning or was it one o'clock or is it later in the day there can be individual aspects around
55:38
that to do with our um our genetics and things like that so yeah a little bit of it is exploring and finding out what
55:44
works for yourself yeah i guess it's convenience you know when's it more convenient for you to do your exercise
55:50
yeah hey um and we've just got time for um
55:58
one last question for you um so somebody's asked um that the sleep advice on the website
56:05
says to avoid daytime nets but this person finds that they can sleep better at night if
56:11
they sometimes have a short 20 to 40 minute nap late in the afternoon or early evening um what are your thoughts
56:18
on this and are you able to talk a little bit more around daytime
56:24
yeah i i guess again it's it's um
56:29
i'm not saying that's conflicting information but it again it can be very individual um
56:35
we there can be people it's it's sort of like i mean you can go back to the very basics and look um when your kids were
56:41
young i know when my kids were young if you thought oh i won't give them an afternoon sleep because i want them to be tired and go to sleep well tonight
56:48
the opposite would actually happen or you keep kids up late you know and then oh because they're sleeping well no you
56:54
just have grumpy kids in the morning i think as adults we forget that and it's sort of the same i think a key thing to remember here is
57:00
uh there's a mechanism built into us called sleep pressure and it's we can only go so long without our body
57:07
not sleeping hence why people will fall asleep driving or you know truckers fall asleep and crash their trucks because it
57:14
gets to the point we have to sleep if you're someone that sounds like for you if you find that it works really
57:19
really well i would say stick with it and try it uh power naps have been advocated with high performance athletes
57:26
when we talk about napping though it only wants to be about that 15 to 20 minutes we don't want to get into that
57:31
full sleep cycle because we'll wake halfway through that deep sleep cycle because that's when it can actually put us off
57:37
so again yes benefits to it uh if it sounds like it is working it does help
57:42
you sleep it's probably working with your metabolism and things like that if you were someone that you found you had
57:48
asleep you can't sleep at night no i would cut that out um and i guess it's finding the right environment to sleep in as well again i
57:54
think there's a little bit of individualization sort of thing
58:02
great well thank you so much jackson dave for your time today um and thanks everyone for attending i think there are
58:08
yeah a lot of great information it's an absolute pleasure and you know
58:13
there's great resources on on the website here so you know go and have a look at them exercise sleep nutrition
58:20
you know fantastic job to those who put the website up well done and if you see us around just come and chat we love
58:26
what we do and we always we're happy to talk shop no thank you so much um to everyone
58:33
that's still um stayed around on the webinar q a so we're just going to pop up a quick feedback poll um for the end
58:40
and and then we'll let um uh dave and sharks get back to their um yeah busy busy working day i'm sure um
58:47
but no thank you so much for you joining us today and yeah thanks again to jackson dave thanks
59:25
thanks everyone
Healthy Habits - Exercise for post-partum
Join Major Raylene Grant from the Physical Performance Squadron as she talks the How and Why of safe exercising after pregnancy and when to return to running.
Healthy Habits - Exercise post-partum
0:05
hi hey everybody and welcome today to talk about exercise pt and training postpartum
0:14
my name is major raylene grant i'm a physiotherapist and oc of the physical performance squadron which manages the
0:21
nine nzdf gymnasiums over the past six months i've been working closely with
0:26
the medical officers physiotherapist exercise rehabilitation instructors
0:31
physical training instructors and the humans performance team to put together this guide to assist our wahine come
0:39
back into work training with the aim to return to full operational deployability
0:46
um moving into these four words here from
0:52
the bosses acknowledge the really unique position that new zealand defence force
0:58
is in in the way that we're probably only comparable to professional sports women that we are required to get back
1:06
to fitness following pregnancy and childbirth and that new zealand defence
1:11
force acknowledges this and wishes to support and provide
1:17
all the resourcing that we need to get back uh from the forward on the
1:24
the right which is from uh my boss fran cook who manages all the garrison support for new zealand defence force
1:31
i really like what she's put here and that she encourages us to use the service all
1:37
the services provided as we support through the transition back to work full fitness and full deployability
1:45
in the contents page yes it does look a little bit overwhelming but i i guess i'm pulling this up to show that the
1:52
booklet although it is big it's broken down into first trimester second trimester third trimester and the ones
1:59
that we will be talking about specifically today is from the postpartum stuff the reason that i'm
2:04
bringing this up is some of the content that i refer to ie teaching us how to do our deep core and
2:12
pelvic floor work is covered in the pregnancy part and um
2:17
when this booklet is released so it's just a couple of weeks away from being printed and putting it all in all the
2:24
defense health centers and then shared on the internet internet and social media this is i guess sort of a sneak
2:30
peek but if you i'm happy to send out the this in its
2:35
current format through laura so if you do want it now and want to have a look through it yeah just please just leave
2:42
your details with laura at the end and she'll flick it out to you so we're going to start from the
2:47
postpartum and start talking about yeah geez what does this mean for us
2:53
here so first of all um you know in this time the weeks 0-6 following having baby
3:00
you know congratulations this is a pretty wild time and a blur of feeding and nappies and trying to fit in
3:08
sleep in and around a baby and babies requirements
3:13
and in terms of exercising at this point we want to treat this as our fourth
3:19
trimester and baby's going to be really demanding as it is baby adapts to life outside us and is
3:26
going to want lots of us and lots of cuddles so we really want to put four hour
3:32
the exercise is not our sort of main goal at the moment
3:37
in many asian cultures you know this fourth trimester the you know wahine
3:43
don't even leave the house and you know that that fourth trimester is really
3:48
about the mother recovering and you know adapting to
3:54
life with a new life so within this first zero to six weeks
3:59
your body is going to be recovering from birth and now is the time to concentrating on
4:04
healing and looking after your baby and saying this it's you know it's completely fine to walk and good to
4:11
start gentle pelvic floor exercises and deep core exercises that we cover earlier in the booklet
4:18
but in terms of the first few weeks nothing more than that is
4:26
recommended on these couple of pages we talk about birth injuries and for some
4:33
of our military wahine they may come through a completely um
4:39
you know non-complicated vaginal birth and are going to be ready to roll really early compared to our other wahine who
4:46
may have quite complicated births with significant tearing and
4:52
injury of the pelvic floor potentially even a prolapse so my guidance here is
4:58
just to have a lot of empathy for yourself and for each other and if there
5:03
is wahine in your workplace that are like far out what are you up to you know i was back playing touch after six weeks
5:09
and every birth and pregnancy is so different so don't measure yourself on
5:14
anybody else and don't judge anybody else if they're taking longer than you to recover
5:21
birth injuries are usually caused by the position of the baby having a large baby
5:26
having a long labor having a short labor having a small or unusually shaped pelvis and it's quite hard to know you
5:33
know what the effects of birthing are going to be until we're in there and for people that are on you know their second
5:39
or third births you know the every every birth is completely different and we want to treat our
5:46
bodies relevant to what what else is going on and you know so we may experience minor
5:53
damage or we may experience quite extensive damage so it's just a matter of working really closely with our lead
6:00
maternity carer um you know the medical officers once we get back to work our pelvic health physiotherapist and once
6:06
we start getting back into exercising you know slowly working with our physios and eris
6:12
another point that i wanted to bring up here is acc is now covers birth injuries which is
6:19
going to be relevant to you know if you decide to leave the new zealand defence force that you know these birth injuries
6:26
will be covered and they're still really working through you know what are covered and what aren't covered at the moment but that's really good news for
6:32
um wahine who often go through a pretty traumatic physical and often emotional
6:38
ordeal as well and to have this covered by the government is really is really a step in the right direction
6:46
uh one in four of our wahine are going to have a cesarean section either
6:51
emergency or elective uh caesarean section and recovery from
6:57
this is quite significantly different from our normal sort of vaginal births and it's going to take at least sort of
7:04
six to ten weeks for the wound part to heal and quite a bit longer until we
7:09
feel well enough to get out and do activity so we can do
7:15
you know we can complete the walking and start the pelvic floor exercises and deep core exercises but really check
7:21
with your women's health physio and lmc before commencing any resistance training and ask them about specific
7:29
treatment for cesarean section scar pain or numbness if this is relevant to you
7:36
for most people you know we will bounce back from these cesarean sections but some people do have quite a lot of
7:42
ongoing pain and if you're in um you know if this
7:47
is relevant to you to really seek out and seek out the help from the your lead maternity carer from the medical officer
7:54
from the women's health physiotherapy and those support networks around you
8:00
so what do we want to do in those first sort of two to six weeks and if you've had a caesar or had you know some pretty
8:09
significant birth injuries you're probably not wanting to do too much so just listen to your body and get back
8:15
into activity as you feel comfortable to do so continue to walk and do deep core
8:21
exercises and pelvic floor exercises if you feel well enough to do so and for some people low impact
8:28
activities such as the cycle or cross trainer can be added in if you're feeling well enough to do so for those
8:35
non complicated births during weeks two to four same again if
8:40
you're feeling well enough to do so you can start doing some bodyweight squats and bridging activities but noting that
8:48
in this stage we really just want to recover and if you want to do activity
8:53
cool but the the main aim is to just get our bodies right and look after baby
9:01
the one of the important parts in this area is really reconnecting with our breath and you know it's been sort of 20
9:08
weeks since we've been able to lie on our back comfortably and we've had you know
9:14
a big old uh basketball in front of us which has been squishing all of our organs so in this
9:20
period of our training we really want to do some breath connect and start getting back into that deep diaphragmatic
9:27
breathing exercises such as lying on your back and breathing are recommended to coordinate
9:32
the pelvic floor and diaphragm to work better and in this stage it's vital that
9:37
emphasis is placed on healing and strengthening the pelvic floor muscles to reduce the long term to reduce the
9:45
chance of having long-term pelvic floor dysfunction uh after childbirth it's normal to feel
9:53
pretty beaten up but in this table here it talks about what is normal and what is not normal so you know
9:59
when to reach out and seek help so it's pretty normal to be sore but it's not normal to
10:08
be so sore that you can't look after baby and do your activities of daily living so
10:15
if you're so sore you know make sure that you do reach out and let the lead maternity carer know
10:22
hemorrhoids is pretty common after childbirth and same again this is normal but if it's so painful that it's making
10:28
you cry and unable to you know and it's getting affecting the way that you're looking after your baby you know reach
10:35
out and get the treatment required it's normal to feel overwhelmed but if
10:41
you're feeling so upset and overwhelmed and thinking about um
10:47
harm definitely reach out because there's some really good and important networks out
10:52
there in one of the sections we'll talk about at the end uh postnatal depression
10:58
is um you know there's a percentage that will get this during pregnancy and even higher percentage
11:03
afterwards so if you are feeling so upset tired fatigued that you're
11:08
starting to have you know thoughts that you know aren't healthy and are going to affect
11:14
your safety and safety of your child make sure that you get those support networks around you
11:21
it's normal to be pretty sore after a tear or episiotomy or after having a c-section
11:28
but if you get any redness over the wound or it's starting to smell funny or
11:35
that there is worsening pain this may mean that you've got an infection so yeah pain is normal but if it's starting
11:41
to be red and yucky and horrible and spreading make sure we get on top of
11:46
that it's normal to bleed after
11:52
after having a baby but this should stop after six weeks and so if it continues
11:57
on make sure that your lmc knows about this and if you're needing to change pads you
12:04
know multiple times in an hour and bleeding increases instead of decreasing make sure that that's um you know that
12:10
your medical professionals around you are aware of that cramping it's normal for cramps to come
12:16
and go as the body uh gets used to i guess sort of being non-pregnant
12:23
but if there's constant significant pain that's not normal
12:30
leaking urine at the end of pregnancy and a few weeks after birth is well i
12:35
wouldn't say normal but common because there's been so much pressure put on the pelvic floor but if this continues after
12:44
that six weeks period you know make sure that we get that sorted
12:49
through referral to a pelvic health physiotherapist
12:54
if there's pain with peeing and pulling it's going to be a little bit sore initially but if it really starts to
13:01
sting or burn we've got to make sure that there's no infection there nipple pain when we
13:06
first start breastfeeding it's going to be pretty sore but if there's red streaks lumps
13:12
uh you know latching issue bleeding or pus you know make sure that we use the
13:17
you know touch base with the lmc and if we need to you know there may be an infection or we may need some
13:24
additional support with breastfeeding stuff doming coning and a gap between
13:30
abdominal muscles and so in the first part of this booklet we talk about abdominal separation being
13:37
or stretching being a normal part of pregnancy and it should return to normal
13:43
in the first six months but if it's still there following the six months we want to do a little bit
13:49
more specific stuff for the core bulging and pressure everything might
13:55
feel pretty uncomfortable after childbirth but if it's still there three months afterwards there may be a bulge
14:02
or a prolapse that we definitely want to get sorted seek medical advice if you experience
14:08
any birth complications listed in the right column so it's just a bit of a yeah a bit of a table as to yeah we're
14:14
going to feel sore we're going to feel tired we're going to feel terrible well terrible is probably not the right word
14:20
we're going to feel overwhelmed but if it's to a point that it's affecting our ability to look after baby we need to
14:27
talk to a medical professional and get the support in place that we need
14:36
and then there's just a bit of a checklist there and the main things that we want to do in that zero to six period
14:43
is connect with the breath and getting our pelvic floor and deep core
14:49
working and functional again we want to get out and walk get some fresh air um you know start taking
14:57
some you know getting some fresh air and getting out of the house we want to talk about postnatal depression with friends with different
15:04
health lines and if we need to get a referral to the um you know from the defense health centre let's do that to
15:10
make sure that we've got plenty of support around us and purchase a good supportive sports bra the
15:16
with breastfeeding everything's going to feel pretty engorged and if we're out
15:21
walking we want to make sure that we're well supported there in the next part of this zero to six
15:29
uh section we have got a couple of uh example exercise programs that you
15:35
can start and so in this first one we want to get into some breath connect we want to
15:41
start reconnecting with the pelvic floor with the deep core muscles and we can also start some bridging exercises
15:49
we have attached a video here which i will bring up
15:55
just to give you an idea of yeah i mean what we've got and so you can see
16:01
our fitness model here working through the different sort of exercises so that's the first one with our breath
16:06
connect when you know that big basketball is no longer there we want to get back into
16:12
that diaphragmatic breathing when we get back into our pelvic floor
16:17
stuff the easiest way to do this is lying on our back there's different cues that we use to
16:24
get this pelvic floor contracting and working well and we also want to work the fast twitch fibers of
16:32
these muscles as well the transversus abdominis is our deep
16:37
core and once we've had baby we want to make sure that that deep core is um strong
16:45
and functional we can start getting into some glute bridges and working that posterior chain
16:50
of the body
16:56
this one's quite a nice way of getting the deep core working with a little bit of movement as well so we know that we
17:03
can get the decor firing during different movements of the body
17:12
and then the last one here just working our stabilizers so everything working in and around the
17:18
hips and that's an example of the pelvic
17:24
floor and core exercises
17:31
moving on to right and that's um what we want to be doing in that zero to six so we want to
17:37
be out walking and doing pelvic floor and core
17:43
moving into the next section of our postpartum journey from week seven to
17:48
twelve and at that six week period we have a catch up with our lead maternity carer
17:54
and we you know if the lead maternity carer is happy with how we're going
18:00
potentially we're going to get discharged from their care and this discharge from lmc care is more
18:07
around sort of wound healing and specific pregnancy related stuff some people take this as cool i'm good you
18:14
know i've been discharged from the midwife i can get back in and start smashing everything so um yes maybe your
18:21
wounds have healed but it's not a time to get back into everything if your body's
18:26
not quite ready ensure you get a postnatal or on a fitness check or you know potentially
18:32
longer to check pelvic floor muscle damage and strength it's also important
18:38
that the pelvic health physiotherapist confirms that you're doing the exercises correctly
18:43
and they'll also have a look at that diastasis recti which is the normal sort of separation of the abdominal muscles
18:50
and make sure that everything is okay there give you some exercises to help there they'll look at posture core
18:57
strength and check to enable a safe return to exercise
19:03
our contracted physiotherapists in the new zealand defence force camps are apm physio and if you want to catch up
19:10
with so you can request a referral either from the defense health centre or
19:16
directly through apm physio
19:22
keeping in touch days as you are probably aware we can return to work for apps up to 64
19:30
hours on the discretion of our commander manager when we're on um parental leave
19:36
and you know we can apply for some of these keeping and touch days to
19:41
you know go and catch up with the dhc and you know report how we're feeling if we need any special referrals out for
19:47
example if we're having a bit of a hard time and need some more support around that postnatal depression stuff if we
19:53
need a referral out to a pelvic health physiotherapist you know we can use these hours to get in sometimes our
20:01
wahine if they've taken for example 12 months maternity leave and you know won't step back and camp for that time
20:08
and that's fine but i guess the point that i'm trying to make here is that we do have the ability and our health
20:15
services do want to support us during the time i could use some of these hours to touch space with the camp medical officer at
20:22
the dhc or catch up with the women's health physiotherapist campbell-based physiotherapist or exercise
20:28
rehabilitation instructor to start an exercise program
20:34
on this page here we talk a little bit more about a self-check for diastasis recti and
20:42
during pregnancy we have a natural sort of thinning and separation of the abdominal muscles which should over six
20:49
months just heal return and repair itself as time goes on and that's a nice way to just
20:55
check to see if um if you've got a diastasis recti and need to be doing
21:01
some specific additional core stuff to help in the healing there
21:08
what sort of exercise is recommended in the seven to twelve period uh if our
21:13
wounds have healed and bleeding has stopped you know potentially we can return to swimming uh cycling or spin classes if this is
21:20
comfortable for you to do so resistance training can progress to either light bands or weights if comfortable
21:28
to do so uh if we've gained quite a bit of weight during pregnancy definitely
21:34
don't attempt to run until your bmi is back under 30 because that extra weight
21:40
is going to put extra weight on the pelvic floor and our pelvic floor is pretty important to us
21:46
for uh peeing pooping sexual function and uh you know holding all our organs
21:53
in so we want to make sure that we're looking with that we're really looking after that pelvic floor and sometimes
21:59
you know sometimes we'll have problems at the time but sometimes these postpartum problems
22:05
won't i guess sort of really here until one years five years after and sometimes
22:11
even into menopause so even if you are feeling cool like i'm ready to smash it
22:18
really go back to that concept of um you know
22:24
could i versus should i and we start talking about the return to
22:31
running from 12 weeks and this is based on some
22:37
pretty robust uh evidence and the the references there if you want to do
22:43
further reading about it let's talk about breastfeeding bras and
22:48
exercises exercise so if you have chosen to breastfeed your baby there are no
22:54
medical reasons why you can't return to exercise following medical clearance
23:00
but however you may need to alter the type of training that you're doing the type of clothing that you're wearing to ensure exercise can be completed
23:06
comfortably uh if you've got um engorgement
23:12
uh pain from breastfeeding or even mystitis acknowledged that you know you
23:17
probably don't want to get out and do exercise and that's fine like as we've talked about we want to get back into it
23:24
as the body is ready to do so relaxing levels do not return to normal
23:30
until three months after breastfeeding so just keep that in your mind
23:35
that you know the joints ligaments are more lacks more flexible so if we feel
23:42
like going out and playing touch rugby we are going to be more at
23:48
risk of injuries that was a bad example we obviously don't want to go back to running until at least 12 weeks because
23:54
we know that everything has healed up but that's the point that i'm trying to make there is you know whilst we're
24:00
breastfeeding there's still going to be a high level of relaxin and hormones within the blood
24:06
uh to make exercise more comfortable we can consider feeding baby prior to exercising you know to ensure that
24:13
you're not overly full or babies not really hungry while you're out exercising
24:18
and then we want to make sure that we have a really good supportive sports bra
24:28
breastfeeding hydration and nutrition moderate to vigorous exercise does not
24:35
affect or does not impact your milk quality
24:40
or your ability to provide all the nutrients required by your babe from
24:46
your baby uh however you do need to drink a lot more during this time
24:51
because you know the body is working so hard to produce uh you know milk and nutrients for the baby
24:59
while breastfeeding your body does need an additional 400 calories per day above what your
25:05
normal energy requirements are to produce this woman who are overweight can safely diet
25:11
during breastfeeding if they choose to do so and monitor the impact of their diet change on milk production
25:18
let's talk about some of the exercises that we can do in that seven to twelve week period
25:23
in that zero to six we're relying on our backs and in this one we just want to progress it and make it a little bit
25:29
harder so these ones are done in our four-point kneeling position i'll take us through to that um video again
25:43
so these ones are the same exercises that we've done in the zero to six and just in a position that challenges the
25:51
body a little bit more so we're in that four point kneeling position we're working the pelvic floor both the slow
25:57
twitch fibers and the fast switch fibers which is a quick flick of 10 for those fast finish
26:04
we want to continue working that transverses abdominis so at that underlying we just want to pull in one
26:11
centimeter to get that deep core firing
26:16
and this one we're going to start working that posterior chain the glutes the hemis the low back and if any of
26:23
these exercises are sore uncomfortable just skip them out these are just
26:28
suggested exercises but as we talked about everyone's going to recover so differently so if your body
26:35
doesn't like these ones um this one works the stabilizer muscles so
26:41
we're just preparing the body in the deep core as we get back to exercise
26:53
and we can also get into our strengths training here and same again i'll just pull up our
26:58
video and the sort of stuff that we are pretty happy doing in that seven to
27:04
12 weeks so we're just going to start training
27:09
our press ups but we can just do this in a standing position
27:18
or if you feel like you need a little bit more we can do them in a kneeling position
27:27
we want to start working all the stabilizing exercises in and around the shoulder blades so when we do go back to
27:37
[Music]
27:47
an initial sort of squat exercise some calf raises to prepare us for the
27:53
next stage which is our return to running stuff
28:01
a deadlift exercise same again we just want to prepare that single leg standing out balance before
28:08
we get back into running to make sure that when we do get back into running our body's really strict for it
28:16
and this is one to work our core so just a little bit harder than our sort of big core exercises now we've got the decor
28:23
working with movement
28:37
and then let's talk about what that postpartum week's 12 plus look like running is a high impact activity
28:46
which puts a lot of pressure on the pelvic floor core and organs return to running is not advised prior to three
28:52
months postnatal or longer if you've had a caesar or birth trauma so
28:58
for this 12 months for most people they should be ready to return to that
29:04
running in this guide it's just a guide so with use this guide
29:11
in you know with a close relationship with your physiotherapist pelvic health
29:16
physiotherapist eri and they will take you through um exercises for you that are suitable for
29:22
where at so even though it says cool you know i'm 12 weeks postpartum i'm allowed to run as of today it's going to be
29:29
different for everyone for some people it might be a little bit earlier but you know just make sure that
29:34
you're cleared by the pelvic health physiotherapist so you know that your pelvic floor is strong so you know that your core is good and you're not putting
29:40
yourself at risk of injury because it's not a race we want to play the long game for this yes we want to get back to work
29:47
full fitness and operational deployability but not at the detriment of injuring ourselves or having
29:52
long-term problems with pelvic floor or prolapses or incontinence because that's going to
29:59
accelerate our you know exit from the new zealand defence force really quickly we don't
30:04
want to do that your exercise recovery will be easier if you start light as soon as you feel
30:10
ready and ease your way back into training rather than going sort of full handy when you've got to that specific
30:17
time frame there's a really good document that was written in 2019 by
30:24
goomb and donnelly and that's set up as a hyperlink as well so
30:30
if you want more information about specific research of when to return to different things
30:36
that's a really good and robust research article about that
30:41
before we return to running we need to make sure that we can balance for 30 seconds we need to make sure that we can do a single leg squat that we can jog on
30:49
the spot for a minute that we can do bounds that we can hop and that we've got enough strength in our calves so
30:54
this is a pretty good measure of am i ready to go back to running can i do all these things and if you are and you
31:00
don't have any problems then it means that cool you know you're ready to start getting back into running which is
31:06
awesome uh exercise programs when in that zero to six we were on our
31:12
back in the seven to twelve we were in a four point kneeling position by 13
31:18
plus weeks we want to be able to do this pelvic floor and deep core work uh while
31:24
standing whilst walking around whilst doing the dishes peeling the carrots that sort of things brushing our teeth
31:29
so by this time we want those brain muscle contractions to feel to be really
31:36
good and strong that we can put it into our everyday activities and then on this one we've also added in
31:44
single leg balance to prepare us for running and also some more advanced glute stuff let's have a look
31:50
at that video
31:55
so this video isn't overly exciting because it's just someone standing there but what you can't see is what's going
32:00
on in the inside so they are working their pelvic floor and doing that lift and squeeze with this one holding for 10
32:07
seconds and as we've talked about previously it's only that pelvic health physiotherapist that's able to tell us
32:14
if we are doing these exercises correctly they the pelvic health physiotherapists
32:21
do an internal examination with your consent but it's really worth getting
32:26
that examination to know that you're doing everything well and properly before you get back into your running and resistance training
32:34
got a single leg balance there
32:41
and some bridgewater
32:58
on our next page we are progressing our resistance training
33:03
again and this one is specifically for our return to run stuff let's pull up the video and
33:10
watch the exercises that are recommended in that 13 plus
33:16
so we're starting to get a little bit more functional and adding in sort of opposite arm opposite leg stuff
33:23
we've got to press up with the bird dog there
33:33
we want to make sure that we're really strong and through the shoulder blade stabilizers
33:39
might be a little bit uncomfortable if you are still breastfeeding and fighting board so as you say just skip out those
33:44
exercises if they're not happy only get into these leaking ones if you have
33:49
been cleared by your pelvic house physiotherapist
33:55
because this is our real sort of return to run strengthening program
34:01
and we want to make sure that we've got much strong cards
34:07
so we know we don't have any injury problems same again only do these leaping ones if you have been cleared
34:13
and we know that that pelvic floor is strong enough and we're not having any um urinary
34:19
works the stabilizer muscles
34:32
good
34:44
with our return to running one of the programs that
34:50
is really highly used and well written is the uk national health service couch to 5k
34:57
training plan so if you're looking for something sort of online that you can start straight away or you can go in and catch
35:03
up with your exercise rehabilitation instructor and they'll be able to write a program specifically for you
35:09
as we talked about continue to ask yourself um you know should i be doing this not can i be
35:15
doing this going uphill will reduce the pressure on the pelvic
35:22
floor but going downhill is going to increase it so if we can just sort of stick to the flat initially that will be
35:29
important for us uh start each exercise with a bit of a warm-up ideally a fast walk and we want
35:36
to increase the running tolerance not speed
35:41
combine the running program with the strength training
35:47
if you are so running with a pram alters the way that we run and so if we can return to
35:55
running without the pram that's ideal but this baby is probably going to be with us 24 7 and our partners are not
36:02
always going to be home or maybe we don't have partners so our baby's going to be with us so if we run with our pram
36:08
we just want to make sure that the pram is set up in uh so we're using a pram that's designed
36:15
for running start with a two-handed hold on the buggy even though this is going to feel pretty uncomfortable on our
36:21
shoulder hair our shoulder blades and um so start with two-handed hold on
36:27
the buggy is this position is where your body behaves closest to that of normal running compared to the
36:33
you know one hand out in front
36:39
returning to work so as you are aware members of the nzdf are
36:44
entitled to 26 weeks paid parental leave which you may split up with your your partner
36:52
when you return to work book in with the defence health centre who will review
36:57
your medical grading which will take into account breastfeeding birth injury and any postnatal complications
37:03
you will be exempt from fitness testing contact sports formal fitness classes uh
37:09
for 12 months but if you want to get back into this sooner then just make sure you're
37:15
cleared and that your public health physiotherapist is happy that you return
37:20
and that your manager is on board with where you're at and the you know that you've been cleared
37:27
medically so there's these you know policy there to protect you however if you are
37:34
ready to go back to these things earlier then that's cool as well but just make sure that you're cleared to do so
37:41
every individual is different every pregnancy is different every birth is different and so it's really important
37:47
that you work with your physiotherapist and eri and manager to manage your training
37:52
and liaise directly with the mo with any questions concerning your return to work return to training and fitness training
38:00
courses promotions seniority and nominations so if you want to do a course you can if you don't want to do a
38:06
course you don't have to in that first 12 months if you want to do the course but can't do
38:12
the sort of the physical components then there's you're not going to be discriminated
38:18
against however it's really again that really clear communications between your
38:24
manager the course manager your medical officer so you make sure that
38:29
you're keeping those communications nice and open and we've just got the reference there
38:35
to dfo part 12 chapter 10 for further information about this
38:42
fitness testing so we've got 12 months until we're required to do fitness testing however if you want to do it
38:48
before that you can providing that you're cleared or if you need longer then you can get an extension through
38:54
the medical officer so this is a line in the sand for i guess sort of something
39:00
that it's realistic that you can aim for if you've had a non-complicated pregnancy
39:06
however if you're for example manager or commander says
39:12
you know like it's 12 months since the birth of the baby you are to do a fitness test no that's incorrect if and
39:18
you need to make sure that you've been you know that you've got good correspondence with the defense health
39:23
centre with your medical officer and that if you have had complications you know we need to extend that out to
39:30
make sure that you're not putting yourself at risk of further injury so 12 months is um
39:38
i guess sort of what's written in the falls but it may be sooner or it may be longer for you
39:44
ensure you talk to the mo about your situation ensure your manager is aware of your updated
39:49
time frames and training program progression so they're able to provide you support
39:54
during your recovery and back to full fitness there's just a bit of a checklist there
40:01
the sort of things that we want to do in that final sort of stage
40:06
and postnatal for life this one's really important so complications and side effects from
40:12
pregnancy and birth may arise immediately after childbirth or sometime following pregnancy and birth and
40:18
sometimes signs of pelvic floor damage or prolapse are not detected until menopause and at this time
40:26
yeah you know we want to be able to go to the defense health center and get that support
40:32
and treatment that we need and similarly you know if there's people around you
40:37
that you're like oh you know i pee when i'm jumping on the trampoline or skipping or running just because it's
40:44
common it doesn't mean that it's normal um there is a lot that can be done to
40:49
prevent injuries improve injuries help you return to full fitness without symptoms when you listen to your body
40:55
and get the right support you can be stronger and fitter than before having children and it's never too late
41:01
hey that concludes the main part of our exercise and postpartum there is a lot
41:08
of information there but hopefully with the movies and videos in there it's able to make it a little bit more clear for you
41:15
with uh as always these are just examples of safe exercise during
41:20
postpartum but you know make sure that you touch base with your pelvic health physiotherapist with the apm physio with
41:27
the eri you know to make sure that you're doing the exercises correctly and if there's any that uncomfortable or
41:34
painful don't just do them because they're in the booklet and you know catch up with someone to find out
41:40
exactly what's going on i'll just flick through the the annexes really quickly
41:45
so you can get an idea of the other stuff that is included in the booklet so there's a page there of how to do a
41:52
pelvic floor self-examination a little bit of information about miscarriage in
41:59
that one about stillbirth and about postnatal depression and the different support networks that are available for
42:06
you if you experience any of these things uh cultural support and making sure that
42:12
the um so everybody has a right to um
42:19
you know be treated you know culture with cultural respect
42:24
and making sure that you're linking in with you know what's important to you and for
42:30
maori and many other populations in new zealand the standard ways of delivering social and health services do not align
42:36
with the concept of whanau ewe and community and there is
42:42
a lot of support out there for maori pacific islanders um asian populations
42:48
in the different way that they may choose to go through birth childhood and um you know particularly that fourth
42:54
trimester there's a checklist in here for commanders and if you are ever in the
43:00
position that you're feeling forced to go you know back into the field or on
43:05
course or back to fitness training there's you know there's really good clear
43:12
policy to support you and you know once the commanders are able to get their hands on this as well this is going to
43:18
support them through this process also and then finally just a bit of directory
43:24
of key contacts that may help you if you are feeling that you need more support you
43:30
know particularly in those that time uh after childbirth when
43:36
everything feels pretty crazy there's some really nice helplines that are available 24 7 for you to talk to for
43:44
you know if you need help with breastfeeding latching feeling overwhelmed depressed um
43:50
and there's lots of phone numbers and email addresses there
43:57
that can help
44:03
and that concludes the presentation on exercise pt and training for a postpartum
44:09
and we definitely want to listen to our bodies
44:14
and just do what we can and slowly ease back into it with the aim of returning
44:19
to full work duties full fitness and operational deployability good luck
hi hey everybody and welcome today to talk about exercise pt and training postpartum
0:14
my name is major raylene grant i'm a physiotherapist and oc of the physical performance squadron which manages the
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nine nzdf gymnasiums over the past six months i've been working closely with
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the medical officers physiotherapist exercise rehabilitation instructors
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physical training instructors and the humans performance team to put together this guide to assist our wahine come
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back into work training with the aim to return to full operational deployability
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um moving into these four words here from
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the bosses acknowledge the really unique position that new zealand defence force
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is in in the way that we're probably only comparable to professional sports women that we are required to get back
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to fitness following pregnancy and childbirth and that new zealand defence
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force acknowledges this and wishes to support and provide
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all the resourcing that we need to get back uh from the forward on the
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the right which is from uh my boss fran cook who manages all the garrison support for new zealand defence force
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i really like what she's put here and that she encourages us to use the service all
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the services provided as we support through the transition back to work full fitness and full deployability
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in the contents page yes it does look a little bit overwhelming but i i guess i'm pulling this up to show that the
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booklet although it is big it's broken down into first trimester second trimester third trimester and the ones
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that we will be talking about specifically today is from the postpartum stuff the reason that i'm
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bringing this up is some of the content that i refer to ie teaching us how to do our deep core and
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pelvic floor work is covered in the pregnancy part and um
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when this booklet is released so it's just a couple of weeks away from being printed and putting it all in all the
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defense health centers and then shared on the internet internet and social media this is i guess sort of a sneak
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peek but if you i'm happy to send out the this in its
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current format through laura so if you do want it now and want to have a look through it yeah just please just leave
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your details with laura at the end and she'll flick it out to you so we're going to start from the
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postpartum and start talking about yeah geez what does this mean for us
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here so first of all um you know in this time the weeks 0-6 following having baby
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you know congratulations this is a pretty wild time and a blur of feeding and nappies and trying to fit in
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sleep in and around a baby and babies requirements
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and in terms of exercising at this point we want to treat this as our fourth
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trimester and baby's going to be really demanding as it is baby adapts to life outside us and is
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going to want lots of us and lots of cuddles so we really want to put four hour
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the exercise is not our sort of main goal at the moment
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in many asian cultures you know this fourth trimester the you know wahine
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don't even leave the house and you know that that fourth trimester is really
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about the mother recovering and you know adapting to
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life with a new life so within this first zero to six weeks
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your body is going to be recovering from birth and now is the time to concentrating on
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healing and looking after your baby and saying this it's you know it's completely fine to walk and good to
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start gentle pelvic floor exercises and deep core exercises that we cover earlier in the booklet
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but in terms of the first few weeks nothing more than that is
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recommended on these couple of pages we talk about birth injuries and for some
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of our military wahine they may come through a completely um
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you know non-complicated vaginal birth and are going to be ready to roll really early compared to our other wahine who
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may have quite complicated births with significant tearing and
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injury of the pelvic floor potentially even a prolapse so my guidance here is
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just to have a lot of empathy for yourself and for each other and if there
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is wahine in your workplace that are like far out what are you up to you know i was back playing touch after six weeks
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and every birth and pregnancy is so different so don't measure yourself on
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anybody else and don't judge anybody else if they're taking longer than you to recover
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birth injuries are usually caused by the position of the baby having a large baby
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having a long labor having a short labor having a small or unusually shaped pelvis and it's quite hard to know you
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know what the effects of birthing are going to be until we're in there and for people that are on you know their second
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or third births you know the every every birth is completely different and we want to treat our
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bodies relevant to what what else is going on and you know so we may experience minor
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damage or we may experience quite extensive damage so it's just a matter of working really closely with our lead
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maternity carer um you know the medical officers once we get back to work our pelvic health physiotherapist and once
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we start getting back into exercising you know slowly working with our physios and eris
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another point that i wanted to bring up here is acc is now covers birth injuries which is
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going to be relevant to you know if you decide to leave the new zealand defence force that you know these birth injuries
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will be covered and they're still really working through you know what are covered and what aren't covered at the moment but that's really good news for
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um wahine who often go through a pretty traumatic physical and often emotional
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ordeal as well and to have this covered by the government is really is really a step in the right direction
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uh one in four of our wahine are going to have a cesarean section either
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emergency or elective uh caesarean section and recovery from
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this is quite significantly different from our normal sort of vaginal births and it's going to take at least sort of
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six to ten weeks for the wound part to heal and quite a bit longer until we
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feel well enough to get out and do activity so we can do
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you know we can complete the walking and start the pelvic floor exercises and deep core exercises but really check
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with your women's health physio and lmc before commencing any resistance training and ask them about specific
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treatment for cesarean section scar pain or numbness if this is relevant to you
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for most people you know we will bounce back from these cesarean sections but some people do have quite a lot of
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ongoing pain and if you're in um you know if this
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is relevant to you to really seek out and seek out the help from the your lead maternity carer from the medical officer
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from the women's health physiotherapy and those support networks around you
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so what do we want to do in those first sort of two to six weeks and if you've had a caesar or had you know some pretty
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significant birth injuries you're probably not wanting to do too much so just listen to your body and get back
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into activity as you feel comfortable to do so continue to walk and do deep core
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exercises and pelvic floor exercises if you feel well enough to do so and for some people low impact
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activities such as the cycle or cross trainer can be added in if you're feeling well enough to do so for those
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non complicated births during weeks two to four same again if
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you're feeling well enough to do so you can start doing some bodyweight squats and bridging activities but noting that
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in this stage we really just want to recover and if you want to do activity
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cool but the the main aim is to just get our bodies right and look after baby
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the one of the important parts in this area is really reconnecting with our breath and you know it's been sort of 20
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weeks since we've been able to lie on our back comfortably and we've had you know
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a big old uh basketball in front of us which has been squishing all of our organs so in this
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period of our training we really want to do some breath connect and start getting back into that deep diaphragmatic
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breathing exercises such as lying on your back and breathing are recommended to coordinate
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the pelvic floor and diaphragm to work better and in this stage it's vital that
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emphasis is placed on healing and strengthening the pelvic floor muscles to reduce the long term to reduce the
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chance of having long-term pelvic floor dysfunction uh after childbirth it's normal to feel
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pretty beaten up but in this table here it talks about what is normal and what is not normal so you know
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when to reach out and seek help so it's pretty normal to be sore but it's not normal to
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be so sore that you can't look after baby and do your activities of daily living so
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if you're so sore you know make sure that you do reach out and let the lead maternity carer know
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hemorrhoids is pretty common after childbirth and same again this is normal but if it's so painful that it's making
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you cry and unable to you know and it's getting affecting the way that you're looking after your baby you know reach
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out and get the treatment required it's normal to feel overwhelmed but if
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you're feeling so upset and overwhelmed and thinking about um
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harm definitely reach out because there's some really good and important networks out
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there in one of the sections we'll talk about at the end uh postnatal depression
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is um you know there's a percentage that will get this during pregnancy and even higher percentage
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afterwards so if you are feeling so upset tired fatigued that you're
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starting to have you know thoughts that you know aren't healthy and are going to affect
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your safety and safety of your child make sure that you get those support networks around you
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it's normal to be pretty sore after a tear or episiotomy or after having a c-section
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but if you get any redness over the wound or it's starting to smell funny or
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that there is worsening pain this may mean that you've got an infection so yeah pain is normal but if it's starting
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to be red and yucky and horrible and spreading make sure we get on top of
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that it's normal to bleed after
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after having a baby but this should stop after six weeks and so if it continues
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on make sure that your lmc knows about this and if you're needing to change pads you
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know multiple times in an hour and bleeding increases instead of decreasing make sure that that's um you know that
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your medical professionals around you are aware of that cramping it's normal for cramps to come
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and go as the body uh gets used to i guess sort of being non-pregnant
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but if there's constant significant pain that's not normal
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leaking urine at the end of pregnancy and a few weeks after birth is well i
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wouldn't say normal but common because there's been so much pressure put on the pelvic floor but if this continues after
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that six weeks period you know make sure that we get that sorted
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through referral to a pelvic health physiotherapist
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if there's pain with peeing and pulling it's going to be a little bit sore initially but if it really starts to
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sting or burn we've got to make sure that there's no infection there nipple pain when we
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first start breastfeeding it's going to be pretty sore but if there's red streaks lumps
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uh you know latching issue bleeding or pus you know make sure that we use the
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you know touch base with the lmc and if we need to you know there may be an infection or we may need some
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additional support with breastfeeding stuff doming coning and a gap between
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abdominal muscles and so in the first part of this booklet we talk about abdominal separation being
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or stretching being a normal part of pregnancy and it should return to normal
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in the first six months but if it's still there following the six months we want to do a little bit
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more specific stuff for the core bulging and pressure everything might
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feel pretty uncomfortable after childbirth but if it's still there three months afterwards there may be a bulge
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or a prolapse that we definitely want to get sorted seek medical advice if you experience
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any birth complications listed in the right column so it's just a bit of a yeah a bit of a table as to yeah we're
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going to feel sore we're going to feel tired we're going to feel terrible well terrible is probably not the right word
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we're going to feel overwhelmed but if it's to a point that it's affecting our ability to look after baby we need to
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talk to a medical professional and get the support in place that we need
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and then there's just a bit of a checklist there and the main things that we want to do in that zero to six period
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is connect with the breath and getting our pelvic floor and deep core
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working and functional again we want to get out and walk get some fresh air um you know start taking
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some you know getting some fresh air and getting out of the house we want to talk about postnatal depression with friends with different
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health lines and if we need to get a referral to the um you know from the defense health centre let's do that to
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make sure that we've got plenty of support around us and purchase a good supportive sports bra the
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with breastfeeding everything's going to feel pretty engorged and if we're out
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walking we want to make sure that we're well supported there in the next part of this zero to six
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uh section we have got a couple of uh example exercise programs that you
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can start and so in this first one we want to get into some breath connect we want to
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start reconnecting with the pelvic floor with the deep core muscles and we can also start some bridging exercises
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we have attached a video here which i will bring up
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just to give you an idea of yeah i mean what we've got and so you can see
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our fitness model here working through the different sort of exercises so that's the first one with our breath
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connect when you know that big basketball is no longer there we want to get back into
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that diaphragmatic breathing when we get back into our pelvic floor
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stuff the easiest way to do this is lying on our back there's different cues that we use to
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get this pelvic floor contracting and working well and we also want to work the fast twitch fibers of
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these muscles as well the transversus abdominis is our deep
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core and once we've had baby we want to make sure that that deep core is um strong
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and functional we can start getting into some glute bridges and working that posterior chain
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of the body
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this one's quite a nice way of getting the deep core working with a little bit of movement as well so we know that we
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can get the decor firing during different movements of the body
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and then the last one here just working our stabilizers so everything working in and around the
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hips and that's an example of the pelvic
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floor and core exercises
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moving on to right and that's um what we want to be doing in that zero to six so we want to
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be out walking and doing pelvic floor and core
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moving into the next section of our postpartum journey from week seven to
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twelve and at that six week period we have a catch up with our lead maternity carer
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and we you know if the lead maternity carer is happy with how we're going
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potentially we're going to get discharged from their care and this discharge from lmc care is more
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around sort of wound healing and specific pregnancy related stuff some people take this as cool i'm good you
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know i've been discharged from the midwife i can get back in and start smashing everything so um yes maybe your
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wounds have healed but it's not a time to get back into everything if your body's
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not quite ready ensure you get a postnatal or on a fitness check or you know potentially
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longer to check pelvic floor muscle damage and strength it's also important
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that the pelvic health physiotherapist confirms that you're doing the exercises correctly
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and they'll also have a look at that diastasis recti which is the normal sort of separation of the abdominal muscles
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and make sure that everything is okay there give you some exercises to help there they'll look at posture core
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strength and check to enable a safe return to exercise
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our contracted physiotherapists in the new zealand defence force camps are apm physio and if you want to catch up
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with so you can request a referral either from the defense health centre or
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directly through apm physio
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keeping in touch days as you are probably aware we can return to work for apps up to 64
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hours on the discretion of our commander manager when we're on um parental leave
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and you know we can apply for some of these keeping and touch days to
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you know go and catch up with the dhc and you know report how we're feeling if we need any special referrals out for
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example if we're having a bit of a hard time and need some more support around that postnatal depression stuff if we
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need a referral out to a pelvic health physiotherapist you know we can use these hours to get in sometimes our
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wahine if they've taken for example 12 months maternity leave and you know won't step back and camp for that time
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and that's fine but i guess the point that i'm trying to make here is that we do have the ability and our health
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services do want to support us during the time i could use some of these hours to touch space with the camp medical officer at
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the dhc or catch up with the women's health physiotherapist campbell-based physiotherapist or exercise
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rehabilitation instructor to start an exercise program
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on this page here we talk a little bit more about a self-check for diastasis recti and
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during pregnancy we have a natural sort of thinning and separation of the abdominal muscles which should over six
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months just heal return and repair itself as time goes on and that's a nice way to just
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check to see if um if you've got a diastasis recti and need to be doing
21:01
some specific additional core stuff to help in the healing there
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what sort of exercise is recommended in the seven to twelve period uh if our
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wounds have healed and bleeding has stopped you know potentially we can return to swimming uh cycling or spin classes if this is
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comfortable for you to do so resistance training can progress to either light bands or weights if comfortable
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to do so uh if we've gained quite a bit of weight during pregnancy definitely
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don't attempt to run until your bmi is back under 30 because that extra weight
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is going to put extra weight on the pelvic floor and our pelvic floor is pretty important to us
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for uh peeing pooping sexual function and uh you know holding all our organs
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in so we want to make sure that we're looking with that we're really looking after that pelvic floor and sometimes
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you know sometimes we'll have problems at the time but sometimes these postpartum problems
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won't i guess sort of really here until one years five years after and sometimes
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even into menopause so even if you are feeling cool like i'm ready to smash it
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really go back to that concept of um you know
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could i versus should i and we start talking about the return to
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running from 12 weeks and this is based on some
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pretty robust uh evidence and the the references there if you want to do
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further reading about it let's talk about breastfeeding bras and
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exercises exercise so if you have chosen to breastfeed your baby there are no
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medical reasons why you can't return to exercise following medical clearance
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but however you may need to alter the type of training that you're doing the type of clothing that you're wearing to ensure exercise can be completed
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comfortably uh if you've got um engorgement
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uh pain from breastfeeding or even mystitis acknowledged that you know you
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probably don't want to get out and do exercise and that's fine like as we've talked about we want to get back into it
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as the body is ready to do so relaxing levels do not return to normal
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until three months after breastfeeding so just keep that in your mind
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that you know the joints ligaments are more lacks more flexible so if we feel
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like going out and playing touch rugby we are going to be more at
23:48
risk of injuries that was a bad example we obviously don't want to go back to running until at least 12 weeks because
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we know that everything has healed up but that's the point that i'm trying to make there is you know whilst we're
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breastfeeding there's still going to be a high level of relaxin and hormones within the blood
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uh to make exercise more comfortable we can consider feeding baby prior to exercising you know to ensure that
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you're not overly full or babies not really hungry while you're out exercising
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and then we want to make sure that we have a really good supportive sports bra
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breastfeeding hydration and nutrition moderate to vigorous exercise does not
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affect or does not impact your milk quality
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or your ability to provide all the nutrients required by your babe from
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your baby uh however you do need to drink a lot more during this time
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because you know the body is working so hard to produce uh you know milk and nutrients for the baby
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while breastfeeding your body does need an additional 400 calories per day above what your
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normal energy requirements are to produce this woman who are overweight can safely diet
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during breastfeeding if they choose to do so and monitor the impact of their diet change on milk production
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let's talk about some of the exercises that we can do in that seven to twelve week period
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in that zero to six we're relying on our backs and in this one we just want to progress it and make it a little bit
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harder so these ones are done in our four-point kneeling position i'll take us through to that um video again
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so these ones are the same exercises that we've done in the zero to six and just in a position that challenges the
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body a little bit more so we're in that four point kneeling position we're working the pelvic floor both the slow
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twitch fibers and the fast switch fibers which is a quick flick of 10 for those fast finish
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we want to continue working that transverses abdominis so at that underlying we just want to pull in one
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centimeter to get that deep core firing
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and this one we're going to start working that posterior chain the glutes the hemis the low back and if any of
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these exercises are sore uncomfortable just skip them out these are just
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suggested exercises but as we talked about everyone's going to recover so differently so if your body
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doesn't like these ones um this one works the stabilizer muscles so
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we're just preparing the body in the deep core as we get back to exercise
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and we can also get into our strengths training here and same again i'll just pull up our
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video and the sort of stuff that we are pretty happy doing in that seven to
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12 weeks so we're just going to start training
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our press ups but we can just do this in a standing position
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or if you feel like you need a little bit more we can do them in a kneeling position
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we want to start working all the stabilizing exercises in and around the shoulder blades so when we do go back to
27:37
[Music]
27:47
an initial sort of squat exercise some calf raises to prepare us for the
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next stage which is our return to running stuff
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a deadlift exercise same again we just want to prepare that single leg standing out balance before
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we get back into running to make sure that when we do get back into running our body's really strict for it
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and this is one to work our core so just a little bit harder than our sort of big core exercises now we've got the decor
28:23
working with movement
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and then let's talk about what that postpartum week's 12 plus look like running is a high impact activity
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which puts a lot of pressure on the pelvic floor core and organs return to running is not advised prior to three
28:52
months postnatal or longer if you've had a caesar or birth trauma so
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for this 12 months for most people they should be ready to return to that
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running in this guide it's just a guide so with use this guide
29:11
in you know with a close relationship with your physiotherapist pelvic health
29:16
physiotherapist eri and they will take you through um exercises for you that are suitable for
29:22
where at so even though it says cool you know i'm 12 weeks postpartum i'm allowed to run as of today it's going to be
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different for everyone for some people it might be a little bit earlier but you know just make sure that
29:34
you're cleared by the pelvic health physiotherapist so you know that your pelvic floor is strong so you know that your core is good and you're not putting
29:40
yourself at risk of injury because it's not a race we want to play the long game for this yes we want to get back to work
29:47
full fitness and operational deployability but not at the detriment of injuring ourselves or having
29:52
long-term problems with pelvic floor or prolapses or incontinence because that's going to
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accelerate our you know exit from the new zealand defence force really quickly we don't
30:04
want to do that your exercise recovery will be easier if you start light as soon as you feel
30:10
ready and ease your way back into training rather than going sort of full handy when you've got to that specific
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time frame there's a really good document that was written in 2019 by
30:24
goomb and donnelly and that's set up as a hyperlink as well so
30:30
if you want more information about specific research of when to return to different things
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that's a really good and robust research article about that
30:41
before we return to running we need to make sure that we can balance for 30 seconds we need to make sure that we can do a single leg squat that we can jog on
30:49
the spot for a minute that we can do bounds that we can hop and that we've got enough strength in our calves so
30:54
this is a pretty good measure of am i ready to go back to running can i do all these things and if you are and you
31:00
don't have any problems then it means that cool you know you're ready to start getting back into running which is
31:06
awesome uh exercise programs when in that zero to six we were on our
31:12
back in the seven to twelve we were in a four point kneeling position by 13
31:18
plus weeks we want to be able to do this pelvic floor and deep core work uh while
31:24
standing whilst walking around whilst doing the dishes peeling the carrots that sort of things brushing our teeth
31:29
so by this time we want those brain muscle contractions to feel to be really
31:36
good and strong that we can put it into our everyday activities and then on this one we've also added in
31:44
single leg balance to prepare us for running and also some more advanced glute stuff let's have a look
31:50
at that video
31:55
so this video isn't overly exciting because it's just someone standing there but what you can't see is what's going
32:00
on in the inside so they are working their pelvic floor and doing that lift and squeeze with this one holding for 10
32:07
seconds and as we've talked about previously it's only that pelvic health physiotherapist that's able to tell us
32:14
if we are doing these exercises correctly they the pelvic health physiotherapists
32:21
do an internal examination with your consent but it's really worth getting
32:26
that examination to know that you're doing everything well and properly before you get back into your running and resistance training
32:34
got a single leg balance there
32:41
and some bridgewater
32:58
on our next page we are progressing our resistance training
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again and this one is specifically for our return to run stuff let's pull up the video and
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watch the exercises that are recommended in that 13 plus
33:16
so we're starting to get a little bit more functional and adding in sort of opposite arm opposite leg stuff
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we've got to press up with the bird dog there
33:33
we want to make sure that we're really strong and through the shoulder blade stabilizers
33:39
might be a little bit uncomfortable if you are still breastfeeding and fighting board so as you say just skip out those
33:44
exercises if they're not happy only get into these leaking ones if you have
33:49
been cleared by your pelvic house physiotherapist
33:55
because this is our real sort of return to run strengthening program
34:01
and we want to make sure that we've got much strong cards
34:07
so we know we don't have any injury problems same again only do these leaping ones if you have been cleared
34:13
and we know that that pelvic floor is strong enough and we're not having any um urinary
34:19
works the stabilizer muscles
34:32
good
34:44
with our return to running one of the programs that
34:50
is really highly used and well written is the uk national health service couch to 5k
34:57
training plan so if you're looking for something sort of online that you can start straight away or you can go in and catch
35:03
up with your exercise rehabilitation instructor and they'll be able to write a program specifically for you
35:09
as we talked about continue to ask yourself um you know should i be doing this not can i be
35:15
doing this going uphill will reduce the pressure on the pelvic
35:22
floor but going downhill is going to increase it so if we can just sort of stick to the flat initially that will be
35:29
important for us uh start each exercise with a bit of a warm-up ideally a fast walk and we want
35:36
to increase the running tolerance not speed
35:41
combine the running program with the strength training
35:47
if you are so running with a pram alters the way that we run and so if we can return to
35:55
running without the pram that's ideal but this baby is probably going to be with us 24 7 and our partners are not
36:02
always going to be home or maybe we don't have partners so our baby's going to be with us so if we run with our pram
36:08
we just want to make sure that the pram is set up in uh so we're using a pram that's designed
36:15
for running start with a two-handed hold on the buggy even though this is going to feel pretty uncomfortable on our
36:21
shoulder hair our shoulder blades and um so start with two-handed hold on
36:27
the buggy is this position is where your body behaves closest to that of normal running compared to the
36:33
you know one hand out in front
36:39
returning to work so as you are aware members of the nzdf are
36:44
entitled to 26 weeks paid parental leave which you may split up with your your partner
36:52
when you return to work book in with the defence health centre who will review
36:57
your medical grading which will take into account breastfeeding birth injury and any postnatal complications
37:03
you will be exempt from fitness testing contact sports formal fitness classes uh
37:09
for 12 months but if you want to get back into this sooner then just make sure you're
37:15
cleared and that your public health physiotherapist is happy that you return
37:20
and that your manager is on board with where you're at and the you know that you've been cleared
37:27
medically so there's these you know policy there to protect you however if you are
37:34
ready to go back to these things earlier then that's cool as well but just make sure that you're cleared to do so
37:41
every individual is different every pregnancy is different every birth is different and so it's really important
37:47
that you work with your physiotherapist and eri and manager to manage your training
37:52
and liaise directly with the mo with any questions concerning your return to work return to training and fitness training
38:00
courses promotions seniority and nominations so if you want to do a course you can if you don't want to do a
38:06
course you don't have to in that first 12 months if you want to do the course but can't do
38:12
the sort of the physical components then there's you're not going to be discriminated
38:18
against however it's really again that really clear communications between your
38:24
manager the course manager your medical officer so you make sure that
38:29
you're keeping those communications nice and open and we've just got the reference there
38:35
to dfo part 12 chapter 10 for further information about this
38:42
fitness testing so we've got 12 months until we're required to do fitness testing however if you want to do it
38:48
before that you can providing that you're cleared or if you need longer then you can get an extension through
38:54
the medical officer so this is a line in the sand for i guess sort of something
39:00
that it's realistic that you can aim for if you've had a non-complicated pregnancy
39:06
however if you're for example manager or commander says
39:12
you know like it's 12 months since the birth of the baby you are to do a fitness test no that's incorrect if and
39:18
you need to make sure that you've been you know that you've got good correspondence with the defense health
39:23
centre with your medical officer and that if you have had complications you know we need to extend that out to
39:30
make sure that you're not putting yourself at risk of further injury so 12 months is um
39:38
i guess sort of what's written in the falls but it may be sooner or it may be longer for you
39:44
ensure you talk to the mo about your situation ensure your manager is aware of your updated
39:49
time frames and training program progression so they're able to provide you support
39:54
during your recovery and back to full fitness there's just a bit of a checklist there
40:01
the sort of things that we want to do in that final sort of stage
40:06
and postnatal for life this one's really important so complications and side effects from
40:12
pregnancy and birth may arise immediately after childbirth or sometime following pregnancy and birth and
40:18
sometimes signs of pelvic floor damage or prolapse are not detected until menopause and at this time
40:26
yeah you know we want to be able to go to the defense health center and get that support
40:32
and treatment that we need and similarly you know if there's people around you
40:37
that you're like oh you know i pee when i'm jumping on the trampoline or skipping or running just because it's
40:44
common it doesn't mean that it's normal um there is a lot that can be done to
40:49
prevent injuries improve injuries help you return to full fitness without symptoms when you listen to your body
40:55
and get the right support you can be stronger and fitter than before having children and it's never too late
41:01
hey that concludes the main part of our exercise and postpartum there is a lot
41:08
of information there but hopefully with the movies and videos in there it's able to make it a little bit more clear for you
41:15
with uh as always these are just examples of safe exercise during
41:20
postpartum but you know make sure that you touch base with your pelvic health physiotherapist with the apm physio with
41:27
the eri you know to make sure that you're doing the exercises correctly and if there's any that uncomfortable or
41:34
painful don't just do them because they're in the booklet and you know catch up with someone to find out
41:40
exactly what's going on i'll just flick through the the annexes really quickly
41:45
so you can get an idea of the other stuff that is included in the booklet so there's a page there of how to do a
41:52
pelvic floor self-examination a little bit of information about miscarriage in
41:59
that one about stillbirth and about postnatal depression and the different support networks that are available for
42:06
you if you experience any of these things uh cultural support and making sure that
42:12
the um so everybody has a right to um
42:19
you know be treated you know culture with cultural respect
42:24
and making sure that you're linking in with you know what's important to you and for
42:30
maori and many other populations in new zealand the standard ways of delivering social and health services do not align
42:36
with the concept of whanau ewe and community and there is
42:42
a lot of support out there for maori pacific islanders um asian populations
42:48
in the different way that they may choose to go through birth childhood and um you know particularly that fourth
42:54
trimester there's a checklist in here for commanders and if you are ever in the
43:00
position that you're feeling forced to go you know back into the field or on
43:05
course or back to fitness training there's you know there's really good clear
43:12
policy to support you and you know once the commanders are able to get their hands on this as well this is going to
43:18
support them through this process also and then finally just a bit of directory
43:24
of key contacts that may help you if you are feeling that you need more support you
43:30
know particularly in those that time uh after childbirth when
43:36
everything feels pretty crazy there's some really nice helplines that are available 24 7 for you to talk to for
43:44
you know if you need help with breastfeeding latching feeling overwhelmed depressed um
43:50
and there's lots of phone numbers and email addresses there
43:57
that can help
44:03
and that concludes the presentation on exercise pt and training for a postpartum
44:09
and we definitely want to listen to our bodies
44:14
and just do what we can and slowly ease back into it with the aim of returning
44:19
to full work duties full fitness and operational deployability good luck
Thursday
Press Pause to recharge our resilience
Throughout our lives we all face challenges we must try and navigate through.
Today we're joined by Ted Talk speaker Dr Lucy Hone who'll be sharing some great insights about how to do this, as well as her tips for staying resilient through the tough times.
Dr Lucy Hone is a Senior Professor at the University of Canterbury, a co-director of the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing & Resilience, a published academic researcher and best-selling author.
Her TED talk, the Three Secrets of Resilient People, has had more than 6 million views and has been translated into 15 different languages.
Contact integrated.wellness@nzdf.mil.nz for a recording of the webinar
Friday
Managing workload and avoiding burnout
If you're stressed at work, it can lead to fatigue and exhaustion.
Join NZDF's Director of Psychology, Wing Commander Caro Pezaro, for a great discussion about workplace stress, burnout, and managing workload.
Contact integrated.wellness@nzdf.mil.nz for a recording of the webinar
Press Pause in the workplace
The atmosphere we work within affects our happiness, the way we interact with others, how we behave, and how productive and engaged we are with our work.
Join our panel as they talk about the importance of a healthy workplace culture, work-life balance, and what to do when things aren't okay.
Who?
Facilitator: Nina Russell, Diversity & Inclusion
Panel:
- Kurt Baker - All Black Sevens player
- Wg Cdr Caro Pezaro - NZDF Director of Psychology
- Brig Matt Weston - NZDF Chief People Officer
- Tamara Hamiora- NZDF, Civilian of the year
- Brad Poulter - Diversity & Inclusion
Press Pause in the Workplace
0:01
this meeting is being recorded
0:10
uh kia ora everyone welcome today i'm just going to start with a karakia
0:17
kia hora te marino papa ponamo timoana rahi matato iterangine araha atu
0:25
aarohamai tato itanto katoa and that karakia is just simply may peace be
0:32
widespread may the sea be light green stone may a pathway for us all on this day let
0:37
us show respect for each other um so we've got a fantastic panel
0:43
and before i introduce themselves i'm just going to introduce myself
1:14
so my name is nina rosso and it's my great pleasure to host this fantastic panel today
1:21
and i'm just going to go through i'm the director of diversity and inclusion i'm just going to go through and introduce our panelists so we've got
1:29
the fabulous kurt baker all black sevens player i understand that kirk has some pretty
1:36
fancy footwork and uh also some reliable defense uh he's a senior member of the all black
1:43
sevens uh and has a very impressive resume with two commonwealth game medals
1:48
uh and uh was also part of the side that brought home silva and the 2020 olympics
1:54
in tokyo welcome kurt it's really lovely to have you here today we've also got wing commander caro
2:01
pizarro she is currently double hatting so is both the nzdf director of
2:06
psychology and also um holds the head of operational psychology currently
2:11
um she is going to speak from personal experience today on things like burnout workload and how we might manage the
2:18
competing demands in our lives without internally combusting which sounds pretty awesome
2:23
we've got brigadier matt weston our nzdf chief people officer um brigadier
2:28
weston's held a number of regimental and command positions including being command of one brigade and his current
2:36
role as the chief people officer for the new zealand defence force uh we also are very lucky to have tamara hamilto here
2:43
today the new zealand civilian of the nzdf civilian of the year
2:49
tamara is the health inventory manager for the defence equipment management organisational organisation suru um and
2:55
she effectively adapted and led her team during 2020 under the most challenging of supply circumstances
3:03
change circumstance supply chain circumstances um to meet the nzd of demand for ppe during the covert 19
3:09
pandemic and we've also got brad poulter senior advisor diversity and inclusion
3:15
who initially was uh in uniform uh he listed
3:20
in the navy in 2001 has deployed operationally a number of times and over the last couple of years
3:27
has been in a civilian role um as the senior advisor so today's um webinar is uh called press
3:35
pause in the workplace and it aims to promote uh the importance of healthy and
3:40
positive workplace for overall well-being so just to begin um i think it's really
3:46
fitting at the end of well-being week that we close with a focus on the workplace um it's really easy to accept
3:52
the work environment just as it is but it's actually really important to our own well-being that we
3:58
ensure that our work environment is the best it can be and we've all got a role to play in that um today is an
4:04
opportunity to discuss what that looks like and to understand what we can do when it's not okay
4:10
so it would be really great if we could just get the panel to introduce themselves
4:16
and share two words that uh help describe a great work environment and
4:22
then two words that might describe when it's not such a great work environment so caro if we could start with you
4:28
please um so i guess this is about what you
4:34
personally would love in a workplace so a great workplace for me is really growth and learning orientated where
4:40
it's okay to make a mistake so that's the workplace i want to work in when it's not going well is when it becomes i
4:48
guess toxic and over strained so those are my two words
4:53
of a workplace i don't want thank you um and what about you matt
5:00
uh hi everyone kiara um look i think a great workplace to my mind um
5:06
demonstrates truly that it values the people that work within it and that you know can be across you know many aspects
5:13
um and the other one i think is that it has a really clear focus on what's important
5:18
so and and that can change through time you know might be the mission or it might be just looking after each other
5:23
to get ready for the next mission so that's sort of a clarity of purpose i think that's broadly understood um a not
5:31
so good workplace um where people are excluded you know they might be frozen out or you know physically however it
5:38
works and the other one i think is a um a workplace that um
5:44
values the wrong sort of work and you know busy work comes to mind you know you've got to be here till five
5:50
o'clock every night that sort of thing and not taking into account individuals needs within that
5:56
yeah thank you tamara what about you uh um so a good workplace for me is um
6:03
uh where people are valued number one um and then also that uh people are working
6:10
together collaboratively as a team um a not so great workplace would be um the
6:16
opposite of the team so probably working in silos and um and not looking at the
6:22
greater purpose um and then it would just be uh sort of toxic behaviors that might not make
6:29
people feel so great within themselves yeah great thank you brad what about yourself
6:35
and then i chose two words just to be difficult it was more uh inclusive culture you know ultimately we want
6:41
people to be their genuine self um and not have to put a mask on when they go to work um it's exhausting for them to
6:47
do that every single day and not being able to be um their true selves at work and just having an environment where
6:52
they're safe to be who they are and i guess the opposite of that it's not necessarily a word but it's a feeling we
6:57
know what it feels like to be in a organization or a place where it doesn't feel um
7:03
that positive vibe and i think we can all probably understand what that feels like at some point in their careers
7:09
yeah and what about when it's you know toxic not so good what some words
7:16
i don't think a word describes it for me it's really a feeling how that feels yeah yeah yeah yeah and kurt what about yourself
7:26
yeah i put down two so for me i think um have a caring environment is pretty important um and the caring side is
7:33
asking questions or understanding the individuals and then i suppose the bad one i put
7:38
down was just too busy and by that i mean too busy to remind yourself about the things that
7:45
you are important to you um everyone's different um you know i
7:50
have my own work environment but when we get too busy doing getting
7:56
caught up in what we think is important we actually forget about the things that actually are genuinely important
8:01
so that would be the two for me oh great um so what i heard was you know
8:06
and on the positive side things like having um you know a growth mentality opportunity to learn clarity of focus um
8:14
i really like it using the word caring i think that's really important we're all people first uh and and it's really
8:21
important not to lose sight of that um being inclusive having a positive vibe and when it's not so great with you know
8:27
busy for business sake no clarity of mission focus siloed not being collaborative um being actively excluded
8:35
and i heard they were toxic a couple of times i think that's both you know that was really good descriptions of what um
8:42
you know a positive environment looks like and what a not so positive one doesn't look like it doesn't look like
8:47
sorry um i think we all agree that having a positive workplace is really important um but how do we create that
8:54
team culture and what can we do when reality doesn't match up with the sort of desired team culture so brett i'm
9:01
just going to start with you first i've got a couple of questions for each of the panel
9:06
so brad you've worked in um new zealand defence force in various roles um you know chef military police all sports uh
9:14
for a long time can you give us some of your reflections about work environments
9:19
and work culture yeah italian i've been privileged enough to have been working in this
9:24
organization for over 20 years now and as you mentioned i've been a chef military police um i've worked in
9:30
tri-service environments including the joint officer induction training um you know in deployments to afghanistan which
9:35
is you know primary army um the roland now really has a broader insight into each service and the unique service
9:42
culture within each service we are very different organizations as well as our civilian workforces as well
9:48
um in terms more recently i conducted some research as part of the tour um programmer work
9:54
which laura mentioned um in my intro and um that even further cemented you know
9:59
the environments that we work in uh and the synergies that exist in some of our cultures but also the disparities that
10:05
exist across all areas of our entire group forces i really do believe in terms of culture
10:11
um we're in a currently in a state of tug and war a tug of war sorry um between what a traditional
10:17
culture is and what a more a future focus progressive culture is and um there are
10:22
aspects you know that are no longer relevant to my opinion in terms of that traditional culture that we do hold on
10:27
to um in some ways um so traditional culture what is it it's that real um
10:33
value and sameness and i know we've come a long way but if i can reflect on when i joined and the people who are in
10:38
uniform who have joined you know over 15 years ago there was a real value on sameness and there was a real
10:44
cookie-cutter approach in terms of being similar all that conformity um you know we shaved our hair um
10:51
everyone shaved their hair to be the same and like conformed you know there's another aspect to that as well you know
10:56
we are isolated from our uh whanau our friends our faith our culture and we
11:02
just become this this part of this organization that is the same so um there is a quote um you know in terms of
11:11
how i feel about culture and you have to taste the culture to understand it and i think when it comes to a traditional
11:17
culture um sometimes we have to be able to really find out what that feels and how that looks and you know in terms of
11:25
what a culture could look like and how we approach it i really think it's similar to giving up smoking if anyone's
11:31
ever gone through that journey we can have a few failed attempts uh and able to sort of understand what a positive
11:37
culture can look like because there is a real curious approach in how we do this sometimes for some people there's a lot
11:43
of discomfort and stepping outside what's been the norm for such a long period of time so um you know a failed
11:50
attempt in getting it right i think it's okay to make mistakes just own your mistakes
11:55
and as i said earlier ultimately we just want people to be themselves you know i would love a place where everyone
12:01
regardless of where they come from where their what their background is the defence force is their home and they're
12:07
represented and they know they belong there and it's just that sense of home and that's how really i view culture and
12:13
um the ncds journey but i do have a lot of faith in um and where we're going and what we're doing and there's conversations like this uh are really
12:20
important and and that change happening so i hope that's answered your question then i do ramble on quite a bit as you
12:25
probably know that's great thank you um do you want to talk about some of our
12:31
programs that we've got to promote um diversity and inclusion in the workplace totally we have a number of programs but
12:37
if we package them all up into one we're really looking at that employment life cycle um you know how we're going to
12:44
retain the staff we have um and that's a really important thing for us and you know when you have good staff working
12:50
you know that message filters out into the wider community right you know it's a good place to work
12:55
you've heard it's a good place to work and um and i think that's that's where the magic lays and it's knowing that
13:02
people who are here are valued and feel valued and that people will interact
13:07
with everyone in a real positive way um the work that we're doing to answer your question i mean it's really raising
13:12
awareness of bias and it's a lot of programs going on at the moment there's a new lms program
13:18
just started up around understanding bias um which we'd probably share with you a link um after this um well that's
13:24
one aspect he's raising um the gender equality um some really great work happening in the gender equality space
13:30
we have uh our first ever gender equality conference in september which is um both the tarnite and wahine tower
13:35
programs working together and those programs are our gender programs if you didn't already know about that um also
13:41
the executive has signed up to a gender equality charter and um get in touch if you want to know more
13:46
information about that as well um cultural competency is a big part of the program for work that we do um lgbtiq
13:54
plus inclusion a huge part of that belonging piece and more recently we've really started to focus on neurodiversity
14:01
understanding that we're all wired differently and when it comes to how we learn and how we have a learning
14:06
approach in the organization we often look at neurodiversity as a disability it's it's not a disability
14:13
it's being disabled by um it's being disabled by the um the system
14:18
effectively so i'm being able to provide some really great resources to support people who may be dyslexic be on the
14:24
adhd spectrum it's a really exciting work because we know the stats i won't go into it now but it's um it's a really
14:31
promising exciting work happening in order to um really value our people and create a really inclusive culture thanks
14:38
thanks brad um caro i'm going to ask you a couple of questions now what's the
14:43
likely impact when you have a workplace culture that isn't good and what is your advice to people who might be
14:50
experiencing this okay cool um so i think we all know this
14:55
if we've had an experience of a culture that isn't um i guess uplifting or supportive of us but what it looks like
15:02
from a big picture perspective is your job satisfaction will take a big dive
15:07
and your engagement in the workplace and that can also lead to your actual performance and your productivity will
15:14
take a dive and worse yet is your well-being right so if you're working in a workplace culture that isn't
15:20
supportive of you isn't giving you what you need isn't um i guess the right fit
15:25
for you then it is likely it will affect your physical and mental health and to
15:30
what degree depends on really how bad the culture is but if we if we kind of
15:36
flip that and we look at kind of the positive side of it when you've got a culture that recognizes that you're
15:42
valued that provides you some sense of certainty and security and by that i
15:48
mean you know that you're you're going to be looked after you know that you've got a future you know what's coming
15:53
around the corner and if you've got an organization that provides you really great connections
15:58
and supports you have good friends um and good work mates and you work well with people if there's a sense of
16:05
fairness as well in the in the organization where like brad talked about when um the system can work
16:11
against you if you're different and what people are looking for in a good workplace culture is not having to fight
16:17
every day to be who they authentically are but getting the same access to opportunities that everybody does and if
16:24
you've got that sense of fairness that is going to engage people that is going to increase job satisfaction and even if
16:32
workload is high like and so i know we're talking about workload and burnout but if workload is
16:37
really high but you feel valued you feel supported and you feel included you will
16:42
be well and you will thrive despite what is thrown at you so that's why we really need to focus on
16:49
culture and it can feel like a really big deal because culture is complex we
16:54
live in the culture of our we we call it the tone of your individual unit and then you've got like the climate of your
17:01
your squadron your bigger workplace and then the culture of the organization but nzdf let's not forget and kirk might
17:08
talk about this later is embedded in the new zealand culture which is this kind of pioneering number 8 wire get the job
17:16
done we can do it kind of culture and that impacts everybody in this country the drive to be successful the drive to
17:23
have everything and we're sitting in zdf for kind of a microcosm of that culture
17:29
so we we've got to kind of take it to the basic limit as you as a leader what can you impact in your direct unit
17:36
and and what are the cultural artifacts that you can pull levers for to make some changes for yourself
17:41
and for the people around you to kind of create the environment that will increase well-being
17:47
yeah i really i really like what you're saying you know flipping it think about what a great culture um
17:53
looks like and you mentioned things like great connections and resilience i don't know if people had the privilege of
17:59
hearing lucy honor speak yesterday but one of the things that she talked about in terms of connections and networks is
18:06
that resilience isn't just built within us it's built between us and so those networks are really important those
18:12
friendships that work and i also really like that you mentioned about the impact of leaders um you know leaders do cast a
18:18
shadow uh and it's really important that they are aware of that somebody's always watching what they're saying and doing
18:24
um so that thank you for that caro um just one last question um you know everyone you talked about like
18:30
tempo and busy workloads and everyone is busy these days but what are some of the signs when it is getting even though
18:37
you're happy and engaged and stuff like that what are some of the signs when work might be getting on top of people
18:42
and what can they do about it yeah so what we're talking about is when a high workload turns into potentially
18:49
burnout right so when our well-being takes a dive so there's three components to burnout and if you want to know more
18:55
about that you can follow up and and watch the link for the webinar i did this morning but the three components are emotional
19:02
exhaustion so that's like feeling dead tired to your core it can feel like
19:07
you're just absolutely swamped or like you're walking around in a brain fog and you can't see the forest for the trees
19:14
so it's this real intense exhaustion but that alone is not burnt out the other feature of burnout is cynicism
19:21
where you just get to the point where you just give up stuff this i mean there's no point to it and you just lose faith you lose trust
19:27
in the organization and your leaders and the people around you and you just everything is just like
19:33
and at that point that's when you become disengaged right and you might start looking at say because you're like i
19:39
just want to get out of here and the third component which is also quite damaging to your own sense of self and
19:45
well-being is a lack of self-belief that's when you start going i'm really
19:50
exhausted i don't care anymore and i don't think i can do this so if you're saying to this maybe this job was too
19:56
big for me maybe they chose the wrong person maybe i can't do it it's not that it is the case you can't
20:03
do it it's that potentially you're burnt out right and you don't realize that you've just used up everything you've
20:09
got and it just feels like you're not making any gains so it's that sense that i'm not making progress there's no light
20:16
at the end of the tunnel and a real sense of overwhelm so those are the three components of burnout and if
20:22
you're in that space and i know for a fact that some of you are because i've seen some of you then you can reach out
20:28
and get help and there's so many ways to access it you can talk to your friends and your
20:34
peers and sometimes they're the greatest support for you when they go you know what you're not crazy this isn't normal
20:40
let's do some something to help but you can also access support through the sykes the chaplains the social workers
20:47
you can go through eap if you're a civilian there's a lot of resources on the nzdf
20:53
health website if you just go in there and follow some of the links you'll find somebody who can provide support and i
20:59
encourage you if you are burnt out to get help because it can be hard to crawl
21:04
out of that abyss on your own and there are people there who want to help you
21:10
yeah thanks cara i think that getting people to get help is really important because when you are in that emotionally
21:17
exhausted cynical disengaged lacking self-belief sort of stage not only is it
21:22
harmful to yourself but it's actually also quite harmful to the wider team um because
21:28
you know you you influence the mood or the climate that you mentioned earlier so seeking help is really important um
21:35
and there are some traits of people who are more likely to burn out as well so they're often high achievers um people
21:42
who are really passionate about their work and we have a lot of people who fit both those descriptions um and the nzdf
21:49
um thanks caro um kurt over to you i'm really interested to hear about the
21:54
rugby environment um and i know because in some ways we do have some sort of similarities i think uh to rugby culture
22:02
um can you give us some you know information from your point of view what are some signs of a humming versus not
22:08
so great team that you've been you've experienced and um and if you've got any examples of when you might have been
22:13
entertained when it wasn't so great and you've they've turned it around yeah
22:19
like we look at our environment now as it's going okay but we've definitely got still got flaws in it and we're finding
22:26
those tools all the time but um one thing we've really focused on in the last sort of four to five years is
22:32
is around understanding each individual for what they are and what what how they've been brought up what's their
22:38
background because we've you know we'll catch up once a week as a group of
22:43
sort of leadership group but just some sort of more experienced guys and basically we sit down with four or five
22:50
players individually um and try and nut those things out so we do understand the
22:55
individual first before we make judgment um because i think it's really easy to
23:01
you know someone's having a day and they maybe just give you nothing give us no effort in a rugby sense and you can
23:08
be quick to jump on the fact that it's just not good enough but i suppose the the main thing we've
23:13
worked on recently is around asking why or understanding why um and i think it's picked up a lot of
23:19
things that we may have missed in the past so i suppose that's a big comparison to maybe our environment
23:25
five to ten years ago was we didn't ask why we just assumed that everyone was built the same came
23:32
from the same background um yeah and i suppose from that sense it's
23:38
it's made us a better group because we actually i think we're more comfortable around each other and uh and having those
23:44
conversations and in formal ways so i think for us it's the biggest change
23:49
we've made in the last week was actually understanding the individual themselves
23:54
i think i think that's such a good point uh for this matariki um nzdf has got the
24:00
kaupapa of what so relationship building and getting to know people and and knowing who your
24:06
people are is so important to understanding how they take and how they work and were you given were people
24:13
given coaching on um you know how to get to know people or any sort of advice
24:18
about um you know and getting to understand the individuals first yeah i wouldn't say with her coaching as
24:26
such is probably we've just become more aware of it through experiences we're lucky we've had a group of guys
24:32
that have you know 70 percent of our group have been together for a period of time now so we've sort of learned from the run
24:38
and now it's getting fed through the next uh generation of guys that are coming through so
24:44
if anything we've probably learned the hard way um yeah right and we've got lots of support like we have our own um
24:51
mental skills guide but sometimes they don't pick up the stuff or you know they don't pick it all up
24:57
it's it's in those informal conversations there because we understand that individual and we can go have a coffee
25:03
with them or appear with them um it pops up in those conversations as opposed to to the really formal ones
25:10
i think that's that's been another massive learning for us is once you understand the individual you can then
25:15
understand where they're in their safe space or their happy place and you almost work back from there so
25:22
i think for us that has been the biggest change is we actually understand each individual for what they are um and i supposed to
25:30
break it back down at the start of every year will go away on sort of what's called pre-season camps or whatever but
25:36
a big part of that is us actually getting to know anyone new in our environment or the new guys
25:42
understanding that you know how what my background is or where i've come from or what makes me tick or doesn't
25:47
make me tick so i think that yeah the personal side of it is really important in that
25:53
yeah i think so do you think that um leadership and self-responsibility
25:59
um i like about you know getting to know people or being known is would you say leadership and self-responsibility are
26:05
equally important or one over the other yeah i suppose it's a tough question um
26:13
yeah i wouldn't say one is more important than the other um [Music] i think the self-responsibility here
26:20
there's a portion to that but i look at leadership as every individual person in the environment it's not about
26:27
looking up in a hierarchy and seeing that leadership is the top person and
26:32
and the ranks for instance put in our environment the captain he's yeah he's seen as the leader but we've all got
26:38
roles within that to lead so it might be uh two of the young guys and one of them
26:45
um checks in on his mate so that to me is we see that as leadership as well so yeah
26:51
yeah it's it's really i suppose especially a rugby environment has always been really it's it's all about the hierarchy and i
26:57
think that's changing especially in our environment and we're trying to change it anyway around making sure that everyone feels i
27:04
suppose it goes back to your point spread around inclusion and making sure that everyone feels included in it
27:10
because that's probably where you pick up your red flags or um you know opportunities to
27:16
to help yeah and you mentioned like keeping an eye out for your mates that um seems to
27:22
be a really big focus uh for and something that's strongly promoted in new zealand rugby can you tell us a
27:27
little bit more about that yeah i think it's um
27:34
one the first part would be understanding the individual and then second part is understanding where they're comfortable um
27:41
i'll give you an example so one of the guys in our team he's really been struggling um mentally in the last sort of six
27:48
months and it's due to a lot of things but he's had a really tough upbringing um and he'll be comfortable with me talking about this he's one of my good
27:54
mates but he how he was didn't get picked up saved by
28:00
our mental skills guy got picked up through an informal conversation that then triggered
28:06
something and then from that he loves building right so um i'll get him on reno's at home
28:12
because it's beneficial to me and and a lot of the conversations we have then
28:17
uh where we actually nut a lot of problems out or you know you're just you know swinging a hammer but saying
28:24
there's a bit of conversation on the side and it's i suppose it just takes the heat off the
28:29
awkwardness or the vulnerability i suppose so that's why i sort of went back to the
28:35
understand the individual because you need to understand what they enjoy doing and then when you're with them someone
28:40
might enjoy having a beer so go over a beer with them
28:46
especially our environment's been doing that but i know new zealand rugby are working really hard on on that piece um yeah and the other part
28:54
around it is identity so you i think as as regular players in new zealand we've probably perceived as
29:00
certain people but um i know aaron byron has been working really hard on making sure that we're
29:05
our identity's not just a rugby player so have you put it to the defense forces you're not just in the defence force
29:11
what else have you got um and that's made a mess of the difference yeah it's about the
29:17
you know because one day it'll disappear and then if you don't truly have your identity it's really hard to find a
29:23
heavy place i suppose yeah i think that's really smart uh one
29:28
thing i'd like to ask you you know it's really hard for people to speak up when they need a hand have you got any advice
29:36
to people who might be struggling around you know reaching out to get help
29:42
either or from nz rugby yeah i suppose it's understanding who
29:48
the people are that uh well one legally obliged to keep it confidential and there are a
29:54
safe space because i think that's really important is um you know we said in our environment guys are intimidated by
30:01
sometimes speaking up because they're worried that it'll affect their position in the team or the position in the environment um but we've
30:08
made it really clear of the people that they can go to and it won't um
30:14
it won't influence those things and then i suppose us as a an older crew of
30:19
players if you know we reiterate it all the time but i always say to the young guys like my phone's always there and
30:25
whatever you talk to me about will never go to the coaches i've got no interest in and trying to burn you so
30:31
it's i suppose everyone understanding where their safe space is to have that talk or
30:36
or the avenues you can go we had a doctor come talk to us yesterday around that same thing and
30:42
you know some people don't understand that a doctor is legally obliged to be confidential and he explained it to our
30:48
boys and i could see some of our boys were actually i'm not sure they would have known that prior to that conversation so
30:55
um you know everyone has a vulnerable time but it's understanding one the people around you
31:02
that you can talk to and trust but to the people that are medically
31:07
um qualified to actually talk to you as well yeah yeah that's true that's great um i
31:14
feel like you know a lot of the stuff that you talking about is around creating that high trust environment as well
31:20
and i really like what you're saying about um you know think about who you are as a whole person not just as your
31:27
role um i know you know historically particularly for men lots of men have struggled when they have um you know
31:34
retired from a role and not necessarily um understood the other aspects of who
31:40
they are so i think that's really good advice and i like the idea about like everyone being a leader we have the same
31:47
um sort of thing here when we talk about lead self and then it goes into lead teams et
31:52
cetera so so thank you i really appreciate that um tamara i've got a couple of questions for you
31:58
um have you ever experienced a less than ideal workplace culture
32:03
either at inside or elsewhere and what was it like for you and your broader team and did you have any learnings
32:10
yeah um absolutely um unfortunately i think it would be safe to say that
32:15
at some stage whether it's professional or personal life like we've all probably experienced
32:21
like a little bit of their culture um and one of the negative behaviors that
32:27
that eyewitness that particularly sticks with me was um was um
32:33
witnessing someone talk about another colleague probably in a not so kind manner
32:39
with other people in the work in the workplace um in terms of what that was like um
32:47
the the person that was being spoken about um
32:52
like it was awful because the person was like close to me and i know and i know the impact that it had on them um you
32:58
know mentally and within and you know probably their confidence etc um
33:05
so yeah it was distracting and it was draining and it was time consuming but probably what
33:10
surprised me the most was how many people that they ended up affecting so the individual
33:17
the team within that that person was in um and then i guess the lesson that come
33:23
out of it for me was um at that time i guess i didn't really have the courage to kind of stop it even
33:30
though i had witnessed it um and again going back to like the impact that it had on so many people if
33:36
i had had the courage at that time um to probably just um you know professionally just um doing it
33:43
in a professional manner stand up and just say hey you know like i don't think that that's um that's good um then it might not have
33:50
trickled on to where it went to um so yeah so um it's just and it just goes back to
33:57
the te paris of health um you know like where uh poor
34:02
culture can have such a negative impact on both like your mental and spiritual health so um so yeah
34:10
i hope that kind of answers the question yeah it absolutely does and i think you know you make a really good point like
34:16
it can be really hard to call something out um when you first hear it
34:21
particularly if you're new to a workplace um and so you know growing the skills to call something out is really
34:27
important um and i think another thing that people can do is expectation
34:32
setting so about um you know in units or teams what's okay and what's not okay so
34:39
that people know it's not okay to like bad mouth you know colleagues and things like that and we should all be striving
34:44
to whakamana to uplift people um so and another question i just sorry tomorrow
34:51
no that's cool carry on yeah i said i have another question um what advice do you have for others who
34:57
want to and create a really thriving team environment yeah um so i've got a couple of good
35:04
examples so within my team like i really keep it quite simple right um so uh
35:10
first of all it's um for me it's actually acting on my behaviors not i want this in a team i
35:16
want that in a team it's actually you know doing it not necessarily even talking so a couple of examples of those
35:24
might be um so first and foremost really good communication so you've got to keep those channels open all the time um
35:31
respecting one another um being kind to each other uh working as a
35:37
team so you know like i know within my team if i ever need help i can always just reach
35:43
out to anyone within and but vice versa so anytime they need a hand with anything it's like i pick up like some
35:50
cues that maybe they look a little bit got a bit too much on their plate and it's just stopping and saying oh hey um
35:56
is there anything i can help you with um but then the other the other key part for me um around building a culture is
36:03
just having some fun um you know whether it whether or not it be um you know um like having a bit of music
36:10
in the background it might be going out for like a like a lunch it might be um
36:17
you know even uh during the lockdown and stuff we created like a group chat um so
36:22
we can still keep those channels open um yeah so just just create a bit of banter
36:28
just creating a bit of a fun environment you know walking in and saying good morning in the morning like it's just
36:34
sometimes those really simple things that that um that build on that culture that thriving
36:39
culture um on a slightly larger scale and something that i'm really quite proud of
36:45
especially working for demo um so demo um
36:50
started up about three years ago we went from like a land-based equipment management organisation to defence
36:57
and three years ago we started a culture journey and like i said it's something that i'm really quite one passionate about and
37:03
quite proud to be a part of um so by no stretch of that imagination are we like perfect at all um it is called a
37:11
journey for a reason and it's something that happens like every day um but i can say we're so much better
37:18
for taking that journey um to begin with um so a couple of the things i'm reflecting
37:24
through the journey a couple of the three things that um sort of stood out for me was uh number one it was um the
37:32
culture journey was initiated and led from like the top and i suppose um when
37:38
i talk about that it's um it's it's just the fact that when we've
37:43
got initiatives it's the people from the top that can help support that and basically make it happen so whether it's
37:50
we're requesting half a day to go and do some community work you know it's those people there that can say yes i approve
37:55
that and we can go and do that so that's the top part um the other part was
38:01
simplifying and and formalizing the plan so that the people within the organization
38:07
um simply know okay so we're gonna be proud of who we work for but what are
38:12
some of the behaviors that i'm gonna um that that i need to do day in and day
38:17
out to um to demonstrate that that that's what i'm sort of working towards so it's like
38:23
simplify simplifying or formalizing your plan so you know what you want to achieve and it's like a collective
38:30
um it's a collective joint adventure that everyone's going on juni um
38:35
and then the other real key part was whilst leading from the top um leadership from the top was important
38:41
it's really important to embed the culture within the unit so we've got like a culture working group which is
38:48
anyone who wants to be a part of it can be um and it's these these people um in
38:54
the cultural working group are the ones that um you know are going back to what kurt said you know whether or not the
39:00
other new people playing that sometimes they pull out those nuggets and they can really sort of like drive the momentum
39:06
from um from like whether it be like um a receptionist or you know like it
39:14
actually doesn't matter but it's about that inclusiveness and making sure that everyone's a part of um of the whole of
39:21
the whole journey um and i just i think one final thing that i wanted to say was um good culture
39:27
within any environment as we all know is extremely important um it links to the
39:33
pillar te tahafano which is around your social well-being and and you know if you can
39:38
get that culture right and everyone happy and then people are a little bit more social
39:43
um culture is what we do every day it's not it's not something where you kind of
39:49
reach the finish line and that's it it's it's through our behaviours and it's what we have to do every day
39:54
um and yeah all i can say is from my experience especially over the last uh
39:59
three years i um really enjoy the culture and journey that we're on um and
40:04
i've got to and i've got a real buzz going on at work and i know a lot of other people feel it too and yeah it's just it's it's
40:12
a pretty good feeling yeah that's fantastic and tomorrow i love how um
40:17
intentional uh the the culture journey has been and i really like that you know having
40:23
practical actions so people know how they can contribute um and it's things that they do every day and i really
40:29
liked you know what you were saying which sort of builds on what kurt was saying around you know good communication and being respectful and
40:37
role modelling as well i hear that there's a lot of role modeling in terms of you're not just saying people will be like this you'll be like that as well um
40:45
so i think that's awesome and i really love the aspect about fun you know we are all people at the end of the day and
40:51
and connection and fun is really important um yeah so matt um
40:59
a couple of questions for you what are your sort of overall insights and thoughts about um you know having a
41:07
healthy and positive workplace and what aspects do you think are particularly key
41:12
yeah look i'm i'm really um reflecting on the really great words everybody else has um has contributed to
41:20
actually um i look at when i think about i think i think your start point
41:26
about thinking about your workplace is that we should just assume that everyone wants to turn up and do a good job yeah
41:32
we should absolutely approach this from a positive uh perspective and
41:38
and you know tamar has you know talked really well about you know being able to contribute and i think
41:44
you know if if you look at your workplace and think can everyone contribute here um be it and the actual
41:50
conduct of the task or more broadly to the sort of you know the social setting the the culture i think that's a really
41:56
great uh start point and you know i guess one of the then there's a couple of enablers for that right and kurt
42:02
talked a lot about understanding individuals and you know if we take the time to understand each other then we
42:08
can help people identify that way that they can make a special contribution or a unique contribution you know within their
42:14
skills and attributes um caro talked about fairness um you know and for people to feel
42:21
um safe to contribute you know they've got to understand what the rules are that it's fair um that everyone will be
42:28
treated well and you know and that goes to brad's talk of inclusivity um you know again
42:33
it's just so important um but i think if everyone understands and feels safe to be able to contribute i
42:40
think your workplace is is gonna um you know you'll achieve what you need to achieve and you'll enjoy doing it and
42:46
people will remain engaged um so then i thought i was just thinking about leadership as well and we've
42:52
talked about you know that everyone's a leader um and you mentioned leadership shadow and high trust environments and
42:58
um i just think um whether we're self leading or we are a
43:04
leader you know i think you know traits like openness uh genuine honesty
43:10
um is so important i think leaders absolutely should be brave enough to say they don't know
43:16
or admit their faults um
43:21
there's an old british military saying that you know leaders should never explain or complain um
43:26
which you know in terms of um you know justifying what they've done or
43:32
complaining about what you know they they need to get on and lead and um and you know the other one is you know
43:38
leaders should never share the blame they should share success you know and they shouldn't um
43:44
place success upon themselves um and and we talked about this this morning actually and that's you know being
43:49
empathetic and curious and it goes back to knowing your individuals knowing what's important to them um
43:55
and i just think you know if you create that that environment where people do feel safe and able to contribute you
44:01
know you're going to go a long way to to a good culture and you know good success as a
44:06
team any any advice for when it might not be quite humming or feeling a bit
44:12
toxic yeah so i think um you know tamara talked about being brave
44:18
enough to pull things out um i think yeah but again if
44:23
we understand individuals you know we do work and you know teams do tend towards hierarchies um
44:30
uh people will feel different levels of comfort you know um so you know whether
44:36
someone can you know publicly call something something out or making sure there's a mechanism by which people can
44:42
share um concerns or where they're not comfortable uh with
44:47
somebody that maybe either has the skills or the ability to do something about it um
44:53
you know modern good behavior is just so important you know if you are in a a privileged position or a leadership
45:00
position you know that comes with a huge responsibility and obligation to to be good um and to
45:07
encourage a good environment and you know and leaders that don't do that we need to um
45:12
you know help them become better or if they're not able to you know there's hard decisions that need to be made and
45:19
um you know we shouldn't shy away from that okay thank you
45:24
um so when we're thinking just overall about you know pressing pause and the workplace what does that mean to you any
45:31
sort of key messages you want to share with people yeah look i think um yeah i like the
45:36
term press pause we think about a workplace because it is so easy to get really busy and
45:42
not actually take the time to reflect um and to think about the workplace to think you know is
45:49
are our habits good are they healthy do they encourage people to contribute do they allow
45:54
people to contribute i think the other one for the military particulars we've got to be careful about the myths we tell each other
45:59
ourselves you know that we've got to be hard or you know tough environments like resilient
46:05
soldiers or whatever it might be um and there's truth to all of that but
46:10
not all the time you know um we need to allow people to um do what
46:16
they need to do to have family time to connect with with colleagues in a um
46:21
positive you know safe environment and we need to um take on some challenge and um but it's you know we don't need to
46:28
believe all the myths we told ourselves in the 80s and 90s or whatever it might be um so but you know to unpack all of
46:35
that i think you do need to pause i think you know within your workplace you do need to uh create some mechanisms for
46:41
people to contribute you know and reflect about how things going what could be better what would work better
46:46
for individuals in the team and i think if we do that if we press pause do some really profound and serious reflection i
46:53
think um we can all make our workplaces better awesome thank you matt now i'm just
47:00
saying there's a question that's come through so i'm just going to have a look about that um
47:06
so it was actually a question about navy's culture um getting uh so actually
47:12
i can answer a little bit about this it said about ordering staff to splice the main brace uh it was um
47:19
it was optional it wasn't an order people could uh decline uh are there any
47:25
other i'm not sure if the audience has got any other questions that they would like to share with the panel brad have
47:31
you got a question no comment on the splice the main brace
47:38
because um being part of navy and seeing that it is just another tradition right and um i think these two elements of
47:44
splice the main brace is the uh society's view on alcohol uh in our relationship with alcohol and a
47:50
tradition and um you know as you said there the navy has changed so much in terms of how we used to view the spice
47:55
domain brace where it wasn't the spice domain brace itself it was what happened afterwards in the messes um i'm pro
48:02
surprise the main brace because it does hold a real good place in our tradition but um we just have to be mindful
48:08
of the alcohol and there is there is some coca-cola and all sorts of other things served alongside that you don't
48:13
have to be drinking but um i think it's there's two separate issues here and one is society's relationship with alcohol
48:19
in a tradition all right i don't think there's any
48:25
other questions coming through at the minute so um do any of the panel have any sort of lasting you know final
48:32
remarks or comments that they'd like to take
48:43
i really enjoyed everyone's contribution i um got some really great little nuggets out
48:48
of everything that was said i thought it was really fantastic and it wasn't rehearsed
48:54
i know i i think well done everyone and i'm kurt a special thank you to you as
48:59
um someone outside of the organization really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to come and um
49:06
share with us uh some really great insights and things that we can definitely uh learn from ourselves um
49:13
now laura i'm gonna pass over to you because i think it'd be a really great time for you to do a bit of a plug for
49:19
some of the fabulous um health defense health integrated wellness resources we've got
49:24
well thanks for that nina um just before we do that we do actually have another question that's just oh i'm sorry that's
49:31
right it is for yuka um the person asks in pre-season the
49:36
getting to know each other stage what mechanisms or ways have you found the most effective or teen culture
49:45
yeah so i'd say the best one that i've experienced is
49:52
usually we go away to somewhere really random really remote away from anything so and
49:58
it's not common to anybody so i think that's the key the first key is it's usually us um a neutral space
50:06
and the next part is we're usually split off into more intimate groups i suppose so might be
50:12
sort of two or three people um [Music] or sort of three to four people in each
50:18
group and and the first question we usually ask is is what is your why um
50:23
and a lot of people a lot of sports people say the same answer it's i love this team i want to
50:29
be here but we've found lately um in the last sort of few years
50:35
it's got deeper and and i suppose we've sort of probed that to get the answer we want
50:41
and to understand each other better but this it's when it's the more intimate conversations that we've actually found
50:48
the things um that trigger other issues later on in
50:53
our environment um and i think it's you know it's like when you sit in the room of
50:58
20 people and they say oh how were you brought up and everyone sort of said young like that but when it's three or
51:05
four people when there's we trust each other that we're all here for the same thing we all want the same thing
51:10
um we we normally get those conversations come up and then what we do is we then filter it back into
51:17
we we meet again as a bigger group and and those things maybe i'll pass a message on that i've heard about
51:24
so jeff um and and that's sort of how we do it so it's almost like um
51:30
create safe space first and then um and carry on from there
51:35
yeah i think that is the hardest thing it's because our the makeup of our team is very
51:41
diverse as in culturally um and culturally for instance um pacifica
51:46
always feel really uncomfortable in big groups so there's one red flag in itself
51:52
understanding that our group is made up of this um and how are we going to get the answers
51:57
or how are we going to find out more about them it's when you get into the intimate conversations one-on-one you know one on
52:03
three so there's probably you know most effective
52:09
i suppose learning as a group and to understand each other is in those those
52:14
times and then you know we it's to start a year off and i suppose when you know things about each other
52:20
there um not a lot of people know um it just it changes the way
52:27
you approach things when things aren't going great or you're you need to cook someone out on something that you know your environment
52:33
just won't stand for um so it's it's almost a way it's it builds us
52:38
so that we can have sort of harder conversations when we need to because we're at the end of the day we're still there
52:44
um out we judged on our performance there's an expectation on us um to perform so
52:51
so we still need a better tough conversations thank you i love how um you mentioned
52:56
creating safe spaces so it seems like incendiary is being really intentional about um thinking about how to create
53:03
those safe spaces for different groups um and so that people can really get to know each other properly and
53:08
understanding the link between knowing your people and social cohesion and connection and high performance like
53:15
it's it's really clear that they've really well understood that yeah it's it's an interesting space um
53:22
you know with the high performance side of it as well as you know we still gotta have like i said earlier the care and
53:29
um i suppose empathy when we need it
53:34
that's right yeah if there's not any more questions
53:41
laura did you want to do a little plug for defense health
53:46
thanks nina um i just yeah i wanted to firstly say just such a big thank you to yourself leader
53:54
and also all the panelists again for yeah giving up the time and coming to talk to us about that and
53:59
i think yeah this panel really represents exactly what we're talking about you know it's people from all walks of life
54:07
and it's those differences and the bouncing of opinions and experiences that
54:12
you know and that building each other up and understanding each other and you know that really is what creates a
54:20
positive workplace environment and it's you know they you know you've all talked about
54:26
you know you're really advocates in terms of you know saying when you're not okay and being able to check in on
54:32
people and i think that you're really paving the way in terms of allowing other people to do the same thing so
54:38
yeah just a really big thank you for me um and yeah i will um do a do a quick
54:45
plug um so we have been developing um a really amazing resource and so it is a
54:53
tahi order so this is the external defence health hub and we've got a whole range of resources
55:00
on health at work so um managing workload and information on
55:05
healthy workplace culture and our work programs and deployments and transitions so
55:11
um yeah i encourage you all um yeah when you you've got time if you want a bit
55:17
more information to go and check it out um i did also just want to um quickly
55:23
and just mention our resources so you know if you have kind of listened today and you are feel like you might it might
55:29
be time to reach out for you know a little bit of a helping hand or you might not be going okay um nzdf has a
55:36
really huge range of um resources that you can reach and then sex support from if you are needing that you know extra
55:42
helping hand um you know we've also got um things like nzdf so that's our well-being
55:49
support line it's 24 7. it's completely confidential and it's external so you
55:55
know if you don't feel comfortable going through the organization and that option is there for you as well as are well as
56:01
one seven three seven so um thanks so
56:06
um that's all for me and i'll hand it back to you neither to finish off
56:12
uh kia ora thank you laura and thank you for sharing all the fabulous resources that are here um so
56:18
just to close uh uh once more thanks to you know what's been quite a rock star panel um really appreciated your
56:25
insights i just like to do a close in karakia kyoto
56:32
so that is let your peace reign on all the people of the world um so thanks again everyone i've really appreciated
56:38
your time have a fabulous day kia payton
this meeting is being recorded
0:10
uh kia ora everyone welcome today i'm just going to start with a karakia
0:17
kia hora te marino papa ponamo timoana rahi matato iterangine araha atu
0:25
aarohamai tato itanto katoa and that karakia is just simply may peace be
0:32
widespread may the sea be light green stone may a pathway for us all on this day let
0:37
us show respect for each other um so we've got a fantastic panel
0:43
and before i introduce themselves i'm just going to introduce myself
1:14
so my name is nina rosso and it's my great pleasure to host this fantastic panel today
1:21
and i'm just going to go through i'm the director of diversity and inclusion i'm just going to go through and introduce our panelists so we've got
1:29
the fabulous kurt baker all black sevens player i understand that kirk has some pretty
1:36
fancy footwork and uh also some reliable defense uh he's a senior member of the all black
1:43
sevens uh and has a very impressive resume with two commonwealth game medals
1:48
uh and uh was also part of the side that brought home silva and the 2020 olympics
1:54
in tokyo welcome kurt it's really lovely to have you here today we've also got wing commander caro
2:01
pizarro she is currently double hatting so is both the nzdf director of
2:06
psychology and also um holds the head of operational psychology currently
2:11
um she is going to speak from personal experience today on things like burnout workload and how we might manage the
2:18
competing demands in our lives without internally combusting which sounds pretty awesome
2:23
we've got brigadier matt weston our nzdf chief people officer um brigadier
2:28
weston's held a number of regimental and command positions including being command of one brigade and his current
2:36
role as the chief people officer for the new zealand defence force uh we also are very lucky to have tamara hamilto here
2:43
today the new zealand civilian of the nzdf civilian of the year
2:49
tamara is the health inventory manager for the defence equipment management organisational organisation suru um and
2:55
she effectively adapted and led her team during 2020 under the most challenging of supply circumstances
3:03
change circumstance supply chain circumstances um to meet the nzd of demand for ppe during the covert 19
3:09
pandemic and we've also got brad poulter senior advisor diversity and inclusion
3:15
who initially was uh in uniform uh he listed
3:20
in the navy in 2001 has deployed operationally a number of times and over the last couple of years
3:27
has been in a civilian role um as the senior advisor so today's um webinar is uh called press
3:35
pause in the workplace and it aims to promote uh the importance of healthy and
3:40
positive workplace for overall well-being so just to begin um i think it's really
3:46
fitting at the end of well-being week that we close with a focus on the workplace um it's really easy to accept
3:52
the work environment just as it is but it's actually really important to our own well-being that we
3:58
ensure that our work environment is the best it can be and we've all got a role to play in that um today is an
4:04
opportunity to discuss what that looks like and to understand what we can do when it's not okay
4:10
so it would be really great if we could just get the panel to introduce themselves
4:16
and share two words that uh help describe a great work environment and
4:22
then two words that might describe when it's not such a great work environment so caro if we could start with you
4:28
please um so i guess this is about what you
4:34
personally would love in a workplace so a great workplace for me is really growth and learning orientated where
4:40
it's okay to make a mistake so that's the workplace i want to work in when it's not going well is when it becomes i
4:48
guess toxic and over strained so those are my two words
4:53
of a workplace i don't want thank you um and what about you matt
5:00
uh hi everyone kiara um look i think a great workplace to my mind um
5:06
demonstrates truly that it values the people that work within it and that you know can be across you know many aspects
5:13
um and the other one i think is that it has a really clear focus on what's important
5:18
so and and that can change through time you know might be the mission or it might be just looking after each other
5:23
to get ready for the next mission so that's sort of a clarity of purpose i think that's broadly understood um a not
5:31
so good workplace um where people are excluded you know they might be frozen out or you know physically however it
5:38
works and the other one i think is a um a workplace that um
5:44
values the wrong sort of work and you know busy work comes to mind you know you've got to be here till five
5:50
o'clock every night that sort of thing and not taking into account individuals needs within that
5:56
yeah thank you tamara what about you uh um so a good workplace for me is um
6:03
uh where people are valued number one um and then also that uh people are working
6:10
together collaboratively as a team um a not so great workplace would be um the
6:16
opposite of the team so probably working in silos and um and not looking at the
6:22
greater purpose um and then it would just be uh sort of toxic behaviors that might not make
6:29
people feel so great within themselves yeah great thank you brad what about yourself
6:35
and then i chose two words just to be difficult it was more uh inclusive culture you know ultimately we want
6:41
people to be their genuine self um and not have to put a mask on when they go to work um it's exhausting for them to
6:47
do that every single day and not being able to be um their true selves at work and just having an environment where
6:52
they're safe to be who they are and i guess the opposite of that it's not necessarily a word but it's a feeling we
6:57
know what it feels like to be in a organization or a place where it doesn't feel um
7:03
that positive vibe and i think we can all probably understand what that feels like at some point in their careers
7:09
yeah and what about when it's you know toxic not so good what some words
7:16
i don't think a word describes it for me it's really a feeling how that feels yeah yeah yeah yeah and kurt what about yourself
7:26
yeah i put down two so for me i think um have a caring environment is pretty important um and the caring side is
7:33
asking questions or understanding the individuals and then i suppose the bad one i put
7:38
down was just too busy and by that i mean too busy to remind yourself about the things that
7:45
you are important to you um everyone's different um you know i
7:50
have my own work environment but when we get too busy doing getting
7:56
caught up in what we think is important we actually forget about the things that actually are genuinely important
8:01
so that would be the two for me oh great um so what i heard was you know
8:06
and on the positive side things like having um you know a growth mentality opportunity to learn clarity of focus um
8:14
i really like it using the word caring i think that's really important we're all people first uh and and it's really
8:21
important not to lose sight of that um being inclusive having a positive vibe and when it's not so great with you know
8:27
busy for business sake no clarity of mission focus siloed not being collaborative um being actively excluded
8:35
and i heard they were toxic a couple of times i think that's both you know that was really good descriptions of what um
8:42
you know a positive environment looks like and what a not so positive one doesn't look like it doesn't look like
8:47
sorry um i think we all agree that having a positive workplace is really important um but how do we create that
8:54
team culture and what can we do when reality doesn't match up with the sort of desired team culture so brett i'm
9:01
just going to start with you first i've got a couple of questions for each of the panel
9:06
so brad you've worked in um new zealand defence force in various roles um you know chef military police all sports uh
9:14
for a long time can you give us some of your reflections about work environments
9:19
and work culture yeah italian i've been privileged enough to have been working in this
9:24
organization for over 20 years now and as you mentioned i've been a chef military police um i've worked in
9:30
tri-service environments including the joint officer induction training um you know in deployments to afghanistan which
9:35
is you know primary army um the roland now really has a broader insight into each service and the unique service
9:42
culture within each service we are very different organizations as well as our civilian workforces as well
9:48
um in terms more recently i conducted some research as part of the tour um programmer work
9:54
which laura mentioned um in my intro and um that even further cemented you know
9:59
the environments that we work in uh and the synergies that exist in some of our cultures but also the disparities that
10:05
exist across all areas of our entire group forces i really do believe in terms of culture
10:11
um we're in a currently in a state of tug and war a tug of war sorry um between what a traditional
10:17
culture is and what a more a future focus progressive culture is and um there are
10:22
aspects you know that are no longer relevant to my opinion in terms of that traditional culture that we do hold on
10:27
to um in some ways um so traditional culture what is it it's that real um
10:33
value and sameness and i know we've come a long way but if i can reflect on when i joined and the people who are in
10:38
uniform who have joined you know over 15 years ago there was a real value on sameness and there was a real
10:44
cookie-cutter approach in terms of being similar all that conformity um you know we shaved our hair um
10:51
everyone shaved their hair to be the same and like conformed you know there's another aspect to that as well you know
10:56
we are isolated from our uh whanau our friends our faith our culture and we
11:02
just become this this part of this organization that is the same so um there is a quote um you know in terms of
11:11
how i feel about culture and you have to taste the culture to understand it and i think when it comes to a traditional
11:17
culture um sometimes we have to be able to really find out what that feels and how that looks and you know in terms of
11:25
what a culture could look like and how we approach it i really think it's similar to giving up smoking if anyone's
11:31
ever gone through that journey we can have a few failed attempts uh and able to sort of understand what a positive
11:37
culture can look like because there is a real curious approach in how we do this sometimes for some people there's a lot
11:43
of discomfort and stepping outside what's been the norm for such a long period of time so um you know a failed
11:50
attempt in getting it right i think it's okay to make mistakes just own your mistakes
11:55
and as i said earlier ultimately we just want people to be themselves you know i would love a place where everyone
12:01
regardless of where they come from where their what their background is the defence force is their home and they're
12:07
represented and they know they belong there and it's just that sense of home and that's how really i view culture and
12:13
um the ncds journey but i do have a lot of faith in um and where we're going and what we're doing and there's conversations like this uh are really
12:20
important and and that change happening so i hope that's answered your question then i do ramble on quite a bit as you
12:25
probably know that's great thank you um do you want to talk about some of our
12:31
programs that we've got to promote um diversity and inclusion in the workplace totally we have a number of programs but
12:37
if we package them all up into one we're really looking at that employment life cycle um you know how we're going to
12:44
retain the staff we have um and that's a really important thing for us and you know when you have good staff working
12:50
you know that message filters out into the wider community right you know it's a good place to work
12:55
you've heard it's a good place to work and um and i think that's that's where the magic lays and it's knowing that
13:02
people who are here are valued and feel valued and that people will interact
13:07
with everyone in a real positive way um the work that we're doing to answer your question i mean it's really raising
13:12
awareness of bias and it's a lot of programs going on at the moment there's a new lms program
13:18
just started up around understanding bias um which we'd probably share with you a link um after this um well that's
13:24
one aspect he's raising um the gender equality um some really great work happening in the gender equality space
13:30
we have uh our first ever gender equality conference in september which is um both the tarnite and wahine tower
13:35
programs working together and those programs are our gender programs if you didn't already know about that um also
13:41
the executive has signed up to a gender equality charter and um get in touch if you want to know more
13:46
information about that as well um cultural competency is a big part of the program for work that we do um lgbtiq
13:54
plus inclusion a huge part of that belonging piece and more recently we've really started to focus on neurodiversity
14:01
understanding that we're all wired differently and when it comes to how we learn and how we have a learning
14:06
approach in the organization we often look at neurodiversity as a disability it's it's not a disability
14:13
it's being disabled by um it's being disabled by the um the system
14:18
effectively so i'm being able to provide some really great resources to support people who may be dyslexic be on the
14:24
adhd spectrum it's a really exciting work because we know the stats i won't go into it now but it's um it's a really
14:31
promising exciting work happening in order to um really value our people and create a really inclusive culture thanks
14:38
thanks brad um caro i'm going to ask you a couple of questions now what's the
14:43
likely impact when you have a workplace culture that isn't good and what is your advice to people who might be
14:50
experiencing this okay cool um so i think we all know this
14:55
if we've had an experience of a culture that isn't um i guess uplifting or supportive of us but what it looks like
15:02
from a big picture perspective is your job satisfaction will take a big dive
15:07
and your engagement in the workplace and that can also lead to your actual performance and your productivity will
15:14
take a dive and worse yet is your well-being right so if you're working in a workplace culture that isn't
15:20
supportive of you isn't giving you what you need isn't um i guess the right fit
15:25
for you then it is likely it will affect your physical and mental health and to
15:30
what degree depends on really how bad the culture is but if we if we kind of
15:36
flip that and we look at kind of the positive side of it when you've got a culture that recognizes that you're
15:42
valued that provides you some sense of certainty and security and by that i
15:48
mean you know that you're you're going to be looked after you know that you've got a future you know what's coming
15:53
around the corner and if you've got an organization that provides you really great connections
15:58
and supports you have good friends um and good work mates and you work well with people if there's a sense of
16:05
fairness as well in the in the organization where like brad talked about when um the system can work
16:11
against you if you're different and what people are looking for in a good workplace culture is not having to fight
16:17
every day to be who they authentically are but getting the same access to opportunities that everybody does and if
16:24
you've got that sense of fairness that is going to engage people that is going to increase job satisfaction and even if
16:32
workload is high like and so i know we're talking about workload and burnout but if workload is
16:37
really high but you feel valued you feel supported and you feel included you will
16:42
be well and you will thrive despite what is thrown at you so that's why we really need to focus on
16:49
culture and it can feel like a really big deal because culture is complex we
16:54
live in the culture of our we we call it the tone of your individual unit and then you've got like the climate of your
17:01
your squadron your bigger workplace and then the culture of the organization but nzdf let's not forget and kirk might
17:08
talk about this later is embedded in the new zealand culture which is this kind of pioneering number 8 wire get the job
17:16
done we can do it kind of culture and that impacts everybody in this country the drive to be successful the drive to
17:23
have everything and we're sitting in zdf for kind of a microcosm of that culture
17:29
so we we've got to kind of take it to the basic limit as you as a leader what can you impact in your direct unit
17:36
and and what are the cultural artifacts that you can pull levers for to make some changes for yourself
17:41
and for the people around you to kind of create the environment that will increase well-being
17:47
yeah i really i really like what you're saying you know flipping it think about what a great culture um
17:53
looks like and you mentioned things like great connections and resilience i don't know if people had the privilege of
17:59
hearing lucy honor speak yesterday but one of the things that she talked about in terms of connections and networks is
18:06
that resilience isn't just built within us it's built between us and so those networks are really important those
18:12
friendships that work and i also really like that you mentioned about the impact of leaders um you know leaders do cast a
18:18
shadow uh and it's really important that they are aware of that somebody's always watching what they're saying and doing
18:24
um so that thank you for that caro um just one last question um you know everyone you talked about like
18:30
tempo and busy workloads and everyone is busy these days but what are some of the signs when it is getting even though
18:37
you're happy and engaged and stuff like that what are some of the signs when work might be getting on top of people
18:42
and what can they do about it yeah so what we're talking about is when a high workload turns into potentially
18:49
burnout right so when our well-being takes a dive so there's three components to burnout and if you want to know more
18:55
about that you can follow up and and watch the link for the webinar i did this morning but the three components are emotional
19:02
exhaustion so that's like feeling dead tired to your core it can feel like
19:07
you're just absolutely swamped or like you're walking around in a brain fog and you can't see the forest for the trees
19:14
so it's this real intense exhaustion but that alone is not burnt out the other feature of burnout is cynicism
19:21
where you just get to the point where you just give up stuff this i mean there's no point to it and you just lose faith you lose trust
19:27
in the organization and your leaders and the people around you and you just everything is just like
19:33
and at that point that's when you become disengaged right and you might start looking at say because you're like i
19:39
just want to get out of here and the third component which is also quite damaging to your own sense of self and
19:45
well-being is a lack of self-belief that's when you start going i'm really
19:50
exhausted i don't care anymore and i don't think i can do this so if you're saying to this maybe this job was too
19:56
big for me maybe they chose the wrong person maybe i can't do it it's not that it is the case you can't
20:03
do it it's that potentially you're burnt out right and you don't realize that you've just used up everything you've
20:09
got and it just feels like you're not making any gains so it's that sense that i'm not making progress there's no light
20:16
at the end of the tunnel and a real sense of overwhelm so those are the three components of burnout and if
20:22
you're in that space and i know for a fact that some of you are because i've seen some of you then you can reach out
20:28
and get help and there's so many ways to access it you can talk to your friends and your
20:34
peers and sometimes they're the greatest support for you when they go you know what you're not crazy this isn't normal
20:40
let's do some something to help but you can also access support through the sykes the chaplains the social workers
20:47
you can go through eap if you're a civilian there's a lot of resources on the nzdf
20:53
health website if you just go in there and follow some of the links you'll find somebody who can provide support and i
20:59
encourage you if you are burnt out to get help because it can be hard to crawl
21:04
out of that abyss on your own and there are people there who want to help you
21:10
yeah thanks cara i think that getting people to get help is really important because when you are in that emotionally
21:17
exhausted cynical disengaged lacking self-belief sort of stage not only is it
21:22
harmful to yourself but it's actually also quite harmful to the wider team um because
21:28
you know you you influence the mood or the climate that you mentioned earlier so seeking help is really important um
21:35
and there are some traits of people who are more likely to burn out as well so they're often high achievers um people
21:42
who are really passionate about their work and we have a lot of people who fit both those descriptions um and the nzdf
21:49
um thanks caro um kurt over to you i'm really interested to hear about the
21:54
rugby environment um and i know because in some ways we do have some sort of similarities i think uh to rugby culture
22:02
um can you give us some you know information from your point of view what are some signs of a humming versus not
22:08
so great team that you've been you've experienced and um and if you've got any examples of when you might have been
22:13
entertained when it wasn't so great and you've they've turned it around yeah
22:19
like we look at our environment now as it's going okay but we've definitely got still got flaws in it and we're finding
22:26
those tools all the time but um one thing we've really focused on in the last sort of four to five years is
22:32
is around understanding each individual for what they are and what what how they've been brought up what's their
22:38
background because we've you know we'll catch up once a week as a group of
22:43
sort of leadership group but just some sort of more experienced guys and basically we sit down with four or five
22:50
players individually um and try and nut those things out so we do understand the
22:55
individual first before we make judgment um because i think it's really easy to
23:01
you know someone's having a day and they maybe just give you nothing give us no effort in a rugby sense and you can
23:08
be quick to jump on the fact that it's just not good enough but i suppose the the main thing we've
23:13
worked on recently is around asking why or understanding why um and i think it's picked up a lot of
23:19
things that we may have missed in the past so i suppose that's a big comparison to maybe our environment
23:25
five to ten years ago was we didn't ask why we just assumed that everyone was built the same came
23:32
from the same background um yeah and i suppose from that sense it's
23:38
it's made us a better group because we actually i think we're more comfortable around each other and uh and having those
23:44
conversations and in formal ways so i think for us it's the biggest change
23:49
we've made in the last week was actually understanding the individual themselves
23:54
i think i think that's such a good point uh for this matariki um nzdf has got the
24:00
kaupapa of what so relationship building and getting to know people and and knowing who your
24:06
people are is so important to understanding how they take and how they work and were you given were people
24:13
given coaching on um you know how to get to know people or any sort of advice
24:18
about um you know and getting to understand the individuals first yeah i wouldn't say with her coaching as
24:26
such is probably we've just become more aware of it through experiences we're lucky we've had a group of guys
24:32
that have you know 70 percent of our group have been together for a period of time now so we've sort of learned from the run
24:38
and now it's getting fed through the next uh generation of guys that are coming through so
24:44
if anything we've probably learned the hard way um yeah right and we've got lots of support like we have our own um
24:51
mental skills guide but sometimes they don't pick up the stuff or you know they don't pick it all up
24:57
it's it's in those informal conversations there because we understand that individual and we can go have a coffee
25:03
with them or appear with them um it pops up in those conversations as opposed to to the really formal ones
25:10
i think that's that's been another massive learning for us is once you understand the individual you can then
25:15
understand where they're in their safe space or their happy place and you almost work back from there so
25:22
i think for us that has been the biggest change is we actually understand each individual for what they are um and i supposed to
25:30
break it back down at the start of every year will go away on sort of what's called pre-season camps or whatever but
25:36
a big part of that is us actually getting to know anyone new in our environment or the new guys
25:42
understanding that you know how what my background is or where i've come from or what makes me tick or doesn't
25:47
make me tick so i think that yeah the personal side of it is really important in that
25:53
yeah i think so do you think that um leadership and self-responsibility
25:59
um i like about you know getting to know people or being known is would you say leadership and self-responsibility are
26:05
equally important or one over the other yeah i suppose it's a tough question um
26:13
yeah i wouldn't say one is more important than the other um [Music] i think the self-responsibility here
26:20
there's a portion to that but i look at leadership as every individual person in the environment it's not about
26:27
looking up in a hierarchy and seeing that leadership is the top person and
26:32
and the ranks for instance put in our environment the captain he's yeah he's seen as the leader but we've all got
26:38
roles within that to lead so it might be uh two of the young guys and one of them
26:45
um checks in on his mate so that to me is we see that as leadership as well so yeah
26:51
yeah it's it's really i suppose especially a rugby environment has always been really it's it's all about the hierarchy and i
26:57
think that's changing especially in our environment and we're trying to change it anyway around making sure that everyone feels i
27:04
suppose it goes back to your point spread around inclusion and making sure that everyone feels included in it
27:10
because that's probably where you pick up your red flags or um you know opportunities to
27:16
to help yeah and you mentioned like keeping an eye out for your mates that um seems to
27:22
be a really big focus uh for and something that's strongly promoted in new zealand rugby can you tell us a
27:27
little bit more about that yeah i think it's um
27:34
one the first part would be understanding the individual and then second part is understanding where they're comfortable um
27:41
i'll give you an example so one of the guys in our team he's really been struggling um mentally in the last sort of six
27:48
months and it's due to a lot of things but he's had a really tough upbringing um and he'll be comfortable with me talking about this he's one of my good
27:54
mates but he how he was didn't get picked up saved by
28:00
our mental skills guy got picked up through an informal conversation that then triggered
28:06
something and then from that he loves building right so um i'll get him on reno's at home
28:12
because it's beneficial to me and and a lot of the conversations we have then
28:17
uh where we actually nut a lot of problems out or you know you're just you know swinging a hammer but saying
28:24
there's a bit of conversation on the side and it's i suppose it just takes the heat off the
28:29
awkwardness or the vulnerability i suppose so that's why i sort of went back to the
28:35
understand the individual because you need to understand what they enjoy doing and then when you're with them someone
28:40
might enjoy having a beer so go over a beer with them
28:46
especially our environment's been doing that but i know new zealand rugby are working really hard on on that piece um yeah and the other part
28:54
around it is identity so you i think as as regular players in new zealand we've probably perceived as
29:00
certain people but um i know aaron byron has been working really hard on making sure that we're
29:05
our identity's not just a rugby player so have you put it to the defense forces you're not just in the defence force
29:11
what else have you got um and that's made a mess of the difference yeah it's about the
29:17
you know because one day it'll disappear and then if you don't truly have your identity it's really hard to find a
29:23
heavy place i suppose yeah i think that's really smart uh one
29:28
thing i'd like to ask you you know it's really hard for people to speak up when they need a hand have you got any advice
29:36
to people who might be struggling around you know reaching out to get help
29:42
either or from nz rugby yeah i suppose it's understanding who
29:48
the people are that uh well one legally obliged to keep it confidential and there are a
29:54
safe space because i think that's really important is um you know we said in our environment guys are intimidated by
30:01
sometimes speaking up because they're worried that it'll affect their position in the team or the position in the environment um but we've
30:08
made it really clear of the people that they can go to and it won't um
30:14
it won't influence those things and then i suppose us as a an older crew of
30:19
players if you know we reiterate it all the time but i always say to the young guys like my phone's always there and
30:25
whatever you talk to me about will never go to the coaches i've got no interest in and trying to burn you so
30:31
it's i suppose everyone understanding where their safe space is to have that talk or
30:36
or the avenues you can go we had a doctor come talk to us yesterday around that same thing and
30:42
you know some people don't understand that a doctor is legally obliged to be confidential and he explained it to our
30:48
boys and i could see some of our boys were actually i'm not sure they would have known that prior to that conversation so
30:55
um you know everyone has a vulnerable time but it's understanding one the people around you
31:02
that you can talk to and trust but to the people that are medically
31:07
um qualified to actually talk to you as well yeah yeah that's true that's great um i
31:14
feel like you know a lot of the stuff that you talking about is around creating that high trust environment as well
31:20
and i really like what you're saying about um you know think about who you are as a whole person not just as your
31:27
role um i know you know historically particularly for men lots of men have struggled when they have um you know
31:34
retired from a role and not necessarily um understood the other aspects of who
31:40
they are so i think that's really good advice and i like the idea about like everyone being a leader we have the same
31:47
um sort of thing here when we talk about lead self and then it goes into lead teams et
31:52
cetera so so thank you i really appreciate that um tamara i've got a couple of questions for you
31:58
um have you ever experienced a less than ideal workplace culture
32:03
either at inside or elsewhere and what was it like for you and your broader team and did you have any learnings
32:10
yeah um absolutely um unfortunately i think it would be safe to say that
32:15
at some stage whether it's professional or personal life like we've all probably experienced
32:21
like a little bit of their culture um and one of the negative behaviors that
32:27
that eyewitness that particularly sticks with me was um was um
32:33
witnessing someone talk about another colleague probably in a not so kind manner
32:39
with other people in the work in the workplace um in terms of what that was like um
32:47
the the person that was being spoken about um
32:52
like it was awful because the person was like close to me and i know and i know the impact that it had on them um you
32:58
know mentally and within and you know probably their confidence etc um
33:05
so yeah it was distracting and it was draining and it was time consuming but probably what
33:10
surprised me the most was how many people that they ended up affecting so the individual
33:17
the team within that that person was in um and then i guess the lesson that come
33:23
out of it for me was um at that time i guess i didn't really have the courage to kind of stop it even
33:30
though i had witnessed it um and again going back to like the impact that it had on so many people if
33:36
i had had the courage at that time um to probably just um you know professionally just um doing it
33:43
in a professional manner stand up and just say hey you know like i don't think that that's um that's good um then it might not have
33:50
trickled on to where it went to um so yeah so um it's just and it just goes back to
33:57
the te paris of health um you know like where uh poor
34:02
culture can have such a negative impact on both like your mental and spiritual health so um so yeah
34:10
i hope that kind of answers the question yeah it absolutely does and i think you know you make a really good point like
34:16
it can be really hard to call something out um when you first hear it
34:21
particularly if you're new to a workplace um and so you know growing the skills to call something out is really
34:27
important um and i think another thing that people can do is expectation
34:32
setting so about um you know in units or teams what's okay and what's not okay so
34:39
that people know it's not okay to like bad mouth you know colleagues and things like that and we should all be striving
34:44
to whakamana to uplift people um so and another question i just sorry tomorrow
34:51
no that's cool carry on yeah i said i have another question um what advice do you have for others who
34:57
want to and create a really thriving team environment yeah um so i've got a couple of good
35:04
examples so within my team like i really keep it quite simple right um so uh
35:10
first of all it's um for me it's actually acting on my behaviors not i want this in a team i
35:16
want that in a team it's actually you know doing it not necessarily even talking so a couple of examples of those
35:24
might be um so first and foremost really good communication so you've got to keep those channels open all the time um
35:31
respecting one another um being kind to each other uh working as a
35:37
team so you know like i know within my team if i ever need help i can always just reach
35:43
out to anyone within and but vice versa so anytime they need a hand with anything it's like i pick up like some
35:50
cues that maybe they look a little bit got a bit too much on their plate and it's just stopping and saying oh hey um
35:56
is there anything i can help you with um but then the other the other key part for me um around building a culture is
36:03
just having some fun um you know whether it whether or not it be um you know um like having a bit of music
36:10
in the background it might be going out for like a like a lunch it might be um
36:17
you know even uh during the lockdown and stuff we created like a group chat um so
36:22
we can still keep those channels open um yeah so just just create a bit of banter
36:28
just creating a bit of a fun environment you know walking in and saying good morning in the morning like it's just
36:34
sometimes those really simple things that that um that build on that culture that thriving
36:39
culture um on a slightly larger scale and something that i'm really quite proud of
36:45
especially working for demo um so demo um
36:50
started up about three years ago we went from like a land-based equipment management organisation to defence
36:57
and three years ago we started a culture journey and like i said it's something that i'm really quite one passionate about and
37:03
quite proud to be a part of um so by no stretch of that imagination are we like perfect at all um it is called a
37:11
journey for a reason and it's something that happens like every day um but i can say we're so much better
37:18
for taking that journey um to begin with um so a couple of the things i'm reflecting
37:24
through the journey a couple of the three things that um sort of stood out for me was uh number one it was um the
37:32
culture journey was initiated and led from like the top and i suppose um when
37:38
i talk about that it's um it's it's just the fact that when we've
37:43
got initiatives it's the people from the top that can help support that and basically make it happen so whether it's
37:50
we're requesting half a day to go and do some community work you know it's those people there that can say yes i approve
37:55
that and we can go and do that so that's the top part um the other part was
38:01
simplifying and and formalizing the plan so that the people within the organization
38:07
um simply know okay so we're gonna be proud of who we work for but what are
38:12
some of the behaviors that i'm gonna um that that i need to do day in and day
38:17
out to um to demonstrate that that that's what i'm sort of working towards so it's like
38:23
simplify simplifying or formalizing your plan so you know what you want to achieve and it's like a collective
38:30
um it's a collective joint adventure that everyone's going on juni um
38:35
and then the other real key part was whilst leading from the top um leadership from the top was important
38:41
it's really important to embed the culture within the unit so we've got like a culture working group which is
38:48
anyone who wants to be a part of it can be um and it's these these people um in
38:54
the cultural working group are the ones that um you know are going back to what kurt said you know whether or not the
39:00
other new people playing that sometimes they pull out those nuggets and they can really sort of like drive the momentum
39:06
from um from like whether it be like um a receptionist or you know like it
39:14
actually doesn't matter but it's about that inclusiveness and making sure that everyone's a part of um of the whole of
39:21
the whole journey um and i just i think one final thing that i wanted to say was um good culture
39:27
within any environment as we all know is extremely important um it links to the
39:33
pillar te tahafano which is around your social well-being and and you know if you can
39:38
get that culture right and everyone happy and then people are a little bit more social
39:43
um culture is what we do every day it's not it's not something where you kind of
39:49
reach the finish line and that's it it's it's through our behaviours and it's what we have to do every day
39:54
um and yeah all i can say is from my experience especially over the last uh
39:59
three years i um really enjoy the culture and journey that we're on um and
40:04
i've got to and i've got a real buzz going on at work and i know a lot of other people feel it too and yeah it's just it's it's
40:12
a pretty good feeling yeah that's fantastic and tomorrow i love how um
40:17
intentional uh the the culture journey has been and i really like that you know having
40:23
practical actions so people know how they can contribute um and it's things that they do every day and i really
40:29
liked you know what you were saying which sort of builds on what kurt was saying around you know good communication and being respectful and
40:37
role modelling as well i hear that there's a lot of role modeling in terms of you're not just saying people will be like this you'll be like that as well um
40:45
so i think that's awesome and i really love the aspect about fun you know we are all people at the end of the day and
40:51
and connection and fun is really important um yeah so matt um
40:59
a couple of questions for you what are your sort of overall insights and thoughts about um you know having a
41:07
healthy and positive workplace and what aspects do you think are particularly key
41:12
yeah look i'm i'm really um reflecting on the really great words everybody else has um has contributed to
41:20
actually um i look at when i think about i think i think your start point
41:26
about thinking about your workplace is that we should just assume that everyone wants to turn up and do a good job yeah
41:32
we should absolutely approach this from a positive uh perspective and
41:38
and you know tamar has you know talked really well about you know being able to contribute and i think
41:44
you know if if you look at your workplace and think can everyone contribute here um be it and the actual
41:50
conduct of the task or more broadly to the sort of you know the social setting the the culture i think that's a really
41:56
great uh start point and you know i guess one of the then there's a couple of enablers for that right and kurt
42:02
talked a lot about understanding individuals and you know if we take the time to understand each other then we
42:08
can help people identify that way that they can make a special contribution or a unique contribution you know within their
42:14
skills and attributes um caro talked about fairness um you know and for people to feel
42:21
um safe to contribute you know they've got to understand what the rules are that it's fair um that everyone will be
42:28
treated well and you know and that goes to brad's talk of inclusivity um you know again
42:33
it's just so important um but i think if everyone understands and feels safe to be able to contribute i
42:40
think your workplace is is gonna um you know you'll achieve what you need to achieve and you'll enjoy doing it and
42:46
people will remain engaged um so then i thought i was just thinking about leadership as well and we've
42:52
talked about you know that everyone's a leader um and you mentioned leadership shadow and high trust environments and
42:58
um i just think um whether we're self leading or we are a
43:04
leader you know i think you know traits like openness uh genuine honesty
43:10
um is so important i think leaders absolutely should be brave enough to say they don't know
43:16
or admit their faults um
43:21
there's an old british military saying that you know leaders should never explain or complain um
43:26
which you know in terms of um you know justifying what they've done or
43:32
complaining about what you know they they need to get on and lead and um and you know the other one is you know
43:38
leaders should never share the blame they should share success you know and they shouldn't um
43:44
place success upon themselves um and and we talked about this this morning actually and that's you know being
43:49
empathetic and curious and it goes back to knowing your individuals knowing what's important to them um
43:55
and i just think you know if you create that that environment where people do feel safe and able to contribute you
44:01
know you're going to go a long way to to a good culture and you know good success as a
44:06
team any any advice for when it might not be quite humming or feeling a bit
44:12
toxic yeah so i think um you know tamara talked about being brave
44:18
enough to pull things out um i think yeah but again if
44:23
we understand individuals you know we do work and you know teams do tend towards hierarchies um
44:30
uh people will feel different levels of comfort you know um so you know whether
44:36
someone can you know publicly call something something out or making sure there's a mechanism by which people can
44:42
share um concerns or where they're not comfortable uh with
44:47
somebody that maybe either has the skills or the ability to do something about it um
44:53
you know modern good behavior is just so important you know if you are in a a privileged position or a leadership
45:00
position you know that comes with a huge responsibility and obligation to to be good um and to
45:07
encourage a good environment and you know and leaders that don't do that we need to um
45:12
you know help them become better or if they're not able to you know there's hard decisions that need to be made and
45:19
um you know we shouldn't shy away from that okay thank you
45:24
um so when we're thinking just overall about you know pressing pause and the workplace what does that mean to you any
45:31
sort of key messages you want to share with people yeah look i think um yeah i like the
45:36
term press pause we think about a workplace because it is so easy to get really busy and
45:42
not actually take the time to reflect um and to think about the workplace to think you know is
45:49
are our habits good are they healthy do they encourage people to contribute do they allow
45:54
people to contribute i think the other one for the military particulars we've got to be careful about the myths we tell each other
45:59
ourselves you know that we've got to be hard or you know tough environments like resilient
46:05
soldiers or whatever it might be um and there's truth to all of that but
46:10
not all the time you know um we need to allow people to um do what
46:16
they need to do to have family time to connect with with colleagues in a um
46:21
positive you know safe environment and we need to um take on some challenge and um but it's you know we don't need to
46:28
believe all the myths we told ourselves in the 80s and 90s or whatever it might be um so but you know to unpack all of
46:35
that i think you do need to pause i think you know within your workplace you do need to uh create some mechanisms for
46:41
people to contribute you know and reflect about how things going what could be better what would work better
46:46
for individuals in the team and i think if we do that if we press pause do some really profound and serious reflection i
46:53
think um we can all make our workplaces better awesome thank you matt now i'm just
47:00
saying there's a question that's come through so i'm just going to have a look about that um
47:06
so it was actually a question about navy's culture um getting uh so actually
47:12
i can answer a little bit about this it said about ordering staff to splice the main brace uh it was um
47:19
it was optional it wasn't an order people could uh decline uh are there any
47:25
other i'm not sure if the audience has got any other questions that they would like to share with the panel brad have
47:31
you got a question no comment on the splice the main brace
47:38
because um being part of navy and seeing that it is just another tradition right and um i think these two elements of
47:44
splice the main brace is the uh society's view on alcohol uh in our relationship with alcohol and a
47:50
tradition and um you know as you said there the navy has changed so much in terms of how we used to view the spice
47:55
domain brace where it wasn't the spice domain brace itself it was what happened afterwards in the messes um i'm pro
48:02
surprise the main brace because it does hold a real good place in our tradition but um we just have to be mindful
48:08
of the alcohol and there is there is some coca-cola and all sorts of other things served alongside that you don't
48:13
have to be drinking but um i think it's there's two separate issues here and one is society's relationship with alcohol
48:19
in a tradition all right i don't think there's any
48:25
other questions coming through at the minute so um do any of the panel have any sort of lasting you know final
48:32
remarks or comments that they'd like to take
48:43
i really enjoyed everyone's contribution i um got some really great little nuggets out
48:48
of everything that was said i thought it was really fantastic and it wasn't rehearsed
48:54
i know i i think well done everyone and i'm kurt a special thank you to you as
48:59
um someone outside of the organization really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to come and um
49:06
share with us uh some really great insights and things that we can definitely uh learn from ourselves um
49:13
now laura i'm gonna pass over to you because i think it'd be a really great time for you to do a bit of a plug for
49:19
some of the fabulous um health defense health integrated wellness resources we've got
49:24
well thanks for that nina um just before we do that we do actually have another question that's just oh i'm sorry that's
49:31
right it is for yuka um the person asks in pre-season the
49:36
getting to know each other stage what mechanisms or ways have you found the most effective or teen culture
49:45
yeah so i'd say the best one that i've experienced is
49:52
usually we go away to somewhere really random really remote away from anything so and
49:58
it's not common to anybody so i think that's the key the first key is it's usually us um a neutral space
50:06
and the next part is we're usually split off into more intimate groups i suppose so might be
50:12
sort of two or three people um [Music] or sort of three to four people in each
50:18
group and and the first question we usually ask is is what is your why um
50:23
and a lot of people a lot of sports people say the same answer it's i love this team i want to
50:29
be here but we've found lately um in the last sort of few years
50:35
it's got deeper and and i suppose we've sort of probed that to get the answer we want
50:41
and to understand each other better but this it's when it's the more intimate conversations that we've actually found
50:48
the things um that trigger other issues later on in
50:53
our environment um and i think it's you know it's like when you sit in the room of
50:58
20 people and they say oh how were you brought up and everyone sort of said young like that but when it's three or
51:05
four people when there's we trust each other that we're all here for the same thing we all want the same thing
51:10
um we we normally get those conversations come up and then what we do is we then filter it back into
51:17
we we meet again as a bigger group and and those things maybe i'll pass a message on that i've heard about
51:24
so jeff um and and that's sort of how we do it so it's almost like um
51:30
create safe space first and then um and carry on from there
51:35
yeah i think that is the hardest thing it's because our the makeup of our team is very
51:41
diverse as in culturally um and culturally for instance um pacifica
51:46
always feel really uncomfortable in big groups so there's one red flag in itself
51:52
understanding that our group is made up of this um and how are we going to get the answers
51:57
or how are we going to find out more about them it's when you get into the intimate conversations one-on-one you know one on
52:03
three so there's probably you know most effective
52:09
i suppose learning as a group and to understand each other is in those those
52:14
times and then you know we it's to start a year off and i suppose when you know things about each other
52:20
there um not a lot of people know um it just it changes the way
52:27
you approach things when things aren't going great or you're you need to cook someone out on something that you know your environment
52:33
just won't stand for um so it's it's almost a way it's it builds us
52:38
so that we can have sort of harder conversations when we need to because we're at the end of the day we're still there
52:44
um out we judged on our performance there's an expectation on us um to perform so
52:51
so we still need a better tough conversations thank you i love how um you mentioned
52:56
creating safe spaces so it seems like incendiary is being really intentional about um thinking about how to create
53:03
those safe spaces for different groups um and so that people can really get to know each other properly and
53:08
understanding the link between knowing your people and social cohesion and connection and high performance like
53:15
it's it's really clear that they've really well understood that yeah it's it's an interesting space um
53:22
you know with the high performance side of it as well as you know we still gotta have like i said earlier the care and
53:29
um i suppose empathy when we need it
53:34
that's right yeah if there's not any more questions
53:41
laura did you want to do a little plug for defense health
53:46
thanks nina um i just yeah i wanted to firstly say just such a big thank you to yourself leader
53:54
and also all the panelists again for yeah giving up the time and coming to talk to us about that and
53:59
i think yeah this panel really represents exactly what we're talking about you know it's people from all walks of life
54:07
and it's those differences and the bouncing of opinions and experiences that
54:12
you know and that building each other up and understanding each other and you know that really is what creates a
54:20
positive workplace environment and it's you know they you know you've all talked about
54:26
you know you're really advocates in terms of you know saying when you're not okay and being able to check in on
54:32
people and i think that you're really paving the way in terms of allowing other people to do the same thing so
54:38
yeah just a really big thank you for me um and yeah i will um do a do a quick
54:45
plug um so we have been developing um a really amazing resource and so it is a
54:53
tahi order so this is the external defence health hub and we've got a whole range of resources
55:00
on health at work so um managing workload and information on
55:05
healthy workplace culture and our work programs and deployments and transitions so
55:11
um yeah i encourage you all um yeah when you you've got time if you want a bit
55:17
more information to go and check it out um i did also just want to um quickly
55:23
and just mention our resources so you know if you have kind of listened today and you are feel like you might it might
55:29
be time to reach out for you know a little bit of a helping hand or you might not be going okay um nzdf has a
55:36
really huge range of um resources that you can reach and then sex support from if you are needing that you know extra
55:42
helping hand um you know we've also got um things like nzdf so that's our well-being
55:49
support line it's 24 7. it's completely confidential and it's external so you
55:55
know if you don't feel comfortable going through the organization and that option is there for you as well as are well as
56:01
one seven three seven so um thanks so
56:06
um that's all for me and i'll hand it back to you neither to finish off
56:12
uh kia ora thank you laura and thank you for sharing all the fabulous resources that are here um so
56:18
just to close uh uh once more thanks to you know what's been quite a rock star panel um really appreciated your
56:25
insights i just like to do a close in karakia kyoto
56:32
so that is let your peace reign on all the people of the world um so thanks again everyone i've really appreciated
56:38
your time have a fabulous day kia payton
See our Wellness Books 2022 for a range of wellbeing books and resources available to request via the Defence libraries for NZDF personnel.