Keep Leading!® Podcast 070 | Stretching as Leaders | Dr. Sue Bradshaw

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Dr. Sue Bradshaw
Chiropractor
Stretching as Leaders

Episode Summary
Dr. Susan Bradshaw is the author of “Move More.” She is a Certified Posture Exercise Professional and has appeared in print and on TV discussing various health topics. Her office, Lone Star Chiropractic, was voted the Best Chiropractor in the 2016 “Best of Houston” edition by the readers of the Houston Press.

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Bio
Dr. Susan Bradshaw is a 1998 Graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic West and author of “Move More.” She is a Certified Posture Exercise Professional and has been featured in local print and TV discussing various health topics. She provides small and large companies corporate wellness talks to empower employees to stretch and move regularly. Her office, Lone Star Chiropractic, was voted the Best Chiropractor in the 2016 “Best of Houston” edition by the readers of the Houston Press. Her passion is helping to inspire and empower people to make small changes in their daily routines that make a significant impact on how they feel.

Website
http://www.lschiropractic.com/

LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/suebradshawdc/

Twitter
https://twitter.com/lonestarchiro

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/LoneStarChiro/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/lonestarchiro/

Leadership Quote
Your success in business (and in life) is your willingness to have difficult conversations, including conversations with yourself

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http://www.lschiropractic.com/

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Transcript

The key to sustainable leadership lies in the ability to thrive during uncertainty, ambiguity, and change. Grand Heron International brings you the Coaching Assistance Program, giving your employees on-demand coaching to manage through a challenging situation and arrive at a solution. Visit GrandHeronInternational.Ca/Podcast to learn more.

This podcast is part of the C Suite Radio Network, turning the volume up on business.

Welcome to the Keep Leading!® Podcast, the podcast dedicated to promoting leadership development and sharing leadership insights. Here’s your host, The Leadership Excelerator®, Eddie Turner.

Eddie Turner:

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the Keep Leading!® Podcast, the podcast dedicated to leadership development and insights. I’m your host Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator®. I work with leaders to accelerate performance and drive impact through the power of executive and leadership coaching, facilitation, and professional speaking.As a coach, I often talk about stretching in the sense that clients need to do things outside of their comfort zone by stretching themselves. Today, with all the demands on us as leaders and the stress we are putting on our bodies, I’d like to talk about leaders stretching themselves literally and physically. I’d like to talk about that with a true expert. My guest today is Dr. Susan Bradshaw. Dr. Susan Bradshaw is one of the top chiropractors at all of Houston and author of Move More. She’s a certified posture exercise professional and has appeared in print and television discussing various health topics. Dr. Bradshaw and her Lone Star Chiropractic practice was voted the Best Chiropractor in 2016 in the Houston Press.

I am super excited to have with me today Dr. Susan Bradshaw. Welcome to the Keep Leading!® Podcast.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Thank you so much for having me. It’s quite an honor to be on with you, discussing our topics of stretching and how it applies to entrepreneurs and leaders.

Eddie Turner:

It is truly my privilege to have you. And full disclosure, I have to tell people that you’re one of my team of physicians keeping me running. You do such a great job, especially when I come back off a flight, I’ve been sitting in these airplane seats for hours. You give me just right adjustment for my back and my neck but you’ve been getting on me and chastising me for not stretching the way I should. And you have so many techniques to share. And so, I thought “Well, I should share some of this with my listeners.” And it’s important for us as leaders. So, that’s why I wanted to have you today.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Well, it’s a pleasure. I think your situation, when I see you in the office, is so common for those that travel, that have heavy work schedules. And it’s a common theme in Houston and around the world. And you know what, I always tell people not to minimize any discomfort that any individual is going through but it is so very, very common in what we see.

Eddie Turner:

Indeed. And even now, I think we’re probably seeing something we were not anticipating seeing, Dr. Bradshaw, in that all of us are working from home and on these Zoom meetings throughout the day. And these Zoom meetings have us stuck in the seat more than ever.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Yeah, it’s so true. One thing that’s happened during this virus is I’ve spent more time actually working on my business. And so, I’ve been sitting a lot more doing more Zoom meetings and it’s really kind of hammered home what people go through when they have to sit all day. And so, yeah, though it’s changed from commute and travel to kind of being chair-locked, we call it, sitting in one position all day, it’s difficult.

Eddie Turner:

Yes. Now, I’m glad to hear you say that you’re experiencing it now too, so, I don’t feel as bad but it’s like at the end of the day, I’m like I feel more fatigue and more achy and all kinds of stuff because of [inaudible][05:11] at least before you walk to the office or you walk to the client side or something but now we’re in a different time.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Absolutely. And the research kind of backs that up too. For those people that sit all day, the research shows there is more not just the aches and pains that we’re familiar with, headaches and back pain, but then also just the mental drain that comes along with it, it’s really hard on our system. Some research shows that the longer you sit or are sedentary, you’re increasing your risk for cardiovascular disease, for heart disease, diabetes. So, it’s more than just pain. Obviously, that’s important. That’s usually what people feel but it kind of stacks over time and you stress on top of that, which also has its own ways of creating an unhealthiness in the body. It’s really just compounding one on top of the other for people lately.

Eddie Turner:

Yes. And so, to counteract that, you always show me techniques. And I didn’t have a live episode of my show when I invited you on. I only had this audio only version but now that I have a live episode, we have to schedule this again.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

That’ll be fine. Love it.

Eddie Turner:

But to the best of your ability, can you share with my listeners just a couple of things you talk about in your book Move More and in the sessions that you have with me about what office workers and those of us who are stuck in our chairs all day can do to counteract the maladies that occur from sitting too long.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Absolutely. I think when people approach this topic thinking “Okay. Well, I need to do something. I’m hurting. My stress is through the roof. I know I’m supposed to take breaks” but then we’re stuck, right? We’re working. I’m guilty of it. I sit down to do some work and it’s three hours later I haven’t moved. So, the first thing I tell people, more than anything else, no matter what you do, set a timer, use your smart watch or your phone, an app, something to remind you that you need to move regularly. Studies show if you move two minutes for every hour, you have a 33% less risk of dying from any reason. So, just moving regularly is important. So, the first thing I would say is scheduling to take breaks becomes important. And you don’t necessarily have to walk away from what you’re doing. So, say you sit down, you have your cup of coffee, you do your first kind of Zoom meeting, whatever it is, after half an hour or an hour, think about some stretches you can do for your upper body. Just simple neck rotations, shoulder rolls are my favorite, real nice big shoulder rolls, thinking about as big of a circle you can make with your shoulders and then continue on with your work. And then perhaps half an hour later, start working on the lower body stretches.Does that make sense?

Eddie Turner:

Yes, it makes sense. And you can’t see it but I’m doing it now.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

I always love a big growing stretch that you do with your body.

Eddie Turner:

Yes, as you describe it, I am doing it. Good. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, that reminds me of the article in the Harvard Business Review that says that Sitting Is the New Smoking. And that was a provocative title but it’s really true.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

It is. And I had the same thought when I saw that title. I thought “Okay. Well, this is what you call that clickbait for somebody to click through it.” And as I was writing my book and researching it, it’s true. It is absolutely true. There was some statistic in there that one cigarette takes away something like 10-15 minutes of your lifespan but for every hour you spend watching TV or just being sedentary, there’s something like 20 minutes of your lifespan. I mean, it is not healthy.

Eddie Turner:

Yeah, isn’t that something? I told my wife, I said “I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve been sitting so long that it hurts.”

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

It does.

Eddie Turner:

It’s the antithesis of other times of my life wherein “Hey, I’ve stood all day, I’ve been running, etc.” but yes. So, clearly, as your book, and I love the title, by the way, as your book says, we need to move more. And you gave us a nice little suggestion about timing sequence. For those of us who may not have an Apple watch, that Siri tells us to get up and I forget the interval because I don’t wear mine anymore or other Fitbit or the devices, the tech watches, they help us remember to get up. So, you’re suggesting every two minutes.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Yeah. No, I want people to move ideally 2 minutes every 30 minutes. Sometimes that can be a little bit difficult but if you get a routine down, you pick a couple stretches, like I said, you pick the upper body, you do a couple stretches for the upper body, you’ll do a few stretches for the lower body. And one thing that I wrote about in my book as well is the relationship to improving your posture to help combat stress. And so, that’s the other aspect of it too is you always want to add in something that will say if you’re seated all day, something that kind of unfolds yourself, right? So, if we’re all hunched forward over a computer, we want to do things that open up our shoulders, that open up our hips to help improve our posture. It actually helps with your overall health. It also helps with your stress hormones too. So, improving posture, stretching regularly.

Eddie Turner:

So, open my chest, open my hips. And you said it one more thing.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Things just to improve your posture.

Eddie Turner:

Okay, anything that you could describe over in an audio format like this.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Sure. So, one of my favorites, it’s called a Bruegger Breathing Exercise, it’s been around forever. So, what I want all of your listeners to do is to sit up straight. And what that means is you’re kind of going to roll your shoulder back, kind of think of when your grandma used to poke you until you to sit up straight, that kind of posture. And then what you’re going to do is you’re going to take your elbows and keep them really close to your sides. So, your hands are on your laps, elbows by your sides, and your palms are facing each other. And I want you to take a nice deep breath in. And as you breathe in, you’re going to open your palms, so separating them along your side and squeezing your shoulder blades back. So, your hands are going opening away from you and squeezing your shoulder blades and as you bring out, you bring your hands back to your laps again. And then keeping your elbows in, again you’re going to breathe in, squeeze your shoulder blades back and then breathe out again.It’s one of my favorites because it incorporates breathing which also helps relax us but it’s a good posture opening exercise.

Eddie Turner:

A posture opening exercise. I like that. Very nice. Well, thank you for that suggestion Dr. Sue.So, I’m talking to Dr. Susan Bradshaw, one of the top chiropractors in all of Houston, one of the best chiropractors in 2016 in the Houston Press. She’s also the author of Move More. We’ll have more with Dr. Bradshaw right after this.

This podcast is sponsored by Eddie Turner LLC. Organizations who need to accelerate the development of their leaders call Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator®. Eddie works with leaders to accelerate performance and drive impact. Call Eddie Turner to help your leaders one on one as their coach or to inspire them as a group through the power of facilitation or a keynote address. Visit EddieTurnerLLC.com to learn more.

Hey, this is Dave Sanderson. You may know me from being the last passenger off US Airways Flight 1549, the Miracle on the Hudson and the movie Sully, and you’re listening to the Keep Leading!® Podcast with Eddie Turner.

Eddie Turner:

Okay. We’re back everyone. I am talking to the amazing Dr. Susan Bradshaw, one of the top chiropractors in all of Houston, Texas, voted Best Chiropractor in 2016 by the Houston Press. And she is the author of Move More and we were talking about the importance of stretching as leaders.And so, it’s a metaphor but it’s also truly tied to our ability to be effective as leaders, Dr. Bradshaw. Tell us why?

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Well, I think, as leaders and anybody that’s ever opened a business and responsible for employees or for business being successful, we often kind of put our health second. It’s easier to kind of work through and power through and get those more hours and do more, more, more and we neglect the fact of overall health and that’s what we end up seeing is the physical manifestations of that overlying stress and that mindset that leaders have.

Eddie Turner:

Yeah. I paused because that’s my problem Dr. Sue. And a lot of people say that, right? “I would stretch more if I had time. I’d work out more if I had time.”

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

It’s that and I think also people think “Well, it’s just stretching. So, it’s not that important. what’s it really going to do?” And that’s one thing I really tried to emphasize in the book was that when I told people “Okay, start thinking about how much time you’re sedentary,” everybody will say “Okay, it’s the time I met my guests.” Now times are a little bit different but I ask people to add in “Okay, what is your commute time?” Here in Houston, we have long commutes. And we say “Well, we’ll take breaks and eat lunch” or something. Well, then we’re still in that seat in sedentary posture and people will say “Well, I take breaks.” – “So, what do you do on your breaks? You look at your phone. So, you’re still in that folded posture.” So, we say stretching but I think it’s the emphasis of why it’s so important because it’s going to counteract all the negative things that happen once we sit down and become sedentary. And so, it doesn’t have to be some really long elaborate thing. It’s, like I said earlier, just kind of picking an area? The tension that builds in your neck at the end of the day? Well, at 3 o’clock that’s probably a really good time to do some neck stretches.

Eddie Turner:

Okay, there you go. Got me doing my neck stretches again, as you describe it.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

It’s like whenever mention posture, everybody immediately sits up straight.

Eddie Turner:

Yes, yes. And the idea of how we show up as a leader. We cannot be effective if we are in pain. We cannot be effective if we don’t have that straight posture that our mothers taught us about, right? To stand up straight.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Right. So, stretching will help you gain that improved posture, that taller stance. There’s a lot of self-confidence that comes from good posture and there’s a lot of research behind that. There are even coaches that teach leaders on posture and how they stand. There’s research between how you stand, the improvements of your stress hormones. And then also, on the other aspect, if you have a hurt and somebody’s trying to have a serious conversation with you, your ability to focus on that conversation is really limited because of just that noise in the back of your head of that aching pain.

Eddie Turner:

Yes, that is true. That is very, very true. So, how can we take specific steps to improve our productivity as a leader in this area.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

So, as I mentioned some tips for leaders to do to make sure that they’re taking care of themselves. Set up the time, making sure that you’re actually stretching and moving that helps improve your posture, how you’re presenting yourself, your ability to focus and listen which is very important when you’re not in pain. And then other things I tell people that I see kind of across the board with people that have really kind of those C-suite high-end jobs where they’re working a lot is downtime. Downtime means no technology, taking your break, taking care of yourself. It’s a hard thing to do but I find that when you’re mentally able to kind of take that mini-break and come back, it’s really important to do. So, once a day, if you can, even if it’s just 5 minutes, stretching with some breathing, a little bit of a mini Yoga exercise, something like that is really helpful.And one tip that somebody told me was to mentally do something different. So, if you work with your mind all day, in your downtime or your off time, you should do something with your hands and vice versa. So, if you work with your hands a lot, you should do something mentally. I thought that was kind of interesting a way of distracting yourself from what you normally think about.

Eddie Turner:

That is interesting. Thank you for sharing that with us.And you have done something unique in your office to help leaders with what they can do in the middle of the day.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Right. So, what’s really come up with the coronavirus is we’ve started offering Zoom online classes. So, we have weekly classes that have been really popular with how to foam roll, how to use a lacrosse ball, kind of those things we used to go through in the office a lot and now we don’t, people are staying home more. People are hopping online with us doing a full body foam rolling session, coming up here we have one on lower body mobility. And then we’ve switched our current lunch and learns or stretch at your desk lunch and learns we do for corporations. We’ve been doing those through Zoom, which has been really fun and an interesting transition to see a Zoom meeting with all these people, 30 people online, all doing stretching along. It’s kind of a team-building exercise, great way to get some laughter into your group, and it’s been a blast.

Eddie Turner:

Yes, yes indeed. I think that’s just a fantastic idea. And I kept putting it on my calendar and I never made it but you had also started Stretching Saturdays at your office.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Yes. So, once we can start doing that, we have Stretching Saturdays in our office. It’s free. Drop in. We mix it up sometimes where someone who’s talking about making it on Mimosas and Mobility, a little fun. And also, usually once or twice a month we’ll have an evening class, again, just kind of “Come as you are. We pick a topic we go through.” If we say we’re going to do a lower body and lower back mobility workshop, that is what we do and it’s really focused. And I think what’s a little bit different is that in that intimate setting then I can go around, make little corrections on how people are doing things and how they can do maybe a little more effective. So, we’ve really gotten good feedback from that.

Eddie Turner:

Wonderful. Yeah, may be a while before we can go back to those but I still love the concept and I love the name ‘Stretching Saturday’.So, thank you for sharing these tips with us today Dr. Sue, helping us to stretch ourselves as leaders literally. It is critical to our ability to keep leading.

What is your overarching message that you have for us today that you want to make sure we take away?

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

It’s the reason I titled my book Move More. It’s the thing that people ask me when they come into my office when they have aches and pains, they’re not sure why, it is to move more. You really need to move regularly throughout the day for your mental health, for your physical health. That’s what I want the takeaway to be is to always remind yourself you need to move more.

Eddie Turner:

Thank you. And do you have a piece of leadership advice or your best leadership lesson or your favorite leadership quote that you can share with our audience to help us keep leading?

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Yes, sure. One of my favorite quotes is from a business coach I had a while back and he said “Your success in business,” and I think this translates to life too, “is your willingness to have difficult conversations including those conversations with yourself” and I find it really poignant.

Eddie Turner:

That is poignant. I like that – the ability to have difficult conversations including with yourself. That is so true. As leaders, sometimes we need to have a difficult conversation with ourselves.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

We’re often our own worst enemy. That’s for sure.

Eddie Turner:

Yes, I like that, Dr. Sue. Thank you for sharing that as well.So, you are just an invaluable resource to myself and to so many others in the Houston community. Thank you for the hard work that you are doing and helping us all to keep leading.

Oh, by the way, your website. Please share that.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Yeah, absolutely. I was just going to say if you’re interested in the stretches, website is LSChiropractic.com. You can send us your email. We are happy to send you our Move More eBook for free.

Eddie Turner:

Well, you can’t beat that. So, what we’re going to do, Dr. Sue is we’re going to put that into the show notes and folks will be able to get that on their devices when they’re listening to it and certainly you’re going to have a page on the KeepLeadingPodcast.com website and people can access your information there as well.

Dr. Susan Bradshaw:

Wonderful. Thank you so much. I had a lot of fun today.

Eddie Turner:

Thank you for being here.That concludes this episode, everyone. I’m Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator®, reminding you that leadership is not about our title or our position. Leadership is activity. Leadership is action. It’s not the case of once a leader, always a leader. It’s not a garment that we put on and take off. We must be a leader at our core and allow it to emanate in all we do. So, whatever you’re doing, always keep leading.

Thank you for listening to your host Eddie Turner on the Keep Leading!® Podcast. Please remember to subscribe to the Keep Leading!® Podcast on iTunes or wherever you listen. For more information about Eddie Turner’s work, please visit EddieTurnerLLC.com.

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The Keep Leading!® podcast is for people passionate about leadership. It is dedicated to leadership development and insights. Join your host Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator® as he speaks with accomplished leaders and people of influence across the globe as they share their journey to leadership excellence. Listen as they share leadership strategies, techniques and insights. For more information visit eddieturnerllc.com or follow Eddie Turner on Twitter and Instagram at @eddieturnerjr. Like Eddie Turner LLC on Facebook. Connect with Eddie Turner on LinkedIn.

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Keep Leading!® Podcast 070 | Stretching as Leaders | Dr. Sue Bradshaw

Transcript