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Introduction
Traci Thompson
Traci Thompson MS, CSCS, ACSM HFD is an Assistant Professor of Health, Kinesiology and Recreation and Nutrition and Integrative Physiology at the University of Utah. She is a Certified Health Fitness Director (HFD) and Certified Cancer Exercise Trainer through the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). She has been the Director of PEAK Health and Fitness since 2001.
Visit Traci Thompson’s faculty page:
https://faculty.utah.edu/u0056630-TRACI_THOMPSON,_MS,_ACSM_HFD,_CSCS/teaching/index.hml
PEAK Health and Fitness is a partnership between the College of Health and the Office of Wellness and Integrative Health at the University of Utah. PEAK offers a variety of workshops and seminars, health assessment and fitness testing, nutrition services, continuing education opportunities, and our popular employee fitness classes at the University of Utah.
Transcript:
David Pace 0:00
Hi. My name is David Pace, and this is Pace Yourself, the University of Utah College of Science podcast on wellness. Hello, everyone. Today we are talking to Traci Thompson, associate professor of health and kinesiology and director of education at the Osher Center for Integrative Health. Here at the University of Utah. Welcome, Traci.
Traci Thompson 0:25
Thanks so much for having me.
David Pace 0:27
Thanks for being here. So today we’re going to be talking about physical wellness. I know that the National Institutes of Health have their eight dimensions of wellness, which we talked about last season. Each one of those and very broad terms. But today we want to talk, do a little bit more of a deep dive into physical wellness, physical health and wellness. And I know that they kind of blend together, obviously, mental health, social health, all of it, or wellness, I guess is the better term. But today we in particular, we want to talk about how physical health and wellness configures through the services of PEAK.
Let’s say that again. Yeah. So today we’re going to be talking about physical wellness in particular as it configures through the services of PEAK health and fitness, which Traci has directed here at the University of Utah since 2001. So this program is appropriately named PEAK , I think, as in Mountain Peak, which of course, we are surrounded by here in Salt Lake City, home of the University of Utah. So is that an acronym or is it simply an aspirational name?
Traci Thompson 1:48
Great question. It is an old acronym. So when I first started to work at PEAK, PEAK had periods between them and it was an acronym that stood for Performance Enhancement through Applied Knowledge. So it should have been PTAC, but PEAK was better.
David Pace 2:11
Made it a little bit more snappy.
Traci Thompson 2:12
Yes. So when I first started in 2001, it was a very small clinic I had. I was a one woman show and mostly we did health and fitness testing and we didn’t do other types of wellness services. And so it really was more performance enhancement at that time.
David Pace 2:33
So when you say performance enhancement, it sounds like the football team is out there trying to get better performance for their sport. But it wasn’t really, was it sport related?
Traci Thompson 2:46
I mean, I think less university athlete team related and more student and staff athlete related. So we did like VO2 max testing and lactate testing at that time. We also did body composition testing and then I’m an exercise physiologist and so my role was to do the testing and then help folks interpret and interpret the results and use that to do something to increase their performance.
David Pace 3:21
So it’s not an acronym, but we I’m going to go back to the fact that I think it’s a very aspirational name, So it makes me feel like maybe I can reach a potential that has eluded me so far in my health and wellness. So as an employee here at the U, I do know thatPEAKfitness and wellness runs U employee fitness classes, but I have a sneaking suspicion, as you’ve alluded to, that there is a lot more to PEAK . Can you give us a little bit more of an overview of whatPEAKwill offer the university community as well as the community at large.
Traci Thompson 4:10
Yeah, absolutely. So over the years we have offered more and more integrative services to help folks with their wellness. So we started out with physical activity. We are still doing a whole bunch of physical activity testing and exercise prescription and personal training and as you mentioned, university employee fitness classes. But we have grown to also provide other services; wellness coaching is a general service that we provide that really helps folks who are looking to improve in any of the eight areas of wellness that you mentioned earlier, because they’re all intertwined into our wellness. So you could talk to a wellness coach about your movement or your financial health or your emotional health.
We also offer a whole bunch of nutrition services. So we have registered dietitians and graduate students who are gaining their graduate degree in nutrition and integrative physiology, who work with folks to help them dial in their individual nutrition. We also do cooking classes and we have parks, rec, and tourism students who talk to people about they’re using their leisure time to really read and rejuvenate themselves and have a more fulfilled and well-rounded life. So we’re doing a lot of things.
David Pace 5:52
What a great place to have a Parks and Recreation Department. You know it because it’s such a feral place here. All you have to do is step outside and you’re in somewhat wilderness, right? So the wellness coach tell us, is that is that what you called it? What’s the value of having a wellness coach? I mean, I think you’ve already alluded it to a but could you put a little finer point on what they do for you?
Traci Thompson 6:22
Yeah, absolutely. So you can just revert to what we’re calling it. So some people call it a health coach, some people call it a wellness coach. We actually have vacillated, but wellness coaching or health coaching is really helping folks to really dial in what is really valuable for them in their health. What we know is that if you come to me and I say you should be exercising three days a week on a treadmill, you should be lifting weights two days a week, you should be doing this and you should be doing that. The likelihood that you’re going to go home and do it and be able to continue do it is really low. But what a wellness coach wants to do is talk to each individual. And if you came and you said, I want to increase my physical activity, the wellness coach would ask you a whole variety of questions. Say like, what’s your history with physical activity? And tell me about what your whole schedule in your day and what if you had any, like bad experiences with physical activity and what are your good experiences with physical activity and why do you want to increase your physical activity to begin with? What’s driving you to want to do this and question questions questions and so they can help each individual kind of figure out like why do I want to do this? And what we know is if we can tap into an individual’s own, why like, what is your why? Then that can help them to make meaningful and sustainable changes over time. And so that’s the main goal of health coaching is like to help folks tap into their whys and then to be help people to make small, sustainable steps. Because a lot of times, let’s say it’s New Year’s and everyone’s making a New Year’s resolution and you want to do everything, I’m going to eat better, I’m going to move more, I’m going to stop drinking, I’m going to do all the things. And it’s like just you can’t do all the things all at once. It’s just unsustainable. And so a wellness coach can help folks really make personal, small steps that are more sustainable over the long term.
David Pace 8:53
So it strikes me that rather than having a kind of a prescriptive approach to health and wellness, like you should be doing this, you should be doing that, you’re talking about more of a descriptive, or like you say, questioning the client with all kinds of questions that might give the wellness coach a sense of some back doors that they could use in order to build on what they’re already doing or or meeting the client where that client is. You’re going to be an Adonis three weeks from now if you do A, B and C.
Traci Thompson 9:32
Yes, that’s really key is taking that time to meet the client where they are and figuring out what’s meaningful and then also to talk about barriers, because most of us who want to change something in our lives have tried to change that thing before and it hasn’t worked out and keep helping people to figure out like, how are you going to deal with these barriers? And it’s really, really individualized. And so sometimes people think like, I’m going to go to a wellness coach and they’re going to tell me what to do. That is not actually the case. We’re going to help people to make some make some suggestions to them, and we can help them sort of demystify things like, you know, exercise. You get a lot of bad advice on the internet about exercise so we can help folks demystify things and really get them sort of to the real facts. But also, we know telling people what to do, being very specifically prescriptive is not necessarily the way to actually help people make sustainable changes.
David Pace 10:42
So I go to VASA, Right. And which is a gym here in Utah, and you can get a personal trainer there. I’ve never done that, but I’ve watched these personal trainers work with people in the gym, and we’re not talking about just a personal trainer in a gym here. We’re talking about a coach in the broadest, more integrated way. Is that correct?
Traci Thompson 11:09
Yes, we do also do personal training. But if you sign up for.
David Pace 11:12
I didn’t mean to diss personal training
Traci Thompson 11:13
Personally, Yes. If you sign up for a health coach, you’re getting something different. And for most folks, it’s not just one session and one session. You might start with some baby steps. You might start with like, these are the things I’m going to do next week. This is what I’m going to try for the next three weeks. And then you’re going to meet with your health coach again and you’re going to debrief like what went well? What didn’t go well? How are you? Are you feeling better? Is this working for you? And you kind of you could totally revisit like the goals or more likely you could revisit like what barriers came up and figure out how we can address those barriers and keep you moving forward. So it’s an iterative process, just like life is.
David Pace 12:03
Yes just like life. It’s not just something that you see in a movie where someone is screaming at you to do one more push up. Yes, I’m struck by when you were talking that house. There’s an analog to this, believe it or not, here in the College of Science. It’s called the Math Center, which is a tutoring center for math students. Math is critical to any STEM student. And yet it’s also the biggest stumbling block for many of them because of math anxiety, which is the same thing that I think you were talking about with – Geez, Louise, how many times have I gone through January 1st and set goals to do something and then by February 1st completely forgotten about them.
So yeah, I did this not to deviate too much, but I did this cover story for the math department on the Math Center. And I hate math. I’ve always hated it math doesn’t not only does not walk in my family or run in my family, it doesn’t walk. So but one of the things that I learned in doing this story was that the tutors were so dialed in, as you say, to this notion of meeting the student where he or she was and being able to figure out where that anxiety enters the process. Maybe it’s in the classroom when the lecture is going on, maybe it’s walking to the classroom or away from the classroom or walking past the math center and not being willing to go in there. And and it’s anyway, it was very inspirational to be over there because they’re not only coaching and mentoring, but they’re working together as a group of tutors and they don’t pretend to know all of the answers and they don’t pretend to know why you’re there when you walk in there. So I’m wondering if that is a fair comparison to what you’re talking about when you’re offering this service of a wellness coach?
Traci Thompson 14:12
Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, our coaches know how much the what the recommendation is for amounts of physical activity. They know those numbers that might not even come up because we are meeting someone where they are. So if where they are is wanting to get off the couch, we’re not going to tell them you should be doing this or that. We want you to get 30 minutes a day. We’re going to say like, is it seem realistic for you to maybe instead of, you know, drive to this thing, walk to this thing like one maybe change? And so and even more than that, I think it’s more asking even asking questions like, do you see a way in your life where you could increase physical activity? What would what would work for you? And really helping the person to really think about this is my life where might it work for me to do that? And it’s just universally it’s going to be more effective. At the end if each individual comes up with their own solutions. Sometimes they need scaffolding and sometimes they need myth busting. But the coach, yes, it’s very analogous to your math lab.
David Pace 15:33
Tell us about scaffolding and what was the other term?
Traci Thompson 15:37
I don’t know. What was the other term? Scaffolding is what I view as just if you’re trying to build something, you need some form to help so it doesn’t fall down as it’s being built. And so if I’m talking about scaffolding a goal, we might help them to understand. You don’t have to. There’s no half truths in this. You could meet the goal this way. You could meet it this way, you could meet it this way. Do you help each individual have, I guess, a better foundation of what they want, maybe wanting to aspire to? Because again, when you look online, you know, there’s just all sorts of misinformation and people are saying like, you should be working out six days a week or you should be doing this or that, or there’s no way for you to be fit unless you’re, you know, running a certain amount or whatever they’re saying. And just kind of helping to break that down and giving some real facts to people.
David Pace 16:50
Well, and I think when I hear the term scaffolding as well, and correct me if I’m going off here, but it seems like scaffolding is also something that’s going to be taken down or might be taken down. Yeah. And that it’s I don’t want to call it a crutch, but it kind of is not necessary. At a certain point, you’ve got the building built already and it’s going to be freestanding and sustainable in a way that you don’t need. Maybe some of those braces, if you will, to keep things going initially.
Traci Thompson 17:24
Yeah, I love that. I totally agree with that. We often talk about this in personal training as well as health coaching that, you know, in some businesses the goal of the personal trainer is to keep the people coming back for their whole life because that’s their income in when we are thinking about personal training, we are trying to help teach people how to move in a way that they enjoy and understand and can do on their own when they’re not in the gym. And so we’re I think that’s a great analogy is that we do want to want to teach people how to sustain these changes without needing to continually come back to a coach.
David Pace 18:14
Right. And I think that that speaks to a lot of things. You know, what is the objective is it to keep somebody coming back through the door and plopping down their $100 an hour? Or is it something else? Yes. And if you’re not having that conversation professionally, then you can’t really convince your client of anything as well or something as well about I did remember what the other term was, myth busting. And I think that you just answered what some of those myths are that we need to bust.
Traci Thompson 18:50
Yeah, I mean, there’s thousands of wellness, health, fitness myths out there, and they’re just going to keep coming. And we’re part of the University of Utah, the Health and kinesiology department within the College of Health and with the science. And so we do have that grounding in science and evidence based practices to help folks make, you know, sustainable behavior change.
David Pace 19:18
So speaking of science, since we’re in the College of Science, how does PEAK complement traditional medical care, for example, services and expertise provided by your primary care physician or others recommended by a medical doctor? I mean, obviously you’re going to have some interaction there.
Traci Thompson 19:36
Yeah. So PEAK is a part of the Center for Osher Center for Integrative Health and well, integrative health means to us is whole person health. So your medical provider, you mean we get to see once, maybe twice a year and they maybe if you have if you’re lucky, you have 30 minutes with them to chat about your health and wellness.
David Pace 20:04
From personal experience, I can tell you that.
Traci Thompson 20:06
Absolutely. And it’s not for all of the things that we need to eat. We need to move, we need to sleep. All of the things that we can do to be more healthy. It’s just not enough time. And we’re everybody’s an individual. And so I think the PEAK services are very complementary to going to see your provider each year because we can help answer the questions that you have about different areas of wellness.
David Pace 20:34
I have to say that the medical community, my PCP, for example, or a specialist that I may go to are very keyed into the resources that are available. And it’s like, Hey, you need to talk to a wellness coach, you need to talk to a dietitian, you need to talk to a sleep professional, somebody who can tell you, you know, because obviously you’re not getting enough sleep. I’m looking at your well chart, you know, and so at least in my experience, I’ve been gratified to know that they are willing to look outside of their own medical training to support their patients health because it’s not just about, you know, the body as a machine, but it’s the body in the whole context. Or I think Britta, your colleague was talking about the did you call it the ecology or, yeah, the habitats of health that we have to interact with. And just the term integrative health suggests that that’s all coming together. Yes. Correlated.
Traci Thompson 21:46
Yeah, we worked very closely with folks in the medical field and they know they don’t have the time to give all the answers that people need. So they refer out a lot.
David Pace 22:03
Right. And I think that’s the advantage of being at a university where there is a health campus and a medical school is that there’s always this tension, but also opportunity to integrate, to remember that this isn’t just about medicine, this is about something broader. Anyway, there’s a couple of things more that I wanted to talk to you about, but before the last thing I’m going to ask you, this is a foreshadowing is what are the top three things you’d like to tell people about their health and fitness based on your experience in the educational health field? But before you answer that question, I’m going to give you a couple of minutes to think about it. I wanted to read what the PEAK mission is, just as kind of a summary of what we’ve been talking about. PEAK’s core responsibility is to provide practical training and education for undergraduate and graduate students in the College of Health. These types of opportunities foster the development of knowledge, skills and abilities for the students and provide professional level health, fitness and wellness services to not only the university but the community members at large. And I also wanted to give you a call out. We should add that under Traci’s direction, PEAK has won the 2014 Beacon of Excellence Award in recognition of the transformational experiences the PEAK clinic provides for students. And also, Traci, correct me if I’m wrong, you have been honored as a selected fellow in the Academy of Health Science Educators. That happened in April 2015. Congratulations.
Traci Thompson 23:46
Thank you very much.
David Pace 23:47
And so what are the three things that you would like to tell our audience?
Traci Thompson 23:52
I think so. Three things to focus on. Sleep is very important. I think sleep is probably the most under appreciated area of our health. And when we get stressed and when we get busy, sometimes sleep goes by the wayside first. And so I think getting quality and, you know, 7 to 9 hours of sleep for folks is just really critical movement and nutrition are probably just the next step under that physical activity is folks who are physically active have less stress, more energy,
better mood, increases the physical fitness of your heart and cardiovascular system, as well as your muscles, bones and joints, and just helps people in every aspect of physical activity. Were it a pill. We would all be on it. And then nutrition, just like what do you put in your body? What are you made of? I think the importance of those three things are the top of my list.
David Pace 25:15
Excellent. Yeah, that kind of captures all of it in broad brush strokes. I think as I think about my own health and wellness or the lack thereof on occasion. Well, I want to thank you, Traci, for being here today. And we’re going to list on the website page some of these resources and the link to PEAK and some of the other things that you may think may be of interest for further reading for our audience. So again, we’ve been talking to Traci Thompson, who is the director of education at the Osher Center for Integrative Health here at the University of Utah. Thank you so much for being here.
Traci Thompson 26:04
It’s been my pleasure. Thanks so much.