Movement Is a Requirement: What Dr. Matt Taught Me About Staying Capable

A couple of years ago, my daughter suggested I go see her chiropractor, Dr. Matt Eichler.

At the time, lower back pain had become a recurring theme in my life. My neck had been giving me trouble for years. Every so often, my hands would go numb. And although I had been to chiropractors before, it had been many years since I had walked into one of their offices.

So I made an appointment.

I expected a chiropractor.

What I found was a health professional who changed the way I think about my body.

He Educated Instead of Just Cracking

One of the first things I noticed about Dr. Matt was that he didn't simply tell me where I hurt.

I already knew where I hurt.

He wanted me to understand why.

Why was my lower back bothering me?

Why might what was happening in my neck and shoulders be contributing to the numbness in my hands?

What movements could I change?

What exercises could I do to strengthen the muscles supporting the areas that were giving me trouble?

Instead of simply adjusting me and sending me on my way, he explained what was happening.

That mattered to me.

If someone tells me, “This hurts because of this, and here is something you can do to improve it,” I can work with that.

And that's exactly what happened with the numbness in my hands.

Dr. Matt showed me where the problem might be coming from and taught me some simple movements targeting my neck and shoulders.

Those exercises made a world of difference.

Even better, I can now recognize when that numbness starts and often correct or reduce it myself because I understand what is happening.

That may be one of the greatest compliments I can give a health professional:

He taught me how to need him less.

Ten Pounds at a Time

There was another conversation early on that wasn't quite as comfortable.

When I first started seeing Dr. Matt, I was morbidly obese.

He didn't dance around it.

He was blunt.

But he was also kind.

There is a big difference between somebody making you feel ashamed about your weight and somebody helping you understand what that weight is asking your body to do every single day.

Dr. Matt explained how carrying all that extra weight forced my body to work harder than it needed to.

He didn't tell me I needed to lose fifty pounds.

He showed me how much of a difference even ten pounds could make.

Ten pounds?

That sounded possible.

So we started there.

Then we built on it.

Ten pounds at a time felt achievable.

And repeatable.

Over the last year, I have lost more than fifty pounds.

We weren't chasing fifty pounds when we started.

We were taking smaller bites.

That lesson has stuck with me far beyond the number on a scale.

Big changes don't always require one giant decision.

Sometimes you make one achievable change.

Then another.

Then another.

And one day you look back and realize just how far you've traveled.

He Became More Than My Chiropractor

Dr. Matt and I also started talking.

Not just about backs and necks.

About our lives.

His background is in health.

Mine is in promotion and marketing.

He told me about a podcast he was working on, and I started listening.

Hearing him outside the treatment room only reinforced what I had already begun to realize.

Dr. Matt is a human being.

That may sound like a strange compliment, but think about how many medical appointments feel like an assembly line.

Check in.

Wait.

Get treated.

Next patient.

That has never been my experience with Matt.

He's friendly, bubbly, personable and genuinely interested in the conversation.

He doesn't speak down to me.

He doesn't make me feel like an old man lying on his table.

He talks to me like a longtime friend.

And the more I listened to his podcast, the more obvious it became that the person I heard talking about health was the same person I saw in his office.

He wants people to feel better.

Not just for the next fifteen minutes after an adjustment.

Long term.

From Twice a Month to Once a Month

When I first started seeing Dr. Matt, I was going about every other week.

Today, I see him monthly.

That change tells part of the story.

He straightened me out.

Then he trained me.

Now he helps maintain me.

And by “trained me,” I don't mean he turned me into an athlete.

He taught me how my body works.

He showed me how I could move a little differently.

He gave me exercises to strengthen my back.

He helped me recognize warning signs.

And instead of simply returning every time something hurt, I began understanding some of the things I could do to help myself.

To me, that's health care.

Apparently I Couldn't Keep Him to Myself

My daughter was the one who introduced me to Dr. Matt.

She wasn't the last Taylor to see him.

My daughters see him.

My wife sees him.

Apparently I couldn't keep the guy to myself for very long.

They saw the progress I was making.

They heard me talk about what I was learning.

And eventually Dr. Matt became part of our family's health care, too.

That probably says more than any five-star review ever could.

What Am I Training For?

At sixty, I'm not trying to become twenty-five again.

That's not the goal.

My working life is fairly sedentary. I spend a lot of time sitting in front of a computer.

So when Matt gives me a suggestion about movement, stretching, strengthening or simply getting off my butt, it carries a lot of weight with me.

Because I've started thinking differently about what I'm actually training for.

I'm training for independence.

I'm training for mobility.

I'm training for the ability to travel.

To walk around a car show.

To spend the day at a theme park.

To enjoy my family.

And most importantly, I'm training for my grandchildren.

I don't want to reach an age when one of my grandchildren looks at me and says:

“Papa, come play with me!”

...and my answer is, “I can't.”

I want my answer to be:

“Absolutely! I'll race you to the swings and slide!”

That's what I'm training for.

Movement Is a Requirement

If there is one thing Dr. Matt has taught me that I wish more people understood about their bodies, it's this:

“Movement is a requirement if you want to continue to move strongly.”

It sounds ridiculously simple.

But I think it's something many of us forget.

We sit.

We work.

We drive.

We watch television.

We get older.

Something starts hurting, so we move less.

And then because we're moving less, moving becomes harder.

I'm beginning to understand that maintaining mobility isn't something I can simply hope for.

I have to participate in it.

That doesn't mean becoming a bodybuilder.

It doesn't mean running marathons.

It means continuing to use the body I expect to carry me through the next twenty or thirty years.

More Than a Crack

I still call Dr. Matt my chiropractor.

That's how I met him.

But it no longer feels like a complete description.

He's become one of my health professionals.

A teacher.

An advisor.

A guy I can have a real conversation with.

And, over time, a friend.

We have gotten to know each other well enough that our appointments aren't just treatment sessions anymore.

We learn from each other.

He's the kind of person who could easily become a close friend.

I don't know if I've ever told him directly just how dramatic an effect he has had on my lifestyle.

Or how much more hopeful I am about my future mobility today than I was when I first walked into his office.

So maybe this is my opportunity.

Matt, thank you.

Thank you for not treating me like another back on a table.

Thank you for explaining instead of simply adjusting.

Thank you for telling me the things I needed to hear, even when they weren't necessarily the things I wanted to hear.

Thank you for teaching me that ten pounds can matter.

That a few simple movements can matter.

That strength can be rebuilt.

And that getting older doesn't automatically mean surrendering the things I still want to do.

I originally went looking for relief from back pain.

What I found was something considerably more valuable:

Hope that I'll still be moving strongly when those grandkids challenge Papa to a race.

And for the record...

I'm taking the inside lane to the swings.