Not Getting Health Results? Here’s Why.

Have you ever felt like you’re doing everything right—following the latest workout trends, eating clean, managing your stress—yet still not seeing the results you desire? The truth is, the path to a longer, healthier, and more vibrant life isn’t just about what you do; it’s about how you do it.

In this episode, Aaron Shaw, an experienced coach and healthspan expert with nearly three decades of experience, breaks down the five essential pillars of healthspan: Exercise, Nutrition, Sleep, Emotional Well-being, and Preventative Care. But more importantly, he reveals why having a coach to guide you through these pillars could be the game-changer you’ve been missing.

Aaron shares personal stories and insights from his journey as both a coach and a coached athlete, illustrating the transformative power of expert guidance. Whether you’re stuck in your health journey, not seeing the returns on your hard work, or simply curious about optimizing your life, this episode is for you.

Discover how a coach can help you avoid common pitfalls, tailor a plan that fits your unique needs, and ensure you’re making real, sustainable progress. Aaron also offers actionable tips that you can start implementing today to extend your healthspan—plus, he’s available for a free consultation if you’re ready to take your health to the next level. 
Contact: Hello@HealthspanDigest.com 

Don’t settle for mediocrity when it comes to your health. Tune in to learn why you’re worth the investment, and how a coach can help you unlock your full potential for a long, healthy, and fulfilling life.

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Transcript

Aaron Shaw (00:00)
If you ever felt like you're trying to do everything right, follow the latest workout trends, eating clean, trying to manage your stress, you're still not seeing the results you want. The truth is that a pathway to a longer, healthier, more robust life isn't just about what you do, it's about how you do it. In this episode, I'm going to reveal why having a coach to guide you through the five pillars of healthspan and longevity could be the game changer that you've been missing.

Today we're going to talk about the five pillars essential to health, and longevity. These are exercise, nutrition, sleep, mental wellbeing and preventative care. We're going to talk about the benefits of having a guide or a partner through this journey so you can get to a vibrant, long, healthy life and meet your goals. From personal experience, I do coaching now, but I've been on both sides of the equation and I've had many coaches throughout my life and my life is

far better off from it. have learned some great lessons. name is Aaron Shaw and for nearly three decades, I've been issuing exercises and guidance for both rehab and performance clients of all ages, all abilities.

By training, I'm an occupational therapist, a certified hand therapist, and a certified strength and conditioning specialist. My focus is on healthspan and longevity. And I am committed to continue learning as much as I can on these topics, breaking down all the concepts, all the science of healthspan and longevity into easy to understand language. And in each episode of this podcast, I leave with one action item that you can start today to extend your healthspan.

So all of these episodes, it's key and vitally important that you have something you can literally start today to change your life.

At one point in my life, I had a performance coach. was a competitive cyclist, an amateur cyclist. And despite all my training, I was pretty sure I was doing everything right to get the most out of my time, most out of my investment, meet my health goals. And then I decided to invest in a coach. And then I really learned what it was like to get the most out of my time and effort. I really learned the value of, and really kind of the ease of

being told what to do, know, a collaborative process, but ultimately being told what to do, trusting that it was evidence -based and seeing the results. And it really got me to a level back in my road racing career that I never thought I would. I ended up retiring a category one road cyclist, which anybody who's a roadie or a road cyclist can just appreciate that it's an elite amateur. But the point was I really met my potential.

through having a coach. And so I am again, I'm in this coaching world now and ultimately been for a long time as a coach, but also like most good coaches, we've all been coached as well. So we can appreciate the value in that. If you happen to be interested in coaching, my contact information is in the show notes. Feel free to reach out. have free conversations with anybody who's curious about coaching to see if it'd be a good fit for you. I also offer 90 minute

consults like a deep dive consults with actionable items that people can really take immediate steps to improve fitness and nutrition, all the healthspan pillars. And I have a limited VIP roster of annual clients, some that I've been working with for six or seven plus years where they have 24 seven support from me, smartphone app, weekly or more often phone calls and check unlimited messages with me. So I can appreciate

the tiers, I can appreciate the benefits of having multiple access points for a coach to help you meet your goals.

Today we're gonna talk about the five pillars of healthspan and longevity and what a coach should be able to offer us as we are pursuing our unique potential, our physical potential, our emotional potential, and really our healthspan potential. Healthspan is the length of time within our lifespan that we are healthy, active, vibrant, and I would say durable and disease -free and ultimately trying to be disease -free of things that are preventable, so things that are within our control.

If you have any specific questions about coaching or healthspan or getting a coach, please message my contact information is in the show notes. And if you have a specific topic you want me to dive into and kind of break down into simple English, send me a message, comment on this video, comment on the podcast, and I will do the research and create an episode for that. So again, this episode is for you if you are trying to be fit, healthy, trying to do the best you can.

but you're struggling and you're having a hard time achieving the health goals that you want. You don't feel like your effort is getting you anywhere or you just can't really get yourself motivated to do the things that you really already know will help extend your healthspan, will help you be healthier. If you're one of these people that struggle with this, this episode is for you. You may be short on time, you may be injured, you may...

Again, feel like you've been putting in some effort, but just not getting the return on it, return on your investment. This is for you. Let's review the five pillars of HealthSpan and the actions you can take, the value that we can see from having some help on your HealthSpan journey. exercise is the number one pillar of HealthSpan. Exercise is

Hard for many of us to get in habit of doing. There are unfortunately a whole lot of fads and misinformation out there, but I think one thing we need to ask ourselves, one thing I would ask you is if you exercise, are you confident that you are doing the right number of sets, repetitions? Are you resting an appropriate amount in between each set or in between each rep? Are you training the appropriate number times per week, per muscle group?

Do you feel like you're making gains on every workout that you do, on every exercise that you do? Are you stronger today than you were two, three, four months ago, nine months ago, a year ago? I see so many people that are making mistakes despite even just the best effort of trying to be as healthy as possible, trying to exercise, trying to reap all the magical benefits of exercise. And people are sadly bombarded with misinformation, maybe some bad habits.

Some people are overtraining, some people are under training, most people are under training. And a lot of people are just following generic workouts that really it's sort of like scrolling the internet and scrolling social media and seeing a workout say, I'm going to try that today. And it's haphazard at best. The value of having a coach is that somebody can make, a coach can make a personalized, very personalized exercise plan, fitness plan, just for you that fits your goals.

your needs, where you're at today, where you want to be in six months and a year from now. A coach can make sure that any old injuries you have are front and center and aware of that and how to work around that can be key on avoiding injuries from training or flaring up an old injury that you've had in the past. again, it takes a thoughtful assessment, a thoughtful plan in making sure that a good coach will actually match

your availability with the exercises that are prescribed, the workouts that are prescribed. I find that a lot of people come out, not from when they reach out to me for coaching, they want to go from zero to a hundred, train every single day, commit to doing it. And that's not a real realistic way of doing it to go from zero to a hundred. So working with a thoughtful coach can help pace things and make sure that you never feel overwhelmed. You're playing the long game. You're not going to go like crazy and work out for

two weeks straight and then fall off the wagon and say, just can't do it. Nevermind. So a good thoughtful coach can guide you through this first initial super high value pillar of exercise. Specifically, I have a client who went without my guidance and nudging and I would even say like holding back sometimes One of my clients who would definitely over train, definitely under rest, definitely under recover. And we've worked together for years now and really, you know,

built a lot of trust through the years where with really close attention, we've come to a nice cadence where she can see the very real benefits of this very specific program that she's on and how we adapt it over time. So whether it's over training or under training, having a coach is vital to get the most out of your exercise pillar to extend your healthspan, to extend your longevity.

Pillar number two, nutrition. fad diets, there's a million fad diets out there. There's tons of misinformation out there. And there's also just a bunch of information where people are sharing their personal stories on what worked for them. But, you know, I've studied nutrition and it's complicated and it's individualized. And some people say, you know, there are too many never eat this or never do that, or only eat this or only eat that. And the reality is there is definitely.

hard science that we need to follow and respect, but there's also individuality. whether somebody's vegan, vegetarian, whether they have food allergies, whether they, you know, swear off eggs or want to eat eggs every single day or never eat oats or always eat oats. You know, the people have individual responses to things and working with a coach that can give you the science behind fueling your body for the needs that you have.

but also making sure that you are respected as an individual and that you have a a nutrition plan, a fueling plan, as I like to think of it, that is sustainable. That's for the long term. It shouldn't be a death march of starvation and then think that suddenly once you feel like you hit your ideal weight that everything's gonna be perfect, because that's not a way to survive. We have to have a long -term plan and working with a coach can really help fine tune

the nuances of nutrition. So over time, you can achieve the energy needs that you have, achieve an ideal body weight that you want, but it's a sustainable plan. I'm working with a client, Ryan, who I've actually mentioned in some of my previous podcasts, and he's lost over 20 pounds in three months, not through any medication and certainly not through any diet. So I don't have a Ryan's diet that I could share with you. It's just because we've been working,

together very precisely on how he's feeling himself and making subtle, very subtle small changes in his nutrition and his activity and all the pillars of healthspan. And he's reaping the rewards and he's not starving and he's, you know, at a sustainable pace of losing this weight and he's working out more. And so all the things are looking great. And it's because we are collaborating so closely together. So this is guided by science, not guided by fads.

Speaking of science, the successful science experiment of podcasting really relies on subscriptions to my YouTube channel and comments on my YouTube channel. So I would ask you ever so graciously, if you were subscribed to my YouTube channel, comment on any of my posts that I have, ask me questions, let me know what you want to learn more about, and I will dive into them and I will share, I will answer your questions. Yes, I actually.

respond to people who comment on my posts. There is no artificial intelligence here. There's no AI in my world. It's just me telling you what the science says. So please subscribe to my YouTube channel. I'd be grateful. And any podcast platform you happen to be listening on. Thank you so much for that. Now on to pillar three, emotional wellbeing. Stress and anxiety. is two things that I deal with all the time. So I'm very aware of people who have stress.

anxiety and I think in today's world, we're probably far too overburdened with things and we're distracted by things. I think it's frankly, I think that the emotional component of health is often at the bottom of the barrel. And people will think if you're, if you know, if you're eating pretty well and you look healthy and you exercise some that everything is fine and dandy when you could be really struggling internally in your mind. working with a coach, somebody who can, can

really build trust with and develop tools over time to help you manage your stress, your anxiety, the internal dialogue that we all have, the constant voices that we have in our head.

So working with somebody that over time you can trust, learn tools from, learn strategies from, brainstorm things that can reduce your stress, can help you really learn how to see life through a little bit more positive lens, which again, this is tough when some things in life just really kind of suck and things that we can't control, but working with a coach can help you stay on point with your emotional wellbeing and can also guide you to other tiers of support. you have, you know, a

you know, depression, clinical depression or bipolar disorder or other conditions a good coach can kind of point you in the direction when things are, you know, at a level that they are not equipped to deal with personally. But the point is having somebody, just having somebody that can be there in your corner to help you navigate your emotional wellbeing. This pillar is essential. I should just talk to a client the other day who was going through a pretty stressful time in her life.

And I had a coaching call with her and a video call and she was sitting in her vehicle in her garage because she was just vacuuming it out. so the significance of that may not seem like much, but it was, it was interesting because in the chaos that her life happens to be in right now, one thing that she could control, that she could feel like she had, again, just definitely control of cleaning the inside of her vehicle, made her feel good. And it was a 15 or 20 minute.

tactic for her to decrease her stress. There was a positive outcome and it's small, it's subtle. It's a very just, you know, maybe random example, but the point is working on little things that can support emotional wellbeing is key. And that's where having support is super important. Pillar number four, sleep. Sleep is essentially a legal drug. is, it is the legal way to have

a boost in your cognitive capacity, improving your memory, massive effect on your physical performance, on your attention, on your mood, on any sort of signs of stress and depression and anxiety. And, you know, I think there are some misconceptions about sleep and how to navigate that, but working with somebody who in a sense, in a sense is really like a sleep coach or can have skills of a sleep coach to help you.

improve your sleep hygiene, assess your current sleep habits, and suggest things that are really specific to your life, your world, your routine. I've done that previous episode on sleep on this podcast and I love sleep and I'm not always a great sleeper. And so it takes time and effort for me to kind of navigate my own sleep hygiene. I'm in a really good habit right now. So, you know, I got a nice cadence to what I do, even though my schedule really kind of waxes and wanes quite a bit, but working with a coach.

And especially now, because we have all this technology, having a sleep score and having somebody you can kind of brainstorm ideas about your sleep score. So whether that's just, you know, smartphone app you can put by your bed or a wearable, I wear a little wrist strap thing every night that tells me, know, like wake up in the morning, I have a sleep score. It tells me different phases of sleep I've been in. And this app also lets me kind of like do a quick little checklist on a diary that'll give me feedback on, you know, cause and effect. And so when I don't sleep well,

It's pretty clear why, why I don't. but for people who have struggled for a while with it and really haven't gone down the path of trying to learn why, you know, you may not sleep well or you feel like you sleep okay, but you just don't feel energized when you wake up or your workouts suffer or you're feel foggy headed some days and not others working with somebody who can coach you through strategies and really track your sleeping, the cause and effect of your behavior, your habits.

Your sleep hygiene, kind of what you do at night, what you do in the morning, what you do throughout the day is key. And we all know that not sleeping well feels terrible. has this massive effect on your entire day when you don't have a good night's What we probably don't do is give enough credit for those nights where we do sleep really well and we wake up feeling great and you're super productive. And you think, wow, it's really productive today. Well, it's probably because you had great sleep. Your body's fueled up in a sense. So you can accomplish more and you feel good. You feel happy. The fifth pillar of.

healthspan and longevity is preventative care. And so these are measures that you can take to, that are often, I should say, these are measures that are often ignored until it's too late. But there are things that we can do to prevent problems in our health. And so it's taking the time, whether it's a primary care physician, whether it's a dentist, whether it's just, you know, making sure that you are doing screenings, health screenings that are appropriate for your age and sex, and to make sure that you're taking these proactive measures.

having a coach to help keep you on point with this, maybe give you a little nudge to remind you to do these things that are kind of a pain in the butt because you got to maybe lose a little bit of work because you got to go to an appointment or something like that. the information is invaluable. so whether it's, I mean, for me, I've done DEXA scans and VO2 max and resting metabolic rate, not because I was sick or feeling ill or anything. It was just because I wanted data that I can hand off to my primary care physician.

and say, Hey, let's use, let's utilize this information to prevent any sort of potential illness or health changes that happen as I age. You know, I have a client right now that was overdue for a cardiac workup. And really we had to like stop progressing certain exercises, certain workouts that we had planned because this cardiac work-up was overdue. And I said, Hey, this is the deal. We want to be safe. We want to be thoughtful. And let's get some, a professional.

i .e. cardiologist, to give you some testing and let's kind of see where you're at to make sure like as we continue to intentionally try to improve your health that we don't run into problems. And so this preventative care aspect of healthspan and longevity is fortified and supported when you have a coach who's with you, they can collaborate and take the results of tests and help you develop a plan with data from any sort of preventative measures that you're taking and really be a

part of that and integrate that into your exercise, nutrition, and sleep and so on. So those are the five pillars of HealthSpan. So we've got exercise, sleep, nutrition, emotional wellbeing, and preventative care. And having somebody in your corner watching out for you, helping coordinate all these pieces, giving you professional guidance is worth the investment. You're worth the investment. it's really probably the most challenging part.

for many people is just looking in the mirror and saying, hell yeah, now's the time. I'm going to do this. You can pursue this stuff on your own for sure. You don't always need a coach, but if you find yourself again, this, this particular episode is specifically for people who are trying to pursue things, trying to learn things, trying to live a healthy, vibrant life, but maybe feel stuck. Maybe feel like you've been saying the same things for months, maybe years, trying to get stronger, trying to lose weight, trying to feel, you know, trying to sleep better.

trying to feel more physically confident, more durable, tired of having aches and pains and injuries all the time. If you're in this cycle and you can't get out of it, think about getting a coach. It makes a huge, huge difference. And again, from personal experience, I've met whether it's business goals, professional goals, performance goals, back when I was racing all the time, the top points of all of my markers for my personal satisfaction in life.

In that journey to get up to the top of that peak, a big chunk of that is a coach. A coach is involved, raises things up for me. We do the same for you. The one thing you can do today to extend your healthspan is reach out to a coach, personal trainer, or other professional to see if what they offer aligns with your longevity goals.

your health goals, your performance goals, your healthspan goals. And really, think also seeing if you're a good personality match, because that matters too. I you may have somebody that their credentials look beautiful. And if you have a conversation with them for five, 10, 15 minutes, and you realize, man, this is like oil and water, we're just not, you know, not on the same page, then look for other people. It's perfectly fine. I think that it's a big investment in yourself.

perhaps the biggest investment you'll ever have in yourself. so taking the time to explore and find a person, and maybe it's a couple of people, that really is your team that you feel like, okay, these people are out for me. I'm being fed some information, helping me make decisions. I've got tactics I can do to feel really good, feel durable, feel strong, meet my goals today, next month, next year, years to come. It is such an awesome investment.

When in doubt, reach out to me. I'll put my contact information. You can message me directly. I'm happy to talk to anybody who's looking for a coach or just wants to learn more about my coaching methods. I offer free consultation. Happy to do it. But reach out to somebody. So step one, my contact information is down below. Drop me a message. We can hook up, we can talk. Kick around a few ideas. What would be a good coach for you?

Specifically, my offers are, I do have a VIP commitment, I'll say, that is an annual program. And I have very long -term relationship with some of these clients that I've been working with for many years. And the VIP program that I have is essentially 24 -7. I have a smartphone app, calls, unlimited text messaging, and it's nutrition planning, it's workouts, it's exercises, it's...

collaborating with their medical team, their therapists, some of my coaching clients have had knee replacements and rotator cuff repairs and things. so something that would otherwise knock a person out, we don't do that. We keep open conversation to make sure that they are doing everything possible to meet their health goals, to live a long, healthy, vibrant life. so for those VIPs, it is a very tight partnership. 24 -7, we're vested in each other.

I also do single consults that are about 90 minutes long, and these are exploring the unique needs of people who really just want a deep dive, know, concise deep dive into where they're at right now and to have some actionable items that they can run with solo. Kind of, you know, give them some, give some deep dive tips, try X, Y, and Z. And these tips are something that people can utilize for days, weeks, and months to come on their healthspan journey. And if that satisfies some people.

That's great. And then if in six months, they want to reach back out to me and we do another little update, that's very cool. That's very cool too. So most importantly, please take action. You are worth the investment. Your family will love you for it. Your friends will love you for it. Your employer will love you for it even, because you're going to be more productive. Your pets will love you for it. And you'll love yourself more for taking the next step because you're worth it.

To the best to your health, to your healthspan. When in doubt, reach out to me. Again, my contact information is down below. Happy to have a conversation. So I've got your back. Cheers.