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From Sedentary to Suppleness - a conversation with Katarina Šokac
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Katarina Šokac is the founder of Kat Cut Fit and a specialist in helping people transform from sedentary lifestyles into supple leopards.
Katarina has created the Flexibility Fit Community and the Kat Cut Fit mobility App.
In this episode of the Abeceder podcast Fit For My Age Katarina explains to host Michael Millward the mobility challenges that the way many people live today are storing up for them in later life.
In a world where for many people working involves sitting for long periods of time at a desk or workbench, Katarina believes it is reasonable to describe sitting as the new smoking.
You will learn about Katarina’s specialist approach to helping people who live sedentary lives to become fitter and healthier by improving their mobility.
Audience Offers
Proactive Positive Ageing.
It is always a good idea to know the risks early so that you can take appropriate actions to maintain good health, that is why we recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test.
York Test provides an Annual Health Test. An experienced phlebotomist will complete a full blood draw at your home or workplace. Hospital standard tests covering 39 different health markers are carried out in a UKAS-accredited and CQC-compliant laboratory.
A Personal Wellness Hub gives access your easy-to-understand results and guidance to help you make effective lifestyle changes anytime via your secure, personal Wellness Hub account.
Visit York Test and use this discount code AGE25.
Fit For My Age is made on Zencastr, because Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform, that really does make creating content so easy.
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Find out more about both Michael Millward and Katarina Šokac at Abeceder.co.uk.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Promotion
00:00:05
Speaker
Made on Zencastr. Hello and welcome to Fit for My Age, the health and wellbeing podcast from Abysida. I am your host, Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abysida.
00:00:17
Speaker
As the jingle at the start of this podcast says, Fit for My Age is made on Zencastr. Zencastr is the all-in-one podcasting platform on which you can create your podcast in one place and then distribute it to all of the major platforms like Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and Google.
00:00:38
Speaker
It really does make making content so easy. If you would like to try podcasting using zencastr visit Zencaster, visit zencaster.com forward slash pricing and use my offer code, Abysseedah.
00:00:52
Speaker
All the details are in the description. Now that I've told you how wonderful Zencaster is for making podcasts, we should make one. One that will be well worth listening to, liking, downloading and subscribing to.
Meet Catalina Sokak: Life-Changing Habits
00:01:06
Speaker
Very importantly, on Fit For My Age, we don't tell you what to think, but we do hope to make you think. Today, my guest, who I met on matchmaker.fm, is Catalina Sokak, who helps people create habits that change their lives for the better.
00:01:22
Speaker
Hello, Catalina. Hello, Michael. We're pleased to have you here today. We've faced a few technical issues in in getting started, but we are there now. We are there now. Thank you for inviting me. It's a great pleasure. I'm very interested.
00:01:36
Speaker
Please, could we start with a bit about you and your backstory, please? Sure. So my name is Katerina. I like to say that I transform sedentary folks into sedentary Supple leopards. um As a personal coach, as a mobility teacher, as an advanced yoga teacher, um over the years I have realized that what most people need is to move pain-free and develop their mobility.
00:02:05
Speaker
So out of my own pain, I realized that actually sedentary lifestyle is making us um sick, both mentally and physically. And I'm on a mission to...
00:02:17
Speaker
and do that. I can imagine that people hearing you say that a sedentary lifestyle will make us sick, both mentally and physically. Most people will understand the physical side of that, that sitting down for long periods of time will end up with your body not working in the same way as someone who stands up all day.
00:02:37
Speaker
But what do you mean when you say that it can also affect our mental health as well?
The Harmful Effects of a Sedentary Lifestyle
00:02:42
Speaker
Well, if you're sedentary the whole day, if you have prolonged um sitting hours, it does affect your mood quite a lot.
00:02:50
Speaker
um So when you're sitting, when you're working at your computer, it's the radiation of all the device devices that we are having. It's the lack of exposure to sunshine, to fresh air.
00:03:02
Speaker
um And many times we are not doing it. um We are not having the prolonged sitting hours because we want it, but because we have to. So that is, um, kind of killing us on emotional and mental level.
00:03:17
Speaker
So we're basically the way in which we work very often, or even the way in which we choose to relax is very often sitting down in front of the television, sitting down in a bar or a restaurant, drinking alcohol, drinking coffee, being in that situation.
00:03:32
Speaker
Exactly. I like saying that, um, Sitting is the new smoking. So um we wake up, sit in the car, drive to work, where we again sit for 8 to 10 hours, um sit back in the car, come back home, and sit again.
00:03:50
Speaker
So this is something that, um that kind of pattern, my goal is to break that pattern and to ah bring a bit more awareness of what daily um small habits that can um compound um in the long term. It's it's like the the actual way in which we live in the 21st century creates a lot of health problems, but I'd never thought about it before until you just said it, that we wake up in the morning,
00:04:22
Speaker
and we've been lying down all night we sit down to eat our meals at breakfast we then get into a car onto a bus onto a train and we're sitting down you know if you're people fight over the seats in some trains i've noticed but Sometimes it can be better just to stand, you can get off the train quicker.
00:04:43
Speaker
But then we sit down for the majority of our day, and working on a computer, working on a mobile phone, working on ah on a landline, working on all sorts of devices which give off all sorts of various different things, rays, magnetism, all that sort of stuff.
00:05:00
Speaker
um
Solutions for Sedentary Habits
00:05:01
Speaker
which all creates a negative impact. We're looking at screens that will have an impact on our eyes. We're in air conditioned environments. All of these things are creating ah negative impact on both our mental and our physical health. I understand. I see what you mean.
00:05:17
Speaker
it's It's great. But your role is to stop people from yeah When you say sitting is the new smoking, it puts it into context of it's a so it's a serious issue we're talking about, isn't it?
00:05:32
Speaker
Exactly. i would say it's almost a pandemic of ah of sedentary lifestyle, which is um in today a very kind of hustle-oriented world where everyone is trying to build something or to put more work.
00:05:50
Speaker
um It's very hard to undo that um the
00:05:57
Speaker
One way to do that is to take small breaks just to every 90, 220 minutes, just to stand up, go grab a glass of water, walk for five minutes, and it will do wonders. think there's, you talk about the time that we spend sitting down.
00:06:19
Speaker
We don't sit in the right way either, do Exactly.
00:06:24
Speaker
Exactly. I mean, we ah we tend to lose focus on our spine, so we are not very mindful of our posture, which brings a lot of the slouching,
00:06:36
Speaker
um um slouching, looking back, um tense shoulders, neck. We have a tendency to um to tense our jawline, to tense our face muscles. We are frowning.
00:06:51
Speaker
um There's also a term called tech neck, so it's kind of like pronation of the neck of the head. We forget to tuck the chin in and and and similar things. So some people are trying to sit on those Pilates and stability balls to to keep their spine um erected and the core muscles um engaged. ah But still, if you're not really 100% focused on that, we all end up slouching.
00:07:23
Speaker
Yes, I've tried that and I agree with you. It's more difficult to actually sit properly um on one of those balls because you have to focus you have to concentrate on that and you can't concentrate on two things at the same time.
00:07:36
Speaker
Exactly. So which one are you going to focus on? You end up slouching anyway. But the thing I found that they're useful for is that you do end up having both feet flat on the floor.
00:07:47
Speaker
Otherwise you move around. And when you're on a chair that is stable, then you do tend to, to crush your legs in one way or another to actually make all those things. But the the The issue of the tech neck as well, where youre you're using a laptop, which was not designed to be used for long periods of time, but you're looking down, you are developing that aspect of your your head looking down rather than looking straight out, so to speak.
00:08:20
Speaker
There's so many little things that when they all add up can can improve things, but also when you don't have them. Well, these sorts of things may not seem like a problem today, but I reckon that they're going to become problems over a period of time. It will all of a sudden...
00:08:40
Speaker
we'll be looking back and thinking, I should have done something differently 20 years ago.
Catalina's Tools and Strategies
00:08:45
Speaker
If I'd done something differently 20 years ago, I would not have this back pain, this neck pain that I have now.
00:08:52
Speaker
So what is it that you do to help people understand and to understand all the various different issues and actually then take the positive steps which will help them have a less sedentary lifestyle and a healthier lifestyle as well i'm very active on social media by providing content on um small daily habits or small daily exercises or movements um that you can do especially if you're i would say a sedentary folk um so what's the what are the names of the of where can people find you and what what profile names should they be looking out for
00:09:32
Speaker
ah On Instagram, they they can find me under katkatfit. So kat.cut.fit. um Or on my LinkedIn, it's the same name for the company or my personal name, Katarina Shokatz.
00:09:49
Speaker
I think that you're going to link it underneath the the podcast. yes we will yes. They will see it. So... Um, I know what are the kind of like the common ah problems of people who sit a lot. I was once, uh, that person as well. So I started as an architect with prolonged sitting hours. That was many times 12 to 14.
00:10:12
Speaker
Um, I developed a serious, um, back issue so i froze from pain from my neck till my toes at the age of 22 and that pain was kind of like the main trigger for me to change to shift my focus on actually my own well-being many times we are very motivated and wanting to pursue different goals but if it ah if it's harming us in the long run or if it's harming us on different way o you have to question if it's really the right choice. So I have made the decision to undo that. And now with that motivation, I'm eager to help also more people um to to move pain-free, to move better, ah to be a healthy eight-year-old.
00:11:01
Speaker
where Maybe if you're still not experiencing the problems, it's the it's just a matter of time when it's going to happen if you're not doing anything at the moment to undo that.
00:11:13
Speaker
Yes, think that is that is the issue for me. I think about it is like it's one of those health and safety type issues that isn't no problem today. But in 20 years time, 30 years time, it will come back and it will they will hit us because haven't either developed or maintained the strong but muscle structure that we're going to need as our body naturally ages.
00:11:41
Speaker
If you've got a strong muscle structure, then you stay fitter for longer. But you mentioned that you're very active on social media, sharing all of your various different um techniques and solutions for free on social media, but you've also developed an app as well, haven't you?
00:12:01
Speaker
Of course. So people who want to work with me, they have a chance to do that. Um, so, um, a lot of people come to me with problems of tight hips, rounded shoulders, um, serious low back issues. So everything that is caused by sedentary lifestyle, um,
00:12:17
Speaker
So with those clients, I'm working on that. Also, there is a possibility to subscribe to my apps, to to my app for mobility programs.
00:12:29
Speaker
um I have divided that into most common ones regarding shoulders, um hips, spine, and the core. So those are kind of the main pillars um of my coaching.
00:12:45
Speaker
You can try the app seven days for free just to see if it's working for you. You can also download the free mobility plan um just to start moving to see if this is something um that works for you. And then if you're if for those who are interested, they can um start working with me on their specific issue.
00:13:06
Speaker
Okay. Now, there is something about...
00:13:12
Speaker
you having good intentions and wanting to do things. And then, know, you're tired one day and and all those good intentions go out of the window.
00:13:23
Speaker
What is it that you do to help people stay motivated on this, on this program? um I understand that kind of signing up for a program seems like another task for your endless, on your endless to-do list.
00:13:38
Speaker
um So I always recommend start small. ah Don't commit yourself to working out seven days per week. If you're not, commit yourself for ah five minutes a day.
00:13:52
Speaker
if it's a If you have five minutes, that's completely fine. But um It's not the initial motivation that is going to bring you results, but it's actually your discipline and consistency of doing the same thing over and over again.
00:14:09
Speaker
and So then it's not so much a case of being motivated. I always recommend doing the mobility part in the very morning. So in the morning, we are still kind of feeling very stiff. By moving your body, this is like a double shot espresso. It does not have to be...
00:14:30
Speaker
um It's not kind of like a high intensity. It's a little bit of mobility, a little bit of stretching, but it's going to play a big role how you start your day and how your day develops.
00:14:43
Speaker
um Also, ah everyone
Prevention vs. Treatment in Health
00:14:45
Speaker
is busy with a lot of things. And if this is not your priority, if you're not... um ah ready to wake up 10 minutes earlier than usual scheduled to do your mobility, then yeah the pain is still not big enough.
00:15:04
Speaker
Because there is always going to be some kind of stress that comes and this is never going to be a part of your day if you don't do it first thing in the morning. That's a really important thing to remember, i think, about the motivation is like, if the pain is bad enough, there's no point in sitting there and complaining about it.
00:15:26
Speaker
You have to do something about it. And exactly it's not going to be a quick win. It's going to be a long-term process. And it will be there'll be days, I suppose, when it's...
00:15:37
Speaker
when it doesn't look as or feel as if anything's changing or getting better. But you have to stick with the program. As one of my friends at the gym that I go to says, you have to engage with the program, trust the program, and but and continue with the program even though it might not look as if it's working it will work if you commit to the time and and label the the program to or the to do its to do its thing but you have to you have to be actively involved in it it's not going to happen without your active involvement as the person who wants to relieve the pain exactly and it's just a sad fact that we have to come to that uh
00:16:23
Speaker
critical point where if you don't do anything it's going to end up very bad so there is um why do we always have to be focusing on healing something or repairing something that is never going to come to its initial state ah rather than focusing on prevention by doing smaller actions that are many times for free um and now you pay your time So now you pay in your five minutes per day and later, who knows how much you're going to be paying for all the therapies.
00:16:59
Speaker
So I'm trying to motivate people to, you know, to, to just be aware of, um, of their future and how they want to be and feel as a eight year old version of themselves.
00:17:17
Speaker
Yes. It's very,
Incorporating Movement into Daily Life
00:17:18
Speaker
um, it does When you say that, it does make you think in terms of the
00:17:27
Speaker
the idea that we have got to the point where we sit yeah large numbers of people sit down all day at work. And yet we then have, you know did you do 10,000 steps today?
00:17:40
Speaker
How many steps have you done? And we will then sort of think about, okay, well, where can I find my steps? Where can I find my steps? But that's exactly what you're saying is that with the idea that, you know, if you ah have a job which requires you to be at a desk, then almost as employers and employees need to work together to make sure that nobody sits at their desk for more than an hour.
00:18:06
Speaker
think exactly Every hour people get up, move around, go get a cup of coffee, go get a cook drink of water. that yeah i hear people saying we need to um park our cars at the far end of the car park and then walk to the office rather than trying to get as close to the door as possible.
00:18:28
Speaker
And it's almost as if listening to you, I'm thinking, well, actually, you know, if I'm in an office and I'm going to move every hour, then instead of doing the short journey to the lavatories, I should make the long journey to the lavatories.
00:18:46
Speaker
Exactly. Instead of going to enter the coffee machine on my floor, I should go to the coffee machine two floors down and use the stairs. Mm-hmm. There are like so many things that, um, that you can do on daily basis.
00:19:02
Speaker
What I like doing is, um, actually doing all my, um, meetings. So either a zoo meeting or phone calls, standing or walking.
00:19:14
Speaker
So, uh, for those who are constantly on meetings, that's a great way just to get a little bit more of the steps or to increase energy expenditure.
00:19:25
Speaker
Yes. I would say as an ah HR professional that I agree with you that more people should have those meetings standing up. standing Having a meeting standing up means that you spend less time in the meeting because you're more focused on getting it done.
00:19:41
Speaker
but and also if you're walking and having a meeting i would caution people to do their walking around their house around the office and not walking down the high street or in any area where people other people might overhear it and put two and two together on one thing or another it's uh you know, keen on people walking, keen on people exercising, but we have to understand the restrictions of the, where work should be happening.
00:20:14
Speaker
But you talk there about ah people standing for meetings and you explained to me about how standing burns more calories than sitting down.
00:20:26
Speaker
And I'm wondering, yeah could you just explain that again to me, please? So um the bigger the muscle in your body is, the more calories or the more energy it burns.
00:20:39
Speaker
um So the the muscles that are keeping you upright or that are keeping you standing and upright are the spinal erectors. So there those are the muscles ah next to your spine.
00:20:51
Speaker
um And when you are standing, they are activated much more than when you are sitting. So that increased energy expenditure because they have to be actively working for you to stay upright actually causes more calories to be burned.
00:21:07
Speaker
There is also a thing called fidgeting. So when you're just kind of like moving your your feet and testing your calf, Um, so there are, um, ah receptors in your calves that are burning more calories, um, than any other muscle in the body when activated.
00:21:27
Speaker
So just by doing kind of calf raises, by lifting your heels, you're, um, increasing the, the amount of energy, um, burned or spent. Right.
00:21:40
Speaker
So whilst you are standing, you can be burning more calories if you do a calf raise, which is just going from being flat on your feet to standing on your toes, holding it for a couple of seconds and then dropping down to flat on your feet again.
00:21:55
Speaker
Exactly. like it's It starts to make sense that you we should have standing desks, stand and work rather than sitting all day or having the option to do um both at different times of the day.
00:22:12
Speaker
But this idea that if you are sitting at a desk, you can, you know by having your feet flat on the ground and then just raising them up a little bit, you can help with these types of issues.
00:22:23
Speaker
If you are standing doing the same type of thing, just lifting your body onto your toes and then dropping it down again slowly and gently on the flat of your feet, it all starts to sound...
00:22:36
Speaker
um sensible and and straightforward, but of course, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. So it's always well worth, as I did when I spoke to Katerina first, before we did this recording and understood how our bodies work, is ah is a helps us to understand.
00:22:58
Speaker
If we can understand how our bodies work, then we can we can treat them in a way that will make them work better, I suppose, is is what we're saying. What this this whole sort of approach is about is like, think about think about how your body works, learn how your body works, and then so you what you can do to make sure that it that it works to the the best possible way.
00:23:23
Speaker
Mm-hmm. I would just like to mention that this is not kind of like a weight loss technique. You cannot expect now to lose weight just because you're standing.
00:23:34
Speaker
ah But if you're already on a weight loss goal, this is certainly something that is going to help. There are certain smartwatches or are apps on the phone that are already ah measuring your standing time. So your standing time does matter.
00:23:50
Speaker
Um, and, um, it's again, just like the small daily actions that you have to be ah performing daily. Yes. That should not be taking so much of your time, but it just, at you have to build consistency of doing it.
00:24:09
Speaker
Yes.
Episode Wrap-Up and Resources
00:24:10
Speaker
And when you talk there, Katerina, about time, I am really grateful for your time to today. It's been very interesting. i am going to be investigating standing desks. And the next time i am cooking, I will be raising my my ankles up.
00:24:27
Speaker
Nice. ah as I am stirring my stir fry and those sorts of things. It's just, you can do it in any type of situation and you will have a positive impact over a period of time on your mental and physical health.
00:24:41
Speaker
It has been really very interesting. Thank you very much, Katerina. Thank you, Michael. Thank you. I am Michael Millward, the Managing Director of Abbasida, and in this episode of Fit for My Age, I have been having a conversation with Katerina Sokak, an expert in changing sedentary lifestyles for supple leopards.
00:25:02
Speaker
It's all very glamorous. You can find out more about both of us at abasida.co.uk. There is a link in the description, along with descriptions to Katerina's own website, her app and her social media presence as well.
00:25:19
Speaker
I must remember to thank the team at matchmaker.fm for introducing me to Katerina. If you are a podcaster looking for interesting guests, or if like Katerina, you have something very interesting to say, matchmaker.fm is where matches of great hosts and great guests are made.
00:25:36
Speaker
There is a link to matchmaker.fm and an offer code in the description. At Fit for My Age, our aim is proactive positive aging. Knowing the risks early is an important part of maintaining good health.
00:25:51
Speaker
That is why we recommend the annual health test from York test. York tests provide an assessment of 39 different health markers, including cholesterol, diabetes, vitamin D, vitamin B12, liver function, iron deficiency, inflammation, and a full blood count.
00:26:10
Speaker
The annual health test is conducted by an experienced phlebotomist who will complete a full blood draw at your home or workplace. Hospital standard tests are carried out in a UKAS accredited and CQC compliant laboratory.
00:26:27
Speaker
You can access your easy to understand results and guidance to help you make effective lifestyle changes anytime via your secure personal wellness hub account.
00:26:38
Speaker
There is a link and a discount code in the description. If you are listening to Fit For My Age on your smartphone, you may like to know that 3.0 has the UK's fastest 5G network with unlimited data, so listening on 3.0 means you can wave goodbye to buffering.
00:26:54
Speaker
There is a link in the description that will take you to more information about business and personal telecom solutions from 3.0 and the special offers available when you quote my referral code.
00:27:06
Speaker
That description is going to be well worth reading. If you've liked this episode of Fit For My Age, please give it a like and download it so that you can listen anytime, anywhere.
00:27:17
Speaker
To make sure you don't miss out on future episodes, please subscribe. Remember, the aim of all the podcasts produced by Abbasida is not to tell you what to think, but we do hope to have made you think.
00:27:30
Speaker
Until the next episode of Fit For My Age, thank you for listening and goodbye.