Host: Troy Madsen, Scot Singpiel
Guest: Ernie Rimer, MD, Mitch Sears
Producer: Scot Singpiel, Mitch Sears
In This Episode
If You Can Do 40 Pushups, You’re Less Likely to Have Cardiovascular Disease
A recent study released by the Harvard Department of Environmental Health claims an association between the number of pushups a person can do and the likelihood of suffering from a cardiovascular event. According to the study, participants were able to do 40 or more pushups were 96% less likely to have cardiovascular disease than participants who could do 10 or less.
With the findings of this study in mind, the guys at Who Cares About Men’s Health wanted to learn how to improve their pushup form and learn the best strategies to increase the amount of pushups they could do. So they brought in an expert.
Dr. Ernie Rimer is a certified strength and conditioning coach and the Director of Sports Science for University of Utah Athletics. He works with the elite athletes on the university sports teams and as such, happens to know a bit about pushups.
What Makes a Good Pushup?
According to Ernie, the technique of your pushups is more important than the number you can do. The form is crucial to get the strength benefits of the exercise. Doing fewer pushups with good technique will be more beneficial than doing a lot of pushups with bad form.
In general, there are a few things to keep in mind with your pushup form:
- Keep your body straight during the full movement. One of the biggest benefits of a pushup is that it can work your whole body if done correctly. Make sure your abs and core are engaged in a plank position during the pushup.
- Put your elbows in a neutral position. Elbows should be bending at a “neutral position” or somewhere around 45-degrees from the body. If the elbows are too close or too wide, it can put undue pressure on your joints, especially when you’re first starting strength training.
- Chin Up, Chest to the Ground. To really work your chest and feel that stretch, focus on getting making your chest touch the ground before your chin. Try looking ahead of you rather than down at the ground.
- Don’t let your hips dip. As the body starts to tire, you may find it difficult to keep your hips in a straight line with your body. If your hips touch the ground first, you’re not working your chest. Try engaging your abs more or take a break between sets to make sure you keep proper form and really condition your upper body.
How to Increase the Number of Pushups You Can Do
For people who struggle to do even ten pushups, Ernie suggests two strategies to train your body to do more:
It’s important to keep the same form as a regular pushup when doing these modified exercises. Make sure to keep your upper body straight, chin up, and don’t let your hips dip.
Say you want to set a goal of 40 pushups in one set. Start by doing as many pushups as you possibly can with good form. Write down the number, and take a break. Once you’ve recovered do another set until failure. Repeat these sets until you reach 40 pushups total. It may take a bit of time, but you’ve worked your body through the same volume of pushups as your goal.
Next time you work on your pushups, review the number of reps and sets, then push yourself to complete the total number of pushups in fewer sets. You’ll eventually find that you’re able to do the full amount of pushups in fewer and fewer sets until one day you’ll be able to do your goal in a single set.
- Start From the Knees
If your upper body is not yet strong enough to do a high volume of pushups, modify the pushup by placing your knees on the ground. This will reduce the amount of weight your arms are pushing until they’re strong enough to handle your whole body weight. - Work Up to Your Goal with Cumulative Sets
Ernie loves going back to the “Arnold Encyclopedia” when it comes to strength training. If you have a goal in mind of how many pushups you’d like to do, rather than modify the exercise, try breaking your goal into multiple sets.
Another thing to consider when starting with strength training is that the “negative portion” of an exercise builds a lot of strength. These “eccentric muscle contractions” can help your muscles as much as the positive movement. If you’re having difficulty completing the exercise, try focusing on just half of the movement to start.
For example, Scot is working to increase the number of pull-ups he can do. He has difficulty pulling himself up, so instead, he will jump up for the first part of the exercise, then slowly lower himself while engaging his muscles. By completing the “negative portion” of the exercise, he’s still building strength and it will eventually help him do the full exercise.
“Remember, you gotta start somewhere,” says Ernie. Don’t push yourself too hard at the expense of good form just to hit a number you think you should be doing. A pushup with bad technique doesn’t build as much strength as a pushup done correctly, and bad form can lead to injury.
You don’t have to do 40 pushups right now to be “healthy.” It’s important to focus on increasing your activity level and getting in the practice of good habits. Start by being a little more active. Start doing however many pushups you can then work up to that magic number of 40.
ER or Not: Trauma to Your Testicles
As a man, if you’ve ever been kicked in the groin or racked yourself on your mountain bike, you know it hurts. A lot. But is that testicular trauma something that needs to be seen at an ER.
According to Troy, if you’ve severely injured your testicles, go to the ER.
Don’t go to an urgent care. Don’t wait three to four days to see your primary care doctor. Go to the emergency room.
If your groin hurts and continues to hurt for more than an hour after the initial injury, you may have testicular torsion. Testicular torsion is when the testicle twists in such a way that it cuts off the blood supply to the organ. This is a serious condition.
Without blood supply, you have a six-hour window to get the torsion surgically corrected to save the testicle. The only way to tell if you’re experiencing a torsion is through an ultrasound, which the emergency room will have available.
If you’re experiencing bad pain in your testicles for more than an hour, have difficulty walking due to the pain, or have a large amount of swelling in the area, it may be a torsion. Go to the ER and get it checked.
Housekeeping - The 40 Pushup Challenge
Scot and Troy actually did complete the 40 pushup challenge, but it was cut for time in the episode. If you’d like to see the pair push themselves in the studio under the watchful eye of the elite athletic trainer Dr. Ernie Rimer, visit our Facebook. There will be a video there of the challenge
We are still giving away an at-home genetics test to one of our listeners. Stay tuned as we look deeper into the complex issues surrounding these tests and interview a professional genetics counselor about these direct to consumer tests.
If you'd like to participate in the discussion feel free to comment on Facebook or enter to win a chance to win the test and take it with Scot.
Just Going to Leave This Here...
On this episode's Just Going to Leave This Here, Troy finds that not every person respects the Rules of the Trail while hiking in the great outdoors. Meanwhile, Scot has been experimenting with bird photography and learning it may just be easier to get shots of landscapes.
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Troy: I think we just need to do this and see if we can actually do 40 pushups at one pushup per second.
Scot: Let's hear this metronome.
Troy: Are we going to die at 55, or are we going to make it a little bit longer?
Scot: That seems kind of slow.
Troy: Let's see how it goes.
Dr. Rimer: It won't seem slow when you're about 25, 30 in.
Scot: Exactly.
Who cares about men's health? Well, we've got a room full of guys right here who care about men's health and hopefully you do too. My name is Scot Singpiel. I am the senior producer of thescoperadio.com, and I care about men's health.
Troy: And I'm Dr. Troy Madsen. I'm an emergency physician at the University of Utah, and I care about men's health.
Dr. Rimer: I am Dr. Ernie Rimer, and I am the Director of Sports Science for University of Utah Athletics, and I care about men's health.
Scot: Just to be straight, you work with the football team, the basketball team.
Dr. Rimer: Technically, I work for the entire Athletics Department.
Scot: Okay, so you work with a lot of athletes here at the U, so I figured, Troy, who better to bring in to talk to us about our pushup form.
Troy: That's right. He goes from elite athletes to whatever we are.
Dr. Rimer: A very, very important topic and use of time.
Scot: All right.
Troy: Good. We're glad we're a good use of your time compared to the football team and the ski team and women's volleyball.
Scot: Actually, there's a reason why we're talking pushups today.
Dr. Rimer: Oaky, great.
Troy: Oh, wow.
Scot: Because there's a research study out there that says that men who can do 40 or more pushups have a 96% less chance of a cardiovascular incident than men that can do 10 or fewer pushups.
Troy: Well, this is interesting. So I looked into this. This is firefighter data. So firefighters go through regular, you know, health assessments, and as part of that, it's a time to metronome one pushup per second. So these are pretty fast pushups.
Scot: Oh, one pushup per second. I didn't realize, okay.
Troy: One pushup per second. That's why I was trying to do 40 pushups, and I cannot do 40 pushups. But there is no way you're going to do like a full extension pushup at one per second.
Dr. Rimer: True, no chance.
Troy: There's no way. So these are fast. These are more like pulses.
Dr. Rimer: Right.
Troy: Is that your take on it?
Dr. Rimer: That's what it has to be if you're trying to do one pushup per second.
Troy: Yeah, it's one per second metronome timed. And then those who got to 40 or more had much better cardiovascular health. So it's almost more even a cardio thing at that point, I think. There's strength in it, but I think if you're doing one per second, it's just a fast pulse and it's . . .
Dr. Rimer: Is it down one and up and one?
Troy: No, full pushup in one second.
Dr. Rimer: Yeah. So there's no way you'd be able to do a full real range pushup with good technique at that rate.
Troy: Yeah, there's no way. And I've seen these assessments done, and that's essentially how it is. These guys are just going fast.
Scot: I could probably . . . I can do 35 at my own tempo.
Troy: Really?
Scot: But by the time I'm about 32, I'm just about done, and those last three are tough, but that's not one a second.
Dr. Rimer: Definitely not.
Scot: All right, so we want to check our pushup form. So how are we going to do this to see what our risk is?
Dr. Rimer: You know, I'm a little bit hesitant to ask everyone in this room or to even encourage everyone in this room to suddenly just try to do a bunch of pushups cold turkey, because it kind of breaks . . .
Scot: Without any warming up.
Dr. Rimer: Without having any idea of what you guys do.
Troy: Ernie, I've been preparing for this.
Dr. Rimer: You've been preparing for this?
Troy: I'm trying to catch Scot off guard here, so let's do this.
Dr. Rimer: Okay.
Scot: Are you saying, Ernie, that you're concerned that we haven't done any sort of warm-up, or are you concerned that you don't know what our physical capabilities are at this point and we're going to just full on go in to trying to do 40 pushups?
Troy: We're going to blow a muscle.
Dr. Rimer: Both. If we're talking about doing an exercise that's reasonable and sustainable, I mean as a certified strength conditioning coach, one, I would like people to be properly warmed up before just throwing them into the fire.
Scot: For 40 pushups.
Dr. Rimer: And two, without having any background information on your activity levels, besides Dr. Madsen who runs hills and does pushups to prepare for running hills, which seems strange, but I'd be concerned. So maybe we can just coach up some pushup technique.
Scot: Okay.
Troy: Let's focus on our technique. Let's start where you started and just focus on technique, because that's a good idea rather than focusing on going all out for the 40.
Scot: We can do that sometime after we warm up.
Troy: And maybe we need to do that another day. Yeah, after we warm up.
Scot: And after we get our technique passed.
Troy: Yes. Let's . . . yeah, I like it. I want to see is this good technique for a pushup.
Dr. Rimer: Okay, great. Let's do this.
Troy: Yeah. So who's going first?
Scot: So I'll go first.
Troy: You want to demonstrate?
Scot: Yeah, so I'll show you how I understand how to do a pushup, which is you keep your elbows in. You know, you don't stretch your elbows out. It's like that and then you want to keep your body in a straight line. The thing I'm not sure about is if my back bows, or if I'm keeping a straight back. Are there other considerations I need to keep in mind?
Dr. Rimer: I think you got it. In general, I am going to de-emphasize keeping the elbows tight to the body, probably more of a neutral position. So if this is fanned out.
Scot: Which is beyond . . . How do you describe it?
Troy: I'd say 90 degrees right there, right? Elbow out.
Dr. Rimer: This would be to the sides. Maybe you're just somewhere in the middle. Maybe 45 degrees or just a run. A natural neutral position.
Troy: And that's good to hear, because I was going to say I do not keep my elbows in. So Scot's going to start us off here. He's getting prepared, preparing the floor space.
Dr. Rimer: So he's got brown dress shoes.
Troy: He's got jeans, a dress shirt.
Dr. Rimer: He's got jeans on, a belt . . .
Troy: He has argyle socks.
Dr. Rimer: Argyle socks. We're moving office equipment out of the way.
Troy: His face has now turned red.
Scot: How do you do pushups? I mean, I thought that's how you dressed for pushups?
Troy: You know, some days I do. It just depends how I'm feeling that day.
Man: Okay, ready?
Dr. Rimer: Yes, sir.
Troy: This is it. He's down, he's up, down, up. Looks like he's going down.
Dr. Rimer: Okay. Go ahead and pause real quick. Let's talk about this.
Troy: He's paused up.
Dr. Rimer: What I would like to see with this full range of motion pushup is lift your chin up a little bit, and let's just, you know, stretch that out and touch the chest to the ground.
Troy: Okay, so he's going all the way down.
Dr. Rimer: There we go.
Troy: Chest down, on the ground.
Dr. Rimer: And I would rather your chest touch the ground, rather than your hips touch the ground. Now you're doing a great job. Your hips weren't touching the ground, but you want to be mindful of that. As you do more reps and become more taxed, what will start to happen is that your hips will start to sag. The hips will touch the ground, and now it's really a hip up instead of a pushup.
Troy: So the more, the focus is getting the chest down to touch the ground and bringing your head back a little bit so it's not like your chin's getting in the way.
Scot: And then, do you want to just keep your hips from falling down, do you squeeze your glutes?
Dr. Rimer: Well, actually, you want to engage your abdominal muscles.
Scot: Okay. So if I'm squeezing my glutes, I'm doing it wrong?
Dr. Rimer: Well, you can squeeze your glutes. I know they're taking a photo of you while we're doing this clearly.
Troy: So clearly, he was squeezing his glutes.
Dr. Rimer: But I don't think squeezing your glutes . . .
Troy: These are now photo muscles.
Dr. Rimer: . . . is the thing that keeps your hips up in the air. I think the engagement of your abdominal muscles is what will keep your hips in the air.
Scot: And so that mean, does that mean I engage them by flexing them like I'm going to take a punch, or I suck in?
Dr. Rimer: Neither. I think that if you simply just try to keep your hips up, then the abdominal muscles will engage. So if you think about it, have you ever done just a forward bridge when you're trying to just train your core by doing a forward bridge?
Troy: I haven't. No.
Dr. Rimer: And if you were to do that and you're . . . what happens when the abdominal muscles get tired is the hips start to sag. So just think of yourself doing a bridge the whole time while you're doing the pushup so that your emphasis is on the upper part of your torso touching the ground rather than your abdomen or your hips.
Scot: Okay.
Troy: That makes sense and it really makes the pushup . . . yeah, because I remember, as we talked about those five exercises, we didn't talk about doing sit-ups or anything for the abs, but this clearly becomes an exercise for your abs as well.
Dr. Rimer: It certainly could. And the reality is that when you are exercising and you're performing these whole body exercises, like lunges or squats, the energy or the force that's being produced in your lower body has to transmit through your upper body to maintain posture and actually engage your upper body into an action. So the core is active if you are maintaining some decent posture.
Troy: Makes sense.
Scot: So my pushups looked all right? Just lift my head up a little bit and try to concentrate on getting the chest down and you're feeling and I stretch in through the chest.
Dr. Rimer: Yep.
Scot: Okay. Troy, your turn.
Dr. Rimer: Your turn.
Troy: Okay, I need some feedback too now, so . . .
Dr. Rimer: See, he had an advantage here because he heard all the coaching cues for Scot.
Troy: This is how I've been doing it.
Dr. Rimer: Yeah, now he's trying to pretend like this is how he always does pushups.
Troy: I've been doing it. I'm not making this up.
Dr. Rimer: It's all good. I believe you. I do.
Troy: See, I've been practicing these at home in preparation for our competition.
Dr. Rimer: Well, in that case, let's just turn on the metronome.
Scot: Oh.
Troy: I already did like 10, so I don't know . . .
Scot: You did such a great job, he has confidence that you can do the test now.
Dr. Rimer: You're quite impressive. Big smiles all the way around.
Troy: Thank you, sir.
Scot: All right, hold up, producer Mitch, for "Who Cares About Men's Health?" you have a question, what's your question?
Mitch: Okay, so I can't do pushups. Like I am max 10 and then I'm dying and I just need to take a break. Like if I'm trying to work up to get more pushups, like is it, what do I? I guess like start on the knees?
Dr. Rimer: One, you can start on your knees to increase your volume, but, you know, I've got to go back to the Arnold encyclopedia again, because he talks about these cumulative sets where you choose a number, and you take as many sets as you need to get to that number with great technique.
Mitch: Okay, so like do them all day?
Dr. Rimer: If that works for you. But let's say you wanted to do 40 pushups and that was your goal. So in your first set do as many as you can with great technique, pause and rest. And when you're ready to go, you go again. Write down your reps in each set. And then the next time you try it, try to do a few more pushups and try to complete your 40 reps in fewer sets.
Mitch: Okay, I like that.
Scot: Mitch, let's see a pushup.
Mitch: Oh, god no.
Dr. Rimer: Come on, Mitch.
Scot: We're all friends here. This is . . . I mean, how often do you have the opportunity to have the University of Utah head guru of sports . . .
Troy: Take advantage.
Scot: . . . critique your pushup. I mean, that just doesn't happen. How much money would you charge for this like at a session or seminar?
Troy: We're all about free advice here. That's our motivation for doing this podcast.
Scot: Wow, you've got a lot of stuff in your pockets, Mitch.
Troy: Mitch is like . . .
Mitch: I can afford a person.
Dr. Rimer: He actually does have quite a fat billfold, unlike Scot but . . .
Troy: Yeah, there's a phone and keys.
Scot: All right, Mitch is heading down to do some pushups. He's covering his crack with a shirt, which is always good.
Dr. Rimer: Gray sneakers, blue jeans, not a dress shirt. Okay, so did you guys see what happened there? Did you see how your hips dropped a little bit at the bottom?
Mitch: Sure.
Dr. Rimer: So let's do your next pushup and try not to let those hips drop like that.
Mitch: Okay.
Dr. Rimer: And back up.
Scot: Good. That was great.
Dr. Rimer: That's a great pushup.
Troy: That's great form.
Mitch: I feel the difference, but I'm already shaking.
Dr. Rimer: Okay. Now, let's go from your knees, just like you said. Let's try it from your knees, and that's going to allow you to maintain a great chest exercise, and you may feel better about that. And remember chin up a little bit and try to touch your chest. Great job. He's got it.
Troy: Nice.
Mitch: I'm buff.
Troy: That's where you got to start them and it's like . . .
Mitch: I know.
Dr. Rimer: And you know what, there's another thing that you can do. You actually gain a lot of strength from just doing the negative portion of an exercise.
Troy: You're talking the drop down instead of the push up.
Dr. Rimer: Yeah, we call that an eccentric muscle contraction, but commonly referred to as the negative. So if you are actually stronger in a negative than you are when you're in the positive. So if you don't have the strength for the positive yet, doing the negatives, and then resetting and just doing the negative is . . .
Troy: There's value in that.
Dr. Rimer: . . . a great way to bridge the gap into being able to perform the exercise concentrically or the positive.
Scot: Which I've been trying to do with my pull-ups. After I can't do pull-ups anymore, I will jump . . .
Troy: And so you just let yourself down.
Scot: I will jump so I can get to that top position, and then I just resist as much as possible and do a couple of those.
Troy: How many pull-ups are you doing?
Scot: How much you bench? Is that what this is about?
Troy: A lot of people struggle. Like a lot of people can't even do a pull-up. It sounds like you're doing a lot of pull-ups.
Scot: What's this called? Is this a chin-up when you've got your palms facing you?
Dr. Rimer: I often refer to that as a chin-up.
Scot: That's more of a chin-up, right?
Dr. Rimer: Or an underhand grip pull-up.
Scot: So like fresh, not doing any other exercises with a little bit of warm-up, I can do five or six right now.
Dr. Rimer: That's great.
Scot: Five or six positives.
Troy: Yeah. A lot of people can't even do a pull-up.
Scot: Now the pull-ups where you have your palms facing out and your arms a little bit wider, that's a lot harder for me to do.
Troy: It is harder.
Scot: I can only do a couple of those.
Troy: It is harder.
Scot: I really work on the negatives on those. So anyway.
Dr. Rimer: I love how there's like a little bit of like friendly, competitive curiosity here about how many pushups and pull-ups people can do in the room.
Troy: Yes, there is some competition here. We are going to have a pushup competition at some point. As you mentioned, we may not be ready for this yet. Now that you've assessed our form, I think we've taken a step toward that. So this is good.
Dr. Rimer: You think we could choreograph this a little bit more? Like get some headbands and some like maybe some '80s workout shorts and like whistles and like . . .
Scot: Wow. He's been here one session.
Dr. Rimer: . . . timers and buzzers.
Scot: And he's already trying to figure out how to make us look foolish.
Troy: I know, but that's, you know, that's half of what we do here is . . .
Scot: That is half of what we do.
Troy: . . . look foolish and bring people in who actually know what they're doing.
Scot: So I want to bring this back around to the study. The whole reason we were doing pushups, not only because it's a great exercise, but because of the study that we first talked about that, you know, the indication if you can do 40 pushups, you have quite a bit reduced risk of cardiovascular incidence. Why is that? That's such an interesting number, Dr. Madsen. Normally, doctors go on blood pressure, BMI, those sorts of things. The pushup seems to be independent of that. Like people with even high BMIs that are not muscular, this applied to in this research as well. Is that correct?
Troy: And so I think the conclusion from this study was that pushups were an indicator of overall fitness. I think it's such a, you know, an engaging exercise where it engages so many different muscles. And I think at that rate, at one pushup per second, 40 pushups total, that's pretty quick. It becomes even much more of a cardio exercise. If you try and do that, you're not just going to be feeling like, okay, I'm working my muscles. You're breathing pretty fast if you ever try and do that.
So I think it became almost like a stress test for these firefighters as well. If they could do that and they felt okay doing it, those who did it had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.
Maybe, Ernie, you may have some other thoughts on that, and you've probably seen some of these assessments done or have done similar things.
Scot: I think like the point might even be it's just like in order to do that many pushups that quickly, you have to have a certain level of physical fitness, which means you've got some habits built into your life that you're following.
Dr. Rimer: That would have been my gut instinct. I don't know this research. I'm not familiar with it. But if you were to ask me to just take a shot in the dark, I would just say that those individuals have some acts of living that cause them to be more physically active, to be able to just step in and do, rip off 40 pushups at a high rate. I would just say that they're physically active, and they do things that allow them to do that, and that facilitates the ability to just jump in and do that.
Scot: But I think we should jump back to you don't have to do 40 pushups right now if you're not at that point.
Troy: You don't.
Scot: You know, just start working on them. I think what Ernie said is the important thing, just start becoming more active, start doing a few strength training exercises, so, you know, do your cardiovascular exercises, just become more active and incorporate pushups and, you know, those will come.
Troy: And the flip side of that, like Ernie said also, it's not just . . . you know, you don't just go out and just start doing pushups now and just focusing on pushups, because if I can do 40 pushups, I'm going to live longer. It's more a marker, I think as you mentioned, Ernie, of their full lifestyle and their general fitness and the fact they're doing all sorts of other things as well.
Dr. Rimer: Yeah, and that's another thing about this is if you . . . it doesn't just have to be resistance exercise. It's about choosing more active activities, just being more active and choosing things you like to do that.
Scot: Ernie, thank you so much for being our pushup coach today. We're, again, I think we used a bazooka to kill an ant here by bringing in the head guru of sports science for the whole University of Utah.
Troy: Hey, we'll take it. That was awesome.
Scot: But thanks for being on the show and walking us through this and thanks for caring about men's health.
Dr. Rimer: Thanks, guys. This was a lot of fun.
Troy: Thanks, Ernie.
Voiceover: Paging Dr. Troy Madsen to Scope Studio for ER or Not.
Scot: Time for ER or Not. That's a segment on the show where I throw out a scenario. You at home play along and decide whether or not you would go to the ER for that. And Dr. Madsen is going to give us the definitive answer on whether or not you were right.
So today's ER or not. You are kicked in the crotch, kicked in the groin, the love zone, or maybe you were on your mountain bike and you fell. I think the term is you racked yourself. Is that what you would have said?
Troy: I don't think I've ever used the term "I've racked myself."
Scot: Racked myself.
Troy: No, I can't say I have ever racked myself. I have been kicked. Oh, yes, as a youth, very traumatic experiences.
Scot: So the question is the nards.
Troy: We will call them the nards, I guess.
Scot: I went through every single word that I've referred to them as and that seemed to be the easiest one for me to say.
Troy: That's okay.
Scot: Have taken some sort of trauma. Yeah, ER or not, because it hurts and a lot of times that's the first thing I want to do is go to the ER and say, "Are they going to be okay?"
Troy: Yeah, I mean, if it hurts and it's continuing to hurt and it's not just that initial sting followed by an ache, but it's a severe pain, you need to go to the ER. It's not an urgent care thing. It's not something you can necessarily call your doctor and get seen in three or four days for. The big concern here is testicular torsion, and we've talked about that before on the podcast, but that's where the testicle gets twisted, it cuts off the blood supply, and when that blood supply gets cut off, you've got about six hours, you know, plus or minus to get that surgically corrected.
And the only way to really know if that blood supply is cut off is to go to the ER and get an ultrasound done. So that's the reason it's a really sort of a time-sensitive thing. Well, think of it as a stroke of the testicle.
Scot: Okay.
Troy: It's the same idea though. You know, it's like you think of strokes, it's a time-sensitive thing. You need to restore the blood flow to the brain. It's the same idea with the testicle. If there's no blood supply, it's going to die, and it's not going to come back. So, yeah, if it's something where you fall, you hit your testicles, you've got some pain but it aches, but I'm feeling better.
Scot: Like how long should it take, in normal circumstances, for that to kind of go away?
Troy: I mean, it's going to hurt, but if it severely hurts for at least, I don't know, 30 minutes to an hour, I think you really need to get it checked out.
Scot: Okay.
Troy: And again, it's the ER. It's not an urgent care.
Scot: And if it is getting better over that course of time, probably okay.
Troy: Yeah, it's a judgment call. I mean, if you're having a hard time walking around because there's so much pain and, you know, and if you look and you got a lot of swelling down there. And it's tough because it's, I don't want to say, yeah, if it's getting better, you're fine. Technically, it could be getting better but still be hurting quite a bit, and you could have a testicular torsion. My feeling is if it hurts a lot and it's distracting because of the pain, you need to get it checked out. We see plenty of people in the ER who come in for ultrasounds, have a normal ultrasound. So it's not a big deal to come in. We'll get you right back and get it checked out, but you really need that ultrasound.
Scot: It's a segment we call housekeeping because we don't have a better name for it, matter of business.
Troy: We called it the post-game report. Remember?
Scot: Post-game report?
Troy: That's what I called it, and you didn't like it.
Scot: No, I don't know that that's what it is.
Troy: You're not into it. Okay.
Scot: Anyway, this is the point in the podcast where we talk about a couple of things that may be of interest to you. Thing number one, the pushup competition, I don't know if it was really a competition. We just wanted to see . . .
Troy: More of a test.
Scot: With the pushup test, we did not have time to include it in the episode, but if you go to facebook.com/whocaresmenshealth, you can actually see us in all of our pushup glory.
Troy: Oh, it's a riveting competition. So you need to see this.
Scot: Who wouldn't want to watch a couple of guys doing some pushups?
Troy: Yeah. And Scot is very proud of his pushups, by the way. He has made clear that my pushups were inferior to his, so you need to watch this to see the outcome.
Scot: Yeah.
Troy: Yeah, it's a great moment in sports. We'll call it sporting, pushup sporting.
Scot: All right. Thing number two, we're still doing the contest to give away the direct-to-consumer genetic test that we're giving the family history, and then also you'll get a check of your family health history as well. And the way you can enter that contest is you go to facebook.com/whocaresmenshealth, and we have it pinned up there, where you'll see where to enter the contest. And then you can also go to whocaresmenshealth.com and there's a little popup that will come up and you just register there, and we ask you a few questions. And then you'll be entered to win the genetics test. All right.
Troy: Yeah, this is the one we're giving away. Scot's going to do it and whoever else wants to do it. So we have talked a little bit about some of the risks of testing, so we'll get into that more, but it'll be interesting to see who's interested and what they're hoping to get out of it.
Scot: So I wanted to share some of the responses that we've gotten so far because one of the questions we do ask is, "Why are you interested in this genetics test?" So here's a couple of them. "To learn if I have a chance of getting diseases like my parents and grandparents had. I hope to prevent them."
Troy: That seems like pretty legitimate reason.
Scot: Yeah, I don't know if they can be entirely prevented, but I mean, you can make some lifestyle choices and changes that could potentially reduce the chances.
Mitch: Well, that's why I did my test. I just wanted to . . . I had some ideas that I might have something coming down the pipeline and to prepare for it.
Scot: That's good. I think that's a reason a lot of people take this. "I was adopted and I would like to know information about my health." That's great because you're not able to get a family history, because you don't necessarily know who your family is, so perhaps this will give them some insight into their health. "Want to know the unknown in my family. Grandparents are gone and unknown past. They always kept it a secret."
Troy: Oh, wow.
Mitch: More family secrets.
Troy: Skeletons in the closet. That one's intriguing.
Mitch: Your dad is not your dad, like we talked about last week.
Troy: Oh, wow.
Scot: And Mitch, you had the same thing. Like your family doesn't share any their health history, do they?
Mitch: Oh, not the extended family. Like my parents are very vocal about here's what's going on with me. Here's what you need to know. But when you go one generation back, it's like a black hole of information.
Scot: They just don't want to share it.
Mitch: No, yeah.
Scot: Because really, that's, I mean, that's one of the best things anybody can do is to actually go talk to your relatives and find out what your family history is, because, you know, oftentimes that's something you might be faced with.
Mitch: Yeah, we had an aunt that referred to a heart murmur that was chronic as the flutters. Oh, you're having the flutters. Like, oh, my god, and it just came up. Right? And not with me but with another family member.
Troy: May have had a history of atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter or something.
Mitch: Yeah, but they never . . .
Troy: No information at all.
Mitch: Never talked about it.
Scot: Yeah, and from a communication standpoint, that's interesting too, because while talking about a family history, they might downplay stuff like that and say, "Oh, it's the flutters." Well, actually, Dr. Madsen would say it's probably something more serious than the flutters.
Troy: I got the droop again, the facial droop.
Scot: Could be a stroke.
Troy: Could be a mini stroke or a stroke.
Scot: And then finally, one of the entrants wants to see their athletic genes. I don't know quite what that means, but . . .
Troy: So they wanted it printed out the whole GTAC combination, like look how athletic I am. These are my genes. I like it. I like it.
Scot: All right, so if you'd like to enter to win, please do so either at our website, whocaresmenshealth.com or facebook.com/whocaresmenshealth to win that direct-to-consumer genetic test, and we will draw a winner here in the next couple weeks.
All right, it is called Just Going to Leave This Here. That is where we talk about something. It might have something to do with health. It might just be some random thought that's passing through our mind at the moment. Just going to leave this here, Troy, please start while I think of one.
Troy: I'm going to give you some time to think here, but, you know, there's a certain rule of the trail. When you're out in the woods, you don't steal people's stuff. True? I mean, if you're out hiking and let's say you get too hot, do you feel comfortable like taking your jacket off out in the woods?
Scot: Would never do that.
Troy: You never would?
Scot: Never would do that.
Troy: Because you think it would be stolen?
Scot: Wrap it around my waist, put it my backpack.
Troy: Really? So when I run, I run and I carry snowshoes on my back in a backpack, and then I stopped by the trailhead, and I put the backpack on a post, and I put my snowshoes on. Someone stole my backpack.
Scot: Oh, so this wasn't just a coat, because I might see a coat and go, "Oh, somebody lost their coat or left their coat out here."
Troy: This was a backpack.
Scot: Yeah, that's not cool.
Troy: Someone just took it, and it was within a period of about 20 minutes when I had gone up the trail with my dog and came back and the backpack was gone, and I couldn't believe it.
Scot: Did you check the lost and found?
Troy: There was no lost and found there in the woods. There is no lost and found.
Scot: Really? There's not?
Troy: No, there's no lost and found.
Scot: There's not some deer that . . .
Troy: Yeah, so some deer lost and found. Anyway, it was frustrating.
Scot: I'm sorry.
Troy: I mean, it kind of shakes you and it makes you feel kind of violated. I'm like why would someone just take a backpack that clearly, you know, people leave stuff on trails like, and it's not uncommon. If their kids are hot, they'll put a coat on the side. So anyway, it was frustrating. I'm still, you know, working on the faith in humanity. That shook it a little bit there, but most people are good, I think. Some people may be questionable.
Scot: Some people have a new backpack.
Troy: Someone has a new backpack.
Scot: Other people have a new backpack.
Troy: What can you say?
Scot: Just going to leave this here, I'm into amateur photography, and lately I've been kind of experimenting with bird photography. Went out to . . . we've got a couple of really cool bird refuges here. We've got the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge . . .
Troy: Oh, it's huge.
Scot: . . . and the there's another one, which is escaping my mind at this point. But the point is I come back home. This is how good of a bird photographer I am. I come back home with more landscape shots than shots of birds at this point.
Troy: Was that intentional? You missed the bird. I just got the landscape.
Scot: I'm just not getting the birds. So I'm working it out, and it's been a really challenging, fun thing to do.
Troy: But you went up to the refuge there to do it.
Scot: Yeah. I mean, that's one thing I do love about photography. It's an excuse to get out and go do some stuff.
Troy: That's such a cool place.
Scot: I don't know that I ever would have gone there if it wasn't for the fact that I'm kind of into photography and kind of wanted to do that.
Troy: Yeah, so not a whole lot of photography to show, but a nice experience nonetheless.
Scot: But a good experience nonetheless. Yes. All right. It is time for the things that people say at the end of podcasts because we are at the end of ours. Going to kick this off with thank you very much for listening and reach out by emailing us hello@thescoperadio.com or you can go to facebook.com/whocaresaboutmenshealth and leave a message there.
Troy: Our website is whocaresmenshealth.com. You can subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, whatever works for you. We'd love to have you listen, would be great to hear your feedback, and thanks for listening and thanks for caring about men's health.