Health, Fitness & Personal Growth Tips for Women in Midlife: Asking for a Friend

Ep.166 Breakthrough Method for Reclaiming Balance, Brain Health, and Mobility After 50 with Dan Metcalfe

• Michele Henning Folan • Episode 166

Share episode

What if everything you thought you knew about balance and mobility was flat-out wrong?

Dan Metcalfe was a Broadway performer at the top of his game when he suddenly became paralyzed mid-performance. What followed—partial brain death, a long recovery, and a total reinvention—sounds impossible, until you hear him tell it.

Dan didn’t just survive. He discovered something that changed everything: balance isn’t just about strong muscles—it’s about rewiring the brain. And the conventional ways we train for stability and fall prevention? They’re missing the mark.

In this eye-opening episode, Dan shares how his recovery led to a revolutionary brain-first approach to movement and mobility that’s helped over 70,000 people—from stroke survivors to seniors battling Parkinson’s—regain confidence, coordination, and independence.

 Dan’s story is powerful proof that it’s never too late to rebuild strength, restore balance, and reclaim vitality. His work challenges everything we’ve been taught about aging and shows us what’s truly possible. In this conversation, he breaks down his seven pillars of natural health—simple, transformative principles you’ll want to live by. 

Want to learn more? Visit totalbalancecompany.com to explore Dan’s Total Balance program and Born Superhuman framework. Or reach out through the show notes to connect directly.

Follow Dan Metcalfe at https://www.instagram.com/bornsuperhuman/

Dan's book, Born Superhuman, is available at booksellers.


_________________________________________
Are you ready to reclaim your midlife body and health? I went through my own personal journey through menopause, the struggle with midsection weight gain, and feeling run-down. Faster Way, a transformative six-week group program, set me on the path to sustainable change.
https://www.fasterwaycoach.com/?aid=MicheleFolan

Have questions about Faster Way? Please email me at:
mfolanfasterway@gmail.com

Sign up for Michele's weekly newsletter for more health and fitness tips and insights. https://michelefolanfasterway.myflodesk.com/i6i44jw4fq

RIMAN skincare finally gave me real, visible results—restoring my glow, firmness, and confidence in my skin at 61. RIMAN Korea's #1 Skincare Line - https://michelefolan.riman.com

*Transcripts are done with AI and may not be perfectly accurate.

**This podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.

Michele Folan:

Okay, ladies, I know how this goes because I did the exact same thing. You've saved recipes, you've bookmarked the workouts, but now what? How do you actually put it all together in a way that works for your life, your body and your goals, especially in midlife? That's where Faster Way comes in. This isn't random tips from social media. It's a strategic plan built for women in midlife, one that helps you burn fat, build muscle, balance hormones and feel like yourself again. No gimmicks, no extremes, just smart nutrition, effective workouts and real coaching that gets results. Ready to stop starting over every single Monday? Let's do this the right way. Email me through the link in the show notes or DM me on social media. I look forward to hearing from you. Health, wellness, fitness and everything in between. We're removing the taboo from what really matters in midlife.

Michele Folan:

I'm your host, Michele Folan, and this is Asking for a Friend. Did you know that one in four women over 65 falls each year and more than 50% of those who fall and fracture hip never fully recover? Even more alarming 20 to 30% of older adults who suffer a serious fall die within a year, often due to complications stemming from immobility, surgery or subsequent decline. Balance isn't just about fitness. It's about freedom, independence and longevity. Today's guest knows that firsthand His story is nothing short of miraculous. A former Broadway performer who became paralyzed mid-performance, faced partial brain death and somehow came back stronger, dedicating his life to helping people, especially older adults and those with neurological challenges, regain their balance, mobility and quality of life. From celebrities like Shirley MacLaine to everyday warriors, navigating Parkinson's and MS, he's worked with over 70,000 people and counting. He's the founder of the Total Balance Company and the Born Superhuman program, and he's here today to help us reclaim our power from the ground up. Dan Metcalfe, welcome to Asking for a Friend from the ground up.

Dan Metcalfe:

Dan Metcalf, welcome to Asking for a Friend. Thanks, Michele. Brilliant title Asking for a Friend because we're bored up to never admit our own frailties or curiosities or judgment. And that intro it really gave me the shivers, actually, because sometimes we forget what we do and the impact that we have on people. And yet my mission is to help every single person that's willing to put in the work for a better future.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, you and me both, and I think willing to put in the work is a key part of that human dynamic that we hope for when we get to work with people. I want to talk a little bit first about the origin story, right, who you are and where you are from, because obviously you weren't born here in the United States, and a little bit about the genesis of where you are today.

Dan Metcalfe:

Yeah, thanks, I'll try and keep this really short because it's an incredible story, not because it's mine, it's because I got to experience it and it does inspire, speak around the country and inspire so many people. So I grew up as an athlete back in England in a little town called Bournemouth. That's beautiful, it's probably got one of the best beaches in the world. The sand's so soft. We just don't have the sun, so that's a bit of a problem when it comes to it. And then I left sports and was going to go into the military because I'd done eight years training and I started doing aerobics to get supple for mountain climbing. And the teacher there said you should become a dancer. And I'm like a dancer. What do you mean a dancer? I'm a man's man, shaved head, backpacks, running through the sand and water. So she dared me and I went up to a place called Lane Theatre Arts just outside London, just as a joke really, and two and a half hours later, doing a fun audition because I'll be signing for the Marines in two weeks time they offered me a full three-year scholarship to start in two weeks time and the next thing I know, never having done it before I'm in ballet tights, learning tap, jazz, modern, because my curiosity in life was always go for it If there's something that you love. So the next thing, I know, you know, I'm dancing and my dad had actually taken me to see a show Andrew Lloyd Webber show called Starlight Express. I didn't even know my dad liked theater, but it was his favorite show and I was 18 at the time, almost 19. And at the end of the show he said eight words that changed my life and I use these eight words to change everybody's life. So anybody that's listening, please take these words in, because even if you don't engage them now, the seed is planted, which is what happened with me. We finished watching Starlight Express and my dad looked at me and what do you think I'm like, dad? This is incredible. I was like blown away. They were like demigods and goddesses on the stage, you know, skating and singing and dancing. And then he goes one day you'll be in this show and I said I'll never be good enough. And he said the eight words to me that changed my life, that I live my life by. He said somebody has to do it, why not you? Somebody has to do it, why not you? A year and a half later I was in the show, went on to play the lead in Lloyd Webber shows and then opened the show for him out here in Las Vegas. And I'm going to jump through this really quick Now.

Dan Metcalfe:

During a performance, I had an accident, fractured my spine. I was paralyzed on stage and the doctor said I'd be disabled for life. Well, I didn't want to accept that, because the brain and this is where we're going to come to as we talk the brain is your power force in life, but it can only go off of the information that's told to you. So when we were born and this is where born superhuman comes in and the umbilical cord is cut, baby is immediately on its own looking after itself with a team around it. But the whole brilliance of the baby is that it learns to survive. And, for people that maybe don't know, we have roughly 86 billion brain cells, but almost all those brain cells are in a baby when they're born. What we don't have is the connections, the synapse that allows the thought processes to then function the baby. So, whatever we're taught and we believe it's for our good we end up doing so.

Dan Metcalfe:

I had to fight back. I came back. I became a head coach on the Olympic program open my own sports performance gyms. I'm a head coach on the Olympic program, open my own sports performance gyms, master trainer in gyms and all the other stuff, and started racing the Ironman.

Dan Metcalfe:

Well, bringing the story here to an end, I was out in 2018, out on a bike ride and I came through a guard gated security gate and the guard brought the metal gate down on my head. I was immediately knocked unconscious, had a secondary impact on the ground that broke my helmet open. Already unconscious, I was out for about three minutes and part of my brain died. I had to learn to talk again. I had to learn to function. I had to learn to move and, as I tell everyone, everything that happens to us in life is a gift if we wrap it correctly. I would never be where I am today if I hadn't suffered, and so now I can relate and help so many people understanding to be a champion, you just have to step over the start line. You don't have to finish, just get going.

Michele Folan:

Dan, we're going to take a quick break, but when we come back, I want to really dig into your recovery and what that looked like. After menopause, my skin hit a midlife identity crisis. I was dry, I was dull and missing that healthy glow. I was layering on products, hoping for magic and just getting, eh, so-so results. Then I found RIMAN. It's Korea's number one skincare line and let me tell you, game changed Clean ingredients, visible results and products that actually get midlife skin Hydration, yep, brightness Absolutely, and glow. Oh, she is back.

Michele Folan:

If your skincare routine feels like a science experiment gone wrong, it's time for a smarter switch. Check the link in the show notes or DM me. I'll hook you up with my must-haves, because better skin isn't too much to ask. We are back. Okay, I've got so many questions here. What did your recovery look like? Because we're talking both physically and mentally. Did you ever imagine, first of all, that you would return to performing or doing all those wonderful things, working with the Olympic team and becoming a coach but then you have this happen? I mean, I have to know more about your mindset and how you were able to get through all this.

Dan Metcalfe:

Yeah, it's fascinating because again I go back to what the words my dad told me. I didn't have a great relationship with my dad growing up, but he impacted my whole future with just eight words. But I never accepted what I was told, and that may have been a problem with me growing up as well, because my mom would be like go clean your room and I'm like I got busier things to do, but I didn't hear the doctors when they said I couldn't, even though I was lying in bed. This was probably the toughest part of everything. The night I was paralyzed, I'm in the hospital bed and I lost sight in my right eye because of the swelling to the brain and the optical nerve shutting down. And I lay there that night not wanting to go to sleep because my left eye was still functioning and I didn't know if I wake up in the morning blind. And I didn't want to go to sleep because I wanted to remember my last vision, and not a pretty last vision hospital walls. But with that being said, when I woke up the next morning and I could see out of my right eye, I knew we're made to heal.

Dan Metcalfe:

And this is where we get this wrong in here, Michele, if you cut your arm on the outside and it's a slight cut or even a relatively bad cut, we stitch it up or we clean it and bandage it or band-aid it, and we never worry. It's going to heal. We watch it, the scab goes on. As long as we don't pull the scab off, the chances are we're never going to have a scar there and we're healed With the same system that heals us on the outside. It's healing us on the inside with even more power, because it doesn't have all the potential infections coming in from the outside like a wound does.

Dan Metcalfe:

Once we trust ourselves and give the information to the brain to go to work and this is what I learned with my brain injury as long as you're again willing to do that, the magic we seek is in the work we avoid. So we're waiting for someone else. And one thing that I really love to get across in here is that if we're made to heal, if we're born to heal, what is it that's stopping us? Because there's a magic, the miracle within, that will allow us to or this goes on even further for everyone watching pursue the dreams that we gave up, and I see this so much with so many amazing ladies that I've worked with who sacrificed their dreams for their family. They continue to sacrifice looking after their parents. They continue to sacrifice their own power by giving, because society taught them to give and be the one that carries the weight. Women are incredible with the strength they have, but if we tap back into our brilliance and give ourselves love because self-love isn't selfish, it's essential and give time for ourselves, everybody else benefits through our own empowerment.

Michele Folan:

You know I say this all the time it is never too late to do that thing that you've always wanted to do, and I have so many guests on this show, men and women who are doing things later in life that they never thought they would be doing. And I think what you're telling me is it's really mindset and belief that carried you through your recovery, because you were healing from the inside.

Dan Metcalfe:

Yeah, everybody has the same tools available to them when we start looking at ourselves first. And that's why, in the Born Superhuman program, I have seven pillars to natural health and incredible results We've had. Number six is mindset. Yet I teach it first, because mindset won't keep you alive more than getting your sleep, drinking your water, breathing oxygen. And yet it's the most critical to who we are. Can I share a story, because you talk about doing things later in life.

Michele Folan:

Yeah.

Dan Metcalfe:

Okay, and I'm excited to share this one. So, if I go back, I created the Total Balance program just for a gentleman by the name of Bob Eubanks. Many would know him from the Newlywed Game or the Rose Parade.

Michele Folan:

Oh heck yeah.

Dan Metcalfe:

Yeah, and so he was falling a lot and I had written a movie we're down at Netflix and at the end of the meeting, like I said, he was 79. He had had hip surgeries, back surgeries, and he couldn't get out of the chair properly and walk. And then he did what I call the senior shuffle, which is the feet barely come off of the ground and he's hunched over. We'll come back to that story because I want to explain what happened with Bob when we talk about the actual training program. But I never created this to sell.

Dan Metcalfe:

Now my mother, who's a doctor and still works six days a week, 12 hours a day I can't say her age because she doesn't like it when I say that because she's between 86 and 88. So I went back for her 80th birthday back in England to visit and she said Dan, she goes. I had a stroke a year ago and I said oh, mom, you're actually doing really well. I noticed that you slowed down. But this is the problem with how we're educated. We think it's just because of age. So I said I thought you were doing great, I thought you're just aged, I hadn't seen her in four years and I saw a slight tightness in the right side of her face, but she was good. I said what's the hardest thing, mom, cause I think you're doing great she goes.

Dan Metcalfe:

I had to give up line dancing. That was her only passion, cause she she grew up as a war child in the second world war Wasn't allowed to dance. My sister was a professional ballet dancer. I went on to become a ballet dancer and performer but she had never done anything but line dancing. So I said why can't you still do it? She goes well, because my right foot won't move. I think about it, but there's a disconnect in the speed of me thinking and moving. So either people are falling into me and I'm a danger to them or they're a danger to me. So I went back and I created this board that I'd got for. Bob made a second one and the results were phenomenal. I sent it to her in England. Five days later she went back to line dancing. You're kidding. I sent it to her in England Five days later she went back to line dancing.

Dan Metcalfe:

You're kidding Unbelievable. But this is the part that's amazing. She came to visit me when she was 84. And this may be the greatest gift I've been able to give, because here's the lady that gave birth to me. I gave her life back because she could move. At 84, she did her very first ballet class ever and she rode a bicycle for the first time in her life ever. Wow.

Dan Metcalfe:

So, stroke at 79, recovery in five days, but she worked it. And we have very specific programs. Four years later, five years after stroke and we're not talking about a ballet class which is, you know, for old people she, I got her a private lesson so I wanted to make sure she was safe and got the attention. She's in the center doing jumps, she's doing her pirouettes because she had watched, she knew it so much and she loved a show called the Turning Point, which was Shirley MacLaine was in that, and then I ended up training Shirley MacLaine. But to your point and I'm talking a little bit too much, but it's never too late until we've gone past the point of recovery, which means we don't want to do it anymore because it's too painful.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, she is amazing. By the way, If you have her genetics, you're in a good place. The fact that she's doing that well, that's tremendous. I love that story. Thank you for sharing that. I am a little curious, though at what point did you realize that your personal journey could be a catalyst for helping others? I mean, when did that light bulb go on?

Dan Metcalfe:

Yeah, that's a pretty heavy question because there's things that I don't normally talk about. I had a sports performance training center and I was training a lot of professional athletes. They'd fly in from around the world and I was taking athletes that were told they'd never play again. I was focused mainly in soccer and after I trained with them for like three months they were back playing on the national team and we had great success stories. But I had some business issues that went on and it was very heavy, I'll just put it that way and I had false lawsuits filed against me that they knew that I couldn't defend financially and so I went to end my life. I'll just say in there oh Lord, it's a beautiful story from the point of view of inspiration, and this is because you asked the question where did it change?

Dan Metcalfe:

I had lost everything. You know, I always had a really hard working life. I always took the challenge, I always rose to the highest level and was successful, and suddenly I was taken out by a con man, basically, and was successful, and suddenly I was taken out by a con man, basically, and I didn't know how to survive. Everywhere I turned I was getting beaten down. I'd lost everything, like I said, and I used to race bikes. Like I said, I've done the Ironman and I've raced bikes and I went to ride up this hill to go and jump off the top of the mountain and there's a really steep place. I used to race up this really steep part called the wall and I couldn't even get up it. I was so exhausted and mentally done that I got off my bike. I threw my bike in the bushes on the opposite side because there's a cliff there, and I stood on the side and a part of me was saying just do it, your life's over, You've had all these accomplishments, You've been successful. And we see all the time people that are successful when they're younger and then they lose it when they're older and they feel they don't have any value or purpose. So I kind of edged closer to the edge and another voice inside said Dan, get back on the bike and get to the top of the mountain. And I just didn't want to do it voice and I said Dan, get back on the bike and get to the top of the mountain. And I just didn't want to do it. I was too exhausted, too tired, so I edged a little bit closer. My toes are over the edge now. And the voice was Dan, get back on the bike and get to the top of the mountain.

Dan Metcalfe:

Well, this went on for about a minute and I went oh forget it. I went back, grabbed my bike out of the bushes, got back on and went to the top of the mountain. And it was about another 20 minute ride to the top. And when I got there, it wasn't elation, it wasn't oh yeah, this is great, this is amazing. I made it.

Dan Metcalfe:

I was numb, but a voice inside my head said if the pilot light is still on, the flame can be immense. If the light is still on, the flame can be immense. I just needed to put the fuel. And I say that for everyone listening You're still here, you can do anything.

Dan Metcalfe:

Well, I went back down the mountain. I went the slowest I've ever gone down. I wasn't excited, I wasn't like yes, but it was an opening of my mind to say what's next for me. And I still loved performing. I still went on from that and and I still loved performing. I still went on from that and I was a head judge on a reality TV show on Nickelodeon and still want to, but it was no longer my passion.

Dan Metcalfe:

I was like, okay, why am I going through what I'm going through? Because I hugely believe everybody. Why be the victim when you can be the hero? All it is is a mind shift, change from victim to hero. And what we don't realize is what we're living through will be inspirational for somebody else that doesn't have the power, the strength or the confidence but you give that to them, for them to overcome their struggles. So when you admit where you're at and you say I'm willing to take those steps and step over the start line, not knowing the journey ahead, but I'm willing to take that step, it's amazing what we see and find in life.

Michele Folan:

And that was really the change, Michele. Dan, this is incredibly inspiring. I mean I could stop the podcast right now. I'm not going to, but I could stop the podcast right now because that is so powerful. I have to kind of like sit back and let that sink in. You decided to then go on to help others and that's when you started your Born Human.

Dan Metcalfe:

It's actually. It took me about four years, Michele. This wasn't a quick turnaround.

Michele Folan:

Okay.

Dan Metcalfe:

There was. It was a long process I was going through you know what we would term major depression. I put on a load of weight, just you know, I went on to my brain injury as well. But along the way, this is where I met Bob Eubanks and I went against the grain. This is what. This is where I get excited now, and I'm glad you didn't stop the podcast, because this is the meat of what people can. This is just my story. I'm interested as well in everybody's story.

Dan Metcalfe:

So when Bob was falling, I said let me train you. And he said, nah, you're cause. I was known as a really tough coach, really tough train, but I wasn't really training people. I was still going through my own recovery if that's the right way to put it mentally and finding my purpose. And on the Monday, Sunday night, Bob called me and said Dan, I've been thinking about it, I'm in a much worse state than I thought I was. I want you to train me. I said, Bob, I'm just going to meet you where you're at. I'm not going to train you like a pro athlete. We're going to start where you're comfortable to start improving.

Dan Metcalfe:

So he came over to my house and here's Bob, who was falling regularly, scared to get out of bed. Every day we don't know what the day's ahead and, as you said, so spot on with the statistics If you fall, there's a 50% chance you'll fall again in the next two weeks. One in three people over 65 fall every year. 10% of those are going to die from the result of the fall if they don't die during the fall. Hip fractures, brain injuries, all these different things, and it affects their whole family because now they become dependent and everyone loses their independence and fun. So I said, Bob, come on, we're going to do what any great trainer is going to do, or physical therapist we're going to strengthen your legs, strengthen your hip flexors, strengthen your core and you're going to walk great again.

Dan Metcalfe:

So he came to my house. I set up this course that took me about 40 minutes. But the first thing we did was those speed ladders. People may have seen them. They look like ladders on the ground that athletes run through, and I'm sure a lot of listeners have their kids go through them in all sports. Bob couldn't get through it. He couldn't lift his foot off of the ground because he wanted to shuffle. So I said, okay, this is the problem. I figured it out. I'm super, Dan. Put your hands against the wall. We're going to get you lifting your knees. We're going to strengthen the hip flexors first so you can lift your legs. As soon as he put his hands on the wall, his legs were like pistons up and down. Light went on in two minutes.

Dan Metcalfe:

My whole training, my program, what I'm teaching now with so much success changed because I said the problem's not the body. Everybody trains the body to fix balance and mobility. It has nothing to do with muscles until the brain is re-engaged. Nothing to do with muscles until the brain is re-engaged. So if you look at babies and I'm sure so many people that listen have gone through childbirth and watching their babies grow up or friends' babies and stuff we didn't take a baby to the gym to help them learn to walk. They tried to figure it out and what we built was neural pathways of movement for our motor cortex and the motor neurons, and I'm going to throw this bit in here as a little bit of an ideology. That's proven.

Dan Metcalfe:

We talk about muscle memory. I coached muscle memory. I talked about muscle memory. There's no such thing as muscle memory. So when people say, well, hang on, we've got to have muscles to walk and move. They've got muscle memory.

Dan Metcalfe:

Let me explain this really quickly. If you took a muscle and asked it to move or try to make it move on its own, it refuses to move. It can't. It's just a piece of meat. It has to have an electrical impulse. So an electrical impulse to make the muscle move means then the muscle comes from a directive. That means it's the neurons that come from thought into the cerebellum, to the motor cortex, down through the motor neurons. The speed of it's incredible. And then the muscle goes.

Dan Metcalfe:

If we want to move better, we have to make sure that the memory comes from neuron memory, not from muscle memory. So by training the brain-body connection. It's incredible. That's what I did with Bob and in three weeks Bob went from an old man, shuffling and fearful, in three weeks to running six miles an hour on a treadmill. Fearful in three weeks to running six miles an hour on a treadmill, running up and downstairs, back walking with his wife, getting out of bed, getting on stage and TV without any fear. And I went in because of my brain injury and this is why you have this whole brilliance, if that's the right way to put it of my own accident, because after my brain injury, I studied the brain because nobody was helping me, and then, from real life experience and training tens of thousands of people, we've seen success by focusing on brain-body connection based on how does a baby learn to walk? Because our system doesn't change as we age, it just slows down.

Michele Folan:

Wow, is Bob Eubanks still alive.

Dan Metcalfe:

Yeah, Bob's 87.

Michele Folan:

Oh wow, that is an incredible success story. I know you have probably many here's the conundrum, or like what just is now befuddling me, right Is falls are the leading cause of injury-related death for seniors. Right, right. Why do you think balance and mobility training is still so underutilized in mainstream fitness, especially for midlife women?

Dan Metcalfe:

Yeah. So let's go straight to midlife women Incredible what they've gone through to be where they are today. We know that women have stronger lower bodies than men do. Right, physiologically, they carry babies. Their body has done miracles. But what happens? We begin to get tired and when we get tired we move less. And this goes across the board. But I'm going to bring this back to the ladies when we are kids, we play and we don't age, or we don't stop playing because we age. We age because we stop playing, and that's the neurological connection of movement. So if we look at the ages between 10 and 20, it was probably when we were the most active in control of our bodies, and then between 20 and 30, we get either stuck in motherhood and when I say stuck I mean that, respectfully, it's taken away our freedom rather than stuck because we love, motherhood.

Michele Folan:

Sometimes we feel stuck, but you could say stuck.

Dan Metcalfe:

Okay, let's go back and start again. So sometimes we get stuck in motherhood and our exercise comes from chasing our children around. Or we're in an office sitting at a desk and then we go home and we've got to do the washing, We've got to do the cleaning, We've got to do all the housework that was expected because society said do it. So what happens? We become linear in our movement, straightforward, turn sideways, we're not jumping, we're not playing, which created the neural pathways in children. That's why dance is so good. Look how many girls have done ballet growing up and it served their purpose because they weren't as involved in other sports from society. Push until Title IX came in and opened up equal amount of girls and boys sports, which was critical as well. Then we sit more, we don't move as much and what's happening that we're not even cognizant of because the brain and the body are so brilliant wherever we are, it makes it feel normal. So we're slowly taking out the ability to feel quickly what's happening and the freedom or confidence to just move and jump. We become more stoic in our movement from the point of view that we become conscious of it. A movement should be unconscious, almost autonomic within our brain. So there's a study that came out they did in France that has been published, where they followed 1,800 ladies over the age of 65 and they followed them for 10 years. Those that had good balance and this is proven, this is clinical, this is data that's captured, this is not an opinion those people that had good balance with a lot of the exercises that we now teach, they lived eight years longer across the board. We're not talking about in a hospital bed being kept alive. Those with good balance lived eight years longer of active, full life.

Dan Metcalfe:

Now, when I started looking at this and as you've again beautifully brought up, why is it so minimalized in part of our everyday life? And we're told when you lose your, oh, it's just part of aging. My dad went to the doctor the other day and he goes. My right leg's hurting and the doctor goes well malcolm, you're just getting older he goes well. My left leg's the same age. How come that one's not hurting? And I loved it. Because. Why is it not utilized? Because I don't believe there's anything out there that if you did it for yourself, no money, no cost would give you eight years longer of quality, engaged, interactive life. Well, why? I believe and I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I believe it's because we're taught to need medication, there's money behind it and we take out the ability of people to take care of themselves because there's no functionality.

Michele Folan:

But you know, we have been trained to accept things as they are. So, women going through menopause oh, it's, it's just menopause. Everybody goes through it. Right here, take, take this pill. You know we're, we're not always given that. Hey, I think you need to get up, move more. I think you would benefit from doing some training, all those things, because we get the joint pain, we get that creeping sense of physical decline, right, how do we get out of that? How do we pull ourselves out of that so that we can do this? Because this is where self-care and self-help comes in.

Dan Metcalfe:

Yeah, it's not hard. It's a decision A little bit every day Because, again, as I said, aging is the excessive pursuit of sedentary comfort. We'd prefer to sit on the sofa and watch TV than we would to get up and go for a walk. When we get to the point where we begin to feel pain or we begin to experience fear because we've lost a little bit of our balance, we suddenly feel off and doctors will say sit down, take it easy, be careful. This is a classic example. When someone is at full risk or they're falling, what do they tell them to do? Go through your house, remove the rugs. What do they tell them to do? Go through your house, remove the rugs, get rid of toys, open the pathways, put handles on the walls to help you in the bathroom. All they're doing is they're allowing the decline, rather than saying how do we increase your potential to success? And that's what I specialize in, right For all ages. And I will tell you, I have Olympic athletes, world record holders, that also use the training method, because what we're doing is we're strengthening up the neurological pathways for movement and the speed. So even more I can break this down.

Dan Metcalfe:

We have a thought goes into our frontal cortex, our frontal lobe, we want to move. That then goes to the cerebellum and a couple of other areas within the brain. That then goes to the cerebellum and a couple of other areas within the brain. That then goes to the motor cortex, sends down the messages, flies through our neurological pathways. But this is where it's so critical Because we don't move as much. There's a sensory messaging after action, the proprioception of feeling what's happening. That goes back to the brain and says I'm off balance or I'm doing good, and the freedom. And that's so quick it shouldn't be cognitive. In fact, every lady listening and man listening will know I walk down the street on my cell phone, looking in a shop window, going I like that pair of shoes or I like that purse or I like that dress, while they're holding a conversation, while an ambulance is going by with the sirens on, while a couple are arguing ahead of you, while a dog's chasing a cat, and we never think of our balance because we're just moving. That's the speed of every step going in this circle from thought to move to brain. I'm doing good and round again. If we don't keep improving the speed of neurological messaging and the sensory messaging going back to the brain. That's when we become cognitive, we begin to think about it, and when we think about it, it's too late to react because we're already in the process of losing our balance by the time we feel it. So we can increase that ability.

Dan Metcalfe:

And why is it that we have people in Japan or these blue zones that are, or you see, people that are a hundred years old, running marathons, or 90 years? They're no better than anybody listening. They've just made a commitment to maximize their potential and and I love you giving me the opportunity to speak because I, every single person I say this with full confidence every single person listening to this can improve and will improve and have a better quality of life or those that they're looking after, if they help them go through the proper steps. We can recover, because we're made to live for 122 years, fully functional, which goes into a whole other thing I won't go into now, but because of the telomeres at the end of our cells that are being broken down and for me, like you said, it starts with our mindset. We go where we think. We are what we believe.

Michele Folan:

Yes, I'm over here, I'm just letting you go because I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I love this, I love this. I mean, I hope my clients listen to this podcast because it's this empowering voice that we need to have in our heads. I do have a question for you, dan Are there any signs that we should be watching for that suggest that our balance or neurological coordination is starting to decline?

Dan Metcalfe:

The first thing I would do is take five minutes to think what were you doing in your 20s and what are you doing today? Because I think that's the first sign, because I believe it's a slow, ticking decline that's going on, that we're not cognitive of it until we feel it, and when we feel it we begin to ignore it to begin with because we don't want to face we've got a problem. So I would say, just take five minutes. What did I do in my 20s? Because it's hard to judge what we were doing in our teens.

Michele Folan:

I'm going. I don't know if I want to go back and do what I did in my 20s, Dan, but if you evaluate it and just take a minute, what kind of stuff.

Dan Metcalfe:

I used to go out running. I used to go out partying. I used to go to all these things. Now what am I doing at the age I am now? And don't break it down by the event, break it down by the movement of the event. So we used to maybe go to nightclubs or go to a live concert and you stand and dance all night. Now we sit on the sofa so we begin to see things.

Dan Metcalfe:

So in that example I would say you're not going to go to a concert now and dance all night, but put on music at home that reminds you that and dance around while you're doing it. If you're doing your I can see you doing this. If you put music on, it wakes up neurological memory neurons that also encourage us to move. But I would say the first sign you'll feel it when you wake up one morning and get out of bed and you suddenly feel a little off balance for the first time, and then it's okay because the brain's woken up and then it's working again. But the fact that you've woken up without having it alive already, to correct, is the beginning sign. Take action right then. Don't wait or ask for help when it gets to the point where now we're in trouble. Now I've got a little fear, now I don't feel confident. As soon as you feel it, take action.

Michele Folan:

What are two to three simple things that my listeners can do at home today to start to improve their balance?

Dan Metcalfe:

So dancing is one of them. Okay, if I go into this, if I can go just a little bit deeper into this, the brain will only go off of the information it's given. Like any computer, if you don't put the right programming in, it's going to default to the minimum or it won't work. When you've had a fall and this came out in a study from Bristol University or when you've had an accident of any kind and people, if they've been in a car crash, you're going to know this as well, because it's not just about movement. The cerebellum, which is the part of the back of the brain, it's called the mini brain or the little brain the back is what controls our movement. But what they discovered from Bristol University was in the cerebellum there's a part called the pyramus and the pyramus connects to a part called the PAG, the P-A-G, and that has its own fear sensor in the brain. So if I explain this, when you walk close to the edge of a sidewalk and it's a six-inch drop, you walk really fast, you stop, you look around and you cross. But if that edge is now a 200-meter drop off of a cliff, we naturally walk slower to the edge because the brain is going. This is danger. We need to slow down. So let's go back to the pyramids, because you've had an accident or a movement that's gone on and you've had an injury that's created a fear, like even a car crash. Now I'm more careful when I'm driving because now I'm looking more left and right. That's not because we're conscious of the accident. It's the brain retaining the memory. So we have to train in an environment that if we have a fear, we remove the fear. Otherwise the body would naturally slow down off of memory. So the first thing is move more in things that are not fearful. So if you feel a little off balance but you like to dance and I keep going back to dancing right Move more, get moving much quicker steps. And this is the second one. But let me finish that up real quick If the brain feels fear, it will slow down the messaging of the neurological pathways. So it's really important that we do things we're not fearful of.

Dan Metcalfe:

But venturing into the area of feeling the off balance or not movement as much. Getting on a treadmill is not as good for our movement because it's linear. It's one way we're actually keeping as we go. Okay, I'm out for a walk, that's great, but we're walking in one way, so we're losing the ability to feel different parts of movement. So the second thing which I say is take lots of small steps as part of a cardio workout change in direction.

Dan Metcalfe:

So one of the programs that I teach with the total balance system is just quick little steps, taking your feet three millimeters off the ground and turning left and turning right, but keeping your head forward, and then doing the quick little forward, quick little back, forwards and backwards, going in different directions, sidestepping, but everything with small feet. And the reason I say small feet, do as many remember when we were kids and they'd say pretend you're killing ants. What a horrible thing to do. I love ants, but you're in ballet. Take small little. What are they called Fairy steps or those different things? Do that because the speed of your small movements forces the brain to have to increase its ability to process fast messaging. Taking big, long, slow steps is good for proprioception and pressure point stability, but it's not good for the quick movement. So first one dance, second one do lots of small steps in different directions. You can do it while you're watching your TV. Put on the clock one minute, just taking different small little steps almost in the same spot. And the third one that I think is critical is going onto the slightly bigger steps of weight transference, so jumping to the side, jumping forwards, jumping slightly backwards, with slightly more steps, because it puts the brain in a dynamic action, movement, the things that I say, that I don't agree with, and I'm taking on society and I'm taking on the medical world with this and I was surprised at the resistance I got because it's brain proven. But our results speak for themselves, where people in stroke centers are calling me in to train their clients with severe strokes and I'm getting more out of them in 15 minutes than they have in three months and the patients love it.

Dan Metcalfe:

Single leg standing is nothing to do with mobility and if I break this down, it's good as a little test. I'm not anti it, but it's not the way to determine if someone's a full risk. When we stand on one single leg, there's only three parts of the brain that are working. That's the frontal lobe saying don't move. It's the cerebellum saying don't move and it's the corpus callosum, the right and left side that join, the right and left side saying okay, this is where I am. How do we get the pressure. Don't move as soon as we start. It's something as simple as this. Remember as a kid when you stand in the playground and they say, okay, be a tree. And you stand on the leg and you start moving your arms and trying to keep your balance. At least 18 parts of the brain are now engaged in trying to keep your balance and it's mobility training, not stationary, which is the static balance and dynamic balance and I know I'm going on because I get so excited talking about this, but so that's what I would say Dance, small steps, changing directions, forward, backwards, sideways, diagonals, turning left and right, facing different.

Dan Metcalfe:

And then the last one, like I said, is taking slightly bigger steps of jumps. And if you say, well, I'm kind of not at that point yet, then just start with the small steps, don't do the jumps yet, and you'll be amazed. I've got so many letters of people tripping on a sidewalk and staying up, my mother sliding on a walk that she had out in the woods and the ground gave way. Or her grandkids jumping on her and she thought she was falling. And she said at the end I realized I'm still up. I didn't know how it's, because you've trained your brain to react before you're conscious of it. Wow.

Michele Folan:

Okay, so you're giving me homework, because now I'm going to be doing this stuff right. And it's funny, dan, because traditionally, if any woman listening has been on Instagram, you've heard the trick for balance mobility was to brush your teeth standing on one foot Right. So I kind of like the dancing and the small steps much better. I will tell you, my husband and I have dance party at the house. We'll put on the Bee Gees or something fun to dance to and we will dance around like idiots and have a great time. We used to do this with the kids when they were in high school and they'd have friends over and we'd do dance party. Now I'm thinking we got to make sure that we do more dance parties, but these are all such practical things and easy to do. You don't have to join a gym to do these very small things. You have coined a phrase called born superhuman, and Could you tell us a little bit about what that means to you?

Dan Metcalfe:

Yeah, do you want me to do? You want to put a time limit on me, cause I get again so excited because I see the results in other people? Born superhuman comes from the moment that I realized that we're born to heal. We're slowly numbed down or dumbed down by society that we trusted had our best interest, and then we find out that maybe they weren't building me as much as they were building themselves. And I go back to the umbilical cord, the cutting the baby, the incredible abilities, and then through the rest of our life. We still have teams around us, but we have to be willing to step into the ring. When we understand where we come from and we understand the brilliance of our body and that we're actually hurting ourselves by the habits that we're having or going through, and we're willing to make the difference. The change is for you and everybody else benefits, but you will feel it every single day when you do the right thing. So I'll go through the seven pillars really quickly, right, and these are in order of importance for life, not my own opinion.

Dan Metcalfe:

This is what's scientifically proven and practically successful. Number one is oxygen. If we don't have oxygen, we're going to die bottom line. But what's the quality? How are we breathing? What's the breath work that we're doing? We know that we can change our emotional state and go from a stress state to a calm state just by breathing, yet nobody teaches it. We'll go and pop a pill to get rid of depression right and help with the serotonin, whereas if we were moving and breathing we would have that neurological release of chemicals in the brain which then are more powerful than any drugs out there, when we're developing and creating those ourselves.

Dan Metcalfe:

Secondly is hydration, and I would say for me this is the easiest to get. 75% of adult Americans are in a chronic state of dehydration. This is scientific data. Again, this isn't me making it up. We've replaced water and what our cells need by sugar drinks, by the coffee, by the Well. It's got water in it, it's got fluid, it's got liquid in it. It damages our brain compared to the water we need, and even greater when I combine the two.

Dan Metcalfe:

When we're dehydrated at the athlete level, 3% dehydration can be up to 20% underperformance. When we're dehydrated, our blood thickens. When our blood thickens, the heart has to and now you're drinking water. Our heart has to work harder because the blood's thicker, we can't get the oxygen around the body quick enough, it will hurt our sleeping at nighttime. We're not able to heal.

Dan Metcalfe:

So I have certain protocols and I have a free giveaway hydration challenge. That is dynamic, because I don't believe in drinking water, I believe in sipping water when we're thirsty. When we know it, we're already past hydration, we're in a bad state of dehydration and then we glug down a whole glass. Or we're told to drink eight glasses a day or 12 glasses a day. Well, we drink it, we feel bloated, we don't feel better, we suddenly feel like out of sorts, and we can actually swamp the cells rather than fuel them with energy through being hydrated. So second is hydration.

Dan Metcalfe:

Third, probably the hardest for mothers and people that are going through stress is sleep. Sleep is critical. That's when the brain recovers, that's when the body recovers, that's when we re-energize the cells to be able to be ready for the task the next day. And if you don't sleep, it would take you down faster than number four, which is nutrition. Right, we cannot eat for 40 days, but if you don't sleep for 40 days, you lost all mental ability and stability and you'll either be in some sort of home or craziness. But with nutrition I'm going to give a great tip here that made the difference to me. Six months ago I was at a 21.4% body fat Not good. Today I'm at an 8.5% body fat without even trying. I'm not focused on it, I'm just doing the right things. Wow, when we get hungry, what do we do?

Michele Folan:

We eat, we eat, and sometimes we make poor food choices when we're really hungry.

Dan Metcalfe:

Right, so we just eat. This is what the one word that changed everything and I've had so many success stories coming back to me Change the word from eat to nourish. That's it. Change the word from eat to nourish. So when I'm hungry, if I'm going to eat, I'll grab a bag of cookies, I'll grab some chocolate, I'll grab some candy, I'll grab the bread and make a sandwich, but if I change that word, I'm hungry, I'm going to nourish.

Dan Metcalfe:

It changed the way that I saw food and didn't want to eat the bad stuff which was part of the makeup of the cortisol release, from the stress. We don't feel good, and the calories, the sugar and fats are actually good for us. The good fats are. So just look at it that simple change with hydration and nourish. I would put money on everybody committing to that losing unbelievable amounts of not just visceral fat, which is the subcutaneous fat, but the visceral fat. The visceral fat is the one that goes around our organs, that stops them working properly, and you will get better, so much more. So that's number. Well, we've got oxygen, hydration, sleep. Then we've got nutrition. Then we've got mindset is number, that's right. What is number five? Oh, exercise, of course. What?

Michele Folan:

are you talking about? I was like no, six is mindset.

Dan Metcalfe:

I knew that exercise brings it all together, we can't grow. We need to stress our bodies to have success. We're not talking about negative stress. We're talking about all of you know, if you go walk stairs every day as part of your training, your legs get stronger. It's not negative, it's positive stress. Negative is where you sit and go. I can't do this. It's hurting. I don't want to do this. I'm angry. That's negative stress. Exercise is critical for the brain. The brain is made of movement. The neural chemicals come from movement. Those that move longer live longer better, and we they've had studies. You sit at a desk for eight hours a day. You do better smoking cigarettes and moving than you would sitting at a desk. Yeah, um, we know that these things are critical. I'll give a little tip here every hour, if you can't get out and walk, get up, hold on to the side of your desk and do 10 deep knee squats, because those 10 deep knee squats give a similar effect in muscular activity that it would do going out and walking for 10 minutes.

Michele Folan:

You're singing my song. So much of this is stuff that I tell my clients I'm like you take the long way back from the bathroom, set your timer on your phone, get up at least every hour and move your body, right, I mean, it seems so simple, but we get so programmed and get so into what we're doing. We forget that our bodies need to move.

Dan Metcalfe:

It's essential. It's essential, I mean, look at when someone comes out of a coma. The first sign of them coming out of a coma is a movement. It is a finger movement, an eye batting, the feet start moving, Same as when someone's recovering from a stroke neuropathy, all these different things, it's all movement Move.

Dan Metcalfe:

Number six is mindset. As we know, we are what we believe we are. We think and I'll say this as well, I can't stand the word hope. I think hope is the worst word in the world, the reason being it's a procrastinator. Right, I hope I have a good day. I hope someone helps me. I hope I can find the right doctor. I hope what that does is it says to the brain okay, I need to sit back and wait Now for other people. I love the word hope.

Dan Metcalfe:

Michelle, I hope you have the most beautiful day. I hope your next dance party is the best ever. I hope everyone listening to this understands their own power, because that's not my control, but for me it has to be belief. I believe I'll have a great day. I believe I can get better. I believe my life is going to improve. I believe I'll lose the weight and this goes into a whole nother topic that we won't touch on today, but it's about self-love.

Dan Metcalfe:

That's so important because it impacts how we think and how we are. But if you can get your mindset right and strong and bulletproof, that the noise around you doesn't take you down and the naysayers are removed from your environment, because we become our environment. But the most important environment you will ever create is the one inside you, Because when your environment is strong, nobody can penetrate it. Because when your environment is strong, nobody can penetrate it. And then you're in control and you give yourself the freedom to say no, which is so dynamic. For me, it's the second most powerful word in the world behind yes. No is a capital N, capital O and it stands for next opportunity. Thank you very much. I'm walking away, or it stands for and it goes here no obligation yeah, oh, that's great.

Michele Folan:

No obligation, yeah, setting those boundaries.

Dan Metcalfe:

And yeah, I feel so good when I can say no to something and feel good, you know and know it's the right decision, right A hundred percent for you, yeah, and somebody else will find somebody else to help them in something that's not right for you. Don't feel guilt and wish them luck. It's not bad. And the last one which we're going to come down to is challenges in the seven pillars. If you don't challenge yourself to do more, you will decline, and we're not talking about crazy challenges. But if someone says I've got a balance issue, or maybe someone's parents are struggling and they say I just love to walk around the block again, don't say I want to walk around the block again. I want to go to the beach and walk on the sand. I want to walk that hill that I used to walk to see the view. Because on the way you will accomplish easily walking around the block. Set your challenges at the highest level of excitement, something you'd be passionate about doing again, or like my mother at 84 doing for the first time. Set those goals and commit yourself to them because you're so powerful. You've got so much potential. We are not who people say we are. Every single person listening knows inside that there's more to them. I wish somebody saw more of who I am. I wish somebody understood more the power that I know I've got. I just can't access it. And everybody listening if you turn around and realize this goes on to a whole another thing I do when I go talk on keynotes that I can't go into time-wise now. But you are born of the best of the best. You're absolutely incredible. If somebody hasn't championed you, you haven't found the ability to champion yourself.

Dan Metcalfe:

And so many people were put down, like my girlfriend who has MS and went from on a walker to 10 minutes to go 10 feet, to now running 10 miles on a treadmill, climbing 40 foot trees, doing agility courses, being told when she was a little girl she couldn't sing and that took away her whole confidence. When you go to the choir, just move your mouth, don't sing. You've got a horrible voice. You can't do that. You can't dance. Now she does ballet classes. Now she dances. Now she's fantastic. She now has singing lessons and she's singing on stage and you know, doing things that she dreamt she could do as a little girl and all she had to do is have someone believe in her. And then that self-belief Well, I believe in every single person listening because I've seen it over 70,000 people that I've trained. I see it time and time again. If someone believes in you and I do believe, because it's not who you are it's the potential of everything you were born to be, and you were born superhuman.

Michele Folan:

That's so awesome. We all need to hear this every once in a while. So I'm going to put much of what Dan just laid out in the show notes, but certainly you can go back and listen to this. But this is so inspiring and if you're having one of those days where your little woe is me, this is exactly what you need to hear Before we wrap up. I do want to talk about Total Balance Company and your mission and how you work with clients.

Dan Metcalfe:

Yeah, thank you very much. So Total Balance is a very simple system that is created by accident. I actually had a dream about it trying to help Bob and I woke up from the dream, built it and that's what we have today. It's not a balanced board, but it comes with a balanced board that's created to give you full mobility. This is again Olympic athletes and people 100 years old that are back walking, that haven't walked in five years. It's incredible because all we do is we tap into the brain. The mission there is trifold. So we have the pro program, which is for the athletes.

Dan Metcalfe:

But, talking to your audience, this is a passion for me. I used to teach abs, thighs and buns classes in LA and had the biggest classes out here For mothers that are given birth. You need to move, you need to invest in yourself and this system that I have, the PRO system, will strengthen your abs, thighs, buns. It will get you moving and you can do it next to a baby's crib while they're sleeping, because we don't want to leave the baby. 10-minute workouts, 15-minute. It will get you so much stronger.

Dan Metcalfe:

The second one is Neuro 360. So, anyone with MS we've had incredible success with MS, parkinson's, ataxia, stroke survivors, tbis. We have the Neuro360 program, which is brain to body connection, and then we have the Balance360 Up, which comes off of our original, which is anybody aging, anyone feeling they're off. We've got kids with a genesis of the corpus callosum. They were born without the ability to connect right and left side. They're off.

Dan Metcalfe:

We've got kids with a genesis of the corpus callosum. They were born without the ability to connect right and left side. They're improving. We train the brain by doing physical movements safely and the results are off the charts. And I don't say this from an ego point of view. I do this because I see it day in, day out. And what you're changing isn't your physical as much as you're changing your emotional state of excitement, of living again, living better, and so I see it as a two-pronged attack. You're going to get physically better, but the result is you're happier and able to do everything again that life offers you, because the best memories should be the ones ahead.

Michele Folan:

This is beautiful. I'm so like I want to get moving, Like I want to get out of my chair.

Dan Metcalfe:

These two put on the music.

Michele Folan:

Yeah Well, we'll have to do that tonight. Dan Metcalfe, where can my listeners find you and the resources that you offer?

Dan Metcalfe:

Yeah, thank you so much. We have totalbalancecompanycom that's the four words totalbalancecompanycom which is where we have our program for balance, mobility and brain training. And then I have bornsuperhumancom, which is my what I call. That's a passion for me because it's unleashing the miracle within you to go. So if you don't have balance issues or your mobility is great, but you have this emotional desire to get even better in what you're doing or you've got these goals, that's where you can go to, and then I'm. We have both those on a total balance Born Superhuman and on Instagram. And then my own personal is Dan Metcalfe, with an E underscore official. So it's Dan Metcalf e official. I also have a program for kids that I love. I have a nonprofit for kids. That's been phenomenal, but I have a program. So anybody knows anyone that's playing soccer, go to supersoccerskillscom, because if we can train our youth to have that mindset and ability based around sports and performance, which is really a mirror of everyday life, that's supersoccerskillscom. I've got a great program there for kids as well.

Michele Folan:

Fantastic. Again, I will put all that in the show notes. Dan Metcalfe, I'm just like blown away. I had no idea where this conversation was going to go. I'm pleasantly surprised and so happy that you could be here today, Dan Metcalfe. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening. Please rate and review the podcast where you listen and, if you'd like to join the Asking for a Friend community, click on the link in the show notes to sign up for my weekly newsletter, where I share midlife wellness and fitness tips, insights, my favorite finds, and recipes.