Latest / SkyTalkDoc / E260 Fitness Without Self-Hate
Transcript
- SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Good morning, Coach Tyler. I am stoked to have you on today because we are in alignment with all things health and wellness. And I'm really excited just to hear about your journey and your story. I know it's an impressive one and I'd love for you to share it with the listeners and then we can kind of geek out on the, yeah, all the things that you're doing. Coach Tyler: Yeah. Yeah, well, thank you. I appreciate it. You know, I'm coach Tyler and I usually like short bios, but I people don't know much about me. So I'm happy to share a little backstory. You know, I've been in the fitness industry now for over 20 years and have had quite a journey the way. And before that, I had my own personal, you know, transformation, as you could say, although that transformation continues ⁓ day, ⁓ you know, from, from then till now. ⁓ know, my story started like most people's story, which is I looked at myself in the mirror. and I hated what I saw and I felt really bad about myself and I thought to myself, well, I'll just use all this shame and self judgment and self criticism as motivation to get myself in the gym. And that's exactly what I did, which is what most people do, right? We use shame and self criticism, self judgment, not realizing it's harming our sense of happiness and joy and connection with self. And as luck would have it, I got hit by a car a little bit into my fitness journey. And so, you know, I broke the bottom of my femur and tore some cartilage, had to do a surgery on that knee. ⁓ over the course of three months, couldn't walk. And then finally got back to it and was like, okay, I'm gonna go back to the gym. You know, finally I'm gonna get back to my gym. I'm gonna go back to, you know, making my body look good and everything hurt, right? I couldn't do anything with my lower body without experiencing pain. And to me, at least after working with thousands of people over the years, is nothing will get you more focused on using fitness as a tool for taking care of your body than being in pain, right? Because it just every, especially if it's like your feet or your knees or your hips or your lower back, like it's just like everything you do ends up causing pain. So I spent the better part of ⁓ a decade just trying to figure out how do I stop focusing on training for how I look and start focusing on training for how I felt. And I want to get rid of pain. I want to feel strong. I want to feel flexible. I want to feel competent with what my body could do. And, SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Hmm. Coach Tyler: That led me to a great place for the most part, but underneath it was still this sense of like unworthiness. So I pushed myself, I pushed my ego. I wanted to do more. I wanted to get stronger. I wanted to get more flexible. And then as luck would have it, 10 years later, I got into another accident. I was doing gymnastics and I came down and this one was way worse. My knee went completely sideways. So I tore my ACL, MCL, LCL quad, meniscus all in one shot. I've had four surgeries on that knee since then. so, ⁓ SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Mmm. Coach Tyler: You know, what that lesson really taught me was that, yes, it's about performance, it's about taking care of your body, but you have to check your ego at the door. Because I remember that day very well, my coach was telling me, punch harder, punch harder, which is like, you these springboard floors that they have in gymnastics, they want me to punch really hard into the floor. And my knee was hurting. And I told myself, you, you pussy, don't listen to your knee, go ahead and punch as hard as you can. And of course, that's when I ended up getting injured. So that was a valuable lesson of... SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: you Coach Tyler: not listening to my body. And so, you know, after that, it's just been a journey of recognizing that fitness is supposed to be about self care. It's not supposed to be about mentally torturing ourselves or physically torturing ourselves. And yet that's the experience that most people have. So that's why, for, you know, the last four years, I've been talking about this stuff, talking about teaching people how to move better and feel better, and then focusing on the mindset tools necessary to show up for their workouts from a place of ⁓ love rather than self judgment. So. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: think it's so interesting how we invite situations into our life when we need lessons. Yeah. And really don't think you can relate to someone with pain until you've experienced it yourself. ⁓ I feel like that probably really actually launched the career you have now because it made you so much more relatable to have actually walked the walk. I talk a lot about that. Coach Tyler: Yeah. ⁓ my God. Ain't that the truth? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: It's interesting though, as you're talking about unworthiness, because my book is actually literally launching this week. I thank you. It's really exciting. It broke 100,000 on Amazon. we're hoping it's going to go bestseller status with New York Times. We'll see. But ⁓ as you were talking, I was hearing your primal wound. I'm like, I'm recognizing his wound. Coach Tyler: Congrats. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: where what I have found in life is that we do we invite situations that will affirm that wound. It's really interesting like the unworthiness narrative or whatnot. So your first incident was a car accident, but you were a pedestrian? ⁓ my gosh. Coach Tyler: Yeah. I was on a bicycle, yeah, so, yeah, yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: I will say that I'm a mountain biker, but those road bikers terrify me. It makes me so nervous that I'm going to come around the corner. We have really windy roads. I'm always nervous about that. worked with even a Cirque du Soleil. ⁓ That's really cool. Tell me about it because I've seen so many of the Cirque du Soleil's and I am always impressed with the— Coach Tyler: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: with the capacity and capability of the human body. feel like that is really the, and it's interesting. So this is going way back in my lifetime, but I worked in media and Cirque was actually one of my clients. And so I got VIP access to a lot of the shows, got to meet the performers they are so extreme. They are so intense with ⁓ fitness and their diet and all of that. And it's really impressive. ⁓ I feel like in terms of Coach Tyler: So good. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: looking at what humans are capable of next to like the Olympics or something that is such a prime example of what humans can do. So share with me a little about that. That's so fascinating. Coach Tyler: Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, part of that journey of performance after I had my first injury was just recognizing how I learn. And my favorite way to learn ⁓ ⁓ go to the best people that you can find on a particular topic and learn directly from them. So I'm not a traditionally educated physiotherapist, for example, like a lot of people sometimes think I am when they see our social media channels. I'm somebody who traveled around the world, found the best athletic trainers, the best coaches I possibly could. and did as many sessions with them as I possibly could so that could go learn their particular subject, right? And one of them was Jean-Luc Martin is a hand balancing coach for Cirque des Soleil down in San Diego. He runs the San Diego Circus Center down there. ⁓ one of the most impressive things I had seen was I'm a pretty big guy. I'm about six foot, 210 pounds. And so when I see people doing ⁓ circus type stuff, I typically see somebody who's a lot smaller doing that stuff. ⁓ but Jean-Luc was like five, 10, 210. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah. Coach Tyler: So he was just a brick and he was about 40, he was in his late 40s at the time when I met him. And when I came in, he was practicing his hand balancing. He's just up on the hand balancing stands like those canes. And then he just comes over to one arm, like it was effortless, holds it, brings it back down. mean, just the amount of control was so incredible. And what was really humbling about that experience to me was ⁓ gymnasts and circus acrobats have a very particular style of training. Okay. So first it's progressive movement. So we always start with foundational things that are really important and we master those things before taking that next step up. And when I say the word master, like I don't think people understand what I mean when I say master, right? Like I thought I was good. could hold a handstand for a minute. I could put my hands on the ground and do a straddle press. I could walk around on my hands when I went to him and he goes, show me your handstand. I kick up to it and he's like, ⁓ God, where do we start? You know, he was just like, he was like, this is horrible, atrocious. You're never going to get to where you want to go like this. Right. So. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: haha Coach Tyler: I think people they appreciate it and whatnot, but I don't think they understand how much ⁓ into that training like you were saying, right? So to me, what it taught me was building a really strong foundation. And often I think with most of the people that we work with, almost everybody needs to take like five or 10 steps backwards so they can take 20 steps forward. And what they do instead is they get trapped in this game that I like to call the one step forward, one step backward game, right? We get. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah. Coach Tyler: We get all motivated through usually through shame and self judgment and we go out and we join a challenge and then we work out five days a week and then we burn out, we get injured, we stop, we don't do anything for a couple of months and then we repeat that cycle over and over again. But I want people to imagine like what happens when you take one step forward, one step backward on your journey, right? If that's all you do for decades, you go nowhere, you know, like so you can, you can spend, yeah, you can spend so much time on this, you know, but you can just go nowhere. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: call it tightening and loosening the belt. Like you're literally, you tighten the belt, you loosen the belt. You tighten the belt, you loosen the belt. You're just, but you're never making any progress. You're somewhere on that belt loop, you know? ⁓ Coach Tyler: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And so when people think fitness, they think of like energy expenditure. And when I work with the best athletes and the best trainers in the world, they think of skill. They think of the quality of your movement. And so for so many people, when they come to us, they're like, I want to do a workout that makes me sweat, that makes my heart pump, that makes my muscles pump. And I'm like, how about we do a workout? SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah. Yes. Coach Tyler: that you walk away feeling like mentally challenged because you had to be so embodied to do it, because you had to learn the basics of movement again. But maybe it doesn't feel all that fatiguing right now. But over time, as we graduate you through this progression of more difficult movements, then it becomes more difficult and more challenging for you. So I think a lot of people don't realize you gotta slow down to eventually speed up. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yes. couple different things. did Mysore yoga for a while and it was real. It was very much about that your embodiment of where you are and holding a pose to the mental break point not so much about it and and having this skill and and doing it right so that you're not injuring yourself. It's a very slow process, but it's it's also a lot of load emotionally and so you also feel like this whole body consumption and workout when you're done, which is pretty impressive. My mom Coach Tyler: Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: was a gymnast. She wasn't big on me going into gymnastics. I was also too tall at the time. I'm 5'9", at the time I was like 5'9", and three quarters. Yeah. But my niece is actually an incredible gymnast and she's just advancing so rapidly through the process because she just has the skill. She really gets it. So she's operating at a much Coach Tyler: ⁓ yeah, you're way too tall for gymnastics. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: higher like age level than she is, which is really kind of neat to see. But she started out as a cheerleader, you know, and then was really just into the gymnastics and she wanted to hone that craft, which I think is kind of what you're describing. You you kind of start in one place, but then when you really want to excel in your field, you have to start to learn the fundamentals. Coach Tyler: Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: And I kind of think about this in golf. know, if you, if you pick up a club and go out with your buddies to the driving range with no, you know, lessons or anything like that, you're, you're going to hack your way through it. Sure. You're going to make the ball go somewhere because it's not moving. It's waiting for you to hit it, but you're not necessarily going to have the best form and the best, you know, potential to get it where you want it to go and how far you want it to go. That's really cool. So, so you're offering. Coach Tyler: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, one thing to comment on about gymnastics real quick, sorry to cut you off, but I'll never forget when I first started, I had a group training program here in my hometown and I had this one lady come in and you know, I'll be honest with you. If I would have just judged her by how she looked, I would have thought, you know, this is the totally deconditioned individual. She won't be able to do this stuff. I have to give her really beginner stuff. And when she dove into the workout, I looked over at one point, she was like doing the advanced core stuff and doing it well, like really well. And I was like, walked over and I was like, you don't have to do this. We can slow it down for you. And she goes, no, this is pretty easy. I said, what's your background? And she's like, I like the gymnastics. And I was like, till when? She's like, till I was like 12. We're talking about someone who hadn't done it for, you know, 28 plus years coming in and still remembering the fundamentals of movement. And so I always tell people, you know, a lot of what I do with WeShape and my own training is built around gymnastic philosophy because Prior to gymnastics being sportified, was really just like, it should be called lessons in human movement, right, instead of gymnastics. So I think everyone needs to be doing some body weight style training, learning how to move your body, and then working on, you know, reconnecting the brain back to the body, because so many of us, cut ourselves off at the neck, we don't know how things are supposed to feel, and when we practice moving, that's how we reintegrate with ourselves. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: So I have a good friend and she's an incredible gymnast and yogi and she owns a couple of gyms in the area. she recently opened one of those Acro where you use the, you know, hang from the ceiling and do all that circular lay kind of stuff. And I was like, ⁓ going to sign up and do this. And then I was in a car accident and I got hit really, really hard from behind about 55 miles ⁓ hour. Coach Tyler: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. off. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: And people have heard me talk about this on this podcast a lot, but the seatbelt basically tore the rotator cuff in the accident. And so definitely not hanging from any ceilings right now, but it was kind of one of those moments where, you know, I've always been incredibly fit. I've been incredibly active. There's been no limitations to my abilities that way at all. And this was just a huge grounding moment, like a very, you know, humbling kind of experience for me. And what's really interesting is Coach Tyler: Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: this past week, one of our kiddos was sick and I started to feel myself and I always kind of fight it off pretty well because I do so much plant-based medicine stuff. And I found so fascinating was the virus went right to the neck the shoulder. Like I had pain again in that area. Yeah, it's like it knows where to attack you in your weakest spot, you know? And I was like, ⁓ my gosh, it feels like the day after the car accident again. It was so wild. ⁓ So I it's kind of interesting how our bodies remember Coach Tyler: Mm-hmm. Just like inflamed, yeah. Yeah. Mmm. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: And that's kind of tying into what you're talking about from when you were younger, when this woman was younger. was really big on, for whatever reason, my stuff when I was in high school was my stomach. Even though always had a super flat stomach, I was just freaked out about it. So I used to do like 100 crunches a day every morning before I'd start my day. ⁓ And what's is that's the one area whenever I do any workout that is so easy. Coach Tyler: Mm-hmm. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Like, I mean, I don't have any problem with my stomach, but yeah, hindsight, so I'm like, I should have done more pull-ups. maybe, maybe some more squats. ⁓ like, dang it, if I could go back, you know. ⁓ Coach Tyler: Mm-hmm. Yeah, because you've done so much with it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe some squats, some pull-ups. Yeah, exactly. That's funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: So your program, I'm really fascinated by this because as part of my rehabilitation from this injury, I really got into home fitness. ⁓ because I was going to the Pilates studio, but what I started to find out was there's a thing when you're in a group setting that can be really good for pushing you, but when you're injured, it can also be really damaging. ⁓ Coach Tyler: really bad, yeah, because you'll push yourself too far. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah. And so I was like, I've got to, can't go back to the Pilates studio right now. It's just not emotionally safe place, even though the women are wonderful and they would never, you know, it was not their fault. It was about me. And so I got a lot of this, ⁓ these tools for home. And I'm really curious about this because I think with especially COVID, right? Like people, kind of changed this whole industry of home health and like home workouts. And I'm really fascinated about that. So how does your program work and how do you, Coach Tyler: Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: How do you encourage people to stay motivated when it's like, I think I'll my cup of coffee instead of go do my, you Coach Tyler: Yeah, yeah. Well, I got a lot of things to say about that. So, you know, and I'm not just going to pitch everybody on what we do here at WeShape. I'll really share the philosophy behind it so that you can integrate it into your life, regardless of whether you ever come to us or not. you know, I really believe that people need to start building a very ⁓ foundation of new habits at a time. ⁓ so one of the core things that we focus on at WeShape is just telling people, hey, give yourself grace, show up. and do two 10 minute routines a week. Cause there's not a person on the, if you, if you tell me I don't have two 10 minute slots a week, like I just can't help you. I'm just, it's not going to happen. Right. But I know everybody can work towards building that as a habit. Cause remember when we change our diet, we already eat food every day. So it's already integrated into our life. But when we add something like fitness or doing a workout or doing, I like to think of it as more like practicing movement and taking care of our bodies. That's a new activity, which means we've got to find the time. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Not with it. No. Yep. Coach Tyler: And this is where I think a lot of people fail is whenever they start a workout routine, it's like three, one hour sessions, join a gym, like maybe four or five. Like it's just too much for, it's too much change for your current lifestyle. Right. And so if somebody can do two 10 minute routines a week consistently for a year, that's a hundred routines in a year. If you do 100 routines with a good progression in there, that's designed for your body, there's a 0 % chance that at the end of that year, you will not feel stronger and more flexible, more connected to your body and more free in what you can do with it. Okay. So that's the thing I tell people is just, first of all, give yourself grace and start at the basics. It's all we're focusing on as our initial goal. And you'll notice I said 10 minute routines because 10 minutes is like so small that you don't have any excuse. Right. I would love for people to do 20 and 30 and 45. That's great. But like not today. Like let's prove that SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: But you can roll out of bed and do that shit in your pajamas. Coach Tyler: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. That's what we want people to do. You know, if you can't find the time, just boom, roll out of bed, do it in your pajamas. Right. So, you know, that's the thing is, is consistency is the foundation of everything that we try to preach with people. And I think the, the bigger thing, and we take people through our challenges that focuses on mindset a lot, but the fitness industry has really done a number on people, think psychologically, it's fundamentally, the message is pretty simple. It's like, it's like, you should hate yourself unless you look like this image. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yes. Coach Tyler: and then you should buy my program so that you can change your body to look like this image so you can finally be happy. And after being in the fitness industry for 20 years, one thing I noticed is even the people that I used to this message that you're, ⁓ you are, the happier you'll be, I used to do that shit, right? And before I had children and had daughters, of course, and realized I was just, ⁓ was a part of the problem. ⁓ think people need to realize that it's gonna get you anywhere. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah. Coach Tyler: You're just gonna feel horrible about yourself. You could lose a hundred pounds and still look in the mirror and still nitpick this spot and this spot and this spot. It's because you've rehearsed self-criticism every single time for motivation. And so when we talk about motivation part is we try to strip away self-criticism. We talk about the inner critic. We talk about childhood traumas and keeping you trapped. We try to bring up the people in your life who made you feel like shit so that you showed up constantly ⁓ what they said about you with your actions, right? And so we do a lot of mindset tools and underneath it is really just like, we're looking at all your beliefs and we're trying to figure out how we can get you to stop believing that fitness is something you have to do because you hate yourself. And fitness is something that you want to do to take care of yourself. Right. And so reframing a lot of the mindset tools is what we do, you know, and probably one of the simplest ones is everyone who's listening right now has someone that if they got injured, they would do everything to take care of them. Maybe it's a kid or a parent or a partner, a friend. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yep. Yep. Coach Tyler: Right? You would do anything to take care of that person. Right? You'd be changing wounds. You'd be helping them with their physical therapy, changing their diaper if you needed to, like whatever you had to do. And yet you won't carve out the space for yourself. Right? And it's just two 10 minute blocks we're asking for. Right? So it's like, again, you don't have any excuses here. So, ⁓ that's the, that's the fundamental mindset philosophy of WeShape as far as the movement side. Again, I really want people to take a lot of steps backwards. And so the fundamentals of what we do at WeShape are teaching people how to move better through things like isometrics, mobility drills, body awareness drills. And then what I think is really beautiful about WeShape is the reason why I spent so much time on this program. Full transparency, we were really successful in the health and fitness space prior to WeShape. ⁓ I shut all of that down because it was all rooted in the negativity and the self judgment. And it just didn't with who I was anymore. ⁓ And we did that, it was like, What are we going to build? And I always remember going back to one of my first personal training sessions that I taught somebody at a gym. And I was looking around at the other personal trainers and I was like, my God, these people are all ex athletes who didn't make an athletic career. They don't have any injuries and they're just taking people through like the cardio on the treadmill and the three sets of 10 on the machines or some free weights. And they're not coaching movement. They like have no idea what most people who show up to the gym and their forties, fifties, sixties are going through when it comes to SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: us. Coach Tyler: weakness, tightness, know, issues with their body. And so remember in that moment thinking to myself, I wish I could give like ⁓ services to everyone, right? Because working with a trainer one-on-one and having them build you a customized routine and adjust it every single day for you, ⁓ like the absolute best way to get results. It's like asking, you what's the best way to get a good education? It's like one-on-one tutoring, right? It's the same thing with that. So when we built WeShape, you know, we invested heavily in a technology that could take all the decisions I would make as a trainer and apply it to a follow along program for each individual. So if you came in, you'd have a different routine than someone else who came in, who had a different routine than someone else who came in. And it's not just the levels of the movements, it's also the movements themselves. If you have tight hamstrings, we're gonna work on that more in your routines. If you have tight hip flexors, we'll work on that more in your routine. So the system is really designed to act like having a personal trainer in your pocket who was qualified to be able to give you the right moves and coach you along the way. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: I love that you're including the mental health component of it because if I think about Bessel Van der Kolk Body Keeps the Score and we're holding trauma in certain parts of our body, then we're conditioning either to protect that area and so we're not working it or we're overworking an area. you're saying I'm designing a program specifically for this individual, you're considering not only the inner critic, the negative self-talk, but also whatever their body is holding in the fashion of issues that Coach Tyler: ⁓ yeah. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: is changing their dynamic, the way they're walking, way they're standing, the way they're sitting, the way they're carrying their self, which is huge. I think that's probably the biggest part of some of the pain and stuff that we see that people have. I know something that's been spectacular about my physical therapy journey is I'm in this room with athletes that, I ⁓ we're trying to... Coach Tyler: Absolutely. Mm-hmm. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: pull a two pound weight. That's it. That's where we're starting. I when I started out with my rehabilitation, there was a PVC pipe that I was holding and it was a movement they called it scalp your head, which kind of weird, but you just move it back like this. But I literally could not do that when I started this journey. so it's fascinating, but it retaught me how to actually hold everything here. And it really brought a lot of awareness to places that I was holding trauma. Coach Tyler: Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: And I think that's really a missing component. And I love what you said that you set out to kind of change. That's the same thing I did with this book. I was like, the self-help industry is an industry to make money. You know, by teaching people that they're inherently broken, that they need to fix themselves, that they need to heal, you know, and all of that. And actually, I've got a copy of the book right here. And what I put across the top of it is, you're not broken. Coach Tyler: Mmm. That's a beautiful sentiment. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: literally you're not broken. You're working very well. Your body is actually stellar at protecting you and keeping you safe. And so I love that you're working within that mindset. And also, yeah, two 10 minute sessions a week is just absolutely nothing. remember if this was a couple of decades ago, but I was really into the Billy Blanks Ty Bowe. You remember that guy? And I was doing all the Billy Blanks in the living room and stuff, but it was great because it didn't matter. I met Coach Tyler: Yeah, yeah, I remember really blanks. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: I didn't care what I look like. The dog doesn't care what I look like, you know, because I think that's another big component to this stuff is I've never been a gym person. I've always been kind of just a, I don't know, I found myself in yoga studios, Pilates, things like that. And in the yard, whatever, but ⁓ outdoor kind of person. But Coach Tyler: Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: I think that there is a mentality when you go into the gym that everybody's kind of judging everyone else or they're watching where you're at. And so I feel like for a lot of people that's scary and that might be what's kept them away from getting better. Coach Tyler: Absolutely. Yeah, 100%. I mean, especially in a generation where, you know, fitness wasn't the norm. You know, I think as you go to younger and younger generations, it's like people just like, oh, yeah, everybody goes to the gym, right? But like, if you were born pre like 1970, that's not the case. You know what I mean? Like nobody went to the gym, you never saw your parents or anybody. And so there's this really awkward experience a lot of people have. I know that because my own parents, you know, really struggled with that. And they still struggle with that, you know, so I think that SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah. Coach Tyler: The main thing you want to focus on with starting a routine like this is like making it simple, making sure it's inclusive, and then giving yourself permission to start slow. I think, think people like vastly overestimate how much they need to do to start making progress. And like, again, if you do two 10 minute routines a week where you, where you just go, you finish and you're like, Oh, I feel fresh. Not, I feel worried. You don't have to break a sweat. Like what we're focusing on is habit and consistency. And like when I used to work with people, uh, one-on-one. I would always notice that after about three months, I would have like ⁓ objective data that they are getting stronger, more flexible, like, okay, this is great. And they're like, I don't notice anything. And then at six months, we'd come back to it again. And they're like, okay, maybe, maybe a little bit. They'd like, give me a little bit. A year goes by. They're like, okay, I kind of feel some change. I think so at 18 months, they would be like, okay, I'm undeniably different, right? But it would, it would take 18 months, right? For someone to actually be like, holy crap. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: I'm different. Coach Tyler: two or three days a week consistently for 18 months. Now I feel like I'm a completely different person, but it's like we hold this residual self image inside of our minds and it doesn't change very fast. You know, and so that's why it just consistency, consistency, consistency, and also remembering that fitness industry message because the other part of this that really sucks is the fitness industry says, uh, lose this in two weeks, lose this and you know, 30 days, do blah, blah, blah. And like this message is what gets people jumping from thing to thing. never being consistent, burning out, like that doesn't work either. You can't just do random stuff all the time and expect to see long-term progress, right? So yeah, I think that's important. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: We're such an instant gratification culture at this point, but I found that so surprising too. And again, I'm gonna take it back to where I'm at right now with this physical fitness stuff, but it's like to watch them move the ring down one, which means I'm carrying two and a half pounds of heavier weight is like huge. I'm like, ⁓ my gosh, I'm doing it. This is so great. As someone who, again, never had a problem with this, this is really humbling to watch this experience. But I've even found simple things like, Coach Tyler: Yeah, it's so horrible. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: I keep resistance bands in my nightstand. And when I'm in bed, I just hook them around my, my, you know, thighs and just do a couple little, it's amazing. Cause I see like, look, I can push that resistance band a little stronger now after just doing it a couple of times a week in the evening, you know, not a big deal, but it's kind of interesting to see how that little bit of progression adds up over time to a lot of progression. Coach Tyler: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ I love that you're saying this because one of the core principles we teach people is taking a lot of movement snacks, right? So I, you know, people come to WeShaped, they think they're going to do like this workout thing. And I'm like, I don't want you to do a workout thing. I want you to become someone who practices movement to take care of their body. And so throughout the workouts, we're constantly focusing on form, like more than anything you've probably seen out there, super detailed form cues to make sure that people are moving well. And then it challenges you mentally because you're having to think a lot when you're doing it. But then we take those tools into your life and we go, okay, well, Pick an area that you feel like is like extra tight. Okay, it's your hamstrings. Great. Here's a hamstring stretch you can do. Like whenever you see a chair, whenever you come up to your bed, whenever you do these things, right? And I had this new saying, I've been saying this last year, which is, ⁓ if it's in the way, you'll do it every day, right? And so if we take all this stuff and we shove it under our beds and we put it in our garages, like we don't do it, but you come to my house, I got a yoga swing in the living room. There's a foam roller visible in every single space. know, yeah. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yes. I'm like. Yes. We have a foam roller in every room. Yeah. And you can see, you know, what's cool is the boys pull it out. Like we've got, we've got athletes in our home and, even just the young ones, they're just, you know, but they're out there rolling on it. I'm like, cool. Like learning young, like, yes, use these things that we have lying around. I've got like a myofascia bar, you know, the theracane and stuff. It's like, great. Use it. Pulleys and stuff that I've got. I actually tied resistance bands around. have these poles. It looks terrible. Coach Tyler: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: but they go out there and they're janking on it. I'm like, yeah, good. That's right. Do that, you know? Coach Tyler: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I so agree. And even if it's not like equipment, I also tell people, you know, you can set up your environment to remind you to move, right. So for example, a lot of people that we talked to have issues with walking, they have issues walking up and down stairs, they have issues walking without pain. And I'm like teach them simple principles. Like when we walk, one of the biggest problems that people have is they lose the ability to contralaterally coordinate their body. So they'll step on their right foot and they'll lean to the right side and they'll do this waddle where the whole body goes from side to side. That's not how the body's supposed to walk. It's supposed to walk where the torso stays centered over the foot. And so I'll say, Hey, just take a piece of tape in your hallway and put it down in the hallway for 10 feet. And every time you walk past that, just stay upright, see if you're, can keep your nose over your belly button. And then as you walk, just glide that straight up line over your toes. And if people do that consistently for like a month, all of sudden they're like, wait, my walking pain went away. It got easier to walk. Right? Yeah. We had a lady come to us who couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without pain. She worked with us for a year. Big reason was because she was doing this huge European trip and there was this staircase hike that she wanted to do was three miles of stairs. And in one year she went from not being able to walk up a flight of stairs without pain to being able to do the full three mile. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah, but I heard Fasha went away. Coach Tyler: Staircase hike and I was just blown away by that so and that doesn't come because she's like necessarily stronger or more conditioned That's a part of it But a huge part of it is am I holding my body in efficient alignment if I'm holding my body in efficient alignment now everything feels easier and all my joints are safer because of it and again I think people when people think of fitness They just think of intensity and whether it's cardio and losing fat or pumping muscle to gain muscle It's always rooted in intensity and I want people to throw that methodology out of their head SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah? Yeah? Coach Tyler: And I want them to recognize this is about self care. This is about connection with the body. And the more we can connect with and care for the body, the better you're gonna feel for longer. And you'll actually be happier regardless of what experience you have, right? You'll be happier right now. You don't have to lose weight or do anything because you're not broken, right? SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: You're not broken. took I took things that I because I my plant medicine and stuff I take in the morning and I moved it up a shelf and it seems like it's stupid but it forced me to have to reach my arm up a little bit higher. ⁓ was like this is this is going to just be something every morning that's going to you know just increase that lift and yeah it's kind of interesting it doesn't take much and if you look at kids kids naturally do the things you're talking Coach Tyler: ⁓ yeah, I love that. love that. That's brilliant. 100%. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: They naturally squat, right? They naturally walk, right? Then we put them in ridiculous shoes that starts to change it and all the different things. But initially, they just naturally do it. They naturally move their bodies a lot. They naturally, you know, and if you put something out of reach, they're going to make sure they get it. know, like it's exactly so I think if you question, you know, where you're at, look back at the kids, you know, because that's really and I think that as we Coach Tyler: Yeah. Yeah, they love climbing and yeah, all that stuff. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: age, it's important that we reincorporate that I saw a meme this guy he said you're not you're not unhappy you're unexpressed or something like that and he's just doing all this crazy dancing and stuff and that's body movement to you know, just just getting things loosened up. I love that. Coach Tyler: Mmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's another principle of movement that we teach is like, okay, we want to do some sort of structured routine because that consistency on the basics that we practice really diligently, that's what gives us that movement freedom for the longest time possible. But we don't work out to work out more, right? We practice movement so that we can go enjoy our bodies. And so a huge part of what we teach people is yes, Do a structured routine. It's gonna make you feel better, more strong, less pain, more flexible. And then go enjoy your body. Go do joyful movement. so like our challenges, for example, we ask people to like, we have several levels of it. So as you go through it, we progress through these different themes that we talk about, but one of them is movement. And so the first time is like throw away the word exercise and then focus on the movement. And then the second challenge, we're like, hey, make a list of the things that you enjoy to do with your body. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: love that. Coach Tyler: And then the third challenge like go do a couple of these things, right? And then the fourth one's like, what's something you want to do with your body, but you haven't now go do that, right? Yeah. So, yeah, exactly. It's just like people lose that childlike excitement about movement. And if you can reinvigorate it with dancing and hula hooping and gardening and hiking and playing, and you could do that safely again. Well, guess what? You just feel so much happier, you know? SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: I want to do a little. Yeah. Yeah. We have a trampoline in the yard. It's a small one, but the kids are out there rebounding all the time. And I'm like, that's the greatest lymphatic drainage they could possibly do. And then I need to get out there and do some Kegels. Jumping on that trampoline, you know? Yeah. Coach Tyler: Yeah. ⁓ yeah, this is fantastic. Yeah. ⁓ I love that, yeah. Yeah, bring it in the living room. If it's in the way, you'll do it every day, right? SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah, literally we moved it. It's like right you walk out the backyard and that's right there and there's there just bouncing up and down and it's great. They get their wiggles out and all that. Yeah, I mean, I think that's so important. And ⁓ other thing real quick, I was going to say that I've learned recently and I don't know if you know anything on this, but the way that you hold your tongue in your mouth and everything to Coach Tyler: Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: has a lot to do with the neck, the shoulders, and you're breathing all of that. So I'm learning a lot about facial movement, you know, and like working out the jaw hinge and just all that kind of stuff. And that's been an interesting, yeah, there's like a couple of gals on Instagram. They're like, if you don't want to look old and saggy. And I'm like, well, how about if I just want to like breathe better and like, you know. Coach Tyler: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Breathe better. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's funny as you know, we had so many connections and resources when our kids were little that just did everything under the sun. And admittedly, I think we went a little overboard and tarnished connection with more of the holistic health world. So we had to back off and, you know, like figure out the right blend of things. ⁓ you my daughter has asthma and a huge part of asthmatics is airways and a lot of issues come from that. So we did a lot of airway. training with various practitioners that did mouth work and stuff. yeah, that natural resting place of the tongue towards the roof of the mouth, relaxes the neck, opens up the throat and allows you to have deeper inhalation. So yeah, I'm also a big fan of breath work and all this stuff too. So yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: have. same here. We have a little guy that's got some asthma stuff and we have another that is kind of mouth breathing. So we're working a lot on all of that for tea structure and everything. And yeah, it's incredible. There's so many natural options to really heal the body that way and open and kind of ⁓ themselves up again for a lifetime of great living rather than focusing on symptomology, focus on like the whole body system. There's so much to that. Coach Tyler: Yeah. Mmm, yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: and the body remembers, so as we get older. So how can people... Coach Tyler: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then the hardest part is to teach those little kids to do it out of self love, you know, because it's like so many of these great athletes just got pushed into it and then like, you know, go, go, go, go, go. And then they're just like, who am I? You know, when they like, when they come out of their careers. And so I think it's so important that probably the most important thing is we model it, you know, we model self care and just make sure they know that this is, this is what we believe that we take care of our bodies. Right. So, yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah. Yeah. Totally, because we always say the body that rests rests. And the other thing my dad's been saying to me a lot, which is such a good reminder, is kiss. Keep it stupid simple, which is great too. If you can incorporate it like you're saying in the way, it becomes much more attainable. ⁓ So how can people find out about your online programs and your coaching programs? Where's the best place for them to go? Because you're definitely all over the internet. Coach Tyler: Mmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yes. thank you. Yeah. mean, ⁓ social media, ⁓ you type in WeShape, you'll see a lot of our movement information on our WeShape platforms. We've got, I think, seven million followers now across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. ⁓ then we have a podcast as well. That one hasn't hit as hard organically as the movement stuff, but we still do it because ⁓ mindset tools are so important, especially for the members at WeShape and they love the show. So me and ⁓ colleague, Dr. Lisa, who's a physical therapist and well versed in all of the psychological tools that we use as well. talk about what it's like to feel lighter on that podcast as well, because it's not about being lighter. We've seen so many people be lighter and not happier. But if we can just let go of some of the self-imposed pressures, right? Again, ⁓ this concept that like we're broken, so we got to do this. Well, actually, we were never broken in the first place. We just got to forget all the things that make us feel that way. And all of sudden, we can feel good again. So that's what we talk about on the podcast. And you you can go check us out on WeShape. I made a special code for your listeners too. WeShape.com forward slash Sky Talk Doc, Sky Talk Doc. And you go there, it'll take you through our client intake survey. So, and then you can try out WeShape for free for two weeks. And yeah, give it a shot if you want to and no pressure if not. Yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Okay, here we go. a great offer. Well, thank you so much. I'm the opposite. I started the podcast eight years ago. So the podcast is my core. And then I just started YouTube like two months ago. So I'm so late on the draw on that. I mean, Instagram, I've gotten all that. But yeah, just catching up to those things. just really love the podcast format because I feel like it allows for so much sharing of information. It's so hard to do it in the 15 seconds on the socials. ⁓ Coach Tyler: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know. It's hard because I participate in that because I feel like ⁓ we are providing a lot of value to people and you have to. we get a lot of people say don't read your comments, but if you look at our comments, they're like overwhelmingly positive just because we're like, hey, if this hurts, like do it this way. And they're like, wow, you know, and people feel good. So I always joke with people that we use movement as a Trojan horse for self love. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: You have to. Yeah. ⁓ A hood. Coach Tyler: Right, so it's like somebody comes in, they got a shoulder issue, they do a few things, they start to feel better, and they're like, I wonder more about this wee shape, and then two years later, they're at one of our retreats, and we're all in a circle, crying together and holding each other, and so, yeah. SkyTalkDoc- Dr. Michaela: Yeah! I love that. ⁓ I'm gonna have to find I'm gonna have to find you on Instagram. That's great. I'll ⁓ I'll go look for you. But I love everything that you've shared. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. And listeners definitely check him out. You can find him coach Tyler. shape pretty much anywhere you search in Google or whatnot, it'll come up for you. And he does have that incredible offer for sky talk talk listeners. So make sure you check that out. Coach Tyler: Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for having me on the show.