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You Exercise. But Are You Getting Stronger? · Making Muscle Memories

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: So you're exercising, but are you getting stronger?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, are you doing enough?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in this episode, I'm going to dive into these questions by explaining why it's so important for us to clearly define our goals in our training, to be able to observe our exercise program, and as well as when and how we can adjust our exercise based on our body's current needs.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: After 40 years of work in the fitness industry, I have learned that real strength isn't just built through exercise, but through experience.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: I will share with you some of the science as well as the stories that have shaped my work.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: We are all building muscle memories.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: One rep, one story, and one day at a time.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Making Muscle Memories Podcast.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Lauren Irk and I will be your host.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: In today's episode, I'm going to talk about a question that you might have asked yourself at one time or another.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Does my workout count and was it enough?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: So for myself, I will just sort of put myself on display here.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: I have throughout my life suffered from this question a lot, feeling like I didn't do enough, feeling frustrated that maybe I could have put forth more effort or that I didn't exercise enough days.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: I look at how busy my life gets, and then I get mad that I wasn't able to fit certain things in that I wanted to.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think for a lot of people, when they're younger, they have a lot more time to exercise than they do as they get older, especially if you're someone that's running a household, running a business, maybe you're an entrepreneur, something like that.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Finding the time to exercise and being able to do enough when you do have the time, that is a continual problem.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now I am a gym owner.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: I own a fitness center in Louisville, Kentucky called the Fitness Integrated Science.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And many of our clients will rush in to try to get this workout in the middle of their day.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we have this allowance, they can choose how long they want to work out.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And many times they want to, they want to pay for an hour.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: If they're going to drive in, they want to come in and they want to finish in the hour and they want to know that they have done something.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I also own an online business, FIS On Demand, where I work with people virtually.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And many people do both.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: But what's really interesting is that on my on-demand program, when they're at home, they're not having to drive somewhere.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Many times they choose the shorter workouts, they choose the 15-minute workouts, and they tell me that these were things that they felt could fit into their schedule, and it made them feel like they can accomplish something.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So the idea is how do we know that our workout was enough?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: I want to start by saying that I've always been an over-exerciser.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've always suffered from this.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've always sort of asked myself whether or not what I did was truly enough for the goals that I set forth in my body.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: But when I talk to other people, I've learned so many things over the years.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: I just had a conversation recently with a woman who I talked to.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, it was an online appointment we were discussing, we're doing an online coaching program, and she told me that she was really frustrated because her goal was to look a certain way.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: She was in her 50s, but in her mind, she wanted to be chiseled.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: She wanted to see the shoulder definition.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: She wanted to see the muscle bellies.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And she was actually working really hard for that to happen.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so, although at my stage of the game, I'm not really as interested in working with weight loss people, but I have in my life worked with people that were trying to compete on a stage or trying to get a specific size for some event or whatever.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And this type of training is very different than somebody that would say to me, I just want joint longevity.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be able to exercise for the rest of my life.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Those two people's trainings are going to be very, very different.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that we have to sort of frame this around what is it that we're trying to do with our exercise program?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Are we trying to be able to get up and down off the ground or climb stairs or get out of the chair, preserve our joints, get out of pain?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: These are all goals that we must define when we start an exercise program.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: But then when we clearly define our program, the idea of what is enough always seems to come about.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So for instance, I get questions like, you know, was this 15-minute workout enough?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I always say to myself, well, is it really about the time?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because I could do 15 minutes and just be doing nothing, just going through the motions, following a video or sitting there in class or just strolling down the street.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, I clock 15 minutes, but what amount of effort did I put in?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing is I'm lifting this much weight.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Is this enough weight for me?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's so many questions that come into play with that.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, can I control the weight?
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: How many repetitions did I do?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Were the repetitions under control?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Did I feel a certain level of fatigue?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing is the idea that, you know, I have a specific goal like gaining bone density, and my doctor said walking was enough.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Is that enough to build bone everywhere?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Is it consistent?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when your body adapts to that?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And what about all the positions that you're not training?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, what about fatigue?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people will say, I'm I'm I've I've worked out enough when I'm sweaty or when I've got my heart rate up, or maybe it was about, you know, when I feel like I've depleted my body.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to take a moment and just sort of ask yourself, what constitutes enough for you?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: That word enough means so much.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I feel like in our culture, we really beat ourselves up when it comes to exercise.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And enough is always different for some people.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Some people feel like enough is when I've, you know, gotten myself moving just a little bit and I feel a little bit better and I've cleared my head.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And for other people, I have to just beat my body into submission, and that is enough.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I need I need to be able to, you know, be on the couch and exhaust it.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, it is simply not enough.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when we think about, I want to talk about what constitutes a good workout.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think this is a really important question to ask.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: What constitutes a good workout?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say that my goal for a workout, I is that you know, in my platform, I always hear about why people pick a certain workout inside of our video library, right?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I have seen a theme where people always say, I always go to 213.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: 213 was the best workout for me because that was hips and knees.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And every time I do that, my problem goes away.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or some people pick it because, you know, I really like your introduction, I loved your warm-up, or I felt like the routine was significant, whatever it was.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing I always ask was, what was the goal when you picked that certain thing?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say that the goal was I want to pick a routine because my back hurts.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's say that I pick a routine or I do a routine or I do a sequence of exercises, maybe it was something that was given to you by a physical therapist.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: If that workout solved my problem in terms of getting rid of my pain, then I would say that's a good workout because I solved my problem.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if you fit, if you started the routine, you went through a specific series of exercises from maybe isometrics into body weight training, and by the end your pain, your joint, felt like it was targeted, you felt better, or maybe you felt stronger in that area, I'm gonna say that was that was a good workout.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: What if my workout was a certain type of resistance challenge, right?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see if I could lift a specific amount of weight.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, how does that workout say that it was a good workout?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: How do I gauge that?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one thing that I'm gonna say whenever it comes to resistance is was it appropriate?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So if I'm doing a resistance and I've just had it in my head that I have got to lift this certain amount of weight, if I couldn't control it the whole time, if my range of motion was all over the place, if I had to move the weight really fast to be able to lift it to overcome the inertia or the weight's desire to sit still at the detriment of my joint, I'm gonna say that that was not gonna be a good workout.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: But what if the weight left me feeling that I did maybe my goal was hypertrophy?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to strength train.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well then I would say that the weight needs to be appropriate so that after 8 to 12, some people might say more, 15 or more reps, I was able to specifically fatigue myself.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe my goal was endurance.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I wanted that weight, maybe the weight was on a bike, the resistance from a bike.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: If that that bike allowed me to go through a specific amount of mileage under a specific amount of time, that might that might constitute a good workout.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that was power.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe by one to two reps I was able to, the reps weren't as important as me being able to hoist the weight over a specific amount of time without hurting myself.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the resistance question is very important when we start thinking about whether or not a workout was important enough.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, I'm gonna say that lifestyle is also gonna be appropriate.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Was the workout good for me?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Does it fit into my lifestyle?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've ever been talked into an exercise program or an activity because one of your friends did it and they really like the people and they really liked being outside, or they really liked being in the water, or they really like the environment, or they really like the time of day, or they really like the instructor.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: If that workout really fits in with your lifestyle, like you know, the this workout's appropriate for me because it fits into my morning routine.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: They have a class that's open at 6 o'clock, it really works with my time availabilities.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: I like getting up at that time, I like the location, that workout's appropriate for me.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: That stuff matters.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: If the workout, like for instance, if I've put this out there many times, if somebody says to me, Lauren, we're gonna get up and we're gonna go outside and we're gonna hike at 6 a.m., I'm not gonna show up.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna get up and exercise at 6 a.m.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: That is not me.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: I am not a morning person.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: I like to exercise in the afternoon or evenings.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: I am a total night owl.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: I might come meet you at midnight, I swear to God I would, but I'm not gonna come to you at 6 o'clock in the morning.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't fit into my lifestyle.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that may be the very thing that makes a workout doable.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you find a workout that doesn't fit in with your lifestyle requirements, that is not something that you are going to keep.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, the execution of the workout.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Execution is really, really important.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Execution comes from control.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: A workout is good if I could actually do it, if I can control.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: For the life of me, if I don't understand why we're still in our culture.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: I guess when you're younger, it makes sense.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like when we're younger, it's like this is my body, and I'm gonna see what it can do, and I'm gonna run all these experiments on it.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me if you if this is you.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: As you've gotten older, those are not interesting to you anymore.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's not for me.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know that I can execute the workout properly.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: I want to feel like I'm not an idiot from the beginning to the end.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: I want to feel like whatever activity that was being asked of me was doable.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really not interested right now, at this point in my life, in doing a tough mutter thing.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's just not really what I'm into.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: If that's something that I had trained over a long period of time and I got myself that was my goal and I wanted to do that, that would make sense to me.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I am not gonna take part in an activity where I can't execute the emotions that are required in that activity with proper control because I'm really interested in joint longevity.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really, really interested in that.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know that I'm not gonna get hurt in an exercise program.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So execution is really important.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Did the trainer that you had, were they giving you exercises that you felt like they had to keep their hands on you the whole time to guide the exercise because it was so inappropriate?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or were you able to execute that exercise really well yourself?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, granted, we want to be able to maybe change our sort of intensities over time as our body allows for that, but we don't want to go through something where we can't perform the exercises.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're just way outside of our body's structural capabilities or mechanical, even mechanical capabilities at that time.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the last reason is recovery.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Something that's appropriate for you is something that you're gonna be able to recover from, right?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you finish an exercise routine and it took you a week to get over it, that was probably inappropriate.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: I can remember the first time that I thought I wanted to extra, I wanted to do a marathon.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And when I did this marathon, I really didn't, and I'm sorry, it's a half marathon.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Those of you runners out there, this was probably nothing to a runner, but for me, I was not a runner.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought that the exercises that I had been doing at the time were enough to be able to get through 13 miles.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember after the workout, I had to literally take off work for an entire week because I wasn't able to recover properly.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: That to me was not an appropriate routine, right?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that I always think of whether or not something is appropriate as Goldilocks.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: If something is not enough, then we don't really notice any reasonable change.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Our body didn't feel any sort of challenge whatsoever.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: If something is too much, then the challenge may be overriding our current ability.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we again have to take off of our life for a period of time just to be able to exercise the next day.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: So something that's appropriate is going to be something that's gonna be repeatable, repeatable.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so let's talk about another point.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: How do you tell that you're getting stronger?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think, I think in our in our day and age, we're having so much information come out now about muscle, the importance of muscle, and the importance of muscle when it comes to longevity.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: So how do we know that we're getting stronger?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, number one, right off the bat, you're gonna notice that you're gonna be able to lift heavier.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna notice that you can lift heavier weights and it doesn't bother you, right?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: So lifting heavier is important.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, you're gonna notice that you can do more things, like you can repeat a task over and over more times without getting tired.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: That being said, you may notice that when you're, you know, before, when you run up the stairs in your house, you get winded and huh, your knees hurt.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: But after a period of time when you've been exercising appropriately, you can run up those stairs and nothing bothers you.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: You don't feel any joint pain.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's an appropriate workout.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's also some really important things that I want you to notice when you're getting stronger.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: You feel more confident.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're not having to ask for assistance to lift things.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: You are feeling more confident in your daily life that you can manage the things that are accessible to you.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you need to walk out of the store and get to your car and you have to walk all the way across the parking lot, it's not a big deal for you.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: You're not spending hours circling the parking lot to make sure that you get that upfront closed parking lot at the front of the store so that you can get in and get out quickly.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: When someone asks you if you need to put your luggage in the overhead bins, you're like, no, I got it.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you can pick up things easily without having to worry about throwing out your back.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing is that you're not having to adjust yourself so much when you're doing a specific activity.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you know that when you're walking around a corner, you have to sort of stop, turn, and then literally point your body in that direction before you turn, because if you don't, you're gonna hurt your knee.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden you go whoop and you just go around the corner.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're you need to stop yourself and say, hmm, I'm actually getting a little bit better, right?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm actually feeling like I'm actually able to turn the corner and I didn't have to think about it.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, our skill improves.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know that you're getting stronger when things that you do during daily life, whether that's walking upstairs, getting up and out of a chair easily, maybe it's in your exercise class themselves, you're having to have less cues, you're having to have less warming up, and you're able to execute that that particular movement much, much better with more control.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Remember when you ever first start doing something?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: I can think about driving a car for the first time.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, oh my gosh, I have to turn my turn signal on, and how am I gonna you you overcorrect the steering wheel and you break too hard and you don't really know how to stop at a stoplight, or you're not really sure how to merge.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: But over time, doesn't that skill improve?
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a couple of things that happen, right?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: We've repeated a motor skill.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: We've done it repeatedly, we've allowed ourselves to make mistakes, and we've made those little fine adjustments.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, over time that will improve.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And when that does, it is a signal that your muscles are getting stronger.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And let me just say this: stronger does not always mean bigger, it doesn't always mean more defined.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the strength that you're getting is so inside of you, in your core, deep in your core, that you don't even see it in the mirror, right?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: But it's absolutely happening.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the strength that you need in actuality are things that you're not gonna be able to see.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you get to be a certain age, your ability to really put on a lot of bulk is gonna change.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Your muscle appearance is going to change, but I want you to start gauging your strength more on your abilities and less on how you look in the mirror, although that will improve, right?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're also gonna notice that your clothes are gonna feel different, and you may even notice the numbers on the scale change because muscle weighs two and a half times more than fat.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what about repeating a workout?
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is that good, right?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people get stuck in the same thing over and over and over.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna I'm gonna give you pros and cons about that.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: The pro.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: When is it when is it good to repeat a workout?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, the first time that you ever do anything, you are really just trying to take in a lot of information.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And this is one of the things that I love about having online uh content that I can give my clients.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Even when I'm doing a muscle activation technique session on somebody, when they jump off my table, I may not see them again for two or three weeks, maybe even a month.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And what if they live out of town or what if they work and travel, whatever?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: I want them to have content that they can put in their television, their phone, their computer, and they can repeat this.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing that I always say to them, before you ever start to move, I want you to sit and I want you to watch this video or watch as much of it as you can so that you can see me talk through it.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: Your brain can see it, he can hear it, and you can and you can actually imagine how your body is going to do it.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I always tell people, do that first because that is giving your body that opening of how to execute a specific motor pattern.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: The second step is to do it, right?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: To do it.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Doing it, the act of doing it, seeing it, doing it, and hearing it, that's really important because what happens is your body is starting to learn, oh, I've got a joint limitation on my left side, I don't on my right.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Or I've got more strength over here, I've got less strength over here.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or I didn't realize my shoulder abduction on one side is very different than the shoulder abduction on the other side, and I may have to allow for some just some different things way down in my core.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: So your body is sort of figuring out these motor patterns when you start an exercise routine.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Then also you have to repeat it because the repeatability gives you that day-in, day out adjustment of how your body feels given how you do it in the morning, how you do it in the afternoon, how you do it in the evening, how you do it in January versus February.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Repeatability is very important.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: We want to not only build muscle, we also want to build the brain.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: We want to build the motor patterns in the brain, our prefrontal cortex, of how we're going to execute this from a mechanical perspective, given all the different things that are going on in our body at a time.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: However, there may be times that we need to make an adjustment.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we can all get stuck into repeating something.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like I always go back to the walkers and the pickleball players because they love doing it because they get good at it.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, I've done my exercise for the day.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that comfort from an exercise thing is good, but that may not constitute a good workout.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: If your body has sort of adjusted and you know you've never done anything different for a really long time, you reach this stage of homeostasis.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm and I'm gonna tell you, there's something to be said for that.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Being able to keep an exercise program and do it regularly will keep you from getting worse, and that's better than you sitting still and not doing anything.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: So bravo if you've been doing something consistently.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: But how do you make your body actually change?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have to add certain variables, right?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't have to be huge, it can be one little thing at a time.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: I once did this thing in my in my studio, this or actually, I'm sorry, I was in a studio, I was working for a gym, and I thought to myself, I'm gonna do these same 12 exercises with every client for a year.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I did that, and I would change these little tiny things with each workout or class that I taught.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I never once had anyone say they were bored.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you know why?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's all kinds of ways to make an exercise feel different so that your body can continuously adapt.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, I can change the exercise tool.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you're always working with dumbbells, work with bands, work with body weight, work with a machine versus a free weight.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, I can exercise, I can change the order of an exercise.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you always start with one thing and you finish with something else and you have the same sequence, flipping that around can make something different.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: I can always I can also change the amount of hold time that I can do in that exercise.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe instead of just, you know, trying to just make this exercise a moving thing, I might want to hold something, like hold a squat versus moving through a squat or hold a squat while you're doing a bicep curl, for instance, instead of just starting a bicep curl.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: I can always I can also change my relationship to the resistance.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm always doing an exercise like a lateral raise in standing with dumbbells, I'm always going to feel the most resistance at the top and the least resistance at the bottom.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: What if you do it laying on your side?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now I have the most resistance.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: At the bottom and the least amount of resistance at the top.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I had a teacher once say that that was called a strategic variation, right?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: So your body is strategically varying the forces across the joint.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: Also, noticing if I've memorized something, if you've memorized something and you've been doing it over and over and over, it's time to change it.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Your brain, that reorganization is really important in terms of you being able to think about how you're doing an exercise.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Changing your range of motion.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you're able to, because of the weight that you've chosen, you cannot go through your full range of motion because it's too heavy.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Try lowering the weight someday so that you can experience a different range of motion, right?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: I always say to my clients, lifting weight is really important.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Lifting heavy is important, but if you have never experienced this range of motion up here, then that may be something to consider.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And people really notice this on my platform because I always start, I try to start people with isometrics.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Isometrics really teaches them how to engage their muscles at various points of their available range.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: This gives us such great information about how I could actually execute body weight training, learning how to control something.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've never practiced bodyweight training, if you've just picked up the weight from day one, I highly encourage you to explore how your body moves without load versus with load.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: You will find there's definite changes that need to be made when you notice how your body actually moves.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the weight keeps us contained and doesn't allow us to move through our available range because of the fact that the weight itself is having to be managed through our body, which changes our center of mass.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one thing I want to say, if we're gonna make a change, this is really important if you heard nothing by this episode.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna make a change because you're worried if this workout is enough, make one change at a time.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: In group fitness, we used to call this milking.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: One change may change your workouts for six weeks, six months, even a year.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the first time somebody told me to straighten my knee and engage my quad in a yoga pose.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: That just freaking blew my mind.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: That whole next year I did nothing but try to straighten my knee, and that was my one thing that I changed.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you, my whole practice really, really, really did change.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in this episode, we have talked about this word enough.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Was the workout enough?
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Enough means so different things, such different things for different people and at different points of their life.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to ask yourself, if you've been listening to this episode, what is enough for you?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is enough being able to stay where I am and not get worse?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Is enough being able to do an exercise routine where I'm no longer in pain?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Is enough just to move every day a little bit and get my heart rate up for a few minutes and that's enough?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or is enough you trying to compete in some specific sport or having some specific goal?
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: That goal really, really, really needs to be defined.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: From there, we want to make sure that we're repeating an exercise enough to allow for adaptation.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: And during that repetition, we have to be observant.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: I want everybody listening to this episode to start taking little notes every so often.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can do it right on your phone.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: What happened in that workout?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: What was the thing that changed?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: What was something that you notice about your body that was different, that was new, that made a difference in how you're exercising?
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I have done lap pull downs since I was 16, and I've never learned, never felt a lap pull down different.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: How I lean back, whether I use a bar, whether I'm using dumbbells, whether I'm using bands, how I was, was I sitting, was I standing, how fast did I go?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Did I emphasize on the shoulder elevation depression?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Did I hold at the bottom?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Did I hold at the top?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Did I do them asymmetrically?
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Did I do them fast?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Did I do them slow?
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many different ways.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: What did you learn by your workout?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And lastly, once I've noticed from the repeatability of the exercise what I was doing, what do I need to alter?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: What do I need to alter based upon my goal?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, sometimes our goals can change, and that might be the very reason that our exercise routine must change.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when I was younger and I had good knees, my goals were very different than they are now that I've had both my knees have been operated on with meniscal tears, one of which has a lot of arthritis in it.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: So my goals are very different.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want to keep my knees for the rest of my life.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to have any surgery.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to have a knee replacement.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: I am not going to have a knee replacement.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to keep doing this for the rest of my life.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to always be willing to test our bodies and observe.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get away from thinking that we have this big goal every time that we exercise, and if we didn't meet it, that our our our exercise routine sucked.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have days that you're going to get through your exercise routine, you're going to feel, woo-hoo, I am Rocky Balboa, and that did great, and that was fun, and this was awesome, and that was like the best workout ever.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if you base every single workout on that, you are going to be sorely disappointed, and I'm going to run into you on the street and you're going to be telling me that you quit exercising a long time ago.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Allow yourself to have days that aren't so good.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Allow yourself to have routines where you really didn't feel like you got it, like your body felt rusty and you just didn't really accomplish what you wanted to accomplish.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what's important.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Keep doing it.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Stay consistent.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Don't stop moving.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you're injured, don't stop moving.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in pain, don't stop moving.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you're getting older, don't stop moving.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you've gained weight, don't stop moving.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been sick, don't stop moving.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what you got to do.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: You got to adjust.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know how to adjust, find someone to help you to adjust.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you keep adjusting to your body's needs at a current at your current state of life, but you never stop, you're going to live longer, you're going to be happier, you're going to have less pain, you're going to stay out of the doctor's office a lot more than somebody who just gives up the first time their body changes.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that this episode resonated with somebody.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like this is a very important conversation to have, not only with ourselves, but with the people that we care about.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if somebody that you know could be helped from some of the things that I said, please forward this their way.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's the reason that I put this content out there.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you're watching this on YouTube, I would love for you to share in the comments about something that you struggle with, because I guarantee you that somebody else does as well.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you would like more information about how to exercise in a way that doesn't beat up your joints, I do have a seven-day free trial on my platform, FIS On Demand.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Click the link below and you can get started on that.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're in Louisville, Kentucky, and you like to come by the gym, Fitness Integrated Science, we offer muscle activation techniques as well as rehabilitation and personal training.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you on the next episode.