Latest / FitMitTuro Fitness Podcast / Rebuilding Strength and Self-Trust After Injury with Rachel Robertson

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Rebuilding Strength and Self-Trust After Injury with Rachel Robertson · FitMitTuro Fitness Podcast

• 1:09
  Alright, welcome to fit me for fitness podcast. Today's episode, I have amazing guest, Rachel Robinson. So before diving into today's topics, what we will cover? Rachel, first of all, thank you so much for coming to my show. It's early morning for you, and really, really appreciate it. So would you mind shortly tell who you are, what you are doing, a little bit your background.
• 1:38
  Yeah. So thank you for having me. I am currently a kinesiologist, and I am certified in Pilates, and I use Pilates as my exercise modality to work with the majority of my clients. The majority of my clients tend to be coming in for an injury, and I'm helping them rehab. It's not the only form of exercise I use. I do strength training with my clients as well, and then I, in the past, was a figure skater growing up, and I currently compete in what's called kettlebell sport, which is kind of a niche sport, um. And so my practice is really kind of evolved from past experiences, whether it's like my own weight loss journey, whether it's my training experience my injuries. I was in a very significant car accident in my early 20s, which really impacted how I went about exercise. And all of that kind of came together and has helped me kind of create the way I work with clients.
• 2:51
  Mm, hmm, little bit I'm curious to know about the kettle spell, Bell sports. So you just recently you were in, you had a championships, right? Or we had our Canadian nationals, yeah, it went really well in this phase of my life. I am not as competitive in the sense that I'm not trying to make Team Canada and then go to Worlds and win that was a previous very much ambition. I did compete at two worlds and won two world metal gold medals in Korea. But I've got two young kids, and they're five and two, and they come with us to all our kettlebell competition. So kettlebell sport is a like Olympic weightlifting. We have the clean and jerk, we have snatch, we have just jerks, but you'll use one or two kettlebells. The time periods are typically 510, 30 minutes or 60 minutes, and you're repeating the exercise over and over again within that time period, and you can't put it down. Oh, wow. So typically, if it's a one handed exercise like a snatch, you get a one hand switch. I typically compete in 10 minutes. Those are that's the common time frame.
• 4:16
  Now, marathons and half marathons are becoming really popular, but so I got one hand switch. I can't put it down.
• 4:22
  It's as many reps as I can within the 10 minutes. But there's a judge, and the judge is making sure that you do quality reps and that you're meeting like fixation and stuff, yeah, so just at Canadian nationals, it came with a first in 20 kilogram Snatch and a second in 16 kilogram long cycle, and it was double long cycle. So 216, kilograms in my hands, wow.
• 4:52
  And how long? I'm curious, you know how, how many repetitions you are able to make in 10 minutes, like so I, honestly, I think I did like 154 with my snatch, it depends on the bell. Like as it gets heavier, your reps definitely go down. And women, typically the amateur weight is 16 kilograms, and then the professional weight is 24 so I'm right in between. When I competed at Worlds, it was with the 16 and with the long cycle, it tends to vary how I do this competition. I only did about 65 but it can range up until like, the hundreds. Wow, yeah, but is there? Is there?
• 5:44
  Like, are you the weight class?
• 5:48
  There's, is there some class for your body weight? Or is it for everybody the same weight, what you are using? It says that lift different levels? Or, yeah, so very much like weight lifting. Again, we do have body weight classes. And then I think once you get into like seven. 75 then it's like, more like an open category, like it's 75 plus, yeah. But below that, then we have our different weight classes, and we've got a few different federations. So it kind of depends on which Federation are you lifting with, where your body weight kind of falls into, yeah, gotcha. Oh, that's so interesting to know. Thank you so much for this is a total new I have. I was so curious to know how things are working and what kind of because I here in Italy, I've never seen or heard about it. So that was it. It's I just saw also some kind of, this type of, like it was in some newspaper, so that big lifts, or they did, like, crazy amount of 1000. That's why, like, if I think that to do 150 snatchies with one hand, who that's well, and Italy just had worlds last year. They hosted last year. Oh, okay, yeah, no, but it's once you are not in, in that sports, you know, you don't, I'm not totally doing it.
• 7:10
  So that's, that's, if you don't know. So it's but great to know.
• 7:17
  So tell a little bit about your own injury and how the recovery, it shaped your life, and how it helped you to how it helps you to help others, to build that strength and self trust.
• 7:33
  Yeah, so when I was probably about 24 I was stopped at a red light, had a couple passengers in my car, and all of a sudden I got rear ended by a drunk driver who was driving like over 100 kilometers into the back of my car. And so I flung forward, flung back. Actually, I broke my seat. The impact sent me back forward, and I hit the steering wheel, and then, man, it managed to land on the headrest. So but the crazy part was, I turned around to ask everybody in my car if they were okay, and the car continued to hit me three or four times because, again, the driver was drunk, so they just kept trying to go forward, and then eventually they drove around the car and drove away.
• 8:31
  And the police did end up catching the individual, but first, it's kind of like the shock of an accident, whether it be a car accident or something else recognizing that you might not absorb everything like and so I see this in my patients as well. So when I got out of the car, it was kind of like, what should I do in this moment? Oh, I should call insurance. I should it was not my vehicle. It was my parents vehicle. So I was like, I should call my parents, um, but I was walking around limping, and people were actually saying to me, are you sure you're okay? But the shock, I didn't feel anything. I was aware that I wasn't walking properly. The next morning, the amount of pain I was in that, like, my body was finally, like, now, tightening up and everything. The other piece of it was being so young, and I was really flexible. I went to physiotherapy, like, right away.
• 9:42
  But because of my flexibility, I actually got passed on mobility tests, and they were like, Oh, your range of motion is good.
• 9:51
  And they released me before I was ready to recover. And so I was experiencing a lot of pain, and coming from a figure skating background, I had more of a tendency to do lots of stretching and running, but it wasn't really strength training, and at one point, like the insurance company said, you're not getting better, let's get you into strength training. And that was key to my recovery, and this actually is partially what led me into kettlebell sport. My husband was in the car at the time, and he was big into strength training, but I would kind of like avoid it. So when they said that I needed to do strength training, I started with him. But part of my realization was it wasn't about being heavy weights, specifically with neck and shoulders. So lower body, I was fine to kind of go your typical rep range, but when it came to upper body, one in the beginning, I had a disconnection, like i i.
• 11:06
  Mentally. Couldn't figure out how to bicep curl. I had to retrain some motor patterns. And so what I've learned, and I've tested this out on lots of my clients, was actually for neck and shoulders, keeping the weights really, really low, but increasing the volume. So like, if they're starting with a two pound weight, and typically I do shoulder exercises when I would start with like five to eight reps, and then over like two to three weeks, increase it to 10 to 12, and then 12 to 15, aiming for 20 reps, and the muscular endurance that it built around the shoulders, started to alleviate the neck, which was really interesting, and then, like it also adapted my Pilates repertoire. I was already teaching Pilates at the time, but Pilates can be very much about flexion, and I had to really hone in on how up reflection occurred, and then also giving myself permission not to do it exactly the right way. So it's led me not only to how I work with my clients differently by, like, modifying their exercises, I jokingly say to them, I'm the queen of modifications, because I'm always willing to find a way.
• 12:31
  And this has really helped me find ways that help them correctly, hold their posture, but then build up their exercise. But it's led me to design a clinical Pilates workshop, and so I train other kinesiologists or physiotherapists massage therapists when they're doing exercise prescription, not only on the foundational Pilates, but also how can they modify it so that their clients can progress to the full exercise over time, because sometimes we get in our head, this is the exercise. I have to do it that way. But who says that we have to do it that way? So if we're given permission to break it down and use progressions to build up to it, the client not only gains confidence in themselves, they also just start to feel stronger, and they're like, oh, look, I only could do this, and now I'm over here and I can do this and and so it's really giving them that permission to feel safe. Because if there's anything I see with clients, when they come in with an injury, they don't feel safe in their body, but if, especially if it's insurance work, they don't necessarily trust you. So you've gotta develop the trust with the client, but also teach them that they're safe within the body. And if we can break it down and have them move without pain, and make them feel more confident and stronger, then they're more willing to open up progress their exercises and really see the changes within their body. So that's how it's kind of shaped. My Yeah, and that is, that is the moment when that magic, like you said, magic, starts to happen. When you start to build, you build that self trust and and you start to actually do those things. What you are obviously in that moment able to do that is basically going outside kind of from your comfort zone, yes, yeah, yeah. And part of it, they're not aware of, like, you have to kind of meet your client, where they are right.
• 14:54
  Like, that is the biggest thing.
• 14:54
  If there was something I may have done in earlier in my career, was like, well, you should be able to do this and but I wasn't meeting my client where they were, and so I've evolved and being like, okay, what are they capable of? What do they want? What are they willing to do, assessing all these different components and then bringing it together and being like, Okay, this is where they truly are at. They're unaware of it, but they they think, let's say they think they can deadlift 10 pounds, but if you build them up correctly, and then you're like, Look, you just dead lifted 50 pounds. They're like, what? Because they were so scared because their back hurt, bending over when they typically do stuff around the house hurt, and so a huge component of it is education and explaining to a client why you're doing it, but making it relatable. Right?
• 16:04
  Like, I do a lot of prenatal postnatal as well, and also teach other kinesiologists about prenatal and postnatal and how to guide their clients through that exercise experience. And that's based on my own experience. I did a lot of research, and then I kind of was like, this works. This didn't work. I've taken all these courses, and some of the hugest components is, oh, you have to pick up your child, but your back is hurt. Let because that's relatable to those women, right?
• 16:38
  Like, let me show you how to hold your child. Let me show you how to bend over and pick them up. Oh, now we can do this exercise if you have your kid, but we can also do this exercise if you don't have your kid, and then, and then, they're like, motivated. They're like, okay, okay, right, especially when it ties into their life, they they're motivated to make that change. Yeah, no, because that is, that is, it's so well said, like you said that usually, like, for like, a normal, everyday people, it's not that motivation is not to get the 120 repetitions with one arm, get to bel snatch or dead lift 100 kilos or pounds or whatever the goal is. It's it's more like and what I find also so much more valuable that you are able to do in a real life things that you haven't been able to do before. And that, of course, that happens through strength training and training.
• 17:47
  But if you have like things like what I recently thought with my clients, that they were able to put their luggage first time on in a plane to right, or you are able to climb three flights of stairs, or you are able to bend your or go drop on your knees.
• 18:09
  Or when you go to here in Italy, when you go to church, you drop on your knees. But of course, like I had several clients that they were never able to do it, and now, when you are able to do it, it's something what you were never able to do before, or open the some like a char, some like glass, what is really tight you are not, and now you are. You were never able to do it. And then now suddenly, all of sudden, you are able to do it.
• 18:38
  And those are like, for me, like the biggest things, what you can accomplish through strength training and resistance training, that you are able to do in real life. What motivates you? If it's picking up from your child, from from four, or whatever it is, but it's all they have connection with that kind of that strength training, yeah, and like, it's funny, you just say that we recently had a client, so initially she had a bad accident rock climbing. The ground actually gave out from her years ago, and she was told that she couldn't squat. And so at first, to do my due diligence, I said, Can you go back to the doctors and ask them why? Because I would really love to be able to teach you to squat. So they, they, they kind of were like, Oh, this was more of a beginning thing. Now, if you want to try it, you can try it. So that gave me permission to go and do the squat. So we've trained up her squat. She now squats a 24 kilogram kettlebell.
• 19:47
  Wow. And she jumped for the first time in a group class, and she literally was like, I just jumped. And other people in the room started crying for her, like, how not only amazing is it to see someone recover like that, but the impact for the people around her, they were so excited, and it's just so beautiful to hear and like watch And when you can guide someone to that point not to be like, to have to my horn, but it definitely is, like, it makes me proud.
• 20:36
  Oh, yeah. And those are, those are, are, I'm pretty sure you have the same opinion as I have.
• 20:40
  Like, those are the best kind of examples. Best like, why, if somebody is asking why you are coaching people, what is your what you get? What gives you like, the biggest impact of something like in return, and it's not like that. Of course, you are happy for all people. If somebody is losing significant amount of weight or looking a little bit leaner. Getting a little bit stronger. But for me, like the biggest thing is always that if somebody is able to do things that in a real life that they were not able to do, if it's Yeah, doesn't matter if it's a climbing first time doing a bigger high climbing for a mountain, jumping, whatever it is, just those things. They are for me, like, they are like, I'm like that. That's it. That's the reason. What is like giving me the biggest thing, like, if you get somebody losing, that presents, let's say you lose from go from 15 to 12. It's a great thing, happy for that, but it doesn't change somebody's life. It doesn't change anything if you if somebody is losing, let's say, 50 pounds, 100 pounds, even more, that is something that has huge impact on their life. Yes, even AND, OR, or things like you just mentioned, like somebody who have been told that are is never able to squat, and then not the only able to squat, but also able to jump, well, and the other piece of it too, um, some people like they, they come in and weight loss is their their goal, but they also are experiencing chronic pain, yeah, the combination of it, oh, yeah, when you lose weight, the pain decreases. If we can learn to control the pain and get stronger, the pain helps you move more, or the decreased pain helps you move more, and then the person is able to lose weight. And so there's that mental aspect of not only, again, we're coming back to educating the client, but building their confidence Absolutely.
• 23:04
  So you talk a lot about the nervous system and movement as a tool for nervous system regulation. What does that look like in practice?
• 23:18
  I would say this is like a newer thing that I've started to incorporate into my practice, partially because I'm becoming aware of it myself. I think the North American lifestyle has got everyone, like, revved up and running at this high pace, insane, over stimulated nervous system kind of point. Um, when a client comes into my session and there's a vibe, like, you can just feel off of them that they're anxious or that they're stressed out, really like mood kind of comes into this I've one kind of been like, Okay, I'll ask questions. Um, kind of try to dig a little deeper without trying to irritate them, because you have to be you have to be considerate of it, right? Maybe they don't want to talk about it, and then you have to think about the person in front of you. So some of my clients, they want to come in and they want to push hard. Is it appropriate for them? And for some of them, it's like, yes, let's do it. I'm going to give you that medicine ball. So and so is pissing you off your boss did this? Just slam that medicine ball. And because when we really get our adrenaline pumping, it can help us de stress. It's just that it allows us. But then there's the opposite, where some clients, they'll actually say to me, Rachel, I don't feel like strength training today. Would you do a Pilates session with me? Because they know it's a lower impact exercise, it's a little more calming, but they're still gonna get a workout, and I'm totally willing to meet them again where they're at but then I've got clients. They're unaware, like that. They're just stressed out. And I might just say to them, okay, lay down on your back, close your eyes. And I actually put them through a little bit of breath work, and I've started to breath has always been a part of Pilates.
• 25:44
  But I'll be honest, when I started, I was 21 and I was just like, I know how to breathe, but now I have a real deep understanding of what breath does for the nervous system, how it calms us, it can help us regulate that I do it to start my session often. Mm. Yeah, it's not the first thing I do. I typically do a warm up, and then I'll do breath with them, but when they're in high pain or high stress, I will start it with them, and they'll be like, Oh, I do feel better. And then they'll be like, Oh, I can concentrate now, or I can just relax, because, especially if their pain is really high, there's so much tension, and so I can get them just to kind of melt into the floor and release some of that tension.
• 26:40
  Yeah, that breathing, breathing, I I'm kind of same than you like, that was never, I never, when I was my background, I was professional ice hockey player.
• 26:50
  Nobody talked about, or there was, like, some breathing techniques, about, like, how when you are lifting weights, or that kind of stuff already, like 2020, years ago. But now, now it's also like when, when I work with my athlete clients, like we, we recently did, like, always, like, that kind of breathing exercises, especially like I was, I'm I'm also, I'm coach for Italian women's national team. We just had a World Championships, which is an event like that. You play five games in a seven days, and you have, it's all about how well you are able to recover, or when you are in training camp, where you practice multiple times per day or every single day, and you should be able to perform at your best. And one of the most helpful advices were also trying to include breathing exercises.
• 27:43
  Obviously, like some younger generation, they are, like, little bit doubting, is it really helpful or not? But then, on the other hand, other, like more experienced athletes, once they have tried us that you don't, I don't, I never ask you to do it the rest of your life.
• 28:02
  Just try it. Try it how you feel. It like and it's not that you're going to feel right away after first time, some magical difference. But if you more often, you practice it then just simply sending those signals to your body, and because it's it's funny, like, tell me like you are more expert, I'm pretty sure. But what does that pre for work do your nervous system, let's say, after a workout or or in that kind of stressful situation, what you might not be work. It could be that stressful situation. Obviously, it could be workout. It could be work related, or any other related.
• 28:39
  So why does that breathing help?
• 28:45
  Well, when we do breath work, we can, and I have a breath work coach so that I'm consistently implementing it. When we do breath work, we can use it to stimulate us, or we can do it to calm us. So part of it, from my understanding, is how we breathe will impact us, right? If we breathe through the mouth, it will stimulate us. But if we also take it from an exercise standpoint, we naturally kick into breathing through our mouth when we're in a higher aerobic state. So when we're like, if I'm in kettlebell, probably minute one to two, I might be able to breathe through my nose and out through my mouth. As the time goes on and as I start to be more under stress, I am going to breathe in through my mouth and out through my mouth, so there's that physiological effect. But why we do breath work? So if I wanted to stimulate myself, I might do it prior to competition, to get myself, like revved up, and I can mentally visualize what I want to do. So there's that aspect, and then there's the opposite, where I want to calm myself down. So again, taking it back to how I said, like I feel like people are really over stimulated, or they're stressed out. We when we do breath work, it connects with our parasympathetic nervous system, and so it allows us to calm down. It's our rest kind of state, and it allows us to not only reflect, it gives us space to reflect, but it can help us just lower our cortisol, relax our muscles, relax some of that tension. And when, like you said, when you practice something, that's actually when you really get the benefits of it, and you start to see it carry over. However, in your day to day life, like, when I teach my clients, they'll be like, Oh, I actually, I was in so much pain yesterday, but I just thought about how you had me do the breathing, and I did that, and I was able to, like, just control the pain and do what I had to do. Or, like, even it relates to dealing with your kids. Your kids are like, driving you nuts. They're just like, chasing around and and so you take a deep breath, you can feel yourself calm down, and then you can deal with this situation. So it it's kind of teaching them. I always say to my clients, I'm trying to teach you tools that you can put in your toolbox and then you pull them out, right? So, especially because the majority of my clients are are pain clients, and then they're trying to learn how to exercise. I'm teaching them breath work, journaling, meditation, so that they have tools to calm their nervous system down, but also feel safe in their body.
• 32:16
  Yeah, but that's, that's exactly those methods, and what is, what is the idea behind like, I know was I lying to my athletes when i i try to, of course, we are also selling people in that mind that, you know, my goal is not, of course, not like selling, selling. My goal is to sell somebody idea, to try it, to actually try it. Because, you know, there is, now, there are so many things what you hear you should be doing. But then in the end you gotta, you will choose like, Okay, this one, I will try. I will give it a shot. Or this one is like, this is not like it sounds. It's not my thing. I'm not going to even try it. And when I try to sell it to my athletes, how to buy they should do brilliant work. Like, obviously, there's like, a during the games, like, or, or I use example as an ice hockey now, but when there is a stressful situation, like in a games or something, that it calms you down, like, even, of course, like, I know maybe ideally, you would do it, like, let's say two to five minutes breathing work. But during the game, of course, you don't have five minutes time to just closing your eyes. But if it's even, if it's for two, three breaths, just for finding a moment for yourself to take a like, really deep breaths and that. Then the other thing is to help in recovery, like what I what I told, I don't know if I was lying for them, but then I told them that, basically that after heart intensity workout or gain, like that, you obviously like you are you're still, your mind is going but and your body is like, even you stop the movement your your body doesn't know if it does it really end here, or is it still keeps going. And it usually it keeps especially if it was an intense workout. It takes like that are drilling to calm it down. And when you actually start that phase of recovery, it might take hours, but if you do that kind of breathing work right after then it's also signed to your body that, okay, now we are done. There is no more stress coming, and you are actually starting to recover, because that was the point behind like, when you have a like my athletes, we had a games on the back to back days, and there might be, like a 16 hours. You have a next game where you have to perform, and there is every single minute, every single hour is so valuable for recovery. And that was the kind of the point, how I try to sell it for my athletes, to get it like So correct me. Was I totally wrong or No, I think that's a great approach. I've never really thought of it like that. But what I was thinking, as you were saying that, is imagine stretching and holding your breath, and then imagine stretching and breathing through it. And if you kind of go to yoga, they always say and breathe as you do. But it's because when you take that breath and you exhale, it actually allows you to relax into the muscle. And again, like I was saying, the breath stimulates our parasympathetic nervous system. That's what's relaxing the muscle. So the fact that you're saying to your athletes, like, it's gonna calm you down, that's correct. And then they could also use it to be like, they can release whatever didn't go their way. So they're like, Oh, I'm frustrated. I missed that shot.
• 35:46
  Well, let that go. We've got another game coming. This is their moment to be like, Okay, I recognize that I I missed that shot, but I'm going to let it go, because I'm going to focus on the next one. So I'm just going to relax, breathe, breathe. It out like my breath.
• 36:05
  Coach always says. Like, your exhale is your release. And I even do that before bed. I just like, I take a couple deep breaths and I say, I release my day so that my mind will stop running, because I'm one of those people that I'm like, what was on my to do list, and I'm like, thinking of all the things. But if I do that and I just like, okay, the day is done. I'm going to go to bed, I'm going to release it, it allows me to settle my brain, which is part of the reason I implement that breath work. And we can do it after a game or whatever that's, that's, that's a great way like, and it's a very valuable tip for somebody who's if you struggle to fell asleep, because, like, I don't think I I'm exactly the same too that if there is too many things, what you are, what is going through with your work, personal life, whatever you have so many thoughts, and then what you should be doing, and you think already what happened before you worry about future and then. But when you do, like couple threats, maybe even bonus point, you are journaling your to do list that it's put you put it away from your thoughts. It's in paper so you know exactly what you should be doing, or if you had a bad day, just writing it down, putting it away, that you don't have to think about it, or whatever future sorrows you have when you put it away. Do a couple of breaths that usually helps immediately to sleep better and fell asleep, yeah, yeah, exactly. And like, if anything, sleep is such a huge component of recovery, right?
• 37:47
  But we can't always sleep, so we have to find ways of rest, and breathing can be your moment of rest, absolutely. Yeah.
• 37:58
  So what I what I was you also talk like about using movement lot of for punishment, and somebody is using it, is it to regulate? So how people can recognize when they are using movement to punish or versus to actually help them or regulate them?
• 38:24
  Um, I have a lot of conversations with my clients, I try to really ask a lot of questions, and I always kind of notice sometimes, like, there's, I have some clients who come in, they're like, come on, Rachel, let's go. Let's go. And you're like, Okay, what's up today? I'm willing to go, but is it just that we got lots of energy and we're ready to go, or are we gonna punish ourselves? But it's also, why are they coming to me?
• 38:58
  And this is where I ask a lot of questions. I think unfortunately, there has been a lot of shoulding on ourselves, in the sense, like, I should exercise, I should eat healthy, I should be this way or that way. And I think it's changing.
• 39:20
  I think, like, for example, for women, a long dialog has been about being thin, and so it was like doing lots of cardio, right to get thin. Now the dialog is changing, and as women, we want to be strong because we see the functional point of it. It allows us to do our job. It allows us to do stuff around our house. It allows us to take care of our children, if we have children, or spend time with our loved ones. And that change of mindset. But that's also where exercise comes in, and having that dialog with the client. Why are you here, and and not only is it? Why are you here? Do you want to be here? And what do you want to do? So that's kind of I'm really lucky. I'm trained in multiple modalities. I can give them Pilates, I can give them strength training. I can run with them. I can spin with them.
• 40:24
  Rarely do I have someone who comes to me and says they want to run. But the point is, they have to find enjoyment in it, to adhere to it, which is part of the question, if you're here to punish yourself, are you going to really enjoy it? Are you really going to reap the benefits of it, versus if you find something you enjoy, like people who come to Pilates, they enjoy it. When they stick with it, they really enjoy it. And then from strength training, I think people when they start.
• 41:06
  See their strength improve. They really enjoy it. The other piece of it is community or connection. If they're connecting with whoever they're working with, they're going to come in and they're going to enjoy it, versus like, just be there to be there. And I think just we have to regularly check in with our clients, because if they're punishing themselves, it could have been something like, I ate the cheesecake last night, but I didn't just eat one slice.
• 41:45
  I ate the whole cake. And having that conversation with that client, like, you know, you don't have to, like, push it on the bike until you puke, and you don't have to double your weights, we can talk about different ways to go at this and like this isn't happening every night, and I think it's just having that communication. And if there's anything I'm learning the longer I'm in, this is educating them.
• 42:23
  Yeah, and I would those are so well said points, what I what I love to always say to be compassionate and be kind of kinder to yourself. Most of us, we are so hard on ourselves, like you said, that you know when that overeating happens, or everything like you said, that those own expectations is that, you know, this is now that new healthy me, and it means that either you have those kind of black and white all in or nothing rules like it's going to be no sugar, no alcohol, no carbs, or Not eating after 7pm whatever rules you are using.
• 43:08
  And then when that happens that you go, kind of you go overboard, and then how you are going to respond. And this is, like the unfortunately exercise is for many, the way, like that.
• 43:22
  Okay, I gotta now work out. I feel killed insane, because I did something, what I shouldn't be doing. But this is, this is, like, the biggest thing, I think, what I, or I, when I talk with the people, I think that how to see themselves do not feel that killed like, obviously, I'm not going to say that you're going to feel proud of yourself the next day, but that you don't need to punish yourself. What you really need to do is that, what everybody, I'm sure, have heard a bit, you have to get just back on track, nothing. Yeah, it's and it would be walk. It could be doing a Pilates session. You don't need to go to run for or sweat out everything, or to not eat anything. And especially with eating, I feel like that, like it happens when it happens to me, and I think what I how I respond. I have every single day my breakfast. I'm not starting to skip my meals, because that I know that if I start to skip my meals, it leads that at some point the same thing will happen again. So I like nothing happened and and keep following your plan, yeah?
• 44:34
  And I think letting go of the all or nothing mindset, yeah, right. Like we have a tendency like, oh, I have this program that my coach laid out. I was so good for two weeks, and all of a sudden I missed a day. Okay, so instead of starting back at the beginning, you can take that day that you missed, maybe you needed that rest day, that's why you missed it, and just start where you were. And the same with nutrition, right? Like it's this all or nothing mindset where it's like, I have to stick to this plan, and now I went over my calories, I gotta start all over. And it's like, you can totally go over your calories and adjust your week as a whole and still hit your targets, right? And it's but that's what coaches are for. Coaches are there to support you, to communicate and so that you don't have to do it alone, so that the modifications can be made to help you get there.
• 45:30
  That's why you hire them in the first place. Yeah, yeah. And what is, what? What are, what are? I'm curious to know what other ways you help to build kind of more intuitive and the balanced relationship with either food or exercise.
• 45:50
  What do I do? Yeah, what? What are your favorites? Um, my favorites. I I love my kettlebell sport training for me. Um. I like the adrenaline rush that endurance gives me so I can relate to all those endurance athletes. I like the kettlebell sport because it also makes me feel strong. Pilates, for me, it compliments my work, but it also maintains my flexibility. But on a day to day, I really try to watch my like water intake. I really notice I'm someone who's a little prone to migraines, and so I really watch my water intake. I try to create some space for myself to journal and reflect, to get all like those mental thoughts out, I find that really helps me keep a clear mind. I do my breath work, and I implement it throughout the day.
• 47:02
  And the more I do it like I catch myself and I'll just be like, Okay, I'm in a moment, take a deep breath, and then I can kind of work through it. And then I have, I have some of these, like little superstitions that I think developed from being a figure skater for kettle ball sport. Now it's like, I have lip chap that I put on right before my set. I actually will suck on a throat lozenger Because it kind of clears my nasal passage. I have certain exercises I like to do in my warm up because they just make me feel good and competition, I typically have this little I get on the platform and I turn my back to the judge, and I do a little squat, and just take a, like, deep breath, and then I kick my butt a couple times. So I, like, just have, like, little, quirky little, I call them superstitions. I don't know if that's the right word, yeah. No, it is. It's funny.
• 48:14
  Like, you tell these stories.
• 48:18
  Like we were actually, it just came back from World Championships, and we were having exactly the same conversation. Like, obviously, for us, things went well, but we were all looking like that, okay, you keep winning. Do you walk the same route every day?
• 48:32
  You do same kind of warm up players? You know, they have their own things, what they want to do. And if there is something like, okay, somebody is like, a little bit more into it than other ones, of course, but somebody, they have, like, so funny things, like, I told that the weirdest thing, what I had was one player. I don't want to tell the name, but when I was playing, he went to toilet before every single game with hockey stick. And I was like, What is he? What is he doing in a toilet with a ice hockey stick. And then somehow we found it out that he was putting that hockey stick into toilet before every single game. And I was like, Oh my God. Like, this is it's just just weird things like that. I don't know if this is really helping, like, if something is helping you, you know you are in doing things well, you know, I don't mind do whatever works for you. If you believe that this is helping you feel confident after you have same lipstick every single time you know why? Why not to do it?
• 49:44
  But is it really like? Does it really matter, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly, funny experiences, yeah, what all like, and I feel like that, especially like athletes or former athletes who are kind of in a high stress situation more often than you rely on like, because everything you have to you are prepared that everything is you do the same thing like I can imagine, like in ice hockey, can many things happen during the game, but figure skating like you know you have your program. You have, it's from moment one to the end. You have, you know exactly everything what you have to have a laser, laser focus, right?
• 50:28
  Yes. And like, like, one of my things when I figure skated was I could not have nail polish on my fingers, because what if one was chipped? I always, like, in my head, thought the judges would see that chip, so I couldn't have nail polish on my fingers. And like, it's also having backup plans, because when you don't get your skater, you can get disoriented, and you come out of your spin and you're like, I'm facing the wrong direction. And being able to adjust because you're not actually on your route, was like, key. And I think if.
• 51:06
  Anything, there's like those moments of having a backup plan, because even I went to Nationals one year for kettlebells, and all of a sudden I switched my lift so I was snatching and I turned into one arm long cycle.
• 51:20
  And it was just like a moment of like, and someone yelled from the crowd, you can't do that.
• 51:31
  And mentally, you're just like, oh, but luckily, the judge, like, said to me, like, yes, you're done, but we'll let you continue lifting. So I continued to snatch on my other side. It just it had to stop my set.
• 51:48
  Yeah, no, there's a funny, funny story. So, oh, this is time is almost up. We had our conversation. I think I feel like that. We could keep talking for another hour easily, without even like I have prepared something, what I wanted to talk couldn't go even through maybe half of it. But I hope whoever is still here listening that you enjoyed the conversation, how it went, where it went, Yes, but before we close this up, I have always like some closure, like rapid, quick question, so just the three quick questions. So what is one movement practice that you can't live without?
• 52:34
  Kettlebell sport, okay, what is a myth about fitness or injury recovery you wish would disappear?
• 52:45
  Oh, I Oh, that's hard, a myth that I would like to disappear, that we have to look or feel a certain way, a book quote or tool that that has changed how you approach movement or healing?
• 53:11
  Oh, I've read so many. I heard someone else say it on your podcast that they recently read profit first. That's been really big for my business. Oh, I just read the body keeps score, and that has helped, specifically with my pain clients.
• 53:30
  And funny that you say, I just bought that book. I haven't been reading it yet. I have it in it's waiting in my to read list.
• 53:39
  It's in myself. But I'm now, I'm even more excited to get started reading that's good. That's going to be a good one. So Rachel, now how people can reach you? Where people can find you, feel free to share all your social media information. I will add them into podcast description below. So, but just share. What is the best place to reach you out how to thank you.
• 54:08
  Yeah, so I do post on Instagram, which is at return to form kinesiology, and then my website is return to form.ca.
• 54:21
  Thank you so much. Is there anything else you want me to share or you want.
• 54:26
  No, no. It was lovely talking to you. It was fun to kind of share our stories back and forth, and I appreciate you having me on.
• 54:34
  Oh, thank you so much. It was so much fun. And really, really appreciate your time and coming to my show.
• 54:41
  Thank you. Applause.