Speaker 1: Why is it so hard to get real answers about
Speaker 1: your health? If you've been told that everything looks fine,
Speaker 1: but you know that something is off, we're not imagining it.
Speaker 1: That's why I created Vitality three sixty to help you
Speaker 1: better understand what's going on inside your body so that
Speaker 1: you can take the targeted action needed. With a functional
Speaker 1: health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to
Speaker 1: uncover the root causes of your symptoms. I've teamed up
Speaker 1: with Doctyesmina, an incredible integrative GP and together we will
Speaker 1: help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like
Speaker 1: why am I always exhausted? What's really causing my stubborn weight?
Speaker 1: Am I inflamed? Insulin resistant? Or maybe missing key nutrients?
Speaker 1: Because when you understand your body better, you can transform
Speaker 1: your health. Visit v three sixty dot health or check
Speaker 1: out the show notes for more. This is Healthy Her
Speaker 1: with Amelia Phillipson. Welcome to one of my mini motivation episodes.
Speaker 1: These are shorter, targeted episode. It's that delve into one
Speaker 1: single topic, just enough to give you a little turbo
Speaker 1: boost of motivation. Well, today's episode is perfect if you
Speaker 1: have heard that strength training is important for you. You
Speaker 1: know you should be doing it, but you just don't
Speaker 1: like it, and that's totally understandable. Or maybe you don't
Speaker 1: know where to start, or maybe you've tried it and
Speaker 1: you're just not really feeling the vibe. Well, firstly, know
Speaker 1: that you are not alone. I come across so many
Speaker 1: women in this boat who grew up in an era
Speaker 1: where the weights room was just not welcoming for us women.
Speaker 1: It was very male dominated, intimidating. You know, maybe there
Speaker 1: was even a fear of bulking up with weight training. Well,
Speaker 1: I have to say, my friend that the times they
Speaker 1: are a change in and with a robust research around
Speaker 1: women's health, the importance of protecting our valuable lean muscle,
Speaker 1: and of course the metabolic benefits of being strong, we
Speaker 1: are thankfully seeing more and more strength training options for
Speaker 1: us to lead in. And I recently pose this question
Speaker 1: to the Queen of Bone Health, professor Belinda Beck, And
Speaker 1: if you haven't listened to that episode on Bone Health,
Speaker 1: I really highly recommend you do. It was awesome. Belinda
Speaker 1: Beck is a professor in the School of Health Sciences
Speaker 1: and Social Work at Griffith University. On the Gold Coast.
Speaker 1: She's completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Stanford University, the
Speaker 1: School of Medicine over in California. She's published over one
Speaker 1: hundred scientific papers, and more recently, with her Griffith colleagues,
Speaker 1: she's published the results of this amazing clinical trial called
Speaker 1: the Liftmore Trial, which honestly it re established the benchmark
Speaker 1: of exercise as therapy for osteoporosis and for people with
Speaker 1: low bone mass. So she's turned these results into an
Speaker 1: amazing bone health exercise program called o'neiro, which we speak
Speaker 1: about in that episode. And look, she sits on so
Speaker 1: many boards I can't name them here. But what I
Speaker 1: really love about Professor Belinda is that she's one of
Speaker 1: those rare unicorns who straddles the world of academia with
Speaker 1: real world, hands on programs that us mere models can follow.
Speaker 1: So I posed this question about hating strength training to Belinda,
Speaker 1: and here's what she had to say. There's a group
Speaker 1: of women who grew up with an aversion to strength training.
Speaker 1: You know, in the gym that I worked at, for example,
Speaker 1: for thirteen years. At this gym, I always think of
Speaker 1: it a little bit like a jungle. There were all
Speaker 1: these different species inside this gym. You had, you know
Speaker 1: that all the ladies were on the cardio, the gazelles
Speaker 1: were on the cardio machines, and in the classes, and
Speaker 1: then the weights room where the you know, the elephants
Speaker 1: and the lions, and it was kind of ninety percent
Speaker 1: men in the weights room. And I've worked in this
Speaker 1: gym for thirteen years, and I feel really much like
Speaker 1: it was an era where women were concerned about bulking up.
Speaker 1: The weights area of a gym had this very much
Speaker 1: male dominated and intimidating feeling to it. Butlinda, how much
Speaker 1: do you think that the cultural perspectives have shaped the
Speaker 1: rising incidences of osteoporosis.
Speaker 2: Oh, look, I'm not sure that necessarily is the reason.
Speaker 2: I think that people in general, women and men don't
Speaker 2: do enough exercise. I certainly think that women don't do
Speaker 2: enough strength training, But I don't know that that has
Speaker 2: changed terribly much, you know, in the last century.
Speaker 1: I just see it as an opportunity cost. I think
Speaker 1: of it like this opportunity cost, Like if I could
Speaker 1: rewind and go back to the nineties when I first
Speaker 1: started in the gym and re educate women with what
Speaker 1: we know today, and see more women stepping into the
Speaker 1: weights room and more women not being afraid to lift
Speaker 1: heavy weights. I just do wonder if the landscape would
Speaker 1: be different today, is where I come from.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think if people had been shown the evidence
Speaker 2: that women very rarely bulk up. You know, there is
Speaker 2: a certain kind of body type that does get quite muscly,
Speaker 2: but that is the absolute rarity. And when older women
Speaker 2: postmenopahorse say to me, I really don't want to get muscly,
Speaker 2: I just say, you wish you know it's not to happen,
Speaker 2: And I'm sorry about that, because I wish that you
Speaker 2: would too. Muscle is your friend. It's the best metabolically
Speaker 2: active tissue in your body. It's so so good for you.
Speaker 2: It's so good functionally.
Speaker 1: Research study of one subject aka me, who's been getting
Speaker 1: a DEXA scan every year on my birthday for the
Speaker 1: last twelve years. I can attest to how bloody hard
Speaker 1: it is to later O must because I train hard,
Speaker 1: I lift extremely heavy, and am I seeing big gains
Speaker 1: every year? I mean this last year, the amount of
Speaker 1: grams of lean tissue on me did not change in
Speaker 1: twelve months. And I do CrossFit so and also I
Speaker 1: think that a woman with curves and that lean, active
Speaker 1: tissue on her is sexy. I think that whole slim
Speaker 1: and skinny thing has gone out the window as well.
Speaker 2: I one hundred percent agree we have some beautiful muscly arms.
Speaker 2: They're never going to be bulk arms, are just going
Speaker 2: to be lovely, shapely arms that look great in a sundress.
Speaker 1: So for a woman sitting here wanting to start strength training,
Speaker 1: not really a fan of it, and unsure how to
Speaker 1: make that leap, what recommendations would you have for her?
Speaker 2: Well, I would definitely seek some professional advice so that
Speaker 2: you do it the right way, and then I would
Speaker 2: get yourself a training buddy. There's just no doubt in
Speaker 2: my mind that having a partner in crime is the
Speaker 2: way to go. They are somebody to help encourage you.
Speaker 2: There's somebody to make you accountable. If oh I don't
Speaker 2: feel like doing it today, now come on, let's go.
Speaker 2: That's the person who is going to keep you going.
Speaker 2: I really think there's strength in numbers. It's the reason
Speaker 2: why we do our neuro in classes because a class
Speaker 2: situation for strength training, supervised strength training is really beneficial.
Speaker 1: And I find it so inspirational. So in CrossFit, for example,
Speaker 1: how a CrossFit class works is that every workout has
Speaker 1: the same structure, which is you have your warm up,
Speaker 1: you do about ten to fifteen minutes of mobility work,
Speaker 1: which can be a combination of active stretching, rolling out rollers,
Speaker 1: et cetera. And then you do your strength component, which
Speaker 1: is usually one or two really heavy compound moves, and
Speaker 1: then you go on to what's called the WAD, which
Speaker 1: is the workout of the day, and that can be
Speaker 1: anywhere from seven minutes to twenty five minutes, and it's
Speaker 1: a mixed bag. It's a surprise. Sometimes it's more cardigo,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's more strength focus and often with high impact
Speaker 1: as well. And so with that strength component of it,
Speaker 1: what's really interesting is that you'll be surrounded by ten
Speaker 1: fifteen other people and you'll look at this petite looking
Speaker 1: person who's lifting twice as much as you are and
Speaker 1: you're so inspired by them, or someone that's ten years
Speaker 1: older than you that's lifting more than you, and you
Speaker 1: learn so much from your gym bodies around you, and
Speaker 1: they give you that confidence and that boosting as well morale.
Speaker 1: So I'm so with you on training in a group
Speaker 1: I think it's much more fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. And you learn from their mistakes too.
Speaker 2: When a coach says to the person you're training with,
Speaker 2: you know, you're I don't know what's going on there,
Speaker 2: but your bottom is not where it's supposed to be.
Speaker 2: Can you lift it up a bit high? You get, oh,
Speaker 2: what was mine doing last lift? So it just makes
Speaker 2: you more aware of what you're doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And I think your point around whether it's
Speaker 1: getting a personal trainer or a coach or an exercise
Speaker 1: physiologist or those small group classes if you are new
Speaker 1: to strength training, don't underestimate the power of edge ducation
Speaker 1: in confidence, in injury prevention and things like that. And
Speaker 1: even if I know your personal trainers can be expensive,
Speaker 1: but even if you have a trainer that you see
Speaker 1: once a month and they write your program and then
Speaker 1: they can just wave at you across the room and
Speaker 1: you can always tap them on the shoulder when they're
Speaker 1: training someone else, can you just quickly watch my form?
Speaker 1: Does this look okay? You don't have to be paying
Speaker 1: them one hundred dollars a session, three times a week
Speaker 1: to get the most out of a trainer. I think
Speaker 1: they can be really under resource sometimes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. And like I say, the more at
Speaker 2: risk you are of injury or fracture or whatever condition
Speaker 2: it is, the more you need some expert supervision. And
Speaker 2: so I would definitely be erring on the side of
Speaker 2: an exercise physiologist rather than a personal trainer in terms
Speaker 2: of their expertise and getting that advice, And particularly if
Speaker 2: you're at risk of fracture. Remember, if you have one fracture,
Speaker 2: you are four times more likely to have another fracture.
Speaker 2: So you want to avoid that first fracture at all costs.
Speaker 2: And that's what that's super vision is all about. It's
Speaker 2: keeping you safe. The risk of injury from exercise is
Speaker 2: far less than a doctor will tell you. Doctors tend
Speaker 2: to think that everyone's going to hurt themselves and that's
Speaker 2: not the case. But if it does happen, it can
Speaker 2: be very discouraging. It can really set you back. So
Speaker 2: good to get expert advice.
Speaker 1: Why is it so hard to get real answers about
Speaker 1: your health? If you've been told that everything looks fine,
Speaker 1: but you know that something is off, well, you're not
Speaker 1: imagining it. That's why I created Vitality three point sixty
Speaker 1: to help you better understand what's going on inside your
Speaker 1: body so that you can take the targeted action needed.
Speaker 1: With a functional health approach plus testing, we go beyond
Speaker 1: the guesswork to uncover the root causes of your symptoms.
Speaker 1: I've teamed up with doctor Asmina, an incredible integrative GP,
Speaker 1: and together we will help you decode your body's signals
Speaker 1: and answer questions like why am I always exhausted? What's
Speaker 1: really causing my stubborn weight? Am I inflamed? Insulin resistant?
Speaker 1: Or maybe missing key nutrients? Because when you understand your
Speaker 1: body better, you can transform your health. Visit V three
Speaker 1: sixty dot health or check out the show notes for more.
Speaker 1: Just on the fracture comment. When you say a fracture
Speaker 1: are you talking about It could be an acute fracture
Speaker 1: that occurred in an accident, like you rolled your ankle
Speaker 1: down the step or something like that. Are you referring
Speaker 1: only to exercise induced fracture?
Speaker 2: I'm talking specifically about because if we're doing heavy lifting
Speaker 2: with people with very low bone masks, there is an
Speaker 2: inherent risk a fight. That's the whole reason why you
Speaker 2: need to do a specially designed program that has been
Speaker 2: tested on people like you, supervised by people who are expert.
Speaker 2: So yes, there absolutely is a chance that you can
Speaker 2: have a fracture during heavy lifting, so you do need
Speaker 2: to be aware of that. Most people who don't have
Speaker 2: low bone mass, the risk is extremely low. And in
Speaker 2: years and years of doing a NERO with people with
Speaker 2: low bone mass, it's nearly ten years in July onarly
Speaker 2: ten years, we've had a total of four fractures in
Speaker 2: our clinic during exercise and only one of those has
Speaker 2: actually been related to a lift. So it can happen,
Speaker 2: it's very very rare. You don't want that person to
Speaker 2: be you. The reason why it doesn't happen on our
Speaker 2: watch is because the supervision is so expert.
Speaker 1: So when you said a moment ago about the increased
Speaker 1: risk if you've had one fracture, it increases by four.
Speaker 1: For my listeners who are not osteopenic, so you know
Speaker 1: they're in that healthy bone density range, but they have
Speaker 1: had a fracture before due to an accident of some sort,
Speaker 1: they also four times more likely or is that a
Speaker 1: completely different scenario.
Speaker 2: You know, once upon a time I would have said, no,
Speaker 2: this is only related to what we call minimal trauma fracture.
Speaker 2: Those are the Austia product type fractures. Minimal trauma fracture
Speaker 2: is something that might happen if you lift up a
Speaker 2: grandchild and you fracture a vertebral bone, or if you
Speaker 2: fall from a standing height onto your wrist, that would
Speaker 2: be a minimal trauma fracture. And that's what that statistic
Speaker 2: of have one increases your chances by four times to
Speaker 2: have another minimal trauma fracture. Now, in the past, we
Speaker 2: used to think that a fracture from say a skiing
Speaker 2: accident or something that's more high trauma, is not related.
Speaker 2: But there is some evidence now to say that even
Speaker 2: those high trauma fractures might be a little bit of
Speaker 2: a signal that you are actually at risk.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's really good to know, and I hope my
Speaker 1: listener's got that, because there's lots out there that have
Speaker 1: picked up netball after a twenty year gap and then
Speaker 1: unfortunately ended up with a sport it's injury based fracture,
Speaker 1: So that's really good to know. We mentioned a few
Speaker 1: ways to make strength training more fun, for example doing
Speaker 1: it in a group setting. I want to make sure
Speaker 1: because my listeners are sitting here, you know this episode
Speaker 1: is title to help I hate strength training. Do you
Speaker 1: have any other suggestions that can make strength training a
Speaker 1: little bit more enticing for us?
Speaker 2: I suppose if you hate the process and the main
Speaker 2: thing that you want to focus on is the outcome.
Speaker 2: Your goal is to have some nice, strong, shapely arms,
Speaker 2: or to improve the mass of your bones to prevent fractures,
Speaker 2: then keep your eye on the price. It takes a
Speaker 2: little while, but it actually doesn't take too long for
Speaker 2: muscle changes to be evident. So if you can get
Speaker 2: yourself over that first sort of eight week hump, by
Speaker 2: eight weeks, you're going to see functional and physical change
Speaker 2: that's going to make it worthwhile for you to keep going.
Speaker 2: You won't see the change in bone for a year,
Speaker 2: but you will see those muscle functional change. So keep
Speaker 2: your eye on the price. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love that. And I'm going to throw another one
Speaker 1: in there as well, Belinda, which is about looking at
Speaker 1: your performance improvement. So the great thing about strength training,
Speaker 1: especially if you're a bit of a numbers person, is
Speaker 1: that you're going to see your weights in proving you
Speaker 1: may have only been able to do two push ups,
Speaker 1: maybe not being able to do zero push ups on
Speaker 1: your toes when you first started, and now you can
Speaker 1: do two, and then a few weeks later you can
Speaker 1: do four. And so I'm a real fan of actually
Speaker 1: measuring and tracking the weights that you're lifting and setting
Speaker 1: yourselves little goals like, for example, I said, a lot
Speaker 1: of my members a goal of being able to deadlift
Speaker 1: their body weight ten times. So think about whatever you
Speaker 1: weigh and loading up that bar, and how many reps
Speaker 1: can you do. Obviously I'm talking about for someone that's
Speaker 1: already regularly strength training, you might have to start at
Speaker 1: half your body weight. Can you deadlift half your body weight?
Speaker 1: But with the goal of being able to deadlift your
Speaker 1: body weight ten times? And then you know, in cross
Speaker 1: we've got some of our ladies that are up to
Speaker 1: double their body weight. I think setting those little, you know,
Speaker 1: measurements and performance based milestones to reach can feel really
Speaker 1: rewarding when you get there. So that's going to be
Speaker 1: one of my little tips to throw in as well.
Speaker 2: I WoT one hundred percent agree. And the natural beauty
Speaker 2: of that suggestion is the fact that those games are
Speaker 2: always much greater and much more obvious. When you start,
Speaker 2: it gets diminishing. I mean, you're probably put you probably
Speaker 2: haven't increased the weight you're lifting for a long time.
Speaker 1: There's this great app called Smollov Junior, and for any
Speaker 1: of my advanced lifters out there, this was what I
Speaker 1: implemented last year after my very depressing dexa result where
Speaker 1: I hadn't improved one gram of muscle mass in twelve months.
Speaker 1: I do this smallov which is a three week program,
Speaker 1: and I was able to get to double my body
Speaker 1: weight in a dead lift. And yes, it's so much
Speaker 1: harder for me. And I see all these newbies coming
Speaker 1: through and they're just increasing their weight. It's a much
Speaker 1: faster ray. I'm like, I hate you right now. I'm
Speaker 1: just inching my way a little bit by little bit.
Speaker 1: So just to wrap up, I'd love to ask you
Speaker 1: if you could pick between one to three strength moves
Speaker 1: that deliver the best bang for buck when it comes
Speaker 1: to bone health. I've got mine in my head, but
Speaker 1: I want to know what yours are. What are your
Speaker 1: favorite strength moves?
Speaker 2: Well, if I told you that, I would have to
Speaker 2: kill you and me like, I can't tell you those.
Speaker 1: I knew you were going to say that that's what
Speaker 1: my listeners a hire for. Well, can I tell you mine?
Speaker 1: From my perspective. If I'm looking at my ladies and
Speaker 1: they're like, I hate the gym. I just want to
Speaker 1: go in and get the best bang for buck. I
Speaker 1: would be choosing compound moves where you're using multiple joints.
Speaker 1: So for example, bicep curl is not a compound move,
Speaker 1: it's only moving one joint. So I would be picking squats.
Speaker 1: I would be picking dead lifts. I would be picking
Speaker 1: a pull move, so whether it's like a chin up,
Speaker 1: a lap pool down and assisted chin up, or the
Speaker 1: very of that and a push move so like a
Speaker 1: bench press push ups. Things like that. You can just
Speaker 1: not and smile, or you can say I completely disagree,
Speaker 1: or I agree, or they sound great.
Speaker 2: I would say most of the literature would be in
Speaker 2: support of that approach. You can't go wrong with that.
Speaker 1: Wonderful Well, look let's leave it there, but there's some
Speaker 1: of those moves ladies get Mastering that squat technique, mastering
Speaker 1: that deadlift technique, if you're even just starting there, that's
Speaker 1: a great place to go. Professor Belinda, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for your time today, My pleasure. Why is it
Speaker 1: so hard to get real answers about your health? If
Speaker 1: you've been told that everything looks fine, but you know
Speaker 1: that something is off, well, you're not imagining it. That's
Speaker 1: why I created Vitality three p. Sixty to help you
Speaker 1: better understand what's going on inside your body so that
Speaker 1: you can take the targeted action needed. With a functional
Speaker 1: health approach plus testing, we go beyond the guesswork to
Speaker 1: uncover the root causes of your symptoms. I've teamed up
Speaker 1: with Dottyesmina, an incredible integrative GP and together we will
Speaker 1: help you decode your body's signals and answer questions like
Speaker 1: why am I always exhausted? What's really causing my stubborn weight?
Speaker 1: Am I inflamed? Insulin resistant? Or maybe missing key nutrients?
Speaker 1: Because when you understand your body better, you can transform
Speaker 1: your health. Visit V three sixty dot health or check
Speaker 1: out the show notes for more