Speaker 1: Pushkin.
Speaker 2: This show is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis,
Speaker 2: or treatment. It is for informational purposes. Please consult your
Speaker 2: healthcare professional with any medical questions.
Speaker 3: The muscle has solutions for so many things, and so
Speaker 3: that's why it's so important to take it out of
Speaker 3: just oh, I'm working out to lose weight. There is
Speaker 3: so much more to it.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Coding Women's Health. I'm doctor Elizabeth Pointer.
Speaker 1: Today on the show, we're talking about a different way
Speaker 1: to think about exercise, or as I like to think
Speaker 1: of it, movement, and how it connects to our mental
Speaker 1: and yes, even our spiritual health. I've invited my own trainer,
Speaker 1: Robert Brace, onto the show. He's been a key part
Speaker 1: of my journey to feeling stronger again after a recent
Speaker 1: surgery with significant complications, and he's totally changed my mindset
Speaker 1: when it comes to movement. I first discovered Robert's studio,
Speaker 1: Brace Life Studios about two years ago. When I arrived downtown,
Speaker 1: I was surrounded by the fairy lights of little Italy
Speaker 1: and when I walked in these beautiful, larger than life
Speaker 1: posters of strong, confident women on their fitness journeys were
Speaker 1: hanging on the walls. The place is just filled with
Speaker 1: the most amazing energy and community. I knew immediately it
Speaker 1: was somewhere that I wanted to train, and that Robert
Speaker 1: was someone that I wanted to work with. Now I'm
Speaker 1: at his gym nearly every morning. Robert has such a
Speaker 1: unique and incredible background. He was a professional dancer for
Speaker 1: many years, and then he actually worked as a minister.
Speaker 1: Now he runs his boutique personal training studio that caters
Speaker 1: to midlife women. I love Robert's approach to exercise and movement.
Speaker 1: He has what he calls a mind, body, soul approach.
Speaker 1: More than anything, I hope that you reach the end
Speaker 1: of this episode feeling empowered. Robert has helped hundreds of
Speaker 1: women transform their lives and most importantly, not settle for
Speaker 1: feeling like their best years are behind them.
Speaker 3: One of the things that the fitness industry, my industry,
Speaker 3: has done a very poor job at, is helping people
Speaker 3: make the connection between movement, exercise, muscle, mental health, spiritual wellbeing,
Speaker 3: and how we do move through life right. Because up
Speaker 3: until now it's been you move to lose weight to
Speaker 3: get in shape. Right, And yes, there's the narrative about
Speaker 3: health there, but that's what it's been for a long time.
Speaker 3: But when you start talking about movement affecting the mind.
Speaker 3: If we think about stress, how stress affects the body.
Speaker 3: It shuts down, goes into reptil in brain. Because you're
Speaker 3: in flight or fight mode, your executive function isn't working
Speaker 3: as well. Your anxiety increases. Right when you move your muscle,
Speaker 3: your muscle produces endorphins. End dolphins have been shown to
Speaker 3: take the edge off of anxiety and help calm your
Speaker 3: mind and your body down. So when I talk about spirituality,
Speaker 3: these are two quote unquote spiritual qualities, right, sense of
Speaker 3: joy and a sense of calm. If anybody ever experienced
Speaker 3: the runners high that happens after typically after you move
Speaker 3: or do some intense activity for over twenty minutes, that
Speaker 3: produces in your body end or cannabinoids. And so your
Speaker 3: movement is affecting your move your blissful mood. And if
Speaker 3: you move in a group, if you've ever done Soul
Speaker 3: cycle or one of those group classes where you're moving
Speaker 3: and everybody at the end feels like this kind of
Speaker 3: euphoric feeling, right, It's been said that when you move
Speaker 3: in a group, the body produces more oxytocin, which is
Speaker 3: the love the bonding hormone, and so movement gives you
Speaker 3: all of these emotional, spiritual, whatever you want to call
Speaker 3: them qualities just from engaging with your muscles. So that
Speaker 3: feeling you get after you leave the studio or after
Speaker 3: you leave your workout is all of that combined. So
Speaker 3: it goes way beyond just changing your body losing weight,
Speaker 3: getting toned, and that's all great. We level of that, right,
Speaker 3: but it's so much more so.
Speaker 1: This is such an evolved view of fitness. You know, we,
Speaker 1: like you said, we used to look at fitness as
Speaker 1: just like losing weight or getting in a particular shape,
Speaker 1: that type of thing. You have this great background of
Speaker 1: dam and ministry. How did you say one day, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to put it all together in Brace Life
Speaker 1: Studios because I you know, I'm kind of I'm kind
Speaker 1: of addicted to Bracelefe Studios. I'm there every morning, guys,
Speaker 1: like almost every morning at like six o'clock. I mean,
Speaker 1: the dopamine is great, right, but I moved through my
Speaker 1: day with a different the different attitude and a different
Speaker 1: like connectiveness actually, right, So how did you evolve into
Speaker 1: developing brace life studios.
Speaker 3: Well it wasn't as it wasn't as seamless. Shall we
Speaker 3: say as it sounds right? I think for me, when
Speaker 3: I was dancing, I remember feeling that whenever I moved
Speaker 3: and danced, whatever emotional issues I was having, whatever stress
Speaker 3: that I was having, was just released. And so when
Speaker 3: I was younger, I just thought, well, that's just because
Speaker 3: I'm doing what I love to do, right, And then
Speaker 3: I went into I was in the ministry for a
Speaker 3: little bit, and I loved doing what I did then,
Speaker 3: but it was more just a mental application of spirituality.
Speaker 3: So I felt something was missing. And so when I
Speaker 3: came back to training and I started to move again,
Speaker 3: I was like, Okay, this is what's missing. And then
Speaker 3: through studying about embodied cognition and studying about how muscle
Speaker 3: informs how you feel, I started to say, okay, this
Speaker 3: is how we need to talk about movement. Yes, your
Speaker 3: body will change, your spiritual change, your mindfulness will change.
Speaker 3: So it's all embodied in movement.
Speaker 1: It's so interesting because I mean, now the wellness community
Speaker 1: is we're catching up to you, right, you are a forerunner.
Speaker 1: Are realizing now because we all talk about longevity. As
Speaker 1: you know, optimism, sense of purpose, all of these things
Speaker 1: that travel together and are so important in terms of
Speaker 1: movement as how it contributes to that. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: embodied cognition. Tell me about what does that mean and
Speaker 1: how do you apply that.
Speaker 3: So there's been a common duality, right, the brain and
Speaker 3: the body are two different things, and lever Twente meat
Speaker 3: some of it is grounded in kind of religious thinking,
Speaker 3: the temperance movement that the brain should have control over
Speaker 3: the body.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: Embodied cognition says that the body informs the brain. And
Speaker 3: so for example, in its most simple state, you're hear
Speaker 3: in the studio all the time.
Speaker 4: Chest up, shoulder blades.
Speaker 3: Back right right, So mancha, if you are sitting with
Speaker 3: your shoulders rolled forward, if your head is down, if
Speaker 3: your shoulders are all the way up, it says you
Speaker 3: feel different in your body than when you open up
Speaker 3: your chest, open up your lungs, breathe into your lungs,
Speaker 3: sit with your backstraight. You immediately feel differently right, gestural
Speaker 3: postural change. So the body is informing how the brain feels.
Speaker 3: And so when we get to movement, let's just say
Speaker 3: like you're in a studio, so we have a real
Speaker 3: intense focus on form and posture. So you're doing it
Speaker 3: an exercise bicyccle. If we are asking you to stand
Speaker 3: with correct posture, make sure that your arms are moving
Speaker 3: through the right alignment and right range of motion. You've
Speaker 3: taken your focus from your brain inside your body. Right,
Speaker 3: Your focus has gone inside your body, and then your
Speaker 3: breathing is connected to it. You're muscleing is being engaged.
Speaker 3: As soon as that happens. Your movement is affecting what's
Speaker 3: going on cognitively, right, and you have to be present.
Speaker 3: The movement shuts out all the noise outside, So it's
Speaker 3: like a movement meditation like it's movement is mindfulness in
Speaker 3: motion because you're focusing inside your body. I love that,
Speaker 3: and that becomes a movement meditation. It brings you present
Speaker 3: to wherever you're at. And so embodied cognition says, you
Speaker 3: know when your body moves, it affects how your brain functions,
Speaker 3: and that then two are not separate. You don't have
Speaker 3: just a body. You have a body that works with
Speaker 3: your brain. So as you move, you become through movement
Speaker 3: because the two think together.
Speaker 1: Let's just talk about some really basic stuff because I'm
Speaker 1: lucky enough to be able to go into your studio.
Speaker 1: But I want to get some basics for our listeners
Speaker 1: because they should hear your view on how women should
Speaker 1: train differently during their cycles, or how women should train
Speaker 1: differently at midlife. So let's just start with midlife. So
Speaker 1: how should women train differently in midlife than when they
Speaker 1: were younger? Actually? Or how doom, how should women train
Speaker 1: differently than men? Because you have some big influencers saying
Speaker 1: that men and women should train the same, So give
Speaker 1: us your perspective on those two.
Speaker 3: I think what I want to do is give more
Speaker 3: the why, and I'll give some of the how. But
Speaker 3: what I mean is this midlife eeschras and decreases, right,
Speaker 3: so that means bone density decreases. That means you're more
Speaker 3: susceptible to osteoporosis. Right, Building lean muscle mass is going
Speaker 3: to stimulate the osteoblasts, which is going to help you
Speaker 3: build your bone density. So think of everything that you're
Speaker 3: doing and in our icons program, which is what we
Speaker 3: typically call this program, all of the signature movements are
Speaker 3: to build aesthetics, your overall health, and your longevity.
Speaker 1: So you're training women forty and on pretty much and
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say Indiana sixty because I'm over sixty.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, we're not going to yeah, we're not
Speaker 1: going to say forty to sixty. We're going to say
Speaker 1: forty and beyond, right, and give me some specifics, like
Speaker 1: how what are the specifics in terms of what is
Speaker 1: the mix of cardio, what is the mix of strength
Speaker 1: training hit? What is your what is I don't want
Speaker 1: to ask you for your secret sauce, but what's your
Speaker 1: secret sauce in terms of.
Speaker 3: Okay, So there's two different levels to this. The first,
Speaker 3: very basic level is that women on the mental respect
Speaker 3: need to build lean muscle mass.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: Lean muscle mass has so many benefits, go into those later,
Speaker 3: but for the purposes of the technique, one of the
Speaker 3: fastest ways to build lean muscle mass is compound movements. Right,
Speaker 3: large movements that recruit a lot of different joints.
Speaker 1: Give us an example of a compound movement.
Speaker 3: So, okay, right, So a good squad with the knees
Speaker 3: in the right position, your hips receding in the right
Speaker 3: way so that you get a maximum amount of pressure
Speaker 3: through your thighs, and as you stand through it, standing
Speaker 3: through it with the right posture. Okay, so we want
Speaker 3: to get you to build lean muscle mass as fast
Speaker 3: as possible. At the same time for your brain and
Speaker 3: also for your posture, we want you to move within
Speaker 3: the right alignment. So our approach is very different in
Speaker 3: terms of if most trainers will tell you don't train
Speaker 3: the same body parts back to back, right, we take
Speaker 3: a dance philosophy because if you look at dancers or athletes,
Speaker 3: they typically train the same movement patterns, maybe in different ways,
Speaker 3: but over and over every day day.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: A ballet dancer does peers every day, right, just tondus
Speaker 3: every day, right. Because what happens is it allows the brain.
Speaker 3: The first couple of times you do it's like, oh,
Speaker 3: they're going to be sore, like hold back that movement,
Speaker 3: make them tight. But the more that you do it,
Speaker 3: your brain begins to ask your body to adapt to
Speaker 3: the new demand that's placed on it. Now, that's important
Speaker 3: because for our population, we want to build lean muscle mass,
Speaker 3: but we also want them to really learn movement patterns
Speaker 3: so that they accelerate more quickly, their joints are stronger,
Speaker 3: and you know it helps with that long lean aesthetic. Right,
Speaker 3: So we call it rift, repetition, interval intelligence. That's interval training.
Speaker 3: So for the most part, it depends on where you're
Speaker 3: at in your cycle. Interval training can be the best
Speaker 3: or not so much the best, right, But in those
Speaker 3: phases of the filliqular ovulatory stages, right, that's when you're
Speaker 3: pushing right. So in those stages, that's when we'll use
Speaker 3: interval training. And the particular kind of interval training we
Speaker 3: use is to barts and then it's attention to detail
Speaker 3: in a single joint movement like a bicep, but making
Speaker 3: sure that you're supporting cast your core, your back is
Speaker 3: supporting your biceps.
Speaker 4: So it's still a full.
Speaker 3: Bodied movement, right, and meticulous attention to form an alignment
Speaker 3: and posture.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 1: So you're training pretty much the whole body every session. Correct. Yes,
Speaker 1: And so let's talk about interval training. Tell us what
Speaker 1: that is. What do you mean by interval training.
Speaker 3: So interval training is when you have a big burst
Speaker 3: of energy exercise, high velocity, high speed, high power exercise
Speaker 3: followed by a period of rest right or slowed down.
Speaker 3: So we use a lot of different ones, but the
Speaker 3: ones that we are really part of the program. It's
Speaker 3: about us which means you push as hard as you
Speaker 3: can for about twenty seconds and then you'll rest for
Speaker 3: ten seconds. Doctor Zuomi Tabarta, he was the trainer for
Speaker 3: the Japanese speed Speeds getting team, and he figured out
Speaker 3: the twenty seconds on ten seconds off boosted long cardiovascular capacity,
Speaker 3: boosted the metabolism, and.
Speaker 1: Then so in terms of interval training, in terms of
Speaker 1: the sessions that you do with your clients, how much
Speaker 1: of the session is interval training? Is it scattered throughout sessions,
Speaker 1: scattered throughout the week, how do you put that in?
Speaker 3: Typically, what we're building towards is we want everybody to
Speaker 3: be able to do two full interval set, two full
Speaker 3: to barter sets, so that's twenty seconds on, ten seconds off,
Speaker 3: eight times for four minutes. We want people a bill
Speaker 3: to be able to do in two of those. You
Speaker 3: have to modify it to the individual, but typically that's
Speaker 3: what we're trying to do within the hour session. In
Speaker 3: terms of cardio, there's also a lot of evidence that
Speaker 3: endurance training is very advantageous to women.
Speaker 1: Explain endurance training.
Speaker 3: Training is you get on a you get on a treadmill,
Speaker 3: you put the incline up to five and you know
Speaker 3: you walk for twenty minutes. It's intense. It's not interval training,
Speaker 3: but it's endurance training that over time is going to
Speaker 3: help you build mong capacity, burn body fat.
Speaker 1: And also that's beyond zone too, right, yes, three zone four.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you're you're pushing, you're stressing your cardiovascular in
Speaker 3: a different way.
Speaker 1: So women should aim. You know, we have our guideline
Speaker 1: recommendations right for one hundred and fifty minutes of cardio
Speaker 1: zone two each week and three days of strength training,
Speaker 1: and we, like I said, we typically tell people like
Speaker 1: no more than that every forty eight hours. I always
Speaker 1: wondering swimmer because I swam every day.
Speaker 3: But that's what I'm saying you, Okay, For example, you're swimming, right,
Speaker 3: You swam every day yea, And so you learned how
Speaker 3: to use your muscles in a certain movement pattern which
Speaker 3: created a certain body type, and your your muscles conformed
Speaker 3: to what you were doing. Yes, And there's so many
Speaker 3: different ways, Like one hundred people here, one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty minutes of of cars like a lot, and they
Speaker 3: freak out right, yeah, So that's why I'm like, okay,
Speaker 3: do the interval training instead. It takes four minutes right, right,
Speaker 3: so you can do it in eight minutes as opposed
Speaker 3: to one hundred and fifty. And so that's where I
Speaker 3: just think when you've got to be careful whenever anything
Speaker 3: is an absolute right, right, you have to have one
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty minutes, you have to have ten thousand steps.
Speaker 4: You have to know.
Speaker 3: You've got to adjust it to the individual, and there's
Speaker 3: different ways to get there. For example, with my clients,
Speaker 3: nutritionally we don't count calories. Many other places do, and
Speaker 3: obviously there's benefits to it, but I'm like, get the
Speaker 3: right amount of protein, get the right amount of vegetables
Speaker 3: that are going to help you be nutritionally sound, eat
Speaker 3: to feed the muscle, and eat to feed your energy.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: And some people love the data of looking at the
Speaker 3: calories that they consume, which is great. Most people don't
Speaker 3: have the bandwidth to follow. Mark down, put it in
Speaker 3: the app, take the picture. So let's give people what
Speaker 3: they can do in a way that they can sustain
Speaker 3: within their life.
Speaker 1: Meeting somebody where they're at. Yeah, so I'm getting connectivity
Speaker 1: right embody cognition and meeting somebody where they're at. I
Speaker 1: was an athlete growing up, but I've never experienced the
Speaker 1: kind of positive and supportive community that I found at
Speaker 1: Brace Life Studios, and I really have never encountered it.
Speaker 1: Training regimen so tailored to women, I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: to Robert about how hormones and where you are in
Speaker 1: your cycle can influence the way you approach training. That's
Speaker 1: coming up next after the break, Let's go back to
Speaker 1: training at different parts of your cycle. Right, For menopausal
Speaker 1: individuals like myself, it's great, it's just always the same right, right,
Speaker 1: so it's easy, But what about a client who's still cycling.
Speaker 1: Right in terms of minstrel cycles.
Speaker 3: So the follicular of your laterary stage, that is when
Speaker 3: we tend to push because the tesosterone is there, and
Speaker 3: during that phase women can lift heavier. And but during
Speaker 3: the lutail phase, when it's the more intense part of
Speaker 3: your cycle, cortisol is up and you don't want to
Speaker 3: keep spiking cortisol because and when I say you don't
Speaker 3: want to keep spiking cortisol interval training, the stress of
Speaker 3: interval training could do something like that. The stress of
Speaker 3: a really intense weight lifting session could spike cordsol even more. Right,
Speaker 3: So during that time, that's when you want to do
Speaker 3: things that are going to reduce cortisol. Maybe you're doing
Speaker 3: more stretching, maybe you're adding to breathing exercises there, meditation there,
Speaker 3: and doing the movements that you have to focus more
Speaker 3: inward for your posture and for the movement pathways. Right,
Speaker 3: things that are going to allow you to regulate your
Speaker 3: breathing so that you're calming the system down and reducing cordisol.
Speaker 3: So it's very important to understand, you know where you
Speaker 3: are in the cycle and adjust accordingly.
Speaker 1: So how can she know whether she's in the flicular
Speaker 1: phase or that ovulatory phase where you know she's going
Speaker 1: to train harder, and that luteal phase where she's going
Speaker 1: to take it at sounds like a little easier on herself, correct.
Speaker 3: I think the best way to do it instead of
Speaker 3: having remember the numbers and count the days and there's
Speaker 3: so many apps out there.
Speaker 1: Well put some Yeah, we'll put some resources out there
Speaker 1: in the in the show notes for everybody, talk to
Speaker 1: me about shifting hormones and as our hormones or estrogen
Speaker 1: levels are declining. Many times, androgen levels and testosterone the
Speaker 1: particularly challenges that older women or women midlife women also
Speaker 1: would have in terms of building muscle. What are the
Speaker 1: tips and tricks to get around that well?
Speaker 3: As you go over forty, testosterone is decreasing, which means
Speaker 3: it's harder to put on lean muscle mass. So if
Speaker 3: your testosterone is decreasing and your lean muscle mass is decreasing,
Speaker 3: which helps with your bone density, your metabolism because as
Speaker 3: you go through the menopause spec it's easier to gain
Speaker 3: body fat, especially around the mid section due to estrogen drops. Right,
Speaker 3: your progesterone is dropping, which has an effect on your sleep,
Speaker 3: has an effect on yours, your stress resilience.
Speaker 4: Here's the thing.
Speaker 3: The way to look at it is there's medicine in
Speaker 3: the muscle, right.
Speaker 1: In the muscle.
Speaker 3: Because we're saying we're almost repeating the same thing.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: Estragen decreases we talked about bondensity, increase, your lean muscle
Speaker 3: mass activates us to your blast. Your bone density increases.
Speaker 3: Testopsterone decreasing during the menopause spectrum, progesterone is decreasing, Harder
Speaker 3: to sleep, harder to deal with stress. You work out,
Speaker 3: your lean muscle mass gives you the serotonin, gives you
Speaker 3: the endorphins to deal with some of the anxiety and stress.
Speaker 3: And also as you build more lean muscle mass, it
Speaker 3: helps regulate your arcading rhythm. And So the thing that
Speaker 3: I really love about what's happening now with the work
Speaker 3: that you do with HRT, I think we're in this
Speaker 3: really exciting place where women I get in touch with
Speaker 3: what's going on with their bodies through people like yourself
Speaker 3: understanding more about hormones getting to the stage in life
Speaker 3: where at the height of their careers, the height of
Speaker 3: their resources, height of their connections, they've got whatever wisdom
Speaker 3: they've had throughout life, right that get to that place,
Speaker 3: and then their bodies start to portray them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting. One of my patients, who was actually
Speaker 1: a friend, said to me one day was, so she goes.
Speaker 1: I spent my entire career in life trying to get
Speaker 1: to the head of the boardroom table, and by the
Speaker 1: time I got there, I felt so awful. I felt
Speaker 1: physically bad. I couldn't remember my name, my memory was off,
Speaker 1: I lost my self confidence. And so it's a very
Speaker 1: interesting intersection of when we have all this power and
Speaker 1: force behind either anything that we've done in life, whether
Speaker 1: it's building our character, whether building, our career, our families,
Speaker 1: and and then all of a sudden we're there and
Speaker 1: then kaboom, like physiology throws us a curveball and says,
Speaker 1: why you're here? And you don't feel so great? Right,
Speaker 1: So it's this great intersection. I mean, what I love
Speaker 1: about you is like you were sitting at that intersection
Speaker 1: right now, really helping women like rock the second half
Speaker 1: of their lives or they're the it's not even the
Speaker 1: second halves, it's like the two thirds, you know. So
Speaker 1: what do you see as the future of that intersection.
Speaker 3: I think that we have separated medical and fitness, right,
Speaker 3: and they haven't really intertwined except for your trainer tells
Speaker 3: you to see your doctor something's wrong. Your doctor tells
Speaker 3: you go to go exercise, right, the two. Really, I
Speaker 3: think the two are going to come together. And what
Speaker 3: I mean by that is once people are able to
Speaker 3: understand the connection between health tricks you know, bone density,
Speaker 3: how your again lean muscle mass is working, and how
Speaker 3: your stress levels all the tests that we talk about, right,
Speaker 3: once we start to connect that data to physical transformation,
Speaker 3: I think that's when people will begin to understand there's
Speaker 3: a connection here. And I think that people like me,
Speaker 3: and you need to be working together more to tell
Speaker 3: the whole story as opposed to the story in these
Speaker 3: different silos. Oh, I'm working out to lose weight. Oh
Speaker 3: I'm seeing my doctor because I'm not feeling well, or
Speaker 3: I'm just getting tests to see, you know, to make
Speaker 3: sure that I'm okay, as opposed to you know, if
Speaker 3: these things all work together, you can harness a physical
Speaker 3: and mental power in your own life that we haven't
Speaker 3: seen before. And to me, it just doesn't make sense
Speaker 3: that we're not working more closely together.
Speaker 1: Even you know, when you talk about the mental power too,
Speaker 1: I mean the spirituality aspect of it. But just like
Speaker 1: just just use the word mental health, right, because there's
Speaker 1: a number of studies that have shown that exercise and
Speaker 1: fitness actually works just as well as an SSRI for
Speaker 1: some people. And so I mean this is real. Like
Speaker 1: you said, the muscle is the medicine. The medicines and
Speaker 1: the muscle. Talk to me a little bit about weight.
Speaker 1: You know so many women struggle with weight at midlife.
Speaker 1: Do you talk about weight at all or is it
Speaker 1: just really transformation of the body habitus.
Speaker 3: We talk about weight insofar as how it helps a
Speaker 3: client in front of us, because talk about weight can
Speaker 3: be discouraging and sometimes as you're working out, it might
Speaker 3: go up and it will plateau, and the plateau is
Speaker 3: a normal part it means if the plateaum means you're
Speaker 3: doing something right, because your body's trying to find homeless
Speaker 3: stations right, So you need to find a different way
Speaker 3: to challenge it. And so for some people, monitoring weight
Speaker 3: is stressful. For other people it keeps them on track.
Speaker 3: So we really modify it to the actual person and
Speaker 3: we try to say, look, losing you know, one to
Speaker 3: two pounds per week is is great. You know, we
Speaker 3: have had people lose more than that, but again it's
Speaker 3: not through crazy crash dieting or anything extreme, but making
Speaker 3: sure that the program that you're on, all of those
Speaker 3: different elements that we talked about, the compound movements, deciding
Speaker 3: whether it's right to do interval training now or more
Speaker 3: endurance training, that all of those things are carefully monitored.
Speaker 3: So I talk about it in as far as it
Speaker 3: helps the client. If that doesn't help you mentally or spiritually,
Speaker 3: and it causes more anxiety, then don't do it right.
Speaker 3: A lot of my clients go about how their clothes feel.
Speaker 3: And we also take pictures at the beginning so that
Speaker 3: clients can see the micro changes.
Speaker 4: And I advise.
Speaker 3: People to take those pictures because you see yourself every day.
Speaker 3: We had one client she came in and she was
Speaker 3: maybe about four or five weeks in. She's like, this
Speaker 3: isn't working. My body's not changing. I still feel a
Speaker 3: certain way, you know, I just don't see any change.
Speaker 3: And so I took out her first picture. We took
Speaker 3: a picture of her second picture, and there was.
Speaker 4: A market difference.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so once she was encouraged, she was motivated
Speaker 3: to go on. But two she started to ask herself
Speaker 3: other questions. Why can't I see that right? Why am
Speaker 3: I paying attention to the good study like that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So interesting. It's the self confidence. What are some
Speaker 1: of the biggest transformations you've seen in your clients, either
Speaker 1: physically but also emotionally spiritually. I mean, I've had a
Speaker 1: huge breakthrough. I approached my day, like I said, so
Speaker 1: much differently. And I love the focus on what you're
Speaker 1: actually doing that movement, meditation and focusing on what muscle
Speaker 1: am I moving And it's for me mental health wise.
Speaker 1: It's been absolutely huge and allowed me to power through
Speaker 1: some very difficult times recently with my family. But what
Speaker 1: are some of the biggest breakthroughs that you've seen in
Speaker 1: your clients.
Speaker 3: There's quite a few. There's one who I'm thinking of
Speaker 3: in particular. She did come with her knee injury and
Speaker 3: an ankle injury, and.
Speaker 4: So we helped her through that.
Speaker 3: But she had said she passed a shop window and
Speaker 3: she saw a white bikini and she said to herself, Oh,
Speaker 3: those days are of me, And so that was just
Speaker 3: how she was feeling before she came. Now, yes, she
Speaker 3: changed her body, she was able to get into a bikini,
Speaker 3: but the point isn't just that. The point was she's
Speaker 3: got emotional because she thought, where else am I selling
Speaker 3: myself short? And where else have I just settled? And
Speaker 3: so it really changed the way she started to engage.
Speaker 3: She was already successful, but it took her to new places.
Speaker 3: So it's things like that transformation pitches you've seen over
Speaker 3: and over again, right, But it's the emotional empowerment that
Speaker 3: it creates. And then you're in an environment where you're
Speaker 3: seeing all of these different women transform.
Speaker 4: You know. We had another.
Speaker 3: Client who was kind of quiet, right, she came in,
Speaker 3: got a work done, and then she mentioned she was like,
Speaker 3: I was on the beach and my body felt great,
Speaker 3: and I felt great about my body, and I'd never
Speaker 3: been skinny dipping, so I just I just went for it.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 4: It was a bit of a moment, like okay.
Speaker 1: Call it.
Speaker 3: Empowered her in such a way, and so we feel
Speaker 3: the whole team fields a win when we see that.
Speaker 1: Coming up next, practical tips for how anyone can get started,
Speaker 1: no matter where you are on your fitness journey. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back. I got started on my fitness journey.
Speaker 1: I was always an athlete, and then I became a
Speaker 1: surgeon running a busy private practice, and then got sick
Speaker 1: and had cancer, and I was facing chemotherapy and radiation therapy,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I'm not going to miss a
Speaker 1: day of work, so I better start exercising because there's
Speaker 1: this great data that shows that you can beat chemotherapy
Speaker 1: fatigue by exercise. Actually, so I just started at the
Speaker 1: end of my bed doing some push ups and setups
Speaker 1: and what I could do without equipment. So that's how
Speaker 1: I got started. And I got started at like five
Speaker 1: minutes a day that it was before I went and
Speaker 1: got my radiation I'd go do some setups and push ups,
Speaker 1: but what how does somebody get started and who maybe
Speaker 1: can't doesn't have the resources to go to a gym,
Speaker 1: or doesn't have might I always here like I don't
Speaker 1: have time to go to the gym, or I travel
Speaker 1: too much, I can't get to the gym. Like where
Speaker 1: do we started as women? Midlife women?
Speaker 4: I think two things.
Speaker 3: I mean, sounds off, you stop where you're at, And
Speaker 3: what I mean by that is do what feels good.
Speaker 3: If you have in trouble getting started, you're feeling your
Speaker 3: schedule is too much or the energy to do what
Speaker 3: feels good. And that can be riding a bike, it
Speaker 3: can be going to a dance class. And I want
Speaker 3: to be specific here because there's a difference between being
Speaker 3: active and being fit. Right, Being active, gardening, going for
Speaker 3: walks great for overall health, but rarely is it going
Speaker 3: to move you forward in terms of the real big
Speaker 3: health markers. So do something that's going to do that.
Speaker 3: So something that's a little more vigorous. That's why I'm
Speaker 3: saying by writing dancing in my own heart of hearts,
Speaker 3: I want every woman to be lifting weights and so
Speaker 3: whatever you can do to do that whether it's go
Speaker 3: to a gym, and most of the big box gyms
Speaker 3: will give you a complimentary session with a trainer and
Speaker 3: you can just ask them to show you how to
Speaker 3: use all of the machines.
Speaker 1: Right, and so great idea.
Speaker 3: That that's one way so that you're getting a full
Speaker 3: body work out with weights. But the main thing is
Speaker 3: really starting where you're at. Like you said you were
Speaker 3: you know, you had cancer, you were very sick, and
Speaker 3: the most that you could do is get to the
Speaker 3: end of the bed and do a few pushups. So
Speaker 3: if that's where you're at, start there. And while you
Speaker 3: start there, pay attention to how you're feeling afterwards, beyond
Speaker 3: the soreness, because when you first start, you will be
Speaker 3: sold that will go away. But pay attention to how
Speaker 3: you're feeling so that you're more motivated to continue.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think that. I always tell people, like,
Speaker 1: once you start, you're going to feel so good, and
Speaker 1: that five minutes turns into fifteen minutes, turns into twenty minutes,
Speaker 1: and then like if you're kind of crazy like I am,
Speaker 1: if I'm at home working out on my own, into
Speaker 1: an hour and I have a bench at the end
Speaker 1: of our bed now and a walking treadmill and some cattlebells,
Speaker 1: and do you recommend yes, kind of good. It's like
Speaker 1: my husband's like, you're going to turn the whole house
Speaker 1: into a job and yeah, so do you recommend buying
Speaker 1: like for women who maybe are are intimidated by community fitness,
Speaker 1: who are like, Okay, I don't want to go to
Speaker 1: the gym. I don't want to be you know, I
Speaker 1: just don't. I don't want to do that. I mean,
Speaker 1: do you recommend like buying some barbells on cragslist or Amazon,
Speaker 1: some kettlebells, and do you have any recommendations for that,
Speaker 1: like what people should start.
Speaker 3: With or I would say start with a three five
Speaker 3: and an eight pound weight, get yourself a mat, right,
Speaker 3: and I would start There's a bunch of different apps.
Speaker 4: Nikes got a great.
Speaker 3: App, right, it's right, Yeah, we even have an exercise platform,
Speaker 3: and just start doing basic workouts. YouTube has a lot
Speaker 3: of stuff, but look for the very basic workouts and
Speaker 3: look for something that gives you proper form because people
Speaker 3: are catching on to do there's more trainers really focusing
Speaker 3: on form and if you start there, you're going to
Speaker 3: see improvement. But a couple of dumb bells and everybody
Speaker 3: can do that. Get a little space in your house,
Speaker 3: your apartment, wherever it is, and leave that as your
Speaker 3: dedicated space to work out.
Speaker 1: And you said you have an exercise platform.
Speaker 4: Yes, it's called the Brace Life.
Speaker 1: Tell us about that.
Speaker 3: That started during the pandemic, and what we wanted to
Speaker 3: do was have people engage with their mind, their body,
Speaker 3: and their soul, so something mindful in other words, listening
Speaker 3: to a mindful message, physicality, body workouts. So there's everything
Speaker 3: from yoga to our twenty eight day challenge, to our
Speaker 3: icons program, a digital form on there. And then your soul,
Speaker 3: which we when we talk about soul talking about soul
Speaker 3: level qualities peace, you know, calm, and that's where meditation
Speaker 3: and breathing exercises coming. So on that platform, the whole
Speaker 3: aim is for you to do a little bit of
Speaker 3: those every single day, and there's a little dial that
Speaker 3: helps you know how much of your mind, your body,
Speaker 3: and soul you've engaged with for that day. And then
Speaker 3: you can do it in groups as well. You can
Speaker 3: invite your friends and create a small group and do
Speaker 3: it together. So we created that during the pandemic because
Speaker 3: we saw the value in people not only moving by
Speaker 3: getting community and getting in touch spending time thinking about
Speaker 3: their own mindfulness and their own spirit.
Speaker 1: I love that. I just I love that connect all connectivity.
Speaker 1: I keep using that word. So you had an event
Speaker 1: recently with Sharon Malone, who is actually a former classmate
Speaker 1: of Mind Medical School, which was so cool, and Sharon
Speaker 1: said something the trinity of health being sleep, exercise, and nutrition,
Speaker 1: and that really resonated with me. So let's just talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about and I love the word trinity
Speaker 1: and but nutrition, let's drill down a little bit on
Speaker 1: how much protein should bid life women be eating who
Speaker 1: are training with you.
Speaker 4: Freak everybody out, Okay, I.
Speaker 1: Don't think so. I don't think you're going what this
Speaker 1: crowd is.
Speaker 4: In the growth phase.
Speaker 3: It's what it's er point eight to one gram of
Speaker 3: protein per pound of body weight, right, And that's what
Speaker 3: we created videos on this because you know, one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty pound woman says I need to eed one
Speaker 3: hundred and fifty grams of protein every single day. Yes,
Speaker 3: and it can be done. You have two eggs, you
Speaker 3: have greek yogurt in the morning, and if each of
Speaker 3: your meals has about your your main meals, breakast, hunch,
Speaker 3: dinner has about thirty grams of protein which you can
Speaker 3: get right. I'm serving a fish, if you have a steak,
Speaker 3: you know that's going to help boost it. And then
Speaker 3: you have your protein shakes as snacks or your mid
Speaker 3: mid morning, mid afternoon snack or post workout snack. You
Speaker 3: can get that amount into your diet.
Speaker 1: And the that's actually I usually recommend a gram to
Speaker 1: art clients and patients creatine. Talk to me about creating
Speaker 1: a lot of women don't like creating because it may
Speaker 1: cause some bloating and water retention. What are your recommendations
Speaker 1: and guidelines for creating usage.
Speaker 3: Creating is great when you're on a training program, right,
Speaker 3: because it's going to help you engage without getting too
Speaker 3: technical with the creating phosphate, it's going to help you
Speaker 3: engage your muscles more and actually more reps more weight
Speaker 3: during your workouts what we call work in a workout right.
Speaker 3: And then there are other benefits. There's protection of brain
Speaker 3: health with creating right. So if you are on a
Speaker 3: strength training program, I recommend it. It helps you enjoy
Speaker 3: your workout more, get more out of your workout. You're
Speaker 3: not as fatigued and helps you recover better lovely.
Speaker 1: What would be if you could give some tips for
Speaker 1: midlife women for fitness and feeling better about themselves and
Speaker 1: movement through life and spirituality and just feeling better and good.
Speaker 1: What would you leave us with In terms of a message.
Speaker 3: The message is that if you are in any way,
Speaker 3: if you're ornamental perspectrum and you haven't really spoken to
Speaker 3: your doctor, or you're not engaged in a program, and
Speaker 3: you're feeling tired, joints are aching, you're feeling like the
Speaker 3: best years are behind you, you're feeling you're not sleeping well,
Speaker 3: you've got increased anxiety that you don't know where it
Speaker 3: came from. If you're feeling those things, first of all,
Speaker 3: pay attention to those and I understand you really do
Speaker 3: not have to continue to live that way. There are solutions.
Speaker 3: Whether if you're like I'm not going to exercise just yet,
Speaker 3: then go see your doctor discuss HRT or hormone therapy
Speaker 3: or at least get to understand what's going on. And two,
Speaker 3: if you're ready to move, I'm telling you that there
Speaker 3: is such a vitality, a strength and energy, let alone
Speaker 3: a body change and transformation that you're going to have
Speaker 3: on the other side of you engaging with wellness, engaging
Speaker 3: with muscle building, engaging with and maybe I should stop
Speaker 3: saying muscle building because I think maybe in some people's
Speaker 3: minds are thinking bodybuilding, but like just to say, engaging
Speaker 3: with getting stronger and more aligned with your body and
Speaker 3: more in tune with your body. On the other side
Speaker 3: of that is such vibrance. As I say, stress relief,
Speaker 3: But the other side of stress relief is joy, vitality.
Speaker 3: There's a life that you can be living with more energy,
Speaker 3: strength and vitality then you're living now. You don't have
Speaker 3: to stay there, and so if you're in that place,
Speaker 3: just understand there are solutions and it doesn't have to
Speaker 3: take that long.
Speaker 1: You know, I am having gone to two of your
Speaker 1: community events right in terms of related to midlife women's
Speaker 1: health and menopause. The questions are so amazing that arise
Speaker 1: at those events in terms of not only there's a
Speaker 1: lot of them, but the curiosity is so intense. And
Speaker 1: so I think that you're doing such a great service
Speaker 1: for women who may not hear it from their doctors
Speaker 1: that you don't have to feel this way. You can
Speaker 1: feel better how Can people find you online? Can people
Speaker 1: can do your online programs online?
Speaker 3: You can go to the brace Life thebracelife dot com.
Speaker 3: If you want to come and see you in person,
Speaker 3: it's Bracelife Studios dot com.
Speaker 1: Love it okay, love it excellent. We hear it all
Speaker 1: the time, doctors telling their patients you should exercise, but
Speaker 1: usually that's the extent of the advice. It can be
Speaker 1: so hard to know how to get started or to
Speaker 1: find a workout that feels right for you and your life.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm so grateful to have found Robert and
Speaker 1: his studio a space where I can move but also
Speaker 1: build community, because fitness is far more than weight loss.
Speaker 1: Movement is great for our mental health and for our
Speaker 1: spiritual wellbeing, and building that organ of longevity muscle and
Speaker 1: being in a gym or a yoga studio or a
Speaker 1: community pool can also foster connection, something that we all
Speaker 1: know is so important to living a vibrant and healthy
Speaker 1: life at any age. And I know exercising in a
Speaker 1: group setting can be intimidating for some women, but trust me,
Speaker 1: it's worth being brave and giving it a try, because
Speaker 1: there are studies that back what Robert was talking about
Speaker 1: that working out in a group can actually boost the
Speaker 1: benefits of working out in the first place. Remember, muscle
Speaker 1: is medicine. Building lean muscle mass is key for so
Speaker 1: many vital functions. It can help improve bone density and
Speaker 1: regulate our metabolism. Building muscle can also help us manage
Speaker 1: stress and improve our sleep and also our moods, So
Speaker 1: integrate strength training into your routine. Also, short focused interval
Speaker 1: training is another great way to move your body, especially
Speaker 1: when you don't have a ton of time. Consider using
Speaker 1: an app to track your cycle to better understand your
Speaker 1: body and how to adjust your workouts accordingly. Robert recommended
Speaker 1: pushing yourself more during the follicular and ovulatory phases and
Speaker 1: scaling back intensity during the luteal phase. Wherever you are
Speaker 1: in your fitness journey, be patient and kind to yourself.
Speaker 1: You won't always see or feel obvious changes immediately, but
Speaker 1: you have to zoom out to see the big picture.
Speaker 1: It's not about the numbers on the scale. It's about
Speaker 1: feeling confident, energetic, and ready to take on whatever life
Speaker 1: throws your way. Coming up on the next episode of
Speaker 1: Decoding Women's Health, I'll be joined by an expert on
Speaker 1: psychedelics to explore how this class of drugs might be
Speaker 1: helpful to women working through trauma and chronic pain.
Speaker 5: Some days we forget that there are two sides to pain,
Speaker 5: and that's the thing that is closing the pain, and
Speaker 5: that's the thing that is perceiving the pain. And it's
Speaker 5: the thing that is perceiving the pain.
Speaker 1: I el brains.
Speaker 5: Has gotten stock on thinking pain is expected. Any pain
Speaker 5: that we do then feel, will feel in a more
Speaker 5: intense way.
Speaker 1: Dacoding Women's Health is a production of Pushkin Industries and
Speaker 1: the Adria Health and Research Institute. This episode was produced
Speaker 1: by Rebecca Lee Douglas and Daphne Chen. It was edited
Speaker 1: by Amy Gaines McQuaid, mastering by Sarah Bruguier. Our associate
Speaker 1: producer is Sonya Gerwitt. Our executive producer is Alexandra Garreton.
Speaker 1: Our theme song was composed by Hannis Brown. Concept creative
Speaker 1: development and fact checking by Shabbon O'Connor. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Alan Tish, David Saltzman, Sarah Nick, Eric Sandler, Morgan Rattner,
Speaker 1: Owen Miller, Jordan McMillan, and Greta Cone. If you have
Speaker 1: questions about women's health and midlife. Leave us a voicemail
Speaker 1: at four fix five two oh one, three three eight five,
Speaker 1: or send us a message at Decoding Women's Health at
Speaker 1: Pushkin dot FM. I'm doctor Elizabeth Pointer. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Until next time,