Speaker 1: Good everyone, Sam here, Welcome to the wood Life. Maybe
Speaker 1: you've all had a wonderful week. I've had a romantic week,
Speaker 1: which is not something we typically go into on this
Speaker 1: little fitness and nutrition podcast, But Snares and I had
Speaker 1: our four year wedding anniversary last Tuesday.
Speaker 2: And what did we do?
Speaker 1: We went hot air ballooning actually across Melbourne. Most beautiful,
Speaker 1: stunning morning. Finally the weather has come good and it
Speaker 1: was so still. The sunrise was absolutely perfect. And the
Speaker 1: reason I took Snai's hot air b learning it was
Speaker 1: a little surprise, was our first date on the Bachelor.
Speaker 1: We went hot air ballooning and it was the first
Speaker 1: day we ever had, the first time we ever kissed
Speaker 1: with sixty two bloody cameras in our faces, Albert, but
Speaker 1: it was so I thought we might relive that little
Speaker 1: bit of magic on a little date for anniversary and
Speaker 1: it was absolutely spectacular.
Speaker 2: Now, how's this for a segue? Speaking of love?
Speaker 1: Today, our guest is Jessica Spendlove, who is an elite
Speaker 1: athlete dietitian, and she's going to be teaching us the
Speaker 1: valuable lessons that she has taught thousands of athletes over
Speaker 1: the journey and how everyday people like you and me
Speaker 1: can apply them into our lives. That's coming up next
Speaker 1: on the Woodlife, and then we're going to answer some
Speaker 1: of your brilliant fitness questions.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 1: We are joined in the studio today by an incredible
Speaker 1: sports titian who has worked with thousands of elite athletes
Speaker 1: across multiples of sports and different codes in her incredible
Speaker 1: career to date, and she's now working with everyday people
Speaker 1: helping apply those exact same athletic nutrition principles. Jess spend Love,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the wood Life.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me, hear Sam.
Speaker 1: So let's dive into I feel like people are first
Speaker 1: of all, fascinated by how athletes live, how they eat,
Speaker 1: how they train, how they recover, and second of all,
Speaker 1: I then want to get into how we can learn
Speaker 1: as everyday people from these principles that even though it's
Speaker 1: for the elite, shouldn't necessarily change when they're applying them
Speaker 1: when we're applying them to ourselves. So I think an
Speaker 1: assumption a lot of people make and correct me if
Speaker 1: I'm wrong, is that you're an elite athlete. Of course
Speaker 1: you eat well. And I've had nowhere near the experience
Speaker 1: as you have training elerde athletes. But I'd be shocked
Speaker 1: often at how poorly they ate. They trained the house down,
Speaker 1: but then I would ask them what they are eating
Speaker 1: to recover between sessions.
Speaker 2: Heaps of takeaway. Very poor cooks.
Speaker 1: Often really fought me on the importance of the nutrition
Speaker 1: side of things, and it's not until they change their
Speaker 1: diet and they see the difference that the penny drops
Speaker 1: for them. Am I Am I on the mark there?
Speaker 1: Or No, that's that's been what I've experienced.
Speaker 3: No, you're one hundred percent on the money. And look,
Speaker 3: I think even if I look back over the last decade,
Speaker 3: I do think the importance of it is shifting, and
Speaker 3: clubs are investing in this space and educating their athletes
Speaker 3: more so, it's not just every single one, but the majority.
Speaker 3: I think you would be surprised. And I'll never ever
Speaker 3: forget the very first professional athlete I sat down with
Speaker 3: the day before. I think I spent two hours preparing
Speaker 3: like a framework of a meal plan because I was
Speaker 3: just going to wow him with how amazing that was
Speaker 3: going to be. And he was an NRL player, very
Speaker 3: high profile. Sat down Okay, what do you have for breakfast?
Speaker 3: I don't eat breakfast. And from that day forward, it
Speaker 3: was like, make absolutely no assumptions that just because they've
Speaker 3: been through professional programs, they're representing the country, their number
Speaker 3: one draft pick, whatever it might be. Don't assume because
Speaker 3: you don't know what someone's lived experiences. You don't know
Speaker 3: how they've grown up. Did they go to boarding school,
Speaker 3: did the family always do takeaway? Whatever it might be.
Speaker 3: So yeah, hopefully that kind of reassures a lot of
Speaker 3: people that, you know, elite athletes don't even know exactly
Speaker 3: what they need to be doing until they're in a
Speaker 3: program where they've got a sports dietitian to kind of
Speaker 3: educate them. And you know, I think that was the
Speaker 3: thing for me when I was able to sit across
Speaker 3: so many different codes and sports and kind of start
Speaker 3: to see these common themes and start to see that
Speaker 3: this is actually information that everybody can benefit from. Yes,
Speaker 3: professional athletes, but this is just about anyone feeling their best,
Speaker 3: living their best life, you know, going to work, having energy,
Speaker 3: or having energy in the afternoon to or in the
Speaker 3: evening to spend time with their family, not feel totally
Speaker 3: exhausted or you know, have a good relationship with food,
Speaker 3: not beyond this Hempster wheel of ordering food, wanting to
Speaker 3: change behavior, then feeling guilty about not changing it, and
Speaker 3: you know it kind of continues on. So you're absolutely
Speaker 3: one hundred percent correct. It speaks to everyone. And professional
Speaker 3: athletes don't just walk in knowing all of this. They're
Speaker 3: taught this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean even everyday people that's me. They think
Speaker 1: about food in a weight loss context. They don't necessarily
Speaker 1: think about food in a performance context.
Speaker 2: And there's a big difference. So now I'm not just
Speaker 2: eating well to be lighter or leaner. I'm eating well.
Speaker 1: To feel better, to move better, to reach my bab's,
Speaker 1: to reach my potential. And when you explain it to
Speaker 1: them like that, of course that should apply to whether
Speaker 1: you're an elite athlete or your fifty year old Mary
Speaker 1: who just wants to come to the gym three times
Speaker 1: a week. You know it should absolutely not change.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. And it's also like you can have
Speaker 3: all of that and enjoy it. This isn't about punishing
Speaker 3: yourself or we're not in prison here. We don't have
Speaker 3: to dislike what we're eating. It's you can eat the
Speaker 3: foods that you like, you can utilize nutrition to enhance
Speaker 3: all of those areas. And I think even that simple
Speaker 3: shift of not thinking about what not to do, but
Speaker 3: flipping the script and understanding what you should do, and
Speaker 3: when you focus on that, first of all, it's such
Speaker 3: a nicer way to approach your own life. But by
Speaker 3: simply focusing what you know you should do, the behaviors
Speaker 3: that you should be focusing on, that naturally takes care
Speaker 3: of probably the things that you're trying to stop or avoid. So,
Speaker 3: you know, the perfect example, and something I talk to
Speaker 3: literally every single human I ever encounter in a podcast,
Speaker 3: speaking presentation, one on one, group presentation, whatever it might be,
Speaker 3: is looking at spreading protein intake out across the day.
Speaker 3: And you know a lot of people think about that because, yeah,
Speaker 3: muscles gaining lean mass, recovery. But what I want to
Speaker 3: talk to people about that's all correct, is the role
Speaker 3: that plays in satiety and that feeling of fullness. And
Speaker 3: you know, when we're managing our intake and we're eating
Speaker 3: consistently across the day, our blood sugar levels are stable,
Speaker 3: which means our energy levels are stable, which means you know,
Speaker 3: we're feeling focused and we've got this nice, consistent energy
Speaker 3: across the day. It's it's literally about quality of life
Speaker 3: and feeling your best. And you know that's what that's
Speaker 3: what I'm talking about. People might come and see me
Speaker 3: for the weight loss, or they want to put on
Speaker 3: x amount of muscle, or they want to they might
Speaker 3: want to perform in some sort of event, or a
Speaker 3: business leader that maybe hasn't prioritized their well being. But
Speaker 3: let's talk about how I can impact you on that
Speaker 3: day to day that quality of life. And I'm sure
Speaker 3: a lot of what we kind of touch on here
Speaker 3: today will literally like literally, we'll do that. And that's
Speaker 3: you know, that's powerful. When you start to feel better
Speaker 3: within a day or two, that's a really powerful green flag, like, yeah,
Speaker 3: let's keep doing that.
Speaker 1: And the question to people is what's your definition of performance?
Speaker 1: You know, is your definition of performance getting up with
Speaker 1: energy and being able to look after your kids all day?
Speaker 1: You know, it's not going out there and beating your
Speaker 1: four hundred meter PB or whatever it might be. And
Speaker 1: the protein example that you gave, I couldn't agree with
Speaker 1: you more. Did you see a difference between certain sports
Speaker 1: and certain codes. Were there certain sports and codes that
Speaker 1: ate a lot better or were a lot more open
Speaker 1: to taking the nutrition advice on board.
Speaker 3: Definitely a difference between sports. So I guess my first
Speaker 3: experience was really convincing athletes on the role of nutrition.
Speaker 3: It was nearly bargaining with them, trying to put that
Speaker 3: important front and center, which I was pretty green at
Speaker 3: the time and pretty eager, so I really enjoyed that.
Speaker 1: Can I just ask you, Jes, how did you explain
Speaker 1: it to them? How do you I'm an athlete, I'm
Speaker 1: sitting here, I'm naturally strong, I'm naturally fit, I'm picked
Speaker 1: first in the team every week, I'm playing NRL or
Speaker 1: whatever my sport is, and you're trying to convince me
Speaker 1: that I can be better. I already think I'm great.
Speaker 1: I think I'm great. I think why have I got
Speaker 1: this meeting with Jess? What a waste of my precious time.
Speaker 1: You know, I've got a big ego. I'm twenty five,
Speaker 1: I'm in the peak of my career. How do you
Speaker 1: convince me that I need to eat better?
Speaker 3: Totally great question, and look, I'm going to admit, probably
Speaker 3: at the start of my career, I don't think I
Speaker 3: was doing the dance as well as I could have,
Speaker 3: it wasn't. I just had a conversation and they were like, oh,
Speaker 3: nutrition's the most important thing. Ever so often that that
Speaker 3: relationship with the athlete was really important, having that rapport,
Speaker 3: but finding their why. So you know, were they an
Speaker 3: older athlete that was looking to prolong their career, or
Speaker 3: were they a fringe athlete who was looking to constantly
Speaker 3: make that first team, or you know, was it just
Speaker 3: a player at his absolute peak of his career wanting
Speaker 3: to sustain that. So, you know, I'm gonna I'm going
Speaker 3: to admit I probably wasn't switched into that from the
Speaker 3: absolute get go, but I learned that, you know, player first,
Speaker 3: you know, as a human, but also considering what's important
Speaker 3: to them. What's important to me doesn't matter, it's what's
Speaker 3: important to them. So that was really really important. But look,
Speaker 3: I you know, it wasn't convincing athletes for my entire
Speaker 3: career on the importance of nutrition. Walked into the second club,
Speaker 3: different code, and they were just sponges. I mean they
Speaker 3: were very young, you know, I guess the way that
Speaker 3: the Giants was set up at the time, it was
Speaker 3: walking into a group of twenty year olds. So I
Speaker 3: wasn't there from the start, but it was from that
Speaker 3: third season and they just thrived and loved it. So
Speaker 3: it might have been a combination of like a the environment,
Speaker 3: be just the code in general, and see I guess
Speaker 3: the environment and the way that it was set up
Speaker 3: and where nutrition was positioned. But you know, I even
Speaker 3: look at that and that first contract was one day
Speaker 3: a week, very much a consultant role. Come in do
Speaker 3: like a mini consult with most players to by the
Speaker 3: end or twenty nineteen, I was there till twenty twenty one,
Speaker 3: but COVID really changed the landscape for servicing. But you know,
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen it was a full time role, so the
Speaker 3: importance was seen. But that was really like a five
Speaker 3: year process of advocating pushing the importance of building relationships
Speaker 3: with the right types of people player power as well
Speaker 3: as people in the right positions. And you know, all
Speaker 3: of that was really great because it enabled me to go, Okay,
Speaker 3: well this is gold standard. How do we scale that
Speaker 3: to other sports where you only have like a miniscule budget,
Speaker 3: But what can you do with that? And you know,
Speaker 3: aside from all of that, I think the most important
Speaker 3: thing was it enabled me like I said to kind
Speaker 3: of narrow and really realize, Okay, there's like six or
Speaker 3: seven or eight things that everyone who's interested in, you know,
Speaker 3: levery the power of nutrition or at least open to
Speaker 3: the concept. There's seven, six, seven or eight things that
Speaker 3: everyone can learn to help them perform at your best.
Speaker 3: And to your point, is that having more energy to
Speaker 3: play with their children at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: or you know, is that feeling better at work, or
Speaker 3: is that to go to the gym three times a
Speaker 3: week because they've not been able to do that for
Speaker 3: you know, forever and a day. Whatever that might be.
Speaker 3: It's not about running marathons or winning races. It's whatever
Speaker 3: that individual's performing at their best is.
Speaker 1: Let's now take all of those learnings. As much as
Speaker 1: I'd love to just wax lyrical with you with anecdotes
Speaker 1: about athletes, and I'd love to get some names off
Speaker 1: you reckon, you'd have some ripper stories. What are the
Speaker 1: key learnings from your work with elite teams and elite
Speaker 1: individuals that you now from a message perspective, at philosophy perspective,
Speaker 1: a fundamentals perspective. Think the gen pop musted here too,
Speaker 1: and it absolutely is the same rule for them as
Speaker 1: it is the elite athlete.
Speaker 3: There's probably six or seven, but I'm going to maybe
Speaker 3: pick two or three top ones. Let's show with the
Speaker 3: low hanging fruits, you know, the things that I've never
Speaker 3: met anyone walk in my door and go, they're nailing it.
Speaker 3: So one we kind of touched on was the protein,
Speaker 3: and that's that's so powerful and you will get that
Speaker 3: shift and you will feel that impact within a few days.
Speaker 3: So you do want someone to get that short term win, Like,
Speaker 3: it's not about quick fixes, but let's get them feeling good.
Speaker 3: So start there. The next is hydration. It's you know,
Speaker 3: might sound a little bit boring, but it's some pretty
Speaker 3: powerful statistics on how many people are getting around dehydrated.
Speaker 3: So who thinks the World Health Organization thinks it's probably
Speaker 3: somewhere around seventy percent of daytime fatigue is contributed from dehydration.
Speaker 3: And you know, I don't think a lot of people
Speaker 3: sit there going Fifty percent of me or more is
Speaker 3: made up of water. So when you do think about
Speaker 3: it like that, the brain's more than seventy percent, and
Speaker 3: it is so powerful in terms of that, you know,
Speaker 3: feeling lethargic, feeling tired, headaches, lack of focus, so simply
Speaker 3: having that on your radar. And again, you know, like
Speaker 3: there are some guidelines. For women it's two point one
Speaker 3: leads and for males it's two point six. And for
Speaker 3: some people they might go, I hardly drink a thing,
Speaker 3: so that again might seem like something that's impossible. It's
Speaker 3: not about perfection, it's about progress. What's your individual starting
Speaker 3: point and where are you going to take that? Too?
Speaker 3: So for me, I nearly think my job is like
Speaker 3: supporting someone putting things on their radar until they can
Speaker 3: turn it into a habit, which is why it's also
Speaker 3: not like let's change five thousand things. Let's pick one
Speaker 3: or two generally, the one or two I know you
Speaker 3: can do and the one or two you'll feel that
Speaker 3: impact and let's build from there. And then my third one,
Speaker 3: maybe coming from a more training sensor fatigue sense, is
Speaker 3: you know, training fueled. And look, if you go into
Speaker 3: a per class or a yoga class, not necessarily, or
Speaker 3: you know, if it's a high intensity session for thirty
Speaker 3: to forty five minutes, again not necessarily, but anything above that,
Speaker 3: or if you're simply like maybe I just want to
Speaker 3: try training with some fuel on board. Probably my number
Speaker 3: one performance nutrition principle is fuel for the work you're
Speaker 3: going to do. And I guess what I see people
Speaker 3: doing is thinking about what they're doing after training and
Speaker 3: kind of being reactionary, Whereas what I'm really encouraging people
Speaker 3: to do is think about how they're setting their day up.
Speaker 3: And for me, that principle applies to breakfast. So if
Speaker 3: you're someone who eats a really large dinner and you're
Speaker 3: always craving sweet foods at night, that's your body's way
Speaker 3: of saying you're not eating enough. I really just need
Speaker 3: some nutrition. I need something fast, and that's what I'm
Speaker 3: going to reach out for. So if you focus on
Speaker 3: that front half of the day, so whether it's fueling
Speaker 3: for your work day or in a training sense, thinking
Speaker 3: about you know, having something before you train, if it's
Speaker 3: more than forty five minutes, you will feel such a
Speaker 3: difference in that later half of the day or that
Speaker 3: later half of the session. So they're probably my top three.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1: So protein in every meal, protein three times a week,
Speaker 1: every meal keep yourself great for muscle recovery, but also
Speaker 1: keeps you full. I love that seventy percent of us
Speaker 1: are walking around dehydrated, none of us probably realize it.
Speaker 1: Baby steps to get towards that sort of you know,
Speaker 1: low twos. I always say three letters because I think
Speaker 1: once people start exercising, we probably should round it.
Speaker 3: Up as well.
Speaker 1: So let's say get as close to that three letter
Speaker 1: market as you can. And then I'm massive on the
Speaker 1: longer you've been training and the more you're looking for
Speaker 1: that next challenge, and the more you see that getting
Speaker 1: in shape has no finish line and you should be
Speaker 1: thinking about what's the next thing. Start to think of
Speaker 1: yourself as an athlete, both in how you'd move, how
Speaker 1: you train, how you program your workouts, how you progress
Speaker 1: your workouts a progressive overload, and just as importantly, if
Speaker 1: not more importantly, how you fuel your body you recover
Speaker 1: after workouts. There's a lot of people in our space
Speaker 1: their ultimate is to work with athletes, so you know,
Speaker 1: they spend a lot of time, in their eyes, doing
Speaker 1: an apprenticeship with everyday people with the hope of getting
Speaker 1: a job with the sports stem. I love that you've
Speaker 1: actually come the other way you've gone. I'm going to
Speaker 1: take all of these incredible learnings with these elite athletes,
Speaker 1: the best of the best across multiple sports men and women,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to help every day people apply these
Speaker 1: things to move better, to eat better, to feel better.
Speaker 1: And I think it's an absolute credit to you to
Speaker 1: what you're doing. What's the best platform for people to
Speaker 1: come and check out your stuff if they'd like to
Speaker 1: find out more, because I reckon we've just scratched the
Speaker 1: surface today.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I appreciate that. Probably Instagram pretty easy to
Speaker 3: find with my very unique last name, so Jess Underscore,
Speaker 3: spend Love, Underscore Dietitian. Otherwise, my website's also a great place,
Speaker 3: Jessica spendlove dot com.
Speaker 1: Absolute pleasure having you on the Woodlife today and I'm
Speaker 1: sure our listeners will go and check you out. I'm
Speaker 1: going to go and find out a bit more about
Speaker 1: you too, Jess, And thanks so much for coming in
Speaker 1: the Woodlife today.
Speaker 3: Thanks Sam, appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Jess spend Love.
Speaker 1: Now there's a last name you don't forget. Really interesting
Speaker 1: to see her transition across from athletes to everyday people
Speaker 1: and apply those principles. And I think the simple stuff
Speaker 1: is the most important stuff. And I was sort of
Speaker 1: listening and nodding along to Jess. It wasn't necessarily stuff
Speaker 1: that I didn't know, but always a valuable reminder, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure many of you felt that too. We're now
Speaker 1: going to jump into some of your fitness related questions.
Speaker 2: We've got some absolute rippers in store for you. Let's
Speaker 2: get into it.
Speaker 1: As we reach the end of what's been a brilliant
Speaker 1: first every year of having a podcast. I think this
Speaker 1: is the platform that I wanted. I wanted a place
Speaker 1: that people come and ask me questions like they do
Speaker 1: when I bump into them in the flesh, and I
Speaker 1: feel like this podcast does that. I don't know what
Speaker 1: kind of question I'm going to get. Week to week,
Speaker 1: we get all kinds of questions, and then I hear
Speaker 1: great feedback from other people saying, oh, SAMU, I answered
Speaker 1: a question from someone else and that's exactly what I've
Speaker 1: been thinking and that really helped me. So please, please,
Speaker 1: please keep your questions coming in. I love answering them
Speaker 1: directly on this podcast, no matter what they're about. And
Speaker 1: as I always say, there's a little link there in
Speaker 1: the show notes where you can send me an actual
Speaker 1: voice note and I can hear your question straight from
Speaker 1: you and get back to you.
Speaker 2: So we've got our first question from Corey. Corey fire away.
Speaker 1: With carbi foods like bread and pasta, how much would
Speaker 1: we be eating a week to make sure we don't
Speaker 1: gain weight and don't feel lethargic?
Speaker 2: Corey, it's a great question.
Speaker 1: I feel like foods such as bread and pasta probably
Speaker 1: they're the absolutely number one and two in this category.
Speaker 1: They're demonized because they're not bad foods if they're eaten
Speaker 1: in balance with more veggies and more protein. Whereas if
Speaker 1: you're just eating huge bowls of creamy pasta and a
Speaker 1: whole way of bread, that isn't a good thing because
Speaker 1: there's absolutely no balance there. So the biggest mistake people
Speaker 1: make is they don't have enough protein and veggies to
Speaker 1: balance out the carbs. So if you look at your plate,
Speaker 1: if you've got a fist size of protein and then
Speaker 1: you've got half your plate covered in veggies, then having
Speaker 1: some pasta or some bread with that meal is a
Speaker 1: great meal. Don't stress about it at all. And then
Speaker 1: if you really want to get particular, if it's a
Speaker 1: brown version with more fiber and more seeds and less
Speaker 1: processed of that particular carb that's going to be a
Speaker 1: better option. A whole meal option versus a wide option,
Speaker 1: that's going to be a better option. So don't stress
Speaker 1: about these foods unless you live on them. And I
Speaker 1: guess that's the thing that many people do. That's where
Speaker 1: they make the mistake. It's processed carb after process carb
Speaker 1: after process carb, and that's not what you want to do.
Speaker 1: My beauty wife is Macedonian. If I didn't have a
Speaker 1: household that welcomed bread and pasta, I would be divorced
Speaker 1: quick smart. It's about integrating it in with your fresh fruit,
Speaker 1: with your edgies, with your protein, with your nuts, with
Speaker 1: your healthy fats, and it's all about having a balance.
Speaker 2: A next question is from Mick.
Speaker 4: Oh mate, just wondering if we should split up between
Speaker 4: a leaked day and a body day for workouts or
Speaker 4: is doing a complete workout the way to go?
Speaker 2: Cheers.
Speaker 1: This is a really good question because it depends on
Speaker 1: a number of things. First of all, why you're going
Speaker 1: to the gym. Second of all, how often are you
Speaker 1: going to the gym? Because if you're going to the
Speaker 1: gym every day, seven times a week, even six times
Speaker 1: a week, I'd be starting to split your workouts up.
Speaker 1: You'll get much more bang for your buck if you
Speaker 1: train a particular body part or couple of body parts
Speaker 1: harder and then let them rest while you work in
Speaker 1: another area, and you can split it into a myriad
Speaker 1: of wae. The Blitz system is you do one body
Speaker 1: part every day. Monday, I do chest, Tuesday, I do
Speaker 1: back Wednesday, I do legs, Thursday, I do shoulders, Friday,
Speaker 1: door arms, Saturday, do abs Sunday, or rest whatever it
Speaker 1: might be. And then you can do split days. You
Speaker 1: can do a push day, so I do my chest
Speaker 1: and my shoulders and my triceps one day, and then
Speaker 1: I have a pool day, so to my back and
Speaker 1: my biceps on the other a leg day, and then
Speaker 1: I'm back to push and I'm on a rotation. That way,
Speaker 1: it can be upper and lower. It doesn't matter how
Speaker 1: you split it. The key is you're mixing it up.
Speaker 1: You're getting more volume into a particular area while giving
Speaker 1: other areas rest. And that's just as important because it's
Speaker 1: not just about what you are training, it's about what
Speaker 1: you're not training. If you're doing push ups or chin
Speaker 1: ups or squats every single day, you're not going to
Speaker 1: be able to train those muscles maximally because they're never
Speaker 1: going to get more than a twenty four hour window
Speaker 1: of recovery. Whereas if you're doing legs twice a week,
Speaker 1: you're going to be able to go heavier with more
Speaker 1: volume because you know, no it's going to be seventy
Speaker 1: two hours or even a little bit longer before.
Speaker 2: You hit your legs again.
Speaker 1: So if you're training for hypertrophy, if you're training for strength,
Speaker 1: if you're training for power, and you're going to the gym,
Speaker 1: often a split system is good. If you're an absolute
Speaker 1: beginner or you're only going to the gym two or
Speaker 1: three times a week, a full body workout is great
Speaker 1: because you're still probably getting a full rest day between workouts.
Speaker 1: But if you're hitting the gym more than five times
Speaker 1: a week and you're training for power, strength, or muscle growth,
Speaker 1: start a split system. You'll see a massive increase in
Speaker 1: your results. A next question is from Sarah.
Speaker 2: I have a niggling injury around my achilles.
Speaker 1: I've gone to a physio and I've done the exercises
Speaker 1: for a few months. It's slowly getting better and it
Speaker 1: doesn't prevent me from being active, but I can't get
Speaker 1: rid of it.
Speaker 2: Should I stop exercising until it's healed.
Speaker 1: I think you almost answer your own question, Sarah by
Speaker 1: saying that it's slowly getting better. The achilles is one
Speaker 1: of those things that you've got to be careful of.
Speaker 1: It ten to definitely get trickier as we get older.
Speaker 1: It tends to be far more susceptible to injuring as
Speaker 1: we get older, our calf area and our achille achilles area,
Speaker 1: so the saliis which is the base of the calf muscle,
Speaker 1: not the big belly one, but the little one lower
Speaker 1: on the leg, and that achilles area can become really
Speaker 1: vulnerable as we get older. Now, the thing with our
Speaker 1: achilles is we want to keep it stretched and we
Speaker 1: want to keep it strong. So you should be definitely
Speaker 1: doing a combination of your calf raised type exercises through
Speaker 1: a full range of motion and stretching it through a
Speaker 1: full range of motion. It's about understanding your body and
Speaker 1: balancing it up. You can still train your legs by
Speaker 1: riding a bike with zero impact and that will allow
Speaker 1: your achilles to rest. However, you then got to be
Speaker 1: careful the first time you go for a run that
Speaker 1: you don't ping it because you've lost the elasticity in
Speaker 1: it or the strength in it because you haven't been
Speaker 1: doing any running. It's a hard question to answer exactly
Speaker 1: when you don't you know the exact circumstances. But my
Speaker 1: advice would be it sounds like you still can run
Speaker 1: a little bit, Sarah, but I'd look to shorten the
Speaker 1: distance and perhaps lower the intensity. Surface changes can be
Speaker 1: really good running on a softer surface like grass. I'd
Speaker 1: probably avoid soft sand running that can be really dangerous
Speaker 1: with achillee injuries. But the key here and the biggest
Speaker 1: mistake people make is they do go to the physio
Speaker 1: and they get these strengthening and stretching exercises and they
Speaker 1: do them for a very short period of time, or
Speaker 1: they don't do them at all. You've got to do them,
Speaker 1: and you've got to do them consistently. Your calf area
Speaker 1: recovers very very fast. It's like your abs, it's slow
Speaker 1: twitch muscle fibers. You can do them every day. You
Speaker 1: can work your calf in the achilles every single day,
Speaker 1: same asine to at work every single day. You're not
Speaker 1: going to get fatigued. You can push through, so train
Speaker 1: it every day. Or five or six times a week.
Speaker 1: Increase the load slowly on a soft surface, and a
Speaker 1: by load I mean you're going up in distance or
Speaker 1: up in time running for but in the meantime, if
Speaker 1: you're missing that you're training as much. Get some cross
Speaker 1: training in, get some bike in, get some other cardio
Speaker 1: options in, like boxing that are taking the pressure off
Speaker 1: your legs while still getting your heart rate up, and
Speaker 1: then you'll find your fitness won't drop off too much,
Speaker 1: but you won't injure yourself while you build up the
Speaker 1: flexibility and the strength in the achilles. I feel like
Speaker 1: I've been chatting to a whole bunch of athletes today.
Speaker 1: You are my athletes. We are all athletes. The fact
Speaker 1: that so many of us live sedentary lives and don't
Speaker 1: eat very well means we sort of scoff when someone
Speaker 1: says we're an athlete. But there is an athlete in
Speaker 1: all of us, whether you're seventy or seventeen. It's just
Speaker 1: about finding your potential by moving your body well and
Speaker 1: fueling your body well consistently, and you'll be amazed at
Speaker 1: what lies underneath the same way, there's a runner in
Speaker 1: all of us. So my message to finish today's episode
Speaker 1: is let's find the athlete in this until next week.
Speaker 4: M hm hmmmmm