 Hey, you just found the world's number one fitness health and entertainment podcast now on YouTube. This is my pump. Okay? In today's episode, we talked to women in their 40s and the things that they need to focus on and we're doing a giveaway Okay, so here's what we want you to do and you can win a prize by the way Here's your prize you'll actually get a box of four Sigmatics mushroom elixir blend that includes a good dose of cordyceps I love cordyceps for improved exercise performance. Okay, so here's how you win this box right here In the comments in the first 24 hours Put down some stuff that has worked for you to get your body in shape things that are like game changers for you Now what Doug's gonna do is he's gonna look through all the comments And if so long as it's been in the first 24 hours of this episode drops if you picks your comment It's the best one will mail you this box from for Sigmatic one more thing before we start the episode You're gonna hear us talk about four things that women in the 40s tend to need to focus on in order to get into amazing shape They include lifting weights to build muscle and speed up the metabolism They include, you know, how to work with your diet intuitive eating a much better way to work with your nutrition Mobility issues how to work on your mobility to prevent yourself from getting injured and maximizing the results of your workouts and of course time demands how you can get workouts Anywhere not just at the gym, but rather at home or anywhere. You have a little bit of space Okay, so with that we have something called the fabuli fabulous 40 bundle This is bundles multiple workout programs that tend to benefit this particular category of people So in this includes maps anabolic an incredible program for building muscle and boosting metabolism We have maps anywhere, which gives you workouts that you could do anywhere Require minimal equipment or no equipment. We have maps prime Which will help you work on your mobility and then in there is also included the intuitive nutrition guide to help you with your diet Now because of this episode we're putting that bundle 50% off so we're taking the whole price which is already discounted by the way and we're cutting it in additional 50% off If you want to learn more if you just want to sign up go check it out at maps fitness products calm and then use the code Fab 50 that's f a b 5 0 alright enjoy the podcast so I have a topic that I think would be good for us to talk about I think we've mentioned this topic like in like cause but I don't think we've done a full dedicated episode to The demographic that I think we train the most of so when I think back to all the clients that I've trained I Would say most of them so north of 50 60% fell in this category and that is kind of like the 35 to 55 Female that wants to get in shape normally wants to lose some body fat probably had a kid or two or maybe trying to have a kid Maybe even like a single woman that's working like in that age group with those types of goals I would say is was my biggest that was the most common client for sure for absolutely Women in their 40s. Well first off women in general were larger consumers of personal training and then in their 40s Once in the age group that was probably the largest so I would agree with you Adam I would say probably made up 65% of my clientele over the course of the you know decades to two decades that I trained now Why do you guys think that is why do you think that if we're all we all train in different facilities and we're you know But yet we all got the same percentage probably of this clientele What do you think well in general and I'll just this is just a just an observation in general women are More likely to ask more receptive for seeking out help. Yes. Yes, they're more open for professional assistance Whereas men, you know, you know how we can be sometimes, right? We don't want to ask for directions We don't want to look at the directions when we're put building something Yeah, and so men tend to be less likely to ask a trainer Hey, can you help me design a routine and then in terms of the age group? I think once you get to a certain point You a you don't have time to waste so you're like look I you know if I've been my 20s and I got all this expendable time Whatever I'll go figure it out. But look, I don't got a lot of time I want to do this the right way and then they have expendable income They're they're probably working more successful And so they it makes sense to hire somebody to figure it out to do it the right way Well, it's interesting too I wonder if we could go back and look at the statistics of you know when you get that five starter pack Oh when you're selling like memberships at the gym Yeah, like who actually was receptive to using those because I know I remember I used to open up and try and Walk the floors and convince a lot of the guys and a lot of other people to You know take advantage of that but not a lot would but I would be able to convince Oh, I could give you an idea of that I don't remember the exact percentage of that but it was it was very rare That so what Justin's talking about back in the days we used to sell these memberships That they wrapped five personal training sessions within it. So it would uh, you know, they would Sell it was a prepaid membership so you key fit plus. Yeah, there you go It was a key fit plus is what they called it and it was you know It ranged from I think I remember seeing as low as maybe six seven hundred dollars to as high as like $1,400 and you were prepaying three years and then you had an annual renewal And then what the business did what my 24 fitness did was they wrapped You know about three hundred dollars worth of personal training within that price point And so and the idea and the thought behind that the when the what the company knew it was so brilliant was the Life expectancy of a a client as far as their their business right returning If somebody who actually met with a personal trainer if they saw a personal trainer They were more likely to continue on beyond three years far more likely Yes, and if they did not see a personal trainer, it was much more likely they would fall off within months And so they got really smart and said hey, let's give this great membership deal away Let's include personal training to encourage them to do it now Because the consumer saw it as free because it came with the membership. They didn't realize they were really paying for it That's the way they structured it There were many people that didn't take advantage of this They had three four hundred dollars with a personal training But then they never even used it and I'll tell you Justin since a lot of my job was centered around that And trying to get these people in and getting my trainers schedules full Almost all of them were men. It was very rare That it was a woman that fell in this category that we're talking about right now They almost always took advantage of it for all the reasons that I think sal brought up I think that At all of us men and men and women by that age, you know, you're north of 35 getting in your 40s or in your 40s Much more self-aware Your life your lifestyle has changed, you know You're probably at a place where you've either had kids or you have a job where you're sedentary a lot of time You're not as physically active as it used to be So and you've maybe even have tried Dieting several times or different things on your own and it probably failed or maybe had a little bit of success And then it came back on and so you got a point in your life because maybe you have some income Like you said sal and you're like, okay I'm at a place in my life now where I want to seek out professional health and women are just more likely to do that Right in investing in a trainer or getting some good instruction It's a tremendous amount of value. I mean I would say it's you know For every dollar invested you probably get back five dollars and in benefits in both health and You know how you learn how to work out and train yourself And I think you you don't realize that till you're a little bit older. Maybe a little bit wiser now I mean to be clear There's a lot of misconceptions too about people in their 40s One of the misconceptions is that you're because you're in your 40s, you know What do they say 40s over your over the hill, right? That's the old joke you buy those birthday cards I remember when I turned 40 people bought those for me like it was a lot bigger deal I felt like you know when we were younger like when somebody turned 40 that you get this like This crazy party that that was like all over the hill all doom and gloom No, and this and this is the truth now 100% now I did train women in their 20s and 30s I of course more in their 40s and older The most fit women I ever trained Or the ones who got the best results were in their 40s That's just the fact if I got a woman in her 25 years old and a woman who's 45 More often than not the 45 year old was consistent would take the advice and was very serious About the workouts and I can't tell you how many women I trained in their 40s Who after working out for a certain period of time would say that to me They'd say I've never been this fit my entire life. Never. This is the most fit I've ever been Now I have a theory to why that is though Like I I think that of all the demographics of people that are interested in personal training or exercise and fitness They are are marketed to the most and they've had the most bullshit fed to them As far as how they should train how they should diet what they should look like and just wrong Yeah, just all of it wrong. Yeah, the first starting with the image of what someone fit looked like 20 years ago Right covers of magazines were these anorexic looking girls So already this the skinny anorexic image was what was promoted just 20 years ago Then you add in the idea of Yeah, aerobic classes in this these group high intensity. Don't lift weights. That'll make you look bulky. Yeah, there was nothing but Videos like I remember that was a big part of it, right the aerobic videos like it just kind of took The landscape landscape by storm And so you get a lot of like that was like the the conception of of training was basically like doing all these like calisthenics and aerobic type workouts and this is why I think our release I had a lot of success With this age group and and this sex was because I think they had been told so much bullshit That once I got a hold of someone like this It was like, oh my god I have so much to teach you and help you with you know i'm saying like there's So many things that you've been told that is not true That i'm going to be able to help you out with that will really make a difference And again, there's a lot of misconceptions that your body all of a sudden because you're 40 Is just going to respond terribly to exercise and the reality is this it's not that big of a difference From when you were 30 it really isn't there's a difference But it's small and it pales in comparison to the difference that happens from proper training proper sleep proper exercise And discipline which in my experience women in their 40s Crush compared to women who are much younger probably because again, they don't have time to waste They've been marketed a bunch of bullshit And by the way, this is why women make up the they're the consumer base for most products Most product they are the consumers for most things including in most households are the health ambassador Right for most for for fitness and health women are the are the big consumers james figured out this a long time ago james used to make no money And then they figured out if we want to make money we got to sell to this consumer base And then they came out with all this bullshit to and lies that they would sell to women This is why women get marketed so heavily to And and again and also why there's a lot of bullshit that gets sold to them And I think you're right adam when they come to when they when they're ready to work out in their 40s They've gone through All the other crap already and they're at the point now where they're like, all right I'm done with all that and what really works. I I'm I'm I'm consistent. My kids are a little bit older now They're going to school. I got some time or I don't have a lot of time to waste but the time I am in the Dedicate I'm going to be serious about this and the results tend to blow and as like I said This was one of my this was one of my most successful categories of clients Well, I think you need to go a little bit deeper into the statement you just made because there's 100% I know there's definitely a handful if not lots of women that just heard what you said and said Fuck you. It is much harder for me at 40 something than it was at 30 and 20 something. So And we've all felt this before I feel this today It feel it feels hard, but what I I'm aware of Is that it has less to do with my age and it has more to do with my behaviors established patterns Yet at 40 years old versus my behaviors at 20 years old Right, like if you like let me put it this way. So if I just to give you an example I'm gonna use obviously general like if I had a client who was a woman in her 20s Versus one who is in her 40s the one in the 20s Feels like they can get away with a lot more. They're not usually not as Nearly as serious or disciplined unless they're a hardcore athlete. It was pretty rare So they're less consistent. They're less Open to the right kind of advice and what I mean by that is the right kind of advice means It's going to take work. It's going to take a little bit of time Typically people in their 20s don't want to hear that. They're like, oh really? It's going to take me that long or I got to be all no, I don't want to take this diet pill All right. I heard about this whatever person in their 40s tends to be like, yeah, I know I heard all that bullshit before You're right. I'm going to do what you're telling me. So when you compare the difference physiologically and how your body responds in your 40s to 20s And you compare that to discipline exercise diet sleep Guess which one makes the biggest difference by far, right? It's all those things that I just talked about It's not the age and again, this is why go into any gym in America Go into a gold gym go into a world gym go to a 24-hour fitness The most fit women tend to be this is true in their 40s. And would you guys agree? No, no, I I agree for all the other reasons we talked about but This leads me to where I really want to go with this episode, which is I want to talk about, you know And in particular, there's four big things that big rocks that come to mind On specific challenges. Yes specific challenges that That would normally occur with this demographic that I would have to overcome or help or we'd fix right because I know again There's you know, a lot of ladies that are listening to this right now that are in that age group that hear you say that And they're no matter how many times you try and explain the science to them. They're going I know it's harder. It feels harder. I can tell how much harder it is right now for me But there's I think there's an explanation for why that is there is and I now I do want to say this Because I think it's good to give people some context right or some some parameters of what Because I would get clients that would come to me and they'd say, you know, I want to be fit. I want to look healthy But they don't know specifically what that means. They know if they see it, but they don't know what that means Like what does that mean body fat percentage wise? What does that mean with my body? Oftentimes I'll have a weight goal. So I'll say, I think I need to weigh 130 But I mean gosh, you could weigh a certain weight and be I mean I I weigh about 200 and I don't know 215 pounds I could be obese at 215 with a lot of body fat or I could be very lean with a lot of muscle Both look very very different, right? So I think it's important to kind of paint that picture Most women in my experience are very satisfied With the way they look with a range of body fat that's anywhere between 18, which is very lean To even as high as maybe 26 27 percent body fat, which isn't super high But it's but it's it's up there, but it's also lean ish and you got some good curves you So there's your range and most people are happy most women out there are happy within that but with the following strength Muscle good posture and good movement when you add that to that body fat percentage range Most women are very very satisfied in my experience and to back to your point the reason why this matters is because a woman at 145 And uh 18 body fat looks a lot different than a woman that is 130 and 26 percent body fat or 30 percent Right So you need to understand that that the the scale and what you weigh Because you're right a lot of of these clients that I would get would be oh, I want to get back to this weight You know, they have a weight that they remit They they have this image of themselves at a point in their life Whether it was when they were teenage or 20s or 30s whenever and they and they know that like I want to get to that weight And so I'd always had to be overcoming that listen I I could keep your weight right where you're at right now and build you the best body you've ever had So weight doesn't matter so much. No, I had I've told this story before I love this story. It was actually One of the more effective sales techniques that I had as a gym manager So one of my jobs as a gym manager was to get people Into my club and convince them to obviously sign up for a membership and get personal training I knew the value of personal training. I was a trainer for for years and years and years And that's not necessarily an easy task. There's a lot of myths and stuff that I have to and I also had integrity I'm not going to lie to people like a lot of the fitness industry does by you know Telling them crazy numbers of weight and whatever and so I had this amazing Just this technique that I had where someone would come in woman And we would talk about her goals and oftentimes she would say something like, you know Oh, I want to lose weight and I'd say how much and then I'd say what does that put your body weight at? And they'd say, okay, that's very interesting. Give me one second and then I would on my intercom I would page. I had a female trainer that worked for me. I'm thinking of one in particular I I'd paid her to my office she'd walk in and this young lady who worked for me was about five She's about five two And she looked phenomenal very fit right very very strong very very fit and I ever come in and then I'd ask the potential member and I'd say How much do you think she weighs be totally honest that she's totally fine with whatever number you put out there And they'd say something like oh, she looks like she weighs 105 pounds or like 110 pounds. I say, okay I had a scale in my office. I said now check this out and I'd have her stand on the scale And she'd weigh I think was like 135 or 140 pounds and it was my way of showing them That lean, you know dense muscle looks phenomenal and looks very light She weighs a good 20 30 pounds heavier than you thought and yet she looks like she weighs what you think so So what's important is the body fat percentage what's important is to build a strong physique For more than just looks by the way, not only do you look amazing But you also are now have a much faster metabolism because then I would also ask this question to my trainer my female trainer What do you what did you eat for lunch today? And she would usually say something like I had a super burrito or I had you know Half a pound of steak with a you know two cups of rice or whatever But like she eats like a lot of men do but she burns it because she's got all that muscle Well, it also supports, uh, you know just daily function. It supports activity You know it it helps to eliminate a lot of pain and aches and and things like that when when you replace This body fat with with muscle tissue, you know, that's something that actually like promotes, uh, you know a lot better type of, uh, you know abilities down the road Well, so you just mentioned what I think is the first hurdle that I'd have to come over which is the metabolism Yes, so and and I think there's multiple reasons for this, but this would be the first thing that I'd have to address Um, can we get your body or or which we we can Let's get your body to burn more calories on its own versus what you probably think you need to do Which is burn more calories? Yourself through exercise, which is a losing strategy. This is a fact by the way Trying to burn calories through exercise as a way to get leaner is a losing failing strategy We know this studies have proven it. I've seen it in the years. I've managed gyms This is not an effective strategy. Here's why I'll just give you an easy way to explain it An hour of intense exercise may burn you anywhere between 400 to 500 calories, and I'm being generous here Okay, about 400 or 500 calories It takes the average person 10 minutes to eat that many calories You know 400 500 calories So it's a lot of work to burn that many calories very easy to eat those calories And in order to burn those calories, you got to do an hour hard working out every single day or more sometimes twice a day Why don't we instead Train your body to burn more calories on its own So you don't have to do tons of work to burn these extra calories And the best way to do that is to build strength and build muscle Well part of this hurdle too is this so never did this ever happen Did I ever have a client that came to me female client in this age group that wanted to lose lose fat Never did I ever have someone come in and go and I assess their diet And they're eating McDonald's three times a day and Oreo cookies for dinner and ice cream And they're consuming four or five thousand calories a day and they go adam help me out that never happened In fact, what actually normally happens almost always Is I I get them and they're like they show me what they're eating and they're only eating 1300 1800 maybe 2000 calories 30 grams of protein for the whole day yet very low calorie But yet carrying 30 40 50 pounds of body fat on them that they want to get rid of And they're just at a place in their life where they're like, I don't I don't understand Adam I'm at this place where I you know in in their defense. They don't eat bad Right, they don't eat what quote-unquote bad looks like for us, but they're not eating fast food They're not cramming ice cream. They're not drinking like crazy. They're not big sweet eaters They're just in a place right now in their life where their metabolism has slowed down so much That anything outside of the chicken salad that they were eating a day would end up piling body fat And that's normally how they feel I'd always ask them that I say, you know Do you feel like you eat really good and then every once in a while you enjoy yourself and you feel like it sticks to your body Right away the big yes Yes, that's exactly me and that's caused From excessive yo-yo dieting for so many years. It just sucks because you know, there's two methods of operation that are Promoted so much and I get this all the time with You know cut calories like to lose body fat We just got to keep cutting calories and keep going down that that path and then if that's not working Now we got to ramp up the cardiovascular and burn more calories that way these two together Have just been like promoted so long and you know with with ladies that I trained It was like always such a hurdle to tackle right the loss of muscle mass is a big deal Look here. Okay. This is the truth now when you look at women and you look at women over the age of 40 40 osteopenia Which is bone mass loss. This is what happens before you have osteoporosis your bones start to weaken It's actually quite common by the way Uh osteopenia is connected to loss of muscle if your muscles are weak and you don't have much They anchor and hold on to bone your bones get weak one of the best ways to reverse that in your bone Is to build muscle. In fact, it's the best way if you want to strengthen your bones just get stronger muscles So there's your clue. This is what's happening to you. So you're 40 You've had or you're in your 40s You've now had I don't know a decade or so or longer of a lot of inactivity You know, maybe you you work at a desk. You probably work at a desk You don't really do a lot of physical heavy lifting In your day-to-day life. You're busy, but sedentary your body adapts by reducing muscle Well, or that or you've also done a lot of on the wagon off the wagon Yes, you've done a lot of like because you might hear someone might be listening right now going like no, Sal I'm not lazy that also right. I've definitely I definitely train harder. I love this orange theory class Or I've done these things But what they end up doing is the the classic yo-yoing where they're on the wagon Low calorie extreme working out for months at a time then fall off the wagon look at look at the study Studies of women who do lots of cardio and look at them in osteopenia and here's what you'll find Let's say you're a runner You did lots of lots of lots of running because you found that that you you read that that burns a lot of calories The bone mass in your lower body will improve a little bit the bone mass everywhere else doesn't Okay, cardio vascular activity is not a it's better than nothing But it's not a great way to strengthen bone and it's also not a great way to strengthen muscle Endurance type training requires little muscle that is efficient with calories So over the years if you've done either either your sedentary But like I said earlier or you do lots of cardio and cut your calories Both of which result in loss of muscle mass Again, they have studies on this that show that women that men and women both When they diet and do cardio and they lose let's say 20 pounds More than half of the weight that they lose is muscle mass The body literally is adapting to slow down its own metabolism So one of the biggest problems that you're gonna that you're probably encountering If you're a woman in your 40s looking to get in better shape is reversing the loss of muscle that has happened What is the best way to do that lift weights traditional resistance training straight sets compound lifts? I had so so many times I would get a female client in her 40s who's worked out in the past right then all the cardio Done the aerobics classes died at this and that and then I have them in working with me and I'm like Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna we're gonna squat. We're gonna deadlift. We're gonna bench press We're gonna row and they're like, I don't want to you know I'm hiring you but I don't want you to make me look like a bodybuilder and say look here's a deal I promise you won't wake up tomorrow looking like a bodybuilder if you get to the point Where you're where you look in the mirror and you're like, I don't want any more muscle You just tell me you just tell me when you're done with that and here's what happened Never would that happen instead. Here's what would happen to me. I can't believe how good I'm feeling Why am I getting leaner? I feel like I'm eating more and I'd be like you are eating more You just have a faster metabolism. My god. My butt looks really good My I feel so confident my body and I'm like you're stronger and you have more muscle metabolism stronger Also, like the hormone issue like when you're in that state for so long think about what that does to your hormones And disrupts all that and the out of balance and out of whack I mean we go through the list of like sleep, uh, you know nutrition and also like exercising Those are major major factors to to getting you tilting you off axis of your of your hormones Yes, so to give you so if I were to categorize, uh, the more popular forms of exercise If we were to look at cardiovascular activity and compared to resistance training Cardiovascular activity is anti tissue. Okay, so cardiovascular burns lots of calories while you're doing it for a catabolic Right, it burns lots of calories while you're doing it and it teaches your body or at least the adaptation Your body tries to to to move towards from it is to become more efficient with calories Which is loss of muscle mass lots of lots of cardio over time with nothing else Especially with the reduction in calories results in loss of muscle mass. Okay Resistance training is pro tissue pro tissue pro active tissue The main adaptation from resistance training is building muscle. What is required to build muscle? Not just calories and yes, you'll be able to eat more so you have a faster metabolism But what's also required is balanced hormones your body through the process of telling it to build muscle in men You see a boost in testosterone in women You see the balancing of estrogen and progesterone in the other category of overdone cardio What a what a wonderful way to get your hormones out of whack in fact The most of the women I've trained and worked with who also Concordantly worked with a functional medicine doctor at hormone issues Oftentimes one of the reasons why the hormones were out of whack was the abuse of the wrong form of exercise This is this is how we've been labeled. Okay as anti-cardio guys Sure We've been labeled at that from this podcast because we've been touting this for a very long time now And this is the reason why so if you've been listening in it's the abuse of cardio And it's this is because this is the majority of people we help We're all three of us different gyms different careers Yet we all agree that this is the the masses. This is this is the most common things we saw That's right This is the majority of people that are seeking help that are trying to better themselves that are in the gyms Working out that are listening to podcasts like this that are seeking out this information And that's why we talk about this all time. It's not because we think cardio is bad It's not because we think that we don't understand the benefits of it It's because we know that 90 percent of the majority of people that we train It's not ideal for them for the situation. They're currently in yes So cardio acid activity does have some health benefits But if you're the like most of the clients we worked with and let's say you're a woman in your 40s And you want to improve your health and fitness get leaner Focus on building muscle. By the way, I said it was protissue The side effect of the protissue is the anti fat aspect of it because as you build muscle as we said earlier The metabolism speeds up and the hormones move in a direction that reduces body fat How you get more insulin sensitive women's estrogen and progesterone balance women's testosterone levels start to regulate Yes, women do have testosterone and it is important in women as well for things like libido confidence and drive All those things start to balance out to make you a better muscle building Fat burning machine. So the way the cornerstone of your routine should be Traditional resistance training and this was always the very first thing that I would start with with a woman In her 40s. Now, there's another part that we need to talk about which is which is mobility loss of mobility now Before you go to mobility, there's still another part of the weight training That is because there is a there is a percentage of these clients that I would get that were weight training Okay, that weren't just cardio bunnies. They understood the benefits of weights But they still have been marketed to the wrong way They have been still pushed in this direction of either circuit training or high reps because low way cardio with weights Yes, basically exactly exactly. They've been they've been pushed in this. Yeah, but I don't realize that hit training direction Or don't do heavy weights because that's going to make you big and bulky So there isn't another portion to the loss of the loss of muscle here Or the not and they're not building muscle is for that reason Just because you're holding a dumbbell or a barbell or a resistance band does not mean you're doing Resistance training the way that we're talking about because you could use a dumbbell in a way that makes it cardio You could actually use a dumbbell in the way that makes it yoga You know there is a specific way to apply Resistance to build muscle speed up the metabolism sculpt the body and balance hormones So workout programming is very very important when it comes to resistance training. It's not just using weights It's using weights in a specific way to accomplish what we had just talked about Now to the point that I was talking about with mobility Mobility issues are a bigger problem with people in their 40s and as they get older 40s 50s 60s 70s becomes a bigger issue But it's not necessarily because the body is aging But rather because you've had longer time on this planet to develop poor movement patterns, right? So you've been sitting for longer. You've been sort of locked in your ways. Yes, and this is what we've noticed And this is something i'm always fighting like oh, I feel old I like grown just to like tie my shoes anymore But honestly, it's just because of the the daily things that i'm always doing I'm always doing things in front of me and if i'm not You know aware of that and and i'm not like going through Types of mobility drills or things to help my joints, you know inevitably my body's going to form into those positions And it's going to make it more, uh, you know efficient the way that I do things Yeah, and it's just you have a longer time on earth to injure yourself or to deal with these types of things, right? So your longer time to be wearing heels heels cause movement patterns that can cause problems Longer time that you've been sitting at a desk that can cause certain issues Now why is it important to focus on mobility? Okay, well besides the prevention of injury which definitely important because nothing will stop you in your tracks like hurting yourself You hurt yourself. That's it. You're done. You can't go to which by the way statistically This is what is most common that happens of somebody that joins a gym So one of the main reasons why someone falls off besides Hitting a plateau is within that first four to six weeks. They get hurt. They get hurt They get hurt. So that's number one, of course, but there's more than that So let's say you're somebody's like look i'm not going to hurt myself. I'm careful. I don't need to work on mobility Well, here's why mobility is still important Your lack of mobility or your lack of optimal mobility prevents you from Maximizing or getting the most out of the most effective exercises So I named a few earlier right like a a deadlift a squat or an overhead press If your mobility prevents you from getting all the maximum benefits of that exercise You're just not going to progress as fast and oftentimes people in their 40s or women in their 40s This is the reason why they can't do some of these amazing exercises It wasn't because the exercise was oh, we're not doing that exercise It was because I would take them through an assessment We do a deadlift and say, you know what? We need to focus on your mobility before we can have a lot of limitations You know in front of that Yeah, I can't I can't have you really deadlift in a way that's effective yet Because we need to improve our mobility or I can't have you do these overhead presses And really push them yet because we have to work on mobility So mobility is very very important because it becomes something that can prevent you For maximizing that little bit of time that you have that you can spend In the gym, I feel like this one of all the points is is the least sexist I think it it carries over to men. Oh equally the same It's more this is more to do with age and time Right just the longer that we neglect this when we're in our 20s all of us even trainers are sitting here right now Get away with the love or guilty of this I'm guilty of training in my 20s and not addressing any of this stuff because it was this it wasn't loud enough to stop me Right and I was too stubborn to put any sort of energy or effort in this direction because I was so focused on the way Look, that's what I cared about and then when you get into your 40s I don't care male or female This is no longer an option to ignore anymore. Your body is talking to you by this time Yeah, now you have pain from cumulative injuries that you've dealt with from the 20s and 30s Like I hurt my back twice and now it kind of bothers me or like I said earlier I sit down a lot, you know in my 20s. I didn't sat sit down as long But now that I'm 40 I've been sitting down for 20 years at my desk. That's a huge cause problems That's a huge point. I think people don't realize like You know earlier like when I'm in my 20s or like I'm going through school there's a lot more opportunities for me to get up and And get involved in some type of movement or be involved in a sport or you know, just something like extracurricular Uh, where like every day I'm going to be doing something with my body and expressing a lot of these muscles There's not a lot of opportunities for that as you get older And when you and when you're training the one of the worst things that you can do is Because you have shoulder issues low back issues hip issues wrist issues Is avoid specific exercises because of that because it is only going to make that problem worse I was literally just just and you just did a a wrist mobility thing the other day And it was such great timing because I have a client of my female client of mine that falls in this demographic that I was Helping right and I know she's got all this wrist if she's had surgery on her wrist And a lot of times that she doesn't like the deadlift and stuff because it bothers her wrist And she wants to avoid certain exercises and I'm constantly harping on her like listen You've got to do this because you cannot Avoid these mobility exercises because you don't use it you lose it Yeah, and and what you got to understand is you Eliminating these exercises which are such Important good exercises for us to be doing because it bothers your wrist is not the answer The answer is we need to address the lack of mobility that you have in your wrist You need to do the work before you there's a ripple effect to that. Yes So now yeah, you limit that that goes up the kinetic chain now It limits like a lot more movements in the future. Oh, yeah, I mean to use an extreme example You know, I remember working with people in much older age categories 60s 70s and 80s And I had a physical therapist in my facility and we would work very closely And I remember the therapist made a point about this She said look she would tell these these people because we would work both work with with them together I'd be the trainer. She'd be the therapist and she say stuff like okay I know your doctor's telling you that you know, maybe you should start using a walker But she goes I want to prevent you from using a walker as long as possible because the second you use a walker Your posture is going to get worse and your body's going to shape and form to it And you're going to lose the ability to walk without it very quickly And so that's what we're talking about if you avoid Fundamental movements like a squat because it bothers you and you're not doing anything to get yourself to squat Then the further along you go that way the more likely you are to never be able to squat, right? So mobility is very important. So resistance training should be the cornerstone of your routine to build that muscle boost your metabolism But a piece of that should be to maintain and improve your mobility So you can maximize the effects of the resistance training and prevent those injuries now the next hurdle that I think is common And again, this one I think is both men and women But for sure I feel like I dealt with this the most with my female clients Especially the ones that are Riding a household to maybe have kids also working and trying to juggle all this and I feel like My my moms and the and the women I train always put everybody else Before themselves, you know, I think women you're just born with this this empathetic soul already where you know, they take care of the family So studies actually show that that even when there's a husband and wife that work The wife still does statistically far more of the stuff at home When when they would come to me and tell me and when I was an early trainer I was a young trainer. I didn't take this very seriously Right, I didn't take it seriously until I had kids myself and I could see that the struggle or whatever But they'd say things like I don't have a lot of time I don't have a lot of time To come into the gym and work out all the time And then I would do the whole like spiel that you do when you're an inexperienced stupid trainer like oh time We all have 24 hours. You got to prioritize your time if you get fit and makes everything else easier blah blah blah Totally not empathetic or understanding of what they were going through later on. I figured out Oh, yeah, this is a big issue. This is actually the the realest issue I'd say the biggest challenge the other stuff that we're talking about is not nearly as challenging as the time issue And so then I said okay the the goal is to be to make your workout as effective as possible And to give you flexibility with your workout so you can be consistent when you can't make it to the gym To make it consistent when you are traveling for whatever reason make it as easy as possible to stay consistent And maximize the time that you are working out so that this doesn't end up becoming a huge roadblock for you This is the exact same Disservice that I did to this community is the same thing like and I feel guilty of it because in my 20s I was just as naive. I would do the exact same spiel it was always It was about you need to make time for yourself and and then I like and I make a good case By the way, there's truth to that. Yeah, I would sell it really well So I'd sell it really well that You know if you take care of yourself all these other things other people and things you're doing You'll only approve improve on that instead of being more empathetic about okay How do we how do we juggle this a little bit? How do I be a little more understanding that no matter how much I sell her on this idea I'm never going to get this Mom to put herself above her children or her husband that comes six days a week or five Right. Yeah, exactly and come to the gym those things are never so how and I wish I would have done this earlier on later on I learned to mold my programming where it wasn't it wasn't required that she came into the gym all the time Yes, I would have a foundation of this is what I'd like you to do But then I was also very realistic that there's going to be times when maybe I only get 30 minutes Or maybe I I don't have a lot of equipment and I have to give her something that she doesn't stop working on herself But she has something that she could do when her kid's napping for an hour or when she's got a 30 minute break The most effective strategy I had for this was giving my clients my female clients in this category Workouts to do plan b workouts when you can't make it to the gym because here's the reality Driving to the gym. That's time right there changing at the gym. There's time right there Then you get your workout You've already killed 15 20 minutes Maybe even 30 minutes before you start your workout and now you're somewhere else You're not at home where you need to find somebody to watch the kids Maybe you can put them in the kids club, but that's not open all the time So so what I would do is I would give them workouts that they could do Anywhere at any time right here's some exercise here's some routines Here's band movements bands are really really convenient because you could travel with them They take up almost no space and I'd give them great workouts And then if they they're like look man today was crazy or the sitter cancelled I can't go to the gym. That doesn't mean I don't have to I don't I don't work out I could work out right here. I could work out at home Such an effective strategy and it dramatically increased the consistency that these clients had with their workouts And it's very important. Here's one of the things about about working out and being consistent It's like a it's like a snowball going down a hill If you're consistent with your workouts consistent consistent, it's easier to stay consistent when you're consistent It's hard to stay consistent when you stop for a second. It's like the momentum has been broken Well, a lot of it too. I mean we over complicate the entire process And I know there's a lot of trainers out there guilty of that too and like promoting that within their clientele of like You know, we got to accomplish all these different movements all these different things, you know And wrap it all in the workout ends up taking like an hour two hours long Where, you know, you get in a predicament like this They need to know that there are just a few simple like biggest bang for your buck type movements and things that you can do Pretty much anywhere and that's still going to keep the momentum going in the right direction That's definitely our fault and our egos of our camps, you know, that's like one of the worst parts Well, you think everybody's a fitness fanatic like you are when you're a trainer and they have no They have all the time they're working at gym like you do which is just not true So this is a very important one. Okay, so if you're listening right now Understand you probably already know this that your time is precious and it's challenging to get lots of time just to yourself Have plan B workouts that you could do anywhere and make them convenient Usually bands are one of the best things you could do in these kinds of workouts because like I said I could store a full set of bands in a small duffel bag or in the corner of my closet And I can and they usually come with attachments that you could put in doors and stuff and there you go You have your resistance and you could do your workout easy Now the last hurdle I kind of alluded to it when we were talking about the slower metabolism because I think they do go hand in hand I talked about yoyo diet. Oh, yeah This is for sure the most common I brought up the fact that I don't think I've ever had somebody That was a female client in their 40s that was trying to lose weight that was eating three four thousand calories They were always Much lower than where I would like them to be and so that is one of the I think we talk about all the challenges This is the most difficult because it takes time. It does it takes time They've probably gone through a few diets themselves by this point, uh, you know, whether they be extreme diets Where they're cutting out entire food groups or even crazier diets I've actually had people come to me who've done hcg diets I don't know if you've ever heard of these but it's they inject hcg and they go and they eat 500 calories a day For for a certain period of time or whatever. So then they come to me and it's and now what we're doing is we're working on Okay, how can we change your relationship to food because here's a deal with nutrition and this is this is a big point here Your nutrition your diet should not feel like another stress Okay, so if you're trying to eat in a way to get leaner To improve your health and your fitness It should not be an additional stress because I promise you if it feels that way you will not be able to continue No, if you're doing something to make yourself feel better, but it makes you feel worse It's not good. You're not going to continue it, right? So your nutrition cannot be another stress This is where I start to work with people on, uh, things like intuitive eating where we start to talk about how do foods make you feel Um, how are you using food? Are you finding that you're eating in a way to distract yourself? Are you eating because you're stressed? Um, can we create barriers between you and these behaviors? For example, I'll give you a great example. I had a client once who She chocolate was her thing. She was like a chocolate fanatic and she's like, man It's so hard for me if I have it in the house. I'm gonna eat it. So I said, okay, let's do this Uh, not having the house like already tried that but then I end up, you know, I want it around. I said, no, no I'm not saying you can't eat it I'm saying don't have it in the house if you want it bad enough You get in the car and drive yourself to the store and buy it make that deal with yourself And all we did was we created a barrier between her And that you know impulsive behavior and here's what happened She would get up and drive to the store and buy some chocolate sometimes But sometimes because of the process of stopping getting in the car or whatever It gave her enough time to pause and be like, okay, this is a bit impulsive I don't think I'm gonna eat it this time And it was a great way to get her to eat in a more healthy intuitive way When you do this through this process Nutrition isn't as stressful think of it this way If you're eating healthy because it feels good to you because you enjoy it because you're taking care of your body Then it's not hard and I don't mean hard in the sense that it doesn't require planning I mean, it's not hard in the sense. It doesn't feel like a stress Well, what's hard is that this is a slower process. It's a slower process And and what's really difficult is the client is coming to you at this point, right? They just hired you and they are they're willing to pay you money to help them get this weight off And that's what they want to hear they want to hear tell me what to eat How yeah, tell me what to eat how long until I can lose this 30 pounds or whatever And the truth is the the what you need to do with them is completely change their relationship with food And part of that process is actually not worrying about their weight It's not worrying about it If it goes up a couple pounds at this point because we need to get to a place where we're fed more You're already so low calorie And here's the other thing too We mentioned already the first and most important thing was for you to build muscle You can't build muscle on 800 calories. It's just you can't build it in a cut That you you need the building blocks you need the calories You need the protein in order to build the muscle to build to build the faster metabolism So it's you're you're fighting an uphill battle for somebody who's weight training strength training to build muscle But they're eating in a way to cut and lose what you're dealing with is your own psychology That's the challenge when it when it comes to nutrition. Okay, the challenge isn't the the mechanisms of nutrition But rather your own psychology. So here's a here's an easy tip. There's an easy one Rather than restricting yourself which what tends to happen when you restrict when you cut things out Is you end up in this restrict binge Behavior where you're cutting foods out that you enjoy or whatever or maybe you're using because they're they're you know They help you deal with stress or anxiety or you're bored or whatever you cut these foods out that you enjoy for whatever reason And the way the way you're cutting it out is to sheer discipline. I can't eat that and it's like you're telling yourself You're not going to eat that anymore and you're like, okay I'm not going to do that anymore Eventually you hate the way that feels because nobody likes to be told what to do even if it's you And then you go in the opposite direction and it's usually not having a little bit of what you didn't eat before It's like going crazy because you're rebelling almost like the behaviors of a teenager So instead of restricting try this try adding things to your diet This is a great and this sounds crazy, but it actually works Take some things that are healthy that you're maybe lacking in your diet Usually this looks like vegetables for for some people for some people. It might be proteins and say to yourself Okay, here's what I'm going to do I'm not going to restrict, but I'm going to make sure a three servings of of of well cooked vegetables Or I make sure I'm gonna have a nice salad. That's really really healthy Every single day or I'm going to make sure I drink at least a half a gallon of water a day So you're adding things rather than taking things away Psychologically feels totally different. You're not restricting You're adding and here's what ends up happening through this process Naturally start to cut things out without even realizing this is one of my favorite things to watch You know watch the transformation happen because it's subtle It's something that uh, you know, they're adding like let's say it's a Broccoli or some kind of vegetable that you know, maybe they're deficient in certain nutrients in their diet It's just naturally their palate starts to change They start to crave different things and and they start to finding themselves longing for that feeling that they're getting from it Instead of hammering themselves for not, you know Going towards these foods that they they deem so uh, you know unhealthy for them This is such a key strategy and it's tough if you don't have a trainer, right? So you have to have the self-awareness to do this yourself if you're listing the podcast and taking this advice But I love what you're saying Sal because I I loved not telling a client You can't you can't have like sure you can have it But then what I what I made sure of is to have communication around that So let's say that person went and crushed that chocolate bar. I'm not going to scold them as their trainer and say Oh my god, you fucked up and now we're going to get fat blah blah blah. No What I am going to do though is say how did you feel afterwards? How did you sleep that night? How was your skin? How was the next day? How was your mood digestion? How was your all these things that food the stuff that you put inside you affects and help them connect that and then When they streak three days in a row of doing exactly what you just you guys both suggested which is You know increasing their protein or eating a salad a day or three servings of vegetables You know cooked vegetables in the day then I would say things like how did you feel? How was your stool? How did you sleep and then helping them make that connection of why they make that choice that's not related to their scale The weight going up or down or how they look But more so how their body felt how their mood felt how their energy felt helping them make that connection that Wow, when I fuel my body with these choices that it may be less palatable May it might be less palatable boy the benefits that I get and the things that I feel from it are amazing And hey, you know what when I have that thing that's really palatable and I enjoy that part of it Boy, I tell you what it actually it might satisfy me for that one minute that I'm consuming it But the aftermath of how I feel and then on their own they start to weigh that out themselves You start to crave things that make you feel good. This is true. Okay, by the way, manufat But you know advertising companies know this when they present a food on on a commercial They're not just showing you the food. They're showing you like a party in the background or it's really cool Or look how relaxed the person is they're trying to make associations to make you want the food even more So when you make these good associations with certain foods, let's say you eat Let's say you notice when you eat three servings of vegetables That you're no longer constipated and your skin looks really good And you're paying attention to this by the way because if you're not aware of it doesn't matter But you're paying attention. You're like, you know what man when I eat three servings of vegetables My hair looks good. My skin looks good. I got good digestion. I constipated like I normally am I feel really good and you start making those connections You will start to find that you'll actually crave those vegetables now might not be the same type of craving like I crave the taste of those vegetables But you'll want them just like you would something that yeah, but that's the problem for so long And then by the way again, this is back to the marketing and advertising side of of our world, right? It's like the everything is about how it tastes. So we've been taught that way that that's the only thing you value Yeah, like does it taste good? You know, that's the first thing, you know, you should try this Does it taste good? But that's the very first thing nobody goes like, well, how did it make you feel? Right nobody asked when someone suggests a restaurant or suggests food to you No one ever says, oh, did you shit well after work or how did you sleep that night? Corn dog made me feel great. Right. Nobody thinks about that. It's always about taste But when you when you're setting on a goal like this and we're trying to change your life and your health and your behaviors You have to start to think like this You have to start making these connections because 100 all that food affects that And now here's another point is that to identify Some foods that bring you away away from awareness. That sounds very complicated So I'm gonna say it a different way start to identify foods that trigger Impulsive behaviors these usually are in the category of heavily processed foods now Here's what the science says about heavily processed foods And by the way, heavily processed foods typically are found in wrappers in boxes. They have lots of ingredients They're typically not single ingredient foods like a steak is not heavily processed But you know or you know just rice by itself is not heavily processed But rice chips, you know that are you know ranch flavored would be heavily processed for example So heavily processed foods when they do the science they show That when people are left to eat them and they compare them to other groups They eat on average five to six hundred more calories a day and they eat almost 40 faster while they're eating it It literally encourages these impulsive behaviors. Identify that for yourself It's usually heavily processed foods for most people now Why is this important because it's it's making you aware that if I eat these kinds of foods It brings me away from awareness I become more impulsive I eat faster and eat more and it's something that is Hard to control once you know that then you can say to yourself I think i'm going to stay away from that because that makes me behave in this particular way Instead i'm eat these whole natural foods. I mean, I'll tell you what right now. This is a true story I figured this out a long long time into my career, but when I did it was a game changer I would tell clients. All right. Here's just one thing. Just do this. Don't eat heavily processed foods But eat as much as you want. I don't care. I don't care what it is if it's not heavily processed Go ahead and eat eat until you're totally full. You know what happened. Everybody would lose weight Everybody would lose weight because really hard to overeat. It is your you naturally start to your body's systems of satiety start to work The way that they're supposed to heavily processed foods hijack that so identify that They bring you away from awareness and make you more impulsive with your behavior along the lines of awareness I have to add something to that that I find myself saying today that I wasn't saying 15 20 years ago And I think that's just the time that we're in now And when you talk about awareness you also so the hyper palatable foods is one thing The other thing is just being purely distracted. We live in this tech world where your phones are an extension It's like another limb for people or the television right or an ipad or whatever tool you have to consume this content, right? If you're at a place where you're trying to learn this you're trying to learn Your body's natural signals that it's talking to you and you have no clue what we're talking about And you want to figure this out another piece of advice that i'm going to give around awareness Is do not allow yourself to bring your phone to the table or do not eat in front of the television Sit down. Yes by yourself eat quietly chew your food think about the food slow your heart rate down Be there with your food. In fact, you know people who say oh, I enjoy eating a lot It's actually a very unaware state of mind Think about the laugh you're listening right now Think about the last time you did something that resembled a binge Maybe you ate a bag of chips or a sleeve of Oreo cookies Typically the behavior looks like this you're not enjoying the the cookie that's in your mouth You're eating the cookie in your mouth so fast because all you can think about is the other one in your hand It isn't even about the food that's gonna get them in it's about the food that isn't in your mouth This is literally a mental state of unawareness. You're distracted. You're you're it's impulsive eating and awareness is i'm sitting down quietly No distractions i'm eating and i'm chewing and i'm i'm there i'm here with my food when people bring awareness to their eating They naturally eat less. This is a fact studies have shown the fact they've compared Groups of people who've done awareness practicing exercises to people who follow You know macro and calorie targets and guess which one is more successful long term the awareness They don't even have to count anything they're just more i'll take this challenge all day long right here Yeah, you you're somebody listening right now and you need to lose weight and you only have two rules I'm not going to put a diet together for you. I'm not going to tell you can't have this or that The only thing I want you to do is choose like you said whole foods and never eat in front of a television or your phone You watch what happens. I dare you to try and get fat that way Ain't gonna happen. It's just not gonna happen It's it's already hard enough to do it with the whole foods angle that you're talking about with potatoes and steaks Potatoes and steak did not get people fat. It's all it's adding that it's the french fries that you added to that It's the dessert you added to that It's the soda that you drank down with that It's the highly processed power hyper palatable foods that you add in combination with these whole foods That is what's really screwing you so just you simply doing that And not being distracted while you consume most people believe it or not Are even people that have never trained themselves to be aware of these signals will feel these signals Absolutely, and again, it took me a long time to figure that out But I loved it when I did because it was like boom magic. It's working and it's working simple forever So there you have it. Okay focus on building muscle getting stronger work on mobility make that a part of your routine Make sure you have a plan B with your workouts that you could do anywhere and focus on intuitive eating rather than following a diet And you are going to be about 90% of the way there. The other 10% is just you showing up Look, we have a lot of free guides you can find And read that we've written about lots of topics around fitness and we did this as a way to give back to our community You can find all of these at mind pump free.com and you can also find all of us on instagram You can find justin at mind pump. Justin you can find me at mind pump sal and adam at mind pump adam What are the what do people starting with they're starting with the wrong impression is what they're starting with And I think you have to address that first Because if you made a pie chart out of everything that you're going to do to enhance performance You'll find that this pie cut for drugs is probably 15 or