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Episode 81: Testify: Bone Density Course Alums Share Their Experiences
999 Plays2 months ago
Welcome to Episode 81 of the Movement Logic podcast! In this episode, Laurel and Sarah talk to four women who took the Bone Density Course: Lift for Longevity last year about their experiences. Whether it’s reversing an osteoporosis diagnosis, to feeling more capable in all aspects of their lives, each woman has a unique perspective on their experience to share. In this episode you will hear from:
- Bea, who first discovered yoga from a book back in the 80s, and became a long-time yoga teacher, but who realized over time that was missing the strength part.
- Kathy, a private yoga teacher from Washington, D.C. She came across Movement Logic on social media and after receiving a diagnosis of osteoporosis, decided she wanted to try and overcome it using heavy lifting.
- Bridgette, a 48-year-old yoga teacher from Canada, who is currently in perimenopause, and wanted to address the symptoms that she was experiencing as well as shore up some solid bones.
- Samm, a Pilates instructor and sports massage therapist from England, who got into Pilates to try and help her bad back. She found us through our podcast, and had no hesitation in signing up to get stronger.
Only a few days left to sign up for this year’s Bone Density Course: Lift for Longevity - so don’t delay!
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Transcript
Introduction to Movement Logic Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Movement Logic podcast with yoga teacher and strength coach Laurel Beaversdorf and physical therapist, Dr. Sarah Court. With over 30 years combined experience in the yoga, movement, and physical therapy worlds, we believe in strong opinions loosely held, which means we're not hyping outdated movement concepts. Instead, we're here with up to date and cutting edge tools, evidence, and ideas to help you as a mover and a teacher.
00:00:36
Speaker
Welcome to the Movement Logic Podcast. I'm Sarah Court. I'm a physical therapist.
Participant Experiences from Lift for Longevity Course
00:00:40
Speaker
and Today, this is a very special episode of the pod but because we have four of the participants from the bone density course, Lift for Longevity, who took it with us last year, the very first cohort to do the course. and These four participants have agreed to share their stories with us and with you.
00:01:02
Speaker
We have Bia, who first discovered yoga from a book back in the 80s. I mean, full disclosure, so did I, and became a long time yoga teacher, but realized over time that she was missing the strength part. We have Kathy, a private yoga teacher from Washington, DC, who came across movement logic on social media. And after receiving a diagnosis of osteoporosis, decided she wanted to try and overcome it using heavy lifting.
00:01:30
Speaker
We have Bridget, a 48 year old teacher from Canada who is currently in perimenopause and wanted to address the symptoms that she was experiencing as well as shore up some solid bone density. And we have Sam, a Pilates instructor and sports massage therapist from England who got into Pilates to try and help her bad back. She found us through our podcast and had no hesitation in signing up to get stronger. Now this is quite a long episode, so you might want to listen to one story at a time.
00:02:00
Speaker
But all of these women have something valuable to share, and you'll probably find yourself nodding along with what they are saying. I mean, I certainly was. We really hope that their stories will encourage and inspire you to start lifting heavy. And if you think our program, the Bone Density Course, might be right for you, we hope that what you hear in this episode will answer any lingering questions or settle any doubts you might have.
Bia's Journey into Strength Training
00:02:25
Speaker
are
00:02:30
Speaker
So I'm here with Bia Doyle, and she has graciously agreed to come on and talk about her experience in the 2023-2024 bone density course lift for longevity cohort. Thank you so much for being here, Bia.
00:02:48
Speaker
So happy to be here, Laurel. yeah and but Yeah. Yes. Yes. I'm really looking forward to talking to you. First off, just tell us a little bit about yourself. You know, I've been active all my life. um Never a gym person, always active outdoors, a lot of hiking, backpacking, cycling. I lived up north for quite a while and so did a lot of cross country skiing. So I love being active in the outdoors. so And then I got into yoga and I started practicing like a lot of people who didn't have studios around from a book ah back in the 80s. And it wasn't until I moved um to Albuquerque in the 90s that they were yoga studios. And so got way into yoga and it was really good for my body at the time because I was kind of broken from all the other intense sports I did. um And it really helped me.
00:03:39
Speaker
And I practiced at a studio. I did some teacher training and did intense teacher training and left my job to be a yoga teacher back in 2000. Taught full time for five years, then actually opened a studio and had a brick and mortar studio for 10 years. Wow. I know. And then I sold it and freelanced for a while to the pandemic. Fantastic. So I've been active that way and, you know,
00:04:08
Speaker
Truthfully, yoga did so much for my body, but I think I crossed a line and got way open and limber and wasn't registering in so much with the strength piece. And I found some things.
00:04:19
Speaker
you know, pains, mostly SI joint kind of issues for me um happening through my practice. And so the pandemic ah changed things that way. ah We made a big move back East to be close to family. And i' I'm back in my old career of teaching ah math. I'm at the community college here in Greenville where I teach part-time math.
00:04:42
Speaker
Yeah, so life has its way of finding it and then finding you and um Sarah was just a blessing last fall is just what I was needing for connecting and ah taking care of my body again, really. Amazing. Thank you for that background. It's a lot. I also had SI joint pain from my yoga practice. Yeah. um And the world needs good math teachers, that's for sure.
00:05:10
Speaker
It just made me remember this phenomenal math teacher I had. I had to do ah um advanced algebra again, I guess pre-calc, right? Again, for pre-reqs in my late 30s to be able to take calculus to get the pre-req for applying to PT school. And I had the best math teachers I have ever had in my entire school. More of my heart.
00:05:37
Speaker
She was so good. I loved the class because I knew I was going to go into the class and two hours later I was going to come out of the class and I was going to know a whole bunch of math and I was going to be very confident. yeah I was like, this is what buts I wish everybody had for their math teacher. So she helped you to feel confident. Yes. how Why was she the best? She was the best because she was so methodical and clear and positive and like I was not confused.
00:06:05
Speaker
And she just really went through every single problem and explained how to do it. Yes. Okay. So off topic. Back on topic. Let's go back. Bia, how did you first hear about bone density course?
00:06:17
Speaker
Well, I have a good friend who both of us, um we met through hiking, both of us had osteoporosis diagnoses and we were aghast with how active we've been in our life to have this diagnosis. Okay. Our understanding was about, you know, weight-bearing exercises, even though we all felt like we've done a lot of weight-bearing exercises. And she first found the Liftmore study and told me about it. And so then we went on a journey to find a way to do these exercises that they did in the Lithmore study. So we did research and i have um I have had one knee replacement and I have another one ah where you know the lateral compartment is severely degenerated and I have chondromalation.
00:07:00
Speaker
and I have um that condition in my back where there's a vertebrae more forward. and so i was And I had been doing some PT. So I was really looking for someone as a trainer who had some background in just therapeutic aspects. And I was also looking for someone who knew how to ah lift and could do more strength kind of work with me. And so we just went on our independent journeys looking. And she you know we both went to the local Y, and she went in looking at trainers and none of them was what I was looking for. So I
Structured Strength Training Transition
00:07:34
Speaker
really, I remember that you were doing some strength training. I'm not sure how I i' remember that, but you know, I'm in the yoga world. yeah I actually was in that training with you at Kripalu with Joel Miller in May of 2016. It was right after I saw my studio. That's how I know about you. was You were my leader person. yeah The level one.
00:07:57
Speaker
Oh, yes. And now I saw I kind of almost vaguely felt like I had met you before. I thought I just saw my studio was over the top exhausted. And I thought we were gonna just lay over balls the whole time. And then it was a teacher training. And I was like, what have I done? You know how many people have gone to that training? Think it's thinking it's seven days of balls. And all of us are like, you really think that you're gonna do seven days of balls?
00:08:24
Speaker
Yeah. I think I had some attitude in the beginning, of but I got over that. So funny. I remember you told me I was a much different teacher than student. And I'm like, yeah, I was real bad attitude in the beginning. That's why. so ah that's what That was like my teaching feedback to you.
00:08:42
Speaker
So I think i I went to see what you were doing and I saw that you and Sarah Court were doing this bone density lift course and it was just like perfect for me. Sarah's a DPT. I had these issues. I've been doing physical therapy, which helped, but I wanted to be pushed more. Yeah. And I even said to my PT, you know, i I want to be pushed because I know that about you, but I felt like I had taken her to the limit of what she does, you know, in her lane for PT. So I'm not faulting her at all, but I i wanted more.
00:09:12
Speaker
And so ah when you were offering this course, I knew it was for me. Yeah. um And that's why I signed up. I love that so much. That is so cool that we have just made this connection. Yeah, I know. I love it when that happens. And yeah, physical therapists.
00:09:29
Speaker
don't all use strength training to the same extent. right So there is this need, I believe, to bridge the gap between rehab and then actually elevating capacity beyond where you started before rehab, where you are after rehab. So awesome. Amazing. And then also we have Sarah as a physical therapist.
00:09:57
Speaker
strength training with y'all and answering and fielding questions around your injuries and conditions. And that is exactly why Sarah and I are pairing up. And I want to say she was very generous with her time because I emailed her before and let her know what was going on and along the way as well. So she was quite supportive with my concerns about you know my knee, my back, et cetera, et cetera. So it's so helpful. That's Sarah for you.
00:10:24
Speaker
All right. so We discussed how you first heard about bone density course. You did tell us a little bit about your physical activity before heading into bone density course. Had you been doing any lifting of weights in any way before signing up with us? and you know Maybe just give us a little taste of what your typical week of exercise looked like before bone density course. Well, during the pandemic, pandemicic it was walking outside and so no gym.
00:10:54
Speaker
And then we moved um here to Greenville, and my husband and I joined a gym. And I would just go and fool around on the machines that were there, not really knowing anything. And then they had a, you know, at the Y, they have a free, introduce you to the machines. And i I did that, so I would learn about them. But I really felt like I wanted some kind of program. And I, i for some reason, I didn't want to hire a trainer. Your program just really fit for me. I was curious about the bar. I'd done the machines. um I didn't feel comfortable doing any of the free weights on my own. I really felt like I needed some guidance, instruction. yeah um And um so that's my typical week. We would go to the gym maybe two or three times a week. I joined a hiking club and I was hiking once a week. But the other thing, I was training to do this long hike in the foothills of the Blue Ridge in the spring. And so having your course with this goal of getting really strong, to do this 77 mile hike through the Blue Ridge Mountains, yeah it's gonna do with a small group of people. So I learned to be strong, I wanted to be able to do it. So that was my motivator for going to the gym. So that's what I did. I hiked once a week, went to the gym twice a week.
00:12:14
Speaker
and just fold around on the machines. Yeah. And when you were fooling around on the machines, were you, every time you would go to the gym trying to use the same machines and do a fixed number of sets and reps and trying to progress your load? Or were you kind of just like playing it by feel? Let me just get on this machine, because it just kind of sounds like a good idea right now.
00:12:38
Speaker
Well, part of me knew what my body needed. and I tend to be really weak in the upper body. So they have this machine where you can do pull-ups. Like, I always wanted to be able to do a pull-up. And it's counterbalanced, so you can put in how much weight it will do for you. So I i did that. I would try to do three sets of 10 at a weight where I could, and then it would take it up a notch when I got strong. um But i knew I knew nothing about progressive overload. right no I would do three sets of 10 where I could.
00:13:05
Speaker
um And then I would, when I felt strong, I'd take it up and I'd be like, okay, now I can take it up a little bit. So that was how I approached things. I would do what I thought I could, and then when I got stronger, I would take it up a little bit.
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah, well,
Learning Progressive Overload
00:13:19
Speaker
that is actually that is progressive overload to a team. OK, but not like we did in the course, which right. So that was my next question is like, how do you think it was different? The approach that we took in the course to what you were doing in the gym? And do you feel like you understand what progressive overload is a little bit more from the course? Yes, um so. In the course, we took a couple of months, I think, just to get our foundation and learn the exercises, learn good technique with the bar.
00:13:48
Speaker
um And then my perception is like in month three, we really started to talk about load and RPE and I knew nothing about all that and loved having the chart like I'm a numbers person.
00:13:59
Speaker
And to understand how you can, that just the basic concept of you can do lighter load and more reps or you can do less reps and more load who was a brand new concept that really kind of woke me up to like, oh, this is really how you build strength versus just kind of sustain where you are and keep you in maintenance and out of pain.
00:14:21
Speaker
Yes, I was all about building strength. I had a big goal. and Yes. We're not just maintaining, right? We're trying actually to overcome our previous barriers and go beyond. yeah yes So i that was my big aha, I think. I really got that. yeah Yes. And I really got how strengthening can open your body as well. oo you know I thought only yoga opened your body, but you know um just with ankle flexion and squatting, I think carrying some load got me more open there. I tended to be really stiff in my ankles. um So that was another thing that was interesting to me to feel in my body. yeah I feel strong and open. So I'm really happy about that. Amazing, amazing. Yeah. So yeah, what you're describing in terms of us working on the
00:15:17
Speaker
barbell technique with just the empty bar for a lot of folks. And then yeah, yeah it was right around month three where we were like, okay, you've pretty much learned all the exercises in this program. And now in month three, we actually repeated the exercises from month one.
00:15:31
Speaker
But now we're talking about yeah getting some more load on. And then in month four, we repeated the exercises from month two. Now we're going to put some more load on. And and that's when we really started to get into what you you talked about was the chart, right? So you're a math person. I like the numbers. So you like the numbers and you like the chart the chart. We teach you how to use the chart. And it is a way for you to determine how much weight you should put on the bar. if you want to work in a particular rep range, right? So if you want to work in a smaller rep range of like four to six, you can use the chart to know how much weight to put on the bar based on a previous lift where you may have worked in a rep range of eight to 10.
00:16:18
Speaker
So if you can do a lift for eight to 10 reps, you could probably do a slightly heavier lift for four to six, right? Or there's even a significantly heavier lift from for for four to six. So this chart kind of takes the guesswork out of it. Whereas you know what you described, your process being at the gym with the machines, bea that was my process for many years. And I actually think it's incredibly valuable to have sort of an experimental, exploratory, playful approach to the gym. and i think that
00:16:48
Speaker
um that you know i I feel like that makes it fun, it makes it um almost like ah like a playroom of toys to kind of experiment with. And many years would just kind of try machines and see how they felt and then you know try to make it a little harder and a little harder. But that's a little bit like, for me at least, cooking without a recipe. I'm not naturally great at cooking. So when I cook without a recipe, I never know what I'm going to get.
00:17:13
Speaker
like It might be good and it might be terrible because I don't have that, like, je ne sais quoi ability to kind of just know with ah stuff in the kitchen. But if I follow the recipe, right, then I'm pretty sure that what I'm going to get on the other side of that, as long as I haven't made any mistake mistakes, right, is is I'm going to get a pretty good tasting dish.
00:17:34
Speaker
So that's kind of like what this chart and what our program um could potentially help you do. And then you said RPE, rating of perceived exertion, um which is a way to kind of rate how hard something felt.
00:17:50
Speaker
And you you mentioned that that was ah something that you felt like we got into a little bit more as the weights got heavier. How how did you how did you find RPE useful, particularly as as ah as a a tool to bring into your strength training? um Well, it helped me to know when to maybe increase my weight.
00:18:11
Speaker
If I found I could do, after I did a particular weight and then it was pretty easy for me, so RPE of like seven or eight, right? I would go up to the next weight. It just helped me to progress, to have that understanding. Yeah. Yeah. So you're kind of going based on feel.
00:18:29
Speaker
Right. Yes. How it felt in my body. Yeah. And it was interesting too. I learned that some days, you know, you might feel stronger than other days. And so it got me to relax a little bit too around the progression um and how busy life might be or life can get in the way as well. but i it But also, it was pretty surprised and shocked at the beginning where I was starting with a particular
Impact on Flexibility and Strength
00:18:53
Speaker
weight. And as I progressed, I could see that I could progress. yeah I might be really tired or like, oh, that was really hard at this particular weight. I put on five or 10 more pounds. I was like, I can do this. But it's less reps and I would keep progressing. yeah That was a new concept. So it's like the body got warmed up or ready for the load.
00:19:12
Speaker
ah That was interesting to me and then working with the breath to engage my core was really helpful too because I would add more weight. I learned all this in your course. I know. Something about strength training and building strength is almost really difficult to explain with words. You have to feel it. You have to go through the process and it's not just one workout. right It's months of a program.
00:19:41
Speaker
that really teaches you long term what it means. it's It's almost like a lesson that requires time because the lesson is the change you're making and the change you're making requires time, right? It definitely requires time. Yes. Very cool. Very cool. So I wanted to ask you, did you have any lingering concerns before the course began where you were still just not quite sure if this was going to work? Yeah. Well, my I had a few concerns and one was what was going on in my body. I mentioned my knee and my back. and um so just those Also, i had never you know in the gym, there's a room where all the racks are. I never stepped into that room. It was intimidating yeah for me. so and I wondered how that all might work. I knew I wasn't going to be you know purchasing the equipment from my home. I knew I was going to be going to the gym. yeah so I also knew I had to get over myself and
00:20:38
Speaker
It was funny, I would like just look in the room and there was all the people working out on the racks and I would walk away and go to my machines and then at once I just walked in the room and walked around and then I went there and did something, I don't know what I did. And so it was really a progression for me to get comfortable.
00:20:55
Speaker
Yeah, in the gym was just going into the place where the bars are. Yeah. ah The place where the bars are. Because it's a different room than where the machines are. Such a different vibe in there, isn't it? A different vibe. Yeah. But I learned that people are so helpful. um You know, I had a woman come up to me and say, Are you new here? And I'm like, Yes. Like, of course, can you tell?
00:21:21
Speaker
So it was kind of fun that way and a growing experience, too. But now I feel totally comfortable. I've had guys say, oh, I can tell you really know what you're doing. I mean, really, people remark that because they just see me progressing. And I got very fast with just taking the plates off the bar and putting them back on. And yeah, I have a place there now. It was cool. Now, were you Training with us live. I know I remember seeing only a couple times time because
00:21:54
Speaker
The rack room is available all the time, but it didn't have 35 pound bars. Yeah. So I had to be on the Smith's machine for a while in that room. But then I learned of another room where there's classes and they have all the 35 pound bars there. Oh, that's where they were. Okay. And the schedule for that room wasn't available during class time. So I had to make a choice between getting off the Smith machine and having the 35 pound bars. And that's what I did.
00:22:19
Speaker
Yeah. So once when I went over to that room, I was pretty much just looking at the videos and sometimes the classes. But mostly I referred to the videos just to look at my technique. That was very helpful. Yeah. So that's what I did just because scheduling. Amazing. Did you submit any form check videos to the Facebook group? I did. Yeah. How was that for you getting feedback like in that sort of asynchronous way? it was fine and good um i mean
00:22:50
Speaker
Live feedback was also good. I felt like you guys were really attentive and could be there for the group. But every video I submitted, um either you or Sarah commented on, and it was helpful. I didn't feel like it had to be live. So I i was totally fine not being available for the live classes and progressing in the course. It didn't seem to be a barrier for me. yeah um So that was great. This is my first time doing an asynchronous you know form feedback thing in a Facebook group for this first cohort. And I was surprised at how
00:23:24
Speaker
Well, I thought it worked for my end as a coach yeah in terms of like what I could see and just the time and space to really give the clearest possible most direct feedback in written form. um And it seemed like for many folks, they made good use of of that. yeah um yeah So it must have been helpful is my takeaway. I think so. Yeah. For those ah concerns that you had about your body and the barbells,
00:23:55
Speaker
Obviously, you worked out the barbell situation because you found the barbells that you needed in the space in the gym where you
Managing Back Pain and Knee Issues
00:24:00
Speaker
needed them. Were any of the concerns about your body ongoing throughout the course? Did you have to check in with Sarah a couple of times or ever? um and And what did that end up being for you, those concerns? Yeah, so the concern about my back actually improved immensely with working the back body like I love the deadlift. Oh, yeah. That's my absolute favorite.
00:24:25
Speaker
um But that was a big concern. Can I do this with having a vertebrae severely forward in my spine, but i actually it strengthened my back. And you know when I saw an orthopedic doff with the MRI, he just says, core strength, core strength. I'm like, all right.
00:24:43
Speaker
to just stabilize my spine. It's really fine. and and And I don't throw caution to the wind, like I'm not overloading it and I'm paying attention to my body. But really with Sarah, I i um emailed a lot about my knee, like squats in the split lunges are really tough on my left knee. um And I can have some pain um with that. i'm I'm really, I'm not ready for any replacement and I've gained so much strength and stabilization that knee from the work that I do um in the course with it. So it's been a big benefit. I think, you know, down the road, it's in my future, I'm going to need a knee replacement hu because it feels um weak with some of those poses. So I don't push that.
00:25:30
Speaker
But I'm so committed to strengthening the muscles in my legs and my glutes to help support my knee. Fantastic. So I still, front squat and back squat, I still use a bench, yep um just to take care of my knee that way. and i'm I'm not so focused on totally progressing, but I'm keeping myself strong. Fantastic. That's a ah lingering concern for me, so there you have it. Great. Thanks for sharing. When you spoke with Sarah about the the lunges, what if you don't mind, what was the solution you both came up with for that? um Gosh, I can't remember. It was more early on in the course when I was talking to her about it and I believe I wasn't doing as much
00:26:14
Speaker
load. I wasn't doing the lunge with the plate over my head kind of thing. Is that one of them where we take the plate over the head? So I just didn't do that. yeahp you didn't You didn't do the overhead version of the lunge. Correct. Now I'm doing just a straight leg hinging from the hip for my glutes. I'm not really doing any lunges because I feel like I work it enough with the squats. Absolutely. yeah So I'm not doing that exercise. yeah Good. Sometimes that's the solution. Yeah. Yeah. Just eliminate it. Because you're already getting those muscles in other ways. Exactly. So fantastic. you have to make I had to make some adjustments, which is fine. Yep.
00:26:55
Speaker
and it's That's the name of the game. Did you have any surprises or aha moments from the course that you weren't expecting? I really think my biggest aha moments was how strong my back feels now. you know I knew strengthening could be helpful, but i don't have it's so much better functionally than I ever imagined. like can sit and drive in the car and not always adjusting to try to get my back to feel good. So that is freaking huge. Amazing. Yeah. Amazing. So functionally, it is really,
Functional Improvements and Anxiety Reduction
00:27:32
Speaker
really good. And that comes from, I think, all the strength in the back body that we did in the core work um also.
00:27:39
Speaker
So I didn't know it could be there. I just thought it was always going to be dealing and managing. And you know I have some things from the PT to do when my back hurts and it could take care of it in the moment, but this is more lasting. I just feel strong. right Whereas before I felt like I was taking care of the pain that I have so that it doesn't get worse. you know It's a big difference. Yeah, totally it's a totally a difference. It's like one is reactive.
00:28:06
Speaker
yeah And the other one is more preparatory or proactive, I guess. Proactive. And I wasn't, if I had to go on a long road trip, I wasn't worrying about what my back was going to do. Oh, that's good. You know, it just would to be like, okay. So it it reduced some anxiety. Yeah, I felt more free. Oh, amazing. Okay. More free. More free. Yeah. That kind of leads me into my next question, which is how has lifting heavy changed things in your life physically or otherwise?
00:28:35
Speaker
um That feeling of freedom kind of speaks to that otherwise, but is there any other ways that you feel like lifting heavy has changed your life? I think I have a more sort of can-do attitude, especially like I'd like to garden as well so I can lift things. I know how to lift them. ah yeah I just feel stronger and I can do things. So it's more confidence in that way. I certainly feel more confident in the gym as well. So that's a big difference, I think, in my life. Yeah, that's a huge difference. Feeling more confident. Yeah. I mean, I felt really confident in yoga until I didn't. And and then the other sports that I did, I felt confident and that you get to a point where it feels like
00:29:23
Speaker
It's out of balance. I i just feel like this course is very balanced for building strength in my body. Cool. Do you feel like the balance it comes from the fact that maybe you weren't strength training and now you are? Or do you think the balance comes from the variety of exercises? Does the balance come from the education that was provided to you around why you're doing what you're doing? Can you speak a little bit more to that? Sure. I definitely think it's because of the variety of exercises that we do that I strengthen my upper body, my core, my legs, my glutes. Whereas when I was a cyclist, it might be core and legs, but my upper body was always in pain. Yes. Right. And um you know I did a lot of cross country skiing, but I was younger and that was really good for my whole body. Then I moved to the desert Southwest.
00:30:12
Speaker
not so much crossro wasn't doing that And I was doing a lot of hiking and that's good for the lower body too. And so my upper body just always was hurting. And then of course,
00:30:25
Speaker
being a math teacher, you know, computer and stuff. It just made me strong all over and that made a big difference. Fantastic. um I always love asking this question. were Were there any exercises in the course that you started out disliking but then you actually grew to love? I don't know if there is one. I know I don't like the Copenhagen. No, don't like the Copenhagen. So the Copenhagen is like a side plank, but you put your top foot in a side plank up onto a chair or a bench, and then you lift your other leg off of the ground maybe, and so it ends up being a big inner thigh exercise. Correct. I mean, I need it actually. You know, I can ah join you in not loving the Copenhagen via ...
00:31:13
Speaker
I was unsure about exercises and then grew to love them. yeah like i um I love the bench press. I love the deadlift. The squats are harder for me, so I don't have a big affinity for them. I love the back squat more than the front. okay I like working my back body, I guess. yeah there yeah so but i don't know if i I think I grew from not being sure to loving might be more accurate. Yeah. you got to know the the po You got to know the poses, I almost said. You got to know the exercises. yeah And I don't know. For me, getting to know the movement helps me get to know myself more, right? It's like you're really never exploring a movement. You're exploring your body, right? yeah That's right. yeah I love that aspect of it.
00:32:05
Speaker
I'm happiest when in my body. And so the course really provided me to do more exploring that way. Nice. Now I know you're a numbers person. Was there ever an amount of weight you lifted where you were like, holy cow, I just lifted that amount of weight.
00:32:20
Speaker
When we did that, um you know, special class to really see the heart highest weight you could lift, I was blown away. I had no idea. So I think I was under loading. So we did a one RM build up, one rep max build up with the group, we're going to do to every cohort, they chose chose either the deadlift or the back squat, and then get together did a little warm up. And then they would progressively do a number of reps and then add weight and then do a fewer number of reps and add weight and then it would eventually whittle down to doing one heavy rep or repeating that one heavy rep a couple of times to see, could I do more? Could I do more? And so you did that class with us and you were blown away. So tell us, what was the lift you chose? The dead lift, of course. Okay, of course. That's your favorite lift. That's harder.
00:33:09
Speaker
I can't remember my numbers and I don't have my stuff in front of me. That's okay. But I was really blown away at how much I could lift one time. I really was able to progress. The format of that one rep max build up helped you realize that actually there was more there for you. Yes, I can change my load from when I was doing only eight reps or eight to 10 reps. Yeah. I didn't go from there. So yeah, I was very instructive and a big eye opener.
00:33:35
Speaker
Yeah. And when you figured out what your one rep max was that you tested, did it affect how much you then put on the bar for those higher rep ranges after the buildup? Like once you knew what your test oh yeah m was, then you were realizing, Oh, actually I could put a little bit more on for the eight to 10 reps than I was. That's exactly what it did. I put i i went to you know my chart of what I was putting on. I'm like, well, I can go here now for my weight. I'm able to do that. that i was just that just I just showed that in my own body that I could do that for one. So the chart was really fun that way. There's the chart. Yeah, we love that chart. Cool. It was great.
00:34:14
Speaker
All right, well, now that the course is over, it's been several months since we stopped with the live classes.
Post-Course Strength Training Continuation
00:34:20
Speaker
Are you still lifting? How have you integrated the habit of lifting into your life? Does it look a little different than what you were doing with us in the course? Yes, I'm still lifting. And I'm still lifting about just two times a week.
00:34:32
Speaker
Sometimes I'll go to a gym a third time and I'll just fool around on what I think I need to do. Yeah. um But I try to get there twice a week. You know, I went back to start with month one again. And what I decided to do was to start with month three and just rotate through three, four, five, six. Oh, okay. Nice. So that's what I'm doing. Fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. um And just trying to really listen to my body and um keep doing what I can do. but So yeah, my in my mind, I go twice a week, but then I i miss some too. Hey, me too. you know even during Yeah, I think it's normal. During the course, we went to visit kids and grandkids in Denver and my daughter-in-law and steps on have weights in their house. So even during then, I found ways, they don't have a rack, but I did everything. So that's how dedicated I was during the course. Like I got to get my two workouts in. So found ways. so
00:35:27
Speaker
If you hadn't taken our course, do you think you would have used no weights? No. Why not? I don't know. i Having a class, i'm right I'm a teacher. I've always been a student. yeah mean it just you know I'm not going to miss class. Right.
00:35:42
Speaker
So is my homework. Amazing. I do my homework. I love that. I love that. Yeah. That's that accountability piece. Yeah. It helps. That I think is really helpful to a lot of folks, myself included. I used to think I was always like, oh, I'm so self-motivated. I'll just, you know, yeah i'll be I'll have the willpower. And then I realized like, that's not actually me at all. Like I really thrive with external accountability and like peer pressure.
00:36:07
Speaker
It really helps. right All right. Last question. What would you say to someone who is considering taking the course, but had some of the same concerns that you did? Well, I think I'd say a few things. um that if you're interested in really learning how to build strength in your body, it's a fantastic course to take. I think that both you and Sarah were amazing support. The content that you've created is, it's just so spot on and rigorous, yet understandable. I think the two of you are hilarious as well.
00:36:51
Speaker
So it's not just all like we're going to go. Right. Right. Right. Hopefully not really fun, but you're very focused as well. So I felt really taken care of. Oh, good.
00:37:03
Speaker
during the course, and it was fun. And I got to grow a lot in the gym and just see how the gym can be a community for me, too, like living to a new place. It's hard to build community or have friends. And it just was another outlet where I have a place yeah where I recognize people. And you know it's kind of fun to to learn something new and have someone remark that I know what I'm doing. like no That was so cool. Oh, hell yeah.
00:37:34
Speaker
I even had this guy say to me, I love a strong woman. Oh, okay. All right. and I mean, Laura, I'm 67 years old, you know and I'm in this gym with people of all ages, so everyone knows that they're very supportive of me. yeah I do see some other um older women there, and so we're all like, yeah, right on, we're here. Right on. But I get a lot of people supporting me in lifting.
00:38:02
Speaker
I think that's phenomenal and I feel that you are probably supporting other people and they're lifting whether you realize it or not just by being there. Being there, yeah. And yeah ah role modeling that to them whether or not they are your age, younger, older, male or female. Yeah. Just the very fact of you being there is a statement. Yeah.
00:38:29
Speaker
You're right. It is a bold statement and a positive and uplifting and liberating statement. Yeah. Well, thank you. I'm so glad that you feel like you belong in that space. I do. I did have, you know, a woman I was just watching who was much younger and just so hardcore and beautiful and strong. And I just said to her, you're an inspiration to me. And she said, no, you're an inspiration to me. Oh.
00:38:57
Speaker
It was so cool. Jeez. That is really super cool. Well, this has been such an uplifting conversation and such a pleasure. Likewise. It's rare that, as you know as you know as a teacher, it's rare that you get the insider insight into what your students were thinking and how they felt about it and what their experience was like. That's right. And so thank you for sharing that with me and thank you for sharing it with us.
00:39:26
Speaker
ah who are listening. So my pleasure. Yeah, super appreciate it and keep doing what you're doing. Keep plugging away. Keep getting in into the the gym and showing everybody that, you know, you and everyone like you belongs there. Yeah. Thanks, Laurel.
00:39:46
Speaker
you One of the most common things we hear from women is that barbells are intimidating and they don't think they can use them. At the same time, this same group of people is nervous about balance, falling, losing strength and an osteoporosis diagnosis.
00:40:02
Speaker
If that sounds familiar, our six month live online fully guided weight and impact program, bone density course lift for longevity is for you. In this course, you will become proficient in barbells and the kind of whole body heavy lifting that builds bone density. Received personalized feedback on your practice to ensure your technique is on point and you're selecting the correct weight to lift. Implement impact training, scale to your ability for even more bone building.
00:40:29
Speaker
Ask your questions. And join a community of women who are determined to get strong AF. Click the link in our show notes to sign up. We start October 15th and we won't run this course again this year.
00:40:43
Speaker
Okay, so I'm here with Kathy Page. She was a participant in the 2023 bone density course, Lift for Longevity, and she has graciously agreed to come and talk to me on the pod. Kathy, so thank you so much for being here.
00:40:59
Speaker
You're welcome. I'm happy to be here. Tell us a little bit more about you. My name is Kathy Page. I live in the Washington, DC area. And I um took my yoga teacher training in 2010, started teaching group classes, have done that up until recently where I so i have started teaching private lessons and I don't do the group classes anymore. I found you and Laurel on social media and always I appreciated your sciency take on yoga and movement and things like that. And that's what attracted me to the course. So you first heard about the bone density course just from social media. Yes. And were you already lifting weights at that point? Like what did like a typical week of exercise look like?
00:41:47
Speaker
When I was teaching the group classes, I was teaching formats like um taught a healthy back format and balance and core and chair yoga for balance and core. So I was always kind of interested in trying um not so much classical yoga, but like trying to get new um new experiences. The first thing I did was probably started adding bands to my yoga workout because of I was diagnosed with osteoporosis several years ago. I felt like my body had just adapted to the yoga I was doing and the bands
00:42:28
Speaker
gave me a lot of new feelings and there were a lot of new, anger like the whole thing about getting into new angles and having like a new experience in the same pose, teaching that kind of stuff and teaching, it you know, practicing it and teaching it. So the biggest loading I ever tried, you know, I get the diagnosis. I know that thinking, okay, loading's what I want were bands, which maybe get up to what, eight pounds of resistance.
00:42:53
Speaker
maybe some little hand weights if um I couldn't figure out how the band was going to load it. You know, when I was teaching into COVID times on Zoom, most people had a band or could get one. So it was easy, an easy prop to add. That way that was about the extent of like the loading was just that kind of stuff I never did much outside of yoga, but I did feel like my body adapted to my body weight in yoga and practice wasn't doing for me what it once had. So I kind of, you know, made my way gradually to adding load that way, not lifting heavy stuff. Like you guys say the pink dumbbells like, yeah, that, that was, you know, Yeah, but we all we all went through that period, right? If you were a yoga teacher and then you were like, oh, interesting, people are starting to add external load. What does that look like? If I'm still going to be doing yoga poses, I mean, I can't start at least by holding like a 20 pound kettlebell over my head in my triangle pose, right? But attaching a band to my foot and to my hand
00:44:00
Speaker
to your point, gives me these new, you know, areas that I'm feeling, it creates load in a different way. So I think a lot of yoga people, that's sort of how they start to make their way into resistance training is with, with things that you could actually put into a class or easily bring to a class, right? You could bring a bag full of two pound hand weights. You can't bring a bag. I mean, maybe you, I don't know, but like it'd be difficult to carry around a bag of like 20 pound kettlebells or something, right? Right. And the bands are easy to carry around. Right. very Very light. Exactly. Exactly. If you've never used them, I can remember my students in classes feeling, you know, just the bands gave them all kinds of feelings that um the regular pose couldn't do unless you're, at you know, cueing lots of activations. And I was good at that. And then I realized, you know, one of the big realizations of adding load is that
00:44:54
Speaker
you could you know develop your skills as a teacher to learn to cue isometric drags and be really good at that. But when the load gets heavy enough, guess what? Your body figures it out. like that's Once I did, I was like, oh, wow, I could have saved myself a lot of words. You don't need to say anything. So that it's really interesting. like when you're When you're ready to try something heavy, you'll have, a again,
00:45:23
Speaker
something heavier than the bands, you will again have a whole world of experience. and I went through all of that. You know, I think every teacher, let's say you've been teaching 10 years, you have your little naggy aches and pains that kind of never go away. Guess what? If you figure out how to strengthen that, most of the time, your little naggy aches and pains are going to go away. And you might not be able to do that just with yoga. I mean, I think a lot of us tried in the beginning, you know, my when I was a yoga teacher, and my entire toolbox was yoga.
00:45:55
Speaker
If I had something that felt funny, I was like, okay, well, what's the yoga pose for this, right? Oh, my hip feels funny. I'll do pigeon. Oh, my, you know, quads feel funny. It's time for hero pose or, you know, anything like that, right? I think that's sort of really natural for most teachers in the beginning or like, okay, I've added bands. Okay. So now I'm going to do that, but that's going to top out as well. There's going to become a point where you acclimate to the load of the band or the load of the lightweight.
00:46:20
Speaker
And so did you go essentially just from like bands and pink dumbbells to barbells when you took our course? Yes. Wow. you know i So I was diagnosed with osteoporosis like four years ago and it was in my family history. So my doctor was like, let's get a baseline because if you look up all the things to do to have strong bones,
00:46:46
Speaker
I do all those things. So I remember her calling me saying, I'm really surprised you came back with osteoporosis. And I was like, well, it shows you genetics are a thing. So I was trying to work on those numbers. And when I started doing the bands, the numbers did get better for a while. But then COVID hit and things got weird. And um my osteoporosis numbers started going the other way. And I thought either my body adapted to my little bands or, um you know, you always wonder, well, am I doing the right things? Am I giving myself the right variety of movement? You know, i I think also, I mean, one of the things that I've noticed with a lot of doctors is that a lot of them still believe
00:47:33
Speaker
that any weight-bearing exercise is all you not all you need, but like that's the kind of exercise that you need to do for osteoporosis, not external load or external resistance. so I don't know if that's what your doctor sort of assumed that because you were doing so much yoga and like the resistance bands that it struck them as surprising. so Was your osteoporosis diagnosis, was that the biggest motivation for you to take the course?
00:47:59
Speaker
Yes, and it was because, so I think, oh, I'll do the bands and the weights, and I see a little bit of better numbers, but then I got back into the bad osteoporosis numbers again. I felt like um like the science was showing that heavier lifting is okay, that if you have that diagnosis, you're not as fragile as you think. And of course, I'd never lifted things that heavy, but um I also had never really had an osteoporosis injury, even though staying active and twisting and bending and doing all the things that they tell you not to do with your spine while I continue to teach and do all those things and add load to them. So it it worked out and i was I was ready for the course because I felt like the science was backing it up. I had the equipment. I just felt like it was the right fit for me. I've done other online trainings and um that format has worked for me. I wanted to reverse the osteoporosis and also just learn how to use the equipment we already had. Nice. So you had like a barbell setup already? my it It was my husband's things. Yeah. where We find a lot of women, if if it's in the house, often it's like, oh, it's my husband, my partner, or somebody else. yeah So what were you what were like your biggest concerns before the course started? like Were you at all worried that you were going to hurt yourself? I suppose I was worried I would hurt myself myself and then like not be able to to work and teach. you know like There's hurting yourself and then there's hurting yourself. If you teach, you you know what I mean? um Yeah.
00:49:35
Speaker
I was worried about hurting myself and not being able to see clients, I guess. It's interesting, you're like, I was worried about hurting myself because it would affect my work, not because you're actually afraid of hurting yourself, right? Well, I didn't think I was going to like it. But I think that's very, you know, for people that do a lot of movement, I think that's a very typical thing. And or we're not like, we're like, of course, I'm going to hurt myself eventually somehow. I'm just worried how this is going to like affect my income.
00:50:00
Speaker
um So, apart from hurting yourself, did you have any other concerns before the course started? Were you worried about like the time commitment? like It was six months. No, I was ready. i mean i was ready you know yeah i was I was ready to do the work and get stronger. and um Also, when you you teach like we do, it's nice when someone else just does the program. A hundred percent. It's so nice. And especially um in the beginning, there's sort of so much to learn that having the recorded live practice was really helpful. And I use those a lot
00:50:41
Speaker
even if I wasn't sort of practicing right along with it, I would leave that on in the background because of just trying to pick up information from when other people were asking questions or, um, yeah, or just when I was doing it on my own time, just having a replay going cause of, yeah, it's sort of, it's motivating. You also then can be like, okay, wait, this one I don't understand. Let me fast forward to this exercise because it's always given me a hard time and I'm not sure, you know, and like listen to the queuing for it or, you know, stuff like that.
00:51:11
Speaker
Yeah, okay. So well as far as your biggest concerns were Being like to you know to hurt yourself did that I don't think did you hurt yourself during the course at one point I was communicating with you guys because the um Jump training was her my knees and look, you know looking back on that, you know and yoga we do everything barefoot so I had started the jump training barefoot and I think My knees would have liked sneakers more. Probably. And then um it was coming up on, I was due to take a vacation that was going to involve walking and I didn't want to have sore knees for that. so i um
00:51:55
Speaker
I stopped doing the jump training and I replaced it with walking with a weighted vest. So I i but got this thing when I first got diagnosed was a vest that you can put weight in on and off to have like high impact walking. I had bought it but never used it regularly until I thought this will be good for my trip to like train for the trip to have 15 pounds on me. Absolutely. And also be my impact training. So that's what I used.
00:52:26
Speaker
Definitely. I did the walking and I never went back to it. I tried it a couple times here and there, but it always made my knees hurt. And I just wasn't down for that. Totally. And I think, I mean, you know, so we've got that impact training as part of the course and we've got the heavy lifting as part of the course. And I think a lot of people modified you know There were a lot of options for how you could do the jump training, but I think there were plenty of people who also were just like, oh yeah it's not really working for me. And we're like, okay, just just for now, leave it out. And then maybe we can figure out ways. But I totally understand. I have myself also made this mistake where I did like so much of it barefoot and then realizing like, okay, yes, you're used to doing everything barefoot. You lift barefoot, you do your get on the reformer in socks. like But for this, where there's going to be impact, maybe cushion it a little bit. Like, that's not not the worst idea. Did you have any, like, aha moments during the course? Oh, I had a few. And one of them was when the the load is heavy enough, your body finds ways to do the thing.
00:53:30
Speaker
And I think that comes from like trying to cue activations for students and for myself, especially like I have an area in my hip that was just always the wonky spot. When things started getting heavy, that area would get really sore. And I knew that somehow the load, but you reach your magic number, like you just can feel that um your body's figuring it out. Also another aha moment,
00:53:56
Speaker
was I am a person that um doesn't squat with their heels down. So I use ramps in the weightlifting and um Early on in the live classes, what I was hearing from you guys all the time was you're not squatting low enough. And so using the ramps, let me keep my heel down, if that makes sense. Yeah. That helped my squat get lower. That was interesting because in yoga, like, oh yeah, get a, fold a blanket, put it under your heels. No one ever really does that. but
00:54:29
Speaker
especially kind of moving fast, right? So um so that was interesting because, you know, my leg my lower body was definitely stronger than my upper body, but I wasn't squatting deep enough. And there was a lot of strength to be had there. And I think the other thing that I think it kind of goes with heels being down is in um the back squat when the bar is across your um shoulders.
00:54:57
Speaker
I had to let the weight bear down my back body. Like something of, I don't know, there was something about having my heels up and letting the weight sort of be on your body and load it, but I would let it load my back body and then like be able to use my heels. That was like, Oh, okay. This is how other people squat with their heels down. Right? Like, Oh, this is what it feels like forward.
00:55:24
Speaker
Always. And so the squat is really different when the weight is back. Yeah. but I agree with you about getting the bar on your back, creating a totally different squat experience. And also that whole thing that you said about like not squatting deep enough, I wasn't either before I started weightlifting. I was doing these little mini squats with, you know, a kettlebell or whatever, because I think, again, coming from yoga, we're like, well, chair pose. Okay.
00:55:50
Speaker
But chair pose is not hips and knees the same height. I mean, not how most people teach it. So it didn't occur to me that that was like a goal. I was like, well, squats are squats. You go up and down. What does like what does it matter how low I go? right I think as well that what I am glad you were able to experience with the wedge under your heels is the fact that like this is the other thing, like not everybody's lifts are going to look the same. you know I have a hip replacement. I've had three hip surgeries on my right side. And when I squat, i there's a certain weight that I can tolerate and get you know pretty much you know hips and knees the same height.
00:56:28
Speaker
If I go above that weight, I start to get all kinds of crazy, nervy stuff happening in my hip. It just doesn't, it can't tolerate it. I, you know, I don't entirely know why I suspect that it's because what's called the Arthur kinematics, right? The way that the hip joint moves inside the joint is different on one side to the other. And I believe it's more, it has more limitation on the, on the hip replacement side. So when I do my squats, I'm still like loading heavier and heavier and heavier. I squat to a bench, which for me is actually a little bit above that parallel line.
00:56:58
Speaker
And that's my squat, right? You squat with your heels up on a wedge because that's what allows you to load your back body and feel what a squat really feels like in your body. Obviously there's props that we use in yoga, but I think there's often a lot of reluctance to use props in yoga because we feel like, well, I'm supposed to be able to do this, right? I'm supposed to be able to get my heels down. I'm supposed to be able to reach the ground without using a block.
00:57:18
Speaker
So then we get to like, okay, this is what the squat is supposed to look like, right? But there are so many variables that really become much but greater in the sense that what we're lifting is a lot heavier. It's not just our body weight, right? So I think it absolutely makes sense to to do them the way that works for your body. It's not like you're cheating and it's not like you're not going to get as much out of it either. What was the most challenging thing for you? Maybe that you didn't anticipate or that you didn't think was going to be challenging, but turned out it was?
00:57:48
Speaker
The challenging thing was wrist and hand strength. For the first few months, like that would usually be like one of the sore, muscularly sore things was um just working on holding the bar, like holding all that heavy stuff. like Did that get better? It got better, but I would still say like upper body strength. Oh my gosh, it's elusive. You have to stay working on it and don't forget like your forearms and wrists because it's literally half your strength. yeah
00:58:28
Speaker
like Yeah, you weren't alone without a lot of people found that their grip strength in the beginning in particular was like, Oh my god, this is what's actually making it hard. I can I can squat, ah you know, I can deadlift this way, but my hands. yeah i lot of that is Yeah, I never did gloves. I didn't feel like gloves were going to be helpful. I think um you just have to toughen up a little bit. Yeah. And you know, we are now, because we learned a lot from our experience teaching you guys. So we're now putting some wrist and ah hand strength stuff into the portal for people to practice as well as like ankle strength, because I think those were two areas that people had some challenges with.
00:59:06
Speaker
That's a good idea um to get some little prerequisite loading. Yeah, or just using it on your own outside of the class as a way to get stronger. What was your favorite weightlifting exercise? I like variety. you know I taught those formats because I could really do whatever I dreamed of. but you know i liked um I like variety. I like the way that feels in my body. And um one of the most interesting things was hanging from the bar, like we did those like simulated pull ups, but also just sort of hanging and some of the other variations we did on that, like that was really interesting.
00:59:50
Speaker
Yeah, an interesting way to be strong is to hang and I haven't had shoulder stuff, you know, shoulder injuries. So I felt like I could do that without worrying about it. and And that was really interesting. Talk about something that will improve your grip strength big time. But yeah, that that active hang is oddly hard because you're thinking you do it and you're like, well, how hard could this be? I'm just holding a bar. But then, you know, you're hanging, it's 10 seconds and it's 15 seconds. You're like, holy moly. That's a great exercise. What about were there any that you just like dreaded or that you started out not liking, but then as you got better at them, you liked them more? The one I don't like is probably um bent over row. That one.
01:00:46
Speaker
It's sort of like, it asks a lot. It's just like, my back doesn't want this. Right, totally. Because it's it's sort of like you're standing in the start position to do a deadlift and then you're just hanging out there and doing your rows. How, well, so we know, well, I know, I don't know if the listeners know that one of the things that has changed for you having done this course is that your osteoporosis diagnosis change. Could you tell us about that? Like what you went and got a test? Tell me, tell me what happened.
01:01:16
Speaker
Well, I um had mentioned before that I first got diagnosed about four and a half years ago. And um so every so often you go back for another scan and the month we started the course, I had a scan and ah those results were osteoporosis. Do you remember what the T-score was? It was 2.8 in the lumbar area. Okay.
01:01:41
Speaker
The lumbar is was always the area where the osteoporosis showed up. Did your doctor ever have you taking any medication for your osteoporosis? Right at the beginning, I tried the oral medication. yeah It gave me um stomach ache. I tried it probably for less than a month. It gave me a stomach ache and I told the doctor I was going to do my own intervention.
01:02:05
Speaker
So anyway, um so the lumbar score um in October when we started the course was 2.8 minus 2.8 on lumbar. I did the course and um when the course was over, I was doing the weightlifting on my own somewhat sporadically. And in August, it was 10 months after I started, it was 2.1. So it was 8 to 2.1. That's really big.
01:02:31
Speaker
Amazing. And um because of the heavy lifting, I think that the bands worked for a while and then they stopped working and it had to be something heavier. And so the way the course is designed, it isn't, here's your 20 pounds, do this forever. It says you get stronger.
01:02:48
Speaker
Add load as you go. So I think the the progressive program is going to help it and someone like me that, oh, I've done enough to um make my bones stronger. But then I would probably be adapting to this sooner or later. And the number in the, I should say the weight of the load would need to go up. But I feel like that's built into it. When I did the program, I wouldn't say I was like constantly getting three times a weekend. Sometimes it was one, sometimes it was three, sometimes It was probably none. you know Life gets in the way. I didn't have to be too militant about it. And I've told how like the jump training, I adapted that. I will say, like having been you know a yoga and movement teacher for years and years, like I've never worked so hard. but The weightlifting, like the things that are really different is that you are so tired.
01:03:43
Speaker
at the end like we've all been to you know a really hard yoga class for an hour or hour and a half but it's just like a different kind of tired and you also have to um in yoga you usually aren't eating before practicing where you If you don't eat something, you will hit the wall. Yeah. Might be 20 minutes, might be 40 minutes, but that was really different, you know, sort of yoga world. So that was really interesting. I will say, you know, I would say like I, I worked really hard when I did work. It was really hard work, you know? Did it feel like it got easier over the span of the course at all?
01:04:22
Speaker
Yeah, and but I would say, as anybody who's kind of a beginner beginning weightlifter, I'm still kind of still kind of learning the whole, how tired am I really? Should I be holding more weight on? like I feel like I was the type of person that my weight would kind of stay the same, and then um all everything would go up. So I think I'm not one that's sort of going for glory. kind of But you did enough, you did enough progressive overload that, you know, you change your bone density. I mean, i guess that's my point is I didn't feel like like, even though it was really hard, you know, you know, I really tired really hard, wasn't like, oh my god, if I don't do it this hard, every time I'm not going to achieve this goal, it really was
01:05:06
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, you know, so that's good to know too that I got good results with moderate attention, but it's coming from yoga world like it is different. Now you grunt and you you bang things potentially drop things in ways you maybe are new to you. so You make faces, it all kinds of stuff. yeah yeah like it's very It's very different. and How else has having gone through the course, we know obviously you had this incredible result with your osteoporosis. Are there other things that have changed in your life physically or so mentally otherwise? When you keep getting stronger, the little
01:05:50
Speaker
bothersome aches and pains really do go away. i you know I'm not getting younger and um even though I stay active and try to stay healthy and everything, like you know those little aches and pains come around and it's nice to be able to um live without them. Totally. So you said you're still doing a little bit of lifting. are you have you Have you been able to integrate that habit into your life? We designed the course so that you could start again at month one, like right after you were done with month six and just increase the weights of what you're lifting.
01:06:25
Speaker
And that's exactly what I've been doing, going through the months again, and um just adding the weight as we go. So i um I feel safe doing it by myself. I definitely go back to the content you guys prepared sometimes, because I'll think, oh, what was this?
01:06:43
Speaker
the nuance of this and I always have put so much um background work into it that all of that is there and that's helpful when you feel you're a little rusty, especially with some of the things, you know, some of the things you just can't remember exactly what it it was or something. Yeah, like how to set it up exactly or stuff like that.
01:07:02
Speaker
That's so cool. i'm i'm glad that you're I'm glad that you're using the program to continue your lifting. What would you say to someone who's considering taking the course but has some of the same concerns as you? Maybe not osteoporosis, or maybe they do have osteoporosis, but they're coming from the yoga world. They haven't done something like barbells before or lifted any kind of heavyweight before. What would you what would you say to them? Well, I would say that the course is really valuable in the way that the way that it's designed. i don't think that, you know, women that are of a certain age, I don't think there's a lot of places for us to go and sort of learn this kind of lifting. And it's helpful to hear it from other women who have sort of a similar yoga mentality background. And we all know that in yoga, we're trying to marry our flexibility and our strength.
01:08:00
Speaker
But in yoga, flexibility always starts to win that game once you once you've been practicing long enough. And I just always was a type of yoga teacher that was interested in the the science of what they're learning about bodies and the way people learn and the way people get stronger. so I just feel like the program marries all of that and that I feel that you and Laurel are available for questions and that could be live or that that could be on emails and things. and i I just feel the course was really worthwhile and for the information and for the way you guys ran it. Yeah, and I'm happy to share my story because
01:08:44
Speaker
It might feel like a big commitment and just know like I wasn't perfect with my commitment and didn't take that. Right, right. I think a lot of it, well, thank you so much for saying all that as well. And I think a lot of it is for so many people because it's such a different input to your body, right, working with a heavy load, that even if it's one week you do twice and then the next week you do it once and then the week after that you do it three times and then the week after that you do it zero times, you're still getting so much novel input to your bones so that you're getting the benefits from it.
01:09:21
Speaker
right So the consistency that we talk about, and we talked about this in the course as well, like the consistency is just continuing to do it. Not that every single week you did the perfect amount, but it's just that every single week you did something and so you know maybe some weeks you did nothing. but that there's this intention and and forward motion in terms of like, well, this is this program that I'm doing. So yes, I missed a week cause I was on vacation, but now I go back and I'm in this, this is the week that I'm in. And then I keep going, you know, and that's sort of, that's sort of how it is with lifting. And it sounds like a little bit, that's what you're finding at the moment as well. Like some, some weeks, yes, you're doing, at you know, month one workout B two twice or whatever. And then like the next week you're like, nothing happened this week. And,
01:10:04
Speaker
It's the long view, right? It's the long-term consistency. It's not the what did I do this week as much. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Thank you so much for talking to me. Is there anything else you wanted to add last minute or anything else you wanted to say that I didn't ask? I want to thank you guys for developing the course. I signed up for another six months. Fun.
01:10:24
Speaker
ya Yay. Amazing. More Kathy. We're going to get all that upper body going and we're going to make that impact feel okay for you. We'll figure it out for sure. All right. Well, thank you so much, Kathy, for talking to me. I really appreciate it. Thank you.
01:10:41
Speaker
are
01:10:47
Speaker
All right. Welcome, Bridget. Thank you so much for talking to me today. Oh, thank you. I'm excited to chat about this. Yes, me too. So Bridget Shaw is a alum from the 2023-2024 bone density course, Lift for Longevity cohort. Yes. And she has kindly agreed to come on and talk about her experience. me So Bridget, why don't we start off with you telling us a little bit about yourself?
01:11:17
Speaker
So I am 48. I should lead with the fact that I'm in perimenopause because that was a huge part of why I joined. okay um And I'm a yoga teacher, meditation teacher, who always really felt like I was really aware of my body, took really good care of my body, did all the right things, and um discovered that I needed a little bit more. And so I ended up in your course. Yes, I'm a mom. I live in Canada and I feel like I found you at the perfect time.
01:11:57
Speaker
Amazing. How did you first hear about us? So I ended up doing one of your competitions, like a ah challenge for challenge. That's the challenge. So for the um pull ups and rates of through my virtual studio did the prepare to pull up challenge. yeah Right. And I was like, oh my God, I didn't realize how weak I was. I thought I was.
01:12:21
Speaker
Nothing like pull ups. Nothing like pull ups to humble you. I can relate. So then from following you on Instagram and through being in the program and in your membership and the portal and everything, I heard about the program and I felt like, well, honestly, I felt a little pissed off. Not at you, but at the world.
01:12:50
Speaker
I was like, how come no one ever told me about bone density? How come no one ever told me that I was going to lose muscle mass, I was going to lose lose my bone density, and that I should be doing something about it? Like 10, 15 years ago, I should have started.
01:13:06
Speaker
right um But it's never too late to start. And I decided that it was time when when you offered your first program because I felt like I needed to learn how to lift. My husband lifts. And I always looked at him with his kettlebells, with his barbells. I'm like, that's just crazy. You're going to hurt yourself. Like what do you hate? Right. Yes. And I thought I would hurt myself.
01:13:35
Speaker
going into something like this. So I was never interested. I mean, hu I joined a gym when I was 16 years old and I was on all the machines. I didn't take any classes, but I also never even looked at the lifting section. Right. So the machines like the cardio machines, you mean? Yes. Yes. Cardio machines, some weight machines for sure. Okay.
01:13:58
Speaker
um but I would always look at the people who are lifting the barbells, the dumbbells, the kettlebells, and think, oh, that's just not for me. I belong in this section. Right. Right. And I should have been in that section. Well, I mean, the this the machines, the strength training machines at the gym are a wonderful place to start.
01:14:23
Speaker
And I don't think you're alone at all in feeling like you don't belong in that free weight section because I definitely felt the same way, definitely with the barbells. And I know so many other people, many of whom took bone density course also felt just like they didn't belong in that part of the gym. yeah my My next question is, basically, if you were already lifting weights in some way, it sounds like you were lifting weights. What did your typical week of exercise look like before the course? Oh, so different than what it looks like. now <unk> okay and Yeah, i I definitely moved my body every day. Mostly yoga. And then
01:15:06
Speaker
occasionally waits. My husband got me, um, my kettlebells for my birthday a number of years ago. Yeah. And so I would work with those, but it wasn't consistent. It wasn't multiple times a week. It was kind of like, Oh, I'm in the mood to do this today. So I'll do this. I didn't understand what it took to actually build my muscles. So that didn't happen until I met you. Right on. Right on. Cool. Yeah. So, I mean, for me as a.
01:15:32
Speaker
someone who only practiced yoga, the thing that I liked about yoga was that it was always different. Like I would go to this person's class and it would be this kind of a class, but I never knew what they were going to teach. And then this other person's class, totally different class also didn't always know what they were going to teach. And like the variety and the sort of spontaneousness of it, I really jived with. But then when I started strength training, I realized that actually strength training is very very different when it's applied in this programmatic way right where you kind of do the same thing every workout and then you might change the exercise but only after like several weeks and it was a real shift did you experience a similar type of realization
01:16:15
Speaker
Yes, yes. And I mean, I came from a yoga practice where I was encouraged to do something different all the time. hu So that was really a huge part of how I worked physically, like exploring new things. And and so yeah, when I started doing this and and having more consistency in terms of my schedule, and also in terms of the moves that I was doing, um i I didn't think I would like that. I thought I would get bored. Yeah.
01:16:46
Speaker
I'm not bored. It's been a year.
Mindset Changes Through Repetition
01:16:48
Speaker
Yeah. okay okay That's interesting because that too was one of my big obstacles was that it's so repetitive. It's so boring. But there's a different type of learning and change that can take place with repetition that is I think for me at least very interesting and it sounds like maybe for you as well. Oh, so interesting because what was changing constantly was my mindset. Yeah. So let's actually talk about the mindset piece of this. So first of all, what motivated you to take the course in the first place? Like what was your biggest driver? Perry menopause
Perimenopause and Lifestyle Changes
01:17:24
Speaker
was my biggest driver. I was dealing with
01:17:27
Speaker
like over 20 symptoms and so okay for a couple years I got it under control with my hormone yoga but then at some point I wasn't doing anything different and something shifted and it was like I gained 20 pounds in like two weeks or something.
01:17:43
Speaker
And that actually got me kind of curious about what else is happening in this period of my life. And that's when I learned about the bone density. And that's when I learned about the muscle and all of the things. So right getting that information made me desire to change my practices of how I was living because I don't want to end up in a and a home where someone's taking care of me. I want to live on my own as long as possible. I want to walk i don't want to have to buy a house that doesn't have stairs. I don't want you know like i want to live my life for as long as I'm alive.
01:18:24
Speaker
And so you started to realize, you put it together, that actually string training was this activity that you weren't doing, that you felt like was going to contribute to your quality of life as you got older. Yeah, to all of the things, to the muscle, to the bones, the quality of like what I'm able to do, everything. But the perimenopause symptoms might have been like that wake-up call where you're like, things are changing. Yes. And you better change with them. Yeah.
Addressing Back Pain Fears
01:18:51
Speaker
Yeah, I hear you. Cool. So when you were thinking about the course, what were some of your biggest concerns? Did you have any fears or concerns? What were they? My biggest fear was that I was going to end up throwing out my back again and again, because that was something I had been dealing with chronically. Got it.
01:19:13
Speaker
So pain was was a major fear, but I've also been working with someone with chronic pain. So I have a better understanding now of of what that's about, what that means. So i I really work hard on my mindset. And when I come to my gym and my garage, and and that has made a huge difference. And my biggest fear didn't even come true. Like it was not a worry at all.
01:19:42
Speaker
So you didn't hurt your back or have any back pain during the duration of the course. I had discomfort sometimes in things, but like learning how to differentiate between like the oh shit moments and the like, this is normal and this is okay. And figuring out kind of how to adapt around that made a big difference and yeah looking at it as a long game made a huge difference. So it was like, okay, if I can't lift what I lifted last week, I don't have to match it or beat it this week. I'm just in a different place. I'm still gonna show up, still gonna do it. And then you watch everything fluctuating and then life happens and something comes up and you can't practice at all maybe for a couple of weeks. Or in my case, I got really sick and was out for a couple of months and
01:20:37
Speaker
And I went from you know seven months of working with you and getting up to this point where everything was super strong to dropping and losing like 20 pounds that I had worked so hard. Yes. so You couldn't put as much weight on the bar because you had. I couldn't even lift the bar. You weren't lifting. Yeah, I couldn't even lift the bar. And this past week, I started lifting the bar with plates again. and Yeah.
01:21:03
Speaker
oh So we know all about this because you are in the Facebook group along with everybody else who signs up for the course. And so after the course ended and you'd been training with us consistently, I remember you left a message in the group well after we finished the six months from the first cohort.
01:21:21
Speaker
talking about this, this setback, is that right? Yeah, yeah. And so what I loved about your presence to in the Facebook group is that you are always so generous with sharing sort of the mindset journey that you are on and also the other struggles that are not necessarily physical that came with this process of starting to strength train consistently. And so
Supportive Community and Strength Gains
01:21:47
Speaker
um I love that we have that Facebook group where the alums, everybody who's ever taken the course can still kind of come in and be like, here's what's going on. I found that that group was so supportive and so helpful through the process. I mean, in addition to all the feedback that we would get from you and Sarah, the crew of women were just amazing.
01:22:11
Speaker
Yes, and hopefully we all revive our presence in the group as we start this new cohort. I have a feeling we're going to hear from past and future altogether in a bigger, merrier group. You had some concerns about your your back pain, and those concerns did not really come to fruition, but rather it sounds from what you said that you came away actually with a little bit more awareness of the differences in the sensations you would experience in your back, maybe a feeling of empowerment in terms of being able to interpret those sensations and maybe not worry so much about the the feelings that maybe
01:22:54
Speaker
weren't those what you called oh shit feeling so would you say that the the program gave you better. Tools for interpreting your feelings and perceptions from your back or do you think that the course strengthen your back in some way or was it just simply the process of engaging in this hard thing that just made you tougher.
01:23:13
Speaker
I think it was a blend of everything. I learned so much. It was a huge learning curve for me coming in. First of all, to understand what we're doing and how it's working, which I really appreciated. It wasn't just like, here's a program, do the program, you'll get stronger. It's like, this is what you're doing to your body and this is why it's getting stronger.
01:23:33
Speaker
nice And so that, for me, I care about the why and that makes a difference in how I work. So yeah that was a big piece for me. And then also hearing other people's experiences and and watching them go through their ups and downs and trusting the sensations are okay. It was a big part of it.
01:24:00
Speaker
Very cool. and And different sensations, I'm sure with strength training. I know I was often surprised at how things felt and how they felt so different from other physical activities that I did regularly. Like my yoga practice feels so different in my body than the strength practice. yeah So that that's definitely been a learning curve. Were there any other aha moments for you during the course where you were like, whoa. Yeah, I remember like the first time um I was in the basement, I needed to carry up a 50 pound bag of soil to get outside.
01:24:35
Speaker
And I was like, Oh, God, where's my husband? He always was like, he's not here right now. And I need to get this started. And I was just on a schedule and I wanted to stick to the schedule. So I was like, I'm just gonna try it. i I mean, I'll probably hurt myself. There it is again, right? Like this whole mentality, bending over and picking up this heavy thing. But then when I bent over, I was like, Oh,
01:24:59
Speaker
I'm leaning forward like I do for my deadlifts. Maybe I could just lift it up like I lift my deadlifts up. And I did. And the bag came with me. And I was like, Oh my God, what? do And then I was like, I wonder, but then it was, you know, all the way down by my knees. So I'm like, I gotta, I gotta get this up to my chest.
Adapting Workouts to Conditions
01:25:16
Speaker
And then who it came up to my chest and I was like, what just, and I just wished someone was there to witness this.
01:25:28
Speaker
And then one one in front of the other, I climbed all the steps and brought it outside. It was like the most I was like, Oh my God, I don't need someone else to do these things for me. I can do this. Oh, yes, that is. That is an awesome story. I have so many moments in my life where I'm like, God, I wish that was on camera. I can't believe I just did that.
01:25:51
Speaker
hello Well, I just posted in our group a picture of me, because I actually filmed myself thinking it wasn't going to work. And I was going to laugh at myself at where I was in the moment. And I had my 45-pound bar, no bells on it, or no plates on it at all. And I was like, I don't think I'm strong enough yet to get this to my chest to put it back on to the cage. But let's just see what happens. And I totally envision this like comedic scene And I popped it up. And I was like shocked myself, but that happened. I was like, I did it. I did it. Yeah. I mean, you did it with a 50 pound bag of dirt. and But that was months ago when I was stronger. and now not like And so I feel like even though I'm not as strong as I was you know a few months back, I'm stronger than I was when I started. And it's already within one week.
01:26:49
Speaker
already building. It's like my body's just remembering and it's coming. Yes. I like to say strength is sticky when you build that baseline. And then if you have to step away for a while because of sickness or whatever, you come back and yes, where you are afterwards is a little bit lower than where you were before you took that long break. But getting back to that level that you were at is so much faster. Once you've already built that baseline,
01:27:19
Speaker
And so I think of strength training like ah an investment that that pays in interest, right? So you can you can build that baseline and get back to it faster, even when you have to take time away. um All
Empowerment Through Strength Exercises
01:27:33
Speaker
right, so what was the most challenging aspect for you in taking this course that maybe you didn't anticipate? um Having to work out in minus 30 in my garage. It was like, oh, this is a year round thing. OK.
01:27:48
Speaker
bridgegit and Yeah, exactly. we we We span multiple seasons. Bridget is in Alberta, Canada. also so Yeah, it was pretty damn cold. and That's pretty damn cold. so Did you have a space heater or anything going? like how How did you stay warm? so if that's it At first, we had like a space heater, which wouldn't heat the space, so it was just freezing. and Then we found this specialized heater that just directs the heat right into one spot.
01:28:14
Speaker
So we put it up above and, you know, so now within the cage, I'm fine. Plus what I've discovered is that no matter how cold it is, after a few sets, layers are coming off and it does not matter. Right. They're literally warm up sets. They will warm your body up. I love that. I love that.
01:28:34
Speaker
All right, cool. What were your favorite exercises from the course? So hip thrusts, I love them. Really? Oh my gosh. Okay, good. Good to know somebody knows. I'm strongest in those. and i don't yeah know So that always feels good. And ye I really love the squats because not the front squat, but the back squat. Everyone's like, not the frickin' front squat.
01:29:02
Speaker
felt so empowering, especially as a woman who's over six feet tall to be able and mostly legs to be able to walk that low. Yeah, up with all that weight. That felt amazing.
01:29:17
Speaker
I love that you're six feet tall, did you say? Six one. Six one. I think you're the same height as Sarah. Ah, yes, yes. Did you know she's tall too? No. Well, I figured, because you could see the length of her tie. I know, and compared to you, yes. I know. On camera, I've always thought of myself as pretty tall. When I was in high school, I was one of the taller girls on the sports teams I played on. I finally met Sarah for the first time in years. I hadn't seen her in years. And for some reason I forgot how tall she was. We met in Mexico and we met at the airport. I was like, you're so tall. That's awesome. So you're a tall person who loves squats. I think you might also be very unique in that way. I love that you love hip thrusts as well.
01:30:06
Speaker
Um, hip thrusts, I find the setup, once you have it set up, I'm like, I love these things. There's something pretty amazing about how much weight you can actually end up putting on the bar. yeah Because, uh, the gluteals are pretty strong. yeah so Like a
Strength Training's Emotional Benefits
01:30:23
Speaker
badass pun intended.
01:30:26
Speaker
and And what were your least favorite exercises from the course? Or maybe, is was there anything you started off disliking but then you kind of came around to like?
01:30:38
Speaker
I disliked and came around to liking the side lunge squats where you like tap down and then come up. At first, yeah I didn't like those. Now I love them. I still cannot stand the lateral step ups. Like every time those comments should hear me, it's like if I was being recorded, but oh my God, i I cannot stand those things, but I do them. I still do them even though no one's watching.
01:31:06
Speaker
Yeah, and and so the the lateral lunges you grew to love, that's good. um The step ups, that's interesting, it's two unilateral lower body exercises that kind of have some similarities, but one one you one you like grew to love and one you just never take. Not sure I ever will. I feel like the step ups are so hard. It seems like it should be easier. But when you're when you're not using the bounce off of the bottom foot, and you're really just pushing into that box and prying yourself up onto it,
01:31:36
Speaker
they are freaking hard. ah They are freaking hard. And you don't have to hold on to very much wait for them to be hard as well. My experience. Nice, nice. How has lifting heavy changed your life? Now we've talked about the bag of dirt. We've talked about the back pain. Is there any other ways that you've noticed that you show up differently? Has anything changed? Yeah, my moods.
01:31:59
Speaker
I remember there was one time where I was feeling really, really down and I was grieving. There was just a lot going on. And I went out and I did my workout. And before the workout was even finished, I felt like a completely different person. It's amazing.
01:32:20
Speaker
Every single time I work out, it's like I get this high that just like it's addictive. i I want it. I want it more. And so I'm like, oh, maybe I should work out an extra day a little bit harder to get this again. And so right when I had taken a couple of months off, I forgot about that piece of it. And as soon as I came back, even just lifting the bar,
01:32:48
Speaker
that flood of endorphins and all those wonderful hormones came back. and yeah that has like I didn't suffer from depression or anything like that prior to starting, but my mood has just been elevated so much. That's fantastic to hear. yeah i mean I think everyone suffers time to time from low mood. yeah right yeah um do you You also run. I know you do sprint training. um Do you find that the positive feelings are after something that's maybe maybe more cardiorespiratory, like running of some some nature versus strength training, which there's certainly some cardiorespiratory um
01:33:34
Speaker
activity happening while we're strength training, but it's much more of ah like an anaerobic, not necessarily getting your heart rate up a whole bunch, maybe not even sweating a whole bunch, but there is still like these post workout highs that we can experience. Have you noticed a difference in the highs after a running type workout versus a strength type workout? I've been thinking about this lately because I've gotten into running. I find that they're both wonderful for mood enhancement, but different Yeah. So I'm not really a runner. I sprint once a week and then I do my other aerobic exercise through like high intensity interval trainings because it keeps me more engaged.
01:34:17
Speaker
here you by area I, you know, that's an interesting question. I haven't noticed a difference, but now I'm going to pay attention to it. Okay. god Yeah. Yeah.
Course Empowerment for Women
01:34:26
Speaker
I think that as yoga teachers and yoga practitioners that we, I like to think of us as like connoisseurs of our own felt experience. And i I find like a lot of people like talking about food and the flavor of food or wine or whatever.
01:34:41
Speaker
And I kind of get off on talking about like the feeling after exercise. yeah yeah And and putting and putting putting words to those feelings, you know, like how would you describe the feeling? I think that the feeling I have after strength training is often one of like, I'm unfuck withable, yeah or I am put together, right? These are just few two phrases that kind of pop into my mind. With with running, it's like a ah satisfaction and ah kind of a calmness. I don't know. They're very different. And then after yoga, it's like a relaxed feeling more so or a softer, a softer feeling. even yeah yeah um Well, yeah, something to something to think about. Now that the course is over, right, you're still, you know, in the Facebook group from time to time. Are you still lifting? And if you are, does it look a little different than when you were in the course? I am still lifting and it looks the same. I have it in my calendar. There is a schedule. i'm far i'm I've gone back to month one.
01:35:50
Speaker
and I'm going through the entire program again on my own now. That was one of the things that really made me nervous about a course to learn how to do this because I felt like I'd probably always need someone telling me what to do um because it's so out of my wheelhouse that I didn't think that I'd grasp how to grow in it. But you two did such a wonderful job teaching us how to do that.
01:36:19
Speaker
that by the time we completed the course, I was like, oh my God, I can keep doing this on my own and I know what I'm doing. yeah And like talking to other lifters and like, we're using all the terminology and I'm like, look at me hanging with them. yeah Yeah, that was our entire like main overarching goal was Yes, to make everybody experience this process of actually getting a lot stronger, a lot stronger. Because we knew we were going to attract a lot of people who had never lifted weights at all. And so starting from scratch, there's so much progress to make. And even just a short amount of time, you can notice like, I am a lot stronger in just a couple months, right? But that wasn't
01:37:12
Speaker
really what we wanted. What we really wanted was for people to leave the course and feel like they knew what they were doing. I know what I am doing now. I am so happy to hear that and that you feel that way because I think that that feeling of I don't know what I'm doing, at least for me, is almost always the biggest obstacle to me trying something new. Yeah. So that's awesome. What would you say to someone then who is considering taking the course but maybe had some of the same concerns as you did. You start where you are. you know You do not have to be someone who understands how to lift. You don't have to be someone who's ever lifted before. You don't have to have any kind of physical experience. you get like We had women who were in their 70s joining us. right and
01:38:03
Speaker
if I feel like taking this course is not just gonna help you as you age to do all the things that we've talked about, right? To stay strong, to live your life, to lift the bags, to throw the thing over your shoulders on the airplane and and do all the things. It's gonna create a sense of and empowerment and confidence um and strength of will and determination that is gonna filter through into every part of your life, not just when you're lifting. So do it.
Gratitude for Course Impact
01:38:38
Speaker
Do it for yourself. Do it for the world. Do it for the other girls so that they know. Talk about it. I feel like I've talked about it so much since. And so many of my friends don't know, didn't know that they needed to lift heavy to do this. Like I've had friends say, Oh, yeah, I just got these little dumbbells. They're like five pounds, 10 pounds. I'm like, well, you're gonna move past that really fast. Like don't keep going with those five or 10 pounds. You know, right?
01:39:05
Speaker
right And and the tricky the tricky part, I was just talking to somebody on um Instagram about this too, is like the tricky part about those those little hand weights or about holding yoga poses for a long time is that you can make a hand weight exercise or a yoga pose feel hard. Like it can feel tough, but if you hold it long enough or if you do enough reps, you're going to feel your muscles burning.
01:39:29
Speaker
The experience of actually lifting something heavy is like this totally other way that something can be hard though, right? Yes.
01:39:42
Speaker
and And you don't have to hold it. And it's also easier because you don't have to hold it right. You don't have to do a million reps. You can do like four or five. But exactly um but the the heavy aspect is something that is conceptually very difficult to communicate with words. Because when we hear heavy, we're like, relative to what? yeah But when you are put in front of a weight, that is,
01:40:12
Speaker
heavy for you. And that is always what heavy means in strength training, right? Heavy for you. And then you have worked up to being able to lift that heavy weight and you go to lift that heavy weight, the feeling of being under that heavy weight or pulling that heavy weight off the ground or hip thrusting it into the air, whatever it is you're doing, it's like this whole totally other experience than the ones that we are very maybe more accustomed to having in the yoga practice or with the tiny weights. It's this other type of heart. It's this heavy type of heart.
01:40:48
Speaker
And so creating can clarity, I think, around what even that means, right? With your friends um and you know whoever is in your life that is like, what are you doing, Bridget? You're like, well, I'm lifting heavy. Let me throw you over my shoulder. what let me Let me pick you up, throw you over my shoulder, and show you my weight.
01:41:14
Speaker
It's cool to hear from you about everything that has come up for you in the course and the way that it landed for you. I mean, you're a teacher and I know you know how rare it is to get to kind of pick your students brains. So I really enjoyed talking to you about this and nerding out about the parts of this that we both kind of jive on here. I think a fellow movement nerd like me. I want to thank you so much for sharing your experience and continuing to be a force for positivity and support in the Facebook group. Thank you.
01:41:48
Speaker
And hopefully we'll see you in the Facebook group for round two and everyone's like submitting their form check videos. Yes. Oh, I love it. What's up? I love it. What's up? 2024, 2025, cohort. Yeah, there's the support. Welcome to the family. I know, I know. And thank you both for creating this program. I mean, it was just everything that I needed in the right moment. And it's been a fantastic experience.
01:42:19
Speaker
Yeah, we loved having you and and thank you for for being a part of it and thanks for taking it on like fully on and sticking with it and making the change and keep going. Yeah, it's been fun for sure.
01:42:33
Speaker
are
01:42:39
Speaker
Okay, so I'm here now with Sam Vince. Sam was part of the 2023 Bone Density Course Lift for Longevity cohort, the very first group. And I'm so thrilled to have her here with us today to talk about her experience. So welcome to the podcast, Sam. Hi, hello. As you can hear, we've got a Brit in the in the pod, so I thought I'd mix it up for you guys so you could hear some interesting different accents.
01:43:06
Speaker
ah and I'm quite fluent in American and I think you're pretty fluent in in ah British English. Yes. I think you and I at least will be fine. Yeah. um So Sam, tell us tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, your movement background, and then what sort of, how did you hear about the bone density course? What got you interested in it? Okay. So ah very briefly, I trained, a bit like Lauren actually, I did a drama or actually a theatre, and you would call it, degree.
01:43:35
Speaker
and then taught in secondary schools at high school. We call it here for 20 years as a um drama, theater, English teacher. That's so cool. I didn't know that. Yeah. So that was my background in teaching. So and teaching is my passion, my love, my vocation. um And then I left that about seven years ago for various reasons. And um partly actually, because I didn't really change the syllabus in this country for drama, it became much more exam based, less practical. I didn't believe i would like I like movement, I like the, yeah, that kind of it. So I had a friend in town here where I live who had just done her Pilates training and was starting some Pilates classes and she just couldn't keep up with demand. So I was like, brilliant, I'll just retrain and do that because I'll usually just transfer my skills over. And I'd always done Pilates and loved movement and very much from a background of having a bad back. So I've never been an athlete, never been a dancer. You know, I like to boogie and just,
01:44:34
Speaker
topics and the step classes and, but, you know, failed dismally at hip hop classes or anything like that. So, and I'd also had a bad back and, uh, yeah, so I got into Pilates that way. So yeah. So I taught a Pilates for, um, nearly eight years now, somewhere in the, in the whole lockdown situation became aware of a Nula, my bug. you And I think through her, I found you guys and then I just started listening to your podcast.
01:45:00
Speaker
And I just have listened to your podcast from the almost the very beginning. And if I didn't, I went back and listened to all the other ones and just, yeah, it's weird talking to you today. I feel like you're my best friend. Cause I have you guys in my ears all the time. I've never met you. So, so, I mean, I love teaching Pilates and, but I come from a teaching background where everything is very much about progression and you know, you always had to show progression and, and that was quite freeing about Pilates was that it didn't, I did all my training. And one of the first things I did with my training was that you're going to love this.
01:45:30
Speaker
Pilates for osteoporosis, oh boy lo house and health. And I went along, it's three days, hugely expensive. And I just came out of it basically with the information of not to drink. Everyone everyone was just going to crack their bones if they moved. yeah And you mustn't get your old ladies ever to even do a roll down because, oh my God, they'll crack. And then you had to lift the teeny tiny, I mean, you want to go for a 0.75 kilo weight.
01:45:54
Speaker
So I don't know what that is in pounds, but it's probably a two pound weight. I would guess something like that. that that's That's all you can get them to do. Right. isn just Too much. and And, um, and my mum, who was at that time in her late sixties, she was already kicking out of the gym and lifting stuff that I really couldn't lift because she was going three times a week. So, um, yeah, so I kind of went back and I came to all this knowledge and I thought, I'm not really sure it works anyway. Then I found you and then you, I just knew a podcast and.
01:46:19
Speaker
you started talking about this course and um I just got a real, it sounds real cliche, but a complete fire in my belly. I mean, I cannot explain it. I would be sitting, you know, saying to my husband, I have to do this course. I can't believe. And he's like, who are these people? And what do you mean? And I was like, I really have to do this, this course. And already knew that I wanted to start lifting heavy stuff.
01:46:46
Speaker
And I had a ah friend, a guy who was a sports master therapist, because that's what else I do that to. And the other thing, sports master therapists trained about two years ago, all these women coming in with like lower back pain. And I'm just saying to them, just have got to be stronger. You know, that's all it is. And so I'd started weight training before yeah I started listening to you guys talking about it more and um just going to the gym once a week with a PT.
01:47:07
Speaker
you know And I said, I want to do barbells. I want to lift the barbells. I was like, yeah, I want to go on that bit over there. Don't send me to that room. I want to be in there with them doing this. I went with a friend, which I think is really helpful and important. I had an accountability partner and yes, I was lifting. I had lifted for about a year.
01:47:25
Speaker
nearly a year, six months with the PT and then we'd kind of gone alone because it was expensive. and yeah Just to clarify as well, when you're saying PT, you're meaning as a personal trainer. Personal trainer. Yes, it's just different lingo. yeah yeah yeah you know we would We would go for an hour with Gary.
01:47:40
Speaker
our personal trainer and then we would go to the gym you know we go we would go a couple more times a week and we would faff which i know is a favorite word of yours so we just wander in and go oh let's do some of those oh that's a bit heavy oh let's do a bit more of that and then you guys just totally changed changed everything just changed everything it was just amazing and all those initial podcasts that you put out this time last year were just amazing. In fact, I listened to some of them two or three times. It was like writing notes on everything because it all just made sense. It's so interesting because, you know, a lot of your motivation to start lifting heavy is really the exact same as ours. We were unsatisfied with what we were seeing around us and the solutions we were seeing around us. And especially for women who are our age, roughly, I don't know your age specifically, but I'm going to go in there, like, let's say 30 to 70 and 50. And I am loving it. Oh, fantastic. I turned 50 in November. So we're practically the same age. We're the same academic year. That's right. That's right. We did our A-levels at the same time, probably. We would have done. You we were all you were and i and Laurel were in the same position. We just you know started a podcast about it. So that's that's really cool that you were just sort of connecting where you were
01:48:50
Speaker
sort of professionally and then also personally, right? Because it sounds like with the people that you were seeing, you were saying like, okay, these people need to be stronger. You talked about feeling this like you had this fire about wanting to start to lift weights and and then to to start to use barbells specifically and to do our course specifically. Was there like a concept behind it apart from just feeling like you really wanted to do it? Was there something about getting stronger or your bones or something like that?
01:49:16
Speaker
I think initially I ah don't have any osteoporosis diagnosis, just listened to your last podcast on that, and in family. you know, per se, I actually come from a very strong family, you know, I've never touched with broken a bone or anything like that. But I come from a line of very strong, very short women. And I think that's made us very tough in the fact that, you know, we, we don't like asking people to lift things down off shelves for us, you know, that kind of stuff. Yeah, so I think initially, there was a professional interest in the course, I think I do remember emailing you and Lauren and saying, you know,
01:49:49
Speaker
I'm interested from a professional perspective, I'd like to go and do this and use this with my clients, but actually from a professional, from a personal level, I think it was just the length of the program, not a year, but chunky, but not awful. I think the fact you started in October and it went through to Easter, through the winter, you know, it was just perfect timing. And it was the program. That's what it is. It is that the progression, the support that we're going to do this and we're going to do this. And I just felt really held and so much information, you know, you gave me really tangible things to hold onto so that
01:50:24
Speaker
You know, this is why you're doing less reps. I mean, God, I mean, that is the one thing that is going to hook anyone in. You don't have to do as much. I was like, I love it. That's why I took off the latte, Sarah, because it was, I thought it was just exercising lying down. What's not to like?
01:50:39
Speaker
absolutely Remember, I'm not sporty, I'm essentially quite lazy. I love this whole kind of, great, I only have to do it five times. Yeah, so that I really liked. And the progression side of it. I flippin' love writing things down in this little spreadsheet. In fact, I was i just got all my notes out before I um i spoke to you. I got all my little printouts with all my, oh no I really, really liked that side of what you were offering from the course.
01:51:02
Speaker
Yeah, I too have tricked myself into Pilates by saying you get to lie down the whole time. I used to work in Santa Monica, which geographically is only eight miles from where I live. But in Los Angeles with the traffic at rush hour, it's about a 45 minute hour long drive.
01:51:19
Speaker
It's ridiculous. And I wasn't getting as much exercise as I wanted to. So I found a Pilates studio that I really liked. I found a teacher I really liked, and it was on the way home from work. So I would convince myself at the end of the day, when I was really tired, I'd be like, you gotta go. You're gonna lie, you get to lie down. You get to lie down the entire time. Meanwhile, I totally know that you A, don't always, and B, it doesn't mean you're not doing anything. But I, that story of like, you can lie down got me to that class more often than not.
01:51:45
Speaker
So no no we started lying down this week, which usually we start in standing and then we lie down. and And if we start a class like lying down, everyone literally thinks Christmas has come early. They're like, thank you so much. Even my old, even I teach a really a class, um which interestingly I set up after I did this three day Pilates for Osteoporosis course.
01:52:07
Speaker
They're in their seventies and eighties and fact months, even 90 now. And even they get excited when they get to lie down. like Absolutely. They're like, is this, this is it. Can I kind of just stay here? So if we go back to the bone density course for a moment, did you have no, no, no, no, this is, this is you've listened to the podcast. This is standard. Were there things you were concerned about before the course started? Were you worried about anything?
01:52:30
Speaker
I think that the two things that well, yeah, first thing I was worried. um I wasn't worried about the cost of this course. And I will say that hands down, I think it was the best value course I've ever bought in my whole life. And the fact that I get to keep it all forever is fabulous. And there's no pressure on that awful or stressful thing that you've got to watch that link within six months or it will disappear and you just think, Oh God, you never get around to it.
01:52:51
Speaker
Um, so I was worried about the cost of the equipment, but actually by the time I'd filled my Amazon basket, because it was different, the stuff that you sent out, it's really useful, but of course here in the yeah UK, it's slightly different. And, but by the time I sort of filled the Amazon basket and looked around for other places and got some stuff, it it didn't work out. It was 400 pounds, which I think is, I don't know, 550, $600, something like that. Yeah.
01:53:15
Speaker
you know, as you have always argued, less than the my gym, you know, less than the gym and I put it and I use it. And as soon as I got it here, I've got two sons who I wouldn't let go to the gym because I didn't want them faffing around, strutting around and hurting themselves. And they use it. I taught them how to use it. So that's, that's helpful. That's amazing. Yeah, I love it. That was, um,
01:53:36
Speaker
Yeah, I can't get in there anymore, Sarah. Is that right? You have to wait in line. Yeah, I do. So that was the concern about that. So that was, you know, that was fine. and The other concern I think is also something that I think you and Lauren are really good is understanding that we busy people, you understand and don't want to be sexist, but you get women, you get that we have busy lives and we have lots of things to balance. And and there's always that concern when you sign up to something that you think, God, if I spend loads of money, I'm really going to do it.
01:54:01
Speaker
it'll make me do it. Actually, it wasn't so much that it was I was concerned that I so wanted to do I wouldn't have time. And i personally for me with the time difference here, I never made I think I made two live classes because they were on days when I was teaching or they were Saturday afternoons and I was like this kind of time where I was like and kicks off at home here and but that actually again, those were the only concerns I wouldn't be able to keep up again that dissipated very early on because I didn't feel bad and I didn't make the live class because I would just watch it on a catch up later on. And then, and even if I, as time went on, I felt personally, I didn't always need that support from you guys anymore because I had so much support everywhere else. I had the videos on the line, I had the Facebook group, which was amazing. I had the videos that I could send you and get some stuff back on messenger. And I had all the sheets and the probe, you know, so I had so much other stuff to keep me supported. then That then was not a problem.
01:54:56
Speaker
Oh, that's so good to hear. I didn't feel like I was letting you down. I know that sounds stupid, but I'm a teacher, so I've got that real police teacher. Oh, a hundred percent, yeah. Yeah, he just did pluck up the car to send you a little video. I was like, sorry to my friend. I was, do it again, do it again. I don't think I'm in the right place. I know, but it was just like, I like it. I'm looking at me, 50. And um yeah, so that was really, those were concerns and they were just, and I tell you what, I was never concerned but I couldn't do it. And I was never concerned that I was going to hurt myself. And that was a credit to all the previous stuff that you had done in your podcast. That's not going to happen. Yeah, that's good. That's good to hear. We've actually changed the times we're doing it this year.
01:55:38
Speaker
partly because of our own schedules always change a little bit, but now knowing that like, oh, there's some people in Australia that might want to be able to join, or there's some people in the in Europe, in the UK, you know. So we've we've tried to create some times that sort of bridge all the different as many of the time zones as we can. But I think in reality, the majority of people taking the course did not take the class live. It was never crazy full of like 50 people in the in the live classes. It was the you know few people that were able to take it live and or or felt that that was important to them. And I think most of the women in the course just followed along and did fine. So then going through the course, did you have some like aha moments?
01:56:19
Speaker
Yes, I think so. They would not necessarily didn't always happen in here with the barbell. They were, I tell you what you were talking about the other day actually, I can't remember, I can't listen back to a podcast about ankle flexion and a squat. I have a really, really terrible ankle flexion. Awful. You know, that's what someone would say. I felt really difficult. I got the little wedges that Laurel recommended. And of course the heavier that I've started lifting, funnily enough, my affliction's got a lot better. So sometimes I work out here at home, but also I have a lovely no frills gym up the road. A little more space. And yeah, I just realized the other day, oh my God, look at my squat. My arse is getting below.
01:56:58
Speaker
Like I'm getting right down there. That's amazing. I can't believe, so that was a real aha moment. But other things have been putting the shopping in the back of the car, lifting up a full bag of grocery shopping and shove it and putting it in the back of the car and just going, oh, and just lifting two bags out of the car, rather than just one at a time. I traveled a lot this year. I've been really lucky because it was my birthday and I've had the carry-on suitcase and it goes in the overhead locker, swinging that up, shoving that in. you and And those have been aha moments when it suddenly takes you by surprise. you think God, I'm quite strong now. yeah Because I love this course because you're not selling an aesthetic. You're not saying I'm going to be long and lean and all that, you know, shit or buff or toned and all these awful words that term every time I have a new client, they fill out their form for Pilates and you put what are your goals because it's on the form, you have to fill it in.
01:57:49
Speaker
I want to be toned. And I just think you know i can't even have another conversation with somebody talking about the concept of being toned. So I don't think I was ever expecting an aesthetic. It would be a nice side thing, particularly. but Yeah. Sounds flexing for me. I'm surprised I'm liking that aesthetic. I'm not going to lie.
01:58:06
Speaker
And what I love is that I love this course is based for women my age, but my niece who is 20, she's of a generation of girls who they walk into those gyms and they really just own it, you know? yeah I've been in conversations with my niece who's 30 years younger than me about hip thrust and how's your deadlift going? and And she just is really proud of me as I'm proud of her. and you know mike you know, my birthday party recently, we'd be like flexing next to each other going, look at mine. So yeah, that's, that's been lovely and lovely. Yeah. And that thing where you pick up something and just like fling it, yes, will continue to happen. I'm trying to remember, there was something recently that I picked up and I was like, Oh, that's very light.
01:58:52
Speaker
where I remember picking up the same thing previously and being like struggling with it a little bit. That continues as you get stronger. It's very exciting. Was there anything that sort of surprisingly challenged you? Anything that you didn't expect to be challenged by and then suddenly found yourself being like, wow, this is actually the hard part. Yeah, that Copenhagen hold is disgusting. Well, I think that goes under the category of least favorites, right? And don't do it. You don't do it because you don't like it.
01:59:20
Speaker
I don't. Sorry, that's not a good advert for the course. It's fine. pause I have yet to find a bench that I can hang off with my short arms and short legs, you know. It won't go down low enough. I've got these IKEA stools. They don't feel comfy.
01:59:38
Speaker
I find other things. Um, no, I think I've really struggled still with the front squat. I think I did it in a live class. I did with you actually early on to get the grip different. Yeah. I still do it like that. You know, I can't get these. I just don't go. So there's a few things I wrote down some stuff actually. Um,
01:59:55
Speaker
just wrote down Copenhagen Hold. So no, not really. I think I was so up for it. You made me so up for it. I never ever doubted that I wouldn't be able to do it. And I think that if there was something that I couldn't do or I didn't find easy, I didn't judge. There was no judgment. Just do it. Yeah. Well, apart from the ones that you didn't like, are there certain moves that are your favorites that you're always excited to do? Yes, I've written these down. I bloody love a deadlift. So do I.
02:00:25
Speaker
Excuse my language, and I know you don't mind swearing, but who the fuck would not love a deadlift? God, you feel awesome. I love a deadlift. I love a back squat. They feel good. And now my squat's so much better. You know, that's really lovely. I do love a little halo at the beginning of the warmup. That's nice. um And I love a bench press. And that's something, actually, when I do go to my local gym, that seems to be like the one that all the young and lads have all around, like, bench it. And just cry more than, you know, because obviously,
02:00:55
Speaker
Different for everybody, but I think you said, you know, you tend to build the strength in your legs quite quickly. You know, you can add on the plates on the deadlift and that's partly because I love the deadlift. because i right really see quite quick gains on that. Whereas the you know the strict press and the anything with the arms, but the bench press has really come along. And and i I do really like that. Those ones make you just feel powerful. yeah Wonderful. There's loads I love. Step Back in Lunch. We always sing a song. I don't know whether you've ever had a band over there where there was a song called Step Back in Time. We just sing that. Apart from the sort of physical changes, what do you see is, or do you see any differences in in just sort of how you
02:01:34
Speaker
move through the world. Yes, I mean, I think as a woman at 50, I think I started my perimenopause in my early 40s. I think partly, I may have left teaching, because I was perimenopausal, but somebody put me on antidepressants instead, which is sadly something which is very common. I know our healthcare systems are very different, but still tended to be the love you just a bit depressed, you're a bit young to be perimenopausal. And things have evolved a lot in those sort of eight years. Anyway, I didn't expect I always thought the mental health side of it, but this would be nice bonus, but I, it's very difficult to quantify sometimes how you measure, but actually after a while you just think, do you know what? I've not felt really shit for ages and I've got loads more energy. You know, I do, I do a physical job, you know, like you, you know, when you're teaching politics and I do massage therapy and you know, I work five days a week and evenings and I've got two boys, a husband, and you know, I walk a lot and, um,
02:02:32
Speaker
And obviously I work at myself. You know, it's just, oh, I'm so tired. I just suddenly realised I hadn't sort of moaned at my husband for ages and gone. I'm so tired. And interestingly, usually we get to the end of our our academic year here in July. My husband is a teacher and we we go almost straight away with this kind of family who were literally on the first ferry across the channel to France. Usually we we always go to the similar place and a lake and we get there and I have every year until now just collapsed with a book and hardly moved.
02:03:01
Speaker
This year, I was just like, I was still doing press-ups on the deck. And yeah, so I think the mental health, I think so many of my symptoms from I1HRT, but that this has like boosted all the benefits of HRT hugely. So all the achy limbs.
02:03:22
Speaker
that I used to put down to just being a teacher, being big doing a lot of Pilates and just live all gone. As a massage therapist, I am so much, got so much more stamina. I wish somebody had told me when I did my massage therapy, sports massage therapy training three years ago to lift weights. You said, Sam, you're going to have to, a job doesn't make you strong. You have to be strong to do the job. And now I actually finally feel like I've and do my job really well.
02:03:48
Speaker
yeah i shove my elbow into somebody's glutes. Like, you know, wouldn't believe that. That side. And I think also when you turn 50, and you imagine, I feel like this, there's always that kind of sense that you kind of peaked. And I think what this course has taught me and given me is that I am not in decline. I have got, I'm investing in my future. And it's so exciting to know that I'm touch wood, because obviously other things come in that that I've got so much time and I'm, you know, I'm preparing to be strong and go traveling and do all those things I want to do. And yeah, so that has been a huge benefit. I just feel like the second half of my life, I've got this wonderful new thing and it's it's, and they're looking after myself, which is great. You know, meditation is great. Kicking ass with some deadlifting is just a biz.
02:04:41
Speaker
I absolutely agree. So the course is over. The course ended in April. Are you still lifting? I mean, one of the things we talked about with everyone was like, just go back to the beginning and start the six months again. And just now your numbers are different because now you're starting at a higher level. Is that what you did? Absolutely. Absolutely. I have a lovely friend who I've done a lot of this by myself, but she's sort of helped me and I've done stuff workouts with her and It's so nice to walk into that gym and just, we'll be here at home and and just, yeah, definitely. I've got the programs. We went back to the beginning. I've got a month day, swapped up, went from Hague and Hold.
02:05:21
Speaker
I think the laurels put something on her Instagram. I don't know. Maybe it was, she said something about the best teachers, the ones that make themselves Absolutely. That was it. And I just thought, well, unfortunately, you've not made yourselves obsolete because you are amazing. And I'm always learning stuff from you. But what you gave me was the ingredients for the cake of weightlifting. yeah And I can just go now and make whatever cake I like, depending on what kind of day I'm having. Definitely still lifting.
02:05:48
Speaker
And I've always got you in my ears. So sometimes I think there is a, we go into autopilot and sometimes we go back to eight sets and I'm like, shut up. It'd be doing eight. It's not heavy enough. Let's put another plate. I went to the gym a couple of days ago and it was really busy. I was on my own, my headphones in with the Dixie chicks, the chicks blaring there that my best workout music. And one celebrity in Bradford on Avon here where I live, just the one.
02:06:13
Speaker
very minor. He's on the telly program. My kids know who he is. And he was next to me on the squat rack. And he was doing back squats. And I just was kind of, you know, a bit of a moment. Anyway, I put the wrong plates on the barbell, heavier plates, I put 10 kilos on each end instead of five kilos on each end. That's like just basically double that amount in pounds to get a sense. So she's saying she put extra 40 pounds on the bar instead of an extra 20 pounds.
02:06:38
Speaker
I just picked up the wrong color. I put them on and I went underneath it and just lifted it off and went, fuck me, that's heavy. I was too, and this is maybe, you know, whereas a strong sensible 50 year old woman, I should have just put it back on the rack. And then I just thought, well, if I've just lifted off the rack, it must be fine. So I managed to push out about four.
02:06:59
Speaker
nice turning like red and sweating and you know I'm 50 I'm pretty invisible in that gym anyway and it just made me laugh I just thought you're such a numpty you should have just put it back on and I thought no this is exactly I have clearly gone into too much chatting at the gym and this was one of those like run one rep max moments that's probably another aha moment I've still got written my one rep max in my little book that I keep now And every once in a while I look at it and go, I lifted that much. I'm going to make sure I get closer to that again. So yeah, that' that was really good. That's so cool. There are a lot of moments that happen for people where this sort of accidental plate on the barbell actually highlights that you've been lifting too light that it's actually completely manageable. The other thing I would say as well is like, definitely go back to any of the buildup classes and check out your one rep max. It might be different.
02:07:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. I do need to have a little review of that. The programming that I do, it gives you an opportunity to to retry your one rep max every four weeks, which to me is a bit often, but I'll at least do it every two months. And it might be like five pounds different might be 10 pounds difference, but that that keeps you in that progression phase, right? Because then it changes all the rest of the numbers as well.
02:08:14
Speaker
No, absolutely. And just always having, always progressing. i I genuinely don't think my arms, my arms have just taken forever to get any stronger. It's crazy. And every once in a while I make myself sit down and do a seated strict press again, because if I'm cheating a bit with the bouncy feet. Yeah, I don't know if that's something that's different for men and women or if it's just because, you know, moving around the world, we use our legs constantly. So whereas the arms are sort of like occasionally, depending on what we're doing. But even if it's going slowly, it's just continuing to push, right? Just continuing to to progress. Well, we have like 20 kilo barbells here. I don't know what that is in pounds, but that's kind of like the standard one. It's a 45 pound bar. Yeah. So I used to just barely be able to do four
02:08:59
Speaker
straight up and down. And now I've whacked out eight the other day. i oh So that's progress, even if it's taken a you know six months to get there. eight Well, you know, if you can do eight, it means it's too late. That's exactly what I thought.
02:09:18
Speaker
Thank you so much for talking to me. I just have one more question. What would you say to someone who is considering taking the course but had any of the concerns that you did or or any other kinds of concerns that, because it sounds like you didn't really have very many concerns yourself, but the kinds of concerns that you know that women have that they're worried they'll hurt yourself, hurt themselves, or they're worried that it'll, it's too heavy, or it's not for me, or any of that kind of stuff. Do it. Just do it. Because there's always those things that you'll never, it'll never be the right time. And there'll always be excuses.
02:09:49
Speaker
And I would just say just absolutely do it. You know you two are amazing and supportive and sensible and informed and the videos are clear and I think I was talking to some clients about this the other day, just saying, I do think that so lifting weights, anything from a dumbbell to a kettlebell to whatever, has just, as is very typical, been totally overcomplicated. And often I'm afraid by blokes just trying to make a money or overcomplicate something. And what you guys have done is you've stripped it right down to, and this is Mrs. Myjoke, the bare bones.
02:10:25
Speaker
of of what it what what you basically have to do. And if you think about a deadlift, it's just lifting something out of the dishwasher, or you're lifting up a bag of shopping. And if you think about a strip press, it's just putting something in the overhead locker, of the aeroplane or a cupboard or something. So if you could do that, you can do this. And I loved the podcast where you talked about the infanticide, I can't say the word, you know. Yes, infantilizing. Yes, and delicate and that whole side of of it. And um that makes me really angry.
02:10:55
Speaker
get angry and i I just think, you know, it's, I think you were saying the other day, where do these concerns come from? Are they coming from you or are they something that somebody has imposed upon you because of some stupid belief that you are not going to ever be strong enough and you will hurt yourself? And we do get niggles, okay? We do get niggles and we do hurt and things can, b but they happen less often if you're stronger. It's no brain. Amazing. Thank you so much, Sam. I really appreciate you talking to me. I really appreciate it and we'll see you in the Facebook group sometime soon.
02:11:26
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I am so inspired by these women, and I hope you found them inspiring as well. As always, any links mentioned will be in the show notes, including the link to sign up for our bone density course, Lift for Longevity, but you want to get on that quick because the cart is closing.
02:11:45
Speaker
on October 6th, which is only a few days from now if you're listening to this on Wednesday. If you are so moved, please rate, review, and follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we'll see you next week for the last show of the season.