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Ep 22 The Right Way to Train: Build Strength, Boost Brain Health, and Cultivate Longevity
38 Plays20 days ago
What if your workout could sharpen your mind, regulate your emotions, and rewire your brain? Fitness expert Dylan Novak joins Aligned Living with Dr. Autumn to unpack how intentional movement—like dynamic stretching and progressive strength training—not only builds physical power but also boosts mental clarity, emotional stability, and long-term health. You’ll learn how fitness impacts your longevity, how dopamine shapes your motivation and memory, and why modern habits can throw your brain and body off track. We’ll also break down what the right fitness practices actually are, why they work, and how to fit them into a busy, full life. Whether you’re brand new to training or refining your rhythm, this conversation will shift the way you think about strength—for your body, your mind, and your soul.
Intro and Outro Music Credit: Savage by Beat Mekanik, Free Music Archive, License type: CC BY
Please visit: www.autumnswain.com
Contact: autumn@thealignedleader.org
IG: @drautumnswain
FB: Autumn Alena Swain
Guest info:
Dylan Novak, CSCS, FRCMS, CFSC, MS kinesiology
https://www.methodstrong.com/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction: Dr. Autumn and Podcast Goals
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello there, I'm Dr. Autumn, leadership consultant, wellness coach, author, and I'm incredibly grateful to be your host of the Align Living podcast.
00:00:19
Speaker
I'm here to equip you with the tools, inspiration, and practical tips necessary to lead a life of wholeness and pursue greater shalom in your life and that of your families, teams, and communities.
00:00:34
Speaker
My mission is to empower you to lead from a place of holistic wellbeing. It's time to say, peace out to the fatigue, fog, and frustration of living in a place that lacks abundant wellbeing.
Guest Introduction: Dylan, Fitness Expert
00:00:49
Speaker
Join me as we embark on a comprehensive exploration of spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, social, and economic well-being, all within the comforting embrace of one podcast.
00:01:09
Speaker
Hey good people, it's Dr. Autumn Swain here and welcome to the Align Living Podcast. I am super excited today because I interviewed um a friend of mine. um i actually met um Dylan and his wife Jamie because they were neighbors of mine and this is a recurring theme in my life of meeting Dylan.
00:01:27
Speaker
um fantastic people because they are neighbors that become friends. So, um but he has such a wealth of knowledge in the fitness field, but how fitness impacts every area of our life. And so
Fitness and Health: Practical Tips
00:01:41
Speaker
um just finished his master's in kinesiology, um runs a gym.
00:01:45
Speaker
But um what I, the reason i wanted to have him on the show is because he just how understands ah The role of fitness and how it impacts our overall health um so well. And so
Fitness and Mental Health
00:02:01
Speaker
ah listen to the very end because we got into some really good conversations around everything from, you know, if you only have 15 to 20 minutes of time, what's the most effective things you could be doing?
00:02:11
Speaker
what are all the um benefits of of fitness? um Not only some tips, but benefits of fitness, like ah beyond just like your physique and how you look and whatnot.
00:02:21
Speaker
um And then we also spent some time talking about the impacts of fitness and mental health and this dopamine crisis we're in because of like social media and other things and, and really understanding the negative impact that that can have on our body and in how we're and how significant it is to have healthy dopamine levels and what types of things contribute to that fitness and beyond. So anyways, I'm really looking forward to you hearing from him. So enjoy this interview.
00:02:49
Speaker
Well, welcome, Dylan. I'm so excited to have you on the show. um
Dylan's Fitness Journey
00:02:54
Speaker
I've known you for a minute now and um as a friend, you and your wife, and I often forget just how um your your significant role in fitness and how you're changing lives every day in this space. So thank you for being here.
00:03:07
Speaker
Yeah, i'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, absolutely. So um I actually have quite a few questions I want to throw your way because I feel like fitness is a topic, you know, with the line to living, i talk about all aspects of holistic health and wellness, but fitness is a thing that I feel like it's just a constant struggle for people because they know it's something they should do, but there's a lot of confusion around it. Like,
00:03:30
Speaker
you know, what I think there's ah for a couple reasons, like what should I be doing exactly, but also like the lack of motivation, I think sometimes because people don't realize how significant fitness is to your overall health beyond just physique and, um you know, like how a person looks. So um so anyways, I'm looking forward to jumping into some of those questions. But first, my favorite thing to ask is like, tell me little about your story. Like, where did your your passion come from for fitness and tell us also a little bit of about what you're doing today. Yeah, absolutely.
Work with Tactical Athletes and Group Training
00:04:05
Speaker
So ah my first introduction to fitness was like playing like rec sports growing up, but I didn't really get into it until my dad actually bought me a three pack of personal training sessions when I was 12.
00:04:18
Speaker
And I started to get really into the the physical training side of things. That's funny. played sports almost to have an excuse to adopt a certain style of lifting and ended up playing some pretty high level rugby and once i was done with that i decided to kind of roll my passion into a career so i started doing a lot of strength and conditioning work with a wide range of teams you know i've worked with a bunch of hockey teams some rowing teams lacrosse teams you know all manner of things and then
00:04:51
Speaker
i got into tactical populations so I've worked with some fire departments, police departments, and special forces stuff.
Motivation and Enjoyable Fitness
00:04:58
Speaker
And that's what kind of guided my route into my master's program. And my research focus has been tactical athletes and as well as, you know, it's kind of a secondary college sports.
00:05:09
Speaker
But I just finished my master's program and I am currently working as the fitness director at a gym in Arlington. And I am working with the current owner. We are going to co-open a new small group training facility to try to make group training, like but legitimate strength training, more accessible to general population. So that's kind of where my my passion lies, because I think I've found a lot of ah value in working with regular people, instead of trying to make the people who are the absolute best a little bit better.
00:05:43
Speaker
It very much more fills my cup to get someone who has never exercised to fall in love with a thing that I love so much. Yeah, I love that. Well, that is quite a challenge, though, because I find like, yeah, I find that like with any aspect of holistic health, like if you don't have a habit or routine for that thing, it's very difficult to get started. So I was actually going to ask you
Health Benefits of Fitness
00:06:08
Speaker
about this a little bit later, but let's just like roll with it.
00:06:11
Speaker
If you what would you say like advice or a word of encouragement when somebody is like, I know I need to do something, but I'm just having a really hard time getting started because, you know, like a lack of motivation or whatever it might be like, how how would you inspire somebody?
00:06:32
Speaker
I mean, the first thing is to find out what people like or at least can tolerate, you know, whether it's a physical activity that they don't even see as exercise or, you know, maybe you haven't they haven't found the right outlet of exercise. So maybe they've been running and they hate running. Maybe they need to try something like strength training and they'll they'll end up liking strength training.
00:06:51
Speaker
I think the really important part to what you just said is it's It's got to be habit. You have to create habit-forming tendencies with stuff like this because motivation is always going to climb up and down. And if you're relying entirely on motivation to drive any kind of exercise or physical school training that you're doing, there are going points where you stop completely because motivation just can't sustain at that level all the time. So it's got to be viewed as almost like brushing your teeth but for your muscles. you know It's not something that you love doing.
00:07:26
Speaker
And maybe you do, maybe maybe you do, that'd be great. But it's just something that you know every day, I have to do this. Small doses, something that's sustainable, I have to do this for my health.
00:07:36
Speaker
And you know to get back to your earlier point of you know fitness and kind of the optics surrounding it around like physique related training, That's just truly like an added benefit of fitness. I think that no one should ever train necessarily for a specific look, because especially with how social media portrays fitness these days, you can very much lead yourself into more or worsening mental health situations, I think, because you will now have this lens of I will never be that.
00:08:08
Speaker
What I am isn't good enough. And, you know, exercise and fitness is only ever a competition against yourself and trying to better yourself. So to kind of loop back around, you know, because I went on a little bit of a tangent there, find something that's habit forming, find something that you enjoy.
00:08:23
Speaker
It's better to do something at a lower frequency and lower intensity than come out and do you know training every single day and then have it end after a couple months. Because truly the driver of any of these physiologic components that we're looking to create adaptation in is is going to be consistency.
00:08:42
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Consistency. That's like my big word of the week, I feel like. um Okay, so so tell me this. like I want you to expand on a comment you just were talking about, like how um a person's why behind why they're working out should be way beyond just like you know, losing a few pounds, because in my opinion, a lot of like that part should come through, like what you're eating, like, what are all the health benefits besides like, okay, i just want to like, look more fit, like, let's talk speak to that, because I feel like people won't make a change till they realize how significant it is for their lives. So I remember asking you this recently, it was hanging out with you and your wife, and like you were rattling off so many things. i'm like, Whoa, people need to know this. I don't think they know this. So yeah, why don't you jump into that a bit?
00:09:24
Speaker
I mean, it it is it's an extremely complex topic to dive down that would take hours to cover. And we can get into these some some of these topics a little bit more specifically if you want to, but it really boils down to kind of three main categories.
00:09:39
Speaker
And that is going to be cross-sectional area of muscle mass. So the amount of muscle you actually have on your body, bone density,
Fitness for Aging Well
00:09:48
Speaker
pretty straightforward, like how dense the the durability of your bones is, and then your VO2 max. So your maximum um oxygen uptake at peak exercise.
00:09:58
Speaker
Now, the reason that these are the things that I think are worth mentioning is because, you know, classic me, the the research guy, all of these have extreme correlations with all kinds of positive health outcomes, whether it's reducing all risk of mortality by 5x what even the best pharmaceuticals pools can do.
00:10:18
Speaker
They increase both the ah longevity and health span of a person's life. and You know, really to to speak on the quality of life, it It makes such a difference if you've been doing physical exercise in your 60s, 70s, 80s, ideally your 90s, comparatively to if you've been sedentary your entire life you know life. Lifestyle really starts deteriorating.
00:10:42
Speaker
And I try to preach people Exercise for what you want to do when you are in your marginal decade. That's the term that gets thrown around in the fitness industry a lot. So the last 10 years of your life, where do you see yourself being within that 10 years?
00:10:57
Speaker
And then you just kind of back cast everything from there. And then, you know, VO2 max is super important. You know, that's, ah that's the aerobic side of things. How strong is your heart? What can your heart do with the blood inside of it?
00:11:11
Speaker
How good is that nutrient processing? How dense are are your capillaries? You know, classic biology. Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. know, do you have dense and many mitochondria to get a better benefit from exercise? So these are all very like sciencey things.
00:11:30
Speaker
But from a training perspective, you don't need to know that much about each of these things in order to do that. You know, ideally, you have a balance between aerobic training and strength training.
00:11:40
Speaker
And then ideally, as well, you are using this for something because that's where a lot of people find their motivation, whether it's hiking, Both of these things make you a better hiker playing tennis. Both of these things make you better at playing tennis. You know, these are like the foundational attributes of human movement and performance.
00:11:59
Speaker
And it's up to the individual to do with it as they want. Okay, yeah. So, okay, so let's break that down a little bit more for like the average person who's like, really, maybe still struggling in the fitness space. and you know, just just to understand it a little bit further. So if I think about some of the most common things that I hear, like problems that people experience, I would love to hear how even like a small regular fitness routine would impact those things. So for example,
00:12:29
Speaker
People are tired all the time. um People ah you know often have headaches or they're feeling body aches and pains. um People are, um yeah, like the chronic pain is a big one. Fatigue a big one. You probably know some other things that you see every day.
00:12:46
Speaker
How does what you just say said, how will that impact all of these things? Yeah. Yeah, totally. So to kind of, i would i would say one of the most major things that you just listed off is pain.
00:13:01
Speaker
ah Pain is something that everyone is going to deal with. You cannot completely avoid it, but you can definitely manage it a fair bit. Now, if we're talking specifically like structural or muscular pain, these are things that exercise really helps. Now, there's you know plenty of neurological disorders that you know cause pain, you know acute injury, like you get poked in stick that causes pain. That's not something that exercise can necessarily help, but shoulders hurting, backs hurting, ah you know your your neck is sore all the time, things like that.
00:13:36
Speaker
Think of the amount of muscle mass on your body like a suit of armor. And the more strength you have in that armor, the better it is going to be at protecting Life is unfortunately very chaotic and there's any manner of kind of random situations you may find yourself in, whether it's picking up your toothbrush off the bathroom floor at an odd angle or you're playing pickleball and you hit a ball a little bit funky or your kid is falling off the back of the couch you have to save them if you have not built tissue resiliency within these positions you are going to be more likely to sustain an injury so you know uh training truly does kind of fill in any blank spaces of force absorption that might be sustained from any kind of outside event
00:14:24
Speaker
to the point of like bone density. ah You know, it's not as big of an issue with ah younger individuals because bone density is usually pretty good. But after the age of 35, people start to see a pretty precipitous decline in these performance elements, ah specifically women as they go through menopause due to the hormonal changes. There was a plummet of bone density. and That's part of the reason that strength training is so important for that population specifically, because you want to hold on to that as much as you can. So that again, when you're ah later on in life, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, etc.
00:15:01
Speaker
If you fall, because unfortunately, these things can't always be prevented.
Motivations for Fitness
00:15:05
Speaker
Now all of a sudden, hey, we're not going to break our hip, we're not going to break our wrist, you know, we have the bone density to be able to resist that damage that the body is taking.
00:15:15
Speaker
Now, ah specifically, VO2 max, um you know, it's it's pretty understood, I think, for everyone that any kind of like cardiac issue, ah you know specifically in the United States happens all the time. You know, people have heart attacks all the time. People have strokes all the time.
00:15:35
Speaker
ah Cardiovascular disease is one of the biggest killers of U.S. populations. um A lot of this is lifestyle-induced via diet, but a lot of it is because their heart is literally not strong enough to pump the blood around their body.
00:15:51
Speaker
um So, you know, that's another thing that unfortunately does decline with age. But the more efficient that system is, the more you're going to be able to do throughout life, whether it's staying fit and being able to move around all day or to the point i just made of reducing any kind of chronic disease or illness.
00:16:09
Speaker
And now the blood isn't pooling in your feet. Now your heart can actually pump blood through the entirety of your body, which helps mitigate a lot of issues that arise in an older age and poor lifestyle.
00:16:22
Speaker
Yeah. And like what you're saying so significant because people want to like continue to like feel good and not wake up with aches and pains and be able to be mobile and stuff as they get older. But it's hard to make choices now for things that could happen in the future. So I'm going to ask you about that and a second. But just like I could really relate to what you're saying, a couple of very personal examples. So I have two very, very active boys. Most listeners know eight and 11 years old.
00:16:46
Speaker
and they asked me to do stuff and I want to physically be able to do stuff with them and keep up and they're not even teenagers yet and so there's this like deep motivation there and when they have kids you know um and then also to your your point about aging folks so my mom literally fell the other day she was camping with my dad and a small fall turned into like a broken arm which the recovery time is going to take a lot longer and now it's going to like impact her summer and all the things and so These things are super real, but, you know, you don't like let's look at like, um you know, and early someone in their early 30s. OK, that is like i um I know it's important, but just not forming any habits around fitness because they're like, you know, I feel pretty good.
00:17:35
Speaker
um You know, maybe some aches and pains here or there like. but But, you know, it's not being really active, like being kind of sedentary isn't really negatively impacting them now. Like, what would you say to that person? And like, why? like Like, ah create a sense of urgency around it.
00:17:55
Speaker
Yeah. um I mean, the analogy that I use all the time is it's like investing money. You know, you to the people who are you know spending most of their time on the couch, not exercise. I'd be like, yeah do you want to retire or do you want to just work forever?
00:18:09
Speaker
You know, you have to plan for the future now in order to have a positive situation because the future is going to come. There's nothing that you can do to stop it.
00:18:21
Speaker
You know, if that lens of, you know, the health related side of things doesn't work for people, then that's when I might cater to the the vanity of, Hey, build muscle, lose weight, feel better in your own skin. It's it's great for your your personal image, things like that. And so you can you can play play some different games with that when you're really trying to find what motivates people.
00:18:44
Speaker
Everyone is going to be different, um you know especially in the DMV area. The investing analogy seems to hit pretty home a lot of individuals. um But, you know, that's the interesting thing about working with people is, you know, my experience as a coach, like no one person is the same. So it there's any number of things that might motivate someone. Hey, like, you know, your sister just had a kid. Do you want to be able to play with your niece or nephew?
00:19:13
Speaker
ah like You've been sitting on the couch. You can't do Okay. Maybe that doesn't motivate you.
Practical Routines for Busy Lives
00:19:17
Speaker
Okay. Maybe we need to, you know, cater to a different lens of, hey, you know, your shirts aren't fitting the way that you want them to. They're a little loose up top and a little tight down below.
00:19:27
Speaker
Let's change that for you. Okay. Maybe that doesn't work. You know, maybe, maybe they have a back ache that's prohibited them from even really getting into exercise. Okay.
00:19:38
Speaker
Let's address that. And the fortunate thing is that all these different goals, what you would do isn't different because that's the wonderful thing about training is that it it is truly a, if if you do this, all, all related things are going to get better.
00:19:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's one of my soap boxes too, right? Because like everything's interconnected. um So a couple of things like I want to throw your way that was going a little fun. Like I do want to um get some specific examples from you and like what are some of your favorite rhythms? And I might not just ask you about fitness. I might ask you about um nutrition or mental health or whatever, you know, because it's all connected. But um first, I would love for you to share like just because I like to get super practical. That was my whole like mission behind the line living was to give people really practical things.
00:20:23
Speaker
things to do with their health. So if somebody, let's say, um can't get to the gym, but they want to have some things like at like they want to make the most of like a 15, 30 minute window.
00:20:38
Speaker
um And I get it like one day to the next Monday, they might do something different than Tuesday or might have a different focus than Wednesday. But if somebody had a 15 to 30 minute window, like give me some of your favorite types of like exercise or fitness things that people could do because there's so many things out there it just gets overwhelming and I know and a confused mind and overwhelming overwhelmed mind shuts down.
00:21:04
Speaker
Definitely. um You know, that's ah again, that's a very broad topic to kind of fall down. And I would I would say the first thing that I would say to someone who's in that situation is, are you sure you can't access something?
00:21:18
Speaker
like is like Because in a lot of cases, yeah, some people are unable to get to a gym or any other kind of like fitness related situation, whether it's playing pickleball something like that.
00:21:30
Speaker
that is a prohibitor for some individuals however a lot of people can do that thing they just have de-prioritized it and so they don't do that so that's always my first box that i try to check of like hey how bad do you want this? Because truly like, you know, the things that you can do at home with nothing are drastically inferior to, you know moving your body dynamically in space while tracking an object that's flying like pickleball or getting under a dumbbell or a kettlebell and doing a squat in the gym. Like these things, unfortunately don't compare. Now to that point, something is always better than nothing.
00:22:09
Speaker
And if you're really limited with time, you need to look for some kind of acute dose. So again, the governing rules, find something that you like, whether it's if you wanna try to like walk up a hill really fast, or maybe you have the ability to do pushups at home, or you have a dumbbell in your basement and you can do some squats.
00:22:31
Speaker
Find the thing that you're gonna be able to tolerate doing, because if you absolutely hate it, then you're not gonna do it. And then, especially if you're in constraint of time, spike the heart rate, like get the heart rate up, try to have it be something resistance related.
00:22:47
Speaker
Um, you know, again, to to use the hill analogy, I'd say the most approachable thing that someone can do that's, you know, very limited with time and equipment is find a hill, walk up it as fast as you can walk down at nice and controlled, walk up it as fast as you can do that, you know, eight to 15 times or however many times your schedule will allow you to get your heart rate up, breathe heavy,
00:23:11
Speaker
and then be done and then to go about your day and do some more stuff. um You know, there's a lot of research these days and how big of a difference it is to take the stairs up to your office as opposed to taking the elevator.
00:23:23
Speaker
Like it's
Balancing Exercise Types
00:23:24
Speaker
it's it's crazy how much that changes an individual's metabolism, but it's it's significant movement truly is medicine with and it comes to these types of things. so and You know, again, like yeah A lot of people think, oh, yeah I got to work out for two hours to do X, Y, or Z. No, you don't.
00:23:41
Speaker
you know I'm super busy these days. I work out for 45 minutes, three days a week, and I'm about as super into lifting as a person can get. And that's enough to get better at a very rapid rate.
00:23:55
Speaker
Granted, I've optimized training, but that's besides the point. so um i would say base training around your lower body and your core uh know do a plank if you can do a plank do a dead bug if you can do a dead bug look for something that again is accessible to you and then the key part about all this is make sure something changes make sure you do it for another rep make sure you do it for a little bit longer make sure you do it with a little bit more weight regardless of what that time scale is, this principle of progressive overload, you have to do something a little bit more if you want stuff to continue to change.
00:24:32
Speaker
If, for example, you're always just doing five laps up the hill at the same speed for 10 minutes, then you're not going to get any better. You will then plateau and then things will remain the same.
00:24:45
Speaker
Unfortunately with that, because people are like, oh, like, why why do I care? I'm happy with where things are. Again, to bring up the age-related decline, as people get older, there is an a increasingly big drop-off on these performance elements. So you know staying the same won't actually stay the same.
00:25:02
Speaker
You have to try to get better at the fastest rate you can, and that might end up resulting in you just being the same. That's the unfortunate part about it. So... Do something that drives some intensity, you know, again, to to tap into, I know we're going to get into this, but like the mental health side of things, spiking your heart rate, get some endorphins going, releasing dopamine, that feeling of fulfillment is so positive for all kinds of neural developments and memory.
00:25:30
Speaker
So these are these are all really positive things. but In terms of like ah eight something usable, I'll always tell people squats are king. Do a bodyweight squat.
00:25:42
Speaker
Do a squat with a backpack full of books. Do a squat with a weight if you have it. um If you can get to the point where you can try to squat on one leg, maybe you're using the side of a couch for assistance, do that.
00:25:53
Speaker
um Lower limb strength is the most important thing. You know, it's going to contribute the most to bone density. It's going to contribute the most to the cross-sectional area of your muscle mass. The two of the three things we talked about.
00:26:05
Speaker
And it'll definitely get your heart rate up too. I would try to always have a balance of things. um you If you have like three separate categories of exercise, we've got strength exercise, we've got aerobic exercise, and we've got skill exercise.
00:26:18
Speaker
So doing a squat with weights, walking or running around, biking, things like that, and then skill-related exercise, doing something with those two things, playing a recreational sport, training,
00:26:31
Speaker
you know, tracking objects in space, you know, maybe ah you maybe you're like ah shooting a bow even. Like that's something that like, again, uses fitness to some degree, but allows for a different kind of neural connection into the tissue that you're using. And if you do those three things, you on rotation, maybe you can work out three times a week for 15 minutes, check one of those boxes each time, they'll be pretty good.
00:26:56
Speaker
Yeah, okay, so there's a few things I wanna highlight, make sure that people really, really heard. So first I'm just emphasizing, and I know you'd agree that a sedentary lifestyle is really like damaging. And so as much as you can get up and move around and do things in between. And the reason I'm bringing this up is because I'm gonna kind of share what I'm doing a little bit, I'm kind of curious to what you'd say, because I used to be like, go to the gym every day, like no matter what. And then my life totally changed, right? Like when I became a single mom and had to, you know, work a very busy full-time job on top of my businesses volunteering, and like I just, my margin is like so much smaller. So I like what you said, but you as a fitness
00:27:36
Speaker
professional three days a week getting to the gym for 45 minutes like that's more doable for somebody who's like a lot of people get into these all or nothing mindsets right and so okay so if I can get to the gym 45 minutes even a couple of days a week and then the off days like what I like to try to do and you could tell me if because because what you said was really powerful about like if you just do the same thing and you maintain you're actually decreasing because your body's naturally decreasing so you actually have to be challenging your body to grow to balance that out. Like that's a super, super big gold nugget from um there this, this show today, I think.
00:28:12
Speaker
So um when I, so I got like a basic set of like weights that get fairly heavy. So like, I'm not just doing body weights, squats repetitively. So like I can grab a heavier weight and do them different ways.
00:28:25
Speaker
to challenge myself. But what I try to do is like do like for sake of time, like a cardio set in between my strength training set. So I'll have a jump rope. And so I'll do my whatever my strength training exercise is And then in between, i will do like a cardio thing or switch to upper body, right from squats to pushups, squats to pushups, then jump rope a little bit. And then maybe I'll like switch up a different, like a core with a different like upper body and then do some jumping jacks or something.
00:28:58
Speaker
What do you think about that? Yeah, I mean, I think that that's like that's a great structure of things. You're training your full body. You are training both a strength-related component and an aerobic component.
00:29:13
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, and i know you I know you do a bunch of sports, so you are already checking off all the boxes. um If you wanted me to get more specific into it, like ah checking off certain movement patterns is a pretty important thing if you want to move well.
00:29:28
Speaker
So make sure you are pushing and pulling with the upper body, but vertically and horizontally with your legs. Make sure you're squatting and hinging and doing it both on one legs and two legs.
00:29:41
Speaker
Make sure you're training your core. A lot of people who see core training, like, okay, it's just my six pack muscles on the front. No, that your core is the entirety of your torso. You want to train the muscles on the back, on the sides, on the front.
00:29:54
Speaker
the muscles deep within your core, you know, diaphragm, stuff like that. But I mean, just based off what you said, like, yeah, no, I think those those are fantastic things. Exercises
Strength Training as Mobility Training
00:30:05
Speaker
where you move your body through space are always going to reign king. So squats, pushups, you know, there is value to doing um like machines.
00:30:16
Speaker
I won't say that there isn't, but It's not quite the same thing. It doesn't have the same, like, frankly, extremely potent stimulus that doing a body weight or loaded body weight exercise is. Because squat is just a body weight squat with added weight.
00:30:31
Speaker
You push-up, eventually, ideally, you get to weighted push-ups, stuff like that. You know, kind of to to jump off on another tangent is I talk to a lot of people who put a ceiling on themselves and they'll say, I can never do that.
00:30:44
Speaker
And my answer is always, no, you just probably don't have a realistic timeframe for when you will be able to do that. And the more people look at this on like the multi-year or even decade lens, the more digestible stuff like this comes and you have to be process oriented and not outcome oriented, because if you don't,
00:31:07
Speaker
fall in love with the process or at least learn to tolerate the process, it's, it's not going to work out. So, you know, again, sorry to de derail a little bit there. I think the makeup of your workouts is great.
00:31:18
Speaker
Um, I would probably start off with something that elevates the body temperature. So maybe begin with jump rope and then maybe you're doing jump rope still intermittently between your squats and your pushups.
00:31:29
Speaker
Um, if you are going to do any kind of like warm up exercise and stretching related stuff, dynamic stretching, elevated body temperature, dynamic stretch, strength train, spike heart rate again.
00:31:43
Speaker
you follow that like general formula for a workout, i mean, that's what, you know, my training looks like. Get the body ready to work. Then you work the body very heavy and then you spike the heart rate.
00:31:55
Speaker
Yeah. And for, um, listeners who don't know, so dynamic stretching, like at the start, you're actually like stretching through movement as opposed to static stretching where you're like sitting there and holding, but the best thing about like nowadays you can go to YouTube or a chat to BT or something for anything and like discover like a whole host of different dynamic stretches, which is great.
00:32:13
Speaker
Okay. So, um, I know we got to be wrapping up soon, ah another question that happens to my mind that I think a lot of people deal with is if they're feeling, cause mobility is kind of a hot topic right now. Like, you know like yoga or stretching or taking your body through, like just making sure, like talking about longevity.
00:32:29
Speaker
um Well, what I'm finding is when I'm slacking on my strength training, I'm naturally becoming more tight and stiff. I feel it like there's inherently some mobility built into strength training. So what I want to just hear you say, because people might listen to you more than me because you're a professional the fitness space,
00:32:43
Speaker
But I hear people say like if they're feeling some aches and pains or let's say they had a workout for the first time a long time, they start feeling sore and they're like oh, I can't work out again for a while. So this pain goes away. And I'm my philosophy is kind of like, well, it's the cart before the horse. Like you got to do the ah fitness stuff to like have less of that muscle soreness or to have less of that chronic pain.
00:33:04
Speaker
So if somebody is kind of feeling some sort of uncomfortable, they're feeling uncomfortable, but maybe using it as an excuse. Like, why is it okay to like work? I'm not talking about acute pain like that, like someone's injury, I'm saying press through that, but like through like muscle soreness or some chronic pain.
00:33:24
Speaker
Uh, long winded question. and I would, I would start by saying, um, so if you think about like life, like life is a certain level of stress, uh, whether it's picking up a box, picking up your kid, moving a couch, but even just grabbing a glass, the stronger you are,
00:33:48
Speaker
the greater the relative and absolute ease of all these things that I've just mentioned. So if you have a greater base of strength and fitness, picking up something like a couch is not going to be as stressful on your system, which is going to make you less fatigued, less likely to get acutely injured, things like that.
00:34:12
Speaker
To the point of you know what you said at the beginning of strength training is stretching. Don't get me wrong. I love mobility training. I think it's ah are arguably top priority for a lot of people who I work with.
00:34:29
Speaker
However, stretching doesn't truly change tissue the way that strength training or aerobic training does. And that's a very key thing. I mean, we've even talked about this this personally, Autumn, like, hey, I feel like i stretch and then tight again.
00:34:44
Speaker
That's exactly the thing. You're stretching, but you're not actually eliciting a change that's going to last. So, you know, like you said, like a squat, for example, that's a hip and thigh and ankle stretch all with weight.
00:34:58
Speaker
And you're also building muscle. You know, use big ranges of motion that are safe, but use big ranges of motion. If you get stronger at that movement with progressively greater weights or reps or sets, now of a sudden we are also building tissue resiliency and length, but it's lasting because it's getting stronger in those positions.
00:35:22
Speaker
You know, your brain communicates to your muscles and that's how they contract. Being tight is your brain telling your body, hey, I don't want you to move in this range of motion because you're going to get hurt if you go there.
00:35:36
Speaker
For whatever reason, this is where there's a lot of psychology here. People will be tight just because they are afraid of being hurt. And so they will tighten up more to resist that position.
00:35:46
Speaker
It can be conscious or subconscious. But if you teach your body that it can be in these positions under load, whether it's weight or just the force of gravity from your body weight, things like that.
00:35:57
Speaker
You can teach your body to be strong and confident in that position through repetition. does take a lot of time to do this. now the body's all of a sudden more flexible, more mobile, and stronger in these positions without that regression that you might see if you just stretch.
00:36:14
Speaker
Yeah, the brain, the mind-body connection is so fascinating to
Revisiting Fitness and Mental Health
00:36:18
Speaker
me. I love um that you said that. My counselor actually recommended a book to me that had everything to do with the brain's connection with chronic pain, and it is like fascinating and And neuroplasticity is a big conversation now, but like changing your mind neurons, your thought patterns and all that. um Just for sake of time, though, just as we wrap up, um I do.
00:36:39
Speaker
I would love for you just to speak a little bit further because you threw it in there. It was like a teaser was so powerful um when you were talking about the the connection between fitness and mental health.
00:36:50
Speaker
and like brain memory, all of those things, like, like speak, if you just kind of ah like wrap up by speaking to that, because I think that's like a super significant conversation right there. Absolutely.
00:37:03
Speaker
um So I'd say probably the biggest contributor to positive mental health outcomes from fitness is the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
00:37:17
Speaker
Now, you know it's I think a lot of people have heard of dopamine but don't really know what it is. It's your body's reward system for achieving something. So you don't need to necessarily exercise to release dopamine.
00:37:29
Speaker
If you do really well on a test, your body will release dopamine. If you get to see someone you really love, your body will release dopamine. If you accomplish some kind of task that's really hard, exercise or other, your body will release dopamine.
00:37:45
Speaker
Now, dopamine is a really potent molecule in the brain. It helps with short and long term memory. It helps with the focus into individual tasks and it causes a shift to your point of bringing up neuroplasticity.
00:38:03
Speaker
You can rewire your brain to enjoy things that it doesn't normally enjoy if you build dopamine releasing around those activities.
00:38:14
Speaker
That's why lot of people like become really obsessed with exercise is because there is that dopamine trigger that people become addicted to. Now, if you associate it with a certain thing, now all of a sudden, now now I know exercise means feeling good.
00:38:30
Speaker
Even if I don't like the exercise when i'm doing it, I know that after the fact, I'm going to feel really good. And ah it truly rewires your brain. It's a really, really powerful thing. Can I ask you some can I see something else about dopamine really quick? Because I don't know how much you know about this. But like, I've been following some of my favorite like brain doctors. And like, I know there's a whole bunch of conversation around, and you know, just with neurotransmitters, how important they are in their body and dopamine dysregulation because of all of these ways that people are getting these constant like dopamine hits that are too high and then they crash, like, you know, checking your phone or recreational drugs or different things like that, that are causing these harmful dopamine hit. So like dopamine is a good thing. So what's the, and it's causing these memory benefits and all these different things. So what, what's the difference? Like why is getting these dopamine hits and negative ways?
00:39:24
Speaker
It doesn't do the same thing on your body and why that dysregul, that's causing dysregulation and, and, these healthier ways of getting these dopamine um activity, it does these healthy things. Like it could sound kind of confusing. Can you just bring, bring that home in that space a little bit? Yeah. I mean, that's, again, that's a, that's a mountain to climb there.
00:39:44
Speaker
um So there's this phrase called dopamine stacking and it is if you, cause your body only has a certain tolerance to dopamine and then it will start to frankly become numb to dopamine release.
00:39:59
Speaker
Like anything, Too much of a good thing is frankly a bad thing. So you have to be very specific when you trigger that dopamine release. So if you are stacking dopamine, whether it's from Instagram reels, very short spikes of entertainment, people love it, good feelings galore, um or whatever,
00:40:18
Speaker
some kind of recreational substance, you know, alcohol, nicotine, something like those, all these things release dopamine. Let's say you're doing that on the couch, and you are not actually achieving, quote unquote, anything.
00:40:33
Speaker
Now your body is going to learn to release dopamine at inappropriate times. So, unfortunately you have burned through all of your your your dopamine releasing potential when you burn through it all this throughout all this stuff and that's when you see a huge drop in general motivation because dopamine is that thing that is also that that drive to go get um that's why a lot of people you know that's why you know social media and you know recreational drugs and stuff are you know tend to be pretty bad for people it's because it wires your brain to not do things now all of a sudden
00:41:10
Speaker
And all of a sudden we feeling good see sitting on the couch. and So you don't have to do anything productive. Yeah, wowzers. okay Okay, I can literally, we could do an entire episode on dopamine.
00:41:24
Speaker
Yes. This is wild. Okay. So basically like all these wonderful benefits you get from healthy releases from dopamine through community, um you know, positive inputs, like being in nature, exercising, like all these good things I talk about in line living, like We need to be doing those things to have like the benefits from dopamine and not these like artificial, or I shouldn't say artificial, but these other hits that like are just doing the opposite. think artificial is the right word for that. okay You are manufacturing dopamine in a situation where it wouldn't.
00:42:00
Speaker
be normally released. um And to your point of like, that you know, I love that you are ah so holistic with these things because it like you have to do it all. Like if you want to be the healthiest, happiest person you can be, it can't just be a, okay, I'm just going exercise.
00:42:15
Speaker
It can't just be, oh, I'm just going to get outside in the sun. I'm just going to eat well. Like I'm sure you've experienced it. Like the best thing for ah human, regardless of the human,
00:42:27
Speaker
is to have many as many positive inputs in as possible.
Conclusion and Further Resources
00:42:32
Speaker
And unfortunately, modern day life these days is stacking all odds against that. People are inside.
00:42:39
Speaker
People are sedentary. People are staring at screens. ah People have pretty negative reinforcement, you know, psychosocially surrounding them at all times.
00:42:50
Speaker
It's really not a great environment. And it very much is an uphill battle. But, you know, doing a little bit goes such a long way. h Yeah, no, I love that so much. Because yeah, exactly. Like, that's why I try to like cover all these different spaces, because they're all really important. So um this was really good. i didn't even get to all the things i wanted to talk to you about. But I think what would I would like you to, I guess, just kind of end with is, of course, like, you know, where can people find you? i mean, obviously, not all listeners live in the DMV, but in the way of like, if you're on social media, or
00:43:27
Speaker
you know, you have a, you know, a website or anything like that. Like, is there a place that people could go? So i'm I'm not much ah of a social media guy these days.
00:43:39
Speaker
If people were interested in finding me on social media, I do have an an an ancient Instagram account called Green Mountain Games that I have a bunch of content on, but I have not posted on it in some years. So if people are trying to reach out to me, I probably won't see it.
00:43:54
Speaker
um Now, specifically, i do train out of the DMV area in Arlington. So yeah. Method Fitness is where i work currently, and M2 is the gym that I am going to be opening up in the next few months.
00:44:06
Speaker
um you know I'm always happy to to talk shop of this stuff to anyone at any time. and love this stuff. so yeah i definitely don't want to be I've kind of closed myself off unintentionally via those avenues, but love to love to chat about this stuff. Yeah. Sure. Yeah, I could always put your like website and an email address or something in the show notes for sure. So but yeah, it was a joy. Like, I think one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you is because your knowledge is so vast on like what happens in the human body, hence the kinesiology part, like it's the study of like all the things happening within your body because we can't look at any one
00:44:43
Speaker
like health health goal um without considering all the things that are connected to it are impacted. So there's probably like 10 other topics you just have like a wealth of knowledge. I am guessing so.
00:44:57
Speaker
um but But yeah, is there any last things you want to share? Like if you were like, you know, ah like ah but a take home, um a word of inspiration anything you'd want to share yeah i mean i'd say just just start doing something uh the best time to start exercise specifically was yesterday and look for truly look like it's it's so unappealing to so many people uh Exercise is uncomfortable, um but try to embrace the process of it and don't come out of the gate trying to do too much all at once.
00:45:35
Speaker
Find what's going to work for your body. Find what's going to work for your mind and just keep doing it. forever. Yeah, absolutely. And I always end my episodes with a, with a, you know, a coach autumn's like tip of the day, like our practice. And I would say from, from this episode in line with that would be, um you know, move your body doing things that you enjoy, right. Like you said in the beginning, because then you will innately like just be more active.
00:46:03
Speaker
But on top of that, like because the strength training and mobility is really important. There's not really a way around like if you don't love strength training, like maybe figure out what environment is most helpful to you to fit a little bit of strength training in like maybe it's going with a friend, maybe it's you like to be at home, get some weights, maybe it's like you the vibe of the gym is important to you or the convenience or you need accountability, like whatever will get some of that strength training in because if I love sports all day, like I still need to make sure I'm doing some strength training, even if it's not my favorite.
00:46:37
Speaker
And so, yeah, just kind of like adding that in as well. But um it was a joy. Thank you so much, Dylan. And Dylan, his wife, Jamie are expecting their first kiddo.
00:46:48
Speaker
So it will be fun to see like how you um integrate your passion for health and fitness into your your growing family. so You got to see our home gym, Autumn. It is stacked.
00:47:01
Speaker
and we've been We've been building it in the past couple of months and it's it's looking good these days. So that's the plan. We'll see if works. Yeah, that's so sweet. I love it. Well, thank you. And I appreciate um you taking the time to be with us.
00:47:13
Speaker
Yeah. Thanks, Autumn. See you later.
00:47:18
Speaker
Thank you for tuning in to the Aligned Living Podcast. I'm Dr. Autumn, your guide on this journey to shalom or wholeness. Ready to embark on this journey of self-discovery and transformation?
00:47:33
Speaker
Head over to autumnswain.com to learn more and to dive deeper into the world of Aligned Living. Until next time, stay aligned.