769. Why Building Muscle Can Reverse Your Biological Age with Dr. Shannon Ritchey
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Hey guys, welcome to almost 30 podcast. Everybody welcome. It's Lindsay and Krista. We're here together. So happy.

You're here. And we both went to Barry's this morning, if you're wondering. It's going to be a health and wellness episode today. We're going to be talking about strength training, inflammation, body recomposition. Yeah, it was fascinating. How to lose fat and gain muscle. So to be inspired and ready for the show, we thought we'd go to Barry's for the first time in a long time. It just like... So we went to Barry's in Venice. Yes.

I've just lived a whole life at Barry's in Venice over the years. I was thinking about that. I just remember, I remember showing up like with my Celsius in hand, ready to rock. I would do two in a row sometimes. I would do dates at Barry's. You also would do Barry's after having taught. Soul cycle. So Lindsay was a soul cycle instructor, if you guys are new. And Lindsay would teach multiple classes a day and then also go to Barry's.

Because I remember you'd say, you'd be like, I need to like move. You need, like, I need to like shake it out. You just shake it out. I mean, I did need like more strength training for sure because so much cardio was like absolutely not good for my body at all and my adrenals. But I should have been doing like double floor. 100%. Like not on a treadmill. But today they only had one spot left. I started on the floor, but I was nervous because normally like I still pee a little bit.

when I run, but today I didn't. Good job. I kept it in. I was inspired by Andrew Key, who is just so fine. And I was like, if I pee my pants... I'm trying to be chill, bro. It's okay. I mean, I'm married and I have a kid. I can say, Andrew Key, you're so fine. And so is he. He has a wife and kids. Like, we can say that about each other. He won't say it about me, but I'll say it about him. It's so funny in the class. I was just thinking about how I act around men that are fine and when men that are not. I like don't even look at them. I'm like...

I'm like, what's up? I like fist pound them. And then you saw me yesterday. I'm at Air One. I'm just like running laps around. Krista had like three guys come up to her basically. She grabbed like a bouquet of flowers. She's like, I'm going to get these for myself. And then all of a sudden the flock came in. The cashier guy who's, you know, like objectively cute. Yeah. And then some other guy ran after you. And I was like,

we here for this. I am here for this. I just want to like observe. I want to take notes. Like it was hilarious and amazing. I will say that there was, so this is a tip I think for any women. I was fully in my desire of, I just want to get flowers because I love flowers. Flowers are good. Flowers are beautiful. And so there was something about me having flowers that was attractive to men where it was like very feminine, just like in my desire to

I was also very much in a, I don't care at all. Yeah. Very open phase of, of things. But it's funny because the one man that followed me, who I gave my number to now, I'm like, he's not the vibe, but I'm like, now I'm like, why haven't you texted me? Isn't that insane? You guys, I'm like, Oh, I don't care. Whatever. I'm all good. And, but then I found out more information about him and I was like, wait, I'm into this. Yeah.

That's what's so fucked up about dating. It's like, you just see your mind go places and you're like, huh? No, literally. I'm like, God, I am so, I am so mentally healthy. What the fuck is happening? A hundred percent. Well, it was good too for you to see because you know, you saw him and you, you kind of were like, oh, he didn't really ask you a lot about you.

Well, the, what? The fact that within the first 90 seconds, I knew where he lived, what he did, um, and other things. I'm like, Hey man, I know, or I do, but let me ask you, like, it was, it was almost just like, it was like a word vomit. And I was like,

flex. You already came up to her and that was cool. I actually appreciate you being like in LA. Nobody comes up to anybody because they think they're so fucking cool. No, this guy was literally running down the sidewalk. Hey, hey, that was enough. You could just like compliment her and ask her some questions. Say, I would love to like hang out and that would have been perfect. I missed that. I missed

It's weird because usually I'm like hypervigilant to that lately because I feel like I've fallen for men that are not about me. Like they're about me, but they don't ask me questions or you know what I mean? They're about me in the way of like what I represent or how I look or whatever. And I feel like I wasn't, yeah, I was not attuned to that. But also you didn't care too much. Yeah, that's true. Which is fine. I didn't really care. Yeah. But then he texted me and hasn't texted me back. Now I care a lot.

So dark, dark and twisted. He'll text you, don't worry. When we left the cashier who was like, I hope I see you again. And I was like, I love you. Lindsay's like, are you love bombing him? I'm literally like, you can't say I love you to people because they take it seriously. That's actually my biggest toxic trait is that like, I will break up with someone and be like, hey baby. Well, yeah, the baby and I love you makes people be like,

No, for real. That's my toxic trait is being like, hey, baby, I love you so much, but we're ending. Yeah. I just, the, the, my language and the softness can just be very confusing. I just see like random ass people fall in love with you. Like, didn't you like your lawn guy or someone you were like, hey baby, and then like brought his family over or something. Oh my God, dude, my contractor. So my contractor came over and I just, I gave him a little bit too much attention. And then he like

Just started to text me every day and then brought his family over, me to meet his family and his kids. And now just like- I need you to learn this website. This actually, he was what taught me because I was like, oh no, something weird is happening. Also too, this person that I'm talking to, we say I love you, but it's like slippery because it was like an I love you that I say to the cashier at Air One. I love you. And now we're saying I love you, but we're romantic. So I don't know how we're saying I love you. So I've confused myself.

Yeah. Yeah, totally. I love you needs to have weight. Yeah. And I don't, it's like, can it now have weight with this person? No, 100%. I don't know. Like, I don't know if you could like take it back and then be like, okay, we got to wait until we really mean it to say, I guess you could. I think that's what I want to do. Yeah. I think you could. So I'm talking to someone right now, you guys, and I'm, we're saying, I love you. And, um, I don't know how we mean it.

I think you genuinely, you know, have love for each other. Yes. You know? Like today we got off the phone. We were like, love you. He's like, love you. I was like, okay, bye. I'm like, what? I was just like, but, and then I was like, I want to break up with him. But are you dating? I don't know, bro. Yeah, okay.

We'll figure it out. My new thing is bro. Anyways, I'm really excited about this episode because, you know, I've been on my lift and we've been talking about the body. This is just such a great conversation that I know you were really excited about. And I think a lot of our community is really interested in building more muscle and kind of re, you know,

getting into a different type of shape than I think we grew up with, which was just cardio. Like what you were talking about, just doing berries, just doing soul cycle. And just kind of willy-nilly. Yes. You know, not intentional, not thinking about like the science and like the biology aspect of what's happening, what's right for our own bodies. What did you learn that was like most poignant? You know, I think when it comes... This is random, but...

Um, everyone's into Pilates and I, I love a Pilates class. Um, but the way, whether it's mega former or other Pilates, it's really only certain bodies can get away with doing Pilates all the time and actually see a difference. Um, I think Lauren, uh, from the his and her show, um,

Him, sorry, the Him and Her show talked about this where she's like, I love Pilates. She's like, but my body, like I need to do strength training in order to see actual results that I desire. I say that for my whole life. I'm like, that's good for real dogs. Real dogs. I've always said it's really good for girls that are naturally petite or naturally really thin or just very easily can like, it's like all they need to do is like a little definition.

I'm like, I need to like build and sculpt. Yes, 100%. And so today's show, we have Dr. Shannon Ritchie and she's the CEO and founder of Eblo Fitness. So this is a science-based program to build muscle with less wear and tear on the body. So there's like a gentleness to it that's really fascinating and very effective. But she is just, I mean, she's a doctor. She's a doctor of physical therapy. She hosts the Dr. Shannon's show. Just a wealth of knowledge. We talked about

how you can reverse your biological age with weightlifting, with strength training, which I think a lot of people are. It's a buzzy thing now. I know you are actually biological age. 12. No, I'm 26 or 27. No, 26. I'm 12 years younger than whatever my age is. Wait, what? Yeah. I'm 20. Who'd you do? I think I'm 25 point. Yeah. Dude, I think actually. Don't say function health doesn't work.

LOL. Okay, give me the joy. Test me. I'm good. Because I've seen a lot of people do function health and they all say they're 15. And I'm like, interesting. Yours was what? 25? 25 point something. Can't be better than me. Yeah. But you would be. You actually are more healthy than me. I don't think so. Yes, you are. I think we're just like different. You eat better. You eat less sugar. You eat better consistently whole foods. You...

Eat more. You just are better. You walk more. You go to the gym more. You sleep more. No, I don't. Oh, at this season. And you're like, maybe not. Well, no, no, no. We're both sleeping. You're a mom sleeper. Well, I think we're both not sleeping very well. Yeah, I'm not. You guys, it's kind of, it's been, it's a rough part of my journey that I'm on right now is the lack of sleep. I've been up in the middle of the night not sleeping. This week you've done that too? Yeah. I was up all night. Not all night, but I was up for like two hours last night just looping on stuff.

Um, continue. So she also breaks down like how to really build muscle and what it feels like. Ooh, good one. So she breaks down, um, the reps method, which was really, really helpful. So I think this will help people at the gym and feel more confident and know when they're actually breaking down the muscle, when they're building it, like it's, it was very helpful for me. Um,

We talked about a lot of fitness myths. You know, we talked about the Pilates thing. Um, we talked about, uh, just like, are we actually going to bulk up by doing certain things and how we do it? Cause I think a lot of women are worried about that. Um, we talk about gentle consistency, um, modifying your routine throughout the year based on the season, based on your cycle. Um,

So it's really, really helpful. And then for those of you that are pregnant or wanting to become pregnant, she has a prenatal strength training program that she did when she was pregnant. So at every stage, she has a workout, which I think is super, super helpful. But I love this conversation. I mean, I learned so, so much. You're going to be taking notes and she's just a doll. I adore her. And excitingly,

our community gets six weeks free of Ethlo Fitness. You get a free trial for six weeks. You can use the code almost 30 when you go to ethlofitness.com. That's E-V-L-O fitness.com.

do this. Like a hundred percent recommend even just the six week trial. You're going to learn so, so much, but I'm kind of on my like fitness, like virtual fitness kick right now, just cause I have a gym in my building I go to, but I actually play it in the gym. So I'll have it in my ear or I'll have it like set up so I can see it. And it's just been nice. Cause I find that when I do have instruction, I work

Everett Carter. I'm going to do that actually because I've been freestyling at the gym. I know how to lift because over the years just doing so many classes and then I've gotten personal training and, you know, some of our friends are personal trainers, but I actually want to get into a program. I want to get more dialed.

with my stuff. It's so helpful. I'm excited. It's so helpful. So what is the, what is the link? So it's evlofitness.com and you can use the code almost 30. So it's E-V-L-O fitness.com. Cool. So it's a six week free trial. Wow. Which is awesome. So you really get in there. Um, you can follow Dr. Shannon and doctor at doctor.shannon.dpt, um, evlofitness on Instagram as well. And then she has the Dr. Shannon show.

But yeah, we had a blast. Thanks for coming on the show. Sounds great. Enjoy this one, guys. Share with a friend, especially if you guys are on your lifting fitness journeys. There's so much information in here. That's all for you. I can't wait to see you guys at camp. So camp is happening May 18th. It is a Sunday. We have amazing sessions from some of the best in the business. Jillian Turecki, Sade Simone, Sahil Bloom, Rising Woman, Spirit Daughter, Jenna Zoe,

Natalie Kuhn. This lineup is insane. Lindsay and myself. This lineup is insane. It's so powerful. It only happens once a year. This is to celebrate our book, Almost 30, which is so profound. It is a definitive guide to a life that you love for the next decade and beyond. And so to get into camp, all you need to do is pre-order the book, which gets you a lot of other bonuses too, which is really exciting. So it is an online virtual retreat.

That is on Sunday, the 18th of May. Mm-hmm. AlmostReady.com slash book. Okay. Enjoy this one. We'll see you on the other side, everybody. We'll see you soon. Bye. Bye.

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So I've been thinking a lot lately about regeneration. I'm 37. I am just, you know, naturally aging. I'm thinking about like, how can I regenerate, you know, not in like a weird sci-fi way, but in the very real sense of how do I help my body repair and reset and stay resilient as I age?

So when Krista and I found Stem Regen, we were like genuinely fascinated by what the supplement is doing for people's bodies. And when we started using it, we were just blown away. So here's a scoop. Stem Regen uses natural plant extracts to trigger something called endogenous stem cell mobilization. So basically, it helps your own stem cells get to work. You

you lose about 90% of your stem cells by the time you're 30. How crazy, crazy, but just two capsules can release an average of 10 million of your own stem cells into circulation, which is pretty incredible. No injections, no crazy procedures, just your body doing what it was designed to do, but much better. And these stem cells, they're like your body's internal repair crew, supporting everything from tissue regeneration to aging skin, joints, digestion, and beyond.

I take it in the morning with my other supplements. And what I've noticed most is recovery, honestly, whether it's a tough workout or just a mentally taxing day, I bounce back much quicker. I feel more energized and grounded in my body. It's subtle, but powerful. What's really exciting is that Stem Regen release is just one piece of the puzzle. You can also layer in Mobilize, which helps circulation, and Signal, which guides those stem cells to where your body needs repair most.

This isn't hype. STEM Regen was selected for NIH's Gold Star, Gold Standard Interventions Testing Program and showed a 12% increase in median lifespan in mammals. Pretty insane. That's never been done before in the program's 20-year history. So if you're curious like I was, I'm ready to give your body some next level support.

Try stemregen at stemregen.co and use code almost 30 for 15% off your first one-time purchase. Again, that's stemregen.co, S-T-E-M-R-E-G-E-N.co. Code is almost 30. Hi, everybody. I am so excited to be sitting down with Dr. Shannon Ritchie.

You know her, you love her. And if you don't, you are going to be so glad you're tuning in. I'm excited that I'm here talking to you. I know Krista's a little jealous because she has also been on her strength training and building muscle journey as well. It's changed our lives. Yes. Truly. Coming from a place where I was doing cardio...

I mean, I was a SoulCycle instructor and doing 15 classes a week, riding the bike, just burning myself out, thinking that I also had to do a Barry's Bootcamp class later that day, just doing the most, thinking that I just needed to be in a calorie deficit, that I just needed to push myself and kill myself at the gym.

not understanding what was actually happening to my body then. So I'm just so thankful to be in this place now and to talk to you today and really educate our listeners on the importance of building muscle and really the science behind it. Your work has been so illuminating for me as I've just slowed down and really focused on building muscle, especially postpartum. I started...

like before I got pregnant, but really after and in my recovery, it's been just life-changing. So thank you for being here. I'm so excited for being here. And I can really resonate with your story because I've been in the fitness industry for like 15 years as a group fitness instructor. Yeah, you teach these classes and like sometimes you're subbing a lot. And so you're teaching like 10 a week and then you're like, well, I have to do my own workout. And so you end up working out like twice a day. And I can so relate to that, like feeling so beat up and feeling so

worn down, not really seeing that many results. Yes. What did you teach? And then I taught everything. So I started in yoga and then I did a little Pilates, a little barre, and then I got into more like hit type classes, like studio. I worked at gyms. I worked everywhere and taught everything. Body pump, like you name it, kickboxing.

And I did not teach cycle, though. That was the one thing I didn't teach. But similar energies, right? Totally. It's like the go, go, go, blast the music, work as hard as possible, burn as many calories as possible. That also coincided – I don't know about you. That coincided with the fitness wearables coming out and being more available. That's so true. And so I started tracking my calories burned and like, oh, you know, if I didn't start my watch –

It didn't count. Like if I didn't like start my workout on my walk, yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. And now I'm like, I don't not care how many calories I burn in a workout. It literally makes zero difference to me. I think sometimes those wearables can either bring us closer and more in tune with our bodies, like at least just getting to know, correlate like, hmm, sleep score is this. Yes.

you know, this is how I'm feeling. But sometimes it can bring us farther away. It can. Because I think we become so obsessed with the numbers. It can. And I did a whole podcast about like what to pay attention to and what not to pay attention to because I have the aura and I do like it. And I tend to think, you know, you're looking at patterns. You're not looking at being so obsessive with what your workout is doing for you. So like, are you active overall? Are you hitting around...

7,500 steps a day. If you're not, like maybe it's time to be a little bit more active. But if you are, you're probably good. Are you regularly sleeping well? But then too, like you don't need a tracker to like pay attention to all of that. You know whether or not you're sleeping well. You know whether or not you're active or not. So yeah, I think we get overly obsessive about those things. I don't recommend tracking calories burned because

fitness watches and wearables are notoriously extremely inaccurate with tracking calories. They've been shown to be up to 200% inaccurate. Okay. That should be enough. Exactly. And overestimate. So they overestimate your calorie expenditure. And so what happens is people are so used to being one for one, calories burned, calories in, calories out, which thermodynamics is real. I'm not debating that. But

We're like, okay, I burned a thousand calories in my workout. Now I can go have a thousand more calories. I can go drink all the margaritas or whatever. And so you start to equate food and exercise together. And that's when I think it gets dangerous. Yeah, I completely agree. That was me in my twenties actually. Yeah. I would like obsess over that. And I honestly think my body responded in a way where like,

I held on to more, let's say, weight or water weight because they were like, I feel like you're restricting in weird ways when actually we need fuel. Totally. That's a theory, but I just felt like my body held on to so much more during that period. You're probably in fight or flight. Yeah, exactly. And not recovering, overly inflamed from working too hard, under-fueling, probably not sleeping well enough.

Mm-hmm.

Because you are so worn down and exhausted and your body's in high stress zone. Yeah, that was me for sure. Yeah, me too. Okay, let's get down. Let's like set a foundation with some of the science behind building muscle. Because I think women in particular, you know, there's the myth that if we...

are doing strength training that we will build bulky muscle and our body composition will be all funky and we won't like the way that we look. You know, I think there are a lot of like Pilates, you know, girlies out there that like kind of stick to the Pilates, the lightweight, the resistance, which is great. And I think for some body types it works. But I think for most people,

Weight training is like the missing piece to their fitness. So let's break down why building muscle is so important for women, especially as we age. Building muscle is, first of all, it's not going to make you bulky. And that's a question I get on almost every podcast I go on. And...

I think that I want to talk about this in a really real way because I think we often just hear soundbites of leaders in the space saying, like, don't worry about it. It's not going to make you bulky. And then some women are like, well, that was my true experience. Like, that's what really happened to me. So a few things to kind of address here. And I think being educated about this will help lift the fear a little bit for those people that are like, yeah, I still don't believe it. I still don't want to do it. So number one is some women do build muscle quickly. It's the minority of women.

most women, it takes a long time to build a significant amount of lean mass. I'm talking years. If you want a significant amount of lean mass, let's say you're building 10, 15 pounds of muscle, that's a lot of muscle, that's probably going to take you a decade. That's going to take a long time. So for most women, it does take a long time. Some women just have the genetics, and I would say they're blessed to be able to just build muscle very easily.

And then the second thing, the more common thing that tends to happen is that women are building lean mass. They're building muscle. But then they're also not losing fat. So maybe they started strength training because they've heard like, oh, this is so good for your metabolism. This will make me look leaner. This will make me look more toned if I build muscle. But then they're not also accounting for nutritional changes that ultimately will help them lose fat at the same time. So they're building fat and potentially building muscle at the same time. And so they feel bigger overall.

And so again, nothing to be afraid of. It just might mean, okay, I need to dial my nutrition a little bit. If my goal is to look, have a leaner, quote unquote, more toned, I don't love that word, but like toned look, that's what a lot of people want is like body recomposition essentially. And so that takes some dialing of your nutrition alongside your strength training. I think that we tend to overemphasize

Exercises roll in aesthetically how we look. And fat loss, it just does not have a big impact on fat loss. Exercise doesn't. It really doesn't. Even cardio. It's more so than nutrition. Nutrition. And lifestyle choices. Yes. It's a much bigger...

of plays a much bigger part in fat loss. But I think we over index on exercise and we rely too heavily on exercise to do everything for us. Um, so that does happen. And then the third thing that, that sometimes happens is you get a little cell swelling after you train, after you exercise, you get like, if you've ever done arms or something and you're like, my arms look like bigger, like they look, it's called the pump. Um,

And it's just temporary cell swelling that increases the size of your muscles temporarily. And so some women will train for a month and they will have some temporary cell swelling and they're like, oh my gosh, I'm bulking up. I'm gaining all this muscle. It's like you're just kind of getting some temporary cell swelling that tends to go away after some time. So those are kind of the three things that I think of when I think of bulkiness. Yeah, totally. Yeah, I...

I think it's becoming more common now for people to kind of consider the weight training, but I do think those fears live in the back of our minds. So we're like in the zeitgeist, but we're still kind of like running these old stories and programming. So that's really, really helpful just on the nutrition piece. So you said that nutrition and lifestyle play more of a role in fat loss. I guess what would, obviously you're not a nutritionist, but I...

I guess what can we consider in relation to our workouts? So, you know, whether it's something that we're eating before or after that like maximizes the, just supports muscle growth and or increases the fat burn. Yes.

I really love the goal of body recomposition. So body recomposition, I alluded to earlier, it means losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time or maintaining the fat mass that you have and building muscle. I really like this goal because it requires some thought with your nutrition that you have to pay attention to your nutrition, which a lot of us don't really pay attention or we overly restrict nutrition.

You can't overly restrict because if you overly restrict, you won't build muscle. So it involves eating enough.

But not overeating, basically eating for your needs. Right. And I also love the goal of body recomposition because it requires that you slow down. Building muscle is a slow process. I like to set the goal of building five pounds of muscle over the span of a year. I think it's very doable. It doesn't make you feel rushed. And so you're not going to hurt yourself. You're not going to overdo it. You'll prioritize your recovery. You won't overtrain. And so I really like the goal of body recomposition because...

it's just a sustainable process. You're not overly restricting, you're eating enough, and you are exercising in ways that will produce the adaptation that you're looking for, which is muscle growth. And you're not relying on your exercise to be your fat burning. So I think when you pair strength training, and of course, I'm not a cardio hater. I also do recommend cardio as well. But when you pair them all together, they can work really symbiotically together. And then

you have a sustainable routine that you can stick to for your entire life. I just jumped on the wall. We can edit that out, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. You'd be surprised. There are moments where I'm like, what just came out of? What just happened? Yeah, I burp. Yeah, a little verbal flub happens to me all the time. Baby's like, I have a little burp.

Yeah. I mean, he's like, excuse me. Did you forget about me? Did I get the point across? I think you did. Okay, good. Okay, good. Yeah. The idea now I'm a little like afraid of cardio now that like strength training is such a thing where I'm like, okay, what is too much in terms of cardio? And I've just been going like

to the place where I'm like, that felt good. Okay, but I'm not pushing myself like I used to.

So what would be your recommendation as far as cardio goes in like a weekly routine? And what might that look like for people? I think this is a really good conversation because I think a lot of people are now afraid of cardio. Yes. And I will admit, I think I was there too. You kind of swing one way and then you're like, oh, strength training is everything. Strength training doubles as your cardio. And now I've kind of met in the middle a little bit. And I truly think that strength training...

checks a lot of boxes. It really, really does. If you can focus on one thing, have it be strength training. However, we just don't see from the literature that strength training has the same cardiovascular benefits as traditional cardio does. So you kind of do need a mixture of both. However, you don't need a ton. So I say 150 minutes of light to moderate intensity cardio every week. You're a New Yorker, you're walking, that's probably, you're probably getting it easily. And

Walking briskly, like if you can walk faster. A lot of people ask me about weighted vest walking. I think that if you have a flat neighborhood or you walk on flat surfaces and your heart rate isn't getting up very high at all, you can add a weighted vest. That's a great way to increase your cardiovascular load.

And then beyond that, so that's kind of first priority is that 150 minutes of light to moderate intensity cardio per week that can be divided up however fits your lifestyle. And then beyond that, ideally, you would add one to two short HIIT sessions per week and emphasis on the short.

We've heard from the literature and we've seen from the literature that HIIT is beneficial. And the fitness industry ran with that and took it to the extreme. And now there's all these intense, I mean,

cycle classes, bootcamp classes, where you are in your high heart rate zone for 45 minutes to an hour. And that is so much stress on your body. And it's really difficult to recover from. So it's short sessions tend to have a really strong stimulus and they create cellular adaptations. Are we talking 10 minutes? We're talking 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Okay.

20 minutes max. Yeah. Maybe 20 minutes with a warmup and cool down. We do, there's some awesome literature around really, really short HIIT sessions. It's called RE-HIT, Reduced Exertion High Intensity Exercise, 30 Second Sprints.

Three minutes in between, two times. Two 30-second sprints. That's it. Have a very strong metabolic stimulus. Yeah. So if that's all you have time for, if you don't have the desire to do HIIT training, start with RE-HIT. Just a warm-up, 30 seconds of all-out intensity as hard as possible, whether it be jump squats, sprints, biking, whatever it may be. Recover for two to three minutes, do it one more time, and then cool down, and then you're done.

And you can do that once a week and it can have incredible benefits. So less is more when it comes to HIIT, one to two times per week. Interval training is great too if you want to do, you know, a minute on, a couple of minutes off, a minute on, a couple of minutes off. There's lots of ways to kind of mix it up. But that's really all you need for cardio. So...

It's not that much. It's not that much. It's not that much. Okay. So doable. Yeah, this is giving me hope. Okay. Good. So let's talk about the benefit of building muscle for your health. So a lot of people, I think, you know, something I've heard a lot is around your blood glucose levels and how it interacts with that and why that's beneficial. So I would love to learn just the benefits so people can really lock it in. Yes.

So maybe you've heard that muscle helps improve your insulin sensitivity. Muscle is your biggest glucose sink. That's something that I've heard a lot on the internet. And what that means is that

Taking it all the way back to what happens when we eat. When we eat something, the carbohydrates in our food are broken down into sugars that travel throughout our bloodstream to power our bodies. These sugars are important for powering our cells, whatever that cell's function may be, whether it's digestion or mental processing or movement.

And whatever is leftover that your body doesn't need is either stored in the liver, it's stored in muscle, or if those two stores are topped off, it's stored as fat.

So what can happen is we can increase the storage sites in our muscles by increasing our muscle mass so that whatever is left over from what we eat that our body doesn't use can now be stored in muscle instead of being stored as fat. We can't increase the storage sites in our liver. We can't increase the size of our liver, to my knowledge. So the control that we do have is increasing the size of our muscles.

When we increase the size of our muscles, more glucose can be stored in the muscle. Insulin sensitivity improves because when glucose in the bloodstream is up, so is insulin. So insulin sensitivity improves. Our hormonal balance improves. Insulin touches every single cell in your body. So it's an extremely important hormone to have regulated insulin.

And we just start to function better. We start to feel better. You start to have better mental processing, better energy, better sleep, better performance in your workouts. And all of those things ultimately spiral into better results over time. Yeah. I've noticed, yeah, my like quote cravings aren't as strong anymore, whether it's, you know, that like sweet craving or what have you, it's like totally changed how I feel in that way. And yeah,

Thus, I'm just not eating the things that would spike my blood glucose. I haven't worn a wearable in a while for my blood glucose levels, but I would imagine that it's definitely a different spike now. Well, and I'm sure part of that has to do with strength training. And obviously, diet plays a role in your glucose regulation as well. But strength training, the act of strength training, and building more muscle is

It absolutely improves your glucose regulation, which will improve your hunger hormones and, again, your satiety hormones. It just makes it easier to eat a nutritious diet. It's not the magic pill. It's not like I'm going to start strength training and all of a sudden I'm going to, like, drop all this weight. Like, I think that's what people want to hear. It's a slow, sustainable process. And like I said, it just kind of snowballs. But the act of strength training, too, when you train your muscles close to failure, it's

You pull that stored glucose. It's actually in the form of glycogen in your muscles so that that glycogen leaves the muscle cell. It empties. You empty that storage site so that the next time you eat, more can come back in. So the active strength training itself can help improve glucose regulation and having more muscle can help improve glucose regulation. Okay. Okay.

I love seeing that visual in my brain. And I'm going to visualize that every time. Me too. You know what I mean? I think of like a parking lot and like a car comes in, a car comes out. And like if the parking lot's always full, there's no room for more cars to park. Yes. But if you're emptying it each time and allowing for more cars to come in, you have more flow coming in and out. And the...

Okay. The carbs that break down into sugars go to the muscles. Why do they go to the muscles instead of fat? Because there's room in the muscles? Yes. And there is muscle mass. Okay. Muscle stores glucose in the form of glycogen to use for emergencies. So when your body is in a fight or flight situation or in a situation where it doesn't have available glucose or available fuel, it pulls

the glycogen out of the muscle in order to power your movement to get you to run away or whatever it may be, or just power the strength training movement that you're doing. Okay. I want to talk about why we lose muscle in the first place, whether it's like aging versus maybe lifestyle choices that break down muscle. I'm just really curious because I've noticed...

postpartum for sure. I don't have the muscle I used to. I'm strength training and building it back. But afterwards, I was like looking behind me. I'm like, what? What just happened? Maybe it was the fat too because I was breastfeeding. So it was probably both. But it's been different. Well, we lose muscle as we age naturally. So I always say,

Building five pounds of muscle can reverse your biological age by like 10 years. Oh, wow. And this is because over the span of our lives, each decade that passes, we lose between three and 8% of our muscle mass just naturally. That's just what age does. And so if we can gain five pounds of muscle, we can reverse that natural aging process by up to a decade. Wow. Which is really incredible. Yeah.

And there's reasons why you might lose muscle at a faster rate or a slower rate. Postpartum, for example, you're pretty sedentary and that's on purpose. We need recovery postpartum. We need to rest. You're not going to be loading your muscles. And so we see that when...

when they do studies of participants who are on bed rest, which I wouldn't call postpartum bed rest, but you're much, you're probably much more, at least I was for sure. Yeah. At least with that first child. At least with the first one. Exactly. It was like, husband brings you everything. The second one will be interesting. I don't think it's going to be the same, but for the first one, yes, I think you're very stationary. And so because of that,

you're not utilizing your muscles very much at all. So you do lose muscle at a faster rate. Okay. So you've got the natural aging that's just kind of happening and you're slowly losing those muscle fibers. And then you're also potentially losing it faster because you're just more stationary. So that's a hundred percent to be expected. And it's something that I think women panic about and like, how do I avoid that? It's like, it's just, it's okay. It's going to happen, but it doesn't mean that you can't get it back. Sure. Okay. The

The beautiful thing about building muscle is that the first time you do it is the hardest time. The second, third, fourth, however many times you do it from there, it happens faster and it's a lot easier. Why?

This is because muscle has memory. So this is the theory. This is the leading theory is that when you develop more muscle mass, you develop more myonuclei. So kind of the brain of the muscle. And so that doesn't go away. That stays even if you lose muscle mass. So because of this memory, you tend to develop muscle faster the second time. So this is why developing muscle for the first time is such an incredible investment. For example, when I...

I had a body recomposition journey in 2022. I lost about five pounds of fat and gained about eight pounds of muscle. My goal was five pounds over the year, and I gained about eight pounds. And that was incredible for me because prior to that, I had never really built muscle. Like I had done all the cardio. I wasn't paying attention to how I was eating. I wasn't eating high protein, things like that. But that took me a year.

When I was postpartum, I lost about five pounds of muscle in that time period, about the six months after having a baby and also gained fat. And

I was like, okay, I'm going to set the goal again of building five pounds of muscle. I'm going to give myself a year. I did it in like three or four months. Wow. So much faster the second time. But it's because I had spent the time doing it before. Sure. So that's why it's so encouraging and why I recommend if you are pregnant, well, prior to pregnancy and even during pregnancy, try to build as much muscle mass as you can.

because it'll make your postpartum recovery so much quicker. Yeah, I will attest to that. It definitely did. Let's talk about that because there are a lot of people in the audience who either want to get pregnant or who are pregnant. I guess what is safe? You know, I think a lot of people...

I don't know if they're hearing it from their doctors or just assuming that they can't, you know, load the same amount of weight and what is, you know, just healthy for mom and baby. So let's talk about that and what they can do. Great questions because there are, there is limited research in this area, but it's there.

There's limited research. Period. Period. Yes. On everything. I feel like, oh, we can't have this food because there's limited research. And I'm like, okay, then research it. Like, what are we doing? I know. It is actually incredible how we are at this day and age, and yet there's so much that we have yet to learn, which to me is like really exciting. I'm like, oh, what else is there to learn? And so sometimes you have to pair experience and anecdote with what you know and with what the research offers.

currently is providing. And so that's ultimately what I've done with developing the prenatal program and then my recommendations for women in strength training. What we see and what the ACOG, the American College of OBGYN recommends is they recommend cardio, that 150 minutes of light to moderate intensity cardio. And they give really specific guidelines on that. You should be able to talk. You should be able to breathe in and out through your nose. You shouldn't overexert yourself, all of those things.

But then when it comes to strength training, all they say is strength train. And it's like strength training can mean a lot of different things. Like is that Pilates? Is that like do I have arm weights on when I'm going on my walk? Like am I lifting heavy? Am I going to a CrossFit class? It could mean so many different things. But they don't explicitly tell us how to do it, the intensity, the duration, things like that.

So when I dove into the research further, there's a couple of papers that examine how heavy you can lift safely during pregnancy. And what they see is that the upper limit is not established of what is safe. They have seen, they studied women who did powerlifting and CrossFit and things like that.

Those women that continued to lift heavy throughout their pregnancy saw better outcomes than the women who didn't or the women that pulled back during their pregnancy. So we see that lifting weights and building muscle and strength training is largely safe and beneficial. I can imagine too that like it depends on someone's

of form. Yes. You know, because so much is shifting and happening when you're pregnant. Totally. And so I can imagine lifting something heavy, but you're not supporting your... You know, your legs aren't supporting your lower back. I can imagine could...

Maybe it's not related to the baby, but just like you'll pull something a little more easily. And that's what the biggest risk is. When we look at what is the biggest risk when it comes to weightlifting, it's not harmful for the baby that we know of. But what we do see is that because you have, like you said, you have increased shifts in center of gravity. Yeah. And the elasticity. What is that?

Relaxin. Yes. So relaxin increases during pregnancy. So you have more flexibility, which isn't necessarily a good thing because you can have more instability during

less proprioception, less body awareness. All of those things are natural. And so what I recommend women hear, oh, I should strength train during pregnancy. It means I need to go do power lifts and I need to go like squat heavy barbells and things like that. You don't have to do that. I actually recommend getting very stable and doing exercises that are on the ground, near the ground, hold a wall, use props so that...

you are compensating for your decreased stability by using external points of contact. So for example, maybe if squats are a popular one where women tend to, that doesn't feel great on their lower back during pregnancy. Okay. Let's do, let's do a hip thrust or let's do something on the, let's do a donkey lift with a weight behind our knee. You're still targeting your glutes. You can still train that close to failure and build muscle there.

but maybe it feels more supportive for your body. So continue to strength train. And I have really like four things that we can go over if you want, but I feel like I'm talking so much. This is about you. Let's do it. Okay. Four things that I recommend need to be in your routine in order to build muscle and strength. And this goes for pregnant or not. Okay. So number one, it's called the reps framework. So R-E-P-S, each letter stands for a different principle.

So the R is repetitions, getting close to failure in 30 reps or less. A lot of people will pick up weights and they'll do three sets of 10 and they're like, okay, that's what I was supposed to do. That was what was on my plan, but I didn't get anywhere near failure. I felt the burn a little bit, felt kind of hard at the end, but like

you didn't get anywhere near failure. Failure is? Failure means you are physically unable to do the last rep despite your best effort. It's like if your life depended on it, you couldn't do it. Got it.

So you don't have to get all the way to failure, but you need to get a few reps shy of failure in order to have the adaptation of increased muscle and increased strength. So two, three reps shy. And how you know you're close to failure is when your rep speed decreases. So your first couple of reps, you're going. Your final rep gets really slow and really hard. Yeah. Almost as if you like need help with the last couple of reps.

So many women are not getting anywhere near that failure point. They're either going for time or they're going for reps. And so it's just not on a very highly stimulating set. So get close to failure and under 30 reps, and you can do that pregnant or not. Number two is the E. So that's repetitions. The E is exercise selection. I'm big on exercise selection. I have a lot of hot takes when it comes to exercise selection. I don't think you need to do exercises that you hate. Have you ever heard like,

I hate this, so that means I need it. Or like, this hurts, so that means I need it. No, I don't believe that because here's why.

When you are uncomfortable or you're not enjoying the experience, you're more likely to stop an exercise because of those reasons, not because the muscle is actually close to failure. So you're like, I'm going to get this over with. Like I could actually probably do like 10 more reps here, but like, I hate this so much. My experience is so bad. So I'm stopping earlier. Versus if you could choose an exercise that feels better in your body that you enjoy more, you're more likely to keep going for longer. And so that's going to be a more stimulating set.

So big on that and then big on pregnant or not, again, is using lots of external points of contact, a wall, the ground, a ball. And this is because when your body senses more stability, motor output increases, which means muscle recruitment increases. Again, you have less to focus on. You're not focusing on your balance and like, oh, this kind of hurts. Like this is uncomfortable or whatever. You're like the muscle is what's stopping me, nothing else. So that's the E. Okay.

P is protein. So this is one that's really like a hot topic right now. Yes. Like everybody's talking about it, which is so funny. I put some meat sticks in a protein bar on her side table. Here we are. She knows me. She's like, I got some meat sticks. I was like, I'm going to get my muscle girl some protein. I love it. Because if she needs it. Just in case, just mid-episode eating a meat stick, I would do that. But eating the 0.75 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day is

is what the recommendations from most registered dietitians. You said one point, what was it? 0.75. 0.75, got it. To one gram of body weight per day. Yep. Per pound of body weight per day. So that may involve some tracking at first. I need to track. Have you ever tracked? Yeah, but not recently. Yeah. I find I'm in an interesting season of

Maybe because toddler life is like fast moving and I'm not as like able to meal prep, blah, blah, blah, whatever. We all know this, moms. But I'm like, I feel like I'm under eating a little bit.

And that happens when you get busy. It's so annoying. Yeah. And especially like probably protein too because it's harder. Protein especially. I mean, I am like, if I'm eating, I'm eating protein for sure. Great. But one of my goals this summer is to like just be mindful about like meal prepping at a time when I have like space. Yes.

Yes. And just being able to grab from the fridge. I felt like postpartum, I was so good at this, surprisingly. Yeah. But I'd have meatballs to grab. I'd have grilled chicken. I've had salmon. You know what I mean? Yes. I just had it all laid out, but life, you know. Yeah. And when you're running around chasing a toddler and you're trying to feed them too. I know. It's all about, honestly, it's all. And he'll eat my food when I'm trying to eat. I'm like, you deserve this more than me.

Yeah, exactly. You're the one growing. I can eat my protein later. But yes. Okay. So protein. Yes. And some people have no idea where they're at on that scale. And so...

If tracking isn't super triggering to you, I do think that it can be helpful to do just for a day to see where you land. And when I did this, I noticed I was eating like half the amount of protein that I should to actually build muscle. So it's like I'm putting in all this work into my workout and it's not doing anything for me because I don't have the building blocks via the protein to actually build muscle. So it's crucial. Yes.

And then the S is structure. So this is something that I think a lot of women also struggle with because they want to bounce around all these different modalities and class paths and do all the things. But the problem with that is that because you have no one through line, your body doesn't know how to adapt. There's too much going on. So I recommend working each muscle group one to two times per week on non-consecutive days. Okay.

Let's say you're doing glutes on Tuesday. Let's wait until Thursday or Friday to work glutes again to give muscles at least 48 hours of recovery so that they have time to build and come back again. So structuring your week, really, I think about strength training as the cornerstone. Mm-hmm.

Working each muscle one to two times per week and then building in your cardio from there with whatever time you have left. So that's the reps framework. I truly think that if you follow that, there's so much noise in the fitness industry. You can really kind of like let go of all the other noise. And if you follow that, you will see results. Yeah.

Yeah, that's really great. So reps. Okay. I'm writing this down. The protein piece, can we just have a little peek into your, what would you be eating?

Let's walk through your day. I want to go there because I think people are really interested in this. How do you get enough protein? Can you give us examples? Sure. Let's go through yesterday. Okay. So yesterday I woke up, we had breakfast. I had an omelet. How many eggs do you think?

It was at the hotel. Probably like four? Probably four. Okay. Yeah, probably four. And I did not track this day because when I'm traveling or on the weekends, like I don't. Totally. Actually, I don't really track right now. Because now it's like you kind of know. Exactly. That's how I am with tracking where I'm like, I need like a couple, like a handful of times to like track and understand and know. And then I'm like, okay, I got this. I know what I'm under. That's all it takes is just knowing like, and you can ballpark. It doesn't need to be perfect. Exactly.

But yeah, prioritizing the protein and then just ballparking it. So I had an omelet and then I had, I think I had fruit. I had a latte, some potatoes. And then for lunch...

For lunch, I had like a chicken salad thing. And then we had like some dessert. Obviously. And then for dinner, I had a bunch of protein at dinner because I was with some friends and we were sharing. And so we had like a branzino. We had a chicken. And then we had like a salad. We had, of course, dessert. So did I hit? And then I think I had like a protein bar or a beef stick or something. I had some snack somewhere in between, I think. Yeah.

Um, so that was probably a hundred grams of protein at least throughout the day. So that I probably hit my protein yesterday and that's traveling. Um, traveling is harder. Uh, but like most restaurants will have protein forward, like dishes that are really delicious and you can like the branzino and the chicken was like so good. Yes. So it's like, I didn't feel like I was missing or depriving myself of anything. Yeah.

I could go through a day when I'm at home, but like- Do you have like, when you're at home, like would you have, because you're busy on the go, you have a child, you have, you know, just a business, you know, there's so many things happening. Would you do like a convenience smoothie or like- Oh yeah, I have all my convenience foods. I am big on convenience foods. And listen, there's a lot of like, oh, you shouldn't have a lot of protein powder. You shouldn't have protein bars. And I'm like,

I just think I'm not going to get the protein in unless it's convenient. A hundred percent. And so like the things I tend to do are beef sticks. Yeah. Same. And then lots of beef sticks. Um, I will mix protein powder into Greek yogurt and blueberries. Um, that's a really great snack. And the Greek yogurt has protein. Okay. I want to

You can easily get 30 grams right there. And that's great. That's a great breakfast. I'll have that a lot for breakfast. Protein pancakes I'm really into right now because I'm making them for my daughter and then I'll add protein powder. Do you like a college? Like I guess for muscle building, let's get granular. Yes. There are so many different protein powders. And I know we're not talking like nutrition expertise here, but I guess your preference, what would you use?

I use... Like a collagen or a whey? I use a whey. I use a whey protein powder. Collagen, I use to mix in my coffee pre-pregnancy. I haven't done the research on if it's pregnancy-safe collagen. I think it probably would be. From my research...

When I was pregnant, it was. It was. Okay. Okay. I used to do that. I just like stopped during pregnancy because it was like... But also coffee, I never wanted my first trimester. First trimester, I was like... Yes. First trimester, oh, it's like the last thing. But then I would incorporate... I do like my one cup, which is what I always did. So it wasn't like a huge thing, but... That's what I... Yeah. That's what I do too. But I used to mix the collagen in my coffee and that was a great little like protein, you know, 15 grams right there. Great. Great.

But for protein, I use whey. I love just ingredients. This is not, they're not paying me to say this. I just genuinely love their brands. Yeah. It's just straight up. Yeah. And they, yeah, just straight up whey. They use like really high quality whey. Cool. So a lot of people will say that if protein powder bothers your stomach, like it won't bother your stomach as much. Okay. I don't know.

But they have a lot of really good flavors. And yeah, I'll mix that. Sometimes I'll like, if I'm really desperate, I'll put it in some water and shake it up and on the go. Not ideal, but like you just do what you can. And why Wavers Collagen for you or Wavers?

pea protein or, you know, there's just so many out there for you personally. I've heard that whey is more effective and just has all of the essential amino acids in it. So people will have to double check me on that. And I think like whey doesn't bother me at all. Like some people get bothered by whey and it's like totally fine for me. So I'm like, great. I'm just going to do the whey.

Okay, can we talk summer hydration real quick? This is really important. I don't know about you, but between chasing my son, who's a toddler, around the parks, really sweating on walks, and just trying to stay upright in the heat, honestly, my water alone wasn't cutting it. So I really needed to change that. I needed to get back on my game, on my electrolyte game. That's where Element comes in. It's spelled L-M-N-T.

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when I was younger at the pool and she would make this lemonade that I just, it's so good. This is your grownup lemonade. Okay. You can mix it with cold water and sip it straight or here's a good idea. Throw it onto iced tea for a salty Arnold Palmer moment. Are you kidding me? Okay. Here's the thing. When you're low on electrolytes, you feel it. For me, it's brain fog, fatigue, that weird afternoon crash. But when I stay consistent with element, especially in the summer, I

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As you may have heard, Krista and I wrote a book. It's coming out June 3rd, and you can pre-order it right now. This book is something that we wish we had when we were going through that really interesting kind of crunchy transition between your 20s and your 30s. But honestly, we realized that this time, this experience, these learnings are helping us through times of change even past that almost 30 time. So whether you are almost 30 or beyond it,

Y'all, this book is going to be so supportive for you in times of change and transformation. It's called Almost 30, A Definitive Guide to a Life You Love for the Next Decade and Beyond. And we're just so grateful for your support thus far. Now, why you ask, should you order it now if it's not here until June 3rd? Well, it is important.

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And learn all about it, pre-order it there, and get your bonuses. Totally. Okay, cool. Yeah, because I'm always so curious. I mean, I'm someone who loves to try new products. You know what I mean? I'm like, ooh, I wonder if I'll like that. And protein powder, I've always gravitated towards carbs.

Collagen. I also am not bothered by whey and I've had whey before as well, but I just kind of like oscillate. So in terms of building muscle. Yeah. Yeah. Well, collagen, I think it should be the same. I mean, I think it should be like, I think it has all the essential amino acids in it. So it's like, if you prefer it, I think it's fine. Cool. Do you take aminos as well? No, I don't. I do not. Okay.

Cool. I've heard mixed things about the aminos and BCAAs and all that. Yeah, I don't take them either. Yeah. I'm just curious. I don't think you need them. Okay. Supplements in general. Like, I do take creatine. And creatine is having a moment as well, which is hilarious because it's been around for forever. Such a moment. Now it's like, I feel like now...

it's like brain health as well as, you know, muscle health. Yes. It's like, yes, it helps with brain clarity, building muscle performance. And again, I did a deep dive like research on creatine and yes, there are benefits, but

They're small. It's not a magic pill. And if you don't take it, you'll still see results. People think that you're going to get bulky and puffy from it. That's not true either. Because creatine increases...

water resorption in the muscles. So it can make your muscles look bigger, but it won't make... A lot of people think that that puffiness is coming from that, but usually the puffy look is coming from what's called subcutaneous swelling. So the swelling between like...

the muscle in the skin. Got it. Not in the muscle itself. Okay. So it's not a concern. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think that's a good just reminder for people that like no supplement is going to be the magic pill. No. That makes you the healthiest. That makes you, you know, age in reverse. That makes you build all the muscle and have the perfect body. Because I think we get a lot, you know, there's a barrage of marketing coming our way

you know, especially in the supplement space. And I even get confused sometimes. Me too. So yeah, I think that's a very good reminder. It's called supplement for a reason. It should be supplementary to everything else that you're already doing. Because if you're not doing all those foundational stuff, the supplement's not going to do that much. Like it's not going to be life-changing to add a supplement. And I also think like

Maybe this is a hot take. I love a hot take. But supplements are, for the most part, depending on the supplement, relatively cheap to manufacture. They have a long shelf life. You can repackage them in a lot of different ways. So follow the money, right? Is it lucrative? Can you mark them up a ton? Are these businesses...

kind of seeing the money in this? I don't know. Like those are questions that I genuinely have because I get confused about it too because there's so many. It's hard to keep up with. Oh, yeah. So I just find... And it's not like regulated very well? No, it's not well regulated. Supplement space from what I've learned from people who have supplement brands who like want to do it right.

And there are those people that want to do it right. And they get third-party testing and they really research the supplements. But I had the Just Ingredients founder on my podcast and she was saying that she was trying to put a turmeric powder in one of her supplements. They sent her baking soda sprayed yellow. No, they didn't. What do you mean? They sent, whoever the manufacturer she was working with sent her baking soda sprayed yellow. And they tested it. They third-party tested it. And that's how they found that out. But had they not, they would have put that in their supplement. Right.

And marked it as turmeric. Insane. Yeah, that's crazy. Insane. So you just have to have a certain level of skepticism. Sure, of course. But I tend to keep it minimal. Like I do just creatine, protein powder.

and a prenatal. Yeah, totally. Yeah. I like to keep it simple too, because then I just, then I don't know what's working, what's not like, and also I want to really double down on like nutritionally what I'm putting in my body. I don't want to just be like, hey, that greens powder is going to be my greens for the day. Like I really want to- Right. And then I'm just going to eat chips for the rest of every meal. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I want to get into the like just detailed approach to, you know,

the different moves you can be doing, the heavyweight versus like medium to lighter weight. Because I think, you know, those are the details that people need to step into the gym and feel a bit more confident. I think a lot of people listening might feel intimidated stepping into that weight section of the gym. I know I did initially. I'm like, I don't belong here. I know. Sorry, you can have the bench. You know what I mean? Yeah, I'll move in your way. Sorry, let me get out of here. Totally.

Krista and I, small anecdote, went to the Equinox in Marina Del Rey when I was in LA. And it's such a scene. It was like 6 a.m., absolutely packed. Like Krista's got her vibe. Like she's got her flow. She's doing her thing. She's on her fitness game. Yeah.

And I am too, but I'm a little less like... I don't really... I care, but I'm just kind of like... I'm like looking just at the scene because it's just wild. Well, and everyone there is like so in shape and beautiful and you're like, oh my gosh. Yeah. And I look like a postpartum mom in her huge sweatshirt and baggy shorts. Anyway, so...

I was intimidated to kind of give you the short of it. And though I like know what to do in the gym, I was like all of a sudden not knowing what to do. So for those people that want to step in confidently, give us some just nuggets that we can hold in our back pocket related to like heavy weight versus lighter weight. You mentioned like we should be doing, you know,

one section of the body twice a week, have 24 to 48 hours in between. So that's great. But walk us through what you would say as like our fitness coach. I think what's really empowering that people don't understand is that you can lift a wide variety of weights and

and see results, see the same results. So there's lots of talk about you have to lift heavy, you have to lift heavy, you have to lift heavy. And yes, absolutely here for lifting heavy, it works.

But there's a large spectrum of rep ranges that you can use and still see the exact same results. So you can use anywhere from a heavy weight where you could only do six reps all the way up to a lighter weight where you could do 30 reps. You couldn't do any more than 30 reps. Now, if you can easily do more than 30 reps, that isn't shown to be an effective stimulus for muscle growth. So that's why a lot of these higher rep, lighter weight methods aren't likely building very much muscle.

So you do have to lift heavy enough. Okay. Good rule of thumb. If you could do more than 30 reps, you need to go heavier. Yeah. Okay. A great place to follow is in between those two places, especially if you're newer. So maybe 15 reps. And then that way you aren't picking up a huge heavy weight that you're struggling to even lug along. Okay.

to get to your place in the gym to do your exercise, but it's manageable for you. You could do 15 reps, you know, 16 would maybe be a struggle or maybe 16 or 17 would be your failure point, but you're getting to, you know, 15 reps. But again, there's a large spectrum. And so people think if I lift lighter, that's going to make my body look different than if I lift heavier.

Well, anywhere between that six to 30 reps will build the same amount of muscle as long as the lifts are taken close to failure. So if you're newer, I say ease into it, lift a little bit lighter, quote unquote lighter, maybe 15, 20 reps, get used to the movements, get comfortable, get confident, get stronger. And then if you want, you don't ever have to lift super heavy, but if you want, maybe you start to go heavier and you start to do fewer reps. I find that as you progress,

and go throughout your lifting journey, you kind of gravitate naturally towards that. I don't know if you've found that. Totally. I don't want to do 20 reps. No, I don't want to do. Yeah, exactly. But when I first started, that's what I wanted to do because especially women that are coming from bar and Pilates are used to that really higher rep training. And the higher reps, like 15, 20 reps, that's when the burn starts to kick in. Don't stop because of the burn. Stop because your muscle's actually getting close to failure. Your movement is slowing down. The burn is not shown to stimulate muscle growth.

Whole different conversation. But I think that's a really good tip for people. And keep the movements really simple. You don't have to do anything fancy. You can do bicep curls. You can do bench or chest press. You can do Bulgarian split squats or any lunge variation. As long as you're taking your lifts close to failure, like that's what's important. Yeah.

So even if you're not deadlifting twice your body weight, it's okay. So yeah, I think those are my two tips. Keep it simple and then you can have a wide variety of weight and still see results. I think simplicity, it's hitting me right now because I think we try to overcomplicate things because we see, I don't know what we see on social media or in fitness classes. You can go back to basics with the proper amount of weight and reps and really...

Be effective. And machines too. We have an online lifting membership, so we don't use machines. But I have nothing against machines. And we see from the data that machines can build the same amount of muscle as free weights. It's a total myth that you have to use free weights. Okay. You can use a leg press machine, any of the machines. Right.

And apply the same things. Get close to failure and under 30 reps and target one muscle group at a time. And that could be a really great place for somebody to start. Yeah, totally. Yeah, I love a machine moment. Me too. I always get confused about like sharing machine with people. Yeah.

Yeah, I know. I know. Tell me about that. I know. What's the answer there? I don't know. What's the etiquette? I know. I know. The dudes know it in the gym. The dudes know it. I think the etiquette is actually... And the girls are like, excuse me. Yeah, they're like, my turn. Yeah. No, but I think that like, honestly, first of all, like cut in and ask if someone's hogging a machine, just be like, hey, can we cut it? Can we alternate? You know, like I think you should totally do that. To that point, let's not go off on a tangent, but I might...

The gym should be a community place. Okay. Like can we talk to each other? I know people are listening to their things, whatever, and in their zones.

But like mostly people are not talking to each other, but they're staring at each other. Yes. And sizing each other up. Sizing each other up. Psychically flirting. Like can we talk to each other? It's like annoying to me. Yes. Yes. And like you're not too cool. Not too cool. And everyone there is so self-conscious. That's all it is. I know. It's like everyone is. And nobody cares what you're doing. Nobody cares. Or like if you see someone doing something and you're like, wow, you have great form. Yeah.

You have great form. I would love to learn. Like, do you have a moment to kind of show me what's going on here? Can you imagine? That would make somebody's day. I know. Yeah.

Yeah. If somebody came up to them and gave them a compliment. Yeah. So nice. It would make their day. They'd be like, I would love to help you. The gym has such an energy. But what I love too about, you know, having a place like an app to have as a resource to have as like my workout buddy slash expert next to me is that

I do feel confident whether I'm on the app or whether I'm going to a gym. Like I have that foundation. So I've been doing Eblo for a few weeks now. So I'm in my early stages of using the app.

And this has been like my re-entrance into like working out on an app. And I just forgot how much I love it. Yes. I love having... So in the gym in my building, we have like a little studio space. We have a gym, but then there's a little studio. And I just set up my app. Wow.

And we lift and it's like, it's amazing. That's amazing that you can kind of like take your own corner. Yes. Or I do it in my house. Yeah. Or in your house. Which is amazing. So talk to me about the app because I think it's really, really unique. I think what you're doing and just the education you're providing is incredible. And

Yeah. Talk to me about it. It's really amazing. I'm so glad that you're doing it. Honestly, my goal of this app is to lift the fear and intimidation and allow women to build muscle and strength without wearing their bodies down and without feeling like they got hit by a truck. We're busy. We're moms. Even if you're not a mom, we're all busy. We've all got stuff to do. And so we don't have forever to spend in our workouts.

So they need to be efficient, time efficient. And we want them to work. We want them to do something for us and not make us feel like we got hit by a truck. So that's kind of our goal. Each workout is 35 minutes. Every workout is led by... That's what I love. Yeah. I love it. Short and sweet. It's the perfect amount of time. Perfect. And each workout is 35 minutes taught by a doctor of physical therapy. So we've got three trainers right now.

and myself included. And every week is structured. So we have the right volume there for you. We have the right exercises there for you. We give you alternatives. If you don't like an exercise, you can do this instead. So there's lots of guidance and education. It's just like

no guesswork. Every week is new. So that's one thing that we were really passionate about doing is not having you repeat the same classes. It's not just a class that we taught last year. It's like every single week we taught a brand new class that we taught last week. So it's like very new and changing every week, which helps keep people consistent. We hear from our members all the time, like it's easy to show up because I know it's going to be a new class I've never taken before. So, and it makes them feel connected and, and,

we hear from our members a lot, like I've tried everything. I've tried, you know, berries, spin, Pilates, you name it, everything. And they're like, this is the one method that I can stay consistent with and see results.

And they're like, I'm seeing better muscle growth. Not only that, I feel better. And like, I can't go back. I can't go back. I can't unsee it. Like I can't go back to the group fitness classes that were nailing me into the ground anymore and not really producing any results. So that's Evlove. Yeah, it's incredible. And yeah, I think to the group fitness point, you know, I love the idea of like kind of being in that community feel, right? Same. But like you get that too. Like I know that...

I'm working out with other people. You know what I mean? Like they're on the app. Like there is a feel to that because sometimes I feel like digitally, you know, whether we had a membership at one point and like, you know, that could go to a place where it's like all virtual digital and kind of feels surface. But, you know, I think we did it and you're doing it in a way where like there, there is

like the actual human behind it. You know, you really feel that, which I think is important. I'm so happy to hear that because that's definitely important for us too. It's like, there was something about like Mondays is upper body day and, you know, thousands of women are taking this class today with me. It's not like, you know, we're scrolling the library forever and everybody's taking something different on the membership. No, everybody's on this class today. And

And also, too, like in class, like we make it a point to just be real humans and be like, I'm feeling super strong today. I might say that in class or I might say like, I didn't sleep last night, so I'm going to stop this set early because like I'm really struggling. So we try to add that human element. We use the term gentle consistency all the time, which…

I don't know if you've heard of like soft girl era. I feel like that's like really big right now. And the idea of soft girl era is so cool to me because it's like, just take better care of yourself, be nicer to yourself. I love that. But how can we do that? And also do the things that we need as we age, build muscle, do all of these things that are good for our longevity while also being nice to ourselves. So we call that gentle consistency. It's just a matter of showing up on your mat,

As much as you can, give what you can. If that's doing one set and then fast forward to the cool down and making your workout 10 minutes, that accumulated over time will produce so much better results than trying to be super intense or nothing at all. Yeah. Yeah. It's so true. What do you see? Well, actually, let's talk about recovery first. What is the value of recovery? How much should we be recovering? Yeah.

What does recovery actually look like? Yes. Great questions. When we want any adaptation or change from our body, we have to have the stimulus balanced by the rest or balanced by the recovery. You have to have both. And if you are too heavy on the stimulus side, if you're too heavy on the work side, you

Your body is fighting for its life too. It's getting damaged. It's getting broken down. You have inflammation naturally when you exercise. And it's not a bad thing. It's nothing to be afraid of. But we do need to balance that with proper recovery so that your body can do its thing to heal what you've done in your workout.

So you do have to have the proper balance, more or less 50-50. And so when we're thinking about muscle growth, I like to recommend 48 hours in between when you work one muscle group and then work another. A lot of people just think recovery is like, oh, I'm going to work my glutes on Monday and I'm going to foam roll and I'm going to stretch and I'm going to ice bath and I'm going to sauna and then I'll turn around and do it again on Tuesday. And nothing...

works better than your own immune system when it comes to recovery. So you can, you know, foam roll if that feels good, ice bath if that feels good. Actually, cold plunging is shown to maybe decrease muscle growth, which is interesting. But that's another topic. But, um,

Nothing works better than your own body's immune system. So giving your body that 48 hours of recovery, I really don't think that you can speed that process up. So I do think that the recovery is so important and you're going to feel so much better and see so much better results. You shouldn't feel exhausted when you're going into your next workout because if you're super sore from your previous workout, you've really hit it really, really hard

and then you go and work your legs again two days later and they're still super sore and they're still exhausted, you're not going to have a very high quality workout. Yeah.

And so that process accumulated isn't going to lead to very good results and eventually get injured. Then you have to take two, three weeks off. And then you're like, oh my gosh, now I've like lost progress. And so it really is like, it's a game in patience, which I know nobody wants to hear. Yeah. But I think, you know, we need to learn to have patience again. We're so used to getting everything so quickly. Yes. And like, we've kind of lost

I feel like I say this too much, but like we've lost the respect for the process in so many things, whether it's like building muscle, it's, you know, creating something to give to the world, maybe a book or you're writing a play. You know, it's like we've lost...

that just respect for how long it genuinely takes to be in that sort of process of creating something. Yeah, absolutely. And writing a book is like a perfect example of that. Writing a book, make a baby taught me this. I'm like, this is such, because like you can find yourself and you're pregnant right now. And so it's like, you can find yourself in points in this process where you're like, this is taking forever.

Like this is like so long. Oh, yes. And it's like, you know, yeah, you're building a human being. Yeah. It's going to take, like I looked at my son the other day, he was riding a scooter. I'm like, you were in my belly a year and a half ago. Isn't that insane? And then all of a sudden you're walking, talking, riding a freaking scooter. You know what?

mean? So like in essence, nine, 10 months is like nothing to create that incredible, like it's just crazy. So yeah. I know. I know. And we, I think it's our culture, I guess. It's like, so now, now, now, like go, go, go, go, go. And that bleeds into everything that we do, like our career, our pregnancies, our bodies, fitness. And it's, it's, it's been difficult for me

For someone that's really trying to encourage people to, like, slow down and, like, think about this sustainably. And, like, trying to convince people you will see better results if you take your time. Yeah. Like, you really will. And so it's been difficult for me to educate on that and cut through the noise when there's so much of the opposite on the internet right now. Of, like, 28-day challenge. Like, you know, transform your body in a month. Yeah.

So I know, I know. I actually do want to talk about some things that you're seeing, whether it's on the internet or the like that you see in your, a little cringe knowing what you know, or like the research that you've dug into. It is, it's pretty endless. Yeah, I'm sure. Luckily, luckily. Yeah, I know. Okay. Faves. Okay. Right now, for some reason, this is like top of my brain right now. Um,

tone up using and it's like using really light weights and like tone up your arms or like sculpt your arms with these light weights that work your tiny stabilizer muscles not your big muscles I've seen that a lot yep totally I've seen that have you heard that like work your tiny stabilizer yeah

Yeah. It's like this moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're doing like little tiny like arm circles and you're doing them for like minutes on end. Yeah. And you're like shoulders like burning. Burning. Yeah. Your arms want to feel like they fall, like they're going to fall off. And this is why it's so popular is because it's hard. And so people think because it's hard, it's doing something. It's working. But

That isn't true. Like it's what we see from the literature is that the burn, the burn is metabolic stress. So it's when you, uh, you have metabolite buildup that causes this like burning sensation. Hmm.

What we see from the literature is that that in itself is not the stimulus for muscle growth, surprisingly. It can help build endurance. It can help make you better at doing that movement for longer. But how really translatable into your daily life is that? When are you really holding your arms out for four minutes at a time? So what we want is the muscle and the strength. And if you want a change in visual difference, you do have to train it close to failure, mechanical tension or mechanical stress.

is what is shown to build muscle, not necessarily the burn. And then, so that's one thing. And then there's like, work your tiny stabilizer muscles. Well, you can't really bias your tiny stabilizer muscles. Your muscles work as a function, as a unit, and there's lots of different muscles that surround each joint. And so you can't just stimulate one of them and not the others.

The primary movers, the big movers, like let's say your like shoulder, your big shoulder muscle, that's always going to be activated anytime you lift your arm away from your body. You can't avoid that. So the whole like work your tiny stabilizer muscles and this will make you toned up is like,

I don't even know where they got that. Like that has absolutely no scientific validity. I also think, and this is no shade, but I was in that industry and I wasn't an expert in the way that you are, but like we would hear kind of these buzzwords about anatomy and then use them, not really knowing how to instruct around using them and why it's important. So that's happening all the time where they're like, engage a trapezoid. Like, and you're just like,

Yeah, I guess. Like, what does that even mean? And why? You know what I mean? Yes. Or just like something to say. A hundred percent. And it's so funny because like our team laughs about this all the time because we're all physical therapists. Yes. And so we see things on the internet that we were doing 10 years ago as physical therapists that we're no longer doing anymore. But like the internet has taken that long to catch on to something. And we're like, oh no, we've moved beyond that. Wow. So- What's an example? Yeah.

Like hip flexor strengthening. Oh, yeah. Like it's like hip flexor strengthening is like huge right now. And I'm a fan of hip flexor strengthening. Yeah. But it's old news. Yeah. It's kind of old news. Right. Or core stability. That's another big one. Core stability. Physical therapists have been doing that for, I don't know, decades. So it's like and now all of a sudden it's like hot and popular and it's like do core stability instead of like crunches. And it's like, well, that's…

We never said that. Like we never said don't do crunches and throw that out. It's just like, yes, both are important. So it is just funny how you're right. The fitness industry will kind of run with these things with no scientific validity. And that's why I do think that it's dangerous to get your advice from a fitness coach.

I do. Influencer who doesn't have a lot of education. There's some awesome ones. Don't get me wrong. I know. I know there are. Yeah. But yeah, it can be dangerous to get your advice online. And even in like group fitness classes, I was a part of that and I would see it. And I'm sure I was like a part of the problem at points. Me too. I tried to never like say anything that I didn't know that was absolutely true. Do you know what I mean? But like, I just don't know we had enough education in the training to...

understand like the unique bodies in the room and how certain things might not be beneficial. You know what I mean? Well, totally. And you do, you're doing your best. Like no one's malicious. Like no one's trying to like, no one's trying to false. Well, maybe some people are, but most people aren't trying to like falsely lead somebody astray. Like I said some things that I cringe at now, but

But because I know better, but you're doing what you can with information that you have. So it's really no shame. But I think what I love about having an app like Eblo is like, I'm no longer like placing, because I was a workout class girly. It's like, I would kind of,

trust everything the person at the front of the room said, even though my body was telling me a different thing. 100%. And I was like, just fight through it. Like, you can do this. So I think what I love about this is that, you know, I'm not like killing myself, but I am working in a way that's like really smart and really like

right. Yeah. It's intentional. It's intentional. Yes. So yeah, it just feels different. It just feels different. I feel like it's in that like elevated era of my life where I'm no longer just like willy nilly just moving my body just because I think I need to move my body. It's like how would the time that I have, which is less than I used to be intentional. Yeah.

And like meet certain goals that I have, you know, in building muscle or what have you. Well, yeah, we all have limited time. And so it's like, let's make the most of it. I can't tell you how many years I wasted just mindlessly sweating, thinking that that's what I needed to do.

And I can so relate to just trusting the yoga teacher that's leading you through something. And you're like, this kind of hurts. Oh, my God. I was in Bikram for a couple years. That was crazy. And you're like, it hurts. It hurts me. Yeah. Did you go to Bikram at all? I did it once or twice. Oh, my God. Like crazy. It was crazy. Yeah. You did it a lot? Maybe for a year period of time. I was there at least twice a week. Yeah.

I mean. To try to like, in addition to cycling, like all of it. Yeah. Oh, in addition to everything. But it was just, and some people obviously love it, but I just, I was like this, my body should not be like leaning in this direction, stretching this far. And that was like a- Like collapsing into your joints. Yeah. That was a moment for me where I was like, okay, you can actually not do this.

And you can do something else. Like you don't need to like kill yourself in a class and feel ill afterward. You know what I mean? Yeah. But you heard like a celebrity did it and it like changed their life. And you're like, oh, well, that must be what I need. Yeah. Like this hurts and this is so uncomfortable, but like I must need it. Oh, yeah. That was my 20s. It's like, what are celebrities doing? A hundred percent. How can I torture myself doing what they're doing? Oh, my gosh. Last thing I want to say is

So there's this incredible part of the app, the prenatal program, which I'm so excited to do when I get pregnant again, if and when I get pregnant again. So it's really unique because you created this when you were pregnant with your first. Yes. I taught five new classes from week six to 30 or 20, wait, 39, week six to 39. And it was a

a lot of effort for me to show up every day, but I am so glad I did. I was honestly stronger than I've ever been when I was pregnant. Wow. And now it's so fun because I'm six months along now and I worked out this morning before I came. I did the week 23 burn and we were doing chest presses and I hit a PR that I've never

never hit before in my life and I'm six months pregnant. So it's so fun to like get stronger during pregnancy. Yes. But again, it doesn't have to feel so depleting and exhausting. A lot of women are like, I don't want to go do squats for six reps and like kill myself at the gym. And it's like, you don't have to do that.

Um, so it's fun cause I, I'm guiding you through each week. So when I was 23 weeks pregnant and you're 23 weeks pregnant, we're taking this, doing the same class together. Um, so now in my second pregnancy, I get to just take the classes, uh, when I'm not teaching for the main membership, cause I still am teaching for the main member membership as well. But, um, I'm not like doubling up. I just do like the five time per week track. Um,

And it feels really great. You're here in New York City. You're staying at a hotel. Did you go to the gym? Did you stay in your room? I did. I went to the gym because we were doing weights. So usually we need weights for our classes, as you know. So yes, I just went to the gym and just put the class on. Love it. And same thing that you do. I just unrolled my mat, got my weights, and we got it done. Yeah, just to give people an idea of how easy it is. Because I think some people are like, oh, like...

You know, I go to the gym and that would be weird. No. It's so easy to put on a class, to do your workout, to follow along. Yeah. And just take the equipment you need. I was just talking to my friend last night who goes to Equinox and she does Evo at Equinox. She was saying half the people at the gym now are just doing classes. Like,

And it's so normal. She was like, it's so normal for people to just do class. I'm not in gyms very much, so I don't know. But she was like, yeah, that's just like normal now. And I think it's like, yeah, just put it on your class and get your equipment and don't apologize for it. So great. So great. And if people are to be doing this at home, I guess what would you recommend weight-wise? Yeah.

Yes. Also important to say, you can definitely do it. I work out from home. Yes, same. You do a lot too. So a set of weights, and I recommend between five pounds all the way up to maybe 25 pounds to start, and then you can go up from there. It's so fun to buy new weights as you get stronger. It's like, ah! It is so cool. Yeah. I just bought a 50-pound weight. I'm like, this is so fun. I'm like, husband, can I borrow your…

25 pound weight. Exactly. I know. And you're in there like, what? I know. It's getting light, but it's so fun. It's so like rewarding fun. So starting with weights mainly, and then we sometimes use like bands, um, a Pilates ball, a lot of household items, like a chair, a stool. We try to like, we try to make it accommodating. Yeah, totally. Do you work out with your husband? Um, we don't work out together. He would hate that, but why do husbands hate that?

It annoys me. I don't know. I don't know. It's so annoying. But he is a loyal Evlo follower. He has been doing the five-time-per-week track for five years, and he's built so much muscle. That's so cool. It's so cool. And he's gotten his friends to do it, too. I'm going to get my husband on it. Well, husbands love it because it's like you're doing the same. Men and women can really do the same lifts. Yes.

There's no reason why women need to be doing something different than... They can just up the whatever, yeah, whatever the weight is. Yeah, they just use more weight maybe. And then they can still train close to failure, still apply the exact same things and still see results. Oh, that's so great. Yeah. Yeah, I know they love to do solo workouts. I'm like, do you want to take a run together maybe? Would he do it with you? No. He would do it on his own for sure. But he likes to be in his own. He just like, that's his time to just kind of like...

Reflect. It's fair. It's fair. And you kind of like listen. And not have me be like, hey, what do you think? What are you doing? Do you want water? You know what I mean? Like the annoying wife questions. Yeah, what do you think about this one? How's your day going? Exactly. What are you thinking about? My husband hates that. Oh, I love that question. I do too. And he's like, literally never asked me that. I'm thinking about how you should never ask me that again. Sometimes he asks me that and I'm like,

Actually, nothing. I'm just a little blank. Now that you say it, nothing. You know that mom feeling of just like nothingness of like there's so much that you're like actually thinking of nothing because there's so much and you don't want to think about anything? Why does that happen? The mental load is crazy. Protective mechanism, I bet. Probably. Just a little break. Yeah. And then you're like staring and they're like, are you okay? Yeah.

I couldn't be better. Oh my gosh. Okay. This has been incredible. I appreciate you flying in. It's always so nice to do in person. It's so different. It's the best. I really am trying to do more in-person interviews and go out of my way to do it because it's just so much better. For the right ones, it's so worth it. And we're going to come see you in Austin. I know. I can't wait. I'm really excited. I can't wait. I just want to hang. I know. I would love to have you on my podcast. Yeah. Anytime. Anytime. We would love that. Okay. We love you guys.

See you on the next one. Bye. Thank you so much, Dr. Shannon. Thanks for coming in studio. You can get six weeks.

of EFLO fitness for free six weeks trial at EFLO fitness.com. Use the code almost 30. This is going to put you on the right track for your strength training program, which is going to reverse your biological age, which is going to make you healthier. I feel like you're

the lifespan with that health span, that like that sinking of it is kind of where it's at in terms of what you should be doing movement wise later in your life.

And we're just so thankful. Thank you so much. Evlofitness.com. I'm going to be doing this. So if you guys want to do it with me, we can get on our game together. Thank you for subscribing to Almost 30 just on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Just getting the podcast straight to your phone each week is such a great idea. Almost30.com for the website. Almost30.com slash book is where you can get the book, where you can get all the pre-order bonuses. You can get your ticket to camp. And then Almost 30 podcast on Instagram and

TikTok is a great place to be. And we're also on YouTube. So you can come see your girls in 4k video hanging out each week. You can see our crazy fits and just little faces. We love you guys so, so much. Thank you for being a part of our lives. Thank you for helping make this book launch process so beautiful and so supportive and so community focused. We'll see you on the next one. Love you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

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