All Episodes

April 4, 2022 • 53 mins

On this episode of the Fitness Disrupted podcast, Tom answers your questions about green powders, strength training for teenagers, the “75 Hard Challenge”, Beat the Gym vs The Micro Workout Plan, program advice for a 60 year old runner, the best certifications for someone entering the fitness business, and nutrition and workout advice for a 50-year-old. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. I
can't believe we are at listener Mailbag number thirteen, the

(00:25):
show where I answer the questions that you throw out
to me, either by email or direct message. This is
why I give you the ways to do that at
the end of every podcast. I love hearing from you.
I love the questions and I love the comments the

(00:47):
results that you all get when you follow the advice
because it works. It works at one of these questions.
I'm so excited too answer because it goes to extremes,
it goes to human condition. Ah, so it's gonna be good.

(01:08):
It's always good. And what I love when you reach out.
You know, it takes a while to get a new show.
Started doing this for a couple of years now, but
I've had radio shows in the past done similar things,
and you get a sense of who your audiences and
you guys are the best of the best, the smartest

(01:28):
of the smart and you reach out, oftentimes throwing studies
at me, which I love, so keep it coming. Today
for this show, it's five questions, but within each question,
as you guys often do. There are some with multiple
so probably around seven or eight total questions all over

(01:51):
the map, which I love as well, nutrition, strength, all
that kind of stuff. So let's take a quick break
and I'm going to jump right into it. Your questions, listener,
mail back show number thirteen. We will be right back.

(02:14):
All right, We're back. Any time I say we it
feels weird, but I feel like it's it's us. It's
the proverbial us. And this is a community, a community
of like minded people you are, who are trying to

(02:34):
better their lives. And these questions go to that jump
right in question number one. Hi, Tom, I love your
show and I've been listening to it for about two
years now. Thank you for listening. I'm curious how you
feel about the company, and I'm not going to name it.
I bought their drink powder, which they claim is filled
with vitamins and benefits. I bought it for the digestive benefits,

(02:58):
the energy it provides in the morning. I try to
drink it instead of coffee three days a week, and
for the recovery claim. So I'm gonna hit on all
three of those points. I struggle with recovering from one
workout before my workout the next day. So I'm down
to trying anything at this point. Have you tried this
product leaving the name out or heard anything about it?

(03:20):
I like having something to drink in the mornings after
my workout or to kick start my day. Do you
have any alternatives that are good for recovery slash not
filled with sugar what this person is referring to, because
there's many powders out there, many supplements. It's a green drink,

(03:44):
a green drink, And yes, I have tried it. I
don't ever talk about anything that I haven't experienced. It's
rare in the fitness world. But I want to be
able to give you a real take on it. So
use it, have used it, I should say. And there's
a bunch of questions in here. I'm going to flesh

(04:06):
them all out. And I think the overarching theme in
this question is recovery. Right, this person brings it up
numerous times for the recovery, they're looking for other benefits.
They perceive other benefits as well. Uh, and I use
that word specifically, perceive. But they say struggle with recovering

(04:26):
from one workout and down to try anything at this point.
So let me say this, There's there's so many myriad
factors for recovery rate. I don't know their workout program,
so I'm curious are they overtraining? So these are questions
I would ask, and I need to ask, and anyone

(04:46):
UH in this business needs to sit down with people.
And there's no answer. There's no right answer right away.
That's that it depends I talk about frequently. It doesn't
mean I can't answer all these questions, but I need
to preface it by saying that as well. Right, why
is this person that tired? Is it just normal fatigue
from exercise? Are they getting in enough calories? That's a

(05:08):
huge part of training people. This is why we need
to focus on what we are eating, not what we're not.
We need to fuel our bodies. I know it sounds
so simple and so boring and so common sensical, with
the vast majority of people don't do it. They don't
fuel themselves with good food. We focus on what we

(05:32):
can't eat rather than what we can. We are confused.
It just did that fit tip show about what a
carb is. Most people don't even know. That's a huge problem.
It's a huge problem with fueling. It's a huge problem
with you know, losing weight, it's a huge problem with recovery.

(05:53):
So we need to know that stuff. And that's why
I bring you those topics as well, and we'll contin hinue.
You're not gonna get it or you know it, understand it,
or be able to apply it right away and talk
about these concepts over and over and over again. But
a bunch of questions in here, right. I have to say,

(06:13):
whenever there's a supplement, which a powder is, and a
green powder is as well, real food first, real food first.
There is nothing that is out there right now that
can take the place of food in its natural state.
It's an overly simplistic statement, but it but it holds true.

(06:36):
In other words, and I've done shows on this as well.
You can't put fruit in a capsule form and think
it's fruit and think it's the same thing. It's not.
It's not it's not even close. We're not always think
of the Jetsons. Grew up watching cartoons and the Jetsons
was one and if I'm not mistaken, this was a
while ago. The food was like it was tablets, like

(06:59):
it was like, here's your fruit, and and it's crazy
to think that that was decades ago, and now I
would argue a lot of snake oil type supplements are
out there. They've been there out there forever, and they
will continue to be out there. Telling you that this
takes the place of no supplements are an adjunct too,

(07:19):
So get your greens from kale and salads and you know,
celery and different green forms of whole foods and real
food first. Does that mean there isn't a time and
a place for a good powder supplement like this, Yeah,
of course, but we have to start with food first,

(07:42):
super super important. All right. Now, let me go through
the claims right that the this product is putting out there.
Uh they claim, I'm reading again from the question, is
filled with vitamins and benefits. Vitamin. Sure, you know that's
for me. I did the show on my favorite supplements.

(08:03):
Vitamin is one to fill the gaps. I'm gonna try
to get my vitamins from real food as often as possible,
but I take a multi vitamin in case I'm missing something,
and I give my kids a multi vitamin and have
since they could swallow them. Okay, Uh, so that's that's
an important thing with this. Yes, there's vitamins lost my

(08:25):
train of thought. I was gonna say something, oh dad
dud um, But the benefits so filled with vitamins and
out of it. So let's gonna look at the benefits
that this person is talking about. Digestive benefits. That's that's
an individual thing, right in other words, tough like gut
health and and you know, there's so many other things

(08:47):
we're taking in so it's really hard to pull apart
whether that works or not. But if you think that
works for you with digestion, awesome, Okay, the energy it provides. Now,
so often they will talk about products that aren't caffeine
related or things like that, touring and things that we
know are stimulants, but they'll say, oh, this provides energy.

(09:10):
Like again, vitamin vitamin in and of itself doesn't provide energy. Now,
we could go into like the chemical processes these vitamins
may help with that help make energy available. But I
am not someone who would say that a product like
this gives you energy. You may feel better, right, you

(09:33):
may not take in, you know, eat something that's less healthy,
and there may be the placebo effect, but just chemically speaking,
ingredient wise, these type of products don't generally give you energy,
although many people claim and again, if if you feel

(09:55):
it does, then it does. I still haven't done after
hundreds of EPISO, so it's the placebo effect episode and
I will soon now because I have to, all right,
So I'm reading it again. Energy it provides in the morning,
so this person believes it does, so okay, it does,
and they're drinking it instead of coffee, which I'm a

(10:16):
huge coffee person, did multiple episodes on it. Uh, there
are huge, you know, many health benefits of coffee documented studies.
So if if you drink coffee, don't feel guilty. It's
moderation like anything else. I tend to overdo it. But listen,
if this person is cutting out coffee and drinking this

(10:37):
product and they have energy, awesome, awesome, But no, that
coffee has health benefits. And if you want to know
more about that, listen to the shows I've done so
far on those and for the recovery claims. So this
goes to energy, right, So the claim about it providing
energy a powder, a green powder, and then helping with recovery,

(10:58):
I'm gonna say maybe maybe, and I'm being nice. Okay,
So this person is struggling with recovery. Right, I would
not take this product for recovery. I would take this
product to fill in the gaps. I would take a
green powder to fill in the gaps of getting in
your greens, full stop, end of story. Okay, And what

(11:20):
let me say one mother, one other thing. When you
take products in like this, you feel it's it's control
and its habits, and you're saying, I'm doing something good
for myself. Now, this particular brand is expensive, Okay, I
would I would much rather you spend at least a

(11:42):
significant portion of that money on actual greens. And the
problem is people don't like if you're spending this amount
of money and it's it's not insignificant, which, by the
way perceived value people go, oh, if it's that expensive,
it must be worth it. Now. A lot of times, yes,

(12:02):
you get what you pay for. But in the health
and wellness world, that is a slippery slope. All right.
So food first, does it do give you energy? If
you think it does, I'm not going to argue with that. Recovery,
I would much rather you do other things to recover.
We're gonna finish up with that, all right. So back

(12:23):
in the day when I was first getting into the
iron Man's and the endurance races. I would take a
store bought powder for recovery. Okay, I'm not gonna give
you the brand. I don't even know if it's out
there anymore. I don't take it anymore, okay, But it
was a certain restio of carbohydrates to protein. So that's
where we're gonna end up here. Okay, when it comes
to recovery from your workouts, what do I do? What

(12:45):
do the top athletes who are competing do. Sure, they'll
they'll take a powder like this, but they are refueling.
They're refueling. You need energy, You need fuel. And this
is why I will hammer that message about eating real
food over and over and over again, regardless of who
you are. And one of the questions that's gonna come
up towards the end is just about aging and eating.

(13:08):
And so many of the messages apply to everything. The
the instructions, the guidelines, the basics will come up again
and again for good reason. All right, So I would
tell this person again, not knowing their workout routine and
all that kind of stuff that I would love to
know as well, but when you are done with the workout,

(13:30):
I talked about the metabolic window recently doesn't exist, maybe
maybe not done matter. I'm gonna refuel right after, especially
when I'm training really hard, to make sure that I'm
recovering from that workout with food and preparing my body
for the workouts to come and the day to come,
not just the workouts but the day. So four to

(13:51):
one ratio of carbohydrates of protein. They're products that are
five to one, six to one, seven to one, but
roughly four or five to one ratio of carbo high
drates to protein. So that means you're gonna take in
a bunch of carbohydrates and a little less a quarter
less if it's the four to one ratio of protein.

(14:13):
So the carbohydrates are to replenish your energy stores and
give you energy for the day. The protein is to
rebuild muscle that has been broken down. And you want
to do that from healthy, whole sources, whole food sources
if you can, and you know there are so many options.
By the way, I don't think I've really talked about
my sports nutrition book for triathletes, but this is a

(14:35):
great example of the rules applied to everyone. So, in
other words, if you want to know what to take
that book. Regardless of whether or not you're a triathlete,
the recovery meals applied to everyone everyone. Carbohydrates and protein. Yeah,
if you're a bodybuilder, you're gonna take in more protein
and things like that, but you still need energy. And

(14:56):
so one final uh, a little caveat to this answer.
I always say I'm gonna go shorter, but I always
get carried away because I want to give you as
much information as possible. A power shake, which one of
the greatest options. Whether you buy that a pre dune
shake which has some carbs in it and some protein,

(15:18):
or you do it yourself. This is where it's such
a great time to make your own power shake. So
that's frozen fruit for me, a banana, protein powder, and
some healthy fats. I control the ingredients, their whole ingredients.
They're super healthy. I who love the taste. You figure

(15:39):
out what works for you. I use almond milk as
the base, So you figure out your base. What's the liquid,
what do you like? You figure out your fruits. You
know there's mangoes, so you can put greens in there.
That is an awesome way to recover. Recovery is about
food and sleep and some stretch. All right, all the

(16:01):
other stuff I talked about like cryod therapy and infrared
zenas and focus on food and sleep and some stretching.
All right, there you go. I want to do five
more hours on that answer, but uh, that's enough. Number two.
Hi Tom, following the podcast for years, Thank you again.
I'm a runner half dozen of fulls, so he means

(16:23):
full marathons and a number of halves. Your information has
been extremely helpful over the years. Thank you very much
for listening. Uh that's my response to him. But by
the way, I have a fourteen year old son who
has been working out for about six months and as
a nice V shaped body. He asked me what workouts
are best for him to bulk up. I've explained eating
right and exercising and moderation is the best. My question

(16:44):
for you is what is a good workout plan for him?
He has dumbbells, a bench and a bar to use,
as well as a stationary bike. I can't get him
into running right now, but I'm hoping we can get
out there one day and run a half together. I
love that. I have looked online but don't see the
best option for developing body. I would appreciate any advice
or website to check out for him. Thank you and

(17:05):
keep up the great work. I love this. I love this.
I love the so much of this. The dad who's
you know, wants to get his son the best results.
That doesn't seem like there's any excess here. He's preaching moderation.
He says, he wants to get him running. It's tough
to get a fourteen year old running if they don't
want to run. I have a fifteen year old right now,

(17:26):
who's this very person, same person, So I love it.
I love everything about this. The short shortish is there is.
It's the basics. It's the basic. You have everything you need.
You have dumbbells, you have a bench and a bar
and a stationary bike for some cardio for the warm up,
and from there, at that age, anything is great. I

(17:49):
want you to be safe, you know, I see you
know thanks to Instagram. This is why I bring it
up frequently. The crazy workouts and you know, the Olympic
lifts that so many people are doing that they don't
have the proper instruction and there's just a greater chance
of injury. So stick to the basics. I'm gonna pitch

(18:12):
another book. You know, this is why I write the
books though. So I have a book called Beat the Gym.
It's older, and The Micro Workout Plan is another one.
And actually these are gonna come up again. But these
are two books. One has more machines in it, beat
their machines in it. Uh, micro Workout Plan doesn't. So
my two books are super helpful, Micro Workout Plan and

(18:33):
Beat the Gym. But you know what the basics are, right,
someone at fourteen, You're gonna break the upper body into
five parts right chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps. So you're
gonna do some dumbbell chess press, barbell bench press. You're
gonna do some shoulder exercises, overhead shoulder press. You can
do some bicep curls. You're gonna do some tricep kickbacks.

(18:56):
You're gonna do some push ups. Uh. And I say,
you but him to do squats, lunges, the basics. And
then finally the question is how many days a week
is he gonna work out? My son just started going
to the gym, his access to all my equipment at home,
but of course he wants to go and be with
his friends. That's awesome. That's awesome. He's going, you know,

(19:18):
almost every day now. So if your son goes every day,
he's going to do a split routine, right, maybe chest, shoulders,
triceps on Monday, back and biceps on Tuesday, legs on Wednesday,
and then you repeat it with one day off. If
he's going three days a week, it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
Full body. But just the basics. Everything else is awesome.

(19:39):
Make sure you don't push it too hard. Let him
do his thing, make sure he's using you know, appropriate weight,
good form, and then we just let them do their thing.
I love it. I love it. And finally, protein, make
sure he's getting in enough protein. When I was that
a each, they had products supplements that were supposed to

(20:04):
put on size and there wasn't enough protein. They were
like calories. It's just it's not half of the good
stuff that's available today. Real food. First, and let me
also say that I make an enormous breakfast for my
two boys every day, protein, healthy, carbs, huge. Do they
always finish it? No, but it's always there. I didn't.

(20:26):
I had to finish it all right, So I love it.
Stick to the basics. If you want you know, beat
the gym and micro workout plan are two great options.
You know, so much of the information out there, unfortunately,
is extreme and it's not what you need, especially at
that age. You don't want to get injured at a
young age, especially. Uh, And unfortunately people tend to push

(20:49):
the crazy workouts. All right, so you're right on track.
You're preaching moderation already. Uh. Let's take another break, and
when we come back, when we finish it all up.
We got questions about the seventy five Hard Challenge, which
I had heard about, but I hadn't looked into till
I got this question, and then a couple of other
really good ones. All right, quick break, we will be
right back, and we are back. I am going over

(21:24):
your questions that you put out to me through direct
messages or emails. There's actually a second half of this question,
so let's get right to it. Same person asked, I
was also wondering if you could do an episode on
your opinion of the seventy five Hard Challenge. It seems
to be very popular, but to me unsustainable. I have
a friend who is about to partake, and I'm curious

(21:46):
on what you think I took my breath away. Not
surprised made me sad? So what is the seventy five
hard Challenge? Five components? I looked at it. I hope,
I hope this is what it is. But this is
what I found, uh. Number one, So there's five components

(22:08):
to it. Number one, Follow a diet, any diet. I'm
gonna give you the five points. I'm gonna go back
and talk about each of them. Number two. Work out
twice a day for forty five minutes. One of those
workouts must be outside. Number three. Drink a gallon of
water daily. Number four read ten pages of nonfiction daily.
Number five take progress pictures daily. Okay, let's start with

(22:32):
number one. Follow diet, any diet? Really? Uh it didn't.
You didn't get me at the start? Really, no, no specifics,
So follow a plan. So what if I follow the
grapefruit diet or the cabbage diet and you're you're then

(22:54):
asking me in number two to work out twice a
day for forty five minutes. So if I follow a
or a low car, let's just go low car and
atkins a keto or people gonna grab diets are low calory,
full stop. Especially the first couple of weeks. Then they

(23:15):
tend to add calories back in so that you have
a small chance of doing it longer than a week
or two. So you're asking the people right off the
get go to limit their calories and probably in an
unhealthy way. Then you're asking them to work out toys
a day for forty five minutes. The fast majority of
people who aren't working out once a day for forty

(23:37):
five minutes. It takes my breath away. Then you go, okay,
one of those workouts must be outside. I did you
know the podcast on the bio philia effect, how powerful
exercising in nature is. I get it. I talked about
how I run outside in rain storms, in snowstorms, unless

(23:59):
it is dangerous, I'm outside exercising. I'm the exception. I
get texts and emails from people who say, what are
you doing? It's also usually part of my training. But
my point is there are people who aren't going to
be able to get outside every you're setting people up

(24:22):
for failure. There's such So I did an episode on
two days too, why you should work out twice a
day but not for forty five minutes every time for
seventy five days? Like are you kidding me and then
putting that caveat of one must be outside. Awesome awesome.

(24:45):
So for those people are starting from zero, that's not
problematic at all. And what drives me up the wall
is the mental side of this. I'm not gonna spend
a lot of time on this because it's so goog
and I listen. I love the questions you keep. You
have to throw these questions to me because although I
hear about everything, there's so much lunacy out there that
I can't possibly read every book, although I will the

(25:09):
top ones even though I know that they're lunacy, because
I need to be able to discuss them with people.
So please, please, please keep these questions, these type of
questions coming twice a day for I don't do that. Well,
I kind of do, but I have rest days. There's
no rest days in a row. Awesome awesome. There's no
problems there right now. Again, I didn't delve any deeper

(25:30):
into this than getting the bullet points, so I'm not
sure if there's any specific It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter if they say walk, if they if I told
you to walk twice a day for forty five minutes,
for seventy five days. That in and of itself is
this lunacy. I wish I could tell people to do that,

(25:51):
but even if I could, it's not what you need
to do, all right. Number three, drink a gallon of
water daily. Okay, I'm all for drinking more water. I
need to drink more water. I know where my limitations are,
what I need to work on. Whether the favorite things
my favorite sports psychology professor said was if you want

(26:13):
to know your weaknesses, ask your competition. And that got
me to focus on what are my weaknesses? And you've
got to be honest with yourself. For me, I have
several I been working on them for years. I will
never be perfect at then you can't. You know, you
can't work on your weakness till it becomes your strength.
It's not you can't. You probably shouldn't did that podcast. Anyway,

(26:36):
I don't get in enough water. I don't sleep enough,
and that's a problem. So I don't sleep enough at night.
So I try to take naps during the day because
I can in my studio and things like that. But
I know my weakness is anyway, one gallon. Let's do
the math. The current recommendations all over the place. But
simple rule of thumb is roughly half your body weight
in ounces per day for most people. That's even a

(26:58):
lot for me. What am I now around seventy ish?
So yeah, I've got my two bottles and I struggle.
And there's water in other things, and in other drinks
and food, fruit and salads. There's water and food. So
this blanket recommendation is roughly for someone who's two hundred

(27:20):
fifty pounds. I mean, I just picture the bodybuilder guys
who walk around the gym with their gallon of water.
I get it. I was there at one point. I
don't think I ever carried it around at the gallon.
But we need to drink more water. This is like
saying everyone should take two uh yeah, eight pounds and

(27:44):
do bench pressed with that. It depends people. It's probably
too much for a lot of people. Drink more water,
but I would start, especially if you're like me and
you know you have the bladder of a four year old.
Sorry to be you know, yeah, I have a problem,
But yeah, I don't think everyone needs to drink a

(28:04):
d and twenty eight ounces every day. Leave it at
that number four and five. I have no problem with
it's like, okay, let's make this creative read ten pages
of nonfiction daily. Awesome, kind of cool, awesome, out of
left field, but okay, do that. And number five and
again I didn't delve very far into this, but I

(28:26):
having been in this business a really long time, UM,
I think I know one of the reasons, and it's
not for you. So take progress pictures daily. I'm fine
with that as well. But it reminds me of a
Body for Life way back anyone who's my age and
was into fitness. So this was many years ago. Bill Phillips,
who who was one of the first to come out

(28:49):
with creatine and a bunch of other products. Uh ma
a plex was the protein powder, super expensive. Creating was
like five acts what it is today. But he got
you on this plan with a bunch of different supplements,
and he asked you to take pictures and then he
asked you to send them in and one person was
gonna win. It's like a Ferrari and a million dollars

(29:10):
or something. But it was genius because he got free advertising.
He got people to just send it at no question,
and so we put all of those before and after
pictures in books. In his books, and a lot of
people changed because they had these expensive supplements and there
was a workout plan and a lot of people stuck

(29:33):
to it and it was a good plan. But I
think of that as I think of this. So a
lot of people are gonna do what's gonna take progress
pictures post on social media and they're gonna talk about
the seventy five challenge. And I don't know if this
person is monetizing it. Sure they are, would I would
think they are. I haven't delved into it. Uh, But

(29:53):
kind of genius in that regard, because if you do anything,
if you I could sell you caplets filled with sugar
and then give you a plan, and I sell those
caplets to you at a hundred dollars a month with
the workout plan. Because you're paying a hundred dollars a
month for these caplets that I'm telling you are going

(30:14):
to help you. But you follow the plan, you can
attribute it to the caplets. That's what a lot of
these products and programs are doing. All right. So seventy
five days of working out twice a day with no
rest days, drinking that much water, uh, oh my gosh,
following some restrictive diet the person's question, answered it, answered

(30:39):
it unsustainable. Of course. Yeah, and you're going to I'm
going to use the word other people would use. I
Wouldn're gonna fail. There's no way you're gonna keep this up?
Could I do it? It's a want to you know,
the people like you go it's likewise come up to

(31:00):
me in the gym and asked me to do some
crazy exercise challenge with them that I know could potentially
hurt me. I look at them and I say, you win,
you win, So don't do this. I'll leave it at that,
all right? And oh, actually, why why is the human
condition to choose hard and unsustainable? You know? When I

(31:23):
tell people that they should do micro workouts, they look
at me like, I'm like, five minutes that that can't
possibly work. You know, I'm gonna give you your own
Here you go, here's your thirty day Fitness Disrupted challenge.
And I've given you similar things like this in other episodes,
but here here you go. You want something. I want
you to do fifty push ups total in one day.

(31:47):
And I've given you things almost exactly like this. But
now with this question. Not all of you have heard
all of the episodes fifty push ups on one day,
fifty ab moves, crunches or types of crunches, whatever version
you want on the next day. So want you to
alternate days and you can do however many sets and
reps as you want, but they don't need to total

(32:07):
fifty by the end of the day. I've been doing
this myself in a different way, as I've said many
many times before four years when I came into the studio,
I dropped and did my hundred crunches, five of one
kind o weeks, both sides, and twenty five of another kind.
And I mixed that up and I changed the number.
But it's a hundred. So by the end of the
day I've done a certain number depends. All right, there's

(32:30):
your challenge. Most people go, it's not enough. Why do
we choose hard and unsustainable rather than what we know
will work over time when you add in all the
other stuff as well. All right, So there you go.
I want to hear do it. Do it for thirty days.
So you can do five sets of ten to tend
when you wake up in the morning, tend push ups

(32:50):
to ten in the middle of the day, to ten
at lunch, do ten at like three o'clock to ten
before you go to bed at night. There's fifty or
do two sets of twenty five whatever we want, the
way you want to do it, ad moved, same thing,
whatever kind, whatever numbers. By the end of the day,
you've done fifty. When you mix it up, when you
vary them, I don't even care if you're doing this

(33:10):
already in some wait do that, do this, and and
vary the type. You can also vary the push ups.
You can do spider Man push ups. You can do
whatever you want. Watch and see the results. You will
be shocked. All right. Number three, let's get moving here.
Uh Tom love flitness disrupting the body weight workouts you prescribe.

(33:32):
I've also have your latest micro workout book. Is the
workout from your book? Beat the Gym still worth doing?
I love the philosophy of experimenting with different forms of equipment.
Thank you. All right. You may think this is a
latent plug. It's not. It goes to variation, people, It
goes to variation. So beat the gym. It's two ten,

(33:52):
I believe. And that's when I owned the gym. We
said I would never do it. Crazy experience, crazy opportunity arose,
and when I say I have done it all, I
have literally done it all in this industry, including only
a gym for a couple of years. So that book
was all about how to get the most out of
the gym, the secrets having worked in the gym as
a trainer for so many years the group fitness instructor

(34:15):
personal trainer than owning a gym. And we did it
for a couple of years and got the heck out,
wrote the book. Uh, and then the micro workout plan,
So beat the gym is more about the gym, and
the micro workout plan is more about home. And I
do both. So the answer to this person is variation.
When you want to exercise at home, it's a micro
workout plan. You get dumbbells, you got body weight, and

(34:37):
you got ab moves right and body weight cardio and
all the stuff like that. I do both. I go
to the gym, I work at home. I do all
different types of equipment. So this is having options, do
it all, mix it up. Any time anyone in the
nutrition world the exercise world tells you this is the

(34:58):
one way to do some thing that's wrong. It's rare
that I could say without knowing what it is. It's wrong.
There are many components of fitness. There are many benefits
to machines that free weights don't have. There's many benefits
of free weights that machines don't have. I've talked about it.

(35:20):
I will continue to variation. This is what people have
to do to get a name for themselves and sell
certain products. Not me. I sell the moderation and the variation.
All right, I'll leave it at that. Another question within
this question, I'm in my sixties, still running. I want
to enter a half marathon soon. One last question, I've

(35:42):
been doing hit running workouts in a fairly quick long
run every ten days. Can you recommend some kind of
running program that incorporates all your strength protocols with low
mileage running that can work for races? Thank you again,
tough um to give real specifics, but I can be

(36:03):
kind of broad here because it again applies to just
about everyone. So persons in their sixties still running awesome
ages and number. I'm gonna be again pretty give you
an overview. So I'm in my fifties now, I run
three to four times a week. Changes, but for most people,
especially sixties, probably again, this person sounds like they're super fit,

(36:25):
but it doesn't matter. We want to be smart. So
when you can nonconsecutive days, if you have more lofty,
you know, lofty your goals, then you have to run more.
But great rule of thumb for the vast majority of
you is Monday, Wednesday, Friday is running right, and then
a longer run on the weekend Saturday or Sunday. So
that might be the day you go back to back right,

(36:47):
or you can go Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday. So three to
four runs per week. And I like the specificity. Now
you don't have to do this, but this is when
you get super specific. As we get older, especially the
benefits are even Yeah, the workouts are shorter and the

(37:09):
the benefits are somewhat greater. Right at a younger age,
you can just run and your body is more tolerant,
you get injured less. So for me, one run is
hill's hill. Repeats talked about that the value of hills.
Second run, we focus on speed. That's your interval day.
Sounds like he's kind of doing it. And then your
third one is endurance that's your long run day. That

(37:30):
formula works for so many people. Hills are speed and
strength built in speed is gonna make you a little
faster if you want. And also listen changes the workout
the boardom factor. I did a thirty minute workout. I'm
gonna post thirty minute run on the treadmill the other day.
Ten minute warm up, a bunch of minute hard intervals
and then cool down. Awesome, and it was so much

(37:51):
more palatable. Okay, just running for thirty minutes, and I said,
just I shouldn't running for thirty minutes. The specificity the
effect of that was different than going slow for an hour.
But that's your longer day. So one day is working
on endurance, one day is working on speed. The other
day is speed strength, and that's running hills and hills,

(38:14):
as I've said, are one of my favorite workouts. Everyone
should run or walk hills. I did a podcast on that.
And then you want to add in two to three
twenty minute or so strength workouts. I have other books
with that in there as well. You know it sounds like,

(38:35):
but I have a marathon book and a triathlon book
with strength workouts that are specific to runners and multi
sport athletes. They're not the same as if you're trying
to build a physique you're not focused on bench press
and bicep curls. If you're a runner, still can do them,

(38:55):
but we're more bulletproofing our body so we can run,
working on balances, more lower body focus, more of a
core focus. All Right, They're different and they're shorter. Generally,
you know, bodybuilders and people who want to build muscle
and physic you know, improve their physique probably go to
the gym or work at at home a little longer.

(39:17):
For us who are focused on running and doing other sports,
the basics at least are you can do them totally,
uh in about twenty minutes, all right, So that's uh,
that's what I'm gonna give you for that. And finally,
a cross training day super important, you know, and for runners,
biking is just one of the greatest uh forms a

(39:37):
cross training. The elliptical fine, I'll take that swimming, but
biking and running, you know, you've got quadricept dominant and
then hamstring. So it's one of the reasons I do triathlons,
is forced cross training. All right. Let me pick it
up here, Hi to. I'm a big fan of your
podcast and your no nonsense approach to health and thitness.
Really passionate about fitness and healthy eating and have often

(39:58):
considered getting certified as a this coach. Well, now that
my kids are all grown up, my career and I
t is not very demanding. I have more time to
dedicate towards my passion. I would really appreciate your guidance
on which programs are worth investing in. I briefly looked
at the n A, s M and ACE websites, but
there are so many others out there. I would greatly
appreciate any input you can provide, and then some compliments.

(40:21):
So thank you, thank you, Thank you for all the compliments,
Thank you for listening. And I actually get asked this
frequently in different ways, uh people who are in the business,
and I will do a couple of podcasts soon specific
to that. But I got certified a long time ago
and they're all still around and they're really good ones.
So my goal back in the day was to get

(40:42):
as much experience and education as possible, as many of
the top certifications as possible, and two of them were
and A s M the National Academy of Sports Medicine ACE,
and the other two of the top there's other top ones,
but these for me are the four. Top ones would
be the n s c A National Strength and Conditioning Association,

(41:05):
and then A C s M American College Sports Medicine.
I have all those. They're still around, they're still great.
There are others, but those four again, N A s M,
ACE A C s M and n s c A.
I have many others. There's atha that actually changed their
acronyms slightly. Used to be a F A A and

(41:26):
now I think it's a F F A. But that
was that was more aerobics. I got that one. That's
a story that it's a funny story. Back in the
day when I got that was group exercise. Right, So
those four are phenomenal. The short answer though, for the
new ones, and then there's a couple out there that
I've heard of recently that aren't those four. If you

(41:49):
get it in a day, if you get it online,
that's a problem. So the longer the studying, the more classes,
and the more in person, the better. Right, I would
personally stick with those four. They're still around, they're still
highly regarded. But if there's a certain certification that is
in person where you are and you go every weekend

(42:10):
or you know, it's it's you know takes a couple
of weeks months of instruction. That's awesome. You want as
much information as possible, right, You want to learn, and
if you're truly passionate about it, as as I was
and still obviously am, you never want to stop learning.
You know. That's why I'm still and we'll always be
studying and teaching and doing all that kind of stuff.

(42:34):
So I love this question. I love people getting into
the greatest industry in the world, in my opinion, helping
people look better, feel better with longer. But I take
it super seriously and I love that you do. So
get some start with one great certification, and just know
that they generally focus on kind of one aspect or
at least known for that. Now within each certification certifying body,

(42:56):
they'll have different certifications. But like a cs UM was
more the cardiovascular back in the day, at least I
know they have additional certifications. Now. National Strength and Conditioning
Association was more the strength side, as was the National
Academy of Sports Medicine more the strength training side. And
you get taught differently by different certifications. So just start

(43:20):
somewhere and then take it from there. I should say
this and gets a little complicated. But if you are
going to work or you want to work at a
specific gym in your area, find out what they require,
what they're looking for, because that's a whole Pandora's box
of goofiness and stuff like that. So oftentimes you can

(43:40):
get a really great certification that maybe the gym person
who runs the personal training department doesn't have, and you
can hold that against you. As crazy as that town
topic for another day. But if you are trying to
land a specific job, find out what their recommendations are
and which certifications they're looking for level level levet. Finally,

(44:01):
I love this one. I'm a new listener, so glad
I found your podcast. Could you tell me if this
is credible? So they sent me a study. There's a
link to a study which I'm going to talk about
and thank you for that. As I said, I love
when people send me studies. Seven years ago, when I
turned fifty, I asked my doctor what I needed to
do to stay active and healthy because I've never been
this age before. I love that line because I've never

(44:24):
been fifty before. I just saw me yesterday. By the way,
it said something like, I'm you know, bear with me.
I'm going through my terrible forties like the Terrible twos.
So I love this. Yeah, I turned, as I said,
I just turned fifty three. It's interesting. I love getting older,
though I do all the work we put in right control.
Um you, age is just a number earlier it at that, uh,

(44:49):
because I've never been this age before. She was at
a loss and basically gave me the regular nutrition and
exercise guidelines. I'm an off road motorcyclist and trying to
recover from rotator cuff surgery, and I'm sational aspects of retiring.
I've been trying to do research on age and fitness
and nutrition. Thank you for your shows. You've given me
the encouragement and the information I trust. Thank you for listening.
I gotta say that over and over again. People, it's

(45:11):
all about trust, and your time is important. And as
I say that, I'm gonna try to wrap this up,
but know that even when I go along, it's because
I want to give you the best information, and I
often feel like I'm leaving stuff out. First of all,
there's so much here. I know that oftentimes, like when
you hear your doctor give you the regular nutrition and
exercise guidelines. We have to start with the basics. So

(45:35):
she's not wrong. She's not wrong, and let's just go
back for argument's sake to the the basics work for
just about everyone. So the nutrition guidelines about like whole
foods and you know, everything I preach all the time,
that applies to just about everyone. That's where we start.
Then you have you unique requirements, right, So that's the
twenty or thirty percent, right, And for you you said

(45:58):
specifically off road mode a cyclists. By the way, I've
written motorcycles road bike in college, did a little bit
off road. That's like really hard, that's super physical. So
like these people, especially the top ones pros, they strength
trained like crate. You have to brutal on the body
just banging around, right, So I somewhat understand that. And

(46:22):
you're trying to recover from rotator cuff surgery the only
surgery I ever had thanks to football back in the eighties.
No injuries since then, and so I get that as well.
But I also love that you said the emotional aspects
of retiring. Okay, So the basics are where you start
nutrition as well as exercise, right, especially in our fifties, right,

(46:44):
the basics work the basics work you know, the push ups,
the planks, the dumbbells, the bench press, the dumbbell all
that stuff. Do you need to have the foundation right,
and then we get specific, But you have to have
that base. You can't jump ahead. You can't start doing

(47:08):
plyometric box jumps or doing to minute workouts a day
for seventy five days. If you don't have a base.
It's not a matter of if, but when and how
badly you're gonna flame out. All right, so your doctor
is without even knowing exactly what she said, she's right.
But let me get into that specific study you gave

(47:32):
to me. And by the way, I'm going to go
into this study because it's a great one in the
future podcast. But there's three great bullet points that will
answer his question to some degree, and that the study
is it's not really a study. I think it was
a paper from I think it was a paper from
a lecture a nutrition forum. But anyway, it's the title
is how Dietary needs Change with Aging. And I'm going

(47:56):
to read you the three bullet points I pulled out.
Dietary needs change with aging in several ways. Number One,
people become less active, their metabolism slows, their energy requirement decreases,
all of which means they need to eat less. Does
that apply to everyone? Know, but we lose muscle, sarcopenia. Right,
you're probably not running around And again these are generalizations,

(48:18):
but normally people slow down a little bit, they lose
some muscle, and so yes, we need to eat a
little less as we get older. I think of my
father in law, who you know, as I'm making huge
breakfasts for my teenagers. If he's over you know, he's British,
he has one, maybe two pieces of toast with with

(48:39):
coffee and some jam, and he's happy as a quam.
But yes, by and large, we need fewer calories as
we get older. So that's one of the dietary needs,
especially when we're thinking about maintaining weight. Right number two.
Recent research demonstrates that because older adults ability to absorb

(49:01):
and utilize many nutrients becomes less efficient, their nutrient requirements,
particularly as a function of body mass, actually increase. Uh this,
I don't want to read you everything here, but this
includes separate recommendations for people age seventy and above for
this reason. So what they're saying is you should eat cleaner,
you should eat better as you get older. I mean

(49:22):
that's oversimplification maybe, but that's kind of the gist there,
all right, And then number three kind of goes to
this as well. Tucker noted that as some of the
previous speakers had discussed, chronic conditions and medications can affect
nutrition requirements. For example, in addition to drug nutrient interactions
affecting drug metabolism, some drug nutrient interactions are also nutrient wasting.

(49:46):
This is especially true of the B vitamins. So again,
in a nutshell, this is saying people are taking more
medications as they age, you have to be very careful
with interaction with those drugs and what you are take
in topic for another day, specifically, but basically saying fewer

(50:06):
calories and the high to focus on higher quality of food.
So let's just then there, that's where the recommendations apply
to everyone. Whole foods, as healthy as possible most of
the time, focusing on the basics, focusing on consistency. Now,

(50:27):
this person also, I can't end without saying that they
identified the mental aspect, the emotional aspects of retiring. I
love that that you know that that's so important and
so you want to move and you want to use
exercise as a positive not a negative. So it shouldn't
be a stress or it should be a stress reducer,
and that can be and should be walking. That's why

(50:49):
not walking. Whatever is, you can start with walking. It
could be a part of your plan. My point is
it shouldn't be extreme, like two minute workouts for seventy
five days. When you're doing things that you don't enjoy,
that are restrictive, and that are too much, that's not

(51:09):
the right thing, especially when you're dealing with emotional issues already,
which all of us are right. So my point is
used the exercise too decrease stress and anxiety, not increase it,
because you're trying to do something that is unsustainable or
is too hard to maintain. And this person finished up
by saying, always hated working out. Now I'm about to

(51:30):
turn fifty and overweight, and I'm really happy to have
found your podcast. Thank you, thank you, thank all of
you for the questions. Again, I feel not always feel
I go way longer than I expect to, but it's
for a good reason, all right. I am going to
go further into this um paper because there is other

(51:51):
there are other great points in there, but I will
wrap it all up with it is the basics, the
the basic tenets of focus on consistency of all these
things that I am bringing up over and over again.
That's it. I believe it at that. All right, thank

(52:14):
you for these great questions, great questions. You are the
greatest audience and I have the greatest job in the world,
so I appreciate you. I appreciate my job and I
take it super seriously. So thank you for listening. Please
keep the questions coming. I want to hear more about
crazy things like the hard sev Oh jeez, it makes

(52:35):
me sad again. If you want to reach out Tom
h Fit Instagram as well as Twitter, Tom h Fit
Fitness Disrupted dot com, you can email me through the website.
I know I talked about I feel guilty. Why should
I feel guilty talking about my books. They're out there
there to help you. But that's how much I like.
I don't like the fraudsters who pushed their their products.

(53:00):
I have a bunch of books and and take a look.
Depending on what your goals and needs are, they're there,
uh and uh. I have done and live by every
single thing in all of those books. All right, And
as I said, super excited for the new book Working
on which is my first non prescriptive book, which is uh,
it's all about the fitness industry. All right. Thank you

(53:22):
for listening. And remember there are three things we all control.
How much we move, what we put into warmouths, and
our attitudes. And that is awesome. I am Tom Holland
this is Fitness Disrupted. Believe in Yourself. Fitness Disrupted is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from

(53:43):
my Heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.