January 13, 2026 • 44 mins
What if we reframed the way we approach exercise? On today’s show, Dr. Elizabeth Poynor is joined by Robert Brace - founder of Brace Life Studios. He’s also Elizabeth’s trainer. They discuss how he tailors his workouts to women in midlife, the benefits of exercising in a group and how movement and exercise connect to our mental and spiritual well-being. Robert also gives advice about how to approach training at different hormonal cycle phases, and ways to get started, even when it feels tough.
Links to resources mentioned in this episode:
Martial arts increase oxytocin production
American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Quantity and quality of exercise for developing and maintaining cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuromotor fitness in apparently healthy adults: guidance for prescribing exercise
Menstrual cycle tracker apps – Natural Cycles (https://www.naturalcycles.com/), Flo (https://flo.health/) and Apple Health (https://support.apple.com/en-us/120356)
Exercise platforms/apps – Nike Training (https://www.nike.com/ntc-app), TheBraceLife.com
Note: In this show, we use “women” as shorthand for people with XX chromosomes. We understand sex and gender are more complex, and acknowledge the experiences we describe reach beyond that word.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Pushkin.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This show is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis,
or treatment. It is for informational purposes. Please consult your
healthcare professional with any medical questions.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
The muscle has solutions for so many things, and so
that's why it's so important to take it out of
just oh, I'm working out to lose weight. There is
so much more to it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Welcome back to Coding Women's Health. I'm doctor Elizabeth Pointer.
Today on the show, we're talking about a different way
to think about exercise, or as I like to think
of it, movement, and how it connects to our mental
and yes, even our spiritual health. I've invited my own trainer,
Robert Brace, onto the show. He's been a key part
(01:16):
of my journey to feeling stronger again after a recent
surgery with significant complications, and he's totally changed my mindset
when it comes to movement. I first discovered Robert's studio,
Brace Life Studios about two years ago. When I arrived downtown,
I was surrounded by the fairy lights of little Italy
(01:36):
and when I walked in these beautiful, larger than life
posters of strong, confident women on their fitness journeys were
hanging on the walls. The place is just filled with
the most amazing energy and community. I knew immediately it
was somewhere that I wanted to train, and that Robert
was someone that I wanted to work with. Now I'm
(01:58):
at his gym nearly every morning. Robert has such a
unique and incredible background. He was a professional dancer for
many years, and then he actually worked as a minister.
Now he runs his boutique personal training studio that caters
to midlife women. I love Robert's approach to exercise and movement.
(02:20):
He has what he calls a mind, body, soul approach.
More than anything, I hope that you reach the end
of this episode feeling empowered. Robert has helped hundreds of
women transform their lives and most importantly, not settle for
feeling like their best years are behind them.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
One of the things that the fitness industry, my industry,
has done a very poor job at, is helping people
make the connection between movement, exercise, muscle, mental health, spiritual wellbeing,
and how we do move through life right. Because up
until now it's been you move to lose weight to
(03:09):
get in shape. Right, And yes, there's the narrative about
health there, but that's what it's been for a long time.
But when you start talking about movement affecting the mind.
If we think about stress, how stress affects the body.
It shuts down, goes into reptil in brain. Because you're
in flight or fight mode, your executive function isn't working
(03:31):
as well. Your anxiety increases. Right when you move your muscle,
your muscle produces endorphins. End dolphins have been shown to
take the edge off of anxiety and help calm your
mind and your body down. So when I talk about spirituality,
these are two quote unquote spiritual qualities, right, sense of
(03:53):
joy and a sense of calm. If anybody ever experienced
the runners high that happens after typically after you move
or do some intense activity for over twenty minutes, that
produces in your body end or cannabinoids. And so your
movement is affecting your move your blissful mood. And if
you move in a group, if you've ever done Soul
(04:15):
cycle or one of those group classes where you're moving
and everybody at the end feels like this kind of
euphoric feeling, right, It's been said that when you move
in a group, the body produces more oxytocin, which is
the love the bonding hormone, and so movement gives you
all of these emotional, spiritual, whatever you want to call
(04:38):
them qualities just from engaging with your muscles. So that
feeling you get after you leave the studio or after
you leave your workout is all of that combined. So
it goes way beyond just changing your body losing weight,
getting toned, and that's all great. We level of that, right,
but it's so much more so.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
This is such an evolved view of fitness. You know, we,
like you said, we used to look at fitness as
just like losing weight or getting in a particular shape,
that type of thing. You have this great background of
dam and ministry. How did you say one day, I'm
just going to put it all together in Brace Life
Studios because I you know, I'm kind of I'm kind
of addicted to Bracelefe Studios. I'm there every morning, guys,
(05:22):
like almost every morning at like six o'clock. I mean,
the dopamine is great, right, but I moved through my
day with a different the different attitude and a different
like connectiveness actually, right, So how did you evolve into
developing brace life studios.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Well it wasn't as it wasn't as seamless. Shall we
say as it sounds right? I think for me, when
I was dancing, I remember feeling that whenever I moved
and danced, whatever emotional issues I was having, whatever stress
(05:58):
that I was having, was just released. And so when
I was younger, I just thought, well, that's just because
I'm doing what I love to do, right, And then
I went into I was in the ministry for a
little bit, and I loved doing what I did then,
but it was more just a mental application of spirituality.
So I felt something was missing. And so when I
came back to training and I started to move again,
(06:20):
I was like, Okay, this is what's missing. And then
through studying about embodied cognition and studying about how muscle
informs how you feel, I started to say, okay, this
is how we need to talk about movement. Yes, your
body will change, your spiritual change, your mindfulness will change.
(06:41):
So it's all embodied in movement.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It's so interesting because I mean, now the wellness community
is we're catching up to you, right, you are a forerunner.
Are realizing now because we all talk about longevity. As
you know, optimism, sense of purpose, all of these things
that travel together and are so important in terms of
movement as how it contributes to that. Let's talk about
embodied cognition. Tell me about what does that mean and
(07:08):
how do you apply that.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
So there's been a common duality, right, the brain and
the body are two different things, and lever Twente meat
some of it is grounded in kind of religious thinking,
the temperance movement that the brain should have control over
the body.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Embodied cognition says that the body informs the brain. And
so for example, in its most simple state, you're hear
in the studio all the time.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Chest up, shoulder blades.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Back right right, So mancha, if you are sitting with
your shoulders rolled forward, if your head is down, if
your shoulders are all the way up, it says you
feel different in your body than when you open up
your chest, open up your lungs, breathe into your lungs,
sit with your backstraight. You immediately feel differently right, gestural
(07:58):
postural change. So the body is informing how the brain feels.
And so when we get to movement, let's just say
like you're in a studio, so we have a real
intense focus on form and posture. So you're doing it
an exercise bicyccle. If we are asking you to stand
(08:23):
with correct posture, make sure that your arms are moving
through the right alignment and right range of motion. You've
taken your focus from your brain inside your body. Right,
Your focus has gone inside your body, and then your
breathing is connected to it. You're muscleing is being engaged.
As soon as that happens. Your movement is affecting what's
(08:45):
going on cognitively, right, and you have to be present.
The movement shuts out all the noise outside, So it's
like a movement meditation like it's movement is mindfulness in
motion because you're focusing inside your body. I love that,
and that becomes a movement meditation. It brings you present
(09:06):
to wherever you're at. And so embodied cognition says, you
know when your body moves, it affects how your brain functions,
and that then two are not separate. You don't have
just a body. You have a body that works with
your brain. So as you move, you become through movement
because the two think together.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Let's just talk about some really basic stuff because I'm
lucky enough to be able to go into your studio.
But I want to get some basics for our listeners
because they should hear your view on how women should
train differently during their cycles, or how women should train
differently at midlife. So let's just start with midlife. So
how should women train differently in midlife than when they
(09:49):
were younger? Actually? Or how doom, how should women train
differently than men? Because you have some big influencers saying
that men and women should train the same, So give
us your perspective on those two.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I think what I want to do is give more
the why, and I'll give some of the how. But
what I mean is this midlife eeschras and decreases, right,
so that means bone density decreases. That means you're more
susceptible to osteoporosis. Right, Building lean muscle mass is going
to stimulate the osteoblasts, which is going to help you
(10:20):
build your bone density. So think of everything that you're
doing and in our icons program, which is what we
typically call this program, all of the signature movements are
to build aesthetics, your overall health, and your longevity.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
So you're training women forty and on pretty much and
I'm not going to say Indiana sixty because I'm over sixty.
So I'm like, we're not going to yeah, we're not
going to say forty to sixty. We're going to say
forty and beyond, right, and give me some specifics, like
how what are the specifics in terms of what is
the mix of cardio, what is the mix of strength
training hit? What is your what is I don't want
(11:01):
to ask you for your secret sauce, but what's your
secret sauce in terms of.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Okay, So there's two different levels to this. The first,
very basic level is that women on the mental respect
need to build lean muscle mass.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Lean muscle mass has so many benefits, go into those later,
but for the purposes of the technique, one of the
fastest ways to build lean muscle mass is compound movements. Right,
large movements that recruit a lot of different joints.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Give us an example of a compound movement.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
So, okay, right, So a good squad with the knees
in the right position, your hips receding in the right
way so that you get a maximum amount of pressure
through your thighs, and as you stand through it, standing
through it with the right posture. Okay, so we want
to get you to build lean muscle mass as fast
as possible. At the same time for your brain and
(11:53):
also for your posture, we want you to move within
the right alignment. So our approach is very different in
terms of if most trainers will tell you don't train
the same body parts back to back, right, we take
a dance philosophy because if you look at dancers or athletes,
(12:15):
they typically train the same movement patterns, maybe in different ways,
but over and over every day day.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
A ballet dancer does peers every day, right, just tondus
every day, right. Because what happens is it allows the brain.
The first couple of times you do it's like, oh,
they're going to be sore, like hold back that movement,
make them tight. But the more that you do it,
your brain begins to ask your body to adapt to
(12:41):
the new demand that's placed on it. Now, that's important
because for our population, we want to build lean muscle mass,
but we also want them to really learn movement patterns
so that they accelerate more quickly, their joints are stronger,
and you know it helps with that long lean aesthetic. Right,
(13:01):
So we call it rift, repetition, interval intelligence. That's interval training.
So for the most part, it depends on where you're
at in your cycle. Interval training can be the best
or not so much the best, right, But in those
phases of the filliqular ovulatory stages, right, that's when you're
(13:24):
pushing right. So in those stages, that's when we'll use
interval training. And the particular kind of interval training we
use is to barts and then it's attention to detail
in a single joint movement like a bicep, but making
sure that you're supporting cast your core, your back is
supporting your biceps.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
So it's still a full.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Bodied movement, right, and meticulous attention to form an alignment
and posture.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
So you're training pretty much the whole body every session. Correct. Yes,
And so let's talk about interval training. Tell us what
that is. What do you mean by interval training.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
So interval training is when you have a big burst
of energy exercise, high velocity, high speed, high power exercise
followed by a period of rest right or slowed down.
So we use a lot of different ones, but the
ones that we are really part of the program. It's
about us which means you push as hard as you
(14:26):
can for about twenty seconds and then you'll rest for
ten seconds. Doctor Zuomi Tabarta, he was the trainer for
the Japanese speed Speeds getting team, and he figured out
the twenty seconds on ten seconds off boosted long cardiovascular capacity,
boosted the metabolism, and.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Then so in terms of interval training, in terms of
the sessions that you do with your clients, how much
of the session is interval training? Is it scattered throughout sessions,
scattered throughout the week, how do you put that in?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Typically, what we're building towards is we want everybody to
be able to do two full interval set, two full
to barter sets, so that's twenty seconds on, ten seconds off,
eight times for four minutes. We want people a bill
to be able to do in two of those. You
have to modify it to the individual, but typically that's
(15:17):
what we're trying to do within the hour session. In
terms of cardio, there's also a lot of evidence that
endurance training is very advantageous to women.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Explain endurance training.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Training is you get on a you get on a treadmill,
you put the incline up to five and you know
you walk for twenty minutes. It's intense. It's not interval training,
but it's endurance training that over time is going to
help you build mong capacity, burn body fat.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
And also that's beyond zone too, right, yes, three zone four.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah, so you're you're pushing, you're stressing your cardiovascular in
a different way.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
So women should aim. You know, we have our guideline
recommendations right for one hundred and fifty minutes of cardio
zone two each week and three days of strength training,
and we, like I said, we typically tell people like
no more than that every forty eight hours. I always
wondering swimmer because I swam every day.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
But that's what I'm saying you, Okay, For example, you're swimming, right,
You swam every day yea, And so you learned how
to use your muscles in a certain movement pattern which
created a certain body type, and your your muscles conformed
to what you were doing. Yes, And there's so many
different ways, Like one hundred people here, one hundred and
fifty minutes of of cars like a lot, and they
(16:41):
freak out right, yeah, So that's why I'm like, okay,
do the interval training instead. It takes four minutes right, right,
so you can do it in eight minutes as opposed
to one hundred and fifty. And so that's where I
just think when you've got to be careful whenever anything
is an absolute right, right, you have to have one
hundred and fifty minutes, you have to have ten thousand steps.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
You have to know.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
You've got to adjust it to the individual, and there's
different ways to get there. For example, with my clients,
nutritionally we don't count calories. Many other places do, and
obviously there's benefits to it, but I'm like, get the
right amount of protein, get the right amount of vegetables
that are going to help you be nutritionally sound, eat
(17:22):
to feed the muscle, and eat to feed your energy.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
And some people love the data of looking at the
calories that they consume, which is great. Most people don't
have the bandwidth to follow. Mark down, put it in
the app, take the picture. So let's give people what
they can do in a way that they can sustain
(17:46):
within their life.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Meeting somebody where they're at. Yeah, so I'm getting connectivity
right embody cognition and meeting somebody where they're at. I
was an athlete growing up, but I've never experienced the
kind of positive and supportive community that I found at
Brace Life Studios, and I really have never encountered it.
(18:11):
Training regimen so tailored to women, I wanted to talk
to Robert about how hormones and where you are in
your cycle can influence the way you approach training. That's
coming up next after the break, Let's go back to
(18:43):
training at different parts of your cycle. Right, For menopausal
individuals like myself, it's great, it's just always the same right, right,
so it's easy, But what about a client who's still cycling.
Right in terms of minstrel cycles.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
So the follicular of your laterary stage, that is when
we tend to push because the tesosterone is there, and
during that phase women can lift heavier. And but during
the lutail phase, when it's the more intense part of
your cycle, cortisol is up and you don't want to
(19:17):
keep spiking cortisol because and when I say you don't
want to keep spiking cortisol interval training, the stress of
interval training could do something like that. The stress of
a really intense weight lifting session could spike cordsol even more. Right,
So during that time, that's when you want to do
things that are going to reduce cortisol. Maybe you're doing
more stretching, maybe you're adding to breathing exercises there, meditation there,
(19:42):
and doing the movements that you have to focus more
inward for your posture and for the movement pathways. Right,
things that are going to allow you to regulate your
breathing so that you're calming the system down and reducing cordisol.
So it's very important to understand, you know where you
(20:03):
are in the cycle and adjust accordingly.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
So how can she know whether she's in the flicular
phase or that ovulatory phase where you know she's going
to train harder, and that luteal phase where she's going
to take it at sounds like a little easier on herself, correct.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I think the best way to do it instead of
having remember the numbers and count the days and there's
so many apps out there.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Well put some Yeah, we'll put some resources out there
in the in the show notes for everybody, talk to
me about shifting hormones and as our hormones or estrogen
levels are declining. Many times, androgen levels and testosterone the
particularly challenges that older women or women midlife women also
would have in terms of building muscle. What are the
(20:47):
tips and tricks to get around that well?
Speaker 3 (20:50):
As you go over forty, testosterone is decreasing, which means
it's harder to put on lean muscle mass. So if
your testosterone is decreasing and your lean muscle mass is decreasing,
which helps with your bone density, your metabolism because as
you go through the menopause spec it's easier to gain
(21:12):
body fat, especially around the mid section due to estrogen drops. Right,
your progesterone is dropping, which has an effect on your sleep,
has an effect on yours, your stress resilience.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
The way to look at it is there's medicine in
the muscle, right.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
In the muscle.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Because we're saying we're almost repeating the same thing.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Estragen decreases we talked about bondensity, increase, your lean muscle
mass activates us to your blast. Your bone density increases.
Testopsterone decreasing during the menopause spectrum, progesterone is decreasing, Harder
to sleep, harder to deal with stress. You work out,
your lean muscle mass gives you the serotonin, gives you
(22:01):
the endorphins to deal with some of the anxiety and stress.
And also as you build more lean muscle mass, it
helps regulate your arcading rhythm. And So the thing that
I really love about what's happening now with the work
that you do with HRT, I think we're in this
really exciting place where women I get in touch with
(22:22):
what's going on with their bodies through people like yourself
understanding more about hormones getting to the stage in life
where at the height of their careers, the height of
their resources, height of their connections, they've got whatever wisdom
they've had throughout life, right that get to that place,
and then their bodies start to portray them.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, it's interesting. One of my patients, who was actually
a friend, said to me one day was, so she goes.
I spent my entire career in life trying to get
to the head of the boardroom table, and by the
time I got there, I felt so awful. I felt
physically bad. I couldn't remember my name, my memory was off,
I lost my self confidence. And so it's a very
interesting intersection of when we have all this power and
(23:03):
force behind either anything that we've done in life, whether
it's building our character, whether building, our career, our families,
and and then all of a sudden we're there and
then kaboom, like physiology throws us a curveball and says,
why you're here? And you don't feel so great? Right,
So it's this great intersection. I mean, what I love
about you is like you were sitting at that intersection
(23:25):
right now, really helping women like rock the second half
of their lives or they're the it's not even the
second halves, it's like the two thirds, you know. So
what do you see as the future of that intersection.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
I think that we have separated medical and fitness, right,
and they haven't really intertwined except for your trainer tells
you to see your doctor something's wrong. Your doctor tells
you go to go exercise, right, the two. Really, I
think the two are going to come together. And what
(24:00):
I mean by that is once people are able to
understand the connection between health tricks you know, bone density,
how your again lean muscle mass is working, and how
(24:20):
your stress levels all the tests that we talk about, right,
once we start to connect that data to physical transformation,
I think that's when people will begin to understand there's
a connection here. And I think that people like me,
and you need to be working together more to tell
(24:40):
the whole story as opposed to the story in these
different silos. Oh, I'm working out to lose weight. Oh
I'm seeing my doctor because I'm not feeling well, or
I'm just getting tests to see, you know, to make
sure that I'm okay, as opposed to you know, if
these things all work together, you can harness a physical
and mental power in your own life that we haven't
(25:01):
seen before. And to me, it just doesn't make sense
that we're not working more closely together.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Even you know, when you talk about the mental power too,
I mean the spirituality aspect of it. But just like
just just use the word mental health, right, because there's
a number of studies that have shown that exercise and
fitness actually works just as well as an SSRI for
some people. And so I mean this is real. Like
you said, the muscle is the medicine. The medicines and
(25:27):
the muscle. Talk to me a little bit about weight.
You know so many women struggle with weight at midlife.
Do you talk about weight at all or is it
just really transformation of the body habitus.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
We talk about weight insofar as how it helps a
client in front of us, because talk about weight can
be discouraging and sometimes as you're working out, it might
go up and it will plateau, and the plateau is
a normal part it means if the plateaum means you're
doing something right, because your body's trying to find homeless
(26:00):
stations right, So you need to find a different way
to challenge it. And so for some people, monitoring weight
is stressful. For other people it keeps them on track.
So we really modify it to the actual person and
we try to say, look, losing you know, one to
two pounds per week is is great. You know, we
(26:22):
have had people lose more than that, but again it's
not through crazy crash dieting or anything extreme, but making
sure that the program that you're on, all of those
different elements that we talked about, the compound movements, deciding
whether it's right to do interval training now or more
endurance training, that all of those things are carefully monitored.
(26:44):
So I talk about it in as far as it
helps the client. If that doesn't help you mentally or spiritually,
and it causes more anxiety, then don't do it right.
A lot of my clients go about how their clothes feel.
And we also take pictures at the beginning so that
clients can see the micro changes.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
And I advise.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
People to take those pictures because you see yourself every day.
We had one client she came in and she was
maybe about four or five weeks in. She's like, this
isn't working. My body's not changing. I still feel a
certain way, you know, I just don't see any change.
And so I took out her first picture. We took
(27:28):
a picture of her second picture, and there was.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
A market difference.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yeah, And so once she was encouraged, she was motivated
to go on. But two she started to ask herself
other questions. Why can't I see that right? Why am
I paying attention to the good study like that?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah? So interesting. It's the self confidence. What are some
of the biggest transformations you've seen in your clients, either
physically but also emotionally spiritually. I mean, I've had a
huge breakthrough. I approached my day, like I said, so
much differently. And I love the focus on what you're
actually doing that movement, meditation and focusing on what muscle
(28:04):
am I moving And it's for me mental health wise.
It's been absolutely huge and allowed me to power through
some very difficult times recently with my family. But what
are some of the biggest breakthroughs that you've seen in
your clients.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
There's quite a few. There's one who I'm thinking of
in particular. She did come with her knee injury and
an ankle injury, and.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
So we helped her through that.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
But she had said she passed a shop window and
she saw a white bikini and she said to herself, Oh,
those days are of me, And so that was just
how she was feeling before she came. Now, yes, she
changed her body, she was able to get into a bikini,
but the point isn't just that. The point was she's
(28:49):
got emotional because she thought, where else am I selling
myself short? And where else have I just settled? And
so it really changed the way she started to engage.
She was already successful, but it took her to new places.
So it's things like that transformation pitches you've seen over
(29:11):
and over again, right, But it's the emotional empowerment that
it creates. And then you're in an environment where you're
seeing all of these different women transform.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
You know. We had another.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Client who was kind of quiet, right, she came in,
got a work done, and then she mentioned she was like,
I was on the beach and my body felt great,
and I felt great about my body, and I'd never
been skinny dipping, so I just I just went for it.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
And.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
It was a bit of a moment, like okay.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Call it.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Empowered her in such a way, and so we feel
the whole team fields a win when we see that.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Coming up next, practical tips for how anyone can get started,
no matter where you are on your fitness journey. We'll
be right back. I got started on my fitness journey.
(30:25):
I was always an athlete, and then I became a
surgeon running a busy private practice, and then got sick
and had cancer, and I was facing chemotherapy and radiation therapy,
and I was like, I'm not going to miss a
day of work, so I better start exercising because there's
this great data that shows that you can beat chemotherapy
fatigue by exercise. Actually, so I just started at the
(30:47):
end of my bed doing some push ups and setups
and what I could do without equipment. So that's how
I got started. And I got started at like five
minutes a day that it was before I went and
got my radiation I'd go do some setups and push ups,
but what how does somebody get started and who maybe
can't doesn't have the resources to go to a gym,
or doesn't have might I always here like I don't
have time to go to the gym, or I travel
(31:07):
too much, I can't get to the gym. Like where
do we started as women? Midlife women?
Speaker 4 (31:13):
I think two things.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
I mean, sounds off, you stop where you're at, And
what I mean by that is do what feels good.
If you have in trouble getting started, you're feeling your
schedule is too much or the energy to do what
feels good. And that can be riding a bike, it
can be going to a dance class. And I want
to be specific here because there's a difference between being
(31:37):
active and being fit. Right, Being active, gardening, going for
walks great for overall health, but rarely is it going
to move you forward in terms of the real big
health markers. So do something that's going to do that.
So something that's a little more vigorous. That's why I'm
(31:59):
saying by writing dancing in my own heart of hearts,
I want every woman to be lifting weights and so
whatever you can do to do that whether it's go
to a gym, and most of the big box gyms
will give you a complimentary session with a trainer and
you can just ask them to show you how to
(32:20):
use all of the machines.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Right, and so great idea.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
That that's one way so that you're getting a full
body work out with weights. But the main thing is
really starting where you're at. Like you said you were
you know, you had cancer, you were very sick, and
the most that you could do is get to the
end of the bed and do a few pushups. So
if that's where you're at, start there. And while you
(32:44):
start there, pay attention to how you're feeling afterwards, beyond
the soreness, because when you first start, you will be
sold that will go away. But pay attention to how
you're feeling so that you're more motivated to continue.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yeah, I mean I think that. I always tell people, like,
once you start, you're going to feel so good, and
that five minutes turns into fifteen minutes, turns into twenty minutes,
and then like if you're kind of crazy like I am,
if I'm at home working out on my own, into
an hour and I have a bench at the end
of our bed now and a walking treadmill and some cattlebells,
and do you recommend yes, kind of good. It's like
(33:19):
my husband's like, you're going to turn the whole house
into a job and yeah, so do you recommend buying
like for women who maybe are are intimidated by community fitness,
who are like, Okay, I don't want to go to
the gym. I don't want to be you know, I
just don't. I don't want to do that. I mean,
do you recommend like buying some barbells on cragslist or Amazon,
some kettlebells, and do you have any recommendations for that,
(33:41):
like what people should start.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
With or I would say start with a three five
and an eight pound weight, get yourself a mat, right,
and I would start There's a bunch of different apps.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Nikes got a great.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
App, right, it's right, Yeah, we even have an exercise platform,
and just start doing basic workouts. YouTube has a lot
of stuff, but look for the very basic workouts and
look for something that gives you proper form because people
are catching on to do there's more trainers really focusing
(34:15):
on form and if you start there, you're going to
see improvement. But a couple of dumb bells and everybody
can do that. Get a little space in your house,
your apartment, wherever it is, and leave that as your
dedicated space to work out.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
And you said you have an exercise platform.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Yes, it's called the Brace Life.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
That started during the pandemic, and what we wanted to
do was have people engage with their mind, their body,
and their soul, so something mindful in other words, listening
to a mindful message, physicality, body workouts. So there's everything
from yoga to our twenty eight day challenge, to our
icons program, a digital form on there. And then your soul,
(34:59):
which we when we talk about soul talking about soul
level qualities peace, you know, calm, and that's where meditation
and breathing exercises coming. So on that platform, the whole
aim is for you to do a little bit of
those every single day, and there's a little dial that
helps you know how much of your mind, your body,
and soul you've engaged with for that day. And then
you can do it in groups as well. You can
(35:20):
invite your friends and create a small group and do
it together. So we created that during the pandemic because
we saw the value in people not only moving by
getting community and getting in touch spending time thinking about
their own mindfulness and their own spirit.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I love that. I just I love that connect all connectivity.
I keep using that word. So you had an event
recently with Sharon Malone, who is actually a former classmate
of Mind Medical School, which was so cool, and Sharon
said something the trinity of health being sleep, exercise, and nutrition,
and that really resonated with me. So let's just talk
(35:59):
a little bit about and I love the word trinity
and but nutrition, let's drill down a little bit on
how much protein should bid life women be eating who
are training with you.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
Freak everybody out, Okay, I.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Don't think so. I don't think you're going what this
crowd is.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
In the growth phase.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
It's what it's er point eight to one gram of
protein per pound of body weight, right, And that's what
we created videos on this because you know, one hundred
and fifty pound woman says I need to eed one
hundred and fifty grams of protein every single day. Yes,
and it can be done. You have two eggs, you
(36:40):
have greek yogurt in the morning, and if each of
your meals has about your your main meals, breakast, hunch,
dinner has about thirty grams of protein which you can
get right. I'm serving a fish, if you have a steak,
you know that's going to help boost it. And then
you have your protein shakes as snacks or your mid
(37:01):
mid morning, mid afternoon snack or post workout snack. You
can get that amount into your diet.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
And the that's actually I usually recommend a gram to
art clients and patients creatine. Talk to me about creating
a lot of women don't like creating because it may
cause some bloating and water retention. What are your recommendations
and guidelines for creating usage.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Creating is great when you're on a training program, right,
because it's going to help you engage without getting too
technical with the creating phosphate, it's going to help you
engage your muscles more and actually more reps more weight
during your workouts what we call work in a workout right.
And then there are other benefits. There's protection of brain
(37:46):
health with creating right. So if you are on a
strength training program, I recommend it. It helps you enjoy
your workout more, get more out of your workout. You're
not as fatigued and helps you recover better lovely.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
What would be if you could give some tips for
midlife women for fitness and feeling better about themselves and
movement through life and spirituality and just feeling better and good.
What would you leave us with In terms of a message.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
The message is that if you are in any way,
if you're ornamental perspectrum and you haven't really spoken to
your doctor, or you're not engaged in a program, and
you're feeling tired, joints are aching, you're feeling like the
best years are behind you, you're feeling you're not sleeping well,
(38:41):
you've got increased anxiety that you don't know where it
came from. If you're feeling those things, first of all,
pay attention to those and I understand you really do
not have to continue to live that way. There are solutions.
Whether if you're like I'm not going to exercise just yet,
then go see your doctor discuss HRT or hormone therapy
(39:04):
or at least get to understand what's going on. And two,
if you're ready to move, I'm telling you that there
is such a vitality, a strength and energy, let alone
a body change and transformation that you're going to have
on the other side of you engaging with wellness, engaging
with muscle building, engaging with and maybe I should stop
(39:26):
saying muscle building because I think maybe in some people's
minds are thinking bodybuilding, but like just to say, engaging
with getting stronger and more aligned with your body and
more in tune with your body. On the other side
of that is such vibrance. As I say, stress relief,
(39:48):
But the other side of stress relief is joy, vitality.
There's a life that you can be living with more energy,
strength and vitality then you're living now. You don't have
to stay there, and so if you're in that place,
just understand there are solutions and it doesn't have to
(40:10):
take that long.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
You know, I am having gone to two of your
community events right in terms of related to midlife women's
health and menopause. The questions are so amazing that arise
at those events in terms of not only there's a
lot of them, but the curiosity is so intense. And
so I think that you're doing such a great service
(40:32):
for women who may not hear it from their doctors
that you don't have to feel this way. You can
feel better how Can people find you online? Can people
can do your online programs online?
Speaker 3 (40:42):
You can go to the brace Life thebracelife dot com.
If you want to come and see you in person,
it's Bracelife Studios dot com.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Love it okay, love it excellent. We hear it all
the time, doctors telling their patients you should exercise, but
usually that's the extent of the advice. It can be
so hard to know how to get started or to
find a workout that feels right for you and your life.
(41:10):
That's why I'm so grateful to have found Robert and
his studio a space where I can move but also
build community, because fitness is far more than weight loss.
Movement is great for our mental health and for our
spiritual wellbeing, and building that organ of longevity muscle and
being in a gym or a yoga studio or a
(41:31):
community pool can also foster connection, something that we all
know is so important to living a vibrant and healthy
life at any age. And I know exercising in a
group setting can be intimidating for some women, but trust me,
it's worth being brave and giving it a try, because
there are studies that back what Robert was talking about
(41:52):
that working out in a group can actually boost the
benefits of working out in the first place. Remember, muscle
is medicine. Building lean muscle mass is key for so
many vital functions. It can help improve bone density and
regulate our metabolism. Building muscle can also help us manage
stress and improve our sleep and also our moods, So
(42:15):
integrate strength training into your routine. Also, short focused interval
training is another great way to move your body, especially
when you don't have a ton of time. Consider using
an app to track your cycle to better understand your
body and how to adjust your workouts accordingly. Robert recommended
(42:36):
pushing yourself more during the follicular and ovulatory phases and
scaling back intensity during the luteal phase. Wherever you are
in your fitness journey, be patient and kind to yourself.
You won't always see or feel obvious changes immediately, but
you have to zoom out to see the big picture.
(42:56):
It's not about the numbers on the scale. It's about
feeling confident, energetic, and ready to take on whatever life
throws your way. Coming up on the next episode of
Decoding Women's Health, I'll be joined by an expert on
psychedelics to explore how this class of drugs might be
helpful to women working through trauma and chronic pain.
Speaker 5 (43:18):
Some days we forget that there are two sides to pain,
and that's the thing that is closing the pain, and
that's the thing that is perceiving the pain. And it's
the thing that is perceiving the pain.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
I el brains.
Speaker 5 (43:28):
Has gotten stock on thinking pain is expected. Any pain
that we do then feel, will feel in a more
intense way.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Dacoding Women's Health is a production of Pushkin Industries and
the Adria Health and Research Institute. This episode was produced
by Rebecca Lee Douglas and Daphne Chen. It was edited
by Amy Gaines McQuaid, mastering by Sarah Bruguier. Our associate
producer is Sonya Gerwitt. Our executive producer is Alexandra Garreton.
(43:59):
Our theme song was composed by Hannis Brown. Concept creative
development and fact checking by Shabbon O'Connor. Special thanks to
Alan Tish, David Saltzman, Sarah Nick, Eric Sandler, Morgan Rattner,
Owen Miller, Jordan McMillan, and Greta Cone. If you have
(44:19):
questions about women's health and midlife. Leave us a voicemail
at four fix five two oh one, three three eight five,
or send us a message at Decoding Women's Health at
Pushkin dot FM. I'm doctor Elizabeth Pointer. Thanks for listening.
Until next time,
Pushkin.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This show is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis,
or treatment. It is for informational purposes. Please consult your
healthcare professional with any medical questions.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
The muscle has solutions for so many things, and so
that's why it's so important to take it out of
just oh, I'm working out to lose weight. There is
so much more to it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Welcome back to Coding Women's Health. I'm doctor Elizabeth Pointer.
Today on the show, we're talking about a different way
to think about exercise, or as I like to think
of it, movement, and how it connects to our mental
and yes, even our spiritual health. I've invited my own trainer,
Robert Brace, onto the show. He's been a key part
(01:16):
of my journey to feeling stronger again after a recent
surgery with significant complications, and he's totally changed my mindset
when it comes to movement. I first discovered Robert's studio,
Brace Life Studios about two years ago. When I arrived downtown,
I was surrounded by the fairy lights of little Italy
(01:36):
and when I walked in these beautiful, larger than life
posters of strong, confident women on their fitness journeys were
hanging on the walls. The place is just filled with
the most amazing energy and community. I knew immediately it
was somewhere that I wanted to train, and that Robert
was someone that I wanted to work with. Now I'm
(01:58):
at his gym nearly every morning. Robert has such a
unique and incredible background. He was a professional dancer for
many years, and then he actually worked as a minister.
Now he runs his boutique personal training studio that caters
to midlife women. I love Robert's approach to exercise and movement.
(02:20):
He has what he calls a mind, body, soul approach.
More than anything, I hope that you reach the end
of this episode feeling empowered. Robert has helped hundreds of
women transform their lives and most importantly, not settle for
feeling like their best years are behind them.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
One of the things that the fitness industry, my industry,
has done a very poor job at, is helping people
make the connection between movement, exercise, muscle, mental health, spiritual wellbeing,
and how we do move through life right. Because up
until now it's been you move to lose weight to
(03:09):
get in shape. Right, And yes, there's the narrative about
health there, but that's what it's been for a long time.
But when you start talking about movement affecting the mind.
If we think about stress, how stress affects the body.
It shuts down, goes into reptil in brain. Because you're
in flight or fight mode, your executive function isn't working
(03:31):
as well. Your anxiety increases. Right when you move your muscle,
your muscle produces endorphins. End dolphins have been shown to
take the edge off of anxiety and help calm your
mind and your body down. So when I talk about spirituality,
these are two quote unquote spiritual qualities, right, sense of
(03:53):
joy and a sense of calm. If anybody ever experienced
the runners high that happens after typically after you move
or do some intense activity for over twenty minutes, that
produces in your body end or cannabinoids. And so your
movement is affecting your move your blissful mood. And if
you move in a group, if you've ever done Soul
(04:15):
cycle or one of those group classes where you're moving
and everybody at the end feels like this kind of
euphoric feeling, right, It's been said that when you move
in a group, the body produces more oxytocin, which is
the love the bonding hormone, and so movement gives you
all of these emotional, spiritual, whatever you want to call
(04:38):
them qualities just from engaging with your muscles. So that
feeling you get after you leave the studio or after
you leave your workout is all of that combined. So
it goes way beyond just changing your body losing weight,
getting toned, and that's all great. We level of that, right,
but it's so much more so.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
This is such an evolved view of fitness. You know, we,
like you said, we used to look at fitness as
just like losing weight or getting in a particular shape,
that type of thing. You have this great background of
dam and ministry. How did you say one day, I'm
just going to put it all together in Brace Life
Studios because I you know, I'm kind of I'm kind
of addicted to Bracelefe Studios. I'm there every morning, guys,
(05:22):
like almost every morning at like six o'clock. I mean,
the dopamine is great, right, but I moved through my
day with a different the different attitude and a different
like connectiveness actually, right, So how did you evolve into
developing brace life studios.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Well it wasn't as it wasn't as seamless. Shall we
say as it sounds right? I think for me, when
I was dancing, I remember feeling that whenever I moved
and danced, whatever emotional issues I was having, whatever stress
(05:58):
that I was having, was just released. And so when
I was younger, I just thought, well, that's just because
I'm doing what I love to do, right, And then
I went into I was in the ministry for a
little bit, and I loved doing what I did then,
but it was more just a mental application of spirituality.
So I felt something was missing. And so when I
came back to training and I started to move again,
(06:20):
I was like, Okay, this is what's missing. And then
through studying about embodied cognition and studying about how muscle
informs how you feel, I started to say, okay, this
is how we need to talk about movement. Yes, your
body will change, your spiritual change, your mindfulness will change.
(06:41):
So it's all embodied in movement.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
It's so interesting because I mean, now the wellness community
is we're catching up to you, right, you are a forerunner.
Are realizing now because we all talk about longevity. As
you know, optimism, sense of purpose, all of these things
that travel together and are so important in terms of
movement as how it contributes to that. Let's talk about
embodied cognition. Tell me about what does that mean and
(07:08):
how do you apply that.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
So there's been a common duality, right, the brain and
the body are two different things, and lever Twente meat
some of it is grounded in kind of religious thinking,
the temperance movement that the brain should have control over
the body.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Right.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Embodied cognition says that the body informs the brain. And
so for example, in its most simple state, you're hear
in the studio all the time.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
Chest up, shoulder blades.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Back right right, So mancha, if you are sitting with
your shoulders rolled forward, if your head is down, if
your shoulders are all the way up, it says you
feel different in your body than when you open up
your chest, open up your lungs, breathe into your lungs,
sit with your backstraight. You immediately feel differently right, gestural
(07:58):
postural change. So the body is informing how the brain feels.
And so when we get to movement, let's just say
like you're in a studio, so we have a real
intense focus on form and posture. So you're doing it
an exercise bicyccle. If we are asking you to stand
(08:23):
with correct posture, make sure that your arms are moving
through the right alignment and right range of motion. You've
taken your focus from your brain inside your body. Right,
Your focus has gone inside your body, and then your
breathing is connected to it. You're muscleing is being engaged.
As soon as that happens. Your movement is affecting what's
(08:45):
going on cognitively, right, and you have to be present.
The movement shuts out all the noise outside, So it's
like a movement meditation like it's movement is mindfulness in
motion because you're focusing inside your body. I love that,
and that becomes a movement meditation. It brings you present
(09:06):
to wherever you're at. And so embodied cognition says, you
know when your body moves, it affects how your brain functions,
and that then two are not separate. You don't have
just a body. You have a body that works with
your brain. So as you move, you become through movement
because the two think together.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Let's just talk about some really basic stuff because I'm
lucky enough to be able to go into your studio.
But I want to get some basics for our listeners
because they should hear your view on how women should
train differently during their cycles, or how women should train
differently at midlife. So let's just start with midlife. So
how should women train differently in midlife than when they
(09:49):
were younger? Actually? Or how doom, how should women train
differently than men? Because you have some big influencers saying
that men and women should train the same, So give
us your perspective on those two.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
I think what I want to do is give more
the why, and I'll give some of the how. But
what I mean is this midlife eeschras and decreases, right,
so that means bone density decreases. That means you're more
susceptible to osteoporosis. Right, Building lean muscle mass is going
to stimulate the osteoblasts, which is going to help you
(10:20):
build your bone density. So think of everything that you're
doing and in our icons program, which is what we
typically call this program, all of the signature movements are
to build aesthetics, your overall health, and your longevity.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
So you're training women forty and on pretty much and
I'm not going to say Indiana sixty because I'm over sixty.
So I'm like, we're not going to yeah, we're not
going to say forty to sixty. We're going to say
forty and beyond, right, and give me some specifics, like
how what are the specifics in terms of what is
the mix of cardio, what is the mix of strength
training hit? What is your what is I don't want
(11:01):
to ask you for your secret sauce, but what's your
secret sauce in terms of.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Okay, So there's two different levels to this. The first,
very basic level is that women on the mental respect
need to build lean muscle mass.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
Right.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Lean muscle mass has so many benefits, go into those later,
but for the purposes of the technique, one of the
fastest ways to build lean muscle mass is compound movements. Right,
large movements that recruit a lot of different joints.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Give us an example of a compound movement.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
So, okay, right, So a good squad with the knees
in the right position, your hips receding in the right
way so that you get a maximum amount of pressure
through your thighs, and as you stand through it, standing
through it with the right posture. Okay, so we want
to get you to build lean muscle mass as fast
as possible. At the same time for your brain and
(11:53):
also for your posture, we want you to move within
the right alignment. So our approach is very different in
terms of if most trainers will tell you don't train
the same body parts back to back, right, we take
a dance philosophy because if you look at dancers or athletes,
(12:15):
they typically train the same movement patterns, maybe in different ways,
but over and over every day day.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
A ballet dancer does peers every day, right, just tondus
every day, right. Because what happens is it allows the brain.
The first couple of times you do it's like, oh,
they're going to be sore, like hold back that movement,
make them tight. But the more that you do it,
your brain begins to ask your body to adapt to
(12:41):
the new demand that's placed on it. Now, that's important
because for our population, we want to build lean muscle mass,
but we also want them to really learn movement patterns
so that they accelerate more quickly, their joints are stronger,
and you know it helps with that long lean aesthetic. Right,
(13:01):
So we call it rift, repetition, interval intelligence. That's interval training.
So for the most part, it depends on where you're
at in your cycle. Interval training can be the best
or not so much the best, right, But in those
phases of the filliqular ovulatory stages, right, that's when you're
(13:24):
pushing right. So in those stages, that's when we'll use
interval training. And the particular kind of interval training we
use is to barts and then it's attention to detail
in a single joint movement like a bicep, but making
sure that you're supporting cast your core, your back is
supporting your biceps.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
So it's still a full.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Bodied movement, right, and meticulous attention to form an alignment
and posture.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
So you're training pretty much the whole body every session. Correct. Yes,
And so let's talk about interval training. Tell us what
that is. What do you mean by interval training.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
So interval training is when you have a big burst
of energy exercise, high velocity, high speed, high power exercise
followed by a period of rest right or slowed down.
So we use a lot of different ones, but the
ones that we are really part of the program. It's
about us which means you push as hard as you
(14:26):
can for about twenty seconds and then you'll rest for
ten seconds. Doctor Zuomi Tabarta, he was the trainer for
the Japanese speed Speeds getting team, and he figured out
the twenty seconds on ten seconds off boosted long cardiovascular capacity,
boosted the metabolism, and.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Then so in terms of interval training, in terms of
the sessions that you do with your clients, how much
of the session is interval training? Is it scattered throughout sessions,
scattered throughout the week, how do you put that in?
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Typically, what we're building towards is we want everybody to
be able to do two full interval set, two full
to barter sets, so that's twenty seconds on, ten seconds off,
eight times for four minutes. We want people a bill
to be able to do in two of those. You
have to modify it to the individual, but typically that's
(15:17):
what we're trying to do within the hour session. In
terms of cardio, there's also a lot of evidence that
endurance training is very advantageous to women.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Explain endurance training.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Training is you get on a you get on a treadmill,
you put the incline up to five and you know
you walk for twenty minutes. It's intense. It's not interval training,
but it's endurance training that over time is going to
help you build mong capacity, burn body fat.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
And also that's beyond zone too, right, yes, three zone four.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah, so you're you're pushing, you're stressing your cardiovascular in
a different way.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
So women should aim. You know, we have our guideline
recommendations right for one hundred and fifty minutes of cardio
zone two each week and three days of strength training,
and we, like I said, we typically tell people like
no more than that every forty eight hours. I always
wondering swimmer because I swam every day.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
But that's what I'm saying you, Okay, For example, you're swimming, right,
You swam every day yea, And so you learned how
to use your muscles in a certain movement pattern which
created a certain body type, and your your muscles conformed
to what you were doing. Yes, And there's so many
different ways, Like one hundred people here, one hundred and
fifty minutes of of cars like a lot, and they
(16:41):
freak out right, yeah, So that's why I'm like, okay,
do the interval training instead. It takes four minutes right, right,
so you can do it in eight minutes as opposed
to one hundred and fifty. And so that's where I
just think when you've got to be careful whenever anything
is an absolute right, right, you have to have one
hundred and fifty minutes, you have to have ten thousand steps.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
You have to know.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
You've got to adjust it to the individual, and there's
different ways to get there. For example, with my clients,
nutritionally we don't count calories. Many other places do, and
obviously there's benefits to it, but I'm like, get the
right amount of protein, get the right amount of vegetables
that are going to help you be nutritionally sound, eat
(17:22):
to feed the muscle, and eat to feed your energy.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
Right.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
And some people love the data of looking at the
calories that they consume, which is great. Most people don't
have the bandwidth to follow. Mark down, put it in
the app, take the picture. So let's give people what
they can do in a way that they can sustain
(17:46):
within their life.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Meeting somebody where they're at. Yeah, so I'm getting connectivity
right embody cognition and meeting somebody where they're at. I
was an athlete growing up, but I've never experienced the
kind of positive and supportive community that I found at
Brace Life Studios, and I really have never encountered it.
(18:11):
Training regimen so tailored to women, I wanted to talk
to Robert about how hormones and where you are in
your cycle can influence the way you approach training. That's
coming up next after the break, Let's go back to
(18:43):
training at different parts of your cycle. Right, For menopausal
individuals like myself, it's great, it's just always the same right, right,
so it's easy, But what about a client who's still cycling.
Right in terms of minstrel cycles.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
So the follicular of your laterary stage, that is when
we tend to push because the tesosterone is there, and
during that phase women can lift heavier. And but during
the lutail phase, when it's the more intense part of
your cycle, cortisol is up and you don't want to
(19:17):
keep spiking cortisol because and when I say you don't
want to keep spiking cortisol interval training, the stress of
interval training could do something like that. The stress of
a really intense weight lifting session could spike cordsol even more. Right,
So during that time, that's when you want to do
things that are going to reduce cortisol. Maybe you're doing
more stretching, maybe you're adding to breathing exercises there, meditation there,
(19:42):
and doing the movements that you have to focus more
inward for your posture and for the movement pathways. Right,
things that are going to allow you to regulate your
breathing so that you're calming the system down and reducing cordisol.
So it's very important to understand, you know where you
(20:03):
are in the cycle and adjust accordingly.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
So how can she know whether she's in the flicular
phase or that ovulatory phase where you know she's going
to train harder, and that luteal phase where she's going
to take it at sounds like a little easier on herself, correct.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
I think the best way to do it instead of
having remember the numbers and count the days and there's
so many apps out there.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Well put some Yeah, we'll put some resources out there
in the in the show notes for everybody, talk to
me about shifting hormones and as our hormones or estrogen
levels are declining. Many times, androgen levels and testosterone the
particularly challenges that older women or women midlife women also
would have in terms of building muscle. What are the
(20:47):
tips and tricks to get around that well?
Speaker 3 (20:50):
As you go over forty, testosterone is decreasing, which means
it's harder to put on lean muscle mass. So if
your testosterone is decreasing and your lean muscle mass is decreasing,
which helps with your bone density, your metabolism because as
you go through the menopause spec it's easier to gain
(21:12):
body fat, especially around the mid section due to estrogen drops. Right,
your progesterone is dropping, which has an effect on your sleep,
has an effect on yours, your stress resilience.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
The way to look at it is there's medicine in
the muscle, right.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
In the muscle.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Because we're saying we're almost repeating the same thing.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Estragen decreases we talked about bondensity, increase, your lean muscle
mass activates us to your blast. Your bone density increases.
Testopsterone decreasing during the menopause spectrum, progesterone is decreasing, Harder
to sleep, harder to deal with stress. You work out,
your lean muscle mass gives you the serotonin, gives you
(22:01):
the endorphins to deal with some of the anxiety and stress.
And also as you build more lean muscle mass, it
helps regulate your arcading rhythm. And So the thing that
I really love about what's happening now with the work
that you do with HRT, I think we're in this
really exciting place where women I get in touch with
(22:22):
what's going on with their bodies through people like yourself
understanding more about hormones getting to the stage in life
where at the height of their careers, the height of
their resources, height of their connections, they've got whatever wisdom
they've had throughout life, right that get to that place,
and then their bodies start to portray them.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, it's interesting. One of my patients, who was actually
a friend, said to me one day was, so she goes.
I spent my entire career in life trying to get
to the head of the boardroom table, and by the
time I got there, I felt so awful. I felt
physically bad. I couldn't remember my name, my memory was off,
I lost my self confidence. And so it's a very
interesting intersection of when we have all this power and
(23:03):
force behind either anything that we've done in life, whether
it's building our character, whether building, our career, our families,
and and then all of a sudden we're there and
then kaboom, like physiology throws us a curveball and says,
why you're here? And you don't feel so great? Right,
So it's this great intersection. I mean, what I love
about you is like you were sitting at that intersection
(23:25):
right now, really helping women like rock the second half
of their lives or they're the it's not even the
second halves, it's like the two thirds, you know. So
what do you see as the future of that intersection.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
I think that we have separated medical and fitness, right,
and they haven't really intertwined except for your trainer tells
you to see your doctor something's wrong. Your doctor tells
you go to go exercise, right, the two. Really, I
think the two are going to come together. And what
(24:00):
I mean by that is once people are able to
understand the connection between health tricks you know, bone density,
how your again lean muscle mass is working, and how
(24:20):
your stress levels all the tests that we talk about, right,
once we start to connect that data to physical transformation,
I think that's when people will begin to understand there's
a connection here. And I think that people like me,
and you need to be working together more to tell
(24:40):
the whole story as opposed to the story in these
different silos. Oh, I'm working out to lose weight. Oh
I'm seeing my doctor because I'm not feeling well, or
I'm just getting tests to see, you know, to make
sure that I'm okay, as opposed to you know, if
these things all work together, you can harness a physical
and mental power in your own life that we haven't
(25:01):
seen before. And to me, it just doesn't make sense
that we're not working more closely together.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Even you know, when you talk about the mental power too,
I mean the spirituality aspect of it. But just like
just just use the word mental health, right, because there's
a number of studies that have shown that exercise and
fitness actually works just as well as an SSRI for
some people. And so I mean this is real. Like
you said, the muscle is the medicine. The medicines and
(25:27):
the muscle. Talk to me a little bit about weight.
You know so many women struggle with weight at midlife.
Do you talk about weight at all or is it
just really transformation of the body habitus.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
We talk about weight insofar as how it helps a
client in front of us, because talk about weight can
be discouraging and sometimes as you're working out, it might
go up and it will plateau, and the plateau is
a normal part it means if the plateaum means you're
doing something right, because your body's trying to find homeless
(26:00):
stations right, So you need to find a different way
to challenge it. And so for some people, monitoring weight
is stressful. For other people it keeps them on track.
So we really modify it to the actual person and
we try to say, look, losing you know, one to
two pounds per week is is great. You know, we
(26:22):
have had people lose more than that, but again it's
not through crazy crash dieting or anything extreme, but making
sure that the program that you're on, all of those
different elements that we talked about, the compound movements, deciding
whether it's right to do interval training now or more
endurance training, that all of those things are carefully monitored.
(26:44):
So I talk about it in as far as it
helps the client. If that doesn't help you mentally or spiritually,
and it causes more anxiety, then don't do it right.
A lot of my clients go about how their clothes feel.
And we also take pictures at the beginning so that
clients can see the micro changes.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
And I advise.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
People to take those pictures because you see yourself every day.
We had one client she came in and she was
maybe about four or five weeks in. She's like, this
isn't working. My body's not changing. I still feel a
certain way, you know, I just don't see any change.
And so I took out her first picture. We took
(27:28):
a picture of her second picture, and there was.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
A market difference.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yeah, And so once she was encouraged, she was motivated
to go on. But two she started to ask herself
other questions. Why can't I see that right? Why am
I paying attention to the good study like that?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah? So interesting. It's the self confidence. What are some
of the biggest transformations you've seen in your clients, either
physically but also emotionally spiritually. I mean, I've had a
huge breakthrough. I approached my day, like I said, so
much differently. And I love the focus on what you're
actually doing that movement, meditation and focusing on what muscle
(28:04):
am I moving And it's for me mental health wise.
It's been absolutely huge and allowed me to power through
some very difficult times recently with my family. But what
are some of the biggest breakthroughs that you've seen in
your clients.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
There's quite a few. There's one who I'm thinking of
in particular. She did come with her knee injury and
an ankle injury, and.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
So we helped her through that.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
But she had said she passed a shop window and
she saw a white bikini and she said to herself, Oh,
those days are of me, And so that was just
how she was feeling before she came. Now, yes, she
changed her body, she was able to get into a bikini,
but the point isn't just that. The point was she's
(28:49):
got emotional because she thought, where else am I selling
myself short? And where else have I just settled? And
so it really changed the way she started to engage.
She was already successful, but it took her to new places.
So it's things like that transformation pitches you've seen over
(29:11):
and over again, right, But it's the emotional empowerment that
it creates. And then you're in an environment where you're
seeing all of these different women transform.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
You know. We had another.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Client who was kind of quiet, right, she came in,
got a work done, and then she mentioned she was like,
I was on the beach and my body felt great,
and I felt great about my body, and I'd never
been skinny dipping, so I just I just went for it.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
And.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
It was a bit of a moment, like okay.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Call it.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Empowered her in such a way, and so we feel
the whole team fields a win when we see that.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Coming up next, practical tips for how anyone can get started,
no matter where you are on your fitness journey. We'll
be right back. I got started on my fitness journey.
(30:25):
I was always an athlete, and then I became a
surgeon running a busy private practice, and then got sick
and had cancer, and I was facing chemotherapy and radiation therapy,
and I was like, I'm not going to miss a
day of work, so I better start exercising because there's
this great data that shows that you can beat chemotherapy
fatigue by exercise. Actually, so I just started at the
(30:47):
end of my bed doing some push ups and setups
and what I could do without equipment. So that's how
I got started. And I got started at like five
minutes a day that it was before I went and
got my radiation I'd go do some setups and push ups,
but what how does somebody get started and who maybe
can't doesn't have the resources to go to a gym,
or doesn't have might I always here like I don't
have time to go to the gym, or I travel
(31:07):
too much, I can't get to the gym. Like where
do we started as women? Midlife women?
Speaker 4 (31:13):
I think two things.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
I mean, sounds off, you stop where you're at, And
what I mean by that is do what feels good.
If you have in trouble getting started, you're feeling your
schedule is too much or the energy to do what
feels good. And that can be riding a bike, it
can be going to a dance class. And I want
to be specific here because there's a difference between being
(31:37):
active and being fit. Right, Being active, gardening, going for
walks great for overall health, but rarely is it going
to move you forward in terms of the real big
health markers. So do something that's going to do that.
So something that's a little more vigorous. That's why I'm
(31:59):
saying by writing dancing in my own heart of hearts,
I want every woman to be lifting weights and so
whatever you can do to do that whether it's go
to a gym, and most of the big box gyms
will give you a complimentary session with a trainer and
you can just ask them to show you how to
(32:20):
use all of the machines.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Right, and so great idea.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
That that's one way so that you're getting a full
body work out with weights. But the main thing is
really starting where you're at. Like you said you were
you know, you had cancer, you were very sick, and
the most that you could do is get to the
end of the bed and do a few pushups. So
if that's where you're at, start there. And while you
(32:44):
start there, pay attention to how you're feeling afterwards, beyond
the soreness, because when you first start, you will be
sold that will go away. But pay attention to how
you're feeling so that you're more motivated to continue.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Yeah, I mean I think that. I always tell people, like,
once you start, you're going to feel so good, and
that five minutes turns into fifteen minutes, turns into twenty minutes,
and then like if you're kind of crazy like I am,
if I'm at home working out on my own, into
an hour and I have a bench at the end
of our bed now and a walking treadmill and some cattlebells,
and do you recommend yes, kind of good. It's like
(33:19):
my husband's like, you're going to turn the whole house
into a job and yeah, so do you recommend buying
like for women who maybe are are intimidated by community fitness,
who are like, Okay, I don't want to go to
the gym. I don't want to be you know, I
just don't. I don't want to do that. I mean,
do you recommend like buying some barbells on cragslist or Amazon,
some kettlebells, and do you have any recommendations for that,
(33:41):
like what people should start.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
With or I would say start with a three five
and an eight pound weight, get yourself a mat, right,
and I would start There's a bunch of different apps.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Nikes got a great.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
App, right, it's right, Yeah, we even have an exercise platform,
and just start doing basic workouts. YouTube has a lot
of stuff, but look for the very basic workouts and
look for something that gives you proper form because people
are catching on to do there's more trainers really focusing
(34:15):
on form and if you start there, you're going to
see improvement. But a couple of dumb bells and everybody
can do that. Get a little space in your house,
your apartment, wherever it is, and leave that as your
dedicated space to work out.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
And you said you have an exercise platform.
Speaker 4 (34:32):
Yes, it's called the Brace Life.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
That started during the pandemic, and what we wanted to
do was have people engage with their mind, their body,
and their soul, so something mindful in other words, listening
to a mindful message, physicality, body workouts. So there's everything
from yoga to our twenty eight day challenge, to our
icons program, a digital form on there. And then your soul,
(34:59):
which we when we talk about soul talking about soul
level qualities peace, you know, calm, and that's where meditation
and breathing exercises coming. So on that platform, the whole
aim is for you to do a little bit of
those every single day, and there's a little dial that
helps you know how much of your mind, your body,
and soul you've engaged with for that day. And then
you can do it in groups as well. You can
(35:20):
invite your friends and create a small group and do
it together. So we created that during the pandemic because
we saw the value in people not only moving by
getting community and getting in touch spending time thinking about
their own mindfulness and their own spirit.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I love that. I just I love that connect all connectivity.
I keep using that word. So you had an event
recently with Sharon Malone, who is actually a former classmate
of Mind Medical School, which was so cool, and Sharon
said something the trinity of health being sleep, exercise, and nutrition,
and that really resonated with me. So let's just talk
(35:59):
a little bit about and I love the word trinity
and but nutrition, let's drill down a little bit on
how much protein should bid life women be eating who
are training with you.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
Freak everybody out, Okay, I.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Don't think so. I don't think you're going what this
crowd is.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
In the growth phase.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
It's what it's er point eight to one gram of
protein per pound of body weight, right, And that's what
we created videos on this because you know, one hundred
and fifty pound woman says I need to eed one
hundred and fifty grams of protein every single day. Yes,
and it can be done. You have two eggs, you
(36:40):
have greek yogurt in the morning, and if each of
your meals has about your your main meals, breakast, hunch,
dinner has about thirty grams of protein which you can
get right. I'm serving a fish, if you have a steak,
you know that's going to help boost it. And then
you have your protein shakes as snacks or your mid
(37:01):
mid morning, mid afternoon snack or post workout snack. You
can get that amount into your diet.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
And the that's actually I usually recommend a gram to
art clients and patients creatine. Talk to me about creating
a lot of women don't like creating because it may
cause some bloating and water retention. What are your recommendations
and guidelines for creating usage.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
Creating is great when you're on a training program, right,
because it's going to help you engage without getting too
technical with the creating phosphate, it's going to help you
engage your muscles more and actually more reps more weight
during your workouts what we call work in a workout right.
And then there are other benefits. There's protection of brain
(37:46):
health with creating right. So if you are on a
strength training program, I recommend it. It helps you enjoy
your workout more, get more out of your workout. You're
not as fatigued and helps you recover better lovely.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
What would be if you could give some tips for
midlife women for fitness and feeling better about themselves and
movement through life and spirituality and just feeling better and good.
What would you leave us with In terms of a message.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
The message is that if you are in any way,
if you're ornamental perspectrum and you haven't really spoken to
your doctor, or you're not engaged in a program, and
you're feeling tired, joints are aching, you're feeling like the
best years are behind you, you're feeling you're not sleeping well,
(38:41):
you've got increased anxiety that you don't know where it
came from. If you're feeling those things, first of all,
pay attention to those and I understand you really do
not have to continue to live that way. There are solutions.
Whether if you're like I'm not going to exercise just yet,
then go see your doctor discuss HRT or hormone therapy
(39:04):
or at least get to understand what's going on. And two,
if you're ready to move, I'm telling you that there
is such a vitality, a strength and energy, let alone
a body change and transformation that you're going to have
on the other side of you engaging with wellness, engaging
with muscle building, engaging with and maybe I should stop
(39:26):
saying muscle building because I think maybe in some people's
minds are thinking bodybuilding, but like just to say, engaging
with getting stronger and more aligned with your body and
more in tune with your body. On the other side
of that is such vibrance. As I say, stress relief,
(39:48):
But the other side of stress relief is joy, vitality.
There's a life that you can be living with more energy,
strength and vitality then you're living now. You don't have
to stay there, and so if you're in that place,
just understand there are solutions and it doesn't have to
(40:10):
take that long.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
You know, I am having gone to two of your
community events right in terms of related to midlife women's
health and menopause. The questions are so amazing that arise
at those events in terms of not only there's a
lot of them, but the curiosity is so intense. And
so I think that you're doing such a great service
(40:32):
for women who may not hear it from their doctors
that you don't have to feel this way. You can
feel better how Can people find you online? Can people
can do your online programs online?
Speaker 3 (40:42):
You can go to the brace Life thebracelife dot com.
If you want to come and see you in person,
it's Bracelife Studios dot com.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Love it okay, love it excellent. We hear it all
the time, doctors telling their patients you should exercise, but
usually that's the extent of the advice. It can be
so hard to know how to get started or to
find a workout that feels right for you and your life.
(41:10):
That's why I'm so grateful to have found Robert and
his studio a space where I can move but also
build community, because fitness is far more than weight loss.
Movement is great for our mental health and for our
spiritual wellbeing, and building that organ of longevity muscle and
being in a gym or a yoga studio or a
(41:31):
community pool can also foster connection, something that we all
know is so important to living a vibrant and healthy
life at any age. And I know exercising in a
group setting can be intimidating for some women, but trust me,
it's worth being brave and giving it a try, because
there are studies that back what Robert was talking about
(41:52):
that working out in a group can actually boost the
benefits of working out in the first place. Remember, muscle
is medicine. Building lean muscle mass is key for so
many vital functions. It can help improve bone density and
regulate our metabolism. Building muscle can also help us manage
stress and improve our sleep and also our moods, So
(42:15):
integrate strength training into your routine. Also, short focused interval
training is another great way to move your body, especially
when you don't have a ton of time. Consider using
an app to track your cycle to better understand your
body and how to adjust your workouts accordingly. Robert recommended
(42:36):
pushing yourself more during the follicular and ovulatory phases and
scaling back intensity during the luteal phase. Wherever you are
in your fitness journey, be patient and kind to yourself.
You won't always see or feel obvious changes immediately, but
you have to zoom out to see the big picture.
(42:56):
It's not about the numbers on the scale. It's about
feeling confident, energetic, and ready to take on whatever life
throws your way. Coming up on the next episode of
Decoding Women's Health, I'll be joined by an expert on
psychedelics to explore how this class of drugs might be
helpful to women working through trauma and chronic pain.
Speaker 5 (43:18):
Some days we forget that there are two sides to pain,
and that's the thing that is closing the pain, and
that's the thing that is perceiving the pain. And it's
the thing that is perceiving the pain.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
I el brains.
Speaker 5 (43:28):
Has gotten stock on thinking pain is expected. Any pain
that we do then feel, will feel in a more
intense way.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Dacoding Women's Health is a production of Pushkin Industries and
the Adria Health and Research Institute. This episode was produced
by Rebecca Lee Douglas and Daphne Chen. It was edited
by Amy Gaines McQuaid, mastering by Sarah Bruguier. Our associate
producer is Sonya Gerwitt. Our executive producer is Alexandra Garreton.
(43:59):
Our theme song was composed by Hannis Brown. Concept creative
development and fact checking by Shabbon O'Connor. Special thanks to
Alan Tish, David Saltzman, Sarah Nick, Eric Sandler, Morgan Rattner,
Owen Miller, Jordan McMillan, and Greta Cone. If you have
(44:19):
questions about women's health and midlife. Leave us a voicemail
at four fix five two oh one, three three eight five,
or send us a message at Decoding Women's Health at
Pushkin dot FM. I'm doctor Elizabeth Pointer. Thanks for listening.
Until next time,
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