October 15, 2025 • 54 mins
Are you making the single biggest mistake in your fitness journey? What if everything you thought you knew about building a strong, muscular physique was wrong, and the secret was hiding in disciplines you've been avoiding? In episode 823 of the Savage Perspective Podcast, host Robert Sikes sits down with dancer and Pilates expert Andrea Leigh to reveal why women should embrace strength training to build bone density and why your mindset around movement might be the only thing holding you back from seeing real results. Andrea explains how simple, consistent movements can completely transform your body and your life.
Want to build a truly powerful physique? Join Robert’s FREE Bodybuilding Masterclass to discover the key principles for maximizing muscle growth and strength: https://www.ketobodybuilding.com/registration-2
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Subscribe to the podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/42cjJssghqD01bdWBxRYEg?si=1XYKmPXmR4eKw2O9gGCEuQ
Chapters:
0:00 - Why All Women Need To Start Lifting Weights
0:35 - Why Nutrition Is Useless Without This
1:23 - How a Dancer Became a Fitness CEO
2:55 - What Kind of Dance Is Best For Fitness?
3:58 - How a Dance Coach Transformed My Bodybuilding Posing
5:15 - What Is Pilates (And Is It Just For Women)?
7:17 - The #1 Mistake Lifters Make & How Pilates Fixes It
7:47 - Beginner’s Guide: Mat Pilates vs. Reformer Pilates
9:06 - How Often Should You Do Pilates For The Best Results?
10:37 - Why Strength Training Is Non-Negotiable For Women
11:59 - What Is a Barre Workout? (It's Not What You Think)
13:34 - Why Most Bodybuilders Are Secretly Weak
14:50 - Are Women Finally Embracing Lifting Heavy?
18:21 - Why "Eating Less" Is Keeping You From Your Dream Body
20:57 - Menopause Weight Gain? Do This, NOT That.
23:32 - "Movement Snacks": How to Get Fit in 2 Minutes
26:42 - The Secret to Burning More Calories Without "Working Out"
29:43 - The Power of "Non-Negotiable" Daily Habits for Success
32:47 - The "Maintenance" Myth: You're Either Growing or Decaying
35:10 - The Mindset Shift That Makes Fitness Effortless
35:53 - A Client's Impossible 100-Pound Transformation Story
39:56 - Got Off Track? The "Flat Tire" Analogy You Need to Hear
40:49 - Is Matcha Actually Healthier Than Coffee?
44:17 - The Launch of "Small Moves, Big Life"
47:10 - How to Take Your Bodybuilding Posing to the Next Level
49:12 - How to Spot a Bad Pilates Instructor (Red Flags)
51:45 - Is Repeating the Same Workout a Waste of Time?
53:12 - Where to Get The Book & FREE Workouts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So many women that I know are like, I'm not going to if you're
not lifting because you think it's going to bulk you up and
it's not good for you. Let's have a real conversation
here. But I think now that has
shifted. I have seen now so many women
becoming aware, not even from a an aesthetic standpoint, but
just the fact that we need bone strength and we need to be
(00:21):
focusing on strength training and resistance training without.
Doubt women going through menopausal years perimenopause.
During that Phase, I would encourage them all to prioritize
the weight training and buildingand preserving as much muscle
and bone density as a. 100%. And we are live.
Andrew, how are you doing? Yeah, I'm doing good.
How are you doing? I'm good.
I'm excited to chat with you. Actually just got back from a
(00:41):
conference this past weekend in Tennessee and nutrition
conference. But like so much of the
audience, like 98% of the audience was filled with people
that are not really they're, they're doing the right things
nutritionally, but they haven't figured out the movement pattern
of things. And it's overwhelming for them
for me to be talking to them as a bodybuilder.
(01:01):
I try to break it down and like anything's better than nothing,
you know, doing your hands with where you're at.
But you're, you've mastered the art of making just day-to-day
habits and routines functional, easy, efficient, and
sustainable. So I'm excited to dive into it
with you. I love hearing that, Yes, spot
on. Yes, indeed.
What what got you in the space to begin with?
Give me some back story before we dive into the nuts and.
(01:23):
Bolts yeah, sure. Well, I was a dancer growing up
so I started dancing at the age of three always loved to move so
my mom's like you got to go and dance and then I just fell in
love with movement. So from a very young age, I just
have not got movies set. So took my dance career segued
that into a Pilates career afterI went to college, got my degree
and realized I couldn't sit behind a desk and like have a
(01:43):
real adult job. I was like, I'm going to go into
the Pilates world. And as a professional dancer, I
had used Pilates as a tool to stay healthy, right, to keep my
body injury free. And so I recognized that I
would, you know, have a kinship with this Pilates and the
scientific approach to movement.And so I became a classical
Pilates instructor, comprehensive and absolutely
(02:06):
fell in love with the technique,with the, with the work itself.
And then after a few years of teaching Pilates, I started to
miss the freedom of choreographythat I had as a dancer and
choreographer and started to implement some of the dance
choreography into my private Pilates sessions.
And my clients were really resonating.
They were responding. They're like, do more of that
(02:26):
dance thing you did, you know, So I would use the latter
barrel, which is an apparatus and Pilates, and I would start
to do some classic dance moves. And right at that time, bar
workouts were starting to reallybecome a thing in New York and
LA, but not kind of worldwide. And so I started just kind of
sprinkle in, I launched a class in South Florida.
It took off. It turned into a certification
(02:50):
program that I launched in SouthFlorida.
That turned into a licensing model, that turned into
franchising, and then we went digital.
I love it. All right, we got to do some
some behind the curtain definition terminology because
I'm, I'm a bodybuilder, not a dancer.
What kind of dance were you starting out with when you first
got into the sport of dancing? Yes.
Well, I mean, I first, I mean, Idid everything when I was
(03:10):
dancing. I did tap, jazz, ballet,
lyrical, modern, like all of it,right?
I did all of it. But when I'm thinking in terms
of just the movement and the workout segment itself and that
component of dance, it is very more ballet based.
So we're talking about the A's and we're talking about
relevies, we're talking about about Fatma's and leg kicks and
(03:31):
just a lot of isometric type of movements that are then flow
into more large comprehensive movements.
Nice, I took a ballroom dance incollege for a semester and I
threw that. Did you?
Yeah, that's so cool. I remember what all we did.
We did some some class, school, some shoot, I don't even
(03:53):
remember what all we. Did isn't that amazing though?
Didn't it teach you to use your body in a different way?
And yeah, and it's. Interesting.
I'm actually super excited to talk about this because, you
know, as a bodybuilder, I do like choreographed routines and
you know, like last competitive season I had I hired A opposing
coach and that was the first time I never just, you know,
(04:14):
Wong it and did it myself. And you know, she's a
professional dancer and she, I mean, we worked hirelessly on
getting my movement patterns down for the choreographed
routine segment of the routine. And it like made all the
difference in the world. Like it was brutal.
It was frustrating, it was very challenging.
But I mean, I, it, it showed on stage for sure.
(04:34):
So I feel like from a bodybuilder, I mean,
bodybuilding is an art and danceand movement is an art.
And if you can pair the two together like, it's just
breathtaking. Magic it is, it really is.
Yeah, the two, the two together and I love, you know, I attended
my friend Sean T has recently gone into the bodybuilding in
the competitive world, and I attended one of his competition.
(04:54):
Now, he has the dance background, but I, it's funny
you mentioned that 'cause I remember watching on stage all
of these, you know, performers and they were just moving so
seamlessly from one move to the next and focusing so deeply on
that mind body connection, on how to activate those muscles,
how to best show off their form and technique.
And I was like, oh, there's dance in this.
There is dance in this technique.
(05:14):
Yeah, I appreciated it. Yeah, I definitely want to come
back to dance, but Pilates real quick.
So define Pilates and what that is exactly?
Is it like a standard? Yeah, have you done a Pilates
class before? I have not.
OK, you're going to love it. I am so big on men, especially
men who are in the bodybuilding world or in the athletic world
to really like get rid of all ofthe preconceived notions that
(05:39):
you have that Pilates is for like women.
And it's I don't have much like.I've done like yoga and that's
been humbling for sure. Pilates is incredibly humbling
and Pilates is all about the technique of controllogy and
controlled movement, and it's all about mind body connection.
So not really long in terms of reps like you're not going to do
12 to 14 reps, you're going to do 3 to 4 or maybe 8.
(06:01):
But the focus is on really understanding how to activate
muscles in order to create that movement and how to utilize form
and technique and breath to control the power of the
movement. And so, you know, you, if you
were doing one Rep and you're applying Pilates principles,
come, it's like doing, you know,20 reps without it.
You know what I mean? It's just, it really teaches you
(06:22):
how to turn it on and how to getthe most bang for your buck on
every single movement. I really say that, look, once
you learn Pilates and you know it and you understand Pilates,
everything you do after in termsof movement will be 10 times
better. You will apply it to everything
that you do in everyday life, but bodybuilders specifically
will, you will see everything change.
(06:42):
I used to train, you know, professional athletes, I trained
linebackers and I worked with the big dudes, you know, and
they're like, they're doing these moves, they're doing my
bar moves, my Pilates moves and they're doing it for a reason.
And you're seeing it now coming to more mainstream because
there's purpose behind it and there's such power and force in
the mobility component, flexibility component and the
strength component as well. So it's a, it's a win win for
(07:06):
any discipline. So if you're someone that loves
to bodybuild, you're someone that loves to run.
If you're someone that just loves to lift in general,
Pilates is going to better everysingle output and you're going
to feel a big difference. And once you start doing
Pilates. I mean, I can totally respect
that. I feel like so many people in
like the bodybuilding space, even they're not body, but just
people just go to the gym and they lift weights with
conventional movement patterns. Like there's just this massive
(07:28):
lack of mind muscle connection. And I just go through the
motions. Just simply you performing the
repetitions but with no focus, no connection, no, you know,
full range of motion, no stimulus.
So anything that you can do to make that front of mind, which I
would assume Pilates would do toa tee.
To a tee. To a tee.
It's over. So the one where you're like in
(07:50):
this slanted contraption on curries and ropes.
I mean, there's multiple forms of Pilates.
There's classic traditional mat Pilates, which is just performed
with your body. You want a mat right on a yoga
mat, Pilates mat, and that is probably the best place to
start. That is the foundation.
And then you take all of those movements and you apply it on
two different apparatuses. There is a machine called a
(08:12):
Cadillac, which is an elevated mat with, you know, horizontal
vertical poles on each side and then horizontal one on top.
And there's a lot of springs andresistance used via spring
resistance. And so that's one machine.
There's a tower and there is a reformer, which you use spring
resistance again. Yeah, Yeah.
And you know, qualities was developed originally for more of
(08:34):
a therapeutic and rehab type of purpose.
And then it it's segwayed into mainstream.
And you'll see by using these springs, they are a beast.
I mean, you're going to love it.I cannot wait for you to take a
class. You're going to take a class
next week and you're going to message me and tell me what you
think because the, and you're going to take like 5 going to
sign it for five because the first one's bewildering.
And you're going to be like, what the hell am I doing this?
(08:55):
Not for me. And then the second and third
might be that way. By the 4th or 5th, you're going
to be like, OK, I feel this. This is, this is humbling and I
need this in my life. And you're going to see how much
improvement you're going to gainfrom just that knowledge that
you get in those few classes. So would when it comes to like
people making kind of like we said in the very beginning,
people have to start with where they're at and progress from
there. It comes to Pilates as the
(09:17):
primary form of movement patternand training.
Like what would be like the bestcadence to get the the most bang
for your buck? And as you advance, is that
something that you would do in tandem with a lifting routine,
or is that something that could in theory replace all other
forms of training? Yes, great questions.
So first of all, I always say start small.
(09:38):
Obviously, that's the whole premise of my philosophy in
life, a small moose, big life. So when I decided to launch this
book, I also filmed workouts to coordinate with the book.
So if you buy the book, you sendyour receipt, you get free
workouts with me. They're 10 minutes each and
there's it, they're all Pilates and Barbase workouts.
And I wanted to make them 10 minutes because first of all, I
(09:58):
packed a lot into those 10 minutes.
And if you're someone who's listening, it's like, what am I
going to possibly get out of 10 minutes, Andrea, do all of my
workouts and then come back and we'll have a conversation.
Because I promise you, you'll dothose 10 minutes and
everything's going to be shakingand quivering.
And because we, we get you into that point of mind, body
connection and really optimizingevery Rep.
So start there. Then from there, I would say
(10:19):
find what you enjoy doing in terms of workouts.
And if it's going to be Pilates or bar, that can be an online
workout. I do a lot of 30 minute, I have
15 minute express workouts or could be going to a local studio
to take a class and having a little bit more support and
accountability there. But in terms of long term play,
for me, my biggest thing is you want to focus on strength and
(10:39):
resistance all the way, right? Of course, you want your cardio,
you want to get your, you know, your heart health and you want
to make sure that you're focusedon that as well.
But I think now we are understanding the power
specifically for women to reallyunderstand how strength and
resistance plays a role in our bodies, specifically as we age.
And so I encourage everyone to do what they like and they enjoy
in the strength of resistance category.
(11:00):
If you love to lift, lift, try to add Pilates in a couple times
a week to see how it can advanceyour your practices.
If you hate lifting and it is just not for you, tried it.
You know you should do it, but it's not for you.
Pilates alone can be an incredible tool.
You just have to make sure that you're utilizing, you know,
you're going to the right studio, you're getting the right
routine, and you're not just going to one of those studios
where people are trained in the weekend and teaching you a bunch
(11:23):
of crazy stuff on a reformer andyou're going to get injured.
So you just got to pick and makesure that you're doing the right
routines and the right workouts,but you have to enjoy them.
I mean, it's hard to show up, right, to work out every day.
And if you hate what you're doing and your body hates it,
then you're less likely to stay,stay, you know, sustainable.
You're just less sustainable. So I always say you want to lean
into those movements and those workouts that immediately go,
(11:46):
yeah, I like that. Like, that feels joyful for me.
That's good. I feel great after I do that
work. I get high from it, you know,
and that will help you to, you know, combat that lack of
motivation that you get when youare struggling to get to the gym
or starting to go to the studio.Totally agree.
Totally agree. You've mentioned bar workout.
You talking like just an Olympicbar?
No. So I do.
I own a company called Extend Bar.
That's really what my business is.
(12:07):
And it's a combination of dance and Pilates.
And it was, it's a ballet bar. So you hold on to a ballet bar
and you do a lot of very detailed specific moves in
weight bearing positions and it will humble the hell out of you
like it is. Inverted rows and stuff like
that. No, no, like like holding on to
a bar and lowering your legs andlifting your legs, like bending
(12:30):
your knees and extending your legs, doing big movements.
It's all different type of weight bearing movements
specifically focused in more of the dance niche, but it's a
little bit more of a low weight,high Rep formula and it is
incredibly humbling. That's what I used to treat a
lot trading with the a lot of athletes that I worked with.
(12:50):
And it's if you watch it, if youwatch, you'll go on my
Instagram, see some of my moves.You'll be like, I got that.
And then I want you to do it. Just use your countertop at home
and try it. It's incredible.
It's, it's incredible the difference that you're body
recognizes the difference. You're like, I'm strong.
I can lift whatever you can lift, right?
And then you go to do these little movements and lift your
(13:11):
leg off the floor and hold it there using your, using your abs
as the primary initiator. And you're like, what have I
never worked out of my life? You know, it's just a different
way of your muscles moving. And we all need that, right?
In order to continue to evolve and improve in our in our
exercise and movement and in life, we need to step outside
the comfort zone and try something different.
(13:33):
And I feel like like all this stuff is so applicable to people
regardless. I mean, just for the life, like
not necessary for a given sport,but like if you can control your
muscles, understand muscular contractions properly.
And I mean, you think of like people that are at risk of
falling like all that holding onthemselves up.
Very much so. I mean like in body weight stuff
in general, like bodybuilders are very guilty of only going
(13:56):
towards, you know, heavy weightsand not seeing what they can do
unassisted with just their body weight.
Like I'm, I've always been terrible at pull ups and I
started committing to doing pullups and it was super humbling.
But now I've gotten pretty good at pull ups but it's only
because I started incorporating them.
I'm the same is true with a bar work.
I didn't just go sign up for a ballet class sometime and just
walk in. You got to sign up for a bar
(14:16):
workout. They're everywhere.
Just Google bar workouts in yourarea.
They're everywhere. And yeah, it will make your, it
will improve your lifting 1000%.Just like stretching, right?
Like, just like the things that we avoid are often the things
that we don't enjoy doing, but we know we need to do.
So your recognition of saying, hey, pull ups aren't my thing,
clearly that's where I'm lacking, right?
(14:36):
And this is where I need to workon.
And then knowing that you can overcome that.
And now because you are attacking those in such a
diligent way, you're going to see everything else kind of
change a little bit too, right? Not only physically, but in your
mindset and your ability to kindof overcome those challenges.
100% Do you feel like the femaledemographic, I mean, there's
(14:58):
certainly a lot more, you know, research, scientific literature
and just people online talking about the importance of building
muscle, preserving muscle, especially from a longevity
standpoint as we age. But do you feel like the tides
are starting to shift so that mainstream society is on board
with that and seeking that out? Are they still kind of hesitant
to adopt those? I have seen a shift over the
(15:18):
last couple of years, thankfully, of people getting,
you know, even with my workouts,people say, well, am I going to
bulk up? Are my thighs going to get big?
You know, am I going to my arms going to get too big?
Or they'll start my workout and they'll start to feel and see
changes in their body. Let's just stick with it.
Like your body's going to changeand evolve as you gain muscle
mass, right? As you, as you grow in strength
(15:38):
and you grow in knowledge and form, you're going to see your
body change. And that's an OK thing.
But don't freak out when you look down, your quads are
feeling a little bit stronger. Like give it some time and see
how your body eventually falls into place.
And I've had to push women to get outside of that mentality of
I don't want to do this. That's going to bulk my body up.
(15:59):
And of course that relates to weightlifting.
So many women that I know we're like, I'm not going to lift.
I'm not going to lift. Like, listen, if you don't like
it, you absolutely hate it. It feels terrible on your body.
That is one thing. But if you're not lifting
because you think it's going to bulk you up and it's not good
for you, Let's have a real conversation here, you know, but
I think now that has shifted. I have seen now so many women
(16:21):
becoming aware, not even from a,an aesthetic standpoint, like
what I'm going to look like, butjust the fact that we need bone
strength, right? And we know that in order to
have that bone strength, we needto be lifting, We need to be
focusing on strength training and resistance training without
without doubt. And I think now that education
is out there, I think it is mainstream.
(16:41):
I think women understand it and are more inclined to embrace it.
You know, we, we want to be strong as we get older, right?
Yes, you want to look good, but we want to be able to feel good.
We want to do good. We want to move good.
And this messaging now is I feellike completely out there and
I'm loving it. I'm loving it, are now finally
starting to embrace it. Yeah, no, I totally agree.
(17:03):
It's it's unfortunate that you know, magazine covers of the
totally jacked female bodybuilders, right, with such a
stigma in the mainstream becauseI mean.
It's true. I've been lifting for 15 years
and I would love to look like some of those female bodies
that's. Exactly it if you're my friends
that are lifters say the same thing.
They're like, I have tried to look like that.
Not everybody like that's not the norm and I have so many
(17:24):
friends that lift on a regular basis and they look insane, but
they do not look like that. They're not jacked like that.
They just look strong and healthy.
And also I think strength is an addiction.
I will say that like when I'm atmy strongest and I am the most
consistent of my movement and myworkouts, which I and I like,
let's say I'm prepping for a shoot and I just want to get
that next level right. That strength is an addiction.
(17:47):
When you feel energized, your body feels strong, your mind
feels like it's operated at a higher frequency, everything
starts to fall in place. And, and I think that's the
addiction, right? You're like, oh, wow.
When I do these kind of workouts, yes, it's hard when
I'm doing it and yes, it can deplete me for a moment.
But overall, when I zoom out, I feel really good, like I'm
(18:08):
strong, I have more energy. I, I don't, you know, slump over
my chair at 3:00 in the afternoon.
I, I, I'm eating healthier, which is fueling my body and
giving me more endorphins and all these other things, you
know, so I think it all comes into play.
And so working out can become this beautiful, healthy
addiction. That's a much healthier
addiction than a lot of the alternative options out there.
(18:29):
I feel like in order for women, but me and anybody who optimize
muscle building, they need to embrace the idea of not
chronically be dieting down and putting themselves in a deficit.
Because obviously in order to optimize muscle growth, you'd be
getting at somewhat of a healthysurplus.
So as you've seen the mentality shift in your female demographic
who appreciate and adopt this principle of building more
(18:52):
muscle, have you also seen them more willing to eat more food
and not constantly be seen or seat searching for that scale
weight to be dropping? Not in my network,
unfortunately, not yet, no. I think it is still this I, I
shouldn't say not at all. I have seen a definite shift,
but it's not significant. I still think there is, you
(19:12):
know, the most of my questions in my DMS is Andrew, I've been
doing these workouts or these workouts, these workouts, and
this is my, my diet of the moment and I haven't been able
to lose weight or I'm, I still can't lose last 10 lbs.
And you know, and it, they're always about, you know, the
workout. And I said, I always reply to
say, listen, calorie deficit is how you're going to end up
(19:32):
losing weight. But let's stop, let's just stop
the conversation because you've already done the majority of the
weight loss that you want. Now you're on that last five or
10 lbs. What do you love to do?
What feels good for your body? What fuels you?
What workouts do you enjoy? I'm like, you got to stop
focusing on and hyper focusing on those last 5 to 10 lbs and
start just focusing on moving because it feels good and focus
(19:53):
on the wins that you feel after you move.
And then do the same thing with the food, right?
Like are you eating enough protein?
Are you eating enough in terms of carbs?
Are you, are you having a balanced diet that not just
sustains you, but fuels you and activates you, that turns you on
to have a great energetic day? And so I always lean into the
feel like, how do you feel afteryou work out?
(20:16):
Feel pretty proud, right? Feel pretty good.
How do you feel after you eat? A good balanced, nutritious meal
feel pretty good, right? And we got to get rid of that
whole psychology of feeling guilty, right?
I, I say it's conscious and conscious indulgence.
Like you're allowed to indulge occasionally.
You're allowed to eat the foods that you're not supposed to eat
(20:37):
and do it without guilt. And for me, it's about a zoom
out effect. You got to zoom out and look
what you're doing as a whole anddoes it feel good?
Are you doing the right things consistently as a whole?
Then great. Allow yourself a little grace
when you fall off the wagon, getback on and and let's focus on
how to power up and fuel our bodies.
But I still think there's room on that.
(20:58):
Totally. And I feel like it's totally,
totally dependent on phase of life that they're all in.
I mean, I give inundated with questions.
I mean hormones are super popular right now, correct?
Women going through menopausal years, perimenopause, it's like
during that phase, yes, your hormones are in state of
disarray. You may be more apt to put on 5
or 10 lbs. But realistically, during that
(21:18):
chapter of your life, I would encourage them all to prioritize
the weight training and buildingand preserving as much muscle
and bone density as a. 100%. And like, don't even worry about
those 5 or 10 lbs. Like just lift hard, lift heavy,
correct? Yourself accordingly that's.
Often weight. Preach and mind when they get.
Through that chapter they'll be way better off for it.
I mean, they'll be able to reachtheir desired composition goal
(21:41):
so much more effectively if theyfuel themselves properly during
that phase. Couldn't agree with you more
thought on. I still think there's a lot of
room for that discussion and I under and it's it is hard when
you're going through that and I have dear friends that are going
through that and you see your body all of a sudden change,
right, Like you're at a certain weight for your whole life and
then all of a sudden you're like, whoa, where did, where did
this come from? Where did this come from?
(22:02):
It's defeating. It's it's not an easy thing to
just say. Well, just, you know, just lift
more. Just do this there.
It's a, there's a lot of mental,there's a mental health
component in that, in that wholechange that's happening in so
many different ways outside of just the physical look of your
body, the internal, internal health of your body.
Everything's, everything's changing.
Motions are changing, everything's shifting.
(22:24):
And I think finally, again, as you're seeing online, I'm sure
you're seeing this conversation is finally out there and people
are having that conversation. But the more we can lean into
the power of movement, right? And the power of fueling your
body, as you just said, and the power of fueling your muscles
specifically at this time. I think that not only from a
physical perspective, but from amindset perspective, if you can
(22:48):
find consistency in power and movement, you're going to feel
better as you go through these significant changes in your
life. 100% So as it pertains to movement, I feel like our
generation and younger, like they're getting inundated with
this information. So as they go through those
chapters as they age like, they'll already be Privy to it.
Yeah. Agree.
You look at people that are, youknow, our parents generation
(23:10):
generation beyond that, it's like they, I mean, they grew up
in the the low fat era. They're not.
I mean, they're low calorie, lowfat, not healthy from a
nutritional standpoint and also deathly afraid of bulking up and
looking like Arnold in their 80sgoing to happen.
But we've got that fear nonetheless.
That not familiar or, you know, comfortable in a gym setting.
(23:31):
There's still so many things they can do just in the comfort
of their own home. So like, when it comes to just
low hanging fruit for people that are just trying to freaking
activate their muscles, what aresome simple tips, tricks, and
habits and routines that you'd advocate for?
Yes, I love this topic. So it's something I call
movement snacks. OK, bite sized moments during
(23:52):
the day that you can slip into alittle movement session.
So I do this all day throughout the day.
I've done it for years. For example, when I'm waiting
for my matcha to cook in the morning, I have two minutes and
35 seconds on my microwave to cook my milk every single
morning. And what do I do?
I do not just stand there and like twiddle my thumbs.
(24:12):
I move my body. But in the morning, I
specifically will do stretches, like at the countertop, I will
stretch my body. I will do what feels good for my
body in the morning just to get my blood flowing, my body
moving, wake up the fascia like get everything flowing.
If I'm in midday and I'm again back at the kitchen waiting for
something to cook on the stove or even at dinner time when I'm
cooking dinner with the girls, Iwill not just sit there and talk
(24:34):
in periods of pause. If I'm brushing my teeth, I will
not just sit there and brush my teeth.
I will be doing pliers. I'm doing lunges, I'm doing
Batmas with my leg, leg lifts. It is 2 to 3 minutes.
But when you do that for five times a day, it does make a
difference. It adds up.
And not only does it physically make a difference in terms of
building muscle, small pocket moments, but majority of it is
(24:57):
the the positive effect that it has on your mindset, right #1
you get that little tiny moment of releasing endorphins, right?
And get everything jazzed up from a mindset perspective.
But then you also changes your attitude towards things during
the day. I notice after I do a movement
snack, I'm not going to jump in and grab a unhealthy snack,
right? Like I just move my body for
(25:18):
two, 2 1/2 minutes while waitingfor my Maja.
I'm not going to then jump in and grab on to like something
that's not good nutritious for my body.
It just sets the tone for your life.
It sets the tone for your day. So if you're somebody who's
like, I know I need to work out.I used to work out.
I used to be great at it. I was consistent at it.
Or I've never ever been someone that could work out every day.
I'll never be that kind of person.
(25:40):
Stop that narrative in your headright now and start to just find
little pocket moments of movement.
As I said, I've 10 minute workouts.
We all have 10 minutes during the day to move your body.
No excuses, right? You don't have to drive
anywhere. It's free, it's effective and
anybody can do it. There are all different levels.
I give 10 minutes when you startto do that.
(26:01):
And I just did a challenge. I just wrapped it up this last
week and I had, there's about 1000 people in my group right
now for small moves, Big life challenge.
We did 10 minute workouts every day for six weeks straight.
And I can't get over how many women were like, I have never
consistently worked out like this.
And I feel so good, right? And they're like, finally I felt
like all the excuses were null and void because I knew I had 10
(26:24):
minutes to move. And I knew because it was only
10 minutes that I would do it and I, I could do it.
And it's just getting over that like that, that buried entry
that we put into our own brains of like, you can't do it.
You know, time is not let's, let's not, let's come up with an
excuse. And so for me, start small.
Just start small and be consistent.
And that, I mean, that adds up. Like when you look at neat
(26:46):
activity, the total expenditure attributed to that over the
course of a day, compounded overweeks and months and years, it's
pretty freaking powerful. It's pretty freaking powerful.
It's. I mean, you look at your, you
know, baseline metabolic rate and what you're spending
throughout the day just to maintain weight.
Like a massive portion of that is just in your day-to-day
(27:07):
movements. Like when I'm dieting, everyday
movement energy is dropping. My NEAT starts dropping as a
result as well. Correct.
But if people are habitually doing intentional NEAT, then I
mean, they could they could hedge against so much of that.
And that's exactly what it is. It's that intention, right?
It's that intention to take those two or three minutes that
you're not doing anything instead of scrolling on your
(27:28):
phone and, you know, looking at garbage.
That is going to be anything butmotivating, right?
Take, just just commit to saying, OK, every time I brush
my teeth, instead of just standing there, I'm going to do
this move. Or every time I'm at the
microwave and I'm waiting for something to cook, I'm going to
do this move. And like I do with my girls,
when the commercial comes on, it's hard to find commercials
(27:50):
now. It's now when you're just
watching the show lately that has commercials to get on it.
And I'm like, all right, we're doing roll ups, which is a
Pilates move. It's essentially like a full sit
up, right? All the way to touch your toes,
rolling back down. We're going to do that every
single commercial period. It adds up.
They're 12 and 14. When we do 25 roll ups now every
single night we go into a room, we play with our dog.
(28:11):
We first start with the roll ups.
That's it. I'm asking for them to do 1
move. But that what always happens
after we do the 2525 roll ups. They start to practice their
cheer jumps, they start to stretch.
They start to and all of a sudden we're in this little room
and we are 20 minutes in and we're just moving our bodies and
having fun and hanging out everysingle night.
And it starts with like our 25 roll ups.
(28:32):
That's it. Yeah, no, that's awesome.
I've got a three-year old and a nine week old and I've.
Been Oh my God, you a nine week old.
Yeah. Congratulations.
Appreciate it it's my three-yearold how to do push ups hang of
it like his pretty legit so. They are so strong, they are so
strong and they're so capable. And if you can start from a
young age, the power of that strength, oh, I can imagine what
(28:54):
your kids are going to be like. That's amazing.
It's amazing. And it's a powerful tool because
it builds confidence, right? Like, no matter what they're
going through in life, they, they have to.
And there's so many teaching moments, right?
Like at the end when my daughterLane was struggling with her
reps on the last few, like just to get up right.
Those are the teaching moments where it's like, that's that's
hard, isn't it, Lane? Yep, but we can do it, can't we?
(29:15):
Yes, we can. Like you got to get through that
little bit of pain to get to theend.
And then now what I've noticed now she does 25 and she's like,
I'm going to do an extra few, I'm going to do an extra 5.
And and she the first time she did, she was like, I can't do
25. There's no way.
Now she's adding on her extra reps on her own without me
telling her to. She's built confidence in the
matter of like, you know, a month, you know, just starting
to do this recently. So those are the pockets, those
(29:37):
are the moments. And that's the thing that that's
where I keep reaching. Small moves add up.
It really does. Over time it adds up.
Yeah, I mean, my, I mean, my superpowers are human.
I would want this for everybody.It's just like figure out what
you can do every single day without fail, no matter what the
hell or high water, whether you're traveling, whether you're
at a festival, whether you're ata vacation.
Like find something that you cando every single day and commit
(30:00):
to never deviate from. Like it's really that simple.
And if you do that and it's justnon negotiable, like when you
have non negotiables in your life, you stay much more so on
the straight and narrow and you get to where you want to.
Go boom, period. Yes, that is what my whole book
is about. And that's exactly right.
It is finding those non negotiables, making sure that
they are accessible and sustainable, right?
(30:22):
Because if your non negotiable is not accessible, like you
said, no matter where you're at,no matter what you're doing, if
it's not accessible, you're not going to sustain it.
And it has to be sustainable in order for it to make a
difference. There has to be that consistency
factor. So when I'm talking about these
things, I'm like, do you brush your teeth every day?
Yes. Is that negotiable?
Well, God, no, I'm not going to go on, go out in the world and
not have my teeth brushed. Well, I'm not going to go out in
(30:44):
the world and present myself without getting my workout in
for that day or my moving in forthat day, right?
Or my breath work in for that day or my stretching in for that
day or whatever it is. That is my non negotiable.
You have to figure out what gives you fuel, like what makes
you tick, what makes you feel good as a human, what energizes
you, what makes you feel purposeful.
That is non negotiable. Do it.
Every single day in your life changes.
(31:05):
It's funny you said a tooth brushing exam because I use that
in a lot of my presentations. It's like my 3 year old hates
brushing his teeth. It's been a, it's been a grind.
Yes. We're still doing, but like he's
three, you know, you and I, we don't think twice, but we brush
your teeth. It's part of the day.
It's it's not even, it doesn't take any bandwidth at all.
Like it just happens and I feel like people when they first
(31:27):
started a workout routine, whatever it may be, no matter if
it's like intense or like bare bones basic, like they dreaded
kind of like that three-year olddreads brushed his teeth.
But like after you get past thathump, then you enjoy, but you
got to get past the hump in order to see the progress.
And once you become visible of progress or wear the progress
and it's addictive, but like youhave to get past that initial
(31:48):
hump. It's not supposed to be easy on
day one. I love that analogy.
Imagine so you're in the processright now of teaching your son
that this is non negotiable. This is something you do every
single day. You have to brush your teeth.
Then imagine if we did that withworkouts from a young age.
Imagine if we taught them every morning.
This is the workout routine thatwe're going to do.
(32:08):
It's non negotiable. It's healthy for your body, it's
going to fuel you, and then we're going to eat a healthy,
nutritious meal. Non negotiable.
Imagine if we did that for our youth like they the imagine what
would change in our world if everybody was taught that.
Just like we now know we have tobrush our teeth every day.
Why we were taught that from thetime we were, you know, had
teeth, we had to move them. Yet when the time we can move
(32:30):
our bodies, we were teaching ourchildren that they should be
moving their bodies, right? We just, it's not an education.
It's just like go out and play, which is great.
Like let's start to educate our kids on on the power of it so
that they can become adults thatit's just ingrained in that they
don't have to think about it. It's just a it's a non
negotiable, the default. That's the word default.
And I feel like I think it's a disservice to people for them to
(32:53):
think that there is such thing as maintenance.
Like I've always said, maintenance is a myth and people
find themselves doing things that they assume is neutral.
There's no neutral. I mean, like when we talk about
eating the right food or training or moving our bodies,
like that's obviously contributing to our betterment.
But like if you look at those that are just morbidly obese
playing video games all day, eating fast food or getting, you
(33:14):
know, Uber Eats, like that's nota neutral.
Like they are on the line because of that.
And for whatever reason, societyhas accepted that as more the
default than moving your body and eating real food.
So we just have to like, change the society's standard of what
acceptable is, I guess, having higher standards by default.
Absolutely. And it's it's hard to do it when
(33:36):
you weren't taught that from a young age.
It's hard to adopt that. Everything's harder when you're
later in life, right? Learning a language is harder
than when you learn when you're younger.
You're just more pliable, adaptable, adoptable with habits
when you're younger. But that doesn't make it an
excuse for you not to start now.So if you're someone who is
listening to this and you go, yeah, well, that's easy for you
(33:57):
to. You guys have been doing this
for years and I'm at home and this is not my life.
It can be your life. You can be someone who moves
your body every single day and it doesn't take much.
And you just need to start. You need to stop with the
excuses and you just need to start moving and it.
And you don't need to go to the gym and spend 2 hours at the
gym. Just start small, go for a walk,
(34:19):
go for a walk every single day, do a little 5 to 10 minute
workout, do a little movement, nap throughout the day.
And then I want you to stop and see how you feel.
How do you feel after a week right?
And I feel like the like the perspective one has as they do
these things is key. Like the other day I was going
for a run and I just felt worn down.
(34:39):
I didn't get much sleep and you know, I was just, I was tired.
My body, I've been pushing myself pretty hard.
But then as I was running, I'm like, man, it is a beautiful
morning. The birds chirp and I'm on a
nice trail around the lake. It's like I have the opportunity
to run. Like I know people that don't
have legs. You know, I feel like having a
physical body and been able to actually stand and use it is a
(35:00):
massive blessing. And if you adopt this attitude
of gratitude towards it, you don't want to take it for
granted or let it, you know, become, you know, you don't want
it to decay. And if you're, you know not
moving, it is going to. Yeah, I love that.
I think that's the perspective in life in general and certainly
applicable to movement itself. You just gotta lean into I get
(35:22):
to not, I have to, you know, yours.
People say that all the time. And I think it's, you know, all
these things you hear all the time.
You see, we're inundated on social media of all these like
everyone's a life coach, everybody's got advice.
Everybody's coming at you with Idid this and now look at my
beautiful life. And honestly, what you have to
just look at is like, what, whatmakes you feel good?
You know, like, what do you needto do more of that you're not
(35:42):
doing right now? And then how can you shift your
mentality and mindset and perspective towards how can you
get to that point where you're like, OK, yeah, I get to do this
and I want to do this. You know, I have that.
I had this one client, Sarah, who I speak about in the book
and she lost over the last, it'sbeen a year and a half now with
me over £100. And you know, she had every
(36:07):
excuse not to move her body. She had a very, very serious
health condition. She had an eye surgery that
required her to lay Chrome on her stomach for the majority of
the day. Like she was able to get up for
four or five minute periods to use the restroom the whole day
for months. Can you imagine?
Like it was just mentally the most awful and draining thing
and and she never excused us to give up and not move.
(36:29):
And she just decided one day like, I'm going to press play on
this workout, you know, and she joined one of my challenge
groups. She felt support, she felt
accountability that she like shehad accountability partner.
And it wasn't like she was like,I'm going to lose 110 lbs.
That wasn't her goal. Her goal was just that day to
show up, make it non negotiable.And then when she did that, that
(36:49):
first day, she was like, OK, that wasn't as that was hard.
It was kind of awful, but I can do this again, right?
And then she did it the next dayand then the next day and she
just kept saying like, there's no reason not to keep doing
this. And then she lost 5 lbs.
I never saw 5 lbs. She was like, wait a minute,
what if I could lose 10, you know?
And then it was these small little goals that she set along
the way. And now she was just with me in
(37:11):
Portugal on my women's retreat that I just hosted in Madeira.
And I look over, we have two catamarans and there's Sarah on
the top, like climbs up to the very top of the catamaran.
And she's jumping off this catamaran in Madeira.
And she's like, she comes over. We both got emotional.
She's like I, I don't, I I'm in on a woman's retreat on a trip
(37:33):
by myself with women. I have no idea who they're at.
I've never done anything like this before.
She's like I'm in a two piece bathing suit and I'm jumping off
of a boat. Like who am I?
You know? And she rode a bicycle with me.
We did E bike this and she's like, I haven't been on a bike
and like she's do. She was living life, like living
life, tasting it, feeling and experiencing it.
And she was like feeling that Ohmy God, I get to do this.
(37:57):
Because she made these tiny little shifts in her life to
choose to eat healthier every day, to choose to move her body
every day. And it wasn't a lot.
She did 30 minutes with me everysingle day.
She just showed up. Over time, it has completely
transformed her life. She's now launching her, she's a
nurse, she's launching a new health company, she's getting
married. Like her whole life is
completely transformed. And I think what happens is we
(38:21):
think it's so far away that we don't start because it just
seems so far away. Well, guess what?
In a year from now, you're it's going to come, you're going to
be here in a year from now and you're either going to regret
not doing it, you're going to beproud that you did it.
So you choose, right? Time's going to pass anyways.
That's how you. The most fulfilling thing in
life is when you're working withsomebody like them and you see
(38:42):
the light come back into their eyes.
Like they have this sense of hope and excitement they may not
have had for years and they justhave a zeal for living again.
Like when you can be a catalyst to make that a reality.
Like that's when you know you'redoing your the line of work
you're supposed to be in. That's what I live for.
That's what I live for. I mean, those clients that those
stories, that is, that is exactly it.
(39:05):
And she shares a story that I gointo detail with in the book
more. But you know, we did a webinar
with a lot of our members and webrought her on to just kind of
share her story, what what she did and how it worked, all the
stuff. And somebody asked her, like,
what do you do when you, you know, like when you miss a
workout or you don't eat healthythat day or maybe it's a week
and she's like, get back on the wagon.
(39:27):
She's like, I don't set up camp,you know, she's like, if I
follow the wagon, I'm not, you know, setting up camp.
We're not seeing kumbaya and having s'mores like I'm getting
my ass right back on the wagon and I'm going.
And so I love that lesson too, because I think we start things
a lot and it doesn't go exactly as planned or we have a moment
of quote UN quote failure and we're like, oh, then forget it.
(39:47):
I tried, it doesn't work for me.And you're we're just so quick
to give up. And I think it's just about
allow yourself a moment. You fall off the wagon, but
don't set up camp, just get right back on.
Keep going. You got this, you know.
It's key. It's funny you say it's I had a
one of my good friends clients, one of the guys that coaches
under me. He just like he's in a prep
right now. His competition is next weekend
(40:07):
and he's he had like the first like off playing unnecessary
overconsumption day and he's like beating himself up.
But he's you know, he's been in the space line to know you can't
just set up camp there. We were talking about it on the
podcast, just being totally brutally transparent with him
and he's like, man, it's like the analogy of you're driving in
the road and you get a flat tire.
You don't get out and slash the other 3.
(40:29):
Exactly. Exactly.
Yes. I love that analogy.
I love it. It's so true because when you
put it in those terms, you're like, well, yeah, of course not,
but but yet we do that, right? We've got to just slash all the
tires and we're like, we're justgoing to stay right here.
We're not going to move again. Yeah, that's a great one.
I love that. So true.
(40:49):
Total tangent here, but you saidyou drink matcha in the morning.
Why matcha? I am such a matcha girl.
Well first of all, I love the taste of coffee, like I smell
the aroma. I love going to coffee shops.
My body does not love caffeine like and it just doesn't.
And coffee in general, even decaf.
Not a good thing, my friend. I've seen in matcha though with.
Not as much, no, not as much. And for some reason, I don't
(41:12):
know why, but I started to just sip on matcha years ago during
COVID is when I really started. I think the company that I love
peak matcha, they sent me something like I got in the
mail, you know, like you get allthese things in my mail, like
I'm going to try this. And at first I was like, OK, I
like it. And then and then it has become
my addiction. I cannot function without
matcha. I like matcha so much.
And you know, there's something about making my matcha in the
(41:35):
morning. This like routine for me.
It feels, I know it sounds so ridiculously cheap.
No, no, I'm all for more. Just there's something about it
because it takes a little bit offocus and time to make it and I
just feels like I'm doing something for me and I enjoy it.
So like starts with the almond milk and then I have the matcha
that I put into my special mug that I love.
(41:55):
And then I take time with hot water poured into the matcha to
mix my matcha properly And just,and then from there I add a
little cinnamon and then I add the milk and then I again blend
it all together with a little cinnamon on top.
And it just, you know, it takes,it's not just like pouring
coffee into running. There's just something to it.
And I truly go to bed at night and I'm like, oh, I can't wait
for my matcha moment. I can't wait for my matcha
(42:16):
moment in the morning. No, I'm the same way with my
coffee. I was making French pressed
coffee. For lunch.
Oh, I love French pressed coffee.
I went as far as to like get a hand grind grinder so that I
could like have that as part of the whole, you know, journey to
the perfect cup of coffee. I feel like little things like
that you got to appreciate, likehow you do anything in life is
how you do everything. And if you want something done
(42:38):
optimally, you have to put the focus and attention it deserves
into it. But didn't that cup of coffee
taste differently to you when you spent a little more time?
I mean, if we did a blind taste,that's it's probably the same,
right? We maybe we wouldn't know, but
it was the intention behind making that cup of coffee for
yourself and it was feeling likeyou were taking just that extra
little bit of time and effort todo something for you.
(42:59):
It's like I tell the women I work with, I'm like whether
that's matcha or coffee or, you know, a hot water lemon,
whatever it is in the morning ora morning stretch, which I
highly recommend. It's just, it's just the
intention of before you start your day in the chaos and you
know, evolves and you've got allthe things that you're trying to
do throughout the day. Just give yourself that morning
moment, right? Give yourself that morning
(43:20):
moment, whatever that is for youto just say.
I'm doing this for myself beforeI go into all the other roles
that I wear, before I put on themom hat, before I put on the
spouse hat, before I put on whatever the the the Co worker,
the employee, the entrepreneur hat, whatever it is, give
yourself that moment and the rest of your day.
You will lead with stronger and more positive intention if you
(43:41):
give yourself that morning moment.
Yeah, I think people just wake up in this reactionary state
where they reactionary on the the news or scroll on social
media. It's like anything you do as a
more routine that's not that is a step in the right direction
probably. Amen.
That's the phone should be out of the room.
Like put your phone in the otherroom, wake up in the morning.
(44:03):
And again, I go into this in detail in the book, but the
power of breath and in the morning, it's just taking a few
minutes to have intentional breath work.
Oh, game changing game changer. So, So what all you got cooking
right now? You got the book?
When did that launch? So that launch is October 14th,
so it's not out yet. OK, October 14th.
October 14th. What else?
Accept the majority of your. Time.
(44:24):
So I've got an Extend Bar. So Extend Bar just launched with
Zumba. So we just created a Pilates
program on Zumba. So if you go to Zumba app, you
can find Extend Bar on the Zumbaapp there.
And then I'm working on a new business venture which is in the
tween teen skin Care World. Nice.
What is that? So what?
Did you say? Yeah, I haven't actually
(44:45):
publicly announced it yet, but it.
But it's coming. It's coming.
Yeah. You know what?
It it developed out of a need. Both my business partner and I
have young girls in this age range and she happens to live
and eat and then breathe in the beauty and skin care and
aesthetician world. And yeah, we decided to come
(45:05):
together and create something that we knew was really good for
our our children and their friends and their peers in this
age group to help develop strong, healthy habits in the
beauty and skin care sector. Awesome.
It's crazy how much nonsense is in so much of the mainstream.
Anything like the soaps, the shampoos, the makeups, the skin
care, I mean it is just crazy out there.
(45:28):
It's crazy and it's far crazier.So like when I was my daughter's
age, I I mean, I was using like probably my mom's Mary Kay or
whatever it was palms to remove my make up.
There were like two or three choices.
Now this has become a hobby for kids.
This, this, this, it's an addictional as to just having
more products and more things and like more colorful and the
(45:49):
more the way this dispenses and the way it's like they know what
they're doing when they're marketing to this age group,
this demographic. And I know unfortunately, it's
like brooding kids skin, you know, that's this is the
demographic that they're so easily moldable and pliable.
And sadly, I've seen it across the board.
And so we're trying to create education that supports the
product launch that is helping young ladies and young women to
(46:11):
understand what they're putting on their skin has a long term
effects and the power building their skin barrier and building
their microbiome through these products that we're launching.
And so it's got to be about likeless is more and like the
quality of the product is what really counts.
And it's hard with this demographic.
It's like, you know, they just want all of it like a new
(46:34):
flavor, a new launch, a new set,the new this is like they just
want more, more, more, more. So I'm trying to create products
that are actually doing good. That's exciting, very exciting.
And with your, with the bar workouts, with the Zumba, so
you're like that's like a courseformat or it's all through the
app. Or how?
No, it's all through the app. So it's just part of their
online digital program. So if you are a member with
(46:54):
Zumba and you are interested in Pilates, you just go on to their
app and you can search for Pilates and, and our program is
on there. So any member can access the
workouts. Nice.
And we're also on beach body as well.
So we're on the body platform aswell.
I have like 150 workouts on thatplatform.
Very cool, very cool. Selfish question for you here.
So as a bodybuilder, you've worked with bodybuilder, so it's
(47:15):
relevant for you and you're a dancer, so super relevant for
you. If I'm wanting to take my posing
the next level, I have no formalexperience in photographed dance
routine. What should I do first?
How? How should that progression look
as it pertains to perfecting thesport of bodybuilding for me?
(47:37):
Yeah. So first thing is I would study,
learn and find another person inthe industry that you want to
emulate their technique and their form.
Study it, learn it, understand it, practice it, perfect it.
Stand in front of a mirror againand again and again and record
yourself and videotape yourself again and again again to
understand how those little nuances in the movement, whether
(47:58):
it's the, you know, the turn of the neck, the all the little
teeny nuances are what add up. And so that's number one,
because that's free, right? Without having to hire a coach
or hire someone. Secondly, is I would enroll in
some Pilates classes. And why do I say that?
Because once you become a practitioner, like a real
practitioner, Pilates, the development of mind body
(48:21):
awareness is outstanding. OK, outstanding.
What you will gain in terms of mind, body awareness and the
ability to use your mind to properly activate the muscles
during movement and non movementwill blow you away.
And you will have such a stronger understanding of how to
(48:41):
do that both in a vertical position or whether you're
working out, whatever you wherever you're at, right,
whether you're on a mat, whetheryou're in competition, whether
you're posing or whether you're lifting, you will have a very
strong body awareness without having to have the mirror in
front of you. And that's what we're aiming
for, is to be able to understandhow to activate and how to turn
it on when you're not in front of someone, someone's not
(49:01):
exactly showing you. And it's all about that mind,
body conviction. Awesome, awesome.
Yeah, you get definitely get me sold on Pilates.
I see. Wait.
Do they do like hot Pilates too?Like, yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of hot.
It would be great. It would be great.
You mentioned earlier like you got to be careful not to go into
a studio where like you got someweekend warrior instructor.
(49:22):
Like what are some tell tell signs that you're in a good
studio versus when you should probably not attend on a
regular? Basis, Yeah.
So I would ask the manager what their education and
certification program qualifications are at that
studio. So for example, can you tell me
a little bit more about how yourinstructors are educated?
You have an in house certification program.
(49:42):
Do you require them to have a, you know, extensive
comprehensive certification program?
Tell me a little bit more about the education and then you can
make a logical common sense, youknow, understanding and guess of
like, OK, just seems like it's areputable.
There are some studios that truly they're just like you take
a weekend course and they're teaching on a machine that is a
very intense machine that peoplecan easily get hurt on.
(50:06):
So like before I was even able to teach a client or work on a
body, I had to be, I had a year underneath me, one year of like
mirroring, shadowing, practicing.
Like I wasn't able to have a class for 12 months, you know,
and this and it was very comprehensive.
I was in like a, you know, very comprehensive program.
So I think that has fallen because the rise of Pilates has
(50:27):
become so popular that people, Imean, my friends and I talk
about it. There's women that are opening
Pilates students just for the business sense of it and have no
understanding of it. And that's OK as long as they're
hiring instructors that do know what they're doing.
And so you just want to make sure that the people that are
teaching you what they're doing.And I think the first thing you
can look at is are they a robot in the class?
(50:49):
Are they just walking around theclass going OK and four more
reps we're going to lift the redand three reps, OK, and two
right, They all sound the same like or are they going, hey,
Andrea, relax your right shoulder on that move.
Hey, Sarah, make sure that left hip tilts up a little bit.
OK, Everybody make sure we're pushing through the heels to
really fire off those flutes at the same time, wrapping those
ABS in and up, you know, lengthens the If you're hearing
(51:10):
those cues, if you're hearing real queuing, they've got it.
If you're not hearing those cues, they're a robot that was
taught in a weekend. Move on to a classical studio.
Gotcha. OK, good to know.
Yeah. Is it like a specific Pilates
move or exercise and say okay, you've mastered Pilates if you
can dial that in? No, no, I mean no, there's so
many. No, no, you could master one and
(51:32):
then try the next one. You're like, you're a complete
beginner, newbie at it. It's just the old and that's I
do love that about buddies is the aim of mastery.
You know, there is that like insane with bar.
It is that repetition. And I think sometimes we forget
how powerful repetition is. Would you agree?
Like like people are always like, what's the new workout?
(51:53):
What's the new, new, new, new? I need something exciting.
I need a whole new workout. Well, back in the day we had one
DVD that we did on repeat for years.
And the reason we got stronger and better at is because we
repeated those movements that our our mind body coordination
was improved. Our strength was improved
because we kept doing it and we got better and better at it.
When you're constantly looking for new, it's great in some
(52:14):
sense, right? Because you're changing your
body, you're changing rears. But you've got to be comfortable
with repetition. You have to be comfortable with
repeating moves and going, OK, how did I do this yesterday?
How can I apply a different, youknow, goal on the same exact
exercise I've been doing for twomonths?
How can I level up, you know? That is, that is key.
I mean, I've been doing the sameworkout split for over a year
now, but like there are so many variables independent of
(52:36):
actually changing the movements like time under tension, drop
sets, super sets, negative reps,force reps, like all these
things that people take for granted change the workout.
Just change all these intensity factors correct that you can
manipulate to create more progressive overload.
I love it. Yes, we need to develop that.
Like, try to let's focus on mastering things and not just
(52:58):
doing something new every singleday, you know?
100% Have you read the book Mastery by Rapper Green?
Yeah, it's a good one. It's a good one.
It's somewhere over here. Yeah, yeah, it's a good one.
Well, I'm super stoked about your book.
So this podcast will actually golive probably, right the sun
time. The book goes perfect, love it.
Perfect. And where?
People get that, so if they go to smallmovesbiglife.com, so and
(53:20):
that is also where you can access the workouts.
So if you buy the book, you justshoot me over, it's all on my
website. You shoot me over an e-mail and
within 24 hours I will get you onto my website.
You have access to all of my workouts for free.
I've never done free workouts like this.
It's always for purchase. So these are great, easy to do
10 minute long workouts and I also incorporate stretches.
So I've got a whole stretch series of videos as well to
incorporate. Awesome small moves. biglife.com
(53:44):
What? What about on social?
Where you at on social? Andrea Lee Rogers, So Andrea
LEIGHLEIGHROGERS. Perfect, well I will link out
and make it super easy for people to find lovely smelling.
I feel like anything you can do to get people moving more is a
win. So keep fighting the good fight
for that for sure. I appreciate it, it was great to
chat with you today. Likewise appreciate you, Andrea.
(54:06):
Talk soon.
So many women that I know are like, I'm not going to if you're
not lifting because you think it's going to bulk you up and
it's not good for you. Let's have a real conversation
here. But I think now that has
shifted. I have seen now so many women
becoming aware, not even from a an aesthetic standpoint, but
just the fact that we need bone strength and we need to be
(00:21):
focusing on strength training and resistance training without.
Doubt women going through menopausal years perimenopause.
During that Phase, I would encourage them all to prioritize
the weight training and buildingand preserving as much muscle
and bone density as a. 100%. And we are live.
Andrew, how are you doing? Yeah, I'm doing good.
How are you doing? I'm good.
I'm excited to chat with you. Actually just got back from a
(00:41):
conference this past weekend in Tennessee and nutrition
conference. But like so much of the
audience, like 98% of the audience was filled with people
that are not really they're, they're doing the right things
nutritionally, but they haven't figured out the movement pattern
of things. And it's overwhelming for them
for me to be talking to them as a bodybuilder.
(01:01):
I try to break it down and like anything's better than nothing,
you know, doing your hands with where you're at.
But you're, you've mastered the art of making just day-to-day
habits and routines functional, easy, efficient, and
sustainable. So I'm excited to dive into it
with you. I love hearing that, Yes, spot
on. Yes, indeed.
What what got you in the space to begin with?
Give me some back story before we dive into the nuts and.
(01:23):
Bolts yeah, sure. Well, I was a dancer growing up
so I started dancing at the age of three always loved to move so
my mom's like you got to go and dance and then I just fell in
love with movement. So from a very young age, I just
have not got movies set. So took my dance career segued
that into a Pilates career afterI went to college, got my degree
and realized I couldn't sit behind a desk and like have a
(01:43):
real adult job. I was like, I'm going to go into
the Pilates world. And as a professional dancer, I
had used Pilates as a tool to stay healthy, right, to keep my
body injury free. And so I recognized that I
would, you know, have a kinship with this Pilates and the
scientific approach to movement.And so I became a classical
Pilates instructor, comprehensive and absolutely
(02:06):
fell in love with the technique,with the, with the work itself.
And then after a few years of teaching Pilates, I started to
miss the freedom of choreographythat I had as a dancer and
choreographer and started to implement some of the dance
choreography into my private Pilates sessions.
And my clients were really resonating.
They were responding. They're like, do more of that
(02:26):
dance thing you did, you know, So I would use the latter
barrel, which is an apparatus and Pilates, and I would start
to do some classic dance moves. And right at that time, bar
workouts were starting to reallybecome a thing in New York and
LA, but not kind of worldwide. And so I started just kind of
sprinkle in, I launched a class in South Florida.
It took off. It turned into a certification
(02:50):
program that I launched in SouthFlorida.
That turned into a licensing model, that turned into
franchising, and then we went digital.
I love it. All right, we got to do some
some behind the curtain definition terminology because
I'm, I'm a bodybuilder, not a dancer.
What kind of dance were you starting out with when you first
got into the sport of dancing? Yes.
Well, I mean, I first, I mean, Idid everything when I was
(03:10):
dancing. I did tap, jazz, ballet,
lyrical, modern, like all of it,right?
I did all of it. But when I'm thinking in terms
of just the movement and the workout segment itself and that
component of dance, it is very more ballet based.
So we're talking about the A's and we're talking about
relevies, we're talking about about Fatma's and leg kicks and
(03:31):
just a lot of isometric type of movements that are then flow
into more large comprehensive movements.
Nice, I took a ballroom dance incollege for a semester and I
threw that. Did you?
Yeah, that's so cool. I remember what all we did.
We did some some class, school, some shoot, I don't even
(03:53):
remember what all we. Did isn't that amazing though?
Didn't it teach you to use your body in a different way?
And yeah, and it's. Interesting.
I'm actually super excited to talk about this because, you
know, as a bodybuilder, I do like choreographed routines and
you know, like last competitive season I had I hired A opposing
coach and that was the first time I never just, you know,
(04:14):
Wong it and did it myself. And you know, she's a
professional dancer and she, I mean, we worked hirelessly on
getting my movement patterns down for the choreographed
routine segment of the routine. And it like made all the
difference in the world. Like it was brutal.
It was frustrating, it was very challenging.
But I mean, I, it, it showed on stage for sure.
(04:34):
So I feel like from a bodybuilder, I mean,
bodybuilding is an art and danceand movement is an art.
And if you can pair the two together like, it's just
breathtaking. Magic it is, it really is.
Yeah, the two, the two together and I love, you know, I attended
my friend Sean T has recently gone into the bodybuilding in
the competitive world, and I attended one of his competition.
(04:54):
Now, he has the dance background, but I, it's funny
you mentioned that 'cause I remember watching on stage all
of these, you know, performers and they were just moving so
seamlessly from one move to the next and focusing so deeply on
that mind body connection, on how to activate those muscles,
how to best show off their form and technique.
And I was like, oh, there's dance in this.
There is dance in this technique.
(05:14):
Yeah, I appreciated it. Yeah, I definitely want to come
back to dance, but Pilates real quick.
So define Pilates and what that is exactly?
Is it like a standard? Yeah, have you done a Pilates
class before? I have not.
OK, you're going to love it. I am so big on men, especially
men who are in the bodybuilding world or in the athletic world
to really like get rid of all ofthe preconceived notions that
(05:39):
you have that Pilates is for like women.
And it's I don't have much like.I've done like yoga and that's
been humbling for sure. Pilates is incredibly humbling
and Pilates is all about the technique of controllogy and
controlled movement, and it's all about mind body connection.
So not really long in terms of reps like you're not going to do
12 to 14 reps, you're going to do 3 to 4 or maybe 8.
(06:01):
But the focus is on really understanding how to activate
muscles in order to create that movement and how to utilize form
and technique and breath to control the power of the
movement. And so, you know, you, if you
were doing one Rep and you're applying Pilates principles,
come, it's like doing, you know,20 reps without it.
You know what I mean? It's just, it really teaches you
(06:22):
how to turn it on and how to getthe most bang for your buck on
every single movement. I really say that, look, once
you learn Pilates and you know it and you understand Pilates,
everything you do after in termsof movement will be 10 times
better. You will apply it to everything
that you do in everyday life, but bodybuilders specifically
will, you will see everything change.
(06:42):
I used to train, you know, professional athletes, I trained
linebackers and I worked with the big dudes, you know, and
they're like, they're doing these moves, they're doing my
bar moves, my Pilates moves and they're doing it for a reason.
And you're seeing it now coming to more mainstream because
there's purpose behind it and there's such power and force in
the mobility component, flexibility component and the
strength component as well. So it's a, it's a win win for
(07:06):
any discipline. So if you're someone that loves
to bodybuild, you're someone that loves to run.
If you're someone that just loves to lift in general,
Pilates is going to better everysingle output and you're going
to feel a big difference. And once you start doing
Pilates. I mean, I can totally respect
that. I feel like so many people in
like the bodybuilding space, even they're not body, but just
people just go to the gym and they lift weights with
conventional movement patterns. Like there's just this massive
(07:28):
lack of mind muscle connection. And I just go through the
motions. Just simply you performing the
repetitions but with no focus, no connection, no, you know,
full range of motion, no stimulus.
So anything that you can do to make that front of mind, which I
would assume Pilates would do toa tee.
To a tee. To a tee.
It's over. So the one where you're like in
(07:50):
this slanted contraption on curries and ropes.
I mean, there's multiple forms of Pilates.
There's classic traditional mat Pilates, which is just performed
with your body. You want a mat right on a yoga
mat, Pilates mat, and that is probably the best place to
start. That is the foundation.
And then you take all of those movements and you apply it on
two different apparatuses. There is a machine called a
(08:12):
Cadillac, which is an elevated mat with, you know, horizontal
vertical poles on each side and then horizontal one on top.
And there's a lot of springs andresistance used via spring
resistance. And so that's one machine.
There's a tower and there is a reformer, which you use spring
resistance again. Yeah, Yeah.
And you know, qualities was developed originally for more of
(08:34):
a therapeutic and rehab type of purpose.
And then it it's segwayed into mainstream.
And you'll see by using these springs, they are a beast.
I mean, you're going to love it.I cannot wait for you to take a
class. You're going to take a class
next week and you're going to message me and tell me what you
think because the, and you're going to take like 5 going to
sign it for five because the first one's bewildering.
And you're going to be like, what the hell am I doing this?
(08:55):
Not for me. And then the second and third
might be that way. By the 4th or 5th, you're going
to be like, OK, I feel this. This is, this is humbling and I
need this in my life. And you're going to see how much
improvement you're going to gainfrom just that knowledge that
you get in those few classes. So would when it comes to like
people making kind of like we said in the very beginning,
people have to start with where they're at and progress from
there. It comes to Pilates as the
(09:17):
primary form of movement patternand training.
Like what would be like the bestcadence to get the the most bang
for your buck? And as you advance, is that
something that you would do in tandem with a lifting routine,
or is that something that could in theory replace all other
forms of training? Yes, great questions.
So first of all, I always say start small.
(09:38):
Obviously, that's the whole premise of my philosophy in
life, a small moose, big life. So when I decided to launch this
book, I also filmed workouts to coordinate with the book.
So if you buy the book, you sendyour receipt, you get free
workouts with me. They're 10 minutes each and
there's it, they're all Pilates and Barbase workouts.
And I wanted to make them 10 minutes because first of all, I
(09:58):
packed a lot into those 10 minutes.
And if you're someone who's listening, it's like, what am I
going to possibly get out of 10 minutes, Andrea, do all of my
workouts and then come back and we'll have a conversation.
Because I promise you, you'll dothose 10 minutes and
everything's going to be shakingand quivering.
And because we, we get you into that point of mind, body
connection and really optimizingevery Rep.
So start there. Then from there, I would say
(10:19):
find what you enjoy doing in terms of workouts.
And if it's going to be Pilates or bar, that can be an online
workout. I do a lot of 30 minute, I have
15 minute express workouts or could be going to a local studio
to take a class and having a little bit more support and
accountability there. But in terms of long term play,
for me, my biggest thing is you want to focus on strength and
(10:39):
resistance all the way, right? Of course, you want your cardio,
you want to get your, you know, your heart health and you want
to make sure that you're focusedon that as well.
But I think now we are understanding the power
specifically for women to reallyunderstand how strength and
resistance plays a role in our bodies, specifically as we age.
And so I encourage everyone to do what they like and they enjoy
in the strength of resistance category.
(11:00):
If you love to lift, lift, try to add Pilates in a couple times
a week to see how it can advanceyour your practices.
If you hate lifting and it is just not for you, tried it.
You know you should do it, but it's not for you.
Pilates alone can be an incredible tool.
You just have to make sure that you're utilizing, you know,
you're going to the right studio, you're getting the right
routine, and you're not just going to one of those studios
where people are trained in the weekend and teaching you a bunch
(11:23):
of crazy stuff on a reformer andyou're going to get injured.
So you just got to pick and makesure that you're doing the right
routines and the right workouts,but you have to enjoy them.
I mean, it's hard to show up, right, to work out every day.
And if you hate what you're doing and your body hates it,
then you're less likely to stay,stay, you know, sustainable.
You're just less sustainable. So I always say you want to lean
into those movements and those workouts that immediately go,
(11:46):
yeah, I like that. Like, that feels joyful for me.
That's good. I feel great after I do that
work. I get high from it, you know,
and that will help you to, you know, combat that lack of
motivation that you get when youare struggling to get to the gym
or starting to go to the studio.Totally agree.
Totally agree. You've mentioned bar workout.
You talking like just an Olympicbar?
No. So I do.
I own a company called Extend Bar.
That's really what my business is.
(12:07):
And it's a combination of dance and Pilates.
And it was, it's a ballet bar. So you hold on to a ballet bar
and you do a lot of very detailed specific moves in
weight bearing positions and it will humble the hell out of you
like it is. Inverted rows and stuff like
that. No, no, like like holding on to
a bar and lowering your legs andlifting your legs, like bending
(12:30):
your knees and extending your legs, doing big movements.
It's all different type of weight bearing movements
specifically focused in more of the dance niche, but it's a
little bit more of a low weight,high Rep formula and it is
incredibly humbling. That's what I used to treat a
lot trading with the a lot of athletes that I worked with.
(12:50):
And it's if you watch it, if youwatch, you'll go on my
Instagram, see some of my moves.You'll be like, I got that.
And then I want you to do it. Just use your countertop at home
and try it. It's incredible.
It's, it's incredible the difference that you're body
recognizes the difference. You're like, I'm strong.
I can lift whatever you can lift, right?
And then you go to do these little movements and lift your
(13:11):
leg off the floor and hold it there using your, using your abs
as the primary initiator. And you're like, what have I
never worked out of my life? You know, it's just a different
way of your muscles moving. And we all need that, right?
In order to continue to evolve and improve in our in our
exercise and movement and in life, we need to step outside
the comfort zone and try something different.
(13:33):
And I feel like like all this stuff is so applicable to people
regardless. I mean, just for the life, like
not necessary for a given sport,but like if you can control your
muscles, understand muscular contractions properly.
And I mean, you think of like people that are at risk of
falling like all that holding onthemselves up.
Very much so. I mean like in body weight stuff
in general, like bodybuilders are very guilty of only going
(13:56):
towards, you know, heavy weightsand not seeing what they can do
unassisted with just their body weight.
Like I'm, I've always been terrible at pull ups and I
started committing to doing pullups and it was super humbling.
But now I've gotten pretty good at pull ups but it's only
because I started incorporating them.
I'm the same is true with a bar work.
I didn't just go sign up for a ballet class sometime and just
walk in. You got to sign up for a bar
(14:16):
workout. They're everywhere.
Just Google bar workouts in yourarea.
They're everywhere. And yeah, it will make your, it
will improve your lifting 1000%.Just like stretching, right?
Like, just like the things that we avoid are often the things
that we don't enjoy doing, but we know we need to do.
So your recognition of saying, hey, pull ups aren't my thing,
clearly that's where I'm lacking, right?
(14:36):
And this is where I need to workon.
And then knowing that you can overcome that.
And now because you are attacking those in such a
diligent way, you're going to see everything else kind of
change a little bit too, right? Not only physically, but in your
mindset and your ability to kindof overcome those challenges.
100% Do you feel like the femaledemographic, I mean, there's
(14:58):
certainly a lot more, you know, research, scientific literature
and just people online talking about the importance of building
muscle, preserving muscle, especially from a longevity
standpoint as we age. But do you feel like the tides
are starting to shift so that mainstream society is on board
with that and seeking that out? Are they still kind of hesitant
to adopt those? I have seen a shift over the
(15:18):
last couple of years, thankfully, of people getting,
you know, even with my workouts,people say, well, am I going to
bulk up? Are my thighs going to get big?
You know, am I going to my arms going to get too big?
Or they'll start my workout and they'll start to feel and see
changes in their body. Let's just stick with it.
Like your body's going to changeand evolve as you gain muscle
mass, right? As you, as you grow in strength
(15:38):
and you grow in knowledge and form, you're going to see your
body change. And that's an OK thing.
But don't freak out when you look down, your quads are
feeling a little bit stronger. Like give it some time and see
how your body eventually falls into place.
And I've had to push women to get outside of that mentality of
I don't want to do this. That's going to bulk my body up.
(15:59):
And of course that relates to weightlifting.
So many women that I know we're like, I'm not going to lift.
I'm not going to lift. Like, listen, if you don't like
it, you absolutely hate it. It feels terrible on your body.
That is one thing. But if you're not lifting
because you think it's going to bulk you up and it's not good
for you, Let's have a real conversation here, you know, but
I think now that has shifted. I have seen now so many women
(16:21):
becoming aware, not even from a,an aesthetic standpoint, like
what I'm going to look like, butjust the fact that we need bone
strength, right? And we know that in order to
have that bone strength, we needto be lifting, We need to be
focusing on strength training and resistance training without
without doubt. And I think now that education
is out there, I think it is mainstream.
(16:41):
I think women understand it and are more inclined to embrace it.
You know, we, we want to be strong as we get older, right?
Yes, you want to look good, but we want to be able to feel good.
We want to do good. We want to move good.
And this messaging now is I feellike completely out there and
I'm loving it. I'm loving it, are now finally
starting to embrace it. Yeah, no, I totally agree.
(17:03):
It's it's unfortunate that you know, magazine covers of the
totally jacked female bodybuilders, right, with such a
stigma in the mainstream becauseI mean.
It's true. I've been lifting for 15 years
and I would love to look like some of those female bodies
that's. Exactly it if you're my friends
that are lifters say the same thing.
They're like, I have tried to look like that.
Not everybody like that's not the norm and I have so many
(17:24):
friends that lift on a regular basis and they look insane, but
they do not look like that. They're not jacked like that.
They just look strong and healthy.
And also I think strength is an addiction.
I will say that like when I'm atmy strongest and I am the most
consistent of my movement and myworkouts, which I and I like,
let's say I'm prepping for a shoot and I just want to get
that next level right. That strength is an addiction.
(17:47):
When you feel energized, your body feels strong, your mind
feels like it's operated at a higher frequency, everything
starts to fall in place. And, and I think that's the
addiction, right? You're like, oh, wow.
When I do these kind of workouts, yes, it's hard when
I'm doing it and yes, it can deplete me for a moment.
But overall, when I zoom out, I feel really good, like I'm
(18:08):
strong, I have more energy. I, I don't, you know, slump over
my chair at 3:00 in the afternoon.
I, I, I'm eating healthier, which is fueling my body and
giving me more endorphins and all these other things, you
know, so I think it all comes into play.
And so working out can become this beautiful, healthy
addiction. That's a much healthier
addiction than a lot of the alternative options out there.
(18:29):
I feel like in order for women, but me and anybody who optimize
muscle building, they need to embrace the idea of not
chronically be dieting down and putting themselves in a deficit.
Because obviously in order to optimize muscle growth, you'd be
getting at somewhat of a healthysurplus.
So as you've seen the mentality shift in your female demographic
who appreciate and adopt this principle of building more
(18:52):
muscle, have you also seen them more willing to eat more food
and not constantly be seen or seat searching for that scale
weight to be dropping? Not in my network,
unfortunately, not yet, no. I think it is still this I, I
shouldn't say not at all. I have seen a definite shift,
but it's not significant. I still think there is, you
(19:12):
know, the most of my questions in my DMS is Andrew, I've been
doing these workouts or these workouts, these workouts, and
this is my, my diet of the moment and I haven't been able
to lose weight or I'm, I still can't lose last 10 lbs.
And you know, and it, they're always about, you know, the
workout. And I said, I always reply to
say, listen, calorie deficit is how you're going to end up
(19:32):
losing weight. But let's stop, let's just stop
the conversation because you've already done the majority of the
weight loss that you want. Now you're on that last five or
10 lbs. What do you love to do?
What feels good for your body? What fuels you?
What workouts do you enjoy? I'm like, you got to stop
focusing on and hyper focusing on those last 5 to 10 lbs and
start just focusing on moving because it feels good and focus
(19:53):
on the wins that you feel after you move.
And then do the same thing with the food, right?
Like are you eating enough protein?
Are you eating enough in terms of carbs?
Are you, are you having a balanced diet that not just
sustains you, but fuels you and activates you, that turns you on
to have a great energetic day? And so I always lean into the
feel like, how do you feel afteryou work out?
(20:16):
Feel pretty proud, right? Feel pretty good.
How do you feel after you eat? A good balanced, nutritious meal
feel pretty good, right? And we got to get rid of that
whole psychology of feeling guilty, right?
I, I say it's conscious and conscious indulgence.
Like you're allowed to indulge occasionally.
You're allowed to eat the foods that you're not supposed to eat
(20:37):
and do it without guilt. And for me, it's about a zoom
out effect. You got to zoom out and look
what you're doing as a whole anddoes it feel good?
Are you doing the right things consistently as a whole?
Then great. Allow yourself a little grace
when you fall off the wagon, getback on and and let's focus on
how to power up and fuel our bodies.
But I still think there's room on that.
(20:58):
Totally. And I feel like it's totally,
totally dependent on phase of life that they're all in.
I mean, I give inundated with questions.
I mean hormones are super popular right now, correct?
Women going through menopausal years, perimenopause, it's like
during that phase, yes, your hormones are in state of
disarray. You may be more apt to put on 5
or 10 lbs. But realistically, during that
(21:18):
chapter of your life, I would encourage them all to prioritize
the weight training and buildingand preserving as much muscle
and bone density as a. 100%. And like, don't even worry about
those 5 or 10 lbs. Like just lift hard, lift heavy,
correct? Yourself accordingly that's.
Often weight. Preach and mind when they get.
Through that chapter they'll be way better off for it.
I mean, they'll be able to reachtheir desired composition goal
(21:41):
so much more effectively if theyfuel themselves properly during
that phase. Couldn't agree with you more
thought on. I still think there's a lot of
room for that discussion and I under and it's it is hard when
you're going through that and I have dear friends that are going
through that and you see your body all of a sudden change,
right, Like you're at a certain weight for your whole life and
then all of a sudden you're like, whoa, where did, where did
this come from? Where did this come from?
(22:02):
It's defeating. It's it's not an easy thing to
just say. Well, just, you know, just lift
more. Just do this there.
It's a, there's a lot of mental,there's a mental health
component in that, in that wholechange that's happening in so
many different ways outside of just the physical look of your
body, the internal, internal health of your body.
Everything's, everything's changing.
Motions are changing, everything's shifting.
(22:24):
And I think finally, again, as you're seeing online, I'm sure
you're seeing this conversation is finally out there and people
are having that conversation. But the more we can lean into
the power of movement, right? And the power of fueling your
body, as you just said, and the power of fueling your muscles
specifically at this time. I think that not only from a
physical perspective, but from amindset perspective, if you can
(22:48):
find consistency in power and movement, you're going to feel
better as you go through these significant changes in your
life. 100% So as it pertains to movement, I feel like our
generation and younger, like they're getting inundated with
this information. So as they go through those
chapters as they age like, they'll already be Privy to it.
Yeah. Agree.
You look at people that are, youknow, our parents generation
(23:10):
generation beyond that, it's like they, I mean, they grew up
in the the low fat era. They're not.
I mean, they're low calorie, lowfat, not healthy from a
nutritional standpoint and also deathly afraid of bulking up and
looking like Arnold in their 80sgoing to happen.
But we've got that fear nonetheless.
That not familiar or, you know, comfortable in a gym setting.
(23:31):
There's still so many things they can do just in the comfort
of their own home. So like, when it comes to just
low hanging fruit for people that are just trying to freaking
activate their muscles, what aresome simple tips, tricks, and
habits and routines that you'd advocate for?
Yes, I love this topic. So it's something I call
movement snacks. OK, bite sized moments during
(23:52):
the day that you can slip into alittle movement session.
So I do this all day throughout the day.
I've done it for years. For example, when I'm waiting
for my matcha to cook in the morning, I have two minutes and
35 seconds on my microwave to cook my milk every single
morning. And what do I do?
I do not just stand there and like twiddle my thumbs.
(24:12):
I move my body. But in the morning, I
specifically will do stretches, like at the countertop, I will
stretch my body. I will do what feels good for my
body in the morning just to get my blood flowing, my body
moving, wake up the fascia like get everything flowing.
If I'm in midday and I'm again back at the kitchen waiting for
something to cook on the stove or even at dinner time when I'm
cooking dinner with the girls, Iwill not just sit there and talk
(24:34):
in periods of pause. If I'm brushing my teeth, I will
not just sit there and brush my teeth.
I will be doing pliers. I'm doing lunges, I'm doing
Batmas with my leg, leg lifts. It is 2 to 3 minutes.
But when you do that for five times a day, it does make a
difference. It adds up.
And not only does it physically make a difference in terms of
building muscle, small pocket moments, but majority of it is
(24:57):
the the positive effect that it has on your mindset, right #1
you get that little tiny moment of releasing endorphins, right?
And get everything jazzed up from a mindset perspective.
But then you also changes your attitude towards things during
the day. I notice after I do a movement
snack, I'm not going to jump in and grab a unhealthy snack,
right? Like I just move my body for
(25:18):
two, 2 1/2 minutes while waitingfor my Maja.
I'm not going to then jump in and grab on to like something
that's not good nutritious for my body.
It just sets the tone for your life.
It sets the tone for your day. So if you're somebody who's
like, I know I need to work out.I used to work out.
I used to be great at it. I was consistent at it.
Or I've never ever been someone that could work out every day.
I'll never be that kind of person.
(25:40):
Stop that narrative in your headright now and start to just find
little pocket moments of movement.
As I said, I've 10 minute workouts.
We all have 10 minutes during the day to move your body.
No excuses, right? You don't have to drive
anywhere. It's free, it's effective and
anybody can do it. There are all different levels.
I give 10 minutes when you startto do that.
(26:01):
And I just did a challenge. I just wrapped it up this last
week and I had, there's about 1000 people in my group right
now for small moves, Big life challenge.
We did 10 minute workouts every day for six weeks straight.
And I can't get over how many women were like, I have never
consistently worked out like this.
And I feel so good, right? And they're like, finally I felt
like all the excuses were null and void because I knew I had 10
(26:24):
minutes to move. And I knew because it was only
10 minutes that I would do it and I, I could do it.
And it's just getting over that like that, that buried entry
that we put into our own brains of like, you can't do it.
You know, time is not let's, let's not, let's come up with an
excuse. And so for me, start small.
Just start small and be consistent.
And that, I mean, that adds up. Like when you look at neat
(26:46):
activity, the total expenditure attributed to that over the
course of a day, compounded overweeks and months and years, it's
pretty freaking powerful. It's pretty freaking powerful.
It's. I mean, you look at your, you
know, baseline metabolic rate and what you're spending
throughout the day just to maintain weight.
Like a massive portion of that is just in your day-to-day
(27:07):
movements. Like when I'm dieting, everyday
movement energy is dropping. My NEAT starts dropping as a
result as well. Correct.
But if people are habitually doing intentional NEAT, then I
mean, they could they could hedge against so much of that.
And that's exactly what it is. It's that intention, right?
It's that intention to take those two or three minutes that
you're not doing anything instead of scrolling on your
(27:28):
phone and, you know, looking at garbage.
That is going to be anything butmotivating, right?
Take, just just commit to saying, OK, every time I brush
my teeth, instead of just standing there, I'm going to do
this move. Or every time I'm at the
microwave and I'm waiting for something to cook, I'm going to
do this move. And like I do with my girls,
when the commercial comes on, it's hard to find commercials
(27:50):
now. It's now when you're just
watching the show lately that has commercials to get on it.
And I'm like, all right, we're doing roll ups, which is a
Pilates move. It's essentially like a full sit
up, right? All the way to touch your toes,
rolling back down. We're going to do that every
single commercial period. It adds up.
They're 12 and 14. When we do 25 roll ups now every
single night we go into a room, we play with our dog.
(28:11):
We first start with the roll ups.
That's it. I'm asking for them to do 1
move. But that what always happens
after we do the 2525 roll ups. They start to practice their
cheer jumps, they start to stretch.
They start to and all of a sudden we're in this little room
and we are 20 minutes in and we're just moving our bodies and
having fun and hanging out everysingle night.
And it starts with like our 25 roll ups.
(28:32):
That's it. Yeah, no, that's awesome.
I've got a three-year old and a nine week old and I've.
Been Oh my God, you a nine week old.
Yeah. Congratulations.
Appreciate it it's my three-yearold how to do push ups hang of
it like his pretty legit so. They are so strong, they are so
strong and they're so capable. And if you can start from a
young age, the power of that strength, oh, I can imagine what
(28:54):
your kids are going to be like. That's amazing.
It's amazing. And it's a powerful tool because
it builds confidence, right? Like, no matter what they're
going through in life, they, they have to.
And there's so many teaching moments, right?
Like at the end when my daughterLane was struggling with her
reps on the last few, like just to get up right.
Those are the teaching moments where it's like, that's that's
hard, isn't it, Lane? Yep, but we can do it, can't we?
(29:15):
Yes, we can. Like you got to get through that
little bit of pain to get to theend.
And then now what I've noticed now she does 25 and she's like,
I'm going to do an extra few, I'm going to do an extra 5.
And and she the first time she did, she was like, I can't do
25. There's no way.
Now she's adding on her extra reps on her own without me
telling her to. She's built confidence in the
matter of like, you know, a month, you know, just starting
to do this recently. So those are the pockets, those
(29:37):
are the moments. And that's the thing that that's
where I keep reaching. Small moves add up.
It really does. Over time it adds up.
Yeah, I mean, my, I mean, my superpowers are human.
I would want this for everybody.It's just like figure out what
you can do every single day without fail, no matter what the
hell or high water, whether you're traveling, whether you're
at a festival, whether you're ata vacation.
Like find something that you cando every single day and commit
(30:00):
to never deviate from. Like it's really that simple.
And if you do that and it's justnon negotiable, like when you
have non negotiables in your life, you stay much more so on
the straight and narrow and you get to where you want to.
Go boom, period. Yes, that is what my whole book
is about. And that's exactly right.
It is finding those non negotiables, making sure that
they are accessible and sustainable, right?
(30:22):
Because if your non negotiable is not accessible, like you
said, no matter where you're at,no matter what you're doing, if
it's not accessible, you're not going to sustain it.
And it has to be sustainable in order for it to make a
difference. There has to be that consistency
factor. So when I'm talking about these
things, I'm like, do you brush your teeth every day?
Yes. Is that negotiable?
Well, God, no, I'm not going to go on, go out in the world and
not have my teeth brushed. Well, I'm not going to go out in
(30:44):
the world and present myself without getting my workout in
for that day or my moving in forthat day, right?
Or my breath work in for that day or my stretching in for that
day or whatever it is. That is my non negotiable.
You have to figure out what gives you fuel, like what makes
you tick, what makes you feel good as a human, what energizes
you, what makes you feel purposeful.
That is non negotiable. Do it.
Every single day in your life changes.
(31:05):
It's funny you said a tooth brushing exam because I use that
in a lot of my presentations. It's like my 3 year old hates
brushing his teeth. It's been a, it's been a grind.
Yes. We're still doing, but like he's
three, you know, you and I, we don't think twice, but we brush
your teeth. It's part of the day.
It's it's not even, it doesn't take any bandwidth at all.
Like it just happens and I feel like people when they first
(31:27):
started a workout routine, whatever it may be, no matter if
it's like intense or like bare bones basic, like they dreaded
kind of like that three-year olddreads brushed his teeth.
But like after you get past thathump, then you enjoy, but you
got to get past the hump in order to see the progress.
And once you become visible of progress or wear the progress
and it's addictive, but like youhave to get past that initial
(31:48):
hump. It's not supposed to be easy on
day one. I love that analogy.
Imagine so you're in the processright now of teaching your son
that this is non negotiable. This is something you do every
single day. You have to brush your teeth.
Then imagine if we did that withworkouts from a young age.
Imagine if we taught them every morning.
This is the workout routine thatwe're going to do.
(32:08):
It's non negotiable. It's healthy for your body, it's
going to fuel you, and then we're going to eat a healthy,
nutritious meal. Non negotiable.
Imagine if we did that for our youth like they the imagine what
would change in our world if everybody was taught that.
Just like we now know we have tobrush our teeth every day.
Why we were taught that from thetime we were, you know, had
teeth, we had to move them. Yet when the time we can move
(32:30):
our bodies, we were teaching ourchildren that they should be
moving their bodies, right? We just, it's not an education.
It's just like go out and play, which is great.
Like let's start to educate our kids on on the power of it so
that they can become adults thatit's just ingrained in that they
don't have to think about it. It's just a it's a non
negotiable, the default. That's the word default.
And I feel like I think it's a disservice to people for them to
(32:53):
think that there is such thing as maintenance.
Like I've always said, maintenance is a myth and people
find themselves doing things that they assume is neutral.
There's no neutral. I mean, like when we talk about
eating the right food or training or moving our bodies,
like that's obviously contributing to our betterment.
But like if you look at those that are just morbidly obese
playing video games all day, eating fast food or getting, you
(33:14):
know, Uber Eats, like that's nota neutral.
Like they are on the line because of that.
And for whatever reason, societyhas accepted that as more the
default than moving your body and eating real food.
So we just have to like, change the society's standard of what
acceptable is, I guess, having higher standards by default.
Absolutely. And it's it's hard to do it when
(33:36):
you weren't taught that from a young age.
It's hard to adopt that. Everything's harder when you're
later in life, right? Learning a language is harder
than when you learn when you're younger.
You're just more pliable, adaptable, adoptable with habits
when you're younger. But that doesn't make it an
excuse for you not to start now.So if you're someone who is
listening to this and you go, yeah, well, that's easy for you
(33:57):
to. You guys have been doing this
for years and I'm at home and this is not my life.
It can be your life. You can be someone who moves
your body every single day and it doesn't take much.
And you just need to start. You need to stop with the
excuses and you just need to start moving and it.
And you don't need to go to the gym and spend 2 hours at the
gym. Just start small, go for a walk,
(34:19):
go for a walk every single day, do a little 5 to 10 minute
workout, do a little movement, nap throughout the day.
And then I want you to stop and see how you feel.
How do you feel after a week right?
And I feel like the like the perspective one has as they do
these things is key. Like the other day I was going
for a run and I just felt worn down.
(34:39):
I didn't get much sleep and you know, I was just, I was tired.
My body, I've been pushing myself pretty hard.
But then as I was running, I'm like, man, it is a beautiful
morning. The birds chirp and I'm on a
nice trail around the lake. It's like I have the opportunity
to run. Like I know people that don't
have legs. You know, I feel like having a
physical body and been able to actually stand and use it is a
(35:00):
massive blessing. And if you adopt this attitude
of gratitude towards it, you don't want to take it for
granted or let it, you know, become, you know, you don't want
it to decay. And if you're, you know not
moving, it is going to. Yeah, I love that.
I think that's the perspective in life in general and certainly
applicable to movement itself. You just gotta lean into I get
(35:22):
to not, I have to, you know, yours.
People say that all the time. And I think it's, you know, all
these things you hear all the time.
You see, we're inundated on social media of all these like
everyone's a life coach, everybody's got advice.
Everybody's coming at you with Idid this and now look at my
beautiful life. And honestly, what you have to
just look at is like, what, whatmakes you feel good?
You know, like, what do you needto do more of that you're not
(35:42):
doing right now? And then how can you shift your
mentality and mindset and perspective towards how can you
get to that point where you're like, OK, yeah, I get to do this
and I want to do this. You know, I have that.
I had this one client, Sarah, who I speak about in the book
and she lost over the last, it'sbeen a year and a half now with
me over £100. And you know, she had every
(36:07):
excuse not to move her body. She had a very, very serious
health condition. She had an eye surgery that
required her to lay Chrome on her stomach for the majority of
the day. Like she was able to get up for
four or five minute periods to use the restroom the whole day
for months. Can you imagine?
Like it was just mentally the most awful and draining thing
and and she never excused us to give up and not move.
(36:29):
And she just decided one day like, I'm going to press play on
this workout, you know, and she joined one of my challenge
groups. She felt support, she felt
accountability that she like shehad accountability partner.
And it wasn't like she was like,I'm going to lose 110 lbs.
That wasn't her goal. Her goal was just that day to
show up, make it non negotiable.And then when she did that, that
(36:49):
first day, she was like, OK, that wasn't as that was hard.
It was kind of awful, but I can do this again, right?
And then she did it the next dayand then the next day and she
just kept saying like, there's no reason not to keep doing
this. And then she lost 5 lbs.
I never saw 5 lbs. She was like, wait a minute,
what if I could lose 10, you know?
And then it was these small little goals that she set along
the way. And now she was just with me in
(37:11):
Portugal on my women's retreat that I just hosted in Madeira.
And I look over, we have two catamarans and there's Sarah on
the top, like climbs up to the very top of the catamaran.
And she's jumping off this catamaran in Madeira.
And she's like, she comes over. We both got emotional.
She's like I, I don't, I I'm in on a woman's retreat on a trip
(37:33):
by myself with women. I have no idea who they're at.
I've never done anything like this before.
She's like I'm in a two piece bathing suit and I'm jumping off
of a boat. Like who am I?
You know? And she rode a bicycle with me.
We did E bike this and she's like, I haven't been on a bike
and like she's do. She was living life, like living
life, tasting it, feeling and experiencing it.
And she was like feeling that Ohmy God, I get to do this.
(37:57):
Because she made these tiny little shifts in her life to
choose to eat healthier every day, to choose to move her body
every day. And it wasn't a lot.
She did 30 minutes with me everysingle day.
She just showed up. Over time, it has completely
transformed her life. She's now launching her, she's a
nurse, she's launching a new health company, she's getting
married. Like her whole life is
completely transformed. And I think what happens is we
(38:21):
think it's so far away that we don't start because it just
seems so far away. Well, guess what?
In a year from now, you're it's going to come, you're going to
be here in a year from now and you're either going to regret
not doing it, you're going to beproud that you did it.
So you choose, right? Time's going to pass anyways.
That's how you. The most fulfilling thing in
life is when you're working withsomebody like them and you see
(38:42):
the light come back into their eyes.
Like they have this sense of hope and excitement they may not
have had for years and they justhave a zeal for living again.
Like when you can be a catalyst to make that a reality.
Like that's when you know you'redoing your the line of work
you're supposed to be in. That's what I live for.
That's what I live for. I mean, those clients that those
stories, that is, that is exactly it.
(39:05):
And she shares a story that I gointo detail with in the book
more. But you know, we did a webinar
with a lot of our members and webrought her on to just kind of
share her story, what what she did and how it worked, all the
stuff. And somebody asked her, like,
what do you do when you, you know, like when you miss a
workout or you don't eat healthythat day or maybe it's a week
and she's like, get back on the wagon.
(39:27):
She's like, I don't set up camp,you know, she's like, if I
follow the wagon, I'm not, you know, setting up camp.
We're not seeing kumbaya and having s'mores like I'm getting
my ass right back on the wagon and I'm going.
And so I love that lesson too, because I think we start things
a lot and it doesn't go exactly as planned or we have a moment
of quote UN quote failure and we're like, oh, then forget it.
(39:47):
I tried, it doesn't work for me.And you're we're just so quick
to give up. And I think it's just about
allow yourself a moment. You fall off the wagon, but
don't set up camp, just get right back on.
Keep going. You got this, you know.
It's key. It's funny you say it's I had a
one of my good friends clients, one of the guys that coaches
under me. He just like he's in a prep
right now. His competition is next weekend
(40:07):
and he's he had like the first like off playing unnecessary
overconsumption day and he's like beating himself up.
But he's you know, he's been in the space line to know you can't
just set up camp there. We were talking about it on the
podcast, just being totally brutally transparent with him
and he's like, man, it's like the analogy of you're driving in
the road and you get a flat tire.
You don't get out and slash the other 3.
(40:29):
Exactly. Exactly.
Yes. I love that analogy.
I love it. It's so true because when you
put it in those terms, you're like, well, yeah, of course not,
but but yet we do that, right? We've got to just slash all the
tires and we're like, we're justgoing to stay right here.
We're not going to move again. Yeah, that's a great one.
I love that. So true.
(40:49):
Total tangent here, but you saidyou drink matcha in the morning.
Why matcha? I am such a matcha girl.
Well first of all, I love the taste of coffee, like I smell
the aroma. I love going to coffee shops.
My body does not love caffeine like and it just doesn't.
And coffee in general, even decaf.
Not a good thing, my friend. I've seen in matcha though with.
Not as much, no, not as much. And for some reason, I don't
(41:12):
know why, but I started to just sip on matcha years ago during
COVID is when I really started. I think the company that I love
peak matcha, they sent me something like I got in the
mail, you know, like you get allthese things in my mail, like
I'm going to try this. And at first I was like, OK, I
like it. And then and then it has become
my addiction. I cannot function without
matcha. I like matcha so much.
And you know, there's something about making my matcha in the
(41:35):
morning. This like routine for me.
It feels, I know it sounds so ridiculously cheap.
No, no, I'm all for more. Just there's something about it
because it takes a little bit offocus and time to make it and I
just feels like I'm doing something for me and I enjoy it.
So like starts with the almond milk and then I have the matcha
that I put into my special mug that I love.
(41:55):
And then I take time with hot water poured into the matcha to
mix my matcha properly And just,and then from there I add a
little cinnamon and then I add the milk and then I again blend
it all together with a little cinnamon on top.
And it just, you know, it takes,it's not just like pouring
coffee into running. There's just something to it.
And I truly go to bed at night and I'm like, oh, I can't wait
for my matcha moment. I can't wait for my matcha
(42:16):
moment in the morning. No, I'm the same way with my
coffee. I was making French pressed
coffee. For lunch.
Oh, I love French pressed coffee.
I went as far as to like get a hand grind grinder so that I
could like have that as part of the whole, you know, journey to
the perfect cup of coffee. I feel like little things like
that you got to appreciate, likehow you do anything in life is
how you do everything. And if you want something done
(42:38):
optimally, you have to put the focus and attention it deserves
into it. But didn't that cup of coffee
taste differently to you when you spent a little more time?
I mean, if we did a blind taste,that's it's probably the same,
right? We maybe we wouldn't know, but
it was the intention behind making that cup of coffee for
yourself and it was feeling likeyou were taking just that extra
little bit of time and effort todo something for you.
(42:59):
It's like I tell the women I work with, I'm like whether
that's matcha or coffee or, you know, a hot water lemon,
whatever it is in the morning ora morning stretch, which I
highly recommend. It's just, it's just the
intention of before you start your day in the chaos and you
know, evolves and you've got allthe things that you're trying to
do throughout the day. Just give yourself that morning
moment, right? Give yourself that morning
(43:20):
moment, whatever that is for youto just say.
I'm doing this for myself beforeI go into all the other roles
that I wear, before I put on themom hat, before I put on the
spouse hat, before I put on whatever the the the Co worker,
the employee, the entrepreneur hat, whatever it is, give
yourself that moment and the rest of your day.
You will lead with stronger and more positive intention if you
(43:41):
give yourself that morning moment.
Yeah, I think people just wake up in this reactionary state
where they reactionary on the the news or scroll on social
media. It's like anything you do as a
more routine that's not that is a step in the right direction
probably. Amen.
That's the phone should be out of the room.
Like put your phone in the otherroom, wake up in the morning.
(44:03):
And again, I go into this in detail in the book, but the
power of breath and in the morning, it's just taking a few
minutes to have intentional breath work.
Oh, game changing game changer. So, So what all you got cooking
right now? You got the book?
When did that launch? So that launch is October 14th,
so it's not out yet. OK, October 14th.
October 14th. What else?
Accept the majority of your. Time.
(44:24):
So I've got an Extend Bar. So Extend Bar just launched with
Zumba. So we just created a Pilates
program on Zumba. So if you go to Zumba app, you
can find Extend Bar on the Zumbaapp there.
And then I'm working on a new business venture which is in the
tween teen skin Care World. Nice.
What is that? So what?
Did you say? Yeah, I haven't actually
(44:45):
publicly announced it yet, but it.
But it's coming. It's coming.
Yeah. You know what?
It it developed out of a need. Both my business partner and I
have young girls in this age range and she happens to live
and eat and then breathe in the beauty and skin care and
aesthetician world. And yeah, we decided to come
(45:05):
together and create something that we knew was really good for
our our children and their friends and their peers in this
age group to help develop strong, healthy habits in the
beauty and skin care sector. Awesome.
It's crazy how much nonsense is in so much of the mainstream.
Anything like the soaps, the shampoos, the makeups, the skin
care, I mean it is just crazy out there.
(45:28):
It's crazy and it's far crazier.So like when I was my daughter's
age, I I mean, I was using like probably my mom's Mary Kay or
whatever it was palms to remove my make up.
There were like two or three choices.
Now this has become a hobby for kids.
This, this, this, it's an addictional as to just having
more products and more things and like more colorful and the
(45:49):
more the way this dispenses and the way it's like they know what
they're doing when they're marketing to this age group,
this demographic. And I know unfortunately, it's
like brooding kids skin, you know, that's this is the
demographic that they're so easily moldable and pliable.
And sadly, I've seen it across the board.
And so we're trying to create education that supports the
product launch that is helping young ladies and young women to
(46:11):
understand what they're putting on their skin has a long term
effects and the power building their skin barrier and building
their microbiome through these products that we're launching.
And so it's got to be about likeless is more and like the
quality of the product is what really counts.
And it's hard with this demographic.
It's like, you know, they just want all of it like a new
(46:34):
flavor, a new launch, a new set,the new this is like they just
want more, more, more, more. So I'm trying to create products
that are actually doing good. That's exciting, very exciting.
And with your, with the bar workouts, with the Zumba, so
you're like that's like a courseformat or it's all through the
app. Or how?
No, it's all through the app. So it's just part of their
online digital program. So if you are a member with
(46:54):
Zumba and you are interested in Pilates, you just go on to their
app and you can search for Pilates and, and our program is
on there. So any member can access the
workouts. Nice.
And we're also on beach body as well.
So we're on the body platform aswell.
I have like 150 workouts on thatplatform.
Very cool, very cool. Selfish question for you here.
So as a bodybuilder, you've worked with bodybuilder, so it's
(47:15):
relevant for you and you're a dancer, so super relevant for
you. If I'm wanting to take my posing
the next level, I have no formalexperience in photographed dance
routine. What should I do first?
How? How should that progression look
as it pertains to perfecting thesport of bodybuilding for me?
(47:37):
Yeah. So first thing is I would study,
learn and find another person inthe industry that you want to
emulate their technique and their form.
Study it, learn it, understand it, practice it, perfect it.
Stand in front of a mirror againand again and again and record
yourself and videotape yourself again and again again to
understand how those little nuances in the movement, whether
(47:58):
it's the, you know, the turn of the neck, the all the little
teeny nuances are what add up. And so that's number one,
because that's free, right? Without having to hire a coach
or hire someone. Secondly, is I would enroll in
some Pilates classes. And why do I say that?
Because once you become a practitioner, like a real
practitioner, Pilates, the development of mind body
(48:21):
awareness is outstanding. OK, outstanding.
What you will gain in terms of mind, body awareness and the
ability to use your mind to properly activate the muscles
during movement and non movementwill blow you away.
And you will have such a stronger understanding of how to
(48:41):
do that both in a vertical position or whether you're
working out, whatever you wherever you're at, right,
whether you're on a mat, whetheryou're in competition, whether
you're posing or whether you're lifting, you will have a very
strong body awareness without having to have the mirror in
front of you. And that's what we're aiming
for, is to be able to understandhow to activate and how to turn
it on when you're not in front of someone, someone's not
(49:01):
exactly showing you. And it's all about that mind,
body conviction. Awesome, awesome.
Yeah, you get definitely get me sold on Pilates.
I see. Wait.
Do they do like hot Pilates too?Like, yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of hot.
It would be great. It would be great.
You mentioned earlier like you got to be careful not to go into
a studio where like you got someweekend warrior instructor.
(49:22):
Like what are some tell tell signs that you're in a good
studio versus when you should probably not attend on a
regular? Basis, Yeah.
So I would ask the manager what their education and
certification program qualifications are at that
studio. So for example, can you tell me
a little bit more about how yourinstructors are educated?
You have an in house certification program.
(49:42):
Do you require them to have a, you know, extensive
comprehensive certification program?
Tell me a little bit more about the education and then you can
make a logical common sense, youknow, understanding and guess of
like, OK, just seems like it's areputable.
There are some studios that truly they're just like you take
a weekend course and they're teaching on a machine that is a
very intense machine that peoplecan easily get hurt on.
(50:06):
So like before I was even able to teach a client or work on a
body, I had to be, I had a year underneath me, one year of like
mirroring, shadowing, practicing.
Like I wasn't able to have a class for 12 months, you know,
and this and it was very comprehensive.
I was in like a, you know, very comprehensive program.
So I think that has fallen because the rise of Pilates has
(50:27):
become so popular that people, Imean, my friends and I talk
about it. There's women that are opening
Pilates students just for the business sense of it and have no
understanding of it. And that's OK as long as they're
hiring instructors that do know what they're doing.
And so you just want to make sure that the people that are
teaching you what they're doing.And I think the first thing you
can look at is are they a robot in the class?
(50:49):
Are they just walking around theclass going OK and four more
reps we're going to lift the redand three reps, OK, and two
right, They all sound the same like or are they going, hey,
Andrea, relax your right shoulder on that move.
Hey, Sarah, make sure that left hip tilts up a little bit.
OK, Everybody make sure we're pushing through the heels to
really fire off those flutes at the same time, wrapping those
ABS in and up, you know, lengthens the If you're hearing
(51:10):
those cues, if you're hearing real queuing, they've got it.
If you're not hearing those cues, they're a robot that was
taught in a weekend. Move on to a classical studio.
Gotcha. OK, good to know.
Yeah. Is it like a specific Pilates
move or exercise and say okay, you've mastered Pilates if you
can dial that in? No, no, I mean no, there's so
many. No, no, you could master one and
(51:32):
then try the next one. You're like, you're a complete
beginner, newbie at it. It's just the old and that's I
do love that about buddies is the aim of mastery.
You know, there is that like insane with bar.
It is that repetition. And I think sometimes we forget
how powerful repetition is. Would you agree?
Like like people are always like, what's the new workout?
(51:53):
What's the new, new, new, new? I need something exciting.
I need a whole new workout. Well, back in the day we had one
DVD that we did on repeat for years.
And the reason we got stronger and better at is because we
repeated those movements that our our mind body coordination
was improved. Our strength was improved
because we kept doing it and we got better and better at it.
When you're constantly looking for new, it's great in some
(52:14):
sense, right? Because you're changing your
body, you're changing rears. But you've got to be comfortable
with repetition. You have to be comfortable with
repeating moves and going, OK, how did I do this yesterday?
How can I apply a different, youknow, goal on the same exact
exercise I've been doing for twomonths?
How can I level up, you know? That is, that is key.
I mean, I've been doing the sameworkout split for over a year
now, but like there are so many variables independent of
(52:36):
actually changing the movements like time under tension, drop
sets, super sets, negative reps,force reps, like all these
things that people take for granted change the workout.
Just change all these intensity factors correct that you can
manipulate to create more progressive overload.
I love it. Yes, we need to develop that.
Like, try to let's focus on mastering things and not just
(52:58):
doing something new every singleday, you know?
100% Have you read the book Mastery by Rapper Green?
Yeah, it's a good one. It's a good one.
It's somewhere over here. Yeah, yeah, it's a good one.
Well, I'm super stoked about your book.
So this podcast will actually golive probably, right the sun
time. The book goes perfect, love it.
Perfect. And where?
People get that, so if they go to smallmovesbiglife.com, so and
(53:20):
that is also where you can access the workouts.
So if you buy the book, you justshoot me over, it's all on my
website. You shoot me over an e-mail and
within 24 hours I will get you onto my website.
You have access to all of my workouts for free.
I've never done free workouts like this.
It's always for purchase. So these are great, easy to do
10 minute long workouts and I also incorporate stretches.
So I've got a whole stretch series of videos as well to
incorporate. Awesome small moves. biglife.com
(53:44):
What? What about on social?
Where you at on social? Andrea Lee Rogers, So Andrea
LEIGHLEIGHROGERS. Perfect, well I will link out
and make it super easy for people to find lovely smelling.
I feel like anything you can do to get people moving more is a
win. So keep fighting the good fight
for that for sure. I appreciate it, it was great to
chat with you today. Likewise appreciate you, Andrea.
(54:06):
Talk soon.
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