August 5, 2024 • 43 mins
Unlock the secrets to effective strength training with Demetrius Bailey, a seasoned coach with a wealth of experience training professional athletes and military personnel. Demetrius reveals practical strategies to integrate strength training into your daily routine, helping you prevent injuries and improve functional movement. Learn how key exercises like squatting, deadlifting, and pressing can transform your fitness journey, no matter your current level.
Discover why maintaining muscle mass is crucial as we age, with startling statistics showing adults lose 2-3% of muscle mass each decade after the age of 40 without proper strength training. Demetrius introduces the concept of "microdosing" workouts—short, impactful sessions that fit into even the busiest schedules. Understand the role strength training plays in everyday tasks, from lifting to maintaining good posture, and gain practical tips for initiating and sticking to a regimen with 20-30 minute sessions, three to five times a week.
This episode also debunks common myths about strength training, such as the fear of becoming bulky or the misconception that it stunts children's growth. Demetrius offers creative ways to use household items for exercises and underscores the importance of proper form to prevent injuries. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned athlete, this discussion will equip you with the knowledge and motivation to build and maintain an effective strength training routine. Don’t miss the inspiring success stories and expert advice that make strength training accessible and beneficial for everyone.
Resources:
Starting a Strength Training Program Webinar Link
DPS Fitness Wellness Unit Daily Workout Calendar
DPS Fitness Wellness Unit Capitol Complex Class Information
5-Day Strength Training Challenge Playlist
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
A short muscle is a weak muscle, and so when we're
sitting in our desk and we'resedentary, our muscles are
getting shortened.
When our shoulders are roundedforward, if we're stuck in this
position, the next thing youknow we need to express shorter
range of motion.
When we lose that, that's whereinjuries can occur.
The long game of strengthtraining is really to help
prevent injuries, things that wekind of take for granted, you
(00:23):
know, taking things off theground.
Well, if we're not preparing ortraining for that, then
something as small as pickinggroceries up off the ground and
we're not thinking about allright, is my back flat, is my
core engaged?
Then that's how injuries canoccur.
You can tweak your back justlifting groceries off the ground
.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Hi and welcome to the ERS Walk and Talk podcast.
Today we have an excitingepisode on strength training
featuring Demetrius Bailey fromthe DPS Fitness Wellness Unit.
Demetrius brings a wealth ofknowledge and experience to this
discussion.
He earned his Bachelor ofScience degree in Exercise
Science from the University ofAlabama and a Master's degree in
Physical Education and HumanPerformance from the University
(01:05):
of Alabama and a master's degreein physical education and human
performance from the Universityof West Florida.
Demetrius began his careertraining professional athletes
in the MLB, nba and NFL.
Then he spent five years as acollegiate strength coach and
he's also worked with Air Forceand Marine Forces special
operations before joining theTexas Department of Public
Safety.
He holds certifications fromthe National Strength and
(01:28):
Conditioning Association and theAmerican College of Sports
Medicine.
In this episode, we discuss thebenefits of strength training
how to properly perform threefunctional movements squatting,
deadlifting and pressing.
If these terms seemintimidating, stay with us,
because these are things you doevery day in life.
Demetrius provides a commonsense approach to strength
(01:49):
training and he makes itaccessible and understandable to
all of us.
So, whether you're just gettingstarted or you're already
training, this conversation willreinforce the benefits of doing
it right.
He also shares great resourcesand recommendations for where to
start.
He also shares great resourcesand recommendations for where to
start.
I'm so happy you're here tolisten to this enlightening
conversation with Demetrius.
Here we go, all right.
(02:13):
Good morning, demetrius, andthank you for joining me as a
guest on the ERS Walk Talkpodcast.
It's really good to see you.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Thank you, lacey, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I'm honored to be a part of this.
Yeah, I wanted to just kind oflet everybody know a little bit
about who you are.
I've sort of already formallyintroduced you in the intro, but
if you could share just how yougot involved with strength
training in the first place,that'd be great.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Of course I played basketball in high school.
I wanted to play football, butparents wouldn't let me because
I had a concussion and they werelike nope, that's it.
So I grew up playing basketball.
In high school we wereintroduced to a private strength
coach and so that was my firstintroduction to strength
training was in high school.
(02:58):
And you know just that feelingof like getting stronger and
knowing that me playingbasketball and getting stronger
was helping me be a greaterdefender and I was able to be
more explosive and that beingable to translate into
basketball helped out a lot.
And so, leaving high school,went to the University of
Alabama where I received myundergrad in exercise science,
(03:21):
and from there I kind of didn'tknow which role I wanted to go.
So I went the athletic trainingroute at first and then after
that I went to physical therapy,the program.
I started to get a sense that,okay, this is more of the
reactive side to training, sopeople have already gotten
(03:41):
injured.
There's got to be a way to sortof try to prevent that.
And after I went down thephysical therapy route, shadowed
a bunch of physical therapists,I found a private strength
(04:02):
training gym in Tuscaloosa.
I was really getting involvedwith training those baseball
kids and watching theirconfidence and all that grow and
seeing them perform better onthe baseball field and the other
sports was really awakening tome and just seeing, like the
injury risk, kind of you knowdecreased there.
So that was huge for me and soI wanted to know more and so I
(04:24):
ended up interning at EXOS,primarily working with
professional athletes, and thenwent on to do collegiate
strength conditioning.
So I was at D1 University andthen I ended up getting a grad
assistant position at theUniversity of West Florida in
Pensacola, florida.
I had several sports there, so Ihad men's and women's tennis,
(04:45):
cross country women's soccer,volleyball, and then I assisted
with football.
That was a great opportunityfor me to like really get
hands-on coaching, being able towork with athlete trainers and
head coaches.
And so from there went on to bethe head strength coach at a
small division three school,went on to be the head strength
coach at a small Division IIIschool, birmingham Southern
(05:05):
College, and so that was a funtime working with over 400 plus
athletes, 22 sports by myself,and learning how to manage a
weight room.
And from there, you know, justto keep it short, I transitioned
to tactical strength andconditioning I worked with the
military in special operationsfor three years and then that
led me to join the DPS team herein the fitness wellness unit.
Conditioning I worked with themilitary and special operations
for three years and then thatled me to join the DPS team here
(05:27):
in the fitness wellness unit.
So that's kind of myintroductory and short and how I
got involved in strengthtraining.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's amazing.
A lot of people know that Ialso started my role in state
government at DPS in the fitnessand wellness unit.
I also relocated my family toto Austin for that job and I
know you just you just movedhere.
Can you talk a little bit aboutyour journey to moving to Texas
and taking that role?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Right.
So that's a.
It was a huge risk, honestly,because my wife was still
finishing her teaching job atUNC Wilmington and so I moved
out here in September 2023.
And then my wife she had tofinish out her fall semester and
so packed up everything,actually ended up living in the
barracks with above the traineesfor you know, three, four
(06:15):
months.
That transition was rough atfirst, but my wife now works for
DPS as well and she's in theleadership development unit, so
we're loving our jobs here.
Dps, they've embraced me.
It's allowed me to do more, notjust coaching, but also do
trainings like this, do a lot ofeducation, which was what I was
(06:36):
a little bit of missing in mylast spot, and so I want to get
more hands-on and not just bethe coach in the weight room.
I want to do a lot more of thewellness side of things as well.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
That's amazing.
We're so lucky to have you herefirst of all and I was thrilled
the first time I met you thatyou were taking on this role and
have enjoyed kind of getting toknow you and working with you
on some special projects, and Ialways appreciate how much DPS
is willing to collaborate withother state agencies to support
(07:10):
our entire state's workforce.
That's one of the things I lovedabout working at DPS too, it
was like it's not just about us,but if we take care of everyone
, it helps all of uscollectively.
So I love it and I'm so happythat you and your wife are here.
You'll also have a daughter,from what I understand.
That takes up a lot of time andenergy, but worthwhile endeavor
parenting.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Exactly.
She's a two-year-old bundle ofjoy and energy and keeps us on
our toes at all times.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
That's amazing.
All right, so we've talkedabout a little bit about your
background.
You have extensive backgroundin strength training and really
the reason why I wanted to talkabout this today is because I
think there's sometimes a lot ofmisinformation about strength
training.
A lot of people don't reallyunderstand what it can do for
them.
So let's just kind of talkabout the benefits of strength
(07:59):
training.
To get started, today, in youropinion, or based off of the
research, can you talk aboutwhat are some of the most
significant benefits of strengthtraining for overall health and
wellbeing?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Right.
So one of the overall benefitsis, you know, increased bone
density and preventing the, youknow, osteopenia, osteoporosis
and that bone loss, as you know,as we age we tend to, you know,
lose muscle, and so strengthtraining is going to help
reverse that.
You know, the more muscle weput on is going to help protect
(08:33):
our bones and as we grow andjust become more functional
throughout our lives.
So you know, you don't want tobe getting older and next thing,
you know, you're not able toplay with the grandkids or carry
the groceries upstairs or dothe things that were typically
part of our daily lives.
And so it's a lot of thingsincreased bone density, improved
blood glucose control, reducingstress levels, improving sleep
(08:56):
there's a lot of things I can goon to mention, but strength
training in general.
People should get involved withstrength training just for the
simple fact that it's going tohelp decrease your
cardiovascular disease risk andhelp you live a healthier life.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, absolutely, and kind of piggybacking on what
you said.
With the muscle loss, you and Iwe just kind of did a webinar
on this topic and this statisticthat I think is so alarming,
and the thing that I think abouta lot is that every decade we
lose two to 3% of our musclemass If we don't strength train.
I mean that is really just likewhoa, that's so important.
(09:35):
Um, because of that, leanmuscle mass is, like you said,
is supporting our, our bonestructure.
And also, can you talk abouthow strength training can help
us with management of our weightand kind of just what is body
composition?
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Right.
So the more muscle that we holdonto our body or the more lean
body mass that we have, it'sgoing to increase our resting
metabolic rate.
And so with that you've somepeople may have heard the term
basal metabolic rate, restingmetabolic rate, the similar
basal metabolic rate, and sowith that some people may have
heard the term basal metabolicrate, resting metabolic rate, a
similar basal metabolic rate, ispretty much going to go geared
(10:12):
towards all right, this is theamount of calories your body is
going to burn if you're just notdoing anything, all right.
But resting metabolic rate kindof factors in eating, but
resting metabolic rate kind offactors in, you know, eating,
sleeping, other bodily functionsand kind of just daily living.
And so with that I mean themore muscle you have in your
(10:32):
body, that more muscle ismetabolically active.
And so the more muscle you'regoing to have on your body, the
more calories you're going tocontinue to burn throughout the
day and it's going to increasethat resting metabolic rate,
which is huge in terms ofburning fat, because obviously
you want to have when it comesto caloric deficit, you know if
(10:52):
you're going to be spending moreenergy, that's going to help in
terms of burning that fat.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, that makes so much sense and so essentially,
if we have more active tissuethat's burning more calories,
then the like the role of fat isjust to basically store energy
for us when we're starving isnot very active.
During the webinar that Ithought was really great you
(11:24):
said we think our metabolismslowing down just because we're
getting older, but in fact itmay be slowing down because
we're losing muscle mass.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
That's really exactly Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah, we're less active.
So, um often I think people maybe overwhelmed with the idea of
starting a strength trainingprogram, like, if you don't know
how to do it, it may seem likeit's I don't know what to do or
how much, and then it's going tobe a whole, like time consuming
thing.
How much do people actuallyneed to do to achieve the
(11:51):
benefits of at least maintainingthe muscle mass that they have?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Say 20 to 30 minutes tops, and even then there's ways
that you can just sprinkle instrength training just
throughout the day, have ain-service coming up in august
and one of our speakers is goingto be talking about this
concept called microdosing.
This concept of microdosing is,you know, just small strength
training sessions to sort ofhelp eliminate excuses of you
(12:19):
know, I don't have the time, andjust sort of maybe doing two to
three exercises in a session.
You focus on maybe a particularmuscle group and then you're in
and out and that's all you haveto do.
Obviously incorporate a warmupand a cool down, but training
sessions don't need to be long,especially for your average
adult.
I mean, obviously we're, youknow, have busy schedules.
(12:41):
It only takes 20, 30 minutes.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
How many days a week would you say?
People need to be strengthtraining.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I'd say you can get away with three to five.
I know it's, you know a rangethere.
It depends on you know whatyour goals are.
But I say, if you can get inthree training sessions a week
and that's you know 20 to 30minutes, then you're in great
shape.
Obviously five would be better,but yeah, three to five
somewhere in there, three is isgood, five will be great.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
That's great.
Can you talk about just thefunctionality of strength
training as a benefit, like why,why would we want to engage in
these types of activities andhow that might help us
functionally?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Right.
So every day we wake up and wedo a squat, whether we believe
it or not, and so squatting ispart of our daily lives.
Picking things off the groundis part of our daily lives.
You know, if we're playing withour kids on the ground, we're
going to have to be able to getoff the ground.
You know, through pressing orground, through pressing or
standing up and reaching forthings overhead in our cabinets,
(13:46):
or if we're helping friendsmove, we're having to lift and
carry heavy objects.
Or, like you grew up on a farmconstantly lifting heavy objects
, carrying objects on one sideof the body, and so all of these
things are part of our dailylives.
It's, I guess, what we calllike functional strength
training is that it just kind ofrelates to what we do in our
(14:09):
everyday lives.
Sitting on our desk all day isnot the greatest for our bodies,
and so I mentioned this in ourwebinar.
Short muscle is a weak muscle,and so when we're sitting in our
desk and we're sedentary, ourmuscles are getting shortened,
and so that's, you know, deskand we're sedentary, our muscles
are getting shortened, and sothat's, you know, causing our
muscles to, you know, to weaken,and so we want to be able to
(14:33):
lengthen out our muscles andwork on our posture, and so
that's another reason forstrength training is to increase
our posture, because you know,when our shoulders are rounded
forward, if we're stuck in thisposition, the next thing you
know we need to express shoulderrange of motion.
When we lose that, that's whereinjuries can occur.
The long game of strengthtraining is really to, you know,
help prevent injuries, Thingsthat we kind of take for granted
(14:54):
.
You know, picking things off theground.
Well, if we're not preparing ortraining for that, then
something as small as pickinggroceries up off the ground and
we're not thinking about, allright, is my back flat, is my
core engaged, then that's howinjuries can occur.
You can tweak your back justlifting groceries off the ground
, and so you want to make surethat you're preparing for that
(15:15):
through resistance training, andthat way you know how to
properly, you know, pick thingsup off the ground like groceries
, or you know how to reachoverhead with proper form and
you know grab stuff off a highshelf without having to really
worry too much about hurtingyourself.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, that makes so much sense.
Just thinking about just thenormal things that we do every
day.
And I hear all the time aboutpeople say.
People will say I was justpicking something up and I
tweaked my back.
I was just picking something upand I tweaked my back and we
have to condition to pick thingsup off the ground.
(15:50):
Heavy things because that'stypically how we end up injuring
ourselves doing something thatwe've always done but we just
weren't highly trained in ourcore gets weak because we sit
like this.
Even when you said that ourlisteners can't see me, but I
set up a little bit taller Shortmuscle is what'd you?
say A short muscle is a weakmuscle and so, like lengthening,
makes you want to lengthen andjust really sit up tall and open
(16:13):
up the chest, because we'regetting so weak when we sit at
our desks like that all the time.
So, um, all right.
Well, let's talk about forsomeone who may be new to
strength training what advicewould you give them to start and
to do this safely andeffectively.
Where would you send somebodyfor resources or just generally
how to get started?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Right, and so this part is tough because, honestly,
if you're new to strengthtraining, you want to get
involved.
The safest way is to, you know,have a personal trainer or
someone that is advising you andwatching your form and
technique.
Obviously, there's a lot ofvirtual things going on nowadays
, but if you have a credentialedpersonal trainer, somebody
(16:54):
that's able to watch you andmake sure you're doing the right
form and technique and showingyou how to do things properly,
that's the safest way.
I say I know gyms can beintimidating these days, but if
you don't have access to a gym,the best thing is just to really
start light and I would say youknow, look up some YouTube
(17:18):
videos, but make sure you arelooking at some type of video of
proper technique on theexercise before you execute it
and start very light, start bodyweight.
But definitely myrecommendation would be to work
with a personal trainer or havesomebody that's credentialed,
knows what they're doing, thatcan watch your technique, watch
(17:38):
your form, and then you canstart progressing on, you know,
the reps and the weights and allthose things.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I know that for those that work in the capital
complex, or state employees thatwork in the capital complex,
your team is down there a coupleof days a week doing strength
training sessions.
Is that something that youcould?
Maybe?
Even if somebody wanted you tolook at their form and you're
there teaching that your teamcould do that?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Exactly, I'd say, all of our training sessions.
You know they're scalable andso you know all exercises are
scalable.
There's regressions, there'sprogressions to every exercise
and so, like you said, thosecapital classes you'll post a
link to those later but Mondaysare 12 and 1245.
(18:23):
And this is in the BarbaraJordan building and then on
Wednesdays we have a session at12 o'clock and so those are 30
minute training sessions, buttypically total body, and we'll
start with a warmup, get yougoing, explain the workout and
then from there, if anybody hasany any type of issues, or
(18:43):
they're not able to do fullrange of motion or they're
worried about different parts ofthe body or have previous
injuries, we're able to kind ofwork around that.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I love that and it's so nice just to have somebody
with your credentials therewatching and just making sure
people are safe.
I know it's a group so youcan't watch everybody as closely
as if like a one-on-one, but itis a way to maybe get some of
those questions answered.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Right.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
People can't see it.
Since this is audio, it's alittle bit hard.
We can't show form andtechnique, but could you maybe
talk about some of the mostcommon mistakes that you see in
movement patterns for strengthtraining?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah.
So I'll kind of go through, Iguess, the basics.
I'll start with the squat.
So for the squat, I'd say, thecommon mistakes I see on the
squat are people not hingingback and so they'll squat down.
And so what I mean by that iswhen you squat you should start
with a bend at the knee and abend at the hips at the same
(19:42):
time.
All right, I'll see a lot ofpeople just bend the knees and
they're just pushing those kneesover your toes, which is okay
as long as your heels stay incontact with the ground, and so
your ankle range of motionpeople are typically limited by
in the squat, and so they'repushing your knees over your
toes.
(20:03):
Their heels are coming off theground.
That's adding a lot of stressto the knee.
And then, on the flip side,I'll see people do the opposite,
where they don't bend the kneesmuch and they'll hinge back too
far and their chest is comingdown as they're squatting down,
and that's going to put a lot ofpressure on the back.
And so there's this balancebetween all right, you need a
(20:25):
good amount of ankle mobility inorder to get down low in the
squat, but you also need a goodamount of hip mobility with.
That Biggest thing is feet,shoulder width apart.
That's a good starting placefor most people, and I say you
can even turn your toes out justslightly and then unlock the
knees and the hips at the sametime, and it's okay for the
(20:47):
knees to travel over the toes.
What we don't want is the kneesto sort of like start coming in
towards each other or startgoing on the insides of our big
toes.
That's what we don't want.
As long as our knees aretracking over, I'd say, our big
toe or the middle of our toes,we're in a good position there
and go down as far as you'recomfortable with, all right.
(21:08):
Nobody ever said you have tosquat.
You know full depth and youknow your hips are touching your
ankles or whatever.
Squat down to your comfortabledepth, all right.
You'll see a lot ofmisinformation out there where,
all right, people will try andgo all the way down to the
(21:29):
ground but then their heels arecoming off the ground.
That's not what we want.
We want a good, comfortablesquat.
We can work on range of motion,you know, as we start strength
training, you know you'll getmore flexible and you'll start
working on stretching and allthat.
But to begin with squatting,just go down to what you're
comfortable with.
Did you have any notes on that?
Before we go to deadlift?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
No, I just, it's interesting because you know
we're talking about strength andthen mobility comes in and I
was like going down this rabbittrail in my brain like, oh my
gosh, we need to do a wholething on mobility too, because
it takes mobility to buildstrength.
And so, yeah, I love, I lovehow you said that you know the
ankle mobility, the hip mobility, all of those things are super
important to be able to liftproperly and some of us are so
(22:28):
tight from sitting and maybedoing sedentary jobs and not
working on mobility for a longtime.
So that'll be another podcast wecan do.
Let's talk about deadlift.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah, so deadlift, let's say we'll just start with
the barbell.
Obviously you don't have tostart with the barbell on a
deadlift, but the main thingwith the deadlift is you're
starting from the ground and inthat position, your feet we'll
just go with the standarddeadlift for today.
Your feet are going to beunderneath your hips, not
(22:55):
shoulder width, all right.
So feet underneath your hips,toes straight forward, and so
when you get down to that bottomposition, you want to have your
chest up tall and you want yourhips to be lower than your
shoulders, all right.
So imagine if you have, likeour trainees, they have their
names on their shirts.
I want to be able to read theirname on their shirt when
(23:17):
they're in the bottom of thatdeadlift position to show me
that they have good posture,their shoulders are back and
their lats are tight and they'reready to drop to the ground.
So if we have a barbell, thatbarbell is going to be over the
tongue of our shoe, it's goingto be close to our shins and
then from there, full grip onthe barbell, shoulders back,
chest up tall, and then fromthere you're just dropping
(23:39):
through the legs, and so a lotof things that I'll see wrong or
go wrong with the deadlift ispeople starting with their hips
too high or their back isrounded.
If their back is rounded,typically I'll tell them to.
You know, I think Holly usedthis example the other day.
(23:59):
She's like try and squeeze thatorange in your armpits and try
and squeeze the juice out of theorange, and I was like I've
never heard that one.
I typically use a pencil.
Imagine like a pencil is inyour armpits and you want to
keep that pencil there.
I typically use a pencil, youknow.
Imagine like a pencils in yourarmpits and you want to keep
that pencil there.
And so to engage your lats andnow typically get people you
know with rounded backs tostraighten their backs out.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Oh, I like that.
Yeah, that's a great cue whatthings I was.
As you were talking aboutdeadlifting, I was thinking just
about cause.
I think deadlift soundsintimidating to people, but you
literally deadlift your daughterprobably every day.
Right, You're picking, we'reall deadlifting, we're picking
up things from the ground, andso it is a very functional
(24:37):
movement.
Not that you want people maynot want to start with loading a
lot of weight on a heavy bar,but just thinking about proper
technique and picking somethingup, like pick up your child.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Right, and so that's very true.
I mean, I pick up my daughterevery single day and even then
it's almost just kind ofhabitual for me to, you know,
bend down right, you know backflat, and just become habit,
because I've done it so often.
But you're right, like I stillgot to embrace my core and do
all of that.
And so if we want to transitionto push up or a pressing
(25:10):
movement, I'd say the key thingon that is making sure, let's
say, for a pushup, um, you wantyour, your head and your heels
to be you know this verystraight line, and so you don't
want your hips to be sagging,you don't want your hips to be
up in the air.
I'm using my hands, like theycan see me.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
He's showing very good form, y'all.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Right, and so the biggest things is your elbows.
You want to have almost as a 45degree angle, and so hands you
want directly underneath yourshoulders.
So if you're in that toppush-up position your hands
should be directly underneathyour shoulders and then when
you're going down, your elbowswill come out to the side at a
(25:55):
45-degree angle.
You don't want your elbows tobe out wide, or if you have them
in too close, then you're justworking primarily triceps.
But that 45-degree angle isreally going to hit your chest.
The chest muscles is what youwant to work and to push up,
along with your core the most,because your chest muscles, your
pecs, run at a or like aoblique angle, and so that 45
(26:19):
degree angle is going to helpwork your you know your pec
major, pec minor a little bitmore effectively.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and in that
movement, I don't know, pushupsare much more difficult for
women than men.
Do you have recommendations forbecause, also I think again, a
lot of these things can beintimidating and we aren't
successful in things we don'twant to do it.
So what would you recommend forsomebody who hasn't done
pushups, or it might be a newaction.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
So great question.
So if you want to start on theground, you can start on the
ground, but instead of havingyour feet on the ground, you can
just have your knees on theground, and so that'll take a
little bit of weight off yourbody in order to do the pushup,
and what you can focus on iseven the knee pushups are
difficult.
You can just focus on goingdown slow.
These are called eccentrics, so, or you can just call them
(27:12):
tempo.
But you're going down for acount of you know, three to five
, and then you can just workyour way back up and then go
down slow again, and so that'sgoing to eventually build up to
where you can do an actualpush-up.
If you don't want to start onthe ground, you can start at a
desk.
Most people have a desk or sometype of dresser or something at
(27:32):
home, and so you can just haveyour hands on the desk or the
dresser, and because you're notfully with gravity on that,
it'll be a lot easier.
So if it's still tough in thatposition and you're able to walk
your feet forward, that'll makeit a little easier.
The more you walk your feetback, they'll be harder, and so,
(27:56):
again, you can go tempo on that.
So go down slow and then resetyour feet and then come back up
and reset that way.
So those are some good ways toscale.
I always tell people who arestruggling with either push-ups
or pull-ups, because upper bodymovements are hard.
The best way to start with thatwould be to start at the top of
the movement and then go down asslow as you can, and you're
still going to build that muscleeven though you're not doing
(28:17):
the full repetition.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, so just allowing yourself to slowly
lower to the ground, you'retraining the muscles, so then
you can actually push yourselfoff the ground.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
That makes sense.
So if you're training themuscles, so then you can
actually push yourself off theground.
Exactly that makes sense.
So, um, if you were talking tosomebody that you know just
wanted to start with a fewmovements to, you've talked
about the squat, the deadlift.
So lift yourself up from seated, pick something up from the
ground and push yourself off theground, or a desk.
So push, squat and then pull.
(28:50):
Is there any other sort ofcommon movement that you would
recommend for folks that want toget started with strength
training?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah.
So I'd say, you know, dependingon your level, you're not
comfortable with, you know,grabbing free weights just yet.
I mean a typical squat movement.
You can just have yourself inthe chair and if you have
something you can hold on to,you can just, you know, stand up
from your chair and those aresquats right there.
And then if you want to grabweight, it doesn't even have to
(29:20):
be weight, it can be a fullwater bottle.
I was about to grab my waterbottle.
Or you can grab your backpackand that can be your weight.
So just gradually scaling thatexercise, standing up from your
chair and then eventually movingthe chair away, squat down to a
comfortable depth and thencoming back up.
And I'd say, for deadlift, itcan be a water bottle, all right
(29:43):
.
So imagine your feet areunderneath your hips, you have
your water bottle in betweenyour legs, and then you're just
focusing on good form, goodposture, and you're lifting that
up full standing position andthen back down.
And then, for you know, forpressing, for pushups, I kind of
already mentioned those scalingoptions there.
So that's what I would startwith.
(30:06):
I know most people don't have apull-up bar, but I say for you
know, for pulling movementsother than, like lower body
pulling movements.
You can just do a row with, youknow, your backpack or your
water bottle, and it's the sameform or same positioning as a
deadlift.
All you gotta do is just graban object in your arm and now
you're just pulling your elbowback without moving your torso
(30:27):
lift.
All you gotta do is just graban object in your arm and now
you're just pulling your elbowback without moving your torso.
And so these are easy ways.
It doesn't have to be weights,like I said.
It can be a backpack, it can bea water bottle, anything that
can provide a little bit ofresistance, then that's a great
way to start.
And then, if you have troublewith that, and then, if you have
trouble with that, you can addin more stability.
(30:49):
So to say so like the chair,would be more stability for the
squat or for the deadlift.
You can hold on to something ifyou need to, or pushups.
That's going to be having thedesk there.
That's going to provide morestability for that movement.
So yeah, there's a lot of waysto scale and start off your
(31:12):
strength journey.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
That's great.
I was thinking about just theother day.
We have a rickety old pushlawnmower and I couldn't get
that thing to start and I wasjust rowing this is why I
strength train.
There's a lot of functionality,for sure.
When you start thinking aboutyour just daily movements and
and doing these things how, ifyou can think about why you're
(31:36):
doing the thing that you'redoing and how that movement is
going to help you in your life,maybe that's a little motivation
.
What are some of the commonmisconceptions about strength
training that you might like todebunk?
Speaker 1 (31:48):
common misconceptions about strength training that
you might like to debunk.
There's so many, and this iswhat makes being on social media
hard, but I say one of thebiggest ones is for women.
For them, strength trainingit'll make me bulky Well, not
really.
Women are going to have lesstestosterone than men, right,
that's a fact.
It's going to be extremely hardfor women to put on more muscle
(32:12):
.
It's going to take othersupplementation, and so women
are typically not going to beable to put on as much muscle as
men, especially if you'restarting out.
Yes, you're going to build somemuscle that just comes along
with getting stronger in thebeginning.
You're going to build somemuscle that just comes along
with getting stronger in thebeginning, but after that, I
(32:34):
mean, you can get strongerwithout putting on muscle.
And that's what a lot of peopledon't realize too is like, oh,
I have to put on muscle to getstronger.
Not necessarily.
Once you get to a certain point, you can do strength training
without having to put on musclesize.
They're not the same, and so Iwon't go down that rabbit hole.
But yeah, that's a bigmisconception.
I see a lot is that, you know,and I think it's sort of
(32:55):
changing in the right direction.
I'd say there's a huge women'sfitness movement going on, you
know, and women are gettingstronger, they're posting more
online and being in the gyms andbeing confident.
So I think that's sort ofshifting.
I'd say the biggest one I stillsee is that I'm surprised
whenever I still see it is thatkids, if they use strength
(33:17):
training, it'll stump theirgrowth, and I'm just like, oh my
goodness, I have not seen asingle research article that
supports that and so that is acomplete misconception.
Kids can strength train.
Obviously, be cognizant of theintensity of when you're, of
what your kids are lifting.
(33:38):
I would recommend they, youknow, strength train under you
know, a credentialedprofessional.
I, when I was working as anundergrad at Alabama, the
youngest kid I was training wasseven years old.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Wow, and so.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
I mean now, he wasn't back squatting you know his
body weight, you know with thebar on his back, but he was
using dumbbells and kettlebellsand was able to lift some pretty
heavy loads.
And we did focus more on volumeand not necessarily on maxing
out, because I wouldn'trecommend maxing out.
But you can definitely groove alot of movement patterns,
(34:15):
especially when they're younger,and the younger that they are
and they're constantly doingthese repetitions, the more
proficient they're going to bewhen they get older.
And so strength training highlyadvised for youth and young
athletes, because the earlierthey start, you know, the easier
for them to, you know, keepputting on muscle and the better
(34:38):
their form and technique isgoing to be when they start, you
know, getting into high schooland college.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
That is so interesting, demetrius, I think
about.
Like with uh, it's sointeresting, demetrius, I think
(35:09):
about.
Like with little kids, likewhen you watch a toddler squat.
They're perfect, their form andtechnique is perfect, so
starting younger while you havethe mobility over time, I guess
you can keep that mobility.
Um, so that's so interesting.
Um, I have two teenage boysthat love strength training now
because they're seeing a lot ofthe like, the gains, like can
actually feel themselves gettingstronger.
So that's been great to see, um.
But yeah, man, so so importantto start as soon as possible and
(35:30):
just don't quit throughout ourlife, um, and if you aren't
strength training and you'venever strength train it's never
too late to start, right, so wecan always start muscle.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Yeah, and there's research that shows that.
You know, even if you startlater and you've already kind of
um, gone through a little bitof osteopenia, you're losing
some bone.
That's reversible to a certainextent, and so it's not too late
to start strength training,start putting on more muscle,
start minimizing that you know,muscle loss as we age process,
(36:04):
to sort of maintain and, yeah,reverse some of that bone loss
yeah, the body wants to, or thebody will adapt to what we do.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I saw a study I remember this was way back, even
when I was in college and Idon't.
I just remember they did astudy on people in their
nineties and they were stillable to put on muscle, because
the body will always adapt tothe load as long as we're doing
it safely.
Um, I could talk about this allday, but just to keep ourselves
(36:35):
succinct and on time, I want togo ahead and just kind of wrap
up and I was wondering if youcould share maybe a success
story or testimonial fromsomeone that you know that maybe
their life has been transformedby strength training.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Right.
So when I was at University ofWest Florida, I was, you know,
full-time strength coach in theweight room as well, but I also
did some personal training onthe side, so not just working
with athletes.
So I ended up working with thisolder lady and her goal was
just to play with her grandkids,and so to me I was like, oh wow
(37:10):
, you know this kind of thatreally more.
So opened up like a whole newavenue of strength training for
me.
We did some very basicmovements, like we said, just
working on squatting from thechair and then, you know,
removing the chair and addingmore resistance and, you know,
getting her upper body strongerand it's funny, like a lot of
the upper body movements.
I would almost just kind ofmimic what it would be like to
(37:34):
lift her grandkid up in the air,you know what I mean.
So doing some light kettlebelloverhead presses or just some
light dumbbell presses, and herform was pretty good.
I mean, she had never strengthtrained before.
But you know, sometimes thoseare the easiest to work with
because they don't know whattheir body looks like.
All you got to do is show themand they're pretty good from
(37:56):
there.
So, long story short, she, youknow, worked with me for about,
you know, three months and shewas able to play with her
grandkids, you know, pain free.
She was able to squat down andget on the floor with them
without knee pain, without backpain, which is what she was kind
of more so complaining about.
I still hear from heroccasionally and she's doing
(38:19):
well.
Her grandkids are, you know,not kids anymore, but she's
grateful for that time and beingable to spend those years with
her, her grandkids, and be ableto play with them, you know,
without pain.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
That's amazing and I think for all of us, we have to
think about the why.
Right, Like why, why do I wantto do this?
And everyone's going to have alittle bit different reason for
strength training.
But I just encourage anybodywho's listening to this to
really think about your why andif you're interested in strength
training, there's there's a lotof good resources out there.
So, with that being said,Demetrius, could you share for
(38:54):
those out there that want tomaybe connect with you and learn
about more resources?
I will definitely put the linkto our webinar in the show notes
, because we talked a lot in thewebinar.
We talked a lot about theprinciples of strength training
and designing the program, andthere's a visual component of
that.
So if you want to get more intothe weeds on how much, how
(39:16):
often, like all of that, you canwatch the webinar.
But what other resources wouldyou share with folks?
Speaker 1 (39:21):
I'd say, if anybody wants to get in contact with me,
I'll just give them my DPSemail.
It's demetriusbailey atdpstexasgov.
Here at DPS, we have a ton ofresources in terms of not just
our fitness classes, but alsowebinars, also our classes here
at headquarters, and we have,you know, an online library on
(39:42):
YouTube as well.
Tons of resources there.
If you're looking for a book orsomething, mark Verstegen he
has a book called Every Day isGame Day, and I'd say that's a
very easy read and also a greatway to start being able to put
together a strength program foryourself and kind of learn about
(40:02):
these very basic movementpatterns, how to execute those
basic movement patterns.
There's great illustrations inthere, and it's not just for
performance, but it's more sofor your active adult who wants
to get into strength trainingand they want to know why
strength training is important,what to do, what it looks like,
and it's a super easy book toread that's great.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Don't forget about our five-day strength training
challenge as well, of course,that's going on right now yeah,
it's, it's almost over.
Tomorrow is day five, but thoseare YouTube videos that anybody
can do, and so I will also putour five day strength challenge
If you don't know what I'mtalking about.
We did a five day strengthchallenge where each day, we led
(40:48):
participants and there's musicand there's a timer.
It's like 30 seconds of workwith 15 seconds of rest.
It's Demetrius myself, jewelSmith from the Office of the
Attorney General, mackenzieMcIntyre from TxDOT, and each
day we basically guide youthrough a workout.
So you don't even have to thinkabout it.
They're, like I said, 15 to 20minutes and I'll put the links
(41:10):
to all of those.
So it's a good starting place.
You can kind of get some ideasfor what to do in your own life,
or you can just keep doingthose over and over again and
continue to add weight.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Yeah, all right.
Well, is there anything elsethat you'd like to close this
out with?
Speaker 1 (41:29):
I just want people to know that strength training is
relatively safe, especially ifyou know the right form and
technique and you know how toexecute the movements.
And it doesn't have to be much.
Like I said, 20 or 30 minutestops and that's with the five
minute or warm up and fiveminute cool down.
It doesn't have to take a lot.
You can add in movement breaksthroughout your day.
(41:49):
Just sit up from your desk,maybe do a couple of squats in
place, do a couple of lunges inplace and do some pushups at
your desk, things like that.
It doesn't have to becomplicated, and so find ways to
add in just small movementsthroughout your day to equal 20
to 30 minutes.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
That's amazing.
Yeah, it doesn't have to be atone time, so you can just spread
it.
Spread it out.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Yeah, and that gets our energy up as well, so, all
right.
Well, thank you so much,demetrius.
We're so lucky to have you inTexas and I'm just really
grateful for the collaborationwith you and DPS and your entire
team over there is awesome and,yeah, I'm looking forward to
next things and doing somethingon mobility in the future.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Of course, anytime.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
Thank you so much for joining in to listen to this
episode of the ERS Walk Talkpodcast.
We hope you found ourconversation with Demetrius
informative and inspiring.
Remember, whether you're juststarting out on your strength
training journey or you'relooking to enhance your current
routine, the benefits of doingit right are invaluable.
Please be sure to check out ourshow notes for all the
(43:04):
resources discussed during theepisode, as well as
recommendations shared byDemetrius to get started and or
continue your progress.
If you enjoyed this episode,please subscribe to the podcast
and share it with your friendsand colleagues that you think
may benefit from thisinformation.
Remember to stay active, stayhealthy and stay strong.
We'll see you on the nextepisode of the ERS Walk Talk
podcast.
(43:24):
Take care everyone.
A short muscle is a weak muscle, and so when we're
sitting in our desk and we'resedentary, our muscles are
getting shortened.
When our shoulders are roundedforward, if we're stuck in this
position, the next thing youknow we need to express shorter
range of motion.
When we lose that, that's whereinjuries can occur.
The long game of strengthtraining is really to help
prevent injuries, things that wekind of take for granted, you
(00:23):
know, taking things off theground.
Well, if we're not preparing ortraining for that, then
something as small as pickinggroceries up off the ground and
we're not thinking about allright, is my back flat, is my
core engaged?
Then that's how injuries canoccur.
You can tweak your back justlifting groceries off the ground
.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Hi and welcome to the ERS Walk and Talk podcast.
Today we have an excitingepisode on strength training
featuring Demetrius Bailey fromthe DPS Fitness Wellness Unit.
Demetrius brings a wealth ofknowledge and experience to this
discussion.
He earned his Bachelor ofScience degree in Exercise
Science from the University ofAlabama and a Master's degree in
Physical Education and HumanPerformance from the University
(01:05):
of Alabama and a master's degreein physical education and human
performance from the Universityof West Florida.
Demetrius began his careertraining professional athletes
in the MLB, nba and NFL.
Then he spent five years as acollegiate strength coach and
he's also worked with Air Forceand Marine Forces special
operations before joining theTexas Department of Public
Safety.
He holds certifications fromthe National Strength and
(01:28):
Conditioning Association and theAmerican College of Sports
Medicine.
In this episode, we discuss thebenefits of strength training
how to properly perform threefunctional movements squatting,
deadlifting and pressing.
If these terms seemintimidating, stay with us,
because these are things you doevery day in life.
Demetrius provides a commonsense approach to strength
(01:49):
training and he makes itaccessible and understandable to
all of us.
So, whether you're just gettingstarted or you're already
training, this conversation willreinforce the benefits of doing
it right.
He also shares great resourcesand recommendations for where to
start.
He also shares great resourcesand recommendations for where to
start.
I'm so happy you're here tolisten to this enlightening
conversation with Demetrius.
Here we go, all right.
(02:13):
Good morning, demetrius, andthank you for joining me as a
guest on the ERS Walk Talkpodcast.
It's really good to see you.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Thank you, lacey, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
I'm honored to be a part of this.
Yeah, I wanted to just kind oflet everybody know a little bit
about who you are.
I've sort of already formallyintroduced you in the intro, but
if you could share just how yougot involved with strength
training in the first place,that'd be great.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Of course I played basketball in high school.
I wanted to play football, butparents wouldn't let me because
I had a concussion and they werelike nope, that's it.
So I grew up playing basketball.
In high school we wereintroduced to a private strength
coach and so that was my firstintroduction to strength
training was in high school.
(02:58):
And you know just that feelingof like getting stronger and
knowing that me playingbasketball and getting stronger
was helping me be a greaterdefender and I was able to be
more explosive and that beingable to translate into
basketball helped out a lot.
And so, leaving high school,went to the University of
Alabama where I received myundergrad in exercise science,
(03:21):
and from there I kind of didn'tknow which role I wanted to go.
So I went the athletic trainingroute at first and then after
that I went to physical therapy,the program.
I started to get a sense that,okay, this is more of the
reactive side to training, sopeople have already gotten
(03:41):
injured.
There's got to be a way to sortof try to prevent that.
And after I went down thephysical therapy route, shadowed
a bunch of physical therapists,I found a private strength
(04:02):
training gym in Tuscaloosa.
I was really getting involvedwith training those baseball
kids and watching theirconfidence and all that grow and
seeing them perform better onthe baseball field and the other
sports was really awakening tome and just seeing, like the
injury risk, kind of you knowdecreased there.
So that was huge for me and soI wanted to know more and so I
(04:24):
ended up interning at EXOS,primarily working with
professional athletes, and thenwent on to do collegiate
strength conditioning.
So I was at D1 University andthen I ended up getting a grad
assistant position at theUniversity of West Florida in
Pensacola, florida.
I had several sports there, so Ihad men's and women's tennis,
(04:45):
cross country women's soccer,volleyball, and then I assisted
with football.
That was a great opportunityfor me to like really get
hands-on coaching, being able towork with athlete trainers and
head coaches.
And so from there went on to bethe head strength coach at a
small division three school,went on to be the head strength
coach at a small Division IIIschool, birmingham Southern
(05:05):
College, and so that was a funtime working with over 400 plus
athletes, 22 sports by myself,and learning how to manage a
weight room.
And from there, you know, justto keep it short, I transitioned
to tactical strength andconditioning I worked with the
military in special operationsfor three years and then that
led me to join the DPS team herein the fitness wellness unit.
Conditioning I worked with themilitary and special operations
for three years and then thatled me to join the DPS team here
(05:27):
in the fitness wellness unit.
So that's kind of myintroductory and short and how I
got involved in strengthtraining.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
That's amazing.
A lot of people know that Ialso started my role in state
government at DPS in the fitnessand wellness unit.
I also relocated my family toto Austin for that job and I
know you just you just movedhere.
Can you talk a little bit aboutyour journey to moving to Texas
and taking that role?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Right.
So that's a.
It was a huge risk, honestly,because my wife was still
finishing her teaching job atUNC Wilmington and so I moved
out here in September 2023.
And then my wife she had tofinish out her fall semester and
so packed up everything,actually ended up living in the
barracks with above the traineesfor you know, three, four
(06:15):
months.
That transition was rough atfirst, but my wife now works for
DPS as well and she's in theleadership development unit, so
we're loving our jobs here.
Dps, they've embraced me.
It's allowed me to do more, notjust coaching, but also do
trainings like this, do a lot ofeducation, which was what I was
(06:36):
a little bit of missing in mylast spot, and so I want to get
more hands-on and not just bethe coach in the weight room.
I want to do a lot more of thewellness side of things as well.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
That's amazing.
We're so lucky to have you herefirst of all and I was thrilled
the first time I met you thatyou were taking on this role and
have enjoyed kind of getting toknow you and working with you
on some special projects, and Ialways appreciate how much DPS
is willing to collaborate withother state agencies to support
(07:10):
our entire state's workforce.
That's one of the things I lovedabout working at DPS too, it
was like it's not just about us,but if we take care of everyone
, it helps all of uscollectively.
So I love it and I'm so happythat you and your wife are here.
You'll also have a daughter,from what I understand.
That takes up a lot of time andenergy, but worthwhile endeavor
parenting.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Exactly.
She's a two-year-old bundle ofjoy and energy and keeps us on
our toes at all times.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
That's amazing.
All right, so we've talkedabout a little bit about your
background.
You have extensive backgroundin strength training and really
the reason why I wanted to talkabout this today is because I
think there's sometimes a lot ofmisinformation about strength
training.
A lot of people don't reallyunderstand what it can do for
them.
So let's just kind of talkabout the benefits of strength
(07:59):
training.
To get started, today, in youropinion, or based off of the
research, can you talk aboutwhat are some of the most
significant benefits of strengthtraining for overall health and
wellbeing?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Right.
So one of the overall benefitsis, you know, increased bone
density and preventing the, youknow, osteopenia, osteoporosis
and that bone loss, as you know,as we age we tend to, you know,
lose muscle, and so strengthtraining is going to help
reverse that.
You know, the more muscle weput on is going to help protect
(08:33):
our bones and as we grow andjust become more functional
throughout our lives.
So you know, you don't want tobe getting older and next thing,
you know, you're not able toplay with the grandkids or carry
the groceries upstairs or dothe things that were typically
part of our daily lives.
And so it's a lot of thingsincreased bone density, improved
blood glucose control, reducingstress levels, improving sleep
(08:56):
there's a lot of things I can goon to mention, but strength
training in general.
People should get involved withstrength training just for the
simple fact that it's going tohelp decrease your
cardiovascular disease risk andhelp you live a healthier life.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah, absolutely, and kind of piggybacking on what
you said.
With the muscle loss, you and Iwe just kind of did a webinar
on this topic and this statisticthat I think is so alarming,
and the thing that I think abouta lot is that every decade we
lose two to 3% of our musclemass If we don't strength train.
I mean that is really just likewhoa, that's so important.
(09:35):
Um, because of that, leanmuscle mass is, like you said,
is supporting our, our bonestructure.
And also, can you talk abouthow strength training can help
us with management of our weightand kind of just what is body
composition?
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Right.
So the more muscle that we holdonto our body or the more lean
body mass that we have, it'sgoing to increase our resting
metabolic rate.
And so with that you've somepeople may have heard the term
basal metabolic rate, restingmetabolic rate, the similar
basal metabolic rate, and sowith that some people may have
heard the term basal metabolicrate, resting metabolic rate, a
similar basal metabolic rate, ispretty much going to go geared
(10:12):
towards all right, this is theamount of calories your body is
going to burn if you're just notdoing anything, all right.
But resting metabolic rate kindof factors in eating, but
resting metabolic rate kind offactors in, you know, eating,
sleeping, other bodily functionsand kind of just daily living.
And so with that I mean themore muscle you have in your
(10:32):
body, that more muscle ismetabolically active.
And so the more muscle you'regoing to have on your body, the
more calories you're going tocontinue to burn throughout the
day and it's going to increasethat resting metabolic rate,
which is huge in terms ofburning fat, because obviously
you want to have when it comesto caloric deficit, you know if
(10:52):
you're going to be spending moreenergy, that's going to help in
terms of burning that fat.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Yeah, that makes so much sense and so essentially,
if we have more active tissuethat's burning more calories,
then the like the role of fat isjust to basically store energy
for us when we're starving isnot very active.
During the webinar that Ithought was really great you
(11:24):
said we think our metabolismslowing down just because we're
getting older, but in fact itmay be slowing down because
we're losing muscle mass.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
That's really exactly Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah, we're less active.
So, um often I think people maybe overwhelmed with the idea of
starting a strength trainingprogram, like, if you don't know
how to do it, it may seem likeit's I don't know what to do or
how much, and then it's going tobe a whole, like time consuming
thing.
How much do people actuallyneed to do to achieve the
(11:51):
benefits of at least maintainingthe muscle mass that they have?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Say 20 to 30 minutes tops, and even then there's ways
that you can just sprinkle instrength training just
throughout the day, have ain-service coming up in august
and one of our speakers is goingto be talking about this
concept called microdosing.
This concept of microdosing is,you know, just small strength
training sessions to sort ofhelp eliminate excuses of you
(12:19):
know, I don't have the time, andjust sort of maybe doing two to
three exercises in a session.
You focus on maybe a particularmuscle group and then you're in
and out and that's all you haveto do.
Obviously incorporate a warmupand a cool down, but training
sessions don't need to be long,especially for your average
adult.
I mean, obviously we're, youknow, have busy schedules.
(12:41):
It only takes 20, 30 minutes.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
How many days a week would you say?
People need to be strengthtraining.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I'd say you can get away with three to five.
I know it's, you know a rangethere.
It depends on you know whatyour goals are.
But I say, if you can get inthree training sessions a week
and that's you know 20 to 30minutes, then you're in great
shape.
Obviously five would be better,but yeah, three to five
somewhere in there, three is isgood, five will be great.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
That's great.
Can you talk about just thefunctionality of strength
training as a benefit, like why,why would we want to engage in
these types of activities andhow that might help us
functionally?
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Right.
So every day we wake up and wedo a squat, whether we believe
it or not, and so squatting ispart of our daily lives.
Picking things off the groundis part of our daily lives.
You know, if we're playing withour kids on the ground, we're
going to have to be able to getoff the ground.
You know, through pressing orground, through pressing or
standing up and reaching forthings overhead in our cabinets,
(13:46):
or if we're helping friendsmove, we're having to lift and
carry heavy objects.
Or, like you grew up on a farmconstantly lifting heavy objects
, carrying objects on one sideof the body, and so all of these
things are part of our dailylives.
It's, I guess, what we calllike functional strength
training is that it just kind ofrelates to what we do in our
(14:09):
everyday lives.
Sitting on our desk all day isnot the greatest for our bodies,
and so I mentioned this in ourwebinar.
Short muscle is a weak muscle,and so when we're sitting in our
desk and we're sedentary, ourmuscles are getting shortened,
and so that's, you know, deskand we're sedentary, our muscles
are getting shortened, and sothat's, you know, causing our
muscles to, you know, to weaken,and so we want to be able to
(14:33):
lengthen out our muscles andwork on our posture, and so
that's another reason forstrength training is to increase
our posture, because you know,when our shoulders are rounded
forward, if we're stuck in thisposition, the next thing you
know we need to express shoulderrange of motion.
When we lose that, that's whereinjuries can occur.
The long game of strengthtraining is really to, you know,
help prevent injuries, Thingsthat we kind of take for granted
(14:54):
.
You know, picking things off theground.
Well, if we're not preparing ortraining for that, then
something as small as pickinggroceries up off the ground and
we're not thinking about, allright, is my back flat, is my
core engaged, then that's howinjuries can occur.
You can tweak your back justlifting groceries off the ground
, and so you want to make surethat you're preparing for that
(15:15):
through resistance training, andthat way you know how to
properly, you know, pick thingsup off the ground like groceries
, or you know how to reachoverhead with proper form and
you know grab stuff off a highshelf without having to really
worry too much about hurtingyourself.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah, that makes so much sense.
Just thinking about just thenormal things that we do every
day.
And I hear all the time aboutpeople say.
People will say I was justpicking something up and I
tweaked my back.
I was just picking something upand I tweaked my back and we
have to condition to pick thingsup off the ground.
(15:50):
Heavy things because that'stypically how we end up injuring
ourselves doing something thatwe've always done but we just
weren't highly trained in ourcore gets weak because we sit
like this.
Even when you said that ourlisteners can't see me, but I
set up a little bit taller Shortmuscle is what'd you?
say A short muscle is a weakmuscle and so, like lengthening,
makes you want to lengthen andjust really sit up tall and open
(16:13):
up the chest, because we'regetting so weak when we sit at
our desks like that all the time.
So, um, all right.
Well, let's talk about forsomeone who may be new to
strength training what advicewould you give them to start and
to do this safely andeffectively.
Where would you send somebodyfor resources or just generally
how to get started?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Right, and so this part is tough because, honestly,
if you're new to strengthtraining, you want to get
involved.
The safest way is to, you know,have a personal trainer or
someone that is advising you andwatching your form and
technique.
Obviously, there's a lot ofvirtual things going on nowadays
, but if you have a credentialedpersonal trainer, somebody
(16:54):
that's able to watch you andmake sure you're doing the right
form and technique and showingyou how to do things properly,
that's the safest way.
I say I know gyms can beintimidating these days, but if
you don't have access to a gym,the best thing is just to really
start light and I would say youknow, look up some YouTube
(17:18):
videos, but make sure you arelooking at some type of video of
proper technique on theexercise before you execute it
and start very light, start bodyweight.
But definitely myrecommendation would be to work
with a personal trainer or havesomebody that's credentialed,
knows what they're doing, thatcan watch your technique, watch
(17:38):
your form, and then you canstart progressing on, you know,
the reps and the weights and allthose things.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I know that for those that work in the capital
complex, or state employees thatwork in the capital complex,
your team is down there a coupleof days a week doing strength
training sessions.
Is that something that youcould?
Maybe?
Even if somebody wanted you tolook at their form and you're
there teaching that your teamcould do that?
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Exactly, I'd say, all of our training sessions.
You know they're scalable andso you know all exercises are
scalable.
There's regressions, there'sprogressions to every exercise
and so, like you said, thosecapital classes you'll post a
link to those later but Mondaysare 12 and 1245.
(18:23):
And this is in the BarbaraJordan building and then on
Wednesdays we have a session at12 o'clock and so those are 30
minute training sessions, buttypically total body, and we'll
start with a warmup, get yougoing, explain the workout and
then from there, if anybody hasany any type of issues, or
(18:43):
they're not able to do fullrange of motion or they're
worried about different parts ofthe body or have previous
injuries, we're able to kind ofwork around that.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
I love that and it's so nice just to have somebody
with your credentials therewatching and just making sure
people are safe.
I know it's a group so youcan't watch everybody as closely
as if like a one-on-one, but itis a way to maybe get some of
those questions answered.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Right.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
People can't see it.
Since this is audio, it's alittle bit hard.
We can't show form andtechnique, but could you maybe
talk about some of the mostcommon mistakes that you see in
movement patterns for strengthtraining?
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Yeah.
So I'll kind of go through, Iguess, the basics.
I'll start with the squat.
So for the squat, I'd say, thecommon mistakes I see on the
squat are people not hingingback and so they'll squat down.
And so what I mean by that iswhen you squat you should start
with a bend at the knee and abend at the hips at the same
(19:42):
time.
All right, I'll see a lot ofpeople just bend the knees and
they're just pushing those kneesover your toes, which is okay
as long as your heels stay incontact with the ground, and so
your ankle range of motionpeople are typically limited by
in the squat, and so they'repushing your knees over your
toes.
(20:03):
Their heels are coming off theground.
That's adding a lot of stressto the knee.
And then, on the flip side,I'll see people do the opposite,
where they don't bend the kneesmuch and they'll hinge back too
far and their chest is comingdown as they're squatting down,
and that's going to put a lot ofpressure on the back.
And so there's this balancebetween all right, you need a
(20:25):
good amount of ankle mobility inorder to get down low in the
squat, but you also need a goodamount of hip mobility with.
That Biggest thing is feet,shoulder width apart.
That's a good starting placefor most people, and I say you
can even turn your toes out justslightly and then unlock the
knees and the hips at the sametime, and it's okay for the
(20:47):
knees to travel over the toes.
What we don't want is the kneesto sort of like start coming in
towards each other or startgoing on the insides of our big
toes.
That's what we don't want.
As long as our knees aretracking over, I'd say, our big
toe or the middle of our toes,we're in a good position there
and go down as far as you'recomfortable with, all right.
(21:08):
Nobody ever said you have tosquat.
You know full depth and youknow your hips are touching your
ankles or whatever.
Squat down to your comfortabledepth, all right.
You'll see a lot ofmisinformation out there where,
all right, people will try andgo all the way down to the
(21:29):
ground but then their heels arecoming off the ground.
That's not what we want.
We want a good, comfortablesquat.
We can work on range of motion,you know, as we start strength
training, you know you'll getmore flexible and you'll start
working on stretching and allthat.
But to begin with squatting,just go down to what you're
comfortable with.
Did you have any notes on that?
Before we go to deadlift?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
No, I just, it's interesting because you know
we're talking about strength andthen mobility comes in and I
was like going down this rabbittrail in my brain like, oh my
gosh, we need to do a wholething on mobility too, because
it takes mobility to buildstrength.
And so, yeah, I love, I lovehow you said that you know the
ankle mobility, the hip mobility, all of those things are super
important to be able to liftproperly and some of us are so
(22:28):
tight from sitting and maybedoing sedentary jobs and not
working on mobility for a longtime.
So that'll be another podcast wecan do.
Let's talk about deadlift.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah, so deadlift, let's say we'll just start with
the barbell.
Obviously you don't have tostart with the barbell on a
deadlift, but the main thingwith the deadlift is you're
starting from the ground and inthat position, your feet we'll
just go with the standarddeadlift for today.
Your feet are going to beunderneath your hips, not
(22:55):
shoulder width, all right.
So feet underneath your hips,toes straight forward, and so
when you get down to that bottomposition, you want to have your
chest up tall and you want yourhips to be lower than your
shoulders, all right.
So imagine if you have, likeour trainees, they have their
names on their shirts.
I want to be able to read theirname on their shirt when
(23:17):
they're in the bottom of thatdeadlift position to show me
that they have good posture,their shoulders are back and
their lats are tight and they'reready to drop to the ground.
So if we have a barbell, thatbarbell is going to be over the
tongue of our shoe, it's goingto be close to our shins and
then from there, full grip onthe barbell, shoulders back,
chest up tall, and then fromthere you're just dropping
(23:39):
through the legs, and so a lotof things that I'll see wrong or
go wrong with the deadlift ispeople starting with their hips
too high or their back isrounded.
If their back is rounded,typically I'll tell them to.
You know, I think Holly usedthis example the other day.
(23:59):
She's like try and squeeze thatorange in your armpits and try
and squeeze the juice out of theorange, and I was like I've
never heard that one.
I typically use a pencil.
Imagine like a pencil is inyour armpits and you want to
keep that pencil there.
I typically use a pencil, youknow.
Imagine like a pencils in yourarmpits and you want to keep
that pencil there.
And so to engage your lats andnow typically get people you
know with rounded backs tostraighten their backs out.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Oh, I like that.
Yeah, that's a great cue whatthings I was.
As you were talking aboutdeadlifting, I was thinking just
about cause.
I think deadlift soundsintimidating to people, but you
literally deadlift your daughterprobably every day.
Right, You're picking, we'reall deadlifting, we're picking
up things from the ground, andso it is a very functional
(24:37):
movement.
Not that you want people maynot want to start with loading a
lot of weight on a heavy bar,but just thinking about proper
technique and picking somethingup, like pick up your child.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Right, and so that's very true.
I mean, I pick up my daughterevery single day and even then
it's almost just kind ofhabitual for me to, you know,
bend down right, you know backflat, and just become habit,
because I've done it so often.
But you're right, like I stillgot to embrace my core and do
all of that.
And so if we want to transitionto push up or a pressing
(25:10):
movement, I'd say the key thingon that is making sure, let's
say, for a pushup, um, you wantyour, your head and your heels
to be you know this verystraight line, and so you don't
want your hips to be sagging,you don't want your hips to be
up in the air.
I'm using my hands, like theycan see me.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
He's showing very good form, y'all.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Right, and so the biggest things is your elbows.
You want to have almost as a 45degree angle, and so hands you
want directly underneath yourshoulders.
So if you're in that toppush-up position your hands
should be directly underneathyour shoulders and then when
you're going down, your elbowswill come out to the side at a
(25:55):
45-degree angle.
You don't want your elbows tobe out wide, or if you have them
in too close, then you're justworking primarily triceps.
But that 45-degree angle isreally going to hit your chest.
The chest muscles is what youwant to work and to push up,
along with your core the most,because your chest muscles, your
pecs, run at a or like aoblique angle, and so that 45
(26:19):
degree angle is going to helpwork your you know your pec
major, pec minor a little bitmore effectively.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense and in that
movement, I don't know, pushupsare much more difficult for
women than men.
Do you have recommendations forbecause, also I think again, a
lot of these things can beintimidating and we aren't
successful in things we don'twant to do it.
So what would you recommend forsomebody who hasn't done
pushups, or it might be a newaction.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
So great question.
So if you want to start on theground, you can start on the
ground, but instead of havingyour feet on the ground, you can
just have your knees on theground, and so that'll take a
little bit of weight off yourbody in order to do the pushup,
and what you can focus on iseven the knee pushups are
difficult.
You can just focus on goingdown slow.
These are called eccentrics, so, or you can just call them
(27:12):
tempo.
But you're going down for acount of you know, three to five
, and then you can just workyour way back up and then go
down slow again, and so that'sgoing to eventually build up to
where you can do an actualpush-up.
If you don't want to start onthe ground, you can start at a
desk.
Most people have a desk or sometype of dresser or something at
(27:32):
home, and so you can just haveyour hands on the desk or the
dresser, and because you're notfully with gravity on that,
it'll be a lot easier.
So if it's still tough in thatposition and you're able to walk
your feet forward, that'll makeit a little easier.
The more you walk your feetback, they'll be harder, and so,
(27:56):
again, you can go tempo on that.
So go down slow and then resetyour feet and then come back up
and reset that way.
So those are some good ways toscale.
I always tell people who arestruggling with either push-ups
or pull-ups, because upper bodymovements are hard.
The best way to start with thatwould be to start at the top of
the movement and then go down asslow as you can, and you're
still going to build that muscleeven though you're not doing
(28:17):
the full repetition.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah, so just allowing yourself to slowly
lower to the ground, you'retraining the muscles, so then
you can actually push yourselfoff the ground.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
That makes sense.
So if you're training themuscles, so then you can
actually push yourself off theground.
Exactly that makes sense.
So, um, if you were talking tosomebody that you know just
wanted to start with a fewmovements to, you've talked
about the squat, the deadlift.
So lift yourself up from seated, pick something up from the
ground and push yourself off theground, or a desk.
So push, squat and then pull.
(28:50):
Is there any other sort ofcommon movement that you would
recommend for folks that want toget started with strength
training?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah.
So I'd say, you know, dependingon your level, you're not
comfortable with, you know,grabbing free weights just yet.
I mean a typical squat movement.
You can just have yourself inthe chair and if you have
something you can hold on to,you can just, you know, stand up
from your chair and those aresquats right there.
And then if you want to grabweight, it doesn't even have to
(29:20):
be weight, it can be a fullwater bottle.
I was about to grab my waterbottle.
Or you can grab your backpackand that can be your weight.
So just gradually scaling thatexercise, standing up from your
chair and then eventually movingthe chair away, squat down to a
comfortable depth and thencoming back up.
And I'd say, for deadlift, itcan be a water bottle, all right
(29:43):
.
So imagine your feet areunderneath your hips, you have
your water bottle in betweenyour legs, and then you're just
focusing on good form, goodposture, and you're lifting that
up full standing position andthen back down.
And then, for you know, forpressing, for pushups, I kind of
already mentioned those scalingoptions there.
So that's what I would startwith.
(30:06):
I know most people don't have apull-up bar, but I say for you
know, for pulling movementsother than, like lower body
pulling movements.
You can just do a row with, youknow, your backpack or your
water bottle, and it's the sameform or same positioning as a
deadlift.
All you gotta do is just graban object in your arm and now
you're just pulling your elbowback without moving your torso
(30:27):
lift.
All you gotta do is just graban object in your arm and now
you're just pulling your elbowback without moving your torso.
And so these are easy ways.
It doesn't have to be weights,like I said.
It can be a backpack, it can bea water bottle, anything that
can provide a little bit ofresistance, then that's a great
way to start.
And then, if you have troublewith that, and then, if you have
trouble with that, you can addin more stability.
(30:49):
So to say so like the chair,would be more stability for the
squat or for the deadlift.
You can hold on to something ifyou need to, or pushups.
That's going to be having thedesk there.
That's going to provide morestability for that movement.
So yeah, there's a lot of waysto scale and start off your
(31:12):
strength journey.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
That's great.
I was thinking about just theother day.
We have a rickety old pushlawnmower and I couldn't get
that thing to start and I wasjust rowing this is why I
strength train.
There's a lot of functionality,for sure.
When you start thinking aboutyour just daily movements and
and doing these things how, ifyou can think about why you're
(31:36):
doing the thing that you'redoing and how that movement is
going to help you in your life,maybe that's a little motivation
.
What are some of the commonmisconceptions about strength
training that you might like todebunk?
Speaker 1 (31:48):
common misconceptions about strength training that
you might like to debunk.
There's so many, and this iswhat makes being on social media
hard, but I say one of thebiggest ones is for women.
For them, strength trainingit'll make me bulky Well, not
really.
Women are going to have lesstestosterone than men, right,
that's a fact.
It's going to be extremely hardfor women to put on more muscle
(32:12):
.
It's going to take othersupplementation, and so women
are typically not going to beable to put on as much muscle as
men, especially if you'restarting out.
Yes, you're going to build somemuscle that just comes along
with getting stronger in thebeginning.
You're going to build somemuscle that just comes along
with getting stronger in thebeginning, but after that, I
(32:34):
mean, you can get strongerwithout putting on muscle.
And that's what a lot of peopledon't realize too is like, oh,
I have to put on muscle to getstronger.
Not necessarily.
Once you get to a certain point, you can do strength training
without having to put on musclesize.
They're not the same, and so Iwon't go down that rabbit hole.
But yeah, that's a bigmisconception.
I see a lot is that, you know,and I think it's sort of
(32:55):
changing in the right direction.
I'd say there's a huge women'sfitness movement going on, you
know, and women are gettingstronger, they're posting more
online and being in the gyms andbeing confident.
So I think that's sort ofshifting.
I'd say the biggest one I stillsee is that I'm surprised
whenever I still see it is thatkids, if they use strength
(33:17):
training, it'll stump theirgrowth, and I'm just like, oh my
goodness, I have not seen asingle research article that
supports that and so that is acomplete misconception.
Kids can strength train.
Obviously, be cognizant of theintensity of when you're, of
what your kids are lifting.
(33:38):
I would recommend they, youknow, strength train under you
know, a credentialedprofessional.
I, when I was working as anundergrad at Alabama, the
youngest kid I was training wasseven years old.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Wow, and so.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
I mean now, he wasn't back squatting you know his
body weight, you know with thebar on his back, but he was
using dumbbells and kettlebellsand was able to lift some pretty
heavy loads.
And we did focus more on volumeand not necessarily on maxing
out, because I wouldn'trecommend maxing out.
But you can definitely groove alot of movement patterns,
(34:15):
especially when they're younger,and the younger that they are
and they're constantly doingthese repetitions, the more
proficient they're going to bewhen they get older.
And so strength training highlyadvised for youth and young
athletes, because the earlierthey start, you know, the easier
for them to, you know, keepputting on muscle and the better
(34:38):
their form and technique isgoing to be when they start, you
know, getting into high schooland college.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
That is so interesting, demetrius, I think
about.
Like with uh, it's sointeresting, demetrius, I think
(35:09):
about.
Like with little kids, likewhen you watch a toddler squat.
They're perfect, their form andtechnique is perfect, so
starting younger while you havethe mobility over time, I guess
you can keep that mobility.
Um, so that's so interesting.
Um, I have two teenage boysthat love strength training now
because they're seeing a lot ofthe like, the gains, like can
actually feel themselves gettingstronger.
So that's been great to see, um.
But yeah, man, so so importantto start as soon as possible and
(35:30):
just don't quit throughout ourlife, um, and if you aren't
strength training and you'venever strength train it's never
too late to start, right, so wecan always start muscle.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
Yeah, and there's research that shows that.
You know, even if you startlater and you've already kind of
um, gone through a little bitof osteopenia, you're losing
some bone.
That's reversible to a certainextent, and so it's not too late
to start strength training,start putting on more muscle,
start minimizing that you know,muscle loss as we age process,
(36:04):
to sort of maintain and, yeah,reverse some of that bone loss
yeah, the body wants to, or thebody will adapt to what we do.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
I saw a study I remember this was way back, even
when I was in college and Idon't.
I just remember they did astudy on people in their
nineties and they were stillable to put on muscle, because
the body will always adapt tothe load as long as we're doing
it safely.
Um, I could talk about this allday, but just to keep ourselves
(36:35):
succinct and on time, I want togo ahead and just kind of wrap
up and I was wondering if youcould share maybe a success
story or testimonial fromsomeone that you know that maybe
their life has been transformedby strength training.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Right.
So when I was at University ofWest Florida, I was, you know,
full-time strength coach in theweight room as well, but I also
did some personal training onthe side, so not just working
with athletes.
So I ended up working with thisolder lady and her goal was
just to play with her grandkids,and so to me I was like, oh wow
(37:10):
, you know this kind of thatreally more.
So opened up like a whole newavenue of strength training for
me.
We did some very basicmovements, like we said, just
working on squatting from thechair and then, you know,
removing the chair and addingmore resistance and, you know,
getting her upper body strongerand it's funny, like a lot of
the upper body movements.
I would almost just kind ofmimic what it would be like to
(37:34):
lift her grandkid up in the air,you know what I mean.
So doing some light kettlebelloverhead presses or just some
light dumbbell presses, and herform was pretty good.
I mean, she had never strengthtrained before.
But you know, sometimes thoseare the easiest to work with
because they don't know whattheir body looks like.
All you got to do is show themand they're pretty good from
(37:56):
there.
So, long story short, she, youknow, worked with me for about,
you know, three months and shewas able to play with her
grandkids, you know, pain free.
She was able to squat down andget on the floor with them
without knee pain, without backpain, which is what she was kind
of more so complaining about.
I still hear from heroccasionally and she's doing
(38:19):
well.
Her grandkids are, you know,not kids anymore, but she's
grateful for that time and beingable to spend those years with
her, her grandkids, and be ableto play with them, you know,
without pain.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
That's amazing and I think for all of us, we have to
think about the why.
Right, Like why, why do I wantto do this?
And everyone's going to have alittle bit different reason for
strength training.
But I just encourage anybodywho's listening to this to
really think about your why andif you're interested in strength
training, there's there's a lotof good resources out there.
So, with that being said,Demetrius, could you share for
(38:54):
those out there that want tomaybe connect with you and learn
about more resources?
I will definitely put the linkto our webinar in the show notes
, because we talked a lot in thewebinar.
We talked a lot about theprinciples of strength training
and designing the program, andthere's a visual component of
that.
So if you want to get more intothe weeds on how much, how
(39:16):
often, like all of that, you canwatch the webinar.
But what other resources wouldyou share with folks?
Speaker 1 (39:21):
I'd say, if anybody wants to get in contact with me,
I'll just give them my DPSemail.
It's demetriusbailey atdpstexasgov.
Here at DPS, we have a ton ofresources in terms of not just
our fitness classes, but alsowebinars, also our classes here
at headquarters, and we have,you know, an online library on
(39:42):
YouTube as well.
Tons of resources there.
If you're looking for a book orsomething, mark Verstegen he
has a book called Every Day isGame Day, and I'd say that's a
very easy read and also a greatway to start being able to put
together a strength program foryourself and kind of learn about
(40:02):
these very basic movementpatterns, how to execute those
basic movement patterns.
There's great illustrations inthere, and it's not just for
performance, but it's more sofor your active adult who wants
to get into strength trainingand they want to know why
strength training is important,what to do, what it looks like,
and it's a super easy book toread that's great.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Don't forget about our five-day strength training
challenge as well, of course,that's going on right now yeah,
it's, it's almost over.
Tomorrow is day five, but thoseare YouTube videos that anybody
can do, and so I will also putour five day strength challenge
If you don't know what I'mtalking about.
We did a five day strengthchallenge where each day, we led
(40:48):
participants and there's musicand there's a timer.
It's like 30 seconds of workwith 15 seconds of rest.
It's Demetrius myself, jewelSmith from the Office of the
Attorney General, mackenzieMcIntyre from TxDOT, and each
day we basically guide youthrough a workout.
So you don't even have to thinkabout it.
They're, like I said, 15 to 20minutes and I'll put the links
(41:10):
to all of those.
So it's a good starting place.
You can kind of get some ideasfor what to do in your own life,
or you can just keep doingthose over and over again and
continue to add weight.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Yeah, all right.
Well, is there anything elsethat you'd like to close this
out with?
Speaker 1 (41:29):
I just want people to know that strength training is
relatively safe, especially ifyou know the right form and
technique and you know how toexecute the movements.
And it doesn't have to be much.
Like I said, 20 or 30 minutestops and that's with the five
minute or warm up and fiveminute cool down.
It doesn't have to take a lot.
You can add in movement breaksthroughout your day.
(41:49):
Just sit up from your desk,maybe do a couple of squats in
place, do a couple of lunges inplace and do some pushups at
your desk, things like that.
It doesn't have to becomplicated, and so find ways to
add in just small movementsthroughout your day to equal 20
to 30 minutes.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
That's amazing.
Yeah, it doesn't have to be atone time, so you can just spread
it.
Spread it out.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Yeah, and that gets our energy up as well, so, all
right.
Well, thank you so much,demetrius.
We're so lucky to have you inTexas and I'm just really
grateful for the collaborationwith you and DPS and your entire
team over there is awesome and,yeah, I'm looking forward to
next things and doing somethingon mobility in the future.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Of course, anytime.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
Thank you so much for joining in to listen to this
episode of the ERS Walk Talkpodcast.
We hope you found ourconversation with Demetrius
informative and inspiring.
Remember, whether you're juststarting out on your strength
training journey or you'relooking to enhance your current
routine, the benefits of doingit right are invaluable.
Please be sure to check out ourshow notes for all the
(43:04):
resources discussed during theepisode, as well as
recommendations shared byDemetrius to get started and or
continue your progress.
If you enjoyed this episode,please subscribe to the podcast
and share it with your friendsand colleagues that you think
may benefit from thisinformation.
Remember to stay active, stayhealthy and stay strong.
We'll see you on the nextepisode of the ERS Walk Talk
podcast.
(43:24):
Take care everyone.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!