S7E4:Ashleigh Gass: Comprehensive Workout Framework, Top 5 Mobility Drills, Top 5 Supplements...

Do you want to know the top 5 mobility exercises that everyone should be doing?

Do you want to know the top 5 supplements to support optimal health and wellness?

Do you want to have a framework to create a comprehensive workout program for maximal benefit in minimal time?

Ashleigh Gass has a long professional track record in the Strength and Conditioning Industry.  Her credentials and experience are extensive. She has a master’s degree in Human/Clinical Nutrition through The University of Bridgeport, is a Certified Sports Nutritionist through The International Society of Sports Nutrition (CISSN), in addition to being one of the few CSCSs in Florida (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist), she also holds the CNS (Certified Nutrition Specialist) credential. She's been coaching, training and studying for 24 years and is now the co-owner of MOVE Gymnastics Inspired Strength Training in Clearwater, FL.

Get ready to take notes and potentially listen more than once because this episode has so many tips and strategies!

Website:
https://movegst.com/

IG: AshleighrGass
IG: move_training_calisthenics

MOVE calisthenics has online exercise coaching programs for those that want individualized assessment, program design and coaching.

Episode Transcript

Ashleigh Gass (00:00):
In Western culture were really programmed,

(00:03):
go to the gym and use heavystuff.
There's nothing wrong with that,but we missed the boat
completely on how to actuallyturn our bodies into these
beautiful fluid machines thatcan do cool stuff and not just
get plowed by injuries along theway.

Michael Bauman (00:22):
How do we truly feel like a success in every
area of our lives?
How do we feel enough and knowthat we are not alone?
Join me as I interview some ofthe top leaders and experts in
the world, from Broadwaydirectors to multimillionaire,
CEOs, neuroscientists, and moreto look behind the curtain of
success and examine not only theachievements, but also the

(00:44):
fears.
The.
The loneliness and how we cannavigate through that to create
the incredible life we actuallywant to live.
Welcome to Success Engineering.
So welcome back to successengineering.
So the reason we didn't have anepisode go live last week was

(01:05):
because it was actually Chinesenew year and my family was
enjoying a wonderful time atDisney in Shanghai.
To celebrate my son's birthdaywith another family.
We had an awesome time, youknow, watching the amazing
fireworks that they have.
They put on every night andfeeling like a pirate in parts
of the Caribbean.
To, you know, riding on thelight cycle from trauma.

(01:25):
And it was really, really fun.
So had a blast, but that's whywe didn't have, uh, the episode
go, go out last week.
So for this next episode, I wantto provide a very practical
framework for you that you canuse to develop your own workout
and strength training plan athome.
So obviously, you know, you needto talk about this with your

(01:46):
doctor and make sure this isright for you.
These are generalrecommendations.
But I wanted to have Ashley gason.
She's an amazing expert in termsof fitness.
And we're going to talk througheverything from the top five
mobility exercises that everyoneshould be doing pretty much to
the top five supplements thatyou'd want to potentially do
your research around to see ifthey could benefit you to the

(02:08):
exact framework for how you canstructure a comprehensive
workout plan to maximize thebenefit from that in the
shortest amount of time.
So it's an episode you're goingto want to take some notes.
Notes from, and potentially evenlistened to multiple times
because.
Ashley provides tons of tips andwe really dive into it to give
you the best framework here foryou to help you with your

(02:30):
workouts.
So I hope you enjoy.
So welcome back to SuccessEngineering.
I have the privilege of havingAshleigh Gass on.
She has a massive professionaltrack record in strength and
conditioning, her credentialsand experience, just really,
really extensive.
So Master's degree in HumanClinical Nutrition through the
University of Bridgeport.
She's a certified sportsnutritionist.
She's one of the few strengthand conditioning specialists in

(02:52):
Florida and also holds acertified nutrition specialist
credential.
Coaching for 20 years, learningfor 20 years.
Co-owner now of MOVE GymnasticsInspired Strength Training in
Clearwater, Florida.
So this is gonna be a greatconversation.
We're gonna get a lot ofpractical insight from it.
Welcome to the show here,Ashleigh!

Ashleigh Gass (03:09):
Thank you so much, Michael.
Thank you.

Michael Bauman (03:11):
Absolutely.
Great to have you.
So let's, let's start talkingabout your background.
I mean, you were always veryactive.
You loved, you know, athleticsand things in gymnastics for
nine years.
But I want to talk about kind ofworking up to the injury that
you had and then how you wentabout using that to learn and
develop and grow from that.

Ashleigh Gass (03:31):
Yeah.
Cool.
So, grew up as an athlete, Ithink a lot of us did, which is
why we gravitated towards thefield of kinesiology and
exercise phys.
We kind of figured, all right,physics is not gonna be it for
me.
So right,

Michael Bauman (03:41):
let's stick an exercise in the front and then
maybe I can handle that.

Ashleigh Gass (03:45):
Trains going in different directions, and the
timing just, I, I couldn'tfigure it out.
So it was I knew I wasn't gonnabe a physicist anyway.
So it was interesting because asa, you know, by the time I was
21 years old I again was apretty established athlete and
at that time, getting intocollegiate soccer at the
University of Victoria andCanada.
But I had chronic back pain andno one could really figure out

(04:06):
what was going on.
And my MRIs at that time werenot great.
There was advanced degenerativechanges in the L 3 4 5 L five S
one segments, and the only thingthat was found that was a bit of
a genetic anomaly wassynchronization of L five S one
on the right.
So, you know, as we're all told,I think especially 25 years ago,
just don't do it.
Stop lifting, stop this.

(04:27):
Do it hurts.
Don't do it.
It's like, well, wait a minute.
If, you know, if, if I was intoo much pain to go for a run, I
would just, you know, Lie on thefloor and put my shoes on and go
for a run rather than bendingover and putting my shoes on to
go for a run.
So pain really didn't stop.
It wasn't, wasn't a gamechanger.
Yeah,

Michael Bauman (04:47):
I'll just roll down the hill.
That'll be my exercise.
Yeah.
Can't stop me.

Ashleigh Gass (04:52):
Yeah, I know.
Like, we'll just go slow enoughfor a while until things warm up
and then, you know, it'll befine.
So, you know, it was really justbasically 15 years of that.
And of course as you wouldexpect, there were just
microtrauma to.
The, primarily the L 4 0 5, Lfive S one disc.

(05:12):
And that resulted in over theyears, just tiny, just here and
there.
Of course, the, my nervoussystem would seize up and I'd
be, ooh, for three or four daysat a time.
I'd just would roll on alacrosse ball for a long time
and eventually be fine againover the course of a couple days
and then just get back totraining and everything else.
And then fast forward a bunch ofyears, one day that wasn't

(05:35):
enough and, and I had a bit of adrop foot and I'm like, oh,
that's kind of weird.
My foot's not working now.
That's not good.
It gets serious and Yeah, butstill in my, this is, this is in
my late twenties, early thirtieswhen I first got to the States
and I kind of just overlooked itagain because without fail
within a few days and a bunch ofrolling around and maybe some
manual therapy, things wouldjust get better again.

(05:55):
So, I just rolled with thepunches more or less, and then
came the day where it, it, thething really blew, it w it ended
up being a seven millimeterherniation out, but what
happened is the disc fragmentedand dropped around the s one
nerve root on the left, whichfeeds the, the whole dermatome
left lateral glute hamstringcalf, achilles tendon, Achilles
reflex.

(06:16):
So I lost that whole line and itwas like drop leg It, it took a
good day for that to, to onsetby.
But by the end of day one, whenmy foot was completely numb and
I, I was walking like I had abroken ankle, I'm like, Ooh.
This is different.
I, I still had the mindset thatI was gonna wake up one day and
things were gonna be fine,believe it or not, you know, I
didn't stop training.

(06:36):
I kept doing push pull.
I had to watch myself doinglunges because I couldn't, I
couldn't feel my foot.
So I had to watch my foot sothat I didn't fall But whatever
I, I'm like, I can still pushand pull.
So you kind of get the story.
And then I end up havingneurosurgery because it was
apparent that if, you know, ifthe nerve root dies, if the S
one nerve root had experiencedatrophy, Or varying degrees of

(07:02):
atrophy to the point of, well,the nerve root isn't functional
anymore, then it's a permanentdisability.
Right?
So I'm like, am I ever gonna beable to run again?
please.
So that, that's the short storyof, of that.
And you know, it's kind ofinteresting cause I think all of
us that have been through the,these sorts of injuries and, you
know, Dave Goggins is classic,is that the, the mindset that

(07:24):
gets us to the point where we'rethat badly injured is the
mindset that also gets usthrough it.
Most people would've wanted tohave seen me stop or just, okay,
you've had back surgery.
Now just take it easy and becomesomeone who walks a lot every
day.
And I'm like, no.
Like I, I had surgery on aFriday morning.
You know, I was out forcingmyself to skip, pull, push.

(07:46):
Same thing.
Like, I, I didn't stop, I didnot stop.
I didn't listen to a damn thingwhen it came to guidelines.
And the surgeon was like, yeah,you're cool.
You know what you're doing.
Just don't, don't do anythingstupid.
And I, I didn't do stupidthings.
So I think it's that, it's themindset that gets us into this
place that also gets us out ofthat place rather than just

(08:07):
going, okay, I had a good run.
Now I'm gonna just walk.

Michael Bauman (08:12):
Mm.
Yeah, talk to talk, talk to meabout how you started to
discover, you know, a differentstyle of training through, you
know, Christopher Summers andyou can explain who, who he is
in gymnastic style, and talk tome how that kind of changed your
approach to what you're talkingabout.
I mean, you, you're veryknowledgeable up at that point,
and you're doing all thesethings, but there are some

(08:33):
underlying things that you couldalso fix along the way to maybe
make it a little bit easier foryourself.

Ashleigh Gass (08:39):
No doubt.
Well, yes.
Thank God for Christopher Summerand Rob Wolf actually.
Christopher Summer is thefounder of Gymnastic Bodies at
that time, gymnastic Bodies.
Now, the, the brand has changeda bit, I think to, to Gymfit,
but at that time it wasgymnastic bodies.
And he at that time had beenhead coach of the men's national
gymnastics team for 40 years,and he had developed a

(09:00):
reputation for bringing up hisathletes from youth through
Olympians without injuring them.
And the mechanism of how he didthat is he really made sure that
the training process was one ofpatients and a long-term plan.
And he was uncompromising whenit came to the integration of
mobility and flexibility, workwith strength training.

(09:22):
He never rushed the process andhe never compromised on those
progressions and the integrationof both.
So in that podcast, he spokeabout one of his athletes who
when, when Alan went away tocollege and was kind of, out
from under the wing and thetutelage of Summer he started to
develop back injuries because ofcourse the, those training
protocols were compromised.

(09:43):
And he had to bring Alan kind ofback to the basics of good
progressions, patience andtraining and integration of
strength and mobility.
And when he started to talkabout back injuries, my ears
perked up because that was abouttwo and a half, three months
after back surgery.
And I was like, okay.
All right.
Because I knew surgery doesn'tlike cure the original problem.

(10:03):
It just, it can get you outtahot water.
And for me in particular, it gotme outta hot water, but I was
starting to get kind of nice andstiff in those lower lumbar
segments again.
And, you know, I, I knew thatthe path was gonna lead back to
where it was And I'm like, allright, clearly I missed
something.
I've had all this, you know,education both in and outside of

(10:23):
school.
I've learned from countlesscolleagues and professionals,
all of whom were very good atwhat they do.
I've missed something and Idon't even know what I've
missed.
So I bought all the foundationswork at that time, which was you
know, available as big chunks,of course.
And I got busy studying andapplying all of it to my
training

Michael Bauman (10:42):
Talk to talk to the audience about how it's,
it's different, you know, so youtalked about the mobility and
things like that, but for peoplethat aren't as necessarily as
familiar with that, how does itlook differently than typical
strength training?

Ashleigh Gass (10:55):
Well, in typical strength training, we're used to
moving external load.
We're used to dumbbells andbarbells and kettlebells.
Mm-hmm.
And that's, that's all, that'sall of, that's fantastic.
But in this training system,there's nothing other than your
body.
And as you get more advanced, ofcourse there's, there's rings
and stuff to pull from to traineventual rope climb work from,
there's some pommel horses forback extension work, but the

(11:18):
majority of, of everything is,was of course, body weight
based.
And that was what stood out themost is I think that we're,
we're in Western culture werereally programmed, go to the gym
and use heavy stuff.
Like I said, there's nothingwrong with that, but we missed
the boat completely on how toactually turn our bodies into
these beautiful fluid machinesthat can do cool stuff and not

(11:43):
just get plowed by injuriesalong the way.
So that was what stood outinitially, of course, was the
fact that these incredibly fitgymnasts weren't dependent on
heavy, heavy loading 5, 6, 7days a week for their training.
Mm-hmm.
and the stuff that e evenfoundation level one work, like

(12:03):
sitting on the floor and liftingyour legs up else at work.
Just, just crush.
Just crush, crush The firstlevel one I went to was in Texas
and, you know, summer and summerhad 50 of us in there and he, he
just would, he just would standand look at us and warm up and
just go.
What's wrong with you guys?
You guys are fitnessprofessionals.

(12:25):
are you serious?
Like most of us couldn't evenlift our straight legs off the
floor.
Three inches.
Yeah.

Michael Bauman (12:33):
And, and for the audience that doesn't know what
an L sit is,, it is basicallyyou're sitting on the ground
back straight.
You put your arms beside, youknow, beside your butt, and you
try to lift your butt and yourlegs off of the ground, you
know?
Yeah.
It's like the gymnasts do withall their crazy stuff in the
rings, but doing it on theground, just starting off is
incredibly difficult.

Ashleigh Gass (12:52):
Yeah.
Just lift your heels off theground and everyone's like, oh

Michael Bauman (12:56):
yeah.
Yeah, no, it's interesting andwe were talking a little bit
before when we started the call,I don't know if I've shared this
on the podcast.
So, you know, I was a personaltrainer nutrition coach back in
the day.
A lot of people know that.
But I went through a similarthing, like there was one day
I'm just like lifting, I'mtrying to gain a bunch of masks
cuz you know that's what you'resupposed to do.
And I realized like I just hatedexercise and I was like, when

(13:19):
did I start hating to exercise?
And for me, I played sportsgrowing up and I really loved
that.
And I was like, oh, it's when Istopped playing sports and I
have no real reason besides anaesthetic reason to be lifting
this heavy thing.
And I changed everything.
That was the period I actuallydiscovered, you know, gymnastic
bodies as well with Christopher.

(13:39):
Changed all my workouts to, youknow, body weight stuff.
I started cycling into, youknow, work.
I started getting into rockclimbing and I loved it.
Again, like all these thingsthat I just love again.
And there's so much carryoverbetween gymnastic bodies, the
ability of your body to be able,like you talked about, to be
fluid, to be flexible, to bestrong and powerful, which is

(14:01):
what gymnasts are.
But like you said, you're notlifting an an not all the time.
Right.
But most of the time you're notlifting an external source, and
so people think of calisthenicsas pushups and squats, but you
have like handstand pushups, youhave like planche which is like
you're literally like, you know,not your feet not on the ground
in a pushup position.
Like it's insanely difficultYeah.

(14:22):
What you can progress up to.

Ashleigh Gass (14:24):
When did you, when were you in the GB scene?
Like when did you

Michael Bauman (14:27):
discover that?
Uh, What year was that?
That's probably like 2016 or

Ashleigh Gass (14:33):
so.
Yep.
Yeah, it was, I think you and I,I had back surgery in two, I was
probably a year ahead.
Yeah, right.
Right around the same time.

Michael Bauman (14:42):
Interesting.
Yeah.
It, it changed.
Mm-hmm.
it changed everything for me.
And I've adapted, done differentthings and stuff since then, but
it's a very interesting system.
But for people, you know,obviously even for us, you know,
it might not be doing the, youknow, plants and the handstand
pushups and stuff like that.
Let's, let's talk about fourbeginners, right?
Like, let's say, you know, ifwe're entrepreneurs, let's say
people are just working a bunch,they wanna start their exercise

(15:06):
routine.
What are, what are either somebasic assessments that they
could potentially do on theirown or important things to
consider?
And then where do they go tokind of start creating a program
for themselves?

Ashleigh Gass (15:17):
That's a really good question.
So are we, let's just sort ofplay two sides here.
Are they, are we assumingthere's a facility and a coach
involved, or are we assumingthat they're, let's assume
there's,

Michael Bauman (15:28):
there's not.
Okay.
As if there's a coach, like theycan, you know, bounce ideas and
stuff off of them.
Let's say like they're wantingto do an exercise thing, they're
not really familiar with it.
They don't really knownecessarily where to start, but
they know it's important.
What would you recommend forpeople like that?
Maybe it's online, you know,what does that look like?

Ashleigh Gass (15:44):
My advice would be to always address basic the
basics of mobility first.
Hmm.
My top colleagues that come tomind is, for example, like, Ben
Patrick, really good friend ofmine,"knees over toes guy".
He's got a great system that isjust more or less plug and play.
Not dependent on a gym, butbasic equipment, kind of like

(16:05):
basic equipment needed in thelater phases.
In the early phases, very bodyweight.
We've got good custom onlinecoaching where folks have a
chance to do assessments to kindof figure out, whoa, okay, I, I
need some work.
Like, no wonder my shoulders arehurting all the time.
I, you know, my bridge isterrible.
But it really, at that point,the consumer has to develop a
bit of an ability to go, allright, what are my weakest

(16:26):
links?
and then to be able to plugthemselves into the training
system, whether that's an app orjust YouTube videos to start to
chip away at, at their ownstrengths and weaknesses, if you
will, as opposed to just going,okay, I'm gonna, it's this, this

(16:47):
a hundred pushups a day and ahundred squats a day every day.
Yes.
Like, okay, got it.
But, you know, maybe we shouldhave some polling work in there,
some scapular work.
Mm-hmm.
So, it's a really good question,but it just sort of leads me to
go, all right, if I was theconsumer that was for the first
time opening up Pandora's box ofhow do I train at home?

(17:09):
There'd have to be a part of methat would understand what my
limitations were and then besmart.
enough To look at the, at thetraining material I was being
presented with and go, thatmakes sense, or, eh, that
doesn't make sense.
And then putting it all togetherso that perhaps I were
addressing my weakest linksfirst.
And then getting into good, goodquality whole body ish strength

(17:32):
training, which is, that's,that's no small task.

Michael Bauman (17:35):
Well, and and this is like, you know, this is
exactly why coaches are soimportant, right?
We think, yeah.
You know, in general we justkind of think like, oh, I'm
gonna go out there.
Maybe, maybe I'm gonna start torun and, you know, you could do
that, but there might beimbalances and stuff that you
have that then start to getexacerbated down the road

(17:56):
without that.
Or I go into a gym and I startdoing, Maybe it's a limited
amount, maybe it's a mediumamount of what I know, but you
might have limited range ofmotion and you're building
strength on a faulty foundationor a foundation that isn't as
good as it potentially could beto support where you want to go.
So if you were like, let's justtalk about mobility, you know,

(18:17):
for potentially people that are,you know, beginner at this, that
might not even know about foamrolling or what that looks like
or, you know, very basicmobility kind of things.
What, yeah, what would you sayif you were to just kind of, and
I know this is very, verydifficult to do because it's
very individual, but you havethings like upper cross syndrome

(18:37):
and you know, anterior pelvictilt and stuff like that.
So what would you say like forfundamental mobility, three to
five things that people, problemareas that typically come up for
people, especially if they'resitting, you know, a lot of
their time at at desk.

Ashleigh Gass (18:51):
That's such a good question, and I think,
actually, let's make sure youget access to this is, I'll,
I'll send you the mobilityposter that I had designed.
I called it Move 10 10 stretchesin roughly 10 minutes a day.
Perfect.
Because I went after thosethings.
And one of the, the main ones,of course, is a lot of folks
between commuting and, andworking, spend a lot of, a lot
of the day sitting likelegitimately probably over the

(19:14):
course of a day, let's just saysix total hours of sitting.
So Okay, fine.
When you're sitting, the hipflexors are in a short position.
So we've got to make sure thoseguys get opened up.
So the back foot on wall, onwall couch stretch, or a good
quality split squat with theback leg extended.
So you've got a good hipextension.
Those are, that would be numberone.
So keep the hips, the anteriorhips strong and flexible so

(19:38):
that.
You don't develop too much of a,of an anterior pelvic tilt.
The second one I wouldrecommend, of course, would be
shoulders, because life happensin front and work is in front.
So we just by default, kind ofend up with humeral head, a
little bit of in not sometimes alot of an internally rotated
humerus which of course thenbrings the scapula into that
stuck protracted position.

(19:59):
And the neck has to follow.
The neck can't stay up with anice s-curve, it's gotta go boop
So the whole upper body posturejust ends up back here.
So that then goes, all right,how do we reverse that?
Some sort of a chest stretch orsomething in external rotation
where we're getting out of thisand into, into this so that we
can open up p miner and thewhole system and the neck comes

(20:20):
back and, you know, we canprobably eliminate the one day
need for a, a laboral repair Sothat would be number two.
So hip flexor take care of thechest and the shoulders.
Number three would be the cabsand Achilles.
So a good quality.
Calf stretch with the, the frontfoot elevated on a surface so
that you get a little bit ofthat, that torque on the

(20:40):
posterior chain.
So, in other words, there's aprotocol that Emmett Lewis built
quite a while ago.
It's the elbow, elbow to toeprotocol to increase hamstring
flexibility and compressionstrength.
So just, or just, hey, likestanding up, bending over,
touching the floor, touchingyour toes, touching your knees.
Just work on just extending theposterior chain that's better.

(21:01):
You're not really extending it,you're stretching it, but
getting like a, a head toachilles tendon stretch of the
posterior chain.
So it'd be three from there.
Anything to hang from or just gooverhead with to stretch out the
lats and the obliques and theql.
And then I would say to addressthe wrists.
So there's there's nice handsand knee, wrist stretching where
you just get on the ground oryou can even stand against the

(21:23):
wall and do, or you don't evenneed a wall.
I can just, just right here,just stretching, stretching your
wrists out.
Just keep these, keep these guysactive and, and open and strong.
So those would be my five, justhip flexor and rectus femoris.
Shoulders, external rotation andextension.
Some, sort of hanging work.
And if there's nothing to hangfrom me, you can use a counter

(21:44):
and even do like a, a lateral,lateral horizontal to a stretch
posterior chain.

Michael Bauman (21:49):
Super great.
So for people that you can't seewhat she's doing, yes, please
send over the information and Ican put it in the, I can put it
in the show notes of the, of thepodcast for those of you who
can't see what's going on.
But yes, this stuff can be kindof, you know, complicated just
to.
sum, sum up a little bit of whatshe said.
So hip flex is essentially themuscles in your front of your

(22:10):
hip that raise your leg up.
And when you, you know, if youjust look at a sitting posture,
those are shortened because youhave to be in that 90, 90 degree
position.
So you're trying to stretch thatout.
Posterior chain is basicallyeverything behind your body.
So your hamstrings, your glutes,you know, back lots, things like
that.
And so you're trying to stretchthat out.
And you talked about the, thecalf stretching that out as

(22:32):
well, and the chest, but havingpictures for this will be super,
super helpful.
Yeah.
Yeah, because like we said, it'sjust, it's difficult to know,
right?
It's difficult to know some ofthese things, and they're
important to get this stuff backbefore you start adding, you
know, the strength onto it.
So let's say people are doingthis, what percentage of you

(22:52):
have a 10 minute thing, youknow, and again, it depends on
how much time they haveavailable, but.
10 minutes is a, is a goodperiod of time.
A lot of people can hopefullyfind, find that, to squeeze that
in there.
What would you start torecommend as far as very basic
exercise recommendations thatthey can start to build from
that?
What are the, what are the mainthings that they should be aware

(23:14):
of or making sure that theyfocus on?

Ashleigh Gass (23:16):
Again, sort of being that person that can
identify their, the, theirbiggest weak links first and
address those.
So in other words, if you'regoing into a training program or
you're trying to build one foryourself and you're in chronic
pain, let's address that first.
Hmm.
And it probably will have a fairbit to do with addressing stuff
that's tight and weak.
So good mobility training,initially clean up nutrition cuz

(23:39):
a lot of folks are in reallysort of intense inflammatory
patterns of poor nutrition,nutrient poor food, poor sleep
patterns.
So fix that stuff first beforeyou're like, I'm gonna go to the
gym and start to, you know,

Michael Bauman (23:52):
CrossFit by my ass off

Ashleigh Gass (23:56):
cross.
Must be four days a week andeverything's gonna be fast and
hard and Oh man, no.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then, so just from there,just, just layer, layer things
on.
So.
clean up chronic pain stufffirst if necessary.
See a good physical therapist ormanual therapist to get some
help with that.
Clean up nutrition, sleep, makesure the foundational aspects of
of lifestyle are just improved abit before you ramp up the

(24:18):
intensity of training.
Mm-hmm.
And then from there just layerstuff on.
So you then you might go, allright, I am, I'm gonna go to
the, to my local gym or kind oframp up my protocols at home and
start to do lower body training.
Okay.
What might that look like?
That might look like some RDLsor stuff like deadlifts and some
split squats and maybe some calfphrases.
I'm gonna get myself a pair ofrings and start to do push pulls

(24:39):
and just kind of go, all right,you know, we teach people based
on your, your week and your, andthe flow of how your schedule
goes.
Most people can start anythingthat's related to strength and
endurance work two to three daysa week and just go, okay, whole
body work Tuesdays andThursdays.
Or maybe I'll do a whole bodysplit three days a week, or,

(24:59):
Potentially I'll split it into afour week period where Mondays
and Fridays are upper body andcore, and Wednesdays are lower
body and core and somestretching, and then flip it
around the next week.
So there's a few, there's a lot,as you know, there's many ways
to skin the cat, butfoundational principles is see
if you can iron out your ownweak points first before you

(25:19):
layer on stuff that's harder.

Michael Bauman (25:22):
Yeah.
And that's really important andcannot be overstated.
And, you know, another guestKelly Starrett.
He has an app called the ReadyState, phenomenal for mobility.
You can just put in, I have painin this point, and you get
exactly what you need to do.
Or you're like, I play thissport, or I go, you know,
running this is mobility.
This is what you should dobeforehand.

(25:42):
This is potentially if you have,you know, time, hopefully this
is what you do afterwards.
Phenomenal.
So people looking at mobility,that's, that's super, super
important on that.

Ashleigh Gass (25:51):
Yeah, I wrote, wrote that down the app.
Down.
I, I, I'd heard, I've heard ofit, but I've never looked at it,
so,

Michael Bauman (25:56):
oh man.
It's amazing.
I, I just love it.
You know, I have a decent amountof understanding of, as the stu,
not as much as some, but adecent amount, you know, like
foam rolling, different thingslike that, and, I do it with him
and, you know, in 10 minutes,you like one is really painful
sometimes cause you're workingout these deep like, you know,
tension things, but thenafterwards you're like, oh, I

(26:16):
feel amazing.
You know, you can move in waysthat you're just like, I didn't
know this was possible.
Like, very short periods oftime.
Sometimes painful periods oftime, but it's like in tissue
massage

Ashleigh Gass (26:27):
Yes.
Yes.
Cool.
We're both from probably go backlong enough that we've read the
Supple Leopard and so I turnedit all into an app.
Love it.
Love it.

Michael Bauman (26:34):
Yeah.
It's, it's, it's amazing.
So I would, I would highlyrecommend that.
As far as basic, you know,movements, again, if we're
coming back to really basicstuff, you know, things like a
squat pattern or hinge pattern.
Could you describe kind of someof those things, or even a push
pull?
So describe for people what thatactually is.
If we're at a very, you know,beginner level and, and want to

(26:55):
understand how to kind of createa program that hits the main
areas.

Ashleigh Gass (27:00):
Yep, for sure.
So let's talk in terms of upperbody and let's split things into
vertical and horizontal.
Classic way of doing programdesign.
So your vertical push would beoverhead work.
Okay.
Your vertical pull would be yourpull up and your chin up work.
All grip variations.
So pull up being over hand grip,chin ups being under hand grip.

(27:20):
And I think that's important todifferentiate because we've got
folks calling, making the wordchinup be global.
Okay.
Quin was very clear, and thishas been in the, in the world of
strength, anding forever.
This is a pullup.
This is a chinup.
Very different drills.
Okay?
So if we're gonna think in termsof vertical push pull, you could

(27:42):
have a day where you're startingoff and you go, all right.
My shoulder health is good.
I've got something to pull from.
I'm gonna start with, it's avery important

Michael Bauman (27:50):
thing first, you know, cuz a lot of times people
don't necessarily have theshoulder health to do overhead
work.
So address the immobility first,but keep going.
Great.

Ashleigh Gass (27:58):
Yeah.
Address it first.
And if you have a history, ifyou've had rotator cuff repairs
or you have a history ofimpingement or you're just, your
shoulders kind of hurt all thetime, your first move, generally
speaking might not be going intooverhead.
Now it could be single armoverhead work, which is more
forgiving than, than barbellwork right away.
But just, you know, to keepthings simple, you could have a

(28:19):
day where it's vertical press,vertical pull.
Mm-hmm.
And if we're going to berespectful of where you and I
have come from, we wouldintegrate mobility and
stretching into that.
So we would then, Integrate somehanging work into the vertical
pulling.
Okay.
So hanging work.
And then with shoulder mobility,we would potentially integrate

(28:41):
something like a, a dislocate, atubing dislocate to start to
work that full 360 range.
You could integrate a little bitof rotator cuff work, so some
basic sideline external rotationdrills for the backside of the
rotator cuff.
So you sort of think in terms ofprimary, so again, on that day,
you think primary push pull andwhat mobility can be integrated

(29:04):
into

Michael Bauman (29:04):
that.
Yeah.
What you talked about with thatshoulder dislocate.
Just for, for people, cuz thisis a super one, like, it's one
of those exercises that if youjust wanted to do potentially
one for your shoulders, thismight be, this might be it.
And, and you can, you know,maybe add or, or you know,
contradict that.
But there are people that don'tunderstand what that is.
You could get a band or youknow, a bar, but maybe starting

(29:25):
with a band and you basically,you're holding your arms above,
you know, above your head tryingto.
Elevate your shoulders uptowards your ears, and then
moving your hands back behindyour body in like a circle.
And this is the range of motionthat we lose because we don't do
anything here.
And then from that position,that down position, you're
trying to move your arms back upand over in front of yourself.

(29:48):
So you're just making this bigcircle up by your ears all the
way down to back and over it.
It's just such a good exerciseto restore the range of motion.
And a lot of people can't evenstart with that.
So you wanna start really,really wide on whatever you're
holding.
And again, a band gives you moreflexibility and just start.
And that gets that chest stretchlike you're talking as well.
But, sorry, keep going with what

Ashleigh Gass (30:08):
you're talking about.
No, you're, you're, you'reabsolutely right that, that
drill, initially it's two thingsfor most people.
Number one, it's reallydifficult.
And number two, it's a totalgame changer.
Yeah.
Yeah,

Michael Bauman (30:20):
yeah.
And the, and I do it just likeat my desk.
Like, so these are, these arethings that you can kind of
incorporate, you know, if you'reat, at your desk and you don't,
don't mind looking silly ormaybe you're in someplace that's
a little bit you know, set apartfrom other people.
These are things that justtaking every 30 minutes or an
hour or once during your day,whatever you could start with,
do a little bit of that at yourdesk and it's so good for your,

(30:42):
for your

Ashleigh Gass (30:43):
shoulders.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Just to have a, have some tubingclose by.
Tubing is more forgiving thanPVC pipe, cuz obviously you've
got the ability to pull it apartto move it.
Yeah.
When you get into those stuckspots, Yeah.
Once you're on a PBC pipe,you're not going anywhere.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Unless you wide in the grip.
So Yeah, no, you're, you'retotally right on that.
So, yeah, just look for thosekind of hole in one drills that

(31:06):
you can integrate into yourstrength training because, you
know, one of the reasons thatSummers athletes were so
successful and that you know,there was so much traction with
the foundation strength trainingwork of the original days of, of
gymnastics strength training wasThat it was, it, if you followed
the system properly, it wasreally, it was really difficult

(31:28):
to get stronger than you weremobile.
You had to integrate themtogether so that as strength
ramped up, so did your mobility,and you know, thus the kind of
epic changes in pain and, and,and joint injuries from folks
that were really training thesystem.
So, yeah.
So anyway, we, we we're gonnaget off on a lot of tangents,

(31:50):
but Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So

Michael Bauman (31:51):
get a coach higher.
I know.
We'll, we'll put link, but we'llcontinue to give you tidbits if
you wanna try and drive

Ashleigh Gass (31:58):
Yeah.
Some coaching, because this,this stuff is, I mean, it's sort
of, I guess it's like anythingelse.
If you really want to control,not the wrong word, if you
really wanna run your ownfinances, a hundred percent.
that's cool.
But you better be prepared tounderstand what are the
advantages and disadvantage ofthe market?
What, what about the Roth?

(32:18):
What about this, what aremutual?
Like you can, or spend some timeand get oriented to the basics
from folks that are successfulthemselves.
And then the strategy will makea bit more sense.
But I would always recommendjust get some guidance if you're
truly starting from that pointof, what do I do,

Michael Bauman (32:37):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Just, just pay somebody whoknows a lot more than you do.
Yeah.
And have studied it for a longtime.

Ashleigh Gass (32:43):
Right, right.
So, yeah.
And, and you know, with trainingsplits, that's the basic way.
For upper body, of course.
Then we've gotta cover theopposite directions, which is,
which is a horizontal.
So horizontal pulling would be,you're pulling in this direction
and that can be done effectivelyon rings.
It's a little bit harder to dothis with no equipment.
Mm.
Generally speaking, unless youwanna do renegade rows, you

(33:05):
know, for a pushup, push up androw from, you know, so, and then
horizontal pressing of course ismore of your, your, your chest,
chest focused work, right?
Which can be chest processes,pushups, things like that.
Yeah.
And that stuff can be sobeneficial.
On moves and my Instagram feed,I've covered information on this
because you can, you can andreally should turn your
horizontal pushing into kind ofinto a combination of, of, of

(33:30):
pushing, but also integratingthe scapula into those drills so
you're not just mindlessly doingpushups, but you're actually
integrating scapular retractionand depression into your pushup
as you go down so that you'renot just kind of riding out the
front of the front of the jointand making what's typically
tight, tighter.

(33:51):
But that's, you know, I did apost on that little while ago,
and you can check that out onthe feedback for people that

Michael Bauman (33:55):
don't know scapula is your shoulder blades
basically.

Ashleigh Gass (33:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Your shoulder blades.
So when we say scapularretraction, we mean like
scapular pulling back.

Michael Bauman (34:07):
It's basically like pinching.
If you picture like pinching aquarter in between your shoulder
blades, that that's, yeah.
You can kinda thing.

Ashleigh Gass (34:12):
Yeah.
And you can see the difference.
So when I'm doing a pushup, ifthere's, if I'm not paying
attention to my scapula, I can,I can do pushups like this.
Mm.
all day long.
But once I integrate, retractionor pulling in, my pushup can
start to look a lot like that.
Mm-hmm.
And in the top, I can protractso I can stick my shoulder

(34:33):
blades out.
On the way down, I can lowermyself, but pay attention to
scapular retraction.
So if you're doing the rightthings at the right cues, you
can, you can really change a lotabout the shoulder position, the
arm bone position in theshoulder socket, and you can
really change a lot about yourposture without feeling like you

(34:53):
have to walk around all day,like trying to force your
posture.
Cuz forcing posture is, we allknow, is you can't re, you can't
do it long term.
You have to train your body toget to the point where it just
rests in the way that it shouldrest, which takes training and
tension, re tension, reductionin in the right places.

Michael Bauman (35:14):
Along those lines before we kind of get to
the lower body, we'll see howmuch we cover here cuz like we
can go, like you said, down alot of rabbit holes and things
like that, but important ones.
But I wanted to talk aboutbreathing and how that can
actually, you know, your, youradvice on, on that.
How you can use that to toessentially help with, with
posture and

Ashleigh Gass (35:33):
resetting some of that.
Yep.
So I'll admit in full, thisisn't a rabbit hole that I've
gone really deeply down.
My in, so, so in training andbreathing in general, I, a lot
of us are in lockdown mode allday, so we don't, we don't take
those deep diaphragmatic.
Breaths where the diaphragmexpands and the, we get the

(35:55):
belly involved.
It's all very almost low levelhyperventilating.
So in general, in training whatyou've, what you want to make
sure you're focusing on is onthe, the, the challenging parts
of the lift.
So if I'm going down into asquat or or a deadlift or a max
pull that when I'm here and I'mhanging up in a and a and I'm,

(36:18):
oh, oh, sorry about to start.
It's like, and then re, reredeveloping breath on the way
down in the movement.
So, but from a generalstandpoint, we've just
day-to-day, most of us have towork a lot more on diaphragmatic
deep, proper breaths and notjust hyperventilating.

(36:40):
Mm-hmm.
on a low level all day.
And then during training to makesure that on those.
Th those sticky points of, ofmax lifts or of max strength,
endurance, endurance lifts thatwere, were exhaling hard, like
hard on the force output.
Part of, of the lift.

Michael Bauman (36:59):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Very important.
And, and we tend to kind of lookat these things in different
categories, but like you'retalking about it, it all like,
it all ties together.
You know, you have to have yoursleep, you have to have your
nutrition, you have to have yourhydration, you have to have, you
know, the exercise like it allis a whole thing.
And we've had other guests onthat have talked about the, the
sleep and, and things like that.
So this one we're definitelyfocusing on the exercise, but

(37:21):
when we, when we shift down tolower body, what are some of the
main movements movement patternsthat people should be thinking
about, making sure that they,they.

Ashleigh Gass (37:30):
Yep.
Key ones squat and squat andhinge, and then single leg work.
So squat is very classicallytrunk in a more vertical
position where the hips aredropping down and into the lift.
So in a squat, the trunk is in amore vertical pattern and the
hips drop down and into thelift.
That's a squat pattern.

(37:51):
A hinge pattern is when thetrunk stays very upright and the
the hips hinge behind.
So it's like one of the cues Iused in the RDL or the stiff leg
deadlift is chest up ass out..
That's a hinge pattern when the,the hips drive back.
But the trunk stays very notupright positionally, because in

(38:13):
the of course, you're leaninginto the lift, but the trunk
isn't rounding.
It's a hinge.
So you think of that as, yeah,you, you break it down into
squat hinge.
Squat pattern.
Hinge pattern, and thenbilateral or yeah, bilateral
versus a single leg or, orunilateral lifts.
So squat and the deadlift wouldbe bilateral lifts.
And then things like pistolsquats, split squats would be

(38:36):
your single leg lifts.
And then of course, you'd haveyour more accessory work, like
single leg r dls or single legstiff leg deadlifts.
And so that would just be anexample.
So it, what that might look likein a training protocol would be,
Say three to four sets of ahinge.
So three to four sets of a stiffleg deadlift, or a good morning
where the bar or the, the tubingor a P V C pipe is behind the

(39:00):
neck and the hip hinge isoccurring there versus the
dumbbells being down and infront hip hinge.
Okay.
Okay.
So it might be several sets ofhip hinge drill followed by
several sets of a body weightsquat or, or a goblet squat with
the weight held in front.
Or if you're working with a barback squat or front squat.

(39:23):
Mm-hmm.
And then I would definitelyfinish with some accessory work.
So, split squat.
Cosack squat is like a splitsquat, but laterally side to
side.
Yeah.
Side to side.
Yep.
Side to side squat.
and from there, calf work,Achilles work, just to keep keep
the, the, the, the achillestendon and the calfs, strong and

(39:45):
flexible.
Again, in, in, in the GB days,we did fairly high volume calf
work in the front split series.
And that that can be done also.
Or if you've got access toseated calf raise machines and
standing calf raise machinesworking, working drills there.
So for lower body, you generallywould structure squat pattern,
hinge pattern I think a splitsquat pattern.
Super important to cover thesingle leg work.

(40:08):
Mm-hmm.

Michael Bauman (40:09):
super great.
Yeah.
What about core recommendations?
Yep.
And potentially, what are peopletypically doing wrong?
Yeah.
When they try to train theircore, if, if we have enough
time.

Ashleigh Gass (40:20):
Right.
I know that's a funny one.
And it's, it's kind ofinteresting.
So again, if you look at lifepatterns, we tend to end up
sitting a lot.
And then core work, what do mostpeople do?
They're, they end up doing a lotof like

Michael Bauman (40:36):
crutches and stuff.
They're emphasizing the Yeah.
yeah.
The bent pattern.

Ashleigh Gass (40:41):
You can emphasize the bent over pattern, whereas I
think what people need to payattention to is thinking of
their core as like, around theirbody.
So it's the, it's not only thefront muscles, but it's the
sides, like the O obliques andthe ql.
It's the erectors and the, the,the small spinal muscles like
multifidus.

(41:02):
So integrate extension patternsinto your core work.
So if you're going to do.
Variations of sit ups or likehollow body holds with your arms
by your sides or overhead andyour legs out in front.
Very challenging drills.
If you're gonna do those drills,which are flexion based,
integrate extension with it.
So that can mean going into acobra.

(41:24):
Or like an N P T A Mackenziepress up or doing a scorpion,
which is extension rotation.
I know I don't have pictures ofall this, but you

Michael Bauman (41:33):
know, so basically, basically extension,
one thing for the audience is ifyou think about, you know, if
you literally just lie down onthe ground with your hands above
your head and try to lift yourarms and your hands, you know,
like off the ground and liftyour legs and your toes off the
grounds with your legs straight.
And you'll notice you may noteven be able to do that because

(41:54):
all of that is so underdevelopedcompared to the tightness and
stuff that's in the front.
So that's extension work.
You're like, you're trying to,like you said, treat your core
as the back part as well, thatwe, you know, just ignore a lot
of times.
And you'll notice, you'll belike, oh wow, I don't have
anything here.
So either get a coach or do moreof those things that focus on

(42:16):
bringing balance to, to theimbalance there.

Ashleigh Gass (42:19):
Yeah, like arching drills.
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
And then respect the lateralflexion.
So things like standing sidebending and side stretching to
get the, the sides to open up.
Basic drills like I guess we'llcall them side planks in gb in
gymnastics we call'em side overarches.
But side planks.
What else carries, pardon?

(42:40):
Talk,

Michael Bauman (42:41):
talk to us about caries as well, farmers caries
and stuff like that.

Ashleigh Gass (42:45):
Farmers caries, single sided farmers caries cuz
they, that, you know, you'reholding a whatever says a 20
pound dumbbell on, on one sideyou're gonna be challenged to
stay upright as opposed to bedropped down with the weight.
So farmers carriers are, arereally useful for.
Well grip, grip strength, butthey're also useful for
stabilizing the core with unevenloads, which is again, which is

(43:07):
life.
And people tend to get injuredwhen they expose themselves to
lifting and carrying or pushingor pulling something in life
that they haven't trained for,and the body's not used to that.
So something just grabs andthey're like, oh my back.
Right,

Michael Bauman (43:22):
right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I mean, literally example ofthat is like carrying your
groceries.
Like that's a perfect example inlife.
Like you are just carryingsomething that you need to
avoid, you know, just notbending over from, that's,
that's an example of what youtrain for to actually give your
core the stability it needs tobe healthy, ideally.
Yeah,

Ashleigh Gass (43:41):
really good point.
Yeah.
So there's, there's so manythings that you can do just as
your starting training andthere's so much, you have to
become really good at pickingthe, the top thing, like a few
of the top things.
Yeah.
And knowing why you're doingthat, you know,

Michael Bauman (44:01):
and this is like, you know, when I was a
trainer too, a lot of times, youknow, people, the time is really
limited.
So it's like, I love what youhave with that 10 minute, you
know, mobility thing where it'slike, in these 10 minutes, these
are the big bang for your buckskind of things.
And that's what I'm, you know,we're trying to do in this
episode is provide those bigbang for your bucks movements.
And, and they're called compoundmovements.

(44:22):
So, so often, you know,especially if you're, you know,
a guy or you know, for girls thetriceps, but for guys the, you
know, the biceps, you go inthere and you're like, I'm gonna
do the gym and I'm working this,well, it's not just one, but
sort of, if we're, if we'resimplifying it, you know, I'm
working this one little muscle,but if you're doing a pull-up,
you're working the massivemuscles in your back and the,
you know, muscle in your bicepas well.

(44:43):
And so doing these compoundpushing exercises, compound
pulling exercises, like yousaid, vertically.
And horizontally.
And then the big ones for yourlegs, like those big squat, you
know, patterns as opposed tositting on a machine and doing
like a, you know, raising myleg, my, my knees, you know, up
and down right.
Kind of thing.
You're doing these big squats,big hinge motions, big lateral

(45:06):
kind of side to side motions.
And then the core, ideally thatkind of integrates all of it.
And then you alternate thatpotentially with some, you know,
cardio or something on a, on adifferent day and you have a
decent plan, right?
Even if you did that one time aweek.
Sure, yeah.
And one time a week of cardio.
It's decent, you know, so that'sa, a decent starting point.
And I don't know if you haveother things you either want to

(45:27):
add to, to

Ashleigh Gass (45:29):
that.
I mean, is it, you know, is thestarting point?
Keep things as simple aspossible and just, just run with
it.
And when, when you're at thepoint where you go, okay, I
think I'm doing pretty well withthese basics, what's the next
layer?
and it's just the ability to dowell with a plan and stick with
it for long enough to then seeit through to the next phase.

(45:49):
So, yeah.

Michael Bauman (45:51):
So, you know, that's, that's a lot on the, on
the exercise kind of thing.
Talk to us, and I have had otherguests talk about this, but I'm
curious, kind of the big, youknow, if we're talking the big
five or so on the nutrition sideof things as well, or even
hydration, what do you recommendbig levers that people can
essentially pull if they're justgetting started?

Ashleigh Gass (46:12):
Yeah, that's a good question because a lot of
folks that come to the facilityand that I start with in the
online space, we have to goafter the biggest things first.
So, What I notice in almost ahundred percent of folks that
start tracking in inside, insideof an app, is the obvious stuff.
Number one is and I really goback to some of John Berardi's
foundations of good nutrition onthis one.

(46:33):
Some of these 10 key habits ismost folks need to increase
their protein.
So I've got.
You know, males and females thatare 150, 160 pounds plus, well,
especially guys come up 200pounds and their protein takes
less than 25 grams a day, whichis, it's, I mean, it's
dangerous.
So number one is chicken breastfor people that Yeah.

(46:56):
Or it's a sh you know.
Yeah, exactly.
And then just pure, pure carbsand, and kind of to-go foods for
the rest of the day.
So number one is increasedprotein intake.
And a general rule of thumb Ihave for folks initially is aim
for, just regardless of who youare, just aim for a hundred
grams a day from supplementaland food sources.
So that's number one.
Number two is usually healthyfats are absent.

(47:19):
So increase intake of good fatslike olive oil, avocado, so your
monounsaturated fats, and thenyour your omega-3 s omega-3
intake's usually pretty low.
So let's get some highperformance fats in there.
Number three.
Is it just increased nutrient,nutrient density overall.
So, folks try to eliminate or,or minimize pure snacky foods

(47:40):
like pretzels and chips, cuzthe, the value from those foods
is of course pretty much zero.
And I find that as folksincrease nutrient density from
good fruits, fed nuts, seeds,and, you know, good quality
proteins, their desire for thosefoods goes down.
So that would be three, is justto start to eliminate nonsense

(48:01):
calories out of your diet ifthey're a staple.
Okay, so there's nothing wrongwith every now and then, but if
they're a staple, we need tochange that.
Get water intake up.
Chronic dehydration can cause alot of problems in, in, in
including chronic pain in, youknow, our bodies are are water
dependent, so let's get waterand take up.
And I find a safe, a safe rangefor folks that can be, it can
definitely be a bituncomfortable at first,

(48:23):
especially if they're used todrinking three glasses of water
a day is start to shoot foranywhere from, ideally about a
gallon a day, cuz it's a lot forfolks.
But it seems to be, it seems tobe an amount that is highly
effective once someone dialsthat in.
And then number five, it'sdifficult to go wrong with
increasing just good qualityveggies and greens in the diet

(48:46):
for nutrient intensity.
So, those are my, those are thekey ones, but the really, the
number one, almost across theboard a hundred percent of the
time, even people that sayinitially I think I eat pretty
well, they, they're, they'remissing the protein mark by a
long shot and it's become clear.
I've really gotten intorestudying Peter Attias work
over the last few months in hisinterviews on protein synthesis.
And, and the importance of it isyou don't wanna be chronically

(49:09):
underfed on protein.

Michael Bauman (49:11):
Yeah.
Super, super important.
So definitely, you know,potentially have that as, as a
starting point and you canladder up with some of the other
things that are mentioned as faras supplements and, again, you
know, preface all this with,we're not, doctors and you have
to do your own research andstuff on this Yeah.
And how it, how it interactswith everything.
But what would you recommend forpeople as kind of basic things

(49:33):
that could potentially behelpful for them?

Ashleigh Gass (49:35):
Yeah, number one for sure would be magnesium
intake.
So Chris, Chris Kresser, justput a video out on this about
four months ago now.
The magnesium guidelines havebeen increased to in the range
of like, five to 700 milligramsa day for males and females.
I've never seen anyone's foodintake or food log over a week
that would indicate they getmagnesium on a daily, daily

(49:56):
basis from, other than frommaybe a little bit of salad, I
mean mm-hmm.
So, but, you know, magnesium ofcourse is, is probably the most
important mineral in the body.
It's involved in hundreds ofenzyme reactions.
We're very dependent on it, andit's not in abundance in our in
our, our food source anymore.
Food sources anymore.
So, magnesium is critical.
The other one is, I'm a real bigfan of a good supplemental

(50:17):
protein.
So whether that's coming fromwhey p hemp, I'm, I'm
indifferent as long as folksvary the sources a little bit
and get their intake up.
So that's another one that Ifind cuz most folks don't wanna
be eating food all day long forproteins.
So supplemental Source can bereally helpful.
Mm-hmm.
and again, I'm a big fan ofomega-3 s.

(50:38):
and vitamin D.
Those are the key four.
Now I love creatine myselfpersonally, and with all the
research that continues to, Idon't, you know, we shouldn't
even be debating about creatineanymore.
It's right.
Not only,

Michael Bauman (50:49):
it's like the most, I think it's the most
researched supplement

Ashleigh Gass (50:52):
out there.
Yep.
The most researched andextremely safe, extremely
effective.
Not only for you know, as, as weall know for lean mass and
performance gain, but forlongevity, cognitive health.
And there appears to be a lot ofconnections between just
neurological function too.
So Creatin is a big one.
Those would be my five would bemagnesium for sure.
Protein for sure.

(51:14):
Omega-3.
Probably vitamin D.
Yes.
And magnesium and d I wouldleaning towards 80% plus of the
population deficient in both.
Mm-hmm.
and and, and creatine, whetheryou're training every day or not
five grams of the stuff is seemsto be thumbs up all the way

(51:34):
around.

Michael Bauman (51:36):
Absolutely.
Super, super advice.
People, you know, people thatare listening, I would encourage
you just take, you know, justtake one of these areas, right?
So we're, we're trying topresent, you know, the
masterclass on all of thesethings.
And you can go back and you canre-listen to it and, and, and
think about what you wanna dowith this.
But pick that one area, thething that either will make the
biggest difference or the thingthat you think would be the

(51:57):
easiest to consistently do inyour life and, and start there.
You can always build, build onit later for sure.
But I'm curious for.
For yourself, but also just kindof a general as well.
Are there specific, you know,whether it's a morning routine
or evening routines or justroutines in general that you
have in your life that are verybeneficial?

(52:20):
And if so, what, what wouldthose be or what would you be
recommendations around that?

Ashleigh Gass (52:25):
Yeah, the one that I'm super loyal to his
evening actually because of theimportance of sleep and when,
when all of us go in to train,we respect that there's some
sort of a warmup phase betweenarriving to train and starting
to train and sleep's the same.
So we have fairly busy lives.
There's a lot going on all day.
For most, for most of us, wecan't expect to just go hard and

(52:49):
fast all day long.
And then, Oh, it's whatever timeI'm gonna just lie down and go
to sleep.
that transition period from allday to kind of winding down,
it's been referred to as sleephygiene, sleep routine.
That's been a huge one for me,for most of, most of my life,
actually, at least, at least 15years, potentially more is just

(53:12):
making sure I, you know, I wrapup work when possible.
So when all the tasks are donefor the day, and I know going
into next day I'm really clearon what those tasks are, then I
go, all right, I can put thecomputer away.
Get, kind of get rid of thephone, say, say goodnight to, to
who, to whoever makes yourbusinesses wrapped up.
And then just just kind of chilla little bit.
Have a good, you know, doc,doctor, I use parsley's sleep

(53:35):
remedies, so that plus somemagnesium.
So a little bit of a sleepcocktail.
Me personally, I have a bath cuzI li I like getting real nice
and hot and then coming out anddoing a, a, a reasonable
stretch, whatever I feel needsto be worked out.
So it's about an hour of timebetween packing up work, making
sure everything's chill and, andorganized for the next day.
And all the fires if possibleare put out.

(53:56):
Take about an hour time to havea bath or a hot shower, get
warm, do some basic stretching.
That could be when, once youlearn the, the move 10 and 10
mobility poster, you could,you'll, you'll remember those
moves.
They're very simple.
Do that routine at that time,and then you'll find the nervous
system has a chance to unwind sothat when you go to sleep, you
actually are kind of gettinginto bed and your head hits the

(54:18):
pillow and you're out.
Very effective.
So I'm a huge fan of the sleeperteam.

Michael Bauman (54:22):
Love that.
Super, super awesome.
Tremendous amount of insight inthis, in this episode.
Definitely one that people willhave to go back and listen,
listen through and take, takemore, you know, applicable
things that they can do.
So I'm curious, and I typicallyask this as we, as we kind of
wrap up, but I'm curious foryou, how would you go about
defining success?

Ashleigh Gass (54:44):
That's a good question, and I think that all
of us that have.
Kind of made the journey fromsole practitioner into business
owners and working with, withgroups of people.
Success for me is, is knowing onall fronts that what we're
building at MOVE and what I'mbuilding with, with coaches at

(55:06):
Move is going to be successful,long, like if I get hit by a bus
next week, that everybody isgoing to be able to, to, to
thrive and prosper and to keepeverything going in my absence.
So it's the piece of knowingthat everyone is good enough at
their job and the systems areare well in place, that if
something were to happen to methat every, that they're gonna

(55:27):
be okay.
Mm-hmm.
That's number one.
And it's also, you know, we'veall had days where I'm sure it's
like, what am I doing?
Like, this is crazy.
18 people had complaints andit's, it's success is having
those days because of goingthrough the hard times where
it's.
it's peaceful.

(55:48):
Mm-hmm.
and I'm happy because thebusiness is doing well and our
clients and and students aredoing well, and folks are happy.
And it's the process of, ofbuilding a business that gets to
the point where clients arehappy, coaches are happy, and
everyone's doing well.
To me, that's success becausefor me, that's a, it's a

(56:10):
peaceful feeling where I just, Iknow that I know everybody's
happy and I know there's hopeand everyone's working towards
shared goals because that's awin-win for the business.
It's a win for the coaches.
It's a win for the members.
So to me it's sort of thattriangle of it's a win for
everybody that's involved.
That's success for me.

(56:30):
That's super good.
And how does that come,everything else out of that
comes anything material that,you know, any of us would ever
want.
But for me, I'm notmaterialistic first.
I want a strong, really stableand ever-growing business that
serves a lot of people.
And ha is, is a platform of hopefor people that are training for
people that are working.
You know what I mean?

(56:50):
That that's success for me.

Michael Bauman (56:52):
Yeah, that's a really sweet quote from Alain du
Button, I don't know if I'msaying his name right, but he's
known as the practicalphilosopher and basically he
says success without peace is nosuccess at all.
And I love how you talk aboutthat.
Like, you know, you can createsomething and the outside it
might look like success, but ifit doesn't feel like peace as an
underlying thing, right?

(57:13):
There's definitely times whereit's all stressful and
everything's crazy or whatever,but like that goal of going, can
I create something like youtalked about where it's just
like, This is, this, this feelspeaceful.
Like everybody is, you know,accomplishing their role.
You know, we're, we're movingforward, we're making the impact
that we want to have.
People are happy, people arefulfilled.
So I really, yeah, I reallyappreciate you bringing that up.

(57:33):
So if people wanna connect withthe incredible work that you're
doing, where can they, where canthey go to do that?

Ashleigh Gass (57:39):
Easy, easy stuff.
Just Instagram my Instagram isAshleighrgass and then our, our
Instagram on move ismove_training_calisthenics both
easy to find.
YouTube, same thing.
Ashleigh Gass or MOVE GymnasticsInspired Strength Training.
If you just any, it is pull upanywhere on social media, my
name or, or move traininggymnastics Inspire Strength
Training in Clearwater, Florida.
You'll find us.

(58:00):
We're easy to find, gettingeasier to find.

Michael Bauman (58:02):
Yeah, and I'll put the links to the show notes
and for people.
Ashleigh is Ashleigh so it'sspelled a little bit different
and Gass with two Ss, so youcan, you can look that, look
that up.
But yeah, I'll put the, put thelinks in the show notes and send
over, send over that.
Yes.
You know, 10, 10 for 10 orwhatever you describe it as.
And I'll put that in in the shownotes as well.

(58:24):
Cause I think that would be avery good starting point for
people.
So thank you, thank you so muchfor your time.
This is, this was wonderful.
And I know the audience willdefinitely get a lot of good
things that they can implementout of it, so I really

Ashleigh Gass (58:36):
appreciate that.
I hope so.
And I'll send you the, I'll sendyou the link for the poster and,
and everything.
Awesome.
Thank you for your, for yourtime as well.
And have a good night on yourend of the world.

Michael Bauman (58:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.