August 9, 2025 • 40 mins
Strength training isn't just about looking good—it's about living well for longer. Linda Goos discovered this truth decades ago when she began her first strength program at age 17, experiencing mental benefits that far outweighed the physical ones. After 20 years in marketing at Microsoft, she returned to her passion with a crucial mission: helping women in midlife build and maintain strength to preserve their independence and vitality.
Linda founded Studio Bloom with a clear understanding of the challenges women face during perimenopause and beyond. Many workout facilities left her either completely exhausted or feeling like she hadn't accomplished anything meaningful. The fitness industry simply wasn't addressing the unique needs of women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s who wanted to stay strong without burning out.
The science behind her approach is compelling. Beginning around age 30, both muscle mass and bone density naturally decline, with this process accelerating dramatically during perimenopause and menopause due to decreasing estrogen levels. Muscle functions as an endocrine organ contributing to cardiovascular health, metabolism, and bone density. Without intervention through proper strength training, this decline can significantly impact quality of life and independence.
One persistent myth Linda works to dispel is that women should stick to light weights to avoid getting "bulky." This misconception has led countless women to under-train with those infamous pink dumbbells, achieving minimal results. Women actually need to lift heavier weights—around 80-85% of their maximum capacity—to effectively stimulate bone density improvement and muscle growth.
For those new to strength training, Linda recommends starting with fundamental movements like sitting to standing, wall pushes, and other bodyweight exercises that translate to daily activities. Her approach emphasizes functional movement patterns: squatting, lunging, hinging, pushing, pulling, rotating, and carrying—all essential for maintaining independence and preventing injury as we age.
Studio Bloom offers specialized programs including Osteo Strong for women with osteopenia or osteoporosis, along with workshops on hormone replacement therapy, pelvic floor health, and nervous system regulation. It's a community where women support each other through midlife transitions while building physical strength and confidence. As Linda reminds us, "It's never too late to start," and the energy you put into your health is the energy you'll get back throughout your life.
Linda is an ACSM certified personal trainer, ISSA functional aging specialist and certified Onero bone density practitioner. Linda’s elite gymnastics experience led her to Oregon State University where she earned Pac 10 All-decade honors for gymnastics and studied Psychology and Exercise & Sport Science. With a desire to combine her interests in sport, exercise and psychology she went on to receive her master’s degree in exercise & sport science from the University of Utah with a focus in Sport Psychology. In 2007 she was inducted into the Washington State Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
Studio Bloom website: https://www.studiobloomfitness.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody and welcome back.
We are excited today to haveour friend, linda Goose.
Linda spent 20 years working inmarketing at Microsoft and then
she decided to return to herlifetime passion for fitness and
wellness with a goal of helpingwomen live well longer.
She believes that getting olderdoesn't have to mean settling
(00:20):
for less and loves to inspirewomen in her 40s, 50s, sixties
and beyond with to continuebuilding strength to do the
things that they love.
She's definitely inspired us.
Her fitness studio, studioBloom, which opened this past
April that we had theopportunity to go to the opening
of and is beautiful it's inKirkland is focused on meeting
(00:42):
women where they are in theirfitness journey, understanding
their individual goals, surfacetheir limiting beliefs that may
hold them back and help thembuild a program that best serves
their individual needs.
Linda, welcome, we're so happyto have you.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Thank you, I'm so happy to be here yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
We met through a friend of a friend a couple of
months ago.
I feel like we've been lifetimefriends already.
So, it's really fun to be ableto finally have you on our
podcast.
Yeah, can you share yourjourney with us?
What inspired you to focus onstrength and movement for women,
especially at midlife and theirpostpartum stages?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, absolutely Well .
First of all, I have hadstrength training as part of my
life for almost my entire life.
I was a very early entry intostrength training.
I had my first program when Iwas 17 years old.
I was lucky enough to have justmet a trainer.
However, the summer I wasworking out in a gym over in
(01:44):
Seattle and, at the time, wastaking his aerobics class which,
of course, everybody goesreally into aerobics at that
time and he was amazing and, um,he was also a personal trainer
and he asked if you know, I'd beinterested in working with him
and, of course, I didn't haveany money.
I was a student and, um, I tookhim up on the offer and he set
(02:05):
me up on this incrediblestrength training program and I
fell in love with it right fromthe start.
So it has been part of my lifefor a very long time.
I have reaped the benefitsmentally far more than
physically by doing strengthtraining and I think that's what
keeps me coming back and, youknow, always wanting to include
(02:26):
that as part of my healthregimen.
As far as why I decided to startthis for women, I was actually
at a point in my life where Iwas in perimenopause, through
menopause now postmenopausal andmy experiences that I was
having out there with varioustypes of workout workout
(02:49):
facilities.
It wasn't meeting my needs.
I was either feeling extremelyfatigued after the workouts, to
the point where I wasn'tfunctioning well in my life, or
I felt like I really wasn'tdoing much at all and wasn't
feeling like I was getting thebenefits from it.
I knew through my background inhaving developed strength
(03:11):
programs before my own strengthtraining, that there was a
better way to do it, and I feltlike there were special needs
that women had during this timeperiod, having maybe lost a lot
of muscle, a lot of strength,and that there was a gentler and
more effective approach tostrength training.
And so that's why I decided tohead out on this journey and
(03:34):
build my studio and really focuson those women who are looking
to do all those things that theylove in their life by
maintaining their strength,maintaining their balance, their
agility, their confidence andthe way that they move their
body.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, I love midlife because there are so many women
that just see the need and so,okay, I'm going to do it.
Fill the need Exactly.
I absolutely love that you tookthe bull by the horn, so to
speak, and started your ownstudio to fill the need, and
I've personally been there andyou've taken me through a
(04:09):
workout that kicked my butt in agood way.
But I'm curious, because youmentioned that for yourself.
You found that you were eitherextremely fatigued or you
weren't getting enough, and youhave worked with thousands of
women and I'm wondering whatpatterns you notice when it
comes to exercise in midlife, orwhat are we doing in midlife?
(04:30):
What's the typical approachthat you see for midlife women
at this age and their approachto exercise?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, well, there's a few different things.
One thing that I definitely seeis a lot of cardio exercise and
not a lot of strength training.
I think because we grew up inthat time era of aerobics and
healthy heart and running andwalking and cycling, swimming,
maybe even those things beingthe healthy approach.
(05:00):
And while those things arecertainly healthy, it's far more
important to maintain yourstrength in life so that you can
avoid risk of injury, so thatyou can maintain healthy bones,
so that you can manage yourweight.
I mean, there's so manybenefits to maintaining muscle
(05:20):
mass and strength as you age.
So that's definitely one thingis too much focus on aerobic and
cardio workout and not enoughon the strength training.
For those who are doing strengthtraining, a lot of women are
focusing on light weightsbecause that's kind of what's
marketed, right, it's thedumbbells.
Women are meant to do lightweights.
They don't want to get bulkyand big and it's just.
(05:42):
It's a real myth out there.
Women do need to lift heavierweights.
That's the only way that you'regoing to challenge the muscle
in order for it to grow, tobuild strength and to also build
bones.
So heavier resistance trainingis something that is definitely
necessary and you know somewomen are educated now that that
is an important aspect toinclude in your workout regimen,
(06:06):
but there's also many thataren't aware.
There's also, I think, amisunderstanding or lack of
knowledge around the importanceof progression.
So if you're doing any kind ofprogram and you're expecting
growth right a program andyou're expecting growth, right,
so you're expecting to increaseyour muscle mass, you're
(06:33):
expecting to improve yourruntime, whatever it is, it has
to be progressive, so it meansthat your body's going to adapt
to whatever sort of exerciseyou're doing.
You need to provide additionalchallenge in one form or another
in order to grow, and mostpeople are not doing that.
They are going into the gym,they're doing the same exercises
day in and day out, and maybeeven with the same weights or
body weight exercises, andthat's probably not going to be
(06:53):
enough to create the gains thatthey're looking for.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
You have to keep pushing yourself, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, yeah, you talked a little bit about why
this is so important at thisstage of life, but can you talk
about the connection betweenbone health, lean muscle mass
metabolism, like why, at thispoint in your forties and
fifties, is it so critical to dothis?
Um, and you know, not justcause you're working out to, you
(07:20):
know, get really strong muscles, which you know women are not
able to do.
That because you say women areconcerned about doing that and
that's not what happens.
But why is it so critical rightnow that women focus on heavy
strength training?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, so first of all , muscle is really considered an
endocrine organ.
It contributes to the entirefunctioning of your body, so
it's not just the structuralsupport of your body, but it
helps with cardiovascular health, it helps with metabolism, it
helps with our endocrine system.
So there's a lot of functionsthat muscle contribute to, and
(07:59):
it also contributes to bonehealth.
And so if we don't have strongmuscles and if we're not
challenging our body withlifting heavy weights, then
we're not going to stimulate thebone development that's
necessary in order to maintainyour bone density.
So as we age, we naturally arelosing muscle or naturally
(08:20):
losing bone, and that reallystarts at about age 30.
And the decline can be prettyswift, especially as you hit
perimenopause and into menopause, because of the declining
estrogen levels that weexperience.
So if you're not participatingin strength training program,
you will be losing bone.
(08:42):
There's genetic factors as wellthat contribute and other
lifestyle factors thatcontribute to bone loss, but
certainly not doing strengthtraining or heavy resistance
training is going to impact thehealth of your bones.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I mean it's fascinating the bone health
piece.
We just came off of Bone HealthMonth.
Several months ago we had youon a webinar, so thank you for
sharing your knowledge there too.
But you know we're in thisspace and some of that data is
even shocking for us and I'mwondering.
There's so many mixed messagesout there that I think it gets
(09:24):
really confusing for me, butalso for just the general public
.
When we talk about liftingheavy strength training, don't
do cardio, you know, stay inthat zone to hit training, sit
training.
Can you kind of talk to us alittle bit about that and what
(09:46):
some of the biggestmisconceptions are that you see
in that space?
I mean, what should we know?
What should we be doing?
Talk to us a little bit.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah Well, I think the biggest mistake that people
make probably is all in on onetype of exercise right, like
they're only doing aerobic, andthen they're only doing strength
or they're only doing, you know, some other form of workout.
And certainly your body needs alot of different things.
It needs to be able to move inmany ways and there's different
(10:18):
benefits to different types oftraining.
Strength training is socritical because it has such a
huge impact on our longevityright.
So the trajectory that you seeif you lose strength as you age
is that you know perhaps youtake a fall right and if you
(10:38):
have already low bone density,the chance of fracture is pretty
high.
And once you fracture something, then you know you kind of end
up on this cycle where maybeyou're not strong enough to
fully rehab and if you're notstrong enough to fully rehab,
you're functioning at a lesserlevel than you know basic life
skills, and then, once thathappens, it just starts the
(11:01):
deterioration.
So strength training is criticalin that aspect, but it's also
important to maintain ourcardiovascular health.
So having a base level ofcardiovascular health where
you're able to do the thingsthat you want to do in life and
have the fitness cardiovascularfitness to do that.
It's also critical to maintainyour agility and balance.
(11:23):
We don't just move in onedirection.
We need to be able to move inmany directions, and oftentimes
life requires that we move ourfeet really quickly.
Right, we're going to losebalance here and there, and how
well equipped are we to regainour balance and find our footing
to prevent that fall?
So all of those things areimportant.
(11:43):
I think that strength trainingis getting a lot of focus right
now because of the impact it canhave on people's longevity.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Yeah, yeah, but what I hear you saying is is it's not
just strength training, right,you have to absolutely not.
Yeah, all of those otherfactors, yeah, functional
balance, yeah, and, and you know, we haven't even talked about
pelvic floor and floor either,can you?
Can you talk to us a little bitabout that, linda, and how
(12:13):
strength training supports thoseareas as well, does it?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Yeah Well, the pelvic floor is made up of I don't
think it's like 26 muscles orsomething.
It's an enormous amount.
In fact, we just had a speakerlast night at my studio on this
particular topic.
It impacts an enormous numberof women, and what I found out
last night actually is that ithappens in young athletes as
well.
So pelvic floor issues canoften be related to too much
(12:39):
tension as well as not enoughtension.
So there needs to be a balance,and it oftentimes is preventing
women, especially our age, fromdoing strength training or any
kind of dynamic movement thatcould benefit them overall,
because of the leakage that theyexperience.
(13:00):
It's embarrassing, it doesn'tfeel comfortable, and so they
are just avoiding it altogether.
But there are plenty of pelvicfloor specialists out there that
can help women, you know,transition through that time and
regain their control andconfidence and being able to do
the things that they love.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, that was one of the surprises for me as I
started to get into this.
Work was like taking care ofyour pelvic floor is really
important for so many reasons.
I was just like hey, I had acouple of babies and some
C-sections good, and I'm likeI'm having to pee all the time
and I'm, you know, like, youknow there's pain and you know
you don't have to do that.
Those are.
(13:38):
Those are things that arepreventable as you're taking
care of yourself.
You know, I was raised with thego, go hard or go home aspect
of exercise as a kid and my youknow, my parents were runners
and you know we all were alwayspushed to go outside and work
really hard.
And then I got to this phase inlife they're like, yeah,
actually don't do that anymore,and I'm like, what?
(14:01):
So what?
What do I do?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
What am I supposed to do?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Right yeah, can you talk about at what level of
endurance or fitness orquickness or hard should we do
to stay healthy and in shape?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah Well, I think a lot of that comes back to what
you're trying to accomplishright.
There's a difference betweenfitness for life versus fitness
to train for a race or aparticular climb that you're
doing or something like that.
There's elements of competitivenature that needs to come out
if you're training for somethingon a specific timeline.
(14:38):
If you're training for life,that's a lot less necessary, but
you do need to know how to pushyourself as well.
We need to be in tune with ourbodies, and every day is not
like the last.
You may not have a lot ofstrength one day, just feeling
maybe low on energy, maybedidn't sleep very well.
I mean, especially in our agecategory, there's a lot of women
(14:59):
who aren't sleeping well andthat can really impact how
you're feeling.
So you need to listen to thosethings, especially if you are
doing strength training.
You don't want to injureyourself, and so if you're just
not able to focus, you're justtoo fatigued, then maybe you
need to choose a differentworkout for that day.
But in saying that, if yourgoals are to increase strength,
(15:19):
increase bone density, youdefinitely have to be
challenging yourself.
It doesn't mean that you needto leave so exhausted that you
can't complete your day, butthere's certainly um.
You need to be working like atan 80, 85% max in order to
develop a bone density, sothat's a particular metric that
you would like to hit most ofthe time.
(15:41):
Um, and similar with strengthtraining if you want to um,
increase muscle mass.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
It's interesting.
I like the way that you putthat, though exercise for life
or strength for life.
Remind me what did you say?
Was it exercise for life orstrength for life?
But I like the way that youpositioned that right Training
for life.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yeah, yeah, because it is that longevity piece and
health span.
And how healthy do we want tobe?
And do we want to play with ourgrandkids and we want to hike
those mountains right here, wantto play with our grandkids and
we want to hike those mountainsright here, especially in the
Pacific Northwest, when we're 80, 85 years old, right, what's
the ultimate goal?
And I do think about functionalmovement, because you talked a
(16:23):
little bit about that just a fewminutes ago as well.
We don't just move in thisforward plane and I know I
chuckle, but I don't chuckle atit.
You know there's so many peopleat the gym that are getting
hurt playing pickleball and welove pickleball, but I wonder if
part of it is that we arerestarting something that our
(16:46):
body's not used to doing right.
We're not used to moving inthose other planes and so we
haven't trained it to do thatand we need to right.
We still have to carry ourgroceries, we still have to
carry our grandkids right.
So do you incorporatefunctional movement into your
programs, and is it an importantaspect?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
It's incredibly important and all of my programs
are built on functionalmovement, so you can think about
moving in seven basic patternswe squat, we lunge, we hinge, we
push, we pull, we rotate, wecarry.
Those are all things that weneed to be able to do in life,
and so those are the movementpatterns that we use in all of
(17:28):
our programs.
And so there's some form orfashion of those movement
patterns in all of the workoutsthat I develop.
We do full body workouts thatincorporate all of those
movement patterns and it crossesover to how people function in
life, and I hear it every dayfrom the people who take my
classes, the clients that Ipersonal train, how they were
(17:49):
able to lift the large coolerthat's super awkward put it into
the back of their car.
Or one client was mentioninghow she was able to put the
turkey into the oven, which canbe very awkward in knowing how
to squat down appropriatelyright and engage your core in
order to reach your arms outforward with something heavy in
(18:09):
your hands.
So it absolutely crosses over todaily life and that's really
the whole point.
Why else are we doing this?
Right?
If it doesn't benefit us in ourlife, then it's just for visual
effect, and I think at our ageit's no longer for visual effect
.
We want to live healthy becausewe want to be able to do the
things that we love in our lifeand be able to enjoy many more
(18:32):
years.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
It's the nursing home resistance plan.
Right, live longer on your own.
But what if you know I haven'tdone it for a while or I've
never done strength training?
What's a safe and effectivesort of starting point?
Look like for somebody brandnew to this.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah, and that's okay .
I think you know people getreally hung up on the fact that
they're in bad shape and theyhate where they're at, and you
have to get out of that mindsetand recognize that you're
starting where you're startingand that's okay.
There's a baseline and then wejust move forward from there,
because everybody can improvetheir strength.
It doesn't matter what yourlimitations are.
(19:14):
I have clients with so manydifferent limitations and they
can still build strength.
Some of the basic places tostart would be sitting to
standing.
Can you sit in a chair andstand up effectively, right, and
if you can't do that, well,then you help with your arms a
little bit.
So that's a basic function thateverybody should be able to do.
(19:34):
When you're leaning up against awall, are you able to push your
body away from the wall inorder to get into an upright
position?
Right, that's a beginning oflike a push-up, that's upper
body strength, and can you keepyour body in a straight position
.
So that's like a basic place tostart.
There's other ways that we moveour body that also contribute
to those basic movement patterns, and that's the best place to
(19:57):
start, I would say, working withsomebody who is educated in the
biomechanics of movement, whounderstands how to take somebody
from a very beginning level andprogress them through, would be
a great place to start as well.
So if you can check into atrainer at a gym or find
(20:17):
somebody who is very educatedonline that walks through the
process of starting out in aprogram and building
progressively to more strength,those are great places to look.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
That's look, body weight is great.
I try to get pushups on thestairs.
Every time I go up the stairsI'm like, hey, can I get 10?
Yeah, great, use the bodyweight, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
And it's surprising how hard that becomes.
I try to do a few before I takea shower at night, just to you
know, prove that I can still doit.
I can still do it Exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, that's great body weight, and I think you're
right working with someone thatknows what they're doing too.
I mean we can't go to the gymand start living hefty, heavy
crap, right?
I mean it's not a good idea togo to the gym audience and pick
up those 50 pound weights andtry to.
You know bicep curls it's.
It's probably not a good idea,but yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
I would say nine times out of 10, people aren't
moving in optimal ways,especially if you haven't been
doing it for a while.
We start compensating by usingother muscle groups, and most
people are relying a lot ontheir quads.
A lot on the front of theirbody and the back of their body
isn't contributing much to theirmovement, and so having
(21:37):
somebody who is educated in thatand can see what's happening
and make those corrections isreally critical so that they
don't get injured.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yeah Well, even when you think you're strong I mean,
I'll speak for myself, because Ifelt strong, right, and then I
went to see you in just thesingle leg squats, right, yeah,
and you realize, oh my goodness,I'm using the quad strength and
not my hamstring and my glutes,yeah, and so you can still feel
(22:08):
strong and you're stillcompensating, right, yep.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Exactly, exactly.
Not even notice, yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Where does breath work come into all of this?
Does it core awareness, breathwork?
We're both yoga instructors.
We believe in breath work formany reasons and optimizing our
core strength to protect lowerback.
But what's your?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
opinion on that.
It is critical, I will say.
Sometimes it's overwhelming forpeople if they're just learning
the movement patterns, and sosometimes holding off if they're
doing fairly lightweight, isokay, until it comes to the
point where, okay, they're goingto start progressing here and
the weight's going to getheavier and the breath work is
(22:54):
going to be even more important.
I don't want anybody notbreathing, but sometimes just
the thought of when do I breathein, when do I breathe out, it's
just overwhelming.
And so I mean, in teaching thepatterns too, it's something to
really pay attention to is howmuch feedback are you giving to
somebody and making sure thatit's appropriate?
But, of course, breath work isimportant.
(23:16):
It helps to engage the core, ithelps to protect your back, it
helps with strength during themovement, and so when we're in
that activation phase of themovement, we breathe out um,
that helps to um, improve, uh,our outcome.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
You know, when I'm at the gym, sometimes I look at my
face of what it looks likewhile I'm lifting something
heavy and I'm like, oh my God, Idon't want to.
And then I look around andeverybody's like so it doesn't
feel pretty, but it also feelsgreat when I'm done.
So.
A topic that lots of people arechallenged with in this time of
(23:56):
life is visceral fat.
All of a sudden it appears outof nowhere in our 40s.
What actually is happening andwhat can we do to reduce it?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yeah, well, what's happening oftentimes is people
are, you know, no longer workingout to the same extent that
maybe they were before, maybetheir diet's slipping a little
bit, and then on top of it, wehave the lower estrogen, which
impacts all of that as well.
But I do think people need totake a close look at their
(24:30):
lifestyle and maybe how theirlifestyle has changed.
Along with the fact thatthey're in perimenopause or
menopause and those hormones arechanging, there is the reality
that the fat does startdepositing around the mid
section, and that is because ofthe low estrogen.
And as far as like whatsomebody can do about that, the
(24:53):
best thing that they can do isbegin a strength training
program so that they can buildmore muscle, and then, once they
have more muscle, their basemetabolic rate is higher,
they're going to be burning morecalories at rest and they're
going to be burning calorieslonger after the workout, and so
that's going to help there.
And then also focusing onnutrition.
(25:14):
Nutrition is nourishing yourbody and that you're not in, you
know, ingesting a lot ofexcessive calories that are
(25:36):
non-contributors.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
We're hearing a lot about protein right now for
women in midlife.
What's your opinion on that?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
as far as exercise and recovery, yeah, so protein
is critical and I know it feelslike you know you can never get
enough.
But as far as building muscleprotein is critical, as we age,
we need more protein and mostpeople are eating less protein.
Right, we start moving towardseating more carbohydrates Most
(26:06):
people as they age, and thereality is we really need more
protein.
It's the building blocks of ourmuscles.
We need to have that in ourdiet as a component.
With that said, again, you needa balanced diet, right, so
there should be carbohydrates inyour diet.
A lot of people are steeringaway from carbohydrates.
We need that.
That's our energy source andyou absolutely need that in your
(26:28):
diet as well.
So it's just a matter ofgetting the right nutrition
levels in in all of thosecategories.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yeah, Do you have a recommended amount of protein
per day?
Or would you say that variesper?
You know, person andcircumstance?
And I imagine a little bit howmuch are you working out?
What's your fitness levelExactly?
I imagine a little bit.
How much are you working out,what's your fitness level
Exactly, Et cetera.
(26:56):
Is there a baseline, though?
I always feel like I'm notgetting enough protein.
I feel like I'm eating a lot ofprotein, but at the end of the
day I look at it and you did notget enough protein.
It's hard.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, it is hard and all those things matter that you
just mentioned, as well as yourweight and everything else, but
I would target around 30 gramsper meal is a good place to be.
I think those are close to therecommendations that come from
FDA and that's the guidelinesthat I provide to my clients.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
I can only do that when I'm carefully tracking it,
yeah.
Otherwise, when I add it up inmy head at the end of the day
I'm like, no, you didn't evenget.
That's where I am.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Like, yeah, I'm not a track it during the day, yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah, and the critical thing is putting it out
right you don't want to behitting your body with a ton of
protein in one meal.
So for me getting it in themorning is the biggest challenge
that I can focus on.
Getting in the morning and thenlunch and dinner is a lot
easier for me.
You know, ultimately it'llaccumulate to where I want to be
(27:58):
, but if I start off bad in themorning, then that's it's harder
.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Yeah, yeah, makes sense.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
So switching gears a little bit, but talking about
snacks still, what's it?
You know, what are yourthoughts on movement snacks
versus structured workouts?
Like, how should do both count?
Should you know?
Should we do one over the other?
I've heard you know variousdifferent things on that.
So do I schedule a gym timethree days a week for an hour,
(28:26):
or can I do movement snacksthroughout the week?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, that's a great question, I mean.
I think one is how are yougoing to get it done?
Is the most important?
Doing it versus not doing it?
So if all you have is thatsnack time, then you know, yes,
absolutely do that.
If you're able to scheduleworkouts in, then that's
probably a preferred method.
But the snack workouts workgreat as long as they're focused
(28:51):
right.
So if you're not, again, notchallenging yourself, not making
it progressive, then there'snot going to be a lot of
strength gains.
You might maintain yourstrength and doing some of that,
but it really takes aprescribed and progressive
method to gain strength.
Like I said, if you're doingthe same exercises, you're not
making it more challenging.
And if you're doing it in youroffice or something and you
(29:13):
don't have the equipment andyou're just trying to get some
pushups in and some squats in,great for overall health,
probably not going to be hugefor strength gains if that's
what you're doing every workout.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
It is good.
And you know, I think we getinto a mindset of all or nothing
.
Right, like okay, even week byweek, I mean I find myself
getting into that trap, likewell, I didn't do good this week
, it's Tuesday, so I'm done.
Oh right, I travel.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I didn't get to do it Right.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Oh, I may as well give up, and it is that all or
nothing.
But I think it goes back towhat you just said, Linda, and
something's better than nothing.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
And right, yeah, absolutely.
I mean and that's aconversation I have with my
clients frequently is don't beatyourself up over last week.
We're talking about a lifetimehere, so you know, getting back
on track the next week andrecognizing your gains that
you're making in that week andwhat's ahead for you overall in
a month, how are you doingoverall in the half year?
(30:19):
How did you do overall in theyear?
How did you do?
That's way more important thanhitting it hard one week and
then missing three weeks rightand then coming back hard one
week.
That's not a lifestyle.
That's not something that'ssustainable, clearly, if you're
not able to fit it in moreregularly than that yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
What suggestions do you give to the women that you
work out with on stayingconsistent and do you give them
any monikers, any tips, anytools?
Like come back again, make sureyou are consistent about it.
Like it's easy to have it falloff and not be important?
Yeah, but are there any tricksto staying motivated with it?
Speaker 2 (31:03):
I think you know checking in with yourself and
being reasonable about what'sreasonable at your life during
this time.
Right, and what are the reasonswhy you're participating in
this program?
Is it something that's brandnew to you and you have some
critical health crisis and ithas to be a priority and you
(31:24):
need to get this done?
Or is it just?
You know, I understand I needto do strength training, I'm in
good health, I think I can fitit in once a week and that's
what I can commit to right now.
So it kind of depends it's youknow.
First, about understandingsomebody's scenario there have
been many clients that I havehad that I know would benefit
more if they did strengthtraining twice a week but didn't
(31:48):
push that Cause.
I could tell that getting themin once a week for the next year
was going to benefit them farmore than forcing them to come
in twice a week and then they'dbe gone in two months.
So I have several clients inthat scenario where they started
with me one week, one time aweek for the 55 minutes and it
(32:08):
took a long time to really startseeing progress right, because
it's a slow turn that way, butthe reality of it is is that
they recognized the gains.
It didn't push them out thedoor because the progress was
reasonable for them.
It fit into their schedule andnow, because they're seeing the
progress that they're made,they're so motivated to go do it
(32:31):
on their own.
So they're scheduling workoutsin on their own, you know,
outside of working with me aswell, which is terrific.
So I think one thing is justrecognizing where you are and
what's going to be reasonable inyour life.
I think the other thing is totreat it like any other schedule
that you have in your life.
Put it in your calendar.
That's how it works for me.
(32:52):
Anything that I need to getdone, if it's not in my calendar
, it's unlikely to happenExactly.
So schedule it and treat itlike an appointment.
Don't let other peopleinterfere with your time to
maintain your health, and it'sreally hard to do because
there's so many distractionsthat we have.
I think the other thing isfinding something that's fun for
(33:14):
you.
So if you're not having fun inwhat you're doing, most people
are not going to stick with it.
It doesn't matter what it is,and there are ways to make it
fun, whether it's the personthat you're working with,
whether it's the type of workoutthat you're doing, whether it's
the conversations that you haveor the women that you meet.
There's ways to find fun in theworkouts that you do.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
So it's never too late to start.
Nope, Do something that youlike, do it as consistently as
you can and maybe put it in yourcalendar.
If that's the way you managethings, then you should be able
to sort of get a routine going.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, it's way easier said thandone, but it's absolutely true
and I know that.
(33:55):
I've spent a lot more time inthe last year at the gym working
out with weights, and now Ican't live without it.
It's just makes me feel better.
It's a self-care that I didn'tever imagine that would be
important to me.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
I'm going to the gym right after this.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Ready to go, and that's what's happening.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Yeah, I can tell that , kim, you feel great, you do.
You feel great.
You say that all the time andwe haven't talked about it.
It might be a whole otherpodcast, but the confidence and
connection, the community thatit can bring as well, is so
important for women in midlifeas well, because we're very
lonely.
And again, that's a whole otherpodcast, a whole other podcast.
(34:35):
It can bring people togetherand I know that you're doing
that at your studio, which is anextra bonus.
Linda, tell us a little bitabout your studio before we
leave our audience.
What makes your studiodifferent than others?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah, well, I'm focused on women.
For one, it's primarily womenwho participate in my programs,
and I'm focused on aging andaging well, and I understand the
challenges that women arefacing at this point in their
life, and so the elements that Iincorporate into my programs
include mobility, agility,balance, strength.
(35:17):
They're based on where you'reat when you come in, so there's
programs for people who are atthe very entry level and then
there's programs for people whoare more advanced to continue
building strength.
So, meeting people where theyare and encouraging them and
getting them to recognize thatit's not too late, that there's
(35:39):
plenty of opportunity tocontinue doing the things you
want to do, to build thestrength that you need and move
the way you want, is really whatI want people to get out of it.
Also, the community is hugethat you mentioned.
So you know the vision that Ihad, and what was missing in my
life also was a community ofwomen who were in a similar
place that I was in, that Icould communicate with, and
(36:02):
that's what I see in my classes.
You know we have fun musicplaying.
That's what I see in my classes.
You know we have fun musicplaying.
It's not blaring.
You're able to talk with otherpeople.
There's breaks in between setsso that you can recover and then
, you know, hit the next set,and so women are able to chat
with each other.
It's lively, it's fun, and theyhang around after class to talk
(36:25):
to each other too.
So I'm also offering workshopsin various areas.
We just had a talk last night.
I have 30 people in attendancethere for the talk on menopause
and hormone replacement therapy,and then also pelvic floor, so
that was terrific.
I have a walking group thatpeople can participate in.
We have a class around nervoussystem regulation.
(36:46):
So I think that element ofmanaging our nervous system,
reducing anxiety and stress andbeing able to live our lives in
more peace is critical at thisage at any age, but in
particular, women who are in thestage of perimenopause and
menopause are often dealing witha lot of anxiety.
(37:06):
So that's a great contributor.
And then we're doing soundbaths as well.
So our favorite yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
I'm just wondering if I should start looking for real
estate free to open up yoursecond studio.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
In Edmonds Exactly.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah Well, and I didn't mention the bone density
program, Onero, but that'sanother element of my studio
that is really taking off.
There's so many women withosteopenia or osteoporosis that
are looking for a solution, andthis Onero program is a really
great opportunity for them tolearn how to lift with a heavy
(37:46):
load and do it safely and andbuild healthy bone.
So important.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
We're big fans.
Where can people find you,Linda?
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Yeah, so they can find me online
studiobloomfitnesscom that's mywebsite or studiobloomfitness on
Instagram or Facebook.
Okay, excellent.
And the studios located in thearea.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
We highly recommend recommend.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Linda, yeah, I'm telling everybody.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Yeah it's.
It's a great place.
You've got a great thing goingover there.
But before we let you go, weask every guest what the best
piece of advice or you'vereceived or given has ever been.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
You know, I think the one that sticks with me the
most is probably the energy thatyou put out into the world, is
the energy that you are going toget back, and that's something
that I think I've lived by for along time and it serves me well
, and I think it serves thepeople around me well, that you
(38:49):
know you're trying to bring yourbest self to whatever it is
that you're doing.
Not every day is going to beperfect and you deal with the
ups and downs, but all you cando is the only thing you have
control over is what you bringto the table every day, no
matter what you're doing, and ifyou continue doing that, then
good things um happen around youand they happen to other people
(39:10):
as well.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
So so inspiring to end the day with that.
Thank you so much.
What a what a great one toremember.
Always Right, and you're we,just we love the work that
you're doing and thank you somuch for spending your time now
and before and in the future.
We're just such a great,beautiful soul that we get to
(39:34):
connect with.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
on a regular basis.
Oh, thank you.
Well, I love the work thatyou're doing as well.
I wish you would have beenaround about 10 years ago, I
know.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Me too.
I wish I knew what I know nowyears ago, For sure.
No, we really really appreciateyou coming on and I'm sure that
we're going to continue to worktogether.
We're just getting started, sothank you so much and audience,
friends, until we meet again.
Go find joy in the journey.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Thanks, Linda, Bye folks.
Hello everybody and welcome back.
We are excited today to haveour friend, linda Goose.
Linda spent 20 years working inmarketing at Microsoft and then
she decided to return to herlifetime passion for fitness and
wellness with a goal of helpingwomen live well longer.
She believes that getting olderdoesn't have to mean settling
(00:20):
for less and loves to inspirewomen in her 40s, 50s, sixties
and beyond with to continuebuilding strength to do the
things that they love.
She's definitely inspired us.
Her fitness studio, studioBloom, which opened this past
April that we had theopportunity to go to the opening
of and is beautiful it's inKirkland is focused on meeting
(00:42):
women where they are in theirfitness journey, understanding
their individual goals, surfacetheir limiting beliefs that may
hold them back and help thembuild a program that best serves
their individual needs.
Linda, welcome, we're so happyto have you.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Thank you, I'm so happy to be here yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
We met through a friend of a friend a couple of
months ago.
I feel like we've been lifetimefriends already.
So, it's really fun to be ableto finally have you on our
podcast.
Yeah, can you share yourjourney with us?
What inspired you to focus onstrength and movement for women,
especially at midlife and theirpostpartum stages?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, absolutely Well .
First of all, I have hadstrength training as part of my
life for almost my entire life.
I was a very early entry intostrength training.
I had my first program when Iwas 17 years old.
I was lucky enough to have justmet a trainer.
However, the summer I wasworking out in a gym over in
(01:44):
Seattle and, at the time, wastaking his aerobics class which,
of course, everybody goesreally into aerobics at that
time and he was amazing and, um,he was also a personal trainer
and he asked if you know, I'd beinterested in working with him
and, of course, I didn't haveany money.
I was a student and, um, I tookhim up on the offer and he set
(02:05):
me up on this incrediblestrength training program and I
fell in love with it right fromthe start.
So it has been part of my lifefor a very long time.
I have reaped the benefitsmentally far more than
physically by doing strengthtraining and I think that's what
keeps me coming back and, youknow, always wanting to include
(02:26):
that as part of my healthregimen.
As far as why I decided to startthis for women, I was actually
at a point in my life where Iwas in perimenopause, through
menopause now postmenopausal andmy experiences that I was
having out there with varioustypes of workout workout
(02:49):
facilities.
It wasn't meeting my needs.
I was either feeling extremelyfatigued after the workouts, to
the point where I wasn'tfunctioning well in my life, or
I felt like I really wasn'tdoing much at all and wasn't
feeling like I was getting thebenefits from it.
I knew through my background inhaving developed strength
(03:11):
programs before my own strengthtraining, that there was a
better way to do it, and I feltlike there were special needs
that women had during this timeperiod, having maybe lost a lot
of muscle, a lot of strength,and that there was a gentler and
more effective approach tostrength training.
And so that's why I decided tohead out on this journey and
(03:34):
build my studio and really focuson those women who are looking
to do all those things that theylove in their life by
maintaining their strength,maintaining their balance, their
agility, their confidence andthe way that they move their
body.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Yeah, I love midlife because there are so many women
that just see the need and so,okay, I'm going to do it.
Fill the need Exactly.
I absolutely love that you tookthe bull by the horn, so to
speak, and started your ownstudio to fill the need, and
I've personally been there andyou've taken me through a
(04:09):
workout that kicked my butt in agood way.
But I'm curious, because youmentioned that for yourself.
You found that you were eitherextremely fatigued or you
weren't getting enough, and youhave worked with thousands of
women and I'm wondering whatpatterns you notice when it
comes to exercise in midlife, orwhat are we doing in midlife?
(04:30):
What's the typical approachthat you see for midlife women
at this age and their approachto exercise?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, well, there's a few different things.
One thing that I definitely seeis a lot of cardio exercise and
not a lot of strength training.
I think because we grew up inthat time era of aerobics and
healthy heart and running andwalking and cycling, swimming,
maybe even those things beingthe healthy approach.
(05:00):
And while those things arecertainly healthy, it's far more
important to maintain yourstrength in life so that you can
avoid risk of injury, so thatyou can maintain healthy bones,
so that you can manage yourweight.
I mean, there's so manybenefits to maintaining muscle
(05:20):
mass and strength as you age.
So that's definitely one thingis too much focus on aerobic and
cardio workout and not enoughon the strength training.
For those who are doing strengthtraining, a lot of women are
focusing on light weightsbecause that's kind of what's
marketed, right, it's thedumbbells.
Women are meant to do lightweights.
They don't want to get bulkyand big and it's just.
(05:42):
It's a real myth out there.
Women do need to lift heavierweights.
That's the only way that you'regoing to challenge the muscle
in order for it to grow, tobuild strength and to also build
bones.
So heavier resistance trainingis something that is definitely
necessary and you know somewomen are educated now that that
is an important aspect toinclude in your workout regimen,
(06:06):
but there's also many thataren't aware.
There's also, I think, amisunderstanding or lack of
knowledge around the importanceof progression.
So if you're doing any kind ofprogram and you're expecting
growth right a program andyou're expecting growth, right,
so you're expecting to increaseyour muscle mass, you're
(06:33):
expecting to improve yourruntime, whatever it is, it has
to be progressive, so it meansthat your body's going to adapt
to whatever sort of exerciseyou're doing.
You need to provide additionalchallenge in one form or another
in order to grow, and mostpeople are not doing that.
They are going into the gym,they're doing the same exercises
day in and day out, and maybeeven with the same weights or
body weight exercises, andthat's probably not going to be
(06:53):
enough to create the gains thatthey're looking for.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
You have to keep pushing yourself, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, yeah, you talked a little bit about why
this is so important at thisstage of life, but can you talk
about the connection betweenbone health, lean muscle mass
metabolism, like why, at thispoint in your forties and
fifties, is it so critical to dothis?
Um, and you know, not justcause you're working out to, you
(07:20):
know, get really strong muscles, which you know women are not
able to do.
That because you say women areconcerned about doing that and
that's not what happens.
But why is it so critical rightnow that women focus on heavy
strength training?
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, so first of all , muscle is really considered an
endocrine organ.
It contributes to the entirefunctioning of your body, so
it's not just the structuralsupport of your body, but it
helps with cardiovascular health, it helps with metabolism, it
helps with our endocrine system.
So there's a lot of functionsthat muscle contribute to, and
(07:59):
it also contributes to bonehealth.
And so if we don't have strongmuscles and if we're not
challenging our body withlifting heavy weights, then
we're not going to stimulate thebone development that's
necessary in order to maintainyour bone density.
So as we age, we naturally arelosing muscle or naturally
(08:20):
losing bone, and that reallystarts at about age 30.
And the decline can be prettyswift, especially as you hit
perimenopause and into menopause, because of the declining
estrogen levels that weexperience.
So if you're not participatingin strength training program,
you will be losing bone.
(08:42):
There's genetic factors as wellthat contribute and other
lifestyle factors thatcontribute to bone loss, but
certainly not doing strengthtraining or heavy resistance
training is going to impact thehealth of your bones.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I mean it's fascinating the bone health
piece.
We just came off of Bone HealthMonth.
Several months ago we had youon a webinar, so thank you for
sharing your knowledge there too.
But you know we're in thisspace and some of that data is
even shocking for us and I'mwondering.
There's so many mixed messagesout there that I think it gets
(09:24):
really confusing for me, butalso for just the general public
.
When we talk about liftingheavy strength training, don't
do cardio, you know, stay inthat zone to hit training, sit
training.
Can you kind of talk to us alittle bit about that and what
(09:46):
some of the biggestmisconceptions are that you see
in that space?
I mean, what should we know?
What should we be doing?
Talk to us a little bit.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah Well, I think the biggest mistake that people
make probably is all in on onetype of exercise right, like
they're only doing aerobic, andthen they're only doing strength
or they're only doing, you know, some other form of workout.
And certainly your body needs alot of different things.
It needs to be able to move inmany ways and there's different
(10:18):
benefits to different types oftraining.
Strength training is socritical because it has such a
huge impact on our longevityright.
So the trajectory that you seeif you lose strength as you age
is that you know perhaps youtake a fall right and if you
(10:38):
have already low bone density,the chance of fracture is pretty
high.
And once you fracture something, then you know you kind of end
up on this cycle where maybeyou're not strong enough to
fully rehab and if you're notstrong enough to fully rehab,
you're functioning at a lesserlevel than you know basic life
skills, and then, once thathappens, it just starts the
(11:01):
deterioration.
So strength training is criticalin that aspect, but it's also
important to maintain ourcardiovascular health.
So having a base level ofcardiovascular health where
you're able to do the thingsthat you want to do in life and
have the fitness cardiovascularfitness to do that.
It's also critical to maintainyour agility and balance.
(11:23):
We don't just move in onedirection.
We need to be able to move inmany directions, and oftentimes
life requires that we move ourfeet really quickly.
Right, we're going to losebalance here and there, and how
well equipped are we to regainour balance and find our footing
to prevent that fall?
So all of those things areimportant.
(11:43):
I think that strength trainingis getting a lot of focus right
now because of the impact it canhave on people's longevity.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Yeah, yeah, but what I hear you saying is is it's not
just strength training, right,you have to absolutely not.
Yeah, all of those otherfactors, yeah, functional
balance, yeah, and, and you know, we haven't even talked about
pelvic floor and floor either,can you?
Can you talk to us a little bitabout that, linda, and how
(12:13):
strength training supports thoseareas as well, does it?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Yeah Well, the pelvic floor is made up of I don't
think it's like 26 muscles orsomething.
It's an enormous amount.
In fact, we just had a speakerlast night at my studio on this
particular topic.
It impacts an enormous numberof women, and what I found out
last night actually is that ithappens in young athletes as
well.
So pelvic floor issues canoften be related to too much
(12:39):
tension as well as not enoughtension.
So there needs to be a balance,and it oftentimes is preventing
women, especially our age, fromdoing strength training or any
kind of dynamic movement thatcould benefit them overall,
because of the leakage that theyexperience.
(13:00):
It's embarrassing, it doesn'tfeel comfortable, and so they
are just avoiding it altogether.
But there are plenty of pelvicfloor specialists out there that
can help women, you know,transition through that time and
regain their control andconfidence and being able to do
the things that they love.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, that was one of the surprises for me as I
started to get into this.
Work was like taking care ofyour pelvic floor is really
important for so many reasons.
I was just like hey, I had acouple of babies and some
C-sections good, and I'm likeI'm having to pee all the time
and I'm, you know, like, youknow there's pain and you know
you don't have to do that.
Those are.
(13:38):
Those are things that arepreventable as you're taking
care of yourself.
You know, I was raised with thego, go hard or go home aspect
of exercise as a kid and my youknow, my parents were runners
and you know we all were alwayspushed to go outside and work
really hard.
And then I got to this phase inlife they're like, yeah,
actually don't do that anymore,and I'm like, what?
(14:01):
So what?
What do I do?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
What am I supposed to do?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Right yeah, can you talk about at what level of
endurance or fitness orquickness or hard should we do
to stay healthy and in shape?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Yeah Well, I think a lot of that comes back to what
you're trying to accomplishright.
There's a difference betweenfitness for life versus fitness
to train for a race or aparticular climb that you're
doing or something like that.
There's elements of competitivenature that needs to come out
if you're training for somethingon a specific timeline.
(14:38):
If you're training for life,that's a lot less necessary, but
you do need to know how to pushyourself as well.
We need to be in tune with ourbodies, and every day is not
like the last.
You may not have a lot ofstrength one day, just feeling
maybe low on energy, maybedidn't sleep very well.
I mean, especially in our agecategory, there's a lot of women
(14:59):
who aren't sleeping well andthat can really impact how
you're feeling.
So you need to listen to thosethings, especially if you are
doing strength training.
You don't want to injureyourself, and so if you're just
not able to focus, you're justtoo fatigued, then maybe you
need to choose a differentworkout for that day.
But in saying that, if yourgoals are to increase strength,
(15:19):
increase bone density, youdefinitely have to be
challenging yourself.
It doesn't mean that you needto leave so exhausted that you
can't complete your day, butthere's certainly um.
You need to be working like atan 80, 85% max in order to
develop a bone density, sothat's a particular metric that
you would like to hit most ofthe time.
(15:41):
Um, and similar with strengthtraining if you want to um,
increase muscle mass.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
It's interesting.
I like the way that you putthat, though exercise for life
or strength for life.
Remind me what did you say?
Was it exercise for life orstrength for life?
But I like the way that youpositioned that right Training
for life.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Yeah, yeah, because it is that longevity piece and
health span.
And how healthy do we want tobe?
And do we want to play with ourgrandkids and we want to hike
those mountains right here, wantto play with our grandkids and
we want to hike those mountainsright here, especially in the
Pacific Northwest, when we're 80, 85 years old, right, what's
the ultimate goal?
And I do think about functionalmovement, because you talked a
(16:23):
little bit about that just a fewminutes ago as well.
We don't just move in thisforward plane and I know I
chuckle, but I don't chuckle atit.
You know there's so many peopleat the gym that are getting
hurt playing pickleball and welove pickleball, but I wonder if
part of it is that we arerestarting something that our
(16:46):
body's not used to doing right.
We're not used to moving inthose other planes and so we
haven't trained it to do thatand we need to right.
We still have to carry ourgroceries, we still have to
carry our grandkids right.
So do you incorporatefunctional movement into your
programs, and is it an importantaspect?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
It's incredibly important and all of my programs
are built on functionalmovement, so you can think about
moving in seven basic patternswe squat, we lunge, we hinge, we
push, we pull, we rotate, wecarry.
Those are all things that weneed to be able to do in life,
and so those are the movementpatterns that we use in all of
(17:28):
our programs.
And so there's some form orfashion of those movement
patterns in all of the workoutsthat I develop.
We do full body workouts thatincorporate all of those
movement patterns and it crossesover to how people function in
life, and I hear it every dayfrom the people who take my
classes, the clients that Ipersonal train, how they were
(17:49):
able to lift the large coolerthat's super awkward put it into
the back of their car.
Or one client was mentioninghow she was able to put the
turkey into the oven, which canbe very awkward in knowing how
to squat down appropriatelyright and engage your core in
order to reach your arms outforward with something heavy in
(18:09):
your hands.
So it absolutely crosses over todaily life and that's really
the whole point.
Why else are we doing this?
Right?
If it doesn't benefit us in ourlife, then it's just for visual
effect, and I think at our ageit's no longer for visual effect
.
We want to live healthy becausewe want to be able to do the
things that we love in our lifeand be able to enjoy many more
(18:32):
years.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
It's the nursing home resistance plan.
Right, live longer on your own.
But what if you know I haven'tdone it for a while or I've
never done strength training?
What's a safe and effectivesort of starting point?
Look like for somebody brandnew to this.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah, and that's okay .
I think you know people getreally hung up on the fact that
they're in bad shape and theyhate where they're at, and you
have to get out of that mindsetand recognize that you're
starting where you're startingand that's okay.
There's a baseline and then wejust move forward from there,
because everybody can improvetheir strength.
It doesn't matter what yourlimitations are.
(19:14):
I have clients with so manydifferent limitations and they
can still build strength.
Some of the basic places tostart would be sitting to
standing.
Can you sit in a chair andstand up effectively, right, and
if you can't do that, well,then you help with your arms a
little bit.
So that's a basic function thateverybody should be able to do.
(19:34):
When you're leaning up against awall, are you able to push your
body away from the wall inorder to get into an upright
position?
Right, that's a beginning oflike a push-up, that's upper
body strength, and can you keepyour body in a straight position
.
So that's like a basic place tostart.
There's other ways that we moveour body that also contribute
to those basic movement patterns, and that's the best place to
(19:57):
start, I would say, working withsomebody who is educated in the
biomechanics of movement, whounderstands how to take somebody
from a very beginning level andprogress them through, would be
a great place to start as well.
So if you can check into atrainer at a gym or find
(20:17):
somebody who is very educatedonline that walks through the
process of starting out in aprogram and building
progressively to more strength,those are great places to look.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
That's look, body weight is great.
I try to get pushups on thestairs.
Every time I go up the stairsI'm like, hey, can I get 10?
Yeah, great, use the bodyweight, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
And it's surprising how hard that becomes.
I try to do a few before I takea shower at night, just to you
know, prove that I can still doit.
I can still do it Exactly.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, that's great body weight, and I think you're
right working with someone thatknows what they're doing too.
I mean we can't go to the gymand start living hefty, heavy
crap, right?
I mean it's not a good idea togo to the gym audience and pick
up those 50 pound weights andtry to.
You know bicep curls it's.
It's probably not a good idea,but yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
I would say nine times out of 10, people aren't
moving in optimal ways,especially if you haven't been
doing it for a while.
We start compensating by usingother muscle groups, and most
people are relying a lot ontheir quads.
A lot on the front of theirbody and the back of their body
isn't contributing much to theirmovement, and so having
(21:37):
somebody who is educated in thatand can see what's happening
and make those corrections isreally critical so that they
don't get injured.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yeah Well, even when you think you're strong I mean,
I'll speak for myself, because Ifelt strong, right, and then I
went to see you in just thesingle leg squats, right, yeah,
and you realize, oh my goodness,I'm using the quad strength and
not my hamstring and my glutes,yeah, and so you can still feel
(22:08):
strong and you're stillcompensating, right, yep.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Exactly, exactly.
Not even notice, yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Where does breath work come into all of this?
Does it core awareness, breathwork?
We're both yoga instructors.
We believe in breath work formany reasons and optimizing our
core strength to protect lowerback.
But what's your?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
opinion on that.
It is critical, I will say.
Sometimes it's overwhelming forpeople if they're just learning
the movement patterns, and sosometimes holding off if they're
doing fairly lightweight, isokay, until it comes to the
point where, okay, they're goingto start progressing here and
the weight's going to getheavier and the breath work is
(22:54):
going to be even more important.
I don't want anybody notbreathing, but sometimes just
the thought of when do I breathein, when do I breathe out, it's
just overwhelming.
And so I mean, in teaching thepatterns too, it's something to
really pay attention to is howmuch feedback are you giving to
somebody and making sure thatit's appropriate?
But, of course, breath work isimportant.
(23:16):
It helps to engage the core, ithelps to protect your back, it
helps with strength during themovement, and so when we're in
that activation phase of themovement, we breathe out um,
that helps to um, improve, uh,our outcome.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
You know, when I'm at the gym, sometimes I look at my
face of what it looks likewhile I'm lifting something
heavy and I'm like, oh my God, Idon't want to.
And then I look around andeverybody's like so it doesn't
feel pretty, but it also feelsgreat when I'm done.
So.
A topic that lots of people arechallenged with in this time of
(23:56):
life is visceral fat.
All of a sudden it appears outof nowhere in our 40s.
What actually is happening andwhat can we do to reduce it?
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yeah, well, what's happening oftentimes is people
are, you know, no longer workingout to the same extent that
maybe they were before, maybetheir diet's slipping a little
bit, and then on top of it, wehave the lower estrogen, which
impacts all of that as well.
But I do think people need totake a close look at their
(24:30):
lifestyle and maybe how theirlifestyle has changed.
Along with the fact thatthey're in perimenopause or
menopause and those hormones arechanging, there is the reality
that the fat does startdepositing around the mid
section, and that is because ofthe low estrogen.
And as far as like whatsomebody can do about that, the
(24:53):
best thing that they can do isbegin a strength training
program so that they can buildmore muscle, and then, once they
have more muscle, their basemetabolic rate is higher,
they're going to be burning morecalories at rest and they're
going to be burning calorieslonger after the workout, and so
that's going to help there.
And then also focusing onnutrition.
(25:14):
Nutrition is nourishing yourbody and that you're not in, you
know, ingesting a lot ofexcessive calories that are
(25:36):
non-contributors.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
We're hearing a lot about protein right now for
women in midlife.
What's your opinion on that?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
as far as exercise and recovery, yeah, so protein
is critical and I know it feelslike you know you can never get
enough.
But as far as building muscleprotein is critical, as we age,
we need more protein and mostpeople are eating less protein.
Right, we start moving towardseating more carbohydrates Most
(26:06):
people as they age, and thereality is we really need more
protein.
It's the building blocks of ourmuscles.
We need to have that in ourdiet as a component.
With that said, again, you needa balanced diet, right, so
there should be carbohydrates inyour diet.
A lot of people are steeringaway from carbohydrates.
We need that.
That's our energy source andyou absolutely need that in your
(26:28):
diet as well.
So it's just a matter ofgetting the right nutrition
levels in in all of thosecategories.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yeah, Do you have a recommended amount of protein
per day?
Or would you say that variesper?
You know, person andcircumstance?
And I imagine a little bit howmuch are you working out?
What's your fitness levelExactly?
I imagine a little bit.
How much are you working out,what's your fitness level
Exactly, Et cetera.
(26:56):
Is there a baseline, though?
I always feel like I'm notgetting enough protein.
I feel like I'm eating a lot ofprotein, but at the end of the
day I look at it and you did notget enough protein.
It's hard.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, it is hard and all those things matter that you
just mentioned, as well as yourweight and everything else, but
I would target around 30 gramsper meal is a good place to be.
I think those are close to therecommendations that come from
FDA and that's the guidelinesthat I provide to my clients.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
I can only do that when I'm carefully tracking it,
yeah.
Otherwise, when I add it up inmy head at the end of the day
I'm like, no, you didn't evenget.
That's where I am.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Like, yeah, I'm not a track it during the day, yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Yeah, and the critical thing is putting it out
right you don't want to behitting your body with a ton of
protein in one meal.
So for me getting it in themorning is the biggest challenge
that I can focus on.
Getting in the morning and thenlunch and dinner is a lot
easier for me.
You know, ultimately it'llaccumulate to where I want to be
(27:58):
, but if I start off bad in themorning, then that's it's harder
.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Yeah, yeah, makes sense.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
So switching gears a little bit, but talking about
snacks still, what's it?
You know, what are yourthoughts on movement snacks
versus structured workouts?
Like, how should do both count?
Should you know?
Should we do one over the other?
I've heard you know variousdifferent things on that.
So do I schedule a gym timethree days a week for an hour,
(28:26):
or can I do movement snacksthroughout the week?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, that's a great question, I mean.
I think one is how are yougoing to get it done?
Is the most important?
Doing it versus not doing it?
So if all you have is thatsnack time, then you know, yes,
absolutely do that.
If you're able to scheduleworkouts in, then that's
probably a preferred method.
But the snack workouts workgreat as long as they're focused
(28:51):
right.
So if you're not, again, notchallenging yourself, not making
it progressive, then there'snot going to be a lot of
strength gains.
You might maintain yourstrength and doing some of that,
but it really takes aprescribed and progressive
method to gain strength.
Like I said, if you're doingthe same exercises, you're not
making it more challenging.
And if you're doing it in youroffice or something and you
(29:13):
don't have the equipment andyou're just trying to get some
pushups in and some squats in,great for overall health,
probably not going to be hugefor strength gains if that's
what you're doing every workout.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
It is good.
And you know, I think we getinto a mindset of all or nothing
.
Right, like okay, even week byweek, I mean I find myself
getting into that trap, likewell, I didn't do good this week
, it's Tuesday, so I'm done.
Oh right, I travel.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I didn't get to do it Right.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Oh, I may as well give up, and it is that all or
nothing.
But I think it goes back towhat you just said, Linda, and
something's better than nothing.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
And right, yeah, absolutely.
I mean and that's aconversation I have with my
clients frequently is don't beatyourself up over last week.
We're talking about a lifetimehere, so you know, getting back
on track the next week andrecognizing your gains that
you're making in that week andwhat's ahead for you overall in
a month, how are you doingoverall in the half year?
(30:19):
How did you do overall in theyear?
How did you do?
That's way more important thanhitting it hard one week and
then missing three weeks rightand then coming back hard one
week.
That's not a lifestyle.
That's not something that'ssustainable, clearly, if you're
not able to fit it in moreregularly than that yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
What suggestions do you give to the women that you
work out with on stayingconsistent and do you give them
any monikers, any tips, anytools?
Like come back again, make sureyou are consistent about it.
Like it's easy to have it falloff and not be important?
Yeah, but are there any tricksto staying motivated with it?
Speaker 2 (31:03):
I think you know checking in with yourself and
being reasonable about what'sreasonable at your life during
this time.
Right, and what are the reasonswhy you're participating in
this program?
Is it something that's brandnew to you and you have some
critical health crisis and ithas to be a priority and you
(31:24):
need to get this done?
Or is it just?
You know, I understand I needto do strength training, I'm in
good health, I think I can fitit in once a week and that's
what I can commit to right now.
So it kind of depends it's youknow.
First, about understandingsomebody's scenario there have
been many clients that I havehad that I know would benefit
more if they did strengthtraining twice a week but didn't
(31:48):
push that Cause.
I could tell that getting themin once a week for the next year
was going to benefit them farmore than forcing them to come
in twice a week and then they'dbe gone in two months.
So I have several clients inthat scenario where they started
with me one week, one time aweek for the 55 minutes and it
(32:08):
took a long time to really startseeing progress right, because
it's a slow turn that way, butthe reality of it is is that
they recognized the gains.
It didn't push them out thedoor because the progress was
reasonable for them.
It fit into their schedule andnow, because they're seeing the
progress that they're made,they're so motivated to go do it
(32:31):
on their own.
So they're scheduling workoutsin on their own, you know,
outside of working with me aswell, which is terrific.
So I think one thing is justrecognizing where you are and
what's going to be reasonable inyour life.
I think the other thing is totreat it like any other schedule
that you have in your life.
Put it in your calendar.
That's how it works for me.
(32:52):
Anything that I need to getdone, if it's not in my calendar
, it's unlikely to happenExactly.
So schedule it and treat itlike an appointment.
Don't let other peopleinterfere with your time to
maintain your health, and it'sreally hard to do because
there's so many distractionsthat we have.
I think the other thing isfinding something that's fun for
(33:14):
you.
So if you're not having fun inwhat you're doing, most people
are not going to stick with it.
It doesn't matter what it is,and there are ways to make it
fun, whether it's the personthat you're working with,
whether it's the type of workoutthat you're doing, whether it's
the conversations that you haveor the women that you meet.
There's ways to find fun in theworkouts that you do.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
So it's never too late to start.
Nope, Do something that youlike, do it as consistently as
you can and maybe put it in yourcalendar.
If that's the way you managethings, then you should be able
to sort of get a routine going.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, it's way easier said thandone, but it's absolutely true
and I know that.
(33:55):
I've spent a lot more time inthe last year at the gym working
out with weights, and now Ican't live without it.
It's just makes me feel better.
It's a self-care that I didn'tever imagine that would be
important to me.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
I'm going to the gym right after this.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Ready to go, and that's what's happening.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Yeah, I can tell that , kim, you feel great, you do.
You feel great.
You say that all the time andwe haven't talked about it.
It might be a whole otherpodcast, but the confidence and
connection, the community thatit can bring as well, is so
important for women in midlifeas well, because we're very
lonely.
And again, that's a whole otherpodcast, a whole other podcast.
(34:35):
It can bring people togetherand I know that you're doing
that at your studio, which is anextra bonus.
Linda, tell us a little bitabout your studio before we
leave our audience.
What makes your studiodifferent than others?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah, well, I'm focused on women.
For one, it's primarily womenwho participate in my programs,
and I'm focused on aging andaging well, and I understand the
challenges that women arefacing at this point in their
life, and so the elements that Iincorporate into my programs
include mobility, agility,balance, strength.
(35:17):
They're based on where you'reat when you come in, so there's
programs for people who are atthe very entry level and then
there's programs for people whoare more advanced to continue
building strength.
So, meeting people where theyare and encouraging them and
getting them to recognize thatit's not too late, that there's
(35:39):
plenty of opportunity tocontinue doing the things you
want to do, to build thestrength that you need and move
the way you want, is really whatI want people to get out of it.
Also, the community is hugethat you mentioned.
So you know the vision that Ihad, and what was missing in my
life also was a community ofwomen who were in a similar
place that I was in, that Icould communicate with, and
(36:02):
that's what I see in my classes.
You know we have fun musicplaying.
That's what I see in my classes.
You know we have fun musicplaying.
It's not blaring.
You're able to talk with otherpeople.
There's breaks in between setsso that you can recover and then
, you know, hit the next set,and so women are able to chat
with each other.
It's lively, it's fun, and theyhang around after class to talk
(36:25):
to each other too.
So I'm also offering workshopsin various areas.
We just had a talk last night.
I have 30 people in attendancethere for the talk on menopause
and hormone replacement therapy,and then also pelvic floor, so
that was terrific.
I have a walking group thatpeople can participate in.
We have a class around nervoussystem regulation.
(36:46):
So I think that element ofmanaging our nervous system,
reducing anxiety and stress andbeing able to live our lives in
more peace is critical at thisage at any age, but in
particular, women who are in thestage of perimenopause and
menopause are often dealing witha lot of anxiety.
(37:06):
So that's a great contributor.
And then we're doing soundbaths as well.
So our favorite yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
I'm just wondering if I should start looking for real
estate free to open up yoursecond studio.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
In Edmonds Exactly.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Yeah Well, and I didn't mention the bone density
program, Onero, but that'sanother element of my studio
that is really taking off.
There's so many women withosteopenia or osteoporosis that
are looking for a solution, andthis Onero program is a really
great opportunity for them tolearn how to lift with a heavy
(37:46):
load and do it safely and andbuild healthy bone.
So important.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
We're big fans.
Where can people find you,Linda?
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Yeah, so they can find me online
studiobloomfitnesscom that's mywebsite or studiobloomfitness on
Instagram or Facebook.
Okay, excellent.
And the studios located in thearea.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
We highly recommend recommend.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Linda, yeah, I'm telling everybody.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
Yeah it's.
It's a great place.
You've got a great thing goingover there.
But before we let you go, weask every guest what the best
piece of advice or you'vereceived or given has ever been.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
You know, I think the one that sticks with me the
most is probably the energy thatyou put out into the world, is
the energy that you are going toget back, and that's something
that I think I've lived by for along time and it serves me well
, and I think it serves thepeople around me well, that you
(38:49):
know you're trying to bring yourbest self to whatever it is
that you're doing.
Not every day is going to beperfect and you deal with the
ups and downs, but all you cando is the only thing you have
control over is what you bringto the table every day, no
matter what you're doing, and ifyou continue doing that, then
good things um happen around youand they happen to other people
(39:10):
as well.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
So so inspiring to end the day with that.
Thank you so much.
What a what a great one toremember.
Always Right, and you're we,just we love the work that
you're doing and thank you somuch for spending your time now
and before and in the future.
We're just such a great,beautiful soul that we get to
(39:34):
connect with.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
on a regular basis.
Oh, thank you.
Well, I love the work thatyou're doing as well.
I wish you would have beenaround about 10 years ago, I
know.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Me too.
I wish I knew what I know nowyears ago, For sure.
No, we really really appreciateyou coming on and I'm sure that
we're going to continue to worktogether.
We're just getting started, sothank you so much and audience,
friends, until we meet again.
Go find joy in the journey.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Thanks, Linda, Bye folks.
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