SPEAKER_01 0:00

What are the do’s and don’ts per se for lifting and cardio for every stage of life? We know that in every decade per se or every other decade of our lives we need to focus on different things.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

30 to 60 minutes in a week. We are not talking about it, eh? A week spread out over time.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Strength training is healthcare. I know we’re gonna talk about some myths around women and training.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Welcome back to the 925 Wellness Podcast, where career growth meets health. I’m your host, Aisha Tahir. If you’re new here, I’m a clinical exercise physiologist and corporate wellness consultant. Today we are talking about something that affects every woman listening or watching us. Whether you’re just starting your career, leading a team, or maybe thinking about what the next few decades will look like. And that is what women need for health and longevity. For a long time, women’s fitness advice has centered on cardio, calorie counting, and getting smaller. And that includes me. Honestly, I had a long learning curve and we’re gonna talk about it today. But the conversation is shifting. And for busy professionals juggling deadlines, meetings, and everything else on our plates, knowing what really matters can save us a lot of time and frustration. That’s why I am super excited about today’s guest. Our guest today is Kate Giurgiades. She is the founder and director for of education at DDKT, a New York City-based fitness and wellness organization recognized for its science-driven, women-centered approach to strength and performance. And she’s here to break down what women should know about strength training at every stage of life, from our 20s and 30s through perimenopause and menopause. Whether you’re a seasoned lifter or runner, or you have never picked up a dumbbell in your life, this episode is for you.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Kate, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. And it’s so lovely to be here. And I’m so excited to have met you and have the opportunity to be here and chat about all the things that I care.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Oh, that is awesome. And I am super excited too, because normally I’m talking to other healthcare providers and or corporate consultants like me. And I don’t get to sit and talk to exercise science professionals like such as yourself. So I’m super excited that we met at Live Long Summit and we are able to have this conversation. Yeah, absolutely. So, right away, you know, before we get into the details, I want to give everyone listening and watching us a sense of where we are headed. What are the biggest takeaways about training for women and women’s longevity that listeners will be able to learn from our conversation?

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Absolutely. So we are going to talk about different stages of life and what are the do’s and don’ts per se for lifting and cardio for every stage of life. Um, we know that in every decade, per se, or every other decade of our lives, we need to focus on different things. The focus shifts a little bit. So we’re gonna talk about that. Um, at the end, I know we’re gonna talk about some myths around women and training. Um, so that would be great to kind of break down to uh as well. And my biggest, I want to say, message to our listeners and to our clients is that strength training is healthcare. It’s very important. And I love that the conversations around that have becoming more and more. So it’s really exciting for us. Um, but I want to explain exactly that. Why do we believe that, why it’s becoming a thing? We now have a lot more studies and science that support that. So it’s a very exciting new chapter for fitness and for women’s fitness as well.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yeah, I agree with you. It is very, very exciting time right now that we are shining light on what is supposed to be important. So I want to just build up on what you just said, that we’re gonna learn today different kinds of types of exercises and where do they all fit in? So let’s get right into it because a lot of people who come to me, and a lot of people when I go and I’m working at corporations as a consultant and presenting workshops, a lot of women are telling me, you know what? Oh, we do our cardio. We during lunch, we are we do elliptical and or we are on the rower burning calories and we’re not getting results, and you’re at the end of the day, we’re tired. So what’s your take on cardio? And I have to tell you, like as a distance runner, I can relate with them because I I still run and I still enjoy running. And for many years, that was all that I knew. So, what is your take, science-driven take on this topic?

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Absolutely. I do want to start with the personal side of things. So I can relate to to you and to those women that shared that frustration as well, because I played volleyball and beach volleyball professionally. But at the same time, it was an era of my life where I wanted to be as small as possible. So even the days, there was a time where even the days that I had a game later that day, I would go and do cardio in it earlier in the morning, which for somebody that knows sports and knows performance, that was detrimental to my performance. But that speaks to kind of that stage of our lives and that um lack of education around what actually works around women’s bodies. So it can definitely relate. And that is one of the major things that women come to us with. I’ve been doing this, I’ve been doing that, and I’m not seeing results, what’s going on? And for the most part, what I’m seeing is we’re either overdoing it or doing the wrong thing. And especially for busy professionals, what we’re trying to do and guide our clients is what are the main things? What are the main buckets that we can actually hit to make sure that you’re getting to your goals without also spending so much time? Because time is money, especially in those executives. So we want to be able to be efficient with our training. So, long story short, the scientific approach is what cardio does well is very important for our aerobic fitness, it’s very important for our heart health, for um our function of our lungs as well. So we want that and we need that. And we know that’s one of the biggest markers of long-term health as well. And especially as uh cardiovascular disease is raised after menopause, we want to make sure that is not a part of our fitness that we we we leave out and we ignore. At the same time, what cardio doesn’t do well is our bones and our muscles need adequate load and resistance for them to adapt. So we need that resistance to be stimulating enough every time we work out for those tissues to adapt. And cardio doesn’t do that well. What does that well is resistance training. So if I were to say, you know, only cardio, we now know that the combination of the two is actually the most um the best way for us to get results, but also to hit longevity, long-term health, the things that we’re talking about, how we can age better um and be able to do all the things that we want to do.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

So both are important. What I’m hearing from you, yeah, and I agree, and I want to highlight here, is that yeah, they’re both very important. But if we are keeping longevity and long-term health front and center, then resistance training becomes way more important. It doesn’t mean that you don’t uh do cardio training, but not as much as it had been popularized or hyped in the past, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Absolutely. Like women would only do cardio training. Or it became in New York City, we have so many classes too. You know, all those heated classes became very popular, which could be lovely, which and I’m all about when women enjoy what they’re doing, I want them to continue doing it. I’m not the one to say, stop doing what you love doing. Movement is movement and it’s better than no movement. But then if you’re coming to me to break down what we can do better, then that’s when the education comes in and all the information that we’re going to talk about today. So we need to prioritize strength training. We need to prioritize building muscle as we age. And if we are to take it from a stage of life, 20s and 30s, are the time to do that, are the time to build healthy muscle as much as we can, become as stronger as we can, because that becomes a lot harder in later stages of life.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Absolutely, absolutely. I just want to put a highlighter right there. Yeah. That yes, building muscle is important, especially in your younger years. I always say, like wherever you are at, younger years, absolutely. Or whichever decade of life you’re in, just start lifting and start building some muscle mass. So let’s build up on that. If someone has been relying heavily on cardio in the past and they’re like, okay, I want to start picking up weights. I don’t know what to do. I have a packed calendar, and I’m, I think a lot of women who come to me, mostly they’re worried it’s gonna take a lot of time. And they’re like, time is something we don’t have. Either they’re young moms, they have young kids at home. On top of it, they have a nine to five, and all the other things that come along with, you know, having a family. So what would you say to them that, okay, yes, we are suggesting resistance training? We are suggesting strength training for improved bone mineral density and higher muscle mass and improved muscle mass. How can they incorporate it into their day?

SPEAKER_01 10:17

That is something that I definitely hear actually very recently. I was part of a panel that was one of the questions. How many, how many minutes, how many hours a week do I have to spend and don’t have all that time? So I absolutely get that. We actually have, as I mentioned in the beginning, a lot of recent studies that we get really good information from. The one I’m going to reference to right now is a 2022 meta-analysis at the British Journal of Medicine, where they actually found that the people that were doing 30 to 60 minutes of strength training per week, so 10 to 17% increases in their strength and had better long-term outcomes of their health. So, what I usually recommend to busy professionals is start with two mini sessions per week or one session per week, that it could be 20 minutes. And then you can build that habit up. Ideally, I want my clients to build up to two sessions per week, ideally 30 to 40 minutes. That would be our ideal scenario of intentional strength training. But I always say start small, start where you can and put it on your calendar. That’s what a lot of busy professionals miss when it comes to strength training. Um, as important as that meeting is for you or your kids’ activity, yourself and your self-care need to be on our calendar as well. So those would be my initial advice for people.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Yes, and I agree with you, Vic, that, you know, if something is on the calendar, it’s happening. It’s more likely to happen. Yeah, exactly. And as far as professionals are concerned or corporate professionals are concerned, they are always like scheduling their work meetings. So they can treat this as a work meeting too. And I’m like, you know, if you’re scheduling four or five work meetings a day, you could schedule one lunch meeting for yourself, eat lunch away from your desk. And the second is strength training or some type of movement or exercise. You can schedule that too, right? Yeah. And I want to just underscore something you said because I think that’s something like a myth or a misconception that you need to spend like a couple of hours in the gym, andor you have no muscle gain, or you have no benefit of exercise. That’s not true. So I just want to underscore the uh research study that you mentioned that the only 30 to 60 minutes a week. We’re not talking about a day. A week spread out over time is enough. And I love how you just said that two training sessions, 30 to 40 minutes, because that includes your warm-up and cool down. You want to make sure that you’re safe while you’re lifting weights. That should be enough. So that’s pretty doable.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

Yeah, I think it’s it’s a good place to start. And I always say with a 20-minute session that happened is better than a 90-minute session that never happened, you know? So start from there and you build the habit. That’s what I say with our clients. Even the clients that come to us, we always try to get them in twice a week because I see the most results, obviously, like that. But even with the clients that say, I can’t commit to that, they start with once a week and then they feel better, they look better. They are starting to be motivated by how their body’s now feeling and moving. So it becomes more of a habit. So then it will be easier for that second day to appear on your calendar as well. So even if it starts small, the habit, habit formation, we’ve talked about that. Um, it will slowly, slowly get built up.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

And I want to just emphasize something you said. Results are the best motivators. Absolutely. Absolutely. A lot of people come to me, and especially when I see patients at my practice, a lot of times they’re like, oh, but we are not motivated. Mostly partners are talking about each other. Sometimes I’ll have both the partners come in when they’re talking about each other. Oh, that he’s so motivated. I’m not motivated at all. Can you help me? Like, how can I get motivated to work out? And I’m like, results are the best motivators ever. So start small, even that if that means 10 minutes a day, because I believe just starting that habit takes time. Even if that means like just standing in front of a YouTube video and doing something, just like you said, any movement is better than no movement at all. Just start somewhere. Because as soon as you start building that habit, and if you’re not doing anything, 10 minutes would bring some way of or form of results, I should say. And once you start seeing those, then you’re hooked.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

You’re like, oh, it’s working. You know? That’s something that we talk about with our clients a lot. And when a client come to us, we never push them per se. We know that if they trust the process and they trust us, they’re going to feel the differences and see the differences. What we have a lot of clients say, four weeks into training, they say, Oh, my colleague mentioned that I look different, I feel different, my partner. So it starts being also like presented to other people. So that feedback is very motivating as well. So we say trust the process and follow it, and we’ll get the results. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Absolutely, absolutely. And I love how you just mentioned a lot of patients and clients come back to me and say the same thing that one of the family members mentioned. My cousin mentioned, you look different, you look really good. What are you doing? Right. And that’s like an external validation. A lot of us, including me, you know, we’re looking for. So once we start getting that, that’s another motivator too. So great way to put it.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Especially, and I’m sorry, Nintendo. For us women, I feel like sometimes our own eyes are our harshest critics. And a lot of women do struggle with uh body image issues. So it’s hard for themselves to actually see the differences. So it’s always beautiful to have someone else mention something. And one important thing that we do for our clients on that side is we want to celebrate their win. So we make sure we track different ways of success. It doesn’t have to be aesthetic, it doesn’t have to be a number on the scale, it can be how clothes fit, it could be how heavy is your lift progressing, how much muscle we’re building. So we always try to find multiple ways to portray the success that our client is building so we can build that confidence into the process as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Absolutely. And I’m so glad you actually added this on because you’re right. We are our own worst self-critic, mostly, especially women have it a little bit more than men, at least in my experience. And I know everybody’s different, so I’m probably generalizing, but it’s true. Like when somebody else notices the progress, it just it’s like cherry on top, right? You’re like, yeah, it’s refreshing. Absolutely. I also want to touch upon something you just mentioned because I think it’s a good idea to expand on it. You mentioned, oh, we should celebrate wins, and wins might not always look like that number on the scale that we just touched on that, oh, maybe your clothes are fitting better.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

So what’s the difference there?

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Absolutely. So we know, and it kind of relates to a myth about women in strength training, but we know that muscle is a more dense tissue. So we actually see our clients fit better into their clothes while the number on the scale might not have changed as much. So that’s why we say the scale might not say the same, the whole story per se, because you might be gaining some muscle mass, losing a little bit of fat, which is the ideal scenario of recompositioning, changing your body composition while the scale is not moving as much. But the health benefits, also the aesthetic benefits of your body are actually very visible, visible. So we always try, we take before and after photos for our clients, we do measurements, we do the feeling that I mentioned, because that is also important, whatever each of our clients wants and needs and feels comfortable with, but we want to make sure that we’re showcasing the ways that their body’s changing and how they’re progressing. And we care, obviously, we care about any client, any goal that our client brings to us. But the idea is we want to be able to help them live longer, live better, build muscle. So within their goals, we always try to educate them and pass on good information and good training to get them there. So if that goes well, they’re going to see that number on the scale drop, but they’re also going to feel stronger, feel more defined, feel more tight per se. It’s a lot of kind of feelings that our clients mention about their bodies changing. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

And one of the other things I want to add on to it is that muscle is like our bodies like spanks. Right. So although it might not, especially in the initial stages, people don’t see that number on the scale move as much. For women, the number on the scale doesn’t move, but their clothes start fitting better. And they’re like, but we noticed that the same dress that was a little snug on us is not as snug anymore. I I can actually move in it, which is so weird. But the scale is where it was. And I’m like, that’s because now you have gained muscle. So you’re replacing that fat mass or adipose tissue with that muscle mass. And that muscle weighs a little bit more than fat, but it occupies way less space. So all of that healthy replacement of body mass is happening where you’re gaining muscle, which is great for your longevity and your long-term health. And it’s going to help you gain and or improve your bone mineral density. You know, it’s it’s just that the weight might not show on the scale or the scale might not move as yet.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

As much. Absolutely. That is one beautiful thing about being a beginner, and it kind of connects with our previous conversation about somebody that’s just starting. Doing a little bit in the beginning might actually yield great, great results. Things start to change a little bit. The more advanced you are in your training journey, like the more years you have of training experience, you might need to work a little bit longer out, like training sessions a week or a little harder. But I know being a beginner at something is very hard. But the good news, especially with strength training, is that you can see results, especially for the first year. We see incredible transformations of exactly what you’re saying. Body composition changes, confidence changes, how women’s mood changes. Like we need to talk about strength training and cardio as well, how it relates to mood. I don’t want to sidetrack us, but yeah, that’s one of the great news about being a beginner when it comes to strength training.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

I love that you mentioned all of that. And no, it’s not a sidetrack at all, because I think the more we talk about these benefits and or the role that exercise can play in so many different areas of our life and how it impacts us, the better it is. I do want to touch upon uh women in their 20s and 30s, because um, as you mentioned, we want to talk about women in different stages of their lives and their decades. So, women in their 20s and 30s, if they are wondering, okay, what should we do? Especially in that decade, even today, although we have a lot more awareness around strength training now. Women are still not lifting weights enough. Like, you know, there’s still that, I don’t want to call it myth, but there’s still that hype around being smaller for girls in that age. So let’s expand on that, Kate. What do you think women in their 20s and 30s should be doing? What’s a good starting point for those women?

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Yeah, this is the decade of our lives that we’re building. We want to build muscle. We want to build our bone density because that’s the stage that we’re building the reserve for the future. So it is a very important stage of our lives to actually invest in strength training, learn, learn about our bodies. That was one of the biggest things that changed my relationship with myself and my body and exercise as well when I sat down and actually studied all these things. So now we have a lot of information and this podcast is a great source for that too. So I would say invest time in strength training and building that lean, healthy muscle mass that it will be your reserve for the future. So I would say definitely invest in a couple sessions a week of strength training. Like we mentioned ideally they’re going to be 40 minutes. At that stage also fatigue or your ability to recover is a lot higher than later stages in life. So even if you do an hour sessions you should be able to recover a lot faster than somebody that’s in a later decade of life. So we take advantage of that. And then cardio also important to be included I usually say couple sessions a week it could be a slow state, steady state session as well, ideally some high intensity as well. What we see is many women are going to do a lot of high intensity stuff and not as much steady state or strength. So we want to rebalance that. But at that stage I would definitely invest either in a trainer either on an online platform or in yourself taking the time to learning and lifting weights and building that reserve for your future self. It’s hard though you know in our 20s we don’t really think like I wasn’t thinking about you know even becoming a mother or anything and you were thinking about right now. Yeah. But that’s the message we want to share.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

So true. And I love how you make exercise so approachable like training so approachable so doable because it’s true like all it takes is two sessions. And when women are younger like you have a little bit more disposable time too, right? Yeah. You can make time for yourself, right? Yes. And as you just said your body’s ability to recover is so much better right it’s faster. So your recoveries are faster. So you are at a good stage in life if you’re in your 20s and 30s to take on strength training at least a couple of times a week and then as you said cardio a couple of times a week I recommend that women should do at least one high intensity interval training session. It could be only 20 minutes. It doesn’t need to be more than 20 minutes if you’re pushing if you’re pushing hard enough in those intervals. And the rest of the cardio session it could be like an hour of steady state depending on how much time you have one session of steady state training which is aerobic training. Your heart rate stays in that green or aerobic zone. Or you could do two if you have more time on your hand or you enjoy that. Exactly. If you’re someone who enjoys aerobic training that’s perfectly fine. But it should not be coming at a cost of like replacing strength training that’s the point. So all of those are such great points and it’s so true that we don’t think of that in our younger years. But you’re actually setting the foundation for your older self for your future self. I shouldn’t say older that doesn’t sound arrogant right or your or your future self. You’re actually setting the foundation for your future self and trust me your future self is gonna like thank you. Absolutely if you start building muscle mass early andor just even learning the concept of what strength training is because every person’s body is different too right every woman’s body is different too. So you will start learning oh okay I need more of the glute work or I need to build more of my back muscles andor versus another person it could be just your sister she might not need that right she’s already strong there and she probably needs more of quad work andor calves. So you will learn about your body and the younger you are and you start training you would know what to do what your body needs more of.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

You also understand and start learning about your limits and what’s your you mentioned high intensity if you’re pushing high enough but what we see a lot of clients they don’t even know what’s their pushing what’s their 10 out of 10 on an RP scale which is how hard am I working on something so that is a big part of our education as well when somebody comes in starting to understand their body. So starting that a little earlier gives you that capacity to okay I know myself I know where my limits are am I working hard enough can I should I be pushed harder? What would that look like in 10 years? So you’re absolutely right learning ourselves and understanding what we need and our needs may change as as we grow and that’s totally okay but having a better understanding of our bodies will help us as the life changes and the life stages that we are changes to be able to adapt to that as well a little better than not having any idea, you know, what’s going on with my body right now I didn’t have an understanding before I don’t have an understanding now. So it will set us up for better adaptation as well in the future.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

Absolutely and the better understanding you have about your body and what to do with which exercise the better you are going to be exactly so let’s talk about women who are now kind of like in their kind of later later years when I say later I like to call it like the second puberty yes yes yes starting to hit that yeah so many women hit perimenopause late in their late 30s early 40s right when they’re kind of like stepping into senior leadership roles a lot of executive women they’re like oh my gosh like I feel so good where I am in my career. I mean I have a lot more responsibility now but I also have kids at home and or I’m just in such a senior leadership role that I have a lot of responsibility and I can’t believe it now what’s happening to my body I don’t feel good and we do need to talk about the mood and anxiety and everything because we were touching upon that earlier so I want to bring that in over here all of a sudden women are like coming to me and telling me like my body just feels so unfamiliar to me. You know I’m way more tired I’m gaining weight I’m I’m still doing the same old things like nothing has changed on my end. What should they do as far as exercise is concerned?

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Absolutely that perimenopause going into menopause that stage of life could be a very um very confusing stage because your hormones are fluctuating and that’s the hardest part of that stage the estrogens not that it’s slowly declining can rise, decline, rise, decline and that creates a lot of symptoms that women are experiencing for the first time per se, as far as their training so when I say women at that stage of life, the overall consensus of wanting to build muscle doesn’t change. At that stage of life we’re trying to preserve the muscle mass that we’ve built or that we have already and the bone that we already have ideally maintain that ideally build more but we’re starting with that how can we maintain the muscle mass that we have so training changes a little bit as far as how I’m approaching at this stage. It’s a little bit more polarized I want women to work on high intensities when it comes to their strength training we want them to lift heavy heavy is relative to each person obviously we’re not going to start everybody at the same amount of weight but we want to progressively build them up so they are working at about 80% of their intensity. We want them to work hard when it comes to lifting weights because as we mentioned prior muscle needs stimulus to adapt. So we need something that is going to be challenging for the muscles but also the bones as well. So that that stage I want them to start lifting heavy if they haven’t before and then when it comes to their aerobic training I want that to be their steady state. So we want polarized training we want the high intensity when it comes to your strength and then we want your low intensity when it comes to your cardio. If it’s um okay because we see cardiovascular stuff going on at that stage we do want your your interval training as we’re as far as the cardio but as far as the training is concerned I have a few more buckets for women at that stage of life strength training so I say lift heavy enough often enough which is your twice a week and heavy enough being 75 to 85% of your max. So pretty close to failure but not to extreme failure. And then we also want at that stage of life to do multidirectional work, single leg work. We don’t only want to do regular squats we want to do lunges we want to do forward lunges and backward lunges and walking lunges and step ups. I want to see women walk working and moving in different directions as well. Sure. And my last packet for that stage is some impact and plyometric work because especially for bone and for our health of our joints we want that impact. So I won’t start everybody with you know box jumps but we might start with some light hops and then start building it from there. So we want to maintain also the strength and the power of the muscle not only the actual muscle tissue itself. So those would be my buckets lift heavy enough often enough do multidirectional work and single leg work yeah and then some impact and power work if applicable everybody’s different but that would be my ideal scenario for that stage.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

I love that yeah so I just want to make sure that I summarize everything which because I think there were so many good like golden nuggets that you shared with us here. So I want to put a highlighter on all of them. So the first thing you said was like if you’re doing strength training for women in perimenopausal stage, we want to build up to that 80% of your max work which is out of so if you look at rate of perceived exertion and mostly we are looking just for simplification purposes we look at a rate of perceived exertion from zero where zero is at rest to 10 10 is maximal you would probably only be able to hold that max for 30 seconds to a minute no no further so that being said eight would be like the RP we are looking at eight eight and a half that would give you an 80% of your one rep max we want to build you up to that intensity depending on how many repetitions how many rounds you’re doing with your trainer so you should be mostly doing your strength training around that bracket or around that range. The other thing you said which I really love and I think we don’t really touch upon as much is plyometrics right because especially as women enter their 40s they’re like oh I don’t know about my knee you know I don’t want to get hurt and I hear you guys nobody wants to get injured. And especially your trainers don’t want you injured at all. Absolutely out of all people we really don’t all the people we don’t want you hurt at all. That being said though it’s something we don’t really consider though I think I shouldn’t say we don’t consider but a lot of women are very hesitant to take it up. So I love how you made it so approachable again that oh okay I’m not gonna ask you to do a box jump on day one but maybe pogo jumps is are something you can just start with single leg hops. Yeah just start there. Even like everybody can hop three right yeah yeah I always say to women like you know do you do you look at your kids? You have kids at home most of the women I work with they do and or they have nieces or nephews at home like are they always hopping around or not? So I want to bring that inner child that is still inside you in you out. So just bring that out have fun when you are going to the gym I want you to have fun.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

Yeah right yeah and that’s why the environment is so important. I understand sometimes the reservation of women going into a gym because it might not feel the most welcoming environment for them or the most I want to say safe space for them to be like you’re saying to be themselves to even make mistakes or to try something new and maybe fail at it. Obviously I know it’s a lot easier when you have guidance and we always try to create that safe space with our clients and you know that. But yeah biometric work impact work is so important we know that for our bone density bone health joint health as well and you you don’t do it you lose it. So ideally again we start very very small very very slow very very little it could be one hop every other session and then we build it up yeah but you would be amazed and surprised like women we’re so resilient and so strong. So we are if we have the right guidance we can we can do anything.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

Absolutely I agree I agree and I do want to just add a little bit on to it like gym timidation you know it’s real especially for women if they haven’t been active for a little bit they are always very hesitant to step into a gym and I hear that all the time from my patients oh I don’t know about that. So that’s why I always say maybe you can just start doing something at home till you get to that point or just do a show up for five minutes. All it takes is five minutes to go show up and go back home and within a month or two months I know those people are going to be ready because now that habit has been set up. And the last thing that you said earlier and I want to just add on to it moving in different planes of motion. That is something us as adults like women and men, but especially for women it’s so important like we stop doing because we are normally just walking back and forth. Sitting is also like a sagittal plane sagittal plane means front and back. So we are always doing all these front and back movements. We’re not really moving laterally again because we’re not kids anymore right if you see a little kid you’ll see them they hop around different directions like transversal plane which is like diagonal motion right but we end up we stop doing that as an adult if you’re not playing any type of sport most of the people who continue to play sports that’s a different thing but most of us are not doing that I know that so that being said it’s so important to train your muscles and your body in that different planes of motion.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

So I wanted to make sure that I highlight that absolutely and appreciate you saying that with the caveat of any strength training that we do I don’t want it to we talk about injury prevention when it comes to strength training but it’s a little hard to there’s no direct research to say if you do this exercise you’re never going to be injured on that thing. But at the same time we see at a later stage of life injuries happening when you’re not going forward and now for some reason you kind of stepped a little to the side and that’s how you got injured. So as much as we can be prepared and have your joints, your tissues not just be used to one plane of motion and as much as possible get stronger at different planes of motion, we are setting you up for better functionality anyway for your future self if you do want to bend over and like play with your grandkid at some point but hoping that we’re also setting you up to avoid potential injuries. Again with a caveat that it’s a little hard to to kind of predict or avoid per se, but we’re trying to set you up as best as possible.

SPEAKER_00 39:02

Absolutely the chances are that you would be able to avoid an injury that’s the goal. Nobody can say 100% like you know that’s always the case. And I just want to say it’s a lot of balance training like the training regimen that we just discussed and all the components of training that we just discussed I do want to emphasize all of that leads to better balance better strength better balance better proprioception right so when we have all those three together chances are your body’s very resilient and that means that resilience to injuries too so that’s so empowering to hear I want to kind of talk about exercise and its impact on our mood our emotional health because as women enter perimenopause and then transition into menopause that’s a big issue that I hear from a lot of women especially a lot of anxiety some women go into depressive episodes.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

So tell us a little bit about how exercise can help absolutely we have seen and we do have um studies now that show up how exercise and strength training and cardio as well especially the combination of the two how they can help us with cognition as well we see a lot of uh memory or having the ability to feel more sharp and be more sharp because a lot of things that I hear from clients at that stage is I had that word right here, but now it kind of like left me like having some memory or some fogginess per se at that stage. Yeah. So we know exercise can help with that. And I always advise my clients and if they’re able to do it, you know, do 20 minutes of a little bit of strength before an important meeting. We know that the window after that hour after they’re more likely to be because BDNF is being raised at that stage. Sure. We know that we have direct correlations of exercise to hormones in your body we also have the happy hormones especially after cardio as well so we’ve seen depression and anxiety also being a lot lower in patients that have been through studies and sure were exercising at the time. Obviously everybody’s different and how exercise will will affect everybody is different but we know that it can help with your mood your cognition your brain health overall I highly advise women at every stage to do even just a little bit and especially before something that is very anxiety provoking for them.

SPEAKER_00 41:39

It will always help you kind of clear your mind be in a better place to attack whatever the the big thing is that you have so true and I think it’s gonna come in so handy for a lot of women who are executives and or leaders in corporate world because a lot of times they have to be presenting to you know other partners and they’re presenting yeah board meetings and very important meetings and exactly that’s when they’re like oh this is when I’m not feeling my best right so if you do a 20 minute workout the morning of yeah guess what you’re gonna feel really good because most although it’s mostly associated with cardio but it is also associated with strength training anytime you get your heart rate up we do have that BDNF component kick in BDNF is brain derived neurotrophic factor which improves your cognition improves your mood so that starts circulating in your body and that means that you’ll be able to handle that big meeting or whatever you’re presenting to your board that day. So that’s great. How can women safely start strength training? Because that’s something I hear a lot especially if they are starting in their 40s 50s or later years. And some women have probably have had some experience with it in high school and college but then they’re like oh but then life happened and we couldn’t stay with it. And now we’re scared to go back. Absolutely so what do you recommend for those women?

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Ideally and this is it’s really not a plug-in for for the business I ideally I know it’s a big investment but if they can get support at least for the beginning of their journey I think finding an educated professional that can support them into them starting their journey is best case scenario because they’re gonna make sure that they’re doing things right, they’re doing things proper way, proper form, proper dosage because for exercise that matters a lot as well. We don’t want to overdo it or underdo it we want to make sure a great coach sees how your body adapts and adjusts the training plan as you go as well. So that would Be my ideal scenario. Other than that, there’s a lot of resources now. We have a lot of information. I would start small, starting on the basic movement patterns, your squat, your hinge, push, pull, some basic exercise. I wouldn’t try to do the fancy thing that you might have seen online or this complex exercise because it promises X, Y, and Z. So I would start basic. I would start small and build from there, see how your body adjusts. So if I were to give like, you can start with two sets of 10 of squats, even the the exercise, the reps, the volume can be a little low in the beginning and see how your body reacts to that. See how your body feels the next couple of days of your training. If you’re perfectly fine, maybe next time you can push a little harder, do a little bit more reps, or grab a little heavier weight. If you’re noticing some aches and pains or that you haven’t recovered enough, that is your body telling you, take it a little slower. So if you don’t have the ability to have support, I would just start very small, start with the basics and build from there.

SPEAKER_00 44:59

Yeah, I love that. And actually, support helps a lot. So please plug away because I want people to get help. I think, especially if you haven’t been active for a very long time or haven’t been doing strength training in particular for a very long time, or are you probably if you’re completely new to it, ask for help. You don’t have to stick with it forever. I always tell my patients, I’m like, you don’t have to do it forever, but I do want you to start with someone who knows who will set you up for success.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:40

Right?

SPEAKER_01 45:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

I I say that as well. Like we we tell some clients that we know that they might not be able to stick with us forever for financial purposes, or maybe they’re moving. But I say 12 weeks of twice a week is a perfect amount for you to get good guidance because also if it’s very little, I’m not even able to read your body and understand your body if I’ve only seen you twice. Because I have some people that inquire and say, can come once, and then it’s very hard. I I’ll still give you a very quality program. I agree. But unless I’m actually I have the time to see how your body adapts to the things that I’m putting you through and we’re putting it through, I won’t be able to give you the quality that I want to also put into the session. But I say 12 weeks is a perfect good amount of time. And I have clients that have done that. We call it like it’s almost like a mini educational series where they’re actually training, but they’re also learning a lot. And then they take what they learn and they continue. And when they need us again, they might come back and say, let’s do another month or let’s review things, because that can happen. That you can continue by yourself for a little while, but then need support again. So if you have the ability, absolutely reach out. We see clients that are very beginners, like you mentioned, clients that have trained in the past but haven’t done it for a while. So now they need that that support to get back into it. We see clients that need to be kept accountable. They love it, they want to do it, but they won’t make the time for it. So if you have somebody that’s waiting for you and you’re paid for, you’re gonna show up.

SPEAKER_00 47:10

Accountability is that big aspect of it.

SPEAKER_01 47:13

It’s very, very big. Yeah. Because we see that even with classes. You know, classes are on a lower price range. And if you just don’t go, if you wake up in the morning and you didn’t want to, the instructor has another 20 people. So you can see, but if it’s one-on-one, it’s really hard to skip it. You know that the person is there waiting for you. So it’s a bigger contability component as well. And if you enjoy the person that you’re also working with, we always try to build that relationship with our clients. It will be more likely something that will stick even further. Even when you we say essay as a joke, if you graduate from training with us. Uh, but you’ve taken a lot of information, you’ve seen your body change, so you’re more likely to continue doing it.

SPEAKER_00 47:55

I love that. Yes, I love that approach. And so true. Accountability is such a big factor. A lot of people are like, we do have it on our calendar, but it’s still easy to skip. But if you have someone who’s waiting on you and you paid or into it, yeah. Two two components of accountability right there, they really help. And I also want to just highlight something you just said that the 12 weeks, twice a week, it’s a great place to start. And that would help you decide. That would help your trainer also decide. Like, do you want to move forward with it? Are you in a good place now for now? And then you can always return, right? But that’s a great uh dosage or prescription, as I would like to call it to start with. Yeah. If you haven’t done it in a while. So, okay, I have a fun kind of like a game. It’s a lightning round. I love that. So I have quick questions, and in a sentence or two, you can tell me if these are yay, nay, or it depends, or you Okay. Yeah, I love it. Okay, I want to pass on it. All right. So they’re mostly kind of like myths about strength training or weightlifting for women. So the first one, which I hear still hear, which I’m like, I don’t know why I’m still hearing this, but lifting weights makes women bulky.

SPEAKER_01 49:15

Nay, no. Um we getting bulky could absolutely happen with a ton of work, a ton of food, a ton of protein, a ton of food volume overall. So the women that you do see that are bigger per se, whatever women describe as bulky, have really trained hard for that. And that was their goal. Nobody accidentally becomes bulky. Uh, we see men could easier become bulkier per se because they have higher percentage of testosterone in their bodies. Some women do as well, uh, but it takes a lot of effort. So if you’re somebody in back to our conversation, actually muscle will make you look more clumped. Yeah, more comprehensive doing this. But it is true. So muscle, more muscle tissue will actually and less fat tissue will actually make you look leaner. So the opposite per se. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:09

Yes, yes, yes. I want to just tick mark everything you said. Okay. Women should only use lightweights, like three-pound pink dumbbells. That’s all women should be lifting.

SPEAKER_01 50:19

Uh nay, muscle needs adequate stimulus to adapt. So it’s like I’ve read somewhere lifting, it’s like lifting a pencil. Like how many times, how many thousands of times can you lift a pencil? Maybe when you first started lifting that pencil, it did something for you. But after the second and the third time, it does nothing for your bicep muscle. So you need to lift something heavier. So, same thing with the weights. You need to progressively build that weight up if you want to continue to build strength. Otherwise, and that’s a caveat, you’re not only staying stable, you’re actually decreasing and going backwards because we know as we grow older, we actually start to lose muscle. So, unless we actively fight to maintain and build that, we’re actually moving backwards. We’re not staying still, which is a big thing that I think conceptually we haven’t grasped on. We think, oh, I could just do the same. I’m just no, you’re not staying the same. You’re actually digressing. So, more than two sentences, but I wanted to say that.

SPEAKER_00 51:17

Oh, I love that. I love that. I think we all need to hear that. Okay. Muscle turns into fat if you stop lifting weights.

SPEAKER_01 51:25

No, as well. Um, we do see that a lot of trained athletes, they can stop lifting weights for quite a long time and they’re still maintaining their muscle mass. It obviously has to do with your history of training, how much muscle mass you have, how much food, how much recovery. No, ideally, though, we don’t want to stop strength training for a bigger period of time. But I do understand clients, people get injured, or there are other reasons in life that you need to kind of step away from strength training, but you don’t have to stress about losing all your muscle immediately and that becoming fat. So true.

SPEAKER_00 52:00

I love that. Okay. Weightlifting is unsafe or dangerous for older women.

SPEAKER_01 52:06

No, we have wonderful studies now that show that women over 85 years old were actually, it was a very recent study. I don’t remember the exact date, but they showed that they were actually able to build strength and functional strength as well after the age of 85. So, no, we can we shouldn’t avoid it. We should have guidance at that stage of life. I feel that strongly about that because the balance can be a little off in the understanding of your body. But no, we you can start joining training at any age. I I hear it from my mom. If she I don’t know if she’s gonna see that, but she’s gonna say, I’m too old, I don’t need to start. No, you can start at any age. At any age.

SPEAKER_00 52:47

Yeah, so does my mom. My mom says that too, and I tell her, No, you can do it.

SPEAKER_01 52:52

Don’t listen to me. And my sister is a physical therapist as well. So we’re both like, mom, please, we can guide you through it, but we haven’t been able to get through to her.

SPEAKER_00 53:02

Hopefully, we can get through to us people here on this podcast. Okay, so Kate, this is so good. You shared so many good practical tips with our audience. Where can our audience members like find you and learn more about DDKT and you?

SPEAKER_01 53:20

Yeah, absolutely. So, through our website, DDKT Fitness, we have all the information there. My personal Instagram, I’m very active on that as well. I know we’re gonna put it on the notes, Kate underscore G5. We train our clients in Union Square in Manhattan, but my team, I have a team of five wonderful female personal trainers. We’re all about women’s empowerment and women’s strength training. And we see our clients all over the city. So if our clients have gyms in their buildings, uh, we can travel to them as well. So we offer a lot of options. We want to make strength training accessible for all women. So that’s why I I’ve built this. Um, I was myself confused about what I needed to do with my training and my body. And when I finally understood what that looked like, I wanted to be able to reach as many women as possible. And I can only do that with a team, and I’m very grateful for the trainers that I have.

SPEAKER_00 54:18

I love that. I love that. Any parting words for our audience?

SPEAKER_01 54:23

Um start small, start with the basics. It doesn’t need to look fancy, it doesn’t need to look like what the person next to you is doing as far as strength training. And honestly, everybody in the gym is very self-conscious. Nobody is going to care about you. Take up space, get in there, and do your thing. It is self-care, and we need to prioritize strength as part of all the other stuff that we do for ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 54:55

I love that. I love that. Thank you so much, Hate, for joining us today. Thank you. It was such a pleasure. Really, I love it when another exercise scientist can come on show on the show and talk about these things, right? Because we all learn differently. So thank you so much for sharing all of this goodness with our audience. And thanks to you guys for watching and listening to us today. I hope you learned a lot, as I learned a lot from Kate today. Please follow her, reach out to her. And guess what? Whenever you have time, maybe that is tomorrow morning, start strength training. Thank you so much again for listening, and bye for now.