Efficient Strength Training for Busy Life
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Sheree Beaumont: [00:00:00] find movement that you love.
If you were someone that played sport at college or in high school. Go play sport again. If you were someone like I used to dance, that is my favorite form of cardio. And apart from walking is probably the only cardio that I do. You know what I mean? Find something you love first and foremost to get you back into movement and commit to it at least three times a week.
Whether that is in a training, in a game form, whether that is finding a class, whether that is going to the gym, if getting into group fitness is the first. Way that you're going to walk through that door. If it's signing up to class pass and going to Pilates, then I commend you. Like do something that's going to get your body moving
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Speaker 3: We have combined our expertise in medicine and nutrition to bring you the latest research expert insights and success stories of people on a mission to live a big life.
Speaker 2: So buckle up and get ready to learn how to live wildly well.
Christa Elza: Welcome back to another episode [00:01:00] of The Wild and Well Collective. And today we are gonna be talking about how to get the most out of your workout because I think there's many barriers. Most people, most people are not working out. They're not working out regularly. And then, then when you start to say how many people are lifting weights, that percentage goes even lower.
And the fact of the matter is. There is more and more research coming out about the power of muscle mass, the power of just being active and working at the power of exercise, really. And I think that there's so many barriers that we put, they're fake barriers, really. I mean, we really could do something, but I think this conversation today is gonna be helpful because we're gonna dive into like how to make, be more efficient with your time.
What, you know, if you're doing cardio and lifting, like what to do first. All of this, and Cherie is like an expert in this because she's a personal trainer. She studied nutrition, and so Cherie, [00:02:00] start us out with the importance of exercise. Like what? Why is it that we are reiterating so much the need to move your body intentionally every day?
Sheree Beaumont: When you think about the fact that when you are moving, it is blood flow, it is circulation, it is re oxygenating your cells. It is optimizing brain function, cognitive function. It is creating metabolically active tissue on every. Single level or every single function in the body is really gonna be optimized through movement.
And intentional movement, I think is the key thing here. And like you said, we're gonna come up with 1,000,001 excuses as to why we don't exercise or why, I don't have time or you know, we will come up with 1,000,001 excuses, right? And a lot of people start all guns blazing and then it fizzles out.
And so today what we really wanna share is there is an easy way, there is a healthy way. There is a way to make the most of the time that you do have, whether that is going to the gym or Pilates class or going for a [00:03:00] walk. Just making sure that what you're doing is actually gonna move the needle for you as well, because you may not be like me, like I love movement and sometimes it can be really find really hard to find a movement you fall in love with and so.
Until you get to that point and until it becomes something that your body craves. How do we really optimize that? And how do we get the most out of what we are doing without having to spend three hours at the gym? Like, and I will be the first to admit, I'm not someone who enjoys spending three hours at the gym either.
Like we both live exceptionally busy, busy lives and I know that you guys who are listening to as well. So we are not gonna be here advocating for these crazy routines. It's more about how we can make the most. Of the movement to optimize our bodies and to optimize how we function to have high levels of energy, et cetera.
Christa Elza: Yeah, I mean I think we all go through phases. I remember when I first had my kids like, oh man, going to the gym for two hours was great 'cause I could drop the kids off at the daycare and it was like my time to be with my gym partners and like hang out. And it was great. And I could spend two hours [00:04:00] because I was a stay at-home mom at the time.
Now my life is totally different and I have to squeeze it in and oftentimes I really am only able or willing to give 30 to 45 minutes. So. Can you, we start with, because this has always been a question in my mind, and sometimes I'll do one or the other first, but let's talk a little bit about probably a question that has been asked a million times cardio versus weights first.
Like, which one should we be? If we've got, you know, along like piggybacking this, I want you to talk a little bit about compound movements as well, just to make the most of our time. But let's start out first with like, yeah, which one should we be doing first?
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah, this is something I see so many people get wrong.
To be fair, in the bodybuilding world, they've had it right for quite a while. I'm not gonna lie, there's a lot of things I don't agree with about that lifestyle. But you will see majority of the gym bros essentially go in and lift their weights first. [00:05:00] What I will always advocate for is, and I think this is where people get a little bit like confused or overwhelmed, it's like, but what about a warmup when it comes to strength training?
This is. Literally the first thing I teach any of my clients, you warm up on a treadmill. If you're gonna go for a run or a walk, you warm up on a bike if you're gonna do a spin class or do you know what I mean? But you don't warm up doing cardio. If you're about to lift some weights, you need to turn your nervous system on.
You need to do that neural stimulation. So a lot of the work that I do and the work that a lot of my team, like PT team does, is. Turning on the muscles you're about to use, and that only really needs to take a few, like maybe two or three different exercises, one to two sets, get the muscles firing, and then you get into your weights.
So the key thing is here is you don't want the, like logically it makes sense. You don't wanna go and run or walk or do your cycling or hit the cross trainer, right first. Because if you do [00:06:00] that, you're using up a lot of your energy. Then when you go to do the strength component, you don't have as much energy to lift as heavy and as much, and we'll get into this in a little bit like the whole toning versus bulking situation, but you wanna be able to lift as heavy as you possibly can on that day.
In a way that's, safe and incorrect form, because that is gonna stress the muscle the most. If we stress the muscle the most, that's gonna cause the muscle to be damaged in a healthy way, then we have to repair that. Then we build strength, power, cardiovascular, fitness, whatever it is that we're working on.
So always, always, always warming up in a way that. Related to the exercise you're about to do and then like actually prioritizing the hardest thing first. And even though you may feel like your cardiovascular fitness is maybe the harder thing, it's not. It's like the stress that your body's gonna be under.
You can kind of burn the leftovers later when you go for that walk or go for that run.
Christa Elza: Okay. So, [00:07:00] and when you're warming up for lifting, would you say, like, let's say I'm gonna do back and biceps, would you say doing, you know, one set, like a warmup set with just like lighter weights at least?
Sheree Beaumont: So this is where it can start to get like a little complicated. But. I do activation drills. Okay, so that is more of the thing versus going and doing. If you take the example back and buys going and doing like a lap pull down and then a bicep curl at a lighter weight, yeah, you could do that.
But again, we wanna come back to the nervous system and priming the nervous system. And so it may look like controlled breathing and actually making sure your ribcage and your diaphragm are in the right position. It's not just core bracing, it's actually making sure you can breathe and get everything fired on in that space.
If I'm doing lower body, I am doing hamstring glute activating exercises. So the names of these sound really, really weird, but they are. So like if you, if you want some advice on this, like message me privately, but it's too difficult to explain with words. You need to kind of see a visual demonstration, but it is, you know, turning [00:08:00] on your glutes, turning on your hamstrings.
And quite often it's five, 10 minutes on the floor and then you're going out and doing the exercises itself. And this is where, you know, I know we wanted to talk about like the compound movements really do come in as well. If you ask someone on a time crunch, and I'm one of those people that. I like to get into the gym, do my workout within 45 minutes, maximum an hour, and then, you know, maybe I have time for a sauna or something afterwards if that's an op, an option.
But if I've only got that short period of time, you want to be hitting as many of these compound movements as possible. So let's just say we are doing a full body workout. 'cause your average human being may not be able to hit the gym five times a week. Like I love to. It may be three. And so for me, you wanna be hitting it volume wise 'cause that's gonna stress the muscles.
It's going to encourage the cellular stress to and the body to actually change and respond. And it doesn't mean you have to be doing the same workout every time, but if you can be hitting full body, you wanna be doing push, you wanna be doing a pull, you wanna be doing things like lunges, you squats.
Your deadlifts, you know, your planks activating your [00:09:00] core. It literally can be as simple as picking five movements that are compound. And what do I mean by compound? It means that you're using multiple muscles at a time. So I get a lot of women who have come to me and they've been strength training, they've been hitting the gym, and they're like, Cherri, why am I not seeing any results?
And I'm like, what have you been doing? And they're like, oh. I've been doing some tricep extensions and some bicep curls, and I've been lying doing some lying hamstrings and some leg extensions. And look, I get it. Machines are safe for the most part, and they can feel really comfortable saying like a bicep curl feels good.
But if you think about how tiny your little bicep is. Right. I mean, I do have the arms, but like if you think about how tiny that muscle is in comparison to your back, you are using your biceps when you're doing a lap pull down, you're using your biceps. When you're doing a seated row, you are using your triceps when you're doing a chest press or a pushup.
So you're getting a lot more bang for your buck because you're using big muscle groups along with the little muscle groups, and that's why compound movements. Are so much more [00:10:00] effective. And this is where I do see majority of people going wrong, is they're doing all these little exercises, which isn't gonna get the heart rate up, isn't going to be stressing the body enough.
And they're kind of like, I feel like I'm just putting on a, maybe a little, like my arms are getting bigger, but the fat's not going either. And so then we get disheartened. We feel like we're really bulky and it's not moving the needle for us. So that's where, we need to be making sure that we're using those compound movements.
Christa Elza: Yeah, I think that's great because a lot of people are in a time crunch and so you can probably just Google and get on YouTube and like ask like, what's a compound movement if I want to work full body? Right? Like that can be really helpful and quick and easy to look at. But I think it's an important thing to point out, like do is spend as much as your time, of your time doing compound versus like isolated.
Let's talk a little bit about bulking versus toning. And I think, my experience and my, I don't think it's easy for women to bulk, like most people are not going to get bulky. And so I know we talk a lot about, [00:11:00] about, you know, a lot about the importance of lifting and that excuse of like, oh, I just get too bulky or big.
Like that is not, that is not like unless you're taking something even for men. And you know, outside of being a teenager where your testosterone's sky high, I just. People don't bulk, bulk huge without taking some kind of an ex, you know, an external source that's helping them bulk. When it comes to bulking and toning, I also understand that like the lifting versus the eccentric, like low, you know, like lowering the release of the movement can help with.
Toning versus bulking. Right. So can you speak a little bit to the fears of bulking and then also, okay, yeah. I do wanna add more bulk per se to my upper body, but maybe not to my lower body, et cetera. So how do we navigate that?
Sheree Beaumont: Yeah. Well, I just wanna start off by, you know, abolishing the myth that you will get bulky.
Honestly, the only time you get bulky underneath from strength training is when you're not matching things [00:12:00] nutritionally. And, you know, there may be an underlying hormonal imbalance or something like that, but essentially as women, we produce one 10th of the testosterone that men do. And so one of the things I often used to say to my clients when I was working at the gym would be like.
Do you think I'm bulky? And they're like, absolutely not. I'm like, would you be happy with like a smallish frame like I have? And they're like a hundred percent. I'm like, okay, I don't do cardio. And they'd look at me like I was mental and I was like, this is what happens. You will quote unquote tone when you lift freaking heavy.
Let me just say that again. Like you need to pick up heavy shit and put it back down. And that is what's going to create muscle mass. And that muscle mass is far more meta metabolically active, and that is what is gonna give you the toned look. It is not going to make you bulky. The guys at the gym that look bulky have either been there for decades and years, or they've done something to help support that.[00:13:00]
In terms of what you were talking about earlier, Krista, you know. And you know, take me for example, I have been weightlifting since I was 18 years old, so I am 13 years in the game now. It takes a lot for me to put on size. I have to be eating an exceptional amount of food for me to even, I'm trying to grow my baby little hamstrings at the moment and it takes a lot for me to even get there.
So, you know, when we are thinking about this idea of. Toning versus bulking. And even from a male perspective, the ma like my brother's prepping for a bodybuilding comp at the moment, and he has to eat so much food to even begin to put on the size that he needs to. So a lot of it does actually come down to the food that you're eating.
But one of the biggest misconceptions that I had when I first started training back when I was 18 was Okay. Toning RIP range is between like 12 and 15 reps. So me and my girlfriend, we'd go to the gym, we'd be doing everything. We're like, oh no, we don't wanna lift too heavy because if we lift too heavy, we're not toning, we don't wanna put [00:14:00] on these big muscles.
And so we'd always go for lighter weight, lower reps. 'cause that's what we were taught. That is endurance. That is like doing a pump class or a group fitness class. And you know, hate me all you want for saying this, but. Those things are not going to give you muscle mass. They are not gonna make you toned.
They are not going to strengthen your muscle and they are not going to give you the metabolically active tissue that you need. To me, those classes are cardio, they're endurance based. You're doing so many repetitions that your, it's just your heart rate trying to keep up and you typically compromise form.
So what you need to be doing is hitting either like your hypertrophy range, which is around eight to 12 or even less, like most of my workouts consist of me doing five to eight rep. And there's heavy, heavy weight workload, and you can go down the path. And a lot of my clients do, I support them in terms of like their cycle sinking, if that's the stage of life they're in, or if they're, you know, heading through menopause and post menopause.
It's even more important to be lifting heavier if you don't have this as a, [00:15:00] an ingrained thing that you've been doing for a longer period of time from a bone density perspective. From, you know, making sure your hormones are imperfect balance as well. So hopefully that kind of abolishes some of this misconception that's out there and encourage you guys to go and lift some heavy weights.
Christa Elza: Yeah, I just wanna talk a little bit more about the heaviness. I go back and forth and I think, you know, one thing we do have to keep in mind too is. Just joints and you know, one thing that will take you out is an injury. You know, I think working with a trainer also doing something that is heavy for you, but like, not overdoing it like the older that you get.
Right? I think my 19-year-old can lift some really heavy stuff because if he gets injured, he's probably gonna repair pretty quickly. Like if he, a shoulder or whatever. I just noticed for me. That there are definitely joints that are more sensitive. So if I'm lifting really heavy and it's putting a lot of stress on my shoulder then there's a whole slew of things I can't do for a period of [00:16:00] time.
Right. So it's like, yes, there's this balance of like, we don't want to be, you know, doing teeny tiny weights that require so many reps. But I also think, the older you get, the more you wanna protect your ability to work out, period. And so there's gotta be some kind of a balance, right? And so I think something like.
Six to eight reps is still reasonable. Yeah, what are your thoughts on that? I mean, I think ultimately we wanna stay in the game. We don't want to injure ourselves to the point that we can't do anything.
Sheree Beaumont: But this is where strength training is actually protective. Right? And I do recommend that you do, even if it's like a one-off thing, you go and have someone assess how your body moves.
Because yes, we can start off with body weight. Like if you're new to this, I'm not saying go and hit a deadlift of 60 pounds straight away or 120 pounds straight away, and it's not what I'm talking about. What I am talking about is getting over the fear that lifting something heavy is going to make you too bulky.
One of the key things is, I, I talk to 30 year olds and they're like, oh, my back hurts, or My shoulder hurts, and they're like, it's just part of getting old [00:17:00] and I'm sorry, but I'll be the first to call. Bullshit on that. If you're moving your body, like I actually physically notice. Literally just recently I didn't get to train as much as I normally would 'cause I was traveling so much.
My neck, back, shoulders, everything got a million times worse. I'm still dealing with a glute issue at the moment. I'm 31. Like this is not, it's not an old people thing because I wasn't moving my body. And so when it comes to strength training. What, and it's one of the things that, you know, my team back home in New Zealand is amazing at.
It's looking at your body and your biomechanics of how you move, making sure that your form is correct, and then you can load yourself up quite a bit. There are women in their forties, fifties, sixties, and I know there are men out there as well. I specialize in female health more than anything that can lift a lot heavier than they did when they were younger because they know how to move their bodies correctly.
And so. Strength training can actually be protective against injuries versus [00:18:00] there's that fear of I'm gonna injure myself. Obviously form, we always say prehab before rehab, making sure the movement, and you've got movement and mobility through those joints first before you go and try and lift something that's too heavy.
But picking up a five pound dumbbell isn't going to do anything for you. Even picking up a 10 pound dumbbell. Probably isn't gonna do a huge amount for you. Once you've got into the routine and the habit, you need to be putting your body under that hormetic stress. So yes, injury prevention first and foremost, but then once you feel confident and strong and mobile in your body, it's actually putting your body under the load so that it causes the muscles to change and you to actually get the metabolic benefits from it.
Christa Elza: This is interesting and I want your opinion on it. I recently was listening to a trainer talk about unilateral movements versus like back squats and the support that, you can still get that straight up and down with like, let's say your feet are together, you do a back lunge, so it is [00:19:00] protective of your knee, so you kind of move your right leg back or your right foot back, and then you're doing lunges up and down.
And more without the bar doing more so, I mean, it's harder because your grip strength also needs to be optimal because you're holding the dumbbells then like doing more work with dumbbells versus barbells and then doing more unilateral lower body workouts versus together to help prevent like neck and back injuries long term.
And I honestly, I'm sharing that with my teenage boys because you, the sooner they can start doing things like that then they have less of a. Potential for developing like long-term back injury. I know my sister actually blew out a disc doing back squats. Like, it really can be detrimental for some people.
But what are your thoughts on doing unilateral for legs?
Sheree Beaumont: I love this. And it's not just for legs, it's for everything. So if you think about the physical body, and this is where it comes back to the biomechanics and how we move, right? We back in the day, you'd be very like Would [00:20:00] you see a caveman doing squats?
Absolutely not. You could see them hunting. You see, as a woman, you bend down to pick up your child. Sure, but are your feet exactly uniform? Are you, are they perfectly positioned where your hips are? Are you keeping your spine straight as you bend down and pick up the child? Absolutely not. If you think about sports.
Is there ever a sport sporting moment where you are perfectly doing a bench press? Like if you are picking something up, you're helping a friend move house, are you setting your body up in a beautiful position and doing a uniformed deadlift? Absolutely not. You are not doing these movements, these functional movements that we have been taught to do in real life.
And that's why you get people who are like, oh my gosh, I was helping my friend move. I threw my back out, or I was doing my back squat. And, it didn't sit well on my body. Blew a disc, right? And so. This idea around unilateral movement, there's actually a, a test you can do if you stand with your feet at hip [00:21:00] distance apart as if you were doing a beautiful squat.
Do body weight squats? Do 10 of them. Put your arm out in front. Have someone resist it. Notice the resistance. How much can you resist? Now, March on the spot for a 10 to 15 steps. Put your arm out, have someone resistant. Notice the resistance in how much stronger you are. That unilateral movement resets your strength and your power.
And so whenever I am training someone, we do both. Because you wanna be strong bilaterally. Also, I'm someone who's very conscious of time. You shift my whole training program to a unilateral training program. I'm gonna hate you because I'm gonna have to do, you know. Then I've got two arms, I've got two legs.
I now have to do double the amount of sets, and in my brain, that sucks. So I always super sit with a unilateral movement. So that may look like your squats, your bilateral squats, and maybe that is a goblet where you've got the. dumbbell as opposed to a barbell, but either way is fine with some lunges or it looks like a glute bridge with, so [00:22:00] with like a b stand squat and you're holding the, like a kettlebell right?
There is, I always do a unilateral with a bilateral, and that is what's not only gonna help your strength and prove, but it is also gonna be very protective against injuries as well because you are realigning the body and your body is learning how to handle that kind of compromised position. The unilateral position with load, and that's another thing that's gonna be supportive if you do go and pick up your child.
If you do go help a friend move, if you are playing sport as you get older, because you need to be able to. Had that really good spine rotation. And the same thing goes like I do chest press, I do alternating dumbbell chest press. Very rarely will you find me underneath a bar. Doing a bench press, you can get your shoulder in a much better position.
Your laps are more engaged. Like there's so much more to this that I could go on and on about. But I love that you brought up this question because unilateral is phenomenal and if we come back to the goal of like what we're talking about here is how to get the most out of your workout in a compact [00:23:00] amount of time doing compound movements.
Unilaterally and then compound bilaterally as a superset is really gonna mean you can still get through a 45 minute to an hour strength training workout without it compromising form or your time.
Christa Elza: Yeah. I think that's really educational to and what I'm learning too is like to not do the bench press with the bar and to do more.
With the dumbbells and you know, and maybe not even, like, I might even start doing them on the floor just so that, because I'm doing a lot at home instead of the machine. But that way I have something that's stopping and it keeps that joint from like hyperextending in the shoulders. I mean, the shoulders just can become very vulnerable joint throughout life.
It doesn't really matter what age you are. But so let's shift gears a little bit to nutrition. So another question that I always have is protein before or after. Or you know, like how, how I've heard like, okay, well our body really is active and ver and absorbs protein for up to four hours post. So you don't have to get it immediately.
But then some people say, oh, you've gotta have [00:24:00] some before and you've gotta have it immediately after. Like, what do you, what's your advice on when our body is most can use it? Needs it? And do we need a combination of carbs before and after carb timing? Yeah, talk to us a little bit about the timing of things.
'cause I've heard mixed reviews on that.
Sheree Beaumont: And there is, there, there is mixed reviews and there is mixed versus male versus female. The science, I studied sports science and sports nutrition when I was at university, and one of the key things that they talked about was the difference between males and females.
So men typically do a lot better, are having a bigger meal a couple of hours prior to their workout that might have a combination of protein, carbs, and fats, and then going and moving. One of the issues I see. Honestly, men tend to do the right thing with that. if they're into the gym, they're reading along, but just to give them context, that can be really helpful.
Females often go into things really fasted they're like, oh, just wake up in the morning and go and work out. If you are doing anything other than a walk, [00:25:00] you need to eat. I don't care. Any excuse you have, whether it's a teaspoon of honey under the tongue, a date with some peanut butter on it. No, I literally have no excuses in my book.
My clients know if you were doing anything other than going for a fasted walk, not walk, run. No other excuses you are eating before you move your body because you, otherwise you are actually breaking down the muscle, which is a very expensive process on your body. Very inefficient process on your body, and very counterintuitive process on your body.
Give your body some fuel. So females don't typically do as well. Having a big meal that then sits in their tummy and then going and training, especially if you are eating in the morning. 'cause it means you gotta get up a couple of hours early and you're not gonna wanna do that. And so having something small, like I just mentioned, even the teaspoon of honey under the tongue tricks your brain into thinking you've had a meal, allows your body to tap into your glycogen stores, which are in your muscles and in your liver.
And you can then [00:26:00] utilize the glycogen, a k, a glucose, a K, a sugar, which is fuel. To be able to get through your workout a lot more effectively. The things you need before training are sugar and fats. Now, I'm not suggesting you have a whole lot of sugar, like honey obviously is primarily sugar, but a piece of fruit with the fats.
The reason we add the fats is because it slows down that blood sugar spike. Most of the time we are training, especially if you're doing strength training for at least 45 for around that 45 minute mark. Once you surpass 30 minutes, you are needing to tap into some extra glycogen. But if you've had this big surge of sugar and you've just had a banana, for example, you're gonna find it really hard to get through the remainder of the workout that like last 15 to 20 to 30 minutes if you're there for an hour, for example.
So having the fat slows down that release, and it's the same if you're having a bigger meal beforehand. So like some of my clients might train in the afternoon and I'm like, well, time it. Make sure it's about two hours before. You go and work out if you've had your lunch, the lunch needs to have [00:27:00] carbohydrates in it.
You need to have that to fuel your workout and get the most out of your workout. Add a little bit of fat, whether it's avocado or the oil that you've cooked your food in. And then the protein is, yes, there. It's a bit controversial in this space, but it's not primarily needed before your training.
When it is needed is after. However, another mistake that I see a lot of people make is that they will just have protein after. What is happening is your body, once you've worked out, is looking to replace the glycogen stores that I just talked about that we used. If you don't, if you do not give your body carbohydrates after your workout and you just give it protein.
All it's going to do is take that protein, take that chicken breast that you've just consumed, or your protein powder that you've just downed in a protein shake and convert it into carbohydrates because it's going, that's what we need. Our muscles have been, the energy's been used up, we need to put it back in there.
That helps with the growth, that helps with the repair, just like protein does. But it's really, really pivotal to have the [00:28:00] carbohydrates replenished. So I say to people, if you're missing the carbs, your chicken breast is very expensive. Cup of rice. Because that is essentially what your body's doing. So the key here is to pair the two of them together.
You don't need fats after training. And again, that's another thing that I see a lot of people go wrong. They'll have a big meal post-workout, and it's loaded in everything. And it's like, you don't need your peanut butter afterwards. You don't need all the avocado afterwards. That is actually gonna slow down the body's ability to get protein into the muscles, to help with the repair, to help with the growth.
So the carbohydrates, you know, back when I did my bodybuilding era, we were taught to have things like cocoa puffs with your protein shakes. So you'd mix the protein shake with some milk, but like a low fat milk and you pour it over your cocoa puffs, and that would be your post-workout meal, quote unquote.
And the idea around that was because it spikes your insulin, it shuttles the protein into the muscles a lot more quickly and effectively. Now, I'm not suggesting that's what you do. My nutritionist self is like, do not have that awful quality of sugar. But the same thing [00:29:00] goes if you're having chicken breast and rice.
For example, I know this sounds very boring, but you can do this with sweet potato or whatever your dinner might be, or you know, post workup meal. You can kind of combine it, but it's making sure you've got the carbs so that your glycogen stores are repaired, paired with the protein to help with that growth that you want, and that will get the protein into the cells a lot more effectively and quicker.
Christa Elza: I kind of like your idea though, of Cocoa Puffs, like, that's actually kind of good. No, I think that's really good to point out. Like you've gotta combine the carbs with the protein. I don't think a lot of people know that I, you know, and it's that insulin, that insulin is an anabolic like hormone, so that it's gonna build things up.
We need to promote and stimulate that insulin. Very interesting. I do not eat right before my morning walk typically. But I'm usually just walking first thing in the morning before I'm in the office. Definitely have eaten with carbs and all that before my workouts later in the day. But if you could take all this information, because , you've shared a lot, I think, [00:30:00] how do we summarize this to kind of say, cool, get for people who both are already working out, maybe need to change habits, but then also to get people moving.
And to work through some of these barriers, like how do we summarize this to say this is like the bottom line, like this is like boil it down to like the necessities to get people actually doing what's effective and actually working through these blocks to actually move the needle.
Sheree Beaumont: I think the key thing is, and I come back to this before, you know, I obviously will die on the hill, that everyone needs to be strength training, but
find movement that you love.
If you were someone that played sport at college or in high school. Go play sport again. If you were someone like I used to dance, that is my favorite form of cardio. And apart from walking is probably the only cardio that I do. You know what I mean? Find something you love first and foremost to get you back into movement and commit to it at [00:31:00] least three times a week.
Whether that is in a training, in a game form, whether that is finding a class, whether that is going to the gym, if getting into group fitness is the first. Way that you're going to walk through that door. If it's signing up to class pass and going to Pilates, then I commend you. Like do something that's going to get your body moving and then layer in at least two strength training sessions a week.
You have to, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna back down on that one because we've talked about time and time again how important that is for every single aspect of your life and of your body health and your health. That's really where I would start. And then the key things are if you're gonna do some strength training in cardio, do your weights first finish with the cardio, whether that's a little burst of hit or a little walk on the treadmill, whatever that looks like.
Maybe it's your blood sugar balancing walk for 10 minutes after dinner. It doesn't have to be massive if you're gonna be training, there is no faster training unless you're going for a nice little fasted walk in the morning. Otherwise you're eating beforehand. A little bit of carbs, a little bit of fats.
Protein and [00:32:00] carbs afterwards is the key thing there, and do compound movements over isolation movements. The compound movements are so easy. You could literally do a chest press of some sort, some sort of pull, which is like a back exercise, whether it's a row or a pull down. Some sort of core exercise, which may be like a plank or even a crunch is totally fine.
And then you're looking at, squats and lunges. And this can all start off body weight if you're new to the gym and you're new to like building up your form and technique. So bed is, it gets to be that basic and then make sure, this is where everyone. Typically falls off or goes wrong and stops seeing results.
You're constantly challenging yourself in some way, shape or form, whether that is lifting a little bit heavier, doing a few extra reps, taking shorter risk periods, or taking longer risk periods and lifting the weight up. If you're not challenging your body. Just like if we're not challenging our mind, you're not gonna get anywhere.
You're not gonna grow. And that's not just talking about bulking. We've discovered that bulking is not really a thing when you are lifting heavy weights. Right. So it's really just coming back to basics and making sure you [00:33:00] are putting your body under a good amount of stress to see results.
Christa Elza: Amazing. Well, I'm gonna use some of your tips. Like I'm always looking for like, how do I refine this? How do I make it more effective? You know, like, how do I make the most of my time? Because none of us have time to just sit and do things that are not like, they're not really doing anything, right? Like we might as well just use the most.
Time and use it effectively. So I hope you all have found this as enjoyable as I have, like learning a bit more from a personal trainer because I, yeah, I mean, I'm always looking for new info. So, if you have any questions, as always, reach out to us personally. We have our socials in the caption below, and we will see you on the next episode of the Wild and well collective.
Speaker: If you love this episode, be sure to leave us a review, download, and subscribe. If you know someone that could also benefit from this conversation, please share. That's how we Spread Empowered Health. We'll see you again for another episode of the Wild and Wild [00:34:00] Collective.
