Unlocking Fitness Secrets for Moms Over 40: Transform Your Lifestyle with Bryan Fitzsimmons

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 335. Today we're talking about unlocking fitness secrets for moms over 40. Transform your lifestyle with Brian Fitzsimmons. Are you ready? Let's get started.

Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance and movement, package and position their products and services, and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast.

Welcome back to the PT Profit Podcast. My name is Chris. I'm giving you your intro for today's episode, which is with the one and only Brian Fitzsimmons. He's founder of Fit40, where he works with moms over 40. He has a unique journey from aspiring firefighter to fitness professional. And Brian has honed his skills to masterfully support women seeking to tone up, feel amazing, and embrace a life full of energy. He has a presence that is extremely empathetic. He's a very compassionate coach. He knows what he's doing, and you're bound to learn a lot from this episode. If you enjoy this one, be sure to tag Beverly and Brian on social media. And without further ado, let's roll that episode.

What's up, Brian? Thank you for joining me on the show today. How are you?

I'm good. Thank you for having me, Beverly.

I'm super excited for today. So for those of you who are tuning in and this is the first time that they have been introduced to your work, would you mind sharing a little bit about who you are, who you serve, and how got there?

Yeah. My name's Brian Fitzsimmons and I have a company called Fit40, which serves moms over 40 who are trying to get toned, feel incredible, and just have energy for life, really.

Okay, how'd you get into that?

Well, I was actually doing it part time. I was trying to be a firefighter, and I'm like, I got to make some money in the meantime. So while I was training for that, I did personal training, and I landed on a place that's basically a Curves, and it, like, was a blast. I had a absolute blast training all the ladies that were like, 40, 50, 60, 70 years old. And after that, I landed another job at another gym that did only or mainly 40 plus, and really got my education there, really honed my skills on training that population and eventually went off.

On my own okay, amazing. So. Oh my gosh, so many things. Number one, are you still, are you still firefighting or are you just now straight up? Okay.

Nah, I, I fell more in love with the training as time went on and fell more out of love with firefighting. So. Yeah, just this.

Okay, cool, cool, cool. So what I'm curious is about, you know, one of the things that comes up for a lot of coaches. A lot, a lot, a lot of coaches is feeling like a sense of feeling like they're an imposter because they don't, they're not the avatar. They're like, well, maybe training dancers have never been a dancer. Or I hear things like, you know, I still have weight to lose or whatever it is that noise that comes into their head. So now as somebody who is completely not training your avatar at all, you are not a mom over 40. Have you had to deal with those sentiments? How did you. And then have you had to, you know, create any type of buy in for the client?

Well, first and foremost, I identify as a 40 year old mom, so.

Okay, great.

I'm just kidding. No, not taking it there. But, but when it comes to not training your, like, your clientele, it comes down to who you can be helpful for. Because I think of it more so in like that expert guru style where it's like, I'm not an expert, I'm not a guru, I just know enough to be helpful. So if somebody's like, what business do you have training moms over 40? I'm like, I've literally tailored my education to just that. So if you want to go for somebody that is a mom over 40 that doesn't have the experience or the education behind it and really relies on, well, this worked for me, that's totally fine. But I'm going to have a tool belt that's way more extensive than them and I'm going to be able to serve my clientele much better and they're going to get better results. So take your pick.

So good, so powerful. So now your moms, have they ever felt like, wait, who are you to be doing this?

I mean, that is a very rare thing because at the end of the day, people just want results. They don't care who it comes from. It's just, can you solve my problem? And if the answer is yes, then awesome.

What are some of the things that have come up training this population that you feel like is different than other populations?

I mean, the big, big thing is a lot of unlearning the diet culture crap that has been spewed their way. Since we're Talking about the 40 plus population, these ladies have gone through hell and back as far as yo yo dieting and listening to their fitness experts like Jane Fonda and like all these people that were giving their best advice in the moment, that turned out to be really bad advice down the road. So now that we kind of had a better, have a better understanding that like, for one, women are not this mysterious thing that we cannot train properly. Because all of these studies are geared towards young men, we have come leaps and bounds as far as understanding the hormonal impact of, on exercise, the hormonal impact on nutrition, certain things like pcos, menopause and how they play a role. And I totally forgot what the initial question was, but basically that's like the, in a nutshell, what we come across and what we deal with and strategize around.

Yeah. So specifically we're talking about how the question was about, you know, what are the things that come up that are different than. Yeah, yeah, you know, other things. But, you know, what I'm curious about is can you dive a little bit deeper into the. More into the specificity of unlearning diet culture? And I laugh Jane Fonda, because, you know, listen, I'm 42, so I know who that is. But most people are like, who what?

So if any young trainers are listening right now and they wonder why their clients are like, well, I was told to suck in when I was trying to work my core. That's the woman to look at.

Yeah. For real. So what are, yeah. Can you dive into a little bit of some of those things that have been, that have, that you have to deal with in the unlearning process?

Yeah. First and foremost is understanding and like teaching them that you don't need to kill yourself to get the results that you want. And in most cases that's going to be hurting you more than it's helping you in the long term. Because for the longest time it's been, how much can you kill yourself before you quit? And then when you quit, you bounce back and then you're off the wagon. And then you say, oh, I'm such a horrible piece of crap, I can't stick to this plan. And then you hop right back on that super restrictive diet or super crazy workout routine and it's this never ending cycle of kill myself, lose all my progress, kill myself. And it's just this expected thing.

Okay, so in terms of the intensity of the training. Right. I feel like we were seeing in the industry, this pendulum shift between like hit workouts, especially for this population. Like people are starting to kind of like, you know, talk about the impact of hiit workouts for this population and how it actually could be counter to what it is that they're wanting to do. So I'm just curious, you know, how do you program, what's your take on that and if you could just share some insight on that.

Yeah, well, when it comes to programming, the other thing that plays a really big role, especially when it comes to moms that are super freaking busy, is time. So it really comes down first and foremost to how much time are we working with now if we had 40 to 60 minutes, I love programming very traditional strength training where it's like we'll do one or two exercises and, and they won't be competing. You'll be able to give your bet all out effort and do like somewhere in the ballpark of five to 10 repetitions and lift heavier over a period of time. The goal is always to do more, lift more while staying pain free. Now that being said, when we. Oh, and also the ladies love this. If anybody listening wants to apply it to their own, love throwing a stretch in after that. Because this population comes from a very group class oriented where it's like go, go, go. Never rest, never rest. And the concept of taking time like one to two minutes between sets, between an exercise or two is so foreign. And it's like I must be doing something wrong. So my favorite thing to do is put a stretch in there. So I'll do like a single leg or a single sided stretch for 45 seconds on one, 45 seconds on the other, and that's a minute and a half right there. You factor in transition time up and down and maybe checking their phone, you got two minutes of rest in there. So if we're following traditional strength training protocols, we have now for 2ish minutes between sets, they're going to be ready to go and lift more. So if we working with that 40 minute time frame or 60 minute, awesome, you can pull that off and do two or three circuits of that where it's like exercise, exercise, stretch. And that's like three to four sets is. And then when we go into the condensed version of that, which is the moms that like can literally only work out during nap time. Like I have a couple that have very young kids that are like, I get like a 20, 30 minute clip max. What can we do? And I'm like, all right, at home, one dumbbell. Let's make it happen. And you do simple stuff like something pushing, pulling, something for legs, something for abs, and say, all right, set that timer for 20 minutes and do as many rounds as you can. And the focus on that becomes one, increasing weights, if we can, but also two, increasing volume, getting more sets and doing more repetitions. And that increase in volume is going to get a lot of the results that we want.

Now, when you speak to results are, what are the results that you are. Are typically working towards?

The big one is building lean muscle. And I say lean muscle intentionally because I know people listening are like, muscle is muscle. And I'm like, I get it. But this population, they identify with lean muscle and toning, and that's because it's not good enough to just build muscle and do the bulk. Because most ladies do not want that. They want to look like a certain way by building muscle and remaining relatively lean or losing body fat in the process. A lot of people recomposition in the first few months, maybe even a year, depending on how receptive their body is. So the goal, first and foremost when it comes to the training aspect is build lean muscle. Especially when we're in this, like, newbie phase where anybody that's ever started strength training that first, like six to 12 months is like, you could literally, like, eat anything. You're still going to probably build muscle. So we do that in a deficit, technically, but they're able to build muscle and burn body fat at the same time.

Okay, so when you say technically a deficit, so how do you. How do. Do you focus on recomping of, you know, recomposition goal, body recomposition goal, and keep them in a deficit while building muscle? Like, how are you navigating, trying to keep that.

That deficit is as very small as possible. Because I'll tell the ladies, I'm like, listen, if we do this right, I'd almost rather you lose zero weight and see all of your inches, all of your circumference measurements drop down, because that means that we've burned the most body fat possible, like wall building muscle. We have maxed out both ends while staying kind of in the middle. So that's really what I'm hoping for, Grace.

Now, how long do you usually keep them in this type of a deficit? Do you ever move them to maintenance? Like, what is your. What's your. What was your process in that there?

Yeah, I know some coaches really like setting hard times on it where it's like, we're only going to be in a deficit for like, three, four, five, six, Months, whatever. But I'm more of a fan of auto regulating based on targets, so. So, like, I aim for what would in the research be significant weight loss, which is that 5 to 10% range. And then depending on how their body responds, whether they're, like, really resistant to weight loss. Like somebody with pcos, that. It takes a really long time, it's doable, but it takes longer. Like, we'll go for that 5% mark and then take a diet break, bring the calories up a little bit. Just focus on the training and performing and feeling better, and then bring it right back down and do it, like, in chunks. So whatever that ends up being. Because a lot of people, too, with their lifestyle, sometimes they'll be awesome on their diet for a week or two, and then they'll go off, they'll have vacations, they'll have stressful times, they'll have something get in the way, and then it becomes like a janky version of the matador study. So anybody who's not familiar with that, basically, Matador study was they gave people two weeks to diet, two weeks maintenance, and they went back and forth and then measured that against just losing it all straight and found that they kind of ended up with better results in some aspects. So they lost about the same weight, but certain things, like, I believe it was BMR and something else was. Or hormonally, they were in a better place. Leptin, ghrelin levels, I don't quote me on that. Go look it up. Matador study, Pretty cool. But it does take longer. But that does end up happening for most people with normal lives, you know.

And I would be curious to know what the mental impact on that is, because. Oh, yeah, like, that's probably so much more doable and sustainable in terms if they've got like, a long. Like, a long goal to do. Like, I'm sure. I wonder if the mental aspect of it would be better. Just.

I think I know. On my own podcast, we were just talking about this, and I wish I remembered the guests, but I'm like, people don't really talk about the mental fatigue of dieting enough. Because this is the people that are like, oh, I've been dieting for an entire year and haven't lost a pound. And then we have these coaches that are like, you have been dieting for a year, you haven't lost a pound, you haven't been in a deficit. And it's like, well, you're mentally felt like you were. And that takes a toll.

Yeah, for sure. And Especially you know, when you're talking about this population and diet culture. Right. You know, I've always, I tell all of my friends and, and clients, like, listen, everyone has taught you how to diet. Nobody's taught you how to eat. You need to learn how to eat, not diet. We know you know how to lose it. Can you maintain it?

Exactly. Because a lot of people really have never experienced maintenance. They don't know what that looks like. Because there's especially going back to the, the things that the 40 plus moms have had to deal with growing up. There were diet foods, there were certain protocols that you only followed when you were trying to lose weight. When, when you do it right, the only difference is calories up or calories down. You're eating the same types of foods because you're enjoying it. You're still eating these foods that are a part of your life, part of your culture, that really matter a lot to you. And all that really matters for the goal is the calories.

And, and it was so interesting to me how many people are afraid to eat at maintenance. I'm like, listen, maintenance is maintenance. It doesn't mean you're going to gain. They just don't know how to do it. They're like, I'm going to gain all the weight back if I go to maintenance. No, you're not. You won't.

I love calculating it out for the ladies just so they don't freak out like if they have like a blowout one one day. I'm like, listen, just so you know, your tdee, your total daily energy expenditure is like what your maintenance number is, roughly assuming that we haven't had some crazy thyroid issues or your body hasn't adapted to the point where you can handle like next to no calories and you're super weight loss resistant. Like assuming that this is the number that you can go up to and not gain a pound. And they're all like, what? Like that's how, that's a lot. And I'm like, now try and do that while eating mostly whole foods or minimally processed foods. And it's damn near impossible.

So I am curious though, like, do you, do you not, do you let your time ranges be fluid depending on the person? What do you typically see?

Is there any pattern time range as far as like weight loss goes?

Yeah, yeah. Or like how long you will keep someone on a deficit? How, like when will you move them up to maintenance and how long do you keep them in maintenance?

Yeah. So like I said with the 5 to 10%, that's usually the guide. But that usually takes around like, I would say three to six months. Ish. And in that time, without fail, because people are normal, they fall off the plan. So I'm like, okay, when they do fall off the plan, that gives us a little bit more wiggle room because it's not like they're starving themselves and their body's adapting to those low calories. So I'm like, okay, that increased the timeline a little bit for us probably. So it really is kind of like a touch and go thing where it's like we're on it for one week, off it for one week, and it usually ends up being a straight shot through because they're not experiencing any weight loss resistance, because they're not sticking to it and dropping their body weight low enough to have enough of an adaptation for us to warrant stopping.

Got it. So let's talk about that how, you know, because people are very, you know, controversial around like starvation. No, it doesn't exist. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And now I get the science behind it. Like, I literally, I know the science behind it, but I can't tell you how many times people have said, I'm weight loss resistant. Like, so what have you actually seen? What does it actually come down to? And in your experience, it comes down to the person.

Because I'll admit I've had like, and I'm saying Maybe less than 1% of my clients have been truly weight loss resistant to the point where I'm scratching my head, like, I don't even know what the heck to do. Like, we've run through everything and I think that this is a medical thing. Like first off, before anything, if anybody thinks they're ever weight loss resistant, go to the doctor. Just make sure certain things are in check. Like thyroid especially. Or like if you're undiagnosed PCOS or something diabetes related, like that stuff can and will lower your metabolic rate. So you got to make sure that that's not in the equation. But yeah, so that being said, most people are just very, very unaware. And when I say that, I mean like when you tell them to track, they're like, well, I tracked like four out of seven days. And you're like, well, that's great, that's better than zero. But but doesn't really tell us much unless it's seven days a week and we're putting everything in there because those days where you're off, that could just take the entire deficit out of the equation. And they're like, really? I'm like, yeah, just give it a try. Just one week. Guesstimate. When you're out, just put calories down and we'll see where you're at. And then without fail, it's like a thousand, two thousand calories higher, and you're like, this is the issue.

Yeah. I mean, people. I mean, so true. Listen, I just recently started counting, and it's amazing to me how. How if it's not, there's no meaning on it. Right? People put meaning. Nothing means anything except what you, you, you, you, you give it. But I was like, oh, my gosh, how many? Why are there so many calories in magazine nuts? That's terrible.

Yeah. And the other thing, too, that a lot of people don't factor in is the fact that when you go out to eat those calories that you find in My Fitness Pal or wherever, if it's a chain restaurant, you're kind of in the ballpark. But if you're out somewhere and you're guesstimating, just so everybody's aware, they've literally studied the average restaurants, like, when it comes to, I believe it was Italian, Chinese, and Mexican cuisine. And the average dish when you go out to dinner is roughly about 1200 calories. And that's just the entree. That's not counting the appetizer, which could easily be another couple hundred calories. The dessert, which is easily another few hundred calories. Booze, which is another few hundred calories. You could be having a 2,3000 calorie meal when you go out without even realizing it. And you're not going to be as full, because a lot of times these places aren't really trying to give you the best quality nutritionally. They're just trying to make it taste really freaking good.

And they're not measuring. There's no way for them to.

No, you get one, chef. They're a little bit liberal. They do the Italian drizzle, where they just shut their eyes and, like, let the olive oil rain. And then you got another one that's a health nut. And you're like. They're like, I'm gonna put as little as possible. You never know which one you're gonna get.

Well, and this population is all about rules. They were never really about counting. It was about like, this is a good or bad food. This is about. This is the point population. This is the food color population.

Yep, Yep. And I do say, I do think that out of all the crazy stuff that has, like, been food rules over the years, I am a Big fan of the color one where it's like, just get some colors on the plate because you'll be in a better spot. But, like, some of the, Some of the protocols are ridiculous over the years.

I meant the Noom color one where it's like yellow. And have you seen it? Because the back end of that is terrible. I don't mean like color in terms of like, get food color on your plate. I meant like, good, bad, yeah, better food, whatever.

And unfortunately, what these companies, especially Weight Watchers in Noom, they're really banking on the fact that this generation has come up with that mentality, and they're pretty much feeding into it because that's what people want, at least in my experience. A lot of people come to you and say, just tell me which foods to eat. Tell me exactly what foods to eat, meal plan, what food should I avoid? And it's like, if we're coming at it with the thought of, I need to strictly eat this, not that, then you're setting yourself up for failure. Because what if you eat that instead of this? Does that mean you failed? No. Because if we follow the science, if the calories are where they need to be, macronutrients are where they need to be, you don't feel like eating it, then why in the hell are we avoiding it?

You know? And I get why. Like, I'm compassionate here. Listen, I'm a mother of two young kids and my husband does shift work. So, like, I understand that's rough. It is rough. But he. The. The. You know what we're dealing with. And the reason why people are looking for these food rules is it automates some of the thinking and the willpower. Brain power. Not even willpower. It's just the mental load of having to think through this stuff. And so it, for me, I just remind myself and the people that I'm working with that, like, that automation is also going to come. You just got to do a little bit of work up front, but that will. Will also come. Yeah, that's what they're really looking for. So I empathize as. Me too. I want that too. But if you're really honest with yourself, even when you're off the wagon, and I'm putting that on quotes because that's what we hear all the time. You're still eating the same five things.

Yeah.

You're not really eating anything different. You're eating the same five things.

Yeah. I mean, on average, we. We all eat. What is it like? I think it's like eight to 15 meals. And it's just a consistent rotation. If you figure out those meals and find ways to bring them down in calories and to make healthier swaps so you have more micronutrients in there so you feel better, more full, it shouldn't be that difficult.

Yes, but it's the mental load that is the hard part for so many people.

And that's why I also am a huge fan of like when it comes to the habits surrounding it, because calorie counting is one method that does work really, really well, but it's not right for everybody. And, and what I do is like a dual approach where it's like calorie counting along with habits. So if we can't count, then we just do habits and those still get incredible results. So like anybody who's familiar with like precision nutrition, the whole hand thing, where it's like palma protein, fist of veggies, thumb of fat and cup tand of carbs. If you can do that for three meals out of the day, you might be so full that you inte you unintentionally put yourself in a deficit and lose the weight that you want to lose.

Yeah. So now does your approach change with the amount of fat? There's wanting, you know, the amount of fat to lose like 100, 100 pound fat loss goal versus a 10 pound fat loss goal.

I mean, when it comes to fat loss in itself, like the big thing that we want to focus on is when it comes to the overall amount we need to see, do we need to break it up into chunks? Because when it comes to that person that wants to lose 10 pounds, we could do that in one go and just drop the 10, go right back up to maintenance. But that person that's going to need to drop a hundred pounds is going to need to lose 10 to 20. Take a break. Lose 10 to 20, take a break. And when it comes to the, the types of foods and everything, it should be relatively the same, assuming that those people don't have any allergies or anything like that, but not a ton of huge changes.

Okay, great. So now, you know, just to shift the conversation, you started to talk a little bit about it. So I'm curious about it is that what are some of, you know, we kind of hear words like, you know, perimenopause, menopause, these like words get kicked around and it. And as someone who is about to go into this world, it can feel like there's a lot of fear around there. Scary changes, blah, blah, blah. What are the Actual things that you have noticed that people need to pay attention to as they go into these seasons. It.

Yeah. So when it comes to menopause in itself, first and foremost, we just need a better, a better understanding of what, what it is. Now for anybody listening that has no idea it is. Menopause is literally just a moment in time. 365 days after that last period, that's it. Then you're in post. Okay, you're not in menopause or doing menopause. Like it's Perry and post. And that one little instance is menopause. So when you're in Perry, like that is a shitstorm. That is where a lot of people like really feel all the effects that people talk about, like the hot flushes, like feeling very moody, not like basically wanting to rage out on people for no reason. Brain fog and things like that. So when it comes to those symptoms, one of the big things is like we need to do things that minimize the symptoms as best as we can. Now do these things. All do that depends on the person. Everybody's going to be different, but you can do certain things to really take care of those potentially. Like some people will implement this and it'll be like a night and day difference, others won't be so much. But one of the big things is like alcohol. Ladies at this time of their life just do not respond well to alcohol. But it is, it is part of culture. It's part of our day to day activity for a lot of people. Like I was just talking with a woman last night that's like, well, I have two glasses of wine every single night. And then we kind of like let loose a little bit on the weekends. I'm like, what does let loose look like? So someone like that is probably going to have a rougher time with like certain symptoms and things like that. Another thing is the stress. So when it comes to managing that, somebody who has Fox or CNN on 247 as their background noise is probably going to be stressed out more so than somebody who really manages what they expose themselves to day to day. So that person is going to have probably less mood swings here and there because they're more consistent throughout the day and they don't get the hormonal impact from being stressed all the time. And then another thing is exercise too. Exercise is the magic pill. So if we're not moving around, if we're not strength training, and not only that, strength training to build muscle and bone. Because osteoporosis and sarcopenia are a very Very real thing that people should be not only aware of, but genuinely scared of as they age. Because if you're going to work out, know that you're putting yourself in a much better situation. Because if you don't have the muscle mass to live the way that you need to and keep yourself balanced and not falling and things like that, it. It could be a very rough road for a lot of people if they don't get on the strength training bandwagon.

You know, it's al. It's interesting, too, because a lot of women think that they're all of a sudden, they're metab. They're going to wake up and their metabolism just disappears. That actually, your metabolism actually doesn't slow down until you're in your 60s.

No, they. Exactly, they. There's a very popular chart going around in our space that shows basically the metabolic change from 20 to 60 is pretty much the same. And then what's weird is that you see it drop off a little bit, but then in like, the 90s, it bumps back up. And I'm like, I honestly think that those people were just healthier, and that's why their basal metabolic rate was higher, because they had more bone, they had more muscle.

And.

And that's my theory on that. I. It's not substantiated. I'm just throwing it out there. But there's something to be said for being healthy, having muscle, and living longer.

Yeah. So now you. You did mention this, and it was my interpretation. I just want to clarify, make sure that I heard this right. Is that even though you're dealing with a body composition goal or a fat loss goal, you're primarily your. Your primary focus is building lean max.

Yes. Yep. Because that's like, the gateway to this. Most people are like, I just want to lose weight. And I'm like, I get it. But along the way, we're gonna learn what you actually need to live your healthiest life. Because one of the exercises we do in the beginning of my coaching is figuring out your why. And for anybody that's never done that exercise before, it can be really illuminating. And basically you say, like, all right, what do you want to achieve? And they're like, well, I want to lose 20 pounds. And I'm like, well, why do you want to lose that £20? Well, I want to feel better about myself. And I'm like, okay, so why do you want to feel better about yourself? What's that going to allow you to do? And they're like, well, I'm going to Take more pictures with my kids and experience more of the things I want to experience and run around with them. And I'm like, that's, that's what we're going for. So you just go down that rabbit hole of, why, why do I want this, why do I want this? And it's usually, I want to live a better quality life so I can enjoy it. And it's like, okay, if that's the go, we need some lean muscle, we need some bone mineral density, we need to improve your cardiac health, and we got to do it in a way that you don't lose your mind. Dieting.

Yeah. Okay, so in this vein, what are some of the, what are some of the exercises that we typically see that people typically do that are actually counteracting their lean muscle mass building?

Yeah. So if somebody's going from zero to anything, they're probably going to build a little bit of lean muscle. Like any group class that you jump into, whether it's Pilates, Orange theory, anything like that, if you're going off the couch, you're going to experience great benefits. That being said, a lot of exercises differentiate in their expiration date. And what I mean by that is the toll that it takes on your joints and the amount of stimulus it provides you to get what you want out of it. So if you're doing lunge, to curl, to press, you will experience a little bit of muscle building in the first few weeks of doing that. But eventually, when you can press, no. Or when you can lunge, no problem. But then the press is still hard, then your legs are not getting the stimulus it needs compared to your shoulders because the shoulders are experiencing the fatigue and your legs are like, we've been strong enough for weeks. Can we do something a little bit harder than this? So if you stick to the bread and butter stuff like do a squat, do a bench press, a row, a pull up carries, things like this that are just like the compound really tried and true, stuff that people have been doing forever and getting strong on, that's usually your best bet. Not whatever the TikTok teenager of the week decided, oh, this is how you get abs.

I'm totally laughing because I know what you're talking about. I'm also laughing. I also laugh when you were discussing perimenopause because I was like, oh, but you just described my pregnancy.

Some of them are similar. Some of those symptoms are similar.

I'm, you know, so I'm curious, you know, how are you measuring and how do you help your clients measure whether or not the stimulus in terms of their muscle mass and their muscle like growth is actually serving the purpose you're wanting it to serve.

Yeah. So first and foremost is if they are able to lift more weight, because if we're producing more force, we should be building more muscle because there are. I have yet to meet somebody that didn't gain any muscle while getting stronger. Now, you can do certain ways to really push that limit, but at a certain point, your body knows what to do. It's going to build denser bones, it's going to build bigger muscles as you lift more and more. Along with that, we want to make sure that we have some sort of measurement as far as weight and circumference. So I tell the ladies sometimes, like when, say we gain weight but your waist stayed exactly the same and your hips stayed exactly the same, it's fair to assume that that weight gain was not fat. It's probably muscle. So is this an exact science? No. But if you're consistently either losing weight or staying the same and your inches are decreasing or staying the same, you're probably getting some muscle mass there.

Okay, so when do you, how do you know when it's time to progressively overload, change their. To change their weights?

Yeah. So when we're talking progressively overload, I want them to aim for that every single workout. I want them to try and lift more, do more reps, do more time and things like that over the course of six weeks is when our phases are. Because ideally you want somewhere in the ballpark of four to 12 or four to 16 weeks on a single program without changing a thing.

So.

So I found that that boredom point is about six weeks.

Okay, so I want to talk about this. How do you, how do you keep them from not getting bored?

Yes. So when we do our workouts, it's usually a three day program, and each of those days is different, but every single week it's the same. So day A is going to be day A, one week one through six. Day B is going to be the same day B, one through six. And I try and shift the focus from. Instead of trying to get variety all the time, instead of trying to scratch that variety itch, focus on what the goal is and what that's going to require. And I want you to fall in love with doing more. I want you to fall in love with seeing what your body is actually capable of and actually chasing the result, not chasing that immediate. I want some variety. And if you do want variety, there are ways to go about that. So I'll say like on the off days, for example, we have an off day activity where I'm like 10 minute walk is bare minimum. But you can do all of these other things. There's like a menu and it's like walking, rucking, swimming, bicycling. And I'm like, that is your wheelhouse to have some fun. Because this stuff is going to be non fatiguing because we're going to keep it to like a zone 2 heart rate. So you're rejuvenating a little bit and you can have fun with it. Do the elliptical one day, do bike the the other day, swim another day. And then if you want to have some fun with the weights, we can do like a finisher at the end and have some fun with that. But we need the bread and butter stuff to get you the results that you told me you wanted.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It always comes down to that. It always comes down to solving the problem and the outcome that you wanted. Like period. That's it.

Y I think the my way of doing things is a very matter of fact approach and I think some of the ladies love that because 40 plus are straight shooters. They're like, I don't have the time to deal with the bs, just tell me what to do. And they respond really well to that. Where it's like, you want this, you gotta do that. And if you don't want to do that, we could do this but it's going to be slower or we could do this and that's going to be even slower. And more times than not they're picking the best thing on the menu.

Yeah. What about muscle soreness? Like how have do they have some? I feel like sometimes we're surrounded by the like, well I didn't get sore. Corazone. Must not have been a good workout.

Yeah, well that's actually another really good tell of building muscle is if you can do the exact same amount of work or more work and be less sore because it didn't cause so much of a stress to your body. So I'll tell them that and be like, listen, not only is you not being sore, not a bad thing, it's a great thing. And you will have days where you go into the gym, you push it really hard and you walk out and you're like damn, I didn't really feel like I did a whole lot. And then the next day you might get the delayed onset muscle soreness and be like, holy crap, what the hell happened? Or you feel fresh as a daisy and your Body is able to do what used to be hard in a relatively easy way.

Down. Yeah. And then. And then you probably have more energy to go harder to lift your.

Exactly.

Lift a little bit more. Okay.

And that's something we cover in depth, is having more. Because a lot of times, especially the moms, their cup is dry, they have nothing more to give. And I'm like, the goal here is so that you can walk out of these workouts being like, I can still live my life, I still have more to give to my family, to my work, and I can live an incredible life without feeling like I have to kill myself in the gym just to do what I want to do.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's true. So the other thing I'm curious about is like, after you finish your blocks, your six week blocks, right? How, you know, do you ever just go back? Like, what do you do after six months? Like, do you just go back or you just continue? Like, do you have any clients that have long term that have been with you for three years, four years? Like, what do you do?

Yeah, I've had. I have a few clients that have been with me two, three years. And the average, like, retention for my clients is in the ballpark of like about 10 months. So we usually get past that point. And what I do is like, as a, as a person who is like, I have my certified strength and conditioning specialist. Like, I really care about the training. And I'm like, I kind of like scratching the itch of like, how much further can we go? Like, what was this? What does this next phase look like? And the beauty of this is a lot of my clients have very similar goals, and goals dictate the program. Not, oh, I want to do something for everybody. Because if you're doing something different for everybody doing the same goals, somebody's not going to get the same quality program as the other person. So a lot of the ladies have very similar looking programs. And the only time we really adjust it is if something is too hard, if there's an injury or an issue like that. But for the most part, they all are about the same template. So I'm only writing maybe say six to ten programs for whatever the style is. Like, I have a few different ones. I have fit 40, fit 20, starting strength and stuff like that, where I'll make it in different ways. And I'm just going to keep that running. Like, I have Excel sheets and everything ready to go of these templates. And I'm like, all right, we'll plug in, play See what, what do they want to do? And then just keep going. Just keep running those phases and seeing what happens and having fun with it. Because training should be fun.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, can they work out from home or do they have to come to a gym?

Almost all of my clients work out from home. And that is another fun filled challenge we'll call it. Because I know, like back during COVID days when I was working at the gym I was working at, I was the head trainer and had to write all the programs for 300 people at home. And that was basically a shock to the system that made me really good at programming at home. That carried over to the clients. So it's like muscle memory now, but it sucked learning it.

Yeah. What are some of the biggest difference? I mean, like, for me, I'll share for me, because I've been working out forever at home and especially during COVID times, you didn't have any access to, like, you couldn't get toilet paper. Okay. Like the tiktoks about that is so funny now. But it wasn't that. But like, you couldn't get weights. You couldn't get like, you had to find stimulus that wasn't your traditional stimulus. And I was like, how if you don't have a pull up bar, how are you hitting back? Like, yeah.

And it's tough because a lot of times, like when we go to these certifications, when we learn all of our stuff, we're like, well, we're assuming everybody has a barbell and weights and dumbbells and everything. And here we are. And it's like they come to you and they're like, well, I have some pink dumbbells and a band that may or may not be broken. What can we do? I'm like, all right, we're gonna, we're gonna figure this one out.

Yeah.

So first, first thing I do is I have a welcome package that I send everybody. And in that package has two bands, like one lighter band and one like medium band. And that way they have the bare minimum because programming anything pulling with body weight is a nightmare. There's only so much you can do. So there has to be something. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Wait, we got. We had to get creative. That was one option. But a lot of the things too are leaning into non traditional exercises without the expectation of being super duper optimal. So many times trainers get into this mindset of if I'm not doing everything optimally, I'm not doing what's best for my client. And it's admirable it's understandable. But at the end of the day, you need to give them what they can do with the situation that they're in. So if somebody can press their weight like no other, and it's, like, not really giving them a stimulus, what's. What are you doing right by them? Giving them that same one over and over again, or putting their feet up and putting them in a dead bug position while they do it. So now it's challenging their core, and now that's making it harder and providing more of a stimulus for other things, like the core stability and things like that. So you got to work on other aspects more so than just pigeonholing yourself of hypertrophy.

Hypertrophy, yeah. Yeah. I mean, that was definitely a challenging time, but we learned some things, let me tell you.

And on top of that, too, it got. It got us very good. I don't know if you did the virtual route with. With Zoom, but, like, the queuing without being able to use your hand and put somebody in the right position, Like, I'm not much of. I mean, this is going to sound creepy, but as a trainer, I'm not much of a toucher. Like, I don't like putting my hands on people and saying, move your elbow this way. Like, and that Zoom experience got us really good at. Like, instead of saying, oh, I'm going to tuck your elbow in for you, or, like, move it here, it'll be like, chicken wing. And somebody's like, got it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, my husband was really happy because he hates being touched, but trainers were. They struggled to communicate through queuing because it can be hard, especially if people don't have a good sense of their body in space.

Yep. And on top of that, you got to learn not to use jargon, because anybody who's just coming out of tax season talking with their accountant about liability and certain things like that, and you're just like, I don't understand what you're saying, but I understand the price tag. It's the same with training, where it's like, okay, you're saying hypertrophy and lengthening and all this stuff, and I have no tech, no context or any sort of reference to any of this. I'm just going to trust you and nod my head and say, okay, yeah. So we got to create some sort of understanding.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So now the other thing, too, and I want to be mindful of your time, but I'm curious about is. Is, you know, when people are training in this capacity. Okay. They're they get hungry. Like, the more you lift, you get hungry. So how do you navigate hunger and deficit? Especially as someone's trying to shift their body composition as well as, you know, and they're training pretty hardly or they're training pretty hard. So how are you? How do they navigate their hunger cues?

Yeah, the first thing I would talk to them about is understanding the hunger and making sure that one, it's not hunger because of food choices. Because this is a big thing that comes up in the intuitive eating conversation where it's like, yeah, I'm gonna intuitively eat a crap ton of donuts, duh. But like, when it comes to being hungry, especially sometimes that can be influenced by the quality of the food that you're eating. So if you're eating a ton of protein, fiber, micronutrients and things like that, you're gonna be more full on the, on those types of foods. So what we wanna do is say, okay, listen, we hear your hunger signals. Your quality of food has stayed about consistent where you're eating good quality stuff. Now, we can safely assume that your metabolism is probably kicked up a little bit and you require more calories, which is why you are more hungry. And we're ruling out anything like a crazy binge that resulted in a lot of hunger the next day or things like that that can kind of get in the way, or stress creating random cravings, stuff like that. Assuming it's not a factor, then we could say, okay, hey, it's probably that you need more calories. And then what we can do is adjust your calorie goal based on your hunger cues. Because if you're in a deficit, you should have that like, comfortable level of hunger where it's like just a tinge, you know, you're not overstuffing yourself and things like that, but you're not super full all the time. Like you would be on maintenance or in a surplus. So what we could do when that time comes where you're like, oh my God, I'm so hungry, I'm ravenous, is track everything and see where do you fall when you're at that comfortable lever level of hunger. Or we could also just say, all right, we accept hunger as it is. It's. You're not dying. Hunger is a normal thing. Your body's probably going to get used to it anyway and then see what the numbers give us. Did you lose extra weight? And if so, did we go past that 1% mark? Because usually 1% is about the cap of what I want to see. People lose in a week. And if we've passed that threshold, then let's add some calories back in because we don't want you to rebound.

Okay. So that, I mean, that's pretty solid. How. I meant to ask you, how long. How long. How often do these women work out?

Two to four times a week usually. So we'll do two to four strength training sessions where it's 20 to 40 minutes, depending on what they got. And then I'll always have some sort of off day where like it's like 10 minute walk, bare minimum. So that way they never lose the muscle of showing up and they never really lose that momentum.

Okay. How fun. I love it. All right, so I want to be mindful of your time, so thank you so much for pouring into me and sharing with the community. I love it. For those of you who want to go deeper with you and learn more from you, like what? What are some of the best places I can send them?

Yeah. So first is probably my podcast, which is the Fit40 podcast. That's where I get to ramble just like this and have some incredible guests on, which I definitely got to get you on at some point. Yeah, that's probably the best place. And then my central hub is my Facebook group, the Fit40 family. That's where we run free challenges and stuff. And I do like daily lives and all that. And then when it comes to the socials, everything is pretty much at Coach Underscore Fits Fitz, and that's across all platforms.

Hey, I love it. So thank you so much. And we'll make sure that we link all of that up inside of the show notes. I appreciate it.

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