How Much Strength Training Runners Need: Lindsey Bomgren

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Hi, this is Lindsey Baumgren and welcome to the Run to the Top podcast.

Hello my running friend. I hope you are on the run right now, ready to be inspired, entertained and ready to become a better runner Runner by the end of this episode. Sounds pretty good, right? I am your host, Claire Bartholic, your running nutrition and mindset coach@theplantedrunner.com and runners connect.net if this is your first time here, welcome and thank you for joining us. The Run to the Top is produced by the best place on the Internet for running science, info and inspiration, runners connect.net that's where you'll find a coaching plan that fits all runners and all budgets. From simple yet custom training plans, fun interactive group coaching, all the way up to in depth personal coaching. So go ahead and check out Runners Connect today. Today's guest is someone that has massively changed my life this year. When I stopped going to the gym in March of 2020, I was lucky enough to be able to set up a little home gym at my house. I've got some dumbbells and some weights and I bought a resistance band and I came up with my own full body routine that I was doing every other day. I am a running coach after all, so I should know what I'm doing, right? I assigned strength training to my athletes every day, so my personal strength plan wasn't bad and I kept up a fairly decent level of muscular fitness. But I pretty much did the same exact thing all the time. And, and I think you can probably see where this is going, right? So after a while I stopped improving. Not only that, I was just bored and uninspired to do much else. Then one day, Lindsey Baumgren from Nourish Move Loved popped up as I was randomly scrolling through my phone. Lindsay is a fit Minnesota trainer and something about her workout caught my eye for whatever reason. And so the next morning I I decided to try one of her 20 minute workouts and man oh man, she worked me. So I did another one the next day and the next and now a couple months later, I am completely hooked. I spend 20 to 30 minutes every weekday morning with Lindsay and the difference in my strength is just simply remarkable. So then I started sharing her videos with my athletes and they are seeing the results as well. What I love about her workouts is that while they're not marketed as runners workouts, they are the exact same exercises that I prescribe to runners because they're classic strength moves that build better runners, but Lindsay just does them better than I do. Lindsay is a certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor who has been featured in Women's Health Magazine, the Bump, Yahoo Finance, Cosmopolitan, PopSugar, Britain, Company, Welland Good, and more. While her main audience is busy women, guys, she is the real deal. And I challenge you to get through an entire video without being sore the next day. This is not your tiny dumbbell jazzercise lady. This is just good, awesome workouts for everyone. Lindsay's tough, but she's also cheerful and encouraging, and she often interjects with herself signature catchphrase, holy bananas when things get hard. I can't wait for you to meet her. Oh, and don't forget to stay tuned at the end of the episode where I have got a major announcement about the future of the Run to the Top. Before we get into our conversation, I wanted to talk real quick about how what you eat affects your hydration. Most runners eat healthy with a focus on whole, unprocessed foods most of the time. While that is awesome, it also means that you need to pay more attention to your electrolytes. Athletes, healthy eaters, and heavy sweaters all require a lot more sodium than you might think, especially after workouts. And if you are all three, you definitely need more than a typical sports drink. That's where Element, founded by biochemist Rob Wolfe, comes in. It's loaded with everything you need to replenish your electrolyte balance with a of ton thousand milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium, and 60 milligrams of magnesium. And it doesn't include anything you don't need, like extra sugar or anything artificial. Stay tuned for how you can get a free sample pack@lmnt.com Today's episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens, the daily green supplement that has been the best thing that I've added to my nutrition and daily routine this year. Later in the episode, I'll tell you why I love it so much and how you can get an awesome deal so you can get your daily dose of nutritional assurance, too. And now, here's my conversation with Lindsey Baumgren.

Welcome to the Run to the Top, Lindsay. Holy bananas.

Holy bananas. I love it. That's how we're going to start. Ooh, this could be a good one.

You don't know this, but you and I have been hanging out for the last, oh, I don't know, two months I have been doing your workouts every morning and holy bananas, they are awesome. I am getting so much stronger and I was already pretty fit before So I just want to say, like, how must it feel to be changing so many people's lives like you are?

You know, I think that's just like the heartbeat of it. That's what has kept us going this whole time. I mean, I don't know how familiar you are with starting an online business, but it's not an easy grind and it takes a lot of time to get momentum. And we've been at this now for five and a half, almost six years. But I think those constant little messages that drop in our DMs about people just sharing their stories are basically the fuel that fueled this fire.

Awesome. So let's go into that. Tell us a little bit about how you got started.

Yeah. So nourishmove Love is basically a health and fitness site for women. So we're a content creation site. We focus on fitness, we film workout videos is kind of the gist of it, but we started about five and a half years ago. And where it started is totally different than where it is today. I was previously a communications type of marketing major and did sales on sales. And while I was doing sales, I was doing my personal training, random stuff on the side for friends and decided I knew I wanted to pursue fitness full time. But group fitness is my jam. I did the personal training thing, didn't love it because I couldn't really have full control over people's results. And so I love group fitness. You just show up, everybody's working hard, everybody's there, they're just having fun. And so I love the environment, but you can only teach so many classes in a day and it's not exactly a financially lucrative career. So I was like, how do I make this happen? So I decided to take it to the online space. Back in the day when workout DVDs were a thing, I was like, I'm going to spend my life savings and film these workout DVDs and sell them on a website. So I don't know if I thought I was going to be the next Tony Horton P90X or what, but I went for it. I'm glad I did. It allowed me to meet a lot of awesome people along the way. But set up this website to sell these workout DVDs, ended up kind of setting up my website a little bit like a blog. Started learning about this blog space, found out all these food bloggers were just posting recipes and somehow making a substantial living off of it. And I was like, I want that. How do I do that for workout videos? So really dove into the Space of kind of what the blogging world, which now has really evolved and changed, look like, figured out how I could produce workout videos basically for free and share them and still figure out a way to monetize them off ad revenue.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, as you know, this is a running podcast, but I wanted to have you on the show because you. Your workout routines are what I would assign to runners. They are mostly really classic moves. Squats, deadlifts, lunges, planks, like all of the stuff that I am telling runners to do anyway. And you do it so much better than I do. So I'm just like, go watch Lindsay. This is what I want you to do. So why do you choose the specific workouts or the specific exercises that you do?

Yeah, we basically started this whole program for busy women. I was kind of like a busy woman doing a lot of things, turned into a mom. So now I'm like the fit girl turned fit mom. And I'm all about quick and effective workouts. So every workout is like a get it done type of attitude. So we're hitting multiple muscle groups, compound movements, which. So we can train multiple muscle groups at once, get an efficient workout in. In 20 to 30 minutes. Doesn't have to be this hour in the gym type of thing. And so that's really kind of the whole foundation of it. And strength training, I. I think is so fundamental specifically for women. And I just, I'm so passionate about strength training. It's my favorite form of fitness. And there's just so many ways you can do a squat in the lunge and add those variations and just tweak them a little bit to keep it fun and interesting and keep people coming back for more. But really, those are the basic moves that get it done.

Yeah, yeah. Because my big thing is I have a hard time actually getting runners to strength train. And I tell them, look, you don't need to spend hours in a gym to 20 minutes three times a week. Just do that for me, please. Or just five minutes a day, every day. Whatever it is, just a little bit goes a long way. So that is why I love your workouts. I don't do the 45 minute ones. I'll be honest. I don't do any of those. I do the 20 to 30 minutes and it's making a huge difference. Just absolutely love them. So, okay, so let's talk about building muscle. Women especially, and runners especially don't want to get big and bulky. And they're just like, I don't want to lift heavy because I Don't want to gain a bunch of bulk. So what do you say to that?

I would say this is science, people. The stride of your run is generated by the force. You can push your foot away from the ground. Correct. Your running stride is generated by force. Like force and mass. Force and mass. This is science, right? And so the more force you can strike the ground with, the more you will propel yourself forward faster, the better your PRs become. All that jazz, right? Strength training is the foundation of that. Your power generating muscles are your hips, your glutes, your hamstrings, right? That's your lower body. Those are your power generators that propel you forward. The stronger those are, the better your stride will be. The faster you will run, the less injuries you will have because your hips are stiff, stable, your core is stable, supporting you. So I just think it just like it's science. And I just got a message, a DM that landed in my inbox like two days ago that I should screenshot and send to you. It literally said I stopped running because of COVID She lives in, you know, kind of Minnesota. Cold weather for five months over Covid. I couldn't go to the gym, I couldn't use. I didn't have a treadmill, whatever. So I just, I resorted to your workout plans. I did them for the last five months. I went out for my first run the other day and crushed a pr. Like, I am so much faster. I am so. And I'm like, yes, that, yes, absolutely, absolutely.

And you know, it's actually really hard to put on a lot of muscle. You know, Like, I think you did say that in one of your videos. You're just like, look, you're not gonna gain a lot of muscle. I'm trying to gain a lot of muscle and I can't do it. I mean, look at my skinny little arms, you know, I mean, literally, I'm.

Trying to get the bulk and I can't. It is hard. Hard. It takes a lot to, you know, a lot of progressive overload.

Yeah. Okay, well, let's get into some of the details of it. Um, one thing you were, you were listing all the, the muscle groups that, that runners especially need, and I noticed you don't do a lot of specific core workouts. What's up with that, Lindsay?

Totally. Because we build core into every workout. I love core training in within workouts. I'm not the type of, I'm, I'm. Be honest, I'm like not the add on 10min type of person after a workout. I just like building it into my workout. So example, taking a squat dumbbells at my sides into a front squat, front rack position, Instant core engagement forces my chest stabilizers to work, forces my front rectus abdominis to turn on right as I'm going down with each repetition. So those little tiny things that you can do to engage your core throughout a workout, I think are so much more beneficial than just doing a 10 minute set of core at the end. Specifically, as someone who's come back from having babies, rebuilding my core strength, stress, super humbling experience, right? Going from being able to hold like a four minute plank to being able to not even plank for 10 seconds. Like it's very humbling, but also teaches you. Like those basic moves are so foundational. Our core actually a lot of people go to like crunches and sit ups and like these flexion movements and our core is actually designed to stabilize us. So I believe the best core exercises are ones that do just that, where you're stabilizing your body. So planks are definitely my jam. But also unilateral exercises, a single leg deadlift. Your core is working so hard for that stability, to keep those hips square to the ground. And unilateral training is so good for runners. What do you do when you run? You transfer your load from one foot to the other, from one foot to the other. You're constantly transferring load from one to the other. That's unilateral training in a nutshell.

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But also unilateral exercises. A single leg deadlift. Your core is working so hard for that stability, to keep those hips square to the ground. And unilateral training, so good for runners. What do you do when you run? You transfer your load from one foot to the other, from one foot to the other. You're constantly transferring load from one to the other. That's unilateral training in it, you know, in a nutshell.

Absolutely, absolutely. So there's one leg of deadlifts. Okay. There's one move that you do that I've honestly never done before. So I've done, you know, one legged deadlifts where the leg goes straight behind you. But you got me doing this little hover thing with the ankle to ankle thing. Talk about that move. Because that's a burner. That is a burner like that.

Yeah. Ankle by ankle, single leg. If you try and go down, like tap the floor and reach up ankle by ankle. And it's funny because you can just those slight changes. So then let your ankle float back. Then do a set with ankle by ankle. Then try and do a set with your ankle slightly in front of the other ankle. It's just those small little tweaks throughout your training that just challenge your body to move in a different way that ultimately hit small stabilizing muscles which are so important for runners and cross training. Right. You need all those small little stabilizing muscles around your knees and your hips to really hang in there in order. So for that long term. Long term game.

Yeah. And, and honestly, by not doing specific core, I'm still getting some definition in my core. Like the, the vein person in me is definitely happy, but I have noticed that I am feeling stronger in my runs and my core is a lot more stable, just like you said, from doing one legged deadlifts and squat thrusters and all of these one sided movements. So it's working. It's definitely working. So let's, let's talk a little bit about the way you group your workouts. So you know there's, there's day obviously runners going to do leg day.

Right.

But then you have the push and the pull. So can you talk about why you organize your routines like this?

Yeah, so it's something to really, when I first started, it was a lot of full body workouts. That's just what people want. Right. But as you start to get into it, like where I have personally found the most success myself is breaking down into those split training days. So really where I'm targeting specific muscle groups on specific days. So you have your leg day and you can have an arm day, but if you get even a little bit more specific and put your push muscles, your chest, chest, shoulders, triceps together and then your pull muscles, your back and biceps, and you can even break down the lower body too if you want to. But it just allows you to really get after those muscles that work together in tandem and put them together in exercises. And it's really a great way to just really find the progressive overload. So it's where you're going to see the best results because you're going to work the muscle group to fatigue, which is ultimately how you're going to gain and build muscle mass.

Yeah, yeah. And well, that's an interesting point too. So we hear a lot when we're talking about strength training, about pushing your muscles to fatigue and pushing your muscles to failure. Can you, can you talk about the difference between those two and what is actually going on when you do that?

Yeah. So I mean it all depends on what your strength training goals are. Right. Like people say, should I, should I be failing every time? And not necessarily it all depends on what your goals are. Right. With strength training. But if you are trying to really increase your weights and put on muscle mass and strength, train like an athlete. I would suggest that if you're doing whatever type of sets and reps you're doing, the last two to three exercises or last two to three reps should be to the point of failure. So you should be able to struggling to complete them with good form. And if that's the case, that means yet you are in that target zone like you are in that progressive overload where you're going to achieve that muscle gain. Now if you're like in maintenance mode, you can, you know, then you're just maybe doing your 15 reps and that's where you're at. The reason kind of to go back to the split training method and why I think it's important is because, like we'll say, example, arm day, people grab their. I use ten pounds for arms, and that's what I use. Well, your back muscles are bigger than your tricep muscles. You should be using different weights. So that's another reason we kind of break it up. Your back muscles are larger. Can you go heavier on those back muscles instead of just grabbing those 10 pounds? Now I'm going to challenge you to go maybe 20 pounds on back and then you can scale back. Maybe you go back to £10 for tricep, a smaller muscle group. And so really trying to get people to think about the muscles that they're actually working and what those muscles do for you and how you can train them functionally and maybe using the appropriate weights too.

Yeah, yeah. Well. And the other thing that you get with the split training is that you, you get recovery days for the, for the muscles. Right. Can you talk about the importance of that?

So, so important. And so it's something I personally, I would say, haven't taken seriously until like my 30s and haven't taken rest and recovery seriously. Like, I'm like, you know, go, go, go. And every day had to be. And to be honest, it's so funny because when I had kids, it forced me to cut back. I could teach less classes. And I really got into strength then and I started slowing down and I saw my body change substantially by going harder but then resting, you know, going and resting and true rest days. And I have to say, so my husband actually is a professional beach volleyball player. And if there's anything I've learned from watching a professional like him train at that level and play at that level is that professional athletes take rest and recovery so seriously, but everyday athletes who are at home working out every day do not. And that's where the injuries come in and like the slow, like, oh, my back kind of aches today, but I'm going to push through or oh, now it really hurts but I'm going to push through. And I just think like professional athletes take rest and recovery so seriously. That's something I've really learned from him.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So let's, let's talk a little bit about heavy weights versus lightweights. So obviously if I am, let's say I'm doing a biceps Curl With a 10 pound weight, I can do a million of those. But give me a 20 or a 25 and I can't do quite as many obviously. So you know, some people just love those light weights and they love just, just you know, endurance, endurance, endurance and, and I would rather get it done with, I'd rather do five heavy and put that thing down then just do the little weights and so can you talk about, I'm sure there's benefits to both. Can you talk about that for a minute?

Absolutely. I definitely think that they both have structural benefits. They both function a different way. I actually come from a bar background too. Like I taught bar classes for several years and I kind of, I've learned a lot of that and loop that into my training. I personally prefer heavier weights now, but I like a good once week, a nice like lighter weight type of flow and sculpt, you know, because you can't be sore every day. So if you are sore every day, that's a problem too, right. So then you're have to rest and recover longer. But the thing I love about strength training is like for example, running like you can, you can always try to run faster or you know, kind of the whole peloton craze that's out there right now. It's like, but how long can you bike harder and faster before your body kind of burns out? With strength training you can always find a way to progressively over. There's always a goal to strive for, right? Like you don't have to. Instead of riding for 30 minutes now you got to ride for 45. Instead of riding for 45 now you got like there's, you don't have to go longer, you just find a way to go harder. Right? So you find a way to go heavier so you just decrease those rates. So I get in the squat rack and I'm like, I can try and put on heavier weights today for five reps or whatever that is. But you find your variables that work for you. Um, but I didn't really answer your Question there. I got way too.

Oh, that's okay. I was just looking, like, direct, you know, endurance versus heavy and short, you.

Know, and I think, yeah, like, it all depends on what your goals are. At the end of the day, I would say if you've been using the same weights in your house for the past year over Covid, it's time to increase your weights or find new weights.

Absolutely. Well, I mean, I have to admit, like, as a runner, I don't want any cardio. I don't want any cardio. When I'm lifting weights, I get plenty of cardio, but you make me do it anyway and I do it and you know, and I, and I justify that, that there's a lot of hiit in there and. And so I am getting some jumping benefit to it. So I would love to hear your opinion about why you mix in so much cardio and hiit into your strength training at the same time.

Yeah, like I said, I'm a get it done type of person and I like to sweat when I work out. I never want someone to finish a workout. Have you ever done a workout and then been like, maybe I just need to tack on like an extra 10 or 20 minutes or something? Like, I never want you to leave feeling like that because who has time, right? Like, you come, you show up, you get it done. A lot of people are like, oh, I signed up for your 20 minute workout. And I was like, yeah, I'm gonna have to add something on afterwards. And then they finish it and they're like, I'm good. And I'm like, that's great. That's how it should be. Like, you should, there should be no, you shouldn't have to add on, like, show up, get it done. And you know, just like that, get it done mentality. I like to sweat, I like to move. And like you said, there's cardiovascular benefits to it too. You don't have to. We have several workouts that have jumping. We have several workouts that have no jumping. And you get just as solid of a workout, so you don't have to jump or leave the ground. I think there are benefits that, that plyometric training if you can add that too. But if you don't want to, you don't have to. There's so many ways to raise your heart rate. And we, we play with our workouts. Some are just strength based, where I'm like, I want you on your toes for every single one of these push ups. Go slow and steady. And then there's Other workouts where we're stacking on, it's like you've been working for three consecutive minutes. There's no way you should be able to do push ups on your toes right now because you should be so exhausted. So I think there's benefits to training. Just like I say train in all planes, I would say there's benefits to training in all forms.

Okay.

I love it. Okay. Well, I do have to say that I love the no repeat, no jumping workouts. That's my favorite. It's, you know, like when. When I have to do a million of the same exercise. It's, you know, a mental challenge for me. But yeah, so I would like to talk about those workouts.

So.

So what are the benefits of no repeat workouts? And then what are the benefits of repeating the same workout, the same exercise over and over?

So I have to be honest, the trainer in me does not love no repeat workouts. Okay. I'll be honest. I'll be honest. We jumped on it because it became really popular on YouTube. People started doing it. People love them. It just blew up on YouTube. Everybody wanted no repeats because they're fun and they're engaging. And so I'll be honest. I like doing a no repeat workout on like a Friday or Saturday. I'm burnt out from the week. I'm tired. I'm like, I just want to move. I don't want to have to do a bunch of reps and sets of the same move. I just want to move my body. Great. It gets you to move. That's awesome. And that's the goal of it. The no repeat workout. It's like, this is fun. It's going to get you to move. You're going to try a variety of exercises. You're probably not going to be sore tomorrow. But hey, you moved your body and you got a good sweat in. That's the goal of it, right? It's fun. It's kind of like our. It's a fun workout. I would say keeps you coming back for more as far as, like, the benefits of it. Repetition is really beneficial for multiple reasons. The reasons we repeat circuit or repeat moves and circuits and sets and reps throughout movements is one. Because you become a better master of the exercise. Right. Muscle memory. You do it once, you do it better the second time, you do it best the third time. I think those three sets are really like a kind of a magic sauce. If you are writing a workout three sets, but you don't always have to do three sets, so you get better at the form you fatigue the muscle group that you're working because you're exhausting at doing the same thing, you're exhausting that muscle group. So there's a lot of benefits to repetition, even though it might not be as fun sometimes. But that's why we take some moves like a simple lunge and just add like a 2 pulse to it or just that tiny little variation to keep you mentally engaged and physically engaged. So we like to. We like to add a lot of fun variations to moves as we go throughout the workout. But yeah, no repeats is kind of a we dumped on it because it became popular on YouTube.

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There's a lot of benefits to repetition, even though it might not be as fun sometimes, but that's why we take some moves like a Simple lunge and just add like a two pulse or just that tiny little variation to keep you mentally engaged and physically engaged. So we like to, we like to add a lot of fun variations to moves as we go throughout the workout. But yeah, no repeats was kind of a. We jumped on it because it became popular on YouTube.

Well, I like it and I admit that I do it once a week, but I still do your other workouts. So let's, let's talk about some of those. Let's, let's get into pyramid workouts and am wraps.

What.

What's, what's an amrap?

Yeah, amrap as many rounds as possible. That's actually what I did this morning. So you're gonna get, say, example, you could get a list of like five exercises or six exercises, or we could group them up into twos. But you're gonna get this exercise. You're gonna do each exercise for say, eight reps. And you're gonna do eight reps of this move and this move and this move. So you get three moves, eight reps each, and you're gonna repeat it as many rounds as possible for four minutes. And so you get a move at your own pace, which is a lot of people like that. Right. Because you can move at your own pace. You can really push your pace if you want to on those days, or you can scale back on days when you don't want to push it as much. You get to choose based on your weights, how fast you want to move, and you get through as many rounds as you can. I love amramps because they're a great progress workout. So I say if you're, if you're looking for a way to measure your fitness progress, like do an amramp at the beginning of the month and then do that same amramp two, three weeks later and see if you can make progress in those reps. How many reps or how many rounds can you get through in four minutes? So they're a great progress building workout. Um, they can really test your muscular endurance, which is great for runners too.

Yeah, absolutely.

And the pyramid is the same thing. It's that stack down format. So it starts easier and it builds up and gets harder and harder because you go from doing an exercise for 30 seconds up to doing six consecutive exercises. You know, that's three, three minutes of consecutive work. That gets really taxing when you're stringing moves together with minimal rest. Great way your muscle recovery and endurance again to work on recovery time. Really great workout to come back to and see if your recovery time is improving each time.

Yeah, Yeah. I really like those workouts, honestly, because I wouldn't do them on my own. And I have you as my cheerleader in the background, and I'm ready to quit. And you're just like, you have the most positive, like, happy little voice in your chair. Like, yes, you can. Yes, you can. I'm like, well, if Lindsay says I.

Can, I guess I can.

And I get through the workout. Like, is this just like your personality just normally cheerful? And tell me about how, I mean, you're such a great cheerleader. Tell me about that.

Well, thank you. It's really fun for me. Like I said, I get so excited by just, like, that group fitness and environment. I just, like, it just lights me up to know that I'm, like, pushing other people. I would say being group fitness, I feel like I get to be the best part of someone's day. Like, you're shutting off your phone, maybe, and you're putting it aside, and you're just. You're really just kind of in the zone for 30 minutes. You're present. We don't get that a lot anymore. Like, right. Like, I. I'm with you for 30 minutes and you're giving me your all, and you're just, you're. You're just showing up to be a better person. Like, it's just such a fun environment. So for me, I feel like I get to be the best part of people's day during that. During that time. And so. And I'm like, if you're going to show up and work with me for 30 minutes, like, let's do this and maximize your time. But also, that's why I love doing the workouts alongside you. Like, I am doing the workout right with you, so I know what it feels like. And that's where I'm like, okay, I know I'm dogging it right now and I need something, so I got to give you something because you're about ready to turn me off, right?

Well.

And you're also super human about it. Like, I know you'll say something like, well, if I was at home, I would be picking up the 30 pound weight. And then you're like, nope, no, I wouldn't. Nope. This is hard. You admit that you're human. It's awesome.

For some reason, I typically shoot multiple videos back to back, so I use a little bit lighter weights when I'm filming than I would if I was at home. But then I hear I am like, I'm like, oh, yeah, if I was at home, I'd definitely go for 20s right here. And then I'm like, doing it and I'm like, no, there's no way I could. This is super challenging. So a lot of times I'm eating a slice of humble pie myself.

Yes.

Yes.

Well, I mean, you kind of target your workouts to moms and women specifically, but I would argue that this is. These are tough workouts for anybody, regardless of gender. So why did you choose women in particular? Just because that's who you relate to or. Tell me a little bit about that.

Yeah, and before I do, I have to preface it, because I just got a YouTube comment that I want to, like, frame and put up on a wall. But it was basically this guy saying, I'm a D1 football player and your workouts kick my butt all the time. Don't tell my teammates this, but I love your workouts. And I was just like, yes. And honestly, our workouts, like you said, they are so for everyone. And the reason we specifically said for women, honestly, it all comes down to Google search purposes. So how I generate revenue is basically getting eyeballs to my site. So I'm fighting for Google search terms. And as you could imagine, there are 75 million full body HIIT workout on the Internet. And so how do I differentiate myself? Like, there are so many strength training exercises, so how do I differentiate myself? And one is saying for women. But the other part of that is because when we go. If you go and you just Google search, like best strength training exercises, the first top 10 results are all going to show you images of men. And I really wanted to differentiate that. And our goal is always to show up, like, where our biggest competitors are. Women's health magazine, Shape magazine, Men's health magazine, men's fitness journal. Like, that's who I'm competing against in Google search terms when we're trying to pull for stuff. But I wanted women to search best chest exercises and see another woman doing it, you know, instead of seeing a man. Because all the pictures. When you search strength training, unfortunately, it is a lot of men. And so I really. I get excited when we pull in those terms and you see a woman doing a dumbbell chest press versus a guy, because I just think it's relatable and it shows that women can strength train too. And we don't just have to use 2 pound dumbbells, so.

Mm, absolutely. Well, I would love to know how your business has changed through the pandemic. I would imagine with all the Gyms closed, things are going well. More people are searching for online fitness videos. Right?

Yeah. I feel kind of in this like weird space saying it. But yes, fortunately, Covid has been really great for my business, so I'm super grateful for that. I feel like it's something we've been working so hard behind the scenes on and then it finally, it just allowed us to get capture more eyeballs with COVID So we have grown exponentially. But really something we as we started utilizing YouTube, we weren't really utilizing YouTube before and now we started utilizing it and I'm kicking myself in the butt for not utilizing it before because it's such a fun, fun place for us to put full length workout videos. And I'm kicking myself that we didn't start filming a lot more full length workout videos sooner. But. But really, I think our differentiator too is that we offer free workout plans so we don't just push out all these free workout videos and say go, you know, tackle whatever. Because a lot of people need something to follow. And so we give them a structured like here. Here's how you put our workouts together into a successful rotational plan that's going to get you results.

And all for free.

And all for free. It's so cool. I love my job. I get to give you free workouts and free content. And finally, it's taken a long time to get to this place, but finally be able to say that it's a sustainable business model that I can also support my family with.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, I would love to ask you something a little bit more personal, if you don't mind.

1.

One thing that I've noticed that you put out there in connection with your business is you talk a lot about your faith. And I'm just very curious why you decided to include that as part of your, like, public Persona.

Yeah, you know, when I started my business, I didn't really know what I was doing, I'll be totally honest. And I just kind of built it in because I feel like it was just a part of who I am. My business is called Nourish Move Love. And the foundation or the concept of it was nourish your soul with God's word and your body with real food. Move your body and create movement in your life. Love yourself and love others. And that was kind of the whole basis for Nourish Move Love. And I still love it to this day. I'm so glad that I chose that, but really it was for my own accountability purposes. I knew that faith was something I was, it was a growing part of my life when I started my business and I wanted it to continue to be a part of my life. And my business is such a big part of my life that I just kind of built it into that. But also like I think the biggest differentiator. When I started my business, I didn't want to be just another sweaty selfie, six pack girl in the fitness scene. Like, I just, I didn't want to be someone that was showing up that way. I wanted to show up differently. And so showing up differently for me was like my biggest. Honestly, my prayer is that when people land on my page, they see a little bit of Jesus in me. That's just my personal goal, that when they land here, they see a little bit of Jesus. They feel encouraged, they feel inspired. They don't get the whole like weight loss comparison pictures, transformation pictures. Like that's not what it's about. I always say, like, I'm not filming these workouts to give you a better butt or to give you six pack abs. I'm filming these workouts because I think it genuinely is going to make you a better person, a better mom, a better wife, a better human, a better friend. It's going to make you mentally stronger and physically stronger. And that's what the goal is. And so that's kind of my whole like that's what I'm trying to share and not just another, you know, it's hard because it is like we pull for Google search terms and we're trying to rank and it's like booty building and all this stuff and I'm just like, that's, that's what we try to stay away from. Like we're really here to just empower women, men, everybody to just like move their body and feel strong. I was an athlete my whole life and I think a lot of people were athletes or whether you weren't athletes. It feels good to move like an athlete. Like it just. And that's the, that's how we build the workouts. When we think, when I think of creating a workout plan, I want you to push something, I want you to pull something. I want a knee dominant exercise, like a squat or lunge. I want a hip dominant exercise like a swing or a deadlift. And I want you to move in all planes of motions. Your traverse planes, frontal plane, your sagittal plane. And that's how athletes train and that's what I want you to do. So yes.

Oh my gosh, there's so much in that there's so much in that. Yeah, I mean a big part of the people who come to runners connect and listen to the run of the run, the to to the top. They are people who may have found running later in life. You know, some of them are athletes earlier, some of them are not. And we're all striving to do these big important things that ultimately, you know, it's just running, right? It's. Is it that important? I don't know. But it means so much to us because we are transforming our lives, we are finding confidence, we are doing really hard things and it's absolutely transformative. And I love that you focus on that. I love that you focus on building women up and not just building their butts, although you will get a nice butt, I promise you. But it's like booty building and confidence building at the same time.

Totally. Like, I mean, I don't know how you feel, but after I finish a workout that just kind of, you know, that challenges I don't like, I could walk into any boardroom meeting and rock it. Or you know what, when my son throws his whole plate of breakfast on the ground, I'm like, I got that. Not a big deal, buddy. Like, let's work through this. Why are you so. You know what I mean? Like, I just, it just builds character, it makes you feel stronger, better, more confident, all those things. And so I just think it makes us better, well rounded people. And especially through this pandemic, I can't tell you how many messages we get about like, this has just been so good for my mental health.

Absolutely, absolutely. So what's next for you? What videos are coming up? Can I request a runner specific video?

Absolutely.

You know what?

And we actually have a couple. I wrote one before I ran a marathon in Haiti. I went over to Haiti to run a marathon for Healing Waters International. Coolest marathon of my life, Toughest experience. It was like a nine hour marathon, not a traditional marathon. It was through the very crazy Rocky Mountains. It was insane and fun and awesome. Top five life experiences ever. But before I went over there, I wrote a workout for runners and it's actually, it's our legs and core. It's a kettlebell workout. You can do it with a single dumbbell too. But it's a kettlebell workout. Kettlebell training, so good for runners. Like I said, it's going to target your power generating muscles, your hips, your glutes, your core. So I think kettlebell workouts are so good for runners. But it's, it actually, it's an amramp. It's a kettlebell amramp. It's our legs and core kettlebell amramp. It's a solid workout. It's actually on the new two week workout plan that we just launched today. So we have several workout plans on our site you can follow, but we build those workouts right into them. But yeah, what's next? We're filming more workout videos. As always, I was actually kind of in the midst of working on a project with a company. It ended up falling through. So now I have a bunch of workout videos I'm really excited to share. So we plan to continue to keep releasing more and more content on YouTube and on our site and building out workout plans. So.

Awesome. Awesome.

Well, I will be sweating along with you, Lindsay. I'm so happy to have found you. And I love the power of the Internet that I can just call you up and talk to you and have you on my show. I think it's amazing. Super excited. But before I let you go, I have a few questions that I ask everyone. So the first one is if you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started either running or training, what advice would you give yourself?

Yeah.

Um.

Ooh, that's a good question. I would say strength training. I. I definitely overlooked strength training itself. I. I don't know. Like, I pull ups. I love pull ups and they're so like, I love being able to do pull ups. Every pregnancy and postpartum, I come back and I'm like, that's my goal. Get back up to 10 pull ups again because you go back down. So the humbling experience, strength training, it just, it really transforms your body in a way that I think every cardio junkie is. Every cardio junkie is looking for the strength trainer's body. They just don't know it.

Yes.

Yes. I gotta get back into pull ups. I used to be able to do pull ups and then I stopped doing it. It's like one of those exercises that is so specific to itself. Like, if you have to do it specifically train for it, you can't do it.

So.

So I'm fit now, but I probably can't do a. I probably can't do a pull up. I'm gonna, I'm gonna have to do that. You have a pull up video for me?

You guys need to pull the Murph. The Murph is like the ultimate workout. You gotta run the mile. A hundred pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, run another mile.

Oh, my Goodness. Okay.

Like the ultimate runner strength trainer workout all in one.

Okay. I don't know about that. We'll see. We'll see. Maybe I'll add it to my list. So my next question is, is what is the greatest gift that fitness has given you?

Oh, this? I get it. I get to film. Like, this was my goal. It's kind of like, pinch me. Like, I get to film workout videos for a living. There's so many other parts that go into my business, but, like, I get to share this with other people. It's just. It's so cool. It's given me the opportunity to connect with so many women. I would say that is this fitness, this platform has given me the opportunity to connect with so many other women and share the benefits and all the goodness that strength training and just moving your body and feeling like an athlete again can do for you and your mental health.

Awesome. And finally, Lindsay, where can listeners connect with you?

Absolutely. You can find me at nourishmovelove. That's my handle on Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and then nourishmovelove.com. so it's just typed out. Nourishmovelove.com is our site where we host all of our workout plans and workouts.

Awesome. Well, we will have all of that in our show notes in case people are listening on the run today. I am so delighted that you came on the run to the top, Lindsay. It's been such a treat talking with you today.

Thank you for having me. I'm honored to be on this running podcast. Thank you. I hope all you guys. I imagine everyone's running while they listen to this, right?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Almost everybody's running while they're listening.

I love it.

Yep, yep. Perfect.

Go. You're in the final stretch right here. Bring it home.

Yes, you can. Holy bananas. All right, take care, Lindsay.

Holy bananas. Are you inspired to do some strength yet? I love how open and honest Lindsay was with how her business got started and how. How she needs to market her videos in order to get them the most traction. Many times people aren't quite so open with the behind the scenes stuff, and I find that as an online business owner myself, I find that very interesting and inspiring. And I have to say that at first I was a little suspicious of how little time she spends specifically doing ab exercises. But I'll tell you what, my core is getting rock solid with all the unilateral training, and I don't miss those crunches I used to do at all. If you're listening on the Run today and want to check out a clip of this conversation when you get back home? Head over to Runners Connect's YouTube channel to catch it. You can also join the fun on Instagram by following Runners Connect and me at the Planet Runner. Did you win the Element Contest this month? You had to be one of my favorite listeners in order to win by joining the Elite Treatment, my weekly newsletter for contests, inside info and fun. Don't miss out and join us today@runnersconnect.net podcast. I actually revealed the winners to my elites last week and they are Jonathan Bogard and Lori Kirk. Congratulations and your free packets of Element should be arriving soon. Okay, so you've waited long enough. What is the major announcement that I mentioned at the beginning of the show? The Run to the Top is going to go to two episodes per week, but the second episode is going to be a little different than the classic interview show. My mission with the Run to the Top is to make you a better runner each week. And so what we're going to do is talk about running topics and techniques that will definitely up your running game. And the way we're going to do that is with real running stories from real runners woven into each episode. And if you are a visual person, we'll have the video version of each one up on The Runners Connect YouTube channel each week. We at Runners Connect have put a lot of love into these shows and I hope that you will love them as much as I do. And that's it for today's Run to the Top podcast. Your first bonus episode will drop this Friday, May 21, 2021, and it's all about how to learn to nail your running paces every time on Feel Alone. I'm your host coach Claire Bartholic, also known as the Planted Runner. Have a great run today.

Thanks for listening to the Run to.

The Top podcast from Runners Connect Net.